Part 195: John Titor asks for Okabe's help

It was originally off limits, but the police strictly blockaded it due to the murder incident three weeks ago.

I slip past the yellow tape and open the door to the roof. The lock is broken.





...And unconsciously notice a satellite enshrined right in the center.

"No... way..."

I couldn't help but mutter so.

"Wahh, what's that?"

"...A robot, right? Wonder if it transforms and stuff."

Mayuri and Daru come up behind me and catch their breath.

What... is that? It looks familiar.



It certainly looks similar. Or at least, the shape does. But something feels a little different about it. The one Suzuha rode looked more tattered, but this one's brand spanking new. It's not sticking out of Radio Kaikan's wall, either.

I mean, Suzuha shouldn't have even come to 2010 in this β World Line. After all, SERN's dystopia is constructed in the α World Line's future, which is why Suzuha said to escape to the β World Line to prevent that.

The, where exactly did I see this satellite? I search my memories. I've seen the satellite un-crashed like this before. That was...



Right before the presentation started, the building shook like an earthquake struck, and when I went to the rooftop, I saw this satellite. Confused, I approached the satellite, and...

A lone person's shadow comes forth from the shade.

"Ah...!"



"Suzuha...!"

It really is Suzuha. She seems to give off a slightly different aura, but it's no doubt her.
The Braun Tube Workshop's part timer.
John Titor.
The time traveler from 2036.
Daru's daughter to be born 7 years from now.

"Why?! Why are you here?!"

I couldn't help but ask her the same question I just asked on the phone.

"Answer my question. Are you Okabe Rintarou?"

"Ah, yeah..."

The way she asks is as if we had never met before, and I can't help but say something's different about her by the way she's talking. In the first place, what's with all that worn-out camo? It doesn't look very clean, either... She even has a gun, for some reason, and it doesn't look like a model.

Could this chick really be Amane Suzuha?

"Hold on. Hold on just one second..."

I'm gonna get confused. Umm... let me get this straight... I say it over and over to convince myself. Suzuha shouldn't be here, because Suzuha leapt to 1975 in her one-way time machine, lived in Akiba as Hashida Suzu until 2000, and died.



"I'm a time traveler from the year 2036. I have a request for uncle Okarin."

U-Uncle Okarin...?!

"You're an uncle?!"

I don't have the composure to answer Mayuri's question. Suzuha approaches me with a serious look, and says something surprising.



"In order to prevent that, I need your help to change the past! I beg you!"

"Why... does it come to that... Why the hell does it come to that!"

"World War III? ...That's terrible. Terrible!"

"Nah, anyway, you seriously a time traveler? No trolling?"

"Shut up, dad."

"D-Dad...?!"
"What a surprise! A mysterious beautiful girl suddenly called me dad. At least call me Onii-chan instead."

"Wait! Waitwaitwait! Just wait!"

I need to get things straight... straighter, or else...

"Is that satellite-looking thing a time machine?"

Suzuha curtly nods. Her face shows not one hint of the cheerful smile I had remembered. Rather, it was gallant. And... cool-headed.

"Did your father make it?"

"Correct."

Suzuha glances at Daru.

"Just where did you come from?"

"From the year 2036. Via 1975 and 2000."

"Via...?"

Strange. Just strange. No matter how you look at her, she doesn't look like she's in her 40's at all. Which means...



"You couldn't call it a time machine otherwise."

No. This isn't the Suzuha I know. But, without a doubt, it's Suzuha.

"You came... from a different future...?"

"Different future...?"

"How are things in 2036? What about SERN's dystopia?"

"What is SERN...? Dystopia?"

Suzuha frowns with a troubled look. She doesn't know about SERN...? I knew it, she's a different Suzuha from the Suzuha I know.

"A while ago, you said World War III breaks out, right?"

"That's right. Thanks to that war, human population decreased to one billion."





"That's what happens when you use nuclear weapons. The war's structure was just lke the previous Cold War. The impetus was the time machine. The fire was sparked by development competition between the EU and Russia. When America butted in, things got even more out of control. Because it was the dream machine that could control the world - whoever obtained it could take possession of everything from past to present."

The time machine again, huh... It's the machine of dreams, and also the mechanical harbinger of death. I was painfully made aware of this fact these past three weeks.

"The war's over in 2036, but the earth is tattered. It's already a place unfit for human life."



In the future of the α World Line, SERN constructed a dystopia with the completion of its time machine. Opposition became futile, and humanity was stripped of all freedoms.

In this β World Line I arrived in, outside of that convergence range, SERN fails to complete its time machine. But instead, 5.7 billion people die in a world war.

"How could that happen..."

Strength drains from my knees. Suddenly, I collapse on the spot.

"Okarin, are you okay...?"

Mayuri rushes over to me, and gently rubs my back, but I'm too lost to even respond to her kindness. I glare at Suzuha, the nearest scapegoat.

"Why does it have to come to this...! You told me! That a peaceful future awaits in the β World Line...!"

Certainly, Mayuri was saved. She didn't die. And yet now, after all that work, Suzuha appears before us again, telling us to change the past.

"Now is a big turning point for the future, so--"



"Then don't you get it? At this rate, 5.7 billion people will die, you know?! When the war is over, you'll abandon is un a world with nothing left in it! I came here to change that cruel world. And to change the past, I need your help, uncle Okari--"

"I refuse!"

I tell her. Very clearly. Borrowing Mayuri's shoulder, I sluggishly rise, like I've been wounded. Like an abandoned puppy. I don't even care how Suzuha's staring at me.

"I came here... from the α World Line. I had to sacrifice the life of the girl most dear to me just to get here!"

I can't go back. I can't go back to the world line where Mayuri dies.

"I don't give a damn if 5.7 people die! I can't let her sacrifice... I can't let Kurisu's sacrifice be in vain...!"

One person.
5.7 billion people.
They just can't be compared.

Suzuha opens her eyes in terror at my words. Mayuri and Daru are clearly bewildered. After all, there's no way they'd understand what I'm talking about.

"So, uncle... basically, you mean you've been to another attractor field? Amazing. So that's the power of Reading Steiner, huh..."

"...Why do you know that name?"



'You met me...?"

"I see. So then, even in that other attractor field, I still came to 2010, huh..."

Suzuha's face gives a faintly wry smile, then immediately stiffens.

"...Uncle Okarin. You said you refuse, but--"

"Right. I won't let Kurisu's death be in vain. I won't let Mayuri die."

"Hmm...? Mayushii dies?"



"Listen, uncle. Let's say, hypothetically, okay? If I said what was necessary to change this world line's future, was to go to July 28, 2010, the day Makise Kurisu dies..."