Chapter 9
Couldn't you just ask
An: Just in case you didn't know I currently have a poll for Jason's pairing so feel free to vote.
I don't own PJO or HOO that belongs to Rick Riordian
'Thoughts'
Previously
Hopping in the front seat of my car. "Now for the long drive home. Not." Pushing a small summoning circle on the underside of the steering wheel a portal opened up in front of me and I drove in without any hesitation.
~ Shima POV ~
A half an hour later before I arrived a portal opened up outside to Osaka, Japan. (picture a random shrine sorry for the lack of description ideas). There to greet me was Shizuka my twin sister. Like me she had long silver hair and matching eyes. Basically a female me in a shine maiden's outfit with a seemingly perma-frown instead of a perma-grin like me.
"Hello there brother nice to see you after you took your sweet time getting here." She is also an unrelenting hard ass.
"Love you too sis, have you figured out why you don't have a boyfriend yet?" She put on an embarrassed face lifting up her right hand where a small blue flame came to life.
"Dear brother keep this up and you will never reach nine tails if you keep playing this dangerous game of yours. Now show me your recruits." I nodded fearfully and went over to the car door on Percy's side first. I opened the door and got a head butt to the gut for my trouble. As I hit the ground on my back the two supposed to be unconscious teens hopped out of the car and made a break for the surrounding forest. Shizuka crouched down next to me with a barley noticeable curl on her lips.
" I really like these ones especially if they are able to catch on to the fact you forgot to tie them up when you kidnapped them."
"Shut up and help me catch them." I said as I got off the ground rubbing my stomach. I glared in the direction the two demigods ran before sprinting after them, my sister not far behind me. If I – no, when I catch those demigods again I'll definitely make sure they will never escape.
~ Jason POV ~
'I can't believe that actually worked.' I must have voiced this opinion out loud because Percy immediately turned his head to glare at me as we ran through the woods. I just gave him a guilty grin before my face adopted a serious expression. We had gotten away but we had no idea where we were. when we woke up in the car we had assumed we would still be in a familiar place, but the air here felt … off. Like we had been misplaced, I didn't like these thoughts.
"Jason who the hades was that guy? You fought him first so I'm assuming he at least spoke to you."
I thought hard on the subject with a bitter taste in my mouth. " Well first off he's an asshole who knows way too much about us. Even more since he apparently knows the reason why we were banished by the gods. It might be a lie but it made sense."
Percy looked at me as if I was retelling a chaotic war tale. "What did he say?" He asked. So I told him exactly what Shima said to me. About Olympus and the supposed 'real' reasoning behind our banishment up until the guy's self-proclaimed title that I never heard of until recently.
"I'd hate to agree with him Jason but the gods haven't always been the best of rulers, an old friend of mine, Luke is a good example of that." Percy told me before he got up and looked around. "Now we just go to find where we are and where to go next."
"How about you just come along quietly with us and well tell you?"
We spun around to find the source of the voice when we were surrounded by a wall of blue flames.
"Well no matter." We looked up to find the girl we briefly saw Shima talking to.
"I'm not as merciful as my foolish brother, if you don't come with me I'll make you regret the fact that I was the one who found you first." She said summoning more flames to her hands for emphasis.
"Well shit." Is all we had to say.
~ Percy POV~
"Got any water nearby?" Jason asked slightly hopeful. I tried to sense and use the nearest body of water. "Damn it's too far for me to control it and it's almost as if I'm not being allowed to control it either."
"Tsk, just who are you guys anyway and what do you even want with us anyway Myobu or what ever it is you call yourselves?" Jason demanded.
The fire in her hands went out. "Wait a minute you mean my brother found and took you here without telling you why whatsoever?" She asked disbelievingly.
Jason and me glanced at each other, he shrugged. "Um, yeah that's about it, why?" I asked.
"Oh my Kami thAT DIPSHIT! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON HIM HE IS GOING TO WISH HE WAS NEVER BORN ON THE SAME DAY AS ME!" She raged the fire surrounding us growing in intensity along with her.
"So does that mean you'll let us go or-" I started to say.
"Huh? Oh no you're both still very much coming with me. I'm just going to have to fill you in as we go." She said.
Jason stepped forward, "And if we don't want to go?"
She just stared at us with this deadpan expression. "Then good luck navigating Japan with third degree burns, if you survive that is."
That caught us of guard, how the Hades did we end up- "That would also be my twin's doing, his car has as seal that allows teleportation from any place to the temple. All he had to do was put you in the car. So what will it be boys?"
After another shared discussion slash argument through Jason's and my eyes we were on our way with the silver-haired girl guiding us.
"Shizuka."
"Huh." We both said intelligently. We couldn't see her face but I was sure she rolled her eyes.
" My name is Shizuka, twin sister to that idiot Shima." Shizuka continued to say. "Percy Jackson, now will you tell us why your brother thought kidnapping people who done nothing to them was a good idea?"
"Our intention wasn't to threaten you but to get recruits for our cause."
"And that cause would be what exactly? Name's Jason Grace by the way." He said joining the conversation. The temple was in sight now as we have been walking with Shizuka.
"To rekindle a dying flame we the Myobu are dying out and as unbelievable as it sounds we don't have hundreds of offspring children like the Olympians of the west. Myobu means Celestial fox spirit. We have served the goddess who protects this country for years."
"Then what went wrong?" I asked her as we came to a stop in front of the slightly worn down temple.
"The people forgot about their saviors and lost faith in the gods." Said a male voice that nobody in our party was happy to hear. Shima appeared from inside the forestry and was making his way to us when Shizuka got in his path a ball of fire coming to her hands.
"Dear brother remember when I said if you kept up these shenanigans you would never reach nine tails playing this dangerous game of yours? Well that includes not telling the recruits just WHY WE NEEDED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU USURATONKACHI!" She roared letting the highly dangerous balls of flame fly towards her twin at high speeds while he franticly danced out of harms way trying to calm her down. The scene was hilarious to us so we had no intension of moving to help or escape unless we wanted to be on the receiving end of the blue flame.
"I was going to but the blonde attack me first , not my fault that he has such a short temper!" he shouted back still dodging fire balls. Well that spoiled our good mood.
"Well maybe someone shouldn't have been stalking us like a damn creeper spouting rumors and starting shit!" Jason growled.
"You're just mad cause you lost fly boy." The silver headed male shot back. Needless to say Shima was now dodging fire balls and the occasional lighting bolt when ever the fire failed to do its job. I sighed despite how I would love to see one of these attacks hit their mark I felt we were just wasting time.
~ Jason POV ~
I'm going to kill this guy eventually I'm sure of it and if not me then Shizuka who didn't seem to care that I joined in.
"Jason, Shizuka as much fun as your target practice is I would like to get this day over with all my questions answered about the problem here and back…home, if I can still call it that." Percy said. I stopped my assault but only because I was getting tired, though part of me did agree with him.
"Fine spoil sport and since when were you the voice of reason between us anyway? I want my job back." I said with a grin.
Shizuka huffed but stopped as well, "I guess I'll hold off until Shima does something wrong again." She turned before heading into the temple.
"Don't hold your breath." I said as she passed. Her lips twitched upwards slightly as she went and Percy let out a short bark of laughter before following Shizuka. Shima paused for a second probably debating whether or not to take offense about the comment before walking up to me.
"Thanks for stopping your attack, you would have hit me if Percy hadn't intervened." He said. I frowned setting my wolf's glare on him. "Don't thank me yet, like Percy said we want answers, that and romans do not take losing battles easy. If you give me a reason I'll cut you down quicker than Jupiter's fastest bolt Myobu or not." I let that sink in his head while I caught up with Percy.
"Better now?" he asked. I nodded, "Much better, but I still don't like this, we don't have a plan for if they turn on us."
"Then I guess you'll just have to trust us and not speak as if we are not here in the room with you." Shizuka commented irritably. Percy rubbed the back of his neck and I grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry we just don't have the best history with trusting others, granted Percy more so than me you get the point." I said.
We went into a small room filled with place matts for a floor and statue of a beautiful woman with Nine foxes surrounding her. Pillows lined the sides of the room and there were two in front of the statue. "You want answers ask the one who gave the order to find you in the first place. Sit in front of Inari-sama." Shima told us then sat down on the pillow closest to the statue's right with Shizuka sitting opposite of him. We took the advice sitting down on the provided pillows. As I assumed just like Terminus the statue came to life.
"Hello children of Olympus I'm glad you came for a moment I believed Shima's brashness as good a warrior as he is would have scared you off. We are low on numbers as it is." She said.
"With all do respect Lady Inari we are strangers and we have not agreed to help you yet. Only to hear you out it depends on what you say next that'll decide whether or not we find you worth helping." Percy immediately replied. Both Shima and Shizuka looked like they were going to attack and I slowly reached in my pocket for my coin.
The statue's head turned to face Percy before speaking again. "Child tell me your name and parentage."
"My name is Percy Jackson, my mother is Sally Jackson and my father's name is Poseidon god of the sea."
"That would explain your lack of respect though I will not punish you for it." The goddess replied.
"respect is earned from me not handed out like free samples at a store. Many gods have learned this the hard way from me you are not the first and surely not the last." He spoke evenly.
"you speak confidently but can your partner say the same? What is your status?" Lady Inari questioned now turning to me.
" I am Jason Grace, I never knew my mother and my father is Jupiter god of the sky. I agree with my friend not everyone is worth showing a great amount of respect to until proven otherwise."
"Hmm, you truly are two of the most confusing demigods I've ever met. You either have a death wish or you are simply too stubborn to care." Her lips quirked up in a smile the foxes around her giving their own foxy grins. "Very interesting~. I will get straight to the point if you do not help us the Nogitsune or Wild fox will use the opportunity to strike while we are low in numbers and overrun this country using the deal they acquired with the primordial you call Gaea or Terra for romans. If they take over this country and use it against the gods in the west it would undoubtedly cause-"
"World war three, I understand what you are saying but you'll have to find someone else to fight your war. One was enough for me and I want no part in a possibly new one… Never again." Percy interrupted muttering the last part to himself grimly. A familiar haunted look in his eyes. The same in mine I suppose. I may not have lost someone as close to me as personally as Percy during the Titan war, but war was scarring all the same it didn't care who you were or where you came from. As long as you shed blood, sweat and tears by the time it was over.
Inari nodded her own grim look upon her face. " It is still saddening to see eyes so worn in the body of one so young and I understand your outlook on the matter but I will tell you this now. The moment the Olympian gods banished you was like putting up a for sale sign on a building. Any pantheon could try to claim you as one of their own whether it is by your choice or not. Many were going to do just that but we got to you first. If you deny us you'd be telling the other pantheons that the only way to get you is by a show of force.
"So that's it then, you're going to tell us we have the choice then change your mind and say 'oh wait it isn't' ignoring any free will we have whatsoever? You can't be serious this just all wrong you have to know this?" I asked.
"I know what is necessary for this country and I will do what it takes to protect it. You do have a choice just a limited one, so what will you do? Go back your origins and play toy soldiers for them again? Or choose to start over with a new life that will be filled with true comrades who will stand by you if you will do the same for them? The Olympians may have no qualms making their children pay for their sins but we of the Shinto pantheon do."
Then goddess did something strange. She got off her pedestal and sat before us holding out her hands to us. "Place your hands in mine and you will see how grave our situation is."
Shizuka spoke up for the first time in the conversation. "Inari-sama you can't that could end badly putting this much trust in those that respect you so little."
"I agree with Shizuka please reconsider you have nothing to prove to them." Shima added.
"But you see Shima, Shizuka, that is where you are wrong," All occupants in the room were taken aback by this. "If they are to trust and respect me I will give them no reason to think I will not do the same. That and the whole time they've been my presence they have called me 'Lady Inari' meaning they see my human form and not the spider that shows itself to the wicked they can be trusted I assure you." She turned her attention back to us. "Well?"
We both reached out with our hands and before we could change our minds she grabbed them in a gentle but firm grip. As my vision began to fade the goddess said one last thing.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this, but maybe now you'll truly understand my fears banished princes."
What we saw next I won't dare speak aloud. Every pantheon has their end of the world story but none of those who follow them is prepared for the true weight of the words they carry.
~Shizuka POV~
I fought to keep my hands from flying up to cover my ears and to not let the tears in my eyes fall. Screaming frozen in place by Lady Inari's grip but screaming horribly with eyes wide staring at her stony face. Their free hands covering their ears to block out something only they could hear but to no avail. I hadn't wanted this to happen for this exact reason not because of trust but for the sake of sanity. Not everyone was build to take such carnage and destruction like most gods or goddesses, that's why the gods and goddesses of insanity existed. To take what others couldn't stand without nightmares to last for generations. But I understand why Lady Inari thought such torture of the mind was necessary.
The process ended and my mistress let go of the two demigods who fell back gasping for air as if they had been drowning the entire time hands immediately going over their hearts in symbols to ward off evil.
Lady Inari spoke again after a few moments of silence. "So what will it be Percy and Jason, can you really just sit back now knowing what is to come?"
And with that the dam broke and tears spilled from their eyes.
"I … we …(sob) agree to- no swear serve you… Lady Inari f-for as long as we are n-needed…" they complied.
It was the perfect motivator.
KN:Now who was expecting that? because sure as hell wasn't. This was not the original plan but things change and so has this story's summary and polls if you hadn't seen it all ready. I really didnt plan for an over three thousand word chapter but here you go so review please and show the characters you love them.
Kami - God
usuratonkatchi - freaking idiot or total moron