198AN:
[Spoiler Alert] If you are reading this story without having watched the trilogy movie, you are strongly advised to pause reading this fanfic now and go back to watch the trilogy movie first in order to avoid being exposed to new plot lines the creators of the Code Geass trilogy movie have weaved, as well as not to suffer from disappointment at the content of this story that may not meet your expectation stemmed from the original TV animation series.
Also, to answer some of the common questions in the comments:
- Too much bashing on Lelouch! – There are three possible reasons for this observation: (a) the Zero Requiem was a great success and Lelouch got exactly what he wanted – people who don't know the truth would unite together and bash him as hard as possible in order to not be bind by the past and move towards the future without a hitch; (b) the Battle of Narita was the first real battle that Lelouch commanded the Black Knights against the Britannian army, and since he was at the centre of it, the audience used a magnifying glass to scrutinize his every move and judged those moves based on the audience's respective "sense of justice"; and/or (c) readers of this story need more time to adjust their lens of viewing Lelouch from a God (know-all) perspective to the cast audience's individual perspective (partial knowledge, audience's personal experience, values, beliefs, feelings, limitations, etc.). Owing to the nature of this story, I am more like a neutral historian, trying to depict and extrapolate what would the cast audience think about Lelouch based on the original story and character settings in the trilogy movie universe, as well as information shared by the production team in various sources, rather than being a passionate pro- or anti-Lelouch author who tries to cast him in a particular positive or negative way.
- Tohdoh sucking up to Cornelia? – I think this is a bit of an exaggeration, but the reason why Tohdoh has become more friendly towards Cornelia is partly due to their professional kinship (both being military generals who espouse the idea of fighting a war with honour), partly due to Tohdoh knowing Cornelia led a resistance cell and attempted to rescue him and others from their execution right before Lelouch was killed by Zero, partly due to how Tohdoh disapproved Lelouch's way of forcing the Black Knights to fight in the Battle of Narita and the stark comparison between Lelouch and Cornelia in terms of leading and caring for their respective troops, and partly due to reasons that have not been revealed yet until later chapters of this story.
- Incorporating Re;surrection into this story? – I am still pondering the best way to go, and I can't reveal the details yet because that would spoil the fun. All I can say is that there will be elements from the Re;surrection movie incorporated into my story because this is an interlude story between the Zero Requiem and the resurrection of Lelouch.
- Where to watch the trilogy movie? How long are those movies? – You can either purchase the discs on Amazon or watch them on Netflix. Google will be your best friend in finding your way to either source. Each movie lasts about 2 hours and 15 minutes, so they give you a grand total of approximately 6 hours and 45 minutes of entertainment. After that, you can proceed to the Re;surrection movie as well, which is another 1 hour and 53 minutes of entertainment. By doing so, you are also showing support to the Code Geass production team.
Otherwise, happy reading!
Chapter 13: "Initiation" XI – Who is Zero? II
Both the Area 11 Government and the Six Houses of Kyoto realized they have come out of a Pyrrhic victory from the Narita Mountains. On the Britannian side, while they have annihilated the JLF and have been capturing the remaining JLF members one by one, Cornelia was forced to regroup her units due to heavy losses suffered from Zero's manmade landslide; on the Japanese side, while Tohdoh was still alive, the JLF was practically finished, plus the Holy Swords had lost their customized Burai Knightmare Frames during the Battle of Narita, leaving the Six Houses of Kyoto with no other feasible choice but to seriously consider throwing their support behind the Black Knights, the remaining active and major resistance group fighting against Britannia that the Japanese industrial magnates had no influence over. In other words, the only one who gained from the Battle of Narita was Zero and his Black Knights.
Late in night, a wary Villetta was walking alone along the shoreline of a container terminal and looking around, investigating whether Lelouch Lamperouge, a student at Ashford Academy, was related to the Black Knights as she had suspected for some time. Suddenly, she realized someone was pointing a gun at her, and it was none other than Diethard Reid, the Britannian journalist and TV producer at Hi-TV.
"Would you be kind enough to hand me over that file you have?" Diethard asked politely, though he clearly would not accept an answer that involved not handing the file Villetta had to him.
Villetta was furious. How dare a mere TV producer threatened her, a Britannian soldier? "Do you realize who you are pointing your gun at?" she demanded.
Diethard was unfazed and instead put up a maniacal smile on his face. "It's just that being Zero's comrade is much more interesting than working with the Purist Faction, you know."
"Grr… damn TV guy!" Villetta growled as she dashed towards Diethard, "and you call yourself a Britannian…"
BANG!
Before Villetta could finish her sentence, though, the "damn TV guy" shot her, causing her to fall into the sea and left the file on the ground. Diethard then picked up the file from the ground.
"Chigusa!" Ohgi screams at the screen, shocked to see his wife being gunned down by the Britannian journalist.
"Yes, Kaname?" a smooth, alto voice responds. Everyone looks back at the entrance to the auditorium, and they see the silver-haired Villetta standing at the entrance, wondering why Ohgi suddenly calls her name so desperately.
"Thank goodness you are here!" Ohgi stands up and rushes towards his beautiful ebony wife to hug her tightly.
Villetta is happy that her husband hugs her lovingly even though she is confused as to why he acts in such a drastic manner. "Shh, calm down, darling. What happened?"
"Your husband has just seen you being shot down to the sea," Kallen explains before asking Villetta, "By the way, how's Naoto?"
"Huh?" Villetta raises her eyebrows incredulously, not understanding what Kallen means by Ohgi seeing her being shot down to the sea. She decides to answer Kallen's question first, "Naoto is fine, I took him to take his scheduled vaccination and had my maid to bring him back home afterwards before I came here… ah, greetings, Your Majesties, Your Highness and Your Excellency, I am sorry I am late," she greets Nunnally, Tianzi, Cornelia and Kaguya. All four women nod in return, and Cornelia fills her in about what they have been doing before she has arrived at the auditorium. "…and we have just seen the scene where you were being shot by Reid at the Container Terminal when you were investigating Lelouch's connections with the Black Knights," Cornelia sums up what have been shown on the screen so far.
"Diethard… that scum," Villetta is surprised that C.C. actually recorded what happened in the past two years and gave the discs to Kallen to show to the group, but that surprise is quickly replaced by the fury of recalling that night being shot by the damn TV guy.
"Come, Chigusa," Ohgi quickly leads his wife to her seat and holds her hand tight. Villetta quickly decides that instead of dwelling in the past, it is more important for her to enjoy being with her beloved husband now. She quickly quells the bitter thought out of her mind and looks at her husband with a lovely smile.
Inside the Chinese Consulate General in Area 11, Dr Rakshata Chawla and her two fellow Indian scientists were looking at the four Gekka Knightmare Frames, waiting for the arrival of the representatives of the Black Knights.
"So you are the people from the Black Knights?" Rakshata, a tall woman with dark skin and long, blonde hair, asked as she finished a puff through her long pipe, seeing that three men and two women had finally arrived at the Consulate General.
"Indeed. And you are Dr Rakshata Chawla from the India Military Zone, correct?" a male member of the Black Knights asked, before Rakshata immediately asked her next question.
"Who's the pilot of the Guren Mk II?"
"Ah, that would be me!" Kallen raised her right hand. She was dressed in a dark orange cheongsam and had combed two hair buns on her head.
"Well, haven't we got some rather good data from you," Rakshata praised Kallen as she bent down and hit the side of a box next to her with her pipe, opening the box and revealed a red protection suit inside. "We will be helping you until India gains its independence. I look forward to working with you."
"That's a sexy dress you were wearing, Kallen!" Gino praises as soon as he sees Kallen in the exotic cheongsam.
Kallen blushes. "Well… thanks," is all she can say to Gino's heartfelt appreciation of her sexiness.
"Was it a requirement for the girls to dress like that to enter the Chinese Consulate General building?" Rivalz asks curiously, "the guys seem to be wearing normal clothes when they entered the building, though."
"No, we just thought that we may dress for the occasion to show our respect to the Chinese Federation," Kallen says, "I mean, it's not a bad dress, so I don't see any reason not to wear it."
"Shame, we should have organized an exotic dressing party back then!" Milly sighs. Rivalz and Shirley both agree with Milly: in fact, Rivalz is already contemplating to hold an exotic dressing ball some time before his graduation.
'Well, it would have been better than the cross-dressing ball,' Kallen muses but says nothing more on the subject.
"AHA! What a cool protection suit you have there!" Lloyd observes before he verbally jabs his long-time rival, "almost as cool as the one I had for Suzaku."
"It's not about coolness, but the protection provided to the pilot," Rakshata immediately rebuts, "but I suppose the Earl of Pudding can't understand it because his Lancelot has no pilot, but only a replaceable devicer."
"Please, stop!" Cecile pleads to the two geniuses in the room, "Why wouldn't you stop fighting over the tiniest bit of things?"
Just as Kallen was meeting with Rakshata, Zero was meeting with Taizou Kirihara, one of the magnates of the Six Houses of Kyoto and the group's de facto leader. They were walking towards each other in a heavily fogged Japanese garden, while Ohgi and Tamaki sat inside a room of a Japanese house far away from Kirihara and Zero.
"Well, let's see if our masked leader would be acknowledged by Kyoto," Tamaki grunted. There were rumours within the Black Knights that Zero was not a Japanese.
Locked in the heavy fog, Kirihara and Zero stood face to face. "You still cover your face even when you stand before me, Zero?" Kirihara asked, holding a cane with both of his hands.
"There is a reason for me to wear the mask," Zero replied, "However, Lord Kirihara, you have done me a favour in the past, so I shall show you my face."
"A favour?" Kirihara was surprised. Had he met Zero before?
"Yes, you have provided a few favours to make my younger sister's life easier," Zero answered as he took off his mask.
"You are…!" Kirihara exclaimed. So Zero was a supposedly dead Britannian prince?
"I thank you," Zero calmly replied.
Kirihara fell silent for a brief moment before continuing, "How much does your path intersect with Japan's?"
"I want to establish my base here," Lelouch said as he put his mask back on, "my base to affect Britannia."
"Hahaha… very well," Kirihara chuckled a bit before holding his cane tight, turned and bellowed at Ohgi, startling the much younger Japanese man. "Ohgi, as you have suspected, Zero is not Japanese!"
"Eh?" Ohgi and Tamaki gasped.
Nevertheless, Kirihara continued before either could say anything else. "However, he is undoubtedly a mortal enemy of Britannia. Follow Zero! This is the collective will of us, the Six Houses of Kyoto."
"I understand," Ohgi replied respectfully to the elder Japanese man.
Kirihara turned back to Zero. "Would that be fine?" he asked.
"Thank you very much. Please send my regards to Kaguya Sumeragi, who provided us with the Guren Mk II," Zero thanked the old man before turning back and walking away, gradually disappearing into the heavy fog.
"I know Lulu wasn't that bad!" Shirley finally grabs the chance to say something good for her beloved Lulu, "he was thankful to the favour he received from that old man when he was a child!"
Milly and Rivalz all nod to Shirley's comment. They are shocked to see how ruthless Lelouch was in the Battle of Narita, so it is quite reassuring for them to see that the good side of Lelouch they know still existed after that battle, as Lelouch actually expressed his gratitude to Kirihara and didn't use his supernatural power to bend the old man's will. 'Despite his cold demeanor back in Narita, he still had a grateful soul within,' Milly thinks inwardly.
"…recorded," Anya takes a photo of her re-energized Ashford friends upon seeing Lelouch wasn't the demon that the Japanese audience, Chiba in particular, is accusing him of after all.
"Lord Kirihara was the old man who appeared at the Kururugi Shrine when you first arrived there, right?" Cornelia asks Nunnally as she recalls an earlier scene during the screening event.
"Yes, he helped me and Big Brother to settle down at the Kururugi Shrine," Nunnally recalls.
"It's a shame that I didn't know that he had helped both of you when you two first arrived at Japan. Had I known it early enough, I would have been able to rescue him from his execution after the Black Rebellion for the favour he had done to Lelouch and you," Cornelia sighs.
"Oh? But I thought even Viceroys couldn't issue clemency to someone who was charged with treason?" Nunnally recalls her time as Area 11's Viceroy after Viceroy Calares was killed by Zero, up till the end of the Black Knights' Second Assault on Tokyo Settlement.
"That's correct, but don't forget, I had my own Glaston Knights who could have helped Lord Kirihara to flee to the Chinese Federation or the EU if needed," Cornelia explains. Such was the difference between Cornelia and Nunnally as the Viceroy of Area 11: Cornelia served with the support of her own personal forces in addition to her official power as Viceroy, while Nunnally served entirely at the pleasure of her father and had no sway on matters strictly beyond what a Viceroy could legally do.
Meanwhile, Chiba is surprised that Lelouch didn't geass Kirihara. "I thought Kyoto supported him and the Black Knights because they were geassed by that demon; it turns out that there was a simpler reason for that," she nevertheless spats, "How naive was Lord Kirihara to throw Kyoto's support behind Lelouch just because he knew him since he was a kid?"
Kaguya frowns upon hearing Chiba's comment. 'She has grossly underestimated Lord Kirihara. In fact, it was a calculated risk: since Kyoto had already lost the JLF, it was only logical to support the Black Knights if the result they were seeking after was close enough to ours. Lord Kirihara was as cunning and calculating as one could possible get, otherwise he would not have survived for 7 years after Britannian occupation and still commanded such wealth and power to support all the resistance groups behind the scene.'
It was another day, and Ohgi was seen standing at a container terminal in the evening, still contemplating whether it was fine to accept a non-Japanese to lead his comrades to fight against Britannia. Suddenly, he noticed an injured and unconscious ebony woman laying within the bulwarks along the coastline.
"Are you alright?" Ohgi immediately rushed to the injured woman, holding her up in his arms. "Hey? Talk to me!"
"Ugh…" the silver-haired ebony slowly regained her conscious. "So, it's you… Zero…"
Ohgi was shocked. Is this Britannian woman related to Zero?
"Oh, so that's where the romance between Coach Villetta and Prime Minister Ohgi began!" Milly squeals as she sees the beginning of a rather impossible romance between a Britannian noblewoman and a Japanese commoner. Shirley, also a big lover of romance gossiping, stares at the screen with admiration. Villetta blushes as her students are paying close attention to her romance story with Ohgi.
The scene switches to what appeared to be the interior of Diethard's apartment. It was a well-furnished studio, with 9 screens showing photos and video clips of Zero. Diethard had apparently just finished taking a shower and read the file Villetta had left behind. He then threw the file into a paper shredder. He was drying his hair off, smiling satisfyingly.
"Wait, so Diethard already knew who Zero was back then?" Tamaki exclaims.
"Or perhaps more precisely, he knew the identity of the suspect of being Zero," Guilford corrects the short-tempered rebel-turn-bar owner.
"That guy was creepy. Why would a single man put up so many images of Zero in his house? Wouldn't it frighten off any woman he might bring to his house?" Tamaki sneers, not realizing what he has just said quickly alienates him from the female audience in the auditorium.
"That piece of crap…" Ohgi seethes as he sees the image of the man who hurt his cherished wife. How dare he did that to his Chigusa?
"Ah…" an unconscious Villetta finally woke up and opened her eyes. She was sleeping on a bed inside a modest apartment.
"Are you waking up now?" Ohgi asked cautiously, sitting on a chair next to the bed and staring at the Britannian woman while holding a gun on his right hand. His right hand was resting on the edge of his desk.
"Yes…" Villetta answered weakly.
"Why were you passed out at a place like that? What's your name?" Ohgi continued.
"I am… My name is… What is my name…?" Villetta looked at the ceiling, trying hard to recall her name but to no avail.
Ohgi was aghast. A woman without her memories? "You don't remember? What about Zero? You were talking about him before, weren't you?"
"Who's Zero?" Villetta asked.
Ohgi suddenly realized what he was trying to do and face-palmed, his right hand shaking. He was betraying Zero by trying to find out who he was! 'Ah… What am I doing? I practically betray him and why…'
"But I don't know anything… Oh!" Villetta sat up on Ohgi's bed and tried to assure Ohgi that she didn't know anything about this Zero person that Ohgi had just mentioned. However, that hardly matters in the next second as the blanket that had since covered her fell down, revealing her naked body with a few bandages here and there. Villetta was embarrassed and immediately pulled back the blanket, turning away from Ohgi, "…nothing at all."
"What? Why's it showing that?" the present day Villetta screams as she realizes the screen is showing her naked body to the whole audience. "Don't look!" she begs the audience as she blushes hard.
There were a variety of reactions among the men in the audience: Guilford and Gino, being gentlemen and shining examples of what true knights are, immediately turn away from the screen and say nothing; Tohdoh and Zero do basically the same; Ohgi quickly stands up and use his tall and giant body (by Japanese standards) to block Lloyd from the screen, who lacks the decency to look away but nevertheless being forced to by Cecile the ear-pulling expert; Tamaki looks away not because he doesn't want to look, but because Villetta is his best friend's wife and he treasures their friendship enough to suppress his carnal urges for once; and poor Rivalz has his mouth wide-opened, his eyes being covered by his crush Milly, while a freaked out Shirley stands up and keeps waving her hands in front of him to prevent the poor blue-haired boy from looking at the screen.
As for the two elder guardians, Kaguya has no problem immediately covering Tianzi's eyes, causing the young Chinese girl to squeak a bit, but otherwise a nice job done; Cornelia, on the other hand, knee-jerks upon seeing Villetta's exposed chest on the screen by moving her hands towards Nunnally's eyes, but immediately hesitates as she realizes that the young Empress is already 16 years old. Nunnally, as perceptive as always, smiles at the elder princess, "Big Sister, I'm fine, but thank you for being considerate."
'Damn, C.C.'s ruthless in editing the video footages. I hope she hasn't done that to me as well!' Kallen cringes as she sees how C.C. went through the trouble to mute Lelouch when he said her name, but has done nothing to shield Villetta from enormous embarrassment.
"Prime Minister Ohgi, how could you put a woman you've just picked up from somewhere onto your bed and stripped her naked?" Chiba demands. Has she been wrong in assuming that Ohgi is a gentleman after all this time?
"My friend, you may look innocent on the outside, but you sure know when to step up the game…" Tamaki says in an "I understand you, bro" tone.
"Wow, I thought such thing only exists in fictional comics…" Rivalz mutters. He has decided that from now on, rather than respecting Ohgi as a foreign dignitary, Rivalz will respect the Prime Minister of Japan as a true man of culture.
"No! It's not like what you think!" Ohgi yells in panic, "Chigusa was badly wounded, and so I had to take off her clothes to clean those wounds and put bandages on them. I was able to undress her with my eyes closed, but that wasn't possible when I tried to put her clothes back on, and so I covered her body with a blanket. I've also turned the heater on and I thought it would be alright!"
"What? You can undress a woman with your eyes closed? When did you acquire such an advanced and cultured technique?" Tamaki immediately pinpoints at the most questionable part of Ohgi's response before the red-haired Japanese man continues, "don't tell me you've practiced and refined this cultured skill of yours with some random girls in Kabukicho…"
"What? Kaname, did you do that?" Villetta immediately follows up upon hearing what Tamaki has said.
"No! I did nothing of that sorts! I swear!" Ohgi immediately holds Villetta's hands and swears to her that he had never enlisted the help from the professional women in Kabukicho. 'Damn you to hell, Tamaki!' the tall Japanese man curses his friend inwardly.
Tohdoh looks at Ohgi for a moment and ultimately decides to vouch for him. "Villetta, I don't think Prime Minister Ohgi is that sort of person. To think that he has gone to Kabukicho is to mistake him as Tamaki."
"Hey! I am not that sort of person at all!" Tamaki protests, but he is ignored by everyone else in the auditorium.
"I second General Tohdoh," Kaguya also voices out her support to Ohgi, "Prime Minister Ohgi is an honourable man when it comes to treating women."
Villetta looks at her husband for a brief moment, and ultimately decides to listen to Tohdoh, Kaguya and her own self: she has chosen Ohgi as her husband because she knows Ohgi loves her from the bottle of his heart. "Hmm… thank goodness," she sighs.
"Huh?" Ohgi is confused at his wife's sigh.
"Anyone could have picked me up out there, but I've got someone nice to do that," Villetta smiles as she kisses Ohgi on his cheek. The Prime Minister blushes and scratches the back of his head.
It was evening and Shirley, wearing a white and green dress, was running through an alleyway in the ghetto area. "How strange. Lulu disappears again!" She stopped and looked around, trying to find Lelouch.
"Hey, you!" Suddenly, a tall Japanese woman with long, blue hair called and stopped Shirley. "It's dangerous to be here all by yourself! Go back home before you've got yourself into all sorts of problems!" the Japanese woman warned.
"Ah… okay," Shirley took a step back and answered weakly.
"That's right! Get out of here, you Brit!" a nearby Japanese man standing in front of a food stall yelled at Shirley. Shirley immediately ran back to where she came from.
"Hey, don't scare her too much!" another man scolded the first man.
"Heh, sorry about that. But with the Black Knights, we will never lose!" the man yelled as he raised his bottle of alcohol high up into the sky.
Then, a background song was played as the footage recaps on several past operations of the Black Knights prior to the Battle of Narita, such fighting against Refrain drug dealers, punishing corrupted officials, rescuing hostages taken at Lake Kawaguchi, and how the Japanese in the ghettos were worshipping the Black Knights.
"See, Lulu was doing great things for the Japanese!" Shirley exclaims happily as she sees her beloved Lulu were being praised by the Japanese for actually leading the Black Knights to punish the criminals who either escaped or were not punished by the Britannian judicial system, to which Milly, Rivalz and even Gino nod in agreement.
"Hell yeah! We were all cool back then!" Tamaki exclaims with pride as he sees how his countrymen sang to praise the Black Knights' effort, but sadly no one in the audience pays any attention to him.
"Tsch… playing hero games," Chiba sneers, "such a self-aggrandizing brat even though he was a demon at the core."
"AHA! But he did do good things for the Japanese, right?" Lloyd observes as he hears what Chiba says. Chiba snorts but doesn't comment further because even she cannot deny that Lelouch was indeed doing something genuinely good for her countrymen.
"As much as I was opposed to extrajudicial punishment due to my position back then, I'd admit that it's great to see those sleazy criminals being punished," Cornelia concurs with Lloyd, "those parasites of the Empire had been bugging me throughout my viceroyship in Area 11, and it's good that Lelouch helped to clear them out." Next to the warrior princess, Nunnally also smiles at seeing the good things her elder brother did for the Japanese, greatly restoring her confidence in the goodness of Lelouch.
"Indeed, Your Highness," Guilford agrees with his liege, "especially when the bureaucracy of the Area 11 Government was rotten to the core even before you arrived and took the helm from Lord Soresi."
Zero looks back at those images and thinks back the time when he was so adamant that the Black Knights had it wrong because they did not join the police to do such police work. 'Even Princess Cornelia agrees that Lelouch was helpful to her reign in Area 11… well, who am I to argue with that,' Zero thinks inwardly, 'at least, I have already lost the right to criticize Lelouch's method ever since I rebelled against Emperor Charles, breaking my own rules and principles…'
Kallen also looks back to the earlier operations of the Black Knights with pride. 'It was a much simpler time when we were just doing things that actually helped the Japanese,' Kallen muses. She can't help but to feel proud again about having followed Lelouch to do things that have helped her fellow Japanese to improve their lives in Area 11 significantly.
The background song was sang on a rather simple tune by the Japanese in the ghetto areas as their praise to the masked hero of the oppressed:
/
The tomorrow in our dreams we are hoping for is a boundless land where we can roam freely;
That's all we are fighting for.
Ah, white clouds and light breezes, please listen to us:
This wish is our friends' wish; it is also our own wish.
Now, everything starts from Zero;
Now, everything starts from Zero;
Now, everything starts from Zero;
Now, everything starts from Zero;
Everything will start now.
/
Meanwhile, the messiah that the Japanese have been singing their praise to was in a pub inside a large cargo ship, while a lime-haired girl was sitting behind the bar table of the pub.
"The Black Knights, huh?" the said lime-haired girl said as she switched the screen on the monitor by using a remote control, showing the image of the debut of the Black Knights. Zero was standing at the front and middle, while six members of the Black Knights lined up and stood behind the masked man as he was making his debut speech. Although Kallen and three other members of the Black Knights were standing straight, Ohgi and Tamaki chose to half-bow for unknown reasons.
"I have been wondering all this time, Ohgi-san and Tamaki," Kallen asks, "why were you two half-bowing while the rest of us all stood up straight and strong? I mean, yeah, we named ourselves knights, but wouldn't bowing look too pretentious? "
"We were not trying to half-bow actually," Ohgi explains, "we were trying to hide the long submachine guns we were carrying at the time."
"Yea, we didn't have enough time to drop those long-ass guns down before we posed ourselves behind Zero. That man moved too quickly to make his speech," Tamaki recalls.
"That's right. Britannia's rule has already been destroyed by the Black Knights led by Zero," Lelouch picked up a dart from the box and threw it to the dart board.
C.C., on the other hand, sat behind the bar table and was using a pizza cutter to cut a whole pizza into slices. "I didn't expect a resistance group would've called themselves knights. When you eliminated the survivors of the JLF, I was wondering what was going to happen," she recalled that time when Lelouch set a bomb under the sea and blew up the JLF's ship fully loaded with Sakuradite while putting a slice of pizza into her mouth.
"Eliminate? You've blown it way out of proportion," Lelouch responded condescendingly while throwing another dart to the dart board, "I was merely putting those who tried to escape to the India Military Zone in order."
"Drawing the Britannian navy in during the process as well?" C.C. picked up another piece of pizza.
"Everything's of some use, right?" Lelouch stood ready to throw another dart to the dart board.
BANG! Tohdoh slams the armrest of his chair as hard as he can, stunning everyone else in the auditorium.
"So it was him. he killed Major General Katase and our remaining comrades of the JLF!" the usually stoic Japanese general is now bursting in fury as he finally gets to know the truth about the death of his liege he has sworn his loyalty to. "To think that I've been loyal to the murderer of my true liege… damnation!"
Chiba's main loyalty is to Tohdoh, and so she is not as furious as her husband is upon learning the truth of the death of Katase. That doesn't mean she is doing any better, though. "How dare he just blew up my comrades like nothing matters?" she seethes, "I was wrong, he didn't treat us as his chess pieces; he was treating us like garbage!"
Cornelia, Guilford, Gino and Anya all frown upon hearing how Lelouch was so comfortable in using living people as baits to destroy the Britannian navy and wrote them off as "things". They are or were elites of the Britannian army and they have all accepted that there are times when one would have to sacrifice innocent lives to achieve a military objective; however, they believe that when using such an inhumane tactic, one should at least acknowledge the sacrificed as humans and have the least amount of respect the sacrificed lives are entitled to. To see that Lelouch had taken things to such an extreme, seeing the JLF soldiers as nothing more than some of the "everything" and voiding of even the least amount of respect to the lives he had so mercilessly exploited for his own objectives is nevertheless unsettling to the supposedly merciless Britannian military elites who, while certainly no saints and thus not blameless, still observe some basic rules and uphold certain fundamental values in battles.
Kaguya and Kallen are appalled to learn how Lelouch actually thought of the Japanese. '"Everything's of some use"… that means not only the JLF, but us Black Knights and even the Kyoto were all tools to him," Kallen's remaining affection towards the deceased former leader of the Black Knights is sinking to a new low. Kallen then thinks back to her original question with doubts and sadness in her mind, 'What do I really mean to you, Lelouch?'
Kaguya is furious as well, but on a slightly different point. As a politician herself, she is well-versed in the art of using and being used by others, and she is actually fine with Lelouch using the JLF to achieve his objective, for Kyoto was essentially doing the same. What Kaguya cannot accept is that Lelouch was gambling the future of the entire Japanese population, the people who Kaguya has devoted herself to, just to achieve his own objective. 'How dare he treated my countrymen like some lifeless chips on the gambling table? Lord Kirihara, I understand that you had no other better alternatives back then, but you had still underestimated Lelouch when agreeing to throw Kyoto's support behind him.'
Milly, Rivalz and Shirley are deeply shocked at what is being revealed to them. Here were numerous Japanese singing songs of praise to Lelouch, and Lelouch was just treating them as "things of some use"? How could the goofy, kind-hearted vice president of the Ashford Academy be such a cruel, callous man, especially having seen just now how he led the Black Knights to do good things for the Japanese?
'What happened to you, Lulu? Weren't you the kind boy who helped an old couple who's been intentionally wronged by a bad driver when we're freshmen?' Shirley still can't believe what her dear Lulu did to Katase and the remaining JLF members. 'For someone who genuinely wanted to help others without seeking anything in return, why would you do such evil deeds?'
"You have annihilated many other resistance groups as well, haven't you?" C.C. looked at the monitor, pressing the remote control to pull up a map, showing the locations of all other active resistance groups scattered across Area 11.
"The Black Knights fight for justice. To that end, it makes very little difference whether it is Britannia or other resistance groups where justice is delivered to," yet another dart was thrown out. "Of course, utilizable resources shall be used to their fullest extent, even if it means the power of Geass is required to achieve that," Lelouch said.
"Your Geass power is the power of absolute obedience, a power that can bend people's will, their beliefs and even the meaning of people's lives. Even so…" C.C. asked as Lelouch went to the box on the bar table again and picked up three more darts from the box on the bar table.
"I'm aware of it. However, to create a world where Nunnally can live happily comes before anything else, and I'm fine to play it dirty for that," Lelouch answered with little remorse over the possibility of ruining other people's lives as he was trying to build a world where his little sister could live happily ever after.
"Play it dirty? Then how about those who play it clean?" C.C. asked, looking at the raven-haired teen curiously as Lelouch threw another dart to the dart board. However, this time the dart hit another one already on the dart board and fell to the ground. Lelouch frowned, seeing he was not getting any points from it. Suddenly, someone pressed the doorbell, annoying him even more.
Almost everyone in the auditorium is either furious or aghast. Lelouch was doing all the horrible things and ruining other people's lives, arguably many innocent people's lives, just for the sake of his younger sister?
Chiba is the first to explode, again. "I don't blame him for being a good brother to his sister. No, I really don't, and I have no ill will against Her Majesty. What I am angry about is that he treated everybody else as if they were worthless. The world doesn't work like that! It doesn't only revolve around one person and that person's sister!"
Tohdoh is still fuming about Lelouch murdering Katase, but his rigorous training as a Japanese swordsman has steeled him hard enough to enable him to force himself to calm down enough to think and speak clearly. "I have met both Lelouch and Her Majesty when they were mere children at the Kururugi Shrine. I can see why Lelouch was so concerned about his sister's well-being – in fact, I would say that anyone with a human heart would. The problem was that he has obtained a supernatural power that had enabled him to disregard and discard anyone else except his sister, which may still be understandable to a certain degree, but a twisted goal at best to pursue."
Ohgi also joins in. "Our previous leader, Naoto Kouzuki, also doted Kallen a lot and was a loving elder brother to her. But even he would not treat us as his tools for creating a better world for Kallen!" the current Prime Minister of Japan asserts. Villetta holds his hand to show support to her husband.
Suzaku, who knew everything about the Zero Requiem and had known Lelouch since they were small children, thinks back about all the confrontation they had in the past two years. 'Lelouch, I might have the same opinion as the many others sitting here today, but since I have deviated from my beliefs already ever since I decided to rebel against Emperor Charles, I don't think I am entitled to criticize your method being wrong anymore. Nevertheless, I hope you would've heard what others have to say, even if you, according to what I know about you, wouldn't probably care about.'
Nunnally already knows that Lelouch took over the world and got himself killed as history's worst villain because he wanted to create a better world for her, but hearing her brother to say it loud and clear breaks her heart. 'Big Brother, I have never wanted anything more than to be with you. When I said "I wish the world to be gentler place," I didn't mean I wanted that at all cost. Big Brother, I'm grateful that you took my words seriously and worked hard to achieve my wish, but it doesn't make me feel any less guilty even if you took it all onto yourself to commit evil and kept my hands clean, for as long as the reason you committed those evil acts was because of me, then all those evil acts were essentially my own sins as well, whether my hands were kept clean or not.'
Cornelia, on the other hand, was in a quandary: on the one hand, she can understand why Lelouch was doing what he did, for if she and Euphemia were in Lelouch and Nunnally's position, she would most likely have played it dirty as well in order to keep Euphemia's hands clean; on the other hand, she pities Lelouch for suffering from such excessive paranoia to the extent that he automatically distrusted anyone from the Imperial Family, despite the fact that there were still some of his brothers and sisters who genuinely loved and cared about the fate and well-being of the vi Britannia siblings.
"What is it?" Lelouch asked impatiently.
"Zero, a group in Hiroshima contacted us and said they would like to join forces with us," Ohgi reported.
"I see. I shall accept it if they are willing to come under my command," Zero ordered as he turned back and walked towards the door while putting back his mask and his cape.
The door opened. It's Ohgi, Kallen and a tall, bespectacled Japanese man who had been a member of Ohgi's resistance group since the early days.
"Also, the Britannian applicant we've mentioned to you before said he wanted to meet you," the tall, bespectacled Japanese man said.
"The man from the TV station? Very well, he would be useful," Zero replied.
Kallen looked pass Zero and stared at the lime-haired woman. "You're C.C., right? You still have to familiarize yourself with the operation of the Knightmare Frame by going to the training session…"
"I'm in the middle of my brunch," the red-haired ace pilot was rudely cut off by the pizza-eating woman. Kallen immediately got pissed and growled; C.C., on the other hand, simply looked at Kallen with a playful smirk while still trying to bite the cheese off her slice of pizza.
"C.C. and Lelouch sitting in a pub while Kallen running into them…" Milly starts to hum again, but this time Kallen cuts her short quickly.
"Please, Milly, don't hum that again, it gets old," Kallen deadpans, "and to be precise, Lelouch's not sitting; only C.C. was."
"Seriously though, C.C. is one heck of a difficult woman," Gino interjects, "last minute she was so sentimental, and then the next minute, you see her being completely uninterested about Knightmare Frame training and only focused on eating her pizza."
"Well, God knows how did Lelouch put up with this wilful woman. Or maybe she's the only woman who could keep Lelouch in check," Kallen admits unwillingly. Although her affection towards Lelouch has sunk to a new low, she is still competitive enough to not wanting to see C.C. prevailing in what she sees as a very personal conflict between herself and the lime-haired girl.
"…recorded." Anya takes a photo of Kallen's frustrated facial expression as the Ashford friends are discussing what to make about the immortal woman.
