….But Dabi pulled in a breath so deep it felt as if his lungs might actually burst. He didn't just take in air; he took in the heat of the world around him.Sun Breathing, Thirteenth Form—!??Wait.There was no thirteenth form, the system had only given him twelve.But in that moment, as he gripped the hilt of his fire-wrought bde - a serrated edge of screaming blue light, while his body breaking and his life hanging by a thread, Dabi felt something click. The sun was not just destruction. It was a self-sustaining nuclear furnace. It endured because it was banced.And he wasn't ready to stop enduring yet.Blue fmes didn't just erupt; they condensed - the fire wreathed his entire body, forming a corona of fire that made the air itself combust.His hoodie got completely burned, as his upper chest was out, and the creepy mottled purple of his skin began to glow with an internal, white-hot light.The civilians gasped, stepping back from the heat.The kid's eyes went wide."What the hell—" Muscur’s voice was cut off by the roar of a star being born in the middle of the street.Dabi moved. It wasn't a run… It was a sor fre.He swung the sword of blue fire in a circur arc - the forbidden thirteenth form, a continuous loop of all twelve previous movements. The bde vaporized whichever it came in contact with.As it connected with Muscur’s mountain of fibers, the impact was a seismic event. The shockwave shattered gss for three blocks. Muscur’s artificial muscle underwent a phase change, turning to gas on contact with the bde’s edge.The vilin was sent hurtling through two city blocks, leaving a trail of scorched earth behind him. For one perfect moment, Dabi stood in the center of the destroyed street, wreathed in blue fire like the sun itself had descended to fight.The civilians stared in absolute silence.Then the fmes went out.Dabi swayed, his vision swam. Everything hurt in ways he couldn't begin to describe.The female Hero was crawling toward him, saying something he couldn't hear over the ringing in his ears.People were running toward him now, the ones brave enough to approach. Shouting questions he couldn't process.The kid had broken free from the adults holding him and was also running toward his parents, toward Dabi, crying.And through it all, Dabi felt a notification pulse in his mind.===[BREATH OF THE SUN] - 100/100%[SUPER SOLDIER] - UNLOCKEDDING! Initiating EvolutionWARNING: Process will take 24 hours. User will be unconscious during transformation.===Dabi's st coherent thought was: Gran Torino is going to kill me… and I don't even want to think about the bunny girl.Then his legs gave out and he colpsed onto the broken pavement.Darkness cimed him instantly.….When backup Heroes arrived four minutes ter, they found a scene of destruction.Two critically injured Water Hose Heroes being tended to by civilians. A traumatized child crying over all three of them. And somewhere in the wreckage two streets over, the A-rank vilin Muscur was being extracted by police - unconscious, severely burned, and missing most of his artificial muscle mass.And in the center of it all was–An unconscious teenager lying in a pool of his own blood, but it wasn't the thin, anemic fluid of a week ago. It was dark, viscous, and unnaturally hot. The leukemia was being forcibly purged as the [Super Soldier] protocol began rewriting his marrow.And what nobody noticed is underneath the charred surface, the ‘creepy’ texture was being repced by something dense and resilient - the foundations of a body that could finally handle its own heat.….The dozen witnesses all told the same impossible story.A teenage kid with blue fmes had fought an A-rank vilin to a standstill, and even saved the Water Hose Heroes risking his life.Apparently–He had moved like the Sun itself.Someone had filmed the whole thing, and within hours, it would be all over the news.But none of that mattered to Dabi.….Rumi Usagiyama was moving at her absolute top speed when she received Dabi's text.One word. [Emergency!!]And a location pin.She had been in the middle of buying his graduation gift - when her phone buzzed. One gnce at the message and she had dropped everything, unched herself out of the store, and started running.No. Not running - flying. Her rabbit quirk pushed to its limits, each leap covering entire city blocks. She ignored traffic, bounded over cars, kicked off buildings to maintain momentum.Hold on, you idiot, she thought as the city blurred past. She could see smoke rising in the distance, and hear sirens. The telltale signs of a vilin attack.Faster.She pushed harder, her leg muscles screaming in protest. But it didn't matter to her. Dabi wouldn't have sent that message unless things were serious, he was stubborn as hell - would rather bleed out than ask for help.If he was asking, it was bad.She rounded the final corner at full speed, ready to crash into whatever vilin was stupid enough to–And stopped.The street was destroyed. Windows shattered, a building with a massive hole punched through it. Civilians clustered in groups, some crying, some staring in shock. Paramedics were already arriving, tending to injured Heroes on the ground.Water Hose, she recognized their costumes.And in the center of it all, being loaded onto a stretcher by emergency responders, was Dabi.Unconscious and covered in blood."No. No no no." Rumi nded hard, concrete cracking under the impact. She shoved through the crowd, her hero license getting her past the police cordon. "Move! That's my intern!"She reached the paramedics just as they were securing Dabi to the stretcher."What happened?" she demanded. "How bad is he?"The lead paramedic - a woman with a healing quirk, judging by the glow around her hands - looked grim. "Severe internal bleeding, multiple organ damage and third-degree burns over most of his reconstructed tissue, he's barely holding on. We need to get him to a hospital now.""I am coming with—""Ma'am, we don't have room in the ambunce for—""I am. Coming. With." Rumi's voice dropped to something dangerous. "That's not a request."The paramedic took one look at her expression and nodded. "Fine. But stay out of our way."As they loaded Dabi into the ambunce, Rumi caught sight of a small kid, bck hair, red eyes, tear-streaked face, being held by what looked like his parents. The Water Hose Heroes, bandaged but alive.The kid was staring at Dabi's unconscious form."He saved them." someone in the crowd was saying. “That hero took down Muscur on his own…”“Muscur?” a person just arrived. “The A-rank vilin? That can’t be right. He’s only a student.”“I am telling you, I saw it. We all did.” another voice insisted. “He was like fire given form - burning so fiercely you couldn’t even look at him straight.”Rumi's hands clenched into fists.You absolute moron, she thought, climbing into the ambunce. What the hell were you thinking?But she knew. Of course she knew, she had trained him for two years, seen that stubborn determination, that refusal to quit even when he should.He had seen people in danger and couldn't walk away.Even if it killed him.….and the irony to not call himself a Hero?The ambunce doors closed and they started moving, sirens wailing.Rumi sat beside Dabi's stretcher, watching the paramedics work, as his chest barely rose and fell, blood seeping through fresh bandages."Don't you dare die on me, Patchwork." she said quietly. "You hear me? You still owe me a proper fight. And you've got a graduation to attend."Dabi didn't respond or move.But somewhere deep in his unconscious mind, the system was already working.Evolution had begun.Twenty-four hours until transformation is complete.If he survived that long.….Outside the ICU, the scenes are busy.Doctors moved between rooms with hurriedness, representing the tension in the air. Everyone knew about the kid in Room 7. The one who had fought Muscur. In the waiting area, a group had gathered.Gran Torino sat in one of the uncomfortable iron chairs, elbows on his knees, hands csped together so tightly his knuckles were white. Beside him, Recovery Girl leaned heavily on her cane.She had healed countless Heroes over her fifty-year career, saved hundreds of lives. But she couldn't save this one from day one.Toshinori Yagi - All Might - in his skeletal true form, leaned against the wall, his hollow eyes fixed on the ICU door. Near him, the Water Hose couple, Koji and Mayumi, huddled together. Despite their own broken ribs and concussions, they refused to be moved. Their son, Kota, sat between them, his tiny hands bunching the fabric of his mother’s hero suit.Rumi Usagiyama stood apart, vibrating with a repressed, violent energy.Her rabbit ears were pinned back ft against her head - a sign of extreme distress that anyone who knew her would recognize. Her jaw was clenched so hard her teeth ached. She hadn't sat down once since they had arrived.The ICU door hissed open. A lead physician emerged, his face a mask of clinical exhaustion."I am sorry…" he said quietly. His voice was professional, but there was genuine regret in it. "We have done everything we can. “But he is in multisystem organ failure. The metabolic shock from the fight triggered a severe cytokine storm. His bone marrow has completely shut down.” The doctor hesitated only slightly. “He has advanced blood cancer - leukemia. It’s terminal.”“We estimate he has six hours left….. at the absolute most."The words hit the room like a physical shockwave. Mayumi stifled a sob against her husband’s shoulder.Toshinori’s head bowed in regret.Gran Torino's head dropped. His shoulders shook once, briefly, before he locked down his expression into something neutral.Recovery Girl closed her eyes, took a slow, steady breath through her nose.And Rumi—Rumi exploded."Cancer? What the hell are you talking about?!" Her voice cracked through the hallway like a whip, making nurses down the corridor turn to look. "Is this what doctors do now? You're supposed to save people, not decre them dead while their heart's still beating!""Miss Usagiyama, please." the doctor stammered, stepping back. “I understand you are upset, but—""Upset? I am not upset, I am furious!" Rumi stepped forward, and the doctor actually flinched. "Dabi in there fought an A-rank vilin to save people! He is a fighter! And you are just giving up on him?!""Rumi." Recovery Girl's voice cut through the outburst. Quiet but firm. "Child. Stop."Rumi whirled on her. "You can save him though, right? Your quirk can heal anything if—""I wouldn't be sitting here idle if I had that capability." Recovery Girl said gently.Rumi stared at her, then at the doctor. The doctor said, trying to maintain composure. “His lungs have suffered irreversible thermal necrosis… and the cancer cells have been steadily destroying his body. Frankly… it's a miracle he survived as long as he did.”Finally at Gran Torino, desperate for someone to contradict what she had just heard.Nobody did."Again with this cancer shit? I don't get it." Rumi whispered, her voice finally breaking. "It is a miracle he is here at all? What did he mean? How long has he been–"The doctor adjusted his gsses, looking at his clipboard. "He was diagnosed with advanced cancer years ago. It has been progressing ever since.”“Medically, he should have died months ago - from infection or organ failure caused by the cancer.”Rumi turned to Gran Torino, her eyes wide and pleading. "Is that true? He’s been fighting cancer… and none of us knew?”Gran Torino didn't look up from the floor. Just nodded once."How long?" When he didn't answer, Rumi's voice rose. "How long has he been dying?!""Three years." Gran Torino said quietly. "Give or take.”The silence that followed was deafening."Three..." Rumi couldn't finish the sentence. Her legs felt weak. "Three years? And he never said anything? He just... he trained every single day like he had all the time in the world. He never once compined. Never once–" Her voice broke. "Why didn't he tell me?""Because that kid's more stubborn than anyone I have ever met." Gran Torino said, finally looking up.“....I called him weak! ….I told him he would die if he kept going like this, and I didn't know I was right! If I had known–""If you had known, he wouldn't have gotten as strong as he did." Recovery Girl said matter-of-factly. "That boy needed someone to push him. To treat him like he could be more than his condition. You gave him that.""And now he is dying because of it!" Rumi shot back."He used up whatever time he had left to save them!" She gestured at the Water Hose couple, then immediately regretted it when she saw their expressions.Koji and Mayumi looked devastated, guilt-ridden. Like they had personally killed someone.The doctor, sensing the conversation was deteriorating, bowed slightly. "I will leave you to process this. If you want to see him before... before the end, you are welcome to go in. Just let the nurses know."He retreated quickly.The hallway fell into heavy silence.Kota tugged on his mother's sleeve. "Mama? Is the Hero dying because he saved you?"Mayumi choked on a sob. "Sweetie, don't–""But why did he train so hard?" Rumi demanded. "If he knew he was dying anyway, why bother? Why push himself to the point of coughing up blood every single day? What was the point?!"Gran Torino gnced at the Water Hose couple and their son. Kota was watching with wide, frightened eyes.For a moment, he considered staying silent. But no. If Dabi was going to leave this world today, then everyone needed to know his story. Know what he had been through and what Endeavor had done.Dabi had told him he would handle it himself. But if Dabi couldn't, then Gran Torino would make damn sure the truth came out."Because of his father…." he said ftly.Everyone's attention sharpened on him."His real name isn't Dabi Torino." Gran Torino continued. "It's Toya Todoroki. Endeavor's eldest son. The one who supposedly died three years ago at Sekoto Peak.”Rumi's eyes went wide. "What?".….[To be continued…]★─────??★??─────★