Shinso found himself in a bit of an awkward spot. He stood by silently, watching an argument unfold between a fellow student, and a teacher.
"I told you, it's fine!," Senji shouted at Eraser.
"You spend too much, that's how you ended up bumming on someone else's couch! And all the sneaking around, too," Eraser clapped back with an equal amount of fury.
"I told you, it wasn't on purpose…mostly. Why's it matter now, anyway? I don't gotta pay rent right now, so what's the problem?," she argued.
"You know what the problem is! I let it go for a while, but you can't keep getting more piercings. No more! You don't even wear your uniform properly! And you keep sneaking around with Bakugo late at night. Why's that? There's already rumors, or is there more truth in those?"
"Hah?! You too, [for rea]l? A rumor's just that, a rumor! [What's it matter, anyway]!," Eraser's last words struck a big nerve, and Senji got so angry she started slipping back into the Japanese-English mix.
"Senji," Shinso spoke up, placing a hand on her shoulder, "I take it back."
"What?," she spun around, slapping his hand away without thinking. "Oh, sorry. Uh.."
Eraser cleared his throat, then apologized as well. He shot another glare at Senji, who returned his dirty look. Seeing them like this, even after her haircut, Shinso thought that they really did look like a parent arguing with their unruly child. It was a little bit funny, if not for how awkward it was being a third wheel to it all.
"You've clearly been working hard, on your own. Let's run a test to see the results of that," Eraser switched into training mode in an instant, not giving Senji time to start up again.
"Alright," Senji stanced up, and Shinso did the same. His form was still pretty rough, but he was able to hold out for significantly longer now. Senji spun around him, pushing with her tail, and pinned him down into the dirt. Eraser called her win, and the two students waited to catch their breath.
"Let's see if you can get Senji with your quirk, this time," Eraser gave them just a few minutes before moving to the next step.
"Won't it be pretty hard to do that, since I know how his quirk works?"
"About that," Eraser handed something over to Shinso. It looked like some sort of mask, covering his mouth. There were dials on the sides that caught Senji's attention. Shinso put it on, turning the dials and doing some vocal exercises to check the sound.
"A voice changer?," Senji asked, and the other two confirmed. That would definitely be able to trick people, but it meant a lot of time to observe groups as well. Senji stanced up again, ready to test her sparring partner to the fullest.
They traded blows off and on, with Shinso trying to provoke her and find a suitable voice. He really had improved at dodging, and with the binding cloth that Eraser used often. He successfully caught her left arm in it, and spoke out in a gravelly voice.
"Caught you, baby bird," he taunted.
In an instant, Senji scattered and reformed the scales of her left arm to break free of the binding. She rushed toward the voice, knocking Shinso back violently and drawing a wing-blade to his neck. The boy froze up with fear, and held his hands palm up to show that he meant no harm. There was a frightening look on the girl's face, one that even her teacher avoided. Her pink pupils were no more than dots, eyes wide and face pulled into a menacing snarl.
"No, caught you-"
Shinso's brainwashing took effect immediately, but he didn't give any commands. He was afraid of triggering any further reaction. Eraser used his quirk to cancel out Senji's, making her stumble a little and come to her senses.
"Sorry," her voice was weak. Senji used her right arm to push herself up and off of Shinso. She looked away, his terrified expression burned into her memory. He eased himself up, slowly, still wary of startling Senji.
"Let's not…use that one," Eraser released his quirk, and Senji's arm and tail regained their shape. He called for a short break and spoke quietly with Shinso while Senji tried to compose herself again.
"Uh," Senji finally moved over to talk to Shinso, and apologize. He tensed up at first, but relaxed after checking her expression and how she held her tail.
"That voice. And…the nickname," she started, unsure how to ask her question.
"There was a recording. A couple of them, from the Camino..incident. I didn't believe in all the rumors, but..the tail was the same. Sorry," he apologized wholeheartedly.
"It's…it's alright. You gotta use whatever you can," Senji fidgeted with her tail again. Eraser put a hand gently on her shoulder, and she stopped moving so nervously.
"You finally got me, though," Senji tried to offer some encouragement. The two talked for a while longer, while Eraser tapped at a tablet he brought with him. He finally spoke up, stopping them dead in their tracks.
"So, normally at school your wings look like feathery and stuff. Like that one hero. They were different in..the video," Shinso shared his observation while trying to sidestep the Camino event.
"Yeah. It's just..it isn't like-"
"You a pretty big fan of his?," Shinso dug straight to the heart with that.
"I-guess so," Senji gave up deflecting for now. Shinso teased her a little, and she showed off her different wing shapes for him. He appeared genuinely fascinated with her versatility with her quirk, and made some more comparisons to the red-winged hero Hawks.
"So, what do you take back Shinso?," the teacher asked with a mild glare. His students shared a glance, then tried to laugh it off as nothing important. He pressed them harder, but didn't get a satisfactory answer before he dismissed them for the night.
"Senji," Eraser called out, "come visit Eri tomorrow."