Chapter 1: A Finger Lickin' Good Trip To The Museum
I tap my foot and check my watch again. It says 12:00 and I am supposed to be here at 12:00. Did I get the time wrong? Wait, is it the right day? Sally is going to kill me if I showed up a day late! Wait, the boss is going to kill me extra if I ask for even more time off just because I got the days mixed up!
My worries are erased when I hear a voice cry out, "Yuji!" Shortly following the shout, a small missile comes flying out of nowhere and crashes into my chest. I almost topple over before I grab onto my new passenger and start spinning in a circle to the sound of giggles.
"Is that my little Penelope?" I ask, trying to sound shocked and surprised. "It can't be. My little sister is a lot littler than you, little lady."
She just hugs onto me extra tight. "I missed you at school!" she exclaims. "But we can hang out all day!"
"You bet, midget," I say, reaching a hand up to ruffle her hair in the way that she always enjoys. I take in the sight of my little sister as she nuzzles into my red hoodie. She was dressed in her usual school uniform of a white shirt, blue blazer, and a blue skirt. She had grown a little from the last time I saw her before the spring semester started. Her hair was definitely a bit longer and she was inching away from the cute of being a kid to the cute of a girl who hadn't fully progressed to gorgeous. Just thinking about the boys chasing after her once they learned to appreciate the beauty of her glittering green eyes, her lush black hair, or her sweet comforting smile made me feel a little twitchy for a firearm. Instead of worrying about that, I just focused on my adorable little sister who was looking up at me with such loving eyes.
"Where's the rest of your class?" I ask, looking around and not seeing any other students from her school.
"I ditched them," she admits with a smile while I just sigh in acceptance. "I saw you when we were pulling up. I wasn't going to wait around for a bunch of slowpokes to keep me from my favorite big brother!"
"I am your only brother, big or otherwise," I say.
"Still counts!" she replies.
I roll my eyes with a chuckle before I transition Penelope from my front to my back so I am carrying her in a piggy back ride. "Let's get you back to your class before they send out an Amber Alert and I get tackled by the NYPD," I tell her.
"Onward!" she calls out before grabbing onto the hood of my hoodie and using it like the reins of a horse. "Hi-ho, Silver!"
"Do you even get that reference?" I ask. I truly doubt she has even heard the name Lone Ranger.
"Nope," she says. "Giddy up!"
I acquiesce and start jogging over to the school bus I can finally make out through the crowd of people. Penny cheers from my back as she enjoys the ride.
I walk up to the wheelchair-bound teacher instructing the students to organize into their groups by the bus. "I think you lost a kid," I say with a wave. "I am Yuji, Penny's big brother."
"Ah, I was worried where Ms. Jackson slipped off to in such a rush," the man says with a chuckle. He was dressed in a light green sweater and a tweed jacket with patches on the elbows to give a professorly vibe to him. His graying brown hair was cut to a shaggy length below his jaw which was covered in a trim beard. He had the knowing twinkle in his eye of a favorite teacher. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Yuji. I am Mr. Brunner, Ms. Jackson's teacher. I cannot tell you how often I have heard about you from your younger sister."
"Oh, really?" I ask, looking back at Penelope. "You really talk about me at school?"
"I don't talk about you that much," Penny mutters, trying to hide her blushing cheeks in my hoodie.
"It's great to know you still think about me when you are gone for so long," I say which just causes her to bury her face deeper into the fabric. I turn back to Mr. Brunner with a grin. "Do you mind if I tag along for the day? Parents were supposed to be able to show up, but Penny's mom couldn't make it and sent me instead."
"Of course," Mr. Brunner responds. "Who else would I tell embarrassing stories about Ms. Jackson to? There have been quite a few that have occurred this school year."
"Noooooo!" Penny cries out in horror as Mr. Brunner and I laugh.
--
The museum trip was a lot of fun as I let Penelope tell me all about the Greek mythology stuff in the featured exhibit that the class had come to see. I could tell that she was really enjoying herself despite one of the other teacher chaperones keeping an eagle eye on her. Knowing how mischievous Penelope can be, I can't really hold it against her.
We only take a break when it is time for lunch in a small restaurant in the museum and enjoy some of the pre-made sandwiches from the school. I even met Grover, Penelope's nerdy friend. The only thing that ruined the peace of the day was when a red headed girl dumped some of her food on Grover's head before giving Penny a look and walking away.
Penny was ready to get back at the girl, apparently her name was Nancy, but I stopped her and got her to tell me what was going on. From what she told me, the girl was a bully who would target her and Grover a lot hoping to get a reaction. After thinking for a second and noticing Nancy looking over at us every few seconds, I finally connect the dots.
"All right," I tell Penny. "I have the perfect way to get back at Nancy. You just need to follow everything that I tell you. If it works properly, she will never hassle you guys again."
"Whoa," Penny says, stars in her eyes. "What is it? Some kind of super move? An ultimate prank she will never recover from?"
"Even better," I reply. I whisper it into her ear and her amazed tone is completely gone afterwards.
"Really?" she asks, looking at me like she doesn't really believe that I am telling the truth. Her disbelief was like a dagger to the heart, but I push it down to assure her that it is going to work.
"I understand where you are coming from," I admit. "However, if this doesn't work like I promised, I will make you blueberry pancakes all summer once you are back from school in a couple weeks."
"Deal!" she says before she walked over towards Nancy.
As I watched her going on, Mr. Brunner wheeled over next to me. "I am glad you were able to talk her down," he says. "She can have a temper sometimes but I am glad you were able to talk her down so that she could restrain herself and choose a kinder course of action."
"Of course," I say. "There is no point to blowing things out of proportion overly a silly squabble between kids. The best solution is always a peaceful one."
We were distracted from talking more when all the kids lost their shit from Penny kissing Nancy on the cheek before skipping back over to the two of us. "You were right!" Penny says. "It worked just like you said! I told her that I knew she had a crush on me and that I thought she was cute too. Then, I just kissed her on the cheek." She waves back at Nancy who is currently burying her blushing face into her hands and ignoring her friends while they are trying to ask her about what just happened.
Mr. Brunner just looks at me with a quirked eyebrow. "That wasn't what I had in mind when I said a kinder course of action," he says.
"What are you talking about?" I ask. "I was just helping Nancy express her feelings. Kids are always really bad with getting their message across. If I didn't do something, Penny would have thought that Nancy really didn't like her. Now, the two of them can be friends."
Mr. Brunner just sighs and rubs his face with his hand. "I guess you are not wrong," he admits. "But could you please make sure to avoid any further PDA while on a school trip, Ms. Jackson?"
"Got it!" Penny says, not really getting what he is asking but giving a thumbs up nonetheless.
Mr. Brunner just rolls away with a slight chuckle and a smile on his lips as he goes to check on some of the other students.
I was about to get back to my roast beef sandwich when I feel a hand on my shoulder. I turn around to see that it is Ms. Dodds, the math teacher who was chaperoning along with Mr. Brunner and keeping an extra eye on Penelope. "May I have a word with you, Mr. Jackson?" she asks, a smile on her face but menace underneath.
"Sure," I say before turning to Penny. "Hey, finish up eating with Grover and I will be back before lunch is done."
"Okay," Penny says, eating her sandwich again. Grover on the other hand is just confusedly staring off into space since Penny kissed Nancy. I think that it broke his brain to see his best friend kissing their bully.
I follow Ms. Dodds as she leads me away from the eating area to a more secluded space. "Sorry if there was some confusion, but my last name is Itadori, not Jackson," I inform her. "I am her stepbrother, so I have my mother's last name."
"Well then, Mr. Itadori," she says, before she turns back to me. I idly notice that we are in an empty corridor of the museum. "Can I ask why you instructed your student to break school policy in relation to public displays of affection?"
"I didn't really know that there is a rule against it," I explain. "Plus, I didn't want that misunderstanding to keep going for who knows how many years."
"So, I guess you are just another delinquent, just like your sister," she says.
"Hey, I'm not a delinquent!" I respond. I am not even dressed like a delinquent. Even if the leather jacket over my hoodie might lean that way, she is wearing one too!
"Are you sure about that?" she asks her voice dropping to a growl as she gets closer and in my face. Despite how angry she is, I can't help but admire how pretty she is. Her long black hair pouring over her shoulders. Her bewitching dark eyes that pull you in. Her beautiful features even more so since they are infused with passionate anger. Her form-hugging black dress hugging her plentiful curves and pairing well with her leather jacket to give her a slight rebellious look. I wish I had a sexy teacher in her twenties like Ms. Dodds back when I was in school.
"You should back off," I tell her as she pushes me against a wall. "I don't think you are going to like here this is headed."
"Make me," she replies with a smirk, her eyes condescending as they seem to believe that I could never be a threat.
I promptly pull her in a spin us around, pinning her against the wall with my hand next to her head in a wall bang maneuver. "You going to back off now?" I ask.
"No," she replies before wrapping her arms around me and pulling me into a kiss. Since I am typically someone who just rolls with what happens, I just go along with it and kiss her back. It totally doesn't have anything to do with the idea of living out a teacher fantasy from my high school days. Nope, not this guy. I was just over here, virtuously making out with my little sister's math teacher. Nothing but pure hearted stuff happening here.
I lift her up and let her wrap her legs around my waist while I hold her by the thighs. We continue tasting each other's lips as I run my hands along the supple skin of her thighs and she runs her fingers through my hair. The warmth of her skin was delightful as we indulge in one another.
She pulls out of the kiss to get a breather for a moment while I kiss along her jaw before placing a couple down the side of her neck. She moans from my actions as I nibble on her neck. "Mr. Itadori," she says breathily. "This is against the rules too."
"It is?" I ask, sliding one of my hands higher up her leg to caress the swell of her ass. "Which one? Is it against kissing? Or maybe feeling up a teacher's ass?" I follow up the question by squeezing the firm globe in my grasp to the melodious sound of Ms. Dodds moaning again.
"We can't," she says. "It goes against my job."
"Then why are you grinding against me?" I ask as she is rubbing herself against me as we kiss.
"I, don't, know," she replies, her words becoming harder to string together as her lust slowly builds up more.
I was about to say something else when I hear a voice calling out, "Big bro? Yuji? Where are you? Ms. Dodds?"
"Shit!" I mutter setting Ms. Dodds back on her feet as I realize Penny is close to finding us. Ms. Dodds and I hurriedly fix our clothing and adjust our hair to appear normal right before Penny turns the corner to see us.
"So, I better see the both of you on your best behavior for the rest of the trip," Ms. Dodds says.
"Of course, Ms. Dodds," I say, nodding my head a little more than I probably should be. "I will definitely take what you said to heart. Oh, Penny! Me and Ms. Dodds were just finishing up a talk. Sorry it was taking so long."
"I should be getting back," Ms. Dodds says, leaving quickly while trying to avoid making eye contact with the little sister of the guy she was just making out with.
"Yeah, she's right," I say. "We should be getting back to."
"What were you two doing here?" Penny asks, her voice suspicious as she levels the most judgmental eyes I have ever seen at me.
"We were just talking," I say. "She wanted to talk about how I shouldn't be telling you to kiss people during school and everything. Haha..."
"Was that all you were talking about?" she asks, her gaze somehow more judgmental than before.
"Of course," I say. "What else would we be doing?"
"Okay!" Penny says before doing a complete 180 and turning back to normal so fast I got emotional whiplash. "Let's go! We still haven't seen the last part of the exhibit yet!"
"Well, we can't go until we see that," I say, following her and thanking baby Jesus once more for my little sister's innocence.
--
"And here we have the centerpiece of the exhibit, the Casket of Kronos, an ancient coffin said to contain part of the Titan of Time himself," the tour guide informs us. "While you might think it is more than a little far-fetched, the casket has a long history of being the object of worship by many cults in Greece and around the world."
"That's crazy," Penny says. "So, a piece of a god is supposed to be in there?"
"Close, Ms. Jackson," Mr. Brunner says. "A Titan. They were the race who ruled before the gods. Kronos, the king of the Titans, was the father of the original six gods who would one day become the Olympians."
"He wasn't nice, right?" Penny asks.
"No, he was no," Mr. Brunner says. "He was a mean old Titan who became king after killing Ouranos, the Primordial of the sky. When he saw that his children would have the power to surpass him, he gobbled them up."
"Didn't Zeus beat him in the end though, and free his siblings?" Penny questions, her eyes focused on the box and the worn engravings in the dark metal.
"He did," Mr. Brunner agrees. "After the war with the Titans, the gods did the same thing that Kronos did to his own father. They chopped him up and scattered the pieces so that he could never come back together."
"He won't, right?" Penny asks. "He won't come back and attack everyone?"
"Of course not, Penny," I tell her, ruffling her hair. "Don't you worry your little midget head about it. There is no way he could come back."
"Hey, I'm not a midget!" Penny says, pouting a little. Mr. Brunner and I just chuckle at her reaction. "I am going to be taller than you one day, just you see!"
"Penny, I'm taller than Sally," I tell her with a grin. "Unless your dad turns out to be a NBA player, I don't think you are going to get that big."
Whatever she was about to say is forever lost because a massive explosion rocks the museum right at that moment. The lights flicker and die as the power fluctuates from broken wiring. Sections of the ceiling start to fall, shattering display cases and hitting random visitors. I shield Penny from a piece of rubble that crashes nearby and sent a spray of broken glass at us. A small piece cuts my forehead above my eye and causes blood to start pouring into my eye. I just ignore it and watch out for anything else.
The people had completely lost their sense of reason. They were pushing and shoving with no regard for anyone other than themselves as people began to be pushed over and trampled in the chaos. I pull Penny close against me so that I can protect her from the people around us. However, we are separated when another explosion in the room itself sends us flying apart. I lose track of Penny when I get thrown through a display case and into a stone statue.
The blow leaves my head spinning. Luckily, I think I absorbed most of the explosion with my body, so Penny shouldn't be too injured. My vision was swimming since it seemed like there were giants suddenly in the room of the museum. Their shapes were blurry as the moved across my field of view.
"Where is it?!" a gravelly voice shouted, followed by the sound of metal screeching before something heavy is thrown through stone. "We were told to retrieve it. Now, where is it?"
"The ambient energy contained in the box has already leaked out throughout the musssssseum," a voice hissed. "The hounds cannot sense if it is still in this room or not."
"What should we do?" another one says. "If it escapes us and someone tries to eat it, there will be nothing to save us from eternal suffering for our failure."
"We search the room," the first says. "There should be none who could understand its importance, so it is doubtful it was removed. Find it, now!"
"What can we do with the humans?" a new voice inquires. "Can we take a little fun in our search?"
"If you waste all of your time filling your gut and we fail, I will be sure to slaughter you before they can," the first voice replies.
"Good, so I can enjoy myself," it says before the sound of screaming fills the air. Ripping and tearing is heard along with the crunch of bones and the splashing of blood as someone is violently killed. My vision clears enough to see what can only be described as a monster in front of me. A single bloodshot eye rests in the middle of a grotesque face. It stood nine feet tall and was covered in bulging muscle. It's yellow teeth were stained with viscera as it chewed its meal. The indicator of what it used to be was the severed arm that he proceeded to take bites out of.
Numerous other creatures roamed the exhibition area. An even larger giant tossed aside pieces of the exhibition as it searched the area. Massive dogs with fur as black as night and glowing red eyes prowled the area, sniffing whatever they came across. There were a couple things that looked like reptilian woman with snake tails instead of legs that rooted through the chaotic remnants of the museum displays. Dozens of people lay on the ground, either incapacitated or dead.
I am too distracted to focus when I see the one-eyed thing pull Penny up out of a pile of bodies. "Oh, look," it says, it's disgusting mouth twisting into a sick grin. "A tasty little treat buried amongst all of the junk. You smell so delicious. It would be such a waste to not enjoy you while I can."
I try to crawl forward, but I can barely move at all from the abject agony my body is in. The damage I took must have been a lot more than I thought. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't make it very far. I was going to fail Penny. I could do nothing but clench my fist in impotent rage. Except, there was something in my grasp.
I look down to see that it is a dedicated finger. I try to understand where it came from until I connect the dots. The Casket of Kronos. A piece of a Titan. The thing they were searching for. It's this.
Eat it.
It was almost as if a voice whispered into my mind. I looked down at the finger and remembered that the things were worried about something eating the finger. Would it be bad if somebody did?
Power of a Titan. All you need to do is eat.
It's a piece of a Titan. They were some of the fiercest beings in mythology besides the gods. Even a piece of one should be stronger than some monsters.
Strong enough to protect Penny. All that matters is Penny.
I need to save Penny. This is a terrible idea, but there is a reason it wants me to eat it. If this has even the slightest chance of helping Penny, I have to do it.
Just eat. Eat and you shall be stronger than any monster. Strong enough to protect what you cherish.
Fuck it. You only live once. I shove the finger into my mouth and swallow the disgusting thing. Right afterwards, everything goes black.
--
The monsters searching the museum felt the equivalent of an explosion of divine energy from part of the destroyed room. The concentrated essence like staring at the sun instead of the dim light of the residual energy that had been filling the room before.
The cyclops that had been about to indulge in another human dropped them to the side after realizing that something very bad just happened. The hellhounds whimpered in fear at the aura of death while the dracaena hissed for the same reason. The Laistrygonian giant and the human demigod working with them both turn and understand that something had activated the fragment that they were tasked to retrieve.
The source of the energy was a young man with pink hair, brown eyes, and around nineteen years old. He was dressed in a red hoodie, a leather jacket, jeans, and a pair of sneakers. He had been slightly cut up, but that didn't seem to make a difference to him. He just lifted himself off the ground and began to stretch out his joints.
His hair turned darker as the color black slowly overtook the light pink that it originally was. His eyes shifted from brown to luminous gold as his gaze traveled over each of the monsters there.
"Hmmph," he said before he focused his attention on himself. "This body is more damaged than I expected. Oh, well. I guess that I should probably fix it up." Red light trickled out of the wounds as they stitched themselves back together. "All better."
He turns and looks back at assorted monsters before asking, "What are you all doing here?"
One of the dracaena tried to slither away in fright, but he flicked his hand and her head fell off of her shoulders before she crumbled into dust.
"I prefer it when someone answers me instead of running away," the man said. "Now, do I need to ask again?"
"My lord," the demigod says, dropping to his knee. "We came in the hopes of retrieving you from the Casket."
"So, why did you fail in your task so grievously?" he asks.
"My lord?" the demigod replies.
"If it were not for me, then you would not have retrieved me in time before the trifling gods attempted to intervene," the man says. "Why would I need such ineffective forces in my army?"
"My lord?" the demigod says before collapsing into a heap of chunks after being hit with an invisible attack.
"Pathetic," the man said. "My followers truly are weak if this is the best they can muster."
"Kill the vessel!" the giant shouts before pulling a knife from his belt and charging forward. "We can retrieve the finger from his corpse!"
The other monsters are rallied by his cry, but they barely make it a step forward before they are all promptly sliced into shreds before disappearing into dust.
"At least they die easily enough," the man says. He turns over to where the girl his vessel was focused on laid after being discarded by the cyclops. Walking over, he looks at her closely before grinning in realization. "Oh, this is better than I could have imagined. A daughter of Poseidon ripe for the killing? This is almost too easy."
The girl opens her eyes to see the man looking down at her from above. "Yuji?" she asks. However, once her vision clears, she sees the golden eyes and black hair. "You aren't Yuji."
"No, I'm not," the man admits. "However, that won't matter in a moment." He holds up a hand and is about to flick it to slice her into pieces when he feels strange. He tries to push it down, but it is as though he was being suppressed by his vessel. "Bye-bye, little Penelope Jackson," he tells her. "I'll be back real soon."
With that parting message, the man's eyes turn back to brown and his hair fades from black to pink. He looks at the girl sitting in front of him with a scared look in her eyes
"Is that you, Yuji?" she asks, afraid that he is still someone different.
"It's me, midget," he tells her before she shoots into his arms and begins to cry into his chest. The rest of the museum visitors begin to wake up slowly as the sound of emergency vehicles and the police start to fill the air.
Yuji just holds his little sister and tries to push down the memories of when he lost control of his body and killed the guy along with the monsters. Part of him wonders if he made the right choice with his devil's deal by eating the finger. However, looking at his little sister in his arms, safe and sound, he didn't particularly care. As long as he protected her, he will pay whatever cost he has to.
--
Author's Note:
There we go with the first chapter of another new story. I did a double feature release with this and My Hero Castlevania because I wanted to give those reading my stories a little more confidence that I am still writing and planning to do updates to my other stories. I am currently putting the finishing touches onto chapters for Seraph Restart and Son of Saint Nick, so stay on the lookout for those.
Like always, please drop me a review to let me know how I am doing. I try to take them all to heart and give the best chapters I can. Favorite and follow to keep up to date on my releases as I roll them out.
Thanks for giving me a read,
Titan900