….
Gentle paused, swallowing hard.
"Out with it, dandy." Dabi said, his tone dropping an octave.
"The second clause, Boss." Stain interjected abruptly. "The civilian government is terrified of you roaming unchecked. So, to 'reassure the public' and re-establish constitutional oversight, the Prime Minister's inner council wants a legal leash.
"They demand that Blue Sun officially register as the State's Chief Marshal under direct cabinet command. You submit to quarterly legislative reviews, answer directly to the Prime Minister's executive decrees... and hand over your private residence and training grounds to government security jurisdiction."
Stain's smile turned razor-sharp. "In plain terms: they want you to sign a paper making you their obedient war hound, and they want government agents stationed outside this door to keep an eye on your household. They gave us until noon to deliver your signature."
"....."
Immediate silence descended the surroundings.
Stain's hand instinctively tightened on his sword hilt; it was an instinctive move purely due to suffocating pressure rolling off Dabi made his spine lock up.
Twice slapped both hands over his mask, visibly shivering in place.
"They want to put a collar on me." Dabi said.
It was barely above a whisper, entirely flat and devoid of emotion, which made it ten times worse. "And they want their suit and tie parasites hovering around my front lawn while spying on my family."
"Preposterous fools who mistake political titles for true authority." Stain spat, his rasp cutting through the cold. "They have forgotten that conviction cannot be bought or legislated. If you wish it, Dabi, I will walk into the Diet chambers myself and purge the corrupt."
"Nobody is going on a vigilante crusade." Dabi cut him off, his eyes glowing with an icy gleam.
He reached out, took the tablet straight from Gentle, and glanced at the official government seal emblazoned across the encrypted document.
A slow smirk pulled at the corners of his lips.
"They think because All Might played nice with their paperwork for thirty years, every dragon in the sky has to roll over for a treat."
With a soft hiss, a wisp of azure flame danced across his fingertips.
The state of the art tablet melted in less than two seconds, sizzling into a dripping blob of charred plastic and fused circuitry before Dabi tossed the slag into the garden dirt.
He turned his gaze toward Nagant and Gentle.
"Send a message back to the cabinet." Dabi said quietly. "Tell the Prime Minister that no matter what, Hawks will run the Commission, and the hero system answers to itself from now on.
"If a single bureaucratic spy or government detail steps foot in U.A.... I won't just reject their treaty."
Dabi leaned his head back, his voice thick with finality.
"I will not stop with warnings. Tell them to take their little decree, choke on it, and be grateful I am letting them keep their jobs."
Gentle bowed. "Understood, Boss! Delivered with the utmost... diplomacy!"
Behind him, Brava looked away, while Stain's hand gripped the hilt of his sword so hard his knuckles turned white.
There was another clause.
The true reason they had lingered outside his front door for two agonizing hours, pushing and shoving like cowards.
"Boss... there is... one more detail." Gentle choked out. "A proposition that arrived directly from the higher-ups in the Ministry."
Twice slapped both hands over his face, actively trying to dig his boots to step backward. "Don't say it! We're going to turn into barbecue!"
"Out with it." Dabi said.
"Japan's pillar system has completely collapsed." Stain stated bluntly, cutting through Gentle's stuttering before he could faint. His eyes locked onto Dabi with bitter gravity–
"All Might had officially stopped down, Hawks was tied to the Commission, and Endeavor's Quirk was stolen out in the final clash. The country has lost its top three pillars in a single night, and the council is in complete hysteria over the power vacuum."
He paused, taking a breath that sounded like someone stepping onto a landmine–
"They want… little Eri."
The porch grew deathly still.
"Since they already know what happened at the Shie Hassaikai compound." Nagant continued. "...they have reviewed the classified files on her [Rewind] ability. The state now wants to requisition her as an asset and use her Quirk to rewind Endeavor's body and restore his Quirk."
The four of them instinctively braced themselves.
To someone like Dabi, who had slaughtered an entire underworld syndicate to tear that little girl, the mere whisper of turning his daughter back into a tool for other people's selfish greed should have triggered an immediate massacre.
The only reason they had dared bring it up here was the faint hope that the presence of his family inside would keep him from beating them into a pulp.
To their absolute shock, Dabi barely even shifted from where he leaned against the doorframe; the terrifying, bone chilling aura they had braced for simply didn't arrive.
Instead, his cold eyes slowly drifted toward the garden and settled into a stillness as he remained completely silent.
He only asked a single question:
"Is it only the government pushing for this... or did that piece of shit excuse of a human being have a say in this, too?"
Stain held Dabi's gaze. "The flame hero hasn't spoken a word since he was carried off the field. It's the ministry bureaucrats. They're panicking, clinging to any shred of power they can reconstruct."
Dabi stared down at the porch steps, his expression remaining utterly impassive.
Deep down, he had actually considered Eri's [Rewind] before.
But using that innocent girl's power to restore Enji Todoroki's Hellflame?
Never in this lifetime.
The very thought was an insult to the hell Eri had escaped and the agony that had consumed Toya's childhood.
Still, the mention of the hospital sparked something else in his mind.
He hadn't spoken to the old man yet because there was still unfinished business between them, words he intended to carve into Enji's broken ego once and for all, not as an estranged son seeking validation, but as the one who had ultimately dismantled every twisted ambition Enji had built his life around.
"Stain." Dabi spoke. "Send word back to the ministry and Hawks."
The squad leaned in slightly, waiting for the verdict.
"Tell them I will be paying a visit to Endeavor." Dabi drawled, shoving his hands into his pockets. "And I will also be taking Eri with me."
Twice blinked behind his mask, visibly stunned. "Wait, really? He's actually going?!"
Gentle smoothed his lapels.. "A most... diplomatic compromise, Boss. We shall convey the message immediately."
Dabi knew precisely what would happen the second that message reached the desks of the cabinet ministers and the newly appointed Commission heads.
It was bound to spark a misunderstanding.
To those self-serving politicians in their high offices, years of domestic abuse and trauma were easily brushed aside as 'family squabbles' that could be set aside for the sake of the state.
In their shallow minds, they would assume blood was thicker than water.
They would convince themselves that, no matter how bitter the relationship between father and son had become, an unbreakable filial bond would compel Dabi to step forward when everything was pushed to the brink, imagining a grand reconciliation in which the prodigal son used his adopted daughter's miraculous Quirk to restore the fallen Number Two Hero for the sake of national stability.
They couldn't have been more wrong.
Dabi wouldn't lift a single finger to restore Enji's Quirk even over his dead body.
To him, the simple fact that the old man was still allowed to draw breath in a clean hospital bed was already the greatest mercy Toya Todoroki would ever offer.
….
"Now get out of here."
Dabi sighed, waving a dismissive hand as the suffocating chill dispersed. "You made enough noise to wake the dead. Go find Hawks, help him throw out the trash in the HPSC basement, and don't come back until you have something that isn't a joke."
"Yes, sir! We're leaving immediately! Let's go grab ramen!" Twice scrambled down the stone steps, dragging Gentle by the elbow while La Brava chuckled under her breath, turning to follow them down the path.
Stain lingered for only half a heartbeat, giving Dabi a sharp nod before vanishing into the tree line.
Turning on his heel, Dabi stepped back into home.
He shook his head, running his hand through his messy dark hair.
"Bureaucratic idiots." he grumbled to himself–
"Always trying to complicate a simple morning."
.
….
[To be continued…]
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