Iride Akatsuki/Synopsis

## History

Even before streaming "The Ones Within - Genome", Akatsuki was a very famous streamer online, specializing in escape games.

Although it was revealed that he met Roromori Yuzu via an online chat during a stream, he believes that the two may have actually met before, face-to-face. This was possibly confirmed when Kaikoku found a photo of a girl and boy who may or may not be Roromori and Akatsuki together, but details and context of that photo remain unknown thus far.

## Plots

### Stage 1

Just before completing a game, Iride receives a message on his screen about playing the closed beta of "The Ones Within - Genome". Unaware of its true meaning, he thanks the popularity of the game for his raise in viewers. After opening his to-do list, he finds himself in another world, within the "The Ones Within - Genome" live stream. Believing this to be a dream, he finds an unconscious girl next to him. When he tries to check whether she is conscious though, he gets punched because of a misunderstanding.

The two then venture through the forest. Just then, the two encounter a large panda (later named *Pantarou*) with a snail and a rat perched on top. Although Iride tries to hold it in so they don't get caught, he can't help a sneeze due to pollen allergies, and they get confronted by the rat. Although things look troubling for Iride and the Karin, the two get saved by Kaikoku.

Left unarmed, Iride approaches the panda by climbing up the tree. He then greets the panda and hugs it, enjoying its paws. Iride chats with the panda for a little bit before he gets sneezed on. Iride then reunites with the Kaikoku and Karin. It is then that Iride meets and receives a balloon from Paka from the monitoring post. Paka informs the three that they have completed Stage 1.

### Stage 2

Later Paka takes them inside the tower where he meets the other gamers that were chosen for the game. He wanted everyone to introduce themselves starting with Iride which he said it lively leading to Karin hitting him in the head for not feeling any kind of danger in his surroundings. Then he notices Yuzu which was a streamer he met online and they had a small chat. After everyone has introduced themselves, Paca informs them about the second stage which is called Oujia Board Exchange where everyone has to pull a straw and whoever gets one must participate in the second stage. Aki then asks Paka if they are able to volunteer which was fine, so he was the first player on the stage. He was partnered with Karin, Anya, and Zakuro for the stage.

The second stage was about the four of them granting 3 wishes for a spirit. They had to put all of their fingers on a coin and then it will move by itself revealing the spirit's wishes. The first wish was that the spirit wanted water. The second wish was a friend, Zakuro and Anya were complaining about the term friends while Iride says his name to the spirit and asks if it wanted to be friends with him where the spirit accepts his request. Then came the last wish which was Akatsuki Iride, none of them knew what they were supposed to do where then Iride felt he was being dragged by something towards the window. Anya asks what he was doing and he says he was being dragged by something and then Iride was dragged outside of the window. Anya runs as fast as he could to save him but couldn't reach and before Iride falls he says that there was someone behind them which none of them noticed. Although Iride falls, it's later revealed that Pantarou saves him in time, and it carries him back to the ledge, where he climbs up.

He notices that someone was indeed behind them. Iride then approaches the spirit girl and talks to her. Despite her being so quiet he asks her about her name and if she wanted to be friends with him. She tells him thanks for the water and do you want to be friends with me which Aki agrees. Suddenly she starts to burn up and stating to Iride to go with her and die together. Next, she tells him that he will forget her after she dies but Aki didn't let her go, instead, he went to her while she was burning explaining that he never breaks his promises and hugs her. After this, the Second stage or Oujia Board Exchange is completed, and Iride and the others receive "01 Chromosome"

### Stage 3

Aki was summoned with the others outside so that Paka can explain to them the second stage. Whilst everyone seems quite miserable about having to go along with this, Yuzu and Aki are excited once they see the giant egg. The next stage is revealed by Paka to be a nurturing game where they must hatch a girl from the egg and make the school idol Hikaru Genju fall in love with her and he says how there is no limit to how many people can take part but it must be a minimum of four. Anya looks to Himiko saying how she's the obvious choice to put on the team. She then hides behind Aki. Anya notices some sort of fluffball on Aki's head and he hits it off, it turns out to be a 'Pacamera'. The people involved with this stage are Iride, Himiko, Anya, and Makino.

Both Iride and Himiko are more gentle with taking care of the egg and want to safely hatch it compared to Anya who was a bit out of place. The group finds out the egg will hatch in one hour after warming it, so Iride decides to warm it by squeezing the outside of the egg and hugging it. Himiko says how that wouldn't produce enough heat so Iride goes and finds heaters that were in the barn. Soon after this, they have created enough heat, and the group stands around the egg in a circle holding hands. Iride (as well as Himiko) start praying for how if the 'birth' does not go well then they would at least be able to make food from the egg. The egg begins to crack so Himiko urges everyone to think about their preference for the girl. Iride thinks about how he wants to see Pantarou again. This, of course, messes up the girl and gives her features of a panda. This made Murasaki hatch from the egg.

When Murasaki came out form the egg Anya says how this furball can accomplish the mission. Himiko tells her that she loves her as to how she is. Then Murasaki looks at Makino and blushes. Later in the day, Murasaki is pulling out her hair and clumps whilst repeating he loves me, he loves me not. To this Iride asks if she's okay or if she's not feeling well. Murasaki replies to her 'Pa' about how her heart is pounding. Iride calls for Himiko (Ma) telling her how Murasaki has a fever, it's because she has fallen in love with Makino. Later, when they're eating dinner, Anya and Himiko start to argue over the value of the nurturing game. Anya thinks of it to be stupid whereas Himiko replies back saying how he is Murasaki's father and how he has a responsibility towards her. Eventually, Himiko has enough and pulls one of her flash grenades blinding the 3 boys because of their actions.

The next day everyone meets up at the school with yuzu and Karin and Yuzu compliments how Murasaki is a nice girl which Iride is happy about. Shortly after this, we see Anya denied access into the school and is disqualified as it is a girls school. Then Aki and Makino dress up in schoolgirls outfit. This was meant to be a disguise for them to be allowed into the school. Then encounter Hikaru in the hallway with girls. Murasakiwanted to bake him something so he would love it. All of them went to the cooking class and decide to bake cookies for Hikaru eventually, Makino and Iride are considered to be in the way and are kicked out by the girls. They instead decide to spy on the idol.

They wait outside in the bushes in front of his window and overhear the idol shouting about how every present he has received is not worthy enough to be given to him. Right after this Murasaki comes in with the cookies, gives them to him and leaves. He soon starts ranting about how much more striking Murasaki is and how he wouldn't live up to his name. Murasaki overheard this and tried to reassure him but was cut off. The idol grabs a bottle of wine he had just drank from and ran towards Murasaki aiming to knock her as she had seen his 'disgraceful' side. Luckily Makino makes it just in time to jump through the window and grab another bottle that was in the room and smash the idol's head with it. Then Hikaru wakes up and turns around seeing Makino's face and eventually he fell for his looks.

Later Aki wonders, whilst the rest are sitting around eating cookies, as to where Anya was. In the end, Murasaki begins to disappear because it was the end of the stage. She asks Himiko and Aki (her Ma and Pa) to hug her before she goes. After she disappeared, the academy disappeared and everyone was in the clothes they were in previously and on the floor was another Chromosome. At the end of the stage, everyone is in the lobby, hanging out. Aki gives Anya a cookie Murasaki has made for him and he eats it and enjoys it.

### Stage 4

Iride and the others were in the lobby when Kaikoku showed up with Zakuro. Kaikoku told them that when they were busy with the 3rd stage, he and Zakuro have intruded floor 51 which was prohibited for all of them. While they were reporting what has happened, they were attacked by a Plant Monster. It caught Zakuro's leg. Paka then opened the speaker and said that since they have broken into floor 51, stage 4 will become an S-level stage, called "Exterminate the Mimicry Man-Eaters". Kaikoku then saves Zakuro but was going to hit Anya as well, they started arguing when Himiko threw a flashbang onto the monster causing it to fall down and separating the group. Iride and Anya were separated from the rest, Yuzu tells them to meet them in the food storage in the basement.

Iride and Anya were heading to their meeting place with the other until they encounter Karin. Anya asks why did she leave the others but she remained silent. Then she heads towards Iride and hugs him, Anya noticed that she was fake and warned Iride to get back from her. Then the copy of Karin turned into a monster and bit Iride, Anya comes along and saves him and they escape. Anya gets tired throughout the way and tells Iride to go on without him but Iride rejects it. They encounter the monster from earlier but it withers from the sunset. They continue their path to the basement.

At the basement, Anya was sleeping due to not having enough rest as stated by Yuzu. Iride explains to everyone what they have encountered which was a Mimicry Man-Eater disguised as Karin. It pisses off Karin knowing that it got close to Iride. Yuzu then says to Kaikoku to accompany her to her room as her bodyguard and gives a task to Iride and Zakuro to bring the withered Mimicry Man-Eater to her. As they go pick it up Zakuro tells Iride about Yuzu, and Iride says that he feels that they have met in the past. When they arrived Anya woke up and he explained to Iride that his family has a common sleeping disorder which explains his eyebags.

After Yuzu has made her investigation on the Mimicry Man-Eater, she tells everyone that at sunset all of them are going to eradicate the Mimicry Man-Eaters. She displays her box of poison she has brought from her room explaining to everyone that it will be divided by all of them. Zakuro asks Yuzu from where did she get all this poison. She affirms that she keeps it as self-defense against bullying and perverts, she adds to it that Himiko is doing the same thing as well. Suddenly the speaker started revealing Paka's voice, he tells them it's been a week since they have been in this world and they have passed 5 million views, which is first in the game's history. He feels honored as being responsible for the 13th district. After he was done with his announcement, Yuzu starts to begin her operation. She says Iride, Zakuro, Anya, and Kaikoku to inject the poison on the core of the ivy. She tasks Karin to help her, Himiko to cook, and Makino on sleeping duty. Yuzu adds they need a password to know if they aren't fake. The password was whenever someone says Karin the other replies with pudding, leaving Karin confused. The four eating Himiko's pudding and they had 10 seconds for their operation to begin and off they go.

As they were proceeding with the plan, Iride asks Anya about sleeping pills. He tells him that if he tells Paka he'll probably give it to him. Anya yells at Iride for not minding his own business and says that he would never ask anything to Paka as he is the one brought them here. Iride tells him he'll ask for him but Anya yells more and then catches with the other two. Iride looks at the camera nearby and speaks to Paka stating that he wants to talk to him later. When Iride and Anya caught up with Zakuro and Kaikoku they encounter two copies of Makino unaware who is the real one. Iride tries the password Yuzu has given them but Zakuro says Makino was sleeping when they announced the password. Anya and Zakuro start to argue and suddenly the two Makino imposters attack them, but they survive. When they reach back to the basement everyone goes to sleep but Karin wakes up Iride telling him that she needs to go to the bathroom and Yuzu said everyone said to stay in pairs so he decided goes with her.

The next day, everyone wakes up realizing stage 4 has been completed. They see the monsters were withered because of the poison. Karin looks at Yuzu wondering what is she up with Iride since she is hugging him and she's happy that he's safe. Then she adds "I should've kissed him while I had the chance" leaving everyone confused on what she was saying.

### Stage 5

Iride approaches Himiko asking her if she wants the hairpin he got from his meal and she notices that someone has punched him in the face. She asks what happened to his face, Iride saying it was Anya. In the tower, Iride goes to Anya asking if he can sit and eat his peppers but Anya refuses. Himiko comes along to help the relationship between him and Iride but she triggers Anya causing him to storm off. Karin asks what happened between the two of them but Yuzu cuts Iride by saying if he saw Zakuro or Kaikoku today.

At night, Paka brings all 8 gamers to a village for the 5th Stage. Karin is afraid she asks Himiko is she can hold her hand and then Yuzu, Iride, and Makino joins them which then they were blocking the path. Paka mentions that the 5th stage is called Demon Extermination. He adds that demons abduct young maiden in the village and their job is to rescue the maiden and stop the abduction. He accompanies them to an elder where he will continue the rest of the story and he leaves. Iride heads to the house as he will enter the first but Anya stops him stating he should be cautious. He states it will be fine and it's not like someone with a knife will stab him, he opens the door and a girl rushing towards him wanting to kill him but he was saved by Kaikoku. The girl then asks if they were demons and they weren't so she takes them to the elder so he can explain what is happening. When they enter, the elder introduces himself reveling his name, Kihachi and the girl is his granddaughter Kikka and he was sorry for what she did. He adds that tonight a demon will abduct a girl and he is afraid if it will be his granddaughter.

He realizes that they have come to end the demon situation so he gives them 2 sacrificial robes so they complete the stage. Yuzu states that it's a good thing to locate the demon's base if one of them was abducted, Kaikoku adds that maybe they're dead but Kikka tells them they're not but was silenced by her grandfather. The group starts discussing who will participate, Yuzu says Kaikoku and Zakuro will be the first two and adds if there was any volunteer, Iride volunteers as usual. Kihachi cuts them saying the legend says that the demons love bouncy and busty bodies. Everyone starts to argue on who will wear one of the robes to join Iride and Himiko is trying her best to calm them down but it was no use so she uses her weapon to quiet everyone. When everyone calmed down, Yuzu had an idea which was dressing Makino since he was sleeping all the time.

Outside Zakuro asks Yuzu why did she pick Makino, she stats that anyone will be caught in Makino's eyes whatever their race or age is. Kaikoku tries to look at his eyes but he feels disgusted from it. Himiko realizes Iride and Anya are chatting with each other so she heads to them asking if they did makeup after they fight. Anya says it wasn't really a fight, Iride states that he went to Paka for sleeping drug so he can sleep but when he showed it to him Anya got mad and punched him. Then everyone went hiding in the bushes and waiting for the demon to appear. Kikka appears behind them in silence she says that all of them were stupid, she wanted to kill them especially Kaikoku since he got her earlier. Kaikoku notices Kikka behind him and tells her what is she doing here, she freaks out but she tells him there's a bug on his back. He tells Zakuro to remove it but he gives a commentary about it. Himiko removes the bug from his back and claims it's too tiny and plump, Yuzu notices a beetle on Anya's back making Anya curious and asking Yuzu to get it. Karin warns them to get back to their position and to leave the bugs when they heard a huge stomp. A huge giant demon appears behind Iride and Makino carrying them to his face. He realizes their bodies aren't bouncy or busty but they are thin and frail. Iride tries to say he's naked and Makino was sleeping which he couldn't use his eyes to the demon, Anya throws his pole at the giant demon distracting him.

Everyone gets out facing the giant demon and then the demon says which one will it be to Kikka, Kikka has chosen Karin and were keeping her as a hostage at her grandfather, then they realize the giant demon is the elder Kihachi. He takes Kikka and Karin into his pam and heads out. Iride shouts saying if he can come too but they said they don't have space for another person. Iride says it will be like a trial and they can kill him if they didn't need him. Anya yells at Iride saying what is he doing this, he states that he can't leave Karin alone, he then leaves with Kihachi, Kikka, and Karin. Anya says that we don't know where they are going to but Yuzu claims that she has put a transmitter on Iride's neck which would be easier to locate them. (end of episode 4)

Karin and Akatsuki were kept in a cage in a fancy room. Karin is confused about how Akatsuki can handle all this danger around him. Akatsuki sees there's a pole in the cage broken so he goes there and escapes the cage. Karin tries to do the same but she couldn't cause her size wasn't perfect for it. They hear the door opening so Karin tells Akatsuki to hide. Kikka enters the room asking where did Akatsuki go to but she didn't care about him stating that Karin suits for being another maid for her game, she removes her clothes and gives her maid clothes while Akatsuki watching them.

Kaikoku and Zakuro were walking until they saw Kihachi fishing in the night. They sit watching him when suddenly Akatsuki appears in front of them. He tells them what had happened to him and Karin. Back in Kikka's place Kikka names Karin veronica and orders her to make her tea. She refuses to but the other maids tell her that she shouldn't do it or her grandfather will kill her, Karin has no other choice but to obey orders. Akatsuki and the others have decided to split up to find the hostages and save Karin. When Kaikoku and Akatsuki went to different paths Zakuro looks below him and he sees a bracelet carved his sister's name shocking him.

Akatsuki goes to the hostage girls and asks them where the key is and they tell him it's in Kikka's room. He manages to get the key from Kikka's room and heads to escape but Kihachi saw him and knocked him out. Kihachi was going to eliminate Akatsuki until Paka showed up and threatens Kihachi that if he won't leave Akatsuki he is going to fire him from his job and won't make him see his granddaughter again. Kihachi listens to Paka and leaves, Paka takes care of Akatsuki. Akatsuki asks Paka if he is lonely and if they can escape together but Paka says he can't because of a promise. After he left Kaikoku appears in front of Iride, he picks him up and they proceed to the cages to free the hostages. As they freed everyone Zakuro says to go without him but Kaikoku refuses and says he'll go with him. Kaikoku orders Akatsuki and Karin to go without them as Zakuro wants to ask about his sister from Kikka.

### Stage 6

Paka takes the teenagers io isolated ruins of Karakara Desert for the sixth stage, where a girl and a boy must proceed through the dungeon and retrieve the fifth chromosome from the guardian of the temple. Paka claims the stage is simple. By drawing lots, Anya and Himiko are chosen, Himiko is feared by Anya's anger and Anya fears from Himiko because of her flashbangs. Paka is jealous but denies it in front of Anya, he tells him he will eat pepper tomorrow as a threat. Iride tries to say that he'll go instead of Anya but Yuzu doesn't let him. Iride goes to Himiko telling her that it will be fine and that Anya is a kind guy in his heart.

Outside the temple, the rest of the members relax with cool drinks due to the heat and having nothing to do. Paka states that he is worried on Himiko that she's alone with Anya. Iride asks him if he feels hot or anything, he reveals that he suffered from burns all over his body years ago, hence he cannot expose any skin.

After a long time outside, Iride muses how he wants to collect all the chromosomes and wants to enter the temple, and Yuzu tells him that this dungeon is unsuitable for him and she would get mad at him. The other 4 comes along and talk about Himiko and Anya. Zakuro says that Paka will do something if they didn't show up soon and adds that Anya is hard as a cockroach and after that, they come out from the temple, Ayna yells at Zakuro that he heard him saying that and with that they have completed the sixth stage.