….

  "Mama wrong."

  Rumi blinked, Dabi's head snapped around, and Midoriya's crying paused mid-sniffle.

  "What?" she asked instinctively, but her voice came out thinner than usual.

  Her bunny ears rose slowly, stretching upright in sharp attention.

  Eri looked directly at Midoriya with her rge red eyes. "Onii-chan saved Onee-chan. Onii-chan is a hero."

  She was talking about Uraraka, the girl from the exam whom Midoriya had destroyed himself to save.

  For a moment, complete silence filled the apartment.

  Then Midoriya began to cry again, but this time the tears were different. They weren't born from shame or frustration, but from something overwhelming and unfamiliar.

  For the first time in his fifteen years of life, someone had called him a hero and meant it, not as encouragement or as a distant dream, but as a simple statement of truth.

  Onii-chan is a hero…The words hit harder than any punch he had ever taken.

  Meanwhile, Rumi abruptly stood up, her chair scraping loudly against the floor as her face turned red, not from anger, but from something else entirely.

  "I…. I–I need to–" she stammered.

  "You need to go to the bathroom?" Dabi supplied helpfully, recognizing the signs.

  "Yeah! Right! Yeah!" Rumi practically fled toward the bathroom, calling over her shoulder. "Take care of Eri for a second!"

  Dabi lifted Eri off the table and settled her on his hip, where she looked up at him with a worried expression. "Did I do something wrong?"

  "No." Dabi assured her quietly. "You did great."

  In the bathroom, Rumi stared at her reflection in the mirror, her face completely flushed while her ears stood straight up, twitching with emotion.

  It was the same helpless expression she had worn when Dabi confessed his feelings to her a year ago, that overwhelming warmth in her chest and the same inability to process emotions she wasn't used to feeling.

  "Is it supposed to feel this good?" she whispered to herself.

  Being called 'mama' by a rescued child, watching that same child comfort someone else with simple kindness, and realizing they might actually be doing something right.

  It made sense to her. Before meeting Dabi, she had been nothing more than a battle maniac; now everything felt different.

  She spshed cold water on her face, trying to get herself under control.

  ….

  Back in the kitchen, Midoriya was still crying. But he was also smiling now, that contradiction of emotions that came when someone's heart was too full to contain itself.

  Dabi let him have the moment. Then, when the tears finally slowed, he asked: "So you are not here just to tell me how sad you feel, right?"

  Midoriya wiped his eyes with his casted arm. "I want to train - harder than before. I need to master One For All properly, learn how to control it so I am not destroying my body every time I use it. I thought… if I came here and asked you… maybe you could help me figure out how to do that."

  "No."

  The word was ft and final.

  Midoriya's expression crumbled. "B-but–"

  "Listen to me."

  Dabi set Eri down on the couch with some coloring books they had bought yesterday, then turned his full attention to Midoriya–

  "You want more training. I get that. But what you need right now isn't more combat techniques or quirk control exercises."

  "Then what–"

  Dabi leaned against the kitchen counter, his turquoise eyes tracking the faint tremors in Midoriya's casted hands. He wasn't looking at the boy's spirit; he was looking at his biological load.

  "You want more training because you think the 'vessel' isn't strong enough." Dabi said, his voice dropping into a low, clinical tone. "You think hauling more scrap or running more breathing drills will somehow make the 'spark' stop shattering your humerus. But that's not your real problem, Izuku."

  Midoriya blinked, confused. "But… it's true my body can't handle the full power of One For All—"

  Dabi cut him off calmly. "That's the point, kid. Who told you to use the full power of One For All? Your problem is your cognitive mapping."

  Dabi stepped forward, tapping his own temple.

  "You've spent ten months learning how to breathe and how to build a frame," Dabi said. "But you still treat One For All like a superpower you flip on and off, like a light switch.

  "There's nothing wrong with that approach. That's how it worked for All Might. But let's be honest, that guy is just built differently. In your case, thinking of it like a light bulb isn't helping. It's better to imagine it as a fan, where you can increase the speed step by step - five levels, for example. Of course, the number of levels is entirely up to you."

  Dabi crossed his arms, dissecting the physics of the 'Smash' Midoriya had described.

  "What you need right now isn't 'more training.' You need to stop thinking of the quirk as a tool and start thinking of it as a part of you. Just like your breathing.

  Midoriya's eyes widened as he grabbed his notebook, the familiar muttering already spilling out before he could stop it.

  "A fan… not a switch… right, right - so instead of one massive output, it's reguted flow… levels… maybe five to start? Or - no, that might be too rigid… maybe percentage-based scaling would work better…?"

  His pencil scratched rapidly across the page.

  "And if I stabilize it with Total Concentration Breathing… then the energy circution through the body should stay consistent… which means less strain on the limbs—!"

  He flipped the page, still mumbling under his breath.

  "Distribute the power evenly… maintain baseline output… increase gradually depending on movement… yeah… yeah, that could actually work…!"

  Dabi watched the kid for a moment, slightly dumbfounded. The intensity of Midoriya's muttering was honestly a bit creepy.

  Still, he didn't interrupt.

  A few seconds ter Midoriya finally snapped out of it, blinking as he realized what he'd been doing.

  "Ah—! S-Sorry!" he said quickly, already bowing his head in embarrassment.

  Dabi waved it off and continued. "If you only use it in bursts, the sudden vascur pressure and kinetic output will always snap your bones." he said calmly. "But if you learn to spread that energy across your entire body - your skin, muscles, and whole musculoskeletal system - in a steady loop, your body will start adapting."

  He looked directly at Midoriya. "You won't be a boy using a Quirk."

  "You will have a Quirked body."

  Dabi gnced at Eri, who was carefully coloring a hero with blue fmes, then back at the battered boy.

  Rumi emerged from the bathroom, her face mostly back to normal though her ears were still twitching. "Is he giving you the 'breathing is everything' speech?"

  "Yes, ma'am… I mean, Mirko-san… I mean–" Midoriya floundered.

  "Just call me Rumi. We are not that formal here." She plopped back down at the table.

  Midoriya absorbed all this.

  "Go home, Izuku. Get some rest. But while you are lying in bed, I want you to try something. Don't 'Smash' anything. Just try to feel the 'Spark' moving through your pinky finger. Then your hand, arm and legs. Keep it at a level where it doesn't even sting - just a hum. That hum should become your new heartbeat."

  He paused, then added quietly. "And Eri's right… you are a hero. So don't make her watch her 'Onii-chan' colpse because he was too impatient to learn how to walk before trying to fly."

  Midoriya stood there, the weight of the realization sinking in.

  "I... I understand, Dabi-san." Midoriya said, bowing low. "I will make the hum my heartbeat. I promise."

  As Midoriya prepared to leave, Eri called out from the couch: "Bye-bye, Onii-chan!"

  Midoriya's face lit up again. He waved enthusiastically despite his casts. "Bye, Eri-chan!"

  After he left, Dabi closed the door and turned to find both Rumi and Eri staring at him.

  "What?"

  "I wasn't aware you were this good with kids..." Rumi observed.

  "Actully I am not."

  "You just gave him exactly what he needed to hear. Tough love, clear direction, and encouragement. That's good teaching."

  "You think so? I was just avoiding extra work..."

  "Mama right." Eri added from the couch. "Papa good teacher."

  Both adults froze.

  Papa.

  She had called him papa.

  Dabi gnced at Rumi, and she met his eyes a second ter, the realization settling between them at the same time as a faint flush crept across both their faces.

  "....we are not ready for this…." Dabi said.

  "Absolutely not!" Rumi agreed.

  "....we have no idea what we are doing…."

  "None whatsoever!"

  "....we are going to screw this up so badly…."

  "Probably!"

  They looked at Eri, who was watching them with rge, trusting eyes:

  A child who had only known pain and fear for most of her life. Who was learning what safety felt like. Who was calling them mama and papa despite having only been with them for a day.

  "But we are going to try anyway." Dabi finished quietly.

  "Yeah!" Rumi agreed. "Yeah, we are!"

  Eri smiled - a small, genuine smile that made all the uncertainty worth it.

  ….

  [Midoriya Household]

  It had been three weeks since the U.A. Entrance Exam was conducted.….and the exam results arrived in the mail.

  Izuku Midoriya had been sitting at his kitchen table, staring at the envelope for ten minutes, unable to open it. His mother hovered near the doorframe, equally nervous.

  Finally, with shaking hands, he tore it open.

  A holographic projection activated. All Might's face appeared - his heroic muscur form, grinning widely.

  ["Young Midoriya! I am here! As a projection!"]

  Izuku's heart was pounding so hard he could barely breathe.

  ["I have excellent news! You scored 70 points in the practical exam! While you only destroyed one vilin - the Zero-Pointer, which was worth zero combat points - you earned a massive 60 rescue points for saving your fellow examinee from certain death! Additionally, you received 10 assist points for helping other students throughout the exam!"]

  The projection showed footage from the exam - Midoriya clearing debris so others could escape, distracting robots so other examinees could score, and finally the spectacur destruction of the Zero-Pointer.

  ["A true hero doesn't just defeat vilins - they save people, help them! Your selfless actions embodied the spirit of heroism! Welcome, Young Midoriya, to your Hero Academia!"]

  The projection ended.

  Izuku burst into tears. His mother wrapped him in a hug, crying too.

  He had done it. He had actually done it.

  He was going to the U.A.

  ….

  [Three Weeks Later - 03:00 AM]

  BEEP–!

  BEEP–!

  Dabi woke to the sound of arm and small screamings.

  It was Eri!!

  .

  ….

  [To be continued…]

  ★─────??★??─────★

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