Stain looked around the bar, which consisted of nothing out of the ordinary apart from a tablet that said 'Sound Only'. Faced with only a young adult and his purple misty henchman, the Hero Killer felt highly unimpressed.
"So, I abandon my purge for a moment," Stain said. "Just to waste my time with some bloodthirsty manchild?"
"Bloodthirsty?" Shigaraki replied. "Why, I thought that our interests aligned perfectly well with one another's. You hate heroes and I hate heroes. You've already killed and injured tons of heroes while I want to just see this hero-society crash and burn a miserable death. What do you say, hmmm?"
"And why is it that you want to see them crash and burn a miserable death?" asked Stain.
"It's fun to watch," replied Shigaraki. "And watching everything that stupid oaf, All Might built get ruined is just the icing on the cake."
The Hero Killer did not seem amused by these comments and his face contorted into a deep scowl. With the reflexes of a cheetah pouncing on their prey, Stain unsheathed a katana and pinned Shigaraki down on the floor with his boots slammed on his face.
"Just as I thought, you disgusting brat," Stain said. "We couldn't be any more different. You just seek to destroy and destroy. My conviction lies in revealing the dark truths to this sham of a society the public lives in. Where does your conviction lie?"
"Why, why I oughta-" Shigaraki attempted to speak, still crushed underneath the weight of Stain's boots.
"Now, hold it, Tomura," a voice came out from the 'Sound Only' tablet. "This may seem like an unfavorable predicament you're in but I believe that it's quite a good learning opportunity."
Shigaraki continued to struggle underneath Stain's boots. As he writhed in agony and fury, Kurogiri turned his attention to the tablet.
"Master, what are you proposing?" the mist portal asked.
"Well, let's look at our esteemed guest," the voice replied. "Apart from a valuable array of combat skills, he also has an ideology of his own. To cleanse the world of 'fake heroes' to enlighten the masses about the corruption within hero society has a very amiable goal from a third person's perspective, wouldn't you agree? And this isn't just all talk; I can tell right as he stepped into this room that he lives and breathes this conviction. So, Tomura Shigaraki, where does your conviction lie?"
Shigaraki still continued to squirm under Stain's boots. Although still well pinned, he managed to free his hand and touched one of the Hero Killer's katanas by grabbing a hold of it with his left hand.
"My conviction lies in getting this asshole the hell off of me," Shigaraki answered, decaying the object he just held. This distracted Stain for a split-second, which was just enough time for Shigaraki to free himself from the attack.
"That's certainly a good start," the voice replied. "I think for you, it will be best to watch and learn from a professional such as Stain for our next task at hand."
"So, safe to say that you're the real brains behind this operation," Stain said, pointing his remaining katana at the tablet.
"Well, I suppose I'm the one with more experience than the two who found you," the voice replied. "Although this initial encounter was more hostile than I would have liked, I can easily forget this as if nothing ever happened. In return, I do have an actual offer for you."
Stain responded, eyes flinching at the tablet. There was something to this speaker that commanded more attention than two League of Villains members in front of him.
"You know UA High School, correct?" the voice asked, to which Stain nodded. "Good, prestigious hero school, the rest speaks for itself. With the conclusion of their Sports Festival, the hero course students should be taking up their internships with Pro Heroes very soon. I believe creating an attack on not just heroes, but prospective heroes as well can help your cause. After all, they are the future of corruption so you might as well exterminate them before they get too far. Our organization will provide you with support in the form of both Nomus and pseudo-nomus. If you remembered the Naruhata attack, these were the same type of creatures used. It caused quite the panic amongst the local police and heroes that were involved."
"But that was foiled because of this one civilian," Stain replied. "Son Goku destroyed all of them with relatively little effort, did he not?"
"We have learned from that incident and our next ones will be much more resilient," the voice replied. "If, for some reason, you manage to encounter Son Goku during the attack, I would like you to try to restrain him. He has a horrible habit of showing up exactly when he is not needed, so this would be a great favor if you can pull it off."
"Even with my quirk, there's no evidence the guy's ever bled," Stain replied. "During every attack that he's been involved in, he has never shown any sign of injury. I can't paralyze something that cannot bleed."
"You're not able to paralyze something that cannot bleed yet," the voice replied. "As a down payment for this job, I will give you a quirk that should synergize perfectly with yours. You may want to brace yourself for what will happen."
In a swirl of black goo, the Hero Killer was engulfed and disappeared without a trace from the bar, leaving Tomura Shigaraki and Kurogiri alone. Shigaraki walked up to the tablet and glared down, hands against the wall, careful to not place all his fingers against it.
"You better have something good, Master," Shigaraki menacingly said.
Weeks passed since Stain's introduction to the League of Villains. While the villains crafted their nefarious schemes, Hopper's Café went on a one week vacation. Goku Black found himself agitated with yarn wrapped around his hand in his room on an afternoon, desperately trying to imagine all sorts of different movements with nothing in his hands except for two needles. He could not comprehend how mortals were able to create articles of clothing with this clumsy 'knitting' method. In particular, he especially could not comprehend how Kamayan was able to knit quality sweaters despite only having claws that permanently replaced the hands he once had. Although a piece of yarn was messily wrapped around his fingers, he was able to knit a fabric of decent symmetry, making Kamayan nod his head.
"Not bad," the mantis pointed out at Black's diamond stitch patterns. "You could definitely still learn a thing or two. Here, lemme show you."
In just a few seconds, Kamayan managed to grab a pair of needles and some yarn of two blue and red and proceeded to extend the Saiyan's diamond pattern into a scarf with a simple koi design.
Black looked at Kamayan's knitting technique, his eyes contorted in slight discomfort. On one hand, the mantis's creations were genuinely high quality. On the other hand, seeing literal claws create an article of clothing better than his 10 fingers equipped with opposable thumbs felt very unmotivating to the Saiyan. The Saiyan looked back at his work, which was still a crumpled mess of worn-out yarn.
"Wouldn't it be more efficient if I practiced that creation power rather than learn how to make clothes by hand?" Black asked, picking up his needles and began to re-thread his work. "I understand that you wanted me to spend effort on each creation but I don't really see how this is 'creation' exactly. In this case, I use some needles, get a spool of yarn, and then do some handiwork to transform it into the shape that I want. With my powers, I am straight up creating new matter."
"True, I suppose that ass-pull of a creation power you got there is more resource efficient," the mantis replied. "But even though you can create things en masse, are you sure you understand exactly what you're trying to make?"
"Well, all I just do is visualize it in my head and transpose my thoughts into material form," the Saiyan replied, continuing to knit. "Sure, I got my ways to go with that power but to make me knit instead? I mean, I want to make this scarf that's…that's…uh…"
Black found himself unable to finish his sentence. Sure, he was becoming rather adept at stitching and practicing the tools Kamayan gave him. But what was he trying to make? His hands stopped moving upon realizing that he was knitting out of technique, not creating something of actual value. All the stitch patterns and needlework would go to waste if he kept knitting without an end goal in mind.
"Ya know, I thought that you would be making at least part of Miu's Mirko costume with this session," the mantis said, breaking Black's thoughts. "Why not start there?"
"I, I guess," Black replied. "Though I must say, you were oddly very patient since you found out about my creation abilities. It's…a nice change of pace from hearing you yell as I wash the dishes."
Kamayan rolled his eyes in response to this comment.
"What can I say, crafting methods such as knitting was one of my biggest hobbies prior to this transformation of mine," the mantis said. "Honestly, I've always wanted to share it with someone else, though the Hottas were never super interested in it. I will say that you were probably the last person I'd expect to get into this."
The Saiyan continued to knit as he tried to wrap around this unexpected soft spot he found on Kamayan.
"Like I mean it, Goku," Kamayan continued to say. "I've dabbled in all sorts of crafting from ceramics, woodworking, and even blacksmithing. But somehow, everything seems to always go back to knitting. Of course, with the way I look, it's been really hard to find someone to share this hobby with. So honestly, thanks for spending this time with me man, means a lot."
"Oh! Uh, you're welcome…" Black replied uneasily, still adjusting to Kamayan's respect towards him.
Kamayan looked at the clock on the Saiyan's wall.
"You know what, I think we can wrap it up for now," the mantis replied. "Gotta go make sure the cats are alright. Wanna come along?"
"Well, it's the least I can do," Black replied. "I haven't got the slightest idea on how to take care of most of them apart from Vanilla though."
"That's fine, I'll give you instructions," Kamayan said.
The two left the Saiyan's room and into the cat nursery. It was a spacious pink room for ten cats, each with their own little bed and assortment of cat toys to play with. Each of them were asleep and looked like a collection of furballs to Black.
"Yes, this is about as easy as it looks," Kamayan said, noticing Black's relaxed face. "They're all asleep so all we need to do is just leave water out when they wake up. Man, we got real lucky this time, you don't KNOW how much of a burden feeding them all can be at times. Oh but not just any food will do, for example, you know that Charlie here hates fish and Wilbur…"
While the duo prepared fresh water, Kamayan droned on about cat dietary restrictions, which overwhelmed Black, who was accustomed to taking care of Vanilla. Hearing about things that these cats could and could not eat made him feel very fortunate that a Saiyan's body had no limit in the variety of foods to eat.
"...and you already know Vanilla REALLY loves bacon. Gotta say, the advent of quirks did help in making certain animals' diets, such as cats, to be a lot more flexible. Jiro left me a recipe for cat food, which I'd cook, but as you can see, hand issue," Kamayan finished his long monologue while snapping his claws. "So, any questions?"
"No, this sounds pretty straightforward," Black replied, trying not to look confused. In actuality, it was a real shocker to learn that raising an Earth animal is even more effort than memorizing the entire North Kai library and reciting it back to Gowasu.
This brief thought of Gowasu suddenly brought Black back to his days as Zamasu, however. Although he already far surpassed any Kai in raw power with his original body, he recalled how each of his master's creations had a speck of "potential" that his own never quite reached. Back in his own training, when he was creating his own solar systems, the lifeforms that did develop on his planets ended up being exceptionally violent bacteria that ended up killing themselves off. On the other hand, when examining Gowasu's creations, the mortals on planet Barbari also had a violent tendency of their own. As savage as they were, they were able to use fire and clubs, which are undeniable signs of an advancing civilization. Perhaps answering this question, along with figuring out a purpose as a creator, will get him closer to a Kai's level of creation in the body of a Saiyan.
"Hey Kamayan," Black said as he finished pouring his last water dish. "Remember that Hosu trip you offered me a few weeks ago?"
"Well, of course," the mantis replied. "You actually remembered that?"
"It's something to do with creating, so naturally, I did," the Saiyan answered. "Would it be alright if we went to the shop you were speaking of tomorrow evening?"
"I suppose so, sure," Kamayan replied. "You know, I think this could be a great idea to help elevate your knitting experience. Heck, I think we could introduce you to another form of craftsmanship such as blacksmithing."
"A shop that sells both knitting materials and blacksmithing tools?" the Saiyan questioned, feeling that this was a strange combination of items to be selling.
"I know, it sounds like it shouldn't work," the mantis responded. "But this is a general crafting shop so they got all sorts of things. It's actually kind of a 'secret' place, sorta like those speakeasies in America back during their Prohibition Era. Except, this is a completely legal business that doesn't have any conflict of interest with our country's constitution."
That doesn't reassure me but I suppose that's the best explanation I'll be getting, Black thought.
After caring for the cats, the two walked out of the room and back into the main hallway of the Café. Kamayan began to take his belongings and prepared to leave.
"Well, I suppose I can go back to practicing my creation power," Black said, figuring out how to end the conversation with him. This entire day spent with a patient, accepting Kamayan with a hobby still felt like a blur to him.
"Well, you do you," Kamayan said. "Anyways, I'm gonna go home now, have a good rest of your evening, Goku."
Black nodded and walked back to the entrance of his room in the basement. Learning about mortal creation techniques ended up being a much more arduous task than he initially gave the mortals credit for. He laid on his bed and fell asleep immediately, without practicing creation.
The next evening, Kamayan and Black found themselves on a bus from Naruhata to Hosu. Although Black always preferred using instant-transmission over using public transportation, the mantis convinced him to explore the sights, as he was still new to Japan in comparison to his employers and other associates. Being full of exhausted people trying to come home from work, the opportunities for the two to talk were rather limited.
The two then got off the bus, which was near Team Idaten's headquarters, Ingenium's agency. Black felt a little uneasy, as he never had a chance to talk to the hero's younger brother about the situation.
"Well, we're not too far from the place," Kamayan pointed out once they got off. "You ever hear of a small shop called 'Builder's Tasty Noodles'?"
Black's face could not hide his confusion and looked at the mantis's claw gesture to be sure that he wasn't going mad.
"I did say it was like an old American speakeasy but I guess you don't know much about them," the mantis clarified. "Anyways, in addition to having a front as a ramen shop, it also doubles as probably the single best crafting place in ALL of Japan."
"Why the hell is this even a secret?" the Saiyan asked, confused by all this formality. "This sounds like a perfectly legal operation, why go through the difficulty of making themselves so inaccessible?"
Kamayan turned and rested his claws on Black's shoulders as if they were hands.
"Well, they're not completely unknown, it's a fairly popular social media topic to discuss what goes behind the scenes of this noodle shop," the mantis replied. "First off, membership is open to only the best of the best crafters, with one guest being allowed per member's visit. If it were more available to the public, the quality of work would go WAY down. Take a look at that statue of Ingenium to your left."
A lifesize silver statue of the former Turbo hero stood, with every detail of his armor in place.
"Done COMPLETELY by a Noodle Shop Member," Kamayan continued. "That's what we call ourselves, Noodle Shop Members. If we became open to the public, we would not be able to produce quality works such as this with so much…distractions we would be getting. Second, intrigue attracts attention. Our presence is enough where everyone knows we exist but no one really knows what goes on behind the scenes. They see our public works, admire it for a long time, and the intrigue really helps draw attention to that."
"Mortals with their strange etiquette…" Black muttered in annoyance, shaking his head.
"What about mortals?" the mantis questioned, unsure the meaning of what Black said.
"Oh, well, I just thought that still sounded very strange," the Saiyan replied, trying to cover up his mumbling.
"Strange way to word it but fine," Kamayan said. The two walked around Hosu, with Kamayan almost acting as a tour guide. The starry clear night blended well with the tall buildings of Hosu, creating a picturesque nighttime city view. Although the journey to the Noodle shop lasted a few minutes, it was fascinating enough to seem only like a few seconds to the Saiyan.
"That was a nice chat," the mantis then stated. "I'll go talk to the chef. It might take a bit of convincing to let newcomers come."
Kamayan walked in and tried his best to sit on a stool. It was a very small shop with only a counter that separated the customer from the chef and his kitchen.
"Welcome to Builder's Tasty Noodles," a middle aged, bald man with squinty eyes welcomed. "How may I help you?"
"Thank you for serving me, chef, " the mantis spoke. "I'll have some Chocolate And Biscuits please. I got a friend waiting who's interested in having some too."
The chef looked outside, seeing the spiky haired Saiyan near the front door.
"It's been a while, Kamachi," the chef asked. "You should pay visits more often. Cats could drive you mad, you know."
"Well, they haven't driven me that far yet so I think I'll be alright," the mantis replied. "Anyways, my friend here has this insane creation power but it needs some fine tuning. So what better than to send him here to learn from the best of the best?"
"You know we don't do teaching," the chef said. "Even if we did, so what if he's got an insane quirk? That Creation quirk of the Yaoyorozu girl in the UA Sports Festival wouldn't do us any good. Plus, I think only a person living under a rock wouldn't know who Son Goku is at this point. The publicity he already has in addition to his lack of experience is a no-go. Something unique to our experience is that the public doesn't know who our members are. Having a public figure like that is gonna really hurt our intrigue."
Black tried to hide his scowl, as his time as a Kai lasted for far longer than human civilization has existed. Still, it certainly was impressive that even Momo Yaoyorozu's quirk would be inadequate to join their inner circle. While the Saiyan collected his thoughts on this rather unfortunate information, he felt a particularly homicidal energy nearby him.
What the hell is this, Black thought, becoming more serious and readying himself for combat. I haven't felt this kind of hateful wrath since Shigaraki in the USJ…and there's three other life energies, one headed towards this way…they feel like…
Black's eyes widened at his newfound findings. The Saiyan ran inside the shop and Z-vanished over to the kitchen area, much to the confusion of the chef and mantis.
"What the hell do you think you-" the chef said before he was interrupted.
BOOM.
In less than a blink of an eye, a strange winged gray creature with its brain protruding out of its head detonated the kitchen area of the building, knocking the chef away, although Kamayan was able to catch him in time. Goku Black held the creature's body, serving as the main barrier for the mantis and the chef.
"WH-WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" the chef screamed, terrified at such a hideous creature in his establishment.
"Hey, those look like the pseudo-nomu from that time with Jiro!" the mantis pointed out.
Before Black could respond, the creature began to flap its wings and flew away, taking Black, who was still clutching its body with it.
All according to plan, Black thought. Now to dispose of this creature. With my next step, I can't have that Detective snooping around, so I should do this without leaving any DNA samples.
After traveling some distance away from the noodle shop, Black did a spinning kick to the creature's chin, stunning it, then flew and delivered an air punch to the brain, detonating the falling remains.
Still not enough to be like my Rosé days, Black thought. Now, to investigate that particularly interesting energy.
Using instant-transmission, Black teleported to a tall building, where he observed two people underneath him.
One Native American-looking hero, Black observed. And a masked man brandishing katanas…
Sure enough, the Saiyan found himself within walking distance of Hero Killer: Stain.
You won't kill anyone else this time, Black thought, quickly diving off the building.
Stain stalked the hero until he reached a dark alleyway. Just as he prepared to unleash his katanas upon his next victim, he found himself slashing away at nothing in the middle of a cold, icy tundra.
"Hokkaido, huh," the Hero Killer growled, brandishing his Katana. "It's gotta be you, right, Son Goku?"
Black descended down to ground level, walking up to Stain.
"Well, I've wanted to visit this place but I knew the directions," the Saiyan replied. Examining Stain up close, Black couldn't figure out why villains seemed to have the worst taste in appearances. Shigaraki was one brand of ugliness he could have never imagined but this was a whole new level of wretchedness. "You've got a lot of nerve to be pulling that to someone who helps keep order in our society, Stain."
"Order…ORDER!" Stain roared. "Those marketable charlatans of 'heroes' bring EVERYTHING EXCEPT order. We live in a society where heroes can sacrifice time away from helping citizens in need just so they can shoot a movie! You tell ME if that's your so-called ORDER!" Stain then slashed at Black, who just blocked his attempt with his pinky finger.
"Well, they spend time helping citizens for most of their work anyways," the Saiyan responded, parrying the katana slash away from himself. "It's only natural they get some rewards for their noble efforts, no?"
Stain shook his head.
"You poor, misguided fool," Stain said. "That's what they would want you to believe, honorary UA poster child."
He then made another katana slash, this time directed at the Saiyan's abdomen.
What's he doing with these pointless attacks? Black wondered, blocking his katana slash.
With the force of Black's blocking his slash, Stain was given enough force to launch himself in the air, to do a somersault. Calculating just the right height he needed, he was able to lick the top of the Saiyan's head when he reached terminal velocity. After accomplishing what he needed, he landed back on his feet, facing away from the Saiyan's back.
If Kamayan's gentle treatment of him for the past few days wasn't already surprising enough, Goku Black could never guess that he would be licked at all in any fight.
"You should've known that I used to take ice baths a lot so the cold never bothered me anyway," Stain said. "The rumors about your toughness are true after all, I can't land a single cut on you. But you should know, it's over."
Why the hell can't I move? Black wondered. My hands are away from my body so I can't use instant-transmission to get me out of here. And Stain's behind me so I can't point any part of my hands or even feet to shoot him. Even telekinesis will be hard.
As Goku Black struggled with this sudden paralysis, grunting in an attempt to move a muscle, some black goo started to form around him, engulfing parts of his body. Black remembered exactly what this was.
Author's note: Yeah, it's been a while again! Anyways, Stain fight coming up, I'll be sure to put that chapter out in a few days. It's only fair after all; I've been kinda cruel about leaving you guys on cliffhangers! Most readers probably noticed that Goku Black wasn't bleeding despite Stain's quirk activating. I'll just say that you'd be correct with that observation for now. I suppose if you want any hints, re-read the intro sequence of this chapter again.
Also because it's been a while and I forgot to put this on my last note, just as a reminder, characters like the Hottas, Kamayan (AKA Kirito Kamachi), Miu, Takobe, Number 6, and 'The Cruller' aren't fan made characters, they're actual characters from the Vigilantes spinoff of the main MHA series. Naruhata and Hopper's Café are all real things in that spinoff, including some of the backstories of the aforementioned characters. The main manga's in its final war arc and it's honestly a shame that apart from Aizawa's backstory and the use of Trigger, there isn't actually a lot that links the two series together beyond the same characters. But that's probably just me, in any case, check out that spinoff!
Another reminder because it's been so long, if there's confusion on Goku Black's identity, this is the same Goku Black from the original Future Trunks's timeline. He just happens to use the real Goku's actual name for legal documents in the MHA world.
And as usual, thanks for reading! This is the highly anticipated (at least I think it is based on the events I've been building up to) Stain fight so yes, you can expect a chapter a lot sooner than usual!