Okabe Rintaro looked carefully at the content on the screen, then turned his head.
"Labmem No.006!" he declared loudly, "Urushibara Ruka!"
"First mission! Go find out if your mother ever used a pager and get the number!"
Urushibara Ruka: "Yes, yes!"
2010.08.06 11:54:08:79
The washed white coat flapped in the wind on the rooftop. Urushibara Ruka, back in the Laboratory, happily exclaimed:
"My mom, she used a pager!"
"This is the number." He gently raised his hand, handing the slip of paper with the number to Okabe Rintaro.
"Well done!" Okabe Rintaro took the slip of paper and asked,
"Have you decided what message to send?"
"Yes, I have."
Once the number was known and the message decided, the D-mail could be sent.
So, they gathered again in front of the Phone Microwave.
"Eat more vegetables, and you'll have healthy children..." Okabe Rintaro read aloud the message Urushibara Ruka had decided to send.
"I heard that full-width characters can only send a maximum of 18 characters..." Urushibara Ruka explained his reason for writing it that way.
Makise Kurisu mused, "Pagers can only receive digital signals, so if we convert these into numbers..."
"Wait a minute." After typing the text into the converter, Hashida Itaru suddenly spoke up, "Excluding punctuation, it's 12 characters, and we can only send a maximum of 36 half-width bytes."
...If converted to numbers, this sentence exceeds 12 bytes."
"Eh?"
"Hmph, then..." Okabe Rintaro snorted lightly, and after selecting the text, he gently pressed backspace.
Thus, the text became 'Eat more vegetables, healthy children'.
[Excellent simplification, make the Phone Microwave turntable rotate]
[Concise and to the point, very good]
[It's actually impressive that he still remembers the number]
[Can't you remember your own phone number?]
[If it's a new number, it might indeed be hard to recall, but it depends on the person]
[Pagers send numbers???]
[It's digital decoding, right? Text converts to numbers for sending, then converts back to text. That shouldn't be hard to understand.]
[What is decoding?]
[Even Tonz can use a search engine, you should use it more too.]
"It's about to start." After confirming that the converted characters did not exceed the limit, Okabe Rintaro said in a deep voice.
Rukako nodded: "Mm."
"Is it really okay?" However, Hashida Itaru was still a bit worried.
Even if it was just a message like this, would it really not change anything?
Although Okabe said he had already sent D-mails, to be honest, he didn't really feel it. The only thing he clearly remembered was Okabe's reaction when he noticed the woman named Moeka disappear after seemingly sending a D-mail.
"It's fine." Okabe Rintaro asserted.
Then, the microwave began to spin.
The sizzling sound reappeared, and the countdown began to tick.
Looking at the microwave, which was sparking with electricity, Okabe Rintaro couldn't help but break out in a sweat.
He was still nervous.
A violent discharge phenomenon occurred. Urushibara Ruka was startled at first, as he was seeing this scene for the first time.
But gritting his teeth, he still gently pressed the send button for the already edited message.
—
A distorted sound came from Okabe Rintaro's mouth, and his world began to vibrate once again.
The glowing numbers rapidly changed, and finally, gradually stopped.
0.456903
...!" Okabe Rintaro suddenly opened his eyes.
The daze quickly passed. As if becoming accustomed to it through multiple jumps, this daze was exceptionally brief.
"The Reading Steiner has activated, which means..." Okabe Rintaro abruptly turned around.
Behind him were four figures.
Hashida Itaru was still sitting in front of the computer, while Mayuri and Rukako were sitting on the sofa. Makise Kurisu stood to one side, turned sideways, looking at the magazine Mayuri was holding:
...There are actually people like this."
"Mm, this one is very cute. I think something like this would definitely suit Ruka-chan."
"Is, is that so..." Rukako's expression still wasn't quite used to receiving compliments from others.
Okabe Rintaro's gaze lingered on Urushibara Ruka.
[Did it really jump? It's absurd that a text message like that could have an effect. Tonz's x-ray vision couldn't change it. Shouting 'eat more vegetables' won't actually change his gender, will it???]
[Did he change? If he changed]
[If you mean 'if', you big dummy, didn't you notice Mayuri's changed address? She usually calls him Ruka-kun!]
[That detailed?]
[Has no one noticed the worldline divergence? Moeka's one text message caused a 0.05 change, Rukako's one text message caused a 0.07 change. He's quite a force!]
[If he really did change gender, well, that effect would be quite significant, I guess?]
[So why would he, if he changed gender, still hang out with Brooch at the Laboratory? No, wait, if he changed gender, wouldn't it truly become Okabe Rintaro's harem story???]
[A shrine maiden who admires him so much she's willing to forcibly memorize chuunibyou radio wave sayings and practice swordsmanship...]
"This is..."
Okabe Rintaro's gaze moved downwards, then settled on Urushibara Ruka's incredibly beautiful collarbone.
His clothes and attire were still the same as before, unchanged. After all, Rukako's usual attire was already somewhat feminine, so nothing could be inferred from that.
So, if he wanted to confirm... "Hey, pervert, what are you staring at?" Makise Kurisu snapped unceremoniously.
Hearing this, Rukako instinctively covered her chest.
Startled by the girls' reactions, Okabe Rintaro instinctively tried to explain:
"No, it's not like that..."
'Wait, I can't actually ask, "Did Rukako become a girl?"'
Although he wanted to offer an explanation, Okabe Rintaro's gaze remained on Rukako, who seemed very sensitive to being stared at.
"But, this, it failed, right?" Seeing Urushibara Ruka's completely flat chest, he let out a sigh of relief.
"So, what kind of perverted acts are you lecherously imagining?" Makise Kurisu greeted him unceremoniously:
"Honestly, I can't relax at all with you two perverted individuals."
Even Mayuri puffed out her cheeks: "Honestly, Okabe."
"I'm not a pervert, I'm a perverted gentleman!" Hashida Itaru retorted indignantly.
"I don't care what you call me!" Makise Kurisu couldn't take it anymore: "I really don't care what you call me!"
"But, Tonzuko-kun isn't a pervert, he's a gentleman."
"You've been fooled."
Mayuri's voice defending Hashida Itaru mingled with their argument, but Okabe Rintaro couldn't help but ponder.
"But the worldline did shift, something was changed."
"What, exactly, was it?"
The heavy sound, like a bell being struck, echoed rhythmically with his thoughts.
As the bell chimed for the last time, the scene transitioned to the ending credits.