Izuku stood silently in his supervisor's office as the portly older man looked over the transfer request form on his desk.
"Are you sure there is no way I can convince you to reconsider?" The man said in a disappointed tone as he smoothed out a wrinkle in his suit. "If you cannot get along with her I doubt anyone else will."
Izuku sighed and shook his head. "Sir, I tried my best, but there are some people who will never change. She is stubborn, opinionated, and arrogant to the extreme. The last time I interacted with her I nearly ended up punching her in the face." He said honestly.
Izuku's boss nodded morosely and leaned back in his office chair slightly, his bald head glinting slightly in the light. "Well I am certainly not going to force my best agent to work with someone like that. Consider your transfer request approved. I will have a new posting for you in a few days."
"Umm...sir?" Izuku said cautiously. "In my opinion I think the hero liaison project is simply not for me. To put it bluntly...I have never been a fan of heroes in the first place. I know it is selfish, but I was hoping I could be assigned to a different project."
Izuku watched nervously as his boss arched an eyebrow curiously and rested his elbows on his wooden desk. "I see. Are you sure you want a transfer to a new project?" The man said inquisitively. "There are agents in your department that would love to work directly with some popular pro-heroes like you are."
Izuku nodded. Let someone else have the "pleasure" of working with Miruko.
The portly man huffed in amusement and idly shifted Izuku's transfer form around on the desk with his fingers. "The best I could do is transfer you to one of the logistics and analysis teams. You are one of my best agents and I need people with experience on this project."
The young agent tried not to appear too eager as he nodded in agreement. He would take working long hours at a desk if it meant getting as far away from Miruko as possible.
Izuku's boss straightened his generic office clothes and nodded understandingly. "Alright you have a deal. The analysts could use a little bit of guidance anyways."
With the conversation over, Izuku nodded gratefully and quickly left before his boss could change his mind.
Rumi sighed in annoyance as she sat on her apartment couch while Miss Sasaki paced in front of her and continued her lecture.
Apparently Midoriya had thrown in the towel, as Miss Sasaki had gotten an email from the Ministry of Defense informing her that a new liaison was going to be assigned to Rumi.
Good riddance. The guy might have been cute, but there was no way Rumi was going to work with a wimp like him.
Just as she had been about to go out on patrol, Rumi was stopped by a seething Miss Sasaki and forced to listen to a long-winded lecture like some kind of rebellious teenager being scolded by their strict parents.
"I swear you are going to be the death of me Rumi!" Miss Sasaki said uncharacteristically loudly as she straightened a wrinkle in her business clothes. "Do you have any idea how much effort I put into making sure you were assigned a good liaison?! After all my work, you go and piss it all away just because you are too proud to accept any kind of help!"
Rumi opened her mouth to reply but was stopped as Miss Sasaki glared at her with eyes that could turn a Nomu into ash and pointed a stern finger at her.
"I kept quiet all these years because it was not necessary for you to work with anyone. God knows you put in enough work for it to stay that way. But I cannot stay silent any longer. This attitude of yours is going to be your downfall, or were you not satisfied with just losing an arm?"
Rumi bristled and reflexively clenched her metal hand as she growled back at her agent. "What are you, my mother? I would rather die staying true to what I believe in over retiring and fading away like everyone else!"
Miss Sasaki rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "With the amount of time and effort I put into growing your career I think I am much more qualified to talk to you like this than your mother."
Mimicking her agent, Rumi crossed her arms as well. "Its just some stupid liason project, I dont get what the big deal is." She said grumpily.
Miss Sasaki shook her head disappointedly. "Rumi I don't think you understand how important this project is to your career. Working with a liaison means you get access to government resources that have previously been off limits for pro-heroes. Criminal databases, forensic investigators, special support tools, all of these things are now available to pro-heroes, but only if you have a good relationship with your liaison."
Miss Sasaki paused while a small smirk appeared on her face. "How is it going to feel when you are unseated from your number five spot by someone like Mt. Lady? All because you were too proud to change with the times."
Rumi's ears twitched reflexively at Miss Sasaki's mocking voice.
"Hey I will be just fine without a liaison!" Rumi said defiantly.
Miss Sasaki sighed and held up her hands in defeat. "This conversation is going nowhere. It was foolish of me to think you would change by words alone."
Picking up her purse, Miss Sasaki walked over to the apartment door and gave one last look to Rumi. "You keep burning bridges like this and you are going to find yourself alone when you need help the most, mark my words."
Rumi rolled her eyes as her agent left. Getting up, Rumi made sure to lock her apartment door, double check her hero outfit was in good shape, then walked over to the penthouse balcony exit.
Great, she was behind schedule.
"I swear, I would get more done if she didn't nag me all the time." Rumi muttered to herself as she stepped out onto the balcony and took a mighty leap to a nearby rooftop.
Izuku yawned as he sat on a barstool in the small but cozy pub.
Right after work had ended he had gone home and changed into casual clothes before heading out looking for somewhere to get sufficiently drunk. He had never been much of a drinker. The few times he had been involved in heavy drinking had been back in the military, and those instances often ended with angry senior officers and painful hangovers.
After some wandering around Izuku had found a small bar nestled in the dim corner of a nearby street, and upon further investigation was happy to find that the establishment was nearly empty. The only other person in the bar was a bearded old man seemingly asleep in a corner booth.
After taking a seat at the counter, Izuku had ordered his hard drink of choice, the simple yet satisfying rum and cola.
Now on his third glass, he had a pleasant buzz going and was simply enjoying the fuzzy warmth in silence. The overall experience was not that bad, and Izuku entertained the idea of coming back to the bar next week if things went well. After all, he was perfectly fine drinking alone.
The soft creak of the front door opening reached Izuku's ears and the peaceful silence was broken by a chorus of rowdy voices. A group of five young men walked into the bar and continued to talk loudly to each other as they went up to the counter and ordered a round of shots.
Maybe they would leave after they had their drinks?
Unfortunately that was not the case. As after the young men all downed the first round of shots they immediately ordered another. They then began enthusiastically singing happy birthday to the youngest member of the group in loud off-key voices.
Izuku drank five more glasses of rum and cola in rapid succession as the group of young men continued to loudly banter with each other. Feeling sufficiently drunk, Izuku paid his bill and slowly wobbled his way out the door.
The cool night air was refreshing to Izuku as he slowly walked down the empty street. It was still the middle of the work week so not many people were out at this time of night.
After walking for a few minutes Izuku realized he had somehow gotten turned around and was actually walking away from his apartment.
"Maybe drinking so much was not a good idea." Izuku thought to himself. "Well to be fair I think most plans made in the heat of the moment never end well."
It was unlike Izuku to be so absent-minded, he took pride in his sharp intellect that had gotten him past many obstacles in the past.
"Stupid Miruko…" Izuku muttered to himself as he turned around and began trudging back to his apartment.
Why was it that Miruko always managed to get under his skin? Truth be told Izuku had worked with people far worse than the rabbit hero and managed just fine. However when Miruko was involved it was like all logical reasoning left Izuku's head and was replaced with a storm of intense emotions.
Grumbling to himself as he walked, Izuku paused when he heard footsteps approaching from behind him. Trying to be courteous to the other pedestrian, Izuku moved to the edge of the sidewalk to let the person pass.
Instead, Izuku felt the barrel of a gun poke his back while a raspy male voice growled menacingly.
"Get in the alley…now!"
Letting out a heavy sigh, Izuku walked into the nearby shadowy alley and held up his hands as he turned to face the thug.
"Gimme your wallet and phone." The mugger said.
The man wore a large hoodie and dirty jeans, the hood pulled up to shroud his face in darkness as one hand clutched a rusty revolver.
"You don't want to do this." Izuku said evenly. "There are better ways to get some money without resorting to robbing people."
"Shaddup!" The man snarled. "Stop talkin and gimme your shit!" He said as he nervously looked around, like a rat watching for predators.
"Fine, just stay calm…" Izuku said evenly as he slowly pulled his wallet out of his pocket.
As the man reached out to snatch the offered wallet Izuku moved with practiced precision. Dropping the wallet to divert the mugger's attention, Izuku reached out and quickly snapped the disheveled man's wrist and disarmed him.
"What the fuck!?" The thug cried out in confused pain as he stumbled backwards cradling his broken wrist.
Inspecting the revolver, Izuku sighed like a disappointed teacher. "You went about this all wrong man. I mean really, a teenager could have done a better mugging. Plus this gun is so rusty I wouldn't be surprised if it blew off your hand when you pulled the trigger."
Quickly unloading the revolver with ease, Izuku stuck the empty gun in the waistband of his pants as he cooly regarded the disarmed mugger.
"Shit! Fuck this hurts!" The man whimpered. "Look man just let me go!" He pleaded desperately.
Izuku rolled his eyes and made a shooing motion with his hands. "Yeah whatever, you are lucky I don't feel like working tonight."
As the mugger scurried away Izuku yawned and resumed his walk back to his apartment, forgetting that his wallet was still lying on the ground in the alley.
"I should probably hand this gun over to the police…" Izuku thought to himself as he made sure his shirt was sufficiently hiding the gun.
At the end of the street he paused and looked at a nearby street sign to figure out where he was.
Suddenly a familiar voice called out from above.
"Well that surprised me." Miruko said teasingly as she crouched on the edge of a nearby garage rooftop. "I thought for sure I was going to have to swoop in and save the day."
Suppressing a growl of annoyance, Izuku turned around and began walking away from Miruko.
"Of course she is here...goddamn pain in my ass…" He muttered to himself as he focused on walking a straight line.
There was a thump as Miruko landed behind him.
"I heard that y'know." She said in a childlike sing-song manner.
Continuing to walk and refusing to look back, Izuku spoke in a cold and unapologetic tone. "Good, then you have enough brain cells to understand I don't want to talk to you. Now leave me alone."
Izuku felt a small spark of satisfaction as Miruko huffed in annoyance.
"Geez who pissed in your coffee? Are you still angry from the other day? Holding onto anger like that is unhealthy y'know." She said mockingly
Resisting the urge to turn around and start yelling, Izuku kept his voice as calm as he could manage. "Aren't you supposed to be doing hero stuff right now? From my perspective you are just antagonizing me after you already won. I quit just like you wanted, so there should be no reason for you to even be interacting with me."
Immediately Miruko grabbed his shoulder and roughly spun him around so she could glare at him.
"I was going to try and have a normal conversation with you, but you seem intent on acting like a crybaby bitch the whole time." She snarled. "Just what the fuck is your problem with me?"
Clenching his jaw, Izuku glared back at Miruko. "My problem with you is that from the moment we met you talked to me like I was less than human!"
A small rational part of Izuku's brain was screaming at him to calm down, but the alcohol in his system had shrouded his brain in a heat-filled foggy warmth.
"So don't talk to me like I am the bad guy! You are an arrogant, delusional, and unrepentant bitch! FUCK OFF AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" Izuku roared with hate-filled rage.
The last thing Izuku saw was Miruko's fist rocketing towards his face, and for a second he reveled in the fact that he had made her feel a fraction of the anger he had experienced.
Looking down at the unconscious man sprawled out on the dirty sidewalk Rumi could only utter one word.
"Shit…"
She hadn't meant to hit him, honest to god she had intended to just snap back with her usual retort.
But for some reason the way he spoke to her, looked at her, only reminded her of people she had failed to save in the past.
Nobody liked to admit it, but there were times where heroes could not save everyone. Rumi was no exception. Dozens of times her attempts to help were met with grief-fueled anger.
"Why couldn't you save my husband?!"
"Why didn't you save my sister?!"
"Why did you save me and not my mom?!"
Rumi had never been able to answer those types of questions.
Their faces were also something that she was never able to fully forget. Faces twisted with rage and agony, blindly lashing out because someone they loved was no longer with them. Rumi did not blame them for feeling that way, but it did not make the experiences any easier.
Thinking back, Rumi was unsure why she had decided to call out to Midoriya.
She had been on her way home via rooftop when she spotted a man being held up at gunpoint and forced into a dark alley.
After carefully landing on a roof that overlooked the alley, Rumi had watched with interest as the mugger was disarmed in a textbook example of self-defense.
Only when the man had walked out of the alley and into the glow of a dim streetlight did she finally see that the mystery man was in fact her grouchy former liaison.
Then it had simply been a decision on whether or not to talk to the guy. At first Rumi was simply going to be on her way, but something inside her had compelled her to call out to the green-haired government agent.
She hadn't planned for the conversation to go beyond some playful teasing, but for some reason hearing the man talk in such a bitter and defeated voice made her irrationally angry.
Why was the guy being such a wimp? When they had first met Rumi had felt something in her chest as he had talked back to her. It was a strange feeling that she could not quite place, so she had simply chalked it up to the enjoyment of meeting someone who was not afraid to speak their mind.
But for some reason it was like Rumi's emotions took over when the guy talked to her and her normally quick wit just went flying out the window.
Maybe it was because of how emotionally raw his voice was. Like when he started to lose his composure and speak his true feelings.
The second Rumi had landed behind Midoriya she had smelled the booze on him, so he was probably already a little more talkative than he usually was.
Still, she had experienced many bad interactions in the past and always managed to stay calm and collected.
But for some reason when Rumi had looked into Midoriya's glaring eyes all she saw was pain.
Not the fresh and noticeable kind of pain, but the kind of pain that had hardened and festered over many years, turning into a bitter cynicism that never quite went away.
Rumi knew that kind of pain all too well.
Scratching her head absentmindedly, Rumi looked around as she wondered what she should do.
After a minute of silently reviewing her options Rumi groaned in irritation and picked Midoriya up. It was a little awkward because of the height difference, but Rumi managed to sling the cute drunk over her shoulder so that she could jump easily.
"This is probably a terrible idea…" Rumi mumbled to herself as she leapt to a nearby rooftop and began to make her way back to her apartment.