When the alarm rose to its highest level, Kallen was hurrying down another corridor with her helmet in hand. She had just finished the Guren Shen Hu's morning inspection, her red hair tied simply behind her head. After entering, she first glanced at the white flight tracks steadily closing in on the monitor, then noticed the black-haired boy standing beside the staff desk.
Both of them stopped at the same time.
Kallen spoke first. "Lelouch Lamperouge?"
Lelouch looked at her too, his gaze traveling from her pilot suit and rank insignia to the helmet in her hand, then finally returning to the face that always looked somewhat frail at school.
"Miss Stadtfeld."
"You'd better call me Kallen Kouzuki."
"You seem to have made quite a thorough recovery."
The corner of Kallen's eye twitched. "You sleep through class, slack off in the student council, and gamble at chess with nobles after school. You've been very thorough about pretending to be an ordinary student yourself."
"At least I didn't use sick leave to take part in underground armed operations."
"At least I didn't take leave to accompany a family member to the doctor, only to end up studying tactical maps in a foreign military command post."
After that exchange, both fell silent again.
They were indeed classmates at Ashford Academy, but Lelouch's entire impression of Kallen was of a young lady from a prominent family who spent most of her time on sick leave and, on her occasional visits to school, slumped over her desk pretending to be frail. Kallen's knowledge of Lelouch, meanwhile, extended only to his being the student council vice president, an honors student, someone who slept in class, and President Milly's favorite target for teasing.
Now one of them had become a General of the Central Army in