Time flew by, and Code Geass continued airing at a pace of one episode per week.
After the Geass Order was destroyed, the United Federation of Nations was established as a force to oppose the Britannian Empire.
The United Federation then deployed its full military strength and launched a decisive battle against the Empire's forces in Area Eleven.
Right as the battle began, Lelouch went to meet Suzaku, hoping Suzaku would help protect Nunnally. But just as Suzaku was about to agree, agents of Second Prince Schneizel made their move and captured Lelouch.
It turned out Suzaku had been followed all along.
Suzaku himself had not known, but from Lelouch's perspective, he had been betrayed by Suzaku. Fortunately, Lelouch had prepared a contingency in advance and ultimately managed to escape.
By episode eighteen, unable to get Suzaku's help, Lelouch had no choice but to fight in the battle while simultaneously sending people into the government bureau to try to get Nunnally back.
However, under the influence of the "live on" command that Lelouch had previously issued using his Geass, Suzaku, when facing a life-or-death moment on the battlefield, pressed the launch button for the "Fleija" warhead.
Sensing something was wrong, both armies immediately pulled back, and then came a nuclear explosion.
Everything in the surrounding area was obliterated in an instant. Countless people could not escape in time. Among the images was a shot of Nunnally engulfed in the red light of the blast.
After the explosion, Lelouch broke down completely.
The episode ended with a conversation between Lelouch and Rolo over their communicators.
"Rolo, can you let me talk to Nunnally?"
"Ah, well..."
"I can't get through to Sayoko."
"Um, Brother, I didn't make it in time. Nunnally, she was in that light..."
"That's not what I asked. I just want to talk to Nunnally."
"But Nunnally is dead. She's dead, Brother."
"Don't say that!"
Lelouch erupted in fury, screaming at Rolo through the communicator.
Rolo froze for a moment.
Lelouch looked like a man who had lost all reason to live. "Rolo, just for a little bit. Just let me talk to Nunnally."
The moment his words trailed off, the ED rolled in, and episode eighteen came to an end.
Every single viewer in front of their TVs was stunned.
"Nunnally is dead?"
"Rolo still hasn't died, but Nunnally died first? Shido, have some basic decency!"
"Euphemia dying and Shirley dying were bad enough, but I could still grit my teeth through it. Nunnally dying is something I absolutely cannot accept!"
"This is Nunnally we're talking about! How could he?!"
"This is too much!"
"I seriously want to strangle that bastard."
"Euphemia is dead. Shirley is dead. And now even Nunnally is dead. Yuta Shido, you told me this was a hype show?"
...
The TV station's phones and White Dove's phones rang almost all night long. Only Starfall's phones stayed silent, because the phone lines had been unplugged ahead of time.
However, Starfall's official website inevitably took a pounding, and Yuta's social media posts were flooded with angry comments.
It was almost exactly the same situation as when Clannad had killed off its heroine. In fact, because Code Geass had an even larger audience, things were actually worse this time.
That night, who knew how many emotionally devastated viewers tossed and turned, unable to sleep.
Yuta, the man responsible for it all, slept like a baby.
He had been sleeping at the office lately. It had felt strange at first, but by now he was completely used to it.
These days, after a full day of grueling work, he could fall asleep within a minute of lying down.
The next day, during a break, Yuta stepped out of his office to check on how everyone was doing.
As he walked over to the area where the production assistants sat, he suddenly heard Rika say, "The boss unlocked a new title. Impressive."
"Hm?" Yuta frowned.
"Oh! Boss."
Rika suddenly noticed his presence and nearly jumped out of her seat.
Yuta took two steps forward, delivered a karate chop to the top of Rika's head, and said with a completely serious expression, "Rika, slacking off during work hours!"
"Boss, I was not slacking off!" Rika protested her innocence.
"Is that so?"
"Boss, can you please stop picking on me all the time? You keep smacking me on the head. What am I going to do if I turn into an idiot?"
"Nothing much. I'll just file it as a workplace injury, and the company will take care of you for the rest of your life."
"No thank you!"
Rika was deeply opposed to that idea.
Yuta smiled and dropped the subject. "So what was this new title you were talking about?"
"Heroine Killer," Rika answered simply.
"Huh?" Yuta blinked.
"Heroine Killer. That's what the internet is calling you now. It means every anime you make is guaranteed to kill off its heroines." As she spoke, Rika pulled up a webpage on the computer at her desk and let Yuta see for himself.
Yuta had not been keeping up with the online discourse lately. He looked at Rika's screen and found that his new title had come from a post with a massive number of likes.
"That bastard Shido is literally a Heroine Killer!
Let's start with Clannad. Nagisa and Ushio both died one after the other. I won't even get into that."
"Now with Code Geass, Euphemia was a half-sister, so she doesn't technically count as a heroine, but she was still an incredibly important female character. She didn't even last a full season before she was killed off."
"Shirley loved Lelouch, and Lelouch probably liked her at least a little too. Calling her a heroine isn't a stretch, right? And she died halfway through season two."
"Nunnally is just his sister, but to Lelouch she was more important than anyone else. From that angle alone, calling her a heroine doesn't seem unreasonable either. And now Nunnally is dead too."
"Oh right, there's also C.C. She's an immortal witch so she can't actually die, but you could also say she's died over and over again."
"The heroines in Shido's works really have it rough. I just hope the one remaining heroine, Kallen, can make it to the end alive."
Beneath the post, countless people were spamming "Heroine Killer Yuta Shido" and "Shido drop dead" and similar sentiments.
Yuta read through the whole thing carefully, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
How unfair.
This time it was truly, deeply unfair.
Although episode eighteen gave off the strong impression that Nunnally was dead, Nunnally had not actually died. She would appear again later.
That shot of Nunnally engulfed in the red light of the nuclear blast was pure misdirection. In reality, she had escaped at the very last moment.
As of the current episode eighteen, Nunnally still did not know that Lelouch was Zero. She had not truly become his enemy yet. There was no way the story would kill her off at this point.
For that matter, even if Lelouch himself died, Nunnally would still survive.
This "Heroine Killer" title was incredibly unfair to him, but the problem was that he could not spoil the story for the audience. He could not just come out and tell everyone that Nunnally was not dead. And that made the whole situation deeply awkward.
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