Chapter 43

I'm pretty sure everybody, including Suzaku, could guess what that something was. Regardless, though, Suzaku slowly released his grip on Ryūen's wrist. As soon as he did so, Ryūen whipped that same arm out straight at Suzaku's face, like a snake attacking its prey.

"Kururugi!" Hirata shouted in alarm.

Suzaku, however, wouldn't be concerned by such an attack. He raised his guard calmly yet quickly, allowing the attack to be soaked up by his forearms.

Ryūen followed up the attack with a nasty kick towards Suzaku's stomach, which would've ended the fight instantly if he was against pretty much anyone except Suzaku. However, the fight wasn't against 'anyone except Suzaku'.

Suzaku twisted his body to the side, the most efficient way to avoid a straight attack. A heavily practiced manoeuver. Ryūen placed his leg back on the ground and righted himself very quickly, but it simply wasn't fast enough when you were up against Suzaku.

Suzaku moved himself behind Ryūen before he could fully recover and grabbed both of his arms, twisting them and pinning him against the bar.

"Are you done now?" He asked coolly.

"Kukuku, that was fun. Albert, can you lend a hand?"

At Ryūen's call, the towering giant appeared behind Suzaku. If it was midday, he probably would've cast a cinematic shadow over the scene. Albert swiped his thick right hand out, attempting to grab Suzaku by the back of his collar.

Suzaku didn't even turn around, but somehow knew exactly what Albert was doing. He released Ryūen and sprung into the air. At the height of his jump, he spun around and aimed a nasty kick at Albert's chest. Albert's size greatly diminished his agility, and so he had neither the speed nor the reflexes required to stop the attack.

One would expect someone as big as Albert to be mostly unaffected by a kick like that. Albert clearly thought so as well, as he made no movements to protect himself. His expectations were betrayed when the kick connected, though, the power behind it forcing him to stumble backwards to avoid toppling over. This was a testament to how strong ridiculously Suzaku actually was.

Ryūen, who had been pinned against the bar just a moment ago, made a similar attack of his own. He did a 180 degree spin so that he was facing towards Suzaku, and shot his leg out as he did so in one fluid motion, attempting to cleave right through the space Suzaku's head occupied.

The easiest counter would've been to step back but, since Suzaku had just been airborne, he couldn't do so. Instead, he countered by swinging out his right hand to meet it. It batted Ryūen's leg away, and a loud crack rang out.

After deflecting the attack and righting himself, Suzaku swiftly put some distance between himself and his two adversaries. Albert looked as if he was about to follow up with another assault, but Ryūen stopped him by holding out his arm.

"Kuku, you have quite some monstrous strength, Kururugi. Kicks are always more powerful than punches, but you were able to overpower my kick by clashing your own arm against it. The force of it even caused my knee to crack satisfyingly." Ryūen narrated haughtily, undeterred.

"I fight so that others don't have to. That is why I must be strong." Suzaku replied, his resolve clear to see.

"How honourable. Come on Albert, we're done here."

With that, the dictator departed. The onlookers were still staring slack-jawed at the scene, apparently amazed by Suzaku's feat of power. I decided to make my way over to the girl still slumped against the railing while they all ogled Suzaku.

"Are you okay?" I asked, reaching my hand out towards her.

"Don't expect me to thank you guys or anything. Nobody asked you to step in." Ibuki slapped my hand away and stormed off angrily, garnering some distasteful looks from the bystanders.

"My, how ungrateful." I muttered as I moved over to Suzaku's side.

"Don't say that, Lelouch. Some people just have difficulty expressing gratitude. You shouldn't think badly of her." He lectured me as I reached him.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

Two pairs of footsteps approached us from the side. We turned to see Hirata and Ichinose, who had finally gotten over the shock of what they'd just witnessed.

"That was incredible, Kururugi-kun." Hirata said in awe.

"Was it? I don't think it was anything special." Humble-kun responded.

"It was super amazing! Especially that spinny-kick move!" Ichinose said excitedly.

"I just couldn't stand to see mindless violence. That's all."

"You truly are like me, Kururugi-kun. People shouldn't fight." Hirata said, approval filling his tone.

"I agree! Everyone should just get along! That's what my class strives for." Ichinose added with a bright smile.

"A world without fighting, huh... That sure would be nice." I muttered to no one, but they all seemed to have heard me.

"Huh? What do you mean, Lelouch-kun?" Ichinose asked quizzically.

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking, aren't the events that happened in the world recently enough proof that a conflict-free world is impossible?"

"Hmm... Are you referring to the war with Britannia, Lelouch-kun?" Hirata asked me, picking up on my implication.

"Yeah. Evil like that will sprout up no matter how hard you try to stop it, because that's just how some people are." I spat, aware of the venom infecting my tone.

Suzaku sent me a look of concern, but didn't say anything due to the presence of Hirata and Ichinose. Those two just looked slightly saddened by what I said.

"I suppose you're right... Such a world is an impossible ideal." Hirata said defeatedly.

"It seems that I've made the mood turn sour, apologies. How about we talk about something else?" I said, changing the subject.

"Ah, that's right. What were you guys talking about with Horikita?" Suzaku asked, looking towards the black-haired girl who was still sitting alone at the bar.

"That's..." Ichinose hesitated for a while, before continuing. "I suppose it's fine to tell Suzaku-kun and Lelouch-kun. We were discussing joining hands between our classes."

Class B and Class E intended to form an alliance, huh? It certainly wasn't a bad plan. But... Why was Horikita present for that discussion? Ichinose and Hirata made sense, being the representatives of their classes, but Horikita? She wasn't very well-liked at all - in fact, her social standing was probably one of the lowest there was in Class E. It would've made far more sense for someone like Kushida to be present.

Perhaps Hirata asked her to come along. Did he see something in her? There's also the fact that I doubted Horikita would ever accept his invitation. This answer brought more questions to my mind than answers. There was one thing I was certain of, however.

"Ha! You lot are far too quick to trust." I couldn't help but laugh bemusedly.

"Huh? What are you saying, Lelouch?" Suzaku asked me. He obviously didn't get it yet.

"Suzaku. They're obviously making preparations for when we have to fight against the other classes. Don't you think that showing their cards to us has weakened their advantage?"

"Well... I guess I can't deny that. If they'd kept it a secret, it would be quite a powerful asset for them to play. It would definitely take the other classes by surprise." Suzaku gave quite a decent deduction. I felt slightly proud of him.

"It's nothing like that," Ichinose denied it, however. "We just want a cooperative relationship. I don't want to win using underhanded methods like that."

What the hell was this girl saying? After going to all the trouble to join hands, they were only going to use it to openly cooperate? I couldn't see that logic as anything but ridiculous.

"You're just as bad as Ryūen." I said exasperatedly.

"Lelouch!" Suzaku exclaimed in shock.

"Lelouch-kun, that's... quite a harsh thing to say." Hirata frowned in response.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean personality-wise. I meant strategically. Ryūen is immature and violent, which makes him very easy to predict. Similarly, you're too naïve and kind, which makes you easy to predict. The fact that we know you'll never use an underhanded tactic makes fighting you ten times easier."

"But why do we have to think about everything in terms of fighting each other?" Ichinose asked dejectedly.

"It's always best to remain vigilant. Besides, weren't you doing that exact thing by planning to form an alliance to begin with?" I pointed out.

"I suppose that's true." Hirata said.

I couldn't help but feel disappointed. I'd been placed in the tiny Class E originally, and we were given the challenge of beating all the other classes despite our great disadvantage. However, after spending some time here, all I could think was that all of our enemies are weak.

We already overtook Class E within the first month, and became Class D.

Class C's leader was immature and violent. While he was pretty sharp, the fact remains that he will resort to the same methods one way or another. He might employ some surprising and cunning tactics, but in the end, his overall strategy will always be the same.

Tactics don't win battles, strategy does. That's why Ryūen will lose.

Class B's leader was, to put it bluntly, hopeless. The power of friendship won't win you any real fights. Moreover, the power Ichinose believes in... is easily erased.

Class A is the most unknown to me, but the divide in their class is a testament to their weakness. How can they expect to defeat me while they're constantly fighting themselves?

I felt that I was starting to become greatly disillusioned of this school already