October 6th, Saturday. It was a little past eleven at night, and Ryuji Kageyama was sitting in front of the TV, waiting for Code Geass to start.
Time had flown by so fast. He still remembered when the first season of Clannad had just aired and he was only a first-year in high school. Now he was already in his second semester of second year.
Code Geass was reportedly going to run for about half a year, and by the time it wrapped up, he would be a third-year.
He would have to start preparing for entrance exams by then, and who knows if he would even have time to watch anime anymore. This might end up being the last anime from Yuta Shido that he watched during his high school years.
Though whether he would actually make it to the end was a whole other question.
Honestly, mecha as a genre held zero appeal for him. He was only watching this because of Yuta Shido's name attached to it.
Plenty of people probably felt the same way, but the bigger draw was that Yuta had personally vouched for it being a feel-good show with no suffering at all. Without that promise, even with his involvement, a lot of those people might not have bothered tuning in on time.
At eleven-thirty, the anime started right on schedule.
The sound of crickets filled the air as a green-haired woman slowly opened her eyes.
Deep in a forest, two young boys ran and climbed through the trees while the woman stood a short distance away, watching them in silence.
Then the scene cut to a news broadcast.
"August 10th, 2010 of the Imperial Calendar. The Britannia Empire declares war on Japan. Japan, long committed to neutrality, and Britannia, the world's sole superpower, had been locked in a prolonged diplomatic standoff over Japan's underground resources. In this decisive battle on Japanese soil, the Britannia military deployed the humanoid autonomous combat units known as Knightmare Frames for the first time in live combat. Their destructive power far exceeded all expectations, and Japan's defense forces were utterly crushed. Japan became a territory of the Empire, stripped of its freedom, its rights, and its name. Area 11. That number is the new name given to the defeated nation of Japan."
At that, a massive question mark popped up in Ryuji's head.
'Japan loses right from the start?'
He scratched his head and tried not to overthink it, then kept watching.
The scene returned to the two young boys. One of them sat on the ground with his head hanging low, his expression complicated, while the other stared ahead with absolute resolve.
"I will destroy Britannia!"
The moment those words landed, the screen went dark and the opening theme began.
Just like with Clannad, the name "Yuta Shido" appeared multiple times throughout the opening credits, and he was credited for the same roles he had handled on Clannad. The opening theme itself was not particularly outstanding, though it suited the anime well enough.
Since he was not there for the music anyway, Ryuji did not pay it much mind. His only real concern was that the opening not be too melancholic, because if it was, he would have seriously considered turning the TV off right then and there.
After the opening, the title card for episode one appeared.
"The Day a New Demon Was Born"
The story then jumped forward seven years after the final battle, to the year 2017 of the Imperial Calendar.
Inside a spacious hall, two men were playing chess. One of them had the game clearly in hand while the other was sweating through his shirt and looking increasingly desperate.
The door swung open and two students walked in, the one in front being none other than the protagonist, Lelouch.
He had been brought in as a substitute to win the match on someone's behalf.
His companion, his best friend, stepped forward and looked over the board before blurting out, "Come on, there's no way anyone could win from this position, right?"
Lelouch, however, was perfectly calm and said he would wrap it up in nine minutes.
The scene then shifted to the school, where three girls were having lunch and chatting about Lelouch, their conversation serving as a way to establish that the protagonist was exceptionally sharp.
Soon enough, the focus returned to Lelouch.
True to his word, he turned the match completely around and defeated his opponent in just eight minutes and thirty-two seconds.
Out in the hallway, his friend could not hide his amazement.
Lelouch, for his part, said coolly, "He never had much time to think to begin with, and he was slow on top of that. Nobles are nothing more than parasites living off their privileges."
Outside, a large screen broadcast a speech by the Third Prince of the Empire. He declared that they would not yield to terrorism and called on the public to observe a moment of silence for the eight brave souls who had given their lives in the name of justice.
Everyone around them bowed their heads. Lelouch and his friend did not.
His friend muttered that it was embarrassing.
Lelouch replied, "Agreed. And besides, no matter how much we cry, the dead won't come back. When it comes down to it, mourning is just self-satisfaction. It doesn't matter how straight you stand. The world won't change."
Up to this point, the episode was mostly focused on establishing who Lelouch was as a character, but the real story was about to begin.
On the way back to school, his friend was cycling with Lelouch riding along when a large cargo truck came barreling down the road at full speed, clearly being pursued. It swerved to avoid oncoming traffic, lost control, and crashed into a construction site.
Lelouch's friend braked immediately. Lelouch climbed off and walked toward the truck, and that was when he noticed a strange, gold-green light flickering inside.
People around them were pointing and staring, and more than a few had their cameras out to film the accident scene, but not one of them moved to help.
Lelouch clicked his tongue and ran over. He had barely pulled himself up onto the truck when he heard a woman's voice say, "Found you. My..."
Before he could make sense of it, the truck suddenly lurched forward and he tumbled into the cargo hold.
Inside was something the Empire considered extremely valuable.
According to the Imperial general, it was a highly lethal poison gas, but that was nothing more than a cover story. The so-called "extremely valuable cargo" was actually a mysterious woman, and she was the same green-haired woman who had appeared at the very beginning.
To keep the truth from getting out and to reclaim the woman, the Third Prince gave the order to eliminate the Shinjuku ghetto under the pretense of conducting an area cleanup operation.
And so, a large number of innocent civilians were slaughtered.
Lelouch fled through the underground tunnels with the mysterious woman, but a phone call gave away their location and they were cornered with nowhere left to run.
Just as it looked like they were about to be shot, the mysterious woman suddenly threw herself in front of Lelouch and took a bullet for him. She collapsed to the ground, bleeding heavily.
Lelouch stared in shock, his mind reeling, but at that very moment, the woman who should have been dead reached out and grabbed his hand.
Then the world around him shifted, and her voice came through.
"You don't want it to end here, do you?"
"You seem to have a reason you need to survive."
"If you had power, you could live."
"This is a contract. I give you power, and in exchange, you will grant me one wish."
"If you sign this contract, you will continue to exist in this world, but you will live by different laws than other humans. A different fate, a different time, a different life. The power of the king will isolate you. If you are prepared for that..."
Lelouch came back to himself and agreed to the contract with the mysterious woman, and through it, he received the mysterious power of the king.
And then his counterattack began.
"Only those who are prepared to be killed have the right to pull the trigger."
"Lelouch vi Britannia commands you. Now die."
As soon as he spoke, something seemed to fly out from his left eye.
The power of the king activated.
The enemy soldiers' minds fell under his control, and one by one they raised their guns and shot themselves.
A monologue from Lelouch followed.
"From that day on, I kept spinning lies. The lie that I was still alive. My name was a lie. My past was a lie. Everything was a lie."
"I grew sick of a world that never changed, yet I could not let go of the lies or the despair."
"But I obtained... power."
"And so..."
At that, Lelouch suddenly broke into a smile.
The ending theme rolled in, and episode one came to a close.
Ryuji watched the ending credits play out on screen and quietly turned it over in his mind. It really did feel like the kind of setup you get in a proper feel-good show. So... had Shido actually turned over a new leaf?
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