Burning Water – Chapter 2 – The Day the Demon was Born
Hibari was rather annoyed at this point. Because he was the one with a license he drives the car. Why not Rivel? Sheesh, it gets annoying. Worse that he can't drive as well when everyone in the back are chattering away.
"See? Playing with nobility is quite fun, isn't it?" Rivel grinned. Lelouch nodded absently and was still toying with the black king chess piece he used back at the game. Still, it was far too easy…
"Yeah, Lelouch," Tsuna smiled. "It's quite amazing that you were able to get a good move in nine minutes."
"Juudaime," Gokudera answered back. "You could probably beat that time anyway…"
"Well, that coming from the genius mafia boss," Rivel joked, slapping Tsuna on the back. "That's pretty sweet! Right, Lelouch?"
"I suppose so…" Lelouch trailed off. Mukuro was busy looking at the scenery outside the car as it cruised down the highway. Today, they felt like missing out on Viceroy Clovis's annoying little moment of silence. Honestly, if he needed any pity, he'd probably be like a fish now with lots of water to swim in. It's not like the Britannians care for Elevens, or half-Elevens, even. Additionally, he couldn't help but notice that a Royal Guard's Car was driving right behind him.
"Well, were to next?" Mukuro turned away from the window and looked at everyone else.
"The casino." Rivel added. "Lelouch says he wants to battle it out with some Mafiosos!"
Tsuna raised an eyebrow. "Lelouch… isn't that a bit too much?"
Lelouch didn't even look up as he continued to examine the chess piece. "That was Rivel's suggestion, not mine."
"Well, anyways," Rivel asked. "Why did you move the king first?"
"If the king doesn't lead, how can he expect any of his subordinates to follow?"
"What's with that?" Rivel asked.
"With what?"
"Do you fantasize on leading a major corporation like Tsuna here?" Rivel pointed to the rather short brunette (well, Rivel and Tsuna are the same size and they're still kinda short).
"No way," Lelouch smiled weakly. "Ambitions like will ruin your health."
"Gee, thanks," Tsuna shot back flatly.
Suddenly the car jerked to the side, and everyone nearly fell over.
"Hibari! Too rough!" Gokudera shouted. He looked at Tsuna, whose hairs stood on end.
"Hibari!" Tsuna charged to the front of the car. "There's a car heading straight for us, it's not stopping!"
Mukuro turned around back to the window again and saw the Royal Guard's car was going out of control. He then noticed that several helicopters were on their way, their size only minuscule dots in the sky, to the car. Wait… isn't that a Royal Guard's car? Then why is the military after them?
"Whatever you say, herbivore," Hibari sighed as he pushed on the gas pedal and drove harder. Immediately, they watched the car behind them take an abrupt turn to a dead end exit. Hibari stomped on the brakes and his van/car screeched to a halting stop. All the boys ran out of the car to see the wreckage of the car crashing into the ghettos.
"Eh… was that our fault?" Tsuna asked.
"I don't think so," Hibari crossed his arms in annoyance.
Pedestrians who saw the crash ran to the side of the ramp and began to take pictures.
Idiots… Lelouch and Tsuna thought to themselves. Immediately, Lelouch started running to the car.
"Hey!" He shouted. "You okay?!"
"Lelouch!!" Tsuna shouted, and he followed after. Gokudera shouted for Tsuna and went along as well. Hibari, Rivel, and Mukuro looked on with bored expressions.
"Why now?" Rivel complained.
"But isn't it right for him?" Mukuro looked at the shorter boy. "To help others?"
"Yeah yeah I know that it's the right thing to do," Rivel shrugged. "But I wish the guy would quit flaunting his pride and just… give it a rest for a while!"
"Not again…" Hibari groaned in annoyance. Rivel gave exasperated sigh.
"We're going to be late for school!!!"
"Hello?" Lelouch called out. The driver was definitely injured, if he crashed like that. "Can you hear me? Hey!"
"Lelouch!!" Tsuna called after the first, Gokudera following closely.
"Guys!" Lelouch made his way to the door of the driver's seat, but found a large bar trapping the way. He then noticed a ladder, and he started to climb. "Come on! We need to help these people!"
Gokudera climbed up first, followed by Tsuna.
Lelouch then froze when he heard a girl's voice echo in his head.
It's you… Finally I have found my…
The voice faded and Lelouch was left fruitlessly looking around for the person who said those words.
"Oi!" Gokudera shouted. "Are you in there?!"
The Vongola Decimo then felt strictly uneasy when his grip tightened on the handle bars at the top of the ladder.
"G-guys….? Something's… really wrong here…"
Immediately the truck jerked backwards, and the three were sent spiraling into the open sunroof to the bottom of the truck's backroom. The truck immediately pulled up and went racing away from the construction.
"So… would you call that a hit and run?" Rivel questioned the other two boys. Without hesitation, Hibari raced to the back of his car, and lifted the back door. He immediately pulled out a red motorcycle. He then motioned for Rivel to come.
"Take your motorcycle back to school, herbivore." He sternly instructed the blue haired boy. "You have a license, so hurry up. We'll go look for the other three herbivores."
"Leave it all to us," Mukuro smiled ambiguously. Rivel nodded, and slipping his helmet and jamming his key to the circuit board, he whizzed away, leaving the two others amidst the crowding pedestrians.
"Bastards…" Gokudera groaned, massaging his head. Lelouch was up and going, but Tsuna pulled on his sleeve.
"Don't just go out and make a fuss." He forced the prince to sit back down in hiding. "We don't even know who these guys are. We'll have to wait."
"You'd think they'd stick a ladder inside, too…" Lelouch trailed off
//Stop right there! Surrender now when you have the chance to defend yourself in court! Stop! And surrender at once!//
They heard an array of machine guns, and felt the impact of the truck swerving to dodge the bullets.
//Give up now! Or we'll shoot to kill!//
More bullets resounded the almost empty room, and Tsuna fell back again and hit his head. A groan from the Decimo alerted Gokudera.
"Juudaime!" Gokudera shouted. "Damnit! How do we get out?! These guys are real terrorists!"
"If we jump out, we have the choice of breaking our necks or getting shot. You are nowhere near your Knightmare Frames. I can try to call-"
They then heard something about setting the "Glasgow" at the moment, but a pink haired girl emerged from the doors of the front room, taking off her top layer of clothing to show a more slimmer battlesuit.
"But that would mean a bloodbath!" She scolded the person up front, who agreed with her. Tsuna and Gokudera gasped.
"Kallen?!" The two whispered harshly, but the sounds of screeching metal and blasting guns drowned out their signs of shock. The pink haired girl climbed the ladder to the backroom behind this one, and was out of sight.
"Juudaime," Gokudera requested silently, holding up a cigarette and a handful of dynamite. "Can I blow up the side of this truck?"
"No," Lelouch and Tsuna said at once.
"My intuition tells me that a whole army load of Britannians are right outside this truck. We'll need to be more careful. Plus, Kallen is with that Glasgow. I don't think she'll stand a chance. We need to get out. Hibari and Mukuro are just about coming with the Knightmare Frames. Lelouch, any ideas?"
"Just one." Lelouch smiled, and the others could see a dark malicious hint on the edge of words.
//Target is moving from the settlement to the ghetto!//
//Copy that. Corner them.//
//Roger!//
Hibari and Mukuro headed into the van and began driving to their location, a battered warehouse. They immediately open the doors and walked in.
Two Knightmares stood, one indigo, and one purple. They immediately took out their respective keys and climbed into their Knightmares. Each of them took the key apparent in half, revealing a silver ring, one with an indigo gem for Mukuro, the other purple for Hibari.
"All right, then," Mukuro told Hibari in a sing-song voice.
"Let's go," Hibari smirked, and he lighted his ring, showing the Cloud's Dying Will Flame.
"Ow! Watch it, Lelouch!" Gokudera scowled.
"Sorry!" Lelouch shot back, and he looked at his cell phone. "Tch. No reception."
"We must be out of range, and underground," Tsuna commented.
"In the subway lines," Lelouch concluded. "They must be looking for an exit in the ghettos. Getting out would be dangerous."
Naoto was bleeding heavily, and he could no longer control the truck when it fell into a hole in the subway lines.
"Please… Ohgi…" He gasped. "Find me…"
He flicked the switch on the dashboard and lost consciousness as it fell.
The truck jolted a few more times, and this time, Tsuna really did hit his head so hard that he knocked himself out. Gokudera noticed and gasped.
"Juudaime!"
"Ugh… an accident?" Lelouch asked. "Or maybe-"
The doors slid open, and the two dragged Tsuna out of the light quickly, but not fast enough to make a soldier notice a moving foot.
//404 has sighted the target. Prepare for recovery.//
"Now… we can use this to climb up." Lelouch explained, but Gokudera gasped and turned around to block a spinning kick from a certain Britannian soldier.
"Eat this!" Gokudera shouted and he tossed a dynamite that happened to light up by itself at the soldier, but the soldier dodged and kicked him in the stomach. Gokudera swore that he could hear the soldier say "These bombs…" as if he knew whom they belonged to. The silver haired bomber clutched his stomach and groaned.
"Gokudera!" Lelouch shouted, but the soldier and hitam didn't listen.
Taking Gokudera by the scruff of the neck, the soldier pulled him up.
"That's enough mindless murder, terrorist!" the soldier unclasped part of his helmet.
"No!" Lelouch pleaded. "We're not-"
"Planning to use poison gas?" the soldier asked, tightening his grip on Gokudera, who began to gasp for air. Tsuna, still unconscious, lay at Lelouch's feet. The soldier wondered why. "Hell, you've even captured students?"
"NO!"
"Don't get dumb with me!" the soldier demanded but was caught of surprise when a blast of red light shot past his ear. He let go off Gokudera, who fell to the floor, his left arm wearing a red bow with red flames on the quiver.
"Gokudera!" Lelouch shouted.
"We're not here by choice…" Gokudera explained. "And this capsule has poison gas, then it was made in Britannia, wasn't it?"
The soldier then looked at the three faces at a closer glance and gasped in surprise.
"Mindless murder?" Lelouch said as he and Gokudera stepped into the light. Gokudera's bow had faded away in a burst of flames and returned to his pocket. "Then why don't you just obliterate Britannia!?"
"Lelouch… Gokudera…"
The two other boys gasped as the soldier took off his helmet, revealing brown messy hair and olive green eyes.
"It's me… Suzaku…"
"Suzaku?" Gokudera was shocked, but Lelouch was far beyond words…
"It's the real deal…"
"You became a Britannian soldier?" Lelouch asked.
"Yeah… what about you?"
"What are you sayin-"
"Hey!" Gokudera shouted. "We need to tend to Juudaime! He's out cold!"
Suzaku looked at the knocked out boy. "T-Tsuna?!"
"Of course it's Juudaime! Who else?!" Gokudera scowled. Suzaku then chuckled.
"Hmph, Gokudera, you're as grumpy as ever." Suzaku jokingly crossed his arms, aggravating the silver haired bomber even more.
"Whatever! I-"
The capsule opened, and Suzaku immediately pulled all three of them out, covering Lelouch's mouth with his hand, prompting Gokudera to cover Tsuna's mouth and his own. They watched as yellow light filled the area, and they realized nothing was wrong, really.
"Ah…" Gokudera gasped. A figure of a young girl, restrained by black strips of leather, was in the capsule. And most strangely, her hair was green.
"That's not poison gas…" Suzaku trailed off. The girl opened her eyes and saw the four boys, her golden eyes closing once again and then she promptly collapsed from sitting position and off the capsule's platform. Gokudera and Suzaku hastily rushed to the girl and dragged her out of the truck and onto the ground.
"Honestly, poison gas?" Lelouch angrily said. "And this girl instead?"
"Hey," Suzaku shot back. "They told us it was poison gas, and-"
The spotlight shined on Suzaku's back, and he turned around, and saw an army full of soldiers staring right back at them. Gokudera was beyond words.
"Stinking monkey!!" the commander of the soldier group yelled. "Being an honorary Britannian doesn't excuse you!"
"Uh, I'm sorry!!" Suzaku got up and began to run to the commander. "But sir, I was told this was poison gas-"
"How dare you question orders?!" the commander hollered. Gokudera and Suzaku gasped.
This is bad… Lelouch thought to himself. This situation…. Tsuna knocked out… Gokudera won't do any good…
"However," the commander softened. "In light of you outstanding military achievements, I'm going to be lenient."
He gave the brown haired soldier a gun. "Private Kuruugi, take this and execute the terrorists."
All three boys gasped, still in this sticky situation.
"But he's no terrorist," Suzaku tried to reason. "He's a civilian who got caught up in all this."
"You imbecile subordinate!" the commander was enraged. "That's an order! Didn't you swear you loyalty to Britannia?!"
"Yes, but…"
"Bastards…" Gokudera swore under his breath.
"But… I can't…" Suzaku's words shocked everyone.
"What?" the impending rage was building up in the commander.
"I won't do it, sir," Suzaku frowned. "I won't shoot a civilian. I can't follow your orders, sir."
"Very well." The gun's click from behind surprised Suzaku.
Bang!
"Suzaku!!" Gokudera and Lelouch gasped.
The wounded soldier fell to his knees and his entire body was on the floor.
"Well, Britannian schoolboys," the commander smirked. "Not a good day to cut class. Collect the girl, Kill the three students."
"Yes, my lord," the other soldiers robotically answered.
The truck exploded behind them, and the entire room was filled with smoke.
"They got away?! And you call yourselves the Royal Guard?!"
//Forgive me, my lord. The blast was directed mainly upwards but-//
"Why the hell do you I only told you people about this?!"
//We'll continue the investigation.//
"The plan is moved forward to the next phase," Clovis trailed on.
"But your highness!" a commander resisted.
"If knowledge of her gets out, I'll be disinherited. Tell them back home we're carrying a plan in urban renewal here. As Prince Clovis Third prince of Britannia, I command you, destroy Shinjuku ghetto. Leave no one alive!"
"Nice words… Brother…" a white haired young man smiled gleefully. He was clothed decoratively as Clovis himself.
"Thank you, Prince Byakuran," Clovis smiled.
Byakuran turned to his subordinates. "Oh, please do kill them."
"Yes, my lords!" Everyone in the room shouted.
"What the hell are you!?" Lelouch had taken the liberty of carrying the green haired girl to a safer location. Gokudera, carrying Tsuna, followed closely behind.
"This chaos is all your fault, isn't it?!" Lelouch looked at the girl, who didn't speak.
"Not only that," Gokudera continued, venom dripping his words. "Not only that… but Britannia has killed Suzaku, too."
"Where do you think they could be, Hibari?" Mukuro asked.
"Don't know," Hibari growled. "Keep searching."
"Okay~"
"Stay quiet." Lelouch ordered the girl, who didn't move or speak. Gokudera nodded and propped Tsuna against the wall. Lelouch crawled up the stairs.
More gunfire ensued, and several soldiers stood in the opening.
"Report," the head of the group asked, the same one that killed Suzaku.
"Only Elevens here, sir," one said.
"Ugh… you're sure of it, that exit only comes here."
"Yes, sir, and it matches our map with the map of the old city.
Lelouch heard the voice of crying girl, then more gunfire, and the crying stopped. He shut his eyes hard to stop crying, but then his cell phone began to ring. The soldiers took notice of that.
"Huh?" Shirley looked at the phone. She tried to call Lelouch, but…
"Ugh!! That jerky hang up on me!"
Uni and Lambo sweatdropped. "Well… calm down… Shirley…"
"How can I not be?! He's late!"
Uni then gave a gasp of shock. Lambo looked worriedly at her.
"Uni… you all right?"
Her blank stare said no. and Lambo began to shake her furiously.
"Uni! Uni!! You're not here right now! Uni!"
"Uni!" Shirley shouted. "Quick! To the nurse's office!"
Lelouch, Gokudera, and Tsuna were promptly tossed against a wall. The green haired girl was held back by two guns.
"What an appropriate location for terrorists to meet their end," the head teased them.
"Bastards…" Gokudera growled, about to take out his "make-shift" bow and kill them all.
"Still you did well for a student, but that's to be expected," the captain continued. "You're a Britannian. Unfortunately, my clever young friends, you have no future."
"You-" Gokudera nearly burst. Tsuna heard nothing, for he still was knocked out.
"He mustn't die!" the green haired girl broke out of the soldiers' hold on her and took the three bullets aimed for them. One hit her head, another in her abdomen, and the third at her waist. Lelouch and Gokudera noticed a strange bird symbol on her forehead. The captain saw this as well.
"You shot her!" Lelouch shouted back.
"Our orders were to bring her back alive, if possible," the captain explained. "Oh well, nothing can be done about it now. We'll our superiors the Royal Guard found the terrorists hideout and killed them all, regrettably the female hostage was even tortured to death What do you think, schoolboy?"
"How can this be happening?" Lelouch's arm twitched. Gokudera was quite surprised. He had never seen Lelouch this angry before.
"Lelouch…"
First… Suzaku's killed Lelouch twitched uncontrollably. And now, this girl… now I'm about to die… Before I had a single chance to do a single thing with my life… it's gone in a heartbeat… Nunally!
The girl's hand touched his, and he gasped in shock. His state of mind was tossed into a strange cybernetic world.
"You don't want it to end here, do you?" the girl's voice echoed once again in his head. "You appear to have a reason for living."
That girl, Gokudera, Tsuna, and Lelouch's voice, joined by the voice of another girl said in unison. That's impossible!
"If I grant you power, could you go on?"
The many faces of the same girl stamped in his mine billions of times. And then changed to two planets meeting at a tangent.
"I propose a deal," the girl continued. "In exchange for this power, you must agree to make my one wish come true. Accept this contract, and you accept its conditions. While living in the world of humans, you live as one unlike any other. A different Providence… a different time… a different life."
Lelouch was floating in nothingness again. He saw more flashes of pictures.
"The power of the kings will condemn you to a life of solitude. Are you prepared for this?"
He then saw the shadow of an elderly king.
"A convergence," the king bellowed. "With the fellow connections… so the myth is beginning once again?"
Lelouch recognized this man.
"Then yes!" Lelouch shouted with his voice, his voice alone. "I hereby accept the terms of your contract!"
The girl's body continued to bleed, and Lelouch got up to his feet. Gokudera was staring into open space, his eyes wide with what his mind just saw. Tsuna, still unconscious, moved his hand on instinct to Gokudera's. Gokudera looked at Tsuna in shock.
"Juudaime…" he whispered.
"My pocket…" Tsuna said quietly, as if he were still dreaming. "My gloves…"
"Say…" Lelouch addressed the captain. "How should Britannians who detest their own country live their lives?"
"Are you some kind of radical?" The captain clicked his gun into place. He then gasped as Lelouch took his pose, covering his left eye.
"What's wrong?" Lelouch challenged the captain. "Why not shoot? You're opponent is just a schoolboy, or have you finally realized… that the only ones that should prepare to kill are the ones who are prepared to be killed?"
He showed his left eye to them all, his eye bursting with the insignia of the same symbol from the girl's forehead.
"What's happening here?" the captain began to back away. Gokudera gasped, and placed Tsuna's white mittens in his boss's hands.
"I, Lelouch vi Britannia commands you," Lelouch raised his left arm before him and swung it to his side. "Now, all of you… Die!"
Obediently, the captain began to laugh maniacally. Gokudera gasped at the show.
"Happily, your Highness!" the captain pointed a gun to his neck, as did the others. "Fire!"
The scene before the "three schoolboys" was blood, blood, and more blood. Lelouch snapped out of his strange behavior and gasped at the scene.
That was the day of the turning point. Since that day, he had lived a lie, the lie of living. His name, too, was a lie, his personal history, a lie… Nothing… but lies… He and the Tenth Generation were sick to death on how the world had changed, but even in his, and their lies, they refuse to give up in despair, but now, he has been given this incredible power. It's his.
"Well, then," Lelouch smiled evilly. Gokudera then smirked in response.