Author's Note(s): The relationship between Suzaku and Lelouch is too much fun not to explore whenever possible. This isn't long, but I like it. This takes place during the chess match in Turn 9.
When reading this, keep in mind it is written from Suzaku's perspective. I'm exploring his own emotions and thoughts at this point; doesn't mean it's accurate, but Suzaku doesn't have the knowledge about Lelouch/Zero that we, the audience, do. Also, at this point, I'm pretty sure Suzaku knows that Lelouch has regained his memories, even if he can't act on it yet since he has no concrete proof.
Comments and criticisms welcome.
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Of Pawns and People
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Suzaku watched on silently as Schneizel El Britannia and Zero waged on a war in the form of a chess match. Chess was an elegant game fit for royalty—that was what the two competitors were, after all—and this particular match was symbolic of the turn the war between the Black Knights and the Britannian Empire would take in the future.
The stakes of this game were incredibly high, and Suzaku could not help but recognize that this was the second time the Second Prince had wagered Suzaku's life on a gambit. The first time had resulted in Lelouch using his Geass on Suzaku to ensure their survival. If Schneizel were to lose this wager, Suzaku didn't like his chances in the hands of the Black Knights.
And as the two master strategists plotted their moves, Suzaku was left to wonder what Schneizel saw when he looked at other people. Did he actually see other human beings, or did he merely see pawns on a life-sized chess board for him to move on a whim? His brilliant tactical mind seemed to suggest that, especially considering how he operated on the battlefield. The Knight of Seven wanted to believe in the best in people—a weakness of his, perhaps—and the spark in Schneizel's eye when he spoke of Euphie made Suzaku want to trust in the man. Euphie wouldn't have looked up to someone who merely saw others as pieces to maneuver in his own schemes, after all.
But when Schneizel moved his King directly in front of Zero's, a move that was certain to lose him the game, Suzaku could not be sure. Even if he was merely testing Zero's character, he was betting the life of one of his own on the outcome. But for someone like Schneizel, perhaps gaining an insight into his adversary's mind was worth the life of one soldier, Knight of the Round or not.
And Suzaku realized suddenly that that was why Schneizel and Zero were such tactical geniuses; they were able to distance themselves from their feelings and judge their actions as if they were playing a game of chess, though the stakes were life and death. Suzaku had never been able to beat Lelouch at chess because he had been too concerned about losing individual pieces while Lelouch had seen the big picture, calculating the losses he could afford to gain the desired outcome. If a few had to be lost for the majority to survive, then it was necessary.
When Lelouch attempted to teach Suzaku to play chess, he had emphasized the importance of calculated losses. After all, he had studied under men in the Japanese military, like Todoh, so had learned the same idea worked there. Seeing Lelouch's point after countless losses, Suzaku applied the concept to real life when the war against Britannia was going poorly. The body count was rising, and even a young boy like Suzaku could tell that the longer they fought, the more people would die and the worse off they would be once they lost. But his father was a proud man and would hear none of it.
In a fit of anger toward his father for acting so selfish when countless lives could be saved, he killed him. It was a calculated loss, one might say, that forced Japan to surrender shortly after. He sacrificed his father's life so the majority would survive to fight on another day. But from the moment the knife pierced his father's skin, Suzaku felt nothing but regret.
While he wanted nothing more than the Japanese to continue living, the price was too high for him. Every life, like every piece he had valued when playing Lelouch at chess, was valuable. Victory through a means like "tactical losses" was not satisfying. It wasn't right and he would have to live with that mistake for the rest of his life, while his father, and his nation, had paid the ultimate price.
It was this guilt that caused Suzaku to reaffirm an adamant belief that each individual piece was important, even if it was not strategically smart. He would never be able to forgive himself for his father's death, so all he could do was protect as many of those pieces as possible.
And so, Suzaku's inability to look past the individuals was the reason that he could never agree with men like Schneizel and Zero. After his own experience, he no longer believed in strategic sacrifices for the greater good. Now, when he looked at other people, he saw the lives that they lived day in and day out. He saw something precious and worth protecting. Every life lost was something priceless that could not be regained. He had taken that from his father and his people when he caused Japan's surrender, but he would try his hardest to protect them now.
Suzaku may not have been able to beat Lelouch at chess when they were 10, but he would beat him when the scope of their game reached life-sized proportions. He would win because he saw the man under the mask while he was certain that Lelouch saw him as a piece on the chess board of the battlefield whose moves he needed to predict. Though Lelouch might think that knowing Suzaku as well as he did would factor favorably into his predictions as it had before, he would not take into account the fact that Suzaku didn't care about Zero; not really. No, Suzaku was concerned with the man behind the terrorist leader, and that was where Lelouch's predictions would steer him wrong.
For now, Suzaku was merely an observer of a game between two expert tacticians, but one day, Suzaku would be the one to declare on Zero checkmate.
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Revised as of 7/20/08