Chapter 5

Suzuha and i stood on the roof of the hospital and looked over Akihabara. Two days have passed since i broker a deal for our forged certificates and documents, There are a lot of news covering the mysterious satellite that crashed into the radio building, I had searched the newspapers for apartments ads. Suzuha is still wearing a bandage around her head and her braids were billowing with the wind. She had already recovered well and it seems that some scraps of her memory are returning from our conversations.

"Hashida Suzu. So this is my new name. Where does Hashida came from? I felt like i heard it somewhere before."

I had just told Suzuha about my meeting with Kaito tommorow, Which should help us with our forged identities.

"Hashida is your father's family name. On a different world line you also called yourself that when you travelled to 1975, so i thought it was the choice of Steins;Gate..."

"And what is this steins something about? Gate?" Interrupted Suzuha curiously. "It sounds like something from the imagination of a 15 year old Chuunibyou."

I wanted to respond defensively, but when i heard my companion giggle happily, i dropped my comment.

"Well you know, Steins;Gate is the key to everything in the fight against the organization." I looked around suspiciously in cas someone might overhear us. My old self is slowly returning.

"So you're saying that I'm a future resistance tighter who has to bring a retro computer to the year 2010." Suzuha continued, "so you can hack into SERN servers. Sounds pretty crazy to me."

"It is necessary part time soldier!"

"Part time soldier?" Asked the girl amused. "If that's my alias, it's pretty stupid."

The conversation went on for a while until we decided to take a little trip around town. Perhaps Daru's daughter would remember something. After we informed the reception of the hospital we made our way to the radio kaikan building.

Suzuha was wearing her usual blue sports vest and i was wearing my gray shirt, which looked worn out after wearing it several times, So i suggested buying new clothes. We had to use our money sparingly and only get the essentials, some underwear, two tops and two pants. Suzuha appeared with tight jeans and a loose white blouse from the changing room. She looked great. I kept my brown leather jacket and black pants on right away and continued our walk.

We arrived in front of the high rise building, we stopped for a bit and looked up, Only the upper part of the time machine was visible. We entered the ground floor and went up to the roof via stairs. We ignored the yellow tapes that were supposed to deny access to the area.

The wind blew. It looked the same as the last time i saw it, Suzuha and i stared side by side at the demolished casing of the future gadget 204.

"So we got here with this thing?" Asked Suzuha incredulously.

"you're father developed this machine. We were lucky that both of us didn't lose our memory." I replied. "it would be better if we take the most important components in the coming days so that no future technology will be discovered by the people of this time."

It felt strange to explain to Suzuha everything i hadn't even understood until recently. it was my first physical journey through time, and yet it was i who has to play expert.

I walked over to the heap of metal and climbed inside through the crumpled doors. I was looking for something specific. I found what i was looking for in a corner of the cockpit. The divergence Meter had not survived the trip unscathed and a couple of Nixie tubes in the rear digits had burst.

0.337... showed the orange glowing glasses.

The value hadn't changed. We have yet to take the necessary steps to damage SERN's machinations.

"What's that?" asked a high voice beside me. Suzuha had followed me and crawled through the battered steel shell into the cockpit.

"A divergence meter. it shows which world line we are on. Our goal is to exceed the one percent limit."

"I better not question that." my partner said with a shrug. it was she who had to explain this to me the at first.

I opened a cache in the floor, took out a tool box and started to remove a hard drive like part that daru said was an integral part of the machine and hid the heavy box in our clothes bag. Maybe the technology of the FG204 would be useful to us someday.

Suzuha had sat in the pilot's seat and was staring blankly at the dashboard.

"I remember something. my escape from 2036.It kinda feels like a deja vu."

I gently put my hand on her shoulder. "Soon you will be able to remember everything. I'll show you a few more places."

after leaving the kaikan radio building, we headed for a small remote side street nearby. It almost felt like i had never been away. We stood in front of an inconspicuous front of a house, of which i found a small hairdressing salon. The apartment on the first 2nd floor which was to become the future gadget laboratory was already occupied, as i could see from the name tags on the stairs. i sat on the bench in front of the house, crossed my arms behind my head and looked up at the sky. Suzuha sat beside me.

"Okabe Rintarou this is where i met you for the first time."

I looked at her in amazement. "Did you remember?"

"Just vaguely, but you're no stranger to me." Suzuha said smiling.

We took a look at the group of clouds in the blue sky for a while and then went to the center of Akihabara where we sat down in a cafe. The wide window front was pushed open and warm spring air poured in. After we ordered two cappuccinos, I grabbed a newspaper and flipped through the advertisements.

"Here, Two and halt room apartment on the outskirts of Akihabara, small kitchen, bathroom, furnished 174,500 yen a month." I read.

"Sounds like a good deal," Suzuha smiled. "When we're out of the hospital we should also look for jobs to pay the rent."

I nodded. "Actually i could start working as a waiter, what do you think? It will be difficult with.. falsified documents but can be done."

"Sounds like a good idea" Suzuha answered. "I'll also find a simple job."

We drank our cappuccinos and talked a bit about 2010. in Suzuha's memories there were bits and pieces that are gradually returning. After we paid i asked the waiter if it was possible to work part-time in this cafe, in which he answered affirmatively. I should submit my application to the boss in the next few days so that i could start immediately.

On the way back we passed the future May Queen Nyan-Nyan, Akihabara main station and a large staircase on which we had sat together on a bike trip. Each time my brown haired companion seemed briefly lost in thought. her hazy memories were slowly clearing up.

It was a nice afternoon. back in the hospital i stowed the clothes bag with the important components from the time machine under my bed. Tomorrow i would meet Kaito and hopefully get our desired documents.