Part 140: Okabe Rintarou discovers the nature of Faris's D-mail

Faris nods.

"And how Kyouma and Daru talked about the time machine at the store, and how I asked to use it in return for searching for the IBN 5100, and how later, Kyouma and Daru-nyan won the argument about how comparing time to a river's flow was weird, and how we joined in the blood oath so I could become a lab mem..."

It does feel like those things happened...

"And the D-mail? Do you remember the D-mail's contents?"

"..."

Faris lets out a sigh. She droops her shoulders as if that excitement were a lie. Don't tell me that's all she remembers? Or was she really tricking me?

Both were wrong.



"Correct. I need to correct the pass changed by your D-mail--"

"You can't nya!"

Faris violently shakes her head, then she sticks to me. The two of us, alone in a dim ingredient storehouse. Our breath hadn't returned to normal, maybe because we had been running. Relief that we had hid ourselves from the enemy.

Or perhaps both, perhaps neither, but Faris just sticking to me is enough to intensely excite me. Gh, calm down...!

"You can't return it to normal nya..."

"Please listen, Faris! Mayuri's life depends on this!"

"Eh... Mayushii's...?"

"If we don't return the world line to normal, if I don't get the IBN 5100, then Mayuri will die... That might sound stupid, but that is the truth... So please... I need to send another D-mail and cancel the last one you--"

"The wish Faris granted with her D-mail..."

As if to erase my voice, Faris repeats her words. Her eyes are faintly clouded, reflecting the dim light.

"What Faris granted..."



What...?

"More simply put... it changed the past where papa died so he wouldn't die nyan."

You mean that gentle, dandy dad... died ten years ago...?

That's consistent with everything. Faris really remembered after all. Since I know the result, all I have to do now is sent the cancellation D-mail.

But my words won't come out. Does cancelling the D-mail that avoided her dad's death ten years ago basically mean the same thing as killing her revived father again?

"?!"





"Is Faris really hiding in here?"
"Someone saw two people who looked like them get in here."

Crap. Don't tell me we were seen! We need to do something here. If they call their friends, it's curtains for us.





(Incoming call is from Assistant. I can answer or not answer the call here, but I'll get caught either way.)

The Viral men react to the ringtone. I press the call end button and push the phone into my pocket, but it's too late. They already heard it.

"Hey, we found you!"
"Hehhehhe! You can't escape!"

With brass knuckles in hand, he starts grinning, baring his canines. We're suddenly driven to the wall. Dammit! Is this it?!

The moment I start giving up...



Faris yells as she points out the window.

"Wh-What?! 4ºC?!"

Faris recklessly rushes the bewildered men... or so I thought, but she slips through them. I follow. We run down the stairs, almost tumbling.





But...

"You're not getting away!"
"We have you surrounded!"

Crap. We headed for the lab, but got ambushed.



Soon Faris and I are surrounded by the group with the fires of hatred burning in their eyes.

"Yo, not letting you run anymore."



"I'll tell you one thing. You bastards can't escape my totally bad black aura."

I quickly protect Faris behind my back. 4ºC pops the knuckles in his fists, showing his white teeth.

"I always act against the system. This time, my elegant evil story ends in perfect victory."

"Stop. Don't lay a finger on me."

The only thing I can do to stop faltering is to go into Hououin Kyouma mode.



"Always standing at the front line of the scene is one man. That one man is the peacock, flapping its black wings."

"Gh, gwaaaaaah, calm down, right arm of mine...! No, the seal is... coming undone! Everyone, run away now...! Or you will all seriously die...!"

"I'll elegantly floor you with my crazy dance. The one chosen by the jet black wings is I."

"No... my right hand... my right haaaaand... Please stop, I don't want to kill any mooore..."

"Hey, what the hell is he doing...?"

A sound rings through the top of my head. I've been struck...

"4ºC, don't let him trick you! He's just a pretentious hipster bullshitter!"

"Yeah, like you guys can talk."

"Whatever, just beat the shit outta him!"

"If you say so... prepare yourselves! Releasing restriction si--"



"Gweh..."

"Kyouma!"

He grabs the top of my head and knees me repeatedly. He releases my hair from his violent grasp. I fall to the ground and start coughing.



4ºCs relentless final blow.

"Pff, what did I say? You can't touch this. Extremely cold ice burns--"

"Like I said, that's not a burn, it's frostbite, you dumbass--"

"Why you!"

A hard sole strikes my entire body.

"Kyoumaaa!"

My body seems like nothing but a sensory organ for pain. I abandon all thought and just wish for the storm to pass.

"Stop it nya! Don't hurt Kyouma any more!"

"Shut up. Don't order me around. I only listen to the whispers of Gaia!"

4ºC takes my thumb in both his hands, twisting it in the opposite direction...

"Stop it! Someone, help!"

A sound

resounds.

A thick exhaust note. The honking of a horn.



Everyone screams and scatters to the sides of the road to avoid it. The smell of burnt rubber. Tire tracks o the asphalt. A limousine breaks down the siege. It suddenly stops right in front of my fallen face.

The backseat door opens.



"P-Papa!"

But I can't even stand up. There's no strength in my entire body. My vision is hazy, too.

And then a slender arm wraps underneath my armpit. The soft scent of tachibana tickles my nose.

"Kyouma, hang in there nya!"

I roll into the limousine, borrowing Faris's shoulder.

"D-Dammit! Wait!"

The door shuts, interrupting his shouting. The car speeds off like a bullet.





My head is resting on Faris's lap, inside the limousine. Heat, rather than pain. My body is hot here and there, and yet my bones shiver as if they're twisting. There's also a terrible ringing in my ears. The urge to vomit settled earlier, though. They really wrecked me...

According to Faris's dad, after hearing news that Faris had won the RaiNet AB Grand Championship, he was rushing to UPX from his workplace when he came across that scene. What a coincidence. Is this also Steins;Gate's choice?



"P-Protecting, nah..."

I had become inadvertently admirable. If I could, I would prostrate myself.

"I couldn't do anything. I was completely pathetic..."



He firmly shakes my hand.

"Oh, papa... You have important work to do, so I even told you not to overdo yourself, nyan."

Faris says that while looking happy. But... I recall the words Faris had said before.





In that case, to return to the original world line, I have to get rid of the dad in front of me right now.



"I decided to, long ago."

"Papa... thank you nya."

The limousine dashes into the night, eventually reaching Faris's home.