Chapter 63

.::You Only Spy Twice::.

It started when Momo first had the thought that the vigilante "Taser Brain" might be Kaminari.

By that point, everyone else had dismissed the possibility of Taser Brain and Kaminari being one and the same due to the vigilante saving him. Video footage supposedly existed of the two in the same place, which should logically eliminate him as a suspect. Iida had said as much when Momo told him her theory, claiming his brother had seen it and confirmed it was real. That should have been enough, but even so she just couldn't shake the idea.

Maybe it was because Kaminari had just been acting so odd and jumpy the past couple of weeks. They rarely interacted in the first place, but even Momo could tell something was up. He seemed especially nervous when he was around her though, to the point one of their classmates had actually approached her to ask if something happened between them. Kaminari was clearly hiding something.

And no matter how hard Momo thought, her thoughts always came back to Kyouka.

That was what had her so intensely focused on it. The other vigilante—whom had been recently dubbed "Punk Step" online—had a costume that almost exactly matched how Momo pictured Kyouka's described costume idea. Maybe it was because part of her was so desperate for any news about Kyouka and why she'd suddenly cut her off the way she had, but Momo felt certain there was a connection.

As it stood though, Momo had no proof, and she couldn't go to anyone. If she told Iida or a Pro Hero and Kyouka was acting as a vigilante, she would get in massive trouble. While it might be illegal, Momo didn't want her friend to get arrested. She also wanted to know why Kyouka had suddenly felt the need to turn to vigilantism, and why she had pushed Momo away at the same time.

By the end of Thursday, Momo started making a plan, and the next day she got Kaminari's apartment address from one of their classmates and headed over. Kaminari didn't live in a bad part of town, but it certainly felt cheaper than the upper-class neighborhood with her own penthouse apartment. Momo felt like she stood out in her designer-brand coat, so she didn't want to linger long.

Thank goodness she wasn't alone.

"So remind why I'm here again?" Tokage Setsuna asked with a minor scowl.

"Because I need an excuse to come out here without my chauffer, and you're one of my only friends my parents know?" Momo replied with a sheepish smile. Momo knew the other girl quite well from their days of "pre-hero" training back in middle school. She and Tokage weren't close like she was with Kyouka, but they got along well enough and spoke often at school when Tokage didn't have hero training going on.

It had only been natural to ask the other girl to join her. Of course, to do that she'd needed to tell her about her theories, which as she expected, hadn't gone over well. "Do you really think that Kaminari kid is actually one of those vigilantes?" Tokage asked. "Everyone at school says he was saved by them. And Iida told us both about that video his brother saw in the group chat."

Momo bit her lip, understanding the doubt. "I know, but I still can't shake the thought. So I'm just going to ask him."

"Do you really think he'd straight up admit it?" Tokage countered. Before Momo could respond she paused and muttered speculatively, "Actually, wait, no, his reaction would probably give it away. Guy can't lie to save his life when he's under pressure."

"...I'd defend him, but he did lie pretty badly to Morita-sensei about his homework," Momo sighed, and Tokage snorted.

"I know, right?" she said with a grin. "Who's heard of muggers who only steal homework?" That one had Momo cringing at the memory on his behalf. Even Kaminari had been grimacing as he said it, realizing just how ridiculous it sounded.

"Well, at least he realized it was flimsy?" she chuckled weakly. Tokage smirked, but suddenly she froze and grabbed Momo's hand to drag her into an alley. "Wait, what—"

"Quiet!" Tokage hissed. She gestured to the mouth of the alley, and Momo peeked out and felt her heart stop. Walking down the street was Kaminari, along with...

"Kyouka," she whispered. Shock washed over her as she took in the sight of her best friend for the first time in nearly a month. Kyouka looked the same as she remembered, clearly caught up in some teasing banter judging by that familiar smirk visible even from a distance.

While she stared Tokage brushed her hair to the side, her ear peeling off her skull. Tokage's Quirk, Lizard Tail Splitter, allowed her to split her body into multiple parts that she could freely control. Her ear glided lightly towards the pair, closing her eyes to focus on her hearing. "They're talking about going to a convenience store for dinner," she murmured. "She's teasing about him forgetting to do the shopping...?"

Then she froze, her eyes snapping wide open. "...No way," she whispered, and Momo felt her breath catch.

"What? What is it?" Tokage took a deep breath, turning large eyes towards her.

"Jirou just called him Taser Brain," she whispered. Momo's heart sank. She knew from Tokage's tone that it wasn't just random teasing, that she'd heard something to make her believe that Kaminari was, in fact, Taser Brain. Momo peered out the alley to see Kyouka playfully smacking Kaminari's shoulder, making him whine and pout at her. She could almost hear her best friend's teasing tone, mocking him in a fond and friendly manner.

In that moment she knew. She knew that she was right about Kaminari—and about Kyouka, too. And from there she realized that Kyouka wasn't just visiting for dinner, either; she had been staying at Kaminari's apartment this whole time.

Once she realized that, Momo made up her mind. Once they disappeared from sight she stepped out and strode towards Kaminari's apartment building, Tokage jogging to catch up after briefly pausing to retrieve her ear. "Hold on, where are you going?" she asked as she caught up.

"They're gone," Momo replied simply, walking to the external staircase on the side of the building.

"Uh, okay...?" Tokage went quiet, waiting for Momo to elaborate, but she didn't. Momo scaled the stairs to the second floor and strode towards Kaminari's apartment without hesitation, pulling out her lock picking tools from her pocket as she did. As she got to work she saw Tokage startle in her peripheral vision, "What are you doing?"

"It will take at least five minutes to reach the nearest convenience store," Momo replied, not breaking her concentration. "It will probably take five more to buy everything they want, and then another five to return. We have, at most, fifteen minutes before they're back."

"So you're just going to break in?" Tokage hissed. "Yaoyorozu, this is absolutely illegal! If anyone catches us, we'll get in HUGE trouble!"

Momo's lips thinned at the reminder, her stomach curling unpleasantly, but she forced herself to ignore it. "I know, but there's no way they'll admit to it," she replied tightly. "Kaminari might be a bad liar, but Kyouka isn't. She won't tell us, she'll just push us away and they'll become even more tight-lipped. Worst case scenario, they'll run away and keep acting as vigilantes in another city. I don't have any other ideas, do you?"

"...No, I don't." Tokage sighed, running a hand through her thick green hair. "Sheesh, this is so going to get me in so much trouble..." Momo heard the lock give the final click, and she pocketed the tools and pushed it open.

"Wait here and keep a watch out. I'll only be a minute."

"What are you even going to do, anyway? Just snoop around for proof?" Here Momo bit her lip, because what she was going to do was much worse.

"...I'm going to plant some bugs," she said, and Tokage stiffened. The other girl opened her mouth, paused, and then finally turned away with a groan.

"Screw it. It's your funeral if you get caught. Just—hurry up." Momo nodded and quickly slipped inside, holding her breath as she looked around. Kaminari's apartment had no solid sense of style or defining aesthetics, consisting an eclectic selection of furniture and trinkets that barely matched. Her heart pounded faster as she noticed a blanket and pillow folded up on the couch, one of Kyouka's suitcases sitting next to it.

She only looked for a moment before she focused on her task and marched inside, scanning the room for places to hide the bugs. She went to the kitchen area and knelt next to the table, unzipping her coat and lifting her shirt to produce the first one. Back when she'd still been heavily considering the path to being a Pro Hero, she had learned to make all sorts of electronic devices for surveillance purposes. Even now she barely had to think to produce a bug little larger than her thumb, having made so many it felt like second nature.

This particular kind basically acted like miniature cell phones; Momo could call them, and then listen to the audio over a one-way feed. All she needed was to pop in a micro-SIM card so it'd have a registered and active phone number, and she kept some spares at home just in case. That morning she'd grabbed some on a whim, and upon checking her pockets she found she had enough to make three of the spy devices.

The bugs she made this time were "cheap" ones though, the microphone and battery much weaker than what she'd usually make in training. Despite her intentions, the idea of listening into someone else's apartment still left a bad taste in her mouth. She popped in one of the micro-SIMs and stuck the bug to the underside of a chair. Another she planted under the coffee table by the couch, and the third and last on the wall behind where a stack of mail had piled on the kitchen counter.

Within three minutes she was out, quietly using the lock pick to relock the door behind her. Neither of them spoke as they left, Tokage exuding an air of silent judgment and Momo's stomach swirling with guilt. Bugging a classmate's apartment felt so wrong, it was a total invasion of privacy and went against everything she stood for. But this was the quickest way to find out what was going on with Kyouka.

After that, they went back to her penthouse apartment. Momo felt endlessly grateful she lived separately from her parents, so she wouldn't have to hide this from them. Tokage was another matter though, and they quickly negotiated an agreement for the other girl's silence.

No recording the calls Momo made with her phone. One call could be made per hour, and she would not listen for more than three minutes unless the topic related to the 1-A Vigilantes. Tokage had to be present for each call to guarantee Momo stuck to the rule. Once the batteries died, Momo would have to come clean to Kaminari and Kyouka.

She agreed to Tokage's conditions easily. That night she called each of the bugs but got nothing useful. Tokage's silent judgmental aura only grew with each call until she finally went home to go to bed. That night had to be one of the worst of Momo's life, the guilt making sleep nearly impossible.

The next day, Momo had rescinded any guilt or shame over her decision.

"Is this some sort of cult?" Tokage asked, pacing around the bedroom. "Like, some cult that's making all these people believe—believe, something? Is there some villain manipulating all these kids?"

Momo didn't respond, just staring at her phone in shock. She had called the bug on the kitchen chair a little after eleven to find they were in the middle of a phone call with someone else. What they heard confirmed Kyouka and Kaminari were indeed the 1-A Vigilantes, just like she'd suspected, but she had also heard so much more.

Other dimensions? UA? Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow?

All of it sounded absolutely insane, yet Kyouka had been so calm and composed the whole time. Momo had no doubt she truly believed she came from another dimension. The bug on the chair had been close enough to pick up both sides of the conversation, even if the other end had been slightly muffled, and the other people sounded like they believed it too.

There had been enough people involved that the group had to plan a second phone call to make sure everyone could go over everything once. It took an agonizing two hours before the second call was made, and in that time Momo hadn't dared hang up. She just stared at her phone as she listened to Kaminari and Kyouka talk about what that "Uraraka" must be up to. The more she heard, the harder it was to wrap her head around.

"And another thing!" Tokage continued, whirling to face her. "That one guy—that was Todoroki, right? As in, Todoroki Shouto? Oh who am I kidding, that was totally his voice."

"I know," Momo whispered, speaking for the first time since the second phone call ended. That was another thing: they'd both met Todoroki Shouto during their pre-hero training, the boy spending a lot of time with the group since his father was so busy. Though his voice had been slightly muffled and distorted by going through two layers of speakers, Momo had no doubts that was him speaking.

"I take back everything I said," Tokage said. "This is huge. These people are all stark-raving mad or something, they need help. I mean, even if they actually aren't crazy and this is all real they'd need help, because this has to be way over their heads!" Momo bit her lip as Tokage ranted, silently agreeing, but her mind kept straying to a certain part of the conversation.

"...They... They said I was in their class," she said slowly, and that made Tokage pause. "They mentioned Iida was there too, and... you were in Class 1-B? Along with someone else from our school...?"

Tokage frowned at that, and then plopped onto the bed next to Momo with a huff. "Yeah, I heard," she muttered, crossing her arms. "Look, I wouldn't put much stock into it, Yaoyorozu. If UA was still around, we'd both be recommendation students this year and you know it."

"I know, but..." Momo trailed off, hesitating. Something about the whole exchange just felt... odd. "I wish we heard more."

"Me too," Tokage sighed, collapsing onto the bed. The bug's battery had died in the middle of the second phone call. They'd gotten through Kyouka, Kaminari, and that Ashido girl's stories, and that Uraraka girl had been asking Todoroki to go when the battery on the one under the chair gave out. The timing made Momo want to scream.

Right now she had the feed from the bug by the mail playing, the next closest one to the table, but the voices were too muffled to make out much. She'd given up getting anything of value from it, silently bemoaning the fact she'd agreed to not record any of the calls. At this point she doubted she'd get anything valuable from recording this one. For now, she focused on what they had heard.

After several long seconds Momo took a deep breath. "...What do we do?" she asked feebly, and that finally made Tokage stop pacing, her face twisting into a grimace.

"I... I don't know," she admitted reluctantly. "I mean we should probably tell someone, but we don't have much proof. Dammit, why'd I make you promise not to record any of the calls?" She shook her head with a scowl, and Momo frowned.

"It... could be just them making stuff up, or some sort of... extended, hyper-immersive role play...?"

The excuse sounded weak and flimsy to her own ears, but Tokage somehow recognized what she was going for and slowly nodded. "They said a bunch of other names, right?" she said. "I guess we can start by looking into those people, I guess, and see, uh... how real they all are?" Momo exhaled and nodded.

"Yeah, that," she agreed lamely. "We can do... that." The pair got up and went to begin work, Momo sitting at her desk with her laptop while Tokage went to retrieve her own laptop from the other room. They had no idea how real this was, but if there was even a sliver of a chance they weren't crazy, it would be better to gather information now.

And that became the theme of their weekend.

By the end of Sunday, they'd tracked down a few of the names mentioned in the call. Momo had found an account about baking that seemed to match up with Satou, complete with some posts about the 1-A Vigilantes and even the one that christened "Taser Brain". Tokage meanwhile confirmed that a Sero Hanta worked at the convenience store where they'd made their debut onto the vigilante scene.

They had less success with the people on the phone call. However, Momo managed to find out that Uraraka Ochako did, in fact, exist, from her own mother of all people. Apparently one of their maids had a cousin who worked as a housekeeper at the Uraraka family home, and Momo's mother had overheard gossip about the girl running away. She brought it up rather casually in their usual Sunday evening call to remind Momo to be careful of online strangers, unaware of Momo's near-panic attack.

Throughout it all they used up the other two bugs' batteries trying to catch more conversations and hints. Most of it provided nothing of value, much to their dismay. The most they got was something about Gentle Criminal and Phantom Shadow possibly being a supposed classmate named Tokoyami? Momo didn't know, but it scared her. They knew at least two other people were real people who weren't tied to villains—Todoroki and Uraraka—and genuinely believed this.

It was all so frazzling that they almost forgot they still had homework due the next day until after finishing dinner. Tokage didn't even go home, just spent the night as they stayed up late to finish their homework together. On Monday they stayed home from school and checked in with the online module, before ignoring the lectures so they could go over what little information they'd found and discuss their next move.

"We could probably go to the police or heroes and get a wellness check or something," Tokage suggested. "They've definitely said enough weird stuff to justify it."

"But then we'd have to explain about placing the bugs," Momo said with a miserable frown. "I don't know how they'd react, even if our concerns were justified in the end..."

"Yeah, especially since you're not on the hero track anymore," Tokage murmured with a frown. "That's technically unlicensed Quirk usage, and definitely trespassing and some other stuff, so you might get into trouble too."

"And we don't even have solid proof," Momo added grimly. "There's that footage of Kaminari being saved by the vigilantes. I guess one of them was actually Hatsume, but we don't have proof of that, so they might not look into this seriously."

"That Hatsume girl might be a good angle," Tokage pointed out. "She's already known at school as an inventor, so the police might be up for checking out her stuff to see if anything matches up with the 1-A Vigilantes."

"But that might just scare them into running away," Momo countered with a frown. "Uraraka and Ashido both said they ran away because of all this. Ashido even ran away from a hero!" That had been one of the scarier realizations: that they believed this so strongly, one of them was willing to run away while under a hero's protective watch. "If Hatsume gets investigated they'll probably run away too, and then we won't know what to do next!"

"Dang it, when you put it like that, that would happen if the police asked them, too," Tokage groaned in exasperation. "Should we tell Iida and get his ideas?"

"No, he would want to report everything right away." Momo bowed her head with a miserable grimace. "He's always so strict about rules..."

"Usually you treat that as a good thing," Tokage pointed out, and Momo bit her lip as she averted her gaze. They both knew the only reason she was hesitating to report any of this was because this was about Kyouka. At the end of the day, Kyouka was breaking the law by being a vigilante, which meant she'd surely get some sort of punishment regardless of the reasons for it.

More than that though: what if they were telling the truth? It sounded outrageous, but Momo had read about multiverse theory a few times over the years. With the advent of Quirks the topic had appeared more and more as people speculated on whether a Quirk could someday manifest to confirm it. She had always liked to think that it could be possible for no particular reason, and even now, a part of her wanted to believe.

As she anguished over what to do her phone suddenly chimed with a text, making her jump in surprise. She checked it and felt her heart stop when she saw the name on the lock screen. "Kyouka," she whispered, and saw Tokage's eyes widen. Swallowing, she unlocked the screen and opened the message, and then her world froze.

'You're at home today right? We need to talk ASAP.' Attached were two photos: one of one of the bugs she'd planted... and another of her apartment building's entrance.

"She's here," she whispered, face pale as she looked up at Tokage. "She's outside right now, and wants to talk!" Tokage's eyes widened further before her face set in determination.

"Then let's talk," she declared briskly. Momo swallowed harshly and nodded before going to the intercom to buzz Kyouka in.

Less than five minutes later Kyouka was sitting in Momo's bedroom, taking the chair at the desk while Momo and Tokage sat on the bed. Momo fidgeted uncomfortably as she looked down at her lap, feeling too much guilt and shame to look at her best friend.

"You're gonna stick around too?" Kyouka asked Tokage, whose eyes narrowed.

"We both listened to the bug," she said bluntly, the reminder making Momo flinch. "I'm not leaving without answers either."

"What did you hear?" Kyouka asked, and Momo took a deep breath, hands balling the fabric of her skirt.

"We... we heard pieces of two phone calls on Saturday," she admitted, feeling absolutely miserable as she did. "We started listening in around eleven, when Ashido, I think, mentioned talking to someone named Infinity Girl before running away. We kept the bug on after that. The battery died in the second call right before Todoroki started telling his side, and the other bugs couldn't pick up the rest of it."

Kyouka sighed. "So you heard a lot then, huh," she muttered, scratching her cheek. "Dammit, we were worried you might've. Bugging Kaminari's place was not cool." That had Momo wincing again.

"Turns out she was pretty justified though," Tokage huffed, crossing her arms and glaring at Kyouka. "You guys seriously think you're from another dimension?"

"We don't think, we know," Kyouka countered, expression steely and cool. "I don't care if you think it sounds crazy. But alright. You want to know what we remember? Why we're so sure of it? I'll tell you."

And she did.

What followed was a long explanation of the world only she and a select few others remembered. A world where All Might never died, where UA never closed after a massacre and hero agencies could still be found operating freely and openly in every major city.

Where a class had been attacked by villains repeatedly, forcing first-year students to learn the fear of true battle earlier than they should have.

As her story unfolded Momo and Tokage both slowly lost some of their tension, their disbelief beginning to fade to shock. She told them details that they hadn't heard on the phone call: about the rest of their class in their world, and what she remembered of 1-B. She rattled off perfect descriptions of Honenuki Juzo and Yoarashi Inasa, students they knew from the pre-hero program.

She even knew about Yoarashi's dislike for Endeavor. Her description of his fighting with Todoroki at the provisional license exams sounded similar to their fights in the early days of the program before the two had worked out their differences.

And then she named several Pro Heroes they knew worked at UA at one point. That had been the real turning point that started to really melt their doubts. Even before UA closed the school didn't publicize all of its faculty. It didn't even have an official staff page available to the public; people knew who worked there more through word of mouth or references in articles than any official source.

In the wake of the UA Massacre and the ensuing public outcry, the school had doubled down on concealing the identities of their lesser-known faculty. Momo and Tokage only knew because some of them had been brought into their pre-hero training program as guest teachers. Midnight's employment had been reasonably well known, as had Present Mic and Power Loader. Thirteen, however, had only just started at UA when it closed, starting to help with rescue training just in time for the winter semester.

The one that really sold them though was Kyouka's homeroom teacher, Aizawa—better known as Eraserhead.

Eraserhead only ever joined them a handful of times during their second year of middle school, acting as a villain in a few simulated scenarios where he'd erase their Quirks to keep them on their toes. He was easily the quietest of all the guest teachers, so it was easy to forget about him. In fact, Momo had forgotten about him until Kyouka mentioned him.

She doubted just anyone would know he worked at the famous school. As an underground hero and relatively new employee, Eraserhead would have been kept out of the press for the most part. Even they only knew because of an off-hand comment from Present Mic about the lost opportunity to work together every day.

Altogether, it painted a picture that couldn't be written off as mere memory tampering by some third party. There were just too many fine details not known to the public, too many unnecessarily intricate bits to be purely made-up, too much to dismiss out of hand.

"It all sounds crazy, but it's true," Kyouka said when she finished. "We're just trying to figure out what the hell's going on. The reason I've been avoiding you is because I figured if anyone could see something was off, it'd be you."

"I see," Momo murmured, frowning as she rubbed her arm. Kyouka wasn't wrong, they'd been nearly inseparable since their last year of middle school.

"If this really is all true, then we're way past the window for a Quirk to wear off," Tokage said, and Kyouka nodded.

"Yeah, that's what we figured. Everyone came over on the same day, but we can't figure out what would've triggered it. In our world we spent the day before at the dorms, and we don't know what we did in this one but we're all pretty scattered. Kaminari and I are the only ones who were in the same city. I think everyone else was in different prefectures."

"So even if it was a memory tampering Quirk, it'd be weird for it to trigger on this side," Tokage murmured, much to Momo's surprise. She seemed to be taking this seriously. "I'm no expert on Quirks, but I don't think someone could really 'time' the effect to trigger on a specific day. I think the effect could probably be delayed to the next morning, but if you all woke up on the same day in completely different cities, then it's not that likely they managed to meet all of you in one day."

The logic seemed to surprise Kyouka, and she blinked once before nodding with a thoughtful look. "Now that you mention it, yeah, you're right. Hadn't really thought about that, but there's at least two people who are super sheltered. I can't see either of them getting hit by a Quirk on this side."

"Two?" Momo repeated with a frown. Uraraka fit the description, but none of the others seemed to. That had Kyouka pausing before she sighed and scratched her cheek.

"There's a sixth person," she said, catching them both off guard. "I won't tell you about him because I still don't know how much we can trust you, and it's not my place to talk about it. All I can say his situation's complicated, and it's the reason we can't take any chances." She shot them a hard look at that before continuing, "Once we get him out of there, maybe we'll tell you more. Maybe."

"...I don't like this," Tokage muttered, and Momo had to silently agree.

"Yeah, well, it's not up to you," Kyouka snorted. "You're the ones who eavesdropped on us by bugging Kaminari's place, you weren't supposed to know about any of this. We don't even know everything because the others were afraid of someone listening over the phone. And it turns out we were all right about that." She shot them a pointed glare, making them both flinch guiltily.

"I'm sorry," Momo whispered.

"You should be," Kyouka huffed. "Seriously, not cool. But since you heard anyway, I was hoping Yaomomo could help out with some other stuff." That had Momo looking up in surprise. What? "So don't know if you heard this part, but Gentle Criminal's sidekick is a classmate of ours named Tokoyami Fumikage."

"You sound pretty sure about that," Tokage commented. "You can't even see the guy's face."

"Yeah, but his Quirk is really recognizable," Kyouka countered with an eye roll. "Trust me. Literally everyone recognized him instantly, or they did once it was pointed out. But the thing is, we don't know if he's from our world." That had Momo and Tokage sitting up straighter while Kyouka twirled her earphone jack. "The timing of Gentle Criminal coming to Hosu is just kinda weird, y'know? They showed up right after the 1-A Vigilantes started getting famous. I mean, it could be a coincidence, but..."

"But it could also be Tokoyami trying to find you," Momo finished with a frown. "It would be essentially the same strategy you and Kaminari used.

"But would Gentle Criminal agree to that?" Tokage wondered aloud. "He's still a villain, isn't he?"

"Person number six fought him in our world, and said he might," Kyouka replied with a shrug, much to their surprise. "He said this whole situation is so crazy, it seems like it'd be right up his alley. Apparently the guy was kinda good-natured to begin with? And since Gentle's MO is about exposing corruption and is kinda heroic, we think Tokoyami might be more willing to go along with the heists for exposure and stuff. Either way, we can't confirm it until we actually talk to him."

She paused and added as an afterthought, "By the way, Gentle Criminal's kinda a joke in our world. It's really weird to see him so big here. He mostly just posted videos about really stupid heists, nothing crazy like breaking into a mega-company's headquarters. Not sure what happened here to change that, I seriously doubt that just Tokoyami would be enough to do that."

That was an interesting detail, and another in favor of the memories not being false. It was overall so inconsequential to the rest of her memories that it seemed pointless. "Okay, so that aside, what do you think Yaomomo could help with?" Tokage asked.

"Well, like I said, we need to talk to Tokoyami to find out for sure. But there's usually two weeks between heists, which is way too long to wait, and we can't even guarantee we'd be in the area where the heist happens. But they're probably going to case their next target, so we figure that will be the best time to talk to him."

Understanding finally dawned on Momo. "You want me to help figure out the next target," she realized, and Kyouka nodded.

"Yeah. You're one of the best strategists in our class, you're great at picking up patterns like that. And I'm... not." She scratched her cheek, looking a bit sheepish. "I'm good at fighting, but I don't even know where to begin with predicting who they'd target. So if you help could narrow down the list, that'd be a huge help for us."

"So you want us to be accomplices now?" Tokage drawled, and Kyouka flinched.

"Not really? I mean, you're not doing anything illegal, just figuring out where he might strike next." She shrugged, playing with an earphone jack in what Momo recognized as a minor nervous habit of hers. "Just, if Tokoyami is from our class, that'd help us narrow down some stuff."

"Alright," Momo agreed, and that made Kyouka pause, shooting her a surprised look.

"Wait, seriously? That easy?"

"Yes." Momo bit her lip as she met Kyouka's gaze, determination burning in her eyes. "I won't tell anyone yet. But promise me you won't try to fight Gentle Criminal alone. He might not be hostile, but he's still a dangerous villain. The fact you two got through that other fight..."

She trailed off, shuddering as she remembered Kaminari's story about the fight. "We won't," Kyouka agreed with a nod. "If we can find Tokoyami outside of costume, then we can just go if he doesn't recognize us. We're not looking to make that much of a splash." She paused then, looking at them critically. "But does this mean you won't tell anyone?"

Momo nodded tightly. "I won't tell," she declared firmly. "I still don't know if this is all true, or if you're all under the effects of a Quirk, but... you're saying enough that I can't help but want to believe you."

A lot of the tension faded from Kyouka's shoulders. "Thanks," she said, and then turned to Tokage. The green-haired girl hesitated before sighing.

"Fine, I'll keep it to myself too," she said. "For now, anyway. I'm not sure where to even start with telling someone anyway," she added under her breath.

With that the remaining tension faded from Kyouka as she heaved a large sigh. "Thanks, guys. Seriously, I mean it." After that, they fell silent for a few moments, the air slightly awkward as they mulled over it before Tokage spoke up.

"By the way, what's it like living in dorms at UA?" she asked, and Kyouka snorted.

"Oh, don't get me started on that..."

In the midst of a frantic discussion on FacePage, a new message arrived from Kaminari.

'oh hey Punk Step just texted me the safe word and sent this: "Yaomomo and lizard girl from 1-B heard parts of the calls. they don't know about deku or the dabi thing, but filled them in on some other stuff. They won't tell anyone, and Yaomomo's gonna help figure out where Gentle Criminal will attack next. Gonna gossip about UA with them for a while, will check in later." So I guess we don't need to run away? Maybe? Might still wanna make plans just in case'

'Oh good, I was hoping we'd find a way to talk to Tokoyami soon.'

'WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON ANYMORE!?'

Needless to say, the chat remained in chaos for quite some time.

As promised, here's a bonus chapter to try to help with a stressful week!

This chapter is *just* over 6k words. Wanted to get the Yaomomo confrontation out of the way all at once instead of breaking it into more pieces. And surprise, Tokage's in it now too! Originally I had her use her Quirk to retrieve a spy camera Momo planted on a streetlamp across from Kaminari's apartment, and then after seeing him and Jirou leave together Momo broke into the apartment to plant the bugs. Buuuuut that version of the draft was a bit TOO long without the confrontation, mainly because the confrontation wasn't even part of the original chapter.

Remember how I said way back during the first phone call in Chapter 51 that I originally had it continue into the next chapter before deciding to cut it so I wouldn't spend a chapter rehashing the it with Uraraka? This is why I had two separate calls. I planned for Momo to spy all along, but I didn't want her to know Izuku was in the picture because she'd HAVE to report that. In the very original draft, Chapter 52 ended with a stunned Momo and Tokage listening in from her bedroom, and Chapter 53 was the first half of this chapter as I described it in the previous paragraph.

I actually decided to push the whole flashback part back even before deciding to cut down the first phone call, so that point about Chapters 51-55 being all about the two phone calls didn't even count that chapter. Just some fun info I thought you guys might enjoy hearing!

Question for next time: who from Class 1-B would make a good ally?

...

And for those on FFN: if you're reading this right now, you're almost CERTAINLY on the app because that's the only way to view new chapters and stories since November 1st.

Since my rant on the last chapter, it's come to my attention that the website is just broken right now. I've been keeping an eye on my profile and Smoke and Mirrors has periodically showed up and disappeared again. When checking just now it's technically up at this particular moment, but only with the direct link which I cannot share. It's not visible on my profile, I had to click the link from the "Manage Stories" page, and I have no idea if it will disappear again. At least it has all three chapters this time. Meanwhile, I have yet to see Aftershock show up once, and the link is still broken. I can't even view the single review on Aftershock someone left through the app, a friend had to screenshot it and send it to me. Clicking the arrow by Ignite's title to go to the latest chapter brings up an error saying " Message Type 1. Chapter not found. Please check to see you are not using an outdated url. New chapter/story can take up to 15 minutes to show up."

This issue has been going on since at LEAST Sunday, November 1st. Possibly even Saturday. Throughout all this there has been no word from FFN. The home page has a Twitter feed from their account, and the last tweet there was April 1st, 2019, about fixing a login issue on Firefox browsers. When I went to the actual Twitter account though, I found out the last tweet was actually October 3rd of this year about a network outage. The freaking Twitter feed on the homepage doesn't even sync properly. I have no idea how that's even possible.

Based on their Tweets, they mainly tweet AFTER an issue is fixed. If it was something that lasted a couple hours, I might be more understanding. Given that this issue is now on Day Five, this silence is just completely unprofessional. Right now the only forms of contact we know for FFN's admins are Twitter and the support email, and some discussion on Reddit suggests there's barely any workers at FFN and it's mostly automated.

There's even speculation that this is their attempt to try to press people to download the app, which I can't even dismiss as FFN is clearly focused more on the app than the website. Considering that most people write on computers and not phones, some people can't download any apps for whatever reason, apps can be prone to issues or not compatible with older phones, etc., that pisses me off. Someone on Reddit even says their country seems to have BANNED the app. After looking it up, Malaysia and Indonesia both block FFN and people there have to use a VPN to access the site, so of course the app is not even an option for them. I actually did have the app on my phone at one point, but one day I got a sudden critical alert from my phone's automated "health check" that a virus was detected in it. That's the only time I've gotten such an alert about ANY app, usually the health check just lets me know about cache stuff or repeat photos that can be cleared.

Once again: if you have the option, go to AO3. I know that there are many stories on here that are FFN-exclusive, so leaving entirely is not an option. If any of those stories have updated since November 1, consider leaving a polite review explaining how unprofessional FFN is and ask the author to consider cross-posting to AO3. I have a template that SHOULD be visible on my profile that you should use. I can see it on my browser right now, but given the other screwery going on I wouldn't be surprised if it vanished. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if some people will completely abandon FFN over this anyway. I know I for one am only cross-posting as a courtesy at this point. As stated last time, I have zero intent of posting any new stories here.

I've seen some people complain it doesn't have an app, but honestly it's better that way. FFN has had to change rules to ban NSFW content in the past to appease advertisers and such. Remember the Tumblr fiasco where its app got banned because they couldn't moderate the content, so they just went to blanket-banning all NSFW content and did a horrible job at it? AO3 would likely run into the same issue if it had an official app, and the site's too big to moderate NSFW content. Keeping it purely to browsers means they won't have to change ALL the rules to prevent that.