Rumi was once again down in the observation bunker as the tall boy named Iida prepared to fight Izuku. With dozens of screens capturing every angle of the scene, Rumi found herself waiting with anticipation to see what kind of tricks Izuku would use this time.
However, Rumi's train of thought was interrupted as a nervous voice called out to her.
"Umm...excuse me...Miss Miruko?" The boy with red hair said with obvious trepidation.
Turning around, Rumi was surprised to see the three remaining students from Class 1-A looking at her apprehensively as they awkwardly avoided meeting her gaze.
"First off, just Miruko is fine." Rumi said with a grin. "Second, what do you want? An autograph or something?"
Before the red-haired boy could answer, the short girl with brown hair had stepped forward and began asking questions while keeping one eye on the many screens.
"We wanted to know more about Agent Midoriya." The shy girl said honestly. "He is...well he is kinda scary. Is he always like this with everyone? I know we don't know anything about him, but the way he is acting I can't help but feel he has some sort of grudge against us."
Rumi arched an eyebrow in surprise. That was certainly not what she had expected to be asked about.
Rumi let out a soft sigh before speaking. "Alright let's get one thing straight right now, I am only gonna tell you what I think is relevant. To be honest I probably shouldn't say anything considering how pissy Iz...I mean Midoriya, gets when people start poking around his personal life. I mean the guy scares the shit out of me sometimes, and that is a hard thing to do considering what I do for a living."
The three teens all seemed to go a few shades paler after hearing Rumi's words, but seemed determined to get some answers regardless.
"Short answer, yes he has one hell of a grudge against all of you." Rumi said bluntly. "Not against you personally, but against what you guys represent. You guys are living the life he dreamed about as a kid. He was not given any opportunity to grow or prove himself and now he is competing against the very people he used to idolize."
Rumi idly ran a hand through the notch on one of her ears as she spoke.
"Frankly it is pretty sad the way he turned out. If things were different I could easily see him being the best hero around. So don't take everything he says personally."
The three teens nodded understandingly, and then the stern girl with a ponytail asked a new question.
"What is it like to work with him?" The girl said curiously.
Rumi could not help but grin as the memories of her partner flashed through her head. "Well we had a really rocky start. Mostly because I was a complete asshole. I am lucky he gave me a second chance after all the shit I put him through. But now we are a good team. If you can get on his good side Midoriya can be a really nice guy. I know it is hard to believe, but he can be very sweet with the people he trusts."
It looked like the red-haired boy was about to ask another question, but he was interrupted as the many video screens zoomed in on the two figures squaring off in the fake city street.
Dressed in his standard UA gym uniform, Iida bounced lightly on his feet as he put his glasses in a protective case. Across the street, Izuku slowly loaded shotgun shells into his weapon before racking the pump with an ominous click-clack.
"Are you ready Iida?" Izuku said flatly to his opponent.
"Yes sir!" Iida responded enthusiastically.
Nodding, Izuku looked up at one of the nearby cameras and gestured to his shotgun. "I will be using standard-issue non-lethal bean bag rounds in my shotgun. Just to clarify that I am not using any live ammunition."
Done with his explanation, Izuku turned back to face Iida and adopted a combat-ready stance. "Same rules as before. To win you must either incapacitate your opponent or force them to verbally yield. Time limit will be ten minutes, if you have not defeated me by that time we will call it a draw. Begin whenever you are ready."
Iida nodded and took a deep steadying breath as Izuku watched him like a coiled cobra. After a few seconds of tense silence, Iida engaged his quirk and burst forward towards Izuku at blinding speed. However, the tall teen was caught off guard as Izuku threw a smoke bomb at his feet and vanished behind a cloud of thick gray smoke.
"Cool! He is like some kinda ninja!" The red-haired teen said excitedly, making Rumi laugh a little as she continued to watch the match.
Reacting quickly, Iida used an engine-powered kick to clear the smoke with a blast of air, only to find that his opponent had vanished. Looking around warily as he stood in the middle of the street, Iida did not see a shadow moving amongst the dark windows of a nearby apartment building.
Several of the video screens changed to show footage from cameras inside the building, just in time to watch Izuku take aim and fire at Iida. With lightning fast reflexes, Iida dodged the beanbag round with a quick flip before rocketing towards the front door of the apartment building.
"Agent Midoriya is very smart." The stern girl with a ponytail stated. "He is forcing Iida to fight in an area where he can not effectively utilize his quirk."
Nodding in agreement, Rumi watched as Iida kicked open the front doors of the building and rolled to take cover behind a metal desk.
Unexpectedly, all that met Iida once he was inside was an eerie silence. Cautiously peeking out from behind his cover, Iida experimentally raced into an open doorway and rolled to avoid any gunfire, only to be met once again with eerie silence.
"Where is he?" Midnight asked suspiciously. "We have cameras all over the training grounds, we should have seen him by now."
Suddenly, several of the video feeds from inside the building were replaced with buzzing static. Clear evidence that Izuku was somehow managing to disable cameras he came across.
Like some kind of evil mastermind, Izuku's voice emanated from the speakers inside the bunker. "I don't like being spied on." He said quietly. "Plus I am making sure you teachers are not giving your student outside help. The cyber division of the Ministry of Defense sends their regards to Principal Nezu. After all this is over you might want to update your security protocols."
Rumi glanced over at the humanoid rodent to see the well-dressed administrator frowning unhappily as more and more camera feeds changed to hissing static.
"Does he really think we would cheat for Iida like that?" Snipe said slowly. "This paranoia of his is starting to become quite the pain in our necks."
Rumi could not help but snort derisively, making everyone look at her questioningly.
"Midoriya plans for every situation." She said proudly. "He is just being thorough. Just relax and enjoy the show. If you are really getting bent out of shape about a little hacking it sounds to me like you have bigger problems than my partner."
Meanwhile, Iida had been cautiously sneaking from room to room. Exploring the fake apartment building while on the hunt for his elusive opponent. Suddenly he paused, and the faint sound of footsteps ascending a metal staircase could be heard. Like a stalking panther, Iida quickly made his way to the building's main stairwell and cautiously peeked inside. Seeing nothing, Iida slowly began to ascend, hot on the trail of his opponent.
The silence was broken by the sound of something clattering down the stairs towards Iida. As the nearest camera zoomed in, Rumi could not help but speak softly in disbelief.
"Is that a fucking frag grenade?"
Trapped in a confined space with an explosive bouncing towards him, Iida threw himself over the railing, letting himself fall as the grenade detonated with a boom and sent shrapnel pinging off the walls. Quickly using his quirk to spin in midair, Iida kicked off the nearest wall and rocketed upwards towards Izuku's location. The teen's eager grin was replaced with a look of shock as the shadowy form of his opponent vaulted over the top railing and plummeted towards him. Before Iida could react the two collided in midair with a bone jarring thump. The direction of movement now reversed, the two began to plummet back down the narrow stairwell. It was hard to see what was happening on the cameras, but suddenly there was the distinctive flare of Iida's quirk and the two opponents changed direction once more.
However, that direction was an immediate left, directly through one of the stairwell's concrete walls.
Blasting into a tastefully decorated apartment, Iida and Izuku bounced across the hardwood floor and separated, Iida crashing through a neatly organized bookshelf as Izuku crushed an expensive looking collection of pottery.
For a moment it was quiet, the now completely trashed apartment covered in a fine layer of drywall, concrete, and miscellaneous other debris.
With the sound of cracking wood, Iida slowly got to his feet and looked around in bewilderment.
"Are you crazy?!" He exclaimed loudly. "You could have gotten ki-!"
He was cut off as Izuku came out of the shadows and tackled him at full force. As the two grappled on the ground, white smoke began to fill the room. For a moment, Rumi was concerned something had caught fire, but her fears were alleviated when a camera spotted a cylinder on the ground spewing out the smoke. Confused as to why Izuku would want a smokescreen, Rumi realized what her partner's plan was when she saw that the handsome man was now wearing a rubber gas mask.
Iida in the meantime had begun to choke and cough from exposure to the tear gas, his movements becoming more frantic and erratic as he tried to escape. However it was clear that Izuku had no intention of letting the tall teen leave, as he used his body weight to pin Iida to the ground. Like a veteran mixed martial arts fighter, Izuku began raining down blows on his panicked opponent. Punches to the head, knees to the gut, painful jiu jitsu holds, Izuku gave his opponent no quarter.
As the room became completely filled with the debilitating smoke, Iida finally slipped into unconsciousness and went limp. After making sure his opponent was indeed down for the count, Izuku immediately stood up and effortlessly slung Iida over his shoulder before carrying the teen out of the room.
Rumi once again followed the small crowd of students and teachers out into the street where Izuku was waiting. Taking off his gas mask, Izuku gently put Iida down on the pavement and nodded approvingly.
"He put up a good fight." The green-haired man said with a hint of respect. "Lasted longer than I thought he would and actually surprised me a few times."
As medical robots lifted the unconscious Iida into a stretcher and carried him away, Eraserhead glowered at the unfazed Izuku and sighed in annoyance.
"Agent Midoriya, I would appreciate it if you did not hospitalize my students after each sparring session."
Rolling his eyes, Izuku began checking his equipment. "They will be fine. Their injuries might be painful, but they are in no way life-threatening. From what I have heard about UA's training curriculum you have no right to criticize my methods. These are the same kids that were part of that shitshow with the PLF right? They will be fine, if you keep coddling them you are only holding them back."
Rumi suppressed an amused snort as Eraserhead grit his teeth in anger and stomped away muttering under his breath.
"God I wish I could record all this. Hawks would have loved it." Rumi thought to herself.
Seemingly satisfied that all his gear was in working order, Izuku pointed at the girl with the ponytail. "Your turn Yaoyorozu. From what I know about your quirk I expect an interesting fight."
Yaoyorozu paused and looked at Izuku suspiciously. "How do you know what my quirk is? I don't remember anyone giving you that information."
Smirking, Izuku nodded slightly. "Knowledge is power Yaoyorozu. Do you really think I would come here without preparing first? I know all of your quirks, I just had to look up your file on the main database."
Frowning, Yaoyorozu crossed her arms defensively. "That is not fair, by that reasoning you should tell me what your quirk is to make it a fair fight."
Grinning evilly, Izuku wagged his finger at Yaoyorozu like a disapproving teacher.
"Like I said. I never fight fair."