Code Geass: Mao of the Deliverance

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It hurts Mao more. Really.

Code Geass: Mao of the Deliverance is a Code Geass fanfic by Kleptographer of Alternates, which details the history of Mao , beginning with his abandonment by C.C.. It primarily focuses on his desperate search for her as he first wanders around China Beijing, supporting his operation through gambling and blackmail, though clues uncovered during his travels eventually bring him to Japan where his relation to early events in the series is revealed, shedding new insight on his subsequent actions.

Its portrayal suggests Mao to be a brilliant Anti-Hero who's love drives him to sacrifice everything (and anyone) in order to save his beloved C.C. from her Death Wish so they can be together again. Forever. Whether or not he will actually succeed however...

Notable for several original ideas that have begun to appear in later related works. Similar to The Draco Trilogy, except that it has a lot more justification for its sympathetic portrayal of a Canon villain.

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Code Geass Mao of the Deliverance provides examples of:

• Action Girl: After Kallen unknowingly captures C.C., Mao ruminates over the fact that when he finds her, he won't be able to attack her, as she's a skilled fighter and his Geass won't help him predict reflexive muscle movements.
  • He gives the same reason for avoiding Sayoko, who is also a martial artist.
• Adaptation Expansion: Much of the entire first half of the story, along with detailed explanations set in between Canon episodes. The ability of the author to take the core source material (consisting of about three episodes, a couple of cameos and a brief series of flashbacks), and create an engaging storyline that is both plausible and woven into established Canon very well, however, is rather impressive.
• Adult Child: Mao is still very childlike, despite physically being an adult.
  • Becomes a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming when he excitedly rides a carousel for the first time.
• All Just a Dream: Apparently, Chapter 20.
• All There in the Manual: The separate one-shots "Mistakes of the Past", "Memories" and "Kisses and Wishes" provide additional details about Mao and C.C.'s past, such as C.C.'s perception of their parting. Also, there are a few specific details of his backstory are actually supported by Code Geass supplementary materials, making them Older Than You Think.
  • Of course, others are much exaggerated. Nunnally, for example, does seem to read Lelouch's mind at the end of the series, but the novels from which the author is getting this make it so that's not a normal power. She is said to be able to tell if someone is telling the truth, but not outright read minds
• Alone in a Crowd: While Mao is alone for much of the time, it's slightly averted by the fact that he hears the thoughts of those around him, giving him a measure of (unwanted) conversation.
• The Atoner: By the last chapter, Mao seems to have come to consider himself this, even Having Sympathy for the Devil over Lelouch and feeling genuine regret for his actions, although because of his Blue and Orange Morality and the Author's vagueness on the matter, it's not very clear whether or not he still thinks that because it was for C.C., the sacrifice was worth it.
• And This Is For: Mao whispers C.C.'s name when he shoots someone dead for the first time. Later shouts her name repeatedly as he massacres a roomful of scientists with an assault rifle.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: Mao gives one to C.C. in Chapter 23.
• Anti-Hero: Mao definitely qualifies. His stated goal is cursorily noble, but to accomplish it, however, he employs increasingly violent and exploitative methods.
  • Complicated by the fact that the author undeniably takes the position that, in the show, Mao is an Anti-Villain. In the work , told from Mao's perspective, however, Mao starts off with the view that he is C.C.'s Knight in Shining Armor, though later seems to admit he's become an something of an Anti-Hero, viewing Zero as Ron the Death Eater.
• Anti Villain Protagonist: Mao is either this or the Anti-Hero.
• Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny: Several thoughts Mao overhears suffer from this.
• Badass Longcoat: Mao.
• Badass Long Hair: Also Mao.
• Back From the Dead
• Batman Gambit: Because his Telepathy enables him to acquire intimate knowledge of anyone he wants, Mao often comes up with schemes that are dependent on people acting the way he predicts they will. He is very good at this. Unfortunately for him, his first attempt against Lelouch ends up failing, though just barely. Then later, Lelouch uses an even better one against him though it actually fails as well.
  • After Mao gives her an Anguished Declaration of Love, C.C. reveals that she’s been running a rather cruel one for some time, pitting Mao and Lelouch against each other in an attempt to pressure one of them enough to fulfill her contract. Ultimately, however, Mao still doesn’t care.
    • Also, Mao and C.C. come to realize that a What the Hell, Hero? speech Lelouch gave to C.C. earlier was really an attempt to manipulate her into killing Mao for him. Its Fatal Flaw is exposed when C.C. makes him think she’s deserting him, leading him to resort to another Batman Gambit, using her presence to distract Mao, in order to make sure he’s dead. It ultimately fails as well, however.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Nunally reveals that Mao’s Geass ultimately stems from his desire to understand people.
• Berserk Button: Mao’s apparently include Code-R. Prositutes. Zero.
• Big Blackout: Mao engineers one of these in his escape from the Geass Directorate.
• Big Brother Instinct: Lelouch became a terrorist and started a war for his handicapped sister Nunnally.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Mao and C.C., in C's World near the end. Subverted when Mao kisses her upside down in the first chapter.
• Bilingual Bonus: In one chapter Mao starts shouting obscenities in romanized Chinese. Also an example of Getting Crap Past the Radar, given the T rating. See also Foreign Language Tirade and Foreign Cuss Words.
  • Later when Mao witnesses Suzaku outrun and disable his sentry gun he remarks in disbelief, “Cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dài!”. Translation: “Fuck your ancestors to the eighteenth generation!”, a particularly insulting Chinese curse.*
• Bleed'Em and Weep: Shirley has this reaction after shooting a Britannian spy about to expose Lelouch's identity as Zero. Because of this she becomes suicidal later and Mao uses her guilt to manipulate her into attacking Lelouch.
• Blessed with Suck: His Geass gives him the ability to know other's thoughts. No matter what. All the time. Without fail.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Starting with Chapter 12.
• Blown Across the Room: Mao's shotgun tends to have this effect on its victims. Oh, that and backside Gorn.
• Blue and Orange Morality: Mao's moral compass begins and ends with C.C. He starts his journey perfectly willing to do anything for her and his actions often seem inexplicably insane in the sheer innocence of their brutality, all the while seeing himself as a paragon example of a Knight in Shining Armor engaged in a struggle of White and Black Morality. It becomes muddled near the middle, however, as Mao seems to acknowledge that his recent actions are evil (at least as far as he can grasp the concept) but necessary, revealing the Grey and Gray Morality underlying the story. Regardless, his status as a Cloudcuckoolander often causes him to do things normal people would balk at without impunity, such as his famous attempt to chainsaw his immortal beloved in order to make her more compact for a cramped plane escape.
• Boom! Headshot!: Mao delivers a few of these--notably to a Mook who forgot his helmet earlier.
• Break the Cutie: Revealed in several flashbacks that Mao was just a Troubled but Cute little boy until his Geass slowly drove him insane.
  • He also deliberately inflicts plenty of Break the Cutie to Shirley.
• Break the Haughty: Mao terrifies Lelouch after a single chess match and later brings him to his knees in apparent defeat. Also inflicts this on Suzaku.
• Broken Bird: Mao realizes C.C. is this, determining that she must need him just as much as he does her therefore.
• Brother-Sister Incest: When Mao first uses his Geass on Lelouch, he learns, among other things, that he really loves his sister. When he kidnaps Nunnally later, he discovers that the feeling is intensely mutual. Luckily, no actual sex seems to have been involved.
• Bulletproof Vest: Mao has to work around these while fighting an army of Mooks. He also survives because of one after getting shot in the back.
• Bullet Sparks: Mao's shotgun has this effect when he turns it on Kallen's Knightmare Frame. Justified as it's mentioned to be loaded with steel core ammunition, which would generate a spark.
• Butt Monkey: Let's just say Mao is prone to misfortune. All three of Mao's major schemes end up failing, the last of which has horrible consequences. Though events like getting kicked around by police officers, locked in an insane asylum for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, and especially C.C.'s preliminary abandonment do make him The Woobie. Played for Laughs when he tries to fly to Area 11...and narrowly misses crashing into a building, gets caught in a frickin hurricane, and almost wrecks in the landing.
  • To avoid a Downer Ending, Mao's main goal, however, is actually realized, though not in the way he expected, well…not quite in the way he expected. Less of a case of Throw the Dog a Bone and more of The Power of Love though.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Despite the fact that she professed to love Mao many times while he was growing up, as shown in several flashbacks, and the fact that she included it as a line in the(intended) posthumous recording she made for him, C.C. refuses to say it to him when he finds her again, instead claiming she was only using him all the way till a tender moment near the end, where she finally drops it and admits the truth
• Chainsaw Good: Has to be seen to be believed.
• Chekhov's Armoury: Mao accumulates one of these as the story progresses.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: The ring Mao forged for C.C. in the first chapter turns out to come in handy in surprising ways on multiple occasions later.
• Chekhov's Skill: The training Mao received during his time with the Geass Directorate, such as learning how to alternate his focus between different groups of people, which he later uses to spy on Prince Clovis and General Bartley from outside the Viceroy's Palace to learn where they're holding C.C.
• The Chessmaster: Mao becomes this. Though Lelouch turns out to be even better, except when it comes to, you know, actually playing chess.
• Coincidental Broadcast: In Chapter 14, Mao turns on the television just in time to catch the broadcast of Zero's first public appearance with a mysterious capsule in his possession. As it's same one he lost to Kallen's terrorists at Code-R with C.C. inside, Mao suspects that C.C. is being held by Zero and begins investigating him, jumpstarting the third Story Arc.
  • Also C.C.'s (intended) posthumous recording. Fragments that play often seem to relate somehow to Mao's present circumstances.
• Combat Pragmatist: In the epic shootout from Chapter 12, Mao displays a fast and brutal attack style, a poignant illustration of his single-minded focus. Mooks with Bullet Proof Vests? No problem. Just shoot them in the neck.
  • However, he also seems to flirt with Combat Sadism when dealing with a few particularly loathed opponents, most notably with Doctor Huai, Rupert Deneuvre and, of course, Lelouch himself with Shirley.
• Cool Shades: Mao wears these.
• Cradling Your Kill: C.C. does this in a way to Mao at the end of Chapter 26.
• Creepy Child: V.V. comes off this way.
• Crucified Hero Shot: When he gets shot by a Brainwashed police firing squad, Mao falls with his arms out and his legs together, reminiscent of the Christian cross.
  • And earlier when he's imprisoned in a psychiatric ward, he sweats blood, with Doctor Huai even comparing him to Christ.
• A Day At the Bizarro: Chapter 20.
• Death Glare: Recipient's of Mao's include Doctor Huai, Rolo, dozens of researchers at Code-R, Rupert Deneuvre, and Lelouch himself. Usually given just before he kills them in a particularly brutal way, although in Denveuvre's case, he's already beyond dead, and in Lelouch's, the best Mao can do is Scenery Gorn since Lelouch is communicating through a video screen at the moment. This is subverted in his treatment of Rolo, however, as he takes him down wearing a friendly smile.
• Death Seeker: C.C. reveals that the contract she made with Mao is dependent upon him killing her so he can relieve her of her immortality. Mao refuses, arguing that he’s in love with her and needs her, which is why she abandons him. See Who Wants to Live Forever?. Mao later seeks to kill Lelouch, C.C.’s new ally, in order to prevent him from fulfilling the same contract.
  • Mao also learns that Suzaku is secretly one of these, due to guilt over murdering his own father as a child.
  • Mao also becomes one of these when he approaches C.C. and asks her to help him commit suicide.
• Death Trap: Mao engineers a few of these against Lelouch using his Teen Genius
• Deal with the Devil: Mao's acceptance of Geass as revealed in Chapter 24, given what it ultimately turns him into...
• Demoted to Extra: Mao is the ONLY character actively present for all chapters (obviously). C.C. is mentioned at least once in every chapter but only present for 7 of them. Lelouch himself, though treated as the main antagonist, is only present for 9 of them, though also in 2 earlier chapters as "Zero". Shirley and Nunnally are present for 3 chapters, respectively. V.V. and Rolo are present for 3 chapters. Suzaku is in 2 chapters. Kallen is only in 1 chapter, giving her the same amount as Diethard of all people, who also gets 1 chapter. Prince Clovis, General Bartley, Jeremiah and Viletta also appear in 1 chapter (although Viletta gets a later Flash Back cameo). Numerous other characters from the show are mentioned but not present as well.
• Despair Event Horizon: Finally crossed by Mao in Chapter 22 after an entire Trauma Conga Line that would have made normal people give up a long, long LONG time ago. Comes with a Tear Jerker moment of Driven to Suicide, only barely avoided by a dark Heel Face Do Not Go Gentle.
• The Determinator: Mao gambles, blackmails, steals, does drugs, flies through a frickin hurricane, takes on soldiers and terrorists and gets shot repeatedly all in his quest to save C.C. and be with her forever. What’s incredible is that, for many of them, it’s his first time attempting to do so!
• Disappeared Dad: Shirley's father is killed as a consequence of Lelouch's terrorist activities. Also Mao was orphaned at an early age, though it's been hinted a few times that he was of noble, possibly even royal, birth.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Mao to Nunnally.
• Doppelganger Replacement Love Interest: C.C. takes Mao to C's World while he is unconscious and leaves him there with the mental version of herself so he can be happy. Mao's reaction, however, is a subversion as he, while grateful for the gesture, is ultimately NOT satisfied and determined to return.
• The Dragon: Rolo to V.V. Mao also determines Kallen to be this for Zero.
  • Suzaku later becomes this to help Lelouch save Nunnally though.
• Driven to Suicide: Mao strongly contemplates this option, before deciding he'd rather have revenge first. Also an example of Spurned Into Suicide, as he is beginning to fear that C.C. might not really love him. He later meets with C.C. and ends up asking her to do it for him.
• Dr. Jerk: Any of the doctors Mao meets in the hospital qualify, but especially Dr. Huai.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Both Mao AND Lelouch suffer moments like this.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Despite Mao's several failures and the Grey and Gray Morality conflict, he is finally reunited with C.C. in C's World.
• Either or Title: Several of the idiosyncratic chapter names have alternate titles included as well, most commonly puns or symbolic allusions.
• Elaborate Underground Base: The Geass Directorate is an entire city hidden underground beneath the Chinese Federation.
• Empathic Environment: The storm in the first chapter is the best example, but it appears fairly consistently afterwords as well if you watch for it.
• Even Crazy Has Standards: On one of Code-R’s recorded video sessions, a scientist condescendingly berates a fellow for asserting that C.C. could be an alien, despite the fact that moments before he suggested that she had psychic powers. Also counts as Arbitrary Skepticism.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Side characters, both male and female, frequently ruminate on how sexy he is (or how awesome his clothes are). Like, for example, a hotel employee who teaches him how to use the computer and Prince Clovis' own security guards!
• Evil Counterpart: Mao comes to consider Lelouch this way.
  • In fact the already noted similarities become even more striking in the story--both are geniuses, both consider the well being of a single individual their entire purpose in life, both are given a Geass by C.C., both are extremely proficient in manipulating people, both express revulsion after shooting their first victim, both gamble to support themselves, and both excitedly revel when they realize they actually have the power to accomplish their goals. And both make their exit with a Thanatos Gambit!
    • Their differences are complementary as well, however--Mao is physically superior while Lelouch is slightly mentally superior, Mao's intelligence is expressed through his skills in building, engineering, manipulating machines, and almost hypnotic persuasion whereas Lelouch's is expressed through his prowess in strategy, tactics, and philosophy.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Justified because Mao not only hears every thought within 500 meters of him but can focus in on those that interest him. Subverted by the fact that much of what he overhears is at best completely random and at worst Squick. Humorously averted when gaps sometimes appear in his awareness, which Mao attributes to people speaking without thinking about what they're saying.
• Facing the Bullets One-Liner: When faced with Lelouch's Brainwashed police execution squad, Mao attempts to shout that Lelouch is the terrorist Zero. Unfortunately, his words get cut short.
• Fake Trap: In an interesting solution to the agonizing instance in the show where Suzaku deactivates a motion sensitive bomb by simply jumping and cutting it with a knife, the author gives the explanation that it was really a malfunctioning fake designed to deceive Lelouch by tricking him into thinking he had gone outside his Geass' radius, when he actually hadn't, and draw him into Mao's real trap. Turns out, it was actually a homemade smoke bomb hidden inside a larger hollow weight. While it should've gone off when any attempt was made to disable it, allowing Mao to show it to Lelouch on his video screen and thus make him think his sister Nunnally was obliterated so he could give Lelouch a decent Hannibal Lecture and shoot him dead, unfortunately the thing ended up malfunctioning to his surprise.
• Fantastic Drug: Refrain
• Flaw Exploitation: Mao uses this against others, including Lelouch, and ends up taking it from Lelouch.
• Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt: While not actually guilty of a crime, Mao is treated with suspicion when he tenders Chinese yuan inside Britannian Area 11, and one dealer even refuses to sell to him (until that is, Mao makes An Offer You Can't Refuse). Finally, Mao skirts the issue by playing to a clerk's racism and drawing attention to the fact that he won it gambling against a Chinese man.
• Foregone Conclusion: Mao is going to lose C.C. to Lelouch and die.
  • [[spoiler: Mao actually kills Lelouch and escapes to Australia with C.C.
  • After the revelation that Chapter 20 was All Just a Dream though, it's up in the air again.
  • Mao does lose to Lelouch and die
  • C.C. actually takes Mao to C's World
• Freak-Out: Mao does this several times. Notably when his recorder runs out of batteries; and then again when he loses C.C. to Kallen's terrorists.
• Freudian Excuse: Dr. Huai was sexually abused by his mother since he was little. And essentially, this whole story is Mao's Freudian Excuse, laid out in detail!
• Freud Was Right: Mao has Single-Target Sexuality for C.C., whom he met when he was six and who practically raised him. Also implied she had sex with him when he got a little older. Yeah...
• Gadgeteer Genius: Mao displays a natural aptitude for making complex machines out of odd or scarce materials, as well as repairing broken ones. He apparently learned this while making devices to ease their chores when he and C.C. lived together in the wild.
• Gambit Pileup: In Chapter 23, Mao and Lelouch's AND C.C.’s schemes come to light, and are shown to have become so intertwined at one point as to have actually canceled each other out. Which makes Lelouch’s on the fly victory in Chapter 21 all the more remarkable. Worthy Opponent indeed!
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Though the story is rated “T”, after losing C.C. to Kallen, Mao screams in Chinese (while he mutilates a corpse in frustration), “Cào nǐ māde! Cào! Cào! CAO!!! Wángbādàn! Sǐ pì yǎn! Gǔnkāi! Gǔnkāi!” Translation: “Fuck your mother’s cunt! Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!!! You bastard! You damned asshole! Go to hell! Go to hell!” Also counts as a Cluster F-Bomb with an Atomic F-Bomb thrown in.
• The Ghost: After her disappearance in Chapter 1, C.C. becomes this for a while, constantly referred to by Mao and mentioned during flashbacks, but not actually encountered until much later, except for a brief cameo.
• Gorn: Chapter 12 is just full of it. And Chapter 20 will make you cringe. Or laugh.
• Government Conspiracy: Mao uncovers several clues pointing to one of these, eventually uncovering that Prince Clovis and General Bartley abducted C.C. to synthesize her immortality with the hope of presenting her to the Emperor to curry his favor.
  • Also, the Britannian Rosenberg Institute paid for illegal experiments on asylum inmates to produce the drug Refrain and addict colonial populations with armed resistance movements, turning right around and making it illegal so as to reap huge profits.
• Grey and Gray Morality: The true moral conflict underlying the story, although since everything is told from Mao's perspective, it often comes across as Black and Gray Morality Blue and Orange Morality while Mao continually affirms to the reader that its actually Black and White Morality.
• Gunpoint Banter: Mao starts to have one of these with Rupert Deneuvre during their Mexican Standoff. Also gives a Hannibal Lecture to a guard he has pinned with a gun to the head.
• Guns Akimbo: During his assault on Code-R, he opts for dual pistols as his weapon of choice when he can get away with it. Also case of Rule of Cool.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: The battle between Lelouch and Mao in Chapter 20.
• Hannibal Lecture: Mao gives out several of these. One played straight to the doctor of a psychiatric ward, one to a Britannian soldier with a guilty conscience, and one to Shirley and Suzaku, respectvely, of course. Subverted, when he actually gives a positive one to Doragoniki to gain sympathy and convince him to sell him weapons, by comparing his quest to save C.C. with the seller's frustration over the loss of his wife. Inverted twice. Once when he unsuccessfully attempts this on Rolo but is prevented because of the fact that he had already accepted what Mao said is true. And again it fails with Nunnally (possibly due to her cognitive dissonance), however, and she instead gives him a rather jarring one.
• Harmful to Minors: Directly stated that Mao's Geass forced him to learn about obscenity, sexuality, graphic violence, and other mature subjects as a child.
• Headphones Equal Isolation: Thinking that Mao would fulfill her contract, C.C. made him a recording filled with words of gratitude and encouragement to ease his loneliness. When she abandons him after he doesn't though, Mao uses it to drown out some of the thoughts that would otherwise debilitate him, allowing him a measure of mobility.
• Healing Factor: C.C. can quickly revive from any injury no matter how severe. Demonstrated poignantly in Code-R's experiments, which included everything from immolation up to disintegration, as well as Mao's plan to make her more compact for a cramped plane ride, certain she would survive.
• Heel Realization: Manages to have one at the very end.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: The lengths Mao goes to in order to acquire his white leather Badass Longcoat.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Although his Adult Childish Blue and Orange Morality makes his judgements questionable to begin with, Mao comes to consider his Jumping Off the Slippery Slope as this, pledging to do whatever it takes to save C.C.
• Heroic Sociopath: A possible interpretation of Mao from the work.
• Hope Spot: Chapter 20. Too bad it turns out to be All Just a Dream.
  • A dark example during Mao’s latest confrontation with Lelouch over Nunnaly, in which it has been revealed that Mao is playing along to Maintain the Lie with Lelouch’s Memory Gambit and is, in fact, running a complex Xanatos Gambit of his own.
    • Ultimately averted in that, through a For Want of a Nail flaw in Mao’s plan and Suzaku’s timely intervention, Lelouch still overcomes Mao.
• Humans Are Bastards: Mao's basic outlook. Subverted in his view of C.C. Justified somewhat by the fact that the thoughts he tends to hear are usually depraved and bitter.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Mao's name appears in all the chapter titles, preceded by a present tense verb, apparently based on Turn 15 of the show, translated "Cheering Mao".
• I Have a Family: Invoked by a guard named Alex when Mao calmly explains that he needs to kill him in order to steal his I.D. Brilliantly rebuffed by Mao when he reminds him of all the families he killed (including children) during the invasion of Japan.
• Ill Girl: Lelouch's sister Nunnally is blind and cripple. When he abducts her, Mao purposefully binds her legs just to infuriate Lelouch.
• Impossibly Cool Clothes: See Badass Longcoat and Cool Shades above.
  • Of course, he does shed those when they get shot full of holes, after which he becomes something of a Rummage Sale Reject thanks to the quick thinking of a kind nurse.
• I'm Taking Her Home with Me: Mao reserves a single-bed cottage in deep Australia so he can take C.C. there.
• Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Turns out that Chapter 20 is this. Fucking HILARIOUS!
• Indy Ploy: Mao travels to Shinjuku in order to liberate C.C. from the Britannian military. About the only thing he plans for, however, is a shoot out and when he gets there he just happens to find a guard on break. So he decides to shoot him and take his I.D. and uniform in order to get into the lab, leaving us wondering what he would have done if he had arrived just a little bit later…
  • A really boring wait for the next shift to end.
• Instant Expert: At poker. A mostly Justified Trope, in that he defeats his opponents simply by reading their minds. Later demonstrates the same ability when he easily defeats Chessmaster Lelouch at chess.
• I Will Fight Some More Forever: Even when Mao is confronted by Kallen's Knightmare, he fires his shotgun at the damn thing, almost getting him killed when she retaliates with her rocket grapple.
• Jerkass Facade: Mao puts on one of these to intimidate his enemies, even though he's really a Troubled but Cute Adult Child on the inside...mostly
• Karmic Death: Mao tells Shirley that her and Lelouch's death would be this, though he himself muses over the fact he doesn't really care what she did and is just using her to take down Lelouch so C.C. will be spared from their contract.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: With Shirley, of course. He also receives this from Lelouch.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Mao creates (and summarily follows) a mental hit list for people who know about C.C. to eliminate them in order to keep her immortality a secret so that the government won't come after her again.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Mao fancies himself as one for C.C., though later begins to act like a Knight in Sour Armor when things become more difficult for him.
• The Last Dance: Chapters 24, 25, and 26 are this for Mao.
• Let Them Die Horribly: Mao's favored method seems to be to Mind Rape them, give them a Hannibal Lecture about The Reason They Suck and then either kill them himself or get them to do it for him.
• Literal Genie: Lelouch's Geass. Mao survives Lelouch's Batman Gambit because of his poorly phrased command to the Brainwashed police officers to "shoot" rather than "kill".
• Living Emotional Crutch: C.C. for Mao and a somewhat dark example at that, considering the lengths he is willing to go to in order to retain her. Just her voice apparently soothes him like nothing else.
• Living Lie Detector: Mao's Geass enables him to do this. Nunnally is also revealed to be able to tell when someone is lying and even view their memories just by holding their hand. She does this to Mao in order to prove to him he's not a Complete Monster, but he has a Freak-Out instead from the ensuing Mind Rape.
• Love At First Sight: Averted as a Flash Back reveals that Mao shouted that he hated the world and everyone in it, including C.C. (whom he had never met till then!).
• A Love to Dismember: Mao attempts to make C.C. more compact for a cramped flight to Australia. In the preceding chapter, we get to see Mao actually do this to a willing C.C. And then C.C.'s severed head talks to him and blows him kisses afterward! Thankfully, it was All Just a Dream though.
• Manipulative Bastard: Do we even have to tell you who?
  • Also Lelouch attempts to be one in a desperate bid to win the already confused AND murderous Shirley over to his side in the midst of Mao's Batman Gambit. It doesn't work too well.
• Manipulative Bitch: Since leaving Mao, C.C. has been running a Batman Gambit in a bid to coerce either Lelouch or Mao to take her immortality through lies, manipulation and even pitting them against each other.
  • Mao also accuses Shirley of being this, although he’s really just reading her mind and playing it back to her.
• The Messiah: Nunnally is kind to everyone, even the person holding her hostage. At gunpoint. In the sewer.
• Mind Rape: In a bizarre twist, Nunally does this to Mao!.
• Mind Screw: Chapter 20! Signs inexplicably change, Ham and Cheese goes Up to Eleven, a dismembered head carries on conversation, carousel horses ride off their carousel, people talk after their already beyond dead...and Mao becomes an Invincible Hero with Charles Atlas Superpower. All without warning. Cue WTF!
• More Than Mind Control: Mao excels at this, sometimes so much that he seems like a Magnificent Bastard.
• My Hero Zero: Subverted in that the daring terrorist Zero is really Lelouch, a calculating bastard who becomes Mao's Evil Counterpart.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Doctor Huai. “Huai” means evil in Chinese.
• Necessarily Evil: When Mao ponders his morally questionable actions, such as Breaking The Cutie Shirley or deciding to chainsaw C.C. to fit her on his plane and escape to Australia, he concludes that their necessary for the greater good--protecting C.C. from her own Death Wish and Lelouch so they can continue their romance.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: C.C. abandoned Mao with the hope that he would hate her and blame her for all his problems. Needless to say, it didn’t work at all!
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: When the terrorists escape the containment facility with C.C., Mao delivers one of these to the head conspirator Rupert Deneuvre after shooting him.
• Non-Action Guy: Lelouch is easily physically inferior to Mao, whose rugged life in the wild has apparently made him quite fit.
• No One Should Survive That: Just like in the show, he comes back after being riddled with bullets in the previous chapter. It's explained much better than it was in the show though.
• No Place for Me There: Notably, C.C. says this to Mao at one point of him. He, predictably, disagrees.
• Not Good with People: Mao. It makes sense, though, in that owing to his Geass he can't interact with them normally at all; and that for years was raised away from them by C.C., who never cared what his relations to them were.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Rather than just exposing Lelouch's identity as Zero to the military and letting them take care of him, Mao is determined to personally be the one to bring him down. Twice!
  • Mao pursues this course out of fear that exposing Lelouch to the authorities will place C.C. in danger of being recaptured, since she’s with him.
    • When he realizes he's probably about to die, though, he does shout it out to the police to no avail. Except he doesn't die, of course
• Organization with Unlimited Funding: The Geass Directorate and its associated research projects and secret institutes.
• Parental Abandonment: Mao was orphaned as a young child, no older than six. Then C.C.--the one who effectively raised him--abandoned him years later.
• Pay Evil Unto Evil: When he infiltrates Code-R, Mao's original plan is to eliminate the guards and escape with C.C. After he sees videos of the experiments performed upon her, however, he decides that "these people are monsters" and proceeds to mercilessly kill every unarmed scientist he comes across.
  • Actually, he not only kills those he comes across, he goes searching for them in order to kill them.
    • Not only that, but he plans to find and murder the ones that escape later.
• Persona Non Grata: After winning particularly large sums of money all night, Mao is kicked out from a luxury casino--and the order is enforced by submachine guns to boot!
• Precision F-Strike: When Lelouch boasts how easy it was to deceive Mao with the monitor trick while he was distracted by C.C., Mao retorts in disbelief, “Don’t fuck with me brat!”, the only (English) use of the word so far. Justified as it’s a direct quote from the show's subtitle script.
• Properly Paranoid: Mao Lampshades plenty of schemes that he could perform to secure his goal along the way, but fears that many of them will expose C.C. to danger, especially when he finds her in the company of the highly-sought after terrorists, the Black Knights. Given the Code-R affair, he's got a point.
• Protagonist-Centered Morality: Despite the increasingly violent and exploitative acts Mao engages in as his quest becomes more desperate, he continues to excuse them by considering C.C. to be the only person that really matters.
  • Lelouch is revealed to operate with the same basic outlook in regards to Nunnally though. He's a little more compassionate towards others, as pointed out by Nunnally - he puts himself at great risk to rescue Suzaku and the Student Council, though it also furthers his plans.
  • C.C. also seems to have this for...um...herself.
• Protectorate: Mao views protecting C.C. as his sole responsibility and is determined to do so, even from herself.
• Psychotic Smirk: He adopts one of these quite a bit when dealing with opponents he's trying to unnerve. He wears it very well.
• Purple Prose: Some descriptions of C.C. Justified since the work is from Mao's perspective, who sees her like a Draco in Leather Pants.
• Raised by Wolves: Mao spent his early childhood as an orphan, scavenging to get by. Later, however, C.C. became something resembling a parent for him. And you wonder why he's so screwed up.
• Rapunzel Hair: C.C. has long green hair that Mao just loves running his fingers through!
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: C.C. Well, she's at least 717 according to the intro.
• Refuge in Audacity: The airplane Mao swindled is a bit too small to fit both him, his beloved C.C., his Briefcase Full of Money, Wall of Weapons, and Gun Accessories. After seriously pondering the issue, Mao comes up with the ingenious plan to use a friggin chainsaw to make said immortal love interest more compact.
• The Reveal: Not surprising, given the nature of Mao’s power and his personality. Most especially, he reveals that Lelouch and Nunnally are in love and Suzaku is a Death Seeker who murdered his own father, something that was only very subtly hinted at in the show.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Played straight when Mao goes on one after watching several recorded experiments carried out by Code-R on C.C., accomplished by obliterating several roomfuls of scientists and culminating in the mutilation of a corpse with the handle of a pistol (he already used up all the bullets!)
• Sadistic Choice: Mao presents several. Sometimes his victims manage to Take a Third Option.
• Sanity Slippage: Mao's experiences in the insane asylum, locked in a straitjacket and almost constantly being injected with experimental drugs.
• Sarcastic Clapping: Subverted in that he tends to clap when he gets really happy or excited, but played straight when he wants to deliberately annoy his opponents.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Well, Shirley seems to think this of Mao's visor, and Lelouch spends quite a bit of time wishing it wasn't there.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: To a degree, Lelouch and Mao.
• Sentry Gun: Mao hooks up one of these to guard the hallway leading to the underground level where he has Nunnally trapped. Apparently, he forced the military to give it to him. Rendered pretty much useless when Suzaku defies gravity and outruns it, delivering a Hurricane Kick to disable it. Cue Chinese Swearing by Mao.
• Sequel Hook: The author includes one at the end.
• Shout-Out: Contains several, including to The Matrix, The Truman Show, The Terminator, X-Men, The Patriot, Firefly, Fruits Basket, Labyrinth, Pokémon, Scanners, Kingdom Hearts.
• Shut UP, Hannibal: Lelouch uses his Geass to make Mao mute when he's distracted by Suzaku in a vivid case of A Fate Worse Than Death. When he awakes in C's World with C.C., however, he's conveniently able to overcome it by sheer indomitable willpower.
  • • Actually, C.C. used her vague assortment of abilities to break Lelouch's Geass.
  • C.C. also gives a playful one to Mao in C's World.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Mao for C.C. Justified in that he has no other options outside of her. Aptly illustrated when an over-eager prostitute attempts to seduce Mao...and gets punched in the face.
  • Also apparently true of Lelouch for Nunnally, and almost as severe. Canonically, it never comes up, but it's not hard to accept that Lelouch wouldn't be able to say no if asked.
• Smug Snake: Mao's opinion of Lelouch.
• Song Fic: Several chapters have scenes in which a related song is playing in the background, usually on the radio, including the Rolling Stones, Karen O, Hoobastank, and The Police. Mostly done in a sensible, selective way.
  • The first few chapters also contain the lyrics to songs that C.C. apparently sang to Mao when he was young to soothe the effects of his Geass when they still lived in the city.
  • Several alternate chapter titles are allusions to various songs as well.
  • Finally, the author has the audacity to recommend that certain instrumental pieces be played while reading, from as varied sources as Code Geass (of course), the The Bourne Series, Gundam Seed, Death Note, Doctor Who, Fruits Basket, Mai-HiME, XxxHolic, and Advent Children.
• The Soulless: Rolo is portrayed this way, interrupted by flashes of Stepford Smiler, which genuinely creeps Mao out!
• Spell My Name with an "S": C.C.'s name is accurately rendered "C.C." throughout but a Shout-Out to the dub version "C2" occurs with Mao's luxury hotel suite: "Floor C, Suite 002".
• Stepford Smiler: Mao is a combination of Type A and C. When he confronts his enemies, he acts extremely cool, confident, and self-satisfied, even though he's really severely messed up and miserable without C.C. See also Hidden Depths.
  • Rolo appears to be a Type B.
  • Mao also wears the nicest clothes and stays in the nicest lodgings he can afford, so people don't look down on him.
    • Actually, it's so the authorities don't treat him with suspicion.
• Sympathetic POV: Mao's, obviously, although it goes to great lengths to explore his moral decay.
• Take That: According to the author, the infamous Chapter 20 was born as this.
• Teen Genius: Mao not only has a natural aptitude for engineering and building, from repairing broken machinery to devising elaborate Death Traps, but demonstrates excellent deductive reasoning skills as he traces C.C.'s movements, evaluates geopolitical changes within Japan, and investigates Zero's identity. Of course, his Geass helps.
• Telepathy: His Geass power. In this interpretation, it allows forces him to penetrate the mind of anyone within 500 meters, including thoughts, sights, sounds, memories and presumably tastes, feels and smells as well, all the way down to the subconscious.
• Thanatos Gambit: Mao secretly approaches C.C. asking her to help him commit suicide. After she finally agrees, he attacks Lelouch unbeknownst to her by abducting Nunnally and holding her hostage with a Fake Trap. Unexpectedly, however, Lelouch gets a chance to use his Geass on him and, as Mao flees, C.C. appears, seemingly to fulfill her earlier promise. But he wakes up in C’s World, however, and she reveals that she merely injected him with a chemical to deceive Lelouch into thinking he was dead because she really does love him too. Mao then reveals the entire thing was all a Xanatos Gambit to prove to C.C. that she loved him, take revenge on Lelouch, and be free of his Geass, with the understanding that either outcome—(1) losing to Lelouch and thus in all likelihood being killed, perhaps by C.C. which would mean she really didn’t love him after all but would free him from his Geass, (2) defeating Lelouch but getting killed by C.C. anyway, thus sparing C.C. from being killed by Lelouch later by their contract and still being freed from Geass, (3) losing to Lelouch but being spared by C.C., proving her love for him and thus giving them a chance to be honest with each other about their relationship, or (4) defeating Lelouch and being spared by C.C.’s love, ensuring safety for the both of them and the ability to resume their relationship without a rival contract. The second is what actually occurs, though to Mao it initially appears that the first has. The whole scheme also counts as a Thanatos Gambit.
• These Hands Have Killed: Mao stares at his hands in horror after slaughtering almost an entire laboratory of scientists.
• Thinking Out Loud: Mao does this to differentiate his own thoughts from the others he has to hear. Played for laughs when several side characters question his sanity or he accidentally reveals information he didn't intend to.
• Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: Mao has to ask a hotel reception desk how to use a computer.
  • Justified since he lived most of his life in the wild without one.
• Took a Level In Badass: When Mao first purchases his guns, he has to be shown the basics of operating them. A chapter later, however, he manages to take on an entire guardhouse of Britannian soldiers with an arsenal of automatic weapons--and kill them all!
  • Justified somewhat because Mao's Geass allows him to know exactly what obstacles his enemies are hiding behind, when they have to reload, where they are aiming, and what their tactical strategies are.
• Trauma Conga Line: Pretty much the entire story. And it progressively gets worse for Mao.
• Tropes Will Ruin Your Life: In a display of their savvy familiarity with the site, the author gives a humorous warning about specific tropes to be encountered in the work as part of the introduction.
• The Unfettered: Mao, C.C. and Lelouch all consider themselves this way. Problem is...they're not.
• Unhappy Medium: Mao. Very, very unhappy. And became one when he was only about six years old.
• Unwitting Pawn: Lelouch to C.C. Mao as well up to a point.
• Villainous BSOD: Mao inflicts one upon Lelouch in their last encounter. Also gives one to Suzaku.
• Walking the Earth: Mao's chief mode of transportation, only subverted once when he flies an airplane
• Was It All a Lie?: Mao begins contemplating this possibility after his reunion with C.C. in Chapter 21 fails to be as umm...'wonderful' as he imagined.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Mao gives a scathing one to C.C. in Chapter 23, confronting her on slowly doing to Lelouch the very same thing she did to him.
  • Lelouch gives Mao one of these when he abducts Nunnally.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer: Subverted. While Mao uses his Geass for a lot of Exact Eavesdropping, More Than Mind Control and Batman Gambits, he also relies on his Teen Gadgeteer Genius and acquired Combat Pragmatism to solve his problems.
  • And don't forget his Briefcase Full of Money (he carries around eight hundred thousand in cash at one point!), Wall of Weapons (alright it's a closet but still), Gun Accessories and Cool Plane, which is actually a light craft that he modified for transpacific travel.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Mao, though actually he’s described as "platinum" haired.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Most of C.C.’s actions result from weariness of her immortality.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Nunnally, who fervently declares that "everyone can be redeemed”, despite the fact that Mao has imprisoned her in the Ashford sewer and threatened her if she doesn’t comply with his scheme.
• Wife Husbandry: Gender Flipped. Because Mao and C.C. lived together in the wild for several years while he grew up, sleeping and bathing together without impunity, Mao becomes so attached to her that, as his love matures, he comes to treat her as his lover. Strongly implied that she had sex with him at some point too early, fueling his obsessive attachment to her.
• Will Not Tell a Lie: Remains staunchly honest, despite the occasional hindrance it poses. Also, he's used to relying on his Telepathy, which tends to render deception pointless anyway. Slightly subverted when he childishly muses that pretend isn't the same as lying when the situation calls for it.
  • He also systematically and willfully uses confusion in order to manipulate people (up to and including their own ruination) toward his own ends. However, he isn't lying per se so much as repeating what they really think back to them and emphasizing the negative. It's explicitly stated that he doesn't even always believe his own Hannibal Lectures.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Technically, yes; though not in the usual way.
• World of Ham: Chapter 20.
• Worthy Opponent: When Mao first takes note of Lelouch, he remarks on this.
• Xanatos Gambit: Mao’s Last Dance is a mixture of Batman Gambit, Xanatos Gambit and Thanatos Gambit, involving four different goals, some of which directly conflict with each other, in an odd case of self-made Gambit Pileup.
  • Since Mao suffers from increasing insanity, it’s actually a case of Fridge Brilliance that this is reflected in his Xanatos Gambit.
• Youth Is Wasted on the Dumb: Nalani provides a good example of this.