Love Attack! (episode)

Love Attack! is the twelfth episode of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2.

Summary
Lelouch is shocked that Sayoko has made him into a playboy. As he tries to work out a way to undo the damage, Milly declares Cupid Day, where any girl can become a boy's girlfriend by stealing his hat, and to make things more interesting, Milly declares that the first person to bring her Lelouch's hat gets their club's budget increased ten-fold. Rolo and Sayoko help Lelouch avoid the female students trying to catch him. Alone, Lelouch and Shirley discuss recent events and trade hats.

Elsewhere, Knight of One Bismark Waldstein informs the Emperor of a meeting between the princes and princesses about waging war against the Chinese Federation, where Schneizel decides threats and negotiation will work better than open war. Cornelia, determined to reveal the existence of Geass to clear Euphemia's name, confronts General Bartley, who begs her to help them, saying the Emperor's recent actions may destroy the world. While Suzaku and Lloyd discuss the Guren, Nunnally visits Kallen in prison.

Jeremiah arrives in Area 11 and uses his newly-acquired Geass Canceller in public, unwittingly restoring Shirley's memories of Zero's identity.

Plot
The night after Gino and Anya join Ashford Academy, Lelouch goes into the OSI, where Sayoko tells him about the fact that she kissed Shirley in the belief that that was in-line with his character (in turn referring to how he and Kallen always ditched school to fight in the Black Knights and how everyone thought they were dating as a result), to his and Rolo's dismay. Rolo promptly chastises Sayoko for being too nice, although Lelouch says that, beyond that, she did a good job, while Villetta notes that this might take a while. Sayoko then gives Lelouch a schedule she made for him the following day, claiming that she made promises with other people to maintain Lelouch's relations as instructed. It is then revealed that Sayoko is a ninja and secret agent for the Shinozaki School - and that Sayoko has made dates with 108 different girls for the next day (Shirley is at 6 PM). In the woman's onsen at the same time, Shirley wonders if she and Lelouch are a couple. She asks Milly to talk about it later, but Milly appears distressed and briefly doesn't hear her. Shirley then turns around to see that Lelouch has made dates with pretty much every single girl in the onsen at the time, prompting Shirley to presumably club all of them.

Sayoko then lays out Lelouch's extremely cramped schedule. He must eat lunch with one girl, go to Euphemia's art museum with another, go shopping with yet another, go back to the Chinese Federation as Zero to complete a trade treaty, and then come back by 9 PM for another date before going to see a movie with Shirley at midnight. He ends up seemingly being late to the last one, but in actuality he sneaks away from her to do something else. In the process he bumps into Anya, which makes him panic and think he has a date with her also. However, Anya just asks him about the photo from his childhood that she has on her diary. Recognizing it, Lelouch waves it off, only to then be surprised by Gino, who is holding Arthur and asks to go gambling with him someday, having heard of his endeavors from Rivalz, who also appears. Lelouch briefly curses Rivalz, but just then a stream of girls come running towards Lelouch, creating such a ruckus that Rolo can hear him from inside. While Lelouch tries to run away, he ends up in Shirley's path, at which point she knocks him down. Shirley begins chastising Lelouch for his behavior, and when Lelouch tries to apologize and explain, Shirley refuses to accept it. While Lelouch tries to think of a solution, Milly suddenly appears from the balcony and announces an event she plans to have for her graduation (since she failed some courses, she had to stay to make up course credits, and will be doing so on that day). Calling the event "Cupid Day", she instructs that on the designated day, all boys will wear blue heart-shaped hats while all girls will wear pink variations. The students will then have to run around campus to switch hats with a person of the opposite gender, and from that point on they will be designated as a couple.

Back in the Britannian capital, Pendragon, the Knight of One, Bismarck Waldstein, is informing Odysseus, Schneizel, and their sisters Guinevere de Britannia and Carine ne Britannia that Charles plans on invading the Chinese Federation and turning it into Area 25. Both Carine and Guinevere suggest destroying them, but Odysseus does not wish to be hasty, preferring to defeat the European Union first since the Black Knights are no longer active in Britannian territory. Guinevere then muses that the matter would be easier to decide if Cornelia was present, but Bismarck concludes that she is still missing. Schneizel decides to do the troop positioning: he suggests stationing two armies in Mongolia but not having them fight, then use more dirty negotiations to win over at least half of the territory, as battle is not necessary right now. With everyone agreeing on this, Bismarck informs Charles, who also decides to do this before hypocritically saying that war is for idiots. Just then in the Chinese Federation, at the locale for the Geass Order, Cornelia appears and cuts down some troops, and it is revealed she went into self-imposed exile so she could kill Lelouch and restore Euphemia's honor, having found out about Geass and falsely believing Lelouch is with them. She comes across Bartley, and hears him talking to others about how they are all criminals and need to escape. Threatening him at sword point, she discovers that Bartley and everyone else was forced to join because of orders from Charles.

Meanwhile, back in Area 11, Gino drops Suzaku off at a meeting with Lloyd, Guilford, Cecile, and the Glaston Knights. Suzaku tells him he can't attend Cupid Day because he wishes to instead conduct meetings on the Black Knights instead. After Lloyd tells Gino to say Hi to Milly for him, Guilford encourages Suzaku to later call Milly, since she might be gone before he knows it. To avoid such discussions, Lloyd tries to move the meeting over to the Guren Mk-II, which is now in his custody. At the same time, Kallen is in her jail cell when the door opens. Kallen asks if she will be tortured again or executed, accepting either fate, but when she looks up she discovers Nunnally there with Lohmeyer, who happily greets her.

Meanwhile, Lelouch makes plans to "break up" with every single girl via Cupid Day, leaving his schedule open again. He tells Villetta to steal his hat since the teachers must also participate. Villetta is instantly uncomfortable with the child-adult undertones, and suggests Sayoko do it, but she says that she will be acting as a stand-in for Lelouch while it happens. Rolo and Villetta then suggest that Shirley takes the hat since she's the only girl that actually has feelings for him, but Lelouch says it is for that reason that he doesn't want to involve her. Meanwhile, Milly gets on the phone with Suzaku, who apologizes for not being able to come. As a substitute, Milly jokes that he can cast a "magic spell" on her, and then hangs up. Milly then turns on the intercom to make the event start. As she goes over the regulations again, including that everyone must stand two meters away from their target and that they can use any tool they want, it is shown that dozens of people from the opposite gender have gathered around Lelouch, Gino, and Anya. Shirley, who is in the same class as Lelouch, decides to salvage him, while Rivalz makes plans for Milly's hat. And as a concluding remark, Milly makes one last request: any club that gets Lelouch's hat for her will get budget increases. Lelouch promptly backs away from the girls next to a locker, and as the event starts, Rolo activates his Geass on the whole school, promptly taking Lelouch inside of one locker. After Rolo undoes the Geass, a girl jumps for Lelouch, but faceplants on the locker along with Shirley. As Lelouch flees into the library, Gino lets all the girls chase him, leading Lelouch to realize he and Anya are not here to spy on him. After that, a girl named Meeya I. Hillmick steals his hat, so he uses his Geass to get it back. He then switches places with Sayoko.

Sayoko goes around when Milly gets the rugby team to corner "him". Using her ninja skills, Sayoko leaps over all of them, then runs behind a tree, while Lelouch goes to the OSI room and gives her instructions along with some Geassed boys. Sayoko then begins sprinting away from Milly's orders while Lelouch is giving counter-orders, but her physical strength is quickly overdone to the point where Lelouch decides that she should be better off taking his PE courses. Sayoko continues to evade the science club (who fires rockets at "him") and the glamour club (who try seducing him with fanservice, only for "him" to say "Using you bodies against me is useless"!). Shirley, meanwhile, continues to question Lelouch's changes, while Rivalz takes his sidecar to reluctantly find Lelouch. The latter then sees Anya, who is taking part using the Mordred. This nearly causes confusion with Suzaku, who thinks a riot is going on in Ashford, and sends Knightpolice to deal with the situation. Anya, meanwhile, sees Sayoko heading to the library after Lelouch tells her to hide from Anya there while he himself heads up. Shirley, however, is there trying to investigate Lelouch, and Anya tracks them both via their heat signals. Unable to see who is who, Anya reaches through the library window for Shirley, at which point the real Lelouch grabs her for safety (causing them to fall down a flight of stairs), while Sayoko distracts Anya. As Villetta gets Anya to stop, Shirley asks Lelouch why he kissed her. Lelouch, in an attempt to cover it up, claims he likes her. Shirley sees that it's a lie, then teases Lelouch about going all the way, which he does not find funny. To his surprise, Shirley welcomes him back, saying he hasn't been his usual self lately. As a sign of forgiveness, she tells him to close his eyes. Lelouch does so, thinking for a moment that she might kiss him, but instead she pulls his cheeks, then proceeds to switch hats with him so they can try a relationship, which Lelouch appears to agree to.

As Gino shoves away the Knightpolice, Guilford, and Suzaku, the exchange is made public, to everyone's disappointment. Milly decides that that ends the game, when Sayoko comes up from behind and says it might have meant more than that; Milly turns around, but Sayoko flees before Milly can see her. Villetta then mutters that Lelouch's plan really worked, but when Anya almost hears her, she says that it was Shirley's plan she was talking about, while Rolo appears angry. Milly then appears and says that she planned the event just for that single exchange, then confirms to Rivalz she will in fact be graduating. Suzaku congratulates her, and everyone else thanks her for her service. With that, she throws her hat in the air.

A few days later, Milly has taken up a job as a news meteorologist with the help of an agent, surprising everyone in the Student Council (of which Gino and Anya are now members). At the same time, Milly has broken off her engagement to Lloyd, but Suzaku, Cecile, and everyone else note that he isn't the slightest bit upset. Lelouch then calls Shirley, who is walking through downtown, for her to get supplies to the garden. After she hangs up, a blue flash of spherical light suddenly swamps Shirley and dozens of other people, causing Shirley's eyes to flash a Geass red. In an apartment, Jeremiah is seen to have had his bionic eye outfitted with a Geass Canceler, a blue, inverted, and synthetic version of the Geass that eliminates all effects of the Geass placed on somebody. As seen in a video call with V.V., Jeremiah is instructed to eliminate all the traces of Geass Lelouch has placed on the people in the area, and he plans to go to Ashford to do the same while using it indiscriminately (as he has no leads). Because of all of this, Shirley remembers being sold out by Suzaku to Charles and all of the events altered by him and Lelouch - and that Lelouch is both Zero and her father's murderer.

Battles

 * N/A

Powers or Abilities used

 * Lelouch's Geass
 * Rolo's Geass
 * Jeremiah's Geass Canceler

Quotes

 * Conversation between Sayoko and Lelouch
 * "Yes, it's true. Shirley and you were kissing. Um, I wasn't wrong in doing that was I? I was afraid she might discover this control room so I thought that's what I should do in your character." -Sayoko
 * "Bad call. You were mistaken there." -Lelouch


 * "Allowing for three hours of sleep you have dates scheduled with 108 girls. 14 of them are waiting for cancellations and they've been on the wait list for six months." -Sayoko


 * "Darn it Sayoko. Lelouch is too frail for such a heavy schedule. And, what's up with all these women? It's sort of like a mental problem." -Rolo


 * "This is not good. I'm clearly do something wrong and I don't know how to make it right. Dammit if only C.C. was here to help me." -Lelouch


 * "Lou Lou I don't care how hopeless you are. No, since you are utterly hopeless, it's up to me to salvage you." -Shirley