ah, man, I think what I MAY have been thinking (don't quote me on this) was that even when he was in the Nexus, he was still able to like...write home? and he only pulled his full disappearing act after mutating.

i think thirty years is MAYBE too many years for this au to swallow reasonably. i might drag it down to, nnh, twenty years total? twenty three? no more than ten in the battle nexus, but definitely well before miwa was born.