Area 11 - Shinjuku Ghetto
Lelouch couldn't believe it.
After all these years of hiding, his older half-brother by four years happens to cross paths with him by pure coincidence. Not only that, but the same brother who left Pendragon six months prior to him and Nunnally. Nothing of his whereabouts were ever known, as people were quick to happily forget the "Dimwitted Prince" (as some nobles liked to call him when he and his mother weren't around.) But yet here he was, with the same giddy attitude he kept intact all these years later.
"Either fate has a twisted sense of humor, or I'm having the worse luck today." Lelouch thought to himself.
But he pushed that thought aside as he slowly approached Joseph.
"Is it really you?" Lelouch asked cautiously.
The smile didn't leave Joseph's face as he came up to a surprised Lelouch and pulled him into a gentler but still tight embrace.
"Yep-per-rooni." Joseph said with glee. Lelouch couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yep, it's definitely him." Only Joseph would use vocabulary like that.
Joseph released him from the hug and they looked at each other, with Joseph it was happiness but with Lelouch it was just confusion. He often wondered what became of Joseph after he left Aries Villa and while he didn't expect a reunion with his brother, he didn't think he would look like this either.
Based on his appearance alone, he hasn't been living in a household for months, maybe even years. His teeth were yellow and crooked and he was most definitely in need of a bath.
What shocked Lelouch the most though was the fact that the pinkie on his left hand looked like it had been cut halfway off.
Had it not been for his memories of Joseph, Lelouch most likely would have casted him off as some crazy bum living in the ghettos.
"Joseph, what happened to you?" Lelouch asked as it was the only real question he could think of asking him.
And Joseph opened his mouth to provide that answer, but a loud voice from an intercom decided to not let him have the chance.
"Stop the vehicle! Surrender now and you'll get the chance to defend yourself in court!" "Stop and surrender at once!" The voice from the intercom yelled, they then both heard bullets being fired at the truck.
"Damn it, this truck must be owned by terrorists!" Lelouch seethed.
"Ruh-roh." Was all Joseph responded with as he looked around.
"If we jump out, we have the choice of getting shot or breaking-"Lelouch stopped mid sentence as he realized something.
"Wait, how did you get in this truck anyway?" Lelouch asked Joseph, as he found it unlikely the truck would have stopped for him. The answer, was not one he was expecting.
"Jumped." Joseph simply said with a dopey smile.
Lelouch stared at him blankly.
"You what?" Lelouch asked, as he wasn't sure he heard him correctly.
"Jumped." Joseph said again with the same smile.
He then illustrated the situation with his hands. Using one hand to represent himself and the other to represent the truck(while also making a truck sound with his mouth), he shows Lelouch that he jumped(making a jumping sound for that too) onto the truck with ease.
Lelouch was now completely dumbfounded. (A WTF look from Joseph's perspective)
"How-" He didn't get to finish his question as he heard the sound of the door on the wall starting to opening. He pulled Joseph over to the side to hide, and saw a girl with red hair walk through the door, taking off her coat. She looked to be the same age as him. He and Joseph looked at her with curiosity.
"Can you enter the subway via the Azabu route?" The girl asked to driver.
"Kallen, let's use it here, why not?" The driver yelled back.
"Because that would mean a bloodbath!" The girl, whose name apparently was Kallen, exclaimed back to the driver.
"You-You're right…" The driver said back to her.
As Kallen climbed the ladder to the object covered by a tarp, Lelouch was studying her.
"I've seen her before." Lelouch thought to himself when all of a sudden Joseph popped in front of his.
"Who that?" Joseph asked with curiosity.
Lelouch quickly pulled Joseph's head back into hiding.
"Be quiet!" Lelouch quickly whispered while making a shushing gesture.
"Sorry." Joseph whispered back with an awkward smile.
…
"Huh?"
Kallen turned her head back towards the cargo room, as she thought she heard something. Before she could investigate more, she could hear the sounds of helicopters getting closer. She decided to ponder about it later and took off the tarp, revealing it to be a Glasgow knightmare.
…
"Hey! It's a knightmare. Awesome! I haven't seen one of those in action for months!" Joseph thought to himself as his eyes brighten up with glee.
As the red hair girl named Kallen took the knightmare out to fight what appeared to be other knightmares, Joseph couldn't help but smile nice and wide.
"I wonder if these ones will finally fight like the transformers do on television." He thought excitedly to himself.
Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to find out because as soon as she exited the truck, the door closed again.
"Ah man…" Joseph pouted to himself. He was really hoping to see some action.
He then heard another voice coming from the intercom.
"The rest of you back off, I'll take this guy. An over-the-hill Glasgow is no match for a Sutherland!"
Joseph recognized that voice, it was Jeremiah Gottwald.
"Oh hey, Jerry's here too! I should say hi to him when I get the chance."
Joseph always liked Jerry, he was cool guy who always made sure he showed his loyalty to the ones he cared about.
"Hey, maybe I can look through the opening on top to see what's going on!" Joseph thought to himself gleefully.
Suddenly the room got darker and the battle of machines was getting quieter.
"Damn it, must have gone through a tunnel." As Joseph pouted again, he turned and saw Lelouch looking at his phone.
…
"No cell phone reception, and judging by the darkness and road surfaces they're driving along the old subway lines. They must be looking for an exit in the ghettos, which means getting out of here will be dangerous for us." Lelouch thought meticulously as he was trying to formulate a plan. "I could always trade a terrorist communicator for protection from the military."
Lelouch then looked up and saw Joseph approaching him.
"But if I bring Joseph with me, they'll likely shoot him on the spot for just his appearance alone. Not to mention he could accidently reveal my past without even realizing it. I can't just abandon him either, he looks like he's already been through hell and back."
He was stuck between a rock and a hard place, he didn't want to leave his half-brother, but couldn't risk getting exposed either. Before he could think more about it, Joseph kneeled down in front of him with the same dopey smile as before.
"So, how been?" Joseph asked him with curiosity and mild excitement. Lelouch's eyebrow arched up.
"What?" Was all Lelouch could asked to such a random question.
"You. Life. How been? Little sis Nunnally, how she? Lady Marianne?" Joseph asked again with a bigger smile and more excitement.
Lelouch blinked at him.
"Does he really not know?"
Considering the situation they were in right now, he decided to brush the question off.
"Uh, I don't think now is the right time to catch up Joseph." This made Joseph tilt his head in confusion.
"Why not." Joseph asked, which caused Lelouch eyebrow to twitch.
"Were in a life or death situation, remember?" Lelouch reminded him.
Joseph then perked his head up in realization.
"Oh yeahhhhh."
Lelouch just gave a deadpan look in return.
"Still absentminded as ever I see."
Their conversation grew to a sudden halt when they both felt the truck hit something, sending Joseph crashing into the the circular device that was next to them. Lelouch went over to check on him, not realizing that the machine just went into "unlock" mode.
"Are you alright?!" He asked with concern.
Joseph just gave him a wide smile and a "ok" gesture with his fingers and pronounced happily.
"A-OK!"
Lelouch couldn't help but smile at that. Joseph was like Nunnally in some ways, no matter what the situation was, he always maintained that positive attitude of his.
Well almost any situation.
Lelouch thought back to Lady Rebecca, Auntie Becky as she liked to be called by him and Nunnally. Sadness roamed his mind before realizing that he needed to focus.
"Here, let's climb up this and escape."
"Okey-dokey." Joseph responded.
As Lelouch was about to climb up the circular device, he suddenly heard footsteps approaching at a fast rate. He turned and saw a soldier performing a spin kick at him, he closed his eyes and covered his face in preparation for the oncoming pain.
Except it didn't.
He opened his eyes and saw that the soldier's leg was being blocked by Joseph, he had a serious look on his face and pushed the soldier away from them. Lelouch looked at his half-brother with shock and confusion.
"He blocked that soldier's kick? But…how…?"
…
"That's enough mindless murder you two!" The masked man, who Joseph was assuming was a soldier, yelled at them.
Joseph didn't know what this guy's problem was, but he would make sure he would protect Lelouch. After all, he was his little brother, and his Mom said that protecting the ones he loved was always important, and he wasn't going to disrespect Mom's advice now.
"Leave alone, jerk!" Joseph yelled at the soldier.
"Don't play dumb with me! You were planning on using the poisonous gas!" The soldier yelled at them once again.
Joseph didn't know what gas he was talking about, and he was about to retort when Lelouch decided to intervene.
"We're not here by choice, Britannian soldier! And if that is poisonous gas, it was made by Britannia wasn't it!" Lelouch exclaimed.
The soldier gasp and started to look at Lelouch with recognition.
"It can't be…"
Joseph was now confused.
"Does this guy know Lelouch or something?"
Lelouch walked a few steps closer but still stayed behind Joseph.
"If you don't want more deaths, then just obliterate Britannia!" Lelouch exclaimed.
Joseph raised his eyebrows in surprise, this was a demeanor he's never seen of Lelouch before. Of course, they haven't seen each other in awhile, and he is aware how many assholes there are in the Britannian army. Still, to hear his little brother say it with such venom was definitely unexpected. Before he could think about it more, the soldier spoke up again, this time with a softer tone.
"Lelouch, it's me. Suzaku."
The soldier took off his helmet to reveal a Japanese teenager with brown curly hair and green eyes, he had a small soft smile on his face as he looked at Lelouch.
And it just so happened that Joseph knew this young Japanese fellow as well.
"Suzaku?"
…
Suzaku couldn't believe it.
After all these years, he finally reunites with the childhood friend he made back at the Kururugi Shrine. Though it was circumstances he found unexpected and certainly didn't want. He then noticed the homeless-looking man who was next to Lelouch, giving Suzaku a wide smile for some reason. Though for some reason the man seemed familiar to him.
"You-you became a Britannian soldier?" Lelouch asked in confusion. Suzaku turned his attention back to him.
"Uh, yeah. But what about you? You're a-"
"SUZAKU!"
Suzaku was suddenly ambushed into a tight embrace by the mysterious man. His nose started to catch the scent that was coming from man and it made Suzaku blanch. He couldn't really say anything about it at the moment though considering the embrace was crushing his lungs, eventually the man let go and he was able to finally breathe.
"Long time, no bee man! Still training!?" The man asked with a surprising amount of glee and held his hand up in a fighting stance.
Suzaku looked at the man with confusion, as this was an encounter he definitely was not expecting.
"I'm…sorry, do I know you?"
The man just gave him a look that said, "Really?"
"Uh…yeeaahh. Me! Joseph! Training partner! Nickname: Lunkhead!" The man exclaimed and proceeded to knock his fist into his own head as if to express how hard it is.
"Lunkhead?" Was all Suzaku could ask he took a closer look at the man.
The features of the man's face sparked recognition in Suzaku, and he knew only one person that he referred to by that nickname.
The same person who trained with him under Kyoshiro Tohdoh during his one month stay at the Kururugi Shrine when Suzaku was eight years old and the person was 12.
"Joseph? What are you doing here?!" Suzaku asked with widen eyes.
"Hanging with little bro." Joseph happily responded as he gestured towards a confused Lelouch.
"You two know each other?" Lelouch asked.
"Uh yeah. His mother had Todoh...wait, little bro?"
Suzaku looked at Joseph, then at Lelouch, then at Joseph again.
"You two are related?!"
Before either Joseph or Lelouch could respond, a sudden flash of light came out of the poison gas container.
"What the?" Lelouch asked looking at the container
Suzaku eyes widen in feat.
"Lelouch, Joseph!"
…
Joseph was surprised by the sudden push to the ground Suzaku did.
"Quick Joseph! Cover your mouth and nose!" Suzaku screamed as he placed his mask over Lelouch's mouth and nose.
But before he could do so, the container opened, revealing what looked like to be a woman with long green hair.
"Aww, she's pretty, like Mom…" Joseph thought as he got up and looked at the woman with a gentle smile.
"It's not poison gas?" Suzaku asked from behind him.
Joseph approached the woman, she appeared to be in some restraints along with her mouth being covered. It looked like she was about to fall to the ground, so Joseph made sure to catch her.
As his Mom once told him, a man must be a gentleman towards a lady when needed and deserved.
…
He started untying her restraints as he heard Lelouch and Suzaku talking in the background, not that he was really listening to what they were saying. Right now, Joseph's attention was on helping this woman.
She slowly started to open her eyes and looked at him, which he gave a gentle smile in return.
"Hi." Joseph cheerfully said as he gave a small wave to her with his missing pinkie hand.
The woman just blinked at him and closed her eyes again, suddenly a row of lights was shined on them. Joseph turned to see there was a group of men standing in front of the lights with guns.
"Stinking monkey!" The man who was at the center of these men, exclaimed.
"Hey! No tree swinging since two years, thank you!"Joseph said angrily.
While the armed men looked at him with the WTF face, the man in the center chose to ignore him.
"Being an Honorary Britannian will not excuse you."
"Oh, he meant Suzaku…well, it's still rude!" Joseph thought as he looked at the man with anger. Suzaku approached the man.
"But sir, I was told it was poison gas."
"How dare you question orders!"
"Hey, lay off!" Joseph exclaimed as he started to approach the man to teach him a lesson.
"Joseph, don't!" Lelouch whispered. "It's too dangerous."
Joseph was about to retort when he heard the man speak up again.
"However, in light of outstanding military achievements, I'm going to be lenient."
The man reached into the back of his pocket, took out a gun, and offered it to Suzaku.
"Private Kururugi. Take this, and execute these terrorists!"
This surprised the group, and Joseph immediately stood in front of Lelouch to protect him.
"Won't hurt brother!" Joseph exclaimed. Lelouch looked at him in surprise.
"Joseph…" Lelouch quietly said.
"But they aren't terrorists, they're just civilians who got caught up in all of this." Suzaku tried to plead. Joseph could see that was not the answer the man wanted.
"You insolent little…that's an order! Didn't you swear your loyalty and life to Britannia!?"
"Y-Yes, but…I'm sorry, I can't do it. I can't follow your order." Suzaku said to the man as he turned around and looked at Lelouch and Joseph with a sad smile.
"Suzaku, you really are a good friend." Joseph thought as he returned the smile to Suzaku. But his thoughts were shattered when he heard the gun go off and saw Suzaku fall to the ground.
"SUZAKU!" Both Joseph and Lelouch exclaimed.
"Well, it looks like your day has gone from bad to worse." The man sneered at them.
"It actually started out as a good day, you jerk!" Joseph thought angrily as he pushed Lelouch further behind him.
He looked at Suzaku, it didn't look like there was any blood coming out of him, so there was a chance he was still alive. He gave a breath of relief to this.
"Men, collect the girl, after you secure her, kill the student and the bum!" The man said to the soldiers.
This put Joseph back in protection mode.
"Yes! My lord!" The soldiers responded back as they started to approach Joseph, Lelouch, and the woman.
"I'm not letting my little brother die like this! I just have to wait until they get close enough, then I can make my move." Joseph thought as he cracked his knuckle.
However, Joseph never got to carry out his plan. For the truck exploded just a second later.
…
Lelouch was in a waking nightmare.
Suzaku, his childhood friend, was killed right in front of him, and all he could do now was run away. Joseph was in front of him, carrying the woman in his arms. They stopped for a moment to catch their breaths, well, his breath anyway, Joseph didn't even look like he broke a sweat. But Lelouch didn't care about that as he was looking angrily at the woman.
"What the hell are you! This chaos is your fault isn't it!" Lelouch exclaimed.
"Hey, chill out bro." Joseph said to him.
"'Chill out? They killed Suzaku!" Lelouch retorted.
"Don't know that! Single gunshot, people survive worse" Joseph retorted back to him. All Lelouch could do was scoff.
Joseph then turned his head towards the woman in his arms.
"Hello,(points to himself) Joseph Du Britannia. How are you?" Joseph greeted her with a friendly manner.
Lelouch just stared at him as he couldn't believe he was actually trying to get to know someone while they were literally being hunted down!
Joseph untightened the mouth restraint around her.
"There we go." Joseph said with happy casualness, as if he got done with one of his house chores for the day.
The woman was about to speak when they heard some gunfire in the distance up some stairs. Joseph put the woman down next to Lelouch.
"Stay hidden." Joseph whispered to them.
He went to go see what was going on.
…
Joseph cautiously peeked his head up the stairs and saw a man get shot to death.
It's not that it didn't make him sad, he was just used to seeing this kind of thing is all. He looked to see the same soldiers from earlier, along with the man who shot Suzaku. Joseph looked at him angrily.
"Report." The man ordered.
"Just eleven sirs." One of the soldiers responded.
"You're sure of it? That exit comes out here?"
While the soldier was responding to the man. Joseph saw a small girl, who looked no older than five and had blood stains on her, stand up and start to cry. The soldiers noticed her and were about to shoot her.
"OH HELL NO!" Joseph thought frantically. He may have grown immune to seeing innocent people dying, but there was no way he was letting a little girl die on his watch.
He pushed his legs forward with all his might and dove towards the girl.
He grabbed her into an embrace as the bullets flew past them, he rolled onto the ground before finally landing on his feet, all while making sure the girl was protected.
"What the?! It's the bum from before!" One of the soldiers said as he aimed his gun towards Joseph.
Joseph quickly jumped up high towards the wall to dodge the bullets, and then pushed his feet back against the wall to exit through the hole that was there. He was going to make sure he a got a good distance away from the soldiers and get the little girl to safety.
After that, he planned on being a distraction for said soldiers so Lelouch could escape if needed. But suddenly, he could hear the sound of a cell phone ringing, and Joseph could see that now had the soldier's attention.
"Lelouch…" Joseph quietly said to himself.
He looked at the girl who had a scared look in her eyes and set her down.
"Find safe place, 'kay?" Joseph said to the girl in Japanese with a reassuring smile.
This made the girl a little less afraid and nodded her head. She said "Arigato" to Joseph and quickly made her way out of there.
Joseph didn't like the idea of the leaving the girl to fend for herself, but he couldn't just leave his brother with those soldiers either. He went back inside, and his eyes widen in seeing that he was too late.
The soldiers had Lelouch and the woman in their grasp, the soldiers saw that he came back and quickly aimed their guns on him. Joseph got into the fighting stance, ready to take on these soldiers who have his brother.
All of a sudden, the man who shot Suzaku grabbed Lelouch and pointed a gun at his temple. This caused Joseph to freeze.
"Don't move! Unless you want your 'brother' to join the pile of elevens over there!"
Joseph gritted his teeth.
"Just try retaliating. He'll be dead before you know it." The man sneered at him as he brought the gun closer to Lelouch's head
Joseph knew he was right, no matter what angle he came at it, he wouldn't be able to save him in time. He relaxed back into a standing position and put his hands in the air.
"Good. Now go back against the wall, no sudden moves!" The man ordered as he kept his gun on Lelouch.
Joseph did so whole the man made sure to keep his distance. When he reached the wall, the man pushed Lelouch towards Joseph.
Joseph looked him over to make sure he was alright.
"Sorry, little brother…" Joseph said shamefully.
Lelouch just looked at him sadly. The man looked at them evilly.
"I have to admit, I'm impressed that a Britannian student and a dirty bum such as yourselves were able to avoid us as long as you did. Unfortunately…"
He took his gun out, and aimed it at them. Joseph made sure to step in front of Lelouch.
"Your future stops here." The man squeezed the trigger.
Suddenly, the green-haired woman moved in front of them.
"He musn't die!"
Those were the girl's last words as she took a bullet in the head.
"You shot her!" Lelouch exclaimed.
Joseph made sure to catch her and set her down gently on the ground, he looked at the man in anger.
"You asshole!" Joseph exclaimed. The man just chuckled.
"Our orders were to bring her back alive if possible. Oh well, nothing can be done about it now. We'll simply tell our superiors that we found the terrorist's hideout and killed them all. However, the female was already tortured by the time we arrived. How does that sound to the two of you?" The man with a smirk.
…
Lelouch stared at the ground below his knees as he trembled with fear. His hand shaking right next to woman's hand.
"How can this be happening? First Suzaku's killed, then this girl. And very soon, me and my own brother as well, who I didn't even get the chance to properly reunite with. I didn't get a chance to do anything, it's all just gone in heartbeat! Nunnally!"
Suddenly, Lelouch felt a hand grab his wrist.
…
Joseph was not going to let it end like this. This woman, even though they just met, sacrificed her life for them, so they could live. He was not going to let her death be in vain, No Sir! He quickly looked around and noticed a hole in the ceiling.
"Bingo!" Joseph thought to himself excitedly.
As soon as the soldiers were prepared to fire, he would grab Lelouch, jump through the ceiling and make their escape. He just had to make sure he timed it right…
"Tell me something?"
Joseph peeked his head around and saw his brother begin to stand up with his hand covering his left eye, a serious expression plastered on his face.
"How should a Britannian who detests his own country live his life?" Lelouch asked the soldiers.
"Lelouch?" Joseph was confused by his brother's sudden change in demeanor again.
"What are you? Some kind of radical?" The man asked.
"What's wrong? Why not shoot? Your opponent is, as you put it, just a Britannian student and a dirty bum. Or have you finally realized? That the ones who should kill are the ones who are prepared to be killed." Lelouch exclaimed as he uncovered his eye and revealed it to be red and glowing.
"What on Earth through the planet Mars is that?!" Joseph asked himself as his eyes widen in shock.
"I, Lelouch vi Britannia command you, all of you…Die." Lelouch said with venom in his voice.
Joseph quickly turned to look back at soldiers, and surprisingly, the man started to chuckle in a deranged manner.
"Happily, your highness!" The man exclaimed as he and the soldiers pointed their guns at their own necks. The man shouted, "FIRE!", and they did just that. Everyone one of them now dead.
Joseph couldn't believe it. He's seen a lot of things in his lifetime, but nothing like this. He turned back around to look at Lelouch, who at first was shocked just like him. But then that expression turned into one of dark glee as a smile formed on his face.
"Well then…" Lelouch quietly said.
It was at that moment, one thought coursed through Joseph's head.
"Holy shit, is my little brother a superhero?"
To be continued…
And that ends chapter 2. First off, yes, I am aware Joseph was looking right at Lelouch when he gave the geass order for those men to "Die", this will be brought up in the next chapter. Second, the concept for this was basically, what would happen if there was a character like Luffy from One Piece or Goku from Dragon Ball Z (the abridged version) that existed in this world and how would he affect the characters around him? Chance the Gardener from the film, Being There, was also an inspiration. I know Code Geass is semi-based in reality (emphasis on "Semi") so I thought it would be interesting to create this extravagant, optimistic, high-energy, larger-than-life character and place him in the world that is Code Geass. Please let me know what you think and hope you stay tune for more.