Chapter 6: The Storm Retracts

Part 12: Weakness

Glory never lasts forever; the world spins for everybody else.

-Old Britannian Saying

Lelouch felt glory after Narita but the feeling evaporated like clear steam instead of condensing into a water droplet. It was a Saturday, usually a day of peace and quiet before he put his ambitions into practice. Lelouch sat at a corner in his room, sighing like a bored child with nothing meaningful to do. He pensively analyzed everything that went wrong yesterday at princess Euphemia's proper funeral and blamed all of his problems on his elder sister, Princess Cornelia.

"All of my plans have been smooth until Cornelia succeeded my brother Clovis," Lelouch stated, "She is the blame for slowing my progress."

"Why do you hate your sister Cornelia so much?" C.C. asked who was lying on his bed with her arms and legs spread out like a starfish. Her white straightjacket draped on the furniture like an angel's cloak, pure and clean but she herself represented a lonely devil, a witch of isolationism.

Lelouch looked at her while covering his eyes with a painful mien and replied, "She operated the Britannian military for years, making her a difficult obstacle for all my plans. She is a threat to me; my dreaded enemy."

"You would hate a family member to such severe degree?" C.C. asked.

"If somebody is not with me, then they are against me. My goals force me to eliminate them and that is how our current world operates; a world of extremes, a world where survival is for the fittest," Lelouch lectured. He looked at C.C., now holding her beloved Chizu-Kun doll and said, "Am I wrong?"

"You are a rationalist Lelouch, a person heavily dependent on reasons for every cause. Albeit to blame, to mock, to boast, you are blinded by logic," C.C. responded.

"So you too believe I am wrong. My guess is that you think I am too cold, weighing values on a scale based on effect and efficiency, that I am tactless like that of a stoic hermit," Lelouch thought.

"Logic and calculation are merely tools, a figure to measure how much. Intuition clears the mind to weigh judgements based on right or wrong," C.C. said in a poetic vibe.

"You are wrong! Intuition brings disaster into the picture! My intuition suggested Cornelia would be at Euphie's funeral, yet her crafty nature led me to a trap. She took my precision timing to her advantage. That is something of quantitative evaluation!" Lelouch disagreed with her philosophy.

"Explain," C.C. said.

"I used logic and she used her counter-logic. The battle's victor was the one who used more," Lelouch suggested.

"Then you think Cornelia is smarter than you?"

"She is very intelligent and experienced in the art of war."

"Now you add experience into this discussion?"

"Yes, it is advantageous to a great degree."

"People with experience do not think, but know; they have intuition. Now do you see your flaw?"

"No! Experience is generated by past reasoning, exercised to a great extent."

"Tsk Tsk Tsk! You are in a worse state than I thought. You are truly blinded by logic, believing even intuition as reason, yet they are dichotomous."

"Quiet woman! I know who I am up against," he scolded.

"You have this great intellect, this superior faculty of reason but you haven't exercised it into intuition. Cornelia probably knew you were going to strike when she was weak, therefore from your past success at Narita, she figured you would expect her to be at Euphie's funeral. She had an instinct to hide and take advantage of her absence to counter your assaults," C.C. said.

Lelouch looked stunned at her flawless analysis of reverse psychology; the one he missed when he was computing at his desk. Lelouch was about to ask her a burning question but was interrupted.

"My instincts make me want to save you. I can feel when you need me, when you are in danger," C.C. said.

Lelouch looked even more surprised at what she just said. He thought as he spaced out, "If she was never there at Shinjuku ghetto or Kamine Island, I would have perished!"

"You see, logic cannot solve all your problems," C.C. commented.

"I can't believe it! After all those calculations, I have been breached by something I cannot factor! Say C.C., how do you know all this?"

"Must I remind you, I have five centuries of experience; over tenfold of any person."

"Then perhaps you should assist me in my planning oh far-seer," Lelouch turned to her as a teacher.

"Sorry no can do. I have experience but I do not possess your gift for strategy. I am afraid you are on your own when it comes to decision making," she said with a shrug, "Must I tell you, the first time we met was when you were very young."

"No way, I do not recall."

"It was on a hot summer day six years ago. You were very young and I found you playing with a Japanese boy."

"If what you are saying is truth, then why were you there?"

"I thought you were a poor child."

"I was, with no family to take care of me, no school to go to. But all this you mentioned are general details."

"Not only have we met, I've talked to you," she added.

"That is odd. I can remember events from when I was four but I do not remember ever meeting you when I was little."

C.C. inched closer to his face, gazing deeply into his eyes. She then said in a seductive voice, "You looked very cute just like today. I had an urge to hold you and say: You will grow up to be a king."

"What made you want to say that?" Lelouch questioned, trying to distance himself from her awkward demeanour.

"Intuition," she left him baffled at a distance with a smirk on her face, "And a burning desire to be with you."

"C.C.," Lelouch called her.

"What is it?"

"You scare me sometimes," he said. She smiled at him, jumped onto his bed and crossed her legs. "I don't think we have met before. You probably mistook me for some other Britannian boy."

"But we have and I did something very naughty to you," she tried to arouse him.

Lelouch blushed at what she just told him and said, "You are creating this fantasy to throw me off guard! I'm getting out of here!"

"May I accompany you?"

"No! I had enough of your sick fantasies."

Lelouch locked himself out of his room and walked down the hall to the living room.

"Every day that woman makes me sick, with her dirty fantasies of me! I really need a breather away from that wanton lady!" Lelouch said. He walked to the coatrack and grabbed his jacket. He opened the front door, then slammed it shut, locking himself out of his house.

What C.C. said about their past was actually true. Lelouch found the memory too awkward to retain and suppressed it over the course of five years. The truth was, Lelouch still have fragmented remnants of those humiliating memories from back when he was a child. He occasionally dreamt about it but it stirred some discomfort whenever he woke from that nightmare. He could never picture the woman's face but something inappropriate happened between the two. Lelouch stopped walking and thought to himself, "Can she read my dreams and take advantage of them?" He was definitely being paranoid, but to him, it was a possibility.

On the way out of the school's entrance gates, Lelouch bumped into Shirley. She greeted with a little bow and said, "Oh Lelouch it's you! Have you finished tallying the paperwork for our upcoming poll?" The honourable madam president, Milly Ashford planned a popularity contest event of many fronts: athletic, intellect, good looks, mannerisms and more.

"Yes in fact, I have e-mailed the results to madam president," Lelouch replied.

Shirley looked at him with shy eyes, fidgeting her legs and asked, "You and I weren't in a relationship before like everybody is telling me, right?" It has been almost two months and she was still confused from what her classmates told her.

Lelouch laughed and said, "Do not believe in everything your friends say, they just like to mess with you!"

"Then how come everybody tells me that?"

"They probably think you have a chance but we were just friends and members of the student council, that's all."

"Even Milly, Kallen and Sophie said so and they said they were honest!"

"Honest or not, mob mentality and gossip spreads like wildfire. You cannot believe in that sensation."

"Really? You are not hiding something from me, are you?"

Lelouch looked at her with a surprised look. He then calmed down and replied, "I am speaking only of the truth. I would never lie to you."

"Then goodbye," Shirley waved.

"Goodbye then. See you sometime soon," Lelouch gave his farewell and walked out of the campus.

Lelouch walked to the train station and boarded a train. He stood, leaning by the train's inner walls with his hands in his jacket's pockets. Not noticing anyone around, he closed his eyes and waited for the train to start. C.C. was on the train too. She walked down the length of the train with her usual space-aged Britannian straightjacket on, which caught the attention of some people, like some sort of chic cosplay. She did not pass Lelouch's section of the train, so nobody commented on her outfit there.

The train stopped to the Lelouch's destination. C.C. got off and in a discreet manner, away from him. With his hands placed in his pockets, he walked down the stairs instead of the escalators. C.C. took the lazy route by riding the escalators, slowly observing his whereabouts. She then trailed behind him for about a three meters distance, in a densely populated section of the city. The truth is that she can feel her contract's heartbeat within a two kilometer radius and located his position by that method. Lelouch on the other hand did not know she was following him, but his paranoia led him to conclude he was being followed. To be spontaneous, Lelouch walked into a random alley until he reached a tall fence, which despite his poor athletic ability, climbed up and jumped down.

"Damn!" he said as he rubbed his left ankle, which he sprained from landing improperly.

C.C. peered by a corner and did the same after he was out of sight. Lelouch walked slowly to avoid excessive pain which inhibited his mobility. He entered a food store to look unsuspicious. C.C. did not enter the store but she waited around an alley across the street. Meanwhile in the food store, Lelouch bought a brick of rye bread. He left the store, unaware of where C.C. was hiding. She noticed he left the store and was about to continue her stalking but was caught by the arm. She turned around and two thug-like men were facing her.

"Look at what have we here! A young maiden, hiding from someone!" one thug said.

"Who could you be hiding from?" another asked. This one wore a pair of sunglasses and a tuque.

"Get off of me!" she yelled and struggled to break free. But it was useless, she couldn't even budge. The one without the shades stepped closer and said, "Don't worry; we will protect you from those nasty rapists out there." They looked like rapists themselves.

"Stop it…" C.C. said. They wrapped a strip of cloth around her mouth to prevent her from making a fuss of things. She stomped her feet in attempt to break free but failed to injure the man as he dodged her foot. She panicked like there was no hope escaping these two hoodlums.

"Let us show you where you will go and what you will become!" the one with the shades said.

Then out of the blue, Lelouch appeared with the epic grocery bag in his hand and said, "Let her go!"

"Why should we, you scum!" said the one with the shades.

"I HAVE RYE!" he said that rather randomly.

"What are you going to do? Throw that brick at us? Look, there are two of us and one of you, you look weak and we can really kick your ass. Your little green-haired missy looks like fine prostitute material."

"Let her go, human trafficking is a crime punishable by death!" Lelouch declared.

"Law this law that, we break the laws and are not afraid of death!"

"Then look into my eyes!"

"We are not queer either!" the one with the shades was being politically incorrect to intimidate his opponent.

"I Lelouch vi Britannia command you to act like sissies!" he ordered with his Geass.

The two men suddenly broke into hysteric laughter and sung tunes more childish and random then children songs.

We love unicorns and rainbows,

Ponies and butterflies too.

I love flowers and pink erasers,

Do you?

The thugs looked like drunken idiots, practicing some sort of Bacchus cult-dance.

"Look, we have to go," Lelouch said and pulled her out of the alley, "You have to protect yourself from indecent men like those you know."

"Lelouch your ankle," C.C. looked at how it was fine.

"Ah, I faked all that to see if somebody was following me. Now I know it was you," Lelouch explained.

"You went through all that to find out who was following you? You are really paranoid, my love."

"Well, I have to be extra cautious when it comes to self-protection. I see that is your weakness," Lelouch commented.

"Thank you," C.C. said with a heartfelt look.

"These men might be too strong for you when it comes to strength but they were cowards back there," Lelouch said. He held his hand tightly, not letting it go.

"How did you know I was back there? I mean, you were walking the other direction on another street," C.C. wondered. She looked at him in awe.

"Intuition, it was intuition. Isn't that what you taught me?" Lelouch gently replied with a faint laugh.

Lelouch, the mastermind of organized crime walked down the streets of inner city Tokyo to exercise his new talent—intuition. This showed, with a little patience, Lelouch can be a quick learner of any trade.