On Friday, Sora's fans began stirring again, as they always did when the time for a new broadcast drew near.
During that period, the online buzz around The Demon of Time had already been completely overtaken by Steins;Gate. Many longtime fans of Re:Zero, after diving into this new anime, finally realized that Steins;Gate was not some clumsy imitation of the previous work. On the contrary, it had a clear sense of innovation, a structure of its own - and above all, a script that demanded far more from the viewer.
Compared to Re:Zero, its level of complexity seemed to have jumped two or three stages at once.
"Only after watching yesterday's rerun of the early episodes of Steins;Gate did I realize… the person who left the IBN 5100 for the protagonist at the Buddhist temple in the beginning was Suzuha. She went back thirty-five years into the past to search for that computer."
"You only noticed that now?"
"Decades ago, there were only a handful of IBN 5100 units in the world, and it never even entered mass production. But that exact computer had the ability to directly decrypt the codes on SERN's website. To find it, Suzuha came from twenty years in the future, from an era ruled by SERN. She wanted to meet the father she had never known, then travel back thirty-five years to locate the computer and leave it for Okabe, so he could delete the records of their time messages from SERN's site. Only then could they enter the Beta world line. That was the true goal of Suzuha, the part-time warrior."
"Too bad she still hasn't found her father. That's definitely foreshadowing."
"There's no way to delay it anymore. She has to go back, find the IBN 5100 and somehow leave it for Okabe. It's the only path left."
"This is way too complicated… so what about getting revenge on that Ruka guy? Are they just dropping it? I feel awful. I really wanted the protagonist to shoot that traitor."
"There's no helping it. The protagonist's main goal is to save Mayuri Shiina, not avenge what happened in the previous loops. That's very much the style of works directed by Sora. In Re:Zero, Rem killed Subaru before too. Did that stop Subaru from falling in love with her later?"
"Fair point… but is the plot really going to let them move from the Alpha world line to the Beta world line that easily? The protagonist doesn't need to do anything? He just waits for Suzuha to go back to the past and deliver the IBN 5100 right in front of him?"
"What else would happen? In the beginning, the IBN 5100 the protagonist received had already been left for him by Suzuha in that world line. He was the one who kept messing everything up with the phone microwave, changing the world line several times. He sent some weird message to Ruka, sent a D-Mail to change Luka's sex, made Faris save her father… and now, in this world line, the IBN 5100 has vanished completely. Sigh. These are sins he committed himself."
Online, the discussions continued without pause until just before the sixteenth episode aired on television.
But as soon as eight o'clock arrived, all of them vanished at once.
By this point, the fans understood perfectly well that with an anime like this, missing even a single minute could mean failing to understand everything that came afterward. Many viewers who followed the first broadcast on Japanese TV stations finished each weekly episode and immediately rushed to NatsuYume to read other people's analyses, barely managing to piece the whole plot together.
Gin Hayashi pulled his gaze away from one of those explanation threads and looked toward the television, where the regional broadcaster from Kōchi was airing the opening theme.
In episode sixteen, Suzuha finally made her decision. She would return thirty-five years into the past to help Okabe find the IBN 5100, preserve it, and arrange for someone in the present to deliver the machine to them.
But the price was far too heavy.
The time machine did not have enough fuel. That journey through time would be a one-way ticket.
If Suzuha returned to the past, she could only live in the past.
The friends and family she had left twenty years in the future would become distant memories. People she would most likely never see again.
And the friends she had made in this era - Okabe, Faris, Kurisu, Daru and the others - would only see her again as a woman in her fifties.
The weight of time seeped through the anime like a silent shadow.
"I will change the future. I'll make it a free world, just like the present."
Facing Suzuha's resolve, Okabe spoke those words with sorrow he could not hide.
Of course, in the events that followed, Suzuha did end up finding her father. And when it was revealed that her father was none other than Daru, that fat pervert who spent his days making dirty jokes, Gin Hayashi froze for a long while.
"Just how beautiful would her mother have to be to get together with Daru and still give birth to a daughter as pretty as Suzuha?"
It made no scientific sense.
But then again, this was an anime where time machines existed, a future daughter could meet her still-single father in the present, and world lines could overlap. It had already gone far beyond any simple discussion of science.
Science, at that point, was almost meaningless.
Suzuha promised everyone that they would meet again on that same day, and with sorrowful background music playing, she boarded the time machine and returned thirty-five years into the past. Alone, she set off on a journey far too long, searching for the IBN 5100.
The last words she left behind were spoken with a smile.
"For you, maybe this will happen in an hour. But for me… I'll see you again in thirty-five years."
The instant Suzuha said those words, Gin Hayashi broke down in tears.
But the world line divergence meter showed no change.
It remained at 0.337187.
Everyone stayed inside the Future Gadget Laboratory, waiting for Suzuha, now over fifty years old, to appear that day as promised, bringing the IBN 5100 with her.
But the person who arrived was not her.
It was the landlord from downstairs, the bald, burly man everyone called Mr. Braun.
He brought a letter.
A letter Suzuha had left in the past and entrusted to him, asking him to deliver it to Okabe in this era.
"A letter…? Why a letter?"
A bad premonition took root in Gin Hayashi's chest.
With Suzuha's personality, how could she not come in person?
How could she simply ask someone else to deliver a letter?
And what about the IBN 5100?
Could it be that she…
"Mr. Okabe, it has been a long time. This is Suzuha. I will write only the conclusion here. I failed. I failed, failed, failed, failed.
I failed. It took me twenty-five years to remember who I was. The time travel did not go smoothly because the machine had not been fully repaired. I should have come to this era from the very beginning. I should not have stayed in your time out of selfishness just because I wanted to meet my father. This was the result of my own willfulness. I missed the correct moment and could never find the whereabouts of the IBN 5100 again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
For what reason did I come to this era? I forgot my mission and lived twenty-four peaceful years without remembering anything. Mr. Okabe, that night, I had intended to give up on meeting my father and go straight back thirty-five years into the past. But because you stopped me from leaving, a storm fell that same night, and the time machine was damaged even further. If time could be turned back once more, I would hope that you would not stop me.
A life like this had no meaning at all."
The narration by Suzuha's voice actress carried such profound despair that Gin Hayashi's eyes reddened as he watched.
Suzuha…
Had she died?
Because she had forgotten her mission, lived twenty-four carefree years, and then, after recovering her memories, could not withstand the shock? Was that why she had taken her own life and left that letter for Mr. Braun to deliver to Okabe on that day?
Why?
Why do this to her?
The anime's sense of depression and despair continued to intensify.
All of it had happened because of the D-Mail Okabe sent in a previous world line, the message that made him keep watch over Suzuha and stop her from disappearing.
If Okabe had not done that, Suzuha would have returned to the past much earlier. Perhaps she would not have died that way.
But in that moment, a chill ran across Gin Hayashi's scalp.
If that was true…
In the previous world lines, when no accident had occurred and Suzuha had returned to the past without being stopped, where had she gone?
Why had she never met Okabe and the others?
Then he remembered the first episode. When the world line first changed, the character known as John had only been active on the internet ten years earlier. And in this episode, Suzuha's death had also occurred ten years earlier.
Could it be that in the Alpha world line, the convergence point of Suzuha's death was this?
She would travel thirty-five years into the past with the time machine and, regardless of whether she succeeded in finding the IBN 5100, she would live twenty-five years in that era before dying ten years ago.
That, too, was Suzuha's death convergence.
The convergence of the world line did not affect only Mayuri Shiina.
It also affected Suzuha.
And if the story had already mentioned that Okabe and Kurisu were destined to die twenty years in the future, then was that not also convergence?
Everyone's fate, within the Alpha world line, had already been decided.
If they could not escape that world line, the date of each person's death would eventually be fixed.
After realizing this, Gin Hayashi felt a terrifying pressure in his chest.
So was a person's death truly predetermined? Or could it still be a genuine accident?
Within the story, Okabe possessed the ability to cross world lines while retaining his memories. That was why he knew none of this was coincidence.
But what about the real world?
In the anime, Okabe, his eyes full of tears, sent a message to himself through the phone microwave.
"Stop following her. The message that told you to watch Suzuha is a trap set by SERN."
A D-Mail that had already been sent could not be canceled, but another message could be added to alter the actions of his past self.
As long as Okabe did not follow Suzuha, as long as he did not stop her from leaving that night, the time machine would not be damaged by the thunderstorm. That tragedy would never happen.
After the D-Mail was sent, the world line changed.
But in the new world line…
Suzuha had died of illness ten years earlier.
"So it's true… it really is world line convergence."
Gin Hayashi's expression twisted painfully. A bitter nausea rose in his throat.
What kind of rule was that?
If they stopped Suzuha from going back that night, she would commit suicide. If they did not stop her, she would die of illness.
It was too cruel.
It was, without question, a mockery by fate itself.
At the end of the episode, the members of SERN who were supposed to appear on Friday the thirteenth to capture everyone and shoot Mayuri Shiina did not show up.
For one brief instant, Gin Hayashi thought Mayuri might be safe.
Then Saturday night arrived.
Inside the laboratory, Mayuri looked down at her pocket watch.
Her expression was vacant, innocent, adorable.
And then she said the line that, in that exact moment, made millions of Japanese fans feel physically unwell.
"Huh… Mayuri's watch stopped?"
The convergence of the world line had merely been delayed by one day.
It did not change the result.
Everything was the choice of fate.
Gin Hayashi's pupils contracted. He sank back into the sofa and let out a long breath.
"This story… is way too oppressive."
Fighting against an invisible fate. The pressure transmitted by the anime was so intense it almost made him suffocate.
How were they supposed to break through this?
And on top of that, another cut at the worst possible moment.
You old thief, Sora. You're doing this on purpose, aren't you? You want us working adults to spend our entire Friday night feeling miserable from the moment the episode ends?
How many times had this happened already?
With every single one of his works, once the story reached the middle, the suffering began all over again.
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