Muse

Chapter 21

Izuku had listened to the Irumu staff coordinator go on about their facility's capabilities for almost an hour all while taking notes on various details of its square footage and free weight opportunities. So far, it seemed to be outfitted with what he deemed to be an acceptable and potential training facility. He had checked out a few of the more popular gyms, but most of them lacked a weight room or were too expensive for something so lacking in diversity. Others had strange rules that involved logging in your exercise times or not allowing outside equipment to be brought into the facility. After all that research, Irumu seemed to be more and more of a prospective training space; the place even had a pool. Combat capabilities would still be limited, not being as expansive as private training areas like the more well-funded hero agencies by top heroes, but it would do for now while his team was small and money was tight.

Even with him now having a more fleshed out checklist of questions to ask, his tour had gone on longer than he had intended. It had been around five since he had started. What time was it now? He glanced up at the digital clock they had mounted to the wall that flashed 18:21pm. Crap! He was going to be late!

He looked at the pamphlet in his hand that the event coordinator had given him, indicating all of the provided activities and a small map with different room numbers. He had studied it earlier, but now that he was in a rush, he felt so turned around that he couldn't figure out which way was up. Poking his head in through the open doorway, he questioned on whether or not he had the right place. The room was a lot more plain and drab than he had imagined, expecting a training room to be especially outfitted with wooden floors and equipment mounted on various parts of the room instead of a carpeted room with a large pillar and very little furniture. There were people there, but only a slight handful of them and they had obviously brought their own gear, gathering on opposite sides of the room.

"Excuse me, is this the right place for the Ludosport Lightsaber Academy?" Izuku asked, gaining the attention of almost everyone in the room. People of all different shapes and sizes stared at him, but the person that had stood out to him the most was the last to notice him and was by far most shocked to see him there. Alyssa got up from where she had been sitting cross-legged on the floor, her face lit up the instant she realized he was here and for a second the rest of the world seemed to fall away.

"Oh my god, you came... You're actually here!" Alyssa beamed, her long ponytail braid swinging in the air as she scrambled over to him like she was about to hug him. She didn't, thankfully, instead choosing to shyly tuck a loose strand of baby hair behind her ear. "Hi."

"H-Hi," he stammered nervously, a bit unnerved by how bright her smile was and how it made his heart jump inside of his chest while trying to take everything in stride. "Am I late?"

"No, you just made it under the wire. I just... I can't believe that you actually came."

"Well you talked about your class so much that I was curious, and since I was going to be in the neighborhood and tour the place anyways, I figured I'd stop by and check it out. I'm sorry that I took so long to get here. I would have texted you and let you know that I was coming, but I wasn't sure how long the tour was going to last."

"Seriously, don't worry about it. I just can't believe you actually showed up. I mean, I've been trying to get my own sister to come for months, a fellow Star Wars fan, and she still hasn't showed up. Not once, even when we still lived in the states."

"You seemed so excited for me to come, and well, this class, it's... it seemed really important to you." Her expression softened considerably. She really did truly have an amazing smile, like it almost lit up the room to the point that he almost felt almost blinded by it. Her round cheeks were accented by her dimples and had a pair of thin lips that carried a row of straight teeth that foreigners always seemed to have made her smile appear more refined like those celebrities he always saw on the covers of fashion magazines.