There is a child in a dumpster.
It’s Shouta’s first day starting a new shift.
Nothing too exciting.
Just a nice, calm, evening shift for once.
The hero who normally works this shift is out with a broken leg.
Shouta is, of course, ready for anything.
There is a child in a dumpster.
Shouta is not great with kids.
He’s too gruff and blunt, it works fine for the teenagers he deals with most of the time. They don’t want pity or sympathy, most of the time they don’t want anything but acknowledgement for their efforts and to be left alone.
Children, in his experience, are a little more… sensitive.
This is a child in a dumpster.
The dumpster starts making some very concerning banging noises.
Shouta sighs, there’s no point in delaying the inevitable.
He knocks on the dumpster lid.
The dumpster hisses at him.
There is a child in the dumpster… right?
“Kid? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine!”
“Kid… you’re in a dumpster.”
There are some rustling and clanging noises from inside the dumpster.
Shouta sighs again.
There is still a child in the dumpster.
“Kid… It’s getting dark.”
“I’ll be fine! Go away!”
Shouta resigns himself to the possibility of having to drag a child kicking and screaming out of a dumpster tonight.
“Kid… I can’t just go. I’m a hero.”
“A hero!?”
Oh, good, that’s a good reaction.
He startles back from the dumpster as the lid flies open with a bang.
There is a very grubby child with dirty pink hair staring back at him, eyes flicking around his clothes and gear, quirk use obvious in the way their pupils move.
The child climbs out of the dumpster.
Thank god.
“Yes…” He tries for a vaguely reassuring expression but they aren’t even looking at his face.
They dash forward before he can think about next steps. He prepares himself for a hug and maybe some crying.
There are little fingers poking and prodding at his jacket.
“Hey, hero, what’s your name?”
“Eraserhead.”
He has no idea what they’re doing, they don’t look cold…? Is there something else going on?
“Eraserhead, what’s this made out of?”
“Jacket.”
Shouta doesn’t know.
He sent in instructions for what he wanted and the support company sent something back, it’s comfortable and doesn’t restrict his movements and holds up to the wear and tear of fighting.
It’s fine.
“Hmmm…” They cock their head to the side and continue their examination, ignoring him completely. “What’s your quirk? I bet I could build you something better!”
“Better?”
“Yeah! I wish I knew what it was made out of, but I’m sure I could add some cool features to it. Does this thing even have any babies?”
Children are more incomprehensible than Shouta had ever thought possible.
He refocuses and crouches down closer to their level. “Hey, kid, think you could tell me your name?”
“Hatsume Mei, I’m going to run the best support business in the world someday." She replies absently, as if it's a given. "What does that baby do?” Hatsume points at his neck, or more specifically, his capture weapon.
“This?” he points and she nods. “Well, I use it to catch criminals.”
It’s a simplified explanation but Hatsume is a child.
“Can I see?”
They make grabby hands and Shouta moves back slightly, he can see it now. Having to call backup because a small child somehow managed to get them both hopelessly tangled in his capture weapon.
“That’s probably not a good idea, it’s very delicate.”
“Why? How does it work? Is it like a rope? Or is it more complicated? Can you control where it goes? Can you climb things with it? I bet I could electrify it! Then you could catch even more villains!”
Shouta is blessed with the unfortunate vision of knocking himself out with his own electrified scarf.
“That sounds great, Hatsume. I’m sure you could but I don’t want an electrified capture weapon.”
“But it would make things so much easier!”
“I’m scared of electricity.”
Hopefully that works.
Hatsume deflates slightly but nods.
The agreement only lasts a second though before she lights up again.
“What if I-”
“I like my capture weapon just the way it is.”
“Fine, I hate it when people mess with my babies too.”
Shouta is so glad.
Explaining boundaries to children is not why he’s here.
“What are you doing out-”
“-Have you ever thought about putting rockets in your boots?”
What?
“No... I have not.”
“Hmmm, what about knives? Nobody sees knife shoe babies coming.”
Shouta would… imagine not.
“Kid-”
“I’m hungry.”
“Alright… If I feed you will you let me ask questions?”
Hatsume nods seriously.
Shouta texts his agency to let them know he’ll be busy with an incident for a while and gently guides Hatsume away from the dumpster.
A quick stop at one of the 24/7 convenience stores and he has a happier, somehow even chattier child sitting with him on a bench munching on chips and suggesting more places he could be putting knives.
“Oh, you should have an electrifying gloves baby! That would be great! Or maybe some smoke bomb babies, those are kind of easy to make but I don’t know if that would work with your quirk very well. I read that support engineers need to keep their clients' preferences in mind.” She stops to eat a chip. “You have goggles, so maybe no smoke bomb babies. Oh! I could make your goggles smoke bomb baby proof!”
“That’s nice, did you get hurt anywhere? Any cuts?” Shouta inserts, snacking on his own chips absently.
“Nope! I was wearing my gloves and my good pants.”
Shouta can’t help but sigh, they are very thick looking.
“That’s good.” He continues before they can suggest any new horrors to add to his gear. “Hatsume, do your adults know you were in a dumpster?”
“Nope! They’re in South America! It’s so cool! I wish I could go! They said I can go with them when I’m in middle school! That’s a really long time though! I can’t wait!”
Okay.
That’s not… ideal.
“Did they… leave you alone?”
“Huh? Oh, nope! I’m staying with my aunt! She’s boring and she doesn’t have any stuff to make babies with, I love making babies.”
“Does your aunt know you’re hanging out in dumpsters?”
“Nah, she’s probably still napping. She watches this really boring show every night and falls asleep in like five minutes! It doesn't even have engineering in it! Adults are so weird Eraserhead.”
Okay… so the child got bored.
Children... do that.
“Don’t you think she might be worried about you?”
“Huh, why would she be worried?”
Because you are a tiny little child wandering around by yourself and hanging out in dumpsters, he does not say.
“Because she doesn’t know where you are?” He tries.
“I left a note.” Hatsume reports, as if that would reduce guardian panic at all.
“You left a note… Hatsume, what if there was a villain?”
“There wasn’t, besides!”
They reach into one of their overall pockets and pull out a terrifying contraption of loose wiring and metal.
“I have my babies!”
A flipped switch has the nightmare machine sparking and loudly buzzing with a truly upsetting amount of electricity.
“Okay, why don’t we turn that off.”
"Oh, right, I'm sorry for scaring you Eraserhead."
This is clearly not working.
“Hatsume, you can’t just run off.”
“I didn’t run off, I went exploring.”
The child rolls their eyes at him, like he’s the one being unreasonable.
Shouta can’t do this.
“Why don’t we go home and talk to your aunt?”
“Alright, if that’s what you want, Eraserhead. I’m warning you now, she’s super boring.”
“I don’t mind.”
Honestly, Shouta would appreciate super boring at this point.