Lelouch POV
He shouldn't have made a deal with the devil; it was foolish of him to think it wouldn't come with a cost. Obtaining the stage equipment apparently required the president to make several promises. He wasn't surprised to be helping the theater club members handle the equipment during rehearsals. However, he hadn't anticipated that the Nightmare would need maintenance, in exchange for which Milly had promised some family friends free manpower in the weekend, But he could accept it. What he couldn't understand was how he found himself playing rugby.
This is all Lelouch Lamperouge could think about as he was tackled.
Worst day of my life.
Kallen POV
Best day of my life, even if a day late. After humiliating the teacher, they had celebrated Naoto's birthday until late in the night. Ate Kento's cooking, drank sake, and had a delicious cake. It had been months since she had seen Ohgi; she missed the guy. Naomi was missed too, They were never really close, but she was the only Japanese woman she could consider a friend. In the morning she was the first to wake up, saw the clock, 11:47. It seems the weak Kallen Statfeld had health issues after yesterday's play. It would work as an excuse. She looked the house and was about to wake her brother to ask for help in cleaning this mess, but after all it was his party, and that would be her gift.
Rivalz POV
"RIVALZ, traitor, stop right there!"
He had to run. Not that his pursuer was fast, but he knew Lelouch; he always had tricks.
"GIVE ME THAT CAMERA RIGHT NOW!" Lelouch shouted with the little energy he had left.
"Sorry, buddy, orders from the prez." Rivalz said with a small smile. It was satisfying to beat Lelouch at something.
Rivalz entered Room 404, and... only Shirley and a couple of others were still there, getting ready to leave.
"WHERE'S MILLY!?" he asked in disbelief.
Shirley answered with a confused tone: "She told me you wrote to meet up in the club house."
Rivalz, in complete shock, replied: "WHAT!"
He turned to run, but Lelouch had already blocked the door, holding Rivalz's phone. He had lost, again.
Shirley POV
The girl was initially amused by the situation as they headed towards the exit. Rivalz clumsily trying to apologize while Lelouch was clearly determined not to let it slide. But when the argument ended, with a clearly indebted Rivalz, silence took over, and with it, the memory of Lelouch defending two ladies while everyone else stood still. It had been a week, but she couldn't get that scene out of her mind. Lelouch looking like a prince at that moment. "Is this what they call love?"
For a second, the idea of asking Lelouch out crossed her mind, but she was afraid. A moment of hesitation was enough to dispel her courage. The three continued walking until they reached the exit parting ways.
Lelouch POV
Lelouch really wanted to go home, greet Nunnally, and collapse into his bed to not get up for a long time. But he had a job to do. Normally, he would have asked for a ride from Rivalz, but this time, the situation was dangerous. Going into the ghettos was a gamble in itself, but the stakes were too high not to risk it. If everything went well, he wouldn't need to gamble for at least a month. His unlucky opponent was a high-ranking noble. Lelouch had managed to get a recording of one of his matches; he wasn't impressed. However, the man was good at keeping his identity secret. Lelouch didn't have that luxury. The best he could do was wear old common clothes to not be seen among the Elevens and play under a fake name. This didn't prevent the noble's bodyguards from beating him and leaving without paying from time to time. Lelouch wasn't new to this possibility, but for Nunnaly, he was willing to take the risk.
Kallen POV
Kallen had finished ordering the house, and after spending a few hours with her brother, she was getting ready to go home. Of course, the idea that she could make it 2 km without getting into trouble was not even considered by her brother, but it was okay. She didn't mind a bit of company on the way. Just before leaving the ghetto and entering the station, Kallen stopped abruptly and pushed her brother behind a wall with her hand.
"What is Lelouch doing here?" Kallen asked more to herself that too her brother.
"Your friend? isn't he Britannian?" Kallen simply nodded, watching the raven-haired boy enter an abandoned house, which both of them knew was abandoned. Kallen knew Lelouch spoke Japanese, and wanting to believe his story, it wouldn't be strange for him to still have contacts among the Japanese. However, it wasn't uncommon for the military to hire people like him to buy information on local resistances from ghetto citizens. Naoto had seen it happen, and Kallen had heard the stories. With a nod of understanding, the two decided to follow him. If the suspicion was true, Kallen might already be under observation as a potential traitor just for her knowledge of Japanese.
Lelouch POV
Entering the building, he headed to the third floor as instructed, entered the house, took a few steps, and in what had once been a kitchen, he found three masked men. Two were standing and visibly armed with a pistol, the third sitting, smiled before starting to speak. "Shall we begin?"
Naoto POV
Naoto was unsure of what to do; they had followed Lelouch, and now he found himself observing him through the remnants of a mirror. When he saw the men inside the room, he thought his worst fears were coming true. He had no idea if Lelouch had reason to suspect Kallen already, but even if not, if he really collaborating whit the army, Naoto would have to take precautions, cutting of all contact with the Kallen for her own good.
He expected to hear Lelouch report names or information to the men, but all they did was start playing chess in silence; a long game. After almost an hour, the game seemed to have reached its conclusion. Naoto was grateful; neither he nor his sister were the best examples of patience, but this time, they couldn't abstain. He couldn't see the chessboard, but it seemed to be the masked man who had lost, he gestured to the one on his right, who took out a suitcase hidden behind a piece of furniture in the room.
Lelouch opened it and said, "This is less than half of what was agreed."
The noble looked at him, remaining silent for several seconds. "I don't know what the intermediary told you; you should be grateful I'm giving you this much for a simple game of chess." The person on the right took a step forward, the one on the left put his hand on the gun. The situation was escalating; Naoto gave Kallen a slight push toward the door; she had to get out of here before they were noticed. Tense seconds passed in which no one moved, not even Kallen, to Naoto's great dismay.
Lelouch bowed and said apologetically, "I apologize for my lack of manners; my informant must have misled me." Fortunately, Lelouch wasn't an idiot. The tension in the room seemed to decrease.
"Very well, young man, you can go, but I advise you to be careful; many people aren't as willing to lose money as I am." Naoto came to a realization; all this for a bet. He could have figured it out earlier, but chess? Lelouch turned, heading towards the exit. They had to escape from there before being noticed; he took his sister by the arm, and they went up to the fourth floor, waiting for the building to be empty. What had once been a floor of a building now served as a roof. The rest of the building had collapsed; from there, he could see the subway entrance, the ghetto, and the Britannian city bathed in the orange light of the sunset.
"So, it seems like we're not risking anything." Naoto said breaking the silence.
Kallen stood next to Naoto, looking at the landscape. "Why would someone who can afford to go to Ashford come here and risk their life for a bet?"
It was a good question; he didn't have a real answer, but he knew Kallen, and he hoped she wasn't curious enough to investigate the matter. If they were discovered today, it could end badly, so he tried to give her a simple answer. "There can be many reasons, but probably the thrill of taking risks is what drives him to do it." Kallen didn't seem convinced as she watched Lelouch walk away and enter the subway. Naoto knew what she was thinking. "You intend to find out, don't you?"
Kallen looked at him with a serious expression. "He won't stop on his own; he'll end up getting killed. I won't allow it." Naoto was shocked; he had never seen Kallen speak with so much certainty. For a moment, he forgot about the Lelouch problem, and a conversation with Ohgi from many years ago came to mind. "NAOTO, DON'T BE AN IDIOT, YOU'RE THE SON OF A BRITANNIAN, you can live the life we had to give up." Naoto looked at the sky full of stars and replied, "Ohgi, you dreamed of teaching in an elementary school, you still do. Japan was a nation tied to the past and tradition; Britannia only thinks of the present, sooner or later, people will get tired of their rule and rebel, OHGI, I want a future; I'll free Japan and create a nation where people can chase their dreams." They were young, and they didn't know what they were doing. Some friends died, others ran away; the real world wasn't kind to them, but that didn't stop them from chasing such an unattainable dream. In this Kallen was similiar to him, he doubted that Kallen would give up the idea of risking her life to defend someone. His sister had always been eager to fight. She had always been like that towards the Japanese, evidently, this guy was someone worth protecting. Naoto admitted defeat to himself and said, "Okay, Kallen, but you'll follow my instructions, no unnecessary risks." The girl agreed.
Kallen POV
Kallen was genuinely worried that Lelouch might get himself killed. The guy was funny when he wants, potentially could become her first real friend at Ashford, but the question of why Lelouch was willing to risk so much for money was what intrigued her. In the little time they spent together, he has never demonstrated any interest in such things, surely he hate risk and he seemed pretty critical about how the nobility wasted their money and conducted their lives. He had no problem to say that to noble girl that he barely knew(not that Kallen disagrees), she don't see how why someone like him should do something like this, the situation doesn't make any sense.