Tokyo: Oreimo

Meanwhile, Bucket successfully found the captured text message, which Okabe personally deleted.

The world line has shifted.

This time, they successfully entered the β world line.

Mayuri survived and became lovers with Okabe.

After more than ten hours, Ling Nai finally completed the first ending of Steins Gates.

—'Transparent stardust'.

But she couldn't be happy no matter what.

Because the price paid for this was too heavy.

She wanted to access the save file and make a different choice, but it seemed the path was fixed, and there was no way to save both of them at the same time.

At 1 a.m., Ling Nai shut down her computer.

Another night off-plan; I was clearly thinking of going to sleep.

That guy's writing forced me to play for another hour.

The blonde girl lay on her back on the bed with her eyes closed.

But my emotions are a tangled mess, and when I close my eyes, I think of the endless possibilities in the game.

I had this urge to keep turning on the computer and look for other endings.

......

1:17 AM.

Takashiro Ryouno lay on her bed in her room, staring blankly at the fluorescent light tube on the ceiling.

Then she turned over, buried her face in the pillow, and pressed it down hard, as if trying to squeeze the images in her mind out of her nostrils.

Useless.

The last CG of Makise Kurisu is still flashing before my eyes.

The genius girl with long red hair stood in the Lab's development room, her back to the screen, her silhouette backlit by the twilight outside the window, which gilded her with a thin layer of gold.

He urged Okabe to do what he needed to do, using a tone that was clearly worried but pretended not to care.

In another timeline, she was already dead from the very first moment of the game.

That initial D-mail saved her, dragging the worldline from beta to alpha, giving her dozens of extra hours of game time, and allowing her to research the time machine with Rintaro Okabe.

Making her eat pudding in the lab, making her do that incredibly shameful and childish pose on the rooftop, all to comfort a mad scientist on the verge of a breakdown.

Then, in order to save Mayuri, Okabe deleted the text message himself.

Ling Nai pulled her face out of the pillow, turned over, and lay on her back.

"...Is that guy a devil?"

Ling Nai knew, of course, that this was just a game.

The characters are drawn, the script is written, and every line of Makise Kurisu's dialogue was typed out by Ryosuke.

It's precisely because I know that it makes me even angrier.

Because this is not "fate," not "the story unfolded this way on its own," but rather that someone, sitting in front of a computer, consciously and deliberately wrote this storyline in this way, word by word.

Show her Makise Kurisu at her most vibrant, and make her fall in love with this stubborn but kind-hearted genius girl.

Then, at the very end, tell her that the character was already dead from the beginning, and all the scenes she had seen before were just phantoms whose lives were forcibly extended by a text message.

"...has a terrible personality."

Ling Nai cursed again.

She kept using the same few phrases: "bastard," "bad character," "devil." Her vocabulary was so limited that even she felt ashamed.

But she really couldn't think of any more vicious words.

Makise Kurisu's ending saddened her, but what saddened her even more was that she saw herself in that character.

It's not the part about being a genius scientist, it's the part about not being frank.

They pretend not to care even though they are worried; they say "just passing by" even though they want to get closer; they always say "who cares" or "you bastard" even though they care to death inside.

When Ayano saw Makise Kurisu blushing and saying, "I wasn't worried about you at all," she almost choked on her own saliva.

Isn't that just her?

"What was that guy thinking when he was writing this character?"

Ling Nai put her arm over her forehead, blocking the sliver of moonlight that was seeping in through the gap in the curtains.

In the darkness, the sound of my heartbeat became loud again.

She found herself thinking about him again.

Ling Nai stared into the darkness at the outline of her hand, which was illuminated by the moonlight.

Then she sat up.

Barefoot on the tatami mat, I took the key from the drawer and opened the door.

Ling walked barefoot down the corridor and stopped in front of Ryosuke's room.

She held her breath and turned the key very, very slowly. The door opened a crack, and she squeezed in sideways.

The girl walked to the bedside and gently lifted a corner of the blanket.

The mattress sank slightly under the weight of her knees, making a very faint spring-like sound.

She paused for a moment, and after confirming that Ryosuke's breathing hadn't changed, she slowly pulled her other leg up as well, and then lay down.

I stood sideways, facing him, with less than a fist's distance between us.

"You're sleeping soundly, aren't you...?"

Ling Nai closed her eyes, leaned against Ryosuke's chest, and listened to the sound of his heartbeat.

The tightness in her chest, the stone that had been pressing on her since she turned off the computer, keeping her tossing and turning all night, gradually melted away with that sound.

Being around this guy always made her feel safe and secure, and it helped her forget many unhappy things.

Makise Kurisu is dead; she died from the very beginning in that timeline.

To save Mayuri, Rintaro Okabe must personally delete the text message that saved her life.

This ending made her feel terrible, but at this moment, as she pressed her forehead against Ryosuke's chest and listened to his heartbeat, that pain became less intense.

".....What? What's going on?"

She moved her lips, but her voice was so soft that she could barely hear it herself.

Just like the previous two times, it was this guy who made her cry and kept her awake, but it was also this guy who could calm her down.

Her fingers clenched slightly, her heart still pounding.

As Ling Nai listened to that voice, a thought suddenly popped into her mind.

What if I were Makise Kurisu?

Come to think of it, they do look somewhat alike.

"If the giantess hadn't come looking for me, I might have chosen to disappear from his world, just like my assistant."

Forget about creating "Cardcaptor Sakura" with this guy in Sakae Town, forget about playing games together, forget about tutoring each other, just let him die in your memories, and it's best to never see him again.

She might leave this house to avoid Ryosuke.

That way I can stop thinking about him.

But that kind of ending...

"No way..."

Ling Nai curled up in Ryosuke's arms and raised her head.

"I'm not going to give you up to the Giantess..."

When Ling Nai said those words, her voice was so soft it sounded like a breath escaping from deep in her throat.

She was stunned after she finished speaking.

What am I saying?

Doesn't saying that mean admitting you like him?

Although it is true, and although the Titaness has already exposed it countless times, saying it yourself and being exposed by someone else are two completely different things.

She buried her face in Ryosuke's chest, her forehead against the cotton fabric of his T-shirt, her ear pressed against the spot where his heart was beating.

dong dong dong.

The sound was still ringing, but it seemed to be getting faster.

Ling Nai closed her eyes tightly, pretending that she hadn't said anything.

Anyway, this guy is asleep.

Anyway, he can't hear me.

Anyway, when she wakes up tomorrow morning, she'll be that stubborn, awkward little sister who'll never admit she likes her brother.

it's OK.

She remained curled up in the darkness, her fingers clutching the front of his T-shirt tightly, as if afraid that if she let go, she would be swept away by something.

The ending of Makise Kurisu is still swirling in my mind.

"...Do you think Makise Kurisu really has to die?"

She lowered her voice to a minimum.

"Is there not a timeline where everyone can survive?"

no answer.

Of course, there will be no answer.

"Were you making choices while writing this story?"