A/N: And with this my hiatus has briefly been cleared. This one was quite the adventure to work on only because of all the stuff going on in the background of my life, but I'm never one to disappoint. Here's the next chapter to the story. Enjoy~
Date: September 23, 2017
Divergence: 1.048596 (Steins Gate)
Time until Overwrite: 19 years, 1 month, 23 days.
Kurisu watched as the sword lit up in Mio's hand. She couldn't help feel amazed at how her "protegee" was able to reverse-engineer something from the Committee by just looking at a couple of AH Tokyo General's records. Mio said that the sword itself wasn't able to harness as much negative energy as it should because of how she had to rush its creation lest she accidentally forget anything that made up the sword and what powered it.
"fun^10 x int^40 = ir2..." she recited the equation that made up the process in being able to engage with the Dirac Sea.
She made the trip to Japan in order to see the sword for herself. She could hardly believe what Mio was telling her over the phone, so she had to see it for herself, but even then she found her common sense at odds with what was before her. Okabe, being the curious bastard that he was, tagged along when he heard that Kurisu was visiting Japan. Both of them sat back as they watched the sword float out of Mio's hands and twirl around her. She only allowed him to be there because of the fact that he helped deal with Wakui, so she hoped that his knowledge of the existence of Gigalomania would quell his delusional ramblings and actually allow him to seriously contribute to the conversation.
Here, in the makeshift lab they made in the basement of the Wako City Institute of Neuroscience, they were able to test the more bizarre aspect of brain science such as the aspect of quantum mechanics and how they apply to the brain in terms of the Di-Sword.
The sword returned to Mio's hand and "powered off" in a sense. "It's hard to control for too long because it hurts my head once I start trying to harness negative energy into the sword."
Okabe put his hand up to his chin, deep in thought, yet still watching the sword closely. "It seems like something that'd be easily solved if the sword was connected to something that acted as your brain so that all the stresses that come from trying to access an infinite vaccuum like that are directed there instead."
"That's what Noah II was for," Mio said.
"'Noah II?" Kurisu asked.
"Think of it like an artificial Gigalomaniac. NOZOMI developed it in order to rival the power of natural Gigalomaniacs, and it operated on samples from whatever Gigalomaniac they could find. It replicated the parts of the brain enhanced by Gigalomania and was able to access the Dirac Sea without destroying itself. At least, that's what I was able to gather from Nishijou and the hospital's records."
"So if you take the power generated by Noah and broadcast it to wireless, mobile terminals, one would be able to use it as their second brain while they harness negative energy from the Dirac Sea into the Di-Sword."
Kurisu was able to finish the thought albeit still being cynical about the whole thing. Sure, she saw the sword flying about, but to believe quantum mechanics operating at such a level that it drastically affects human perception of the world around them was another story.
"A magical sword attached to some sort of terminal - most likely a backpack that receives signals from some ugly machine," Okabe snickered. "It's like we're living in some failed shounen manga that doesn't know what genre it wants to fit in."
"Sometimes the truth to the universe isn't as amazing as your peabrain wants to imagine, Rintaro."
Kurisu glared at Okabe, worried that he might begin spouting delusional nonsense in front of Mio again. She had heard of their standoff when Mio sought a place to be able to keep a couple Gigalomaniacs afflicted with Chaos Child Syndrome safe from what was happening in Shibuya at the time. Of course, as far as she could tell, the rift between the two had not closed one bit so she had to act as a middle-woman.
"Might I remind you that this 'peabrain' was the one that captured Wakui for you two?"
"You're forgetting the fact that Sakihata helped you," Mio clarified. "Using a Gigalomaniac to capture a Gigalomaniac is expected and I'm sure you had absolutely nothing to do with the process."
Okabe was getting visibly annoyed. Kurisu stepped in before Okabe could retort.
"Regardless," she said. "I take it you want to pursue creating something akin to Noah so that we could add another weapon against the Committee?"
"Yeah," Mio took off the headgear that was attached the sword. "The headgear alone is enough to power the sword, sure, but I have absolutely no idea just how harmful it could be to one's brain without the help of the same enhancements that Gigalomaniacs possess."
"I want to try," Okabe suddenly moved and swiped the headgear - with the sword attached to it - out of Mio's hand. "Maybe you're just bad at this."
Mio growled at him. "Gigalomania isn't just some trait that you can train or hone. It's entirely biological, dumbass."
Kurisu watched as Okabe put the headgear on. While she was angry at him for seemingly wanting to incite hatred within Mio, she couldn't help being curious at just what he might be able to do with the sword. He was the most prone out of the three to succumb to his delusions, so it was possible that he might be able to handle the sword without needing some other power source.
"How do you turn this thing on?"
"I want to see you figure it out for yourself, peabrain."
Kurisu felt a mixture of pride and embarassment as Mio followed in her footsteps when it came to what kinds of names they'd call Okabe. Pride over the fact that Mio recognized just what kind of challenge it was to deal with Okabe. Embarassment because even with how challenging it was to talk with Okabe, she couldn't stop loving him the way she did; while her namecalling was mostly just a way to fight back his personality, she could tell Mio entirely weaponized her words to try to dig under Okabe's skin more than he could against her.
Kurisu watched Okabe focus his eyes onto the sword and glare at it as if he were trying to scare it to turn on.
Much to both his and Mio's surprise, the sword lit up just as it did in Mio's hands earlier. He let out the same mad cackling that he always did. Sometimes it got a little overbearing, but Kurisu couldn't help thinking that it fit the situation way too well.
"So," he said. "You said that all I have to do is imagine something and then force that thought into both of your heads in order for it to become reality?"
Mio grunted in response.
Okabe turned to Kurisu. "Don't you think it's time I show Kunosato the weight that each and every single one of our actions holds?"
Kurisu tilted her head in response, confused. "What?"
"This peabrain of mine holds memories of every single worldline that I've ever been forced to witness. Kunosato very obviously is in disbelief of just how important someone like me, the great Hououin Kyouma, is to this fabric of reality... so maybe it's time I show her firsthand."
Okabe's smile turned wicked. Kurisu was used to seeing all sorts of smug smiles out of Okabe, but this one was different. All she could feel was unease from the combination of that smile and his statement.
Mio looked at her, then back at Okabe. She glared at him then backed away warily, as if she were expecting an attack from him. She grit her teeth, trying to be ready for whatever he was going to try and do to her.
"Whatever you're thinking, don't do it Rintaro! Don't let this childish grudge make things worse for all of us!"
Kurisu yelled at him, but it was too late. By then, Okabe had already acted.
Okabe had pointed the sword at Mio and stood there. Kurisu followed the tip of the sword toward its target and could only gasp at what she saw. Mio was frozen in place, her eyes looking up at the ceiling in an unfocused state. Her mouth was agape and it seemed like she was trying to let some sort of sound out, but she couldn't. She looked back at Okabe who had tears streaming down his cheeks, but anger was still plastered all over his face. In order to force those memories into Mio's head, he had to remember them first, and she was certain that recalling such memories were just as - if not more - painful than Mio experiencing them for the first time.
She had heard what the both of them had to say about their first encounter with each other. No matter how much she tried to calm the both of them down, they both held total resentment toward each other for their own reasons - Okabe because he was totally talked down to despite Mio not knowing him, and Mio because Okabe seemed to do everything in his power to slow down her attempts to reach safety with the Chaos Children.
"Rintaro!"
She cried out his name, but to no avail. It seemed like the both of them were fighting a battle that she was unable to see. She then remembered what Mio had said about how using the sword would not be without inflicting damage on oneself if the person using it didn't display Gigalomania.
She ran from her spot to Okabe who was a couple paces away. Both of them were stuck in the same position, and Okabe never made a move to acknowledge the fact that Kurisu was rushing toward him.
Without hesitation, Kurisu slapped Okabe as hard as she could across the face. The slap was so hard that it knocked the headgear off of his head, thus ending his mental assault on Mio. It seemed like the invisible force that held Mio went away, and Mio fell to the floor. Okabe on the other hand, stayed up and dropped the sword in response to Kurisu's slap.
He rubbed his cheek. "Thanks for that. I didn't know how to stop it."
He laughed as if nothing happened. She could only imagine the memories that he forced Mio to endure. He told her about what he's had to experience and how he'd never wish that upon anyone, yet he still went and forced Mio through it all. What the hell was his problem?
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she berated him right in his face. What angered her more was that he retained a jubilant smile despite her harsh words.
Mio could be heard shuffling around behind her. She turned around to make sure Mio was okay and was met with a very red-faced and upset girl. It definitely wasn't the kind of reaction someone would have to having memories of death and despair forced into their head.
"You..." Mio recovered her words. "You narcissistic pervert!"
"What?" Kurisu couldn't help voicing her concern over what was said.
She turned to Okabe. "What did you show her?"
All Okabe did was chuckle, slight hints of red appearing on his face as well. Everything going on made Kurisu even more upset and even more confused than when Okabe first mentally attacked Mio.
"What does fucking Kurisu in that dingy apartment have anything to do with preserving the fabric of reality!"
Kurisu's face turned bright red when she heard what Mio said. Now, she was probably even more angry with Okabe than she was when she assumed he was trying to hurt Mio.
"W-What does she mean, Rintaro?"
Okabe's eyes went wide, realizing the situation.
"W-Well you see here, Assistant," he started saying. "I was trying to show her the shenanigans we pulled with the Phonewave on the Alpha Attractor Field, but my mind was stuck on my last day there..."
Kurisu gasped. Okabe never told her about that. Sure, she may have had dreams about it, but she brushed them off as dreams and not actual events! She never thought that she actually had sex with this guy! Okabe raised his arms in an attempt to tell her to calm down. Kurisu was furious. Not only had he kept such a fact to himself, he also showed Mio what they did in vivid detail!
"I-I swear I didn't mean to do that!" he tried explaining. "It's just, that moment will forever remain ingrained in my hippocampus, and it'll always be the first thing my mind wanders to when recalling the good times I spent in the lab during that summer. I didn't actually want to show her-"
"And?" Kurisu interrupted him. "What were those tears for, huh? Was I such a bad lay that you cry whenever you recall that memory?! You jerk!"
Kurisu momentarily forgot where she was at the moment. Not once in her life did she ever think that she'd be berating some guy about how insensitive he was being about having sex with her in a totally different reality.
"N-No!" Okabe responded. "My head was killing me when I started sharing those memories with Mio, so I couldn't hold back the tears. I swear on my life that was the case, Kurisu!"
She knew he was serious when he recalled her by her real name. Regardless, she absolutely could not forgive him for keeping such intimate details about their relationship in another worldline a secret! Even less so for sharing those details with Mio, even though it was unintentional!
"You idiot!" she screamed at him before slapping him in the face again.
It took her a couple minutes to finally settle down, but everything got back to normal, or as normal as normal could be now that Mio was aware of some details that never needed to be shared. Mio kept tossing glances at both Okabe and Kurisu while they talked about what was needed to get their version of Noah up and running in order to bring the fight to the Committee.
"The problem is that we need to remove the uncertainty principle from all this," Okabe said. "In order to properly channel free quantum antiparticles within the Dirac Sea, we have get the machine itself to accurately measure where they are in relation to each other."
Kurisu wasn't surprised that Okabe knew this kind of stuff. Sure, he was previously an engineering student at Tokyo Denki, but he studied hard in the field of quantum brain mechanics just so he could join the research institute at Victor Chondria while he was pursuing post-graduate work at the university.
"Yes, but, wouldn't we be able to make an eigenstate of position for Dirac deltas?" Mio answered as if she forgot who she was talking to. "I mean, it's not as accurate as pinpointing both the position and the momentum of free quantum particles, but as long as we're able to create Dirac deltas and at least pinpoint their position, it should work just as fine. Besides, from what I've gathered from Wakui's brain, there's nothing particularly special about it that can make such precise quantum measurements with little-to-no help."
Kurisu was lost, but not totally so. Her specialty was neuroscience and she dabbled in particle physics every now and then, but she felt it best to leave the nitty-gritty of quantum brain mechanics to the specialists.
She was about to speak up for clarification before another voice interrupted her.
"I won't allow this to continue," the voice said.
Kurisu and the other two looked in the direction of the entrance.
A dark-haired woman approached the two of them with a popsicle stick hanging out of her mouth. She wore a white blouse with a blue undershirt underneath it. Her eyes narrowed when she caught sight of the sword which was now in Mio's hand. She scrunched her nose and spit out the popsicle stick.
"Who are you?" Kurisu was the first to ask.
"It doesn't matter," the girl responded. "What matters is that none of you attempt to recreate that machine."
She pointed her arm at Mio who was the closest and a sword appeared out of thin air in front of her. The sword was the exact same design as the one that Mio currently had in her hands, but there was something about it that made it both more wicked and more beautiful than Mio's artificial one.
Mio grit her teeth. "Aoi Sena, huh..."
Sena ignored Mio's realization. "That equation you're using to power that fake nearly killed all the world's possibilities. I do not intend on allowing a repeat of those same events happen under my watch."
"Listen, girl," Okabe spoke up. "I don't care who you a- wait have we met before?"
Okabe's Hououin Kyouma act was dropped as quickly as it was donned when he felt he recognized just who Sena was.
Sena looked at Okabe and scoffed. "You're the idiot I met on the streets all those years ago."
The fact that she remembered such a random encounter with a stranger was odd. However, when Kurisu gave it more thought, she knew for a fact that any random encounter with Okabe was going to be unforgettable for better or for worse.
"How'd you get in here?"
Mio asked the question, ignoring what Okabe said. She had the sword ready to strike, except Kurisu knew it'd do nothing against the sword of the Gigalomaniac it was based off of.
"You can drop the weapon," Sena regarded Mio with very little importance. "Or keep it raised if you intend on continuing your research with that equation. Sakihata was stupid for not stopping this sooner."
Sakihata. That was the girl that helped Okabe capture Wakui.
Sena's eyes landed on Kurisu, making her feel the full force of a stare that could kill. Naturally, Kurisu didn't back down and looked right back into Sena's eyes, challenging her. Sena took the challenge and started walking toward her, ignoring both Okabe and Mio. She closed the distance enough that she'd be able to stab Kurisu if she extended her arm out enough.
"You're not a member of this lab," Kurisu said unafraid. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
"Not until I'm sure that none of you will even try to recreate that wretched machine."
"Those matters are classified. I don't care if you know Sakihata-san, your presence here is not a welcome one."
Sena gripped her sword even harder and clenched her teeth. "Do you want to destroy this world?!"
"You know better than anyone that we're trying to keep it from falling into the wrong hands."
Both women were in each other's faces, neither of them willing to give up any ground to the other. Kurisu was conscious of Sena's concerns, but she felt that the need to research the equation was more pressing than making sure that Sena was happy with the way the world currently was. Sena's violet eyes pierced her very being, but she wasn't going to let her win through mere intimidation.
"There are ways protect the world without attempting to recreate Noah II," Sena growled. "You'd only accelerate our demise if you went ahead with your research."
"Oh? And where do you get this foresight?"
"Experience."
"Both of you, back away from each other," a male voice ordered. "Now."
It was Okabe. Kurisu had gotten so into it with Sena that she zoned out the existence of the other two in the room. Before she knew it, her face was mere inches away from Sena's.
Kurisu wasn't used to Okabe sounding so serious, so his tone of voice surprised her enough to break eye contact with Sena. She looked at Okabe, who was now yelling at her to get down. He ran toward her and dove at her in an attempt to tackle her.
At the time she broke eye-contact with Sena, the dark-haired woman had decided to take a swing at Kurisu in hopes of ending all talks of such a dangerous equation. Sena didn't care if she had to kill all three in the room if it meant to keep the world safe. However, as she swung, Okabe got in between the blade and Kurisu, getting his back sliced open in the process of getting her to the floor.
The attack garnered a scream from Okabe before he quickly passed out. The pain and the amount of blood he lost from a single swipe was enough to incapacitate him the moment he hit the floor with Kurisu beneath him. Kurisu felt a pain in her head, probably from hitting the ground the way she did, but she ignored it. The first matter of importance was Okabe.
"Rintaro?!"
She wriggled out from underneath him, leaving him lying on his belly. His blood was all over her clothes and drenched her enough to the point that she could feel the weight of it.
"Oh my God, Rintaro!"
Kurisu couldn't think about anything anymore. Okabe was lying in a pool of blood that was only growing, and his body had totally stopped moving. She didn't know what hurt worse, her heart or her head.
"Why you..."
Mio was behind Sena and had already powered the Di-Sword in her hand. She swiped at Sena who merely blocked the attack with one arm without even turning to face her. She pushed Mio back as she raised the sword and twirled to face Mio. The difference in skill was apparent. Sena looked like a dancer as she twirled about with the Di-Sword while Mio stabbed at her with crude, heavy attacks. The exchange was lasting longer than it should have only because Sena was toying with the hilariously outmatched girl.
"What do you hope to gain by telegraphing every attack you've made against me?"
She hadn't even broken a sweat.
"Break the delusion."
Mio was panting, but her voice still held firm. She also clenched her teeth in apparent pain. Was she having the same headache that Kurisu was?
"So you were able to recognize it, huh," Sena stopped and let the sword dissipate. "I'd almost applaud your deduction if you weren't hopelessly waving your sword around like it was a plank of wood just moments prior."
In almost an instant, it felt like the world shifted around Kurisu. Instead of sitting, she now found herself standing in the same spot with Sena right in front of her as she was before. She felt the weight of Okabe's blood vanish along with Okabe's body. She looked around, totally bewildered by what she had just seen. It was almost as if those last couple seconds didn't happen. Along with the world seemingly resetting, the pain in her head had totally subsided.
Okabe was just a couple paces away like he was before he got cut. He was just as utterly confused as Kurisu was. He spun around, trying to feel his back, but there was no evidence of him having been put under the blade just moments prior.
"W-What the hell...?"
It was the only thing that Okabe was capable of uttering. On any other day, Kurisu would have been appreciative of the person who was able to stun the stubborn Hououin Kyouma, but today wasn't one of those days. She just saw Okabe die in front of her only to come back unscathed. She swore it all felt so real. She looked back at Sena who was already staring down on her.
At this point, it was apparent that Kurisu lost the standoff. She was too shocked to even consider anything.
Sena smirked before turning around and walking away.
"I'll let you keep that sword as a reminder of your success," she said. "If there's any more talk of recreating Noah, I will not hesitate to kill you all the next time we meet."
The door leading out of the lab slid open to let her through. Mio fell to her knees, using the sword as a crutch. Kurisu looked at Okabe who was staring in disbelief at the woman who had single-handedly stunned them all. She quickly walked over to him and hugged him as tight as she could.
Despite the squeezing that Kurisu put Okabe through, he returned the hug as gently as he could.
"Please," she said close to tears. "Don't scare me like that."
"That really wasn't-" Kurisu buried her head deeper into Okabe's chest, shutting him up.
"I don't want you to die because of me," Kurisu pleaded with him.
"Alright, Kurisu," he rested his chin ontop of her head. "I promise I'll stay alive... but I can't promise I won't protect you at all costs."
Okabe breathing was ragged. His eyes were close to being swollen shut, and he could hardly hear anymore due to whatever was pouring out of his ears. There was no way he'd return to normal if he was capable of escaping from this hellish experience. His arms and legs were totally limp, and he was basically bleeding out of his mouth. He could feel deep down that he wouldn't be the same if he was ever able to escape the hellish situation that he currently found himself in.
His hands and feet were broken, and each and every nail on his right hand had been torn off. He'd been through torture before - rather other versions of him have been through torture before, but his desire to keep those he loved safe overrode his fear to survive. He'd lived through an eternity of hell just through trying to save Mayuri, let alone having to survive in the apocalyptic landscape that was the world on the Beta Attractor Field. If anything, this was like nothing to him. But, Wakui's words kept ringing in his head. If he died before Wakui got his answers, Kurisu would be put through the same situation and be killed.
"You know, Okabe-kun," Wakui finally said after nonstop torture with that horrific sword of his. "You're being stubbornly unresponsive even though this is just another part to the tutorial."
Okabe coughed up blood in an attempt at gasping. Wakui was able to understand what he was attempting to do.
"Did you really think I wouldn't put you through the test once more?" he laughed. "Granted, I enjoyed every last bit of the fun you have given me, but I do have to remind you that your wife will go through this process if you die."
"You're... lying," Okabe was able to work out of his throat. "You... don't know... who Salieri is..."
Okabe coughed up more blood. He wasn't confident in his chance to live if this kept up. He knew he had to start talking at some point lest he risk death and open up the chance for Wakui to take away the very person he worked so hard to save.
He didn't fear death. He would have welcomed it long ago, but he knew he had to continue fighting for the sake of keeping his loved ones safe. The same probably couldn't be said for the version that came before him, but this Okabe's sense of mortality had gone missing ever since the war escalated on the Beta worldlines. Just the fact that he knew Kurisu was in danger was the only reason why he struggled as much as he did in order to survive.
"Of course I know who Salieri is," Wakui closed the distance between their faces and looked right into his eyes. "Her name is Hiyajo Maho-sama."
-sama? Okabe was so used to Wakui using titles that would give him a sense of superiority that hearing such a title for Maho caught him totally off guard.
"Oh," Wakui seemed to have realized his mistake. "Slip of the tongue."
Wakui summoned the sword once more and aimed it at Okabe's right shoulder.
"My mind's been caught on the prospect of you calling me Wakui-sama," he stabbed tentatively at Okabe's shoulder, piercing it and causing Okabe to scream. "If you call me that, then maybe you can keep your shoulder."
This wasn't a part of the interrogation. Wakui legitimately wanted to look for any excuse to cause Okabe as much pain as he possibly could before he broke. Another thing that Okabe lost was his pride. Given the war, he had to do anything to survive, even if it meant prostrating himself for the meantime just to live.
"Wakui... sama," he said still feeling the searing heat from the sword piercing his shoulder and cutting through his bone like paper.
"Why is it that I just don't like the way you said it?" Wakui's sword dug deeper into his shoulder, practically setting Okabe's shoulder on fire. "Make it sound more pleading, will you?"
"I beg you... Wakui-sama!" he yelled.
"Beg me to what?" Wakui had twisted the sword, making Okabe cry out in pain.
Okabe could feel tears working their way out of his eyes.
"Please... stop!"
Wakui had finally pulled the sword out of Okabe's shoulder. Blood poured out of the wound, but it didn't seem like a fatal cut. Sure, Okabe had lost his sense of pride, but he sure as hell didn't enjoy prostrating himself to someone as sick as Wakui.
"You're a feckless coward," Wakui clicked his tongue. "The moment power is taken away from you, you lose that stupid arrogance."
He punched Okabe in the face. Usually Wakui used the sword in some way to inflict damage, but this was the first time he used his bare hands.
"You have no idea what it's like to live for 20 years in that torture chamber!" Wakui kept punching. "You don't know what it's like to be incessantly poked and prodded by purported scientists!"
Okabe could feel himself slipping away. He tried so hard to stay awake, but his eyes felt heavier and heavier with each painful hit that Wakui landed.
"What I'm doing is nothing compared to what you and your band of terrorists have done to me!"
Okabe felt a sharp pain split his head, forcing his eyes shut. He felt the weight and pain that had been inflicted upon him dissipate each passing second. He opened his eyes and he found himself in the dining room of his home, a line of drool connecting him to the table that he had passed out on.
Was it all just a dream? he thought to himself.
The dream felt all too real, the pain and fear he felt for possibly dying on Kurisu was still heavy on his heart. But everywhere he looked, it seemed like nothing had happened. He looked at the stack of paperwork on his desk. It seemed like he had passed out grading homework, but the thing he found odd was the fact that he didn't recall ever handing out homework to be graded.
He needed to connect the dots as to how he got there. Perhaps it was a Reading Steiner attack and his brain had chosen to follow the routine he had used to use. It was all he was able to assume. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
There was a dull pain in his head, so he used that to explain the possibility of a Reading Steiner overload.
Do you really believe that? a voice that didn't belong to him asked. Are you that optimistic about your circumstances?
It was the same voice that spoke to him when he had to confess to Kurisu that he had drugged Leskinen with the pills. It was the voice of his past self speaking to him once again.
It's the only answer I can cope with at this point, Okabe thought. If I really were being tortured just a second ago, then it means I failed at surviving and this is the afterlife that awaits me.
He shuddered at the possibility. If he had died, then it meant he failed at protecting Kurisu. If that were the case, he would have wished the worst possible punishment to await him rather than just life to continue on again as he had dreamed it could in this worldline.
For someone who's supposed to be a paranoid soldier, you're really dense, the voice chastised him.
I'm not a soldier, he corrected. I never was. I was the person sending brave souls to their doom just to ensure that I could survive.
That's beside the point. You're still dense.
I don't see the point you're trying to make by calling me names.
Think back to when you initially came to after Wakui invaded this place. Remember how you woke up? Remember everything you felt - how eerie the world seemed around you even though everything was supposedly normal?
Okabe was able to connect the dots to what the voice had said. He slowly got out of his chair and started walking around the area, trying to get a sense of what he had felt in the other delusion he was shown. To him, everything felt exactly the same as it did when he first "woke up". The world around him seemed to be frozen in time, the air around him stale and stagnant. The sounds of his neighbors and the general rustle and bustle of the streets outside the building were absent despite the fact that they were supposed to be present 24/7. His attention landed on the dull headache that only seemed to be growing. If everything were to follow the same set of events as the last delusion he was shown, it meant that a vision was going to be produced.
He proceeded down the hallway, looking for any sign of Wakui or normality. If he were being honest with himself, he would have preferred the latter, but his luck seemed to have totally run out ever since arriving on the worldline. The building complex felt like it was slightly tilted, making Okabe feel a large sense of imbalance. He could only really hope that the grogginess was getting to him and that what he was feeling was mere dizziness from entering two totally different states in such a short matter of time. He arrived at the door, still painfully aware of the absence of life around him.
The door slid open to reveal his bedroom. Everything seemed in place just like it had been the last time he was there in real life. The only problem was that the warmness of the red and gray was totally absent. His eyes shifted to the bed where a lone figure inhabited it.
Kurisu was on the bed, beneath the covers, reading a magazine that he couldn't make out. She didn't have her glasses on, and seemed to mindlessly be flipping through the pages. There was nothing irregular about what she was doing, her facial expression seemed like one of boredom instead of blank eyelessness like the previous delusion. She looked up from her reading, probably sensing the fact that the door slid open.
"Oh, you're awake," she smiled. "Sorry I didn't wake you up earlier, I just got a little too caught up in some other things."
"Oh, no," he smiled back. "It's fine. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to sleep through the night on a table like that anyway."
She scooted over from the middle of the bed to free up his spot, inviting him into the covers. He was still in his dress clothes: black slacks, a white button-up with the sleeves rolled up, and a loose black tie.
"You think I can get changed really quick?"
"Nothing's stopping you," she said. "Just make sure you don't fall asleep in the closet too."
He laughed at her joke. Just with that interaction, all doubts were removed from his head. The entire thing with Wakui and torture was just a fever dream brought on by his Reading Steiner and was nowhere near becoming real.
You're too easy to fool, you know that?
He clenched his teeth.
It was all a dream, he responded. You're not going to convince me otherwise.
Okay, since we're going that route, the voice fired back. Hold Kurisu's hand. This entire time you've noted that something has been off with the way you're perceiving the world, yet it's all thrown out the window when it seems like your wife is acting like she should?
And what almighty truth will be revealed when I hold her hand?
The fact that this world isn't reality. If you hold her hand, and you feel the same way you've felt with this world - cold and lifeless - then you have to accept that this is a delusion you must break out of.
He turned around from his intended target location and began walking back toward the bed where Kurisu lay, flipping through the magazine. She looked up in surprise at an Okabe who still hadn't changed out of his clothes.
"Let me check something really quick," he said without giving her a chance to question anything.
He grabbed a hold of her hand, accidentally crushing the magazine she was holding along with it. He expected - no - he wanted to feel the warmth of her touch as he always did when he woke up next to her. He would have settled for the cool touch of her skin as she tried warming herself up under the covers. However, all he was met with was a feeling that he knew wasn't alive. Having spent time as data in the Time Leap Machine, that eerie feeling of coldness enveloped him, as if his bones had become steel. His heart sank. He tried running away from reality, and now he had to face it.
"Okabe-kun? What's wrong?"
It all began to fall apart. There were no magazines anymore, just pokecoms to use in bed. There was never a time where the area around them was silent, there was always the silent hum of the air conditioning. Human skin was supposed to be cool or warm to the touch, not neither. And Kurisu always called him "Okarin", never "Okabe-kun".
Now that the realization came to be, he had to formulate a way to escape.
He turned around only to find Wakui standing behind him. Mere moments passed before an intense pain spread through his gut. He looked down to find Wakui's sword embedded deep within his stomach. He coughed, spewing out blood.
"I was hoping to toy with you a little longer," he said. "But it seems you were more observant, and I was more careless this time around."
Wakui pulled out the sword, pulling Okabe's stomach contents out along with it. Okabe collapsed, feeling warmth spread throughout his body. He felt his gut pulsating to the beat of his heart, but as time passed his heart beat slower and slower until it no longer had the strength to do so. He closed his eyes, and as he did, pain split his head once more.
He woke up on the dining room table once again. There was a familiar stack of paperwork sitting next to him and drool flowed out of his mouth the same way it did before. This time around he didn't question it. This was a delusionary loop.
He tried to quickly get up, but someone grabbed the back of his head and his face was immediately smashed into the table in front of him, shattering the table and sending him to the ground.
Okabe could feel all the cuts on his face because of the table's glass, but that didn't stop him from trying to move. His arms shakily gathered themselves and he tried pushing off the floor, but a foot immediately came crashing down on his back, leaving him sprawled on the floor.
"Your physical body probably wouldn't be able to handle much more," he could hear the owner of the foot say. "But your mind is still in a much better state than I expected. It'd be a joy to break it just to get all those little secrets of yours loose."
Okabe could feel the air shift around himself before he felt pain shoot up his right arm. He looked down at the source and found that his hand was no longer connected to the rest of his body. The stump that he was left with gushed out blood each time his heart beat. He screamed in fright and in pain. Never in his life had he ever gone through physical torment such as this because of the risk of dying. He tried so hard to move, but he couldn't.
"It seems you get it now," Wakui said from above him. "There's no escaping this hell. And what's more, I can do whatever I want with you without losing your body."
Wakui laughed as he began slashing at Okabe's back, opening very deep wounds. Okabe could feel his lungs being punctured, his ribs breaking, his kidneys bursting, his stomach popping. Okabe could feel every slash that Wakui made. He could feel every organ that had been damaged by the sharp blade. This time, he had passed out due to the pain, but as before, his headache grew in immensity.
Again, he opened his eyes to the familiar dining room table and stack of paperwork. Almost immediately, he shot to his feet and abandoned the table, trying to be prepared for the next onslaught. His eyes darted around the room, surveying the area and trying to find where exactly Wakui would strike from.
This is a terrible situation you've found yourself in, the voice chirped up from out of nowhere.
Your comments are not exactly helping at the moment, Okabe let himself get distracted for a moment to respond to his own insanity.
That moment was all it took for Wakui to appear out of Okabe's blindspot and make a slash at his face. Okabe was barely able to react in time, but the tip of Wakui's sword had stabbed his eye, essentially removing it from its socket. Okabe fell back, yelled in pain.
"Now tell me, Okabe-kun," Wakui slowly approached the grounded Okabe. "Who's DaSH?"
Okabe crawled away from the ever-approaching monster, but he knew there was no escaping. However, he also was never going to speak, even if it meant that his mind would be put through a trial he never had to personally face. At least, that was the plan so that he could figure out a way to escape. Had Wakui started lower on the ladder of Valkyrie leaders, then Okabe would have been more inclined to speak to delay the pain, but he had to reassess now that he had started with Daru's codename.
It felt like a hot iron skillet was continuously being applied to Okabe's eye. He held one hand up to cover it while trying to crawl away with the other. Inevitably he got backed into a wall and couldn't move anywhere else.
Wakui stood over him, a smile planted on his face.
"Still won't talk, huh? I don't have a problem with that."
Wakui slashed the air in front of him, separating Okabe's leg from his body. Blood gushed out of the wound, forming a pool around Okabe's body. The pain was worse than when Wakui had taken Okabe's eye, easily forcing a scream out of Okabe's throat.
You better start thinking now, the voice said beside the pain.
Okabe felt like he was losing himself to delirium. He could see his leg laying uselessly beside him, yet he still couldn't understand just what happened. Okabe's gaze shifted back to Wakui, but he couldn't get a clear picture of him anymore, very likely due to the blood loss.
In a flash, Wakui had cut his throat open. Okabe leaned his head back, trying to breathe even though it was useless. No matter how much he tried, blood kept impeding his ability to intake air. This one was a slow death, a painful one that Wakui merely presided over. It didn't take long for Okabe to lose consciousness, and of course, given that he was in a hell of Wakui's doing, he re-awakened on the same table.
With a clearer head, Okabe stayed down, trying to devise a way to escape the delusion.
Come on, Okabe, he thought to himself. There has to be something you can exploit.
Knock, knock knock, knock. Four knocks in a patterned sequence sounded above Okabe, but he kept his head down. If he dared look, he knew that he was going to have to suffer an onslaught.
"Playing dead are we?"
Okabe opened his eyes to find the tip of Wakui's sword protruding out of his chest. An upward force lifted him out of his seat before he got kicked to the floor. It was a single fatal stab. There was no way Wakui didn't hit his heart with that stab. Okabe didn't have the strength to move, as if it was all sucked out of him by that sword.
"So, would you like to speak about DaSH yet?"
Okabe remained silent. He didn't know if he chose to or if he just couldn't find the strength to formulate any words.
"Wrong answer."
Okabe didn't know what felt worse, the pain splitting the back of his head or the pain splitting the front. But as always, he found himself in the same seat on the same table, in the same state.
You're going about it wrong, the voice told him.
How? How am I supposed to go about it?
Okabe had succumbed to his own insanity. He couldn't believe that he'd start asking questions and expect an answer from a voice in his head.
You're going about it as Okabe Rintaro when you very well shouldn't.
Okabe was about to question the voice before he was brought back to "reality" by the fact that the table had collapsed underneath him. Okabe rolled across the floor as he fell to try and capture his balance, but as soon as he got upright he got knocked down again by a kick to the back of the knees.
"Seriously, Okabe-kun, you don't have to be so stubborn," he heard behind him. "You're going to die anyway, so why bother risking the life of your wife?"
"Okarin?"
Okabe's attention darted up to the voice that called out his name.
Kurisu was stood there, at the end of the hallway with a terrified expression on her face. She looked past him at Wakui and let out a gasp. Wakui stepped over Okabe to presumably get to her. Okabe grabbed his leg to try to get him to stop, but Wakui immediately stomped on his face to get him to release the hold.
Okabe could hear Kurisu screaming for him.
"Kurisu! Run!"
It was all he could manage to do. He couldn't get up in time to keep Wakui from reaching her, so he could only hope that she listened to him.
Okabe! This is a delusion! It's not real! the voice yelled at him.
Okabe clenched his teeth. Wakui had pursued the delusionary Kurisu down the hall. Okabe could hear her screaming and Wakui laughing as he did things that Okabe didn't want to even think about.
Listen well, Okabe, the voice said. This is a delusionary world. It's a world you need to break out of.
But how?!
Is that even supposed to be a question? There was once a time where no one could match our delusions, don't you remember? We were the best at what we did. It's time you harken back to that attitude.
Okabe got to his knees and looked at the entry to the hall. The screaming had stopped, and he was waiting for Wakui to emerge from there.
The war may have blocked the flame of the great Hououin Kyouma, but his spirit still lives deep within you. It's time to awaken once more, Kyouma. Take up the mantle of the mad scientist once more - teach Wakui what insanity properly means.
"Fufu..."
The world trembled before you a long time ago. Fate knows not what it means to be victorious against your will. The name of the mad scientist, Hououin Kyouma isn't just a joke to be used to liven up the atmosphere, it is the name of the most feared man to ever stand up against the Organization. That stupid war may have attempted to snuff out your essence, but here you are now. Revive like the great phoenix of old! Re-awaken! Hououin Kyouma!
Wakui emerged from the hall, his oblivious smile purely evident. Okabe rose to his feet to match Wakui, his mouth spread into the most sinister smile he ever had since July of 2011.
Wakui was bloodied, the blood very likely belonged to the delusionary Kurisu.
"Do you really want such a fate for your beautiful wife?" Wakui asked.
"Fate?"
Okabe - no - Kyouma chuckled at Wakui's ignorance. Wakui's smile vanished almost instantly.
"You dare mention such a pointless aspect of life to me?!"
Kyouma's smile spread much wider before he erupted into that nostalgic boisterous laughter. Kyouma began putting his power to use, imagining a labcoat to elegantly flow beside him. A small pain emerged in his head, but the world did as he commanded, and his silver armor had now become a part of him like it should have from the very beginning.
"I'll wipe that smile clean off your face!"
Wakui was very likely upset that Kyouma was unfazed by the whole situation. Sure, Okabe Rintaro would be fazed by such trivial matters, but Hououin Kyouma cared only for chaos to be wrought upon the world's ruling structure.
Wakui immediately closed the distance between himself and Kyouma, but Kyouma didn't bother moving. Instead he chose to use his very own weapon to fight off the idiot's onslaught.
A phoenix wrapped in white flames emerged from the end of Kyouma's labcoat and flew straight at Wakui's face, stopping him dead in his tracks. However, Wakui closed enough distance to be able to reach Kyouma with his sword. He viciously swung down at Kyouma's left shoulder, and much to his own surprise he connected rather easily. Kyouma remained in his position, allowing his white armor to protect him. The labcoat caught the sword, not allowing it to go any further, but it also didn't let Wakui try to disconnect.
Kyouma raised his right hand to the sky, imagining his most effective weapon to date.
Future Gadget #6, the Cyalume Saber, materialized in his hand. However, unlike the plastic glowstick that he had created back in 2010, the Cyalume Saber's blade was made of concentrated plasma just as it was intended like in Spark Wars. Kyouma brought the blade down on the hand which was still firmly grasping the sword caught in his shoulder. As expected, Kyouma cut through the hand like butter.
Wakui yelled in pain and fell backwards. Kyouma used his free hand to grab the sword and toss it back in Wakui's direction. Wakui's face was contorted in anger and bewilderment. Just as Kyouma expected, pain settled in his head and everything shifted back to the very beginning with him waking up on the dining room table.
Without even a second of repreive, Wakui brought both of his fists down on Kyouma's head and smashed his face directly through the table. The blow dazed him, but Kyouma still remained aware of his surroundings. Wakui forcefully turned him onto his back and sunk his sword deep into Okabe's chest.
"Do you really think that cheap tricks will let you escape this hell?! You're not winning here, dimwit! This is my world!"
"Fufu," the humor in that sentence was enough to get Kyouma laughing despite the hole in his chest. "FUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
Kyouma pushed up against the sword to get mere inches away from Wakui's face.
"This is going to be your hell, Wakui!"
Wakui screamed back in his face and buried his sword deeper until only the hilt could be seen from his chest. All Kyouma did was laugh beside the pain. He thought up of the most painful delusion ever, almost splitting his head in half. A force of power knocked Wakui off Kyouma, leaving the sword in his chest. Kyouma shakily rose to his feet to meet his thoughts.
It was just three people: Kagari, the Part-time Warrior, and Shining Finger. The three women capable of taking on the world by themselves if they needed to. The sword slipped out of Kyouma's chest, clattering on the floor. Another painful thought and his wounds closed up. However, it didn't just stop at the three women. The four gathered in front of Wakui, forcing him backwards right into the legs of the mountain of a man who called himself Ferdinand Braun.
"Where the hell do you think you're going, punk?" Braun said.
Braun lifted Wakui up by the collar and threw him back at Kyouma who already had the Cyalume Saber ready. Wakui landed neatly atop the blade. It was that moment in itself that successfully made the world around Kyouma collapse. He could feel the pain in his head letting up.
"Before you leave," the voice re-emerged, but so did a body to go with it.
It was himself, but he could feel a sort of elegance that he knew he lacked.
"All you have to do is move in some way shape or form in the world," he said. "There's a tracker right here just in case there's moments of emergency such as this."
He pointed at a spot in his shoulder.
"I imagine that our servers went down the moment you were kidnapped so it didn't work, but I don't doubt that Daru got everything back up and running again. Tip your chair over and the tracker's defense systems should trip. Use the moment of confusion to get everything done."
The world continued collapsing around them. By then, the delusionary figures that Kyouma had thought up vanished along with the world, leaving only himself and his other self.
"Good luck, Kyouma," his other self said. "Everything's up to you from this point on."
He vanished with the world before a white flash enveloped Kyouma's vision.
Okabe opened his eyes as best he could. He didn't spare any time to think and used whatever adrenaline he had to push his feet against the floor and fall backwards in the chair.
"Why, you...!"
Wakui finally gathered himself, but by then Okabe had already fallen. In an instant, a high-pitched noise reverberated throughout the room. Okabe could hardly hear it because of the damage to his ears, but it was pretty evident that Wakui was affected by it. It was actually enough to incapacitate Wakui for a longer period of time than he actually expected.
Okabe felt pain flooding throughout his entire body, but he did his best to stay awake. He was battered and bloodied, but his will was stronger than before he was pulled into the delusionary world. He kept his eyes as wide open as he possibly could despite the pulsating pain he felt.
Wakui staggered over to Okabe after a long period of nothing but the high-pitched noise playing. His sword was in hand and it seemed like he intended to kill Okabe on the spot.
Wakui raised the sword.
"DIE!"
Before he could bring the sword down on Okabe, the wall behind him was blasted apart. It knocked him forward, making him miss his target by a couple of inches. Okabe couldn't see exactly who or what was going on, but he could only be grateful for the timing. Wakui turned back around only to yell in fear and pain. Okabe didn't know what exactly Wakui saw, but he was slashing around wildly with the sword before it disappeared from his grasp. He collapsed and covered his ears, drool coming out of his mouth.
"This is Warrior," a familiar yet muffled deep voice was heard. "We have secured Kyouma. I repeat, we have secured Kyouma."
The chair was made upright again. The grotesque face of a sumo wrestler was right in front of his face. He didn't understand how such a sight could imbue Wakui with so much fear, but he was okay with it not making sense as long as he was able to live.
"What about Salieri and the Assistant?" a voice on the radio was heard.
"No sign of them anywhere," the man behind the mask said. "I'll get Kyouma to our hospital before I continue my search."
Okabe was confused. He couldn't understand what was happening.
"What... happpened... to them...?" he asked the man behind the mask.
The man took off the mask, letting his long black hair flow messily around his shoulders. Okabe instantly recognized just who it was. He didn't know whether he should have been upset or happy at the sight before him.
Urushibara Luka, a boy so feminine it was unbelievable that he was even a guy. He had grown into a brilliant man just as he always did, yet it seemed like his life still revolved around fighting for the sake of Valkyrie. Okabe never wanted such a fate for him on this worldline, but apparently it couldn't be helped.
"Don't force yourself, Kyouma-san," he said. "Let's get you proper care before you worry about anything else."
Okabe could feel his strength faltering. His head fell forward and he couldn't find the strength to pick it up anymore. His eyes even felt heavier, and he could feel himself closing them.
"Kyouma-san, stay with me!" Luka yelled to no avail. "Kyouma-san!"
The last sounds that Okabe heard were Luka ordering men around to secure both himself and Wakui.
"Kyouma-san, hang in there!"
Warmth flooded his body and the pain dissipated. He welcomed such a feeling with open arms.
A/N: And there it is. My longest chapter to date to make up for the wait that I put you guys through. I think I had a little too much fun in describing the ways that Wakui eviscerated Okabe, but I found it worth it just for the catharsis. Thank you guys for your support throughout this entire ordeal. It's been a blast writing for you guys, and it's fun seeing people eagerly awaiting my next chapters. Please leave a review on what you think or, if you're too nervous, just PM me what you think and you'll even get a response from me! I'll see you guys in the next chapter!
Thank you for reading,
Quil~