Muse

Chapter 21

"This really means a lot to me, Izuku, you have no idea how much. Thank you."

"Y-You're welcome," Izuku managed, not sure exactly what it was that he had done to make her so happy, but glad that he had. The warm bubble that seemed to surround them popped a few seconds later as the real world encroached around them.

"Who's your friend, Alyssa?" asked a woman with thin wisps of blonde hair.

"Oh right. Guys, this is Izuku. I told him about our class," Alyssa introduced. Izuku could feel dozens of eyes on him now, feeling put on the spot before he gave them a slight bow of respect.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Izuku Midoriya. Thank you for having me."

"You don't have to be so formal, Izuku," Alyssa said with an amiable smile.

"Yeah. We're all nerds here," spoke up another girl who was short by most standards and smelled of bay leaves.

"You look really familiar..." said another, this one belonging to stout man that had a long bubble ponytail at the base of his neck made out of stone. "Did I see you at Komiket last year?"

"Uhh no. I haven't-" Izuku began, already retreating into his shell out of habit while everyone began swarming him at once. They must not get a lot of new people...

"I mean, he's a pro-hero so you might know him as Deku," Alyssa explained, unintentionally letting the cat out of the bag. All eyes were on him now as recognition lit up nearly everyone's face.

"Now that I think about it... hey, aren't you that one guy, Deco something?"

"Deku," Izuku corrected with a nervous smile.

"That's where I know you from! Oh man, no wonder you looked so familiar. Alyssa, you-" said a rotund boy- girl? It was hard to tell by their androgynous face and rubenesque stature -as they clenched onto Alyssa's shoulders with quivering hands, "-are friends with Deku and you didn't tell us!?"

"I... didn't think it was that big of a deal," Alyssa uttered, at a sudden loss of words as she shrugged off her classmate. "Pro-heroes are people too."

"You say that now, but you'd totally freak out if Ground Zero or Hawks walked through the door," smirked the short girl again as Alyssa's face changed many different shades of red before she let out an indignant huff.

"Oh like you wouldn't totally lose your shit if Hawks or, god-forbid, Overhaul walked through the door-" Izuku felt his emotions go from amused to somewhat disturbed at the implications of that last name mentioned before his racing thoughts were interrupted by a loud, resounding voice from across the room. A rail thin man with a dark pompadour and long legs clapped his hands together, causing everyone in the room to stop what they were doing and face towards him.

"Alright, everyone!" he boomed, his voice holding high authority and a slight accent of formality, while the other people Izuku assumed to be the other instructors lined up casually alongside him. This must have been the headmaster Alyssa had been talking about, or at least one of the lead instructors. He was a lot younger than he had been expecting. With such quaff hair and tell-tale narrow eyes hidden behind thick glasses, Izuku could have sworn he had seen him before, but just couldn't place him at the moment. "I know you're excited about our guest, but that shouldn't detract from our class, so let's get started." Izuku watched as everyone with some reluctance began spacing themselves out evenly so that each person had their own space. "Time to do Sally-Ups." There was a collective sigh among the group before everyone began getting into a push-up position. "I want to see solid planks for the first minute."