It was a dark and rainy autumn evening, and I was on my way home from work. I decided to take a shortcut across an unlit road, at which point I was taken by surprise and blinded by a car turning on its headlights. Last thing I heard was the wet screeching of the tires of a car desperately trying to hit the brakes on a wet road. I felt a powerful impact against my side and then another against the back of my head, before losing consciousness.

When I came to, it was early morning, and I found myself laying on my back, staring up at the sky. The weather was unseasonably dry and the sky was clear and bright. I could barely move or turn my head, which wasn't strange since I had been struck by a car. However, what I felt around me wasn't paralyzing numbness or my soaked business clothes. It was something soft and warm.

As I finally managed to turn enough, I noticed that I was surrounded by large buildings I had never seen before. Instead of the ground or a bed, I was laying in a basket, surrounded by thick soft cloth. In front of me was a massive door, bigger than I remember ever seeing in my life. I tried speaking and calling for help, but my throat, tongue, and mouth refused to form coherent words. As minutes passed by, my situation became clearer and my mind started accepting the facts.

I was a baby, in a basket, left at the door of a large manor. I had been struck by a car, died, and now found myself in the body of an infant. As I was in the midst of coming to terms with these facts, the large ornate door of the manor opened.

An elderly gentleman, Asian by the looks of him, stepped out and looked at me with a flustered expression. While I had never traveled outside of Europe, I could tell that he was speaking Japanese due to my thorough experience with subbed anime. I had watched plenty of isekai titles so finding the silver lining in my situation wasn't too difficult. While meeting a goddess and going on a fantasy journey had more appeal to it, being adopted by a wealthy Japanese family wasn't half bad.

Is what I thought, but this was not meant to be. While the butler (as I figured out later) took me inside to meet the master of the house, I wasn't welcomed. The, what I could only describe as, wealthy Japanese magnate and his wife, took one look at my face and then had their butler carry me away. "I will not look after the baby of a foreigner," was the order given to the old butler, as I learnt later on. I tried speaking my mind, but they didn't seem to be able to understand English when spoken through the undeveloped vocal cords of an infant.

Instead of being adopted into a wealthy family, I was delivered to an orphanage before breakfast time. The first day of my new life was spent going through paperwork and health checkups, by adults around me whose words I could not understand. By the end of the day, one of the caretakers of the orphanage finally gave me something to eat. At the same time, I could hear her repeat the word "Hotaru", which I soon realized was my new name.

Days passed by as people continued to try and figure out where I had come from. This then turned to weeks, as the people in charge of the orphanage started trying to get me adopted. Aside from being turned down by every single potential parental figure that I met, being a baby at an orphanage wasn't too bad. The orphanage was a proper state-run facility and there was no shortage of food or caretakers. Only thing that bothered me was the existential dread of knowing that I would not stay as a baby forever.

It wasn't until three months in that I first got a good look at myself in a mirror. A baby boy with light blonde hair (which later on turned reddish brown), light skin, and lime green eyes. I didn't look too out of the ordinary in my opinion, but I guess Japanese couples expected to adopt a Japanese child.

As years passed and I grew, I found myself developing at a decent rate. No health issues, I wasn't short for my age and I didn't have major allergies or such. However, the people around me considered me slow for my age, mainly due to my speaking skills. While a normal baby would pick up Japanese from the conversations spoken around them, my previous knowledge and memories made it difficult. Hence my way of speaking seemed broken and was hard for the adults to understand.

I had long ago decided to keep memories of my former life a secret. Being reincarnated would create a massive uproar, and I didn't want that. Hence, I kept my other language skills hidden, until I was at a proper age for that. Aside from the location, the world around me seemed very much the same as it was before my death. Except for one crucial detail. I had died in the year 202X, and now, it was 1976. Why this year? I had no idea.

I had died at the age of 36, meaning I had reincarnated in a year that preceded my birth. Forever the optimist and opportunist, I figured I could use this to my advantage. In my previous life I had completed high school, graduated from a university as a bachelor of business administration, and already possessed great understanding of many subjects. While I wasn't really an all-too successful businessman, I remembered quite a few economic shifts that took place during history between 1980 and 2020.

If only I could get adopted, I could start using my knowledge to push my adoptive parents in the right direction financially. But this was not to be.

At the age of six, I was still in the orphanage, and was sent to the elementary school. It was here that I started to finally learn Japanese properly, and with six years of language immersion behind me, it didn't take long. My grades were overall good, as I would have expected, however I only got top marks in my class in math due to language problems.

I also found myself in trouble more often than I would care to admit. Whether it was this new life as Hotaru or the previous one, I had never taken well to being bullied. Being an orphan foreigner who talked funny and acted strangely (or as I would put it, mature), gave the other kids plenty of opportunities to make fun of me. Bullying in Japanese schools was about as worse as I had been led to believe in my previous life. While I had the life experience of an adult, I still had the brains and the impulse control of an elementary school student. I never lost a fight, but that did not impress the teachers or the administration of the orphanage.

Outside of school, I spent most of my time either reading manga or watching anime on television. It was fun seeing some of the older titles I had read as an adult, now brand new. At the age of 10, I bought the very first volume of JoJo's Bizarre adventure, and at the age of 13, the first volume of Berserk. While I did not have a lot of money, I knew these investments would pay themselves back.

As I continued growing my chances of getting adopted grew slimmer. By the age of twelve I by all means gave up on getting adopted. Who needed parents? I would become a successful businessman or stockbroker, all on my own. I still found myself in trouble from time to time, and garnered a reputation as a minor delinquent. I also skipped school from time to time, since an adolescent mind needs time to breathe. While I had some friends, we never seemed to grow close or they wouldn't stick around for long.

By the time I was 14, I was wondering whether I should try to apply for a high school, or skip it since I had already gotten high school education in my previous life. I knew Japan put a high emphasis on high school and university education in the job market, but I was just an orphan anyway. If I wanted to make it, I had to do it on my own.

One day when I was walking back from school, I came across a group of girls wearing blue school uniforms with turquoise skirts. One of my classmates pointed out how they belonged to a white-collar, all-girls junior high school. This coupled with their appearance struck me with a strange sense of déjà vu and I decided to casually trail the girls for a bit. As I listened in on their conversations, the girls mentioned having a field trip to Tokyo Tower tomorrow. This halted me in my tracks, as I felt like I was forgetting something important. It wasn't until I saw another group of girls around the same age, all dressed in green school uniforms with red bowties, that it hit me.

These uniforms, they reminded me of an anime I had watched a long time ago. In fact, I had seen it on a few occasions. Once as a child, then streamed online in high school, and finally I had bought the DVD box-set from a flea market in my late twenties. Magic Knight Rayearth, an isekai sword-and-sorcery magical-girl giant-robot and whatever-else-the-writers-were-smoking anime. It started with three girls from three different schools, being whisked away to the fantasy world of Cephiro, during their field trip to Tokyo Tower.

Memories of that anime flooded my mind. While they weren't clearest, I could remember the basic plot, plot twists, and the somewhat small cast of main characters. But… could this really be the Japan that the girls originally came from? The world didn't feel like an anime to me, but would it even appear like that for someone on the inside?

In any case, if that field trip took place tomorrow, I could not afford to miss it. There was no guarantee that I would even be summoned to Cephiro. Heck, there was no guarantee that I wasn't just being crazy. But if there was even a snowball's chance in Hell, that I could get to go on an actual isekai adventure after being reincarnated, I would take it.

The next morning, I gathered my most important personal belongings. My wallet with all my savings, a switch blade, a compass, and a simple wrist watch. Instead of heading to school, I headed over to the train station and took the first train I could catch to Shiba-koen station. I paid the entrance fee to Tokyo Tower, and started waiting, acting like I was a tourist.

While I was acting casual and laid back, I was everything but. My heart raced and I felt nervous, knowing that timing was the key. In the show, a bright light would flash in the sky and the three girls, Hikaru Shidou, Umi Ryuuzaki, and Fuu Hououji, would get summoned to Cephiro. The only way I could think of getting to go along with them, was to just grab hold of them when this happened. Whether this would actually work or not, I had no idea, but it was worth a shot.

I had to wait until noon until the junior high school girls started appearing. As they did, I looked around casually, trying to spot any familiar faces. Every now and then I would admire the scenery of the Tokyo skyline, but deep down I felt more anxious than I could ever remember.

As the clock approached 2pm, I was getting nervous, as I noticed that something was off. Only the girls with the blue school uniforms had arrived, and I could not see a single green or red uniform. Well, there was one red uniform, but it seemed like that student was skipping school as well.

I was about to give up and head back to the orphanage, when I heard a female voice from the other side of the tower.

"Look, Umi! Isn't the view beautiful."

With hurried steps I walked around the observation platform, looking around anxiously. I scanned the faces of all the girls in blue uniforms, trying to catch a glimpse of Umi Ryuuzaki's most prominent feature; her bright blue hair. Having almost circled the entire building, I heard a high-pitched voice pipe up.

"Yes, it's very pretty mother!"

I turned to the direction of the voice and my jaw dropped in shock. A young girl with bright blue hair, along with her parents, both with dark blue hair. The girl couldn't have been older than 10 years old. It took me a few minutes to get over the shock, amazement, and the implications of the situation. It was very hard not to stare at the family, but I needed to confirm if what I thought was going on, was going on.

I cleared my throat and hollered with the thickest foreign accent I could muster, "Ryuuzaki!"

From the corner of the eye, I could tell that the father of the family turned to look towards me. I also garnered the attention of the mother as well.

The father walked over to me, towering over me, and asked in a stern voice, "Yes, how may I help you?"

Acting dumb, I spoke in a broken Japanese language, "Oh, I am sorry. I am looking for my… tour guide. Ummmm, cute kid, you have."

After saying this, I took another look at the kid, confirming that it was indeed Umi Ryuuzaki, just younger. So as not to stare too much, I quickly bowed to the father and said a goodbye before leaving. As I made my exit, I was ecstatic to know that I had indeed been reincarnated in the Tokyo of Magic Knight Rayearth series. However, I also knew that my ticket to getting to go on a fantasy journey in another world was still far from my reach.

Just my rotten luck, I am several years too early for this!

Author's afterword: This is my first fanfiction on this site so I hope to receive plenty of reviews and feedback in the future chapters.

The chapters from this point on will be told from the third person perspective.

The story will cover both season 1 and 2 of Magic Knight Rayearth, as well as beyond that. It will be a long journey but I hope you'll enjoy the ride.