Assignment 1:

Kazuichi Souda and Chihiro Fujisaki

Kazuichi Souda never truly felt right at Hope's Peak, despite it was what he very much considered his home. Perhaps it was a mixture of how he presented himself versus how he actually was, or perhaps it was the overwhelming amount of talent he was surrounded with. Whether it be fame, (such as in the case of Sayaka Maizono, Byakuya Togami (both of them) and – of course – Miss Sonia, a literal princess) or infamy (such as his friend, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu and Mondo Owada) he felt that the son of man who ran a mostly unheard of bike shop in a small corner of Japan was in over his head. He knew there were also some in his class and the new class, Class 78, who had also achieved a small following, despite their relatively humble upbringings and talent.

His loud outfit, naturally, gained quite a few questioning stares from the other class - though he knew his punk outfit and attitude was just a facade, one they had yet to see past. He wanted to keep it that way. He sighed and sat down, eager to get whatever this was over with.

"What's up?" Fuyuhiko whispered, leaning in.

"I mean, do we really have to work with these guys?" Kazuichi replied.

"Huh? I mean, if the academy wants us to, we'll have to. Get over yourself."

"O-okay." Kazuichi had learned to expect an insult or two laced in Fuyuhiko's sentences. But, perhaps he was right. As he thought this, a voice sprung up from the front of the hall.

"Attention, students!" cried Rao. He didn't have much of a presence in the room, and his voice came our desperate and reedy. "Ahem. The assignment will now begin!" Almost immediately, a hand from Class 78 sprung up.

"Sir, what do we have to in this 'assignment?'" Kiyotaka yelled out.

"I was getting to that, Mr. Ishimaru," Rao replied, a glint of annoyance in his eye. "The goal of this assignment is to cultivate the talents of our students, through inter-class co-operation. Unlike the past few years, you have been assigned into pairs, rather than one whole class. These pairs have been decided on the compatibility of your talents, and those with incompatible talents have been matched on personality. This is in order to ensure the students won't be at one another's throats. What you and your partner decide to do as a project is up to you, however, it must involve your respective talents, or you will face disqualification. We understand those of you with less practical and physical talents will have some trouble organizing an assignment involving a physical presentation. Taking this into account, you may ask another pair for aid in preparing something. If you have any more questions, you may ask them when we call you into the back room to assign you your partners."

Upon saying this, Rao gestured to the door next to small, but cozy, projector room meant to display images on a folding screen positioned at the front of the hall. "We will call you into the room eventually, so just wait your turn. Thank you for your attention." Rao hurriedly left the stage, disappearing back to the Hope's Peak admin building and presumably never seen again.

"Pairs, hmm?" Kazuichi thought out loud.

"I hope you've been matched with someone agreeable, Young Master." Peko chirped from beside Fuyuhiko.

"Peko what did we mention?"

"Ah, apologies Youn-"

"Don't say it."

Kazuichi glanced across at the class sitting across from him. Perhaps he had grown used to how odd his class way, but something about Class 78 seemed exceptionally weird. As he sat, pensive in thought, the voice of Chisa broke the silence. "First up here we have..." she tapped the clipboard held in her hands with the end of her pen. "Togami and… Togami." A tall, thin boy stood up from the chairs in Class 78. He was the spitting image of the Byakuya Togami from Kazuichi's own class. Except for many, many stone thinner. It was obvious why they were paired together, as they were the exact same person.

"Ummm… who's the original?" Ibuki asked, tapping Akane on the shoulder, who just shrugged. They both walked into the projector room, the slimmer of the two glaring at the other with a bitter scowl at the other, still wearing the same scowl after five minutes, when they walked out of the room except his brow seem to be contorted in a rage the likes of which Kazuichi hadn't seen in even in someone like Fuyuhiko. While Class 77's Togami seemed eager to tell his classmates about his other self, the Class 78 Togami dragged him along, spitting insults and derogatory comments at his counterpart. "What dark magic must have Togami performed to allow himself a slimmer, more handsome doppelganger?!"

"If people like richboy are who we'll have to work with, I'd rather take my chances with our class whore!"

"Now, Hiyoko, remember what I said about your attitude."

"Sorry, Mahiru..."

Perhaps that conversation had disillusioned Kazuichi slightly, but he suddenly felt as if spending a few weeks with a complete stranger could be a nice change of pace. Half of his class were psychotic, and the other half (himself included) were complete oddballs. While he somewhat doubted Class 78 were any better, at least it would be a different brand of completely insane. And then he heard his name called out.

"Next up," Chisa once again called from the projector room "Souda, Nanami, and Fujisaki."

Kazuichi looked behind him to see Nagito flashing Chiaki a thumbs up, and then across to him to see a student with a cartoonish pompadour ruffling a small girl's choppy, brown hair and the loud student who had asked Rao a question before patting her supportively on the shoulder, as the girl blushed and a smile played across her lips. Soda got up and walked to the projector room with Chiaki.

The projector room was fairly small, and three chairs sat in the center of its whitewashed walls, and Chisa was already sat on one of them. The girl from Class 78 entered the room, slowly opening the door, and Kazuchi noticed some of his class watching them the small window in the room, Miss Sonia included. Wanting to impress her, he offered the petite girl his seat.

"O-oh! Umm.. thanks!" Clearly flustered, Chihiro moved to take his seat, annoyed at how embarrassed he looked. He looked at the two people in front of him. One of them was a girl, fairly short but still taller than him, dressed in a white shirt, covered by a teal cardigan, with pink-ish hair and eyes. She looked like she was going to fall asleep. The other was a boy dressed… well, "brightly" was the only way to describe it, his yellow outfit and pink hair really drew your attention. The woman at the front of the room – Chisa, was it? Began to speak. "Chihiro, due to the fact your talent could work with both of these two – the Ultimate Mechanic and Ultimate Gamer – we're giving you a choice."

Kazuichi knew he wasn't going to get partnered with Chihiro. She was shy, quiet and feminine. It would make sense to partner up with Chiaki, who shared these traits to a certain extent. So what she said next made little to no sense to him. "I'd, uh, like to partner with Kazuichi, if that's okay with him."

"Well, Kazuichi?" Chisa implored. Kazuichi was slightly shocked. He hadn't expected this, but he supposed he had to accept or risk being partnered with someone slightly more... unhinged than the meek and gentle soul sat in front of him. "Yeah, sure."

"That's that settled, then. You two have the rest of term to finish this project. When you're finished and ready to present it, come tell me. I'll get everything set up, as a housekeeper should do. Thank you for your time and, Chiaki, please wake up." Chiaki just sat there snoring. Chisa let out an audible sigh. "You two go… I'll deal with this sleepyhead. Don't hang around, you're gonna wanna get started pretty quickly." Chihiro stood up, thanked Chisa and made for the door as Kazuichi held it ajar.

The two walked back into the hall and began to make a beeline for the exit. Kazuichi gazed over at Miss Sonia and flashed her a winning smile. He then looked over at Class 78. The boy with the large pompadour, Mondo, was glaring at him. He had seen that glare before. It was the look often given to his own father when he was tending to bikes back homes. It was a look that said, "even a dent on my ride and you won't forget it." Mondo, being a biker himself, had probably shot that look at many a person before, but this time Kazuichi knew he meant he was worried about something other than his bike. He had seen how he and Kiyotaka acted protective of Chihiro and knew that if he fucked this up, he would gain a few more "dents" himself. The made the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight. He scratched his nape, and the two walked through the door.

"So, uh, I n-never introduced myself. I'm Chihiro Fujisaki. Nice to meet you."

Kazuichi was momentarily lost in thought, but Chihiro's voice snapped him back to reality. Kazuichi looked down at her. She looked delicate, like a machine with too many fragile parts. "Kazuichi Souda. Nice to meetcha!" He extended his hand for Chihiro to shake. She clasped it lightly and shook it, still smiling. Kazuichi wasn't used to being treated like this by someone cute. He remembered when he first changed his appearance, he actually started to have attractive girls hit on him, and that was intimidating. Perhaps it's odd a handshake made him recall this, he thought.

"So, umm… do you have a place where we can work?"

"Yeah, actually. But it's a bit rundown because I'm the only one who's touched it in ages… Come on."

Kazuichi flipped a cold metal switch that turned on the fluorescent bulbs on the ceiling. They illuminated the equipment strewn around the room. Large steel desks, five in total, were arranged in a semi-rectangle around the perimeter. Wires of every kind and colour lined the floor, some leaving exposed copper that Kazuichi really should've cleaned up. Plug sockets were in every corner of the room, in order to power the multitude of tools Kazuichi used every day. Kazuichi breathed in, enjoying this room with its dark grey walls and black floors. Whenever he felt out of his depth in Hope's Peak, he just came here. It was comforting to just be alone, surrounded by the tools and trinkets he so loved to fidget with. He was getting skittish just thinking about them. What home he felt was not gained in Hope's Peak proper, he felt was gained here. "What is this place, Kazuichi?" Chihiro gazed around the room.

"Oh, this place was originally intended to be used by students with talents with mine. Pretty sure the Ultimate Blacksmith and Ultimate Builder worked here years ago. It's just me working in here unless people like Hajime, Fuyuhiko, Ibuki and the others decide to drop by to tell me to stop working and get outside. I learned my lesson when Peko dragged me out by the scruff of my neck because I spent 2 days without sleep trying to supercharge a lawnmower..."

Chihiro put her fingers to her lithe lips. "I remember when I first really got into programming. I would just spend days in my room writing odd programs that worked but didn't really help. Eventually, my parents came in to chastise me..."

"Huh, your parents actually cared about you? Lucky bastard. But why'd they only come in after a few days? That lonely, huh?"

"Uh, y-yeah… s-something like that." Small tears had begun to form in the corners of her eyes.

"H-hey! Don't cry!' Kazuichi's voice began to crack.

"S-sorry... *hic*" Chihiro sobbed.

"There's… no need to apologize."

"Yeah… I know."

"Okay, now the waterworks are done with, let's get down to business. We need to make something that involves our talents right? Something that fuses machinery and programming. While I may be a mechanic, I've spent enough time tinkering with odds and ends to know I could also build something useful, not just maintain or repair it. There's also the fact an inventor doesn't exist in this universe an inventor doesn't exist, so I'll have to take that role."

"Well, what exactly can we make that combines the two?"

"I dunno, what can you make with your programs?"

"Quite a few things… simple, one-function programs I can write in maybe… an hour or so. "But I have had some success with some simple self-learning AIs. The problem there is they could take a day to program if I were working at top speed, and they'd take a lot of power to create, but maybe not to store."

"What do you mean simple…?" Kazuichi once again scratched the back of his neck.

"Ummm… well, they could perform household tasks, or perhaps jobs involving pure logic, such as accounting or even computing, but maybe not complex stuff like jobs involving morals, like… lawyers, or politicians."

"Those last two jobs you mentioned don't really involve morals, but okay."

"O-oh! Did-" The words caught in Chihiro's throat. He knew Kazuichi was joking, but as with anything he was so scared of saying something wrong and wanted to appeal greatly to someone who he was working on a project with, that he instinctively asked what asked normally when a person corrected him or looked annoyed: 'Did I do something wrong?' and so he quickly followed up with:

"Never mind, I know you were joking. Sor-"

"Don't!"

"Wh-what did I do this time?" Chihiro was taken aback, worried what he said was stupid. He could already feel the hot teardrops running down his cheeks, as he so often did nowadays and his hands were clutching the bows of his ribbon. Kazuichi squatted down and spoke. "Look, I was just gonna say you don't need to apologize. I'm sorry for making you cry, alright?" His tone was slightly annoyed, but there was a genuine attempt at comfort there. "But if we keep talking about ourselves and not about the project, we're never gonna get anywhere. So please, just try and stay strong. Here."

He reached out with a small cloth he had produced from one of his jumpsuit pockets. Chihiro grabbed it and began to dry his eyes. He a while, Kazuichi just stayed there, grasping Chihiro's shoulder and holding his wrist. But Chihiro was not focused on that comforting action. Nor did he recognize when Kazuichi pulled away in embarrassment muttering something about what Miss Sonia would think. He just heard those words he had said before. "Stay strong." It had long been a goal of his. One only Mondo had known of for some time, that being the strength he wished to gain in order to feel he could reveal his secret: his true gender. It was reassuring to know that the person he would spend the next few weeks with was like him in many ways and also seemed to care about him in a Mondo-esque sort of way, but Chihiro couldn't shake the feeling that was simply because he didn't know what he preferred to keep to himself. "You're pathetic." "Just be a man." "That's really fucking weird." Chihiro imagined all the venomous comments someone could throw at him if they were armed with that information, and once again felt the tears roll down his cheeks, clutching the cloth ever tighter. Kazuichi couldn't know the truth, no matter how friendly they became. And as he thought that, once again Kazuichi came to his side to comfort him.

Kazuichi had never known a nervous wreck bigger than Chihiro, apart from maybe his past self. Maybe that was the reason he felt pity rather than annoyance when he cried, some part of what he once was lived within this small girl. Well, there was still some annoyance. He pulled out a chair and let the poor kid sit down. He then rooted around one of the cold, metal cabinets positioned near the drawer for what he was looking for. Eventually, he found the roll of blueprint paper he was looking for and pulled up a chair next to Chihiro. "You okay now?" he inquired.

"Y-yeah."

"Right, so I was thinking about what you were saying before about the mundane tasks your programs could perform and remembered how, when I used to work in the bike shop, all the boring housework I had to perform because my parents were out there busting their backs trying to keep our heads above water. I just wanted to tinker around and mess with all the mechanisms in my dad's shop. I'm sure the rest of us with talents that take up time and effort would rather all of our energy went into them, right?"

"Yeah, I've always felt most comfortable programming and doing not much else. If I could remove other tasks and chores from my schedule, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

"So I've designed this." Kazuichi tapped the blueprint, showing the design he had scrawled out on the blueprint.

"So first up, I've designed these." He pointed to the small eyes, which were small camera-lens like buttons, with a tangle of wires drawn in behind them. "Could you hook up a system that allows these to recognize the objects the robots need to perform actions on?"

"There are few open-source algorithms that can recognize objects, and while they're not one hundred percent, I'm sure I could insert them into a part of the program that controls the eyes if you connect it to a motherboard. I could make it fairly small, like these specifications."

"...could you do the same with the arms?" Kazuichi asked, gesturing towards the small, tube-like arms he had drawn in, looking like bionics ripped straight from 1984.

"If I could coordinate the string connecting the arms and eyes to work together… then the self-learning part could take care of the rest."

"You're speaking gibberish in parts of that, but I get what you're saying. Why don't we work on the prototype tonight?"

"Tonight?" Chihiro looked at the clock. It was about 4pm.

"Well, you mentioned you pulled all-nighters when you're programming right? Just try and get comfortable."

"Well… that was when I was alone… no offense."

"Just pretend I'm not there. I know it'll be hard when I'm dressed like this, but..."

"I-I'll try."

"Meet you back here by 6?"

"Uhh… sure."

And with that, they both went their separate ways, going to get prepared for the build and talk to their friends about what had transpired that day, for all of them.