Sisters

Aoko Aozaki stood before an antique full-length mirror in the room, adjusting her attire.

After straightening her bowtie, she spun around once, then lifted the hem of her skirt to strike a pose for a classic debutante's curtsy.

The girl in the mirror was perfect: fair skin, a tall and slender figure, youthful yet curvaceous.

Her impossibly narrow waist made her look like a perfect heroine from a video game, leading one to believe that a fifteen-year-old girl shouldn't possess such a physique.

However, her deep blue eyes were paired with a face of a slightly immature, beautiful young girl. Even with her youthful appearance, anyone who met Aoko would know she wasn't someone weak; her determination was evident in her gaze.

She gathered her fine, silky hair, which cascaded down like pure black ink. Aoko picked up a silver headband from the table and tied her waist-length hair into a loose high ponytail. The front and side hair were not slicked back but styled with bangs left slightly loose, mimicking the hairstyle of Mai Hazuki, a favorite game character from her memories.

"Since my figure and looks are already so outrageous, I might as well try those 'difficult-to-handle' hairstyles," Aoko thought to herself.

The mention of "game characters" implied that this "Aoko Aozaki" was not the original Aoko Aozaki. However, she didn't seem like the kind of person referred to as a "transmigrator" in her memories either. After over a decade of repeated thought and speculation, Aoko believed she was actually a "hybrid"—a new individual formed from the fusion of the original Aoko Aozaki and a transmigrator's soul.

She was no one but herself.

In her memories, her "previous life" was that of a graduate who had just earned a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from a prestigious university. On her way to a graduation trip in the mountains, she inexplicably encountered a meteor falling from the sky. Amidst a dazzling azure light, "his" wonderful life was rebooted.

When "he" opened "his" eyes again, "he" had become "she," and the brand-new Aoko Aozaki was born into this seemingly real yet new Earth, this new world.

The overwhelming memories and will of an adult pressed down on the infant's brain. After emitting a series of incomprehensible cries, infant Aoko fell into a deep slumber.

When she awoke again, she saw the overjoyed faces of a tired middle-aged couple and the infant incubator that held her.

Aoko spent her first three years in a daze, living the life of a mere infant who only ate and slept. Her sharp logical thinking was trapped deep within her soul, leaving her in a semi-conscious state.

This worried her parents greatly. However, since the Aozaki family was not an ordinary lineage, Aoko's father took his young daughter to seek help from her grandfather, a mage who lived in his workshop.

After a thorough examination, the old mage evaluated Aoko's condition and then returned to his work.

"She's fine," the old mage said. "This child is sickeningly healthy, or rather, too healthy. Her vitality is almost blinding me."

After making an assessment that baffled ordinary people, Aoko's father returned home with a puzzled mind. His previous worries were dispelled because he knew his father would never lie. If that mage judged Aoko to be healthy, then she was healthy.

As expected, when Aoko turned three, she truly "woke up" for the first time. With a sense of confusion, Aoko tried calling her parents in the local language.

Her parents were overjoyed, and they brought Aoko's older sister to meet her for the first time.

"This little girl is so full of herself," was Aoko's first impression of her sister, Toko. With reddish-orange hair and wearing an exquisite, well-fitting dress, the seven-year-old Touko Aozaki had been studying the esoteric knowledge called magecraft in her grandfather's workshop since she was five. She had only recently returned home to visit.

Toko, who initially felt a bit disdainful towards her sister for only learning to speak at the age of three, found most of her ill will vanish when she saw her younger sister.

"This little girl is too cute," Toko thought. "She's so cute, I bet she'll cry if I play a prank on her with magecraft."

Seeing Toko remain silent, their parents assumed their eldest daughter, who had been away for a long time, was simply shy. They left the room, giving the two sisters some alone time.

Now that she was fully conscious, Aoko realized she had transmigrated into a Type-Moon world. Combining memories from both lives, Aoko compared them and concluded that the little girl with reddish-orange hair before her was likely the future renowned "Scarred Red," the Grand Puppeteer, Touko Aozaki.

And she herself was Aoko Aozaki, the mage who inherited the Fifth Magic.

"I've really come to a 'great place'," she thought, feeling that calling this world "disastrous" would be an understatement.

Young Aoko sighed softly, ignoring Toko's increasingly displeased gaze, and looked out the window. The clear sky was dotted with white clouds, and occasionally, she could see unknown birds flying by. The optimistic Aoko suddenly felt a surge of anticipation for this "new world."

"Hey!" Toko's slightly annoyed voice snapped Aoko back to attention. "Since you're my sister, you need to learn some of the rules between us first."

Toko looked at her cute, young sister with a mischievous grin and used her newly acquired Mystic Eyes to cast Suggestion Magecraft on her.

"Bark twice like a dog, Aoko," Toko commanded with a touch of malice. "If you bark, I'll give you a gift?"

However, to Toko's surprise, her sister, who had just learned to speak and had never studied magecraft, showed no reaction to the Suggestion Magecraft cast through her Mystic Eyes. Instead, she looked at Toko with an expression that seemed to judge her as scum.

"Hey, what's with that look?!" Touko Aozaki couldn't help but get angry, raising her voice. "Don't think I can't..."

"Waaaaah!!~~~"

To Touko Aozaki's utter shock, her sister, cunning beyond her three years, suddenly burst into tears. The sharp, ear-piercing cries immediately pierced through the room's doors and walls, reaching her parents in the next room. Touko Aozaki panicked. No matter how talented or precocious she was, she was caught off guard by this unexpected tactic.

The sound of hurried footsteps approached, and the Aozaki parents opened the door and entered the room.

Their mother held the wailing Aoko, patting her back and softly comforting her, while their father looked at Toko with a hint of reproach.

"How could you bully your own sister, Toko!"

Touko Aozaki was driven to the brink of madness. She couldn't even utter a single word of rebuttal because she had indeed tried to bully her sister a little, and it had failed.

Aoko's mother carried her out of the room. Toko watched the brat stick her tongue out at her over her mother's shoulder, and she immediately clenched her small fists.

"This brat definitely did it on purpose!" Touko Aozaki thought angrily. But why would Suggestion Magecraft fail?

However, Touko Aozaki didn't have the leisure to ponder the anomaly at that moment, as she was about to face a stern lecture from her old father as punishment for her failed prank.