At the end of June, Code Geass went on a one-week hiatus. This break was scheduled to align with the broadcasting plans of Tokyo TV1. Since the station had cleared its most prestigious time slot for the show, Haruto had to ensure the production schedule remained consistent with their peak viewing hours.
Because the first season spanned over twenty episodes, Haruto had split the broadcast across the spring and summer quarters.
It was a standard practice to intersperse the schedule with a recap episode or a brief hiatus to maintain quality. However, the fans were already reeling from the cliffhanger of episode thirteen. The week-long wait for a mere recap episode left them fuming, yet even that recap managed to pull a 5.2% rating, a testament to the show's massive gravity.
By early July, the summer anime market officially opened. A wave of shows that had fled the April schedule to avoid Haruto realized, to their horror, that they had simply jumped from the frying pan into the fire. The second half of Code Geass season one was set to premiere on Sunday, July 4th, at 8:00 PM. Meanwhile, 122 other new series were launching during that same first week of July.
Anime fans showed a fair amount of tolerance for these newcomers. The initial reception for most first episodes was decent, but the viewership data told a grim story. Some shows bottomed out at 0.3%, while the highest performer was Summer Miracle, a youth romance produced by Ryuyo Animation.
The industry noted that a show titled Summer Miracle was clearly intended for a July release, but having been pushed into the same time block as Code Geass, it only managed a 3.08% premiere.
In isolation, that was a respectable number. But compared to the 5.86% of Code Geass, the gap was astronomical. Even as a carry-over, Code Geass was effortlessly dominating the market.
Sunday, July 4th. Tens of millions of fans who had suffered through a two-week wait finally sat down for episode fourteen. As the clock neared 8:00 PM, the online communities were a hive of frantic speculation.
"So, what do we think Shirley is going to do? Kill him? Or will she freeze up?"
"No, the real question is what Lelouch will do. The only person who knows his secret identity is C.C., but now Shirley knows. Given his character, is he going to... eliminate the threat?"
"Wait, he has Geass. He could just command her to stay silent. That would neutralize the risk without hurting her."
"But if Lelouch actually uses Geass on Shirley for a reason like that, his reputation with the fans is going to tank!"
"It's either she kills him, or he wakes up and kills her to tie up loose ends. It feels like those are the only two paths."
"Is there any chance she just... forgives him?"
"No way. He's responsible for her father's death. How do you just forgive that?"
"True. But it wasn't like he targeted her dad specifically. It was an accident."
"Does that matter? If a stranger accidentally runs over your family member in the real world, you don't just forgive them and start dating them. That would be insane."
"Yeah, when you put it like that, it's pretty messed up."
"That's why episode thirteen was so agonizing! Haruto is a sadist for cutting it there and then making us sit through a recap. Only ten more minutes until we see how he handles the fallout."
Watching these discussions, Nonomi took a deep breath and looked away from her screen. There were only two minutes until the broadcast. She couldn't afford to be distracted.
Tokyo TV1 began airing commercials for Code Geass merchandise. QR codes flashed on the screen, leading to pre-order pages for figures of Lelouch and C.C., as well as model kits for Kallen's Guren Mk-II, Suzaku's Lancelot, and Lelouch's first command unit, the Burai. Haruto had known the show would be a hit, so he had pre-arranged the designs and manufacturing months in advance. As for the TV promotion, it was free of charge, one of the conditions for giving the broadcasting rights to Tokyo TV1 was that they had to run merchandise ads in the minute before and after each episode.
These commercials alone set the fanbase on fire. After three months, Haruto finally gave them what they wanted.
"A high-quality model kit for only two thousand yen?"
"The C.C. figure is only eight thousand yen? That's it?"
"So cheap! He's practically giving these away."
These were the thoughts of the wealthier fans. Meanwhile, the student demographic watched with wide eyes and watering mouths.
Nonomi was just as excited. She reached for her phone to scan the code, but the intro sequence began. She quickly put her phone down; the merchandise could wait, but the episode could not.
The story didn't open with the mutual murder pact the internet had predicted. Instead, Lelouch realized his gun was missing. Surveying the scene, he deduced that two people must have seen his face while he was unconscious. The episode gave some screen time to a character the fans jokingly called Table Girl, a classic minor character from the student council.
Then, the plot made an abrupt, almost jarring shift back to the school setting. Lelouch didn't know who had seen him, so he had to leave it to fate for the moment.
Soon, the episode introduced a pivotal new character: Mao.
Mao appeared as a sickly, silver-haired man with a twisted personality. He immediately confronted Shirley, revealing the secret that Lelouch was Zero. He spoke as if he knew everything about her, their past kiss, her father's death, and her hidden feelings for Lelouch.
Nonomi was baffled. Where did this guy come from? There was zero setup for him.
Mao began to cruelly dissect Shirley's heart, exposing her darkest thoughts. He mocked her for hating Zero while loving Lelouch. He pointed out the hypocrisy of her taking Lelouch's gun to protect him, while letting the other witness, a Britannian soldier, fall into the sea. Under Mao's relentless verbal assault, Shirley's mental state began to fracture.
"Does the pity you get feel good?" Mao sneered. "How long are you going to play the tragic heroine? You're someone who forgot her father's death. You aren't a heroine. You're an ugly witch. You know he loves someone else, yet you still want to be by his side. You deserve to suffer."
With just a few sentences, Mao shattered Shirley's fragile psychological defenses. Nonomi blinked, her anger rising. 'Who is this disgusting guy? How does he know everything about them? He's reading her soul.'
Mao kidnapped Shirley and used her as bait to lure Lelouch to a deserted ruin. There, he challenged Lelouch to a game of chess and utterly dismantled him. Nonomi's interest piqued.
'So, Haruto finally created a villain who can actually go toe-to-toe with Lelouch in terms of intellect?'
Until now, Nonomi had felt a bit of fatigue with Lelouch winning every battle. His enemies always seemed smart on paper, but they fell for his traps so easily that the tension had started to fade. But this Mao was different.
'What is his deal?'
The show didn't keep her waiting. It revealed Mao's true identity. He was another Geass user. His power was Mind reading.
Nonomi's pupils dilated. 'Another Geass user? So it's not unique to Lelouch?'
A whole new door of possibilities swung open. The stakes of the show were suddenly elevated. There was no rule saying only Lelouch could have a Geass; C.C. could grant that power to anyone. And mind reading? How do you fight that? Lelouch was a genius, but if someone could see his every thought, his intellect became a liability. Furthermore, Lelouch's power required eye contact, so Mao simply wore sunglasses as a countermeasure.
"Wait, you can block his power with sunglasses?" Nonomi was genuinely shocked by the simplicity of it.
Mao, having completely broken Shirley's will, ordered her to kill Lelouch. Shirley stood before him with a pistol, tears streaming down her face, her voice filled with a desperate, broken resolve. "Lelouch, let's die together. To atone for our sins... I'll go with you."
Lelouch, who had been searching for her out of genuine concern, had her photograph in his pocket. When she shot him and he collapsed, the photo slipped out. Seeing that he had been carrying her picture, Shirley's mind cleared for a brief, agonizing moment.
At the critical second, C.C. intervened by starting the cable car Mao was standing on and locking the doors, forcing him away from the scene.
Nonomi thought the episode would end there. She expected a scene where Shirley sees the photo, realizes Lelouch cares for her, and forgives him. It would be a bit of a stretch given her father's death, but Shirley was a minor character in the grand scheme of things; Nonomi could accept a "love conquers all" trope for her.
But the show was never that predictable.
As Mao was whisked away, he saw C.C. and his face lit up with a twisted joy. It became clear that his grievance with Lelouch was actually about C.C. Meanwhile, back at the ruins, Shirley was sobbing in Lelouch's arms.
"I shot someone! Lelouch, I..." She was finally regaining her senses, referring to the soldier she had shot to protect his identity.
"It's my fault," Lelouch said.
The series' most haunting track, Masquerade, began to play. Nonomi's heart skipped a beat.
'Wait. Is Haruto actually making Shirley the main heroine? What about C.C.?'
"I even shot you," Shirley sobbed.
"I'm still alive," Lelouch said softly. "I forgive you. I'll take all your sins upon myself."
The gentle female vocals of the background music, paired with the image of Lelouch holding Shirley under the setting sun, created a profound sense of melancholy. Lelouch was a man who used any means necessary, but in this moment, his sincerity toward Shirley was undeniable. It might not have been a simple romantic love, but Nonomi could feel that Shirley held a deep, heavy weight in Lelouch's heart.
"I just wanted you to be kind to me," Shirley wept, struggling with the guilt of loving the man responsible for her father's death.
"What's wrong with that?"
"But my father is dead," she cried, her pain reaching a breaking point.
Nonomi held her breath. The scene was breathtakingly beautiful, the sunset, the ruins, Lelouch kneeling to hold the broken girl in his arms. It was the perfect confession scene.
Was Lelouch going to accept her? What about his mission? What about C.C.?
'Go for it, Shirley!'
But Lelouch's next words sent a chill through Nonomi.
"Forget it. Just forget all the bad things."
"I can't."
"You can," Lelouch said, a flash of agonizing pity in his eyes. "Shirley... I am so sorry about your father. If I could be born again... to you..."
"No!" Shirley screamed.
In a single minute, the plot had twisted Nonomi's heart several times. She realized with a sinking feeling what Lelouch was about to do.
Night fell. Shirley stood alone in a silent, desolate cemetery. The scene had shifted from the ruins to her father's grave. It was late at night; she had clearly been there for hours. She turned around and saw Lelouch standing behind her.
She offered him a polite, distant smile.
"Excuse me... did you lose a family member too?" she asked, speaking to him like a complete stranger.
To Shirley, the boy standing before her was just another victim of Zero's terrorism, someone she had never met before.
"No... not a family member. A friend," Lelouch said, his eyes brimming with sorrow.
A lump formed in Nonomi's throat.
She understood. Lelouch had used his Geass to make Shirley forget he ever existed. He had deleted every trace of himself from her memory. From the moment they first met until this very second, it was all gone.
If Shirley's greatest agony was loving her father's killer, then Lelouch had solved it by exiling himself from her world. From this day forward, Shirley would remember that she had a father killed by Zero, but she would never remember the boy she had loved for ten years.
"You loved them, didn't you? That person..." Shirley said softly, looking at the boy.
"Now... I don't know anymore."
"The dawn will always come," Shirley said gently. "So... don't be sad forever."
"Thank you. For everything."
Lelouch's final words left Shirley standing there in confusion as he walked away into the darkness. But for everyone watching their TV screens, they finally understood the warning C.C. had given him when they signed their contract.
The power of a King will make you lonely.
Tears streamed down Nonomi's face. She never expected the story of Lelouch and Shirley to end like this. How could Haruto be this cruel? There was no warning.
No one had died in this episode, but seeing Shirley's pure, sincere feelings wiped away by a supernatural command was devastating.
In Shirley's mind, the person named Lelouch no longer even existed. It was a fate far more cruel than a simple death.
And the music, how could a song be that heartbreaking?
_______________________
Support me at patreon.com/CulturedOne and read 50 Advanced Chapters