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Kagami Tsurugi always knew exactly what she wanted. Decisiveness was a virtue, something to be admired and cultivated. It was what made her an excellent fencer and a brilliant student. When her mother offered to let her take a more active role in her education (this was completely out of character for her mother, and Kagami was still unsure why she had come to that decision, but on top of her decisiveness, Kagami knew never to look a gift horse in the mouth), she knew exactly where she wanted to go. She knew this would require compromise, an uptick in her extracurriculars and increase in the scrutiny her grades received, but Kagami wanted to attend a public school. And so, never one to beat around the bush, Kagami told her mother that she would be attending lycée with her fencing partner, Adrien Agreste.
Tomoe had not been thrilled at the idea of Kagami maintaining whatever sort of relationship (the closest thing she had to friendship with anyone) she had with the son of Hawkmoth, but Kagami put her foot down (and hadn’t that felt good, insisting that her mother allow her to do what she wanted for once) and informed her mother that she would be going.
That was how Kagami found herself sitting at a table with Adrien and his friends.
Alya (blogger, aspiring journalist, was friendly to Kagami at first introduction, albeit slightly awkward) smiles at her as she joins the lunch table. “How is your first day so far, Kagami?”
Kagami attempts to smile back, though the motion is awkward and unpracticed. “It’s been acceptable thus far.”
Adrien laughs and leans in conspiratorially. “That means she’s having a good time.”
Kagami blinks and nods. “That is what I said, yes.”
Nino (DJ, Alya’s boyfriend, did not bat an eye when Kagami first arrived and began sitting with them), who slipped in just behind his girlfriend, looks around at the table (Adrien, Chloe, Kagami, and Alya) and frowns. “Where’s Marinette?”
Adrien frowns. “She had some sort of appointment today and couldn’t make it.”
“Who is Marinette?”
Adrien smiles at Kagami. “Another friend of ours. She had hoped to be able to meet you after I told her you’d be transferring in, but she couldn’t make it today.”
Kagami nods. “I see. Well, I eagerly await the time when I can meet her.” The five of them chat through lunch, Alya and Nino especially making an effort to draw Kagami out of her shell. The rest of the day passes rapidly, and before long, Kagami finds herself walking out of the school after her first day.
She had told her mother that she and Adrien would be staying late after school for extra fencing practice, but in reality, she had set some time aside to find a café near the school where she could sit and process her day, while also getting a head start on her schoolwork. She had anticipated that her day would be exhausting, that she would need time alone to work through her thoughts. Foresight, like decisiveness, was another skill Kagami prided herself on.
That foresight had led her to find a café just a short walk from the school that reviews said kept a pleasantly quiet atmosphere was not particularly crowded at the time of day she would be visiting. She is pleased to find that the reviews were correct, and when she arrives, there is no one sitting at the tables. She orders from the counter and quickly takes a seat at a table in a corner where she closes her eyes and begins to sort through the day in her head.
“Pardon the interruption, but do you mind if I sit with you?”
Kagami, displeased, opens one eye and sees a face that smiles with the light of the sun. Shocked, she nods silently. The girl smiles and takes a seat across from her, setting her drink down beside her.
“Is there something I can help you with, mademoiselle?” Kagami stares down her new companion, and while she feels comfortable with the girl, she was always very to-the-point.
She hums and swirls her tea in its cup, watching Kagami closely. “No,” she finally says. “But I think there is something I can help you with. Do you want to talk about it?”
Kagami frowns and looks down at her mug. “I assure you, mademoiselle, I do not know what you are talking about. I am perfectly fine, and if you do not mind, I would prefer to continue my meditation in peace.”
The girl hums once more and meets Kagami’s eyes. She feels as if the girl across from her is reading her like a book, finding far more in Kagami’s eyes than Kagami could find in hers. “Kagami,” the strange girl says quietly, and Kagami starts as she is certain she did not provider her name to this interloper. “Your dedication to perfection is admirable, miraculous, even.” The girl smiles, chuckling under her breath at some private joke. “But I know that your day has been long and confusing. I know we have only just met, but I am happy to listen. Sometimes talking to someone helps more than you might expect.” She sips at her tea, looking over the rim of the cup at Kagami. “I sat with you because it seemed like you needed a friend.”
Kagami furrows her brow. “I am not used to speaking to other people my own age. I suppose we can try this technique.”
The girl smiles. “Talk away, I am simply here to listen.”
Kagami sits in silence for a few moments longer before speaking. “Today was confusing, I suppose. I met many new people today, and while they were all friendly, as far as I could tell, I am still learning how to interact with peers my own age. Prior to today, the only friend I had was Adrien, and we are more partners than friends. Does this… make sense to you?”
The girl nods. “More than you might expect. You did an admirable job today, Kagami. You approached a new and intimidating situation with dignity, and while it might be awkward for some time, your new friends—and I promise that they will become your dearest friends—are very special.” The girl sips down what’s left of her tea before standing and offering Kagami another brilliant smile. “Thank you for letting me chat, it’s been delightful. Revel in your newfound freedom, you will be finding more of it very soon.”
Kagami blinks in shock as the girl turns to leave. “Wait, I am very sorry, but I am not sure I remember your name.”
She laughs. “Oh, I’m Marinette. I’ll see you tomorrow, Kagami, it was a pleasure meeting you.”
Kagami sits at her desk that evening, her mind still rolling over her conversation with Marinette that afternoon. When Adrien and his friends had begun discussing the girl, she was not sure what exactly she had been expecting, but it was not what she found.
Kagami had never been so rapidly at ease with another person, had never been so inclined to have a conversation with them, had never been so flustered by just a smile (or really by anything) before. Marinette had said her new friends—Adrien’s friends who she was tagging along with, but self-doubt led to mistakes so she did not dwell on these thoughts—were very special, but Kagami is certain that Marinette was discounting exactly how special she was.
More than any other part of the conversation, though, Kagami’s mind keeps coming back to her parting words. Revel in your newfound freedom, you will be finding more of it very soon. The words felt important, like an oracle delivering prophecy, though why Kagami had that sense she could not say.
Kagami turns from her desk, still contemplating the words of her mysterious new acquaintance, and nearly falls from shock (nearly, because she was a Tsurugi and she would never lose her poise in so undignified a manner) when she finds a figure sitting on her bed.
The figure is wrapped in sunlight, a crown of light on her brow brilliant enough that Kagami cannot see their face, only their sky-blue eyes.
The figure stands and spins around, their cloak of sunlight flying around with them. “What do you think, Mlle. Tsurugi? I’ve always found sunlight to be an easier medium to work with but until recently, I’ve had need for the night sky. This suits me, I think.”
Kagami stares in confusion and shock. “How did you get in here?”
She smiles (how Kagami can tell, she isn’t sure). “A fair question.”
Kagami waits for more, but the woman simply stands quietly. “But no answer.”
She nods. “But no answer.”
“Very well, then. Can you at least tell me who you are?”
She laughs and Kagami feels fulfilled. “That, I can do. You may call me the Guardian.” She sits back, as if sitting in a chair, and remains seated in mid-air, producing knitting needles from somewhere inside her cloak of sunshine. Kagami sees no skein of yarn, and as the Guardian begins to knit, it seems as if she is knitting together strands of light pulled from the room around her. “The color of your bedspread is beautiful, it will make a lovely scarf,” she comments absently. She spends a moment knitting while Kagami watches warily before she stands and her needles vanish back into her cloak, along with the length of the scarf.
“I always appreciate an opportunity to simply relax. Thank you for bearing with me, Kagami, but I suppose I should get to the point.” She withdraws a small, lacquered jewelry box from within the folds of her sunlight and presents it to Kagami.
“Kagami Tsurugi, this is the Miraculous of the Dragon, which grants the power of Perfection. You will use it for the greater good in the battle against evil, and when I ask, you will return it to me. Can I trust you?”
Kagami does not move. Her entire being is frozen as she stares at the box being presented to her. Tsurugi’s do not lose their poise, she knows, but that does not mean that her mind cannot be whirling at a million miles per minute. Miraculous. She had never been caught up in the battle between Chat Noir’s team and Hawkmoth, but everyone who has been near Paris in the past two years knows that word. That was not what gave her pause. What gave her pause was the fact that Adrien, the only person she could come close to calling a friend, had been so intimately affected by the outcome of that battle, the fight between Chat Noir and Hawkmoth, that she felt almost as if she would be betraying him by accepting.
“Kagami,” the Guardian says quietly. “I know what you are thinking, and I promise that accepting this gift is not the betrayal you feel it could be. Accept it, provisionally, and talk to Chat Noir on his patrol tomorrow night. If you still feel this way about it, he can bring it back to me. I know that I can trust you, Kagami, your concern for your friend tells me that, so I will ask a different question: can you trust yourself?”
And really, that was what it boiled down to. Could Kagami trust herself? And the answer, unequivocally, was yes, she could.
“Absolutely, Guardian. Thank you for this honor.”
The Guardian smiles, and Kagami feels as if, for a moment, everything that troubled her ceases to exist. “We will meet again, one day, Kagami Tsurugi. Until that day, Longg will guide you. Treat her well.” The Guardian twirls her spun sunlight around and is no longer in the room.
Kagami stares down at the box, thoughts racing before she lands once more on the words Marinette had given her that afternoon: revel in your newfound freedom.
“I suppose I shall,” she whispers to herself, a smile breaking on her face.