Puppet Master

Remembering How To Smile

Izuku was already used to eating very little so it wasn't too much of a change on his body besides the quality. At home, his meals were at least decent. Now he survived off of trash from restaurants. Even that was hard though. There were surprisingly a lot of homeless people in the red light district and apparently "claimed" dumpsters. In the first month, Izuku had been beaten for trying to eat from a dumpster already claimed.
Luckily he was used to that sort of treatment by now so he was quick to recover.
Izuku had found an unclaimed alley and he knew he had to defend this one with his life. If he didn't, it might cost him his life.

That mindset is probably what set him on the course of vigilantism, though.
He had made it to nine years old with six months of living on the streets when it first happened.

Izuku never slept if he didn't need to. He was paranoid. Years of being treated and being misused by his quirk made him extremely cautious of others. So when he heard someone coming down his alley late at night, he immediately prepared to defend it. It was multiple people. Someone was struggling. Izuku ducked down behind the dumpster as the two passed. He pulled out the large kitchen knife he had stolen from 'home.' A large man had a knife to a much smaller man's neck, forcing him back.

"Where are the drugs, man!?" the threat roared. The smaller man struggled to keep calm as he was forced against the wall. "I don't have any! I promise! I'm just the messenger!"
"LIES!"

Izuku didn't know why he ran forward. Maybe it was pent up anger or maybe it was seeing himself in the man who was trapped, just like Izuku had been. He doesn't know. His body just carried him forward on his own.
He had become quite skilled at moving silently after having to sneak out of his room on many occasions to get food or else he really would have starved. With no sound, Izuku made his way behind the bigger man at a rapid pace.

Izuku grabbed the back of the man's shirt by the collar and pulled down hard. He knocked the back of his knees to make him fall on the ground and pressed his own blade against the bigger man's throat.

In seconds they were all at a stalemate.

Izuku hadn't talked to a single person in six months. He looked up at the man formerly held captive. "R- r-" he cleared his throat, "Run and don't tell anyone," he said with as much courage as someone with a stutter and fear of humans could muster." The man nodded. "Thank you!" He ran off. Izuku lifted his blade and before the large man at his will could move, Izuku slammed the hilt of the blade into the side of his head, effectively knocking him out.
The adrenaline released at once and Izuku fell on his butt panting. "Suck. What do I do now?" He couldn't very well leave him here, This was his alley after all. Making up his mind, Izuku pulled the shirt off of the man and used it to tie the man's arms behind his back.
It was one heck of a struggle but he delivered the man into an alleyway a block away before taking the phone off of the man and using it to inform the police of his location and crime. Izuku threw the phone down and smashed it with the hilt of his blade before running off back to his alley.

He slouched behind the dumpster. "Whew!" he whistled. "What a rush!"

Izuku looked down at his hands. That was sort of fun! His eyes widened. "Fun?" he questioned aloud. When was the last time I had actual 'fun?' Probably since he was four. He felt the corners of his mouth turn up slightly.
For the first time in five years, the smile on Izuku's face was real.
He didn't want to lose that feeling. If being an illegal vigilant was what it took to make Izuku smile and feel something aside from fear again, then so be it.

...

...

...

"YEAH RIGHT!"
Izuku paced back and forth in his alleyway in a mild panic. Two days after his declaration of vigilantism, Izuku successfully pickpocketed a drunk on the street. That was scary enough in itself. Izuku was terrified of people. Every single day he would crouch behind his dumpster and watch the people. There weren't as many as the safer parts of the city but that made things all the more terrifying. These were dangerous people. Everyone filtered in and out of his vision between the walls of the alley in a grey and black vision. Each seemed to be moving in slow motion. Izuku studied each and every one of their faces. Everyone was a threat.
With that being said... he had gotten an identification card, driver's license, motorcycle license, and fifty-four dollars from the wallet he pickpocketed. Oh, and a new, slightly-worn wallet. Plus there was a picture of who he assumed was the man and his family.
Izuku pondered over his circumstances. He knew he needed to go buy something to hide his own identity if he was going to do this whole vigilant thing for real but that would mean walking into a back alley store to reduce the risk of being recognized as missing and interacting with another human being and that was not something he was very eager to do the say the least.