The second day of the unofficial truce between Cornelia's forces and the Black Knights began as any other, albeit a little overcast. The weather forecast said that a squall was coming in from the North-East Pacific, coming down from the Bering Sea, would bring rain to the Tokyo settlement. When that was expected, they weren't sure.

Stepping out of the Viceroy's Palace, Ciaran looked up at the sky above him. The guards posted outside the doors and the security gates knew who he was by now, but to the civilians, none of them would have guessed who he was. Dressed in a dark brown jacket, it's sleeves rolled up above his elbows and a pair of blue jeans coupled with dark brown boots, his outfit completed by an olive drab field cap that he put on to his head, the young man could have easily slipped amongst the myriad crowds in Area 11.

The only hint that the young man was more than he appeared to be was to look at the holster nestled on his hip and the snakeskin pattern ivory handle that could be glimpsed when Ciaran moved his jacket. There might be a ceasefire, but Cornelia had told him not to take any chances, and he had taken that advice to heart; the pistol's safety was on, but one round sat ready in the chamber.

Standing on the pavement outside the Palace's gates, he paid attention to the various vehicles that were coming towards him. Spying the form of a black taxi cab, the same kind that you would see in London, with its distinctive orange light lit up on its roof, he lifted his hat off of his head and waved it in the air, trying to get the driver's attention.

It worked as the cab's indicator lit up and began blinking as the black vehicle turned sideways slightly, crossing over a lane of traffic before gliding to a stop in front of the young man. Inside the front of the vehicle, the driver, a heavy-set, balding, middle-aged man, motioned for Ciaran to open the passenger door.

"Where ya going to, lad?" He asked, turning to look the young man with a smile.

"Tokyo Settlement General Hospital, please." Ciaran replied as he fastened the seatbelt over his body before smoothing out his hair.

With a nod of his head, the cabbie rolled the taxi away from the pavement and in to the traffic that filled up the roads in the Settlement in the late morning. As he looked out of the window, Ciaran let his eyes scan the various high-rise buildings, great monoliths of glass and steel that reflected the sky and sunlight.

As he grew bored of the sight, he reached down to one of the breast pockets of his jacket, pinching a small cardboard card before withdrawing it out of the pocket. Holding it between his fingers, he looked at the small card. One side was blank save for the coat of arms of the Britannian Imperial family, with a slight alteration for Cornelia's rank and title as general of the Emperor's forces: a sword crossed with a musket imposed under the coat of arms.

Turning over the card, he looked at the words written on the back:

Hinata Kozuki

Tokyo Settlement General Hospital Prisoners Wing

Ward-D, Room 14

Rubbing his thumb over the edge of the cardboard, Ciaran thought back to the conversation that he had earlier that morning with Darlton.

"Are you sure you should be doing this, Ciaran?" The large general asked as he watched the young Briton attach the simple leather holster to his belt before checking himself in the mirror to see how if it was sitting right.

"I am, sir." Ciaran replied, looking at Darlton via the mirror before shifting his belt slightly, checking that his holster was sitting right. Satisfied that it was, he clipped open the cover and slid in his Webley before clipping the cover closed. "Besides, it seems a bit crass of me to always be talking about Kallen's mother to her without actually checking up on her."

The scarred general nodded his head in understanding. "You do across as a bit of a jerk when you put it like that, lad."

Ciaran shrugged as he turned around before picking up his dark brown jacket from the back of the chair sitting by his desk. "That's why I'm doing this."

As he fixed his outfit, making sure the lowest bit of his jacket slip over the holstered pistol, enough to shield it from the unwary eye but not enough as to obstruct him drawing it if and when he needed it, Ciaran glanced up at the mirror, catching sight of Darlton's large form, the scarred general crossing his arms over his chest.

Letting out a small sigh, the young man turned to look at the older man. "Okay. What's wrong?"

Darlton didn't say anything for a while, bringing a confused look to Ciaran's face before he finally spoke.

"I know that you think you're doing the right thing, and I fully support you, but... can you trust Kallen to not try anything?"

The confused look never left Ciaran's face as the young man raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"She's a known terrorist, to you and I at least and, very likely in her mind, the Viceroy. If you tell Kallen that you went to visit her mother in the hospital, she might take it the wrong way."

"Do you really think that Kallen would attack me, sir?"

Darlton didn't say anything as he closed his eyes tightly and tilted his head back, seeming to cringe at the idea before moving his head forward to lock his black eyes on Ciaran.

"All I'm saying is: be careful."

Ciaran's right hand moved to his hip as he snapped the cover off his holster and drew the pistol out in to the air, his thumb disengaging the safety as he did so. Using his left hand, he gripped the rear end of the slide and pulled it back, pulling the chamber back. The whole process meant that a round was extracted from the magazine and pushed in to the empty chamber, before Ciaran let the slide snap forward and he repeated the process in reverse: thumb brushing up to re-engage the safety, replace the pistol in the holster and snap the cover closed.

Flashing a small, but rueful grin, Ciaran looked at Darlton.

"As safe as in your mother's womb."

This earned a snort from Darlton as a confused look came to his face.

"How old are you again?"

A small snicker escaped Ciaran's mouth at the final memory. He hadn't meant the sound to be as loud as it was, but the sound of his mirth was enough to make the taxi driver turn his head.

"Something funny, mate?"

Ciaran shook his head as he waved off the question as he replaced the card back in to his breast-pocket. "Nah, just... it's nothing."

Turning his head, the driver focused on the road ahead of him as the taxi continued its journey to the hospital. But, continuing the long and well established tradition of taxi cab drivers always wanting to converse more with their customers, the man spoke up again.

"So who are you going to see in the hospital?"

'The drug-addicted mother of a teenage terrorist' Ciaran said in his head before speaking out loud. "It's the mother of a friend. They've not been able to visit her, so they've asked me to check on her."

The taxi driver made a sound of affirmation before replying with an answer Ciaran should have expected. "So how did she end up in hospital then?"

'Drug overdose', Ciaran said mentally before speaking out loud. "Accident at her workplace. Something to do with her hip, so she's off her feet for a few days."

The driver gave a small chuckle by way of reply. "Oh, don't talk to me about bad hips. My father, god bless him, kept working until he was sixty. Never stopped working. Only time he ever took a day off was when he fell off a ladder and landed on his hip. Doctors said he had to stop, but my father? Boy, he was hearing none of it..."

Ciaran only smiled as the man began waxing on with his story. Only paying the slightest bit of attention to the man's story, he cast his eyes out over the various buildings that filled the skyline of the Tokyo Settlement.

The amount of times he had been to London could be counted on one hand with fingers left over, but the memory of what the skyline looked like was always etched in his mind. Tall, metal and glass skyscrapers touched the sky while, nestled below them, squat stone etched Victorian buildings stood next to wooden faced faux-Elizabethan buildings as a testament to the city's history. Even the smaller British cities kept a meld of the old and the new.

Except for Chester. Ciaran always liked strolling down the cobbled streets, walking in the reassuring shadows cast by the false fronted Elizabethan buildings.

He didn't get the same feeling from the settlement. So few buildings in the settlement seemed to be under five-stories high, and the ones that were did nothing to remind him of the buildings in Britain: false fronted with marble architecture, although it wouldn't surprise him if they were made from genuinely made from marble, they looked horribly garish, while the skyscrapers looked like poor attempts at simulating a castles defensive towers. It did more to remind him of the pictures he'd seen of North Korea's capital, Pyongyang.

The weirdest part to Ciaran's mind was how effectively the Britannians had erased any trace of Japan from their own capital city. Even the British Empire, for all of the faults directed at it, allowed the people it conquered to keep some form of national identity. Even the Romans did it.

But the Britannians just completely erased any vestige of the identity that the Japanese had. He had seen many photos of Tokyo in his world, but this place was so far removed from that city it didn't feel right.

He'd seen the maps that told him that this island was Japan, but the only thing he could connect this island with the one from his own world was a few names and Mount Fuji. The rest felt... alien.

The sound and feeling of the taxi applying its brakes jolted Ciaran out of his thoughts.

"'ere we are, lad. Tokyo Settlement General Hospital." The driver said, turning in his seat to look at Ciaran with a smile on his, which was met by a stunned look from the young man.

"Already?"

"Yup. That'll be sixteen-fifty mate."

"That was fast." Ciaran replied as he unbuckled his seatbelt and moved to take out his wallet before paying the man. Exiting the vehicle, he dragged his cap out from the chair beside him, tucking it under his armpit before shutting the door behind him, telling the driver to keep the change, as he made his way in to the hospital proper.

The entrance was a pair of automatic, double glass doors leading in to the foyer proper. Inside, the walls were a shade of light blue, split up by white tiles. The floor was the same linoleum one would expect to find on a hospital floor, while two parallel rows of benches sat on either side of a fern lined alley that lead to the main reception desk. Moving down the space, he saw that there were only a handful of people present. Mostly people who looked like they'd had one few too many drinks the night before. But it was still early, and he wasn't in the Accident & Emergency room, so he didn't know how good the healthcare that the Britannian's provided was.

Drawing up to the desk, Ciaran cast his view over the area before him. It was a pretty standard receptionist desk sitting a junction of two corridors going off the sides: two tiered, with several computer terminals, phones and bits for holding paperwork. But he couldn't see any nurses around.

Looking over the desk, he saw a bell sitting on top of the desk. Moving to stand in front of it, he quickly reached up and tapped the clapper twice quickly, filling the air with a pair of loud 'DING's. Tucking his hat smartly under his armpit, he tried his best to put on an impassive face.

"Coming! Coming!" A female voice called out hurriedly from behind what Ciaran had mistakenly taken to be a file cabinet but was actually a door before a small, red haired woman quickly came up to the desk. She wore a pair of bright pink scrub trousers paired with a pink version of the outfits the people who supplied costume shops thought nurses wore, a double-breasted jacket with short sleeves.

Drawing close, the nurse beamed a wide smile and Ciaran couldn't help but smile back as she spoke. "Hi. Welcome to Tokyo Settlement General Hospital. How can I help you, sir?"

Shaking his head quickly, Ciaran drew the card Darlton gave him from his breast-pocket before handing it to the nurse. "I'm here to see the patient stated in this card."

As the nurse looked over the card, the young man could see her eyes widen at the sight of the Imperial Crest on the reverse side, before glancing up at Ciaran.

"Umm... One moment, please." She said timidly, before moving away to a phone. Pressing a short sequence of buttons, she began talking animatedly but in a hushed tone to the other person on the end of the phone. Occasionally, the nurse would steal glances over at Ciaran, who simply shot her a small smile every time which she returned. After a little over a minute, the nurse put the phone and came over to Ciaran again. "A doctor will be with you shortly. Technically, nurses aren't allowed to take people like you to the Prisoners Wing."

Ciaran nodded in reply before turning to look at the bench behind him but directly in front of the reception. "I'll be right here if you need me."

The nurse nodded her head timidly before returning to whatever duty she had been doing before Ciaran had interrupted her. Sitting down on the bench, Ciaran kept his hat tucked under his armpit as he sat down to wait for whoever was coming to meet him.

He didn't have to wait long as, turning to look down the corridor to his left to see a man hurriedly walking down towards the reception. He wore the white coat of a doctor, and from what Ciaran could see, he was very lanky, almost like Guilford, but lacking the same power that the Knight possessed. As the doctor drew closer, prompting the young man to stand, Ciaran saw that the man was probably what Guilford would look like if he got less sleep: bags under his eyes, scraggly facial hair and a pair of glasses that somehow managed to avoid falling off the end of his nose.

The only major difference that Ciaran saw between the doctor and Guilford was that the former had sandy-blonde hair instead of black.

"All right!" The man said as he drew level with the reception desk and Ciaran. "What's going on? What's this about an inspection from the Viceroy's staff?"

Ciaran arced an eyebrow at the phrasing as the same nurse from before came out again. At the sight of the doctor, she simply motioned towards the young Briton, forcing the doctor to turn and look at him, staring him down with bright blue eyes before a sneer crept to the doctor's face.

"You?" He said flatly. "You're the member of the Viceroy's staff?"

Ciaran stood taller, setting his feet and legs closer together before nodding. "Yes, I am."

The doctor snorted. "No, you're not."

The young man's reply was to reach in to one of his pockets and pull out his ID, holding it out for the doctor to take. On it, he knew would be a photo of him from the chest up, dressed in his Royal Guardsman uniform, staring blankly at the camera, along with the information that Darlton had typed up for him, which was something Ciaran had never actually checked.

The doctor obviously was checking the information though as his eyes flicked back and forth from the card to the young man before he seemed to straighten himself out before handing the card back.

"I'm sorry, sir. We... we just didn't get any word about an inspection today and so obviously-"

Ciaran held up a hand to quiet the man before he took the card from him. "It's all right. But to call this an 'inspection' would not be the best way to describe it. I'm here to check on a patient. Nothing more."

Placing the ID card back in his pocket, Ciaran put his free hand behind his back, giving the doctor some breathing room. Collecting his thoughts, the doctor took in a few breaths before looking at Ciaran a bit more nicely now.

"I'm sorry, Captain," The man said after collecting his breath. "When you get a call that a member of the Viceroy's personal staff has dropped by unannounced, you kind of go in to a panic. Who's the patient you wanted to see again?"

"Her name's Hitomi Kozuki. She's one of the people taken in after the drug bust in Kitakyushu." Ciaran said simply, fixing the older man with his best no-nonsense stare.

In response, the man simply nodded and motioned down the same hallway he had come down, indicating for Ciaran to follow as the man began speaking.

"She's one of the Elevens that was brought in, right? I wondered when someone was going to check up on them."

"We've been a bit busy." Ciaran said simply as he followed the doctor. "So, how have they been doing?"

"It varies on a case by case basis." The doctor said as the duo approached a small row of elevators. Stepping to the side to let an orderly pushing a trolley past, the doctor looked at the young man. "Are you aware of the effects of Refrain on a person, sir?"

Ciaran just looked at the doctor blankly. "For the record, let's just say that I don't."

The older man simply shook his head as he pressed the button to call one of the elevators. "Basically, Refrain is a psychotropic drug, meaning it acts on the brain chemistry to affect mood and such. Refrain however acts on the synapses of the brain linked to memory. Through the application of certain chemicals in the brain, the synapses linked with earlier memories are activated over the ones linked with more recent memories."

"Is there a limit to how far back the memories can't be affected?" Ciaran asked as the elevator reached their floor, the door opening to let them in.

"It depends on the person," The doctor replied as the two of them entered the elevator and he pressed the button to ascend to their destination. "It's... it's hard to explain as to how it works. We're still unsure whether dosage size affects how far back a subject remembers. Also, it seems that taking large doses affects the brain chemistry in an adverse manner."

"What do you mean?" Ciaran asked, raising an eyebrow at the man.

The doctor actually looked guilty for some reason as the only sound in the metal box was the thrum of the mechanism rising. "Just wait and see, sir."

The duo waited in silence as they ascended quickly to their destination, before exiting the stopped elevator. Walking down the corridor, Ciaran was surprised to see that even for a hospital, the area he was in was pretty spartan. There were no benches in the hallway, no medical equipment left waiting. There were very few doors that lead to other rooms, and the young man had a feeling that the doors that he did see were ones that lead to supply closets.

It was the sight at the opposite end of the corridor that tipped Ciaran off that he was at his destination: two guards, wearing the dark blue uniforms of the Britannian police. They weren't wearing any body armour, wearing only what looked like a forage cap on their heads the same colour as their uniforms and they seemed to only be armed with a nightstick and a pistol, which did confuse the young man.

"Not expecting a lot of trouble?" Ciaran asked, reaching to his pocket to take out his ID. As a reply, the doctor simply looked at him with a half-smile as he pushed his glass back up his nose.

"You've never seen what happens to a person who overdoses on Refrain, have you?"

Ciaran didn't even get a chance to shake his head 'no' before the door opened, revealing the room beyond.

It was quiet. Solemnly quiet. He'd known morgues quieter than this place.

To put a long story short: it was bloody quiet.

It was also clean. Much cleaner than he expected (although Ciaran would have to admit that he didn't know what he'd expect), and it lacked the smell of the industrial strength cleaning agents a person would associate with hospitals. The whole room smelt faintly like... citrus.

"As per the Sub-Viceroy's instructions, we've taken the liberty of making sure the patients are put at ease as much as possible." The doctor explained as he led Ciaran down the space between the walls.

The young man certainly felt at ease as he walked down the room. A large window dominated one of the walls, bathing the whole area in natural sunlight. The room was painted a nice shade of off-white cream, not the right colour to create a glare from the sunlight but enough to keep the room warm.

Looking to his sides as they walked down, it suddenly dawned on Ciaran as to why it was so quiet. There were about eighteen people, not including the small number of nursing staff present, all of whom were Japanese, and all sitting or reclining in the beds. None of them seemed to really be doing anything except staring off in to space.

"Umm... what exactly is the adverse effect from large doses?" Ciaran asked as he looked a young man who was maybe a few years older than himself, just staring up at a point on the ceiling with vacant eyes, blinking slowly in a decidedly creepy manner.

"Neural cell death via apoptosis. Natural cell death." The doctor said, noting the momentary look of confusion on the young man's face. "Although it's closer to cell suicide over death. The uh, the synapses that are affected die, leaving the user in an invalid state."

Pausing, the sandy-blonde haired man stood in front of the bed of a woman, probably in her mid to late thirties with brown hair past her shoulders and vacant blue eyes.

Ciaran watched as the doctor reached down and removed the clipboard attached by a small hook to her bed before reading aloud.

"Miss Hitomi Kozuki. Age forty-six. Addiction to refrain. Shows lack of response to outside stimulus. Bodily functions, normal and body work normal save for minor case of malnutrition."

Looking directly at the woman on the bed, Ciaran could definitely see the resemblance between the half-race teenager and the woman sitting in the bed before him. Their eyes were the same shade of blue and they both had virtually the same facial features, although Hitomi's were more rounded and motherly against the sharp lines that Kallen's face possessed.

"Is there any chance that she'll recover?" Ciaran asked, prompting the doctor to shrug.

"I can't say with any surety. As I said, she's been unresponsive to virtually all sorts of outside stimulus, so who knows? It's not unusual, given her case. Many Numbers who get severely addicted to Refrain recover in their own time. It all depends on their own will-po..."

Ciaran tuned the man out as he moved closer to the woman sitting on the bed, sitting down gently on the bed beside her.

Slowly, Hitomi lifted her head slightly before turning to look at him, her vacant blue eyes looking directly at him as a small smile came to her face before she began speaking. The Japanese woman's native language flowed out too quickly for Ciaran to catch anything, if he could catch anything. But one word did stick out.

"Naoto?" He repeated back quietly. Ciaran wasn't sure she had heard, but the quizzical look on Kallen's mother's face and the tilt of her head told him that she had.

"Oh? Do you want to speak English?" She asked sweetly. "Have you been talking to your dad again, Naoto?"

Ciaran's mouth moved quietly as he tried to process what was going on. Turning his head, he tried to look at the doctor for help, but the man was busy waving over a nurse, quietly telling her to come quickly. Shaking his head, Ciaran turned back to looking at the woman with an expectant look on her face before, swallowing nervously, he replied.

"Y-yeah, mum. I-I've been talking with dad again."

The smile on her face broadened. "Oh, good. What did he say? Are we finally going to move to the Homeland?"

Again, Ciaran was at a loss of what to say, so he decided to play it safe. "Umm... no. He hasn't said anything yet. He... he keeps saying it's not the right time yet."

Hitomi let out a small huff. "Typical. It's just like him. Oh, well. It can't be helped."

Behind him, he heard quiet footsteps as one of the nurses came over at last. Looking over his shoulder, he could see the doctor and the nurse conversing quietly, a smile plain on the woman's face. The doctor waved his hands forward, indicating that Ciaran should continue speaking.

"Uh... mum, listen. I-"

"Where's Kallen?" Hitomi asked, leaning forward slightly as she moved her head from side to side, searching for the daughter in question. "Is she not with you?"

"Uh... no. She... she's at school right now."

"Oh, that's good." The Japanese woman said in reply as she leaned back in to her pillow. "How are her studies?"

"She's doing well." Ciaran said, almost instantly. He had no clue about how Kallen was doing with her studies, but he didn't want to break the image this woman had of her, and also the image that she had of him as Naoto.

He wasn't sure what prompted him to say it, but he found his mouth working before he could stop himself.

"Mum, I need to ask you something."

"Of course, darling. What's wrong?" She asked, looking at him carefully with her vacant eyes.

Looking over his shoulder again slyly, he gauged how much he should say with the hospital staff present. "I'm worried... about Kallen."

"Why? What's wrong?" Hitomi asked, sounding more than a little panicked now.

"I... I think she's getting in with some nasty people." Well, it was virtually the truth, if not directly literal. "And she won't listen to me when I say she should stay away from them. What should I do?"

Ciaran jumped slightly as he felt Hitomi's hand suddenly but gently take his as she smiled at him again before speaking softly. "Naoto. You're her big brother. Your job is to look after Kallen and protect her. If you think she's in trouble, you have to be there for her, no matter what happens. And if she's having such a hard time as she is, that's all the more reason for you to be there for her. And always remember that your mother loves you."

Ciaran was taken by surprise with the gesture, but looking at the woman's eyes, he was certain he could distinctly see a look of pride in her eyes as she look at him.

"All right, mum. I'll... I'll do my best." The Briton said in reply, not able to fight the break in his voice at this woman's kindness.

Looking at her face though, Ciaran's heart sank as he saw that she had returned to the same state he had found her in, just staring at a point on the wall past him. Behind him, he heard the doctor let out a groan of exasperation.

"Oh, come on. That was the longest time she was in a sound mental state." The man said in exasperation as Ciaran stood back up. Feeling an irritation in his eyes, the young man brought one of his hands up to his face.

Withdrawing his hand, he saw that it was wet. Not turning around to let the doctor see his face, Ciaran hurriedly wiped his eyes dry before turning to face the doctor who had his hands against his hips while beside him, the nurse simply shook her head, forlorn at the outcome.

As the young man turned around, the doctor flashed him a short lived but sincere smile. "You should come by again, if she responds to you like that."

Looking back at Hitomi and her vacant stare, Ciaran could only shake his head. "No. She responded to me, but I didn't help her. If anything, I made it worse."

"What do you mean?" The doctor asked, him and the nurse looking at him in confusion.

"You said the memories of her past are affected, right? I think you're correct. But I think it's only those memories that are being kept active, not her more recent memories."

"So what do you propose we do?" The nurse, a woman with auburn hair, deep brown skin and green almond shaped eyes, asked.

In reply, Ciaran simply put his hat on to his head, making sure it sat squarely on his head before, looking at the two of the medical professionals, he merely shrugged. "You guys went to medical school. It's your job to fix people, not mine."

The doctor looked at him flatly as the young man fixed his cap on to his head. "So was that it then?"

Looking around, Ciaran took in the room around him before shrugging. "You seem to be doing a good job here, so I don't think I'll need to say anything negative to the Sub-Viceroy."

The last part was kind of a half-lie. He knew that Euphemia would want to know how these people were being treated, but he knew he'd have to make it sound like his decision was something official.

"Besides," Ciaran continued as he moved away from the bed and in to the middle of the room. "The patient I wanted to see is... well, you know. But she's alive and in relatively good health, so that's what I'll take away from this visit."

"So I guess we're back to square one then." The man said ruefully, fiddling with his glasses again.

"Maybe." Ciaran said, giving Hitomi one look before walking to the entrance of the ward. The doctor or the nurse made no attempt to stop him, so he left the area, walking past the two police guards before entering the elevator, pressing the button to descend to the ground floor.

Inside the metal box, he thought over what happened before. Hitomi had responded to him, thinking he was her son. Ciaran wasn't sure what the catalyst had been, but there had to be a way to replicate it. The sound of the descending elevator was coupled with the sound of the young Briton scratching the hair on his chin as he began thinking.

Making his way out of the elevator and out in to the foyer, Ciaran barely registered any of the goings on in the reception area, which had become marginally more busy since the last time he was there. He simply glided through the room, managing to weave around the staff and patients who had come to the hospital.

It was only when he was outside the automatic doors that the Briton stopped as his thoughts finally coalesced in to a plan. Fishing his mobile phone out of his pocket, he quickly pressed the buttons to dial a pre-entered number. Holding it to his ear, he heard the dial tone for a few seconds before it was answered.

"Darlton here."

"General, it's Ciaran," The young man said in to his end. "Listen, I might be a little bit late back today. Something has come up that I need to take care of."

The general was quiet for a few seconds, obviously taking in the information. "Okay. Don't be too long though. But just so I know: where will you be."

"Ashford Academy, sir."

No-one in the mathematics class at Ashford Academy could have known that the red-haired, sickly looking girl sitting in the fourth row, two chairs from the window on the left-side of the room was a member of the terrorist group. If there was any aspect of Kallen's life as a half-Japanese daughter of a Britannian aristocrat that she remotely appreciated, it was the fact that she had gotten good at putting up a mask.

Being at school was even worse for her, as the teenage terrorist hiding in plain sight listened to the teacher drone on about finding the X and Y components of a triangle. The girls her own age who she should probably try to socialise with were just vapid airheads, who never talked to each other about anything worthwhile. It was always the same almost stuff they wanted to talk about: fashion, celebrities and the such.

And the boys. Ugh, the boys. If Kallen wasn't so focused on keeping her image up, she'd hunt down whoever started that fan-club of her and she'd tell them what she thought of them. Loudly and physically.

As her eyes wandered around the room, they focused on the one person who seemed to focus all of her rage and annoyance on like a magnet: Lelouch Lamperouge, the teenage boy who looked incredibly bored. Oh, sure, practically all of the female students in the same year worshipped him and never said anything bad against him, but she could not see it.

Oh, sure he was handsome in an old-timey sort of way: tall, thin but with an angular face, onyx black hair and violet eyes that just seemed to bore in to you...

'Wait? No, scratch that last bit.' Kallen thought to herself as she shook her head free of those thoughts. Lelouch was good-looking but she knew the side of the side of him that no-one else had seemed to see or just ignored. That horribly ignoble and arrogant side that she saw before the fight at Kitakyushu.

Sitting in one of the many parks that dotted the Tokyo Settlement, the sight and sound of a large water fountain as it sprayed arcs of water in to the air before they landed in the pool of water at the bottom of the fountain, Kallen would have found her mind wandering on whatever topic was on her mind at the current time. Lately, it was the effect that the Black Knights were having on the Japanese people.

Right now however, her attention, the focus of her simmering anger, was directed at the teenager sitting directly next to her. Together, the two of them had watched an Honorary Britannian, the name given to those Japanese who swallowed their pride and put themselves under the heel of the Britannian administration in Area 11, be beaten up by a ground of Britannian thugs.

She and Lelouch had watched while everyone else had turned away as the poor man was beaten up, which seemed to have been the sole catalyst to get the thugs to approach the two of them. Luckily, the engagement had ended there as, somehow, Lelouch convinced the group to leave them alone. On some level, Kallen would have preferred to have a confrontation with the smug bastards, since looking at that poor man as he tried to get the two to buy a hot dog...

It just...

"In some ways, Area 11 is better off than the old Japan ever was." The onyx haired teenager beside her suddenly said, startling her slightly as Lelouch began speaking. "Being made a colony of the Empire has stabilized its military and economic position in the world. Elevens can even attain full citizenship through the legal process. It's easy to become a honorary Britannian. Just a question of pride, really."

The boy beside her shrugged as he finished speaking.

"Though I can certainly understand why they'd resist."

Kallen was confused now. She had suspected that Lelouch would say something like this. It was far from likely, if downright impossible, for her to hear a Britannian speak negatively about their own system. But something about Lelouch's tone. It made him sound... critical of the idea.

"And?" she asked, looking at him with an arced eyebrow.

Lelouch looked her funny. "Hmm?"

Okay, that answer annoyed Kallen. "Knowing all that, what does Lelouch Lamperouge think about it at all? What do you want to do?"

The boy's amethyst eyes stared at her for a few seconds, her classmate contemplating his answer, before turning his head to look back at the fountain. "Nothing."

This got Kallen's blood up a bit, as the boy beside her fell in to the snobby, stuck-up attitude she saw so many teenage aristocrats fall back on to.

"You know, you've got a lot of brains, but you don't seem to be doing much with them." Kallen said, looking at him with a sideways glance. "It's all Shirley talks about, saying how intelligent you are but how you barely ever apply yourself."

"That's why I don't do anything."

That answer was definitely not what Kallen expected.

"That Eleven we saw back there could tell you. He could lead a better life as long as he bows his head to Britannia."

An image of her mother, kneeling on the floor of their mansion, dressed in her maid outfit, working to clean up the mess of a broken vase, flashed across her mind. Before she knew what was going on, she was on her feet and, raising her hand above her head, she brought it down sharply against his cheek, slapping him hard.

"You must think you're pretty cool, huh? Just playing the critic and judging the world from the side-lines." She snapped at him, not caring if anyone else saw her outburst.

Drawing herself to her full height, Kallen felt the tiniest bit of satisfaction from looking down at Lelouch as he sat on the bench, his head bowed as he looked down at the ground.

"Guess I was a fool to expect anything more from you. You know, I really thought you were a better man than this."

Kallen didn't give him a chance to reply as she turned around and stormed off, leaving Lelouch sitting on the bench.

The sensation of someone poking her upper-arm drew Kallen back in to the present. Looking to her side, she saw the blue eyes of Milly Ashford looking at her in concern.

"Are you okay, Kallen?" The Student Council President asked, whispering quietly so as to now draw any undue attention to the two of them, which is completely at odds with her normal attitude.

Milly. One of only a few people who knew about her, who knew about her being half-Japanese. About her being a half-breed, mixed-race, whatever you wanted to call her. Even if the blonde-haired girl did take a somewhat... strange interest in Kallen (the red-head did her best to push aside the memory of that Milly groped her in the baths), she was still someone that Kallen would call a friend.

"I'm fine," Kallen replied, shaking her head slightly. "Just feeling a bit tired is all."

Milly nodded her head slightly before turning her head back to pay attention to the lesson. Kallen did the same, as she listened to the man in front of the class tell them how to figure out the problem given on the board.

The same school routine as always. Even the sound of someone knocking at the door didn't really take her by surprise.

What did take her by surprise were the quiet sounds of excitement coming from the majority of the female students in her class. Looking up from her notebook, Kallen instantly zeroed in on the source of their delight.

Rai, the silver-haired and blue-eyed stranger that turned up mysteriously at the Ashford Academy gates. Disorientated and amnesic, Milly, in one of her characteristic displays of kind-heartedness, took the young boy in, no questions asked, no questions taken, as was Milly's style.

Then one day, Rai had turned up at one of the Black Knights auxiliary bases. No-one saw him turn up, and no-one was particularly pleased by him turning up, but he had quickly proven his worth with being able to pilot a Burai, even managing to take out several Sutherlands at Narita.

Kallen hadn't interacted with him much, but she knew that he didn't normally look as uneasy as he did as he walked over to the teacher, forcing the man to bend down to listen to Rai as he said something that she couldn't hear over her classmates.

She was surprised again as she watched the teacher's face drop as the silver-haired boy continued speaking before looking at him in shock. For his part, Rai still looked uneasy and glanced behind him at the door before looking back at the teacher and nodding.

The sound of a hand knocking on the door three times took everyone by surprise. Looking at the door, the teacher visibly swallowed before speaking up.

"Come in."

The door opened with a hiss as it slid in to the wall. The sound of a collective intake of breath coming from the class filled the air, but instead of shock, the only emotion that came to Kallen's mind was one of dread.

Standing in the threshold of the door way, dressed in a dark brown jacket with its sleeves rolled above his elbows, dark blue jeans and a drab green field cap, the same colour as his pilot suit, stood Captain Forsyth, then man Inoue had captured at Narita. He looked more rested and his facial hair had been smartened up, but to her, it made him seem that bit more frightening.

Mutterings of intrigue from the other students, phrases like "Who's he?" from both genders, "Oh, he's quite handsome" from some of the girls and "He looks like a bit of a badass" from some of the boys, reached her ears, but Kallen didn't any serious attention to them as she watched the captain walk a bit further in to the room, moving towards the teacher, who looked as shocked as she did. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Rai had managed to slide himself to stand behind the teacher.

"Umm... might I ask who you are... sir?" The man asked, obviously confused as to how to address him. In reply, Captain Forsyth reached in to one of his pockets and drew out a small card, an ID card, Kallen guessed, then handed it to the teacher.

Kallen watched as the older man's eyes widened in shock at the information that she knew it contained: a captain of Princess Cornelia's Royal Guard. The teacher began visibly sweating, as he held the card in a shaky hand before he opened his mouth and said the words Kallen wished he wouldn't say.

"... Royal Guard..."

The mutterings increased in volume and Kallen wished her hardest that she could sink in to the floor below her.

The teacher handed the card back to Captain Forsyth, before trying to regain some form of decorum, ignoring the sounds from the class.

"And, uh, why are you here, sir?"

In reply, the captain turned himself fully, his eyes looking directly at Kallen before raising a hand and pointing a finger at her. "I'm here to talk to her, Kallen Stadtfeld."

The room fell deathly silent as all eyes turned to focus on the red-haired teen who simply sat like a rabbit caught in a car's headlights.

Neither party made a move, Kallen remaining rooted to her chair while Captain Forsyth simply placed one hand over the other before placing them over his waist. Seconds ticked away like hours before, without saying a word, Kallen pushed her chair back and stood up then walked towards the officer.

The room was silent as she walked past Captain Forsyth, who moved aside to let her pass, and in to the hallway. In the hall, she stood with her back to the British-born officer as she heard the close shut behind them, before quickly rounding on him, an angry look on her face, a retort ready on her lips.

"Not here." The captain said, cutting her off by raising a hand up. "Too many ears. We'll talk outside."

Kallen looked past him as she closed her mouth, imaging all of the people pressed up against the door or wall, trying to hear what they had to say.

"I know a place we can speak freely." She said, before walking past him down the corridor, forcing the officer to follow her silence.

As she led him down the hallway, Kallen thought about what she should do. Her first instinct was to lead him somewhere quiet, then just slice his throat. It would be satisfying, but it would create far more trouble than she already had. How would she be able explain how, after the Brit had asked to see her, he suddenly wound up dead?

Before long, the duo had made their way outside the school and in to one of the garden areas. Tall, well-groomed trees stood along a paved pathway, around which stood a well-tended lawn. The path was in full sight of several other classrooms, but they were well outside of earshot unless one of them started shouting.

Stopping in the middle of the path, Kallen spun around to face Captain Forsyth, her face a mask of anger. "Okay, now what do you want?"

The officer stopped short, looking at her in surprise.

"All right," The man said after a few seconds of just blinking at her before his face became an impassive mask again. "I imagine you know that the Government here has tabs on you after Nagano, right?"

Kallen nodded her head slowly. "I know."

The captain nodded as he put his hands behind his back and started walking towards then to the side of Kallen, so that he was standing on just a little bit behind her right shoulder.

"I also imagine that that must be putting a fair bit of stress on you, no?" He said nonchalantly, causing Kallen to snort in derision without turning around.

"You have no clue."

A small chuckle came from behind her. "Well, you'll be glad to know that you've got nothing to fear. You're no longer being watched."

For the second time today, Kallen's body froze up on her. Her eyes opened wide before she slowly turned to look at the man behind her. "Wha... what did you say?"

The man was looking up at the sky, the bill of his cap obscuring his face from Kallen's sight as he spoke without turning to look at her. "It's exactly as I said: General Darlton has agreed to my request to call off any surveillance that's following you."

Turning slowly, Captain Forsyth looked at her with a small smile as he watched her process the news, the red-head's mouth moving up and down.

"So..." Kallen finally said after a few seconds, "Am I off the hook?"

The man's face suddenly morphed in to a look that suggested that she had told a bad joke. "Yeah, nice try. If anything you're my personal problem now."

Kallen's face turned in to a look of dumbstruck belief, her jaw almost dropping and her eyes opening wide at what the man said.

"Although," He said as he continued speaking, moving his head up as he gripped the bridge of nose with his thumb and forefinger, "I'm not one-hundred percent sure what that entails, to be honest with you. So whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, I have no idea."

Kallen just looked at the man before her as she took in what this man said.

Was he being serious? He had gotten the Viceroy's top general to get her off the hook, only to get him to be the one to be looking after her, and he had no idea what he would be doing?

"How did you become a captain again?" Kallen asked in a deadpan voice as he looked at the officer in contempt.

In reply, the captain merely shrugged as he removed his hand from his face as a small smile came to his face. "I ask myself that question often, Kallen."

Kallen looked at the man standing before her. He was something special, she definitely would not deny that. It confused her, and she didn't like being confused.

"Why?" She asked, looking at him sternly. "Why are you doing this?"

Captain Forsyth's smile fell from his face as a look that Kallen did not expect to see cross his face: a look of quiet guilt. Removing his hat, the captain ran a hand through his hair, the fingers moving through his dark brown curls before replacing the hat back on his head, fixing the bill in place as he fixed his eyes on to Kallen's.

"I like you."

The half-Japanese girl felt her cheeks go red, to which the man rolled his eyes.

"Not like that, you daft girl!" He yelled before speaking more softly. "I mean that I think you're an interesting girl. You're strong, and you're intelligent. And I don't want to see you squander those gifts."

Kallen opened her mouth to speak before the man held his hand up, silencing her.

"Please, let me make my peace before you reply. Okay?"

Closing her mouth slowly, Kallen nodded her head, letting him speak.

"Thank you," Captain Forsyth said as he lowered his hand. "Life's handed you a crap hand, and I won't lie about that. But instead of folding, you doubled down and you're sticking to it. But instead of using your lot in life to better the world around you, you're dancing to someone else's music."

Kallen furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at the metaphors this man was using, which did not escape the Brit's attention, making him sigh in response.

"Basically, you have the ability to be something great and instead of using those talents, you're letting someone else control you and dictate what you should do."

"How is that any different than what you're doing?" Kallen replied, suddenly glaring at the man.

"What do you mean?"

"You're following someone else's orders and you're not doing anything to better your lot."

A rueful smile came to the captain's face as he looked away from Kallen before he spoke again.

"You're right. But there's a reason for that."

"I'm listening." Kallen said, crossing her arms across her chest.

Turning fully, the man moved to one of the benches near them and sat down heavily. Resting his elbows on his knees, he was silent for a while as he leaned forward, before lifting his head and began speaking.

"I went to a bog-standard comprehensive school in Britain. I was a C-average student. I also fucked up my A-levels, so I wouldn't have been able to get in to a university if I wanted to." Taking a deep sigh, he leant backwards, not taking his eyes off Kallen. "And then this whole shit happens with me ending up here. Joining the Britannian army was the only chance I had to make something of myself and you know what I've found?"

Kallen shook her head but couldn't help but be a bit perturbed at the smile on the man's face.

"I've found that it's something I'm good at. This is my only chance to make something of myself and I'm sure as hell going to follow through with it."

The red-haired girl looked at the officer in confusion as he continued speaking.

"I chose this path since it was the only one open to me. But you have so many more options open to you. I don't want you to end up on a path that leads to nowhere."

Kallen just stared at the man sitting in front of her. He was basically repeating what he had said to her after he was captured at Narita to try and get her to leave the Black Knights, and she had already said that she wouldn't. But, once again, she couldn't help but feel that everything he said was... genuine. It wasn't logical like Zero's and it wasn't an attempt to guilt her in to doing something like her bitch of a stepmother would try to do, but everything he said... it struck her in a way she hadn't heard in years.

"It looks like it's going to rain."

Realizing she had spaced out, Kallen blinked her eyes and saw that Captain Forsyth's head was tilted back against the bench and he was looking at the sky. Looking up as well, she saw that the sky was becoming overcast, dark grey clouds darkening the sky as they covered the sun.

"I've never seen the sky this dark before." Kallen said as she looked at the sky, which earned a small chuckle from the officer.

"My mum always said I took the weather with me." The captain said with a hint of nostalgia before, sighing, he pushed himself to stand up to his feet and began walking past Kallen.

"Where are you going?" The girl asked, spinning around to follow him.

"I've got one more person to see before I leave. I need to find Suzaku Kururugi." The man said as he continued walking, moving away from the school block before he stopped dead and turned back around to face her. "Any idea where I could find him?"

Kallen resisted the urge to slam her palm against her face. This man was a strange mix of infuriatingly dense and amazingly honest.

"Since I missed the last part of class, I'll take you to the student council's clubhouse. He'll probably be there."

"Lead the way." The captain as he gestured for Kallen to move ahead of him. Soon the two were walking in a fairly comfortable silence with the man walking a few paces behind her, which surprised the teenage terrorist. This man had somehow managed to make her like him, in an oddly infuriating way.

"So," She asked out of the blue, interrupting the silence as she turned her head to look at him. "Do you get a chance to talk to your mum?"

The captain shook his head. "I can't risk it, unfortunately. Too dangerous for her."

The girl nodded in understanding as the pair carried on walking.

"Although I did manage to talk to your mum."

Kallen skidded to a halt as she took in what he said. Turning around, she looked at him with wide eyes. "Wha...?"

"I went to see her today." The captain said in a placating tone. "I've not had a chance to check on her because of what's happening..."

"How is she? Is she all right?" Kallen asked, firing off the questions faster than she thought she ever could before falling silent as Captain Forsyth put his hands on to her arms.

"Kallen. Calm down. She's fine, but she needs more help to kick her drug habit than we thought." He said as he looked in to her eyes. "She's in an unresponsive state, but she's being fed and she's healthy."

Without realising it, Kallen released the breath that she didn't know she'd been holding as she stepped back from the officer. Putting a hand on her hip and the other against her head, she sighed with relief at the news as a smile came to her face. Her mother was alive!

She couldn't resist the slight spring in her step as the pair continued walking to the clubhouse.

"Who's Naoto?" Captain Forsyth asked from behind her, shattering Kallen's good mood as, once again, she stopped in her tracks.

What was with this guy and knowing how to hit all the buttons to piss her off?

"He was my brother." Kallen said flatly.

"When did he die?" The man said in a sympathetic tone.

"What makes you think he's dead?" She replied in turn, not turning to look at him.

"You wouldn't saw he 'was' your brother if he was alive." Captain Forsyth replied matter-of-factly, but still keeping the sympathetic tone in his voice.

"How do you know about him?" Kallen asked, finally turning around to look at him, her face devoid of any mood.

The man's eyes moved up, showing he was thinking about what to say next. "When... I went to visit your mother, she thought that I was Naoto. It's a symptom of her addiction to Refrain."

Kallen didn't say anything as she looked the man, her blue eyes burrowing in to him. To his credit, Captain Forsyth didn't back down or turn away from her gaze. After a few moments, Kallen sighed before she spoke.

"Naoto was killed during a skirmish with the Britannian military four years ago."

The sound of a sharp intake of breath came from the captain as he shut his eyes in a grimace at the news. "And I imagine that's the same time you-"

"The same time I joined the group my brother started to fight the Britannians, yes." Kallen said, conviction heavy in her voice. "I vowed to avenge my brother's death and make the Britannians pay for what they did to Japan."

Captain Forsyth's eyes snapped open and shot Kallen a glare that made her shrink back a bit. "There you go again."

"Wha-what are you talking about?" Kallen stammered out.

"Your hypocrisy. You condemn the Britannians for the violent things their government has done, but you have no compunction using violence yourself."

"Bullshit!" Kallen roared back. "We've only ever fought against the military."

"Then what about you hiding the gas container in Shinjuku ghetto, right in the middle of a fucking population centre?" The man asked sternly, taking a few steps towards her.

Kallen's eyes narrowed. "That gas would have been used to liquidate the ghetto anyway. And how does that excuse the fact that Clovis ordered a massacre of the ghetto?"

"I never said it did. But you cannot use that to excuse the fact that you willingly put innocent lives at risk for your own ends."

Biting her lip, Kallen looked down at the floor before looking back up at the captain. "We... really didn't have that concrete a plan for after we stole the canister."

Looking at the man, she watched his face to see what his reaction would be. No emotion showed on the man's face until he blinked in surprise as heavy raindrop splattered loudly against the bill of his cap. Quickly on the heels of that raindrop, Kallen felt one hit her squarely on top of the head.

"Oh, hell..." She said to herself as the heaven's opened, catching the both of them in the heavy downpour, before she spun around to look for the clubhouse. Seeing it was like seeing an oasis in a desert, as it was only a couple of dozen yards away from where they were standing.

"Leg it!" The man cried out as he began running towards the building, Kallen quickly following in close beside him, feeling the rain splash against her. Their bolt across the school grounds was easy since the paving wasn't too flat, but she still wished that she could wear the same sort of boots that the captain was wearing instead of the school shoes she was wearing as he easily moved across the school grounds before ascending the steps leading in to the clubhouse.

The rain had felt cold on her skin, but inside the clubhouse, Kallen felt warmth flood back in to her as she passed through the threshold in to the clubhouse. The whole building just oozed tranquillity and no matter how much she tried to fight it, she genuinely liked being in the clubhouse.

The large bay windows that normally let in large amounts of sunlight on to the large two-way staircase made from white marble that lead to the second floor and the inner balcony. Currently, the rainy sky cast everything in a grey shadow, but the large chandelier and lights helped bathe the foyer of the building in a warming glow.

"Nice place." Captain Forsyth observed as he removed his hat from his head and shook the rainwater off the garment. Kallen couldn't help but snicker at the sight of the man's head of curly dark brown hair had become compressed by the hat, forming a tight ring of flattened hair around his head before tucking it under his arm.

Kallen nodded as she turned to look at him. Her eyes opened wide as she saw that, almost as soon as he turned to look at her, a blush crept over his face and he quickly turned his head to look away.

"What's wrong?" She asked, confused.

"We... we should find a towel or something." The man said distractedly as he moved towards the centre of the foyer, looking around to try and figure out which way to go.

Still rooted to her spot, Kallen tried to figure out what he was so embarrassed about, looking at the man's back in confusion before she felt a drop of rainwater slide down the side of her neck before it slid across her chest and under shirt.

Looking down, Kallen felt the colour drain from her skin as she saw the reason why the captain had blushed when he saw her: her light tan uniform had been soaked by the rain. She hadn't been in the rain long enough for it become completely soaked through, but what rain had hit her had been enough to soak through her white shirt underneath, revealing far more of her cleavage than she'd like.

A rustling from in front of her drew her attention back to the officer in front of her. Watching him, Kallen watched as he removed his jacket and, without looking back, handed it to her.

"Until we find a towel." He said before he began moving in to the foyer further.

Snatching the jacket from his hand, Kallen wrapped it around her body as she followed the man in to the building.

"Can I help you?" A quiet voice sounded from behind the two of them, making Kallen shriek in shock and the captain yell out as the two spun around.

Behind them, stood a woman of Japanese descent, standing about the same height as both of them. She was dressed in the black and white uniform of a stereotypical maid, complete with tiny little white hat sitting on top of her head of brown hair. Her hazel eyes scrutinized both of them.

"Bloody Christ." Captain Forsyth said, moving his right hand away from his hip to rest it on his chest. "And you are?"

"Sayoko." Kallen answered. "She's the maid of one of the students here."

"Miss Stadtfeld." The maid said with a curtsey as she addressed the red-haired girl before turning to the officer, to whom she curtseyed again. "Sir. How may I be of assistance?"

"We'd like a towel, if possible." The man said, getting over his initial shock.

Sayoko simply nodded before motioning for both of them to follow her.

The maid lead the pair up the main flight of stairs before moving guiding them up the right hand flight of stairs. Soon, the trio were walking down a well fashioned and well maintained hallway, lined with a burgundy carpet padding the floor. The sound of the downpour outside filled the building, sending a small shiver down Kallen's spine, making her wrap the jacket tighter around her frame.

Quickly, the two were shown to large room, a dining room from the shape and size of the large oval table taking up the space in the middle of the room. A large window to the right side of the room faced out on to the academy grounds, which were currently devoid of any people because of the heavy rain.

"Please remain here." Sayoko said softly, looking at both of them with an expressionless face. "I'll return shortly with a towel for each of you."

"Sayoko?" Kallen said quickly, catching the maid's attention. "Could you bring a dry shirt for me too?"

"Of course, Miss Stadtfeld." The maid replied smartly, curtseying and bowing her head before exiting the room leaving the two alone again. The sound of the heavy rain hitting the windows was the only source of sound in the room.

Looking around, Kallen tried to find some way to break the silence. Her eyes scanned the various bits of furniture; well-crafted cabinets made from white painted wood set against the walls. On top of the closest cabinet, she saw what looked like a purple briefcase sitting on the top of it. Moving towards it, she realised that she had seen Lelouch carry it several times when he had left with his friend, Rivalz, to bunk off school.

Drawing near it, she snapped the two locks open and lifted up the top half of the case.

"Oh." She said in surprise as the sound of foot-steps drew up behind her.

"A chess set?" Captain Forsyth asked from behind her as he leaned past her to look at it.

Sure enough, sitting inside the case was a complete chess set: in the middle was a board, folded in half, with chequered black and red squares on top of a wooden frame, surrounded on one side by pieces made from black wood and on the other side by pieces made from white wood.

"I've not played chess in ages." Kallen said to herself as she lifted the case off the cabinet, a nostalgic tone in her voice.

"It's been nearly seven years since I last played a chess game, if my memory's right." The officer said, his voice carrying the same nostalgia Kallen's did.

Without a word, the man reached over, picking up the box before he walked over to the large table.

"Care for a game?" He said with a smile as he placed the case down on the tabletop.

Looking at the man as he set out the chess board and began setting up the pieces, Kallen shrugged before moving towards the opposite side of the table. Looking down, she noticed that the board was set up so that the pieces faced the short edges of the table, not the long edges. She also saw that the man had put his cap on the tabletop beside his chair.

"Which hand?" The captain asked. Looking up, Kallen saw that he was holding both hands, his fingers closed around what she assumed to be two different pieces, towards her.

Her blue eyes flicked back and forth between the closed fists, trying to guess which hand she should choose. After a few seconds, she pointed to his left hand, which the captain promptly unfurled, revealing a black pawn.

"White moves first." Captain Forsyth said, handing the piece to Kallen before sitting and down and turning the board so they both had their respective colours.

The game began quickly, with the captain moving his pawns forward, Kallen copying the same, before using his knights to back up the pawns before the two finally clashed in the centre of the board.

Now Kallen would readily admit that she wasn't the best chess player. All of the games she had played against her dad, he had said that she was too aggressive in her play style. And it showed. She had lost all but two of her pawns, one of her bishops and one of her knights. Of the white pieces, she had only managed to capture five pawns and a knight in turn.

She was in trouble.

The sound of the door sliding open drew both players attention as they watch Sayoko enter the room, carrying a bundle of white towels and a white shirt wrapped with a small cardboard.

"Miss Stadtfeld. Sir." She bowed again. "I have the towels for you and also the change of shirt."

"Thank you, Sayoko." Kallen said as the maid put the small pile on to the tabletop, standing up from her chair to move to the pile of fabric. Picking up the clean shirt along with a towel, she realised that she still had Captain Forsyth's jacket draped over her shoulders.

"I shall take the jacket from you, Miss Stadtfeld." Sayoko said, somehow reading the teenagers thoughts. "I'll return it to the gentleman after putting it through the tumble dryer."

The girl looked at the man sitting at the table, who simply nodded at the idea. In turn, Kallen removed the jacket from her shoulders before handing it to the maid, who folded it before taking it in her arms.

"There's a card in the breast-pocket," The captain called out to Sayoko. "I forgot to take it out. If it's been ruined, just bin it."

The maid nodded her head before she glided out of the room, leaving the two alone again.

Not saying anything, Kallen moved towards the door.

"I'm going to get changed in the bathroom." Kallen said flatly, not bothering to look at the man before she left the room.

She didn't need any help to find the bathroom, not after the incident with the champagne and Lelouch catching her naked in the shower. Luckily, this time he wasn't around and also, she didn't need to get fully undressed.

Entering the room, she quickly removed her tan jacket and put it in to the clothes bin before removing her white shirt. Looking at the two garments, they were thoroughly soaked, but the jacket would dry out sooner than the white shirt, but the shirt was soaked right through.

Standing in just her skirt and bra, Kallen put the clean jacket on the counter top before she began drying herself off with the towel, feeling the soft fabric brush over her skin. As she did, she let her mind wander.

Kallen could not wrap her mind around this man. He just seemed to do whatever he wanted, and it pissed her off! He had no right asking her about Naoto and going to check on her mother.

But he had taken the time to come and tell her himself that the Britannians wouldn't be tailing her, and he had also taken the time to check on her mother in the hospital.

His whole attitude stank of those do-gooder Britannians who went in to the ghettos claiming to help the Japanese when all they were really looking for was an attempt to inflate their ego and gain some form of sycophantic sympathy.

But him... everything about him was sincere. His talk about her mother needing help was said with the earnest tone of a doctor caring for a patient. His questions about Naoto were asked with genuine curiosity and his reaction to the news of his death was real.

'Who is he?' She asked herself as she dried her hair, watching in the mirror as the towel fluffed up her red hair.

A knock at the door made her jump, nearly dropping the towel in shock.

"I'll be out in a minute." Kallen called out, making sure to keep up the sickly persona.

"Kallen, is that you?" The distinctively sweet of Shirley Fenette sounded from the other side of the door.

"Umm... yeah. It's me, Shirley. Just... give me a minute." Kallen said, hastily slipping on the clean shirt. After doing up the buttons, she opened the door to reveal Shirley and Rivalz standing in the hallway, both carrying their school cases and looking more than a little wet, both with a look of worry on their faces.

"Kallen, are you all right?" Rivalz asked, the worry on his face a complete and uncomfortable contrast with the usually carefree look on his face. "We heard about what happened."

"What do you mean?" Kallen asked, looking at the blue-haired boy hopefully. She really hoped that this incident hadn't be blown out of proportion.

"About you being taken out of class by a member of the Viceroy's Royal Guard." Shirley intoned, staring at her in shock. "Is everything all right?"

Kallen was unsure of what to say for a few seconds before she realised the two students were staring at her. "Yeah, no. Everything is all right. It's just... it's just a personal matter."

"Is everything fine?" Rivalz repeated.

"Yes," Kallen said, nodding her head vigorously, one part annoyed by their constant questioning but also somewhat glad that the pair cared enough about her to ask. "Everything's fine."

The pair looked at her for a few seconds before they nodded their heads. Reaching in to her bag, Shirley rummaged around inside for a little bit before she pulled out a hairbrush and handed it to Kallen. The redhead looked at it in confusion for a little bit before she turned around and leaned in to the bathroom to look at the mirror: her hair had gotten out of the style she usually wore it when she wore it at school.

"Thank you, Shirley." Kallen said as she took the brush before entering the bathroom proper and began grooming her hair. "So, does everyone in school know what happened?"

"Pretty much." Shirley replied, shrugging. "The Prez saw what happened, but she's been unusually tight lipped about it."

Kallen paused mid-brush for a split second before continuing to straighten her hair. Out of all the people here, only Milly and the captain knew that she was half-Japanese, and it was very unlikely, if not outright impossible, that Milly would tell anyone.

"That's nice of her." She said with a small smile.

After making sure her hair was down again, Kallen walked back in to the hallway, giving the brush back to Shirley. "So is it just you two?" She asked.

"No," Rivalz said with a shake of his head. "Lelouch and Milly are here too. They went in to the dining room, and I think Suzaku's supposed to be coming here soon."

Kallen couldn't suppress the smile that came to her face at the idea of Captain Forsyth having to deal with Milly.

"Shall we go and join them then?" Shirley said, happiness returning to her face and, despite her efforts, Kallen couldn't help but be swept up by her enthusiasm as she joined the duo in walking to the dining room.

Sitting in his dining room in the clubhouse, Lelouch fought incredibly hard to suppress the smile that he felt coming to his lips. Ever since the man had foiled his plans when they first met, the teenager who masqueraded as Zero had spent a little more time than he probably should have at wondering how he could humiliate the British-born captain. The man's stay with him Narita hadn't done anything to lessen Lelouch's anger at the man.

But now, sitting across Captain Forsyth with his own personal chess board sitting in the space between them, Lelouch was certain he would finally get his revenge.

It hadn't been that big a shock to see that the captain and Kallen had been playing a game of chess, but it had surprised Lelouch to see how badly the redhead had been loosing to the officer. He had started with a disadvantage but, in his typical fashion, after employing several feints and false leads, had reversed the situation.

The man sitting across from him, a look of extreme concentration on his face, had had to watch as his forces had been whittled down to leave only his king, two pawns and a rook. It hadn't been wholly one-sided however. The captain had fought an impressive defensive action, claiming a few of his pawns in return. But it did nothing but delay the inevitable.

Lelouch watched with a grim sense of satisfaction as he watched the man, his fingers grasping the top of the white king, as he was backed in to a corner. He was basically surrounded: his king was blocked; his rook was of little help and his pawns were too far forward to give any assistance.

"Jeez, Lelouch." Milly said from her place sitting on the table beside him, sound sympathetic for the captain's plight. "You really don't like playing nicely, do you?"

The onyx-haired boy merely chuckled darkly as he turned his head to look at the blonde teenage. "Only when it comes to chess, Milly."

Looking back at the officer, Lelouch felt his eyes narrow as he saw that man hadn't moved at all, just keeping his fingers on the piece as he stared at the board in complete concentration.

"Are you going to make a move?" He asked testily.

"I'm thinking." The man replied sharply, his voice almost more like a grumble.

Lelouch simply resigned himself to rolling his eyes as he leant back in the chair. If the fool wanted to extend his own execution, then so be it.

The sound of the door opening drew his attention as he turned his head to watch Rivalz and Shirley enter the room, Kallen in tow behind them.

"And look who's finally joined us!" Milly said in mock surprise, standing up from her seat to walk over to the redhead.

"How much trouble did I cause?" He heard Kallen ask, to which Milly simply waived off the question with a literal wave of her hand.

"Everyone started making up stories as soon as you two left. They ranged from you being arrested to the two of you dating."

The redhead simply rolled her eyes in distaste while sharp but loud laugh came from the seated man. "Bloody hell, this takes me back to my high school days."

Lelouch watched as Rivalz nodded his head sympathetically before the blue-haired boy looked at the officer. "How do you two know each other anyway?"

The seated man fell silent for a moment, his eyes moving to look at Kallen.

"We met in the Settlement." Kallen said quickly. "I was out shopping with my stepmother and we bumped in to him."

"But why was he asking for you today though?" Shirley asked, which was a question Lelouch wanted to ask as well. This time, the question was answered by the captain.

"I'm afraid that's none of your business, lass." The man said, still not taking his fingers of his piece. "What I had to say with Kallen is between me and her."

Everyone else in the room nodded their head at the man's words, but Lelouch couldn't really focus on the glib answer since he still hadn't moved that bloody king!

"Are you going to move or not?" Lelouch said in annoyance, glaring at the man across from him.

A thin smile came across Captain Forsyth's lips as he lifted up the white king from the board then, with the same ease that someone would show when flicking on a light switch, he tilted the piece so that it turned sideways before putting it on the chessboard to have the king lying on its side.

"What?!" Lelouch called out, putting his hands on the table as he rocketed forward, trying to see if what just happened was some form of illusion. Meanwhile, the captain simply leant back in his chair, the smile still on his face.

"What happened?" Milly said as she moved forwards to look at what happened.

"I forfeited." The officer simply said.

A small 'ooh' of surprise from Rivalz sounded from behind Lelouch, but he didn't care.

"You can't do that." Lelouch said firmly.

"What are you talking about?" The man replied.

"You can't forfeit." The boy replied.

"Where in the rules does it say I can't forfeit?" The officer asked, looking quite annoyed.

"It..." Lelouch began, knowing that there wasn't a rule that explicitly stated that a player couldn't forfeit when he wanted to, but the timing of it just smacked of desperation. "It...well it doesn't. But why wouldn't you play the game out?" Lelouch asked.

"Because I know I'm going to lose." The officer stated testily. "I know when I'm licked. Why prolong it any more than needed? Plus, I am still on the clock you know."

"That's no excuse!" Lelouch yelled out, hitting the table hard, making the pieces and a few of his friends jump, while the man remained seated and looking at him.

"Hey, hey, hey!" The familiar voice of Suzaku filled the air, coming from the doorway. "What's going on, Lelouch? What's got you so angry?"

Lelouch was about to round on his friend when a sweeter, softer voice filled the air. "What's wrong, Lelouch?"

Watching his friends part out of the way, from the doorway materialized the reason for his hatred of Britannia, the reason for his exile and the only reason why he had stayed alive for so long: his little sister, Nunnally, dressed in the pink and white girls uniform of the junior year of Ashford Academy and her long, wavy sandy-blonde hair trailing down the length of her back. As always, her eyes, which should have shone a resplendent violet, were closed, as they had been ever since that day seven years ago.

Lelouch couldn't help but smile at the sight of her little sister. Yet out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Captain Forsyth stood up, a shocked look on his face as his mouth moved up and down wordlessly while he looked back and forth between the members of the student council, trying to figure out what was going on. Luckily for him, Suzaku spoke up first.

"Captain Forsyth!" The Japanese teen called out, surprised to see the man in the council clubhouse. "I didn't know you were the member of the Viceroy's Royal Guard who came to see Kallen."

"Yeah, well... it's me." The man said, shrugging at the comment before scratching his beard as confusion came to his face. "Umm... are you going to introduce me?"

"Oh! Do we have a guest?" Nunnally said sweetly, putting her hands together before holding one of her hands out, indicating for the man to come towards her.

"Oh, right." Suzaku said, reading the situation as he waved the officer to come towards him and Nunnally. "Nunnally, this is one of my senior officers, Captain Ciaran Forsyth. Captain, this is Nunnally Lamperouge, Lelouch's younger sister."

"A pleasure to meet you, young miss." The officer said politely as he knelt down, taking Nunnally's outstretched hand with one of his own.

Lelouch was always cautious about anyone coming near his sister, especially if one of them was a member of Cornelia's Royal Guard (in retrospect, that one was quite a new fear, but it was still quite a big one), so he watched closely as the captain knelt down and put one of his hands against Nunnally's own hand.

It was subtle, so if Lelouch hadn't been watching her, he would have missed it, but Nunnally's body shuddered gently. The captain didn't seem to notice it however as he simply smiled at the young girl.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Captain." Nunnally said in that same sweet tone of voice she always used. "Were you playing chess against big brother?"

"It's nice to meet you too." The man said with a smile as he nodded. "Yes, I was. And I was losing horribly too."

"And then he decided to cut and run." Lelouch said testily, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Oh, leave it alone, will you?" The captain said testily as he turned to look at the teenager. "You could have ended that game ages ago, but you were just drawing it out."

"Is it not a commander's job to make sure his enemy is beaten as soundly as possible?" Lelouch asked.

"Oh, dear lord." Captain Forsyth said, rolling his eyes as he stood up to his feet. "Please do not tell me you're one of these people who think chess is an allegory for war."

"Well what else is it?" Lelouch asked. He had heard people try and make this argument before but it made no sense.

"A game?" The man said as he looked at Lelouch. From the corner of his eye, the teen saw Rivalz and Shirley nod their heads.

"He's not wrong, Lelouch." The blue-haired teen said. "Sure you can make money from it, but it is just a game."

Lelouch looked like someone had just shown him a picture of his father naked. Chess? A game? It was no such thing. It was a way of life for intellectuals such as himself and it was the perfect example of higher thinking in strategy and tactics.

"It is not a game!"

"No, it is a game, Lelouch." The man said flatly, sounding like he was giving a lecture to a problem student. "As for the idea that it can be used to simulate war, than it does a sh... stunningly poor job at it."

"Good save." Lelouch heard Milly mutter to the captain, who merely nodded his thanks before continuing to speak.

"War has far too many variables which you cannot replicate in chess. You can't bomb an opponent's manufacturing centres to stem the flow of supplies. You can't insert special forces team to disrupt lines of movement or assassinate an enemy commander. Chess gives you an unrealistic situation: that you and your opponent will face each other on even terrain with an equal number of forces."

Lelouch felt his eyes narrow slightly as he looked at the captain. He had been given the same sort of lecture from Cornelia when she had returned home from the officer's academy.

"If you want to have a go at replicating actual combat as a commander," Captain Forsyth said, ignoring the hostile look Lelouch was giving him. "Play a good real-time strategy game. Or take up tabletop war gaming. That's what I did."

"Oh, there's a club for that!" Shirley perked up, clapping her hands together as a smile came to her face. "Maybe you should have a go at that, Lelouch."

"I just might." Lelouch said, instilling his voice with false modesty. "Of course, if the captain would be willing to oblige me a game at some point in the future."

The man looked at him for a few moments before he shrugged, the same small smile on his face. "Maybe. But it probably won't be for a while. I think I've probably caused too much trouble as it is for you guys." He said apologetically.

'You have no idea.' Lelouch said mentally as he smiled back.

"Oh, it's stopped raining." Nunnally's voice chirped up, making everyone look at her before turning to look at the window. Sure enough, the rain had stopped, and the dark rain clouds had begun retreating, letting the blue sky shine through.

The tinny sound of a phone going off filled the air as, rolling his eyes, the captain reached in to one of his pockets and drew out his phone. Flipping up the screen, he pressed the call button before lifting it to his ear.

"Captain Forsyth here. Oh, Viceroy. Hello." The man said, obviously surprised at who was on the other end of the line. "I'm at Ashford Academy. It's... a personal errand."

From where he was standing, Lelouch couldn't fully hear what was going on on the other end of the line, but it sounded like Cornelia wasn't happy, especially if Captain Forsyth's fearful face was anything to go by.

"Well, it started raining heavily and... Yes, my Lady, I know I should have returned to the Palace an hour ago but... Yes, my Lady, I'm just about to leave now. Okay. Goodbye, your Highness."

The man pocketed the phone and turned to look at the group, a look of worry on his face, which gave Lelouch no small amount of satisfaction to see.

"I'm in trouble." The man said simply. "I need to get going."

"I have your jacket ready for you, sir." Sayoko said, materializing out of nowhere as she seemed to love to do. Her appearance made several of the group jump, the captain among them, before she moved towards the man. In her hands, she held a dark brown jacket in her hands which looked like it had been through the tumble dryer.

"Oh, thank you, Miss Sayoko." The man said as he took the jacket from the maid before slipping it on. A warm smile came to his face as he slid his arms in to the sleeves. "Oh, I love the feeling of clothes fresh from the dryer."

"It is wonderful, isn't it?" Nunnally spoke up, turning her head to look up at the man as he moved towards the door. The move brought an uneasy smile from the man's face as he continued towards the door.

Lelouch was about to give voice to his thoughts of 'good riddance' before the sound of the man snapping his fingers before turning back to face Suzaku.

"Suzaku, I should probably let you know that I'm going to be quite busy over the next few days, so I'll contact you about that drink, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. No problem." The Japanese youth said in reply, flashing him a smile as he nodded his head, with the officer nodding his head in reply before he exited the room.

Lelouch turned around to look at the chessboard as he heard the door hiss shut. His thoughts on this man were getting worse and worse as he talked to him. First, he lambasts his goal for the Black Knights and dared lecture him on his rebellion. Secondly, the man was doing something to his ace's mental state and he didn't like it, not one bit.

Speaking of his ace...

"Where's Kallen gone?" He asked, looking past his friends as he realised that the redhead had disappeared.

In confusion, the group turned around (save for Sayoko who had left the room) to see that, yes, the red-haired teen had disappeared.

"I think she left after Captain Forsyth did, brother." Nunnally said. Lelouch didn't try and question his little sister's intuition. Instead, he simply set himself to start putting away his chess set.

"Oh well." Milly said in annoyance, seeing that there was nothing else to be said and no more opportunities for fun. "It's lunch time, so let's have something to eat. I'm sure Sayoko would be willing to whip something up for us."

"But I brought my own lunch." Shirley said before she was yanked out of the room by Milly who began babbling on about something that Lelouch couldn't fully hear.

"You coming, Lelouch?" Rivalz asked.

"I'll join you in a minute, guys." The teen said, as he carried on putting the pieces in to their slots. "Let me just finish up here first."

"All right then." Rivalz said, a smile obviously on his face before the sound of his hand hitting fabric softly. "Come, Suzaku. Let's get some food."

"Sure, I could eat." The Japanese teen said in agreement before he too left the room. Which left just Lelouch and-

"Lelouch?" Nunnally's sweet voice reached her brother's ears, making him turn around to look at his wheelchair-bound younger sister as she wheeled her chair closer to him.

"What's wrong, Nunnally?" He asked as he knelt down in front of Nunnally's wheelchair. It wasn't wholly necessary, but he enjoyed talking to his sister like an equal.

"It's about the captain." She said, obviously unsure about what to say.

"What about him? Do you not like him?" Lelouch asked, while he mentally asked her 'please say you don't like him.'

"No, it's not that. If Suzaku likes him, then I could like him," Nunnally replied, shaking her head. "It's just..."

"Just what?" Lelouch asked.

"Something seems... 'off' about him."

Now Lelouch was definitely confused. "Off? What do you mean, 'off'?"

In reply Nunnally shrugged. "I don't know, Lelouch. It's not that he's mean or something. It's that he seems... different, is probably the only word I could use."

Leaning back, he put his right elbow against his right knee and his hand against his chin. Nunnally definitely had a gift at discerning whether a person was nice or not, but this was something else entirely.

Standing back up, he looked out of the large window that faced out on to the school grounds, which were now slowly becoming alive with students and a few faculty staff. From the bottom of the window, he watched as the British member of Cornelia's Royal Guard walked across the ground.

'Who is this man?' Lelouch asked himself as he watched the man stop in his tracks.

A niggling feeling occurred at the back of Ciaran's mind as he stopped walking across the grounds towards the Academy and turned back around to look at the clubhouse.

His eyes scanned the building front, darting from window to window. From his distance, he couldn't see any major details, but he could see them vaguely: he was sure he could see Lelouch in the dining room, he could see another empty room, probably a bedroom, inside of which he saw a green-haired girl in a white jacket...

Hold it.

Blinking his eyes, he focused back on the room in question. Nobody was in there now, leaving just an empty room, but he was sure of what he saw: it was a girl in a large white jacket with lime green hair that definitely reached past her hips, and out of all of the hair colours he had seen so far (Ciaran thought to himself 'I really need to talk to someone about that'), there was only one other person he had met had hear that shade of green.

"It couldn't have been..." He said to himself as he used his thumb and index finger on his right hand to wipe his eyes towards the bridge of his nose before opening them and looking at the room again.

Again, there was no-one there.

"Please don't tell me I'm losing it already." Ciaran said to himself as he turned away, shaking his head before running his hand through his hair.

Through his hair...?

Ciaran let out a growl of frustration as he realised he had left his hat in the clubhouse.

"Captain Forsyth!" Someone called out from behind him, making him turn back to look at the direction of the clubhouse to see Kallen jogging in his direction.

He arced an eyebrow in confusion as he watched girl draw closer to him. He could see that unease was on her face and she had her hands behind her back.

"What's up, Kallen?" Ciaran asked as innocently as he possibly could as the girl drew level with him.

The girl was quiet for a few seconds, turning this way and that slightly before she brought one of her hands up, Ciaran's hat gripped tightly by the bill in her fingers.

"You left this behind." Kallen simply said, not looking at the man's face, obviously uncomfortable in showing kindness to someone she considered an enemy. But it was a kindness all the same and the young man did appreciate it.

Taking the hat from her hand, Ciaran gave it a gentle fluff to get the shape back before putting it on to his head. "Thanks. That must have been hard for you, no?"

Kallen didn't say anything immediately, remaining quiet as she looked off at the distant edge of the academy grounds before she turned her head to look at the captain.

"Why are you doing all of these things?"

"What do you mean?" Ciaran asked, scrunching his eyebrows up in confusion at her question.

"You're working with the Britannians, but you're also trying to help me, with my mother and telling me that I'm not being watched by the government."

The young man just looked at her.

"So, I want to know: why?" She asked, turning her head to look at him fully.

Ciaran just shrugged. "You know my answer, Kallen. I want to help you be something better than what you are right now. Violence only gets you so far in the world."

This earned a sharp glare from the girl. "And yet you're toadying up to the Princess?"

The Briton rolled his eyes at the idea. "I'm not toadying up to anyone. I joined her through my own volition. She also saved my life, and I know that working with her is the only way for me to pay her back."

Kallen's face softened as she took in the man's words. "Zero did the same for me."

Ciaran's eyes opened wide in shock as Kallen continued speaking.

"In Shinjuku, when my group was nearly about to wiped out by Clovis' forces, he was the one who brought us together and helped us win."

"So you feel that you owe him then?" Ciaran asked, already dreading the answer.

"I do." Kallen replied.

The young man just stared at the girl across from him for a few seconds before, letting out a deep sigh, he crossed his arms across his chest. "I see."

The pair stood in silence for a long time, Ciaran pondering what he could say next while Kallen seemed to just be gauging his reaction.

As he shifted his arm across his chest, he felt something shift in his breast-pocket. Opening the pocket, he felt around inside before his fingers brushed against the object in question. Gripping it between his fingers, Ciaran took out the card from his pocket. It didn't look to have gotten wet, and twisting it around in his hands, it didn't look like that maid had made a copy.

Looking from the card to Kallen's face, Ciaran let a small smile come to his face before he gave her the card.

"I know you don't like me being nice to you, but here."

"What's this?" Kallen said as she took the card. She studied it for a few seconds before, turning it over to the information written on the reverse side, her jaw dropped, and she looked up at Ciaran in shock.

"The information is right since I went there this morning." Ciaran said, taking advantage of the lull in the conversation. "The prison wing has guards so be sure to bring some form of ID. I'm not sure if you'll be able to just go straight there or will need to ask at the reception or something, so just be careful about anyone asking you questions."

Kallen looked up from the card to look at the man, and Ciaran was sure that he could see tears beginning to form in the corners of her eyes.

"You might not like me being nice," He said, putting on a thin smile. "But I think that these days, everyone deserves a little bit of happiness. Even if it's from a person you consider an enemy."

The pair fell in to silence as Kallen dipped her head down, small sniffles coming from her. Ciaran would have liked to have shown her some genuine comfort, even a hand on her shoulder, but he didn't want to make her any angrier than she could be. So he simply did the best thing he could.

"I'll see you around, Kallen." He said as he turned around and began walking away from the young girl.

"Ciaran!" The sound of the girl calling out his name made him stop and turn back to look at her. She was no longer close to tears, with an angry look on her face. "I won't go easy on you next time."

Despite himself, Ciaran let a smile come to his face as he turned back around to leave the Academy. "I wouldn't expect anything less, Miss Stadtfeld."

EDIT 28/10/18: Edited a few bits of bad grammar and one bit that... REALLY had a horrible implication behind it in light of a few bits of thinking.

AN: Oh, boy. This was... this was a pain to release on time. Not just from writing it, but also for the fact that I really feel that my life has been going downhill so readily over this past month and a half.

Late in February, I contracted the Noro virus, which is just... awful is probably the nicest way of saying it. I was throwing up every hour during the first night I had it, and I mean REALLY throwing up. I had cold shivers and I also go extremely warm and then the following day, I threw up blood (which turned out to be nothing really major. Just some tearing of the lining of the esophagus) but still it was awful. Plus, factor in to that I have applied for six different retail jobs and they have all come back as (basically) "sorry, but we're looking for someone better" and my job coach can't figure out why that keeps happening since she says that my CV is up to scratch and apparently one of the better written ones she's seen. Factor in AGAIN that some hacked my bank account via my account and used £500 from my account to buy themselves an Ipod or Ipad or something of the like. Ugh... I am moderately certain I've put on weight and in general I've been feeling... just like complete crap.

Anyway, enough about my problems. Here's chapter 20! Yeah, quite a Ciaran and Kallen heavy episode but I feel that their's is a relationship that needs to be expanded upon. Basically, we know the MC is being very nice to her, but obviously to Kallen, who's probably not experienced that sort of kindness much in her life, especially from someone who works for the Britannians, would probably be very, very suspicious of them. So yeah, that's all I can say on this chapter.

Also, some quite good news: this story now has a TvTropes page (seriously, what is going on?). Set up by mrthischamingman2, it's not got much so far, so he needs some help expanding it a bit. I can't post the link, but type in CodeGeass-ABraveNewWorld in the TvTropes search bar. I know the guy would appreciate the help.

And since I'm on that topic, since this story now has a fanon wiki page and a TvTropes page, I have to ask: why do you guys like this story so much?

As per usual: read, review, enjoy, leave me some PM's if you want and help my friend out.

Just so you're aware, next chapter might be a bit late since I'm going on holiday at the start of next month (2nd April to 9th April) for a family holiday, so I won't be able to talk to any of you guys during that time.

(As an aside, does anyone know how I can get away with using the little squiggle for a break instead of the horizontal line FF makes you use? I wanted to try something else with this chapter, but FF's not letting me do it)