Momo woke up with a headache and a sense of shame, but when she came down for class, Shine didn't say a word about anything. In fact, she was reading and taking notes. Todoroki seemed better. Iida was rushing everyone to get out the door.

"Where's my math textbook!" Kaminari yelled, freaking out.

"Where'd you leave it last?" Jiro said helpfully.

"I don't know!" Denki said.

Shine reached behind the sofa cushion and pulled out two textbooks. "Here's a math book, based on the numbers on the cover anyway...and I think this is a history one? Hard to tell."

"Oh, thanks," Sero grabbed it.

"Thanks Miss Likstar. You're a life saver," Kaminari said.

"You shouldn't have lost that to begin with!" Iida made chopping motions with his hands, "Don't leave your stuff lying around the common area. It's unsightly."

"Dude, I didn't mean to. It slipped back there," Kaminari said.

"No excuses!" Iida said.

Shine looked up.

"Iida-san, I'm trying to read. Could you yell at your classmates outside?"

Iida looked guilty. "Oh, uh, yes. Sorry..."

"Out of my way extra--" Bakugo shoved Mineta out of his way.

"Hey!" Mineta complained.

Momo grabbed her backpack.

"Are you okay?" Mina asked her, "You haven't said anything all morning."

"Oh, yes, just tired," Momo said hastily.

Mina nodded. "Yeah, me too... Aizawa's been killing us in training this week...It's going to be worse when 1-B joins us again!"

Shine looked up. "Do you guys ever take a break on the weekends?"

"Oh, well, we usually have a lot of homework to finish by then, so we can only spend a few hours chilling," Mina answered, "Unless you're Momo and finish everything early."

"I don't finish that early," Momo said.

"And then you tutor the idiots," Jiro said.

"Hey, she tutors me too," Mina said.

"And Mina," Jiro amended. 

"I've seen you all studying together," Shine said, "but I didn't realize it was tutoring. Girl, I do that too." She laughed. "At home. It's fun."

"Yes!" Momo brightened at once, "It is, isn't it?"

"That moment where someone gets it, finally, after struggling. It's gold," Shine said.

"Exactly," Momo had never had anyone else ever get it before, "It's so rewarding."

"Sounds like hell," Tokoyami shuddered. He couldn't imagine doing that.

"If you need any help," Shine said, "I'm happy to assist. I am a college student after all... Though, no promises for math. I couldn't do highschool math."

"Do you want help?" Momo offered.

Shine laughed. "No, I don't want a math book anywhere near me--Kaminari, you keep that thing the heck away from my space."

"I don't think the common area is your space," Kaminari said.

Shine sat up. "Where I am is my space, dude. I own the ground I walk on." She said that so confidently, and with irony, that Kaminari had to smile weirdly. 

Mina had been considering Shine's offer. "Miss Likstar, you're American, right?" 

"Yes... I really don't see how you could forget it," Shine said dryly. 

"That means you speak English, right?" Mina said.

"I'm speaking it right now, Mina," Shine said humorously. 

"Uh... no you were speaking Japanese," Jiro said flatly. 

"But you could tutor us in English, and we'd get perfect grades!" Mina said, "No one would know English better than you."

"I did do well in it," Shine said, "but, I don't know how much I can help. If you think I'm speaking Japanese... hmm... Let's see..." She thought. "What am I saying now? Mina is asking for help." 

Her voice changed to English, sure enough.

"'Mina is asking for help,'" Momo answered in Japanese. Shine frowned. "So you didn't hear it in English?"

"No, I did. I can understand that much,"  Momo said. 

"What else would we hear?" Mina asked, puzzled. 

"How do you speak such good Japanese if you've never been to Japan till now?" Jiro asked.

Shine shrugged. "Translator app." 

"What--" before Jiro could ask more Iida called them.

"We're going to be late!" The girls had to rush.

Shine fingered her book. "Wonder if they would believe it if I told them..."

Mina actually had every intention of taking Shine up on her offer. She was not doing well in English, and she pestered her the very next day about it. Shine arranged with Wally to switch shifts watching Eri, so she could be available at the right time.

When some of the students expressed doubts about using Shine as a source, Mina said, "What's the harm in it? What's she going to do with English? Anyway, she already said yes."

Well, since she offered, Kaminari, Momo, and Kirishima all wanted help too. Momo didn't need it, but she was convinced she probably did. Shine took a look at their assignments. "This is a bit more complicated than I expected."

"Like, you don't understand it?" Mineta--who was watching, not to get help, but to see how it went and be difficult--asked.

"No, like, you know more English than I thought," Shine looked over it, "Hmm, Mina you have grammatical mistakes, but your vocabulary is decent. Try using the word 'should' here instead of 'need to'." She pointed. Mina nodded. "Kirishima, same thing..." Shine looked at Kaminari's.

"But... yours. I'm surprised."

"It's that bad?" Mineta said.

Kaminari winced.

"No, it's actually not bad," Shine said, "A little simple, but, not bad. What's your study method?"

"Oh...uh, I just watch American movies..." Kaminari said (and read poets, but he didn't mention that).

"Well, all of you should be doing that," Shine said, "Since we're trying to learn Japanese, Wally and I have been binging this thing called anime. I've never watched it before. There's a lot of yelling and unnecessary fan service, but some of it is kind of cute."

"But you already know Japanese. What do you mean you're trying to learn it?" Mina said, "I mean, you can't read it, but you can speak it really well."

"Did you really think I was unable to read it only?" Shine was amused, "You give me way too much credit. Nope, it's not one of my languages."

"She's crazy," Mineta said, "100%."

"Mineta, shut up," Shine said. 

"It does sound weird to say you can't speak it when you've been doing just fine," Kaminari said, "Sheesh, if I were that good at English, I wouldn't need class."

"I don't speak it at all," Shine said, "Well, I picked up a few phrases, and I have some idea of kanjis now, thanks to Momo. But I'm hardly passable... You don't understand, when I speak to you, I'm speaking English, and you're speaking Japanese. But I hear you in English and vice versa."

They stared at her.

"You expect us to believe that?" Mineta said.

Shine looked up. "Since you're not actually participating, how about you go off and do your assignments?"

Mineta frowned. "I can be here if I want."

"Your mistake," Shine shrugged, turning a page. Mineta gave her a nervous look, then muttered something about needing to go to the bathroom and left.

"Any other dumb questions?" Shine looked up, "If I tell you something that is true, then yes, I expect you to believe it. Either you do, or you don't. Stop asking me stuff like that."

They nodded meekly. 

"But... uh... how is it possible?" Kaminari asked. 

"Oh, I call it the translator app," Shine said, holding up her pencil importantly, "Just a fun name for it. Also known as the gift of tongues. A DJ has to be able to understand who they're talking to, right? It would make no sense at all if we couldn't... Didn't I explain this already?" 

Momo shrugged helplessly. She still wasn't sure how much Shine wanted her to share with the class.

"Not to me," Mina said, "But how does it work?"

"The same way my other abilities do," Shine said vaguely, looking down at the text book, "Now, what about this do you not understand? Let's see if we can make it easier..."

The tutoring went pretty well. It was much easier having the concepts explained by someone who could switch between Japanese and English naturally, though it was still hard to understand how that worked. By the time they were done, they'd learned English and more about writing style than they ever wanted to know because Shine got on a roll about it.

[What's funny about this is after finishing this story I did start working as a Writing Tutor irl.] 

On Monday they turned in the assignments, and when they got the grades, everyone had done better. Even Momo had improved her flow.

But Present Mic busted them. "You got Likstar or West to check your work, didn't you?" he accused them.

"Uh... yeah..." Mina said, "Sorry, but we learned a lot, really."

"Does that mean that's off limits?" Kaminari said, guiltily.

"What, no, little listeners," Present Mic slapped his thigh, "This is great! You've shown initiative! Rock on!"

Upon hearing that news, almost everyone in class wanted help. Shine declined to spend every spare moment with them, so they just did it as a group. Bakugo and Todoroki refused to join. The others thought this was stupid.

Shine herself thought it was funny. "Those strong, silent types always want to do things alone," she said, "and then, well, Bakugo...is Bakugo..."

Later that week, the joint training also started up again, and it was nice that they had one less subject to worry about, since it was going to take a lot of time. To all their surprise, Shinso from General Studies joined them. And 1-B was equally surprised. Things got messy from that point on...but he did pretty well...The same couldn't be said for all the hero students.

Not everyone was satisfied with their results...and Shine said they weren't focusing in tutoring later, so they ended up telling her what happened. "Some of the 1-B guys are so tough..." Kirishima said, "I was totally useless." 

"Yeah, Shinso did more than you," Kaminari said. 

Kirishima gave him a hurt look and Jiro kicked him.

"Uh... um, but that was just because no one saw him as a threat..." Kaminari tried (which was not really true). Kirishima put his head in his hands.

"Kirishima, any hero can lose a to a new opponent they had no chance to prepare for," Shine said, "It's not really fair that they all know more about your quirks than you do about theirs. Don't take it personally. You've been set up to have a harder time--uh, no pun intended--than them."

"Why do I feel like if Mr. West were here, he'd say Kirishima could give them a hard time?" Kaminari muttered.

"Because he would," Shine snickered.

"Eh, 1-B are useless weaklings," Bakugo growled.

"You didn't seem to have the easiest time either," Sero pointed out. He scowled at him.

"I agree about one thing," Shine said, "Not the useless weaklings part, but I don't care for 1-B much. I like some of them, but their attitude overall needs a lot of improvement... Not that some of yours don't too..." 

"What? We have a great attitude!" Some of the class protested, "Where do you get off anyway?"

Shine rolled her eyes. "Look, you'll beat 1-B sometimes and sometimes you won't. Luck is involved. That's what Wally tells me. It doesn't matter. Look at what you did overall, and if you think you were trying your best and it just didn't pan out, then that's nothing to be ashamed of. Realistically, you can't win every single fight of your life, so save that desperation for when you absolutely cannot afford to lose. The 'fight to the last man standing' approach is really unwise in real life, unless you've been left with no choice. Don't they teach you that? The value of an honorable retreat to regroup?"

"Ah, yes, they do," Iida said, "but that's not the point of this training." 

"Well, we did do that," Tsu said, "but yeah, it's not really the point."

"I meant though, being able to leave the fight if you know you can't win it," Shine said.

"Our final exams did employ that strategy," Momo said, "But...it didn't work for me." 

"Yeah, but you actually beat Mr. Aizawa," Mina said, "Which is pretty scary...Not as scary as Nezu though." She shuddered.

"Why, what did Nezu do? He's a bear," Shine said.

"No, I think he's a mouse," Sato mused.

"Oh, he chased us through a collapsing city," Mina waved, "We couldn't find an exit. It was terrifying."

Shine stared at them. "And the hero aspect of it was...?"

"I dunno. Problem solving?" Kaminari said, "But all we could do was run and dodge."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure all most people could do was that..." Shine said flatly. 

"We're not most people," Mina shrugged, "so we failed."

"Recovery Girl said Nezu did it that way to get a little bit of revenge for how humans treated him," Deku reflected, "I guess that must have been pretty bad."

Shine gave Deku a look. "Is that actually what she said?"

"Yeah," Deku said, "Why?"

Shine bit her lip. "Excuse me for a second. I think I need to get something out of my room."

She headed upstairs. 

"Wonder what that reaction was?" Kaminari said, completely clueless.

Shine went into her room grabbed a pillow and screamed into it. Then she sighed and grabbed a notebook before going back down.

Wally was getting really sick of being cooped up on campus, and he applied to Nezu for the freedom to leave at will. "Isn't our probation over?"

"Well, technically, there was no time limit," Nezu said, "but, I suppose it could be... Actually, you've been doing so well with Eri, that I've been considering offering you another position."

"What?" Wally said. 

"It wouldn't be official, but we'd increase your pay," Nezu said, "We could file it under Student Care."

"What do you want us to do?" Wally asked.

Nezu sighed. "The teachers can't be with the students all the time, and we have a lot of classes, so, we're looking for some extra support...Would you consider supervising the hero course students? Basically, you'd do what you do now, but, keeping an eye out for their safety and keeping them from...doing anything reckless."

"So you want to give us the authority to stop them?" Wally said. Because you can't control them yourself and this way you can pawn them off on us, he added mentally.

"In the absence of a UA staff member," Nezu said, "hiring more heroes to do it would be publicly suspicious and expensive. In return, I'll lift your probation, and you can spend your off hours as you wish and get passes for the gate... provided you don't abuse them. They'll have to be special passes that don't identify you as UA staff but can't be used by anyone else."

"Do we have to sign something?" Wally asked.

"Your signature can't mean much, with all due respect," Nezu said.

Wally sighed. "I'll talk it over with Shine first." 

"Of course," Nezu said.

"It's clearly using us," was Shine's first thought.

"I know, but, on the other hand, if they think we're working for them, we get a lot more freedom," Wally said.

"Wally, the staff still doesn't trust us," Shine said, "We'll have no real power... not with them."

"But the kids might listen to us more if they think we're official," Wally said, "And that's the point, isn't it? Earning their trust. I don't really like being puppeted around, but we can leave anytime, right?"

"Theoretically, but it's not always so easy," Shine said, "Let's pray about it."

They did so. In the end, they decided to accept because otherwise, there was no real moving forward with the school.

Class 1-A didn't take that information very well.

"The he---! You expect us to take orders from you?!" Bakugo yelled, and though no one else yelled, they seemed to feel the same way.

Wally wasn't used to this reception from kids save for once or twice and still felt at a loss--but Shine had seen it before. She crossed her arms.

"Now listen up, all of you. This wasn't our idea, but we'd like to contribute something useful to this school while we're here. And we live here anyway. If you have an issue with it, you can take it right to Nezu and watch him not listen to you any more than he does to us."

She looked Bakugo in the eye. "You got a problem with that?"

Bakugo scowled. "What if I do?"

"Sucks to be you, I guess," Shine shrugged, "We're not going anywhere..."

But she thought, Nezu is testing the students, isn't he? He's using us to do that... Well... I refuse to play along... Whatever it is he wants, we can't just be toyed with like that.

She struck a different pose. "Hey, can I be honest with you guys?"

"Of course," Iida said.

Shine sighed. "I may get in trouble for saying this, but I strongly suspect this is a test."

"A test? Of what?" Momo asked.

"Who knows?" Shine said, "Maybe me, maybe you, maybe some combination. You don't like it, and I don't like feeling like I'm being played. You must all be used to that by now though. Look, for whatever it's worth, we won't be helping Nezu or anyone else spy on you. Our main prerogative is to keep you safe."

"Since when is that any of your business?" Sero was annoyed.

Wally sighed. "Why is this so hard?"

"Because, Wally, they've been burned too many times," Shine somehow didn't look at Todoroki while saying that. "These students have been through hell in the last year, and they don't need any more problems or any more stress."

The class looked at her in astonishment.

"I never wanted to add to any of that," Shine mused, "but I've come to realize, that UA turns literally everything into a stress-filled experience. You kids can do what you want, but I'm not going to be part of that mess. I intend to live my life how I want to."

"Then how do you intend to be a supervisor?" Iida asked.

"Iida, I can go through walls," Shine said, "I think I can handle watching all of you while you're not in class. I do it already, so it's just making it official."

"You do what?" Kaminari said. 

"There is one rule I intend to implement though," Shine smirked, "None of you better be caught around each others' rooms after 11 PM. I'm looking at you, Mineta."

"Why me?" Mineta said sulkily.

Mina rolled her eyes. "Actually, Likstar-san, if you could just keep Mineta away from us girls, I'd say you're doing your job just fine."

"Hey!" Mineta said.

"Yeah, actually, I agree on that one," Wally frowned at him.

"I don't know if Mr. Aizawa would approve of this," Iida said.

"Feel free to snitch on us to him again," Shine gestured vaguely, "but, it won't do any good."

Iida turned red. 

"Are you going to make us go to bed on time?" Kaminari asked.

"No," Shine said, "but I'd advise it, since Aizawa will probably come over here if you break curfew."

"Well, I guess it can't be helped," Sato said.

"Indeed, this is the hand that fate has dealt us," Tokoyami said.

Shine took their way of saying it to mean they were going to make the best of it.

"On the plus side, we finally get to leave campus," Wally said, "Without permission...so we will not be around here as much as before...I seriously need to get out...Hey, Shine, why not explore the city at night? That's a great time."

"Sounds dangerous..." Shine said.

"Babe, you're with me," Wally said. 

Shine shrugged. "Okay." 

"I do not think that's advised, Likstar-san, West-san," Iida said.

"Iida, save the class rep stuff for your actual class," Shine said, "Don't try to boss us around. I don't do well with that. Don't worry, we won't go clubbing. We just want to breathe...Don't you ever get tired of living on campus?"

"Not really," a few people said.

"Yes," said others, including Momo. "It is a little small..." she added. Then she wondered why Shine and Wally laughed.

Bakugo was still not happy about  the new arrangement, and he told Shine that privately. Yet again, he didn't seem to see Wally as a threat--or else too much of one.  Shine saw a fight was coming when he looked at her sourly, and she really wasn't in the mood for it. Then again, Bakugo had a way of getting anyone worked up.

"Don't think just because you're being given some pity role, I'm going to follow your orders," he growled, "I only do whatever I want. Don't even think about trying to boss me around."

"I won't think about it, then," Shine said, "It doesn't require that much brain power."

"What?" Bakugo snapped.

Shine snickered. "I'm just messing with you... Look, Bakugo, flip. Off. Okay? I don't care about your attitude, I really don't care if you threaten me, and I won't care if you get in trouble for sassing me. The last thing you want is for me to try to stop you myself." She leaned on the wall. "Let me put it to you this way: We'll be sharing the same roof for a while longer, and now I can enforce my idea of decorum. You can't get away from me. And I, for better or worse, cannot get away from you. So we can be friends, or you can keep up whatever this attempt at being enemies is, and I will continue not taking you seriously."

Bakugo stiffened. "The he--"

"Oh shut up," Shine interrupted, "Why should I listen to your blustering? Why don't you say something intelligent instead?"

Bakugo looked ready to murder her. "What do you think I've been saying? You think I'll be afraid of you now?! I'll kill you!"

"Do you ever get tired of saying that?" Shine said, "Furthermore, do you think it makes you sound impressive to me? I've heard kindergartners say worse than that."

Bakugo turned red with anger. "I-- you--"

"What are you afraid of?" Shine said, "You keep confronting me and posturing like I'm scaring you. What is it? Did I offend you in some way? Did I scare you?"

"He-- no!" Bakugo cried.

"Then what is it?" Shine said.

"The frick should I tell you?!" Bakugo cried.

"So you don't know," Shine surmised, "I'm sure you would tell me if you knew... Well, I think I've figured it out myself. Under all that rage you pretend to have, you're just a little too observant for me to believe it... I scare you because you might just be the only one who's started to get an inkling of what I am. But why doesn't Wally bother you the same way? He could mess you up way more than I could."

That was actually a good question.

"He's an idiot," Bakugo said, "I ain't scared of you, but you're tricky, and I don't trust you. He's too stupid to cause any problems."

"He's not stupid," Shine said. "And he could cause you plenty. But, I bet the real reason is, he doesn't really bother taking you on, and I do... Hey, you picked the wrong person, Bakugo. That attitude of yours is just waving a red flag at a bull for me. If you wanted to get off easy, you should never have tried to take me on."

"What?" Bakugo scowled, "What are you on about? You want to fight?"

"Oh, no, I think it's more interesting to keep not fighting," Shine said, "It's like a game to me. How long can I keep this going? I bet I can longer than you can. You don't have much patience."

"What? I have plenty of patience!" Bakugo said.

"If you really believed that, you should act like it," Shine shrugged. "It seems to me you've always been able to get by by screaming at people and glaring. Well, I'm sorry but I've seen too many bratty kids. I don't care about it. You need to try harder to get to me... Why are you so... you? Anyway, you're at the top of the class, what do you have to be angry about? Sheesh, if I had friends as loyal as yours with the kind of treatment they get, I'd thank God every day for that. You seem lucky to me. But you're not happy."

Bakugo gave her a confused look. "Why would you say that?" he forgot to yell.

"You can't be happy," Shine said, "or you wouldn't feel the need to flaunt your power all the time...I take it it used to be worse, though. Kirishima said you calmed down since last year... but even so... Hey, this is Psychology 101. Don't they teach you that at this stupid school?"

Obviously not.

"You don't know me," Bakugo growled. 

"I'd like to know you," Shine said, sincerely, "You do intrigue me... The only student with the guts to voice his real opinion... You're strong." 

Bakugo was noticeably surprised by that.

"But, also weak," Shine said.

"What? I'm not weak!" Bakugo got very angry--or was it fear? He almost looked traumatized to Shine's more trained eye.

"Hey, calm down, I didn't mean power-wise," Shine said, "That's where you're strong. And indomitable... That's just the problem. Your strength is your weakness."

That statement seemed to catch Bakugo off guard. "What? What the frick does that mean?"

"It means..." Shine stopped. "You know what, maybe you should just think about it, if you care to do so. I have a date, so I'm going to leave, and don't try to stop me or I'll pop you into Aizawa's office. With a note." She walked away.

Bakugo was left to chew on all that, and it didn't taste good.