A New Life

The elder left to go call someone and I was left in a stone building, sitting at a table with some ginseng tea to think about my life.

I lived a pretty ordinary school life, middle of the road grades and no real talents to speak of. I tried and failed to make it in the starting eleven of the soccer club and my dreams of being a videogame programmer ended with a library roof collapsing on me.

It was a good life, there wasn't anybody who came to see me at the hospital and I was probably still bitter about it. But it was fine. My family would easily move on and so would I. We weren't close at all. They were busy with work and I just stayed in my room. I had planned to move out when I started working a full time job and they were happy for me to leave. So all things considered, maybe dying and ending up in a video game with a broken plotline was a fine situation.

Maybe.

The door rattled open.

The elder came back with a big gruff looking man, he was still a kitsune but he had the frame of an Olympic wrestler with mutton chops and red hair in a top knot.

I immediately recognised him.

It was one of my favourite characters in the game. As I focused on his face which was full of concern, the name appeared above his head.

[Pofu]

"This crazy kid. Who would have thought a little brat I saved from the streets would get chosen. How does that make sense? Eh, make some sense of this Nezuro."

"I'm as perplexed as you are. I can only think that he may have been chosen due to his relation to you Pofu."

Pofu chuckled at that.

"Well what can I say, I did raise this brat right didn't I. How ya feeling Tobu?"

Taken aback that he was speaking to me, I was at a loss for words.

"Erm. Just shocked I guess. It's a big responsibility."

My voice was bright and youthful, it was a complete contrast to my old sullen voice.

"What do you think, Nezuro? Protecting a princess is light work for men like us, but an entire world is a bit big isn't it?"

The elder stroked his wispy moustache lost in thought.

"The princess was mentioned first. It was treated as the primary concern. Whatever world scale issues the boy will face is likely related to her. With this kidnapping case I can only conclude this princess may be of some need to the current kings. I can't think of the new Boar King risking war over anything that wouldn't grant him immense power. Tobu being selected for a task which pits him directly against the new Boar King seems almost poetic."

That was pretty much spot on since almost every villain targeted her in some way or the other.

Pofu slapped me on the back with a thud, almost throwing me off the chair.

"So the brat just needs to stick to her and stop any world ending calamities right? No big deal."

Well that was the issue. Protecting her wasn't simple at all.

The two men began discussing the specifics of the journey with each other and how to prepare as I zoned out.

After that, Pofu told me to go home and start packing essentials into a pocket pouch since we would be heading to the capital tomorrow.

I walked out into the cobbled streets. A few people were still gossiping in groups but I ignored them and headed to where I knew the house would be on the map.

It felt surreal navigating a town by memory from a two dimensional game. Some things were slightly different but the general layout was somehow the same.

The differences could most likely be attributed to performance issues. It wasn't possible to put so many people in the starter village, so in the game it was just ten people, obviously in real life there were thousands of people and hundreds of houses. What was shown in the game was just a tenth of the village. More round bamboo houses could be seen in the distance, past what would usually just be an invisible wall.

As I saw all the different people living their lives, eating fruit, buying flour, fixing houses and chatting away, the more it slowly began to sink in.

This wasn't a game with NPCs. These were all regular people living normal lives. Everything felt too organic to be just a simulation. It was more likely I was in an alternate reality and the game itself was based on this world through divine inspiration. Yes. That made more sense then a video game coming to life.

But if that was the case it meant that not everything from the game could be trusted and with the princess not being kidnapped my belief in my past knowledge was already badly shaken.

On a small hill was a large oak tree and under that tree was a house built into the side. It was Pofu's house. I had never been to the house at the beginning of the game...

As I opened the door a small creature with a fox tail tackled me off balance.

"This is so cool. You're really a Roaming Kitsune now Tobu. Just like father. Ah... does that mean you have to leave..."

It was Enkei, an adorable little kid.

It was strange to just wake up in a new family but I was Tobu now. So I had to act the part.

"Yep, I need to pack up and get ready to leave tomorrow morning."

A tall woman in her early forties walked in from the kitchen with a platter of food.

"Come eat Tobu, you've got a big journey ahead of you, so you need to get some meat on your bones."

[Mizu]

The pop up names were still confusing but that wasn't important right now.

It was video game meat!

The kind you would see being roasted with the bone sticking out both sides, it had a light brown savoury colour. Excited to eat, I sat at the dining table along with Enkei and his mother Mizu.

"This food is delicious!"

"Thanks Tobu, make sure to eat your veggies as well. Don't be like Enkei, you're not a child now."

She was pestering Enkei to eat some blue carrot looking things.

I put some weird looking vegetables on my plate and tested them out.

Surprisingly they just tasted like sweet potatoes.

Whilst we were eating, the door slammed open and Pofu walked in along with an elderly lady.

The old lady had white hair and a vicious looking face, she came marching in tapping her cane against the stone floor.

"First my son, now my grandson. Tobu my poor baby. How could they do this? Stupid spirits. Who do they think they are to send a sweet child to do their dirty work."

She came over and wrapped me in an affectionate hug. I tried to take a peak at her name and I was taken aback.

[Grandma]

"Why have you gone silent on me now huh, are you at that age where you're feeling embarrassed. I changed your diapers, you know. Pofu go tell that little snot nose Nezuro if he thinks he's sending my little baby out then I'll make his ancestors cry with what I'll do to him. My poor boy is terrified."

It felt weird being treated so affectionately but it wasn't a bad feeling.

"Eh- come on Maa, no point being angry, I'm going as well. It's no big deal. What’s a Boar King? Just a man. I've killed worse."

She was pinching my cheeks incredibly hard now, I don't know if she was angry with me or angry with Pofu at this point.

"You stinking brat. Don't use that kind of language around Enkei. Why should I not be angry? Those no good spirits sent you off not just once, but twice! Now they're sending another one of mine. What if they send Enkei after that. I won't allow this. I'll thrash Nezuro and all hundred of the Fox Guard myself tonight."

As Grandma started to hit Pofu with another slipper I was shocked by that little piece of lore. I don't remember Tobu having a grandma and it wasn't ever mentioned that Pofu was selected twice.

"Wait Pofu... you were selected twice?"

They both turned to give me a strange look.

Ah.

Crap.

I was supposed to know that already.

"See Ma, he's fine. He's still just as cloud brained as usual."

Pofu was laughing before a slipper went flying, hitting him in the face.

"Hmmph. They were ridiculous. They sent Pofu out on a mission when he was just a bit bigger than Enkei here. I didn't let him go of course but he sneaked out so he could find... Mobu."

The room got silent at that and I was smart enough to maintain it.

"Anyway, the first task I got was to tame a Blue Wind Dragon. It would only bond to a young child you see. Wind dragons find fully developed people's brains a bit weird. It turned out that a weird snake cult was trying to use it to resurrect something. I just robbed it and ran. Those were the days..."

Hanging on to his every word I wanted to know more. It was like I was finding out secrets about the world that were carefully hidden away at no effort at all. It was like cheating.

"What about the second task?"

"That... well. I was older then. I was tasked with saving the Boar Kingdom from the tyrant, Boar King Azmodeus. I was on the run after that and I ended up in a mountain ruin, found you and the rest is as you know." He started chewing on some meat. "Killing him was easy, now that I think about it. Slaying the Greed Dragon and killing the thousand Hell Pigs that chased me down for months was much harder-"

Another slipper went flying, hitting him in the eye.

"No violent stories in front of Enkei! You should tell him off as well Mizu."

"That's so cool!"

Enkei had food dribbling down his clothes whilst Mizu wiped him up.

It was a warm dinner I'd never experienced before but I was suddenly facing a dreadful realisation as the tetris blocks in my mind began to click into place.

The first level ran through my head.

In the first act Pofu acts as a veteran NPC, saving the player from any game over screens whilst teaching the battle system.

They go with the Fox Guard to rescue the princess before the Boar King army re-groups outside the forest, but what starts as just fighting forest monsters ends in an ambush...

To change the protagonist from aimless and lazy...

To set up the first meeting with the captured princess...

The Boar King screams for vengeance, instantly recognising Pofu and summoning an ancient titan...

Tobu tries and fails to rescue her but the enemy's dark power restricts him...

With everyone's lives on the line Pofu fights alone to hold them back as everyone escapes...

Changing the protagonist into a man burning with vengeance to get stronger and kill the Boar King...

Pofu dies.