This is the Lucky Start?
by harryoftherubysword
II
CONNEY-CHI-WHAT? MASSACHUSETTS?
"Massassussex?
"Machachuchets? No wait, that can't be.
"Macha … I'm sorry, madam, but am I speaking it right? Am I in Macha-something?"
The elderly lady only gazed at her with a small smile and patted her on the head with her fingers poised to scratch as if she was a particularly bright bird or a specially stupid cat, her wrinkled face betraying the absolute confusion that she was feeling at that moment. She also gifted the girl some green tea, mimicked the acting of drinking it, bowed, and respectfully went away to do something else in the shop–anything to get away, really!
Our girl was absolutely confused by it all.
The tea was great by the way!
She hadn't remembered reading that there was such a significant portion of Japanese immigrants in the US, or that they lived anywhere near Mt. Rushmore—was it even called that? She quite liked American history, but not too much, if you get my meaning—as in: she still didn't know why there was a Washington state and a Washington city; or why they hadn't the good sense of building one inside the other.
But if it was truly it then, at least someone should have learned English already. She wasn't an expert on the language, but she was sure she wasn't botching it all.
She wondered: was this some kind of replica of the American monument in Japan? It certainly explained a lot of things, as she looked at the monument once again.
George Washington did have quite the long hair on it—that wasn't right, at all.
But then what explained the abundance of blondes and redheads, and the variety of coloured eyes and everything? Contact lenses and hair dyes only went so far to explain it.
And just as she thought of that, she saw a man striding around with that weird cultish headband and some traditional white clothes. But this man had white eyes! Completely white eyes?!
She paused.
She looked around at those strange folks.
She glanced once again at the shops.
She looked at the weird sandals.
She looked at the various children running around in ridiculous clothes.
She felt a cold drop of sweat on her forehead, drifting down at the realisation:
She was not in Japan, she was not in Mt. Rushmore; perhaps she wasn't even in the USA.
No, it was something much worse:
"Konnichiwa, [something incomprehensible]!" said a funny-looking kid, with a sword almost the size of himself strapped to his back. He too wore that strange headband.
It was indeed much worse: she was at an anime convention!
She went up quite a few sets of stairs of an observation tower of some kind–oh, there it was again, those dudes with the headbands!–to try and look around and see where the …
Dear God!
Someone should stop those kids! Jumping from roof to roof in the middle of the day and on top of such high buildings! She always said parkour was a bad influence on the next generation, but everyone underestimated the power of 'cool stunts compilations'!
Mesmerised with the scene, she couldn't help but wonder: if she was not in the US or in Japan, where was she?
There were too many people not quite Japanese-looking, even if all of them had something of it (including herself); and she knew Japan wasn't a very popular destination for immigrants—at least that many of them!—so what was the deal with that? Had she completely missed reading about a region of Japan where they had those random traits?
No that was not it. It had to be an anime convention.
But then, they all looked so natural—even that one lady with that tall green hair.
But if she was in an anime convention in line, anywhere on Earth, at least someone would have to know English—it was the world language, was it not. But then, this was too elaborate for it to be just an anime convention.
No, there was something else happening. There were too many things not quite adding up.
She felt stoopid, dummy-dummy-dumb for not figuring it out. She had slivers of memories of herself in graduation gowns—she was supposed to be smart!
Even as niche concepts came to her, they disappeared rapidly all the same, as if something was actively erasing them as they came about.
She felt anger, she felt desolation, she felt hopelessness.
And there she stood, hands on the guardrail, while taking in the view and trying to come up with an explanation for all that.
One of the things that always struck me as interesting in the Gamer fan-fiction world was seeing the characters with very low INT or WIS stats make wonderful and well-planned decisions, and strategise their whole way through life based on the system that was suddenly available to them.
These smart people full of agency and grit … that apparently had the same INT/WIS as a small rodent!
It is completely understandable, of course. After all, it is much more natural to put oneself as an observer to the character that is being created, even if immersion–when it is done masterfully–conjoin Player (or the reader or the writer) and Character. There still remains the distance between the 'mental' kind of statuses and the reflection upon the characters. An increase in STR means a harder punch or a more powerful kick; an increase in AGI means a swifter run or a more rapid dodge.
But what did INT and WIS do? There are some classical attributes to both of them, but their reflection in the characters are not as straightforward as those aforementioned. And certainly not their lack of it—I don't mean to be mean-spirited, these are just stray thoughts I thought merited attention: this story is far from serious, after all.
And what does indeed LCK do? Well, we are lucky, then, to have this story, eh?
Because only our dear character's absolute lack of INT and WIS would justify her absolutely atrocious decision.
She thought hard about it, but couldn't come up with any answers—surprise!
She repeated the names of her loved ones aloud again, and noted it took way less time to say it than the other times.
She felt herself getting dumber, she felt the memories washing away, she felt her arms and legs getting weaker, she felt scared and alone on top of that tower.
What was happening?
And as it all happened to her, a flash of a memory came to the forefront of her mind—and perhaps this memory would stay, for reasons unknown to her.
But known to the writer: the plot calls it!
She remembered watching an episode of a cartoon (or anime, she supposed) with a blonde boy in cute-looking orange clothes, loud and boisterous, a bit dumb, but always unwilling to back down—one that her small cousins practically revered. She remembered seeing some memes about something called Talk no Jutsu, and seeing a lot of people complaining about how they all got too powerful in the end.
"Naruto," she whispered softly, as the wind blowed a million tiny leaves around her.
"That headband," she said, while looking at the leaves. "He had one, too."
She grabbed the handrail tightly as it downed on her.
"Am I … am I in …"
And suddenly it appeared in front of her a glowing blue rectangle, floating, with an 'X' at the right upper corner.
』[System] Meta-knowledge unlocked. Parametres and difficulty levels normalised. Loading metadata, rendering assets, sharpening kunai …
She glanced at it, absolutely flabbergasted.
How undignified: she couldn't even grieve in peace. She wanted it to disappear–couldn't it see that she was in the middle of something there?
And just as she thought about it, it disappeared completely out of her vision.
She blinked and looked around to see if anyone near had seen it. Nobody on the balconies glanced at her; nobody in the streets were looking up in her direction, too—she supposed this was all in her head.
A rather reassuring thing …
She was really going crazy, after all.
And it seemed she hadn't even a minute to be miserable, as once again, that … thing appeared to bother her.
』[Tutorial] Welcome to the Shinobi World, a world full of danger, earth-shaking powers, intrigue, weapons, adventure and world-ending threats. Will you shape this world, or will you let it shape you? Will you rise to the test and conquer the challenges ahead? Good luck, [Select a name for your character or you will be given a randomised name before the next arc]!
And she had just finished reading it too when another message appeared.
』[Mod Info] harryoftherubysword's Modpack: Enhanced UI, Smart Notification System, Better Balance, Bugfixes and Optimisation
』Update v. 2.1. 5 (2025-01-18)
』- Removed redundant tutorial screens
』- Less pop-up notifications: AI-assisted notification filter – Alpha version (please report any bugs)
』- Fixed: the debuff from letting Ichiraku ramen get cold will not be permanent anymore
』- The 'Perks' menu was moved from Stats to … [select to view more]
Well, at least someone was on her side! She hoped this harryoftherubysword dude wasn't playing with her–these notifications were really a pain in the …
But she spoke too soon, as yet again a notification appeared.
』[Reward] Meta-knowledge reward
』Congratulations on figuring it out. Despite your very low smarts and the downgrade, you recognised the universe you're in. Be prepared: knowing about it is only half the battle. You will receive 5 additional status points.
Oh, now she was beginning to get angry, as yet another notification appeared just as she closed the last one.
』[Info] Status (Summary 1 — simplified)
』Name: [Select a name for your character or you will be given a randomised name before the next arc]
』General information: [Select a name for your character or you will be given a randomised name before the next arc]'s story is yet unknown. There are so many paths to take, so many decisions to make. She is a bit confused by the sudden changes, but the resilience in her past life and the way she is handling this new situation may help her become well-positioned in such a dangerous world. There is still much time left–she is only eight, after all, but terrible things are already lurking where the fire's shadow doesn't touch.
』PE: ( ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ )
』SE: ( ΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞΞ )
』STR: 1 CON: 1 AGI: 3 STA: 1 INT: 1 WIS: 2 CHA: 2 LCK: 1
』You can distribute 10 status points.
Must she, though?
It was overwhelming, it was too much.
This felt like a videogame—she did not like videogames, and she was not the biggest fan of cartoons or anime. Did she have to participate in that?
』Yes.
A single, cheeky notification appeared. She closed it all and tried to think once again, trying to remember everything that she could about Naruto. It wasn't much, sadly–besides, the thing had like one-thousand episodes, had it not?
But what she did remember frightened her: giant foxes, toads, a weird-looking pale dude that liked snakes a bit much, some edgy-looking dudes with magical pink-eye, an icy boy pretending to be a girl that rose questions her cousins' parents were really not prepared to answer …
And though she tried to think, a ping began to sound, every thirty seconds or so, while something shined red on the corner of her vision.
』You can distribute 10 status points.
She tried to ignore it, but the thing was relentless. She thought about opening that window again, which prompted it on her field of vision.
'Let me see, a world with gigantic beings, kids breathing fire and magical eyes. I don't think STR or AGI will cut it—or at least not a truckful of each. Which one made those throwing knives better? I could use that—sit in a tree and throw knives at anyone who gets too close. God, I can't believe I am trying to take this seriously. Here am I, in a fictional universe, trying to decide where to put my status points. None of that was in the Bible. Why me? Why do I have to go through such a surreal thing? Why do I have so rotten luck?'
…
And then it downed on her.
Luck. She could use that.
She could use a whole lot of that.
After all, in every one of those stories that kids enjoyed, there was a major thing in common: the protagonist didn't die.
Sometimes by their own effort, sometimes by tremendously on-the-face plot devices, and sometimes … sometimes by sheer, pure, dumb luck.
Didn't like Harry Potter kill a thousand-year-old gigantic snake with laser beams that petrified in the least, and at the worst killed their targets? Wasn't he also bit by the thing and got out alive? Come to think of it, she remembered an episode where a giant snake had swallowed Naruto.
It was enough for her—that was it!
She poured all of her points into Luck.
』Congratulations on taking the 'Lucky Start'. Your adventure will soon begin. Very, very soon, indeed.
Wow, that did not sound ominous at all.
She left the guardrail to pace around and think more clearly.
But just as she got away from it, she stupidly stumbled on her own feet and smashed with full-force onto another session of the guardrail that oh-just-so-happened not to have been properly installed.
She would've liked to say that as she fell, she had thought:
'Lucky start, my * * *!'
But in all truth, the only thing on her mind (and on her throat) was:
"AHHHHHHH!"
Is this the end? Certainly not!
Do not be afraid, dear reader, for this is just the wonderful lucky start of a wondrous adventure.