Chapter 59: Answers
A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
Momo gets some explanations~
-x-X-x-
He can’t, he realizes. He can’t have Yor explain what’s going on here and rely on her discretion to know what NOT to say. That’s the plain and simple truth of the matter. Based on all of his interactions with the Thorn Princess so far, as well as all of his observations… when it came to social situations, she couldn’t passably manage discretion even in a life or death situation.
It made him wonder how the hell a woman like Yor Yaoyorozu managed to embody the life of an assassin of significant renown like the Thorn Princess. It was like she was two different people, really. One a cold-hearted killer, the other an oblivious young woman who didn’t understand basic social norms. But Izuku supposed those two things weren’t quite as far apart as they first seemed.
Letting out a sigh and running a hand through his hair, Izuku just shakes his head… before a moment later nodding to Momo.
“You deserve some answers, Momo. Untie yourself and let’s have this conversation at the table at least, please.”
Still blushing at getting caught out on the whole ‘not entirely restrained the whole time’ situation, Momo easily frees herself again as Izuku moves away from the closet and over to the table in the small apartment’s kitchen. Fortunately there are three chairs around it, with its fourth side pressed up against the wall.
Taking a seat, he watches as the Yaoyorozu sisters both approach and hesitantly sit down as well. Biting her lower lip, Momo huffs after a moment.
“I should hope that I deserve some answers, Izuku. I am your girlfriend after all. O-Or was that all just a trick to keep me from finding out what you were doing with my sister?”
Hey now, why did Momo’s tone sound so suggestive as she gives Yor a meaningful glance? No, he doesn’t need an answer to that. He knows what sort of man Momo thinks he is. And it’s pretty close to the man he actually is as well.
Yor, meanwhile, gasps and covers her mouth with her hands.
“G-Girlfriend?! But you said you were just classmates and that its normal for classmates to engage in sexual intimacy!”
Izuku’s palm meets his forehead and his decision to handle the explanations is further reinforced as Momo gives her sister a curious look. Letting out a sigh, Izuku places both his hands palm down on the table.
“Alright. Cards on the table then. For starters… Momo, I did not know that your sister was the Thorn Princess until a day ago. And I did not know she’d tied you up and stuffed you in a closet until about five minutes ago.”
Momo huffs and crosses her arms over her chest for a moment… before sharply nodding.
“I believe you.”
When Izuku raises an eyebrow in surprise, she blushes and uncrosses her arms to press her index fingers together.
“I-I mean… I have to, don’t I? A-After everything… I’m yours, Izuku. So it’s not like you even really need to l-lie to me. So… I trust you, no matter what.”
Cute. But probably not the time. Yor, meanwhile, is boring holes into the side of Izuku’s head as this happens, not even bothering to look in her sister’s direction. It takes Izuku a moment to realize why the red-eyed woman is staring at him so intensely. Letting out a groan, he rolls his eyes as he looks over at Yor.
“And yes Yor, I lied to you. It is not normal for classmates to engage in sexual intimacy. Momo and I are… much closer than that. Boyfriend and girlfriend, like she said.”
Yor’s eyes narrow dangerously at his admission of guilt and Izuku feels her killing intent rising once again. He wonders briefly if he’s going to have to dodge her like he did back at the Flower Shop but in this much smaller apartment… but then Yor abruptly turns to Momo.
“Has he hurt you at all, Momo?”
Ah. Izuku understands why Yor is asking her sister that, but he’s not worried. Until Momo blushes hard and wiggles in her seat a little bit.
“W-Well…”
His palm meets his forehead again and Izuku groans as he’s forced to correct her.
“I have not knowingly hurt you in any way that you did not enjoy. Right, Momo?”
Biting her lower lip for a second, Momo finally nods.
“Y-Yes. That’s true.”
Yor looks confused by that, as to be expected. But before she can demand clarification, Momo leans forward, eyes darting between the two of them.
“B-But then what’s going on between the two of you, exactly?! If you just found out about her, then why did she bring you here to deal with me? And what even is a Thorn Princess anyways?!”
Ah right. As Yor gives him a pointed, plaintive look, Izuku winces. He’d let the cat out of the bag on that one, hadn’t he?
“Yor is THE Thorn Princess… and what she is, it turns out… is an assassin.”
Both sisters’ eyes widen in disbelief at that. Momo because she hadn’t expected that even after everything that had happened so far and Yor because she clearly hadn’t expected Izuku to just blab to her sister. But at this point, there was no point in lying to Momo. Well, mostly anyways. There were still some secrets Izuku felt he had to keep from the young woman. Maybe he’d tell her the whole truth one day. But for now…
“Technically, Yor is a vigilante, Momo. She operates outside of the law to take down the worst of the worst scum. Isn’t that right, Yor?”
Nodding emphatically, the red-eyed woman looks to her younger sister with an imploring expression on her face.
“Y-Yes! The Shopkeeper chooses my targets and they’re always the worst weeds, Momo! Don’t worry, I only prune those who make the world a less beautiful place!”
Once again, he’s glad that he’s taken charge of this explanation because the look on Momo’s face makes it clear she doesn’t know what to make of that in the slightest.
“Yor’s superior and handler is a man known only as the Shopkeeper. They have this whole… garden motif going on, basically. Still, the important thing is that Yor kills bad guys. And the reason I know about her… is because I am also a vigilante.”
Again, Izuku gets wide-eyed looks from both Yaoyorozu women. Once again, they’re because of disbelief and incredulity respectively. But he’s not sure what Yor was expecting him to say, really. He’d told her and the Shopkeeper that he didn’t intend to follow in his father’s footsteps nor did he intend to try and kill All Might. He wasn’t a villain. And sure, the League of Villains was sort of a thing, but it wasn’t HIS thing. That was all Tomura’s project.
As far as anything he did with the Thorn Princess and the Shopkeeper was concerned, Izuku liked to think of himself as a vigilante more than anything. Yes, he was acting outside the law since he wasn’t a proper Pro Hero yet, but to deal with monsters like Stain, well, that was just fine wasn’t it?
“You… Izuku, you can’t be a vigilante! You’re risking your position at UA if you go out and fight crime without your license! You have to stop right now!”
Chuckling softly, Izuku shakes his head.
“I actually haven’t done any direct vigilantism yet. Put bluntly, I have an organization of my own… sort of a counterpart to Yor and the Shopkeeper’s organization. We do the things in the shadows that the public heroes can’t do. Sometimes when your hands are tied by red tape… the best possible thing you can do is cut that red tape, Momo.”
Momo looks uncertain of how to respond to that for a moment. From the look of things, her devotion towards Izuku and her feelings of sisterly love towards her sister are running smack dab into her morals and her Lawful Good nature. After all, a girl like Momo didn’t join up with a place like UA and then become the Class Representative of a Heroics Class on top of it without believing in the System.
Unfortunately, now she was being forced to confront the fact that the System was corrupt… and she was struggling, not least because of who Izuku and Yor were to her. Finally, squirming in her seat, Momo lets out a low sigh.
“I… I see. I-If that’s the way it has to be… then that’s the way it has to be.”
Giving him a bright smile, Momo reaches across the table and grabs Izuku by the hands.
“I said it before, Izuku. I trust you. I’m yours.”
He hadn’t realized just how far long he and Momo had come to be honest. Sure, he really appreciated Momo and at this point she was basically his right hand woman when it came to UA and the other girls of his class. Both Rumi and Nana had seemed like potential shoe-ins for that role, but it was Momo who had come out on top recently. Izuku loved both his fuck-bunny and the last gift his father gave him, don’t get him wrong, but Momo Yaoyorozu… she was the closest thing to a partner he’d ever had.
Still…
“Moooou! That’s so cute! Ah, Momo has found true love! Yay!”
There’s still the elephant in the room. With a squee, Yor Yaoyorozu, still dressed as the Thorn Princess, reaches over and glomps her little sister, hugging Momo tightly and making the other girl squeak in response.
“Eep! Ack! T-Too… tight… Yor!”
Only once she gasps out her sister’s name from within the bone crushing hug does Yor pull back with a blush, sitting back down in her chair.
“A-Ahem. Apologies.”
Hands in her lap, she at least has the good grace to look appropriately chagrined. Momo just gives her big sister an exasperated look for a second before turning back to him.
“So then… if you two work for clandestine organizations, how exactly did you meet?”
This is getting closer to things Izuku doesn’t necessarily want to tell Momo just yet. But they’re also things Yor already knows, so it’s probably okay to go up to the limit of what the elder Yaoyorozu knows and then hold off from there.
“My father. He… headed the organization I now run before me. He had contacts with the organization that Yor is part of and after meeting your sister in your family’s mansion, I had my organization look her up.”
Momo blinks and furrows her brow at that.
“Why did you do that?”
Yor has the good grace to freeze, giving him a wide-eyed hopeful look like she expects him not to throw her under the bus. And for half a second, Izuku considers holding back the information… but there’s no point. Momo already knows what Yor does as the Thorn Princess. So lying about this would be silly.
“Well, after you and I had sex for the first time, she confronted me outside of your bedroom and threatened to kill me. Given my upbringing and training, I know the difference between a normal shovel talk and someone who can actually back up their words, Momo. So that was the moment when I started looking into her. Once I found out about her secret identity and connection to an organization my father once had dealings with, I went ahead and reached out to the Shopkeeper through the appropriate channels.”
Actually… as Yor shrinks in her chair and Momo gives her older sister a disappointed look, Izuku squeezes his girlfriend’s hands, pulling her attention back to him.
“Though that does bring to mind a question… what were you doing hunting for answers about Yor, Momo? All this time, you didn’t seem to care to look into her background or find out what she was doing… but suddenly you tracked her down to this place and got caught red handed by her? Why? What made you decide to go after her in the first place?”
Strangely enough, it’s Momo’s turn to go bright red. Izuku isn’t quite sure why, other than that he can tell from her face, her heart rate, and her squirming that she’s both embarrassed… and aroused? But Momo just shakes her head.
“N-Never mind that for now. First… if you’re both working for different organizations, why are you together NOW?!”
Izuku grunts, giving Yor a quick glance. He might be able to pass off the idea that Yor had dragged him here specifically to handle Momo… but no. He didn’t feel a need to lie to Momo about this.
“We’re working together now, the two of us. On… a mission.”
Momo pauses and to Izuku’s surprise, gets more aroused for some reason.
“O-Oh? A mission, you say? Working… closely together?”
Why is she starting to pant? Wait, does she think he’s using mission as a euphemism for fucking her sister? Well he’s not!
“Yes, Momo. The Shopkeeper wants to test my mettle and conviction, likely because I’m still so young. So he’s asked me to help the Thorn Princess with her next mission… handling the Hero Killer Stain.”
In an instant, Momo’s perverted fantasies are deflated by Izuku’s no-nonsense tone. She looks disappointed for half a moment… before her eyes widen and she grows panicked.
“What?! The Hero Killer Stain?! You can’t! It’s too dangerous! He’s killed dozens at this point!”
Not quite that many just yet, but those he’d left alive were too injured to continue as Pro Heroes anyways, so Izuku doesn’t bother arguing semantics.
“That’s right. Which is why we’re going to take care of him and end his reign of terror. Don’t worry too much, Momo. He’s not that big of a deal. Besides, we still have to do all the groundwork first anyways. It’s not like we’re going after him tonight or anything.”
Momo looks relieved by that, while Yor looks surprised.
“We’re not?”
Giving the Thorn Princess an appraising glance… Izuku has to resist the urge to facepalm again.
“Yor… how exactly do you go about finding the targets that the Shopkeeper gives you if he doesn’t have an exact location for them?”
Tilting her head to the side, Yor hums.
“I search for them every night until I find them.”
Now even Momo is looking at her sister askance.
“And how do you do that?”
“I… can move very quickly?”
Izuku sighs and rubs the bridge of his nose.
“You just run around aimlessly until you find whoever it is you’re supposed to be after, don’t you?”
“… Yes?”
The fact that Yor doesn’t understand why this is insane just goes to show that Momo’s sister is not a normal person. Not by a long shot. But to be fair, neither is Momo. Still, at least the younger Yaoyorozu has the good grace to look astonished by Yor’s… hunting methods.
“Well, that’s not how we’ll be handling Stain. If he finds out someone is after him, he’ll just go to ground. Or set a trap for you. No, my people will hunt down Stain for us. Until then, we’re going to wait and I’m going to prepare for and then participate in the UA Sports Festival. Do I make myself clear?”
Yor looks mulish for a moment… but then nods.
“Yes. I understand.”
Watching this exchange, Momo is quiet for a few seconds. Then, she opens her mouth to speak.
[ ] "I want in on hunting Stain! Let me join your organization, Izuku!" - 4%
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