It was morning, and I was sitting on grass. In what looked like a dense forest.

How?

I was pretty darn sure I was working late hours at the computer labs before – well, before I apparently passed out because my body just went "Nope, ain't letting you work for even one more second!" on me. The curse of art college students everywhere, you know?

The labs don't close down ever, and even if it did, I don't think the security would be that bored to bother tossing me out in some random forest. I was pretty darn sure there isn't any forests around the town I live in. Well, not anywhere that doesn't require a good few hours' drive to reach. So… The heck is this place? Was I kidnapped? I don't think kidnappers make it a habit to toss their victims in the middle of nowhere.

My heart was pounding so hard that my chest hurt. This is seriously not good.

Okay. Okay. Calm down. I have to figure out where this place is first.

I patted around the grass to check if I had dropped anything while I was being transported here. Nothing. My bag was still slung around my shoulder and nothing seemed to be missing – wait, I don't have my wallet or phone… Bad. BAD!

I was starting to freak out again when I remembered.

… Oh that's right, I left them at the dorms. Shame on me.

I didn't think it was a big deal to leave it, because the computer lab building was right across the dorms. I thought I would just do my work and run back to my room and sleep. I have never ever passed out in the middle of work before, so I didn't think it would be a problem.

Errgh, I know there's a first for everything, but why does this kind of first have to happen?

There seemed to be some sort of well-worn dirt path nearby, so I walked along it, hoping that the way I was heading wasn't going deeper into the forest. I had no idea where I was, so there really was no telling of what creepy things would be in there. Like, maybe there wouldn't be tigers or anything, but what if there were gangsters burying dead bodies in there? You never know.

I tried looking around for any familiar plants or trees, but no luck. The trees around town usually had Spanish moss growing all over them. None on the trees here. I know that the trees in the forest probably would be different, but still…

Then suddenly, I heard loud footsteps –

Oh goodie! People!

– that was immediately followed by the sound of a galloping horse.

That's weird. There were horse carriage rides for tourists around town, but… I don't think they could even run around this fast. Not that they're not allowed to, but because those horse actually aren't capable of running at all. So… what gives, then?

Then I heard someone shout, "There she is! Get her!"

And before I could even process what whoever-it-was had said, I was being surrounded by samurai pointing their swords at me.

Dafuq is going on in here?

This had to be some weird dream. This wasn't the first time I dreamed of samurai. There was this one time that I dreamed I was a strategist for some unidentified daimyo – thank goodness for that. I didn't want to know which overlord I was helping or what the outcome of the battle was, because I've always hate strategy-oriented games and I was pretty darn sure I'd make our team lose if I'd seen the dream through.

I raised my hands timidly, trying to edge as far away from the swords as possible. What weird role was I playing this time? I remembered that in that weird strategist dream I was still wearing my usual hoodie and pants and no one seemed to bat en eyelash, so the fact that I was wearing modern clothes right now don't really mean a thing.

Not cool. Not cool. Not cool.

Don't tell me I was some kind of magic criminal or something? Because those swords were seriously overkill. I'm all alone here. No need to be pointed a dozen swords at me.

I could feel my palms sweating. And my back too. I wanted to wipe my hands, but I didn't dare to move. Those samurai might lop off my hands or head or something. I prefer to stay alive, even in dreams, thanks.

The guy on the horse jumped down and moved closer to me and the samurai made way for him, though they still kept their swords pointed at me.

The first thing I noticed was that he was wearing a very flashy and strange-looking jinbaori over his armour. He must have been high-ranking and rich to be able to afford all those gold embroidery. The patterns on the lapels, though – it looks more like a British navy captain's jacket than traditional jinbaori with all those stripes. I have never ever seen anything like this other than in those fantasy-esque history-inspired Musou games.

Huh. Maybe that's it. I once pulled an all-nighter playing a Three Kingdoms game and when I went to bed I dreamed Cao Cao was chasing me around some random castle trying to murder me.

The next thing I notices was that his hair wasn't done in a traditional samurai hairstyle. I wasn't even sure how that was done. Was it a ponytail? A braid? A knot? I can't tell! And a real samurai in battlefield wouldn't have his bangs draping all over his face like that.

Yep, this is so totally a game universe. Does that mean I get to pack magic punches? I sure hope I can magically figure out how to do it anytime now, because I just want to get out of this place. I don't even care about what plot was going on. I don't want to be involved!

The unidentified officer was in front of me now, and he was smirking widely.

I didn't like that very self-satisfied smirk, and I really felt bad because that was a terrible moment, but I was still a girl with a romantic maiden heart and I couldn't help but notice that he was really pretty. In a scruffy way.

Still not liking all the swords pointed at me. But it wasn't like I could do anything else. I was already standing stiff and trying not to get poked by a sword, and I was never good at keeping my mind focused. Ever. Not even when there was a crisis. My mind would still be all over the place.

Case in point: now.

The officer looked me up and down, still smirking, while I shifted rather uncomfortably. I don't really mind being looked at, but I wished he would just SAY SOMETHING. I've always hated awkward silences.

"So, ninja princess, we meet at last," the officer finally spoke.

Took you long enou – what?

I think "My mind is fileld with wat" pretty much described my state of being at that point, because… my brain was pretty much repeating "wat" over and over and over, because seriously, say WHAT?