Sekai No Owari De
"And all thanks to Zero, huh? Who'd 'a thunk it!"
In a small tavern nestled within one of the small towns which spotted the Japanese countryside, two men were taking a break from their labors. In their nineties about by the wrinkles on their skin, they might've been considered unable to work, but their memories refused to allow them to rest completely until their hearts decided to as well; hard work was all they knew, it was hard work that had kept them alive and free for so long, and age would not stop them.
They were some of the few still alive who remembered the days of Zero and the Black nights, having been around nine years old when first the mask-wearing terrorist had made his debut, and the events were fresh despite the passing years.
One of them smiled; truly, the man had been a hero. "Even after disappearing for so long, he still returns and goes right back to helping us Japanese. He didn't even stop when Emperor Charles was assassinated! He just changed targets!"
The other chuckled, but shivered just a little. "Yeah. Speaking of, that new one who replaced Charles…Lelouch, wasn't it? He was ten-times worse than Charles ever was!"
"I hear that! Lelouch was nothing but a power-hungry dictator! The very worst of Britannia!"
"It's a good thing Zero was there to take him down, huh?" one grinned, his eyes sparkling with gratitude.
The other nodded. "You're certainly right."
"My, my. You two certainly admire Zero, don't you?"
From the other end of the bar, a young woman was smiling. Her hair was concealed within a wide-brimmed sunhat, a smile on her face. She was young—too young, assumed the men, to have known their savior in any other form but the history books.
"Yes, indeed, missy!" one called to her. "He was the one who gave us back our lives, our country, our freedom! Each of us grew up impoverished and looked down upon simply because of where we were from, but Zero changed all that! You weren't born yet; you never lived through something like that. So I suppose you wouldn't understand. Frankly, those textbooks of yours don't do him any justice!"
"Here, here!" his companion smiled
The woman looked at them for a moment, her golden eyes playing over them mischievously, and she chuckled quietly. "I suppose you've got a point there." She rose from her stool, placing some change on the table beside her empty cup. "I'll see you gentlemen later. Are you ready to go?"
The two men blinked as her gaze rose above their heads, resting at the other end of the bar. To their surprise, another patron had joined them, though it was unclear just when it was that they had arrived.
The face of their company was shrouded in darkness, a large hat shielding all but a pair of lips from the revealing sunlight. Though they wore an old cloak—brown and cheaply made—the men guessed, when the person rose, that it was a man whom she was addressing, and whom they were staring at.
He did not respond past a slight nod, and the men even thought this to be simply a trick of light.
The two joined up at the middle of the bar, just behind the two men, but the cloaked man stayed for a moment, while she walked through the door.
He turned to them, a smile on the visible part of his face.
"Indeed," he said, voice betraying his youth. "He, Zero, was truly amazing, wasn't he? A legendary man; the likes of which appear but once in a lifetime. He took down the world's worst dictator and freed Japan, and he even brought peace to the world. Not often does the world see men of his caliber. I'm certain his deeds will never be forgotten."
The two men could feel his eyes upon them, could sense a mixture of humor and nostalgia emanating from them. And when they looked up, attempting to meet them, they saw instead the faintest sparkle of crimson. As they stared, that sparkle seemed to grow, to become two separate beams of red light, illuminating his face, exposing a hint of violet—
"Hey, what's the hold up! I thought you said you were ready to go!"
He turned away; his face went black once more. The men jumped, a spell broken.
"I'm coming, I'm coming. Must you always be so impatient?"
And with that, the young man left them, exiting with nothing more besides the light jingling of the bell which hung on the door. The two watched the man and woman turn and glance briefly back at them through the shop's small windows.
The two shaken men looked away and then back at each other.
For a moment, for just the briefest of instances, they had felt as though they were staring into the eyes of someone out of a legend.