"Hum…" With a disoriented grunt, a girl woke up from her sleep, looking around in a daze.
"Where am I?"
She scratched her head, trying to remember last night's events. She had been playing her game after finishing work 'Honkai Star Rail 4.0.' The update gave her the chance to choose one free five-star character out of seven, and without hesitation she picked Sparkle.
Her Sparkle was already C5, needing just one more to reach C6, so her eyes were fixed only on Sparkle. When she finally got her sixth copy, a strange prompt appeared on her screen:
[Do you want to experience JOY?]
Still riding the adrenaline from pulling Sparkle, she clicked Yes without hesitation. The last thing she remembered was the blackout, then fainting. And now, she was in an unknown place… even her body had become smaller.
Thud.
She jumped from the bed and hurried to the mirror. But the familiar, boring face she expected didn't appear. Instead, a different yet strangely familiar reflection stared back: long chestnut-black hair tied into twin ponytails, the ends faintly brushed with brown so subtle it blended in completely; scarlet pink-red eyes glowing with intensity; and a small red-black mark just beneath her eyes, almost above the cheeks.
"Sparkle!" She rubbed her cheek with her hand and began posing in front of the mirror. "I really became mini Sparkle." Her height barely reached one meter. She hopped back onto the bed, recalling the memories of this body.
Her name was Hanabi. Her life was not as normal or ordinary as others. She was not an orphan, she still had her mother. Both her parents were jōnin, and her father had even worked in the ANBU for five to six years. They met during the entrance ceremony, stayed together from then on, and were placed on the same team. Though not as famous as the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, they were still considerably well-known.
Her mother, like her father, came from an ordinary farming family. Through her own hard work, she rose to the rank of jōnin. She may not have been as famous as her husband, but her strength was not to be ignored.
Everything was happy, and when Hanabi was born, that happiness did not just grow, it also multiplied. But after a few years, tragedy struck. On the night of the Nine-Tails' attack, her father sacrificed himself for the village. Her mother survived, but the darkness did not fade. Two years later, her mother discovered she had a terminal illness. Hanabi did not know what it was, only that she became a frequent visitor to the hospital.
Later, her mother remained in the hospital, and Hanabi stayed with her. But last month, she turned seven, and it was time for her to join the academy. She returned home yesterday to prepare.
Her family now consisted only of her mother, but that was better than nothing. In her previous life, she had both parents who looked after her, her education, her life, and her work all benefited from their support. But they too passed away in an accident, drowning her in despair and pushing her completely into the world of games.
In this life, she still had her mother, who loved her just as much as her parents from her previous life. As for the difficult lives she had always read about in novels no, she did not have that. With both parents being jōnin, and her father once an ANBU, they already possessed considerable wealth. Even though her mother had retired from being a ninja, she still received many benefits from the village as the wife of a hero, including subsidies. Her medical bills were also relatively inexpensive, thank to a hero wife title.
Her life was, in truth, better than that of most common residents in the village.