Chapter 188: Steins;Gate Premieres! (Part 6)
"It seems our suspicions have been confirmed—what's really been altered is reality itself."
At the top of the Mage Tower, the Arch Mages wore expressions of deep complexity.
Clearly, they hadn't expected the story's truth to be so shockingly aligned with their guesses.
However, even so, the countless tangled clues still obscured the true nature of what was happening.
"If the world really has changed, then what caused the transformation? Why is the protagonist the only one who remembers the previous reality? And why did a prominent figure from several years ago suddenly vanish after the change? Is there a connection?"
As Administrator Hohenheim posed these questions, the attending Arch Mages all wore the same confused expressions.
Although they had begun forming theories about the cause of the world's alteration, they still couldn't understand what exactly triggered it—or what the full implications were.
Even though many of them vaguely sensed that the phenomenon was connected to the element of time, they still couldn't grasp how time could exert such an influence on the world.
Thus, at this moment, all they could do was fall silent and continue watching the film before them, hoping it would eventually offer an explanation.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Back in the movie, Steins;Gate's story continued to unfold.
The protagonist, Rintaro Okabe, encountered a mysterious girl named Kiryu Moeka on the street.
She seemed to be searching for a very old and obscure machine called the IBN 5100.
After a brief conversation, Okabe agreed to help her look for it.
However, after asking Hashida Itaru (Daru) about it, he realized that such a machine might not even exist in this world.
With that realization, the two of them visited a maid café, where Mayuri happened to be working part-time.
There, they spoke with both Mayuri and her eccentric friend, a chuunibyou girl named Faris, before returning to the lab to further investigate the mysterious microwave.
"I did some analysis at the university lab,"
"Turns out, the internal structure of the banana was completely broken down after being microwaved."
"Oh? So you're saying the banana turned into something else?"
"Possibly... It may be due to the microwave."
"And what's your basis for that?"
"The instincts of a mad scientist!"
"So, there's no basis at all."
"Anyway, let's run another experiment."
With that, Okabe grabbed one of the bananas Mayuri had bought—completely ignoring the complaints that would surely come—and prepared to subject it to his bizarre experiment.
However, Daru wouldn't let him waste all the bananas, and in the end, only one was used for the test.
Soon, the experiment began.
The banana spun inside the microwave, rotating rapidly.
A moment later, with a familiar ding, the heating process ended.
"Okay, the experiment's done."
When Daru opened the microwave, he was stunned to see that the banana had vanished.
"No way!"
"It's really gone?"
"Could this be... a microwave that can teleport things instantly?"
"You serious?"
"Probably… not."
"Hahaha…"
"But then how do we explain—wait, the banana just now…"
As Okabe pointed toward the bananas lying on a table in the distance, he suddenly froze.
There, on the table, the banana that had been pulled off earlier was now reconnected to the bunch—except it had clearly undergone the microwave transformation, its texture and color warped.
"The banana?!"
"Look, it's perfectly reattached!"
"But we definitely pulled that one off before!"
"M-Maybe…"
"Could this really be… teleportation?"
"Is it really?"
Just as Rintaro Okabe and Hashida Itaru were frozen in fear and disbelief, a girl's voice suddenly rang out from afar.
"You're conducting a pretty interesting experiment here, Rintaro Okabe… No, I mean—Hououin Kyouma!"
With those words, the red-haired girl, Makise Kurisu, appeared at the entrance of the lab.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
"Wh-What is this?"
"Teleportation magic?"
"My brain is breaking—what is this supposed to be?"
"I'm getting more and more confused about what this movie is even trying to say."
"Who exactly is Makise Kurisu? She feels so mysterious."
"Are you sure there's no magic in this world?"
"…"
Inside the theater, the viewers' emotions once again shifted dramatically.
The continuous twists and turns of Steins;Gate's plot—and the seemingly disjointed events that didn't appear to connect—left the audience shrouded in a fog of confusion, unable to see the truth beneath.
At this point, the only option left was to be patient and hope the answers would be revealed as the story continued.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Meanwhile, at the Imperial Mage Academy, the mages wore matching expressions of bewilderment, completely baffled by the story's design.
"That microwave thing—was it called a microwave?—does it actually contain a teleportation spell?"
"No way, right? How would it solve the energy problem of teleportation magic?"
"Actually, doesn't this story world not even have mages? Where would magic come from?"
"Seriously, I don't get it anymore."
"Also, is this machine connected to those weird incidents the protagonist experienced earlier?"
"Why did Kurisu show up here? Is she really part of some secret organization or something?|
"Honestly, this film is even harder to understand than The Garden of Sinners."
"Agreed."
"…"
Clearly, even the magic scholars were completely stumped by this part of the movie. No one could make sense of what was happening.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
As the audience sank deeper into confusion, Steins;Gate's story pressed forward without pause.
The sudden appearance of Makise Kurisu wasn't due to any grand mystery—she had simply been intrigued by Rintaro Okabe's earlier remarks and came by out of curiosity.
She hadn't expected to witness such a bizarre experiment in person.
Naturally, she joined the investigation into the strange banana incident right away.
To maintain secrecy, Okabe insisted that she officially become a lab member.
Makise replied that she would be leaving the city in August, but until then, she agreed to temporarily join the lab.
With that settled, the three of them immediately began a deeper investigation into the microwave experiments.
They discovered that the microwave had occasionally emitted strange electrical discharges.
"When exactly did this happen?"
"Around noon yesterday—when you went to see that unidentified object. Before that, I'd connected the microwave to my phone."
"Wait… are you saying… when I sent that message, there was a discharge event?"
"You mean the message about Kurisu being stabbed? Wasn't that from last week?"
"No—it was sent yesterday at noon. It's a message that… was delivered to the past!"
Okabe's expression turned increasingly unhinged as he spoke.
Kurisu, frowning, then asked:
"When the electrical discharge occurred… what was the microwave doing?"
"We were running a function test—it was rotating in reverse."
"If that's the case… maybe we just need to recreate the exact same conditions."
"Right!"
Immediately, everyone sprang into action to reproduce the experiment under the same circumstances.
However, during the process, Mayuri returned unexpectedly—and out of habit, she opened the microwave.
In an instant, a surge of electricity far beyond what any household appliance should be capable of erupted from inside the device, plunging the lab into chaos.
After a long moment, Okabe finally remembered his phone and checked it—only to be stunned by what he saw.
"What's wrong?" someone asked.
After a long pause, Okabe finally responded, his voice trembling:
"It was sent! And it… really went back in time! The email was delivered to a full week ago!"
"No way…"
"Are you saying this is…?"
Under everyone's stunned gaze, Rintaro Okabe suddenly burst out laughing, and with newfound clarity, he exclaimed excitedly:
"That's right! Yes, I understand now—I understand everything! This microwave is, without a doubt— a time machine!"
. . . . . . . . . . . .
"Holy crap! So that's what it is!"
At that moment, the audience, who had been relatively calm until now, suddenly exploded with excitement.
After all, once all the clues were laid out, some of the more observant viewers had already begun connecting the dots—so Okabe's declaration sparked a wave of instinctive gasps from the crowd.
Of course, even then, a large number of viewers still couldn't understand what they were seeing, and couldn't help but ask:
"Wait, what? What do you mean the email was sent to the past? And how does that make it a time machine?"
In response to this confusion, some sharper minds in the theater immediately offered an explanation:
"It's simple. If the microwave is a time machine, then everything weird that's happened so far suddenly makes perfect sense."
"How do you figure?"
"Think of it this way: If you send an email to yourself from a week ago, and your past self suddenly receives a message from the future, they're obviously going to act differently. Once your behavior changes, the actions of people around you may also change. Everything could be affected, all because of one single email sent to the past!"
"Wh-what?!"
Hearing this, the previously confused viewers were instantly stunned into silence.
And then—a cold, creeping sensation ran down their spines as they slowly began to grasp the terrifying implications of this story.
"So you're saying… all those bizarre events that happened to Okabe were because he sent that one email to Itaru? The email caused Itaru to behave differently in the past, and that change set off a chain reaction… eventually warping the entire world?"
"But wait, that doesn't fully add up. The email just said 'Makise Kurisu was stabbed', right? Can that really trigger such a massive change? Wasn't the biggest change caused by that strange giant machine that crashed through the lab's roof? That machine doesn't seem connected to the email at all!"
"Exactly! And also, why is Okabe the only one who remembers everything? That's way too strange."
"And what about that time traveler from the year 2000 who suddenly disappeared? That happened years ago! How could it possibly be connected to an email sent just one week back?"
"…"
As more and more audience members joined in with their observations, the inconsistencies and mysterious details began to be picked apart one by one.
Of course, the audience didn't think any of these confusing elements were plot holes. They firmly believed that the upcoming story would definitely explain all the incomprehensible things.
Because of that, many viewers who had been feeling bored earlier were now once again energized, wearing expressions of renewed anticipation.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Imperial Mage Academy.
The mages there were in a similar state as the ordinary audience. They too had only now finally grasped the core premise of the plot. However, as mages, their comprehension clearly went a level deeper.
"So it really is manipulating time, huh? In that case, couldn't the protagonist just keep sending different messages and gradually change the world into exactly what he wants?"
"There's something I don't quite get though—what happens to the world that was altered? If he changes reality by sending a message to the past… does the previous version of the world just vanish? Like, it's just gone?"
"I have no idea. Actually, I'm more curious about why Kurisu was killed in the first place. What really happened at that time machine presentation by Dr. Nakabachi?"
"We've only seen a tiny portion of the plot so far, and already the number of mysteries is absolutely insane. I can't even keep up with my thoughts anymore."
"Yeah, same here. Better to just stop thinking and keep watching. I believe the story will answer all these questions eventually."
"Still, no matter how you look at it, a time machine is an incredible concept. If something like that actually existed in the real world…"
"Time is already classified as one of the special elements, but to this day, no one has figured out how to control it. In a way, you could say it's the ultimate mystery of magic. If someone ever uncovers the laws governing time, wouldn't that person essentially be a god?"
"…"
And with that, the mages' discussion came to a close.
Given the lack of information, even those well-versed in the arcane arts couldn't make sense of such a complex plot.
But now that they knew a time machine existed, and that it was clearly tied to the story's main thread, most of them had completely forgotten their earlier boredom—and were now fully invested.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
At the top of the Mage Tower, even the Arch Mages looked slightly surprised.
Although they had already guessed that the story involved temporal interference, they hadn't expected it to be caused by something as absurd as a microwave hooked up to a cellphone.
Of course, they understood that this was clearly a fictional element unique to the world of Steins;Gate and didn't bother scrutinizing the logic behind the device. Instead, their thoughts focused on the broader consequences of time manipulation.
In the end, even the Arch Mages, with all their vast knowledge, couldn't fully picture what the great river of time—flowing endlessly through the massive fabric of space—really looked like, let alone imagine what kind of unimaginable effects would result from tampering with the course of that river.
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[1] https://www.patreon.com/collection/162522?view=condensed
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/138667623?collection=162522
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