Nico felt horribly bare on his journey. Not that he couldn't easily defend himself (there were literally plenty of bones in the ground that he could summon to his will. He was fine!), but not having much packing to do made him feel underprepared. Not like he could do much, but without his sword, and without any cubes of ambrosia or anything , he felt like he was walking to his doom.

Which said a lot.

Regardless, his escort was Mr. Yamada (Yamada-sensei..?), which did help make him feel safe, and less panicky overall.

Being hesitant about how much he should show , although it was likely that Principal Nezu didn't tell anyone the truth. He seemed like the kind of guy to hold all his cards to his chest. Even to his allies.

Before he'd actually left though, he tried Iris messaging someone. He still had some spare drachmas, from.. somewhere.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow. Please accept my offering. Show me.. Will Solace. Of 2016?"

The coin fell through the rainbow and clattered on the ground.

No one else worked either.

His heart sank in his chest, and the reality of it all hit him suddenly. "Oh."

Iris must've faded.

It made sense. If the quirk wars had caused the destruction of so much history, it only made sense that myths would vanish as well. What if everyone had died, and he was alone?

The only thing that kept him standing was the fact that All For One had called Japan godless, not that the whole world was godless.

Quickly, he wiped at any tears that formed. Please be okay, dad.

He wouldn't know what to do if he was gone. (but wasn't AFO able to access the Underworld? Couldn't he have done something to Hades then?)

…

"Mettilo insieme. Sei un Di Angelo, sei più forte di così. Non ti sei rotto allora, quindi non rompere adesso, dannazione." He muttered to himself, taking in a deep breath.

("Put it together. You are a Di Angelo, you are stronger than that. You didn't break then, so don't break now, dammit.")

And the last thing to try before he went.

"..Fuck you Zeus."

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. No lightning strike, no anger, nothing.

And this scared him more than it would've otherwise.

He knew that Zeus was still around because of when he swore on the Styx, but there could've been some filter that only listened to swears.

If Zeus wasn't listening, if he was truly so terrified of the potato man that he wouldn't be the petty bitch he was and react, then they were likely in big trouble.

..Something that terrified the gods themselves, huh?

…

"All ready, little listener?"

Nico snorted. "I was born ready. Plutonis filius sum post omnes." Man, the best thing about knowing dead languages is that you could make inside jokes for days and no one would know. He was thankful that Hazel was willing to help teach him Latin, despite how there was the weird obstacle of how one could automatically translate it in their head, so that was an odd hurdle to jump over.

Greek always felt a little weird, like, ' Μπορώ να το διαβάσω πολύ καλά στις σκέψεις μου, αλλά δεν είναι καν γλώσσα πια. Προσαρμόζεται σε οποιαδήποτε γλώσσα διαβάζετε ή σκέφτεστε.'

('I can read it very well in my thoughts, but it's not even a language anymore. Adapts to whatever language you read or think.')

It just wasn't the same as learning a language for his own, and he couldn't explain it like he could with Latin now, with nominative-accusative-verb. Or nominative at the beginning, the verb at the end and accusative in front of the verb– Just thinking about it gave him chills, because they'd struggled for so long with Hazel feeling like the sentence was off but unable to explain.

But the whole trouble of learning through it all and getting used to it was fun , and getting a chance to test his Latin knowledge made him happy. It was like a puzzle! Although it wasn't like he had many chances to see Latin unless he was visiting Camp Jupiter.

Okay, back on track, Nico! You can get distracted over languages later!

The best shot they had at tracing the steps of what might've happened to camp. What might've happened to the gods, would be to go where they were before, and see what happened.

So it was an all-expenses paid (courtesy of Nezu) trip to America, and if it went well they might arrive back in time for him to then take the Provisional Hero Licensing Exam (he didn't even wanna know how he was made eligible. For all he knew, he was registered as a war veteran with an immortality quirk or something).

So, yeah. Fun.

During the ride, Yamada ended up filling the silence by talking about his students, especially a certain Shinsou who seemed like a cool guy.

And when he finally made it onto the freedom land…

He couldn't help but feel grief, having ended up displaced out of time again , and everything just felt a little raw at the moment.

The Lotus Casino had stolen years away from him. Decades.

And now he'd ended up a century later, with an entirely new world to explore, with its own history, and no one who understood what he went through.

He'd had Bianca before, but now he was completely and utterly alone.

And he'd never missed Will more.

"..Home sweet home."

It felt bitter, really.

The first thing he did was crouch down near a body of water, staring at some of the fish. He made a face, and awkwardly started speaking, however in a low voice because it was, well, embarrassing?

"Er. Hi. Fish. Can you hear me? I know Percy has his own thing where he can understand you guys and he can speak to you, but I have zero clue if that's just because he's Percy, or if you can understand everyone. Αν μπορείτε, μπορείτε να στείλετε ένα μήνυμα στον, er– Ποσειδώνα; Ας πούμε ότι είναι από τον Nico di Angelo, γιο του Άδη. Του 2016. "

("If you can, can you send a message to, er– Neptune [Poseidon.]? Let's say it's from Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. Of 2016.")

…

"Would you need Latin as well, I wonder. ... What am I doing, talking about talking to a fish? I'm honestly speechless at myself."

He was going to blame that on Percy. Although, he technically talked to bones. Or the deceased. Wasn't sure if that sounded any less insane then talking to sea creatures.

Nervously, he stood back up and glanced at Yamada, who looked un-judging.

It was likely he'd been informed this was somewhat of him trying to contact someone he knew from his past, in which he supposed that people had to be open-minded because quirks meant nearly anything could happen.

Talking to fish probably wasn't as weird as it used to be.

Honestly he felt like the fish were kind of judging him, so off to the next location it was! ..To camp.

He was scared to know what it looked like. He wouldn't know what would hurt more. If camp was gone, or if everyone he knew (minus maybe Chiron and Mr. D. Merda , Mr. D wouldn't even be there anymore since it's been a century!) was dead and there were new campers and new faces everywhere.

Well, deep breaths, Nico. He had to do this eventually.

Nothing to fear. It was just camp .