Chapter 4: Old Chum, New Ways

A person to turn to when life is hard is a friend. Whether or not the person is reliable or not, that is the question.

-Lelouch vi Britannia (Aged 17)

Part 9: Military Man

It was a sunny day, a bit odd for the rainy season. Lelouch woke up from his slumber and changed discreetly to avoid waking C.C. He had his usual toast for breakfast and sauntered down the corridors to the courtyard for a morning walk in solitude. Lelouch enjoyed his morning walks, before class and after breakfast but today was different. It wasn't the weather or outfit, but a new face. A boy, slightly shorter than him in stature stood opposite to his spot. He carried a duffle bag, wearing sunglasses and had brown, curly hair. Lelouch stared at the boy, speechless and stupefied.

"Oy Lelouch, I never thought you would be here!" the boy greeted, somewhat informally.

"Suzaku? Suzaku Kururugi is that you? Lelouch fired back.

"Yeah, I am planning to get a career in engineering for the military and they sent me here to study before entering technical school," Suzaku explained.

"Oh, I see. I remember you were in the military from that hectic day seven years back," Lelouch said.

"Yeah I was an infantry unit back then but I have been placed into the weapons testing department. Well, I have to get to my room and unpack. Hope I will see you soon," Suzaku exclaimed.

Suzaku Kururugi, age seventeen just like Lelouch, son of the former Japanese Prime Minister, Genbu Kururugi before Britannian rule and an excellent warrior after serving the empire as an honorary Britannian. Lelouch froze for a moment and thought about the day he met Suzaku six years ago.

It was a warm summer day. Nunnally and I were alone, with nobody to take care of us. The chirping of cicadas resonated everywhere about while I climbed the laborious stairs up a shrine. I remembered Nunnally asking me,

"Where are we, you have been moving for quite some time."

"We are at a shrine."

"We are going to live in a shrine?"

"Yes and we're almost there."

I remembered I carried her wheelchair after we went up the ridiculous stairway up a steep hill. It was tiring, but I would do anything for my poor sister.

"How is our new home like? How does it look like?"

"It is beautiful, just like back home, but you and I will have to adjust to the size a bit."

"Why?"

"Shrines aren't as big as our palace back at home."

I had to lie back then in order to make my blind sister happy. And it was just then; a boy around my age tore opened the door and displayed eyes of discontent. His fists were tightly clenched as he paced two steps towards me.

"Britannian scoundrel, get out of my family's shrine," Suzaku said without any sense of respect.

He appeared by the wooden entrance to the shrine's storage room at grabbed a wooden bat lying on the floor.

"Look we have to live here or else we will have nowhere to stay!"

"Shut up, every Britannian deserves to be in your position!"

"Please, we have to compromise."

"Shut up."

He thrashed me like a dog, watched me suffer under his stomps, kicks and punches. My back ached from his beating but I resisted all I could since I was alive.

"Why are you hitting me, we want to make friends," I said.

"Just shut up you filthy Britannian!" Suzaku scolded at me, "We will never be friends and never look down on the Japanese!"

"Stop, I do not know what is really going on but if you two are fighting, please stop! I will do anything for the violence to end!" my sister cried.

"Show me some mercy, please," I begged in pain from his deep blows.

"Is she blind and crippled," Suzaku asked.

"She is a poor girl, traumatized from horrors unimaginably tough," I coughed the words out my lungs as I wheezed in agony.

"Sorry, you two are not the exploitive Britannians my family talked about. I am really sorry."

He put out his hand and pulled me up. After that, his unwelcoming introduction ended with an informal cold shoulder. But I could feel his heart; it was beating rhythms of pain. He was sorry for us but at the same time reserved a piece of hatred in his heart towards our Britannian origin. For an entire month, I was in pain from all the bruises on my arms, legs and back but that was the day I met my first ally.

Lelouch woke out of his little time slip and continued to walk down the lane, with his hands in his pocket. "Why can't everybody just be born into one mega family and fit in," Lelouch questioned, "Then we will not hurt each other because feel the need to support everybody." The skies did not reply and let him be.

It was class time and Lelouch hurried his way to homeroom. He saw Suzaku talking to his friend Rivel in the corner. They looked as if they were old chaps instead of new acquaintances. The homeroom teacher entered the room and began with an announcement, "Class, I would like to introduce a new student: Suzaku Kururugi. Suzaku, why don't you care to tell us something about yourself?"

Suzaku stood up and walked to the front of the class to show his face to everybody. "Hello, I am Suzaku Kururugi, honorary Britannian of the army corps, reporting off duty for studies," Suzaku introduced himself with military discipline at heart. He returned by sitting next to his best friend.

"Take your seats class and open your textbooks to page 57, we are starting a new section on transcendental functions," the teacher announced.

"Psst, I do not get a thing about this cosine, sine, tangent business," Suzaku whispered into Lelouch's ear.

Lelouch handed a note saying, I will teach you later and started to scribble on fresh notepaper.

The class ended with Suzaku lost from mathematical confusion. His mind went on a trip around a whirlwind of decimals, thetas and radian measures.

"Suzaku. Here take these. I hope you can understand this," Lelouch said, passing the stuff he wrote during class time.

"Thank you?" Suzaku replied.

"No problem, what are friends for," Lelouch said.

It was lunchtime. Suzaku and Lelouch were sitting in the cafeteria instead of eating outside, like many people.

"So what made you want to get a technical career?" Lelouch asked.

"I was placed into the armoury division and every minor recruit is required to be educated in English, Physics, Chemistry and Calculus," Suzaku explained, "They sent me here until I am eighteen."

"Well I can help you on that," Lelouch offered generously.

"I know you can. I know you are a math genius from all those calculations. But I have to say, you have changed from a cold person to a great help. I commend you for that," Suzaku replied.

"Just return those notes; I might have to keep them for others."

Lelouch saw C.C. buying pizza at the canteen, wearing a typical girl's uniform of Ashford academy. He looked startled and froze for a moment.

"What is it?" Suzaku asked.

"Nothing, just return the notes when you are done with them," Lelouch replied.

"Alright, thanks again," Suzaku said as Lelouch carried his tray to a local disposal area. He left the cafeteria.

"He eats faster now," Suzaku commented and looked behind to see if anyone was behind. He on the other hand was too slow, busy chatting with Lelouch over homework instead of personal matters.

Lelouch marched with a temper and found C.C. eating her pizza in the hallway.

"Look, you have to stay in my room, not dressed up like a schoolgirl," Lelouch ordered.

"Stay in your room and do what? I am your prisoner as of now, bored from no life, no entertainment, no sex," C.C. pointed out.

"Hush! People will think we are weird if they heard what you said," Lelouch cautiously asserted.

"Nobody is here!" C.C. purposely yelled and ran off.

"There you are Lelouch. Were you talking to somebody?" Suzaku asked.

"No," Lelouch lied.

"I swear I heard somebody screaming," Suzaku recalled.

"I bet you it was some stupid girl, calling for attention," Lelouch answered.

"So how is Nunnally doing," Suzaku approached with a friendlier question.

"She's well, better than ever," Lelouch said.

"That is good to hear. I am glad things worked out after I enlisted," Suzaku congratulated Lelouch.

"How was the military," Lelouch did not know what to ask.

"The training was tough, but the empire gave me a comfortable place to stay. I couldn't return to my family after my father's death and my citizenship."

"I see. Hope you will get your job after high school."

"Yeah!"

The week continued with a repetitive routine. Suzaku caught up using Lelouch's notes for all of the core courses for his military program, until one night after the exams on Thursday.

It was evening. Lelouch haven't eaten dinner yet and was conjuring a plan for sabotaging a local barracks outside of the Tokyo settlement.

"What are you doing?" C.C. asked.

"I am planning on a tactical assault," Lelouch replied.

"I hope you have a backup plan, like that day in Narita," C.C. warned.

"Don't worry; I have drawn up a map with extensive calculations from all the data I could muster," Lelouch responded confidently.

The battle of Narita was bittersweet. He remembered disabling and defeating Cornelia's troops by utilizing the forces of nature to his disposal, generating seismic activity and landslides that buried hundreds of Britannian soldiers alive. At the same time, Lelouch ended up being chased by a white coloured Knightmare Frame of unprecedented agility. This machine outpaced his Knightmare like child-play thus forced Lelouch to evacuate his vehicle. He was lucky that C.C. was by his side, fending the opponent from ending his life in tragedy.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Who is it?" Lelouch asked.

"It's me, Suzaku," the voiced echoed form behind the door.

"How did you get in?" Lelouch asked.

"Your maid Sayoko let me in. I never knew you had a maid," Suzaku commented.

"She takes care of Nunnally when I am not around," Lelouch said, "She replaced me as the family cook," Lelouch stated.

"Is her cooking any good, I remember you were an expert chef back at the shrine," Suzaku stated, "Can I come in?"

"Not yet!" Lelouch exclaimed.

Lelouch hoisted C.C. by the hips and carried her to his closet. He put her in the closet and said, "Do not move or make a sound for about ten minutes."

"But…"

"Shh."

"You can come in," Lelouch said after closing his closet door and hiding all of his deskwork.

Suzaku turned the doorknob and entered the room. He looked around and found Lelouch pretending to work hard in his studies.

"Here, I am returning your notes. I could not find you around campus today so I checked here," Suzaku explained.

"Well, glad you can stop by," Lelouch responded with a friendly reply.

Suzaku could not stop but look at the Chizu-kun doll on his bed. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "You collect Pizza Hut accessories? That doesn't sound like you!"

"No, it is my sister's. She had two and decided to give me one," Lelouch lied. In truth Nunnally never collected accessories because she cannot appreciate them with sight.

"Is that a strand of long green hair on your bed?" Suzaku questioned after noticing C.C.'s hair.

"Really? Where?" Lelouch pretended not to notice.

"Do you have a girlfriend? Or are you into hookers because I can only picture hookers dyeing their hair in wacky colours," Suzaku inquired.

"No way! Who do you think I am an ass-man?" Lelouch fired a question of contradiction.

"I don't think you are but I haven't met you for four years and in that time, it is possible," Suzaku asserted.

"Well I am not, not with my antisocial tendencies," Lelouch reminded.

"Well that's true I guess," Suzaku was easily persuaded to his side.

"Even then, a hooker would be caught too easily on campus. Use your brain man!" Lelouch went for the logical approach.

"True, true," Suzaku agreed, "But this strand of hair does not belong to Nunnally or your maid Sayoko, therefore it belonged to some other girl."

"Have you seen a green haired girl in school," Lelouch questioned his friend.

"Cut the crap Lelouch, I have only been in this school for four days. Just tell me how she looks like," Suzaku was now impulsive and demanding, breaking Lelouch's wall of excuses.

"I would have noticed everyone by now," Lelouch tried to revert the subject to attentiveness.

"Well I am not as observant as you are. Just tell me, is she cute?" Suzaku raised his question.

"Fine I will tell you something nobody in the school knows. Promise you will never speak of our secret. She is not the hot type. She is fat and doesn't attend this school."

"Then is she kind? What are her qualities," Suzaku was persistent to know more.

"Definitely not! She is a sloth, unreliable and stubbornly impossible," was Lelouch's alibi.

"So she is the princess type. I never knew you liked spoiled brats. Are you sure she is your type of girl?" Suzaku asked.

"I was arranged into this relationship by her family in secrecy. Nobody knows because my parents are dead and Nunnally is immobile. You have to understand this. It was imposed by middle class cruelty, my cruel future father-in-law!"

"Dear heavens, you have to get a relationship counsellor to break the deal. I can't help you so bye! Thanks for the help; I am confident I passed the exams."

"Oh the humanity!" Lelouch was being melodramatic. He stopped suddenly and waved good bye.

Suzaku left the dorm, believing in every word his best friend said. He possessed a simple mind when it comes to friendship.

"A fat, stubborn sloth! Lelouch you will regret this!" C.C. got out of the closet with a vexed temper. She crossed her arms and stomped on the ground.

"I had to make stuff up to a degree that Suzaku would find believable after knowing me for three or so years!" Lelouch explained.

"Still! I am not a fat unreliable sloth!" Maybe I am stubborn from time to time but I am not impossible!" C.C. complained.

"Sorry if you felt cheated, but I had to get him out of here," Lelouch said, "Can you forgive me?"

"Then tell me how you really feel about me," C.C. pleaded.

"You are my sunshine, my shield, my destined wife. C.C. you are one of a kind to me," Lelouch mused.

"I knew you were faking it. Just play along will you," C.C. snickered at the fact that she had just fooled him into another confession.

"You appear very mature and serious with strangers, but an immature girl in front of me. How do you do it?" Lelouch asked.

"I am C.C., there isn't a special faking technique for being C.C.," she replied, embracing him around his chest, leaning her face against his back.

"Just make sure you do not go overboard and make a mess for me," Lelouch said.

He returned to his desk and worked tirelessly on his master plan. It was a masterpiece of evil genius, of treasonous terrorism.