On the night of January 5th, just past eleven, Ren Sawamura turned on his TV, ready to watch episode thirteen of Code Geass.
A lot of people had never seen Clannad, which made Code Geass the very first Starfall production they had ever watched.
Ren was one of them.
Before New Year's, when episode twelve aired, a ton of people were crying about how gut-wrenching it was, insisting things would only get more painful from there.
Ren could not have cared less.
The way he saw it, those people who had watched Clannad were way too sensitive.
Sure, Shirley's father dying because of Lelouch was a little sad, but like some commenter had pointed out, the protagonist's mission was revenge and toppling an empire. Innocent people were going to get caught in the crossfire, and that was just how it worked. It made the story feel real.
It was Shirley's father who died, not Shirley herself. What was there to cry about?
Now, if Shirley got caught up in the conflict and died because of Lelouch, that would be truly devastating.
If the story actually went there, Ren would probably grab his stuff and march straight over to Starfall without a second thought.
But Yuta Shido, as president of the conscientious studio that was Starfall, surely would never do something that heartless. So that "if" simply did not exist.
At eleven-thirty, Code Geass episode thirteen began right on schedule.
It opened with a recap and the OP.
After the OP, the episode title appeared: "Shirley At Gunpoint."
"Hm?"
Ren felt a flicker of unease.
He did not dwell on it, though, and just kept watching in silence.
First came the scene of Shirley's father's burial.
Shirley's mother sobbed, "No! Stop! Don't bury him! Don't make him suffer any more!"
Shirley was in tears as well, visibly heartbroken.
Kallen and the others either apologized or offered comfort, but Lelouch kept his head bowed without saying a word.
Back at their quarters, Lelouch sat on the couch in silence. C.C., the woman who had given Lelouch his power, sat on the edge of the bed hugging a plush doll.
As though she could see right through him, C.C. spoke up.
"Are you feeling regret? About dragging your friend's father into this."
"You told Kirihara you wouldn't be indecisive, that you would walk the path of carnage. But the one who's truly indecisive is you, isn't it? Did you think this was all just a game?"
"You've killed plenty of people by now, with your own hands or by your command. They had families too, and lovers, and friends. Don't tell me you never once thought about that."
"Is that really the extent of your resolve?"
Her words cut straight to the heart of the matter.
Lelouch flared up in frustration. "Shut up! Of course I have resolve! I've had it since then, since the moment I killed Clovis!"
"Then why hesitate now? Or have your emotions gotten the better of you? She held you tight and kissed you, and no matter how grand your speeches are, you're still just a kid who talks big and never follows through?"
C.C. continued, "You no longer have the right to waver or stop. This is what survival demands of you. Don't disappoint me."
Lelouch gritted his teeth and stormed out of the room.
In the shower, he pounded the wall over and over as images flashed through his mind. Deep down, he truly did regret it.
But then he remembered what his sister Nunnally had once said: "I wish the world could be at peace." He remembered the reason he was alive, and the determination returned to his eyes.
The story then shifted into a battle sequence. Second Princess Cornelia deployed the Marine Knights to hunt down members of the Japan Liberation Front, and Lelouch led the Black Knights into the fray.
That night, Shirley had somehow ended up at the scene.
In the heat of combat, Lelouch spotted Shirley and lost focus. His mech took a kick from Suzaku's Lancelot and went flying, and he was defeated in the clash that followed, knocked unconscious.
Fortunately, Kallen stepped in just in time and blocked Suzaku's next move.
Then, hiding in a corner, Shirley picked up a gun from the ground. Her hands trembling, she aimed at Zero, the masked identity Lelouch wore, ready to avenge her father. But just as she was about to pull the trigger, Zero's helmet fell away, revealing Lelouch's true face.
And with Shirley frozen in shock, the ED rolled, and episode thirteen came to an end.
Ren: (⊙_⊙)?
What the hell kind of development was that?
Up until now, aside from C.C. and Kirihara, nobody knew that Lelouch was Zero. And both C.C. and Kirihara were on Lelouch's side.
But now Shirley knew that Lelouch was Zero. How was that supposed to work? What happened next? Would Shirley join Lelouch's side?
No. There was absolutely no way.
That left only two possibilities.
Either Lelouch would use his Geass to erase Shirley's memories, or Shirley might actually die.
The instant that thought crossed his mind, Ren started to panic.
Just moments ago, he had been thinking that Yuta Shido would never do something so heartless. But now it was looking more and more like the guy might actually be a monster. Why else would he write something like this?
If Shirley died, the emotional damage would be real.
But even if she did not die, having Lelouch use his Geass to wipe her memories would be pretty devastating too.
And the worst part was that this was only episode thirteen.
There were at least another dozen episodes to go.
If they were already planting the seeds of suffering this early, what was going to happen later?
"Damn you, Shido! And I actually trusted him," Ren muttered through gritted teeth.
He was not the only one panicking. Plenty of other viewers who only watched Code Geass and had never seen Clannad were losing it too.
"I have a feeling the next episode is going to be absolutely brutal. What do we do?"
"Whatever happened to 'it's exciting and hype and not sad at all'?"
"Shido must have been running a total bait-and-switch before it started airing, right?"
"Turns out those people were completely right. It really is getting more and more painful."
"I heard that when Clannad was airing last year, the whole internet put out a wanted notice for that bastard Shido. Shouldn't we start getting one ready too?"
"Maybe the best move is to just skip the next episode, but I'm dying to know what happens next. This is torture."
"That bum Yuta!"
...
If episode twelve had still left room for people to believe in Yuta, then by now, they could not bring themselves to believe in him even if they wanted to.
Still, those who had not watched Clannad did have one advantage. Even though they could tell episode fourteen was going to be painful, and even though they were starting to suspect that things would only get worse from here, they did not have a very concrete idea of just how bad it could get.
If it were not for the fact that Code Geass was made by the infamous Yuta Shido, they probably would not have taken it too seriously in the first place.
So even though someone had floated the idea of putting out a wanted notice for Yuta Shido, not many people actually rallied behind it. At least not right now, right after episode thirteen had just finished airing. Hardly anyone took it seriously, and most treated it as nothing more than a joke.
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