Part 59: The number of lab mems increases by one

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if Ruka's sex seriously changes."

"That's Rukako's wish, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah, but... If his sex does change, won't the history of the 16 years Ruka lived change, too? That's what I mean. Who's gonna take responsibility for that?"

"That's..."



Rukako raises his hand timidly.

"Seriously?"

"Well, I don't really understand... but if we use this method, I might become a girl, right...? Then, I want... to try. Please, Master."

He bows his head.

"Mayuri, your opinions?"

"Hmmm, if Ruka-kun becomes a girl, then next time I've gotta call her Ruka-chan, right? Will Ruka-chan wear Mayushii's costumes?"

"Eh, well, that's another story..."

At any rate, it doesn't look like Mayuri's got any particular objections.



"Eh...?

"The Microwave Ophone (Temp) is our lab's most important secret matter. In order to use it, you must become a lab mem."

"Ah, yes. Um, I actually... always wanted to be a member of this lab..."

"Really? You should've just said so!"

"I didn't have the courage to say it... I said it before, but I don't understand a thing about engineering..."

"You don't have to worry about those things. I mean, Mayuri doesn't get them at all, either."

That's not something to be so proud of, Mayuri...

"So, Rukako will be a lab mem from this point forth. Does anyone have an objection?"

"Heeere."

Kurisu raises her hand.



"Denied. Anyone else?"

Mayuri and Daru said "Why 006 and not 005?" but I completely ignored them. Moeka will always be 005 in my heart. No other opinions emerged, so all members are in favor.

"Now then, Rukako will become lab mem number 006. Henceforth, pledge your allegiance to the lab, and devote all your strength to the lab's developments."

"Y-Yes! I'm so happy..."

"Now, with that said, let's begin the experiment immedia--"

No, wait. I suddenly notice something and get instinctively worried.



"Eh, yes..."

"So you were born in 1993..."

"The same year as Mayushii! What about it?"

In order to tell Rukako's mother to eat lots of vegetables, we need to send a D-mail to ten months before Rukako's born, which means we have to send it to 1992.

"When did cellphones become widespread in Japan?"

"Ah..."

Looks like Kurisu and Daru realized it. Daru immediately tries googling it--



"So basically, the year Rukako was born, cellphones hadn't become popularized. Rukako may not have had one. In that case, she might not have the means of receiving the mail!"

"Ah, I seeee."

"Eh...? We can't do it...?"

I fold my arms in thought while watching Rukako's face darken. The means of receiving the mail... An era where cellular telephones hadn't become widespread... hmmmm...

"In that case, we could remodel it to send radio waves or something."

"What do you mean, radio waves?"

"Only some dangerous people can receive them. Radio waves, or should I say noise? You see it a lot in the spring."

"The only noise is in your head, right?"

"It's fine! It's OK to abuse me more!"

"Then then, couldn't you put a letter in a time capsule and bury it?"

"That would go to the future, not the past."

"I see..."



"There's no point to the experiment if we don't use a D-mail. Don't get derailed."

"Then, Mayushii's expecting a nice idea from Cris."

"M-Me? I... That's right, we develop a rocket which exceeds the speed of light squared, then that immense speed would reverse the flow of time, or something..."

"Even you're forgettin about the Microwave Ophone, aren't you?"

"Furthermore, you genius bitch, you just contradicted the Theory of Relativity."

"It was just a joke. Don't take it seriously."

"Geez, we can't use any of these things!"

"Then, oh self-proclaimed insane mad scientist with gray brain cells of 170 IQ, Hououin, tell us your genius plan.

"Hmm... the corners of my brain are flashing."

"Flashing of the spirit".



"I got it."

I silently mutter. All glances focus on me. I grin broadly.

"If there are no cellphones, then we just need to send it to a pager, right?"





"H-Hello..."

Ruka shyly visits the lab the same way he did yesterday. When our eyes meet, he gives me a bashful smile.



"Wah, that's great, Ruka!"

"Now we can move along."

"Ruka's girl version... will definitely be moe."

Mayuri, Kurisu and Daru are already on standby.



Yesterday, we argued whether or not that's possible, and eventually settled that it'll probably be okay. We're still just sending data. The rest depends on pager radio wave stations 18 years ago, but it should be fine as long as our data gets through safely.

We already googled how to send data to a pager. Using a contemporary pager, you would first enter the other person's pager number, then, if in the Kanto region, enter *2*2. After that, you would enter in numbers which would be displayed on the other person's tiny LCD. It seems like that's how it works.

Contemporary pagers in 1992 could still only send numbers, and since number display functions were not yet implemented, the other person would automatically be unable to see your number. A few years after that, pagers started to implement katakana and then kanji displays, making them not too dissimilar to current cellphone mail. Therefore, the D-mail Rukako's about to send - it's technically not a mail, though - has to be sent in numerical form.

Of course, I have a conversion table for that at hand. You can even find information from 18 years ago if you just google it. I was quite irritated that information on pagers was fairly scarce, but that's my little secret.



"Eh...? I do...?"

"If you want to grant your own wish, then you should clear your own path to it. We are merely your outriders."

"Understood..."

We explain to Rukako the functions of the Microwave Ophone (Temp). The numers we're sending are half-width, so we can send 36 of them. The pager's number -> letter conversion uses two numbers to correspond to one hiragana character. Furthermore, since you first need to input *2*2, that means you can only send 16 characters.

Rukako understands everything and takes out a notebook, writing drafts of the pager message. I showed Rukako the site I found. "CONCERNING PAGER NUMBER AND LETTER CONVERSION" is sloppily written across the browser in Gothic typeface.

"Umm..."








Cellphone operation differs somewhat, where you choose the consonant and then input the vowel. The consonants are _ K S T N M Y R W. The vowels are A I U E O. Basically, to input Ke, you'd press 2 to input the consonant K, then 4 for the vowel E.



"Why 831?"

"831 for veggies, durr. VEGGIES VEGGIES VEGGIES - we just have to drill this into Ruka's mother's brain."

(Veggies = yasai. 8 = ya. 3 = sa. 1 = i.)

"She'd just end up treating that message like a prank."

"Then then, how about '29292929'?"

"I'll hear you out, but what does that mean?"

"MEAT MEAT MEAT MEAT."

"Why do you want her to like meat?!"

"That's not it! If you keep repeating MEAT MEAT MEAT, then instead, I think she'd start to hate meat and want to eat vegetables, don't you think?"

(2 = ni. 9 = ku. niku = meat.)

"Yeah... no."



"How about something like this...? 'MOM EAT VEGGIES OKAY'."

"Isn't that a little too direct?"

"Isn't that first MOM unnecessary? It'll just leave more room for doubt."

"Then... 'EAT VEGGIES TO GIVE BIRTH TO A HEALTHY GIRL'."

"That's too much of a stretch... and it's over the character limit."

"'EAT VEGGIES FOR HEALTHY KID'."

"Wait a sec. According to this conversion chart, it looks like you gotta use two more numbers for dakuten."

(Dakuten = accent mark used to denote voiced consonants. The difference between ka か and ga　が.)

"So that sentence is four half-width characters over."

"Then a little modification. How about 'EAT VEG 4 HEALTHY KID'?

"Isn't that too informal? You're talking to Urushibara's mother, right? Would she understand the 'VEG 4' part?"

"You have any bright ideas?"

Kurisu shrugs her shoulders and says no more. Looks like it's settled.

"Then let's hurry and type it out!"

When sending to a pager, the number-encoded message is handled like a telephone number, so we enter the input into the X68000 setting screen.



The random and lengthy string of numbers is complete.

"Alright, preparations are A-OK."

Now we just activate the Microwave Ophone (Temp) and have Rukako call. The microwave timer is set to "154152#. With this, it'll reach around January 1, 1993. Measurement error is about 1-3 days, I guess. Leap year calculation's a pain, so I ignored it.

Rukako's slender finger starts to tremble on top of the enter button.

"Ready? It's starting."

We're entering the time frame for the Microwave Ophone (Temp) to start the discharge phenomenon. After Rukako looks at me once with a teary face, he faintly nods.



Rukako flinches and takes a step back, but soon stiffens his expression as he pushes the enter button...



Video: D-mail Sent