Midori Kokoro
Rain pattered the windows of the train as it sped through the countryside of Area 11, or now Japan. Its original name was restored, along with the other captured countries, after the death of the demon emperor, Lelouch Vi Britannia.
There was peace in the world now. Although Suzaku didn't feel peaceful. He felt like a murdering, living-on idiot.
Sure, the plan he and Lelouch made saved the world from war and hatred, but there was just emptyness in Suzaku's soul.
"There's nothing I can do about that now." He thought, gazing out the window at the countryside. Even the beauty of the mountains didn't help anymore. He felt hollow.
Nunally had noticed the way he was now, and not even she could make him feel better. So then she remembered a place, where she, her deceased brother, and Suzaku went to when they were much younger.
It seemed so long ago, he realized, when they were friends, not enemies.
There was no protesting to Nunally. Even Zero needed a break every once in a while, was what she said.
Hinamizawa was a small town. Even so far in technology they still managed to keep the village rural and quaint. There used to be a bus station you would ride to the remote place, but now that was replaced with a train and the works.
He still couldn't believe he was pushed into this.
What was he doing here?
Did Nunally really believe sending him to a village he barely remembers would heal his heart?
Yes, apparantly she did.
The train slowed, and he stood up before it stopped all together. It was summertime, the heat beating down onto the roofless train station.
Suzaku put on thick sunglasses, throwing his bag over his shoulder, before stepping off silently.
"Oh well." He thought, "This trip will end eventually."
Somehow, his muscles felt cramped. Yeah, sitting on a train for several hours was the result. He would've liked to stretch out a bit, but where was he going to do that?
The 18 year old set off, realizing he didn't book any reservations at a hotel or anything. He shrugged it off, knowing he would manage. He could survive.
With the whole world thinking that Kururugi Suzaku, the former Knight of Seven and former Knight of Zero, was dead, it wasn't hard to feel like you were some sort of spirit floating around, looking for a meaning in life, or something stupid like that.
Besides, dying was certainly not an option. That was obvious. He couldn't just jump off a bridge and be done with it.
Noo, it was much more complicated than that.
The buildings were small but nice, modern but with a little tinge of nostalgia in them. The people seemed nice, they were all smiling.
He found that weird.
As he passed an alley between two conveniance stores, he heard a noise. He strained his ears and heard struggling, some yelling.....
And then a cry of pain.
Instantly he dropped his bag and ran in the alley, the sun barely reached through, but he followed the sounds and approached the source at the dead end of the alleyway.
There were some teenage boys up ahead, around 16 or 17, and they were trapping something, their backs facing him.
Or they were trapping someone.
"Oh my god, the runt is crying!" One of the boys yelled, clenching his fists, "Crying isn't going to help you, traitor!"
"Let's all throw rocks together! That'll teach this twerp a lesson!" Another said, picking up said object on the ground, the others doing the same.
The first boy held his arm back with a rock in his hand, ready to throw, but then a hand firmly grabbed his wrist.
"What are you doing?" A voice asked calmly behind him.
All the boys dropped their rocks and turned away from their bullying victim. Suzaku couldn't really tell who it was, but the person backing into the corner looked like a little girl.
He removed his sunglasses, sage green eyes piercing the other boys, waiting for their answer.
"None of your business!" The first boy ripped his wrist away, backing up, "And you better not get involved! You may be older, but we outnumber you!"
"I can see that." Suzaku remarked as the bullies surrounded him instead. He glanced at the fence at the dead end. There was a plastic trash can on the ground in front of it.
He obviously can jump that high...
And his arm muscles are better than anyone he knows...
He then glanced over his shoulder. Down where he entered, people walked past, some poking their heads in to see, but when they saw the girl cowering in the corner, they narrowed their eyes, shrugged and then left.
Suzaku blinked, anger flaring up inside him. How dare they just walk past and ignore a helpless girl who's being beat up!
The boy in front of him snapped his fingers, "Hey, are you listening to me?! Get lost or we'll throw rocks on you, too!"
Suzaku stood there for a second, as the boys inched closer, rocks now in their hands again.
Then he reacted. With one move with his hand, the first boy went crashing into the wall. Not too hard, he didn't want to kill him.
The boys froze in shock, and Suzaku calmly walked over to the trembling girl, and effortlessly picked her up with one arm.
"Think twice about hurting kids smaller than you." He knew that sentence would be stuck in all those boy's minds for nightmares to come.
After that, he jumped on the trash can, ignoring the cry of surprise from the girl he was holding, then grabbing the top of the fence with his left hand, heaved himself and the other one over.
He walked away, keeping his back to them, as the boy who was thrown at the wall ran to the fence and yelled, "You'll pay for that! I'll make sure we find you again fully loaded! We'll kill you!"
"Good, I'll be waiting." He replied.
When he was sure there was no more danger where we walked to, he placed the still frightened girl on the ground.
"Are you alright?" He asked, beginning to study her for injuries.
She was about 9 or 10 years old, wearing a magenta sleeveless polo shirt, and jean shorts that were rolled up a tad more, and simple sneakers. She had short straight blonde hair that curved a tad, and there a thick black headband rested on her head, holding strands back. Her violet eyes were wide and shocked.
She didn't reply, and he spotted a bruise that was beginning to appear on her left arm.
"If you put ice on that...." He said, gently touching it, "...It'll make you feel better."
When she felt his fingers she gasped and jumped back. Suzaku blinked in surprise but retracted his hand, showing her he wasn't going to do anything.
"S-Sorry..." She managed to stutter, "Th-Thank you...sir...."
"Your welcome." He replied, standing up straight, "Do you know your way home from here?"
"I...I can't go home yet!" The girl suddenly blurted, "Nee-Nee will be worried about me!"
"Nee-Nee? Your sister?"
"Sh-She's not really my sister...I just call her that...I was supposed to buy some things at one store and she buys at another and we'd meet each other at the watermill..."
"I see." Suzaku glanced around.
"Y-You look familiar." The girl said, holding a fist to her chest, "Where have I seen you before?"
"Nowhere." He turned, "Will you be okay by yourself?"
The girl seemed bewildered, "You're..you're leaving?"
"...Yeah."
"Can I at least know your name?"
He hesitated. What harm could it do if he told her? He exhaled and said, "Suzaku."
Her eyes widened farther, "But, that can't be because---"
"Kiryuu Suzaku."
She looked down, blushing, "O-Oh. I'm sorry. You just reminded me of someone I kept seeing on television a few months ago..."
Putting her hands in her pockets, she managed a smile, "My name is Houjou Satoko. Thank you again for saving me."
"No problem." He turned on his heel and began to walk.
Glancing back over his shoulder, he saw the blonde girl called Satoko pull a piece of paper out from her pocket. She read it, and her face fell, looking back at the buildings with fear in her eyes.
Obviously she did not want to go back there again for a while.
Then suddenly he thought about what one of the boys said:
"Crying isn't going to help you, traitor!"
Then he thought of the people who ignored her.
Next thing he knew, he was next to Satoko again, who gasped when she noticed him.
"Nobody will bother you if you go shopping with me escorting you." He said simply, "I'll make sure you get to your Nee-Nee without any trouble."
She gazed up at him, blushing again, before smiling, "Okay!"
Satoko proved herself to be a very bright and determined girl. She knew right away he was a newbie, so she told him everything about the town as much as she could.
Hinamizawa had a population boom in the early millenium, but that dimmed away during the Britannian seige. Now the number was greatly numbered back down to around 3 or 4,000, around the same number as back in the eighties. The village was ruled over three families, who lost their power 8 years ago but regained it. The Kimiyoshi's, the Sonozaki's, and the Furude's were the rulers.
Suzaku listened and nodded as she happily chatted away and bought stuff, but couldn't help but notice the cold looks on the store clerk's face as she rung up the groceries.
They didn't speak to her, they just gave the change and didn't do anything else when they realized his own sage green glare is ten times more freezing than ice itself.
But little Satoko didn't seem to mind. It was like she does this everyday.
She saw his grim expression when they left the store, and Satoko then just kicked him in the legs.
The impact barely hurt him, and he looked down at her with serious curiosity, raising an eyebrow.
The girl shrank a little under his gaze, but then she collected herself, straightening up and putting her hands on her hips.
"There's no need to be worried about me. Usually they don't do anything when I'm with Rika. But don't make that face...it's scaring me and everybody else."
Suzaku didn't ask who Rika was. What he wanted to know was why the boys called her a "traitor" from earlier. What could this girl possibly have done to cause herself to fall under the name traitor? He had been called that several times, once a long time ago...
"You're doing that face again." Satoko's distinct yet familiar voice removed him from his thoughts, "I said don't worry about me. What happened back there never occured. The bruise was from a rock that happened to be there when I tripped. Okay, Suzaku-san?"
Suzaku stared at her, then nodded soberly.
Satoko smiled, "Come on, let's go! The watermill is this way! I want you to meet Nee-Nee and the others! They'd love to meet you!"
He followed after the smaller figure, the dark clouds above rumbling once more.
"I figured Nee-Nee would be here before us..." Satoko said in a confused voice, as she and the brown-haired teenager stood by the watermill.
"She might've went looking for you." He suggested.
"Well, that too." Satoko then paused, tilting her head up at him, "Can I ask you something, Suzaku-san?"
"Sure."
"Why are you here?"
The question startled him, and Satoko noticed that. It was the first emotion different from the other sober ones Suzaku had been portraying since she had met him.
He pondered, gazing up at the dark grey sky, drips of water falling on the both of them.
"I don't know." He said after a minute.
Now Satoko was surprised, "You don't have a reason why you came here?"
"I was sent here to fill...." He trailed off. This girl wouldn't understand.
"To fill yourself with good thoughts?"
He shrugged, "Something like that."
"How long were you supposed to be here?"
"I don't know."
Satoko sat on the stone bench, pulling her knees to her chin, "You're a remarkably sincere person, Suzaku-san. But I think this town will help you."
She smiled, "And I'll make sure me and my friends help you, too! How old are you?"
"17." He lied. Saying he was almost 19 would arouse her suspicions even more.
"Maybe you can work at my school if you want! Hey, maybe you can be a tutor or something? Or you could be an assistant for Chie-sensei! Oh, there's so many things you could do!"
"I'm not that smart." He said quietly.
"Well, you ARE extremely physical! You pulled yourself (and not to mention ME) over a fence with only one hand! That's talent right there!"
She lowered her legs, clenching her fist, "Yeah, Suzaku-san! Mion-san will definately find something to occupy yourself with!"
Attempting to leap off the seat, her foot actually caught a rock and her body fell forward. She gave a yelp, about to hit the ground and probably get another bruise.
Suddenly Suzaku's strong arm went around her chest, stopping her from falling.
"You okay?" He asked again.
Satoko stomach had flipped. He saved her rear once again, and she was panting hard from the adrenaline rush.
Suzaku moved her back, but his arm was still around her chest.
Just as he was about to move it away, he heard another voice.
"HEY! What the hell are you DOING?!"
Satoko jerked her head up, "Nee-Nee?"
There was a gush of wind, a flash of something long, silky and green before Suzaku's eyes, next thing he knew, there was a zapping pain in his left side.
Before he could do anything else, he had fallen on the ground, everything was now black.
Well? What do ya thiiiinnnkkk? I hope you guys like this first chapter! But more will probably come! Y'know? =D!
If you enjoyed this, GOOD, and if you didn't, DARN YOU.
=D