Chapter Fifteen: The Plot Unravels
Arc Three: The Big Show
Opening: "Kikai Jikake no Cinderella" - Eliza
Jeremiah stood to attention, in front of Viceroy Cornelia's desk, ready to receive orders. It was extremely bizarre, he felt, to receive such sudden summons as the ones he had. He looked down as Cornelia shuffled through the papers that mounted her ornate desk.
"Margrave Gottwald." she addressed him, and he replied "Ma'am."
Cornelia scanned him with a single lazy eye, her tired, worn state betrayed by flaky dress and blackened eyes before addressing him formally with "Margrave, I have read your report into Ashford's activities, as well as the investigations of Parliament's investigative subcommittee, that there is more to this. Several companies based in and around Ashford had heavy collusions with Ashford KMF, and their stock history suggests a prior knowledge of the crash. Looking at other stocks this individual has invested, there are records of the purchasing of large amounts of gold, which may I remind you is Yuaikai's standard. Finally, tied to this individual is the reported use of a Royal Standard, from the late Clovis to be exact. I would appreciate it if you could investigate immediately, grabbing tapes and apprehending suspects at the included addresses and bring them back here for questioning."
"Is there a description of the suspect?"
She looked at him as if he were stupid, commenting "Our man's a stockbroker, and maybe even a student. Beyond his address, we know nothing. That is why tapes are needed before you move further."
And with that, he was off. It was a hurried meeting, and he felt as if Cornelia was rushing, however that was not for him to question. She had been growing aggressive in her search for Yuaikai, crawling through financial records to try and trace the pest, which had overtaken the Ghetto's. This investigation went hand in hand with the Ashford one, and Cornelia believe they were inextricably linked, even hinting they had the same masterminds. Jeremiah had his doubts, but was by no means against his task.
The Campus was quiet, being a bright Japanese weekend where the sun extended on beyond all view, dotted with a few pale clouds. Jeremiah explored the facilities, seeing the main hall and generally looking through the area before finally heading towards the Principal's Office on his grand tour, garnering feigned attention for moments at a time as he passed through, observing and yet not being observed. Within a few minutes slow meandering, Jeremiah arrived within the cheap grandiose that was the Principal's quarter. While there was no arrest warrant, as Margrave he had investigative privileges, as well as the Princess' backing.
It proved a simple matter, as Reuben Ashford in his age was not a man of strong will, handing over all tapes as soon as he asked. Reuben looked incredibly sullen, as if he had received his death orders, which Jeremiah supposed may not be far from the truth if Cornelia's guess was correct. Taking the tapes, Jeremiah sat in the side room, began at three days ago, and began to flick through the sections where people occupied the screens, and he got his first glimpse of the suspects. Two men, of late high school age, one Britannian, one Japanese, talking as they got dressed, likely for some special occasion. Both teens looked bizarrely familiar, which fascinated him as he listened in, the Japanese man speaking first in his native language, followed by a reply that was similarly in Japanese.
"Speaking of, how's your end of the project going?"
"All right. It's going slow, but that's what happens when you want to avoid fraud laws."
As he sat up and watched their confession with rapt attention, complete with sound, he failed to note Reuben, who had been looking at the tapes over his shoulder, sending a text before leaving, anxious and hurried as he hastily grabbed keys, money, and other critical items that should have alerted him to the fact Reuben was not planning on coming back.
Beep beep.
On the topic of people were distracted from the obvious, Suzaku ignored the text alert, likely spam, as he tried to understand what Lelouch had just told him.
"You don't remember what Mao said?"
Lelouch shook his head, before elaborating "I remember him knocking me out, and the fact he said something, but the details…"
Suzaku paused, and thought. This whole discussion had begun when Suzaku asked in passing what happened to Lelouch while he was captured, before he had said he didn't remember. Further exploration revealed there was a wealth of things Lelouch had forgotten, and there were several gaps in Suzaku's memory to boot. Sayako had said that she remembered finding Lelouch in the cellar and being told to wait, but not much after that.
"And afterwards?"
Lelouch shrugged. "It's all a mess until I woke up in my bed, head pounding. You rescued me, do you not ha ve any more?"
Suzaku put a finger on his chin, slowly reciting his memories. "It's like I've said, we were discussing what to do, we'd had Sayako go down to check on you, and then Mao called Kallen. After that, it goes fuzzy, but not an a weird way. It's… just unclear, like it was a while ago."
"Did we ever find out why? He kidnapped me, I mean."
"Kallen said it was blackmail for her fortune."
"And he picked me?"
"Beggars can't be choosers."
Lelouch frowned and looked downwards, deep in thought to which Suzaku could lay no blame. It was a bizarre scenario to say the least. The pair sat in silence for some time, each trying to see what was missing from their summaries, before Lelouch spoke up.
"So who brought me to the room?"
"It can't have been me, I was in hospital when I came to." Suzaku answered, remembering the point his memory cleared up. It was for his arm brace, which had broken somehow while he was in his amnesiac state. "So it was Kallen."
"Excellent." Lelouch suddenly smiled, leaping across to his desk before reaching into the bottom drawer and pulling out a small processor, plugging it into his laptop.
"So that's where you keep your CCTV feed."
"Hush now Suzaku." Lelouch chirped. "You know I'll move it before you can try anything."
He had a point, so Suzaku stopped talking and watched. It took some time to find the timestamp, being earlier than Suzaku assumed and far later than Lelouch thought, before they finally settled on the moment Lelouch entered the room. It was obvious that Lelouch was going to be under significant duress at this time, however Suzaku instantly noted his body language was wrong. He wasn't just unsteady, he was pale, terrified, and all but shivering.
Lelouch hit play, and the framed Lelouch moved forward into the room, prodded along by Kallen, who was in a state of visible cold fury as she followed him into the room. She wasn't carrying him as much as kicking him in disdainfully. This struck Suzaku as beyond suspicious, and confirmed to him that something was up with Kallen. A flash aside to Lelouch confirmed they shared this suspicion, as they hit the wham line.
"Please…"
"Kallen Kozūki commands you to forget. You are not to remember what we discussed, my identity, or anything compromising."
"What the hell?"
The last comment was not on the tape, however it was Suzaku's reaction to the sight of a teenage girl literally brainwashing his friend. Lelouch was similarly shocked, though Suzaku suspected it was more in surprise at his own sorry state. This escalated things beyond all comprehension, to some manner of Eldritch superpower. Suzaku felt suddenly out of his depth, and scared.
"Turn it off."
The command came from Lelouch, and Suzaku happily obliged, as Lelouch stared intensely at his desk, as if it held the answer to his questions. Suzaku understood he was rightly horrified at the fact his brain had been meddled with, as he slowly realised his own head likely hadn't got off scot free. This was greater and more improbable than anything they had ever imagined, and neither rebel knew what to do with this information.
Shivering, Lelouch slowly whispered "I'm… going to go get some coffee.", before standing to walk over, shaking like a leaf as he floated uncertainly down the hall and out of Suzaku' sight. The Japanese teen silently swore, before he turned off the laptop, not sure where to begin. How did one address this? Did one confront Kallen, and suffer further mind alteration? Did one simply ignore it? Or ought one to descend into paranoia?
Before he could reach a conclusion, a loud bang, accented by the sound of splintering, erupted from the hall, the crackling and fire like sparks piercing his hearing, before a second bang, and a third.
Someone was kicking in the door.
Immediately after he regained his wits, Suzaku leapt across the room, sending sudden streaks of pain into his deadened shoulder, still in its cast, ripping open his bottom drawer to find Kusakabe's gun that was no longer there.
Swearing out loud this time, he vaulted the bed before running through the door frame and bursting into the room. In the centre, he glimpsed the flash of a man hurtling across his vision towards Lelouch, backed into the corner with a butcher's knife. After a shocked moment, Suzaku recognised it as the tall, monstrous figure of Jeremiah Gottwald moving like a lion, large as life and twice as deadly as he leapt in like a swift eagle towards the back of the room, grabbing Lelouch by his lapel and lifting him up off his feet, before slamming him against the fridge.
"Suzaku!" Lelouch roared through a clenched neck and gritted teeth, to which Suzaku sprinted up behind Lelouch's assailant, leaping up as he approached and grabbing onto Jeremiah's neck, using his body weight to pull back, releasing Lelouch, who crumpled down, out of any breath or sense.
The plan was to hook around and pin Jeremiah as he spun on top. However, the plot fell apart as they fell back and Suzaku felt his grip weaken and his shoulder fall to pieces, as it became harder and harder to hold on. Jeremiah, likely sensing the weakening arm, grabbed a fixture above their heads and swung Suzaku off him in a single fluid motion, sending Suzaku flying into the oven, smashing his back before sinking to the floor.
"And there's the other." Jeremiah quietly chuckled, dusting off his gloves, before placing the heel of his foot on Lelouch's chest, who was trying to move. Suzaku could barely manage that, his back feeling shattered and all consuming. His vision was all but blinded by the pain, like fire water searing through his body. He felt thoroughly useless, as-
Click.
The room stopped, and even Jeremiah turned to the sound. It was a bizarrely loud turning of the lock, and in spite of this, the hall insofar as Suzaku could see was empty. Jeremiah, intrigued, paused a moment to kick Lelouch to keep him down before moving down to investigate.
Suzaku watched from a sideways angle as Jeremiah stepped slowly down the hall, looking side to side, as he stepped outside the room.
Then, there was a massive, brassy thwack, before Jeremiah's limp body fell back into view. It took Suzaku several moments to catch onto what happened, as he cried out in joy.
"Sayako!"
The maid stepped out indignantly, gripping a Kunai from the wrong end, the hilt of which she had used to knock Jeremiah out cold. She paused to sneer, before coming over to help the boys, grabbing Suzaku and sitting him up against a chair.
"Reuben warned me. Ohgi's coming, we need to get ready to go."
Suzaku didn't protest as Lelouch took slowly to his feet, moving about to regain stability as he looked over the passed out figure. "Gottwald." he chuckled mirthlessly, before going inside. Suzaku, nonplussed, asked finally "What's going on?"
"We can't stay here." she explained. "At least, us in this apartment. They'll know something's up the moment Jeremiah doesn't come back. We're going to move into Ohgi's bankhouse for now."
"What about the man himself? We can't just leave him?"
Lelouch walked back in, carrying a slim case which he placed inside a larger travel bag, asking "Where's your gun?"
"My what?"
Lelouch frowned, and explained to his confused colleague "Your gun, from Kusakabe."
"It's gone."
Lelouch looked at him as if he were stupid. "What do you mean it's gone? Did it grow legs?" It took him a few moments before he realised exactly who had it, at which point he quietly hissed "Bit…"
"Unimportant." Sayako commented. "We can just leave him here, he won't have our details to track us. For now, we need to go." She moved back into the utility room, and fetched several mops and buckets of cleanser, dumping them in the middle of the kitchen. Suzaku looked down at the huge pile of utensils and chemicals, and gave a simple, plain look at Sayako that screamed 'The hell do you want me to do?'
Sayako quirked a curious eyebrow sarcastically adding "We need to nuke this place with bleach, but that stuff's not going to leap onto the walls."
Lelouch silently stepped out of the room to gather his things, to whom Suzaku shot daggers into the back of. Speaking of backs, he felt his move with a crunch, as he suddenly realised he may be in far more serious a condition than he initially thought.
Seeing it, Sayako paused her persecution to sigh, and ease off. "I suppose the man did hurt you, mm? Certainly not what you ought to be doing with your shoulder. Ohgi'll be up in a moment to help out, try and ease your back. We'll have to do a far amount of walking."
Enjoying his brief solace, he sat down and enjoyed Lelouch's own daggers as he reentered the room and saw his Japanese friend lounging, before Nunnally came in from the hall, not fully understanding what was going on.
"Suzaku? Brother? Are you okay?"
"Fine, Nunnally…" Suzaku chuckled through the pain, on and off with his chest. The crippled girl wheeled herself in, and sighed. Suzaku felt slightly bad for her, given that they'd scared the life out of her from the Convention, him being shot, and Lelouch being kidnapped. Her face was a book, and it read of betrayal, that they had promised her their peaceful way would be safe, only for them to be in the course of danger. However, she eased, and simply asked, smiling softly "What have you two gotten yourselves into now?"
Suzaku sighed and shook his head as Lelouch passed by yet again, grabbing a mop and commenting "For a pacifist, you really can't keep out of fights, mm?"
It was intended as a joke, however as Suzaku reflected, he realised that Lelouch was absolutely right. He had asked for Kusakabe's guns, had gone for it again when Jeremiah approached, and gone one to get his ass handed to him. Beyond the embarrassing factor, his eagerness to grab a defensive weapon over words now that he reflected on it surprised even him. He felt that violence outside of self defence, or to achieve an objective, was morally wrong, and that one must, by definition, attempt pacifism. In spite of this, he was never far from a firearm. By contrast, his friend who had no qualms on principle with blowing his own brothers face off, was still more consistent on his stance.
It reminded him of the discussion they'd had after Suzaku accidentally summoned Zero down to Saitama, when Lelouch observed that perhaps Lelouch's more conscious decision to go by passive resistance led him to live by it more than Suzaku's natural assumption, in a sort of 'zeal of the converted'. This didn't give him much solace.
He groaned as he stood up, leaning on his knees with the heels of his hands to draw himself up, seizing the attention of both Lelouch and Sayako, as he swung his arm forward and grabbed a mop.
He'd not let that happen again.
Jeremiah Gottwald woke to a pounding headache and a sickly sweet scent. His vision was blurred, and his hands felt like they were about to fall off at the wrist. He shook his head, and attempted to regain awareness of his surroundings as he quickly realised things had gone badly wrong.
He was on his side, looking at a wall, lined with a white wooden skirting board and peach patterning up beyond his sight. Attempting to move, he realised he had been tied up. Furious, Jeremiah roared out, and kicked, angrily attempting to breach his bonds to no avail. Lashing out, he squirmed under his constraint, only wasting energy as his mind grew furious at the prospects of his targets escape, which only cycled him in further into a fit of rage.
Ultimately, it was that very same frustration that saved him, as when a female student eventually passed by the small hallway, he was certainly hard to miss, lying on the floor and screaming his head off. After a moment of confused shock, she ran off to get a blade to untie him, rapidly freeing him.
He stood up, shaking his sleeping muscles to restore them to aching life, before he burst into the suspects room through the battered, broken door, forcing his way into the room and looking around. At first, he was confused, as the room had been stripped bare, with paint stripping and white stains purged into the sides of surfaces and the constant smell of pure bleach. After a moment of searching, the truth final dawned on him.
"Damnit!" he shouted, kicking a hole into one of the few remaining cabinets before searching around for some clue for where the two men had gone. Taking a brief moment to peek out at the windows, painting a picture of a rich, bright night, stained an off yellow by the powerful moon. Given that it was just past midday when he arrived, they could be anywhere. He slammed his foot into the floorboards, before sprinting out to the hall towards the corded phone, an old antiquity but it would do.
Flying through the digits, he endured the operator inquiring into his identity, taking forever, a day, and considerable shouting to patch him through. Finally, he reached Darlton, who after realising the deranged madman on the far end was Jeremiah, put him on with Cornelia.
"Cornelia, thank-"
"Gottwald! Where the hell have you been?"
Jeremiah paused at her sharp, furious tone, beyond simple anger at his tardiness, before explaining, a little slower than he had been with Darlton "I found the men behind LLS, two students, but a third one got me from behind and knocked me out. They're gone, they're all gone without a damn trace."
Cornelia, still angry, was heard roaring down the line "Well we've found them! Get back here right now!"
Jeremiah paused again, finally asking "What's happened?"
"Your suspects are broadcasting their revolutionary ideas live on radio as we speak!"
But what are they saying? And who's saying it? We'll see.
This Chapter represents transition in two key areas for our characters. For the Yuaikai at large, this Chapter marks a transition away from how the Revolution was run up to this point, at an arm's length from a College dormitory miles away from the ghettoes, to a more direct, involved revolution, with our characters going native and getting ever closer to the action as the pressure from above increases. The Britannians are hot on Yuaikai's heels, but Yuaikai can more than combat it. In this sense, this Chapter is the halfway point of R1. Stay tuned.
Secondly, we ought to look at the progress in character on an individual level. Jeremiah, as an agent of the government, is introduced, and will be used as a framing device to display the feeling among the Britannian soldiers. We learned a bit about Lelouch and his thought process, given that I highly doubt he'd take well to being Geassed, especially not knowing all the details. However, as you may have guessed, the biggest developments came for Suzaku. While the fight wasn't the Suzaku you may have expected, he had been shot in the shoulder less than two days before, and combat isn't the focus. You can take Suzaku's curb stomp as a sign of that.
What was far more interesting to write is the escalation of Suzaku's zealotry. When I got started, I was very interested in the idea of the contrast between Lelouch and Suzaku, with regards to how malleable their ethics are. While it was always portrayed that Lelouch was the ultimate politician, a shapeshifting Machiavellian pragmatist, and that Suzaku was the Paragon. However, while I justified that characterization for Lelouch's ideas in how he reached them, I have found the rationalisation for Suzaku to reach the idea that "violence is bad", to the point it is central to his morality lacking. Up to this point, it has of course been on the agenda, but even he acknowledges he has swayed. In this Chapter, I addressed how he will fully move towards implementing this Paragonic approach on a fully zealous level akin to Lelouch.
Make sure to tell me what you think of this interpretation, and be sure to read on to Chapter 16 of For Hearts And Minds, The Wrong Games. See you then, be safe, don't break into people's apartments, and please rate and review!
~Eth0