….

  Once everyone had left the ICU, only three people remained.

  Gran Torino stood by the window.

  Recovery Girl had positioned herself near the medical equipment, keeping a professional eye on Dabi's vitals.

  And Toshinori stood at the foot of the bed, his skeletal form somehow carrying the weight of what he was about to do.

  Dabi's eyes were again open now.

  "Young Dabi," Toshinori began quietly, his tone steady despite the weight behind it. "What I am about to tell you is known to only a handful of people. I am telling you because I believe you deserve to hear it."

  Dabi didn't respond, just watched silently.

  Toshinori drew a slow breath - and shifted, his weakened body swelling into the towering form of All Might.

  "The truth is… I am All Might."

  He held Dabi's gaze.

  "My power, the power that made me the Symbol of Peace, isn't just my natural quirk. It's something called One For All. A power that's been passed down from person to person for generations, growing stronger with each successor."

  He expined everything.

  How One For All was created to fight against All For One, a vilin who had lived for over a century by stealing quirks.

  How the power could be transferred through DNA. How it stockpiled strength across generations, making each wielder stronger than the st.

  "The reason I am telling you this." Toshinori continued. "Is because I intend to make you my successor. One For All would reinforce your body - grant you the physical strength and resilience you currently ck. It may be enough to save your life."

  Throughout the entire expnation, Dabi's expression remained neutral. He didn't look shocked or awed or even particurly interested.

  Because he already knew all of this.

  Gran Torino stepped forward. "Kid, this is a big decision. One For All isn't just power, it's responsibility. But right now, it's also your best chance at survival. We're not asking you to become the next Symbol of Peace. We're trying to give you a chance to live."

  Dabi was quiet for a long moment.

  Then a system notification appeared in his vision - one that only he could see:

  ====

  WARNING: Accepting One For All will result in immediate system deletion. The two powers are incompatible. User must choose.

  | Option 1: [Accept One For All - Gain immense power, lose Genetic Milestone System]

  | Option 2: [Refuse One For All - Keep system, continue current Evolution Path]

  ====

  So he had a choice after all.

  The system that had kept him alive for three years, that had given him Sun Breathing and was working on the Super Soldier serum.

  Or One For All, the power of the greatest Hero in the world.

  The answer was obvious.

  "Thank you for trusting me with this information…" Dabi said quietly.

  Toshinori smiled slightly, relief showing in his hollow eyes. They thought he was agreeing.

  "But I am not interested. So please find someone else."

  The rejection was so straightforward, so matter-of-fact, that it took everyone a moment to process.

  "What?" Gran Torino said.

  "I appreciate the offer." Dabi continued, his voice still weak but firm. "Really. But that power should go to someone who can use it properly. Someone who wants to be a symbol. That's not me."

  "But you might die, Young Dabi–" Toshinori started.

  "I am not dying."

  The certainty in those three words was absolute.

  Not hopeful or defiant.

  Like he was stating a fact about the weather.

  Before anyone could respond, the Recovery girl spoke.

  "That's... odd." she muttered, checking again.

  Then she examined Dabi more closely, shining a light in her eyes, checking the bandages. "I think we need to run some tests. Immediatel–"

  "No need." - thats when Dabi muttered subconsciously–

  Option 2.

  BEEP!!!

  BEEP!!

  Immediately, the arms inside Room 7 began to scream.

  It wasn't the intermittent beep of a struggling heart, it was the long, terrifying ftline of asystole.

  "Code Blue! We are losing him!" a nurse shouted, throwing the doors open.

  The medical team scrambled.

  Rumi tried to shove her way in, but Gran Torino who was out to give space to the doctors caught her arm, his grip surprisingly like iron.

  Inside, the scene was chaos.

  The doctor grabbed the defibriltor paddles, his face set in a grim mask of duty.

  "Charging to 200! Clear!"

  THUMP.

  Dabi's body arched off the bed, but the monitor didn't skip.

  The line remained ft.

  "Again! 300! Clear!"

  THUMP.

  Nothing.

  The doctor looked at the clock on the wall, his shoulders sagging.

  "Time of death–"

  Before he could finish the sentence, the room temperature skyrocketed.

  It wasn't the dry heat of a heater. It was a humid, oppressive pressure that made the fire sprinklers hiss.

  Inside Dabi, the [SUPER SOLDIER] protocol hit his current limit, and the 'comfortable end' the doctors predicted was violently overwritten.

  The leukemia-ridden bone marrow didn't just stop functioning; it was incinerated.

  A white-hot surge of energy erupted from his sternum. The monitors didn't just ftline - they exploded, the screens shattering from a localized electromagnetic pulse emitted by his nervous system.

  "What's happening to his skin?!" Mayumi cried from the doorway.

  The creepy, mottled purple flesh on his face began to crack and peel away in thick, charred fkes.

  Underneath, instead of raw muscle, there was a new yer of skin - pale, unscarred, and shimmering with a faint, iridescent health.

  The staples that had held him together for years were forcibly ejected from his body, cttering onto the linoleum floor like spent shell casings.

  His eyes closed.

  Inside his body, invisible to everyone, the system dispyed an update:

  ====

  [SUPER SOLDIER] - Current Progress: 10%

  | PROGRESS PAUSED - [User's body cannot sustain transformation in current condition]====

  But something else had changed:

  ====

  | LIFE SPAN LEFT: 340 DAYS

  ====

  The serum had bought him time. The sheer force of will to stay alive had bought him more.

  It wasn't much. Just under a year.

  But it was enough for now…

  ….

  Two Weeks Later.To the medical staff at Central Hospital, Dabi was no longer a patient. He was a walking research paper, and if it weren't for the connections he had, he would have long pulled as a test subject.

  Still, the lead physician spent hours pouring over the new scans, and the results were functionally impossible.

  The hematologic malignancy(leukemia) that had saturated his marrow was suddenly put to halt, and shockingly being slowly repced by hyper-dense, vibrant progenitor cells.

  The thermal necrosis in his lungs and the systemic septicemia was also healing, leaving behind tissue that was more resilient than it had been before the fire at Sekoto Peak.

  "We have settled on a diagnosis of Quirk Awakening." the doctor informed Gran Torino, his voice hushed with awe.

  "It's the only variable that accounts for such a radical biological shift. Under extreme duress, his genetic markers must have rewritten themselves to ensure survival. He has developed a secondary hyper-regenerative factor and a thermal immunity."

  Dabi let them believe it. It was a convenient lie to cover the truth of a system that had literally dismantled and rebuilt him atom by atom.

  ….

  By the day of his discharge neared in about a day or two, the transformation was undeniable.

  Dabi stood before the hospital mirror, staring at a stranger. The skeletal, walking corpse was gone.

  In its pce was a young man with a lean, corded physique - muscles like high-tensile cables under a skin that no longer looked like rotting parchment.

  And even the burn scars and previously a patchwork of scarred purple that traced his body, jaw and eyes since Sekoto Peak, slowly began to fade except for a scarred line of edges where his patched skin used to be.

  He looked at his hands - steady, strong, and for the first time in his life, painless.

  The staples beneath his eyes, along his jaw, down his neck - all of them were gone.

  For the first time in years, he looked like an ordinary seventeen-year-old instead of the walking corpse he had once resembled… aside from the network of scars left behind, faint but unmistakable reminders of what his body had endured.

  ….

  Despite the visible miracle, the doctors remained cautious. In the final discharge meeting, the lead physician handed over a thick folder of 'limitations.'

  "Externally, you have undergone a metamorphosis." the doctor warned. "–but internally, we still have concerns. The cancer cells have not vanished entirely. Their activity has slowed dramatically, and some appear dormant, but they are not fully eradicated."

  He turned a page in the file.

  "Your body has used a massive amount of metabolic energy to pull off this 'awakening.'"

  He met Dabi's eyes directly.

  "We have moved your prognosis from 'hours' to roughly a year… perhaps two, if you are cautious. Your organs are healing, but remember that they are not completely 'new'."

  "So be sure you are careful."

  Dabi gave a faint, tired look. "Careful how?"

  "Your quirk output must remain strictly controlled," the physician replied. "Sustained high-intensity combat is off the table. If you ignite those blue fmes anywhere near the level you used in that st fight, it will trigger metabolic colpse. The cancer is suppressed, not cured, and your system is still recovering. You've been granted a second chance, Dabi. Don't burn through it recklessly."

  Dabi held his gaze for a moment, then nodded once.

  "So hero work isn't an option." he said quietly. "Got it."

  The doctor clearly didn't believe his words, but there was nothing more he could do.

  Dabi was about to legally become a Hero, and medically capable enough to be in service, and being stubborn to keep him hospitalized more would accomplish nothing.

  But there was something else he had noticed. Something the doctors couldn't see.

  He pulled up his system panel when he was alone:

  ====

  [GENETIC MILESTONE SYSTEM]THREE EVOLUTION PATHS:[BREATH OF THE SUN] - 100/100% ?

  [SUPER SOLDIER] - 10/100%[ARACHNID GENOME] - LOCKED (Requires Super Soldier 100%)| LIFE SPAN LEFT: 330 DAYS====

  The [Super Soldier] serum had paused at 10%. His body had been too damaged to continue the transformation.

  Now that he was stable, he needed to find a way to push it higher. Get to 100% and unlock the next evolution.

  That was the key to surviving beyond one year.

  But that was a problem for future Dabi.

  Present Dabi had other priorities.

  Hehe…

  ….

  Back to his room–

  His concentration was currently focused on the woman before him.

  Rumi sat in the visitor's chair, dressed in casual clothes rather than her hero costume.

  A simple tank top that showed off her toned arms and the curve of her shoulders, paired with fitted cargo pants that hugged her powerful legs.

  Even in civilian attire, she was striking - all muscle and curves and contained energy.

  She was attempting to cut apples…. attempting being the key word here.

  Her knife work was atrocious. Uneven chunks, and pieces that were more apple core than actual fruit. Her tongue stuck out slightly in concentration as she massacred another slice, her white ears twitching with focus.

  Dabi watched this travesty for about thirty seconds before he couldn't take it anymore.

  He sat up, now in his casual clothes - and reached for the knife.

  "Give me that before you hurt yourself."

  "I can cut an apple!" Rumi protested, but she didn't resist much when he took the knife and fruit from her hands. Her fingers brushed against his, warm and callused from training.

  Unlike her, Dabi's hands moved with practiced precision. Clean cuts, even slices, and perfect portions arranged neatly on the small pte. It was a skill he practised over years when he got [Breath Of Fire].

  Finally, he took a piece for himself, chewed thoughtfully, then picked up another slice and held it out to Rumi.

  "Here."

  She stared at the apple slice he was offering. "I can feed myself, you know."

  "I know. But you cut these, so you should get to eat them properly prepared." He moved the slice closer to her lips. "Open up."

  Rumi's ears twitched - a tell she had when she was flustered. Her face colored slightly. "This is ridiculous."

  "You are the one who has been visiting every day. Let me thank you properly."

  She held his gaze for a moment, something unreadable in her red eyes. Then she leaned forward and took the apple slice with her teeth, her lips brushing against his fingertips for just a second.

  Dabi felt that brief contact more than he probably should have.

  "Happy?" she asked, chewing.

  "Very." He smiled. Then, while he had her off-bance: "Now–

  "–let me touch those fluffy ears like you promised."

  .

  ….

  [To be continued…]

  ★─────??★??─────★

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