Upon entering the school courtyard, they could see plenty of food vendor stalls lined up along the section. Smells ranging from delicious to bizarre filled the air as griddles, fryers, ovens and crock pots brewed their food items of choice. A wonderful mix of Britannian and Japanese based delicacies came together as the students of Ashford Academy showed off the culinary offerings they were proud to present to their guests and the rest of the student body alike.
For Marie Parfacy, it was a rather interesting experience for her taste buds as she allowed herself to check out a few samples. “There’s quite a lot of fried food here as well as mixed cuisine.”
Rai simply smiled as he basked in the controlled chaos of the festival, fondly recalling the original one from last year as he turned his head toward Marie. “I was a bit surprised myself, but then again I was still getting used to a few centuries worth of culinary evolution on top of having a choice of Japanese and Britannian foods and recipes that fused the two culinary styles together.”
“I see,” said the GN Archer pilot as she stopped to look at another particular vendor stall, noting the delicious smells coming from it. She stepped away from the group to take a look at the fryer where several thin breaded snacks were being deep fried. Suddenly they puffed up into round shapes, which impressed her and the other spectator, a tall blonde male teenager wearing black pants with white shoes, a white buttoned frilly shirt with a maroon vest and a blue sleeveless long coat.
“Wow! Would you look at that?” remarked the young man standing next to Marie before he turned to face his companion, a fifteen year old girl with pink hair that had a big green bow in it. Her attire consisted of a pink dress with a red open jacket, and white and red striped thigh length stockings and red shoes. “Hey Anya, check out how these things puff up when they finish cooking!”
The girl held up a handheld digital recorder device which made a beeping sound, followed by a dry remark in a neutral tone. “Recorded.”
Noticing the handheld, Alice moved closer to the pink haired girl. “Oh wow… is that the new Digi-Diary all-in-one? I didn’t know they came out yet!”
Cocking her head at Alice, Anya gave a very small smile. “I know someone who got me one of the early finished products. They should be officially out this week.” She paused for a moment as she saw the blue ball in the other girl’s hands. “You have a good eye for these devices don’t you? That large ball toy is a new pet robot of some kind isn’t it?”
Alice felt her cheeks burn a little as she looked down at Haro in her arms. “Y-yeah, I really dig interactive toys… and well, I love to photo and text my friends and siblings a bunch so I keep an eye out for the newest models.”
“Alice is embarrassed! Alice is embarrassed!”
“HARO!” She wished that the little ball wouldn’t talk out loud although it didn’t blow their cover.
Hearing the ‘ball’ talk caused the blonde teen to whistle once in impression as he licked some of the ice cream from the cone in his hand. “Hey, hey, hey! It can talk! I didn’t know they had a model like this one out! Where did you get him?”
“My cousin happens to know a person or two who fiddles around with such devices,” said Marie, hoping to steer attention away from Haro. “My name’s Marie and this is my cousin Alice. The two men that are by that soba noodle stand are her brother Rai, my other cousin and our bodyguard Kamal Majirif.”
Nodding in acknowledgement, the tall blonde pointed to the pink haired girl and then himself as he began introductions on his end. “Well the blog addict here is Anya, and I’m called Gino! It’s a pleasure to meet’cha!”
Anya directed her gaze to Rai and Kamal, studying the man of obvious Middle Eastern origin. “Your family employs an Eighteen bodyguard?”
“Kamal’s a reliable guy!” exclaimed Alice. “He worked for my uncle and my own father before the annexation of the Middle East Federation. They saved him from poverty and the civil unrest from where he came from, so he doesn’t have any loyalty to the extremists over there.”
Gino now eyed Kamal as well. “Well, I hear some of the fighting styles in Area 18 are downright dirty so he’s gotta be good at his job.”
“Oh you have no idea,” said Marie as she managed to keep her tone chipper to play the part she was given for the reconnaissance mission. “Well it was nice meeting you both.”
“Likewise! C’mon Anya! Let’s go see what else this Commoner school has to offer!” proclaimed Gino in an excited tone of voice as he started moving again while Anya simply followed him but not before giving a light wave to Alice and Marie.
“Well, that went well,” murmured the small girl to Marie as they both caught up with Rai and Setsuna.
“I must say I’m impressed with your adlib skills. I’m not used to being a spy so this sort of thing is not my forte,” admitted the taller woman.
“It’s nothing special. It just all came naturally.” Alice tried to stay humble but a small smug smile still remained on her face regardless.
Lowering his ‘cell phone’, Setsuna saw the two ladies catch up to himself and Rai. “I received a recommendation we split up.”
After rubbing his chin to ponder on how things have turned out so far, Rai snapped his fingers. “I got an idea. I’ll go with Alice and we’ll stick to the outside events. Given our ages it would be odd if we don’t act the part and participate here and there while keeping an ear out for ‘you-know-who’, and you two can go inside the campus to search there.”
That worked for Marie. “That makes sense. So we’ll all meet back here in an hour for a sit-rep?”
“An hour it is then!” Rai then offered a hand to Alice. “So you ready to have some fun while we keep an eye out, little sister?”
With a large smile, she accepted the offered hand with one of her own while the other kept on holding the blue Haro. “Lead the way, big bro!”
Setsuna watched the two disappear into the crowd and briefly lowered his sunglasses before pushing them back up. “I wonder if I should follow. I am supposed to be a bodyguard.”
“You can guard me since I’m family as well.” After a beat the white haired young lady’s tone turned a bit playful. “Just don’t tell Allelujah. He doesn’t like it when others guard me so much.”
“Why would Allelujah not want me to protect you?” asked her companion in a dry tone.
Realizing her attempt at a playful joke utterly failed, Marie felt a large bead of sweat form on the side of her face. “N-never mind then. Let’s head inside the campus and keep an eye out for this pizza-loving woman.”
(break)
After getting themselves a helping of takoyaki, Rai and Alice continued to walk along, looking for any signs of their target but so far the green haired immortal was nowhere to be seen.
Swallowing a hot, delicious octopus ball, Alice looked up at the older boy. “So are you sure this mega-sized pizza will bring her out?”
He merely nodded once, while finishing off his own octopus ball. “I rarely saw that woman parted from her beloved pie. If she’s still in the area, this will bring her out.”
“So did she ever tell you if she had a contract with someone in the area?”
He shook his head. “I was more interested in learning about my powers. I did make one attempt to inquire, but she dropped the old ‘none of my business’ line, and I felt that it was better that I didn’t push the subject. Otherwise, I probably would have pissed her off enough to not talk to me.”
“I guess that makes sense,” replied the small girl before she heard another male voice in the distance call out.
“Come watch everyone! Come watch us make the world’s biggest pizza pie! Come watch the main event!”
Rai froze upon hearing the voice and looked ahead to see another male teen about Rai’s age wearing a light-pink apron, red ascot-like scarf, topped with a chef’s hat with a megaphone slung on a strap on his right shoulder. “Rivalz…”
While Rivalz handed out fliers for the main attraction and kept moving along to spread word of the event, Alice spotted both recognition and sadness etched on Rai’s face. “You knew him didn’t you?”
“I know him,” corrected the Geass user as he shut his eyes to drown the pain in his heart from overtaking him. “We used to work on his motorcycle together along with another friend, Suzaku… the same Suzaku who’s being honoured at this party. Just seeing him and knowing that I remember everything while he doesn’t… it makes me hate myself for being so panicky back then. I could have left without erasing everyone’s memories… I’d have preferred having to concoct a crazy excuse for why I left rather than having things as they are now. I can see my friends and I can touch them if I wanted… but they don’t know me. And it’s my own damned fault.”
“Rai’s sad, Rai’s sad,” chirped the Blue Haro in an unhappy tone, which showed that the round A.I. unit understood the mood.
Alice looked at Rai and clearly saw the raw pain on his face. Overwhelmed by a desire to comfort him, she put down her takoyaki container on the nearby bench and slipped her free hand into his before squeezing it. “You’ll find a way to fix it one day. I-I dunno how but I’m sure you’ll get them to remember you.”
“I dunno if I’ll be able to pull it off myself, but I wanna try to believe I can undo my mistakes.” While the pain didn’t go away, Alice’s warm words helped take some of the self-loathing off. He squeezed back while looking upon Alice warmly. “Thanks Alice.”
“That’s what little sisters are there for! To help their big brothers feel better!” exclaimed the young Britannian girl while flashing her cutest smile.
“That and driving them crazy as well!” laughed the young man heartily before they resumed their walk. “You know, you remind me of someone else I know here that I haven’t seen yet.”
“Who’s that?”
(break)
“Get in contact with Diethard using Kyushu’s Cell F.” On the surface, Lelouch appeared to be walking among the crowd as the Student Council Vice-President, making sure that events were proceeding normally as scheduled. But at the moment, he was in his Zero persona, making preparations with his Black Knights. Had there been sharper ears, someone might have been able to pick up bits and pieces of his conversation over the phone but considering the noise levels of the crowd and how he kept his tone low, it was doubtful that anyone would have heard anything.
While one ear was occupied with the phone, the other kept alert for any sort of issue that might need his attention. Most of the conversations around him were mostly on trivial things although one particular one caught him by surprise.
“A young lady who’s crippled and blind but she’s got the biggest heart out of anyone that I know. I swear that the minute you meet Nunnally, you’ll be the best of friends.”
‘Did I hear correctly?’ He whirled around to find the source of the conversation and caught a glimpse of a tall, white haired young man in an Ashford uniform escorting a small girl.
“Zero?”
Lelouch tried to get back to his conversation with his second in command. “Yes, get Rakshata here as-”
“I hope Nunnally and her brother Lelouch have been alright this past year. I’d give anything to spend a quiet day with either one of them.”
“Sorry, I’ll call back later!” He quickly hung up and tried to track down the man he saw earlier. ‘That guy… he said Nunnally’s name! In fact he remembers we’re brother and sister! There’s someone who remembers things as they truly were! And maybe… he has a clue of her whereabouts!’
But before he could start searching, he saw a problem talking to Rivalz in the form of a green haired, golden eyed lady dressed in the female Ashford Academy uniform. “It can’t be…!”
His worst fears were confirmed as he made out C.C. talking to Rivalz down below and helping herself to a flyer to the Giant Pizza event. “She wouldn’t- oh who am I kidding…? She would! Damn it all you witch!” He cursed under his breath and turned back to see if he could find that pair he saw earlier but they were long gone.
“Damn!” cursed Lelouch, pounding his fist on the stone railing before he headed to the stairs to catch C.C., assuming she would stay down in the open courtyard. ‘I’m going to have a stern talk with that woman, especially since she cost me an opportunity to possibly find out about Nunnally!’
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(Posted Sun, 07 Aug 2011 02:40)
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