Assignment 2,

Part 4 – A Maw of Concrete

Byakuya rubbed the sleep out his eyes, flicking out the tiny flecks of yellow from his fingertips and putting his clenched fist to his mouth to stifle a yawn. He finished the coffee he had brewed a half-hour earlier, at 6 am. He was currently standing outside the other Byakuya's dorm room, knocking on the large glazed slab of wood, when his phone buzzed in his pocket. It was his father.

"Son," the text began, "about Kamiki. The meeting's been rescheduled for tomorrow – something to do with the company needing an extra day to gather resources. I hope you can adapt to this.

– Your father."

Byakuya gritted his teeth and exhaled through his nose. Of course. He would still travel into the city, but now he'd have to stay there overnight. Twogami opened the door and picked up on his irked expression. "Did you have a nightmare or something?' Twogami didn't sound all that concerned.

"My meeting's been rescheduled for tomorrow. You still have yours today, so I'll come to the city with you. Aloysius will return you to Hope's Peak and I – I'll have to book a hotel room. Ugh." The word 'hotel' left a rotten taste on his tongue. "He'll be picking us up at nine."

"T-Then why did you wake me up at half six?!" his double asked, looking extremely perturbed.

"To check you've got everything ready. Did you create a PowerPoint like I did – and like I asked you to?"

"Of course I did. I'm not stupid. I mean, it's basically propaganda about why their company is trash and will fail unless surrender everything they own to us."

"Well, if you can convince them, then that's good."

"So we just… wait here?" Twogami asked. "Well, I'm waiting on someone. I've noticed some… irregularities in their behavior and I think we can get something from them."

"… okay then."

Byakuya stood at the door, waiting for about 2 hours with Twogami. They talked about their plans, strategies and went online to pass the time. "We're probably going to hear a knock on the door opposite to us. When we do, grab him and drag him in here. We need something of his." Byakuya kept his ears open until the clock ticked to 8:23, when a loud and quick knock rang out from the room directly opposite. Byakuya opened the door and gestured to his double to grab the neon pink and yellow figure by the neck, causing him to struggle as he was dragged into the room and dropped down on a velvet chair. "What the hell?! What is this about?" Kazuichi screeched, yelling in a frenzy at the two of them.

"Well, that's an overreaction if there ever was one." Twogami folded his arms and exhaled through his nose. Byakuya decided to take the reins on the conversation.

"Cough up a video lens, grease monkey." Byakuya knew he had to get a lens to record the meetings as proof of his exploits (even if it was illegal).

"Why..?" Kazuichi began.

"Does Just give us one that can record something, now. We've seen those pieces of scrap metal you're building." He had heard about the odd robots Kazuichi and Chihiro were building and knew they had to have had some form of recording device.

"How did you-?" Byakuya didn't like the sound of Kazuichi's voice and decided to cut him off.

"Don't interrupt when I'm speaking to you."

"F-fine." Byakuya watched the mechanic rummage through his pockets with his greasy hands and pull out a lens and place it in his hands. Byakuya winced as he did so. "Here. Can I leave?" Byakuya began to piece things together, based on whose door Kazuichi knocked on. "Eager to get to work with your partner? Heh. Or something else?" Poking fun at people beneath him was one of Byakuya's great joys of life.

"Sh-shut up," Kazuichi said, going a deep pink much like his hair.

"You may leave." Byakuya tilted his head towards to door, directing Kazuichi towards it. The two moved out of his way and watched as he walked out.

"Thank you," Twogami added, showing that he seemed to hold some empathy for his classmate.

"Well, that's that." Byakuya pressed down on the pressure sensitive back of the lens and watched a slight glow in the centre, only caught by the observant. He attached it his button and saw the light continue to glow. "Here." He passed the lens to Twogami. "Attach this to your button when you're in there and hope they don't notice."

"Okay. I take it we get our stuff together and then meet your manservant?"

"He's not my- yes. We get our stuff together and then meet my manservant."

"Heh. Sounds like a plan." Twogami slid a flash drive out of his laptop, slid it into his pocket and grinned. Byakuya patted his pocket for his wallet, which already contained everything he needed for the city within it.

Byakuya pushed open one of the school's main doors and felt the cold breeze of the winter morning again his cheeks, his glasses saving his eyes from the brunt of the chill. He walked along the path to the school gates, covered in a thin coat of frost, his double trotting slowly behind him. He breathed out and saw his breath appear in front of his face, steaming up his glasses. He took his embroidered handkerchief from his pocket and wiped them, hearing the pat, pat, pat of his feet on the flagstones. He got to the large iron gates that separated the academy from the outside world. They contained the crest of the school, which parted down the centre when they opened. A guard manned a small station near the gates, opening them when necessary and looking out for the students who had to leave and enter. "Hello," Byakuya said to the man. "We'd like to get through."

"… Mr. Togami, sir. Why are there two of you?"

"That does not matter. Let us through, we're waiting on someone."

"Of course, sir." The guard replied. The gates slid openly silently, forced open by the mechanics in the hinges and allowed access to the outside world. Byakuya walked through the gate, while his imposter thanked the man at the gate, probably freezing to death and wishing he were anywhere else but this place.

"Hello, Aloysius." Byakuya greeted his butler (now turned chauffeur), who was to drive them into the city. The car they were in was as lavish as one would expect from the Togamis. It wasn't a limo, but it wasn't the everyman's car either. Byakuya enjoyed his choice of drinks, such as flavoured sparkling water, a choice of soda or champagne – he often found himself drinking the champagne on these rare trips outside of Hope's Peak; after all, the people he was surrounded them demanded classy alcoholism. He looked outside the black-tinted windows and saw the blur of the road outside of the thin layers of frigid glass slowly become less and less natural, turning from a country road full of bare trees with their haggard branches to metallic bars of wrought iron lining tarmacked roads where cars trundled along, all wanting to go somewhere, each a story to be told in their own right. Aloysius drove down a road that would bring the two Togamis to the heart of the city and made it known. "We're nearly there, Young Master." Byakuya considered Aloysius to be the closest thing to a friend he had – he never asked after his health or how school was going whenever Byakuya had these very rare outings from Hope's Peak, though Byakuya wouldn't necessarily mind if he did. "Ok, Aloysius. Just drop us outside Ikami, he," Byakuya pointed at Twogami "has his meeting in… 17 minutes." Byakuya noted, looking at his incredibly opulent watch and noting the time. The entire journey had been cloaked in silence, no-one in the vehicle speaking, just deep in thought. As the car pulled in in front of the art deco inspired Ikami building and watched as his double stepped outside of the car, hopefully, to complete his end of the bargain for Byakuya. "Where to now, Young Master?" Aloysius questioned.

"Take me to the Hachigami hotel. I'll go book in a room there."

"Of course, Young Master." Aloysius hit the acceleration and continued further into the heart of the city. Buildings seemed to twist and warp around them, as the carnivorous maw of the city swallowed land and greenery to replace it with inhuman factories and the cold corporate buildings – sub-zero in the icy grasp of winter. Faceless everymen gazed through thin glass window, eyes as glazed as the windows they vacantly peered through. Byakuya averted his gaze from these watchmen, focusing on the cushy leather of the shotgun seat in front of him, too unsettled to peer further on.

The car pulled into the pavement beside the Hachigami hotel and Byakuya gracefully stepped out of the car, waving a goodbye to Aloysius as he left and gazed up at the imposing Hachigami building. Ornate, covered in ivy and the size of a skyscraper, it was the most luxurious hotel in the heart of the city there was. The main doors were covered in gold trimmings and patterns, with glass, shined to perfection and door handles shaped like fearsome dragons covered in what was undoubtedly pure silver, despite the fact the doors were automatic and detected motion.

Byakuya stepped through the and insanely fragrant and sweet smelling perfume invaded his nostrils as he did. The main lobby had a ceiling that towered uncountable storeys high, the ceiling itself hand-painted in the style of an artist such as Michelangelo may have painted in their prime, depicting beautiful people doing beautiful things. It crowned an opulent and breathtaking main lobby, in which sat a fountain of topless mermaids pouring out seemingly infinite amounts of water from their copper urns, now a stark green colour due to the hotel's age. Bellboys in uniforms of bloody crimson with gold trim on the hats, collars, and lapels carted around suitcases full of items worth more than the men and women who took such care of them, the Hachigami logo on their shirt pockets a sign of their servitude to the hotel. Byakuya looked down to see his reflection cast in the opal-coloured marble floor, staring directly back at him and not looking away. The main counter, in which was cast the Hachigami logo – and Ouroboros of twin dragons – gleaming with its gold finish was attended by a rather down and depressed looking fellow, his bright uniform offsetting his mood – if only slightly – and made its way as a semicircle around the back of the lobby as a dazzling chandelier cast pure light upon the two conversing souls.

"Give me a room." Byakuya stared down at the rather pale and sickly looking clerk who looked at him, cowering from Byakuya's leg to body ratio.

"O-of course, sir. What name is that in?"

"Togami. Byakuya."

"A-ah! Sir." The employee, his tag denoting him as Takuechi, bowed low.

"I don't expect an army salute from a peasant."

"O-of course!" Takuechi fumbled beneath the desk, finally grabbing a key, with which was attached a block of wood with the number 503 was imprinted, presumably carved into the wood by hand. "H-here you go, s-sir!" The boy's hand quivered as he passed Byakuya the key. Byakuya snatched the key out of his trembling grasp. "H-how many nights do you intend on staying?" Takuechi inquired.

"Just the one."

"Gotcha." Takuechi clicked his mouse and tapped his keyboard, inputting all of Byakuya's data. "P-pay here, s-sir." He held out a credit card reader, as Byakuya slid his credit card out of his pocket and into the slot of a card reader, charging him what was the equivalent of pennies for someone of his status. "E-enjoy your stay. Your room is on the fifth floor, just up the lift."

Byakuya exited the lift onto the fifth floor and walked onto the cushy carpet, detailed with intricate and intertwining patterns woven into them. He heard his silent footsteps impossibly echo off the walls, walking down the silent corridor to his room. He opened the door to his room, a spacious place with a king-sized bed and elaborate table carved from pure oak on which sat a lacquerware set were located down a small set of steps, at the top of which was located the ensuite bathroom. A few shelving units surrounded a TV, on which Bric a brac worth more than the Ryukyu islands sat. Byakuya lay down on the bed, softer than the softest velvet and sunk into it, turning on the TV with the remote from the oversized bedside table next to him and turned on the TV. A flash of blue, then the cold stare of a news reporter sitting on their bleak metal table, announcing the day by day. Two headlines caught his interest. The first was a story about an old 'friend' of his. "Famous clairvoyant Yasuhiro Hagakurae has announced his intentions to return home after a tour of the US. The pseudo-celebrity said on the matter 'It was nice, getting paid for this stuff, y'know? But I was called back home for some reason and the person who called me back… well, you listen to 'em. They're the law where I come from. Kinda literally.'" The man read from the Telecaster in front of him the details on the village idiot of Hope's Peak, which Byakuya attempted to drown out. The next story also involved a student, the man on the screen stating "Also today, the tribulations of the Kuzuryuu clan: are the police close to choking one of Japan's most notorious crime families?" Byakuya very much hoped the answer was a resounding yes. He couldn't care less for criminals, as he very much liked to mention around the actual physical criminals in his school. As some more odd stories about things only really mentioned to pad the runtime of the show, Byakuya's phone buzzed. It was his father. "Son," it began, "The meeting with Kamiki is scheduled for 2 pm tomorrow. It will take place at our main building. Do not be late.

-Your father."

Byakuya looked at the grandfather clock in his room, watching the pendulum sway hypnotically, striking 2. In 24 Byakuya would be meeting with one of the meekest men in Japan and attempting to forge with him some form of deal. He did not feel like doing much for the rest of the day and reached for the telephone next to him. He pushed a few buttons and listened as the lobby asked what he would like. "Room service. 503. One of everything on the menu."