Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. Nina and Sakuradite are the property of Sunrise. Please don't sue me. I'm very poor.

Sakuradite: Discovery, Properties, Usage, and its Future

Nina Einstein

For: Mr. Gottfried's Fifth Period Science Class

15 March 2017

Sakuradite is, quite literally, the cornerstone of the Britannian Empire. Its essentialness for the Britannian army, its myriad civil applications, and its relative rarity in most areas led to the conquest of the former nation of Japan, and its transformation into Area Eleven.

"Sakuradite" is a sobriquet given to the substance by the previous largest exporter: Japan, now dubbed Area Eleven. The pink color that the mineral takes when it is processed into usable form, as well as the rosy tint of the explosions that occur when the mineral is not handled carefully, likely both contributed to this name. That aside, the history of "Sakuradite" (ElBa2Ca2Cu5O9) is an incredible story.

Sakuradite is thought to have originated from an intense meteor shower during the Triassic period. The only traces of Elizabethium (and indeed, the only traces of Sakuradite) are found in areas that were proved bombarded in the showers. Several areas were hit very hard, and thus have a high quotient of the mineral; however, as mentioned before, Area 11 had the worst pounding, and thus, the most Sakuradite.

The first recorded discoveries occurred in Old Britain, long before Washington's Revolt and the Napoleonic Wars. Near a site referred to as "Stonehenge", curious villagers discovered small deposits of a mysterious mineral. The awestruck inhabitants named it the Philosopher's Stone, and it was highly sought after for its beautiful glow (and supposed "magical" properties) for hundreds of years. (Of course, the glow sprung from the substance's high radioactivity, and likely aided the advancement of the Black Death in the 14th century, as it was promoted as a panacea, in like manner to mercury.)

Nothing much was thought of the mineral until 1863, aside from appreciation of its natural luminescence, when a young chemist named George Mannerheim was analyzing the material's properties. He was attempting to react it with various metals, when a poorly attached electrical cable happened to fall from the ceiling, and landed in the solution. To his astonishment, even though the cable had broken in two with its ends in the solution, the light bulb in his laboratory did not sputter out, but rose to a blinding glow, and then exploded! Even as he took shelter from bits of light bulb, he resolved to find out more of this intriguing property of "the Philosopher's Stone". A few tests revealed the truth: he had discovered the world's first – and still most effective – superconductor. At as high as 298 Kelvin it conducts electricity with zero Ohms of resistance. This took the scientific world by storm (Mannerheim was awarded the Bystroem Prize in 1872, and still holds the record for youngest winner at 24), and many uses were found for it; many modern machines still use Sakuradite's excellent power efficiency capabilities to allow a massive cutback in general power usage.

However, for a long time, the refining process was extremely dangerous, and performing it was one of the most deadly jobs in existence. Thus, the expense – and inevitable casualties – of refinement long outweighed the benefit of its wider use. With the advent of robotics in 1934, however, refinement factories became much safer for humans, and the exploitation of Sakuradite began in earnest. This promoted the advancement of military technology, and with it, the Holy Britannian Empire began to grow in size again after nearly a century of stagnation; truly, Sakuradite is the factor that allowed this renaissance.

The properties of Sakuradite are numerous; however, only the most important of them shall be touched upon in this essay. First and foremost are its incredible superconductive properties. The Elizabethium contained within (discovered by Mannerheim, and named, in a fit of patriotic fervor, after Britannia's greatest queen) is highly diamagnetic even when heated moderately, which allows for the superconductivity of Sakuradite.

It has not yet been synthesized, which leaves applications beside its superconductivity somewhat behind, and, as stated before, is dangerously radioactive. Also, if enough is gathered in an unshielded container, then its volatility will ensure an explosion in response to the slightest jostle. Regulations to reduce the amount of Grays received by humans shipping Sakuradite and to reduce as much as possible the chance of an explosion have therefore been put in place. As well as these less desirable qualities, it holds a very distinguished title as the "jack-of-all-trades" of metal alloys. It can be used in almost any system relatively safely and cleanly, and it is quite safe once it is not in a large concentration. It can even be detected by radar, allowing for quick identification of allies (who would share your nation's unique Sakuradite "tag") in battle.

As 100 percent efficiency can be obtained when working with Sakuradite electronics, the main focus of Sakuraditic electronic theory is to increase the power that the system can supply. Most modern electronic systems were developed by Sakuraditic electronic theory, and they are far more effective than previous systems.

Sakuraditic systems have only one weakness: powerful ferromagnets (magnets with permanent charge). Ferromagnets force the Elizabethium out of its diamagnetic state by aligning the electrons in one direction, and render Sakuradite utterly useless. Fortunately, the range of most ferromagnets is very small, and would not be able to cut off most machines entirely; if the range of ferromagnets could be extended, however, it could be an effective weapon against Sakuradite machinery. (This paragraph now exists on Lelouch's phone. He copied it while Nina was being forced to dress up by Milly for another one of her celebrations.)

The future of Sakuradite is very bright. New applications are discovered constantly, and its excellent energy efficiency bodes well for its future use. The world is, right now, looking through Sakuradite-colored glasses.

- (This was scribbled at the bottom, in Nina's own hand.) That last thing I said… I wonder if I could devise a system of propulsion based on Sakuradite? Our planet is running out of it; it's hard to reclaim and reuse… I bet we'd find some more on asteroids, or maybe discover a reusable incarnation… But everyone's so worried about war that they don't pay attention to the scientists (like ME) who are telling them they're spending resources too fast… ferromagnetism… hmmm

My dear readers: You may have noticed that Nina wrote about an element that does not exist, Elizabethium. Yes, she did. However, the meteor shower she also wrote about did not occur on our planet, and, even now, our periodic table is not complete. There are several "islands" of stability in the current superheavy elements row on the table, and Elizabethium might just be one of those relatively stable elements. One more thing: This paper is not scientifically accurate (at least not in regards to current science). I tried to make it as plausible as possible by reading Wikipedia and scholarly articles for information about the phenomenon of superconductivity; however, I do not have a PhD or even a bachelor's in the hard sciences, and I am thus not always very comprehensive of very advanced science. I apologize. Thank you for reading. By the way, if you liked this little drabble, you might enjoy reading my other Code Geass fanfiction: THE STRANGER, THE SAINT, THE HORN, AND THE WORD.

- Kribble the Mighty