"Um... who are you?"
"...Don't be silly." Seeing C.C's timid expression, Jiu Ming grinned and couldn't help reaching out to pat her head. Yet her reaction left him even more bewildered. What was going on here?
"P-Please don't hit me. I'll leave right away." Staring fearfully at Jiu Ming's raised hand, C.C immediately cried out, clutching her head with both hands as though ready to flee at any moment. At the same time, her eyes furtively darted over Jiu Ming and the people around them.
When she woke up, hadn't she seemed to be in the arms of the man in front of her?
Parting his lips, Jiu Ming knew without even looking in a mirror that his expression had to be spectacular. His raised hand was awkward whether he put it down or pulled it back, and his extraordinarily sharp close-range senses told him that the gazes of those "outsiders" around him had already turned subtly strange.
What was wrong with her? Lelouch was puzzled as well. Why had C.C become like this after coming out of that world? Was she pretending?
Thinking of how forceful she had been before, then looking at her current meekness, a powerful sense of contrast rose up within him... Forget it. It wasn't his problem to worry about, anyway. Let Jiu Ming have the headache. He still had plans to make next; once certain matters had begun, they could not end with a tiger's head and a snake's tail.
At the very least, Zero's identity could not be fully exposed yet. Once it was, the Black Knights would probably become the laughingstock of the world, and the significance behind the Black Knights' existence would turn into nothing more than the Britannian imperial family's "petty squabble."
As for Suzaku, some things had already been