Chapter Text
“Run!” the Collector shouted as they contained the portal, which was shaking and glowing. They glanced over their shoulder, sighing in relief when they saw that their friends were indeed running. But then there was a bright flash of light, which hit the bubble and-
Nothing.
Nothing.
And then suddenly they were in an alleyway. They looked around, confused. Then they froze. There was some kind of magic in the world around them. But not the magic of the demon realm, and the human realm didn’t have any magic intrinsic to it. A faint, half-forgotten memory floated forwards. Dimension travel. The collector didn’t swear, but they wanted to at that moment. But they were distracted from their thoughts by someone jumping down into the alleyway.
“Public quirk use is illegal, y’know.” The Collector paused.
“What’s a quirk?”
“Well, that’s a rare one. A kid your age should definitely know what a quirk is.”
“I’m from another dimension.”
“Look kid, I don’t have time for this. I’m taking you to the station and they’ll call your parents.”
“I don’t have parents.”
“I’m so-”
“Not like I’m an orphan. I just-look, whatever. You can take me to the station or whatever.”
“...ok. What’s your name?”
“Technically, I don’t have one. Everyone calls me The Collector though. I use they/them, by the way.”
“Hm. I use he/him.”
“You aren’t going to tell me your name?”
“My hero name is Eraserhead.”
“Hero name?”
“You going to tell me you don’t know what pro heroes are either?” the Collector just nodded. The man groaned.
– - –
“I’m looking for Detective Tsukauchi.” Eraserhead says with a sigh. The person at the front desk nods and heads off. It’s only a couple minutes later that Detective Tsukauchi appears.
“What is it this time Eraser?”
“Need you to verify this kid’s story.” the Collector takes that as their cue.
“Hi! I’m the Collector, they/them.” Detective Tsukauchi looks at Eraserhead.
“They know it’s not a proper name.”
“Ok, good.”
“Anyway, my point was that I’m from another dimension.” The Collector says before the other two can continue their conversation.
“I think we should take this to my office.”
– - –
Detective Tsukauchi uses he/him pronouns and has a very boring office, in The Collector's opinion. The detective takes out some sort of recording device.
“Statement of The Collector, who uses they/them, given [two days before classes at UA start], 10:30 at night. I am obligated to inform you that my quirk allows me to detect lies. Begin.”
“What’s a quirk?”
“In simple terms, a superpower.”
“Ok. Uh, where should I start? Like do you want like my life story or just how I got here?”
“Just how you got here. You can tell us the rest later.”
“In that case, that’s a really short story. I think someone sabotaged the portal ‘cause it started glowing and shaking and so I did my best to contain it, and I made sure my friends ran because I didn’t know what the portal was going to do. And then there was a big flash of light and suddenly I was in an alleyway.”
“How did you know you were in another dimension?”
“The magic?” that got them two blank stares. “Ok, so the human realm doesn’t really have any magic, right? And the demon realm-which is not hell, my friend from the human realm told me to clarify that-has all kinds of magic, and I can sorta…sense it? Like I can tell there’s magic. And then I got here and while this dimension does have magic it’s not the same magic.”
“Everything they’ve said is true,” Detective Tsukauchi said, not seeming to see The Collector's expression at the implication that they might lie. “End statement.” a click on the recording device. “You did great. Now, we need to figure out where you’ll be staying.” His eyes drifted over to Eraserhead.
“Wait, me? I can’t take care of a child!” Technically, The Collector was hundreds of years old, though they didn’t know exactly how old they were due to the stupid tablet keeping them locked up with no sense of time. But, they could also acknowledge that they were mentally a child, and probably would be forever, or at least a very long time. “I can barely take care of myself!”
“Look, can you at least take them just for now? They need somewhere to stay. Nedzu can help you figure it out tomorrow.”
“Fine. Collector, you want to come home with me?”
“I mean, unless Detective Tsukauchi lets me stay here I don’t have any other choices. But yes.” They pushed away the little annoying thought in their head that said that everyone wanted to use them. These people didn’t know anything about them! What would they even want them to do?
– - –
The next day the Collector found themself in front of a huge school that had a lot of windows.
“This is UA?”
“Yeah. We’re going to see the principal. Remember to be respectful like I told you.”
“Ok, yeah, I can do that!”
– - –
The principal did not remind The Collector of King. He looked completely different, he was wearing a suit, and he seemed very professional. And that was most definitely a good thing. Because if they thought about King too much they might start crying because they didn’t know if they’d ever see him again.
“Hello, principal Nedzu-san! Did Eraserhead-san tell you who I am or should I introduce myself?”
“He did. And did he not tell you his name?”
“Nope.”
“Aizawa-kun, why?” Aizawa sighed.
“I forgot.”
“Hmm. Anyway, I assume you want me to find someone to take care of them?”
“Yeah.”
“And why shouldn’t you?”
“Because I can barely take care of myself, let alone a child.”
“I think this will be good for you! You’ll have to take care of yourself!”
“I’m ok at taking care of myself if Aizawa-san messes up occasionally. My friends taught me how to cook basic meals in both the demon realm and the human realm and this dimension seems a lot like the human realm except with magic.”
“Great!”
“What about classes? I still have to teach.”
“I don’t mind letting the Collector wander around campus as long as they don’t disrupt classes and keep a phone on them. Speaking of which, Collector. What’s your education level?”
“Um, I’m really good with magic stuff but I don’t know almost any of the human stuff. My friends ar-were teaching me though. So I know how to add and subtract, and I was starting to learn multiplication! And I didn’t really have a science class for the human or demon realm but my friend from the human realm and her mom taught me a couple of things.”
“And how old are you?” the Collector winced.
“That’s complicated. ‘Cause in terms of time spent alive I'm like hundreds of years old but I never really grew up mentally, I guess? I don’t know if I ever will. I can still learn stuff, kinda comes with being an archivist-that's my species sub-section-and I can still learn to be a better person and stuff ‘cause I used to not be great but my friends taught me how to be a better person!”
“Archivists?” was Nedzus first question.
“Mhm. My human friend's mom is an animal doctor and she taught me how species and stuff work! So I don’t know the, um, level? You know, like kingdom and species and stuff. But anyway, the, uh, overarching one is star children, but my sub-group is archivists, but all the other ones are grown-ups, but also they’re all meanieheads and didn’t even try to help when I got locked up in that tablet for a really, really long time! Even though there wasn’t anyone at first for a really long time, and then I only had Belos, who turned out to be super evil and so I hate them!” They looked up from their rant to find Nedzu and Aizawa looking horrified. They were confused for a moment before they remembered. “Oh, I forgot people get sad when they hear about that. Sorry. I didn’t mean to, I should’ve just kept it to the archivists-”
“Kid, we aren’t mad at you. We’re mad that these archivists left you in solitary confinement for who even knows how long. Solitary confinement is a form of torture. That’s…”
“Yeah. My friends made sure I know that it was really bad. Can we move on now?”
“Sure. So, we’ll have to figure out some sort of schooling for you.”
– - –
The first day of classes rolled around the next day.
“I’m your teacher, Aizawa. He/him.”
“Who’s the kid?” someone asked.
“I found them on patrol the other night, and I can’t leave them home alone. Don’t worry, they know not to interrupt classes, and besides, they have their own work to do. Now, put your gym uniforms on and meet me at ground ___.”
“What’s their name?”
“I technically don’t have one, but everyone just calls me The Collector!” That got them a few confused expressions, but they all hurried to do as Aizawa had said.