Thank you for all the reviews! I have read all of them when I was out. I'll reply to them here:

Rxyford: Shirou really do be speedrunning inflation

SentinalSlice: It would be awkward if someone gets angry and rips it up, though.

VeganoCanibal: Thank you! I had a wonderful time, excluding the 8 hour car rides. Zeus honestly never even crossed my mind. That would screw up the canon prophecy.

Chapter 8: Roadblock

"Are we there yet?" Lisa groaned. They had been sitting in the car for upwards of two hours on I-95 and they were in a forest in the middle of nowhere.

"We're almost to Philadelphia, kid," The taxi driver said. Lisa just heaved a sigh. Looking back on it, Jamestown was a lot farther than she thought.

"We can stop by Philadelphia and get something to eat. If we get there by nightfall, we can stay the night," Shirou said.

"How are you so patient about this?" Lisa groaned. "You're literally a kid."

"A kid who knows how to wait," Shirou snarked back.

"What was that you—" Lisa was cut off when the car started to shake. "What was that?!"

Neither Shirou or the taxi driver had time to respond because the taxi started to rise from the air.

"Get out!" Shirou shouted, shoving his door open. Lisa didn't have to be told twice. She pushed her door open and jumped out. Luckily the long stretch of road was empty so they didn't get run over. They turned in time to see the taxi driver jump out, falling a meter and a half before landing with a grunt. Lisa looked up, and much to her horror, she saw a griffin drop the taxi.

"Gods damn it," She cursed under her breath. "Why is it going after us?"

"Probably because we're the only demigods around," Shirou answered. "It doesn't look like there's anyone for miles."

"You really should have brought your bow," Lisa muttered as the griffin turned around and shrieked.

"Is now really the time?" Shirou asked.

"Yes!" Lisa shouted as she dived to the side, narrowly missing the griffin's claws. She tumbled backwards, but recovered rather quickly. Shirou, on the other hand, was already charging with his sword drawn. "What are you doing?!"

Shirou didn't reply. He slashed at the griffin's side. The monster managed to veer away, but Shirou still left a mark. The griffin screeched and flapped its wings. Shiroul jumped several feet in the air, trying to stab the beast, but it flew out of his range in the nick of time.

Lisa grit her teeth. Why was the kid more aggressive than her? Griffins are powerful monsters, but Shirou just ran in there with no fear.

"Tch," Shirou scoffed, clutching his sword with one hand. The griffin dove at Shirou. He barely managed to dodge out of the way. The impact from the griffin's landing caused the ground around them to shatter.

"What do we do?" Lisa asked. Adrenaline pumped through her body as she unsheathed her sword. A griffin was a very powerful creature, but very simple at the same time. It was extremely strong and fast, but it didn't have many other abilities other than flight. As long as they could outmaneuver it, they should be fine. The thing is… could they do that for that long? They could dodge, but they would have to predict its moves.

"I can handle it," Shirou said.

"What? Are you crazy?" Lisa whirled around to face Shirou.

"Lisa, I'm going to need you to trust me," Shirou said. "We can survive."

"O-okay," Lisa said. Shirou's expression hardened and green veins spread throughout his legs and arms. "What the hell?!"

"It's okay!" Shirou shouted as he dashed forward. He moved faster than any demigod that Lisa has seen. This time, his slash dug deep into the griffin. It shrieked and flew up upwards. Shirou bent his knees and jumped up a dozen feet in the air. With both hands, he plunged his sword in the griffin's skill. Shirou jerked his arm and the griffin let out a weak cry before dissolving into dust.

Lisa looked at Shirou with wide eyes as he sheathed his sword.

"Shirou…" Lisa barely managed to get the words out of her mouth. Shirou turned, golden dust falling all over his body. "What is that?"

"Don't worry," Shirou said as the weird green veins faded away. "Everything's okay."

Shirou could feel Lisa's gaze on him. It's not that he didn't want to explain, but he needed to find a proper way to explain it. He couldn't just tell her he was a reincarnated magus.

"I've had this ability for as long as I could remember," Shirou took a deep breath. "When I came to Camp Half-Blood, I noticed that no one else had these… green veins, so I hid it."

"I… see," Lisa paused. "Is there anything else that they can do?"

"Well…" Shirou paused as he looked at the cab. It was in decent shape and the cab driver was unconscious, but not dead. "I don't know. Maybe I'll learn as time passes."

"Though I can't help but wonder," Lisa rubbed her chin. "With that super strength. Could you perhaps be the son of Heracles?"

"Don't," The glare that Shirou had pierced through Lisa, causing shivers to go up to her spine. "Don't ever ask that question again."

"Fine, fine. I was just asking," Lisa then directed her attention to the taxi herself. "Do you think he would mind if we used that?"

"Can you even drive?" Shirou raised an eyebrow.

"How hard could it be?" Lisa asked.

It turns out, very hard. The first couple hours were fine as there were barely any other cars which gave Lisa the opportunity to get used to driving, but the second they found themselves on a proper highway…

"Lisa, you need to find a place to pull over," Shirou said from the backseat. The unconscious taxi driver was sitting shotgun. Lisa wanted to protest, but she swerved just in time to miss an oncoming car.

"Fine," Lisa grumbled. She pulled over at the nearest exit and pulled over.

"Luckily we've reached civilization," Shirou muttered as he pulled a wad of traced cash and put it in the taxi driver's pocket. "We can take a bus or another cab. We can relax once we get to Philadelphia."

"Sure," Lisa said. The whole driving experience had her rattled, so she was thankful to have Shirou there to ground her. Despite that, Shirou seemed a bit too calm. It was as if he had the whole situation under control.

"Alright, let's go," Shirou threw his backpack over his shoulder. Lisa nodded and they set off. It took about half an hour, but they eventually found another cab. Somehow, Shirou had even more money to pay off the taxi driver.

"Alright, it should only take about an hour to get to Philedalhpia," The driver said. She was a woman in her mid-40s and her tone was much kinder than the first one. "Is there any reason you kids are heading there?"

"We're seeing family," Shirou answered quickly.

"I see," The driver looked like she wanted to say something, but refrained as they started their trip.

As promised, it took about an hour, but by then, the sun was already starting to set.

"Alright, here we are," The taxi driver said. "Where do you want me to drop you off?"

"Just at the nearest hotel," Lisa piped up. She didn't want Shirou to do all the talking.

"Alright…" The lady looked concerned, but exited the highway. After a few minutes of twists and turns, they reached their destinations. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"I promise," Shirou said, handing her another wad of cash. "Thank you for taking us."

"You're welcome," The woman said as the two got out. As they both got on the sidewalk, the taxi drove off.

"Now the fun part," Shirou said, heaving a sigh.

"What fun part?" Lisa tilted her head. Shirou looked at her before looking down at himself.

"Getting checked in."

Thankfully, the people at the front didn't ask too many questions. They received their room without incident and made their way up there as soon as possible.

"Well, that was an eventful first day," Shirou sighed as he sat down on his bed.

"Yeah," Lisa agreed as she fished out a spare change of clothes. "I'm gonna take a shower. If you peek, you're dead."

"Lisa, I'm eight," Shirou said with a bland expression.

"Just covering my bases," Lisa shrugged her shoulders as she stepped into the bathroom. Shirou just closed his eyes and laid back on his bed.

He was still mentally bashed himself for revealing his reinforcement to Lisa. He wanted to slam his head against the wall. There was likely another way to do it, but… he was too hasty. He didn't want to drag out the conflict. Lisa could have gotten hurt. He thought he had curbed his impulse to go to extremes to save a single person, but today proved that wasn't the case.

I guess old habits die hard, Shirou thought to himself. As his old life went on, he learned the hard way that you couldn't save everyone. He still wanted to help people, but he had to fight with his impulses throughout his life.

As he continued to muse on various things, he heard Lisa's footsteps. She must be done.

"Oh Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering," Lisa whispered. "Chiron, Camp Half-Blood."

This caused Shirou to open his eyes. What was Lisa doing?

"Ah, Lisa, it's nice to hear from you," Shirou heard Chiron's voice. "How has the quest been going?"

"It's been going good," Shirou's voice caused Lisa to flinch. Shirou walked over to see that she was looking into a rainbow that had Chiron's face on it. The rainbow came from a celestial bronze nozzle attached to the sink. It seemed to spray the water out in a way that formed a rainbow. "What is this?"

"This is an Iris Message," Chiron informed. "Through offering a drachma into a rainbow, the goddess Iris lets us communicate in a safe manner."

"I see," Shirou said. He remembered Chiron saying that cell phones weren't safe for half-bloods to have.

"So has anything happened?" Chiron said.

"We're currently in Philadelphia," Shirou explained. "We were attacked by a griffin along the way, but we handled it."

"A griffin?" Chiron's eyes widened slightly. "I commend you two for taking down such a powerful beast."

"It was mostly Shirou," Lisa said with a smile. "He did this thing where—"

"Thank you, Chiron," Shirou interrupted her. "After the griffin attack, we managed to make our way here. Nothing too bad has happened yet."

"Good. That's good. Things could have easily gotten worse," Chiron rubbed his chin. "Still, it's very impressive that you managed to defeat a griffin."

"Yeah, that was really scary," Lisa took a shaky breath.

"I bet," Chiron had a sympathetic smile on her face. "I'll leave you to rest. Please do keep in touch, though."

"I'll be sure to do that," Lisa said before turning off the water. As the rainbow stopped, the image of Chiron faded away. "Man, I'm tired."

"We should head to bed, then," Shirou said.

"Don't have to tell me twice," Lisa grumbled as she flopped on her bed. "Shirou, mind kicking the lights?"

"Yeah," Shirou said as he flipped all the lights off. "Night, Lisa."

"Night, Shirou," Lisa said. Shirou smiled as he made his way to his bed, looking forward to a dream full of swords.

Chiron scowled as the image faded away. A griffin… he knew of a couple nests in the forests on the way to Philadelphia, but he didn't expect one to attack. It must have been because they were the only demigods in the area.

What concerned Chiron more was Lisa's statement. Shirou was the one who killed the griffin. Or at least he did most of the work. How could that be? From what he could guess, Shirou and Lisa had similar strength. Sure, Shirou was much more adept in swordplay, but there were a bunch of other factors that made Shirou disadvantaged against a monster like a griffin.

Just what is he? Chiron thought to himself. Whenever he would talk to Mr. D, he would just wave the centaur off. Shaking his head, Chiron made his way out of the big house. He had other things to worry about at the moment.

I am back! Thank you for your patience. If you're wondering why Shirou had to use reinforcement, he was just too weak to take on the griffin without him. Sure, he's freakishly strong for his age, but he's still a child. This quest will continue to force him to reconsider what abilities he has hidden as time goes on. With that being said, please do consider leaving a review! I would love to read and reply to your thoughts. Also please join my Discord! I would love to talk to you all and answer all your questions! I talk a lot about my thought process while writing, so if you're interested in that, do consider joining. The url is discord . gg (forego the spaces) followed by a slash and CpVs7R8KXz. Unfortunately you'll have to type the rest of the url in manually because I'm not allowed to post links. If you want to read chapters as soon as they're finished along with a slew of other benefits, check out my Patron at pat reon dot com slash kfpisnotacult. They've already read up to chapter 13, with chapter 14 coming out tonmorrow. Thank you for reading and I'll catch you on the flipside.