This post contains spoilers for Steins;Gate…and a lot of nonsense!

I’m disappointed that they never really properly explained Kyouma’s Reading Steiner.

I understand that everyone possesses Reading Steiner, and that its level of strength varies from person to person. Kyouma, then, possesses a very strong Reading Steiner.

But, is this something that just is, or is there a reason for it?

Was it always like this, or was it something that developed?

We know that, during 2000, Kyouma came down with a severe fever that produced sensations comparable to Reading Steiner’s activation. Since 2000 is a point of great divergence, that could be offered as an explanation, but since he did not experience a similar effect during 2010, another period of great divergence, that cannot be considered a complete explanation.

So, did he just develop Reading Steiner (to its full potential) do to being exposed to such a time of great divergence for the first time? Or did he experience these feelings because he experienced a worldline shift, and his body, being less developed due to his age, had a much more adverse reaction to it?

There’s also the obvious disadvantage that Kyouma does not form new memories when shifting worldlines—for simplicity’s sake, let’s call this “Writing Steiner.” Since Reading Steiner has a varying level of strength, it is possible that Kyouma does have a Writing Steiner, just an incredibly weak one; but since he has absolutely no new memories after any of his (numerous) worldline shifts, I think it’s safe to assume that he simply lacks this function.

Was Kyouma born without a Writing Steiner? If so, this could be seen as some sort of cognitive (if that’s even the right classification) defect.

Alternatively, he could have been born with a Writing Steiner but lost it later on. It has been seen that remembering multiple worldlines can put great stress on an individual. Perhaps, after the incident in 2000 (be it a worldline shift or something else), the stress put upon Kyouma due to possessing both a Writing Steiner and a strong Reading Steiner caused his body (soul?) to sacrifice Writing Steiner as a way of resolving the conflict?

Or I could just be completely wrong on all of this. I really don’t know.

But back to the 2000 incident.

Let’s assume that Kyouma’s fever in 2000 took place on the Beta worldline. This would be the same worldline where Suzuha, from 2036, went to 1975, 2000, and finally 2010. That would mean that Suzuha arrived in the same time frame as Kyouma’s fever. We don’t know the exact length of time Suzuha was in 2000. I do not recall if we were told exactly how long Kyouma’s fever lasted, however…

But, this presents a new possibility: Suzuha’s presence in 2000 could be related to Kyouma’s fever in the same year. Whether it’s as close as the fever appearing when Suzuha did and disappearing when she left, we don’t know, but even if it’s not that fixed, there could still be a relation.

I see 3 possible ways these events could be connected:

-If the fever was the result of a worldline shift, then Suzuha’s time travel could be what caused that worldline shift. This seems perfectly logical considering what we know.

-Something about the time machine’s presence had an unforeseen side effect on Kyouma. There isn’t really much evidence for this, though.

-Similar to the previous possibility, but what if it was intentional? Before his death in 2025, Kyouma understood Reading Steiner well enough to create the Divergence Meter, which is said to work on the same basic principle. Taking that into consideration, it is also possible that he incorporated some element into the design of Suzuha’s time machine that, when it arrived in the year 2000, targeted the young Kyouma and affected him in some way. This could mean that 2025 Kyouma intentionally gave 2000 Kyouma his high-level Reading Steiner (and/or destroyed his Writing Steiner, if my earlier hypothesis is correct). It’s entirely reasonable that this could be a component of 2025 Kyouma’s “Operation Skuld”, and since 2025 Kyouma’s advanced knowledge of Reading Steiner is established fact, this provides some elbow room for the lack of proof in a way.

Just some food for thought, I guess. I wish I had a point to reach, eheheh…