rakuen | Biology homework [Open]

Enki was thoroughly disturbed. There was his inability to call his shirei, and, as he'd later established, inability to change. He didn't understand it. It didn't feel like there was a block, but nothing simply happened. Honestly, it frightened him.

Had this been what Taiki had felt? But then, the kid had simply never learnt to change; Enki had suddenly had the ability to return to his true form taken away. And then there were the battles. Not many had happened, yet, but the first one... He wished he hadn't decided to go have a look.

In any case, in an attempt to distract himself, he was now wandering through the available buildings, and had come to the Black Dorm. He wasn't sure (besides a long habit of going to look what Shōryū was working with, the few times he could be found with paperwork) what made him wander up to the young man bent over his work, but when he came close enough, Enki's eyes widened.

"Riboku..." What was a picture of a riboku doing in a book in this place? That didn't make sense at all!

Suzaku looked up at the figure who approached him, it was a young boy. Not the youngest he had seen in this place; no where as young as Kotarou, but young enough that Suzaku felt anger at those that had brought them here. It was bad enough kidnapping adults and forcing them to fight but they had taken children as well.

"Riboku?" He blinked at the boy, realising he was talking about the picture in the book. "You know what this tree is?" Maybe this boy was from whatever world this book was talking about.

Enki nodded, still surprised to find a picture of a riboku here. But then, why was that so strange? That was where babies came from, after all...

"Sure. Children come from it," Enki said with a shrug, then hopped up to sit on the tabletop, legs dangling beneath. He had to pause and scratch the back of his head, though, because something seemed off about that statement. But children did come from the riboku, so why did it feel like he'd just made too broad a generalization?

"Animals and plants come from wild version of that, though." There. That seemed to sum it up nicely. And yet... What was he missing?

Suzaku raised an eyebrow shocked. Children came from the tree? It was said so casually that Suzaku guessed that it was a truth on the boy's world. Suzaku had accepted the fact there were different worlds but worlds as different as that?

"Children come from a tree in your world?" He tried not to sound too shocked, he probably failed. Animals as well? That was so strange.

The guy seemed shocked. Enku frowned, and wondered why. It wasn't as if it was any different in Hourai after all... Something was wrong with that thought too, but he couldn't pin down why.

"Parents pray to Heaven to grant them a child, and if they're lucky, a fruit'll grow for 'em," Enki confirmed, and then, curious, picked up the book and flicked through it.

"... Kibou," Enki muttered and put the book down, both surprised and not to see youma presented among some of the creatures in the book. The one he'd found resembled something between a weasel/ferret.

Parent prayed to heaven and what? Suzaku blinked at the child, was he being serious? He sounded serious and Suzaku watched in confused silence as he looked through the book.

He blinked at the creature the boy had pointed out and nodded still confused by his earlier fruit. "What do you mean parents pray to heaven and a fruit grows?" Perhaps this was a story the boy had been told from his parents to explain where children came from.

Other worlds was confusing enough but children being born on trees?

Enki laughed, because yeah, it did sound strange didn't it? But he wasn't sure why, because it was perfectly natural! So he just shrugged and grabbed his ankles, face smoothing out in a thoughtful expression that somehow made him look older.

"Well, exactly what it sounds like. Parents decide they want a kid, make a ribbon with a particular design, tie it to a branch on the tree, and pray to Tentei," Enki paused and let go of an ankle to scratch a chin.

"Now, everybody who wants a kid don't get one, who knows how they're chosen. But yeah, they pray, and if they're lucky, one of those," another pause to flip up the picture of the riboku in the book again, pointing at a lone, amber-gold fruit hanging from a bare, silvery branch. "Will grow. Then a baby will hatch from that, and the parents'll care of it like you do."

Enki didn't remember how his parents had done it, even though he'd gained awareness of himself much sooner than human babies, but that's what parents were supposed to do... Unless they abandoned the kids somewhere...

"Oh," the kid sounded completely sure and indeed the book had the picture of a tree and it was named as the boy had called it, Riboku. Suzaku shook his head in quiet amazement. "It doesn't work that way in my world." It still seemed so strange to consider other worlds but he knew he definatly did not come from the same world as this boy. Children growing on trees? It was so strange a concept but Suzaku did not want to insult the boy by showing that he didn't truly believe it.

It didn't? Another headscratch, because he was sure...

"Huhn... I was sure it worked the same in Hourai--- er, Japan, too..." But something seemed wrong with that statement, but at the same time... Enki frowned and tried to think. Wasn't there something different when the ranka was blown to Hourai?

No?

There was a Japan in this boys world too? Suzaku was glad to hear it. "We have all been brought here from different worlds so the Japan you know probably isn't the same one I am from." It was definatly not the same Japan, babies did not grow on trees in Japan, nor anywhere that Suzaku had heard of.

"I am Suzaku by the way," he had given up trying to introduce himself by both his names because his head just filled with fuzziness when he tried to think of his family name.

Well, it didn't really, surprise Enki that they came from different worlds. With how the Kyokai looked, and what he'd gleaned from science in Hourai...

"Probably..." But then... "How do children come into the world where you're from then?" Enki really couldn't see it.

"Enki." He gave a nod of his head and gave Suzaku a lop-sided smile.

Enki, Suzaku nodded and remembered the name, the question made his eyes go wide though. It was something he had not expected to have to explain to anyone, it was definitely not something he had thought would be different in any other world.

"Well, in my world human's create themselves..." Wait that didn't sound right, "I mean two humans, men have seeds and women have eggs, and then the seed fertilises the egg and from that egg a baby is born." That was simple enough right?

"Oh it is created and grows inside a woman's womb for nine months before being born." He pointed on himself to roughly where a womb would be if he was a woman. That was quite an important detail he supposed for a kid who came from a world where babies grew on trees.

That was... His first reaction was disgust, but that had hardly formed before a flicker of rememberance struck. That was right, that's how it was done in Hourai...

And here, then, if Suzaku was paying attention, came the faintly unfocused eyes as what he'd just said was wiped from Enki's mind as the memory-loss kicked back in.

"What... er---" Enki fronwed. Something had just happened. And he couldn't remember what Suzaku had said about reproduction in his world... "Did I just forget what you said?" Enki scowled, thoroughly annoyed; forgetting what someone said was definitely more annoying than repeatedly forgetting and remembering the taste of peaches, for example.

Suzaku blinked but realised what had happened quite quickly, it had become a common occurance people triggering lost memories and forgetting them the moment they were told them, seeming to lose concentration and the thread of the conversation.

"Yes, it must be something you have forgotten, when you remember without a memory charm they make you forget again." Then the boy must have known that children in different worlds didn't come from trees, or maybe just some of the children in his world grew on trees and the others were born normally.

Shaking his head, Enki put the book he'd been flipping through down in disgust.

"Yeah, I'd noticed that; I don't remember the taste of peaches, but that's not so bad to rediscover every time." Enki rolled his eyes and was, suddenly, inexplicably, encased in a brief chill, as his thoughts landed on the 'I don't remember who I chose as King of En'. But then it went away and he shook his head mentally. It wasn't as if it mattered. He was the only one here, and it wasn't as if he could be tricked by someone pretending to be the king (... he hoped, what with his horn either sealed, or something else...).

And it wasn't as if it mattered. Neither the king nor Shōryū (who would be annoying about it) was here, or would end up here. (So what was that brief sense of unease and expectation? Nothing, that's what, he was just getting.... he had to admit, lonely.)

"As if the fighting wasn't bad enough..." Enki finally spat, drawing out of his thoughts to refocus on his surroundings. He was just lucky there was no blood.

Suzaku watched as the kid spoke, peaches it was such a strange thing to forget and yet there seemed to be nothing too small, nor too large for people to forget. He knew that Gino had forgotten a lot, including that Suzaku had betrayed him and Euphemia had forgotten the masacre and her own death. Yet they had also forgotten names, or tastes, or how to braid their hair.

He blinked again at Enki's words, "You don't like fighting then?" He was not surprised, he didn't supose many people liked fighting especially in a situation like this where they were being forced to fight their fellow students and not an enemy for a cause.

The mere mention had brought up images of lives lost, of families broken, of pain and needless death and blood. Enki suppressed a shiver.

"No. The things that're counted ain't just numbers or parts of an army... those are people that have to fight, to die, and for what? There must be other solutions than battle," Enki said quietly, face drawn and serious, once again looking much older than what his features otherwise suggested.

The tone of voice didn't suggest naivety, however, rather a stalwart belief (or unbending nature) that there must be another option, that lives were worth more than whatever ideals or purpose those lives were to be sacrificed to.

Not that Enki hadn't had said nature challenged more than a few times, but the nature of kirin being what they were, this couldn't be changed.

Suzaku had never heard such strong belief, such venemance against violence from someone so young, but talking to him it didn't seem like he was only twelve or thirteen. Someone who had seen so much for his age, Suzaku wondered sadly what had happened for him to have such beliefs.

"Sometimes there is no alternative, sometimes all attempts at diplomacy fail and fighting is the only thing left." He had never been as adamanetly against fighting, after all he had joined the army when he was forteen, but he had been against killing civillians, and innocent people. However he hadn't been able to claim to follow that belief anymore after...

After what? His mind had filled with fog again, and he completely lost what he had been thinking. "A world where no one had to fight would be wonderful, but I don't think people would be able to make that happen." Even in the world Lelouch was trying to create Suzaku was sure there would still be fighting. Not the huge all emcomasing war that was ruining the world, and hopefully people would be in a better position to work together to stop wars from getting out of control. But Suzaku did not doubt people would still fight.

Enki looked up with a scowl, but it didn't seem to be directed at Suzaku in a personal way.

"Shōryū... the king..." A pause, frown. That was so annoying, but Enki supposed it didn't matter; he was sure they both had said that, because that's what kings did. Fought and killed. Though Shōryū-- or-- This was frustrating. Shaking his head, Enki redirected his thoughts back to what he had been about to say.

"They both say that too. An' if I didn't do my best making sure to remind them that there are other ways, they... er, the king would probably have destroyed En by now." Of course, that could still happen. Would, most probably, sooner or later happen.

Enki tilted his head as Suzaku looked kind of vague, and then described something that, simply, was what every kirin would strive for. What was supposed to be the result of the kirin and king pair working together, he supposed.
"The king does a lousy job a lot of the time, but there's not been any fighting in En for... a really long time." Then Enki got briefly distracted again, did the king really do such a bad job? Wasn't that Shōryū? Well, they were both lazy jerks, so it was all the same!

Suzaku blinked at the boys words, he couldn't seem to decide who he was talking about but Suzaku sort of understood that he was talking about his King, who he seemed to know personally and someone called Shoryu. The fact that he seemed to know the king, and he said he had to remind him of things. Had Enki been a noble in his world. He was very young to have the kings ear.

But maybe he was a favoured son, perhaps the kings chosen heir. He definatly did not seem to have much respect for this king of his and so that suggested he was very high up in his country.

"Is En where you come from?" No fighting for a very long time, "How long is a really long time?" Enki had seemed to speak like he had seen war, and he looked no older than thirteen and so it can't have been that long a time. Unless there were wars elsewhere that Enki had seen.

"I suppose you could say it is... I mean, I was born on Mt. Hou, but En is my country," Enki said and leaned back a bit, interlacing his fingers behind his head and looking up at the ceiling. It was not nearly as interesting a ceiling as could be found anywhere in Shadowlore Palace.

"Oh, well... Since Atsuyu..." Enki paused to grimace and then frown. He didn't really like thinking about Atsuyu, because that brought thoughts of Kouya... "Well, a few hundred years, thereabouts. Shōryū... er, the king, that is, promised me a green country... where no one would starve. I'm not gonna say he's succeeded, because then he'd stop working for it, but, it's progress," Enki grinned and then had to be privately confused again, because the answer to the promise? Was in Shōryū's voice, but only the king could---

And that train of thought was neatly cut off by memory-loss fog before it was even finished, and Enki simply shifted in his seat and refocused his gaze on Suzaku.

Suzaku nodded slowly at first, but then his eyes widened and he sat up straighter. A few hundred years? So Enki was not as young as he looked, at all. Suzake sat very still through the rest of his speach, so Enki had lived or a very long time, he advised a king from the sound of it and the king had promised him a green country, in return for what? King's didn't make promises for nothing...

Was Enki like CC and VV? Had he granted the king his powers? He knew Enki was from another world, but some things were the same. Suzaku had found lots of people with a Japan in their world and if anything was going to be the same across worlds Suzaki would guess it to be the Code Givers.

"And you gave the king his powers?" In return for a green country? A strange contract from what Suzaku knew of code givers. He scowled as he waited for Enki's answer.

"Huh?" Enki blinked, stared and then laughed. While he was more confused than amused, the laughter also held a slightly sharp edge.

"The only powers I gave him was the responsibility to rule the kingdom... and the immortality to do it for as long as he does it well." Enki paused to grimace, eyes narrowed as he stared at the wall opposite the room behind Suzaku.

"I suppose he does it well enough... for a lazy idiot. And it's not as if I could have chosen to not give it to him." Another pause, this time to look at Suzaku again, a blank look on his face. "The kirin choses the king, an' then the kingdom has to hope the king ain't... like all other kings, who end up destroying the kingdom..." Enki still didn't believe kings and lords were good for the people, but at least his king had, despite his annoying failings, done well enough (up to now at least).

Suzaku blinked again even more confused, but it still sounded like Enki was a code giver, but wait... hadn't he said the king was immortal as well, and the power of responsibilty was a really strange Geass. But in a different world maybe it worked slightly differently.

"Well surely you just pick someone who wont destroy the kingdom..." Suzaku knew that it was not that easy that you couldn't tell if someone would be a good ruler, but surely you could tell someone who would just destroy everything. He had no idea what the word Enki had said meant, Kirin...

Enki resisted the urge to roll his eyes, because, well, Suzaku didn't know how it worked, did he? Enki sighed and pulled his legs up, crossing them at the ankles.

"I only 'chose' the king insofar as I was the one who went up to him and bowed. The Heavens have already decided, the kirin simply confers the will of Heaven to the 'right person'," Enki rolled his eyes again and shook his head, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands.

"'Course, Shōryū's says all kings have the potential to be great, but that seldom happens... I'm here to chose the king and then try to make sure the people's will is heard, and that he doesn't destroy the kingdom. The king... can do what he wants. The kirin must obey him...." Enki's eyes narrowed, but while there were the usual cynism there, Enki knew (did he? he couldn't even remember who actally was King of En!) that his king hardly ever ordered him to do something he didn't want to do...

Of course, that didn't account for all the times he didn't need to order, because he'd been an asshole and out-maneouvered him!

Biology homework [Open]

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