Goku Black has seen all sorts of mortals during his escapades trying to slaughter them all. His expectations for mortal appearances were set even more astray when he saw all sorts of different people on this version of Earth.
The man in front of him radiated an aura of illness, with nothing about him indicating that he could be powerful in any way. The oversized suit he was wearing was just the icing on the cake.
Despite all of these details of weakness, Black sensed that there was somehow a lingering sense of power hidden in the bag of bones in front of him. It was a sense of power that he hasn't quite felt since the USJ, which intrigued the Saiyan. Fascinated, Black decided that he was going to dig a bit further.
"So, is your child participating in the Festival?" Black asked, commencing his plot.
"Ah, not quite," the man replied. "I was planning to visit one of the students here though." He held up some bento boxes he had made.
"Ah, that looks like a delicious meal fit for a gladiatorial student," the Saiyan replied, eyeing on the food. "I assume that you're a teacher in UA?"
"Well, I mostly work at some administrative position with Principal Nezu," the man replied, adding a very bony looking smile to his explanation. "My name's Toshinori Yagi. I take it that you're Goku, right?"
Goku Black nodded, making note of this man's name.
"Yes, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Black replied, lending out a hand. Yagi took his hand and shook it. "I bet that after the fallout with the USJ and now organizing the Sports Festival must've kept you very busy."
Toshinori Yagi laughed, which caused him to cough up small amounts of blood, startling Black a little.
"Yeah, I suppose you could say that," Yagi explained, seemingly unaware of Black's confused look. "It was a lot of things to file through but I pulled it off. Gotta say though, you seem to have a real knack for appearing at some rather inconvenient places." He said this, chuckling a bit more.
Black nodded, keeping his usual stoic face.
"And it's some incredible power you got there!" Yagi added on. "Not exactly everyday that a citizen is able to use their quirk for self defense appropriately."
"Well, I used to train very hard when I was younger," Black responded. This was technically true, though none of these Earthlings could ever understand how much more difficult he had it back as a Supreme Kai Trainee. "Though speaking of power, I will say, when I saw All Might in the USJ, it felt a bit…odd."
Toshinori Yagi's smile dropped slightly.
"How so?" the aged man asked.
"Well, he was clearly a cut above the rest," Black explained. "But there was something to him as he fought; it felt like he was…dying(?) with each hit he gave."
Yagi began sweating from his forehead.
"And I recalled when I left the USJ with the rest of the kids, it felt like All Might suddenly became this much weaker being," the Saiyan added on. "It felt…odd…"
Yagi's face was a nervous frown at this point. Needing to end this conversation, he looked at his watch.
"Oh, look at the time!" he exclaimed. "I completely lost track of time in this wonderful conversation. I gotta go give some of these lunches out but it was nice meeting you!"
Black paused and sighed. "Well, I do hope you enjoy yourself," he said.
Toshinori Yagi smiled and said his farewells to Black, leaving the Saiyan with more questions than answers.
He seemed like a nice guy, Black reflected. Even with a quirk, how does someone end up looking like that? And yet, that doesn't quite explain why he felt a tad similar to some sort of power I felt in the USJ.
Sure, Toshinori Yagi and All Might both have blonde hair and sunken blue eyes but slight appearance similarities alone aren't enough to confirm anything. This mystery would have to take a bit more time for him to confirm.
In the meantime, he would just continue making his way through the USJ, soaking in his own little personal tour.
After admiring the interior design of UA, Black found himself outside the stadium again, this time even more crowded than when he was with Aizawa. Numerous vendors selling merch and food could be seen and Black's travel speed was halted to a snail's pace.
As he wandered around the premises, he could feel that his presence was met with mixed opinions. Some passersby, mostly civilian spectators, looked at him with awe and admiration while others, mostly heroes, looked at him with annoyance and fear. This made Black feel a bit awkward, as he never thought much about politely interacting with a large number of mortals at once like this. While he could carry his own in a conversation during his delivery duties, he never thought much about having to work with so many mortals in the capacity he was being presented. But, this was still a new world for Black, with enough positives to keep him from restarting Project Zero Mortals…for now.
"Woah, it's Mount Lady!" a takoyaki shop owner some distance behind the Saiyan yelled out joyously, blushing at the sight of the fairly new heroine. Behind her were two other heroes: one seemingly made of trees and another with large arms.
"And no green seaweed, please!" the purple-horned heroine who was in front of the shop requested. She seemed to be popular as dozens of mens' eyes ogled over her.
"Alright, that'll be 500 yen," the owner said, smiling.
That price tag seemed to put a damper on the heroine, who made a slightly surprised face. This led her to quickly put on a more seductive farce for the shop owner.
"Umm…" Mount Lady pleaded. "I don't have that much right now…"
Goku Black overheard all of this, feeling irritated at this act. This clear use of sex appeal felt morally dubious, especially towards a fellow blue-collar worker. The Saiyan recalled his initial state arriving in this world: a dirty, weak, poor mess who had little chance of surviving (or in his case, slaughtering all mortals) in this world. Now that he was employed with a steady flow of income, he was afforded some decent luxuries and even a home in this world. This kindness allowed him to put Project Zero Mortals on an indefinite hold.
While it wasn't an action worthy of omnicide, this was still a dirty move, especially from someone who was supposed to be protecting the peace of the general public. Black would be sure that she couldn't get away with this. Fortunately for him, there weren't too many people near that stall, allowing him to Z-vanish there.
"I'll pay for her food," the Saiyan said, suddenly appearing in front of a shocked shop owner. The hero duo behind Mount Lady just looked surprised while the heroine herself didn't seem to react.
"Uh, are you sure?" the shop owner asked Black.
The Saiyan only made a fierce stare at the owner.
"Uh well, if you want to, alright," the owner replied, taking Black's money.
"Wow, thanks!" Mount Lady said, seemingly oblivious to the situation. The trio of heroes walked away from the cart.
As the trio walked a few steps away from the stall, the tree hero hung his head down and crossed his arms in disappointment.
"Have you no shame?" he rhetorically asked the heroine, who was happily enjoying her Takoyaki.
"I agree," a serious, slightly rough voice asked calmly behind them.
The trio turned around and saw Goku Black, who was visibly annoyed at Mount Lady.
"Oh hey, it's that fan who bought this for me!" she exclaimed. "Ya here to get an autograph?"
"You dummy, that's Goku!" the man with large arms said. "He's that 'guest assessor' they have for these kids for some reason."
"That's an odd job," she remarked. "Is he actually any good, Death Arms?"
"If you've been reading the news for the past few months, he's seemed to have had some bad luck," the tree hero interjected. "Can't truly call it vigilantism cause he was just at those places at the wrong times. Mind you, these are actually pretty reputable places too."
"Wow," she said plainly. "Still not sure why that constitutes a shiny new job just to assess these kids' performance."
"Honestly, I'm not sure either," Black said. "Though I suppose that's a job I got with honest labor, something I want to talk to you about."
"Hmm? What for?" the heroine asked.
The duo accompanying her seemed to anticipate the inevitable earful she would get.
"That Takoyaki vendor there," Black began to explain while pointing at the stall, still keeping a calm temper. "Think about what he has to do for his job: prepare his ingredients, set up a stop, cook, and handle transactions with customers for many hours in a day. Many people enjoy his services, as it provides joy to many. Despite that, street vendors aren't the model of the rich and wealthy you see."
"Ok, so what's your point?" Mount Lady asked, feeling annoyed that this turned out not to be a fan meetup afterall.
"You, being a hero, should know to behave much better," the Saiyan continued to explain, beginning to rant a little. "Millions of citizens around the country depend on heroes such as yourselves to protect them from danger. Yet you use your status to take advantage of those who you're supposed to protect; how can you call yourself a hero with that attitude?"
"Hey, watch it, mister!" the heroine yelled, getting angry at Black's reasoning. "I don't know who you think you are, but we're through!"
"HEY HEY, GOKU!" a familiar, hyped-up voice screamed. "I GOT THE FRIED CHICKEN BUCKETS!"
Black turned around to see Present Mic, holding several buckets of fried chicken.
"I originally wanted to get one bucket for all of us to share," he explained. "But they were selling them for dirt cheap. AND THE CRUNCH IS FANTASTIC!"
"So you bought that many?" Black asked, feeling overwhelmed by the food he was seeing.
"Yeah, pretty much," Mic replied. "Oh, I see you're with Mount Lady, Death Arms, and Kamui Woods right now! Hope I wasn't interrupting anything too important!"
"No you did not," the heroine replied, staring intensely at Black. "In fact, we were just about to leave."
"I suppose I was, as well," Black responded in his usual calm nature.
"Welp, I guess we'll be off!" the DJ hero said. "Later guys! And Goku, I wanna walk back so try not to warp."
Black nodded and followed Present Mic. The two walked away from the trio of heroes, who just awkwardly received a lesson about morals.
"WHO DOES HE THINK HE EVEN IS?" Mount Lady yelled. "JUST BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE MONEY THAT TIME DOESN'T MEAN I ALWAYS DO THAT!"
"Well, he came off as a bit aggressive, but overall I gotta agree with his main points," Death Arms explained. "People are trusting us with their lives so it does do them a bit of disservice to take advantage of our status."
"You can't say you didn't see this coming," Kamui Woods replied. "Honestly, that could've gone far worse. There are some extreme moral perfectionists. Then you got that Hero Killer running around and…"
"OK OK OK I GET THE POINT NOW LEMME EAT MY TAKOYAKI," she yelled out. The trio continued their way elsewhere around the premises.
Back in the announcer box, Aizawa was still asleep in his sleeping bag, paying no attention to whatever was happening down on the stage. It was currently an intermission so he didn't have to pay as much attention to events.
"AND WE'RE BACK!" Present Mic exclaimed, waking Aizawa up from his slumber. "Man, Goku was a huge help in carrying all of this back!"
"Ugh, whatever," Aizawa replied, feeling groggy. "Again, I don't want any of the food."
"What the hell is happening down there now?" Black asked, feeling confused as to why the activities were suddenly so much more different than before.
"That's a good question, Goku!" Mic replied, this time broadcasting it to the rest of the stadium. "This is still a Sports Festival so we prepared a ton of recreational events!"
"Alright, but what the hell is happening to those girls?" Black asked, pointing to the group of girls in cheerleader uniforms.
"Oh, well that's a group of cheerleaders we got from America to-" Mic stopped his sentence. "Wait, what the hell is happening to those girls?"
The repeat question got Aizawa up from his sleeping bag and looked down to observe. His eyes widened in fury at the sight of this.
"Don't tell me it was those two…" he muttered.
Down on stage, the class 1-A girls were all wearing stereotypically revealing cheerleading uniforms. The trio in the announcer box had no idea what was going on, especially Black. Unlike a usual cheerleading ceremony, they looked gloomy and did nothing to entertain the spectators. This sight got the attention of the neighboring class 1-B, who looked at them with peculiarity.
Well, they did nothing to entertain most of the spectators. Nearby, the blonde Kaminari and purple-balled Mineta could be seen giving each other a thumbs up and smiling at what they were able to accomplish.
Yaoyorozu slumped down in anguish.
"I even used my quirk to make these costumes," she moped, while Uraraka consoled her.
"Well, anyway, once all of this is over, we're gonna be up to the final event," Mic explained to the stadium. "We'll have a one-on-one tournament between the 16 members of the four winning teams!"
The students who were to compete looked more serious than before. Black could sense fiery passion burning within all of them. The Saiyan felt particularly more responsible at this stage of the Sports Festival. With so few competitors, it was easier but more important to make more detailed assessments of the competitors. It was even a bit important that he finished so that he kept in good standing with both the Hottas and UA. Most importantly, for Goku Black, this could be his chance to see how the strongest mortals in this universe would fight against each other.
Author's Note: And there's a wrap! Alright, I think I'm getting more back into shape with writing this, this felt a lot more natural to write than the last one. Considering that the one on one fights are coming up soon, the Stain arc will come really really fast!
And yeah, the whole Mount Lady stuff was like 20 seconds in the actual show but I don't think Black would allow that interaction to be so short, especially with his newfound appreciation for mortalkind and blue-collared workers. Not much else to say but thanks for reading!