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!

Izuku meets the Shopkeeper and learns some things about the state of the Garden.

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In the end, was it not better to be safe than sorry? Even if Izuku’s father had believed the Garden to be completely defunct, it wouldn’t hurt to try and contact this Shopkeeper individual. Either there would be no response and Izuku could feel much safer in approaching Yor directly, or there would be a response and he would have earned brownie points for going through the proper channels.

That was his thinking, anyways… and as it turned out, since there WAS a response in the end, his thinking had turned out to be right after all.

Invited to a small but luxurious garden shop, Izuku steps in with all of his senses turned up to eleven. He’s not about to get caught off guard here… which is why he immediately clocks the fact that the Thorn Princess herself is watching from above. He doesn’t give away that he knows of course, but he does feel her tense up as he takes a step further into the shop.

Outwardly, he maintains his calm, but inwardly… inwardly, his vast collection of Quirks feels like a massive snake roiling beneath his skin. They want to be used, of course. Quirks love being used. And while Izuku does his best to cycle through his Quirks to keep any… build-up from happening, there’s no denying that most of the time a lot of his Quirks aren’t… necessary.

However, some of them might be more than necessary today. Some of them might be the difference between life and death depending on how this meeting goes.

Presenting a confident but unsuspecting façade is simply step one as Izuku puts one foot in front of the other and makes his way to the shop’s counter. He supposes he’s not supposed to notice that Yor flicks the lock on the shop door shut behind him as well as flipping the sign from open to closed. It happens so silently and quietly, even the lock engaging not giving the customary click one would expect.

Meanwhile, behind the shop counter is a man. On the face of things, he looks right at home here. Tall, thin, and elderly, he has a warm smile and black eyes. A white long-sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a black apron along with gloves completes the ensemble of a garden center shopkeeper. But he’s not just a shopkeeper… he’s THE Shopkeeper.

For a moment, Izuku tilts his head to the side as he stops in front of the man, half-expecting to be led along by the nose for a moment before they can get down to business. But to his mild surprise… and pleasure, the Shopkeeper doesn’t bother with any of that. He just lets his grandfatherly smile widen slightly.

“You must be the Successor.”

… An interesting title. But not inappropriate, Izuku muses. Nodding slightly, he narrows his eyes.

“And you the Shopkeeper. Or at least… the latest Shopkeeper.”

Because even as old as the man in front of him was, unless he had some sort of longevity Quirk, this couldn’t be the same Shopkeeper that All for One had parlayed with a century ago. And indeed, as the corners of his eyes crinkle, the Shopkeeper inclines his head in acknowledgment of that fact.

“Yes. Though my predecessor spoke of yours a few times before his passing. However, he always spoke as though All for One’s time was already come and gone. I must admit that I was surprised when he resurfaced five years ago only to die to All Might. Even more so that he’d fathered a child before his passing.”

Oh? Was this the Shopkeeper’s Quirk at play? See, Izuku could tell the man was telling the truth all the way through. He did not know All for One was still kicking around until All Might’s defeat of him five years ago. That in and of itself had interesting connotations. But somehow in the short time Izuku had contacted him, he’d learned that Izuku was All for One’s son.

It was possible that when put to use, his intelligence gathering operations were just that good. However, if they were that good, then he should know All for One survived his bout with All Might and only died much more recently at Izuku’s hands. That he didn’t, made it far more likely that he had some sort of Quirk that allowed him to either make deductions like that… or see familial connections of some sort. To say Izuku was curious would be an understatement, but he wouldn’t pry for now. Not about that anyways.

“Yes, well… my father was long lived. Still, he also spoke about you and your Garden… and about how he believed such things were well in the past. It would seem both our organizations fell out of touch with one another, didn’t they? On the one hand, it speaks to our mutual secrecy… on the other hand, I figure we could help one another, potentially.”

Here, the Shopkeeper’s smile dims ever so slightly.

“Oh? This help… it wouldn’t perhaps take the form of killing All Might, would it?”

The man himself gives nothing away when he asks this question. Even Izuku’s variety of Quirks don’t let him know a single ounce of what the Shopkeeper is truly thinking, save for that HE clearly believes that’s why Izuku is here. However, the reason behind the question is made quite readily apparent… by Yor Yaoyorozu herself.

Hidden once again in the rafters, the Thorn Princess tenses up at hearing the Shopkeeper’s question. She has a weapon in her hand, a long needle-like object. And she’s ready to use it if Izuku gives the Shopkeeper an answer that they don’t want to hear. Interesting. Very interesting. For a moment, Izuku considers how to respond, both to the question and the hidden threat of violence. In the end he decides to go with honesty to a certain extent.

“No. Why would it? The man is already a hair’s breadth away from dying anyways.”

Here, he gets an actual reaction from the Shopkeeper. The elderly man’s eyes widen an almost imperceptible amount, but they widen all the same, revealing his immense surprise. Of course, he’s all smiles a millisecond later, his crow’s feet crinkling as he covers up that widening by having his eyes squint shut instead.

“Oh? You are surprisingly well informed, Successor. And here I thought I would have to persuade you to give up your quest for vengeance. As… regrettable as your father’s death might have been, All Might is still too important to the beauty of this world. While it is true that his death is fast approaching… HOW he dies must have a certain beauty in and of itself. Dying publicly to a villain would be… an ugly way for our Pillar of Peace to go. I hope you agree.”

Hiding his amusement, Izuku merely nods his head.

“I do, in fact. Though not for the same reasons as you. While you might consider it ugly, dying in battle would be exactly our Pillar of Peace’s preference if he got the choice. As such… letting him die in bed, wasted away from the last wound my father gave him… well, what more fitting revenge could there be then that?”

There’s a brief pause as the Shopkeeper studies him, but Izuku knows he’s not giving the other man anything but what he wants to give him. Perhaps his latest words are not quite as honest, but there’s still a kernel of truth to them. Izuku has no intention of trying to murder All Might for All for One’s death. That much is one hundred percent true.

“… Very well then. That does leave me at a bit of a loss, however. Why did you finally contact us after all this time, if not for help in seeking vengeance now that you’ve come into your own?”

Ah. That painted the picture nicely, didn’t it? The Shopkeeper thought that Izuku was brand new to all of this. That he’d just found out who his father was and… inherited All for One’s criminal enterprises very recently. He thought Izuku was scrambling to get on his feet and reaching out for any sort of… assistance he could grasp on to and pull himself up by. And he thought that Izuku, inexperienced young man that he was, had reached out to the Garden as a sort of Hail Mary.

… But this sort of deduction went both ways. And while the Shopkeeper was coming to all the wrong conclusions based off of faulty assumptions and a clearly incomplete picture, Izuku was connecting the dots on his end… and finding himself quite pleased with what he was beginning to realize.

This was it. This was the entirety of the Garden. Right here in this little shop. The Shopkeeper still existed… but Yor was his only operative left. There was no one else. Oh, the older man surely had his sources. Ways of gaining information, as incomplete as that information might be. But Yor was his only killer. The Garden Assassins Syndicate was gone… and this was what was left in its place.

That worked quite nicely for Izuku, truth be told. He was glad he’d gone this route now, because it meant he could start working on subsuming the Shopkeeper and his Thorn Princess into Izuku’s own organization. Of course, he’d have to be subtle about it. No need to piss anyone off.

“Why, to offer my services of course. My father spoke highly of your organization. But… you’ve fallen on hard times, haven’t you?”

Okay, maybe not as subtle as he should have been. Immediately, the Shopkeeper’s eyes narrow and Yor tenses up from where she’s hiding above Izuku. If he hadn’t known of her presence, if he hadn’t been looking for it… he wouldn’t have seen the Shopkeeper’s small signal, a bare shift of his fingers that could easily be misconstrued as simple fidgeting.

But the moment he does that, Yor calms down. However, even as she calms down… she also slowly slides another large needle-like object out from its hiding place. She’s wielding two now, ready and eager to use them against Izuku at a moment’s notice.

“Oh? I must say, Successor… such an accusation is unbecoming of one from such a… distinguished background.”

Izuku just chuckles and shakes his head. He’s walked right into a trap of sorts; he realizes that now. There is a way he could carefully navigate this trap and walk out of here while pretending that he was none the wiser about how close he’d come to death. But where was the fun in that? No, it would be far more entertaining to interact with the trap another way. By springing it.

“Not an accusation, Shopkeeper. An observation. Just as your predecessor thought that my father was long dead and gone… my father in turn believed the Garden to have been erased from history long ago. Imagine my surprise when I found proof of your survival… in the form of your Thorn Princess, Yor Forger. Otherwise known as Yor Yaoyorozu.”

The Shopkeeper doesn’t have to give a signal then. The moment she hears her name from his lips, Yor acts. Coming down from above, she moves to bury those needle weapons of hers in Izuku’s shoulders… not an instantly fatal blow, but definitely a debilitating one that would bring him to his knees and leave him completely at her and her boss’ mercy.

Obviously, he’s not there when she lands. Nor is he where her needles, golden he idly notes, flash next. She’s fast and strong. Very fast, very strong. But also… careful. The garden shop is filled to the brim with potted plants and the like. As she goes for him with single-minded focus, Yor doesn’t touch a single one.

Noticing this, Izuku uses her recalcitrance to his advantage. It’s much easier to defend against her attacks by shielding himself with the plants and pots she refuses to harm, then it is to dodge all the time.

Amusingly enough, with the first strike having failed… this place had become the worst popular battleground for someone like the Thorn Princess. After all, Izuku had seen some of the pictures from her work in Japan. She didn’t usually care about collateral damage, not one bit. Punching holes through walls as often as people’s heads, she left as much property damage in her wake as she did bodies.

Not here though. Here was sacred. Here was sacrosanct. At least… to her. Izuku hums, considering how to best use this to his advantage… when a voice suddenly rings out through the air.

“Enough.”

Immediately, the Thorn Princess disengages. Their furious fight, if it could even be called a fight when Izuku had done nothing but retreat to avoid overplaying his hand, had lasted for about a minute in total before the Shopkeeper put an end to it.

Appearing back at her superior’s side, Yor glares daggers at Izuku with those red eyes of hers. The Shopkeeper opens his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by his own subordinate… much to his visible shock.

“You. You brought my sister into this.”

Confused now, Izuku shakes his head as he slowly approaches the counter again… though this time he stays in the center of the shop, a few feet away.

“Your sister? What does any of this have to do with her?”

Narrowing her eyes, gritting her teeth, Yor hisses.

“She confronted me last night. I was forced to abort mission.”

… Well, so much for not telling Momo about her sister. Izuku blinks, exposing his own surprise at that… which in turn prompts the Shopkeeper to interject.

“You did not send her.”

Less a question and more a statement of fact. But one that causes Yor to jolt as she looks at her superior in surprise. Her gaze shifts back to him when he shakes his head in response.

“No. I did not send Momo Yaoyorozu to hunt down her sister. I had every intention of keeping her in the dark about the Thorn Princess’ true identity for the time being, as a matter of fact.”

Izuku’s blunt honesty defuses the tension in the room. The anticipation of violence had remained until that moment, when he admitted that he had nothing to do with it. After which… the Shopkeeper looks to Yor and raises an eyebrow.

“Which means that your sister tracked you from your cover to your work without you realizing it. Completely of her own volition.”

Suddenly, Yor Yaoyorozu doesn’t look like a contract killer. She looks like an incredibly embarrassed coed, albeit one garbed in a killer black dress. Blushing profusely and placing her hands against her cheeks, she looks away from the Shopkeeper in embarrassment and shame.

“I…”

But rather than censure her further, the Shopkeeper reaches out and places a hand on her shoulder, smiling softly.

“It’s alright. Truthfully, I should have expected this of her. Your sister might not be like you… but she still has HIS blood flowing through her all the same. Curiosity was ever a problem with that one.”

… Huh. Interesting byplay there. Izuku wants nothing more than to dig into it deeper, but the Shopkeeper turns back to him, eyes narrowed into slits.

“Let us drop pretenses, Izuku Midoriya. You are All for One’s Successor and natural born son. This is not disputable. However, you claim not to desire All Might’s death. So what DO you want, exactly?”

[ ] Be completely honest about his goals to tear down the old system and build something new in its place - 26%