After a 13 year hiatus…I have finally returned to rewrite this story. Anybody still here? Let me know what y'all think in the reviews 3 I just recently rewatched code geass and it still holds up, considering that when I watched it the first time I was…a child lol.
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The orange sun hung low on the horizon, embraced gently by a smog filled sky.
It hadn't rained in Tokyo in months. Residents struggled to rebuild the city wearing face masks, everybody scrabbling amidst rubble, dust, and pollution. Live knightmare parts and undetonated ammunition littered the streets. Although the Brittaninian empire had formally renounced its claim to Japan, the empire was still breathing its last breath in different corners of the city. Yes they were free of their colonizers, but the Japanese still needed to work. For most, not much had changed in the months after the handover. The Brittanians owned the major industries in Japan, but now the Japanese could wave a Japan National ID when scanning into work rather than a Brittanian work permit. People whispered their complaints about the UNF to themselves. Despite the grand plans and announcements from the UFN, civilians still had to queue for hours to purchase basic necessities like rice and oil. After the theater of war, after being called from all sides to enlist, support, and pledge, civilians found themselves alone again in their unscripted, ordinary lives.
And of course, there was the hole that Nina Einstein's FLEIJA nuclear bomb had left in the middle of what once had been the beating heart of the city. Flower vendors set up permanent stations on the perimeter of the blast so residents could come to pay respect to the dead after purchasing their daily allotment of rations. The bomb alone had claimed nearly 3 million lives. Every family had lost at least one person. Some people joked that it was a relief that the bomb wiped everything away so neatly. In the aftermath of the wars, there was no way anybody could afford that many funerals. Besides, there were very few cemeteries left in the greater Tokyo Metropolitan area.
That day, Kallen Kozuki stood in one of the remaining cemeteries, nearly seventy five miles from the city center. Her hair was slicked under a baseball cap and her eyes hidden behind sunglasses to avoid being recognized by the growing crowd. Like the others, she had come today after hearing the rumors circulating online. Emperor Lelouch, the despised last emperor of the Britannian Empire, was to be buried here under an unmarked grave as if he was a commoner. The Ashford Family had donated a small amount for the burial and it was meant to be a private affair. Instead groups with various political affiliations had gathered. Some were right wing supporters of the dead Emperor's reign, some were anti-imperialists, but most were angry civilians who simply saw Lelouch as a symbol of the empire that still somehow held a sway over their lives. They hated him. It was easier to hate one man than to hate the entire system. Kallen agreed. Lelouch was a fool. Yet, when she spotted the black hearse in the distance, it felt as if ice water was pouring over her entire body.
The atmosphere in the crowd grew tense as the hearse approached.
"They don't realize," someone next to Kallen said quietly. "Who they're really fighting. It's much bigger than this, you know." Surprised, Kallen looked to see who had spoken but they had disappeared–– maybe it had been her own heart.
An intercommed voice suddenly cut through the smoggy air. "Clear the path for the vehicle. We repeat: clear the path."
A handful of people had blocked the path to the grave. A woman in the front of the group calmly spoke back.
"No," the woman said simply. The woman had light lilac eyes and black-brown hair. A half-blood? Kallen tried to get a better look.
Again, the intercom. "This is an UNF official envoy. Clear the path immediately."
This time, she picked up a rock and threw it at the hearse and the UNF officers. "I said no! Fuck off!" Following her example, others in the crowd began to pick up and throw rocks at the officers.
The UNF officers, armed with non-lethal guns, began to come out of the hearse.
"Stand down!" shouted the officers. But the crowd had overpowered them. The words "No!" began to resound disparately around the crowd, until it picked up momentum. No! Said everybody. No! Kallen was nearly pushed over by the crowd. She heard the crack of glass shattering and the pop of gunfire in the air.
"Colonizers don't deserve a peaceful burial," somebody said.
Ahead of her, Kallen saw a group of civilians and a flash of the white veneer of a coffin. Suddenly the world was in slow motion. The coffin slid open and Kallen glimpsed––that face––those dark lashes, elegant hands clasped at the chest, that mouth she loved which was now so deathly still––. Without thinking, she leapt towards him, towards Lelouch.
She remembered reaching her arms across the coffin. The looks of betrayal in the eyes of her countrymen. She remembered turning to face Lelouch in the coffin, to confirm that he was really dead. She remembered reaching for him. And the last thing, she remembers hearing Suzaku's voice. In the calm voice in which he had addressed her at their last battle, he said: "I can't let you, Kallen."