Life is Simple, Love is Not (Izuku x Miruko)

Chapter 55: End of the Line

"The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world."

- G-Man, Half-Life 2

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rumi knelt in the near total darkness of the dusty abandoned train tunnel and listened intently. So far everything was going to plan. Hawks had purposefully put out a rumor about several heroes defecting to the PLF and confirmed a few days later that the Ministry of Defense had gotten wind of the rumor. Now all that was left to do was to wait for Zulu team to show up.

Hawks' plan was fairly straightforward. To capture Izuku and Oscar, the heroes needed to make sure that the Ministry of Defense was clueless as to what was going on. This meant that the heroes needed to do two things. Cut off Zulu team's communications, and prevent any aerial surveillance from spotting them. The abandoned trainyard and its labyrinth of underground service and transportation tunnels would negate any aerial surveillance, and Hawks had somehow procured a military-grade radio jammer that would reduce any communication device in its radius to a static-spewing piece of junk. Of course that meant that the heroes could not use communication devices either, but there were other means of communicating with each other than through electronics.

So now all that needed to be done was to spring the trap. The four heroes had each staked out a different area, and the plan was to divide and conquer. Endeavor was in the northern tunnels, Best Jeanist was in the western tunnels, Hawks was in the eastern tunnels, and Rumi was in the southern tunnels. The heroes had no way of knowing where Zulu team would begin their search, so that is why it was decided to split up and cover all the possible routes. Once Izuku and Oscar were captured, the heroes would use the train tunnels to covertly transport their prisoners to a nearby safehouse.

Rumi was broken out of her thoughts by the faint sound of helicopter rotors getting closer. Normally she would have been excited and eager to get the mission started, but today all she was filled with was anxiety. The prospect of possibly coming to blows with Izuku terrified her, not only because she did not want to hurt her soulmate, but also because she had no way of knowing whether Izuku would actually try to kill her. She was almost certain that such a thing would not happen, but a cynical whisper in the back of her mind kept dredging up scenarios where Izuku was too far gone to know who was a friend and who was a foe.

Not to mention the fact that Izuku used to specialize in killing powerful quirk users.

Her ears twitching slightly, Rumi pushed the negative thoughts from her mind and forced herself to focus on what was happening in the present. A few moments after the helicopter had arrived it left, meaning that Zulu team was now on the ground and on the hunt. Hiding in an alcove in the shadowy darkness, Rumi waited patiently as the sound of footsteps slowly got closer. In the distance, three shadows with red eyes slowly approached.

Rumi cursed slightly, of course the fuckers brought night-vision goggles.

Making sure no part of her body was visible, Rumi eavesdropped on the trio of agents warily making their way down the tunnel.

"Confirmed, radio is being jammed." One of the armed and armored soldiers said robotically.

"Wilco." A familiar voice said coldly. "It's too late to retreat, continue as planned. Eyes up, we are probably walking into a trap."

"Shit shit shit shit!" Rumi silently cursed.

There was no doubt in her mind that the leader of the trio was Izuku. Even through the mask she recognized her boyfriend's clinically cold voice that he used whenever he was focused on a mission.