Bandages and Salt (PJO X BSD AU)

Chapter seven

"This is hopeless..."

I watched as Mori seemed to be having a battle of the wills with the documents in front of him. The man's once clean clinic was in complete disarray; more stethoscopes than I thought we owned were scattered across the room, medical files and other documents were placed hazardously on any flat surface that could be found, and the once orderly academic books were in no better shape.

Mori himself was no better. His lab coat hadn't seen the dry cleaners in quite some time, his hair was a half combed mess, and dark eye bags stuck to the man's face as if permanently glued on. I couldn't bring myself to feel sorry for the man though, he was just another monster in a city full of them. Another evil playing at being human.

Just like me.

"Our weapons smugglers are two weeks behind schedule. My men are going to be fighting with kitchen knives at this rate. And it doesn't stop there. We've already had three violent incidents this month where the city police had to be involved. I'm losing control of the low level grunts," the man complained.

Mori has only been the leader of the Port Mafia for a year, a position that I helped put him in. The doctor was still new to leadership, but familiar with the various hardships. The sight of him struggling like this brought me a slight bit of joy as it always did. Though the overly common sight has started to become rather dull with time, just like everything else.

The man continued to complain, going on about losing contracts for the protection business, the escalating conflicts, and the steadily increasing loss of the Port Mafia's turf. "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this. What do you think, Dazai? Are you even listening to me?"

I stared down at my beaker and the glass stirrer in it, watching the way the chemicals move. I was always listening, something that he seemed to know and fear. "Maybe, maybe not," I said, not giving the man any help. My bandages brushed reassuringly against my skin, a familiar weight.

"So which is it?" Mori questioned like a high school girl asking about a crush.

This man is wasting my time.

"Come on, Mori. Everything that comes out of your mouth is always so boring!" I complained, messing with a new medicine bottle. Mori's gotten so predictable over the year I've been with him. "It's starting to sound like you're chanting a mantra 'we don't have enough money. We don't have enough intel. My men don't trust me.' You knew from the start that things would turn out this way."

Another reason I couldn't feel sorry for the doctor. It was one thing to bring something on yourself by accident, another to do it purely on purpose.

"Well maybe you're right," Mori sighed. The man suddenly stared at me as if realizing something. "By the way, Dazai, why are you mixing hypertension medicine with hypotension medicine?"

"Huh? Because maybe something cool will happen and I'll be able to die in peace." I know that my mixing the hypo and hypertension medicines won't kill me, but maybe it will at least be interesting

"That isn't going to kill you. How did you even get into the medicine cabinet? It was locked." Mori snatched the new bottle from my hands before sighing deeply.

At this rate, I might kill him before I kill myself.

"Give that back! I want to die!" I reached for the bottle, but he just moved it farther out of reach. "Life is so boring; I'd rather die! But I want it to be quick and painless, help me out, Mori!"

"I'll teach you how to properly mix drugs if you promise to be a good boy and stay out of trouble."

Good boy? Gods, you make it sound like I'm nothing more than a misbehaving dog asking for a treat.