Thorn Princess

A/N: Tried something a little different with this chapter, perspective swapping heh. Hope its fun!

Oh by the way, made the executive decision to change Nico Yaoyorozu to Robin Yaoyorozu, both in this chapter and every other chapter before. Decided Sunk Cost Fallacy wasn't a thing and went ahead and made the switch.

-x-X-x-

His phone rings and Izuku doesn't hesitate to answer. After all, he recognizes the ringtone.

"Yo, bro!"

Smiling slightly, Izuku steps off to the side and leans against a nearby wall.

"Tomura. What's up?"

"Well… we might have a little bit of a situation. You remember that girl you had me look into? The older sister of your current beau?"

Izuku blinks at that. Yor Yaoyorozu. Huh, he'd almost forgotten about her somehow. That was… surprising. After all, his one encounter with Momo's older sister had been somewhat… disturbing. And yet, besides setting Tomura on the case of discovering more about her sometime ago, he'd never followed up. As a matter of fact, hadn't it been too long for someone of Tomura's skillset?

"… I'm surprised it's taken this long for you to get back to me, Tomura."

"Heh, yeah. But there's a good reason for that bro, promise. I looked into her just like you had me and shit got really, really weird. I mean, at first it was just normal weird… but then it got weirder."

Izuku purses his lips at hearing that, before quickly coming to a decision.

"I'm coming over. This doesn't sound like the sort of thing that should be talked about on the phone."

"Alright bro. See you soon."

And indeed he would, because Izuku pushes off the wall, turns into an empty alley, and steps through a portal that swirls into existence there a moment later.

-x-X-x-

"Ms. Forger! Please make sure that Aisle Five is freshly stocked when you have the chance!"

"Ah. Yes, of course sir."

Momo could hardly believe what she was seeing, but considering she'd been watching for… sometime now, it wasn't like she could truly deny it anymore. Still, this was just so… weird!

She'd decided that Yor was her next capture target. And then she'd decided that she was going to get to the bottom of where her big sister went on her mysterious outings, fully intending to use the knowledge to confront Yor and get her off-balance so Momo could seduce and tame her big sister as a sacrifice to Izuku Midoriya! A perverse plan? Yes. But Momo didn't care about things like that anymore.

Still… even though she'd found out exactly what Yor got up to whenever she was away from home… it was so mind boggling that Momo had yet to actually confront the older girl! After all, of all the things she thought Yor might have been up to… never in a million years did Momo think she would find out that her big sister was a simple shelf stocker at some big grocery store!

It was just… wild! Absurd! Yor Yaoyorozu was part of one of the richest families in the entirety of Japan, if not the world. Yaoyorozu International was a MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY, for pete's sake! And yet here they were. Yor moving to Aisle Five with a cart filled with product in order to begin restocking the shelves, and Momo in disguise, watching her surreptitiously from a distance while pretending to be a shopper with a cart of her own.

Honestly, it just didn't make any sense. Was this what Yor wanted? To live a normal life? She'd heard what Yor's manager called her big sister. 'Ms. Forger'. Seriously? That was Yor's cover story? That was her fake name? Yor… Forger?

Even if it rolled off the tongue, it was kind of a dumb cover, right? Forger just made whoever thought about it think of 'forgery'! it was really, really obvious!

And yet… Yor seems content. Not happy, maybe. But… she's not unhappy either. She almost seems satisfied, but the key word there is almost. And seems. Momo knows her big sister. O-Or… she thought she did! If Yor were truly happy doing this, she would be smiling right now! But then, who could possibly muster up a smile while stocking shelves of all things?!

Part of Momo wants to go over there right this moment, rip off the wig and other parts of her disguise that she'd manifested with her Quirk, and demand Yor tell her what was going on. But as she studies her big sister… she stays where she is. Because there's something tingling in the back of her mind. Something telling her that this? This isn't the full story…

-x-X-x-

Looking at the pictures and documents Tomura had procured for him, Izuku furrows his brow in baffled confusion.

"… She's working undercover as a shelf stocker at a grocery store using the name Yor Forger? Why? It's not even a store her family owns…"

"Yeah bro, like I said, it got weird fast. I was able to find this stuff out in like… a day to be honest. Not even hard. Like the prologue level of a game, ya know what I'm saying? Her mom set it up for her at her request, far as I could tell. Gave her the fake identity, got her the fake job. But it didn't add up. Something was still fishy. Like I said… prologue shit."

Setting aside Tomura's insistence on equating everything to video games, Izuku slowly nods in agreement. His adoptive brother isn't wrong, after all. It was one thing for Yor to be the black sheep of the Yaoyorozu Family. Momo was the heiress because Yor didn't want to inherit. But obviously their mother still loved her eldest enough to want what was best for her, and to want whatever Yor wanted for herself.

So when Yor had asked Robin to come up with a cover for her so she could work a normal job and see what it was like to live a normal life, the CEO of Yaoyorozu International had apparently acquiesced. It even made sense that she would get Yor a job at a store that their Family Company didn't have any stake in. Far less likely that Yor would be recognized, after all.

And yet, it still didn't add up. Because Yor hadn't felt like a young woman who had crumpled under the pressure of family expectations and just wanted to live a normal life. No, she hadn't felt like that at all.

"That's why I didn't come to you with this shit immediately. Instead, I kept digging. And that's when I ran into the much weirder shit."

Slapping down another file onto the table, Tomura flips it open. Izuku's eyes go to the pictures instead of the words first of course, and he can't help but raise an eyebrow and let out a low whistle at what he sees. Or rather, who he sees.

"Heh. Yeah bro. Now we're getting into the actual GAME."

-x-X-x-

… Momo was glad she hadn't confronted her big sister back at the grocery store. She was glad she'd listened to her gut saying that there was something more to all of this. Because the fact was, there WAS something more to all of this. Momo had watched Yor work as 'Yor Forger' for hours. She'd had to leave the grocery store and change disguises half a dozen times to make it look like she was several different customers.

Fortunately, she had her credit card on her, and also there was a foodbank that took donations less than a block away. She was pretty sure they were starting to get weirded out by the six similar but different-looking women who'd all come by and dropped off bags full of freshly bought groceries from the same store throughout the day, but it wasn't them that Momo had to fool so honestly she wasn't too worried about their reactions.

Still, watching Yor throughout her shift had not revealed anything new to Momo. When her big sister had finally clocked out for the day, she'd initially considered it all a bust, and planned to confront Yor when they both finally got home to the estate. But… Yor hadn't gone back to the estate. Instead, she'd taken a different path altogether and it had taken all of Momo's burgeoning skill as a Pro Hero in Training to keep up with her.

Eventually, Yor had turned into a small apartment building, disappearing into an apartment on the third floor. Momo had immediately made her way to the roof and hidden herself there, having this strange sinking feeling in her gut. Which was why… well, when Yor finally stepped out onto the roof, Momo was there in her hiding spot and got to see her sister in all of her transformed glory.

Back in the grocery store, 'Yor Forger' had been a rather plain looking woman. Rather, it wasn't like Momo's sister had disguised herself overly much… but she'd clearly found ways to mask her more striking Yaoyorozu features. She'd worn this big pink headband in her hair that, along with her green apron and store uniform, had made her look more like a stay at home mom or something, rather than the bright and vivacious young woman Momo knew her to be.

She was still beautiful of course, Momo couldn't deny that, but it was definitely far more understated. Which made sense, Momo had been forced to admit. If Yor didn't want to be recognized as a Yaoyorozu, then she'd have to find ways to mask her natural beauty.

But now… now, Momo doesn't even know where to begin with Yor! The woman who has stepped out onto the roof of the apartment building looks absolutely nothing like the woman who had just worked for hours in a grocery store of all places. But nor does she look anything like Momo's big sister, either! The Yor she knew would never dress so… scandalously!

Right now, Yor is wearing an incredibly tight, form-fitting black dress that exposes both her shoulders and cleavage. She also has on a choker with a rose motif wrapped around her neck. Meanwhile, the front of her dress' skirt only goes down to mid-thigh, while the back reaches just below her knees. She's also clad in a pair of black thigh-high heeled boots and black fingerless gloves!

She's still wearing a headband, much like back in the store… however, its far thinner than the pink monstrosity she'd had on while stocking shelves. It's also golden, with a rose and two small spikes on either side nestled above her ears.

Even her hair style has changed, modified from what she'd worn as a shelf stocker into a far more elaborate updo with her hair done in braids that wrap around her head. She looks… Momo wants to say she looks beautiful. But it's more than that. Staring at her big sister, Momo finds that only one word really describes Yor in this moment.

Dangerous. She looks… dangerous. Hell, she looks like an entirely different woman, really. This is NOT the Yor Yaoyorozu that Momo knows. But neither is this the Yor Forger that Momo has been watching for the past several hours. No, this is someone else entirely. This is someone new. This is…

-x-X-x-

"The Thorn Princess."

Izuku rolls the title over his tongue, even as he reads the file that Tomura has put together. The image of Yor Yaoyorozu in her black halter-style dress mid-leap is quite… provocative if he's being honest. Those weapons she's holding look very dangerous and deadly too, for all that they seem like nothing more than an overly large pair of golden needles.

Still, if a normal-sized needle could be used to thread garments or even apply stitches to torn flesh… what could needles of those size do in the hands of someone who knew how to use them? A shiver goes down Izuku's spine, even as he reads about the Thorn Princess.

"Yeah bro, it's pretty crazy isn't it? Even the old man didn't have much information on the subject. He actually thought that the Garden disbanded like a century ago, can you believe it? Man, if he were here now, he'd sure be eating crow, bahaha!"

Izuku smiles wanly at that. He knows that Tomura doesn't mean anything by bringing up All for One and the fact that Izuku had… killed him. Still, at the same time, Tomura was right. If only All for One were here right now, because apparently they'd uncovered something from his time that was still alive and kicking to this day without anyone being the wiser.

The Garden Assassins Syndicate. Otherwise simply known as 'Garden'. According to what they knew, it was an unofficial paramilitary organization that had originally risen up to purge traitors from Japan under the orders of a Shadow Government. All for One had supposedly had some clashes with them back in the day, before managing to negotiate some sort of ceasefire.

However, as far as All for One had known, the Garden was supposed to have ultimately disbanded a long time ago. About a century, like Tomura had said. But this… this evidence was seemingly irrefutable.

Momo's big sister was an assassin who had to take her missions from somewhere. And the rose motif she had going on matched up with ancient symbols that All for One had described in his notes about the Garden. It was possible that the 'Thorn Princess' was acting alone. Or maybe was part of a very small team who were trying to revive the ancient, long dead organization.

But… it was equally possible that the Garden had simply survived where everyone thought they'd failed. Perhaps a regime change in the Japanese government had prompted them to go to ground, or a failed purge had left them to fake the demise of their organization. Either way, Izuku didn't truly believe that this was a case of copycats, not really. He wasn't that lucky.

Though… in a way, if this were the actual Garden, he WOULD be lucky. Because his father had left a way to contact them if he so chose. The Garden was led by someone with the title 'Shopkeeper'. And if All for One's notes were to be believed, Izuku could get into contact with this Shopkeeper… if he wanted to.

Staring at the sight of Yor Yaoyorozu as the Thorn Princess midleap, Izuku considers his options carefully. At the moment, it didn't seem like he and the Garden had any issues with one another. But at the same time, he didn't know what they might know about him. It was possible they'd thought All for One and his organization just as dead as All for One thought they were, at least after All Might nearly killed him.

But if they were keeping tabs on Izuku… then he needed to know. As soon as possible. Man, and what was he going to tell Momo about all of this? Honestly, it was probably for the best that Momo didn't know what was going on with her sister for the moment. He would wait until the dust settled to take his girlfriend aside and let her in on the secret.

Until then, it was better if she stayed in the dark.

-x-X-x-

It happens so fast that Momo very much nearly dies. One moment Yor is stepping towards the roof's edge and Momo is planning to slip out of her hiding place to follow her big sister wherever she's going. The next… the next, Yor is in front of her and a massive, deadly-looking golden needle is within a hair's breadth of piercing Momo's eye.

Only… it doesn't because Yor stops herself at the last second, staring at Momo in wide-eyed surprise, her red gaze filled with disbelief.

"… Momo? What are you doing here?"

Momo just whimpers, not even sure where to begin.