Chapter 191: The Grand Appeal of "Science Fiction"!
In the movie, once Rintaro Okabe made up his mind to build a time machine, he immediately set his plan into motion.
First, he attempted to replicate the experiment where a banana was used to traverse time via a microwave oven—and send an email to the past.
The only issue? All previous attempts at recreating the phenomenon had failed. Only the first banana test and one successful D-mail had worked.
This meant the Future Gadget Lab had yet to master a stable method of time travel.
To move forward, they officially named the email sent to the past D-mail, and Okabe offered his own hypothesis on why their experiments had failed.
"The experiments keep failing. I think we overlooked the most basic, most critical factor—the time they occur! The first D-mail happened between 12 PM and 1 PM. The second was around 6 PM. That means… if we run the experiment within those windows, there's a higher chance of success!"
"That's definitely worth testing!"
Okabe's reasoning was simplistic, but it convinced the team to give it a try.
Soon, the experiment was ready. The microwave oven once again began emitting massive energy.
Moments later, the banana placed inside mysteriously vanished. In its place, a limp, green, jelly-like stalk appeared on the table.
And with that, Okabe's hypothesis was all but proven.
"The condition was that simple… and yet it actually worked…"
Riding that success, the team dove headfirst into researching the rules behind time travel. After about half a day of tests, Makise Kurisu finally managed to summarize the basic mechanics of D-mails: namely, how to control the general time period the message arrived at—and that each message was limited to just 36 characters.
Once that was confirmed, the group had another short discussion about the time machine, then scattered to take a break.
During his rest, Okabe received a sudden email from Kiryu Moeka. She had previously been searching for a rare, ancient PC—and now, having heard that Okabe had acquired the IBN5100, she came directly to him.
She asked to borrow the machine. Okabe flatly refused.
Persistently, Moeka pressed the issue. And in the middle of their back-and-forth, Okabe inadvertently mentioned the D-mail and time machine experiments.
Immediately, Moeka sent a strange message asking:
"Are you… FB?"
Okabe, assuming she was just another hopeless chuunibyou like himself, responded without hesitation—inviting her to join the lab.
And so, by a twist of fate, Moeka became Lab Member No. 005.
The team resumed experimentation, now including Moeka. They all began seriously considering: What should we do with D-mails?
The mere idea of changing the past to reshape the future was more than enough to set hearts racing.
Eventually, Okabe made the executive decision: they would try to win the lottery and get rich overnight.
Crude? Absolutely.
But no one objected. So, the experiment moved forward.
Click!
At the exact moment the D-mail was sent, an indescribable sense of distortion surged through Okabe's body.
The screen cut to black.
Then, a string of numbers began rotating at breakneck speed.
Eventually, they stopped—frozen on a single number:
0.571015
. . . . . . . . . . .
Watching this scene, the entire audience held their breath.
Whether ordinary citizens or seasoned mages, everyone felt their hearts clench.
"Just one text… changed the past? Really?"
"I mean, would your past self even believe such a weird message?"
"If the world line shifts, what happens to people's memories?"
"If you forget you even changed the past… wouldn't that make it pointless?"
"…"
Various comments echoed in the air, but no one's attention wavered. Everyone was anxiously fixated on the screen, eager to see the result of the D-mail.
. . . . . . . . . . .
When Rintaro Okabe regained consciousness, he was still standing inside the lab. The room, the people—everything seemed exactly the same.
For a moment, he thought the experiment had failed. That the world hadn't changed at all.
But then, Makise Kurisu suddenly spoke up.
"What's wrong, Okabe? Weren't we just discussing what kind of message to send to the past?"
"What are you talking about? Didn't we already run the experiment?"
"No, we were still deciding on the message. We haven't sent anything yet."
"That can't be…"
Faced with a reality that contradicted his memories, Okabe immediately checked his phone.
Sure enough—there it was. A message sent to himself a week ago.
At that moment, footsteps echoed from the hallway. Lukako entered the lab, slightly out of breath.
"Kyouma-san… I'm so sorry!"
He bowed deeply and handed him a lottery ticket.
"I'm really sorry. You told me to buy this ticket because there was a chance we'd win, but… I accidentally got one number wrong."
"…"
Before anyone else could fully react, Kurisu murmured in disbelief:
"Okabe… Don't tell me… you already used the PhoneWave…"
"…"
Okabe stood there frozen, sweat forming on his brow.
. . . . . . . . . . .
The movie's explosive twist sent a wave of gasps rippling through the theater.
Even those who had only been half-paying attention now sat bolt upright, fully aware that the protagonist had gained something incomprehensibly powerful.
The ability to freely alter the past—to shift the very fabric of reality. It was a power so godlike, so absolute, that it thrilled and terrified everyone watching.
"Wait, how can he still remember the old timeline after the world line changed?"
"No idea. But clearly, if he can keep using this power without limit, he'll have an unimaginable advantage. At this point, isn't he basically a god?"
"What happens to the world lines he's erased? Do they vanish forever? Or do they still exist somewhere in the folds of time?"
"This is insane… The plot may not be full of explosions, but the conceptual scale of Steins;Gate is just off the charts."
"My brain can't keep up anymore…"
"…"
One by one, the audience murmured their awe.
This was a society where most people had never encountered science fiction—or even fantasy. Now, out of nowhere, came a movie that tackled time and space with staggering ambition.
All of them sat wide-eyed, desperate to see what came next—desperate to see what Rintaro Okabe would do now that he could change the world line.
. . . . . . . . . . .
Time passed.
Okabe stood alone on the rooftop, staring out at the city below. He was thinking about what John Titor had told him.
With every passing second, the truth became clearer: the world line had changed.
And yet, only he remembered what came before.
That realization filled him not with joy, but with dread.
Unable to ignore the implications, Okabe sent John Titor an email—explaining that he had successfully used a message to alter the past.
Moments later, a reply arrived.
"To think… altering the past through email. Even in my time—2036—this concept had never been realized. You've changed the past, shifted the world line. But more importantly, you've retained your memories after the shift, allowing you to observe the process from start to finish. Such an individual… doesn't even exist in the future. Kyouma, perhaps you possess that very ability. If so—then perhaps you can guide the world… toward a divergence value beyond 1%."
"Divergence value… 1%? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Once the world line's divergence surpasses 1%, true freedom will be within reach. But if we remain trapped beneath that wall… the future will descend into despair. My mission is to change that future. But you, Kyouma—you might be the one destined to become the savior of this world."
"You've got to be kidding me!!"
Faced with such an absurd, overwhelming truth, Rintaro Okabe lost control.
With a cry of frustration, he hurled his phone against the ground.
But eventually… he picked it back up.
Moments passed. And then, as if awakened by a familiar heat in his chest, Okabe clenched his fist.
The soul of Hououin Kyouma had reignited.
"So I'm the only one with this power, huh? Then let's keep going. If fate has chosen me—then I shall become the savior of this world!"
The next day, the experiments resumed.
Once again, Okabe sent a D-mail to the past with the winning lottery numbers.
But the result… was shockingly familiar.
Lukako returned with a lottery ticket—apologizing again, saying he'd gotten one number wrong—and offered some fruit as an apology gift.
Okabe sighed. Just as he was about to rethink the message content—
Suddenly.
Without anyone noticing, Kiryu Moeka had sent a D-mail of her own.
. . . . . . . . . . .
In an instant, the screen went pitch black.
The numbers spun again.
When the screen cleared, Okabe was standing alone in the lab.
Confused, he looked around—and began asking his lab members where Moeka had gone.
But to his shock—
No one remembered her.
. . . . . . . . . . .
The plot had spiraled out of control—and the entire theater sat in stunned silence.
Though everyone expected the D-mails to affect the past, this was on a completely different level.
This wasn't a simple change of events or lottery numbers—this was a person being erased from reality.
"I don't know why, but… this is starting to feel creepy."
"Yeah. My spine's tingling."
"I didn't even flinch watching those grotesque goblins in Goblin Slayer, but right now, I'm honestly scared."
"Changing the past… reshaping the world—it all sounded so amazing. But now that it's actually happening… I feel this bone-deep chill."
"What exactly is the principle behind all of this…? How does this world truly operate at the most fundamental level? What exists above time itself?"
"This is… too much for me…"
"..."
Panic swept through the theater.
The ability to rewrite the world—a concept so romantic, so intoxicating in theory—had now become terrifyingly real.
And with that reality came a fear that no one could explain.
It was a primal kind of fear.
The kind felt by small, insignificant creatures when they stared too long into a vast, unknowable cosmos.
Compared to the infinite universe, human beings were nothing more than dust—grains of sand dissolving into an endless ocean.
And when confronted with that disparity, with that horrifying scale, even the strongest minds faltered.
Not just the common people.
Even Knights, Mages, Imperial General, Emperor, and even the greatest Arch Mages known to mankind—all of them were shaken.
To witness a film like Steins;Gate in this era… was to be forcibly dragged beyond the limits of their imagination.
. . . . . . . . . . .
As the movie progressed, the pace began to quicken.
After the shocking world-line shift triggered by Kiryu Moeka, which erased her very existence from everyone's memory, a new request emerged.
Lukako—timid and soft-spoken as always—approached Rintaro Okabe and asked:
"Could I… send a D-mail too?"
Though biologically male, Lukako had always possessed an almost ethereal, feminine appearance.
But deep down, he had always yearned to live as a girl.
Okabe was taken aback—but after a moment of hesitation, he nodded.
Together, they devised a plan.
Based on a widespread rumor that "eating more meat during pregnancy leads to boys, while eating vegetables leads to girls," they crafted a message.
It was simple: a message to Lukako's mother in the past, asking her to eat more vegetables.
They sent the D-mail.
The screen turned dark once more. The divergence meter spun.
0.456903.
When Okabe came to, he was once again in the lab.
Everything looked the same. His lab members were lounging around as usual.
And there was Lukako—dressed the same, looking no different than before.
Same face. Same body.
Okabe blinked.
"So the experiment failed…?"
He shrugged it off and moved on.
But the next day… something deeply unsettling happened.
The IBN5100—the legendary, ancient computer critical to their plans—was gone.
At first, Okabe assumed someone had just moved it or hidden it.
He searched the room, asked around.
Eventually, he went to Makise Kurisu and asked her directly.
She raised an eyebrow and answered plainly:
"IBN5100? We've never found that thing. We don't even know where it is."
<+>
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