Pandora of Eternal Return

Pandora of Eternal Return (永劫回帰のパンドラ, Eigou Kaiki no Pandora) is the second installment in the Epigraph Trilogy series of light novels. The story is set in the Beta Attractor Field, during the following winter after the events that occured in the summer. The light novel is currently being serialized as a manga with one volume being released, however it has been perpetually put on hiatus since May 8, 2015. The limited edition release was bundled with the drama CD Pandemia of Artificial Machinery.

Summary
Continuing from the end of Epigraph of the Closed Curve, Maho Hiyajo shows Rintaro Okabe Amadeus Kurisu again, bringing "Kurisu Makise" before his eyes once more.

Meanwhile, a certain secret job that Itaru Hashida has taken on as a hacker begins to create further ripples.

Plot
'The following plot summary is based off of the manga adaptation. Reader discretion is advised.'

A week after the events of Epigraph of the Closed Curve, Rintaro Okabe arrives outside of Maho Hiyajo's hotel and calls her cellphone. They had arranged to meet there in order for her to show him Amadeus today. The phone continues to ring without answer, and Okabe, remembering the attacker from before, fears the worst. Running into the hotel he makes his way to her room and pounds on the door, calling her name.

A disgruntled, half-awake Maho opens. She had fallen asleep with her phone set to silent. As Maho takes a moment to wake up and drink some coffee, Okabe notices her laptop and asks if it had been alright after the car crash. She had had to have it repaired and when Okabe mentions that he could have gotten it done for her cheap via a friend of his, she remarks that she will take him up on that next time. Okabe takes issue with her words as being a poor joke, but Maho simply states that with the announcement of their program having a "human soul" this is not the end of the resistance they will face. This reminds Okabe of Kurisu, and he opines that thinking of their own lives as part of a formula is a bad habit intellects have. As memories of Kurisu telling Okabe to save Mayuri instead of herself flow in, a panic attack hits him. Maho is worried and notes that Okabe was very close with Kurisu. She warns him that the Amadeus system is probably crueler the closer you were to a person. After Okabe gravely confirms that even so he still wants to meet "her", they go to a special physics research center.

Passing the center's heavy security, Maho enters a prep room and logs into a computer. Okabe notes that her username for Amadeus is "Salieri". It makes him wonder if the name of a composer who both envied and loved Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's talent might have meaning to Maho, though she says that it does not.

Maho, who is still worried about Okabe, warns him that this "Kurisu" has been booted several times since she was made. Therefore, she has her own set of memories, and it will not be like he was talking with the Kurisu he knew in Japan, since she does not share those memories. People often getting confused about that difference is one of the problems of the system. Okabe thinks that those inconsistent memories are similar to experiencing Reading Steiner and admits aloud that he is rather scared. When Maho makes a tsundere quip during their conversation about whether to proceed, Okabe slips a bit into his old habits and starts calling her an "Experiment-Loving Girl" like he used to call Kurisu, though he catches himself. As they continue to banter, Kurisu's voice suddenly greets Maho from the computer, stunning Okabe.

As Amadeus Kurisu cheerily introduces herself to him, Okabe struggles to hold himself together. Maho comes over to quietly asks him if he is all right, and seeing the two talking closely, "Kurisu" asks Maho if Maho and Okabe are a couple. As Maho loudly rejects the suggestion, Okabe watches the two's friendly argument and thinks that this system is just like the real Kurisu. He wonders if Kurisu and Maho used to talk like this back when the real Kurisu was at the institute.

Maho calls Okabe over to talk to Amadeus Kurisu, who tells Okabe to ask her anything and she will try to answer it. Okabe startles them by asking what she thinks about building a time machine. And, he is surprised in turn when "Kurisu"'s answer is that a time machine is unrealistic but not impossible. Thinking that her thoughts are different from in the Alpha world line, he tries using some of the arguments that Kurisu used during her seminar in July. However, Amadeus Kurisu says that the way it seems impossible is only because something has not been discovered yet. Though various theories may seem unrealistic, there are still ones that have not been disproved yet. Therefore, it is not "impossible".

Okabe asks Maho if Amadeus Kurisu is aware that she is booted from memory data, to which Maho replies in the affirmative. He further asks if the Amadeus could start out the same as the original but come to have different thoughts. Maho tells him that though they are still researching this, the professor and she believe that through different experiences and surroundings the Amadeus could grow to become "someone else". Okabe is puzzled by how Amadeus Kurisu's thoughts on time machines are completely different from the Kurisu he knew and wonders if that is because this is the Beta Attractor Field not the Alpha or if it is because the program differs now from the original Kurisu.

Just then Alexis Leskinen enters the room and Okabe tries his best to answer him in English. When "Kurisu" teases him about his poor command of the language, Okabe slips fully back into his old manner, commanding "Christina" to be silent. Realizing with embarrassment what he has done, he tries to pass over Amadeus Kurisu and Maho's reactions to ask "Kurisu" another question instead. He asks her if there is some way that someone could rewrite her memories. Though "Kurisu" admits that it is theoretically possible, memory data is very complex. Up til now no one has succeeded in altering them. She further tells Okabe that she has her own memory back-up that no one but her has authorized access to, which she can use to fix herself if someone were to tamper with her and back-ups of her memories are made regularly, allowing her to reload her memories if necessary.

Internally Okabe sadly thinks that Maho was right. Amadeus Kurisu is so passionate about science that it is just like talking with the real Kurisu. Aloud he comments on how "Kurisu" does not even claim to be anything but a machine. Amadeus Kurisu tells him that after all even humans talk in terms of software and hardware with psychology and medicine, so she does not see what the big difference is. When Maho sighs at "Kurisu"'s use of analogies, they start to bicker and banter.

When evening falls, Amadeus Kurisu says her good-byes and is powered down. Okabe is about to leave when suddenly he sees Kiryuu Moeka being led into the room. Maho and the professor have a further interview with Moeka, so Maho walks Okabe to the door asking him if he could show her around Akihabara sometime. Okabe hides his negative, hostile reaction to Moeka and tells Maho that that is fine. The door closes as Okabe considers Moeka darkly.

Mayuri walks happily along the street with her friends Fubuki, Kaede, and Amane Yuki as they are preparing for a Christmas party. Yuki teases her about Okabe, but Mayuri tells them that she and Okabe are not "like that". When they do not believe her, she insists and looks a little sad when she tells them that Okabe already has someone he likes. Fubuki and Kaede rush over to apologize for taking their teasing too far, but Yuki stays rooted to her spot in shock as she stares stricken at Mayuri.

Mayuri assures them that it is fine and turns instead to ask Yuki what she thinks about Daru. Fubuki and Kaede object to pairing Yuki with a pervert like Daru, but Yuki defends Daru. She tells them that she believes he is a good person, though she sadly notes that he would not like someone like her. He seems to be avoiding her and like he might like the strong-willed, little sister type like Suzuha. Mayuri realizes with dismay that Yuki is totally misunderstanding the situation and gets fired up to turn the Christmas party into a matchmaking plan for Daru and Yuki and to ensure that Suzuha will be born in the future.

Yuki and Mayuri come to the lab to make dinner and catch Daru playing an erotic game to his despair -since he is afraid of making a bad impression on Yuki-. However, Yuki tells Daru that she is okay with those sorts of games, and shortly after Suzuha stumbles in with a high fever.

Yuki hovers over Suzuha administering to her illness, which overwhelms Suzuha until she suddenly pulls back when Yuki almost sees her battle scars. Reminded of when she was with her mother as a child, it makes Suzuha bitterly wonder why these kinds of times cannot just continue.

Later while Yuki and Mayuri are preparing porridge, Suzuha quietly tells her father that she is going to start living in the time machine, because staying in this friendly place, she is afraid that she has lost her fighting edge and began to want to live like a normal girl, which is pathetic. Daru tells her it is not pathetic and that there is no way she can live in the time machine for long. That it is no place for his daughter to waste away. He tells her that it is fine for her to be spoiled by her parents. As she starts to cry, he asks her if she cannot tell him what she keeps doing everyday when she goes out for so long, wondering if he cannot help her somehow. She tells him that she will tell him later when Yuki and Mayuri have left because she cannot let Mayuri overhear it.

Another day when Okabe is showing Maho around Akihabara, the two are greeted by Faris as they enter May Queen+Nyan2. Faris freaks out seeing the very petit and young-looking Maho, exclaiming that Okabe has become a pedophile. Okabe assures her he is not and asks her to keep Maho company for awhile while he speaks with Daru, who is sitting at his usual table. Maho pauses with a surprised look when she sees Daru, but just as she gives a small wave to him, Faris whisks her to a seat at the cafe's counter.

As Okabe sits down at Daru's table, Daru jealously gets on his case for having a date with a cute girl, who is a "legally-safe loli" at that. Okabe lets it roll off his back, defending Maho as being a neuroscientist in her own right and poking at Daru's insecurity by telling him to start dating Yuki if he is jealous. When Okabe asks what Daru called him for, Daru tells him there are two things he needs to ask Okabe. First, he asks Okabe if he knows of any friend of Mayuri named "Kagari". Okabe answers that he does not and says that Daru could have asked Mayuri directly. However, Daru explains that Suzuha is looking for this "Kagari" and because this is related to Mayuri's future, they are keeping it a secret from her. He tells Okabe that the girl's name is "Shiina Kagari", Mayuri's daughter. Okabe is shocked, and Daru hastens to add that she is not Mayuri's biological daughter but a war orphan she adopted. Okabe looks happy at the idea of Mayuri with children and thinks that he would have liked to have told Kurisu about this.

When Okabe asks Daru why Mayuri's child would be in this time period, Daru explains that they had time traveled together from 2036. However, they got separated in 1998 in Akihabara. Though Suzuha did her best to search for Kagari, she never found Kagari and had to come to 2010 without her. Because Suzuha is still searching for her, Daru asks Okabe if he could ask Mayuri for clues. Okabe agrees to do so and their conversation turns to the second matter.

Because it is about Daru's secret side job, he pulls out his tablet to tell Okabe the sensitive details via text, so they will not be overheard. Daru first tells Okabe that if he does not want to answer he does not have to. Okabe, not understanding why Daru is being so careful, tells him to ask already, but is shocked when he sees what Daru has written; that he needs advice about Makise Kurisu. Seeing Okabe immediately start shaking from the panic attacks, Daru decides to stop, but Okabe tells him to continue with a determined look in his eye. Daru tells him that a short while ago his workplace was asked to hack a certain laptop and an external hard drive both equipped with password protection, which was made by his own group. They made it strong enough so that even hackers of their level could not solve it. When Okabe asks how that is related to Kurisu, Daru explains that the owner of the laptop and hard drive was Kurisu. Aghast, Okabe demands to know the who and why behind this job, but Daru cannot tell Okabe due to client privacy.

Somewhat sternly, Okabe asks what it is that Daru wants from him, and Daru asks him for a hint that could lead to a word that Kurisu might have used as a password. It would probably be something private. Okabe begins to think and considers that it could be "My Fork" but might very well be something related to her father, Doctor Nakabachi. At the cusp of the memories of when he saw them together in the scene that lead to Kurisu's murder, Okabe closes his eyes and aloud asks Daru for some time. Daru immediately agrees to wait.

Suzuha's fever has gone down, and she awakens to hear Yuki softly humming a song that Suzuha recognizes as one her mother used to always hum when Suzuha was a child.

As Okabe is showing Maho the many electronics shops, her inner nerd comes to the fore as she excitedly examines everything until she suddenly pauses before a crane game filled with cat plushies with emoticon faces. She sadly tells Okabe that Kurisu had one she really liked back in the States and because of that Kurisu's mother had placed it in her own bedroom after Kurisu's death. Unfortunately, it has probably burned up in the fire. Maho briskly walks away from the game and is examining something else when Okabe comes up holding out one of the plushies for her. He agrees when Maho asks if she can give it to Kurisu's mother, and Maho dearly hugs the plushie as she thanks him. Okabe asks her where she wants to go next and Maho tells him that she wants to go the Radio Kaikan Building where Kurisu died.

While they walk up the stairs in the Radio Building, Okabe thinks of how he has not come here since that day. As the approach their destination Maho wonders aloud why it is impossible to move through time, though it is so easy to move through space. She admits with pain to Okabe that it infuriates her that time prevents them from reaching out to Kurisu even though they are now spatially on the same axis. She brings up his question to Kurisu's Amadeus about building a time machine, and sadly encourages him to do it, promising that she will volunteer to be the first human to test it. Okabe gives her a sad smile as he wonders internally what Maho would do if she knew there was a fully functional time machine on the roof.

As the two stand before the door to the room in which Kurisu was killed, Okabe begins to think of that scene starting from Kurisu looking at a paper in an envelope then turning happily to her father when he appeared, up to Nakabachi taking the thesis and pulling out his knife.

A panic attack overcomes Okabe again, but for the first time realizations flow like a wave past his wall of panic as he keeps recalling scraps of those events prior to the fight that cost Kurisu her life. He wonders if he has not overlooked something very important.

Things begin to click into place as he remembers the cause of the nightmare of WWIII is Nakabachi's miraculous thesis on time machines and recalls that the paper he had seen Kurisu with before the fight with her father started had the words "Time Machine" written upon it. Further, the first moment Okabe met Kurisu she had already been holding the paper's envelop in her arms… He realizes that "Nakabachi's thesis" was actually probably written by Kurisu.

However, even though Nakabachi took that paper with him to Russia, afterwards those shady men still came to investigate Kurisu's house and even her university. As Okabe ponders this, he realizes that Kurisu must have had a computer she used to write the thesis, which is most likely the computer that Daru is now trying to hack.

Okabe suddenly makes his excuses to Maho. He tells her that the Akihabara station is right nearby as he runs away. Outside Okabe hurriedly tries to call Daru, but he does not pick up and only sends Okabe a text telling him he is in the middle of work. Just then Okabe notices Maho on the street, but she is not heading towards the station...

Maho arrives at a cosplay shop set in an upper floor of a building and upon entering finds Daru waiting for her. After they enter a hidden backroom, which serves as Daru's secret workspace, they come up to speed on each other both being acquainted with Okabe and Daru thus having heard about Maho's background while he pulls out Kurisu's laptop from a safe.

Daru tells Maho that the security the laptop is equipped with is too strong even for him. He explains to Maho that such high-level cryptography is normally not for private use, so Kurisu must have never wanted others to see it. Maho is thinking that even so she cannot give up when suddenly an alert blares a warning. Daru checks the shop's security cameras and spots Okabe.

Okabe first tries calling Daru's phone, but when his call goes ignored, he calls Maho's next. With a sigh Daru tells her that it is fine to answer it. Okabe sounding very disgruntled with Daru apologizes for having followed Maho, though it is abominable, and asks her to tell Daru to quit pretending to be out and to let him in.

As the three sit in the backroom, Maho guesses that when Okabe said he had something he needed to do, he was talking about Daru. However, Okabe tries to shut her out telling her that it does not concern her. She is jolted by this and questions why he followed her all this way then. He tells her that it is because of what Daru said. When the had entered the cafe earlier it should have been the first time Daru met her. However, he had accurately discerned her real age and called her a "legal loli". This had made Okabe think that Daru knew her.

Maho acknowledges that but does not back down. She surmises that for Okabe to have come here he must want to talk about Kurisu's case. She appreciates that he is thinking of her [wellbeing]. However, she is a scientist and will not stop reaching for the truth, even if there is danger lurking.

Daru encourages Okabe. Okabe makes his decision and warns Maho that he is going to tell her something astounding and crazy. However, it will all be true, so he wants her to promise him that she will hear it and then absolutely not even think about trying to save Makise Kurisu.

Maho sits stunned after Okabe has revealed the whole story. Okabe asks her if she is having trouble believing about the time machine. However, she tells him that she is just having trouble wrapping her mind around this, but because of Kurisu, who had shattered her common sense many times, she listened to all of it. Okabe recalls that her Amadeus ID is "Salieri", after all. Maho does say, though, that she would like to be shown the time machine as proof. Just as Okabe begins to respond, suddenly another alarm goes off and the shop's security cameras reveal the store is filling with people.

Daru tells them they need to run. Maho worries that those people might be after the laptop and hard drive, though Daru cannot be sure. Daru reveals that for just such a time as this, they have a hidden staircase that leads all the way to the ground floor. Okabe, Maho, and Daru manage to get away just before the strange group of people break down the door to the secret backroom.

In an alley the three catch their breath and hide when some of their pursuers pass them by. Once the men are gone, Maho suddenly embarrassedly realizes that she was clinging to Okabe's jacket in her fear, though he does not seem to notice.

When the three make to move again, Maho's cellphone suddenly rings with a mail from Professor Leskinen telling her that the Wakou Hotel and the research office have been broken into. They realize that the strange group of people's aim must certainly be Kurisu's computer and hard drive.

At that very moment all three are grabbed from behind. A women in a black jumpsuit and helmet slams Maho into the ground and holds a gun to her head. Okabe grits his teeth as he recognizes Kiryuu Moeka's voice. When Okabe tells the helmeted woman to stop and that they will hand over what they want, she signals her companions to release their hold on Okabe and Daru but keeps Maho pinned to the ground.

Okabe thinks furiously about how to save Maho, and tells Daru to hand him the backpack containing Kurisu's PC and hard drive. Maho shouts for him not to hand it over, but Okabe asks her if she thinks that Kurisu would have been happy knowing Maho died to protect Kurisu's thesis. Maho falls silent and the Moeka demands the bag again. Okabe realizes that he cannot hand it over that simply and demands that Moeka release Maho first.

He tells the attackers that without knowing the laptop and HDD's password they are useless. However, if the attackers guarantee their safety then they will tell them the password. Moeka agrees to let Okabe and Maho go, but they will still take Daru with them. When Daru asks why, she says, "Because you know the password, right?"

With a long look at Okabe she begins to threaten them for the password by saying they will start with killing Okabe first and if that is not enough they will kill the girl too. Hashida and Maho shout as Okabe freezes when the cold metal of a gun touches his head. His mind races as he considers whether it is possible for him to meet his end in this world line where they have not yet reached his determined age of death, whether or not Reading Steiner is still working, or if they might have changed to another world line without him noticing... Thinking of Kurisu again, he wonders if he will die in this world where she wasn't saved without protecting the traces she left behind.

Moeka raises her hand in signal, but suddenly a van pulls up. Armed, helmeted men in camouflage gear burst forth shouting commands in Russian. As the Russian troop opens fire hitting the other two Rounders, Moeka runs away. Daru calls for the stunned Okabe to run. Okabe helps Maho from the ground, but when they turn to leave, one of the still barely-living Rounders latches onto the backpack containing Kurisu's pc.

Seeing the camouflage men about to open fire again, Daru yanks Okabe to safety, which causes the backpack to slip from his hand. Flying through the air, the backpack and its contents are struck by the Russians' bullets.

Maho stares in shock at the ruined hardware fallen to the pavement, while Okabe grits his teeth but counsels Maho that they need to run.

Main Characters

 * Rintaro Okabe
 * Maho Hiyajo
 * Itaru Hashida
 * Suzuha Amane

Supporting Characters

 * Alexis Leskinen
 * [Kurisu]
 * Mayuri Shiina
 * Moeka Kiryu
 * Kagari Shiina
 * Faris NyanNyan
 * Luka Urushibara
 * Yuki Amane
 * Fubuki
 * Kaede Kurushima
 * Rounders
 * Doctor Nakabachi

Release
The light novel was first published on January 25, 2013 by 5pb./GigasDrop, with a limited edition release coninciding. It was written by Masashi Takimoto, the scenario writer for Steins;Gate: My Darling's Embrace. The cover was illustrated by huke, while the text illustrations were done by Yasuhiro Ikeda.

It was later re-published bundled into a box set with the rest of the trilogy on September 26, 2013.