Steins;Gate (visual novel)/Plot

Prologue
The story starts off with Rintaro Okabe, a “chuunibyou” with delusional “mad scientist” ambitions, who goes to attend a presentation about time travel but discovers Kurisu Makise, a young genius, murdered. When he sends a message to his friend Daru (Itaru Hashida) about the matter, he suddenly finds himself in the streets of Akihabara with everyone gone. Mayuri Shiina wakes him up from his daze and he finds the presentation cancelled with a large satellite crashed in the very building he was in earlier.

Chapter 1 — Time Travel Paranoia
Okabe does not know what is going on. He goes with Daru to attend a different lecture and to his disbelief, finds Kurisu alive and well. She was the one carrying out the presentation on time travel instead. As before, he tries to prove time travel but Kurisu manages to run through all 11 existing time travel theories to prove him that it is impossible.

Okabe soon sees "Mister Braun" (Yuugo Tennouji) closing his shop early. As usual, Tennouji is anoyed at Rintaro's nickname for him and soon tells him that he has a part-timer that he has to interview. It turns out that it is an 18-year-old girl named Suzuha Amane. She instantly displays a certain interest in Rintaro despite his delusions.

Unable to make sense of what happened, he makes his way back to the lab. Along the way he notices a long haired woman taking pictures of him (Moeka Kiryu). Worried that she will end up being attacked by the “secret organisation” he feared, he catches up with her to warn her to delete the photos. She does not say much other than she was searching for an old retro PC known as the “IBN 5100″. She types so fast that Rintaro decides to nickname her “Shining Finger”.

Back at the lab, he continues experimenting with his PhoneWave (name subject to change) which, appears to transport objects around but also turn them into “jelly” form. While experimenting further with Mayuri’s favourite bananas, “The Zombie” Kurisu happens to drop by the lab and is fascinated to learn more. She becomes Lab Mem (Laboratory Member) 004 as a condition to stay and research into the phenomena further.

Chapter 2 — Interpreter Rendezvous
Kurisu returns to her hotel, refusing to believe the PhoneWave (name subject to change) was a time machine. Meanwhile, Rintaro follows up with the ”John Titor” posts appearing in the @channel message boards claiming of SERN controlling the future and how he was to track down an old IBN 5100 to decipher a key that will change the future for the better.

Rintaro decides to ask “Super Hacker” Daru to break into the SERN servers and while he was working away, he goes down to the old Braun’s TV store to pick up the broken TV he had left there to get fixed. Suzuha, the new girl who was working part time there, told them it was ready. It seems that Tennouji, the shop owner, was not too happy about all the noise they have been making during the experiments. For some reason, Suzuha appears to be very interested in the IBN 5100 too and Rintaro soon learns that she is quite a Titor fan as well.

After some probing, Daru finally manages to find some login info to let them get into the server. There they find an odd program that even Daru does not recognise. A thought strikes Rintaro that the IBN 5100 might be needed to decipher it. Sending a sample of the code to Titor, it is confirmed they need one. However, no one knows where it is but rumours have it that there was one in Akihabara.

Rintaro spends most of his day walking around trying to find clues but without any luck. Fortunately, during her shift at the MayQueen+Nyan² maid café, Mayuri learns of the computer’s whereabouts. Her friend and colleague Faris NyanNyan knew where it was but was not going to give up the info for free. Rintaro is invited to play against her in a match of RaiNet AccessBattlers. He agrees and loses badly but the deal was simply to play a match, not to beat her.

They soon learn it was at the old shrine where one of their friends Luka stays. Someone had left it there long ago, mysteriously claiming a young man in the future will have need of it. It was not a light computer despite being “portable” at 25kg and the truck was broken. Fortunately, Kurisu had tagged along curious to know more about the computer. Together they barely manage to move it back to the lab.

As they stop briefly by the bottom of the stairs, Suzuha meets Kurisu for the first time and glares at her. Puzzled, they watched her It was a while before she return inside the store without saying a word.

While Daru goes about finding a different ID with higher level privileges, Rintaro lets Moeka know they had found it and explains their situation to Kurisu. As they wait for Daru, she decides to look into the PhoneWave further. Before long, Daru discovers a database that the mysterious program deciphers and find SERN had indeed successfully discovered time travel but have failed to transport humans so far. It is then that Kurisu believes that time machines exist.

Chapter 3 — Butterfly Effect’s Divergence
Delving further into the database, they discovered many cover ups. Every failed subject appeared in odd places and turning into “Jellymen”. Kurisu explains the human body cannot withstand the effects of the Kerr Black Hole and thus matter is completely broken. Furthermore, as the world is constantly spinning and in orbit, time travelling means you must calculate where to move to.

Eventually the members of Future Gadget Laboratory manage to workout how the D-Mail system works and agree that it can send mobile phone messages to the past. They decide to gather more sample data for research. However, Tennouji did not want them creating any more noise. The tremor felt like the building was going to collapse and was also ruining his food. They had to find a way to distract him or convince him to let them experiment more. They need to figure out the “lifter” mechanism that will allow objects to retain their form after travelling through time.

Moeka comes round the next morning, eager to see the IBN 5100 for herself and try to borrow it but Rintaro refuses to let her take it away. She soon meets Daru and overhears about the D-Mail system. Rintaro decides to make her Lab Mem 005 in the hope she will keep it a secret. They continue to hold a meeting about what they should try with the machine.

They first experimented with sending back the winning numbers of a lottery. Rintaro chooses the third prize so that their enemy SERN will not notice them. Fortunately, Tennouji was out but they fail because Okabe from the past ends up getting Luka to buy a ticket, who accidentally bought the wrong ticket. Oddly enough, no one else remembers discussing the experiment beforehand.

Before trying again, Rintaro goes downstairs to check with Suzuha. Tennouji’s little daughter Nae did not seem too fond of Rintaro and hides quickly behind Suzuha. They have a little chat and learn that they were so loud, even Suzuha overheard their conversation about the time machine but they never felt and shaking when they sent the lottery message. Before Rintaro could probe further, Suzuha suggests he tries to ask Titor about what might have happened. She rushes back inside after seeing Tennouji returning.

While Rintaro contacts John Titor to learn what may have happened to him, everyone else returns home apart from Kurisu. After a few messages Titor believes Rintaro has the ability to help save the future with his speical ability although Rintaro insists he is a “mad scientist” trying to bring chaos to the world with his ability that he named 'Reading Steiner'. Titor suddenly calls him the 'Messiah' to his surprise.

Chapter 4 — Chaos Theory Homeostasis
Rintaro explains to Kurisu and Daru about his “Reading Steiner” ability that allows him to preserve his memory of what has changed and they decide to try again to see if it happens again. Daru wants to send himself some new tactics to beat Faris for a taste of her home cooking but nothing changes. They continue the experiments the next day with Mayuri trying to change what she brought back with her for lunch but again, nothing happens.

Soon their new lab member Moeka requests to use the D-Mail system too. She sends a message to tell herself not to change her phone. This time, Rintaro experienced the same feeling when the lottery ticket experiment took place. However, Moeka appears to have disappeared from the lab. Worried that her existence may have been wiped, Rintaro quickly checks his phone and sends her a message. He is relieved when he receives a reply to say she is busy.

Later that evening, it was time for Kurisu and Mayuri to get back home. As Kurisu heads on back to her hotel, Mayuri looks up at the starry night and remembers 10 years ago when Rintaro fell ill with a very bad fever. At that time, Mayuri was so worried that she was looking up at the stars just like now wishing desperately for Rintaro to recover and he did. It was a miracle he managed to survive. Now that Rintaro thinks back, his Reading Steiner ability feels very much the same as when he had the fever.

Next day, Luka drops by and after making him a Lab Mem 006, he wants to e-mail his mother so that he is born a girl. Kurisu is shocked to learn Luka was actually male and quickly whips out a mirror to check her own looks. She could not believe that a male would look so much cuter than herself.

After getting over the shock, Kurisu tells them she read somewhere on the internet that if the mother were to eat more vegetables, they would have a baby girl or meat if they were to want a boy. It was a silly idea but they thought it was worth a try. The problem was before Luka is born, mobile phones were not invented so they had to use a pager instead – 831831831, each '831' standing for “yasai” （野菜/やさい） as in vegetables or, 292929 with each 29 standing for “niku” (肉/にく) for meat. They had to keep the message within the 36 character limit and eventually converts the message Lukako wants to send into pager code. The e-mail is sent, Reading Steiner is triggered but Okabe assumes the D-Mail had already failed and thinks Luka still remains a boy.

As Rintaro tries to make sense of the D-Mail system at Daru’s favourite maid café, Faris overhears their conversation about their “time machine”. Using her charm on Daru, she makes them promise to let her use it. As Daru spills more information, Faris begins to wonder what a time machine even is. She compares the present to people being on a boat. As it floats down the river, it is heading to the future while people who fall off it, dies. Being a time traveler means they can watch this boat and freely travel to any section of the river.

Returning back to the lab that evening, Rintaro catches Kurisu sobbing outside while talking on the phone. She hangs up and disappears as soon as she sees Rintaro. She does not admit she was crying but Rintaro offers to listen if she ever decides to open up. The next day after Daru and Mayuri returned, Rintaro holds the first “Round Table” meeting to discuss how to expand the machine’s capabilities. Kurisu thought it was not possible when such a large organisation like SERN did not manage to achieve anything in the past 10 years or more.

When it was Daru’s turn to report on his progress in analysing the database, everyone returns a puzzled look at Rintaro. It is then he finds out time has changed to the point they never managed to obtain the IBN 5100. He sends a message to Moeka but seeing no reply, he calls Lukako instead. Lukako doesn’t recall them visiting the shrine to retrieve the PC either. He decides to call Faris next who appears to know nothing about it either. With no clues left to follow, Rintaro tries to make use of Faris’ popularity to find it. She agrees but on a certain condition which she will explain when he visits her at her home.

Only Rintaro was invited but Daru and Mayuri tag along too. They drop by the shrine along the way only to find the PC had also disappeared. On the way to Faris' apartment, he asks Mayuri about Faris’ real name and it turns out it is “Rumiho Akiha”, the daughter of the family responsible for Akihabara’s development. Under pressure from Daru and Mayuri, Rintaro makes Faris a member and lets her send a message. A message is sent and again nothing appears changed… Until Rintaro leaves the expensive apartment and discovers all the Anime stores, maid cafes and all things Otaku related had disappeared from Akiba. Mayuri and Daru reminds him that Nakano's now the centre of Otaku merchandise.

As Rintaro stares in disbelief at the surroundings, an e-mail arrives warning him that he is being watched.

He returns to the lab to find Mayuri reading a book with Lukako. They seemed to be having fun but suddenly Kurisu praises how cute Lukako was. Rintaro still insists that Lukako is male but it appears that everyone besides Rintaro are aware that Lukako is female. Not believing them, Rintaro decides to check Luka's genital area inappropriately and finds out that the latter is indeed female now. Kurisu in anger smacks him with a book she is reading for rudely touching Lukako.

Rintaro leaves the lab so that he can think things over and let the girls calm down after the fuss with Luka's gender. He meets Suzuha who invites him for a cycle to relief the stress. Soon Rintaro learns Suzuha was trying to find her father. Rintaro laughs menacingly, suggesting if she does not manage to meet him, she can take part in the D-Mail experiment like everyone else and makes her Lab Mem 008.

He was planning to tail her to find out whether she is successful or not but, the girls convince him otherwise. Instead they decide to find Daru because he had not turned up for their Round Table meeting. They find him at the local mall but before he had a chance to explain what he was doing there, Rintaro lures him back to the lab claiming Faris was there cooking. It was not until they were back at the lab did Rintaro find out Daru was going to attend another presentation about time travel. A missed opportunity surely. Meanwhile the girls continue working on their cooking but it did not look good.

Suddenly, a mail arrives from Suzuha with only the word – “Farewell”. She did not find her father after all. Wishing he could help Suzuha, Rintaro rushes out the lab to look for her and catches sight of her at the station but she disappears. He returns to the lab to tell the others and was going to use D-Mail but it was late and there was a storm. The next day, reports that the satellite had disappeared was over the headlines. Rintaro pays no attention to it and sends a D-Mail back to himself to tail Suzuha and ignore the girls. Walking downstairs, he finds Suzuha happy they had thrown a party to cheer her up the night before. Rintaro was glad she looked better and takes the chance to ask more about her father. She replies he goes by the code name “Barrel Titor” and was supposed to be at the time machine presentation.

Chapter 5 — Dogma in Event Horizon
The next day, Faris phones to say she couldn’t find any information about the IBN 5100 but Daru manages to find something interesting… Their network connection was linked directly to SERN. Perhaps they really are being spied on.

Some time passes by and Kurisu has discovered the secret to the D-Mail system. In order for a time machine to work, a mini black hole must be created but a particle accelerator similar to the SERN’s LHC is needed. As Kurisu goes about figuring out what they could use, she reveals to Rintaro that her interest in science began when her father kept talking to her about science. Eventually one of the theories her father found lead him to shame and embarassment from the media. Her mother thought this would affect Kurisu and sent her overseas. She returned to Japan hoping to see her father again but he did not seem pleased on the phone that other day. Rintaro promises he will go with her to Aomori so she does not have to worry.

The next day, Rintaro heads out with Mayuri to help find the components they need to begin upgrading the D-Mail system to a time leap system. They meet Moeka who appears unusually interested in how work is progressing. Not long later that evening, Rintaro receives yet another threat e-mail. This time with the severed head of a mannequin’s head with red paint over it.

Quickly he runs back to the lab and locks the door. He hears someone in the showers. Worried for the girl’s safety he bursts inside…

The next day, Kurisu was ready to adjust the PhoneWave so that it works with her contraption that allows them to store human memory as data, ready for sending. But first, Rintaro will have to distract Tennouji who might kick them out of the lab if they perform any more building shaking experiments. He goes down to the shop and finds Suzuha there. Suzuha learns of what he was planning but again warns him to get rid of Kurisu, claiming she will do anything to carry out her experiments. Suddenly, the building begins to shake and Tennouji tries to protect the 42″ CRT TV. It was then Rintaro realises the giant 42″ old TV in Tennouji’s shop downstairs was the key component “lifter” that was making the D-Mail system possible. It was responsible for speeding up the radio waves emitted by Rintaro’s phone into the PhoneWave. This was why it only worked at certain times when the shop was open.

To confirm Rintaro’s findings, they decide to try again. Earlier, Tennouji had just raised the rent to punish them. They’re going to need some more serious distraction this time so that they can make sure the TV is on. Fortunately Suzuha decides to help out. She takes her top off and wraps it tightly around Tennouji’s head. Surprised, Rintaro quickly hits the power switch and as if on cue, the building shakes again.

Figuring out the mystery still was not going to allow humans to travel back in time but, Kurisu explains she can use the theory she had published in the Science magazine – She can capture the entire human memory into 3.24TB (around 3,240GB). She could then use the black hole generated by SERN's LHC to compress the data into the limited 36 bytes and then using the mini black hole generated by the PhoneWave to send the compressed data to a phone in the past, “restore” this memory into someone else’s mind. In this case, it would allow them to call themselves in the past and transfer their memory through the phone producing a “time leap” effect.

After gathering all the components Kurisu needed to finally complete the new time leap machine, Rintaro holds another “Round Table” meeting to discuss what they should do with such a machine and the possibility of stopping SERN. Suzuha joins them too and yet another fierce exchange of glares break out until the innocent Mayuri breaks up the tension. Suddenly, a special news bulletin reports there was an explosion in Akiba bringing the rail systems to a halt. Suzuha’s expression looked tense. After she confirmed they had completed the time leap machine she leaves the lab hastily.

Suddenly their lab is raided by a group of armed men and leading them was Moeka. She was working for SERN as part of a group known as the “Rounders” and had been keeping an eye on them. Now that Rintaro had discovered how to create a time machine, they cannot let them roam around freely. She was to capture Rintaro, Kurisu and Daru to help speed up the development of SERN’s own time machine.

However, Mayuri was expendable. Rintaro tries to save her but ends up being knocked down by one of the men. Mayuri walks over to look at him but Moeka fires. Mayuri gets shot in the head. Suzuha appears, disarming the men with her agile movements. She utters a few words to Rintaro, hinting she had made all the preparations they needed to time leap. He rushes into the back of the room and uses one of the gadgets to create a smoke screen. He starts the machine while wearing the headset, desperate to change the past and save Mayuri.

Chapter 6 — Metaphysics Necrosis
The machine starts up so his memory time leaps into the past and Rintaro found himself dreaming of the time when Mayuri’s grandmother passed away. The time when he made her his “hostage” so that he could protect her and give a place of belonging. He wakes up from the dream and finds himself standing in the lab with a very bad headache. Kurisu is calling out to him wondering why he was spacing out in front of the PhoneWave. They still had some work to do before they could time leap. Everything seemed normal. Perhaps it was just a nightmare Rintaro had but everything had a uncomfortable “deja vu” feeling. He knew exactly what everyone was going to do or say next.

By the time he realised he had successfully time leaped, it was too late. Moeka and the rest of the SERN team had broken into the lab and Mayuri was shot again. Rintaro rushes to the machine to time leap again.

Despite his best efforts to change his childhood friend’s fate, Rintaro could not stop Mayuri from dying. No matter how many times he time leaped, Mayuri died one way or another whether it was a car accident or being killed by a member of SERN. It was as if some things were destined to happen.

Eventually, during another time leap, Suzuha overhears his conversation with Kurisu that Mayuri was going to die. Thinking she had herself to blame, Suzuha runs off and Rintaro finds her trying to launch the crashed satellite. Unfortunately, it had been damaged during the storm and was filled with water. Suzuha reveals she was the “John Titor” from the discussion boards and feels it is time to explain everything.

The satellite was a time machine and as she wrote on @channel, she was travelling back in time to retrieve the IBN 5100 and was making a stop. However, she mixed in some false bits of information to throw SERN off the scent. She goes onto explain how time was like interwined threads and time travelling meant to shift between the different timelines – parallel worlds. To move to a completely different timeline where history is completely different from the others, they must move out of a certain range known as the “Attractor Field”. Kurisu was the one who helped SERN complete the time machine but as she goes over the details about how Rintaro formed a resistance and what was going to happen soon, she decided that Kurisu must have been forced to help them under threat. The misunderstanding between them is cleared up.

Unfortunately, the IBN 5100 was no longer in their possession after shifting the world timeline so many times with the D-Mails they sent. The only way to get it back now was to let Suzuha travel back in the satellite shaped time machine and retrieve it for them. The problem was it has been damaged during the rainy night. They sneak in together and Daru takes a look. He should be able to fix the damaged parts. What’s more, the time machine only had enough fuel left for one more trip and it was incomplete, only allowing her to travel back in time.

Suzuha takes out a meter with a row of numbers on it. It was made by Rintaro in the future, a “divergence meter”. To change the future and save Mayuri from her fate, they must shift the timeline until the meter is over 1%. Without letting Mayuri know what will happen to her, they conclude that a certain event must be the root of Mayuri’s fate. Rintaro remembers how Moeka claimed their completion of the time machine was a threat. They must have been monitored all this time. Suzuha mentions SERN has been capturing everything that was sent over the communication networks and is stored inside the database that only the IBN 5100 can decipher. They must have managed to capture the initial D-Mail Rintaro had sent about Kurisu’ death! They’ll have to wipe the entry from the logs.

Meanwhile, Rintaro and the others try to help Suzuha find her father using the pin badge he had made for the resistance as a clue. It’s sad that it will be a one way trip back to the past for her.

Soon the machine is fixed and everyone is gathered by the satellite but they had no luck finding who Suzuha’s father is. To everyone’s surprise, Mayuri claims she had figured out who Suzuha’s father was. She points to the initials on the badge, pointing out each of the initials stood for one of the lab members. The time machine was named in a way similar to how Daru names his work and daru can sound like “Barrel” The only person who knew the lab member names and was computer literate was… Daru! It was quite a shock of course.

After a happy but bitter reunion, Suzuha leaves and everyone waits in the lab for some kind of change. To their surprise, Tennouji appears with a letter that was addressed to them. It was a letter from a lady. They open it up and find out it was from Suzuha. She had written it while inside a mental hospital. It turns out the time machine hadn’t been fixed. Although she managed to travel back to the correct time, she lost her memory and it wasn’t until 20 years had passed did she remember her purpose. By then it was too late to retrieve the IBN 5100.

On the very last paragraph, Suzuha writes to Rintaro he should never have stopped her going back in time that certain day when she had overheard about Mayuri’s death during one of Rintaro’s time leaps. If he didn’t, the storm wouldn’t have damaged her time machine and she wouldn’t have wasted her life in a hospital.

Rintaro quickly runs downstairs to catch up with Tennouji, wanting to know where Suzuha was now and how they came to know each other. It turns out that Tennouji had come from overseas with nowhere to stay. Eventually Suzuha had taken him under her wing… Before she hanged herself.

The hour when SERN attacks arrives. Remembering Mayuri’s fate, Rintaro decides to change the future again using the D-Mail to order himself not to stop Suzuha, claiming it was a trap from SERN.

Irreversible Reboot
Rintaro decides not to send the D-Mail so that Suzuha doesn’t have to be all alone in the past and erasing her memories of their time together at the lab. He time leaps to continue trying to save Mayuri but fails as before. Despair soon descended and Rintaro let himself time leap to the same period again and again, when everyone was just happily together, cycling. Nothing sad was going to happen. Maybe it was over a hundred times he time leaped… He became so fed up of seeing the same happy scenes repeatedly, sinister thoughts started to appear. He can just “reset” everything as if nothing happened after all by time leaping.

Eventually, after another time leap, Suzuha noticed the change in Rintaro’s expression. His eyes looked as if he was brain washed like the people from the future she came from. She invites Rintaro to travel back to the past to find the IBN 5100 together with her and Rintaro agrees. It is implied in interviews that this is a happy ending.

Chapter 7 — Made in Complex
Rintaro finds himself sitting in the lab. However, the IBN 5100 did not re-appear in the lab. He waits for the fated hour but for some reason SERN didn’t attack. Letting Suzuha go back in time must have something to do with it. The next day as expected, Suzuha was nowhere to be found at Tennouji's store. Rintaro was also glad to learn she had died a peaceful death this timeline and asks if he could visit the place where she lived.

As he made his way to Suzuha’s home, he saw the satellite was gone leaving only a gap where it had crashed. Soon he arrives at the house to retrieve the divergence meter she left behind. As he looked at the digits that were at 0.4% now, Tennouji said Suzuha would stare at the everyday but never explained why.

The next day, Rintaro spent time thinking why the meter had not reached 1% yet. Before he knew it, it was evening. Suddenly, SERN attacks. It appears their attack was only delayed. Rintaro time leaps back and after explaining everything to Kurisu again, they try to figure out what was missing.

It was going to be a long battle but they conclude Rintaro is going to have to undo all the D-Mails that have been sent out to return to the timeline when he managed to obtain the IBN 5100. He time leaps back.

First off, it was to find out what Faris had written. Rintaro visits her at the apartment to find her feeling down. She lost the Rai Net Grand Championship to the Viral Attackers. After learning Rintaro had access to a time machine, she uses her charms claiming she remembers what she wrote but only after she can win the battle. It was very important that she wins because she had promised her father. Unfortunately, 4℃ (Shido) at the finals had cheated, shining some lasers into her eye so she pulled the wrong cards. She tells Rintaro to bring some sunglasses to her after time leaping.

Rintaro has a hard time getting into the Net Battle finals because he didn’t have a ticket and the Faris from the past didn’t believe she would lose. Not to mention wearing the sunglasses made her look unpleasant in front of her fans. This didn’t put Rintaro down. He was desperate to save Mayuri. He grabs hold of Faris who screams and attracts the attention of her rival 4℃. Rintaro manages to drive him off because he found his weakness earlier and Faris believes him, taking the accessories and helping him into the building. During the match, Rintaro manages to stop the Black Prince’s accomplices. Faris wins and is happy Rintaro helped her.

However, when Rintaro asks her what she wrote in her D-Mail, she has no clue what he was talking about. If what Rintaro said was true then that version of her at the time must have just lied to get what she wanted. Rintaro falls down with dismay. They bump into 4℃ who was very angry at losing to the cosplaying maid. The Viral Attackers were spreading bad rumours about Faris cheating and that she only won because she was from the Akiha family. They run away from the angry guys and hide where the maid cafe originally was.

Inside the warehouse Faris suddenly remembers using the D-Mail system for some reason as well as how she had a maid cafe. Before she could explain further, the Viral Attackers discover their location. Rintaro bursts open one of the sacks of flour and runs out.

The Viral Attackers catch up. Rintaro is beaten trying to protect Faris. Her father arrives just in time to drive them away. As Rintaro lay in bed injured, Faris explains that she had said something terrible to her father before he left for an overseas trip, telling him to die. He had promised to spend day with her during her birthday. As if what she said was granted, the plane crash landed and her father really did die. She sent an D-Mail back to pretend she was kidnapped to prevent her father flying so the accident never happens. As a result, she never took part in the development conferences to transform Akihabara into an Otaku paradise which is why all the stores had disappeared.

However, now that she has spent some time with her father and saw him trying to rescue her, she decides it’s time tol send a D-Mail to stop herself changing the past. Even though she really wanted her father to be by her side, she didn’t want Rintaro to be sad and wanted to save her friend Mayuri.

Isolated Jamais Vu
Rintaro decides not to send the D-Mail because he did not want to sacrifice anyone else’s happiness after Suzuha. He tries to think of an alternative way to retrieve the IBN 5100 and learns that Faris’ father had sold the retro PC for enough money to start his own business. Perhaps Faris can send a D-Mail to convince her father to sell the rest of his PC collection instead of the IBN 5100.

The D-Mail is sent, Akiba is back to a place filled with Otaku stores. He goes to Suzuha’s home to find the Divergence Meter and discovers the value had decreased. Not only that, the Mirai Gadgets Lab had ceased to exist. He goes to visit the May Queen maid cafe and finds both Mayuri and Daru there but neither of them knew Rintaro. Faris was now his girlfriend. In this timeline, they met in a small Rainet shop where they had a fierce battle together. They decided to join forces for the grand championship and Faris fell in love with him.

The Future Gadget Laboratory’s existence is erased, Mayuri is saved. Only Faris knows who Rintaro is and they continue to be lovers.

Chapter 8 — Fractal Androgynous
After spending one last moment with her father, Rintaro sends the D-Mail and Akiba is back to normal. He grabs a surprised Faris, holding her tight. Later, he heads to the shrine to see if the IBN 5100 was back in place but as he expected, it has still gone missing. He confirms the timeline hadn’t shifted enough yet by going to Suzuha’s home to collect the Divergence Meter again.

The next D-Mail to undo was to stop Luka being born as a girl. He had a hard time breaking the truth to her at the shrine. She cried upset that the Rintaro she was so fond of saw her as a boy. Mayuri was very angry – for the first time. Asking for Kurisu’ help didn’t work either. Kurisu suggested Luka goes through a brain scan to prove she was really a boy. Eventually, just like Faris, Luka reveals she too has memories of what the world was like before the D-Mail too. She was willing to undo the D-Mail if Rintaro would promise her one thing… A few days of dating. She confesses her feelings for him.

Dating someone who he knew was originally male wasn’t easy for Rintaro of course but remembering Luka was truly a girl, she looked kind of cute. Still, he reluctantly agrees and knows he mustn’t grow too attached or it will become very hard to undo the D-Mail after the dates are over. Before the dates, Rintaro sits down together with Kurisu at the maid cafes reading a “How to Date” book.

Over the following days, he does his best to follow the instructions as he and Luka dine out and walk around together. It was really awkward and although Luka said she was really happy, Rintaro felt she was lying. What’s more, she remembers the time when she had surrounded by Otaku cosplay photographers. It was odd that she remembers herself being harassed when she was trying to explain she was really a male.

Eventually, Rintaro realises perhaps treating her the same way as when she was a boy was best. He time leaps back to before the dates and brings the Katana to the shrine, putting on his Kyouma ego on again and making her practice. Indeed, it was really the best way Luka could be happy. Suddenly she recalls storing away the IBN 5100 into a public locker several months ago so that she could clean out the shed. It was so heavy she broke it while transporting it there. They go check the locker but it was no longer there. Reversing what her D-Mail changed was the only way to prevent any more unpredictable changes from happening.

Just before she writes the D-Mail to send back, she holds Rintaro tightly, crying in tears.

Rintaro reluctantly sends the D-Mail, angry at himself that he must destroy the happiness of yet another person. Soon, he finds himself still standing at the shrine but it appeared Luka was back to a male again.

Link of Corruption and Rebirth
Rintaro decides it was too much sacrificing the happiness of others. He doesn’t send the D-Mail and decides to spend the remaining time with Mayuri at ComiMa. When the fated hour came, Mayuri suddenly couldn’t breathe and died from suffocation. Only he, Kurisu and Lukako knows what really happened. Kurisu did not blame Rintaro for giving up meddling with time but she did think he should take responsibility with that certain person he had shifted the timeline for.

Lukako was very sad that Mayuri died but she knew that if she wanted to be with Rintaro, she can’t send the D-Mail. Instead, she decides to time leap herself and fulfil Mayuri’s wish to see Lukako cosplay at ComiMa. Sharing the guilty conscience that they could have saved Mayuri, Lukako and Rintaro is married and have a child.

Chapter 9 — Endless Apoptosis
Rintaro sends the D-Mail and he finds Lukako has no memory of their date. He asks Luka to go check for the IBN 5100 and finds it was stolen. The lock had been broken. It appears he had to undo all the D-Mails after all.

The next D-Mail was the hardest because Rintaro had to find someone he never wanted to see again – Moeka, the very person who he had witnessed shooting Mayuri dead many times during his time leaps back. Rintaro yet again, explains eveything to Kurisu again about his time leaps and asks if she could go with Mayuri to the ComiMa to confirm whether Mayuri’s fate has changed or not. He’s witnessed Mayuri die too many times now. Kurisu agrees and goes with her the next day.

Rintaro goes wandering around Akiba hoping to find Moeka but then remembers she mentioned she worked at “Arc Rewrite”. He decides to go there but finds out there was no one by the name of Moeka. The staff there does mention a woman had resigned not long ago and passed on the address.

However, Rintaro arrives at the given address shocked to find a woman had committed suicide there yesterday. Could it really be Moeka? Why would she commit suicide? Unable to get any more information from the police, he returns to the lab to time leap and arrives just in time to find someone else using the time machine. He rushes up the stairs but the timeline had shifted and the person was gone before he could find out who it was. Who could it have been?

He decides to wait a while longer until the fated hour just to see if Mayuri’s fate had changed but as he feared, Kurisu calls to report Mayuri died from sudden suffocation. He proceeds to time leap back to the night before the suicide. The apartment was lit. He goes up and opens the unlocked door. There he saw Moeka kneeling down, rapidly tapping away desperately at the phone, asking herself why “FB” hadn’t contacted her for so long. She was ignoring Rintaro and wouldn’t talk to him.

Kurisu calls to check where he was and she agrees he will have to take extreme measures in these circumstances if they’re really going to find out what she wrote in her D-Mail. It won’t mean anything after the timeline’s shifted and he time leaps again anyway. Rintaro hangs up and tries to grab the phone from Moeka. As before, she holds it desperately. It was the only way she can keep in touch with “FB”, her leader.

Rintaro knew he had to do what he must. He grabs her by the neck and they struggle. He grabs her phone and runs out the apartment, holding the door tightly shut. Moeka desperately tries turns the door handle, trying to force it open as Rintaro tries to send an e-mail from her phone, letting Moeka in the past know not to change phones. However, despite trying many times, the Reading Steiner effect didn’t trigger. He tries sending a few more messages but they don’t work either. Glancing at the phone, he realised it was exactly the same as before Moeka sent the D-Mail. Kurisu suggests going through the sent mail history but Rintaro had no time for that. He’ll just have to go back inside and find out directly from Moeka herself.

A rough struggle breaks out again until Rintaro manages to pin Moeka to the ground. The noise makes the next door neighbour knock on the door, asking Moeka to keep the noise down. Moeka screams for help. Rintaro’s hands were too busy keeping her pinned down so he does the only thing he could think of to keep her quiet. He kisses her and the neighbour goes away, muttering how inconsiderate young people were these days.

Moeka bites Rintaro’s lips and he pulls back but wasn’t going to give up until she cooperates. Moeka lay in silence for some time before she finally asks what she had to do to get her phone back. Rintaro questions who was FB and why was she so loyal to him or her that she wasn’t say what she wrote in the D-Mail. Moeka replies she doesn’t know. FB was her leader but they have never met. One day she received an e-mail from FB recruiting “helpers” and she signed up. FB was very kind and caring which comforted her very much but after her last mission to find the IBN 5100 and putting it away in a locker, FB suddenly cut off contact.

Now that Moeka had given up her struggle, Rintaro picks up her phone to send a D-Mail telling her not to retrieve the computer from the shrine but nothing happens. She must be too cautious to trust just any messages she receives. They’ll have to undo the D-Mail some other way and obtaining FB’s phone is probably the best way.

After confirming with Daru that the locker Moeka mentioned was in use, Rintaro returns the phone to Moeka and invites her along to for a chance to find out who FB really is. She hesitates and doesn’t follow.

The next day, Rintaro goes alone to the locker and he spends the whole day keeping watch but no one arrives to open the locker. Rintaro decides to try and break the locker open. The police is alerted and he time leaps back. The next day, Moeka joins him bringing some food with her and the next day someone finally appears. He didn’t seem to be FB. They follow him onto the train but lose track of the man he passes the case to. After another time leap they finally manage to get back on track. Surprisingly, Tennouji from the old TV shop was arrives to give them a lift. Rintaro time leaps again and goes to rent a car ready to trail Tennouji and the Rounders. Moeka was a “paper driver” which meant she hasn’t driven for a very long time but she manages to somehow… They end up arriving at Suzuha’s home where the IBN 5100 is moved inside.

They watch the house waiting for any more movement. There was none. Night soon descended and the men who attacked the lab arrives. They take the IBN5100 and learn they were heading to France with it where SERN’s HQ was. Rintaro calls Kurisu to tell her to keep watch from outside. She was to call for help if neither he or Moeka comes back out. They enter the house and Tennouji greets them. He collects the Divergence Meter yet again but sits down. The displayed value had increased which confirms undoing the D-Mails was working.

Moeka stays silent until Rintaro reveals they knew he was working for SERN. Tennouji takes out a gun, his smile faded. He admits to be “FB” and was only using Moeka to find the IBN 5100. She was no use any more. Rintaro was angry. Angry that the very person that Suzuha had gone back in time and ended up looking after was the person to steal the IBN5100 she retrieved. As if in answer, Tennouji smiled and pointed the gun to himself. He’s sorry for Suzuha and pulls the trigger. After picking up “FB” Yuugo Tennouji’s phone, Rintaro tried looking for Nae but was glad she wasn’t there to witness the whole event.

Together they leave the scene quickly back to Moeka’s apartment, ready to send the D-Mail they need. However, just as Kurisu mentions she saw a little girl running out the back of the house after the gunshot, Tennouji’s little daughter Nae appears in the room and greets them hello. She suddenly takes out a gun and shoots Moeka, laughing eerily. She tells Rintaro to wait in fear because he will be next in the future and runs out the apartment. Both Kurisu and Rintaro were shocked. That did not sound like a little girl talking.

With the D-Mail on standby, Moeka apologises for what she’s done and passes out. Kurisu remains calm, urging Rintaro to send the D-Mail but he doesn’t. He wanted to know the truth and who Nae really was. He time leaps back to before they arrive at Suzuha’s house and waits outside together with Kurisu while Moeka goes in alone this time. He instructs Kurisu to go in and pick up FB’s phone after hearing a gunshot while he goes after Nae.

Unprepared, little Nae brandishes a knife and lunges at Rintaro’s shoulder. She reveals she was Tennouji's daughter who had time leaped over 2700 times to return 15 years from the future for revenge. But she couldn’t kill Rintaro yet because otherwise she would never be able to travel back in time to kill Moeka like she just did. Either way, she joins Rounders and is the one that ends up capturing Rintaro in the future, torturing him about his resistance group and letting him die a slow death. With that she runs off just as Kurisu catches up. Rintaro takes the phone from Kurisu and sends the D-Mail.

After the timeline shift, Rintaro finds himself standing in the streets and immediately heads to Moeka’s apartment to see if the D-Mail worked. She confirms she was no longer looking for the IBN5100. As he made his way back to the lab, he grimaced remembering what happened in the other timeline – Nae bent on revenge and Tennouji committing suicide to stop Moeka working for the Rounders.

Finally the IBN5100 was back in the Future Gadget Laboratory. Rintaro cries out happily, ready to have Daru erase traces of their D-Mail from SERN’s surveillance logs and shift the timeline for good so that Mayuri is finally saved. Unfortunately, Daru was away at the ComiMa so Rintaro time leaps to the moment Daru is still around.

Daru sets up all the commands ready and gives Rintaro the privilege to hit the enter key. However, just as he was about to execute the commands, he realises he had forgotten something important… If he stops himself sending that D-Mail about Kurisu’ death, they will end up in a timeline where she will be murdered.

Chapter 10 — Paradox Meltdown
After everything they’ve been through, he couldn’t do it. He heads to the roof of the place where Suzuha landed, unsure of what to do. He decides to wait until the fated day to see if Mayuri’s fate changed and they spend the time at ComiMa. He mentioned nothing about her fate, lying that he was just spending time with her on a whim. That night, a white van runs into them. Mayuri pushes Rintaro out the way and gets run over.

Rintaro time leaps back to when he first went up to the roof and began thinking through everything that has happened. Kurisu appears, knowing something was wrong when he decided to stop hacking SERN’s servers. Rintaro tries not to say anything but Kurisu manages to persuade him otherwise. He tells her everything that’s happened once again and that Kurisu will die if he wants to save Mayuri.

For a moment, Kurisu stays silent and gazes into the distance. Then she begins to talk about time travel theory. Rintaro was troubled because he didn’t want to see anyone die. Kurisu smiles, saying he isn’t a god and wasn’t the one controlling everything that happens. Even if what he has explained is real, he can continue to believe that Kurisu is simply living in another timeline. She assures him there is nothing to trouble over.

Just then, Mayuri calls. She was worried about Rintaro too. Kurisu urges him to go see her at the ComiMa but he doesn’t find her there. He goes to her aunt’s grave and there she was talking. Rintaro overhears her saying she dreamt of herself dying in many different ways and every time, she would see Rintaro trying to save her. She didn’t know why and was trying to call out to Rintaro in her dreams, apologising that he had to go through so much hardship. She changes subject, telling her aunt there are lots more lab members now and how fun it’s become. Rintaro was a lot livelier and happier compared to the days when it was just him and Mayuri at the lab.

Eventually, Rintaro calls out to her, reassuring her everything will be fine and stay the way they are. He walks her back then returns to the roof where Kurisu still was. Kurisu sees Rintaro but wants to be left alone. Just as Rintaro was about to leave, it starts raining heavily. Both of them are soaked by the time they run back inside the dimly lit building. After teasing Kurisu a bit, Rintaro sits next to her. He finds his sleeve was torn while running back inside. Kurisu takes out a sewing pack and helps fix it. It was too dark to see which colour the thread was but it’ll be something to look forward to once they get out.

There was a moment of silence. Kurisu starts talking again, asking if he had made up his mind yet whether to continue hacking the system. Perhaps it was just her imagination but she too seems to remember how many times he tried to save Mayuri and how she tried her best to help. She was scared of being left behind when the timeline shifts but that doesn’t mean she wants to see Mayuri get killed either. She insists Rintaro saves Mayuri. Rintaro grits his teeth and suddenly pulls Kurisu towards her and holds her tightly. He didn’t want to lose anyone…

Stardust Sky
Rintaro finally apologises quitely into Kurisu’s ear, sorry that he can’t save her. He already made up his mind that he must save Mayuri no matter what. Kurisu quietly says she understands and gets up. She commands Rintaro to stay there while she returns to the lab first.

2 hours later, Rintaro returns to the lab, he finds Kurisu wasn’t there. He finds an e-mail from her with a quote saying, “Stop trying to predict what will happen in the future. It is best you accept time as a gift.” She had decided to return to the hotel. Rintaro continues to wonder if it was right to not try and save Kurisu. After taking a shower, Mayuri arrives. She didn’t go to the ComiMa because she was worried about Rintaro looking troubled.

Rintaro looks at Mayuri, asking what would she do if he was hiding something from her. She smiles like she usually does, replying that she would wait until he’s ready to tell her. She didn’t want to be a burden for him. But she soon learns that Rintaro looked so troubled because he was trying to keep everything secret from her so she asks him to tell her everything… even if it means hurting her. Rintaro puts on his “mad scientist” ego and begins to tell her everything starting from the day SERN attacked the lab, Mayuri’s death, how he time leaped countless times trying to save her and… how he was about to sacrifice Kurisu to save her.

Mayuri was shocked at the truth and felt like an idiot about being oblivious and just sitting around making her costumes. She asks Rintaro to take her to see Kurisu. It was late night. They soon meet up. After Rintaro gives Mayuri a gentle push, Mayuri hugs Kurisu tightly. She didn’t want her to be sacrificed either. Kurisu gives Mayuri a hug, insisting she will be alive and well in America. It was something she had decided herself so there is no one to blame. She tells Rintaro to never let Mayuri go again then leaves.

Rintaro held Mayuri as she cried on his chest. They promise never to separate again as the sun rised. Together, they return to the lab where Daru was waiting. He makes a speech as his “mad scientist” self and holding Mayuri’s hand tightly, he hits the enter key.

The Reading Steiner trigger takes effect and Rintaro finds himself still in the lab. Daru and Mayuri were standing there but, there were no signs of Kurisu left. Not even that little piece of thread she used to fix his lab coat’s sleeve with. The PhoneWave hasn’t been developed further and the others don’t remember Kurisu at all. Rintaro cries, holding onto Mayuri, begging her never to leave his side.

Three days after the fated hour, Mayuri was still alive and well. There was no follow up news on the the murder case of Makise Kurisu. Rintaro leaves to find Mayuri handing out flyers for the May Queen cafe and together they head back to the lab to get away from the summer heat. Suddenly, Mayuri disappears. Fearing she was in trouble again, Rintaro calls out Mayuri’s name. She appears behind him with some shredded ice drinks. As they walk by the Rajio building hand in hand, Mayuri pauses to look up. She feels as if she’s forgotten about someone. Someone important. She claims to hear a voice wishing her happiness. Rintaro knew she was talking about Kurisu but tells her instead, “It must be god.”

Mayuri thanks “god” and together with Rintaro, they continue walking.

Kurisu ending Kurisu gently pushes away from him. Seeing Rintaro couldn’t make a decision, she raises her voice saying she will not help him this time and will be heading back to America. She leaves the building first.

Rintaro returns to the lab and stares at the PhoneWave, unwilling to use it. He suddenly hears Kurisu’s voice behind him. She had come back because she couldn’t stand to see Rintaro suffering so much. However, she still insists he makes the final change. As Rintaro thinks back to the days and everything they’ve been through together, he realises Kurisu wasn’t just a friend to him anymore… He had fallen in love with her. He had to say something.

Rintaro confesses his love and asks how Kurisu felt about him. She blushes, grabs him by his lab coat and orders him to close his eyes. Their lips lock. Rintaro looks at Kurisu surprised. She stutters, telling him not to forget her. Rintaro replies in his usual voice filled with pride that it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t his first kiss so he’ll need another one to remember her. They kiss again but longer this time. Time seemed to flash by for that brief moment.

The next day Rintaro sees Kurisu off. She didn’t want anyone else to come. Rintaro gives her one of Mirai Gadget’s inventions – a camera to take with her back to America as a memento. As Kurisu walks off into the distance, Rintaro shouts out that he’ll never forget her.

Returning back to the lab, he makes a speech as his “mad scientist” self and with tears in his eyes, his hand moves down to hit the enter key to erase the very first D-Mail he sent from the SERN servers. Suddenly, Kurisu bursts in through the door just in time to say she will never forget Rintaro too.

The Reading Steiner trigger takes effect and Rintaro finds himself still in the lab. Daru and Mayuri were standing there but, there were no signs of Kurisu left. Not even that little piece of thread she used to fix his lab coat’s sleeve with. The PhoneWave hasn’t been developed further and the others don’t remember Kurisu at all. Rintaro tries to put on another victory speech again but Mayuri could tell he wanted to cry. In his heart secretly he asked why was he made to choose. Why did Kurisu have to see him off with a smile. The tears came bursting out as Mayuri gently comforted him.

Three days after the fated hour, Mayuri was still alive and well. Rintaro decided it was safe to dismantle the PhoneWave and the IBN 5100. Daru thought it was a shame they couldn’t sell the computer for a huge sum of money and to Mayuri, a microwave was essential but, Rintaro insists it was for the best and they can find a new microwave. He gazes at the trashed devices and remembers Kurisu’s words that even though she may have made mistakes, she didn’t regret them. It was all a part of accepting herself and learning who she was. Rintaro agrees and finally concludes humankind can not rely on time machines. It was beyond their control and things were best as they are.

Chapter 11 — Open The Steins Gate
On 21st of August, Daru receives a call from a “mysterious woman” in the lab. He passes it onto Rintaro and finds it was Suzuha from the future.

Confused, Rintaro goes to Radio Kaikan that was still sealed off due to an unsolved murder investigation. On the roof he finds Suzuha and the satellite-shaped time machine hadn’t crashed this time. She claims the Third World War takes place in the future where she comes from. This results in a causality of 5.7 billion people. Rintaro grabs her, wondering if Kurisu’ death and everything he has been through was for nothing. Suzuha calms him down to say that to change this new bleak future, they have to save Kurisu. They must reach the “Steins Gate” timeline. Recognizing the machine from the first time he had seen on 28th July, believing it to be convergence he decides to get into the machine, after a little push from Mayuri and Daru.

This time they were they going to use Suzuha’s completed time machine to travel back in the time to 28th July, the day of the Conference. Unlike the model (FG204) in the previous timeline, this new model (C204) allows them to travel back and forward in time. After arriving back in time, Suzuha breaks the emergency exit open with her gun. Suzuha warns Rintaro that he must not run into his past self. While recalling the events which happened on the 28th of July, Okabe suddenly realizes the past him runs up to the roof, and manages to get away just in time. He runs down to the 4th Floor. While recollecting his thoughts about the previous time he was there, he ran into Kurisu again. This marks the first time Okabe and Kurisu meet from Kurisu's perspective. Kurisu was investigating the source of the sound which emitted from the rooftop, and wanted to inquire if Rintaro knew anything about it. Trying to hold his emotion in he tries to grab her hand, only to grow suspicious in her eyes. He realizes that she would never follow a man she doesn't know, thus theorizes the only way to save her is to head to the spot of her murder and wait for a chance. He tries to leave, but Kurisu stops him. He mutters that he will save her, but stops midway realizing how powerless he was with Mayuri. Staying there any longer would risk his emotions getting the better of him thus Rintaro makes a run for it.

Rintaro hides himself near where Kurisu is found murdered. Moments later Kurisu appears happily holding a manila envelope. She appeared to be waiting for someone. Dr. Nakabachi appears and it turns out he was her father. Kurisu really wanted to help restore her father’s reputation about time travel but he thought she wanted to steal his glory. He takes out a knife, saying it was her fault he was made a fool. He’s going to take credit for her work instead.

Rintaro leaps out trying to stop him and manages to take the knife away. Nakabachi picks up a screwdriver on the floor. When Kurisu asks her father to stop, he charges her with the screwdriver instead. Kurisu blocks a few blows from her father with her arm while Okabe stares in horror. As the angered Rintaro gets ready to strike, he charges in Nakabachi's direction. A splash of blood covers his lab coat but it wasn’t Nakabachi’s… the blood came from Kurisu. She had moved in to protect her father. Rintaro shocked at what had happened held onto Kurisu as Nakabachi took Kurisu's thesis and made a run for it. Kurisu didn’t know who he was but apologies that he had to get caught up in this mess. Her voice started to trail away quietly, barely uttering that she didn’t want to die and wanted help. Finally she dies in Rintaro's arms, who lets out a scream in terror of the events he had just witnessed. Suzuha rushes to help the shocked Rintaro back to the time machine, now knowing that the cry he heard in the building was his own.

Rintaro was ready to give up trying to save Kurisu believing that the convergence of events meant he couldn’t do it just like when he tried to save Mayuri but, Mayuri slaps him and tries to encourage him to try again. Just then, his phone rings and he receives an anonymous e-mail telling him to watch TV. Rintaro recognized the date… It was from the future and that means it must be a D-Mail! They turn on the TV channel on his phone and find the cargo hold in the plane that Nakabachi was on, had caught fire while he was being exiled to Russia. The time travel documents he stole would have been burned too but, thanks to the rare metal “Upa” being detected during the security scans, he ended up carrying the documents with him. Somehow, Nakabachi had picked it up when Mayuri lost it. As a result, the Third World War breaks out between the countries in a race to obtain time travel.

Suzuha knew all along that all this was going to happen – including Rintaro failing to save Kurisu. She apologies that she didn’t explain everything to him but, she was instructed by Rintaro from the future to let him fail once. She points to his phone indicating there is another D-Mail he must have received on 28th July. He mentions that it was static, so he thought it was spam. Then Suzuha specifies he can view it now, since he saved to fail Kurisu once. It contains an attachment with a video clip in it, from 2025.

Rintaro opens the video and sees a silhouette of himself. He hears his own voice. It turns out he had to let Kurisu be killed once or he would never have had the will to upgrade the D-Mail system so that he can send a recording back in time. The Future Rintaro explains he’s suffered the guilt for 15 years and has concluded that time travel will not save Kurisu. What they had to do was to stop the time machine from ever being invented and feign Kurisu’ death to fool the world and himself. Otherwise he would never be able to send a message long enough to himself. Kurisu will also be saved because her father will think she died in Japan. The metal Upa must also be replaced so that the documents end up being left in the cargo hold and burned.

Rintaro remembers one of his gadgets can create fake looking blood and gets Mayuri to go fetch it. He also prepares a taser to stun Kurisu. It was the last trip before the time machine runs out of fuel. He had to save Kurisu this time. On the way back, he asked Suzuha if they'd run into their past selves. Suzuha explains that each time a time machine is used, the worldl ine changes shifting divergence by 0.000001%, so they would be safe.

After arriving back in the past at the exact same time, Rintaro hurries down so that he is the first to use the Gatchapon machines and retrieves the only limited edition Metal Upa inside. Just in case, Future Rintaro hides to confirm Mayuri only gets a plastic one. In order to keep the past events the same, Okabe prepares himself to run into Kurisu on the 4th floor again. This time with more determination he is able to say what he couldn't in the last attempt. He says that 'He will save her', before making a run for it again.

An announcement that the time travel presentation was about to start. Mayuri rushes off and drops the Upa. While waiting Rintaro finds Kurisu picking it up. She looks around to see who could have dropped it but since there was no one around, she ends up putting it inside the envelope with the time travel theory documents.

Rintaro makes his way to the same spot where Kurisu meets her father and was going to use the gadget to create fake blood to scare them but, it was clogged up. He had to think of another plan. Rintaro intervenes at the same time again but this time with his confident Hyouma “mad scientist” ego back again. He provokes Nakabachi to stab him and succeeds. Rintaro is stabbed and he takes the knife. He then takes out a stun gun, threatening that he will kill both Nakabachi and Kurisu then have his way with her. Kurisu tries to help Rintaro but ends up being stunned from the taser and passes out onto the floor. Scared, Nakabachi flees the scene.

Suzuha arrives just in time as Rintaro opens up his wound to create a pool of blood on the floor. He was betting on convergence of events mean he won’t die. After letting Suzuha move Kurisu onto the pool of blood, they slowly make their way back to the time machine. Ready to travel back to the future, Rintaro closes his eyes just as Suzuha says farewell, hoping it really is the “Steins Gate” timeline that awaited them.

It’s been a month since Rintaro was hospitalised but he had recovered now. It was another beautiful summer day and he had in his pocket a replica of the pin badge that Suzuha had brought back with her to the past. He had asked Daru to make 8 of them when he visited at the hospital. He goes about visiting every person he had made a lab member even though they had no memories of being one in this timeline – Luka, Faris and Moeka (who was now working part time at Braun’s). Daru and Mayuri got one too back at the lab. There was no satellite now but a badge will be kept for Suzuha in the future.

Dr. Nakabachi remains exiled in Russia and was detained for questioning about the assault at Radio Kaikan but nothing was known about Kurisu’s whereabouts. As Rintaro took a walk through the streets of Akiba, he sees a familiar figure passing by. He stops and turns round. There standing before him was Kurisu. She had been looking for him, wanting to thank him for saving her that day even though they had never met. For old times sake, Rintaro takes out his phone pretending to be talking to the secret organisation he was working for and then welcomes back “Christina”. For some reason, she reacts the same way she would have from the timeline when she was a lab member, saying she is neither "Christina" nor his "assistant" shocking both Rintaro and Kurisu.

Rintaro takes out the last unclaimed pin badge and welcomes Kurisu back, claiming everything was according to “Steins Gate” choice.