The Next Generation
Steins;Gate
Chapter Seven
2052.05.11 - 8:02 PM PDT
Saturday
When I snapped back to reality, I realized I was standing in my family's dining room. We were back in America. Hibiki was at my side. There were two women in front of us. One of them was our Mom, but I didn't recognize the other person. This mystery woman looked just like Mom, but she had dark black hair and this hair was much shorter too. Who was this? They looked at us questioningly. Did our messages work? I was afraid to ask this directly.
"Are you two okay?" Mama asked us. Hibiki and I nodded. Mom still looked concerned though.
"I'm fine." I told her. "I… I just feel a bit tired. Maybe I should lay down now."
I start walking towards my room, but Hibiki didn't follow me. He had spaced out. I lightly tugged on his collar.
"Assistant, I also need to have an important discussion with you. Come with me."
I dragged Hibiki into my room and locked the door behind us. I turned to my brother.
"Do you remember what happened just now? Yes or no?"
"Yes, it was the headache again." Hibiki answered. "Why do we remember though? Did it not work?"
"I don't know, but clearly something happened. We're back in America now. You want to try searching Grandpa's name on Goodle? He was apparently pretty famous even in our original timeline."
"Makise Shouichi… Yep. He has a WikiBio page." Hibiki tapped the touchscreen on his phone. "PhD in Physics at Tokyo Gakugei University, 1991. Professor at Victor Chondria University from 1993 to his death in 2015. Inventor in his spare time."
"That's certainly better than the life he had before. What does it say about Mom?"
"Let's see… PhD in Physics at Victor Chondria University, 2014. Professor at Victor Chondria University from 2015 to present."
We both looked at each other in surprise. Physics? Mom went into physics? She majored in neuroscience before the timeline shift. I guess Grandpa had much more influence on our family than we thought. Hibiki then scrolled back up to the top the page. Something then caught his attention.
"Um, Asuka… I think I found out who that lady was downstairs."
I didn't get what he was referring to. He then showed me his cell phone screen. It was showing me the family section right at the bottom of Mom's profile.
Family:
Shouichi Makise (father)
Violet Makise (sister)
Rintarou Okabe (husband)
Hibiki Okabe (son)
Asuka Okabe (daughter)
At first, this list seemed innocent enough. However, that all changed when I took a second glance. Who was this Violet person? She was Mom's sister? Then it hit me.
"In this version of reality… we have an aunt?"
I couldn't believe it. We never intended for this to happen. It made sense though. If Grampa didn't go crazy, he would've stayed with Grandma longer. They must've had a second child during that time. I shook my head.
"We need to find out whether or not Papa remembers too." I told Hibiki. "That should determine our next course of action."
Hibiki agreed and we headed out to the living room, where Papa was reading the news on his tablet.
"Hi, Papa." I greeted him. He then put his tablet aside.
"Hi, you two. What's up?"
Papa was trying to be joyful and open, but I didn't really help. I started playing with my fingernails. I was nervous, but this was a question that I had to ask.
"Papa… what's Reading Steiner?"
Papa's eyes widened and his mouth hung open in shock. It was the face I would expect if I asked him to give me "the talk". What Papa did next made this perfect.
"Kurisu!" He called for help from Mom. She came running in from the dining room. The mystery woman also followed her. The woman we now believed to be our aunt. Aunt Violet… that's a name I needed I get used to saying. Papa got up from his chair and exchanged a series of whispers with Mama and Aunt Violet. They all wore an intimidating expression. I quickly realized like I had suddenly stumbled into a really serious topic. I almost retracted my question.
"Asuka, where did you hear that?" Mom's words were quite harsh in tone. I looked into her eyes. What was I going to say?
"We overheard you and Papa discussing it a few days ago. As you might imagine, it confused us quite a bit. You know, time travel and stuff."
I couldn't believe it. Hibiki was bluffing himself into a corner just for me? Why? What did we have to lose at this point? Aunt Violet then looked over at Mom.
"Maybe… maybe we should tell them?" She suggested. "They are old enough now."
"I wanted to protect them from the Phone Wave." Mom told her. "But if the cat's out of the bag, I guess we have little choice."
Mama then turned to Hibiki and I. Her face told me she was still hurt inside. Did we somehow make things worse?
"Follow me." Mom led us down into the basement to a locked door with a keypad on it. She entered the password and the door opened. I couldn't believe what was in this room. It was the Phone Wave. The original Phone Wave.
"Asuka. Hibiki. You won't believe this, but this microwave is a time machine."
Hibiki and I give her a confused glance. Mom must've thought we were in disbelief, while in reality our heads were just being filled with even more questions. Why does she know what Reading Steiner yet it doesn't seem like Papa does? Why is the original Phone Wave here in the basement? I thought Papa destroyed it. No, that was the previous timeline. Something changed in the last sixty years to cause this. The question was what.
"I know that sounds crazy and deranged, but I swear it's the truth. I know because I've been to other worldlines. I knew all sorts of stuff that never happened. I know a reality without your aunt. I know a reality where I wasn't obsessed with time travel. Stupid. Stupid Phone Wave. Never use this device, understand kids? Suzuha was lucky she didn't cause any real damage when she ran off with my time machine."
Mom then began to cry and she left the room. Quite frankly, I felt like crying too. This was not what I wanted. Papa and Aunt Violet escorted us out and relocked the door. I looked to see what password was. 725. Mom's birthday, of course.
Hibiki and I went back to our rooms. My heart was broken. If Mom was just a bit sad before, she was an emotional trainwreck now. My heart sank. I knew I had to do something. I came up with a plan. I sneaked down to the basement when everyone was asleep and opened the door using the password. I set up the Phone Wave and switched it on. I managed to get Mom's phone and unlock it using the fingerprint sensor. It was hard doing that without waking her up. In her phone, I found a log entry about Suzuha taking off with the time machine. Apparently, she travelled to the year 2012. June and July to exact. I set the Phone Wave to July 1st and started typing a brief message using my Mom's phone again.
To: Suzuha
From: Kurisu
Subject: Get Phone Wave
Please get a device from 2012 Okabe and destroy it.
This device is called the Phone Wave. Delete this
message after you receive it. Thank you.
I just hoped that Suzuha still used the same email address back then. I plugged in Mom's phone and started the Phone Wave one last time. Electricity immediately began to flow. The microwave door had actually been taken off completely. Neat idea, wish I had thought if it. As the discharge got more intense, the house began to shake. This jolted Mama and Papa awake.
"Oh my gosh! Okabe, the Phone Wave!"
I heard one pair of footsteps exit my parents' room and bolt straight for the staircase. It was time to send the message, yet I hesitated a few seconds. This was enough time for Mom to reach the basement floor and look right across into the open doorway.
"Asuka?!"
This was the only word she could get in before I pressed send. The headache came returned and we were sent away to yet another timeline.
******
(Chapter Eight: Out Now!)