I beat the game. Then my heart stopped.
The screen glowed blue. Victory music played. Fireworks exploded over digital Osaka Castle, and there she was—Lady Kaito—standing on the keep, sword raised, hair wild, alive.
I'd done it.
Three years. Thousands of hours. Countless deaths. And finally, finally, I'd found the hidden route. The secret choices. The impossible path where she doesn't die in Chapter 2.
"Shogun's Destiny." Stupid name for a game. But I'd played it every night after work for three years. Came home, microwaved dinner, sat in this same chair, and escaped into feudal Japan.
Now it was over.
I leaned back. Stretched. My chest felt tight, but that was normal. Probably just excitement. Or the cheap ramen. Or the fact that I was forty-two years old and this was the most accomplished I'd felt in months.
My apartment was quiet. Too quiet. But it always was.
I looked at my phone. No messages. No missed calls. My ex-wife's name sat in my contacts, untouched for two years. My coworkers had a group chat I'd been muted in for six months. The guys in my gaming Discord only knew me as "ShogunSamurai42."
I could call someone. But who?
The pain in my chest got worse.
I rubbed the spot absently. Probably nothing. I was fine. I just needed to—
The room tilted.
My hand grabbed the desk. Missed. The monitor crashed to the floor. The screen went black. Lady Kaito's face disappeared.
I was on the ground. On my back. Staring at the ceiling.
My chest. God, my chest.
The phone was still in my hand. I tried to dial. Anyone. 119. Emergency. But my fingers wouldn't move.
The ceiling blurred.
Last thought: "At least I beat it."
I woke to silk.
Silk against my cheek. Silk under my hands. A ceiling made of wood and paper, nothing like my apartment, nothing like anything I'd ever seen.
For a long moment, I just stared at it.
Then I tried to sit up.
My body moved wrong. Lighter. Smaller. Off-balance. My hand reached for the bed frame and I saw it—slender, pale, feminine. Nails painted a soft rose.
I stared.
That wasn't my hand.
That wasn't my hand at all.
I scrambled up. The room spun. A woman's scream escaped my throat—my throat—high and sharp and not mine.
A door slid open.
A young woman in traditional dress rushed in. "My Lady! What's wrong?"
I stared at her. My mouth opened. Nothing came out.
She hurried to my side, reaching for me. I flinched back. Fell off the bed. Hit the floor hard.
"My Lady!" She knelt beside me, worried eyes searching my face. "Are you ill? Should I call the physician?"
I looked at her. Young. Maybe twenty. Dark hair tied back. A kimono that probably cost more than my last car.
And she was calling me "My Lady."
I looked down at myself.
Silk sleeping robes. Small feet. Narrow waist. Curves where there should be none.
I scrambled to the mirror.
A woman stared back.
Young. Maybe early twenties. Flawless skin. Dark hair falling over her shoulders. Eyes wide with terror—my terror—staring from a face I knew.
I knew that face.
I'd seen it on my monitor for three years.
Lady Kaito.
I was Lady Kaito.
I was Lady Kaito and she was supposed to be dead.
The maid was still talking. Something about breakfast, about the council, about a dozen things I couldn't process.
I held up a hand. She stopped.
"I need... a moment."
My voice. Her voice. Soft. Refined. Completely wrong.
The maid bowed. "Of course, My Lady. I'll prepare your things." She slid the door closed.
I stared at my reflection.
Lady Kaito.
Cunning. Ruthless. Beautiful.
Dead in Chapter 2.
Every single playthrough.
Except the one where I found the hidden route. The secret path. The impossible ending where she—
Wait.
The game.
In the game, Lady Kaito dies in Chapter 2. Poison. In her tea. A conspiracy led by someone she trusted.
I knew that. I'd seen it a hundred times.
And now I was her.
And Chapter 2 was coming.
I pressed my hands to my face. Her hands. Her face.
"Think," I whispered. "Think."
I was a forty-two-year-old man who played too many video games. I was also a young woman in feudal Japan. I was also about to be murdered.
The game.
The game was my only advantage.
I'd played "Shogun's Destiny" for three years. I knew the map. I knew the factions. I knew the characters—their secrets, their betrayals, their hidden agendas.
And I knew who killed Lady Kaito.
Lord Fujiwara. Her most trusted advisor. Smiling. Charming. Deadly.
In the game, he poisons her tea on the third day after the prologue.
Which meant—
"What day is it?" I called out.
The maid slid the door open. "My Lady?"
"What day is it? After my... my collapse. How many days?"
The maid looked confused. "You fainted two days ago, My Lady. The physician said it was exhaustion. You've been resting since."
Two days.
Two days since I—since she—since whatever happened.
That meant tomorrow was Chapter 2.
Tomorrow, Lord Fujiwara would bring tea.
Tomorrow, Lady Kaito would die.
Unless I did something different.
The maid helped me dress. Elaborate layers of silk and obi that took forever. I watched in the mirror, learning how this body moved, how she walked, how she held herself.
By the time we finished, I could almost pretend.
Almost.
"I need to see the council records," I said. "From the past month."
The maid blinked. "My Lady?"
"The council records. Bring them to my study."
She bowed. "Yes, My Lady."
She left. I stood alone in silk robes that cost more than my old life.
Tomorrow, someone would try to kill me.
Tomorrow, I'd have to be her.
I looked in the mirror again.
Lady Kaito stared back.
"I don't know if you can hear me," I whispered. "But I'm in your body. And I'm going to keep it alive. I'm going to keep YOU alive. Just... help me. Please."
The reflection didn't answer.
But something shifted. A warmth in my chest. A flicker of something that felt like memory but wasn't mine.
A name surfaced. Unbidden.
Takeda Ren.
I didn't know who that was.
But my heart—her heart—beat faster at the sound of it.