Taking her time to rendezvous with her escort back to "Chateau Stadtfeld" in one of the more exclusive subdivisions of the settlement, Kallen stopped providing her eyewitness testimony to allow Ohgi Kaname time to properly digest it. Between being her late brother's oldest friend, a fellow educator prior to the invasion, and her cell's provisional leader (a role he'd occupied for quite a while now), she had felt it best to contact him about the borderline disaster her afternoon had been. He was silent for so long that she looked at her cellphone, worried that they may have gotten disconnected, when he finally began speaking again.
"Wow," he said slowly. More silence. "Just... wow. That is..."
"Seriously messed up? Yeah, that was the general consensus."
"Your vocabulary didn't help me either, Kallen," he added with a hint of reproach.
All that got him was Kallen rolling her eyes. Ohgi's attempts to act as a substitute for Naoto were noble but never entirely welcome, and sometimes got confused with acting "fatherly". But if he wanted to be the big brother, then she could be the kid sister she thought with a wicked grin.
"Why? If you didn't understand a term or two, I'll do what I can to explain."
"No!" he fairly shrieked over the other end. She winced at that, but her main response was just to clap a hand over her mouth, stifling a laugh, as he continued his panic. "There is no need for that! I'll just view this as... you being thorough in your report," he ended with a sort of high-pitched whine to his voice. That and his attempt to sound like a serious resistance leader only made Kallen want to laugh again.
"I must admit, you're being more mature about this than most would," she said once she composed herself.
Thinking back, the Student Council members each had their own reaction to what they'd seen and heard, two in particular coming to mind. Other than making sure Mrs. Mayberry was properly handled, Shirley seemed ready to suppress all memory of the incident. Lelouch took it a bit worse: after having some brief conversation with Milly, apparently to ascertain whether or not he'd imagined what Nunnally had said, he'd walked off without a word and wasn't seen again for a few minutes. An absence during which a long, horrified howl could be heard from some distant corner of the building.
Kallen agreed that it was an inconvenient way to learn that your loved ones aren't quite as innocent and ignorant as you think they are, but all the same just a tad overdramatic a reaction in her opinion. Thinking of overprotective people, she suddenly wondered how badly Ohgi must have been biting his tongue when she went over that little part of her adventure.
"It's probably best to drop this," she decided, and scanned her memory banks for another topic that she could switch to. It didn't take long. "Speaking of immature reactions, any news on Tamaki?"
"His 'trial' ended yesterday," Ohgi answered, referring to a hearing – for lack of a better term – that was held by the nominal authorities that still existed in the old neighborhood. This was in regards to Tamaki Shinichiro's supposed actions during the attack by the Viceroy's guard, specifically his claim of using the refugees to bait Britannian soldiers into a trap.
"And you're just now telling me?!"
"Well, it ended in his favor, or as much in his favor as one could expect. And of course he insisted on celebrating."
"In the usual manner?" Kallen asked, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.
"Yes, until we were cut off anyway," Ohgi provided as an answer. "Although by then... well, let's just say this is the longest that I've spoken, or been conscious, all day. God knows what state he's in, or Sugiyama and Yoshida for that matter. I should have said 'no' like Inoue did."
"So, what was the verdict?"
"Well, basically his claims of the final ambush just outside of the community shelter being his idea pretty much fell through, although it was kind of that way from the start. It was more how he behaved towards the people who were there with him at the time, calling them ungrateful cowards and so on, that had gotten everyone riled up. But vanity and a bad attitude don't equal criminal premeditation, or whatever the proper legalese is, so basically they just insisted we keep a tighter rein on him during any further, quote-unquote, escapades. He basically got away with just a community-wide stink-eye laid on him, although frankly Tamaki's a... oh, what's the Latin term? A non-gratis personality? Well, he's considered that already, generally speaking."
"Not sure I like the term 'escapade' but okay," Kallen murmured in return. She couldn't say she expected this, but she was unsurprised to know that Tamaki had gotten off lightly. The man was stupidly lucky like that.
To be honest, she'd never really bought his boast about tricking the stragglers of Prince Clovis's "pogrom patrol" into reassembling in one spot for her and the others whose stolen KMF's still functioned to finish them off. It was more likely his own inability to be inconspicuous had attracted their attention, whereupon they'd followed him and the other survivors to the refuge, and luckily their own convergence hadn't gone unnoticed. That wouldn't have jibbed with Tamaki's self-image, as from all accounts he'd been a surprisingly adept learner in his economic and business preparation classes, which he'd let go to his head that he was some unrefined genius in matters concerning administration and planning. Reworking a series of near-misses and some dumb luck into a spur of the moment plan in his own mind wasn't beyond him, she supposed, especially considering what it must have done to his ego to be the first of the few who had to abandon their Knightmares during the battle.
Kallen half-suspected that part of the reason for his clemency was because her brother's group was seen as heroes by half of the community at the moment. And the other half didn't dare show them the door just in case any more royal death squads came back for a second round anytime soon.
That being said, they would have to drill it through his thick skull that he was on thin ice now. In addition to what nearly happened at the shelter, Tamaki had somehow botched their infiltration of a secret lab, hidden within what was ostensibly just a storage facility owned by Lipton/Guitierrez Pharmachemical, which is how they were found out so quickly by the authorities to begin with. How precisely was a mystery, as all she knew was Nagata complaining to her that Tamaki hadn't stuck to the plan during their getaway. He hadn't shared any real details and was unfortunately among the dead, taking with him whatever knowledge of Tamaki's misdeeds he had. Trying to question Tamaki himself would be an exercise in futility for, as smart as he claimed to be, he was either too egocentric or too oblivious to recognize how consequences correlated to his own actions, and he'd only get mad about it. It just wasn't worth the bother.
"Speaking of imagined strategies, Kallen, that was a very good segue you just pulled on me."
"I'm glad you think so. I was afraid neither of us was comfortable talking about—oh..." She stopped upon realizing she'd been found out. "Kuso again."
Looking ahead, she saw the parked sedan with one of her father's drivers standing by it, waving to her. She waved back, but then pointed at an imaginary watch on her wrist, signaling she needed a bit more time, before turning around to finish her conversation.
"Now, getting back to you and the Student Council..."
"There's no need to hammer it in, Ohgi," she groused, trying to cut him off before he mentioned how Naoto would have wanted this for her. "I'll join the damn glorified civic club... for your sake. Plus, the group has some odd amenities I think could be useful."
"That's good to hear, but not what I was leading into."
"Really?" She was surprised by that. Whether out of fear for her safety or some needlessly retained loyalty to test score statistics and attendance figures, Ohgi never missed the chance to insist she prioritize her time at school.
"What made you go there in the first place? You said you were following one of its members, and the rest was a happy coincidence. Uh, the induction part, I mean, not the..."
"...cheating bastard making his wife flip out on us? I figured as much," Kallen replied. Gathering her thoughts, she quickly explained to Ohgi that she suspected a council member of being "Mr. Mystery Voice" from Shinjuku.
"You think a student is also a terrorist leader?" he asked incredulously. For a moment, she thought of pointing out that she was both a student and a terrorist, but wisely dropped it as she tried to explain further.
"Well, I'm pretty sure their voices are similar, which is a lame excuse, I know, but then there was this weird thing where he pretty much walked up to me and out of nowhere told me not to talk about Shinjuku to anyone."
"Huh. That is a little suspicious."
"So, when he invited me over to the clubhouse, I followed with the intention of paying him back."
"What? You were going to what?!" he shrieked for no discernible reason, a hint of confusion quickly giving way to suspicion.
"Well, after pumping him for answers, of course," she continued, not catching where Ohgi gasped at her use of the word "pumping". "But then... oh, first the potential witnesses started piling up, then I heard about how his sister likely got banged up during the invasion, not to mention all the crap with the tutor and that stupid video-call! After all that, I didn't have the energy to kill him even if I did get the opportunity. Not sure if I have the heart for it anymore, either," she concluded, kicking an errant pebble on the sidewalk sadly.
"..."
"Ohgi?" she asked, looking at her phone in worry again.
"So..." Ohgi began, again clearly gathering his own thoughts on the other end. "You followed this guy to 'pay him back' as you say, and by that you mean you were planning to kill him, right?"
"Is the phrase 'payback' confusing him?" she wondered, deciding to be patient and adopt a steady tone with him. "Exactly right, Ohgi. I mean, if the guy on the radio who led us to those Knightmares and had us fight the prince's forces is a Britannian himself, then who knows what..."
"No," Ohgi said curtly. "No, no, no. I'm still trying to get this straight, starting with... wait, hold it..." There was a pause, during which Kallen could hear a nasal inhalation of air, as her immediate elder clearly tried to fight his way through a hangover to both collect his thoughts and calm his nerves before he began speaking again. "Let me see if I understand this. You think you found the guy who helped us foil the massacre, who may also be behind the assault on the prince's G-1, all of which would definitely make him an asset for the resistance, and your first thought is that you need to kill him? And all because he's a Britannian... that's your reasoning?"
Kallen froze as the fallacy of her thought process hit her over the head. She'd been so consumed with the likelihood that her secret had been found out, and she would need to silence the potential leak, that the possibility that her target was also their mystery ally – "Who, if he is the same guy," she now realized, "may have been trying to contact me when he mentioned Shinjuku" – only became another unexplained facet of him that caused her to think of him as a danger. The inherent hypocrisy of her assuming the worse because he was non-Japanese, an attitude she'd had to fight against again and again as people came and went in their resistance group, was an additional twist of the knife she didn't want but evidently needed.
"Kallen?"
Apparently, it had been her turn to have a worryingly long pause in their conversation.
"Ohgi, what can I tell you?" she said as a way of explanation. "I'm a fighter, not a spy."
A relieved sigh came over the speaker. "Well, don't do anything more until we talk about this, or he does something definitive, or... you know, just don't try to knife anymore of your classmates, okay?"
"I will do my best, Ohgi-sensei," she answered, making an embarrassed chuckle as she tried to alleviate the tension.
"Anyway, I'm just glad that... well... that nothing untoward happened. Naoto definitely wouldn't have approved of that, and I was freaking out myself to be honest."
"I got you the first time, Ohgi: 'No more assassination attempts at school'. Moh!"
"Oh, I wasn't talking about that. Well, not specifically that. You see, when you said you may have found the voice on the radio and were going to 'pay him back', at first I took that to mean you intended to, uh, reward him for rescuing us. That is to say, well, I assumed – just for a moment, mind you – that, um..."
"Huh?" Kallen held the phone away from her ear and looked at it, worried again but for very different reasons, as her would-be big brother figure continued to stammer away at her.
"Hey, don't get me wrong. I'd like to show my appreciation to whoever the voice-guy was too, but not in that way, of course. It may be different for you, being a teenager these days, young and impressionable and open to new experi—er, wait! Let me rephrase that! What I mean to say is—"
Hurrying further away from her surprisingly patient driver lest he hear anything when she more than likely switched to her native language, Kallen got back on the phone. Thus began her attempt to both refute Ohgi's notions but also explain how there was no chance of that ever occurring, only for the two of them to wind up talking over each other as they both kept digging themselves into deeper holes.
Naturally, Kallen's embarrassment continued to grow, as did the vividness of the blush upon her face. In fact, she quickly flushed to the extent that her skin tone just about matched that of a woman who, Kallen would someday be surprised to find herself in total agreement with another of Lelouch's sisters, was an utterly shameless and contemptible creature.
But that was in the future. At the moment, as Kallen continued her flustered exclamation into her phone, a pair of golden eyes espied her from a safe distance, a chartreuse-colored eyebrow raised in interest.
"Yes, a very strange girl indeed," the girl dressed in an unbuckled straitjacket said, apparently talking to herself.
Prince Lelouch vi Britannia, alias Lelouch Lamperouge, stepped out of his room wrapped in a figure-concealing housecoat which actually had the benefit of giving some heft to his thin frame. He glanced back at the clock on his nightstand to check the time, and while it wasn't terribly late, he was reminded that he was overdue for some sleep. The day's series of events had left him completely drained, perhaps more so than his experiences in Shinjuku and his scramble back to the academy grounds afterwards, and he felt ready to collapse.
Mrs. Mayberry had collapsed, not so much falling asleep as going catatonic after Nunnally had reacted to her more warmly than he could have mustered at the time. Her only real action after that had been while the paramedics were loading her into their ambulance when she'd suddenly sat up on her gurney. "Don't forget to work on your timetables" was all she had to say in a wavering voice, her eyes semi-focused upon Nunnally. She'd then lain back down again and was driven away without further incident.
The only bit of excitement to happen after that was during their post-rampage cleanup when the Student Council came to the smashed bottle and its spilled contents. Based on her handling of Rivalz's mimosa ingredient, it had been evident Mrs. Mayberry had tried to chug it to drown her rage, having made the obvious assumption that it was champagne or a white wine, only to go berserk further when it turned out that it was neither. And going on from that little revelation...
("See, Shirley? I told you it was just sparkling water! I only tried to keep it secret as a surprise for the par—OW!")
...Rivalz had shown the bad timing to attempt to vindicate himself by sticking a hand towel he'd been using to wipe up the fizzy liquid in the orangette's face. All that had earned him were hurt feelings, particularly from a bop on the head provided by his less-than-secret crush.
From there on out, things had been quiet, and Lelouch was content to keep it that way, even allowing Kallen to leave without a further word. Between his own wits and his odd new ability, he was confident he would find some way to alleviate any suspicions she had of him at some later date.
He cut off that train of thought as he heard the door to the hall bathroom slide open and started walking towards it. His slippers, which didn't quite match the color of his pajamas but he was far too unlike most of his family to care about so trivial a matter, hushed his footsteps, but not so much to be missed by his younger sister, herself switched into a nightgown, as she was pushed along by Sayoko. Hopefully, the prolonged soak she'd taken along with a light tissue massage the maid had given where she'd hit the floor had siphoned away most of the day's trauma for her.
"Well, it's been a long, strange day. Pass time that all good girls and boys were in bed fast asleep."
A quiet but no less exasperated sigh hit Lelouch's ears, matched by a wisp of dubiety in the Japanese bodyguard's features.
"There's no need to patronize, big brother. I'd like to talk about all that's happened." Nunnally stopped and stretched, energizing herself as she added in a conciliatory tone, "Even though it is getting dark out, I bet."
"Well, I suppose that's to be expected," he conceded, but not without a frown. His sister was disabled but not a halfwit or fool as many assumed, although he could hardly say he was any better the way he coddled her. Plus, she was getting older and wanting to take a bigger role in their lives. He hated that, wanting to keep her, hold her, and protect her forever from the horrible world which that man had made of it. But that was starting to become an unlikely option, so he might as well make the most of it while he could.
"Thank you, Sayoko. We'll see you in the morning," Lelouch said as he took control of the wheelchair's handles.
"Good night, young master. Call if you need anything."
"Hopefully, all I'll need is your skill with a kunai," he thought as she walked away. The upcoming conversation was fraught with potential subject matter that he dreaded, and even if his fears were only a fraction of what he expected, there was only one appropriate punishment in his eyes.
He stopped and momentarily mused over that last train of thought, then frowned. "Okay, I am definitely an overprotective brother type."
After manhandling Nunnally from her wheelchair to her bed as gracefully as he could, the now-panting royal-in-hiding plopped himself into the wheelchair as he sat by Nunnally's side. He glanced at the controls as he did so, being careful not to touch either one of them. Rivalz had examined the one Mrs. Mayberry had hit and promised it wasn't busted, and he trusted his friend's opinion based on his own knack with his motorcycle's mechanics. Being reminded of the computer lab incident, however, still made him eye it warily.
"So, ahem, where to begin..."
"Is Mrs. Mayberry fired?"
"Ouch. Started off with an uppercut there, Nunnally," Lelouch responded with a smile. It didn't last long as the look on her face showed his stalling wasn't appreciated, so he began again, doing his best to answer honestly this time. "The paramedics took her away for observation. We downplayed what happened as best we could..."
He frowned slightly as he remembered the looks that some of the EMT's gave Sayoko after Milly explained that she'd had to tackle Mrs. Mayberry when her "panic attack" had gotten hysterical as she put it, even if nothing came of it.
"...and Milly's grandfather intervened too, so the police won't get involved beyond a basic incident report."
There was a moment of silence as to the unspoken reason why dissuading the authorities from poking around Ashford Academy was best for everyone, not the least themselves.
"Anyway, I'm sure after a week or so, she'll be allowed out and about. What that means for her employment is something different. While I'm sure most will feel sorry for her, schools – especially with younger children – aren't going to risk allowing someone who's had to undergo a psychiatric evaluation recently to continue teaching. And what I pay out of my chess winnings for her tutoring lessons won't be enough for her to afford staying in Area 11." He'd quickly added the last bit, having seen the burgeoning idea on his sister's face, and felt it best to cut off that line of thought.
"So, she'll return to the homeland. And then..."
"In all likelihood, she'd have to do that anyway if she and her husband are having problems with their marriage. It won't be pretty, but it has to be done. Once that's over, she may be able to find a place to start teaching again, or start a whole new career."
He stopped as he briefly remembered when he'd reopened his computer and examined it. As he'd tried to warn Mrs. Mulberry, his video-call app was designed with an automatic record function, and thus created a video file that caught everything from when she had first activated it to when the laptop had been closed, disconnecting the call. After checking that neither he nor Nunnally were caught onscreen, and in fact hadn't even been called by name, he'd made sure the video file would be preserved, storing copies on a thumb drive, an external hard drive, and a few CD's he'd burned. The latter he planned to give to Lord Reuben to forward onto Mrs. Mayberry, and from there her lawyer, when the time was right. While he was displeased with how Nunnally had been treated, Lelouch nevertheless was only too happy to help see that Jarold Mayberry suffered emotionally, financially, and socially, having his own definitive beliefs on the responsibility that people bonded in matrimony (or a reasonable facsimile of the institution) owed each other.
"I'm sorry it has to be like this," Nunnally said, her tone sad but accepting. "I wish she could stay longer, but if she can be happy again..."
"Life is made up of meetings and partings, Nunnally. That's just the way of things." Lelouch hoped that didn't sound as harsh as it did to his own ears. "But you clearly understand that, while Mrs. Mayberry's gone, that doesn't mean she's... disappeared. She will still be out there, living her life, just a new chapter in it. That's very grown up of you."
Although she couldn't see it, the two siblings exchanged sad smiles before Lelouch gave her a quick hug, then started for the door. He had started ruminating about Jarold Mayberry's betrayal and the selfish actions that parents – husbands, in particular – can pull when Nunnally stopped him with a question.
"You want to talk about what the other thing that happened today, big brother?"
Lelouch stopped dead in his tracks, a feeling like someone had just walked over his grave spreading up his spine. He knew what she meant by that on a subconscious level, a status his mind fought to maintain but unsuccessfully. After briefly contemplating if he could whack his head against the door frame hard enough to knock himself out cold, he instead turned around and returned to his sister's wheelchair with all the joie de vivre in his step of a condemned man being taken to the gallows.
"What other thing?" he asked, feigning innocent curiosity as best he could.
Nunnally sighed as she collected her thoughts. This was going to be uncomfortable topic for them to discuss, but anything that deviated from Lelouch's fixed mental image of her as a formerly hyperactive toddler was like pulling teeth even on a good day. When she'd first started getting her period, it had turned into a nightmare that Milly and Sayoko had had to frog-march him through every step of the way. Strangely, that had done wonders for her being able to acclimate herself to an embarrassing but perfectly normal new aspect of her life, but still...
"Lelouch, I know what was happening with Mrs. Mayberry and her husband..."
"Yes, you heard that Mr. Mayberry had been irresponsible while his wife's been away and that made her very angry..." he said, cutting her off as he began to again whitewash events for her.
"Adultery, sodomy, and impotency, in that order," she said, interrupting him right back. After a moment's thought, she added, "Also divorce, which you don't find a shocking subject in itself, but Mrs. Mayberry did use, um, salty language when she brought it up."
There was silence for a minute or two as Nunnally could practically hear the frenzied contortions Lelouch's face was going through as he warp sped through the stages of grief. This was accompanied by yet another agonized shriek, although he remained silent as it only occurred mentally this time. The only ones that "heard" it were a select handful of half-siblings spread around the world, each pausing for a moment as they were touched by an indefinable feeling that something bad had happened somewhere. Nunnally meanwhile just sat in silence and waited until it got to the point where she assumed he had reached acceptance, or surrendered to grim reality in his case, and began her unintentional torture session again.
"I also know that you heard what I said in response to... what the other woman was shouting." She didn't want to sound like she was wavering, but she didn't think Lelouch could handle her repeating that bit out loud.
Lelouch's "yes" came out more like a pained yelp, to which he coughed before beginning again. "I'm sure you are... confused... about what all that means, and I will answer as best as I want to – er, uh, can answer, I mean to say."
Laying her head back against the headboard, Nunnally tried to shoot a patient look in Lelouch's general direction. "I think you're the one who's confused, Lelouch. I could tell what... whoever she was... was talking about, and you could tell that I could tell." She stopped there and muttered something like "Used 'tell' too much in that sentence" to herself before starting again. "You were just able to keep it together until things had settled down and then go somewhere private to vent."
"You head that, huh?" he asked, thinking he'd gotten to a distant enough room in time to scream his shock and horror away. To answer him, Nunnally simply hooked her index fingers behind the rims of her ears and made them stick out for a moment.
"So, I imagine you'd like to know how—"
"No, Nunnally, I would not like to know how, but I need to know how, or rather who," he said in a no-nonsense tone of voice. The "salty language" was something he could reluctantly accept as just a fact of life that Nunnally had picked up over time, especially given her superlative hearing, although she was too much of a lady to repeat any of it. But the rest? The knowledge to identify the... activities Jarold Mayberry and his whore had been up to? This amounted to enemy action in his eyes and he needed his sister to tell him who was at fault.
Nunnally, for her part, seemed to accept this inevitability, saying, "Okay, first off, I can promise you this wasn't because of Milly or Shirley. Nor was it Rivalz."
"Why did you mention Rivalz?" he shot back suspiciously. Lelouch had accepted the first two – well, the second one, definitely – as preposterous suspects for corrupting his sister, but her mention of Rivalz struck him as odd.
"Because he's the only other boy on the council, and I'm sure they're all your first suspects."
"Oh," he said a little embarrassed, and he calmed down a little before responding. "I know Rivalz doesn't normally talk like that, especially not when it could affect his chances with Milly. Speaking of whom, I don't really think she would pull a prank that extreme. Shirley... well, need I say more? That leaves Miss Sayoko, who is above reproach, and Nina, whom I didn't even consider worth mentioning in that regard. Honestly, I never suspected any of them, not really, although I understand now you don't want them blamed for something they're not responsible for."
"Oh, good. I was worried. You have so few friends as it is."
Lelouch blanched at that, feeling vaguely insulted, but decided to forge ahead.
"Nunnally, let's skip who didn't do it and move on to who did, okay?" He stopped and quickly thought of likely suspects. "Was it that Sforza girl?"
Ekaterina Sforza attended Ashford Academy, was the child of nobility, and a blonde. The similarities with Milly ended there as she was a haughty, entitled brat in the junior high division. Sadly, that meant she shared some classes with Nunnally, whom she apparently felt no choice but to butt heads with on occasion. This had resulted in pranks, snide comments, and gossip, as well as other antics which Milly had to intercede on his behalf for in the past, but it seemed that she hadn't gotten the message.
"Well, she was there."
"Thank you, Nunnally. I'll take it from here." Lelouch said that a little too quickly as he stood up, intent on skipping Milly this time and having a "private conversation" with Ekaterina himself. Well, as private as it could be with Sayoko along to make sure the little bitch was properly motivated to heed him this time.
"Big brother, get back here!" his sister cried out. Once she was certain she had his attention, Nunnally began speaking again. "She was there, but this time she was as much a victim as anyone else."
After Lelouch was seated again, she finally started laying out the details.
"This was, oh, a few months ago. I didn't tell you as it was the one time that happened."
"What happened?" he asked, his imagination conjuring ugly possibilities like maggots crawling out from spoiled meat.
"Coarse talk, Lelouch, that's all," she answered, although whether she guessed what he was thinking or not, he couldn't tell. "At the time, my literature class had been reading War of the Worlds by Herbert G. Wells. You know it, right?"
"Er, yes," Lelouch answered, wondering about this odd segue and what a famed English novelist and futurist from yesteryear had to do with anything.
Most European authors were automatically looked upon as controversial, but that tended to lessen as time marched on, and Wells's novels were all about a century old. Additionally, works of speculative fiction such as his were more or less seen as just that, fantasy adventures or horror stories with any socio-political subtext overlooked.
This wasn't always the case, of course. Quite a bit of Jules Verne's works were still censored more often than not. Les Cinq cents millions de la Bégum (renamed Beneficiaries of an Empress for its brief print run in Britannia) was a particular example, as it showed the principles of Social Darwinism and other social values of the Empire split between two experimental communities – the town of the ostensible heroes was a massive health resort devoted to the pursuit of perfection via physical education and mental stimulation, while the other was a city-sized munitions factory and weapons development business planned out by the novel's antagonist – growing within the homeland only to turn upon each other destructively.
The exact opposite had been the traditional reaction to Wells's fictitious war tale of extraterrestrial mollusks, which went untouched as an early sci-fi drama in spite of the obvious parallels to the Empire's own imperialistic expansion. The presence of automated war machines whose forms vaguely approximated their creators' own physical configuration made the analogy even plainer to see today as Knightmare frames became widespread, yet that attitude remained.
While Lelouch imagined that could resurrect old nightmares about their lives during the invasion of Japan, he didn't see how it connected to the lewd education Nunnally had been subjected to.
"Well, we had gotten to the part where the Martians were revealed as blobs with tentacles, basically. And people were comparing notes waiting for the teacher to arrive when Vince Krupp and Greg White started talking about how that reminded them of stuff they'd heard about."
"Krupp and White... I should have known," Lelouch mentally groaned. Girls were catty to other girls, boys pushed weaker boys around, but those two – he often thought of Vince and Greg as just "the fat one and the shifty-looking one" – made it their mission to be mean and unpleasant to everyone in equal measure. They even sent teachers anonymous poison pen birthday and anniversary cards that got entire classes in trouble. Proving their misbehavior was another matter, so at best they were in a near-constant state of academic probation, as the only rule they were undeniably breaking was their violation of Ashford's rules about students being active in one of the clubs. This was due to a bad reputation they'd developed from the one or two clubs that had given them a chance, and so none of the rest wanted either of them. There was even a joke making the rounds that they had formed their own private juvenile delinquency club.
"They talked about some art exhibit their parents had been to, and had left some of the material about it lying around. It was about decadent artwork in foreign countries."
"I think I know what you're talking about from council business," Lelouch interjected, remembering something the art clubs had been trying to get invited to. "They called it 'decadent' just to draw a crowd, as it was mostly modernist art styles that used to be controversial. Except for... wait..." Lelouch's voice trailed off as he remembered talk that one of the actual draws had been a discussion about – i.e., defaming critiques – and displays of replicas of the more "esoteric" works by old Eleven masters. Specifically ukiyo-e works, both the bizarre and the grotesque, but also examples of erotic art. He was slowly developing an idea of where this was going, and began massaging his temples in preparation for the oncoming headache.
"They didn't start talking about old woodblock prints of Japanese demons and giant skeletons, spooky story stuff, did they?"
"No," Nunnally said with sad remembrance. "Basically, they learned where some old Japanese artist had drawn a picture of, you know, huggy-kissy, baby-making stuff that grown-ups do, but..." – her face scrunched up in disgust at the memory – "...by an octopus."
Lelouch's own face twisted in anger. Most people would have found Nunnally's "huggy-kissy stuff" statement cute and funny, but he wasn't most people. Especially not given the context of the situation.
Hokusai's "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife", identified easily enough by Nunnally's description. A far cry from the master's more famous landscapes, particularly "The Great Wave Off of Kanagawa", it showed a Japanese woman being the subject of a questionable old Japanese custom known as "night crawling" but performed on her by the inferred husband's unusually amphibious catch of the day.
"I tried tuning them out after that, but then Ekaterina threw in her two cents. She laughed at us and said Vince and Greg were just making stuff up," Nunnally said as she continued her story. "That only riled them up, of course, and they started telling us all about weird things that 'mature people' were into that they'd found out about. Most of it sounded weird and kind of silly, but there were a couple of things that just sounded a little scary and even disgusting." She said that last part with a shiver that didn't help Lelouch's state of mind at all.
"What the Hell did those two bastards tell her?" he worried, fuming. He had more than just a glimmer of what they might have said, as he was a teenaged boy in the era of the internet after all. And yes, he had to admit there'd been a few things that piqued his interest in spite of himself. But it had never gone beyond an errant thought, as he had too much already on his plate to be dating anyone even casually, much less pursue anything of that nature. On top of it all, what he knew or heard of had been learned gradually, allowing him to develop a measure of fortitude, not dropped all at once on his head as had been done to Nunnally and her classmates. Perhaps that was a patronizing attitude, but damn it this was his little sister, who'd only learned how babies came about in the last few years, so that was a crime he was willing to commit.
Speaking of which, Lelouch considered how he was now in the mood for far graver crimes, as he didn't like any of the options for what Nunnally may have been told. But some were worse than others as the options compiling in his brain fast forwarded from, shall we say, moderate kinkiness over to the extremes of sexual deviancy. The absolute worst he'd heard of had been whispered rumors floating about some of the seedier underground chess games he'd attended, acts that crossed the line from what could be considered hardcore sex play into downright cruel and violent, if not murderous, behavior. That level of perversion would surely have left Nunnally and her classmates feeling threatened and seen their harassers dragged before Lord Reuben immediately, instead of keeping silent for several weeks.
Based on the extent of Nunnally's description, however, he doubted it had gotten that far. It seemed mostly in reaction to the evidently unhygienic nature of what Krupp and White said, which honestly covered even the most mundane intimate acts the first time one heard of them. In all likelihood, aside from the old master's lurid quasi-zoophilic imagery, they had gone no further than what could termed as the grey areas of human sexuality and fetishism, although that was just as unacceptable to him.
As Lelouch drummed his fingers on an armrest, deliberating all of this, Nunnally found herself in deep thought as well, although hers were thankfully far less grim. It was plain to her that what Vince and Greg had said was with the purpose of embarrassing their classmates, as it was about S-E-X after all, but had quickly gotten uncomfortable, even a little creepy. Just as Ekaterina suggested, she'd assumed at the time that a lot of it had surely been made up just to mess with their heads. After all, how could anyone sensible find enjoyment in being treated like the Inquisition had gotten their hands on them, or were prisoners in "ye olden tymes"? However, as one wince-inducing topic had apparently been validated today, she wasn't quite sure anymore.
Some of the things they talked about sounded like costumes parties only with a bizarre choice of dress because people got some odd thrill from doing so. Greg had even gone so far as to accuse Milly doing such a thing with the Gender Role Reversal Festival for the high school division months before. That train of thought caused Nunnally to absentmindedly bring her hands to her knees at the memory of their next example, which she'd been certain they had fabricated specifically to make fun of her and how she could barely use her legs. She still thought what they told her was made-up, especially as she couldn't quite make their descriptions coalesce in her mind's eye, and the best that formed were vague memories of the pantomime horse costumes she's seen from Halloween costumes from old movies and cartoons. There was nothing about those silly, clumsy-looking getups to be "naughty" anyway if she remembered them properly, so she just let the thought go with a shake of her head.
As it happened, Lelouch then snapped Nunnally out of her woolgathering by cautiously asking if she wanted to talk about anything specific that the two delinquents had mentioned.
"No, not really," she said with finality. "I didn't want to hear it in the first place, let alone repeat any of it. Besides, as they went on, it all sort of" – she made vague movements with her hands, like she was working with a mound of clay or dough – "mashed together into an obscene-sounding drone. That was the only time it happened, thankfully."
"Really? How did that happen?" It was highly unlike them to spontaneously develop a sense of decency, so something or someone must have intervened.
"Vince and Greg were finally stopped when, after awhile, I... er, someone got tired of their talk and said... that is, I heard someone tell them that if that's the sort of thing they'd like to try for fun, then they were welcome to go chew on a maxi-pad the next time she finished using one."
He normally didn't like that kind of talk around his sister, but nevertheless Lelouch snorted a laugh, glad to hear of the two cretins being on the receiving end. "And that did it?"
"Not by itself," Nunnally answered, smiling a little. "That was enough to make them gag for a change, and everyone laughed at them for how easy it was after all their big talk. Which made them real mad, of course, and I guess they were about to do something, like start a fight, but then the teacher finally arrived. I think he knew something was up, but everyone then ran to their seats so he didn't do anything about it. They didn't start up again the next day, or anywhere else for that matter. I'm guessing that Vince and Greg must have decided they'd gotten lucky and shouldn't press their luck anymore. That or they'd run out of things to say."
Lelouch leaned back in the wheelchair, pleased to know that had been the end of that stunt at least, but still angry. The thought occurred that it would usually be too late to punish them, as no one had reported this to the school personnel and it was now months later, time during which memories were perhaps less clear about all that had happened. But now, after his little adventure in Shinjuku, he had options to make sure Krupp and White would be dealt with.
Standing up, Lelouch made to tuck Nunnally into bed. As he did, he said, "Well, although I'm glad you were able to handle the situation, I still wish you'd told me about this. This is the sort of behavior that only gets worse over time unless someone in authority stamps on it."
"So, you want me to tell Milly and her grandfather?" Her voice trembled a little at the thought. She'd known better than to think Lelouch would be angry at her for what had happened, but having to admit to the teachers that she'd concealed misbehavior on campus?
"If somebody tries to pull this kind of nonsense again, then yes, I do. But this first instance? At this point it'd be another bout of finger-pointing, along with someone who doesn't respect the matter saying 'boys will be boys' as an excuse." Giving Nunnally a peck on her forehead, Lelouch then turned around, headed for the door as a vulpine grin stretched across his face. "But, I'm sure something will turn up before too long that will be the end of those two's antics. In the meantime, goodnight, Nunnally."
The door closed as his sister answered in kind, and Lelouch walked towards his own bedroom, ready to call it a night himself. As such, he decided to forego his normal routine of giving the nightly news broadcasts a quick glance. He'd be kicking himself for this sometime tomorrow, by then having learned of an important newsflash he'd missed, but that was in the future.
At the moment, his thoughts were preoccupied with how, yes indeed, something would turn up that would torpedo Vince Krupp and Greg White's status at Ashford Academy once and for all. Such as both of them suddenly deciding to rat the other out, or better yet looking up banned websites for more "comedy material" but in the computer lab in front of everyone.
"Oh, yes, there's all sorts of options for me to choose from now," he thought with anticipation as a glowing bird-like sigil flared to life in his left eye.
End of Part 3