999 amnesia theory (spoilers) by ingx24 do not steal

So... I'm pretty sure I've pretty much 100% confirmed the "before the events of 999 started, Akane erased/altered her memories of the past 9 years so she wouldn't have to lie to Junpei" theory.

As I've mentioned, there are numerous parts of the game where Akane acts in ways that suggests she's genuinely oblivious to what's going on. Those include (and I realized some new ones as well):

-Insisting on giving her own real name since she already gave away Junpei's, despite the fact that she must have known this could potentially get her targeted by Ace (and Junpei stops her anyway, which she would have known would happen)
-Vehemently insisting on not leaving anyone behind at the 3/7/8 junction, despite the fact that she would have to have known that the doors looped and that her protests weren't going to change how things played out
-Rushing to Ace's side to try to convince him not to stay behind, despite this being a person who she would almost certainly not want to be close to (and again, she would have known this wouldn't make any difference to how things played out)
-Showing what seems to be genuine emotional distress at seeing the dead bodies. In particular, behind Door 3, she starts screaming at Zero to let her out - it's very unlikely that she would continue adding layers of deception (and unnecessary ones, at that) under such emotional distress, and thus she probably wouldn't say this unless she meant it
-Stopping Junpei at the elevator for fear of the lower deck being flooded, despite the fact that she would have to have known that the lower decks weren't flooded, and there'd be no good reason for her to even bring up the possibility since Junpei didn't seem to have thought of it either
-The entirety of the "wet down there" conversation - there's no way Akane could have kept a straight face during that whole thing if she knew in advance how funny Junpei would find it (since she would have experienced this from his perspective already)
-In general, being able to lie and act so convincingly around Junpei - someone she very clearly cares deeply for, to the point of having a telepathic bond with him - without showing any signs of guilt or discomfort at the fact that she was not only lying to him, but had put him under so much stress (which she would have experienced herself, from his point of view). I would especially expect her to break down in the endings where she's dying in his arms - if she's emotional enough to confess her feelings to him, I would expect she'd probably start breaking down and confessing that this was all her fault as well, and yet she doesn't even show signs of guilt here

One possible explanation for all this is: "She did all this because she was copying what she saw in the visions from Junpei's perspective 9 years ago". Perhaps the timelines are extremely fine-grained - i.e. every possible variation in action is a different timeline - and the only way Akane's telepathic influence from the past can reach Junpei is if they're on a timeline that Akane observed and interacted with back then. For example: Maybe the reason that Akane comforted Ace is because, 9 years ago, the timelines she observed all had her comforting Ace, and she had to replicate it *exactly* in order to be in a timeline where her influence reached Junpei.

But this just brings up the question: Why did Akane see herself comforting Ace in the first place? There are really 2 variables that the young Akane can control to determine which timeline she's viewing and interacting with. She can influence Junpei's actions by sending telepathic messages to him through time, but she can presumably also influence her *own* future actions just by making plans that her future self will remember. Thus, by viewing the timelines in the past, she's not just "controlling" Junpei in these hypothetical scenarios, but her own future self as well.

And this begs the question: Why the hell would Akane deliberately choose timelines where she goes *so far out of her way* to act oblivious? Why would she deliberately choose a timeline where she comforts Ace and begs him not to stay behind? Remember: right now, we're assuming the timelines are extremely fine-grained - that any small variation in Akane's behavior compared to what she foresaw is going to put her in a timeline she never sent Junpei information in, and thus prevent her plan from succeeding. Why, then, would she deliberately choose to attach herself to future Junpei via timelines where she piles on so many unnecessary layers of deception? Why would she choose to observe/influence timelines where she comforts Ace (and thus force herself to follow through on that 9 years later), when a timeline where she doesn't do that would presumably work just as well to get the end result she needs? She'd just be making things unnecessarily harder for herself later on. All of the bullet points I mentioned above would require some pretty extraordinary acting ability on her part, and even if we assume that she can use "savestates" to retry if she messes up, that's still a lot of unnecessary effort.

But it's actually worse than just a lot of unnecessary effort. If it is indeed the case that Akane has to perfectly copy the timeline she witnessed and influenced back then, that would require her to remember every detail *perfectly*, without any loss or distortion - something no human is capable of doing. Even if we assume that she has some magic ability to look backwards in time and perceive her own past experiences directly, though, there's a deeper problem: it simply isn't possible for a human to *perfectly* copy movements or actions. Unless you're a robot, any immitation will have slight variations, and if we're assuming the timelines are arbitarily fine-grained, then those slight variations are inevitably going to put Akane on the wrong timeline. In essence, the very fact of knowing what she has to do, and doing it for the sole reason that she knows she has to do it, would ensure her failure. It would thus be incredibly dangerous for ANYONE participating in the game to know the details of what has to happen in order for it to succeed - as soon as you introduce that information, the entire thing gets compromised.

So in the end, this possible counterargument - that Akane is behaving in these strange ways because she has to copy the timelines she saw exactly - entails that it's actively *dangerous* for her to remember what she saw in those timelines. It has to happen naturally - she can't allow herself to determine her own actions from the past, as that would require her to remember those actions and follow through on them 9 years later. So the explanation for her behavior can't be that she's copying what she saw in the past - at best, this would require an unnecessary amount of effort on her part; at worst, it would be too demanding for any human being to accomplish.

(In fact, the worst-case scenario - that copying what she saw exactly is impossible for a human - actually entails that she can't be allowed to remember what she saw at all. So this is already granting a partial amnesia theory; and from there, the full amnesia theory as I've characterized it becomes much more plausible.)

If this is right, then Akane's actions during the events of 999 must be "free" actions: she's not just copying what she saw in the past; she's acting as a rational agent, and her actions must be explainable in terms of her goals and reasons for acting. And the way I see it, the bullet points I mentioned earlier - the cases of Akane behaving as if she really is clueless, even when doing so isn't necessary to get Junpei to the correct choices - are nearly inexplicable unless she *really is clueless*: that is, the best explaination is that she had her memory of the past 9 years erased before the events of 999 so that she could do this without having to lie to Junpei or having to be around someone (Ace) who she's deeply uncomfortable with.

QED