Chapter 16: "Transgression" II – The School Festival Declaration
Lelouch came back to his room after finishing all his detention classes with Suzaku due to both of them been absent from classes too often. C.C. was in her usual spot: lying down on Lelouch's bed while playing with her Cheese-kun plush doll.
"Hey, how much longer are you going to stay here?" C.C. asked in her bored tone, "you can't capture Cornelia, and you can't turn Kururugi into your ally. This is right at the heart of the Tokyo Settlement, it's too dangerous."
Lelouch sank into his chair, his right arm hung over the back rest while he looked to the ceiling with a tired expression. "It's meaningless to discuss tactical failure. My plan will continue as intended. Also, before I can create a place where Nunnally can live in safety, it's safer to stay within the school premise."
"I was talking about you," C.C. turned towards Lelouch and looked at him intently while pushing herself up from the bed, "I can't have you die before you have fulfilled your part of the bargain."
"Then tell me," Lelouch narrowed his eyes while his Geass fired up, "what should I do in exchange for receiving this power from you?"
"I will tell you when it's time," C.C. answered in a playful voice. Lelouch frowns.
"Grrr…" Shirley gnashes her teeth when she sees C.C. was lying on Lelouch's bed again. 'It's not fair! How could she get to sleep on Lelouch's bed all day…'
Kallen doesn't sit well with seeing how easily C.C. occupied Lelouch's bed either, but she is more concerned with another matter. "So not even Lelouch knew the price for receiving his Geass?"
"That sounded like what a witch would do," Gino comments.
"It's not his soul that Ms C.C. was after, right?" Shirley asks worriedly.
"I wanted to say no, but it's hard to determine at this point," Milly says with a serious facial expression, but suddenly turns to a playful one, "or was it his body that she was after?"
"Madam President!" Shirley screams, her face quickly reddens.
"…recorded." Anya takes yet another photo of the orange-haired girl.
Not far away, the two members of the Imperial Family frown as they ponder what C.C. wanted from Lelouch in exchange for such a demonic power. "Big Sister, do you think it was as Milly has just said, that Ms C.C. was after Big Brother's soul?" Nunnally asks worriedly, "Big Brother is already dead, I really don't want to see that even his soul cannot be rested in peace."
Cornelia is quite torn on this: as Euphemia's elder sister, she is still enraged by what Lelouch did to the pink princess, and coupled with his tyrannical rule over the world before his death, there is a part of her that wants to see Lelouch be damned to the depths of hell to repent for his sins; as Lelouch's elder sister, however, she loves her younger brother and understands that what he did was a direct result of how he was being treated by their father, and so another part of her does not wish to see Lelouch has to continue to suffer even after death.
It is Nunnally's worried face that touches the soft part of her heart and tipped the balance. The elder princess sighs before responding to her younger sister, "I can't say for sure because while that remains a possibility, there is no concrete evidence to say that that was the case. However, if I were to guess, I don't think she was after his soul. First, while C.C. is immortal and able to give out the Geass power, it seems to me that she had otherwise acted like a human so far, eating pizza and playing with her doll. Second, we saw how she suffered when people treated her as a witch and threw rocks at her, so if she indeed consumed Lelouch's soul as the price of him receiving the Geass power, she would not have shared these discs with us, otherwise she would be actively making us to think her as a witch, knowing full well that if we think her as such, she might be hunted down and burnt at stake once again."
Inside a warehouse, Rakshata and her team were inspecting a new Knightmare Frame they have stolen from Britannia in Tanzania, the Gawain.
"Who should we entrust this to in order to obtain data about it?" a team member asked their chief.
"Let's give it to Zero," Rakshata said.
"But it requires two pilots," the team member queried.
"Why, we already have a mysterious woman of unknown origins," Rakshata smirked, "or do you want someone like Tamaki?"
"No, not really," the team member replied.
"Hey! What do you mean by that? I am a great pilot!" Tamaki yells at the present Rakshata.
"And we have just seen you scavenging behind Kallen, but got finished in one blow not long ago," Rakshata jests.
"Ohgi, say something!" Tamaki puts high hopes on his friend to defend his honour. However, the Prime Minister of Japan hesitates as even he can't live up to his conscience to say that Tamaki is any more than an average Knightmare Frame pilot.
"Tamaki, you've done well since you opened Cafe Zero," Villetta tries to change the subject to save her husband from the dilemma he is in.
"Well yea… no that's not the point!" Tamaki realizes what Villetta is trying to do and snaps out of it.
"Let's continue, shall we?" Zero cuts in and forcefully brings everyone back to the screen.
It was a sunny day in the Tokyo Settlement, and a big festival is about to happen in one of the most affluent schools within the Settlement.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for waiting!" Milly announced in her cheerful voice, "The Ashford Academy school festival, which is the most welcoming event in the Tokyo Settlement, is about to start! It will begin at the sound of this voice." She then winked at Nunnally, who hesitated but eventually gave in to Milly's request:
"MEOW!"
"That's cute, Nunnally!" Kaguya says cheerfully, "I should have been there too!"
"Thank you, Kaguya!" Nunnally says happily, "I was a bit embarrassed at first, but it turns out that I have a talent of simulating the meowing voice of cats."
"Oh, what fun times we had!" Milly reminisces the good old memories of spending time with the entire student council to organize the school festival. It was a much freer and livelier period to her – there were no TV producers to suck up to, no HR managers to fawn over to, and no crazy fans to avoid from. 'Ah, how much I long to go back to those simpler times…' the usually cheerful blonde feels a bit downcast at the reality she is facing as an adult now.
Suddenly, Milly got a light pat on her back. It is Rivalz. "Prez, come back to the school festival this year! I can make you our honorary guest if you'd like," the blue-haired boy suggests.
"Sure! I can do the 'meow' this time and you'll make that giant pizza that we'd never succeeded in making," Milly says cheerfully, inwardly thanking her friend for being so considerate.
"Ah! I want to join too!" Tianzi raises her hand like she wants to get herself registered for the upcoming school festival.
"Sure! Everyone's welcome to this fun and exciting event!" Rivalz proudly announces. Now that he is the Ashford Student Council President, it is his duty to get as much spotlight as possible for the famed school festival to shine again, especially because it will be the first ever to be held in Neo-Tokyo.
Guilford hears Rivalz' open invitation and looks towards his Princess. "Princess, I wonder… if you… err… that is, if I would have the pleasure and privilege to… uhm…" Guilford tries his best, but he still stutters.
Cornelia smiles warmly and decides to help her knight out a bit. "Guilford, I regret I didn't have the chance to attend the most famous school festival in Area 11 when I was Viceroy there, and I also want to go to see the place where Lelouch and Nunnally have spent most of their teenage years. Would you be so kind to accompany me to go there?"
"Yes, Your Highness!" Guilford auto-pilots one of his most often-said phrases, though it is arguably also what he wants to say at this exact moment.
Not far away, Villetta also extends her invitation to her husband. "Darling, would you like to come and visit the school I have taught in?" the silver-haired beauty smiles.
"Err, sure! I was a teacher before, so I very much look forward to my first visit to the largest school in Neo-Tokyo," the Prime Minister of Japan says.
"No worries, Coach Villetta! I will make sure to make you and the Prime Minister our honorary guest!" Rivalz promises, "We can also do the Swimming Club Cafe again this time if…"
"Now hold it right there, Rivalz!" Villetta immediately shuts down the idea and blushes hard – how can she dress in those provocative bikinis again as the First Lady of the United States of Japan?
"What's wrong, Chigusa?" Ohgi is puzzled by his wife's reaction.
"…Nothing! I was just thinking about whether we should also bring Naoto to the school festival as well!" Villetta quickly digresses to distract her husband from her embarrassing episode from last year's Ashford school festival.
And so the school festival started, with students and outsiders flooding various places: there were numerous food stands lined up on the two sides of the pavement running across the school quads; artistic displays lined up on the walls in a long corridor; students cosplayed as the Lancelot and other famous figures; etc. The school festival was so grand and opulent, even TV stations sent their crews into the school to capture footages and images of such an event unmatched in scale.
The presence of the media forced Lelouch, who was standing on the edge of the rooftop to discuss businesses related to the Black Knights, to duck away in order to avoid being caught on camera.
"We've identified the solar panels used in each settlement as well as the energy storage sites," Diethard was talking to Lelouch on the phone inside a TV truck parked inside the Ashford campus, "Oh, and what about that collaborator issue?"
"I've handled most of it myself — about 72% is complete," Lelouch was using his hands-free phone and replied in his commanding Zero voice, "How about Tohdoh?"
"He's drawing up a list of occupation targets — broadcasting stations and such," Diethard continued to report to Lelouch as the scene on the screen in the present auditorium shows that Tohdoh and his Four Holy Swords were studying the map of Tokyo Settlement while a bunch of Black Knight officers were working on their laptops on the other side of the secret hideout stowed-away vehicle. "I need you to check them, including the dummy plans we're sending to Kyoto." The Britannian journalist-turned-resistance member said.
"I understand. I'll confirm tomorrow," Lelouch said as he noticed Milly was running towards him from a distance. "There's a big trouble we've got here!" Milly shouted from afar.
"Oh, and I know we're late in reporting this to you, but regarding the operation of the Zero Squad, its leader is now in Ashford Academy…" Diethard continued to report, only to be cut short by Lelouch, "I'll have to contact you later," the student-turned terrorist quickly switched off the phone.
"Big trouble?" Diethard wondered what the "big trouble" was.
Kaguya maintains her outward smile but frowns inwardly. 'Dummy plans to us… I know the Black Knights were using the Six Houses of Kyoto, just like how we were using them to liberate Japan, but to hear this directly is still…'
"Boring! We were having fun at the school festival, and Lelouch was still doing the Black Knights stuff?" Milly is not happy to see that. She tried so hard to make Lelouch enjoy school life more, and Lelouch had the audacity to use the festival as a decoy for him to work on something that is not fun at all?
Cornelia and Guilford are concerned with an entirely different matter. "So he had begun infiltrating the defence of Area 11 way before he launched his assault on the Tokyo Settlement," Cornelia observes as she recalls that fateful night when she confronted the Black Knights right at the heart of Area 11, her fists tightening. "No wonder our defence at the Tokyo Settlement perimeter collapsed so easily."
"It would be fair to say that his Geass power made it near impossible for us to detect, as anyone who was aware of it would either be quickly geassed by Lelouch as well, or be eliminated by those who were geassed," Guilford whispers to his princess.
Cornelia has long got rid of her pride as the Viceroy of Area 11, but the pride of a military tactician still lies deep in her veins and she still feels irked by how Lelouch cheated with that supernatural power of his to crumble her army. However, the better side of her gets a hold on the simmering emotion, and she bites her lip and says no further, switching her focus back to the screen.
Milly was dragging Lelouch down to the quads, walking pass the food stands. "What are you doing goofing off like that?! You're the festival executive committee chairman!" the blonde student council president asked.
"But everything is running fine! There's no problem," Lelouch tuned back to his usual student voice when answering Milly's question, "Besides, you're taking charge of that part, right? It was 2 metres (6.56 feet) wide up through last year, then suddenly you declared we had to have a 12-metre (39.4 feet) pizza." Lelouch was wary about the fact that TV broadcasting stations all came to document the out-of-portion pizza-making event, thus attracting unnecessary attention to the campus and may expose the hidden imperial siblings.
"But we have to document the making of the pizza!" Milly insisted, "You can run things from the control booth, okay? President's orders."
"A 12-metre (39.4 feet) pizza?" Tianzi asks incredulously. "I have never seen anything like that before!"
"Yes, Milly always has the craziest of ideas," Nunnally answers her Chinese counterpart, "We had to construct a giant oven a few days before the start of the school festival specifically for the production of the giant pizza."
"I want to try it too! It must be delicious!" Tianzi says expectantly. Everything about the last school festival at Ashford was so lively and exciting to her compared to her previous locked up life inside the Vermillion Forbidden City.
"Let's try it next time when we visit the Ashford school festival!" Kaguya says enthusiastically.
"Are we going to make a giant pizza again, Rivalz?" Shirley asks the current president of the Ashford Student Council.
"Nothing's off the table yet, so yea why not? Especially since we haven't really succeeded in making one yet," Rivalz answers.
"Huh? So there hasn't been a giant pizza made yet?" Tianzi asks Rivalz with a concerned facial expression, wondering if she will be able to get a piece of the giant pizza.
"No worries, Your Majesty, we have learned our lesson and will ensure the next one to be a complete success!" Rivalz holds his head high and promises the young Chinese girl that she will definitely have a piece of the upcoming giant pizza.
"Yay!" Tianzi is excited and she greatly looks forward to visiting the next school festival at Ashford Academy.
Kaguya is smiling as she sees how excited her young friend is, but internally she is thinking an entirely different thing. 'Lelouch switched his way of speaking so seamlessly from the masked leader of a militant group to a goofy member of a high school student council. He's such a good actor. Now that I know who the current Zero really is, I think I am now pretty sure about what really happened during the last parade 9 months ago…"
Inside a store room, Suzaku was chopping a copious amount of onions for the production of the giant pizza. Behind him, Kallen was sneaking close to him, holding her pocket knife and ready to strike at any moment. However, before she could have acted, Suzaku suddenly greeted her without looking back, taken her by surprise.
"Why didn't you tell anyone… about who I really am?" Kallen asked in a suppressed low but irritated voice.
However, Suzaku remains unfazed. "You're Kallen Stadtfeld right now, aren't you? Not Kallen Kouzuki, right?" Suzaku said as he turn off the water tap and turned around. "On the battlefield, I won't show any mercy, but I want to try to persuade you here. I know this is against the rules, but while we're at school, I'd rather try to change your mind here than defeat you in combat later."
Before Kallen could give a response, the door suddenly opened; it was Lelouch. "Suzaku, the truck's here. The cheese…" Lelouch then realized that Kallen was present as well, and continued incredulously, "You came back to school?"
Kallen immediately put up her meekly mask on. "Uh… yeah. I'm not as sick now, so…"
Suzaku then came forward and got Kallen out of the sticky situation. "Kallen, what we were talking about has nothing to do with school, okay?" to which Kallen agreed in a meekly tone.
Lelouch smiled upon seeing that Suzaku was trying to cover up Kallen's real identity in front of him instead of taking action against Kallen.
"Kallen! How could you? Suzaku's our friend!" Shirley can't believe Kallen was actually trying to kill Suzaku at school. How cruel was that?
"We were enemies!" Kallen explains, "I couldn't risk him exposing me as a member of the Black Knights!"
Shirley is upset. On the one hand, she can see why Kallen chose to do it, but on the other hand, as a civilian who has not been in the military, it is hard for the orange-haired girl to accept a soldier's way of life.
"Well, good that Suzaku decided to go down the gentler path, though it was technically a treasonous act to turn a blind eye to an enemy of the Empire," Gino comments.
Shirley decides to say nothing more on the subject, but she still feels unsettling about it. 'It's just sad to see my friends were fighting each other life-or-death. Lulu, I know you have brought ultimate peace to all of us now, but…'
"Please do not cry, Shirley, let's not waste His Majesty's hard work," Anya whispers to her orange-haired friend.
Shirley stays silent briefly before she looks at Anya and nods with determination.
Meanwhile, Cornelia led her Glaston Knights to greet Schneizel at a military base.
"Fabulous work for getting them here from Area 18 in one night. Your forces are impressive, Cornelia," the visiting Prime Minister of Britannia commended his younger sister by one day with his typical suave voice. The gallant prince is such a tall man, he even towered over the already tall princess.
"You flatter me. I'm honoured that you deployed your regular troops to fill in for them, Big Brother," Cornelia replied respectfully, "The Glaston Knights who were on standby in the Homeland have joined us here. And that means… we even have Sattel Waffens for the Gloucesters."
"I understand. And I'm going to play this card in my negotiations with the Chinese Federation," the Prince said in response, before suddenly switching to a flattering tone, "What a great honour have I been bestowed with… being asked for assistance by Princess Cornelia, who is unmatched on the battlefield."
Cornelia was embarrassed by her elder brother's sudden praise. "Please, don't tease me about this…" she blushed, a rare expression on her face that only a few people have ever seen, mainly Euphemia.
"But I'm sincere," the prince, however, did not stop teasing the warrior princess, but instead took it a step further, "On the field of combat, you shine more beautifully and brightly than any flower or butterfly at a soirée — yes, like the Flash herself."
And this is when Cornelia's usual stoic mask broke. "Please, stop saying that. You know I'm only…" Cornelia is embarrassed. How could Schneizel compare her with her idol, the legendary "Marianne the Flash"? "…Now where could Euphy have disappeared to? I told her I was coming to see you off," Cornelia changed the subject completely to try to get out of the embarrassing situation she was in, but her womanly facial expression had betrayed her and she was forced to look away from Schneizel to hide it.
"That guy's sick! Not only was he gay, he even flirted with his own sister!" Tamaki blurts out his blunt comment as usual, turning a blind eye to something known to most as "decency".
Guilford immediately steps up. "Mr Tamaki, I demand you to retract your statement at once!"
"Oh come on Guilford, you see how Cornelia blushed and all that…"
Guilford is ready to throw down his gauntlet to the cafe owner before Tohdoh intervenes. "Stop it, Tamaki! You should not embarrass the Princess," the respected Japanese general scolds Tamaki before turning to Cornelia, "please forgive him, Your Highness, he meant you no offence."
Cornelia waves her hand to show that she doesn't mind, but her face is nevertheless slightly blushed as she watches her exchanges with Schneizel back then. 'Damn, even I knew he didn't think that way, he was simply too good and natural at it. My father had 108 wives and many of my brothers were extremely attractive. It seems that the male line of the Britannia House is very capable at producing natural womanizers…'
"I had a long talk with Euphy last night," the Prince smiled.
"Last night?" Cornelia was surprised and regained her composure.
"Yes. Ah, and about the other matter — Bartley's project," The Prince smoothly changed the subject.
"Oh that, I really don't mind, but will he actually be of any use to us?" Cornelia was puzzled by Schneizel's rather unusual request, but nevertheless agreed.
The screen then showed a teal-haired man sleeping inside a large test tube filled with orange liquid.
"That's Lord Gottwald!" Villetta exclaims, "I have always wondered how he returned after the battle at the Narita Mountains and what happened to his left eye. Could he be the experimental subject of Bartley's project?"
"It seems that Prince Schneizel had taken over Prince Clovis' human experiment project unit," Gino observes.
"What's wrong with these Britannian princes?" Kallen hisses, "Why are they so interested in doing strange things on someone else's body?"
Milly frowns. 'So under that perfect mask of yours, you were doing something abhorrent, Prince Schneizel?' she muses disapprovingly.
Guilford, however, notices something else. "Prince Schneizel said that he had a long talk with Princess Euphemia. Does that mean that His Highness was the one who suggested the idea of the Special Administrative Zone of Japan to Her Highness?"
This immediately causes the audience to tense up. The SAZ failed miserably and everything went south after its failure. Cornelia scowls deeply. 'Could it really be Schneizel's idea to create the SAZ of Japan? The naive and innocent Euphy would have jumped right at it and probably even volunteered to lead the project, stepping right into where Schneizel would have wanted her to be, even though his real goal was to exterminate the Black Knights and cared nothing about the welfare of the Japanese.' At this thought, Cornelia starts to fume. 'Schneizel, how dare you dirtied Euphy's hands and kept your own clean?'
Back in Ashford Academy, a disguised Euphemia, wearing a pair of sunglasses, was walking with her two body guards to find Suzaku. She had something important she wanted to tell her knight. 'Suzaku, my brother has approved my idea already. Now we can…'
Cornelia sinks back down into her seat. "Euphy… so you really came up with the plan yourself…" she murmurs, and a small drop of tear falls out her eyes as she reminisces the deceased sister who Cornelia loved and cherished more than anyone else.
Perhaps due to Tamaki's provocation, Guilford's usual emotional check is greatly weakened, and he does the unimaginable: he pulls Cornelia into his embrace, gently brushing the princess' purple hair. Cornelia is shocked and tensed up at first, but immediately feels the love of her knight and relaxes herself. She returns the hug and rests her head into her loyal knight's shoulder.
Nunnally nods to Guilford and smiles to him, thanking him for the chivalry and manly act. Guilford blushes hard and inwardly curses himself for suddenly taking such a bold step, but he nevertheless keeps doing what he is doing until Cornelia calms down and pulls herself up again, showing a genuine smile to her knight. "Thank you, Guilford."
The loyal knight keeps blushing, but also smiles back to his precious princess.
Suddenly, Euphemia bumped into someone. "I am sorry! Are you all right?" the pink princess apologized. It was a Japanese maid who prevented her from bumping into a blind and crippled girl in a wheelchair.
"I'm fine. Are you okay?" the blind and crippled girl responded.
"Huh? Nunnally?" Euphemia realized who the girl was and exclaimed incredulously.
"Huh? That voice…" the blind Nunnally also recognized the voice of the young lady.
"It's really you, Nunnally!" Euphemia took off her sunglasses. Her younger half-sister, long thought to be dead 7 years ago, was alive?
Nunnally looks at the scene with nostalgic yet sad feelings. 'I'm so glad that I at least got to meet and talk to Sister Euphy once again before she…'
Behind the saddened Nunnally, Zero is a bit surprised to learn that Euphemia, his first and only true liege, had met Nunnally right before the announcement of the founding of the SAZ of Japan. He suddenly recalls an episode he had with Euphemia sometime after the announcement and before the SAZ Opening Ceremony. 'Euphy, could it be that you wanted me to meet…' the masked hero muses.
The two long-estranged siblings sat at Lelouch and Nunnally's house and chatted while having tea. Nunnally told Euphemia about their hiding since the war between Japan and Britannia.
"I see. Lelouch asked the Ashfords for help…" Euphemia mumbled.
"Can you not tell anyone else about me and Big Brother?" Nunnally pleaded as she put down her tea cup.
"But, if this continues…" Euphemia is concerned. That means both Lelouch and Nunnally would have to continue to live in exile!
"All I wanted was to be together with my Big Brother…" Nunnally said. Euphemia felt downcast about having to keep separated from her favourite half-siblings despite knowing that they were alive.
Sensing Euphemia's downcast mood, Nunnally changed the subject. "Remember that time when we were in argument?" the blind girl smiled at her half-sister. "About which one of us will become Big Brother's bride."
"I remember!" Euphemia answered with a smile, "asking him 'decide who's going to be your wife tonight' always made him troubled!" Both giggles at the thought of that.
"And now?" Nunnally suddenly asked, taking Euphemia by surprise. "Do you… still love him now?"
Euphemia froze and didn't know what to say.
"I've never thought you would have asked such a sharp and direct question, Nunnally," Kaguya comments. "Did you still have that rivalry feeling with Princess Euphemia?"
Nunnally just smiles and says nothing. Behind her, Zero also has complicated feelings. 'Euphy…' he muses. The man behind the mask may be a generally generous person, but there is always so much that even a generous person can take, especially given what eventually happened.
Cornelia frowns with sadness. 'Euphy, you still had feelings towards Lelouch after all those years. However, the one who ended your short life was…' her fists hold tight as a mixture of sadness and anger rises up to her head. 'I shall find out what exactly happened during the SAZ Opening Ceremony very soon.'
While everyone was enjoying the school festival outside, Nina was still at her usual spot in the student council room, reading a magazine that contained an article about Euphemia.
"Good afternoon!" A cheerful voice suddenly burst into the room, taking the resident genius of Ashford Academy by surprise. It was Lloyd.
"Have you seen Major Kururugi? They said I could find him here… Hmm?" Lloyd was walking towards Nina and noticed her work on her laptop. "Oooh! It looks like you're working on some fun stuff!"
Nina was pleasantly surprised. This tall, bespectacled and lavender-haired man actually understood her work? "You know what this is?" she asked.
"That's uranium, right? The one with the atomic number 235," Lloyd got closer to Nina and her laptop, holding up his glasses.
Nina was exhilarated. She went on to explain the nuclear fission process enthusiastically, unlike her usual quiet and hesitant self.
However, Lloyd noticed something else: two photos showing Nina receiving awards from Euphemia were pinned on the board hanged on the walls right next to the desk where Nina usually worked on her nuclear fission simulation project. In the photos, Euphemia was her usual self, happily presenting the certificate and the trophy to the talented young scientist; Nina, however, seemed nervous and had huge blush as she received the certificate and, though blushing to a lesser degree, the trophy.
"AHA! So you are that child who got the award?" Lloyd asked in his usual cheerful tone.
"Oh, you have heard about that?" Nina replied, reverting back to her usual timid self.
"Yep, Princess Euphemia has high praise for your talents," Lloyd suddenly showed a more serious expression on his face, taking off his glasses as he said so.
However, Nina didn't notice Lloyd's seriousness, still indulging herself in her own excitement of knowing Euphemia's praise of her talents.
"Had I not known you better, I would have thought you were preying on that poor girl, Earl of Pudding," Rakshata jests.
"AHA! You are just jealous that I found a young talent to join my team!" Lloyd shoots back.
"Lloyd, you really need to improve your social interaction skills. How can you look at a girl with that sort of glare?" Cecile lectures her superior.
At the first row, Cornelia feels that something was off with how the bespectacled girl gazed at Euphemia. 'That girl is obviously obsessed with Euphy… Wait, she wouldn't…?'
"Is there something wrong, Big Sister?" Nunnally asks concernedly.
"Nunnally, do you know this girl?" Cornelia asks.
"Yes, her name is Nina Einstein and she was in the student council with Lelouch. Nina is a timid and quiet person, always dedicated to doing her own research in physics," Nunnally answers.
"Sorry I am late!" All of a sudden, a bespectacled, green-haired girl enters the auditorium. It is Nina.
"AHA! Just as we were discussing a scene about you. Good timing!" Lloyd says.
"Huh? What are you talking about, Dr Asplund?" Nina is confused.
"We were just discussing how strange you were whenever the situation involves Princess Euphe… ouch!" Lloyd tactlessly explains the situation to Nina until he is forced to halt when Cecile pulls his ear.
"You really need to improve your social interaction skills!" Cecile is not happy with how Lloyd keeps breaking social norms when interacting with others. Do all geniuses act like that?
Nina is puzzled, but then she realizes that there are Britannian Imperial presence in the auditorium, and she immediately greets them, "Your Majesty and Your Highness, I am sorry for being late. I needed to submit my paper for peer review before the deadline at 3 p.m. today."
Nunnally smiles at her and greets her cordially, but Cornelia stares at her for a moment intently. Seeing that, Nina looks down to the floor and asks timidly, "Your… Your Highness, is there something… wrong…"
Cornelia quickly scans Nina from head to bottom again before she finally nods and says, "Pleasure to meet you, Ms Einstein." Nina bows once more and then hurries to her seat next to Lloyd.
"All right! Any moment! We are about to begin the historic task of the making of the world's largest pizza!" An excited Rivalz with a chef hat stood on a giant oven and enthusiastically announced to a crowd of equally excited people the commencement of the most fabulous way of wasting money – constructing an excessively large oven just to make the world's largest pizza. A few fireworks were shot to the sky to make the occasion more spectacular, or just to waste even more money.
Meanwhile, Lelouch was in the control room, coordinating the various events happening inside the school. Just as he had finished his conversation with Shirley about asking for her assistance to a stage somewhere, Milly walked into the control room.
"Not bad! Got everything on schedule, huh?" the blonde Student Council president commended her vice president.
"I've learned to manage people lately," Lelouch casually replied, "Still, they seem so optimistic, don't they? The Chinese Federation attacked us just the other day, but look at everyone."
"That's why we need this," Milly said, "Festivals are necessary… for everyone, all the time. You still need to learn a bit more." Lelouch was confused at first, but quickly noted Milly's point.
"Big Brother," Nunnally's voice suddenly came in the control room.
"Nunnally, how's the pizza…!" Lelouch was casually responding as he turned his head towards her sister, but froze as he saw who was pushing Nunnally's wheelchair – it's a smiling young girl with pink, long hair while wearing a pair of sunglasses.
"Sorry, I need a second. Call me if something happens!" Lelouch rushed off to his sister as he asked Milly to temporarily take charge of the control room.
"Wow! I wonder how much did the giant oven cost?" Tianzi is curious about how "fabulous" was the money wasted, as Rivalz had put it.
"The cost estimate was done by Lelouch, so I am not sure about the exact amount, but it should be around 150,000 pounds?" Milly answers nonchalantly.
"150,000 pounds?" Ohgi is aghast. That much money just for producing a needlessly giant pizza?
"It's no big deal to the Ashford family, they make so much money by collecting tuition fees and selling school debentures to the wealthy parents, as well as making other investments across Area 11," Gino reasons.
"150,000 pounds would feed 250 Japanese families of four for more than a month already…" Ohgi is still aghast at such fantastic waste of money. Just how luxurious was the student life at Ashford?
"It's a school for the nobles and the wealthy, so that's expected," Kaguya comments.
Tianzi listens to the conversation and feels conflicted; on the one hand, she wants to make a giant pizza, or perhaps a giant Chinese scallion pancake as well; on the other hand, she doesn't want to burden her people, as from the reports she receives from her private secretary, she knows that the Chinese are still struggling to recover their economy after years of corruption and extraction by the High Eunuchs and regional warlords. 'I shall wait for the next Ashford Academy school festival to witness the making of a giant pizza then. Perhaps bring some of the giant pizza back to my people,' she silently decides.
On the other hand, Nina frowns as she sees Nunnally wearing Ashford Academy's uniform. 'Did Her Majesty attend Ashford Academy with us? I thought it was Rolo…'
Back on the open stage, Rivalz descended from the giant oven. He then signaled the staff behind the stage to pull down a giant white cloth, revealing a blue Knightmare Frame. "Now, introducing our special dough tosser: the Ashford family Ganymede!" The blue-haired boy announced as the crowd was fired up by the sight of a Knightmare Frame in front of them, "Yes, it's a bit of an antique, however, at the controls is the student council's prefect and Her Highness Princess Euphemia's personal knight, Suzaku Kururugi!" The crowd cheered once again.
Behind the Ganymede, Kallen and Sayako were holding the giant wires that connect the Ganymede to the power source. Kallen was surprised to see a lot of the Japanese were among the excited crowd waiting for the giant pizza.
Sayako smiled as she turned and explained to Kallen, "There are lots of Elevens who came here today. It's an open festival after all, and this is Lord Kururugi's school. He is like a ray of hope for many Elevens. They revere him."
Behind the electrified crowd, Milly and Lloyd were staring at the Ganymede.
"Ganymede, a 3rd generation Knightmare Frame. The type used by Lady Marianne the Flash, isn't that correct?" Lloyd said slowly.
Contrary to her usual cheerful tone, Milly answered with an uncharacteristic plain tone instead, "It's just a fundamental frame. A big puppet for events like this."
"An unorthodox design dropped for the next generation of Knightmare Frames due to Lady Marianne's death," Lloyd commented.
Milly lowered her face and said melancholically, "I'm guessing that's the real reason you proposed to me?"
However, before Lloyd could respond, a blue-haired beauty in military uniform walked and stood in between Lloyd and Milly. "Seems to be it. He has no attraction whatsoever to the opposite sex," Cecile warned the blonde student.
"What a pity! But I do know the institution," Lloyd responded to Cecile's comment in his usual cheerful tone.
"Dr Asplund! You can't do that to Milly!" Nina is surprised to learn that her mentor actually proposed to her closest friend for such a reason. Even though Nina is not exactly the most sociable person, she understands that marriage should be based on mutual attraction, not Knightmare Frame research compatibility.
"AHA! As I have told you before, I was born with a broken heart," Lloyd replies offhandedly.
"That's exactly why I cancelled my engagement with Lloyd, so no worries Nina!" Milly assures her timid friend. Nina is relieved upon hearing the update from her close friend.
"AHA! It's a pity I can't do research on the Ganymede now, but I still have plenty of other Knightmare Frames to work on!" Lloyd doesn't seem to be sad about the cancellation of the engagement by one bit.
Cecile sighs and shakes her head. "See, this man has no attraction whatsoever to the opposite sex. His passion is only reserved for science and research."
In the front row, Cornelia sighs and shakes her head as well. "To think that Lady Marianne's Knightmare Frame model has become a puppet for a school event… what an abomination."
"Your Highness, I understand your respect to Lady Marianne's legacy, but since the Ganymede has been superseded by later models such as the Gloucester you are piloting, perhaps this is a good way to keep the Ganymede to be displayed in action, a way to commemorate the legacy of the eminent Imperial Consort," Guilford tries to cheer his beautiful and regal liege up.
Cornelia thinks for a moment and nods. "Quite so, since Ganymede will not appear on the battlefield anymore, this may be a good stage for it to continue to be active in front of the public. Perhaps after we have retired from active services, our Knightmare Frames will join the Ganymede as well."
"I am sure they will, Your Highness," Guilford smiles to the purple princess, in which she smiles back in return.
Suzaku began to keep turning and throwing the giant dough into the air as he controlled the Ganymede to make the record-breaking giant pizza. Away from the crowd, Euphemia and Lelouch sat on the steps of a staircase as they looked at the production process of the giant pizza, while Nunnally was sitting on her wheelchair parked on her elder sister's right hand side.
"That was my job last year, but obviously I can't be compared to a pro," Lelouch said as he saw how Suzaku expertly maneouvred the Ganymede.
"This is a day of sweet surprises. To think that you and Nunnally were so close to me all this time, and that you and Suzaku are friends as well," Euphemia spoke softly but cheerfully.
Some distance away, Shirley saw Lelouch sitting on the steps with a pretty girl and got jealous. "What is Lulu doing? Is that the reason why it becomes increasingly difficult to contact him recently?" the orange-haired beauty's eyebrows twitched.
"Hoo! Shirley you were so cute when you are jealous!" Milly giggles as she sees how jealous Shirley had become upon seeing Lelouch sitting next to a girl.
"Madam President!" Shirley immediately cries out in embarrassment. "I was just worried about Lulu!"
"Of course you were. 'What if my Lulu is seduced by a bad girl?'" Milly mocks her orange-haired friend. Shirley has nothing to say but a much blushed face, steam seemingly coming off her head.
"…recorded," Anya dutifully takes a photo of her embarrassed friend.
Lelouch continued his conversation with Euphemia. "If the fact that both Nunnally and I are still alive were to be known by people in the Homeland, we may become the target of the culprit who attacked our mother. I hope you would control your frequency of visiting us," Lelouch said in a soft but serious tone.
"That's no longer a problem, I have come up with a very good solution for that," Euphemia said, "I came here today to inform Suzaku of my solution, actually."
This surprised Lelouch. "A good solution?"
"Yes! I haven't told Big Sister yet, but Big Brother Schneizel…" Euphemia continued happily, but Lelouch was concerned with only part of her response and interjected.
"By the way, could you arrange me to meet with Big Sister Cornelia?" Lelouch faked a cheerful facial expression as he asked his younger half-sister with an innocent tone, "if possible, just me and her…"
Euphemia, however, seemed to sense something from Lelouch's rather uncharacteristic request, given how he had tried his best to avoid seeing any of his family members again in the past seven years until being found by her, and how he asked her to control her frequency of visiting the supposedly dead vi Britannias just now. "Lelouch, could you be…" she glanced at her elder half-brother intently.
"Did Euphy actually notice Lelouch's ulterior motive behind his innocent question?" Cornelia is genuinely surprised at how perceptive Euphemia was. In the elder princess' mind, Euphemia was always the little innocent girl that she had doted and protected from the darker sides of the reality.
"I think so, Big Sister," Nunnally adds in, "Sister Euphy had always been very perceptive to people's thoughts and actions. Even though Big Brother was an exceptional actor, he wouldn't be able to pull wool over her eyes."
Cornelia sighs, "I… I do hope Lelouch had said those words sincerely…" On top of the anger due to Lelouch trying to use Euphemia for his ulterior motive, a great amount of sadness floods the purple princess' mind that despite calling her "Big Sister Cornelia" in a sweet tone, Lelouch did not say that genuinely, but instead seeing his elder half-sister as an enemy who needed to be eliminated from his chessboard. "I really should have tried harder to find you two after the war between Japan and Britannia," the elder princess mutters.
"Please, Your Highness, it was not your fault," Guilford tries to cheer up his downcast princess, "it was His Majesty's fault to send Lelouch and Her Majesty to Japan as hostages. Also, Lelouch was to blame for this, at least partially, for assuming that every imperial sibling was his enemy and had never verified his off-the-mark assumption."
"Lord Guilford is right, Big Sister," Nunnally continues, "and as his younger sister, I should apologize…"
"No, please don't, Nunnally, it's not your fault nor your responsibility," Cornelia quickly stops her younger sister from apologizing on Lelouch's behalf. "I appreciate your gesture, but it would be wrong for me to put the blame on you while it was Lelouch who should be held responsible for. I… I am saddened by this, but I still know where the boundary of responsibility should be drawn."
Then, in a rare gesture, Cornelia kisses Nunnally's cheek. "Thank you, Nunnally. Big Sister will stay strong," the warrior princess promises the young Empress.
Nunnally gives a radiating smile to her elder sister as Guilford feels relieved to see his liege is able to move on.
Shirley fumes and could not suppress her anger and jealousy any longer. She marched towards Lelouch with an angry face. "Lulu!" She bellowed.
Suddenly, a strong gust swept through and blew away the cap the girl next to Lelouch was wearing, sending the girl's long pink hair flowing in the wind.
"Huh? Princess Euphemia?" Shirley finally recognized who the girl sitting next to Lelouch was.
Shirley's exclamation had turned the crowd's attention from the making of the giant pizza to searching for the 3rd Princess of the Empire. Seeing this, Euphemia quickly instructed Lelouch to hide with Nunnally from the crowd while fixing her hair. Lelouch complied and swiftly pushed Nunnally's wheelchair away.
"That's right! The Sub-Viceroy is near the main entrance!" a bodyguard was running through the corridor as she was rushing towards where Euphemia was.
"I copy! I'll send in the backup team!" Another body guard was running towards where Euphemia was from another direction. He passed by a blue-haired girl dressed in a purple witch costume with a pair of wings on her back. She was making the daily mark on the wall as per Lelouch's perpetual Geass order.
"Look at the big mess you've caused, Shirley!" Milly laughs, "Your jealousy was such a great power to behold!"
"Madam President!" Shirley is extremely embarrassed now, knowing that she had actually caused an upheaval in the campus simply because she was overly concerned with the possibility of her dear Lulu dating an Imperial Princess.
"Ah, so that's why everyone had suddenly got excited and led to the ultimate demise of giant pizza no.1," Rivalz sighs as he now knows who was the culprit behind the chaos that interrupted the fabulous money-wasting performance he emceed.
"That was funny!" Tianzi giggles as she sees the excited crowd running around. "People were having a great time!"
"We will be able to enjoy that very soon too," Kaguya chuckles.
"Yay!" Tianzi cheers. Kaguya is happy to see that her young friend is happy.
Anya and Zero, however, pay most of their attention to the poor geassed blue-haired girl. 'We are going to relieve you from the curse very soon,' both of them muse.
As the crowd were hyped and running around in random directions to find Princess Euphemia, Suzaku stood up from Ganymede's cockpit and yelled nervously, "Everyone, stop! Don't run! Please don't panic…! Ah!" He then realized that because he had stopped operating the Ganymede, the giant pizza dough he was throwing into the air went to the wrong direction and landed onto the top of a tree nearby. The attempt to make of the giant pizza failed.
"No…!" Far away, on the rooftop, a saddened C.C. was staring at the giant pizza dough hanging on top of a tree while holding a dish closed to her chest. "Pizza…" she sighed.
Back on the quad, Milly was also saddened to see the giant pizza dough got thrown onto the top of a tree. Not far from her, Lloyd smiled and asked, "Guess we should've left this to the pros. What do you think?"
"I'm afraid I'm just going to have to give up on this one…" Milly sighed.
Amidst the ruckus happening on the school ground, Diethard got out of his TV van as he was speaking on a hands-free phone. "I see. It's fine if we can resolve the matter just by using this van. Ms Kouzuki… right."
Diethard than hanged up the phone and turned to talk to a collaborator. "Looks like we wasted the equipment space inside the TV van. There's no need for the captain of the Zero Squad to escape now either. I'd like you to continue to stay undercover here in the settlement. I'll introduce you to Zero later on."
"I understand," the collaborator answered respectfully. It was Sayako, the maid who took care of Lelouch and Nunnally.
"Diethard had already recruited Sayako-san to be a spy for the Black Knights inside Ashford Academy back then?" Kallen can't believe what is being revealed, "Although C.C. is unsurprisingly as obsessed with pizza as usual."
"The damn TV guy was so efficient in things he was interested in," Villetta gnashes her teeth as she sees the guy who shot her into the sea appearing on the screen.
At last, Suzaku was joined by his liege, and he lifted the pink princess up on the Ganymede's metallic hands as the crowd congregated before the Ganymede.
"Are you alright, Your Highness?" Suzaku asked concernedly.
"I'm fine! Thank you, Suzaku!" Euphemia replied as she regained her posture from the lift.
"Your Highness, would you care giving us a statement please?" down under the Ganymede, a reporter raised her hand as high as possible with the microphone, trying to get a statement from the princess for her visit to Ashford Academy's school festival.
However, Euphemia asked a surprising question. "Would this be broadcast across Area 11?"
Both Suzaku and the reporter were perplexed by the princess' question. What was she trying to do?
Euphemia took a breath before she put up a serious face to the people in front of her. "I have a very important announcement," she said as all TV channels interjected their programmes with the live broadcast of her announcement. Tohdoh and other members of the Black Knights stationing in their hideout were among the many viewers of the broadcast.
"I am Euphemia, Sub-Viceroy of Area 11 of the Holy Britannian Empire. There is something of great consequence that I wish to tell you today!" she continued.
Behind Tohdoh, Rakshata took off her pipe and asked, "What's happening? That little girl is making such a fuss…"
"I, Euphemia li Britannia, hereby declare the formation of the Special Administrative Zone of Japan in the area surrounding Mt Fuji!" the young princess announced, shocking everyone who was listening. "Within the Special Administrative Zone of Japan, Elevens will be permitted to call themselves Japanese. Restrictions against Elevens and special rights accorded to Britannians will no longer exist within this Zone. It will be a place where Elevens and Britannians live side-by-side as equals!" she ended her announcement with a smile.
"What?! Britannia has…?" Lelouch couldn't believe what he heard.
"They're recognizing… Japan?" Suzaku was not doing any better than Lelouch.
"Dammit! I have never thought of this game!" Diethard slammed the table with frustration, "Even though it's only a limited area…!"
Kallen and Nina were both shocked as well, although the former looked shocked because she would never have thought that a member of the Britannian Imperial Family would have made such an anti-Darwinism announcement in public, while the latter looked shocked because of her xenophobic tendencies, apparent from the way she was hugging herself while shivering at the announcement.
Back in the Black Knight's hideout, Tohdoh was enraged by the announcement. "She dare to talk about equality between Britannians and us Japanese? I never thought she's got such a move under her sleeve!"
"It is likely that if we accept peace on their terms, we'll be forced to disarm," Urabe commented.
"However, if we don't participate, we will become the enemy of peace," Chiba also commented.
"What should we do, Tohdoh-san?" Asahina asked the respected Japanese lieutenant colonel.
Tohdoh frowned with frustration, but did not respond to the younger Japanese man.
"I see it now, the Black Knights were cornered by Princess Euphemia's proposal as well," Milly comments, "I can see that Her Highness was sincere in her intention to eradicate the discrimination against the Japanese, but it seems that there was much more political consideration she had not taken account of."
'Princess Euphemia…' Nina muses with sadness. 'You knew, or at least suspected that Lelouch was Zero when he asked you to arrange a meeting between him and Princess Cornelia. Was that the reason why you have decided to include the Black Knights into your SAZ plan as well?'
Cornelia bites her lip and tightens her fists as she sees the re-run of her dearest sister's fateful announcement. 'Euphy, I am really sorry for being too busy back then and left no time for you to discuss your plan for the SAZ with me first before turning to Schneizel for advice. You should have known that I intended to make you the Viceroy of Area 11 once I have eliminated all resistance forces within, and by then you could have implemented your plan safely and needed not to put yourself in such great risk that eventually and unfortunately led to your… demise.'
