The following day, the students gathered in the designated training area and talked about what the exercise might be while they waited for Miss Joke's class. Shine and Wally were talking too.

"I didn't say anything yesterday," Shine said. "But, did you see a muzzle on Bakugo? Or was it a mask?"

"Didn't it look like a muzzle?" Wally agreed. "But, it couldn't have been one, he sure seemed angry though... he wasn't picking on you was he?"

"Do you think I'd let a teenager pick on me?" Shine said. "I was just having some fun with him."

Bakugo walked up to her right then. "After, b---h," he said, scowling.

"Hey," Wally said angrily, "don't call her that! That's your only warning, I better not hear it again."

"Or you'll do what?" Bakugo said.

"How's running you into the ground sound?" Wally said.

"Wally, he's a teenager," Shine said.

Wally frowned. "Right, I forgot for a second."

"Still not smart," Shine leaned to the side, and regarded Bakugo coolly. "Insulting me in front of my boyfriend. You don't think things through do you?"

"Whatever, I'll still kill you," Bakugo said.

"It'll be a cold day in hell before you'll kill me, kid," Shine said, fearlessly.

Bakugo did a double take. "Not if you half-a-- it like before."

"Oh please, you don't want to see me at full power." Shine said. "But, we did have a question for you. In the UA festival, you won right?"

Bakugo scowled. "I don't count that as a victory, that half and half b-----d  didn't try his hardest."

"You did say that huh?" Shine recalled. "Well, that's nice and all, though not a strategy I'd apply in real life, I mean. If the villain underestimates you, so much the better-- but anyway, was that a muzzle they put on you?"

"Eh? What?" Bakugo glared.

"We're not judging, we just couldn't tell what it was," Wally said.

"Yeah, it was a g--d--- muzzle, so what?" Bakugo said.

"Could you not say that around us?" Shine said, a little uncomfortably. "I don't care about the rest, but saying God + anything rubs me wrong."

"The he- would I care?" Bakugo said.

"Okay, if I beat you in a fight, will you not?" Shine suggested.

"I don't owe you anything!" Bakugo said.

"Miss Likstar!" Aizawa said. "Mr. West, are you antagonizing my student?"

"You have this kid in your class every day, and you're asking us if we're antagonizing him?" Shine retorted.

Aizawa frowned. "Bakugo, don't bother them."

"Oh he's not bothering us, this is fun," Shine waved nonchalantly.

"Fun?" Aizawa said "What are you saying to him?" he narrowed his eyes.

"Well, we watched your festival," Shine said. "And I just had one question about it."

"About his violence?" Aizawa guessed.

"Oh, no, about the muzzle." Shine said. "Does UA make a habit of publicly humiliating students?"

Aizawa stared at her. "Are you questioning us?"

"Uh, yeah," Shine said, folding her arms.

"I suggest you mind your own affairs, Miss Likstar," Aizawa said. "We keep our students in check however is necessary."

Shine burst out laughing.

Wally gave Aizawa a bizarre look. "They aren't animals, dude."

"I really don't see how it's any of your concern, you're here to learn, I suggest you keep a humble attitude," Aizawa said.

"Oh, you're putting us in our place," Shine said, smiling like try me. "Well, rest assured Aizawa, we aren't here to threaten your position. It was just a question. We can drop it."

"Good," Aizawa said. He walked away. 

"He bought that?" Wally said.

"Let's not start a war on our first week," Shine said. "I want to have fun today, Miss Joke is cool. What do you say, Bakugo? Looking forward to it?"

"Only to destroying them," Bakugo said.

"Do you always talk like that?" Wally said.

"Like what?" Bakugo said. "And why are you two losers getting in my business? Screw off!"

"You mean the festival? It's not personal," Shine said. "We want to learn how UA works, and you seem to be in the forefront of a lot of stuff. You and Midoriya."

"That d--- nerd?" Bakugo scoffed. "He's an idiot."

"Well that's tbd," Shine said. "I guess you have beef with him huh?"

"Mind you own d--- business, witch!" Bakugo said.

"Witch is not better." Wally said.

"I got this Wally," Shine held up her hand. "I started this after all. I'm sorry Bakugo, you're right, trying to be friendly to you was such an imposition. It really is none of our business what's going on around here. It's not like we're here for it or anything."

"Huh?" Bakugo didn't quite get her use of sarcasm.

"But if you think you'll scare us off by yelling insults at us," Shine leaned in, "then boy, you've got another think coming. Why don't you run along now and get ready for training?"

"You---" Bakugo seemed on the point of retorting, but they were interrupted by Class 1-B also arriving on the scene.

Apparently, Vlad King didn't want his kids to miss out on the training. Shine waved at Kendo, who nodded and said hello. Along with Tetsutetsu and Ibara, who introduced themselves, but most of 1-B appeared wary of the new comers. One guy, Awase, waved at Yaoyerozu awkwardly. She waved back uncertainly.

"I feel like we never talk to them, and some of them saved our lives," she commented to Jiro. 

"So, what are you expecting?" Kendo asked Shine.

"To be surprised," Shine said cleverly. "I've hung out with Miss Joke a couple times, and--"

"Ah, Class 1-A, always with their unfair advantage," Monoma said snidely. Class 1-A rolled their eyes.

"Of course you would have had time to learn the enemy's tricks," Monoma said to Shine. "But we'll see if that'll be enough to help you--" he paused.

Shine was laughing.

Even Kiroshima, who arguably had the best sense of humor in the group (since he could get along with Bakugo), didn't see why she thought Monoma of all people was funny.

"Learn her tricks indeed! I'm sure Miss Joke is so easy to figure out. And she's not any enemy of mine, kid. Don't assume my enmity, seems like you make enough of your own." 

Kendo grinned.

"Uh... what did she say?" Tetsutetsu asked.

Monoma himself blinked, slowly realizing Shine had both dodged his attack, evaded the trap of taking sides, and roasted him, all in one speech. And she'd done it with beautiful unconcern.

"So, she's going to challenge us," Tetsutetsu found a safer subject. He slammed his fist into his palm. "Perfect."

"I like your spirit Iron-Man," Wally said. "I'm looking forward to seeing what they've got."

"There they are," Shoji said. A small knot of students in grey and green uniforms were coming along over the grass, led by Miss Joke who looked as cheerful as ever. Shine waved, she was the only one with the face to act unconcerned, save for Wally. Even Aizawa seemed nervous, though he was anticipating Miss Joke's relentless teasing. Which did start immediately. 

"Hi fiance! I brought the kids! Oh, both classes, this is an unexpected surprise."

She nodded to Shine. Then flexed her fingers. "So, what are we doing?"

"You don't have a plan?" Aizawa said flatly, not sounding surprised.

"I have some ideas!" She gestured from side to side. "But I figured you'd be set in your schedule," she made that sound dull.

Her students seemed amused.

 "Hi," Yo Shindo bowed to class 1-A and shot 1-B a sort of confused look. Which immediately put him on Monoma's list.

"I thought we could start off with the students simply showing what they can do," Aizawa said, nodding to Cementos. "A single obstacle course,"

"Ooh, fun," Miss Joke said, but if she really knew Aizawa as well as she claimed, she had to know it would be anything but simple.

1-B looked disappointed, while 1-A looked freaked. Even Wally looked at Eraserhead warily.

"Then we agree," noticeably relieved, Aizawa motioned at Cementos. Who poured some wet cement onto the dirt and grass, it began ringing all around them, dividing the students. They had to jump out of the way.

 
Momo sprang on her hands to land in a crouch, barely avoiding the cement, while Jiro wasn't so lucky and had her hair pins knocked askew, but she wasn't hurt. 

Wally yanked Shine out of the way, and Midoriya landed next to them. The walls got too high to be jumped over and then stopped growing. Miss Joke eyed the whole structure.

"What's the object of this obstacle course?" She asked.

Aizawa grinned kind of creepily. "Search."

"Yo, listen up," Present Mic announced to the disoriented students.

"This is a little Ice Breaker challenge! To win, find one person you don't know and get out of the course as fast as you can. You have 20 minutes, starting now!"

"That's easy," Wally said, brushing himself off. "I could be done in 20 seconds."

"You could hon," Shine peered at the walls, "but the rest of us... it's a maze, and I thought they said obstacle course. That's suspicious."

"It'll be hard to find the other classes when we don't know how Cementos divided everyone, but they're probably about the same direction," Midoriya mused, pointing right.

"Kind of like a clock," Shine said. "We'll just have to keep that in mind going forward. I really miss my sight right about now."

"Yeah," Wally agreed. "Do you guys mind if I go on ahead?"

"No--" Shine paused. "Wait a sec, one person? That's not enough to go around. There's twice as many UA people as Miss Joke's group."

"I was wondering about that," Midoriya said. "That means it's a race."

* * *

"So, it's a race." Miss Joke, Vlad King, and Aizawa were sitting on a tall pillar so they could see into the course.

"That's too easy," Vlad King said gruffly. "It's also a tug-of-war, both 1-A and 1-B will go for your students, who will just settle for either. They'll be getting in their own way, it'll be absolute chaos once the groups reunite."

"A cutthroat race!" Miss Joke said, way too enthusiastically. "I like your style, most people would just use one of those icebreaker games where someone has a ball and they to have to share 3 facts about themselves."

They took no notice of that remark.

"Cementos was completely random, so most of the students will be with their friends, but for this exercise that won't matter, it might even get in their way," Aizawa observed.

* * *

The students of course figured out the game after a short time, at least some of them did. Todoroki, Momo, and Jiro got trapped together, and figured it out almost right away. They were concerned that not everyone would be able to succeed based on the limited people they had to choose from.

"It's just a game, though, right?" Jiro said nervously. "No one said it's a test."

"It's always a test," Momo and Todoroki said in unison, then glanced at each other, startled.

"Okay," Jiro said, "so it's a test... I'll listen for footsteps." She put her jack to the ground. "Someone's close to us, I can't tell who... Who was next to us?"

"I don't remember--" began Todoroki.

Momo closed her eyes "Mina and Tsu were next to us on the right, Mineta and Aoyama were on the left,  Tokayami and Shoji were a little farther beyond them.  Sero was behind us."

She opened her eyes to see them staring at her. Jiro wide eyed, and Todoroki looking mildly impressed.

"What?" Momo said.

"Do you remember what I had for breakfast?" Jiro asked.

"Eggs, why?" Momo said oddly.

Jiro shook her head. "Well, I think from the tread, it's some of the guys..."

Along with finding each other, they had to get through cement roadblocks, which people like Jiro and Bakugo blasted through, others drilled through, others climbed over, and so on.

Things went quickly once the students really got the idea of what was going on. The students treated the whole thing very seriously, but the two tagalongs began to get a little bored, well, Wally at least did...

Midoriya was smashing through a lot of cement, and they could hear stuff cracking and crumbling from all directions. Making Shine nervous about dodging it if a chunk came flying into their path. She grabbed Wally's arm several times in case they needed to run.

"Could you guys speed up? Maybe scout ahead?" Midoriya asked.

"Yeah, we need to hurry if we're gong to find 3 people before our time's up," Wally said, not really trying to hide his boredom.

"We know," Shine was a little testy.

"Well, as long as no one attacks you, it'd be a good idea right?" Midoriya pressed them.

"Sure," Wally said unenthusiastically. A waste of time, he thought. I could probably do this alone and find two people for them in under 60 seconds, but we're a team, for better or worse. It's not like this is an emergency, though we'll look stupid to the judges. How is this helping break the ice anyway? He ran around and did what Midoriya suggested.

After some very insane twists, like the maze doing a rhythmic puzzle where you had to time your steps just right or get smashed by the cement, and other problems, they finally finished. Class 1-A ended up helping each other so that most of them passed, but 1-B and Miss Joke's class did one up some of them, which is probably how Aizawa and Vlad figured it would go.

Then everyone regrouped at the end, and then they were allowed to get a quick lunch. Some people hadn't finished the course.

It turns out there had been a twist in the rules, each group only had to have one person not from their class in it for it to count. Of course, the teachers hadn't bothered to clarify this until afterward. A lot of people were bummed about the trick.

"That's Mr. Aizawa's class for you," Mina griped to a 1-B student, who nodded.

"Mr. Vlad's isn't so different." 

Momo found out Shine had passed, but only by using a shortcut to get out.

"Wally could have gotten us out before it got to that point but he didn't want to ruin it for Midoriya," she said, sounding a little nonplussed.

"Way to flex," Jiro grumbled.

"I heard that we aren't getting graded for that," Kendo offered helpfully from behind Shine.

"Good," several people sighed. 

"Care to join us?" Shine asked Kendo after they got their food.

"At your table?" Kendo raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah...or at yours, I mean, what's the difference?" Shine said oddly.

"Well, usually, I sit with my classmates, someone's got to keep an eye on Monama, but..." Kendo shrugged. "Why not, it's good to change things up."

She followed them. Jiro and Uraraka gave Momo questioning looks, she shrugged helplessly. Shine acted like it was totally normal, which eventually put them at ease. They discussed the game. Shine then asked Kendo.

"So, you don't really seem super involved in the competitive aspect of all this."

"I'm no Tetsutetsu," Kendo admitted dryly. "I'm competitive, I just never saw the point of yelling at people or being petty over it." She sipped complacently.

"Yelling's half the fun," Shine smirked. "Now, who do I sound like?"

"Any of the guys," Jiro snorted, like only guys did that.

Hagakure snickered.

"I'm surprised to hear you say that," Kendo said. "You're so much older... why are you competing at all?"

Momo looked up at Shine, concerned, should she intervene here? 

But Shine was perfectly calm. "It's fun. Younger kids try harder to beat you, once you're my age, a lot of people get complacent. I can't stand that. It's a better challenge, you get me?"

They nodded. Bakugo walked past at that moment, shooting Shine a hostile look. Monoma was motioning at Kendo from the 1-B table, but she ignored him placidly.

"You've really cemented you friendship with Bakugo" Jiro said to Shine sardonically. 

"Just let him think so," Shine winked. 

"You know he'll kill you right?" Jiro said, earning her a baleful glance from Kendo. "He won't hold back. Even if you're weaker than him."

"He won't literally kill me," Shine took a sip without concern. "Though if looks could kill, I doubt any of us would have survived."

However, Momo thought, Bakugo didn't just make empty threats.

After lunch the teachers had them go on a scavenger hunt, also searching for one of the teachers. Split into 4 teams. It took hours to finish that, even after the time got reduced each time a team collected all their items.

The theme of the hunt ended up being games, it had to be Miss Joke's idea. All Might probably backed her up. This was probably the school's idea of relaxation.

"I have to admire how All Might is just one of the teachers," Shine commented to Wally afterward. "No one treats him better."

"True, but seriously, from what I've been learning, this guy is legit." Wally said, with genuine respect.  "The real deal. He seems down to earth in person, but he's an incredible hero, and campy, like Supes."

"No offense, but I find All Might a little less unnerving in his perfection," Shine said.

Wally frowned, "Supes isn't unnerving."

"I guess not once you get used to him, but didn't it bother you at first?" Shine said.

"Okay, fair enough," Wally conceded. "All Might's something else, he'd be great at the League."

"So are you going to talk shop?"

"Nah, why bother?" Wally said, then saw her look.

"There's a reason isn't there?"

"A couple yes."

"Why so businesslike?" Wally complained. "Today's supposed to be fun, can't this wait?"

"Of course," Shine said, crisply. "I didn't mean now, you know."

Miss Joke clapped her hands. 

Clearly her class knew not to ignore this, they shut up so instantaneously, it took a couple seconds for UA to catch on. Once all was quiet she announced that after that nice warm up (nice?) she was sure they were anxious to test their actual combat skills. Several people cheered. With a sparkle in her eye, Miss Joke innocently said they should probably go by class--unless they wanted to mix it up.

"I think we would get the most out of our training by pairing up with those whose quirks we are less familiar with," Iida said grandly.

"So simple minded," Shine muttered. "It's not the quirks he should worry about."

"What was that Likstar?" Aizawa said flatly. "Since you're speaking out of turn, I assume it's important." 

Everyone stared at her. 

"I merely observed it's not the quirks we should worry about,--sir," Shine tended to tack on sir.

Vlad King frowned.

Aizawa was pretty used to her mannerisms by now and not overly concerned with her stepping on Iida's toes, but it had to sound weird to Keitsu high. They looked at her like she might get eaten alive for questioning Iida.

"And what should the focus be?" Miss Joke asked her bluntly.

"Personality, ma'am" Shine straightened. "A quirk is a tool at best, compatibility is easy to work out with basic knowledge, much like seasoning something. But personality clashes cause way more problems than any practical issues on a team."

Midoriya kind of nodded. 

"Hmm," All Might said to Present Mic. "The lady's not wrong, her experience is obvious." 

Wally gave Shine a thumbs up, he could have said the same thing, but he didn't really care about stirring the pot.

Miss Joke loved it when people stirred the pot, clearly, and she grinned.

 Aizawa scowled. "Care to test that theory?"

Shine shrugged as if she were daring him.

"Splendid," Miss Joke clapped her hands. "Let's apply it to the next exercise! We'll divide people into quirk based teams, and personality based teams."

"Wouldn't that be kind of hard to determine--?" began All Might, but they didn't listen to him.

"Let's go!" Miss Joke said.

The upshot of this was most of the more powerful, antisocial people ended up in one group, while the weaker, more team oriented people ended up in the other.

Wally got put in group A, and Shine in group B. It was kind of obvious Aizawa purposefully sorted the teams to make it more difficult. He seemed to be testing her.  Shine didn't act very concerned while the teachers were around, but seemed more uncertain after--her reason was she thought the other students would still use teamwork.

Which did happen. But they still fought too much amongst themselves and didn't coordinate. Bakugo was on that team of course, as was Todoroki, Midoriya, Tokoyami, Monoma, etc. Most of the girls were on the B team, and a lot more of Class 1-B and Miss Joke's students were too. So were the people most likely to work with Bakugo.

Momo still thought it might be more balanced, after all something was left to chance, and not all the people in team A were hard to work with (by which she meant Todoroki and Midoriya).

But Tsu said "I don't know if Class 1-B Would agree with you there."

It was true, that class was glaring at Bakugo. At least, most of them were. Ibara and Kendo seemed unaffected.

Team B's strategy time went something along the lines of tossing ideas around, until Shine said "In a group this big, it'll be hard to test my theory without us splitting into smaller squads."

"Then do you all concur that we should do that?" Iida asked.

"Uh, sure man," Shindo said. 

"Yeah," Kendo said, "maybe a defensive and an offensive squad." 

"Good idea," Kirishima said. "I call offensive!" 

"Wouldn't you be better on defense?" Shine said. "No one can get through you."
She had clearly been Wally's gf for too long.

"Well yeah, but I'm like a bulldozer!"

"I'm like a drill!" Tetsutetsu yelled.

Kendo rolled her eyes, but Shine just laughed.

"Likstar, this as your idea, do you want to decide?" Iida offered generously-- or he didn't want to have to pick.

  Shine blinked. "Well, I'm sure you other classes would rather make this a joint effort, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, you're not the only one with something to prove," Shindo agreed.

So 3 representatives were chosen, Shindo for Keitsu, Kendo for 1-B, and Iida for 1-A.

Why even vote? Shine thought. But she knew this was exactly why they were on this team and why her idea would work. They all already had the trust of their classmates, meaning teamwork was instantly better.

The power team might not realize it , but the natural leader of the classes all being put on B actually made them the more advantaged group. It just looked different to the naive observer. 

The fight commenced and Shine was soon proven right about why they got sorted that way. Team B did actually win, though it was close.

The teachers didn't seem surprised by the result, but Team A was. And not all of them were very good sports about it... the biggest complaint wasn't Bakugo though, it was Monoma and some other 1-B students, as well as Mineta. 

A lot of the 1-B on the second team expressed surprise at winning. But then everyone was too tired to talk about it much more, and headed for the lockers.

Wally joined Shine. "I noticed you got put on offense."

"Iida said my 'quirk' was more suited for it. I decided to let him decide after all, I did cross him earlier," Shine said. "He didn't act sore though."

"Yeah, most of them aren't poor losers," Wally said. "I really thought Bakugo would be madder though, he didn't say much."

"Complaining would be admitting defeat," Shine said. "But, alas, I don't think this will satisfy him. He'll still want to fight personally." 

"Are you going to fight him? " Wally asked.

"Fight a student? In earnest? No way," Shine said. "I'll keep him at bay, for sure. Look, I don't think it'll matter. If I win, he'd only challenge me again, based on what I've heard from the other students. If I lose, then it's boring. But better not let him figure out which it's going to be at all."

"I can see you're already picking favorites," Wally said sarcastically. "Don't get him too wound up, okay? I don't think they're just playing around here. This is for real, some of them went to the nurse's office after the fight...also, I don't get why it's so dangerous... I mean, isn't it just training? I'd swear they really thought their lives were on the line."

"I think they're supposed to be imagining it's real," Shine said. "But some of that fear was genuine...like they know they could accidentally be really badly hurt, all these powers aren't fake, after all...I mean, I suppose it's a  risk for whoever comes to this school... but I confess, I miss the days when training was against holograms."

"You didn't even do that," Wally said wryly.

"I watched it a few times, much safer," Shine said.

"It is more efficient, I wonder if the school would consider investing," Wally mused.

"Maybe the tech doesn't exist here," Shine said. 

(Of course, even if it had, the school wouldn't have used it, but they were still too new to quite realize that fact.)