For the past three weeks, the Saiyan did not get even a few seconds of sleep. Struggling to manage his schedule between work and his personal life, Black found himself too exhausted to plan for Project Zero Mortals. Although his wage has doubled, the extra deliveries he had to make took a toll on his psyche. Having to work weekends didn't help him much, even if the extra money helped out.
"Damn it all!" Black exclaimed, slamming his head against the wall. He had never imagined that a god such as himself could ever succumb to the weaknesses of mortal life but here he was, living exactly like one. Each passing day scrubbing dishes and sending desserts to people felt absolutely conflicting to him. On one hand, he was furious that he was practically hired help of the mortals, just wishing for death on each of them. On the other hand, he knew he was not in a position to do anything against them for now, especially with the lack of mortal life and gods in this universe.
The sun arose to greet Black for another day. Feeling cranky and agitated, Black begrudgingly brushed his teeth, put on his black t-shirt and jeans as well as his Potara and time ring.
"These mortals are surely taking a toll on me," Black muttered out loud.
"Mornin', Goku," Ichiro greeted.
"Yea, whatever," Black responded.
"Woah! What's the deal, dude?"
"Does it seem like I got any sleep?"
Ichiro looked at the bags underneath Black's eyes.
"You know, you could've slept in today," Ichiro said. "We have some sudden maintenance to do today that should be finished tomorrow. You got the day off."
Black sighed, relieved that he finally had genuine free time for himself.
"Well, I'll be taking a nice stroll around, I suppose," Black said, leaving the premises of Hopper's Cafe.
Charging up, the Saiyan floated up in the air and flew away.
Hmm, I've been meaning to test that power of mine after that skirmish with 'Kacchan,' Black thought, remembering some of his rediscovered power. I oughta find somewhere to test what I can do now.
With that, the Saiyan flew to a forest, hidden away from most people. It was quite picturesque: tall, green trees and grass stretched for miles, and there was a nice mountain scenery nearby.
A pity that such beauty is possessed by the filthy mortals," Black thought, enjoying the landscape. Getting back into focus, Black had to test a few things out.
The Saiyan started by firing off into the air, expecting to cause a meteor shower onto himself. The damage was even more catastrophic than the last time as it already wiped out most of the trees.
Not good enough, Black observed. This was significantly better than his first attempt but he still had a long way to go if he wanted to get anywhere close to his original power.
"ROOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!"
Black turned his head to the direction of that roar. At first, he thought it might have been another serpentine villain but then Black detected some more energy.
Well, this looks like it could be some fun, Black thought, grinning at the new challenger.
Giant brown claws suddenly climbed out from underneath the ground, which then transformed into hands. A gigantic, brown, mountainous humanoid shape with a radio strapped to its chest made its way out of the dirt, unleashing another mighty roar.
"Everything..." the giant bellowed. "...is for the glory of my master!"
With that, he slammed the earth with his massive hands. Black was unmoved, though he still put his hands up to protect his eyes from the excess debris. When the dust settled, Black's face distorted, grinning ear to ear as if he were a child going trick-or-treating during Halloween.
"Well well," Black said, seeing a new opponent. "I remembered annihilating a planet with a race that looked like your people!"
That remark didn't seem to matter to the giant, who was only concerned with dealing with the cause of such disturbances. The giant then gave a massive swipe to Black. Although he could have easily withstood it, the battle-hungry Saiyan decided to play along and purposely accepted the blow.
A real shame, Black thought. All this power and it took me having to really power myself down just to even feel something that could hurt. Still, this was easily the most fun he had in a very long time. This giant was certainly no Goku, Vegeta, Zamasu, or even Gowasu. But he was the strongest Black has met in this universe, which seemed to be enough for the Saiyan.
Grabbing onto Black with his right hand, the giant prepared a fist towards the ground, which would have enough pressure to kill most people. Raising his hand high over 100 feet in the air, the giant slammed Black down, following up with a punch from his left.
The giant violently assaulted Black, completely feeling unhinged in this battle. The giant just lived to destroy and by this moment, he completely forgot why he was attacking in the first place.
Suddenly, the giant felt some resistance from his fist, unsure what was causing it.
"So this is all you can do, huh, beast," Black said, surrounded by a purple and red aura. He didn't need to use this technique but this has been the most instructive battle he has had yet, so the Saiyan felt free to experiment with some tricks out of Goku's body. With this, he gave a punch towards the giant's hand, causing the behemoth to roar with pain.
The giant was surprised at this display of power. There was no way anyone was more power than his master, after all. Readying another fist, he prepared to strike once more until he was hit squarely in the chest. He fell on his back, panting for his breath.
"Ah, this seems like a handy trick," Black said, enjoying the feeling his body was giving him. "Speeding up with the Kaioken and then deactivating it at the moment of impact, giving a hit that is based entirely on speed. I wonder if the converse of this technique can hold too."
With that, Black prepared a hit to the giant's head, using the Kaioken at the moment of impact. The giant was actually wincing in pain, tears coming out of his eyes.
"Well well," Black observed, laughing at his newfound techniques. "And this is only Kaioken at its weakest! I haven't used other multipliers yet!"
With that, Goku Black powered up more, trying to aim for new heights with the Kaioken. Despite the power he felt, Black felt the toll quickly creeping on him. Deactivating the aura, Black descended back onto the ground.
"Well, it's only fitting that a technique made by a god can harm a god," Black said, clutching his left shoulder. "This pain will surely make me stronger and I have you to thank, mortal!"
The giant was still laid on his back, crying from the pain.
Machia
The giant seemed to have a stimulus in response to this voice. Coming from his radio, it was a silky, smooth voice. Endearing to the giant, he crossed his arms around the radio.
"Master..." the giant moaned, feeling comfort at the sound of his master. Before being able to call for his master one more time, the giant closed his eyes and passed out from exhaustion.
Black grinned at his progress, feeling his power restored exponentially more.
The Kaioken is fun and all, Black thought. But now my real test comes at the hands of a more beautiful transformation.
The Saiyan powered up, with a rainstorm starting to form in the sky. Bolts of lightning struck down upon the land as Black tried to access his beloved signature transformation. Hues of pink formed with his eyes even turning the appropriate color for a moment.
BOOM
Suddenly, Black's aura exploded and he was brought to his knees.
Still not ready, huh, Black thought, this time with a frown. He would have been happy to try his powers out some other time, but for now, he had to give his body some rest from the Kaioken and the Super Saiyan Rose attempt. It was still raining very heavily so Black used instant transmission back into Hopper's Cafe.
"Hey, Goku, you're back!" Jiro said, greeting Black. "Gee, your clothes are dirty, what happened?"
"Ah, I took a stumble on some stairs," Black lied, who looked completely fine other than some of the giant's dirt that got on his clothes. "How's maintenance?"
"Oh, we're almost done," Jiro replied. "I wanna talk to you for a bit."
Jiro walked into a backroom and Black followed. A room with a desk, stacks of papers, and hero memorabilia, Black sat in front of Jiro in his office.
"Hey, you've been great help, man," Jiro said, beaming at the employee. "You haven't been here for long but you've really been the backbone of us all. I just wanna say thank you for all that you've done."
"Oh, I-" Black managed to mutter. He thought that Jiro somehow found out about him but to his surprise, it was actual praise! Praise to a god, even if Jiro did not know that yet. Black cleared his throat and responded.
"Ah, no problem," Black answered. "I'm simply doing my duty to what my goals align with." That last sentence sounded polite but had an extra bit of venom to it.
"That's great man, that'll be all from me," Jiro said, smiling. Black walked out of the office, feeling confused but a bit happy with himself.
Today actually went well, Black reflected. I managed to reawaken some powers within me, even being able to make some new tricks of my own! And I got praised by a mortal! This is going very smoothly.
Black stopped in the main room of the cafe. He was happy because he was praised by a mortal? Ah, but it was praise to a deity given by a clearly inferior mortal, which made things much better. Regardless, he was going to have some fun with Goku and Vegeta once he showed them his new techniques.
On that note, Black was grimly reminded of his current state of power.
"I'm gonna be here for a while, am I," Black muttered, grimacing at his own future.
"What's up, Goku," Kamayan greeted.
"Oh, hi," Goku replied, not expecting the giant mantis. "I'm going back to my room, see you around."
With that, Black walked back into his room in the basement. Since he got more money, he bought himself all sorts of books, such as Sun Tzu's Art of War, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, and several classic Japanese novels.
Black picked up his copy of the Art of War and read it on his bed.
"In carrying out your operations, give the impression of being sucked into the enemies' plans..."
Well, that's the goal, Black mentally responded to the book.
He spent the entire night reading before getting his first night of decent sleep in a while.
The next morning, Black awoke feeling completely refreshed. This was going to be another day spent with his quality-
"Hey Goku!" Kamayan said. "Got a batch of deliveries for you."
Ah, right, Black thought. He forgot that today was work as usual. Looking at the list of deliveries he had to make, the Saiyan looked up directions to each address. With the flying, instant transmissions, and talking he had to do, this still took a few hours for him.
Hmm, let's see, number 103, Black observed on the list of deliveries he had to make, which was pinned in the counter of the very busy cafe spot. Shota Aizawa? Deliver to...UA High?
Black took the desserts he was to send, charged up, and flew once again. So I'll finally be seeing that UA school in person, huh.
In less than 10 minutes, Black arrived at UA, which suddenly reacted by creating a gigantic metal barrier. Although Black was more than capable of destroying the gigantic school, he thought that waiting for some aid would be useful.
"Excuse me sir," a tall, voluptuous woman with red, triangular glasses wearing a tight, white suit remarked. "Are you looking for someone?"
"Yes, I am," the Saiyan answered, surprised that this could be considered normal wear for someone. "I have some desserts for Shota Aizawa from Hopper's Cafe."
The woman gave a loud laugh.
"Ohhh, that brings me back," the woman would respond. "Aizawa used to talk about that place a fair bit back in the day. I think he misses Naruhata sometimes, ya know. But he's not here, he's on a trip with some students."
Black nodded, unsure if he actually got the right place in retrospect. Still wanting to complete his delivery, Black thought of an excuse.
"Alright, I'll be back when he returns," Black lied.
"Well, suit yourself," the woman replied.
A masked gunslinger walked by.
"Uh, Midnight?" the gunslinger said. "Could you come over for a bit?"
"Yeah, sure, Snipe," Midnight responded.
Must be their hero names, thought Black, feeling that they sounded ridiculous. Walking away until he was out of sight for sure, Black placed two fingers on his head and used instant transmission to Aizawa's location.
Black appeared in what appeared to be a collection of various environments underneath a white dome. He glanced around and saw a bloody person held tight by a large, muscular bird-brain looking creature. Even more shocking, he recognized the bloody body.
"A-Aizawa?" Black called out.
"G-Goku?" the hero responded, confused as to why and how he was here.
"So some nobody wants to play hero, huh," some blue haired, red eyed man covered in gray hands said. "Fine. Nomu, kill him before Eraser."
Author's Note: So here's chapter 6! That's right, USJ time! A lot of MHA is from the students' side of things so it would be almost impossible to get Black involved in their daily life. Not much else to really say but thank you for the support!