Hope's Peak Academy chose their students on individual success. Even if a high school soccer team had won every game for twenty years, it was a team effort, and the school didn't want fifteen ultimate soccer players. Individual success was something that the 78th class could easily claim, as more than one student had already made careers out of their talent, and quite a lot of money, too. Perhaps no one demonstrated this fact more than Byakuya Togami. While his title may be the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, he had to work for his success, and succeed he did. His achievements will not be listed here because the legality of them may be called into question, but the point is that he is young and he has made a fortune. Honestly, he could drop out of school right now, and still have enough renown to continue to amass wealth, just with seven more free hours to do so. However, dropping out was out of the question, so he decided to make the best of it. While he was satisfied with attending the best school in the country, there were other things to be gained by going to Hope's Peak. Byakuya had gained a head start by being able to scout out the future of Japan, and maybe get a few in the pocket of the Togami Corporation.
Unfortunately for him, this is where the individual success thing bit him in the ass. Byakuya was used to investing in companies with promising ideas and individuals who had already profited from their ideas. While some talents were obviously more profitable than others, (moral compass, how do you make a job out of that?) he was reminded that they just teenagers. As such, his options were very limited. Most of his classmates had talents that were either impossible to invest in, and the others had talents that he had no interest in. He had tried recruiting the Ultimate Chef to be his personal cook, but he decided that he wanted to keep his sanity, (and chastity) so he withdrew the offer. At this point, he had very few options, but it would be an insult to not make any connections at a school full of people who were guaranteed success. (Even if Byakuya didn't think they would deserve it.) Since he had no interest in investing in Hifumi's anime porn, he had only one other option at this point.
It was at this moment in time that Byakuya Togami decided he hated his life.
"I just wish to speak with you about your upcoming releases." He had spent all of one minute talking to Toko Fukawa. He had been trying to convince her to change publishers to one owned by Togami Corp., but well, he hadn't quite gotten that far.
"H-how do I know you're not trying to t-trick me? "S-she looks dumb so I bet she wouldn't know if I was trying to s-swindle her." I bet that's what you're thinking about m-me. I just look so w-weak so you think you can make money off of me, d-don't you?!"
He was starting to get annoyed at this point. This was a business deal, he didn't care about her baseless insecurities. "Your works are in high demand, Ms. Fukawa, I am just another bidder for your skills. I already researched the other prices you have sold your works at, and I am willing to buy your next piece at a 7% increase from your last book. In addition, I will have a sister company advertise by requesting your book be placed in optimal positions at bookstores. All I ask is a share equivalent to your prior dealings." What he was offering wasn't a bad deal by any means, but if she agreed right now, before seeing any other offers, he'll be getting away with a lot better of a deal than if another company had made other offers. He also knew that each book she writes does better than the last, and even though he was requesting an equivalent percentage of the profits, that translated to a lot more profit. That wording just sounds better. Now, he just had to wait for the bargaining and then he'd be done.
"Okay."
He reeled at this. "Excuse me?"
"I said okay. I don't care who my publisher is, and everything you said checks out. M-my next book won't be ready for a couple months, though."
He was not prepared for this. He has rarely ever had anyone take him up on his first offer. Was she really that stupid?
"Y-you look surprised. I'm not dumb enough to actually try and bargain with the Ultimate Affluent Progeny. I b-bet I would wind up paying more if I did."
While that might have been his plan, how the hell did she figure that out?
"I take my books very seriously." She pauses for a second and giggles creepily. "Master."
What? Did he hear that correctly? He hoped to God he didn't but… "Did you just call me master?"
"Y-yeah. Is there a problem?"
She doesn't see the problem. She doesn't think anything is wrong with the situation. Byakuya was done with this, but he never gave up on a business deal. So he calmly stood up and said "Contact me when you've finished your book," and promptly walked out the door. No, he wasn't running, that was a brisk jog.
A/N: I just had to, you guys. Do I ship it? Good question. I like post-Ultra Despair Girls Toko, but I don't think he does. More importantly, I am now taking requests! Tell me the characters you want involved and the topic of conversation. You can give a setting or situation, but I need at least a character and a topic. I'll try to work on them, but there's a few things I want to handle on my own. Please don't request Chihiro's gender, Genocider Jill, Celeste's real name, or Daiya, because I'll work on those when I'm ready. Leave your requests in the reviews, or PM me. I'll PM you before I post your chapter, to make sure I got it the way you want.