Aozaki Aoko stood in front of an antique full-length mirror in her room, adjusting her attire.
After tying her cravat, she spun around once, then lifted her skirt to curtsy like a classical lady.
The young woman in the mirror was perfect: fair skin, a tall and slender figure, youthful yet curvaceous.
Her incredibly disproportionate waist-to-hip ratio made her look like a perfect heroine that might only exist in certain games, making one feel that this could not possibly be the figure of a fifteen-year-old girl.
However, her azure blue eyes were paired with a beautiful, slightly immature face, but even with her overly young appearance, anyone who had met Aoko would agree that she was definitely not a weak person; her firm will could be seen through her gaze.
She gathered her fine, lustrous hair, which was like a pure black waterfall. Aoko picked up the silver hairband from the table and tied her waist-length hair into a loose, high ponytail. Her bangs and side hair, of course, weren't tied back; instead, she left slightly loose bangs, referencing the hairstyle of her favorite game character, Mai Natsume, from her memories.
Since her current figure and looks were so outrageous, she might as well try those 'hard-to-pull-off' hairstyles, Aoko thought.
The mention of 'game characters' indicated that this 'Aozaki Aoko' was not the original Aozaki Aoko. However, she didn't quite resemble those individuals known as 'transmigrators' in her memories. Based on her repeated thoughts and deductions over the past decade, Aoko believed that she was actually some kind of 'hybrid'—a new individual formed by the fusion of the original Aozaki Aoko and a transmigrator's soul.
She was neither one nor the other; she was just herself.
In her memories, her 'previous life' was a graduate who had just earned a master's degree in electronic engineering from a prestigious university. On a graduation trip to the mountains, he inexplicably encountered a meteor falling from the sky. In a dazzling blue light, 'his' wonderful life was rebooted.
When he opened his eyes again, 'he' had become 'she'; the new Aozaki Aoko was born on this new, similar yet different Earth, this new world.
The overwhelming memories and will of an adult oppressed the tiny infant's brain. After a series of incomprehensible wails, the infant Aozaki Aoko fell into a deep slumber.
When she woke up again, she opened her eyes to see the tear-streaked faces of a haggard middle-aged couple, and the infant incubator that enveloped her.
Aoko lived in a daze until she was three, living the life of a baby who only ate and slept. Her meticulous logical thinking was trapped deep within her soul, causing her to often be in a semi-conscious state.
This worried Aoko's parents greatly, but since the Aozaki Family was not an ordinary lineage, Aoko's father took the young Aoko to seek help from his father, the Magician, who lived in the Workshop.
The Old Magician carefully examined her, assessed Aoko's condition, and then returned to his work.
"She's fine," the Old Magician said. "This child is disgustingly healthy. In fact, she's overly healthy; her vitality is almost blinding my eyes."
After making a confusing assessment for ordinary people, Aoko's father returned home with a puzzled mind, his previous worries dispelled, for he knew his father would never lie. If the Magician judged Aoko to be healthy, then she was healthy.
Sure enough, when Aoko turned three, she 'woke up' in the true sense for the first time. With a puzzled mind, Aoko tried to call out to her parents in the local language.
Aoko's parents cried tears of joy and brought Aoko's older sister to her side so the sisters could meet.
This little girl is too conceited, was Aoko's first impression of her older sister Touko. With reddish-orange hair, she wore an exquisite, well-fitting, cute dress. The seven-year-old Aozaki Touko had been studying the esoteric knowledge of magecraft in her grandfather's Workshop since she was five, only recently returning home for a visit.
Touko initially felt a slight disdain for her sister, who had only learned to speak at age three, but when Touko saw her current sister, most of her preconceived malice vanished.
"This little girl is too cute," Touko thought. "So cute, I bet she'll cry if I tease her with magecraft, right?"
Seeing Touko remain silent, the parents of the two girls assumed their elder daughter, who had been away for a long time, was shy, so they left the room, leaving their two daughters alone.
It was only then that the now-conscious Aoko understood that she had transmigrated into a certain Type-Moon World. In her somewhat hazy memories, Aoko combined recollections from both lives and, after a brief comparison, realized that this reddish-orange-haired little girl before her might be the future famous 'red of hurt,' the Grand Puppeteer Aozaki Touko.
And she herself was Aozaki Aoko, the Magician who inherited the Fifth Magic.
She had truly come to a 'great place,' where calling this world 'troubled' would be a compliment.
The young Aoko sighed slightly, ignored Touko's increasingly annoyed gaze, and turned to look out the window. The clear sky was dotted with white clouds, and occasionally, she could see some unidentified birds flying by. The optimistic Aoko suddenly felt full of anticipation for this 'new world.'
"Hey!" Aoko was brought back to reality by Touko's slightly annoyed tone. "Since you're my younger sister, you need to understand some rules between us first."
Touko looked at her young, cute sister with a slightly mischievous expression, using her newly acquired Mystic Eyes ability to cast a suggestion spell on her sister.
"Bark like a dog, Aoko," Touko commanded maliciously. "If you bark like a dog, I'll give you a present, okay?"
However, to Touko's surprise, her sister, who had just learned to speak and had never studied magecraft, showed no reaction to the suggestion spell cast through her Mystic Eyes. Instead, she looked at Touko with an expression that said 'you're scum.'
"Hey, what's with that look?!" Aozaki Touko couldn't help but get angry, raising her voice. "Don't think I can't..."
"Waaah!!~~~"
What Aozaki Touko hadn't expected was that her cunning sister, who didn't act like a three-year-old, suddenly burst into tears. Her sharp, piercing wails immediately penetrated the room's door and walls, reaching her parents next door. Aozaki Touko instantly panicked, because no matter how brilliant or precocious she was, she was still thrown off by this unconventional tactic.
The sound of hurried footsteps approached, and the Aozaki Sisters' parents opened the door and entered the room.
The mother held the wailing Aoko in her arms, patting her back and gently comforting her, while the father looked at Touko with a slightly reproachful gaze.
"How could you bully your own sister, Touko!"
Aozaki Touko was practically going crazy; she couldn't utter a single word of rebuttal, because she really had intended to bully her sister a little earlier, but it hadn't worked.
The Aozaki Sisters' mother left the room with Aoko in her arms. Touko watched as the brat stuck her tongue out at her over her mother's shoulder, and immediately clenched her small fists.
That brat definitely did it on purpose! Aozaki Touko thought angrily, but why did the suggestion spell fail?
However, Aozaki Touko didn't have the leisure to ponder the anomaly now, because she was about to face a serious lecture from her father, as punishment for her failed prank.