Part 177: Okabe Rintarou obtains a rare item

"Ha, hahaha..."

Dry laughter unintentionally passes from my lips. She's also an outsider to cause and effect.

I think over the questions I asked her again. What sort of life will Nae lead after killing Moeka? The first time she lived those fifteen years, all she had was revenge. After time leaping thousands of times, she completed her revenge. How will she live those fifteen years the second time? Will she kill me again? Will her revenge be complete after thirty years? How sad is that?

Maybe traveling back in time brings nothing but tragedy. We made a time machine out of curiosity, but we shouldn't have made it. Then SERN wouldn't have targeted us. Mayuri wouldn't have been killed. Suzuha wouldn't have needed to time travel to 1975. Faris wouldn't have had to experience her father's death twice. Rukako would be a girl without any mental torment. Moeka wouldn't have killed Mayuri.

"Okabe!"



Her face goes pale once she sees my wounded arm.

"How'd you get that wound?! Are you okay?!"

I peek at her worried face as she kneels in front of me.

"The phone...?"

"I brought it, but..."

What Kurisu presents to me certainly is FB's phone. I take it and begin typing the mail with my left hand.

"Hey, explain yourself! How'd you get that wound?! Should I call an ambulance?!"

"Calm down... I'm sending the D-mail now..."

"Ah, I see. If the world line changes, the this wound will go away... huh..."

It should go away, but my wound doesn't matter. More importantly, when the world line changes, FB - Manager's death, Nae's vengeful heart, and Moeka's death will all be undone. That's more important.



"Hey, why didn't Manager... kill Moeka...?"

"What do you mean?"

Any member who has found an IBN 5100 has done their duty, and is silenced. Any member, without exception. Manager certainly did say that. In that case, the one who should've been disposed of is Moeka, the one who found the IBN 5100 in the first place. And yet, Manager cut contact with Moeka. When we made sure of Manager's true identity, he killed himself without killing Moeka.

"...I've been thinking. Manager saved Moeka after all."

It's just my convenient way of thinking. Maybe I just wanted to feel satisfied convincing myself that was true.

At any rate, Nae will kill Moeka with her own hands in just a few hours, so even if Manager thought that way, it was meaningless. But...

"It would be nice if that's how it is in the β World Line."

They are the enemy.

They are the ones I should hate for killing Mayuri.

But in some sense, Manager, and Moeka, and Nae too...



I wish that at least, in my goal, the β World Line, they can all live proper lives.

That's why I have to send this D-mail.

"I'm sorry, Nae..."

When I send this D-mail, this world line will be undone...

"I won't let you exact your revenge..."



Video: D-mail sent







Eventually, that sensation rectifies itself, the color returns, and I find out I'm standing in the street near the lab. The burning pain in my right arm suddenly softens. The open wound, and the flowing blood, disappear completely. In its place, I'm holding a convenience store bag witih two bottes of Dr Pepper for some reason. Probably because everything has been undone.

I head straight for Moeka's apartment.



Her complexion doesn't seem bad. It doesn't look like she's in despair that FB abandoned her. There's no bloodstain near the door, and no fallen knife either.

No, Moeka's time of murder should certainly be past 10.

"Okabe... Just how did you find..."

"Let me kill some time!"

I say so and force my way in.



Nae didn't appear in the end. The world line changed after all.






It feels like it's been forever since she's sent so many mails.

"Unnecessary? Who said?"






"FB told you to stop..."






So FB is alive. I feel relief, and at the same time, impending doom. Obviously, since the defeated enemy revived. But there's no point in telling Moeka anything more.

Did FB put a stop to the Rounders' duty of IBN retrieval?



I play back the man's last words in my head. He put a stop to it so that she wouldn't be disposed. If that's the truth, then maybe he really did it to save Moeka after all.



I wonder what happens with Nae. I can't get that innocent yet hateful voice out of my head. In that world line, I sparked the flames of homicidal revenge in such a young little girl.

I bite my lip hard. I'm not afraid of you. I won't repent, either. Because that world line has already been undone. Because vengeful obsession should've disappeared from your heart. Moeka hasn't died, which means that I've confirmed the world line has changed, and if things go as expected, the IBN 5100 should have already come back to me. So, there's no need to stay in this world line any more.



On the other side of the glass, I can see the light from the 42" Braun Tube TV. FB - Manager is seemingly free, reading a sports newspaper.

FB is alive after all, which means that his daughter, Nae, no longer has a reason to hate.



"Have you been to Kiryuu Moeka's apartment?"

"...huh?"

Kurisu twists her neck while browsing @channel on the computer.

"Moeka's apartment? Me? I haven't gone there."

"Oh, okay."

"Why do you ask?"

"No, if you haven't gone, that's fine."





The time leap machine sits in the middle of the room. When I take a sidelong glance at the shelves...

"It's there..."

A large, familiar cardboard box. I wasn't wrong after all.