I'm disappointed it took me this long too, but hey, my upload schedule was on track until I was forced to start working overtime.

The clock in the teacher's lounge ticked on. Chisa watched as Makoto contemplated his answer.

Finally he said, "Fuyuhiko, Peko, and Junko."

"Hey!" Chisa said. "You can't pick Fuyuhiko, that's cheating!"

"What?" Makoto asked. "I didn't know I could cheat. I just picked the obvious."

Chisa pouted playfully before she said, "Okay, fine! Out of our students, besides Fuyuhiko, who would you recruit for a bank heist?"

Chisa and Makoto were each waiting for their students to finish classes. Makoto was slouched over his desk as he contemplated the conversation starter again but with new restrictions. Chisa watched and tried to stifle her amusement at his serious expression.

"Okay, I've got it. Nagito, Celestia, and Mondo," Makoto said.

"Oh really?" Chisa asked. "Why them?"

"Well, Celestia and Nagito are really crafty kids, both really smart and deceptive when they have to. And Nagito's insanely good luck would be great for a heist I think. And while Mondo doesn't like me, I think he'd be okay being a good "muscle" or decoy or something. Maybe even a getaway driver with his motorcycle. So between the four of us we've got all our bases covered for a heist."

"Oh? And what role do you play?'

"Plain civilian distraction," Makoto said. "No matter how crafty they are, they're still ultimates, and likely to stand out. They'll need someone not suspicious. Who would you pick?"

"Nekomaru, Akane, and Fuyuhiko," Chisa said

Makoto objected immediately, "Hey!"

Chisa laughed, and before they could continue the bell rang signalling the end of classes and the beginning of the break before lunch period. She stood up and stretched her arms and shoulders. "Well, Makoto," she said. "I need to keep an eye on my class during lunch, to see if my rotten oranges can clean after themselves."

"Oh?" he asked. "How's that been going with them? For some reason I just can't imagine some of them actually tidying up like you."

Chisa shrugged. "I admit, kids like them sometimes can't see the mess or know how to properly take care of it, but they're doing good. I suspect it's only because Nagito is so eager to do what the others won't." She sighed and melodramatically looked out the window. "Oh, if only they had a teacher their first year that stressed the importance of teamwork and responsibility." Chisa hoped she wasn't being too subtle as she shot Makoto a look.

He sighed. "Yes, yes Chisa, I understand what you mean," he said.

Chisa shook her head. "You had no problem doing chores during our school year, we all pitched in to clean our school."

". . . I'm pretty sure our class did that because you got us to do that," Makoto said.

"And did you not actually listen to me?" Chisa teased. "Learning after all these years you just followed orders because you were scared instead of listening to reason really hurts Makoto. Not listening to me then or now, I'm starting to think we weren't friends."

He laughed. After a moment he scratched the back of his head and said, "Funny we're talking about this though. Because after thinking about it I think I've decided to take a bit more active role with the 78th class at the very least."

Chisa blinked. "Oh?"

Makoto nodded. "Don't get me wrong, I believe in this class, I thought they were going to adhere to regular schooling themselves and I was mostly right, but . . ." he trailed off.

"But . . .?" Chisa prompted, taking some joy from him admitting she was right.

"One of my students is sort of blowing off his classes and hasn't shown up for a few days. Most of them are fine, but I'm really worried because, he really shouldn't be the type to be like this."

Chisa gave a sarcastic sigh and patted his shoulder. "There, there, Makoto, it's not your fault. You didn't have a friend to help you stop being stupid your first year," she "consoled."

Makoto tensed up. "Well," he began. "I wouldn't say I was stupid. I just got the balance wrong maybe? Based on what I knew of this class anyway."

"Sure Makoto," she smiled, "whatever makes you feel better."

"Anyway," he said, ignoring the jab. "I'll just talk to the one skipping and maybe make a point of it to all of them tomorrow during homeroom if it seems drastic enough."

"Good." Chisa nodded. "Be proud Makoto, this is your first step to being a good teacher!"

"That's harsh Chisa."

She only tilted her head. "I call it like I see it Makoto."

"Then you see the world harshly."

"Not the world, just my fellow teachers. Count yourself lucky I don't treat you like Koichi."

Makoto scoffed. "I think that's because I actually do my job."

The two shared a small chuckle over their shared exasperation towards their coworker.

"Oh, before I forget, who's your troublesome student? I need to know who to look out for next year," Chisa asked. "Maybe I can talk to them myself if they prove too rambunctious for you."

"Oh," Makoto said. "The Ultimate Heir, Byakuya Togami."

"Eh?"

"Who is this?" The smoo th voice of an old british man asked through the intercom.

"I'm Mr. Naegi," Makoto answered. "Byakuya's homeroom teacher."

"I'll be wi th you shor tly."

Makoto's eyes wandered back up, and up, and up to the top of the mansion. This was easily the most expensive personal property Makoto has ever seen. In both timelines. Just getting here he had to go through two security guard checkpoints and still had to be buzzed in.

Normally Makoto would be one to call it excessive, but after the Tragedy and seeing fragments of the Togami's corporation barely surviving it, Makoto wasn't going to question it. He had no idea what was the deciding factor between people's survival, but all this security might've been a part of it. "Well," he thought. "As long as people ensuring said security aren't compromised themselves."

When the door opened Makoto quickly banished away the thoughts lingering from what never happened and what might be to put on his best smile for the well dressed butler on the other side. His best smile was probably not at said best due to recognizing the man as Byakuya's hostage and motive during the first killing game. But hey, it was probably acceptable due to Makoto, a normal middle class civilian, being here, one of the richest houses in Japan.

"Mr. Naegi was it?" Mr. Pennyworth asked.

Makoto nodded. "That's me, I'm here to see Byakuya."

"Follow me and I'll show you where Master Togami is," he said, putting particular stress on Byakuya's title and last name. Makoto understood why he may be expected to adhere to that, but he knew he had to have a semblance of a firm front to get anything close to respect from Byakuya.

After being led up a dizzying number of rich floors and through the twisting turns of one of said floor's hallways, Mr. Pennyworth and Makoto stopped in front of an ornate wooden door.

Aloysius knocked once (No, Makoto did not spend the entire time trying to remember the butler's first name, why do you ask? He always remembered it since the one time they interacted more than four years ago) and Byakuya said on the other side, "Let him in."

Opening the door, Aloysius revealed a quite spacious old office. The furniture and bookshelves were of a very rich quality and old looking, but Byakuya had a state of the art computer setup and everything was obviously well taken care of. Few papers were on the desk and Byakuya kept his eyes on his computer, typing away.

Makoto took a step inside and Byakuya immediately said, "Close the door behind him," and the butler complied. Makoto, now alone, immediately noticed there were no chairs on the other side of the desk for a guest to sit in. Now either this area was a place Byakuya preferred to work alone or this was one of those power plays rich people did to each other. Knowing Byakuya, the answer was probably both. "You wished to see me Mr. Naegi?" he asked, getting right to business.

"Please," Makoto said. "Makoto is fine. Byakuya, I'm concerned about your attendance the past week or so."

"Is that so?" Byakuya asked very dryly.

"Yes it is," Makoto confirmed. Byakuya may not have been sincere but Makoto was. "Your classmates are very good, wonderful people who I think you would be good friends with."

Byakuya stopped typing. "What?" He turned to look directly at Makoto. "You come here representing Hope's Peak Academy and you begin your plea with preaching about friendship? I have no need for networking or social circles. I'm a Togami, my bread and butter are meetings and negotiations that would chew up your students and spit them out. If the course work requires my presence then tell me what it is or send me what I need to do in an email." And with that he turned back to his computer and resumed typing.

"Byakuya," Makoto said exasperated. This reminded Makoto so much of talking to Byakuya when he backslid into bad habits, taken to the max. "Well, from my perspective I could see it as a backslide, except literally and encompassing the entire world," he thought. "I'm not here representing Hope's Peak. I'm here as your teacher. I'm worried about you."

Byakuya scoffed. "A teacher needs to teach me something I don't know. You have not."

"You haven't done my one assignment Byakuya."

Byakuya rolled his eyes. "I do not need help from any of those lesser commoners. And I am not interested in signing blank checks or helping them network, or whatever else they would try to demand of me. If they want, they can go through official channels like everyone else."

"Then why did you go to Hope's Peak in the first place then Byakuya?"

"It is the foremost school in the world, set up to help students hone their talents. It would look poor on myself if I never went to highschool and having Hope's Peak as mine would make proving myself easier in the future. I thought there was a possibility of something worthwhile there but seeing as the courses are no more difficult and attendance is not mandatory I was incorrect."

"No that's wrong," Makoto interrupted. Byakuya glared at him for retorting, but Makoto did not care. He had to get the point through. "Hope's Peak isn't special because of the faculty or the money. Sure they help with executing the idea of the school but it isn't about the core of the issue. It's about looking at what's great about the present and how to preserve and tend to it for the future."

"Then why the hell would I go back there? In fact why are you, a faculty member, telling me this?" Byakuya asked.

Makoto smiled. "Because the people working there and the students can mean so much more than that. All you have to do is look for what you want to get out of that school, besides your talent. The Steering Committee and its scientists are only looking for what you can do. I know that Hope's Peak can be more than just their testing grounds. It's a place where amazing people are, and I think interacting with said people will do you a lot of good. You can be much happier than just sticking to your plan as the Togami heir."

"And how do you know that? You have no idea what kind of person I am or what I want."

Makoto knew this could tip his hand, but he had to get through to him before it was too late. "You want to spread the Togami Coroporation's influence farther and use both deals and societal pressures to entrap your rivals to work with you and improve the world. You believe homelessness to be something that harms us all and dampens the productivity of the world and you wish to eradicate it. You want to prove yourself against difficult challenges and make your siblings who were your rivals proud," Makoto said.

Byakuya blinked. His attention locked onto Makoto. "And how will me being in Hope's Peak like a common student will help?"

Makoto smiled. "All I ask is that you try a life where you are surrounded by diverse peers, and yes Byakuya, no matter how poor they are they are still your peers. I'm not asking you to reach for help because you need it, I'm asking you to be with others because you can and want to."

"What makes you think I want to?"

Makoto smiled. "Because the reason you're not is because you are just judging who they are before you have a chance to meet them and work together. I think they will surprise you by how close you can grow."

Byakuya scoffed and rolled his eyes, not even remotely hiding how much he disdained the idea. After a moment of silence he continued typing away at his computer. "Very well, I wasn't at school in the first place due to things here at the company I have to take care of. I believe I'll be able to finish today and return to school tomorrow."

Makoto blinked multiple times in confusion. "What? Why didn't you just say so?"

Byakuya waved his hand in dismissal. "Well it's too late now so it does not matter, the issue is resolved. Goodbye Mr. Naegi."

Makoto, a little dazed by how easily Byakuya was returning, opened the door to leave but found Aloysius waiting outside.

"Aloysius," Byakuya said. "Let Mr. Naegi go, I have business I need you for and he can find his way out, right Mr. Naegi?"

"Well, I'm not-" Makoto began to say before the office door slammed in his face. Makoto looked back and forth down the hallway trying to remember which direction he came from. "Okay, so I don't think I passed that window so I must've come from the other way. . . or did I?"

"Yes, what seems to be the problem Master Togami?" Aloysius asked.

Byakuya finished typing his email and turned his head to Aloysius. "I need to finish this shipping problem by tonight so I'll be burning the midnight oil. A couple of things have caught my interest and I need you to go to corporate intelligence and tell them to work on it."

The butler paused for a moment before he said, "Master Togami if I may remind you your Father doesn't want you to do this sloppily and your original timetable was to finish it by the end of the week. Why the urgency?"

"Like I said, a couple of things have caught my interest and I want to get started on them sooner rather than later," Byakuya said.

"Very well young Master," Aloysius said as he moved his hands behind his back.

Byakuya could tell Aloysius didn't care but was willing to help to lessen the burden. "Two projects: one is the so called "Steering Committee" of Hope's Peak, get a small team on it. And the next I only want one person on, I want a profile on Makoto Naegi by tomorrow."

Aoi tilted her chair back and forth back and forth. She was already bored out of her mind and she only got here five minutes early. "Well," she thought. "It was either this early or I would've been late finishing the rest of my laps." Sure, scheduling wasn't as strict as back in middle school, but Aoi didn't want to disappoint her teachers. Hope's Peak was such an amazing school and most of the teachers she's seen were super nice! Aoi wanted to return the favor.

Looking around the classroom, Aoi wasn't sure what to do. Sakura wasn't here, and she was not interested in talking to Mondo again. Chihiro seemed pretty invested with her conversation with Taka. Byakuya was back in class but he seemed like the kind of guy that judges people based on their money or whatever. Junko and Mukuro kind of scared Aoi, and Hajime was a little standoffish. Before Aoi was going to give up and face plant into her desk, the door opened and Kyoko walked in. Aoi instantly perked up. The mysterious girl didn't seem to go to classes much and was usually late to homeroom. Aoi had to admit, she was curious. While Kyoko sat at her desk, Aoi weighed the pros and cons in her head. Sure on the other hand Kyoko tended to have a stoic expression and rarely started conversation. But on the other Aoi was bored and didn't know for sure if she didn't like people.

The pros won.

Aoi leaned over diagonally and whispered, "Psst, Kyoko!"

Kyoko turned around.

"Did you finish your case?" she asked.

Kyoko raised an eyebrow. "And if I did?"

"Tell me about it!" Aoi said. "I think doing detective work is really cool. And I want to know more about it! Like do you ever have to chase after people or stuff like that. And how do you keep your brain in shape for crazy complicated mysteries and whatnot? I get how chess players and other smart people can practice, they can just study or play against others. But detective work you can't practice for at all! You just wait until you have a case, right?"

Kyoko was silent for a long moment and Aoi thought she blew it before she said, "While I can't tell you about the case I have been most recently assigned, I can tell you that detective work can be properly prepared for. I spent many years working on my logic skills, deductive reasoning and investigation skills before I ever handled my first case."

Aoi nodded in interest. "Woah, when'd you first start? I've been swimming for as long as I could walk but I can't imagine you can start that early."

"I started training when I was seven," Kyoko said. "And I was able to start detective work when I was thirteen."

"So how do you practice?" Aoi asked, hoping to either hear some really cool things a smart person can do, or a way to help her properly study for a test.

Kyoko thought it over and began to say, "Well I-" but was interrupted.

Walking into the homeroom was Mr. Naegi (Aoi knew he said they could call him Makoto, but that still felt weird for her. She never got students who could just do that randomly). Putting down a folder on the podium he said, "Good morning everyone."

Some of the class responded back.

"Most of you guys have shown up to homeroom everyday and at least some of the normal classes that aren't really mandatory," he said. "I really appreciate it! I wanted to do my part in supporting your drive so I came up with an idea."

He lifted up the folder and showed it to the class. "Here I have some puzzles, exercises, games, and assignments. All of you will be working together in small teams or by yourselves throughout the year. Now none of this is mandatory," Mr. Naegi clarified, probably reacting to the looks of despair on the less academic students (Aoi included). "But the teams or individuals that do the best at the end of each month are able to request either a field trip to a destination Hope's Peak has access to or be allowed one favor in terms of preparing for talent exams."

Aoi's eyes sparkled. She could take everyone to an olympic stadium? Or to that tropical resort where the new Hope's Peak was being built? Or ask to race against some of her favorite Olympic swimmers?

Makoto pulled out a small stack of papers and placed them on the desk by the podium. "If anyone's interested in starting today you can take your first exercise and split up into teams of three." Taka immediately shot up from his desk and went to the front of the room, barely inching ahead of everyone else. "I'd be honored to face these academic challenges Mr. Naegi!"

Aoi immediately reached her hands out towards Sakura and Kyoko. "Do you guys want to be on my team?" she asked. They both nodded and Aoi rushed to grab her own set of packets.

Returning back to her desk she read the title. "The Impossible Rug Stain," it read. Aoi pouted, it looked like a logic puzzle. She was hoping it was going to be a scavenger hunt.

"Hey Kyoko, what was that you were saying about getting your brain ready?" Aoi asked. It really was a lucky break that Kyoko was in her group.

Kyoko pursed her lips together staring at the sheet of paper. "Yeah," she said. "My skills may be uniquely qualified for this assignment."

Aoi fist pumped. She didn't know why Kyoko's eyebrows were furrowed; their team totally had this in the bag.

Mahiru could not believe her classmates. Sure, she enjoyed hanging out with Hiyoko and Sonia both at school and during their free time, and she mostly enjoyed the handful of times she crossed paths with everyone else last year. Everyone mostly kept to themselves, working on their own goals and talents. But ever since Ms. Yukizome forced everyone to come to class everyday, it became a chaotic disaster. Teruteru's libido was seemingly endless, Gundham's flair and speeches were taxing after so long no matter how much Sonia enjoyed them, and Kazuichi's grating personality was hard to withstand. But today was the last straw for Mahiru when she tried to enter the homeroom only to dodge a chair for her trouble.

She waited for the rest of her classmates to show up and solve the issue. Apparently none of the other men in the class could stop the immovable objects that were Akane and Nekomaru. Mahiru privately thought the Yakuza and Pekoyama could do it together, but they didn't bother. Fuyuhiko decided it wasn't their problem. Only after ten minutes of waiting did Mahiru's salvation appear. Ms. Yukizome opened the door and her eyes narrowed.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Mahiru pointed at the two offenders. "Nekomaru and Akane are fighting like berserkers here! You have to stop them!"

When Nekomaru was about to strike Akane, Ms. Yukizome stepped in the way looking right at him. "What do you think you're doing fighting each other like that?"

"We're not arguing!" Nekomaru shouted. "We're practicing a war simulation! Only through combat can we improve?"

"That's what you're doing?" Ms. Yukizome asked.

"Yes!" Nekomaru said without backing down.

"Then carry on," she said, walking away and dismissing their fighting.

Mahiru gaped. "You can't be serious!" she said as the teacher let the two ruffians continue to fight on such a flimsy excuse.

"What?" Ms. Yukizome asked. "It's fine if they get a little rowdy. You're all young. I was just worried they were trying to resolve a conflict with their fists instead of their words. It's okay."

"But we-" Mahiru began, "they're not- I can't believe this!" Mahiru slammed open the door and announced, "I'm going to get an actual teacher to solve this!"

Makoto got the first few assignments for his class turned in (Kyoko's team tied Junko's for first) when the door slammed open. Mahiru stood their panting and determined.

"Mahiru?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Professor Naegi, we need your help!" she said.

Makoto didn't even remember getting up out of his seat, but the next thing he knew he was in the hallway, running with Mahiru to her classroom.

Finally! I've been trying to find a way to write up to that last scene for months! I wish I could say I'll be better about this in the future but I don't want to disappoint people more. I do still think about all the scenes and plot points I want to get to, it's just the scenes needed to get there that are the issue.

There's the chapter, I hope I set up enough things to get people interested with character dynamics. I honestly wasn't expecting Byakuya to be as interested as was so early on but Makoto was acting too . . . curiously for Byakuya to not notice. Please review; I like to know what people think about my work and what their theories are, it makes my day!

And just as a couple side notes:

1) I did decide to change the title from "Teacher Naegi" to "Professor Naegi," just felt more natural to me.

2) I've been hearing some rumors of kind of dying: logging in problems not being resolved, it's becoming more and more buggy. I don't know if it's true but I am considering moving to another site, maybe AO3, if I need to.

Responding to Reviews:

Vongola Ninja: Tsumiki did have obsession problems but I think you'll see what happened on that front later. What I will say about the rest is that Makoto isn't that interested in girls who are six years younger than him.

Princess Crystal Karma: Well being worried is good, I'm not going to make this easy for any of the characters.

doomqwer: I'm glad you enjoyed that, and I will elaborate, don't worry.

Archound (guest): I'm glad that the Mikan detail was enjoyed. And yes, no matter how much Makoto could know about the future he can't avoid his "talent."

Mr. Haziq: Glad to see your review as always. So what I will say is we will see how Makoto was able to influence his students soon, Chisa doesn't have the full picture. And yes, Nagito has probably taken more blame for things than he deserved because Makoto panicked. And yeah, the 74th class student had to have been right out of highschool to teach the 77th class. There probably was no certification or anything, kind of crazy isn't it that an 18~19 year old was in charge of a bunch of 15 year olds huh?

Aerithmo: Mukuro didn't exactly have an abundance of praise in her life that wasn't about her killing skills. Even after a few years of being Makoto's adopted sibling she's still not entirely used to it.

Lord Trollbias: It's quite easy, everyone who's met Nagito find him a certain way.

EnTysingR: Haha, no I got you and yes while the core of him is still the same I hope to show some changes he's gone through since time travelling.