….
[One Week Later - UA Medical Ward]
Recovery Girl stood in her private office with Gran Torino and All Might, a spread of medical charts covering her desk - documents that contained the impossible progression of Dabi's recovery.
"By every rule of medicine, those injuries should have taken months to mend." Recovery Girl said, tapping a stack of charts spread across her desk. "A normal patient would still be fighting to stay out of intensive care…. and even with my quirk involved, I would have expected at least six weeks of treatment."
"But?" All Might prompted.
"He is completely healed in two days." She pulled out a comparison scan. "This scan on the day he was injured." Recovery Girl said, sliding the image across the desk. "You can still see the fractures clearly. The bone is damaged everywhere and the surrounding tissues are in terrible shape."
The three of them stared at the evidence.
"It isn't the first time." Gran Torino said quietly. "Over the past few years he has come back from injuries that should have ended him. We have all seen it."
Recovery Girl folded her arms, clearly uneasy with what she was about to say. "Which is why I have been considering a possibility."
She hesitated. "All For One."
All Might's gaunt frame stiffened. "You think–"
"The experiments." she interrupted. "Three years in a coma while they rebuilt his body - villains with access to multiple quirks and biotechnology far beyond." Her voice turned grim. "What if this resilience and accelerated healing… is simply a side effect of whatever they did to him?"
Gran Torino's expression darkened. "So you are saying this was intentional? That All For One engineered it?"
"No." Recovery Girl said at once. "Impossible. If he had foreseen anything like this, they never would have let Dabi walk away. They would have kept him under lock and key... examined, controlled, and eventually turned into a weapon."
She paused, organizing her thoughts.
"My guess is that even All For One couldn't have predicted the result. Too many variables came together. Dabi's peculiar quirk biology, the regenerative tissue they grafted into him, whatever procedures they performed during those three years, and the brutal training he subjected himself to afterward."
She shook her head slowly. "What we are seeing now is the product of all that colliding in exactly the right way. A one-in-a-billion outcome…."
All Might stared down at the scans spread across the desk. "Just what did they do to his body?" he murmured.
No one had an answer.
"There is something else." Recovery Girl said, her tone growing more serious. "This incident confirms a fear many of us have had for some time. All For One may be active again."
All Might's hands tightened into fists. "The Nomu."
Until the USJ incident, the possibility had remained uncertain. For years they had fragments of evidence, but nothing conclusive enough to confirm that All For One had truly returned.
Now that uncertainty is gone.
"Creatures with multiple quirks, designed purely for combat." Gran Torino said grimly. "That kind of work isn't something just anyone can pull off. It's his signature."
All Might's expression hardened. "Then we need to prepare. If he is moving again after all these years–"
"-the students will become targets." Recovery Girl finished quietly. "They have already been attacked once. That alone tells us enough."
The room fell into a heavy silence as the three of them considered what that meant.
Gran Torino was the first to speak again.
"Does Dabi know?" he asked. "About your theory regarding his healing?"
Recovery Girl shook her head immediately. "No, and I have no intention of telling him."
Her voice left no room for argument.
"That boy already carries more than enough weight on his shoulders. Let him believe it's a quirk awakening… or some strange side effect of his training. He doesn't need to live with the idea that part of All For One's work might still be inside his body."
All Might looked as if he might object, but after a moment he simply nodded.
"For now." he said quietly. "That may be the kinder choice."
….
.
[Medical Ward - Patient Room]
Dabi sat cross-legged on his hospital bed, mostly healed.
There were new scars, thin white lines across his arms and torso where the worst injuries had been.
They had faded quickly, much faster than scars should, but they remained as permanent reminders of the USJ incident.
At this point, the medical staff had stopped questioning if 'Miracle recovery' had happened so many times with Dabi that it was just... expected now.
Currently, he is engaged in a very serious game of cards with Eri.
"Go fish." Eri said triumphantly.
"You are cheating." Dabi accused.
"Am not!"
"Then how do you keep winning?"
"Because Papa is bad at this game." Eri giggled, arranging her cards with her tiny hands.
Rumi had gone back to active hero duty three days ago, and she couldn't stay by his bedside forever. But she visited every evening, usually bringing takeout because hospital food was 'an insult to taste buds everywhere'.
A knock at the door interrupted their game.
"Come in." Dabi called.
The door opened to reveal not one visitor, but nearly the entire Class 1-A.
Midoriya entered first, looking nervous.
Behind him came Iida, Uraraka, Asui, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, Jirou, Kaminari, Ashido, Sero, and even Bakugo lurking at the back of the group, trying to look like he didn't want to be there.
Shoto was notably absent.
…and they were carrying bags, a lot of them: Gifts.
"Uh, Dabi-sensei." Midoriya started, then noticed Eri and smiled. "Hi, Eri-chan!"
"Big bro!" Eri's face lit up.
She scrambled off the bed and ran over to the students, immediately latching onto Midoriya's leg.
"We hope we are not interrupting." Iida said, adjusting his glasses. "We wanted to visit and express our gratitude for your actions at the USJ!"
"You are all skipping class now?" Dabi asked, glancing at the group crowding the room.
"We brought gifts!" Ashido announced quickly, clearly determined to redirect the conversation as she lifted the bag in her hands. "Everyone pitched in!"
That seemed to open the floodgates.
One by one, the students stepped forward.
Uraraka had brought homemade cookies. "They are not professional or anything, but I made them myself! To say thank you for protecting us!"
Dabi accepted them with a faint nod.
Next came Asui, who placed a small potted cactus on the bedside table.
"Cactus." she explained calmly. "Very resilient and hard to kill. Ribbit. Reminded me of you."
"That's... actually pretty fitting." Dabi admitted, taking the small pot.
Yaoyorozu presented an expensive-looking tea set. "For rest and recuperation - Proper relaxation is essential for physical recovery."
"Thank you, Yaoyorozu."
Kirishima had brought protein bars. "Take this when you are cleared to train again! Recovery is important, but you have gotta keep that manly strength up too, sensei"
Kaminari and Sero had collaborated on a 'Get Well Soon' card that was covered in terrible puns and doodles. It was ridiculous and Dabi actually smiled at it.
Jirou offered a small card with a list written on it.
"It's a playlist." she said with a shrug. "My father prepared it saying it was supposed to help with calming one's mind. I figured it might make being stuck in bed slightly less miserable."
Ashido then reappeared, this time producing several brightly colored face masks.
"Self-care supplies!" she declared proudly. "Heroes have to take care of themselves too, you know."
Even Bakugo, when his turn came, shoved a bag forward. "It's just some spicy snacks. Don't make a big deal out of it."
That earned a small twitch of irritation at the corner of Dabi's lips, though he chose to let it pass without comment.
Iida presented a card signed by the entire class, including the students who couldn't make it today. "We wanted you to know that your actions were not taken for granted! You embodied the spirit of heroism, and we are all grateful!"
Midoriya was last, he held out a small, wrapped package.
"This is from me personally." he said quietly. "I wanted to thank you. For training me and showing what it really means to be a hero."
Dabi unwrapped it to find a simple bracelet made of woven cord. It was clearly handmade.
"Uraraka helped me make it." Midoriya admitted, his face red. "It's not much, but–"
Dabi interrupted. "Thank you, Midoriya. And all of you."
The atmosphere in the room had shifted from formal gratitude to something warmer. The students relaxed, some sitting on chairs, others standing around the room.
"So." Kirishima said, looking around. "Are you really coming back to teach?"
"Once I cleared a few things up, yeah." Dabi confirmed. "Though I might be on light duty for a while."
Eri, who had been playing with Uraraka's floating quirk - making small objects drift around the room, suddenly looked up.
"Papa." she asked innocently. "Why didn't uncle come with them?"
The word uncle immediately changed the atmosphere.
A faint tension settled over the room.
By now, most of Class 1-A knew exactly who that 'uncle' was - and they knew enough about Dabi's past to understand the weight behind it. If anything, the knowledge had only increased their respect for him.
Still, no one said a word.
Principal Nezu had been very clear: the matter was not to be discussed.
Dabi glanced at Eri.
"I don't know." he said flatly. "And why do you even want to know?"
"Because he is my uncle." Eri replied as if the answer were obvious.
Dabi looked at her with the expression of someone who had just been expertly betrayed. He knew exactly what she was trying to do. The little gremlin was attempting to force him to be nice to his siblings.
"That rock-faced guy with zero social skills is probably still stuck trying to figure out what kind of gift you bring to a patient." Dabi muttered.
That earned a round of laughter from the students.
"Sensei." Kaminari said between chuckles. "You are really not in a position to criticize someone else's social skills."
"Yeah." Sero added, nodding.
"Pretty sure the only friend you have is Aizawa-sensei." another voice chimed in, "And he barely tolerates you."
Dabi narrowed his eyes.
"Oh?" he said slowly. "Looks like you have all grown up. Now you have got the courage to make jokes about your teachers."
That shut them up–
–only for about a second.
Then the room filled with quiet snickering again.
And despite himself, Dabi's mouth curved slightly.
They stayed for another hour, filling the room with chatter and laughter.
The students told him about how classes had continued after the USJ incident - extra security, counseling sessions, Aizawa being even more paranoid than usual.
Eventually, visiting hours began to wind down.
The students gathered their things, preparing to leave.
"Thank you all for coming." Dabi said sincerely. "And for the gifts. You didn't have to, but I appreciate it."
"We wanted to!" Uraraka said cheerfully.
"Get better soon, sensei!" Kirishima added. "We need you back at full power!"
"I will do my best."
Eri climbed back onto the bed. "Papa, can we finish our game now?"
"Yeah. Let's finish the game."
As they returned to their cards, Dabi felt something he hadn't felt in a long time - contentment.
He had a family now, students who looked up to him, and a purpose that reached beyond the simple act of surviving another day.
And when the next phase of whatever transformation his body was still undergoing finally finished - when it settled into whatever new shape it was becoming–
He would be ready.
For now, though, he allowed himself something simpler.
More like he cannot allow himself to give his attention to anything other than the cards spread across the bed.
But it mattered. "Go fish, Papa!"
"You are definitely cheating."
"Am not!"
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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