[TRANSLATED] Lelouch the Tutor (Chapter 26)

[rainfall]

Original Scans: courtesy of Comic NewType

SUZAKU
This is awful!
If we don't hurry, we won't get there in time to help him set up!

EUPHY
I knoooow...

SFX
<scurrying>

C.C.
Ugh, you people are ridiculous.

LELOUCH
As if it wouldn't have taken you just as much time to select the right ingredients!

Lelouch the Tutor
Chapter 26

Comic By: Urushidama

Original Story:
based on CODE GEASS: Lelouch of the Rebellion
(c) SUNRISE/PROJECT L-GEASS
Character Design (c) 2006-2017 CLAMP-ST

I just want these days to last forever...

Volume 3 now on sale to rave reviews!!

LELOUCH
The tree needs to be decorated...
We'll need soup and gratin...
And cutlery...
A Christmas cake...

LELOUCH
(All that's left is...)
<Hmm?>

SFX
<door opening>

C.C.
Here's the ice pail.
Do we still have time?

LELOUCH
Yeah, it'll be all right.
Thanks.

C.C.
...

C.C.
(...What was that all about, anyway?)
(He's been kind of out of it ever since, which isn't like him at all...)

SFX
<clink>

C.C.
Look, Lelou...

SUZAKU
Oh, C.C., could you possibly bring me that ornament?

EUPHY
Lelouch, can you make sure this tastes all right?

LELOUCH
Sure, I'll be right there.

C.C.
<glance—>

LELOUCH
All right! Everything's perfect.

SFX
<ding-dong>

MILLY
We're heeere!¹

MILLY
Here you go, Lelouch.
I brought everything² you asked for!

LELOUCH
Oh, thank you.

LELOUCH
You're just in time.³

SFX
<clatter, clatter>

MILLY
Right!
And we really appreciate all your hard work!
Now, let's get this party started!

SFX
<clink>

MILLY
So Merry Christmas, everyone!


MILLY
But on to the main event!
The gift exchange we've all been waiting for!

EVERYONE
Yeah...!

C.C.
...Huh, but how're we gonna decide who gets which present?

KALLEN
Heehee!
Well, that's what these are for!

KALLEN
Take a look!!

KALLEN
Each cookie has a number inside.
The white number's you, and the black number is who you should give your present to!
<If you wind up with your own number, grab another pair of cookies!>
Give it a try, everyone!

SHIRLEY
Nice one, Kallen!

RIVALZ
<toss>
A... a tea set?!

LELOUCH
Our group is mostly women, so I bought something I thought a woman might like.
I didn't think I'd get you.

MILLY
<Feeling jealous, are we? Are we?>

SUZAKU
What a cute apron!
Maybe I should learn to cook...

EUPHY
<And help me in the kitchen next time?>

KALLEN
Well, that was fast!

C.C.
<got a pizza cushion>
<Whoa...>

NINA
<I guess this is from Rivalz...>

NUNNALLY
<?>

LELOUCH
This is...

NINA
Oh, what a nice frame!

NUNNALLY
!

NUNNALLY
Well, we don't often have everyone together at once,
so shall we get a photograph of all of us here today?

SFX
<ready—>

C.C.
Guess that turned out to be a pretty good present, huh?

LELOUCH
It did indeed.
Thanks.

C.C.
!
You sure are upfront today...

LELOUCH
And you're incredibly manipulative, but never dull.⁴

MILLY
All right—!
Next up, our countdown event!

LELOUCH
Another of Madame President's impulsive 'events'...

LELOUCH
But just like always, Shirley and Rivalz and Kallen and Nina... she manipulates them all into going along with it.

LELOUCH
And now she's even dragging Nunnally and Suzaku and Euphy into it...

C.C.
Lelouch, are you...?

SFX
<ding-dong>

LELOUCH
Who could that be at this hour?

LELOUCH
I'll go take a look.

SFX
<door opening>

ROLO
I've come to fetch you⁵...

ROLO
Brother.

<TO BE CONTINUED>



^{1 A ritual phrase, lit. 'I'm in your way.' Depending on tone, it could easily be translated as 'May we come in?'... but this is Milly we're talking about.↩
2 More specifically, she brought every dish he asked her to; it's exclusively food, but that was difficult to convey in a natural English sentence.↩
3 Lit. 'We've just finished our preparations.'↩
4 振り回される is to be manipulated by someone, or wrapped around their little finger, and 散々 is 'terribly, utterly' — but Lelouch's sentence structure (が退屈はしない / but [you] aren't boring) very much means the first part of it must have been something negative (or at least something framed in a negative light).↩
5 Fans who have seen Akito the Exiled will definitely recognize this as a slight variation of how Rolo greets Lelouch (and Suzaku) when he comes to collect them from their cell at the end of the last movie/episode.↩}

Comments

Rolo!?

[(Anonymous)]

I had been expecting Marianne to show up all this but ROLO!? I don't know why I burst out laughing at that reveal... I can't believe this manga is actually having PLOT!

Thank you as always for the translation!

[rainfall]

I know! I was also surprised, haha. And you're welcome!

OMG

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you so much for always giving us translations! I look forward to this every time. More power to you, hope you are staying safe and well! :)

If you have the time to answer a question, could you explain what's going on with Lelouch and C.C.'s interactions here? I can't seem to understand, C.C. seems worried about him and Lelouch seems being his brand of flirty towards her. Are those assumptions right? Lol sorry if this is dumb!

[rainfall]

You're welcome and thank you! I hope you are staying safe too.

Honestly, though? I couldn't tell you on a bet. This manga has occasionally gone very hard on the Lelouch/C.C. ship — and I do assume that's where it's going to end up, which would (AFAIK) make it the only one of half a dozen officially-licensed CODE GEASS AU manga to actually end with a definitive ship of any kind for the characters from the show.

(Of course, all the other AU manga were written and published before the re;boot timeline and movie ended with Lelouch/C.C., so it's possible that, going forward, we'll see more AU comics go that route.) (I kind of hope not; Lelouch/C.C. is a complicated relationship, difficult to get right but very easy to get wrong. IMHO the re;boot movies and Re;surrection even faltered, due to time constraints, and the version of Lelouch/C.C. that finally became canon is disappointingly simple.)

But in the meantime...? The Lelouch/C.C. trajectory in this manga has been kind of all over the place. At times, it seems like they're engaged in Mutual Pining — but then in the next chapter, one or both of them is squarely oblivious to their own feelings, or else they've seemingly forgotten, for the moment, that they have feelings for each other at all.

(For example, I really expected the dance party chapters to result in at least one of them admitting to having feelings, at least in their own heads, but no.)

And for that matter, Shirley is utilized really... interestingly? She still has a crush in this universe, and after the Student Council Trip it seemed like she was going to tell Lelouch how she felt, but then eighteen chapters passed and when we finally got another chapter focused on her, it ended with her deciding she didn't want anything to change for now.

Like, that could be narrative foreshadowing. We might get an ending where it is clear that Lelouch and C.C. have mutual romantic feelings for each other, but where they both agree that they don't want to make that kind of big change while they're still in high school — a "postponed until the future" sort of ending.

Or we might be about to have some sort of really dramatic climax, where C.C. or Lelouch is going to be forcibly transferred to another school (or just sent to college in another country), and in the heat of the moment they finally crystallize their feelings enough to eke out a confession.

......Anyway, I guess the answer to your question is really just, "I'm right there with you," haha. It IS kind of confusing, in the original Japanese too. We'll just have to wait and see. 😃

OMG

[(Anonymous)]

Same anon here! You're so right tho, it's all over the place (they even released a Christmas chapter in the middle of the year akhakghgh). It's a bit frustrating not gonna lie lmao. thanks for the reply!

Agree, their being canon in Re;surrection, while endearing, was way simple for the dynamic we watched and loved. :( Oh well haha

[rainfall]

♥ I'm glad you liked my ramble! I don't want to be too negative about this manga, a lot of people are really enjoying it and I'm so happy to be providing them something they love. It does also have its definite strengths, even for folks who don't like Lelouch/C.C. at all, IMHO.

(The friendships it portrays between especially Shirley and Kallen but also the two of them and C.C. are really sweet, and if there's one thing the original anime lacked it was strong relationships between its dynamic and interesting female characters.)

(I said this on Tumblr but I'm particularly sad that we don't see more of Kallen+C.C., because they did develop a bond between the seasons. I'd love it if this manga showed even more of their friendship. ♥)

But it's also definitely not perfect. There are a number of things I'd like to be seen handled differently. 😃 Thanks for the excuse to elucidate some of them!!

OMG

[(Anonymous)]

heeeey it's me again lmao, promise this is the last time i'm gonna yap and bother you (for this chapter maybe 😝)

just wanted to say YES I absolutely LIVE for the female friendships in this manga. It's my personal dream to see C.C. and Euphy interact, glad we got it in this official AU. I love this manga, I want to see everyone happy and getting along in a gentle world. So I wanna thank you again! for bringing us En translations, I would honestly probably cry if there weren't any lol.

Will be here for the next chapters! 💛💜

Potential

[(Anonymous)]

I'd actually be surprised if they went anywhere with the two anytime soon. While there have definitely been moments that feel like shipping I haven't seen much to really indicate either has developed feelings for the other. Indications that it could happen and that they've come to think fondly for the other but not much farther quite yet.

I do agree that while I was happy with seeing them as a couple with the movie, the way it ended up happening was a bit of a letdown in part due to the time constraints being what they were not allowing it the time it would need for that step to happen.

With that in mind do you think the manga of the film happening now might have some potential to maybe expand on that at all? I'm not getting my hopes up but I did appreciate even that first chapter featuring interactions and moments not explored at all.

[rainfall]

I mean, honestly, your guess is as good as mine. It's definitely possible that the Lelouch/C.C. relationship, as written, also displeased the creative team, and that that's part of where the Re;surrection manga even came from.

(Originally, Re;'s tagline was that it was supposed to cover the events of the Zero Requiem in more detail — then a few months ago that was changed and the manga artist spoke on Twitter about how excited they were to now be making a manga that would tie into the movie timeline.)

But it's also possible that the creative team was completely satisfied with that aspect, and that the manga will instead focus a lot on what other characters were doing between the Requiem and the events of the movie, or getting more into the backstory of the new villains (as the first chapter has already touched on).

It's difficult for anyone to speak honestly on a public platform like Twitter about aspects of a major studio production like a movie that they weren't happy with, because you don't want to burn bridges that might negatively affect your ability to find another job in the industry, but Japanese Twitter seems especially reticent to make waves. The closest I've seen from anybody involved was Oukouchi kind of joking that he'd originally written Lelouch suffering much more at the beginning of the movie, but some people (exactly which people left unspecified) were aghast because "he's the protagonist, after all!", so he made changes.

Does that mean we'll see Lelouch suffering more in the manga...? I don't know. The only credit on the manga apart from Tomofumi Ogasawara's is Taniguchi, the director, rather than writer, of the original anime; and he's there as 'Scenario: Koujirou Taniguchi (Sunrise)'. Oukouchi might not be involved with this at all. And even if he is, who's to say that he'd be able to revert that change, or that he even still regrets it?

So... I guess I'm saying I would keep your expectations low. 🤣 But then, I'm someone who prefers to have low expectations and then be pleasantly surprised than to have high expectations and be disappointed.

Personally, I'm focusing on a few specific moments from the movie that I'd love to see rendered in Ogasawara's beautiful art. 😃 And, of course, the excellent practice this is, as always.

[(Anonymous)]

Hard to say on that score really.

I did end up a bit disappointed it didn't really delve into things much deeper when its such a good opportunity.

Yeah it could delve more into other characters while leaving Lelouch and C.C. more or less the same. I hope not since there's plenty you could do still like that talk Lelouch talked about having with her when he came back but which either didn't happen at all or at least not onscreen.

Like zombie Lelouch would suffer more? I'd honestly argue C.C. is the lead protagonist until he comes back halfway through, which was neat if underused.

Any particular one? And in terms of their relationship did you find that one picture drama taking place after alright? I did enjoy that one despite being mostly comedic.

[rainfall]

Oukouchi's feeling, as he expressed it, was that Lelouch was supposed to die, and promised to die, to atone for all he'd done; so, his coming back to life should come at a personal cost for him. He should suffer because otherwise he would have gotten off too easily for what he did in the main series. (And this use of "protagonist" isn't really exclusive; Suzaku and C.C. were also protagonists for the original anime.)

Suzaku and Kallen fighting together, for one; Lelouch's reunion with Suzaku on the rooftop, for another. More that aren't coming to immediate mind.

I haven't watched any of the PDs since the Masked Confessional PD. I just haven't been interested. Friends who know me well and saw it said they didn't think I'd like it, either, haha. I'm inclined to trust them on that.

But I'm glad you liked it! And I hope you and my other readers are pleased by the new manga. Fingers crossed. ♥

pizza

[(Anonymous)]

i really like this manga they have a new one tomorrow cant wait

[koenigbuuhuu]

Thanks~