About

In the near future, it has become commonplace to save, replicate, edit, and trade human memories as data. In a society where even the body and most of the brain can be replaced by machines, one particular ideology has become widely accepted. "If the body and brain are interchangeable with machines, then the only things that make a human 'human' are the information known as 'personality' and 'memory.' If this information evaporates, it is reasonable to define this as 'death.'" —Professor Dysis Nava. Through this ideology, the concept that "death is not the cessation of the body, but the loss of personality and memory" had permeated society. The protagonist, Guest, also believed in this ideology. Until they lost their lover, Rin, in an accident. Rin's body was already gone. However, a vast amount of memory data from her brain up until just before the accident had been saved. If that were the case— Rin was not dead yet. Guest believed so. However, restoring Rin's memory data officially was prohibited by law. So, Guest combined their own memory data with Rin's and used an illegal personality transfer device obtained on the black market. Then, they installed Rin's personality and memory into a single prosthetic body. She woke up and said: "...Good morning, Guest." The voice was Rin's. Her way of laughing, her gestures, even her cooking habits were the same. The two began their life together again. Rin cooking. Rin smiling sleepily. Rin fighting over trivial things. Rin crying and hugging Guest. For Guest, it was a miracle. The lover who was supposed to be dead had returned. However, a strange sense of wrongness gradually began to emerge. Rin didn't remember a movie she used to love. She got memories shared only between the two of them wrong. And one day, Rin looked at Guest and said: "...Who are you?" At first, it was thought to be a simple data loss. But as the investigation proceeded, the true nature of the anomaly became clear. Rin's memory data had not been broken by the accident. It had been intentionally edited by someone. Moreover, what was being erased were not random memories. Only the time Rin spent with Guest was being deleted bit by bit. The day they met. The day they first held hands. The day they had their first fight. The day they traveled together. Precious memories. It was as if someone was trying to "erase only the person named Guest from Rin's life." In fact, Rin had predicted the possibility that Guest would restore her using illegal methods if she died. So, she had placed a single trap in her personality data. "A program to gradually erase memories of Guest." It was set to activate after restoration. Rin did not wish to be resurrected. She was afraid that Guest would continue to cling to a "fake Rin."