Hardening

**Hardening** (硬化, Kōka) is the Blooming ability of Taiyo Asano allowing him to solidify and soften parts of his body.

## Overview

Hardening is the Blooming of Taiyo Asano, after he trained with Ban to upgrade his half-blooming. He first used his ability to protect Mutsumi from a bullet Ban shot, he was able to block the attack with his hand with the bullet lodged inside. The ability was created from Taiyo's desire to protect his loved ones, most importantly Mutsumi.  The ability is defensive so its not too useful in combat.  The ability failed to block the attack from Kawashita using Kurosawa's blades.

## Usage

The cells in Taiyo's body able to harden and soften accordingly to absorb the impact of an attack. This was seen when Taiyo protected Mutsumi, his hand solidified whilst his joints softened allowing him to block the bullet.

This grants him incredible resiliency to external damage, causing bullets to flatten against his flesh and making it so even powerful explosions at point-blank range do little more then leave him lightly singed. However, while Taiyo's Hardening ability is mainly for defensive purposes, it can also be used for attacking as well; by using his Blooming in conjunction with his someinine-enhanced strength, Taiyo can smash doors and shatter walls completely by accident as well as flick Sosuke Michibata hard enough to shake their entire school.

The ability has some downsides to it, hardening his muscles causes his actions to have less precision. The hardness of his bones cause them to become more brittle and likely to break under difference forces. Hardening his blood vessels makes them more likely to

## True Spring Blooming

After Taiyo's training, he had perfected his hardening as a True Spring Blooming. Though he still has trouble controlling it. This has someinine suffused throughout his whole body, in every cell and using his ability on it. This perfected blooming was acquired by mastering the complimentary side of the ability, **softening**.  This similarly to his regular blooming, the softening reflects an aspect of Taiyo's personality that has developed alongside his technique, a more kind, forgiving and nurturing part of his character that had grown over 5 years, likely due to becoming a parent.

With the addition of softening, his body becomes more flexible and supportive when it comes to his hardening, as well as increasing the power of his hardness. Taiyo's body becomes harder than diamond when using this ability. Despite being harder than before, his boy actually becomes incredibly soft, with attacks that land on him having feel no resistance or recoil from him and instead feel like they've been wrapped with cotton.

The act of 100% of someinine activation in the body had it's side effects in the body, causing feelings of fatigue after using it. Due to this strain, the ability can only be maintained for a certain amount of time depending on the user. Taiyo is only able to maintain it for 3 minutes., any longer could cause harm to the body.

## Techniques

**Path of Lightning** (雷道, Raidō): In combination with Kyoichiro's Steel Spider and Taiyo's Yae, he hardens his body whilst Kyoichiro manipulates his body to fling his body. This was first used agaist Kawashita's Amalgamation to break through it.

**Cherry Blossom Fangs** (桜牙, *Ōga*): Taiyo uses the increased power of the True Spring Blooming to land a devastating punch.  Being strong enough to make Alexandryu fall to his knees, normally being able to resist a punch from Taiyo's hardening.

## References

1. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family Manga Chapter 63 pages 17 - 19. Taiyo protects Mutsumi and awakens his Blooming.
2. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family Manga - Chapter 63 pages 17-19. Taiyo protects Mutsumi and awakens his Blooming.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mission: Yozakura Family Manga - Chapter 64 pages 3-4. Ban explains Taiyo's Blooming.
4. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family Manga - Chapter 83 page 34. Kyoichiro mentions Taiyo's blooming is not offensive.
5. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family Manga - Chapter 80 page 4. Kawashita pierces Taiyo.
6. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family (Manga) - Chapter 200, page 10.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Mission: Yozakura Family (Manga) - Chapter 200, page 15.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Mission: Yozakura Family (Manga) - Chapter 200, page 11.
9. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family (Manga) - Chapter 200, page 7. Taiyo blocks an attack that can shatter diamond.
10. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family (Manga) - Chapter 200, page 9.
11. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family (Manga) - Chapter 203, page 3.
12. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family Manga - Chapter 79 pages 16 - 19. Taiyo and Kyoichiro break through the amalgamation.
13. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family (Manga) - Chapter 200, pages 12-13.
14. ↑ Mission: Yozakura Family (Manga) - Chapter 199, pages 17.