"Makise, Kurisu?"
Looking at the red-haired girl with her hair flowing, Okabe Rintaro called out her name in disbelief.
"I knocked on the door, just now, for what it's worth," Makise Kurisu said.
No, no, no, that's not important.
"How did you know about this place?" That was the key.
"I asked Hashida, and when he said 'Laboratory,' I thought it would be a more formal place…" Makise Kurisu answered casually, glancing around.
The implication was that this place looked nothing like a 'Laboratory.'
After a moment of stunned silence, Okabe Rintaro grabbed Hashida Itaru's shoulder without hesitation:
"Tonz, have you betrayed me?!"
Hashida Itaru: "Huh?"
"Seduced by the charms of this 3D woman, you scoundrel." Although he was scolding Hashida Itaru, Okabe Rintaro turned his head, puffed out his chest, and clenched his fist, walking towards Makise Kurisu with seemingly high spirits: "Unforgivable, I will never forgive you!"
Placing his right hand on the wall, Okabe Rintaro yelled at Makise Kurisu:
"You bitch!"
Although it seemed like a direct personal attack, Makise Kurisu did not get angry. Instead, she ignored him and asked Hashida Itaru behind him:
"Can you do something about him?"
"You can assume he's currently insane," Hashida Itaru shrugged.
No longer fuming at Makise Kurisu, Okabe Rintaro turned sideways, gritted his teeth, raised his phone, and with the screen black, held it to his ear, muttering to himself as if it were a serious matter: "Emergency. The Organization has finally sent a special agent here."
"What?! Is this also steins;gate's choice?"
Makise Kurisu: "steins;gate?"
A word she hadn't heard before, sounding like a mix of English and German.
"It's Okabe's internal setting; it doesn't have any special meaning," Hashida Itaru explained casually.
"That's what I thought; it's a mix of German and English," Makise Kurisu said, and then proceeded to walk forward, her dark high heels tapping on the wooden floor.
"Take off your shoes," Okabe Rintaro said loudly.
Perhaps because he had already vented his emotions, he didn't have another fit this time, merely reminding her of what she should do before entering the room.
"Ah, sorry, I've been living in America," Makise Kurisu apologized, bending down to take off her delicate high heels.
Then, she smiled and extended her hand towards Okabe Rintaro:
"Let me reintroduce myself. My name is Makise Kurisu."
Seeing her action, Okabe Rintaro first showed a surprised expression, then quickly gritted his teeth, and the hostility in his eyes surged again.
"You can't even shake hands? How lacking in social common sense."
But, under Makise Kurisu's seemingly taunting words, Okabe Rintaro still gritted his teeth and extended his hand.
However, even though it was just a simple handshake, Okabe Rintaro seemed to have lost his sense of direction, hesitating to grasp her hand.
"Too timid," she said.
With a cold expression in her sharp gaze, Makise Kurisu unhesitatingly exposed Okabe Rintaro's current emotion in her eyes.
Timidity.
"Eh?" Okabe Rintaro froze for a moment, quickly withdrew his hand, and then made a helpless gesture with open palms, trying to justify himself:
"Because you have too much killing intent about you. Is this what they call a killer aura?"
Makise Kurisu was starting to not want to deal with him anymore.
She had somewhat figured him out: easily provoked, liked to use chuunibyou language to cover up his embarrassment, and very unreliable.
Ignoring Okabe Rintaro, she walked directly towards the gel-banana.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Okabe Rintaro, however, seemed to think she was trying to escape from a fight and shouted.
But his voice was drowned out by Makise Kurisu's calm words.
"Did you really see me being the word, or are you just making excuses for sexual harassment?" Makise Kurisu stated her purpose: "Actually, I just came to confirm this."
Then, in front of the gel-banana, she crouched down.
Her gaze level with the banana, at a sufficiently close distance, she propped her chin with both hands and observed the gel-banana.
"However…"
The moment the transitional phrase fell, the screen abruptly cut to the opening theme.
[I knew it, it's seamless integration after all!]
[Asking for a friend, is this a triple-episode anime broadcast?]
[I was wondering how Makise Kurisu would continue to be involved in the plot. So this is how they solved it?]
[LOL, loyal 2D warriors are the easiest to be attracted and betrayed by 3D. Only the 2D-obsessed Xiao Chunan is the one most easily deceived by bad women.]
[Stop scolding, stop scolding, at least I'm thinner than Tonz!]
[Just give me the shoes you took off, don't worry, I don't plan to do anything strange.]
[Don't you mind the smell?]
[The smell is exactly what I want!]
[Ugh, foot fetishists have arrived.]
[Okabe really, with so many women around him, surely he hasn't even shaken hands with a girl by now, has he?]
[Too timid!]
The discussions in the bullet comments were very active, and the opening theme quickly came to an end.
— [The Paranoiac of Parallel Construction]
On the television, the report on the Radio Kaikan Building continued.
After zooming in on the screen, the one who hummed at the news was not Okabe Rintaro.
It was Amane Suzuha, who worked at the CRT store.
Her legs were crossed on a small round table, her feet wrapped in white long socks. In a not-so-elegant posture, Amane Suzuha raised the remote control in her hand and continuously switched channels.
The channels switched rapidly, and then the screen abruptly cut back to Makise Kurisu.
"The joints are undamaged, it's not a special effect," Makise Kurisu muttered to herself, trying to observe the gel-banana, which had returned to its original place, from different angles.
Okabe Rintaro, watching her from the side, whispered to Hashida Itaru next to him: "She might install a bomb or something, don't let your guard down."
"No way, right?" Hashida Itaru's retort was somewhat weak.
"Don't you have tweezers?" Makise Kurisu asked, extending her hand towards them.
"No!" Okabe Rintaro replied without hesitation.
Not only did he not have any, even if he did, he wouldn't give them to this woman!
"Is that so?" The moment she received a negative answer, Makise Kurisu unhesitatingly inserted her fingertip into the gel-banana, stating her observation: "The inside seems rotten. What about the smell?"
With that, she put her curiosity into practice.