Chapter Text
Y/N had never been particularly good at making friends.
It wasn’t that she disliked people. She simply never seemed to know what to do around them. Whenever someone tried to start a conversation, she would either answer too quietly, say something awkward, or spend the rest of the day wondering why she’d said it that way. After a while, most people stopped trying. It wasn’t exactly a tragedy. Y/N had gotten used to eating lunch by herself and walking through the halls with her headphones in, pretending she didn’t notice when people whispered about her.
She was weird, apparently.
She talked too much about anime when she actually got comfortable, got excited over the smallest things, and had absolutely no ability to pretend she was interested in something when she wasn’t. There were a few girls in her class who occasionally made comments about it, usually when they thought she couldn’t hear.
“She’s always alone.”
“Does she even have friends?”
“She’s so weird.”
Y/N had gotten pretty good at pretending not to listen.
So when the teacher finally dismissed them for the day, she packed her things as quickly as possible and left without waiting for anyone. The walk home wasn’t particularly interesting, but she didn’t mind. She already knew exactly what she was going to do when she got home.
The moment she stepped through the front door, her school bag was abandoned somewhere near the entrance. She kicked off her shoes, hurried upstairs, and shut her bedroom door behind her with a relieved sigh.
This was where the real Y/N came out.
Her bedroom looked less like a normal teenager’s room and more like a small shrine. Posters covered the walls, figures were lined up across her shelves, and keychains hung from nearly every available surface. There were stacks of manga beside her bed and several unopened packages she’d ordered online sitting in the corner. Her phone case had Megumi Fushiguro on it. Her lock screen had Megumi Fushiguro on it. Her wallpaper was also Megumi Fushiguro.
At this point, if someone asked Y/N what her hobbies were, she could probably just answer, “Megumi.”
She dropped onto her bed and reached for the newest package sitting beside her pillow. She had been waiting for it all week. Carefully, she opened the box and pulled out the figure inside, staring at it for several seconds before her expression slowly fell.
Then she looked at the receipt.
¥1,700.
Her eyes moved from the receipt to the figure.
Then back to the receipt.
“You don’t understand my suffering,” she whispered, holding the figure carefully against her chest. “I spent my whole week’s salary on you!”
The figure, unsurprisingly, said nothing.
Y/N narrowed her eyes at it.
“You better appreciate me.”
She paused, looking at its face, before squealing and hugging it to her chest tighter.
“…Actually, you’re cute, so I’ll forgive you~”
She placed it carefully on her shelf beside the rest of her collection, stepped back, and immediately decided that it looked slightly crooked.
“No. No, no, no.”
She adjusted it.
A little to the left.
Then back to the right.
She tilted her head.
Perfect.
Y/N took a picture and posted it to her private account before flopping back onto her bed. Her phone was already in her hand again when she opened TikTok, and the first thing that appeared on her feed was a Megumi edit.
Her eyes lit up.
“Oh my God.. OH MY GOD!!! ADDING THIS TO FAVS…”
She turned the volume up and watched the entire thing without blinking. When it ended, she immediately replayed it. Then again. By the fourth time, she was smiling so hard that her cheeks hurt.
“Why is he so pretty?” she muttered, staring at the screen as though Megumi himself had personally offended her by looking good. “Like, who gave you permission? If you keep looking so good… other girls will want you!! And you’re only mine my little Megumi..”
She saved the video, checked the comments, and immediately found one she disagreed with.
‘“Potential man..”’
Y/N sat up.
“Oh, absolutely not…”
Twenty minutes later, she was still arguing with a complete stranger about Megumi Fushiguro’s character.
She had no friends to send the argument to, so naturally she continued it herself.
After that came a few hours of gaming, snacks, another episode of anime, and several more Megumi edits. It was a perfectly ordinary evening for her. Maybe her life was a little lonely sometimes, but she had gotten used to it. She had her games, her anime, her collection, and an entire internet full of people who were just as obsessed with fictional characters as she was.
She was happy.
At least, she thought she was.
Later that night, Y/N wandered downstairs for something to eat. She opened the refrigerator, found a cake pop sitting inside, and grabbed it without thinking. Her phone was already playing another video when she turned around, and she nearly walked straight into the kitchen counter because the new Megumi edit on her screen had caught her attention.
She stopped dead.
“…No way.”
She watched it once.
Then twice.
By the third time, she was staring at the screen with complete disbelief.
“Why does he look like that?” she whispered, offended on principle. “I wanna go fifty shades of grey with him..”
She took a bite of the cake pop without looking away from her phone and scrolled back to the beginning.
One more time.
She was so distracted that she didn’t even notice herself slowing down in the middle of the kitchen. Her eyes remained fixed on the screen, her attention completely consumed by the edit.
And then everything went black.
⸻
When Y/N opened her eyes again, she knew immediately that something was wrong.
The ceiling above her wasn’t familiar.
She blinked slowly, trying to make sense of it. The room was unfamiliar too, and everything seemed strangely large. She tried to move, but her body felt heavy and unresponsive.
Confused, she lifted her hand.
Or tried to.
A tiny hand appeared in front of her face.
Y/N froze.
She stared at it.
Then she moved it again.
The tiny hand moved.
Her eyes widened.
“…”
She looked around frantically. The unfamiliar room. The unfamiliar ceiling. The unfamiliar person holding her.
She tried to sit up.
Nothing happened.
She tried to speak.
Instead, a tiny noise escaped her throat.
The person holding her looked down and smiled.
“Oh! You’re awake.”
Y/N stared at them in complete horror.
Her gaze dropped back to her hands.
Tiny hands.
Tiny arms.
Tiny everything.
Her breathing quickened as the realization slowly began to settle into her mind.
No.
There was no way.
She couldn’t be—
I’m a baby.
Y/N stared blankly at the ceiling.
She had no idea where she was. She had no idea who these people were. She didn’t know what had happened to her, or why her body had suddenly become so small.
All she knew was that she had been standing in her kitchen, eating a cake pop and watching a Megumi Fushiguro edit.
And now she was a newborn.
She closed her eyes for a moment, hoping that when she opened them again, everything would be normal.
She opened them.
Still a baby.
Y/N stared at the ceiling in silence.
“…”
Well.
This was a problem.