Toshinori found himself feeling a touch awkward as he sat in the passenger side of Tsukauchi's car and tried to clean off the blood stain on his sleeve.
Mainly because today, he was supposed to be heading to the festival to watch the students, which would have been his first time since he had been far too busy dealing with All For One to come to any of the following years.
The festival would also cause less people to wonder why he was on U.A. grounds since the people would have just chalked it up to him being there for the event.
But then on his way there was a cry from help from a woman and how could he live with himself if he didn't stop to help.
Then there was a cat in a tree and who could say no to helping the broken-down bus of people get to their destination if you could carry them all without breaking a sweat?
Then before he knew it he had used up all of his time and stranded in the middle of downtown with no way to get to his scheduled meeting with Nezu on time.
With no way to get to the school in a reasonable amount of time and he decided to call Nezu to inform him of his absence.
"Hello there All Might, how may I help you?" Nezu cheerfully greeted.
"Apologizes Nezu, but it seems I won't be on time for our meeting, do you think you can wait half an hour for me to arrive?" he inquired as he washed up in a public restroom of a nearby shop.
He ended up choking up some blood when he turned back into his smaller form and it wouldn't do him any good to be walking around with blood on himself.
He really rather not have to explain his medical condition to another officer, since the last time he ended up having to go to a hospital because the woman wouldn't just take his word for him being alright.
Nezu gave chuckle "Oh there is no need, I've already arranged for someone to come and pick you up! They should be arriving in a few minutes so please do wait for them out front." Nezu told him and before he could ask how Nezu knew where he was Nezu hung up on him.
With little choice Toshinori finished cleaning up and stepped back out of the shop, contemplating what he should do, the person coming would most likely be expecting All Might and not… well… him instead.
But his worried musing was for nothing in the end as a familiar car pulled up and Tsukauchi reached over to open the passenger side door for him.
"Tsukauchi! I didn't know you and Nezu were in contact with each other." he said as he slipped into the car, ducking his head once he was inside since even when sitting the car's roof was too low for him to sit upright.
"It was a more recent development." Tsukauchi answered waiting for him to get buckled in before driving off.
"I see, did he ask for your help in a case?" he inquired, and he saw Tsukauchi blink like he was surprised by his question.
"Nezu, didn't tell you when he arranged the meeting?" Tsukauchi quietly asked.
It was Toshinori's turn to blink "Tell me what? And you know about the meeting I asked Nezu for? Did he tell you that was why you had to pick me up?" he asked in turn.
Tsukauchi seemed to shrink in on himself and grew silent.
"Tsukauchi?" he said growing a bit worried then to his surprise Tsukauchi pulled off the highway to park on a street parking spot, something his friend usually only did when they needed to talk and that it would be a heavy conversation.
A habit he had admittedly seen more of since he began to cough up blood when he was shocked by something or very emotional.
And what lead to him sitting awkwardly in the car fiddling with his sleeve.
Tsukauchi took a deep breath, was quiet for another minute which made him squirm as he wondered just what his could be trying to gear up and tell him, especially with the way he seemed to think he would take it.
"Please, let me explain first then you can ask me your questions." Tsukauchi requested, Toshinori gulped then nodded.
"Back before we knew that All For One wasn't dead there was a person, we thought was a big information broker that we were worried might be connected to him in some way," Tsukauchi slowly explained and Toshinori stared at his friend.
He almost asked 'what?' right away but bit his tongue and waited patiently as his friend had asked.
"With how serious this was, I took it upon myself to approach Nezu about confirming the correlation but he said he couldn't since he didn't have enough information on All For One so I directed him to ask either Sasaki or Gran Torino for more since I'm not as well read in." Tsukauchi told him.
Okay, that wasn't so bad... having someone that was as smart as Nezu informed about All For One would be a benefit in the long run, it would probably even save him some time explaining about his quirk if he could point to another near unbelievable quirk that also existed.
He was even about to say so, but Tsukauchi didn't stop there.
"The broker wasn't in the end and a very benign figure, but Nezu did ask Gran Torino for more information... and Gran Torino told him about why All For One was targeting you and your mentor." Tsukauchi tentatively informed and Toshinori's heart plunged to the hole where his stomach once was.
The surge of blood came almost immediately, and he quickly grabbed for his black handkerchief to keep from getting blood all over Tsukauchi's car.
Nezu knew about One For All?
Nezu knew and no one bothered to even give him the courtesy of telling him that someone else was added to this tiny circle of trust?
Even if the info broker wasn't a threat in the end, he should have been told at the very least about Nezu now knowing about One For All.
The horrid but overly familiar taste of betrayal coat his tongue and nearly brought some of the watery vile his body could still make without his stomach proper.
Was that why Nezu hadn't questioned why he wanted to meet with him?
Because he already knew about his quirk and greatest enemy?
Nezu had mentioned that he was planning on trying to try and get in contact with him when he asked for a meeting.
He didn't know how he wanted to feel about that.
Talk about Nezu was very specific about him, as a creature with the mind of a man and the hungry eyes of a predator that held more secrets that the American's C.I.A.
And he wasn't sure what he wanted Nezu knowing his most closely guarded secret.
"Toshinori?" Tsukauchi called, bringing him out of his mind.
He grunted back in acknowledgement, so Tsukauchi would know he was listening to him but his mouth was still too busy with the blood inside it.
Tsukauchi reached over and opened the glovebox, pulling out a large cup then offered it to him.
Given he didn't want to keep the blood in his mouth he took it and spat what he could out in the cup, accepting the offered bottle of water that Tsukauchi gave him right after to clear his mouth of the tangy iron aftertaste in his mouth.
"Are you okay?" Tsukauchi asked and he thought for a moment on how to answer.
Because Tsukauchi's quirk would pick out any lies about him not being upset, and though he was very much out of sorts from the info bomb he didn't want Tsukauchi to think that it was fully on him.
There was a large stab in his back from Tsukauchi to keep this from him it wasn't one hundred percent on him.
"I will need a moment to process this." he answered, wheezing slightly since he was tired from using up all of his quirk hours and the violent shock of learning his secret was split to someone without his knowledge.
After taking a moment breath he remembered that Tsukauchi knew about his meeting with Nezu, a meeting that he hadn't really fleshed out with Nezu beyond when and where to meet so they could discuss a private matter.
"This meeting, did you know about it before today?" he asked, and Tsukauchi nodded.
"Nezu called all of us to come, Torino, Shuzenji, Sasaki and I were asked to be there today for a meeting." Tsukauchi told him and his heart almost plunged again.
Sasaki was going to be there?
Admittedly he felt very unsettled by the idea that he could have walked into a meeting with Sasaki completely unaware and likely would not have reacted well.
He knew it was stupid but he really, really didn't want to see him, not yet.
The memory of when he first woke up and Sasaki's purple glowing eyes staring at him was forced back into his mind and there was a groan from the metal cup in his hand from him squeezing it too hard.
Maybe Sasaki had good intentions, or a very rare moment of weakness after he was on his deathbed and just needed to know without a shadow of a doubt that he wouldn't die in the hospital.
But there were no words to describe how gutted he felt in that moment.
It was one rule, a small one that Sasaki followed for all the years they worked together.
He knew that it was a stupid rule that got him in more trouble than he had to be in but that never stopped the complete shutdown of his common sense whenever anyone used their quirk on him without his permission, or at least his awareness.
Each and every time it happened, he just couldn't feel right in his skin for hours and would be unable to stay still or in one place without getting even more freaked out.
And regardless of the context, whether it was necessary to save his life, he couldn't be near anyone that had used their quirk on him without his permission gave him goosebumps.
Sasaki included.
Maybe he should ask Tsukauchi to take him home instead, and tell Nezu he had fallen ill, with how his guts were turning in knots it was real possibility that he would be sick.
"Given the small number of things we could all have in common, there is really only one or two things I can think of Nezu wanting us to talk about." Tsukauchi piped in and Toshinori gritted his teeth.
Tsukauchi did not need to clarify what those things were and Toshinori hated that he was right.
Because if there was a meeting of those in the know that it had to be about either One For All or All For One.
Both very serious subjects that he couldn't afford to skim out on because of his own personal hang-ups.
Even if the thought of Sasaki's loaded gaze made him want to rip all of his skin off and stay under a shower with the heat turned up to the max.
"I understand." he thickly replied, and Tsukauchi threw him a look, clearly concerned.
"Toshinori are you sure you-" Tsukauchi tried to ask but he cut him off.
"No, but I'll live." he stated "And we need to get going now, Tsukauchi." he commented.
Tsukauchi hesitated but ultimately started to drive again as he was asked.
He was feeling significantly less excited about the meeting, knowing that he would not be having the expected conversation about finding a successor.
And he was even less thrilled knowing that he would soon be in the same room as Sasaki once again.
But as he knew for a very long time there would be times that he'd have to push pass his pride, this would just be one of the many times that he would have to swallow his feelings for the good of everyone else.
He had done so enough over the years that he was pretty good at it now.