Disclaimer, I don't own any of Another's or Code Geass' characters.
I wouldn't skip anything in this story, as it's basically kind of exposition, just a little bit, but not much.
Suzaku slowly approaches Rivalz, who continues to try and impress the female student president of their class, Milly. "Hey, Rivalz!" Suzaku waves cheerfully, gesturing for his friend to come over. "So, I met my earlier friend from my childhood, Lelouch, and he seems to be really cryptic," Suzaku informs, observing Rivalz's reaction. He wasn't disappointed, Rivalz stiffens, his neck arching forward at the mention of his old friend's christened name. "Is there something wrong with him?" Suzaku inquires, hoping not to sound too eager for answers, and he shuffles, waiting expectantly for Rivalz's response.
"Suzaku," Rivalz sighs, and Suzaku automatically mentally notes that respiring breath. Rivalz's grin slid straight off his face, and he puckers them into a grimace. Now, why would Rivalz be so solemn at this moment? Suzaku already labeled him as the class joker and troublemaker, surprisingly, as he thought Lelouch would be so. However, he seems completely nonexistent in this little classroom. Is he being bullied? However, none of the students even bother glancing at him, while they were all to eager to nastily glower in Suzaku's direction.
"You shouldn't talk to people who don't exist," Rivalz proclaims, before running after Milly, not another word spoken between those two.
Lelouch flips the coin in his palm, before pocketing it. Ah, gambling. While he doesn't exist in the school, he's allowed to communicate with others outside of his cursed school. The rest of the cash jingles in his backpack as he reenters school grounds. He has a feeling that Shirley would be quite disgruntled learning about this, and Kallen wouldn't care, however, the smile that would beam up in delight across Nunnally's visage after he spends this to buy her a new automatic wheelchair will definitely be worth every yen. Noting how nobody's outside at this moment, he finally allows a small grin to adore his face at that thought of Nunnally gasping, after learning that he bought the one thing that she always wanted in a long time.
Then there's Suzaku. His smiles fades, and he begins to gnaw the skin of his bottom lip. It's clear that Suzaku never heard the rumors of classroom 3-1, judging by his animated personality and how he continues to recognize Lelouch. Nobody must've told him about it, or else he'd continue along, not acknowledging Lelouch.
After all, Lelouch, doesn't exist.
"Hey," Suzaku enters his comfy home. "I'm home," Suzaku exclaims, shutting the door behind him carefully. His tall guardian stumbles into the room, and Lloyd readjusts his wire framed glasses. "Hi Lloyd, what's Cecile cooking?" He inquires.
"Chicken!" Cecile exclaims from the kitchen, clearly listening in on their conversation. As a foster parent, she's quite over protective, even though he's not her own child. Now, Lloyd, is more like an uncle, a very free, loose uncle who seems high off of life every part of the way. "Ah!" Cecile pokes her head into the living room, glaring at Suzaku. He chuckles, and removes his shoes after scraping them against the grimy welcome mat. "So, how was school today?" the cooker enters the room, and Suzaku doesn't answer for a moment as he inhales the pleasant scent of spices of some sort. He tosses his backpack to the side, and it tumbles onto the couch facing the television.
"Fun," he replies. "I even saw Lelouch," he adds.
"Lelouch?" Lloyd hums. "That's a huge coincidence," Lloyd murmurs. Suzaku raises an eyebrow, but doesn't respond to Lloyd's strange words. After all, Lloyd often mention weird things. "You...you attended classroom 3-1, right?" Suzaku nods. A devilish grin curls upon Lloyd's angled face.
"So, sweetie," Cecile, the shorter female croons. "Who's Lelouch again?" Cecile chuckles awkwardly.
"Don't worry, Cecile," Suzaku chuckles. "I never told you about him," he confesses. After all, that would probably lead to him mentioning how Lelouch was the banished eleventh prince of Britannia, which is a corrupt government. "Anyways," he continues. "Everyone's acting strange in room 3-1," he admits.
He glares to the side as Lloyd snorts. He waits for Lloyd to ramble about how he's always paranoid. Suzaku's sure that he's not just being strange by this point, after all, all the students are ignoring Lelouch as though he's an unstylish piece of room decor. Yet, obviously, he's quite charming and handsome as he grew up. "So, you never heard anything about classroom 3-1?" Lloyd snickers. Suzaku raises both eyebrows at the violet haired male. Now, this is taking a turn, Lloyd's not directly taunting him for thinking something's wrong. "Never even heard of Lelouch Misake, the boy who died there?" Lloyd inquires.
Lelouch...Misake?
"Judging by your startled expression, which is quite amusing," the lanky man coyly smiles at Suzaku mockingly. "I'm guessing no."
"Wait, what? Tell me!" Suzaku pleads. Now, Lelouch, is a common name, however, Suzaku can't help but relate his Lelouch Lamperouge to Lelouch Misake.
"Ah no, I'm rather hungry," Lloyd hums, heading into the kitchen, where Cecile retreated to. Lloyd swings open the fridge's door, and automatically stiffens, and Suzaku at first wonders if Lloyd spotted a rat, before quickly drowning that thought-after all, knowing Lloyd, he'd be quite delighted by company. Unless if the vermin is eating his food. That might end up differently. "Cecile!" the man straightens, slamming the fridge's door shut, and Suzaku's hackles bristle at the sudden, loud noise. "We're out of butter!" Lloyd groans, and Suzaku relaxes, before he begins to snicker at Lloyd's childish problems. "No!" Lloyd groans.
"The butter is right here, Lloyd," Cecile sighs, handing over a stick of yellow, wrapped with the flimsy wrapper. "Use it wisely, don't use too much like last time!" She automatically drops her calm demeanor, and adopts a harsh, motherly one. "And be sure to put it back in the fridge, and don't you dare spoil your appetite!" Cecile waves the spatula she was poking the sizzling chicken towards Lloyd. "You didn't eat last night," she adds in a leering tone. "Now, Suzaku, can you feed Arthur?" Suzaku nods, and exits the kitchen. In the living room, next to the television's stand, are two small bowls. One is already filled to the brim with rippling water, while the other is devoid of anything. He grabs the nearby container of kitty food, and fills up the bowl. Something rustles from underneath the couch, and Suzaku steps aside, to allow the blur of ebony to rush forward. Arthur purrs, his tail whipping back and forth in delight, his amber eyes fixated upon the food bowl.
"Oi, Suzaku!"
"What?" Suzaku groans, twirling around on the heel of his foot, rounding to Lloyd, who had collapsed onto the couch. Lloyd gestures for him to come towards him, and Suzaku, just to irritate him, before flopping onto the couch, slouching as well. "What do you want? Do you want me to get the T.V. remote?" Suzaku indicates Lloyd's lack of enthusiasm whenever it comes to performing an action that doesn't relate to Knightmares. It doesn't matter that the television remote is just innocently sitting on the coffee table in front of him, Lloyd, despite his hardworking attitude, is much like a lazy child at times.
"Well, no, I was going to tell you a story about classroom 3-1-" Lloyd starts, and Suzaku, his attention fully captured, sits upright, facing Lloyd, his serious features opposite of Lloyd's wolfish smirk. "But...now that you mention it, can you get the T.V. remote, Suzie?" Lloyd taunts, and Suzaku groans aloud-he hates the christened nickname 'Suzie'. However, he knows Lloyd would refuse to tell him anything unless he get that remote. Leaning over, Suzaku snatches the device off the table, and practically throws it at his guardian. Lloyd catches it neatly, his sapphire eyes twinkling. "Thank you." Lloyd turns on the television, and surfs through the channels before landing on the news.
"Now, the story about classroom 3-1, it's everywhere, online, sometimes on the news, but nobody ever believes it's a curse unless if you actually attend that classroom. The thing is, whatever happens in the classroom, stays in the classroom. Nobody ever says what really happened back then," Lloyd begins, and Suzaku doesn't notice how he leans forward in excitement, while drowning out the news in the background. "According to the curse, from what I heard, as my brother used to go to this classroom, and I barely got anything out of him unless he was drunk, it began with one student. His name was Lelouch Misake. Back then, people loved him, he was handsome, smart, and the class president. He was basically the most popular student in the class, many girls were attracted to him-maybe even some girls, and he was humble, kind, and generous." Suzaku snorts. Many traits that Lloyd just listed related to Lelouch, but humble? Yes, perhaps at times Lelouch refuses to take credit, but then again, Suzaku barely made contact with him over the years after Lelouch left with Nunnally, and kind, well, he's more reserved and conceals himself beneath an icy shield, frosty and cold to anyone who tries to talk with him, like back then. Suzaku also doesn't have a clue on whether or not people actually like Lelouch, but judging by the way they pretend he doesn't exist, maybe not. However, back then, he was a smart boy, would always help Suzaku with his homework, perhaps he even enjoyed being challenged a little, and he's quite charming with his violet retina and milky-pale skin. Suzaku's mind runs to Lelouch's eyepatch. What happened to his other eye?
"However, something horrible happened one day," Lloyd continues. "Lelouch died." Suzaku slightly expected that. "Now, everyone, everyone was so shocked by whatever happened to him-I think it was a car crash-that they continued to pretend as though he was still alive." Suzaku blinks, now that startled him. Why would students do that? "They didn't even mourn over him. They just acted as though he was still there, they would talk to him at his desk, act as though he would play games with them, and even the teacher acted as though he was alive. All the other classes, the students joined in as well, along with their teachers. The teachers would hand in tests, and always leave a paper with an 'A' on it, as it was expected from him."
Suzaku decides to interject with him right now. "What? Why would they do that? That's so...stupid!" Suzaku chortles, and Lloyd sniggers.
"Death is usually harder on the people surrounding the victim, rather than the victim himself," Lloyd shrugs. "Depending on the circumstances," he adds. "Anyways, shut it!" He hisses, before continuing in his husky voice (yeah, in the subbed anime, the Japanese version, his voice is rather low). "So they took the school picture. However, they noticed something wrong. Lelouch was in that picture. Standing right there, smiling into the camera."
"What?"
"It's a rumor!" Lloyd groans. "I'm pretty sure that the person himself is real, though. I don't know about this picture thing, seems slightly far-fetched. But yeah," Lloyd blinks. Suzaku waits eagerly, then his features sag.
"What?" Suzaku repeats in a squawking voice. "That's it?" Suzaku grumbles, realizing how this makes no connection. "How does that work?"
"I don't know, I mean, this was back like, twenty years, when my brother went to this school."
"Where's your brother?" Suzaku determines in his mind whether or not it'd be a good idea to visit Lloyd's brother-perhaps when he's drunk so that he'd spill more. Lloyd shrugs in response.
"Dinner!" Cecile's voice echoes through the house.
"Suzaku!" The said boy turns around, trying to find the source of the voice, only for his eyes to land upon a girl running towards him. "Suzaku!" Milly echoes her previous words, panting, as she halts in front of him, bending down, and her curly ringlets frame her lowered face. She pops back up, brushing her short skirt. "Hey," Milly smiles brightly. "So I saw you talking to someone else the other day," Milly exclaims.
"You mean Rivalz?"
"No, you weren't talking to anybody," Milly's beaming smile falters slightly, and her gleaming eyes seem to dull as she continues. "Suzaku, just, please, please don't talk to someone who doesn't exist, it's just weird," she exclaims, placing her hand on his shoulder, and Suzaku recoils.
"What do you mean?" Suzaku stammers, recalling how Rivalz told him something similar to his words.
"Just don't," Milly whispers. "Please, just don't," she hoarsely hisses, before straightening up, her smile radiating once more upon her tanned features, her cobalt eyes wide and glistening from either tears or just happiness. "Let's go, we'll be late to class!" She skips along, with Suzaku trailing after her, wondering what she meant.
During class, Suzaku begins to put two and two together. Are...are they talking about Lelouch? He quickly glances at the boy, who's glaring dully at his desk, as though he's very bored. But...how can Lelouch not exist? Can they even see him? Do they know he's even here in this class? Now, Suzaku begins to have his doubts about his sanity. Lelouch has to exist, he's standing right there! Suzaku glowers at his paper, as though it has done him some sort of evil. Perhaps...perhaps Lelouch doesn't exist. Is he just a figment of imagination? Suzaku sighs to himself, making sure it's not loud enough for anyone else to hear. Does Nunnally even exist? Suzaku didn't see her anywhere, but maybe she attended another school, but why?
"You shouldn't talk to me," Lelouch warns. Suzaku continues to follow him doggedly, determined to learn something.
"Why won't they talk to you? They act as though you don't exist!" Suzaku hisses, and Lelouch pauses, rounding to Suzaku, with a wry smile that resembles more of a smirk crossing his pale features.
"Did it ever enter your mind that maybe I don't?" Lelouch blinks. "Nunnally still exists, if it matters so much to you," Lelouch adds dryly. Suzaku's gaze attaches to him. What? What does he mean by that? Then, footsteps alert both of them, and in unison, they turn around, to find the source of the noise. Sophie, another girl from their class is heading in their direction. Suzaku steps out of the way, ready to let her pass them, until, she suddenly shrieks as she notices them, and her loud screech startles Suzaku, and she quickly skirts around the corner.
"Sophie?" Suzaku calls out, following her around the corridor, and she whimpers, and begins to head down the stairs, with her open umbrella, when she suddenly slips, and the umbrella flies out of her hand, floating to the bottom of the steps. "Sophie!" Suzaku repeats, figuring out the future events, judging by the angle she fell off the stairs. Sophie trips over her feet on the top step, and Suzaku flinches as she lands on her umbrella. Suzaku's eyes dilate, as the top, sharp part on the top of the umbrella, punctures her throat, the tip of it showing up in the back of her neck. Her limp body doesn't make another movement.
"Le-Lelouch," Suzaku's words jumble up in the back of his throat, searing it as well as the lump he swallowed down. However, Lelouch doesn't even seem remotely surprised, rather, he just stares at the obvious corpse of Sophie, whispering,
"It has begun."
Now, you guys are probably thinking that Lelouch Lamperouge is actually Lelouch Misake.
I won't say anything.
If you read 'Another', it kind of follows the same story plot, but trust me, it's slightly different.
