….
Dabi was currently being held deep within a heavily secured laboratory, his physical state remaining an absolute anomaly to the medical world.
Hidden behind reinforced observation glass, his biometric signals were completely blocked by the dense energy field.
The doctors couldn't connect a single vital monitor to his body.
However, just then–
–the impenetrable chrysalis, which had completely withstood the force of industrial diamond-tipped drills, lightly began to melt on its own.
Deep within that frozen sanctuary, hidden from the eyes of the staff, Dabi's internal physiology was stabilizing.
His heartbeat, once erratic and explosive, was finally normalizing into a deep, powerful rhythm.
Internally, he had not yet regained full consciousness.
Following the surreal conversation he had shared with the original 'Toya' in his mindscape, his awareness had slipped back into a heavy, twilight fog.
He wasn't fully awake, and his eyes remained shut, but a deep, primal part of his brain recognized the stiff, crushing confinement of the shell locking him in.
He now held absolute dominion over two opposing natural forces.
Fire.
And Ice.
As the intense frost began to crack and the fire compressed within his core, his right hand suddenly twitched under his instinctual control.
A moment later, his left hand did the same.
His fingers flexed against the smooth, melting inner wall of the shell, his awakening nerves registering the foreign, higher-dimensional genome fully settling into his changing biology.
He was transitioning, breaking out of mortal limitations, though he was still trapped in the dark void of the cocoon.
On the observation deck, a lab technician noticed steady water droplets suddenly pooling and dripping from the base of the massive structure.
"Doctor!" she yelled, immediately lunging for the intercom to call the head specialist in charge.
Her voice echoed with absolute panic. "The crystal is melting on its own!"
….
Outside the reinforced laboratory doors, the waiting room fell back into a heavy, suffocating silence.
Aizawa was the only one present.
He still adamantly refused to get any rest, stubbornly ignoring the medical staff's warnings despite having sustained multiple serious injuries during the forest assault.
His capture scarf hung loose, and the severe over-usage of his Quirk had left his dry eyes looking even more bloodshot, hollow, and entirely lifeless.
Yet, his gaze remained fixed on the containment exit.
Right then, the heavy pneumatic doors hissed open.
The researcher who had rushed inside moments ago when the crystal first began to thaw stepped back out, gripping a digital clipboard.
"What's the status?" Aizawa demanded, standing up immediately.
His gravelly voice cut through the sterile air of the corridor.
The researcher did not hesitate to inform him. "Eraser Head... we are still completely unable to connect any monitoring devices to his body. The dense energy field radiating from the core is completely blocking our sensors, and he's still physically locked inside that shell."
The technician took a breath, looking back toward the glass windows. "But fortunately, the thermal absolute barrier is collapsing. The crystal is rapidly melting from the inside out, completely on its own."
"Is it okay to see him?" Aizawa asked, his lone visible eye narrowing.
"You are permitted." the researcher replied, giving a cautious nod. "The only reason we are holding him in this secured containment zone is because of the unpredictable risk to his mental state when he finally wakes up. Please, be careful in there."
"I will. Thank you for your hard work." Aizawa muttered, already pushing past him.
"Worry not. It is my job." the researcher answered, stepping aside.
With that, Aizawa marched straight into the primary observation deck.
Through the thick, reinforced glass of the containment chamber, the scene before him was both mesmerizing and terrifying.
The towering monument of burning frost was shedding water in thick, cascading sheets, rushing down the sides of the structure and hissing violently against the reinforced iron drain grates below.
The intense, supernatural energy field was compressing, drawing directly back into the core.
The dense, translucent structure was thinning at an impossible rate, blurring the physical laws of thermal dynamics as it laid bare the distinct form of Dabi suspended perfectly at the center.
He was right on the precipice of returning.
However, just then–
Dabi's eyes snapped open.
They were twin suns of burning cobalt fire, sharp and completely lethal.
The exact instant his consciousness broke through the twilight fog, a violent, localized tremor rippled through the entire foundation of the room, causing the advanced laboratory equipment to spark and the digital readouts to glitch frantically.
In the dark sanctuary of his own mind, the lingering fog completely dissolved, burned away to reveal the final, glowing notifications of his newly evolved System panel:
….
========
[Assimilation Sequence Completed. ]
[Terrestrial Parameters Permanently Severed.]
========
….
========
[GENETIC MILESTONE SYSTEM]
| THREE EVOLUTION PATHS:
>[BREATH OF THE SUN] - 100%
>[SUPER SOLDIER] - 100%
>[ARACHNID GENOME] - 100%
….
DING! PHASE - 1 EVOLUTION PATH WAS COMPLETED!!
========
….
========
[GENETIC MILESTONE SYSTEM]
DING! PHASE - 2 EVOLUTION PATH BEGAN!
>[FROSTFIRE DRAGON SLAYER] - 25/100%
….
| LIFE SPAN LEFT: Calculating…
=======
….
Dabi slowly parted his jaw, but he didn't speak.
Instead, a slow breath escaped his lips, carrying the impossible scent of absolute winter intertwined with the searing heat of a plasma inferno.
As he casually flexed his upper body, the remnants of the once-unbreakable chrysalis erupted outward in a dazzling shockwave of white-hot steam and razor-sharp ice shards.
Dabi dropped lightly onto his feet on the wet floor, and his skin looked so glossy, it was practically shining.
Behind the glass, Aizawa stared at his colleague.
The presence Dabi radiated now wasn't just powerful, and imposing like it had always been. His simple action as raising his hand, seems like he is a monster ready to explode any moment.
Dabi tilted his head up, his piercing gaze locking directly onto Aizawa through the glass. Immediately, he smiled letting himself ease up a bit.
"Hey, Eraser–
"Heared you guys lost my brother and my firecracker student while I was taking a nap."
?!A chill ran straight down Aizawa's spine.
He was shocked to learn Dabi knew what happened, despite being unconscious for more than twenty four hours. But he didn't divulge too much.
Unbeknownst to Aizawa, even while trapped within the thermal absolute of the chrysalis, his heightened, evolving senses had caught every conversation that was happening around him.
He remembered it all, alongside the vivid, impossible memories of the cosmic rift, the colossal blue dragon that had shattered the threads of destiny.
And his own surreal, fleeting interaction with Toya deep within that fractured mind space.
So he knew exactly who was missing: Shoto and Bakugo.
But the sheer, overwhelming influx of the newly integrated genome was too much for a freshly rewritten biological vessel to sustain all at once.
Before Aizawa could even formulate a response through the glass, Dabi's brilliant cobalt eyes suddenly rolled back.
The white-hot spark in his palm vanished, and his knees buckled.
He dropped heavily to the floor, completely losing consciousness as his body forced a hard reboot to stabilize the massive power surge.
….
The observation deck erupted into a frenzy of motion.
Alarms blared as medical staff and specialists surged into the containment chamber, pushing past the shattered remnants of ice.
They carefully lifted Dabi's unresponsive body onto a mobile gurney, rushing him to a specialized recovery bed while hooking up a new array of biometric scanners.
After a tense, exhaustive round of checks, the lead physician stepped back out to face Aizawa, pulling off his surgical mask.
"His vitals are completely stable." the doctor said, adjusting his glasses with a look of disbelief. "We're still trying to determine exactly what happened to him, but we've reached a dead end. But the good news is that, once he recovers a little more of his baseline energy, we expect him to be able to stand and walk without any problems."
Hearing the diagnosis, Aizawa let out a long, heavy breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
He cast one final, lingering look through the glass at the resting colleague.
"Keep a constant eye on him." Aizawa ordered flatly. "The moment his temperature fluctuates even a fraction of a degree, I want to know."
With that, Aizawa finally turned on his heel and walked out of the medical wing.
He couldn't afford to sit by a bedside anymore.
There was a mountain of administrative disasters, a broken vanguard, and an entire class of traumatized students to handle.
….
As Aizawa walked down the sterile, fluorescent-lit hallways of UA, the crushing weight of the situation settled firmly onto his shoulders.
The silence of the corridor offered no comfort, only room for grim contemplation.
Because the undeniable reality remained: when Dabi eventually opened his eyes again, when his consciousness fully returned and he demanded a complete breakdown of the vanguard's failure while he was fighting a titan... someone was going to have to look him in the eye and tell him the brutal truth.
Despite pushing himself far beyond his limits, bleeding for his classmates, and single-handedly saving dozens of students… Two were still gone.
His younger brother and his explosive, hot-headed student were in the hands of the enemy, and the real, merciless battle was just beginning.
.
….
[To be continued…]
★─────⇌•★•⇋─────★
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