An air of unease remained over Ashford Academy in the days after Clovis' startling speech and funeral.
"I still can't believe that the Black Knights killed the Viceroy…"
"I know… just when they were starting to seem cool…"
"How do you think they killed him?"
"It must have been poison!"
"Whatever it was, talk about sick…"
"But what about those things the Viceroy said?"
"Yeah… about those experiments… could he…?"
"I wouldn't put much stock in it. He was acting pretty strange before he died…."
"Yeah, maybe it was the drugs they killed him with…"
"Haven't the Elevens been getting restless lately?"
"I'm sure the new Viceroy will sort it all out."
"They call her the Goddess of Victory!"
"She'll get to the bottom of this, and put those Elevens back in their place."
"Won't the Black Knights target her? If they can kill the Viceroy…"
Milly sighed as they left the gossiping students behind them and walked toward the Student Council Clubhouse together. "Looks like you were right, Lelouch. Its like hardly anything changed at all."
"A few people have started to ask questions," Arthur said, scurrying into sight, "but they're letting themselves be drowned out."
"Most people don't like standing out," Lelouch scowled. "They feel safe within the herd, and fear being ostracized by their peers. It's far easier to go along with the flow, and not voice one's opinions, especially when there are so much more comforting explanations."
Milly shook her head. "It feels so hopeless…"
"It's just the beginning," he reassured her softly. "Soon they'll have no choice but to acknowledge the truth before their eyes."
She nodded. "I hope so. It will do us no good if we keep moping about it. GUTS!" Milly suddenly shouted, trying to energize herself with her 'spell'. "Well, maybe that made me feel a little better," she said sheepishly. "Let's try to plan something fun with the Student Council to raise everyone's spirits!" Milly continued, more decisively, though Lelouch could tell she was putting on a front to seem strong when she was still badly shaken. He couldn't blame her. Not only was there the whole debacle with Clovis, but also their near-death experience with The Reaper in Mementos.
"We should get something good to eat," Arthur spoke up. "A good meal always cheers me up. I used to never know when I would be able to eat. But now…"
"You'll get fat if you aren't careful, Arthur," Milly said, finally breaking into a genuine smile and bending down to pet him.
"Ooh! Maybe we can get some sushi! Or sashimi!" Arthur began drooling. "Maybe even tempura or takoyaki! Kallen's brother told me about those, and I always wanted to try some!"
"I've heard that raw fish isn't good for cats," Lelouch replied matter-of-factly. "And I don't think deep-fried seafood is either."
"And you just had to ruin my fun," Arthur frowned. "But I suppose some grilled meat skewers would be fine."
"Lelouch!" Suzaku called. He hurried over to them. "Are you two really planning a some kind of party at a time like this? Doesn't that seem inappropriate?"
"You just need to loosen up, Suzaku," Milly replied. "You'd have a point if we were celebrating someone's death; even I'd find that in bad taste. But it's when everyone's feeling down that we need some cheer here on campus more than ever."
"I see. That's fair," Suzaku admitted. "But ordering food like sushi will give people the wrong idea and make them think you're holding a party celebrating the Viceroy's death. Not to mention it's hard to find it these- Ow!"
Arthur had bounded over to Suzaku, leapt up, and playfully bit into his hand.
"Arthur!" Milly scolded.
"Don't worry… we're even now," Arthur purred contentedly, before biting into Suzaku's hand again.
"Ouch!"
"It was just an idea that was thrown out," Milly said, shrugging. "Don't worry. I'm sure I can come up with something far better." A wicked smile spread on her face.
Milly getting ideas was a dangerous thing.
xXx
"Hey! Let go of me!" Lelouch protested. "Suzaku, you traitor!"
"But it's the President's orders," his 'friend' replied.
"Yeah, like you're not enjoying this at all?" Lelouch shot back.
"Will you hold still?" Shirley asked in slight exasperation
Milly had turned the Student Council upon him with frightening speed upon their arrival at the Clubhouse. Spontaneously declaring it "Dress Like a Cat Day", as it would be a shame to let those costumes she had made for Arthur's welcoming party go to waste, she had ordered them to seize him and tie him to a chair when he refused to participate.
It turned out that Shirley was a lot stronger than she looked, though in retrospect Lelouch knew he should have expected as much, given that she was an athlete. Once Suzaku had grabbed him as well, he knew there would be no escape from their clutches. Rivalz wasted no time in joining in their betrayal, bringing over the rope to bind him with while Milly supervised the whole thing. Of course Rivalz did. Everyone knew that Rivalz had a hopeless crush on Milly, and indeed, Rivalz was her willing minion in all manner of craziness if it would curry favor with her. Before long, Lelouch was reduced to helpless wriggling.
As for Arthur, he was curled up on a stool, apparently taking a nap, but Lelouch could tell that the cat was secretly smirking at his own underwhelming physical prowess.
The others returned after a few minutes, already changed into their costumes. They hadn't been at all concerned that he would be able to escape from their ropework. Lelouch's prediction that Milly would be bold enough to cosplay as her Black Knight alter ego, Diamond, proved correct, though Milly had forgone Diamond's mask, and so to the casual observer she appeared to be in an ordinary yet revealing cat costume, not dressed as a phantom thief. Rivalz followed her, shamelessly dressed in a yellow cat costume with brown spots and fake whiskers strapped across his face. Suzaku had joined in the insanity too, in a blue cat costume with a baggy hood, and a spot like Arthur's and thin whiskers painted on his face. Shy Nina could get away with just wearing a small tiger hood over her normal uniform. But Shirley…
Clearly it had been a mistake for him to summon Incubus from the Compendium recently.
As he had spent more time strengthening his bonds, Lelouch had noticed that he was more at ease with his confidants when he had a Persona of an arcana that matched theirs, in part because doing so helped attune him to that confidant's personality, which also helped elicit more favorable responses from them in turn. Incubus was a Persona of the Devil Arcana, long since surpassed in strength by his other Personas, but he had begun carrying Incubus within him to facilitate his meetings with Diethard.
But the act of carrying a Persona within himself meant that those corresponding parts of his psyche tended to come to the fore.
Incubus was, at his core, a sex demon, said to seduce and prey upon women as they slept, an ugly, winged devil endowed with an oversized, sickle-shaped phallus.
What this meant was that as soon as Lelouch saw Shirley and her costume, the Incubus dwelling within him immediately began polluting his thoughts with unbidden feelings of lust.
Shirley was dressed in a reddish-pink cat costume, trimmed with a fluffy lighter pink material, with a crop top that extended up to wrap around her neck, a pair of small pom-poms dangling from it, but cutting off at her shoulders and just below her breasts, revealing her arms and almost her entire midriff. She had more coverage below, with shorts that extended halfway down her thighs, but they were tight-fitting, and a fake tail was attached to them in the rear. Shirley completed her look with cat slippers on her feet, fluffy sleeves on her lower arms, a cat-eared headband, fake whiskers painted on her face like Suzaku, and had her hair styled into a high pair of twintails in the back. She didn't tend to flaunt it like Milly did, but…
"Will you look at that?" a sleazy voice seemed to say inside of himself. "She's been filling out in all of the right places."
That was something Milly would say.
"You know it's true," the voice continued. "Not quite as stacked as blondie over there, but nothing to sneeze at… Nice body too… Tall, slender, supple… You can really tell she works out… Look at those legs…"
"Quiet," Lelouch thought back.
"Don't be like that, sonny. After all, I am you. Keeping all those hormones of yours pent up isn't healthy. Deep down, you have the hots for the pretty kitty there. Right now, what we really want to do is stick our little friend in her and -"
"Enough," Lelouch thought, more forcefully this time, though he was betrayed once again, this time by a certain stiffness in his crotch. Thankfully, Milly didn't notice his reaction to Shirley's costume, or else her teasing would have been swift and merciless.
Incubus ignored him. "Just sit back and enjoy the show." Shirley was right up against him now, as she started to work on applying makeup to his face.
"So pure and innocent," Incubus mentally smirked. "Look at that smile on her face, just being by your side. Not only is she ignorant of the true ugliness of the world, but you can tell she's hopelessly in love with you. Or hadn't you noticed?" He could hear Incubus snickering inside of his head. "You could have it so easy if you wanted. And she's just the sort of girl I love to corrupt, who would martyr herself for her love, damning herself to Hell in the process."
"Shut up."
"Oh, so you're protective of her, sonny? But you must know that you can't keep her pure forever…"
"One more word, and I'm executing you the next time I visit the Velvet Room."
Incubus finally took the hint, and the lustful feelings he had brought subsided with his departure.
Mostly, anyway. Shirley was attractive, yes, but he hadn't really consciously thought of her in the way Incubus had suggested before, let alone have an…
"Lulu!" Shirley said suddenly, concern crossing her face. "You're bleeding!" Just as he had thought that his body was done betraying him, a trickle of blood had leaked from his nose. She turned. "Does anyone have a tissue?"
"Ah, so innocent!" Milly grinned, pouncing. "Don't you know what a nosebleed like that means? The Japanese know, don't they, Suzaku?"
"Huh?" Shirley asked in confusion.
"It… um…" Suzaku said, now getting flustered himself. "How do I put this…"
Suzaku was spared from having to give an explanation when Kallen unexpectedly entered.
"I'm sorry I'm late," Kallen started. "I tried to get to the meeting as fast as I could but my health wouldn't allow me to-" She paused in the middle of her lie, the bizarre costumes that her fellow Student Council members were wearing finally registering. "What are you-" she began again.
"Oh!" Milly turned, and raised one of her fake paws. "Good meowning!" She waved.
"Good morning, I guess," Kallen replied awkwardly. She did a take. "Why is Lelouch tied up?"
"He didn't want to obey Madam President's orders," Rivalz spoke up.
Shirley looked up from Lelouch as she finished dabbing a tissue across his face to soak up the blood. "I set aside some costumes for you, Kallen. Over here," she said pointing to a rack with several costumes still hanging on it. "I know we haven't quite gotten off on the right foot before, with me getting upset over nothing, but I hope this makes up for it a bit." Doubtlessly, Shirley was referring to all of the times she had overreacted when she thought that he was going out with Kallen.
Lelouch was going to open his mouth with a quip that Kallen didn't need a costume since she was already wearing a mask, something that would only truly be understood by his fellow Black Knights. But he changed his mind.
If he was going to be forced to suffer the indignity of wearing a cat costume all day, then Kallen was going to suffer with him.
It wasn't as if Kallen could resist without breaking her cover.
He smirked.
Embarrassing as it was, when all was said and done, he felt a little closer to all of his confidants on the Student Council.
xXx
Leila was already exhausted by her trip to and from Pendragon. She had tried to get what sleep she could on the flight back to Japan, but jet lag had thrown off her body's natural rhythms, and for the most part she remained restless. Hopefully her fellow Black Knights at Ashford Academy were having a better time than she was.
To top it all off, she had received a summons from the Second Princess and newly appointed Viceroy of Area 11, Cornelia li Britannia, who wanted to meet with her after arriving in Japan in just a few days' time. Leila had seen Cornelia, as well as the new Viceroy's younger sister, Third Princess Euphemia, from afar at Clovis' funeral, and Cornelia exuded an aura of command and competence that her late half brother had not, making her a formidable opponent on or off the battlefield.
Leila did not look forward the meeting.
xXx
Unbeknownst to the Black Knights, Third Princess Euphemia li Britannia had travelled ahead of her older sister and arrived in Area 11 on the same night that Leila returned to it.
Euphemia was usually a cheerful young woman, but she couldn't help but feel glum as she looked out from the windows of her new quarters in the Tokyo Settlement's Government Bureau. The death of her half-brother Clovis and its horrific manner had disturbed her greatly, but even more troubling were the heinous crimes which he had confessed to. In the time that she had known Clovis, back in Pendragon, he had only been kind and affectionate to her and his other younger half siblings, especially Lelouch and Nunnally, who many of the other royals had looked down upon for their mother's heritage as a commoner. But it was also Clovis who had wept as he admitted to orchestrating "inhumane experiments" and to the torture and murder of so many people as part of those experiments. He had been killed before he could describe exactly what those experiments entailed, leaving it to her imagination to fill in the blanks with the most gruesome imagery in her nightmares. She hadn't been sleeping well at all lately.
They told her that a group calling itself the Black Knights had killed Clovis. But that explanation didn't add up. Why would the Black Knights, who claimed to have the power to change their targets' hearts and thus force them to admit to their crimes, murder Clovis in the middle of his confession? She might not be particularly politically experienced yet, but she knew enough from life in Pendragon to recognize a cover-up. Someone else had killed her half brother. But who?
Yet even though she was certain that the Black Knights were innocent of murder, she couldn't help but feel a bit afraid of them, not for herself, but for the safety of her older sister Cornelia. Euphemia loved her older sister dearly, but while she was certain that Cornelia had never done anything as unspeakable as Clovis had, she knew that Cornelia was hardly a saint either. One did not become the feared Goddess of Victory without one's own share of sins. If the Black Knights had been able to target Clovis, might they do the same to Cornelia upon her arrival in Japan? The change of heart and the ensuing anguish they had brought upon Clovis had all but destroyed him, leaving him a miserable wreck of his former self. What would happen if the Black Knights stole her sister's heart?
Then there was her own position. Up until Clovis' death, she had just been a student cloistered in Pendragon, without any formal royal duties. Now, Cornelia had appointed her Sub-Viceroy of Area 11, tasked with managing the colony's day-to-day domestic operations. Cornelia herself was to assume direct control over the Area's military garrisons and judicial system to crack down on the terrorist and criminal activity that was on the rise throughout Japan following Clovis' confession, and was accompanied by her own personal Knight, Sir Gilbert Guilford, her trusted general, Andreas Darlton, and the latter's elite unit of Knightmare pilots and adoptive children, the Glaston Knights. At present, Euphemia lacked her own staff of such trusted confidants, and while Guilford, Darlton, and the Glaston Knights were nothing if not respectful to her, they still served Cornelia first and foremost, and they would already have their hands full with the tasks her sister would assign to them.
The staff she had inherited from Clovis' colonial administration was a completely different matter. When they saw her, they saw an inexperienced, naive Princess whose function was to be the kinder face of the new regime in Area 11 while her sister was Britannia's iron fist. They would insist that she leave the business of running Area 11 to bureaucrats such as themselves and concern herself with charity work, relief to those effected by terrorism, and photo ops, cultivating a positive image with the people after the public relations disaster precipitated by Clovis. The media had largely fallen in line with Britannia's official spin, quieting much of the unrest that may have otherwise arisen among the citizens of the Tokyo Settlement, but it had not altogether silenced them, and hints of dissension were still there, simmering under the surface. They hoped that she could bring them back into the fold, and perhaps even win over some of the Numbers as well, though the Japanese were of course a secondary concern to the bureaucrats.
Euphemia knew they wouldn't tell her what she needed to know, and would try to keep her close to the Government Bureau, or at least never far from an official escort. Part of that was the will of her sister too. Cornelia had always doted upon her, and Euphemia had no doubt that Cornelia would fiercely protect her from any threats, but for the first time, her sister's aegis felt suffocating. If she was really to serve the people of Tokyo and Japan as a whole, and not merely be there for propaganda purposes, she needed to see the Tokyo Settlement and the outlying ghettos for herself.
And so Euphemia began to plan her escape…
xXx
"The coast is clear," Leila whispered. "There's no sign of Shadows down that tunnel."
"Hang back and continue scanning," Lelouch instructed. "If you sense Death approaching, we need to know right away."
"I will," Leila nodded. She had been tired, but was hanging in there for them remarkably well, bolstered by several cups of coffee.
With Leila's return to Japan and her extrasensory abilities, the Black Knights had tentatively resumed their exploration of Mementos. Not only could she help them find the most efficient way through the always shifting layout of the cavernous Palace, but she was their early warning system against an appearance of The Reaper. So far, it had yet to make another appearance, but perhaps that was because they had kept moving forward. He recalled Igor saying that it was drawn to those who lingered for too long in Mementos, and they had been lost, going around in circles, when it attacked.
Moving efficiently through the tunnels was more important than ever now that they were without the Knightmare which they had once used to zip through them. Progress was slow as it was, simply due to Mementos' sheer size, and a delay from a wrong turn might be all it took to allow The Reaper to find them. An encounter with The Reaper would be unquestionably fatal at this point. They couldn't pull the same trick as last time to evade it, and even then it had been far too close.
Thankfully, that fear kept anyone from talking about "Dress Like a Cat Day" while in Mementos. They couldn't afford distractions now, and the work of exploring Mementos and changing the hearts within had to go on. Refusing to step foot inside the Palace of the Public again would be a capitulation to Britannia.
For a time, it seemed that the tunnels would never end, but finally, they found they could proceed no further.
"Another barrier?" Arthur frowned. "Taking down the Viceroy wasn't enough?"
"We're known to the general public now," Lelouch replied, "But clearly the Black Knights have not yet worked their way deeper into their consciousness."
"If it's okay, I think we can rest here," Leila said with a sigh. "This platform appears to be a safe area. Death can't find us here."
Milly nodded. Even Kallen seemed tired.
"So what now?" Kallen asked after a minute. "The new Viceroy will be here any day now. Do we target her, or - "
"We need to prove to the public that we are on the side of ordinary people, Japanese and Britannian alike," Leila said quietly. "No matter our message, it will be ignored for as long as ordinary Britannians can write us off as being mere terrorists."
"I see that now," Milly replied. "But how do we do that?"
"Like any Area, the Tokyo Settlement has a sizable criminal underworld," Lelouch replied. "While such gangsters preferentially prey upon the oppressed Numbers, they are all too happy to entrap ordinary Britannians in gambling debts, or run protection rackets. Any destruction caused to businesses that don't pay up can be blamed upon terrorist activity, and the authorities will usually look the other way. It doesn't help that much of the Knightpolice is on the mob's payroll, giving these thugs enough firepower to terrorize any who dare oppose them."
"You learned this while gambling?" Milly asked. "If only Shirley knew! She'd have a fit. 'What did I tell you about gambling? It's too dangerous, Lulu! If you died, I'd-'" Milly said in an anxious imitation of Shirley's voice.
"I did, actually," Lelouch replied, containing his annoyance. "There's a certain mobster that I particularly want to look into. He's known as the Black King. He has a reputation as a skilled chess player, but I've never played him myself. He's also said to be bankrolling a major construction project in one of the commercial districts on the outskirts of the settlement. The Black King is clearly very well-connected, and if we can take him down, we'd at once win the trust of countless Britannian civilians who quietly suffer under his extortion, while exposing further evidence of corruption and complicity within their own government. Not to mention the untold number of Japanese who doubtlessly live in slavery to the mob…"
Kallen clenched a fist. "They've been flooding the ghettos with a new drug called Refrain lately. It lets you relive your happiest memories in vivid detail… but it's highly addictive, and prolonged use and withdrawal leaves you an invalid. It's no wonder why it's popular among the Japanese… but they're killing my people with it! Addicts can barely fend for themselves, and use of the drug carries a twenty year prison sentence. Of course, it's only the Japanese who the authorities are interested in arresting."
"It's no less a form of genocide than Clovis' 'urban renewal' was," Leila said sadly.
Milly frowned. "It just keeps getting worse and worse, doesn't it?"
"Britannia is rotten to the core, Diamond," Lelouch replied. "It's far more than just a gym teacher, a Viceroy, or even an Emperor."
"I'm starting to see that." She laughed nervously. "Well, we've stuck together through all of this. We've even committed high treason together now."
"We may not have been the ones to kill Clovis, but our hands are nonetheless stained with his blood," Leila agreed somberly.
"And stained as they are, we have no reason to stay them now," Lelouch continued firmly. "We have no choice but to continue on, lest the sacrifices made be in vain. Our next target is the Black King. And while we're at it, we'll find and put a stop to that Black Mask and the mental shutdowns. Are there any objections?"
There were none.
"Excellent. Then let's get started."
xXx
"Welcome back, Inmate," Tsu replied as Lelouch entered the Velvet Room from the top of Mementos.
"There… is something that my Big Sister and I would like to speak to you about, Mr. Inmate," Shi said, seeming less afraid of him than she had before.
"You've given us quite a bit to think about lately, Inmate," Tsu continued, "so we'd like to introduce you to a new way to strengthen your powers. Do you see that cell over there, across from you?"
Lelouch nodded. It wasn't hard to miss it. The entire perimeter of the Velvet Room was cells.
"Our Master has given us permission to use that cell to put your Personas in Lockdown. Or perhaps the term 'solitary confinement' makes more sense to you."
Shi's voice contained none of the condescension that Tsu's did. "You won't be able to call a Persona that has been locked up, Mr. Inmate. And it's not safe to lock up more than one at a time."
"But it will leave hardened from its experience," Tsu continued. "In other words, it will gain new resistances, perhaps even covering up one of its weaknesses."
"Don't leave them too long," Shi said with worry. "They'll get all lonely and disappear if you forget about them…" She started crying a bit at the thought.
"So, which Persona shall we confine for you, Inmate?" Tsu demanded. "You know you can't resist the lure of more power."
"Ippon-Datara," Lelouch said after a moment. Ippon-Datara already had an impressive set of resistances. If by chance confinement could cover up the Persona's weakness to ice, he could safely carry Ippon-Datara into nearly every battle without the fear that Shadows could strike him down with a Bufu spell in an ambush.
It was a strange feeling, leaving Ippon-Datara behind in the Velvet Room, as if a part of himself was missing, but he knew that, one way or another, he would emerge stronger from the ordeal.
Inwardly, that part of him that was Incubus seemed to sigh in relief that it wasn't going to be executed today.
"I can still change my mind, you know," Lelouch thought menacingly.
A/N:
Only a week... I got this one out quite a bit faster than I thought I would. That's an encouraging sign, though don't always hold me to such a fast update time when I'm not on vacation.
Lelouch is not one to get distracted by his female companions usually... but he does show some signs of desire at times in the show, and as much as he reins that because he's more interested in his plans for toppling Britannia, it's hard to totally ignore one's urges when they are personified as one's inner demons. In the Persona series, a Persona is often depicted as a Shadow brought under the control of the ego, so it's precisely because Lelouch usually tends to repress or ignore feelings of attractions that he may feel toward Shirley that Incubus responds to them so strongly.
Chose to give Euphemia a POV section in this chapter rather than a separate interlude for pacing reasons, and to be clear that her events were concurrent to the rest of the chapter.
Hope you enjoy!