Assignment 2,

Part 3 – Business Studies (or the Kingpin's

day off)

Byakuya rubbed his eyes and reached for his glasses he had left by his bedside. Slipping them on while looking at the ceiling and letting his eyes adjust to the morning light, he remembered his the text he had sent to his father. Pushing off his duvet and standing up, he stretched and felt the tiredness leave his body. Walking over to his desk, he grabbed his phone and saw he had a text. His father had replied, with a message that simply read:

"One day. Mr. Fujisaki will be there. I trust your 'other Togami' has things sorted out. I wish you luck and trust you will be punctual. The meetings begin at 1 pm sharp.

-Your Father."

Byakuya found it best not to reply. It's not like he thought his father would bother even looking at it. After running himself a brisk shower (in which he thought about how hard he had destroyed his classmates and their contemporaries at Monopoly) and freshening up, he very carefully threw on his usual clothes, patted down the creases in them and then heard a knock at his door. He walked over to it – at his own pace – and opened it, expecting to see (as both classes had begun to call him) 'Twogami,' but was greeted instead by a whitish-grey haired girl with a sheathed sword on her back. "May I come in?" She queried, glasses and red eyes visible through the crack in the door Byakuya had opened – he always kept the chain over the door for posterity's sake.

"I don't know, may you?" Byakuya responded, irked that he had to make conversation only minutes after waking.

"I'm not in the mood for this, Togami." The girl put her hand on the hilt of her blade and wore a stern expression.

'Hmph. Fine. Come in." Byakuya opened the door and gestured for the girl to come in. He was nothing if not mannerly when he was annoyed. "What business do you have with me..." he noted the sword and linked a name to it. "Peko Pekoyama?"

Peko pulled out a chair from the alcove near the bathroom and sat down. "I must make a request, one for my young master." A small bead of sweat formed near her temple.

"And why – pray tell – would you ever think I would fulfill a request from someone I've never talked to? And – if I may remind you-you are operating with a Yakuza family, one my family has directly opposed in the past."

"… I do know this, yes." Peko seemed to refuse to stare into Byakuya's eyes. "But this has nothing to do with our… life outside of school. You're going into the city tomorrow, yes?"

"How did you find that out?"

"Twogami told me during game night. And judging by your response I assume you are."

"Hmph. Yes, as a matter of fact, I do plan to travel into the city tomorrow. But that is solely for business reasons and I plan to do nothing more while there."

"… please, hear me out. I cannot go into the city this week and I must deliver..." Peko produced a small slip of paper and handed it to Byakuya, along with a long letter. "these, back home. Hope's Peak does not allow the post to come in and out of the school, for security reasons." Byakuya scanned the letter. It read:

'Hinata Hajime, Mr.

Your tuition fee for the New Year's term has yet to be paid. If your parents/guardians do not pay the fee within two weeks from the sending of this letter, you will be removed from reserve course and blacklisted from Hope's Peak.

Yours,

Hope's Peak Treasury.'

Byakuya then examined the small slip of paper. It was a cheque, with the appropriate tuition fee for Hajime allotted. It did not yet bear a signature, however.

"Young Master pulled some strings and the rest of Class 77 – well, apart from Kazuichi who cannot afford to give what little he has – all gave money towards this. This envelope," Peko passed a coffee-brown envelope to Byakuya, with the address of Hajime's parents neatly scribed in cursive on the front, "will contain the cheque. I ask you to please post this while you are in the city. It is not much of a detour – it will take but seconds, so please…"

"Fine, I'll post it for you. It's hardly an annoyance, so I suppose I'll do it."

"Thank you. Allowing his friend to remain at this academy… this will please the young master greatly."

"Yes, yes. You can leave now."

"Of course. And thank you." Peko stood up, brushed herself off and walked out.

Byakuya inserted the cheque into the envelope and sealed it shut. He looked out of his window, which overlooked the school grounds, as all Class 78's rooms did. He absentmindedly flicked the corners of the envelope while looking out upon the endless green of the school grounds, coated with a thin layer of dew and intermittently covered by buildings of differing sizes and levels of decoration, the dorm Byakuya was in connecting the main building, the foundations of which were just visible from where he was sitting, stretching into the level plain. Byakuya grabbed his phone and decided to text Twogami, as he had taken his phone number the night prior.

"Are you awake?" He asked in his text. A few seconds later came the reply:

"Of course."

"Are you prepared for tomorrow? I finished all of my research, so I needn't prepare more."

"Allow me this day to get ready and finish reading up on Ikami. Don't think about disturbing me."

"Fine. Be up by 6:30 tomorrow. I'll have Aloysius chauffeur us into the city and I need a certain something off someone else." Byakuya pressed down on the power button and slid the phone into his pocket, ready to face his task the next day and resolved to spend the rest of the current day as he wanted to.

Byakuya strolled into the computer lab, munching on a breakfast bar he had picked up from the cafeteria. He half expected to find Chihiro there, but instead found Fuyuhiko there. "…What's a Yakuza doing here?" Byakuya was semi-confused as to what business Fuyuhiko had in the lab.

"Well, I ain't working on my fuckin' project, so… your classmates are all assholes, y'know that? That detective and biker especially. I'm guessing Peko came to see you?"

"That she did." Byakuya sat down next to Fuyuhiko, who was browsing Google. "And I've got the cost covered."

"…that money isn't dirty, you know." Fuyuhiko suddenly blurted out.

"I never even asked about – or insinuated – that."

"Yeah, I know but it's just. Some of it is mine, but I got that through our family's more… legitimate businesses. We have a literal princess in our class, for fuck's sake! Nagito tried to get around 15 thousand yen from an ATM but the lucky bastard got 150 thousand instead. Chiaki gave some of her money from those gaming tournaments she wins. And Kazuichi- Kazuichi didn't even have to chip in, but he did… fuck his bleeding heart attitude. We never even told Peko about that, she'd tell him to return it immediately. Yeah, it was only 7.5 thousand but… ugh."

"I didn't ask you to tell me that." Byakuya didn't care for Fuyuhiko's three-hanky stories about his friends that Byakuya couldn't care less about.

"Yeah, no shit. But you're the only one who knows about this whole reserve course bullshit and I had to get that off my chest." Fuyuhiko had clicked onto the news, nothing too interesting. The buzz of the machinery surrounding them was the only thing bar silence that was palpable between the two. Byakuya stood up to leave – not even entirely sure why he was there to begin with – when Fuyuhiko called after him. "Hey. Thanks for helping out Hajime." Fuyuhiko showed courtesy.

"Whatever." But Byakuya could not care less for the courtesy of a criminal.

Byakuya had planned to train in the gym, but as he pushed open the door in his gym clothes he was nearly skewered by a throwing knife and that plan went out the window. "Kh!" He let out a gasp as the knife sunk into the wall around a mere 30 centimeters from his face. The hand that had let the knife fly looked coldly at him, she was the unspeaking form of Mukuro Ikusaba.

"My apologies, Byakuya." A gruff voice, that of Sakura rang throughout the room, seeming to almost echo off the walls.

"My reflexes are like that still. You're lucky I can still divert my path quickly. Sorry." No sympathy emitted from Mukuro's tone, despite her words.

"Byakuya, you'll have to come back later. We don't want you to get hurt." Peko was also standing the room. All three were sweating, their breathing laboured. Peko's sword was unsheathed, and Mukuro held a similar looking blade in her hands. Several more weapons were strewn across the floor. A mace, a flail, a shield, a wrench, what looked liked several pounds of Semtex, an AR15, an MP-40, a stick of dynamite, a double-barreled shotgun and a bandanna labelled "INFINITE AMMO" along with many, many more weapons of war were haphazardly thrown across the room. "… is your project trying to make some sort of fallout shelter?" Byakuya questioned.

"Ha, as if." Sakura had her arms folded and looked at Byakuya in the eye. "It's just simple weapons training."

"S-simple? Th-there's explosives here!" Byakuya tried to hide the shock in his voice.

"We're professionals. There's no need for alarm." Mukuro said, still as stoic as ever.

"Well, you'd best be going before we turn you into a pincushion. I'm not sure if I would stop Mukuro's – ahem – 'reflexes' next time she decides to take aim at your pretty face." Sakura grinned at Byakuya deviously. Byakuya thought it best to make his excuses and leave.

Making his way back to the main building, Byakuya found himself opening the door to the library, chiding himself as he knew who exactly would be there. The library was much like the other rustic areas in Hope's Peak. It had a soft brown carpet, with oak tables on grey metal legs and quaint green pot plants in white ceramics. The walls were painted a homely shade of brown and birch bookshelves held swathes of knowledge and fiction. "M-Master! You came to find me!" Toko immediately pulled herself away from the book she had her nose in and rushed to Byakuya's side. "No, I didn't. I came to fetch a book." Byakuya wrinkled his nose at Toko's stench. He remembered when he visited a pub in England when he was with his father on business. The 'Ye Olde Man and Scythe' had a rancid smell one could almost taste, almost as putrid as Toko's own stench which emanated from her disgusting body.

"I-Is it because you see me a-as some di-disgusting whore?" Toko stuttered, face contorted in anger and self-pity.

Byakuya turned and glanced at the shelves to find a book that would catch his interest. "Yes, actually."

"O-ohh.." Toko moaned, deep in the throes of pleasure due to Byakuya's insult.

"Why do I even bother responding to you?" Byakuya made no attempt to hide his disgust.

"B-because you care about meeeee…" Toko was blushing and drooling, hands clenched and on her chin.

"… I'm not even gonna respond to you from now on."

"That's because you don't feel like insulting me! You're trying to hide your true feelings!"

Byakuya just grabbed a book – a compendium of playscripts entitled "Everyman and other miracle and morality plays," turned on his heels and waltzed out of the library and back to his room.

Byakuya slumped onto his bed. It was only 3 pm but Byakuya felt tired from nearly dying in the gym and also nearly dying again in the library. He spent a few hours just browsing online and watching videos online and texting his other self, who finished his preparations at around 5 pm. Byakuya thanked him for his service, to which Twogami asked if he 'thanked people often.' He thought about that and simply replied 'no.' Eventually, the sun set and night dawned. And as the cold stars hung in the sky and the wind blew cold and silent through bare winter branches, another knock rang out on Byakuya's door. He had never felt so popular.

"'Sup." Leon laughed and scratched the back of his neck. "I'm here to ask you something."

"… what?" Byakuya considered Leon to squander his potential as the Ultimate Baseballer, wanting instead to be a rockstar. Byakuya saw wasted talent as almost criminal and regarded Leon as such. "...can you sign this?" Leon held out a clipboard – a request for equipment from the Hope's Peak music department. It was already signed by Ibuki Mioda and Leon Kuwata, with an extra signature from Mondo Owada.

"Get someone else to do it," Byakuya said from behind the chained door.

"W-wait! We can't find anyone else! They're all working! C'mon man, we need this signature from you! Please?!"

"…" Byakuya gave it some thought. He supposed he wasn't exerting himself too much by giving Leon what he wanted. He strode over to his desk, grabbed a fountain pen from one of its drawers and signed the form from behind the ajar door.

"Aw, hell yeah! Tha-" Leon had no time to finish his showing of gratitude before Byakuya slammed the door in his face, dusting off his hands after doing so.

Byakuya left his phone charging on his bedside table. He texted his father two words:

"We're ready." He then lay, staring at the stark white ceiling and knowing that tomorrow was a big day for his family's empire, one he put partially in the hands of one he did not entirely trust or know too well. He tamed these wild thoughts of anxiety and uncertainty, tempering them into a knife of ambition and gall he threw at the thin veil of lucidity that surrounded him still. Unlike Mukuro, he did not miss his mark and the deep vice of sleep grabbed hold of him and dragged him into its throes.