Chapter 6

The next morning Shinichi awoke when he heard sounds from the kitchen. He turns his head to look at Percy where he continued to snore and drool on his pillow. Shinichi slipped out of the sheets and quietly walked towards the kitchen to meet who he assumes to be Ms. Jackson.

"Good morning." Shinichi quietly announced. With a jump, Ms. Jackson turns around startled, and presses a hand against her chest. "Oh good morning, you must be the friend Nico was worried about. I'm Sally Jackson though you can just call me Sally."

"I'm Shinichi, it's nice to meet you. Do you need any help?"

"Thank you for your offer but I'll be fine. Why don't you have a seat?"

Shinichi climbs on the chair and is surprised by the plate that is served.

"Blue Pancakes?"

With a smile, Ms. Sally, states "My son is fond of the color blue."


It was a few minutes later that the smell of pancakes summoned Percy to the kitchen. He automatically grabbed a plate, and mumbled 'Thanks mom'. His mom kissed the top of his head and mention heading off to work. Shinichi silently sipped his milk wondering when Percy will remember his guest. After the fourth bite, Shinichi watched as Percy coughed and hacked a piece of pancake stuck in his throat.

"Hades! You should say something!" Percy glared at Shinichi who was watching him calmly. A red flush was on his cheeks and he grabbed the glass to his left to soothe his throat.

"I was curious how much of a morning person you were. Also, I was told not to."

A look of confusion came across Percy's face, he turned quickly in his seat to see Nico standing behind him shaking with laughter. Percy scowled, "Haha Nico, you shouldn't be teaching Shinchi to scare people"

A child's voice piped up, "It's Shinichi, not Shinchi" Percy turned back to look at Shinichi. A smirk was on his small face and he jumped down to walk over to Nico.

Percy once again flushed in embarrassment, "Ah-, um sorry-"

"- Don't worry about it" Shinichi gesture for Nico to take a seat and went to the living room where the tv news was soon heard.

Percy was left alone with Nico who was doing his best to eat everything on his plate.

"You can slow down you know?"

"Can't. Barely enough energy to be awake, after I eat I'm going to pass out again."

Percy sighed, he finished what remained and wonder if he should contact Annabeth about everything that happened.

Nico stopped his train of thought with the single phrase, "Can you take Shinichi shopping while I sleep? I know he'll need a few things."

Percy looked at Nico "aren't you taking him to camp-half-blood" Nico's face darkened, Percy, winced.

"Alright, I'll do it, but don't think I'm going to be okay with you traveling around with a six-year-old. Also, go sleep on my bed instead of the couch" Nico nodded and dragged his body out of the kitchen and instead passed out on the couch.

"Well, he listened to you huh?" Percy looked down at Shinichi and shrugged. "So I'm supposed to take you shopping?"

Shinichi replied with a nod. Percy grabbed his daily necessities: wallet, keys, and riptide. Shinichi grabbed his wallet from his bag and went to the door to put on his shoes. Percy then walked with Shinichi to the closest general store. He followed him and watched him grab items like a toothbrush, comb, gauze, hair coloring kit, and a couple more suspicious items. It was when they were near the checkout counter that a voice yelled out, "Freeze! get down on the ground and no one will get hurt!"

Percy did a quick glance, hand already around riptide only to see it was two mortal robbers. Riptide could not help, 'damn it' Percy mutter under his breath. Give him a monster to slay but not a guy with a gun. He moved his arm to grab Shinichi only to see that the kid was crawling away from him.

'Psst! - get back here!'

"You! I told you to get on the ground, didn't I? DO you want to die?!" The masked man pointed his gun towards Percy. Percy shook his head and kneeled on the ground. He grits his teeth in frustration, 'gods can this day get any worse?!'

"You Asian brat!" The other robber spotted Shinichi and grabbed his arm, "You're going to be our ticket outa here!"

"Shinichi!" Percy stood back up ready to call on his powers to set off the sprinkler alarm.

"You again, I told you-" The man then collapsed on the floor. Percy in shock watched as the other robber ran to his fallen comrade only to get knocked out with a kick when he bent down to check on his friend. Shinichi put his foot down and huffed in annoyance. Sirens wailed outside and Shinichi walked back to Percy to grabbed his shopping basket and knelt down to the female worker on the floor saying, "I would like to check these items out please."

"N-no charge." She whispered out.

Shinichi shook his head and left the correct amount on the counter. He whispered out a "Thank you" and proceeded to put his items in the bag which removed Percy out of his stupor. Percy grabbed the back of his shirt stopping Shinichi from leaving the back-store exit. "What was that!" Shinichi blinked at Percy and removed his hold on him. "That was an attempted robbery. But I don't want to stick around any longer or it will be forever until we leave the police station. Two, technacially I'm here illegally thanks to Nico…so yeah, let's go." Shinichi pulls on Percy's hand as they slip past the customers still cowering in fright.

The door clicked open and Shinichi walks in first back into the apartment "We're back~"

Percy looks down at Shinichi in disbelief.

Nico rubs is eyes and he soon became alert once he saw the drain look on Percy's face.

"What happened?! Did you get attacked by monsters?!"

"Depends on your definition of a monster."

Nico looks at Percy with worry and confusion. Shinichi returns back to his bag where he began to transfer the items from the store to his bag. "It wasn't a monster just some robbers but everything was taken care of. Police arrived and everything, we weren't in any danger."

This statement was too much for poor Percy, "Not dangerous?! They had guns! And-and how were you able to take them down earlier? I didn't see anything!"

Nico looks curiously at Shinichi who just shrugged. "It's not my first time taken as a hostage"

Percy looked ready to argue, but Nico quickly interrupted. "Did you get everything?"

Shinichi nodded. Percy pulled Nico away and dragged him to the kitchen. "You both need to come to camp."

"No."

"Nico! It's too dangerous! "

"Oh? And camp isn't?!"

"It's not easy to be out here when you are taking care of someone!"

"Me and Shinichi can handle it"

"You're both too young-"

"I'm older than you-"

"The casino doesn't count!"

Nico scowls and glares at the floor in silence. He huffs a sigh, "Fine."

Percy lets out a breath of relief.

"Thank you, I know camp risk exposure about you but think of Shinichi"

Nico gives a single nod and walks away.

It was only a few hours later that Nico grabbed Shinichi in front of Percy and yells out as they both disappear in the shadows, "Not sorry, but we are not going to camp!"

...

Stepping out of the shadows Nico lets out a huge sigh."Dramatic much?" Shinichi raised an eyebrow. Right behind him was Percy's home. Nico shrugged but replied "I just wanted him to believe that we left to an unknown place. I actually can't really use my powers right now." Shinichi follows Nico down the steps and trails along behind him down the sidewalk. Shinichi turns to Nico and asks "So now what?"

Nico looks down at Shinichi. "Well to tell you the truth things over here things aren't as safe as it was back in Japan. There's a different type of danger."

"Like what?"

"Well, there is a war that is happening-"

Shinichi's head snapped up. "A WAR?"

"Yeah, the people back at camp are calling it the Second Titan's War."

"And I thought it would be safer in America," Shinichi muttered.

"Ha, no. It's one of the reasons why I've been avoiding the camp Percy wants me to go to but I don't think it's safe."

"Why does Percy keep pestering you about it then?"

"It's supposed to be a safe haven for demigods to protect us from outside dangers"

"Percy mention to me last night that there are monsters?"

"Yup, I think every mythological Greek monster told exists."

"How about other mythology?" Nico stops in his tracks.

Shinichi looks up to Nico and repeats, "Are there other mythologies as well?" Nico blinks and shudders.

"No, Can you imagine if all the mythologies existed? I watched the orientation video and they stated that the Greek gods have only changed forms throughout the times in different countries but it is still them just with different names." Nico continues walking and Shinichi furrows his brows.

"Really? It's the same group of beings?"

Nico smiles, "Yeah, it was a disappointment to me too when I first learned it. I used to be a huge fan of the game Mythomagic and thought I could actually meet the myths but nope, it's the same group of gods just a different appearance. "

"I can image that meeting the chimera wasn't as exciting as playing with it in a game."

"Yeah, it's annoying that they don't stay dead."

"They don't stay dead?"

Nico sighs out, "no they don't ".

Shinichi turns to Nico and asks, "What if we find a way to keep the monsters dead for good?"

"It's impossible"

Disbelief appeared on Shinichi's face "No, I don't agree, there must be some law or something that they must abide by. Chaos cannot exist without order. There has to be a counterbalance to monsters."

"Well, the gods are forbidden from interfering with the mortal world, but they still break that ancient law and have demigods." Nico shrugs to himself. "The gods and especially the Olympians do not suffer punishment for their actions. If they do it is usually a slap on the wrist. The people who pay for the mistakes of the gods are their children. Also-"

A high pitch scream of horror interrupted Nico. Before Nico knew it Shinichi was gone. Nico blinked once and look around to see where he went only to see a crowd beginning to gather at the end of the street. A good 150 meters from where Nico is standing he can see a small figure with bright red shoes.

"I thought he was exaggerating about death following him," Nico muttered as he jogged to Shinichi and heard him tsk.

"What is it?"

"The person committed a successful suicide."

Nico looked at the scene. "Um, his head is completely missing how do you know it's not murder? "

"The blood splatter and the crashed car on the other side of the street. He tied a rope around his neck and attached it to that car where he was successfully decapitated. -sigh- nothing here for me to do."

Nico looks at Shinichi incredulously. Then laughed out loud.

"I think you are the only one who been around the dead more than me! And to be so cool about it!"

Shinichi winced, "Ah, that was cold-hearted wasn't it?"

Nico waves a hand of dismissal, "To anyone else maybe, to me nope."

Nico then turned to Shinichi, "So are you sure you don't have another curse that makes the dead follow you or maybe just trouble?"

Shinichi groans, "I wish I can say I don't but you're the expert here, I can no longer say the supernatural is a hoax."

Nico gave a small grin. "Come' on, if you are not needed here I have some things to tell you and I think you can help me Mr. Detective."

Shinichi's face became curious and his eyes sharpened as he listened to what Nico wanted.

"I need your help investigating Luke Castellan."


And that's it for now. I figured it's been long enough.