Ep. 5

Summary

Source-backed · Version: v1 · Original

When Okabe and Kurisu return with the IBN 5100, Suzuha reacts to Kurisu with immediate hostility and privately warns Okabe not to trust her. The lab members gather the cables and adapters required to connect the outdated computer to Daru's modern equipment. Once the system is operational, Daru deciphers SERN's classified reports. The files describe multiple human attempts at time travel, with subjects appearing at different dates as compressed masses of gelatin. Kurisu interprets the result scientifically: passage through an artificial micro black hole would squeeze matter at a molecular level, explaining both the failed subjects and the bananas altered by the Phone Microwave. The discovery horrifies the group because it demonstrates that their accidental invention is connected to a process that has already killed people. It also confirms that SERN has concealed a functioning, if incomplete, method of manipulating time. Rather than stop, Okabe declares that the laboratory must perfect its own device before the organization does. His theatrical confidence masks the scale of the danger, while Suzuha's unexplained fear of Kurisu suggests that the consequences may extend far beyond the experiments recorded in SERN's present-day files.