"終わり。これはシュタインズゲートの洗濯。(It is over. This is the choice of Steins Gate)" he said as a lead bullet sunk itself into the hippocampus and exited out of the other side of his skull.
A clean kill to the mad scientist was secured for the Japanese Subsidiary, a tribute to the growing Chinese-Russian alliance. The men took several hours to wrap each Future Gadget carefully, including Future Gadget #1: The Bit Particle Cannon. The Time Leap Machine, which Okabe madly reassembled and disassembled repeatedly during his lifetime, was unplugged and meticulously dismantled piece by piece. The upgraded Future Gadget #8 was the key to claiming victory against NATO, as mistakes could be undone by a literal press of a button. As the last remaining part, the headset, was suffocated in packing peanuts, a flash bang grenade bounced thrice, with each bounce progressively shorter than the last, until it silently rolled and oscillated on its flatter side.
"しまった!(Shit)"
The last survivor, blinded by the assailment of the light and sound, was distraught when he heard two muted gunshots, followed by the thumping of flesh and bone. He heard a soft mumble.
"行こう。(Go)"
The voice grew from an audible remorse to a piercing command. An ultimatum. She was going to take his life if he didn't move.
"皆んなはしんだよ。行こう!(Everyone has died. Go!)"
Suzuha watched the policeman drop his arms and kneel on the floor. As he moaned, she sighed. She knew that he was broken. There was no purpose to keep him alive, as she knew that her actions will not matter. She let loose a bullet into his skull ruthlessly and apathetically.
Suzuha sifted through all of his equipment for anything useful. Bandages were useless. Weapons were useless. Ammunition was not an exception. However, she found an energy bar. She stuffed the oaty and musky fiber down her throat and drowned any remnants in her mouth with the warm beer in her backpack. The sour and grainy aftertaste was less insanity-inducing than her emptiness before she had devoured the stuff. That was her first meal in three days. She had been drinking beer to dull her hunger; it was a skillful balancing act between insanity from undernutrition and incapability from drunkenness. She was disappointed that her full stomach would disappear in the next ten minutes as she would have to return to an empty gut.
Suzuha found Okabe's body. The back of his skull elevated his neck as a stream of blood filled the empty pockets of the concrete floor. Even though it had a hole carved into it, his forehead was surprisingly intact. It was probably a thin, high velocity round. She was anything but surprised at his demise. She was remorseful, yet strangely optimistic because of the nature of her objective. Okabe had told everyone of his fate everyday for the past year until his last. By this time, everyone had come to terms with his death, including Suzuha, who had a deep emotional connection with her surrogate uncle. Something about his watchful and borderline paranoid eyes, especially around the graveyard of her aunt, was seemed uncanny. He was a restless soul and an interminably intriguing human who would emerge from a hazy sleep-filled state whenever he was questioned about very simple and menial things. Forks and spoons, particularly, ignited Okabe Rintarou's ardor. For some unknown reason, he could name several brands and manufacturers of those utensils ten years prior, along with materials that could create the perfect fork or spoon. He even had dozens of designs for the most to least efficient spoon and forks, which he designed while donning his lab coat of antiquity. However, Suzuha found it odd that he could not name a single manufacturer for knives or chopsticks. He held only basic and obvious knowledge in those niches.
As she blocked off all entrances to the hideout, Suzuha identified the computer and headset in two of the boxes. Suzuha had been assigned one mission by her father: To convince Okabe Rintarou to use his Time Leap Machine. Itaru Hashida knew that Okabe would understand his own purpose, as there was only one possible action that he could performed before the nationalist revolution of Japan would be completely engulfed in fire bombing.
Suzuha lugged all of the parts together, under the direction her father's manuals, and leapt forty-eight hours into the past.
