Chapter 5
“Are you ready?” Thena asked as she swung her spear in the spot where Izuku’s head just was. She was asking if he felt ready for his first day of school, which was coincidentally the next day.
“Yeah, I think I am.” he responded as he stabbed upward with a cosmic shortsword that was promptly blocked and parried by the dagger his teacher summoned in her left hand.
“Good.” She turned her spear into a shield and tried bashing him over the head with it while he was still crouched but he used Makkari’s speed and dashed behind her to attempt a slash at her thigh. She jumped over it and kicked him on the back of the head while executing a backflip.
“A good strategy, trying to take out my legs and impair my mobility. But you should’ve tried a feint, I know your style too well and expected it. You have a habit of going low so try changing your rhythm, change your patterns and don’t stick to the same plans.”
Izuku nodded and took a swipe at her head with his now broadsword which she dodged easily. Using the momentum of the swing, he stomped his bare foot on the mat of the training room and turned the ground beneath her feet into mud. She sunk into it for a second, somewhat surprised by the new tactic, she had never seen him transmute anything with his feet before and wasn’t expecting it. Quickly shaking off her surprise and pushing down the proud feeling that swelled inside her chest that he managed to surprise her in a fight and got herself out of the mud. She deflected the stab at her stomach with the staff of her spear and kicked some of the sludge into his eyes. She saw his surprise as he quickly backed up with some superspeed to avoid getting his vision impaired, which would most likely cost him the match, and slipped on the muddy ground. The teen fell flat on his back on the un-transmuted part of the mat with a thud and his head smacked harshly into the patted floor. His weapons disappeared as his concentration faded momentarily from the headache-inducing impact but quickly called them forth again to continue the fight, but it was too late. He barely lifted his head and found the point of his mentor’s spear tickling his adam's apple before it collapsed into nothing and she offered him a hand.
Izuku gladly took it and Thena hefted him up easily. She brushed some of the mud off his shoulders and patted him on the arm.
“You’re getting better,” she commented with a smile.
Izuku beamed at the praise and fell into step behind her as she made her way out of the training room.
“Really, you think so?” his eyes shone with stars as the immortal nodded.
“You threw me off with that mud trick, you should be proud. Nothing throws me off after seven thousand years.”
“Thanks! I’ve been practicing transfiguring things with body parts that aren’t my hands and fingers. So far I've only managed to do it with my feet but I’m getting there.” Izuku was freaking ecstatic. Thena had praised his fighting, and she never praised anything. Not to say she never really complimented him, of course not. She wasn’t a very vocal person to begin with and usually only complimented him on things he did with the others’ powers. For her to praise him for his fighting was a big deal. She had very high standards for him as her only student and expected the best of him. The most she said was constructive comments and helpful advice on his stance as she practiced the kata’s with him and he copied her movements. He knew she was proud of him for his progress in mastering his powers and cleaning up the beach but he didn’t think she’d be proud of his fighting skills. She was once worshiped as the goddess of war and she was proud of him, he Useless Deku that couldn’t do anything and was bound to end up another statistic on Quirkless suicide.
Thena didn’t have to look behind her to know that Izuku’s smile dimmed. She knew that whenever one of them praised him old memories of his bullies came up and disrupted whatever progress they had made on his self esteem. After ten months of practically living at the Domo Izuku's confidence had skyrocketed from what it had been when they first met, but old wounds take time to heal and some never do. She stopped her stride and felt the teen bump into her back. She turned to him and gently laid her hands on his shoulders, slowly enough that he could see them and had time to move away if he so wished. They all knew he hated when people grabbed his shoulders without permission, most likely since that’s where He Who Shall Not Be Named mostly set off his quirk while stopping him from fleeing.
“I am proud of you, Izuku Midoriya. I am proud of your battle prowess and how far you’ve come in the short time I’ve known you. We all are.” she stared deep into his eyes, as if trying to convey the message by sheer force of will. Thena could see the tears start to form in his eyes and saw one escape its confines and trail down his cheek. Then she did something that would have Kingo stabbed if he ever tried it, she hugged him. She brought him close and put her arms around his back and shoulders and held him close, attempting to convey all the love she felt for the son she wished she could’ve had. Because that’s what he was to her, her son. She knew Ajak saw him the same way, and that Gilgamesh took the place as the only father he’s ever had. That Sersi and Makkari and Sprite were his sisters and that Druig was his brother. That Phastos was his uncle and that Kingo was the crazy relative that fit both every role and none of them that they picked up and couldn’t get rid of even if they wanted to. He was theirs and they were his. She would find a way to leave the Domo, to get their bodies back even if she had to make Phastos build them from scratch. She would do anything to be able to leave their prison and hold her son close under the clear blue sky. To see him laughing on the beach with Kingo as they chased each other around and blasted the other with stinging beams of light while she watched from the side with Gil beside her. She would do anything to leave the ship and get their lives back with him in it. And Thena always got what she wanted, one way or another.