Chapter Text
Tsukasa could tell when days were going to be interesting. It was like a sixth sense, a feeling at the bottom of his stomach. Today he had that feeling. He didn't think much of it.
Scratch that. He did think of it, actually— at least tried to— before a certain someone interrupted his train of thought.
"Tsukasaaaaaaaaaa!" Emu's voice rang out as she barreled towards him. Said man wasn't given time to react and ended up, unfortunately, being tackled to the ground. No one around them batted an eye. This was routine. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Tsukasa rubbed the back of his head, groaning from the fall he had taken. "Owwwwwww... At least give me a heads-up next time, will you?"
Emu chuckled sheepishly, still on top of him. She flashed him an apologetic look, smiling. "Sorryyy," she muttered, standing and helping him up.
Typical Emu. Tackle first, apologize later. Tsukasa was certain she was going to give him a concussion one day or another, if he didn't already have one.
"It's fine," he said. His head was everything but fine, but he wasn't about to complain to her. She'd probably overreact anyway. "What's got you yelling, anyway?"
Emu's eyes lit up as she remembered what she wanted to tell him initially, sparkles practically filling them up. "Oh! Oh! Yeah! I saw another thing!"
Tsukasa winced at her incredibly vague answer. It may have been vague, but he still figured out what she meant, unfortunately. Another thing.
He would never admit it to anyone else, but he saw things others didn't. Pegasi, flying pigs, other flying things. You know, the works. Some days, he decided to be sane and convince himself they were only illusions, figments of his restless brain. Other days, though, he thought maybe, just maybe, everyone else was just blind. Maybe, for some reason, only he could see those things. Ridiculous, right?
Tsukasa had thought it was ridiculous until this bundle of energy called Emu Ootori crashed into his life, and he found out they could both see things. It was one of the many reasons they became friends in the first place. That, and the fact that she refused to leave his side. Ever. They were joined at the hip, at this point.
Anyway, he didn't like to put much thought into what he could see. If he was about to accomplish his dream of being an actor, he sure wasn't gonna accomplish it by seeing things that, most likely, weren't there, and that would get him into a mental asylum if he talked about them openly.
"Oh, right," Tsukasa finally answered. "What did you see?" he asked, preparing himself for the worst.
Emu grinned. It seemed as if the "hallucinations" didn't bother her as much as they did him. Matter of fact, she always seemed excited about them, as if they were one more fun thing to add to her day. "A new student! He had little horns poking out of his head!"
Oh. That was a new one. For some reason, he wasn't as surprised as he should be—at this point, nothing could really faze him.
Still, he had learned to take whatever Emu said with a grain of salt. It wasn't unlike her to over exaggerate things, so it was possible the "new student with little horns poking out of his head" was someone she hadn't seen before with weird looking hair.
"Uh-huh. Right," Tsukasa said, nodding. His voice was dripping with skepticism. "Where is he, then?"
As soon as the question slipped out of his mouth, he regretted it, as Emu excitedly pointed to some boy near the two of them. "There!"
"Emu!" Tsukasa scolded her, quickly grabbing her wrist and placing it down. He sighed, used to her antics already. "You can't just point at people."
"Hehe...Oops," she said, but he could tell that she didn't really regret it. "But look at him! He totes dotes has horns. Look!"
Tsukasa sighed yet again, turning to look at where Emu had pointed just now. "Emu, he totally doesn't—" he said, preparing himself to be the rational one and everything, but quickly cut himself off when he saw that, yeah, the guy had horns. "Oh."
"See! I told youuuuu!" Emu shouted excitedly, her hands landing on his shoulders and shaking them aggressively.
"Okay, okay, you told me!" Tsukasa said in an attempt to stop her attack on him. She eventually calmed down after more than enough shakes to make him see double.
"Oh, oh, and guess what!" she yelled again, her previous train of thought completely abandoned. Tsukasa hoped she'd give him an answer that was more coherent than chicken butt or whatever else she probably had in mind.
After a moment of hesitation, he spoke. "What?" he tentatively asked.
Emu gave him a cheeky grin, her eyes glinting to the point that Tsukasa already expected the answer coming out of her mouth. "Chicken butt!" she said, barely able to get the words out without laughing.
Despite himself, he actually laughed. Nothing too much — a small chuckle, while reprimanding himself for actually laughing at her silly joke.
With that said, I'm sure you can see the type of friendship these two had, right? Okay, maybe friendship isn't the best word for it... whatever.
Anyway, it surely wouldn't surprise you if I told you that they sit together during lunch. And they do. And they did, that particular day — comfortably seated down on the bench on the roof, Emu rambling about the sky looking especially pretty that day, pointing out the similarities of each cloud and other things (animals, foods, objects — what's a "glittery shabwam penguin"?), with Tsukasa only nodding along, laughing and contributing to the conversation here and there.
"Ah, Tsukasa, that one looks like a snake!" Emu excitedly pointed out, pointing her fork at the cloud she was talking about.
"Ehhhhhhh," he cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes, trying (and failing) to see the resemblance. "Right... It looks more like a star."
"Nuh-uh!" Emu denied, shaking her head. "It looks like a snake!"
Tsukasa could already see where the interaction was going, but played along anyway. "Yu-huh! It's a star!"
Emu pouted. "Nuh-uh!"
"Yu-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yu-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yu-huh!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yu-hu—" Tsukasa protested, before being interrupted by someone tapping on his back, taking him out of the banter and startling him, causing him to slightly jump in his place and let out a small, manly (not really) "ack!" sound. Of course, Emu snickered at the sight.
The shoulder-tapper was, obviously, the guy that Emu pointed out to have little horns sticking out of his hair. Duh. Who else would it be?
"Oh, sorryyyyy," he drawled out, letting out a sound that resembled a laugh but at the same time also didn't. He looked... interesting. For one, once you looked at him up close, he looked as if he'd fallen behind several grades. The fact that he looked like the type of person to get high on dandelions didn't help, either. "Dude, I didn't think you'd be so easy to scare."
"It's fine," Tsukasa quickly assured him. It wasn't fine. He just squeaked like a little 5-year old girl. And Emu was still giggling and nudging him on the shoulder for it, shooting him looks that said, "Geez, I didn't know Tsukasa was so easy to scare." Don't ask how he knew what she meant from the looks she gave him.
At least she wasn't asking the guy if the horns were real, or if she could touch them. He'd have to keep an eye on her just in case she did get any ideas, though.
"Right. So," the guy started again, "you two kind of need to come with me," he bluntly said, no explanation following his words, leaving two caught off guard teenagers staring at him.
Oh, sorry, one caught off guard teenager. Apparently, Tsukasa was the only one out of the two who's parents taught him not to mindlessly follow strangers. Y'know. Stranger danger. Looked like Emu had never heard that phrase, though as she seemed like she could say, "Oh, yay! Goat guy wants to take us to magical goat land!"
When he was met with silence, he sighed, running a tired hand over his face. "Look — you two are, what, 15 already? You're walking targets. It's a wonder some monster hasn't plucked your head right off your neck yet."
His words weren't having the convincing effect he wanted them to have. At all. It only left Tsukasa's mouth even more agape.
"Right, uh..." the guy mumbled, trying to sound trustworthy. "You two can see things, right? That's 'cause you're different. Weird things happen to you. Yadda yadda," he said, not feeling like going too deep into it.
"Oh, you know about that? Can you see those too?" Emu asked excitedly, her eyes lighting up. "Is that why you've got horns?" she asked, reaching out her hand as if to touch them.
"Woah, girl, off-limits," he said, grabbing her wrist and getting her hand away from him. "It's basic manners — never ask the age of one of the Hunters of Artemis, never ask a half-blood how their family is, never touch a satyr's horns."
Now Emu was confused too. Neither of them had understood half the words he had said — satyr? Half-blood? Tsukasa swore he'd heard the term half-blood somewhere. It had slipped out of his mom's mouth absentmindedly that one time, on one of her tangents, right?
The guy, satyr, whatever he was, spoke again at their lack of an answer. "Anyway! Could you just come with me? I'll explain everything on the way there, so—"
The rest of the sentence on the tip of his tongue, unfortunately, never got to see the light of day, since Tsukasa bluntly interrupted him with another question. "Where even is 'there'? What are half-bloods? How do you know that we can see things? Why—"
The satyr apparently held a grudge, and interrupted Tsukasa. For a good reason, too. If he hadn't been stopped, Tsukasa would have, surely, went on to ask a million other questions. "I'll stop you there, dude. I'll explain, just chillax a little, geez," he grumbled, placing his hands on the shoulders of both students in front of him, before sitting between the two of them suddenly and without invitation.
Emu didn't mind, only looking at the satyr with curious eyes. Tsukasa, on the other hand, almost glared at the guy for shoving him to the side (totally not for shoving him away from Emu, haha...)
"So," he started, looking less than enthusiastic about having to explain the whole thing to them, "you guys are half-bloods, bada-bing-bada-boom. A.K.A. a demigod. Meaning, a product of a mortal and a god. That's why you've got clear vision and weird things happen to you. So, obviously, that makes you have a big ol' target, and..."
...
• FACTS ABOUT THE SATYR •
Firstly, Tsukasa and Emu didn't find out his name until several years later. He was called Elijah. Secondly, this was his first time retrieving demigods, if it wasn't obvious. Thirdly, he lived an uneventful life. His most notable accomplishment was bringing these two demigods to Camp Halfblood safely, and, if their way there wasn't so memorable, he wouldn't even be mentioned here. Fun!
"Okay, uh," the satyr continued after dragging Tsukasa and Emu out of school, somehow. "I didn't think this far ahead, let me see..." he mumbled, digging through his pockets, looking for something in particular.
Tsukasa eyed him, watching as he threw out everything in his pockets (why'd he have so many flattened cans, anyway?) "Oh, wow, that's reassuring. Our protector didn't think this through."
"C'mon, Tsukasa, it'll be fun! He's got super smell and goat legs, so we're in good hands!" Emu told him, poking his shoulder repeatedly.
Tsukasa nodded. He didn't exactly feel very protected, but who was he to not play along to what Emu said. "You're right, yeah," he said, making a show out of putting on his confident face and striking a pose. "Let's just think of it like an—"
"Got it," the satyr interrupted him again. Tsukasa had a feeling this would be a reocurring thing. He pulled out a gold coin out of his pocket and shouted something in... Greek, was it? That wasn't even the weird part — he threw the coin into the sidewalk and it just... sank through.
No, forget that. A taxi appeared, smokey, looking as if you'd go right through it if you even tried to get in.
"Right, in you go," he said. Emu had to drag Tsukasa in, leaving him in the middle, squished between the girl and the guy that smelled and looked like a barnyard animal.
"Here," said the satyr, taking out another gold coin and handing it to one of the ladies in front. One of the three ladies driving the cab — Wasp, Anger, and Tempest. "Camp Half-blood, please."
Tempest shot a look at them. "Gah, demigods! You better not take the eye again!"
"They won't! Now hand it over!" Anger suddenly hissed from the driver's seat, her bony hand outstretched.
Wasp, perched in the passenger seat, clutched their single, cloudy eye possessively. "I had it last time!"
Tempest, squeezed between the two up front, snatched the eye from Wasp and popped it into her own socket. "Move over, it's my turn!"
Wow, this was definitely... something. Tsukasa didn't know if he exactly felt safe, being driven by three old ladies who were fighting half the time. And that had one eye between the three of them. He might be traumatized from the sight of the ladies popping the eye in, like it was nothing. If this was the life of being a halfblood, he wasn't exactly thrilled to get to camp.
The taxi jerked violently as Tempest took the wheel. The three in the back barely had time to buckle their seatbelt before the car shot forward, weaving wildly through the streets. Horns blared and pedestrians dove out of the way as the sisters bickered and wrestled for control.
While Tsukasa clung to his seat for dear life, Emu was having the time of her life. She giggled and bounced in her seat, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Of course.
The cab swerved dangerously close to a lamppost. "This is like the best rollercoaster ever!" Emu laughed, turning to Tsukasa with a wide grin. "Come ooooon, Tsukasa, where's your sense of adventure?"
"I think I left it back in school," he forced out, letting out a nervous laugh despite himself.
The satyr was now gripping the seat tightly. "Okay, maybe not my best idea," he muttered, his hooves tapping nervously against the car floor. He forced a shaky laugh.
"Left, Tempest! Turn left!" Wasp shouted, grabbing the eye.
Tempest yanked the wheel to the left, narrowly missing a fire hydrant. "I know how to drive!"
"Clearly you don't!" Anger yelled back, grabbing at the eye.
The satyr’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the seat in front of him. "Uh, ladies, can we maybe focus on the road?"
The sisters ignored him, too busy shoving the eye back and forth. The cab careened through a red light, narrowly avoiding a bus. Tsukasa squeezed his eyes shut and muttered a quick prayer to whoever his godly parent was. He'd probably give that more thought if he didn't feel like puking.
A sharp right turn sent Tsukasa sliding across the back seat, crashing into Emu and squishing her against the car door. He struggled to sit up as the taxi bounced over a pothole, the eye once again changing hands—or rather, sockets.
"I swear, if you crash this thing—" Wasp began, but her threat was cut off as the taxi swerved to avoid a cyclist.
"Out of the way!" Tempest barked, leaning out the window to shake her fist. The cyclist wobbled and veered off the road, cursing them as they sped past.
Tsukasa risked a glance out the window and immediately regretted it. The city whizzed by in a blur of neon signs and streetlights, the taxi threading through traffic recklessly. Gods, he felt like throwing up all over the taxi floor.
"Watch out for that—" the satyr started (they should really ask for his name later), but it was too late. The taxi hit a speed bump at full throttle, launching them briefly into the air. They landed with a bone-rattling thud, the shock absorbers protesting loudly.
"You, satyr, whatever! Why'd you sugggest—" Tsukasa started to say, before being cut off by the car going full speed on another speedbump. "Why'd you think this was the best way to get to that camp!?"
"I don't know!" he hurriedly admitted, eyes shut tight to block out the blurry view outside the window. "I mean—they're very wise, and I'm pretty sure we won't die!"
"See! The satyr appreciates us!" Anger interjected, turning back for a moment to look at the passengers while her sisters fought. "Mhm, very wise!"
"Oh, yes! We know everything!" Tempest added, nodding. "Every street of New York! All the numbers of pi! How the girl's going to die next summer!"
If Tsukasa's eyes weren't wide enough before, they were now. His heart dropped to his feet, and he suddenly couldn't care less about the fact that the cab almost crashed into way too many pedestrians. "What??? What girl? Emu? How?" he quickly asked.
"Just playing with ya. Wow, halfbloods are so naive these days," Anger said, momentarily distracted from wrestling the eye back.
He immediately deflated, relief spreading through his senses. He hated these old ladies, he realized. All the while, Emu hadn't even realized her name had been mentioned.
"Yeah, she isn't dying. I mean, just getting stabbed. But not dying!" Tempest added.
Tsukasa sprung back up. Okay, what. The Gray Sisters were trying to kill him by emotional overload, clearly. Stabbed. Emu was getting stabbed. What. "Just— by who?"
Suddenly, the taxi screeched to a halt in front of their destination, but he couldn't care less about the view of Halfblood Hill. "Here you go. Out," Wasp said, ignoring Tsukasa's question.
The satyr was happy to comply, tumbling out of the cab while looking like he could kiss the solid ground. Tsukasa stayed put, though. "By who???"
Wasp sighed, as if this was just a mild inconvenience, dealing with an annoying halfblood. "One of Kronos's kids. There. Now out," she bluntly said.
• ONE DETAIL •
This information was not useful. At all. It would not be of use to avoid said... stabbing. Which, by the way, was barely anything— small blade in the thigh. I mean. Nothing Emu couldn't take, so.
Before he could really take the words in, a huff of smoke pushed him and Emu out of the cab. She managed to land standing up, but Tsukasa tumbled out. Ugh. The taxi sped off in a second, only leaving behind a cloud of exhaust. So, that was that.
"Tsukasa, that was so much fun!! We should do that again sometime!!!" she said, helping him up.
"Uh... yeah. Definitely," he muttered. His mind was elsewhere. Did Emu hear what the Gray Sisters said? Surely not, right? She wouldn't be so unbothered. Maybe he shouldn't tell her. Yeah— no use in freaking her out.