Zhu Qing furrowed her brows.
This is it? After waiting a whole week?
The previous episode had ended with that rousing declaration—"We're heading for the Steins;Gate worldline!"—a moment that had fired everyone up.
And now, this week, they hit the audience with: "Well, maybe this worldline exists. Possibly."
What kind of letdown was that?
But then—
Wait.
This… was a time machine.
A real one.
Zhu Qing's eyes widened as a thought struck her, and she immediately turned to check her phone, skimming through the live fan discussion in the group chat.
"This… this is an actual time machine, isn't it? Not like the 'Phone Microwave' that only sent memories back in time. This one—Okabe is literally returning to the past. But if he goes back to July 28… won't there be two Okabes at the same time? Won't that create a paradox?"
"Exactly! What happens if the two Okabes meet?"
"No, no, something's off… wait. Do you all remember what Makise Kurisu said when she first met Okabe in Episode 1?"
"What did she say again?"
"Dude, that was two months ago! Who remembers it that clearly?"
"Wait… wait! I REMEMBER NOW!"
Zhu Qing's pupils dilated in an instant.
A cold shiver ran down her spine.
Her gaze turned back to the TV—to Suzuha's outfit. The military uniform. The hat…
It was familiar.
One of the fans in the group chat quickly dug up a low-res copy of Episode 1 from Yun Teng TV's archives, screenshotted the relevant frame, and posted it.
In the very first episode, the clueless, chuuni-phase Okabe had just arrived at the building with Mayuri—
They stumbled across the rooftop…
And he saw something.
Through the doorframe, he glimpsed a strange figure stepping out of a bizarre-looking machine.
Now, side-by-side with the current episode's footage:
That strange figure…
That bizarre machine…
It was Suzuha, arriving from the future via a real-time machine, bringing with her Okabe from twenty days ahead, after countless worldline shifts.
They had just landed—
Back to July 28.
"Holy shit... is that it?" Zhu Qing whispered, breath catching in her throat.
The setup had been there since Episode 1.
This was insane.
The scene matched perfectly.
Back in Episode 1, when the inexperienced, naïve Okabe pulled a metal Upa from the gacha machine with Mayuri…
The Okabe from twenty days in the future—one who had lived through hundreds of timeline shifts—was already watching them silently from the staircase corner.
This plot… was on another level.
And it wasn't pulled out of nowhere.
Every clue had been planted in the very first episode.
Later in the episode, the older Okabe encountered Makise again at the stairwell—the girl he loved, alive and in front of him once more.
Unable to hold back, he gently touched her face.
"I… I…"
Realizing the potential for a paradox, Okabe panicked and ran away.
What came next—
It was the long-awaited explanation for why Makise died in Episode 1.
The academic conference Okabe and Mayuri attended?
Its guest speaker was Makise's father, Shouichi Makise.
Upon discovering his daughter's completed thesis on time travel, he argued with her in private, attempting to steal the research as his own.
In the heat of the confrontation, Okabe (from twenty days in the future) couldn't stand by and revealed himself, trying to stop Shouichi.
In the chaos that followed—
He accidentally stabbed Makise, who had tried to shield her father from the attack.
Zhu Qing sat there, absolutely dumbfounded.
What… the actual… hell?
The group chat exploded:
"WTF—so the scene from Episode 1, where Okabe sees Makise bleeding out—that was this?!"
"The killer was OKABE HIMSELF? What the hell?? My brain's fried—someone help me sort this out!"
"So let me get this straight. Episode 1: Okabe sees Makise stabbed, texts Qiao Tian: 'Makise... was stabbed.' That text gets intercepted by SERN, triggering a worldline shift into α. In α, Makise is alive. Okabe and Makise invent the Phone Microwave, and after a hundred attempts to save Mayuri from dying in α, they finally shift to β. And now you're telling me… the origin of all of this was Okabe himself, twenty days later, going back in time and killing Makise by accident?!"
"I don't think I'm smart enough to watch this show. What level of IQ do you need?!"
"Writer, come out and explain yourself. I'm losing it. OKABE KILLED KURISU?! Are you kidding me?!"
"This is so messed up. He came back to SAVE her… and ended up killing her. My heart hurts."
"This is a masterpiece. Holy sh*t."
"Never underestimate how much screenwriters hate their audience. WHO could have predicted this?!"
"I don't want to live anymore!"
"NOOOO—"
Shouichi fled. Makise collapsed into Okabe's arms, her voice choked with tears.
Zhu Qing was numb.
What happened to the heroic "save Makise" arc?!
This was the final episode, and the screenwriter was still dropping bombs?
Okabe, utterly shattered, let out a guttural scream of anguish.
And that very moment—
Was the scream heard in Episode 1 by the young Okabe, who ran up to the rooftop…
Only to find Makise lying in a pool of blood.
"So… that's what that scream was. That was… himself."
"I'm stunned. All the strange scenes from Episode 1—they were ALL foreshadowing. I'm on my knees."
"Teacher Jing Yu hid this WAY too well!"
"I'm done. It's over. How are we supposed to fix this?!"
"The foreshadowing is incredible, but now what? How do we save Makise?"
"I can't even keep watching. Okabe's broken. Just completely shattered."
"Think about it… the one you love most, you accidentally kill with your own hands. After a hundred worldline jumps… all of it started because you caused it. That's like if your mom was murdered when you were a child, and when you finally go back in time to stop it, you realize—you were the killer. Who wouldn't lose their mind?"
One more try.
In the β worldline, where actual time machines had been invented, Okabe returned to his past self's present, 20 days prior.
After failing once, Suzuha proposed:
"Let's try again. Go back once more. Save her… again."
But Okabe had given up.
After everything he endured in the α worldline, he knew—
Saving her was impossible.
Then came another twist.
A flashback played of Shouichi abandoning his daughter's body and escaping.
Weeks later, while flying with her time machine thesis, the plane's cargo caught fire.
But the thesis survived.
Why?
Because twenty days ago, Okabe pulled a metal Upa from the gacha machine and gave it to Mayuri.
Mayuri dropped it. Makise picked it up and slipped it into her thesis folder.
When the security scanner later checked her father's bag, the metal Upa inside triggered a scan, allowing the paper to be copied and saved.
That paper—Makise's thesis—
It was the catalyst for the future world war.
And it survived the fire…
Because of the Upa.
The Upa ended up in the thesis because Mayuri dropped it, because Okabe gave it to her, because—
The closed loop was complete.