Chapter Text
This isn’t right.
That was the first thing to run through the mind of Okabe Rintaro as he stared at the bare table in front of him. His eyes swept across the room, pupils gradually contracting with each empty chair they passed over. An oppressive, deafening silence rang in his ears. Moments earlier, those seats had been filled with people. The table had been covered in plates of food. The air had been rich with the sounds of conversation and laughter.
This isn’t real.
The lab members had gathered here at MayQueen, holding a last supper in celebration of Kurisu’s last day in Japan. Faris booked out the whole cafe and cooked a special dinner for everyone. Daru dressed properly for once. Lukako agreed to come in a cosplay that Mayuri sewed for the occasion. Even Moeka and Mr. Braun took the time to join them…
This isn’t happening.
Okabe stood up, feeling a heavy stone of dread throb in the pit of his stomach, and staggered unsteadily on quivering legs. Afraid of falling, he planted a hand on the table and tried to regain his breath. His ears hadn’t even stopped ringing yet… That overwhelming sense of vertigo still hadn’t subsided.
This isn’t true.
He could be hallucinating this– no, he had to be hallucinating this. He must have been hallucinating this, because there was no explanation in his mind that could allow this reality to happen. Sweat began to drip from his face as he glanced around the room again, blinking several times in hope that everything would go back to normal if he did. It didn’t.
This isn’t possible.
The world continued to spin, Okabe’s own fear now perpetuating the wave of nausea that had passed through him seconds earlier. He knew what this feeling was. The sudden dizziness, feeling like the world was sucked out from beneath his feet, then opening his eyes to see that everything wasn’t how it had just been… it could only mean one thing. One thing that Okabe couldn’t deny.
Reading Steiner.
He’d changed world lines. How? How could this be real? This should have been the one world line that was safe from time travel. After everything he went through last summer– after everything he suffered through in order to ensure that something like this could never happen again…
The lab.
He had to get back to the lab.
Okabe’s legs lurched into a run, knocking aside empty chairs and bouncing between untouched tables as he scrambled for the doors of the building. There was no time to wonder where everyone there had gone; he already knew the answer was that no one had been there to begin with. Details weren’t important right now. All that mattered was that somehow, the past had just changed. Something had caused the world line to shift… and worse, Okabe had no idea what that something even was.
He tore down the street, rushing past a number of confused pedestrians– at least that meant he wasn’t the only person here– and scrambling around corners like a wild animal on the run from its natural predator. As he sprinted, a devastating tornado of worst-case scenarios gripped at his mind. If the world line really had changed, anything was possible. SERN could be enacting a plan to take over the world. World War III could be on the verge of breaking out at any second. Mayuri could be… Could be…
No, stay focused.
Okabe forced the terror back down to his gut. He needed to stay calm. The lab was only a few blocks away. Once he made it there, he’d be able to assess the situation. Then, he and the lab members would be able to figure out what happened and how to fix it, just like they did before. He’d have Daru hack into SERN for any files related to time travel, brainstorm possible causes with Kurisu, and if Mayuri was there…
If Mayuri was there, Okabe would hug her as close to his chest as he could until he knew for certain that she was still with him.
His panic now replaced by determination, he rounded the final corner and made a break for that familiar building just down the street from him. Although by now the CRT shop on the first floor had closed for the night, a warm glow still emanated from the windows above. The lights were on– someone must be home. Relief began to wash through his heart, finally allowing him to slow down and breathe after running at top speed for the entire journey. Okabe stopped at the bottom of the stairs and gripped the handrail for support while a river of sweat soaked into his lab coat. He’d made it.
…Wait. Was this building still the lab? It had to be, right? Surely it hadn’t changed… Just to be certain, he glanced at the lockers to his side. A scrawled label reading “Future Gadget Laboratory” was plastered over the nameplate– thank god. If this world line shift had caused the lab to disappear, he would have lost all hope in the blink of an eye.
Okabe was here, the Future Gadget Lab was here, and judging by the light, someone else was here, too. It was all still here. All he had to do was find out what happened.
Steeling himself, he hurried up the staircase. Everything was fine. Even if Mayuri… was gone in this world line, he would still find a way back to the Steins Gate world line. He could fix this.
I can fix this.
The door was locked. Okabe fished the key out of his pocket, hands shaking, and fumbled to turn the handle. It soon swung open and he awkwardly stumbled inside, almost tripping on the step up in the process.
“Mayuri! Daru!” Okabe found himself yelling without even meaning to. “Kurisu! I’m calling an immediate lab meeting! Something just…”
His words trailed off into static air. This… was this the lab? Before him lay a room that somehow felt both intimate and alien at the same time; the couch still sat across from the window, there was still a desk up against where a curtain divided the lounge area from the development room, and he could even see Future Gadget #1 resting idle on the table. In many ways, it was the lab he knew. Yet… The couch was a sterile white color, and no Upa plush adorned it. The desk bore a sleek laptop in lieu of Daru’s old PC. Not a single cardboard box cluttered the space in front of the curtain. It was the lab, but… it felt like everything that made the lab ‘the lab’ was gone. As he struggled to take this in, a rustling came from the development room.
“Rin-kun?”
A soft voice drifted into his ears. Who was that– Lukako? No, Luka spoke more hesitantly. Moeka? No, she would much more readily text him. And neither of them would call him Rin-kun ! Actually, he didn’t think anyone had ever used that name for him before! Who did this person think they were? Okabe felt the almost irresistible urge to correct this fool who would dare call the great Hououin Kyouma something so demeaning well up inside him, only for it to fizzle out as the source of the voice emerged into view.
“You’re back early…”
A short woman with striking white hair now stared back at him with wide eyes. She wore a light grey turtleneck sweater, dark leggings… and the unmistakable flowing shape of a lab coat over her shoulders. Out of reflex, Okabe took a step back, prompting the woman to tilt her head worriedly and hurry over.
“Rin-kun, you’re sweating all over!” She gasped. “What happened to you?”
This woman…
He’d never met her before.