Fortunately, Kirei was allowed to sleep in the Hermes cabin for the night. Unlike Percy who relocated to the Poseidon cabin, Kirei really did not have anywhere else he was able to sleep immediately.
The next few nights passed without much event, now though, by the time he returned from his morning training routine, he would get odd looks from many of the campers in the cabin until he left.
Today, Kirei exited the cabin quickly after finishing his training, and went to sit by the fire in the center of the pavilion. He was granted a couple minutes of calm.
Horse-like footsteps came from behind him, and not long after, a hand was placed on his shoulder.
"Follow me." Said Chiron.
Kirei got up and followed Chiron up to the tall beach house near the entrance of camp. He did not have a good feeling about what was to come. The two of them entered the main room on the first floor.
Percy, Annabeth, and the Satyr from Yance academy, Grover, stood in wait. They seemed to be expecting him, although none of them looked comfortable being in his presence.
"Kirei, these three were going on a quest. There just so happened to be one more spot for volunteers, so I took it upon myself to volunteer you for this, especially after seeing how qualified you were in capture the flag the other night. I figured that this would be a valuable opportunity for you." Said Chiron, turning his gaze away from the four of them and slowly leaving the room.
Once he was gone, Annabeth coughed in her hand.
"Let me get you up to speed," Annabeth said, then proceeding to inform Kirei about all the details of the quest. Kirei's expression remained neutral throughout the explanation. Annabeth told him about the quest to the underworld in LA, to not travel via plane, the mist, and she even made sure to include the detail about Chiron handing Percy Anaklusmos, aka Riptide the ballpoint pen bronze sword.
"You don't look surprised about any of this." Percy dryly instigated a couple of seconds after Annabeth finished. Kirei just looked at him with his oppressive eyes, this time he did not back away from them.
"I'm sorry for my lack of emotion. I'm not really the emotional type." Kirei lied. He would rather not be explaining to them that his version of joy/pleasure meant the suffering of others and nothing else. He understood that concept may isolate him further from his peers.
Percy looked unsatisfied with the answer he got, but he did not pry further.
They left the big house and began climbing up half-blood hill to exit the camp, Percy was a couple dozen meters ahead of the rest of the group talking to Luke. Kirei could not see it from his angle, but Luke handed something to Percy. A moment later, Luke began walking down the hill. He shifted his attention to the three of them and waved goodbye. Annabeth alone waved back at him, and a couple of moments later the group had caught up with Percy.
Percy had a pair of shoes in his hands, they looked like basketball shoes to Kirei.
"These are flying shoes," Percy told them. "But, I don't think I will be able to use them… thanks to you know." He pointed up at the sky, "Do you want these, Grover?"
Grover vigorously nodded his head with his arms outstretched towards Percy, who placed the shoes in Grover's arms. He excitedly put them on, taking off the shoes he had on before and replacing them with the new ones.
"Say 'Maia' when you want to activate them or deactivate them-" Percy was interrupted by Grover.
"Maia," Grover said loudly, the shoes sprouted little wings taking Grover into the air for a few seconds before unceremoniously crashing down. "maia." He said, deactivating the shoes with defeat in his eyes.
"-Luke also said that using them takes a bit of practice." Percy finished his statement with a chuckle.
After the long car ride to the bus stop from camp, not a single moment of which Kirei acknowledged any of their existences, the four of them entered the bus and got some rest for a couple of hours… At least before all three of the furies got onto the bus. Everybody except for Percy noticed that they had begun boarding the bus.
"Percy, we have to get out of here. Kindly ones." Whispered Annabeth to Percy, who sat by her side, who immediately perked up and spotted them. She looked over to Kirei and Grover. The former had his usual expression on his face, not too dissimilar to a dead person. Whereas the latter was biting his fingernails nervously.
Kirei was reaching into his coat with his right hand, and despite the fact that he was the biggest unknown dynamic of the group, looked more prepared for battle than the rest of them combined.
"Di immortales!" Grover quietly whimpered.
"Everyone calm down," Annabeth said calmly, prompting Kirei to raise an eyebrow in their direction. "Percy, take my hat and stop the bus with the emergency brake. We will hold off them until you do."
"We?" Asked Kirei.
"You," Annabeth said irritatedly. Kirei smiled at her irritation, it was the first smile she had ever seen on his face, a fact which unsettled her deeply.
"I can't just leave you guys..." Percy said hesitantly.
"Care to hear my plan?" Said Kirei. All of them looked at him.
"Sure, it's not like this situation could get much worse." Said Percy.
"I have to use the bathroom."
"Me too,"
"Me too." The three furies got up one by one and began going down the aisle. They sniffed each passenger one by one.
Kirei got up into the aisle, immediately drawing their attention.
"Percy Jackson is not in here," Kirei said in a heavily accented ancient greek.
"Where is he then, son of Hades?" They hesitantly asked in English.
"The roof," Kirei said with a grin.
The three of them turned their backs to him and began walking towards the door.
In an instant, Kirei charged down the aisle with a moving stance and hit the nearest kindly one with the same strike that he had performed on Mrs. Dodds back at Yancy. The violent super Bajiquan move sent the three of them smashing into the front dashboard of the car.
A bronze sword cut through all three of them, at the front door of the bus was Percy, who had snuck up there invisibly, clearly visible with the Yankees cap having fallen off his head as he attacked.
The furies began disintegrating into golden sand as they exited the lincoln tunnel. The bus driver and everyone on the bus began to panic, and Percy scrambled to put the cap back on and pull the emergency brake on the bus.
"I can't believe that just worked." Stated Grover as they all ran away from the bus without a scratch.
"We lost our main method of transport, I wouldn't exactly call that a win." Said Kirei.
"We survived three of some of hell's biggest baddies and lived, I think that is a cause for celebration," Grover said, reaffirming his prior statement.
Sorry for the short chapter, even newly publishing authors like me get writer's block. The next chapter will be a little longer and thank you all for the support.