Authors Note: This story takes place during the events of Steins;Gate 0 and some parts have been changed in which it is not entirely canon.
Chapter One - Dear Hearts and Gentle People
Divergence: 1.129848%
11/23/2010
Okabe had just joined an after party for Professor Leskinen's speech on his Amadeus project. Among all the people there, he stood out like a sore thumb. Everyone was wearing formal attire while Okabe was dressed in all black. His suit jacket, his dress shirt, his pants, his shoes. All black. He felt uneasy and out of place. He was beginning to get bored. He was so bored, in fact, that he voiced his thoughts loud enough to where a small Hiyajo Maho could hear. She greeted Okabe with sympathetic agreement.
"Oh, it's you." Said Okabe, greeting Maho. Maho and him had only met briefly. All he knew was she was Professor Leskinen's assistant and that she looked like a middle school student rather than a scientist. Okabe noticed that Maho was wearing the exact same outfit she had been wearing during the lecture. Okabe thought to himself, 'A lab coat at a event like this? It almost reminds me of my old self.' Okabe then noticed Maho studying him, as if she knew something about him but couldn't remember.
"Let's see..you're..."
Maho tried to think of Okabe's name but was interrupted by the tall, slender man in front of her.
"Why are you wearing a lab coat?" She looked completely out of place to Okabe. He couldn't help but ask.
"I-I was sure I'd brought actual clothes!" Maho said, seeming quite embarrassed.
"Hey." Maho then changed the subject. "You're that guy who was at the desk this afternoon."
"I'm Rintaro Okabe. I'm a student at Tokyo Denki University. I'm also in Professor Leskinen's class."
Okabe fumbled through his pockets, trying to find a business card he had made after the Professor said he needed them. Maho too had her business cards on hand and carelessly set one in his hands.
"My name's pretty rare, huh?"
"Oh...uh, yeah. You said nobody could read it, right?" Okabe looked down at Maho's card and saw the that pronunciation of her name was printed in unusually large letters. It was probably because of the many times people had screwed up trying to pronounce her name. Maho grabbed a handful of food and began eating as she said, "It's pretty common in Okinawa, though."
"You're from Okinawa?"
"My great-grandparents were immigrants. I was born and raised in America."
"Half...no, you don't look Japanese. Quarter-Japanese?"
"Nope. My parents and grandparents were all Japanese. My DNA is purely Japanese."
"Huh?" Okabe was struggling to make sense of what Maho explained to him. 'She's 100% Japanese yet looks nothing like it. That doesn't make any damn sense.' He soon realized he was thinking to hard about, as if it was important to him. The conversation stopped and both Okabe and Maho were consumed in a strong aura of awkwardness. Many moments passed and Maho brought up the lecture in a new conversation, asking if Okabe was the one who asked a question during it. It wasn't long until the two were engrossed in scientific talk.
"If you send the pseudopulse you copied along with them to the frontal lobes, the memory search signal will function properly, I believe." Okabe and Maho were discussing the Amadues project, an A.I. program that learns on it's own. And the person behind the screen during the lecture was Makise Kurisu. The girl Okabe desperately tried to save but couldn't. When he first saw Amadeus, his entire body froze. Multiple emotions fled through his mind during the lecture. He found out that Maho and Kurisu were actually good friends before she died. They were partners under Leskinen's watch.
"My brave third Einstein!" Their conversation was halted when Professor Leskinen's walked over to them.
"Wha-?!" Okabe cried out, startled by the Professor. Leskinen was wearing a brown blazer along with brown slacks. His dress shirt was beige and he lacked a tie. He had slicked back blonde hair and spoke cheerfully. He grabbed Okabe's hand and the handshake he gave to him was incredibly forceful. They were like bear paws.
Okabe soon realized he was speaking Japanese, although he spoke english throughout his lecture. Leskinen looked dead on into Okabe's eyes. He looked angry while wearing a smile. "Still, I don't approve of you making my assistant cry." Before he came over, Okabe and Maho talked about Kurisu and her work, which triggered Maho's emotions and made her cry.
"What?! No! I didn't-!"
"No, professor!" Exclaimed Maho, defending Okabe. "It wasn't his fault! He had nothing to do with it!"
Both tried to deny it the best they could. Okabe tried thinking of an excuse.
"Basically...um.."
"Kurisu." Said Maho. "I was talking about Kurisu and I just started crying..."
The professor was somewhat confused at first.
"Kurisu? You're a friend of Kurisu?"
"Um...yes."
Maho then introduced Okabe.
"This is Rintaro Okabe. He's a student."