The upshot of those confrontations was that most of class 1-A was still mad at the DJs, but to their astonishment, Aizawa did nothing at all about it. He never even mentioned what happened. None of the other teachers ever heard about it either.

Shine did exactly as she said, she stopped avoiding the students. That scared the crap out of some of them, because they felt like it was a challenge, and her powers were still uncertain.

They might have been unable to be in the dorms with all the tension, but the work studies began, and the student became too distracted to have much time for sulking. Todoroki and Bakugo alone remained around the school, it got real quiet too. The DJs didn't bother them though. Shine was mild enough, and Wally was friendly, but they didn't force any confrontation on them. Bakugo seemed to lose interest in starting one for the time being and put more effort into study so he could catch up or surpass the others. It was driving him crazy not to be able to participate.

One day not far into the Work Studies, Kirishima came home with a story about a quirk blocking drug and his successful defeat of a villain, which impressed everyone else. Midoriya seemed to be troubled over something, he wouldn't say what.

Not that many days later, Shine was reading when she heard yelling downstairs, and came rushing to the common area. Most of the class who were not at Work Studies still were gathered around the TV.

"What's going on?" Shine demanded.

"Something's going on, the news is covering it..." the girls cried.

"Midoryia was there somewhere," Kaminari added.

"I think I saw Tsuyu and Ochako too." Hagakure was jumping up and down. "Something big is going on."

"Mr. Aizawa was there too, and Fat Gum," Sero said.

Shine didn't know who Fat Gum was, but she watched the screen. The News reported that a pro hero by the name of "Sir Nighteye" had been taken to the hospital. But the broadcast was strangely sketchy. Like all the important parts had been left out. A villain named Overhaul had been arrested.

"Where's Midoriya?" Todoroki wondered. "I don't see him anymore."

No one saw Midoriya for quite a while, or Kirishima, who had been wrecked in a fight. When they did finally get back, with the girls, the class rushed to make them feel better. After resting a while, they told everyone part of what had been going on, that it had been actually days of working on the case, and planning a rescue... there was a little girl involved.

Shine sat in on this, and Wally had joined them by then too, and they were both horrified to learn this. Shine gripped her teacup. 

Midoriya wouldn't say much about the girl, Eri was her name, but he seemed pretty relieved she was rescued. 

It wasn't very long after that happened that they learned that Sir Nighteye had died. Midoriya seemed to take this hard. No one spoke to him about it...except Wally. Who of course, had lost people along the line.

"Once, I thought one of my friends who I looked up to had died," he said. "I remember feeling lost. Not knowing if I was going to be good enough on my own without him."

Midoriya glanced up. "Oh... what happened? I mean, were you able to live up to his example?"

"I don't know, turns out he wasn't dead," Wally said. 

"Oh," Midoriya wasn't sure what to make of that. 

"Still, it was scary," Wally said. "And I think I do try harder since then..."

Shine came into the area and handed him a cup of coffee and Midoriya one of tea.

"You don't need to live up to his example, Wally. Not everyone needs to be Superman, I think Superman himself knows that, he's still human really...but if it came to living up to his example in regards to mercy and justice, I think you more than succeeded. You are the most compassionate person I know."

She said that completely seriously. 

Wally looked touched. "Thanks, Shine."

Midoriya glanced at them. "Who's...uh, Superman?"

"You wouldn't have heard of him," Shine sat down. "But in Wally's world, there are many people with multiple powers. Wally has one, as you know. But Superman has around a dozen. He's not without his weaknesses, but it's pretty terrifying to be on his bad side. He's a nice person though. You know, when you have godlike abilities, either you get a god complex, or you become that much more humble because the only alternative is losing your humanity. I would not want that kind of responsibility." She shook her head.

"You get used to it," Wally seemed to see nothing boastful whatsoever in that sentence.

"I can't imagine having multiple quirks," Midoriya said in awe. "The only people I know of with that are...uh... well..."

[Author's note: For any manga reader who is confused about this part, all this is still taking place before that plot point arises. Though I assume you knew that already because Nighteye only just died. This story started probably only days after the Remedial class story, though I may have juggled the events around a bit]

"It must happen right, like a mutation?" Shine looked up, interested.

"Uh...well...bio-engineering usually..." Midoriya said uncomfortably.

"Oh, yeah, those too," Wally said, like that was normal. "A lot of supers get their powers from that."

"What? No, I didn't mean heroes..." Midoriya realized yet again they were talking about two very different things.

"Pardon?" Shine looked confused.

Midoriya changed the subject. "So this Superman guy, he's your mentor?"

"More like friend I look up to," Wally said.

"More like Kacchan then," Midoriya surmised.

Wally started chuckling. "I wouldn't say they are much alike."

"Oh gosh, I hope not." Shine choked on a laugh. Then she turned serious.
"Midoriya, are you okay, though? Ever since... you know, you seem down. Which is perfectly understandable, but I just wondered, I mean, are you taking any time off to process this? Visit family, that sort of thing."

"No, but I did talk to Mirio," Midoriya said, "and he made me feel a little better about it. A hero has to keep smiling you know."

Wally gave Shine an odd look. "I guess so...but we're not talking about hero stuff, you know. We meant how are you doing?"

Midoriya didn't seem to understand the question. "I'm doing fine...I am a hero, too. I have to act like one."

Shine frowned. "I see."

"Maybe you don't understand," Midoriya guessed from their puzzled expressions. "It's like how All Might always smiles and laughs, a true hero saves people's hearts. You have to show people it's going to be okay. That's what it means to be a Symbol of Peace."

"It does?" Shine said oddly. "I've heard that name thrown around on the news; you mean that's All Might they are referring to? They keep mentioning this guy named Endeavor--oh yeah, that's Todoroki's father's name, right? I didn't even think about it being the same person."

That was kind of telling in of itself, but Midoriya was the last person who was going to say so.

"He can't be the symbol of peace," Wally shook his head.

"No, no, people are wondering who will be the next symbol of peace," Midoriya said.

He began to explain in great detail how All Might had been that...Shine and Wally didn't get the usual awed expression other people did, Wally nodded a few times like he agreed, Shine just stared at her coffee.

"That's why it's so hard to live up to him," Midioriya finished.

"You take that very personally, don't you?" Shine said. Which made his pulse pound with nervousness.

"Oh, well, um, I look up to him a lot," he said really fast.

"Why are you acting guilty?" Shine said. Making him more nervous. 

"It's nothing to be ashamed of." Wally agreed.

"Though, I'm concerned you may have the wrong idea," Shine said. "All Might is a grounded sort of guy, from what I've seen, I'm sure in his hero days, he couldn't have been quite so unrealistic as what you're describing."

"Unrealistic?" Midoriya almost felt angry at that. "What do you mean?"

"It's all very well to say 'Always save people with a smile,' " Shine said. "But sometimes that's both impossible, and disrespectful. I've rescued people who just saw their loved ones die or get seriously hurt, if I was smiling at them, they'd think I was a loony for sure.  And more importantly, I'd feel like I was being fake."

"Yeah, I try to keep it chill, but there are times it'd just be wrong to laugh and joke," Wally agreed.

"But All Might can't really mean that," Shine said. "I'm sure he wouldn't do such a thing. I think you may have misunderstood his philosophy just a little, Midoriya. Unless that was hyperbole and you already knew all this."

Silence.

"I don't think that's what the smile means..." Midoriya said. "It's not to be insensitive, but reassuring."

"A smile would not reassure me if I was feeling bad," Shine said. "Wally could tell you, I'd have sent him packing if he came at me like that."

That confused Midoriya, so she explained, "Wally and I bonded over some painful experiences, he was very helpful... he didn't try to pretend it wasn't awful." 

Since she chose not to elaborate on what had happened, Midoriya was still a little confused. 

"Still, I think that you missed the point," he said.

"Well, Midoriya," Shine said squarely, "while it's nice to see you so fired up, we're not that easy to convince, you want us to believe you, prove it."

Midoriya was at a loss. "How would I do that? There's no one around to rescue."

Wally choked on a laugh.

"Don't be silly," Shine said. "Rescuing people from danger is what we spend the least of our time doing, if you're talking about life and death situations. We spend most of our time doing just as you said, saving people's hearts. My thought is that it's not as simple as you think it is, but if you can prove me wrong, then by all means, I'd like to know if it's that easy." She smiled. "Midoriya, if you're a hero, then you're a hero all the time. It doesn't matter if someone is in physical danger."

"Of course," Midoriya said.

But Shine frowned. "You don't speak like someone who knows that." 

"What?" Midoriya had not expected that at all. 

"Time will tell," Shine dismissed it. 

Midoriya pondered that conversation as much as he usually overthought things, and it bothered him to have All Might's advice called into question, it bothered him further that he'd been able to say nothing to defend it that made any impression on the DJs.

The rest of the class would have dismissed that as being because they were weirdos, but Midoriya never could dismiss criticism of any sort. The only think he could think to do was consult All Might himself.

This was even more pressing, because he was questioning how well he did in that rescue. Nighteye had died, after all... Eri was all right at least, but he wasn't sure just how much he'd really helped her, and Shine and Wally had only made that worse.

When he told All Might what they said, though, All Might rubbed his chin and thought.

"I think I see what they're saying," he said finally. "It's true, there are some circumstances that it would be wrong to smile about. I always did it to show people I could save them...but like I said before, there's plenty of fear behind that smile... A hero must always show confidence even when we're risking our lives... I think perhaps those two strangers are talking about something a little different. We wouldn't want to smile when someone is suffering, after all."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Midoriya put a finger to his chin. "But... what Likstar-san said, about it not helping people...and that I didn't know that... it bothered me."

"Likstar doesn't know you that well," All Might said. "Maybe she's just confused about you. Unless you did something to her."

"What would I have done?" Midoriya couldn't remember even talking to them much.

In training later that day, Aizawa seemed to be unusually tired. Apparently he was spending a lot of time trying to help Eri at the hospital. Perhaps that was why things got a little out of hand in the mock combat. The class was doing all right until Kaminari accidentally shorted out the electricity in the whole gym due to someone knocking him into the unit. There was daylight still, but it was much darker, and Tokoyami suddenly lost control of his shadow for a moment due to the shock--perhaps he was stressed already from trying to do a more complicated move.

Dark Shadow didn't have reason to attack anyone, but it began to take a swipe at the ceiling like it wanted to get out. Aizawa was at the far end of the gym out of range. Tokayami tried to rein Dark Shadow in, with some success, but he looked tired. 

The others were going to help, but Shine beat all of them too it, as soon as she saw Dark Shadow she dashed over to Tokoyami and just touched him with the flat of her sword--at once, Dark Shadow shrank down to the size of  a cat and seemed disinterested in fighting.

"What... was that?" Uraraka said oddly. 

"I can do that too?" Shine sounded surprised. "Cool."

"I'm sorry, but what have you done to Dark Shadow?" Tokoyami asked. "He seems so docile."

"It's not permanent," Shine said. "I just stopped it."

Bakugo's mouth dropped open, but not everyone understood.

 "You stopped Dark Shadow?" Kaminari said. "But, you didn't use any light, you just touched him."

 "This was your fault anyway," Jiro said to him testily. 

"Hey, I didn't mean to short it out!" he cried.

"What's going on over here?" Aizawa finally was there, looking peeved. All of that had happened so fast, it had only been about 30 seconds till he got there after realizing what was happening. 

Everyone looked at him blankly.

Shine put her sword away. "Just a minor mishap."

"How did you do that?" Midoriya asked. 

Shine shrugged. "Sometimes, at the right time, it just takes a little authority and not losing your head..."

 No one knew what that meant, but they backed up. 

"Can you do that to anyone?"Jiro asked. 

"I'm not really sure," Shine seemed unconcerned, "perhaps, if they were attacking me." She realized then that they were all scared. "I wouldn't use that on you." She said. "Why would any of you be attacking me? That's just for an emergency, I can't do it on command."

"That makes no sense," Sero said.

"It's not supposed to," Shine said, "not by quirk logic...it's not a quirk, when will you all understand that? My powers are to protect me, not throw my weight around with. I can't just walk up to one of you and do it. There had to be a real reason." She looked at Tokoyami, "in this case, protecting  your classmates, you should see it as a gift, not a threat." She sighed. "I think I'm done for the day."

Aizawa frowned. "You're not done until I say you are."

"Take a look at your student's faces, Aizawa-sensei, I'm done." Shine said, walking away without another word.

Wally had missed the whole thing because he'd been in the bathroom while it happened, but Shine told him about it, the students told Mr. Aizawa what happened. Aizawa was alarmed to say the least, but again, chose not to go to Nezu with the information. Instead, he asked Tokoyami to use Dark Shadow...and, as soon as Shine was out of the room, Dark Shadow was back to full strength, and seemed to have no recollection of ever abating. If it could have memory anyway. Tokoyami had no issues for the rest of training...in fact, he found it easier to maneuver than before. This puzzled him.

The rest of the class was freaked out. But Momo had the sense to at least rationalize that if Shine could have done that at any time, she certainly would have in training in order to win. She didn't seem like the type to hold back a power like that if she could...so, she must be telling the truth about not being able to do it on command, but why could she do it at all?

Finding her later, she asked about it...she wasn't the only one, Aizawa crashed their conversation, which took place outside the dorms, on the walkway.

Shine wasn't very forthcoming about it. "Do you really want to know? You won't like my answer."

"Try me," Aizawa said. 

"You were just saying it's not a quirk," Momo reminded her. "And not to be afraid of it."

Shine sighed. "Look, if someone gives a power, they can take it away. That's logic, right? Authority. You know what I mean? You think of quirks as individual phenomenons, but I think of quirks as just another given ability, the same as a talent for music or dance. The One who gives us those gifts can remove them temporarily or permanently. Often that happens in order to protect someone with a mission, but I can extend that grace to protecting people I'm helping too, because then it's my jurisdiction." She paused. "I can see none of that made sense to you."

"Not at all," Aizawa said.

Shine stretched. "You don't think of power in the way I do. Until you learn to think in terms of authority and domain, it will never make sense. It's better to think of it like an army, that's the closest equivalent. And battles come in all shape and sizes. All you need to know is I can't use it to de-power you all, and I can't use it at will. Strictly speaking, I was just a vessel for it, I didn't need to be there for it to happen."

"That makes still less sense," Aizawa said. "And you expect us to believe that?"

"Believe whatever you like," Shine said, annoyed. "Standing around accusing me for lying won't make me tell you more, and if the truth doesn't suit your fancy, I can't help you. No version of this would settle your mind, would it? Just accept that it's not malevolent, or don't, I won't explain anymore." She got up. "Next you'll be asking me to tell you how to defeat me. Please. You can't do that anyway," she walked inside.

"Mr. Aizawa," Momo said after a pause. "Are you going to remove them from training?"

Aizawa frowned. "No...if they do that again in training it'll prove she's lying. If it doesn't happen... then this will bear further consideration...don't repeat what she just told you to anyone."

"Um...I might not, but what if she tells them?" Momo asked.

"I doubt that'll happen," Aizawa said dryly. "She likes her secrets."

But the other classmates could not be counted on to say nothing about this development. Bakugo especially. He cornered Shine in the kitchen to demand an explanation. 

"How the he-- did you pull that sh--?"

Shine was beginning to get over the yelling, it used to give her  a start, now she hardly felt anything. 

"How do you think I did it?" She retorted in the same tone, though a much lower volume. "Figure it out yourself, if you're so smart." 

She opened the fridge. Bakugo slammed it shut.

"Don't play games with me b-" he broke off. 

Shine raised an eyebrow like "I dare you to finish that."

"Don't try to flip with me." Bakugo changed it. 

"Don't flip with me," Shine shot back, "and get the frick out of my way."

"What? Shut up!" Bakugo cried. 

"If I shut up, I can't answer your question anyway," Shine said, amused. "But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you how I did it, if you tell me what the strongest part of a person is."

Bakugo frowned. "Depends on how they train." He said, in a much lower voice.

"That's actually an excellent answer," Shine was impressed. "Not the one I had in mind, but an excellent one. If you'd said anything more specific, I would certainly have mocked you for it."

"What--" Bakugo began, but she yanked the door open while he was distracted, and shoved him aside--she had the force to do this, being much taller than him. She grabbed what she wanted, and then shut the door almost in his face before he could block her again. 

"Going off your answer, Bakugo, I was able to to do that because I train a certain part of myself more than the others," she said. "My strength is not from the same place yours is, and therefore, against my particular power, your strength is nothing. Or Tokoyami's in this case."

She smiled. "You've heard the saying 'don't hate the player, hate the game.' Well, it's true, so I change the game, rather than the player."

Bakugo thought about it for a long second. "That doesn't make any go---" he stopped again. "Any d---sense," he amended. 

"Wow, you're actually doing it?" Shine was amazed. "I really scared you, huh? No need to fear, I won't be stopping your quirk. Unless you try to kill me maybe, then again, you might succeed, I never know."

She said "I never know," not "you never know," that was a weird slip of the tongue...or was it on purpose? Bakugo narrowed his eyes.

"You saying you don't have control over your own dumb power?"

"You live around Midoriya and that's a strange idea to you?" Shine said drolly. "I saw the festival  too, remember? Surely, it's not that uncommon, though my reason is a little unique. It's not my power. But none of you believe me because you can't get past what your own eyes see. If you knew how to use your eyes, you might get further. But not many people do." She shrugged.

"Quit talking in riddles and tell me how you d--- did it!" Bakugo lost patience...if he had any to begin with.

"It's cute how you think I care if you yell at me to do something," Shine took a sip of juice.

 Bakugo lost his temper and tried to smack it out of her hand--she moved it. 

"Yeah, I saw that coming." She smiled smugly. "This is fun an all, but try asking me in a humble or at least respectful tone, and maybe I'll consider actually answering you."

Silence. 

"Don't tell me what to fricking do!" Bakugo said snippily. 

"You thought about it, though," Shine guessed. "Too much pride, I suppose. Too bad, I'm not obligated to explain it to you. Bye," she walked-- Bakugo got in her way. 

"Okay, you do know I can portal right though you, right?" She said.

"Portals, quirk blocking, freaking glowing eyes, why do you have so many d--- powers?" Bakugo demanded. "Are you a mutant or something? Did you get bio-engineered like those friggin' monsters?! What else can you do?"

"I don't even know the answer to that," Shine said. "And if you find that frustrating, imagine living with it. Our master believes in complete dependence on his judgement, and I agree with it, I'm not clever enough to choose my own power set... but, if it would help, I can tell you, I don't have multiple powers. I have one."

[No, I did not rip off MHA for this idea. I came up with it long before I found out about that plot twist, great minds think alike I guess. I will be interested to find out if the author uses it the same way I use it #onlywatchestheanime]

 She tilted her head. "Think of it like a rose bush. It might produce different colors and assortments, but they are all roses. No matter what you do. It's always roses. Or if that's not good enough, think of it like water, it has 3 completely different forms, but it's all composed of the same molecules. It looks different to you, is all. But if you could see water at a molecular level all the time, do you think it would look as different? Probably not. I can see the molecules...you can't. I see it all as the same thing, you don't, but if you could do that, you'd understand my power." She pushed him aside. "When you wrap your head around that, let me know, we can talk more." 

Bakugo was too befuddled to stop her again, she just left. 

Interestingly though, he felt no fear. Normally, such a display would have had him itching to reassert his place at the top, but Shine had made no move to put herself at the top, and the result was he was far more interested in figuring out what she'd just said than fighting her. He didn't notice this break from normality, however, he was more annoyed.