Chapter Text
Izuku let his head fall onto the table.
“Long day?” James, his cabin counselor, asked. Izuku nodded, groaning softly.
“I got a headache.”
“Want some ibuprofen?” Izuku nodded again, drawing his hands under his head.
It sucked learning English, and he still made some errors in it. Greek was a little easier, as he was a demigod, but it was still different. The different writing system, alphabets, and add in some dyslexia, and well, he disliked it.
He’d been recently claimed as a child of Eleos, and he’d been working on how to control his powers. Being unclaimed and a child of a minor Goddess didn’t exactly make it easy to recognise your powers, or how to control them.
He’d pitied Luke when he heard what happened to him, falling on his own blade like that. Well, less pity and more… Sympathy? He didn’t know the word to describe that feeling.
Eleos, according to Chiron and his phase he went through where he did as much research as he could on Greek Gods, (he wondered now if it had something to do with his heritage. Maybe a question for James?) was the Goddess of pity, mercy, and compassion.
They hadn’t been officially recognized at Camp until not too long ago, when some sense had been beaten into the Gods, and now all the Gods and Goddesses had their own cabin.
His mother had found a noble man who had found a breakthrough in curing some terminal disease Izuku didn’t remember, as his father was very closed off from him.
James left a couple ibuprofen and a glass of water on the table, and Izuku let his head up momentarily to take it.
Cursing Apollo without any real meaning for the brightness of the Sun, he covered his eyes with his hand.
He let himself curl up into his bed and practice his English by listening to a book while following along on a physical copy he’d loaned from Annabeth. No way was he going to do it without the audio part with dyslexia and while learning.
He often paused it, copied a word, and put it in a nice translator he found, because Google Translate wasn’t the best. By the end, he’d learned the proper way to pronounce worcestershire.
“Alright, let’s move on to sword fighting!” There was a cheer from the Ares cabin, and the Athena cabin booed at them. Izuku shook his head fondly at his family.
He grabbed the same sword he always used, because it was just the right length where it felt like an extension of his arm to him, rather than a blade he was wielding.
A very sharp and harmless to mortals extension of his arm.
Danny fell onto the ground as Izuku held the sword to his throats for a few moments. Letting the blade fall to his side, he extended a hand to pull Danny to his feet.
“Nice spar!” Izuku exclaimed happily. Danny returned it with a high five, and Izuku went on to the next opponent.
It was a nice system. The victors would progress into a certain spot based on the number of the sparring ring they were in. It continued on, and then the two finalists would have no chores for two days. Izuku hadn’t made that spot very often, his compassion often being used against him.
Plus he tended to overthink and strategize too much. He also telegraphed his moves a little too much, a habit he was trying to break.
He made it to sixth, then losing to Clarissa.
They moved on to archery, and he heard a few people groan, the most noticeable coming from a certain son of Poseidon.
He excelled a little more in archery, and managed to hit a few bullseyes.
He grabbed a hair tie off his wrist and pulled back whatever black (and green-dyed) curls he could. He was starting to get a little sweaty, and moist hair sticking to his forehead was a feeling Izuku would rather not deal with.
He made his way to showers near dusk and washed himself off, heading off to the tables he’d been at not too long ago. He offered his best marbled piece of steak, as well as a handful of grapes to his mother and returned to his cabin’s table.
The Hermes table was noticeably less crowded without all the unclaimed that had resided there, Izuku having been included, and Izuku noticed that, while there was still quite a few members, there was enough room that none of them were hanging off the seats.
Dinner was filled with joking, a couple vocabulary expansion or reminding him what a word was, and family.
Yeah. He liked this. Family was precious, and he just wanted it to stay like this. He knew that was a lot to ask, considering they were all demigods with a life expectancy of no higher than 20.
He settled into his warm comfy bed with a smile pushing against his freckles.
Waking with a jolt, Izuku realized there was screaming everywhere. Grabbing a celestial bronze blade he kept by his bed, (it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you. Ten monsters had attacked him just on the boat he’d taken to get to camp.) he leapt out and held it in front of him.
There were screams of pain and blood spread throughout Camp’s grassy fields. Izuku cursed in Ancient Greek, driving the shorter blade through a Harpy and moving in when he saw the gold dust appear. There was a few scratches on his body, but nothing deep from the monster.
He saw a newly claimed Hermes kid and ran over when he saw the struggle to keep the large monster off of her.
He tackled it, giving her a chance to grab the blade that had fallen to the ground. She held it in front of her, and Izuku grimaced for a few moments when he saw the fear in her eyes.
He stood to her back, ensuring that no beasts would be sneaking up on her as they dealt with the beasts.
He heard some grumbling from the ground, and he prayed that it was Nico di Angelo and not some monster or God or other opponent who wanted nothing more than to kill the lot of them.
Instead, he saw a face he’d known only from his research. Glowing gold eyes, and he let out a cry of shock.
Kronos. Kronos was there, and he was wiping out even more demigods than in the most recent battle.
Izuku’s eyes watered, and he let out a strangled sob as he saw the broken body of his cabin mate, Res.
He ran forward, because he couldn’t just not do anything when Res’ face was so full of pain.
He was batted away quickly as well, Kronos’s blade impaling him directly.
Izuku had known for a while that he wouldn’t live past twenty.
He just didn’t think he’d die so young.
Later, Izuku couldn’t tell you exactly how it happened. He woke up, limbs spasming as he jerked up, coughing in his gasps for breath.
He saw smoke and skies, coughing for the air his body wasn’t getting. He sat up, gripping his kunai his father had given him before he sent him off at the age of six.
He glanced around, seeing… a monster? He couldn’t tell what type. Obviously mortals were seeing something terrible, as they were running away screaming from it. The Mist was very intriguing.
He glanced side to side, seeing… These guys that looked straight out of a comic book. There was one in a fire-fighter uniform, probably a son aof Poseidon or at least related based off the manipulation of water. Another, wearing a very revealing outfit and using a whip as a weapon. A purple gas came out of a rip in her uniform. A child of Hecate?
He shook his head, locating a fire escape stairway not too far away.
Throwing his body out her it and using his upper body strength to pull himself up, dashing up the stairs.
He had no idea what was going on. He had no idea what happened to Camp. He had no idea what happened to his family.
But he knew he had to help the people running, had to help the person who was failing at hitting the large, reptilian monster.
He saw a wooden person (a nymph? Weren’t they worried about the Mist and their tree?) race forward and restrain them.
He readied his kunai in front of him, ready to defend himself and the others running.
He was a demigod. He was a child of Eleos.
He can fight monsters easily.
But it seemed they had it handled. He let out a sigh and returned his kunai to a sheath on his arm, concealed by the long sleeve he wore under his orange Camp issue shirt.
He let out a sigh and collapsed on the roof. He was so confused and tired. He needed to sleep. He needed to find his family right now, but he was just tired. He stifled a yawn and fought the drowsiness, but he couldn’t.
What prank were the Hypnos kids playing on him this time?