[.14.] raise your hands now to testify [ACCIDENTAL(DIVINE?) AUDIO;; week 19, day 3]
[ The Hitomi turns on quite suddenly; this broadcast is technically in video, but Lelouch's Hitomi is tucked inside his jacket and the camera isn't picking up the surroundings. The audio is unaffected, though, and the ambient buzz of many people whispering and murmuring is a constant ripple beneath the voices currently engaged in something that sounds like a debate.
Or a trial. ]
[ A deep voice, the voice of a man with authority: ]
So you admit that you willfully and knowingly took in and harbored a fugitive woman; moreover, a fallen woman, whom the law demanded must be punished for her crimes? You felt yourself to be above our laws, Outsider?
[ A voice clearly belonging to Lelouch replies, with his typical rhetoric: ]
What human law is greater than the law of nature? A child should stay with the mother who gave birth to it, what exactly is more natural than that? Besides, I didn't circumvent the ultimate outcome of your judgement, now, did I? Akino Hanabi would have been sent to Yomisato regardless. If anything, I expedited the process for you.
[ A shocked, angry murmur amongst the crowd. The man's voice again, angrier: ]
How dare you. How dare you mock our ways - you who would take in a helpless, sinful woman and stain her honor further. You who blaspheme and mock the proper order of things, who live with another woman unwedded to you -
[ Lelouch interrupts: ]
- What do you care?! She's an outsider, like me, isn't she? Are you really trying to tell me that you care so much about what we do? No, in fact; you don't. Really, not a single one of us would rather be here than back where we belong, but the fact is, your precious gods are the ones who dragged us here, and there's not a damn thing any one of us can do about it!
[ A recoil - the murmur becomes shouting, but not enough to drown out Lelouch's voice, still pressing his advantage. Lelouch is rarely this reckless; but the video isn't showing him, the cuts and bruises on his face and body from his forcible arrest a day ago. ]
As a matter of fact, I've met one of them. In person, face-to-face. [ The volume of the crowd spikes; he has to strain to make himself heard: ] Ame-no-Uzume-sama, goddess of the dawn! And you know what? I think you deserve to know - she's a total bitch, actually -
[ A sharp crack and the crowd is suddenly, dangerously silent. It can rightfully be inferred that Lelouch has been painfully restrained from speaking.
His accuser's voice, cold: ]
You all heard the blasphemy.
[ Silence. The man again: ]
His crimes are capital. So, then, will be his punishment.
[ The feed cuts. ]
Or a trial. ]
[ A deep voice, the voice of a man with authority: ]
So you admit that you willfully and knowingly took in and harbored a fugitive woman; moreover, a fallen woman, whom the law demanded must be punished for her crimes? You felt yourself to be above our laws, Outsider?
[ A voice clearly belonging to Lelouch replies, with his typical rhetoric: ]
What human law is greater than the law of nature? A child should stay with the mother who gave birth to it, what exactly is more natural than that? Besides, I didn't circumvent the ultimate outcome of your judgement, now, did I? Akino Hanabi would have been sent to Yomisato regardless. If anything, I expedited the process for you.
[ A shocked, angry murmur amongst the crowd. The man's voice again, angrier: ]
How dare you. How dare you mock our ways - you who would take in a helpless, sinful woman and stain her honor further. You who blaspheme and mock the proper order of things, who live with another woman unwedded to you -
[ Lelouch interrupts: ]
- What do you care?! She's an outsider, like me, isn't she? Are you really trying to tell me that you care so much about what we do? No, in fact; you don't. Really, not a single one of us would rather be here than back where we belong, but the fact is, your precious gods are the ones who dragged us here, and there's not a damn thing any one of us can do about it!
[ A recoil - the murmur becomes shouting, but not enough to drown out Lelouch's voice, still pressing his advantage. Lelouch is rarely this reckless; but the video isn't showing him, the cuts and bruises on his face and body from his forcible arrest a day ago. ]
As a matter of fact, I've met one of them. In person, face-to-face. [ The volume of the crowd spikes; he has to strain to make himself heard: ] Ame-no-Uzume-sama, goddess of the dawn! And you know what? I think you deserve to know - she's a total bitch, actually -
[ A sharp crack and the crowd is suddenly, dangerously silent. It can rightfully be inferred that Lelouch has been painfully restrained from speaking.
His accuser's voice, cold: ]
You all heard the blasphemy.
[ Silence. The man again: ]
His crimes are capital. So, then, will be his punishment.
[ The feed cuts. ]