Chapter Text
"We should do this more often." Percy held his hand in Annabeth's as they waited for Grover to retrieve drinks from the little stand. Overlooking the river it was just the three of them, no quest and no monster attacks. Just them, a handful of pedestrians, and some lost tourists arguing over a map.
Annabeth smiled as she looked out into the Hudson,
"Totally. I'm glad we decided to come back for Spring Break. Especially since we spent Winter Break in New Rome."
"Hey, if you wanted to leave California to come back to a NYC winter we could have," He retorted.
"Not a chance, Seaweed Brain."
"Love ya too, Wise girl."
She made a move to push some of his hair away from his eyes, and he let her.
The moment was politely ruined by a sigh from Grover, "I got the drinks. Next time, Percy's the gopher."
"Sorry man, didn't mean to make you the goat-pher." It was only Percy's demigod reflexes that allowed him to catch the soda can Grover threw at his face.
"You guys can drink and walk, right?" He said it casually, but Percy picked up on his nervousness. Grover usually didn't snack on only the soda tab unless something was up.
Annabeth's eyes narrowed, "Monsters?"
"Probably? I don't know how to explain it, it's like the smell is a little off."
"Better safe than sorry," Percy pulled Riptide out of his pocket, ready to uncap it, "Who's the most likely suspect?"
The satyr tilted his head towards the arguing tourists, "The kid with the choppy white hair. The other two are mortals.”
Earlier Percy had assumed that they were just tourists, but if he paid closer attention to the details made them look more out of place. The three not-tourists weren’t speaking English, but Percy wasn’t close enough to make out what language it was. Their outfits were a little weird for tourists, skewing towards business casual, vests and ties complete with cop loafers. Other than that, their haircuts were absolutely horrible. Okay, Percy admitted that was a little rude, but in all honesty the maybe-a-monster kid looked like his barber was Edward Scissorhands.
Annabeth nudged him in the shoulder, “Don’t phase out on us just yet. Looks like Trenchcoat split off from the other two.”
“Who’s Trenchcoat?” He asked his girlfriend.
“The mortal in the tan trenchcoat, dumbass. Here’s the plan-”
Before she could finish, the aptly dubbed ‘Trenchcoat’ leapt straight into the Hudson.
“What in the Gods’ name?!”
“Oh shit. Grover that was the mortal dude, right?” Percy asked.
In his stunned state, Grover managed a nod.
Looking back to the other tourists, they two were clearly panicking, and Percy nodded to Annabeth.
“Try to complete your plan without me. I’ll grab the guy.” With that he flung himself over the railing and dived into the water.
He saw the guy immediately, and immediately wrestled him into a lifeguard carry. There was no proper bank on either side of the river, so Percy elected to propel himself and Trenchcoat back onto the pavilion by creating a controlled column of water, hoping the Mist would make any onlookers none the wiser. As soon as they landed, Trenchcoat started coughing up water. With a flick of his hand, Percy helped coax the water out of the poor guy’s lungs.
“Gods, you were barely under the water for five seconds, there is no way you almost drowned.”
Trenchcoat cracked a smile, “After you drown so many times, you get pretty good at it.”
Glad that he probably spoke English, Percy was about to question that statement, but he noticed the probable-monster kid rushing over. And that was enough for him to reach for Riptide and uncap it without fanfare.
“Sorry man, but I can’t let you eat him.”
“Woah-HuH?” The white-haired kid backed up, hands in the air. He looked behind Percy to Trenchcoat and said something in an unfamiliar language.
Percy took a second to look over to where his friends were, and saw that Grover was making a huge timeout-T with hands and Annabeth was actually talking to the third tourist.
“Shit. Uhh….” Percy capped Riptide, “Let’s start over. Hi. And for-”
The white haired kid looked even more confused now, “Was that a sword? Where-?”
Trenchcoat responded instead of Percy, in English, “Don’t worry Atsushi, If I’m alive later, I’ll explain it.” He shrugged and started heading back towards the railing, “Would you be so kind as to let me drown this time, Water-Boy?”
It was Percy’s turn to be confused as the probably-not-still-maybe-monster grabbed Trenchcoat’s hand and dragged him away from the edge.
“Thank you 𝘴𝘰 much. Um.. also sorry? I’m going to go over there. Now.” With that established, the white-haired practically threw Trenchcoat from Percy and back towards the blonde guy.
After that display of terrible awkwardness, Percy watched him edge away in the opposite direction.
Percy just stood there for a moment, not wanting to freak the kid out anymore, but still also wanting to understand what the hell was going on. From a distance, he watched the third not-tourist, bow to Annabeth and lead the other two away from the pavilion, marking things down in a notebook.
After they were well out of sight, Percy reconnected with Annabeth and Grover.
“So. Uh. What the Hades was that?”
Grover winced, “Right. Well…”
Annabeth finished for Grover, “Those guys were from Japan, and they’re all probably cursed/blessed, and the not-monster kid isn't dangerous, he's just possessed by a tiger.”
“Oh-Kay. Give me one second to once again remind myself that all folklore and Mythology on Earth is real and we can continue. Awesome, so did that guy just tell you all of this?”
“No, but we filled in the dots.”
Nodding, Grover continued, “Yeah. The blonde guy came over to thank us and then apologize. But as soon as he did, I got a better whiff of him. He was totally mortal, but with just a hint of… citrus.”
“People who are cursed smell like citrus?” Percy asked.
“Cursed or blessed. They both smell like citrus. You smelt like it when you still had the Curse of Achilles.”
“Good to know, I guess?”
Annabeth cut in, “For the most part, this doesn’t mean anything. We’ll let everyone in the area keep an eye out for them, but it’s not like they were doing anything. If they were enemies, I’d say we need to do reconnaissance, but they weren’t doing anything particularly malicious.”
“Besides Trenchcoat, they did seem pretty chill. So, quick I-message to Chiron and continue with our Spring Break?”
“Gods, I hope so.” Grover finally finished the last of the soda can he was eating, “I have a meeting with the Council soon, are you guys going to be alright without me third-wheeling?”
Everyone snorted at the joke and it led Percy to bring up a different incident and so on and so on until Grover waved goodbye and Percy and Annabeth made their way back to his mother’s apartment for dinner.
~~~~~~~~~~~
“So… the gods.. Are real?” Atsushi was not sure how to feel about his entire worldview expanding on the streets of New York City, but he was taking it fairly well, all things considered.
“Alllll of them, yup. I thought I told you my ex was the god of destruction right?”
“Wh- I thought you meant that as like– hyperbole!”
“You know that I hate to agree with Dazai—” At Kunikida’s remark Dazai gasped.
“Shut your trap and let me speak! We only have so much daylight—” He took a deep breath, “Alright. Yes, Atsushi, most mythological deities, spirits, and creatures are real. And our abilities come from them, either in a roundabout way or directly. But in Japan, we don’t have to deal with them because that is the job of shamans and priests.”
“...So am I like— possessed by a tiger yokai or something?”
Dazai nodded, “Probably!”
“Oh. So is that why that er, demigod pointed a sword at me?”
Kunikida adjusted his glasses, “Most likely, those three have dealt with monsters before and assumed you would attack them. Let’s just pray we don’t run into any more on this mission."
“That guy who saved Dazai then, was he a son of—” He mentally scrounged his brain for ‘water gods’, “Suijin? Or Neptune-?”
Dazai tilted his head, “Poseidon. The letters on his sword were Greek, not Latin. Plus the Romans are on the West Coast.”
“How do you know that-?” Kunikida looked stunned.
“Got drunk in Vegas and instead of killing myself ended up in a Roman military settlement,” Dazai said with a smile.
“I think we should just take a cab back to the hotel… “ Atsushi groaned, first a mission that brought the agency to the United States, now there might be demigods and gods to deal with here.
“Might as well,” Kunikida agreed, “It’s annoying that Ranpo got onto the wrong airplane, but since he seems uninterested in the case at large, we’ll carry on according to the schedule.”
“‘Wrong’ airplane. Of course,” Dazai mocked.
It infuriated Kunikida, who practically growled, “Well why 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 would he be in Boston of all places?!”
“Oh I’m sure that we’ll find out in good time,” Dazai cryptically remarked, then waved out into the street “Taxi!”