Bandages and Salt (PJO X BSD AU)

Chapter seventeen

A/N: warning- victim blaming self for something done to them. 

The Arahabaki incident, as people tended to call the series of appearances of the old boss, was treated as a crime committed by Randou alone. After it was announced by the doctor to everyone else in the mafia that Randou was a traitor, the forginer's house was burned to the ground, all of his possessions thrown into the ocean. It's the common producer of our organization, a way for the traitor's family to be punished as well through their actions. Though I suppose it was a little lost on Randou, since the spy had no family. The boss let his body stay where Chuuya and I left it for about a week before having the man buried in a rural public cemetery on a small cliff that overlooks the ocean.

A month had passed since the day that Chuuya and I killed the man. During that month, whispers could be heard on the streets of Yokohama. Strange alliances and back door dealings between the other three organizations that never would have happened before. It felt like the whole city was a balloon filled too much, one wrong move and it was sure to pop.

It was on that day that I was called to the boss's office again for the first time in a month.

I stood outside the door, my hands in the pockets of my pants. In one pocket was Riptide as it always was, and in the other was a switch blade that I'd gotten from Kouyou the day after our meeting. The interrogator taught me how to use it. It was a small weapon, my only real defense against someone stronger than me without the use of an ability, though it was wasted on the underground doctor. I couldn't touch him without being marked a traitor and being brutally killed. While the death part still sounded nice, that was much too gruesome of one... not that the alternative was any better. I just knew that even if I did fight back if he tried something again, he probably wouldn't have me executed, he'd lock me up instead. Then I'd never die.

I nodded to the guards, telling them to open the doors as they stared at me with their pitying looks. The secret of that day was one ingrained in a few minds, not that any of them could do anything with the information.

The doors opened slowly, soundlessly, as I stepped through them. I didn't have to look around to know where the boss was. My eyes fell to the figure standing in front of the large windows spanning the entire length of the large room, from the floor to the ceiling, overlooking the city. The view was pretty as I walked closer to the figure. It was a sight that I wouldn't mind being my last.

I stopped an arm's length away from the figure and stared out the window as well, waiting for the other to speak.

"Lovely to see you again, Dazai," the boss said.

The man turned to me, away from the window. I followed his lead, my gaze falling onto him once more. The sight was sickening. The monster before me was smiling with eyes much too cruel to be those of a human. In moments like this, I couldn't help but think about pulling out Riptide and seeing whether or not the blade would really pass harmlessly through the creature before me.

"... Not going to speak? That saddens me," the man said, his hand clutching the place where his heart should be under his white coat. "I have a job for you."

I didn't have to think about it to know what it was. "Chuuya."

The monster's smile deepened further. "Correct, always so smart," he complimented. It was similar to the way that he'd spoken to me when he first found me, back before I knew just how dangerous of a weapon my mind could be. Thin flattery wasn't going to work on me anymore. "There's a battalion of soldiers that should be gathering as we speak in the conference room on the floor below us. They're yours to command now. They're called the Black Lizards. Think of them as a present, something nice for finally joining the mafia."