When Nana and Uraraka finally rejoined the group, it was with plenty of clothes for Nana and matching evil smiles.
Izuku shivered as he asked, "Did you two have fun?"
"Yes," Uraraka and Nana replied in unison, "yes we did."
Izuku turned to Iida. "Do you feel like introducing these two was a terrible idea?" he asked.
Iida nodded sympathetically. "It really was," he agreed.
Nana and Uraraka exchanged glances. Nana told her, "Isn't it fun when you make people regret their life choices?"
Uraraka nodded and responded, "Yep. It sure is."
"Stop agreeing, please," Izuku begged, "it's scaring me."
Uraraka and Nana eyed him, and then one another.
At the same time, they said, "No."
Izuku's groan couldn't be heard over the laughter of their other friends.
They left quickly after that, Nana happily dragging Izuku away the moment they stepped foot on UA's campus.
Nana could feel the amused stares of their friends on her back as she took off, Izuku dangling below her as she skimmed treetops on the way to the dorm room they now shared.
They landed on the ledge outside, and Nana easily pulled up the window and slipped in, Izuku following after her looking slightly conflicted.
"What would you have done if the window was locked?" he asked as he slid it closed behind him.
Nana grinned and replied, "I would have punched it in and gone from there."
Izuku looked at her with shock. "Why would you do that?" he cried, "wouldn't we just get in trouble?"
"Nah, hero students cause property damage all the time," Nana answered smoothly, "they'd just have replaced it."
Izuku retorted, "Yeah, and while we waited, we wouldn't have had a window. We'd freeze to death."
Nana smirked. "Well, it's a good thing you can warm me up, then," she said, sashaying up to her boyfriend and letting her hands creep up his chest, her inviting eyes making it clear exactly what she wanted.
Izuku sighed, "You're ridiculous, Nana."
Suddenly, Nana grabbed him by the shirt and flung him onto the bed with her One-For-All-enhanced strength. He landed with a slam, the mattress creaking as he rolled over, groaning at the compression of his ribcage.
Nana rolled him onto his back, straddling him smoothly as he looked up with shocked eyes, still not used to Nana's combination of incredible strength and ability to get horny on a dime.
Leaning in close with a hungry smile covering her face, Nana whispered, "I prefer the term unique."
Izuku let out a quiet gasp as she rocked against him, trapping him with her thighs. Instinctively, his hands snuck up onto her waist. Nana sighed happily as his warm palms caressed her hips, beginning to slip higher before she stopped their motion with her own hands.
"Uh-uh, Izuku," she told her boyfriend, who looked betrayed and a little confused, "I have a different plan for tonight."
"What is that?" Izuku asked weakly, trying to ignore the way his body heated up as she ground against him.
In a voice so low and sultry Izuku felt it more than he heard it, Nana said, "The way I see it, you've been having entirely too much fun making me cum my brains out. It's time for you to find out what it feels like when you climax for four goddamn minutes, you impossibly sexy man."
Izuku would have tried to protest more, but having Nana's lips against his as she smoothly yanked his pants down effectively stifled his words.
Besides, she kept her promise, which meant that soon, Izuku had much larger concerns than talking.
Nana woke up the next day feeling energized and excited, which might have had something to do with the fact that Izuku... didn't.
When he did finally drag himself out of bed to get ready for class, he and Nana had to run to avoid being late, or more specifically, Nana had to fly while dragging Izuku, who was definitely not screaming, no, no way!
They made it into the classroom with a minute to spare, and earned themselves a knowing smirk from Uraraka.
"Have a nice time yesterday?" she asked as Nana and Izuku sat down.
"You bet!" Nana replied as Izuku laid his head on the desk with a groan.
Aizawa's arrival prevented any more questions, which didn't prevent Nana from teasing Izuku about his exhaustion through their link for the entire day.
"Why, Izuku, you look awfully tired today!" she said, "are you sleeping okay?"
"You know damn well why I'm tired, Nana," Izuku grumbled in response.
Pretending not to hear him, Nana replied, "If you need something to hold while you sleep, I humbly offer my boobs!"
Izuku simply sighed jokingly, "Fuck you, Nana."
Nana's smile only grew. "Oh, that would work, too," she agreed, "although it might just knock you unconscious instead."
Nana's good mood continued into hero training, right up until she got zapped like the world's largest mosquito.
The exercise for the day was a simple hide-and-seek game, except for the fact that the hiders could also win by defeating the seekers. Nana was more than okay with that, because it meant she got to fight people either way.
After nearly fifteen minutes of hunting from the skies, Nana set her sights on Kaminari, running very obviously through an alleyway in the enormous empty city they were using today. She swooped down from above, completely invalidating the cover he'd been using.
"Nice try, Zappy, but you forgot to look up," Nana drawled as she landed lightly behind Kaminari, winding up for a nice right hook to end the hunt.
Then, Kaminari turned; Nana saw the grin on his face, and she realized that she'd been had.
"And you forgot to look at the walls," the electric boy retorted as he glowed yellow.
Just before she got fried, Nana glanced at the concrete walls of the narrow alley. She saw more than a dozen of the blinking guide discs Kaminari used to guide his electricity to his targets, stuck to the buildings on either side in a pattern perfectly set up to trap anyone attacking from above.
"Damn, that's actually pretty smart," she thought, immediately followed by, "this is gonna hurt, isn't it?
Then, she got hit by enough electricity to power UA for a year.
It really fucking hurt.
Meanwhile, on the either side of the fake city, Izuku was in jail.
Or, more specifically, he was sitting with Aizawa and watching the rest of the exercise play out, having already been eliminated while trying to hide.
Look, being able to fight the seekers didn't matter when Uraraka showed up with a two-story bungalow hovering in the sky above her, just waiting for him to try something. (Izuku had tried something, specifically running away, and gotten dunked on by a nice family home for his trouble.)
At least One For All gave him enough durability to not get hurt. Mostly.
Aizawa took another look at Izuku's various bruises and scrapes, and shook his head.
"I swear to God, we really need to figure out where that girl got the habit of dropping potentially-inhabited structures on her opponents," he muttered.
Izuku tried to nod in agreement, but winced as the movement made the bruises hurt more.
He reached out to Nana's mind, curious what she was doing and hoping to distract from the pain.
Instead, he got the lingering traces of a thought, followed by a wall of blinding, overpowering agony.
Izuku felt a scream tear out of his throat as his body went rigid, muscles spasming as he felt every ounce of Nana's pain.
"Well, that's new," Izuku thought as the pain left as suddenly as it had come, replaced by panic.
Instantly, Izuku was jumping up, determined to find Nana. She was clearly still in pain, whatever was going on.
Aizawa asked, "Izuku, what's wrong?"
He managed to reply, "I...I'm fine. But could you check on Nana...Shimura, I mean? I have a feeling that something is wrong."
Aizawa looked skeptical, but hit a button on the screen to show Nana slumped on the ground, Kaminari checking her pulse.
Izuku felt another surge of panic, but Aizawa stayed calm, quickly noting location and what had happened before turning to his green-haired student.
"Midoriya, she's fine," the teacher assured him, "but Kaminari got her pretty good. Could you go get her and take her to Recovery Girl?"
Izuku didn't even respond. He simply blasted off, somehow being guided to Nana's position even though Aizawa hadn't told it to him.
She was like a beacon for him to home in on, and she was in pain.
He reached her in seconds, slamming down on the ground in front of the alleyway.
"Hey, babe," Nana croaked, "fancy seeing you here."
Kaminari, seeing the boyfriend of the woman he'd just electrocuted land in front of him, turned white and started babbling, "I didn't realize that the targeters would multiply the blast, I didn't mean to hit her with that much, I'm really sorry-"
"For the last time, man," Nana said weakly, her body still steaming lightly, "don't apologize, it was badass. I liked the quip, too."
Izuku joined Kaminari in making sure Nana wasn't in any immediate danger. When he was satisfied, Izuku told her, "Alright, I'm taking you to Recovery Girl."
Still lying on the ground, Nana protested, "Come on, Izuku! It was just a little zap, I'm fine!"
Kaminari and Izuku looked at each other, then at Nana. Their skeptical expressions required no words.
Nana pouted a little. "Fine," she admitted, "maybe it was a big zap. But I don't need to see Recovery Girl!"
"Tell that to Recovery Girl," Izuku replied, kneeling down and slipping one arm under Nana's knees.
Nana glared daggers at him. She warned, "If you even think about carrying me bridal-style, so help me God, I will-"
Ignoring her warnings, Izuku slipped his other arm underneath her and lifted up, gathering Nana into his arms and holding her close to his chest.
Realizing how cozy Izuku was, Nana finished, "be a very happy woman," without missing a beat.
Kaminari watched the entire thing with an expression of mild fear, even as Nana flashed him a thumbs up and Izuku nodded, then leaped into the air, leaving a shockwave behind them.
They landed in front of Recovery Girl's office not long after. Izuku quickly rushed inside, carrying Nana.
Recovery Girl spotted them instantly, directing Izuku to lay Nana down in one of the beds, which he did.
The nurse asked, "Alright, what happened this time?"
"Kaminari accidentally hit me with a shot of electricity that was way stronger than he expected," Nana explained, "I feel fine, though."
"I'll be the judge of that," Recovery Girl replied smoothly before turning to Izuku.
She took one look at his scrapes and bruises and sighed, "Uraraka's disregard for structural integrity and collateral damage is responsible for this, I assume."
Izuku nodded wordlessly. Nana just laughed, "Man, Uraraka's badass!"
Recovery Girl said, "Be quiet, you. People who just got electrocuted should not be this sprightly."
"Well, joke's on you, because I'm always sprightly," Nana retorted as one of the medical robots scanned her for any internal damage and found none.
"Apparently so," the nurse muttered, "because even death couldn't keep you from risking your life with stupid stunts."
"Hey," Nana retorted as her mind started to offer up new memories, "that's not fair! Just because I broke my arm that one time doesn't mean I took that many risks!"
Recovery Girl just glared at her as she healed Izuku.
When she was done, the ancient-looking nurse walked over to Nana's bedside and said, "I don't know if you recall this, given the...state of your memory, but I was two years ahead of you at UA."
Nana nodded and replied, "Yeah, I remember now. You were already interning in the nurse's office."
Recovery Girl raised an eyebrow in interest. "Really, you remember that, but not…nevermind," she said, clearly redirecting her train of thought, "but yes, I was a third year when you entered UA. Do you know what the very first thing I ever heard about you was?"
"What?" Nana asked, "it was how awesome I was, right?"
Izuku watched with interest, eager to learn more about Nana's life, and about the history of UA.
Recovery Girl simply crossed her arms as she replied, "No, it was not. The very first day of that year, I heard a story from a classmate that some crazy freshman had flown face-first into a tree trying to prove that she could go faster than a fellow freshman hero student with a cheetah-form quirk. Does that ring a bell?"
Nana tried her best to not look sheepish as she nodded, the memory flowing back to her like all of the context memories she'd regained had.
"For the record, I did win," she told Izuku.
"Just so you know, you didn't change much over the next three years," the nurse informed her, "or the next thirteen, for that matter. Or thirty, apparently."
Nana cracked, "What can I say? You can't improve on perfection."
Recovery Girl just glared at her even harder. "Perfection" being all the broken bones and injuries you got over the years?" she asked dryly.
"No pain, no gain!" Nana quipped.
Recovery Girl smacked her on the head with her cane, making Nana yelp, "Hey! What was that for?"
"Did you gain anything from that pain?" the old woman asked.
"Why are you hitting me? I'm injured!" Nana complained, making Izuku and Recovery Girl snort.
The nurse told her, "You sure do make a lot of noise for someone who's so badly injured, Miss...Nana."
There was that pause again. Nana wondered why Recovery Girl was stopping herself from saying things like that.
What was she leaving out?
Then, Recovery Girl finally applied her healing kiss, and Nana sighed as the lingering pain in her muscles slowly disappeared, her skin regaining its natural color.
"As a matter of fact," the elderly woman continued as she turned towards Izuku, "the only patient I've ever had who was more reckless than this one or her successor is you, Mr. Midoriya."
Izuku turned bright red and stammered, "W-Wait, why are you dragging me into this? What did I do?"
"Blew up your bones like firecrackers whenever you tried to use One For All," Recovery Girl replied.
"But I don't do that anymore!" Izuku said.
To that, Recovery Girl simply said, "You'd better not."
Then, she added, "I swear, is it something about One For All that turns its users into the biggest idiots imaginable when it comes to their own health?"
"What are you talking about?" Izuku and Nana asked at the same time.
Glaring right at Nana, Recovery Girl began, "Midoriya couldn't stop breaking his own damn bones, even when he did get control of One For All, you got hurt so many times I threatened to name the ward after you, and Toshinori... he's the worst of the lot."
Izuku nodded somberly, but Nana was confused.
"Wait, what did Toshi do?" she asked, "I thought he got control of One For All super easily!"
Recovery Girl looked at her strangely, then back at Izuku.
"She really doesn't know?" she asked Nana's boyfriend.
Izuku shook his head. "I guess not. I thought she would have seen it in my memories, but maybe she didn't dig that far," he replied.
"Guys," Nana repeated, "what did my successor do?"
Recovery Girl looked back at her, and finally sighed.
"I'll let Toshinori explain it," she decided, "all I'm going to say is that he got hurt, Nana. Badly."
"How badly?" Nana whispered, feeling her heart rise up into her throat as one of her oldest fears came back.
Izuku looked at her sadly, like he was about to say something that would hurt her, but he didn't see a way around it.
"Nana," Izuku said softly, "he can't use One For All anymore."
For a second, Nana stared at Izuku in disbelief. She looked through his memories, and saw a skinny blonde man on a rooftop, lifting up his shirt to reveal a horrifying scar. She saw that same man shrivel up, cough blood, and be exposed to the world.
Nana had thought that Toshi had just gotten skinnier as he aged. But seeing how he'd been devastated by whatever injury her boyfriend was talking about made her realize something; whatever Toshi had done after her death to beat that man, it had cost him dearly.
Through their link, Nana told Izuku, "Thank you for telling me this, babe."
Then, she jumped out of the bed she'd been lying in, yelling, "TOSHI, WHAT THE ACTUAL, EVERLOVING FUCK! I'M GONNA THROW YOU IN THE OCEAN AGAIN, YOU SELF-SACRIFICING BASTARD!"
She was out of the room before Izuku or Recovery Girl could react, tearing down the hallway towards All Might's office.
"I'm sure you want to follow her," Recovery Girl said, "but seeing as she left too quickly, I'm going to give you these."
She pulled a bottle out of a cabinet and tossed it to him. Izuku caught it and stared at the label, one he didn't recognize.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Birth control," Recovery Girl said smoothly, ignoring Izuku's sudden and intense blush, "I found Nana's old prescription for them after I found out she'd returned to us. Don't give me that look, young man, you're not fooling anybody with the way you two look at each other. I have seen three generations of One For All holders in this room. I intend to be dead and buried, or at least blissfully retired, before I see a fourth."
Izuku knew better than to argue with that particular tone. He quickly controlled his expression of embarrassment, and moved on to the topic he was still worrying about.
Izuku pleaded, "Please tell me that Nana's not going to kill the Symbol of Peace."
Recovery Girl shook her head. "No," she replied, "she's just going to make him wish she did. And he deserves it, believe me."
"I wish I knew more of her story," Izuku admitted, "she doesn't know it either, and nobody who does know will tell me or her."
Recovery Girl looked old then, as old or older than her years. She sat down in a chair, and sighed, "I know, Mr. Midoriya, believe me, I do. You both deserve to know, it's true. But please, understand that her death is among the most painful memories imaginable for anyone who knew her. Her story is...not a happy one. To have a woman like her taken from us in the prime of her life, so soon after her…after someone else was, it has left scars, buried so deep it may be a long time before we are ready to speak of her first life again. I'm sorry."
Izuku tried to reassure the old woman that it was okay, but his lips wouldn't form the words. He was left with a burning question, one he needed desperately to know.
"What happened to her?" Izuku asked in a voice near a whisper. He didn't know why he did so. Maybe it was out of phantom grief, imagining what a world suddenly without Nana must have been like for those used to her light. Maybe it was out of respect for an old woman who had now seen three generations of the greatest heroes in Japan changed forever by the shade of a single woman whose legacy would last as long as heroes did.
Recovery Girl's voice was flat, blunt; it struck like a hammer with each word spoken in a hushed voice like one used at a funeral.
"All For One killed her," she said quietly.
Izuku...didn't know what he was feeling. He didn't know how he should be feeling. This situation simply didn't make any sense. These stories had happened to different people, in a different time. Why, then, did his heart clench in such visceral grief when he thought about losing Nana? What did he do with the knowledge that she'd died facing the worst monster Japan had ever known, the man who had unleashed Shigaraki upon the world to be his second coming?
He wondered if a talk with Nana would help him at all. Somehow, he thought it would.
"Thank you," he said, "for telling me."
Recovery Girl didn't reply; she simply nodded, her eyes staring thirty years into the past.
Izuku bowed once and walked out of the room, leaving an old woman alone with her ghosts once more.
Toshinori flinched when the door to his office slammed open with a crash, revealing a very pissed Nana Shimura.
He braced for her to yell at him, but instead, she demanded, "Let me see your scar, Toshi."
Toshinori's eyes widened. "Wait, what?" he asked.
"Your scar, Toshi, the one on your side," Nana repeated, her eyes hard, "let me see it."
Toshinori tried to fumble for his sleeve, but Nana got impatient and simply yanked his shirt up. Her eyes went wide as she saw the terrible wound, an enormous, discolored crater in his side where bone and flesh had torn irreparably.
Nana let his shirt fall back down, and he looked at her with wide eyes as she hissed, "Toshi, what the fuck happened to you?"
Toshinori felt guilt drag his gaze downwards. Even now, he looked back at his thoughts on the day he'd been wounded with regret.
He may have been called the greatest hero of the age, but on that day, he had been purely selfish, undeserving of the title.
Nana stepped forwards again, making Toshinori focus back on her.
"I said," she reiterated, "Toshi, tell me what the fuck that scar is."
As it turned out, this teenage Nana could do the disappointed parent gaze just as well as Toshinori remembered. The memory of that gaze more than anything else was what made him start talking.
"It's...a long story, and it's not pretty," he warned her, perhaps seeing her age more than her face.
Nana snapped, "I died, Toshi. I know a little about things that aren't pretty."
Toshinori couldn't help the flinch that ran through him at her words. Nana's eyes softened when she saw it.
More gently, she said, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."
Toshinori shook his head, assuring her, "No, no, you're right. I'm sorry, I should have mentioned my injury before."
Nana found a chair and sank into it as her successor began to speak.
Toshinori began, "I'm not sure how much you know about what I did after you...after UA."
"You went to the States, right?" Nana asked. When Toshinori nodded, a questioning look on his face, Nana added, "Look, I'm sharing brainspace with your biggest fanboy. I picked up the broad strokes, alright?"
Oh yeah, Toshinori had forgotten about the whole psychic link thing. Although, that raised plenty of questions on its own.
"Izuku knows about my injury. How have you not found out from him?" Toshinori asked.
Nana shrugged and replied, "I don't know, honestly. It's not like I instantly know everything he does, or vice versa. I still have to go looking for what I want, and your boy has a lot stored up in that brain of his. It must have slipped through the cracks."
Toshinori nodded and continued, "Well, anyway, I eventually came back. The... man who killed you was still active here, so I worked for years to bring his empire down. In the process, I dismantled most of Japan's organized crime."
"And became this "Symbol of Peace" thingy, just like you always talked about," Nana pointed out.
"I did," Toshinori agreed, "and that was incredible. But there were times when...when I didn't feel like a hero. I still felt guilty for having to be dragged away while you died."
Nana's eyes blazed as she told him, "Do not feel guilty about that, Toshi. I did it so you could get away, don't you dare say that you wanted to charge in for no reason, when all you would have done is died and let him truly win."
Toshinori quieted instantly. He'd known that Nana had sacrificed herself to protect him for a long time, but hearing her say it was...freeing, somehow, like the guilt had finally healed.
"Thank you," he said quietly. Nana just nodded in response, a simple gesture with weight beyond what it should have had.
Then, she asked, "So, how did it end? I can't imagine All For One took kindly to you singlehandedly breaking his secret control over Japan."
Toshinori snorted in spite of himself. "No, he didn't," he agreed, "in fact, he came out to fight me soon after I defeated the last of his great syndicates."
"What happened?" Nana prompted, her eyes suggesting that she'd already understood the broad outline.
Toshinori took a deep breath; memories filled his mind, of fear, and blind vengeance, and hate so powerful that it made the pain seem trivial as All For One dug out his organs. And the memory of his triumph, of getting up one last time as All For One gloated, of watching that smug, taunting face turn to disbelief, to confusion, to fear, to pulp in his hands.
Heroes were technically protected from killing a villain in the line of duty, save for cases of gross misconduct, dereliction of duty, or other cases where they shouldn't have. Even so, Toshinori had always made a point of never hurting a villain more than he had to, to keep the innocent safe. All For One had been the first time, and the last, that he'd ever truly gone after someone with the intent to kill.
At last, Toshinori said, "I was so... angry, Nana. Angry at All For One, not because he was evil or he killed innocents or any of the reasons a hero should hate villains. I was blinded by rage because he'd killed you. I lost the fight because of it. I let him taunt me, let him get to me when he mocked how you died. As if your death was because you were weak, and not because he was a monster."
Nana's eyes were soft, understanding, as she replied, "But you won the fight, clearly. You're still here."
Toshinori nodded slowly, continuing, "I went down; that's when I got this scar. He destroyed a bunch of my organs, and the surgeries afterwards did the rest. But when I was down, he was standing over me, laughing, saying that I was just like you. And, somehow...that did it. You always got up, always. No matter what. So...I did too."
"And what did you do?" Nana asked, her expression conflicted, a mess of emotions as she listened to the man she'd once died to protect explain what he'd done with the life she'd given him along with One For All.
"I…" Toshinori began, before trailing off. He tried again, "I...beat him. I'm not proud of what I did, far from it. I killed him, Nana. Or at least, I thought I did. Crushed his skull between my hands like a grape."
Nana snorted, "It figures that even losing his fucking skull wouldn't keep that piece of shit down."
Confused, Toshinori asked, "Didn't you...didn't you hear what I said? I tried to kill someone, Nana. I'm the furthest thing from a hero imaginable. Ever since then, I've felt like a fake, certain that if you saw me, you'd be disgusted at what I did."
Quietly, Nana asked, "Is that why you didn't tell me about your injury until now?"
Toshinori nodded wordlessly, staring at the ground as he braced for her anger.
He wasn't ready for her to come up to him, sink to her knees, and sigh, "Oh, Toshi, you did just fine. You did better than fine, actually. You're the greatest hero I've ever seen, kid."
Toshinori looked up at Nana in shock. Unable to find words for a second, he choked out, "W-what? Are...are you serious? Didn't you hear what I said?"
"I did," Nana told him, "I'm looking at you right now, and I want you to know: I am so proud of the hero you became. You're exactly what I always hoped you'd be."
"But I tried to kill someone!" Toshinori protested, "how can I possibly be a hero?"
Nana's eyes were blazing again, a sure sign that she'd found a path through the forest of Toshinori's guilt to remind him of what he'd achieved.
She began, "Toshi, you didn't "try to kill someone." You tried to kill All For One. There's a difference."
"What do you mean? He's still a person, isn't he?" Toshinori asked.
Nana shook her head gently. "Maybe he is; he definitely used to be," she corrected, "but he is nothing but a monster now. He said it himself, to me, when I was dying: all he ever wanted to do was be evil. A man like that, who defines himself in defiance of humanity, who glories in the pain and suffering he creates, deserves nothing but to be put down like a rabid dog. Not just that, Toshi, how many people do you think he's killed?"
"I...I don't know," Toshinori admitted.
Nana told him, "Thousands. Tens of thousands, most likely. Probably more, but we'll never know for sure. He's stolen quirks from even more than that, ruined lives in every way imaginable, crippled nations, broken and destroyed everything he's ever come into contact with. He was a scourge, a walking, talking gun aimed at humanity's head. The First User knew this. I believe he knew what we might have to do one day, to free us all of his own brother. He passed One For All on anyway. Toshi, eight generations of the greatest heroes in Japan have tried and failed to stop him, and you finally did it. Twice, from what Izuku's memories are telling me about Kamino. You didn't just save the people there that night, kiddo. You saved future generations from living in fear of him, ever again. And besides, it's like you told me that first morning. He's still alive, so he gets to sit in Tartarus forever, an eternity watching the world forget he ever existed."
Toshi couldn't help but believe Nana, when she was speaking with such conviction. It was like when he was young again, still a scared quirkless boy with impossible dreams, and a black-haired hero sat down and listened to his imagined world of peace.
There was just one thing he needed to correct her on.
"Izuku's the one who saved the future," he whispered, "he beat All For One's successor, not me."
Nana looked at him in confusion. "All For One had a successor?" she asked, incredulous, "what kind of psychopath did he find to try and follow him up?"
Toshinori couldn't tell her about Shigaraki. Not here, not now. Not when he still hadn't told her about her husband and child. Not when she'd put his heart back into his chest, when he'd finally begun to believe that she was proud of the hero he'd become.
"It's...complicated," he admitted, "I don't know if I should tell you, not right now."
Nana huffed. "I'm used to complicated," she told him, "but I'll trust your judgment."
Toshinori felt guilt bubble up at how easily she gave him that trust. He felt he at least had to give her some sort of admission.
"I'm sorry I'm still keeping things from you," he said.
"How can I possibly tell her about her past now? Will she even care?" he wondered, amazed at how he always managed to trap himself in these situations.
Nana replied, "It's fine. I really don't mind, Toshi."
"Y-you don't?" Toshi asked disbelievingly.
"Yeah," Nana confirmed, "people who knew me before seem to be tiptoeing around a lot of stuff, you know? And I know damn well that I'm missing gigantic chunks of my life, including stuff that should be really important. But I believe that One For All brought me back without those memories for a reason, a reason I plan to learn. I want you to tell me some day, soon, preferably, what I've forgotten about my old life. But I've got a second chance now, and I want to figure out what I want from my second life before I reclaim the baggage of my first one."
Toshinori couldn't let himself relax just yet. He asked, "You...you're really okay not having your memories?"
"With forgetting your child and husband ever existed?" he thought for a second, before remembering that she already had.
"Yeah," Nana confirmed, "for now, at least. And besides, it's not like I haven't got my secrets, too. It doesn't exactly seem fair for me to demand that you spill everything when I won't do the same."
Toshinori raised an eyebrow as she started to walk towards the door, but he knew better than to ask what Nana's secrets were.
Instead, he mused, "You know, you really are kind and thoughtful under all the "throwing me into the ocean" and "starting fights because you're bored," aren't you?"
As she left the office, Nana turned back to look at him. Her eyes twinkled as she replied, "Don't tell anyone, Toshi. That's one of my secrets."