Chapter 16: I Found a Video of Us… But We Never Recorded It
---
🎥 1 — The USB Drive in Ren's Locker
Ren hadn't opened his locker in days.
He'd been avoiding it. Something about the metal felt… wrong.
But today, it was already unlocked.
Inside, on top of his books:
A plain, black USB drive.
No label.
No name.
Just a strip of red tape across it. Handwritten in sharp ink:
> "Do not watch alone."
He pocketed it and walked to the roof.
Aika was already waiting there.
"I think it's started again," he said.
She held up her sketchbook. Every page was blank.
But she hadn't erased them.
> "They're being rewritten while I sleep."
---
💻 2 — The Video That Shouldn't Exist
They plugged the USB into Ren's old laptop.
Only one file:
RECONSTRUCTED-MEMORY_VID_07.MP4
Ren clicked play.
The screen flickered.
Then played footage from inside his own bedroom.
The camera panned slowly.
To show Ren. Asleep.
Then the camera turned—showing Aika, asleep next to him.
But the footage was wrong.
They'd never slept together like this.
They never owned those clothes.
Their hair was longer.
Aika had a scar she didn't have in real life.
And the timestamp?
February 28, 2026.
A year from now.
---
📺 3 — The Voices Behind the Video
As the footage continued, static buzzed through the audio.
Then two voices—mechanical and hollow—began to speak in the background.
> "Subjects show high coherence. Bond strength: 89%."
"Emotional proximity: critical threshold reached."
"Initiating Observation Routine 9-B."
"Prepare to inject false memory set."
Ren paused the video.
Aika was shaking.
"Someone's… manufacturing our future."
He rewound the file.
Paused at the reflection in the glass window.
A man. Watching them sleep.
He had no face.
Just a glitch of static.
---
🧪 4 — Who Is Injecting Memories?
They showed the video to Shiori.
She didn't even blink.
"I've seen it before," she said. "Dozens of them. You two aren't the only ones."
"What do you mean?"
Shiori pulled out her own drive. Loaded it into her device.
A wall of footage appeared.
Hundreds of files. All labeled with names.
> ARAKAWA-07
HIMURA-11
SYNTH-STORYLINE-3A
REJECTED-TIMELINE_028
Aika gasped.
"These are… versions of us?"
Shiori nodded.
> "Someone—or something—isn't just watching.
They're curating memories. Editing them. Writing them like a script.
And if your story doesn't fit their narrative, they erase it."
---
🔐 5 — The Memory Editor's Name
Deep in one of the video files, Ren spotted a folder name:
> MNEMO.EXE
Aika clicked it open.
A single image loaded:
A typewriter.
Keys made of teeth.
Ink made of blood.
Behind it—an eye with hands for lashes.
A voice crackled from the laptop speakers:
> "Memories are art.
I am the editor."
Suddenly the power flickered.
The laptop screen bled red.
And the room's walls began showing different versions of Ren and Aika.
In one, they never met.
In another, they were enemies.
In another—they were siblings.
---
🧠 6 — The Mnemo Protocol Revealed
Shiori yanked the plug out of the wall.
Everything went dark.
Then she whispered:
> "Mnemo is worse than Watcher-7.
It doesn't want your body.
It wants your story.
It's been trimming it. Rewriting it. Replacing the parts that don't test well.
You're in a live edit."
Aika stumbled.
"Then what even is our life?"
Shiori met her eyes.
> "A draft. With someone else holding the pen."
---
📓 7 — Aika's Forbidden Sketch Returns
That night, Aika dreamed again.
But this time, she woke up with pencil in hand.
Her sketchbook open.
A drawing of a faceless figure sitting at a typewriter—surrounded by floating memories, each marked with a red stamp:
APPROVED
REWRITE
ERASE
The figure held a memory up:
A picture of Ren and Aika holding hands.
It placed it into a shredder.
Aika screamed and tore the page out.
But underneath, a new sketch had already appeared:
Aika alone.
Looking up at Ren's grave.
---
📼 8 — Someone Else Remembers
Ren got a message on his phone the next day.
Unknown number.
> "I remember you."
He texted back:
Who is this?
The reply:
> "I'm one of the timelines they deleted.
I was you. I was her. I was us.
And I want to come back.
Help me."
Attached: a selfie.
It was Aika.
But her eyes were white.
And she was smiling like she hadn't slept in centuries.
---
🌘 9 — The Countdown Begins Again
That night, the sky turned red.
Everyone else acted like it was normal.
But Aika saw the numbers in the clouds.
Ren heard the beeping again.
> [ RESET COUNTDOWN: 6 DAYS REMAINING ]
[ SUBJECTS 07 AND 11: NONCOMPLIANT ]
[ MNEMO REQUESTING CREATIVE RECONSTRUCTION ]
They looked at each other.
Aika whispered:
> "We're inside a story that doesn't want to end naturally.
It wants to rewrite us… until we break."
Ren took her hand.
"Then we break it first."
---
🕯️ End of Chapter 16
Next: Chapter 17 — "The Draft I Burned Is Coming Back"