Chapter Text
"Hello? K-kurisu?"
Makise Kurisu stopped on her tracks. It's 6:45 in the evening and she was just about to go out to get dinner after a day at the institute.
The voice on the other end of the line is hesitant, but it's the voice of someone Kurisu recognizes, or so she thinks. Could it really be him? He greeted her in Japanese, and there are only a handful of people she knows in her home country. There's no mistaking it. Her gifted memory rarely fails her, but right now, the young prodigy is stuck in between believing and not believing.
Since Kurisu's senses are failing to agree with what she thinks, she decided to play it safe. "I'm sorry, who's this?"
The voice on the other end of the line cleared his throat, as if to erase the hesitancy that was expressed earlier. He greeted in a deep, regretfully familiar voice, "Kurisutina."
"You?!" Kurisu exclaimed, failing to manage her shock. Her suspicions are correct. There's only one person in the world who would be calling her as such and also in an irritating manner in which every syllable of the name Kurisutina, a name given to her by this person, is spitted with so much passion. She prefers to be called by her name but much to the neuroscientist's annoyance, there's just no helping it with this guy.
"Quit it, my American experiment-loving assistant. Stop pretending that you don't recognize the voice of the Mad Scientist Hououin Kyoma, bringer of chaos to this world's ruling structure!" And then what came after is that annoying, booming laugh Kurisu's annoyingly familiar with.
"Why you... Seriously, aren't you still over this assistant thing?" In Kurisu's mind, something is bothering her. How did Okabe Rintaro know how to reach her? Sure, the delusional knows her email but not her Line number. She has no memory of giving it to him so how did he manage to acquire it? Or are world lines messing up her memories again? The thought of not knowing made Kurisu's skin crawl. "How did you even know how to reach me?!"
"My, my, Kurisutina. It still amazes me how you fail to grasp the ways of th-"
"Okabe." Kurisu said with a threatening tone. She wants answers and she wants them now.
"Huh? I, uhh... I got it from Professor Leskinen." Okabe said, immediately dropping the mad scientist act.
"Professor Leskinen? Right... He's in Japan right now. But how did you guys meet?" Kurisu asked, still unsatisfied with the information being provided to her. Of all the people the professor can run into, does it really have to be him?
"Well I... We met at the Akihabara Techno Forum last September."
"September?!"
"Yeah."
All this avalanche of outdated information left Kurisu unable to frustratingly comprehend the fact that Professor Leskinen has known this useless guy all this time. She just saw the Professor the other day and even spoke to him about an update of her on-going research. How could her trusted colleague failed to mention this information to her?
"What?" Okabe said, interrupting her thoughts.
"N-nothing! It's not that I'm disappointed about the professor saying nothing about it. I'm just... surprised is all." When the unwilling tsundere became aware of how that sounded, quick as a lightning, she said, "not that I care of course! I'm very busy with my research, you know." If her hippocampus were a person, she would have already kicked it in the face for untimely bringing up forbidden memories which she tried so hard to bury after a year of not speaking with Okabe.
"Huh. Is that so?" the self-proclaimed mad scientist said, returning into a mocking, amused tone. "It seems that the tsundere enveloping your dark soul is still stronger than ever!"
"Knock it off! Did you just call to mock me?"
"I'm glad you asked. Of course not. This mad genius never moves without purpose, perverted genius gi-"
"Yeah, yeah. What is it? Is it important?"
"Such an impatient woman." Okabe dramatically commented in disgust. "Rejoice, my dear assistant. I'll have you know that I received the confirmation from your institution. I will be arriving soon at the land of Dr. Pepper!"
"What?"
"It seems that your university has fallen ill to my intellectual prowess, not that they can be blamed, of course." Okabe continued. "My presence will be gracing this what you so call, Viktoria Chondria University... That is, as a student."
"Are you joking? I-if this is just another one of your delusions, ISTG! W-when did this happen?!
"Oh? How amusing. It seems that Kurigohan still knows her memes. But to answer your question in terms of my arrival, I'm coming there this September."
"I never asked that question!"
"As expected of my assistant. I knew you'd be thrilled about this news." the Founder of the Future Gadget Lab said in a malicious manner.
"S-says who?!" Kurisu barked back. There's just know way she would let this chunibiyu know the fact that she feels hurt about him not sending her a single message in the past year. Not a single 'hi', not a single 'how are you'. Nothing. What kind of person would just go off after dropping off the big "L" word?
"I didn't even know you'd want to study abroad..." Kurisu continued. "Why are you even telling me this now? After one whole year of..." Kurisu immediately broke off when she horrifyingly realized how she tripped in her own words again. The neuroscience expert decided to start over again in panic, "No, that's not what I-... W-what I'm trying to say is-"
"I need help with my English." Okabe said quickly, almost inaudibly.
"What?" The sudden, odd request made Kurisu blinked. "English, huh? That's... interesting."
"Don't make me say it again. It's embarrassing."
It might have been true right there and then, Kurisu thought, that this delusional is really coming to America if he wants to learn that bad. The act of asking his so called assistant must have been really shameful for him, but if he's serious about surviving in this land, then he must to.
Nonetheless, Kurisu finds the idea very entertaining. "I don't know, Okabe. I think I'm feeling a little evil tonight." she said, feeling somewhat victorious.
"What?! Don't be so smug about this! I uhhh... You haven't even heard about my proposition! I am taking an English course this summer too. My IQ is 170 just like Isaac Newton's so there's not a single doubt that I, Hououin Kyoma, will-"
"Okay, genius, let's hear your proposition then."
Clearing his throat once again after being thrown off, Okabe said, "I uhh for the purpose of furthering my language learning, I propose that we should have a phone conference for, you know, technical application."
"Phone conference? I don't know. Like I said, I'm a busy person. We also have to take note about the time difference, you know?"
"It doesn't have to be everyday!" the self-proclaimed mad scientist said, his desperation leaking.
"What's in it for me?"
"You're enjoying this, aren't you? You sadistic, genius American girl!" Okabe cursed.
"Since this might require a bit of my time, might as well get something out of it."
"Well, what do you want?" Okabe asked in surrender.
"Let me think about it first, okay? Anyway, I have to go. I need to have dinner."
"Dinner?"
"Yeah. It's dinner time here."
"Very well, then. I-"
Kurisu didn't let Okabe finish when she dropped the call. If she's a betting person, she would say he's cursing her on the other side of the world for dropping off that way. She needed the alone time to process what just happened. English, huh? She will help him learn, of course. The young prodigy doesn't know why but helping him gives her an eerie nostalgic feeling, like it's the natural order of things. And deep down, it's not like she doesn't to. This also means that the two of them will be communicating regularly now. And then eventually, two months from now, Okabe will set foot in America and the two of them will be reunited once again.
With an unknowing smile on her face, Kurisu went out into the night to buy dinner.