Flowers That Twist into Eternity [Percy Jackson and the Olympians Fanfic]

That Familiar Smile

When Percy had gotten back, a week had passed. And he hadn’t been missed. In fact, strangely enough, it was like he had never left. Apparently, Hades somehow managed to make someone look like him and pretend he was there. Funnily enough, fake him had taken the exams and passed them all, averagely so as to not cause suspicion, but apparently it was good enough for Percy to be able to come back next year.

Wow. He’d have to thank Hades for that.

He tried to go back to playing the old Percy, which wasn’t too hard because he was still mostly him, but…in a way it was hard because many of his traits from his past life had stuck to him like glue. And some of those traits were very noticeable.

And did he mention how much he’d grown to really like afternoon naps?

There was other stuff Percy had taken to as well. He’d had this hugest craving for ohagi lately and had debated sneaking out of school and desperately finding a Japanese restaurant or store where he could buy some.

What was even weirder was his growing intellect. The last minute assignments and tests being thrown around were starting to get easier for him to do. He wasn’t instantly answering questions correctly, but it was getting to that point. Even his dyslexia seemed to be gone overnight. And this was all very weird, considering he cringed away from academics whenever he could.

He still did, but at least he was no longer defeated by it (Haha, yes! Take that, School!).

With Grover missing, probably talking to Chiron, he was free to walk around unheeded. He’d caught the two talking about him late at night not too long ago, and his curiosity had been peaked. He didn’t reveal himself, or even say anything to Grover after, but the talk was still fresh in his mind.

“Captain Jackson.”

He paused in his steps, standing still. He stared straight ahead of him, though his senses detected someone leaning against the wall in the hallway he’d just passed. Humming nonchalantly, he leaned on the wall on the other side of the corner connecting Percy’s wall and the other’s shadowed one.

“Thanatos,” he hmmed.

“Hollows,” Thanatos rasped.

Percy nodded. “I know.”

“East side, block from the old theater.”

“Thanks.”

“Once I take over your body, do you wish for me to continue to walk around the school or do something else?”

“Would you mind stealthily trailing Grover for me? I think he’s currently talking to Chiron again.”

“Alright then.”

They both simultaneously moved off of their walls and turned the corner, running into each other. But instead of a collision, Thanatos hit into him and moved into his body, at the same as Percy’s spiritual body exited out. They then went their different ways, Thanatos whistling an odd but eerie deathly tune that creeped out everyone as he walked by in Percy’s body, his face also somber, and Percy sprinting off and adding shunpo to increase his speed.

When he got to his destination, he saw three huge ugly Hollows roaring and stomping around, invisible to the human eye. Huffing exasperatedly at their appearance, he didn’t bother activating shikai and ran at all three, jumping into the air and smoothly doing a huge turn, cutting through all three Hollow masks. With a final roar, they dissipated and left him to float slowly to the ground.

Scratching his head in annoyance, he turned around and sped back to school. He grew even more annoyed at the fact that there wasn’t a single Japanese store or restaurant as he passed through. When would he be able to find some ohagi?