Self-styled mad scientist Rintarou Okabe runs the Future Gadget Laboratory out of an Akihabara apartment with Mayuri Shiina and Itaru "Daru" Hashida. Their tinkering turns a modified microwave into a machine that sends text messages into the past, and SERN takes notice. This light novel line retells that story across several volumes, one of which follows it from Kurisu Makise's side and watches the world line shift around her.