But to keep Mayuri alive...
To return... to that version of fate... Makise Kurisu... must die...
Alright. Let's delete this puppy.
Stop!
It isn't necessary.
It can't be.
Even the number of several billion heartbeats
suujuuoku mo no kodou no kazu sae
anata ni wa matataki teido no saji na toukyuu
is basic research with little glamor for you
anata ni wa matataki teido no saji na toukyuu
kako ni torawarete mirai wo nageku mo
Even locked in the past and lamenting the future
kako ni torawarete mirai wo nageku mo
chiri hitotsu gosan wo yurusanu hitsuzen
it's an inevitability that won't forgive miscalculating one speck of dust
chiri hitotsu gosan wo yurusanu hitsuzen
mugen ni hirogaru yume mo egaku mirai mo
The dreams that stretch out forever and the future we imagine
mugen ni hirogaru yume mo egaku mirai mo
bokutachi ni yurusareta kyoei no genri
are a vain theory we allowed
bokutachi ni yurusareta kyoei no genri
yuugen sore wa futatsu no hari ga shimesu
Finity, that's what the two hands of the clock point out
yuugen sore wa futatsu no hari ga shimesu
zankoku na yakujou to sentaku e hacking to the gate
towards a cruel agreement and choice
zankoku na yakujou to sentaku e hacking to the gate
Hacking to the Gate
zankoku na yakujou to sentaku e hacking to the gate
dakara ima ichibyou goto ni sekaisen wo koete
That's why I want to cross world lines with each passing second
dakara ima ichibyou goto ni sekaisen wo koete
kimi no sono egao mamoritai no sa
and protect your smile
kimi no sono egao mamoritai no sa
soshite mata kanashimi no nai jikan no loop e to
And once again, into a time loop that contains no sadness
soshite mata kanashimi no nai jikan no loop e to
nomikomareteyuku kodoku no kansokusha
A swallowed solitary observer
nomikomareteyuku kodoku no kansokusha
Paradox
Meltdown
Where's Okabe?
No idea. Been too busy to keep tabs on him.
Break a leg out there, Mayushii!
Same to you, soldier!
Peace out!
So I take this is the last day of Comima?
Yup. You should totally come with me...!
There's so much adorable cosplay to scope out!
Uh... I'm... pretty sure it'd wouldn't be my thing.
Where did Okarin run off to?
Your guess is as good as mine, sweetie;
who knows what rock he's under...
Or why he called off the hack.
It's gonna get up to like a million degrees today.
Even mad scientists have to keep hydrated
if they don't want a visit from Uncle Heat Stroke.
You going back to Comima I assume?
Yup! Wouldn't miss it.
Yes, well. Be careful.
K.
There... That'll give you a little shade... See you later!
Wait...!
Think it through, Okabe...
Every D-mail undone has pushed Mayuri's death
back another twenty-four hours...
Originally it occurred on the thirteenth;
undoing Suzuha's text moved it to the fourteenth...
Then Faris', Ruka's, Moeka's...
Every reversal has bought us a day...
Which means if I'm doing the math right,
on this world-line Mayuri will die at eight o'clock on August seventeenth.
Today.
Okarin!
I'd say it sounds like you honed in on your quarry.
Uh-huh! Good thing I found 'em when I did:
they were almost sold out! Daru's gonna flip!
Oh... They have this cool art book on some
mecha show I'd never seen, too... You should come see!
Oh... I Believe I'll pass.
Are you sure...? I could take you to it.
Thank you, no... I'm a bit preoccupied.
Poor Okarin...
Well, if there is anything you wanna see, I know the layout.
Dully noted.
We can leave... I mean, if...
Bah...! Come now, don't be absurd...
When I say "preoccupied,"
I'm referring to my never-ending vigil against the Organization,
who, I've grok-ed from various trustworthy sources,
have set this place crawling with specially trained ninja assassins.
Perfect place for them, really...
They blend with the costumed crowd like cephalopods.
Wow... Sounds like they go to an awful lot of trouble, huh?
I'm going to try and get the drop on them.
Reconvene here at fifteen-hundred hours, understood?
Sir!
Oh, hey...!
They've got a concession stand just a little ways from the entrance!
Five hours... Stiff upper lip...
Push through to an answer...
You've got to keep Mayuri from dying without jumping from this world-line.
Assistant
You expect me to go near his stuff without a hazmat suit...
Okay, okay. Slow down. Just... Give me a second.
These bookshelves look like a war zone.
Would it be a thick as a normal directory, you think, or--?
I am totally gonna sue.
Yeah
It's me.
What have you guys found out...? Any progress?
Progress? We're at standstill day three.
You told us to hold off.
And now'd be a good time to know why.
What exactly's going on?
Mayuri... dies today.
Yeah. We've established that...
It's the whole reason we wanna hack into SERN...
The first text that jumped back in time--
No...! That's no longer our tac!
I'm puzzling out a way to save Mayuri
that doesn't involve our having to reverse anything else.
But why?
Because... there have been unforeseen developments.
Okay. Such as?
Look, I can't explain at the moment...
There's an alternative; I'm going find it.
That's all you need to know.
Why are you talking like it's--
Stop grilling me--!
Stop leaving me in the dark!
Listen, I want to help you;
but I can't do that if you play things so close to the chest.
It's happening soon, isn't it?
Damn it, Okabe give me something!
Man, my feet are super sore.
Worth it, though. Hey, mind if we pop by the lab for some snacks?
I don't know about you, but I could eat a house right about now.
You okay...? You look tired.
Uh...
It's almost time... Oh god...
What am I gonna do...? I'd opt for the two of us breaking into a run, but...
Okarin?
Let's go.
'Kay. Weird question...
Why'd you tag along with me today?
You didn't really look very much, and, well you know...
That is kinda the whole reason for coming to these things
in the first place; plus you had me to show you around...
It's not every day I get to be the one
who knows more about something than you do.
I don't know...
I'm still glad you came, though.
This was the first time you and I have been to Comima together.
I'm totally marking it on my calendar.
Mayuri...
In point of fact...
I'd pinned my hopes on seeing Rukako blushing
in some wildly inappropriate cosplay.
Shame he was a no-show.
No kidding!
People would've been swarming around him.
He'd've had his own fan club!
Without a doubt.
Every blog on the interwebs would be flooded with pics.
Heh. And people would see that adorable face.
And they'd say to all their friends: "make way for the next big thing!"
And, and, once he got all famous,
you and me and the gang could say we knew him back when.
There's not a detail about that scenario doesn't ring true.
You know, I think if you ever did a cosplay you'd be just as popular.
Perhaps one day.
Are you serious?
Mind you, I'd only consider it on condition that we cosplay as a team.
Okay!
But, of course...
Warming Christina to the idea might prove a bit problematic...
Getting the others on board would be cinch comparatively, though;
and she'd follow their lead eventually...
That accomplished, we shall descend upon
an unsuspecting Comima in full regalia,
the infamous Hououin Kyouma in all his glory
as the group's dazzling Axis Mundi!
Yeah, well... We better start planning our outfits...
Kurisu might be easier to convince than you think.
Tell you what: I'll work on her, you focus on everybody else.
An excellent--
Oh no...! I just wound you.
Don't tell me you're broken...
So not fair... I've taken extra special--
Okarin?!
Damn it, no! I'm not going to watch this again!
What do you want from me?!
Okarin?!
Just stay here!
I don't...
This is not going to happen...!
I'm going to change it...! Damn it...!
I'll let myself get mowed down in her place...!
Deal with that, you bastards...!
Things'll have to change...! There'll be no choice...!
Okarin!
Mayuri?!
Mayuri!
I'm so... glad I was... finally helpful... just this once.
Mayuri...
It's not... Every day... I get... to do that...
Okarin...
No... please don't...
You can't see any stars from here... Stay with me.
Damn it, stay with me...
I want to talk to you. Kurisu
Right-o. Commencing hackage.
Okabe?
What's wrong?
You gonna be up here all day?
I told you. I want to be alone.
Yeah, I know... And I totally respected that,
till your little woe-is-me session took a turn a couple hours back
and started... Well... worrying me.
Out with it... Why the change of heart about deleting the text?
You were against the idea yourself originally, remember?
So now you're suddenly afraid of taking some chances...?
That's what's going on?
Perhaps I've newly awakened to my inner law-abiding citizen.
Like hell you have...
You're way too full of yourself to be a law-abiding citizen...
Evil geniuses mock the fuzz--
I'm not an evil genius!!!
That's a bunch of childish crap... "Hououin Kyouma...?"
Who gives a damn about him...?
He's fiction...! Haven't you put that together...?
Well... Stop the presses, we have a revelation.
Oh god, don't tell me you've time leapt again?
What happened?
Hey, I've helped you get this far, haven't I...?
Don't start holding out on me now...
We're a team. A damn good one; at least to hear you tell it.
We haven't made a difference.
Suzuha... Rukako... Faris...
I asked them to sacrifice what they cherished most, but to what end...?
It's pointless... We haven't been able to do a damn thing.
What are you saying?
No more...
Okabe!
Listen... I'm not an idiot... I know you were crying...
Hashida saw it, too... Scared the hell out of him.
Please... Tell me...
Damn it I'm trying to help!
Alright, then...
On July twenty-eighth,
Mayuri and I went to a lecture at the Radio Building...
We... I... found you dead in a storage closet. Stabbed...
I panicked, and not knowing what else to do,
sent Daru a text about it before telling anyone else...
His phone was hooked up to the microwave and...
lo and behold, the very first D-mail...
The very first split from one world-line to another...
From alpha to beta, or whatever the hell it is...
Point being, if we delete that text from SERN's database,
we bump back to the world-line prior to all of this.
We undo that D-mail... You'll be...
You'll be murdered.
Don't just let it go off.
Answer it.
Mayuri?
Yep-yep!
What's up?
Well, Daru said you were acting all strange or whatever,
so I thought maybe I should check in...
Thank you, sweetheart, but tell him he worries too much.
But...
I'm sorry...
It's just I was so excited about Comima,
but, I should've paid more attention to you...
The thing with the ninjas got me remembering
the stories you used to tell me about, you know, them...
Don't they have like four leaders?
I remember Geppu, Sudachi, Seiyuu and... Jakko?
Genbu, Suzaku, Seiryuu and Byakko.
Those are the guys... See though?
I do pay attention. I get mixed up sometimes,
but I like the Organization stuff...!
You, uh... I mean, you'd tell me if I was a third wheel, right?
Ah, 'course you would!
Listen, I gotta go, but if there's anything
you wanna talk about, I'm only a phone call away!
Mayuri, wait...! I wasn't...
Go on. I'd have to be completely tone deaf
to miss that note of desperation in your voice, so she must be upset.
So you should go...
Getting yourself all worked up about what happens
to me isn't going to solve anything right now...
Besides, there's nothing I hate worse than being brooded over...
Find Mayuri, and do whatever you need to do...
The longer you sit up here and mope like some kind of
lame gargoyle, the more pissed off I'm going to get.
Well...? Don't make me repeat myself.
This is Mayushii...!
Actually, it's my phone, so leave me a message--
Well?
One of the cosplayers from her group said she
headed out quite a while ago, actually.
I see.
I'm sorry, Gran...
Bet you came to see me for Obon, didn't you?
I came cause I... wanna talk about
the dreams I've been having lately...
They're so scary...
Something really terrible always happens to me...
I got shot in one of them;
I got hit by car in one of them;
in another one I even got run over by a train...!
And it always feels so real...
Like, you'd swear it actually happened... I hate it...
I always try to scream, but I just can't for some reason...
It's awful.
I don't know why I keep having them.
Thing is... Near the end, it's like,
Okarin always jumps in and rescues me from whatever is going on...
But, when I try to say thank you,
it's like he can't hear me or something...
He just stands there holding me with this look in his eyes.
It makes me feel really sad for him...
You can tell he's trying not to cry,
but he's having to fight back his tears so hard
you can tell any second he's just gonna lose it.
I try to say I'm sorry,
but there's the whole he can't hear me thing...
And then... I dunno.
That's the part where I usually wake up, I guess.
Sorry, I ought to change the subject to something nicer, huh?
We've got like a ton of new members at the lab, now...
Kurisu, Moeka, Ruka, Faris, Suzuha.
All super, super nice people.
It's okay, gran: you don't have to memorize all their names.
Kurisu is super smart;
she's the only one who can really speak Okarin's language
when he gets into that mood of his, you know...?
It's fun to watch...
I think Mr. Mad Scientist has finally found his match.
Sometimes... I think about the way things used to be.
It was snowing when I came to the lab the first time...
It was supposed to be spring by then,
but I guess Winter wasn't ready to go.
I'd just gotten out of school for the day;
Okarin wasn't even there yet.
I was cleaning the place up
when he sorta dragged his feet through the door
the way he does sometimes...
I said "Welcome home, Okarin!" and he just stood there.
Then he looked around and said "good work."...
After that, I spent two whole hours there every day,
even though we didn't really talk all that much...
The silence wasn't bad, though...
It was... comfortable I guess is the best word.
It's hard to explain I dunno:
it was just a nice way to pass the time...
I felt like the luckiest hostage in the whole wide world!
Not too quiet for you, is it?
Nah! I like that we can just sit here like this. It's fun.
Yes, well... Don't become too enamored of the calm...
Domestic tranquility is a clinically proven breeding ground
for all sorts of Organization- sponsored hallucinations.
Wow. Sounds like I'd better be careful...!
Unless, you know, they're nice what-do-you-call-'ems...
Hallucinations.
Okey-dokey...
You think the Organization people are really all that bad?
I miss it...
We didn't talk a lot back then,
but... it was more than we do now...
I used to be able to tell what was on his mind
by just looking at the expression on his face...
That doesn't seem to be how it works anymore...
Still, though... I can tell he's hurting inside...
It's obvious... He looks so tired he's about to fall over...
And I know that somehow it's all my fault...
Whatever I've done, I'm sorry...
Ah, dang it...! I'm focusing on the negative again, aren't I?
I don't mean to, Gran. I really don't.
I guess... I guess I just don't want this chapter to end yet.
Don't worry about that.
Okarin!
How'd you know where to find me?
What kind of nonsense question is that?
Lest we forget, you're my hostage!
I will never allow you to escape my dastardly clutches...
Do you hear me?
You can't keep me forever.
Do not doubt my resolve, oh innocent one,
for I am not so weak as to falter now.
All will be clear soon enough...
When the time is right.
Let's go.
Oo, oo! First, though, I need...
Yes, yes... You want to buy another Oopa, I know.
kisei sareta shikai mujihi naru
Our vision, controlled by someone, fills with cruelty
juuni no shihai nogarerarenai
We can't escape the twelve rules
ansoku no asu wo negatta
We wished for a tomorrow full of rest
te no naka no toutoi jishou no chihei he
to be given to the precious event horizon in our hands
toraware shi meiyaku arawareta gishou no rinkaku
In the promise we made in captivity appeared the contours of a lie
seimei no tenchi wa moumoku na jikan wo kizanda
The realm of life recorded a time of blindness
habatake butterfly
Fly, butterfly
kiseki no butterfly
O, miraculous butterfly
anata he sasagu
I will sacrifice to you
namida no butterfly
Butterflies of tears
mabushii butterfly
Dazzling butterflies
subete ga ima kakikaerareru
Everything is being rewritten