AD 2012.06.17 06:57:21:10
I woke up a little early this morning and thought this would be the perfect cover, so I brought over Kurisu and invited Daru to the lab as soon as possible. Suzuha also stirred awake because of us. They were a little annoyed, but now I can reveal my plan to them. "I need you to create the Phone Wave (name subject to change)."
"The Phone Wave? I had started it already a couple of years ago but Okarin told me that it should never be finished. He had these scary eyes when he said it too," Daru warns.
"We have no choice, if we want to escape this fate." Suzuha perks up when she hears this. It makes me wonder if she had come here without a plan. Surely that can't be the case, she was able to survive the war long enough to escape it.
"Uwauh! Maxe-shi has the scary eyes too!" Daru exclaims.
"Shh… we have to keep this a secret from everyone!" I warn.
"Why though? Why do you and Okarin think that a remote microwave will be the end of the world?" he asks.
I'm a little surprised at this. Okabe didn't even tell his favorite right arm? He must have really been trying really hard to preserve this world line. "Daru, it isn't just a remote microwave, it's a time machine."
"Chuunibyou fail!" Daru exclaims.
"It's true," Kurisu defends.
Daru looks back and forth between us as if he's waiting for us to say Just Kidding!, but of course that never happens. "R-Really?"
"Yeah."
"How does it work then?"
"I really shouldn't tell you that yet; it's important that this happens naturally," I say taking inspiration from Suzuha. "Remember, you weren't trying to build a time machine, you were trying to build a remote microwave."
"I see…" Daru pauses to think of the implications behind that statement. "Okay, I'll do it!" Daru begins to gather the stuff he'd put away a couple years ago to figure out where he left off.
I internally sigh in relief and turn to Kurisu to bring up Okabe's fears. "Kurisu, has Okabe told you the fatal flaw with D-Mail?" Kurisu ponders it for a moment before shaking her head. "Echelon."
"Seriously?" Kurisu obviously wasn't expecting that.
"They are able to detect that the message is from the future and send that off to SERN, granting them the future dystopia they so desired in the Alpha attractor field. I was kind of hoping you could help me think of some other way to use D-Mail without it being caught while we wait."
A short while after we begin brainstorming I hear Kurisu's text tone. She takes out her phone and looks at it in confusion. "Maxine, what's this?" She shows me her phone. There are three new RINE messages from Daru.
- June 21st, 2012 at 15:30 -
「Maxina knows」
「%1.000013」
「39 21 93 49 53 64」
"This is…" Could this have been a test message from another world line? "Suzuha, you said the divergence of this world line ended in 12, right?"
"Right," she says pulling the divergence meter out from hiding to make sure.
"Then these RINE messages must be a D-Mail test from another world line," I say confidently. I just have to confirm something. "Daru, there's no way Echelon could track a RINE message, right?"
"Nope. RINE is one hundred percent secure, or I'm not a super hacker!" he exclaims proudly. It seems like the future me has solved this problem for me.
"There's just one more thing though, what are these numbers in the last message?"
"…Okabe said that there had to be a significant change for the world line to change when sending D-Mails. Knowing what's on the divergence meter wouldn't change anything because we already know what it is," Kurisu reminds me.
That's true. Daru's D-Mails had failed because no matter what he sent Feris would adapt and destroy him easily, creating the same outcome. "…Whoever told Daru to send this must have thought I would know what to do with these numbers, so they told you to show me them," I theorize.
"Think about it. If you were going to change the past, just to see if it works, what would you do?" Kurisu asks.
"I would do something trivial that I already know works; something I've seen before…" My eyes grow wide in realization. "These are Lotto Six numbers!"
"…Really?" Kurisu asks in a disappointed tone.
"Yeah, Okabe tried it in an early Alpha world line to figure out how the Phone Wave and Reading Steiner worked." I say getting up and heading for the door.
"Are you really going to buy that ticket?"
"Of course, otherwise the world line wouldn't have changed." I say walking out of the room. It would have been cool but I bumped into someone. "O-Okabe?" I say surprised. How much time have we spent talking about this?
"D-D-Did you just say…" he begins stuttering.
"So much for it being a secret," Suzuha says exasperated.
"Okabe! Calm down… I just didn't want to tell you yet because I knew you would be this way… We're rebuilding the Time Leap machine."
"N-No! You of all people should know the dangers of doing this! Or is this still just a game to you?" he says seriously.
"The damage has already been done. Even if we didn't start this SERN could have tracked this D-Mail Kurisu just received."
"…No," he says in a defeated tone.
Daru noticing the intensity of the situation turned to face Okabe. "But the D-Mail was sent over RINE, and Echelon can't track those messages. So you have nothing to worry about," Daru says smiling with confidence. Good thing he was listening in while he was working.
"A D-RINE?"
I nod in response. "This is the only way out if something terrible happens, and the foreshadowing is all there."
"…Right," he eventually admits.
"One more thing, I need you to keep this operation a secret; even from the other Lab Mems."
"Alright."
AD 2012.06.21 15:24:02:43
"It's finished!" Kurisu exclaims.
"Really?" I ask excitedly.
"Yeah,"
With this the Phone Wave (name subject to change) can now send D-RINEs. We decided not to hack SERN for now at Okabe's request since we can just send a D-RINE to correct that if we need to, but I still had Kurisu make the Time Leap modification anyway.
"So… what do we do now?" Kurisu eventually asks.
"Well… now we have to wait and see if the original D-RINE test worked."
"What do you mean?" Suzuha asks, "Wasn't it just a test to see if the world line changed?"
"It might have been, but I might have also been trying to test my Reading Steiner at the same time."
"How do we know if it worked?" Kurisu asks becoming more confused.
"Me and Maxine will be replaced by the us that were on the previous world line," Okabe explains, "We should both notice immediately, but for you the only clue will be that we don't remember some of the things we do now."
"O-Oh…" Kurisu says sadly.
With this we wait until 15:30. It should happen around then. As if on cue, Okabe clutches his head in pain. This is it, here we find out if I actually do have Reading Steiner. But nothing happens. Okabe stops clutching his head and begins to examine his surroundings in a confused state.
"D-Daru, you didn't just send a D-Mail, did you?" he asks frightened. Maybe on that world line I had actually managed to keep it a secret from him.
I can't accept this outcome though. I couldn't possibly just arrive here for no reason. I walk purposefully into the development room and begin to try again. This time I'll use the second place numbers instead of the third place numbers. I ask Kurisu for her phone this time while Daru has Okabe distracted.
"Are you sure about this?" she whispers to me as I finish typing in the new numbers. Sparks are flying before I even processed what she said. Am I sure about this? What is this going to change? It was said that doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result was the definition of insanity. Am I insane?
As I'm thinking this though I begin to feel that nauseous sensation again. It's… It's working this time! It is soon followed by an awful headache and I pass out.
%1.000010
I awaken standing in the same position I was when I was waiting for this earlier. The sudden shock doesn't take me over though, I know exactly what just happened and why; I just need to confirm it. "Suzuha, what are the last two numbers on the divergence meter?"
"...Oh, it's," she says pulling out the meter to check, "10. Wait, are you...?"
"I came from a world line with divergence that ends in 12," I confirm.
Kurisu tries to read my face as if to detect if I'm lying. "So you do have Reading Steiner," Kurisu says in awe.
"…What have you done?" Okabe says in a disgusted tone. I turn around to see a very broken man behind me. I explain to him again what we've been doing and our motivation for doing so, hoping he'll understand. He's Okabe, so he does. Then I tell them about my experience with Reading Steiner just now, in hopes that they'll be able to explain why I didn't arrive from the divergence ending in 13.
"So the only differences were that you won second place instead of third and you didn't tell Daru to send the message; you used my phone to send it to myself," Kurisu thinks out loud. "I don't think it was your place in Lotto Six, because we didn't spend any more money than we did in the last world line. I don't think it matters which phone you used either; I show it to you either way. So that only leaves one more thing."
"…Her Reading Steiner only activates when she is the direct cause?" Okabe says.
"It could be possible. You did say Reading Steiner has different effects on everyone," Kurisu reasons. It does make sense; I supposedly was the direct cause for being pulled here from my original world line.
After a long pause I say, "Well, that's is it for now I guess. The operation is complete."
"Wait, really?" Daru asks surprised. "We're not gonna do anything with it?"
"We already did Daru," I say, "Plus I'd rather not mess with time unless I absolutely have to." Okabe relaxes a bit as I say this. With this, the lab can return from it recently serious atmosphere.
AD 2012.06.26 13:12:44:38
Watching Kagari interacting with Mayuri now that she has found her mother is really heartwarming. Something about it just makes me smile, even though it's pretty strange at face value. I feel bad knowing what's probably going to happen to her though. This future knowledge has been a curse more than anything else…
America have already launched their first attack on the poor girl. It failed as expected. That's another point toward Beta convergence. I should probably just get over this false hope. There's nothing different going on behind the scenes in this world line; it's just Beta convergence.
Kagari watches on with interest as Mayuri shares the intricacies of designing cosplay. She's such a natural that she can explain in detail and continue working at the same time.
"Who's going to wear this one, mommy?" Kagari asks.
"Ah, well this one is for Maxe-chan," she replies happily.
Wait, did she just say… "W-Wait… you want me to cosplay?"
"Yeah, you're perfect for this one! You're long blue hair, deep blue eyes, and tall curvy figure are a perfect match!"
I can't help but blush in embarrassment at what she just said. I guess I never actually considered cosplaying myself before. Maybe it could be fun! As long as what she's making isn't too revealing…
As I'm thinking this to myself a group of guys in full motorcycle suits rush into the lab. Without hesitation they immediately shoot Mayuri. They don't just shoot once either; this is a blood bath! It's the most brutal thing I've ever seen, ever.
This was their plan though, in our distraction half of their team grabs Kurisu and runs off with her. We're too paralyzed to do anything though, with our full attention on Mayuri. Kurisu calls out to us, but we are unable to fully register what's going on in our current state. The gunfire only stops once the gunman is the last one remaining in the room, then he runs off.
Our feet are all rooted to the floor, except for one Shiina Kagari. One look into her eyes says it all: the ones who attacked us have marked themselves for a long and painful death. She bolts out the door after them with speed I've never seen before.
"…Mayuri," Okabe says between sobs. "MAYURI!" he shouts at the top of his lungs. He makes one swift movement toward the development room but I'm one step ahead of him.
"No!" I shout firmly blocking the way to the Phone Wave. "We need more data before we can go back before we can even hope to change something."
"More data?!" he shouts slowly getting angrier. "You knew this was going to happen all along!"
"I did not!" I yell back defending myself. "This did not happen in Beta convergence at all! For once I'm just as confused as you are!"
He stares into my eyes. His anger is desperately looking for fuel; for even the slightest bit of a lie, but he cannot find one.
"She's right, you know," 「Kurisu」 says out of nowhere. We both look toward the source of the voice to see that Kurisu had left Amadeus open on her phone.
Okabe looks at her for a moment and finds himself calming down. "I know she's right," he admits. "What should we do then?"
I take a moment to calm myself enough to see who we have right now and begin to devise a plan. It is only now that I notice Kurisu has also disappeared. This whole situation seems very Alpha to me.
"Okabe: go get Moeka and follow Kagari's trail. It's important that she doesn't get kidnapped right now. Suzuha and Daru: you two need to go to the time machine Suzuha came in."
"Why?" Suzuha asks.
"The attractor fields are being very unpredictable right now. One of the next big events is that someone is going to steal your time machine. One more thing; Okabe, Daru: video call Kurisu's phone right now and whatever you do, don't hang up, okay?"
"Okay!" they say in motivated voices.
"I'll be here with 「Kurisu」 trying to piece all the data together. When we do or if something happens, I'll send the D-RINE."
With that they're off, running toward their respective goals. Not soon after Kurisu gets two calls that I put on the line with Amadeus. They're still on their way so I begin to type out the D-RINE.
「%1.000010」
「Need to hack SERN!」
「Buy a phone Maxina!」
Instructions to pass along Daru and myself respectively. I included the divergence percentage for consistency to make it more convincing.
"...What? T-The trail just suddenly ends," Okabe says. Kagari had blood on her shoes, that's why this should have been easy. "…Her phone and shoes are just on the ground here. Nothing else…" Beta.
"What about you guys, Team Suzuha?" No response. "Team Suzuha?" I call out switching from RINE to the video call. The model of 「Kurisu」 is all glitchy and the feed from the teams is frozen. Not soon after the call is dropped. "No signal…"
I plug Kurisu's phone into the PC and turn on the Braun Tube downstairs. I know enough about RINE to understand that it uses data to communicate, so the cell service being down is just a minor inconvenience.
All of this is happening so fast that I feel like I should wait for one more thing though: the final message of 「Kurisu」 on channel. After a couple minutes of refreshing the site left open on Daru's PC I see the entire front page of the occult board taken over. Sure enough, it's her. I quickly read through it just in case. The contents are mostly the same as before, except she's reaching out to me instead of Okabe since she knows he's out right now.
With this I start the Phone Wave. A short while after I see the sparks start to fly, so I send off the D-RINE.
