You focus the mnemo-scanner's resolution to maximum, the banquet hall dissolving into pixelated noise before reconstructing at microscopic levels. The data wafer in Tanaka's palm magnifies until its surface fills your entire field of view. The blue glow resolves into intricate circuitry patterns beneath a transparent casing, but what catches your attention are the tiny symbols etched along the edge - not corporate branding, but faded alchemical sigils mixed with binary code.

As the scanner traces these markings, your archival training kicks in. These are memory encryption glyphs, but of an older style than standard corporate issue. The spiral patterns suggest something more esoteric - the kind of psychic imprinting used in early 2030s experiments. A shiver runs down your spine when you recognize the telltale jagged line of a 'soul anchor' sigil, designed to tether memories to biological matter beyond standard wipe procedures.

The wafer's glow pulses irregularly, revealing hairline fractures in its structure. At this magnification, you can see data streams leaking from these cracks - not digital information, but what appears to be... faces. Dozens of them, miniature and screaming soundlessly as they swirl in the blue light. The scanner's warning chime indicates this isn't memory degradation, but rather evidence of forced neural convergence. Someone didn't just erase memories - they packed multiple consciousnesses into this single storage medium.