I Became a Samurai in my Own Game - Ep01 Summary

** Warning: The following summary contains spoiler of the premiere episode of I Became a Samurai **

The story begins as most stories like these do, with a young girl. This particular young girl was named Ayu Tokai, a 19 year old mutant who had just moved to Port Solei for university studies.

The day started like any other for Ayu, a day when she would come home from class, toss off her backpack, and immerse herself in video games. She far preferred the world of games to real life. She had deadlines and responsibilities here, but in the digital world she had power and grace.

Her game for today was Blood Blossom, a new RPG that she had been waiting eagerly for ever since it was announced. It had just come in the mail, a brand new collector’s edition with special steelbox and artbook. But she wasn’t interested in any of that. She tore apart the packaging and shoved the disc into the console.

It was everything she dreamed. The world was stunning. The characters were deep. The mechanics were enthralling. She played for hours, wandering the vast fields, defeating monsters, and feeling like a true hero. But then… suddenly, out of nowhere, a truck hit her character from off screen.

“What the heck!?” she complained. “I’m still in the early levels! What sort of poorly written story has its main character get hit by a truck for no good reason as a way to kick off the action!?”

She stood up angrily but found herself tripping over the cobblestone path before her. “Wait? Stone?” she thought confused. She rolled over and looked at the sky. She wasn’t indoors anymore. She was outside. Outside in a square, with merchant stalls around her and wandering people doing business… and it wasn’t just any square. It was the starting square in Blood Blossom. In a blink, her world changed forever. She was inside the game!

She quickly rose to her feet, patting over her body. She wasn’t in her school uniform anymore. Instead she was in a basic level one set of gear for Blood Blossom, samurai gear, her chosen class. It was adapted for her mutant body perfectly, with space for her extra breast and arms.

“This can’t be happening” she thought as panic struck through her like a lightning bolt. She was a great gamer but was no fighter. How could she stand up to the dangers of the world like wild wolves, ravenous dragons, and random trucks!

It was then that she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Yaaaah!” she yelled, practically jumping out of her own armor. It was a mysterious figure draped in a long purple robe, a hood drawn over its face to hide its identity.

“Greetings young warrior…” it said in a raspy voice. “You have been summoned to help us defeat the most evil of evils, Maho, the dreaded Yokai of ages past.”

“Maho…” Ayu said. “That’s not a beginner quest. The game’s all out of order.”

“Erhm… game?” the wizardly looking figure said.

“Nevermind. Look. I’m no warrior. I’m just a lost girl and I need to find my way home.”

“Nonsense!” the hooded one said. “You fit the prophecy perfectly. ‘When darkness falls upon the land a four armed warrior will come to save us. She will take the power of the elements, one in each hand, and banish Maho from this plane.’”

“And you think I’m your savoir just because I have four arms. That’s racist against mutants!”

“Uhm… what’s a… mutant?” the figure said, genuinely confused.

“Someone like me, you know, not a human?”

“Young girl, there are many tribes in the realm that are not human. Elves, vampires, trolls, heck Steve here is a werewolf.”

“Sup” one of the hooded figures said, raising a furry paw.

“Not now Steve! We’re talking!”

Steve lowered his paw.

“What tribe you come from matters not. The point is you fit the description of our savior, who was supposed to show up in this very spot after our summoning ritual. We spent a great deal of power, time, resources to make this ritual work. We won’t be able to attempt another one for at least twenty years.”

“Twenty years!” Ayu exclaimed in shock.

“Yes, and Maho will raze countless villages by then. Millions of innocents will die. You HAVE to help us.”

Ayu could not believe this. All she wanted to do was play her video game, and now she was some sort of savior figure. This was too much. “Look I can’t…” she was cut off by hearing a sad little dog whimper coming from Steve in the back. She was a sucker for dogs… “Ugh… fine…. I’ll give it a shot but no promises!”

“Great!” the wizard said grabbing her by a wrist and leading her through the city streets. “Follow me!”

She was brought to the courtyard of a grand building, with jewel adorned weapons and armor of all sorts lining the walls. “We have kept the great artifacts of heroes past safe specifically for your coming” the wizard said. “Please take whatever will best aid you on your quest.”

Ayu sighed heavily and picked up a katana, her preferred weapon in almost any game. She walked over to a training dummy and looked back to the hooded acolytes. “Look, I don’t know what you are expecting, but I don’t know how to fight. It’s not like my body will just start moving on its own.”

It was then that her body started moving on its own! Simply swinging the katana made her strike the training dummy clean and hard. She pivoted and twisted spinning around and bringing the katana down once again, before flipping over it to strike from behind. She had never practiced swordplay or gymnastics in her life but, somehow, she was mimicking the exact attack animations from the game.

The acolytes were in shock. “Not a warrior indeed! We have never seen such skill!”

“No wait I… I swear I’ve never done that before…” Ayu protested.

“Well then what better proof that this is fate!?” The acolyte once again grabbed Ayu by the wrist as the rest pushed her along to a room in manor. It was luxurious, with a massive bed. This was the bedroom of a noble, but she was no noble. She was just a girl.

She walked around the room, taking stock of her surroundings. She opened up the closet and saw a bottle. Over it she could see words “1x Health Potion.”

“Random treasure?” she thought to herself. “Wait a minute… if I can see the name of the potion…” she looked at the katana she took from the armory earlier in the day and after a few seconds of focusing, grunting, and crossing her eyes she could see its stats too. They were ludicrously high, definitely not starting gear.

She then got a good idea. She stood in front of a full length mirror and concentrated just the same. In time, her own stats came up. She saw her life bar, skill points, stats, all much higher than a starting character’s. Her skill list had abilities she had never seen before. She had a few extra points left over from her small training session and invested them all in her katana skill.

The only thing left to do was to try out the big and cushy bed. She took off her armor, laid down, and within moments, she had drifted off to sleep.

…

…

…

“HELP HELP US!”

Ayu rose to find the villagers outside screaming in terror. She grabbed her katana and without even thinking jumped out of her window to the chaos below.

There she saw it, a large humanoid Yokai, breathing heavily like a wild beast. It had huge claws, massive horns, spikes all over its body bursting through its bulging and deformed muscles. It roared in fury, the corpse of a villager half hanging out of its mouth. Ayu recoiled in fear as a drop of blood landed on her cheek.

“Tonight!? I was supposed to fight this Yokai tonight!? No… No this is crazy.” She joined a crowd of villagers and started running away. But even as she pushed she saw a young girl, even younger than her, run toward the beast.

“GIVE ME BACK MY MOMMY!” she yelled. The mammoth beast towered over her, raising its foot. She was going to die. It was going to crush her to bit! Ayu couldn’t let this happen. She just couldn’t.

… and in a flash, she was under the foot, sword raised over her head, holding the beast off. “Run!” she barked at the girl, who quickly joined the rest of the crowd. In a massive heft, Ayu pushed the foot off her and readied her blade. The Yokai bellowed in anger. “No running now” she said with a smirk. But if anything was proven in training today, this is a game, and she had all the skills she needed to complete it. “What’s the worst that can happen, a game over?”

The Yokai curled up a massive fist and brought it down with lightning speed, but her body once again moved with style and grace, jumping out of the way. She kicked off the wall and slashed furiously, digging her blade into its right shoulder, making it cry out in pain. It brought its other hand over to swipe at her, and she jumped out of the way again, leaving her sword embedded in the flesh of its muscle.

“Maybe I can do this” she thought to herself as she landed on the ground several feet away, but a sharp pain in her leg cast doubt. She looked down to see claw marks on her shin, a glancing blow, but one powerful enough to take a chunk out of her health bar that she could see with a sort of sixth sense. Even if she couldn’t, the blood dripping down her leg was enough to remind here, there was real danger here.

The demon turned its glowing red eyes to her and roared once more. The force of the roar nearly sent her flying. She looked up to it terrified once more. She wanted out. She didn’t want to get eaten, or squashed, or torn to shreds. She just wanted to sit in her room playing games all day. She tried to navigate through her menus, looking for a quit button, but there was none. No way to make everything stop. No way back home.

This wasn’t just a game. This was reality. There was no reset button. All she could do was survive.