Here we go, another chapter! I'm really diving into uncharted territory here. Things are beginning to get complicated. Do I follow canon but modify it with the addition of Kaneki? Or do I try and forge my own path? Decisions, decisions. Oh, before I forget, FoxyAtTheCorner is back! Their story is what inspired me to write this(and my previous one) in the first place, and it's exciting to see that they weren't just going to leave it as a one shot. Anyway, let's begin.
The perfect analogy for describing the Throne Room of Olympus after Kaneki Ken had casually commented on how Kronus was apparently alive, and had tried to recruit him, would be the chaos one would expect from a crowded area like a mall after someone tossed a grenade into the midst of the crowd. Explosions of noise, with Ares immediately leaping from his seat and whipping out a sword the size of Olympus' new headache, slashing directly at the man even as some of the other Olympians began to shout at each other or at Kaneki himself. Artemis was already drawing back her bowstring, despite something telling her that he would not need any help to defend himself from the longsword hurtling towards his head. Kaneki absorbed the chaos, the panic and watched calmly as a blade began its descent. Athena had already yelled out a warning, and the confused gods and goddesses directed their attention to the murder in progress. The immortal monster smiled serenely, unfazed by his impending doom. Just before the sword kisses his hair, an eye flashes red and a sudden burst of killing intent fills the air as he moves.
With a flicker of what appeared to be blue fire, Kaneki dodged the sword(which left a hole in the floor that would need to be fixed later), reappearing on top of the weapon perched like a demented pigeon. A single quick jab, and the massive blade snapped into two. Another flicker, but now of darkness that reminded her of his chosen method of teleportation(so what was the first burst of fire?), Kaneki reappeared in mid-air, already in the process of a roundhouse kick that collided with Ares' face. A visible crunch and the whiplash that came with having your head knocking into something while you were in the process of walking, except multiplied about a hundred times later, Ares had been forcefully blown back into sitting on his throne. No longer looking so calm or human, he drew the god-killer and rested it gently against the throat of the pale and concussed God of War. A hand was raised slightly, and with a quick jerk, he snapped a knuckle without flinching. Despite having to position himself on the god's throne(one of his legs embedded into the backrest of the seat) in order to get to a suitable height for his blade to reach the neck of the god who had attempted to kill him, he gave off the air of a man about to murder another. The god-killer looked like a toothpick in comparison to the person it was being used on. Yet, with the way it was pulsing gently, almost throbbing like a beating heart ripped from someone's chest, made it so much more terrifying than any weapon Hephaestus had ever created. Kaneki's mouth twitched, curving into a mockery of a smile.
"Now, now. Let's not be hasty here. Wouldn't it be a shame," he gently applied pressure to Ares' neck and a single drop of ichor dripped along the edge of the blade, "if my hand were to just...slip?" no one dared to make a move, or even a single sound. The God of War gulped, but attempted to put on a brave face that quickly vanished when Kaneki pretended to stumble, slicing a thin line across his neck. Internally, Artemis snorted at the pathetic display of one of her fellow Olympians. If she had emphasized one thing in their meeting, it was that the enigmatic immortal was not someone to be trifled with. While he had been downright ruthless in their fight, there was something akin to an unspoken rule he followed during it. Perhaps it was because she was essentially the sister of his friend. Or because she had challenged him to a fair fight in the first place. In any case, he had been too out of it to treat Zeus with the same civility that he had extended to her. Tearing the god into pieces and smashing his face in after that, with strikes that caused the ground to shiver and had drawn so much ichor out of the youngest of the original Olympians that the ground it had splashed upon would be saturated for decades. Her father had attempted to harm someone he held close to his heart. How would Kaneki react to a direct, uncalled for, attempt on his life? The room itself seemed to be holding its breath in anticipation and terror of what he would do next. The monster held a brief staring contest with the god who had tried to strike him down, an expression of clear distaste and incredulity on his face. It said as clear as day, what they all were thinking at that point of time. What would possess you to think that you could kill him? A minute of intense silence passed, feeling like an hour. With a huff and a flourish, the blade was removed, flicked twice to splash the traces of godly blood on it onto the floor of the Throne Room. Leaping from his position, he kicked another hole into Ares' throne and performed an unnecessary backflip before landing seated in the exact spot he was in the beginning. Still smiling. Artemis felt a small spike of irritation at the way he gave her a glance, as if Kaneki recognized what she was thinking.
"Before anyone else rudely interrupts me, I was about to say that I rejected his offer, told him that he could shove it somewhere the sun didn't shine and left before he could vapourize me or at least try to. A little disappointing how I was attacked almost immediately after I agreed to fight alongside the Olympians. Would this be considered...breaking of a truce?" the gods and goddesses tensed up at the edge that had crept into his tone, and Artemis saw Hermes pale at the notion that because of Ares' stupidity, they had declared themselves fair game. She rolled her eyes. Male pigs. Never able to think through the sheer thickness of their skulls or the testosterone flooding through their veins. She almost snarled at the dumbfounded look on the face of the God of War. Had he really not considered the gravity of his actions? Somehow, through her life as a goddess, the only male that had managed to live up to her expectations as a decent human being was perhaps not a person at all. Very slowly, she notched an arrow and started to draw the bowstring back again. She only stopped when something snaked along her arm, tightening as it got to her hand. Glancing down, she noticed with no small amount of alarm that there was a red string, identical to the one Kaneki had used in his traps winding around her fingers and binding her arm to her side. Artemis cursed, tugging fruitlessly at the bindings that she knew were tough enough to withstand godly strength. Beginning to discreetly saw at it with a hunting knife, she felt the urge to deck Kaneki Ken across the head with all her might increasing when a second string snatched the knife from her grasp, wrapping it like a present before spitting out a ball of metal which had once been a weapon. Guess he's still prepared. A sharp intake of breath caught her attention, and her eyes snapped to Ares, who was beginning to levitate. Upon closer inspection, his limbs were tied to the same red strings that their enemy turned uncertain ally manipulated with the minute twitching of a few fingers. His eyes were cold, and had already begun to shift to a molten silver, while the sign of his instability appeared and disappeared erratically, just as terrifying as the eyes that looked too much like hers. Kaneki extended a hand and squeezed an invisible object, which caused Ares to immediately cry out and begin screaming as his bones began to snap like twigs. The ichor spilling from his wounds didn't seem to hit the ground, instead slowly vanishing the longer it remained in contact with the wires. Tilting his head in a childish manner that just added to the general spooky vibe that he was giving off, he unholstered his blade and took a familiar stance.
"Perhaps the gods need a lesson in showing respect." and as the last word dropped from his lips, Kaneki swung so hard that she felt the air itself part for his weapon. A large gash appeared across Ares' chest, and he screamed once again, long and drawn out. The agonizing sound made her wish that she could reach her bow, or just use her hands to cover her ears and drown out that infuriating noise. Sheathing the god-killer, he stepped in front of Ares with three quick strides(only then did Artemis notice everyone was restrained and struggling to break free). Amongst the variants of "don't do this" and "spare him" mixed in with the occasional "fuck you" from the God of War himself, the monster lunged forward and crushed the god's manhood. A sickening squelch, followed by a pop, and then a scream that was four octaves higher than what Ares usually sounded like as Kaneki wiped off the liquid on his hand, a clear look of disgust on his face. Flicking the last of the liquid onto Ares' face, he dropped the god onto the floor, where he curled up into a fetal position and started crying.
"Perhaps it would be for the better if you didn't procreate you pathetic excuse for a god of war. I've met a lot of people in my life. Countless mortals and immortals that would have satisfied the role much better than you'll ever. Now scram," he waited for approximately five seconds before scoffing, "you'd think a god had more tolerance for pain. Fine then, see you next time you need someone to knock you down a peg or two. Or ten." A flick of the wrist as a singular piece of his kagune slithered out from his back, wrapping around his arm and turning it into a makeshift battering ram. Winding up, he punched and sent the injured god flying through the closed doors, leaving an Ares sized hole as the only hint that the god of war had ever been in the room. A sharp exclamation of surprise alerted Artemis to the fact that someone had already discovered the man. Despite her disgust and anger, she felt a small pang of pity at the way he had been so utterly and totally annihilated for a single mistake. Then again, that was the way the world worked. The strong picked on the weak, and any form of an opposing force would simply be crushed. Still, to so callously crush a man's pride was the type of thing she thought that only women could dare to do, because she had always heard about how even during fights between men, the unspoken rule was that there was no hitting the groin. And here, Kaneki had done it with the ease of someone who had done it many times before. She didn't know whether or not to be impressed or disturbed by the notion. Poseidon looked like someone had told him that his life had been a lie. Hermes had the expression of someone who's life had been turned upside down. Hera looked like she had been slapped by a mortal. And Athena remained unfazed, though a bead of sweat trickled down her cheek. Dionysus seemed to have somehow drunk himself into unconsciousness despite the fact that she knew he had been banned from drinking any forms of alcohol. Aphrodite appeared to be going into shock just from seeing her boyfriend(another reason for her to hate the goddess of love was how she refused to be loyal to her true husband) destroyed like an ant. Hephaestus possessed an expression of mild interest mixed with curiosity while Demeter had straight up passed out in her throne, not used to such levels of violence. Hestia looked unimpressed, even disappointed. Artemis' brain stuttered, then rebooted. Hestia?
The goddess of the hearth, who had faded into the background ever since she had given up her seat as an Olympian to Dionysus(a waste, replacing who was essentially the glue of their family with a drunkard), was standing in front of the still form of Kaneki Ken, in her usual eight year old body. Her right hand was enveloped by a small fire, the same shade of blue that one would call sapphire, but somehow not the colour. She stared down the immortal beast, the serious nature of the situation ruined by how short she was in comparison to her opponent. Artemis wanted to call out a warning, but found even more threads making a rough gag that tasted like blood. Hestia didn't back down at the sheer amount of killing intent rolling off the man in waves, raising her hand and in a move that bordered on insanity, placed her blazing appendage on the side of Kaneki's face. When he stayed immobile, the goddess of the Hunt expected to smell the stench of burning flesh soon enough, but no such smell began to permeate the air. The fire seemed to curl around the edge of his face, almost like an embrace. Still, there was nothing. No cries of pain. No scent of roasted human. Just two odd individuals, standing so close to each other that a slight push would knock one into the other. She briefly wondered what in her uncle's name was going on before Hestia began to speak.
"You've had a rough day, haven't you?" the sentence elicited a delighted chuckle and Kaneki stretched a pale hand to cup the one on his cheek.
"When do I not have a bad day?" Kaneki smiled, talking like the two of them were old friends. Hestia gave a small giggle, before stepping forward and embracing the monster. Ripples of surprise ran through the Olympians, each one sharing a look with those closer to them in order to ensure that they weren't just hallucinating. Artemis felt dread pool in her gut. It appeared that Kaneki Ken had more connections in the godly world than "just Zoe". The man in question reciprocated the hug, and the two of them stayed that way for a moment that appeared to stretch into eternity, breaking apart when the doors to the Throne Room of Olympus creaked open and Zoe Nightshade burst through, eyes wide and panicked. Gaze skipping over the imprisoned forms of the various gods and goddesses(even Artemis, which was another sting), before settling on the duo in the middle of the room. Breaking into a sprint, she dashed towards them, who had turned to meet her with surprise in their faces. Just before she reached them, Zoe jumped, latching on to Kaneki before she could fall(and forcing the man to quickly grip onto her in order to support her weight, another action that made the fires of hatred for him burn brighter in her gut) and burying her face in his chest. She muttered something quietly enough that none of them could hear it despite their enhanced senses, although it made Hestia laugh briefly and caused Kaneki to rest a hand on her head. It appeared that this was either a common occurrence, or the enigma was just unsurprised by anything he encountered. Soon enough, an out-of-breath Apollo burst through the doors, words dying on his lips before he could say a single one. Over Zoe's head, the monster levelled a glare with mismatched eyes, stopping Artemis' brother in his tracks long enough for strings to drag him all the way in and bind him to his throne.
The Olympians. Gods, those that had been worshipped the most in ancient Greece and still managed to survive and thrive in this day and age because of the faith people had in them. Some of the most powerful beings in the world. Taken down by a single monster who had been lurking in the shadows, and the equivalent of silly string. Experimentally, she tugged at a thread and mentally compared the colour of it to that of his kagune. Perhaps this was just another application of his versatile additional limbs? Kaneki clapped twice, Zoe having finally extricated herself from him, gaining their attention.
"Apologies for the little fiasco. I've been rather irritated, and day one hasn't ended just yet. A little bit more, and I'll finally be able to take a nap. So," he snapped his fingers and the strings responded by unravelling just enough for her to tug the gag off her mouth, "what questions do you have for me now? Oh, and, one last thing before you start." the temperature of the room seemed to drop as he transfixed them with a withering glare.
"Don't do anything stupid, I've already put two gods out of commission. We wouldn't want to make that three, am I right?"
And that's the end of that. I have no idea what I'm doing. Leave a review or something. It's refreshing hearing from you all. See ya next time!