Shine had no trouble finding Moto, as the minx appeared in the hallway when she went after Camie.

Moto was going to look for Camie, actually, but seeing the supervisor, she stopped and tried to look concerned.

"Is Bakugo okay?" she asked.

"It's your quirk. You ought to know better than I," Shine said, raising an eyebrow at her. Now that she was close...she felt all the wrong vibes from this.

Getting closer, she actually could almost feel an aura of disgust.

Shine was something of an empath-- it was how she could read people so well even without knowledge-- and she didn't sense any kind of real guilt coming from this wench.

Moto gestured like she was worried. "I never saw it act that way before."

"Oh, no?" Shine said, "Because I heard from my students that one of your classmates mentioned you put someone in the hospital before with it."

Moto just briefly curled her lip. That snitch, she thought.

"Right, well, it's rare though," she said.

"You can drop the act." Shine was mad. "I can tell you're faking it. You might fool your teacher and your dumb class, but they also think Shishikura's victim blaming is not bullying, so, yeah, that says a lot about them." 

She got a little closer, eyes stormy. "But in my class, we don't treat people that way. And I won't tolerate anyone threatening my students. Do I make myself clear?"

Moto pulled out a nail file and very boredly began using it. "Are you supposed to talk to me like this?" she said slowly, slyly, "My own teacher will handle it. I could probably report this as you harassing me. And how can you say I wasn't sincerely sorry? Like I'd want to hurt Bakugo on purpose."

"I saw the look you gave the other students before you did it." Shine was cold.

Moto paused for a split second... Huh, she'd slipped up. She didn't think Shine was looking then.

"What look?" she said innocently.

"Acting won't get you anywhere with me," Shine said dismissively, "Go ahead and cry crocodile tears. No one else is around. Your act only works on an audience. It will only make me despise you more if you pull that crap with me."

Moto had never been told someone despised her before. [How?!]  She suddenly stopped filing. "What did you just say to me?" Her eyes darkened.

"That I won't buy this."

"No, that other part... You despise me?" She laughed kind of cruelly. "For real? Like I give a d---about what you think. What are you, some illegal squatting at this school? I don't even thinking you're a hero."

Shine paused. But she was hard to read. Even for people who knew her, she could be hard to read, and Moto couldn't gauge if she was threatened or not.

Then Shine laughed dryly. "Cute, yeah, trying to threaten me. You think you'll put me on the defensive, kid? I'm just going to forget who did the bad thing here? I wonder what would happen if I reported this to your teacher. I have the support of other teachers here. What do you have?"

"I wonder why you're so concerned anyway. It's been dealt with," Moto said nonchalantly, "At this point, it's like you just can't let it go on behalf of your student. Seems kind of unstable to me-- Likstar, is it? Who are you again? The class supervisor? What do you even do?"

Shine knew better than to answer that. "You know, I have to hand it to you. Most students don't threaten me in return," she said, not sounding impressed, "Most aren't stupid enough to."

Moto frowned suddenly.

Shine crossed her arms. "I've put up with a lot of crap since I arrived here. I don't care for yours either. You can try to twist what I said to your teacher. I guarantee you it'll bite you in the rear end if you try to screw me over. I won't even have to do anything. My Boss will do it for me. You can be assured, Kali Moto, that I am not going to hurt you, not if you don't attack one of my students. I really do not need to. You'll hurt yourself soon enough."

Kali stared at her. This was the first time in probably years anyone had ever gotten a rise out of her. She glared at Shine murderously.

Shine didn't care. She was used to it by now. "I can't tell if you're gutsy or just crazy," she went on without much concern, "because to threaten me, someone you don't know that well, at a hero school, alone, is kind of a stupid move. There are cameras all over here, and I haven't threatened you yet." She tilted her heard smugly. "I play the game carefully, kid. I'm not stupid."

Kali looked around the hallway warily.

"But sure, go ahead." Shine gestured. "Take a shot. Give me an excuse to say this was self defense, because I will make something clear to you right now." And suddenly she turned on her full threatening aura.

"If you mess with one of my kids again, you will suffer. I'm a forgiving person, Kali Moto, and I'll let people get off with a lot, but one thing I don't screw around with is the lives of my students. It'd be a cold day in hell when I would just stand by and let someone hurt them to prove a point. I will take whatever measure necessary to keep you away from them, and you can tell that to your teacher for all I care. I'd be happy to tell him too. Maybe I even will-- save you the trouble."

She leaned closer. Moto actually backed up a little. "You might scare your class, but you don't scare me, Moto. I'm not some young kid you can scare like that. That victim act only works on people who aren't willing to question why anyone with a power like yours would ever be the victim. It's real convenient how no one thinks that if Camie really was bullying you, as you so clearly wanted it to look like, you could easily stop her and call it self defense. At some point, you just wanted her to beat you up. So either you're a masochist, or you wanted Camie to look bad. I can't pretend to know why that is, but if you play all the people around you for fools, I wonder what you'd do if someone was actually intelligent."

Moto blinked at her. Her eyes were full of both hate and a tinge of fear.

"So," Shine pulled back, "now that we've had this little talk, I really hope this can all be put to rest." She walked away, then looked back. "If you keep up this little game, just know, we won't be taking it lying down. Next time, you'll have a fight on your hands, and you won't get to cry your way out of it. Just think about that." She walked away.

Moto let out a long hiss of rage. Then she clenched her fists. "That b---h... So she thinks she can threaten me, huh?" She smiled to herself. "Fine, so you want to play? I can play dirtier. You'll regret ever threatening me, Likstar. And your pathetic students will too..." She walked off the other way.

[Image design by Onerose, Original template by original designer]

But she had forgotten about Camie and didn't see her and Bakugo sneak out of the class room and back out of the hallway, so Camie was spared at least that much of an uncomfortable situation.

* * *

Camie did get temporarily suspended over the whole thing. She texted Bakugo that later the same day. She also said she was happy about it. Except she'd have a crap ton of homework to catch up on.

Bakugo said he'd help her.

Camie said he was acting weirdly nice.

Bakugo said he was just doing it to stick it to Moto.

Camie sent him a laughing/heart eyes emoji. 😂😍

Shine told all of them about talking to Moto. Momo and Shoto were shocked, but once they heard what really happened from Bakugo too, they felt bad for ever doubting Camie. Of course she would never act that way without a reason.

Shoto, in fact, only wished he'd helped her beat Moto up.

Shine, once she heard what had actually happened, and not just what she'd suspected, was even angrier.

Wally was too. 

"Why don't we pay that little psycho a visit?" He was livid. "Tell her where she gets off picking on a sweet girl like Camie for no reason. I hate people like her."

"Wally, if we do that, she'll use it against us," Shine said, "It sounds like the whole class is convinced Camie is the perp, here. If we go ballistic, that girl will get us fired... I don't like this at all. What teenager is smart enough to pull off a stunt like that?"

"And why? What did Camie ever do to her?" Momo asked.

No one knew.

"Sometimes bullies just pick on an easy target, not ones who they have personal beef with," Wally said. "Happened to me in school a few times."

"And in the JL," Shine said.

"That's not bullying," Wally said.

"No, but you're the butt of plenty of jokes. You're too nice," Shine said.

"I'm too nice?" Wally snorted, "I don't let people yell at me just to blow off steam."

"Uh, is this really the time?" Shoto asked them.

"Sorry, we were having a personal moment there," Shine said, "At least, though, Camie can come over here while she's suspended. I wanted to hear the whole story from her directly, but it'll have to wait till Sunday, unfortunately...or Monday even."

"At least she won't be at school though," Momo said gratefully.

[How is Momo saying those words somehow believable in this story?]

* * *

On the same day all of this went down, Mirko had her own personal business to take care of...and she'd come down to her most dreaded option for it.

She really hated it, but she approached Shigaraki.

"I need you to warp me to this location," she said with absolutely no prelude at all, holding up a map with coordinates.

Shigaraki was playing a hand-held video game, with tape on two of his fingers.

"And why would I do that?" He didn't even look up.

"It's relevant to those freaking ninja getting leverage." Mirko had anticipated that response.

Well, that got his attention at least. He looked up. "What have you done now?"

"I'm not investigating them, if that's what you mean. But I have to take care of something." Mirko crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "I can't be seen going there. This is my only option. And before you say it, I asked Likstar already. She said she couldn't do it. You can use coordinates, right? So it shouldn't be a problem."

"Now just a minute. I didn't say yes."

"You're really going to drag this out?" Mirko tapped her foot more. "We both know you'll cave in the end because it would be stupid not to under the circumstances... If something does happen because of it, I can tell the whole League it was because you couldn't be bothered to take 5 seconds and let me fix it. Your call, genius."

"I hate you so much!" Shigaraki spat.

"Oh, that one hurt." Mirko wasn't to be deterred. "It's not like you've said it a million times already. Get a new insult."

"Get a new personality!"

"Fine, if you want to throw a hissy fit, I guess I'll just start preparing my speech about it being your fault." Mirko mimed writing something. "How should I start? 'Shigaraki is a b----.'"

"Oh, shut up!" Shigaraki grabbed the map out of her hand. "This...is kind of far away... What's out there anyway?"

"Oh, nothing you need to be concerned about. It's a personal problem," Mirko said, "but I can't have those flipping ninjas using it against me, so I'm taking care of it now."

"If I'm going to send you there, I think I should have some assurance it's not another secret hideout situation."

"It's not, if you can take my word for it." Mirko tugged her hair. "I'm not a liar."

Shigaraki considered. "Fine. If it'll get you off my case... And I was having such a quiet morning until now."

"Oh, please, playing that?" Mirko sniffed, "I'd say so. It's so freaking easy a toddler could win."

"You shut up!" Shigaraki snapped.

"Is everything all right?" Compress looked in the room.

"Everything's fine. Go back to making eyes at Silk," Mirko shot back at him.

"Silk is not even out here," Compress said, offended, "and you left the coffee maker on again. Do you think we all enjoy the aroma of burnt coffee?"

"I know it wakes me up in the morning," Mirko replied, unrepentant .

"Typical." Compress walked away.

Shigaraki rubbed his temples like this was giving him a migraine.

"Let's just get this over with."

Black ooze appeared.

* * *

On the other side, Mirko coughed and blinked. Well, here it was. Home sweet home.

[Here's some fun context facts for you if you're wondering about Mirko's family. She's hispanic --at least by one wiki source. According to the internet, Chicanos are the second largest group of immigrants in Japan, and the Brazilians and Peruvians represent the largest Latin communities. So it turns out my jokingly making her ancestry Brazilian was actually the most statistically likely thing she'd be.

In Latin America, both Brazil and Peru are also the two countries with the largest number of Japanese inhabitants. Which could explain why her family would move to Japan, as they clearly must have done. 

Since, again, the show will likely never cover any of this, it's fun to dive into it and try to guess what her backstory might be based on these context clues. You're welcome, people who take interest in that kind of thing.]

She wasn't happy to see Shigaraki had come with her, however.

"Hey, what the h---?" she demanded.

"Like I was going to just take your word for it," he snapped, then, "Where the frick is this?"

The street had regular looking apartment buildings on it, but the decor around was decidedly foreign. There were smells of strange food coming from some homes.

Mirko looked around. "What?" she said.

"This doesn't seem like anything special." Shigaraki was expecting something to do with the cult.

"It's not, really. Go away before someone sees you," Mirko said.

"Hey, is that the number five hero!" some kid called in Spanish, looking at her over their front gate.

"Ah, s---" Mirko sighed.

She waved with a forced smile. "Hey, no pictures okay," she yelled in Spanish at them.

They knew that tone.

They put their phones down, disappointed.

"I've gotta hurry before the whole neighborhood sees me." Mirko bee-lined for the apartment directly across from her.

Shigaraki followed.

"Why are you still here?" she snapped, ringing the doorbell.

"Just how did you think you were going to get out of here 'undetected' if I wasn't here?" he shot back.

D--- it, she forgot about that part.

Well...it's not like he'd probably have any way to use this against her, right? It wouldn't matter, as long as they did as she said...for a change...

"Fine, just don't touch anything or talk to anyone," she hissed.

"I still don't see--" Before Shigaraki could ask what the heck they were doing here, the door opened.

Rumi's mom had answered it.

She blinked. "Rumi? What are you doing here? I've been calling and calling and now you just show up?"

She swatted her in the head. "You had us all worried for nothing! Well, don't just stand there, come inside. The whole neighborhood will have the paparazzi here any second... Who's this?" She looked at Shigaraki.

"From work," Mirko said, with a look that dared him to contradict her.

Shigaraki had absolutely no wish to say anything here. He was not ready for this.

So "personal" hadn't been a lie, huh?

"Well, come in, viente," her mom said.

"Look, mama, this is kind of importante," Rumi began.

"So importante you can't sit down and talk to your mother you haven't seen in 2 years!" her mom scolded her before she could finish. "You missed Christmas again!"

"I told you why, and I'm serious. I don't have time to chit chat--" Rumi tried again.

"Manny, Rumi's home!" her mother yelled towards a different room, "Oh, you can just sit down there." This to Shigaraki.

Shigaraki didn't want to sit down.

But Mirko glared at him like, "Make this look suspicious, and I'll break your arm."

So he sat down.

"Mama, why are you yelling?" a girl's voice called, and Rumi's sister appeared-- well, one of them.

"Reiko, look who finally came home," her mom said.

"Elder sister, Rumi." Reiko didn't look all that excited to see her. "Hi... Wow, slow day for you, huh? Thought you'd be off fighting a monster or some s--- like that."

"On my way." Rumi frowned. "Look, where's Papi? If you won't listen, I'm sure he will--"

"I'm right here, mija." Her father finally appeared out of the den. "Wow, I wasn't expecting you to come over today. Sorry, we're not really ready for you..." He zeroed in on Shigaraki. "Is that one of your coworkers?"

"I don't really have those, Papi, but it has to do with work, yes," Rumi said, annoyed, "And I have to talk to you and Mama about something really crucial-- if we can hold off the pleasantries for now."

"But you just got here," her father said.

"Yes, but there's no time." Mirko started speaking in Spanish: "This has to do with someone threatening me."

Her parents exchanged looks.

"Ugh, I hate it when you talk in Spanish..." Reiko whined, "So much harder to keep up with... What was that about--?" 

Rumi kicked her.

"Ow! Hey, that hurt!" She kicked back. She was also a bunny, so it hurt.

Rumi shoved her away. "Buzz off, little sister."

"I'm not that little. 16 months!"

"And yet you still live at home."

"Yeah, you know how expensive it is to move out around here?" Reiko shot back, "All that funding for heroes, you know.  Anyway, all my friends still live at home too if they aren't married. What's the big deal? You don't even live anywhere."

"I live everywhere."

"That's the same thing." Reiko walked away. "Whatever. I'm eating the last piece of carrot cake unless someone wants to wrestle me for it."

"Hey, don't you dare!" a different girl's voice called. It was Rina, the sister after Reiko. "I'll murder you! I had dibs."

"Oh, if you snooze you lose, b---h," Reiko snorted.

Rina bounded in (also a rabbit) and tackled her into the kitchen.

"Girls, please don't break anything..." their dad winced, "We just cleaned it this morning..."

Rumi snorted. "I see nothing's changed around here."

"You wouldn't know if it had anyway," her mom sniffed, "Well, what's so important you can't even sit down and have a meal with us?"

"It's about a mission I've been on," Rumi said in a lower voice, "How many of us are home? I know they all eavesdrop whenever I'm around."

"All your younger sisters are home," her dad said, "but I think the other two were listening to that loud rap music they like and doing their nails, so they probably aren't listening. And your other sisters went out or are at work. Ren's home though. He doesn't have classes today."

"Oh, great, the one voice of reason in this casa loca," Rumi said.

[I really struggled with my limited Spanish vocab for this part. I don't trust Google Translate.]

"He's studying, so don't bother him," her mom said, "Will your guest want anything?"

"Oh, no, he's just waiting for me to finish so we can get back to work," Rumi lied smoothly, though it wasn't totally a lie.

Shigaraki was fiddling with one of the table decorations nervously, probably not even on purpose.

"He looks kind of sick... Is that his quirk?" her dad asked, "You can never tell what gimmick these hero people have..."

"Yeah, he's not sick." Rumi rolled her eyes. "Just ignore him. Listen, I can't give you all the details, but...I came to warn you to stop trying to contact me. I'm basically going off the grid for a while except for work."

"Que?" her mom cried. ["Nani", or "What", if you don't speak Spanish at all.]

"Off the grid? Why?" her dad asked.

"I can't explain. The less you know the better," Rumi hissed in a lower voice, "Some bad people are out to get me. It's nothing I can't handle though, but I wouldn't want them to find all of you. In fact, it might be better if you go visit Tia Dolores for a few months."

"Uh...go to Brazil? This time of year?" her father said, "It would be a mess of tourists..and who's paying for those flight tickets?"

"I'd pay for it, if you'd just go. Come on," Rumi insisted, "The farther away you are from me, the better."

"What kind of trouble you got yourself into, Rumi?" Her mom frowned. "This better not be like that time that gang was after you for beating up one of their members."

"Mom! I was 16! You really think this is going to be the same thing? Pro Heroes have lots of enemies."

"I don't know. With your checkered past, how should I know what kind of enemies you have?" her mom said.

Rumi almost felt steam come out of her ears.

"Oh, mi amor," her father tried to calm her mother down, "I don't really think now is the time to cast that up to her. Rumi is a fine hero now. Actually, I hear you moved up a ranking again."

"So what else is new?" her mom grumbled.

"Yeah, I'm number 5 now," Rumi said, "so that's a thing. But I'm serious about leaving the country...and I was never here, by the way. If any strange person approaches you about me, I don't care how harmless they seem, just play dumb."

"So, like you." Reiko came back in munching on cake. She had a cut above one eye.

Rina walked past muttering swear words.

"At least I'm not basic," Mirko said to her in Spanish.

"Your outfit is basic," Reika shot back, grinning.

"What's all the noise?" Her brother Ren came out from the back room. "Oh, Ru-chan, you're here? And you didn't even text. Typical," he grinned, "Beat anyone up today?"

"Nah, but it's only 11 am if you want to get in line," Rumi said.

"No thanks. I'll pass." Ren glanced at Shigaraki and did a double take. "Uh, who's this guy?"

"He's from her work," her dad answered for her, "Be nice, and don't show him that new item you brought home."

"His loss. Rumi, what made you visit finally? I bet it's not that you missed us," Ren said. 

"Nope," Rumi grinned, "Actually...huh." She pondered. Ren would probably believe her faster.

"You know, I'm going to go take a look at this item of yours. Sounds dangerous."

"Oh, it is." Ren grinned. 

"But, honey, I thought you were telling us about this threat?" her father said.

"And Mama is always saying I should visit more, so I'm going to visit," Rumi shot back.

Her father backed up. "Okay, I guess...and, hey," this time to his wife, "maybe we can talk in our room for a moment."

"What about our guest?" Her mom eyed Shigaraki.

"Oh, the girls will probably keep an eye on him," her father said.

Reika and Rina eyed him like panthers. "Sure," Rina said.

Her parents left.

Reika cocked her head. "Ever hear of chapstick?"

Shigaraki stared at her.

"I don't know though." Rina turned to her. "If you look past that, he's kind of cute. Looks like a hobo though. Not what I'd peg Rumi for."

"Yeah, you're not her boyfriend, right?" Reiko said.

"What the he-- is that?" Shigaraki leaned away.

Rina snorted a laugh. "He's funny too."

"You'll love my toy. Come on," Ren said, leading Rumi to the back room.

Shigaraki got up and followed.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"I'm not staying out here with them, and I'm not going outside in this neighborhood," Shigaraki said.

"What? Most of them don't carry blades," Mirko joked.

He gave her a weird look. 

"Sorry, that was kind of in poor taste... Stereotypes..." she said.

[Yet again all stereotypes are meant as a joke, not statements on Latinos. Though, to be honest, Japanese people could also be carrying blades.]

"No, he's right," Ren said, "Reika and Rina will definitely eat him alive if he stays out here. They're like rabid rabbits around anyone who works in hero biz, except you, Sis... More like rabid leopards, there."

"Gee, I feel so special," Rumi said flatly.

Ren led her into his room and shut the door.

"All right, what's really going on, Sis? Why do you have this guy with you? Isn't that the head of the LOV?"

Rumi blinked. "What? How did you know that?"

Shigaraki wanted to kill her for admitting it.

"Uh, I watch the news..." Ren said, "without subtitles... I mean, come on, all of us would know if the others gave a d--- about it. Plus, they have posters up at college about it."

He glanced at Shigaraki. "Name's Ren, by the way. My friends call me that. My enemies call me Mr. Tinker, which is supposed to be an insult, but I own it."

"That's right," Rumi said proudly. "What did I tell you?"

"I did stop getting beat up," Ren said.

"At college?"

"No, at high school. No one at college fricks around with a tinkerer," Ren said. He picked up something off a desk. "For the record, this is all I brought you in here to talk about. It won a contest."

"Cool, what does it do?" Rumi asked.

"If I showed you, you'd probably break it over my head," Ren simpered, "and it's no fun to just tell you. So what gives, Sis? Why are you hanging with this dude? He looks kind of crazy."

"He is, but believe it or not, the alternative is worse," Rumi said, "All right, look, I'll tell you, but you have to keep this under wraps."

"Do I get a say in this?" Shigaraki interrupted.

"Why would you?" Rumi said.

"Sis, I think he's concerned about you blowing some secret," Ren said, "Well, you never were any good at keeping them. Remember my birthday?"

"But Ren is cool," Rumi said, like it would be obvious, "He's the only person in this freaking family with a brain."

"Ah, thanks, Sis." Ren patted her head. He was at least 6 cm taller than her.

"Don't do that." She twisted his arm.

"Ow...oww... All right, I give, I give..." he begged for mercy.

"Just...how many siblings do you have?" Shigaraki was lost.

"Counting Ren?" Rumi said, "8."

Shigaraki almost choked.

"We breed like Rabbits," Ren said, "That's what Mama says... Her fault, you know. She's got the Rabbit quirk. It's pretty dominant. Oh, you're probably thinking I'm way too close in age, right? I'm the youngest. But Rumi is the oldest of one set of quadruplets, and then there's the second set-- that's what Reika and Rina are in, and then I was the only single one. Hopefully that will soon be amended..."

"Tch," Rumi snorted.

"And the only one without a physical type quirk," Ren added, "but I own it. I work in hero support at school. Rumi used to help me test my devices when I was a kid. I started by setting traps to keep my sisters from stealing my food. Kind of evolved from there."

"Necessity is the mother of invention," Mirko said.

"I'm dying to hear the story behind this," Ren said, "and don't worry. My room is the only sound proofed one in the house. Did it myself. Didn't want my sisters eavesdropping on all my chats with my friends."

"See? Legit?" Rumi said to Shigaraki.

Shigaraki just wanted this to be over.

"Fine, but he better not tell."

"I won't," Ren promised, "but I want all the juicy details."

"All right, but don't interrupt me," Rumi said.