Chapter 22: Push It To The Limit.

There was a moment in a man's life where everything around him told him to stop, to give up, except the man's will. It was a man's will that overcame every life's hardship, a man's will that could make the impossible possible, a man's will that had the power to move mountains…

"99…"

"…and 100!" Lelouch fell on the floor, completely exhausted.

…Or to make one hundred push-ups.

"Do one hundred more." Todoh ordered Lelouch. Next to him was Suzaku, laughing at the yong prince. Yeah, Suzaku won against Lelouch in karate fight, again. Damn he was weak.

Lelouch sighed. He knew it was his fault. It had been like, three centuries that he didn't do any physical training, just because he was lazy. Oh, he had some energy, yes, but he reserved it for fucking.

It was much more fun.

Lelouch groaned. "Oh, come on. You conquered the World many times but you can't do 200 push-ups in a day, you damn lazy motherfucker!"

"Language!" Todoh snapped. "Control your anger and make it your strength."

"Yeah, yeah…"

Lelouch put himself in position, again. "101 …"

Damn these six months would be long.

Two Months Later

"Hajime!" Todoh shouted.

Lelouch and Suzaku were on the Dojo, ready to fight. Suzaku made a move, which Lelouch predicted, and he hit right where he found a small opening. It disoriented Suzaku and Lelouch threw a Mawashi Geri straight on Suzaku's face, which put him on the ground.

"Finally!" Lelouch said triumphantly. Before that, his hits were barely powerful enough to hurt a small rabbit, and now he was able to knock out a ten years old boy.

Pretty impressive.

"Alright, you won once, and then?" Suzaku asked with his annoying tone, as Lelouch was walking in direction of the house.

"It means I've won once." Lelouch replied casually. "But I'll win again and again."

"How do you know that?" Suzaku asked again.

"I'm better in tactics, you were better on brute force." He explained. "No we're on par in brute force, so I suggest you work your tactics."

"You're telling me I'm dumb?" He snapped.

Lelouch rolled his eyes. "You're clever for a ten year old boy, but that's all. If you want to beat me at anything, go read some books, but I warn you, I read books too."

That was how Lelouch got rid of Suzaku, by sending him to the library.

When he entered the house, he had to face another opponent.

"Lelouch-sama!" Kaguya squealed. "I have a wooonderful idea to increase relations between our two countries."

Lelouch feigned surprise. "Oh yeah?"

"How about we marry each other?" She asked, blinking her eyes rapidly.

Lelouch shrugged. "Sure, when you'll be older."

"Oh!" She joined her hands. "Wonderful! When we'll be older then."

It was one of Lelouch's hobbies when he became Emperor. Marry and fuck with hundreds of women, then let his sons and daughters govern different parts of the World and see them fighting against each other. And sometimes he went to fake his own death in order to see that.

Damn there was so much of his father in him.

He entered his bedroom. The emissary from the embassy that came every week to assure everything was fine was talking with Nunnally.

"Big brother!" His sister said happily. "You're back from the training?"

Lelouch nodded. "Yup, and I won against Suzaku. Hello Miss Villetta."

Yeah, Lelouch pulled a few strings to arrange that meeting. Jeremiah had been Villetta's mentor during their times at the academy, which made her a loyal and reliable person according to him. Besides, her known ambition for noble titles would be a perfect way to have her on his pocket, considering no one would give Villetta anything. No one except Lelouch, obviously. And maybe Schneizel, if he's think she'd be useful against his little brother.

"Congratulations, your Highness." Villetta said with a smile.

Lelouch opened a drawer of his nightstand and sorted a letter. He gave it to her.

"Could you give it to Euphemia please?"

She nodded. "Of course your Highness."

Lelouch smiled. "Thank you Villetta." He said. "You've been very kind to us, and I was wondering…"

Villetta tensed. "Yes, Prince Lelouch?"

He stared at her with his magical glance, the one that showed extreme gratitude. "We need you. I need you to protect us, to protect Nunnally, and I know you won't abandon us…"

"I will never abandon you, my Prince, and my Princess!" Villetta said, half blushing.

Lelouch smiled. "Thank you for your loyalty. How about, once we go back to the mainland, you become captain of our Royal Guard?"

Villetta was confused. "I… I don't know if I'm able to… Of course it'd be an honor but…"

Lelouch approached her, he sat on the bed and invited Villetta to sit next to him.

"Oh, you will be able to protect us, I'm sure of it. You will be a wonderful Captain, and a wonderful Knight to Nunnally."

He leaned closer to her face, his mouth was next to Villetta' ears.

"And you'd be a wonderful wife." He muttered softly.

Villetta blushed hard.

Lelouch caressed her chin. "Princess Villetta, it has a nice ring on it isn't it?"

She turned to see him, half-confused, half-excited.

"Or…" Lelouch was now kissing her neck. Then he stopped. "Empress Villetta."

She widened her eyes. "I…"

Lelouch smirked. "This is the best proposition someone will ever make to you." He whispered with his best seductive tone. "Do you accept?"

She gulped. Lelouch knew her weakness very well. "Yes, I'll obey to you and you only, your… Majesty."

Lelouch got off his bedroom, leaving her sister with her soon-to-be knight. He had more important business today, well, important was a relative term, since everything he was doing was just a way to kill time.

He entered the living room. Rakshata was there, along with Genbu, Todoh and Kirihara.

"Hello, Lelouch." Rakshata said. Lelouch sensed a tone of enjoyment in her voice. It only meant that today was good news's day.

"We have finally seen some advancement to our project." Genbu announced. He, however, had an abrupt voice, but that didn't change from the usual. Genbu was always grumpy.

Lelouch greeted everyone and sat down.

Kirihara showed the young prince some blueprints, and some photos. "Allow me to present you the first Japanese humanoid war machine, the Burai."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow. "In only two months?" He mused. "Impressive. How many have you built?"

"Five." Rakshata said. "And right now we can produce thirty per month, and in one month our production will be tripled."

"How much Burais will Japan have till August?" Lelouch asked.

"More than five hundred." She answered. "But we'll have a production capacity of fifteen per days."

"With the new simulators we'll have a thousand pilots ready for a full scale invasion." Genbu said. "Todoh will be in charge of the training." Todoh nodded. Genbu turned to the young prince. "Are you sure the attack is for august?"

Lelouch shook his head. "Not really." And it was the truth, such changes coming from the Japanese Army could push Britannia to move now, but something told Lelouch that the Empire started their attack as soon as the Glasgow became the new army's toy. And the contracts with the army weren't signed yet, at least according to Lord Glasgow's computer. "But Britannia's still undecided on which company they'll sign."

Genbu was skeptical. "We'll increase the production but we'll have to keep everything secret."

"What do you think of my idea of a missile battery defense line that covers the entire archipelago littoral?" Lelouch asked boringly.

The Prime Minister grunted. "It is expensive."

Lelouch raised an eyebrow. "If we speed up the Sakuradite extraction process in the Mount Fuji we can afford buying them to the Chinese."

Genbu shook his head. "Out of question. Fuji is a sacred place."

Lelouch stared at Genbu with a stern glare. "Do you want Japan to be under the hands of Britannia? I'm sure they'll do worse to your sacred mountain."

It was the daily routine, train, argue with Suzaku, then argue with his father, and then make sure both of them were in Lelouch's pockets. Well, he didn't care about the first one, but whatever.

"If you don't want to increase the extraction." Kirihara said. "We'll have to make loans to China and be indebted to them."

Kirihara knew exactly how to play Genbu. For the Prime Minister, being independent from China was more important than keeping Fuji sacred. Lelouch would have made this point, but the fact that an old friend said that to Genbu instead of a foreign kid made the things much simpler. Damn Lelouch loved that old man, they didn't need to communicate in order to be coordinated. They just understood each other.

"Well, it wouldn't harm the Mount Fuji to speed up the extraction." Kururugi said in resignation.

And that was how you convinced the most stubborn chief of state of the universe to crush one of the most sacred symbols of his nation.

4 Months later

"Hajime !" Todoh shouted.

Suzaku tried to hit Lelouch but the young prince kicked him in the gut at an astonishing speed. Suzaku fell on the floor, completely stunned.

"I am disappointed." Todoh said to Suzaku.

The sensei kept on lecturing Genbu's son, Suzaku kept on apologizing and saying Lelouch was not human, Todoh retorted that during the time Suzaku was whining, Lelouch was doing push-ups. And that was the case.

'Finally it's not so bad to be reborn in my younger self.' Lelouch thought to himself. 'I can shape my body however I want more easily, and not be prisoner of this scrawny earthly body of mine.'

"Alright, you won again." Suzaku said to Lelouch while they walked to the house. "I… I admit, you're better than me."

"And that's all?" Lelouch asked simply.

"We are friends right?" Suzaku asked. Damn he was annoying.

"We're supposed to be, yes." Lelouch said rolling his eyes.

"Then why don't you give me the trick you use to win every time?" Suzaku asked with his usual annoying tone.

"Because you're supposed to learn for yourself?" Lelouch asked rhetorically. "I already told you. I anticipate the move you'll make by observing your body language."

"But how?" Suzaku asked again.

Lelouch rolled his eyes again. "I obviously read a lot of books and you didn't. Plus I'm cleverer than you."

"You're not!" Suzaku snapped out of pride.

"You win every time against someone dumber than you then." Lelouch mused. "That makes you dumber than yourself, which is impossible."

"I…" Suzaku was speechless.

"Look, we already had this conversation." Lelouch said patiently. If he hadn't lived two thousand freaking years he would've lost his patience and break the brat's neck, but Mini-Suzaku couldn't compete with the eternal malediction of time. "When we met, you were physically stronger and I knew every bit of theory. Now I trained my body like hell and you, what did you do? Nothing. Do you know why? Because you think reading is boring. That's why you'll always be a follower, and I'll always be a leader."

He entered the mansion, leaving Suzaku behind.

"Britannia is going to attack Japan, your highness." Villetta said while feeding some strawberries to the young prince.

Lelouch frowned. "I had a feeling they'd do this mistake." In fact in his mind it was 'I fucking know, just give me that damn strawberry!'

She gulped. "I have… not received any orders to bring you and lady Nunnally back to the mainland."

Lelouch paled. 'Well, what a pleasant fucking surprise. It would've been a shame if pops did actually care about us this time. Would've removed the tiny glimpse of fun this campaign could bring to me.'

Lelouch took a deep breath. What would good old tiny Lelouch do in this situation? Oh, yeah, obviously. "Take Nunnally away from here." He sorted a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Call this number, a car will come and bring you to the airport. Officially, Nunnally's got to go to the hospital. Unofficially, she'll go to a safe place in Taiwan. Understood?"

Villetta digested her young master's words slowly. Eventually, she nodded. After all, he was the one who'd give her the supreme title of Empress while the other ones would treat her like a mere soldier.

"But you, your Highness, will you come with us?" She asked worryingly.

Lelouch stayed silent, and this silence was the answer Villetta feared the worst.

"Please, Lelouch, let me take you in safety." She pleaded. It was the first time Villetta referred to him with his first name.

Lelouch shook his head. "Sorry Villetta, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

Villetta sighed. "And what are you supposed to do?"

Lelouch stared at her with determination. "I'm gonna win."