Part 120: Shiina Mayuri solves a mystery

The time machine regains function thanks to Daru's skill. Mayuri and I help drain the on board water.



Daru looks over that satellite-looking machine with a satisfied expression. Mayuri is merrymaking. Kurisu rushed over here after completing the Time Leap Machine, with a relieved look on her face. Suzuha's forcibly attaching her beloved mountain bike to the satellite-like body. It seems that she really likes that bike, and intends to bring it with her to 1975. Kurisu was worried if that might cause a time paradox.

My heart's not clear. Should I let Suzuha leave like this?

That way of thinking is extremely conceited.



Suzuha finishes fastening her bike and smiles calmly. It's not her serious smile from yesterday.

No startup test is performed. Activating it would be too conspicuous, so we're just going to wing it. There's no need to worry, since we have the Time Leap Machine for insurance. If she has any regrets, it would be that we couldn't find her father.



"Don't forget about us!"

"If you want to thank me, then let's make out."

"Control yourself, pervert.

Everyone encourages Suzuha in their own way, and taps her on the shoulder.

"Oh right. Take this."



Her father's memento with the strange writing 'OSHM***A 7010'. In the end, we couldn't decipher that writing...

"Okabe Rintarou, I'll give this to you. You can just place it somewhere in that lab."

"You..."

So Suzuha has lingering attachment to this era after all... Does she want to leave it behind? Does she want to leave behind the proof that the girl named Amane Suzuha lived in this era?

"About the pin badge..."

Daru timidly opens his mouth.

"What do you say we make duplicates for all the lab mems? As the lab mem testament."

"Wah, that might be really good!"

"That's oddly thoughtful of you."

"Ahaha, somehow, if you use it like that, it kind of embarrasses me."

"Anyway, we already took a picture of it, so keep that badge, Amane. It's your old man's precious memento, right?"

"Yeah... I'll do that."

I don't say anything. I had detained Suzuha. But because of that, I couldn't save Mayuri. I...

"Hey, heeey! Dahdahdahda-h. Mayushii’s got an important announcement to make!"

Mayuri raises her hand, raising her voice in even higher spirits than before. I thought she was just being overly optimistic since she doesn't know about the time machine's one way limitation, but I'm interested in that important announcement. Just what is it?

Don't tell me, did Mayuri find out... her fate to die in a few hours? I quickly glance at Kurisu, but she seems just as confused as I am. So, that announcement...?



"Huh?"

"Eh?!"

"Seriously?"

Mayuri sticks out her chest in confidence.

"Wanna meet him? You wanna meet him, dontcha? So, with that said, her father's here with us today!"

"W-Where?"

Everyone besides Mayuri is stupidly looking about the dreary Raido Kaikan event space. Nobody's here besides us. Wait, is he hiding at the entrance?

"So now, allow me to introduce. Suzu's father..."
"Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..."

"Whoa, self drum roll?!"

"Tadidah! Suzu's father--"

Ending her oral drum roll, Mayuri grins at Suzuha, and...





She points at Daru with a snap. Everybody's mouths drop. After awkward silence comes laughter.

"That logic is unacceptable even as a joke. It's impossible for this pervert to get married in the first place."

"Hey, that's kind of hurtful, you know..."



"Be nicer, you guys. But it's the truth, so I can't object..."

Heartbroken, Daru finally collapses on all fours. Suzuha herself gives a troubled reaction.

"Mmm, my father wasn't this fat in the first place, you know?"

"Geez. You're all so mean to Daru."

"Uha, Mayushii's the only one to stand up for me. You're an angel, so will you fall in love with me?"

"Nope."



"You know, by Mayushii's reasoning, Daru absoluuutely must be Suzu's father!"

"So tell us. How can you prove it?"

"You know, I've always been thinking about the writing on the pin badge, and so, after staring at it, I noticed the 7 in the 7010 is a little bit weird."



"Eh, really?"

Suzuha stares at the pin badge's writing again.

"It's so small, I can't tell..."

"If you magnify the picture, you'll notice."



"Then what do the first letters mean?"

OSHM***A 7010. That's what's written on the pin badge.

"It's simple!"



"Wait..."

That was an unexpected blind spot since it was so simple.

"It's the lab mems' initials!

"So I was thinking about why 2010, when I realized it's the year of the lab mems."

I don't really get what the year of the lab mems is, though.

"The Future Gadget Laboratory was founded this year."

"So that's what this is..."



"There weren't any about you, either."

Daru's obvious question startles me.

"That's because Mayushii’s a lab mem, but she didn’t make a time machine, and she doesn't like fighting."

...That's not it. The reason there aren't any stories of Mayuri is because she dies in a few hours. Knowing that fact, Kurisu and I, as well as Suzuha, say nothing.

"But you know, Daru is a supah hakah, and Okarin's right hand man, and Okarin and Daru even made the Microwave Ophone together, so I thought it was strange he never came up."

"His name never came up... meaning he falsified his name, huh."

"The people who founded Suzu's Resistance included Okarin and Mr. Barrel Titor, right? And he was someone in Akiba in 2010. And he independently studied time machines. And Okabe's Reading Spaghetti--"

"Reading Steiner."

"And he knows about that thing. Doesn't that fit Daru perfectly?"

"Certainly."



"She thought if she went to the time machine offline meet, she could meet him, right?"

We understood that since we tailed her.

"By the way, Daru tried to go there too, right?"

"That was a seriously important offline meet for Japanese SF history... Well, it was lucky that we also got to tail Amane, though..."

I don't remember that time, because the world changed via D-mail. This is the curse of Reading Steiner. My memories before the change continue backwards, so conversely, I have no memories of past events after the world line changes.



"So, since we met at that meet, does that settle it?"

"Hmmm, I wonder. At that point, maybe I couldn't recognize Hashida Itaru as father."

But that increases the circumstantial evidence that Daru is her father.

"Also, the time machine's name. She said it was something like FG204 Something Something, umm, what was it?

"FG204 2nd Edition ver.2.31."



"And I think that FG definitely stands for Future Gadget!"



"Lastly, the name. I think Mr. Barrel Titor can be nobody else but Daru."

"That reminds me, last night, Mayuri asked me 'What's barrel in Japanese?'"

"Barrel is taru, isn't it? Cris?"

Kurisu nods.

"Taru... taru... Daru?!"

"A-A pun?!"

"So so, Suzu. Say 'Hashida Itaru' ten times fast!"

"Wh-Why?"

"You'll know if you say it! Ehehe."



"Just now, didn't you hear 'Ditor'?"

"I did."

(In Japanese:
Ha-Shi-Da-I-Ta-Ru
Ba-Re-Ru-Ta-I-Ta-A)

"Really...?"

"Yeah, really♪"

I-I can't believe it... With all this circumstantial evidence, I really can't just deny it. Everyone's jaw drops for a different reason this time, comparing Daru and Suzuha's looks.

""I think they really look like father and daughter♪"

"That might be the Placebo Effect. When you mention it, they do kinda look alike."

"Quite the achievement, Great Detective Shiina Mayuri."



This girl seems like she's airheaded, but maybe she's unexpectedly perceptive.

"Ah, augh... D-Daughter...? Amane is my daughter...?"

Daru squints his eyes and points at Suzuha while flapping his lips like a goldfish out of the tank.





"A, aa, at times like these, call me 'Papa.'"

"At times like these, stop being a pervert..."

"Father..."

Suzuha tries to hold back her tears, but can't. The tears fall from her eyes. Daru also looks at that crying face and becomes seriously quiet.

"I came... So I could meet you, father... I came riding on the time machine you made..."

"...Yeah."

"I'll be sure to accomplish what you tried to do, father..."

"...Yeah."

"So I want you to watch."

"I'll watch. I absolutely will."



Daru awkwardly, but firmly, catches her in his arms.

A strange father and daughter reunion, across time. I thought it was good, from the bottom of my heart.



"Ahaha. That's a secret."