Code Geass: Lelouch of the Digidestined

by Demon of Zero

Digimon were created as an artificial life, their original purpose lost to humanity with the death of their creators. And so the world gave them a purpose, horrible though it may be. Those that emerged in the human world were captured and enslaved, used as soldiers and weapons. And despite these changes, still some things remain the same. Zero will rise and the world will change.

12. Chapter 12

Well, this one was fairly fun. I don't own Code Geass or Digimon, by the way. Just thought you should know.

Uh, so... yeah. Fight scenes. I don't really know, man. I really just do not even. I think I'm going to go reread some more of Kenchi618's stories because that man is like the patron god of awesome fight scenes and I must learn.

---

Fire crackled wildly, forcing the shadows to dance menacingly as the blaze continued on, scorching the earth below and lighting up the night sky in a brilliant display of power.

A satisfied growl slipped from the throat of the one who had lit this fire, basking in the heat and the glow as his amber eyes gazed upon the towering flames.

It was so immensely satisfying to have finally caught and exterminated the turncoat. The being that had at one point served as his direct superior was now reduced to nothing, all by his hand. After many years of aiming to surpass him, it had at long come to pass.

With the darkening of his former leader, he had been promoted to take that position.

On top of that, after numerous failures to capture the wily bastard and his partner, they had given the assignment to him personally. It was one that he had taken with relish.

That pillar of fire signified much to him. With it, he had secured his place in the Empire by completing an assignment that had left many demoted due to their failure. He'd burned away the last remains of his former position, the digimon who had directly commanded him, who he had resented for years.

"Heh... heh..." A voice drew Growlmon from his gleeful musing, turning his glare upon whoever had been so foolish as to interrupt his celebration. Eyes darting around in a frenzy, he couldn't catch sight of anyone in the area. The crackling of the fire had made it too hard to determine just where the sound was coming from, so he didn't even know where to look.

The location of the voice became apparent not a moment later as the fires were blown away in a sudden motion. Within the remaining flames scattered around the scorched ground stood a sight that drew a snarl across Growlmon's lips.

A sick caricature of himself stared back at him, mimicking his form in all but color. Where his hide was a brilliant red, this creature was an inky black.

Black Growlmon had made it's appearance, and things had become much more difficult for his mission.

"You wouldn't believe how good this feels." The dark digimon stated off-handedly. "Goin' from powerless to this... it's somethin' special. Man, I should be freaking out over this!" He threw his head back and laughed uproariously. "But right now it seems like the most natural thing in the world."

Growlmon was getting suspicious of something. Where were the human's remains? A flame that hot would have turned the man into a charred corpse at least, and neither Growlmon nor his new opponent had any tricks to protect a human from such heat. So where was he?

On top of that, his old superior had never spoken so freely in battle, and this was surely a battle. He'd been almost grimly silent in every encounter Growlmon had seen him in. So, then, what was this?

Not only had the human gone missing, but Black Growlmon was acting strange. Even through his betrayal the digimon he had known was not a conversationalist.

"Pfffft..." The grin was apparant on the Black Growlmon as he restrained his laughter. "You don't get what happened do ya'?" Getting a glare for his trouble rather than an actual response, the dark skinned reptile chuckled once more, before sobering. "Right... I said if I could, I'd smash ya' for that little song and dance number we did earlier... so how 'bout it?"

Right now, Black Growlmon was both Tamaki and Guilmon. Any experience of Tamaki's was one of Guilmon's, and any experience of the digimon was one of the human.

Finer, irrelevant, memories tended to get lost in the split, and so the two wouldn't have lived one another's lives when the merge ended, but up until that point they were a single being who's memories and emotions were compiled from the both of them

"Exhaust Flame!" With that, a large gout of fire was launched from the mouth of Black Growlmon at the Empire soldier.

"Pyro Blaster!" In response, Growlmon fired off his own blast of fire.

As expected, the fire met in between the two and accomplished nothing more than rekindling the flame Growlmon had set before.

Neither of the fighters believed such an attack would be terribly effective; fire was not something that gave pause to a creature like Growlmon, and that remained true even through the darkening of one of their species.

"Plasma Blade!" A yellow light formed over the arm blades of Black Growlmon, who rushed forward to begin his offensive against the one who had chased him across the digital world.

It was met with a crimson blade coated in that same light. "Dragon Slash!"

The duel continued with from there with a series of quick strikes from either combatant, interspaced with blasts of flame and punctuated by furious howls.

Shinjuku was the battlefield for a pair of monsters on this night, neither willing to back down from their opponent.

Their arena was bathed in flames; this did not stop them.

The buildings in proximity had been damaged or outright collapsed; this was not of concern to them.

By morning, the entirety of the Shinjuku ghetto would know that a battle had taken place between champions; this did not deter them in the slightest.

At the end of this battle, only one would be standing; that was just how they wanted it.

"PYRO BLASTER!" A furious roar announced the usage of an overcharged flame, which bathed the battlefield once more in the brilliant flames.

Unconcerned by the fire, the dark figure skirted the edge of the attack and charged with blades held at the ready. "Plasma Blade!"

The lunge was dodged, a counter launched. "Dragon Slash!"

Again, the blades met in the air, locking the two demon dragons in a stalemate yet again. "I will destroy you! For the years of humiliation I suffered under your command, and to secure my rightful place, I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Growlmon shouted, slowly but surely overpowering the hold.

"You're gonna be the one that isn't leaving here, you overgrown gecko." Black Growlmon grit out, allowing himself to be pushed back further and further. There was no humiliation for this fool to have suffered aside from what he made for himself. Did the idiot really think he had any desire to do so? It wasn't worth his time in the slightest to do such things.

After he'd been pushed back sufficiently far, the dark dragon let his resistance fade and quickly lashing out in the lapse it provided.

Suddenly lacking the force pressing against his strike, Growlmon stumbled forward, cursing lowly as he realized the enemy's intention.

It was a moment too late, however. A forceful tail strike to the neck punctuated his mistake, the force of the attack sending Growlmon sliding backwards.

Recomposing himself, the red dragon took up his stance one more. He growled lowly in his throat, the silent glare he was on the receiving end of had begun to remind him more and more that this creature was still the being that had once been his superior. If any champion had combat experience and raw power to fight him evenly, it would be the creature before him.

This wasn't going to be easy at all. The two of them were practically mirror images of one another, but with a single exception.

As a darkened digimon, the Black Growlmon's attacks were more powerful than his own. Perhaps by the slimmest of margins, but it was noticeable. Enough so that he realized a battle of attrition would fall in the other's favor rather than his own.

And yet, due to their similar form neither of them had any ace up their sleeve that the other wouldn't also have access to. All this fight would ever be is a battle of attrition.

Retreat was the best option here.

Unfortunately, retreat was not an option he had access to.

"Tear Arrow." An arrow flew through the air at high enough velocity to tear through stone, striking Growlmon from behind and piercing his right shoulder.

Snarling in pain and fury, the red dragon shifted position to get both his former superior and the attacker in view. "Lekismon? How?" There was only one remaining digimon of that line, and they were most assuredly not supposed to be here. Even if she wasn't her usual Mega form, this was a battle hardened soldier who had lived through a war which had consumed her entire species.

The creature in question was a large bipedal rabbit. Primarily colored in a pastel pink, it's fur was highlighted with yellow crescents on it's lower half, while the long ears were tipped with a light royal purple color. Over it's chest sat a harness in that same purple color, decorated with dark grey straps that linked together to hold a clasp with caricature of a sleepy faced crescent moon. Six purple tails could be seen behind them, seemingly independent of one another.

A pair of hardened pink eyes stared out from behind a silver visor, secured to the creature's head by a pink ribbon. At forehead level, there was a hole cut from the helm to show off another of the yellow crescents and an antenna that gradually faded from pink to purple at the end. A pair of black gloves, decorated again with yellow crescents, sat upon it's hands, and fastened at the feet were two rings of a similar material.

Drawing another of the icy arrows, Lekismon took aim once more. While still wary of the new arrival, his original foe wasn't so concerned by them that he would hold off on his own attack.

This would be either his greatest victory or his final defeat; whatever fate lie before him, Growlmon reached out to take it.

---

Shifting in his sleep, Lelouch belatedly noticed the presence of someone else in his bed. After spending so many nights sharing with C.C., he'd become accustomed to it by this point.

However, C.C. had gone to sleep in another room for the night. So whoever this was beside him, it was not who he was used to.

That set off alarm bells in his mind, bleary eyes sharpening in response. Whoever else was here with him was hidden beneath the covers, and from what he could tell they were asleep.

This narrowed possibilities by a fair margin. There were basically only two people he knew of that would just come in unannounced and make their way into his bed just to sleep without a care for repercussion.

Either it was Anya, or it was Kaguya. Both of which were possibilities he'd admitted to himself, but neither of whom he'd actually been expecting.

Anya, when it came to him or Nunnally, was the touchy-feely type. She liked contact and would initiate it without any real reason other than she wanted to.

Which was why he'd been dealing with the student council thinking he had a thing for younger girls, as she went out of her way to remain in physical contact with him as much as possible whenever he was around.

Hugs were common. They became less frequent for him as Anya had instead decided that his lap was the most comfortable place in the world, but Nunnally still received hugs primarily.

She'd already snuck into his bed once, so this wouldn't be surprising at all. But at the same time she'd already left for the night, and if she intended to stay more likely than not she would have just stayed in the first place.

And then there was Kaguya, who just did whatever she damn well pleased at any point in time and good luck trying to stop her. While he hadn't seen her in seven years, just one meeting could pretty much guarantee that she was still the same girl he'd known before. Just a bit more capable, now, as she'd grown from being just the Sumeragi heiress in the wake of Japan's occupation.

Attempting to turn on the lamp had mixed results. On one hand, he'd failed to activate the light.

On the other, he was now quite certain that Kaguya was in bed with him.

He'd learned this because as he was reaching over the supposedly sleeping form of the person sharing a bed with him, they had rolled over from their side to their back and pulled him down on top of them, giggling as they did so.

Yes. Definitely Kaguya. She was always like that. Now, then, this boded the question he decided to voice. "Why?" Having moved to catch himself, Lelouch was now straddling the form of the smaller girl.

It was a very compromising position and she'd been the one to cause it, purposefully.

"Because I wanted to." Came the simple reply from the girl, confirming beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was, in fact, who he suspected it to be.

"What if someone were to walk in on this?" He asked in a deadpan toned. As said, this position was incredibly compromising. The sudden movement from the two of them either in correcting their posture or causing the shift in the first place had tossed the blanket off of them, leaving the shirtless Lelouch straddling the younger girl with his hands on either side of her at roughly shoulder level.

... speaking of that, was that silk he felt beneath his hands? What was she wearing?

A giggle accompanied her response to the question. "They would probably think that you were about to make me a woman."

It didn't sound like she would particularly mind that outcome, from her tone.

As he began to remove himself from this position to avoid the chance of someone possibly stumbling upon this scene, Lelouch couldn't help but voice the question that was now on his mind. "Kaguya, what are you wearing right now?" Seriously, it was bothering him.

"Not much." She admitted casually. "Just a nightdress."

"You came in here wearing a nightie?" He replied incredulously. It wasn't like they were in the dead of winter or anything, but it was a bit chilly. Also, who would walk around the Tokyo Settlement wearing their sleep clothes anyway?

"No, silly. I stripped in your room and then put on the nightie." He could feel the nonchalant shrugging motion. "It's too cold out there to be running around with nothing but a single, thin layer of cloth between you and the elements."

Sighing tiredly, he finally extricated himself from his prior position, lying flat on his back and looking up at the ceiling. "... So, I repeat, why?" He asked flatly.

The girl rolled back onto her side and captured his arm between her own before giving her response. "Because I wanted to." Did he really need any more explanation?

"... perhaps the better question, then, would have been this; how? You're resourceful, and I have no doubt you could get into Ashford Academy if you wanted to, but I have no idea how." With her, he'd sort of given up trying to come up with reasonable explanations for how she did things. Kaguya just always seemed to make things work in her favor. If she told him that she'd found a hole in the fence large enough for her to sneak through, he would believe it.

"Oh, I had my friend drop me off here. She went to deal with something else though, she said."

"Friend?"

"You haven't met her before. She's really quite wonderful." She was purposefully dancing around the issue here.

Practically unable to hold her giggles as she felt him twitch in annoyance, Kaguya decided to throw him a bone. "Her name is Lunamon... or Lekismon right now I suppose."

Oh, was that all? She had a digimon friend helping her get into the school unhindered. That wasn't too hard to believe. The name was quite familiar though.

That was probably because the digimon he'd been informed of that had that name could only be what was once the powerful mega Dianamon, who was on equal footing with Apollomon, who had been roughly estimated to be just a bit stronger than Bismark Waldstein's Omnimon, who was the single most powerful digimon in the human world.

Nothing special about that.

"Ah, I see. Nothing out of the ordinary, then." He drawled sarcastically.

"No, not at all." Kaguya replied cheerfully, giving his arm a squeeze. "... did you get muscles?" She questioned in wonder, continuing the action of inspecting said arm. "You used to be so squishy."

Another twitch could be felt, but he answered all the same. "I've not developed any noticeable muscle mass as I'm sure you can tell since you're practically fondling me." He was just a bit less "squishy" as she put it.

"I'm not fondling you." She rebutted, idly poking at the arm she'd claimed a minute ago. "So you're not muscly, that much is true. Your skin is really smooth by the way." And there she went talking about things like this as though she were informing him of the weather.

"... thank you, I suppose." How did you respond to that? Someone comes into your room late at night, slips into your bed wearing a thin silk nightgown, and then proceeds to steal one of your arms to amuse herself. Moments later, she then compliments you for having smooth skin in a conversational fashion.

What was wrong with the people he knew?

"So," Lelouch began, "is there any particular reason you dropped by without so much as a call, or was this done on a whim?"

"The latter." Kaguya admitted freely. "I wanted to see you again, and didn't want to wait." Was it bad that she was impatient? Seven years without one of her favorite people, and then when she learned that he was actually alive their reunion was interrupted by Suzaku blowing the supports of the hotel up.

She wasn't about to let that slide. No, she wanted her long overdue happy reunion and she wanted it ASAP. This method just let her have a bit more fun with it.

An exasperated sigh slipped from the exiled prince. "I'm going to go back to sleep now. You can just do whatever you like." It wasn't as though she would even move if he asked her to, and there was no way he was going to force the issue all things considered.

Inconvenient as it was, Kaguya hadn't seen him in seven years. On top of that, she had thought him to be dead for that duration. After learning he'd been alive this entire time, there was simply no way the Sumeragi heiress was going to leave him be for the foreseeable future.

He wasn't cruel enough to deny her this much.

With that said, he simply removed his arm from her grasp, drawing a surprised gasp from the girl as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him.

"Goodness, how forward..." Kaguya giggled, snuggling into his side. "Taking such liberties with a lady." She was clearly amused at her own words.

"It's my bed. I was uncomfortable. As such, I made myself comfortable." It was a rather simple train of thought. She was the one intruding in his bed so she'd have to just deal with it.

With that said, he promptly nodded off once more. Fighting was tiresome, and while not all of the damage or fatigue from battle remained after the separation, it still left one feeling sort of drained.

Information distribution had already been put off until tomorrow; if no one was dead or dying, it wasn't enough to warrant him giving a damn right now.

---

Eyeing the particles of orange data that had once been a Growlmon, Black Growlmon was uncertain as to whether or not he should make to absorb it.

On the one hand, the enemy was clearly holding a grudge against him specifically. If he simply left the data to free-float, it would either reform elsewhere as a Baby digimon with memories intact or be absorbed by another.

The rift to the digital world had closed; the chance of the data making up the Growlmon finding it's way back to the digi-world was astronomical.

On the other hand, Lekismon had also played a large part in the battle. As such, he was unsure as to whether or not the rabbit digimon would move to absorb the data. Allowing her to take the spoils of battle didn't particularly bother him, nor did he want to start a conflict inadvertently.

One way or another, that data needed to be absorbed by one of them. The danger was too great to allow it to reform with the memories he'd accumulated. Taking the data, all but the barest scraps of the being that had once been Growlmon, would leave just the tiniest part that could eventually reform as a Baby, but with no memories. It was close to reincarnation.

"I recommend you absorb it." Lekismon spoke in a soft tone, a stark contrast from the cold steel that could be heard in her voice during battle. "I've no interest in doing so." She knew full well that a Growlmon fighting a Black Growlmon almost guaranteed Empire interests. As such, she'd stepped in to protect the party closer aligned to her; the Black Growlmon was a member of a species being hunted to extinction, whereas the Growlmon was actively participating in that hunt.

To allow the data to simply drift off would mean that Growlmon would be making another appearance one day, fully intending to take revenge upon them both. While Lekismon was confident in her ability to defeat such a foe any day of the week, she would prefer to simply avoid such a conflict. However, the data did not interest her. If her unsteady ally did not absorb it, she would do so, but only because it would save trouble down the line.

"... alright." It was not a difficult thing to do. With a simple thought, the data came rushing to him, before fading away as he absorbed it. The tiny particles that would one day reform as a Baby were invisible to the naked eye, escaping this process.

Turning to regard Lekismon, he nodded gratefully. "Thanks for the hand. I would've had a way harder time if not for you." That fight had been gearing up to be an affair spanning several hours and possibly several locations. Property damage could have been ridiculous, considering the damage done to the relatively small area the battle had been contained in.

Lekismon returned the nod with one of her own. "I sensed a field and made my way here to take care of it." Whatever had come out, she was fully prepared to do what needed to be done to keep this area safe. These were her newest friend's people and as such they were to be protected to the best of her ability.

She owed Kaguya that much for taking such good care of her. The girl had rescued her when she'd been lower than low, given her food and shelter, and gone out of her way to form a friendship.

Snorting, the black dragon glanced around. "People are gonna' wonder what the fuck happened here." He laughed a bit. "Hell, I'm still wondering what happened. This has been a fucked up night for me.."

Blinking at the course language despite the civilly neutral tone, Lekismon could only assume this was one of the digimon's quirks. "Most likely they will assume digimon were involved due to the nature of the damages." There were giant claw marks, foot prints, scorch marks, arrow holes, and one really big crater in the ground where she had struck the finishing blow.

The arrows as a matter of fact would not melt before being noticed. Either way it didn't matter, because this was clearly the work of digimon and that meant there was no reason to even try and hide it. The public would learn of the event and panic one way or another.

A flash of red drew a surprised response from the pink rabbit, who was greeted by the bizarre sight of a human and a Black Guilmon standing where there had once been a Black Growlmon.

That was familiar. Another of the Digidestined? Yes, the Digivice was right there in the man's hand. How interesting. That made two, then, that she knew of.

How many were there in total? She couldn't help but wonder what kind of impact they would have upon both worlds.

The Guilmon bowed once more. "While I suppose I may have already thanked you, that form was not solely my being. As such, I would like to offer my sincerest gratitude to you for your interference."

'Well, that would be where the tone came from. So the content would be blamed upon the human element of this.' She understood the gist of the Digidestined transformation. The prophecy stated, rather roughly, that a merger occurred between human and digimon, resulting in a being that was both but neither. It was never clear just what that meant until she'd seen the phenomenon first hand.

The two creatures merged into a new being, one that was both of them at the same time, and yet it was neither of them as it was a being all of it's own. Such a bizarre thing, that was, but there was no denying it.

"... fuck, man, that was trippy." Tamaki mumbled, blinking idly as he fell back on his ass. "Kami... that just happened, right? I'm not dreamin'? Good fuckin' lord was that intense." He'd just fucking turned into a digimon and fought another digimon. What the actual hell kind of world was he living in where that was a statement one could actually make without being a loony?

"It would appear that there are humans approaching." Lekismon spoke up after a moment, sharp eyes spotting the approaching group before they could do the same. The remaining fire probably helped in that regard, it was fairly difficult to see at the moment. "Three men and a woman." They didn't appear to be civilians, their steps were too sure for that. Considering they were running to the fire rather than away from it, there was probably a reason for that.

Tamaki spoke up. "S'probably Ohgi and the rest comin' to find me." He'd let their old leader know that he was going for a walk in this general area, so when the news came to him that shit was on fire he probably dropped everything and took off looking for him.

Ohgi was a good guy like that.

"... I see." Lekismon nodded to herself. "Let that be my cue to leave, then." A single jump put the rabbit digimon atop a building, where she continued to nimbly hop away.

The redhead just leaned back against the rubble with his arms crossed behind his head, a bemused grin stretching across his face. Just what the hell was happening in his life?

Seeing no reason to continue standing, Guilmon settled down beside the rebel, curling up into a resting position.

"Tamaki!" Yeah, that was Ohgi alright. You could practically feel the concern in his voice. Good grief, the guy was like a doting mother sometimes. Granted, this time he probably had a fair reason to be concerned considering there was still fire burning in places, lighting up the area with an eerie glow and making the shadows dance.

As the group consisting of Sugiyama, Yoshida, Inoue, and Ohgi got close enough to see him, they all stopped and stared.

"Yo." Tamaki waved, chuckling at the awed looks. What, had they never seen a digimon before?

Guilmon copied the gesture. "Hello." These were his partner's friends, then? Interesting group.

Ohgi gulped. "Tamaki, what happened here?" This place was totally wrecked. Completely and utterly demolished beyond repair, buildings collapsed, fires burning, and numerous craters in the ground. And there was Tamaki, just casually sitting up against the rubble of what had once been a small building, with a giant black lizard curled up beside him.

"Fire. Lots an' lots of fire." And with that, the rebel proceeded to launch into an explanation for the events of this night.

Unlike others who have been questioned as such, however, Tamaki did not leave out any information.

---

Morning had come at an awkward time for Lelouch. Kaguya moved in her sleep, either that or she'd purposefully done this before falling asleep, which had resulted in her mounting him during the night, leading him to wake up to her head resting on his chest while the rest of her was draped over him.

During the night, he'd been told that Kaguya was wearing a nightgown. Indeed, the pathetically thin excuse for a garment could be called that. However, he hadn't actually seen it as he'd never managed to turn on the light.

As such, when he did see just how little she was actually wearing it was something of a shock.

When she'd said "not much", she had meant it. The gown was formed of pink silk, with long, wide sleeves. That was about where the coverage ended. The bottom of the gown had rode up in the night, revealing far more skin than he was comfortable with seeing with the girl still on top of him.

While normally the dress would cover her bottom half if only just, as of now it was not doing so in the slightest.

Really, the material of the sleeves should probably have been distributed to the skirt in his opinion. There was more than enough there to make a difference.

This also drew his attention to the fact that the girl had really meant it when she said she wasn't wearing much, because there wasn't any sign of her wearing underwear either. She may as well have been naked from the waist down as far as modesty went.

Kaguya really did just do whatever she damn well pleased, didn't she? That girl probably wouldn't even be embarrassed about this... hell, she might have done it on purpose.

It didn't really fluster him, not as much as it probably would have a few days ago. A blush had come to his cheeks, and he'd made it a point to look elsewhere to keep from staring, but he wasn't going to freak out over it.

... oh. That loosely tied gown of hers had come open at some point during the night, hadn't it?

Even better. He could feel skin contact. Perhaps he was freaking out a little internally.

Lelouch sighed heavily, flushing a bit more. This girl was such a pain in the ass sometimes. She was practically naked, sleeping on top of him after she had gone out of her way to sneak into his bed.

This position was more compromising than just about any other he'd found himself in before. Even being caught with C.C. mid-coitus would probably have been less embarrassing considering this was Suzaku's cousin.

Oh lord, he could just imagine what that idiot would have to say about this situation if he found out. Lelouch couldn't really blame him though, because he'd probably react the same way if it were Nunnally involved.

Suzaku was still on call with the military, though. Directly in the wake of Kawaguchi, he'd been working nonstop. So hopefully he wouldn't suddenly decide to take a break just in time to walk in on his cousin draped over him.

So to review the series of events leading up to this point; Kaguya had arrived in his room in the dead of night without announcement. After doing so, she had apparently stripped naked before slipping on a thin nightgown that covered pretty much nothing from the waist down. Following this, she'd slid into his bed and pretended to be asleep until he tried to do something about it... at which point she pulled him down onto her. And after he finally decided to say fuck it and go to sleep, she'd somehow gotten on top of him in the night and her clothing had fallen into disarray. Which led to now, where she may as well have been stark naked for all the coverage her clothes were giving her.

Just how did these things happen to him again? It was sort of his own fault for not telling her to leave, but he hadn't actually minded her sleeping here. The issue didn't arise until she'd managed to end up even less clothed than she'd originally been.

A small mumble brought his attention to the fact that his uninvited guest was waking up. Normally one in a position as compromising as this may find themselves concerned for their safety as there would be a humiliated and angry girl prepared to berate them in some fashion, but Lelouch wasn't. As a matter of fact, he looked forward to when she woke up so this entire situation would be over.

Yawning, the girl in question blearily opened her eyes, glancing about at random in a sort of daze. "Hmmmm..." She mumbled again, before a pair of soft hands pressed on the chest of the boy she'd been using as a bed to help raise her up into a sitting position.

Releasing something like a strangled gasp at that, Lelouch turned to warn the girl about her clothing. Unfortunately, or fortunately as some may argue, it was too late as she had already shifted to a sitting position, straddling his waist and arching her back as she stretched her arms above her head, mewling appreciatively at the feeling.

Kaguya was a beautiful young girl, that knowledge wasn't new to him. But seeing her as she was right then, the long sleeves of her pink nightgown pooling over her arms and doing nothing to cover her upper body, with her skirt hiked up to her waist and not inhibiting his view in the slightest... it completely reaffirmed that. Goodness, she was gorgeous. He could only imagine what a few more years would do for her, because as she was right now this girl was positively stunning.

And he was staring, he realized belatedly, blushing and turning away. "S-sorry." This was a perfect way to begin his morning.

The girl blinked once, taking another glance around the room as though to verify where she was, before turning her half lidded gaze upon the flushed teen beneath her with a sultry smile. "Good morning."

"... your clothes." Lelouch was not able to see these things at the moment, however, as he was too busy averting his gaze. As though it would matter by this point, since he had the image of her practically burned into his memory.

He probably couldn't ever forget that sight even if he wanted to.

Another hum was her response, as she presumably looked over her state of undress. "Oh, that's what you were apologizing for." He could practically see the gesture of her tapping her fist into an open palm in an 'ah hah!' moment. "Why are you apologizing for that, silly?"

"I saw everything." He admitted sheepishly.

Cloth rustled and he could feel movement, so Lelouch assumed the girl was fixing her clothes.

This assumption proved to be wrong not a moment later as he once again felt bare skin against his own, the girl leaning down near his ear. "I wanted you to see." She whispered sensually, nuzzling into his neck. "Did you like it?"

Yes. He had greatly enjoyed it. Enough so that he'd felt guilty after the fact. Rather than saying this, however, he asked a question. "Why?"

Instead of the answer he was expecting, which would be some variant of the phrase "Why not?", Kaguya replied with a genuine answer. "Because I want you."

But still that left one question. "Why me?" They had been close as children, that much was true. Very close, even. She had been just as good a friend as Suzaku in those old days. And even back then he had noticed her seeming infatuation with him, a childish crush. But they hadn't seen one another in years.

Anya he could somewhat understand; she had to live each and every day with the knowledge that the only people she couldn't forget were dead and gone, only to suddenly have two of the three back in her life. That justified her continued fascination with him, the simple fact that he was pretty much the only option she had for that kind of affection if she wanted to remember it later.

Seven years of thinking he was dead should have gotten Kaguya over that little crush, not made it strong enough that she would do something like this.

"Huh..." Kaguya murmured, taking a moment to think to herself. "Well, for one thing, you're pretty much every girl's prince charming." The fact that he actually was a prince notwithstanding, Lelouch was downright gorgeous. Exactly the kind of guy that girls dreamed would sweep them off their feet at the ball, or save them from their lonely castle, or from the fierce dragon, or whatever their fantasy their overactive imaginations could generate. "Not to mention you're already one of my favorite people in the world and, the fact that you're alive has made me happier than I've been in several years." She didn't really interact with many likable people in her line of work, either funding resistance groups or managing the company she'd been left. In seven years the number of people she'd regularly interacted with that she actually liked was under twenty, and that was even including Suzaku's occasional visits. "Oh, and did I mention you basically are my prince charming, leading a rebellion that will free my people from the tyranny of Britannia?"

She wasn't quite a princess, but there were some parallels that could be drawn between her and royalty. Britannia may as well have been some evil faceless empire oppressing her country... because they kind of were. They even had the fierce monsters one would expect from a fairy tale in the Digital Monsters they employed alongside their knightmares.

And so when Lelouch vi Britannia, exiled from that nation at the tender age of ten, was revealed to her as the masked man who was striking blow after blow upon Britannia in the name of freeing Japan and protecting those unable to protect themselves, it was like a dream come true. How many girls could say that their first crush had gone on to become the closest thing to a fairy tale knight in shining armor?

"So," She giggled, "I want to be yours." It was just that simple. No one else had ever made her feel this way, and Kaguya wasn't about to risk losing him again by being passive about this, so moving forward in a way that could not be mistaken at all was the best decision.

But, that didn't mean he would actually want her. Kaguya was prepared for rejection, but it wouldn't change her feelings. If he wouldn't accept her, then she would continue on in life. It would hurt, but that would be all there was to it. One couldn't force things like this, after all.

"..." Lelouch was fighting with himself over something, but in the end he decided to just say it. "And if there's someone else?" He'd only just become intimate with C.C., and wasn't sure how to proceed with that in the first place. They hadn't really talked about it in the brief time since the occurrence. So now he had to tread carefully on matters of this sort.

"I'm fine with sharing." A response came from a third voice, one that neither of the other two had expected to hear.

This was shocking enough that Lelouch opened his eyes, attention drawn to the form of the beautiful woman standing in the doorway of the bathroom.

Kaguya also blinked at the sudden realization that there was someone else there, finally making a move to cover herself. The fact that she did so by pressing closer to Lelouch was not lost upon anyone.

"... C.C.? How long have you been there?" He honestly didn't even know anymore. Had she actually been in the bathroom this whole time, or had she just woken up early and managed to get in without his notice?

"I came in about half an hour ago because I felt like seeing what was going on." The immortal, clad once more in nothing but one of his shirts, shrugged. "You were both asleep so I figured I would just hide out until something interesting happened." With the girl dressed as she was there was no way the morning wouldn't bring amusing results. She'd had a gut feeling that either Anya or this one would be showing up in the night to harass Lelouch, and she'd turned out to be right. It was too bad she hadn't swindled her contractor into a bet on the matter.

"Uhm..." Kaguya was well and truly confused now. "... so you're the "someone else" he was talking about?" She was pretty. Almost unfairly so. And judging by her state of dress the woman was very close to Lelouch. That brought the Sumeragi heiress back to what this mystery woman had said originally.

Sharing was fine with Kaguya; just so long as she got to be with the one she'd fallen for, there wasn't really much she wouldn't do. The whole issue would have been the matter of convincing the other involved party to do so, but that point was moot now considering the aforementioned party was the one to suggest the idea in the first place.

This situation would probably be a lot more awkward if it wasn't between this particular group of people.

"Yep." The green haired woman replied with a casual wave of her hands. "He and I are lovers."

Kaguya hummed, rolling off of Lelouch at last. "How far have the two of you gone?" She asked curiously, no longer covering herself from view. She was starting to like where this conversation was going.

C.C. smiled impishly, allowing her eyes to roam the girl's figure as she replied. "I've made our dear boy here into a man." She was cute. This would be a good start.

It had been a while since she'd been involved with polygamy, especially with someone like Lelouch who had next to no interest in pursuing the pleasures of the flesh.

Unlike many before him, the carnal pleasure was not what drew Lelouch to the act. It was simply the intent to make his partner happy.

He would just go along with the whims of whichever of the women in his life made their move. It wasn't that he didn't like the act itself, though, she knew that much at least. He was interested in the opposite sex, but just not to the point where he would put it above any other priorities he had.

More likely than not, if no woman had decided to press the issue with him Lelouch would have gone his entire life without being in a relationship.

But really, with genes from a man like Charles, C.C. couldn't see any result other than this. The other possibilities included him choosing one of the girls who would doubtlessly end up falling for him, breaking the hearts of the others in the process, or shutting out relationships entirely in his own misguided attempt to keep all of them happy.

Her actions that night had sort of forced him into the second, where he would simply remain faithful despite hurting the others who ended up falling for him. That wasn't really something C.C. wanted to push on Lelouch, because their unhappiness would end up hurting him as well. But she didn't really mind sharing; she'd been in a few ménage à trois before, as had she been a harem girl lifetimes ago, at this point the amount of monogamous relationships she'd participated in were fewer than the polygamous.

Her existence had been long and eventful, which had given her a rather different outlook on things like this.

Blushing brightly, Lelouch sighed. "... this is not how I expected my morning to go." Why was his life so weird? Was there just some higher power out there messing with him? Had he kicked puppies for a pass-time in a previous life? What did he do to deserve this kind of absurdity?

It wasn't even that these things were necessarily bad, just that they were weird. These situations just sort of followed him. It could be worse, though. Things could always be worse.

"Huh." Kaguya mumbled to herself after allowing the statement from the green haired woman to sink in, glancing over her once more. "... congratulations on that one, Lelouch." Once again, she was really pretty. And everything from her voice to her posture showed that she knew exactly how to use that.

"Thanks." Lelouch replied dryly, sitting up. "Well, while the two of you discuss possession of me as though I were a toy, I need to prepare for class. Keramon, where are you?" His partner scampered out from beneath the bed, before digivolving and reaching back under it just to retrieve his pillow.

He then promptly degenerated back into Tsumemon after depositing the pillow into the duffel bag he would be spending most of his day riding around in.

Keramon really liked that pillow. It had been something he'd offered the digimon on a whim for the sake of his comfort, but he'd taken a serious liking to it.

With that, it was time to leave this situation alone. Whatever the hell these two came up with was no longer his concern until it started to drag him back into the whole mess.

They wanted to share him? Sure, fine. Why not? C.C. had probably just lived too long to give a damn and Kaguya was always like that, if you can't have something one way try to find another way to get it.

He'd just take their shining example and go on as though this whole ordeal was normal.

And so he disregarded the idle chatter of the two half-naked women in his room and prepared for his day of classes, before leaving with a snickering Tsumemon in tow.

---

Class was dull. So very, very dull. History especially.

Honestly, it was ridiculous just how much propaganda the Britannian curriculum contained. Ashford was far lighter on that than typical public schools, but it still didn't quite escape to the truly neutral outlook one had to take when teaching history.

After all, the holy war Britannia was waging at this very moment was looked upon favorably by their countrymen; forcibly educating the lower peoples of the world via conquest, enlightening their nations and integrating their best aspects into Britannian society.

To people with any real grasp of right and wrong, however, it was just a war for territory. Britannia was quite clearly not the good guy by any means. But, then, Britannians are taught to take what they desire, what they believe they deserve. It wasn't wrong to be the bad guy so long as you got what you wanted.

Lelouch disagreed with that idea. He was no saint and never would be, he'd killed or otherwise ordered the deaths of more people than he cared to admit. And yet, he was of the mind that there was never a good reason to just be the bad guy.

Acting as a villain for the greater good? That should never be the first resort. No matter how noble your cause, some sins could never be forgiven, sins that you may find yourself being forced to commit to further your goals.

Continue down that path for too long and you'd be no different than what you had set out to oppose in the first place. This was meant as a final resort, when all else had failed. Otherwise you simply lost too much for it to ever be worthwhile.

It wasn't that he wanted to play hero, or that he got a kick out of being the good guy. He just firmly believed that between right and wrong, one should always choose what's right. If it comes down to interpretation just what is and isn't right, the line blurred a bit... but some thing were so simple that there was just no argument as to why they were just plain wrong.

Expanding your empire via conquest was not necessarily evil. Sure, it was a selfish goal to benefit yourself and your own country, but such a thing could potentially improve the state of the world. After all, there would be far fewer wars if the entire world was under one banner. Really, if Britannia was actually serious about their supposed intent to make the world a better place under their banner then Lelouch would find himself hard-pressed to fault them on a fundamental level.

While it would be a brutal method that he would still oppose due to his own principles, he couldn't simply refer to them as the bad guys in his head. The world wasn't so black and white after all.

... however, the reality was that Britannia was the darkest shade of black that existed on one side of the endless grey that defined the world. Each and every nation they trampled underfoot became nothing more than land for them to plunder to their heart's content, the people stripped of everything and exploited for no reason other than being born outside of Britannia.

That was sickening. It was for that reason that Lelouch had absolutely no hesitation or regrets about his decision to destroy the empire Charles zi Britannia had built, the rotting carcass that had spread it's disease across the globe. Even if he had to burn it away in a cleansing fire, that would be fine. The world had no need for Britannia and he would be doing each and every human being a disservice by allowing that nation to exist in it's current state any longer than he had to.

But at the same time, the other nations of the world weren't quite on the lighter spectrum of grey either...

"Mister Lamprouge, would you care to answer the question on the board?" The history teacher had apparently noticed his disinterested look and interpreted it as his lesson being ignored.

He would be correct in that interpretation, but there was no need to let the man in on that.

Plastering a false smile on his face, Lelouch easily answered the history teacher's question before going back to his musing, this time on a different topic.

'Tonight will be the first action the Black Knights take against the organized crime of Britannia's underworld.' He thought to himself with a mental grin. 'I'm excited, I'll admit. It isn't the people of this nation that are my enemies, after all, but the ideals. Ideals that allow such horrid practices as slave-trade and drug rings to run rampant.'

Refrain was one hell of a drug. It appeared to be aimed specifically at the Japanese due to the timing of it's arrival on the underground scene and it's properties.

A shot of refrain allowed one to re-experience their happiest memories as though they were living them once more, a high that was absolutely incomparable to any other drug on the market when it came to people conquered in such a short time by Britannia.

For other nations, the transition from their territory to an Area was not a swift one. Many of them had grown used to the harsh reality that had become their daily lives, accepted that things would never go back to the way they had once been, and moved on.

Japan had not. Their surrender had come so swiftly that for some the transition had seemed to occur overnight. Rather than the happy lives they had once led, the people of Japan were suddenly forced into the horror that was becoming an Area. All in an instant, they had gone from being a free nation to little more than animals in the eyes of their conquerors, those who they had once stood on equal ground with.

And then Refrain had arrived. Suddenly, those happy memories that seemed so far away were now within their grasp, carrying them away to a better time, before Britannia.

If it wasn't for the horrible side-effects and addictive nature of the drug, it wouldn't be so bad. But prolonged usage of Refrain was known to cause several issues ranging from delusion and amnesia to outright loss of the ability to function.

In other words, the worst case scenario was becoming a vegetable. That was not something people would willingly use if they weren't pushed to the point where the consequences didn't seem so awful compared to their normal, everyday lives.

The fact that anyone would actually give cause enough to push another person to those measures disgusted him, but not nearly as much as the fact that there were people out there not only doing that but also making a profit from it.

Lelouch fully intended to remove stains like that from this world. Tonight would be the first step in doing so.

He had no qualms with using his Geass on the lowlifes that brokered information in the underbelly of Britannia to gather what he needed to know. With this marvelous tool he'd constructed his own nearly flawless information network with absolutely no monetary cost, upkeep or otherwise. That was something that no police force member had, something that could be put to great use when hunting down the worst criminals Britannia had to offer.

Those were people who's blood Lelouch would gladly stain his hands with. People who had no right to continue living in his mind.

First and foremost, they would be destroying the most prominent human trafficking ring in Japan.

Slavery was not legal. Not formally, at least. However, a loophole existed in the fact that basic human rights were frequently denied to Numbers. If they were to be regarded as animals or lower, then surely those rules excluded them.

While that was not entirely true, the legal ramifications of slavery were not mentioned to be inclusive or exclusive to Numbers in any specific detail, it was something that often went undisputed. The police would turn their heads or even actively participate in these things, and the capture and purchasing of Numbers to be used as slaves continued almost entirely unhindered.

That wasn't to claim that the entire police force was corrupt; no, Lelouch was certain there existed fine, upstanding Britannians who would be just as furious about the horrors unleashed upon the innocent as he was, but they were misguided in joining the police force.

You don't get promoted to a position that matters by being a good person, not in Britannia. Especially not in the police force. There was enough red tape there to tie an army of decent human beings up for years on end.

If someone wanted better for the world, for every human being, then there existed a simple alternative to the police force. Take matters into your own hands, as he had done.

The Black Knights would stand in judgement over this world, and he would gladly accept people who wanted to change this world for the better.

"Mr. Lamperouge, what privilege is given to the Knight of One specifically?" Oh look, the man was trying once again to catch him off guard. Was this lesson about the Knights of the Round, then? He'd hardly been paying attention. He wondered idly what Anya thought of this as he prepared to answer.

Yet another fake smile slid to his lips as he replied. "The highest privilege given to the Knight of One would be governance of their own Area, in which they may rule however they deem fit."

The grumbling teacher reluctantly returned to his lecture, rather than make further attempts at testing the boy. One day, Lamperouge, one day...

Lelouch wasn't terribly put off by the teacher's attempts; it had become something of a game to him at this point, manage to immediately answer the teacher's question no matter what it may be.

Thus far, he had not been defeated.

Resting his cheek in his palm, the teen returned to his plotting.

'... this is the guy leading our rebellion against Britannia. A snarky highschool student.' Kallen sighed. It was just so hard to believe that of all the possibilities, Lelouch Lamperouge would be the one that ended up behind the mask of Zero.

Even more, he was actually Lelouch vi Britannia... a prince of the empire that their rebellion was fighting against in the first place. One who had close personal ties to at least two members of the Britannian military, as well as at least one member of the royal family.

She didn't like that their leader was so closely involved with Anya Alstreim. That girl was one of the most dangerous obstacles in the way of a free Japan at the moment, in command of a creature that could demolish a ghetto in a single attack.

They were just lucky that she was restricted in her abilities. Tankdramon was an absolute menace, one with the power to single handedly win almost any conflict in a flash of destruction... but just digivolving past Champion presented harsh consequences.

Once, Anya Alstreim had given a live interview. When asked about her seeming inability to use Tankdramon constantly, she had actually confirmed it. On live television, one of the Knights of the Round had given away vital information about their partner digimon. One week of being restricted to Rookie level after mere minutes of remaining in Ultimate form was a harsh price to pay for a single burst of power.

As such, the Knight of Six was probably the best possible match for them. Other members of the Knights were fully capable of sustaining their Ultimate level digimon constantly, which would have put them quite far behind in terms of raw power.

Though she couldn't help but feel that Lelouch would still have found a way. As odd as it was to admit this, even just to herself, Lelouch was an easy person to believe in. Something about him made you want to think he could win, succeed against all odds.

Even so, it was still an uncomfortable thought that the leader of their rebellion was so attached to one of their greatest enemies.

What would happen when they inevitably met in combat? Not Sealsdramon and Infermon, but Lelouch and Anya. The girl had yet to take to the battlefield herself, but that was in no way due to inability. Anya Alstreim was a dangerous knightmare pilot just like any other member of the Knights of the Round, something many people didn't seem to realize until it stared them in the face.

Her own personalized frame was a hulking behemoth of a Gloucester, decked out to the absolute maximum with heavier armor than any other KMF in Britannia's arsenal. Equipped throughout the frame were a wide variety of weapons ranging from machine-guns to explosives.

In short, it was not a nice thing to run into. She would be bringing the full brunt of that metal monster down on anyone she was ordered to, and that meant that they would likely lose some of their own to the girl's onslaught.

And yet, Lelouch still would protect her to the best of his ability. How he intended to restrain Anya Alstreim's Gloucester was entirely unknown to her, as there was absolutely zero chance that he could best her in Knightmare combat, nor would he be able to best her and her partner as Infermon.

But she had put her faith in him, and all Kallen could do now was stand beside him until the end of the road.

Seeing that Lelouch had once again been called upon by the teacher, she perked up in time to hear him rattle off a specific date in an instant, without the slightest trace of hesitation despite the fact that the question was entirely unrelated to the lesson at hand.

The clearly false smile on his face told her that the boy was getting far more amusement out of this than anyone had any right to.

'... this is the guy I've trusted the fate of myself, my friends, and my nation to?' It was quite likely that Kallen had made a mistake somewhere along the line, but oh well. Her decision had been made from the day she agreed to hear his story.

Sighing, Kallen began to doodle idly on her notepad as class went on.

---

"GUTS!" A piercing shout rang out through the room, startling many of the members of the gathered Ashford Academy Student Council.

As per the norm, Lelouch had been fine. Though rather than covering his own ears, his hands were placed over the ears of the youngest member of the council. Anya had tilted her head backward to regard him curiously at first, before blinking at the shout and releasing a little "Oh." as she realized what was going on.

Lelouch chuckled sheepishly as he looked down at the deadpan girl, giving her a small smile. "Sorry about that."

Thankfully, Nina had not been too engrossed in her project to miss the President preparing her "magic" and had defended herself appropriately. This avoided a repeat of the previous incident which had led to her being molested by Milly after falling from her chair.

Rivalz could only give a forced laugh as he rubbed the back of his head. "... that's some spell, Prez." Goodness did that girl have a set of lungs on her. Sheesh, she could kill someone like that.

Shirley had been mostly unaffected once more, just smiling good naturedly as she normally did when their president got up to her antics. "It's got me pumped." The orangette was careful with her words. The last time she had said "got me going" had led to Milly teasing her.

Their president was just a dirty old man inside, but that was how she was. There was no changing it.

She did, however, twitch at the doe eyed look that was being given to her crush by the girl that was once again inhabiting his lap. Why were those two so close!? It had been well over a year since she had begun pursuing his interest, but the Knight of Six had just pranced in one day and stolen away his attention without issue.

Was Lulu just into younger girls? Was that what was going on here? It didn't make sense otherwise! She was all cutesy and affectionate around him, and he just let it happen! Lulu didn't just do that kind of thing, not even with Nunna! So what in the world made Anya Alstreim so special that she could practically demand his attention and not be brushed off?

As Shirley continued to fume about the unfairness of it all, Milly spoke once more. "Oh Lelouuuuuch~!" She called out in a sing-song tone, drawing the dull gazes of both the boy and his admirer on to her at once and shrinking under the onslaught of deadpan.

"Erm..." Good lord was that eerie. They both had the exact same look on their faces. "Right... progress on the festival plans?" She quickly regained control of herself. 'The two of them are seriously in sync, that's creepy... but kind of cute. Never would have taken Lelouch for a lolicon though, always imagined him more of a siscon.' It wasn't like there was really anything wrong with it, though. If the Emperor could get away with marrying women half his age without criticism then she couldn't fault Lelouch for being interested in a girl two years his junior, especially when said girl was a high ranking member of the military.

Things would be kind of messed up if killing people for a living wasn't age restricted but choosing a partner was.

Not to mention Lelouch was a total sweetheart and would never take advantage of anyone who didn't deserve it, so even though Anya was blatantly messed up in the head she wouldn't need to worry.

In reality it was more like Lelouch was just doting on the girl. Nina wouldn't be nearly so calm about this entire ordeal otherwise, secret relationship or not.

The boy in question sighed blandly. "I've worked some on it, yes... things should be ready by next week, Monday if I had my way. We can hold the festival at any time after Monday if nothing gets in the way of it." Planning these events was not particularly easy, but nor was it particularly difficult. There were numerous calls that needed to be made, plans put into motion, volunteers gathered, and so on. Not only would he need to gather up willing participants for various booths, he would need to actually manage the events as they proceeded on the day of the festival to keep order in case things went wrong.

Things always went wrong, by the way. The "in case" was just wishful thinking on his part.

At any rate, he'd set the groundwork for most of the event in his head. All he needed to do was actually put these things into action, wait a few days for everything to get where it was needed, and then move on from there. He could begin in earnest by Friday and work over the weekend to have things ready to go by the time classes let out on Monday.

Knowing Milly, that meant that the festival would be on a Tuesday.

So no, these events weren't terribly difficult to set up... just tedious, so he couldn't call them easy either. They had really just become a part of the routine by this point.

He sighed again, leaning deeper into his seat with Anya following suit, as he asked a question he'd been dreading all day long. "Is there anything specific you'd like for this event, Milly? I can gather the basics easily but if you want anything special I need to know now so I can get it set up." This was where things could go horribly, horribly wrong.

Her smile made him shiver briefly. "Actually, there is this one thing I'd like..."

As she outlined her idea, Lelouch groaned and covered his face with his hands. "... really?"

Mandatory cat costumes. Provided by the school, of course, but required to get service from any booth or other attraction. So in other words the entire school would be dressed up like cats.

It wasn't the worst thing she could do. It wasn't even as bad as he'd been expecting, honestly, but now he had to order enough various cat costumes for the entire school.

Ashford was not a small academy. And if the costumes were to be of decent quality, that meant a fair amount of money would be spent. And she wanted more than enough for each student; they had to have choices, after all.

Mathing it out in his head, Lelouch frowned beneath his hands. Yes, the budget would cover it if the cost was roughly the same as the last time he'd placed orders of this sort. It hadn't been long enough for the price to change too drastically and the cat themed costumes were rather common, so they should remain similar in price.

More likely than not the proprietor of the business he'd be contacting for this would be willing to give a bulk discount of some sort. If not, that was fine, but they would need to hold off on the big events for a while.

... actually that sounded good to him. Less events meant less stress.

Removing his hands from his face, Lelouch spotted Anya's curious ruby eyes peering into his own. He gave her a small smile. "I'm fine. Just thinking about the cost of our dear President's plan..."

Anya nodded, a bit surprised that he could tell what she had wanted to say, before settling back into her usual position.

"Say, Lelouch, y'got a minute after we're done here?" Rivalz asked with a grin. "Got somethin' I want to talk to you about."

A smirk came to the former prince's lips as he considered that. "That's fine. I'm fairly certain Anya will be staying for dinner," Looking down at the girl to see her brief nod, he continued, "so I can spare some time to speak with you afterwards. Anya can keep Nunnally occupied until I get there."

The girl in question replied with an affirmative gesture.

"Cool." Rivalz grinned. "Lookin' forward to it."

Nina smiled, glancing over the gathered council members with a smile. These days were good, they reminded her that she wasn't going to have to just drop her old life to make a difference in the world, not yet at least. She would savor them as long as they lasted, just as she knew Lelouch would. Enjoying these peaceful days would help her through the difficult ones yet to come.

She was not insecure in her decision; opposing Britannia was the right thing to do. If left alone, the conquest of the world by Britannia would eventually see the entire globe beneath their banner, all but the pure blooded Britannians being trampled underfoot by the ones who had taken everything from them. That wasn't fair, it wasn't right. Knowing this, she could safely say that standing against Britannia was the right thing to do.

How to go about it, on the other hand, was a more complicated question to answer. One that Lelouch had already pondered over for years. As such, she had put her trust in him to make the world a better place.

While she was in this for his sake as well, Lelouch was not her only reason for fighting this war. But, still, the idea of actually fighting and killing in the name of her ideals was a scary thought.

There was no way she could have actually stood against her countrymen if not for Lelouch. Not only would she lack any real way to contact the rebels, she wouldn't be nearly as confident without his involvement.

Stealing another glance at Lelouch and Anya, her smile turned thoughtful before she returned her gaze to her computer screen. Seeing them like that reminded her that she and Lelouch were supposed to be having a secret relationship. It wasn't exactly a good thing to recall, either. 'I would actually like to be with him.' She thought to herself, having already come to terms with her infatuation for the boy in question.

The longer she waited to genuinely inform Lelouch of her feelings, the more likely it was that she would lose him outright to another girl. Possibly Anya, possibly C.C., or even to Euphemia li Britannia according to his descriptions of their interactions recently.

It was beginning to cross her mind more often, that her window of opportunity was surely closing. But at the same time she was terrified of rejection. Being friends with no additional commitment was good, and while actually being his lover would probably be something even better she couldn't help but fear the possible consequences it could bring if she confessed to him.

Would it strain their friendship if he didn't accept her feelings? She just didn't know. Lelouch never seemed like the kind of person who would hold such a thing against a friend, but at the same time he had never been put in the situation.

Shirley danced around the issue, and Lelouch seemed content to let that dance carry on for as long as he could. He seemed scared to hurt her feelings.

So what would happen if he was given no choice but to face the issue and give a real answer?

Perhaps it was better to keep to the status quo. She gained nothing, but at the same time risked nothing.

A self deprecating chuckle slipped quietly from her as she tapped away at her keyboard. 'Yes, that's just like me, isn't it? Just sit back and watch the world go around, never bothering to join the flow...' She'd always been more of an observer, she realized. All throughout her life she had been like that.

Rather than playing with other toddlers, she had kept herself busy with just her own toys.

Watching from the sidelines as children her age played together in elementary school, occupying her time with books rather than people.

Studying hard rather than socializing in school, just hiding behind her projects and papers as others interacted with one another, unwilling to involve herself with them.

Even after Milly had forced her out of that behavior, old habits still died hard; her desk was situated closer to the rest of the council than the younger Nina would have approved, but still it was disconnected from their main table. Rather than a seat at that table, she chose her own desk. Even among close friends such as these, Nina remained an observer.

Sometimes, she hated herself for that.

"... you really should stop typing what you're thinking, you know." A voice whispered in her ear with great care, clearly not wanting to alert anyone else to what was being said.

Stiffening in her seat, Nina realized that she had in fact been typing a rough summary of her thoughts, rather than quickly tearing her way through an essay project. Quickly, the wide-eyed girl deleted the past few paragraphs of her work before calming somewhat.

"T-Thank you..." She whispered her own reply lowly. That could have been bad. Another of her habits, she sometimes found her mind wandering while in the midst of a trivial project such as this. And when her mind wandered, it didn't necessarily stop her hands from moving. As such, she occasionally found herself typing entire essays worth of random thought trains that were entirely irrelevant to the topic at hand. Today had been the first time in a very long time she had been caught doing it.

The last time was also by Lelouch, she remembered idly. "I'm going to need to speak with you later tonight." He informed her quietly, his presence over her shoulder being mostly ignored by the remaining members of the council who were used to him occasionally popping in on Nina's projects as she worked. "We've got plans."

Of course that didn't stop the prince from being purposefully vague with his statements. If Milly managed to catch it, she would assume it involved their supposed relationship. If the other two heard it, they may be curious but would mostly leave things alone. Shirley would deny up and down that they had anything going on in between them because she was optimistic to a degree that was positively astounding, and Rivalz just wouldn't care too much about the whole thing in the first place seeing as how he and Lelouch didn't pry into one another's business without good reason.

But Nina knew full well that he meant the two of them were going to be with the Black Knights this evening, for their first major step against the Britannian underworld.

Before moving away, Lelouch gave the girl some parting words in a warm, but hushed, tone. "There's nothing wrong with being an observer, just so long as you let your friends in from time to time."

Nina blushed, nodding slightly. This was just as embarrassing as the last time he'd seen her typing out her idle thoughts, last time having been about her having a case of breast envy due to their president's rather impressive bust.

Just like back then, he'd given her some comfort in a few simple words.

Looking back on all of her interactions with Lelouch for a moment, Nina began wondering how she hadn't realized earlier that she was smitten... as well as wondering just how much of her accidental typing he had managed to catch.

---

"You wanted to speak to me, Rivalz?" Lelouch asked, leaning idly against the railing of the rooftop they had once again moved their meeting to.

The boy in question nodded from his position beside Lelouch, running a hand through his hair with a small sigh. "Well, yeah. You remember that call I made, obviously?" It would be hard to forget.

Nodding, Lelouch replied lightly. "Yes, I do recall it." He turned to glance at the other boy. "Is there something troubling you about it?"

Rivalz sighed. "Kinda. I just..." He paused, struggling for words to adequately express his thoughts. "I don't like how powerless I was that night, Lelouch." Even with his partner, there was nothing he could do that night. How messed up was that, that a Champion level digimon wasn't enough to save his friends from a rebel group going full on terrorist?

Yeah, it was mainly circumstances that kept him from being helpful, but it still felt awful to realize that he'd sat around wallowing in self pity while some masked man had strolled in and saved his friend's lives from that same rebel group.

Lelouch shrugged nonchalantly. "There was nothing you could have done, Rivalz. That's all there was to it that night. It's hard to accept, I know, believe me I know..." He'd been powerless to save his mother, to save Nunnally, on the night of the assassination. Living with that for the rest of his life had given Lelouch a firm knowledge of what being powerless felt like.

Sometimes, there was simply nothing you could have done to make things better. That really was just all there was to it. Rivalz didn't have the correct resources to intervene in the situation at Kawaguchi, just like he hadn't had the ability to intervene in the assassination all those years ago.

Coming back from his brief pause, Lelouch spoke again before he could be questioned too heavily on it. "You have power now, Rivalz. You can use it however you like. Or you could just never make use of it, and just have your partner around to keep you company. It's your choice as to what you do with your life, after all."

"If you had power, what would you do with it, Lelouch?" Rivalz asked after a fairly long pause.

'I would start a rebellion against Britannia and eventually destroy this nation and rebuild it from the ground up.' He thought to himself, before replying verbally to Rivalz with a smirk. "I would make use of it, I assure you. There are things in this world I don't approve of; a digimon partner would certainly give me ample opportunity to correct them." It was a fairly vague answer. Rivalz probably wouldn't question things too deeply, he never did, but it gave enough to satisfy his curiosity.

Another sigh came from Rivalz as he looked out over the campus. "I just don't know, man. I'm facing this realization that I can actually do something now, and I just have no idea what I want to do with that." There had never been any reason to think about it. He'd just been focused on the next day at the latest. That was all Rivalz had ever needed before.

But now he had been face to face with the realization that he could actually do things now that the Rivalz of the past would never be able to. Kawaguchi wouldn't have been nearly as frustrating if he'd been the same kid he was before the Mass Breach.

He would've been panicking, yeah, but he would have known there was nothing he could do. That kind of stark realization would've sobered him a bit rather than the near hysterics he'd been in that night.

Lelouch shrugged, giving him a reassuring smile. "I'm certain you'll find something you want to do in your life, something beyond the grasp of a normal person. Now you'll have the ability to try and reach for it."

"I just need to figure out what it is, huh?" Rivalz replied with a light chuckle and air quotes around the word "it".

"It would seem so." The other boy responded.

Shaking his head, Rivalz pulled back from the railing and began stretching his arms over his head, releasing a satisfied groan at the popping he could hear. "Welp, I s'pose it wouldn't be rocket science. Find something you wanted but knew you'd never be able to get, then get it." Simple enough concept. But actually figuring out just what he wanted would be a problem. "That's really all I wanted to talk about. Gotta go now, see ya' tomorrow."

"Alright then. Have a good night, Rivalz."

"You too, Lelouch."

---

It was going to be a good night, Lelouch thought to himself as he slipped on Zero's mask.

The meeting tonight would be brief; nothing more than a short run-down of their intentions, their plan of action, and so forth. They needed to be in position by the time the auction actually began, in order to guarantee they took down as much of the human trafficking group as possible on the first night, before they could hide away like the roaches they were.

There were still two hours before the other Black Knights absolutely needed to be here, as the briefing would not go over thirty minutes. That gave them time to reach the location.

As of now, it was just Kallen, Nina, and himself settled around the room, the two girls seated on one couch while he took another.

Keramon and Dokunemon were currently wrestling with one another, which was what the two girls were watching at the moment.

There was something entirely bizarre about watching a giant caterpillar wrestling with a giant jellyfish without the aid of hallucinogens. "I still don't get why they're doing that." Kallen mumbled quietly to Nina.

The green haired girl could only shrug, before blinking in realization. "Oh, d-didn't D-Dokunemon say he would g-get Keramon back for his nickname?"

More likely than not this was the payback in question. The wrestling match was somewhat difficult for Dokunemon considering Keramon had several prehensile tentacles that he was using to great effect in order to keep himself from being pinned.

Admirably enough, Dokunemon had yet to lose their impromptu competition despite this serious disadvantage.

Lelouch snorted in amusement at their antics. Digimon were a novelty he never expected to wear off; they were such colorful creatures that defied pretty much every law of physics or common sense one could think of.

And yet at the same time, they presented a very dangerous threat to his plans.

Soon, they would need to find a way to digivolve to Ultimate level, or else the Knights of the Round would be an insurmountable obstacle. Bismark Waldstein's partner digimon could form the strongest single digimon in the human world at the moment, but against a pair of Ultimate level digimon even that kind of power would struggle.

Or so he hoped. Reaching for Mega was perhaps a bit too far, so for the moment he would simply set his goal for Ultimate level. Dokunemon would probably approve of the decision, but that left them with the rather head-scratching question of how.

This was not a process that was documented anywhere. Each and every digital monster under Britannia's control had either arrived with the ability to reach Ultimate or remained restricted to Champion level at the highest.

None of the Knights of the Round save Bismark Waldstein had succeeded in pushing past Ultimate level. That was something, at least. If they could somehow manage it, to reach Mega, then this war would be much shorter.

But, at the same time, there was still the ever-looming threat of the Knights of the Round eventually breaching the boundaries of Ultimate level.

Nothing was certain on that front. He would need to look much deeper into these things, consult with Keramon and perhaps even Lunamon if the opportunity arose.

She was a digimon that had once been a powerful Mega, who had reached that point despite starting at the bottom. It was possible that she would be able to provide valuable insight on the matter.

That would need to wait though. Next time he ran into Kaguya he would bring it up... that wouldn't be a very long time more likely than not.

Lelouch figured he was going to be seeing a lot of Sumeragi Kaguya soon. Life was strange like that. How does one go from not seeing someone in seven years to expecting to see them almost daily?

"Hey, Lelouch." Kallen called out, drawing his attention. "I've gotta ask you about something."

Brow raising beneath the mask, Lelouch nodded. "Go ahead and ask, then."

The redhead sighed. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I have to ask. What are you going to do if Anya gets caught in the middle of one of our operations?" She'd been thinking on the issue herself, but there was no better source of confirmation than the man himself on matters like this.

Zero paused for a moment, considering his answer. "... The answer I can give will not satisfy you, you realize?" He was smart enough to know that this wasn't a question about Anya being in battle with them. It was more along the lines of "what will you do if you are forced to hurt her?" and that was a question that he simply couldn't answer. There was just nothing he could say that would ease her thoughts, because his own were uneasy. Sighing at the rather difficult query, he replied. "I can only try to protect her as best I can without jeopardizing our own goals."

"Then why not try and capture her?" Kallen suggested. "It would keep her out of the line of fire entirely if you were to do that and hold her until the entire thing is over."

"I won't lie to you, I have given it consideration." Anya was not someone he would like to lose. None of his friends were, but he truly wanted to help Anya through the mess that Geass had caused for her, because her situation was beyond the means of normal people. As another with that power, he felt something of a responsibility for matters concerning it.

If no modern medicine or technology could help Anya's memory loss, allow her to keep control of her own body, or release the restraint on her emotions, he would do everything in his power to help her as best he could. This power was beyond the comprehension of normal people, even he hadn't a clue about it's deepest origins or why it existed.

The only real resource he had on the subject was C.C., but if he could get her to open up to him further on the matter then he didn't think there would be a need for any other resources. The immortal witch had knowledge spanning centuries, but accessing that knowledge wasn't something that could be done on command. He needed her to trust him with more before she gave it, but that was fine. For a woman like her, who had lived long enough to see the rise and fall of nations, Lelouch expected mistrust. It was clear that she had not been blessed with a happy life, and he understood entirely that there were things that made one less likely to trust in others.

He'd come close to that at one point, but rather than fall over the edge he'd placed his trust in someone one last time. Reuben Ashford had offered sanctuary to the vi Britannia siblings for as long as they wanted, no strings attached. At the time, he'd been wary... but accepted anyway. There had been no other option for them.

It was likely the best decision he'd ever made in regards to his future. If he'd turned down that offer due to mistrust and run away, the two of them would have died. And even if they had managed to survive, they would never have met the friends Ashford Academy brought to them.

And he would never have been able to start his rebellion. Ashford had given him the freedom to begin gathering funds via gambling, something he could only do thanks to Reuben's offer. If not for that, he would never have been in Shinjuku that day to meet C.C. and Keramon, the two driving factors pushing his rebellion forward.

Zero shook his head after letting his thoughts drift too far. "Capturing Anya would practically guarantee her safety, yes." He admitted. "But I want her to be free to do as she likes..." Which wasn't even a possibility thanks to the Geass that had been used on her, which had basically forced her into the military whether or not she was alright with it. How many lives had she taken because of that? "I... just don't know. Perhaps placing her under our protective custody would be best for her, but at the same time it feels wrong to me..." He sighed heavily, thoughts weighing on his mind like a ton of bricks.

Kallen's face softened. "It's fine. You don't have to answer, not right now." She understood to a degree. Lelouch wasn't heartless, and Anya was a friend of his. How could she expect him to respond to something like this? It was comparable to her being forced to harm Ohgi, or Inoue, or everyone all the way down to Tamaki. Something like that wasn't a fair question to ask, but at the same time it at least needed to be said. While she had put her trust in Lelouch, there were still many ways for things to go wrong.

He needed to keep well in mind that whatever personal feelings he had for Anya, it didn't change the fact that she would willingly kill any of their group. More likely than not in the coming weeks they would see Anya Alstreim as the cause for many lost comrades. There was no avoiding that, her personal knightmare was a walking armory fully loaded with anything that could destroy conventional military units.

Tanks, knightmares, choppers, armored vehicles, anything you could think of... Anya Alstreim had something that would blow it up or otherwise disable it installed on her Gloucester.

It was also painted an almost gaudy shade of pink.

And so if he went out of his way to protect her even despite that, how would anyone trust him? What kind of leader would try to protect an enemy as dangerous as one of the Knights of the Round?

Any further conversation on the matter was interrupted as Nina spoke up. "T-the others are here." That or a door to door salesman, but the first was far more likely. The greenette giggled at the thought of a salesman opening being greeted at the door by Britannia's most wanted criminal.

Hearing that, Keramon and Dokunemon immediately straightened up as though they hadn't just been locked in an intense struggle of wills. "... we finish this later." The little green bug assured Keramon with what appeared to be a glare.

There was some difficulty in determining whether or not the eyeless insect was glaring, but Keramon figured he was because it was becoming clearer and clearer that he would be the victor in their little spat.

... even though he'd somehow been the one to get pinned first. They had to end it before he could make a comeback. That was a real shame. "Yeah. Later." He replied with completely non-false bravado. It was self assured confidence really, Keramon noted to himself.

A moment later, the room was filled with the remaining rebels, all of them seemingly in a daze. "Er... hey, Zero." Ohgi spoke first, a nervous timbre to his voice.

"... is there something wrong?" This was odd. Ohgi, while not exactly a bastion of courage, was not usually so timid sounding. And no one seemed particularly harmed... wait. "Where is Tamaki?" Was he injured or something? Perhaps an embarrassing incident that Ohgi was hesitant to reveal, or something of that vein. They weren't nervous in the way one would be if there was a serious issue, more like they were hiding something bizarre.

Chuckling sheepishly, the man responded. "Oh, he's here alright..." He trailed off, before nodding to the door. "He... ah... found something we think you'd want to see."

Again, odd. The entire thing was just plain weird. They weren't planning a betrayal or anything of the sort; the awkwardness in the air kind of killed any real fear he had of that. Tamaki had found something, hm? Truthfully, he was curious now, if only to see what had caused such a reaction from the others. "Alright... is it something he could bring inside?" Time wasn't of the essence just yet. They had arrived an hour and a half before the absolute deadline.

However, it would still be best to keep themselves inside the walls of their transport as much as possible. Just in case.

"Yeah, I'm takin' that as permission to come in. So c'mon pal." Tamaki's footsteps were shadowed by those of someone else.

Or something else as the case may be. As Tamaki walked in, he was accompanied by a black reptile that stood at the level of his stomach. The creature in question was also munching on a piece of bread with peanut butter spread across it, and had probably gone through the entire loaf if the empty bag in the grinning redhead's hand was any indication.

Briefly acknowledging the other occupants of the trailer with a wave, Guilmon spoke. "Hullo thersh, 'm Guilshmon." The greeting game out warbled due to the smacking of the digimon's tongue as he worked the peanut butter around in his mouth, accompanied by the chewing that hadn't ceased during the greeting. Swallowing the last of the treat, Guilmon continued on. "Sorry 'bout that, shbeen a while since I ate."

Keramon blinked. "Well. Okay then." That was not what he'd been expecting tonight, no sir, not at all.

Nina and Dokunemon were just as surprised. "The hell? You're kiddin' me right?" Dokunemon mumbled. A Black Guilmon just walked into the room with the buffoon. On top of that, Dokunemon caught something even more surprising about the arrivals.

"That digivice..." Zero breathed in surprise, also catching sight of the red device Tamaki was holding on to. It was just like his own, one of the supposed artifacts of the Digidestined, humans chosen to fulfill some prophecy.

Normally, Lelouch wouldn't buy into something like that. Conspiracy theories and bed time stories were all such things amounted to.

... this was before he had come into direct contact with C.C., who ignored the laws of reality by both being unable to die and giving superpowers to other people.

After that, Lelouch was willing to believe that this Digidestined prophecy may have some substance to it. Keramon was quite firm on the existence of such a prophecy, and the powerful bond they had formed in such a short time also pointed to less than understandable sources.

However, now he was being faced with the reality that Tamaki was also carrying one of the digivices that were tied to this particular prophecy. This wasn't such a surprise; it wasn't as though only people he was directly related to would fit whatever criteria for this, after all.

But still... Tamaki? Really? That was still throwing him for a loop internally. On the outside, he remained calm. "It would appear you've made an interesting friend, Tamaki."

The man in question grinned widely. "Yup, me'n Guilmon here already got into a fight too. Fun shit, that." Tamaki chuckled to himself for a moment, dropping his unoccupied hand to pat his partner on the head. "I s'pose you know what I'm talking about when I say that was a rush, right Zero?" He asked with a lopsided grin.

His tone wasn't particularly accusatory, but it was clear he was on to it. More likely than not he had also already told the others. Allowing a small laugh of his own, Zero replied in kind. "Yes, it certainly is something special." Well, there went that secret. But still, it wasn't a particularly valuable thing to keep to himself. The only real reason he hadn't told them was because they would probably never believe it.

Admittedly, he could have simply showed them as a form of proof. But, then, what reason was there to do so? When it became relevant to tell them, he would have done so. It would be suspicious if their leader was only present when Infermon was missing, after all.

"So what your saying is that Tamaki wasn't full of shit, right?" Sugiyama asked suddenly. "Because I thought he was just full of it when he told us how he turned into a digimon." Which was understandable because not only was that incredibly stupid sounding, but Tamaki was incredibly stupid. The entire thing seemed like him just being a jackass.

"Fucker." Aforementioned redhead did not take kindly to the insult upon his integrity.

"Or that he was knocked upside the head again." Yoshida chimed in dully.

"Fucker!" Or the insult upon his mental stability. "You come over here and say that to my face!" He shouted.

Before a fight could break out between the two of them, Ohgi stepped in. "Calm down, calm down." He said as he slid in between the two of them, hands held out to either side placatingly. "It's been a weird night, everyone was worried about Tamaki when the fires started, and Tamaki had to fight for his life against a giant red lizard. Let's just settle down and talk this whole thing over."

Lelouch had to admit, while Ohgi wasn't much of a leader in battle, he had a way with people. Anyone who could calm a man like Tamaki Shinichiro with nothing but words and gestures was someone with a gift. "Yes, for whatever reason our digivolution occurs when the human and digimon elements combine to create a new creature. The entire process is quite difficult to explain in words, however..." He paused for a moment to allow that to sink in. "Essentially, the human and digimon cease to exist in a physical sense. The consciousnesses meld together with one another to the point where the thoughts of the two are mirrored perfectly." A small shrug accompanied this. "If I were to be honest with you, I've no idea how any of this process works. Only that it does."

"I fuckin' told you it was hard to explain." Tamaki pouted, scratching Guilmon behind the winglike crests on his head. "I ain't good with words in the first place." How the fuck was he supposed to explain to them that this whole thing felt like the most natural thing in the world to him? Turning into a digimon wasn't normal, not at all. Fuck, that wasn't a thing that even fiction had began to cover. It probably wasn't even an idea people had considered.

Guilmon let out a pleased growl, tail waving at the sensation. His claws weren't able to reach there, that felt nice. "Digivolution is always strange. The Digidestined prophecy just makes things weirder." In general, digivolution was a natural phenomenon that occurred via various stimuli. The issue with explaining it was in the fact that that stimuli was ridiculously varied. Emotional highs and lows, accumulation of power, or simply living long enough for it... there was no single formula that explained how to digivolve.

That line gave all the rebels a pause. "Digidestined? Prophecy?" Ohgi asked the question that had come to almost everyone's mind.

Zero sighed slightly. "It appears I'm going to be doing a bit more explaining, then." They had enough time for an explanation.

---

"So this is Japan, huh? Well... rather, it was Japan at one point..." A blonde youth sighed. "Man, I'd have just left the names alone. Japan is way catchier than Area Eleven." Ignoring the whole argument of whether or not it was right to strip a country of it's name, replacing it with a number designation. That was a whole other topic that he wasn't really going to bother with right now.

"... it kind of looks the same." A small voice chimed in. "This part at least. The other place looks really messed up."

A shrug came from the blonde. "It's a ghetto. They just kinda left it alone after the invasion." Another thing that was messed up but wouldn't be further discussed.

The owner of the small, almost squeaky, voice chirped in agreement. "Yup, looks like."

Standing atop a building overlooking the settlement, Gino Weinberg smiled sadly. "I'm kind of happy, but kind of sad..." Being here brought back memories. Not all of them were good, but some of those memories were the highest points of his life. "At least I can see Anya again, though. She's probably been causing all sorts of trouble without me."

"... do you mean that in the sense that she causes trouble when you're not around, or that you want to be a part of the trouble she's causing?" Hyokomon, a small canary chick wearing an egg shell and wielding a sword, replied.

"Little of both." Gino snickered. "Man, is it bad that I'm thinking of how much fun this whole thing is gonna be? It's practically a war at this point, but I'm excited." Not for the fighting or the killing, no, he was just glad that something interesting was finally happening again. Things had been so calm he was dying of boredom.

The little things like abusing his status for shits and giggles got old after about the first month. Money could not, in fact, buy happiness. No matter how much it helped.

It could, however, cure boredom... until you've done everything you'd ever wanted to do with copious amounts of money, and were back to square one. It was a vicious cycle.

But Gino always had one little ray of sunshine in his dreary monotonous days; ironically enough, the person in question was both dreary and monotonous, but damn if they weren't amusing to be around despite that.

Anya was a riot. She didn't try to be, and other people probably didn't share his opinion on the matter, but to him Anya was just the best thing for any dull situation.

If Anya had the passing thought to do something, she would do it. There was no brain-to-mouth filter on her either. As such, while coasting through the dullness that was frequently associated with the Knight of Six one would often find the little gems of humor that she didn't even try to make.

Like how she had once, at an art museum, decided to tilt the abstract painting everyone was looking at to the side, because she didn't want to tilt her head like everyone else was doing.

Nevermind that it was a very expensive piece and there was a very clear "do not touch" sign right there.

Needless to say, Gino did not bring her back to that museum. He could, though. If ever the urge hit him, he could suggest visiting that place again and she would go along with it.

Boring paperwork that their high ranking position at times forced them to fill out? Give it ten minutes and Anya would probably have ended up with an entire squadron of paper airplanes for Missimon to shoot down.

Or the one time she had actually bothered to fill out said busywork, when she had done so with pink crayon. Why she had a pink crayon he would never know, but damn was that a good day. The looks that one got were just brilliant.

Gino shook his head, taking a deep breath of the night air and smiling brightly. "Wonder how she's been without me around to actually deal with people." Her partner counted for something in that department, but honestly that cheeky little ass was perfectly content to let Anya make other people feel awkward for his own amusement.

"Well. You're better at dealing with people than she is. That's kind of a scary thought in and of itself, but I'm terrified to think of how she is without you around." Hyokomon replied, looking down at the cars and people going about their business in the lively settlement. "We have a hotel, right?" Gino better not have forgotten to book them a hotel. The digimon didn't even want to think about how annoying it would be to find one at this time, nor did either of them fancy dropping into viceroy Cornelia's place a few days early.

That woman was territorial and there was no way she'd appreciate his arrival. Even if she was the one to request it in the first place.

"Yeah, we're set. It's about a minute's flight that-a-way." Gino pointed off towards his right. "... at high speeds, of course." A mischievous grin appeared on his lips.

Humming, the bird digimon replied. "Y'know if we fly everywhere we kind of risk being spotted by Cornelia days before we're meant to be here." It was a fair point.

One that Gino gleefully ignored, leaping off the building with a cackle. "Too late for that now! You're gonna catch me right?" He called, turning mid fall as he activated the digivice on his way down. "Digivolution time, baby!"

Filling with power, Hyokomon couldn't help but chuckle in exasperation. "This guy..." And with that, he jumped off after his maniac of a partner, form shifting on the way down, becoming a much larger creature.

A burst of light shone in the sky briefly, before all traces of the blonde and his bird were gone save for a single feather drifting down to the ground.

Gino Weinberg had arrived in Area Eleven, and he was going to enjoy every minute of his time there.

---

And another chapter arrives. I'm posting this rather late at n-*checks clock.* ... early in the morning. So yeah. I just re-read this chapter along with the previous three or so I'd written to make sure I didn't do something stupid like forget previous scenes and whatnot.

So yeah. Reviews are nice, I'd appreciate those if you've got the time. Tell me what I'm doing right, what I'm doing wrong, or even just say hello. I'm pretty much content with that... but I'd prefer the ones with some actual substance. If you want to remain anonymous to other readers just shoot me a PM as a pseudo review, I'm cool with that too. I read and typically respond to any PMs I get, it's not like my inbox is constantly being spammed after all. I'm not some big name author or anything who gets too many pms to respond to :P

Anyhoo. If you spot any stupidly glaring errors, please point them out to me as per the norm. I may or may not have missed something really obvious in this one, but it's too early in the morning for me to give a damn.