For the brief minutes since I woke up, all I had done was to stare at the ceiling in a daze, remembering what happened a day before. I had passed out from fatigue and was taken in by the student council of this Ashford Academy, with no memory of what happened in my life before. I also had a weird power that allowed me to order people to do my bidding, no matter what order I gave.

It's actually surprising how better I got over the course of a single night, with all the numbing pains from yesterday gone. Getting up from my bed, I stretched my muscles for a few minutes, testing how they were. I found out I had good flexibility. Drinking some water from the sink of the bathroom, I thought about how lucky I was to be found by Milly in the first place and not the police or the military. For some reason, I can't exactly trust them…

'Good morning!' Milly busted inside the room with the same joyful behavior of yesterday.

'Good morning.' I answer politely to her, noticing the paper bag she was carrying, together with Shirley and Kallen following her behind. I also greeted them.

'Did you remember anything?' Milly said, putting the paper bag on the bag on the bed I used.

'Nothing.' I said, looking with curiosity at the bag and wondering about its contents.

'Don't worry about it. They will come back at their own pace.' She said, picking a male uniform like the ones Lelouch and Suzaku were using in the last night and giving it to me. 'Why don't you try it out?'

'Okay…' For a few moments, I couldn't stop myself from staring at her long legs, barely covered by her skirt as she crossed them after sitting on the bed. I thought she was an angel in the last day and I still thought she was quite beautiful.

'What are you doing?' Kallen blushed violently while looking at me. 'At least go behind a curtain!'

'What?' I only noticed I was undressing in front of three girls when she pointed out. By then, I had already taken off the shirt. 'Oh, sorry.'

'Oh my…' Milly got up and approached me, looking at my chest. 'You have quite the good number of scars… what did you do, fought a tiger?'

'No idea.' Somehow, I didn't mind having she looking at my body. It felt somewhat natural to have people staring at my bare skin.

…

I AM NOT A PERVERT, OKAY?

'You must practice some sort of sport like swimming.' Shirley noticed while also staring at me. 'The guys at the swimming club all have a similar build to you.'

'Could you please… just go change quickly?' Kallen said while looking away from me.

She seemed like a sheltered girl who didn't have much contact with males, so I went behind a curtain to get changed. Strangely, the uniform fit really well, which made me wonder how Milly got one without knowing my measures… wait just a second!

'Milly…' I said, sweating a little bit.

'Yes?' She answered from the other side of the curtain.

'Where did you get my measures?' I was scared of the answer.

'That's a secret.' I imagined her doing a mischievous face on the other side of the thin piece of fabric.

'Lelouch lend her one of his spare uniforms.' Shirley put my mind at ease. 'We figured you two had more or less the same measures, although you have a much better build than him.'

'You spoiled all the fun…' At that moment, I opened the curtains and showed myself. 'Now what do we have here!'

'The black uniform makes a good contrast with the silver hair.' Shirley told me, giving an approving look.

'Remind me of thanking Lelouch later.' For such a harsh guy, he was quite kind with me.

'Let's get on to showing you around the school grounds.' Milly passed her arm around mine and started to guide me.

The place was a lot larger than I thought, with some pretty fancy buildings and places all around: big gardens filled with both grass and flowers, with some students moving around by using them as shortcuts; gyms for every kind of sport you could imagine (Shirley spoke quite excitedly when showing the pools); there were even horses in a stable for equitation classes. It seemed like one of those schools for nobles… which it probably was.

'If you want, you can use any of the facilities here any time you want, so try many different things during your time here, okay?' Milly informed me while we walked around.

Trying them… sounded like a good idea, as one of them could trigger a memory coming back. But that would have to come later, as I was being enrolled as a student there. The classrooms were pretty large and considerably comfortable in my eyes. The girls guided me to the one I was being assigned to.

'Since we have no actual documents for you, I managed to "secure" a few for you.' She said, handing me a wallet with an ID card and some money, together with a cell phone. 'I chose Hodges as your surname and put my personal number on the phone, together with the ones from everyone in the student council for emergencies. Just in case, there's some money as well.'

'Thanks.' How did she managed to get a fake ID in just a… you know what, forget about it.

So, I entered the classroom together with Shirley and Kallen, which kind of attracted the attention of just every single person inside. Well, I was a student they didn't know and I got inside with two pretty girls, so it was to be expected. I could feel their stares as I sat down in the empty place at the back of the room.

'Alright everyone.' The teacher entered the room and prepared his material for the class to come. 'You must have noticed that we have a transfer student today with us, so I would like for him to come forward and present himself.'

I believe that one of the soulless things you can do to a new student who knows no one in class is to have him go to the front of the class and have him present himself. So, what could a person who had no idea of his tastes and the like could say in such a situation?

When I got in front of everyone, I could spot every single member of the student council aside from Milly: Suzaku and Shirley were looking at me; Nina was looking away even though I had done nothing; and Lelouch and Kallen were… sleeping? She did look pretty down while walking around this huge school…

'My name is Rai… Hodges. It's a pleasure to meet you all.' Being brief should be fine in this situation.

'That's all?' Damn teacher!

'That's all.' I said, preparing to go to my seat.

'Why don't you at least tell us something about a hobby? Or something you enjoy?' Does he expect me to say I enjoy composing lullabies or something?

'I like taking naps.' Couldn't he be satisfied with just that.

'You are not taking this seriously, are you?'

'I'm being completely serious right now… without a doubt, sir.' I said, getting irritated on my own side.

'Go take a seat then!' He probably thought it wouldn't be worth to discuss about it.

For the entire day, I watched the classes together with the other students and much to my surprise, I was able to absorb the contents quite easily. Maybe I am one of those fast learners, but I had no way to actually know because of my problem. By the time classes ended and lunch period came, the rest of the student council guided me to the cafeteria.

It had a small variety of meals available, but Rivalz told me they were all Britannian meals, which bothered me for some reason. Either way, I ate it all with taste since I had no idea what my preferences were in the first place. Afterwards, Milly appeared to give me a more detailed tour of the terrains. The school had a small chapel that was barely used according to Milly and a clubhouse too, where the Student Council Room was located.

'Get used to this room, because this is where you will be living for the time being.'

'Is that even allowed?'

'You are a special student, so we can't have you in a normal dorm room. But you don't have to worry about being lonely, because Lelouch and Nunnaly also live here.'

'Do they now?'

'Nunnaly uses a wheelchair, so living in a common dormitory might be too difficult for her, so Grandfather granted the two of them permission to live here.'

'I think Lelouch may not like the fact I will live near his little sister…'

'A dog that barks won't bite, don't worry.' For some reason, I couldn't think of Lelouch as being capable of only barking. 'Alright, this one here is your room. I will give you the key for it and will keep a reserve in case something happens, alright.'

'Thank you.' I nodded to her in respect before opening the room to check on it.

The room was simply furnished with a bed, a work desk with a computer, a simple wardrobe that was mostly empty and a small round table near it, with two chairs. A large window dominated the wall opposite the door, with a nice view of the gardens when the curtains were opened. Overall, I was grateful to have a ceiling above my head, so it being in a good place was an extra. After a while, I heard someone knocking on the door.

'Yes?' I was hoping to see Milly, but instead of her I see Lelouch in front of me.

'So this is where you will be living from now on.' He said, entering the room without asking permission.

'Yes…' I had to be careful around that guy.

'Sorry about barging in like that, but I would like to have a few words with you… concerning my sister.'

'Alright.' I show him I hadn't forgotten manners by offering him a chair at the table. 'So, what's this about?'

'Nunnaly she… she can't see.' That surprised me, because I thought she couldn't walk only. 'That makes her ears far more sensitive than a normal person's, so you may surprise her without noticing. I want to ask you to just be careful around her, okay?'

Despite anything I felt and thought about the guy, I could see he truly loved his sister. Everything in his body was showing these feelings for her, so I was caught off guard by it.

'Don't worry, I will be careful to not bother her.'

'I would be thankful.'

They were brief words, but it felt like he was analyzing me, as if a predator was checking a potential prey. The tension at the back of my head, the one that was about to make me jump at the slightest sign of danger, vanished entirely once he got out of the room.

'I wonder why I can't relax around him…'

'So?' C.C looked at Lelouch with some hints of curiosity as soon as he closed the door behind him.

'I had a few words with him under the excuse of being worried about Nunnaly.' He said, sitting at the table and picking up a pawn from the chess board. 'I can't quite read him yet, but I believe he isn't dangerous… at least for now.'

'Why is that?'

'I am 70% sure he truly lost his memories, which could lead to other hazardous situations, but I believe that the best course of action would be for us to keep watching over him for the time being.'

'What if the person he truly is may bring harm to your plans?'

'Then I'll get rid of him… or use him to suit my needs. Either way, we must wait a bit and assess the situation a little better.'

'I will keep an eye on him.' The green-haired woman smiled while changing her position on the bed. 'I'm a bit interested on this young man myself.'

'Because he could be someone like you?'

'That too. But mostly because he is interesting.'

For several minutes I had been staring at the ceiling on top of me (I know I do that a lot, but it was mostly because I had no memories to think about in the first place) before finally getting up. After changing clothes to my uniform, I went to the kitchen Milly had shown me before and found Lelouch in there, cooking.

'Didn't know you could cook.' He clearly wasn't expecting me, because he tensed up before turning around to face me.

'You know… when I said you should be careful yesterday… I didn't mean for you to turn into a ghost.'

'Sorry about that.' I didn't even notice I was being that quiet. 'Making breakfast?'

'Yeah. I will do some for you too.' He said, going back to his task.

'Can I help?'

'Sure.' He said, not looking away from the eggs he was preparing. 'Get the tea ready.'

I managed to find out that Lelouch is a really obsessed cook. No, really, the guy measures the amount up to three decimals, for God's sake! I kind of gave up on helping him after a while and instead went to the dining room. There I saw a girl that should have been Nunnaly and a maid at her side.

'Brother?' The girl called out, turning her head to me, her eyes closed.

'It's not master Lelouch, Lady Nunnaly. It's the new resident, Master Rai.'

'Oh…' She blushed a little bit. 'I'm sorry for my mistake, Rai.'

'No problem…'

The air was considerably awkward for a while, a strange silence filling the room. Nunnaly was folding papers into birds, something that got my attention for some reason. I kept watching her doing it diligently, molding the flat piece of paper into a different shape.

'Want to try it?' The maid asked me after a while.

'Oh…' I was caught a bit by surprise by her question. 'Sure… hum…'

'Sayoko.' She said, handing me a piece of paper. 'I'm Sayoko, master Rai.'

'Sorry…'

Much to my surprise, my hands moved on their own, my mind unable to truly know what I was doing, but somehow knowing I was doing it right. I don't know how to explain it without sounding weird, but… at the end, I was holding some kind of flower in my hands.

'Master Rai… I didn't know you could do origami.' Sayoko said with a warm smile.

'Origami?' So that's what this is called. 'I didn't know Britannians had such a hobbie.'

'It's not a Britannian custom. It's Eleven.'

'Eleven…?' I blushed a bit for not knowing what looked like a trivial piece of information.

'That's how the native citizens of Area 11 are called. I'm also one of them.'

'Quite a strange name for a country…'

'It's not exactly a country, but rather a dominion of Britannia.' Sayoko explained to me while I tried my hand at a second sheet of paper. 'It used to be an independent country called Japan, though.'

I could imagine what most likely happened: Britannia must have conquered the land known as Japan. In fact, I had history classes just the day before talking about Britannia's conquers.

'Still…' I said, looking at another finished flower. 'Curious… I didn't know I could do it.'

'That's a cherry blossom, a very traditional flower in Area 11.' Sayoko seemed to approve of the delicate construct.

'You did a flower?' Nunnaly sounded interested. 'Can I check it?'

I passed the fragile petals to her, taking care to not disassemble it. Somehow, it suited Nunnaly greatly, as it was pretty while a bit fragile-looking. She looked mesmerized by the touch of the paper, passing her slender fingers all across its shape, with such care to not ruin the thing.

'It's beautiful.' She said, smiling kindly at me. 'I wish I could do something that pretty.'

'It's pretty easy.' If I could do it without remembering how to, it had to be… right?

'Can you teach me?' She spoke it with such hope in the voice…

'Sure…' I said, before every nerve in my body tensed up, a cold fear running through my neck.

'The food is ready.' Lelouch said, carrying the tray by himself.

'Let me help you, Master Lelouch.' Sayoko spoke in the same dutiful manner as before.

'I would appreciate it.'

Nunnaly was a very polite and kind girl, speaking with me about how she learned how to make tsurus (the bird-shaped folding). She told me that when you make a thousand, you can ask for a wish. She laughed a bit and she seemed like a very nice girl. I tried to be careful while under the piercing gaze of her brother, who kept staring at me the whole time.

'Hey…' Apparently, washing the dishes was his job while Sayoko would get Nunnaly ready for school, so I ended up helping him. 'Thanks.'

'For what?'

'There aren't many people that Nunnaly is capable of talking so easily. She doesn't have many friends her age and with that body of hers, she can't truly lead a normal life. Seeing her so… happy brings me great joy.'

'You are welcome…' I said, before laughing a little bit, covering my mouth with my soapy hand.

'What?'

'After everything the president told me about you… I was half-expecting you to chop my head off if I looked at your sister.'

'I'm not that irrational.' He sighed with a troubled face. 'Frankly, what kind of impression she is giving about me…'

'There's still quite the time before class.' I commented when we finished.

'Then how about a bit of fun?' Lelouch smiled in a strange way.

'How so?'

'A game of chess. A quick one, just so we can know each other better.'

'Sounds good.'

'How come both of you got here late?' Shirley was looking at Lelouch and me with irritated eyes. 'The teacher was livid, you know?'

'We know…' Or rather, our ears know.

The truth was simple: what was supposed to be a quick and friendly game of chess turned up into a battlefield of extreme proportions. To be able to truly face Lelouch, I had to think about how he would move his pieces several turns ahead and create an even greater number of strategies to bring him down. At the end, we got two victories each after a pretty bloody skirmish between a valiant pawn and a stubborn rook.

'Getting late in the second day… must be some record.' Rivalz spoke in his usual tone.

'Shut up.' I hid my face in my arms. 'It just happened alright?'

Aside from that unhappy incident, classes went on just like the day before. Milly told me I should use the day to take a walk in the settlement to see if any memory would trigger (she was going to ask Kallen to do that, but she didn't go to school that day, so I had to do it alone). I was already at the school gate when I heard Suzaku calling out to me.

'What's up?' I greeted him as he approached.

'I'm fine, but what about you? Is there anything bothering you?'

'No, I'm good.' I was a little taken back by the sudden question. 'Why?'

'I was a bit worried when you weren't in class this morning. If there's anything happening, don't worry about asking for help.'

'Thanks, I appreciate it.'

Suzaku was one of those really diligent people that couldn't rest while people around were in trouble. That was the impression I got from him at the very least. He was also easy to get along with, as he wasn't a happiness engine, nor closed, nor disturbingly shy, nor quiet and not… I don't know how to accurately describe Rivalz. Enthusiastic, perhaps?

'Not that long ago, I transferred here myself, so I want to help you… although you are in a much worse situation than I was.'

'Thanks anyway.'

Sitting down on a bench, warming myself up in the sun with an ice cream in my hand may be among the best feelings in the world. I didn't get to remember anything and the sweet stuff was mostly to forget about it (what a bad pun…). Anyhow, I was minding my own business when a young woman was walking nearby, a small child that should probably be her son running around with a black cloth around his neck.

'I am Zero! Fear now, Britannia!'

'Stop!' She took a quick glance at me, her eyes showing an uneasy feeling. 'We can't do this! Not after becoming Honorary Britannians!'

According to what I could gather, Honorary Britannians are Japanese (or Elevens) that became citizens of the Empire. I couldn't see much of a difference between the treatment the Britannians gave to them and apparently they are also treated pretty harshly by their countrymen. And Zero and his Order of the Black Knights wasn't getting it any better either.

I could understand where they were coming from; having witnessed the poor treatment the Elevens receive in just a short walk to the park. Relations between conqueror and conquered just keep getting worse, sometimes they go out of control like that.

I decided to keep walking around the settlement for a while, try to figure out some clue when the inevitable happened: I got myself lost. I had no idea where I was or where I was supposed to go. Walking around more only got myself in a worse situation, to the point where I had to simply give up from trying on my own.

'Of course there's no signal…'

'Rai? What are you doing here?' I turn around to find a familiar face dressed in an unfamiliar manner.

'Suzaku? What the…?'

'It's my uniform.' He noticed my puzzled look at his clothes. 'I work for an engineering division at the Royal Army.'

'I didn't know you were a soldier.' Strangely enough, that new piece of information didn't trigger my instincts like Lelouch did.

'The reason why an Honorary Britannian like me can attend Ashford Academy is mostly because of my work.'

'That's true… you are Japanese.' I said while something curious happened: he showed a surprised expression. 'What?'

'Nothing, it's just… there aren't many people who use that word anymore.' He said, smiling warmly. 'It's… nice to hear it now and then.'

'Glad to be of help.' I said, looking at where we were. 'Listen… could you tell me how to get back to Ashford? I'm a bit… lost here.'

'You look like a really smart person, but sometimes you can be a bit of an airhead.' I couldn't deny that. 'I can take you there if you want. I'm going the same way.'

'Thanks.' When he offered me his help, I didn't thought I would receive it so soon.

'Anyway, what were you doing so far from the school?'

'I tried walking around to see if I would recall something, but nothing happened.' I must have sounded really frustrated at the moment.

'Without knowing anything, it's a bit hard to actually find anything.'

'Yeah…'

'You know… why don't you come to my workplace tomorrow?'

'Isn't it an engineering section?'

'Yeah, but my boss designs Knightmares, so he must know a bit about the nervous system and the brain. Maybe he can do something to help. At least, we can have them analyze your blood to find out at least a bit about who you are.'

'Nothing to lose, I guess.' I said, right before we arrive at the gates. 'Thanks.'

'We can go after class tomorrow. I'll talk with Milly, so don't worry about it.' He said, before offering his hand to me.

'Thanks again.' We shook our hands firmly. 'See you tomorrow then.'

'Understood.' Zero said, dismissing the two members of the Black Knights who gave the report. 'Speak with Ohgi about the schedule for tomorrow.'

'Yes sir!' They spoke before leaving.

'You sound distant.' C.C said to Lelouch as he took off his mask of Zero.

'Been thinking about something.' He said, looking at the pawn at the edge of the board. 'Each day that passes, Rai turns more interesting.'

'How so?'

'In my whole life, only my brother Schneizel has ever defeated me in chess… in fact, I never won against him. This man, Rai, was able to get a draw, two victories each, when I tested him under the pretext of "having fun". I was surprised when he didn't falter and actually pushed forward.'