Part 103: Kiryuu Moeka is roped into a heart to heart

After going back six hours, I grab my head and bite my lip. I feel like I've hit a dead end.

I can't save Mayuri. How should I save her? Running away might be impossible.



"Whatcha talking about?"

Mayuri just stares blankly.



I ask them to protect her and tell several policemen the circumstances. I desperately explain that Mayuri's going to be killed in a few hours, but they turn us away with the explanation that 'the police can't act without hard evidence that a stalker will cause damages'. Six hours pass since we left the police station, and in the end, we're left with no choices but to keep running.

It would be great if everything was just a series of unfortunate events. Then we could have second tries at charging Shin-Ochanomizu Station or Shinagawa... but I don't have the courage to walk about the streets of Akiba now. At the end of the day, the number of paths we can take are reduced.

I'm afraid to ride subways and taxis. If we ride those, or rather, try to ride them, Mayuri will die... That image sticks to my mind.

What am I doing? In these past dozens of hours, I've seen Mayuri die several times. I don't want to see Mayuri's pitiful figure anymore.



I thought we could keep hiding there, but after seven hours, the explosion happens in front of the station. Yodobashi goes into chaos. Several policemen appear to start evacuation. Anyone who doesn't comply is mistaken for a terrorist and shot.

Impossible. This isn't America. It's not normal for Japan's police to shoot guns without any warning shots.

Mayuri died. She got hit by a policeman's bullet. It doesn't matter if they were real policemen or disguised SERN assassins. I was convinced.

The world itself is killing Mayuri.









I've tried to evade Mayuri's death over and over, yet it always ends in the worst possible way, and the fate of Mayuri's death is gradually twisting.

Fate. Basically, cause and effect. What is the cause of Mayuri's death?



But when I kept time leaping to try to evade Mayuri's death, that cause became twisted.



That clearly wasn't related to SERN. It was an accident.

The person who kills Mayuri changes. At first it was Moeka, but eventually, other people besides Moeka ended up killing her. Just what does that mean?

No matter how much I think, I can't come up with an answer. I wanted someone to tell me, but it's not like anyone can, because I'm the only person in the history of mankind to overcome the barrier of time.



But I don't have a way to contact him. He won't reply even if I send him mail, and he disappeared from @channel. I'm not even fully convinced he's a real time traveler in the first place.





Instead, I take a different approach. If running away's no good, then let's do things here. I send Moeka a mail saying "There's something important about the time machine we need to talk about, so I want us to meet alone."



The blockaded Raido Kaikan. Where the satellite is still lodged. It's already been two weeks since it crashed. The police aren't securing it anymore.

It's crowded, but I easily sneak in. The shutters were partly open, and I put on a face that said "I'm an official" as I came in.

I came here before for Doctor Nakabachi's presentation. Wait, in this world line, Nakabachi's presentation was canceled. Obviously, nobody's here except me.



Moeka might have a gun, but I have no intention of going easy on her.

The meeting time is 5:30. There's still more than 20 minutes left. I came here early to perform an ambush. I've been hiding here for 30 minutes already, quietly in bated breath.

I hear the door open.



She looks around restlessly. She still hasn't noticed me.

I take my gun out of my shirt. It's not real. It's Future Gadget No.1: Bit Particle Gun. It's called a "gun", but it just looks like a toy ray gun. We hacked a TV remote into it. Of course, its lethality is zero. It's obviously a bluff, but this is all I could prepare on short notice.

I rush to Moeka's back. I thrust the Bit Particle Gun into her back.

"Don't move."



"Raise your arms."

Just like a Hollywood movie... but the tension is unusual. This isn't a movie. She's not an actress. This is reality. She's a murderer.

After Moeka silently raises her hands, I grope her clothes. Sure enough, she was hiding a gun. I take it away and exchange it with Bit Particle Gun.

"How unfortunate. That first gun was a toy."

"..."

"I want to hear your story. I know you're SERN's assassin."

"...how?"

"You want to know? You fucking want to know...?!"

I boil over with frustration and rage.
Because of her...
Because of her, Mayuri...!

"I came from the future in the time machine...!"

"..."

"You think I'm kidding? I've already repeated this same time four or five times over."



It feels like I've looped dozens of hours. I haven't slept at all that entire time. Strangely, I'm not sleepy at all.

"That's why I know what you guys are going to do. Past 7, the trains stop. Because of a bomb threat."

Moeka loses her breath. So it was their doing after all.

"I also know that today, you and your friends will attack the lab, and also that you kill Mayuri there...!"

"I..."

"Understand? I'm a Time Leaper."

Moeka nods faintly.



First I need to get her to talk.

"What are you guys to SERN?"



Moeka answers with surprising obedience. She easily steals other people's lives, but values her own.

"Rounders? Just what kind of organization is that? How is it related to SERN?"

"...by mail."

"No. Explain verbally."

"...The Rounders... are a seaparate organization from SERN. We don't come out publically. Thats how we operate."

"A secret mercenary force?"

"...No."



"In order to gather information on them and retrieve them, we spread across the globe. We collect them.

IBN 5100... Now that she mentions it, she always has been obsessed with that retro PC. Furthermore, SERN's database uses those IBN 5100s. That computer has a premium attached to it. It's difficult to obtain.

Is it because guys have a worldwide monopoly on them?

"What's the scale of the Rounders?"

"..."

"Answer me!"

"I don't know... because I'm peripheral."

So she's only a peripheral member, then...

"So you were the one who stole my IBN 5100 after all?"

Moeka doesn't answer.

"Why information on the IBN 5100? Anti-hacking measures?"

"Preservation of confidentiality. It's the highest priority... for SERN."

"Just what are they hiding? Even by hacking with a normal PC, we could see that they killed hundreds of human test subjects in their time travel experiments. You mean their IBN 5100 database has even more classified information?!"

"I don't know..."

"Because you're peripheral?"



Damn. Useless bitch.

"Why did you attack the lab? No, for you, it's 'Why WILL you attack the lab?'"

"...you should know."

"...Because we hacked into SERN?"

"Three reasons. First: Because you knew. All of you. Something you shouldn't know."

So they did find out about the hacking...

"And the time machine... that you guys made."

They want to steal that, huh... it seems SERN wants a monopoly on time travel technology to the very end.

"The decisive reason:"



Why does she know that much... We decided that right after the Time Leap Machine was completed. Basically, three hours ago.

"That's why, all members, to be restrained..."

"Restrained? You killed Mayuri!"

"She is unnecessary."

I flip out at that word. I nearly pulled the trigger.

"The ones who made the time machine are you, Makise, and Hashida. It doesn't matter if we kill her. That's what I was told."

"What do you plan to do after restraining us?"

"Confine you in SERN's facilities, and force you to research time machines..."

"So you're doing that to crush all of SERN's time machine research competition?"

"...I was just ordered to retrieve."

"It was a mistake to consider you a friend for even a second."

"...For SERN. Everything."



"...I'll do anything. If FB tells me to."

FB... Is that her superior's name?

"Okabe.... are you... John Titor?"

"What?"

John Titor?



Me?

"How absurd."

I press the gun into Moeka's back more strongly.

"More importantly, if you don't feel like dying, call off your friends and that FB guy. Cancel the lab attack."

Moeka shakes her head left and right.

"I don't have the authority."

"Like I give a shit. Just do something, authority or not. Or else... I'll kill you."

I can't kill. I'm not a murderer. Honestly, my hands are trembling, just like Moeka's did when she attacked the lab.

"Why... did you kill..."

Even though her hands were trembling back then. Even though murder is a dreadful thing. Right now, when I said "I'll kill you," the trembling got even stronger.

"You didn't want to do that either, did you? So why..."

"I... just obey... FB."

"Then just bring that FB bastard here."

Moeka shakes her head again.

"Just tell me his circumstances or else..."

"...that's impossible. Meeting with FB..."