Conspicuous Gallantry

By Lord Raa


Disclaim-me-do: Bolted on like a pornstar's tits.


Chapter 1


Sayoko Shinozaki was enjoying a brief respite from her duties in a local café. She was drinking a cup of tea with three of her fellow maids that were also in the employ of local Britannians.

Hiromi Kagawa had noticed that Sayoko had a distant, dreamy look on her face. Given that Sayoko was professional and devoted to the family she was employed by, it was clearly evidence that she'd found someone.

"So, Sayoko-chan, have you met someone special? Is it a man?"

"I… Well, I mean," Sayoko blushed as she fumbled for words.

"You have, haven't you," Hiromi smirked. "So, give us the juicy details, Sayoko-chan!"

Shinobu Aoyama placed her teacup on the table and leaned forward. "Yes, we need to know more about the man who's swept you off your feet."

"I… Well, he hasn't swept me off my feet," Sayoko replied. Though she wouldn't object to the young man she was thinking about gathering her up in his strong arms and carrying her off to a secluded place for many, many lewd things. "Mainly because he doesn't know I like him."

"You should tell him," Hiromi said.

"Yeah!" Shinobu agreed. "Life's too short to not tell someone you like them."

Sayoko was reluctant to explain why when her older friend, Haruka Kozuki asked the right question. "Are you in love with a Britannian?"

"Yes…" Sayoko answered, looking away as she felt a little ashamed about that admission.

"Are you sure about this, Sayoko-chan?" Haruka asked, concern for her friend evident on her face. "This is the kind of thing that can lead to heartbreak."

The others realised that Haruka was speaking from bitter experience.

"I know… I shouldn't feel this way about him, but he's… Well, here," Sayoko pulled out a photo of the two Lamperouge siblings.

The other maids leaned in to get a better look at the man who'd attracted Sayoko Shinozaki's attention. In the photo, Nunnally Lamperouge was riding on the shoulder of a tall, handsome Britannian man.

"He looks good for someone in his mid thirties," Hiromi said, understanding why Sayoko would be interested in such a man.

"He's got a daughter? That complicates things," Shinobu opined. "Even if his daughter accepted you, if he's of high standing, you might not ever be seen as anything other than a mistress."

"That's not his daughter. It's his sister. He's a bit younger than I am," Sayoko admitted. This time her blush was embarrassment rather than just her thinking about the things the strong man she'd been fantasising about might do to her.

"How much?"

"Well, he's… He's…" Sayoko looked around nervously. "He's seventeen."

"Seventeen?!" Shinobu hissed. She picked up the photo and examined it closely. "I… How can he be seventeen? He's in his twenties if he's a day!"

"Did you take this photo, Sayoko-chan?" Hiromi asked. "How did you meet him?"

"I… I work for the family."

"This is a bad idea, Sayoko-chan!" Haruka warned, thought it was a little more forceful than she had wanted.

"You can't blame her for thinking about a handsome man like this, Haruka," Hiromi defended her friend. "You know you can't help who you fall in love with."

"But a seventeen year old Britannian?"

"He must be two metres tall!" Shinobu commented. "Is his…"

Sayoko's face turned crimson as she thought back to the times she'd caught a glimpse of Lelouch's manhood. She nodded as she held her hands a fair distance apart.

Silence descended on the table as the maids processed the implication. Two of the maids were more than a little jealous of Sayoko and the beefcake she looked after as their employers were either boring old couples or dirty old men. To have someone like this… Well, if he got a little lonely, then they would certainly help make his loneliness a little more bearable. Haruka, however, was thinking that this fine young man might be a suitable choice for her own daughter.

"A young man like that should be with a girl his own age. It wouldn't do to give him some kind of complex," the motherly maid said in her best wise tone. However, her thoughts were filled with an alternative scenario. 'And if Kallen doesn't like him, well, I suppose I could help make him comfortable…'

Sayoko was in partial agreement with Haruka that it would probably be for the best that Lelouch was with someone his own age in the long term. But Lelouch was a healthy young man with hormones coursing through his veins, and the girls his own age were somewhat frail in comparison. Could Mistress Milly, as energetic and enthusiastic as she was, really take Master Lelouch's hard, throbbing manhood without hurting herself?

Lelouch, despite his hulking appearance, was no brute. He was so considerate that he would always hate himself after he accidentally hurt someone. If he knew he had caused a woman pain during an intimate moment, even if it was only for a moment, he would swear off such things until he felt he could control himself.

'And that would be a shame,' Sayoko told herself. Would it be so wrong to be his lover? She knew that it wasn't possible for her to be seen walking down the street holding his hand, but behind closed doors? It would be a little bit like Haruka and the father of her daughter, Kallen, but surely any woman that was in a relationship with Lelouch would have to understand that a man like him would need many lovers?

"You know," Hiromi said, having spent a lot of time studying the photo of the Lamperouge siblings. "He kind of reminds me of someone."

"Yeah, I see it, too," Shinobu nodded. "I can't quite place it, though."

"I guess he's just got one of those faces," Sayoko shrugged before taking back the photo.


Lelouch Lamperouge was cycling through the late afternoon traffic as part of a two-fer in today's training, giving him a workout for both his heart and his legs. As he weaved between the semi-stationary cars, a small truck sped down an off-ramp, hitting and running along the barriers.

Lelouch recoiled at the horrendous metallic screeching noise the impact created. He opened his eyes and saw that the truck had come to a stop. This wasn't an area that someone of his standing should be in, but he knew that he had to help the driver of this truck, regardless of the location of the accident or of their nationality.

Peddling his bike towards the scene of the accident, the young Britannian wondered how badly hurt the driver might be. He be able to carry an injured man from the wreckage with no problems, but if the driver had a spinal injury, there wasn't much Lelouch would be able to do.

Reaching the truck, Lelouch noticed that there was a ladder on the outside. He climbed up it, and opened the hatch. "Is there anyone in there?"

There was a reply. Or at least, Lelouch thought there was. It sounded in his head, but not his ears. He looked inside the back of the truck, but saw no-one. The truck's engine started up again and it pulled away, the motion causing the uneasily positioned young man to lose his balance and fall inside the trailer.


Inside the cab of the truck, a young woman turned to the driver of the truck.

"Did you hear that?" the red-haired woman asked. "Sounded like a bear fell on the truck."

"Doesn't matter, we need to get out of here!" the man replied, putting his foot down.


In the back of the truck, Lelouch was confused by what he was seeing. A large metallic sphere occupied most of the space, but there wasn't any writing to indicate what it was.

This suggested it was a weapon, but what kind of weapon was spherical? Bombs generally weren't spherical, they tended to be cylindrical or have a specific shape to improve their efficiency when penetrating targets.

Lelouch froze as the idea that this was a prototype "special weapon" crossed his mind.

"Fuck…" he whispered. His eyes darted around the inside of the truck's cargo compartment, but saw no signs warning of radiation or chemical or biological contamination, giving him a small measure of relief.

"Not a chemical bio-weapon. But what is it?" he ask as he ran his hands over the metal surface.

"I can help you," a soft, feminine voice sounded inside Lelouch's head.

"Who said that?" the Britannian man demanded.

"I'm trapped inside," the voice communicated to Lelouch. "I can help you with your goals."

"Trapped?" Lelouch repeated, concern written all over his face. He looked for some controls or other way to get inside this spherical prison.

There were no obvious controls, but there was something that he could use as a pry-bar. Jamming the metal tool between two seams, Lelouch put all his strength into the move and bent the metalwork.

A green vapour escaped from the sphere, making the young man wonder if he'd been tricked. He coughed, but that was more of a reflex action than a genuine adverse reaction. The vapour cleared slightly and Lelouch could see that there was something inside. He prised the metal work open some more as best he could as he bounced around the inside of the truck.

Eventually, there was a big enough gap that Lelouch could see that there was a restrained figure inside the sphere. Before he could say anything, the truck overturned.


The two Japanese freedom fighters groaned as they blinked their world into focus. Neither of them was entirely sure what had happened to cause their latest accident, but it didn't matter; if they didn't get out of there now, they'd be killed by the Britannian soldiers who'd been chasing them.

"Kallen…" the driver wheezed. "You… You should go."

"But you're…" the young woman tried to protest.

"You can live to fight another day. I'm… I'm done for."

Kallen, a young, mixed-race woman with red hair, wanted to fight to her last breath. She wanted to sacrifice her life for the dream of a free Japan, just like her brother had that very day.

"Go," the driver said, reaching over and unbuckling Kallen's seatbelt. "I can't get out of here and if you try, you'll be killed or captured."

"But…"

"Live. Avenge Naoto. Free Japan."

Kallen nodded and climbed free from the wreckage. She could still do some damage to the Britannian army if she regrouped with the rest of her resistance cell. They had Knightmare Frames in the area and she was half-decent pilot.

"I'll remember you, Nagata."

"We'll meet again in the next world, Kallen," Nagata smiled. He coughed violently and when his eyes regained their focus, he saw the blood he'd brought up. "I don't have much longer, Kallen. Go now."

Kallen finally turned and ran.

Thirty seconds later, a detachment of Britannian soldiers arrived on the scene.

"Come out of there with your hands up!" the man in charge demanded.

"Fuck you, Britannian swine…" Nagata spat out with as much force as he could muster. "For Japan!"

The dying man hit the controls on the weapon he'd stolen, hoping that whatever it was would take out some of the brutal oppressors that had pillaged his country.


In the back of the truck, Lelouch looked at the opening metal sphere. It was strangely beautiful, like an exotic flower coming into bloom. Now, the muscular young man could get a good look at the restrained figure.

It was a young woman with green hair. Her mouth was covered, but Lelouch could tell that she was beautiful. Her arms were tied around her waist in a straightjacket, making the Britannian wonder just how dangerous she was.

Hesitantly, Lelouch reached out and pulled down the gag.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

"I'm… I'm OK," the green-haired woman smiled.

"I'm Lelouch, I'm going to get you out of here."

The restrained figure nodded. 'Oh my, he's grown up a lot since I last saw him…'

"You there, in the truck! Come out with your hands up!" a soldier demanded from the outside of the truck.

"How are we going to get out of this?" Lelouch wondered. He could probably talk his way out of this if there were one or two, but it sounded like there were more. A lot more.

"I can help you," the woman told him. "You have to live."

"I intend to live for a very long time," the Britannian said. "Who else can I trust to protect my sister?"

Lelouch started to climb out of the truck, his bulk barely fitting through the opening.

"Where are you going?"

"They'll throw a few grenades in here if we don't get out," Lelouch answered, not looking back.

As the young man emerged from the overturned truck, a soldier let out an exclamation of surprise.

"Holy shit, he's huge!"

"Who are you?" the lead soldier asked, his earlier bravado fading slightly. He'd expected an Eleven or two, not a hulking great brute who looked like he could take on a low-level Knightmare Frame on his own!

"I'm Lelouch."

"Lelouch who?" the soldier in charge asked. "Show me some ID!"

As Lelouch handed over his student ID, the woman he'd freed slipped off the truck and landed awkwardly. With a speed that seemed impossible for someone of his build, he rushed to her side and lifted her up in his arms, holding her close to his chest.

The green-haired woman let out a whimper. She had missed being treated with such tenderness, and quite frankly, she could get used to being held closely by Lelouch.

"Put her down, Mr. Lelouch Lamperouge," the squad leader instructed. "If that is indeed your name. I don't believe for a moment that you're only 17."

"I am, though," Lelouch insisted. "I'm just big for my age."

"Put her down before I put you down." The squad leader pointed his weapon at Lelouch; a second later, the rest of his men followed suit.

"…"

"I see you think we're joking."

A single shot rang out, hitting the green-haired woman in the head.

Lelouch's eyes widened. He knew about the brutality of the Britannian soldiers, having researched famous commanders of the Britannian army like Princess Cornelia li Britannia, but he wasn't prepared for an NCO to execute someone.

"Well, with one dead, there's no point in leaving any witnesses."

Lelouch swallowed. So this was how he was going to die, killed in a foreign land by his own country's troops for witnessing a cold-blooded murder. It was a reminder of why he hated Britannia so much.

Before his mind could relive past personal injustices, a voice interrupted him. The same voice of this green-haired woman who lay with a bullet hole in her skull.

'You need to live, Lelouch. I know who you are. If you want to protect Nunnally, you have to accept my contract!'

Lelouch blinked. How could he be hearing the voice of the dead woman in his arms? As the rest of the squad of Britannian troops aimed their weapons at him, he realised that he had nothing to lose by agreeing to this strange request.

"I accept."

The NCO blinked. This Britannian seemed rather more stoic in the face of his untimely demise than many of his generation.

Lelouch's vision filled with brightly coloured lights that remained even as he blinked repeatedly. After a moment, he could see clearly and took a deep breath.

"Now listen here," he said. To his surprise, the soldiers all lowered their weapons.

"I'm walking out of here."

"But…" the NCO started to protest.

"But nothing. I'm walking out of here, if any of you try to stop me, I'm going to kill you. You might get me, but not before I get at least one of you. Do you want to risk your life?"

The soldiers swallowed nervously in unison. They could believe that this young man who resembled a wall of muscle could easily kill them with his bare hands.

In his arms, the body stirred, causing Lelouch to turn his attention towards it. "How…?"

Putting the idea that this woman was somehow still alive out of his head, he looked back at the NCO. "You murdered her."

"I… I had authority to run the mission however I saw fit."

"I don't care," Lelouch growled, causing one of the weaker soldiers to empty his bladder. "It's that kind of thing that I will stop when I take to the Britannian throne!"

The soldiers were starting to believe that this man could indeed take the throne from the Emperor Charles zi Britannia.

"W-wait…" one the soldiers stammered. He got a good look at the face of the imposing youth before him. "A-are you the Emperor's son?"

Lelouch growled angrily and the Britannian troops took that as their cue to flee for their lives. As the soldiers departed, the figure in his arms stirred again.

"Lelouch?"

"H-how are you still alive?"

"It… It's a curse I have…"

"Curse? You're cursed with immortality?" Lelouch asked, setting down the reanimated woman.

"Yes… It's a long story," the green-haired woman said, looking away in a mix of shame and embarrassment. Though, she wasn't entirely sure what was the bigger source of shame: the reason for her immortality or the way she was feeling about the young man she'd been keeping an eye on for years.

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. May I ask your name?"

"You can call me C.C."

"C.C.? That's an unusual name," Lelouch commented. He gave her a smile. "I like it."

"So, what are you going to do, Lelouch vi Britannia?"

The smile fell from the muscular Britannian's face. "I'm Lelouch Lamperouge."

"No, you're not. You're the son of Charles zi Britannia and Marianne vi Britannia. Your younger sister is called Nunnally and I know that you lived with the family of the last Prime Minister of Japan, Genbu Kururugi," C.C. said casually, like she was reading the TV schedule.

The expression on Lelouch's face changed from relatively neutral to panic as he processed what he'd heard. How could this woman know so much about him? It had to be a bluff.

"I'm not the Emperor's son."

"If you say so," C.C. shrugged. She looked over her shoulder as she started to walk away. "We'll meet again, Lelouch."


On the other side of the globe, the Emperor of Britannia looked up from what he was doing with a curious look on his face. He felt something that he hadn't felt for a long time.

"The Ragnarök connection? Could that mean that…"

The old man smiled. Things were about to get really interesting.


Lelouch had made his way out to the streets of Shinjuku just in time to see two Knightmare Frames exchanging fire. He ducked down behind some rubble, barely covered by the old concrete. He glanced down and frowned.

'My uniform's filthy…'

It was a strange thought to have given that he was in the middle of a war zone and further irrelevances like the state of his clothing were banished from his mind by the sounds of cannon fire.

The Knightmares exchanged more fire, this time the Britannian Frame suffered a direct hit and slumped to the ground, vital fluids leaking from various hydraulic systems. There was a hole in the cockpit and the lack of movement in this Knightmare Frame suggested that the pilot had been hit and killed. Another Britannian Knightmare arrived, this one was a different model and the rebel Frame fled the scene.

Lelouch knew that he shouldn't be surprised by the fact that he'd been spotted, but the voice from this newly arrived Frame startled him slightly.

"¬You there! Stand up and identify yourself!¬"

'Crap…'


To be continued…