It was simple for the two to get into the school and enroll there. All it took was a little...Prayer from the bible and they were in
Percy expected her hypnotism magic to fail and they would look like giant idiots reading a page from the bible. But the principal's eyes grew unfocused and all Caren had to do was speak a simple command telling him to fill out the transcripts for them and done.
The principal whose name was Shuyona, 'graciously' gave them both the male and female version of the school outfit along with the gym clothes since they have PE in their schedule.
Percy held the outfit in front of him and made a face. Caren looked at him for an answer.
"One last time, do we have to wear this outfit?" Percy questioned. Though he had a good idea what her response would be.
She shook her head like she was chastising a child. "Remember what we are here for. We have to scout out the other masters if we want to stand a chance."
Percy sighed, conceding to the point. He was an American through and through and had lived in the suburbs his entire life. Though it wouldn't make wearing it any easier he understood it was a necessary to obtain the grail. Gods know his friends would laugh if they ever caught him wearing this.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, they weren't. He was alone.
"Now, let's go change in the bathrooms. I will meet you out here when you're done," He half-heartedly nodded and the two went into their respective bathrooms.
When he stepped inside the bathroom he recoiled in disgust. The bathroom looked like nobody was in here for days, possibly weeks.
He had no idea how any sane person could step into this bathroom.
'I wonder if Caren's bathroom is as bad as this.' Probably not as girls were shown to be cleaner than boys in most cases.
He put on the outfit he would be wearing for an unknown amount of time. The two-piece brown outfit was a little tight, but he could make it work.
It also had pockets so that was a plus.
When he stepped outside the stalls, he almost ran into another student but was able to stop himself. He inspected the student he almost ran into. He had black hair which almost covered up his eyes and round glasses. Other than that, he didn't look like anything too special but then again, most people he knew didn't look that special but was in fact, special.
He apologized, nonetheless. "Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going. I'm Percy Jackson"
"It's okay, I'm Issei Ryuudou, Student Body President of this school." he held out his hand for him to shake which Percy shook
He has a firm grip.
He didn't expect to run into the Student President this early on.
"Would you happen to be the transfer student the principal was anticipating? Your name sounds American," Issei asked.
It was partially true, so he rolled with it. "Yeah, I'm a transfer from America. I moved here because my dad got accepted to a job in Japan, so we moved." Percy lied, making him feel slightly guilty.
Issei nodded in understanding "That's good, how are you liking Japan or Fuyuki in particular?"
"Awful. I was attacked by a giant proclaiming to be Herakles, then had to summon my Blackjack, my Pegasus to run away and then I swam all the way back to shore only to meet another person who told me I'm a spirit!
"It's been fine,"
Issei then went on discussing a bunch of rules and regulations while Percy zoned out throughout most of the conversation. It was also super awkward as they were both in the bathroom just talking. He by no means, could tell who a magus was and who was not but he could at least determine through experience, who's a threat and who's not. He was clearly not a threat and was just a normal student.
"Do you have your schedule and stuff?" Issei asked, causing Percy to jump back to reality.
"Oh yeah, I have a homeroom first with Taiga Fujimura," Percy confirmed.
If his suspicions were correct, it was pronounced like Tiger. Somewhere in the distance, he could have sworn he heard a scream but chalked it up to some loud kid.
"Perfect, I know where that is," the two then left the bathroom to see Caren leaning against the bathroom wall looking bored.
She wore the standard Homurahara outfit though but with the added addition of her cap which made her look even cuter. All in all, she looked way, more in character then she did.
When she saw the two, or him in specific she gave him a minor glare. "You've been in the bathroom for over ten minutes," she stated. Percy sweated while Issei was confused. He'd forgotten about her in their minor conversation.
Luckily, Issei decided to cover for him. "Greetings, my name is Issei Ryuudou, and I'm the Student Council President, would you happen to be new here like Percy?"
Caren who previously looked disinterested quickly perked up. "Why yes, Percy and I are long distant cousins," she lied through her teeth.
"Perfect, now let me escort you two to your first class," Issei offered and turned on his heels while Percy and Caren easily kept pace with him. He gave them a minor tour of the school and told them where the cafeteria was, the gym, the theatre, and a few clubs like the Archery Club.
Throughout the whole 'tour' Percy purposefully tuned him out as he didn't care about things like that. He was supposed to be a 'Heroic Spirit" as Caren said and yet here, he was back in school like an ordinary student.
"And, here we are Mrs. Fujimura's room. Now I'll see the two of you later, I have to be at my own class." He left, leaving the two of them staring at the door. He was not nervous about finally going back to school despite him already graduating.
'Piece of cake, just have to pretend they are all in their underwear.' Somehow, Caren didn't seem affected at having to go back to school despite this being both their first days at a Japanese school. Or perhaps she was just hiding it and was putting on a brave face for his sake?
He finally gathered enough courage to open the door and see his future classmates and teacher. Of course, as soon as he entered everyone's eyes were on the pair as nobody recognized him and Caren looked more at home here then he did, so the odd looks were on him mostly.
When the teacher, Taiga Fujimura saw the pair she perked up "Oh, great I heard from the principal about you two. Class, these two are transfer students from America and are going to be soon! Now go ahead introduce yourselves"
Percy went first "I'm Percy Jackson. Nice to meet you." Already there were whispers erupting from the class as he had a very… American name, especially his last name. If he remembered correctly, Japanese people introduced themselves with their last names first, but he ignored that.
Caren stepped up next, bowing politely to the crowd "My name is Caren Hortensia."
All the boys were of course looking at her as she did have a very cute look to her with her light and wavy silver hair and amber eyes not unlike the auburn-haired boy that Percy saw in the back.
"Alright, now that we have that over with, you two can sit right there."
She pointed to two seats that were miraculously empty next to each other. Once they'd gotten situated, the teacher then went around to every student and asked them their dreams and motivations that they may have in life.
A few of them stood out to him however, one being Shinji Matou, a boy with light blue hair and matching blue eyes.
He had one of the smuggest faces that Percy's ever seen. He'd talked about living up to his grandfather's expectations and becoming the heir to his family. That wasn't what interested him however, it was the way he said it that was odd.
His tone suddenly changed to a darker tone and yet it was unnoticeable to but a few including him, Caren and another black-haired girl with twin tails.
He mentally put the boy on his threat list as he could possibly be a wizard or mage or magus or whatever the hell, they called themselves in this world.
In Camp Half-Blood magic was mostly known as the mist which Hecate controlled. There were other types of magic that he'd seen children of Hecate used but he never bothered to ask the theory behind it or even how they used it.
'Percy' the voice made him almost jump in his seat, but he managed to right himself before anyone could look at him.
He realized that it was Caren who was speaking to him… telepathically? He had forgotten she briefly talked about how masters could telepathically speak to their servant and look at him through his own eyes.
'Huh? Oh yeah what's up' He tried to play it cool, but he was sure Caren saw right through it like glass.
'There are definitely Magus, in this very room' She said with absolute certainty that it surprised him. He had already suspected the blue-haired boy, Shinji Matou to be a mage so it wasn't too much of a surprise.
'Do you know how many?' He asked his master as he only spotted one possible Magus and that was mostly going off ambition.
'The Tohsaka's are a famous Magus family and are one of the three founders of the Holy Grail along with the Maikiri and the Einzbern.'
She reminded him 'It was later known that the Maikiri family, for unknown reasons, changed their names to the Matou which means that Shinji is a Magus.
'So, does that mean they all have servants too?' Percy asked as he briefly wondered if their own servants could sense that he was also a servant disguising as a student
.
'Automatically, the Grail chooses the three main families so without a doubt, they have a servant.' She confirmed as she played with her pencil idly. 'Unless of course they drop out which is unlikely since they have tradition to uphold'
The rest of the class was normal and nothing remarkably interesting happened besides the usual lecture from the teacher.
In Percy's opinion, she was very... cheery and upbeat to the point where it even startled him. He was so used to being around edge lords and gods who didn't quite like him but kept him around because he was useful it was a... nice change of pace.
Soon enough, the pair arrived at their last class, Social Studies with Souichirou Kuzuki who gave off extremely dangerous vibes to the demigod servant.
Although he knew that he was just an ordinary human and not a servant, he still struck him as something more than just a simple teacher. He didn't know why, but he suspected it was because of his shoulders, they always seemed…so tense and on-guard and always kept his eyes trained like a hawk on everyone even while facing the board.
He thought about telling his master about this but figured in the end, decided against it and just kept it to himself for now or until he did something to really warrant suspicion.
After a long hour of class where the teacher droned on about subjects absolutely nobody cared about, probably even the teacher himself, the bell rang, and everybody was dismissed to go to lunch.
The pair decided to get their lunches and eat atop the roof as to get some breathing room from the long day.
When they arrived at the roof however, they saw two people already there one of them being the twin-tailed girl, Rin Tohsaka if he remembered correctly.
"Hey you two! My name is Rin Tohsaka and this Shirou," Rin spoke to them, smiling kindly at them while the other boy, whose name was Shirou, smiled at them too.
"I'm Percy Jackson, and this is my cousin, Caren"
"I heard you two are the new transfer students that everyone is curious about?" Rin said with a dangerous hint in her voice.
The two remained stoic however and pretended like they hadn't heard it.
"Yeah, we're from America. It's crazy how it's almost a different world from here," Caren lightly elbowed Percy's ribs in warning causing him to look at her in confusion.
"So, I'm curious what brings you guys all the way here?" Rin said in the friendliest voice possible.
But Percy was used to deception by now. That's how he's survived so long without getting killed. After Luke, he learned how to better understand when someone was interested or was just probing for information.
"My dad wanted me to be in Japan so I could be with some long-distance relatives." He lied as they sat down and quietly ate. He and Rin mostly did all the talking while Caren and Shirou stayed quiet but listened.
He kept the details as vague as possible, and while she was doing a decent job asking questions but respectively keeping her distance from more sensitive topics, he saw right through it and always fired back with even more vague answers as to not give anything away.
Soon enough, lunch was over, and the two pairs split up to attend their classes. Caren looked at their schedule as they kept walking throughout the building.
"We have Physical Education next," she stated.
"So, PE?" He'd always known the class as PE and found it weird to call it Physical Education it just wasn't right.
"Physical Education, yes."
Percy rolled his eyes at his master's old fashion ways as he quickly changed the subject.
'Any speculations as to what servant Rin owns?' Percy asked curiously as he wanted to know what he was going to be up against. He doubted it was Lancer as he'd said that his master was a priest and he now knew that Illya owned Berserker, leaving Archer, Saber, Assassin and Caster.
'No. We currently have no way of telling who's been summoned and who's not.' He felt she was lying or at least withdrawing something but didn't comment on it.
The pair had to eventually split up to go into their respective locker rooms and put on their gym uniforms.
When he entered the gym room, he was met with a bunch of guys flexing off their muscles and trying to prove their dominance to the other. He forgot that guys in high school tended to do that a lot and rolled his eyes.
He decided to sit in the back corner where there was conveniently a lot of shadow in and changed with the clothes he received. When he took off his shirt however, the attention suddenly turned to him as everyone stared at him.
He looked in confusion as they all seemed to be gawking at him or more specifically his chest.
Looking down he realized that he was a lot more buff then he thought with his six pack practically being an eight pack!
He was scar less, maybe because of his healing abilities or maybe because of the Curse of Achilles, maybe even because he ascended to a servant.
Maybe it was the result of his A-ranked strength manifested in the form of a bodybuilder? He'd been moderately strong but had never exactly dedicated himself to lifting things.
'Unless you count the sky' He briefly shuddered as he remembered how heavy lifting it was.
"Hey! How did you get so strong?!"
" Percy turned towards the speaker of the voice and saw it to be Shinji, the guy who said he wanted to become the heir of his family. Looking at him, he could see how scrawny he actually was with his stomach extending past the belt when he took off his shirt.
'He must force it down.' Percy snickered to himself as he watched his fellow classmates' expressions.
"I just eat my cereal every day." Percy said, taking a page out of Demeter's book. He hoped Demeter heard it-even though she wasn't in this world and blessed him with endless cereal for the rest of his days.
Shinji looked at him confused.
"Huh?" Before he could say anything else, the coach, whose name was Sadou Maou, screamed at them to get out of there, causing everyone to rapidly rush out except Percy who calmly strolled out and ended up being the last one to exit.
The reason he was late however, was because he was having a hard time putting on his shirt which was clearly not his size. It stuck to his skin like a second skin almost.
Now that he thought about it, he hadn't even told Caren his shirt size, so she had no way of telling what to get him. He silently cursed at Caren for not asking such a simple question.
Now, when he stepped out, he saw all the girls were looking at him blushing madly besides Caren who seemed… mostly unaffected by his appearance. The guys looked at him in anger. He shrugged though, since there was nothing, he could do about all the gawking girls or the jealous guys.
'Was this how I was back in Highschool?' Percy wondered to himself before shaking his head. 'NAH! There's no way!'
"C'mon ladies man line up with everyone else. You can show off your muscles later"
The coach said to him as Percy joined the line of students. He saw he was the farthest away from Caren though, but figured she could take care of herself for now.
"Alright, those of you from last year, remember this new program we installed from America but for you new people I will fill you in. It is called the Fitness Gram Pacer test where you must do a set of obstacles whenever you hear the voice. Is that clear?!" (1)
"YES SENSEI!"
Percy stared in shock. Out of everything that's happened so far, this one thing shocked him the most out of everything. He'd always used to hate that test as it was so loud, annoying and the dude who spoke talked too fast.
"I'd rather fight Kronos again..." Percy said so silently nobody could hear him.
He nevertheless braced himself to take it though, he knew he would have to suppress as much strength and agility as possible. If he did this too fast, then he would just be causing attention to not only himself but his master, Caren.
Glancing at Caren she gave him a silent warning to do so also. He would be lying if he said he wasn't slightly curious as to how good she was compared to everyone else here. As the servant he was expected to fight for her, and he hadn't seen any of her capabilities, but he figured she'd have some talent.
"The Fitness Gram Pacer test is a-" The radio box droned on as everyone got ready to the first obstacle, dashing.
"Ready? Begin."
Percy even with suppressed agility, had B-ranked agility and at best, could suppress it down to E-ranked which was still way faster than any athlete could ever accomplish. He was instantly the first one to cross the line with Caren dashing right behind him.
He was silently impressed with her agility. She'd mostly kept up with his suppressed speed even though he was a servant who was supposed to be stronger than anything a magus or human could accomplish.
Soon enough, they'd been through over forty laps with him, Caren and surprisingly Shinji who was keeping up with only sheer willpower rather than anything else. He was panting like a dog and was slowing down each time as the voice called out faster.
He wasn't even moderately tired as this wasn't even a quarter of what he'd dealt with being a demigod while Caren was breathing a little heavier but otherwise unnoticeable.
But there was one other person who was also just as fast as her if not a little bit.
Shirou Emiya, an accomplice of Rin and suspected master of a servant. Throughout the whole race, he was keeping up with Caren if not surpassing her slightly making her a little frustrated and she voiced her thoughts.
'He must be using magic,' Caren said with uncharacteristic emotion.
This was probably the most emotion he'd seen from her since they've arrived at the school as she'd mostly stayed silent and let him do the talking. He was good with people as he had commanded a few people here and there.
At least, that's what he told her. He downplayed most of his achievements not out of distrust, simply because he hated praising himself and didn't want to come off as cocky.
Soon, the running test was done, and naturally he was first place with Shirou right behind him then Caren. He would be lying if he were saying he was tired, but he had to at least pretend to be a little winded.
It was sort of nice not being on the short end of the stick. Back when he attended school at Yancy, he'd never have been able to do this without the assistance of water, but now it was as easy as breathing.
Soon enough, they went through the push-up test, sit-up test and other exercises which the coach said was supposed to measure their ability.
XxX
Soon enough, gym class ended, and it was now time for them to go home. The pair walked side by side, as they walked back to her apartment or their home for the time being.
"-And that's why you should get a TV," Percy finished giving his argument to his master.
He'd proposed they buy a TV so they could keep up with any news that may occur as it could help them find masters.
"Why would I buy a TV just for you, when you're going to be gone in but a few weeks?" she fired back briskly.
"Where I'm from, we can hardly even use electronics without monsters swarming us, so you should be glad that things like that never happen here."
She finally relented "Fine, I will...buy one TV and only one!"
He looked at her. "I knew picking you was the right choice"
She looked away embarrassed but didn't say anything. When the two were just a few blocks away from the apartment they felt a bounded field suddenly form.
Percy quickly grew serious and palmed his pen as he stepped in front of his master, ready to spring forward should one attack. He also summoned his bronze armor, which lit up the moody atmosphere. The air suddenly grew misty and all he could see now was his master.
"Assassin?" he said to no one in particular.
Caren shook her head. "Unlikely, the Assassin class is usually one of the eighteen Hassan's and they would have already strike."
Suddenly, a dagger connected to a chain, aimed towards Caren which Percy quickly swept aside with Riptide which was now uncapped. The dagger somehow bounced off the walls like a ball and came towards him again like a snake back for its prey, forcing Percy to keep blocking it.
He didn't want to conserve as much mana as possible as he may need to summon Blackjack, in the future and it could easily spell the difference between life and death. Also, the foe was incredibly skilled as all the strikes the attacker sent, was aiming towards his blind spots and were always in new spots.
Suddenly, it was eerily quiet, and he could hear Caren's heartbeat. Somehow, he was calm though, and felt like a calm ocean amongst the tidal waves.
'The enemy is trying to wear me down and wait until I eventually slip'
Without warning, a chain wrapped around his leg and pulled him forward at rapid speeds forcing him to dig his sword into the ground, to hold his ground. The force was surprising and almost knocked him to his belly but fortunately, he was able to not completely fall over.
He grabbed the end of the chain and pulled hard trying to find the owner, but the chains seemed to go on forever and nobody was pushed towards him.
"I see you have magnificent strength and endurance" A sensual female voice said which Percy quickly turned to.
"What do you want?" Percy asked although he had a good idea what she wanted. It still didn't hurt to play coy as he could possibly learn something useful.
"My cowardly master deems you a threat, so I am here to eliminate you." she said simply and stepped out of the mist so he could see her better.
To say she was hot would be the understatement of the century!
She had long purple hair that went almost down to her ankles and wore very… assassin-like clothing as it was almost all black and purple, covering her slender body. The most striking thing about her however, was the blindfold she had over her eyes and a tattoo of some sort of a snake on her forehead.
For some reason, he felt he'd seen her before somehow, somewhere. He shook his head, filing the information for later as she readied her battle stance which consisted of crossing her two arms with the nail-like daggers and crouching down like a snake.
"Master, I need you to back up a little" he warned his master as she did what she was told and backed up just enough to where he could see her.
With his master, on the sidelines, he also readied his stance and focused his full attention to her.
All was silent until she came dashing forward in a blur, throwing her first dagger with striking accuracy at his forehead which he quickly blocked but that second of distraction allowed her to close the distance.
She aimed a kick straight towards his head forcing him to use his armored forearm then slice towards her when she matched with her dagger.
He tried grabbing her leg, but she quickly twisted around and did a handstand knocking him back a little.
'Tsk, she's too flexible!' He complained as he watched her warily. 'Her kicks are powerful, and constantly fluctuate from being easy to handle, to groundbreaking.'
He wondered what class she was if she wasn't an Assassin. She wasn't a Saber, Lancer, or an Archer unless her daggers counted as projectiles.
He gave his master a brief glance to make sure she was safe before returning his focus back to the fight.
'Have any idea what class she is?' Percy asked in the hopes of her knowing more than he did
She shook her head in the negative "No, she fights like an Assassin, but I have a feeling she's not one" she mumbled something he couldn't hear, and he was about to ask her what, until the servant suddenly threw her dagger forward vertically, forcing him to swing twist Riptide in an odd position to dodge.
This time, he dashed forward and was putting her on the defense with his nonstop attacks. He sliced towards her head, which she ducked under with surprising acrobatics and tried to spin kick him but this time he was ready, and grabbed her legs and threw her as hard as he could into a nearby house.
Sadly, she managed to backflip and easily stop her momentum. She then sank back into the mist to play the assassin game once again.
While he could do this all day, he was getting tired of the same repeating action and sooner or later she would get him to slip-up, and he would accidentally reveal something he didn't want her to know.
Closing his eyes, he focused in on the mist and mentally thought of the mist floating away like the clouds. Mist was partially made up of water so it only made sense he could control it at least to a minor degree. When he opened his eyes, the mist was now dissipating away leaving the servant with no cover.
Coiling his legs, he ran as fast as he could towards her and swung Riptide in the hopes of bisecting her and yet she easily jumped over his attack and aimed her chained dagger towards his master.
Percy's eyes widened in fear as he dashed over with newfound speed and twisted his watch that he always had on expanding it into a shield and threw it right at the dagger forcing it off course.
For the first time, her expression showed something besides neutrality; shock. It quickly wore off though, as she turned around, bringing her chains with her, and dissipated into spiritual form. Once he sensed the bounded field gone, he let down his guard and ran towards Caren.
"Are you okay?" he asked her, and she nodded carefully. He cursed as he looked at her arm and saw she was slightly injured. Luckily, it wasn't too deep and should heal in no time.
"Yes, we need to head to the church. I have… business to attend there" Caren said with more emotion than usual, dare he say...darker?
They walked towards the church which was about forty minutes away on foot.
He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong throughout the whole way.
AN: Done. Long Chapter this time around, capping off at about 4.9k words which is the longest so far for this story yay! Anyway, a lot of things happen like Percy and Caren going to school, Introduction of Shinji, Kuzuki, Issei and more.
Then we have the introduction of another mysterious servant (We all know who it is let's be honest lol) that nobody would ever guess. Leave it down in the reviews who you think it is.
(1)- I always used to hate this test, who remembers this stupid test in PE we had to take? I did and it was soooo annoying like it's way too fast that nobody can even keep up. I barely get past thirty to be honest but that's mostly cuz I'm too lazy. Tell me your guy's Fitness Gram Pacer test record.
Also, yes, Percy wasn't going all out, and neither was this servant as I didn't want her to reveal all her cards so soon when the story just started. Later, we will see people start using their Noble Phantasms and especially Percy.
Also, yes Blackjack will be making an appearance soon.
Make sure to favorite and follow if you're enjoying this so far. We've got a long ride.
Later, Wrath