Disclaimer: I own nothing of Code Geass, nor of Guilty Gear, nor to a lesser extent, BlazBlue. I do own this story, and all the inspirations along with it. And of course, the brain where the ideas came from.
Within the halls of Ashford Academy, two friends marched purposefully through doors and corners and seas of girls who parted like awed water at their passing. One was wearing a simple white upper shirt, his coat having been ruined in the previous hour, the other wore a gloomy, contemplative frown on his face. On each youth's right arm was a burnished copper-red bracelet, glowing periodically like a thrumming heart.
"...all the same, it's too dangerous for anyone, gender be damned, to pilot a Knightmare all on their own! We're not cadets of the Order. If circumstances had been against her, she would've been struck down by a fate worse than death!"
"Now, she did help us in the end, Lelouch. It was her choice to go out and help, and I think she did know what the consequences would be. In fact, I'm looking at it quite differently. I think her performance showed that she'd make a great Knight, should she choose to pursue it. I don't think I've ever synced that fast with a Knightmare outside of a combat situation like that."
"That girl's too volatile for her own good. She's almost like a Gear."
"Lelouch."
"...I apologize. But surely you would see that such behavior only lends an impression of a severe mental imbalance, a recklessness that, huh, seems to be prevalent in almost all humans with the power of Ki."
"I think you're just angry her ars was able to overcome yours."
"Well, she is adept in fire, Suzaku. She can obviously break through a simple restraining cantrip like that if she put her mind to it."
"But I don't think you expected her to, right? Admit it, man."
"...Did you miss my thinly veiled insult of your race back there?"
"No, but you weren't exactly being your cautious self back there, Lelouch. I said it an hour ago, but thanks for coming to my aid. I don't know how I would have handled that skirmish, even though the Gear was supposed to be on the weaker side."
"Guh... You still insist on saying those embarassing things...Well, don't expect me to cover up for your impulsiveness in the future. I can't be there all the time. Plus, I have Nunnally to think about."
"How is she, by the way? Did you call her?"
A pause. Hesitant. "She's fine. I've heard the Ashfords have requisitioned Britannian Knights to defend all of their institutes, isn't that funny? Did you remember that scuffle months ago, when that Colonel Gottwald wouldn't stop clamoring for the Ashfords to accept military-"
The two had pushed open double doors leading to the waiting hall outside the infirmary, where their eyes met those of the President's, who rose from a bench to greet them.
"Prez?" "Milly?"
"What are you boys doing here?"
"We..." The two friends looked at each other. "we were tasked-"
"Ordered, Suzaku. Can't leave that out."
"Right. We were ordered by the instructors to see how Kallen-"
"-the fellow troublemaker," Lelouch interjected, walking to the right to glance at Milly from the side. Milly saw the Sealing Bracers on their arms, causing her to smile.
"-is doing, as part of our punishment. How about you, Milly-san? Did your father-?"
"Nope, I don't need to be prodded by grandpa to wish an underclassman well, especially the one who saved us all from that dreadful, horrible Knightmare! Why, I simply couldn't go another day without expressing my thanks! To put herself at such a terrible risk – why I simply couldn't do that – and there she was bravely putting her all..." Milly explained, looking like she was affronted.
"Oh," was the only thing Suzaku uttered, while Lelouch sneaked a hmph out of Milly's sight, which unfortunately was not missed by the President.
"And also, this is a chance for me to land another member of our esteemed council. I wanted to invite her to our sea trip." Both youth's shoulders slumped, with even Suzaku shaking his head like Lelouch.
"What is it with you, Milly, and your obsession with recruitment? I know 'secretary of fun' is an obviously arbitrary rank assigned through your caprice-"
"Did she agree?" asked Suzaku. Lelouch shot his friend a look of disdain, before walking past to glance into the doors of the infirmary proper.
"Unfortunately, no. She's still unconscious, but the nurse says she's been stabilized," Milly answered, in a hushed tone now. "Seithr withdrawal, poor dear. She says they haven't had a case like that in the Academy since the outdated Glasgows were still used. We can only hope Dr. Baldhead can help her recovery; he's supposed to be back here by the end of the day." At the mention of that doctor's name, both friends had a cold shiver run up and down their spine. Suzaku covered his mouth with his fist to cough lightly, while Lelouch cleared his throat, tugging at his collar nervously.
"Well, I'll be back when she's awake," Milly concluded, raising an eyebrow while looking between the two. "I'll tell her my own recommendation that the sea can do a marvelous thing to one's psyche. Gosh, I can't wait for this weekend!" So saying, she curtsied to them both and then exited out of the waiting hall. Suzaku's tiptoed to follow her, poking his head around the corner to watch her disappear around the next. Then he looked back at Lelouch. "She's gone."
"Thank the Emperor for small favors," remarked Lelouch, making an audible sigh. Suzaku followed his friend inside the infirmary, murmuring, "She did mention Dr. Baldhead wouldn't be back until later..."
"Really, Suzaku? Are you so trusting you would believe anything that cat says?" Lelouch retorted in a fierce whisper. He swallowed, ducking down near the first empty bed he saw and surveying the large room. "Damn this assignment." There was only one bed apparently occupied, halfway down the rows of beds on either side of the room, closed off by velvet-colored blinds. Suzaku nodded at his friend, and then they both walked swiftly down the middle towards where Kouzuki was.
"He's not here," came a sudden voice, and it caused the two youths to jump and yelp in surprise, Lelouch's reaching a high, grating pitch. Suzaku was quick to slap a hand on his friend's mouth, staring at Kallen's bed skeptically. Their heads whipped around to stare near-accusingly at the nurse-on-duty, who was attending to something in the closet and was raising her eyebrows at them.
"Nurse-san," said Suzaku in a relieved whisper, "We're just here to...look in on Miss Kouzuki for a while, then we'll be on our way."
"Make sure not to wake her, or I will be trapping you here until the doctor comes back. He sounded like he was in a particularly good mood," replied the nurse, already turning her attention back to the closet.
In two seconds, the two friends had shared a quick glance, two nods of understanding, then a grimace of camaraderie before turning to peek into the blinds surrounding Kallen's bed.
The red-haired woman was sleeping, they saw, with various tubes attached to her visible arm connected to a variety of machines to the side. Lelouch recognized it quickly enough, explaining for Suzaku, "I recognize this, looks like that sakuradite-feeding device an instructor mentioned a while back." As he spoke, periodic blotches of pink would appear on the tube connected to said device, slightly unnerving the Poster Boy.
"Isn't that dangerous?" asked Suzaku worriedly.
"Well, it's mostly to emulate the situation inside a Knightmare. It's not like it's feeding processed sakuradite right into her veins." The result of doing that was a quick, painful process leading to - not death - but mutation. "To be hunted down like a mere monster... She risked a lot to pilot that Knightmare. If not becoming a wraith encased inside a Frame, then she'd have become a ghoul, losing all rational thought and bearing." Lelouch shivered, casting his gaze back down on the sleeping patient.
The two spent some moments in silence, merely looking at her.
At length, Suzaku breathed out a short gust of air, tapping Lelouch on the shoulder. They bowed to the nurse, who waved at them over her shoulder, before leaving the infirmary. Just as they were about to clear the threshold of the infirmary, a cheerful, jovial, grainy voice boomed out behind them, freezing them in their tracks, "Well well, the doctor is IN! I heard we've GOT a patient!"
"Suzaku! That's unfair! You're not supposed to run faster! Damnit!" The two fled the area like beaten dogs.
)()()()()()()()(
The thought processes of one Lelouch Lamperouge, despite claims to the contrary by many of his close acquaintances, were not that hard to deduce. One needs to remember that above every qualification and category, he is but a youth, a teenager with his own wants and needs.
In this whole world, Lelouch desired only one thing, at present, and not subject to change, the safety of his sister. It would thus not be entirely unexpected for said youth to skip the entire day of class the next day after the incident to visit Nunnally. As the Institute was suitably far from the Academy, requiring two train rides and one jaunt through a busy part of the Preserve, it wasn't unreasonable for anyone to request a whole day.
Milly Ashford leaned over the balcony of her small clubroom in the Academy, letting the midday sun meet her vibrant, golden locks. Her work was temporarily forgotten on the paper stacks behind her. A set of tea, expertly brewed by one of the rare examples of perfect Gear servility, sat stewing beside them, untouched. What the Ashford was currently doing on this particular lunch break she held right before her eyes, a paper-thin pad which emitted the glow of ars.
A unique invention started up by one truant Lamperouge and completed by the genius Nina Einstein, this local positioning system used a peculiar sensory ars to track the user's wanted targets. In this case, Lelouch had theorized, during a particularly dreary, rainy Thursday afternoon, that any ars remaining on any human emitted their own identifiable sound-waves, in a manner similar to the global tracking system used by the Order, but using the "tone" of the ars instead of the person's biological information.
It was hampered by the fact that it was acknowledged by the ars-harmonic theory that some branches of magic could not emit sounds in any form, manner or degree, and fortunately it still was able to track actual sound-affecting ars, such as a simple voice magnification machine. Before Lelouch had left earlier that morning, the President had insisted that he make an announcement to the arriving students at the gate with that same ars, allowing him to be tracked through the pad in front of her.
Milly hummed a pleasant-sounding tune, skipping back to the shady shelter of the clubroom where the rest of the council were chattering in the lazy easiness of an after-meal session while "Sayoko", her personal assistant, cleaned up the bowls, glasses and plates from the table.
"Prez!" shouted Rivalz Cardemonde, waving from his seat beside the "newly inducted" member of the council, one Kouzuki. The redhead sat keeping her arms close, eyes deadset glumly on the table surface in front of her. Milly had thought the fiery-tempered (as that was what her fanclub had told her of the girl), tomboyish young woman would put up a bit of a resistance to the notion of being invited to the council, but somehow, she was proven wrong. There was friction, however, on the subject of a sea outing, on that Kallen had vehemently refused, raising the temperature of the room to a literal degree before Suzaku had defused the situation.
Well, she would concede the battle here, as she'd already won the war, brokered a truce and gotten the juicy terms of the treaty. She smiled at Rivalz, before pressing something on the pad. She caught Shirley sneaking a peek the girl thought was discrete at the pad, frowned thoughtfully at a Suzaku who was staring unabashedly at Kallen, and said her hellos to the rest of the men and women. She looked up from the pad, looking left and right, Nina had disappeared somewhere.
Lelouch had just reached Ashford Academy. Due to the increased security checkpoints between train routes, she rather thought that was early.
"Ms. Milly," said a dull, almost mechanical voice. Milly raised her eyebrows quizzically at the humanoid Gear dressed in a European maid's outfit, who kept its head bowed. "It is five minutes before classes shall resume," it announced.
"Thank you, Sayoko. You may retire." The Gear curtsied and left, asking no questions. Milly set the pad down on Nina's workbench, before waltzing to the rectangular drawing board set on one side of the room. All eyes, save for Kallen's were fixed on her figure expectantly.
"If our own vice-president can beg off of class without the slightest penalty," she began without preamble, "then we can certainly do so with the afternoon classes." This time Kallen did raise her head to look at her in surprise. "After all, we've still got a lot of ground to cover, if we are ever to make this trip to the Coast a memorable, ride we won't ever be forgetting. Let's make this fun, everyone!"
"Hear hear!" clapped Rivalz, who was followed by a general chorus of assent. Only a select few consisting of her "inner circle" sighed exasperatedly: the responsible Suzaku, the fussy Shirley, and Nina, whom she'd just caught trying to sneak back out of the clubroom after arriving just in time to hear the tail-end of her announcement. Kallen sighed and lowered her forehead to the table.
AN: At first I thought I would never include any character from the crossover series here, but I relented in the form of Dr. Baldhead. To those in the know: "N-n-nani ga deruka na?" To the uninitiated, don't worry, he won't ever be but a name in the story. I hope. I mean, he's gonna be a pain in the rear to write.
Merlin out.