CHAPTER 10:
PITY THE HOSTAGE TAKERS
It was not long afterwards. Cornelia's defeat at the hands of Zero and Ainz Ooal Gown was covered up. The most that occurred on the news was announcement of several million pounds of military equipment being destroyed during a training exercise accident. Through Jeremiah, Lelouch found out that, on the official report to the Emperor, Zero had managed to sabotage a number of Knightmares. It seemed that Cornelia was more shaken than he had thought. Then again, being the Goddess of Victory wouldn't help.
Still, he decided, on a whim, to go to the hotel on Lake Kawaguchi with the Student Council members. Well, sans Rivalz, who was staying behind to keep his bartending job. Nunnally and Sayoko would be staying behind, and CC was currently working with Ohgi's cell to induct them into Ainz Ooal Gown, as well as test out the mobile HQ they were using for the human members.
As it happened, there was a Sakuradite Trade Conference happening at the hotel too. And while they were on the train, Lelouch got a Message from Euphie. So, you're on your way there too? he asked when she revealed they were on the same train.
Yes. I'm going incognito to this conference to make connections. I didn't realise that you were accompanying me, Lulu. Euphie's voice became pensive. That being said…Cornelia's been hearing some alarming chapter on the grapevine. Apparently the JLF are planning something big.
For the first time in ages, Lelouch scoffed. Lately, all they've been doing is fleabitings and propaganda. How is she?
Shaken. Rather cruel of you to use Aura of Despair on her, even at its lowest level.
It was rather cruel of her to target the people of Saitama. She is lucky I didn't use Grasp Heart on her. Still, the information I got was interesting.
Yes, you told me. So, Marianne clearly trusted her killer. Do you think our sperm donor is involved?
Directly? I'm not sure. But I know he is covering for someone. The suspects are legion, and even if we narrow it down to people she would normally trust enough to lessen security around her…and the fact remains that someone used a Geass on Nunnally to make her seem like she wasn't a reliable witness, what with getting inflicted with psychosomatic blindness. And that's without going into this conspiracy CC hints at, and this VV person. The two are related, I'm sure of it. And with Geass being basically World Items, we still need to be cautious.
And beating Cornelia was cautious?
Perhaps not, but the innocents of Saitama were at stake. Innocents will inevitably get caught in the crossfire of our mission, true, but if we do manage to take over Britannia, if not this world, then I want to look back on the path I walked with as few regrets as possible. Remember what Touch Me used to say: "Helping someone in trouble is the right thing to do." Don't get me wrong, we're going to do some dark things, I'm sure, but Touch Me will be an example to us, and the NPCs of Ainz Ooal Gown. Not Ulbert, with his obsession on evil, or Tabula, with his fixation on gap-moe. Ainz Ooal Gown lost sight of itself, I think, after Touch Me left. I owe it to him to use the powers we have to help others.
A chuckle down the line. I thought you were more resentful towards those who left.
I was…but Touch Me, I knew, had his reasons. You all did, but…I never liked how the drama fractured us. And in the end, having lived through another life filled with injustice put things into perspective. Back when I was Satoru Suzuki, I was a lowly salaryman. In this life, I was a prince, even if I was exiled. I think going through another childhood, even if it was relatively privileged, helped me mature, both myself as Satoru Suzuki, and myself as Lelouch. Makes my grievances about you leaving rather petty by comparison.
A man is the sum of his memories, Euphie remarked. An overlord even more so(1). Anyway, let's try to forget about the dark stuff for now. We're here to enjoy ourselves…
Unfortunately, things were not so simple. As later that evening, the hotel was taken hostage by members of the JLF.
The moment the JLF soldiers burst in, Lelouch sent a general Message to everyone nearby. Everyone, play along for now. I want to determine who is in charge and how many soldiers are here before we start killing them. And I want to minimise the usage of Geass or memory-altering magic on the other hostages. After receiving acknowledgements from the former NPCs and Euphie, Lelouch then sent Messages to Jeremiah, Villetta, Suzaku, Lloyd, and Cecile. He'd also managed to find a way to send CC Messages, so he told her of the situation.
As they waited, they were visited by the bulky form of the rather unpleasant Lieutenant Colonel Kusakabe, who claimed to be doing this for the JLF. Kusakabe was a name often heard in connection with the JLF, but according to Kallen and Jeremiah, he was also something of a loose cannon, often frustrating his leaders with his impulsive ways and his desire to pull off audacious operations, unlike Tohdoh and Katase, who were more cautious.
Well, what do you think? Lelouch asked his half-sister.
Splinter group of the JLF, inspired by you, Euphie remarked. Confident enough to think they can get away with this, and willing to kill. These are rogue soldiers. And Kusakabe looks like the sort to start killing hostages. The way he referred to Britannians, he doesn't give a damn about conventions of war. As a last resort, he may even blow up the hotel and take us with it. The problem is, with me here, Cornelia won't take action.
Which gives us time to deal with this, Lelouch said. All right. I'll begin targeting the other hostages with a sleep spell. When the time comes, I'll get Nina to begin kicking up a fuss…and when they try to attack her…well, Mare's strength stats are pretty impressive for a magic user.
Oh, you are evil, Lelouch. But he could hear the smirk on the other end.
Carefully, Lelouch cast a sleep spell on the hostages, a weak one to allow his comrades to stay awake. Not the JLF, though. He had something special for them, as he explained to the NPCs and Euphie. And anti-eavesdropping magic too.
"Hey, what's with the hostages? Why are so many of them falling asleep?" one of the JLF guards demanded.
As he drew close, Nina, on cue, whimpered, "Eleven…"
"What was that?!" the JLF soldier snarled, snatching her up. "What did you say, you miserable little bitch?!"
Nina, however, looked at him with eyes that no longer had any fear, or rather, any true fear. Rather, they were flat and cold. Then, she suddenly materialised her staff and smashed the man in the face…causing his head to burst like a rotten fruit. As the other JLF guard in the room aimed his gun at them, Lelouch merely growled two words.
"Grasp Heart."
The man spasmed, blood vomiting from his mouth as Lelouch crushed the man's heart in both spectral effigy and reality. Then, the soldier collapsed like a puppet with his strings cut. Lelouch and the others got to their feet. Euphie immediately went over to Nina and hugged her, causing the former Dark Elf to blush. "Well done, Nina!"
"Th-th-thank you, Lady Euphie," Nina stammered.
Lelouch looked at them all. "Right. For now, we're going to hole up in here. We could make our escape, but that would be hard to explain away, how we overcame the JLF soldiers. I'm going to call in CC and your resistance group, Kallen. CC will masquerade as Zero, intending to come in to negotiate. Once they have come in, or are close enough, then we will start to act."
"Why is that, Lelouch?" Euphie asked.
"I will have CC pose as me when she announces Ainz Ooal Gown publicly to the world," Lelouch explained. "Meanwhile, we, as the hostages, will be left adrift, for the authorities to pick up. Of course, it's a bit risky, given that Cornelia may recognise me, but…I think I can work with that. Cornelia's sensible. She may despise politics, but she's aware of the reality of politics. She knows that dragging me back to Pendragon would be problematic."
Euphie nodded. "Do you think this could be an initial step to recruiting her into Ainz Ooal Gown?"
"Maybe. But we will have to cultivate her. We'll have to send her the data on Code-R. We need to erode her loyalty to the Emperor. Then, once we are ready, we bring her into the fold."
"Given her devotion to strength and her contempt for anything she perceives as weak," Kallen pointed out, "we'd have to break her in order for her to be of any use."
"We've already started. At Saitama, we showed that she was far from the biggest fish in the pond, by tearing apart all those Knightmares," Lelouch said. "If we're lucky, we can have her come to our side before she breaks. If not…then we may have to kill her. But Euphie and I will make the decision to kill her. Am I understood?"
The acknowledgements he got were all he needed to hear. So he decided to contact CC…
Night fell, and then, Lelouch, who had used a Remote Viewing Mirror sent to him from Nazarick, frowned. Coming down the corridor towards the storeroom were some JLF members. "…So, who do we throw off the roof first?"
"Eh, one of the men. We'll use one of the kids next if Cornelia's still being recalcitrant. And those idiots won't get through the service tunnel, not with that railgun we have down there."
Lelouch frowned. He'd heard about that, thanks to Jeremiah and the Lancelot team. The JLF had a specially modified Knightmare that fired a sort of rail shotgun that was devastating towards the Knightmares sent down the service tunnel. Still, it seemed that the hostage situation had taken a turn for the worse, and CC was still on her way. Dismissing the mirror to his inventory, he wondered what he should do briefly, before smirking. "Hey, Euphie?" When he got her attention, he said, "Za Warudo."
Euphie got his meaning, and chortled as he fished around in the storage boxes, and fished out some knives. "Za Warudo…but we don't have any steamrollers, Lulu."
"A pity, that." Lelouch then turned to face the door.
As it slid open, the JLF soldiers stared at what lay within. "What the…?"
"ZA WARUDO!"
For everyone around Lelouch, time froze. Not quite with the brief flare from positive to negative and the sound somewhere between eldritch flatulence and a clock grinding to a halt he knew from the anime of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, but it was enough time for him to fling knives at the JLF soldiers, including the guards. To himself, he remarked, "Activating shitstorm in 3, 2, 1…(2)"
When time unfroze, the JLF were very briefly surprised to find knives suddenly embedding themselves in their skulls. Briefly being the operative term. Lelouch hoped beyond hope that he wouldn't encounter a Geass user with a similar ability. It wasn't any fun being on the receiving end of that…
Elsewhere, in Britannia, a teenaged boy by the name of Rolo sneezed…
Lelouch summoned the clothing of Zero onto his body, though he kept the mask off for now. "CC just contacted me," he said, as the bodies were sent to Nazarick for Demiurge and his minions to play around with. "She's just passed the blockade. That means soon, I can conveniently turn up with a certain princess in tow, as an excuse to see Kusakabe…before dealing with him. Everyone, with me, but as your NPC guises. Not full battle gear, but enough to show. Save for Euphie."
Euphie smiled. "That's all right. I much prefer this body anyway."
Soon, Kallen, Milly, Shirley, and Nina were in their forms as Albedo, Shalltear, Solution and Mare. Lelouch put on his mask. "Time to go to work…"
"Zero! And…who are these…people?" Kusakabe asked, frowning when he saw Albedo and the others following behind them.
Zero nodded, even as he discreetly cast anti-surveillance magic. "Ah, I should introduce them to you. These are some of my trusted lieutenants, Albedo, Shalltear Bloodfallen, Solution Epsilon of the Pleiades Battle Maids, and Mare Bello Fiore."
"…They look like cosplayers, not resistance fighters," Kusakabe remarked snidely. "Are you mocking us?"
Kallen, in full Albedo mode, scoffed. "You mock Lord Zero with your insolence, Lieutenant Colonel Kusakabe. Not only are you insolent, but you are incompetent too, for you missed the very reason Cornelia hasn't razed this hotel to the ground."
"After all," Milly, as Shalltear, remarked as she buffed her nails with a file casually, "Cornelia li Britannia has a bad habit of killing the hostages with the hostage-takers, something you would notice if you studied your enemy like a good commander would. So, why hasn't she done this already?"
"The answer stands before you, gentlemen," Lelouch said, as Kusakabe and his men looked fit to start shooting. "I have brought Euphemia li Britannia into your presence."
Kusakabe's eyes lit up with greed. "…I see. So, you have been a help to us after all, Zero."
"No, no, no…you misunderstand me, Kusakabe. You really have a lot of balls, involving civilians in this. I may oppose Britannia, but I will fight them on equal terms. What you wanted was bloodshed and glory. You make Cornelia look like a paragon of virtue. You make me sick."
"Enough! Take her to the roof. Let's see how Cornelia likes having her sister on display as we carve pieces off her…or maybe we could have her watch as we have her raped. I'm sure there's one of us who'd want to have a go with a princess."
The moment one of the JLF members reached for Euphie, her hand snapped out, grabbed him by the throat, and snapped his neck. "Zero…be a darling and clean up the trash."
"As you wish, my dear lady. Now, Kusakabe…you wanted a massacre…you'll get one."
It was instant pandemonium. Milly flung her file through the skull of one man, before she lunged at another, her mouth distending into a lamprey-like orifice, ringed with syringe-like teeth. "MAAAAIIIN DIIIISH!" she screeched, before latching onto the soldier, drinking his blood. Shirley rushed forward and embraced another man, who was slowly absorbed into her body with screams of agony, while Kallen, summoning her halberd, Ginnunangap, to split another in twain.
Kusakabe backed away, looking at them in horror. "Wh-wh-what are you? Why are you doing this? They're only Britannians!"
"Exactly. In the same way that Britannians call Japanese 'only Elevens' or 'only Numbers'. Ainz Ooal Gown are Knights of Justice…and there was nothing just about what you did." Lelouch opened up his visor over his Geass. "Now, fall on your sword and die, and make sure it is slow and painful," he commanded via Geass.
Kusakabe took his katana, a deranged, gleeful look on his face, and stabbed it roughly into his belly, before dragging it across, causing his intestines to spill out in great pink and grey ropes. His deranged grin became a rictus of pain, and it took him a long time to die. Milly's nose wrinkled. "Now you can smell his shit everywhere. Zero, did you have to do that?"
"Yes. He would have revelled in the pain and suffering of those who didn't deserve such fates. I hope the rest of the JLF are not like him, otherwise, I will ensure that they follow in his footsteps to hell. Now, come, we have work to do…"
As a statement, Lelouch, after having CC (posing as Zero) take the hostages out, cast Fallen Down on the hotel, annihilating it. Then, he revived the hostages as their boats drifted away from the wreckage, having dispelled his costume earlier, and the others having reverted to their other forms. He watched as CC played along to their script.
"People across the world! This will serve as a clarion cry to rally with us, or a klaxon of warning to fear us!" CC, using a voice changer, proclaimed. Lelouch smirked, knowing she must have a secret love of hamming it up. "We are Ainz Ooal Gown, sentinels protecting the weak against the strong, the powerless against those who abuse power! Whether they be Britannians, Japanese, Chinese, European, it makes no difference! The JLF splinter group here tonight intended to murder innocents, just as Clovis did, and they have paid the wages of sin. Only those who are prepared to die should be able to kill in their turn! And when injustice rears its ugly head once more, then Ainz Ooal Gown will appear once more! Those with power should tremble, and those without it may join us under our banner! We are the judges of this world!"
CC then sent a Message. So…how did I do?
Too much ham, Lelouch said, deadpan. He would have hammed it up as much himself. He looked over at the distant form of Cornelia, perched on her Gloucester. I'm about to take a risk, though. But if we're lucky…I think it will pay dividends…
CHAPTER 10 ANNOTATIONS:
Oh, so Lelouch and Cornelia are about to have a family reunion. And maybe it might work to their advantage…
Review-answering time! Leicontis: You'll be pleased to know, if you don't already, that the video of Overlord Abridged is back to normal. For now, anyway.
rubius: BubblingTeapot, as mentioned before, is her name in the light novel translation.
1. Euphie is paraphrasing the Fifth Doctor's lines from Doctor Who: The Five Doctors, though he says 'Time Lord' rather than 'overlord'.
2. A reference to what Dio says in Antfish's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Abridged Episode 9.