"Are you sure?" Lelouch asked the informant over the phone. According to Diethard, this man knew the whereabouts of the Black King. Of course, Diethard was not one known for his journalistic integrity, but his information had been reliable thus far, even if it was always cast in the light most favorable to the Black Knights.
"Yes… everyone knows that the Black King is bankrolling that new commercial development on the outskirts of the Settlement… Babel Tower, they call it. One complete, it will be his new center of operations. But the Black King isn't ready to move in yet. He still has his old haunts. If you go to the address that I gave you, you'll find one of his favorite gambling dens. It's not too far from the construction site of Babel Tower, but it's a bit off the beaten path."
"You've done well. You have my thanks."
"I don't know why you'd want to meet the Black King, though," the informant replied. "Nothing good can come of it."
"I'm something of an avid chess player myself. I've been looking for a good opponent," Lelouch lied, yet as always weaving threads of the truth into his deceptions.
"Nobody's ever beaten the Black King, kid. You don't know what you're getting into. Just leave it and walk away from this while you still can. You go on a fool's errand."
The Fool… the arcana of his first Persona, Arsene, the one closest to his nature… Numbered zero in the Tarot deck, it was also the namesake of his Metaverse alter ego, the leader of the Black Knights. How had his power been described to him… empty yet filled with possibilities….
Lelouch chuckled over the line. "Perhaps I am a fool. If I could trouble you with one last question, do you happen to know the Black King's true name?"
"That's dangerous information. The Black King doesn't take kindly to it when people probe too closely into his affairs. A schoolboy like you can't offer me enough to make that a risk worth taking."
"Then I thank you for your time," Lelouch replied as he hung up.
This was frustrating… without the Black King's true name, they would be unable to enter his Palace. Still, now that he had a tangible lead as to where to find the Black, perhaps new insights into their next target would present themselves.
It was already getting late, he had a chess match to attend.
xXx
Lelouch looked up as he arrived at the address that he had been given. Judging from its facade, it appeared to be a bar or nightclub of some kind, though the heavily tinted windows meant that he couldn't peer inside. There was however a pair of muscled, thuggish bouncers standing guard outside, dressed in expensive suits, illuminated by lights from above.
This was definitely the place.
He stepped forward.
"What do you want?" one of the bouncers demanded as he approached.
"Just a school boy," said the other. "Scram. You don't belong here."
"Don't be so sure of that," Lelouch said with a smirk. "I understand that there's an excellent chess player here. I'm hoping to give him a run for his money."
The bouncers laughed. "That's a good one, kid. Now run home, before you regret it."
"A shame… I truly had been looking forward to the privilege of playing the esteemed Black King. I'm something of a fixture in the Tokyo Settlement's high-stakes chess scene. I would think that he would appreciate a challenging opponent for a change. The average noble's chess skills aren't quite what they used to be." He let out a laugh. "Then again, maybe it isn't so surprising that you haven't heard of me. Most nobles also don't like to admit they lost to a schoolboy, and I'm enough of a professional to not go around dropping their names. That would just be bad sportsmanship on my part if I were to do otherwise."
"Wait… this kid is serious." The first thug said. "I even think I've heard of you... a young chess player who sometimes acts as a substitute for other players when they're about to lose."
The other one nodded. "They say he can turn any game around." He gave Lelouch an appraising look.
"Who told you that you could find the Black King here?"
"One of my acquaintances," Lelouch replied, not giving anything away.
"Don't get cocky, kid!" the first bouncer said threateningly.
"I don't know about you," the other bouncer said to his companion, "But I think the boss will be very interested this school boy. He'll have plenty of questions from him. If he manages to prove a challenge, it will be a welcome surprise, but, either way, I'm sure the boss will enjoy putting this one in his place."
"Hope you don't have second thoughts, schoolboy," the first thug said, gesturing toward the door, while the other moved around to cut off any escape route to the rear. "Come on in. We don't want to keep the Black King waiting."
The lighting inside the establishment was dim, and it seemed almost hazy. There were a number of tables where a variety of high-stakes games could be played, and a number of people, were trying their luck at them, with hoots of excitement punctuating fleeting wins, which would soon slip away from them. Waitresses, dressed in revealing bunny costumes, moved among them, carrying drinks. Unlike the patrons, who were invariably older than him and Britannians, the waitresses predominantly appeared to be young Japanese women, some of whom might have even been younger than him, fearful looks in their eyes. Lelouch scowled. There was no doubt that the Black King was forcing them into far more unsavory duties, should a patron request their services…
He clenched a fist.
Of course, there were more than just gambling tables… there were a number of smaller tables and booths with chess boards atop them around the perimeter of the den. And in a private room in the very back, surrounded by an entourage of bodyguards that were every bit as thuggish as the bouncers, was a man who could only be the Black King himself, a large, dark-skinned man with slicked back dyed blonde hair, a thin beard ending in a goatee, and a brown suit over a red vest.
"What have we here? A schoolboy?" The Black King said in a growling voice, barely looking up from his chair. "This had better not be a waste of my time."
"He says he's in on the high-stakes chess scene," one of the bouncers told the Black King. "We think he's the chess substitute whom we've heard rumors of lately."
"Students don't know much of anything, do they, boys? Hasn't he learned that the strong feed upon and devour the weak? This is the adult world. He shouldn't have come here, if he knew what was good for him."
"He was also looking specifically for you, Mr. King."
"What?" The Black King cocked his head up, eyeing Lelouch intently. "Is this true, schoolboy?"
"Your reputation precedes you, Mr. Black King," Lelouch replied with a smirk. "You're a famous chess player here in the Tokyo Settlement. But I wonder if your adult world really will devour the student, or if it will be the other way around?"
"Take a seat, schoolboy," the Black King commanded, stretching out and pointing with a massive hand.
"What will be the stakes?" The Black King asked, picking up a pair of walnuts from a dish nearby him. "I can't imagine a schoolboy like yourself has much in the way of money…"
"You wouldn't turn down a modest bet, would you, Mr. Black King?" Lelouch grinned. "Say, five thousand pounds?"
"Five thousand pounds?" The Black King asked, raising a thick eyebrow. "That's nothing for me, but quite a bit for a kid to throw away on a chess match. You really must have rich parents."
"Winnings from those other nobles who underestimated a school boy." Most of his cut from gambling went to paying for Nunnally's medical bills, as he hated relying on charity from the Ashford family, but he had saved away a sizable amount for emergency expenses, which he hadn't touched, even as he ventured into the Metaverse, instead funding the Black Knights with the proceeds of the loot they stole from Mementos and the other Palaces. But the Black King wouldn't be interested in a small wager, and he needed insight into their next target. Besides, it would be a missed opportunity if he was to walk away from his match with the Black King with a paltry sum. Like any noble, the man's pride would be his undoing.
The Black King laughed. "So your clients pay you pretty well to be their substitute. But to make such a wager so easily, not to mention show yourself here at all... you've got guts, kid." He quickly squeezed his palm shut into a fist, crushing the walnuts in a single motion. "I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to teach you a lesson that you won't soon forget."
Without asking, the Black King chose the black pieces for himself. "Your move, schoolboy."
It wasn't Lelouch's usual opening. He had always gravitated toward black. Whatever black lacked in initiative, he had learned to make up for with his aggressive playstyle. Playing as white vaguely felt wrong to Lelouch, but he wasn't so inflexible that his strategies would break down at such a trifling disruption.
"As you wish," Lelouch replied, advancing a piece forward.
The Black King was certainly tougher than the run-of-the-mill noble. It was natural that the Black King would avoid obvious traps, as he could not have survived long as the leader of a criminal enterprise if he were careless. His playstyle was unsentimental, whereas Leila's undoing had been her hesitancy to sacrifice her pieces. However, he lacked her subtlety, favoring a brute force approach that had a tendency to telegraph his moves to Lelouch. Before long, Lelouch had him outmaneuvered and on the retreat.
"I'm wondering about that new project of yours…" Lelouch commented, trying to sound offhand. "I think they call it Babel Tower…"
"You think you can distract me so easily?" The Black King asked, eyeing Lelouch suspiciously. "Well, it won't do you any good. It will be a shopping center and casino that will rival any in Area 11. People will flock to it from all over, seeking the finest goods and entertainments; a resort where they can lose themselves in extravagance. It will be the jewel of my kingdom."
Lelouch wisely chose not to ask the Black King exactly what goods might be sold at Babel Tower once it was opened, and the game continued.
"And that's checkmate," Lelouch announced after a few minutes. "It looks like you're the one who's been devoured."
"No, schoolboy," the Black King replied. "Such a naughty little man. You cunningly cheated me, and now you have to pay the price."
"I… what?" So Black King had no intention of honoring the wager. Mentally, Lelouch cursed himself. While the other nobles he had defeated at chess had always paid out of pride, he had been foolish to think that the Black King wouldn't resort to more underhanded means to get out of paying him. Yes, the Black King was a criminal, but he also had a reputation as a skilled chess player, insofar as nobles went, and he would have thought that word would have spread if the Black King was a cheater who would resort to such blatant intimidation when he lost. With how much Brittannian high society prized skill of chess, to cheat at the game was unheard of except by rank amateurs, and considered practically the height of dishonor, even for your typical corrupt noble or royal. But of course the depth of the Black King's corruption wasn't typical, and he cared nothing for honor, even in chess. Lelouch knew he should have seen this coming, but he had let himself be blinded by his own overconfidence, and for a crucial moment, his thinking had been as inflexible as those nobles he despised. The signs had been there, even back when the bouncers had tried to dissuade him from challenging the Black King, but he had ignored them. Equally foolish had been his decision to come here alone. He had no chance of fighting off the Black King's thugs on his own in the real world.
The Black King smirked as he produced a handgun from his vest. "Hold him down!' he barked at his thugs. "It's time to whip up a little evidence against the kid."
"You filthy lying crook!" Lelouch shouted back angrily as he was roughly grabbed and forcefully pressed face-down against the table.
"Fair play doesn't win the game!" The Black King sneered. "Learn that, schoolboy!"
Lelouch wracked his brain, trying to think of a way out of his predicament, but every option inevitably led to failure. But at that moment, there was a commotion that caused the Black King to look up from Lelouch.
"Unhand me!" It was a female voice, and one that one Lelouch recognized even after years apart. But that was impossible. Why would she be here?
The door to the room was thrown open, and none other than his half-sister, the Third Princess and Sub-Viceroy of Area 11, Euphemia li Britannia, was rudely shoved forward by one of the Black King's thugs.
"What have we here?" The Black King asked, a predatory look in his eyes.
"We caught her outside. She was trying to gain entrance, and asking too many questions about you," the thug who had dragged Euphemia in explained.
Euphemia seemed slightly dazed from how roughly she had been manhandled, but she was beginning to regain her bearings. Lelouch also couldn't help but notice that she was wearing a dress, cut in a considerably more revealing manner than what he would have expected from her, but in a similar style to the wealthy female patrons of the Black King's club. That, along with the fact that she was wearing glasses when Lelouch knew she didn't need them, and that she had left all of her long pink hair flow freely instead of putting it into its usual style, which would have had some of it gathered into buns at the sides of her head, suggested that she had been trying to go incognito. But to what purpose?
Blinking, Euphemia's blue-violet eyes refocused, and as she looked up toward the Black King, her gaze paused as she saw Lelouch.
"Lel-" she started softly, disbelief in her voice.
No! Euphemia was going to give him away and ruin everything. He had to stop her right away!
"Don't say anything!" he shouted at her, cutting her off and preventing anyone else from hearing her pronounce the second syllable of his name clearly.
Hearing the panic in his voice, Euphemia faltered, and then immediately fell silent. But while catastrophe might have been averted, plenty of damage had already been done.
"What's this?" The Black King asked. "You two know each other?"
Neither Lelouch nor Euphemia answered that question.
"I was right," the Black King chuckled, taking their silence as confirmation. "To think that Third Princess Euphemia would stumble into my realm…" His gaze turned back to Lelouch. "So you must be her boyfriend. A princess of Britannia dating a commoner… I don't care if his Majesty married a common woman… it was a scandal then, and will be a scandal now." He gave a nod to his thugs. "You know what to do."
One of the men grabbed Lelouch, forcing him to his feet. They then shoved him forward, causing him to tumble directly toward Princess Euphemia. Instinctively, she reached out to break his fall… with the result that Lelouch found himself caught in Euphemia's arms.
A camera flashed.
"A charming couple," the Black King sneered. "But both of you are minors… you have no business in an establishment like this. The Princess will get off only with a sullied reputation… but you, schoolboy… the law isn't so lenient for commoners. I wonder what would happen if I sent this photo to the police…"
"But you're the one distributing that drug Refrain, extorting innocent people, and forcing young Japanese women into prostitution!" Euphemia protested.
"He has enough of the police on his payroll that they'll just look the other way," Lelouch spat.
"You're smarter than you look, schoolboy. But not smart enough!" The Black King laughed. "Otherwise you wouldn't have let yourself get caught by me."
"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into," Lelouch retorted. "I'll make you regret this!"
"I'm sure," the Black King smirked, before turning to Euphemia. "And I suppose you think your sister, the Viceroy, is going to bail you out of this, don't you, little Princess?"
"I -" Euphemia started.
"Viceroy Cornelia will kill you if she finds out you've threatened her sister," Lelouch said coldly.
"But she's not going to find out, is she, little Princess?" The Black King continued to sneer at Euphemia. "Your sister has been quite the thorn in my side since her arrival in Area 11. Between her and those accursed Black Knights, they've caused quite a disruption to distribution. But she doesn't know that you're here, does she? After the first time you thought to sneak off on your own, she forbade you from doing so again. Yes, I know about that. I haven't forgotten how you had that damnable Eleven beat up two of my men either. But he's not here today to protect you, is he? And if you tell Cornelia, she'll know that you disobeyed her orders. Nor will she look kindly on the schoolboy who thought he could touch royalty like that." He burst out into a laugh. "Even if she does act, the Viceroy can't arrest me without bringing down half the Settlement with me. Who do you think has contracts on major infrastructure projects, leases out commercial developments, and has enough of the police in his pocket to amount to a private army?"
"You'll prey on anyone, won't you?" Lelouch said with contempt.
"Just the weak, schoolboy. She may be a princess, but came in here like a lamb to the slaughter."
"What do you want from us?" Euphemia asked.
"Now we're talking, Princess…. I'll forget that any of this ugliness ever occurred if I receive a million pounds from you… Even a princess fresh from her debut should be able to afford that." He chuckled. "I'll even give you three weeks to do it… three weeks to squirm and realize how powerless you really are."
It was Lelouch's turn to smirk. Three weeks would be more than enough time to discover the Black King's name, clean out his palace, and make him pay for daring to blackmail them.
"Don't get any ideas, schoolboy," the Black King warned. "If I get the slightest hint that you're trying to pull something, I'll release this photo to the police right away. Now, the two of you, get out of my sight."
Lelouch and Euphemia left the Black King's lair wordlessly, escorted out by the mobster's thugs. It was only when they had left the Black King far behind them that Euphemia finally spoke, though it was almost a whisper.
"Lelouch? Is that really you?"
"Not here in public," Lelouch hissed.
Euphemia was a problem for him. While he had prevented her from revealing his true identity to the Black King, she, a member of the royal family, now knew that he was alive. Euphemia had been a childhood friend back in Pendragon, but she had always had a close bond with Cornelia, and Cornelia was now his enemy. The Black King might be blackmailing both of them, but that didn't mean that…
"This way," he told her. There was one place where they could be assured of privacy, and where he could keep her from talking if need be.
"Why are we going toward the station?" Euphemia asked. "I thought you wanted -"
"You'll see…"
Casually, Lelouch took out his phone, and whispered "Mementos."
The world distorted around them, but on the outskirts of the Palace, the distortion was not as evident, and they still appeared to be walking down a normal street in the Tokyo Settlement. Here, there would be no roaming Shadows to attack them, nor people to eavesdrop on them. Nor would he be forced into his Metaverse costume until he actually set foot inside the station. With any luck, Euphemia wouldn't notice that anything was amiss, and she wouldn't be able to find her way out of the Metaverse without him.
He led her to an out of the way looking alley to keep up the pretense of still being in the real world. "This will do," he said at last. "We can talk freely here."
"So, are you really Lelouch, my long-lost brother?" she asked. "This isn't all just a dream, is it? I promise I won't tell anyone." Tears started welling in her eyes. "We all thought you were dead, but if you've been alive all this time, there must be a reason why you didn't want us to know."
Of his half-siblings, Euphemia had always been the one he had been closest to, and Lelouch found that he couldn't help but lower his guard a bit, especially when she was so earnest. "Yes… I'm your brother, Euphy," he said using the nickname that Nunnally, Cornelia, and his younger self had always used for her. "I am Lelouch vi Britannia… though now I go by Lelouch Lamperouge."
"Lelouch…" Euphemia said, smiling, their dire situation seemingly forgotten in a moment of pure happiness on her part. "And Nunnally? Is she alive as well?"
"Yes, but she's still blind and crippled."
Euphemia frowned. "You must hate us in the Imperial Family…. Not only did Father exile you, but none of us dared to speak up against him, even when he turned Japan into a war zone… And I know there were some in the family who welcomed the news of your deaths, even if they couldn't say such horrid things openly. But Cornelia, Clovis, Marrybell, and I were all devastated…. And Schneizel… he's good at keeping his emotions in check when need be, but I think he misses you too."
"He probably just misses having an opponent who could almost keep up with him in chess."
Euphemia sighed. "I'm just glad to see you again, Lelouch… even if it's in a situation like this. First Clovis is killed, after admitting to all of those horrible things, then I get myself caught…"
"What were you doing looking into the Black King anyway?" Lelouch asked her. "You have to know that doing so alone, no matter how well intentioned, was foolhardy, and could have got you killed. Not that I'm in any position to lecture you too much about that after doing the same myself. What's done is done. We both miscalculated, it cost us dearly, and now we have to focus on how to turn the tables on the Black King."
She frowned. "I actually wanted to do something to help people, rather than just being a figurehead, so I snuck out…". Euphemia paused. "Wait, Lelouch…. What were you doing looking into the Black King? And why…" she looked around uneasily. "That's strange… even here, there should have been more people around the station…. Something's not right…"
She was more perceptive than he thought!
"You saw how it is, Euphy," he replied, diverting her attention from the lack of people around Mementos. "The world is distorted. People like the Black King and Clovis prey upon the weak, and society simply stands by and watches. No… not just watches… Britannian society encourages such behavior, down from the Emperor himself. It has to be torn down so that a kinder world can be built in its place."
"Lelouch… are you saying…"
"I can't have Nunnally return to the Imperial Family… they would just use her as a political pawn again. If the Black King releases that photo, we'll be discovered for sure. He can't be stopped if you limit yourself to the means available within the system, for it is corrupt to the core. I think you're starting to realize that, aren't you, Euphy?"
"Even though I'm a princess, I don't have any real power on my own yet, and Cornelia never listens to me these days." Euphemia frowned. "I can't tell her without making things worse. And if the Black King controls the police…"
Lelouch allowed himself a small grin. He hadn't expected Euphemia to be quite so receptive to his ideas. Exposure to the harshness of reality evidently did wonders for one's thinking. It was a major risk, and for a moment he couldn't help but wonder if his sentimentality toward her was clouding his judgment, but if he could win over the Sub-Viceroy, then the rewards…
"Then work with us, Euphy, and help us take down the Black King. You wanted to make a difference, right?"
"You're…" her eyes widened, and she let out a small gasp. "You're with the Black Knights, Lelouch, aren't you?"
"It would be more accurate to say that I lead them."
"Then… what really happened to Clovis? Did you…"
"Did we kill him?" Lelouch shook his head. "He was guilty of the crimes that he confessed to, but we weren't the ones who killed him. The real murderer is still out there.
"I… don't want to hurt anyone, Lelouch," Euphemia frowned.
"You won't have to," he told her. "We only target the guilty, and even then, we never kill them… we only change their hearts."
"I thought it seemed strange…" Euphemia murmured. "Why would the Black Knights kill Clovis in such a gruesome manner if they really wanted to change things? It made no sense…."
"The killer must have targeted Clovis with a mental shutdown to prevent him from confessing, or to discredit us."
She nodded. "I thought so. Still, if Clovis was guilty of all of those crimes, I don't see how you persuaded him to confess to everything, or how you plan to do the same to the Black King."
"You misunderstand, Euphy. It doesn't matter what they think about it. We steal the very desires of the corrupt from within their hearts."
"But that's im- "
"Let me show you, something, Euphy." He led her out of the alleyway and into the station, revealing the true form of Mementos to her. At once, his Metaverse costume appeared, replacing his student uniform.
"What is this place?" Euphemia gasped. "And Lelouch - when did you…"
"This isn't the same reality that you know, Euphy. It's another one, alongside ours, formed from the collective cognition of the people of Tokyo… or perhaps even all humans. We crossed into it a few minutes ago, just before we started our conversation, but you didn't notice until now because there was less distortion from reality outside the station. We call places like this Palaces, where the strong and corrupt desires of a person or many people twists reality into a labyrinth reflecting those desires."
Euphemia pinched herself. "This is real…" she murmured. A look of unease crossed over her face, which became more anxious by the second. "I don't like this… This place is wrong…. Why are the walls… pulsating like that? I hear… voices… Lelouch… please… take me out of here."
"This Palace is formed by the people of the Tokyo Settlement as a whole," Lelouch told her. "As I said, this society is corrupt to the core. There's no reforming it unless we can expose its ugliness for all to see and startle the people into action."
"I still have to believe in the best in people," Euphemia said quietly as they left Mementos. "They will change if they have hope, and if they see that there's a better way than fighting each other." She sighed. "But idealism isn't going to keep Nunnally safe this time, is it?"
Lelouch looked off into the distance. "No it won't, Euphy. If Nunnally and I are discovered because the Black King releases that photo, there won't be any safe place for her… especially because whoever crippled her and killed our mother is still out there…"
"I'll help you… for Nunnally's sake," Euphemia told him, with sudden conviction. "I don't know what I can do, but I owe it to her for my part in putting her in danger like that."
I am thou… thou art I
Thou hast acquired a new vow
It shall become the wings of rebellion
that breaketh thy chains of captivity
With the birth of the Empress Persona,
I have obtained the winds of blessing that
shall lead to freedom and new power…
An unexpected reunion and a new confidant…. On its own, that would have made for an eventful day. But now it was imperative that they infiltrate the Black King's Palace and steal his heart.
But first, they had to discover his name.
Days Until Lelouch and Nunnally are Discovered: 20
(A/N): Next up, discovering the Black King's name and our first look at his Palace!
Edit: SomebodyLost correctly pointed out in the review that I had Lelouch act a bit too much like his amnesiac self at the start of R2. In any case, it is a serious lapse of judgment on his part. I've added to the section where Lelouch is reacting to the Black King's cheating to emphasize how unheard of it is for someone to cheat at the game, even among a nobility as corrupt as that of Britannia, as a manner of honor. Hopefully this at least in part addresses the issue.
And yes, to those who have played P5, I did base the encounter with the Black King on Kaneshiro, as well as the canonical chess match in Code Geass R2 against the Black King. That being said, The Black King's Palace and my plans for his Shadow are different from Kaneshiro's.