The blackboard was filled with English phrases. The math exercise was long gone. But not from her head.
Summation followed the distributive property.
Her book was doodled with those words, followed by an example. She didn't quite understand how she had been able to finish that exercise. In hindsight it looked quite simple. However, she didn't even remember moving her hands to do that. She made a ton of wild guesses, but not a single one of them made sense.
With her mind busy making up theories, the Muse was daydreaming once again. She heard the lectures but wasn't listening. The only sound her hearing picked up was the low hum of her ringing ears. It was annoying, yet fading away.
There was a sudden drop in tension in class. It only took her a few moments to realize that the English lecture was finished. With that, the young man in front of her turned around with a stern but soft expression.
"It is not typical for you to arrive so late to our morning classes. Are you feeling unwell?"
"Not anymore! I was feeling a bit down yesterday but I woke up just fi- AH! I somehow slept through my alarms! I almost thought I wasn't going to make it. But… yes, Iida, I imagined myself being as fast as you and here I was."
Iida briefly inspected her apologetic look before answering back. "I take pride in being useful even when I'm not physically present. However! You mentioned that you were feeling unwell?" He swiftly raised his hand. "You should have gone to the school nurse if that was the case! In the end, they're here for our well-being!"
"It wasn't anything serious; I was just tired so don't worry about it. I woke up late, sure, but I am full of energy. Look!" She threw a couple of punches into the air as she got up from her seat. "Peak performance!"
"You were also quite sharp in those math exercises. I'll believe you then, but don't take too many risks." He adjusted his glass as he also swiftly stood up. "Shall we get some lunch?"
"Yes please, I'm starving. I didn't even have-" Her words were cut off with a brief yelp as somebody covered up her eyes.
"Who am I~?" A cheerful voice prompted her from behind.
"Geez, you scared me Mina!" The Muse escaped her grasp, turning around to face the sudden aggressor.
"Whoa, you're on edge today." A cheeky smile formed on Mina's lips. "Were you expecting someone else or maybe it's something that happened yesterday?"
"Sorry for the intrusion, but my friend here hasn't had anything to eat since she woke up." Iida mentioned, standing up for the Muse.
"Ohh, I'll join! We have to chat about the Christmas party, right? Oh, and Mr. Class Rep! The blackboard hasn't been erased!"
Iida frantically turned around and robotically headed towards the board, abandoning the conversation.
"Now now, tell me anything juicy that happened yesterday. Did you have fun with Deku?" Mina commented, leaning against the glass wall on her right.
"Fun? Well, we did manage to get everything from the list."
"I don't mean that! Look at him, he's been whispering with Bakugou for quite a while now, I didn't even know Blasty could talk that low."
She followed Mina's gaze. Deku and Bakugou seemed to be barely holding up their conversation, but for some ulterior motive they were handling it with just a bit of luck. Whatever they were discussing, it was lost between the chatter of the rest of the classroom.
"They've been like that for quite a few months. Well, normally there are more yells." The Muse mentioned. "What about it?"
"Clearly something happened between you two yesterday, right~?" Mina said while nudging against the Muse's shoulder. "That's why they're all whisper-whisper!"
"It's been a while since we were able to go out, but nothing happened! We just spent time together and..."
She wanted to say that they helped someone along the way, but something prevented her from saying it. She opened her mouth again to no avail. Why couldn't she say it?
The sudden lack of words was caught by Mina's keen eye.
"And…?" Mina muttered, closing the gap between the two of them.
"Nothing else, I swear!" She took a step back, looking around for an escape route. "Iida, are you done yet?!"
Just in time, the class rep appeared beside them ipso facto and herded them towards the exit. Mina made a quick and easy to see lie when he asked her about what they were chatting about.
A voice stopped them as they left the classroom.
The Muse's ears perked up as they picked up a familiar sound. Four syllables, recognizable yet unknown. She clearly understood what they meant but her mind wasn't processing it.
"Uraraka? Are you there?"
She bit the inside of her cheek as she heard the same sound again. That person was calling to her, wasn't he? Yes, of course. Her mind was having trouble understanding the situation, but her head had already sent out an automatic response.
"Oh, Deku. You're not staying with Bakugou?" She spurted out.
"What? I mean, I always eat with you guys so…?" He was caught off guard with her answer, clearly expecting her to already know why he was following them.
"I mean, duh, yeah!" A nervous giggle escaped her lips, as her face flushed with embarrassment and cheer. "You just caught me daydreaming a bit, that's all!"
The rest of the group greeted Midoriya while she felt confused at the sudden spike of emotions inside her. It wasn't love for Deku or the plain happiness of being with her friends. It felt like an accomplishment. The accomplishment of listening to her name felt astonishing. Was she really that glad to hear Deku say her name? It wasn't the first or the last time. So why did she feel like that?
She kept speaking and continuing the flow of the conversation. Iida was gesturing as dramatically as always while Mina argued with him about the Christmas party they were going to throw. Only Deku had caught something out of place with her, but didn't want to push her around for information.
And then there she was, confused at her own random happiness. Confused about waking up late. Confused about the situation with the math exercise. But so far it was just that, confusion. And that confusion hadn't developed into fear.
It had just been a strange day, that's all. Tomorrow she'd be fine, surely.
His trembling hands slowly put down the body and head of the puppet. He held tight his right hand from trembling, and started to look for a pencil. A few moments after finding it, he grabbed the sketch he had drawn yesterday and stared at it.
How should he write her name? He didn't know the kanji. After a bit of a fuss, he just wrote it in the basic hiragana script, and below it, in Latin script.
Uraraka.
That felt good. His heart felt more in sync with her after today's session. He even got to experience her Muse's social group, or at least part of it. It would be needed if she had to fit into the play.
His eyes slowly made its way towards the unfinished puppet. It was still in its infancy. The light brown color of the wood was not pleasing to the eye. The head had no hair, and besides the colored sclera and iris, there was barely any shine to it. He could focus on structuring the body meanwhile, but getting the puppet proper hair was a priority.
With that in mind, he slowly headed out of his workshop.
It had been only a few hours since he had contacted Rummager, the information seeker. His trembling hands wouldn't allow him to continue with the puppet for a while. So he turned to the left as soon as he stepped out of his room, and headed towards her.
His daughter's bedroom.
Yesterday she was very happy when he told her about his last project, and the amount of progress he had achieved in a day was astounding for someone so rusty.
The creaking wooden floor slightly gave in as the old man traveled towards the bedroom. Humidity had always been a problem in this house. A problem for his wooden statues and furniture. A problem for his health as well. But those were tolerable. It was all for her in the end. He wouldn't forgive himself if his daughter died for his selfishness.
He knocked on the door.
"Are you awake?" A few silent seconds passed before he continued. "Good, I know a lil'bit more about… Sorry, could you repeat that?"
Tanaka bit the inside of his cheek and forced his glare to the ground. "It was just an officer asking if there was trouble, nothing else. And no, I didn't go with him before, I was just checking up on a friend. You know him, the man with long greasy hair."
The low humming sound of wind passing through the small gaps in the wooden ceiling forced the man to slowly shift his weight, leaning against the door.
"I made a promise, remember? No more putting myself in danger, for you." He whispered. "Regardless, this project is going to be a bit troublesome, my hands might get a bit dirty and I will have to pull some strings, but believe me, the stage play will be worth it. This is all because you deserve the best."
The old man smiled after a few more seconds passed. "Of course, she's as perfect as I believed, you'll love her! She's a very cheerful girl, with splendid friends. She also wants to be a hero, just like you. I'm not sure if you'll be able to meet her, but you'll see tiny bits of her, that's for sure. After all, I wouldn't want to spoil the story for you."
"What? Ah, you want to know what inspired me to write the play? I can say as much. Parasitism. Yes, parasites like the Emerald Cockroach Wasp, a wasp that controls cockroaches, lays an egg inside their abdomen and then the larvae feeds on its insides until a matured wasp bursts out. Or the Lancet Liver Fluke, a very interesting parasite that lets ants have a normal life, but every night it's manipulated to leave the nest, bite a blade of grass and wait for a chewing cow to bite."
The old man sighed, released his trembling hand and added a final comment. "But most importantly... You could say it's a commentary on how I've suffered due to other people's greed. A fitting play to end my story as a puppet maker."
"Don't be sad, you knew it was going to happen. But don't worry, before I'm gone I'll make sure you never have to suffer again."
With that, Tanaka headed towards the staircase to prepare dinner. He had abused his quirk too much. Something someone rusty should never do. He had also skipped most of his normal routine, lunches, dinner, breakfasts… He needed to be at his best, and abusing himself wouldn't help.
Tomorrow he'd tell Rummager about the girl's name, and then everything could start rolling.
The set up could finally begin.