Part 170: A D-mail does not have the intended effect

The same place Rukako hid the IBN 5100 in the previous world line? Is this also due to convergence...? If I go there, can I get the IBN 5100?

No, I don't expect it to still be there. Just like what happened with Rukako. The visible force of cause and effect's convergence pulls the IBN 5100 away from me. In order to get it back, I need to cancel Moeka's D-mail.

I know the contents. I've already reached my goal.

"Uhh... uuhh..."



I take a deep breath and move out from over Moeka. I stretch out my stressed body and lean my back against the wall. I take Moeka's phone out of my pocket.

"I'm gonna use your phone."

Moeka slowly gets up. She wipes her tears and fixes her hair and clothes. Since her wavy hair covers her face from the side, I can't peek at her expression. No reaction to my words. Even though I freed her, she doesn't attack me to retrieve her phone.



I'm looking for the aforementioned D-mail among the sea of mails left in the history. After three minutes, I finally find it. Three mails sent from Moeka's own phone, each only 12 characters long. Send date: August 4, 2 PM. Received date: July 31, 10 AM.



So Moeka quickly replaced the contents of the D-mail after all. All I have to do now is cancel that email.



"You at the lab?"

"Haah... don't worry me like that... idiot..."

"Oh, so you were worried."

"...I mean, no matter how you look at it, you set off a death flag. I'm surprised you're safe!"

"Where are you now?"

"I'm on standby at the lab."

"Gonna send another D-mail. I'll leave the setup to you."

"Timer setting?"

"...Set it to around 11 o'clock on the 31st."

"Ohhkay, 11 o'clock on the 31st, so..."



I enter the address of the Microwave Ophone (Temp).

"OK, all set."

"Alright, activate it."

"Activated."

I press the send button.



Reading Steiner should activate this time for sure. I hold my breath, waiting to be hit with vertigo.

"...How'd it go?"



"Another mistake?"

"No, there's no way...! I checked the contents of Moeka's D-mail. I sent a mail to cancel it."

I grind my teeth. Why didn't this work either? Just what's wrong?

"What was the first D-mail about?"

"About how the IBN 5100 was at Yanagibayashi Shrine. This mail was supposed to cancel that by calling it a trap, but... I'll try again, with different wording--"

"Wait. We verified the difficulties of D-mailing with the LOTO 6 experiment, right?"

The LOTO 6 experiment...



"The person who reads the D-mail chooses whether or not to act according to it. Kiryuu learned the IBN 5100 was at the shrine. Though the cancellation mail came right afterward, I guess she ignored it and went anyway."

"Maybe she didn't believe the cancellation mail, or maybe she was so diligent she decided to check it out even though it was cancelled."

I peek at what Moeka's doing. She's still hanging her head in tears. My voice isn't reaching her, is it?

"Annoying, huh. Even when she's told it's risky to go check out the shrine, she doesn't listen."

"We have no choice but to use more compelling words. Enough to prohibit going to the shrine."

"How?"

Yeah, that's the problem. Is it possible to coerce her with just 36 bytes? Or should we think of ways other than mailing Moeka?



"Were you even interested in the IBN 5100 on that day?"

Just when did I start seriously searching for the IBN 5100? I can't really remember...

So, another way to force Moeka to listen... Right then, an electric shock runs through my self-proclaimed gray brain cells. Two letters run through my mind.



"Eh? What?"

"Moeka's superior. Her object of dependence. If FB mailed her, she should believe unconditionally..."

"Do you have that FB person's cellphone?"

"No. They haven't even met. We don't know where she is."

"Out of the question."

"...Give me a little time."

"Making me wait again? Well, I always stop by the lab, so whatever. Don't overdo it, okay?"



The will of the world really does like to screw with me.

FB's identity.
FB's location.
Unless I find those, I can't break out of this world line...

I call out to Moeka, and when she finally raises her head, I drop her phone onto her lap. Moeka takes it with a bewildered face.

"Looks like we're searching for FB now."

Though gripping her phone, Moeka doesn't look at the screen. I take a deep breath. I need to get as much information on FB out of her as I can.

"How exactly did you become a Rounder?"

Honestly speaking, I couldn't care less. I've been forced to talk about society with the detestable woman who killed Mayuri countless times.

Moeka hugs her phone to her chest, picks up her glasses that had fallen into the corner of the room, and finally puts them back on.





Her voice is a murmur, a powerless whisper. Moeka answers my question not by mail, but directly by mouth.

"I didn't have... a single hope. I hated anything and everything."

"The cause?"

"...nothing especially..."

Her expression is devoid of all life. Very blank, very deranged, like always. But the eyes behind her glasses are deep red. That's what happens when you cry that much. The only remaining vestige of emotion is in those eyes.

"But small things... many small things... piled up. I was like this... from the start."

"Your family?"

Moeka shakes her head a little. So, she has none, then. I didn't even think to ask if she was born that way, or if it happened along the way.

"Locked up in my room... I overdosed on sleeping pills. But I failed to die... that's when I got a mail."



...Almost like spam. Do the Rounders really recruit that recklessly?

"I became inconsequential... That's why... I replied before I noticed. And then... I got... contacted. By FB. Ever since then... I followed... FB's orders."

"Were you always here in Akiba?"

Moeka faintly shakes her head.

"Until three months ago... I was in Nagoya. Before that... Yokohama. Before that..."

The Rounders' chief duty was to search for IBN 5100's, so that means she's been moving around gathering information buried all around Japan about the Retro PC, huh.

"How many IBN 5100s have you found so far?"

Moeka faintly shakes her head left and right.



Zero results, huh. So the Rounders are inefficient at their work. I silently sigh once more.

"...What do you plan to do after this? Are you going to fall into despair and kill yourself, just as planned? Don't you want to rebel?"

"Rebel?"

It should be impossible to rebel. Those are my innermost thoughts as I ask myself. Moeka's death has already been recognized by the world. Meaning it'll be the same as with Mayuri: She will die even if she tries to avoid it. But even so, I ask.

"FB used you and abandoned you. Deal with it. So after all that, what do you think about FB?"

Moeka looks down.

"Even... if I was used."



"That was the first time, in my entire life, that I... was needed... FB gave me a place... where I belong. If it's to protect that place... If it's to protect FB, the one who gave me a reason to be, then... I'd do... anything..."

"You are a helpless fool."

I stand up as I say so.

"Then keep your dependence and die. Your death has been decided. But I won't let the world have its way. That's why I'm leading a one-man rebellion."

That's right. I will definitely save Mayuri.