Chapter Text
Izuku, for the nine years that he’d been on this earth, had always known that he was a) absolutely enamored by heroes and b) he was going to be one, one way or another. Even finding out at the age of four that he wouldn’t ever be getting a quirk wasn’t going to put him down. He would be the quirkless hero!! The one that no one expected!! He could get fancy gadgets and be like the heroes in comics of old. Which had gotten him to where he was currently. Looking up where people could buy those sorts of things on the computer.
Scrolling through different search engines, Izuku was stumped. He couldn’t find anything and that was frustrating!! His mom probably wouldn’t let him order anything anyways, this all was stuff for people that weren’t nine year olds, because this equipment was made for adults. Nine year olds weren’t supposed to use grappling hooks. Or dynamite. Or C-4. Or… Jeeps? Nine year olds couldn’t drive, why was he looking up Jeeps? For the future. That’s how he’d rationalize this. He sighed, spinning around in his swivel chair for a few moments. Spinning was fun. And maybe something would pop up about what he was really looking for!! Maybe.
After another few minutes, Izuku found a website that looked promising from the description provided by the little blurb under the link. With a grin, he clicked on the link (which was on the twelfth page of search results… Odd…) and was greeted by something unexpected. It… Did not look. Legal. Considering it talked about actual weaponry that Izuku knew was illegal (he’d asked his mom about why heroes only used gadgets or their quirks and she explained the laws to him), it was probably a Bad Website that his mom had warned him about. Although…
Staring at the page, discussing weapons trades and locations, Izuku had an idea. His mom had always said he could’ve moved up grades but he hadn’t been allowed to for “arbitrary reasons” (i.e his quirklessness. Probably.) and he knew a lot more than other nine year olds did. He also talked on hero forums a lot and people thought he was older than nine. Maybe he could… Pretend he was an adult and get this information and get it to the heroes somehow? Hm.
Izuku decided in that moment that he was going to do something that other people would call “idiotic” or “stupid” or “dangerous” but he thought was “an amazing and wonderfully planned out idea” that he’d come up with in two and a half minutes. He was going to go and gather information from all these shady sites on the internet - without letting his mom know, of course - until he could go and get in contact with heroes. Somehow. He didn’t know how that part would work, but he’d get it to work. Maybe he’d get into U.A by pretending to be a spy for some villains but really be a spy into villain organizations for the heroes!!
“This is the best plan yet,” Izuku said to himself, scanning the Bad Site for some sort of “create account” button. After all, he’d need an account on this… Forum (?) to get any sort of information. Right? And so he dove into the rabbit hole that was the dark web.
Izuku spent hours going through forums, not daring to say a word as he carefully catalogued exactly what people were talking about. Illegal weapons deals, turf wars, assassinations and hits, Izuku saw everything and anything and made sure to write it down. He saved it on a super secret flash drive that he hid in a super secret place - his closet, in a box of hero comics. His mom didn’t go through his hero comic boxes, she didn’t even go in his closet. Izuku was nine, he could put up his clothes by himself! Mom didn’t need to clean up after him, he was an Independent Young Child. But even if he was an Independent Young Child, he couldn’t let his mom find out that he was looking at the bad websites she’d warned him about when she first let him get on hero forums last year. (Little did she know, he’d been browsing those forums since he was six.) So Izuku hid all traces of his internet footprint.
His mom wondered why he was spending so much time online, sometimes. It was a fair amount more than he normally did. But Izuku deflected, saying that he had found a new hero forum and he was checking everything out there. His mom believed him, of course. What mom would think that their son is meticulously recording how the underground works? Not Inko Midoriya, that’s for sure.
Eventually, Izuku began to actually talk to the people on these shady websites. He was careful to not talk how he normally would, because then people might wonder why there was someone as young as him on these sites. It was a rarity that he said anything at all, but people began to wonder not about his age like Izuku had originally feared, but about how he knew so much. He began to get messages from people on the forum, wondering if he had any information on a specific topic. Which he did have, of course. It may have been only a couple of months but he’d been carefully recording every little thing he’d found.
The first message he’d got had been about some minor information on a specific forum user from two weeks prior. Just about a purchase they’d made, nothing else. What it had been - a pistol - and how much it cost - around 67 thousand yen - and Izuku had made sure to not reveal anything further. The person had asked him how to get payment to him, and in a stroke of genius he said they didn’t need to pay anything. Because then he could be arrested for participating in criminal activity. Not ideal for a nine year old. The forum user’s shock at his generosity was fairly evident, though, so he started to get more messages.
As the weeks and eventually months went by, Izuku gathered more information, and more people came to him for information. It was a mutual exchange. Eventually, some people began giving him information in exchange for the information he gave them. He learned a lot about the underground world. The latest news about any sorts of villainy or vigilantism? Izuku knew. He was very passionate about his note taking. He’d created categories upon categories for different things and had meticulously organized everything. Just like his hero notebooks, but more. Secretive. Kacchan had teased him about his hero notebooks, but Izuku had ignored him at the time, since he was trying to eat his lunch.
One afternoon, he’d had an extremely close call with his mother nearly catching him on the forum. She’d walked in, when Izuku had been in the middle of an extremely sensitive conversation between himself and another person that was making sure that no one would be trespassing on their turf when they went out to sell some slightly illegal substances and if his mother ever saw that he would be screwed.
“Izuku, what’re you up to? Browsing those hero forums again?” Inko asked. Izuku quickly switched tabs before she noticed, firing off a quick notice of his temporary leave to the other person. Good thing he had hero forums up on other tabs.
“Mhmm!! A new hero debuted, her hero name’s Dragoness!! She can turn into a dragon!!” Izuku exclaimed, bouncing in his seat. That wasn’t a lie, there was a relatively new hero named Dragoness, but he’d already done research.
“Really? That’s very interesting to hear, Izuku! I hadn’t heard of her yet,” Inko replied, stepping closer to the computer to peer at what was on the screen. Izuku looked closer as well, double-checking to make sure it was indeed a post talking about Dragoness and not someone else.
“That’s ‘cause she just came here from China!” Izuku informed his mother cheerfully, and she raised her eyebrows.
“No wonder I hadn’t heard of her yet,” Inko said. Izuku nodded again, not taking his eyes off the computer screen. Dragoness was really cool.
“Well, I’ll leave you to your forum-going. Be careful, Izuku!! Don’t talk to strange people!” Inko said, turning to leave the room. Izuku nodded vigorously. Oh, if she knew he was investigating villains she’d never let him on the computer ever again.
As soon as his door shut again, Izuku let out a deep breath he didn’t know he was holding, before going back to his conversation with the person from before.
A quick apology was given, before Izuku confirmed there was no malicious intent behind the information request and happily bequeathed the information this person needed. In return, they gave Izuku some… New information. Apparently there’s a League of Villains out there. Nothing too big of a scope, but they’re at this pretty shady bar. Izuku thanked the person for their information, before closing the private message. A League of Villains, eh? He should check that out…
“Izuku! Dinner’s ready!” Sitting ramrod straight in his chair, Izuku looked at the door and back to his computer. He’d look into the League of Villains later. Right now, it was Sunday and Izuku had dinner to eat.