Eventually after a while Toshinori and Nana were both able to compose themselves, Nana wiping away the remnants of tears from her face as she sat on her hunches, taking one last deep breath before she spoke.
"Sorry Toshi, this wasn't how I wanted us to meet again." Nana apologized.
"No, no it's my fault for not even trying to-" Toshinori tried to argue but Nana shushed him, her hand covering his mouth.
"Oh no you don't, don't you go blaming yourself for this. None of the holders were open minded when they first were being contacted by the past holders. And who would react well to hearing the voice of someone they thought was dead?" Nana countered.
"I wasn't even sure I wasn't losing my mind when I first started seeing people in my dreams." Nana continued to point out.
Toshinori sighed and nodded his head, agreeing with her.
Nana nodded much surer of herself and stood up, dusting herself off and shaking her head before slapping her cheeks and a smile returned to her face.
"Right, that's enough moping out of the both of us! We have some important things to talk about with the others Toshi." Nana declared her hands on her hips.
Toshinori blinked staring up at her confused until he remembered the other voices that called for him before.
"The others? Do you mean the holders before you? I can speak with them too?" Toshinori questioned and Nana nodded holding out her hand, Toshinori took it, and she lifted him up easily.
"Yep! Youchi's been waiting to talk to you for a while now, wanted to warn you about picking a successor, but Junior told you about that before we could." Nana explained to him.
"Junior?" Toshinori repeated, confused and Nana chuckled waving him off.
"Don't worry too much about that, you'll see what I mean when you meet Youchi." Nana mischievously told him and got a gleam in her eye.
Toshinori felt his heart leap when he saw it, years and years since he'd last seen her genuinely happy or even amused by something.
And it was great to see.
Toshinori looked outside the open door where Nana came from, seeing a path of floating rock and the rest of the world was made of space, a bit dysphoric but the others were likely out there so he started to walk over to the space.
But Nana's suddenly grabbed him by the arm and stopped him, the action making him flinch and he turned back to her confused.
"Sorry Toshi! I just wanted to warn you before you step out, things... work differently out there." Nana apologized, letting go of him.
"What do you mean?" Toshinori asked.
"Well, one this place is your space in here, if you feel yourself... slipping you need to come back here immediately, the others will understand." Nana informed him.
*Slipping?* Toshinori thought, feeling even more confused and seeing that she continued to explain.
"Basically, outside here is the 'common' space as we've come to call it over the years, and out there all of our memories are… linked? I don't know the specifics, but all of our minds are combined out there and the stuff the others remember can slip into your head like they're your memories." Nana further explained her hands moving the whole time.
"And for the current holder that can be… very overwhelming so you'll need to take a moment to adjust." Nana warned and he could see she was talking from experience from the way she grimaced.
"I, um, see." Toshinori mumbled unsure what she was saying actually meant.
Nana shook her head "You'll see." she said forebodingly as she walked back outside.
Toshinori followed her out only to sharply inhale as soon as he stepped out of the threshold.
Joy flooding his body as his husband picked him up bridal style then twirling him around the two of them laughing together.
Rolling his eyes as once again as his co-worker was cursing the sky for not picking a better hero outfit that would hold up in the rain and snow like his own did.
He desperately tried to hide the vase he broke when he was trying to juggle with his quirk, it was his mother's favorite, and he didn't want his mom to scold him again.
He closed his eyes and leaned back against a large rock he'd been punching before, enjoying the now rare calm that came from living so far away from everyone else and not having his quirk constantly stinging.
Sitting in a dark corner holding his breath, hands over his mouth as he sat in the hold of the ship he managed to sneak on, this was his only chance to get away and he couldn't risk being caught now.
His legs and face burning, tears streaming down his face along with the blood pouring out of his wound, as he ran away from his home... what used to be his home, his mother screaming at him but he couldn't understand what she saying besides promises of pain if he stopped running.
Choking, barely able to gasp as blood filled his mouth and coughing it up all over his damaged body, the metal bar run through him causing most of the pain tearing him up from the inside.
"Toshinori." Nana called shaking him by the shoulders and Toshinori leaned against her breathing deeply, feeling a strange weight pressing in on his skull on all sides, things wanting to go in and other things that wanted to get out of him.
"Are you okay kiddo? We can all meet up in your space since you've opened the way now, you don't need to put yourself through this." Nana told him but Toshinori shook his head.
"I… I can do this." Toshinori insisted pushing himself to his feet, the random memories leaving him shaken but now that he knew what Nana meant by 'slipping' he was certain he could handle this.
"Okay Toshi but we should still keep this as brief as possible." Nana told him and then began to lead him down the curious looking path of rock, flat on one side and stalactites on the underside.
It wasn't too long before he heard voices, most of them distantly familiar and he swore he's heard somewhere before.
Perhaps the other past wielders had each taken a turn to approach him? That idea made sense he supposed.
Then he saw what had to be the 'main' area, a large platform with eight thrones and a giant table, four men there arguing, a large one verses two others and one scarred man in the middle doing his best to keep both parties apart from each other.
Nana shook her head and put her hands on her hips and screamed "Hey!" successfully drawing everyone's attention, the others pausing upon seeing them both.
Nana sighed pinching the bridge of her nose "Do any of you grown men mind stopping whatever little spat you have for a moment to introduce yourselves?" Nana said, sounding more tired than he had ever heard her being.
Each of the men shot each other glares but did separate slightly, most walking a few steps away from the others, bar the two fighting the larger man with goggles on his head who still were standing beside each other.
The scarred man in green was first to speak.
"I'm Shinomori Hikage, the fourth wielder of One For All, I lived in the time before the first true heroes but after the first quirk war." he introduced himself with a hand on his chest.
Then the goggled man spoke next crossing his arms "Banjo Daigoro, was the first hero of Shizuoka, Lariat in my time and the fifth." he proclaimed and Toshinori's eyes went wide.
"You saved my mother and grandmother once!" Toshinori suddenly declared surprising a few of them, be the flash of memory was quick to come to him.
She had told him the story as they shared a can of lukewarm soup one night, he was the only hero who actually cared enough to help them back then and it had first planted the seed of desire in him to be a hero one day.
"Oh, yeah I remember her now, hard to forget a face like that, but I didn't do that much kid." Banjo said as if he's seen the flash of memory too.
"Memory is more fluid here remember?" Nana reminded him "We can see your memories too, and you haven't been around long enough to keep from oversharing when you think of things from your past." Nana informed him and Toshinori flushed.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-" Toshinori's apology cut off "Young Midoriya!?" He cried surprised when another pair of people came to the main section and one of them looked like Midoriya.
Well, if Midoriya was ten years older, sicklier looking with barely visible faded freckles and had had white hair that lost its strength to fight gravity like the boy's curls did.
Said man now grew pink-faced and sputtered while a couple of others began laughing.
"See! Even Eighth thinks you and Junior are related, stopping fighting it brat!" the other scarred man yelled across to the older Midoriya.
Was one of Midoriya's ancestors a past wielder?
"Second!" the white-haired Midoriya hissed though it held none of the fire or venom that the living Midoriya possessed, it was mostly embarrassment from what Toshinori thought.
"Save the mystery child of Youchi's debate for later, we don't know how long we'll have Eighth here." The man with a ponytail next to the scarred man scolded, cuffing the brunette man next to him on the back of his head.
"I'm the third wielder, just call me Bruce, it was the name I went by when I was alive, and you'd probably read about me in the history books as the villain that destroyed forts in one blow." The man introduced himself as.
"V-villain!?" Toshinori repeated nearly jumping at the admission.
Third tsked crossing his arm "Every mutant, or 'quirked person' as your generation calls themselves, was branded a villain back then Eighth, it was the dawn of quirks." Third said rolling his eyes.
"Oh." Toshinori dumbly said, unsure what to say in reply to that.
"I'm the second wielder, and that's all you need to know about me right now." the brunette scaldingly spat at him.
Toshinori stared at him for a moment, the scar on his face matching up with the wound he recalled from the memory that wasn't his own, sorrow blooming in his chest at the sight of it since he knew where it came from.
"Don't mind him Eighth, Second and Bruce have always been prickly, I'd call it a result of their time, but Youchi is evidence they're just angry people." the smaller man with a high-necked jacket like Best-Jeanest spoke up.
"Hey!" Second yelled but the coated one walked over to Toshinori and offered his hand.
"I'm En, I prefer my hero name, and I was the one to give Nana One For All, the sixth wielder." En introduced himself before motioning to the white-haired Midoriya "Come on now, don't be shy Youchi." En encouraged.
The white-haired Midoriya gulped walking over to him to "I'm... Shigaraki Youchi, the original holder and All For One's younger brother, it's nice to finally meet you face to face." he said.
Toshinori's mouth felt dry but somehow, he managed to swallow the lump in his throat.
"It's nice to meet you too, I'm Yagi Toshinori the Eighth... as I'm sure you know." he said feeling dumb after he said it because it was awkward he repeated what they clearly must know already.
"We did, but it is nice to finally know your name as well, Yagi." Youchi patiently replied with a smile as he tilted his head.
The sound of hands hitting a table disturbed the moment and everyone whipped around to see Second scowling at everyone.
"Now that you're all finished with your meet and greet can we get down to fucking business and talk about finding a ninth?" Second demanded venomously.
"You are? Good now sit the fuck down and let's talk god damn it." Second said when no one objected, and he walked over to his throne and sat down his arms crossed as he waited for everyone else to comply.
"While I don't care for your tone Second, he is right there is much we all need to discuss." Youchi ruefully agreed with a hand on Toshinori's shoulder.
Then before he could ask what they needed to talk about, the world shifted.
The branching paths disappearing, and the thrones now in a circle shape around the table, Nana put a hand on his other shoulder to settle him.
"You'll get more used to that later, I promise." Nana whispered before sitting in her own throne and motioning him to sit on the throne beside her that was for him.
How did he know that one was his? how did he know any of their thrones belonged to the person that sat in them?
"Your subconscious will fill things in for you, we all share a part of our subconscious, so you'll 'know' somethings instinctually." Youchi explained before sitting on the other side of his throne.
That made sense, he supposed.
Either way he sat down like the others only to pause when he saw his body, blinking in surprise he rubbed his eyes, but his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.
His body was younger, much younger, like back when he was fifteen or sixteen years old young.
His hands came up to his face and felt not the ridges of his cheekbones or the sunken skin, but plump flesh and he began crying.
"Why am I... why do I.. " Toshinori was barely able to speak as his mind raced to understand what was going on and why he was so young.
En gripped his shoulder tightly dragging his attention elsewhere.
"Calm yourself Yagi, everyone's likeness here is how we looked when we first took the quirk, I'm afraid you can't change that so you should try to get used to it." En told him and that grounded Toshinori somewhat.
"Right, I see." Toshinori responded quietly then waited for everyone else to get seated, and the meeting to begin.