Code Geass
Schneizel watched his fellow Brittannians with more than a mild annoyance, though none of it would ever show on his face; it was so easy to forget the contempt one felt for their fellow countrymen when you were able to insulate yourself from them for several weeks at a time, but alas he couldn't avoid this particular meeting.
Lively classical britannian music played throughout the room in honor of the royal family members who were the guests in this juncture. All around the colors of red and gold filled the room; on the walls, the food, the art, even on a significant amount of the oriental guests.
It was the engagement party for his sole elder sibling's marriage to the Chinese Empress, or The Tianzi to use her proper title; though the chances of any other Britannian guests using the culturally appropriate respects outside of his own entourage were slim at best.
Britannia was not a very culturally sensitive race
For every able Britannian noble present who lived up to their title as noble, there were another twenty more who were little more than overfed sycophants of a clearly flawed system; and these were the best that his country could offer.
They were currently swarming around like the vultures they were, not unusual behavior for them; no, what was annoying Schneizel at the present were the whispers.
"Who is that the prime minister is talking to?" 'whispered' one
"He looks like some back country Asian Area trash" another said not even trying to whisper, ignoring the fact that they were currently in the most powerful Asian country in the world
"But his eyes are divine though, I didn't know Chinese had access to civilized cosmetic surgery" one squealed at his current seatmates admittedly odd colored irises.
'Though I'm not one to talk' Schneizel thought even as he tried not to get lost in burning orange orbs, 'The shades of violet orbs that have marked the royal family for generations are just as notable'
It was the 53rd Emperor who'd deliberately bred that trait into his bloodline, when he took two sisters with the unique color as concubines as a way to distinguish the royal line.
Schneizel didn't know if the same could be said for his associate, but Schneizel at least knew they weren't a product of surgery; records claiming Giotto Vongole's eyes could burn a man from the inside out well over 400 years ago.
"Have a drink your highness" said the well cultured voice in of the man sitting across from him in flawless English, "it will ease your stress, this is a happy event after all."
Schneizel met orange glittering eyes, clearly amused at his irritation of his fellow countrymen; never mind the fact that Schneizel's face had been perfectly smooth and the man who was a stranger to him read him like an open book.
"I assure you mister Vongole', I am nothing but tickled at my brother's happiness" Schneizel answered smoothly well aware of the listening ears, in any event it wasn't even a total lie.
Odysseus would be happy either way, his bride's ridiculously young age would make him a happy man in another half a decade or so; but what really pleased him was outmaneuvering Zero and his obvious (to Schneizel anyway) plans to put the Chinese Federation in a noose.
The masked man was both a thorn and pleasure; on the one hand he was killing Schneizel's favorite and most useful siblings with disturbing frequency, on the other he was rooting out a lot of corruption in a show of open power allowing Schneizel to put his pieces into position from the shadows.
He had never crossed wits with such an interesting opponent before
'Well', Schneizel amended, 'almost never'
Across from him Serafino Vongole' was providing quite the entertainment in otherwise tedious proceedings.
Serafino Vongole', current CEO of the Seashell Corporation, one of the only business empires that operated worldwide regardless of war or political climate, and currently one of the wealthiest men in the world sat across from him with a smile almost as empty as Schneizel's own.
As opposed to the oriental dresses and old style robes of the Chinese guests and the capes and somewhat over the top outfits of the Brittannians; Serafino Vongole' was dressed in a simple, if clearly expensive white suit with a black vest and an eye catching orange flower pinned to the jacket.
The man had walked in completely unnoticed without spectacle or announcement; if it hadn't been for Sir Kururugi's sudden stiffening at the man's bodyguard (a tall smiling Japanese man, who walked like a ghost, and was likely trained to kill just as silently), Schneizel might not have even noticed him.
As casually as one might have gone to check their mail, he walked up to the Tianzi, whose eyes lit up at his presence (interesting), gave the girl a bow and a kiss on the cheek, a respectful nod to his brother, and would have disappeared into the crowd had Schneizel not seized the opportunity to cure himself of his boredom.
Now sitting at a table, making mostly small talk, Schneizel was almost wondering if he that was a mistake; the younger man was reading him like a book. Disturbing, but oh so amusing.
"Could I interest you in a game of chess, Mr. Vongole'" he asked the brown haired enigma, eager to pick at his brain
"Me play one of the world's foremost chess masters, your highness?" Vongole' asked with a crafted eyebrow raise, "I doubt I could give you an appropriate challenge."
"I enjoy a game regardless of the difficulty" truth, he could play his subordinates for hours and never consider it a waste of time and not the least because it was a way to make himself more personable to his underlings by spending time with them, "And I wouldn't sell yourself so short, it's just a game like any other."
"Very well", Vongole' answered after taking a moment to tear through Schneizel's head and let him know he knew exactly what he was doing; Schneizel's grin became a bit more genuine, even when he found someone intelligent enough to look through the mask, rarely was there such a lack of fear.
"I have to ask your highness, are your people usually so attracted to the sight of two men pushing pieces of wood along a table?" Vongole' asked after they were several moves in, acknowledging the small crowd that had gathered around them
"We Brittannians are known to have something of an obsession for the game." Schneizel answered, casually taking one of his opponent's rooks
"Hmm, and why would that be?" Vongole' asked moving his bishop to take the knight that had taken his rook
"Historically, the game has often been used as a metaphor for various plays of power" he answered sacrificing a single pawn to protect his own bishop, "War specifically."
"Yes, survival of the fittest is it not?" he replied in a melancholic tone as he took the pawn Schneizel set to be sacrificed, eyeing it like he was seeing something else a million miles away, "I notice you said historically, do you have a specific reason for your love of this game, your highness?"
"Hmm, you caught that did you?" he asked moving his bishop into Vongole' territory, "I personally enjoy the game not for the strategies, though those are always a treat, but for the people making those strategies. Give someone power over another being and see just what kind of people they really are."
At his words the two men exchanged a deep knowing look
"But then again" he said not breaking eye contact, as he checked the man's king "It is just a game, Serafino."
"To someone with your intelligence, I'd imagine most things are your highness." Vongole' sniped back, his smile just as careless as Schneizel's own.
'He read me back' Schneizel thought amused and chilled at the same time
"Serafino?" one of the guests 'murmured' ignorantly, "What is that Ukrainian?"
"What are people from the European Union doing here?" another whispered scandalized
Schneizel forced down a groan, his companion was acting deaf to the flurry of whispers, but Schneizel caught his eye as he mimed a brief 'drinking' sign, in reference to his earlier advice to drown out the sycophants with liquor.
Schneizel snorted
"Ooooh, drinking liquor on the government's dime; I'll take some of that, where'd you get that?" a loud 'loopy' voice waltzed there way, not caring in the least that he was interrupting a talk between a prince and a business tycoon, breaking up the semiserious atmosphere.
"Lloyd!" whisper hissed the feminine voice of Ms. Cecile Croomy, clearly embarrassed at her boss's lack of tact
Vongole's eyes, Serafino had noticed, had immediately tacked on to the scientist pair with an almost hungry look.
Seashell Corporation had their hands in everything, but it didn't take a genius to deduce that Knightmare technology sold like hot cakes, his interest in what were technically the world's foremost experts was obvious.
'Is this something I can use' Schneizel thought, leaning back careful not to interrupt any possible interactions between the three, 'I don't think he particularly likes me, but I doubt Europe's Guardian is the type of man to allow his emotions to rule him'
"Lloyd Asplund?" Vongole' questioned before his eyes trailed over to the man's assistant, "and that would make you the acclaimed Cecile Croomy?"
"Hmm, Cecile you have a fan." Lloyd said nudging the woman ungracefully, who nudged him back, hard.
"Yes, I'm Cecile Croomy, though I wouldn't say acclaimed or anything." She said with an embarrassed smile, even as she ignored her boss's groaning.
"I would" Vongole' said centering razor focus on the woman, "I read your thesis on converting energy from sakuradite into physical shapes capable of interacting with the world like any other matter object; granted I needed a team of smart people to dumb it down for me, but it was riveting nonetheless."
"Oh you read that old thing?" Croomy asked surprised and pleased, "I wrote that ages ago, I can't believe you found it; it wasn't all that popular."
"Nonsense, my Chief of Staff ranted about you for weeks; I was tempted to fly down and offer you for a job in my company" Vongole' revealed easily to their party's surprise, "But it seemed someone else snatched you up."
"Yep!" Lloyd once again interrupted, throwing an arm around Ms. Croomy's flustered form, "Too bad for you Feenie old boy, I couldn't let such talent go to waste in something boring like a clean energy plant."
"Lloyd!" Croomy hissed a second time
"What company do you work for, I want to know the name of the place whose face I'm rubbing my victory in, have I heard of you?" Lloyd asked ignoring his assistant
"Lloyd, how rude can you be!" Croomy yelled forgetting to be quiet, "I am so sorry about him, please ignore him he's an idiot."
The woman gave a very Eleven like bow (probably unconsciously picked up from her previous assignment) in apology; Schneizel didn't miss Vongole's eyes flickering to her reputable… assets, before coughing and looking embarrassed.
It was the first genuine reaction he'd seen from the man all night, aside his amusement at Schneizel's frustration to being read so easily; it was a tad disappointing that Vongole' seemed just as susceptible as any other man to distractions of the flesh, but he doubted it was a particularly exploitable weakness.
"It's fine, I've worked with far worse Ms. Croomy" Vongole' appeased, "Genii are genii no matter where you go; and to answer your question Asplund, I head the Seashell Corporation."
There was an influx in the murmurs as the identity of the mysterious "backwater Asian looking peasant" talking to their prince was announced.
He was pretty sure he heard Weinberg, who had reconvened with them around the time the chess match began, make a choking sound.
Croomy for her part swayed on her feet, as she flustered then paled then flustered again, no doubt flattered such a huge corporation had taken an interest in her, scared of how she had been interacting with the man, and flustered again at his interactions with her.
"Oh, oh my, I had no idea" she said leaning slightly against a small display for support
"HA, HA, HA, I stole someone from Seashell, HA, HA, HA" Lloyd though of course burst into laughter without fear
"Lloyd! Don't be rude this is-!" but she was interrupted
"No more rude than talking over and ignoring a prince and the current prime minister, have you no shame Cecile?" Lloyd said off handedly
The woman in question immediately paled upon noting his gaze and began apologizing, to which Schneizel easily waved off; really being ignored was such a novel experience sometimes, no one ever forgot the snake in the room.
In any case the woman dragged her boss off a few feet away and proceeded to tear into him in full view of their little party; whatever Lloyd's replies were, they were apparently unsatisfactory because he saw her smack the eccentric man on the head.
"Isn't he supposed to be the boss?" Weinberg asked in an amused aside
"Yes and an Earl at that" the quiet nearly forgotten Alstriem answered in monotone as she recorded the whole thing on her phone
"Ha, Ha, Ha, you certainly work with interesting people Suzu-kun" laughed the bodyguard from where he had drifted off and was chopping it up with Sir. Kururugi
"Don't call me that Yamamato!" Sir Kururugi said in his own whisper hiss that was tinged in embarrassment; old friends perhaps?
Vongole', Schneizel noticed, hadn't turned his attention away from the female scientist; and as the pair made their way back to the group he thought he heard the man slip in something about Ms. Croomy branching out on her own.
Trying to poach one of his researchers perhaps?
"Your friends with our buddy Suzaku!?" said the enthusiastic voice of Gino Weinberg, picking up on the term of endearment, and looping his arm around the fellow knight
"Me and Suzu-kun grew up together" 'Yamamato' returned with an easy smile; the older boys chatted clearly not giving a damn for propriety or the looks they were getting for interacting with people across stations, "He used to be so much cuter back then following me around with his little practice sword; I'm actually surprised you remember me at all."
"Your hard to forget" Sir Kururugi grumbled irritated to Schneizel's amusement, it was rare to see the solemn knight break out of his duty driven shell, and this bodyguard was drawing out so many emotions from the Knight of Round, "and I was not that little, I was almost ten you and were fourteen at the most."
'Which would have been around the time of the invasion' Schneizel thought taking a glance at Vongole', who seemed content to watch the little tiff with a pleasant smile, 'So how did he end up with you?'
"Ha, ha, I know, I know" Yamamato said waving his hands in a patronizingly appeasing manner which only irritated the knight; Schneizel was guessing Sir Kururugi was quite the hothead as a child, "Fuuta talks about you all the time, I think he's your biggest fan Mr. Knight of Round."
"Fuuta" the Knight whispered, like he'd just heard a miracle, "He's okay?"
Which probably really meant, 'he's alive'
"I just said he talks about you all the time, Tsuna does too." Yamamato said with an amused smile
"Tsuna's okay too!?" Kururugi said perking up at the mention of the name
Growing slightly bored, Schneizel turned to engage in a conversation with Vongole', and see if he could pin down the man's interest in the Camelot research team, only to see the man wearing a genuinely stunned look on his face.
Blinking, Schneizel turned back to see an equally stunned look on Yamamato's
"Yeeeees" the bodyguard intoned slowly like he thought the other man was saying something incredibly obvious, "He's sitting right there."
All members of their little party followed his finger and turned to the orange eyed European man, who gave a little amused wave.
"Tsuna-san?" Kururugi said slipping into Japanese honorifics as his eyes slowly widened with recognition, "Your so…"
"Not Dame?" he asked as Kururugi flushed embarrassed, Dame, another Japanese word
"Tsuna?" Schneizel said turning to Vongole'
"Serafino Tsunayoshi Sawada-Vongole'" the brunette smiled amused, "At your service"
Well wasn't that a twist; the man who was head of one of the most powerful business empires in the world, as well as (to those in the know and Schneizel was always in the know) the secret head of an organization that led most of the European Union from the shadows since its inception, was a twenty something year old with Japanese blood.
Japan that his country had invaded, stripped, enslaved, and was currently in a war of suppression over, all in his very young life time… this suddenly gave his willingness to sit down and talk with Schneizel a whole new layer of context.
"You're an Eleven?" Weinberg asked with all the tact and sensitivity of a sledge hammer; though to the young man's credit, his voice lacked any kind of prejudice, and merely held curiosity.
The whispers of the sycophants were nowhere near as such
Honestly, how could they forget that the knight of round in this very room, was also from said country
"I prefer half breed mutt if you will" Sawada-Vongole' answered with a pleasant smile
This time there was no muttering from the peanut gallery; in fact other than the music playing, not a sound could be heard from anyone in a ten foot radius of the little group.
"You'd actually prefer to be looked at as some kind of dog?" Schneizel asked making sure he had heard correctly, interested to hear the man's explanation.
"In your country?" Vongole' rhetorically asked with a raised eyebrow, "Oh yes very much indeed"
His burning orange eyes looked unnaturally cold, and the smile that crossed his lips was absolutely poisonous, and Schneizel knew that whatever he was about to say next would set in the minds of all those listening.
"After all, in your country it's better to be an animal, then it is a simple number."
'Well' Schneizel thought at the drop dead silence, 'that's one way to shut them all up'
"You" Ms. Croomy said joining the conversation looking troubled, "you don't really believe that do you?"
"It's not a believe, but a disappointing reality my dear Ms. Croomy, besides we've all heard far more flavorful statements in the last year or so, from a certain cape wearing Rebel" Vongole' shrugged with a careless smile, eyes flickering to behind Schneizel, as if he hadn't said something incredibly tension rising to their current political climate, "Though in this case I may have to accept I might be worse considering I ruined his dramatic entrance. My apologies Mr. Zero."
"There is nothing to apologize for Mr. Vongole'" said a cold metallic voice that made half the room seize up as if struck, "It is I who is after all interrupting a conversation between gentlemen."
The chaos was immediate; Kururugi was in front of him weapon drawn in an instant, the red head pilot always at Zero's side had hers pointed back at him, several of the nobles scrambled back as if expecting an attack, Weinberg swallowed the wrong way and choked, and Lloyd immediately started to laugh.
Schneizel for his part just observed curiously, waiting to see the next performance out of this audacious man, who'd had the sheer bloody-minded audacity to show up at a wedding for the prince of the country he was waging war against.
A cursory glance to the Chinese guards revealed them to be weary, but not overtly surprised; oh, a wedding gift for the groom perhaps, how thoughtful.
Schneizel was further amused when a little girl who couldn't be older than fifteen, suddenly twirled her way in front of the two armed and dangerous guards with a pretty smile on her face as she cheerily claimed diplomatic immunity.
"Kaguya hasn't changed at all boss" he heard the bodyguard snicker; he hadn't even seen the man move to behind his boss's shoulder again, dangerous.
At his words though, the young woman looked up and focused on the Seashell pair with a curious (and deceptively calculating) gaze.
"Aren't you Suzu-kun's old sword instructor?" she asked curiously after a moment of eyeing the man up and down, before flickering down to the seated Vongole'.
"TSUNA!?" she cried upon making eye contact with the man
"Well it's nice to know at least one person remembers me" Vongole' droned, not the least bit effected by the tense atmosphere as he sent a faux glare to Kururugi, "How are you doing little princess, I see you've grown; even have a brooding mysterious man on your arm like you always said, though I have to wonder if this one is as pretty under the mask as the last one."
"Lulu-kun wasn't brooding, Tsuna-kun, he was just misunderstood" she chirped apparently taking the new revelation of her once thought dead friend being alive at the wedding of the ruler of another country playing chess with the prince of her enemy nation in stride.
'Dangerous girl' Schneizel thought, 'I wonder what she'll be like when she's older'
And was he mistaken or did Kururugi, the red head, and even minuscule Zero, all twitch at the name Lulu?
"Lulu, you promised you would come play with me!"
"Go away Euphie, I'm trying to play a sophisticated game of chess with Schneizel!"
"Luuuuuluuuuuu!"
"Lelouch and Nunnully have been exiled to Japan to stay with the Prime Minister Kururugi and his family as hostages."
"He probably hates us all Cornelia; don't underestimate him because he is a child, I wouldn't be surprised if he organized the Japanese to be his fighting force against the Emperor in an act of rebellion"
"You have a terrible sense of humor Schneizel"
'Well, well little brother', Schneizel thought as long forgotten memories surfaced, 'it seems you sowed some mighty strong roots before you passed'
Schneizel wouldn't even be surprised if this entire war was linked back to the anger of a banished ten year old prince; it would be deliciously ironic that the greatest threat their nation had ever encountered, turned to be born from the spite of the child his father loved most when the man banished said child out of fear.
"I see my apologies then" Vongole' said with an appeasing smile as the girl pouted cutely, "Perhaps your new suitor would like to join the rest of us men folk?"
"You would have someone like me join you?" the masked man asked, even as he brushed by Kururugi his bodyguard trailing him
"Of course, you can even sub for me, I'm afraid his highness has been slaughtering me on this metaphorical battlefield" Vongole' said as he gestured to the semi-forgotten chess game in front of them; Schneizel could admit to finding himself excited to face the masked man in a game of wits in his favorite game, "And I must admit I'm a bit curious."
"Oh, and what finds your curiosity, Mr. Vongole'" Zero said sliding as gracefully as any royal into the third unoccupied seat.
"I merely want to see what mass population's reaction would be, if the three most powerful men in the world were to gather together, play chess and talk about the weather." The man finished with an impish smile
For a moment both Schneizel and Zero paused before exchanging a glance (an unsettling experience in its own right) before looking around them at the other guests.
You'd think they were watching someone trying to diffuse a bomb; expressions ranged from shock, to disbelief, to undisguised fear and suspicion, one man in particular had his foot facing the door and looked prepared to bolt in a heartbeat.
"So" Vongole' said with a huge smile after a deliberate pause of awkward silence, "How's the weather?"
"…Windy" Zero answered his robotic voice dry; the other guests looked as if their minds were breaking at Zero finishing a joke.
It was of course Lloyd with zero sense of social awareness who broke down in snickers first, even as Schneizel had to stop himself from smiling too wide at the sudden loss of tension.
"As fascinating as this is, I'm afraid your experiment might be a touched flawed" Schneizel continued with an honest chuckle, "I am hardly one of three most powerful men in the world."
What his humble answer left unsaid was that if he, the prime minister of the most powerful country in the world wasn't, than the other two surely were not.
"Are we not" Zero asked in an inquisitive tone as he leaned forward picking up a black chess piece "What is power, but the ability to exert one's will on the world around them; true the Emperor may be higher than you, but he has left most of the running's of his empire to you has he not, would that not make you more powerful?"
'Bold' Schneizel thought, absently noting the man had started with the king, 'No britannian citizen would dare imply that the Emperor was little more than a place holder for me, even if that's become more and more true in the last year.'
"Yet I move only accordingly to the Emperor's will, as all subjects must for their king" Schneizel answered smoothly, "Delegating, I believe is the term you are looking for; and even so, I'm afraid that same power does not expand to a single Rebel Force like the Black Knights."
"Nor would it to Mr. Vongole' who instigated this topic" Zero said with a nod of his helmeted head to Vongole', who hadn't taken his eyes off the game, but both knew was listening intently, "But perhaps I should have said that power was the act of exerting ones will on the universe, rather than just the mere ability to. In which case Mr. Vongole's original statement is true, I can think of no three people creating more waves in the world at this moment then those here at this table.
Well Schneizel couldn't deny that; with the Emperor working on his little personal projects, Schneizel had been busier than ever gathering the strength of the nobles to him, as well as quelling the brush fires in the country with his own unique not darwinistic methods. Brush fires that had been started by the raging inferno that was Zero, who had the whole world waiting with bated breath for his every move.
As for Seashell, Schneizel thought with a glance to the final member of their party who met his eyes evenly, like he was following along to Schneizel's thoughts, on the surface they remain in the background chugging along unaffected by the strives of the world.
'But that isn't quite true is it Mr. Tsunayoshi Sawada?'
The Vongole' family had once been a massive criminal organization, powerful but not world changing. Then came the revolutions and the Brittanias and others of the ruling class were forced out of their homeland to the colonies creating the European Union. A Union with massive power gaps, power gaps that the Vongole', or Vongola as they were once known, were all too happy to fill.
From the corner of his eye he watched the man poach his scientist; the young woman slowly relaxing her posture around the charming bold young man, with no idea she was talking to the unofficial shadow leader of the third biggest Republic in the world.
He wondered if even Zero knew, he wouldn't be surprised
"Such is the prerogative of the young and ambitious, I suppose." He finished
"And you are a young man are you not Master Zero?" Vongole' said speaking up for the first time since the chess game had restarted
"What would tell you that Mr. Vongole'?" Zero said focusing his attention on his other opponent, and it was Schneizel's turn to sit back and watch the debate, "and what would make me answer, I do where this mask for a reason?"
"I'm aware" Vongole' said with a smile, burning eyes flickering not to Schneizel but the man's crimson haired bodyguard.
Interesting, had he seen something Schneizel had not?
"What would make me say that, I'm simply very observant Master Zero, my job would requires nothing less." He waved away, but his eyes were challenging, waiting.
Zero answered the challenge
"You were able to guess my presumptive youth from just a few words of conversation, Mr. Vongole?" Zero asked, and Schneizel could hear the man raising a challenging eyebrow
"No, I could tell that easily enough from the way you walk; flamboyant and airy as it is." somebody, Schneizel suspecting Weinberg and Yamamato snickered, "I was able to get far more from the conversation than just that."
At Zero's inviting hand wave, Vongole' graced them with the same cold smile he'd given Schneizel not a few minutes ago, when saying animals were treated better than number subjects in his country.
"You are arrogant, conceited, and vain, but anyone could tell that" Vongole' started coldly, and Schneizel watched the redhead bristle, a casual (not quite threatening) shifting of foot from Yamamato kept her in place, "Japanese is not your first language, though you allow a significant amount of slang to know you've been exposed to it from a young age, you are likely between your late teens and very early twenties, you were born in and raised of a significantly high standing, you've may have lost that standing but you still carry many of the ingrained habits in your more unconscious movements, for a commander you have very little hand to hand skills."
He paused briefly rubbing a hand against his chin in obvious thought even as the whole room hung on his every word
"Your fiercely intelligent perhaps even a true genius", he continued slowly eyeing the nearly finished chess game, "Ruthlessly pragmatic, yet surprisingly emotional and prideful… I've heard no lies in any of your recent speeches; you are overall an ambitious idealistic man. A demon with an angel's soft heart, which I suppose is better than an angel with a devil's heart, depending on how much one care's about methods vs results."
When he finished there was a moment of dead silence as the room, even his "fiancée" and bodyguard, stared at the masked man with considering eyes; though Schneizel didn't miss the obvious glance at him at the 'angel with a devil's heart'.
"And which would you say you are more like Mr. Vongole'?" Schneizel asked, and wasn't surprised by the man's ever present smile
"Why I am the cruelest of all" his eyes empty and cool, "a simple man with a human's heart, fickle and indecisive as it is."
As he spoke his eyes flickered between Schneizel and Zero making it clear that he was deciding which one of them he would support in the coming days, not an insignificant support with the sheer size of Seashell and the Vongole's influence; it seemed discussion of rebellions and coups were passed, they were dealing world politics now.
"Decimo?" a male voice interrupted
A silver haired man with a scowl and piercing green eyes looked over them both with obvious contempt, even as he leaned down to whisper something in Vongole's ear.
Schneizel couldn't help equate a resemblance to the red haired bodyguard, not familial but ethnicity wise, perhaps they came from a similar mixed community.
"Thank you" Vongole' said with a nod, his expression not leaning one way or another to the nature of the news, "It seems I have some pressing engagements to take care of tonight, as apparently do you."
Before anyone could ask what that meant, the room was filled with a piercing scream of Miss Einstein
"ZERO!"
"Well it was wonderful to meet you all", Vongole' continued obviously ignoring the commotion as he and his men began to make their way to the door, "Zero, your highness… Ms. Croomy"
With that the man smoothly made his exit, no one else able to make any protests with Einstein's sudden appearance.
'It was wonderful to meet you too, Mr. Vongole''
This can be a Part One I suppose, though I wouldn't hold my breath if anybody requests a Part Two soon; I really only made it for the conversation between two geniuses that wear literal and figurative masks and a Tsuna who masks are useless on. Tsuna doesn't have Geass or Dying Will Flames.