Imagine a scene of peace and serenity confined to a single room. Imagine that outside this room, the world is chaos. Well, perhaps not literally, but things are rather… Hectic at the moment in the world beyond. Political intrigue, grand-scale public mystery, conflict, warfare, sabotage, spectacle. The point is simply this. Here in this room is a safe haven where nothing bad can ever happen. Safety. Security. A hiding place from the terrible things that exist in the world.
“More tea, Miss Nunnally?”
“No thank you, Miss Sayako!” the little girl enthusiastically, cheerily replied. Though the word “cheerily” was rather redundant on matters concerning this little lady. It was one of the good things about working on this job. Both of her charges were in their own way rather delightful to be around, though Sayako did tend to spend far more time with Nunnally than Lelouch. This made sense. Of course the maid would need to attend to the blind girl in the wheelchair more than the intelligent and charismatic older brother. “I just wonder where my brother is, that’s all…”
<i>”A breaking news bulletin,”</i> the television interrupted. <i>“Zero and the Black Knights made a bold and terrible move today, interrupting an assault by Viceroy Cornelia on the Japan Liberation Front’s supposed home base in Narita by causing a landsli-”</i>
The television was switched off before Nunnally could hear anything more. That sort of news could only depress her, when she was already upset about her brother (yet again) spending time out. Now, Sayako had certain expectations in her mind that she could never quite voice in front of this innocent young girl. Lelouch was a healthy boy. She had described him as intelligent and charismatic, but he was also quite handsome and popular with the girls at school. This, Sayako vehemently believed, was where he was spending his time on those nights he could not be here.
Outwardly? “I could not hope to speculate,” she said. Though she made quite certain to keep her distance from Nunnally as the girl had quite the ability to tell whether someone was lying to her. “Perhaps we should ask him in the morning.” At which time he would be awake enough to come up with a convincing lie for them. Unless the girl wore him out, which was rather possible if she were honest with herself.
“I suppose…” Nunnally said. She cutely stifled a yawn. “Mmmn… Pardon me for asking, but please, could you tell me what time it is?”
“It’s about five to bedtime,” Sayako replied. “A growing girl always needs her beauty sleep, so let’s not stay up too late waiting for your idle big brother.”
“Alright,” Nunnally conceded. “But tomorrow, I’d like you to show me how to fold another animal with paper. Maybe an elephant?”
“I would have to figure out how to do that myself before I could teach you,” Sayako replied. “But I’m sure there are other things I could teach you how to fold.”
She pushed the wheelchair out into the corridor. It was such a strange thing. This didn’t feel like a job. It didn’t feel like a mission. When the Ashfords had first hired her to look after these two, she had been dreading it. Britannian nobility? Working for them as a maid? She expected them to hurl abuse at her, but in truth she had never worked for anyone nicer, never met anyone more gentle than the girl in front of her. It wasn’t a job. Not really. More like… She was the big sister for both of them in a strange way. Looking after them both until they could venture out into the big world out there and fend for themselves.
“How is your friend Suzaku fitting in at school?” Sayako asked. “I know you were both worried about him being mistreated by the other students.”
“He’s fitting in quite well,” Nunnally began. “The other students have started to warm up to him a little bit and - Is something wrong, Miss Sayako?”
Yes. Yes, there was. It was part of her daily routine to clean this building top to bottom, which (thanks to her ninja training) she could usually get done in about an hour, maybe an hour and ten minutes if the council had been up to shenanigans of some sort. She knew this building inside and out. Put a blindfold on her, stick her outside the building and cover the windows with paint, she could still tell you which window was for what room. Then get the windows replaced and tell you off for vandalism.
So why was there a door that would - according to her mental map - lead directly out of the upper floor and into a short, painful drop to the ground below? It had not been there yesterday or the day before. It was as if it had just sort of… Popped into existence, there and then.
“It’s nothing,” she said, resolving to investigate later.
“Please, Miss Sayako! If it’s something bad, I’d rather know about it.”
Innate lie-detecting ability. Amazing. Simply amazing. She’d even tried to control her heart rate just in case, but the blind girl saw right through her in the blink of an eye. Nunnally must have sensed something in the way she was holding the chair. Astounding.
“There is a strange door immediately to our left. It was not there the previous times I have been in this corridor. I believe someone is attempting an elaborate practical joke.”
“That does sound like something Milly might do, I suppose…” Nunnally giggled. “Alright. It would be a shame for her to go to all that trouble, and then we didn’t even fall for it. Please, Miss Sayako, let me open the door. I’m sure it won’t be anything too bad.”
That was the other aspect of this girl that amazed her, more than the ability to see through lies with simple proximity or contact. Here she was, confronted with the notion that someone had tried to set up a baffling practical joke. Most people would deliberately avoid falling into it, but the only thing Nunnally was thinking about was the hard work other people must have put into the joke! And she wanted to make sure that hard work didn’t go to waste. Too nice. This girl was too nice to be real.
“The doorknob is just in front of your right eye. Reach out and give it a twist.”
A small amount of adorable fumbling around in front of her later, and the door swung open. Outwards. Sayako had expected to see, for example, the rest of Ashford Academy spread out before them bathed in moonlight. But there wasn’t anything of the sort. Nothing at all, actually. Only darkness. Emptiness. The sort of emptiness that isn’t really all that scary. In fact, it made Sayako think of a particular rule of science.
Nature abhors a vacuum.
Maybe that was why every time she exhaled, she unconsciously took a step forward. Wheeling little miss Nunnally along in front of her, drawing both of them into the darkness as though it were an old friend. She couldn’t help it. The thought to fight it didn’t even pop into her head until they were already inside. The darkness surrounding them both. Nothing above them. Below them. Around them. Only one another. Only each other…
“What’s going on?” Nunnally asked. She was scared. “Where are we? What’s -”
Then out of nowhere, Sayako was left momentarily blinded by a sudden burst of light. That’s why the sound hit her ears first. A sound she didn’t hear these days. Friendly chatter. That sort of indistinguishable cacophony that comes from many people talking at once, each only paying attention to their own conversation and filtering out the other background noise. The difference was that these voices were, unmistakably, talking in…
“[Hello!]” a voice greeted them in Japanese. “[Welcome to our humble cafe! Oh gosh, are you this girl’s maid? That’s so] kawaii!”
Her vision cleared up but she still wasn’t quite sure how to respond. She was looking at a young Japanese woman, wearing glasses without any actual glass in the frames. In other words: Either a disguise, or deliberately trying to create a particular kind of look. The one that seemed more likely was the second of these two. Why? Well. The maid uniform was a big clue. Bigger still was the similar mode of dress for other women in the room, who were either greeting customers or checking up on them while they were sitting at various computers set around the room.
“[Hello!]” Nunnally said. “[My name is Nunnally. Excuse me for asking, but where are we at the moment?]”
“[“We are a little lost at the moment,]” Sayako added. She wasn’t quite as surprised about the fact that Nunnally knew the language so well. It was just like her to take the time. [“Would it be a problem if we used the computer to get our bearings a little?]”
“[That shouldn’t be a problem!]” the glasses-wearing girl replied. “[That is the purpose of our cafe, after all! You can have a drink of coffee while using our computers.]”
A quick thank-you, and Sayako took her seat while Nunnally rolled off to talk with the employees of this… strange cafe. Almost everyone here was Japanese and they were all very smartly dressed. No Britannians in a place this… fancy? How could a business like this stay in operation while only catering to the “Eleven” market? The short answer: It couldn’t. That was putting aside the means they had used to arrive at this place, which were still completely baffling her. Where were they? How did they get here? Additionally… These computers were using an operating system she was completely unfamiliar with. It seemed intuitive enough, but unfamiliar.
The Internet connection was pretty solid at the very least. Recent news items? No mention of Zero. Or Cornelia. Or Britannia. Or the use of the term ‘Elevens’, or Black Knights and the only terrorists mentioned tended towards Middle Eastern origin.
<i>What is this strange feeling I have?</i>
What she did next… She would not be able to explain no matter how much someone might make her try. It was just a random thing she was doing to try and get her mind focused on what the cause of this could be. An explanation - any explanation - would do! So, she typed a name into the search engine. The first name to come to mind.
Lelouch Lamperouge.
“Code Geass wiki?” she read aloud. Sayako reached across to click on the link, then jumped a little when she heard some laughter. A glance around revealed that Nunnally had already befriended all of the cafe employees. She breathed a slight sigh of relief. At the very least it seemed that they were not hostile… Then again if they were, Nunnally’s kindness could tame a hungry lion. Returning to the matter at hand, she clicked the link.
“Hm? What’s this?” she wondered aloud. This couldn’t possibly be right. Lelouch was Zero? And a Britannian prince, no less? That seemed rather difficult to believe. But no, what really bothered her was the description of his personality.
<i>While at school, Lelouch conducts himself as a sociable, likeable, and often easy-going student. However, in reality, this is a mask to hide his true nature.</i>
Surely not. Nunnally would see through that sort of deception in a heartbeat.
<i>In general, Lelouch takes most day-to-day affairs with open disinterest, often not even noticing the affection of others, especially Shirley, his fellow classmate.</i>
Goodness, that was certainly incorrect. A playboy like Lelouch, ignorant of the affection of other people? No, that aside. He was too intelligent to be so ignorant of something so terribly obvious. That girl in particular all but had a big flashing neon sign over her head proclaiming her interest. Whoever wrote this drivel hadn’t lived with the boy for, oh goodness, how many years had it been now? If this was someone’s idea of a practical joke, then she certainly wasn’t laughing about -
Aha! What was this? Edit? She could edit this page? Well then! Far be it for her to ignore an opportunity to set some incorrect information straight. Then, perhaps they could discover exactly where they were and how that door appeared in the corridor like that.
- Meanwhile, Lelouch suddenly feels his personality alter to accommodate Sayako’s edits.
- Another character finds a door to the real world.
- Sayako looks around on the wiki a little bit, and changes a few other pages.
- Sayako and Nunnally explore the real-world Tokyo.
- Something else
So Sayoko alters the wiki that could inevitably rewrite the world of Code Geass forever.
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