Seriously... World War Three?
Let me put it into perspective for you:
that's upwards of 5.7 billion human lives snuffed out
by the year 2036. And it all starts with this.
But... what is "this?"
Totally a mech... Please tell me it transforms.
It's a time machine, Daru.
Sorry?
You're familiar with it... That's good, Uncle...
Very good... I can get to the point.
We're gonna run interference.
I refuse.
Okarin...
I've been jumping from world-line to world-line for weeks.
I've run interference...
So many times I'm barely myself anymore...
The only way I was able to land back onto this world-line
was by allowing Kurisu to die.
And now you're asking me to go another round...?!
I refuse!
What are you talking about?
Kurisu...? Oh...
You mean the scientist chick who got, like,
stabbed or whatever at the Radio Building the other day?
Rintarou... Hear me out...
What if I told you the circumstances of her death on the afternoon
of July 28th, 2010 play directly into what kicked off the war...?
That the reason I'm here, is to see to it she survives?
I'm listening.
I don't have a clue how it all dovetails...
All I know is I've been entrusted with an important mission...
Rescue Makise Kurisu and shift things to a world-line
beyond the divergence barrier; free of the attractor field...
A little place we call Stein's Gate!
I don't believe it...
You actually hatched this plan yourself...
By that I mean you will...
With dad... Though you're the first
to admit it's pure conjecture... Push comes to shove,
it's possible this is all wishful thinking...
Even if a Stein's Gate world-line exists,
the odds of us reaching one are slim to none.
Odds be damned, though: I'm all in...
As you always like to remind us:
nothing ventured, nothing gained, right...?
If a future without World War Three is worth the risk to you.
Take my hand.
Um... Okay to be honest,
I don't think I understood very much of what just got said...
But...
This friend of yours... This Makise Kurisu...?
Sounds to me like she's worth taking a chance, right?
I, say you should go for it!
Face it, chief. It's your cuppa tea...
All this World War Three stuff seems, well...
No offense, you understand,
but tailor-made for your special brand of crazy.
I do this for her, no one else... Got it?
Whatever gets you there.
Climb aboard!
It can actually carry two?
Well, yeah... Like this puppy's inventor
would've have skimped on installing a backseat...
Be careful.
Leave your cell phone here.
We'd all be screwed five ways from Tuesday if it
crossed signals with the one your past self'll be carrying.
Watch it for me?
Good luck, guys.
Nice, uh... set up you got.
Thanks... Works like a charm;
I've already stopped off at 1975 and 2000...
She's running low on fuel, though... That's the thing...
You've got to watch the indicators like a hawk.
Wait. So we can not only go backward in time, but forward?
I should hope so...
What the in hell'd be the point if we couldn't?
I see... This one must come
from a different world line than its twin...
Have a seat... I'm setting coordinates for the day of,
just shy of twelve o'clock...
I don't dare go back any further because I can't change our position.
If we stir up trouble at the Radio Building
it might throw Kurisu's movements out of whack.
We're about to pull an ungodly amount of Gs here,
so you might want to prepare yourself.
Okarin...
What are these?
They come with the territory.
Little beads of time... Kinda pretty, huh?
Come on.
Sorry. I, uh... just need to let my stomach settle a bit...
Somebody's a wuss... Hurry it up!
'Kay, critical point: avoid running into your past self at all costs...
We could have a major paradox on our hands otherwise...
How long do you think this'll take?
Uh... Well... Maybe twenty minutes, give or take?
Alright, I'm going to stay here and prep the time machine
for our return trip, and you do what you can to save Makise.
Wish me luck.
July 28th...
The day I found Kurisu on the floor,
soaked in her own blood...
Mayuri and I had come to see Dr. Nakabachi's lecture
and were waiting for it to start when we heard a sound on the roof...
That's right.
This must be when Mayuri heads to the vending machines on the seventh floor.
Is anything not an emergency?
I'm sorry. I know sometimes it's not,
but this one counts for sure.
Better play it safe. I'll take the far stairs back to eight.
I don't believe it...! A metal Oopa!
And that's good?
You bet it is!
Should be safe now...
Oh, I'm sorry.
Ku... Kurisu...
Um... have we met before?
No... This is too much...
I don't... think I know you... do I?
Kurisu...
Look, whoever--
What is your trauma...?
Don't rush to help me or anything...
I, uh...
I'm just... Here to see...
Your attention, please.
Doctor Nakabachi's conference is about
to begin in the 8th floor lecture hall.
All interested are welcome.
At least finish a sentence!
Printed on the handouts there in front of you
is more or less the hard blueprint for one of mankind's oldest ambitions...
Of course, the theoretical scaffolding begs some explanation.
As I'm sure you're aware,
mainstream science currently boasts something like
In the brief I was given,
they said you'd be able to pick her out instantly. Is that true?
Yeah.
Right. Bear in mind, though...
It's probably a bad idea to take her off site.
We don't know who kills her or why.
And in the event that her death is a fixed point on the timeline,
we don't want things getting more complicated.
I learned that the hard way with Mayuri.
Doctor!
Save your questions...
I have none, sir...!
I throw down the gauntlet as to your "theory's" authorship!
Do you take us all for babes in the wilderness...?!
Please! World lines? Kerr Black Holes...?
Any moment now, this is where she'll end up...
What on earth am I going to do?
Wait! What if she's killed somewhere else and dragged here...?
Damn it! I hadn't thought of that!
There she is...
This is where it happens...
What is that she's reading...? Time machines...?!
Is that why so much is riding on this?
Stupid kids...
What in the hell do you want?
Look, please... I just want you to read this... 'kay Dad?
"Dad?!"
Nakabachi's her dad?!
Look, I... I'm just trying to bury the hatchet...
It's been years... Too damn long... I want you in my life again.
Don't tell me her father's the one who...!
I put on my thinking cap, as you like to say, and well...
I'm now convinced that you were right all along.
I wanted your opinion on the theory.
If this paper gets accepted...
you can lord it over all the stuffed shirts who laughed you out of the academy.
I did not get "laughed out!"...
I turned my back on their politics to pursue my researches unfettered!
Sorry...
This isn't half bad.
Really?! 'Cause I was thinking, maybe,
if you were okay with the idea, we could publish it under both our names.
I mean, after all, you're the one who inspired me to write it--
Don't be ridiculous... Go home.
What?
If this paper sees the light of day, it'll do so under my name.
Excuse me?! That's called stealing!
I knew you could be cruel, but I never thought you'd stoop to--
Shut up!
You dare call me a thief?!
Bitch! What makes you think you're so much better than me...?!
A daughter's got no goddamn right to outshine her father!
Every second you're out there whoring
to make a name for yourself,
you trample my reputation as a genius of the age!
You were my heckler, weren't you...?
Heh... I see... You were in cahoots to make nattering
ol' Nakabachi shit the bed during what should've been his moment of glory...
Well, You succeeded.
But success comes at a price.
Dad, no!
Stand your ground; protect her!
Where's your heckling now...? Come on, let's hear it!
Son of bitch...
Dad, this is crazy...! Please stop!
So I'm crazy...?! I'll show you crazy!!!
Look out!
You're an idiot... A DNA fluke...!
You're not as smart as me...!
My name belongs in the annals of history... You're nothing!
Daddy, please...
If it hadn't been for you...
I wouldn't be the academic laughing stock I am now!
Stop!!!
Oh god...
Oh my god...!
Look at that... Poetic justice all around, I'd say.
I'm sorry... I didn't mean...
What...?
I didn't mean to drag you into this...
I just wanted him to... To acknowledge me...
Kurisu...
I'm so scared. I... I... don't want to die... I'm not ready...
This wasn't... wasn't supposed to...
No... oh god...
Please no!
Neat-o! They're already back!
Okarin!
Whoa. Dude...! What the hell happened to you?!
He's gonna be alright...
It's, just... a little bit complicated...
I'm responsible for her death...
I'm responsible for her death... I'm responsible for her death...
Okarin...
Walk it off...
Look, I know you're in shock,
but you've got to pick yourself up...
We've got enough fuel for one more trip
and now we know how things play out, so--
No! I won't do it...!
I won't put myself through that again!
Whatever I do, Kurisu will always die...
Okarin, it's your phone.
A text?
Open it.
I shouldn't...
Just do it.
It says to turn on the news.
Seriously?
Despite the cargo bay fire,
Dr. Nakabachi's plane managed to land safely
within the borders of the former Soviet Union,
to which he'd recently defected.
Fate was certainly smiling on me...
If this guy hadn't set off the onboard metal detectors...
My thesis would've been barbequed.
That's my metal oopa! I know it is...! See look!
I wrote my name on the side
right after Okarin bought it for me!
No, I see. It's just, why's it in Russia?
That thesis of his...
That's what starts World War Three.
It basically sparks an arms race,
only the goal is which country can build a time machine first.
Take first place and win the world...
That's how it starts, but things get hostile pretty quick...
Then war... Then people are getting killed in droves.
The lives of 5.7 billion people are at stake here...
Save Makise Kurisu... and you save every one of them.
I can't do it.
Things'll end up just as they did with Mayuri.
No matter what I did, she died...
There's no point... It's all the same.
No! You only tried once! You can't say that!
Once?! ...Are you mad? I tried dozens of times!
And every time, I failed!
Believe me, I know...
You may not think I do, but I know how cruel time can be...
We like to imagine we can bend it to suit us, but...
This was bound to happen.
It was stupid of me to play along... I'm sorry, but...
I'm... I'm just done... Let time have it's way.
Since when have you been the type of person who's "just done"?
You're not fooling me.
You've never given up on anything, ever...
Remember when I couldn't bring myself to say bye to grandma...?
You went to her grave every day for me until I was ready to do it myself.
You never got mad and you never quit...
And because of that I was finally able to let her go.
So, no... I'm not letting you throw in the towel.
Listen, a video file should've turned up
in your inbox on July 28th.
That's right... I'd forgotten...
It should be viewable now...
You had to fail saving her once before it would unlock,
so to speak.
What the hell are you talking about?!
I apologize...
I know it was a lot to put you through, but things had to be this way...
The whole point was for you to see that file.
Is that...?
Hale and well met... Old friend.
Is that you?!
That you're able to open this means
you've seen firsthand what became of Makise
and failed to prevent it. I feel for you. I really do.
That said, the pain you're going through right now is necessary.
I daren't deny you --us--the bitter inspiration it represents.
Without it, you cannot hope to carve out your destiny.
Now we can marshal our resources properly.
I hereby charge you with the task of reaching Stein's Gate...
To do so, two conditions are absolutely essential:
one, you must destroy Nakabachi's ill-gotten
time travel thesis before it crosses into Russia's borders...
Second, you must rescue our beloved Kurisu.
But how?! I've tried--
I'm fully aware that the grisly nature
of her death appears be set in stone due to its position
within the so-called alpha attractor field. However...
I'll just come right out with it: it is possible to save her.
You're simply going about it the wrong way.
Listen carefully: you must not--I repeat, not--
alter any detail surrounding her death as witnessed by you.
That is, the version of yourself prior to the botched rescue attempt
that allowed you to view this video file...
To do so would alter the past too drastically.
Think of your experiences immediately following
the first D-mail: the three weeks you spent jumping through time
were instigated by that text.
It's what gave you a history with her...
Your desperate, bitterly ineffective bids to save Mayuri...
The countless sacrifices... The terrible Rubicons crossed.
All of that must stay in your head.
The period spent adrift in time constitutes your unique reality.
It must not be distorted.
To do so would be tantamount to a betrayal of who you are.
I know that to label Kurisu's death as traumatic is
the epitome of understatement. Believe me, I do.
The memory of seeing her life ebb away as I held her
in my arms haunts me still.
But the pain it wrought can be wrought in turn to greater ends.
It what's brings you to yourself.
So trick yourself.
Save her without changing the apparent fact of her death.
Convince your past self that she's well and truly dead,
even though she lives.
Keep the past to all intents and purposes where it is.
That's what will get us to Stein's Gate.
Of course...!
I don't think I get it.
That goes for both of us.
I've every faith that you understand.
Incidentally, the time machine's model is Type C204.
I doubt I need tell you what the C stands for.
It's for Christina...
The target world line's charming little nickname
comes care of me as well;
which is to say, it comes from you.
Care to guess its significance?
There's none
Bingo.
There's none.
And to further please our whimsy...
Operation Skuld will be the name we assign to this mission.
Forge of yesterday whatever you must to save the future...
without detectably altering the past as you understood them.
Okabe Rintarou sees Makise lying dead on the ground
in a pool of her own blood.
Keep the past, for all intents and purposes, where it is.
Deceive yourself in every last detail... Deceive the world.
Do this, and victory is assured.
Best of luck to you, old friend. El... Psy... Congroo.
Okay. Trippy... You have any idea what your future self is tellin' you?
Oh wow... You get really suave.
"Operation Skuld..." "El Psy Congroo..."
Do I never grow out of the cloak and dagger act?
I'll be as barking mad then as I am now.
Yeah, but is that so bad?...
Ah to hell with it...
If Stein's Gate so decrees, then so am I compelled to behave.
Hououin Kyouma accepts the challenge...!
With gusto!
Deception is my forte... Let the world beware!
Oh ho. I think the Okabe we all know and love is back...
Uh-huh... Good thing, too...
The Okarin who just broods all day isn't nearly as fun.
Hear me... privileged companions...
Time is ours... Hououin Kyouma's mind recognizes no limit...
Neither does his reach!
Heave anchor...!
This ship of fools is about to embark!