Part 71: Something absolutely terrible happens

(Warning: This update is terrible. There are not many updates in this game that are terrible (I count three), but this is one of them. You have been warned.)





There's something off about their reaction.

"You're the worst. I can't believe you'd call a girl a man right in front of her."

"That's right. Okarin, I don't like you saying that."

Not just Kurisu, but even Mayuri condemns me.

And then Rukako starts to clearly turn pale, hanging his head with shaking shoulders. Is he... crying...?

Normally, he'd get depressed and say something like "that's true, I am a guy... and wearing swimsuits is embarrassing too", but he'd never start crying...

"Cristina. I understand your desire to turn a blind eye to the truth. After all, Rukako is a guy, yet he's so lovely--"

"Okabe!"

Kurisu's expression grows ever more stern as she approaches me.

"If giving me weird nicknames is your sense of humor, then that's fine - no, actually it's not fine at all - but what you said just now is below the belt. I didn't think you were the sort of jerk to hurt others, but I was mistaken, wasn't I? Right now, you really are the worst."

"Eh...?"

What? Why did disaster suddenly strike?

"Apologize. Apologize to Urushibara right now."

"No, no, wait. I don't have to apologize for anything. I just said the tru--"

"It's okay."

Rukako gets up from the sofa, whispering with a fading voice. Still hanging his head.



"Nonononono! That's not how I see you, Rukako, you ARE a guy, right?! Or are you escaping from reality too?!"

"You're the one who's escaping from reality!"

"That's right. Ruka-chan's a girl. Okarin, you're terrible."

"Anyway, Mayuri, why did you suddenly start calling Rukako 'Ruka-chan' instead of 'Ruka-kun'?"

"Okabe, how long are you gonna keep this up?! She's a girl!"

Mayuri nods in agreement. Huh? Just what are these guys...?

A prank? A trap?



And then Rukako slips by me, trying to head outside the lab. I grab his hand and detain him.



(I'm... going to go ahead and skip ahead a bit here. For my sanity as well as yours. Suffice to say, nothing worth preserving is being missed, Rukako's gender is confirmed, and Okabe suffers much-deserved blunt force trauma.)

(It is exactly as bad as you're thinking, if not worse.)



Rukako is crying. Mayuri worriedly rubs her back. Kurisu glares down at me in a daunting stance.

Daru, who arrived a moment ago, is in the corner, stifling a laugh. "How rude" is what I'd like to say, but I don't, because 100 out of 100 unknowing outsiders would assume the situation is like this:



And that assumption technically isn't incorrect...

The top of my head is throbbing. Most likely because Kurisu instantly wiped out a hundred million of my environmentally-endangered neurons in a single blow. I put a moist towel on my head.

"I want to vivisect your brain out of your head and give it a good washing. Then, without putting it back in your body, I'd submerge it in culture fluid so you couldn't do another shameful act like that again. Anyway, I won't hand you over to the police, so consider thanking me."

"Yes ma'am... I'm sorry..."

I honestly apologize. No, I was too hasty...



Her appearance didn't change, and she's a flat-chested girl, but still a girl nonetheless. Who would've thought we'd prove that idiotic old wives' tale in this fashion?

More importantly, I did something horrible to Rukako... Next time I come in contact with her, I need to be as gentle as humanly possible. No, maybe I shouldn't even speak to her for as long as life endures. I'm entirely at fault, so I have to accept any stigma placed upon me.

"Anyway, just what would give you such a strange delusion like Urushibara being a boy?"

"Heheheh... I said before, didn't I? The past changed via D-mail. Rukako was a guy, but we sent his wish to become a girl as a D-mail. And we succeeded. The instant the world line changed, I certainly recognized it did. By means of the demon eye, Reading Steiner, of course. I ought to look at that time in retrospect. I should've had more faith in my own special ability!"



"Want some more?"

"No, it's true. Please believe me...! I can theoretically explain this phenomenon. When we sent the D-mail, the world's history changed to follow suit. Basically, the past changed. My brain perceived that change! I, alone throughout the world, can perceive causality changes! Correct, that means that I am this world's observer!"

I stand up in excitation, bellowing out a fervent speech, but nobody gives any reaction.

"Just sit down."

I sit down again in dejection.

"Don't you understand? I'm the observer - in other words, the person who opens the box in the so-called Schrodinger's Cat experiment in quantum mechanics, you know?"

"Shredding Gar?"

"Wahh, he said it, Schrodinger's Cat. The Japanese have a Schrodinger fetish."

""You're Japanese too."

"I'm already sick of it. I do admit that pussies are cute, though."

"Gh..."



Schrodinger's experiment certainly has become a staple of Japanese entertainment media dealing with quantum theory.

"Anyway, I have a demon eye with such a unique ability. Its name is Reading Steiner, as I have explained before."

"And I thought I told you that Reading Steiner name is dumb so you should quit it. It feels like Engrish. Like a manga special technique. It's a grammatical mess, too. If 'steiner' refers to 'stein', then it's half German, half English. A mess. By the way, is this Steins Gate or whatever? You've said that, too."

"Heheheheh... looks like you've still got your butt birthmark, huh, Cristina. Naming is all about feeling. My creativity, comparable to the genius Leonardo Da Vinci, can't be contained by the shackles of grammar! Fuhaha--"



Stars fly though my vision.

"Reflect on your actions a little."

"I'm sorry..."

Rukako still hasn't stopped crying.



Under Kurisu's constant surveillance, I couldn't sit at ease. I'd accept being told "Die, Pervert, Simpleton" and such if it were Rukako, But I have no idea why Kurisu's intruding when no realm harm was done to her. Is she pretending to be a class chairman?

Anyway, I can't stand the lab mem girls' pressure any longer, so I escape from the lab. I stretch out wide in the sweltering summer sun, but my feet have gone numb, so I can't stand up straight.

At that moment, the Braun Tube Workshop door opens, and Working Warrior walks out. Our eyes meet.





She's less energetic than usual.

"Why are you so wobbly?"

"Th-This is an exercise."

"Hmmmm. I didn't know that."

Suzuha answers without much interest as she sits down on the bench. When she aimlessly looks up at the sky, I follow suit. Huge clouds encroach upon the sky. A helicopter flies overhead, its propellers' sky-slicing sound resounding all the way down here.

"It's perfect weather for cycling."

"Hm? Really?"

But it's so damn hot, I don't feel like doing anything tiring. Drinking hot coffee in a well air-conditioned room while browsing the net. Now that's a luxurious way to spend a summer break. That's why it's really unfortunate that the lab doesn't have air conditioning.



Eh, seriously? I'm a little interested.

"Isn't your bike a one seater?"

"One of us can just sit on the handlebars."

"Is it okay to just skip work?"

Suzuha goes into the store and soon comes back.



I tried to think of an excuse to refuse, but failed.