There was a classical line written by a thinker who was musing on the nature of humanity, its desires, its actions, and how that related to the divine. He posed the question, given the religious teachings of the day, what difference was there between an angel and a demon, given that the Devil was an Archangel that fell from grace. Ruminating over the history or humanity, in particular its history of war and peace, that literary thinker postulated the answer between the two was that it was the stroke of a pen that set the difference.
Before written history, back when traditions were oral, there were not gods and demons, only gods or demons. In other words, most cultures attributed all "divine" action to beings they collective considered gods, or elsewise in another culture they were collectively considered demons. It wasn't until after humanity began to record its history in writing that monotheism took root and the idea emerged that there was god who was good and the devil who was evil. Angels were the divine agents of god's will, and so they were also good. And demons were the agents of the devil, so they were evil.
While this distinction spread across the world, even amongst cultures that had no chance of contact to be traced between each other to say they shared such ideas even in passing, an interesting pattern emerged, the thinker noted.
While some actions were almost universally regarded as good and the sign of god's work, and some were almost universally regarded as bad and a sign of the devil's work, there were others that varied from place to place and culture to culture. While the big ones, the universal ones, would easily be identified, they were less often discussed, noted, or taught. It was those non-universal ones that were often the subjects of works. It was these that were often used to distinguish the angels from the demons, while the universal concepts were tacked on to the appropriate distinction after the fact. Thus, certain acts that were considered good in one place could be considered evil in another. And because of this, individuals who might be considered angels in the first place, became devils in the second, even if sharing some elements of angels in the second.
Therefore, the thinker arrived at his answer; what determines the difference between an angel and a demon is the pen of the person who writes of the angels and demons. They write of the individual's actions, assign them a label as one or the other, and then attribute those universal elements to the individual after the fact.
This of course did not sit well with theologians. After all, this thinker's theory would presuppose that "god" is not universal, that their god was just a convenient label assigned to what they wanted it to be assigned to. In a sort of chicken and egg scenario, it placed the foundation of religion as secondary, rather than primary; humanity as creating the concept of god, rather than god creating humanity.
The thinker's counter argument to this attack on his theory was that he never doubted in god, but in man. He said humans subverted god's teachings, subverted god's will, and was tempted by the devil. The devil gave man the idea that it could denigrate and conveniently impose its own definitions onto god's teachings, marking the differences in those they disagreed with as elements of the devil, and then use that to label them as demons and to attack them on behalf of god. If that person was able to rouse enough support, was of enough personal power, then they could stir a great many people to follow along with their labels. Even a king could author a decree and name an enemy of his nation and make them out to be devils, regardless of the truth of the situation. Thus, with a stroke of a pen one side can be named angels, and the other devils. The thinker's only intention was to warn people in general against following those too quick to either lionize or demonize others, lest their motives for doing so violate the true will of god.
The thinker's ideas were debated over and over, long after he died. No "true" answer was ever arrived, and the course of history remained, for the most part, unfettered. But his question and the answer he proposed to that question resounded through the halls of time. Into the modern era it would on occasion be repeated as a warning about the ease with which nations could go to war, the emotions that can be packed into that war, and the potential difficulty that can come with quelling that war. A ruler, with a stroke of their pen, could name another nation a dear friend or its most hated adversary. A writer in a newspaper could write an article about some person or group of persons and declare them evil for alleged grievances, or saints for some perceived good deed, and that is all it takes in the minds of many to label that party either an angel or a demon.
She was a very learned young lady, so she'd heard the question before, even if she'd long since forgotten where. But she was also a very tired young woman. It was hard to imagine a more beautiful and relaxing location in the world, yet most of her time was spent not enjoying the pristine beaches, the abundant scenes of nature, or the pleasure of pleasant weather year round. No, as the Chair she had too much to do each day to keep the world at peace. She'd wanted to retire, but she missed her chance.
A 21-year-old girl must live an interesting life to be able to cite scholarly lines from modernly obscure thinkers, spending most her days in a tropical paradise, and talk about retirement from a grueling job. But such was the fantastical life of Kaguya Sumeragi.
Hers was a very traditional family, thus when Japan fell to Britannia, her role was to strike a balance. Her once proud family that stood in the spotlight had to revert to the shadows. In public they were a "positive" force in Britannia's rule over Japan, suppressing public outrage and anguish, facilitating Area 11's status as a beneficial element of Britannia's global empire. However, in the shadows, the Kyoto House supplied and funded a number of resistance movements, including the Black Knights. Taken with Lelouch's charismatic leadership, she was pushing hers and the other houses to fully back the Black Knights, even offering herself in marriage to Zero – that was more for her own wants than anything to do with the liberation of Japan, though.
When Zero created the UFN, and liberated Area 11, she became Japan's representative, and the first Chair of the UFN Supreme Council. The intent had always been for it to be a temporary post. Once the war with Japan was over, Japan would elect a new leader, and Lelouch would step into the role of Chair of the Supreme Council once he was no longer needed to lead the Black Knights in battle.
Of course, things hadn't gone that way. With Lelouch's plans the UFN itself almost became a thing of the past. But it endured and changed after the war. The role of representative to the UFN and Head of State of a member nation were divorced from one another. And the role of Chair was to be set from amongst the representatives. Kaguya no longer had the role of Japan's Prime Minister, but then found herself stuck with the role of Chair.
For the last six years she has overseen the UFN as it has expanded and adapted to fit the revamped landscape of the world. Discussions on the UFN's role, authorizations to act in various disputes, and how that intervention should be conducted, overseeing and managing the deployment of the Black Knights. It had been hard to manage the anger many nations had against Britannia, the want to severely punish them. Kaguya admittedly was one who would have loved to drop a literal and figurative hammer on Britannia. But she was a diplomat leading an organization whose promise was to move beyond that sort of retaliatory and destructive paradigm. So, she considered her first real success as being her ability to reign in the anger against Britannia.
To be sure, Britannia had a great number of changes to make, and reparations to pay. But it was at least a good thing, Kaguya thought, that they had not been forced into the ground. The out years from that initial agreement had proven to be hard to reach.
The first couple years of Empress Nunnally's reign were rather quiet. A general peaceful will, a focus on rebuilding in the wake, meant that passions were still galvanized behind less destructive endeavors. It turned out that hatred of Britannia, and in particular its last Demon King, was a more powerful unifying element than realized. Absent Britannia to focus on, new regional conflicts were starting to flare up. They were still just very little fires, but in the last year alone there were instances of disagreements that blew up into full-scale combat, where just a few years prior such disputes would have been amicably settled in a week or two of discussions.
To put things simply, the world was becoming an increasingly dangerous place, and Kaguya got to see it all from her post. And then the Alters showed up…
The panic that swirled around the island when the first attack occurred was mindboggling. There was immediate disbelief, certainty that whatever the situation was it wasn't true that someone burned the imperial castle of Britannia. She hadn't known Nunnally well before becoming Chair, other than settling curiosity over whom Zero risked so much to protect. But understanding the power and responsibility Nunnally had as the monarch, and knowing they were close to the same age, Kaguya did feel a bit of closeness to her. It hadn't really dawned on her until a reporter asked her when she was travelling in the EU about five years ago now; the mantle of the most powerful figures in the world were currently shared by Britannia, the Chinese Federation, and the UFN, and each was currently headed by young girls barely on the doorstep to 20-years-old.
When it was confirmed that the castle was burned, the UFN was flooded with calls from all over. Nations, both member and non-member alike, were trying to press for information about who did it, was the UFN about to act, that sort of thing. Kaguya personally had to tell more than a few heads of state that the UFN had no more information than they did. In fact, it was a point of frustration for her that initially it had been so difficult to get any information at all about what was going on. Her vaunted Black Knights had themselves been hit, and too were in a mad scramble to collect information and position themselves to respond in the event of a follow-up attack.
The days since had not gotten much better. She was being criticized harshly for being unable to better control the situation, get a handle on who was doing this. She had been a little upset about it too, given at the time all the attacks were occurring in Britannia, the same Britannia they'd not long ago were anxious to see razed. It absolutely felt like hollow criticism for the sake of it. She had heard more than a few times the conspiracy theory that Britannia was feigning their troubles to win international sympathy given there had been talk of a new round of sanctions against Britannia due to perceived shortcomings in their addressing a number of issues in former warzones.
But Kaguya held her tongue on the matter. She had experienced similar when she was leading the Kyoto House before the Black Rebellion; the barbs and ridicule levied against them for playing both sides, or not being faster to accept certain groups or ideas. In the end her instincts kept her alive, kept her relevant, and helped lead to Japan's liberation.
Things changed again, however, when Europa had two of its major cities wiped out in a single day, an entire region annexed. Suddenly the supposed hoax was real, and the lack of ability to respond was made very apparent. France and Italy sent fighters into Spain to chase down Marrybell and her dragons before she went to London, about twenty four Knightmares in total. Two limped back, only because their pilots had good enough sense to play dead once the slaughter started. Germany thought to carryout the very plan Suzaku had hastily tried to get Britannia to enact when he realized what was happening – redeploying a fleet on operations in the region to go and take down the mass murderer. The fleet, as Cornelia warned Suzaku might happen, was utterly wiped out.
That display made many nations more conciliatory to the UFN. Kaguya reasoned it was because no one nation wanted to shoulder the responsibility for sending out more troops to be mercilessly killed, or figuring out an explanation for what was going on. It was easier to say they were working with the UFN and waiting for the UFN to do something, shielding themselves behind the UFN charter.
Kaguya had been relieved to some extent that the days after London's fall were quieter. Marrybell made the threat for Britannia to leave Euro Britannia, and with a small bit of guidance from Kaguya, Nunnally did agree that was the best course. Kaguya had Suzaku relay an unofficial promise to help Britannia reclaim any territory lost to Marrybell, the irony of that promise not lost on her one bit.
It was anxious waiting once Britannia met Marrybell Alter's ultimatum. The thought was that she would then start marching on the rest of the continent. But that didn't happen. It was nerve-wracking, planning for counterattacks, planning evacuation and refugee setups, ready to go the moment any place came under threat. The surveillance teams were on constant edge, tensely looking for any movement from Marrybell Alter to see if she was going to act and where.
Yes, Kaguya had wanted to retire from the duty of being the UFN Chair for a number of years now. And she had missed the opportunity. She couldn't well broach the subject under these circumstances. She had to help lead the juvenile body through this disaster. Eventually, she believed, she would be able to get the world beyond this difficult period and then she could comfortably leave the world stage content in knowing things were quiet and peaceful again.
"Ms. Sumeragi," her chief of staff interrupted her as she took a rare moment to rest her eyes. She'd spent sleepless nights and days reviewing all manner of reports on the Alters issue, as well as the ongoing work of the UFN, since that matter didn't necessarily put an end to all the other problems the world had to offer.
"Yes, what is it," she answered a bit tersely. The assistant knew she didn't mean anything by her tone; he'd witnessed firsthand how hard she'd been working.
"General Xing Ke is reporting that the dissident movement has been suppressed for the moment. There were a few casualties from rioters, but no deaths. He also says that there is no proof of the allegations regarding a fourth Alter. It's believed for the moment to have been nothing more than propaganda meant to discredit and intimidate the Empress."
"I don't know what we'd do if a fourth monster showed up all of a sudden…" Kaguya lamented. "Empress Tianzi has enough to worry about without tensions flaring up in her own borders again. Have you heard anything from Zero?"
"Master Zero made his routine check-in. His only report was that negotiations and planning for the counteroffensive against the first Alter are ongoing. It seems that, while she hasn't yet ordered a stop to it, Empress Nunnally remains hesitant about fully authorizing the plan. She seems to be waiting for the full plan to be detailed to her before she will give her full support."
"That's probably the most prudent thing to do, even if it's a little demoralizing," Kaguya sighed. She'd spoken to Suzaku directly about how hesitant Nunnally was about authorizing the plan. The Black Knights may have broad authority under the UFN charter, but that didn't mean they could willfully go into a country and start a fight with whoever they wanted.
"By the way, I understand Germany will soon forward a formal request for increased financial support. The food support from Britannia and other nations has been very helpful, but they're running into trouble housing all the refugees. With the colder months ahead, they're scrambling a bit to create temporary housing for all those people. Add to that the economic pressures from the flooded labor market…"
"I know, it's a disaster on top of a disaster. How are talks going to have other countries take on some of the burden?" she asked, sounding just a little defeated.
"Slowly. They're worried about deciding to accept refugees only to find out next week that Marrybell Alter is attacking them or a neighbor. Or that Euphemia Alter decides to move on from her pot-shots at Britannia and earnestly proceed the same route Marrybell Alter took."
"Well, I suppose that might not be a problem much longer, if we choose not to let it be…" she answered cryptically.
"I'm not sure what you're getting at," he answered back slowly, pondering what meaning he was missing.
"I received a letter earlier today," she said, pushing an envelope to the edge of the table. He walked over and picked it up. She gave a small nod, and he examined the gilding on the envelope – a very, very, old-fashioned embellishment – before lifting the flap where a wax seal had already been broken.
"What is this?" he rhetorically pondered aloud, the very old touch of a wax seal being so old he'd only ever seen it in museums or fantasy stories. He had to stop and wonder if there were any nations not yet part of the UFN that he might have heard still used such a traditional method of sending correspondence.
"You can imagine my surprise when I received this," Kaguya added as he removed the letter from the envelope and began reading it, his eyes growing wider with each passing moment.
"Is this… no, this isn't real, is it? Is she really serious?"
"I don't believe we have any choice but to take it seriously," Kaguaya sighed. "Even as things are right now, it would be difficult to figure out what to do if she isn't bluffing. Odd as it is that she's being kind enough to give us time to contemplate our next move, it's no less problematic, is it?"
"Isn't this similar to the strategy Lelouch vi Britannia used?"
"That was my first thought as well, but the situation is completely different. For one, our charter wouldn't afford her much power. Even if she were to claim all of Euro Britannia as her dominion, the population numbers simply wouldn't be there to support much voting power. Especially with the world against her, she'd have no real power in the UFN structure to gain anything, which is what makes this so baffling. There's no merit in Marrybell Alter wanting to join the UFN."
"Maybe recognition's all she's actually looking for. If we accept her claim to England and Spain, or even all of Euro Britannia, she immediately goes from a mere untethered monster to a leader of one of the largest nations by both territory and population on the planet."
"That's true, but does it actually make any difference? Regardless of what the rest of the world thinks, would it stop her from doing whatever she wants right now? A move like this makes sense before killing millions and millions of people in a single afternoon."
"True, but she didn't have any territory then."
"That's a fair point."
"Maybe she's more vulnerable than we thought? If she thinks we're nearing some way of taking her down, then this could be a way of either figuring out what that is or gaining protection before we could use it."
"I thought about that too, but if so, such a naked telegraphing of her intentions would only make us less likely to offer her that protection; why would we?" she grumbled in frustration, having spent the last hour or so wracking her brains over this already. "None of it makes sense. There's some strategy to this that we aren't seeing. In any case, I will have to consult Zero about this, as well as our members. The decision to allow her in or not is ultimately decided by vote of the full membership, so in that regard my role is limited. Even so, I can't help but think it'd make things go a lot smoother if I had a compelling argument outside of just stating the obvious."
"When will you notify the member nations?"
"This afternoon. There's a regular General Council conference call, so I'll put it to them at that time. I'm thinking of an initial comment period of two weeks."
"That's on the longer end, right? Won't she realize you're stalling for time?"
"Turn about's fair play, or so they say. If the members settle on a decision we can always move things up. But in the meantime, maybe we can put a little pressure on this Marrybell Alter by forcing this out a little longer."
"Blunt her momentum while we continue to work out a countermeasure. Okay then. I'll get set for this afternoon. Why don't you try to get some sleep until then? You didn't sleep much again last night either. If you don't get some rest you're gonna end up collapsing on us at a critical time."
"I know, you're right. I wonder how others do it…"
"If it's any consolation, I've heard Empress Nunnally hasn't been sleeping much either. I'm told her maid locked her in her room for half a day telling her she wasn't allowed out until they were sure she'd gotten in eight hours of rest. I could always have the staff here do the same."
"I'm not sure there's much difference between forcing me and threatening to force me. I appreciate it all the same. I'll try," she sighed as she rose from her chair. She started towards the door, her chief of staff stepping aside to give her room to pass.
"Very good then. Don't worry about oversleeping either. I'll come get you when it starts getting late."
With a small yawn that showed the release of stress from her small shoulders, he felt a touch of sadness that it seemed she had been waiting for someone to give her permission to do something that should have been so obvious for her to do to begin with. Watching her trudge off to the official residence, it was fairly sad to think that, irrespective of the Alters issue, a young girl showing the weariness of an old crone was the best the world could manage.
"Just a little longer. If we can get through this, then maybe we can finally write an end to kids that young having to act so old."