The next morning found the squad together again for a battle plan, in Sero's room this time because he demanded to be in his hammock and nobody wanted to deal with undoing the tape-hammock he would make in any other room. Kirishima and Bakugou were sharing sitting on the bed- which they got the expected catcalls for- one of them looking suitably murderous and the other just as innocent as he usually does. Shinsou had stolen the chair and Kaminari had immediately crawled into his lap while, of course, Sero lay happily in his hammock. Mina sat cross-legged on the floor and broke the ice.

"So, how are we going to do this? Just barge into 1-B and accuse this small dicked loser?"

"We have to do the quirk test first. I'm thinking Tokoyami since Bakugou said some...choice things to Uraraka last time," Sero suggested.

I'm glad we're just rolling with Monoma having a tiny dick.

"Are snowcone and the shitty nerd back yet?"

Kaminari nodded, "they got back last night. I texted Midori-uhh, Deku last night and he said he's game. Now we just gotta reach out to our fine feathered friend."

Shinsou wished he had his voice changer, but did his best to imitate Tokoyami's voice anyway, "Shall we send a dark missive, to incite a response, that appeals to his romantic aesthetic?"

Everyone, but Bakugou, had a good giggle at the impression. Mina especially, "Dude, we absolutely have to! Does anyone have a quill or curling parchment paper? Ugh, why didn't I save my Harry Potter stationary... "

Sero shrugged, swinging lightly in his hammock, "or I could just send him a text."

"I actually think there's something to the idea of doing it in a Tokoyami kind of way. Just in case he's still anxious about the attack." Kirishima turned to Bakugou for a response. No matter how many people were in a conversation with him he still had a tendency to address his possibly-not-boyfriend for answers.

Mina agreed, adding, "We should mention Midoriya will be there too, sometimes I think I caught him eyeing Deku with a saucy glance !" Clearly, Shinsou's embracing of Tokoyami's language had become contagious.

Shinsou reached over, as best he could with Kaminari in the way, to offer Mina a fistbump. Ever since the squad taught him how to do it he's been a surprising fan of the gesture. Which the squad found pretty fucking adorable, but they'd never say it and risk embarrassing him. Not when it might cause him to stop doing it.

How does he make fistbumps cute?! I think it's cause he still keeps his face blank.

Mina met his fist with one of her own, and then pulled it back with wiggling fingers and a snap. With Mina the fistbump didn't end until her arm was down and back by her side. Shinsou has yet to copy this part, but they're all hoping he will someday.

"I texted him," Sero put his phone down, "but I threw in some 'arts' and 'thou'' in it. Plus I mentioned Midoriya."

"Booooo!" Kaminari tried to swipe at the hammock but Sero swung away in time to avoid it.

The black-haired boy's phone dinged and he read the reply aloud, "I shall attend your test. At what time should I arrive?"

"Tell him 'right the fuck now' and get Deku over here." Bakugou looked legitimately disgusted at the prospect. "Thank fuck that piece of shit isn't going to be in shitty hair's or my room."

Mina nodded solemnly, "can't have him tainting the sacred boyfriend space- ow! You hit me!"

Bakugou pulled his arm back from the punch, "did you honestly expect something different?"

"...touche."

Midoriya and Tokoyami showed up at the same time, impressively quick, seeing as they both had to come from the second floor. Tokoyami was wearing his usual dark patterned clothes, and Midoriya had on his infuriating 'T-Shirt' shirt while clutching a notebook in his hands.

Of course he's turning this into quirk research.

"We're here!"

"Yeah, we can all see that assbasket. Good for you." Bakugou was already in a worse mood and he would only become more irritated as time went on. Izuku took this in stride, incredibly used to it by now, and walked into the room. A room that was feeling increasingly smaller with the new guests.

Kaminari could tell Shinsou was feeling uncomfortable, so he made an effort to drape himself somewhat protectively over the taller boy. No one was going to make him anxious if Denki had anything to say about it. This had the desired effect and the blonde could feel Shinsou become less tense.

Tokoyami appeared somewhat impatient, "Shall we begin? I wish to return to my-"

"Mad banquet of darkness?" Mina excitedly asked.

"I was going to say breakfast, but I suppose you could still call it that."

Kirishima whispered, a bit too loudly, to Bakugou, "Dude, I hope it's Count Chocula…"

Tokoyami ignored the comment in a manner quite dignified for one that was clearly done with this shit before a minute had even passed.

Shinsou took pity on the student and moved Denki aside so he could stand up. Facing the bird-headed student he asked, "Are you alright with me using my quirk now?"

"Yes, you c-" Tokoyami's face relaxed, his beak closed and his eyes blank. The squad examined the look carefully.

"I dunno. That looks way more empty than he did during training. He had this kind of alarmed thing going on back then."

Izuku stared at him, fascinated, "is this what I looked like at the sports festival?"

Kaminari agreed with Sero's description of alarm, and then couldn't help himself from waving a hand in front of Tokoyami's face.

Perhaps as retaliation for being a brat, Kaminari wasn't finished moving his hand when Shinsou released Tokoyami from his spell. Tokoyami who then looked very irritated. "What in the seven hells are you doing? I could see you the whole time."

The blonde grimaced before turning to Shinsou, "you stopped then on purpose!"

Shinsou shrugged, "Sure did."

Bakugou was pretty tired of their banter and bit out, "Hey Edgar Allan Poe, did that feel the same?"

Black feathers ruffled. "Firstly, calling me that is essentially a compliment. Secondly, no it didn't. In fact, It felt quite different."

The room fell silent.

"Well, fuck. Now what?"

"It can't have been Monoma then. It would have felt the same if it was," Shinsou sounded disappointed.

Midoriya hummed to himself, "Maybe his copies aren't exact? He might just not know how to use it the way you do."

"That is a distinct possibility," Tokoyami agreed, "it was not entirely dissimilar from yours. I definitely still lost control of myself."

Midoriya started his famous mumbling but was stopped by a hard punch to his side from Bakugou. "Shut your ugly trap, you broccoli headed ice-sucker."

Tokoyami looked like a mix of protective and angry but continued to describe his experience. "It was as if my body wasn't my own, but I could see everything that happened. Which is a fair description of your talents, as well. The fact remains that it still did not feel like a complete mirror of yours."

Bakugou huffed, "When that grinning cockferret copied my quirk at the sports festival he wasn't as good as me, obviously. So it could still be him."

"Cockferret?" Shinsou asked, "Is that your sequel to yesterday's Dickweasel?"

Bakugou gave his usual, "tch" and ignored the question.

Truthfully, Kaminari felt a little proud (and a tad concerned) that his boyfriend was starting to memorize all of Katsuki's insults.

Midoriya pulled one of his notebooks out of his bag, as well as a limited-edition Halloween All Might pen (based on the seasonal film starring him, quaintly named "All Fright"), and started to write. Before long he held the book out to show a few graphs he had sketched. "These plot out a couple of things. Time spent for copied quirks, ability and practice rate over the aforementioned time, and the last one is a rough comparison of skill control that we've seen Monoma use with other quirks."

"Very impressive, Midoriya," Tokoyami especially appreciated that Izuku had gone out of his way to draw a little bird face by the second one.

"And what good does this do us, dickladle?"

Kaminari made sure to watch Shinsou's face as he categorized the new insult. It was only a small mouth twitch but when you were familiar with his expressions it might as well have been a wide grin.

"Well, if we compare the amount of time Monoma has to learn how to use a quirk with the lower than usual skill level that someone new to a quirk would have then we can compare it with how often he may have practiced with this before. My guess is that this wasn't the first time he stole a quirk like this to train for Shinsou's. This attack wasn't done on a whim. It seemed choreographed to me. The first one too. Definitely mapped out ahead of time. Which means It's possible he's been dabbling in other mind related quirks to prepare. If he does that with different quirks then he'd end up using Shinsou's quirk in a different way then he might have if he hadn't tested with others first. While we know he can access any quirk copied right away, that doesn't mean he can use it well. Plus, he can't copy the same quirk twice so he wouldn't have been able to test this kind of mind control specifically. In which case-"

"Jesus titty fucking christ can you get to the fucking point already?!"

Mina held her head and groaned, "Uh, Midoriya? Could you just...simplify that for those of us at the bottom of the class?" Kaminari pushed her over with his foot. Yes, his grades were last but with his recent Shinsou-style tutoring he'd totally be getting higher than Mina soon.

Suck on that, Pinky .

Tokoyami politely intervened, "I believe what Midoriya is trying to say is that Monoma might have tested his mind-related quirk skills on someone else and if he uses that as a guide he'd be controlling Shinsou's quirk with another quirk's rules. So it'd feel different. It's like learning how to figure skate and then being asked to play hockey. You aren't going to move like the pro players, but you can still get on the ice."

"Exactly!" Midoriya was hopefully realizing that he might need to hire Tokoyami as an Izuku-ese translator. Kaminari certainly thought it was a good idea. He didn't understand a word of what was being said before. Hell, he couldn't make heads or tails out of the graphs.

"In short, Monoma is still a good candidate for the bad guy." Sero sounded like he'd come to that conclusion ages ago, and maybe he had.

Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck meekly, "Yes. I believe so."

"Goody. Show's over. Make sure you hit the door on your way out, Deku ."

The two visitors were more than happy to leave the Bakusquad to their business and politely excused themselves- Midoriya frantically writing in his book all the while.

After the door closed the group returned to their starting places. It was quiet for a while until Mina did what she did best: she started talking.

"So, now can we barge into 1-B and accuse this small dicked loser?"

They all instinctively looked to their squad leader who gave a definitive nod.

"Tomorrow after lunch. Let's go fuck some shit up."

For everyone who has commented so far: I treasure each and every one. They are the fuel behind this story and I consider them precious. So a big and sincere thanks to each of you darlings. It means the world to me.