Nonomi didn't care about the sudden appearance of Mao.
Instead, it was the portrayal of Shirley that truly brought her to tears. She never expected Lelouch to use his power on Shirley in such a way.
He made Shirley hate Zero forever, and he made her forget that a boy named Lelouch Lamperouge ever existed in her life. This plot development struck a deep chord within her.
To Nonomi, she could have accepted it if Lelouch had killed Shirley to protect himself. But this arrangement was far more tragic than death.
Online, fans were wailing in despair following the broadcast.
"Shirley! Is she really just leaving the stage like this?"
"Haruto really knows how to break a heart. I was ready for him to kill her off, but I didn't expect him to do this to her."
"For Shirley, she probably would have preferred to live with the knowledge that Lelouch was her father's killer, even if it tortured her for life, rather than forget him entirely."
"Isn't Lelouch the one who is truly pitiable? His childhood friend won't even recognize him anymore. We can't truly feel that pain, but imagine meeting your best friend from high school or college years later, and when you say hello, they just look at you and ask 'Who are you?' It's heartbreaking. Being forgotten is a special kind of hell."
"Shirley's pain ended the moment she forgot him, but for Lelouch, every time he sees her, he'll be reminded that his actions killed her father and forced him to erase her memories. Putting myself in his shoes makes me feel sick."
"That is why the power of the King makes you lonely. The side effects of the Geass were explained in the very first episode, but everyone just thought it was a cool line at the time."
"Is the show just going to be pure tragedy from here on out?"
"I doubt it. The show clearly has a fast-paced rhythm. Who would watch a pure tragedy? Reality is hard enough; does an action anime really need to test our humanity like this? Haruto wouldn't go that far, right?"
"Who knows? The more I watch, the more anxious I get."
"What's there to be anxious about? Shirley just has amnesia; she isn't dead. She might not appear much in the future, but at least she's alive. She didn't turn into a villain and die pointlessly, and she didn't become a brainless saint who forgives her father's killer. This was a brilliant way to handle the plot. It hurts, but it's the best possible outcome."
"True. If you want to blame someone, blame Haruto. He's the one who decided to have her father die in that landslide during the Battle of Narita. It's all his fault."
"Well, there is no point in complaining now. It might be better for Shirley to exit here anyway, or her popularity would start threatening C.C."
The episode gave the audience a massive shock, leaving everyone feeling depressed. However, the backlash wasn't too severe because, at the end of the day, Shirley was still alive. Haruto's favorite pastime was reading fan comments after his works were updated.
Seeing the mixed emotions of the fans, he let out a soft sigh. Shirley was safe for now in this part of the story, but the problem was what lay ahead. Her presence was vital to the series, and she remained his favorite supporting female character in the entire show. He remembered how he had felt when he first saw her ultimate fate in his dream; it had taken him two days to recover from the gloom.
The only reason he moved on was because the subsequent deaths and the Zero Requiem finale were so emotionally draining that he eventually became numb to the pain.
Checking his creator account, he saw many fans asking if Shirley would now vanish from the story. After all, a supporting character who doesn't even remember the protagonist usually doesn't have much of a role left.
Haruto thought for a moment and replied to one of the comments. He suggested that Shirley would return later and that her role would leave a deep, lasting impression on everyone. He then pinned this response to the top of the thread. Despite his busy schedule, he still made an effort to interact with his community.
The following day, the ratings for episode fourteen were released: 5.96%.
He was just a hair's breadth away from breaking the 6% barrier. That tiny gap was proving difficult to cross, but Haruto was satisfied. Code Geass was a two-season series, and they were only halfway through the first half. He didn't need to be overly demanding.
Shows with 5% ratings appear every so often. But hitting 6% is a once-in-a-decade event.
That was why Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners were held in such high regard. Objectively speaking, Madoka was the true miracle, as Haruto had been writing under a pseudonym with no established reputation at the time. Edgerunners had largely ridden the wave of popularity he had built.
Now, with Code Geass, things were even easier. If he had used a pen name for this show, it would still have been a hit, but it wouldn't have exploded this early or reached such staggering numbers. Without his personal brand, it likely wouldn't have surpassed Madoka. But with the 5.96% figure, the industry could feel the momentum. Haruto was actually on track to fulfill his boast of surpassing Madoka.
The first week of July came to an end. Summer vacation had begun. Haruto's third year was over, and his last year was on the horizon. Although classes wouldn't officially start for over a month, he already knew that his fourth year would be mostly free of coursework. The university had already released the thesis topics, giving the students a full year to handle their research.
Minazuki University also required students to have work or internship experience to earn their mandatory credits for graduation. After three years, Haruto remained somewhat distant from his classmates. He was always busy with work, while they were busy submitting manuscripts to traditional literary magazines. His fame also created a natural barrier between him and his peers.
However, since it was their final year, Haruto decided to be a bit more social. For classmates looking for internships or those interested in becoming scriptwriters, he had the HR department at Haru-Yuki Animation coordinate with the university to host a private recruitment event in the fall.
Strictly speaking, Haru-Yuki was a powerhouse that had seen annual revenues exceeding ten billion yen over the last two years.
Even for graduates of a top-tier university like Minazuki University, it wasn't a small company. Plus, knowing the owner was their classmate and that the benefits were top-of-the-line made many students very interested.
During the start of the break, Haruto actually spent some time discussing these opportunities with them in their class group chat.
Once summer vacation truly set in and he was free of academic shackles, Haruto focused fully on work. In Hunter × Hunter, the fourth stage of the exam, specifically the hunt for the number plates involving Gon and Hisoka, was being serialized.
Gon knew he couldn't beat Hisoka in a fair fight. He relied on his primal instincts to mask his presence, stalking Hisoka for days. At the exact moment Hisoka struck his own target, Gon used his fishing rod to snag the plate from Hisoka's chest.
If the story had ended there, it would have been a simple trick. What thrilled the fans was that as Gon tried to escape with his prize, he was struck by a hidden paralytic dart. Gon had waited for the moment when Hisoka was most excited and least guarded, but the cycle repeated; while Gon was focused entirely on Hisoka, he himself had become the prey for another candidate.
That candidate was then immediately killed by a pursuing Hisoka. Out of a twisted sense of admiration, Hisoka spared Gon's life, though he delivered a brutal punch to the boy's face, telling him that he wouldn't take the plate back until Gon was strong enough to return that punch.
This arc, which had been building for months, pushed the popularity of Hunter × Hunter to its absolute peak. When the third volume of the manga was released, its first-week sales neared eight million copies. The first two volumes had already surpassed an average of twenty million copies per volume.
Hitting twenty million copies in just four months was a record-breaking pace for the manga industry. And the series was still growing. The industry was baffled by what the final ceiling for this series would be. Japan had never seen a creator with this much personal star power combined with such consistent, high-level output.
Usually, the early stages of a manga, before the introduction of a power system like Nen, might expect to average ten million copies if it was a hit. Averaging twenty million this early was unheard of. But it was happening.
It wasn't just Hunter × Hunter. Sword Art Online, which had been running for two years, was also reaching new heights. The GGO arc, featuring Kirito's feminine Kiriko avatar and the incredible action of him slicing through bullets with a sword in a gun-focused game, had the readers hooked.
The circulation of Kiyozawa and Weekly Prime had both surpassed seventeen million copies, making them the undisputed kings of their respective fields. If anyone had previously doubted Haruto being the number one figure in the industry, those voices were now silent.
The only things standing above him were the records of legendary masterpieces. Madoka Magica, the all-time ratings leader in anime, belonged to him. Hunter × Hunter was the fastest manga to hit the twenty-million average mark; if it continued for another year or two, it might become the fastest to ever take the number one spot.
As for Sword Art Online, its average sales were only two million copies away from the all-time record of 26.5 million. Based on its current growth rate, as long as Haruto maintained the quality, he was likely to touch that historical record within a single year.
In mid-July, a famous blogger on the AniSphere forums published a detailed analysis of Haruto's three current works. After using objective data to project their trends, he arrived at a conclusion that was as ridiculous as it was believable.
Within the next year, Sword Art Online, Hunter × Hunter, and Code Geass may become the all time number one in their respective fields.
The post went viral, racking up over twenty million views within a week, with millions of likes. While it was just a fan-made post, it acted as a fuse, igniting a massive conversation about Haruto's unprecedented status and achievements.
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