Sorahiko would never regret teaching Nana's brat how to hide away and remain entirely off the grid effectively.
But there were days he hated how damn paranoid the zygote had become from it... however, rightfully terrified he should be given the circumstances.
Because he had only one way to contact Toshinori and unfortunately, the boy just never returned his calls these days, which was a change from before the bastard's supposed death although he only called him once every other month.
Usually, Sorahiko would just curse the idiot out for ignoring him but given he had learned that the grand old bastard himself was still around he had to warn the zygote to get ahead of whatever that man had planned for him.
So, for the past two weeks he had been searching around for the zygote and had to admit the stealth lessons he gave Toshinori were sticking a bit better than he thought they would.
Sure when All Might appeared it was near impossible to miss the big dofus but nobody could find him after the fact or even be certain where he had come from, and the few times he spotted the deflated version of the zygote it was always in the background as a bystander completely unconnected to the goings on.
Which was not helping him to find the blonde, did not help there were not any activity on the kid's real name either but that was just another thing he recommended the kid to do since there was a fifty-fifty on whether the bastard knew the zygote's real name.
That did not mean it would be impossible to find Toshinori, just a hell of a headache while he looked for him.
And what a headache it was...
The only sure-fire way to track the zygote down was the high maintenance diet he had to keep up to prevent his body from ripping itself apart from a lack of body tissue, something that would be so much harder given Toshinori no longer could eat 'proper' food period and would need to rely solely on alternatives.
The list of which would be a short one given Toshinori could not cook to save his life, a lesson that stuck with Sorahiko since even with him trying for ten years could not stop the fool from burning a pot of water without direct and constant supervision.
So, the zygote making anything at home was a bust and Sorahiko focused instead on looking into health stores that sold protein shakes and other places that sold meal replacement shakes like at mutation shops.
And that took him well over a week to find which ones Toshinori used regularly and once again in a lesson Sorahiko couldn't remember the boy grasping at the time, the kid had no set schedule for which ones he visited or when, the zygote even went to shops that weren't the ones he used regularly once and awhile to further throw people off.
Sorahiko would be proud in almost any other circumstance but currently Toshinori's paranoia was not helping him, however begrudgingly he thought the zygote's caution was compared to when they first started training.
Sorahiko eventually merely had to settle for just waiting for the zygote at one of his regular places to have a chance to speak with him, Sorahiko ended up waiting for about three more days before the man finally returned to the shop Sorahiko was watching.
Of course, while Toshinori was better at some things the zygote was still as clueless as he ever was in other respects, this was especially given with Toshinori only walking into the shop with a hat and mask to hide his face.
It was not as bad as Sorahiko would make it out to be given Toshinori looked vastly different from his heyday self when he was using his quirk but if anyone real determined like himself started looking in the right places, they would figure it out eventually.
Like All For One could do, and perhaps already had.
Leaving the library across from the shop Sorahiko quickly moved to intercept Toshinori before he could go inside "You trying to avoid me damned Zygote?" he questioned giving the boy a light whack with his stick on the shin.
Toshinori jumped with a hiss and looked at him shocked "G-Gran Torino!" Toshinori exclaimed clearly shocked and looking a bit faint.
"Not so loud, and I ain't in costume either or have you gone blind since I last saw you?" Sorahiko scolded with another whack to the boy's shins and Toshinori hissed.
"S-sorry Torino-Sensei!" Toshinori replied instantly waving his hands in surrender, Sorahiko shook his head grumbling "Wha- What are you doing here Torino-Sensei?" the zygote asked.
Sorahiko scoffed narrowing his eyes at the blonde "Well if you'd return any of my calls or bother to listen to the ten voice mails I left you, you'd know I have something very important to tell you, in person you zygote." he gruffly told him in return.
Toshinori began sweating "Now isn't the best time Torino-" the blonde tried to explain but Sorahiko did not give him the chance.
"No zygote. We need to talk now." he sternly cut off glaring at Toshinori.
The boy gulped hanging his head "Y-yes Torino-Sensei." Toshinori muttered looking sufficiently cowed so Sorahiko began walking down the street, there was a park nearby and he would tell Toshinori there instead, he would not want anyone to overhear them.
After making sure the two of them would be mostly alone and that they were far enough from the other people at the park, he checked multiple times that Toshinori was still following him before Sorahiko settled down at a gazebo.
He took out a small device, placed it beside him, and clicked the red button on top of it, guaranteeing that no one would overhear them via devices, it was not cheap to get this, but it was clearly worth it to buy something that would make this a dead zone temporarily.
Sorahiko let out a sigh then turned to the zygote.
Toshinori sat across from him uncomfortably hunched in on himself like he always did, nervously fiddling with the large sleeves.
It had been a while since he had seen Toshinori in person and though he knew the boy had been working far too hard against doctor's orders Sorahiko could not help a small twinge he felt in his heart as he got a good long look at Toshinori's sorry state.
Toshinori was thin enough to see the hint of bone in places, especially in his face, the loss of weight no doubt caused by a combination of stress, dietary restrictions, and lack of true self-care.
And the clothes he chose to wear certainly did not help this impression with them being four sizes too big for him, and scruffy ones at that.
Sorahiko shook his head mentally scolding himself to get on with what he needed to tell the zygote, and that he could get on Toshinori's ass about all the things he was doing that would send himself into an early grave.
"I ain't going to sugar-coat this kid, the bastard's back." Sorahiko bitterly informed the zygote.
Toshinori blinked and it took the boy a second only for him to become pale as he realized that there could only be one person Sorahiko could be talking about.
"I-I, H-how could- I smashed his brains Torino-Sensei, he can't still be alive." Toshinori fumbled over his words before going to denial, choking up some blood halfway through.
"Maybe you did, maybe you didn't Zygote, but you can't forget he has a bunch of quirks that can mess with your head... he can't convince you to give him One For All with them but he could certainly make you think you killed him." Sorahiko replied.
Toshinori's mouth opened to argue "But why wouldn't he do something then! He would have done something by now!"
Sorahiko tsked and Toshinori immediately backed down "Do you think I know what goes on in the ancient bastard's head? If I had to guess though, I think he is planning on waiting you out." he countered.
Toshinori tensely stared back at him "Wait... me out?" he questioned almost meek.
Sorahiko nodded "As much as I'd hate to say it, you'd be likely to go before me if you keep this up, doubt you'd last more than two years at this point." he said with a frown Toshinori flinched and curled up in himself even further.
"And eventually your either going to have to pass on the quirk or die with it Toshinori, either way a couple years won't be a long wait for someone like him." Sorahiko further pointed out.
"That, won't happen... I will not let that happen, I will- I'll get rid of him before he can- Ack!" Toshinori stubbornly said but Sorahiko swiftly wacked his knee with his walking stick and the man coughed up more blood.
"Like hell you can, your body is failing you Zygote; it's been failing for years now because you couldn't listen to any of us about taking a damn break for once in your life you idiot." Sorahiko scolded coldly.
"And now you can't last more than a few hours using One For All. Do you really think you could take him now? When you couldn't kill him in your prime? You're an optimist, but you are not that naive." he hissed at the blonde.
Toshinori, having calmed down from his choking wiped some of the blood with a black handkerchief but said nothing clearly forced into silence from his shame.
Sorahiko took a deep breath "As much as I'd hate to say it... I think you need to listen to Greenie and find a successor so you can pass One For All on to someone else." he told Toshinori which made him choke up more blood.
"Wha- You want me to pass this, on to someone else? To put that, that man's attention on someone else?" Toshinori angerly questioned, the blood droplets coming from his mouth making him more intimidating.
Sorahiko would have hit him again for giving him such lip, but he had not reacted much better when Greenie tried to get him to talk Toshinori into doing it either, even now the idea was very distasteful in his mouth.
"You won't have a choice, One For All is of the few things that we know can stop him and if you don't pass it on it will be gone for good when you die, and all that Nana and her family died for would be for nothing." Sorahiko hissed making Toshinori flinch back and away from him as if Nana's spirit had slapped him.
Sorahiko knew it was a low blow to bring up Nana in such a way but if it made Toshinori understand exactly how dangerous it was for him to keep going on like this then Sorahiko would suck it up.
"You need to try and find a successor and fast Zygote because who knows how long we'll have before that bastard will remain on the sidelines before he strikes again, and that's not mentioning your own time crunch of maybe three years to train them if you quit dragging yourself through the gutter." Sorahiko said.
There was a creak from the wood of Toshinori's seat as his grip tightened, clearly still very opposed to the idea of it, his eyes a mix of anger and despair.
Sorahiko met his former pupil's eyes with an even leveled glare "I don't like this any more than you do Toshinori," he spat and there was a crack that time when he squeezed on the bench and the wood in his hand splintered, the blonde never liked it when he said his name for some odd reason and rarely went by it when he could get away with it.
"If there was any other choice I wouldn't be telling you to drag someone else into this mess but unless you've found some magically quirk that's a fountain of youth we have exactly two options here; pass on One For All to some poor sap and try to help them, or let One For All die with you and lose our only weapon against the bastard." Sorahiko elaborated, his grip on his walking stick making his knuckles white.
The two were silent for quite a few minutes.
Without a word, Toshinori stood up and shuffled away, leaving him alone in the gazebo and Sorahiko sighed.
It would be a wonder if the boy would listen to him, because he was certain that Toshinori had planned to die with One For All and that it might take nothing short of the ghost of Nana herself to slap some sense into the boy.