[I'd say this is kicking off a new arc, but this one and the last one kind of flow together. More like it's a new stage of the arc... The rest of this story is just gonna be one stage to another of my finale, really. It'll be big.]

Needless to say, the main group was not happy when they heard what Shine and Wally agreed to.

"Look, we could never head this off by an all out war with them," Shine said, "and that's not our style. Perhaps there's some even in the Originals we're meant to help."

"But we want them destroyed," Shigaraki said.

"No, you want them destroyed," Shine corrected, "I want them saved. As World Walkers, we must never forget our true mission. I know it's frustrating for all of you. You have your own battles, but we can help you with yours without deviating from our own. Once we've spoken to them, we'll know where they are. They may not let us leave, but we've walked in and out of traps many times, and I think they can't really stop us. Their power to resist us is also a weakness against us, after all."

"But it's crazy," Hawks said.

"Yeah, almost as crazy as you trying to infiltrate the Metas by being one," Wally said.

Hawks was silenced for the moment.

"As long as you find them, I don't care how you do it," Mirko spoke up grimly, "but they'll suspect you for sure."

"They will hope to recruit us," Shine said, "and...I'm not sure I should say this, but it may be too late afterwards to say it, so...I suspect they will have Lethe there or Kurogiri, or both. Kurogiri's powers interfere with ours, making him useful, and Lethe is a tool to brainwash people. They haven't given up. Isn't that so, Medea?"

Medea nodded grimly. "They thought they could get his power to work on you with enough effort... Is that true?"

"Who knows?" Shine said, "I don't intend to let him get that close, but I've had amnesia before... Horrid experience."

"Yeah, it wasn't fun." Wally took her hand. "But she got through it. We have a safeguard, you know. We're not on our own. The long and short of it is, guys, we're the only ones who stand a chance of making it in and out of there in one piece without them trying to kill us. We can do this for you. Then it's in your court what to do afterward."

"We're your spies into Jericho," Shine said, "You know our methods by now. We won't be fighting them for you. We can only do what is our mission to do. Either that is good enough, or it isn't. Tell us now. Save us the trouble."

The group exchanged looks.

Momo finally spoke first. "It seems to me this is what it always comes down to...either we trust you to know what you're supposed to do, and that it will work out for the best, or we try to our own way. But we have always gotten hurt when we ignored your warnings."

Shoto looked really guilty when she said that for some reason.

[An allusion to the spin off story.]

"But it's too easy for them to do something if you go alone," Bakugo said.

"I know, but we have no choice," Wally shrugged, "You do what you gotta do... I mean, I escaped Apokalips with, like, 3 people, so how bad could it be?"

"Yeah, Wally's great at that," Shine said, "We'll pull through. Anyway, it's better than running all over trying to do this the hard way. Come now, even you must agree."

She meant Shigaraki.

"I don't know," Spinner said, "It's leaving everything up to you."

"And we've failed how many times...?" Wally said.

Good point.

"If you want to go do this, I don't think we can stop you," Shigaraki said, "and there's no reason to. You can do as you want, but you won't speak for the League."

"Of course," Shine said, "I wouldn't. You know that."

"And one more thing. If you do find Kurogiri, you should try to bring him out. I still don't think he's there by choice."

"I would be happy to do this if he would allow it," Shine said, "but it's another thing I can't promise. Only to try."

"Yeah, I'd do feel kind of bad for smoke guy, though," Wally said, "Talk about a crappy life. I'd help him if I could."

"Your consideration of our plight would be more heartwarming, if you didn't also seem to be just as considerate for those fiends in the Originals," Compress remarked coldly, "You don't seem to care who you are helping. You never pick a side."

"You say it like it's a bad thing." Shine tugged her hair. "Were we not upfront from the start? We are neither for you nor against you. We are for God and His Glory. You must understand, your problems, while serious to us because they are serious to you, don't carry much weight in our lives beyond that. All we help you with we do because it matters to you. It can't affect us personally hardly at all what becomes of your world, can it? Except that worlds do affect each other, but the effects are too small to see up close in our lives, and most people ignore anything but blatant effects."

"I'm curious--how do worlds effect each other?" Monama spoke up, "I mean...it sounds weird, but why would anyone in yours care about ours? We don't know anything about them."

"And yet they produced us, who you do know. That's one obvious effect," Shine shrugged, "but there are many levels of intersection you can't know about. It would take a long time to explain every one of them. But if you've heard of the butterfly effect, you can get a slight idea. One little thing changes in our world. It becomes a big thing. Someone's life can be saved because of one word or sentence, spoken at the right time and in the right way. But the significance of events is never clear except in hindsight. To borrow an example from your own world, you all make a huge deal out of the results of that stupid Sports Festival. But from our perspective, it's mostly useless--too big and blown up to really impact anyone, unless it's to inflate your ego. A game of cards in your dorm could be when a truly life altering moment happens, and you'll never know until much later. It's because of that truth that we never turn down any operation we get, however small it seems."

Monama seemed to try to wrap his head around that.

"You know, I kind of get it, actually," Medea spoke, "Since I've been remembering stuff, I've kind of realized that any little memory I lost was important for how I acted on it, even if it looked small at the time. I just don't get how Lethe didn't understand that."

"Big picture syndrome," Shine explained, "thinking the greater good justifies everything. But you see, there is no such thing as the greater good for all men if it's not the greater good for just one, too. It's like you're saying you can ignore one person's humanity for the sake of humanity, but what are you defending, then? The person right in front of you matters the most. They are the only one you can be sure you are affecting right then, right now, one way or the other. What happens to the world at large is not within your full control. That is self aggrandizing malarkey."

"Preach it," Wally said, "Man, there're some villains I wish I could say that to at home..."

"But I thought you said you save the world?" Mirko questioned.

"Oh, sure, but it's the same principle," Wally said, "I mean, I try just as hard to save one person as the world, and it's not that different. I mean, if a baddie is gonna blow up a city, he'll blow up the person in front of me too. It's like that."

"I've heard that in war soldiers end up caring more about defending their brother in arms than they do about their country," Shine said, "No one can hold the idea of greater good in their heads all the time, not when their life is on the line. I think it's significant that even Jesus, when he died, looked at the people at the foot of his cross and cared about them and the people right next to him, who he still had a moment for even in dying. Jesus cared about who was in front of him, and so he saved the world. So, no, the greater good justifies no evil done to anyone."

"Wait, though, that's just semantics," Hawks objected, "If someone is threatening the world, you have to stop them, even if it's not better for that person."

Hawks had to bring this up in front of the LOV.

But Shine didn't back down, though she avoided eye contact with them.

"I don't see stopping them as doing them harm," she said, standing, "I see stopping anyone from doing evil as making them have one less thing on their conscience. Would you call stopping children from doing something unwise hurting them? Not much of a parent if you would."

"People just wait for heroes to do stuff," Shigaraki spoke suddenly, like Shine's words had set his mind on something else, "They ignore who's right in front of them. If everyone did what you said, Likstar, the world wouldn't be such a mess."

"Aye, that is true." Shine didn't react. "But would you say you do that any more that anyone else? Being blinded by our goals is far, far too easy, even for good people, let alone people who don't really care. Selfishness is our big curse in life, and, unfortunately, being extremely short sighted is our other curse. I wonder, if Adam had thought about the far reaching consequences for going along with Eve, would he have had the nerve to follow her? It's useless to ask now. We are all like them."

She smiled sadly. "Even we, who know better, do this all the time. I understand what you're saying, Tomura, but I also know how very hard it is to do any different, and it's harder to judge others when you see how hard it is to live up to your own expectations."

"Villains are selfish though," Hawks spoke, "Heroes spend all their time serving others."

"But that serves them too," Shine countered, "It's not the best defense."

She sighed. "It's getting late. Aizawa will be looking for us. We gave her 24 hours. Might as well go rest while we can. I'm not so sorry for the delay, just today has been exhausting, emotionally speaking."

That was true, Mirko thought. But waiting a whole other day also sounded like torture.

"I guess that's that." Hawks headed out. "See you all tomorrow."

The group split to go their separate ways.

* * *

"I'll admit, Likstar had some good points about things," Spinner remarked, back at the house, "It's too bad everyone can't be more like that, think of people around them."

"Do you, Spinner?" Compress said dryly, "Likstar and West are kind to everyone, to the point where I think they're idiots about it, but at least they are consistent. They'll treat those d----d ninja the way the treat anyone else--probably end up getting killed over it. But I'll give the points for sincerity. Do you treat anyone around you well?"

"What's that supposed to mean? Do you?" Spinner shot back.

"Perhaps not. I've never claimed to be unselfish though," Compress said.

Spinner didn't know what to say to that.

"I don't know. I think it's cool," Medea remarked to Mirko, "I don't think most people can pull it off though."

She glanced over at Shigaraki. "You think they'll find Kurogiri?"

Shigaraki shrugged. "If he's there."

"It's cool how you still want to help him," Medea admitted, "Kind of thought you'd just want him dead by now."

"It will depend on how much of this was his own fault," Shigaraki said. 

Medea shrugged. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense... I guess at least with him, you still aren't sure.im I wish I could think my brother was doing all this because of mind control...but it was him when I talked to him. Bitter and delusional, but it was him. I should have seen it years ago." She rubbed her hair. "I just didn't want to see. I get it now."

Shigaraki wouldn't have said it aloud, but he'd had the same thought about Kurogiri a few times.

How had he missed that the guy was a nomu all this time? Or what that really meant? Or...had it just not been something he cared to see?

He hadn't cared much about anything for years, so why did it bug him to know that the way it did? It was just kind of creepy, thinking about being watched by someone who had no choice...

Kurogiri was still far nicer to him than anyone else had ever been, though. And that wasn't even real... Figured, really.

But he felt like he needed to ask him directly, like he needed to be certain of the situation. And what had turned him on the League suddenly.

* * *

"Where were you guys?" Deku asked Shoto and Bakugo when they returned to the dorms.

"Out," Bakugo said vaguely.

"But...we weren't working today..." Deku said, "Were you out with the supervisors? I know they were gone too."

"We were with them, yeah." Shoto saw no reason to lie.

Deku looked suspicious. "You go out a lot with them...and then things happen... What exactly are you guys doing?"

Of course, the class had caught on..but they never asked about it. They knew better.

Bakugo glared at Deku. "None of your business."

"I think it is." All Might suddenly appeared out of the front room. "I've noticed things too... Aizawa wouldn't say anything about it to me though. He said what you do is your business."

Shine and Wally looked into the room right then.

Shoto shot them a helpless look.

Shine looked tired of all this, but she squared her shoulders. "I think we should talk about this, All Might. Not the kids."

"That's fine," All Might said.

"Are you sure?" Shoto said to them, "You two need to rest, before--Well, it's been a long day."

"We can't always pick the times for these conversations, Shoto, so I think it's best to just get it over with." Shine sounded real excited for this.

"Uh, if you're too tired..." All Might began.

"Nah, man, the worst is having to think about it beforehand. Let's just talk," Wally said.

"All right, we can go to the office, then," All Might said.

They all left.

"Busted..." Jiro commented. She'd heard the whole thing.

Kaminari said. "But how much do you think they'll tell All Might? I mean, he's All Might."

"They like him," Shoto said, "but much as I look up to All Might, I don't know if he'd understand what we do."

"But things are different now," Bakugo said, "They have a different mission. We all didn't get that at first, but now we do. All Might will just have to accept it also. You think they'd listen to him if they wouldn't listen to anyone else?"

"No, but I'm concerned he might go to Nezu if he has a problem with them," Shoto said, "Is All Might the type to do that?"

"Uh...I don't think so," Deku said, "But what's so bad...? What are you all talking about?"

"Frick off, Deku." Bakugo left the room.

No one else bothered to explain either.

* * *

"I've noticed things for a while, but I wasn't sure," All Might told the DJs, once they were in an office with the door shut.

Wally checked the room faster than All Might or Shine could see for any sign of cameras or bugs-- just because they trusted Nezu not at all--but it seemed okay. Probably there were reasons the staff area wouldn't be recorded, if one thought about it.

All Might poured them some tea.

"After you asked me about Nana Shimura's family and young Shigaraki, I thought you might be planning to investigate," All Might admitted, "But I realized, the LOV hasn't appeared at all recently, except for the arrest of that one guy...who made a full confession. You went to the trial, right? I thought it was odd Endeavor let you, but you're friends, right?"

"Yes, Endeavor's an honorable man," Shine said carefully, "We have mutual respect. He's trying very hard to do right by people."

"He has made huge strides," All Might admitted, "but finding out that man was his son must have been a real shock."

"So you guessed we've been mixed up in all this," Wally said.

"It was that, and Aizawa has slowly stopped criticizing you, and he goes off with you at times too," All Might said, "And then, I can't be sure it's at the same time, but things happen. Somehow the kids are always there too."

"It was like that even before we got here. You all neglect your students," Shine said drolly.

"Miss Likstar, don't change the subject please. This is important," All Might said, "I want to know if it's true. Have you been doing secret hero work behind our backs?"

"Of course not," Wally said, "How can we do hero work without licenses?"

The irony couldn't have been lost even on All Might.

"You know what I mean--vigilantism," All Might said.

"Ah, All Might, the first rule of vigilantism is you tell no one if you're doing it," Shine said, "Unless they want to be one too, then it's okay. And, strictly speaking, all we do is our job. We don't care about labels. If our job is labeled as villainous by some, and it always is, you know, then that's nothing to us. If it's labeled as horrific by others, that's nothing too. It's just what we do."

"You're avoiding the question, Miss Likstar. Please, I'm not trying to get you in trouble," All Might said, "I just want to know. And if the students are safe."

"It's nice to hear that for once," Wally couldn't help saying.

"All Might, I would like to tell you what we've been at," Shine said, "but first, you must promise us not to repeat it to anyone unless we say it's okay. You of all people know the need of secrecy. We have kept yours and Deku's."

"I do owe you for that," All Might said, "so I can't exactly refuse to do that."

"Okay, but you must hear us out before jumping to conclusions," Shine said.

"Okay," All Might agreed.

* * *

At least an hour later, All Might was still listening in awe to their tale. Particularly the parts that involved the LOV.

Once he'd gotten over his initial exclamations of shock, he finally got around to processing it.

"This is so strange. I never would have believed anyone could reason with the LOV."

Shine bristled a little. "That's because no one ever tried."

"I admit there was a time when I had it in mind to search them out," All Might said, "I looked into my master's family, you'll remember...but it just broke off after their deaths, and I found no trace of her grandson. If he is Shigaraki, then he's long turned his back on what his grandmother stood for."

Shine bit her lip.

"Well, yeah, but that's because of All For One," Wally said.

"I know," All Might said, "I'm sure he fed the poor boy lies. Then again, he did still kill his family, if the rumors were true... Perhaps Gran Torino was right--it would be foolish not to treat him like the villain he is... I  seem to remember you telling me once, Miss Likstar, that we're given these chances for a reason. But it might be a bit naive to think that just because we had a personal connection with someone's family, we'll be able to reach them too... AFO one will have taught him to hate me. He is still a villain."

Wally winced. "Isn't that little cold, dude? I mean, it's not his fault AFO found him."

"Yes...that's true. It's a tragedy. That's what the fiend does, though," All Might said, "It's just the kind of thing he would do, and he'd take delight in it." He shook his head distastefully.

"Have you been back to visit him?" Shine said coolly.

"What?" All Might said, "How did you even know I went to visit him?"

"Call it a hunch," Shine said, "And did you ask him about Shigaraki?"

"No..."

[Anyone else find that kind of odd?]

"Why not?" Wally said, "I mean, you had him right there. Why not ask him about it?"

"I guess I thought I should put it behind me. If I could even believe what he said, he'd probably twist it," All Might said.

"And what did he tell you?" Shine wondered.

"Not much of anything. Just his usual, overconfident self," All Might said.

"Which of you is really more overconfident? No offense, All Might, but it seems to me you learned nothing from your mistakes here. What did you go there to do? Gloat?"

That was kind of it. All Might winced at her putting it that way though.

"I... Well..."

"Unbelievable." Shine was mad now. "Babe, it's just un-freaking believable."

"I know," Wally said.

"You would never do that," Shine said to him, with the air of a woman aching for someone to have a shred of sanity. She was currently sitting on his lap.

"Nope," Wally agreed, "I mean, it's a cheap shot, gloating at someone who's already caught. I might play checkers though."

"Ah, like Professor X and Magneto," Shine said, "Always did love that about their friendship... Anyway," she looked back at All Might, "forgive our rudeness. I needed a moment here to talk to my fiancé before I lost my mind from the stupidity of heroes here."

"Uh...what?" All Might said.

"I know." Shine swallowed with difficulty. "I should stop ranting about stuff. You all don't care, do you?"

"Look, Miss Likstar, if you have something to say, just say it. I don't understand what you mean," All Might said.

"Oh, do you really want to tell her to do that...?" Wally said, "Well, honey, he asked for it."

Shine put her hands together. "I like you, All Might...I do, but you're a fool. There... Was that too harsh?"

"I'd follow it up," Wally said.

"Uh...excuse me?" All Might said, "Are you coaching her on how to insult me?"

"I do this sometimes," Wally said, "You know, so she won't hurt someone's feelings too much. She's very passionate."

Shine nodded. "But I'm not sure I care now... Gran Torino said to leave Shigaraki alone, huh?"

"Yeah," All Might said, "It...sounds like you don't agree with him. I'd be interested to know how you went about approaching him if you did."

"Well, and this is going to sound crazy," Shine said, "We just talked to him, without threatening him, you know. Or calling him a villain... It's amazing how it worked wonders...and, you know, we didn't backstab him later either."

"But how would you approach the League of Villains at all?" All Might was puzzled.

"Very easily," Shine said. 

Silence.

"Uh...come again?" All Might said.

"It's just so stupid!" Shine finally couldn't contain herself any longer. Wally gave up.

"I mean, you literally had it. You had it right there!" Shine gestured widely, standing up and beginning to pace in her anger. "You knew Nana had a son, and she died, and you didn't reach out to that kid. And he grew up, and he mistreated his kids because of his stupid mother."

"Hey, don't call her that," All Might said.

"Why not? She was stupid." She looked at him fiercely. "I don't care about offending you anymore. I wish she was alive so I could smack her upside the head for this. She had a child, and she gave that up for what? Did someone else make her have a child? It was her choice. She got married. Instead of taking responsibility for that, she palmed him off on the foster care system. What was he supposed to think? It's negligent." She shook her head. "Shame on her. Shame on you for listening to her. Shame on Gran Torino too--sounds like he knew about it."

"Wait just a minute." All Might got a little mad. "You have no idea the kind of sacrifices Nana made. Don't disrespect her memory like that."

"I'm sure she was a good hero, but that's beside the point," Shine said, "We have to go from one thing to another in life, All Might. Sort of like how you couldn't stop being a hero to be teacher, until it was taken away from you. When we do not give something up willingly at the right time, eventually our ability to choose it is removed. We only get these little windows of opportunity. That's it. She could be a hero for many people. She could only have been a mom to one person." She shook her head. "Do you think it's noble to give that up? It's foolish. She was foolish. But in the end, she made her choice. And you went along with it. And so her son became bitter, with some reason."

She shook her head.

[Some people may feel Shine is being too harsh considering that Nana was worried about All For One (something they only clarified later btw, at first they just said it was all villains). But when you consider it, why would giving her son to foster care, a system that watches children far less closely, solve anything? Clearly it was easy for AFO to find him. In the long run, Nana made the unwise choice because she and All Might were the only people who could have competed with AFO's power, and she removed herself and All Might from being able to protect her son. That makes no sense at all. It makes it look like she really just wanted to have the freedom to fight crime without having a family to hold her back. Whether or not you believe that, it doesn't put her in a good light to be that naive either. You can put it down to her just not knowing better, but that lack of foresight in parents is still bad parenting and shouldn't be held up as an example of unselfishness.]

https://youtu.be/kkrYVWncJ5U

"Wow, when you put it like that, dang..." Wally said, "That is so messed up." He sighed. "I know some kids with parents like that. It's sad...but when you invest in them a little, it makes a difference. Man, why didn't you reach out to the poor kid?"

Wally seriously couldn't fathom how All Might could not have done this, and the fact that he was so sincerely puzzled kind of hit All Might hard.

Maybe it had been the wrong decision...

"I wanted to respect her wishes," All Might said.

"There is a time and place to know that things are different," Shine said, "Did you even check in to make sure her son was okay? Surely you could have done that much, even if you didn't speak to him."

All Might was silent.

"If you had done that, you would have found out about Tenko much sooner," Shine said, "sooner than AFO could have, really... I'm sorry, but you let this happen."

All Might was shocked.

"What happened to Shigaraki was, at least in part, your doing and Gran Torino's," Shine said, "and yet he has the gall to claim it's on Shigaraki that he's a villain? People are good at absolving themselves of responsibility in anything that makes them too uncomfortable. Guess it's too hard to say, if we'd been smart enough to actually give a crap about a poor kid whose mom ditched him for her job, maybe this wouldn't have happened to his son...but nope, it's on Shigaraki for just being that gullible."

Wally was nodding. "That's so true though... It's just that ugly." He shook his head.

All Might didn't know what to say.

"Fear," Shine answered for him, "You thought you won't be able to help him... It's true, you won't, but it was your duty to at least try. And you didn't. And you know what? That proves in one way, he's right about you. It's so easy to be a hero to the world, the Symbol of Peace, but to be just a good man to one person who needs it, when it's not about heroics...that's hard."

"I never meant it to turn out like this..." All Might said, sounding very upset.

"I believe you," Shine said, "but Justice is harsh, All Might, and it won't matter to anyone else what you meant to do. This is what you did. You should own up to it."

Wally said, "I just don't get it. How could you know what AFO did to that poor guy and not feel any kind of compassion for him, at least, not enough to act on it?"

"I wouldn't have known where to find him, even if I wanted to," All Might said.

"Should have asked us," Shine said.

"It didn't seem appropriate to do that."

Shine shook her head. "Well, All Might...it's too late to worry about propriety.... Maybe heroes are cold." She hugged her sides. "You seem a decent guy, All Might...but at the end of the day, I've never seen you do anything for anyone that wasn't about heroism. Sometimes we just need to care about people."

All Might stared at her.

"Don't worry," Shine said, standing, "We've reached out to him ourselves. But the past must be rectified, if at all possible. It would be much faster if it was done by the people who made it that way. Think about it."

"It's like we say at home: Who you are off the job is what matters," Wally said.

He and Shine decided enough was said, leaving All Might lost in thought.

[Ouch.

That was so brutal.

But it's true that All Might did help create this situation.

What I find shocking is All Might's complete disregard, at least so far, for those mistakes. It's like the author forgot about the ramifications of what learning about Shigaraki would mean for him.

Hard to say. I took my best shot here at explaining it, but it's odd how little people can want to care sometimes, both in story and in real life.]