You quickly stabilize the mnemo-scanner as Mr. Tanaka slips into sedation, his body going limp in the recliner. The memory sequence freezes on the woman's now-clear face, her dark eyes seeming to follow you even in digital stasis. Your fingers fly across the holographic interface, pulling up the corporate archives' facial recognition protocols. The system whirs to life, cross-referencing the woman's features with thousands of employee profiles from 2042.

After an agonizing thirty seconds, the screen flashes red - ACCESS RESTRICTED. Your security clearance isn't high enough. You bite your lip, considering the risks, then plug your personal decryption dongle into the console. The air smells of overheated circuitry as your underground mods brute-force through the firewalls. The screen flickers violently before displaying a single personnel file marked 'TERMINATED' in pulsing crimson letters.

The woman was Dr. Akane Matsuda, lead researcher in neuromorphic engineering. Her last project involved something called 'MEMPHIS Protocol' - all details classified beyond your clearance. The file shows she didn't transfer. She died in a lab accident exactly eighteen months ago, the same timeframe Mr. Tanaka is missing. The timestamp on her termination notice matches the date of the alleyway memory by exactly seventeen minutes.

As you scroll further, your blood runs cold. At the bottom of the file is a surveillance still from the Kyoto facility's lobby. Dr. Matsuda stands with three other researchers - one of them is you. But you've never worked in Kyoto. At least... not that you remember.