Part 107: The Time Leap Machine's limitations are discussed

"Upset?"

"...yeah."

Maybe it's because I alienated her right after she finished the Time Leap Machine. She was probably only relieved after she had time to fully consider its implications.

"I came from 5 hours later."

Kurisu stares at me with a piercing glare...

"You joking?"

Her narrowed eyes make me believe that looks could kill.

"D-Don't stare at me... This isn't what you said at all! 'If you say you came from the future, I'll probably believe you'? Like hell you did!"

"Haah? What's with that idiotic line?"

"You said it 5 hours later!"

"Don't make stuff up. I would never utter such logical fluff as 'probably'."

Gh, I'd like to have a word with five hour future Kurisu... If it's come to this, then all I can do is quote Kurisu word for word.

"When I told you I successfully time leaped, you said that 'Without a doubt, it meant that my theory wasn't wrong. I was happy it succeeded. I'm the one who improved the Microwave Ophone into the Time Leap Machine in the first place, aren't I?'"

"...I-I wouldn't say 'aren't I?' like that."

"What you want most right now is My Fork."



Kurisu's face suddenly turns red.

"It looks like you already have My Spoon."

"Sh-She even said that? Damn five hour future me..."

She's seriously worried. In any case, it looks like I got her to believe.

"It feels like someone peeked into my heart. And that someone is Okabe of all people."

What does this girl think of me?



I explain everything to Kurisu again. It's the second time, so I'm more organized than before.



There's still about five hours until Mayuri's death. We need to work out some sort of counter plan before then.

"Five hour future me said the chronology protection conjecture holds, but I think it's slightly different. That conjecture denies the possibility of time travel from quantum theory because of the danger of disrupting the law of cause and effect. But in the case of time leaping, no time paradoxes occur in the first place."

Two of me don't exist at the same time. I cant bring anything with me to the past, either. The only change is the memories stored in my temporal lobe. At the very least, time leaping can't cause a Grandfather Paradox.

"It's the will of the world after all. It's as if the universe itself is censoring me, correcting any changes I try to make."

"Then that means time leaping can't save Mayuri. Anything you do will be fixed."

"...I can't accept that."



"What about the many worlds interpretation? It's settled if I observe the possibility that Mayuri doesn't die."

"The many worlds interpretation, huh... It might be related to how Mayuri's means of death keeps changing... but mutual observation of superpositioned possible worlds is impossible. How can you observe them?

"That's because my special ability, Reading Steiner--"

"This guy's hopeless. If I don't do something soon..."

"...there's no other explanation."

"A special ability...? Are you serious, by any chance?"

"I'm not trying to screw with you."

My 'eye' can clearly percieve the world's reorganization. The D-mail experiments so far have made that clear.

"I don't know anything about special abilities, but I wouldn't rely on such an indefinite thing like that. Anyway, you can't control which possibilities you observe, so I don't know if the many worlds interpretation holds or not. It's unreasonable to expect to arrive at the possibility where Mayuri doesn't die."

"Wait. The conversation's not going to go anywhere like this. We're good on the interpretation talk, so we should think about what it is we can do."

"Time leaping won't change the result. I already said so."

"Then what should we do?!"

"Calm down."

"Like hell I can calm down! Just how many times do you think I've had to see Mayuri die?! Her tragic bloodshed, her final breaths... I've seen them with my own eyes, over and over... and over... I couldn't do anything... but watch...!"

I grind my teeth. When I remember those scenes, I'm driven by the frustration to blame everything around me.

"You won't solve anything if you give in to your emotions."

"You're only this calm because it doesn't concern you, aren't you?!"

"True. I don't know what happens five hours from now. Honestly speaking, it doesn't feel real."



"Okabe, you gotta hang in there."

Kurisu's warm hand touches my arm. She gently pats it. How American.

"...Sorry."

Becoming emotional certainly is meaningless. I need to calm down like Kurisu said. Calm down...

"What I don't understand is how the cause changes, yet the result is always the same. All I can think is that cause and effect are warped."

"Maybe the cause of Mayuri's death isn't getting shot by Kiryuu Moeka, but something more macro. Maybe 'because we made a time machine', or possibly 'because SERN found out we hacked them'. As a result, Mayuri dies. If you think like that, cause and effect aren't warped."

"Can that explain how she got run over when Nae pushed her onto the train tracks?"

"Ah, I see... hmm... but the law of cause and effect is absolute. Deny that, and you deny all of physics. So, there must be a cause for Mayuri's certain death."

"If we find out that cause, then maybe we can do something..."

"Not really."

"What do you mean?"



If it happened a long time ago, then we can't deal with it."

"We have the Time Leap Machine, so I can go back to whenever I had my cell phone, right?!"



48 hours... so two days?!

"Why are you saying that just now..."

"Just now? I only completed the Time Leap Machine just now, right?"

That's true.

"Five hour future you didn't say that, either."

"Aah, I see... Maybe she couldn't find the time to say it."

"So, why can I only leap 48 hours?"

"I don't know. It's not like I made the machine with a full understanding of its theory and structure. You can do consecutive leaps. As long as the Time Leap Machine exists, that is. For example, if the Time Leap Machine doesn't break for ten years, then you could go back those ten years. By simple calculation, it would take 1825 time leaps, so there's quite a big risk, but it's theoretically possible."

"Then what's the problem--"

"A big one. Didn't I say so? As long as the Time Leap Machine exists."



"...Ah."

"That's right. Just an hour ago. August 13, 2010, at about 2PM. It didn't exist before then. It's impossible to use the machine before 2 today."

"So, basically, I can go back to August 11th at 2 o'clock at the furthest?!"

Kurisu nods with a serious look.

"Perhaps."

"You can't improve it?!"

"In the future, perhaps, but it's impossible in this situation. If we had more precise equipment, used lots of money, and better parts, then we might be able to manage. Even if we did all that, I think SERN would still crush us. Neither the future you nor me have time leaped here yet, so it's end of proof, I guess."

So basically...

"In the end, we can't even do anything?! Even though we have the Time Leap Machine, we still can't avoid the fate of SERN killing Mayuri in five hours?!"