Shine and Wally visited with Dabi as well as everyone else before going off for the wedding. It was the first time their mentees were going to be separated from them for longer than a few hours or a day.

It felt odd.

The other students had gotten used to it over the 6 weeks, but even they admitted it was still rough.

"I never thought we'd depend on them so much," Mina admitted, "but it seems like they always there with what we need. I almost forgot how little we got along at first."

"Indeed," Iida agreed.

"It's humiliating to think about," Tokoyami said.

That said, Momo, Shoto, and Bakugo were all going to the wedding, so they spent some time discussing that, what to wear, and who they might meet. Camie and Momo exchanged a lot of photos of potential dresses, makeup, and jewelry.

While these happier preparations were going on, Shoto noticed Dabi was kind of down when he did visit him.

"Your house arrest is up next week," he said. "I thought you'd be more upbeat. Aren't you dying of boredom here?"

In their time in the other world they'd grown closer and become more like regular brothers. Shoto hadn't noticed it, but Dabi could feel the difference between how Shoto treated him and how Fuyumi and Natsuo did.

Fuyumi did her best, but she couldn't make up for years of  separation with just a few visits here and there. The months living together had done what good intentions alone just couldn't.

Dabi did feel more optimistic that he and Fuyumi would work it out though, once he had his freedom again. He didn't know if Natsuo was ever going to let the past go though. He remained stubborn.

Endeavor...it was amazing how the 6 months away had made Dabi care very little about the past with him. He'd met a lot of worse people than his dad in the ninja world and had started to see, through their eyes, why his dad acted the way he did. He'd even come to pity him in a way.

He was much nicer to Endeavor when he did stop by. They didn't act like father and son, but he was not the harsh person he was before either.

Endeavor noticed the change and didn't even feel he deserved that much courtesy, but at least he didn't start up any more crap with him over it.

And, after all this time, he'd thought it was time to broach the subject to Rei...who still didn't know about Dabi at all. Somehow the hospital had kept the news from her. She was about to be let out of it, too.

Endeavor thought they should just meet then. But it would be better to tell her about Touya ahead of time. He wanted Shoto and Fuyumi to do it at first, but Fuyumi said they all should. It was all their responsibility, and Rei had even said as much about Touya herself, in the past.

Dabi had all this to think of...but it wasn't why he was down. He couldn't tell Shoto about how he'd ended his stay in the other world, with the girl he'd met here, because it was too hard to even talk of.

[Get your minds out of the gutter. It was just a kiss. Trust me, it's a great ship but is mostly in the other story. You'll get it's fulfillment in this one, so you're welcome. You'll never guess who.]

"I guess I don't really believe it yet," was his excuse.

"I don't blame you." Shoto was so much nicer than he used to be, it was hard to get used to. "But it'll be good to get out of this house, won't it? And not be in a death defying situation, that is."

[Laughs in narrator.]

"Not so excited about where I'll be doing my community service." Dabi said.

That was the height of irony.

When the topic had been revisited, the court had been assured of Dabi's behavior had been nearly perfect, with a few minor incidents of him being snarky to a guard, but it hadn't come to more than a warning. The fear of screwing it up for his family had kept him from pushing it, and Shine and Wally's encouragement had made him feel better about accepting the humiliation of the situation.

But the judge had to decide where he could be trusted.

And since Endeavor had been taking responsibility for it all, and it would look good, they were only too happy to shove it onto him. [Don't tell me the Hero world wouldn't do this.]

So Dabi's community service was going to be doing secretarial work at Endeavor's agency.

Shoto had really thought he'd die of horror when the decision was made, and Dabi had thrown a fit at first, but Shine had given him a pretty severe lecture about it.

"It will be a test of how far you've come," she'd said. "They think if you'll screw up anywhere, it will be with him. If you can do this, you will prove that you are not the same person, and no one will have any reason to scrutinize you so closely again. Even if they try, this will be proof you can control yourself. Stick it out for 18 months, and you can do whatever you please after this. It's a small price to pay for being able to get away from him for the rest of your life."

Put that way, Dabi knew it was true, even if his pride didn't like it.

"I do want to stick it to them," he said. "They think I'll snap, working with Dad, and I thought I would too, but after that time in the ninja world, he's just not that scary now or even that infuriating. As bad as he is, I can admit I did more of it to myself than a lot of the kids there ever did, and they got worse treatment from their dads. I mean, at least he didn't stick a beast in my stomach or murder my whole clan."

Shoto could hardly believe he could joke about it...or that he himself could almost laugh. "Yeah, I guess compared to Gaara we are lucky. I mean, Dad was horrible but he didn't try to kill us. I think I see why Shine is always saying we had it better because he tried to change."

"Not that I'm going to kiss up to him," Dabi made a face, "but I figure I can annoy him up close this way and not get caught. I'll just be subtle about it."

"I'll be interning with him again," Shoto said. "For my second year, we're doing a lot more on the job work. Midoriya and Bakugo will too. So we'll see a lot of each other...which in the past would have been reason to switch agencies, but now I kind of think I should keep an eye on you in person. Miss Likstar can't do everything."

"You see, I more of thought I need to make sure you don't die while she's not around," Dabi said, "because I would miss her chewing you out too much."

"Momo said she might try interning there too," Shoto went on. "I mean, he lost a few people since the Meta thing happened, so he needs more, and she says she feels like she could try a more combat heavy thing now. She's learned to work with us so well, the fire theme wouldn't bother her. We could use someone with better strategy skills. I talked to Dad about it. He says he needs more people like that. He wants to change more of his image."

"Ugh, makes me sick," Dabi said. "The worst of it is, he's sincere."

"I know." Shoto rolled his eyes. "But it's better than not trying at all, and maybe he's right about one thing--Shine and Wally always paired us up based on differences on our mission, and it worked out much better than working here with similarly quirked people has done."

"I guess I can stand another 18 months of you," Dabi said. "After 6 straight months, only seeing you on school days ought to be a nice break, honestly."

Shoto made a face at him. "I'll miss the others though...even Sasuke, as hard as it is to believe. It won't feel the same doing missions without them."

"Heh, we're going back soon enough anyway," Dabi said. "You know Likstar said we'll be checking in often for a while. They'll need more help."

And he thought to himself, I'll have to find some way to avoid her.

* * *

Nothing much happened in the LOV in the week or so that all this took place in.

But that didn't mean nothing was changing.

Mirko and Shigaraki were both becoming a bit more self aware...and the effect of it was to make Mirko anxious to appear more normal--and Shigaraki just the opposite.

So she tried to talk and act normally, but it wasn't fooling anyone else.

He tried to avoid her without actually avoiding her, but also to keep an eye on her. He still thought Hawks might be trying something.

While that went on with them, Medea was preparing to take the entrance exam to UA.

Spinner and Kitsune officially started dating after the club incident, as she finally talked him into it. And he was convinced by now that if she was using her quirk on him, enough time had passed where he'd become immune anyway.

Compress and Silk didn't fight anymore, and she seemed to have accepted her place with them for now.

Twice...was Twice, and Toga...seemed to perk up a bit that week, actually.

All in all, they were busy but not stressed. Their biggest worry was Ujiko might return with another plot against them. They hadn't heard from him since he disappeared, but maybe he'd given up. His last speech to Shigaraki and the rest had seemed to indicate it.

* * *

What really happened to Ujiko was this:

After retreating from the scene, he'd gone to one of his other hideouts. It only had small amount of equipment but better than nothing.

But he received an unexpected visit the day afterward, from an old connection.

"Dorimu Maroborshi," Ujiko said. [Dorimu-Dream, Maroborshi--phantom/vision/illusion, apparition--same root as part of Camie's Hero name, from the looks of it, which I think is MaroboroCamie, or a shortened version of it].

"Maruta Shiga," Maroborshi said. [His real name, referencing WWII victims of human experimentation.]

"I go by Ujiko now," Ujiko said.

"I go by Akume," Maroborshi said. [Means nightmare. I can't help but think 'Fly my little Akume.']

Ujiko adjusted his goggles. "I'd love to catch up, old friend, but, I have to admit, I'm surprised to see you here in person. We haven't really met face to face since that medical convention 5 years ago."

"Yes, our correspondence didn't seem adequate for this," Maroborshi, or Akume, said, sitting in a desk chair. "You'll recall the sponsor I told you about."

"Yes." Ujiko sat in a different chair. "I have been trying to finish up. I keep being delayed. You know why--those people." He made a disdainful face.

"Yeah, well, we are working on it," Akume said. "So far my attacks have not gone through, and our source says they aren't even in world right now."

"No? I thought it was odd they didn't show up," Ujjko said. "That explains it. Lucky break for us."

"Is it?" Akume frowned. "Or is it them preparing for some final move? It would be optimistic to hope whatever their business here is will be finished quietly and with no inconvenience to us."

"Well, what can I do? I can't attack them. I have no resources left," Ujiko said.

"Yes," Akume said, putting his hands together. "Well, that is what I came to help you with, actually."

He slid some diagrams toward Ujiko. "My lord had a feeling you might not be able to eliminate the Pro as easily as you wished, and that you also might need some resources. He has an eye for this like this. So we have prepared arrangements for you."

Ujiko glanced at it.

"This is a lot larger than my last lab," he said. "And this is for my use?"

"You'll have to share it with a our other scientists, but they won't take up much room. Mostly they just focus on the special cases," Akume said. "Plenty of space for nomu, and we even have some new specimens ready for you to begin on."

Ujiko looked up. "AFO would be pleased to know this, but I assume this isn't coming for free."

"Nothing is free," Akume said, "but you can repay us once you've had time to rebuild... I believe we have found a way to speed up the process. You'll find working together directly will make things so much easier. And then, we can strike at our targets together. Enough with separation. I think you'll find your master agrees with us."

"AFO? Is it time, then?" Ujiko said.

"Yes, our lord has decided the time is come," Akume said. He shook his head. "It would have been better if any of those idiotic cults could have done the job. Those of us in the legion really prefer not to be in the limelight too early, but we are out of time. If we're lucky, the lower levels can still handle this. I'd hate to have to personally deal with it. I hate blood and gore."

"Neither of us are fighters," Ujiko said. "We're men of science. Why should we get our hands dirty?"

"We'll help you and AFO finish what you want with that boy and his little friends, as long as you help us eliminate our obstacle--and yours too. Everyone wins."

Ujiko smirked. "Except them."

"Except them," Akume agreed. "So, ready to move?"

"Only too ready," Ujiko said. 

[Despite the late introduction, I had planned this character for a bit, actually. There are going to be a lot of new ones in this last stretch of the story.]

* * *

[There will be spoilers for my Naruto fic here, a lot of them, for one character at least, and Dabi's role in it, so if you want to be surprised, skip this section. But if you want a teaser, feel free.]

From all the other's heard, the DJ's wedding was great.

[I may or may not post it, not sure. It's kind of just fluff. Slight drama with Dabi, but that's about it.]

Shine and Wally were gone for the allotted week, longer to them, but they came back at the end of it, as promised.

They seemed to be fully refreshed from their time away, with, for once, no life threatening situations or any stress at all. Shine said the honeymoon had gone off without a hitch--no one in Wally's world had almost ended it.

She said that so casually, the students wondered again how dangerous Wally's world was.

The kids had told their classmates about meeting Wally's friends.

"They were really cool," Kaminari said, "especially Batman and Superman. And this cool guy, Green Arrow. He had a hat."

Jiro's favorite had been meeting Shine's musically talented friends.

Momo had gotten to meet some royalty and hit it off with them.

Shoto had mostly just hung out with the ninja people who'd come and caught up with them, he wasn't much for making new friends.

Dabi had...had an awkward time.

Not as awkward as he had when they all went back to the ninja world just a few days later, but it was only for a couple hours in this world. They were back by dinner time.

"Just a minor emergency," Momo told Jiro. "Someone kidnapped a friend of ours, and the Raikage wanted to blow up the moon. It's okay, we averted the crisis... The only thing is, I hear Dabi had a very odd conversation with one of our friends there...and...she's...uh...well..."

"She's moving here?!!" Aizawa yelled at Shine later in his office.

"It wasn't my idea, I swear." Shine held up her hands. "It's one of those odd cases... I think we were just meant to show her her path. She's...got world travel in the blood, you could say. She's been called. What else can I say?"

"She's not living here!" Aizawa said. "You can't possibly expect me to allow another person from a different world in here!"

"No, no," Shine said. "I don't want Nezu to know about them anyway. I was just hoping, maybe, you could help us get her a place to live...since you have legal papers... She needs those too."

"What?"

"She's staying forever," Shine said. "I mean, she has nothing left in her world anyway. We became like her family, the kids and Dabi especially. That's partly how she knew it was time."

Aizawa rolled his eyes. "And this won't affect UA?"

"No, she's not going to be a student--she's older than I am," Shine said.

"Look, Likstar, I'll help because we owe you, but I'm not taking care of your pet alien," Aizawa said.

[Again, all make sense in the other story, but you guys will love this character, trust me.]

It was just a few days of prepping, with Miss Joke's help, before Shine brought the woman there.

Her name was Mabui Tsukura, the kids told the other students. And she was...well...she had been a ninja.

Out of curiosity Kaminari and Jiro and the rest of the Bakusquad came with the others to welcome her to world. Miss Joke was letting her stay at her house until she got one of her own.

It was a weird situation.

But they didn't expect what they did see.

Mabui Tsukura was a very petite, slender woman with light brown skin and platinum blond hair and large greenish blueish eyes, who looked like she should be on the front of a magazine. She was so pretty.

And unlike Bakugo's description of most of the ninja, she was neither aggressive, nor sullen, nor an airhead. She acted like anyone else you might meet in an office would: She greeted them politely, asked their names, and remembered them right away.

She was bit less formal with the students who she'd met before--and Shine.

Shine told the squad that she was shy with new people and professional because she'd been the secretary for a king-like figure in her world, but she was retiring from that now. Times were changing.

Momo filled them in a bit more while Mabui was out of the room being shown how to work some of the newer tech in the house.

"We met her in the last village we stayed at on the diplomatic trip," Momo said. "At first, she thought we were kind of rebellious radicals. She and Dabi in particular didn't hit it off, but Shine talked him into trying to befriend her, and he did, and he started teaching her. Shine said it was good experience for him to try to teach someone else...and she turned out to be a really quick study. Then we found out her family had this ability to teleport that was a very altered, weakened form of portalling, and they'd acquired the ability thousands of years ago from an older DJ who visited their world, and she was the last of her clan to have it."

[All backstory I came up with, since none was provided by the canon show. I'm rather proud of it, actually.]

"Wow, that's so cool," Kaminari said.

"Yes," Momo said. "Well, we ended up fighting this group who wanted to use...well, these things called Tailed Beasts to tear a hole in the dimension of that world. Apparently that's how the beasts got there. [That was canon, believe it or not.] She helped us close up the rift with her power, and we were able to heal her from the effects--You see, misuse of that power can kill you over time, it turns out."

"What?" Kaminari said.

"It's dangerous?" Jiro said.

"Not how Shine does it," Momo said. "She has special protection, but if you don't have that, it drains your life force. It would have drained Mabui's, but we helped her, and she's learning to use it the right way now. She's catching on fast too. She's actually a genius."

"Oh, cool," Kaminari said. "Like you."

Momo blushed. "Smarter than me, I think," she said humbly. "And she's a real sweetheart, really, once she warms up to you. But...after we left, she didn't feel like she blended in that world anymore. She was fascinated by our stories and the idea of other places, and then she felt this calling to come here and help us. We told her all about trying to change things here, with the other world, and it's a lot like hers, actually, but she thinks she'd have more influence here as an alien and newer perspective, than she would at home as just a secretary for a Kage. Plus, she has no family and only a few friends, and she likes us, I guess."

"That's sweet," Jiro admitted.

"Yeah, and..." Momo hesitated, "I kind of think...she and Dabi might be...a little more than friends..."

"You're kidding me." Kaminari's eyes were huge.

"No," Momo said.

"Wow," Jiro said. "He goes across a dimension to get a girlfriend, huh?"

"They aren't dating. It's just a suspicion, really," Momo said, "but Shoto told me they kissed or something. He wasn't sure how it happened. Dabi only told him in a fit of nerves."

"Wow, hard to picture that from Dabi," Kaminari said.

"He actually more shy than he seems," Momo said. "I got to know him really well in the last several months--uh, weeks, I guess, here. But I feel like we're family now."

"Well, that's a good thing," Jiro said meaningfully, "because you probably will be one day, huh?"

Momo reddened but didn't even deny it. She and Shoto had gotten even closer on the trip and both of them thought marriage was probably in the future if they dated till the end of high school. But neither was the type to say it until more time had passed, so it was more a mutual understanding.

"It's going to be weird to have an alien here though," Kaminari said.

"Denki, we've had two aliens living with us for almost a full year," Jiro said.

"Oh...right...but they don't seem like aliens anymore," Kaminari said.

"Give her a few months, she'll seem normal too," Momo said. "I just hope we can find her a job.... Our cover story for her is that she's not registered because she was raised in a quirk free zone, and she wants to integrate into society. Luckily, that's technically true--she has no quirk of course, and any medical exam will back that up. She'll be able to get papers and things all new because of that. I have to say, it's lucky we met that Kayla Baker, or we'd never have known about these loopholes."

[Incidentally, I'm kind of glad I wrote this all out of order, because I needed a reason for Mabui to be able to integrate into this world already, and I hadn't thought of one till I wrote about the Originals. So it worked out.]

That said, it would take a while to get Mabui processed.

* * *

About two weeks passed, in fact, without incident. At least not one they heard of.

Shine and Wally were, they thought, preparing to leave this world more permanently, and they were doing their best to get Mabui situated, help the kids prepare for it, and tie up any loose ends because of that. Though no one talk about it, they could sense it was the reason they were focused on it.

The kids were sad, but the ones who'd been with them on the mission kind of understood why it had to be.

"You have to go," Momo said, "or they won't learn on their own to carry on. It's hard. I mean, I think of them all the time, but we'll visit them, and it's also exciting to think what they will accomplish without us. Does it make sense?"

"It's a teacher thing," Shoto commented.

"They have to fight for themselves," Bakugo said.

Camie agreed. 

Everyone was also getting ready for their second year to start up at UA. Aizawa was already rethinking some thing about how they would teach the kids going forward, based on what he'd learned. 

He was also trying to legally adopt Eri.

With all these changes going on, it wasn't surprising that no one gave the Villains much of a thought.

But Shine and Wally had just come back from taking Mabui to an interview for a job and to pick up her new ID that their friends had pulled strings to get her faster than usual, and they were in a good mood.

But it ended when All Might intercepted them on the way into the dorms.

His face looked like death itself.

Their good mood evaporated.

"All Might?" Shine said slowly.

Wally grabbed her shoulder.

"I have...news," All Might said.

Before he could say it, Shine knew what it was. She just knew.

"All For One escaped," she said.

All Might blinked. "You know already?"

"I knew by your face and...just...insight..." Shine said.

"Oh..." Wally said.

All Might shook his head. "It was early this morning... They checked the whole prison to be sure it was true before alerting me. They have no idea how it happened, but he is gone. He's not the only one. The Giant they took in, he's gone too."

Shine gasped slowly.

"Who else knows?" Wally asked.

"I was going to tell Young Midoriya and Bakugo," All Might said, "but other than that, only Principal Nezu, myself, and a few members of the police force and government know about it other than the prison themselves. They want him found as soon as possible, but if they let this go public, there's going to be panic. The Villain that only I could defeat, without me being there to defeat him...you can see what would happen."

Shine and Wally nodded.

"Nezu wants to talk to you," All Might said. "With your skills, you could be useful tracking him down. If you'd be willing to talk to him."

"I guess we can't say no," Wally said. 

He meant that saying no would look too suspicious at such a time, and Nezu would use it against them, but neither of them believed for a second that Nezu was at all surprised by this development. How could he be? If they'd seen it coming, he had too.

All Might walked off slowly to find Deku and Bakugo.

Shine and Wally walked toward the office, but after just a moment, Shine said, "And Shigaraki?"

"I'd bet you a lot of money, he had no idea," Wally said. "We could have told, last time we talked to him. He would have seemed different."

"I agree, no way he could hide it. He's like an open book where AFO is concerned," Shine said. "But he'll know soon enough. If we don't tell him, someone else will. AFO will contact him somehow."

"Yeah," Wally said. "What do we do?"

"I don't know," she surprised him by saying. "This is one time I really don't know." She shivered, scared. "Either course of action available to us could swing this the wrong way or the right way, and I can't tell which I would do. We must call our entire team together. We can't hide this from them. After we talk to Nezu. Bakugo will know we need to, but we'll have to be careful how we do it. We can't have Nezu know we did."

"Yeah, hey, don't worry." Wally put an arm around her. "We'll know what to do at the right time. We're a team. Now more than ever."

Shine nodded. But she still looked grave.

[Hmm. I know you all knew it was coming, but doesn't it just hit different actually happening? I'm scared already, and I know what's coming--actually kind of why I'm scared.

This is going to be a very intense arc. I hope you're ready.]