It was the 29th January 2010, you (Urushibara Ruka) work as a shrine maiden, every day you practice your swordsmanship. You dedicate every day to supporting the shrine. Though contrary to your appearance, behaviour and voice, you are a boy…

You had began working there, training your swordsmanship because of your promise to your very very secret crush, Okarin (Rintarou Okabe), a self proclaimed, egotistical but lovable mad scientist going by Hououin Kyouma, who lives in the centre of Akihabara above a CRT TV shop in a “lab” which was just an apartment… with his fellow scientists, Kurisu Makise, a red headed tsundere but was kind to you and Mayushii as you’re the only non-perverted people who regularly enter the Lab, she’s a stubborn but brilliant expert in physics as well as science in general and Itaru “Daru” Hashida, an overweight perverted pessimist yet a talented hacker and mechanic.

Your closest friend, Mayuri Shiina, is Okabe’s “hostage” as she claims… but basically she’s his assistant, she loves almost everyone she meets, often speaks about herself in the third person, she’s extremely innocent especially compared to the shenanigans of the Lab and especially desires you to dress up in cosplay with her… as a girl… which you often have to decline.

Recently, you’ve overheard the team at Future Gadget Laboratory had developed a new piece of technology, strangely called the Phone Microwave, capable of sending a D-Mail, essentially a very short, 36 character message to the past to alter the present, a.k.a, a Time Machine, but one that Okarin is only capable of remembering the changes to the worldline.

You eagerly began thinking of an idea, you had heard throughout your life, pregnant women who eat vegetables tend to have girls, you could send a D-Mail to your mother’s pager in early 1993 while you were still in the womb to encourage her to eat more vegetables.

You could finally achieve your dream of being recognised as a real girl, and not just a feminine boy… your dreams of dating Okarin could finally happen, it would no longer be a taboo… even if you would be unable to remember the changes like Okarin, it was worth it.

You rush over panting, still in your Miko outfit (the shrine maiden uniform). You run up the stairs to the “lab”, as Mayushii (Mayuri’s nickname) greets you, excited to see you made it to their lab, but you have plans…

Mayushii: “Tuturu~! Hiya Rukako! You finally came to cosplay~! Mayushii is so excited~!”