"Congratulations."
"Congratulations, Kantoku Sora."
"Congratulations to all of us."
"You've all worked hard."
"Tonight, don't think about work."
For nearly an entire year, the core teams behind ana and Steins;Gate had been producing two projects back to back. By now, they were exhausted in both body and spirit.
The fatigue from animation production alone was not the worst part. The real weight came from the fact that both titles were Sora's new works after Re:Zero. From the moment they premiered, they had been buried under public attention - criticism, expectations, comparisons, and endless discussion across the internet.
The pressure did not fall on Sora alone. Every creator involved felt the same tightness in their chest.
That day, when all twenty-five episodes of Steins;Gate and the production of ad were finally completed, the two teams - around four hundred people in total - reserved two entire floors of a large hotel in Tokushima for a celebration.
During the party, Sora exchanged toasts with executives, producers, and department heads from the company. Yumi and Sumire also naturally became two of the main centers of attention.
The three of them, their faces faintly flushed from drinking, eventually stood by the window. From above, they watched the neon lights of the city, the stream of cars, and the Japanese night outside, too alive to ever fall completely silent.
"The part our employees like best has arrived," Sora said softly.
At the center of the hall, the host of the celebration was announcing, with rising enthusiasm, the project bonuses for everyone involved in the two anime productions.
For Sora, these works were already generating revenue that easily reached billions of yen. Even if he set aside only one-tenth of the profits as bonuses, for a company with fewer than five hundred employees, the average amount each person received would still be considerable.
The average yearly income of employees at Yume Animation was two or three times higher than that of professionals at the same level in other anime studios. In the Japanese industry, that had already become common knowledge.
Soon, a thunderous cheer erupted across the entire venue, loud enough to make the glass windows seem to tremble.
"Wealth, fame..." The moment Yumi spoke those two words, Sora turned his eyes toward her.
But contrary to what he imagined for an instant, she did not follow up with some exaggerated declaration about a great age of exploration or grand dreams.
"For these people in the anime industry, working at Yume Animation for just a year or two was enough to gain all of this without destroying themselves completely. They're truly lucky to have a boss like you."
She looked at the cheerful group in the hall, where everyone was laughing, drinking, and celebrating as though the moment would last forever. Then she smiled faintly, with an almost cruel calm.
"The harsh part is that by the end of the year, the members of these two teams will start seeing each other as rivals."
"Why?" Sumire asked beside them, holding a glass of milk and sipping it slowly to ease the alcohol.
"Next month, the second season of ana begins airing. And by the end of the year, if nothing unexpected happens, at the Tokushima Anime Festival, both Steins;Gate and c should be nominated for Best Anime and Best Anime Kantoku. When the awards are handed out, who will they go to? Of course, Sora will be the one walking onto the stage to accept them, but those awards also add tremendous weight to the résumés of every staff member who worked on the productions."
Hearing that, Sumire and Sora fell silent for a while.
The mid- and high-level employees at Yume Animation had already seen the script and storyboards for the second season of ad. A few crucial episodes from that second season were even being produced ahead of schedule: Ushio Okazaki embracing her father in the field of flowers, her death in the snow, and Nagisa Furukawa's recovery from the depths of despair.
The key shots from those decisive episodes had already entered production early. After all, from the beginning, Sora's definition of c in this world was simple: surpass the original work from a parallel world in every way.
Everyone there had trained eyes. They understood.
Steins;Gate was unquestionably powerful. But the second season of ad was not inferior either.
So which of the two anime would be the real winner of the year?
If the two women were judges, they would probably end up with a headache no one could solve.
After indulging in that thought for a moment, Sumire returned to reality and suddenly looked a little stunned.
"What is it? Why that expression all of a sudden?" Sora asked curiously.
"Nothing... It's just that the hard days when we were drawing storyboards in Tokushima still feel like yesterday. But in the blink of an eye, we're already discussing which work under our own company will win Best Anime of the Year and Best Anime Kantoku. It feels like a dream. After all, in the past, something like this was what I treated as a lifelong dream. And now..."
Sumire let out a long breath and smiled gently.
"Now it's simply a reality I've already crossed."
"Then you'd better raise the level of your dreams as soon as possible," Sora said with a smile.
"Otherwise, from now on, your imagination definitely won't be able to keep up with reality."
"After tonight's celebration banquet, I'll quickly bring out the new project. After all..." Sora looked at the hundreds of employees in the hall and spoke quietly.
"I don't have much room to stay idle anymore. The company needs to rapidly expand the departments related to IP development, and our staff numbers will keep growing fast. As the person leading a group of people who depend on this to make a living, I can't afford to slack off."
In mid-June, another Friday arrived.
Even during the day, Sora's fans had already begun stirring across Japanese forums and fan groups.
Opening NatsuYume, three of the top ten trending searches were related to Kurisu.
In the ranking of the most popular female anime characters of the year, voted on by millions of NatsuYume users, "Kurisu" took first place with an overwhelming seven hundred and eighty thousand votes, crushing "Leticia de Crea," the heroine of Toki no Ma, who had three hundred and ten thousand votes.
Shiina Mayuri ranked third with only two hundred and sixty thousand votes.
Nagisa Furukawa and Fuko, the heroine and supporting character from ad, appeared right after them in third and fourth place.
That ranking alone was enough to show which works dominated the interest of anime fans in Japan that season.
In episode twenty-two, when Kurisu chose to sacrifice herself so Okabe would not break down inside an endless loop, and in the final moment accepted his confession and kissed him, she had already become flawless in the hearts of Steins;Gate fans.
It was barely past seven in the evening.
The audience rating of the Southern Alliance Television Network was already climbing rapidly.
Even a simple weather forecast program reached an astonishing 38-point rating.
From that time slot onward, the station stopped airing regular programming and filled nearly half an hour entirely with commercials.
And yet, the viewers simply did not change the channel.
During that interval, each second of advertising, priced according to real-time ratings, was worth a fortune. It was as if the Southern Alliance Television Network had carved out a huge slab of fat meat from the advertising clients that once belonged to the four major national broadcasters.
At that moment, Sora's fans were posting all kinds of threats on NatsuYume, saying things like, "I'll watch just one more episode," and "If the protagonist doesn't save the Assistant in episode twenty-three, I'm dropping this anime."
But their bodies were honest. Every one of them watched the pre-broadcast merchandise information for Steins;Gate with serious attention.
After all, the BDs released over the past two weeks came with several bonus booklets, packed with supplementary information about the characters. If an important bonus item was included, then whether or not to buy the BD had to be considered carefully.
As soon as she left work, Mio Hayakawa practically flew back home and turned on the television.
She had not even finished drinking a glass of water when the opening theme of Steins;Gate began playing on the screen.
"It's here."
With her pretty face filled with absolute focus, Mio Hayakawa fixed her eyes on the opening.
In three more weeks, she would not even be able to watch this opening on television anymore.
The anime's story wasted no time.
At the very beginning of episode twenty-three, there were Okabe, Shiina Mayuri, his best friend Daru, and, standing beside the time machine with a serious expression, the part-time warrior, Suzuha Amane.
"It's been so long since I last saw her..."
A hot sting rose in Mio Hayakawa's eyes.
The last time the anime showed an important plot involving Suzuha was when she returned to the past, lost her memories, and committed suicide.
She had never imagined that Suzuha would still have a role in the Beta world line.
What part-time warrior? She was practically a little angel.
The rules of the Beta line were quickly laid out.
Twenty-six years later, a world war would break out. Five point seven billion people would die in that conflict.
And the trigger of the war would be a time machine.
"Come with me."
Suzuha smiled at Daru, her father in that world, who was staring at the time machine in complete confusion, and at Aunt Mayuri. Then her gaze shifted to Okabe, whose expression remained grave.
Suzuha's objective was to take Okabe with her in the time machine and eliminate, in that era, the seed that could trigger the future world war.
"I refuse. I went back countless times just to guide the world line from Alpha back to Beta. I can't keep playing with time alongside you and turn all of that effort into nothing."
Okabe's voice was sorrowful, but his eyes were firm.
"That's true..." Mio Hayakawa thought. "In the Alpha world line, a single message sent through time was enough to trigger SERN's global pursuit. If, in the Beta world line, Suzuha asked Okabe to get into the time machine and he agreed right away, that would be strange."
Even so, she continued watching patiently.
"Okabe. What if I told you that the thing required to avoid the future world war is saving Kurisu Makise, who died on July twenty-eighth?"
Suzuha's gaze sharpened.
"The mission I received is only one: save Kurisu Makise and reach the only world line not bound by convergence. Go to Steins Gate."
The instant Suzuha said that line, Mio Hayakawa and countless Steins;Gate fans all across Japan felt an electric current rush from the soles of their feet straight to their brains.
Steins Gate.
The only world line free from the chains of convergence.
Did such a thing really exist?
So that was it. No wonder the work was called Steins;Gate. It was not merely one of the protagonist's chuunibyou phrases.
It was a term with real significance.
Mio Hayakawa grew excited. The plot had barely advanced, and almost nothing had actually happened yet, but her blood was already burning.
Exactly. How could there be a destiny that absolutely could not be overcome?
"I have no interest in the lives of five point seven billion people in the future. But..."
Okabe closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were sharp, cold, and striking.
This was the protagonist.
"I knew it. I knew you hadn't given up. I wasn't wrong about you."
As long as even the smallest possibility remained, he would never abandon the chance to save Kurisu.
Only a few minutes after episode twenty-four began airing, the development of the story had already set anime fans across Japan ablaze.
From there, everything followed naturally. Okabe and Suzuha boarded the time machine and returned together to July twenty-eighth.
The day Kurisu was stabbed in the first episode.
At that moment, Mio Hayakawa vaguely began to feel that something more complicated was hidden there.
Since the first episode had aired nearly half a year earlier, many details in her memory had grown blurry.
But now that the story had returned precisely to that day, those blurred memories began surfacing one after another.
Come to think of it, the first episode had several suspicious points.
For example, the moment Kurisu first appeared, she had said strange things to Okabe even though she had supposedly never met him before.
And then there was the rooftop scene in the first episode.
If she remembered correctly, Okabe had gone there during that episode and happened to see a strange-looking machine. Its shape was identical to the time machine that Okabe and Suzuha used in the Beta world line.
Mio Hayakawa was intelligent. Since childhood, she had gone from elite elementary schools to a top university, and now worked at a multinational company. When she watched films, dramas, or anime, she belonged to the kind of audience that could write analysis threads and viewing guides.
It took only a few seconds for her to understand certain things.
"No way..."
Mio Hayakawa's expression turned serious.
"If that's really the case, then how is this anime supposed to save Kurisu?"