Three days later.....
Toshinori looked at his mother's grave with infinite sadness, clutching X's coin as a refuge for his bruised heart....
The snow was falling slowly, a few flakes were already covering his blonde hair and the two large locks on each side of his face.
He dried his tears, his nose red and placed the bouquet of flowers on the tombstone.
Next to him, a dark-haired woman was praying in front of a much older grave, she finally stood up and swept the snow from her long beige coat.
There were only them in this cemetery....
The woman turned her head towards him and her eyes widened as she recognized the blond boy she had seen three days earlier. He was not smiling, which gave her extremely unpleasant shivers.
After some thought, she approached him...
"Good evening my boy" she said with a serene and sad smile.
"Good evening, ma'am" Toshinori said without looking at her, his head lowered.
Nana Shimura lowered her head and read the inscription on the grave:
Toshie yagi: a wonderful wife, sister, friend, and mother.
"My condolences boy, it was your mother wasn't it?" Nana said softly in a motherly tone as she gently squeezed Toshinori's shoulder.
"Yes, now I have no one," he said in a broken voice.
The woman looked at him with deep sadness.... an icy and heavy silence took place as the two stared at Toshie's grave.
"She never told me about her illness... I don't know if I should blame her for that or respect her choice... we couldn't even exchange words one last time she was already dead... " he says in a stifled sob.
The woman was stroking his back while he was still crying, salty drops falling into the snow on the ground.
A few minutes later, toshinori calmed down.
"Sorry ma'am, you came here to pay your respects and I'm bothering you with my stories" he said, trying to smile through his tears.
Nana shook her head with a soft smile.
"Don't worry big boy, it can be good to talk about how you feel. I just came to see my father here... I know what it feels like to lose a parent at a very young age..." she said with a sad smile.
Toshinori nodded painfully under the benevolent gaze of nana.
"We can keep talking to XFC, you must be hungry" she said and Toshinori nodded shyly.
They prayed for a few minutes before going there and Toshinori felt his heart lighter than when he arrived. The comforting presence of this woman must have had something to do with it...
"Madam..." he began
"Nana Shimura, you can call me by my first name if you want, and what's your name?" asked Nana as they walked to the XFC.
"Toshinori Yagi, Mrs. Shimura. Say, I feel like I know you, you're a heroine, aren't you?" asked the blond-haired boy.
"Exactly," she smiles.
"It's so cool..." He said with melancholy, staring into space.
"You too can be a hero, a very great hero... I feel it," she says with a radiant smile.
"I want to be a hero, I want to bring peace and reassure everyone with my presence and my smile, a smile that would make everyone understand that they are safe because I am here"
He then smiled as he tugged his fingers down on his cheeks, the bright smile that defined him.
"I would like so much but I can't... Because I'm quirkless, I only have my smile and I could never save anyone..." he said with a sad and resigned smile.
"you don't have an Quirk..." Nana whispered, clenching her fist, observing Toshinori intensely...
"I am weak, I have no power... But I still want to help others... I don't want to give up on my dream!" said toshinori, remembering the benevolent smiles of his mother and X, who had faith in him...
"Toshinori..." Nana began with eyes shining with admiration but also with fierce resolution.
She had made her decision....
You know the rest of this match, don't you? Nana took toshinori under her wing, almost adopting him....
She told him about the struggle she was waging against All for one, a struggle that had been going on for generations...
She told him about her other Quirk that she had received from his predecessor, a certain En...
It was at that moment that she decided to make him her successor, so that he could fulfill the heroic ideal to which he aspired...
A hero who brings peace with the strength of his fists and his smile...
...
A few days later.....
"So this is the kid you chose, shimura?" Gran Torino asked, watching toshinori leave the school.
Nana shimura nodded with a serene smile, the calm and cold wind flapping her white cloak.
"It's the right one, Sorahiko. I'm convinced of it," he says with a determined smile.
Torino raised an intrigued eyebrow before nodding.
"We'll see what he's worth..." he said in his usual grumpy tone.
Nana nodded and the two flew to Toshinori who saw them.
"Hello Toshi" greeted Nana above him, her hands on her hips.
"Master Nana! Are you on patrol with your sidekick?" the boy asked with a happy smile.
WHAAAMMM!!!!!!!!!!!
Toshinori suddenly received a violent kick that made him waltz.
"Are you calling me sidekick?! I feel like we're going to get along well kid..." said the man, with the veins in his head twitching with anger.
"we'll meet at Dagobah beach in a few minutes, don't be late" says chick softly but firmly as she walks away with Gran Torino.
"Hey! But wait!" cried Toshinori, struggling to get up.
"I want you there in five minutes! Not one more! " growled the man in the white and yellow suit.
Toshinori got up and started running with all his strength even though the beach was really far from the school....
"Come on!!" he cried with extraordinary determination.
...
"What?!" cried Toshinori, his eyes bulging.
They were currently on the beautiful Dagobah beach.
"you heard it right Toshi... My friend Gran Torino will take care of your training from today," she says with a serene smile as she puts her hand on the shoulder of the blond-haired boy.
Toshinori observed Gran Torino whose aura was so intense that he swallowed loudly, turning to Nana with a nervous smile...
"Uh... Why not you, Master Nana?" asked Toshinori.
"Because I'd be too nice to you," she said with a beaming smile.
He looked at her and then looked at Torino who were snickering for some unknown reason.
"Well... I am in your hands, master!" he cried with determination mixed with fear.
"We'll see if you hold on. The entrance exam in Yuei starts in 10 months, you're going to train non-stop and you're going to vomit blood, I'm guaranteeing you that..." said Gran Torino with a smirk that did not bode well.
"Very good! When do we start?" asked toshinori.
The man burst out laughing before inflicting a kick that propelled toshinori several meters away.
"Now..." he replied.
Toshinori stood up in pain.
"Damn, his blows hurt like hell!" he thought, holding his chest.
He smiled though, determined to become stronger...
"Good luck Toshinori, I'm sure you'll survive..." Nana thought with a small smile.
It was the beginning of a long series of traumas... But which will shape the future symbol of peace.
To be continued...