Chisa watched passively as Nekomaru and Akane continued to fight. The rest of the class decided against leaving to the hallway with Mahiru and instead huddled into the corner, hoping to avoid the fighting and debris. She frowned as she thought about what Mahiru said before she left. Sure, she may have been a little lax in not stopping this fight, but she also didn't want to get these kids punished by a geriatric disciplinarian. She also wasn't sure who could even have the authority to calm them down. Chisa would just have to make sure everything comes into conflict when whatever teacher Mahiru got came here.
And speak of the devil Chisa heard two pairs of rapid footsteps approach her classroom. "Nekmoaru and Akane have gone crazy Professor!" Mahiru shouted. And coming into view into the door frame was Mahiru and her teacher.
"Makoto? What does Mahiru expect him to do?" Chisa thought. And she almost missed it, but the rest of her class that weren't fighting reacted. Some sat up straighter, some smiled, but two were unique. Peko shifted her stance and placed herself between Mikan and the door, glaring at the girl. While the said girl seemed to curl into herself and looked away.
Makoto walked into the room. "Nekomaru! Akane! What are you guys doing?"
Immediately their fighting stopped and turned their attention to Makoto. "Hey Professor Naegi!" Nekomaru greeted. Akane did the same with a, "Hey Boss man!"
Chisa blinked once at the form of address.
"What's going on?" Makoto asked again exasperatedly.
"Oh!" Nekomaru perked up. "We're doing a war simulation to practice our combat!"
"Yeah, we're having a good old time fighting Boss! Don't worry, we're not mad at each other."
Makoto sighed. "That's not the problem."
"Oh? What is it?" Akane asked.
Makoto looked over at the students huddled in the corner for a second before he turned back to the pair. "Look at your classmates. Do they look like they're enjoying you using their homeroom time for your training?"
Akane sheepishly looked down. "Uh, I guess not?"
Chisa's eyes widened at Akane responding in (dare she think it?) shame.
Meanwhile, as if Makoto was inspired, he kept going. "And Nekomaru, if this is a war simulation, then who are your classmates? They're civilians and you're putting them in danger. Isn't that something that should be factored in your simulation?"
Nekomaru laughed, embarrassed. "Uh, they haven't been caught in the crossfire yet?" he offered.
Makoto was not amused. He pointed at a chair leg that was lodged in the wall near the other students. "That's too close for comfort, Nekomaru. What do you say?"
Nekomaru immediately bowed to his other classmates. "I'm sorry for my failure and endangering you all."
Chisa looked over Makoto once again. Just by the way her rambunctious and chaotic students were looking at him themselves made Chisa try to reevaluate him. He didn't seem different; no that was a lie. Makoto was confident and comfortable speaking to his old students. Maybe more than he ever was with his own class back during their time in Hope's Peak. Chisa wasn't sure what to make of that.
Makoto used the time to look behind him and see that apparently the rest of his students had followed to watch the spectacle. Here Chisa saw him look at her, get that inspired look again, and turn back to Nekomaru.
"Hey Nekomaru, maybe to make it up to them you could do something with them they could all enjoy? Something like a class event" Makoto suggested.
Nekomaru immediately energized; Chisa secretly compared it to a robot powering up. "Yeah! How was I so blind to conduct a war simulation with only two people when I was neglecting my classmates who were right there? I will absolutely lead all of them to victory!"
"Do we have to be as brutal as those two?" Hiyoko asked Makoto. Chisa blinked. That was barely a protest if she ever heard one. "I don't want to get bloodied."
"If we were to play a game there should be a way to conduct it where everyone will have fun," Chiaki said, not looking up from her handheld game.
Fuyuhiko said, "It's not like everyone in wars fight directly like those two just did. I'm sure we can find some way to fight that doesn't wipe you out immediately."
"Well well well, looks like my rotten oranges aren't completely rotten yet," Chisa said. "I'm glad to see there's some instances where you can all act like a class." She walked to the address Nekomaru. "If this is a war simulation then who's going to be your opposing general?" Chisa knew she had to get a class president elected soon, and while Nekomaru didn't quite fit she was interested to see what his thoughts on the matter were.
"Hmm," Nekomaru scratched his chin. "If I had to pick someone in our class it would be-"
"Um actually," Makoto said, getting everyone's attention back to him. "I was thinking maybe it could be against the 78th class?"
The entire class watching behind him jolted together in surprise. "What?" many of them verbalized.
"I think it would be a good chance for the two classes to get to know each other. A friendly team game could be a great icebreaker," he said.
"Um, Mr. Naegi," Hifumi, the perverted boy that's been giving Makoto trouble, said. "What if we don't want to?"
Makoto nodded. "I can't make you, just like the 77th class can't be forced to play-" Chisa disagreed, "-but I can offer a deal that the winning team gets a field trip of their choice."
That lit a fire, in both classes Chisa noted.
"That beach resort is mine!" Aoi shouted.
"I would love a chance to share an exploration of the wilderness," Gundham said.
"I'm willing to bet on us," Celestia said.
"It would be a great excuse to visit home with my friends," Sonia said.
"The prize means nothing but I'm intrigued in proving myself against other ultimates," Byakuya said.
"You think I'm letting this slip by me?" Kazuichi shouted. "You're crazy, I'm going to crush these babies!"
It took about a minute before everyone got it out of their systems and quieted down. Chisa, getting everyone's attention, said, "Well sounds like we've all got a plan set. How about we start after school to give everyone time to get ready?"
Everyone nodded.
"Great!" Chisa said. "The rest of you young little oranges, get back to class." She finished off the order with her patented scary smile.
Many of Makoto's students hastily went to obey, some rolled their eyes and meandered back to said classroom. And one didn't leave. Makoto's little sister Mukuro remained standing between Makto and Mikan with Peko. Chisa, a little concerned but not pressured, approached Makoto with a smile.
"Wow Makoto I didn't know you had it in you," she teased. "I'm glad to see you haven't failed as a teacher completely."
Immediately her class's attention flew to her.
"H-hey what's that supposed to mean?" Ryota asked.
"Don't call Professor Naegi a failure!" Ibuki shouted.
"Don't doubt Professor Naegi like that! He's amazing," Hiyoko said.
"Yeah, the Prof is awesome!" Kazuichi said.
"Y-yeah. Mr. Naegi is g-great," Mikan stammered.
Chisa blinked back at how, again, her entire class united when it came to Makoto. She shot a quick look at Makoto that said, "Look at how much they love you, why were you ever scared over your own class again?"
Makoto made a placating motion with his hands and said, "It's not that big of a deal. Chisa, Ms. Yukizome, was only teasing. She's my friend. So don't judge her too harshly on what she said, alright?"
Many of the class grumbled but immediately relaxed from their defense. Well, except for Peko and Mukuro that was. What the heck did Mikan do to make them glare at her like that?
"Aww, no I love it Makoto. It's great how they jumped to your defense, I'm proud of them. So, do you want to go over the details during break?" Chisa asked.
Makoto nodded. "Yeah that would be great. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to my own homeroom. Goodbye everyone!"
As Makoto turned to leave a voice rang out. "W-wait!" Mikan said. While Makoto turned around easily, all of Mikan's classmates and Mukuro tensed up, locking onto the poor girl.
"Seriously, what is going on here?" Chisa thought. It was obvious now the history between Makoto and his old class was deeper than she first realized.
"I k-know you d-don't trust me yet. But, um, I wanted to say while I had the chance, um, Mako- Mr. Naegi," Mikan said. "My adoption is next S-Saturday, and i-if you wanted to, um," Mikan trailed off.
Makoto brightened. "Did your foster family finally decide to officially adopt you? That's great Mikan!" he said.
Mikan gave a weak smile back. "Y-yeah, um-" her eyes flickered to Peko and Mukuro "-you d-don't ever have to get near me. I just wanted to update you and let you k-know you can watch it i-if you want."
Makoto smiled and nodded. "It'd be my pleasure. I still think of you as my student and I'd love to see such an important milestone for you with your other friends and classmates." He shot a "subtle" look to certain students. "Bye Mikan!" And with that, Makoto left.
Mukuro stayed for one moment longer before she said, "You will not survive if this is a trick," and left to follow. It was here that Peko finally stood down, the high of seeing their favorite teacher (that stung Chisa a little) leave died down, and the class returned to normalcy.
"So," Chisa began.
The class bell rang and everyone bolted out the door.
Chisa sighed. "What would it take for them to show that unification with me?" she thought. She shook her head. "No, I don't need to steal them from Makoto. I'm here to find out about suspicious activity! It's not like it's a problem if they like him better." Chisa looked at the time. Based on the ways security guards made their patrols and took their breaks, using this time before lunch would be a good chance to do some quick snooping on her end.
As Chisa left she felt a pain of regret as she thought of abandoning her teaching duties. "Then again," she thought. "If I were to leave my students favoriting Makoto, it would be suspicious right? There's no way they'd like him more if I gave it my all. I'll do some physical snooping around later." She turned around and headed towards the staffroom to do her own preparations.
"I have no intention of joining the war against our upperclassmen." Hifumi said. "Nothing you say will change my mind in this regard."
"But it's a Hope's Peak field trip!" Leon tried to explain. "We could go to Madison Square Garden! Or to a Space Control center! Or really anywhere! Isn't there any, I don't know, writing place you want to go to?"
Kyoko tuned out Hifumi's rant about art and instead double checked to make sure no eyes were on her. Everyone was focused on Hifumi and trying to convince him, as well as other less athletically inclined classmates, to join them in the upcoming contest with class 77-B.
Junko was the only one Kyoko couldn't confirm which way her attention was focused, but Junko already knew something was up. Kyoko couldn't waste time on her case just because one person who was already suspicious noticed her leave. Kyoko slipped out of the classroom and into the hallway. She had some new files and leads to go over in her office.
As she approached the door she stopped. Everytime she locked the door she specifically set up the lock so that it was set at a 45 degree angle from it's normal angle. It wasn't, the slit for the keyhole was pointed straight up. She checked the insides and found scratch marks, a much less skilled lockpick forced their way in. Kyoko grabbed the handle and found it turned without resistance. Interesting.
She opened the door to peek inside to see an old man in a black suit hunched over the desk and typing away at her laptop. He stopped, cursed, and went back to typing. Kyoko opened the door fully and the man jumped back from the laptop. Now that Kyoko could see his face she recognized him as one of the minor scientists working under the Steering Committee.
Officially speaking the Steering Committee composed of only four scientists. However, anyone who paid a cursory glance would know that the main workforce of the committee were hired from other institutions, contractors, and colleges other scientists to perform "rote work" or "less important experiments and observations." And, for some "strange reason" all officially published breakthroughs were penned and credited to the official Steering Committee, never the contractors.
Strangely enough, the man's expression was completely at ease, or at least, the type of at ease people in customer service display when way over their heads.
"Ah Ms. Kirigiri! I'm so glad you came to work on your talent," he said, completely ignoring Kyoko's own suspicion. "I'm here to check on your progress improving as the Ultimate Detective so you don't have to worry about a thing! Just pretend I'm not even here!" The man stepped away from her desk and poised his clipboard, ready to make notes.
Kyoko walked to her chair and checked her computer. The idiot couldn't even login. Satisfied that none of the digital files were tampered with she checked the locks and files in the cabinets; none had any signs of successful tampering. Once she was done she swiveled around in her chair to make eye contact with the man.
The man quickly broke eye contact and began to sweat. "Um, Ms. Kirigiri, you're free to do your work. I promise I will not divulge anything confidential."
Instead of making the snarky remark that jumped to the front of her mind Kyoko maintained her stoicism and eye contact.
"I signed an NDA so I can't divulge the contents of data I collect," he offered.
While Kyoko knew that was true, it didn't include the whole picture: as in, he had to share it with other Steering Committee scientists at the very least. And obviously NDAs weren't able to magically keep people quiet. If that were the truth Kyoko wouldn't have been able to solve as many cases as easily as she did.
The man sighed. "Ms. Kirigiri, I need to go back with some data on your abilities as the Ultimate Detective."
Kyoko nodded and walked over to the door. She opened it and said, "Then report back that I have the base level ability to not divulge case details or secrets. If you truly need to measure my ability as a detective you'll have to limit yourself to my talent exams in the future, no?"
She held eye contact until the scientist folded. "Very well Ms. Kirigiri." And with that, he left.
Once she was sure he was gone, Kyoko returned to her desk and drafted an email to the headmaster. She hoped her father wouldn't fail her in getting the records of the Steering Committee and the people who work for them, unlike failing her privacy and security.
Hajime opened the door to the staffroom to see Mr. Naegi and Ms. Yukizome discussing something over a couple of open notebooks. "Okay but there has to be some type of way to prove it, right?" he asked. "What happens if it happens when we're not watching? We can't have our attention everywhere at the same time."
Ms. Yukizome tapped her chin with her pencil. "Maybe some type of decoy target for civilians so that- Oh, Makoto your student is here!"
Mr. Naegi turned around and made eye contact with Hajime. "Hajime, great. I just need to talk to you about the upcoming exercise."
Hajime nodded and pulled up a chair to sit next to Mr. Naegi. "Is something wrong?"
Mr. Naegi shook his head. "No no, of course not. I'm just going to have to ask you for a favor during the upcoming exercise."
"What is it?" he asked. "God, he's probably going to ask me to sit it out or try to only use my "luck" even though he didn't teach me shit about how to-"
His thoughts were interrupted when Mr. Naegi very gravely said, "Please help me keep Hiro and Fuyuhiko apart during the game."
Hajime blinked. "What?" At least Ms. Yukizome seemed just as confused as him.
"Or at least try and keep Fuyuhiko from seeing Hiro, maybe just keep him away from his attention," Mr. Naegi said as if that clarified anything.
"Uh, why?" Hajime asked.
"Is there some sort of conflict between the two boys?" Ms. Yukizome asked.
"You remember his little sister, right Hajime?" Mr. Naegi asked.
Hajime nodded. It would be hard to forget the entitled yakuza girl who bullied him and other Reserve Course students. No matter how much he wanted to.
"Yasuhiro scammed her out of millions of yen." Hajime suppressed his surprise into a single flinch. "If Fuyuhiko connects the memory of the man who scammed his sister to your classmate, bad things would happen."
Hajime nodded dumbly. "Wait, what do you mean he scammed her? How?"
"He milked her desire for knowledge about her future as much as possible."
Hajime blinked. "Then why didn't he just . . . you know, tell her?"
"His success rate is 30%."
"30%?" Hajime shouted, standing up. "What the fuck is he doing here? He's supposed to be an ultimate isn't he? How'd he get in with such a low score?"
Ms. Yukizome looked like she wanted to ask the same, but Mr. Naegi kept his expression just as gentle and patient as always. Hajime wasn't sure if it pissed him off more than other facial expressions would've.
"Hajime, consider the success rate of other fortune tellers. Even discounting all the scam artists and cheats, Yasuhiro's success is many times better." Mr. Naegi smiled. "It may not be reliable or even useful, but he's still the best."
Hajime sat back down. "That's right, no matter how pathetic their Ultimate talents may seem they're still leagues ahead of me," he thought.
Mr. Naegi gave a small smile. "Hey hey, I didn't mean to make you feel bad. Remember, Hajime, you're going to be an Ultimate too."
Hajime couldn't help but huff at that. "You don't have to patronize me Mr. Naegi. I know I shouldn't question Ultimates."
Ms. Yukizome cut in, "What makes you say that?"
Hajime blinked. "Uh, Mr. Naegi reminded me?"
"No no," Ms. Yukizome said. "He was reminding you to understand his talent, not never criticize. I have been on the receiving end of many rants from Makoto about Hiro's poor spending habits and foolishness. I think it's perfectly natural to judge him on it, especially since Mr. Naegi wants you to help him avoid justice for it."
"I wouldn't say justice. I just think he can-" Mr. Naegi began before the woman interrupted him again.
"Avoiding punishment then." She turned to look back at Hajime. "Why do you put Ultimates on such a high pedestal? Just because they're good at something doesn't mean they aren't people like you."
Hajime frowned. "They're the best. It's the only way to be worth a damn in this world."
Ms. Yukizome smiled. "Hajime, I'm proud of the effort you're doing. If half the things I've heard about you from Makoto are true then you're already amazing. But little of that has anything to do with your individual skill or prowess. And I don't think it was your friends' skill that boosted you up either, just being people to you was enough."
Hajime resisted the urge to roll his eyes and grumble. "Yeah, yeah, sure. So you just wanted me to keep the con artist from Fuyuhiko?" he asked, diverting his attention back to Mr. Naegi. He didn't feel like arguing about his self-pity with the teacher he barely knew.
"Yes, it'd be really great for all of us if you helped," Mr. Naegi said.
Hajime, not risking another attempt to comfort him or whatever, immediately turned out of his chair and walked to the door. "Gotcha, see you guys later," he said, throwing a wave over his shoulder and leaving the room. He sighed once he was alone out in the hallway. "Who knows? Maybe I'll be lucky and it'll be easy," he thought. Hajime shook his head. "Me, get lucky? What a joke, I used up all my luck getting into this apprenticeship program. That and my college tuition."
Hajime walked down the hall, eager to get back to his friends, and tried to put his "mission" out of mind for a few hours. But he would cherish the knowledge that his old bully was a moron to be scammed out of tons of yen. He was so going to rub it in her face the next time they crossed paths.
"Are you sure we couldn't keep it simple with something like capture the flag or something?" Makoto asked. "Introducing people to new rules is usually a swing and a miss."
Chisa raised an eyebrow. "I'd be fine with it but do you honestly think that Nekomaru would be okay with it? Something gives me the feeling that if we want to meet his expectations for a "war simulation" we need to make sure it's something that isn't too harsh on the students who aren't as rough."
Makoto conceded the point. Pushing open the school doors, Makoto came out to the back of the school, revealing a large grass field with trees outlining a pseudo perimeter (it wasn't official, Hope's Peak owned the forest too). All of their students were arranged in a scattered crowd. Well, not all of them, Makoto didn't see any doubles so that either meant the Ultimate Imposter wasn't here or someone else was missing. He already knew what the most likely scenario was.
"Alright, who's ready for the first inter-class competition?" Chisa asked.
"Nobody," Byakuya said. "Few of us are in gym clothes."
"You said 'first.' Does that mean there's going to be more?" Chiaki asked.
Makoto and Chisa shared a look. Makoto knew what he wanted but-
"Maybe some activities but not necessarily competitions! That's up to you, afterall!" Chisa said. Good, he and Chisa were roughly on the same page.
"So, uh, what's this war simulation thing Nekomaru was talking about?" Kazuichi asked. "I'm down for some fun but I don't want to beat up some little girls."
Makoto took a breath to explain the rules he and Chisa devised to keep things fair, fun, and interesting.
"We're playing capture the flag!" Nekomaru shouted.
And that breath was utterly wasted.
"We're not going to be as violent and brutish for this game as you were in the classroom, right?" Mahiru asked. It seemed her question represented a good majority of the class scared of violence.
"No way!" Nekomaru shouted. "I'm not going to prevent anyone from being able to go all out!" We're playing no contact!"
As Nekomaru started to enthusiastically take the spotlight and explain the rules of the game, Makoto and Chisa shared a look; both looked down at their piece of paper with their own rules they made from scratch, and nodded in sync. Chisa ripped up the paper and put the pieces in her pocket. "That was a waste of an afternoon," Makoto thought. "Hopefully no one notices or cares that we intended to bring our own rules."
They turned their attention to a more collaborative discussion between all of the Ultimates, but with Nekomaru obviously still leading it.
"Good idea Chiaki!" Nekomaru said. "We're going to each have three flags, each time you lose one in enemy territory you have to go to a certain prisoner zone: first flag is the shallowest, last one is the deepest! You lose your last flag and you're outta the game!"
Most of the kids seemed interested and excited to play, and the ones who weren't, well, they looked willing to tolerate everything.
"And finally, don't think I haven't noticed everyone scheming before we could even start. So we're splitting up the teams another way: Boys vs Girls!"
Everyone stilled.
"WHAT!?" Most of them shouted.
Makoto shared a look of exasperation with Chisa. "Maybe it was a bad idea to let Nekomaru take the floor," he said. "This throws out our expectations and plans totally out the window."
"Yeah," Chisa said. "But I bet you're really just sad that your boys are going to lose."
Makoto chuckled weakly at the joke, "You think I don't already know that?"
God, he wished the only thing he had to worry about was whether one side lost or not. He just wanted everyone to get out of this without killing each other, opposite team or not.
Hey, good going me, I got another chapter up in a reasonable amount of time.
Next chapter might be weird since I was vaguely inspired by "sports anime" and "the tournament arc" which isn't exactly the natural environment we see Danganronpa characters in, so hopefully it won't be a complete trainwreck. Please review if you can and share your thoughts on things!
Just a warning, because of real life things, after this chapter you can expect maybe one more chapter around the end of the year before I'm going to take a longer hiatus. Real life responsibilities are picking up and converging, and as much as I want to do nothing but write I've got stuff going on, so, if you're wondering what's taking the next chapter so long, that's why.
Responding to Reviews:
Mr. Haziq: Makoto wouldn't be too flattered. It was partially Mahiru looking for someone on her side.
Archound: Chisa and Makoto certainly got the banter part down, don't they? They don't quite have the meat and "foundation" yet but they're trying their best.
Weirdman: I'll just straight up say "no." Makoto's time situation is a bit more . . . complicated than it might seem.
Guest: Yes, while Makoto's "teaching" ability is up for debate, he was very focused on building trust with his students, and in this chapter we can see some of that in action.
Vongola Ninja: Some would argue that words are all Makoto has :). We'll mostly see him use that and his intelligence for the story, a lot has happened to Makoto, but he is still at his heart a pacifist.
Hadiz: Thank you so much! I always have very specific thoughts on time travel so I'm glad you're enjoying that. And oh yes, Makoto made doubly sure to establish connections with whoever he thought was important, and also made some connections by accident.
Samuel Kliver: Thank you. And I'm sorry about that but, who knows how this story is going to affect people's relationships with each other.