"There is properly no history; only biography."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Shimura Yumeko meticulously scanned the code she just wrote for the newest section of the Historical Immersion System. As a research assistant to Professor Ogawa, Yumeko had been working long hours for over four months on the database integration and graphic simulation of the system. After finally getting approval from the Department of Internal Affairs to direct-link the system to their history database network, it was time to test it out live.
There had been some tests in the past, of course -- but they were all with dummy databases. The system generated the proper graphics, sound, tactile, and smell simulations for the three dummy test sets -- a beach, a house, and a lake -- but that was easy. There were already many virtual reality systems that made the user feel as if they were somewhere else. This system was different.
Yumeko tapped her pencil on the desk absently. I suppose we should probably make the database access read-only, just to be safe. We shouldn't have permission to write to the government database, anyway, but in case of a bug we wouldn't want to have to explain the attempt. She modified one line of code slightly to reflect the change. Oh, now I'm just stalling, she thought to herself disgustedly. What am I afraid of? That it won't work? Of course there will be bugs, but I'm not going to find all of them sitting here staring at the code.
What made the Historical Immersion System different was its ability to not just make the user feel as if they were somewhere in history, but to give them the memories of having experienced that history. Of course, all the participants had to sign waivers and such, since they did access people's memories, and they couldn't use it for any military purposes because of the New Geneva Extension, but those were just technicalities, really.
Maybe I'm just jealous because, if it works, students won't need to study history and memorize dates and places the way I had to -- they could just plug in the system and then know it as if they had been there. She smiled to herself. Though, I guess that's the whole reason Professor Ogawa is having us build this thing.
She thought about waiting until tomorrow, when the other assistants would be here, and they could test it together, but she knew that she would get more done if she started the testing now, when she could concentrate and not be interrupted. She took a sip of her water and ate the last cookie from her snack drawer, and then sighed. It's almost midnight; I could just go home . . . She slammed her hand down on the table with sudden determination. No, I'm going to try it tonight.
She brought up the main system interface and told it to start one of the scenarios from the live database she had programmed, and then plugged in her cyberbrain interface plugs. Her vision blacked for a second, and then she appeared in the midst of some trees on the edge of a gigantic clearing.
Yumeko tried to take in all the details, searching for anything amiss. The smell of the trees was right, the crisp fall temperature was appropriate, and as she looked around, a large platform and castle began to form in front of her. It started as a blurry mass of pixels, and quickly coalesced into Osaka Castle, five stories high and raised up on two platforms. Well, there's a problem -- if you log in too fast it doesn't have time to cache the more complicated graphics. Or maybe it's a problem with the random starting positioning?. As she looked at the castle, she suddenly began . . . to remember . . .
"Mommy, why do I have to leave you and Daddy?"
"Senhime, you must be brave and strong. You are going to marry the son of an important clan leader to try to cement the peace between the Toyotomi and the Tokugawa. From this point on, you must listen to your husband's mother, Lady Yodo, as if she were your own mother. I trust her to take good care of you, since she is my sister." Yumeko felt herself, a seven-year-old girl, fight back tears and nod dutifully. A swirl of other faces and phrases, castle rooms, learning to cook, formal kimono, and festivals faded in and out of her thoughts . . .
It was a beautiful spring day, the cherry trees laden with blossoms, and she was eating outside with Lady Yodo and Hideyori. She had prepared the lunch herself, and wanted so badly for the to enjoy it. Lady Yodo wasn't mean, but she clearly had high expectations for the wife of her son. As they carefully sampled each course, she could tell from their faces that the meal was a success. She began to relax a little bit and enjoy the blanket of petals and the warm spring air . . .
She felt so frustrated. She had married Hideyori after her grandfather had defeated the Toyotomi armies at Sekigahara to try to ease the conflict between the two. But there was too much rivalry, too much tension and suspicion and ambition, even she didn't know who was "right" and who was "wrong" anymore. With the recent news that the nearby village of Imafuku had been attacked and defeated, it seemed there was nothing she could do anymore. And, with her grandfather Tokugawa as the shogun of the rest of Japan, with larger armies and more resources and support, she could not see how Hideyori could win this conflict.
Yumeko paused for a minute, a little overwhelmed at strange new memories surfacing all at once, from a completely different time and place. For a moment, all she could feel was Senhime's despair, and she almost sat down and cried right there. But then her own memories and desires, her hard work, her determination to finish the project, came to the foreground, and she shook her head with a smile. That was quite different from how I learned about the Tokugawa Unification in school! Even the thought of Tokugawa brought to mind Senhime's memories of her parents and grandparents, and it took a little effort for Yumeko to push them away and concentrate on her own goals.
Well, there's a few things I need to fix, but I don't see any major bugs . . . So far it works better than I had expected, but I'll have to do some more testing. She decided to enter the castle itself, to take a closer look at the interior graphics and historical artifact generation algorithms.
I have the next chapter written already; just going to polish it up before I post it. If you're interested in learning more about the events in Japanese history mentioned, I've listed some good links below. I've tried to be as historically accurate as possible (though obviously I made up Senhime's "memories").
Historical references: