Kouzuki Kallen murmured. Hadn't she just been...asleep?
"Didn't you say you were going to...talk things over...with Princess Cornelia's crew? What happened?"
Gino Weinberg scratched his head, looking around at the trees and the full moon in the dark cloudy skies.
"I don't know. What really worries me is that I can't remember getting into my Round's uniform..."
"Huh?" Kallen blinked. "Well, I don't remember getting into my Black Knight's formal wear either, so we're even there, I think... Hmmm. Maybe we're dreaming, or something?"
"Or something." Gino sighed, then, looking around at their surroundings. "I don't think so, though, somehow..."
And that was were the voice came down from the trees.
"Well, well, well. ...I'm not too surprised that you're here, Kallen, but - Lord Weinberg? Hmmmmm..."
C.C chuckled, green hair swinging in the breeze.
Kallen saw the flash of green, and sighed. "Oh, hi, She-Who-Loves-Her-Some -Pizza. You wouldn't have any idea just what we happen to be doing here, will you now?"
"Weeell..." C.C grinned. "I just might at that..."
"We have company!" C.C. called out, lightly running into the small clearing in front of the small house.
"Ahh, Miss Stadtfeld, Lord Weinberg, welcome to our little gathering..."
Kallen blinked. Earl Lloyd Asplund was here?
"Oh, it's you. ...Did you have to wear that uniform? Well, alright, never mind..."
And that voice was...Nina Einstein. Ew. Kallen groaned, trying to find Miss Even More Crazily Prejudiced Then Most, which was saying something, really.
In the meanwhile, Gino was being even more cheerfully oblivious-on-purpose then usual.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Ni - Miss Einstein. The uniform wasn't my idea, I swear..."
"...Oh, I didn't mean you, Lord Weinberg. It's just that - well, never mind. Hi, Kallen Stadtfeld or Kouzuki Kallen of the Black Knights or whoever you are at the moment."
Nina muttered very deadpannly indeed, wiping her hands on a towl.
I don't think the blood wipes off, not really, Nina...
Kallen sighed, then. Oh, well, it wasn't like she herself didn't have plenty of blood on her hands, after all.
"So...what's going on here?"
Kallen smiled, inwardly sweatdropping a little. Stranger and Stranger...
And that was when one Nunnally vi Britannia came floating out of the small house, wearing what appeared to be some kind of cream-colored school uniform.
"I'm sorry for taking so much time...."
No, wait, what? Kallen gawked at her. No, wait, that wasn't an Ashford uniform, the school emblem was different, but...
And why was she...floating...
Gino Weinberg, on the other hand, apparently had other things to worry about.
"Lady Nunnally!? What - How - Does Lady Cornelia know where you are!?
Oops. Nunnally smiled up at him sadly as she landed on the soft grass and sand, feet folded under her.
"Oh, I hope not. This is a...private ceremony, you see..."
Oi, oi, Gino, what about the little fact that she was, you know, floating in the air? Kallen groaned.
"And my elder sister Cornelia has enough to worry about already, I think. - Welcome, Lord Weinberg, Miss Kouzuki."
Nunnally nodded somehow regally, towards Nina and - something that had been laid in state at her feet, and then moved off to the side, towards a dark figure that was slumped against a tree. Kallen blinked, realizing that the figure was one Jeremiah Gottwald.
"But it's good you're on time, I think... We're about to have a funeral now, you see."
Kallen craned her head, trying to see the body by moonlight. As did Gino.
No, wait, but that...wasn't...
Brown hair with red highlights, instead of black.
Blue eyes with a hint of purple, instead of violet.
So many burns and scars, even under the visibly applied makeup, and dressed in a dark school uniform that...
And the face...the face was...
" - Kallen? Kallen! What's wrong!?"
Gino. That was Gino, trying to hold her up. Kallen shook herself and blindly pushed away from him. She was Kouzuki Kallen and she did not do such things as...
...Faint...
"...Nii-chan?"
No, no, she hadn't actually...said that...
"I made a gravestone too, you see. Here. I'm not sure it's fit inside the family plot, though... Though I'm sure that something can be arranged..."
Nina didn't sound all that crazy at all, at that moment.
Charles N. Pendragon
"...What does the 'N' stand for?"
Nina smiled at her, sadly.
"Naoto. - But you knew that already, didn't you?"
Kallen curled up against a tree, shaking, Gino by her side.
"Kallen. ...Naoto. Wasn't that your...brother's..."
"Yes."
"Then. That...?..."
" - I don't know. I don't know.
Naoto-her-brother, who'd died fighting the Britannian occupation.
But that...that body...
"So...then..." Gino took a deep breath.
"Why don't we go look?"
(Posted Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:09)
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