Chapter Text
You never expected to be a main character of anything, let alone experience what a main character would in stories.
But here you are: the main character of this reincarnation story.
As you may expect, you are reincarnated.
In what world, you ask?
You don’t know either.
One moment you are in the hospital, wailing uncontrollably as your consciousness of your previous life comes to you. You remember your mother shushing you in her arms while your father talks to the doctor about your condition.
Then you are taken to a random house—your home, probably—and you grow up there nice and quietly.
Yes.
Nice.
And quietly.
That’s your story.
Your mother and father look a bit worried when they see you grumbling incoherent words to yourself at the age of one. But how can you not grumble?
You are expected to repeat living in this terribly cruel world! Sure you have a loving stay-at-home mom and a hard working artist dad in an average family, but you’ll have puberty once more, and you’re not ready for the years of suffering again. Acne? Awkward growth spurts? Cringe-worthy teenage phases with new people who you’ll probably never get to connect with unlike your previous friends whom you’ve forgotten already?
No, thank you.
But you can’t exactly protest when all you can do is babble and drool.
You cry when you’re hungry, sleep when you’re tired, and you watch in horror as you slowly, inevitably, become an actual baby. You get excited over jingling keys. Your parents cheer when you take your first steps. You gurgle and clap like an idiot.
And worst of all?
You start enjoying it.
By the time you’re two, you’ve accepted your fate. Maybe you don’t need to be a main character in some grand, fate-defying story. Maybe being an extra with a happy and disgustingly wholesome family is just fine.
Then, at the age of three, you meet something that reminds you of your past.
"You're... you're finally here!"
Your gaze lands on a teary-eyed creature as dark as obsidian.
Its body is small, but its head is the same size as your three-year-old palms. It has long pointy ears that are smeared with golden stripes, almost looking like piercings. It stares at you with eyes that are deep golden in pupils, and blue on the sclera. It even has golden eyeliner that has a sleek curl at the ends of it!
You don’t have the time to observe more, because the creature soon darts to your face and sends you stumbling out of your balance.
"You're here! You're here, you're finally here!" Tiny hands cradle your cheek. It snuggles even more at your warmth, laughing with that ragged but enthused voice. "I have been waiting so long for a master, I don't even remember how many centuries have passed already!"
Reincarnation is kinda weird, but you sometimes forget it when you deal with new things in this life such as being pampered by your overly loving parents. Acting like a babbling kid is a bit strange, but you can also get used to it.
Meeting a creature, a pixie of some sort, that hugs you and says it has been waiting for a long time?
That... is very weird, especially when you remember how you’re supposed to be living in the realistic Earth with climate change and horrible people who would have probably experimented on this mystical creature if they realized it existed.
You pat the creature a few times to get off of you. Thankfully, it understood, pulling away immediately.
It gawks, looking at you with sparkling golden eyes. "I can't believe you're actually here… The- the harbinger— I thought it was giving me false hope again by letting others touch my box, but when you held me, I truly couldn't believe it! I can materialize myself now! Woohaa!"
The creature laughs when it flies into the air, twirling around like a blowing wind chime.
But it stops when it sees the sight of your curious eyes. It deflated. "Wait a second. Do- do you not remember? Your past life?"
Your eyes widen. "You know about it?"
The creature perks up and nods vigorously. "Yes! Yes, I know about you, yes I know what happened to you!"
"What happened to me?" you ask, eyes darting everywhere as the creature examines you with a toothy grin. Only when it flies around your head did you see the golden sash around its neck. It’s what you remembered important people in Egypt wore around their necks: an Usekh.
"You've reincarnated!" it says simply, making you pause in your spot. "You don't have to hide it from me, don't worry. I know this because I am a kwami!"
"You're a... kwami?"
What a weird name for a species. But it sounds familiar. Where have you heard of that before…?
"I'm a kwami, and we kwamis are divine beings that are created from the fragments of ideas and emotions. What you are holding right now—” it points “—is called a Miraculous. The Jackal Miraculous, specifically!"
You look down at the golden amulet in your hand and furrow your brows.
Here’s the backstory to make you feel even more confused: you, being a supportive child of your family, followed your father to the mansion where he’s been commissioned to be an artist of. Since he trusted your extremely mature personality, he let you walk around a bit, as long as you didn’t touch anything expensive or fragile.
Being the responsible three-year-old you are, you of course immediately stumbled upon an old jewelry box sitting half-open on a dusty shelf somewhere in the library. And because curiosity is an insidious thing, you reached inside and pulled out the strange golden amulet that—get this—started glowing the moment your chubby little fingers wrapped around it.
So now?
Now you have a tiny, overly enthusiastic spirit creature claiming you’ve found a ‘miraculous’.
"Uh," you say eloquently.
The kwami beams, floating excitedly around your head. "This is so wonderful! My name is Anpu, by the way! And you—"
It stops midair, only to approach you slowly and carefully. You feel tiny hands tackling your cheek again as Anpu stares with watering eyes.
“I almost thought you wouldn't be real,” it sniffs. “I've been alone for millions of years, waiting for someone to know I exist. Even when others touched my amulet, I still couldn't be seen. I’ve been passed around through generations, I even lost the miraculous box that was supposed to keep me safe—!”
It gulps down the rest of its tears, trying to push through the explanation.
“Then you came. You held my Miraculous in your hand and- and I was visible again. I can talk. I can fly around, I can phase through things, and I- I—."
The kwami stops.
Then it releases a broken sob. "I was so lonely!"
Oh no.
You stare at the tiny floating creature as it dramatically bursts into tears, its droplets splattering across your own cheeks.
"There, there?" you attempt to pat it, gently poking Anpu’s extremely tiny body with your stubby three-year-old fingers. It's not very effective. If anything, it makes the kwami cry harder, wailing like an abandoned puppy.
Oh boy.
"Okay, okay, don't cry," you say, trying to shush it. "I see you now, right? That means you're not alone anymore."
Anpu sniffles, rubbing its tiny face with even tinier hands. It pulls away from you, but it doesn’t cease sniffing.
You offer a small smile when it meets your eyes with big, teary ones. "I’m still three, and I have a loving but also strict parents so I don't know how much I can do, but I can at least hang out with you if you’d like?"
Anpu blinks at you. Then, in a flash, it's clinging to your face again, nuzzling into your cheek. "Best holder ever!"
Okay. So this is happening now.
You glance down at the glowing golden amulet still clutched in your hand.
It's a small beetle with long wings, forming to create a circle. In the middle of the circle is the head of a jackal, facing left. Anyone can guess what it is just by one look.
Anubis. You become sure of it when you see the ankh symbol dangling above, the key of the Nile.
Then you look at the kwami who is rambling in front of you. Anpu. Creatures made from emotions and ideas. Miraculous.
This is all starting to sound suspiciously like a certain show you’ve seen before.
Don’t tell me…
Were you… actually reincarnated in the world of Miraculous Ladybug?
Is that why you kept seeing familiar names on the city's billboard, which you brushed off as just a figment of your imagination? You’ve seen the Agrestes posters on the billboard, Jagged Stone himself, and even the damned mayor of Paris who has been re-elected for like the second time already.
And is this the reason why you just had to be born in France, of all places?!
You cover your horrified, agape mouth.
If you are actually inside the world of the Miraculous Ladybug, then that means you’ll have a chance to see the iconic duo in action. The superheroes themselves: Ladybug and Chat Noir.
Not only that, but you’ll see the realistic depiction of their schoolmates, and come face-to-face with the super villains in the future. You might even get to talk to them, and maybe get a chance to be involved—as a live audience, not in front of a screen anymore—of the convoluted love square that happens between the main duo of the show!
Isn’t that amazing?!
Nope.
-Wait, it’s not?
Absolutely not.
Miraculous Ladybug is an entertaining show. For some reason, it toes the line of absurdity and stupidity that somehow makes you want to watch more of it, but if you put it into a realistic perspective, their world is a terrifying world to be in.
Weekly akumatized villains, middle schoolers as your saviors, and the amount of life, love, friendship, and puberty problems that will sometimes distract them in the stupidest way ever until they make dubious choices that lead to more problems for the world to deal with—
That sounds great as a story material, but real life? You would never want to go inside that fray.
“Wooaah. This world looks so different now. I can’t wait to explore more of it with you, master!”
And yet…
You sigh, reaching out to pat Anpu on the head. It smiles happily, unaware of the turmoil inside of you.
At least this time, puberty isn’t the worst thing you’ll have to deal with.