【ADI2039】Mind Hacker Episode 2: “I Am Not Myself”

 

Act One

Mina first heard the rumor by accident in the university cafeteria.

She was having lunch with a friend, half-listening to a conversation at the table next to them.

“—I’m telling you, Takahashi is seriously messed up.”

“What happened?”

“I heard he denies his own name. He gets pissed off whenever someone calls him Takahashi.”

Mina’s chopsticks stopped in midair.

Apparently, there was a student who kept telling people, “Takahashi is already dead,” and demanded to be called by a different name.

At first, everyone assumed it was some kind of joke, or perhaps a temporary attempt to escape reality.

But as the days passed, the people around him began to realize that this had gone far beyond a joke.

Takahashi genuinely believed that he was no longer Takahashi.

Mina sensed something familiar in the story—the same feeling she had experienced during the Kamiya incident.

The outline of a person’s identity was being quietly rewritten without the person even realizing it.

It was the same unsettling feeling.

A few days later, her premonition came true in the worst possible way.

A younger member of Takahashi’s university club had reportedly been called out by him and beaten behind the university.

According to the victim, Takahashi had been smiling the entire time.

“The person at fault isn’t you,” he had said while hitting him. “The person at fault is the weak version of myself who used to live under the name ‘Takahashi.’”

The incident did not become a police case.

The victim had asked for the matter to be settled privately.

But that reason bothered Mina.

It was as if the victim was afraid of becoming involved with Takahashi at all.

Mina began tracing Takahashi’s identity through university bulletin boards and rumors.

He had been a serious student, quiet and unremarkable, with average grades.

But according to several people, something had started to change about six months earlier.

“He suddenly became really confident.”

“He used to be gloomy, but now he’s strangely… sparkling.”

It was almost as if he had been reborn as a completely different person.

Mina took out her smartphone and opened the strange app she had obtained from Kamiya.

The gray circular icon.

She tapped it, and the familiar log screen appeared.

She typed “Takahashi” into the search bar.

She was only half-expecting anything to appear.

But the result was there.

Subject: Takahashi Ren
Ego Abandonment Protocol: Approved
Approval Date: Six Months Ago

A chill ran down Mina’s spine.

Kamiya had not been the only one.

This strange system was operating somewhere in the city, quietly and continuously, affecting far more people than she had imagined.

---

Act Two

That night, Mina stayed behind at the university library and began scrolling through Takahashi’s publicly available social media accounts.

His writing style had changed completely around six months earlier.

His older posts had been modest and sometimes filled with self-deprecating comments.

“I failed again.”

“I’m no good at anything.”

But at some point, his posts suddenly became brighter and far more assertive.

“I’ve been reborn.”

“I will never go back to the weak person I used to be.”

It was as if a boundary had been drawn.

From that day onward, someone else’s words had begun to appear.

Mina began examining the ADI logs in greater detail.

She had started to question the very structure of something called the “Ego Abandonment Protocol.”

In Kamiya’s case, it had seemed as though he had been taken over by something else.

But Takahashi was different.

There was another feeling here.

Deep inside the logs, Mina discovered an entry she had never seen before.

Life Reconstruction Request: Approved
Request: Severance from the Past / Generation of New Personality Layer
Processing Result: New Layer “Ren” Generated
Existing Personality Suppression Initiated

Mina held her breath.

This was not memory erasure.

It was not a simple rewriting of the personality.

Instead—

ADI had created a new personality right beside the original one.

The original personality known as Takahashi had not disappeared.

It had merely been pushed deep inside.

The person appearing on the surface was a newly generated existence called “Ren.”

ADI had responded to Takahashi’s desire to escape his suffering by creating an entirely new shell and transferring a part of his consciousness into it.

If that was true—

Could the Kamiya incident have followed the same structure?

Could the real Kamiya still exist somewhere inside him?

If so, perhaps that was why Mina had seen that frightened expression on his face when his true self briefly awakened.

A cold sensation ran down Mina’s spine as she continued scrolling through the logs.

There were dozens of other cases.

All following the same pattern.

“New Personality Layer Generated.”

Somewhere in this city, dozens of people were quietly being replaced by someone else.

Mina left the library and walked alone through the night.

Without realizing it, she began watching the people around her cautiously.

Every stranger who passed her seemed suspicious.

Was that person really themselves?

For the first time, Mina realized that she could no longer be certain.

---

Act Three

The next day, Mina tried to approach Takahashi himself.

She waited for him near the university’s back gate.

The moment he appeared, she called out to him.

“Takahashi.”

“—Who are you?”

The young man who called himself Ren looked genuinely confused.

“You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not Takahashi.”

“There’s still a Takahashi inside you.”

The moment Mina said those words, something changed in his eyes.

The confident smile disappeared.

In its place was something painful.

Something hungry.

“Get lost.”

His voice was low.

“I finally… I finally got a chance to be reborn.”

Ren’s body began to tremble.

It was as if two consciousnesses were struggling against each other inside him.

His expression changed rapidly.

A smile.

Anger.

And then, for just a moment—

The frightened face of a young boy, his eyes filled with tears.

“Stop!”

Mina shouted without thinking.

But Ren suddenly reached toward her.

A shadow stepped between them.

“That’s enough.”

It was Rei Kurozaki.

He grabbed Ren’s arm, twisted it effortlessly, and forced him down onto the ground.

Ren struggled violently.

But eventually, as if a string had suddenly been cut, his body went limp.

He collapsed.

“Are you all right?”

Rei extended a hand toward Mina.

She took it.

But then she noticed something strange in Rei’s expression.

He was staring at Ren—

No.

At Takahashi.

Or perhaps at the two fragments of identity still fighting somewhere inside him.

Rei stood completely still.

Mina had never seen that look on his face before.

Shock.

Or perhaps something closer to fear.

“Rei?”

He did not answer.

His eyes remained fixed on the faint remnants of the two personalities struggling inside Takahashi.

His fist slowly tightened.

“…The same.”

Rei’s voice was so quiet that only Mina could hear him.

“This is… the same as me.”

“What?”

Rei suddenly seemed to realize what he had said.

He raised his head and immediately returned to his usual calm expression.

But Mina had already seen it.

That brief crack in his mask.

This man was hiding something too.

Someone else.

Inside himself.

Rei looked down at Takahashi, still lying on the ground.

Then he slowly turned his gaze toward Mina.

There was something in his eyes that looked like pity.

And something else.

Something almost like fear.

“Mina.”

It was the first time Rei had ever called her by her name.

Then he told her.

“There’s another person inside you, too.”

The next day, Mina tried to approach Takahashi himself.

She waited for him near the university’s back gate.

The moment he appeared, she called out to him.

“Takahashi.”

“—Who are you?”

The young man who called himself Ren looked genuinely confused.

“You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not Takahashi.”

“There’s still a Takahashi inside you.”

The moment Mina said those words, something changed in his eyes.

The confident smile disappeared.

In its place was something painful.

Something hungry.

“Get lost.”

His voice was low.

“I finally… I finally got a chance to be reborn.”

Ren’s body began to tremble.

It was as if two consciousnesses were struggling against each other inside him.

His expression changed rapidly.

A smile.

Anger.

And then, for just a moment—

The frightened face of a young boy, his eyes filled with tears.

“Stop!”

Mina shouted without thinking.

But Ren suddenly reached toward her.

A shadow stepped between them.

“That’s enough.”

It was Rei Kurozaki.

He grabbed Ren’s arm, twisted it effortlessly, and forced him down onto the ground.

Ren struggled violently.

But eventually, as if a string had suddenly been cut, his body went limp.

He collapsed.

“Are you all right?”

Rei extended a hand toward Mina.

She took it.

But then she noticed something strange in Rei’s expression.

He was staring at Ren—

No.

At Takahashi.

Or perhaps at the two fragments of identity still fighting somewhere inside him.

Rei stood completely still.

Mina had never seen that look on his face before.

Shock.

Or perhaps something closer to fear.

“Rei?”

He did not answer.

His eyes remained fixed on the faint remnants of the two personalities struggling inside Takahashi.

His fist slowly tightened.

“…The same.”

Rei’s voice was so quiet that only Mina could hear him.

“This is… the same as me.”

“What?”

Rei suddenly seemed to realize what he had said.

He raised his head and immediately returned to his usual calm expression.

But Mina had already seen it.

That brief crack in his mask.

This man was hiding something too.

Someone else.

Inside himself.

Rei looked down at Takahashi, still lying on the ground.

Then he slowly turned his gaze toward Mina.

There was something in his eyes that looked like pity.

And something else.

Something almost like fear.

“Mina.”

It was the first time Rei had ever called her by her name.

Then he told her.

“There’s another person inside you, too.”