….
Enji was practically starving for it.
Pure, naked, pathetic greed.
Dabi stood over him, watching his broken father reach for a fire that was no longer there.
A cold, cruel smirk played across his face.
Inside Enji's head, decades of blind obsession were tearing him apart.
He vaguely remembered the incident reports of the training camp battle from back when Shoto and Bakugo were kidnapped.
The villains who attacked them included another kid who had apparently been admitted to U.A. but was expelled and eventually ended up joining the League of Villains.
Nevertheless, the boy and his Quirk were unimpressive, Enji had never bothered to learn anything more.
The boy was a coward with a weak Quirk and nothing special about him. Why waste a miracle like [Rewind] on someone destined for nothing?
To Enji, the outcome felt simple.
Toya's adopted daughter could simply rest for six months, a mere half-year to replenish her strength and store up enough power to rewind the purple brat, because waiting a little longer certainly wouldn't kill the boy.
Enji, on the other hand?
The nation needed him now.
If he got [Hellflame] back, he could return to hero work and restore order.
Even more strikingly, his eyes drifted back to Toya, his son having not only survived but somehow overcome the fatal weakness he had been born with.
He had mastered burning blue fire and even went ahead awakening ice quirk.
If Toya could explain the method and reveal the secret of how he had overcome his constitutional weakness. Enji could break through his own limits, take [Hellflame] further than anyone had ever seen, and finally beat All Might.
The ambition flared up inside him like a sudden spark.
Then, reality crashed over him like lead: All Might was finished.
The great Symbol of Peace had withered into a frail, dying shell in front of the entire world. His era was permanently over.
And the person standing at the very top now was–
Toya.
His firstborn, and his own creation.
Had... had his lifelong ambition already been fulfilled? Had his own flesh and blood finally beaten the golden god, proving his family's supremacy after all?
A wave of ugly, desperate excuses washed over Enji's face.
His breathing grew shallow, his bandaged fists trembling, his eyes burning with a desperate, pathetic hunger to justify his entire ruined existence.
Dabi watched the display in silence.
He didn't need telepathy to know what Enji was thinking.
He could read it as clearly as the bold print on a billboard, written plainly across the man's face as he calculated the value of a child's life, clung stubbornly to his pride, and shamelessly tried to take credit for Toya's victory.
It was pathetic, and completely expected.
Enji opened his mouth, and his throat was dry and scratchy after days of total silence.
Dabi braced himself for the plea.
He waited for his father to demand the miracle, to argue why the Number Two Hero mattered more than a nobody student, and to bark an order disguised as a father's request.
Instead, the broken giant looked up, met Dabi's eyes, and said words Toya never could have expected:
"Use it... on the boy."
The words fell over the quiet hospital room like a heavy stone.
Dabi didn't move, his hands still buried deep in his coat pockets, but his eyes narrowed. The mocking smirk vanished from his face, replaced by complete stillness.
He didn't make a dramatic scene or praise the sudden sacrifice. He just stood there, staring down at the ruined man in the bed.
"Say that again." Dabi said.
Enji's broad shoulders shook with a heavy breath, and he kept his head down, his bandaged fists tightened.
"I said... use it on the boy."
A choked noise caught in his chest; a sad imitation of a laugh that died before it could even start.
"All my life, I believed power was the only thing that mattered." Enji whispered, sounding completely broken–
"I convinced myself if my blood beat All Might, none of the pain mattered. But looking at you in the battle.... you reached the top without me. You did it while burying my name."
"If I take that girl's power... steal a kid's future just to get my own Quirk back… what am I? I am just chewing up another child to feed my own sickness... If I put that fire back on... I will just be the monster who demands more and more."
He opened his eyes and looked straight up into Dabi's pale blue stare.
"I am done, Toya. Don't waste it on me. Save the kid."
Silence settled over the room, and Dabi stood at the foot of the bed without moving.
For a brief second, the past events hung between them; all the trauma, coldness, and powerlessness.
Then, Dabi let out a slow, dry chuckle.
"Would you listen to yourself," he drawled, pulling a hand from his coat pocket to adjust his collar. "Endeavor, the saint. Funny how easy it is to act noble once someone takes your toys away."
He took two slow steps closer, leaning over the bed so Enji could see the dead disgust in his eyes.
"You really believe this wipes the slate clean, old man? That letting a kid have his turn somehow makes up for a damn thing?" Dabi's voice dropped to a quiet sneer.
"This isn't nobility, it's surrender, because after everything you've done, you've finally realized that even if the entire world burned at your hands, you could never catch up to me, and now you're terrified that the moment you step back onto the street, everyone will see what you really are, a pathetic failure who couldn't even keep his own house warm."
Enji didn't argue, as he flinched at every word, keeping his head down and taking the hits.
"I never planned to use Eri's power on you anyway." Dabi muttered, standing up straight and turning his back. "Not even for a single second. If you had begged for it, I would've laughed in your face and walked out. But you choose to stay crippled?"
He stopped at the doorway, glancing back over his shoulder with a sharp, humorless smirk.
"Good, you can live with it. Sit in this bed, listen to the news of the world moving on without you, and eat the silence you spent twenty years building. That's the only penance you're ever going to get."
He pushed the door open, stepping out into the hospital hallway.
Instantly, the suffocating atmosphere vanished, replaced by the sweet greeting–
"PAPA!"
Himiko was perched up on Natsuo's shoulders, kicking her feet and tugging at his spiky hair while Natsuo stood frozen, looking like he didn't know whether to smile or pass out from embarrassment.
Eri stood close to Rumi, clutching her hand and staring in fascination at a peach juice box Natsuo had bought from the machine to stop her from getting bored.
"Hey, Patchwork." Rumi smirked, leaning off the wall. "Have fun poking the dead guy?"
"I feel like crap." Dabi muttered bluntly.
The coldness that usually clung to him was gone, replaced by exhaustion.
It was the absolute truth.
Stepping out of that room, Dabi couldn't even tell himself why he had come in the first place.
What was he trying to prove? Who was he performing for?
He hadn't realized it until now, but he had walked into that room wanting a fight.
He wanted the old man to beg, make excuses, or give some grand speech about how Japan still needed Endeavor. If Enji had done that, Dabi could have laughed in his face and walked away with a clean, easy reason to despise him.
Instead, Enji had bowed his head and taken the blame, somehow pissing Dabi off even more.
If Enji was capable of seeing how badly he'd screwed up now, why couldn't he do it twenty years ago? Why did it take losing his Quirk to finally realize children weren't tools?
It just proved the abuse was never an accident, but was a choice.
Dabi rubbed his neck, shaking the thought loose.
He didn't need a fresh excuse to hate Enji Todoroki.
He would always find one.
If the man burned, he was a tyrant, but if he bowed his head, he was a coward stealing absolution, leaving no path forward because the bridge wasn't merely burned, its very foundation had been poisoned down to the bedrock, and coming here to test a dying ember had been nothing more than a fool's errand.
Dabi reached over and hoisted Himiko off Natsuo's shoulders, tucking her under his arm like a bag of rice.
"We should get going…" Dabi said.
Natsuo rubbed his sore scalp, glanced toward Room 402, keeping his voice down. "Is he..."
"He's staying in bed." Dabi cut in, not bothering with the details. "Where he belongs."
He dropped his free hand, and Eri grabbed his fingers instantly, leaning her head against his hip.
"Did you say bye, Papa?" Eri asked softly.
Looking down at her, Dabi gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
"Yeah, bean. We're done with this place." He nodded. "Now... who's ready for melon buns?"
"ME! I WANT THE PINK ONE!" Himiko yelled, flailing her legs under his arm.
"The melon buns, please!" Eri chimed in, bouncing on her heels.
Rumi chuckled, falling into step beside him and linking her arm through his.
Natsuo lingered on the steps.
The back of his older brother looked totally out of place surrounded by candy wrappers, pastel jackets, and a bright pink bunny bag.
But strangely, it fit him better than anything else ever had.
"Hey, Toya." Natsuo called out, hesitating slightly.
"?!" Dabi stopped near the bottom step.
.
….
[To be continued…]
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