Nothing is more satisfactory than a free weekend after a busy week. The day itself was complimented with a gentle rain from the light gray clouds. For the rest of the city, it was an average rainy Saturday, dedicated for relaxation. But for a certain gamer girl, things were a little bit different.
Chiaki cozily slept in her bed while hugging her magical girl bunny plushie to provide additional comfort. Amid traversing through the land of dreams, she quietly snored. Sometimes, she readjusted her position in her bed to find a comfortable position.
Suddenly, knocks on the door were heard. Reawakened from the venture in slumberland, Chiaki drowsily rose from the bed. She rubbed her eyes before she stepped out of the comfort assuring bed. The sleepy gamer didn't bother changing her clothes, as she just went with her PJ's. After a slow walk, which almost resembled sleepwalking at that point, she reached the door and opened it, revealing that three students were awaiting for her. Those three students were the small Chihiro Fujisaki, who held an umbrella and a laptop bag, considerably taller Hajime Hinata, who was giving a piggyback ride to Ibuki Mioda, who held a giant purple and blue umbrella above them. Even though her vision was blurry due persistent sleepiness, she managed to recognize her friends almost immediately.
"Good morning, Chiaki!" the gang greeted her the moment when they saw her.
"Mmmm….morning, everyone." Chiaki quietly greeted back before she let out a yawn.
"D-did we wake you up now?" immediately asked Chihiro out of concern, seeing the gamer girl in such "definitely not a morning person" state.
"Nah,...was meant to wake up at this time anyway...I think." reassured Chiaki as she rubbing her eye. Her sleepiness was gradually vanishing away, to the point she had enough energy to function as a normal human being.
"Phew, that's good to hear." Chihiro wiped of slight amount of sweat from his forehead.
"Do you have anything planned today, Chiaki?" asked Hajime, to which his question was followed with her trying to gather her thoughts in the brain. She did manage to remember a single but important promise she made a day ago. Remembering that promise also made her energy levels rise up, as she became much more lively compared to her groggy state.
"….Actually, yes. I wanna take you guys somewhere." slowly revealed Chiaki with a sense of confidence in her quiet voice.
"Ooooh, but where?" wondered Ibuki as she leaned towards her video game addicted friend.
"It's a surprise, heh." Chiaki before she noticed that she was still in her pajamas right in front of everyone. It took her some time though. "Just...wait a moment."
"Ohohoho, I see that you are using my tricks!¨ Ibuki crossed her arms with delight while Chiaki went inside and changed her clothes for the day. Returning with her cardigan on and bringing her cat like backpack with her as well, Chiaki and her gang set off towards the destination that only the gamer girl knew.
Chiaki led her to the already familiar billboard infested paradise of all things electronics known as Akihabara. Rest of her gang assumed they were going to visit MayQueen again, but Hajime was the first one to notice that they were going on a completely different path than before. Chiaki and her gang used map on the phone and messages from her friend to navigate through the skyscraper surrounded maze of electronic stores.
After some time navigating through Akihabara, they have finally found the very goal of that day.
"It was supposed to be….here." Chiaki and her gang looked up at their destination. It was a small shop dedicated for cathode-ray tube televisions. All sorts of CRTs were stored in, from well kept ones to barely functioning ones. Right in front of their sight was one huge CRT, a monolith among archaic television one could say. Entrance had a company of a single parked bicycle. Even though the shop had glass doors, they were in such unclean state that nothing but some turned on CRTs could be seen. Judging from the amount of CRTs stored in the shop, it seemed like business was anything but blooming. Then again, it takes truly a passionate person to sell CRTs in the era of high definition displays.
None of her friends around her truly understood why would she take them to a lonesome CRT shop.
"CRT shop?" Hajime turned towards Chiaki with a rather confused look. "Are you a fan of CRTs?"
"Well, they are pretty useful when it comes to plugging up old consoles." explained Chiaki before she turned towards her friends and winked at them."But there is another reason why I brought you all here."
"Another reason?" Hajime and Chihiro tilted their heads out of curiosity.
"What could that be? What is gonna be the surpri-" wondered Ibuki before her train of thought was suddenly stopped by a brown haired woman with two tied braids barged out of the CRT shop, opening in the doors like she was about to break out. With a cheery expression on her face, the brown haired lass greeted them with a raised hand:
"Wazzuuuuuuup!"
A moment of silence followed, with none of the parties knowing how to exactly respond. Not even Chiaki knew about the woman with braids, despite the fact she was the one to prepare a surprise for them.
"Hiiiiiiiii!" Ibuki responded back, cheerily as ever, waving at her. Her friends remained quiet, not even sure what to say to her.
"Ah, so it is "Hiiiiiiiii!" instead of "Wazzuuuuuuup!" nowadays? I see, I must learn more." brunette with two braids scratched her chin in curiosity. Her wording only confused some of the members of the Hope's peak gang even more. Not only did she just barge out of the shop like she knew them, but also she talked like she's not even from there.
"Maybe just a "Hello" is enough nowadays." Hajime attempted to contribute to the discussion between the woman in front of a CRT shop and horned musician. Meanwhile, Chiaki and Chihiro preferred to remain quiet, just observing the ongoing conversation. Entirely new people were not exactly
"Chiaki, do you know her?" whispered Chihiro in Chiaki ear. The woman with braids turned her look towards the duo of a programmer and gamer girl like an owl, startling Chihiro in the process. Despite the quick move and contrary to actual owl, the girl's expression was lax, sporting a cat smile similar to a certain pink haired cat maid. It was a sign that she was pretty chill with them overall. That being said, Hajime did notice her movements, only adding to the perplexity of that woman.
"I sense unfamiliarity among us, so I may introduce myself to you guys. My name is Suzuha Amane! Part-time worker here!"the brunette with braids introduced herself to the Hope's peak gang. At least one of the questions regarding her was answered, but Chiaki's little gang still had a lot to uncover regarding her.
"Suzuha Amane….Amane Suzuha….it gives off that aura I like." commented Ibuki, crossing her arms as she briefly drifted into the land of thoughts. That venture inside her mind gave her an idea. "Oh, oh, oh! Can I introduce you all to her?"
"I mean sure?" although completely confused (again), Hajime gave her approval. Not a moment passed before Ibuki started twirling around her friends like a ballerina on a sugar rush. Suzuha observed the dancing Ibuki with intrigue, wondering what kind of girl that musician truly was.
"Okay, okay, so this is Hajime Hinata, who's really cool, smart and strong! My goodness, he's so strong, that he carries me to school!" Ibuki started with the tallest one in the group, showing him off like a statue of a Greek hero. She also grabbed Hajime's arms and flailed them around to showcase them.
"Come on, I'm not that cool, strong or smart." denied Hajime, blushing all the way through. Everyone in the gang strongly disagreed with what he said about himself, but they were interrupted when Suzuha suddenly appeared right in front of him, startling him in the process. The worker at a crusty CRT shop observed him with a raised eyebrow. Hajime on other hand, couldn't even utter any word due to sheer confusion. Ibuki was already quite a package to deal with, but this Suzuha person just raised more questions for him.
"And this little cutie here is Chihiro Fujisaki! Just by looks could one's heart be swayed" Ibuki then twirled right next to the little programmer, giving a special focus to his rather short stature and fluffy hair.
"T-thanks, Ibuki, but-" Chihiro's entire face became red, but then his irises shrunk as he was startled by Suzuha, who hopped from her previous spot to right in front of him. Just like how she observed Hajime, she did the same for the confused and flustered programmer boy.
"And this sweetheart like here is Chiaki Nanami!" Ibuki danced around the last person needed for introduction, with that being none other than the quiet gamer girl, who just observed everything around, from Suzuha herself to the CRT shop.
"I don't deserve praise." Chiaki thought to herself, but she hid it with a smile and a blush on her puffy cheeks, opting to remain quiet instead. Just like two brunette boys before, she was also startled by Suzuha appearing right in front of her. Chiaki's face could be comparable to Chihiro's, considering how completely flushed she was. Suzuha was staring right in her eyes for a good amount of time.
"Hmmmm…...Chiaki Nanami….hmmm….a familiar name, yes." noted Suzuha after she took a step backwards. Everyone in Chiaki's group was surprised that a woman they saw the first time already knew her. It is true that Hope's Peak as a whole was quite well known in Japan and possibly to the rest of the world as well, but the way Suzuha spoke of her name felt more personal.
"Huh? You...knew me from before?" perplexed Chiaki while trying to think of the way Suzuha found out about her. Maybe they have met in the past before, just like a certain girl before, but Chiaki forgot to remember, but that was just one of many possibilities. "I don't think we have ever met before….I think.".
"That is true, yes. However, I know exactly why are you all here." Suzuha confidently put her arms around her hips, sporting a smile as well. The part-time worker also had a determined look in her eyes, assuring them that she knew it all.
"What do you mean by that?" wondered Hajime, just like everyone else in the group.
"Does the name Kurisu Makise ring a bell?" revealed Suzuha right in front of Chiaki's gang. Needless to say, it caused quite a shock for Hope's peak gang. Even the gamer girl herself, who already knew that Kurisu was going to be the main attraction of the day, was surprised when she found out that her residence was above a CRT shop.
"...Wait what?!" if Hajime had a drink with him, he would do a spit take over hearing what Suzuha revealed.
"You mean….she's here?" timidly asked Chihiro.
"Eyep." nodded Suzuha with even more confidence. It took a while to digest the received information, none of them could truly believe that a famous scientist prodigy was just few steps away.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my goooooooooood!" Ibuki started jumping around all over the place. If she felt like it, she would have ran all across the globe just like Archimedes ran out of his bathroom completely naked when he found out that king's crown was not made out of gold (according to the myth).
"Who would have thought that a revered scientist would live above a CRT shop?" commented Hajime on the whole situation, still taking it slowly to comprehend what Chiaki got him and her friends into.
"That's not the only surprise, hehe~." thought Chiaki to herself, remaining quiet but eagerly anticipating her friends meeting Kurisu's own little group.
"Life is often full of unpredictable circumstances, isn't it? Come forth, for destiny to be fulfilled." said Suzuha before she pointed at the staircase next to the CRT shop. For some strange reason, the entrance to the staircase lacked doors. Without hesitation, Hope's peak gang went to the direction Suzuha pointed to. "Anyway, if you want to have an encounter with Makise, you should go to the upper floor. Have fun, guys!"
However, as they were climbing a somewhat decently lit staircase leading to the upper floor, some of the words said by that part-time worker stuck within their minds.
"Destiny to be fulfilled? What is she talking about?" Hajime remained perplexed about everything related to Suzuha Amane. The way she worded herself sounded like their incoming meeting meant that the entire fate of the world was in their hands.
"Maybe it's just for a dramatic effect...or maybe not." Chiaki tried to rationalize the whole encounter with the part-time worker. She took some reference from knowing Gundham and Rintaro, who seemed to be knee deep into their chunni acts. However, nothing about Suzuha hinted of her being a chunnibyou, from inside to outside. If one took a glance at Suzuha from a far, she seemed like a normal if athletic gal.
"I dunno, she has same vibes that Kyoko does. You know, the "cool, mysterious woman that has more than it seems." vibes but with a mix of "happy go luck girl who always brings fun" vibes that Aoi has, right?" added Ibuki amid the conversation.
"Yeah….it's something like that, Ibuki."confirmed Hajime as they went onward.
Meanwhile, in an apartment rather small apartment that had a lot of stuff cramped in a single room, from a budget kitchen to a living room that only had a single couch, a single table and a lot of boxes. There was also a television, which served both as a source of entertainment and an alternative source of information. The apartment itself was connected with another room with below average lighting, which was filled with all sorts of low budget contraptions and a sole personal computer. In that room, Itaru Hashida was sitting behind the computer, aggressively typing on the keyboard while browsing the world wide web. Rest of the apartment was occupied by Kurisu sitting on a coach, relaxing while Mayuri Shiina sat next to her, peacefully knitting a costume meant for cosplay. As they chilled on the couch, Rintaro was cautiously reading through a newspaper. The publication itself was called Kansatsu-sha, which was a relatively a niche brand among newspapers, which were already going out of fashion at the accelerated rate. However, after reading through multiple pages, Rintaro managed to find a piece of information that caught his interest.
"Assistant, come here!" Rintaro called out for Kurisu the moment he found out.
"Geez, you don't have to call me that every time…" Kurisu rolled her eyes at his calling her "Assistant", despite her knowing that trying to not make him use nicknames was futile.
"What I call you is not important! Take a look at this!" insisted Rintaro, to which Kurisu complied. The self proclaimed mad scientist showed her an excerpt of the newspaper, which covered the news about a stolen Ferrari from a day earlier.
"A Ferrari got stolen yesterday? Huh, that's a bit-" commented Kurisu before she noticed that the news itself consisted of only a headline and a single vague sentence. It gave her a reminder of something she has already seen before. When she realized, she went into the room with contraptions and brought an issue from four weeks ago. It was the one that covered the attack on cat maid cafe. "Wait a minute, that structure of the publication….Isn't it written in exact same style as one for maid cafe attack?"
"Exactly. We know that Daft Capo was behind previous attack, but this case seems to hint at their involvement, if we judge their articles." confirmed Rintaro with a determined nod. Rintaro and Kurisu put both newspapers on the table in order to compare them. Their hypothesis seemed to align with present evidence. Both structures matched, just like they thought.
"An attack on a cafe and a theft of a luxurious car should warrant more coverage, but the way that just a headline and one sentence only are written for their cases seems rather strange." noted Kurisu with a perplexed look on her face.
"The fact that the only one covering their cases is this newspaper makes it even more bizarre. Nothing in other newspapers and nothing on TV." said Rintaro before he turned to Itaru, who was still continuing browsing on internet. He managed to get his attention very quickly. "Hey, Daru! Have you found anything about Daft Capo on web?"
"Nope, I've got nothing. Looked through all sorts of news sites, from reliable ones to nonsensical ones, and even on boards and forums. Crickets may sing at this point." Itaru shook with his head after a search that took hours.
"Hmmm, perhaps you should ask on channel board. They have an investigation board, right?" suggested Rintaro, remembering about the utility of various boards on that site.
"Actually, that does sound like a good idea. Lemme do that." approved Itaru before he began typing again, browsing through the aforementioned domestic imageboard in the process of finding any trace regarding a certain syndicate. What he said about the results stuck in Rintaro's mind.
"Not even on internet, huh?" perplexed Rintaro at the mere thought of anyone being exempt from the omnipresent clutches of the world wide web. The only possibility about that finding was that Daft Capo was somehow connected to governments, but considering what they were, that seemed incredibly unlikely and ridiculous, at least to Rintaro.
"Why would such a pompous and overly showman-esque crime syndicate lack any sort of coverage? They should have been all over the news, considering their crimes are not exactly clandestine." wondered Kurisu before their investigation came to an abrupt end when they heard gentle knocking on the door. Both of them returned newspapers back to their original place.
"Mayushii will open up!" Mayuri sprung up from the couch as she hopped to the door.
"Wait, Mayu-" alerted Rintaro out of an instinct before he started rushing towards Mayuri, only to stop when he remembered that the person who came to their place was as threatening as a sleepy docile bunny with mittens."...oh right, it's the Springy Ultra Gamer Rabbit. Christina, Daru,...embrace yourselves."
"Come on, you are making her like if she was a threat." defended Kurisu, knowing who will arrive to the place. Her voice was rather soft when she spoke to her, before she gave the mad scientist her usual warnings."Besides, no "Christina's" and "Assistant's", got it?" Kurisu
"Like that's gonna stop me, Christina." thought Rintaro to himself, well aware that Kurisu can do nothing about it.
Just like she intended, Mayuri opened the door, revealing none other than Chiaki and her friends. All familiar faces to Kurisu, but to others Hajime, Ibuki and Chihiro were entirely new.
"Tutturu~! Welcome, Chi-chan!" Mayuri greeted them all like they were her old friends. When the black haired girl saw that she brought her friends to their residence, she beamed out of joy. It was hard to feel bad after seeing Mayuri smile. "Just like you promised, you have brought your friends here as well!"
"Hey, Mayuri." greeted Chiaki quietly, but in a rather relaxed tone. Her friends were surprised by Mayuri's appearance, but just by her looks and behavior from the first impression convinced them that she was someone who could they get along with easily.
Ibuki greatly enjoyed the fact that Kurisu wasn't the only cute girl in the apartment though.
"Chi-chan, would mind if you introduced your friends to us?" requested Mayuri.
"Of course, I would love to." Chiaki nodded with a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Look guys! There she is!" Ibuki peeked over to see the star of the day herself. She waved at her, to which Kurisu waved back at her.
"Seems like Hope's Peak got you quite a lot of fans, Makise." commented Itaru as he fixed his glasses to look cool.
"Oh, hello guys! Come closer, there's nothing to be afraid of here." Kurisu invited them to step in. Upon noticing that Kurisu's gang has no issue with them, they went inside.
"She's gonna go springy any second now." Rintaro kept warning to himself, knowing the inevitable in case of the gamer girl having a reason to be excited. "Any second."
"So...this is Hajime Hinata and Ibuki Mioda. Both of them are my classmates and my dear friends." after stepping in, Chiaki took a chance to introduce her friends "And here is Chihiro Fujisaki, who's from another class, but just as good of a friend."
"Welcome, welcome! We're all happy to meet you!" Mayuri greeted them all by shaking their hands. Hajime and Chihiro got a bit carried away by Mayuri, but the girl suddenly stopped when she held Ibuki's hand. "Wait a minute, Mayushii does know you!"
"Huh? You have met Ibuki before? There's only one logical explanation and that's-" wondered Ibuki on how did Mayuri know about her in the first place. Perhaps it was a same situation as Suzuha, Kurisu probably told her.
"You're a MayQueen frequenter!" happily revealed Mayuri while also shooting down any other hypothesis about how the black haired starry girl knew the musician.
"Oh, we have another Faris-tan fan?" asked Itaru as his interest became greater.
"You guys are Faris fans as well?!" Ibuki's eyes started to sparkle from knowing that Kurisu's gang had fans of that ever mentioned cat girl maid. Chiaki and Chihiro both observed the interactions of Nyannyan fans with them just being happy about them getting along. Hajime thought slightly differently about it.
"Oh god, more Nyannyan fanatics…" thought Hajime to himself, horrified at the influence a single cat maid girl could have. The influence of feline chaos was infectious, to say at least.
"Oh dear, more Nyannyan fanatics." thought Rintaro to himself, who himself had more experience with the paws of Nyannyan for quite some time. To him, they were just like any other Faris fans, except that they were people that he considered friends.
"Faris-tan gang rise up!" cheered Itaru as he pumped his fist.
"Mayushii works there!" Mayuri casually added another reveal to the conversation.
"...Wait a minute!" gasped Ibuki before she imitated connecting the imagined dots in the air. She remembered that Mayuri looked quite different when she works in MayQueen. "Although your voice is familiar, didn't you have a giant blonde ponytail and cat ears?"
"Hehe, that was just a wig." giggled Mayuri while also revealing that her clothing during her work is just a costume.
"My goodness, I'm in heaven!" Ibuki suddenly threw herself on the floor and started making snow angels out of sheer excitement, despite complete absence of snow. It was a good thing that Suzuha was in charge below, or else Rintaro would have suffered the wrath of his landlord and risk having his rent raised. Mayuri joined in making snow angels on the floor without snow as they both laughed and giggled. All of the surrounding people, from Hope's Peak gang to Rintaro's gang, were startled by Ibuki's sudden actions, but most of them didn't mind, since they seemed to really enjoy themselves.
Rintaro, however, was completely thrown off by Ibuki. He slowly side stepped to Hajime, who was just staring at the whole scene in disbelief. Even being used to Ibuki's shenanigans, making snow angels on a flat floor was something entirely else for him
"Hey….Are...all Hope's Peak students like this?" quietly asked Rintaro as he leaned towards dumbfounded tall boy. He specifically chose to ask because because he looked the most normal out of Chiaki's own gang.
"More or less, yeah." answered Hajime, relating to how Rintaro felt at that moment. A thought of an entire class being filled with Ibuki-like ladies jumping all over the room filled Rintaro with baffled dread.
"Oh god." Rintaro fretted at that idea.
After Mayuri's gang got a taste of Chiaki's little group, Mayuri decided to do the same for her own friends.
"Now, all of you know Chris-chan, right?" Mayuri didn't exactly need to introduce the brunette scientist prodigy, since not only have they already seen her, Chiaki already knew more about her personally.
"Of course they do. I was at their school, after all." smiled Kurisu at them. Her expectations were based upon their meeting, so she was pretty relaxed around them.
"And this is Daru, who's also a super hacker!" Mayuri then went to the dim room with Itaru Hashida in it. However, unlike before, he was paying attention to the visitors. To some extent, Chiaki and her friends were reminded of their classmate Ryouta Mitarai, mostly due the fact both he and Itaru were stout.
"You got that right!" Itaru boastfully crossed his arms.
"And lastly, but certainly not the least, here's Okarin, a very dear friend of mine." Mayuri returned to introduce Rintaro Okabe, the tall man in a lab coat. Out of all people Mayuri introduced, the starry girl herself and Rintaro. Not only because they were pretty new, but also because, at the very least initially, they didn't remind them of any of their classmates.
"….Kehehehe…" Rintaro suddenly started chuckling while posing like a true anime villain. With exception of Chiaki, who knew him a bit more than rest of Hope's peak gang, they were rather surprised to see such a shift in Rintaro's behavior.
"Huh?" Chihiro was the most startled of them bunch, not even knowing what was going on with Rintaro. His colleagues already knew the inevitable as they embraced themselves for it.
"Oh boy, he's at it again." sighed Kurisu as she covered her forehead with her palm. Mayuri didn't seem to mind what was happening though.
"….Mwahahahahaha! That is incorrect! All of it! Who is in front of you isn't Okarin or just someone...it is in fact HOUOUIN KYOUMA!" boasted Rintaro with a villainous, going full into his chunnibyou persona. He struck some poses to put further emphasis on the importance of his act. However, he has revealed something that the Hope's peak gang already knew before.
"You're the mad scientist that saved Faris!" everyone in Chiaki's group, aside from her, pointed at him, finally realizing that he was the mastermind behind the rescue of that forsaken cat girl maid. Chiaki smiled to herself, knowing that the last surprise she had for them was unveiled. Her friends finally had an opportunity to meet with the mad scientist himself.
"...Eh?" Rintaro dropped his mad scientist act for a moment, as he was being baffled on multiple fronts. Even though he quickly figured out either Chiaki or Faris told them about him, he was still baffled that they spoke of him like he was some hero. He was a mad scientist, or so he claimed, after all!
"Where's the mustache, though?" asked Ibuki right away, wondering about the absence of a quintessential "mad scientist" feature. It caused Rintaro to be speechless, a feat only truly accomplished by nonsense spouted by a high tier chunnibyou by the surname of Nyannyan.
"You come….to the laboratory of a mad scientist...and the very first question you give….is whether do I have a mustache or not…" Rintaro desperately tried to put words together, fighting against his own bafflement. The question itself made him put his index finger on his upper lip, imagining himself with a mustache worthy of an archetypal mad scientist. At the very least he had a stubble, so there was still hope for a rocking beard. "Besides, how would I even look with one?"
"Ridiculous." smirked Kurisu took an opportunity to tease him amid his bafflement. Mayuri giggled at the idea of Rintaro Okabe having a mustache, thinking it was kind of cute.
"As if you would look better with a mustache, Assistant!" Rintaro retaliated with his own tease, causing Kurisu to be flustered in the process.
"What did I say about nicknames, Rintaro?!" Kurisu attempted to strike back, but then realized that Chiaki and her friends were present there. Kurisu's face turned even more red, but Hope's peak gang didn't really mind. They were just curious about their interaction, but for them, nothing out of the ordinary. "Oh, I apologize. I hope it doesn't get...too overwhelming."
"Don't worry about it, Kurisu. We're used to it." reassured Hajime, knowing from his experience with his classmates and sometimes students of Class 78th. Compared to some of the interactions in classes at Hope's peak, especially those revolving around a certain twin tailed blonde girl, Kurisu's and Rintaro's banter was very lightweight.
"Used to it? What do you mean by that?" piqued Kurisu out of both genuine concern and curiosity.
"Well, we have someone similar in our class except he's an evil wizard who can tame beasts." added Ibuki, confirming to Kurisu that chunnibyou shenanigans were nothing new to them.
"...Oh, you poor unfortunate souls." muttered Kurisu as she felt genuinely worried that Hope's peak students had to deal with it on a daily basis in a similar fashion as she does. In the mean time, Hajime decided to bring a topic that he felt was appropriate to get some answers on it at that moment.
"Actually, erm, Hououin Kyou-" approached Hajime while not exactly sure what name to use. Hououin Kyouma, Okabe Rintaro, it was quite a mess of names.
"Rintaro Okabe is fine." clarified Rintaro, dropping his Kyouma act as a way to spare Hajime from more chunnibyou shenanigans. The moment when he saw Hajime being completely baffled by the Faris Nyannyan fanbase present in their apartment, he felt some kind of relation to him in regards to Nyannyan experience.
"Ah, so Rintaro, I've got a question for you." Hajime corrected himself before he continued with what he wanted.
"Hm?" Rintaro raised his eyebrow.
"I want to know how did you manage to tackle on them and save Faris. Would you mind telling us?" asked Hajime straight away. He thought
"I do not have a problem, however, I must clarify one major thing." Rintaro took a deep breath before prepared himself to tell the whole story behind his encounter with Hope's peak's most illusive threat as of that time. "It wasn't me who saved Faris. It was us, a collaborative effort. Christina, Daru and Mayuri all assisted in rescuing her."
"You can sit here, if you want." Kurisu stood up from the couch and offered it to the Hope's peak gang. Mayuri also moved a little to give them more space. Chiaki, Chihiro, Hajime and Ibuki all occupied places on the couch, with Mayuri sitting next to the gamer girl. Hope's peak gang tuned in, very curious about what was the mad scientist himself reveal to them.
"Do you guys know how did all of that happen in the first place?" Chiaki joined in the conversation after observing and following in silence for some time.
"Yeah, it started like four weeks ago." Rintaro spoke from his memory before he gave them an opportunity to speak. He wanted to check if there was information that already knew, so that anything he could say wouldn't be redundant. "Just making sure, what did Faris tell you already?"
"The octopus, who tried to blackmail her before, and four henchmen attacked her the moment she refused to give cafe to them….I think." answered Chiaki while trying her best to remember as much as
"That is correct. It seems like the story she told me aligns with what she told you." nodded Rintaro before the story behind Faris' rescue officially started.
"On that day, I noticed that Faris-tan was missing. Entire cafe was empty, including the cash register." Mayuri spoke about it first, since she was the very first person to notice that things went downhill on that eventful day.
"Of course they would go for the money. They just can't resist it, can they?" deadpanned Hajime in lack of surprise.
"B-but why would they attack Faris? I don't think she did anything wrong to them." stuttered Chihiro, thinking that despite the mischief Faris was capable of, to receive physical violence was completely undeserved.
"Hatred of anything anime. It was that, right?" Chiaki spoke from her memory again. She distinctively remembered that one, especially how it fueled her desire to protect everyone from that nebulous yet pompous mafia.
"If we are only talking about Herman, then yes." confirmed Rintaro with no reservations. He also hinted at them that Herman might be the only one with such sentiment. Chihiro and Ibuki gasped at the revelation, for how their friend and colleague-in-arms got assaulted over such small thing.
"….Are you kidding me?" Hajime placed his hand on his forehead out of complete disbelief.
"No, everything said here is nothing but truth." responded Rintaro in such a tone that it was jarring even to Kurisu and Itaru. It wasn't often that she saw Rintaro completely serious. "Anyway, I've received a call from Mayuri and I immediately ran off towards it. Nothing but pure instinct made me do it, I had to know what was going on. I tried calling her, but I've got no response. My heart was pumping like crazy at that moment. We looked through out anywhere nearby, but to no avail."
"We even considering printing out posters about a missing person and placing them everywhere in Akihabara." added Kurisu to her friend's story. "Then Rintaro encountered….something interesting, to say at least."
"Just making sure, are you all familiar with Contractors?" asked Rintaro once again.
"Yeah, those are them. They are helping us trying to stop Herman from attacking Daft Capo….I'm thinking of the right ones, right?" confirmed Chiaki for the Hope's peak folk present in Rintaro's apartment.
"I believe so, Springy Ultra Gamer Rabbit. When I first saw them, I thought I was hallucinating, but they gave me a big clue. It was about a rocket shaped car, if I remember correctly." continued Rintaro with his story. Chiaki and her friends continued carefully listening to everything the self proclaimed mad scientist said. "After hours of searching, we did manage to find the location of our adversaries. Contractors also provided information about Faris as well."
"Oh, so this is the part where you all combined forces with the power of science and kicked their butts, right?" Ibuki raised her hand as she imagined the whole battle with Rintaro, his gang and penguin commandos duking it out with punksters. In her fantasy, Rintaro used some kind of plasma gun with boxing gloves to blast punksters into the walls and Kurisu wore a tight catsuit while using martial arts to punch them in the face.
There was a focus on Kurisu in Ibuki's fantasy for reasons only Ibuki knew.
"Not exactly. As you see, I'm not exactly the strongest type. I left the fighting bit for the Contractors." corrected Rintaro while showing some sense of vulnerability to them, despite his common grandiose act.
"I know how that feels…" thought Chihiro to himself, reminding himself how truly powerless he was in life, let alone against a criminal syndicate. Even if he tried, he felt like he was too weak to help anyone in Hope's peak.
"After some search, we have found Faris….in a box, full of printed out anti-anime propaganda. I am not making this up." continued Rintaro with a detail he deemed so ridiculous, yet at the same time so rude that it took him a moment to fully talk about it. The "anti-anime propaganda", as he remembered, were just printed out overly saturated bizarre images with text placed all over them. Everyone in the apartment, especially those who saw it first hand, thought that was a major dick move on Daft Capo's end. "While Contractors were busy fighting, I escaped with Faris and then carried her somewhere safe."
"She got here, actually. We took good care of Faris-tan until things became normal...Well, as normal as you can get nowadays." Itaru concluded the story with a smile on his face.
"Wahoo! You guys are truly saviors!" cheered Ibuki, waving her arms around as if she was watching a football match with her favorite team in it.
"Well, it wasn't that much. The attack on MayQueen was just only the beginning. From that day onward, I, HOUOUIN KYOUMA, am a sworn enemy of Daft Capo." Rintaro hesitated at first, but quickly went back into his own Hououin Kyouma persona. After hearing what they experienced, the Hope's peak gang had sort of a strange relief. Then Rintaro turned his attention towards them. There was a thing he really wanted to hear from the Hope's peak gang. "...But I must admit, you have gotten me curious….Springy Ultra Gamer Rabbit, tell me how did Daft Capo, or rather just that octopus, attack your school?"
"Well…" started Chiaki before she thought about it for some time, trying to remember as much as possible. When she got all the important information in her head, she was prepared to speak about it. "It was like….one day he just appeared in school and started provoking everyone in the weirdest ways possible."
"Even my classmates were harassed." lamented Chihiro, remembering what happened to some of his classmates, especially Makoto. Out of all people in his class, he was the one that got the shortest end of the stick in terms of Herman encounters.
"Hmmm….anyone here who got attacked by that octopus?" wondered Rintaro, giving them another opportunity to speak from their experience. Everyone but Chihiro raised their hand. "Hmm, you're a lucky one, Quiet Flustered Bunny."
He chose such nickname for Chihiro due to rather noticeable similarity with Chiaki and the fact those two nerds were always really close to each other during their visit.
"Oh, oh! All this talk about the octopus made Ibuki's brain finally remember! There's something that I did notice when he attacked me." Ibuki's brain suddenly had a brief but incredibly strong resurgence of memories regarding her solo encounter with Herman. "Okay so like, he told me that he comes from Bologna and that he likes baloney!"
"…How is this exactly relevant-" perplexed Rintaro out of sheer bafflement, before he got completely interrupted by Ibuki's continued rambling.
"But then, after Ibuki was scared for life when he revealed that he eats Ibukies all over the world, he started spraying me! But Ibuki screamed so loud, that the ink went into my mouth and then Ibuki discovered that octopus ink is pretty tasty!"
"Squid ink spaghetti is a delicacy after all." commented Kurisu on the matter.
"It went in your mouth? That's strange, he usually goes for the eyes." noted Chiaki as she tilted her head. The way she worded herself immediately caught Itaru Hashida's interest.
"Chiaki, can you say "it went in your mouth?" again?" requested Itaru, which warranted a rather baffled stare from Hajime. Not the most perverted gesture he saw in his life (considering that Hanamura was his classmate), but still enough to catch him off guard.
"No!" both Kurisu and Rintaro immediately called him out on it. Meanwhile, Mayuri didn't quite understand why did Kurisu, Rintaro and to an extent Hajime react in such a way. Chiaki, even though it took her a little, blushed a little when she realized what implications her statement gave off.
"Hold on a minute, can we talk about that….thing he does? Like, what does he call it again…" Hajime switched the topic, but he couldn't remember the exact name of a combination of words that students of Hope's peak academy liked to hear the least.
"Eye...schluss. Eyeschluss." Chiaki remembered once again as she put those words together. Much to Rintaro, Kurisu and Itaru's surprise, the name of Herman's attack was something that they learned from them that day. During their encounter, there wasn't a single instance of that specific attack.
"Ayeshnose?" Mayuri somehow managed to mispronounce the entire name of Herman's attack in such a way, that if mispronunciation were an art, she would be up there with Leonardo da Vinci.
"I guess that Eyennex doesn't have a same ring." commented Ibuki as she scratched her head.
"Don't octopuses use ink for defensive purposes?" pointed out Hajime while also using his general knowledge at full force.
"Yeah, that is correct. It's a temporary solution to briefly blind the natural predators, allowing them to escape." concurred Kurisu.
"Maybe the octopus wants to be better at hide and seek?" suggested Mayuri out of a sudden, who was earlier just listening to all sorts of conversations both her friends and Hope's peak friends partook in.
"Come on, Mayuri. That's kind of silly, don't you think?" chuckled Rintaro, but still remained respectful to her. Every time he talked to Mayuri, he felt softer. It was something that everyone in Hope's peak
"No, Mayuri isn't that far off….I think." Chiaki suddenly yet boldly defended Mayuri's claim, while also raising her finger to add further emphasis. Despite the boldness, she still spoke with her soft quiet voice.
"How come, Springy Ultra Gamer Rabbit?" Rintaro turned towards her with great interest. He genuinely wanted to hear what exactly was she thinking about, though he expected video game jargon everywhere in her speech.
"There's been a certain pattern to Herman's attacks. He appears out of nowhere, picks out the target and then runs away. This one is more of "Hit and run", but he definitely has to use "Hide and seek" before he strikes. We haven't seen him before it was too late." Chiaki explained her interpretation to everyone present in the apartment. Upon hearing her, it became clearer to Rintaro, since the idea itself wasn't too far-fetched.
"That's why we set up PELN in order to find him before he attacks." added Chihiro, causing Rintaro, Kurisu and Itaru to chuckle a bit.
"...Wanna know who invented PELN?" Rintaro prompted them while he had a rather confident smirk on his face. Kurisu and Itaru initially decided to hush about it, since they didn't want to
Chiaki, Chihiro, Hajime and Ibuki used their brain cells together to find the answer. They remembered that it was Faris that delivered the contraption to their hideout. It couldn't be exactly penguins, since they were the ones that ordered the package.
"Here's a hint for you: what's the other name for PELN?" helped Kurisu for a bit as she winked at them. It was enough for them to remember a name that the cat girl maid used for the invention.
"….Future Gadget 10?" guessed Chiaki, to which she received nods from Rintaro, Kurisu and Itaru for the correct answer.
"And do you guys know what's the name of this place?" Kurisu gave another hint to them.
"Braun Tube Workshop?" Ibuki gave her own answer, which she remembered by taking a peek inside CRT shop below.
"Mwahahaha!" Rintaro suddenly started cackling, fully engaging in his mad scientist persona before he gave them the grand reveal, the answer of all answers: "No, this is, in fact, Future Gadget Lab! The headquarters of Hououin Kyouma, who will plunge the world into chaos!"
The minds of Hope's peak gang were completely blown away. They couldn't believe it that Kurisu Makise, the famous scientist prodigy behind how to turn memories into transferable data, Rintaro Okabe, the mad scientist that saved Faris from Daft Capo, Itaru Hashida, the super hacker, and Mayuri Shiina, a girl that forever changed Chiaki's life, were on their side before they were even aware of it. A feeling of awe overwhelmed them in the most absolute way possible.
"Y-you guys have been on our side all the time?!" blurted out Hajime from a complete shock. There were already a lot of things he deemed unexpected, but this was on whole another level. It took him some time to comprehend it.
"I suppose so-" Rintaro attempted to casually answer before he noticed that Chiaki and Ibuki were on dangerous levels of fangirl mode. For him, it felt like Chiaki was gonna go into breathless gushing again, while Ibuki was like a volcano that was about to erupt, except that instead of lava it was concentrated excitement. "Hey, do not go springy on me! I cannot handle the force of four springy rabbits!"
Rintaro took a glance at Hajime and Chihiro, who were still in complete shock "….or rather just two, you two seem pretty chill."
"Hehehehe, get excited, guys." winked Kurisu at them with a part of her genuinely wishing that they would share their excitement, but also to take a dunk on Rintaro for a little tease.
"CHRISTINA, DO NOT ENCOURAGE THEM!" dramatically shouted Rintaro, anticipating that Kurisu's little tease would end up with him facing the wrath of fangirl-ism.
"Come on, let them, Okarin!" pleaded Mayuri while giving him full on "puppy" eyes. It caused Rintaro to think of a compromise, to redirect the gushing to something else. Then he got an idea that could potentially work in his favor.
"...Alright so, how about this: Future Gadget Lab Invention Showcase!" declared Rintaro as he spread his arms, as if he was announcing a world changing event. Despite Kurisu thinking that he got very cheesy about it, Hope's peak gang was completely swayed by his endeavor.
"Show us! Show us!" begged Ibuki, shaking her fists like a hungry customer at the restaurant. After an approval by Hope's peak gang, Rintaro brought almost every single invention they had in their laboraty right in front of them.
"Here it is! The inventions of Future Gadget Lab! From one to seven, all of these shall be used to plunge the world into chaos!" announced Rintaro as he presented all of their gadgets. The gadgets were a toy gun turned into a TV remote, a bamboo toy helicopter with a camera on it, a modified lie detector, humidifier that functioned as a smoke grenade, a "chimera" of a vacuum cleaner and a dryer and a toy light saber. The giant optical ball made out of CRT monitors couldn't be brought due to its size. Hope's peak gang curiously observed the contraptions made by Future Gadget Lab, but Hajime had a bit higher expectations on them, especially since Kurisu was involved with them.
However, Chihiro took a notice to the naming conventions of Future Gadgets. Their latest was, PELN, was numbered as ten, yet the previous one was only seven. "What happened to eight and nine? Did you use a different naming convention for it?"
Suddenly, Rintaro flinched when he heard about eight gadget. It was like if his heart took a hit, all of his grandeur performance vanished. He remained motionless and speechless in place. Chiaki and her friends were startled by the sudden shift, but Rintaro's friends knew. They knew perhaps too much, just like he did.
"D-did I say something wrong? I-I'm sorry about that…" trembled Chihiro, nearly bursting into tears from worrying that he potentially ruined the entire day for everyone. Out of an instinct, Chiaki immediately gave him her hand to hold onto in order to release stress within him.
"Chihiro, there's no need to apologize. This isn't your fault, I promise." Kurisu approached to him in order to calm him down. She gave him few pats on the back,
"Is everything okay, Rintaro?" asked Chiaki, worrying about Rintaro's state after seeing him being either bombastic or just cool under pressure. Others worried for him as well.
"….It's better left unknown for now. It's for your own good." quietly spoke Rintaro with utmost sincere fear in his voice. Everyone in Chiaki's group felt chills down their spine, it only caused more perplexity to the ever growing number of mysteries. They only had one assumption: something went horribly wrong with gadgets numbered eight and nine.
Rintaro took a while to regain his composure, as he noticed that his friends, both old and new, started to heavily worry about him. Once he fully regained his composure with a help of deep breath, he gave them reassurance that they needed: "It's okay now. Don't worry about it."
Despite Rintaro reassuring that their situation was fine, it still wasn't clear for Chiaki and her friends what exactly went horribly wrong with gadget eight and nine.
"….Anyway, lets break this atmosphere off with some chaos! Please use Future Gadgets to your liking!" Rintaro shifted the entire mood once again, returning back to his Hououin Kyouma persona once again, bringing an odd sense of relief once again. Even Chihiro managed to calm down after trembling so much. Before anyone could even touch any of gadgets, Mayuri suddenly grabbed the toy gun (also known as Future Gadget 1).
"Hands up! Give Mayushii banana!" demanded Mayuri as she pointed the toy gun at Rintaro. Just like by her request, he raised his arms and ran to the kitchen. He acted as dramatically as he could in order to entertain Mayuri, but it seemed like he entertained everyone else too, as some of them couldn't resist giggling after witnessing him run around like that. Upon finding the desired fruit, Rintaro returned back to his friend.
"Here you go, Mayuri." Rintaro offered her the banana. Mayuri gladly took it, peeling it before she started munching the tropical fruit.
"Yummy! Mayushii is satisfied now!" praised Mayuri while still enjoying her meal. In the mean time, Hope's peak gang tried out various gadgets and played with them along with Future Gadget Lab members for the rest of the day.
Their day at the Future Gadget Lab came to an end just before the sun was about to set. They realized that they need to go back to Chiaki's place before they traverse the city in nocturnal darkness.
"Well, this day was pretty fun, but we have to go now. It's getting kinda dark." said Hajime as he, along with Chiaki, Chihiro and Ibuki started approaching the door of the laboratory.
"Awww, you guys are pretty fun to be around! You should come here more!" smiled Kurisu, despite the fact she wanted to spend more time with them, but she understood that they needed some rest. "Thank you for coming here."
"Thank you all for allowing us to be here." expressed Chiaki as placed her hand on her chest.
"Before you go, I have one offer for you all." Rintaro stopped them before they could fully leave the Lab.
"Hm?" Chiaki tilted her head in curiosity. Her friends were also wondering what kind of plan did Rintaro have for them.
"I would like you…..to become Lab Mems!" suggested Rintaro as he pointed at them all.
"Lab Mem?" asked Chiaki. Others weren't sure what that term meant either.
"Members of this laboratory!" boastfully elaborated Rintaro, revealing such information with the most grandiose poses a mad scientist could strike. The opportunity given by Rintaro made the day for Hope's peak gang even better. None of them could reject his offer, especially after getting to know them all even more.
"Of course we would!" wholeheartedly agreed Chiaki with her friends sharing the same sentiment. She couldn't be more happy than being with the very scientists she found heroic.
"But now, we bid farewell. Bai bai!" Ibuki waved at them before they departed, concluding their meeting in the process.
"Bai bai!" Kurisu waved at them back as their day came to an end.
As they went downstairs, Chiaki and her friends returned back to the entrance of CRT shop. Suzuha was still there, taking care of her bicycle. When Suzuha heard multiple footsteps coming from the staircase, she placed herself right in front in order to gain their attention.
"So, how did it go, those that come from Hope's peak?" asked Suzuha as all of them stepped outside.
"Oh, hello there, Suzuha. It was very fun. You've got a lot of cool people around here." said Chiaki with a bright smile on her face.
"And...full of surprises to say at least." added Hajime while expressing a bit of disbelief due to how much stuff they learned that day.
"Life do be like that, heh." chuckled Suzuha before she put her arms around her hips again. "Now, don't forget about your passenger!".
"...Passenger?" Chiaki, along with her friends, wondered what exactly did Suzuha mean. Suddenly, additional footsteps were heard from staircase, causing quite a lot of surprise amid the Hope's peak gang. However, it didn't take long for that person to reveal themselves.
"Tutturu! Mayushii is coming with you!"
It was Mayuri.
"Mayushii is coming! I say again, Mayushii is coming!" bubbled Ibuki at the sight of a black haired girl with a hat coming straight at them.
"Mayuri? You're gonna visit my home?" asked Chiaki out of complete surprise.
"Well, if you are okay with it, I would gladly visit it!" happily answered Mayuri as she nodded with her head so much that her hat nearly fell off. Not only was Chiaki more than accepting for Mayuri to join her, she was overwhelmed with happiness. The one person she always searched through her life visiting her home filled her with so much joy that she could dance with Mayuri, if she weren't so awkward about it. Her friends saw how these two dorky girls were happy together and they couldn't help but smile as they went along, returning to Chiaki's home once and for all.
As Chiaki, Chihiro, Hajime, Ibuki and recently joined Mayuri said goodbye to Suzuha, Rintaro and his fellow lab members observed from above. All of them had smiles on their faces, especially after seeing how happy was Mayuri around them.
"Ah, peace and quiet." sighed Rintaro in relaxation, knowing that he would have some peace after such a busy day.
"You're still making out like they were bad." Kurisu defended them with a soft tone in her voice as she crossed her arms.
"To tell you the truth, Christina, not at all. As...odd as they were, those four do have their hearts in the right place. If it didn't seem like, I wouldn't have allowed Mayuri to go with them." Rintaro spoke as sincerely as he could. "It's very likely we'll meet them again...very soon in fact. I'm looking forward to it."
"I'm glad you feel that way, Rintaro." smiled Kurisu after hearing his answer. They were about to call it a day, but Rintaro remembered that he had duty from before.
"Hey, Daru. How's it with channel post?" Rintaro reminded his hacker colleague about the channel post on the investigation board he made in the morning.
"Oh, right, I've got distracted. Let me check." said Itaru before he returned back to the personal computer. Luckily, he didn't tab out, so the page was more or less up entire day. With a press on the F5 button, he refreshed the page to see the results.
Only to find out that his post vanished without a trace. Not even a warning about how the post was removed.
"...Huh? Lemme try again." sputtered Itaru before he made a new post with a slightly differently worded question about Daft Capo activities. After he typed out everything he needed, he clicked on the post button to make it appear on the site once again. "And re-fresh!"
The post vanished without a trace once again.
"...What the? It got deleted again!" bleated Itaru at the sight of deletion. Rintaro and Kurisu, after witnessing the sudden disappearance of Itaru's post, tried to rationalize with whatever possible reasoning those deletions could have.
"Hold on, let me try somewhere else." Rintaro opted to try posting through his phone before coming through any of conclusions. After typing out a somewhat lengthy question regarding Daft Capo, he pressed on the post button. His question appeared on the mobile version of the site as all of them waited for any response.
Suddenly, his post got deleted right in front of their eyes. They didn't even need to refresh the page for it.
"What the? How?" sputtered Rintaro at the sight of real time deletion of his post. Things were starting to lose sense and their efforts were slowly beginning to feel futile.
"What is the meaning of this?" Kurisu tried to hold onto her composure, yet thoughts she had from thinking about possibilities regarding Daft Capo made her feel chills down her spine. How could individuals like them be completely exempt from any sort of documentation on something as omnipresent as World Wide Web remained an unsolved mystery for them. A mystery that will linger on as the time will pass.