Hello!

My gosh, it's been forever since I've been on this fanfiction! (Or any fanfiction for that matter) Things have been crazy and busy, but anyway, I hope you all like this new chapter!

"How much of our fight do you remember?"

Atsushi frowned. "Only the parts when I was human," he muttered before taking a sip of the water Dazai had given him.

"Do you remember any of your fights as a tiger?"

Atsushi looked down at his glass. "No," he said in a whisper.

"I see."

He didn't say anything for a few minutes. It had been so long since he'd actually spoken to someone who wasn't Lucy in a long time. When other people talked to him, he hardly replied. No one expected him to.

"Why am I here?" He asked quietly.

Dazai smirked and gave him a shrug. "A few reasons really. First and foremost, one of us wanted to adopt a tiger."

Atsushi could feel the blood leave his face. Are they going to do the same thing Fitzgerald did? He thought. Would they lock him away and pull him out only when they wanted the tiger?

"Calm down," Dazai said firmly. "There's more to it than just the tiger."

He took a big breath before continuing. "Honestly, he mostly wanted to get you out of Fitzgerald's ownership. He said that the tiger just seemed scared and sad."

Atsushi couldn't deny that.

"Also, I watched one of your fights." Dazai tilted his head at him. "You've never actually been trained in combat, have you?"

It took a minute for Atsushi to reply. His mouth had gone dry at the mention of training, and he did his best to take a sip of water so it wasn't too obvious.

"A little," he answered. "They tried to teach me how to fight for about a week before just having me wake the tiger." Atsushi paused, unsure of how true his statement was. It wasn't as though he could be certain about what he'd said. He had been almost completely isolated. Really, he was only going off of what Lucy had told him and whatever Hawthorne had mentioned. "That's what I was told at least," he added.

"Yeah," Dazai said. "That sounds about right, based on when you were taken in and your performance in the arena as a whole."

Atsushi swallowed hard. "How long do I have?" He asked quietly.

"What? To live? Hard to say…"

"Before I have to go back," he managed, feeling cold.

It couldn't be too much longer. The sun had been up when he'd fought with Dazai, and the sky was dark now, the room lit only by a few lanterns. The lanterns were a luxury. As were the pillow and blanket. It would be hard… He'd have to go back into the dark, into his tiny room where he only had his paper thin mattress and door that locked from the outside.

"Ah," Dazai said. "Maybe I should have led with that." He snapped his fingers once near Atsushi's face to better get his attention. "Fitzgerald made a bet."

Atsushi looked at him blankly.

"It's a kind of match that comes up occasionally. Two gladiators fight, and the winner's owner takes in the loser. You understand what that means, don't you?"

I don't belong to him anymore.

One would have thought he felt a rush of relief, maybe some kind of joy. He was no longer Fitzgerald's property, not free, but few things could be worse than belonging to him. But Atsushi, to some extent, felt numb.

Getting away from Fitzgerald was welcomed, make no mistake. Atsushi had never once trusted the man, and Fitzgerald had never tried to be anything other than a tyrant towards his tiger.

But in the end, Atsushi couldn't feel like any of it mattered much. He still belonged to someone. He was still a slave.

Ultimately though, maybe, just maybe… He could make this work in his favor. Atsushi was no strategist, but he was observant. Dazai didn't seem cruel, not outside of the arena at least. His behavior sharply contrasted Fitzgerald's. Fitzgerald was always ruthless, dominating over Atsushi in every interaction.

Maybe he wouldn't be treated so badly.

Maybe- and he wasn't so sure about this, but he'd hold out hope-he could find a way to leave. It would likely take forever or would never happen at all, but he couldn't completely abandon the notion.

"That fight was rigged!" An all too familiar voice came from outside the room.

Atsushi went rigid.

Dazai clicked his tongue. "Well, he's persistent. I'll give him that."

Fitzgerald barged into the room after a few heartbeats.

"Nice of you to visit," Dazai said pleasantly. "Had I known you were coming, I would have made tea." There was something conflicting in his tone. It was as smooth and silk and at the same time, it was sandpaper.

Fitzgerald pushed past Dazai, hardly looking at him before striding over to Atsushi's bedside.

Atsushi's blood felt icy, and though every instinct told him to scramble away, to escape, his body remained still.

His former owner raised a hand and struck him across the cheek, hard.

Atsushi blinked away tears, feeling his skin burn where he'd been slapped.

"So disappointing, losing a fight so pathetically." He grabbed Atsushi by his shirt. "After we get a new collar on you, your training will progress, so an incident like this won't be repeated."

The boy struggled in his grip. He couldn't go back to that. He couldn't! Not to his prison cell of a room, not to the collar that gouged into his neck.

He was pulled halfway out of the bed before someone caught his shoulder and pulled him back.

"The deal was made," a deep voice said. "The boy is ours."

He looked up to see a man with gray hair and steely eyes. He shrunk under his gaze.

Fitzgerald's mouth twisted as though he'd tasted something sour. "Your gladiator cheated. He ought to be put to death for that."

On the other side of the room, Dazai's eyes lit up with interest. The man who still held Atsushi by the shoulder threw him a sharp look and a slight shake of his head. In response, Dazai shrugged.

"Can you prove it?" The man asked.

Silence stretched, leaving Atsushi looking between both of them.

"How much do you want for him?" Fitzgerald asked. "I'm willing to pay for him, even though he is rightfully mine." He listed a few prices that made Atsushi's head spin. It was more money than he could imagine.

He felt far away now. It was so much money.

One would have to be crazy to not take to that money… He knew that because he also knew that he was worth so much less than what Fitzgerald offered.

"Actually," the man's voice cut through the fog in his brain. "The boy isn't for sale."

Atsushi's head snapped up, his face just as stunned as Fitzgerald's.

But in a second, Fitzgerald shaped his mouth into a stiff line. "Name your price."

"He is not for sale."

Neither backed down or broke eye contact.

Atsushi watched the silent negotiations, his muscles burning from being so tense.

"Very well," Fitzgerald said after a long stretch. His words and his eyes didn't match up. He said words of defeat, but his eyes were different, there was a certain light that made Atsushi uneasy. This wasn't over.

He left the room without another word, and even with him out of sight, Atsushi could feel the weight of it all stay settled on his shoulders.

"Are you alright?" The gray haired man asked, staring at the bruises Fitzgerald's hand had left.

Static seemed to fill Atsushi's head, a strange, tired buzz that filled his ears and made it hard to think. The question had to be repeated before it registered in his brain.

"I'm okay," he managed slowly. Ringing still filled his ears. He swallowed hard, feeling the serious aura this man gave off press in around him. "Are you… my new owner?" Those last three words felt ugly and bitter in his mouth.

The man glanced at Dazai.

"Right," he said, stretching. "I was just about to get to that." Dazai gestured to the gray haired man. "Atsushi, this is Fukuzawa Yukichi. To some extent, you're correct, but there's a bit more to it."

"You are free to leave if you want," Fukuzawa said.

Atsushi blinked. "What?"

"We aren't very much in the business of owning people."

Atsushi raised an eyebrow and pointed at Dazai. He would have said something if he wasn't at such a loss for words.

"Right," Dazai said. "Well, I choose to fight. He doesn't actually own me. If you want to leave, you can get up and leave right now."

The boy could have been knocked over with a feather in that moment. I'm free to go? He thought, hardly daring to believe it. According to these men, he could walk away from fighting for good. He could forget about everything, about Fitzgerald, about the fact that he'd killed people while the tiger was in control.

"Though," Dazai began pensively. "If you do leave, I can't help but worry about you. Thousands of people know your face now. Fitzgerald would likely put a pretty bit reward on your head before too long. Or, you get snatched up by someone who's worse than he was."

Atsushi's heart sank.

Of course…

Nothing could be that easy for him.

"So anyway," Dazai continued brightly as though he hadn't just delivered such weighty news to Atsushi. "You can stay if you'd like to, and we'll teach you how to actually fight and control the tiger. The choice to leave is still yours of course. If you wanted to pursue a different life by tomorrow or within a few years, you're free to walk away from all of this."

Atsushi could feel the doubt in his eyes. He didn't even try to hide it. Something told him that trying to hide his emotions from either or the men in the room with him would be utterly useless.

"So, what will it be?"

Cliffhanger!