Hello, wonderful readers! I've had this idea rolling around in my brain for awhile, and I finally wrote it out.

Enjoy!

Atsushi's body hurt all over when he woke up. His eyes opened to complete darkness. He pushed himself up as quickly as his stiff limbs would allow, squinting. Atsushi held his hand up in front of his face, wiggling his fingers in front of his face. He couldn't even see the movement before his eyes. Not even moonless nights were this dark.

Oh no… He thought, feeling his heart in his throat as he frantically searched for an exit. What's happening? He wandered, putting his arms out in front of him to feel out for whatever was before him. His hand hit a wall. Atsushi stopped, blinking. He carefully followed the wall until he found a corner.

Atsushi was in a box, some big metal thing. The world rocked around him. Am I on a boat or something? He tripped over something on the floor, and slammed into the wall. He yelped as his head banged against cold metal. He sat down for a moment, nursing the painful bump on his forehead.

A loud creak echoed off the metallic walls, letting dusk light flood the box too quickly. Atsushi jumped to his feet, his head pounding, his eyes burning from the sudden exposure to the light. He put a hand over his eyes to shield them.

"Looks like you're finally awake," a hoarse voice came from the black clad figure in front of him.

Atsushi blinked at the light and the harshness of the man's voice, trying for a minute to recall where he'd heard the voice before. He must have had an encounter with him before, but he couldn't quite place where he'd heard him. It couldn't have been long ago.

Did I meet him last night? Atsushi thought frantically. Then he realized how little he actually remembered of the previous night.

…

There was nowhere to go, but he was used to that by now. Atsushi slowly grew accustomed to the streets after being thrown out of his orphanage. His new lifestyle wasn't kind, but he managed to find a few silver linings.

He didn't get nails driven through his feet, or red hot pokers against his abdomen, or shackles on his wrists and ankles.

On the streets, he was alone. On the streets, he was free.

But what good is that? He asked himself as he felt his stomach digest itself. What good is that when I'm going to starve to death out here? The hunger was allconsuming. It gnawed at him and leached away his energy.

The moon wasn't even up yet, and Atsushi found himself getting settled under a large tree near the outskirts of town. He wondered how long it would be before he managed to eat again or sleep under a roof.

Sleeping indoors again is just wistful thinking right now. He turned on his side, trying to imagine the grass and dirt as some sort of mattress and the leaves as something resembling a blanket.

He let his mind wander. What would he do when the cold set in?

Looking at the situation rationally, it would be a miracle if he even survived that long. The truth of his own mortality made him tremble. By the time winter rolled around, he'd likely have died of starvation or at the claws of some animal.

"The world would be a better place if you died in a ditch somewhere!"

He flinched at the very memory of those words.

Atsushi took a deep breath in. I'm not going to just die… I'll prove them wrong. He decided with all the fervor he could muster. He resolved to find a way to stay alive. He would… He would. When he was able to.

…

"How did I get here?" He asked, his voice trembling more than he wanted to admit. Then, in an even more timid voice. "Who are you?"

The stranger blinked. "You mean to tell me you don't remember what happened while you were transformed?" For a moment, his eyes had a slight curiosity. Then it vanished with a cold mutter of, "It's not my problem." He coughed into his fist. "I am Akutagawa of the Port Mafia."

Atsushi's mouth went dry and he backed away a few steps. "The Port...Mafia," he echoed dumbly. He tripped over his own feet, falling over and scrambling further away from his captor.

"A very important person placed a price tag on your head, Jinko." Akutagawa looked uninterested in his own summary. "The Mafia wants to collect on the reward."

Jinko?

"There's got to be a mistake," Atsushi choked out. "I'm not anyone special. Uh… You got the wrong-"

"There's no mistake," Akutagawa insisted. He pressed a hand against his abdomen as though trying to apply pressure to a wound. "I know that for sure now. You're a savage tiger in the moonlight." Atsushi's legs shook and he braced a hand against a wall of his cage. The tiger… The beast that had ravaged the orphanage… It'd been him? No, that's impossible. That can't- Breathing no longer came easily to him.

Akutagawa glanced at the sky, oblivious to Atsushi's panic attack. "Speaking of which…" His voice trailed off. "Higuchi!" He called impatiently.

"I got it," a blond woman replied as she ran out from behind a stack of crates. She was holding a strange silver ring. Atsushi squinted at it. There was something on the inside of it. Something pointed… He got a sinking feeling, realizing that thing was meant for him.

An inky tendril shot forward and wrapped around his wrist. He yelped, meeting resistance when he tried to pull away. Another tendril caught his other wrist. Atsushi writhed against them, but he was in no way strong enough to fight them off. His feet slid against the floor as the things, the tendrils, pushed him backwards and held him in place.

The woman- Higuchi- stepped forward.

"No. No. No. No…" He muttered breathlessly when he realized that thing was a collar. It was a thing someone would put on an animal. Not a human, not another person.

Higuchi got closer to him, her hands undoing the clasp on the collar so she could put it around his neck. His struggling intensified with every step the woman took. All too soon, she was next to him, putting razor edged spears close to his neck. He squirmed desperately. Higuchi glanced back to Akutagawa and tilted her head toward Atsushi.

That can't be good.

Akutagawa clicked his tongue and sent another tendril through his leg, right above his left knee. Pain blossomed above his kneecap. Muscles torn apart, blood staining his bluish gray pants, he screamed. The sound of pain echoed off the metallic walls. The pain didn't come to an end after Akutagawa retracted the weird ability.

His back arched when he felt spikes brush his skin. Atsushi crumpled to his knees, his legs too weak to support his weight. Higuchi fastened the contraption around his neck, ignoring how much their captive trembled and begged. Something on it clicked into place.

It hurt. The spikes dug into his skin, and the collar itself was suffocating. Tears rose to his eyes as he whimpered and squirmed against Akutagawa's strange power.

His wrists were released as soon as Higuchi stepped out of the box and stood with perfect posture beside Akutagawa. Atsushi rolled around on the floor, trying to loosen the collar. There was no give. "Get it off," he begged. "Please…" He convulsed as his struggle pushed some of the spikes deeper into his skin. Blood started to flow from his neck.

"I'll be good," he whined as though he was back in the orphanage, his left leg lying uselessly as he dragged himself forward. "I won't put up any resistance. Just get it off."

Akutagawa shrugged, seeming to have no interest in talking to their captive. "You're already on the boat. It's not like what you do will matter" Then, he paused tilting his head as he looked at the huge, bleeding gash on Atsushi's leg. "Besides, I doubt you'd get very far on that leg. I'd recommend applying pressure on that, by the way." He looked on him with emotionless eyes before tapping Higuchi's shoulder and leaving Atsushi to struggle with his collar. The opening shut, and some latch slid into place on the exterior.

Atsushi blinked, his eyes burning from the sudden darkness. His injured leg refused to hold his weight, so he sat awkwardly on the ground for a minute. He felt like his brain had been stuffed with cotton. Shaking hands went to cover his wound, pressing down on it to stop the bleeding. The blood had already clotted and dried. He pulled his hands away from the injury and buried his face in them.

Hours passed, and slowly, agonizingly, he gave up in his fight against the collar. His breathing slowed, and he curled up in the corner of his cage.

It hurts…

Moving only made it hurt more. He wasn't capable of picking any locking mechanism. There wasn't anything to use to bust the door open, and even if he could… He was surrounded by water, had no idea which way was land, and would pass out from exhaustion on the way.

…

The night was the worst.

Claws seemed to tear at his stomach from the inside as he stared up at the moon. It was as Akutagawa said. He was a beast under the moonlight, despite the fact that he was in complete darkness. The beast must have sensed the full moon that gave the sea a gentle glow. Atsushi's hands shook as he was fully aware of his hands seizing and becoming mangled, feline claws. He couldn't see his own hands, but he felt it. He felt it so vividly. His bones were breaking and reshaping themselves into something that was not human.

He grew. He thrashed, clawing at the walls that made him feel like he was suffocating. The pain that put him through was about the equivalent to having his nails torn off. Something dragged him away from reality.

Then it stopped. The spikes pushed further into his neck. Atsushi cried out in pain as he began to shrink back to his human form.

They were right… He was something scary and less than a human.

How many had he killed without even knowing it?

Atsushi raked his fingers through his hair, pushing the heels of his hands against his eyes. He felt tears wet his hands. Breaths came out in shallow gasps. He was desperate for oxygen. Spikes drew blood with every breath he took.

It hurts…

There was a loud creak again. Atsushi looked up, feeling every drop of blood that trickled down his neck.

"Huh," Akutagawa murmured as he observed him from outside of the cage. "Your buyer said that would happen." Atsushi staggered to the wall near Akutagawa. He braced himself against it like a condemned man.

"Please take it off," he gasped, working his fingers into the spaces between the spikes. "I can't breath." Tears formed at the corners of his eyes. The collar was almost worse than the orphanage. "This'll kill me," he cried. If they went through the trouble of dragging his limp body all the way back to their cargo ship, they probably would want to keep him alive.

"If it hasn't killed you already, it won't kill you now." He squinted at Atsushi's leg, which was mostly healed, but he didn't feel the need to comment on it. Akutagawa glanced at a strip of land on the horizon, which was hard to see in the darkness. His eyes were like the iron walls of Atsushi's cell. Hard, cold, and unrelenting. Atsushi stopped struggling for a moment to follow Akutagawa's eyes. "We'll be landing soon." He looked at Atsushi as if he was rotting corpse. "Make the most of your time here before we hand you over."

That last comment made Atsushi collapse against the cage wall.

He'd been struggling to stay alive.

But he'd been free.

Every day had been even more of a challenge, and sometimes he doubted that he would see tomorrow.

But he'd had his freedom.

Atsushi started shaking again, a deep feeling of loss gnawing at his chest. He wiped away persistent tears with trembling hands; this time, they weren't brought on by the painful collar.

…

The voyage lasted another hour or so. It could have been more, it could have been less. Atsushi didn't care how long it was. He understood what was coming, and he dreaded it even more with every breath he took, with every stab he received from the collar.

The world seemed to go blank to him. He wasn't sleeping, but he wasn't quite awake either. The boy was too wrapped up in his thoughts and storm of emotions to do more than stare into the darkness of his prison. Seeing nothing, and no longer feeling the rocking of the boat beneath him.

"Master Fitzgerald, please don't go in there! H-He could be dangerous," a voice said, drawing Atsushi back to the present. The door got thrown open with a tell tale groan. Atsushi scrambled back as far away from the door as physically possible.

"Nonsense," replied a man-Fitzgerald- who stood at the threshold of Atsushi's prison, though his prisoner could only make out his figure. The boy blinked a few more times as his surroundings grew clearer. Like a clear black and white illustration, he could see the outlines and the fine details. Fitzgerald made a gesture with his fingers before a timid looking woman quietly placed a lantern in his hand. He held it up, casting light onto Atsushi's figure, nearly blinding the boy in the process. "He has the collar on and looks half starved." The man was well dressed and had an entitled look in his eyes. "Furthermore, I paid for him, so I do not believe I should be told what to do with him."

Oh...Atsushi thought, the numbness he'd felt fading into fear. He's the buyer. He started to shy back again, only to be trapped between the corner and the rich man. Seeing Fitzgerald-the buyer- made the whole nightmare he was living more real.

The man knelt to Atsushi's level and grabbed the boy's chin before he could try to run or curl in on himself. His grip was bruising. Fitzgerald seemed to look him up and down before tilting Atsushi's chin up so he could see the damage the collar had done. He gave a hum of approval, which made Atsushi shudder.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said, his hand still holding Atsushi's chin. "My new gladiator."

Gladiator?

Atsushi's blood turned to ice. He sat there, frozen. The fear must have shown on his face because Fitzgerald smirked. His already painful hold on Atsushi's chin tightened further. His jaw felt moments away from shattering. Not knowing what else to do, he brought up a fist and knocked the hand away. Atsushi put on the fiercest glare that he could muster.

The man blinked.

Atsushi immediately regretted his action as he sensed an oncoming punishment, but his buyer chuckled. "For a moment I was worried I'd made a bad investment, but it appears as though you do still have some fire left in you," he said, rising to his feet and grabbing Atsushi by the collar. The spikes bit into his skin, making him bleed more. He screamed, yelling out in pain as more and more blood poured down his neck, further staining his shirt and skin. The more he writhed, the worse it got. "However, I don't tolerate insolence. Behave yourself."

He released him, letting him gasp and wheeze and whimper on the floor of his cage. Atsushi stayed there for a minute before forcing himself to lift up his face. He blinked as a generous sum of money was placed in Higuchi's hands.

She nodded and gestured to Atsushi. "He's all yours."

No…

No, no, no, no, no!

There was an opening, slight as it was, just a space between Fitzgerald and Higuchi and anyone else who was there.

If I can just… His head pounded. Atsushi squinted through the pain and swallowed hard. If I can just make it… He could hide or run, get the stupid collar off somehow. After that, he had no idea, but he'd figure something out.

Slowly, silently, he got to his feet.

He never was athletic, but overall he was light on his feet. Maybe, just maybe, he could escape.

His sore muscles shook as he tensed them, getting ready to run.

Atsushi never managed to take a step. A fist collided into his abdomen, trusting up into his rib cage. It forced the air from his lungs, making him spew up saliva and bile. He hardly knew what hit him as he found himself on his hands and knees, coughing up fluid that burned his throat.

Fitzgerald's fingers tangled into his hair and yanked his head up. Atsushi flinched and clawed at his hand, desperate to get away from him. He truly felt like a cornered animal. He'd been hunted and trapped as though he was something less than a human. Atsushi couldn't, couldn't keep feeling like that. Being treated as something subhuman was not unfamiliar to him, but that didn't mean he was willing to just accept such abuse again. So, he put up something resembling a fight.

"Fighting back now, are we?" He questioned with a smooth voice. Fitzgerald threw Atsushi to the ground and slammed his foot onto the boy's sternum, making him cough up more burning fluids. "I recommend saving that for the arena, tiger," the man said as he ground the ball of his foot into Atsushi's chest.

Can't breath...Between Fitzgerald's foot pressing down on his chest and the wretched collar, taking in oxygen was a struggle.

Fitzgerald moved closer, taking his foot off of Atsushi's chest. He was on his knees beside the boy. Through the fear in his eyes, Atsushi managed a pathetic glare. Fitzgerald's hand shot out and grabbed Atsushi's forehead, his fingers digging into his temples. "Understand this, boy," the man hissed. "I paid seven billion to get you." His palm obscured Atsushi's vision, and for a moment, he was grateful. He didn't want to imagine the scary expression on Fitzgerald's face. "In other words, you belong to blood is my property. Do you understand that?"

Tears welled up in Atsushi's eyes, and he knew that Fitzgerald could feel them on his hand. He knew because he could hear the smirk in the man's voice. "It seems you do understand me then. Good." His fingers slid off of Atsushi's temples and ran through silverish hair. "Keep in mind," he growled as he looked down into the boy's moist eyes. "I won't be so kind next time I have to correct you."

The human body can only take so much pain, hunger, and exhaustion.

The human mind can only take so much fear, despair, and desperation.

Atsushi was at his limits in both mind and body. It could have been the hunger or it could have been the scared racing of his heart that brought his vision to a haze. Maybe he'd been pushing himself to stay awake for too long. Maybe he'd felt too much distress for too long. He didn't know as he felt the world fade away and disappear into darkness.

Well, that was the beginning of this fanfic. I really hope it becomes something great.

Please review!