Chapter Twenty Three: Rules of Engagement
Arc Six: Definitions Of Freedom
Opening: "Wave" - Lily
The meetings opened at ten o'clock sharp the next day to the sound of a cock's crow and the smells of wood and leather.
The firm, polished wooden doors were opened on cue by unspeaking servants from the colonies, allowing Ohgi to step into the dry room, which seemed to suck in all the air as he entered as if it had been mummified for an era. He gingerly stepped towards the first armchair, before being beckoned to sit by an attendant, who poured him a decanted beverage of some foreign description. Suzaku followed shortly after with their two personal assistants, resting his arms along the raised curves to his elbow, resting his chin on his thumb and forefinger. The various aides and assistants set up the room and stood at attention at points with such decisiveness that Ohgi could hardly believe it hadn't been practised at length, to the point it was intimidating.
After a moment's wait, Schneizel, Cornelia, Euphemia, and Guilford entered with clacking boots against the oak floor, taking various seats throughout the wooden, eighteenth century room, as the fireplace flickered into life.
"Let's begin."
The Britannians proposed a document first, which would grant the Provisional Government internal control of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area as being part of a new Area, while the rest of Area 11 would remain as it had been. Zero was to be handed over to the Britannian authorities, and while internal economic and labour matters could be decided by the Provisional Government, any instance of this which threatened "the integrity of the Britannian economy" could be overruled by the Emperor's representative. Furthermore, neither the partitioned Area 11 or the new Area would be recognised as states, rather Provinces that were granted autonomy under Britannian sovereignty. In other words, Japan on a world map would still read "Britannia".
This was rejected out of hand by both Suzaku and Ohgi, as a matter of course. It was ridiculous to accept any deal like this, especially so early into negotiations. They had to haggle.
As a part of this, Suzaku put forward the Japanese counterproposal, prepared some time before. In it, it was declared that Japan would become a sovereign state, encompassing the entirety of the Home Islands, including Sakhalin and Okinawa. As an independent entity with no Britannian oversight, the Provisional Government under a new Constitution drafted by the Japanese would retain the exclusive right to legislate policy.
Furthermore, the new nation would have exclusive rights to all minerals and resources within its borders, would prosecute Zero under its own legal framework, and Britannia would sign a nonaggression treaty and disarm its Pacific bases to prevent any threat to the new nation.
This, as a matter of course, was rejected.
With the Overton Window firmly established, the negotiations proper began, as both sides tried to trade policies to get as good a deal as they could.
The sovereignty of Japan was probably the biggest issue of contention, with the borders of what seemed to be an inevitable concession of land to the Britannians being close behind. Suzaku insisted on the point that for any nation to claim the name "Japan", it would require its core territories. Schneizel then went on to respond that this Zone was a subadministration to allow better ethnic freedoms in general, rather than an ethnocentric Japanese state.
This led to a more philosophical discussion of what the new Area was for, which Ohgi and Euphemia led, talking about the importance of ending the discrimination in both social and labour policy and encouraging cooperation between all within it, though Ohgi did note that while they shared an egalitarian theme, Euphemia's points seemed more racial, and Ohgi's more socioeconomic, which he found a little amusing. After an hour or so compiling points, they put it to Schneizel that this new Zone, regardless of its level of autonomy, would be functionally a Republic which would allow everyone within it an equal opportunity under it, and provide a safe haven for those who had been oppressed under Britannian rule.
Schneizel mulled over this before countering that Japan had been technically under an Emperor of some kind for a good majority of its history, and that the concept of a Republic may be alien to the Japanese heritage that they ostensibly hoped to preserve.
This struck Ohgi as a bizarre argument, even from a Britannian who had some funny ideas on ethnicity, though as he looked aside, he noted a look of concern growing on Suzaku's face, likely thinking about Tohdoh and his colleagues, who represented this idea of the "old Japan". After some thought, Ohgi responded that they were not necessarily attempting to replicate the old Japan, but create a new state on behalf of them with new, modern values.
This earned him some side eyed glares from Suzaku, who was still evidently mulling over Schneizel's point of the traditional Japan never actually reflecting the values they were espousing. Still, Schneizel spoke over Suzaku's silent scorn, commenting "So, if you are in fact starting from scratch ideologically, why even have a connection to Japan at all? It's not an ethnically exclusive state, shares very few of its values, and has a different form of government with arguably its most important figure removed. Why would you need to keep the Japan name at all? What would be wrong with any new name, if you are able to fill out its meaning and values yourselves? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, surely."
The Minister was surprised by this turn in logic, and looked down to work through it as Schneizel leaned back and sipped at his drink, his work done for now.
Ohgi should have known better than to expect this to be easy.
After this, a resting period was announced to allow the two sides to craft new proposals. Ohgi retired to his hotel room, followed in swift step by an angry Suzaku and a concerned Euphemia, the former of whom erupted as soon as the door was shut.
"Don't EVER do that again!" he hissed, rounding on Ohgi and backing him up against the wall, before continuing "I warned you, we need to be careful of Schneizel. He is not our friend. He will use anything we say to pin us. It is nothing short of irresponsible to try and speak out of turn, without giving a damn thought to who you are speaking for, you foolish ba-"
"Suzaku!"
Suzaku stopped, flinching as his tirade was forced to an abrupt end by the shrill but forceful voice of a furious pinkette. As Ohgi looked up from his retreated state, caving inwards in the face of Suzaku's sudden rage, he saw the Prime Minister's arm extended far above his head, looming and ready to fall onto Ohgi. His face did not betray any shame, and even as he withdrew back to a more nominal state, his face only shifted back in degrees of anger.
At the same time, the arms Ohgi had covering his upper body retreated, as he stood up to his full height, some inches above his superior. After several seconds, the power dynamic had shifted to a more even footing, as Ohgi saw much of the angry energy leave Suzaku's face. He had half a mind to counterattack, before Euphemia intervened.
"Enough, both of you! Don't be stupid. Sit down, and calm yourselves, you damn imbeciles."
Surprised by Euphemia's vicious tone, Ohgi stepped back towards the chair, watching Suzaku visibly wilt under Euphemia's glare. They sat at opposite ends of the room, as Euphemia stood over them and proceeded to lecture.
"Now listen. If you had something to add, Suzaku, we did have an hour long discussion, but you seemed more than content to leave us to it. I'll grant you Ohgi walked into that-"
"Hey!"
"-but it's not like either of you had a cohesive message planned ahead of time. Now all of us are going to sit here and determine what to do about every point raised, and we won't stop until we're finished, come hell or high water!"
Ohgi could swear he felt himself sink several inches into his chair, and saw Suzaku do much the same. This was going to be a long night.
They briefed Lelouch, with Euphemia standing behind the two seated men as the Finance Minister mulled over the progress, evidently frustrated but not as angry as either Suzaku and Euphemia had been. Ohgi had for some time suspected he had been fiddling with his morphine, but he had never raised the point with Suzaku or Euphemia.
This, he reflected, was their fatal weakness. Lelouch had his own machinations going, Suzaku and Ohgi were planning to restrict his power, Suzaku was, in Ohgi's eyes, now feeling insecure in his ability to remain in charge of everything, and now he was wondering whether his Finance Minister was high. Of course Schneizel, who ran Britannia through his pocket book, would run circles around them.
Leaning forward as Lelouch delivered his final thoughts, he surmised his own thoughts.
"Let's go get this prick."
That set the determined tone of the evening, as they drafted no less than three counter proposals and hammered out any rhetorical question that could be feasibly imagined, even bringing a bewildered Guilford in to poke holes in their points from a more conservative Britannian standpoint.
Not that it ultimately mattered, as the next morning they were told they had a day to rest before the next meeting, by the end of which Euphemia made them wish they could escape back to the meeting room. However, when they came in with their stack of papers, they were a bit annoyed to learn that Schneizel insisted on reading his proposal out first.
In it, he proposed the formation of a partitioned substate, with Kantō and Chūbu forming "The Japanese Protectorate", however Britannia would retain a lease on both the port in Tokyo Bay and Mt. Fuji for 99 years. The region would have control of the internal social and labour policies, but not trade, military or Zero's prosecution.
While the name was an unexpected bonus, and the expansion of the borders was welcome progress, the plan was rejected for being insufficient.
One quick edit later, Suzaku proposed the Republican Protectorate Of Japan, which they insisted was definitely what they had initially planned to propose, and not a hasty alteration in the slightest, which would, while being a sovereign state, enter an economic and military pact which would be, in all likelihood, preferential to Britannia, however it was in all likelihood a moot point, as on a practical level this "association without integration" as the Japanese delegation phrased it, would have few differences compared to being an internal Zone. As well as being a small loss to Britannia in the grand scheme of things, granting national pride to the people living there would encourage greater national unity and productivity. In turn for this, they would give up claims on the Sakhalin and Okinawa islands.
After some haggling, Schneizel proposed the Representative Protectorate Of Japan, which had the same tones to it without having what he termed "the ugly word" in it. This was deemed acceptable by both sides, and marked progress for negotiations, which had them all in a good mood as they went onto the topic a sovereign Japan created; the role of the Emperor. Part of the issue with the idea of a Republic, apart from giving the Daily Mail several heart attacks, was that it was contradictory to being under the divine sovereignty of the Emperor. Suzaku blinked to make sure Schneizel had really just said that with a straight face, and sure enough, the Princes serious demeanour withheld the uttering of the phrase "divine sovereignty". After several seconds of looking at shoes and a brief pause for tea, they staked out their positions on how the Emperor should be represented.
Suzaku and Ohgi declared that the Governor would represent the RPJ to the Emperor and Britannia at large, and thus ought to be elected by the population, while Schneizel maintained that the Governor, selected by the Emperor and his Cabinet, would represent him to the Provisional Government. In a mutual agreement, they wrote that the Governor would be nominated by the ruling Party of the RPJ and approved by the Emperor, with his or her role left intentionally ambiguous, in essence a go-between. In this way, both sides could claim they had got what they wanted.
With this new momentum, Suzaku and Ohgi implemented these changes into their previous proposal and presented it, only for it to be rejected again.
The three remaining issues, Schneizel explained, were the borders, the leasing of Mt. Fuji, and who should prosecute Zero.
The first and last issues made sense, at least to Ohgi, but, with permission from his superior, he was forced to ask what was the necessity beyond just getting every last bit of possible resources, for a lease on the mountain.
"You control trade. We can just export it." the Defence Minister argued, to which Schneizel replied "While that is ideal, there are a lot of private vested interests in not only the mountain, but the infrastructure surrounding it and various buildings and machinery. This lease ensures that transitions are as smooth as possible, and there isn't a sudden drop in total available jobs as you are forced to start from scratch."
After some quiet deliberation, Suzaku, on behalf of the delegation asked "How long is it until the collective investments break even with the overall profit?"
This caused some discussion among the Britannians, and after some consulting with an aide, they replied "A little over four years, combined with the eight we have been there."
Suzaku tapped his forefinger against the desk, and spoke, which surprised Ohgi, given how angry he had been just two days ago for him speaking without consulting. Still, it was visibly evident he'd had an idea, and was caught in the moment.
It was still annoying.
"I propose a compromise."
"Go on."
Suzaku tapped his finger a second time and spoke carefully, saying "You could keep the lease on Mt. Fuji for seven years, if, after that lease is complete, control of trade returns to us. You will have profited handsomely, and you will still be able to trade with us on new terms."
This surprised Ohgi, if only on the principle of making such a bold offer, but practically, it made a lot of sense, though not to Cornelia, who was left looking utterly puzzled.
"Why seven?" she asked, as Schneizel laughed, and eventually managed "Kururugi, you are a far better politician than I assumed."
After a confused glare from his half sister, the Prince explained his reasoning, stating "Not only does this make a good compromise, with some trade options after seven years, but in eight years, there will be, I assume, a General Election, where our good friend here can run on getting independent trade."
Suzaku said nothing, and looked on in a blank manner, which confirmed Schneizel's hypothesis. Cornelia also said nothing and returned to her usual pouty demeanour, as proceedings were called to a close for the day.
There was little discussion that night, and after a while Ohgi even asked if he could just rest with the room to himself. He was indulged, and after some time resting, he decided to see what Euphemia has been on about the night before when discussing the media.
It made for grim reading. While Schneizel was being praised as a great statesmen, the Japanese delegation was at the very least sidelined. Lelouch was still receiving opinion pieces despite being nowhere near proceedings, though views were highly divided. The real victim was Euphemia, who was suffering dogs abuse. Not a sentence went by without a pronouncement she was a traitor.
Not for the first time, Ohgi felt the sinking feeling of hopelessness. The propaganda campaign against them was huge, and their main bargaining chip, the Fuji strikers, were being forgotten, to some extent even by Ohgi and Suzaku.
Which was why, after explaining how he felt to his colleagues, he determined that they should take a stand.
"We will not compromise on the border."
This was their pronouncement come the next day, and it caused Schneizel's brow to raise to extremely amusing heights. After several seconds of him looking incredulous, he cleared his throat and blankly commented "I see. Well, if we're doing this, then we will not compromise on Zero. Negotiations don't work like that."
"Beyond being a general pain, which I can relate to, what is it about Zero that stakes her so highly?"
Schneizel stared at Suzaku for several seconds, as Cornelia was once again confused, asking quietly "Her?"
The blonde man cleared his throat and spoke, in a quiet, slow manner "The significance of Zero, or, as she has now been revealed to be, heiress Kallen Stadtfeld, is… a valuable intelligence asset. We would like to be able to use her to apprehend more terrorists."
He was choosing his words extremely carefully, as if they should know something they didn't. Ohgi exchanged uncertain looks with Suzaku, before looking back to Schneizel, who appeared to have come to a realisation, leaning back and thinking. Ohgi knew that Zero was a sticking point for Suzaku, who now held a burning, passionate hatred of the woman and wanted her hanged.
However, there was an opportunity, a chance to, on a practical level, achieve a united Japan. They just needed to let go of one symbol, and that would be it.
They could trade Zero for no border.
"Can we have a few minutes to discuss an issue in private?"
Schneizel nodded, answering Ohgi's question with a simple "By all means."
Ohgi gestured Suzaku into a private room, where he explained "You need to let Zero go. We can get everything-"
"No."
Ohgi glared at his colleague. Even now, he was being stubborn. He approached, looming over him by a few inches and whispered "We can get everything. We can even rid ourselves of this whole mess. The only thing stopping us is your bloodlust."
Suzaku paused, and looked on in a moment of horror. Ohgi hated being manipulative, but he remembered very well how Suzaku describing how he had viewed Lelouch's initially militaristic views. To have that script flipped on him must have felt horrible, but it needed to happen.
"Suzaku."
"Sod off."
Ohgi groaned as Suzaku turned heel and ran his knuckles against his teeth, hissing "Suzaku!" As he gripped the Prime Minister by the shoulder. "Imagine it. We can get the entire Home Islands, and never have to hear from that woman again. On top of that, can you imagine what people would think? People still admire her, even in spite of all she's done. If we executed her under our Government? There would be riots! Let it go,let them deal with her."
Huffing, almost to clear himself of the angry air built up in his lungs, he waved Ohgi's arm off, hissing back "Do what you want!"
Ohgi was thoroughly disappointed as Suzaku attempted to calm himself. It was very obvious he did not like the decision he had just made, but had resigned himself to it. He had hoped to convince him by simply being right, rather than pulling him into it simply due to insistence.
Something about this struck Ohgi as being very familiar.
Nonetheless, he still had one more question. Schneizel had been playing some manner of game when discussing Zero, and Ohgi did not like being left out of the loop, asking "By the way, what was Schneizel trying to hide there?"
"Mm?"
"About Zero? There was something he wasn't telling us…"
Suzaku nodded. "It's weird, and you won't believe it at first, but we oughtn't to discuss it here. Trust me, there's far more to Kallen Stadtfeld than you can imagine."
Ohgi nodded, and followed Suzaku out to see Lelouch's promise affirmed; Schneizel would bow to them.
Man, Suzaku is just not having a good week. He was just beaten on by all sides, from Ohgi noting his hypocrisy, to Lelouch snapping at his heels, and Schneizel using his superior debating talent.
And like this, while he has had to sacrifice some land and prestige, Schneizel has split his opponents up emotionally, and has ensured the apple carte will remain mostly upright. He has always been an incredibly fascinating character to me, and I do feel a little slighted at his characterisation in the last few episodes. He's dynamic, unflappable, inviting, and will kill your entire family while offering you tea.
But this is not his story, or even his Chapter. Ultimately, this Chapter reads more like a highlight reel, as if we are reading about it in a history book or report, which while not the sole aim, as seen by some of the more personal moments with Ohgi trying to drag an emotional Suzaku through the process, was a large part of it. I wanted to demonstrate the rationale behind how the RPJ was formed, and some of the reasoning behind the specifics of its governmental function.
Zero, as happened in canon, will be handed over to the Britannians for reasons that while I am sure you are aware of, our protagonists are not. It is not a large leap of the imagination to imagine how that plot element will play out.
However, what will be far more interesting is how the RPJ will respond when that element returns to the forefront, and there isn't much longer to wait; the next Chapter, Solidarity Forever, is the final Chapter of R1, before an extensive timeskip.
I hope you'll be there when it happens. Until then, be well, be a reasonable negotiator, and rate and review. I'll see you soon.
~Eth0