Posted by Yuto had given it a lot of thought. As he heard the story from Mavis, he couldn’t keep down the thoughts of spiting the people who wanted him dead. He was destined to die a nameless death in The Pit. The people who threw him in here didn’t want anyone to know the name Yuto.
Since that was the case wouldn’t it be ok to disregard the name Yuto as well? Wouldn’t it be ok to take on the role of Aker? Hadn’t he already committed himself to fighting, surviving and conquering?
Since being kidnapped and forced to fight for his life the child known as Yuto was no more. He would never let anyone besides his mom call out the name of Yuto again.
He kept his head down as he thought through the name change. He should represent fighting! He should represent surviving! He should represent conquering! What better way to do that than to take on the name of the God of Death?
Since that was the case and he had made up his mind then there was only one thing left to do. That was to formally introduce himself as Aker from this moment on. From this moment on he would be Aker and no thoughts of Yuto would exist again unless by some miracle he was able to see his mom in the future.
With that in mind he extended out his hand and held it in front of the man who explained what his new name represented. There wouldn’t be a better person for him to introduce himself to for the first time than the man standing in front of him now.
The man took his hand and shook it introducing himself as the armorer and Mavis.
“Glad to meet you, my name is Aker…. Let’s get along in the future”. He responded back with a smile on his face.
The name Aker flowed out of his mouth without any hesitation or problems. After hearing the name come from his own lips as he introduced himself, he felt a freedom and strength that came with claiming the name of a God of Death.
Aker turned and walked away after introducing himself to Mavis and started to take his path back to his cell just like he had done previously when someone called out to him from behind.
“Boy come with me this way.”
Aker turned and saw the guard who had escorted him out to The Pit standing there waiting for him. He wasn’t standing facing as if though he was leading him to his cell but somewhere else. Having been called Aker turned to him and called out curiously.
“Were not headed back to my cell?”
The guard shook his head indicating that they were not and pointed to one of the tables that the doctors were at.
It was then that Aker understood that the guard wanted him to get checked out by a doctor. That confused him even more though as yesterday they sent him straight to his cell without seeing a doctor. He was still injured from yesterday but overall his injuries were better today than they were yesterday. Shouldn’t he have gone to see the doctor yesterday instead? Aker couldn’t help have this thought running through his head.
The guard must have been able to understand his confusion since he followed up with an explanation.
“Yesterday the guards lost a lot of money on you and they were hoping your injuries would affect your fight today. So instead of bringing you to the doctor to have your injuries looked at they took you straight back to your cell. One of the guards was the one you stabbed this morning and the other is the one I beat and replaced.”
Hearing the explanation, it made perfect sense to him at this point. Even though they were fighting to the death, following every fight they are supposed to get checked out by the doctors. The goal is to keep the fights coming and have them die a bloody and gruesome death to the screams and bets of the crowd and not a slow death in their cell.
Aker followed behind the guard as they walked over to the table. The table was too tall for him to get on so the guard grabbed a step stool and put it in front of the bed. Step stools were kept there for instances where they would have dwarves and other smaller races fighting in The Pits who needed medical attention following their fights.
The doctor who was a middle-aged man who looked haggard and thin. It was obvious from the look in his weary eyes that he had seen too much death, blood and guts. As a doctor who treated fighters and prisoners who survived The Pit against all odds, he sees on a daily basis more gruesome sights than most doctors see in their entire life. That much death, blood and guts will eventually tear at the soul of a human and begin to twist and mold it no matter how strong willed they are.
This doctor was probably the most famous of all doctors in The Pits as he has been working the butchers chair for over twenty years. No one really knows his name but everyone just calls him Doctor Life & Death. Doctor Life & Death has probably saved more lives and seen more deaths than any other person in the galaxy. No other doctor has lasted more than 2 years working in The Pits before losing their minds and fleeing from the tragic underbelly of the glorious battles.
“Sit here” Doctor Life & Death called out to Aker in a very monotone voice.
Aker couldn’t help but notice the lifelessness of his voice. Back at home Aker had heard automated phones when his mom would call businesses, he had often thought that these phones sounded lifeless and without emotion as they spoke. After listening to this doctor, he had a new found appreciation for the phones as he now understood that the phones were oozing with emotions.
As Aker was thinking about the lifelessness of the doctor he hopped up onto the table and took a seat. His feet dangled over the edge as he looked even smaller than a dwarve sitting there staring out at everyone.
The doctor looked over the clothing of the boy and recognized areas all over his body with cuts and tears signifying an area where an injury should be present. After looking over the clothes the doctor’s eyes squinted as he realized that it would be harder to find an area where the clothes weren’t damaged.
With this thought in mind he called out to the boy.
“Were going to have to see what’s going on.” With that Doctor Life & Death grabbed the scissors and began cutting his clothes so that he could see the injuries.
Aker found it hard to relate what he was seeing and hearing. Aker heard as the doctor told him he was going to have to see what’s going on sounding as if though he could care less if he lived or died, however just before the words left his mouth Aker clearly caught a glint of concern flash across the doctors’ eyes.
Brushing off that thought Aker sat there as Doctor Life & Death started to work on him.
Aker heard a small gasp as it leaked out of the guards’ mouth as he saw Aker sitting there. Aker looked down and for the first time caught a glimpse of himself following the fighting he had done in the last couple of days.
Well over 90 percent of his body was covered in blood. The blood that covered him was a mixture of his own and the three Kugas that he killed. For the first time he got a good look at his leg and there was a scar running across his entire thigh that was 2 cm wide and 8 cm long.
The scar running across his leg was the largest but even with him completely covered in blood the scars that covered his body couldn’t be hidden. Surprisingly enough even though a significant amount of the cutting and bleeding was from the previous day most of it looked like it had been healing for a week or two.
As the doctor’s eyes moved across the boy’s injuries a tear formed in the corner and his eyes moistened. For the first time in at least a decade the doctor felt an emotion. Despite all of the atrocities he had seen in 20 years of being a doctor in The Pits he had never ever had a child come across his table. The sudden impact of seeing the remanence of a child who fought in The Pits was enough to bring a tear to an emotionless man.
The man reached over and grabbed a towel and dipped it into the barrel that sat next to the tables. The barrels were filled with water so that the blood could be cleaned off of the fighters and the injuries could be more clearly seen. Normally the doctor had an assistant who would be responsible for cleaning the wounds but his assistant wasn’t here at the moment as he had just replaced the barrel with a new clean barrel of water and was taking the old barrel away.
The doctor not wanting to wait for his assistant to return took the towel and began wiping the blood off of Akers body. As the doctor wiped, he noticed that there seemed to be two layers of blood. The top layer was still wet and sticky and covered the child from head to toe. Under the top wet layer was a dry hard layer that also covered the child from head to toe.
Doctor Life & Death is probably the foremost expert alive anywhere in regards to the effects of blood on skin and material. For 20 years non-stop all day he has to remove blood from people and clothing. For Doctor Life & Death it was an easy matter to discern that the dry blood had been caked onto the child for at least a day.
As this was the blood of a beast once it dried it would harden and stick to the skin. Trying to remove dry beast blood would be extremely painful and unfortunately the only way to remove it was to scrub it off. In most cases the skin would be scrubbed raw through the process of removing the dry blood which is why it was so imperative to get the fighters to the tubs and baths after the fights.
With this thought in mind the doctor began scrubbing the arm of Aker. Initially he tried to scrub as gently as he could but it did nothing to get that dry layer of blood off of him. Understanding that there was no other way the doctor began scrubbing the arm with significantly more strength.
As he scrubbed, he applied more and more strength and pressure. After a few seconds of intense scrubbing the blood began to flake off the arm. Some pieces would fly off without any issues however other pieces would be noticeably different as they carried fresh flesh and blood with them. After a minute of scrubbing the blood that covered the right arm of Aker was completely removed. Fresh blood from all over Akers arm rolled down to his fingertips and with nowhere else to go gravity sent it to the ground.
Drip….Drip…. Drip….the blood hitting the floor fell at a very rhythmic pace. The doctor looked at the arm and while it can’t be described as mangled it was definitely not a pleasant sight. The arm was not just red from the blood but was also bright red from being rubbed raw.
After finishing the arm Doctor Life & Death felt disgusted with himself. To bring this much pain to a child made him feel like he himself was a monster. For the first time since he started working The Pits, he felt like he was a bad person.
Doctor Life & Death saved lives. It didn’t matter that the next day they might go into The Pit and die, it wasn’t him that sent them in there.
Understanding that he wasn’t the one who hurt this boy and he was helping him he gritted his teeth and moved on to the rest of his body.
Slowly the skin of the boy started to show as if though it was done playing a sick game of peek a boo. Under the rock-hard blood was the mangled and bloody flesh of a child.
As the doctor looked down, he couldn’t help but frown. There were still flakes of blood that he couldn’t get off but for all intents and purposes the blood was cleaned off. As his eyes swept over the child, he realized that on the boy’s face he still had blood at the edge between his face and hair line.
The doctor took a close look at his hair and after a second of thought determined that there was no sense in trying to wash it off.
The doctor had a pair of scissors that were kept in his area that was used to cut clothes off of fighters when they were brought to his table after their fights. Now these scissors that had seen more blood and guts than any weapon in the armory were cutting the hair of a small child.
Because the blood had hardened even these scissors were showing signs of struggling to cut through and were even starting to show small chips.
After about 20 minutes the vision of a boy could now be seen by everyone. Sitting at the table with no hair, ripped and mangled skin, covered in bruises, scars and cuts was a skinny boy staring back at everyone.
As the doctor looked over the boy, he noticed the smile that was on the boy’s face earlier was now gone. He showed signs of pain in his face as his lips quivered and his eyes were clearly moister than before they started. It would be obvious to anyone that the boy was fighting back the urge to burst out crying. Amazingly this boy stood in front of the oppression of tens of thousands of people and fought beast without showing anything but a smile, but in just a few minutes at the table of Doctor Life & Death he was doing everything possible to keep himself from crying.
As the doctor was taking in the boy’s current state his eyes suddenly went so wide that if you were standing in front of him it would be possible to see into the bottom of his soul.
The guard who had been watching this whole time immediately noticed the doctor’s eyes and his first thought was that the doctor noticed something concerning.
This doctor known as Life & Death has seen countless deaths, injuries and conditions and something on this boy has affected him so much? The guard couldn’t help but feel his heart drop to his feet. He had used every last favor, resource and ability he had to replace the other guard to get here. If something was truly wrong with this child then he had no more cards to play.
With this in mind the guard turned to the doctor, concern was clearly showing in his whole being.
“Doctor, is he going to be ok? Is there something that can save him? No matter what it is let me know and I will do whatever I can. I may need some time depending on what it is, how much time can you give me?”
The guard couldn’t help but think about the fact that he had no other options. He had already thrown his whole lot in with the boy. Even if he had to go massively in the hole at this point and give out favors to everyone in the Underground, he would do it. As long as the child survived, he had the possibility of getting it back.
“……..” The doctor just stood there with a blank face, at this point the emotions that he had shown earlier no longer visible.
The silence of the doctor moved the guard from concerned to scared. Perhaps there was no way to save the boy?
“Doctor! What can I do, tell me, every second counts in these situations!”
At this point the guard was struggling to keep himself calm. The doctors silence was worse than any torture he had ever experienced in his life and he had once been tortured for 1 year in the prisons of Beltar.
Slowly Doctor Life & Death turned his head to the guard showing an expression that clearly indicated that he was stunned.
Looking right at the guard his voice for the first time showed a hint of emotion as he asked the guard “Did you hear the boy?”
DID I HEAR THE BOY! DID I HEAR THE BOY! WHAT THE HELL IS DID I HEAR THE BOY SUPPOSED TO MEAN!? The guard couldn’t help but scream at the top of his lungs in his mind as he heard the doctor’s question. What kind of stupid question was that? The boy hasn’t said one thing since he sat at the table.
Taking a deep breath and getting his emotions under control the guard exhaled slowly and replied to the best of his ability without frustration and anger.
“I haven’t heard him say anything since he sat at the table. What did he say? Perhaps I was standing too far away to hear it?”
The guard looked at Doctor Life & Death as he slowly turned his head back in forth. Was he telling him No? No, what?
“He didn’t say anything.”
At this point the guards jaw dropped as he gripped his fingers into his palms. If Doctor Life & Death were to look down, he would see a slow drip of blood fall from this guards’ hands.
Why would you ask me if I heard anything if your telling me you didn’t hear anything? Are we just randomly asking each other questions? Should I randomly ask him if he farted? Not wanting to fight with the doctor and more importantly to figure out what is wrong with the boy so that he can do what he needs to in order to save him the guard asked as gently as he could.
“Was I supposed to hear something from the boy?”
Slowly the doctors head moved forward and backwards indicated to the guard that he should have heard something.
It was taking everything the guard had at this point not to scream at this doctor. When was the last time he was this upset by someone?
As these thoughts were running through his head as well as still working on calming himself down the doctor answered.
“I have never cleaned blood that had dried so hard before. However, I have had to wait 8-10 hours to get to some fighters before and the blood had really just started drying. When we scrubbed the blood off of those fighters, they screamed so loud we had to move them to another location…”
At this point the guard’s eyes went even wider than the doctors had previously. He suddenly understood why the doctor had the reaction he had earlier.
“after cleaning those fighters, they were so tortured and, in such agony, that The Pit master decided that covering prisoners with blood and letting it dry could be a good form of punishment if needed. Over the years a few people have gone through that and it worked so well that we never had any problems with prisoners again. It’s been 10 years since we had to do that type of punishment but the prisoners are still aware of it.”
The guard couldn’t help but gasp in amazement. Both he and the doctor turned to face the boy sitting there with his lips quivering and tears rolling down the side of his face. His dark brown eyes shined like the sun as it rose over the edge of the planet bringing life to all around. His face full of suffering and pain as his body shook indicating how much agony he was in.
While his body was shaking his mouth didn’t leak a single sound. Shock could be seen in both the guards and doctors’ eyes as they turned to look at each other. Without saying a word to one another they both understood that this boy was even more special than they had initially thought.