Part 182: Okabe and Kurisu are beset by weather

I guess it's because everyone made the Völkerwanderung to Ariake for ComiMa. But when night falls, the returning ComiMa patrons will come marching in full force, and there will be more people than usual.

Leaving Daru aside, I guess Mayuri went to ComiMa. I would rather her not go. I want things to be as they usually are.



I guess she's been thinking about a lot of things in her own way.

Parting from Mayuri after I sent her all the way home, I kept looking for an answer to whether or not there was a third choice. All of the thoughts in my head float and vanish. My brain's a mess. I think too much, lose my grip on what's right and what's wrong, but there's no right or wrong choice in the first place. In the end, the last nagging question left is still "Who do I let die?". And, no matter how much I dance around it, the answer is the same.

I can't choose.

I want someone else to answer for me, but it's obvious that even if I entrusted it to someone else, I would just reject whichever choice they made.



If I stay in the lab now, it'll choke me up. When I think I'll bump into Mayuri or Kurisu, I can't calm down.

I look up to the sky, and it's covered with clouds. An evening shower could happen any minute now.

"...!"

I thought the rooftop was empty, but there's a previous visitor.



For a moment, the sight of Kurisu collapsed in a puddle of blood floats through my mind. no way, is she dead?!

I rush over to her, thinking that, and Kurisu abruptly gets up.





"You're alive...?"

After murmuring that, I think "Oh, crap" and quickly shut my trap. In any case, it doesn't look like she heard me. Kurisu doesn't particularly react; she just adjusts her disheveled hair with her hands. I breathe a silent sigh of relief.

"Oh right, I forgot about the possibility I'd meet you if I came here.

"What were you doing?"

"...thinking."

"Oh..."

About her own death...?

Unable to find my next line, I say no more. Kurisu seems the same way, looking at a capsule toy with her usual sour look. An awkward air drifts between us.

If you think about it, I myself am holding Kurisu's fate. My decision decides if Kurisu lives or dies. Yesterday's ridiculous fantasy theory was her way of forcibly constructing an "I don't die" theory. Even if that theory were true, she still might think about death in these circumstances, after all.

Getting uncomfortable staying here, I force a smile.

"It looks like I'm in your way, so I'll just go."

"...Ah, okay."



And then, something cold gently plops onto my nose. When I look up, raindrops keep falling on my head. It's finally raining. It's an evening shower, so it'll get intense soon.

Kurisu doesn't move. Instead, she folds her arms and hangs her head, as if she doesn't notice the rain falling at all.

"Hey, it's raining."

"Eh? Ah, mmm, yeah."

Kurisu's acting strange. Like she's there in body but not in spirit. So, what she's thinking about is...

"Wait, wahh?!"



(It seems like a plothole to me that this rainstorm didn't happen last time around the cycle. No way are Okabe's actions significant enough to change the weather.)

No time to seek shelter.

"What the hell is this!"

Kurisu's screaming voice seems to disappear in the roaring of the pouring rain.





"Don't underestimate evening showers."

We take shelter inside and catch our breath. It's been a week since the satellite - Suzuha's time machine disappeared, but Radio Kaikan is still closed, so the lights are off, making it fairly dark.

"Warn me sooner. Now even my underwear's wet."

"Same here. You got saved by the darkness, huh, Assistant?"

"What do you mean?"

"If Radio Kaikan were open, your current unladylike figure would be exposed to countless people."



(Stay classy, Steins;Gate.)

"Ugh, I forgot.. You were a pervert too..."

"You're the one who reported your underwear's wet status."

"J-Just stop talking! I won't forgive you if you're imagining what color my underwear is."

"I'm not imagining it."

How overly self-conscious. But, the color of her underwear, huh? Hmm... is it white after all?

"Ksh!"

"Are you cold?"

"'Then take your clothes off to try', huh? Don't screw with me. I won't fall for your pervert mind tricks--"

"Nobody said that! Calm down a little!"

"Mmm..."

"Well, even if you did take your clothes off, you don't have to worry. In this darkness, it's not like anyone can look at your thin nude figure--"



"S-Sorry."

Please spare me that horror...

But if we cut the wisecracks, all we can think of is serious business.

"If it's an evening shower, it'll end soon. Just wait it out, I guess."

In the darkness, Kurisu motions to sit on the stairs. I sit next to her.

"Hey, wait, why are you next to me--"

"..."

"W-Why...?"

"You're the one who said so, Cristina."

"Don't come so close... That distance is the limit. I won't tell you to move further away, though... if you get any closer, I'll push you away, okay..."

She gradually cools down. She starts shaking. Maybe it's best to strip down to underwear, but if I do that, Kurisu would just call me a pervert again. Self-restraint, huh...

My eyes gradually adjust to the darkness. They can start to grasp Kurisu's figure.



"...Don't look this way."

"No way?! How can you tell where I'm looking in this darkness?!"

Does she have infravision?!

"So you WERE looking, then."

Gah, Reflexive Response, huh. She used a high-level technique...

I look away from Kurisu and take off my coat, then I notice it's torn at the shoulder.

"Mm... Maybe it got caught on something when we came inside from the roof..."

"What? What're you talking about?"

"Nah, there's a tear on the shoulder of my coat."



"I have the attributes of a mad scientist, not the attributes of a clumsy girl."

It feels like it's been a long time since I've talked to Kurisu as Hououin Kyouma.

"Okay, okay."

And then I barely see Kurisu reaching her hand this way.

"Come on, let me see it."

"What...?"

"I happen to be carrying a sewing set, so I'll stitch it up for you."

"A sewing set? You?"

"Something wrong?"

I obediently hand over my coat, tilting my head.

"You're an experiment-loving girl, yet you have that sort of family-oriented thing?"

"I can be an experiment-loving girl and a family-oriented girl at the same time, can't I?"

"You're a family-oriented girl?"

"Relatively, maybe. Well, actually, I don't know the Family-oriented Girl Index among Japanese high school girls, though."

The hell is that index... I've never heard of it. Kurisu skillfully threads the needle in the darkness.

"It's hard to thread it since it's wet.

"...Did you really just happen to carry it?"

"Shut it. Is it really that wrong for me to carry a sewing set?"

"It's not wrong, it just seems like you did it on purpose."

"So basically you're trying to say I anticipated your clothes would tear, so I prepared beforehand. I get it.



"Don't get me wrong, but it's not like I'm sewing your clothes because I like you or anything, okay?"

"Oh look, a tsundere line."

"Don't mock me. You coincidentally happened to tear your clothes, and I coincidentally happened to have a sewing set, so I'm sewing it for you. That's all.

"Coincidence, huh... No way... you didn't time leap or anything, did you?"

"So basically you're trying to say I noticed your clothes tore, so I time leaped, preparing the sewing set beforehand. I get it."



"Certainly. If you time leaped on purpose, you wouldn't have brought a sewing set, but a towel."

"What's that, sarcasm? All you do is complain."

After moving her hands a bit, Kurisu cuts the string with her teeth, and hands my coat back.

"Here."

"Thanks."

"Ah, yeah... Well, it was dark, so I couldn't really tell, but... If it turns out bad, it's not my fault. It's because it's dark, probably."



"The color's random...?"

"Black, red, or pink. Probability's about a third each."

"Let's hope it's not pink at least."

"Ksh!"

"Cold?"

"I guess."

"Want to put on my coat?"

"But it's wet, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah, but..."

"..."

"..."

Silence again. Even though we talked wondrously when cracking jokes. After just one second of silence, we can't find another subject.

What happened yesterday makes it hard to talk after all. Taking that into consideration, I try thinking of something safe to talk about. I can't think of anything, so in the end, I stay quiet. That's how things are.