Everyone was beat, but they still had dinner together before Keitsu was set to leave. Miss Joke was the life of the party, if there had been a party...the other teachers looked bored or amused by turns. 

Though Shine hadn't fought Bakugo, she was right that he wasn't going to forget about it, he kept scowling at her whenever they were in close proximity.

Wally still didn't like that, and finally he asked Midoriya what his deal was. Midoriya looked uncomfortable.

"He doesn't like it when people think they can beat him. I guess... I'm still figuring it out myself."

"There's more to it," Wally muttered, but he left it alone.

Shine left early to change and got cornered by Miss Joke on her way.

"You and your man are quite the mystery couple," she said plainly. "Not easy to find out about. But you're not bad in training, despite clearly lacking full mastery of your quirks and fighting style, at least you are... None of it adds up. But I'm guessing you won't explain."

"You're right," Shine said, meeting her eye. "But don't take it personally. It's a complicated situation."

"I'm not taking anything personally," Miss Joke shrugged, then she flicked a card out of her wrist (or so it appeared) and held it out to Shine.

"But if you ever need help, let me know."

Shine took it and looked at her puzzled. "What did we do to merit this? Why would you offer personal help to someone you don't know?"

Miss Joke shrugged and smiled. "I am a pro...but more than that, I think you and your bf are interesting. You get people. Whatever reason you're here, it's gotta be good. I observed you in training, and you seemed considerate, kind and willing to listen to your teammates. It'll be interesting to see what you do in the future."

So to her it was like watching new students. 

Shine was speechless for a minute, but then she said. "That's not very much to go on."

"Pros have to trust our instincts," Miss Joke gestured nonchalantly. "Why should UA get all the mystery?" 

"Should I warn you that being friends with us might mean being enemies with others?" Shine said, quite seriously.

She felt the need to caution Miss Joke especially since she was not part of UA and not stuck with them, so to speak. Miss Joke probably had guessed that though.

"UA's under a lot of pressure. We heroes need to stick together now if we're going to weather this through. Whatever you're planning to do, you'd better realize that." 

"I do," Shine said quietly. "Thank you... the kindness of some here is unprecedented. I find it humbling..."

"Mmm," Miss Joke nodded. "Well, good bye Likstar. Stay in touch."

"I'll do that," Shine agreed. She was surprised to find a friend anywhere, but she felt more optimistic after talking to her.

"She seems cool," Wally said, when they sat in the hallway between dorms later, and she told him what happened.

"I liked her, but I didn't expect her to reach out," Shine said seriously, "it's unusual...I feel like a misfit most places, and people tend to avoid helping me..."

"Me too... I think it comes of being the hero all the time. It's not personal, we just are on top of things-- at least, we need people to think we are." Wally winked.

As cute as his way of super-handling might be, Shine wasn't sure it would work here. "I think she's a good ally to have. At least we aren't sending off a threatening vibe if she trusted her students around us."

"Why would we be threatening?"

"In my world...people would suspect us, we'd be a liability in more ways than one." Shine considered the unpleasant bureaucracies that dominated much of her society.

"Let me ask you something," she fingered the card. "What made you trust me? When I first came...or when you did really. Diana told me you defended me from the start. Why?'

Wally cocked his head. "It was so long ago.. it all kind of blurred together... but I think it was just a feeling, someone needed help, I wanted to help them. Didn't matter how she knew us, or how she had inter-dimensional friends, she was a person in trouble."

Shine looked down, smiling. "And when I came to help longer? And wasn't the one in trouble?"

"Anyone who'd help a fury leave Apokalips is fine by me... and you kept helping. I knew that was the real deal."

"I didn't expect that at the time, but I guess I felt the same way about you, you helped people all the time and more than just the saving. It's not easy to trust, but it was like you said, a feeling. Maybe its instinct."

She looked up. "It was best for me. I fought getting help, but I needed it. I think the same rule applies now. There's a reason she offered. We'll need her... some of what she said sure sounded like a warning though."

"Okay," Wally found this a lot less complicated, but if Shine saying it made her feel better, then he was good with that. Funny how he never used to think about it.

While Shine leaned on his shoulder and seemed out of words, Wally's mind went back to how he'd gotten here. About 1 1/2 years ago now, Shine had world walked her way into his life and flipped his perception of different dimensions upside down. It wasn't like his league work at all. He'd sensed that at first, and it hadn't changed over it. Shine had connected to a side of him his other friends only caught glimpses of, and had brought it out.

He hadn't even known this was something he would like until then. She did is so unassumingly, though that, she probably didn't even realize it. That made being nice to her easy for him. He wanted to protect her... the strain this mission was putting on her was hard on him, he was used to superheroing, the powers didn't bother him. It felt like he needed to be doing more than that to help.

But what? he couldn't make the difficulties go away, it would be simpler to go after the villain himself and two years ago, he might've done that without a second thought...but he'd begun to learn patience on these trips. Shine always waited for the right time, and he had enough experience now to know rushing to a battle like that in a new world and one you had no context for, was a terrible idea. His typical approach was out. But he wouldn't worry about that.

"You know, you've been really good for me too, Sunshine," he said at length.

Shine sighed in a relaxed way and said nothing.

* * *

Things settled back into a normal routine for the school and became almost too quiet to last. But, coincidentally or not Shine found herself finally getting some of the things was being taught (the hard way) in Aizawa's class. Her reaction time was shortening, though still slow compared to the students. She was learning to plan more moves ahead than before--and she was actually good at it, to Aizawa's surprise, as he really thought she was going to be too over confident in practice. 

By the weekend after Keitsu, they needed a break, and Shine convinced Momo to go with her and Wally off campus...after getting permission to do so from All Might, who out of all the teachers, really was the only one who wasn't suspicious of them still.

Aizawa was not pleased to learn that he'd let them leave. 

"But it was just to the beach," All Might protested. "And don't you feel sorry for them, being cooped up on this campus."

"They are being kept here for observation." Aizawa said sternly. "It's been weeks, and we still don't know who they are, and you just let a student leave with them!"

 All Might looked up. "Aizawa, I appreciate your concern, but, hasn't it occurred to you that with their powers, if they wanted to disappear with a student, they could have at any time?"

Pause.

"Think about it, they asked respectfully, and got permission," All Might said. "I think they want us to trust them. If we keep them happy, they have less reason to break the rules."

"So you put more thought into it that it would appear," Aizawa grumbled. "Fine. I suppose we can keep track of Yaoyorozu. The school should let us track the students."

"That would be an invasion of privacy..." All Might said. "But, there's plenty of pro heroes around there already, I'm sure she'll be fine."

Momo had the same thought about their powers.

"Could you leave at any time?" she asked them.

"Sure," Wally said. "But why would we want to? We're getting food and rooms."

"Yeah, who knew being a refugee in a hero world would be so comfy?" Shine said humorously. "But, you aren't worried we'll spirit you away, I hope?"

"Uh..." Momo had considered it. "I think you would have already by now."

"Darn straight," Shine said, which was not the most comforting thing to hear. "I don't like to waste time, if I'm going to kidnap someone."

Momo gave her a strange look.

"I was kidding," Shine said. "Sorry, uh, poor taste I guess. Look, we'd have nothing to gain by doing that. We want to earn trust after all. So don't worry about it."

Momo nodded. "But, that means, the teachers keeping you on campus is..."

"Just a formality?" Wally guessed. "Yep, pretty much. But don't tell them I said that, it might hurt their pride."

"It's not entirely useless," Shine said. "As long as we have to comply in order to be allowed to do what we want, it's important we don't cross them. But, I prefer not to discuss this further with a student, I'm sorry. It feels wrong."

"Oh, of course, I shouldn't have asked," Momo looked down.

"No, it's okay, you're smart, you're going to think of this stuff," Shine waved off her concern. "But a lot of it might be better to figure out for yourself then to ask us, they won't like it if we tell you what they're doing. Their whole goal is that you won't worry about it."

Momo had to think about that. She thought back to their prior conversation. Now that some time had passed, it didn't seem so weird.

She really should talk to Shine about that again, but she'd been avoiding doing it, somehow that would make it all more real. And she had a hunch it would change something, however she decided to deal with it. But she'd pretty much worked out what she thought. In a way the Keitsu-Butsu High visit had helped with that.

A day spent trying to work with people and seeing Shine purposely try to bridge some sort of gap between classes had given her plenty to think about. She wasn't sure why Shine was doing it this way, but she liked the quality of friendliness in people, since she herself was often shy.

Something drew her to the pair, she thought it might be how close they were to each other. Their relationship seemed both grounded and sweet, like they just genuinely cared for each other.  

But she didn't bring any of this up to them, because, unfortunately, they ran into some villains on the same beach. Heroes arrived on the scene almost at once, the villains were in the water anyway, but  Shine and Wally both booked it with Momo in tow.

Shine said she'd never hear the end of it if they got close to something like that, especially with a student. The speed which Wally got them back to UA with made Momo think it would be a pretty rare villain who could even see them, let alone hurt them, but she knew the teachers wouldn't like it... and Aizawa was angry.

"They came out of nowhere," Wally told him. "We were barely there for 5 seconds once we realized what was going on... I probably could have handled them, honestly, but low profile, right?"

"And you think dashing out of there at top speed is keeping a low profile?" Aizawa said.

"No one even saw us leave," Shine said. "Unless there was a high security level camera. What did you want us to do? Stay there?"

"You shouldn't have left the school at all!" Aizawa said. "What part of that was unclear to you?" His eyes glowed red.

Shine and Wally exchanged a glance. "No one would have noticed us, Mr. Aizawa," Shine said evenly. "Momo is more famous, thanks to your public festivals you have."

"Are you blaming the student?" Aizawa said.

"Of course not" Shine said." "But this world is dangerous, isn't that just inevitable? At least we weren't fighting with the villain this time. The villain never even saw us. Please don't take this wrong, but, aren't you overreacting?"

Aizawa seemed to pause so he could control himself enough not to strangle them with his scarf.

"It's true, villains will show up anywhere, but you don't have the experience here to avoid them. Unless, your story is not actually true."

Shine and Wally gave him a look.

"Us being smart enough to run makes us liars?" Wally said.

"With that logic, sir," Shine said. "I wonder that anyone here passes your approval."

Of course, it could be argued, not many actual pro heroes did pass Aizawa's approval.

Aizawa sighed. "All Might let you leave, so I can't really reprimand you further. But exercise caution. It would be better if you didn't leave without supervision."

"Duly noted," Wally sighed, nodding resignedly.

Shine bit her lip. "I understand."

"Did you get in trouble because of me?" Momo asked when they returned. 

"Nah," Wally waved nonchalantly. "We just had to explain what happened. Don't worry about it--Momo? Man, I need a nickname for you." 

"A what?" Momo said oddly.

 "Wally has a nickname for everyone," Shine explained. "It's sort of part of being his friend. You've heard mine, no doubt....hmm. What does your name mean again?" 

"Depends on the spelling," Momo said. 

Shine thought. "Doesn't it mean Peach? Like on Avatar?" 

"Does it?" Wally asked. 

"I'm not sure that's actually correct---" Momo began uncertainly. 

"That suits you though," Shine said. "I mean, sweet, and all that." 

Momo was a little embarrassed, "But that's not really what my name means..."

 "Well, it's all good," Wally said carelessly. "So, Peaches, like I said, don't worry about it." 

"Peaches?" Momo said. 

"We'll be fine," Shine said, walking away. Wally left too. 

[Momo does mean Peach in Japanese, but Momo's name is not spelled that way in Kanji, it actually means more of "a large number"or maybe "100" the exact English hard to figure out for it. In this story, though, Shine and Wally are both Americans who are not going to grasp how that works right away and would get the first meaning stuck in their heads.]

The following day of the weekend, Momo wanted to visit her parents. She decided to invite Shine and Wally to walk part of the way with her because Shine had expressed an interest in learning more about how trains worked in Japan... apparently, the woman had never even ridden a subway in America.

"I drive my own car," She said, shrugging.

"Same," Wally agreed. "I never take the train either."

Momo's family had a car, but she didn't mind taking the train. Aizawa gave them a pass because he though it would be harmless enough, though he still had his reservations, he knew All Might had a point about not making them feel trapped. 

While on the train, Momo tried to show Shine how to read the schedule. Shine rubbed her head and sighed. "I don't know if I'll ever be able to read this language."

"Of course you can," Momo said. "It's just going to take a little more practice. You already picked up some of it."

Shine sighed, then signed something to Wally and he signed something back. Momo raised an eyebrow.

"I just said, 'sign language was easier'" Shine explained.

 "What are you going to do while I'm at my house?" Momo asked.

"Well, you said you live in a rich neighborhood right?" Shine said. "I was planning to walk around and gawk at the houses like a tourist. It'll be like visiting the rich part of Hollywood."

"Sounds like a plan," Wally agreed. "Of course, it's all for research purposes." he winked at Shine. 

Accordingly, that's what they did. Momo had a nice tea with her parents, and filled them in on school activities. She decided not to mention her new friends to them since UA was keeping it a secret. She was supposed to meet Shine and Wally at the train station, since they didn't have phones.

So she had to leave on time. No doubt they'd be there, Wally could speed them there even if they got carried away sightseeing. But she didn't find them when she got there. Momo reasoned they probably had gone to the wrong one by accident since they couldn't read the signs. Wisely, she didn't panic. They'd just search around until they found her.

She took a seat. She texted Mr. Aizawa to let him know they might be a little late. She started checking on her assignments... after a bit, a commotion distracted her. She went to the outside of the station, maybe Shine and Wally had run into some trouble, but it wasn't them. People were running by saying they saw a fire down the street. Momo rushed that direction, thinking it must be a house fire, but instead it was coming from an alley.

Glancing down it carefully, she saw one of the league of villains members was there, having just burned...some people perhaps? Momo backed up real fast. What was he doing in a such a public place? She should get out of here and call the police. She turned and came face to face with a different villain... the Twice one? 

"Look what we have here," he said, then "I have no idea!" 

Momo swallowed.

"Twice, who are you talking to..." Dabi came out. "Oh, I see. Wow, this must be our lucky day after all. That's one of the UA kids."

"It is?" Twice said.

"Yeah, you idiot, that's the Creation One." Dabi said dryly.

Momo tried not to panic. This was bad. But clearly an accident right? So they probably didn't have a plan to capture her. Maybe she could distract them until the pros arrived. 

"Wha-what are you doing?" She asked.

 "None of your business," Dabi said. 

"We'll tell you!" Twice said. 

"Twice, shut up." Dabi said. 

"Sure--No way!" Twice replied.

It was getting really unnerving. Momo only knew either of them from TV coverage anyway, and Todoroki and Midoriya's brief description. 

"Since you're here, we should use you," Dabi said to her.

Momo must have looked unnerved. 

"Oh relax, we're not after that sort of thing... but blood, on the other hand...Crazy could use more of that."

He grabbed Momo's arm. "Don't try to struggle or I'll set this whole street on fire for real."

Momo wanted to grab her phone and alert someone but he grabbed her other arm too and started leading her away.

"We're out in the open," she said. "Someone will see you."

"And that will hurt us how?" Dabi said. "I'm sure you know by now, we can escape anytime we want. All that does is make you heroes look bad. It was really stupid of you to wander around alone, I have to appreciate your arrogance."

"I--" Momo was going to say she wasn't alone, then thought better of it. "I guess you have a point" she lied instead. "But, I wasn't going to look for villains."

"Yeah, life is crazy like that isn't it? Now shut up," Dabi said.

Forcing her into an alley, a different one.

"Hmm the police will be here soon--they'll never find us!" Twice said.

"We still have a few minutes," Dabi said. "Where's Crazy?"

"Right here, Dabi," Toga's voice said, way too cheerfully.

"Did you get it?" Dabi asked.

"Of course," Toga help up some vials of blood. "Oh, what's this?"

"A bonus," Dabi said.

"Another UA specimen." Toga pulled out a syringe. "Perfect."

Momo's stomach twisted. She should probably just try to escape now---but what if Dabi made good on his threat? This wasn't the place for a fight, and against three villains? She would never be able to win. She cursed herself for not being able to make up her mind, but that just made it worse.

Right before Toga could do anything, though, something whizzed past the alley.

"What was that?" Twice looked.

"Sounded like a--"before Dabi could finish, something knocked the syringe out of Toga's hand, and shoved him away. Momo didn't see more than a blur, but she knew it had to be Wally. He shouldn't be revealing his powers! The staff had warned him not to do that!

"The he--- was that?" Dabi grunted.

Twice just put his hands up like he didn't want to be hit. Then, another voice spoke.

"Hey, I know you!" It was Shine, she was staring into the alley at Dabi and Twice and Toga.

"It's that b---h from before!" Toga cried. "And someone else is with her!"

"You again?" Dabi said. But he looked a little wary of attacking. "Are you the personal body guard for these idiots now or something?" 

"What are you doing?" Shine asked tightly. "Step away from them, Momo."

Momo started to move, Dabi grabbed her arm, and lit his other hand on fire. "Not so fast, why should we give her up? There's no other pros around, and I don't know what you are, but I'm guessing, not a hero. You've got a freaky sword, but you're not that fast. I can kill her before you do anything. And your speedy friend seems afraid to show himself. Why don't you just back off?"

Shine stared at him. "You'd kill her if I don't do as you say?" She said strangely. "Why would you do that? She's just a teenager."

"The he--- do I care?" Dabi said, tightening his grip. "It's not my fault she can't defend herself."

"I have every confidence Momo could beat you if you didn't threaten her," Shine said evenly. "You said you'd set this whole place on fire if she doesn't comply, right? Momo, I just want you to remember, that we have a lot of disaster relief training. This is no time to panic."

Momo frowned, what did that have to do with anything...oh... She pressed her lips together. 

"Sure, tell her not to panic, all you heroes do is lie about stuff to keep these stupid kids complacent about the situation," Dabi said mockingly.

Toga was sliding a knife out of her sleeve.

Shine was watching her. "I don't lie, actually. I don't have a reason to. People lie who have something to hide, something to prove, or something to forget. I wonder which one you're lying for."

"Huh?" Dabi was confused. "I didn't lie-"

Momo formed something like a staff out of her arm and jabbed him with it. He let go with a jerk and started swearing.

Momo ran out of the alley and got behind Shine.

Toga lept at Shine in the same moment, knife out, Shine knocked it out of her hand, and then slammed her into the wall with the flat of her sword.

Wally grabbed both women and ran off before the villains had time to recover, Twice had done nothing but cower.

The pro heroes arrived a few minutes later, but the villains were gone.