Izuku frowned as he leaned against the wall of Rumi's workout room while the rabbit hero lifted a set of dumbbells in each hand. He was dressed in his usual standard government black suit while his partner wore a pair of black nylon workout shorts and a plain white tank top. It had been a few days since the incident with Cassandra and Oscar, but it was still very fresh in Izuku's mind.

"So you're telling me that you owe Oscar a favor?" The green haired agent said in disbelief.

Pumping iron like a pro, Rumi rolled her eyes as she responded. "Yeah I do. Before you start lecturing me you should know that I was desperate to find you. Sasaki and I had been trying to find you for days with no luck, so I was gonna take any help I could get."

Izuku was silent for a moment as he let Rumi's words sink in. If he was being honest, he was actually very flattered that his partner had been so worried about him. It was a strange feeling knowing that someone cared about you, but not strange in a bad way. The last person he could remember caring about him so much was his mom, and frankly she was the sole reason Izuku had not gone off the deep end as a quirkless kid.

"If she were still alive I think she would have liked Rumi." Izuku silently thought to himself.

Remembering that he was supposed to be lecturing his partner, Izuku wiped the small smile off his face and made a show of shaking his head in disappointment. "Still, I think Oscar was taking advantage of the situation and was simply looking for an excuse to have a pro-hero owe him a favor. The problem is we have no idea what his goal is." He stated with slight frustration. "If he had just been a regular villain or criminal it would not be so bad, but the guy somehow became a fucking CIA agent."

Dropping her weights to the floor with a loud thump, Rumi walked over to a weight bench and began loading the barbell up with an impressive amount of metal weight disks.

"Personally I think the CIA let him join on purpose." She said bluntly as she laid down on the bench and grabbed the barbell resting above her. "The guy is exactly the kind of scumbag you send to do dirty work and not ask any questions."

Stroking his chin in thought, Izuku nodded in agreement as Rumi began to bench press her weights.

"That isn't too far-fetched now that you point it out." He agreed. "The big question is why was Oscar sent all the way to Japan? The whole thing reeks of a cover-up. Oscar's CIA handlers probably underestimated him and he somehow got leverage over them while doing their dirty work."

"Sounds about right." Rumi grunted as she lifted the heavy barbell. "You said he got reassigned, do you know where?"

Izuku shook his head. "No, after I sent my second report about Oscar to the director I tried to snoop around but nothing came up. My hope is they stuck him in a cubicle somewhere so he could drown in paperwork."

Setting the barbell back down into it's rack with a clang, Rumi sat up and used the edge of her shirt to wipe the sweat from her forehead.

"I hope you are right Izuku." She said. "Changing the topic, I got an email from the principal of UA yesterday."

Arching an eyebrow, Izuku pushed off the wall, grabbed a plastic water bottle off the floor, and handed it to the caramel-skinned woman.

"What was it about?" He asked curiously.

Taking several big gulps from the plastic water bottle, Rumi shrugged uncaringly. "Something about giving a presentation to some students. I was just gonna ignore it like I usually do when I get invites from schools and stuff. I am not good with kids, and I have better things to do than spend a day babysitting a bunch of brats."

"Wait, you have gotten requests like that before?" Izuku said incredulously. "UA is one of the best hero schools in the world, it really says something about your skills if they keep trying to contact you."

Smiling happily, Rumi nodded as she stood up. "Yeah well I am Miruko after all." She said proudly. "I think it is just because I never got involved with all that student intern bullshit. Endeavor and Hawks might like dragging kids around with them, but I dont need some inexperienced twerps slowing me down."

Izuku nodded in understanding. "Yeah that makes sense. I don't think I could work properly if I had an intern shadowing me all day."

Rumi's smile changed to a cheeky grin as she balanced her water bottle on one finger. "Plus I am not exactly family friendly. If a kid was my intern they would probably go back to school swearing like a sailor."

Chuckling in amusement at the mental image of a pure and naive student swearing loudly, Izuku could not help but agree. "Yeah that sounds like something that would happen."

Noticing Rumi slightly shift her balance on her feet, Izuku suppressed a grin knowing what was going to happen next.

Like a striking cobra, the rabbit hero lashed out with a punch aimed at Izuku's chin. Already two steps ahead, Izuku leaned back slightly and let Rumi's fist barely graze his chin as he drew his pistol out of its concealed holster. Grabbing Rumi's extended arm and wrenching it to the side, Izuku stuck his pistol against the woman's stomach and pulled the trigger. With a loud click the slide of the pistol slid backwards to reveal that it was not loaded.

"Bang." Izuku said with barely concealed pride.

Groaning in frustration, Rumi stepped back and huffed in annoyance. "I swear Izuku, it is scary how fast your reflexes are."

Sliding his empty sidearm back into the concealed holster on his hip, Izuku shook his head in disagreement. "You telegraph your moves too much." He said bluntly. "Plus you are holding yourself back. If you had attacked me at full power it would literally be impossible for me to react fast enough."

The seemingly random attack was part of a game that Izuku had concocted with Rumi. To help both of them hone their skills and keep their minds sharp, the two had decided that Rumi could attack Izuku once a day, but only in the training room. So far Rumi had not managed to successfully attack her partner, the green-haired man proving to be very adept at processing movement and information with almost inhuman accuracy and speed.

Izuku had also decided to keep his pistol on him at all times. With the PLF cells becoming more active it was a necessary precaution that many field agents had started accepting. Normally his sidearm was loaded with non-lethal rubber bullets, but he also kept a spare magazine on him that was loaded with hollow point bullets in case lethal force was needed.

"You have said that every time Izuku." Rumi said with slight disappointment. "I am not holding myself back that much, you just keep denying that you might actually be better than someone with a quirk."

Rolling his eyes, Izuku walked over to the training room door and held it open for his partner. "Let's just agree to disagree." He said with a bit of forced positivity. "The only way we would know for sure is if you attacked me for real, and we both know that is something you would not even consider doing."

Rumi looked like she was about to continue the argument, but eventually she let out a heavy sigh and held up her hands in defeat. "Whatever you say Izuku." She said in disappointment.

As the two walked out to the kitchen, Izuku spoke up.

"I think you should at least hear the principal out." He said honestly. "The week has been pretty slow villain-wise, and the intelligence division is still working on figuring out the location of the PLF cell the shapeshifter was part of. You have plenty of time to spare and I have a lot of paperwork to catch up on."

Rumi smirked as she carelessly tossed the half-empty water bottle on the kitchen counter and lightly punched Izuku's arm. "Oh no you don't Izuku." She said cheekily. "Anywhere I go, you go. You and I are a package deal, and there is no way I am going to let you go that easily."

Blushing slightly and doing his best to keep his thoughts strictly professional, Izuku awkwardly cleared his throat before speaking. "W-well I appreciate the thought Rumi, b-but I am just a regular Ministry of Defense field agent. I doubt I would be able to contribute anything useful. I mean it is UA, they want a pro-hero teaching their students. Not some random no-name field agent like me."

Pulling her phone out of her pocket, Rumi opened her email app with one hand while she dug around in her large refrigerator with the other. "You know what Izuku, I think I am gonna accept the invitation just so I can have an excuse to bring you along. They don't want pro-heroes, they want people with actual experience. Which you have plenty of. I doubt the principal will mind."

Grabbing a small bag of carrot slices, Rumi closed the refrigerator door with her hip and nodded her head towards the couch. "Wait on the couch while I get changed. I just had an idea."

Confused, Izuku walked over to the large couch as Rumi walked off to her room while humming softly to herself.

Not one to be lazy, Izuku pulled out his smartphone and began scrolling through the various daily reports in his inbox. Most of them were the usual departmental junk. Like what the cafeteria meal of the day was, and a reminder about the inter-departmental baseball game later that month. However, one report from the intelligence division was addressed directly to him, and the message was simply titled "PLF Cell Update" in bold letters.

Opening the message, Izuku read the contents eagerly like a student reading his report card. It seemed that the shapeshifting attacker had been very forthcoming with information regarding the cell he was a part of. The main concern the interrogators had was whether the information was accurate or not, as the shapeshifter had been in a very distressed state during the questioning.

The entire interrogation, the shapeshifter had repeatedly asked for assurance that he would never meet Oscar again.

Izuku frowned as he skimmed the rest of the report then closed the message. While the overall result of the shapeshifter's capture was positive, the mere fact that Oscar had such a terrifying effect on people did not bode well for anyone.

Hearing footsteps approaching, Izuku put away his phone and waited for Rumi to join him.

Expecting a simple conversation, Izuku was thrown for a loop as his partner jumped onto the couch and leaned into him with a cheeky smile on her face. She had changed into her hero outfit and her hair looked like it had been freshly washed, as Izuku could smell the faint scent of a floral shampoo.

"Uhh...aren't you a little close?" Izuku said awkwardly as he tried to pull away from the attractive pro-hero clinging to him.

Keeping herself glued to Izuku's side, Rumi shook her head. "Nope! Stop trying to run away ya wimp, I need to be close to you so I can get a good picture."

Before Izuku could reply with another question, Rumi whipped out her smartphone and held it out in front of her.

"Alright, smile Izuku!" She commanded cheerily as she smiled brightly.

Not following his partner's instructions, Izuku frowned as he tried to ignore the softness pressing against his arm. Before he could get a word out, Rumi had already taken a picture of the two of them together.

"Rumi what the fuck are you doing?" Izuku said in exasperated annoyance.

Humming happily to herself, Rumi kept herself pressed against her partner as she began typing into her phone. "Getting you some exposure. You keep going on and on about how you are some generic nobody, so I am going to change that. I leave most of my social media stuff to Sasaki, but I occasionally will post stuff myself."

Grumbling unhappily, Izuku crossed his arms and resigned himself to his fate. "It would have been nice if you had told me what you were doing. I don't really appreciate being used like a prop."

Rumi froze and her rabbit ears drooped slightly as she glanced up at the annoyed man she was leaning against.

"S-sorry…" She said quietly. "I just...I just wanted to make you feel better. I hate it when you talk badly about yourself and I got it into my head that this would change the way you feel about yourself."

She then sighed sadly and put her phone down. "If you really don't want me to do this then I won't. Sorry…"

Izuku sighed as he watched his partner's ears droop in obvious disappointment. There was a long silence, and right as Rumi was about to pull away he spoke quietly.

"I appreciate the thought Rumi." He said softly. "Honestly I do, I just don't like having stuff sprung on me without warning." He paused before continuing. "If...if you really want to do this I won't stop you. Just please tell me what you are going to do next time."

Perking up, Rumi looked up at her partner with a relieved smile on her face. "Thanks for being nice about it Izuku. Here, you can take the picture if you want." She then held out her phone for him to take.

Gently taking the offered smartphone, Izuku stood up and pulled his partner up with him.

"Alright, if we are going to do this the picture needs to look professional." He said seriously. "I don't want to give people the wrong impression that we are more than partners."

For a second the happy smile on Rumi's face was replaced by a sad frown, but before Izuku could say anything the smile returned.

"You are no fun Izuku." She said teasingly as she straightened up and let go of his arm.

Rolling his eyes, Izuku held the phone out and took a quick picture of the two of them standing next to each other. Handing the smartphone back to his partner, Izuku fought to keep the blush off his cheeks as he awkwardly cleared his throat.

"T-there. You can post that." He said quickly. "I better not hear any weird rumors because of this."

Snorting in amusement, Rumi took her phone back and began typing. "Yeah yeah I got it." She replied dismissively. "Just gonna title it me and mister buzzkill."

"Then after you do that we can talk about this UA visit." Izuku said seriously. "If I am going to go with you I need to know exactly what I am getting myself into."

Perking up with excitement, Rumi flashed her partner a brilliant smile that made his heart flutter.

"You got it Izuku! I promise you won't regret this."