August 28th, 2018. Over the Pacific Ocean, afternoon.

"You know something, Suzaku?" Cecile asked. "I don't think I've ever seen anyone go from calm and collected to pale as a sheet so quickly as you did when the Grandberry rose from the sea and took to the air. Are you afraid of flying?"

The way that Suzaku's hurried denial rang out from the bathroom only to be summarily cut off by another round of sickness seemed so straight out of a movie that Sokkia couldn't help but snicker, even as she noted how the older woman gave her a reproachful side-eye.

I didn't plan on messing with mama bear anyway, but I'll take the warning.

Tink, the giant cyborg of a young man next to her, offered an audible smile through the door. "I understand some people get anxious about trying new things, and everybody has their first time flying at some point, but the Grandberry is a product of the finest engineering in the world. The only way you could be in any safer hands is if we were flying on the Prime Minister's own Avalon."

The much shorter Leon Steiner was a little less sympathetic, and much more exasperated. "Seriously! When we looked into your combat data from Shinjuku, you were pulling off moves with your harkens that practically bordered on flying anyway! We certainly aren't going to the capital with the kinds of reckless maneuvers you pulled back then, so what's the problem?"

"It's – urk! – n-not about the flying," Suzaku snapped between waves of intense nausea. "It's about being a passenger instead of a pilot! It's about the fact that I can theoretically bail out of a car accident or escape a shipwreck on a raft, but there's not shit I can do 30,000 meters in the air to give myself better odds and I'm stuck at the complete mercy of someone I don't even know!"

While the assembled trio of Glinda Knights all shared a look at the confession, Cecile took a step back… with an exhausted smile. Knowing the kind of mentality he's been grappling with, I think it's very positive to see something that makes him worry about his own life and show an interest in protecting it.

"I can understand on some level your concern with being a passenger, Suzaku, but we do have parachutes and a deployable safety raft just for those kinds of emergencies. If we show you where they are, will that calm you down?"

It was another several seconds before the bathroom door opened, from which a cleaned-up Suzaku emerged looking still a bit green – but no longer like death warmed over. With a pitiful and exhausted childlike drawl, he lurched into the hallway towards Cecile. "I, I guess..."

"Just take it easy now… I've got you, okay?"

Leon groaned into his palm. "Oh come on, this is the same guy who manhandled the Witch of Britannia with one hand tied behind his back? Who took down the Knight of Ten?!"

Sokkia nodded. "It's kind of cute that someone who's otherwise so capable has this sort of totally helpless side to them, right? I remember hearing somewhere that the Elevens even had a term for it! Ohhh… gap moe, wasn't it?"

Leon just stared at his peppy verdant-haired squadmate. "Sokkia, that's insane."

"No, no, it makes a kind of sense," Tink insisted. "Don't you remember those propaganda comics they made about us? Like the romancey ones for girls, where the Oz we know as a stone-cold fighter is written like an adorable student flailing around trying to get her crush to notice her!"

"Setting aside that those comics were and remain garbage," a voice hissed from behind him, "I know there's no implication in this discussion that I'm not also normally as equally adorable as I am competent. Right?"

While Sokkia, Leon, and Tink got a hard reminder on the perils of gossiping about their squad leader, Cecile had taken Suzaku arm in arm and was showing him around the Grandberry. "You see, unlike most conventional propeller or jet-based aircraft where horizontal speed and momentum are required to maintain altitude, the Avalon and Grandberry use prototype FLOAT systems."

The beautiful bluenette then began to explain FLOAT technology for several seconds, only to sheepishly realize after a moment how cross-eyed Suzaku had gotten in his attempts to follow along. "I'm sorry about that," she said with a cough into a fist. "It's a rare enough occasion that I can talk about this kind of thing with someone other than Lloyd or Mariel that I let myself become overexcited and forget you're..."

Suzaku chuckled, sparing Cecile the sheepish search for a polite way to end her sentence. "Not remotely educated enough with regard this specific field of highly-advanced physics, clearly. There are… some disciplines where I might have picked up enough of a layman's grasp from osmosis or independent idle curiosity to do more than sit around looking awkward, but I'm fine to admit that most of those don't really involve the kind of engineering you specialize in."

Noting that Suzaku had let go of her arm to scratch at his head, Cecile elected to give him a little space and advance a few further steps ahead before turning to face him, arms behind her back. "If you were interested, Suzaku, I wouldn't object to tutoring you in the subject now and then. Even if you're not meant to be a pioneer in the field, you might be surprised at how often a layman's simple question can help reset a stuck thought process."

Surprised by the offer, Suzaku tapped his chin. "Well if I'm honest, another set of excuses to keep talking with you is pretty tempting… alright," he faux-complained with a shrug, "you've twisted my arm enough; I'm in."

Cecile just smiled at how easily the pilot had 'folded' despite trying to act tough, only to blink when she noticed he'd begun to scowl. "Is something wrong, Suzaku?"

"…you were pretty much the first one to be there for me in my current life," Suzaku admitted. "But I just realized we've spent so little time together that I feel like I barely know you. Some of that probably isn't necessarily anyone's fault in particular, but some of it definitely had to have been within my power to affect. But it took me so long to notice that it's pissing me off."

The bluenette's answer was quick and easy. "You've had a lot of unexpected responsibilities put upon you since we met; with circumstances having drawn you into dealings with both the royal family and the Knights of the Round, it's only natural that your priorities would have to skew in their direction."

Quick and easy enough that Suzaku momentarily wondered if it might have even been rehearsed. "But I've still been able to go on dates with Elle and spend time with Euphemia, even if she and I probably spend more time flirting on the clock than is appropriate. With the fact I've done that much, I don't want to consider it fair or acceptable that you got lost in the shuffle – understandable circumstances be damned."

Hands up, Cecile tried to wave away the oncoming storm in her partner's eyes… "Really, Suzaku, I understand! There's no reason you should be upset on my account–"

"Why shouldn't it concern me that you seem hellbound on not showing any frustration about the fact I've been neglecting you?! It's fucked up!"

"You haven't been neglecting me," Cecile insisted. "I've been respecting that you need space and time with the people who are best for you."

Suzaku's eyes flew wide with indignation. "The people who are best for me?! What stupid idiot thinks you're not included among them?!"

The woman stiffened and turned away at that remark. "That's enough, Suzaku. You don't know what you're talking about."

She took a step to leave, only to be stopped short by a tugging on her uniform sleeve. "No shit I don't, and your failure to communicate enough to help me change that isn't grounds for me to let you walk away!"

"It's too cruel of me to burden you with my problems when you already have so many!"

A crack.

The scientist tried to pull away when she heard Suzaku gasp behind her, only to yelp when she instead felt herself yanked back into a hug.

"Too cruel…? Cecile, you're the one who taught me that strength comes from asking for help. That our struggles are easier to deal with when we share them. After you've helped do so much for me, it's bullshit for you to try and push me away now that I can see you need help too. Am I so defective that I'm not even allowed to try?"

Rather than relax into the affectionate arms around her waist, Cecile clenched her fists. "I don't appreciate that blatant attempt to guilt me into complying with you, either."

"I can accept a scolding for that, but I only did it because you're being so stubborn."

"We're on a top secret military ship several kilometers over the sea, en route to deal with a political conspiracy that may involve you fighting for your life again, and you're approaching me now?!"

"The fact my time could be limited only makes it even more important that I try and spend more of it with you while I have the chance. Besides," Suzaku added in a softer voice, "I can't be here for you without getting closer."

Cecile Croomy warred with herself for several seconds, before finally slumping with a sigh against the younger man behind her. "If I were really that stubborn, it wouldn't be so easy for me to let you have your way…"

With a weary smile, she placed an arm over Suzaku's. "So be it, then. Come as close as you like."

"Please, just – tell me what's bothering you. Even if I don't have the answers to make a difference, maybe I can ask the right kind of stupid question that could… reset a stuck thought pattern?"

"Hah! My my, what a quick study… unfortunately," Cecile explained as she turned in Suzaku's grip to return his embrace, "it's not something anyone can do anything about. Anymore than it's just one specific thing. For instance… do you know what hypogeusia is?"

"Hypo… some kind of disorder that involves something being abnormally low?"

"Good guess. In this case, it refers to taste sensitivity, ever since I was born. For example, even though I love cooking as a hobby, I can't taste anything I make without using extreme spices and flavors, to the point that most people find what I make inedible…"

Starting to shake, she admitted, "Even though I was happy that you went to the effort of making us breakfast in bed that morning, the faulty wiring in my nervous system… my natural defect wouldn't let me properly enjoy it as much as I wanted to. I couldn't taste your food…"

With a gentle finger tipping Suzaku's chin up, she took advantage of his moment of surprise and leaned down to claim his lips, only to break away a few seconds later as tears started streaming down her face. "I can't even taste your kiss."

Suzaku opened his mouth to answer, only for Cecile to practically fall upon him in a crushing, quiet sob. "Even though I love cooking, I can't make anything delicious for the people close to me…! I can't even trust that I'd ever be able to feed my own children anything they could eat! What does that make me, if not damaged goods?!"

Having completely lost her strength and composure, the weeping scientist clung to Suzaku with everything she had as ugly streams of tears rained down on him.

For several seconds that stretched into painful minutes, the pair were helpless but to hug each other in the hallway, eventually leaning against a bulkhead… and completely oblivious to the multiple other ship personnel who periodically started to walk in on them only to immediately turn around and awkwardly look for a different route.

Eventually, however, the storm of emotion began to calm down a bit. "…can I say something, Cecile?"

Not trusting herself yet to speak, she nodded into his shoulder.

Unsatisfied with that, Suzaku gently pushed her just enough away to make eye contact. "I… won't try to patronize you by saying I can understand what it's like to have your disorder, or how it affects you. But I do understand what it's like to feel broken and no-good. And I at least want to say that whatever damage you think you have, you're still beautiful to me. Your soothing voice… your eyes so icy they can look gray or even silver in different lighting… it's a disgrace that I haven't sufficiently acted like it, but I do want to stay in your life and to keep you in mine. I want to be the one who's good enough to make you as happy as you deserve to be."

"Suzaku, I–"

"Hold on, I'm not done yet. I said you're important to me, and that means you deserve more than just platitudes. Now, it's true that I can't do anything to fix your condition. I'm not some nerve surgeon or nanomachine engineer. But if you're that determined to cook for other people besides yourself, I don't see why you can't find someone to teach you. I mean, culinary science is a science just like any other, right? With a patient teacher to help you learn the rules, and a little honest help from your friends to taste-test for you, then what's holding you back?"

It seemed so much like a stupid question… but having it asked of her in that moment, Cecile couldn't think of an answer.

"I know that separate cooking processes for yourself and for others is a lot of extra work, and I know it's not ideal, but… is it really so much worse than letting your situation go on as it is?"

"I don't… know," she admitted. "You may be right. At the very least, it's something I can think about…"

"Besides that, I'm sorry I called you a stupid idiot earlier. I lost my temper at seeing you so down on yourself, even if I didn't have the context yet to understand that's what was happening."

Cecile blinked, before tapping Suzaku in the nose with a smile. "Then perhaps you can understand how frustrating it gets to see you doing the same thing. All the same, I forgive you… and I'm sorry for being a hypocrite that couldn't even follow my own advice."

A half-second after Cecile's agreement, Suzaku snapped his fingers. "Oh, right! There's one other thing I want to say while the subject's on my mind."

"And what's tha—mph?!"

Suzaku wasn't Cecile's first attempt at a relationship, even if it had been long enough that she considered herself almost embarrassingly out of practice.

And it certainly wasn't her first kiss. Not even the first in ten minutes.

"Mmmnnn…"

But as Suzaku finally broke away, the bluenette had to admit to herself that it was the first kiss in a long time to have left her so breathless.

"I'm sorry that you can't taste me, Cecile. But if it's of any help to you, right here, right now… you're just short of intoxicating to me."

"Su… Suzaku," the scientist whimpered, "that's not fair! Don't you understand that you're not supposed to make a woman seven years older than you feel like this…?"

"Is that something else that's been bothering you? The age gap? I can't deny that it seems like a lot some times, but I don't let it bother me –"

"And neither do I," a bemused voice rang out. "What does bother me is the idea of my guests misbehaving in a public corridor when they're supposed to be on the clock."

Suzaku looked at Cecile, and Cecile looked at Suzaku. Together, they looked to the left and saw a flowing pink skirt in front of them… attached to which was a beaming Princess Merrybell mel Britannia. "I had gotten reports that there may have been some kind of incident, and came down here to resolve the matter if needed. And yet on arrival, I instead find the two of you getting indecent."

The pair separated like a rocket, Suzaku quickly helping Cecile to her feet while she briskly smoothed out her uniform to regain the proper appearance of decorum. "It's nothing so serious as that, Your Highness! We just… got a little excited, and–"

"And you seem to have calmed down now," Merrybell replied as she noted the signs that Cecile had been having quite a cry just recently. "So as long as you two have learned your lesson and will keep such private moments where they belong, I don't see a reason why we can't just drop the matter and move on."

On seeing the pair answer with a proper salute, the princess primly nodded. "Excellent. You can take a few minutes to get yourselves cleaned up, and then I expect Sir Kururugi to match blades with me in the training room."

Suzaku, remembering the night before, expected this.

"Understood, Your Highness."

Cecile, having no such prior awareness, most certainly did not.

"Ah? Wait, begging your pardon, Your Highness, but – you are aware that Suzaku flattened a multistory building with his bare hands while fighting Zero, yes? Are you certain that you know what you're asking for?"

"Oh, it's nothing to do with a test of power," Merry explained, staring into Suzaku's eyes with a focused gaze like a hawk. "I merely want to see for myself what my sister's favorite is made of."

Area Eleven, Viceroy's Palace.

"Tell me this is some kind of sick joke," Cornelia demanded. "Right now, Viceroy!"

Viletta Nu wasn't so bold as to slam the table in outrage like her social superior, but found herself no less aggrieved. "Your Highness, I must second the General's protest! Putting an unvetted and unapologetic terrorist on security oversight is entirely too reckless!"

Seated at her desk, Euphemia unflinchingly gazed back at the two older women. "No, I'm quite serious. The two of you will accept Lt. Chiba here as a consultant, and take her suggestions in good faith. If the two of you are unable to meet my expectations, then tell me right now and I'll find someone else who can."

Raising a hand to forestall the next outburst, she continued, "General li Britannia. You will retain general oversight and operational command of security; with this position, you and your staff should certainly be able to patch up any unsecured holes or weaknesses that our collaborator could attempt to leave if so inclined."

Cornelia grit her teeth, but begrudgingly nodded. Outrageous as the situation was, the bare minimum she had to do was make sure Euphie wasn't hurt or captured – even if the attempt at a trap were to blow up in their faces, she could leverage it into a power grab to better protect her sister from engaging in this kind of nonsense again later.

Not that the Witch of Britannia's pride would ever allow her to accept a bare minimum success. "…very well, Viceroy. Have it your way."

"Agent Nu," Euphemia commanded, making the brown woman stand at attention. "In Sir Kururugi's absence, you will remain the acting head of Celestial Being's emergency response strike force. In the event that this should backfire, your role will be to deal with the liability and then retake control of the situation."

Viletta would certainly have preferred a more proactive posting than such a reactive one… but the fact that the Viceroy was willing to entrust her with the last line of security – and that she was probably going to personally ventilate the ex-JLF ace's skull if an opportunity arose – were enough to mollify her. "Understood, Your Highness. On my oath as a Britannian Knight, I will not fail in this duty."

Sufficiently satisfied with their compliance, Euphemia turned to the fourth woman in the room. "And you, Miss Chiba. I trust that you understand what consequences will be compelled for failing the trust I've elected to put in you?"

Chiba resolutely answered not with the Britannian salute of her new colleagues, but with a Japanese one. "Everything I've ever cared about is already destroyed, and my only chance to make a better future is by working with you and making sure the operation succeeds. I've already earned far worse than you could possibly punish me with for failure."

"Don't tempt me with a challenge," Cornelia muttered, but all present could hear some begrudging acknowledgment in the remark.

With an air of agreement, however tense, the assembled women got to work on dealing their current status quo a knockout blow.

Back on the Grandberry…

If you're not going to treat our talk with Cecile just now as a serious wake-up call, I don't know what else will do it. But one way or another, you need to stop letting other pretty women distract you from the people we care most about.

At least you finally admit they're all distractingly pretty… but you're right. It's time I quit fucking around quite so much and start acting our age.

You'd better, partner…

Merrybell, standing across the cleared training room floor with her sword drawn, tosses an arming sword in our direction. "Is that a private conversation going on in there, or may I cut in?"

Suzaku catches it easily by the scabbard, briefly taking note of the two-and-a-half foot blade as he draws it. "Am I really that much easier to read, Your Highness? Now that you know?"

I was worried for a half-second from its weight that it could be a live weapon, but it seems the edges are blunted enough to mitigate the severity of any accidents…

"Not as much as I'd like," she admits. "But if you insist on remaining so distracted, do expect me to punish you for it."

"I'll try and–!"

Clang!

Halfway through speaking our thought, Merrybell had already bounded across the room. In the time it took us to blink, an overhead swing was already coming down on our heads and crashing into the flat of Suzaku's quickly-raised blade. "What did I just say, Kururugi?!"

Steel slid off of steel, and in the next second Merry was already stepping back.

"Well, you never gave me a starting signal–"

Clang!

Another slash, this time rising up from the left, just as deftly blocked by flat steel.

Merry took another step back, but this time spun into another swing that was just as quickly blocked. "I am actively attacking," she dryly pointed out. "If you can't tell that we've started, then I don't know what hope there is for you."

"Well, that may be true, it's just that I was expecting something a bit more formal–"

Suzaku kept his eyes on Merrybell this time, and was prepared to properly parry the next strike that came to interrupt him.

"I can tell you were – well-trained – once upon a time," the princess muttered with a glare between attempted strikes, "but you've gotten rusty! You're too reliant! On your freak physicality to make up for letting your skills decay!"

Her footwork's as good as I can ever remember seeing from Tohdoh, Suzaku noted. Every attack that comes my way now is carried with its ideal force and with a minimal energy loss, all at the best angles to pressure my guard and test my reaction speed…

After another few seconds, Merrybell darted back to her original starting position in a light sweat, light and shallow breaths visible through their effect on her chest. With a growl of frustration, the princess proceeds to point her sword at us. "Where's the ruthless aggression that humiliated Cornelia?! The seething hatred that put a stake through the Vampire?! I want to see that Suzaku Kururugi, not this passive knave before me!"

Suzaku blinked. "The difference is that I don't really hate you or want to hurt you, though. You wanted to fight, so we're fighting–"

Merrybell closed in and swung again with a scream, this time hard enough to push us back a few paces. "You oblivious, indulgent bastard! Fight back, damn you!"

I very nearly ask her why, but had enough sense in the moment to keep my mouth shut.

From watching our face, however, she still seems to get the idea regardless…

"…this really doesn't matter to you at all?" she asks, looking a little baffled. "You don't have any kind of pride as a fighter or drive to win for its own sake?"

"…not against you, Your Highness."

The princess visibly twitches, and I get a sense that it may have been the wrong thing for us to say. "You need stakes, then? I'll give you stakes – as her older sister, I'll stop you from getting any closer to Euphemia! I can't entrust her to a half-hearted failure of a knight who only gets serious when he feels like–gkh?!"

Merry's sword dangles to the floor, her free hand clawing at our wrist as we lift her into the air by her throat. She tries once or twice to raise it against us, but we've already cut off enough air flow that she's losing the necessary strength to do it.

"I'm getting really tired. Of Euphemia's family acting like they can make her life choices for her."

His eyes flashing with rage, Suzaku slams Merry into the floor and then sends her skipping across the room with a kick.

It only takes Merrybell a second before she's back to one knee. And then using her sword as a crutch to get back to her feet. "Haa… haa… that's a bit more like it, Kururugi. Now keep going, but only with your sword!"

She's playing us…

No choice but to go with it!

"Grraahh!"

Suzaku closes in with an overhead swing of his own, and Merrybell raises her blade to block it.

Unlike when Suzaku had defended against her strikes, however, Merry's knees buckle under the force of the attack and she's forced to dive aside as Suzaku follows through and puts a scratch in the floor. "What do you want from me, then?! Do I need to beat you senseless?! Put you in the infirmary?! Suppose I do, how am I supposed to explain that to Euphie anyway?!"

"Prove to me that you're not just trying to get yourself killed like Bradley said you were! Show me that you've got something worth fighting for, worth surviving for – even at the cost of someone else's life!"

Charging in and catching us in a blade lock, Merry snarls, "If you can't do that much against me, then Bismarck Waldstein will eat you for breakfast!"

Restricted to only the use of the sword, it quickly becomes beyond clear that Merrybell is the more skilled of the two as she parries and weaves between Suzaku's powerful but slightly more telegraphed swings.

"If you only fight to keep from losing, Kururugi, then you need to wake up and realize right now that that's a losing battle!"

She punctuates the warning with a thin red cut on Suzaku's arm, having manipulated his guard to leave herself just the opening she wanted.

Not technically the first successful attack of the duel.

But certainly first blood.

And constrained by commitment to the sword, Suzaku hadn't been able to touch her again even once.

"If you can't put your opponent down for the count and make them stop," she insisted, "then they'll just keep coming after you! Wearing you down, cut by cut!"

Another pair of scratches snuck past Suzaku's guard, proving the princess's point.

"Until you eventually bleed out and lose everything!"

Sparks rained across the room as a panting Merrybell sent Suzaku skidding back with her strongest swing yet.

Rather than continue to press the attack, she elected to wait for a moment and look into her opponent's eyes. "So what do you have to say to that, Suzaku Kururugi?!"

Suzaku, for his part, was at least starting to look affected by the duel thus far. Even though his natural stamina far outclassed Merrybell's, she'd been strategic in her bloodletting so as to begin evening out the difference… although his heavy breathing, Merry noted with some jealousy, was almost certainly more a response to emotional or other mental stress than any kind of meaningful physical exertion.

Must be nice, being born Closer to Eden…

The princess suppressed a sigh of disappointment when Suzaku's gaze returned to meet hers, wild-eyed and frantic… only to blink when his vision suddenly seemed to clear.

"I… I know I'm twisted and warped," he admitted with grit teeth and clenched fists. "Maybe even outright broken inside. But despite that, I still have people in my life who mean the world to me! People who'd suffer if I left on poor terms without saying goodbye!"

With a deep breath, Suzaku leaned down – and in the time it took Merrybell to blink, he was already upon her. "Ah?!"

Merrybell quickly parried the short slash that came at her, and was already sliding away to dodge the next one as Suzaku moved to make it.

"It's thanks to them I know – that even a defective machine can be upgraded and repaired! Even if I'm clueless and lost! Even if I barely know what I'm doing! In their name, I still have something to live for!"

Stepping to the left, Merrybell parried the next strike as she had done before – and was forced to all but flee as Suzaku began to press his advantage. "Fighting for others' sake is all well and noble, but it's still not enough! If you're going to stand against the Rounds, you need something more than that! Something you can still hold onto even if you lose the people around you!"

Promise me that you've got something pushing you onward that isn't just dependence on me, or Euphemia, or Cecile, or anyone else; that you're not just clinging to life for someone else's sake, but that you've got something you can strive for of your own, on your own if you need to.

"…when history witnesses a great change," Suzaku whispered, "Razgriz reveals itself."

"Razgriz? What under Eden–?"

"First, as a dark demon. As a demon, it uses its power to rain death upon the land, and then it dies. However, after a period of slumber, Razgriz returns – this time, as a great hero."

With a deep, shuddering breath, Suzaku braced himself for a charge. "If the Razgriz can be reborn as a hero after indiscriminately wiping out everything in its path, then maybe... just maybe, even with all the blood on my hands... maybe I, too, can–!"

Suzaku went to lunge… only to immediately falter and abort as Merrybell swung her blade free of his blood and sheathed it with a smile. "That's enough, Sir Kururugi. Any further and we'll be at risk of breaking our blades."

"Wait, we're stopping now?! Just like that?!"

"The look in your eyes a moment ago satisfied my concerns," Merry explained. "With that being the case, I see no further need to continue. Report to the infirmary for treatment of your wounds, and then I expect you to start on that make-up classwork from school that you were assigned. You are, of course, welcome to ask Lt. Croomy for assistance with it – so long as the two of you can keep your hands to yourselves on my ship. Understood?"

Flustered and flummoxed, all Suzaku could do was nod and salute. "...yes, Your Highness."

As he neared the exit door, Merrybell called out to him again. "I understand that you've no love lost for your old country, but you happen to remind me of something I learned about during your coma… kintsugi, isn't it? The art of taking something that's broken apart, and filling in the cracks until it's beautiful again."

With a beaming smile, she concluded, "I think Euphemia's efforts on you, as well as the others', are coming along nicely enough for now. Just try to keep from getting too much more chipped up and giving them more work, alright?"