Disclaimer: I own nothing of Code Geass, nor of Guilty Gear, nor to a lesser extent, BlazBlue and Rewrite. I do own this story, and all the inspirations along with it. And of course, the brain where the ideas came from.
Author's note: It has occured to me that it might be counter-productive for some people unfamiliar with the crossover elements to continue reading with half-guesses and misconceptions in their mind. As such, I have crafted this particular chapter, to be updated time after time after certain points in the narrative, to facilitate the explanation of some elements that simply cannot fit into the chapters.
Note that the scenes hereafter have no actual bearing on or indications of the actual story of this fanfiction. The personalities of each participant are preserved and will reflect their future appearances, but there will be no reference to a point in the story, nor will there be any later on towards this. Its intention is merely to facilitate the understanding of the mechanics and elements of the story. I type this as my friend dictates to me, formulating the character puppets as I go, seeing as I am myself largely unfamiliar with the setting of the crossover material (save for Rewrite, whose elements only cover such a minor negligible part).
That said, if you are already familiar with it, or would rather not prefer to read such, then feel free to skip this chapter and await the next. That is all.
)()()()()()()()(
Table of contents:
()Lelouch the Reluctant Historian
()Seithr, the Gift of the Gods
()Knightmares by Milly
()Unknown Person's First Discourse on Gears
()ZOMG! 'Mahoshoujo Kawaii'! The Magical Girl Phenomenon
()The Lost and Forgotten Magics
)()()()()()()()(
Lelouch the Reluctant Historian
The birds were literally chirping in fear as the Student Council Vice-President of Ashford Academy in Area Eleven, one Lelouch Lamperouge, stormed into the clubroom, eyes smouldering and brandishing a piece of paper held in hand as if it were a love-letter.
"Hey, I thought you'd never show up, Lelouch!"
"Shut up!" Lelouch hissed one of the members who had been talking to him so familiarly. "Where's Milly?"
"Right here, Professor Lelouch." Milly held a hand up.
"What's the meaning of this, Milly?" He balled up the paper and threw it to the ground like a child throwing a tantrum. "You had the gall to goad someone load ars into that thing and throw it onto my head like a missile! Do you know how much that gave me a pounding ache in my forehead?" There was an angry welt on his forehead, the others saw.
"But you wouldn't wake up, so I had to shape it like a missile. You have, after all, an obligation to tutor, or teach us all."
"Teach?"
"Uh, hello, earth to the Shadowfrost Prince, you promised to tutor the student council members with certain topics they're having trouble with- the gig you promised to do after I covered for you and Suzaku eloped like lovers-"
"I was only going to a grimoire sale, woman, and that idiot just tagged along-"
"-and so you vowed, on bent knee, that you would do anything in your power to thank-"
"I most certainly did NOT!"
"Well it's your reality now. 1, 2, 3, magic go!" Milly waved a hand, causing sparks to appear in front of her hands. A few of the other members clapped, while Lelouch just stared at the transluscent yellow butterflies that flew towards him.
"Lulu," Shirley urged, smiling at him with an intensity that was easily missed by Lelouch's own intense glare sent Milly's way, "C'mon, it's going to be fun! Even Suzaku and Nina volunteered to be tutors."
"Suzaku? What the heck is he going to teach?"
"Hey, I take offense to that."
Lelouch sighed, pushing his glasses up. "Fine, fine, let's just get this over with. Promise or not, I don't think I can leave even if I wanted to, considering that there's an anti-personnel barrier just outside the entrance now." His eyes widened at his last statement, his feet quickly scrambling towards the window. After a flash of light and a bag, Lelouch returned to the room, hair disheveled and clothes having hints of being burned.
"Haha! You're really stupid, huh, Lamperouge?" Kallen cackled, grinning mischievously at him.
"Gunununu..." Lelouch bit his lip, brushing off his wounded pride and resistance. "Of all the stupid things...so?" he turned to the Prez. "What am I going to do?"
"Teach us, oh Professor, about the bits of knowledge we've missed. You can take your pick, just don't teach us something like basic algebra or sound theory. Or any of your advanced courses in shadow ars."
"Hmph. Well in that case, then History it is!"
"Wha- oh, I hate that subject!" groaned Rivalz from his seat, already closing his notepad up.
"Deal with it." Lelouch took a deep breath, clasping his hands behind his back. He sauntered to the front of the table where there was a conveniently placed projector, and began to speak.
"It is in my opinion that one can only get a sound grasp of a thing's soul by knowing the memories ingrained in it. Through observation of any object, its peculiar marks, any subordinate characteristics of its history can achieve in oneself a deeper understanding of the object itself. That is the same with the world; in order to understand how it has acquired its present condition, its many scars and marks, we need to turn back time-"
"How far back?"
"When Julius Caesar sought to expand the borders of his nation-"
"That's too far back, Lulu."
"-The EU expedition force was repelled on 1439 by Admiral Eaglewoods off the coast of the Caribbean-"
"Just a little more forward Lelouch."
"Fine! Dark Era, Go!
"Sometimes known as the Dawn of Magic, the Dark Era began, as any era before it, with tensions throughout the world. After the disappearance of the Sixty-Eighth Unnamed Ruler, May the Other Side claim him/her, the Holy Empire suffered from internal unrest, the lands of the Americas split into fractious sides. The Crown Prince of that time, Frederick sol Britannia, the Golden One, had not yet bid his way into the Throne, and several conspiracies arose that wanted to replace him with the sons and daughters of the other consorts.
"The EU took this chance to repel the latest incursion into the North African Front, sinking Britannia's fleet off the coast of the Iberian peninsula. On the far side of the globe, the Chinese Federation had declared war on the last remaining sovereign nation, Japan, for various reasons including the exploitation of Japan's vast sakuradite deposits and the rumors of Japan becoming a protectorate of Britannia.
"...I do hope you're taking notes.
"The Climax of the pre-Dark Era occured when one particular Britannian Duke's conspiracy allowed forces of the EU to infiltrate through York, establishing an EU presence in the Homeland. War would be declared again, had not the greatest Calamity the world will ever know appeared.
"'Twas a monstrous thing, belching forth seithr and sulfur like the devil's own hellspawn. Actually, mankind hadn't yet known what that other substance was at that point, only assuming it was some new, undiscovered element that had come with the Black Beast's birth. Only then would they realize it would become the major component in magic, and that it was merely sakuradite diffused-"
"You don't have to explain seithr," interrupted Milly brusquely, "someone else is going to cover that."
"Well that makes things easier. Anyway, the Beast first appeared, seemingly erupting out of nowhere – right in the middle of Japan. It was a being of undefinable strength and appearance, a creature so foul and evil that it only wrought destruction in its wake. People and cities alike were consumed with its every breath, leaving complete and utter devastation in its wake.
"The Beast's sudden appearance, as well as its visible destructive potential, united the world in a way that would never be seen before. Conventional arms were sent against it first, Federation forces taking the brunt while the Britannians and the EU took the rear, hurling bullet, shell and insults at the Beast's hide – to no avail. Then they turned to other means that would scar Japan and the rest of the world forever.
"Nuclear weapons, virus bombs, all manner of weapons of mass destruction were launched at the Beast, a result of the united consensus of the world to do so despite the Japanese people's pleas. The few survivors were evacuated quickly before the weapons struck home, and that was hoped to be the end of the Beast. But weapon after weapon struck, and nothing seemed to pierce its infernal hide. Time and again it emerged, bellowing a roar so dark and fierce that it would rend the very air around it.
"Humanity was at an impasse. One by one they realized they might be decimated, as the Beast moved and finished off the rest of Japan, consuming the last vestiges of life in the once glorious nation. But help came at last, but from a source that would forever alter mankind's perception of the world.
"The Heroes claimed themselves visionaries of the future, and they were known by many other names. But the one thing they all had in common, that the world was astounded to witness before their eyes – was magic.
"Accounts differ, but some authors claim it was around this time that the Emperor Frederick finally completed his magnum opus, the Knightmare. It had peculiar specifications and designs so geared towards the containment and control of magic that they suspected, perhaps a tad traitorously, that Frederick had engineered the Knightmares for the very reason of revealing magic to the world."
"Again, someone else is going to be covering-"
"Yes, yes. Knightmare or not, the Heroes began their campaign to defeat the Beast, while representatives of the once-secretive magical sects from every nation approached their leaders and proclaimed that humanity's only hope lay in magic.
"Thus did the Heroes reveal the art of 'Magus' to the human race, and so was the Ars Magus born. Eventually, the Beast was defeated, its corpse destroyed by a united effort among the now magic-armed forces of the world. The creature's death-wails, however, were not a herald of peaceful times to come, but of another trial, coming soon at the heels of the Black Beast's threat.
"No agreement was ever reached among the historians on where Gears came from, or how they were made, or on the suspicion that they appeared so soon after the Beast had just nearly destroyed the world as they knew it. The one thing that is agreed upon is that barely a year after the Beast's defeat, these strange magical creatures began to rampage around the world, at a time when only a precious few could stop them.
"The Heroes were not fighting one powerful being this time, and so had no way to concentrate their powers on a single threat. The Gears had popped up throughout the world like weeds, spreading their plague of destruction. Few ars (for the first rough system of using magic through seithr was at its infancy then) could hurt them, while others only seemed to energize them more. Conventional weaponry seemed to work, though reports were scattered and conflicting in results that not one nation's weaponry seemed to have a clear advantage. The WMDs came into play again, but they only succeeded in scarring the world's surface forever, and the unknown and destructive interaction of the weapons with the free seithr in the air caused more deaths than the Gear it was used to kill. Into this maelstrom of a disaster a second-time over, the first confirmed records of Britannia's Knightmare was made, with the Frame of the future quickly becoming the vanguard of mankind's armies.
"The Golden One Emperor Frederick sol Britannia had finally ascended to the Throne, revealing to the world Britannia's new power, the Knightmare Frame. Designed to-"
"Er-"
"What? Someone else is covering that too?" After an answering nod, Milly urged Lelouch to go on. The latter rubbed the bridge of his nose, shifting his glasses.
"Well. Yes, the Knightmares made great strides in the worldwide war against the Gears. It was soon determined that the Gears had one leader, who controlled their actions through a sinister biological relationship with the rest of its kind. He was codenamed Justice, and his power was as if the Beast's arm had returned through the veil of death to wreak havoc on the world once more.
"It was at this time too, that the proto-Guardians were formed, though not to such an organized extent as their true Founder would make them a hundred years later. These soldiers were warrior-mages personally trained by the Heroes themselves. They, along with the Knights of the Round armed in Knightmares led by Frederick himself, launched a counter-offensive against the machinations of Justice, and day after day was a report of one victory and one loss for either side across the world.
"Eventually, Frederick began a courageous strike deep into the heart of Gear-held territory, aiming to severe the monster at the head. In direct view of the Andes Peaks, where the current Order Grand Headquarters are, Emperor and Command Gear did battle, fighting for the survival of their race." Lelouch started upon seeing Suzaku's starstruck and glazed eyes, and shook his head.
"Justice's defeat seemed to signal, through a mysterious and yet-to be understood process, the 'deactivation' of all Gears. All around the world the once-violent Gears became docile, their raging magics quenched and silenced. Humanity rejoiced, and Emperor Frederick sol Britannia was lauded by all peoples as the 'Savior of Mankind'."
Lelouch was silent for a while, his arms crossed before him in thought. Just as Milly was about to clap playfully for him, he spoke again, in a lower, more subdued voice.
"Some say the Gears were but an anomaly of mutation in the human gene, as evidenced by the near-identical cells the two races share. Others claim that Gears were never meant to be weapons of war, that Justice had been the mastermind of it all. Still others, possibly mad, proclaim the Gears as sons and daughters of the Beast, though as yet none of their race's biology has been fully understood. The veil of magic seems to hide their secrets well.
"What I do think, and this is but a guess coming from a stray hypothesis on the occasional berserk Gear that breaks free of their lethargy, is that Justice was never defeated, and was but sealed into a dimension divorced from our own. It is his will from beyond the seal that urges a Gear every time to go mad, hinting at an eventual return. Who knows when the seals shall weaken, freeing a threat so potent that it would bring the world once more to its knees. Though this is just conjencture, of course."
"Conjecture aside, you should really answer Suzaku's question. He's been raising his hand for a minute now." Suzaku was indeed doing it, radiant green eyes bursting with excitement.
Sigh. "Yes, Poster Boy?"
"What about the formal founding of the Sacred Order?"
"Don't you already know that by heart?" Lelouch complained rubbing his head tiredly. "If I did that, then I suppose I'd have to tell you of how Gaia first appeared, or about the Nox Nyctores controversy, the alchemist conventions, or the magical girl trend in the Far Eastern Preserves...oh no no no...you want me to talk about all of them?"
There was a collective nodding. Lelouch put his hands before him, shaking them towards each other.
"Not a bloody chance in hell!"
)()()()()()()()(
Seithr, the Gift of the Gods
The tutorial session was nearly ready with present council members, with the exception of one Vice-President and one Nina Einstein. The latter was cleared of Milly's anger when she arrived, panting and apologizing profusely for her lateness.
"Apology accepted," Milly said in her magnanimous way. "Have a seat. Now that you're here, the only one we need to wait for is that Lelouch."
Nina blinked her eyes, looking around the room hesitantly as if what Milly said had been surprising. She squinted her eyes behind her eyeglasses, walking back and forth on the floor. The student council watched her bemusedly before she reached forward with her hands, yelled "Ei!" and quickly someone else screamed, "Stop! Nina!" and after the sound of shattering glass, Lelouch materialized in the room, staring helplessly at the Einstein that had sniffed him out.
"Nina, how could you..." Lelouch stared accusingly at his fellow four-eyes.
"Huh? You mean Lelouch was here the whole time?" Milly gaped, astonished. "Well, feed me a case of crabs and call me Cassie...how'd you know?"
Nina twiddled her thumbs shyly. "I noticed the seithr distortion in the air and couldn't help but investigate..."
"How come I wasn't able to detect that?" Kallen asked. When Lelouch turned up his face, grinning like a champ, Nina answered, "...because Lelouch used light distortive ice which he commanded surrounded, which folded light through the ars and prevented anyone from seeing it for what it was...I suspect at night it would've become visible...The only way I knew it was there was because of the seithr distortion I was able to sense..."
"Brilliant!" cried Milly, clapping. "And an excellent lead-in to your tutorial, Nina!"
"Oh, um...okay," she stared over the rim of her glasses at Lelouch who had walked off grudgingly to sit at the council table.
"Um...The foundation of Ars Magus, the miraculous magic we are all able to perform today, is entirely reliant on...seithr. I guess...if you could compare it to a 'net game, it's like MP..."
"Oooh!" said Rivalz. "That's a nice comparison!"
"No, that's wrong!" Lelouch couldn't help but speak out. "Seithr doesn't exactly work like that."
"Ah, yes...my mistake, I'm sorry Rivalz...there's a big difference when one puts it this way...well, let's use the way I dispelled Lelouch's illusion. Seithr is a substance, odorless and unseen to the naked eye, existing as particles in the air. When one uses Ars Magus, one draws out resident seithr from the environment to power it thusly. There are only a limited amount of seithr in any given area, so one has to wait for it to replenish over time. When Lelouch cast his illusion ars, he drew on the seithr inside the clubroom, and sucked up more from the area to sustain it.
"Dispelling it, which also applies to dispelling all ars, was a matter of temporarily sucking out all seithr in the given area, depriving the spell of the 'food' it needed to sustain itself. Thus, the spell was broken.
"There are areas where seithr is thicker in density...I speak of course of the Dead Zones outside the Preserves. Seithr was said to have originated from the Black Beast after all, with seithr one of the good byproducts of its passing. However, the seithr here is really unstable, and that's why it's discouraged to cast repeatedly there, as the ars cast could backfire on the caster. Not only that, but prolonged exposure to a heavy concentration of seithr in the air can be hazardous...Its biological effect on the human body includes addiction, mutation, or other bizarre anatomical changes...
"Within the Preserves there's but a fixed amount of seithr in any given area. It takes the studied and well-learned mage to be able to perform ars of equal effect and glyph intensity with lesser and lesser seithr each time, over the untrained or barely trained mage who has to burn up more. Effectivity of seithr use is thus limited to the user."
"And that's why it's important to always study, Suzaku."
The Poster Boy didn't answer, only hanging his head in contrition.
"Nina, what about the glyphs we use to intensify the effects of an ars? Could we have some pointers?"
"Um, well, as the basics tell you...the inscription of glyphs into your 'master-soul'-"
"What's the master-soul?"
"It is your own representation of your soul, the 'physical canvas' upon which a mage can direct and modify the functions of your magical field. Er... think of it as another layer over the biological mass that makes up your body... everyone has a master soul, but only a mage can properly identify and modify on it. One important aspect is, of course, glyphing of various symbols on your master-soul to produce various effects, the most important of which is modifying the intensity of the ars you cast. The more potent the symbol used, the more powerful it can become, however it becomes harder for an untrained soul to accept the more difficult glyphs without the master-soul deteriorating or worse, disintegrating...
"Some glyphs are inscribed into our bodies from birth...like the sync symbols which are necessary to interface with magical constructs like Knightmare Frames... or the basic resistance symbols which provide a layer of protection over the human body against seithr..."
"I've never been good with glyphing...all those weird symbols!" Shirley openly confessed.
"Same," Suzaku admitted openly, ignoring Lelouch's superior smirk.
"There are...other routes to establish an increasing effect on one's ars, such as the little-understood 'guts' that all magical girls seem to possess, through the use of any Nox Nyctores that enhances one's magic, consuming alchemical draughts, prana exchange... or if you're a Gear."
There was a ringing silence at her last word, followed by a cough from Kallen, who squeaked out a question. "What about the sealing arrays?"
"...sealing arrays...have the same principle as glyphs, only this time one writes on the world's master-soul itself. It's like invoking your will upon the environment. The world has a...'passive' ars which is nature itself, which is then influenced by the sealing arrays to do many things like summon wind or root a person in place...
"And in addition- huh?" Nina blinked again, looking at Lelouch Lamperouge. The boy was looking around at the people who were also peering at him. "In addition, for some ars like teleportation...which is an extremely dangerous ars to perform violating many spacetime rules... one would require at least a hundred people to power an array to transport but one person, but there seems to be some people who are able to do it by themselves with little penalty, which makes them anomalies..."
Lelouch met their stares haughtily, causing Suzaku to sigh dramatically. "For Lelouch, it's understandable, he's always been an overpowered baka."
"Speak for yourself, Ki-boy."
)()()()()()()()(
Knightmares by Milly
"Eh~ hello everyone, this is Lady Milly Ashford, speaker extraordinaire, here in fulfillment of my grading requirements for Basic Synchronization 2, and with me is my lovely Ganymede Extend, a vintage Knightmare model that has a 9.8 variable magic array, unmodified Yggdrasil Drive, and one Factsphere.
"My intent today is to teach the 'newbies' some new tricks, and even the veterans with a few Ashford secrets that are a family exclusive, which I give to you now, free! Let's start shall we?
"The Knightmares were created by our August Emperor Frederick primarily, as his awesomeness claimed, to control magic and harvest seithr. It was and will continue to be made of magic-resistant alloys that help in this purpose, together with auxiliary devices suited to absorbing seithr, processing it into magic arrays and expelling loose energy. Later models, like the Glasgow and the Sutherland, incorporates a sakuradite matrix and core that further enhances the magic conduction abilities of the Knightmare.
"To use a Knightmare, one needs exert the proper glyphs and have the right mindset to begin insertion and syncronization with the selected Knightmare Frame. Once inside, as long as the connection between the magic arrays and the user's own master-soul is kept intact, one may interface for as long as possible with the machine.
"Boring theory done, it's time for me to show you the ropes on how to properly sync..."
"Hey Lelouch, don't fall asleep like that! You know the Prez is watching from somewhere." Suzaku elbowed his friend, causing the latter's near-perfect version of the Thinking Man to crumple, Lelouch looking around dazedly.
"Whatever the case is, it's a high crime for her to have us watch this of all things, wasn't this a tutorial session?"
"Well, it technically is," Suzaku said sheepishly, earning a grunt and a gimlet eye from Lelouch. "Don't wake me up. Come what may, I'll take whatever that cat can throw at me in spite. I already did my part coming here."
There once was the story of the king named Damocles, and his descendant, though no one knew it, no one would ever know it in Lelouch's lifetime, was the Prince of Shadowfrost himself. A firework ars was perched precariously from the ceiling on top, and had Lelouch bothered to look at the images the projector were showing him, of Milly doing expert maneuvers within the Ganymede, he would have seen the sealing array from the corner of his practiced eye.
As it was, Lelouch would later have unpleasant dreams of artillery fire and a backfiring sealing session for many hours of sleep to come.
)()()()()()()()(
Unknown Person's First Discourse on Gears
"What?" The girl sat up in bed, allowing the blankets to fall off her bare curves.
"It's time," said Lelouch, who stood in what he thought was a respectful distance away from the bed, near the door. "You told me you had something important to say. Be quick, I have to visit Nunnally before lunch."
"I said that?" aske C.C in a manner akin to someone suffering from a hangover. Although there was no hangover to speak of, being that she remembered kicking the boy out of the room and snucking beneath his sheets to sleep the night before. So why did she have this headache?
"Yes you did," answered Lelouch through gritted teeth. "If that was a lie, I would be most pleased."
She swung her legs over the edge of the bed. "Oh, I remember now. Before that, can you get me my clothes?" They were strangely piled on top of the dresser on the far side of the room. "It's become awfully cold in here."
"You can get it yourself," grumbled Lelouch, who walked over to the pile anyway, careful to keep his face averted from the sight of pale, creamy, disheveled elegance. He threw the clothes over his shoulder without looking, causing the girl to remark, "...And why did you throw my clothes outside the window?"
Eyes widening, he ran to the aforementioned open window, glaring at the clothes that fluttered towards the ground like it was a bomb about to explode.
He was quick to go down on an ice ars to retrieve it, and when he came back up, he entered the window just in time to see C.C standing full naked on the middle of the room.
"Damnation, witch! I am chaste! Chaste!" yelled the youth as he flung the clothes to the ground and rushed towards his closet, standing with eyes closed on the corner like a child receiving punishment.
"I'm done," came the lackadaisical voice of C.C, who was seated back on the bed, fully-clothed, when he turned to look. "I suppose I do have to get it on. There's a buffet one Lelouch Lamperouge will be joining in...oh two hours from now."
"What is it you're going to tell me?" Lelouch asked, ignoring the fact that the woman would again pilfer his Ashford pass for her advantage at lunches and buffets such as these.
"Whenever you transform," she said without preamble, "or shift, or change, into Gear form, remember that you are actually effecting a mutation of the body within the space of seconds. Such transformations are normally...well it's only theorized, but they are indeed painful on the human body. The only thing keeping you from feeling only a slight pressure on your head when you transform is your Gear cells."
"I already know that, C.C," Lelouch remarked, raising an eyebrow, "To an extent. But I don't see how this would be considered important, or relevant for that matter. What would it matter if it were mutation or one of those magical girl 'transformations'?"
"Because I know for a fact, little Gear, that over time your transformations shall become...permanent. The mutation would cause your body to accept the Gear form, which is indeed your 'real form' as the only true one, and will start rejecting your human body. In time, you may find the positions reversed: you only have the chance to lose yourself when you turn back into a human, as your mind has already become accustomed to the Gear body."
"Permanent?" Lelouch repeated in a horrified whisper. "This hideous form?"
C.C sniffed dismissively. "I for one think it's cute. But moving on, if you're still clinging to that foolish desire to pass for a human, then be my guest. Just remember the risk of constant transformation.
"Now you may have noticed how you can achieve certain 'stages' when you transform. Do not be misled: Gears are a mutation after all. I won't go into the biological processes (which I haven't had a chance to test myself) involved, but let it just be known that although you may think 'Zero' is the third stage, it actually isn't. It is a stage in the process of constant mutation, change, evolution. Soon a time will come when you're finally rid of the milk on your lips that you will attain another form, another stage. And so on and so forth.
"We are servants to change, and this is true most of all for us Gears. We will endure, adapt, shift into better forms to survive, for such is our fate. Live or die. For us Gears, it is a more poignant choice – there will never be a middleground of half-existences. Of course, some Gears may prefer to hover between their humanities and their Gearhoods...
"That is all for now, little Gear. There may be things I have forgotten - and will continue to forget – to mention to you. But do take my words to heart, even if I tell you not to trust them."
"Hmph," snorted Lelouch. "You don't have to keep reminding me. I am in full control over my powers thanks to you. But...I thank you for your words. They were most educational. They shall be committed to dear memory."
"Pray that that will be enough, little Gear," C.C warned softly as she stood to walk past the youth towards the door. "The permutations of circumstance can be quite capricious."
)()()()()()()()(
ZOMG! 'Mahoshoujo Kawaii'! The Magical Girl Phenomenon
Ashford Academy tended to be raucous toward the time of the dismissal of the last classes, when rampant unofficial duels pulled seithr this way and that with continuous frequency. The squabbles were ever to prove a point, and the few Union and Federation students in the Academy only saw them as one of the dangerous qualities Britannian youths had, which was a sordid reflection of their warmongering people as a whole.
Rivalz Cardemonde emerged from one such duel - his uniform damaged but dignity unscarred - and wore a proud smile on his face as he marched down to the clubroom.
"Rivalz, what happened to you?" came Shirley's concerned voice from near the entrance. One Shadowfrost Prince looked up from a grimoire on the table, eyeglasses flashing momentarily. The boy looked around, finding that most of the members were out.
"Oh, just airing out a few grudges," he said breathlessly, in a display of manly bravado. "Duels are a way to affirm one's beliefs."
"Boys," Shirley huffed, shaking her head.
"Hey, if you were there, you could say the guy was asking for it."
"Normally Rivalz," Lelouch spoke, adjusting his glasses, "I would applaud your valor in defending some ideal to the point of asking for a duel, but I- or rather we in the student council - already know about your stupid obsession. And because of that, I will side with Shirley here and tell you you're an idiot."
"Hello everyone." "Yo." "...good afternoon..."
Suzaku, Kallen and Nina trooped through the entrance just in time to see Rivalz blow up at one of the top magus prospects in the Academy, yelling, "Hey, it's not a stupid obsession at all! At least I'm not watching all those cartoons and playing vid-games and those TV dramas and obsessing over fictional things! True, I buy merch, I'm in a lot of clubs, I sometimes write poems about them, but even you, Lelouch, can acknowledge that this is different! They, the Magical Girls, are real!"
Suzaku scratched behind his ear, looking wrily at Lelouch. "You just had to trigger him."
"But the Magical Girls are real! They're the real deal, and that's why I love them! In fact, I'm going to talk to you all about it one more time!"
A chorus of groans was punctuated by Lelouch slamming the grimoire close, standing up from his seat, while avoiding the death glare being sent his way by the zealous fanboy. "And, if you'll excuse me, I've screws to pick up from the workshop." He turned to the others. "You'll all listen to Rivalz' rant for me won't you?" He left.
"You know, Kallen, I'm surprised you aren't any more curious. I mean, you're of the fairer sex after all, and so are the only ones in this world allowed to be a magical girl. You too, Nina."
"Um..." "I'm so gonna sock you for it punk."
"Now now, Kallen," Suzaku said amicably, walking towards the pantry. "Did you miss Milly's memo? 'No violence at the clubroom'." Rivalz had kept on ranting in the meantime.
"...and who cares about their origin, well I do, I can write a whole book on the subject, well everyone knows when the Black Beast was still alive kicking ass and taking names, and it was rumored that the very first magical girl was one of the Heroes, I wouldn't be surprised, even one magical girl would've been enough to sway even the Beast with their charms, but I'm going far off the point, well the first official magical girl was in Britannia, less than a hundred years ago, everyone remembers her first awakening and the way she repelled those titan alligators with lumps of oversized fruit, 'Fantastic Fatima' was her shorthand name but she had a really long name that only the most devoted of fanboys can memorize among all the other names of the magical girls that were to come, and let me tell you, I know it well.
"Master Rivalz, how, you might ask, are magical girls different from any other ars-user in the world, like we got Order knights, Order mages, mages from the Britannian Circles, mages from the EU towers, and then we have the channelers of the flow and other exotic magicians from the Federation, and who knows how many other magicians are there? Maybe there are a thousand more in Gaia? Well,
"Master_Trazyn09 over at the Renegade forums is a well-known detractor of anything magical girl related, but he's got the best damn realworld identity in the whole world to be able to spend his entire life studying the way the masked heroines work, and so I'm using his explanation as to how they differ from the rest of us.
"He calls it 'Bioglyphic Diffusing Transmogrification Factor' but it's more commonly known as 'Guts'. During the first ever transformation, when any woman, usually a girl less than ten finds it inside her to will it that everything in the world should go according to her whims (and that's how it usually goes), then Guts kicks in and the residual seithr interacts with the girl's affinity to force a transformation on the girl that is itself a reflection of the psyche that willed for the Guts to activate in the first place. Pow, pow, whoosh! She transforms!
"So much for that boring explanation, the only thing I know for sure is that all magical girl transformations are cool to watch. (or sometimes frigging hot!) As far as I can tell they use powers which any other mage can use, but it is agreed among the fan community that there is something different to a magical girl's attacks that made them stand out as the glorious defenders of the people as they're now rightfully famous for.
"You know we even had a magical girl here in Area Eleven a while back, two, in fact, they were a duo, and they went around joining the Guardians in patrolling the Dead Zones outside, sometimes coming right in time to protect a group of tourists or scientists who'd wandered too close to a monster's den, I always loved watching those two when I was a kid, too bad they're gone now, no one knows where they went, and I know a few who'd give an arm and a leg for more information on their whereabouts."
He took a deep breath. Rivalz seemed to have reached a block in his rant, trying to figure out what to say next. Suzaku helpfully supplied it for him. "I've always wondered about it, Rivalz. Do you know what happens to the magical girls when they disappear?"
"Ah, now that is an excellent question, but almost everyone in the community already knows the answer, I mean my god Suzaku, no offense but you have got to stop living under a rock, so I mean what happens to them, so there comes a time in every person's life when they have to stop and make a change in themselves, and it's not different for magical girls, they can't lose their potential to be magical girls but inevitably, as everyone else, they grow up.
"There are many ways to go about it, in time people learn about their secret identities and so they're urged by other people to use their enhanced powers upon entering society, for example, we've got those high mages in the Britannian circles, I can bet you anything they were once magical girls, well, most of them, that is, and sometimes being a magical girl boosts you straight up in the Hierarchy, like that 'youngest Knight of Rounds', I forgot her name, she used to wear the Mask-and-Scepter in the Homeland...
"In the Union, it's sort of an in-joke that all magical girls from there grow up to become witches, dastardly, scheming women who supplant or become the masters of their own towers in that chaotic place, and they're powerful too, one wonders how they're able to retain the Guts if their personalities changed so much...
"And then the most famous magical girls who grew up all come from the Federation, where they're treated almost like national treasures, I mean they become idols, artists, actresses, they've got a live show and plenty of concerts at the district every weekend night with a different magical girl every week, I've got tickets if you're interested in those things, never once failed to watch one, although they do tend to be corporated too much, you've got toys, pens and all those other merchandise which any fan should go out of his way to acquire-"
There were clearing of throats. Rivalz stopped mid-rant to blink at the ones standing at the door, namely one Milly Ashford and Lelouch Lamperouge who were also blinking owlishly back at him. Lelouch was carrying a tall pile of papers that were almost as tall as him, while the Ashford heiress was tapping her foot impatiently, wearing a peculiar expression on her face.
"Ah, Prez, sorry, got too caught up, shall we get on with council work then?" he said apologetically, bowing like a Japanese. Lelouch made as if to push up his glasses, but remembered how he was currently busy with both of his hands.
"Honestly...you and your obsessions should just be shared with the thousand of fanboys you meet up with every night. Your avatar and their avatars should gush on and on about magical girls..."
"Hey, I think it's cute Lelouch. It's almost always the girls who band up to profess their united love for a dear, sweet prince right? It's amazing how the reverse can hold true. "
"Prez!" Rivalz shouted, eyes gleaming after Milly had defended him to Lelouch.
"Doesn't make it any less creepy though," Lelouch pointed out.
"Agreed."
)()()()()()()()(
The Lost and Forgotten Magics
Inside a certain daytime cafeteria in the Britannian district of Area Eleven, a heated discussion took place over plates of steaming salad, pizza and coffee. The customers who'd been served those lounged in couches and straight-back chairs around the untouched food on the central table.
A bespectacled black-haired boy wearing the uniform of the Ashford school tapped his steepled fingers idly. "The benefits of resonance, as you said, is quite overestimated, but one cannot help but agree with the conclusions of Schaffer and Rodriguez, whose theories were validated by the sound-ars experiments they performed."
"Ah, but there is a mite difference between trans-axial array clusters and resonance phenomena, my dear boy," said another bespectacled man who had a cheerful smile on his face. "For one, Newton's sub-theory as it pertains to ars-physics still holds true even in the absence of quantum prisms. That was how psychokinetic phenomena was disproven, remember?"
A woman whose hair was bound up inside a baseball cap reached over to take another slice of pizza as she cut in, "See? It's not necessarily a proven concept yet, boy. Visual-auditory indications do not in any way prove the phenomena of resonance."
"May I say," said the fourth member, a Chinese man with grey hair who never took his hat off, "That density was one of the phenomena investigated and subsequently proven using Bacon's steps, and it seems it may hold true with resonance. Though there have been no promising results to prove that, sadly enough."
"I know, and I acknowledge that," the first one said. "And as I pointed out, I was only cautioning, as you said, thank you sir, that there are far better odds for resonance than psychokinetics ever had."
"On the subject of psychokinetics," the other bespectacled man said, "It can be reasonably said that it didn't not have potential, only that it became close to true Sorcery, and I agree with Potemkin's views on the matter."
"I thought it was asserted by Michowsky and Trask that it was close to biological alchemy?" asked the first.
"No, no," interjected the Chinese man amiably, "Psychokinetic phenomena was wrongly theorized to be a subconscious manipulation of subatomic particles in matter, and also showed indications of tapping - if you'll forgive me - Gear-like into unknown, unquantifiable resources. It was eventually shown to be a function of seithr, but in essence, the theory for PKP was basically thus."
"Making it belong to both alchemy and sorcery," the girl finished for him.
"In a simplistic way of saying, yes."
"But you can't have it both ways. Alchemy and Sorcery are supposed to be mutually exclusive, right?" the first one asked. The other three tilted heads, as if they wanted to agree. It was the second man who answered first.
"Well, certainly there will exist exceptions that cannot be purely relegated to a category – we are still in the process of learning, after all-"
"-To use Hassan's parable for example, you can have it both ways," the Chinese man said.
"How is a children's tale relevant?" demanded the first one.
The girl answered, "The bird which could transform into a carpenter and yet remain, structurally, fundamentally, a bird and not belong to the species of Homo sapiens is an example of both, boy."
"So let me get this straight. In alchemy, one changes, or exerts a change in oneself or an external object with predefined thaumaturgical restrictions and limits. A broom will become a sword, but only to the point of becoming functionally a wooden sword with bits of dried stalk. Everything is preserved, nothing is truly lost or irreplaceable, or in the case of chemical change, there is an equivalent transposition of materials. Now, the sword can still be strengthened, made harder and sharper without recourse to a smith, but the process still follows the fundamentals of equal parts give-and-take.
"But with sorcery, to use the broom once more, it truly becomes a real, steel-forged sword, having lost its prior state completely to adopt a new form. Nothing is truly lost, but everything changes as it was meant to be. The sword in turn can become another thing entirely, never truly retaining its qualities and even forgetting about its existence as a broom should the magician will it. The more advanced sorcery calls upon violations of the world's inherent rules to manifest miracles, or in some cases great misery and devastation with little cost. The sword is able to be crafted from absolutely nothing."
"Let's not forget the difference in the means used, too," the other bespectacled man pointed out.
"You're also leaving aside the fact that both arts are technically dead," the girl laconically said.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," the Chinese man said, twiddling a finger. "At the very least, alchemy is still being actively practiced in some parts of the EU. And there are some in Britannia who claim themselves heirs to the True Sorceries."
The girl shook her head, eyes in thought. "The True Sorceries never existed as such. They were just Sorceries. Things like necromancy, chronomancy or alternate dimensions are easily attainable; though again not to be casually trifled with as the other 'lesser' sorceries."
"I beg to differ," the Chinese man said, still smiling.
"Really."
It was the second man's turn to smooth over the topic. "Well, to answer the boy's query, many scholars did think that PKP was really a part of both before it was disproven. And there are many other minor examples, like teleportation-"
"Classified as a sorcery."
"If it were, it would've been officially banned across the globe," continued the man. "And you have those other forgotten magics that, like alchemy and sorcery, went the way of the dodo when Ars Magus became the standard." He laughed in a quick burst. "Heck, even that's not easily grasped by many, your average Order Knight only knows the level three basics, five if they're Legion-Masters or mages. And then we have Gears, who have their own way of casting altogether."
"Perhaps resonance will show itself to be truly of both," the first one said, his eyes sunk in contemplation.
"Aye, that's something to look forward to." The second man checked his watch. "I've almost got to go, thanks for sharing your time with little ol' me, strangers. This humble scientist has got work to do."
"As do I," the Chinese man said, standing up and bowing. "It was most interesting, fellow pursuers of the truth. Though it is unlikely, I pray that we meet again." His smiling eyes lingered on the girl before he tipped his hat and followed the other man out.
"It's strange," C.C began after wolfing down the crusts she left behind. "I didn't take you for an intellectual, Lelouch. You're always so crude and crass that I took you for a pretty boy delinquent. Although you still had a lot to learn, you did manage to keep up with us."
"And I wouldn't have had to if you didn't have the 'urge' to drag me into this," the boy huffed. He looked at his own watch. "You've got twenty more minutes on the buffet. Hurry up with the pig-out or I'm leaving the bill for you."
"Music to my ears." The pale woman snapped imperiously for the waiter as Lelouch took a well-deserved sip of his tea.
AN: I shall be referring any changes to this chapter in later ones, when such information is thought to be necessary. The chapter title was suggested by a friend, and I've already thanked him for it.
Thanks for reading!
Merlin Out.