Sarayashiki Karin/Synopsis

## Plot

### Stage 1

Karin receives a message on her screen about playing the closed beta of "The Ones Within - Genome". Unaware of its true meaning. After opening the message, she was sent to a new world, within the "The Ones Within - Genome" live stream. She was unconscious on the ground when Iride another gamer like her that was sent to this world also, tries to wake her up but she wakes up to watch him approaching her and suddenly she punches him thinking that he is a perv misunderstanding what he wanted to do.

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. Kaikoku then gives Karin a sword so she can defend herself.

Left unarmed, Iride approaches the panda by climbing up the tree. He then greets the panda and hugs it, enjoying its paws. Karin and Kaikoku standing wondering what is he doing. Iride then reunites with the Kaikoku and the Karin. It is then that Karin, Iride, and Kaikoku meet 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 she meets the other gamers that were chosen for the game. Paka wanted everyone to introduce themselves starting with Iride which he said it lively but was cut off by Karin hitting him in the head for not feeling any kind of danger in his surroundings. When she introduced herself Paka said that everyone wanted to get stepped by her which made her very annoyed and showed him a creepy face of her. After everyone has introduced themselves, Paka 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. She has got the Paca straw which means she has to participate in the second stage alongside Iride, Anya, and Zakuro.

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. Zakuro wanted to remove his finger but Karin didn't allow him to do it. The second wish was a friend. 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. Karin is unpleasant with Iride's reactions.

Iride notices that someone was indeed behind them. They turn around and see a girl sitting in the back and Iride 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 Iride 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 Iride 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" When all of them were sitting in the cafeteria Karin apologized to Iride about their first meeting.

### Stage 3

Karin 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. Karin then tells Zakuro to participate in the round but he says he doesn't want until Yuzu pushes Karin towards Zakuro which backed up fast since he is terrible in dealing with women. 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.

While the 4 are doing the second stage Karin got approached by Yuzu asking her to go with her to the tower's hot springs with her so they can have a talk. They went and settled in the hot springs and started to chat. Suddenly, Yuzu gets closer to Karin stating that she is interested in her which led to Karin backing up and feeling scared. Then Yuzu says to Karin that she never said she was a female and Karin got confused saying that she has a bigger breast than hers when Yuzu said she was joking and stating that the Pacameras also raises the views not only from stages. Karin then throws a towel on the Pacameras.

The next day everyone meets up at the school including 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. Murasaki wanted 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 Karin. They instead decide to spy on the idol. Moments, before they finish the third stage everyone, eats a cookie that Murasaki has made and suddenly she starts to disappear.

### Stage 4

Karin 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.

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. 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. Everyone was giving bad passwords about Karin that pisses her off that she wanted to kill them. 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. 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 since she was freaking out.

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

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, 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.

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.

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. After a while, 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. Karin yells at Paka for sitting with them and orders him to bring her more pudding. 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. Later, Karin enters a cafe inspecting weird pictures about Paka when Yuzu all of a sudden appears behind her hugging her. Yuzu says that Karin isn't fun or anything and Yuzu approaches her. Yuzu adds that they are alone now and she gets closer to Karin, Karin tells her that she is fond with Akatsuki but Yuzu asks her if she is jealous. Yuzu announces that if she can have saliva from Karin but they were intruded by Kaikoku. Yuzu asks him what does he want and to have some manners, he replies saying that Anya and Himiko didn't arrive yet and Iride is waiting depressed for them. Yuzu rushes to Iride so she can cheer him up leaving Kaikoku and Karin alone. Karin says that she feels that both of them have met somewhere before, Kaikoku notices that someone was watching them while they were talking.

Later on, 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.