Chapter Six: Offers and Realizations
Kallen was beginning to feel like a jerk.
The feeling had been creeping up on her, and she couldn't ignore it anymore. She kept thinking about how she hadn't known any of her 'friends' names. She'd scoffed and dismissed them when all they'd tried to do was be nice to her. Yeah, she'd assumed their motives were self-serving, but how could she know that?
The Student Council were doing a lot to help people. And unlike her resistance group, the food they handed out had no strings attached. They didn't gain anything by giving out the food, and they seemed determined. But until recently, Kallen had dismissed Milly as the others as shallow jerks.
"Excuse me, sir, um..." Kallen approached a well-dressed man in a suit.
"Yes?" asked the man.
"Would you like a pamphlet?" said Kallen, smiling and offering one. "My class is distributing informational texts on the situation in the ghettos."
"Why would I be interested in that?" asked the man with a scoff.
"It has a history in it..." began Kallen, but he was already walking off.
With a sigh, Kallen looked to others. Seeing another man in a less fine suit, she approached him with the same pamphlet. "Um, hello, would you be interested in a pamphlet about the Britannian occupation."
"The occupation is over," said the man. "Go study for your homework or something."
Kallen tried to control her anger and her disappointment. Instead, she turned to a teenager walking with his hands in his pocket. "Um, hi, would you like a pamphlet about the history of the settlement?"
He gave her a smirk. "No thanks, but I'd love to hear your history, beautiful."
"Um, I probably shouldn't uh..." began Kallen as the guy grabbed her hand,
"Oh, come on, don't be shy," said the boy.
Lelouch stepped forward right as Kallen was about to break the bastard's nose. She remembered her meek facade. "The girl is with me."
The teenager narrowed his eyes. "And who the hell are you?"
"No one at all," said Lelouch. "But we've got pamphlets to distribute."
"Whatever," said the teenager, letting go and walking off. "Loser."
Kallen and Lelouch tried this with very little success at all. One person took a pamphlet, seemingly just to shut them up. The thing is, it was making Kallen feel guilty.
Because Kallen had been these people a little while ago. Hearing what others said, but not listening. Thinking of them as an irritation she had to put up with before she moved on with her life. She'd been just as petty and ignorant as the Britannians she'd been fighting.
No wonder Lelouch hadn't had any time for her.
"How can anyone be this ignorant?" asked Kallen.
"Don't hold it against them," said Lelouch. "We've been trained to be ignorant our entire lives. You're never supposed to question the news or what your betters do. Complain behind closed doors, take advantage of those lower than you on the totem pole and shut up.
"That's why the whole system was set up, you know."
They sat down at a circular table people eat picnics at. A little ways away was a hotdog stand. "What do you mean?"
"When the English Nobility came to America, they weren't popular," said Lelouch. "Most 'Britannians' was actually from a variety of European Nations. They ended up being assimilated into colonial cultures. They might have thought of themselves as proud Englishmen. But they expected a great deal more autonomy than most.
"Culture clash was what caused Washington's rebellion. That clash became worse after the Royals took up direct residence in the Americas. Britannia's earliest years were a never-ending, bloody war. The Northern Uprising, the Washington Party."
"What does this have to do with racism?" asked Kallen.
"The race's superior genes were an easy way to create a convenient other," said Lelouch. "And the native people's launched attacks while Britannia was being founded. Britannia thus used racial hatred as a means of unity and control. You pick a convenient boogeyman who is pure evil; it can be anyone—White, black, any color at all.
"Then you put that other at the absolute bottom of a social hierarchy. Anyone can victimize and brutalize them if they want, and you're not allowed to come to their defense. You don't need a reason just an excuse.
"Cite historical war crimes, make some conspiracy theory about systemic corruption. Or just slander anyone who dares to suggest they have some worth. You want constant, irrational hatred.
"You don't hate them for a reason; you find a reason to hate them. Follow me?"
"Yes," said Kallen, finding this more interesting than she'd like to admit.
"Right, once you have your boogeyman all lined all, you put all the poor people who aren't them above them. Then you put the middle class who aren't poor above them, and so on and so forth.
"You then destroy all concepts of higher morality or spirituality which could stop this irrational hatred. You rig the school system to enforce it as an integral part of your culture. And you remove anything and everything spiritual which doesn't support you.
"Once done, you distract people from how horrible things are with bread and circuses—free handouts of money or lavish parties. Most of which are probably all more expensive than actually improving their lives. Then you declare your nation to better than all others and focus anyone into the military. There they die in droves, and the few that survive and thrive get inducted into the nobility.
"The end result is a society of nihilistic hedonists. One with no faith, no morality, and no cause save their own self-satisfaction."
Kallen blinked. "Britannia isn't as bad as all that." And that was something she thought she'd ever say.
"Of course not; no system that weak could ever survive," said Lelouch. "It would have to be held in place by an outside force to last even a day. And anyway, people are not so easily manipulated as all that. They just know when to keep their head down.
"And Emperor Charles wouldn't want such a system, even if he could have it. That's why you need ideologies like Social Darwinism or Manifest Destiny.
"They give a facade of righteousness to the indefensible. That allows good men to function in society. Without that facade, good men would not be able to justify doing their jobs, knowing what came of them. Society as we know it would break down completely, and there would be anarchy. All of us would probably be murdered by enraged mobs of numbers, and the EU and China would start genociding us."
Kallen had often complained that Britannians talked about caring but didn't do anything. Only, she'd never thought about what exactly she expected them to do. If they burned their own empire down, what would be the end result?
Kallen had read about China and the wasteland the High Eunuchs turned it into. She'd read about the Rape of Nanking, earlier in the century, done by Japan. And she'd read about Russian Gulags and some dark rumors from Europe. If Britannia lost tomorrow and surrendered...
It would be a massacre.
Everyone else in the world would start murdering and brutalizing Britannians. It would be the same problem, just with different victims. And all those people like Shirley and Rivalz might end up murdered for stuff they had nothing to do with. Even Kallen might, she hadn't exactly been popular outside of Naoto's circle at first. Kallen had known about the bombings by the Fierce Yamato and what they did to people.
But never before had she considered what the Fierce Yamato would do if the military ceased to exist. "So what do you do?"
"What you can," said Lelouch. "Handing out pamphlets to help people understand one another is one such thing."
"So you do this every day?" asked Kallen.
"Shirley does," said Lelouch. "She usually comes back with a partially filled box, but sometimes she empties it. Most people you talk to won't take a pamphlet, and of the ones that do, they won't read it. Of the ones that read it, most will ignore it.
"But, one or two of them might read it and change their minds about things. At least enough to do more research. And if you change one or two people's minds a day for a year, that adds up to hundreds of people. And they might change other people's minds and do small things in their everyday life.
"Maybe they'll be nicer to that maid they always mistreat. Or tip the waiter, and that creates some positive feelings. And, all that might someday add up to some real change."
"There's got to be something more you can do," said Kallen.
Lelouch looked up, and his gaze fixed on something. Kallen followed his gaze and saw a silver-haired, dark-skinned woman.
She was actually quite beautiful. Her buxom form was clad in a violet and black one-piece Pureblood uniform. Her long, shapely legs were bared beneath a black skirt.
At the moment she was buying a hotdog.
"...As a matter of fact, I think there is," said Lelouch. "That woman is from the Pureblood Faction; she's got the insignia."
Kallen blinked. "But she's black. The Purebloods are racial purists."
"Well, either way, that makes her a potential target. I'm going to get us some lunch," said Lelouch, and he stood up.
Wait a minute, was Lelouch going to ditch Kallen in the middle of an operation to talk up a Pureblood? What was wrong with him? Although granted, if you were going to do that, the woman was clearly a ten but-
Nevermind.
"Excuse me, two hotdogs and fries," said Lelouch, moving next to her. "And also waters." And Kallen saw he'd brought a box of pamphlets. He looked at them and laughed. "...You know, I don't even know why I'm handing these out."
"From the looks of things, neither does anyone else," said the woman.
"Well, I went to the trouble of putting the pamphlets together. It was a near-death experience," said Lelouch, shrugging. "Guess I figured it'd be a waste to at least try not to hand them out."
The woman looked at him and raised an eyebrow. She was interested all of a sudden. "Near-death experience?"
"Oh, I was held up at gunpoint by a Japanese and had to talk him down," said Lelouch. "It was a memorable experience." Tamaki, but why bring up Tamaki instead of the police?
"Oh really?" asked the woman in amusement. "Which police department do you work for, schoolboy?"
"I run a soup kitchen," said Lelouch.
The woman shifted as he said the words, thinking. "...You're one of those students who the Chief of Police had searched earlier."
"Oh, I have a reputation," laughed Lelouch. "Nice to hear it."
"He seemed very confident you wouldn't be back," said the woman, getting her hotdog. Kallen watched as she took a bite and shifted.
"Well, I was confident my kitchen wasn't going to be smashed to pieces and my bibles torn up," said Lelouch, waiting. "But apparently unexpected things happen to us all."
"That kind of attitude could be pretty dangerous," noted the woman.
Lelouch looked at her. "Maybe I like danger.
"My name is Lelouch Lamprouge."
The woman smiled. "Villetta Nu of the Pureblood Faction.
"You could always go to the Babel Tower. Supposed there is something for every taste there."
"The House always wins in Babel Tower, and if it doesn't, they kick you out," said Lelouch. "If I'm going to risk my neck, I'd prefer to do something with a possible reward."
"That reward being..." asked Villetta, licking some ketchup off her full lips.
"Self-respect, to be honest," said Lelouch. "I'd prefer to make as much of a difference for my country as possible in my life."
"Ever consider military service?" asked Villetta.
"Well, in other circumstances maybe," said Lelouch. "But there's no shortage of people ready to fire guns, and I'm a bit frail. I think that humanitarian work would do better work for Britannia, to be honest."
"Discrimination against the numbers is national policy," noted Villetta.
"And who's to say I'm not discriminating?" asked Lelouch, meeting her gaze. These two had surprising chemistry. "The numbers are desperate. Many of them lack food, basic medical supplies, and running water. The ghettos are an ideal recruitment center for terrorists. The way I see it, feeding the hungry will restore some goodwill. It will also undercut terrorist recruitment.
"If the terrorists don't have any recruits, the military doesn't need soldiers to shoot them."
"And you think one soup kitchen will-" began Villetta.
All of a sudden, the TV screens on the buildings flared to life. All of them looked up to them as the insignia of Britannia appeared. "And now, his Highness Prince Clovis will address the nation."
"Oh no, not again," said Lelouch.
Prince Clovis appeared, clad in violet with a white garment. His blonde hair was neatly combed, and he had a very self-important appearance. "To all my Imperial Subjects. Including, of course, the many cooperative elevens who choose to serve the empire as well. The recent attack on Osaka by the JLF is a tragedy indeed. The loss of the crew of the trains they hijacked is a true tragedy. However, we will stand resolute.
"For the good of one and all our elite forces will soon bring an end to these raids. Even now, Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald is en route to track down those responsible. I have the utmost confidence that this wicked uprising shall be put down."
"So they are making the mission official for Jeremiah," murmured Villetta, looking down. "The pressure will be on."
"You know Margrave Jeremiah Gottwald?" asked Lelouch.
Villetta smiled. Kallen guessed she was very pleased to have the assumption made about her. "Actually, yes, I'm quite familiar with him. I often take care of important tasks for him. We served together during the Liberation of Japan."
Lelouch smiled. "Do you mind if I ask you to tell me more, ma'am?"
"Not at all," said Villetta.
Lelouch was a very, very smooth operator. With these kinds of skills, he probably could have gotten a one-night stand very quickly. But, Lelouch's hotdog arrived, and he paid for it. "Oh, my foods here.
"Thank you." He looked at the hotdog he'd bought for her. "I'd better take these to Kallen Stadtfeld. I've been running errands with her recently."
Villetta halted. "Stadtfeld? That's a noble family?"
"Yes, she recently joined the Student Council," said Lelouch. "Would you be interested in meeting her? She has an interest in settlement security; I'm sure she'd love to talk with you."
Villetta shrugged. "Well, I'm off duty, so why not."
Lelouch led Villetta over to Kallen, who found herself becoming fidgety. This was a member of the Pureblood faction, and she had to do something. Okay, calm down, play it cool.
"Kallen?" asked Lelouch.
"Lelouch, you're here," said Kallen, standing up.
"This is Villetta Nu, a member of the Pureblood Faction," said Lelouch. "She's interested in speaking with you."
Kallen nodded. "Oh, um, it's an honor to meet someone from such an important organization."
"You don't need to stand on ceremony, Ms. Stadtfeld," said Villetta. She was looking her up and down with an analyzing gaze. "My role is mostly as a go-between, in times of peace anyway."
"You mean you've been to war?" asked Kallen, keeping the tone of a naive innocent.
"Yes, actually," said Villetta, sitting down across from her. Lelouch sat down next to Kallen, and she felt somewhat trapped here. "I was part of the first wave that attacked Japan during the liberation. Lord Jeremiah observed my actions and promoted me."
"Oh, really?" asked Kallen, nervousness creeping into her tone. This woman had been one of the knightmares that overran their country? Kallen remembered watching the footage as the glorious Japanese military was destroyed. It had been a walkover, as tanks couldn't get a shot in.
"Is something wrong?" asked Villetta.
Kallen realized she'd let her surprise and fear show through. "Oh, no, nothing at all, I just um... always wanted to be a Knightmare pilot, is all."
Lelouch grabbed the boxes. "If you'll excuse me, I should probably keep handing these out."
"Of course," said Villetta.
Lelouch headed out, and Kallen was left alone, eating a hotdog across from someone who was a hated enemy. Villetta looked at her critically. "So why can't you be one?"
"I uh... I sort of have some health issues that keep me out of school a lot is all," said Kallen.
"You don't seem very unhealthy," noted Villetta, in a tone of one who saw right through her.
"Well, I... it comes and goes," said Kallen.
"It might be more a lack of confidence," said Villetta. "Some illnesses happen as a result of our mental processes."
"Really?" asked Kallen, sounding interested.
"Yes," said Villetta. "A lot of people subconsciously hold themselves from their true potential. They are afraid of failing, so they find excuses not to do things. I used to do that when I was your age."
"So what happened?" asked Kallen, taking a bite of her hotdog. Why had Lelouch had to ditch her like this?
"My Mother was the numbered wife of a noble," said Villetta, looking away. "I was raised until the age of fifteen as the heiress to my name. But then he got sick of her and remarried, and I was disinherited just like that. I ended up cleaning the room I'd been sleeping in for my stepmother.
"But I was determined that I wouldn't simply be nothing. I was still a Britannian citizen, so I joined the military as soon as I was of age. I got training in using a Knightmare and was able to distinguish myself in war. I did all this with no connections, and now I'm a major asset to Lord Jeremiah in the Pureblood faction.
"You are a member of a noble family. With sponsorship from your family, I'm certain you have far more options than I did."
"What makes you think I'm cut out for military work?" asked Kallen, finishing.
"Well, you have the body of a trained athlete, so you must be fit enough to get a great deal of exercise," said Villetta. "I think you might be able to pass some of the tests."
This confirmed what Kallen had begun to fear. It was apparent that anybody who was paying attention could tell her disguise wasn't real. It could fool a bunch of high-schoolers, but if anyone started investigating her...
If someone suspected Kallen for something, it wouldn't take much to bust her.
"Well, it's not that I'm not grateful, but um..." Kallen halted. "I don't exactly have the best relationship with my parents, is all." She had three parents, her Dad was never around, her stepmother thought of her as a prop. And her mother...
Her mother was the maid who stayed in the house trying to attract a guy who hated her.
"Well, if you don't think they'll sponsor you, I might be able to help you out there," said Villetta brightly.
"What do you mean?" asked Kallen, sipping her water.
"If you were interested, I might be able to arrange for you to be given training at the Purebloods," said Villetta. "A lot of people get put right into the Knightmare forces. Lord Jeremiah would love to have one of your illustrious birth on his side.
"You'd have to pass the tests, of course; we don't admit just anyone. But I could get your feet in the door."
Was...
Was Kallen being propositioned to join the Pureblood faction? Why? Was Villetta hoping to advance her career by getting in with a noble? What should she say? "Well, I...
"This is just so sudden."
"Even if it doesn't work out, the experience might do you some good," said Villetta.
Kallen had to talk to Naoto about this and consider all the angles. "Let me think about it."
"Of course," said Villetta before taking out a pamphlet. "I'll tell you what. I'll take one of these pamphlets, and you take this card. If you're interested, come by and see me in the HQ. I'm not shipping out with Lord Jeremiah for the front this time, so I should be there most days."
Kallen felt increasingly nervous beneath this woman's gaze. She seemed to see far more than she let on. "R-right, I'll keep it in mind."
"Great," said Villetta before looking up. "I think I'd better get going. Your boyfriend seems to be coming back."
"He is not my boyfriend," said Kallen quickly.
Villetta finished her hotdog. "Whatever you say."
And she moved off.
Lelouch sat down with an empty box and began to eat his hotdog. When he finished, he looked up and took a swig of water. "And we are sold out.
"Hand me the other pamphlets; I'll burn through these."
"Why the change?" asked Kallen.
"Everybody saw us chatting and getting on really well with a Pureblood," said Lelouch. "That made us respectable because the Purebloods are viewed as respectable."
Kallen halted. "This was your plan all along."
Lelouch nodded. "More or less. Can I have the box?"
Kallen pushed it forward toward Lelouch, and he took it. "Of course."
Lelouch went off, and Kallen immediately made a phone call. As she did, she felt nervous and glanced around. Eventually, it picked up.
"Yes?" said Oghi on the other end.
"Oghi," said Kallen. "Pass me over to Naoto, okay. I need to talk to him."
"Right, sure," said Oghi. "One sec."
A moment later, Naoto came to the phone. "Kallen, what is it? You don't usually call at this hour?"
"I uh... I got offered a place in the Purebloods by one of Jeremiah Gottwald's lieutenants," said Kallen.
"What?" said Naoto. "How?"
"One of my friends was handing out pamphlets, talked with her, and introduced us," said Kallen. "She saw through my ill disguise and asked me to consider becoming a soldier.
"I said I'd think about it, and she gave me her card."
Naoto halted for a moment. "...I think we've just found a major opportunity, Kallen.
"Come by to the hideout tomorrow, and we'll talk it over."
Kallen nodded. "Right, okay."
She hung up.
As she did, Kallen looked down sadly. She thought about what Villetta had said, about growing up a noble and having it stripped from her. It had been the opposite with Kallen; she'd grown up middle-class Japanese. Then the invasion happened, and Dad had divorced Mom and remarried. But since neither he nor his wife could stand one another, he'd pretended Kallen was theirs.
Needless to say, there'd been little love lost. But Mom, Mom had sought work as a maid and humiliated herself just to catch his eye. All of a sudden, she was being dragged to public occasions filled with vacuous flatterers. She hadn't been able to see any of her friends from before Japan. And with Naoto in the resistance...
It had been a no-brainer to become a rebel. Except, it hadn't really been about the cause, had it? It was just about salvaging the last shreds of her old life. Even Naoto hadn't wanted her there in the resistance. But there wasn't anywhere else she could be herself at all.
"Well, that's it. You want to head back?" asked Lelouch.
Kallen blinked as she realized he'd come back. "Right, sure, let's go."
They returned, and Milly was very pleased that Kallen had finished a set of pamphlets. Chiding implications were made to Shirley, though in a playful way. But Kallen wasn't feeling playful. She made her way back home later that day and saw all the lights were on and music could be heard.
So another party was being held.
Quickly, Kallen went around the back and slipped in that way to avoid being noticed. As she did, she passed a ballroom. There was her stepmother, blonde hair behind her head, and talking with other nobles. They were eating elaborate chocolates and gossiping about expensive dresses. Any one of their outfits cost more than a thousand meals.
"Lord Kewell, I'm so pleased you could come," Ms. Stadtfel was saying. She was speaking to an orange-haired man in an officer's uniform. "Were the roads alright?"
"They were safe, as is usual," said Kewell. "We've actually received fewer reports of attacks lately."
"No doubt due to the heroics of yourself and the Pureblood faction," said Ms. Stadtfeld. "You know, I heard a strange thing. Apparently, a group of students was handing out bibles and rations to the elevens."
"Well, one can't fault them for kindness, only good sense," said another man.
Laughter, laughing at the idea of a person helping someone else and putting themselves at risk to do it. Only Kewell was more composed. "In my mind, it is no laughing matter. The numbers are malleable creatures. Handing out such books to them could incite them to violence."
"But the bible has proven an excellent means of control," said Ms. Stadtfeld. "One needs some means to motivate the lessers to keep working. They can't grasp the complexities of what we must endure."
"When properly utilized, yes," said Kewell. "However, there are certain verses that could incite rebellion. And if the numbers start to convert, they could find a common cause with the commoners. That could lead to further problems."
"I heard," said a noble. "That there was a movement intended to fix that very issue. Positive Christianity, wasn't it?"
"Oh yes, that," said Kewell. "The general idea was editing the Bible to serve the needs of the state. I don't think it's worth the resources, however. Why supplant religion with an altered version when you can let it die on the vine?"
"Well, we've plenty of resources to go around in Britannia. So it might be a worthwhile hobby," noted Ms. Stadtfeld. "I have a fancy for gardening."
Everyone laughed.
Kallen felt sick as she slipped up the stairs. What made it worse was that she had been just like them a few hours ago. She'd played the role of polite in public. But when no one was watching, she'd disparaged and scoffed at Britannians as if they were some sort of hive mind. And worse, even as she pushed away everyone, she thought she was better than these people.
Was her work in the resistance really making a difference? Naoto never seemed to want her around, even if he liked her. Was she just a tagalong kid?
It didn't matter.
Kallen would not become Ms. Stadtfeld. Coming to her room, she found the maid, no, her mother sweeping. She looked up meekly. "Ms. Stadtfeld, welcome home. Is... is there anything I can do for you?"
Kallen reached forward and hugged her. "...Mom, I'm sorry.
"I'm sorry about everything, okay."
Mom shuddered and held her back. "Kallen, my little girl."
Kallen might be noble by blood.
But she would never become like the snakes downstairs. She wouldn't let herself.