Interlude 7: Sun and Steel

I have often wondered how it would all end. Would I die heroically, saving the lives of my countrymen? Futilely, crushed by the inevitable march of Britannia's war machine? Or perhaps as I am now, awaiting execution by my greatest student in a Britannian maximum security military prison?

I have not seen Suzaku yet. Only heard of his intended role through the taunts of the guards.

One particular thought has haunted me during my incarceration. A thought that I have been unable to rid myself of.

Was Zero right...?

Were we truly fighting a wasted and pointless battle, all these years? I might have been able to admit privately to myself that the JLF had long since ceased to matter. But was our battle truly impossible from the very beginning?

And disturbingly...I find myself unable to refute his argument.

It is but a passing thought, though. As transient as the morning dew or a flash of lightning. The JLF is finished, Katase dead, and I soon to join him.

I might feel inclined to sigh or say something, were I a lesser man. But Tohdoh Kyoshiro will at least die with honor. In my final moments, let none find fault in my facing my end with my head held high.

"Life is lighter than a feather, duty heavier than a mountain," I whisper, words echoing along the silent, empty cell.

Hmm? Or perhaps not so silent. I hear something coming from outside. Explosions, gunfire, the whirl of landspinners.

Surely my Swords would not be so foolish as to attack here themselves...? No, of course not. But there is someone else who might. One whose divine ambition might have given my swords the means to launch this assault.

I look forward stoically, seated in seiza, as the guard in charge of my cell walks in with a sadistic smile.

"Looks like the Black Knights decided to spring a jailbreak, 'Miracle Man'. Too bad, I have orders in case someone tried that," he says, grinning malevolently.

He pulls out a pistol, lowering the reinforced glass separating us.

"Your execution has been moved up. Any last words, Eleven scum?"

I meet his gaze, expression blank, which unnerves him slightly.

"It is an old life, one given for the sake of my country. I have no regrets."

"I think not."

Suddenly the wall explodes outward as a black Sutherland's fist retracts. And through the cloud of smoke and over the corpse of my former captor...steps the man who would challenge an empire.

"If anyone is going to claim your head?" He draws a pistol, snarling at me. "I will, for the time, energy, and manpower I'm wasting today to save your worthless hide!"

This is...unexpected.

"I would have expected you to try and recruit me. Do you mean to say that you intend to do Britannia's job for them?" I quip dryly.

Zero cocks the pistol, posture turning aggressive.

"Don't fucking tempt me! After what your boss pulled at Narita, I've had it up to here—" he hisses, raising his other hand to his chin, "with the JLF's bullshit!"

I raise an eyebrow. I heard the broadcast that the general made. My assumption was that a retreat was called.

"I'm not sure I understand. Wasn't the operation a joint command?"

"Katase screwed us! He cost us the battle and gutted our momentum, right when Q-1, the redhead with me AND my ace pilot, had almost defeated and captured Cornelia!"

My eyes widen momentarily at the news. Small wonder he's chafing at the bit then.

"If that's true, you have my apologies. However, that does not explain your antipathy towards me."

He lowers the gun. Facing me dead on. A silent battle of wills between two commanders.

"Because Tohdoh Kyoshiro is a man who has betrayed his country. And I am here to demand recompense," he intones tersely.

何だと?私は裏切り者? (WHAT?! I AM A TRAITOR?!)

"That is a dire insult to my honor as both a samurai, and as a soldier of Japan. Explain yourself, Zero," I say frostily. Any other time, any other person, I'd be sorely tempted to demand that my honor be satisfied.

But not him. Zero may be a demon with a silver tongue coated in acid, but what truly gives his words their cutting edge is the ring of truth.

His speech, his manner, his bluntness, they are all designed for provocation. In essence, the trap is too obvious.

"Your betrayal is twofold. One: You have turned against me by obeying Katase, and thus betrayed the Six Houses of Kyoto. Whose marching orders I handed you," he pointedly reminds me.

As he paces, I note a certain theatrical component to it. Is this a performance to him?

"And two: The Miracle of Itsukushima. In which you betrayed your country by giving them false hope."

What...? Never has anyone dared to claim this of Itsukushima. What is he driving at?

He whips his cape to the side dramatically, red lining fluttering, "You have left your task unfinished, 奇跡の藤堂!" (Tohdoh of Miracles)

I grunt at the familiar appellation. One I wish I could have forgotten.

"So you wish for me to create a miracle for you as well?" Typical. Everyone has demanded that I do the impossible ever since that day. I thought Zero better than-

"I use your title AS AN INSULT!" he roars at me. "Strategy, tactics, and luck are no more miraculous than Britannia's dominance!"

He jumps to stand over me, looming like some great beast seeking to devour a meal.

"The Demon King of the Sixth Heaven creates his own miracles! What I need— no, what I demand, is for you get up off your sorry hide AND FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED SEVEN YEARS AGO!"

He goes into the Britannian salute, mask gleaming from the light of the fires outside.

"Until a new country is born and the name of Tohdoh Kyoshiro has died a dog's death with the honor it deserves!"

Hn. The man IS very dramatic. But, there's a power in his voice, his presence, his very being.

Am I making a mistake, if I wonder if he's really capable of doing what he claims?

仕方じゃない。 (No help for it.)

"さて、奈落に行きましょう、魔王。" (Well then, to Hell we go, Demon King.)

Katase may have rejected this madman, this devil made flesh. I however, see something that he did not.

An actor playing a role. Though what role it is, I admit to being unable to ascertain. Nonetheless, his sheer competence and track record of success demands further examination.

The Demon King laughs triumphantly as he undoes my bonds.

"Hahahaha! よろしいだ!(Excellent!) I have a new battle steed for you, waiting in yon courtyard. And afterwards...we shall discuss your joining my banners with Lord Kirihara and my fiancé, Princess Kaguya."

Kirihara Taizō and Sumeragi Kaguya are both acquainted with him? Wait...

"Fiancé?" I ask with a deadpan voice.

He looks back in a way that can only be called nonchalant and shrugs as we board the Knightmare Frame.

"Have you ever tried telling her no?"

I suppress the urge to smirk at the joke. Point well taken.

It takes but a moment and we are right outside a group of transport vans. Some of which were clearly intended for Knightmare Frames, others for people. Zero's Black Knights are scrambling to get everyone on board.

"Tamaki! How many more?!" he yells out as he opens the cockpit to let me off.

"Like 100, 150! We're almost done! Oh, shit! Boss, behind you!" the redhead yells out, gesticulating wildly.

I turn to observe a rapidly approaching Knightmare.

A white frame? Is this the one from Kawaguchi?

"Lancelot. The first Seventh-Generation Knightmare. Lloyd Asplund's pride and joy. Get to the truck to your right, and prepare to sortie! It will take everything you have to repel him and more!" Zero yells as he rallies his troops.

I dash over to the truck, boarding the frame within. Dark green and angular, seated in seiza, and with a katana? Zero has good taste, I muse to myself.

"Colonel! You're alright!" I look to see Chiba's smiling and relieved face.

"Good to have you back, old friend!" Senba, my mentor and second in command. Thank you for holding the line.

"These new frames are amazing, colonel! Wait till you try the swords!" Urabe, as enthusiastic as ever.

"Your orders, sir? Enemy is fast approaching!" Asahina, focused on the task at hand like I taught him.

"Whirlwind formation! Let's see if the White Knight can withstand Japanese steel!"

My subordinates circle him, landspinners grinding as he's surrounded on all four sides.

A thrust, a dodge, a glancing blow. The dance of Death continues. For even as he deflects one, another of my blades strikes him while he's occupied.

WHAT?! He managed to leap into the air and do a spinning kick...?

No. No, it's impossible. It can't be.

"Tohdoh! Listen to me! Link your systems with mine! I will dictate your tactics and show you how to de-fang the Lancelot!"

Very well Zero. Let's see your skill, "Holy Swords! Link your systems with Zero and follow his lead!"

"Senba, he will attack three times then retreat! Parry the last blow and attack him while Chiba strikes him from behind!"

"Next, a feint, then side-dodge into a thrust! Urabe, deflect it while Asahina slashes at his landspinners!"

My god, he really is as good as he claims. He's reading the enemy's moves and cornering him!

"Evade the thrust kick, then go for the coup de grace with a horizontal slash to the body, Colonel!"

Ha! A perfect counter stroke...no, he ducked at the last moment, I only took part of his cockpit off. But how? There's only a few people who can read my moves...

My eyes widen in shock. I was right.

The pilot of Lancelot is none other than my lost student, Kururugi Suzaku.

Who else could perform the Kururu-kick? Who else could evade my blows so?

I pop my head out, glaring at the boy.

"Tohdoh-sensei?! But why?!"

"Our paths have indeed crossed once more, my disciple. And yet we find ourselves on opposite sides. So I would ask: why do you turn against your country?"

He grimaces, then looks me in the eye, "Because violence will not work! Britannia has to be changed from within!"

He cannot be so naive as to believe...no. He doesn't. Something's wrong. He's being watched. This too, is an artifice.

He ducks back into his Frame, charging at me. I parry his glowing sword with my chain blade.

"何でしょうか?" (What is this?) I growl at him.

"あとで、師匠、" (Later, master,) he responds.

My Swords join the fray, picking him off bit by bit, until suddenly his Frame launches all four Harkens on rocket boosters simultaneously, forcing them back into a stalemate.

"Enough. We're done. I'm calling the retreat."

Zero? But why?

"What?! We have this traitor on the run!" Asahina yells in response.

Chiba draws her blade preparing to charge, "We agreed to help. But we did not say we would ignore a clear and present enemy."

Zero slams his fist on the console.

"雪女、今だ。" (Snow-Woman, now.)

A shot rings out, narrowly missing Chiba's frame.

I turn my camera to examine the gouge in the ground. Deep penetration, narrow impact mark.

An armor piercing round. Likely fired from an anti-material sniper rifle.

"So you did not trust us then," I say solemnly, understanding the nature of the threat.

"My dear colonel, a contingency remains exactly that unless it is needed: A backup plan," he replies airily, lazily waving his arm.

Asahina slowly inches forward, only for a round to impact on the ground, narrowly missing his Gekka's head by a foot.

I can detect no sign of the sniper unit. Which means it's a considerable distance away. To fire a warning shot within a foot of the target?

Yuki-onna is clearly a formidable sniper.

"That was two. She's going to start firing disabling and kill shots now," the mechanized voice rings out as he steeples his fingers.

I turn towards Zero, now certain this was prearranged.

"Why protect Suzaku? What's really going on here, Zero?"

He cackles and throws his head back, gesturing grandly like a kabuki performer.

"My reasons are my own, Colonel. If you would learn them, then meet with the representatives of Kyoto with me. I assure you, though, you won't be disappointed," he says with a mocking lilt to his voice.

Pursue my wayward student, and risk sniper fire from a crack shot, or retreat and perhaps learn why.

A beeping on my console gets my attention.

Britannian reinforcements. My Factsphere says they'll be here in a few minutes.

Very well. A wise general knows the value of a tactical withdrawal. And I confess that meeting with him with two of the Six Houses may force some candor from the man.

"Holy Swords, deploy smoke and ECM. We are leaving with the Black Knights."

The stern tone indicates that I will brook no argument upon this point. Though the entire group is perplexed as to the reasoning behind Zero's guardianship of Suzaku.

An incoming communication on my private channel gets my attention, and I take the call.

"I would have preferred not to use her like that. But I will not have my authority on the battlefield challenged openly. I saw the Yamato Alliance executed for such an act. I will not hesitate to do so again, if necessary."

Dangerous, indeed. A commander does maintain the right to impose disciplinary measures on insubordinate soldiers, but to openly proclaim that challenging him openly is a death sentence...

Oh.

Now I understand. Now I see why he despised Katase so much. Zero IS a warlord. A general of the old style. The kind who had to be brutal and ruthless in order to maintain their positions.

Just like the man whose title he claimed.

The closest equivalent to him on the Britannian side...is ironically the general we're facing now. Or perhaps the Rounds themselves.

"You are aware where such actions ended for your predecessor. Mt. Hiei may have been his most infamous act of destruction, but it was not his only."

He doesn't respond for a moment, only smoking one of those drug cigarettes of his. After breathing out a cloud of smoke, he finally answers.

"And yet though he did not live to see it, he saw from Hell his dream fulfilled. I will drag this wretched world to hell and back, to see the old order burned to ash. And a brighter future birthed from the fertile soil of its remains. Is such a thing not worth fighting, nay, worth living for, even as the King of Hell?" he whispers quietly, the only other sound the hum of instruments.

I have no reply, and thus sit in contemplation of what my future holds.