Ch 251: Returning to Europia… or not.

Suzaku Kururugi couldn't concentrate in class. The school day was nearing its end, and he couldn't get Akeno's words out of his head. Not that he really wanted to. He wasn't a coward like Akeno had said, and didn't want to run from her arguments.

He was reviewing his ambitions and all of his decisions since he had decided to become an Honorary Britannian years ago.

His plan had been to climb the ranks until he could join the Knights of Rounds, then stack up enough achievements to be granted the right to manage Area Eleven. From then, he would be able to slowly change the way Britannian treated Japanese people. A plan that would take at least ten or fifteen years.

When he chose this path, he thought that this was the only way to bring effective change, that all other options would result in a grave for him, and no result at all.

But Akeno had a point. There was no guarantee that he would become a Knights of Round, or that he would be granted Area Eleven no matter how many things he did for Britannia's sake. And no guarantee that he would manage to change things significantly even if he wound up in this position.

In the end, he suspected that Akeno was right when she said that mutual respect was a pre-condition for any notable improvement. That would mean at the very minimum getting Britannia to agree to let Japanese people call themselves Japanese again, and rename Area Eleven into Japan. And could he pull off something like this?

He thought back about the day a few months ago when he met Lelouch after years of separation. When Lelouch found himself involved in a terrorist incident for trying to save a motorist in difficulty, and where a supposed poison gas capsule had turned out to be a confinement pod for a bound green-haired woman.

The Britannian officer had instantly declared Lelouch to be one of the terrorists, and when Suzaku objected, the officer shot him, leaving him for dead.

Suzaku absentmindedly rubbed the scar on his right side. He had almost died that day, on the whim of a Britannian who was supposed to be on his side. He would have, if Cécile and Lloyd hadn't found him, and hadn't needed a pilot for the Lancelot.

And there was no guarantee that he wouldn't be backstabbed again by his 'allies' during his ascension to Knighthood. In all probability, he would, and more than once.

He also worried a lot about Cécile. The kidnapper had made clear he was after her talent as an engineer, so she wouldn't be mistreated. Hopefully. But he still wanted to see her free and safe.

And Lloyd… Suzaku was worried about him, too. The scientist had not taken last night's events well, almost tearing his hair out as he screamed in despair, fainted, woke up and screamed again. Suzaku still felt a little disappointed that Lloyd didn't seem to know what was worse, Cécile being kidnapped, or the Lancelot being stolen.

Suzaku had been given temporary leave from the Advanced Special Envoy Engineering Corps, aka ASEEC. No time window had been given, but Suzaku was no fool. He basically was kept safely away from any possible enemy action that could result in his death, until the Lancelot was retrieved, or another one was built. Which could take a few weeks.

That gave him time to socialize at school, and try to keep up with the lessons.

And time to ponder about Akeno's words.

The class ended, and Suzaku headed for the Student Council room. He knocked and entered, finding Nina working on her computer in the corner, and was surprised by seeing Akeno sitting on a chair near the cat tree, where she was using a laser pointer to play with Arthur.

"Welcome back, Suzaku-kun." grinned Akeno. "How was class today?"

"I couldn't concentrate. You gave me a lot to think about." admitted Suzaku.

Nina glanced at them curiously, wondering what they were talking about, then shrugged and returned to her brand-new science project. After memorizing every important detail, she had erased all traces of the previous one.

She was very motivated and wanted to create the counter to the Sakuradite-enhanced warheads before anyone would come around to create them.

"It is a good thing." shrugged Akeno. "Better ask yourself those questions now, than after you do something that cannot be undone. How about we exchange numbers? If you need someone to talk to about those matters…"

"Yes, that wouldn't be a bad idea." nodded Suzaku, pulling his smartphone from his pocket, and they exchanged their phone numbers.

"I am surprised to find you here, however." smiled Suzaku.

"Not disappointed, I hope." smiled Akeno.

"No. But you gave me the impression this morning that you weren't staying long."

"I am not, really. There is just that irritating problem that I wish to settle before I go. If I can't, I'll have to leave it for others to deal with."

"What kind of problem?"

"…A stalker."

"Stalker!" exclaimed Nina, alarmed.

"Oh. Considering your looks, I understand why you would attract undue attention. I will help you catch him." said Suzaku, jumping to the most obvious conclusion.

"Thank you for the praise, Suzaku-kun." grinned Akeno. "But I am able to defend myself. I am a competent martial artist, if I do say so myself."

"What does he look like?" asked Suzaku.

"Semi-long silver hair with long bangs. He is a Chinese citizen and always wear a semi-opaque visor hiding his eyes and large headphones covering his ears."

"I have seen someone like that!" exclaimed Nina.

"Ah? Where?" asked Akeno.

"I saw him enter the processing plant for used water in the north-west corner of the academy, two hours ago during the break. I thought he was only a maintenance worker."

"Thank you, Nina. I'll go check that place immediately. Maybe it was just someone looking like him, but you never know." said Akeno, heading for the door.

"I'm going with you." said Suzaku.

Akeno nodded and left the Student Council room with him.

They were barely out of the room when they met Lelouch and Shirley in the hallway.

"Are you guys going somewhere?" asked Shirley with a grin. Akeno could feel that Shirley was imagining things.

"We got a potential lead to that stalker I mentioned to you, Lelouch, thanks to Nina. We're on our way to investigate. See you later."

"A stalker?" asked Shirley, alarmed.

"I see." nodded Lelouch. "I will cross fingers then. Do you need a hand?"

"No need. Suzaku-kun is protecting me, right?" winked Akeno, and Lelouch chuckled.

"Suzaku-kun, Please wear this, just in case." said Akeno as they were walking down the hallway, fishing from her pocket a silver bangle.

"What is it?" asked Suzaku curiously.

"A good luck charm. I won't ask you to wear it all the time, just before any potentially dangerous situation. Please humor me." said Akeno.

"Thank you. I could use some good luck these days." sighed Suzaku, putting the bangle around his left wrist.

"Why would a stalker go to that plant, though? It doesn't really make sense." said Suzaku as they left the main school building.

"Maybe because it would give him a good view on a large part of the campus, while also being a good hiding spot? With binoculars, he would be able to spy on a lot of the classrooms through their windows." shrugged Akeno.

She knew from what Noah had told her about the original fiction that the water processing plant was once used as a trap involving a bomb, and Nunnally being taken hostage. Hopefully, they wouldn't have to deal with that.

They reached the processing plant, an area normally forbidden to students, and saw that the access door was jimmied.

"Oh." frowned Suzaku, growing more alert.

"Minimize the noises you make, Suzaku-kun." said Akeno with a low voice as she slowly swung the door open. Thankfully, it didn't make any significant noise.

Akeno and Suzaku entered and closed the door behind them, and progressed along a few corridors. The place was noisy due to an artificial waterfall in the main room, and when they reached it, Akeno sighed.

Mao was indeed there, about sixty meters form them, working on what she assumed to be the bomb.

And a few meters behind him, her wheelchair close to the waterfall, was Nunnally. Adhesive tape was covering her lips, and her arms had been bound by rope.

And since he was facing in their direction when they emerged from the corridor, he noticed them as well, and his expression turned into astonishment.

"H-How could you come here without me hearing your thoughts?"

Without leaving time for Suzaku to ask what he meant by this, Mao drew a gun. Akeno and Suzaku sprinted forward and shot in their direction a few times, missing. He then turned around and kicked Nunnally's wheelchair, causing it to tilt backward. Nunnally tried to scream as she fell while Mao fled toward a side passage.

"Suzaku-kun, save Nunnally!" shouted Akeno, pursuing Mao while keeping at a speed a normal person would be able to reach.

"Yes!" shouted Suzaku as he jumped into the water.

Akeno allowed herself a sadistic smile when she turned a corner and left Suzaku's field of vision.

Mao was running ten meters in front of her, and half turned his body to shoot at her again as he kept running.

Akeno's Endurance attribute was so high at this point that bullets from anything short of an anti-material rifle would bounce off her skin without even leaving a bruise, and she only really had to protect her eyes. But she didn't want to have to explain holes in her clothes, so she simply slapped the bullets away without slowing down.

Mao started to panic, but it was already too late. Seconds later, he was screaming on the floor, his four limbs shattered. Akeno knocked him out to shut him up, used Magecraft to insert a tracking mark on his body, then seized the collar of his clothes and started dragging him back toward the main room.

She found Nunnally in Suzaku's arms, both of them dripping wet. Suzaku had already removed the ropes.

"I see you got him. Are you injured anywhere?" nodded Suzaku.

"No. Lousy shots like him shouldn't use a gun." shrugged Akeno. "Nunnally, I won't ask if you're okay. I am just glad that you're safe now."

"Thank you, Akeno, Suzaku. I'll be fine." nodded Nunnally with a brave smile.

Akeno took her phone, and winced.

"Crap, the only phone number I have is yours, Suzaku-kun. I will go warn them and get some dry clothes and towels."

"Yes, thank you, Akeno." nodded Suzaku.

Akeno nodded and jogged toward the Student Council room.

She made herself a mental note to have the phone numbers of every Student Council's member before parting with them after the police took Mao away.

…

Hours later, a masked individual wearing a white and red outfit visited a certain hospital, and a certain stalker got his head mysteriously separated from the rest of his body.

By the time the nurses, alerted by the heartbeat monitor, and the two guards at the door entered the room, Akeno was already kilometers away, flying westward. Once she reached a high enough altitude, she broke the speed of sound and accelerated much further. It only took her five hours to reach the general area of the Europian Eastern frontline, and another to find the castle. It was about 22:00 local time when a small car drove toward the hill. Akeno was behind the wheel, with Sakuya using her Roze disguise riding shotgun and Sakura on the back seats, all dressed in Europian military uniforms.

They stopped for the two inspections, Akeno and Roze showing the soldiers their army tags.

Minutes later, Leila came to the gate with Da Vinci, Izumi and Kasumi, and Akito.

"Welcome back, Akeno, Roze, and…" started Leila.

"I am Sakura Haruyanagi-no-miya. I know this is a mouthful. Please call me Sakura." smiled Sakura.

She was secretly happy to introduce herself using her real name, after years of pretending to be someone else.

"Sakura has volunteered to join our squadron. Unfortunately, she doesn't have a proper identification or training yet." shrugged Akeno.

"We will arrange it. Welcome to the wZERO squadron, Sakura." smiled Leila.

"Thank you. I may lack proper training, but I am very motivated. I will work hard."

"Let's go inside, and we will assign you a room. We are not lacking empty ones, unfortunately."

The group walked back to the castle, where Sakura was introduced to everyone, then Da Vinci and the twins retired to Akeno's room, where they all entered the Sanctuary.

"So tell us what happened." grinned Kasumi.

"Have you heard about what happened in Japan last night?" asked Akeno.

"Not a peep. Or if Leila did, she didn't say."

"Let's see. On the way in, I had a remote conference with Zero where I exposed him as a Geass user, which led to Kallen joining the squadron to gain the immunity I promised her."

"Yes. We trained with her in the simulators Da Vinci just created for the Haken series. She is a superlative pilot." nodded Kasumi.

"She is one of the very best. Did she mention the Geass or being a Black Knight to anyone?" asked Akeno.

"No. As far as the others are aware, she is another Eleven refugee that Leila has picked up from that trip to Paris." replied Da Vinci.

"I see. Well, almost as soon as I landed to Japan, I gathered information, took on the appearance of a masked ninja with a kitsune helmet, and kidnapped a Britannian princess and a general, then forced the viceroy, another princess, to trade for Sakura and Tohdoh Kyoshiro, a local resistance leader. I also stole the Lancelot, which I will give to you to examine, Da Vinci, as well as Cécile Croomy, who is currently undergoing training in Sancuary's basement. Then I met a few of the interesting girls Noah mentioned, convinced Nina to stop her research about those godawful warheads, and killed Mao, the mind reader. And then I came back by my own means."

"You certainly didn't waste time, doing all this in barely 36 hours." nodded Da Vinci. "Is Britannia going to be able to trace those events back to us?"

"…They probably won't, but there's still a chance." shrugged Akeno. "During the hostage exchange, I had to leave their encirclement by using several bursts of Shunpo in quick succession. They haven't noticed anything at the time, but if they carefully examine their camera footage, there is a chance they might see a blur, or even me stopping a fraction of second before the next Shunpo. If they do, they will know that Kyuubi, that's the name I used, possesses supernatural powers, and they might link it to that Akeno Himejima who pulled weird stunts in Paris. They probably heard about that by now."

As if the universe had a sense of humor, Akeno's phone started ringing. It was Kaguya.

"Hello? Kaguya?" asked Akeno with a smile.

"Sorry, this isn't Kaguya. She is a little tied up, you might say." replied a gloating voice Akeno recognized. It was Cornelia.

"Oh? Are you perhaps her secretary?" asked Akeno, playing innocent as she activated the speaker for the others to hear.

"Stop playing games, Kyuubi!" spat Cornelia. "You will not make me believe that two people with supernatural powers popped into existence at the same time. And you used Kaguya Sumeragi's private jet to travel to Japan."

Da Vinci, Izumi and Kasumi were looking at each other with surprise, then they looked upward by reflex. The gods were probably chuckling at their prank. They had likely influenced Da Vinci to ask that question with that exact timing.

"Fine, I'll admit it is me. And you would be surprised by the number of people with supernatural powers being around. I could name over a half-dozen without having to think about it. This aside, did you like the fruit paste? What flavor is your favorite? If you called to ask for more, that could be arranged, you know?"

"You!" shouted Cornelia, before restraining herself. "…Your flippant attitude really is one of a kind. I have Kaguya Sumeragi in my custody. I should really thank you. Now I know who was supplying the Black Knights."

"Are you calling to trade for her?"

"No. I am done with your trades. I will have her executed in twenty-four hours."

"I see. The fact that you called me and didn't kill her immediately tells me this is a trap, but I am game. Where?"

"Tokyo's prison."

"I will come." said Akeno, her tone now serious. "But be careful, Cornelia. Even now, I am not really angry because I am confident I can get her out, and it is just a setback in my plans. But if you torture or kill her or her subordinates, that will change."

"If you do not like me when I am playful, I can assure you that you will absolutely hate me when I am in the mood for a slaughter. Your soldiers would die by the thousands. And then I would come for you personally. There are fates that are worse than death, Cornelia."

"Ah! At least you are now taking me seriously." replied Cornelia.

"I am currently out of Japan and will need half a day to return. See you soon, Princess Cornelia." said Akeno.

Cornelia didn't answer and hung up.

Akeno sighed as she looked at them.

"Well, this happened. I'm going back to Japan."

"I will inform Leila. But this is inconvenient." frowned Da Vinci.

"Can we do anything to help, Akeno-Onee-sama?" asked Izumi.

"Yes." nodded Akeno. "I will be leaving the Sanctuary here. Da Vinci really needs it to accelerate the production of more Hakens."

"Thank you." nodded Da Vinci, relieved. "I am actually thinking about building a factory in the Sanctuary. Not like what I previously did, but an actual assembly line and modules to create some of the simpler components that are needed in significant quantities. It will take me some time to set it up, but once done, I could request Izumi and Kasumi to help me create the big components, and most of the rest would be automated. I estimate that by using the Sanctuary's time dilation, we could output one Haken per day in the real world."

"That would be impressive." whistled Akeno. "Do as you think best. At worst, if they attack us before we are ready, we can drop all pretenses and fight them without using Knightmares. It seems I am going to be known worldwide as a walking calamity anyway… Izumi, Kasumi, I would like you both to continue Cécile's training in the basement. The sooner she gives in, the faster she can help improve the Hakens."

"Yes, Akeno-Onee-sama." said Izumi, and Kasumi nodded.

"Since she's a virgin, I told her she was going to devote both her vaginal and anal virginity to Noah, so anything more than your fingers is off-limits. Train her for oral service and chastity play, although you can make her orgasm as much as you want."

"Yes, we'll drown her in pleasure, then deny her until she becomes obedient." nodded Kasumi.

"Good girls. How are the three wannabe-terrorists doing?"

"They are looking for ways to steal the Hakens and escape." shrugged Da Vinci. "They are waiting for the third one they heard will soon be 'delivered' before they make their attempt."

"I trust you are keeping an eye on them. I do not want Ryo and Yukiya to use one, ever, and please make sure the Alexanders they will use cannot open fire on allies. As for Ayano, she will get a Haken, but only after she joins us. Sakura just signed her slave contract, by the way, so she and Sakuya can both be trusted with a Haken even if they haven't been trained yet."

"Good to know." nodded Da Vinci with a smile. "As for friendly fire, that's already done. I thought about that possibility the instant they came here."

Akeno smiled gratefully, and left the house inside the Sanctuary, Da Vinci and the girls following. She took the Lancelot from her inventory, placing it on the ground, and gave the ignition key to Da Vinci.

Then she kissed all of the girls in turn.

"I'll be going. Depending on the circumstances, I may not necessarily return right away. I have an idea to replace Kyoto House as a supplier for the Black Knights. And Da Vinci, I would like for the first Haken with flight capabilities to be painted white with red highlights and have the logo of a nine-tailed fox painted on the hull."

"Hehe. Send me a picture of that logo with your phone within a few days, and I will see to it." grinned Da Vinci.

"Good luck, Akeno-Onee-sama." nodded Izumi.

"Thank you. See you soon, everyone." smiled Akeno as she left the Sanctuary, returning to her room in the castle.

She changed into her leather shrine-maiden-inspired bodysuit, put on her kitsune helmet, and flew up, spreading her twelve raven-black wings. At some point in the previous timeline, she had reached a level of power that couldn't be constrained by her high-class devil status anymore and broken by herself into the ultimate-class. Although she was fairly certain that there wasn't any ultimate-class or even superdevil who could contend with her.

Once she reached approximately ten kilometers of altitude, she flew toward the east and broke the speed of sound. She would make a stop somewhere in China to get a few hours of sleep, then continue to Japan.