It was evening. Leslie has been fighting long and hard to get himself a proper life. Growing in a disfunctional family, the childhood wasn't all that fine, but over time, he was able to get over it. Since then, his goal was to become at least a normal person and live a normal life. Getting a job, renting an apartment, you know, the usual stuff. He tried multiple times and every time when everything seemed to be alright, his life fell apart for the most random reasons ever and he needed to start all over. One time, he had to move out of a flat bc a crazy neighbor started thinking he was a government spy and lost his job while seeking for another flat. Other time, his apartment got invaded by ants, his girlfriend dumped him and he lost his job simultaneously.

There was a whole ton of crazy stuff happening, but Leslie persevered and slowly, with time, managed to slowly exclude the factor of luck from all of his affairs. He got a job through a friend, and rented an apartment from another friend. The random stuff no longer had power over him. Finally, everything was beginning to look ok for real. It was already a month since he started working that job, and tomorrow was the payday. Life was looking really good. It really took time for him to learn to enjoy such simple things as having a job, spending time with friends and walking outside. And soon, he will be able to enjoy life for real for real.

Leslie made himself some black tea with sugar, took a piece of cake and went to bed, thinking of the next anime to watch. Recently, he has rediscovered his taste for anime, and couldn't get enough of it. The previous one was pretty cool and funny and he wanted to keep seeing more of that. Leslie got under his warm blanket and started the first episode of his new choice on the phone. Drinking tea and eating cake, while watching anime, under his warm blanket in his assured apartment he thought to himself:

"Yeah. Life is good. Life is finally good. It was totally worth all the effort and the suffering. This was a good run. There's nothing that could possibly ruin this for me now."

***

42 000 feet up in the sky, on the board of a cargo airplane.

- Close that damn door! How did it even get open in the first place?

- I don't know! Maybe because of the turbulence? Who gives a fuck now?!

The man in uniform barely made it to the switch because of the howling wind, but finally, a muscular hand slapped on the closing button, but no response from the door followed.

- The door won't close!

- Of course it won't, you genius! The truck is sliding down, pull the chain! Wait... is that a fucking tornado?

- Aaaaaaaaarghhhhhhh!!!

- Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

***

Leslie has just finished watching the first episode of this new isekai anime, and, after a bit of consideration, decided that it was good. Though the trope itself was overused, this one had a unique touch to it that made the plot interesting and was free of cliches. The tea was sweet and the cake was tasty.

"I wouldn't want to isekai though.", Leslie mused to himself as he tucked himself the coziest he could. "I am pretty happy right now. I mean, really happy. My life is good. Dayum my life is good. Hope this never ends."

A huge military truck has crashed through his ceiling and got stuck in centimeters from his face, smoking.

"Well dayum", thought Leslie as he stared at the metal beast hanging over him with eyes wide open. "I mean... I'm still alive, right. This thing didn't squish me. That's gotta count for something. I still can rent another flat, even though it might make me a bit more dependent on luck but... I mean it's ok I guess."

"I wonder where this thing came from?" He scratched his head as he crawled out of bed and came up to the window. Even though the probability of this same shit happening for the nth time in a row was nearing zero, it really has happened. Which couldn't not invoke some bad thoughts from the past in him.

"I really should stop the negative thinking. The very idea that some kind of forces of fate dropped a whole damn truck-kun on me just to not let me be happy is absurd. After all, I still have my friends, and a job, and... my mom's basement, I guess. I'll get through it, like I always did."

Suddenly, there was a bright spark somewhere in the city, and others followed suit, each raising a brightly glowing mushroom cloud. Then Leslie saw as series of rockets were launched from somewhere beyond the city line. Tornadoes ensued. Leslie was watching all of this with his jaw dropping farther with each damn event, until he saw as a huge burning asteroid crossed the night sky and landed somewhere over the horizon, causing a small tremble which kept steadily growing.

"Yeeeeaaah, I might as well just off myself now.", Leslie said with a poker face as he finished his tea.

The truck exploded.

***

Leslie woke up in some house with a wooden ceiling. For some reason it was difficult to move his limbs, they felt very heavy and weak. What surrounded him, was... a some kind of cradle, to his best guess. Why guessing, you ask? Because again, for some reason, his eyes couldn't see even close as good as before. Leslie suggested that it was the consequences of seeing all them nuclear flares, and he got curious just in what state his body is now. With an immense effort, he raised one oh his hands towards his eyes. To his amusement there were no burns, or wounds, or tumors, but there was a whole damn another thing that disturbed him and instilled the feeling of dread in him. The hand was fat, the fingers were quite short and thin, the arm was plump and the ratio of the elements of his limb was very weird compared to what he was used to.

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"Wait... am I a damn baby now? Oh... oh no. I don't want to go through childhood again.", he thought to himself as an overwhelming wave of fatigue washed over him and his eyes closed by themselves.

***

Leslie was crawling over the floor, trying to get to his likely parents and listen in on the conversation. He was able to discern the meaning of some of the words, but the conversation itself remained a mystery to him. He honestly had no idea how he learned to speak when he was a baby in his previous world. Still, he was sure that after a while, he'll crack this cypher as well.

Around him, were his brothers and sisters from this world. He was a single child in his previous world and it was a new and cool experience to have so many brothers and sisters. There were, like, three girls and four boys including him. Some of them older than him, some younger. He was one of the younger members of the family.

"I wonder how the fuck are they going to feed this many children? They don't look all that rich and established. Poor people, they deserve better."

***

"Heh-heh, so that's the answer!", giggled Leslie while tilling the soil for the new patch of crops. "But you know what, I actually like it! I never have felt so close with so many people.", he looked at his brothers and sisters working the same way as he did, some of them have already grown into teenagers.

"I am actually happy right now!", he thought to himself as looking over his shoulder to take a look at his parents who were standing in front of their old ahh home and watching them proudly. He didn't quite perceive them the same way as his actual parents, but still, he was grateful to these people for raising him and being kind and loving to him. In some regards, they were even better parents than his actual ones. Leslie was only ten years at the time and there was entire life filled with meaningful human interactions ahead of him, which couldn't not make him happy.

It was at this age that he has discovered that this world has the monsters and the adventurers, and the magic and all the fantasy isekai stuff he saw in anime. He even saw a pack of slimes a couple years ago, when they came out of the forest to feast on their crops. These things jumped quick and hit hard. Usually the village dealt with them by sending men out to exterminate them, but that year was marked by an entire damn slime infestation, so they had to gather money and hire a couple adventurers for that. Two regular-looking dudes with swords. Although it looked cool, but Leslie wasn't impressed by the performance. However, it was a valid statement that there is nothing to show off while fighting slimes.

Still, Leslie didn't think about becoming an adventurer. Too much risk, too much relying on luck, He was quite happy with his family over here, after all, it was the genuine human connections that were the most important, not the power or some other external stuff like that.

***

The last casket was finally lowered into the earth. It was hard to dig, as the weakness from the plague haven't passed yet, as well as these black spots on his skin. It was so small, Leslie genuinely wondered how little Cherry fit in there, even though she was the youngest, The village was eerily silent as well, instead of usual noise of work and callouts. That spring took away many. Leslie stood together with his parents, now, again, being a single child.

"Guess the "once I'm happy" thing stretches even into this life somehow.", 11 years old Leslie thought grimly.

***

Over time, the village has recovered, and even though the pain and grief never truly went away, soon enough, the village was again filled with sounds of laughter and work, and festival lanterns were flying over it again. Leslie has started to work with the intensity of three people to make up for his brothers and sisters. His parents have visibly grown older over the course of these three years, but they still were able to manage their share of work. Leslie has decided that he will do whatever it takes to repay them for everything and make them proud of him. He'll juice out of this soil everything he can.

At least, that was his plan. That year, something happened with the spring that fueled the small river nearby, and soon, the water ceased. This, combined with the lack of rain over the area, has caused a huge draught, that effectively rendered all and any efforts to make anything of soil useless.

- Why... like... why the fuck... why is this shit happening to me? - Leslie pondered, while laying on a dried stack of hay, styaring at the sky. There was no clouds, and the sun was blindingly bright, so Leslie had to cover his head with a straw hat from that side.

- Leslie! - his parents called out to him from the house. Yes, for some reason, his name in this world was the same as in the previous one.

- I'm coming! - he shouted and jumped off the haybale, running towards the house.

His parents were sitting at a small table at the window. The log hut was old and creaky, which, with the influence of draught has grown to the levels previously unimaginable. The interior was very simple, with only the necessary things being there, like beds, two tables and various kitchen stuff. This family indeed was poor, this, and the weight of the loss of so many family members pressed heavy onto his parents, making them appear even older than they actually were.

- Leslie, we need to talk. - his father started.

- Yes, what is it, dad?

His father inhaled deeply, and began speaking.

- You know that it is very hard to live here on the land right now. We... me and your mom... we have nowhere to go from here. No one needs us anywhere, and even if someone did, we are way too old and way too used to this place to leave. We won't be able to get used to new life somewhere else. But you, Leslie, you are still young. You are most likely to find yourself a place somewhere else. You can learn something new, other than work on land to sustain yourself. I have written to my friend in the nearby town, and today I've received the answer. He works as a shoemaker and he'd be glad to take you in as a pupil. He would feed you and pay you for your work, so you'll still be able to help us here. After all, they supply towns from other places as well, surely there should be more food than here. The question is, are you okay with it? You know that we won't force you out if you want to stay with us.

Leslie thought for a moment.

- Am I correct on that if I go to that man, you will have an easier time here?

- More or less. - His mom let out a small tired giggle.

- Then yes, I am going. You just hold on until I get my first pay, I'll help you as soon as I can!

- So it is decided then. - said his father, and soon after, they began the preparations.