Return of the High School God

Welcome back to this fun little story of mine!

Shin'en takes Alternate High with an iron first, extremely unhappy with the way his sister has been treated, and he doesn't have a care in the world about remaining anonymous.

Now, you might draw parallels between this chapter and the way Voidwalker goes in regards to school, and that's because the concepts in Voidwalker actually come from this story. The idea of Shin'en spending a year with his sister and all the different hijinks and misadventures they get into has rolled around in my head for years, ever since I wrote the Phase 1 arc of Backup Plan years ago.

The title of this chapter is a reference to Chapter 51 of Blood War.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO, Naruto, or any references herein

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In school, Persephone had all the reputation of an abused tiger. She made her way through the jungle that was the hallways, exuding an aura of "don't touch me, don't look at me, don't bother me; leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone." For the most part, this unspoken rule was obeyed. The other kids kept out of Persephone's way, and she didn't have a thing to do with them.

However, there were always some monkeys that thought it was a good idea to poke at the tiger, laughing and giggling as they got away with bigger and bigger antics. But then they'd scream bloody murder whenever the tiger whirled around and knocked the head of the closest monkey right off its shoulders.

Persephone had been trying really hard not to destroy the monkeys that plagued her.

But now it was okay. Percy was here. Her super awesome, super scary, super powerful little brother was here, and he was going to kick some butt and set the record straight at school that she wasn't going to lie down and take her bullying anymore. Not from the students, not from the teachers, and not from the admins in the office.

Persephone was practically vibrating with excitement as Sally drove her and her brother to school, Annabeth having been taken to Goode by Paul. Since the blonde hadn't effectively skipped her junior year of school, she wasn't in hot water with the Manhattan school board and relegated to Alternative High School. She was still allowed to go to Goode, whereas Persephone was forced into Alt High.

If not that, then she could face jail time for truancy.

Kind of strange, really. When Kronos waged war on Olympus and lost, there had been a huge celebration on the mountain. Big party, music, food, drinks, and of course, lots of sex in public and private places. They were Greeks, after all. But after the Giant War, Gaea waking up, the Giants…nothing. The demigods won the day and there hadn't been so much as a thank you note from the Olympians.

It had left a sour taste in many mouths, including Persephone, who was angry that her reward for all the pain and suffering she went through was more pain and suffering. Like, the gods could've at least smoothed things over with the school so she'd at least be allowed to attend Goode with her girlfriend, but no.

And it was also apparent that no one thought to use the Mist to help things along.

Kind of funny how the Mist seemed to have less and less of a presence as the books wore on, but anyway.

Annabeth had to stay at Goode, and Persephone had to go to Alt High.

Because Alt High was the last resort before juvey and jail, it was the strictest institution. There was a uniform, assigned seating, the teachers were disciplinarians, the principal a war veteran that hated children, and a general feeling of misery that surrounded the whole campus. The idea was that the student body was comprised of delinquents and hellions (which it was) who were at risk of ending up in very bad places, and so Alt High was the last resort to instill discipline in these wayward kids and hopefully set them on a good path.

Because disciplining kids who came from broken homes and had no sense of discipline whatsoever due to absentee or abusive parents was the best possible idea. Never mind maybe some one-on-one tutoring with a mentor, or small, select classes so that close bonds could be formed. Nah, just shove a bunch of angry teens into one room and yell at them to behave.

Because of that uniform rule, Persephone hadn't been allowed to wear her Akatsuki cloak the whole time she'd been enrolled. That was something that had hit her hard, since the cloak was her brother's Christmas present to her. She wore it everyday during her freshman and sophomore years at Goode; it was something that helped her, a security blanket of sorts.

Being denied it at the unrelenting Alt High had been a blow to Persephone.

But she was wearing it now, and no one was going to stop her. She had Percy by her side.

Where her daughter was practically radiating joy, Sally's stomach was filled with a lead ball of dread. Sure, she had no love for how the school system had been treating her daughter for the past twelve years, and she'd certainly love to get her hands around some necks, but never kill. And that's what her son was going to do today.

People were going to die at the hands of Percy as he executed vengeance on those that had wronged his big sister.

"I'd better not have the FBI come knocking on my door today," Sally said as she pulled into the student drop-off of Goode.

Students weren't allowed to have their own cars on campus, since they'd obviously use them to skip class and flee. They had to be dropped off and picked up either by bus or by parent/guardian.

"Oh, they won't," Shin'en said. "I'm not that sloppy."

"…have a good day, kids," Sally finally decided on saying.

"We're going to have a great day," Seph said with a smile.

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If you recall Blade Trinity, you'll remember the scene when Dracula was slow-walking through the city in the middle of the day with music playing in the background. You can find a clip of it on YouTube. The whole point of that scene was to portray the vampire as a powerful badass, exuding authority and strength, emanating an aura of superiority.

As Shin'en went through the halls of Alt High, he did everything that Dracula did, but better.

The air was drenched in primacy. The fight or flight instincts of anyone in the halls were triggered at Shin'en's mere presence. He got within a certain range and kids either flattened themselves against the lockers and became still as statues, or they literally went running in the opposite direction. There were teachers about, grown adults, who shied away like kicked puppies when Shin'en got close.

The whole time, Persephone was grinning like a loon as she watched everyone cower in fear of her brother.

She could've done this, too, you know. She could've outputted this same energy, bringing terror to anyone around her, but there was a mental block in her head that prevented her from doing that. It was in her head to keep a low profile, don't speak, and just keep to herself and wait out the storm that was another day of high school.

That was not Shin'en's mindset. Not even close.

He knew his sister's class schedule, and so he carved a path through the halls to first period Astronomy. But as was stated before, in this jungle of a school, there were some monkeys that thought it was a good idea to mess with a tiger.

Monkeys that were too stupid to recognize danger.

"Hey, Jackson!"

The twins stopped, Persephone deigning to look over her shoulder at the approaching quartet of bitches. Her usual bullies.

Dressed in the expensive versions of the school uniform, with acrylic nails, fake jewelry, too much makeup, and designer bags. Lots of perfume covered up the stench of raw seafood that orbited their atmospheres.

"Wearing that weeb bathrobe again?" the leader of the quartet asked. "And who's this? Did you manage to make a weeb friend?"

"No," Persephone smirked. "Ashleigh, this is my little twin brother, Percy."

And Shin'en turned around, making the girls all go rigid. Funnily enough, Ashleigh was actually taller than the twins, being an Amazonian 6'2 to their 5'10, which was why she was captain of the cheer and volleyball teams. But those few inches in height might as well have been several feet of difference in favor of Shin'en with how he looked down on them all without making eye contact with a single one.

A crowd was starting to look at the episode playing out before them.

The resemblance between the twins was undeniable. Even bitches as stupid as this quartet could see it. It was shocking and unnerving, how Persephone had a twin brother, and how much they looked alike. It was unnatural, even. So unnatural that it was scary.

"Good morning," Shin'en said with all the energy of someone saying go to hell. "I believe you were saying something to my sister and I?"

He had lowered his voice to where it rumbled out of the bottom of his chest in a deep, flowing baritone. Hairs were raised at his tone, and the bitches were stiff as boards, beginning to understand that they were in a situation more dangerous than if they were cornered in an alley by five big men that smelled of weed and alcohol.

"Something about our clothes," Shin'en prompted.

"U-Uh…u-um…nice…n-nice…robes…?"

"These are cloaks."

"N-N-Nice cl-cl-cloaks…"

"Thank you. Now leave us. Your stench burns my nose."

Ashleigh and her fellow bitches all turned and fled.

Persephone grinned. "That was awesome."

"You can do that at any time."

"Probably. But I'm too nice."

Shin'en hummed, reserving his opinion on that statement. He wasn't going to say it, but it wasn't that his sister was too nice. She was too weak. She allowed certain blocks to be present in her mind that prevented her from doing things, like standing up to people that pushed her around.

At least, the humans here in this school that pushed her around.

If an exchange like this had taken place at virtually anywhere else, like somewhere as asinine as the gas station or the grocery store, someone would've gotten punched in the face. Had this been one of the camps, this wouldn't have happened in the first place because everyone knew about Persephone Jackson, daughter of Poseidon, and so she commanded respect from the mythological worlds.

This shithole school has no idea just who was gracing its halls, and it certainly had no idea about her little brother.

Well, Shin'en was transferring back to the United States from overseas in Japan where he had been living with a guardian, so far as official documentation went. As far as the Manhattan school system was concerned, Shin'en was a transfer student. As far as all official documentation of Percy Jackson went, he had died August 18, 1993 at 12:06 AM. Stillborn, his lungs full of fluid.

That was why he was enrolled as Shin'en Yūrei and not Percy Jackson.

Something that was a source of consternation to Persephone, but she dealt with it.

The twins got to their Astronomy class, Persephone taking her assigned seat in the far corner of the classroom, furthest away from the teacher, Shin'en taking the one to her left. The teacher was already there, sitting at his desk, and one look from the corner of Shin'en's eye had the man ducking behind his computer monitor. It wasn't long until the other students started filing in, and heads turned to look at the twins, flabbergasted by their deep black cloaks with the red clouds, their striking resemblance, and the fact that Shin'en was sitting in some guy's chair.

As soon as that particular guy walked in, he stopped and pointed. "Hey, that's my-"

"Matthew!" the teacher squeaked, voice cracking. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Matthew, I've changed the seating chart a little bit. You sit right there now."

Matthew's face contorted as he flew into a rage, showing just why he was here in this school. He rounded on Shin'en, ready to get into an actual fight with the demigod, but one glance from Shin'en made Matthew's anger evaporate like water tossed onto lava leaking from a volcano.

It wasn't even that Shin'en was using his Sharingan. He was just using his natural, dark, emerald green eyes.

"Thanks," Seph muttered. "I was getting tired of him hitting on me."

"Little does he know you're gay," Shin'en whispered back.

"I know, right?"

The bell rang to signify the beginning of the day, that students now had five minutes to get from wherever they were to their first class. Five minutes later, everyone in Astronomy was seated, and the first period bell rang. Class was now officially in session, and anyone that wasn't seated was written up for being tardy.

The teacher didn't even get a chance to speak before the intercom to the classroom buzzed. "Shin'en Yūrei, come to the office. Shin'en Yūrei…come to the office."

Shin'en let out an annoyed growl at the butchering of his name. It was pronounced SHEEN-en YOO-ray, and the way the office secretary had said it was SHIN-en YER-ay, shin as in the leg bone, yer as in a Southern hick that couldn't properly say the word "your."

Persephone giggled behind her hand and giggled harder when her little brother glowered at her.

"Don't kill anybody," she said teasingly.

"No promises."

Shin'en glided up from his chair and out of the classroom.

He already knew what this was. The bitches from earlier had gone straight to the principal's office and tattled on him, saying that he'd called them mean things and levied threats against them, threats to beat them and rape them. The principal had called the police, and they were waiting in the office to take Shin'en away for death threats and sexual harassment.

The only surviving member of the black-ops death squad was almost giddy with excitement over how this was going to play out.

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As was stated above, the principal was a veteran of war. Drafted in the later days of Vietnam, then sent overseas a decade and change later for the Gulf War, and then participated in Desert Storm. Dishonorably discharged for disorderly conduct, with several accusations of excessive force and rape levied against him, Principal Harding was scum.

69 years old and he loved his job. You see, he was just mean. He was mean to the other kids when he was growing up in school. He was mean to his bunkmates during bootcamp. He was mean to his teammates during the war, and mean to his underlings when he moved up in rank. He was mean to his fellow officers, and he was downright evil to the enemy. The accusations against him were only accusations and not investigated results because of how mean he was.

He had been aiming to be a drill instructor so he could keep being mean, and be mean to his heart's content. But his discharge had forced him to find alternate means of work, and he landed himself the job as principal in this shithole school of undisciplined whelps. Harding absolutely loved it.

He had no interest in bettering these kids, or helping them overcome their struggles, or helping them make something of themselves. His interest lied solely in being an asshole, a bully, and a pervert on the side. The tears of the four skanks from earlier were nowhere near enough motivation for Principal Harding to actually call the police.

Granted, cleaning up their slobber almost made the whole endeavor not worth it, but this instance was the perfect time to have some fun.

Shin'en Yūrei. Some punk transferring from Japan. A Jap. The enemy. It was perfect for Harding. He had the chance to show the little Asian shit that true blooded American patriots hadn't forgotten Pearl Harbor. He had the chance to enact his own justice against the Japanese. The allegations of death threats and sexual harassment were just the perfect excuse for calling officers Jones and Baxter.

A couple of good boys that looked up to Principal Harding and had good relations with the same girls he did.

Ironically enough, the principal had never actually seen this Shin'en kid. He hadn't looked over the enrollment file or anything. It had just appeared in his email during the idiotic Christmas break, and he gave his electronic signature without even reading it. As such, when Shin'en finally made it to his office, the police on either side of his desk, all three men were thrown for a loop wider than an NFL stadium.

Never mind the black cloak with the red clouds that was a clear and obvious violation of the uniform code, but that face. The three men recognized that face very well, considering it was the face of the girl the three desired most out of the whole student body, but were unable to get to due to the fact that there were rules even they had to obey, unable to break or even bend. Despite her checkered past, the girl had done a great job of crossing her "T's" and dotting her "I's," and minding her manners, making sure there wasn't so much as a hair out of place on her head, and as such keeping herself out of the principal's office.

But now this Shin'en Yūrei was here, and he had the face of Persephone Jackson.

"Good morning, gentlemen," Shin'en said with the warmth of a freezer. "Now that we have the pleasantries out of the way, get to the point of why you're interrupting me."

The loop was widened considerably at the distinct American accent, not a trace of Japanese anywhere in his perfect English, and at how deep his voice was, blatant disrespect was enough to get Harding's mind out of the gutter and back on track as to why he called this Jap bastard here.

"Do you know who I am, boy?" Harding asked coldly, sitting up in his chair to make himself look bigger.

"A wannabe king in a tiny castle."

Harding smirked. "A tough guy, huh? My favorite. Boys, show mister Nip here how we handle tough guys in my school."

Officer Jones produced his handcuffs and Officer Baxter pulled out his stun gun.

Shin'en's never left the principal's as the officers approached him with vicious smiles on their face.

"These walls are soundproofed," Baxter said. "No cameras, either, and you can't see through the door."

"You're in for a rough time, buddy," said Jones.

"Not as rough as yours."

The officers paused for a second at the icy words. They shared a look, and then Baxter fired his taser. The barbed probes attached to copper wires launched from the nonlethal weapon and hit their mark. One probe latched onto the area of Shin'en's left pectoral, and the other probe found purchase close to his solar plexus. 50,000 volts went running through the taser, and Shin'en just…stood there.

The officers stared at the motionless Shin'en, who raised a brow at them.

"Are you sure you're using that correctly?"

Baxter was so stunned that he actually stuttered a response. "I-I think I-I am…"

"Allow me to help you determine the truth with no uncertainty."

Shin'en flung the probes from his cloak, and officer Baxter really put the soundproofing of the office to the test with his unholy shriek as he lost his eyes and experienced 50,000 volts straight through his optic nerves. The corrupt policeman collapsed and convulsed, scream dying in his throat as he ran out of oxygen.

Before Baxter had hit the floor, Shin'en was on Jones. He took his time with him, which was why the officer was able to regain enough presence of mind after what he'd just seen to ball his fist around his handcuffs and swing. Jones' fist connected squarely with Shin'en's lower jaw, and the effect was similar to if Jones had punched the side of a tank.

The officer didn't get to reel in pain for anymore than half a second before his head was slammed into a bookshelf by the palm of Shin'en's hand. The shelf busted a hole in the back of the man's head, causing blood to erupt in a splatter. Shin'en stepped away and let Jones fall face-first to the floor.

By this time, all of Harding's military experience and meanness had left him. Now his true nature as a cowardly worm was revealed as he tried to run for the door. Despite being 69, the old man could move thanks to the fact that he'd maintained an outstanding diet and constant exercise for years on end without any cigarettes and only the smallest amounts of alcohol.

He got with arm's reach of the handle when he was suddenly yanked backwards by an invisible force. He screamed as he was twisted and inverted midair, arms and legs locked in an upside-down T-pose. He was brought to hover barely a foot away from Shin'en.

"Wh-what are you?" Harding's voice cracked on each word.

"A demon to some," Shin'en answered. "An angel to others."

Harding whimpered.

"I know who you are, old man. A lecherous pervert that likes getting his wrinkly dick sucked by teenage girls. Tell me, do you believe in Satan?"

"I-I-I-I—"

"You're about to meet him."

Shin'en opened his mouth, and Harding screamed as fire came roaring from the back of Shin'en's throat and into his face-

-making Harding scream and furiously paw at his nose. "AH! AH! AHHHH!"

"Sir, sir!"

Harding made a string of sounds and unintelligible noises as two men grabbed at his arms to make him still. After several blinks and several jumps in his chair, Harding's vision cleared to reveal his officers, looking freaked out and panicked.

"Huh?" Harding gasped. "Wha…what is…I saw…I thought…"

"Are you okay, sir?" Jones asked.

"Yes, sir, are you okay?" Shin'en asked. "I just walked in and you started freaking out."

Harding's eyes darted from Jones to Baxter, and they confirmed the truth of that statement with their concerned looks.

"I'm fine—rugh, I'm fine," the war veteran coughed as he cleared his throat. Since it still felt like something was in there, scratching at him, he cleared his throat again. The feeling went away. "Now, you. You're in a whole lot of trouble, boy. Take that ridiculous thing off, and sit—"

Harding was cut off as the scratchy feeling returned with a vengeance, this time feeling like his throat was actually being obstructed, restricting his breathing and swallowing. But as soon as it came, it went away.

"Sir?" Officer Jones muttered. "Would you like me to get you some water?"

"Yes," Harding answered stiffly.

Jones left the office, shutting the door behind him as he went about acquiring some water for his mentor to drink.

Harding looked back at Shin'en, who hadn't moved or taken his cloak off yet. "I said take that off and sit down-"

He once again unable to finish as another choking fit came over him. He hocked and gripped his throat, feeling like the metal skeleton of the Terminator's hand was clenched around his neck.

"Sir!" Baxter shouted.

He yanked Harding out if his chair and got in position to do the Heimlich when Jones came back, a paper cup of water in his hand. He beheld the situation and was in motion not a second later, coming across the office without spilling a single drop of water. Harding rasped and wheezed like a fish, his tongue hanging out of his mouth, his eyes wide and filled with panic and terror at the feeling of being unable to breathe.

Jones held the cup up, and by some miracle, Harding was able to swallow some water. His throat cleared, and he took in several gulps of air now that he could breathe again.

"I'm fine," he insisted with an edge in his voice. He took the cup from Jones and sat back down, facing Shin'en (who still hadn't made any kind of movement) with an angry look on his face. "You listen to me, boy. I'm two seconds away from—gegh—two seconds…two…"

Harding reached for his paper cup and brought it to his mouth. His eyes widened when the water never moved. It sat there at the bottom of the cup, as if frozen in place. Harding started shaking the cup like you did when you tried to get a piece of ice stuck at the bottom of your glass to come forward, but the water never moved. The man's breathing spiked exponentially as he felt how different it was this time.

His breath came in short wheezes, his lungs unable to fill with air as his throat was blocked off. Not even breathing through his nose helped. This time, Baxter started doing the Heimlich, wrapping his muscular arms around the old man's torso. He started the maneuver, getting one, two, three squeezes in when the most godawful thing happened on the fourth squeeze.

There was a sickening snap heard from Harding's ribs, and it was with the feeling of an anvil settling into their stomachs did the officer's realize that Baxter had just broken some of Harding's bones with his strength compared to the man's old skeleton.

A gurgle of blood that spilled out of his mouth told the officers that Harding's ribs hadn't just been broken, but that they'd punctured his lungs. Baxter dropped the principal in shocked horror, and the old man ended up banging his head hard on his desk.

As Harding lay there, gripped with panic over his inability to breathe, he felt his vision fading fast, indescribable pain erupting from his chest every time his brain forced his diaphragm to expand and relax, making his lungs move and impale themselves on his broken ribs. The pain mounted and mounted, and just before it exploded, Harding felt a hand clamp hard on his shoulder.

He gasped, suddenly sitting in his chair, his lungs and throat clear, drawing in mols of oxygen his gasps were so big.

"Sir, are you okay?" Baxter asked with obvious concern for his mentor.

Harding's pupils rapidly dilated from wide to small. He looked wildly around, his eyes eventually settling on Shin'en. He was sitting in the chair before the principal, cloak neatly folded and resting in his lap. The young man's expression was neutral, if not slightly annoyed.

Harding was currently too freaked out to care about the total disrespect being shown in his office.

"Y-Yes. I just…I need some fresh air. You two, ah…case dismissed. Leave. Go get some donuts or something."

"Sir?" Jones' brow furrowed. "But what about this punk?"

Harding looked at Shin'en. "Get out of here. I'd better not hear of anymore problems, got it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Dismissed."

Shin'en stood and left, putting his cloak back on before he exited the door. He walked all the way back to Astronomy class without interruptions, and interrupted the lecture of the teacher. Many brows furrowed at the sight of him, still clad in his cloak after visiting the mean principal.

Persephone looked totally relieved to see her brother. It appeared she had been forced to remove her Akatsuki cloak, since it was all folded up and placed on the desk next to her. Shin'en's desk.

"Did you," the teacher started, "did you…put that back on after he told you to take it off?"

"No," Shin'en answered. "Principal Harding actually didn't say anything to me. I got there, sat down, and he just stared off into space before he started slapping at his nose and screaming about fire. After the two policemen there got him calmed down, he spaced out about ten seconds later and then started gasping like he was choking. After that episode passed, he dismissed me and the officers. I came back here."

"O…kay…" the teacher was endlessly confused, but decided not to dwell on it and instead moved on with his lecture.

"Genjutsu?" Persephone whispered when her little brother took his seat.

Shin'en just smiled at his sister.

Later, on the evening news, there would a story about how one Principal Harding had left the school early in the day, just minutes after the first period bell, and drove to a parking garage. Then he walked to the subway station, and, well, it was best to say that the authorities would be scraping pieces of the 69-year-old man off the subway tunnel surfaces for a week.

Another story on the evening news would be about the tragic loss of two officers earlier that morning. The story went that the two were getting off their night shift, but they fell asleep in the car, one driving and the other riding shotgun. It was in this sleep that they crossed over the median and were hit head-on by an 18-wheeler.

There was almost nothing left to recover of them.

The moral of the story is that the story of how Shin'en had been summoned to the principal's office, dismissed seemingly without any kind of action against him, and then the principal jumped in front of a speeding subway an hour later, spread like wildfire through the halls, and so it was that Shin'en Yūrei became off-limits to any kind of approach.

The same now went for Persephone, the superhot girl that looked exactly like him.

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And that's that. Sorry it took this long. College, people. Homework, projects, class, having to go to work during the evenings.

So much to do, so little time.

Anyway, in the time that you started reading this chapter and got to this point, you'll notice Chaos War is missing. It'll be back.

One day.

Until that, Fav, Follow, and Review please!