The Judgement
20 reviews last chapter. Nice, very nice. People telling me they're looking forward to the fight, that they don't want Zoё to die, or for Clair to die, and some people even saying they want Percy to remain a girl. I'll take a vote on that last part at the end of the chapter.
Speaking of the end of the chapter, not one person made any comments as to what Ōkō Katachi could mean. Well I won't answer it directly, but let's just say that it's something Shin'en would find to be highly entertaining to fight.
Naruto nerds will recognize the name of this chapter as the same episode name of the one where Hidan first uses his ritual…to curse Asuma. And we all know how that turned out in the end. Consider this as foreshadowing the death of someone…or multiple people. Just read and find out.
Spoiler: YOU'RE ALL GOING TO HATE ME
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The Greeks were tense as they ascended Mt. Tamalpais. How could they not be? Even with Clair and Percy present (and holding Zoё's hands), there was another Shinto demigod up here, helping the Titans. Questions were running through their heads at lightning speed; was it a boy or a girl? Who was their parent? What powers did they have? What was their childhood like? Were they anywhere near as insane as Percy and Clair? How powerful were they? Were they really helping the Titans, were they captured, or were they being forced into servitude?
The many unanswered inquiries created extreme amounts of trepidation within those not of Shinto descent.
Percy and Clair, however, were almost giddy at the chance to meet their cousin, just to satiate their curiosity. Oh, they knew that this kid was the 'bad guy' here, and based on the intense feel of this chakra, was probably the child of Susano'o, and that the future meeting would probably end with someone dead. As long as Susano'o's kid couldn't actually use the Susano'o, everything should go smashingly.
Granted the Greeks could actually take on Atlas…and win.
Shortly, the quest came upon a garden of sorts. The most prominent feature of the garden was the gigantic apple tree—complete with golden apples—and the hundred-headed dragon wrapped around the trunk. Thalia and Annabeth knew this as the place in which Luke failed his quest and got his scar; Bianca and Grover knew this place only from the myths; Zoё knew this place because she had been raised here; Clair was contemplating lighting the tree up with some Amaterasu; Percy knew this place because he had been here before.
So she wasn't surprised when the air shimmered, and a bunch a Zoё look-alikes faded into existence. They were all almost carbon-copies of the Huntress, except that they were wearing togas, their hair was down and flowing, and their eyes—their eyes were much less cold, much less calculating, much less powerful.
"Sisters," Nightshade greeted curtly.
The first Hesperide stepped up with a stony expression. "We do not see any sister. Only half-bloods, a satyr, a Huntress, and-sonuvabitch! You!"
Percy grinned. "Hi~."
The Hesperides all adopted looks of anger, much to the confusion of most, and the exasperation of Zoё. "Percy. What did you do?"
"Nothing~."
"Lies! That little demon came to our garden, and tried to sacrifice us to his father! He even cut off a number of Ladon's heads!"
Percy shrugged. "He smelled bad, and he tried to eat me."
"You tried to steal one of the golden apples!"
"I was hungry~! And they looked tasty~!"
Clair and the Greeks were repressing snickers, while Zoё sighed, feeling very much like a mother with a too-rambunctious child. Still, they had a goddess to save, and f her sisters wouldn't move, the would have to be moved. "Sisters. We come seeking passage beyond."
The second Hesperide came forth. "A pointless endeavor. Father has your goddess imprisoned under his previous curse, and an army approaches as we speak. You have no chance, even with the Shinto demigods at your side, for besides our father, we also have our own Shinto half-blood on our side. The Son of Susano'o has chosen to follow Father's cause, and he is very powerful, perhaps on par with Father. You stand no chance."
"Bitch, please! Just get the fuck out the way before I seriously try to sacrifice you to my asshole dad!"
"You foul-mouthed little brat-!"
"Amaterasu!"
The Hesperides screamed and disappeared as their togas caught black fire. Clair aimed for the linen on purpose, intentionally not catching the Zoё clones on fire. She didn't particularly care for the other girls, but they clearly meant something to Zoё, so they meant something to the daughter of Amaterasu herself.
Percy giggled. Moon-Moon licked his face. Everyone else looked at Clair, horrified (for some reason).
"What? I was aiming for their clothes, not their bodies. My fire won't affect whatever I don't want it to, so their skin will be fine. They'll just be really shaken up for a few days."
Zoё breathed a sigh of relief. Yeah, her sisterly relationship was strained to the maximum, but that didn't mean that she hated the other Hesperides. Far from it actually; the Huntress dearly loved her younger sisters, even if they had shunned her and cast her out. Truth be told, one Zoё's greatest desires in her immortal life was to reconnect with her younger sisters, and become something of a family again.
Alas, such things were just fantasy. Besides, Zoё was here on a mission to save her goddess, not be a family girl. And with both Atlas, Luke Castellan (the boy was a fool, but his skills with a sword were not be scoffed at, even by a Huntress) an approaching monster army, and the son of Susano'o all present at the moment, the proverbial A-game would have to be brought.
The quest resumed their trek across the mountain, and the closer they got to the top, the more…dark everything became. There was oppressive atmosphere that hung heavily in the air. The grass died out, replaced with black stone. Further up, statues of naked men and powerful-looking warriors, along with the ruins of walls and columns, became visible. Thalia and Bianca blushed at seeing stone dicks, while Zoё and Annabeth were mature enough to take it in stride, and Clair didn't give a damn (she had seen bigger), while Percy literally couldn't care about penis.
Fucking Asshole Dad and his fucking lesbian kink.
Moving on, it didn't take the quest long to find Artemis, trapped underneath the sky. She looked like hammered shit, to be honest. Covered in small cuts and bruises, her body soaked in divine sweat, her hair dirty and matted, her clothes ripped and torn, and Sweet Baby Jesus did she stink. Percy wondered if goddesses had to shit, because if they did, then Artemis needed new pants.
The Moon Goddess groaned when the quest gathered around, the weight of the sky draining her energy.
"M'lady!"
"Z-Zoё," Artemis strained. "You shouldn't have come here. Atlas, he's here, and there's another, a boy just as strong-"
CLAP
CLAP
CLAP
"I commend your efforts in arriving here tonight, my traitorous daughter. As for you, goddess, I do believe you are being quite dramatic in saying that Tyler is 'just as strong' as I am."
Atlas, being a divine entity and therefore capable of taking any form, chose to appear as a tall man of 6'5, bald, well-built, coppery skin, coal-black eyes, and a formal suit of all things. He gave off an air of immense power, authority, and experience. For the Greeks, they felt his overwhelming essence and almost quaked, but Clair and Percy were more interested in the boy standing next to the Titan.
Not the one with the scar, but the one with the stupid hairdo.
The son of Susano'o, Tyler, was wearing simple clothes, just a red hoodie, blue jeans, some Adidas. His hands were tucked into the hoodie's front pocket. His skin was well-tanned, almost Mexican, while his hair...called attention. For one, it probably had three bottles worth of hair gel in it. Two, it looked like it hadn't been cut ever since he was born. Three, the kid had dyed it a myriad of colors. Finally, it was an exact rendition of Yugi's hair Yu-Gi-Oh!
And Tyler had the same eyes as Madara's Mangekyou, much like Clair had Sasuke's.
Percy looked at the daughter of Amaterasu. "Hey, does Tsukuyomi's kid have Itachi's Mangekyou? Because I'm seeing a pattern here."
"Yes. Yes, he does."
"So, you have Sasuke's original fucking Mangekyou, and can use Amaterasu and Inferno Style, Tsukuyomi's kid has Itachi's original fucking Mangekyou, and can probably use Tsukuyomi, and this guy has Madara's original fucking Mangekyou, and can probably use Susano'o."
"Probably."
Percy turned his attention to the highly confused Greeks. "Right. You guys take Baldy-Bitch, we'll take Tyler. Oh, and try to keep a wide berth. There probably won't be much of a mountain left after we're fucking done with this damn place."
That was the end of conversation, as the Shinto demigods disappeared. Artemis, despite being exhausted, had the strength to ask, "Why is Percy a girl? And who's the girl that was with him?"
"Percy being a girl is a long story. The other girl is Clair, daughter of Amaterasu. She's just a few ticks shy of being just as insane as Percy, and had a childhood almost as bad...or worse, depending on your point of view," Thalia said.
"Oh. What happened?"
"Well, her mother ignored her to the point where she didn't even give her a name. Percy had to do that. Uh, Clair's mom tied her into a sack, dumped a bunch of dirt on top of her, then threw her into a river."
"That's horrible!"
"Not as bad as what Clair did to herself to survive. She burned herself out of the bag, and torched most of the river, which had the effect of leaving burn scars on her body, burning parts of her nervous system, making patches of skin unfeeling, and she burned her bladder nerves, which is why she wears diapers. Then she went back to her mother's apartment and got raped before burning the entire place down to the ground."
Artemis was speechless.
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The Shinto kids rematerialized elsewhere on the mountain. Before anything else could happen though, Percy threw her arms up. "Wait! Before we fight, we have to establish your character."
Tyler's red eyes slowly closed, and slowly opened back up. "What?"
"Your character. You know, like why are you working for the Titans? What are your motives? What tragic thing happened in your past that defines you as who you are?" Clair stared at Percy, before she looked at her actual cousin expectantly.
Tyler blinked slowly again, trying to comprehend the ball of madness that was Percy Jackson. He failed, but he did decide to indulge his female opponents in their questions. "Power. The Titans approached me a few months ago offering me a place in their army. I joined because they have the better resources."
"Oh so they're a means to an end."
"Yes."
"What end?"
"All of you. See, I don't get why neither of you haven't slaughtered the other and claimed their soul and powers. We were born to kill each other off until there's one left standing, one left with all the power. That's going to be me. I'm going to kill the both of you, take your souls for my own, and after I help those idiots take down their kids on that flying mountain, I'm going to use them to tell me where the rest of the Shinto demigods are, and take their souls too. After I'm done with that, I'll move on to the other pantheons, and add their souls to my power. With nothing left in my way, I'll ascend to the Shinto reality, and destroy all of those gods too." Tyler had a sinister smirk on his face as he monologued about his plans of deicide.
Percy was writing something down on a notepad, scribbling away like a waitress taking an order. "God-complex...megalomania...Daddy-issues...desperate need for some pussy...power fantasies...okay, now what about your childhood?" the daughter of Jashin asked academically, like she was doing a biography and was interviewing her source.
Tyler's eye twitched at how not-serious the girl was being, but he answered nonetheless. "Despite Dad raping Mom for whatever reason, I still grew up in a nice family, but they were all weak and disgusting. Some bitch claiming to be my big sister, some bastard claiming to be my big brother, some slut saying she was my mother, and some dumbass saying he was my step-father. It was so putrid that I slaughtered them all in their sleep...then I blew the entire house up with a lightning bolt."
"Ah, yes, I see, I see," Percy muttered, now wearing a doctor's lab coat and scrubs, complete with weird head thingy, still scribbling away on that notepad. Clair was watching with a neutral expression, but she looked like she was trying not to laugh. Percy finished her scribbling, and snapped her notepad shut. Tyler blinked in a bewildered fashion when the girl was suddenly wearing jeans, sneakers, rings, and a black fur-lined vest buttoned over her boobs with a Jashin-symbol pendant falling over her vest.
"In my professional opinion...YOUR DUMBASS NEEDS A HEALTHY DOSE OF ASS WHOOPIN'!"
Tyler's eyes widened when Percy was suddenly in front of him, brandishing a scalpel of all things. Tyler Substituted with a log that came from somewhere, and the wooden cylinder was cleanly sliced in two. The son of Susano'o unsealed his seven-branch sword, clashing with the red-hot katana of Clair.
"Hey, cuz," Tyler smirked, straining against Clair's strength. "After I kill you and take your powers, I'll go after Joshua next. Then I'll be even more powerful than any of our parents!"
The demigods separated. Percy stood off to the side, snickering, her scalpel dancing about her fingers. Clair scoffed at Tyler's proclamation. "More powerful than our parents? Idiot. They are gods, and we're only half god. Even if you did collect all of the souls, you still wouldn't be strong enough to face any god."
Tyler held his sword out, red eyes glowing. "We'll see about that."
Clair's left eye glowed. "Amaterasu."
Tyler's eyes glowed in response, and a blue inferno erupted around him, blocking the black flames just in time to save himself. While the fire burned just as fast as the chakra replaced itself, a ribcage began to form, followed by arms, then a two-sided skull, followed by muscle fibers, then came the skin. Madara Uchiha's Susano'o.
Percy cackled, while Clair scowled. Joshua could use Tsukuyomi, she could use Amaterasu, so it only made sense that Tyler could use Susano'o. Still, it could be worse. The kid could've had Itachi's Susano'o. Still, again, Clair didn't have anything powerful enough to get through that chakra armor, since her flames and the Susano'o cancelled each other out in a never ending stalemate.
Percy could pick up the slack.
The daughter of Jashin screamed with laughter as she molded her chakra…a lot of chakra. Almost half of her reserves went into whatever jutsu she was about to use. Sensing this, Tyler, or rather his Susano'o, lashed out with its curved chakra-blade in an overhead strike that would've cracked the mountain. Clair sprang into action after realizing that her (girl(?))friend was about to be crushed, but her late reaction cost her, and she was too slow to save Percy from being obliterated by the Susano'o.
She forgot that Percy was immortal.
However, it turns out that Clair didn't have to worry about a thing.
A gigantic, dirt-colored, skeletal arm erupted from the mountain, intercepting the curvy chakra blade with its bone-hand. Percy giggled in a more sedate, sinister way. The ground rumbled deeply, as if the mountain was a volcano ready to blow. The stone cracked, spraying dust into the air, as another skeletal burst out, reaching for the heavens, before slamming down. Now with the two arms out, the rest of the skeleton came ripping out of the earth, dirt and rock falling freely from its everything-less body.
It was a normal human skeleton, only fifteen times the usual size. Other than that, the only difference was the skull. Instead of the round eyes and grinning teeth, this creature's cranium had slanted, narrow eyes, and a more upturned smile, giving it a sinister look. The bones were black, but not like the night. It was more of an earthen black, like soil, or burnt wood.
"It's not a Susano'o, but…" Percy said as her jutsu raised her up in its palm after throwing away the Susano'o's blade away, "…my Gashadokuro is enough to take you on, fucker."
Indeed, by combining her Dead Bone Pulse with her Curse Jutsu, the daughter of Jashin can summon the 100ft skeleton monster using bones, and a metric fuck-ton of souls that she sends to her father. The size of the Gashadokuro, as well as its strength and durability, is dependent on the amount of souls put into it. For a skeleton of this magnitude, Percy put 500 of her souls into it, leaving her with exactly 2016 souls within her.
At 100ft, the Gashadokuro towered over the upper-body Susano'o by a great deal, casting a shadow over the mountain. Tyler grit his teeth, before he let more chakra flow out of his body, making his Susano'o stand on its legs. Yet, even with the new height, Percy's jutsu was still bigger…by a large margin.
Clair stared at colossal jutsu, and was almost jealous, but she too had her own 'big gun.' Her red eyes glowed brightly, brightly enough to where they actually began to bleed due to the amount of chakra being channeled into the organs. This took a lot of her chakra, but she would gladly use this amount.
Unlike Percy, who was only doing this for her own personal amusement, and for the chance to get her gender switched back to what it had been for over 13 years, Clair was doing this for an actual reason: survival. Tyler meant to kill her, and kill all of the other Shinto demigods, before moving on to attacking the other pantheons. That was something Clair could not allow.
Oh, don't mistake her desire to kill Tyler for concern over other people, or some deeply hidden desire to be a hero. No, things like that had been burned out of Clair at about the same time she needed to start wearing diapers for medicinal purposes. Clair was going to kill Tyler…to protect her Percy.
Yes. Her Percy. Girl or boy, Percy was hers. After this whole Titan debacle was over, regardless of whether or not the psycho had a vagina or a penis, Clair was going to screw Jackson's brains out after this. It was clear that Percy was attracted to her, and not just because of Jashin's madness, and Clair was happy to return that attraction full-force. Maybe she was gay and had been lying to herself, maybe she was just crazy as fuck, or maybe she was just on her period and her hormones were messing with her rational thought process, but Clair knew one thing for sure:
Percy. Was. Hers.
Meanwhile, Jashin was laughing his ass off at his influencing of the daughter of Amaterasu to want to fuck his own daughter. Young lesbians going at it was such quality entertainment. He could probably get a few thousand more disciples by selling the sex tape on the deep web.
"Inferno Style: Flame-Control Dragon!"
A twister of black fire spun around Clair, reaching even higher than the Gashadokuro. The top of the twister took the shape of a snout, while two long, spindly arms adorned with three digits sprouted slowly. After a few seconds, the flames stopped spinning, and evened out into a massive serpentine monster, with Clair standing on top, right above the Dragon's large, red eyes.
The Flame-Control Dragon stood just a few feet higher than the Gashadokuro, and ended in a slim tail. The beast, despite being made of fire, had more of a consistency related to that of water, due to Clair's tight hold on her flames.
A flash of fear appeared in Tyler's eyes at facing down such powerful demigods by himself. His Susano'o was powerful, but he could not yet form the Perfect Susano'o, or even the Unstable Susano'o, and it was a strain to keep a Full-Body Susano'o up and running. But, the fear that flashed in his eye was replaced with a dark streak of confidence. Tyler had more than just a gigantic chakra avatar at his beck-and-call.
He also the power of storms on his side, and a moderate arsenal of Lightning, Wind, Water, and Gale Style techniques.
He was his father's son, after all.
This was the sight that the Greeks were treated to when they looked in the direction of the terrible rumbling from earlier. A gigantic skeleton, bigger than anything Bianca could conjure, a smaller blue giant with an extra set of arms sprouting from its elbows, and an even larger black serpent/dragon creature. Jaws were dropped, even those of Atlas of Artemis, deities, at the power displayed by the Shinto demigods.
However, Atlas recovered extraordinarily quickly, and thrust his javelin at his daughter, ripping a large hole through her sternum…or would have if not for Moon-Moon jumping in the way, taking the javelin right to his heart. Death was instant.
Percy was about to charge forward, standing on top of the giant skull, but she heard the keening of her wolf. She whirled around to see the cause…and felt her heart stop at seeing her wolf shish kebabed on Baldy-Bitch's oversized toothpick. "MOON-MOON!"
Lightning flashed blindingly, robbing many of their sight, and the clap of thunder robbing those same people of their hearing, while also disorienting those people, something that Tyler took advantage of with a twisted smile. He thrust out with his curvy chakra blade at a speed almost equal to that of a bullet, piercing Clair's body all the way through, almost vertically bisecting her. Death was instant.
Percy whirled back around, feeling another piece of herself getting obliterated with the death of another creature close to her black heart. Then the sound of tearing flesh and a screaming female made Percy whirl back around, just in time to see Bianca take a bronze shaft upside the head, causing her head to halfway explode, spraying blood, her eyeball, bone shards, and skin all over the rocks, revealing the crimson flesh beneath. Death was instant.
Percy felt something else die in her soul. Then she heard the sound of someone eating a fruit. She whirled around again, and more of her soul was destroyed. Her chakra was beginning to fluctuate on a highly volatile scale, dangerously close to becoming unstable. Ōkō Katachi was on the cusp of revealing itself. Just a one more push would do it.
However, back on the subject of the sound of a fruit being eaten, Clair's body had collapsed to the ground several feet below, splattering against the rocks because her Flame-Control Dragon, without active chakra keeping it alive, had disappeared. Because of Izanagi's decree of soul-transferred powers, Clair soul, a red orb wreathed in aesthetic-only black flames, was being consumed by Tyler.
Then came the final nail in the coffin that contained Percy's heart, the last vestiges of it anyway. The familiar sound of tearing skin, muscle, bone, and internal organs drew Percy's attention once again to the Greek side of things. Atlas' javelin had lodged itself through Zoё's skull and into the stone that made up the floor. Bits of brain and blood covered the bronze weapon as it stayed pierced into the ground. Death was instant.
Well, that was all Percy's fragile mind could take, and her shattered mind responded to the outside stimulus that was the death of everyone the daughter of Jashin held dear…violently. Chakra, crimson chakra with inky highlights, exploded from her body with extreme force. The Gashadokuro was atomized, the mountain was cracked, Tyler and his Susano'o were knocked down and blown away, and the remaining Greeks would've been removed from the ruins if not for Atlas throwing up a barrier comprised of his divine energy.
The pulse of chakra the erupted from Percy, that continued to erupt from the distraught, furious, and emotionally/psychologically damaged girl, was felt across the continent by every single Shinto demigod. The amount of chakra Percy was releasing was enough to give an accurate reading of just what was happening on Mt. Tamalpais for the demigods…and it made most of them stare unto the west with serious expressions. Others, such as the children of Izanagi and Izanami, the strongest of the litter, just continued on with what they were doing.
However, for Tyler, barely safe inside of his Susano'o, was right at the heart of the storm, and it was not a calm storm. What he saw, though, what he watched be birthed inside that maelstrom of madly swirling and raging chakra, made him piss his pants. When the Creature rose to its full, terrible height, Tyler realized what he was staring at, and it made him shit his pants.
"Ōkō Katachi..." the son of Susano'o whispered fearfully, unheard over the sound of the raging torrent of fury. "Rampant Form..."
Hell had been unleashed unto the earth.
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I can practically feel the hate raging around inside the readers right now. I didn't just kill off Zoё, but I killed off Clair, Bianca, and Moon-Moon. I'm just evil, aren't I?
Now, just what is Ōkō Katachi, or Rampant Form? What is Tyler seeing? Just how powerful is Percy in this form? What is the true fate of the deceased?
Fav, Follow, and Review if you want to find out, my dear, sweet readers…