Suzaku's POV
I stepped out of the shower, and was met with the same thing as every other morning.
The mirror. Despite the blurriness that had accumulated as a result of the steam condensing on the cold glass, I could still make out my body, which had been carefully moulded to perfection over years of specialised training.
I looked down at my hands. No matter what kind of combat it was – armed or unarmed – I could not lose. Britannia's specialised training regime, that was tested on Japanese honorary Britannians like me, was capable of turning an ordinary teenager into a killing machine.
The face of my father flashed through my mind, and I had to grab onto the sink to steady myself. I looked up, and my reflection glared back at me, as if to say, 'No, you were always a monster,'.
Banishing these kind of morbidly oppressive thoughts, I brushed my teeth and got dressed. It was time for yet another school day, though this one would be a bit different.
That was because, as of right now, I was a member of Class C for the next month.
I locked my dorm behind me, and stepped into the nearby elevator to get down to the ground floor. There, familiar figure stood, examining himself in a handheld mirror.
"Kōenji," I said.
"Ah, Spotter-boy. Could you press the button for the ground floor?"
H-He was seriously too busy admiring his reflection to press it himself.
I let out a sigh, and pushed the button to take us down.
We got to the bottom, and Kōenji left without even a goodbye. I followed behind him at a leisurely pace – I had plenty of time to get to school, after all.
I wondered what kind of role would be required of me in Class C. Would they treat me differently because I was from a different class? Or would I be just another student?
Whatever the case was, I was sure of one thing: that it'd be very different from my usual position in Class B.
"Hey! Kururugi-kun!"
A feminine voice called out to me. I turned my head, and was met by a beautiful student with flowing, pink hair. This was the representative of Class C, Ichinose Honami.
"Oh, Ichinose, what a coincidence," I greeted.
I was surprised to see Ichinose walking to school by herself. You'd come to expect a number of students to surround her wherever she went by this stage.
"Eto, well, maybe it wasn't exactly a coincidence," Ichinose said sheepishly.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Well, I figured that Kururugi-kun might be nervous, so I kind of went out of my way to meet him before school on purpose," Ichinose looked slightly withdrawn, and twirled a strand of hair around her finger as she spoke.
"I see," I said.
"Oh god, it's weird, isn't it?! I'm sorry, please forget about it!"
Huh? Did I give that impression?
I waved my hands, unsure of quite how to react. "C-Calm down, Ichinose, I don't think it's weird. It's very thoughtful of you. Thanks," I gave her a reassuring smile.
A deep sigh of relief escaped from her lips.
"Is that right?"
Ichinose and I naturally fell into step with each other, and began making our way towards the school building.
"So? Are you nervous, Kururugi-kun?" Ichinose asked me.
"I would be lying if I said I wasn't at all," I chuckled.
"There's nothing to worry about. I'm sure that all of my classmates will welcome you with open arms."
If this girl said it, it was difficult not to be convinced.
"Well, out of all the classes, Class C is the one I'd be least concerned about joining."
I imagined that the atmosphere in Class A would be too caught up in its internal feud. I had no doubt that Ryūen would make it difficult if you were joining Class D, too, and Class E seemed far too chaotic to settle into easily.
"That makes me happy," Ichinose smiled gladly. "Creating a pleasant and non-judgemental atmosphere is my goal, after all."
From my perspective, Class C was the most successful of all the classes. They may not be on top of the class points right now, however their class certainly had the foundation to build on that other classes like A and E lacked.
Ichinose's goal wasn't bad in and of itself, but like my classmates had remarked a multitude of times by now, the naivety with which they approach conflict with the other classes stunts their power massively.
I agreed with Ichinose's philosophy of fighting within the scope of the rules and the system – this much was not a problem. However, if you simply assume that everybody else will do the same, and you neglect to prepare for the event that you are attacked from an illegal angle, you leave yourself far too vulnerable.
A simple example of this was the uninhabited island exam. Ichinose's strategy at that time wasn't flawed, but they were brought to ruin by Kaneda, a spy sent by Ryūen that Ichinose had happily taken in.
If Ichinose had just considered that maybe Kaneda had come with malicious intent, then Class C would have gained over 200 class points; a lot more than the 40 that they actually secured from the exam
"Say, Kururugi-kun, what do you think of Ryūen-kun?"
Ryūen? I wondered why Ichinose was bringing him up now.
"Let's see... He is certainly intelligent and cunning; you have to give him that. I can't say I agree with his methods, no matter how effective they may be. However, at the moment, I don't view him as much of a threat," I told Ichinose my honest thoughts.
"N-Not much of a threat?" She seemed shocked.
To someone like Ichinose, who couldn't dream of doing something underhanded, I guess Ryūen was the worst possible kind of enemy.
"His attacks are extremely one-dimensional," I said.
"One-dimensional?"
If this were an anime, animated question marks would definitely be floating above Ichinose's head right now. Her confused expression was really cute, a fact to which she seemed oblivious. I had to avert my eyes to avoid being entranced.
"Picture this scenario: one of your classmates has done something that greatly inconvenienced Ryūen, and now he's aiming to get revenge. What do you think Ryūen will do?"
Ichinose put a finger to her cheek, as if pondering the situation.
"I suppose... Ryūen-kun would get that person in a place alone, and force them into submission with violence. Right?"
After a little bit of thought, Ichinose hit the nail on the head. This was the exact kind of thing Ryūen would do to any enemy that cropped up.
"Exactly. So if you know that, then you can also brainstorm preventative measures in advance, no?"
"I see what you're saying," Ichinose murmured. "However, is there even such a thing as a preventative measure for that kind of thing? He could just keep attacking again and again, couldn't he?"
"I imagine it's a similar story for all kinds of assaults in this school, not just violent ones," I sighed.
I wasn't able to think deeply enough about it myself, but I imagined that, no matter what your own class points were, it would be possible to launch repeated attacks against another class, slowly cracking the walls of their stronghold.
A particularly nasty person might even go as far as trying to frame someone and get them expelled. Save for expelling them instead, there wasn't a whole lot you could do to stop them from keep trying.
"I don't like how the school encourages so much hostility between students of different classes. Society wouldn't function if nobody worked together, would it?"
I racked my brain, but I couldn't think of anything that Ichinose would find satisfactory. I had a feeling that, somehow, this school was equipping its students with a necessary skillset, but I couldn't put it into words. If one of the other guys, like Lelouch, were here instead, I'm sure they would be able to come up with an idea.
"What would you change?" I asked her.
Ichinose gave a faint smile, but was clearly conflicted on the inside.
"No one individual can change the system no matter how hard they try, can they? No matter how much they wish for it..."
"You're on the student council, aren't you, Ichinose? Perhaps, one day, you'll become the president, and have more influence to make a change."
In reality, I wasn't sure that even the one who sat at the prestigious student council president seat was given the power to alter the fundamental nature of the school itself. However, these kind of words sounded like they would at least boost Ichinose's morale.
"Do you think I would make a good president?" Ichinose asked me something surprising.
"I think your kindness is something that all the students would look up to and rely on," I smiled.
"I see."
A little bit of colour rose to Ichinose's cheeks. Apparently, she was flustered by these kinds of compliments. I would've thought that someone like her would be used to it by now.
"Ah, we're here."
Before we knew it, Ichinose and I had reached the Class C classroom. I took a deep breath, and reached for the doorknob. However—
"Huh? Kururugi-kun?"
A voice filled with mischief called out to me.
"H-Hoshinomiya-sensei. You're usually not here this early," Ichinose seemed surprised.
"Hah? What's that supposed to mean, Honami-chan?!" Hoshinomiya-sensei pouted.
"I don't know, you're usually like, hungover," Ichinose remarked, stroking her chin as if deep in thought.
"H-Honami-chan! Don't say stuff like that!" Hoshinomiya-sensei seemed to panic. "Kururugi-kun, ignore her! This is defamation!"
"If Ichinose says it, I'm inclined to believe here, though," I said.
Hoshinomiya clutched her chest with a particularly dramatic flair. "She already has you wrapped around her finger I see—"
Ichinose giggled. Wow, she was really cute.
"Get up, Sensei, you're confusing Kururugi-kun."
I glanced to the classroom window. Inside, nearly all of the students were staring at us, probably wondering what the hell we were doing. Oh dear...
"Shall we go inside?" I asked, conscious of the whispers being exchanged on the other side of the door.
Hoshinomiya-sensei gave a vigorous nod.
With that, we entered the room. Gazes tracked us like holographic sniper dots.
"Good morning, everyone!" Ichinose beamed.
Ichinose didn't seem at all bothered by all the attention. Rather, it looked like she relished in it.
"Hey, Kururugi!"
A well-built boy waved me over. In his area of desks, surrounded by other boys, there was one left empty – presumably for me.
As I wondered if it was put here on purpose, I walked over to the seat with only a little bit of apprehension.
"Hey, man, sit down, sit down."
After I sat down, the group of boys that surrounded this desk introduced themselves to me one-by-one.
The guy who'd called me over was called Shibata Sō. Apparently, he was a member of the soccer club and the fastest runner in the class. Then, there is also Hamaguchi Tetsuya, Kanzaki Ryūji, and Sumida Makoto.
"As Class C's president, I welcome you to our class, Kururugi," Kanzaki offered out a handshake.
I grabbed it happily, but sent him a questioning look.
"'President'? I've never heard of classes having a president before."
"Ah, it's a thing that us in Class C made up on our own. We decided that it would be good to organise some roles between us, so that when certain things crop up, we don't have to decide anything in the moment," Kanzaki explained.
"I see."
The logic made perfect sense to me. If a particular issue came up, and nobody had ever discussed the roles of each class member beforehand, there might be disagreements about who is best suited to lead the resolution of the problem.
However, by doing it this way, the Class C students could ensure that there was no opportunity for discord to arise between each other. It was likely that everybody had already agreed on the 'roles' beforehand.
"Ichinose is, of course, class representative," Kanzaki nodded towards Ichinose's seat.
'President' and 'Representative' seemed to be separate things, then. If you judged it by just the meaning of the words, you'd infer that the representative is more of a figurehead that unites the class and negotiates with people on the outside, whereas the president is the one who makes the executive decisions.
In reality, though, I assumed that discussions were held with Ichinose and perhaps others too when it came time to make plans.
"Shiranami is the class secretary. She does stuff like organising study sessions, planning revision material and sorting through various information."
Kanzaki gestured towards a relatively timid-looking girl. I suppose, this kind of role requires the opposite kind of abilities to those possessed by the extraverted and magnetic Ichinose.
"Heya, everyone!"
Interrupting our conversation, Hoshinomiya-sensei burst through the door with a wave. Wait, what had taken her so long? She was literally just outside!
"I'm sorry for the wait, I just had to go and fetch the~se," she held up a stack of papers.
Oh. That explained it, then.
"These are your schedules for the next month."
Hoshinomiya-sensei distributed the papers to the front of the room, and they were passed backwards until everyone had been given one.
"Seriously? A physical education class pretty much every day..." one student muttered.
"Don't tell me you can't handle one hour of daily exercise," Shibata poked fun at him, garnering a couple of bubbly laughs.
"That's all I have to say today, the school wants you guys to have a bit of time to discuss yours plans for the upcoming sports festival now that your guests are all settled in," Hoshinomiya-sensei sent me a possessive smile. Creepy.
A number of students, particularly the boys, squinted their eyes at Hoshinomiya-sensei.
"Why are you all staring at me?!"
"Sensei seems pretty normal to me," I commented absentmindedly.
"Y-Yeah, that's what's surprising," Kanzaki replied.
"It is not surprising!" Hoshinomiya-sensei puffed out her cheeks.
"She must be trying to make a good impression on Kururugi-kun," Hamaguchi concluded.
"Mhm, mhm," more or less every other student in the class nodded in agreement.
"S-So mean!" Hoshinomiya-sensei cried in despair, earning a chorus of laughs from all corners of the room.
I felt like I understood now. The atmosphere in this class was extremely pleasant, to an almost abnormal degree. It would be hard to make someone believe that a high-school class could be like this if they hadn't experienced it for themselves.
I was happy, though. I definitely thought that I would enjoy my stay here with Ichinose, Kanzaki, and the others.
A/N: Okay the Suzaku chapter ended up being a bit longer than I expected lmao, 2460 words, actually more than the last one.
I wanted to give some screen time to the personalities of some of the original COTE cast that have kinda been sidelined in this fic, hence the long conversation with Ichinose and introduction of the Class C boys.
Sora and Shiro's chapter will be a short one, for real this time. Ayanokōji and Lelouch's admittance to Class E will be a pretty bulky one, and then we'll get into the meat of the sports festival arc.
Thank you for reading! <3