"That went just about as well as expected," Lelouch sighed. Of course Sayoko hadn't believed a word he had said. Oh, she had smiled and nodded, and then cheerfully promised that she wouldn't tell anyone about his new 'mistress' out of respect for his privacy, and that as a growing young man it was natural to engage in sexual experimentation, even fetishistic practices…
No doubt Sayoko had heard Tsu call him "Inmate" and assumed she was some sort of dominatrix…
At least Sayoko could be trusted not to talk. With any luck, Tsu would content herself to his room for now, and wouldn't wander out where Nunnally would see her. He didn't want to explain to his sister why a girl was calling him "Inmate". Or worse, she might venture out into Ashford Academy proper… the last thing he needed was more rumors swirling around, whether about a supposed 'mistress' of his, or about him harboring a girl who, to his knowledge, didn't exist in any official records, real or falsified.
As he headed out across campus, he saw that there was already plenty of new gossip for him to deal with, most of it focused around him and Kallen. It escaped the notice of few students when Kallen was waiting to greet him outside the Clubhouse, a warm smile on her face, shining even through the mask of a sickly girl as they walked to their classes together,
"Oh my god, I knew it!" gasped Shirley, putting her hands to her mouth. "I didn't want to believe it, but you really are dating Kallen, Lulu!"
His classmate and fellow Student Council member broke down into tears and ran from the room, covering her face in her hands.
"Shirley, wait!" he called out, but to no avail.
Why did dealing with girls have to be so hard?
xXx
"I heard you made Shirley cry," Milly said, the two of them alone in the Student Council Room. She shook her head. "She was weeping in the bathrooms for a good half an hour before going back to her room."
"What was I supposed to do?" Lelouch asked. "Isn't she overreacting?"
"You had to know that showing up with Kallen like that was going to upset her," Milly replied. "Not that I'm saying you can't pursue a relationship with whichever girl or girls that you like. You're at perfect freedom to do as you wish. But Shirley's had a crush on you since nearly the start of high school, in case you hadn't noticed. It's like a slap in the face to her, saying you don't care about her feelings."
"That's not true!"
"That's how Shirley clearly saw things."
"I can't get Shirley involved… and Kallen… she…"
"Yes?" Milly asked, her mouth spreading into a Cheshire cat grin.
Lelouch caught himself. The last thing he needed to be doing right now was giving Milly more blackmail material on him.
"Nice try, Madam President."
"Dang!" Milly pouted. "Just when I thought I had something juicy! But something did happen between you two, didn't it? Why, just days ago she was telling your sister that you two weren't dating, and now she's all lovey-dovey with you here at Ashford." She leaned forward. "Something hot and steamy, right?"
Whether it was genuine intuition, or Milly throwing whatever salacious ideas she had at him and seeing what stuck, much as a cold reader did to create the illusion of knowing more than they did, his response wouldn't change.
"Do you honestly think I'm falling for that, Madam President?"
"I suppose not," Milly sighed. "Well, no matter what exactly transpired between you and Kallen, I'm happy for you at least, even if Shirley is taking the news poorly. To revel in and suffer in the throes of young love…. I wish I had that freedom…"
"Still haven't managed to dump that Earl yet?"
"I'm working on it. He has to have a weakness of some kind. He likes pudding," she said, her eyes lighting up for a moment. "I could make a special pudding just for him…. Nothing too bad, but maybe just enough to…"
Lelouch pictured the hapless Earl hurling into a toilet from whatever purposefully noxious ingredients Milly might have put in that 'special pudding'.
"That's one way to call off an engagement," he said.
"No… that won't work," Milly frowned. "I can't get myself arrested for poisoning an Earl. The sad thing is, he really is the least objectionable suitor I've had so far…."
Lelouch raised an eyebrow.
"His name's Lloyd Asplund… do you know why he wants to marry me?"
"Your charming personality?"
"Is this how you wooed Kallen, Lelouch? I wish. He heads Britannian's Advanced Special Envoy Engineering Corps. He designs Knightmare Frames and new weapons for them. He wants the original Ganymede prototype that my grandfather's company produced."
"The Ganymede is a third generation frame. The Britannian army is using fifth generation Sutherlands now," Lelouch replied, "and their Gloucesters are pushing toward the sixth generation, though it's really just an upgraded Sutherland for commanders and their personal units, specialized to fight other Knightmare Frames."
"You've kept up to date on Knightmare Frame technology, haven't you?"
"Know thy enemy," he told her.
"It is of course as you say. The Ganymede is a third generation frame. However, Earl Asplund seems to be interested in it because of certain design elements that were abandoned in the fourth and fifth generations in the interest of mass-producing frames that even average devicers could pilot. The Ganymede is a more flexible, agile frame, and its output can be more finely tuned, but only a superbly skilled pilot like your mother could fully make use of its capabilities."
"He wants to make a high-performance Knightmare Frame then," Lelouch scowled. "A true sixth generation frame."
"I think it may go beyond that actually," Milly whispered. "With the advancements that have been in harnessing sakuradite, not only is a sixth generation overdue, but my new fiancé seems brilliant and driven enough that I think he might leapfrog to the equivalent of a seventh generation frame. Whatever he builds might be so powerful compared to the frames that have come before it that calling it a mere sixth generation frame would be an insult to it."
A seventh generation Knightmare Frame? If Britannia got their hands on a weapon like that…
"When do you think he will complete his project?"
"A year? A few months? Honestly, I have no idea," Milly shrugged apologetically. "For all I know, he could already be on the verge of completing a seventh generation frame and he wants the Ganymede because he's thinking about how to incorporate its features into an eighth generation frame."
An eighth generation frame?
"Milly, you have to keep the Ganymede out of his hands at any costs! Even if it only delays him from creating a seventh or eighth generation frame for a few months, that's time any nation wishing to rise up again Britannia desperately needs! We can change his heart-"
"We have to focus on the Black King first, Lelouch," she reminded him. "If your true identity is discovered by the Empire, it's all over. Even if we did change Earl Asplund's heart, some other scientist would likely take over the project eventually, unless he were to destroy his data and prototypes as well." A sudden look of inspiration crossed her face. "Besides, it may be better not to change his heart for now."
"What do you mean? I thought you wanted out of this engagement."
"I do," Milly replied, "but…. You remember how Leila was able to pose as Clovis' girlfriend to gain information that was essential to infiltrating his Palace?"
"Are you saying…" Lelouch began.
"If we change Earl Asplund's heart now, he'll end the engagement right away. But then we'll have no idea if another scientist takes over his project or not, or how close it is to completion. If I'm still his fiancee, you can keep tabs on Britannian weapons development through me, Lelouch. I'm sure he's not just going to go spilling every detail of his work, but he may let things slip from time to time, and depending on his mood, I'll be able to gauge if the project is going well or not. And the Earl and I may be engaged, but no date has formally been set for our wedding yet. I'll do whatever I can to delay that, and any time he spends with me is time he can't spend working on his Knightmare Frames. It never hurts to have contacts in high places either… Even if it were to come to the worst and I was to become his wife, he doesn't seem to be the type to be interested in more than the bare minimum of what's expected in a marriage, if even that. I'd have more freedom with him than I would with almost any other noble husband, since he'd be too busy with his work to care what I did."
"That's brilliant, Milly," he said after a moment. "I could hardly plan it better myself." He meant that sincerely, impressed by the sacrifice she was willing to make for the Black Knights. "But you needn't worry about being trapped in a loveless marriage. We in the Black Knights will always be there for you if and when you need your fiancé's heart changed."
"Thanks, Lelouch," she replied.
Fortune resonated within Lelouch, and he felt a bit closer to Milly than he had been before.
xXx
Lelouch froze as he entered his dining room in the Clubhouse. Nunnally was seated at the table, folding origami cranes with a small, green-haired girl, dressed in blue and who appeared to be several years younger than her.
Shi had ventured out of the Velvet Room too!
"Big brother, is that you?" Nunnally asked.
"Yes," he replied uneasily. "Nunnally, who is that with-"
"Mr. Inmate!" Shi squeaked, her golden eyes going wide like a deer in the headlights.
Why did she have to blurt that out? Now he was going to have to-
"Why are you calling my big brother an inmate?" Nunnally asked, frowning.
"Miss - " Shi started, but then stopped herself and began again. "Miss Nunnally… He is a prisoner of fate, like you… and all other humans," she added after a moment.
Lelouch wanted to do a facepalm. Shi clearly had no idea about how to pass herself off as a human.
"What is she doing here?" Lelouch asked Nunnally.
"I met her recently, and she asked if she could come over and play with me," Nunnally replied. "Her name's Shi."
Lelouch frowned. Being blind, Nunnally couldn't see just how strange Shi really was. For all he knew, Shi could have opened a door from the Velvet Room to arrange a 'chance' meeting with his little sister so that she would have a pretext to spend time in the Clubhouse, with Nunnally being none the wiser. He had sorely underestimated the younger of the Velvet Room's green-haired wardens. If anything, he would have expected Tsu to be the one to pull a devious stunt like this, but never Shi, who had always seemed so innocent in comparison. No… maybe Tsu was still behind this, and had simply put her little sister up to it to mess with him. Yes… that sounded like something Tsu would do.
"Miss Nunnally says that if you fold one thousand of these paper cranes, your wish will come true," Shi spoke up. "Is that right, Mr. - "
"Call me Lelouch," he said firmly. It was going to be too weird if Shi kept calling him "Mr. Inmate" in Nunnally's presence, and while Shi's fear of him had lessened somewhat since they had first met, it didn't take much to intimidate the small girl. Tsu would of course find some way to punish him for it if she were to find out, but he would deal with those consequences when they came. Besides, if Shi could call his little sister "Miss Nunnally," then she could use his name as well.
"I'm- I'm sorry…" Shi stammered. "As you will, Mr.-" she let out a small gasp. "Mr. Lelouch."
That still sounded a bit strange, but "Mr. Lelouch" was clearly an improvement over "Mr. Inmate." He would take what he could get.
"Yes, your wish will come true," he told her gently, "if you believe in it enough." While he had little doubt that Shi was far more powerful than himself, and he had no idea how old Shi really was, or if such a concept as age could even meaningfully apply to one who had hitherto spent most of their time living between dreams and reality, mind and matter, she was still childlike in her outlook, and to say otherwise would be needlessly cruel, to say nothing of making Nunnally a liar.
Shi's eyes lit up. "So it is like Cognition. How one thinks can reshape this world as well…" Her small voice was filled with wonder.
'This world?' Lelouch thought in annoyance. If Shi kept being careless like that, soon she would be talking about the details of the Metaverse in front of Nunnally…
"What do you wish for, Shi?" Nunnally asked, seemingly oblivious to her brother's anxiety.
"I wish that my big sister Tsu and Mr. Lelouch would get along better… and that I could see more of the world outside of that blue room…"
Shi was talking about the Velvet Room?! Was she trying to give him a heart attack?
"Huh? Lelouch?" Nunnally asked in confusion. "You know…?"
"She comes over from time to time," Lelouch said hurriedly. "It's nothing, Nunnally."
"Is Miss Tsu your girlfriend?"
"No, you've got it all wrong… actually I…"
"You shouldn't be two-timing, brother," Nunnally said with a frown. "I heard you're going out with Kallen, and now…"
"I didn't mean it like that," Shi said uncomfortably, unexpectedly coming to his aid. "I just wish they wouldn't fight so much."
"I'm sorry brother, for jumping to conclusions like that," Nunnally said, her head down.
"It's okay, Nunnally. Let's just focus on folding cranes together."
The rest of the evening passed quietly without serious incident, and with disaster averted, Lelouch was even able to relax a little bit. Seeing Shi so carefree as she worked excitedly on folding cranes with her new friend was in some small way heartwarming, even if he wished that she hadn't revealed herself to Nunnally.
By the end of the night, Death and the Star felt a little stronger within him.
Days Until Lelouch and Nunnally are Discovered: 13
xXx
Three days had already passed since their first foray into the Black King's Palace… Lelouch felt himself growing restless. They now had less than two weeks until the deadline for the Black King's blackmail demands. He of course had no intention of paying, and in fact he could not without Euphemia, as he didn't have a million pounds, but that was a moot point, since he planned to change the Black King's heart before then. Still, the Black King's Palace was significantly larger than those that had come before it, and he wasn't naive enough to think that he would be able to just ride the elevator up to the casino level again either. They would need to secure a new infiltration route too… perhaps there was a delivery entrance they could sneak through… or maybe…
He spent a grueling day training with Sayoko. He didn't like the exertion, but she didn't give him time to dwell on his problems.
Of course, she had to see fit to dispense some wisdom to him as well.
"I've noticed that as you've strengthened your body, you have also been going out more than before, and you have enjoyed the company of a number of young women, Master Lelouch."
"What's that supposed to mean, Sayoko?"
"As natural as it is for a healthy young man to have an interest in the opposite sex, or for a prince to have his own harem, I must advise you that as you grow closer to these women, you may find that the relationship can become intimate faster than you might expect. Take care, Master Lelouch, lest you leave a string of broken hearts in your wake. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. When the moment is right, what you say can have lasting consequences."
He could have used that advice before Kallen poured her heart out to him and Shirley ran away in tears. Shirley seemed to have gotten over the worst of it, but there was now an awkwardness between them, and she carried a certain melancholy with her rather than her usual bright spirits.
But a harem? He wasn't going to become his father!
Was he?
xXx
It had been a while since he had met with Leila, and perhaps a good chess match would help him clear his head from the tangle of spies, romance, and otherworldly sisters that his life had become as of late.
Leila arrived at Ashford Academy at night, meeting him in the chapel as they had before. She had her hair in her usual style as opposed to the twintails she had worn it in for their last match, as the paparazzi had largely lost interest in her in the wake of Prince Clovis' death, moving on to newer stories and scandals.
"I presume you wish to play as Black?" Leila asked.
He nodded.
"Then I shall oblige," Leila said, taking the White pieces for herself.
Leila used a different opening strategy this time, but she still seemed hesitant to sacrifice her pieces. Chess was as much a game of understanding how your opponent thought as strategy. Pushing forward, he could expect Leila to retreat and protect her pieces…
Leila closed in. A feint! She lost some pieces in the exchange, but came out ahead, as she captured more valuable ones on his side, leaving her with control of the board. A white bishop advanced along a diagonal, putting his king in check. Lelouch furiously scanned the board, but any move he made at this point would easily be countered by Leila. It might take her a few turns to make it official, but it was as good as checkmate.
When was the last time that anyone but Schneizel had beaten him?
"You were distracted," Leila said quietly. "You never would have fallen for that trap in our last match. You also underutilized your queen, keeping it well out of harm's way when it could have strengthened your position on the board."
"I didn't expect you to be so ruthless," he murmured, "after what you said about if I would sacrifice the Black Knights like I did my pieces in the last match."
"And you have a more sentimental side than you care to admit at times," Leila riposted.
"So it seems…" he agreed wryly. The thought of sacrificing Kallen, his Queen, was unacceptable to him, but in turn that had clouded his judgment and affected his play.
"You actions speak for themselves," Leila said. "You will not throw those close to you away carelessly, and I am heartened to know that. But perhaps you're too protective of them at times, to the point that you stifle their potential." She paused. "Do you believe in fortune-telling, Lelouch?"
"No. We make our own destinies."
"Humor me." She produced a deck of cards. "I couldn't help but notice that our Personas correspond to the Major Arcana of the Tarot." She set the cards on the table before them.
"This is foolish," he said impatiently.
"Does The Fool not guide you, Lelouch?" She leaned closer, her amethyst eyes twinkling in the moonlight as they met his. "Is that not why you call yourself Zero? You move forward into the unknown, attempting that which others think impossible, and in doing so you succeed where no one else could, whether by luck or skill, bringing new perspectives to the world."
"Perceptive as always, I see."
"My own Persona draws upon the High Priestess," Leila said, closing her eyes. "Whether or not the cards can actually tell the future is not important. What matters is their symbolism, and how one reflects upon that in their own life. The meaning of a reading will vary from individual to individual, but if you open yourself to it, you will find that the silent voice within your heart will whisper the most profound wisdom. If I close my eyes like this, I can hear my other self speaking to me even now."
Leila shuffled the cards. "Shall we, Lelouch? Shall we peer into your future together?"
"Very well." What did he stand to lose from it?
Leila drew the first card. It showed a man and a woman, both naked, with the Tree of Knowledge in the background behind the woman, a volcano between them, and an angel above them. "The Lovers, in the reversed position. And the future beyond that is…" Leila drew the next card, and set it down. It showed a lightning-struck tower, with two people desperately leaping from the ruins. "The Tower, in the upright position," she announced. "Tell me, Lelouch… what does this reading mean to you?"
He stared at the cards. The reversed Lovers reminded him of how he had upset Shirley and how he felt disoriented by how quickly his relationship with Kallen had developed, catching him unawares, but he couldn't just say that out loud in front of Leila. If anything, her presence was making that reading even more confusing to him. And The Tower… most obviously it made him think of the Black King's Palace, a distorted version of the still under construction Babel Tower, but he had a feeling that he wasn't supposed to read it so literally. In any case, its presence was an ill omen, and he did have a sense of dread on the horizon…
Leila frowned, seeming disappointed at his silence. "There's a certain disharmony in your life right now, isn't there, Lelouch?" she said, reaching out to the Reversed Lovers. She moved her fingers to the Upright Tower. "Most people think The Tower is simply a harbinger of disaster… but that's far from its full meaning. It foretells great upheaval, yes, but it also brings one new revelations, leading to a new awakening."
"You're cold reading me," he said. "Predictions like that are purposefully vague enough that anyone could find some truth in them, and my reticence is all you would need to infer discomfort on my part. And I suppose it's not even strictly cold reading either, since you already know quite a bit about me and what's been going on in my life."
"I won't say that you're wrong," Leila replied slowly.
"You are quite good at it, though," he replied. Leila had that mysterious, bewitching air that one might expect of a fortune-teller down perfectly, with those beguiling eyes that looked innocent at a glance yet saw so much more. Drawing those two cards in particular had been coincidental, but they still seemed to cut eerily close to his current state of mind, in spite of him knowing how Leila's technique worked. Someone more credulous than himself might believe she was actually reading the future. "Then again, you do have actual psychic powers in the Metaverse, so I admit, for the briefest of moments, I did have to consider the possibility that there was something more to it."
Leila let out a lighthearted laugh, and hearing it, Lelouch couldn't help but smile a bit himself.
"You know, Leila, I should invite you to the Culture Festival in the fall. I think the students here would really enjoy your readings. I didn't expect you to have such a talent."
"Why thank you, Lelouch," she beamed. "I would love to."
She stood up to leave. "I'll see you and the others in the usual place in a few days. Just give me a call whenever you're ready for the infiltration."
The Priestess departed, and Lelouch felt that he knew her a bit better now.
Days Until Lelouch and Nunnally are Discovered: 12
xXx
This would be the last day of waiting, Lelouch told himself. Caution might dictate waiting an additional day before infiltrating the Palace again, but he was getting too antsy to delay further with the threat of being revealed looming over his and Nunnally's heads. Besides, he had already seen that the Black King had no sense of honor. While the Black King would likely keep his word this time so as to let Euphemia and himself squirm for as long as possible, thinking that it would provide him with the maximum amount of satisfaction when they caved just before his deadline, that wasn't a risk that Lelouch wanted to take.
Lelouch headed over to the bar where Rivalz worked, restocking on supplies of coffee in preparation for the Black Knight's next trip into the Metaverse. Of course, Rivalz was eager to know details about how he had hooked up with a girl like Kallen, heartily congratulating him and noting that as a noble, she had to be loaded, but Lelouch tried to turn the conversation away from that.
"So how are you doing these days?" he asked his friend.
"Same as usual, Lelouch. If only Madam President would notice me… that would cheer me up."
Lelouch chose not to tell Rivalz that Milly had been engaged to an Earl. She hadn't shared that outside of the Black Knights, and that bit of news would only throw Rivalz into despair.
He sighed. "Mom and Dad are fighting again. You'd think that separating would put an end to that, with one of them here in Area 11 and the other back in California… but you'd be wrong, buddy. You know that Cardemonde is actually my mother's maiden name, right? I use it these days because I'm ashamed of that jerk who's my father."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Don't worry about it, buddy. You just have some fun with Kallen. I'm sure you've got some great dates planned with her."
xXx
"It's been a while, Lelouch," Suzaku said, stopping by to visit him and Nunnally that evening. Thankfully, Shi and Tsu were nowhere to be seen. He didn't want to have to explain them to yet another person. "You haven't been getting into any trouble, have you?"
"Why do you always say that like you think I have been? You used to be the one who did whatever he wanted back in the days at the Shrine."
"I've changed, Lelouch." Suzaku laughed light-heartedly. "But then again, so have you. I didn't think you'd be one to find a girlfriend before me."
Lelouch felt himself growing red. Why did everyone have to keep going on about him and Kallen?
"Don't worry, Lelouch," Suzaku said disarmingly. "This sort of thing is perfectly natural."
"What about you then?" Lelouch said, shifting the focus away from himself.
"I met a girl a while back. She was quite charming, and we spent the day together, but nothing's come of it since then. There are certain relationships that just can't work, and it would be arrogant of me to pursue it further." He sighed. "She probably doesn't even remember me now…. But I still can't help but wonder what she's been up to these days. Other than that, things have been pretty quiet over in Engineering. Though we keep hearing how frustrated the Viceroy is that no one's been able to find the Black Knights."
"She'd be better served cracking down on the mobsters who plague the Settlement and prey upon the weak, Britannian and Japanese alike. Yet enforcement is still half-hearted at best. Honestly, those Black Knights have done a better job of putting a dent in Refrain operations than the Viceroy has, if the news is to be believed." That narrative from Diethard had to be particularly infuriating to the Viceroy.
"If they hadn't targeted Prince Clovis, perhaps they could have worked with the police," Suzaku replied stubbornly. "Don't you see how their methods are self-defeating in the end?"
"I'll reserve judgment on that for that now, Suzaku. But I think their results have produced more good than you give them credit for."
"You never change, Lelouch. It's always about the results for you."
"Worrying about anything else is just self-righteousness."
"The Black Knights are just trying to tear everything down. They don't offer any real solutions! They just brainwash people into confessing all of their crimes, but then what? What's their endgame? There has to be a better way. This society can be rehabilitated, and that change has to come from within the system if it is to last. Otherwise, you'd just get chaos and many more people are going to die needlessly."
"Your commitment to your principles is admirable, Suzaku, but this world doesn't run on idealism. You need to realize that. All I can say is that the Black Knights clearly aren't afraid to get their hands dirty to do what needs to be done."
Suzaku sighed again. "Just take care of yourself and Nunnally, Lelouch."
"Of course. The last thing I want is to make my sister cry."
How ironic. Suzaku detested everything that the Black Knights stood for. But as Justice resonated within Lelouch, Suzaku had just helped them in his own small way.
Days Until Lelouch and Nunnally are Discovered: 11
A/N:
Back to dungeon-crawling / action next chapter, where we'll take a closer look at the Resort of Gluttony and how it differs from P5's canonical Palaces. We've only scratched the surface of it so far.
The name of the chapter, and one of Leila's lines is an excerpt from a quote of the final boss of Persona 3, elaborating upon the themes of the Major Arcana.