Code R

Naoto p.o.v

The blonde stranger smiled at me when he suddenly asked "Do you want anything before we start?"

"What?" I was broken out of my inner panic by a sudden question.

"Food, drink, bathroom?" The blond stranger asked again casually.

I remained silent as I merely observed the young man in front of me carry himself in a seemingly carefree manner.

"Before we start I'm sure you have many questions or do you want to get straight to my questions?"

I maintained my silence confused at who this commander was and why he had presumably gone to the trouble to organize all this to get me here to an unknown secret black site but treat my injuries as well as cloth and feed me.

Looking at the woman who came in she just maintained a ready stance at the man's side as he sat down in the other chair across from me.

"No, nothing, well I'm starving, Mary please go tell the men to get some food in here I haven't eaten since the plane preferably some pizza, and Naoto here looks like he is going to keel over."

"Yes, commander." The women now named Mary responded in a serious tone as she turned towards the door to tell presumably the guards outside to get some food.

"Take a look at this." The man then opened an envelope that looked to hold important documents as the women reappeared with a pizza in hand that looked to be a partially eaten probably by the men on watch and a few large bottles of water.

"This is all they had sir," The woman named Alya said to her commander in a monotone voice.

"Pizza, it would be pizza," He said either chuckling over the choice of food or some irony of the situation that was lost on me.

"Is there a problem I could send someone to get something else?" Alya asked with a bit of concern in her voice.

"No pizza is fine; I just found the choice ironic for some reason."

Nodding she went back to her spot behind me standing in my blind spot to probably incapacitate or kill me should I try something against her superior.

I decided it would best to play along, lest I feared the water she brought in with her would be used for something other than washing down the greasy pizza.

"So Naoto Kozuki, you were arrested by Prince Clovis's royal guard for acts of treason, espionage, and terrorism when they discovered you snooping around one of the prince's private labs. "

He started off reading what sound to be a report from where I was held before as that was all they had on me as they didn't know what I had been able to relay back.

But why did this guy look like he knew more just like he recognized me and knew my name?

"Serious stuff, did you know what you were spying on by the way?"

Oh I knew about Code R, the project was kept under lock and key, but the manifests revealed what looked like pressurized capsules perfect for the use in the dispersal of chemical weapons or poison gas.

With that, the resistance would fall all without firing a bullet, and the last hope for my country would die as the last of her people choked on their last breaths.

"By the look in your eyes you did or you assumed it was something related to a chemical weapons project judging from the equipment manifests correct?"

So he knew what Code R was.

Was he a part of the project or was he a high ranking man brought into investigating the project from the Britannian homeland.

"However I'm sorry to say if you thought Code R was poison gas you would be incorrect."

What?

"Unfortunately your group stole the project of the prince though your group did the work sloppily and ended up having to fight the police and the army. "

I knew that Ohgi would follow through and try to make my sacrifice stand for something, but part of me didn't like where this conversation is going.

"They eventually drove the truck that was transporting the Code R into the Shinjuku ghetto to hide from the army. Unfortunately, the prince was determined not to let his dirty little secret be revealed to the world."

Those fools, why did they lead them back there of all places, I could predict what came next, but it made it no easier to hear.

"He had the army encircle the ghetto and ordered the elimination of any and all possible witnesses."

I went pale at that, feeling sick, and all the feelings of pride and acceptance of death turned into ones of fear and regret.

"The estimates are somewhere in the thousands and would have been much higher if certain parties didn't intervene."

Looking up at the commander whose once playful features had morphed into a stern, serious face judging me.

"Said parties included your friends who somehow got their hands on military weapons and knightmares fought back and managed to have the prince's forces on the run."

I grinned at that, knowing that we were able to stop them from killing everyone.

"That is until a new knightmare and its test pilot were deployed and destroyed half of your forces. But don't worry reports say that he didn't kill anyone."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding hearing my friends and comrades weren't all killed.

"There was also myself in my personal unit which took care of the other half which was around 13-15 knightmares in total."

So the man in front of me wasn't just a commander but an ace pilot as well.

Seeing as he casually said he defeated them all on his own.

"Finally, for some reason, the prince then rescinded his order to kill every last man, woman, and child and ordered an immediate ceasefire as well as letting all the Japanese civilians go. "

That was a strange occurrence why would a prince of Britannia do such a thing, wait he just said Japanese not elevens.

"So then the civilian evacuated the now destroyed ghetto, and the army stood down as ordered, so there's the official report from the field."

"The official story the media will run be that terrorist used poison gas in the ghetto that they stole and accidently released."

Angered bubbled up inside me hearing of their blatant slaughter and lies they are telling to cover up their misdeeds and so they could blame the Japanese for the whole thing.

The man then took a drink of water from a bottle the woman brought in earlier and offered me some, but I merely shook my head as I was still confused at to both the motivations and identity of the strange ace pilot commander in front of me.

"But enough about that let's talk about you and you having caused this accidental genocide," He said in an almost too cheery tone that shocked me at this acquisition.

"What how could I have caused this you bastard!" I yelled at the man in front of me insinuating that I was reasons for this tragedy, leaning forward to yell in his face.

"Click," I heard the sound of a gun's hammer being cocked looking behind me I saw the women guarding me had a pistol raised to my head ready to shoot.

"Mary that's enough stand down," The man ordered in a stern tone and sighed.

"I said accidental, as your faulty information leads to this disaster." The man stated in a calm tone.

I sat back in the chair waiting for the stranger to explain.

"Code R project was not a chemical weapon project but instead it was a human experimentation project," The man said calmly

"How do you know that?" I asked whether it was true or not as I never did get ahold of the details of the project itself I just inferred it was a weapons project.

He opened a folder and started laying out photos of scientists experimenting of a green haired girl wired up to multiple machines for an unknown purpose.

"The subject was the girl shown in the pictures and the capsule you friends stole housed her in stasis, not poison gas."

"Why would they do this?" unsure as to what they were trying to accomplish.

"The information I have leads me to believe that they were studying the regenerative abilities of the women shown to replicate them somehow," He said in a serious tone.

Dumbfounded I was shocked that instead of a weapon that this horrible experiment was going on instead as I couldn't refute all the details of the research laid out in front of me.

"The location of the subject is still unknown, but we assume that she somehow managed to escape from the ghetto and is somewhere in the city."

"How can you be so sure that she survived?" I voiced my doubt over the likelihood of the girl surviving.

"They tested thoroughly, burning, decapitations, electrocution, chemicals, drugs, you name it she always came back the same, but that doesn't mean she doesn't feel pain." Showing the evidence of each act of suffering in reports and pictures he laid out before me.

"Now you understand why the prince ordered all witnesses to be put to death now?" I did although I somehow wished it was poison gas rather than a girl who was forced to undergo unimaginable pain and death just to sate the curiosity of the researchers.

"Good, you seem to understand what's going on, however if you speak of this to anyone you will be shot immediately understood," and his personality went from for long to serious.

"To summarize you found about Code R, got caught, your friends steal Code R, causing Clovis to cover up his human experiment lest he becomes disowned, and here we are with you as the cause of it all."

I was shocked but he was right, I assumed it was a weapon, and because of my mistake thousands lost their lives.

"The civilian losses would have been much worse had I not set up a relief center a week ago giving shelter and protecting them from overzealous knights and soldiers."

"But why did you save them, me, and why did you call my people Japanese," I asked in rapid succession.

"Ok, now you want to talk and to answer your questions, I did so because why not? I called them Japanese because that's who they are. And saving you was a happy accident as a result of my investigation."

I couldn't believe it this Britannian had saved apparently thousands of Japanese and my life on a whim.

"Well, that last part is incorrect as I was curious to what drives a man such as yourself?"

"You saved my life for something like that?" I asked annoyed that my life was just interesting to him as a character in a book or anime.

"Yes, I wanted to know what drives a man away from his family to form a resistance group to free his country from imperialist rule while he is both Britannian and Japanese himself."

"Don't look so surprised your accent and features gave it away the moment we met."

A sense of dread crept back onto me as this man began to peel back my identity layer by layer.

"When I searched the records for your likeness I came upon a surprising resemblance to one Naoto Stadtfeld."

I sunk into my chair as the man discovered my most guarded secret I had just met minutes ago.

"I searched further and found that this Naoto left his family after he quit college and disappeared leaving behind his inheritance from his father who just happens to be an Earl."

"I also found that he left behind a sister named Kallen Stadtfeld, who happens to be a student at Ashford Academy, Most importantly she looks pretty good." The man said to me.

I reached my limit the moment he mentioned Kallen, "Leave her alone you bastard she has nothing to do with this!"

That got me a blow to the shoulder that dislocated it, this lady wasn't kidding around I'm sure she knew a dozen ways to kill me, but I was in too much pain to think of them all.

"I would never use the threat of harming a person's family to influence an another person Naoto, I have no intention of hurting your little sister," He said, but then put away the documents and pictures refocused his attention on me.

He gave a gesture to the women behind me and she put my shoulder back into place.

"Well, since you decided to stop playing games Naoto Stadtfeld I will as well." He shifted leaning towards me with his elbow on the table hands under his chin.

"I apologize for my rudeness for not introducing myself. You can call me Claudius, but my full name is Claudius el Britannia 4th prince of the Holy Britannian Empire commander of the Ouroboros Corps and the only reason you're not dead right now."