[DanMachi/Percy Jackson] Prytaneum

(Interlude: The Ash-Covered Girl (4)

As one, all of them turned towards the source of the voice—and her eyes widened. It would be a lie to say she couldn't believe it; if anything, a part of her might have even been hoping for it. But—

"Mr. Percy...?" She asked, staring at him.

He didn't answer, but there he was. He in the middle of the doorway, looking more furious then she'd ever seen him—in fact, he was literally steaming, little curls of water vapor rising from his armor and skin. Most of it probably came from the bloodstains covered his skin, still hot in the too cold air, but as for the rest...there was a long trail of water on the ground behind him, extending out of sight For all she knew, it trailed all the way back to the thirteenth floor.

But while he was clearly made, she couldn't hear any of it in his voice—if anything, the words were cold enough to make her tremble. Even the two men holding, likely too obsessed with the taste of Soma to care about their own wellbeing, shifted and prepared to move until Zanis raised a hand to stop them. The head of her Familia contemplated him for a moment before putting on a kind smile. She hated that expression, because he was honestly pretty good at looking sincere, but she supposed he could hardly get away with all the things he did if he didn't seemed that way.

"Do you know this girl?" Zanis asked as if he didn't recognize him.

"She's with me," Percy replied. "Let go of her."

"She's a thief," Zanis said instead. "It seems she's been robbing adventurers for a while now, luring them into the Dungeon and taking them for all they're worth. As she's part of my Familia, it's only natural I take responsibility for her actions, isn't it? So I'm afraid I can't just let her go. Ah, perhaps you've been taken advantage off? We found several items on her, but they seem to be unmarked...it's unfortunate, but there doesn't seem to be any way to tell who they belong to. Don't worry, though—we'll do a thorough investigation to figure out who's property has been stolen and ensure they're compensated accordingly. While our Familia is weak, we do sell wine...it might be arrogant of me, but I think we're fairly well known? I'm sure we can make it up to you somehow, so please let this be for now."

For all the impact his words made, Zanis might as well have been trying to explain economics to the ocean; Percy's expression didn't so much as flicker and he didn't relax in the slightest, instead simply staring at Zanis for a long, long moment.

"You're wrong," He said. "Those things all belong to Lili. Put her down. Now."

Zanis seemed to pause, pursing his lips for a moment as he stared right back at Percy.

"Perhaps I wasn't clear," He said, a bit more harshly. "It appears you don't understand who this girl is. She's been a part of my Familia for a long time and I've seen how she's—"

"Shut up," Percy interrupted without the slightest change of tone. "It's true there's a lot I probably don't understand, but I don't want to hear that story from someone like you. If I wanted to know about Lili's past, I'd just ask her."

Zanis worked his jaw for a moment, rubbed his mouth with a hand, and then nodded forward. Taking that as a signal, the two men set her down on the ground and began walking towards him, but before she could think of doing anything, Zanis grasped her by the back of the neck.

Percy watched the two men approach silently until they were within a few yards of him, at which point he tilted his head.

"I don't know what you guys are getting paid, but trust me—it's not worth the trouble you're about to buy," He said, voice steady. "Last warning."

The two men hesitated for a moment before seeming to shake it off. One began to move and that seemed to be enough to inspire the other.

Slowly, Percy blinked.

"Well, I tried," He said—and suddenly it was like a dam had broken. A small river of water seemed to come pouring forth from around the corner, back the way his wet trail led. It flooded over him, but not before she saw him raise an arm, and as it struck the two adventurers Zanis had brought with him, it seemed to bend, curving to the left and slamming in the wall on that side of the room. She might have heard bones break, but she could hear over the sound of rushing water.

And then it stopped. The flood of water abruptly ceased, collapsing to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. It spread out across the Dungeon floor, covering that corner of the room with a sheet of water—but while it seemed to slowly creep towards her and Zanis, there was something off about it, as if it were holding itself back.

With it gone, though, she could see Percy. At some point, he'd moved from the doorway to the left wall, but she couldn't say when—and somehow, he was completely, utterly dry. He looked down at the two adventurers on the ground for a long silent moment before bending over slightly. Water flowed to coat his right arm like a glove, but as he reached for the two men, it seemed to split away, retaining its shape and grasping one man's head while he clutched the other. Without any sign of effort, he turned and swung his arm, lifting the both of them and hurling them clear up and over her and Zanis. The crashed to the ground somewhere behind her, but she couldn't turn her head to look.

"Take those two idiots and go," He said, slowly striding towards them. She noticed that the water glove he'd been wearing before was gone and...where was Welf?

Zanis took a deep breath and sighed, dragging her as he turned to face him as if he'd forgotten he was holding onto her at all.

"I heard you were a little tough," He said, tucking Welf's sword under the arm that was holding onto her. With his free hand, he drew the magic sword he'd tucked into his waist. "I'd rather not use this, if you don't mind stopping."

Percy didn't answer, continuing towards them. It was an odd thing to notice, but his footsteps didn't splash in the water.

Zanis clicked his tongue and then swung his sword at Percy, a wall of fire flooding towards him and detonating explosively as it connected, hiding him completely—at least, for a moment. A second later, Percy walked through the smoke, squinting and bowing his head slightly as if expecting a strong headwind, but otherwise merely looking singed. The odd markings on his armor had turned slightly incandescent as if they'd absorbed a great deal of heat, but he was clearly unharmed.

"—What?" Zanis asked, demeanor shifting as his eyes widened. She was fairly certain he wasn't surprised he'd survived or even unharmed, but he must have been expecting him to at least dodge. Instead, Percy took it head on like it was nothing but static electricity.

Taking a step back and then another, Zanis swung again, releasing another wave of fire that just seemed to crash against Percy's metaphorical shore. The red dagger that he'd taken from her released wave after wave, round after round, until—

It shattered. The red blade broke and fell apart into countless pieces, falling like glass to the Dungeon's floor.

"...Are you done?" Percy asked, stepping out of the cloud of dust and smoke. At some point, he'd lifted a forearm to cover his eyes as if to block the sun's glare, but he remained untouched, but for the glowing markings on his armor and, perhaps, a few spots of redness on his skin. "If you are, then it's my turn now, right?"

Zanis' pursed lips turned into a sneer as he continued to back away until his foot hit the fallen bodies of the two men. He glanced down at them and then grit his teeth before throwing away the handle of the used magic sword and reaching for the one under his arm.

"Enough," He said firmly, fingering hovering right before it. "You know what this is, right? It would be a waste of money to use something like this on you, but if you do...you know what will happen, right?"

Percy stop, staring at him silently.

"...You were the one who broke Lili's wrist, right?" He asked.

And all of a sudden, water flooded forward from...behind them?

The water glove, she realized. Had he attached it to one of the men he'd thrown? No, he must have. And now, having taken Zanis off guard, it seemed to catch his upraised hand, flowing over it like another glove—and as Percy clenched the hand by his side into a fist, it seemed to shrink to about half the size.

"Ah...gh—" Zanis tried to speak, exhaling quickly as he looked down at his hand with wide eyes.

And then he began to scream. He staggered several steps backwards, nearly tripping over the men behind him, and then heaved, moving as if to throw her at Percy. If so, he over shot his target by a fair bit, because she flew high over his head, high enough to make her heart skip a beat and make her wonder if she'd hit the tall, tall ceiling. At the very least, she was sure she wouldn't even the fall.

"Welf!" Percy barked even as he darted forward, planting a foot on the magic sword Zanis had dropped in his sudden agony and kicking it back hard enough to send it sailing across the room.

Welf came running from around the same corner Percy had, looking like he'd been soaked to the bone. He dripped and squelched with every step and panted like he'd just run a marathon, but as he entered the room, he glanced between her and the magic sword. The sword was flying one way while she went the other, but Welf didn't hesitate to jump for her, catching her just before she hit the ground even though it knocked him off his feet. They both fell into the swallow water, but it seemed to cushion their fall somehow.

Across the room, Percy stepped between the Zanis and the magic sword before the man could recover enough to try anything.

"Don't even think about it," Percy said, narrowing his eyes dangerously. "Quit while you're ahead and I'll let you keep your head."

But Zanis wasn't looking at the sword anymore, she noticed. He was looking at her.

No. He was looking at Welf, who was holding onto her, as if seeing something for the first time. And behind those glasses, she saw something flicker.

"—My apologies," Zanis said through gritted teeth, cradling his broken wrist close to his chest as he slowly dragged his eyes away from her. His expression was tight and angry, but not nearly as angry as it should have been. If anything, he sounded almost polite. "I see now that I've made a mistake."

Percy stared at him for a long moment before saying anything.

"Get lost," He said. "And take the knuckleheads with you."

"Yes," He said, only a touch bitterly. Reaching down with one hand, he grabbed them both by the collar and began dragging them away, quickly leaving the room. She wondered if he was going to drop them somewhere. Probably.

"I hate guys like him," Percy said, abruptly turning and spitting.

"You think they're gonna try something later?" Welf asked, voice serious.

"One can only hope," He answered, voice nearly a growl. After a moment though, he took a deep breath and looked back at the two of them. "Are you okay, Lili?"

"How...how did you get here so fast?" She asked.

Welf blew out a breath and raked a hand through his hair, looking wet and miserable. Little trails of water ran down the sides of his face as he did.

"We pretty much swam here," He said.

Percy smiled, looking slightly abashed before he lifted a hand and gestured. All the water covering Welf seemed to fall away, flowing out of his hair and clothes as he was abruptly dried.

"Why...?"

"Huh?" Percy asked, tilting his head at her.

"Why did you come?" She asked, looking down. Her eyes felt hot again and Percy's actions just meant she couldn't brush them off as water. "If it was just for the magic sword, Lili would have understood, but why...why did you save Lili!?"

Percy looked at her, down at the water, and then back up again.

"...Huh?" He asked again, sounding baffled.

"There's no way the two of you couldn't have realized the truth by now, right!?" She nearly shouted, wiping frantically at her eyes. Logically, she knew she should stop and be quiet now, but she couldn't. "You should know by now that they're right! Did you think Lili ran away because she got lost!? Lili's...Lili's a thief! She's a bad, bad person, a con-artist who tricked you again and again! Lili's not worthy of being your supporter! Lili took money for herself at the Exchange—it should have been a third each, but it was more like thirty-thirty-fourty! Once, Lili even got greedy and made it twenty-five-twenty-five-fifty! Lili was shocked at how careless both of you were with money—Lili even tried to steal Mr. Percy's weapon!"

"Um..." Welf said, sounding uncomfortable as everything came to light. Even Percy rocked back slightly as she yelled at them both.

"You tried to steal Riptide?" He asked after a moment before chuckling to himself. "How'd that work out?"

"Is that all out took from that!?" She shouted at him. "Lili...Lili stole Mr. Welf's magic sword and ran off for her own sake and still...still you came to save her!?"

"Yeah," He said, looking at her frankly.

"Why!?" She demanded. She had no idea why she was asking, why she was yelling about something like this, why she was telling them the truth, but this was something she had to know. This was something she needed to hear.

He was silent for a moment, looking down at her before chuckling again.

"Because we're friends, Lili," He said with a smile. "Anymore stupid questions?"

She shook slightly and then began crying even harder, sobbing grossly and wiping her eyes. Behind her, or underneath her, Welf stood up, carrying her along with him and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Here, Lili," Welf said, holding up the key she'd left behind for them. "I appreciate the offer, but I wouldn't feel right taking so much from a friend. It must have been hard to get all that stuff, right? Don't just throw it away for something like this. If you needed something, you should have just told us. And if you're in trouble, then tell us that too, okay? We'll figure something out."

"And Lili...there's something I've wanted to say to you, but I wasn't sure how," Percy began, glancing between her and Welf. "About what you said before...there have been times when I thought about that, too. Not too long ago, just before I came to Orario, I...I lost a lot of people I cared about. Even now, I don't know if I'll ever see them again. I've been looking for something, but sometimes I can't help but think I've been grasping at straws. But sometimes, I couldn't help but think that maybe, there might be a way. But...I can't do that, because I'd have to leave Hestia behind and anyone who might still be alive and you and Welf. So...I get it but... as long as we are together, let's not give up on these lives just yet, okay? At the very least...I'd be really sad if you died, Lili. And you'd be sad if I died, too, right? So, even if it's just for that and you can't ask the gods for a better one...isn't this life good enough? I... definitely won't leave you alone, Lili. So don't leave me alone, okay?"

"...Sorry!" She said through her cascading tear, trying to hide her miserable face. "Lili's so, so, so sorry!"

"It's okay," He said with a smile. "It's okay, Lili."