Izuku slowly opened his eyes and smiled slightly when he remembered where he was. It was another picture perfect morning, the sun was shining, birds were chirping, and Rumi was snoring softly against his chest. Looking down at the tanned woman who was clinging to him like a body pillow, Izuku could not help but reach down and lightly stroke one of her rabbit ears.
Unexpectedly, Rumi let out a very feminine moan then promptly went back to snoring.
Well that was certainly an interesting reaction.
Filing the new information away for later, Izuku sighed happily and ran a hand through Rumi's long white hair as he contemplated what the future had in store.
Things were definitely going to be different, that was for sure.
In a way, Izuku felt like a rebellious teenager going against the wishes of his parents. His common sense was telling him not to get romantically involved with someone he worked with, but his heart did not care in the slightest. If the public or his department found out about his secret relationship there would be hell to pay, but for now Izuku was determined to squeeze as much enjoyment as he could out of his current situation.
Izuku was roused from his musing by the sound of a soft yawn and the feeling of Rumi's head shift against his skin.
"Mornin Izuku" Rumi said drowsily. "Can we take another day off? I don't wanna get up."
Izuku chuckled as he extricated himself from his girlfriend's grip. "Sorry Rumi. As much as I would enjoy taking another day off, our jobs need our attention."
Grumbling as she slowly sat up, Rumi yawned as she stretched her arms. "Yeah I know. I was just having a really good dream about you and now I am sad it is over."
It had been a few days since the start of Izuku's relationship with Rumi, and the future seemed bright. Unlike the first night, Izuku was now shirtless and wearing a simple pair of pajama bottoms. Rumi on the other hand was wearing a loose t-shirt and some nylon shorts.
So far the farthest the two of them had gotten was cuddling and kissing. While Izuku could tell his new girlfriend was more than ready to dive into the deep end of physical affection, he was still nervous about taking the next step.
It did not matter how good Izuku looked, the trauma of his childhood still haunted him and made him freeze up whenever Rumi got handsy. He wanted to fulfill his girlfriend's expectations, but deep down a dark part of him was waiting to get rejected and hurt like countless times before.
Shaking the dark thoughts from his head, Izuku walked over to his bag and retrieved his work suit. "Well you can tell me about it later. I need to go to the office today so it looks like you will be working solo. What do you want for dinner?"
Stepping into the spacious bathroom, Izuku listened to his girlfriend talk as he changed.
"Something spicy." Rumi said loudly. "Doesn't have to be anything fancy. Maybe some curry?"
Making a mental shopping list, Izuku quickly shaved his face and adjusted his tie before walking out. "Sounds good to me. I can pick up the ingredients on the way back from work. Do you want anything else?"
Getting up from the bed, Rumi walked over to Izuku and pressed herself against his chest with a flirty grin on her face. "Just the curry is fine. Aren't you forgetting something before you leave?"
Smirking knowingly, Izuku made a show of scratching his head in confusion. "Huh, I thought I had everything? Phone, wallet, keys...yeah I think that is everything."
Pouting cutely, Rumi gently grabbed Izuku's black tie. "Don't make me beg you ass."
Giving in, Izuku lowered his face closer to Rumi's. "Sorry, you are just really cute when you pout."
With a blush on her face, Rumi wrapped her arms around Izuku's neck and gave him a long kiss.
Savoring the feeling of kissing the woman he loved, Izuku reflexively wrapped his arms around his girlfriend and kissed back.
After what felt like an hour, Izuku finally pulled back with a shy smile on his face and a little out of breath. "As m-much as I would like to stay, I need to get going to beat traffic."
Smiling happily, Rumi turned Izuku around and playfully swatted his butt. "Alright get going mister. If you stay here any longer I might jump on you and force you to take the day off."
Leaving Rumi's penthouse with a smile on his face, Izuku made his way down to the parking garage and entered his sedan. After the usual commute to his office, Izuku parked his car in the department parking garage and made his way to his office.
Unlocking his office door, Izuku sat down at his desk and opened up his laptop. Dutifully checking his internal mail application, Izuku skimmed through the various messages. Besides the usual trivial memos and reminders, there was only one message of note. It was from the director himself, and detailed the current progress on the nationwide effort to hunt down the PLF.
Overall it was not going well.
Apparently violent incidents were on the rise all over the country, and the number of subversive PLF propaganda campaigns had increased as well. The rest of the message was a statement informing every department of newer and more aggressive search operations, including the usual patriotic message that every agent was doing their civic duty to protect innocent civilians.
Making a note to brush up on the new search protocols, Izuku got to work on his weekly report.
A few hours later, Izuku was in the middle of filling out his log of possible intelligence assets when his laptop made a soft ding.
Switching over to his personal email account Izuku was greeted by a mysterious email simply titled "information".
Curious, Izuku read the contents of the email. It seemed that the search for dirt on Oscar had finally gotten something useful.
More specifically, someone wanted to discuss the information in person.
Eagerly calling the phone number attached to the email, Izuku was immediately greeted by a rough and raspy voice.
"Train station, ten minutes, get on the southbound train."
Before Izuku could even get a single word out the mysterious informant had hung up, leaving Izuku with only one choice in mind.
Quickly informing the receptionist that he was going out for an early lunch, Izuku ran out of his office and headed towards the nearest train station. Arriving at the platform, Izuku looked around warily as he forced himself to calm down.
It was obvious the informant was the paranoid type, and if Izuku did not follow directions there was a good chance the lead would vanish forever. It was not an ideal situation, but Izuku was desperate to learn anything about Oscar's past.
Less than a minute later the southbound train arrived at the platform. Stepping into the nearly empty train car, Izuku sat down in an unoccupied seat and subtly glanced around. With a soft chime the train car doors closed as the train left the station and proceeded to trundle down the tracks. Before Izuku could begin to investigate, a man sat down next to him and jammed something against his ribs.
The informant was dressed in a mishmash of clothes. Ranging from a thick raincoat, to sunglasses, hat, and medical mask that made it nearly impossible to see any defining features.
Izuku knew instantly that the business end of a suppressed pistol was the object poking him in the ribs. Whoever the informant was, they knew what they were doing. Even if Izuku was wearing body armor under his clothes, the gun was aimed directly at the area where the vest would be weakest, ensuring that a single shot was all that would be needed to end his life.
"Were you followed?" The informant growled softly.
Making sure to keep his hands visible and to not make any sudden moves, Izuku shook his head once. "No, it is just me. This is personal business, nobody else is involved."
The informant was silent for a moment before continuing. "Why are you gathering intel on Smith?"
"Because he is threatening someone close to me." Izuku said quietly. "I need to know what makes him tick. How he is able to get away with almost anything without repercussions."
The informant's head moved slightly, and Izuku could tell that the man was discreetly looking around for any eavesdroppers.
"Fine." The informant whispered. "I will tell you what I know. In exchange, you do not tell a soul about this conversation. I found out you talked, your bunny girlfriend is going get a bullet to the brain."
Izuku felt a chill run down his spine and simply nodded slowly.
The train car swayed slightly as it travelled down the tracks, and Izuku hoped that nothing would spook the cagey informant.
"Oscar Smith." The informant said quietly. "Is a fucking monster. No soul or empathy whatsoever. He was the one called in to work the blackest of black ops. Assassinations, taking hostages, the works. I was part of an off the books CIA project known as Foghorn, a new variant of the old MK Ultra project. It involved systematically breaking down a person's psyche to the point where they could be reprogrammed to be the perfect killing machine with no human emotions that would hold them back. For the most part, the project was unsuccessful. Out of all the test subjects, only a handful of them made it to the point where they could operate independently. Out of those few survivors, only three of them were able to be successfully deployed. Oscar Smith was one of those three."
The informant took a shaky breath, and Izuku hoped that the man did not have a twitchy finger trigger.
"I know I am going to hell for my part in the project." The informant said flatly. "But that is not why I am talking to you. Smith is a threat to national security of the highest degree. Only a handful of people know his true capabilities, and most of those people are dead. The only thing preventing Smith from becoming a danger to everyone around him is his own fucked up morals. He truly believes he is one of the good guys, that everything he does is for the right reason. Should he wake up one day and realize those thoughts were artificially implanted into his head, he will go on a rampage that might bring down entire countries."
Izuku frowned and pushed for more information. "Then tell me how to stop him. What are his weaknesses?"
The informant's voice took on a hard edge. "The only way you are going to stop him is with a lot of bullets, but it is not that simple. Smith is the perfect apex predator, and you need to stop thinking of him as a person. We called his quirk Carnivore, because he can temporarily increase his body's capabilities by eating meat. Fresh raw meat gives the greatest boost, and…"
The informant paused, and for a second Izuku was worried that the man might have lost his nerve.
"We trained him to…" The man whispered like a murderer confessing to a priest. "We trained him to eat...people...He is a fucking cannibal. It is the perfect psychological weapon, a primal fear that every human has because it was passed down to us by our caveman ancestors."
The informant began to talk even faster, his words spilling out like a scientist amazed at his own discovery.
"Smith has the abilities of some of the most deadly carnivorous animals on the planet. He can smell quirks, he can see in the dark, his saliva is venomous, and he can increase his strength by eating meat. But it is not just his physical aspects, but his mental ones as well. He can literally taste people's fear, and knows just how far to push someone before they break. He copied our training methods to the point where he can create obedient killers of his own in just under a month, and that is only what we have on file."
While Izuku wanted to be surprised by the information about Oscar's cannibalistic tendencies, he was not. It was easy to imagine Oscar chowing down on someone while they were still alive.
"He is a crafty bastard." The informant continued. "The CIA can't touch him because he was personally involved in dozens of illegal black ops. If even one of those operations was leaked to the press it would cripple the agency for years. That is why he was sent to work here in Japan. To get him as far away as humanly possible and make him someone else's problem to deal with. My best guess is that Smith is being put to work by your Ministry of Defense doing what he does best. They might think he is a clueless pawn, but they have no idea who they are dealing with."
Izuku had so many more questions to ask, but the soft chime announcing the next stop interrupted him. Before Izuku could get a word out, the informant had swiftly exited the train car and disappeared into the crowd outside.
Letting the train car doors slide shut, Izuku pondered what he should do next as the train started moving once more.