A few days have passed since the USJ incident. Hopper's Cafe was closed for another maintenance, giving Black some much needed free time to rest. Upon getting ready for the morning, he met paths with the Hotta twins, each holding a package in their hands.
"It's about time we gave you these," Jiro said.
"Give me what?" Black asked, feeling rather annoyed.
"You'll see soon enough," Ichiro said as they placed the packages down on Black's study.
The Saiyan looked at the packages he received from the Hotta brothers, one was a small, rectangular box while another was a larger rectangular box. Opening them up alongside the Hotta duo in his room, Black was greeted by two strange looking devices whose pictures were on the boxes.
"So that's gonna be your phone," Jiro pointed at the small black object.
"And that's your laptop," Ichiro pointed at the larger blue object.
The Saiyan gave a good hold of these devices for about a minute. He had some experience with computers in the Musutafu library but these seemed completely alien to him. Although he knew that devices like these were crucial to people in Trunks's timeline, he never thought that he would ever need to know how to operate one of these devices. He clumsily pressed buttons on his phone and laptop, which turned them on.
"It's just saying 'hello' in various languages," Black observed, unsure why the devices weren't working the same way as it did in the library.
"You gotta set them up first," Ichiro explained. Here, let me guide you with this.
Black and the Hottas sat for a few hours as the Saiyan clumsily pressed on random words and buttons, not knowing what they did. Helping him set up the new devices got so tiring that the Hottas had to take turns teaching Black how they worked.
"Jeez, Goku," Jiro said, observing Black's taste in literature. "For someone who seems to be well-versed in the classics, you're not really bright at being modernized."
Black's face distorted into an ugly scowl, feeling insulted by a mortal. Feeling rage swell up, he clenched a fist and accidentally telekinetically choked Jiro for a millisecond before coming to his senses.
No, this doesn't call for such drastic measures, Black thought. He just so happens to have the decency to give a god some help.
The Saiyan reconsidered his thoughts again. Had it been his way, he would have never considered receiving mortal help. But now that a mortal was actually giving him genuine help, he didn't seem mad?
"Goku, you there?" Jiro called to him. "Not sure what happened with my throat earlier but anyway, you kinda seem to be zoning out."
"Oh, I'm good, thank you," Black said. "Is there anything else that I have to learn about for these two devices?"
"No, that's about it," Jiro said. "I'm honestly surprised we managed to finish at all at the pace we were going."
"Huh, alright then," Black replied, not really knowing what to make of this. "Thank you for your gracious help."
The Hottas gave their 'you're welcome' and left Black alone in his room. He put his head down on his desk, still wrestling with his thoughts.
Could I have actually misjudged more mortals than I thought? Black wondered. The mortals actually feel a bit tolerable to be around. Even despite some of my fits of anger, many of them have treated me with nothing but actual kindness.
The Saiyan smacked himself, wondering if he was dreaming.
T-This is real! Black thought, completely taken aback from his realizations. I have actually gotten fond of the mortals after living with them for so long! Could it be that Gowasu was right? Was Project Zero Mortals an actual waste of time?
Black decided to distract himself by exploring the new devices he got. With each feature that he explored, he would make a mental note to himself, not wanting to seek help that would make him look quite foolish.
"A 'news' app?" Black muttered, noticing it on his phone. "It would be quite handy to know what is happening around the world."
Upon entering it and pressing some buttons that welcomed him to the app, Black was greeted by the headlining article.
'Hero Killer Still on the Prowl,' Black read, feeling intrigued by the article. Of course, there are actual 'villains' I suppose.
He then put down his phone on the desk and picked up a book in his collection. Although he perused the pages carefully, none of the words entered his head. More conflicting thoughts about mortals filled his mind, bothering him to no end. Trying to drown his worries, Black put the book back in the bookshelf, and laid down on his bed to sleep.
The next day, Black woke up in a better mood, although still with a hint of the same confusion. He tried to ignore it, although the feeling was buried very deep in his mind. Greeting the Hottas and Kamayan, he started to get to work with deliveries at the counter until the cafe was greeted by what seemed to be a half walking mummy.
"What the," Jiro said, observing the man who just strolled into the premises. "Wait, AIZAWA?" he yelled, surprised at the hero's state.
"Yes, it's me," the hero replied dully. Although he was walking properly, most of his body was in a cast flexible enough to allow for movement. The bandages covering his face made him just enough to still be recognizable.
"Still recovering from the USJ?" Black asked, remembering that the erasure hero was moving fine after he was given some energy.
"Yeah, I thought that would be obvious," Aizawa replied. "I did have to exert myself a fair bit in spite of my injuries there so it makes sense that I'd still have such treatment. Though, had it not been for you, I think even my face would have been covered as well."
Black closed his eyes and smiled, feeling appreciation at this validation.
"So what brings you here today?" Ichiro asked.
"I was looking to see Goku again," the hero replied. "He seemed to have left a reasonably positive reaction on my class so I wanted to see if he wanted to be invited to the UA Sports Festival?"
"The what?" Black asked, realizing he still has a lot to learn about UA.
"Figured as much," Aizawa said before explaining. "The UA Sports Festival is a competition in which students from our school compete amongst each other in a variety of physical activities before ending off with a one-on-one matchup. Being the country's premier hero school, it is practically the most watched sports event in Japan."
"So, would you like me to compete in it?" the Saiyan asked, having mixed feelings. On one hand, having to fight some of the strongest mortals the universe can offer would be a treat. On the other hand, they probably wouldn't put up much of a fight, if at all.
"Completely out of the question," Aizawa answered. "Not only are you not a UA student, but that would be a severe breach of educational standards in the prefecture, let alone UA."
"Uh, alright," Black said, unsure of what Aizawa wanted to offer him. "So what does this festival have to do with me?"
"Detective Tsukauchi and I have noticed your exceptional combat abilities," Aizawa continued, noticing Black's flinch at the sound of Tsukauchi's name. "They are one of a kind, dare I say, going on par with All Might's?"
Black nodded, making a note of the public opinion of his power.
"Going back to my students," Aizawa continued again. "Like I said before, they seem to have taken a liking to you. Although they are not full-fledged pros yet, there are definitely things they can work on. On behalf of the UA Faculty, we would like to invite you to the festival to provide feedback for our students."
This invitation confused the Saiyan even more.
Having to teach(?) mortals? Black thought. That actually sounds blasphemous. A mortal holding more knowledge about the divine than they should would be dangerous like Goku. Perhaps I was right about Project Zero Mortals after all.
"We understand that you do have to work during the hours of the festival," Aizawa said. "As a result, we are willing to cover your pay during the time you'll be gone in addition to an extra stipend depending on the usefulness of your feedback."
Alright, I suppose this, this sounds like an ok…deal? Black wondered. The extra money he could earn would be extremely helpful for moving out of here.
"I'll do it," Black said. "Assuming that my employers-"
"Yeah, it's cool," Jiro popped in. "Again, Aizawa's a dear friend of ours so it'll still be considered on the job if you're helping him out."
"Thank you for the graciousness," Black said.
With that, Aizawa walked out of the cafe, entering a nearby car. In that car, there was a cleanly shaven man at the front seat.
"He agreed, Tsukauchi," Aizawa said. "Don't you think that you're intruding upon his space a bit hard?"
"Things don't seem to add up about Goku," the detective replied, starting the car. "There are no records related to him so there are basically no alibis we can get about him. The closest we have is an incident at Central Hospital about a patient with dark clothes and strange, spiky hair assaulting a doctor but they ruled that out due to the patient having just returned back to consciousness. I don't want a repeat case of the whole vigilante craze a few years back so I'd want to be extra cautious here."
"Your motives are certainly agreeable," Aizawa said. "However, do keep in mind that sometimes the law can be a bit finicky. Had Koichi Haimawari not committed acts of vigilantism, this city we're in might still be in ruins to this day."
"Well, we don't know that until we have more concrete evidence," the detective said. "I just want to keep our society safe."
"Don't we all?" Aizawa snarkily asked. "Anyway, I still have some business to do at UA."
"Ah, right," Tsukauchi replied, driving off away from Naruhata.
Back in the cafe, Black still had questions lingering about the Sports Festival.
"So how skilled are these students?" Black asked.
"Very!" Ichiro replied. "If I didn't know the context, I would've thought that it was a bunch of pros in gym uniforms duking it out!"
Hmm, interesting, Black thought. Seeing the students and Aizawa fight, Black knew there was a considerable difference in style, even if some of the students' raw power exceeded that of their teacher. But, he had to be sure.
"So these should be some crazy events, huh," Black further pressed on.
"Yeah, pretty much." Jiro said. "Though there was this one time some kid had like a permeation quirk and lost all his clothes! Man, I'd hate to be in that situation."
Black ignored that last comment. Just as he prepared another question, Kamayan stormed out of the office in a frenzy.
"GUYS!" the mantis yelled. "DO WE WANT A REPEAT OF THE USJ THING? CUSTOMERS ARE ALREADY ANNOYED ABOUT THEIR DELIVERIES!"
The Saiyan took another look at the list, took the desserts, searched for directions on his phone, and proceeded to fly out. Although he still made the deliveries in excellent time, he still had lingering thoughts about his conflict with mortals. Some mortals such as the Hottas, the class 1-A students, and Aizawa gave him some hope in mortalkind. Others such as Tomura Shigaraki made him burn with anger.
Black stopped mid-air, and meditated for an hour. Afterwards, he smiled, knowing his decision.
*BZZZZT*
His phone vibrated in his pocket, seeing an incoming call from Kamayan.
"THERE ARE STILL DELIVERIES!" he shouted. "IF YOU WANTED TO TAKE A BREAK, YOU SHOULD'VE TOLD ME SOONER!"
"Apologies, I'll be right there," Black answered, covering up his long meditation.
After hanging up, Black considered his inner monologue one more time.
These mortals should be given a chance, Black decided. If I keep seeing more of these tolerable mortals, I'll let them live. If I get offended too greatly, there shall be no survivors, especially without a 'Trunks' saving them.
Feeling at peace with this offer, Goku Black continued to fly at high speeds, taking pride in his work.
Author's Note: So there's chapter 10! So with that, sports festival arc! I know there's a lot of fanfics with dbz characters in the tournament but I don't think it fits narratively at all in this story. Anyway, the story's been popping off (by my standards) lately so thank you all for the continued support!