Chaos Theory Homeostasis Is the fourth chapter of the Steins;Gate visual novel
Plot[]
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.
Characters[]
By order of apparence: TBA
Chapter Title Explanation[]
TBA