In Loving Memory

I get thrown off a roof (NOT CLICKBAIT)

Izuku and Nana stayed together for a while after that, watching the rom-com. Izuku had left the room after his parents fell asleep, and Nana followed. They went to his room, and Nana looked around at the walls and shelves. "Looks like you're an All Might fan, huh," Nana smiled. "I didn't get to see it last time I was here."

Izuku suddenly found the floor very interesting. "Yeah. I collected his stuff all the time when I was alive. It almost seems kind of stupid, now."

"No, it's cute," Nana said, shaking her head. "It's also kinda nice, seeing how far Toshinori went in life. I'm proud of him." She patted Izuku's shoulder. "I'm proud of you, kid."

"What did I do?"

Nana smiled. "You became a hero."

Izuku suddenly looked very puzzled. "Huh? I'm no hero, I'm just some dead kid."

"Not a pro hero, but those kids you've helped. You've done so much good, Midoriya."

"Do you really think so?"

"Kid, I checked up on some of the people you've helped. I've asked them, I've seen how much you've affected them. You're so much better than a lot of the pros I know." She pushed his hair out of his face. "Just like me when I was around your age."

Izuku smiled and chuckled. "Were you a hero at my age?"

Nana smiled fondly. "I was fifteen, maybe sixteen, and this was before vigilantism was banned. I liked to run around town and help people with my quirks. I'd always wanted to help people, and I was ecstatic when I manifested a quirk of my own. I did the little things, like getting things down from trees, and bigger things, like stopping some robberies. I was too young to do much, though one day, one thing changed my life."

"What was it?" Izuku asked, his thoughts about his faults leaving his head, and the excitement of Nana Shimura's origin story filling the empty spot.

"I was going on my regular patrols, It was in April, or maybe May, and a building went up in flames. I think it was an explosion, or a quirk." She leaned back on the bookshelf, visibly trying to remember the day. "I didn't really think about it, I just kind of ran into the building." She shook her head. "In hindsight, it was a little stupid. But I knew people were in there. It was a small candy shop, and people were always in there. I ended up saving the life of the shopkeeper there, and that was the day I met my Master."

"Your master?"

She nodded her head. "En. The user of One For All before me. He was impressed by my bravery and started to teach me, in stuff like combat and how to use my quirk better. Hero schools weren't some widespread thing then, but he was just as good a teacher as any professional hero school then or now, or at least as far as I'm concerned. He died in a fight with All For One, and gave me One For All in his final moments."

"That sounds awful, losing a teacher so close to you."

"It was." Nana sighed, pursing her lips. "When I had to give up my son, and after I lost my dad, I started to think that maybe I was destined to live a life of tragedy. I still don't know. I died as my Master did, anyway, at the hands of All For One." She laughed shortly. "At least I got to see En again. And when Toshinori eventually dies, I'll have a big hug waiting for him." Izuku's excitement had long since died upon the revelation of how Nana had lost her teacher, but now she looked entirely miserable, something he had never seen with her. Even before, when she had talked about losing her son, she had tried to be light about it.

Izuku floated forward and wrapped Nana in a hug, and she jolted back in surprise, accidentally bumping her head on the bookcase. Izuku let her go. "Are you okay?" He asked frantically, scared he had hurt her.