Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It all began in a decently opulent house. It wasn’t too far from Inaba, which made it easy for trouble to arrive but not easy enough to track its origins. 

Deep within the darkest recesses of the basement of this house, a man wearing a purple locket brooch spoke to the only other being in the room. “The powers of the Ladybug and the Black Cat Miraculous…” he muttered, “If I can get my hands on them, I can gain ultimate power… do I understand properly?”

The small, purple being floating in front of him hesitated, but after a few moments nodded slowly. “Yes… that is the case. B-but the consequences of using that power… they’re too great! I beg you to reconsider-”

“I’m quite aware of the consequences… they do not matter enough to stop me. Nooroo, Wings Rise!”

Nooroo could say nothing more before being sucked into the locket brooch, transforming the man into an intimidating purple outfit. He looked down at himself, frowning a little, but there was no time to waste on things like what he would wear while accomplishing his goal.

He had something more important on his mind. All that was left to do was wait… teenagers were easy prey when it came to seeking out negative emotions, after all.

“Massster, massster!” another small pixie-like being - this one serpentine and teal-colored - suddenly yelped, flying to his wielder. 

Turning to look from the locked door to his shop, Osamu shot Sass a look. “Be careful, Sass,” he reminded the kwami, “When we have customers, you need to keep quiet and stay out of sight.”

“I would not have ssspoken up if it wasssn’t important,” Sass assured him, “I sssensssed the Moth wielder awaken Nooroo'sss powersss.”

Osamu nearly dropped his mug of coffee. “You what?!”

“Yesss… and the aura being given off is malevolent, too,” Sass informed him, tiny shoulders hunched up in sadness, “Poor Nooroo…”

Osamu reached out and ran a finger over his kwami’s head. “We’ll get him into safe hands,” he said. “I promised you all I’d find him when I became Guardian, as well as that I would protect you from harm. Can you sense what his wielder is planning to do with the Moth Miraculous?”

Sass was quiet for a moment before saying, “I believe the wielder intendsss to draw out Tikki and Plagg’s Miraculousssesss…” 

Osamu hissed through his teeth. Considering the scale of destruction that could result from clashes between Miraculous holders - plus the fact that only the Ladybug could fix the Moth’s damages, and that the Ladybug and Black Cat should never be active without the other - they didn’t have a choice not to send the pair to this fight. It was a risk, but if they didn’t take it, then too many people could and would get injured or even die in the crossfire.

“You want a fight?” Osamu growled as he grabbed the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses and headed outside in the search for potential wielders, “You’ve got one!”

Sass darted about in worry for a few moments before ducking into one of Osamu’s pockets.

Satonaka Chie was not looking forward to the new semester. 

She usually got stuck with King Moron as a teacher (and this year he was slated to be her homeroom teacher, too), and Ebihara was a general jackass. Even if her parents were pretty dang rich, she didn’t have the right to bully, mock and torment people as she did! The school didn’t let Ebihara get away with things at all, but she was often let off easier than was necessary - Mr. Ebihara donated a lot of money to the school’s upkeep and facilities, after all. 

As she walked through the streets of the Shopping District on her way to the school, she saw an old man crossing the street trip over his feet and fall to the ground. Chie barely had time to take in his reddish hair and scars making an X on his face before she noticed his wallet had come tumbling out of his pocket, too. She also saw Kobayashi Hajime, another troublemaker at Yasogami High (a semi-notorious pickpocket, among other things) eyeing the wallet as well from the other side of the street.

Can’t let him get the chance to snatch that, Chie quickly decided, running over to the man before Kobayashi could make his move and reaching to help him up and give him his wallet. “Are you alright, sir?” she asked. The guy was probably having a bad day already from his generally gruff face, but he smiled patiently at her. “Thank you, child,” he said, giving her a small smile (or at least it seemed small behind his bushy mustache), “You’re a good kid.”

She wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to that, so she merely smiled at him. Suddenly, her phone rang with a notification from her second closest friend Hanamura Yosuke.

Yo-Yo: Wya, Chie? Class starts in like 25 min!

“Shoot! I’m sorry, sir, but I have to get to class.” 

“It’s the first day of school? Huh… it’s been some years. Go on and get to school, Satonaka-chan.”

Not wasting time, Chie took off. It was only when the school was in sight that she realized she’d never given the man her name.

Weird. 

Amagi Yukiko was walking to school. 

The path from her family’s Inn was on a decently far path from the one her best friend Chie took; it was sad that they couldn’t walk together, but in the end, the Amagi Inn - the pride and joy of her parents and pretty much the whole town - was almost all Yukiko had ever known. Stuff like that was why she would stick with them… even if she honestly didn’t want to run the Inn when she became old enough to inherit it.

The school was in sight when she saw an elderly man on the side of the road, clutching his leg with a pained look on his face. He must have tripped and hurt it or something.

While she did want to be on time for her classes, the man probably needed her help. Thus, she strayed from the path to help him.

“Do you need help, sir?” she asked as she approached him. 

“I think I’m fine,” the man said, “The old bones just act up sometimes… did you think my leg was broken or something?”

“Yes, honestly,” Yukiko admitted as she helped him up, “If you need to rest further, you can go to my family’s Inn and rest your feet without paying on the atrium’s couches. If there are any problems, let them know Yukiko sent you to rest for a little while and that you’ll leave once you’re feeling better.”

The man laughed softly. “I think I’ll take you up on that, Amagi-chan. Thank you very much… I’ll let you get to school now.”

Gasping as she remembered the time, Yukiko hurried off to school, hastily wishing him well. For a brief moment as she arrived at the school, she felt as if her bag was a little heavier. Disregarding it, she hurried off to find Chie before classes began. Boys tended to flirt with her, but Chie had gotten pretty good at getting them to leave her be.

Nagase Daisuke was seeing red.

Ebihara Ai had really gotten on his nerves, even this early in the morning. Apparently, she also had a crush on Kou (his best friend and crush) and had relentlessly gloated how he would never love a muscle-headed oaf like him while simultaneously threatening him to keep his eyes off of the boy. It wasn’t anything bigoted, mind you (or at least it wasn’t the motivator for  conflict here) - he knew bigotry decently well, and this wasn’t it… didn’t stop it from hurting. He didn’t know if Ebihara was cruel enough to out him to his parents (who he hadn’t come out to yet, regardless of whether or not they accepted him) if he did get into a relationship with Kou, but he couldn’t bring himself to put it past her.

For as long as he’d known her (which, granted, was only about a year), Ebihara had been so… so entitled and awful, acting like some sorta queen or empress of the school. Someone really had to do something about her. Somebody had to find a way to crush her… 

So caught up in his anger was Daisuke that he didn’t notice a deep purple butterfly approaching him. It touched the bandage he kept above his nose (it was something like a lucky charm for him when he played soccer) and faded away as if being absorbed into the bandage.

A voice rang through his mind. Masculine yet cool and silky, the voice spoke, “Hello there, Crusher. My name is Atlas Moth. You’ve been tormented for so long, both by feelings of love that may not be requited and by those who seek to cause you misfortune… you want to crush that girl? Let me grant you the power to do so. All I need in return is that you find the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses… you’ll know them when you see them. Do we have a deal?”

“I can’t promise you I’ll be able to locate those Miraculous things…” Daisuke snarled as he ripped off the bandage and gripped it in his palm, “but I will try if given the opportunity.”

“Don’t worry about looking too long,” Atlas Moth assured him, “I am fairly sure the Miraculouses are somewhere in this town… go, Crusher, and seize that which is ours!”

“Yes, Atlas Moth…”

Chie and Yukiko had been talking when a loud BOOM echoed through the halls. It wasn’t the BOOM of an explosion, more of a very loud thud or stomp.

Having seen Ebihara walk by with a smug face a few minutes earlier, Chie uneasily remarked, “Oh, boy… what did she do this time?”

Moments later, they were given their answer as a giant, stone-monster-thing rounded the corner and started rampaging through the school.

Screams and cries of holy followed by an expletive rang out through the halls as students began to run away from the monster. 

Yukiko’s thoughts instantly went to Chie. “Run, Chie!”

The two of them booked it, planning to stay at one of their homes until whatever the hell was happening ended, but the tumultuous crowd soon separated them. They wanted to find each other, but decided it was best to get home first.

Chie had scrambled through the door of the Satonaka residence to find her parents Kōsuke and Junko watching the TV with worried expressions. They whipped over and breathed out sighs of relief at the sight of their daughter being fine.

Chie barely said hello before scrambling into her room and slamming the door. Someone was recording the giant rock-monster who had hit the news while Chie was running home. Eyewitness accounts were saying that it had snatched up two students - Ichijo Kou and Ebihara Ai.

Now that she was back in the safety of her room, mostly out of danger but nevertheless hearing more about it, her mind began to slow down and process the situation. There was a giant monster made of what appeared to be animated stone in her hometown (weird) that had attacked her school and kidnapped two of her classmates (scary) and no one had any idea what was going to happen next (even scarier).

Well, at least school is definitely closed for the day, she assumed as she opened her backpack to unpack and see if she still had the pepper spray she’d left in there. Suddenly, her hand brushed something unfamiliar. Fishing around out of curiosity, she pulled out a strange, ornate jewelry box that she definitely didn’t remember putting in her backpack.

Meanwhile, Yukiko had finally made it back to the Inn. Her parents had been overjoyed to see her safe and sound but requested she hide in her room in case the monster came for her like it had Ichijo and Ebihara.

She’d been trying to relax in her room, when she bumped into her backpack, which she’d opened to make sure everything was still in there. Come to think of it, she’d gotten distracted by her nerves and hadn’t finished doing that. She started checking again, only to pull out a small, wooden box that she didn’t recognize. She turned it over in her hands, taking in the beautiful red pattern and the varnish.

Did it belong to someone? Perhaps there was a name or address inside.

Both girls opened the weird boxes at the same time and were greeted with flashes of light - Chie’s a scarlet red and Yukiko’s a verdant green.

When the light in front of Chie died down, a weird tiny red thing with two antennae floated in front of her.

She blinked at it. It blinked at her. She grabbed a pencil and threw it at the thing, resisting the urge to scream.

“Woah!” the strange creature yelped, dodging the box, “Easy, miss!”

Chie opened her mouth to call for help, only for the flying thing to fly up to her and place a tiny paw on her mouth, effectively shushing her up.

“It’s okay,” it said. “I mean you no harm. I can explain, but I need you to keep quiet, okay?”

Chie squinted cautiously at the red being. Deciding to give it a chance to explain itself, Chie pointed two fingers to her eyes before pointing back to the creature’s big dark-blue eyes. It only nodded solemnly as Chie sat down on her bed, making sure to keep a decent distance from the being.

“My name is Tikki,” the creature said, “and I’m your kwami!”

Chie put her hands together in front of her and took a deep breath. “Okay, cool, so, a couple questions. Question one: what’s a kwami? And question two: what do you mean you’re mine?”

“Well, it has to do with the earrings in that box,” Tikki said, “Put them on, and I’ll explain more.”

Seeing no reason not to, Chie inserted the earrings. She’d gotten her ears pierced on her birthday earlier this year, so there was no need to go get them pierced.

“As my Chosen and the wielder of my Miraculous, which are the earrings you wear,” Tikki explained, “you have been called upon to fight the villains created by the Moth Miraculous’ wielder.”

Chie pondered Tikki’s explanation for a moment. “Wait… this Moth Miraculous thing… does that have to do with the giant stone monster?”

“So the Moth has struck already…” Tikki frowned, “Yes, that’s his doing. Your powers can fix everything, however.”

“M-my powers?!” Chie recoiled in shock.

“Well, the powers my Miraculous will grant you,” Tikki amended, “Your first power is Lucky Charm, which when called will summon an item to help you defeat the possessed villain. From there, you can purify the corrupted moth and fix any damages caused by the Miraculous with your Miraculous Cure. After you use your powers, though, you’ll be on a five-minute timer before you’re detransformed automatically, revealing your identity and losing your powers.”

“Oh, wow,” Chie said. “That… is a lot. You sure you want me to do this? I dunno if I’m ready… maybe I should let someone else do it-”

“You shouldn’t tell anyone about this!” Tikki said quickly, “Your identity and my existence should be kept secret from everyone, for your and my safety!”

It made sense to Chie. “I can do that…”

“I place my confidence in you,” Tikki smiled reassuringly, “You shouldn’t be alone, at least. The Black Cat Miraculous will find a new wielder that will aid you against the Moth.”

“You sure?” Chie asked. 

“My Miraculous and Plagg’s shouldn't be awakened without each other,” Tikki said, “It upsets the balance of the world. If a Black Cat doesn’t show up, I would be… surprised.”

Chie decided to file that away for now. 

“Anyway, to transform, you say Tikki, Spots On; to detransform, say Tikki, Spots Off.”

“Should I do it now?”

“Go ahead!”

“Tikki, Spots On…?”

Yukiko needed to know what was going on right now.

When the light in front of her had died down, a weird tiny black blob with cat ears floated in front of her, yawning.

“All right, let’s see who I got this time…” it mumbled as it looked around the room. “Snazzy digs you got here!”

Yukiko, whose mouth had been hanging open, pinched her arm to try to wake herself up. She must have fallen asleep; that must be it!

Noticing Yukiko was still silent, the cat-thing flew into her face and said, “You alright there, kid? This isn’t a dream… sorry?”

“W-what are you?”

“Name’s Plagg. I’m your kwami. Got anything to eat?”

“Um…” Yukiko said hesitantly, “not in my room?”

Plagg’s face fell. “Shame. Well, I guess I’ll have to deal for now. If you have my Miraculous, that means there’s some problem out there you need to solve.”

Yukiko grimaced. “Right. Okay. What do I do?”

Plagg looked to the box he’d come from, where a pitch-black ring sat. “My Miraculous - the ring in the box - will grant you my power of Cataclysm. Call upon it, and you will be able to destroy anything with a single touch.”

“Anything?” she yelped.

“Well, one anything,” Plagg added, “Granted, you’ll have five minutes after you use it before you detransform. Oh, and keep your voice down! Nobody can find out about me! I’d rather not be used for evil like whoever’s got the Moth Miraculous!”

“The Moth…?”

Gesturing to the window, where the sounds of screaming could faintly be heard, “That’s the Miraculous causing all that damage. Your job is to find that Miraculous' wielder and take it from him, but for now… once you’ve transformed, you’ll say Plagg, Claws In to detransform. To transform in the first place, say Plagg, Claws Out.”

Yukiko nodded. “Should I transform now?”

“Unless you feel like getting me some cheese and letting more people get hurt by whatever troublemaker is out there…”

“R-right! Plagg, Claws Out!”

After examining her new suit (it fit the ladybug theme and was thankfully not thin or revealing, but the yo-yo didn’t seem all that helpful), Chie snuck out her window, fear building in her heart. Powers or none, how was she going to take down that monster?

She’d already gotten a handle on her increased physical abilities and had jumped atop a building. She’d been crossing from building to building when she saw the rock-monster in the distance. Ebihara and Ichijo were still clutched tight in his hands.

“I AM CRUSHER!” he bellowed in a booming voice loud enough for Chie to hear from the distance they had apart, “EBIHARA AI CRUSHED MY SPIRITS, AND AS SOON AS I FIND WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR, I WILL CRUSH HER FOR GOOD!”

“But what if you didn’t?” Chie muttered under her breath.

She was planning to hop over to the next building and do something (what specifically, she wasn’t sure) when a voice from above cried out, “Oh! Look out!”

Chie whipped around to see a long pole had appeared and was toppling over. Atop the pole was another person who was holding onto the pole for dear life. Chie was so stunned that she forgot to get out of the way, and in a thump and flailing of limbs, Chie found herself pinned underneath a young woman with apparently-related magical powers and an outfit composed entirely of black leather.

The two stared into each other’s eyes for a few moments before the other girl quickly leaped off of her. “I’m sorry!” she apologized frenetically, “I’m still learning how to use this accursed stick - are you okay?”

“Y-yes!” Chie stammered out. As she got a better look at the other woman and her outfit, something Tikki said occurred to her. “Are you… the Black Cat wielder?”

The woman nodded. “Perhaps. And you are…?”

Knowing she needed to hide her identity, Chie quickly began stammering. “I’m… uh…” 

While at first she was to decide whether to call herself Tentōmushi or Tentōchū, Chie remembered that they were called ladybugs in English. Deciding that would help disguise her identity, she thought up her alias. “I’m Lady Mushi. I was told I’d get someone who uses a ‘Black Cat Miraculous’ to help me with…” - she gestured to Crusher - “... that. I’m guessing you’re that person?”

The Black Cat wielder giggled at her enthusiasm. “Ah… yes, I am. You can call me… er… Miss Fortune! Yes, Miss Fortune!”

Chie - or Lady Mushi, as she now went by - nodded. “So… now what?”

“We do something about the villain… right?”

They turned and looked at the villain for a long moment.

“We should start with the hostages,” Lady Mushi decided.

Miss Fortune nodded. “How do we get them out of his grip? Furthermore, how do we stop him for good? I don’t think there’s a prison in Japan that could hold him!”

“Well…” Lady Mushi said, “he’s magic like we are, right? Maybe we can make it… go away?” She then remembered something else Tikki had said. “I was told that villains had a ‘corrupted moth’ on their person… something like that. If we find that, my abilities apparently can fix everything!”

“I do not see a moth,” Miss Fortune said, eyes flicking over the villain as it rampaged. “Maybe it’s hiding, but where…?”

Any further thought was cut off as Crusher finally noticed them. A magical mask outline appeared over his face. “There they are, Crusher! Go for their earrings and ring!” Atlas Moth commanded.

Crusher lunged, not dropping either of his captives, and swung a fist out at the two. Having at least figured out how to extend her staff out and in, Miss Fortune grabbed Lady Mushi and shot into the air by extending her baton.

“He’s going to topple you again, you know!” Lady Mushi yelped. 

“We’ll fall on him and take him down, then,” Miss Fortune explained, a glint in her eye.

Lady Mushi lit up. “That’s genius!”

As predicted, Crusher swung his other fist to knock over Miss Fortune’s baton. The pair fell through the air for a moment before landing squarely on his face. As he recoiled a few steps back and ever-so-slightly loosened his grip on Ebihara and Ichijo, Lady Mushi punched Crusher in his left eyeball. This was enough to get him to fall over, landing on his ass against an adjacent building.

Immediately, Miss Fortune took the opportunity to pry Ichijo out of his grip. Once successful, she managed to heft him up with surprising strength and hopped down from Crusher’s hand with him in tow. “Are you okay?” she asked once he’d been able to stand up on his own.

“Y-yeah,” he said numbly.

“Do you have any idea who this is?”

“Sorry, but I don’t know any giant rock monsters…” Ichijo laughed uneasily, “I saw him come out of the closet my… my friend Daisuke went in after I saw him and Ebihara arguing over something.”

“Nagase-kun…” Miss Fortune mumbled under her breath. Is he the one behind Crusher? she wondered. Shaking her head out of her thoughts, she said, “You should talk to him after we’ve dealt with this guy.”

Speaking of which, Crusher roared and used his now-free hand to grab Lady Mushi and fling her into an opposing wall. “Oh, no!” Miss Fortune said, whirling towards the sound of the impact.

Lady Mushi groaned, pulling herself out of the small crater that now existed. “I’m okay!” she called, even though her movements were a bit stiff as she stood back up.

So we get some increased durability here, Miss Fortune noted. How very helpful!

Crusher then attempted to pummel the now-risen Lady Mushi back into the ground, but she managed to evade his attack.

“Get me out of here!” Ebihara shrieked, “I don’t know why this thing is after me, but-”

“YOU KNOW WHY!” Crusher roared, “YOU’RE NOTHING BUT A BULLY!”

“A fat load of information that is!” Ebihara shot back instinctively, only to freeze as Crusher shot her a stone-cold glare.

“FINE, THEN,” Crusher snarled as he reared back to throw her through the streets, “DIE!” 

“Woah!” Lady Mushi yelped; operating on a new instinct, she threw out her yo-yo and managed to snag Ebihara midair and yanking her into her hands. The close proximity made both young women blush before Lady Mushi accidentally dropped her.

“You should leave,” Miss Fortune told Ebihara without looking at her or Lady Mushi. “Things can only get hairier from here…”

As Ebihara ran away at a surprising speed for a girl in heels, Lady Mushi shot her a perplexed look. “Was that a pun?”

Miss Fortune flushed. “N-not intentionally!”

“Nah, it’s all good,” Lady Mushi reassured her, “Puns are great! Now isn’t a good time, though…”

A rage-filled roar from Crusher snapped the two back to the fight at hand. “GET BACK HERE, EBIHARA!”

A purple mask-like symbol appeared over Crusher’s face. “You will get them back,” Atlas Moth’s voice promised him, “but it will be harder with these two in your way.”

“What was that?” Miss Fortune wondered as the mask disappeared. She gulped as Crusher’s glowing eyes trained on her and Lady Mushi.

“Hey, big guy!” Lady Mushi jeered, “Over here! Come pick on someone who can take it!” Reacting as planned, Crusher swung at her first. 

From a hidden alley, Yosuke watched her and Miss Fortune dodge the swing and ensuing debris, leaping to heights no normal human could. With his phone out and recording, Yosuke mumbled, “I wanna learn everything there is about those two…”

Hiding next to him, his middle-schooler brother Teddie whispered, “Oh, dear… Yosuke, keep yourself out of trouble.”

“That’s usually my line!” Yosuke hissed back, “You let me have this!”

Even when Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune tried to turn the tides on Crusher, his sturdy body easily shrugged the baton and yo-yo off of his body.

“He’s overpowering us…” Miss Fortune worried, “What do we do?”

Recalling Tikki’s words, Lady Mushi snapped her fingers. “I have an idea, but I’ll be on a timer.”

“Go for it,” Miss Fortune suggested, “I’ll cover your absence… just come back quickly!”

“Th-thanks,” the red superheroine nodded, “Lucky Charm…?”

In a flash of light, a red item with black spots all over appeared and fell into Lady Mushi’s arms. “A super-soaker…?” she questioned, before her eyes darted to her earrings, which made a beeping sound as one of the spots on each of them disappeared.

“THIS ISN’T POKEMON!” Crusher bellowed triumphantly, “THAT’S NOT GOING TO HELP YOU MUCH!”

Looking around, Lady Mushi saw things light up in red and black. First the super-soaker, then Crusher’s face, then Miss Fortune, then Crusher’s right hand… which, Lady Mushi noticed, was always closed when he could help it. It was as if he was holding something else in there… aha!

Lady Mushi pulled her new ally close and whispered the plan into her ear. “You think that’ll work?” Miss Fortune responded, startled.

“If you have a better idea, you should bring it up!”

“I suppose that’s fair…” With that, Miss Fortune began running towards Crusher, causing him to bend down in an attempt to headbutt her into the ground. However, Miss Fortune slid through the golem’s legs instead of attacking him. Before he could turn around or raise his head again, Lady Mushi charged him and loosed the super-soaker into his face, causing him to recoil and fall on his back, right in front of Miss Fortune. In his stunned state, Crusher’s right hand opened to reveal a purple bandage.

“Hey, doesn’t Nagase-kun always wear a bandage when he’s playing?” Lady Mushi muttered out loud. Grabbing the bandage, she decided to rip it in two, only to recoil a bit as a small moth covered in dark-purple energy flew out of it.

Remembering what her kwami had said once more, Lady Mushi felt her yo-yo fill and glow with energy. Realizing that this moth was behind the villain, she snarled and threw the tool at the moth. Magically, her yo-yo snatched up the lepidopteran troublemaker, and as it flew back down to be caught, Lady Mushi saw an incision in the middle of the yo-yo that hadn’t been there before; before everyone’s eyes, it opened and spit out the moth (which was now pure white), clicking shut and glowing brightly through the cracks.

“I don’t think they’ll bother us again,” Lady Mushi cried triumphantly.

“I don’t think that was a normal moth,” Miss Fortune said.

There was a groan from next to them, and they turned to see Nagase on the ground where Crusher had once stood, rubbing his head.

“Somebody get the number of that truck?” he asked. Then he looked around. “How did I… get here?”

“Holy shit, Nagase-kun?” another voice called. Try as Teddie did to drag him away, Yosuke approached, phone still out and recording.

“That was amazing!” he declared, “What the heck was all that?”

Lady Mushi opened up her mouth to answer, but another beeping sound rang out. Looking at her earrings, she saw there was only one spot left. 

“Sorry, uh… young man! I need to take a raincheck!” she stammered, running away. Frantically, she threw out her yo-yo.

Miss Fortune watched her go, a small smile on her face. “I don’t know who that girl is…” she whispered out loud, “but I really want to get to know her…”

As Lady Mushi landed in an alley far away from the damage, her timer ran out, reverting her to Chie. 

“What a rush…” Chie whistled hoarsely, “I can’t believe I took down that… that giant…”

“There is one problem…” Tikki said hesitantly, “You forgot to fix the damages the akuma caused.”

“Wait, I can fix it?” Chie gasped, “How?”

“For starters, you’ll need to recharge me,” Tikki explained. Gesturing to the super-soaker that Chie had put down on a dumpster, she continued, “Then cast the Miraculous Cure! My power will revert all damages done by any other Miraculous!”

“Okay, but… how do I recharge you?”

“Just like you humans, I need to eat,” Tikki said, “Do you have anything sweet or chocolatey?”

“... no.”

“Well, we’d better find some-” Sniffing around, Tikki suddenly phased through the dumpster, returning in a few seconds with a half-eaten snickerdoodle in hand. 

As she ate the rest of it (which seemed quite biologically impossible), Chie shuddered at the question of whether Tikki had eaten the first half already or if it was someone else.

“Would you believe people throw away perfectly-good cookies?” Tikki huffed, “What a waste!”

Chie merely nodded. Someone had probably dropped it on the ground and decided not to take the chance. “Hey…” she then asked, “Why did Nagase become a villain?”

“It’s not his fault,” Tikki said darkly, “The Moth wielder is behind this.”

“So, like, this Moth guy brainwashed him?” When Tikki nodded, Chie shuddered. “We’d better let people know that…”

Once she’d transformed, Lady Mushi returned to see Miss Fortune arguing with two officers. 

“He clearly doesn’t remember a thing about Crusher!” Miss Fortune shouted, standing in the way of them and both Nagase and Yosuke, “I’m not sure of all the details yet, but there was some sort of entity that seemed to be puppeting him. This is anything but his fault!” 

“Yeah, well, what do we do about the damages he caused?” the younger of the two officers countered.

Lady Mushi figured now was as good of a time as any. Once she’d approached and been noticed by the two men, she threw the super soaker into the air. It burst like a firework, resolving into a swarm of ladybugs (she’d once heard a group of ladybugs was called a loveliness) that flew around. All the damages they touched were repaired, garnering awed looks from the people surrounding them.

“That was…” Miss Fortune began softly, “nothing short of Miraculous.”

“Daisuke…?” Ichijo’s voice rang out as he approached, “I don’t really know what’s going on, but I believe the girls. There’s no way you’d willingly let that happen to you… you’re too good for that.”

“Kou…” Daisuke mumbled. His eyes suddenly snapped open. “I remember… I’d holed myself up in that closet, and suddenly a voice spoke to me.”

“A voice?” the older officer deadpanned, “Do you really expect us to believe-”

“There was literally just a battle between a supervillain and superheroes,” Miss Fortune pointed out, “I presume the owner is behind this.”

“He - I think it was a he - got into my head,” Daisuke said, pressing his hands to the sides of his temple. “I… I didn’t feel like myself. All I could feel was rage at Ebihara unlike anything I’d ever felt before… and then I was here.”

“That explains why you went for the girl, but… why’d you go for this kid here?” the younger officer asked, gesturing to Ichijo.

Daisuke’s hands moved to cover his rapidly reddening face, and he curled in on himself. 

“Sounds like a matter of the heart,” Miss Fortune mused, “Gentlemen, I believe that is a private matter right now.”

“Sounds about right,” Lady Mushi nodded. Noticing Yosuke was still recording (albeit at a distance), she smiled at the camera, “Miss Fortune and I, Lady Mushi… well, we can’t tell you everything, but what we can tell you is that should the man behind this strike again, we will protect this town from him.”

The older officer scowled, but ultimately said, “Well… it seems we have a shared interest in catching this guy. When can you explain what just happened?”

“We’ll stop by and give you a date,” Lady Mushi promised, adding on, “a-and ahead of time at that!”

“We are women of our word,” Miss Fortune said, “and while I would love to do this now, I’m afraid I have somewhere to be as a civilian.”

“Shoot, so do I!” Lady Mushi gasped, “Sorry, guys, but we’ll talk later!”

The two took off in different directions before anyone could stop them. Yosuke wanted to chase after them, but Teddie had put his foot down, saying he’d already be in enough trouble with their parents. Kou and Daisuke had already walked off together, deep in conversation about Daisuke’s reciprocated feelings.

“So magic's real…” the younger cop whistled, “Who woulda thought, huh?”

“There’s more to this story than they’re telling us, though,” the older cop responded gruffly, “and I’m gonna find out what.”

“Weren’t they planning on telling us more later?” the younger cop pointed out, “The answers will come soon enough, I’m sure.”

Chapter Text

In light of the akuma attack yesterday, classes had been canceled for Monday (the day of the first attack) and would officially start on Tuesday. The police had made it very clear to everyone that the problem was not to be blamed on Nagase Daisuke and that there would be trouble for anyone who attacked him for it.

Chie snapped her thoughts about yesterday out of her head and turned back to Mr. Morooka and the new student from the city.

Narukami Yu stood at the front of the room after finishing his introduction, bowing politely before taking his seat behind Chie and Yukiko, sitting next to Yosuke. Unfortunately for him, the majority of the class didn’t really drag their attention away from thoughts and discussions of the new superheroes for long enough to care.

As one of those new superheroines herself, Chie felt… a little bad about it, honestly. It almost felt like it was her fault that no one was paying him much mind. Rationally, of course, she knew it wasn’t, but emotions were irrational and fickle things.

Yukiko, on the other hand, was excited for the times to come. Sure, she wasn’t at all pleased with the villainy that had overtaken Nagase-kun, but she was eager to meet the mysterious Lady Mushi again. Something about her new partner just called to Yukiko… it was a strange, foreign feeling to the girl, but not entirely an unwelcome one.

She nearly missed Morooka calling her name to ask a question. If it hadn’t been for Chie poking her ever-so-slightly, she might not have noticed at all.

While she answered the question he asked with ease, her mind was still distracted.

But how could she not be excited? She was a superhero! She had a super cool superhero partner! Maybe even a magical destiny straight out of those anime she’d watched with Yosuke and Teddie a few times!

Once lunchbreak began, Chie decided to spend it with Yosuke and Yukiko. The boy had barely sat down at their lunchtable before pulling a laptop out from his backpack and beginning to type.

“Somebody’s excited for something,” Chie remarked to him.

“Well, duh!” Yosuke responded, “You saw all the stuff that happened yesterday, right? I got it all on camera, and if that stuff happens again, I’m gonna be there!”

“I get that you’re recording these… akumas, I think those heroes called it?” Yukiko asked, “That said, what are you going to do with the footage?”

Turning his laptop around, Yosuke proudly presented a website with what little footage of Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune there was displayed front and center. “I’ve never felt luckier that King Moron signed me up for the tech club instead of Home Ec,” he half-grumbled, “I call it the Ladyblog! … the name is tentative.”

“Not a bad name, Yosuke,” Chie admitted, “But, uh… don’t get yourself into trouble, okay? I really don’t wanna hear about you becoming a pancake on the pavement because you couldn’t keep yourself safe.”

Chie was glad for the distraction. She had initially wanted to tease and ask if he had an online girlfriend, but she bit her tongue after remembering the death of his former coworker and crush Saki.

She’d been found dead in an alley, a hole right through her head. Yosuke had finished mourning and had mostly (or entirely; Chie wasn’t sure) moved on, but Chie tried not to bring her up around him.

Yukiko nudged Chie’s shoulder and nodded towards Narukami, who was looking around the cafeteria like a lost puppy with a tray of food in his hands. The two girls looked at each other, a conversation going through their minds that only years of friendship could develop.

“Hey! Narukami, right?” she called, waving at him. “Come sit over here!”

The boy stiffened briefly, but he almost hurriedly crossed over to their table. “Thank you for letting me join you,” he said, trying to make his appreciation clear.

Yukiko nodded, smiling at him. The three introduced themselves to him, and conversation came easy from there.

“So you’re developing an app to archive all that magical stuff?” Yu asked Yosuke at one point, “Have you considered making an app that can alert people when one appears? I feel like that would make this town… much safer.”

Yosuke stared at him, gobsmacked. “That’s genius, Narukami! I’ll ask Yasuda-senpai about that once classes are over!”

“I’m no programmer, but let me know if I can help,” Yu said, his voice a weird balance of eagerness and reserve, “I’m excited to see this come to life!”

Flushing red for who-knows-what reason, Yosuke could only bring himself to nod. It wasn’t long from there that the bell to return to class rang, so they returned to class.

While waiting for Mr. Yamada to arrive (they weren’t waiting with excitement, however; that guy gave all the girls the creeps and then some), Yukiko whispered to Chie, “You saw how the new student made Yosuke blush, right? Do you think Yosuke has a crush on Yu?”

“I think they’ve known each other for, like, three hours,” Chie whispered back, “Could happen, though. Give them a bit of time.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Yukiko nodded, “I just hope I get to play matchmaker with those two.”

“After he tried setting you up with that one guy last year?” Chie reminded her.

“Well… he wasn’t very interesting to me,” Yukiko admitted, “He was terrible at being romantic, anyways… plus, his table manners were horrendous.”

Chie restrained the urge to burst out laughing at that, only to shut her trap when Yukiko asked, “What’s your type, Chie?”

Chie could control her words from leaping out of her mouth almost all the time, but it wasn’t as easy for her thoughts. The answer that immediately came to her mind was one word:

You.

“W-Well, ah-” she waved her hands around vaguely. “I... You know, the usual. Normal things that girls our age are into, nothing out of the ordinary.” She was lying. She was lying to her best friend in the whole world and she hated it.

Wait… did she like Yukiko? She’d never thought about girls quite like that before.

Then again, when she pictured herself going on a date with someone, or cuddling up with them on a couch while a movie played in the background (actually watching said movie being optional), or kissing them senseless on a shared bed, she couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather do that sort of stuff with but Yukiko.

Well, that was a hell of a realization to have on a Tuesday afternoon. Just before she could begin to ponder her newfound (or was it newly-realized?) crush more, Mr. Yamada opened the sliding door and began their Geography lesson.

Classes went by, and Chie - who Tikki had promised would explain more about things after school had finished - went home. The second she was in the safety of her room, she looked around for the kwami. “Where’d you go, Tikki…?”

“In here!” a voice called from her bag, making Chie jump a tiny bit. Opening said bag, she saw Tikki sitting inside.

“When the heck did you get in there?” Chie hissed, “I thought you were supposed to be a secret!”

“Well, I also need to stay nearby,” Tikki explained, “That way you can transform quickly when the next akuma strikes!”

“Yeah, but what if someone checks in my bag for something?” Chie countered.

“I’m very good at playing dead,” was Tikki’s simple response, “People usually think I’m some toy… you’ll have to invent an excuse for me, okay?”

“Can’t say I’m fond of that…” Chie admitted, “but I totally understand! That Moth guy who created Crusher… I’m guessing he’s got one of you guys as well, right?”

Tikki nodded. “... yes,” she said sorrowfully, “I can’t imagine they treat Nooroo all that well if they’re using him for evil. The sooner we find the Moth Miraculous, the better!”

Yukiko, meanwhile, was in her room when Plagg phased out of her satchel. “Eek!” she gasped at the sight of him doing that, “When did you get in there? Aren’t you supposed to be a secret?”

“One: I phased through this morning when you left for school,” Plagg explained, “Two: it’ll be harder to protect your identity if I have to fly halfway across town to transform you. I’ll stay outta trouble, Princess.”

In the short time Yukiko had gotten to know Plagg, he’d made quite the mess in her room and nearly got caught by one of the staff while raiding the kitchen for cheese (which I need to recharge after you use your powers, he’d explained). “Somehow I doubt it,” she mumbled under her breath, earning an affronted glare from the kwami. Noticing his reaction, Yukiko’s eyes shot wide open. “S-sorry! I shouldn’t have said that!”

“It’s not too big a deal,” Plagg waved her off, “I get that your folks run a hotel or whatever, but you don’t need to be ultra-cordial around me.”

Yukiko still looked uneasy, so Plagg quickly said, “Don’t beat yourself up for it, kid. That’s how you attract the Moth, you know.”

Yukiko’s head whipped to Plagg so fast he was surprised he didn’t hear her neck crick. “Really?” 

“I think the word you humans have for the powers Nooroo’s Miraculous grants is called empathy,” Plagg explained, trying not to wince at the earlier thought, “The wielder can sense people’s emotions. I’m pretty sure that’s how they found that kid who got akumatized, and it’ll probably be how they find their next victims.”

“Oh, my,” Yukiko whispered, “So I should probably control my emotions, huh?”

“Just your negative ones, Princess,” Plagg amended, “They probably can’t appeal to you if you’re in a good mood, yeah?”

“Harmless question,” Yukiko asked after soaking this information in, “Why do you keep calling me Princess?”

Meanwhile, at Yasogami Middle School…

“I told you, I didn’t cheat!” a young man protested as he walked out of the school with his mother, “Why would I even do that? I’ve told you, I have the highest grades in the class!”

“Silence, Shu,” his mother said, “You’re already in enough trouble. You’re lucky the principal didn’t expel you!”

It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair! He hadn’t cheated! He didn’t need to! Why didn’t anyone believe him?

He continued to argue his innocence with his mother as they walked home.

In a house not too far away from Inaba, a figure looked out the window, a sorrowful look on his face. “An innocent young man, framed out of his grades and reputation… such strong emotions would make for a great akuma, wouldn’t they?”

Cupping one of the moths that flew around him in his hands, Atlas Moth charged it with a dark energy, turning it into an akuma.

“Go, akuma, and aid this wronged soul!”

Having just been shoved in his room with his mother ordering him to study until dinner was ready, Shu took off his glasses to clean them and grumbled, “Why doesn’t she trust me…? I didn’t do it. I don’t even know why anyone thinks I cheated in the first place!”

Staring at his glasses through teary eyes and clutching his head with one hand, Shu thought back to his late father. His father had taken him to an annual doctor’s appointment a few years back; when he learned Shu could use a pair of bifocals, Nakajima Toshiaki had taken him to get some and bought some ice cream at the then-new megamarket JUNES once Shu had been outfitted with a pair.

It was the last memory Shu had of his dad before Toshiaki grew sick and died of lymphoma. Ever since the funeral, his mom Momoko had thrown herself into her job to make ends meet for them. Sometimes, though, Shu wondered if Momoko was also focused so hard on her work to ignore the grief and pain of losing her husband. While he somewhat understood that thought process - on days when he was feeling bad, he often threw himself into reviews for his classes - he had the feeling it wasn’t all that healthy to cope like that.

How ironic it was that the akuma chose that moment to embed itself in his glasses, leading a purple mask to appear over the middle-schooler’s face.

“Top Performer…” a voice whispered in his mind, “I am Atlas Moth. It seems you’ve been framed for a wrong that was not your doing. I cannot understand for the life of me how nobody believed you when you proclaimed your innocence…”

“Right?” Shu snarled, “Somebody must have set me up… and it has to be somebody in my class. I don’t think an adult would frame me, and nobody else would be able to create whatever ‘evidence’ got me in trouble!”

“I see… unfortunately, while you’re stuck in your room, your options for seeking the truth are limited. I can change that, though. I can grant you the power to find the answers on your own, and give everyone the headache you’ve had inflicted upon you… all I need in return is that you take the Miraculouses of Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune. Do we have a deal?”

“You’ve got it, Atlas Moth.” A dark energy enveloped Shu’s whole body.

“Shu…?” Nakajima Momoko called as she approached Shu’s room, “I want to apologize for snapping at you. Dinner’s read-”

The door flew off its hinges with a BANG. Taking a few steps back, Momoko recoiled as Top Performer - Shu now clad in a tuxedo with white patterns zigging down the sides and a dapper top hat - emerged from the room, wiping his eyes as the transformation finished taking hold. “Shu…?” she breathed.

“I didn’t do it!” he yelled again, “I’ll prove it to you! I will!” A dangerous gleam was in his eyes.

“Shu-” Momoko reached out for her son, but Top Performer stormed past her without saying a word. She reached out at his disappearing figure, only for him to look back at her with a vitriolic visage. A bright yellow light flashed from his eyes, which was all she was able to see before a massive headache knocked her unconscious.

Perhaps Top Performer might have found what he was looking for, but the path to his first suspect’s house was in the same neighborhood that Chie lived in.

Chie hit the deck the second she saw the magic-stuffed middle-schooler stomping up her street, ducking underneath the window so he wouldn’t see her.

“Another akuma?” Tikki whispered from next to her, a horrified look on her face, “It’s too quick, it’s too soon, he… Nooroo couldn't have had full time to rest, can he?”

“Do I transform?” Chie whispered, “I mean, I need to fight the akuma… r-right?”

Tikki nodded. “But wait until he’s gone,” she added wisely, “You should sneak through the window; after all, if people see Lady Mushi leaving Chie’s room…”

Chie grimaced at the thought. “Right.”

In the meantime, she whipped out her phone and opened a groupchat she’d started between her, Yukiko, Yosuke and their newest friend Yu.

Chie: Hey, remember that villain from yesterday? Another one just passed my house!

Yosuke: Shoot, really? Omw! 

Yu: What are you gonna do…?

Yukiko: Something less than wise, I would imagine…

Chie: Yosuke, don’t do something stupid!

Yukiko: Chie, do you know what their powers are?

Chie: No idea. Too busy hiding. He has a top hat, though. 

Chie almost mentioned she wondered if that was where the akuma was, but she stopped upon realizing that Chie shouldn’t know about the akumas. Lady Mushi, on the other hand… 

“He’s out of sight!” Tikki piped up, snapping Chie out of her reverie, “Are you ready?”

Chie hesitated, but nodded. Opening the window and sneaking out, she found a blind spot that her parents wouldn’t be able to see even if they were looking out the window. “Tikki, Spots On!”

“Plagg!” Yukiko called quietly, opening the different drawers in her room in the search for the kwami. Eventually, she found him lying atop her clothes hamper, fast asleep. 

Yukiko lightly nudged him to wake him up. “There’s another attack,” she said quickly, “We need to transform and go help Lady Mushi!”

“Aww…” Plagg groaned, “I was having a nice dream, too… I was swimming in a sea of gooey Camembert!”

“Camembert?” 

Plagg gasped lightly, momentarily affronted, but shook it off at her genuinely-confused look. “It’s the best food in the world!” he declared, “It’s a French cheese, though, so I’m not surprised you haven’t heard of it. It would probably be hard to get some out here in Japan, especially without being questioned, so as much as I’d love to get my paws on some…”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Plagg,” Yukiko said sadly.

“Eh, don’t be,” Plagg waved her off, “It’s beyond your control. Anyways, I’m guessing you wanna go transform and help your crush.”

“C-crush?” Yukiko stammered, “You mean… you think I have a crush on Yosuke?”

“What? No!” Plagg shook his head, “He’s a bit too reckless for you, anyways. I meant… you know what? It doesn’t matter right now. Let’s get this over with.”
“R-right, the akuma,” Yukiko nodded, “Plagg, Claws Out!”

Once transformed, Miss Fortune looked out from her perch on the window to make sure nobody was around to see her. The coast was clear, so she jumped down from her floor to the ground and took off in search of Lady Mushi and the akuma.

“Yoshitaka!” Top Performer snarled, clutching Shu’s closest friend by his lapels, while his parents writhed on the ground due to crushing headaches, “Did you frame me for cheating!”

“What…?” Yoshitaka gasped, struggling under Top Performer’s strong grip, “Wait… Shu?! What’s going on?”

“I’m not Shu!” Top Performer growled, “Nobody believed Shu when he said he didn’t cheat! We both had no reason to do that on a mock test! But everyone will believe Top Performer… and if they don’t, they’ll face all the headache they caused me!”

“Wait… is that why you didn’t come back to class today?” Yoshitaka gasped. Another realization occurred to him. “Ugh! I should have known that was what Tetsu was up to!”

This gave Top Performer pause, and his grip on Yoshitaka lightened. “Tetsu? Who’s… wait…  isn’t that your former best-friend who you were telling me about a few days ago? The one who gets jealous really easily?”

“Y-yeah! I caught him mumbling something before classes about getting me away from you. I didn’t think too much about it-”

“No, it’s fine,” Top Performer shook his head, “You’re my friend, Yoshitaka, and you’ve given me the information I need. Now I know who to look for!”

Looking Yoshitaka square in the eye, he said, “I don’t want or need to hurt you, Yoshitaka. Don’t get in me or Atlas Moth’s way, and you’ll stay spared.”

“I don’t even know who that is,” Yoshitaka promised, “I know I’m in no position to tell you what to do, but please don’t kill him.”

A malicious smirk overtook Top Performer’s face. “I wasn’t planning to.” Before Yoshitaka could say anything else, the akumatized middle-schooler left in a flash.

As he ran towards the location of Tetsu’s house, Atlas Moth spoke to him. “You promised me you’d get the Miraculouses, Top Performer.”

“And you’ll get them,” Top Performer assured the villain, “but they aren’t around at the moment. When they appear, I will take their Miraculouses. For now, please allow me to claim justice.”

Atlas Moth seemed displeased, but he said, “I understand that. If I see them through your vision, I will inform you immediately-”

A whizzing sound caught Top Performer’s attention. He whipped around just in time to dodge the yo-yo thrown by Lady Mushi.

Top Performer whistled out a note. “Speak of the devil, and he’ll appear…”

“Uh, you’re the one whose powers have demons in the name,” Lady Mushi deadpanned as she retracted her weapon.

“Got me there,” Top Performer said, “Give me your Miraculous and get out of my way! I have justice to carry out!”

The lens in front of his left eye - his glasses were now much cooler-looking, like undarkened shades - began to glow golden before shooting out a beam of energy at Lady Mushi. Having gotten some advice about how to work the yo-yo the night before from Tikki, she began spinning her yo-yo as fast as she could and faced it out in front of her, stopping the attack. “Wow… didn’t expect that to work,” she mumbled in awe.

“Well, that didn’t work,” Top Performer muttered disappointedly, “Let’s try the other one… what?! Only 46 percent?”

“46 percent?” Lady Mushi tilted her head in confusion.

“I would hate to see what happens at 100,” a familiar voice remarked. Both Lady Mushi and Top Performer looked in the direction of the voice and saw Miss Fortune standing there in a battle stance. “Did you miss me?” she teased Lady Mushi.

“She may, but I won’t!” Top Performer snarled, shooting more left-eye-lasers at the Black Cat wielder.

Miss Fortune managed to dodge, but it was still a near miss. She almost ran right into Lady Mushi, who managed to grab her by her hand and pull her close before she could trip and fall, which would leave her susceptible to Top Performer.

The two ended up surprisingly close to each other, which caused them to go bright red and push themselves apart quickly.

“I can’t believe this,” Top Performer grumbled as he evaded another yo-yo swing, “Atlas Moth, you don’t pay me enough for this.”

“I don’t pay you,” Atlas Moth pointed out.

“I know,” Top Performer said.

“If you can get their Miraculouses before claiming your vengeance, I may give you a raise,” Atlas Moth offered.

“Deal! My other eye’s at 80 percent, so this’ll be over soon!”

“I think the akuma’s in his top hat,” Lady Mushi muttered to Miss Fortune.

“Even so, we should destroy his glasses,” Miss Fortune pointed out, “He needs those at least to see. Taking his hat will be easy from there.”

Lady Mushi shot her a blinding grin. Holding her hand out for a high-five, she lauded, “Miss Fortune, you’re a genius!”

I want to see that smile every day of my life… huh?

Did she have a crush on Lady Mushi or something? Well, she thought to herself, I’ve always heard the one you love should be like your best friend… something like that. But I barely know Lady Mushi! 

Is this what they call love at first sight?

By now, the three combatants had moved their fight into the streets of the southern Shopping District. “Look out!” called Yosuke (who had been recording), breaking Miss Fortune out of her thoughts.

Before she could react, Lady Mushi (who had called Lucky Charm and received a glove similar to that of a crossing guard) swooped in front of her and deflected another left-eye-laser. “Focus, kitty!”

Putting the romantic thoughts and the fact Lady Mushi called her kitty aside, Miss Fortune aided her in charging Top Performer, preventing him from retargeting Yosuke. 

Wrapping her yo-yo around the akuma and tying him up, Lady Mushi approached him to take his glasses off, only for his right eye to begin glowing a dark purple. “100 percent!” Top Performer declared triumphantly, the glow only increasing until a giant, dark-purple laser shot out at Miss Fortune, destroying the pavement in between.

“NO!” Lady Mushi cried in horror, reaching a hand out to her partner.

“Hahahaha!” Top Performer cackled, “Here comes an F-minus!”

As if acting on instinct, Miss Fortune remembered the power that Plagg had told her about. There wasn’t time to debate if it would help here, so… 

“Cataclysm!”

Bubbling, pitch-black energy formed in the hand not holding her baton. Instantly holding that hand out at the incoming laser, Miss Fortune closed her eyes…

… only to open them as quickly as a hiccup at the feeling of resistance against the blast. Realizing Cataclysm was destroying the laser as it came, she shouted, “Get his glasses!”

Nodding, Lady Mushi snatched the busied akuma’s spectacles off of his face, throwing them to her feet and cracking them with one stomp.

Just like last time, the evilized moth flew out of the glasses. With a call of I’ll free you from evil! Lady Mushi threw her yo-yo at said moth. Once the yo-yo had caught the moth and been retracted to its owner, Lady Mushi opened the yo-yo up and let the pure-white moth fly away.

Now tossing the glove in the air, Lady Mushi once again purified the damages Top Performer had caused, reverting him back to Shu, fixing the destroyed roads and ridding all the victims of their headaches.

“Oooogh…” Shu groaned as he returned to consciousness, “What happened…?”

“So there was an evil moth…” Lady Mushi began, unease lacing her voice.

Shu looked at her incredulously before remembering the events of the past two days up to the gap that was his time as an akuma. “Did I…?”

“I’m sorry, but yes,” Miss Fortune said sorrowfully, “It’s not your fault, we promise. Do you want to talk about it?”

Shu seemed hesitant. “You two are probably too busy being heroes to listen… and I bet you won’t believe me, anyways.”

Miss Fortune opened her mouth to comfort the boy, tell him of course they would listen, but her ring let out a beeping noise at the same time as Lady Mushi’s earrings. “A-actually, can you give us a moment?” she quickly amended, “We have to do something really quick, but I promise you we’ll come back and listen.”

It didn’t seem like Shu believed them, but he acquiesced. “Okay…” 

After a quick nod between them, Miss Fortune and Lady Mushi split up to go detransform and recharge.

Luckily, they’d had the foresight to put two shortbread cookies and some cheese respectively in their pockets, so Tikki and Plagg were able to eat and recharge.

In no time at all, the two returned, only to find Shu and another young boy in a brown and gray shirt talking with each other, an older woman who looked to be Shu’s mother coming over as well. As they approached, they heard Shu apologizing for hurting the boy (Yoshitaka, apparently), followed by his mother apologizing for being so harsh.

“Listen,” Yoshitaka told Shu and his mother, “I think Tetsu framed you. He and I were best friends, but he lost that title because he was being super controlling and didn’t want me to hang out with anyone else.”

“You’d better bring this to your school’s faculty,” Lady Mushi said, catching their attention, “I think they’d be interested in hearing about this.”

“Oh, that reminds me!” Yoshitaka piped up. Looking at the heroines, he said, “While Shu was in that fancy suit, he said something about an ‘Atlas Moth’. I dunno if that’s useful information or whatever, but…”

Miss Fortune and Lady Mushi looked at each other, astonished. “That may well be the name of the person who’s responsible for the two akumatized villains that have appeared so far. It’s not a big lead, but it’s useful information. Good job!”

Yoshitaka beamed, proud at the thought that he had been helpful to the superheroes. 

Lady Mushi then remembered another thing Tikki had told her the night before. Turning to Miss Fortune, Lady Mushi informed her that their weapons served as communicators which Miraculous wielders could communicate through them while transformed.

“How useful…” Miss Fortune mused as she examined her baton, seeing the screen in the middle turn to a contacts list that only had a picture of a ladybug in it. A thought then occurred to Miss Fortune. “Why isn’t Atlas Moth in the list? If all Miraculous wielders can communicate…”

“Maybe because we haven’t met him?”  Lady Mushi wondered, “Or maybe he has us blocked…?”

“Why would he have us blocked if he wants our Miraculouses?” Miss Fortune pointed out. 

“Who knows what goes through the mind of a wacko like that?” Lady Mushi countered. Remembering they weren’t alone, however, Lady Mushi shook her head. “We should discuss this later.” 

She looked back to Shu and his mother (Yoshitaka had gone home by now). “Do you guys want us to help talk to his principal about this framing incident? We may not have much influence or power in this field, but…”

“We can do it ourselves,” Mrs. Nakajima assured them, “It’s very kind of you to offer, though.”

“Of course!” Miss Fortune grinned, “If the situations were swapped, we’d hope you’d have our backs, too.”

“If anyone gives you young ladies trouble, you can call me,” Mrs. Nakajima said, “Or, ah, anyone except that person who hurt my darling Shu, I guess. I’m not sure what I could do about him…”

“Atlas Moth is our… I guess the word is responsibility,” Lady Mushi waved her off, “but if we need a place to hide, we may just take you up on that offer.”

“Don’t tell anyone about it, though,” Miss Fortune warned them, “We don’t want any akumas coming your way because they think they can get to us through you.”

Everyone shuddered at the thought before realizing how late it was. Saying their goodbyes, Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune said their goodbyes and went home, Mrs. Nakajima taking Shu to theirs not long after.

Chapter Text

Chie had no idea how Yosuke had gotten Top Performer on camera, but somehow he’d done it. Sure, the video was taken from really far away, but he had been close enough to capture everything being said, including the words of her and Miss Fortune. 

On the bright side, everyone who viewed the Ladyblog now knew about Atlas Moth and that he was responsible for all the akumas rather than those who fell prey to his manipulations.

On the other side of the stick, she worried that Yosuke would get into too much trouble or catch her transforming or detransforming on camera. That would be… decidedly not good.

She'd been so deep in thought about the blog she almost missed Yukiko sitting down next to her at lunch. “Were you alright yesterday, Chie?” her best friend (and crush… shit) asked, “You said the akuma passed by your house… did he notice you or attack you or anything?”

Chie began waving her hands around vaguely; the force could propel a sailboat. “N-no,” she stammered out, “he was pretty focused on looking for… something? Someone? I-I don’t know.” 

Yukiko, to Chie’s relief, merely breathed out a sigh. Wrapping her up in a hug, Yukiko said, “I’m glad you’re okay, at least. I’m not sure what I’d do if something happened to my best friend.”

The last two words bummed Chie out, but she accepted it. Yukiko’s happiness was her priority, and if she got akumatized, Chie didn’t know what she’d do. Something wasn’t going to stay intact if Yukiko got akumatized.

At least it was very hard to make her mad. You’d sooner make her burst out laughing.

Yu - who had been a part of their friend-group since his last mention - quietly piped up, “Satonaka, can we talk for a moment? It’s nothing serious, I promise.”

This garnered Yosuke’s attention as well. He’d been typing away at his laptop, updating the Ladyblog in every way he could think of. “Everything alright, partner?”

“Partner?” Yukiko asked, “That’s new.”

“Narukami… er, Yu offered to help me record and keep an eye out for the akuma attacks,” Yosuke explained, “He said the nickname first, and I’m cool with it. I couldn’t tell you how, but it just feels right…”

Before Yu could open his mouth, Chie quickly said, “Let’s go find somewhere to talk, Narukami.”

As Yosuke and Yukiko were left behind, Yukiko decided to tease Chie’s best male friend. “You’d better hope he’s not going to ask her out, Yosuke…”

Yosuke shot her a funny look. “What are you talking about?” A smirk came onto his face, and he retorted, “I thought you of all people would be worried about him asking her out!”

“What are you talking about?” Yukiko countered, confused.

“She’s gonna shoot him down, sure, but that’s par when you two are… well, you know.”

“...?”

Yosuke gave her another funny look. “Huh… so the rumors are fake.”

“Rumors? What rumors?”

“Well…” 

Chie and Yukiko didn’t know it, but a lot of people at Yasogami Middle School thought the two girls were already in a relationship. Chie had always been suspicious and testy around any guy who got too close to Yukiko (except for Yosuke, but that was mostly because they were friends), and Yukiko had never shown much interest in boys to begin with. Plus, Yukiko’s parents ran a traditional Japanese inn; while that didn’t necessarily answer if they would judge the two’s relationship or not, everyone figured they didn’t want to take chances.

So when Kobayashi Hajime saw Satonaka stuttering and fighting blushes around Yukiko, his eyebrows raised in confusion. Thinking about that, he came to the most logical conclusion he could: they were having a lovers’ spat.

Well, that wouldn’t do. Sure, Satonaka had a nasty habit of being a general spoilsport and obstructed his schemes a lot, but she didn’t deserve to break up with the girl she clearly loved.

A plan hatched in his mind. He’d set the two up on a date, encourage them to talk with each other beforehand, and hopefully they'd make up and be too lovey-dovey to stop his next prank or scheme. 

There were just two problems: fun dates were hard to think of when there was nothing to do in bumfuck Inaba, and he didn’t exactly have money to throw around, never mind money he wanted to waste on Satonaka.

Well, he reasoned, I can solve the second thing more easily. I’ll just get some money out of someone… but who? Does anyone owe me favors…? 

Snapping his fingers in a swinging motion as he realized he didn’t, Kobayashi looked up to see a chubby second-year with hair-ties pass by.

Perfect. 

Once Yu and Chie found a secluded space to talk, Yu bowed his head respectfully in front of Chie. “Satonaka-senpai, please help me win Yosuke’s heart.”

“S-senpai? W-win Yosuke’s heart?” Chie inquired, thrown for a loop, “As flattered as I am that you think of me as a senpai, we’re in the same year! And why ask me?”

“You’re one of those closest to Yosuke,” Yu said, “and since you have experience in an LGBTQ+ relationship, I figured you’d have good advice.”

“I have… what?” Chie said, trying to process the conversation that was happening to her. 

Yu frowned pensively. “The rumors are rumors, then…”

“What rumors?”

“Many people at this school think you and Amagi-senpai are dating. I’m guessing that’s not true… I apologize for assuming.”

“Me… and Yukiko… dating?”

“It’s supposedly an open secret. Nobody tells their parents or guardians since they want her family’s inn to keep thriving. While there’s nothing wrong with being gay, if word got out that the owners’ daughter was gay…”

“It would lose customers…” Chie realized, “and god knows what would happen to Yukiko herself.” Shaking her head, she amended, “It doesn’t matter, anyways. I don’t know Yukiko’s sexuality… she’s probably straight.”

“And you?”

Chie felt as if Yu was staring into her very soul. She got the feeling if she lied that he would be able to tell. Thus, she gave an honest answer. 

“... I don’t know.”

“Well, you have plenty of time to figure it out,” Yu said reassuringly, taking her admission in just like that, “I know this may not mean much, but I’m proud of you. It takes a lot of strength these days to admit who you really are, you know?”

Chie nodded, Yu’s words uplifting her. “Thank you, Narukami. And of course I’ll help you with Yosuke… but there are some things I should tell you about him first.”

Yu laughed. “He isn’t a murderer, is he?”

“He wouldn’t be attending this school if he was,” Chie said, “This is serious, for the record, and if you don’t take it seriously, I’m going to deem you unworthy.”

Yu hardened up, taking a breath before acknowledging her. “He used to have a girlfriend, you see. Her name was Saki - Konishi Saki. Her parents run this liquor store that’s struggling against JUNES, so there was already some tension.”

“Did she break his heart?” Yu asked.

“If she was going to, she didn’t get the chance,” Chie said, “Ugh, I hate talking about this. It feels like nasty gossip… someone murdered her.”

Yu’s eyes shot up at that. “No…”

“I don’t know all the details,” Chie said, “and I don’t know how well he’s coping now. He doesn’t talk about it, and I don’t bring it up. Please don’t tell him I told you-”

The sound of a scuffle nearby caught her and Yu’s attention. “Is it another supervillain…?” Yu whispered to Chie.

Peeking across the corner, Chie was relieved to find it wasn’t a supervillain. On the other hand, Kobayashi beating on some crying girl she didn’t quite know wasn’t much better. Regardless, Chie’s face contorted into an angry glare, and she zipped around the corner. “HAJIME KOBAYASHI!” she roared.

It should be stated that Chie made a habit of trying to learn the full names of every troublemaker she came across. She’d also learned that addressing someone by their given name first did the best job of freaking them out.

As expected, Kobayashi jumped half out of his skin upon hearing and seeing Chie approach, the transfer student not far behind. “S-Satonaka…!”

“You just don’t quit, do you?” Chie snapped, “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“T-Trying to get you-”

“Nope,” Chie snarled, “don’t you dare try to claim that this was for me, Kobayashi. In what world could you possibly think I would be okay with this?”

“I-I…”

“I don’t want to see or hear you doing this to anyone ever again,” Chie snarled, “Do I make myself clear?”

Kobayashi couldn’t have run away faster. With the main problem resolved, Chie turned to the victim. “Hey…” she began softly, “what's your name?”

“H…” A hiccup interrupted the girl, but she continued. “Hanako… Ohtani Hanako…”

“Can you tell me what he did to you?” Yu asked.

“He… he wouldn’t leave me alone,” Ohtani sobbed, “H-he wanted money… h-he called me fat and ugly… said he’d expose my secrets all over town…!”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay now,” Chie promised, “He’s not going to do that again, and if he tries, I swear I’ll kick his butt.”

Ohtani still seemed hesitant and overwhelmed. “B-but… it doesn’t change the fact he knows my secrets…”

“What secrets…?” Yu asked before he could stop himself, earning a jab to his side from Chie.

Unfortunately, it seemed Chie had been too late, as Ohtani came clean. “That I’m autistic… that I don’t have a dad, but I have two moms…!”

“That’s your business,” Chie said decidedly, “Anyone who hates you for any of that stuff isn’t worth your time.”

“Yeah,” Yu agreed, “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind… will the principal help you with the bullying?”

Ohtani only continued to wail. “I tried… he wants a recorded instance and at least two witnesses…”

“Well, we’re two witnesses,” Chie pointed out.

“But we don’t have a recorded instance,” Yu noted as Chie continued to comfort Ohtani, “What do we do…?”

Clad in his Miraculous outfit, Atlas Moth looked out of the window of his home. “A regular bullying victim, who believes herself shameful for who she is…” he mused as he imbued a moth with dark energy, turning it into an akuma, “Go, akuma, and help her to swell with self-confidence!”

The akuma fluttered out of his palm, dancing through the air as it went to do its duty. Sneaking in through a window to an empty classroom, the akuma flitted around the students until it found who it was looking for.

Ohtani had been getting closer to calming down when Chie spotted the akuma. Paling, she whispered, “Ohtani, I need you to start taking deep breaths and control your emotions…”

Unfortunately, the situation was decidedly not conducive to calming down. Ohtani’s fear visibly spiked at the worry in Chie’s voice, giving the akuma the chance it needed. Zipping forward, it touched down on one of her hair-ties and burrowed into it. A moth-shaped mask of light appeared over her face.

“Balloonako,” Atlas Moth began in her mind, “I am Atlas Moth. The cards dealt to you and the cruel words of your peers have made you believe your growth is stunted, but I don’t think that’s so. I will grant you strength to claim vengeance on all those who have hurt you… all I need in return are the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses. Would you like to take this offer?”

“I accept…” Ohtani murmured.

As Ohtani’s mask disappeared and an inky energy burbled out from her hair-tie and over her body, Yu and Chie stepped back in fear. However, while the akumatized Hanako - whose body seemed to have become much rounder, making her look like a fusion between herself, Mr. Patch from Banjo-Kazooie and Violet Beauregarde - instantly fixed her eyes on the two, they were not ones of rage.

“You two were good to Balloonako,” Balloonako told them sternly, “If you don’t interfere, Balloonako will spare you.”

Yu murmured to Chie, “I think we should leave…”

“That might be for the best,” Chie agreed. She especially needed to leave - Lady Mushi needed to be on the scene as soon as possible!

As they ran, they passed by Yukiko and Yosuke, who were on their way to the next class. Chie and Yu’s fearful expressions were all the two needed to take in. Yosuke lit up, whipped out his phone and prepared to take off in search of Balloonako.

Before he could move his feet, though, Yukiko placed a hand on his shoulder, eliciting a bit of sudden jealousy from Chie that she bit down immediately. “Don’t do anything stupid,” Yukiko warned him, tagging him gently in the shoulder before booking it into the ether.

“I… I’m gonna go after Yosuke,” Yu said, taking a few steps towards the other boy.

Chie nodded. “Try to keep him from running into the middle of things,” she begged him, “please.”

As Yu nodded and ran off after Yosuke, Yukiko called after him, “You should also stay out of trouble!”

In the distance, Chie and Yukiko could hear shrieks of fear rising and being cut off within seconds. Looking at Yukiko, Chie quickly said, “Get out of the school, and go see if you can find Miss Fortune… o-or whatever her name is!”

“Got it!” Yukiko affirmed, “And you should see if you can find Lady Mushi, too!”

Chie nodded, a little shakily. She didn’t know if it was because of her crush or the akuma situation. Probably both.

In any case, Yukiko ran off, leaving Chie in an abandoned hallway. Snapping out of her thoughts, Chie made a beeline for the girls’ bathrooms on that floor; once she was inside and sure nobody else was in there, Tikki came out.

“You ready?” the kwami asked.

“Yeah,” Chie nodded, “Tikki, Spots On!”

Meanwhile, Yukiko and Plagg were outside of the school in a secluded area, near the outer walls of Yasogami High. “You got your extra cheese if we need to recharge?” Plagg checked.

“Are you saying that because you’re hungry or genuinely concerned?”

“Both, of course!”

Yukiko couldn’t help but smile fondly at Plagg. “Oh, you little glutton…” Shaking her head, she called, “Plagg, Claws Out!”

As Lady Mushi burst out of the bathroom and raced towards the action, a large bouncing sphere bounced past her, making her skid to a stop. As it passed, she heard Mr. Morooka yelling in complaint from said sphere. The realization hit her, and she gasped - that sphere was King Moron, but his body was swelled up to ridiculous proportions!

Approaching a group of hiding students and Principal Sasaki, she called out, “I’m here!”

Principal Sasaki and company whipped around in fear, only to breathe sighs of relief at the sight of Lady Mushi. “What’s happening out there?” the elderly educator asked her.

“Another akuma,” Lady Mushi answered, “I got the background… from one of your students while she was escaping. Apparently another one of your students was bullying Ohtani-san, which opened her up to Atlas Moth.”

“Atlas Moth?” Ebihara asked, wrinkling her nose at the name, “Is that the guy behind that Crusher incident?”

Resisting the urge to wrinkle her own nose at the rich brat, Lady Mushi answered, “Uh, yeah. Atlas Moth preys on people’s strong negative emotions and essentially brainwashes them into becoming their superpowered puppets, which isn’t the akumas’ fault - it’s Atlas Moth who twists those feelings into supervillainy. The akumas I’ve faced so far have ultimately been after me and Miss Fortune, but they’ve had other goals alongside beating us…”

“I’m guessing it was Kobayashi who got Ohtani… akumatized?” Konishi Naoki wondered. When everyone looked at him quizzically, he added, “I thought I saw him scheming something a while before Balloonako - that’s Ohtani’s supervillain name, apparently - appeared.”

“If Satonaka-chan’s word is to be trusted, then yes,” Lady Mushi nodded. Wow, it felt really weird referring to herself as a separate person.

“Well, Principal Sasaki can’t deal with that until Ohtani stops bloating people up,” Ozawa Yumi piped up, “What can we do to help?”

“Stay away from the scene, and direct Miss Fortune to the cafeteria if you see her-”

“There’s no need,” Miss Fortune called as she hurried over to the scene, “Fear not! Lady Mushi, I’ve arrived!” 

“Right on time, kitty-cat,” Lady Mushi remarked relievedly as she and the Black Cat wielder looked to the rampaging Balloonako inside the cafeteria, “We should probably snoop on her, see if we can figure out her powers-”

“There you are!” Everyone froze in place as Balloonako floated menacingly towards them.

“Or that,” Miss Fortune squeaked. “that could happen too.”

“Go!” Lady Mushi directed the civilians, “Run!”

None of them could find it within themselves to stay. Ebihara was the first to start running, and despite being in heels, she was one of the fastest away from the situation.

“Hand your Miraculouses to Balloonako!” the akuma roared, “And tell Balloonako where Kobayashi is!”

“Gonna have to pass on that!” Lady Mushi yelped, whipping out her yo-yo and jumping into action. Balloonako drew in a mighty breath, then began spitting small projectiles of concentrated wind with all the rapidity of machine-gun fire. 

Miss Fortune and Lady Mushi quickly began dodging out of the way. When Lady Mushi was about to ram into the walls, she threw her yo-yo out to hook around a pillar, swinging herself out of Balloonako’s radius. 

Cocking her head from left to right, Balloonako noticed Miss Fortune preparing to club her from behind. Sucking in another huge breath, she whipped around and spewed out a mighty gale from her mouth, blowing Miss Fortune into the wall behind her. “Balloonako has you now!” 

Balloonako then began spitting more wind balls at the stunned Miss Fortune, but Lady Mushi stepped in and deflected them with her yo-yo.

One of the deflected wind balls nearly grazed Balloonako, instead hitting another student who was still hiding and had not been able to escape without Balloonako noticing. The student’s body began to swell with air, just like a balloon.

“Oh, shit,” Lady Mushi said as the student - now roughly the size of the boulder in Indiana Jones - began slowly rolling around the room, bouncing off the walls as they hit them, “Talk about the price of inflation…”

“Think we could use that to our advantage?” Miss Fortune asked Lady Mushi.

“We can certainly try,” Lady Mushi responded, “Should I call my… no, let’s wait a bit. Miss Fortune, how good are you at kickbase?”

“Not very, but perhaps my Miraculous will help,” Miss Fortune responded as Balloonako recovered and continued firing wind balls at them.

“Eh, leave it to me,” Lady Mushi decided, “I think the akuma’s in one of her hairties, so keep her busy so I can line up a shot.”

Miss Fortune merely grinned at her. “I can do that, Aka-chan!” 

“A-Aka-chan?” Lady Mushi blushed the color of her new nickname.

“I thought of nicknaming you My Lady, but I don’t want to sound like some incessant, naggy flirt…”

Lady Mushi prepared to run off and corral the pinballing student, only to pause. Turning back to Miss Fortune, she smiled at her softly and told her, “I know you’re not that kind of person.”

Grabbing the inflated student was indeed like getting her hands on a large ball, and it took Lady Mushi a bit to stop them from rolling. Once they’d stopped, though, Lady Mushi lined up the shot and punted the poor student right into the back of Balloonako's head. 

The sheer force of the hit did stun Balloonako for a brief moment, but she recovered much faster than expected. “Puny heroes! You think one lucky bounce is enough to take down Balloonako?”

“If we weren’t in the middle of a fight,” Miss Fortune remarked under her breath as she dodged and batted away more wind balls, “I’d commend her pun.”

Deciding she and Miss Fortune needed some aid, Lady Mushi called, “Lucky Charm!” A big, red and black tightrope fell into her hands. Seeing this, Balloonako expelled some wind energy from her body to charge at Lady Mushi, attempting to ram into her.

Rushing over, Miss Fortune pushed Lady Mushi out of the way, taking the mighty blow herself and flying into the wall; unconscious, the Black Cat wielder slid to the ground in an unceremonious thud. “Miss Fortune!” Lady Mushi cried, feeling guilty that Miss Fortune took the hit and horrified that she was hurt and unconscious.

“Now, petty bug, now do you see what happens when you try to hurt Balloonako?” Turning to the now-sneering Balloonako, Lady Mushi gripped the tightrope tightly, feeling her insides boil over with protective rage. “You would have to do a lot more than you can to even dream of hurting me! Hand over your Miraculous before your timer runs out, save you and Balloonako the time-”

The tight rope and Lady Mushi’s yo-yo were thrown from her hand, wrapping themselves around a leg each. Letting out a furious roar, Lady Mushi began to swing Balloonako around, smashing her into pillars, walls, the ground, anywhere she could damage the akumatized girl without killing her or letting go.

With the dizziness and pain affecting her head, fear began to trickle into Balloonako. “Atlas Moth,” she managed to wheeze, “where is this strength coming from?”

“Lady Mushi seems to have a strong protective instinct…” Atlas Moth muttered, “Steel yourself and rise, Balloonako. Do not stop until their Miraculouses are in your hands!”

Lady Mushi leaped across Balloonako and began tying her up with the two ropes. Working quickly, Balloonako didn’t realize she could barely move until the Ladybug wielder had removed both of her hair-ties and crushed them under her foot. An akuma flew out, but Lady Mushi removed her yo-yo from Balloonako and snatched it up.

Next, Lady Mushi took a deep breath before ripping the tightrope off and throwing it into the air. It burst into the usual magical loveliness that fixed all the damages, deflated the swelled students and detransformed Balloonako back into Hanako.

“Urgh…” a familiar, relieving voice from behind Lady Mushi groaned, “What happened…?” Whipping her head in that direction, she saw Miss Fortune unsteadily rising to her feet. Seeing the damages fixed, Miss Fortune tilted her head to the side. “Did we win? Is everything okay?”

It was as if she couldn’t get to her partner faster. Lady Mushi yanked her up and wrapped her in nothing short of a bearhug. “Don’t you ever let yourself get hurt like that again!” 

“I know…” Miss Fortune apologized, “but you’re the only one who can fix the damages the akumas cause! A-and if you were the one who died, even if I took up your powers, I don’t know what I’d do without you!”

“But what am I supposed to do without you?” Lady Mushi asked in turn, fixing Miss Fortune with a teary glare, “You can’t do this alone? I can’t do this alone, either!”

The beeping of Lady Mushi’s earrings cut Miss Fortune off before she could continue the argument. “We should talk about this and other stuff later,” Lady Mushi decided, “How about we meet around nightfall, above that metalworks store?”

“I would have to sneak out…” Miss Fortune pondered, “Well, I should meet with her whether or not that’s the case. Me and Plagg will manage.”

As students and faculty filed back in, Lady Mushi rushed off to find a hiding spot. She scrambled into a bathroom stall just as her transformation gave out. 

“Great job, Chie!” Tikki lauded, her voice rather tired, “We’d better go talk to your principal, though. We should go comfort Hanako, and we can’t let that Kobayashi guy get away with bullying her, too.”
“You’re right…” Chie nodded resolutely before pulling out some yōkan and feeding it to Tikki. The smell perked the kwami right up, and the taste seemed to rejuvenate her for real. 

One transformation later, Lady Mushi came back out to the cafeteria. She quickly approached Principal Sasaki, who was conversing with Yu, Ohtani and Kobayashi. Miss Fortune was also not present, presumably having left to go about her civilian life.

“So…” she began as the four civilians noticed her coming to them, “I do have places to be soon, but I wanted to make sure the truth got out about Kobayashi.”

Kobayashi had the decency to look down in shame (though whether it was superficial or not, she had no idea) as Principal Sasaki explained he would be attending detention every day until at least midterms. It might have seemed harsh even for a bully like Kobayashi, but apparently, he’d been exposed further by multiple other students who had gained the courage to speak up about his pickpocketing, bullying, extortion, and a good few other minor offenses that still added up to major trouble for him. Apparently a close eye would be kept on him while at school, too, so he wouldn’t be able to go about his nasty business without the faculty knowing about it. While she didn’t want him being expelled or even going to juvie or jail, from the way it sounded, Lady Mushi was a bit surprised one or both of those things hadn’t happened. It was probably what would happen if he started again, though; either way, this was progress.

Ohtani then approached her. “I’m very sorry for causing you and everyone trouble as… Balloonako or whatever I called myself. How can I make it up to you?”

“You can understand that there’s nothing to make up for,” Lady Mushi told her, “Atlas Moth capitalized on your negative emotions and turned you into Balloonako. She is not you, and you aren’t her, okay? Don’t blame yourself for this, because I don’t… and don’t let anyone else blame you for it, too.”

Ohtani looked up at her with big, sparkly and slightly-wet eyes. “Thank you, Lady Mushi…” 

“Hey, Ohtani!” a voice called. Everyone looked to see that Nagase Daisuke was the one calling her. “Why don’t you sit with me and Kou today?”

“R-really?! Y-you want me? T-to sit with you?”

“Yeah…” Daisuke nodded, “We’ve both been turned into those akuma guys, so I figure we’ll have something to bond over.” As if realizing something, he quickly added on, “N-not like that! Just as friends!”

Ohtani couldn’t have agreed sooner. Glad to have friends, she turned to thank Lady Mushi.

The scarlet superheroine had disappeared.

“Good stuff, Princess,” Plagg praised Yukiko once he’d reappeared, “You did a good job today. If I remember right, we’re going to see her tonight, right?”

“Yes… I hope that’s okay,” Yukiko said as she passed him some cheese from the cafeteria. 

Plagg didn’t look all that happy to see common cheese, but he decided against complaining and chowed down. Once he’d finished, however, he warned her, “I know it’s our job to keep the Ladybug safe, but make sure you don’t become self-sacrificial, okay?”

Yukiko looked at him, clearly confused. “It’s my job to help Lady Mushi get the akumatized item, right? If that’s what it takes…”

“You heard her, Princess,” Plagg reminded her, “She can’t go on without you. Being a Miraculous wielder, as I’m sure you can imagine, is really stressful, most of all for Ladybugs, so your job is less to be in front of the Ladybug and more to be with her.”

“W-with her?!” Yukiko stammered, misconstruing Plagg’s words.

“Okay, could’ve phrased that better…” Plagg’s shoulders hunched up a bit. “You’re supposed to be there for her when she needs help, to be at her side rather than a bodyguard or something like that. You are partners, and no matter what anyone tells you, you are not disposable.”

Taking Plagg’s words in, Yukiko breathed. “I think I really needed that advice, Plagg. Thank you…”

Plagg puffed out his chest as he flew up to Yukiko’s level. “Eh, it comes with experience. Don’t sweat it!”

“Experience?” Yukiko inquired, blinking her eyes, “Oh, and why do you keep referring to Lady Mushi as Ladybug?”

Plagg froze up, but sighed. “How about this?” he decided, “The better an ally to the girl you are, the more I’ll tell you. For now, here’s something to chew on - the Ladybug Miraculous is what I mean. It’s an umbrella term for everyone who’s had it, just as the Black Cat describes you and everyone else before you.”

“Before me…?” Yukiko whispered pensively, “Who was before me?”

It seemed, however, that Plagg was done talking to her about that topic. Gesturing to her classroom, he reminded her, “Your friends are probably wondering where you are…”

While she wanted to press the issue, Yukiko withheld her questions for now. Lunch would be ending soon, so she packed Plagg into her bag and hurried off before class started.

Chapter Text

The two superheroes were lucky that Balloonako had happened on Saturday. If they’d needed to meet on a school night, there would be a few potential regrets in the morning.

After an akuma attack, the rest of classes, and an afternoon mostly spent training to inherit the Amagi Inn, an extremely-tired Yukiko went to her room. She wanted to drop on her bed and pass out, but Plagg had reminded her that she’d promised to meet with Lady Mushi in a little bit.

Yukiko had never snuck out of her house before. Some would think her to be ‘too nice’ for it, and to be honest, she sort of was. However, she mused, I think this reason is fair… not that I would tell Mother and Father why or where I left.

“Can’t exactly say I was busy being Miss Fortune…” she sighed under her breath as she and Plagg snuck to the kitchen and packed a picnic basket full of small goodies for her and Lady Mushi to share.

Snapping out of her thoughts for a brief moment, she admonished, “Please don’t take all the cheese, Plagg. The Inn needs plenty of it for the meals we serve, and I already take enough so we have enough to recharge you…”

“Awww…” Plagg groaned, but he acquiesced and left most of the cheese in the fridges it was kept in.

Once she was sure she had packed a satisfactory amount of treats, Yukiko snuck back to her room, opened the window, and whispered, “Plagg, Claws Out!”

Deftly closing the window behind her as she swooped out, Miss Fortune began to make her way to Daidara Metalworks.

As she reached the shopping district, Miss Fortune saw a figure standing atop the building she was headed to, sitting on the ledge. At first she feared it might be a suicide jumper, but she breathed a sigh of relief upon the realization that it was Lady Mushi, already waiting for her there.

Hopping across to softly land on the building, Miss Fortune sat down lightly next to Lady Mushi. “I apologize if I’m late,” she greeted, “I had… family things.”

Lady Mushi jumped a bit before recognizing Miss Fortune’s voice. “No, you’re fine. I wasn’t waiting too long, and in this situation, civilian obligations take priority.”

Miss Fortune couldn’t help but smile, a teeny bit of flush coming to her face.

“Now,” Lady Mushi said. “Um. Listen, I’m grateful that you want to keep me safe, but I…” She took a deep breath in and out. “So far, those akumas have been tough, and I get the feeling they’re only going to get tougher as Atlas Moth makes more of them. I can’t do this by myself, Miss Fortune, so I need you to promise you’ll stick with me.”

Miss Fortune took Lady Mushi’s hands in hers. Ignoring how much this looked like wedding vows, she said, “I promise you I will make every battle I can, as soon as I can. I can’t promise I’ll be on the scene right away-”

“Wouldn't dream of asking you to…”

“But I can do my best to ensure you never fight alone. That’s a promise I’m making to you.”

Tearing up a little bit, Lady Mushi wrapped her up in a hug (she was even stronger than Chie, Yukiko thought absentmindedly, although I suppose the superpowers are an unfair disadvantage). Miss Fortune hugged her back, both girls simultaneously accepting both Miss Fortune’s promise and their responsibilities as superheroes.

“Hey…” Lady Mushi asked a while after they’d separated and taken to watching the stars in silence, “You know how you called me Aka-chan?” When her partner nodded, Lady Mushi said, “Do you have a nickname I can give you?”

“E-eh?!”

“Like, Miss Fortune’s a great alias! Love it! Nothing bad or wrong with that! But, like… you’ve already given me a nickname. It wouldn’t feel right… I dunno.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s probably about as close as we’ll get to a team bonding activity.”
“Not much of a team with just us two…”

Below them, Osamu - who was about to go to bed - sneezed.

“Hmm…” Miss Fortune pondered for a small while before asking, “How does Hime sound?”

To her surprise, Lady Mushi shuddered. “What?” Miss Fortune teased, “Am I not regal enough for you?”

“Nah, you totally got the regal thing down,” Lady Mushi laughed, “Calling me Princess just sounds like something a lot of the boys who want a piece of me or my best friend would say. Sorta like when you said ‘My Lady’ sounds creepy earlier today.”

Miss Fortune could understand that. As Yukiko, she knew she had a lot of would-be suitors, but her obliviousness to when people were flirting (and Chie’s protectiveness of her) kept them away for the most part. Thus, she accepted the rejection.

Plenty of ideas - Tora, Katsumi, Kuro (it was the best they’d had before thinking up a good one, but it was shot down because Lady Mushi’s costume also had black), and many more - went by before Lady Mushi came up with a winner. “Would Nyoko be good?”

“Nyoko?”

“It sort of sounds like Neko and Nya fused together, and it means gem or treasure on its own.”

Miss Fortune couldn’t help but flush again. “You think I’m a treasure?”

“I certainly treasure you…” Lady Mushi shrugged.

Miss Fortune was beginning to wonder if Lady Mushi was doing this on purpose. As if finally picking up that, though, Lady Mushi hastily amended, “A-as a friend, of course!”

The Black Cat wielder hoped she didn’t seem too bummed out. “No, I understand,” she said, giving her partner a small smile, “Superheroism leaves little room for romance, doesn’t it?”

“Huh?” Lady Mushi tilted her head to the side innocently, “Whaddya mean?”

“Atlas Moth seeks people with negative emotions, doesn’t he?” Miss Fortune explained, “If I date someone and he… I don’t know, breaks up with me, which would probably make me cry, Atlas Moth could capitalize on it.”

“Oh…” Lady Mushi said. “Yeah, I… I guess so, huh? I guess that means we’ve got to be extra careful not to let our feelings get in the way of things.”

“It’s horrible…” Miss Fortune admitted, “but I think we’ll get through it if we work together.”

That seemed to cheer Lady Mushi up a bit, “Yeah… you’re right, Nyoko-chan!”

Fighting back a blush at her new nickname, Miss Fortune could only nod. “It’s also a shame we need to keep our identities hidden…” she mused, “I’d like to get to know you even outside the suit.”

“Well, as long as we don’t say stuff that gives ourselves away or go searching for people who fit any information, I think it would be fine,” Lady Mushi admitted, “Like, don’t give me your real name, obviously, but we should avoid stuff like your age, any career you might have, and what you look like outside of the mask too!”

“That’s fine…” Miss Fortune agreed to the terms, “If you want to talk on harmless questions… what would your dying meal b-”

The sound of a heartbroken gasp from the streets below cut her off. The two superheroes looked at each other, concern having pierced through their faces, before peering down below.

“What was that?” Lady Mushi asked. Peering into the darkness, they saw an unfamiliar platinum-blonde woman with a blood-red streak in the front.

After a brief glance spared to each other, the two girls decided it might be worthwhile to listen in.

“Is… is he okay?” Clearly panicking, the woman shook her head. “No, of course he’s not. What happened? … a car accident?! Oh, gods…!”

Lady Mushi bit her lip. That was worrying for a variety of reasons, the newly-minted magic, emotion-leveraging terrorist having set his eyes on their town being one of the big ones.

“Should we step in?” Miss Fortune whispered to her.

“Not yet… keep an eye out for any of those akuma things, though.”

Turning half their attention back to the woman (the other half listening for the sound of flapping wings), Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune continued to listen in. “Only a 42% chance of survival?! Oh, dear brother…! … when’s the earliest I can be there? … I'll have to check my schedule. I’ll be there as soon as I can!”

After she hung up and put her phone in her pocket, the woman collapsed to her knees and began to sob. The familiarity of her voice nagged in the back of Miss Fortune’s mind. “Wait…” she muttered, “I know this woman…”

Miss Fortune beat her to it. “...! Sofue-san?!” the girl whispered in shock.

It took a few seconds for Lady Mushi to register that this woman was her history teacher, but when it clicked, she sat there stunned for a little while. “Woah…” she eventually managed to get out, “She looks way different without that headdress she’s always wearing.”

“Do you think that it’s genuine?” Miss Fortune wondered out loud, “The headdress, I mean.”

“I wouldn’t be able to tell,” Lady Mushi said. “My kwami, Tikki… she might, though. I’ll ask her when I get home.”

“For now, though, we’d better go do something,” Miss Fortune said, “I don’t sense any akumas, but this would be… preventative measures, I believe the phrase is.” Nodding to each other, Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune jumped down from atop the building, landing on the street behind Sofue Kimiko. 

The woman jumped at the soft sound of footsteps coming from them, but relaxed a little bit upon seeing it was the new heroines and not something like a mugger or fight-picking drunkard. Kimiko had worked at a bar for a while to help pay for her university tuition, but she’d seldom needed to be the one to deal with any belligerent patrons. Most of the time, a bartender, bouncer or the occasional kind patron would step in… though sometimes those kind patrons stepping in led to a brawl of its own. Kimiko had always been able to get away from the situation by that point, though.

“You two are… Miss Fortune and Lady Mushi, correct?” Sofue asked, a little fearful. Heroes or not, she’d seen their fierceness and dedication when fighting poor Ohtani.

“Yeah,” Lady Mushi nodded, “We were talking and… we may have overheard some of your conversation…”

“O-oh…” 

“Do you want to talk about it…?” Miss Fortune asked softly, “It will help you get through it, and we’re right here if any akumas show up.”

“Akumas, right…” Sofue took a deep, shaky breath in and out, “My brother got into a car accident yesterday.”

“Yesterday…?” Lady Mushi asked, “From what we heard, didn’t you only find out today?”

“He’s stubborn, that’s why…” Sofue half-growled, “He didn’t want to make me worry, especially after he learned about this whole Atlas Moth situation. I’m not mad at him, I just… I just want him to be okay!”

While slow and hesitant, Miss Fortune offered, “You may not be comfortable doing this with someone young enough to have been one of your students, but would you like a hug?” 

To both girls’ surprise, poor Ms. Sofue was all too eager to take it. While she cried into the Black Cat wielder’s arms, Miss Fortune whispered, “It’s going to be okay… I think you should go see him. You’re a… geography teacher, right?”

“... history.”

“You think you can get some time off or something and go visit him?” Lady Mushi asked, “I know your semester has just begun, but I think the circumstances should be fair.”

“He lives a few hours away…” Ms. Sofue answered, “Whether or not I have time, it will be very hard to do that and teach…”

“Your brother was in a car crash,” Miss Fortune pointed out, “It would take someone truly heartless to deny you time off to see him.”

“I’m less worried about being able to make it at all and more about a certain rule my boss has,” Ms. Sofue explained, “If we need to leave for a longer period of time, we always have to stay at least until he’s sure he has a substitute. I don’t know how long that will take…”

“Darn…” Lady Mushi said, “We can watch for akumas for a good while tonight, but I promised I’d help someone with something and need to get some sleep for it. We won’t go into your house or anything, but for, like, an hour or two, we’ll keep an eye out.” Hoisting Ms. Sofue into a bridal carry (and earning a bit of hidden jealousy from Miss Fortune), she said, “You mind directing us to where you live? We’ll take you there.”

“Thank you,” Ms. Sofue said quietly. She directed Lady Mushi to her house, Miss Fortune not far behind.

Dropping the history teacher off at the door, Miss Fortune watched her close it before asking her partner, “I have to be ready for things in a few hours, Nyoko, so can I go back home somewhat earlier?”

“Family business?” Lady Mushi asked. She was used to Yukiko being busy with the Inn, so this wasn’t a new concept.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about our civilian lives…”

Blushing a little, Lady Mushi amended, “You don’t have to answer. Sorry - shouldn’t have brought it up… we both have work to do there, huh?”

Nodding, the two found the window near her bed and began watching out for akumas. None showed up for the hour and a half Lady Mushi waited, Miss Fortune leaving halfway through.

Their determination to keep Ms. Sofue safe from akumas, however, was apparent to an empath such as Atlas Moth, who had been waiting in his room until he didn’t sense them around the history teacher before sending out an akuma.

Chie had gotten all of two hours and roughly forty-two minutes of sleep when the akuma absorbed itself into the Egyptian staff replica Kimiko had been clutching like a lifeline in her bed.

“Queen Tut…” Atlas Moth said within her mind, “I am Atlas Moth. I know you see no reason to allow me to akumatize you, but if you would hear me out, it will be worth your time. There is an Egyptian ritual in which you can trade the health or even life of one person for another. I’m afraid it requires the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, however, and acquiring them is easier said than done. Let us strike a deal: if I grant you the power to seize the two Miraculouses and switch Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune’s health with your brother’s - thus curing him of his damages and further incapacitating those blasted ‘heroines’ - you would give the Miraculouses to me once you’re done. Do we have a deal?”

“I’ve never heard of such a ritual…” Kimiko muttered, “I imagine it’s been hidden for such a reason, but…”

“It’s a very real ritual. Do you want my help or not?” Atlas Moth pressed.

“Oh, of course!” she said, “Li'ajl 'akhi!” 

That morning, Yukiko and Chie received abrupt awakenings from their blissful slumber as a loud, dramatic voice shrieked, “Taytet, grant me mummies!”

As what sounded like laser beams began to echo throughout Inaba, the two teenage heroines scrambled out of bed. As he had been woken up by the commotion, Plagg let out a loud yawn. “Okay, this Atlas Moth guy is pissing me off now.”

“He wasn’t already?” teased Yukiko.

“You know what I meant, Princess,” the kwami muttered sleepily, “I got enough energy to transform you just fine. Akumas make good wake-up calls… lovely to know.”

“Are you sure you’re ready?” Yukiko asked concernedly. Shaking the sleepiness out, Plagg nodded, leading her to say, “Plagg, Claws Out!”

As Miss Fortune snuck out once more, off in the search to find the akuma, Chie saw her silhouette leaping through the distance. Tikki was now wide awake, thanks to the leftover pudding she’d scarfed down; giving Chie a nod, the short-haired girl whispered, “Tikki, Spots On!” and snuck out herself. 

Meeting up with each other on the way, Miss Fortune asked, “Do you think Sofue-san is the akuma?”

As they neared the area where the sounds were coming from, Lady Mushi mused, “I hope not… then again, it’s gonna be bad no matter who the akuma is.” 

They found the akuma just as she turned Mr. Konishi into a mummy. Despite the fact her skin had been turned to a dark black and was mostly covered in armor (with the exception of her head, which was styled like a mummy’s, complete with two glowing eyes poking through), they could tell the akuma was Ms. Sofue. As the heroines dropped in front of her, Miss Fortune asked, “So what happened to avoid getting akumatized, Sofue-san?”

“Sofue Kimiko was powerless,” the akuma said, “She wallowed in sorrow and grief as her dearest brother was… no, is suffering! I, however, am strong enough to be my own hero. I am the one who will take your Miraculouses and save the day. I… am Queen Tut!”

“Wha… how is that going to help?” Lady Mushi asked.

“Atlas Moth says the Ladybug and Black Cat can take your health and give it to my brother Genki,” Queen Tut explained, “However, as a merciful queen, I am giving you a choice. Surrender your Miraculouses, and I will let you leave in peace. Continue in your struggle, and I will beat you down before making mummies of you both.”

“Um… no?” Both heroines shook their heads near-instantly. “You’re the one turning people into mummies,” Lady Mushi added, “and under the power granted by a terrorist at that! Weren’t we just trying to avoid this?”

Snarling, Queen Tut declared, “Sakhmet, grant me might!” The armor she wore creaked a bit as her muscles bulged out - not enough to be comical, but more than enough to be intimidating. Cracking her head from side to side, she lunged, forcing Miss Fortune and Lady Mushi to dodge to opposite sides to avoid her beefed-up swats and swings.

Hopping up to the rooftops, Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune attempted to attack with their yo-yo and an extended baton drop, but Queen Tut cried, “Wadjet, grant me invincibility!” The black parts of her body glowed gold (a different shade of gold than her armor, though), and the tools bounced off of her harmlessly.

“This is literally the worst akuma so far,” Miss Fortune muttered. “Should I use Cat… my power on her?”

“Do we know what happens if you do that on a person?” Lady Mushi asked.

“No, but I know it can destroy whatever it touches,” Miss Fortune answered, “Let’s not try that on a living being, okay? I don’t think I could live with that…”

“Me neither…” Lady Mushi agreed. 

After a few seconds of dodging the akuma’s mummifying beams after she’d called upon Taytet, the golden glow faded away, causing Queen Tut to swear under her breath. “I thought teachers didn’t swear!” Lady Mushi taunted.

“I’m off the clock at the moment,” Queen Tut snapped, “Besides, can your average teacher do this? Sopdet, grant me wings!” A pair of wings did not actually burst from Queen Tut’s back, but she took a giant leap into the air and zoomed towards the two ala Superman. 

The two heroines barely managed to evade the swooping tackle. “At least she can use only one of her powers at a time…” Miss Fortune muttered.

“Yeah, I just wish she didn’t have so many,” Lady Mushi grumbled.

“Taytet, grant me mummies!” Queen Tut declared again, firing another beam of light at the pair.

They ducked out of the way, and winced in unison as they heard the sound of someone else turning into a mummy. “Get out of here!” Lady Mushi called to the civilians on the edge of the fight, “Keep yourselves out of trouble! I’m pretty sure it’ll be obvious when we’re done!”

Those who were watching were quick to flee, with the exception of a sleepwear-clad Yosuke, who did hide a bit further into his hiding spot. Miss Fortune wanted to berate him for not getting the hell out of dodge entirely, but she didn’t have the time.

“Mummies, to me!” Queen Tut commanded.

Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune fell into back-to-back combat stances, watching warily as the mummies around them began gathering towards Queen Tut. Instead of using them to attack, however, Queen Tut pointed her staff at the mob. A large chunk of the crowd evaporated into light energy which gathered in front of the akuma, being replaced with a hole in the world that seemed to lead to…

“A hospital…?” Miss Fortune breathed.

“I bet it’s the one her brother is held at,” Lady Mushi guessed, “We should follow her!”

As Queen Tut began to walk towards the portal, Atlas Moth demanded, “What are you doing? You swore you would take the Miraculouses!”

“A queen keeps her promises,” Queen Tut assured him, “but consider that this hospital has children in it, too. Sick children.”

“You’re not thinking of taking hostages, are you?” Atlas Moth inquired dubiously. 

“I’m not evil!” Queen Tut scoffed (which was debatable, if you asked the heroines), “But they will take steps to avoid hurting children and focus on keeping them out of harm’s way. Plus, with all the energy Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune would grant me as mummies, I could heal them, too!”

“... very well,” Atlas Moth acquiesced, “but no unnecessary harm to any of them, or I will take your powers from you!”

“Yes, Atlas Moth,” Queen Tut nodded as she stepped through the portal.

“We can’t let her get away!” Miss Fortune gasped. Not even a nod was given beneath the two of them before they rushed after her, hopping from mummy head to mummy head like sheepdogs. 

They dove through the portal, worried it would close before they could make it, but it stayed open behind them as they followed Queen Tut through the stark, white hallways, making sure to hurry after her so that the mummies didn’t catch up.

Queen Tut was quick to notice them chasing her, especially once a yo-yo wrapped around her arm.

“Impudent little-” Queen Tut muttered before yanking on the yo-yo, sending Lady Mushi stumbling forward. 

Lady Mushi gulped as Queen Tut loomed over her. It was here that she made a risky play. “Lucky Charm!”

A red-and-black samurai helmet fell into her hands. “That helmet…! That’s a Sengoku-era helmet… the kind my brother likes to wear when teaching it in class…”

“He wears that helmet in class?” Miss Fortune asked as Lady Mushi rose to her feet. Queen Tut was lost in her own emotions to notice her do so, nor did she notice any of the children in the rooms of the hospital peeking their heads out.

“I wore the headdress when I was Kimiko Sofue,” Queen Tut responded quietly, “I know we are in opposition, but I do not desire to fight children. Please… just give me your Miraculouses, and make things easier for us a-”

Faster than the akuma could react to, Lady Mushi swooped forward and slammed the helmet down on her head, blinding and disorienting her. Moving in tune, Miss Fortune began bashing on the helmet, shaking Queen Tut around.

Lady Mushi grabbed at Queen Tut’s staff as she flailed around desperately, catching it on her fourth lunge. “Give it here!” she yelled.

“No! Return my staff at once!” Queen Tut protested, but it was too late. Lady Mushi tossed the staff over to Miss Fortune, who destroyed it with Cataclysm. 

After catching the evilized moth, Lady Mushi cast the Miraculous Cure. When it was done, the three women found themselves back in Inaba, surrounded by dizzy civilians.

“What… what happened?” Ms. Sofue asked, looking around from her seat on the asphalt. She saw Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune looking down at her concernedly, connected the dots, and curled into a fetal position.

As if right on time, Yosuke ran up to them. “Hey!” he called as he approached, “I lost track of you guys when you ran through the portal. Everything’s okay now, right?”

“Everything is fine now, but please stop diving into these fights like the sun won’t rise,” Miss Fortune admonished, “I know Mushi can fix some things, but I don’t know if we can bring you back if you die…”

“I know it’s not safe for me or anyone, but I need to make sure people are informed!” Yosuke protested, “I’m not going to interfere or ask questions in the middle of the battle, you have my word, but…”

“You could keep everyone informed from a little further away,” Lady Mushi suggested, “You did fine this battle, but we don’t want things getting out of hand…”

“Got it…” Yosuke said, “I’ll try my best.” Checking his phone for a brief moment, he jumped. “Shoot! School starts in about an hour!”

He missed Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune flinching as he ran for the Hanamura residence. It wasn’t long before the two superheroes - further goaded by their timers beeping - also took off for their homes.

Once Tikki finished her yōkan in Chie’s room, she saw Chie deep in thought. “Everything okay?”

“There were kids in the hospital when I cast the cure…” Chie said thoughtfully, “Are they healed with the Cure?”

Tikki grew sorrowful. “No, they probably weren’t…” she said sadly, “The Cure only fixes damages caused by the Miraculouses…”

Chie sighed. “I wish there was something I could do…”

Tikki thought about it. “We could send them Lucky Charms, but I worry they’d disappear after the next akuma…”

“There’s gotta be something we can do…” As if on aggravating cue, her alarm went off. “... fuck.”

She rushed to school, not knowing Yukiko was equally as panicked and tired. Both girls arrived with plenty of time to spare, but it was clear they felt shitty.

“Whoa…” Yosuke wondered as he walked up to them, “What happened to you guys?”

The girls looked at him with frustrated and exhausted faces. “Don’t ask…” they near-snapped in unison.

“I’m guessing the akuma thing I heard kept everyone up,” Yu said from out of nowhere, making all three of them jump. “... sorry?”

“No, it’s okay…” Yukiko yawned, “Wasn’t expecting you, that’s all.”

“My Uncle wants me staying in at night, but I managed to hear some of it,” Yu said, “Nice work, Yosuke. Though I would recommend you stay away from the fight as best you can. Stay out of sight, and don’t feel bad for running.”

“But-”

“Seriously. You can’t film if you’re, say, dead or turned into a sack of potatoes.” 

“A sack of potatoes?” Chie asked, sounding more like a deadpan than she wanted to.

“That was random… sorry.” An awkward silence passed before Yu said, “I made myself lunch to pass the time, but I made too much. Want me to share? It looks like you guys ran here without breakfast… or more than four hours of sleep.”

“Sure,” Yukiko answered before yawning again, “Should we go to the cafeteria now?”

“Why not?” Chie shrugged while letting out a yawn of her own, “The sooner I can sit down, the better.”

The four had a silent meal that became less silent after biting into the best tamagoyaki Chie, Yukiko or Yosuke had ever tasted. 

“Dude, this is amazing,” Yosuke managed to get out through his first bite, Yukiko nodding in vehement agreement.

“I wish my mouth was bigger…” Chie lauded. Yukiko snickered at that, the sound catching Yu’s attention. He tilted his head in confusion.

Knowing Yukiko was a little embarrassed about her laugh, Chie asked Yu, “So why’d you move to Inaba?”

Yu’s severely uncomfortable face made Chie realize she might have made this situation worse. “You don’t have to tell me…”

“Maybe in the near future, as we get to know each other,” Yu offered, “Sound fair?”

The group nodded just in time for the warning bell to ring. Blanching, they took off for their classroom, making it in time to find Principal Sasaki and an unfamiliar woman at the front. 

They weren’t late, so they all sat down with the rest of their classmates as they were introduced to Kashiwagi Noriko, who would be taking over History class for them as Ms. Sofue dealt with “personal matters.”

Chie and Yukiko just smiled to themselves, knowing better than many others what was going on.

Chapter Text

Both Chie and Yukiko were relieved when no akumas showed up on Sunday or Monday. It was such a relief to be able to catch up on the sleep they'd lost. Because of the respite they’d been granted, Chie was somewhat surprised to come to school on Tuesday and find a rather worried-looking Yu looking around when she stepped into Yasogami.

“What’s going on, Narukami?” Chie asked.

“It’s Yosuke…” Yu answered after a hesitant moment, “He’s been in a… crummy mood since I saw him.”

“Is he being short-tempered, or…?”

“He hasn’t said anything, but it’s clear something’s troubling him…” Yu responded, “I’m not sure what the problem is.”

While still a slight bit sleepy, Chie wracked her mind, for all potential sources of problems. It probably wasn't another spat with his father over moving all the time or what he wanted to do with his life after high-school - Mrs. Hanamura was already on-board, but even she was struggling to assuage her husband’s fears about an heir. Maybe it had something to do with his younger brother Teddie? If that were the case, Chie couldn’t ask him for a while, since he was a middle-schooler.

Communicating this to Yu merely garnered a pensive nod. “I had a different thought, but you’d know more than I would…”

“A thought about what?” Yukiko asked from behind her.

Chie jumped half out of her skin at the warm feelings Yukiko’s voice inflicted on her. “O-oh, hi, Yukiko!”

“Hey, Chie,” Yukiko said. “Hello, Narukami.” Examining their body language, she flinched for a moment. “Is… is something wrong? You both seem kind of tense.”

“We’re worried about Yosuke,” Yu answered, “He’s been quiet and cold all morning.”

Yukiko grimaced. “I think one of us should keep an eye on him,” she said almost decisively, “and we’re definitely going to talk to him during lunch.” She then hunched in on herself. “Sorry… I should have asked if you guys have ideas first.”

Yu’s voice was kind as he shook his head. “No, it’s okay! It was very considerate of you.” A moment passed before he hesitantly asked, “You do know you have that freedom to make decisions on your own, right?”

“Y-yes…?” Yukiko answered, sounding almost doubtful to Chie - something the short-haired girl found strange. “I assumed we’d all work together on this.”

Yu laughed awkwardly. “I wasn’t aware you guys considered me that close…”

“Whether or not we feel close, we need all the help we can get,” Chie shrugged, getting a small smile out of Yu, “And yeah, I think you’re our friend now… or at least, you’re mine.”

“... thank you,” Yu said, smiling softly at her. Just then, the warning bell rang; the topic dropped but not forgotten, everyone hurried to class.

As she went, Chie’s worries only intensified. It couldn’t have been the lull between akumas, could it? No, it had only been about 2 days

She wracked her brain, trying to think of what could have caused the sudden change. Yosuke had been doing remarkably alright recently with the Ladyblog to occupy him, even if it was making him act a bit reckless. 

He hadn’t been this happy in a while, come to think of it. Not since-

“Hanamura!” Mr. Morooka’s loud voice snapped her out of her thoughts. “Today we’re beginning our discussion of the philosophy of life and death. I overheard you say once you’re an expert on death, so let’s have you answer this question.”

Affronted gasps rang out through the class. The only reasonable explanation for King Moron calling out her friend specifically - further evidenced by the teacher’s quotation - was that he was picking on Yosuke.

Chie gritted her teeth at that. How dare he do that - and while Yosuke was still suffering from the murder of Konishi!

“Shaddup, all of you! What’s your deal?” King Moron continued, almost convincingly oblivious, “You brats look like I killed someone in front of you!”

It was clear that statement wasn’t helpful, if Yosuke’s reaction was any indicator. “Mr. Morooka…” Yukiko said softly, her tone of voice indicating to Chie she had just made the realization herself, “It’s been exactly six months since the girl he loved was murdered.”

A few cracks appeared in Chie’s heart as Yosuke began to look even more lugubrious. 

“He’s been fine since he got back from that week off last semester!” Mr. Morooka snapped back, “Plus, you were grumbling about catching up on the last bits of material you missed nonstop!”

The entire class grimaced. He was right that nobody wanted to be behind on their classwork (least of all with a jackass like King Moron), but even after half a year, Konishi’s murder was still a sore subject for everyone. She had been a bright presence in their lives, and one many of them had thought would be there for all of theirs.

Not a lot of people born in Inaba left, after all.

Has it really already been half a year? Chie thought in horror. It had certainly been getting close, she realized, considering the seasons if nothing else. It was concerning, realizing how long it had been.

Chie didn’t know the Konishi family all that well, but if she felt this sad about it… how did Yosuke feel? She only needed to take one look to find out he… 

“Hanamura! Where do you think you’re going?”

… wasn’t in his seat?

Oh, shit. Atlas Moth could go after him easily! She shot Yu and Yukiko a panicked look; they nodded back at her with equally wide and worried eyes, and before Mr. Morooka could say anything else, the three left their seats in search of Yosuke.

Running through the halls, Chie took charge. “Yukiko, check the school. I’m gonna look around Samegawa. Yu, both ends of the district are all yours. Whoever finds him, call before anything else. Got it?”

“Understood!” Yukiko said, whereas Yu shot her a thumbs-up. The three of them split off to their areas.

Yukiko ducked into one of the girls’ bathrooms and opened her bag. “Plagg, may I transform?”

From within the bag, the kwami merely let out a yawn. “What’s going on, Princess?”

Yukiko quickly explained what had happened while the kwami had been sleeping in. “I may be the god of Destruction and shit…” Plagg grumbled once she’d finished, “but I’m not much of a fan of this guy… especially if he’s likely to get your pal akumatized.”

“We’ll worry about Mr. Morooka later, though,” Yukiko said, “Right now, Yosuke might be in trouble. We need to find him. Will you let me transform?”

Plagg sighed. “You know you can transform without me saying anything, right?”

“Yes, but I don’t want to force you into transforming or do it without you being ready. It doesn’t feel right.”

Plagg gave her a surprisingly earnest smile instead of responding to that. “Then… let’s go.”

“Plagg, Claws Out!”

With that, Miss Fortune was off, swooping through the city and scanning the streets for her friend.

Yosuke hadn’t really been looking where he’d been going. In hindsight, it wasn’t really a surprise that he’d wound up where he had.

He looked down the mouth of the alleyway and sighed, wiping the tears from his eyes again. He could almost still see her lying there. But! He couldn’t think about that too hard, now. The mechanics by which those akumas worked weren’t exactly obvious, yet, but so far they’d only seemed to target people who were in pretty bad states, emotionally speaking. It would be… better if he could pull himself together.

Besides, it wouldn’t make Saki any less dead.

Briefly, the question of what exactly one could do with an akuma in their system flashed across his mind. Hadn’t Ms. Sofue been planning to bring her brother back from the brink of death?

He shook his head. No, he wasn’t going to think like that. People were already talking enough without him falling victim to one of those things. If he did…

This line of thought wasn’t helping him. He had to get out of here. He had to keep running.

“Yosuke!”

Yosuke whirled around, eyes widening as they locked onto Narukami Yu, the boy he’d bonded surprisingly strongly with over the past almost-week or so. No, this was bad - he didn’t want him to see him weak like this.

“Are you alright?” Yu asked, “No, sorry, that’s not the right question at all. Do you need to go somewhere else?”

Yosuke’s throat was tight, too tight to speak, so he just nodded.

Yu led him to a bench a few blocks away, and the two sat in silence for a little while. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Yosuke swallowed and took a deep breath. “About… Saki?”

Yu merely nodded. “It’s nice to have someone who’ll listen. Even if they can’t empathize, anyone can sympathize.”

Yosuke looked down at his hands. “We were together, you know? Not… not openly, before it happened, but we were a thing. She was… at the time, she was the best thing that had ever happened to me.”

He shifted, starting to wring his hands. “She was pretty, and smart, and cool, and fun to hang out with… And she wanted to go somewhere bigger someday, too. That was the big thing, I think. More than anything else that we had in common, we both wanted to get out of this backwoods, shithole town.”

“A small-town life’s not for you,” Yu said. It wasn’t a chuckle, a tease, or anything - just a statement of his understanding.

Yosuke shook his head. “Not in the slightest. I moved here about a year ago or so, if I remember right. Everyone but my family hates me here, and when me and Saki started hanging out, that hatred… it extended to her. And it wasn’t for her, either. She was… she was going to do something big someday, I just knew it. But…” Yosuke trailed off, unsure of what to say.

“You’re wrong, you know.”

“Huh?”

“When you said everyone but your family hates you,” Yu explained, “Chie and Yukiko don’t hate you, you know. And… I know I’m a relatively new addition to all this, but… I don’t, either. I think you’re rather admirable.”

“... how so?”

“You’ve charged into literal supervillain attacks, armed with nothing but a phone and your wits, and survived,” Yu said, “It takes bravery to fight for what you believe in. It may not make it much better, but you should know people don’t hate you - they hate JUNES. You’re the scapegoat… and that sucks. You deserve better.”

“Well, doesn’t that make me feel better,” Yosuke sighed sarcastically. He instantly flinched and curled in further at his own tone; Yu didn’t deserve that for trying to cheer him up. “Sorry. That wasn’t okay.”

“You’re upset, and righteously so,” Yu said, “I forgive you.”

For some reason, hearing those words just made Yosuke feel worse. Yu had been nothing but kind and patient with him, and he had just dumped all his problems on the guy and snapped at him.

“Don’t worry about it,” Yu said, giving him a look which Yosuke knew meant he knew what he was thinking, “I don’t know if you’re comfortable with it, but would a hug help?”

Yosuke looked away, face bright-red. “Why…?”

“...? Why what?”

“Why’d she have to die? Who the hell hated Saki? What reason would anyone here have to want her d-” A horrible thought hit him. “She worked at JUNES…” 

“Come again?” Yu asked. After a few seconds with no answer, he asked, “Yosuke…?”

“Was it my family’s fault…?” Yosuke whispered, turning to Yu with a face that threatened to tear up, “People called her a traitor to Inaba when she took a part-time job at JUNES… if my family had never moved here, nobody would have a reason to hate her, and… and maybe she’d still be…!”

Not even at the news of her death (he had not been permitted to attend the funeral) had Yosuke felt such wild emotions shake his heart. “It’s me and my family’s fault…! Damn it… damn this fucking town!”

As an akuma flew through the window, Atlas Moth felt young Hanamura’s sorrow in more ways than one. “A level of grief to match my own… nobody should be robbed of someone they loved so young.” It was no evil sneer that crossed his face - rather that of stalwart, stoic determination. “If I can gain the power to fight for the revival of my love, he ought to have such a chance, too…”

In spite of himself, he grinned as the moth made its way to the boy. If all went well, they would both get what they wanted more than anything else in their worlds.

After all, who wouldn’t tear the world apart for their love? Who wouldn’t be willing to rip it to pieces, bit by bit if they had to, to bring back their one true love?

He shook his thoughts away for now as the akuma neared Yosuke’s phone, giving him enough time to think up a name and powerset for his newest creation. “Gust Rush,” he said. “You have been wronged by your family and the entire town that you call home, and someone you loved was taken from you because of it. I can give you the power to lay waste to the town whose culture led to the death of an innocent girl, but in return, you must do something for me.”

“You want their Miraculouses, right?” Yosuke snarled quietly, causing Yu to flinch and quietly step away as he realized what was happening. 

“Yosuke… don’t do this,” Yu whispered in horror.

“That’s right,” Atlas Moth said, “That’s all. Once they are in my grasp and you have Konishi Saki back in your arms, I will also ensure you and her have a place to call home away from this cursed land.”

“Saki…” Yosuke muttered, “Don’t go back on your word, Atlas Moth, and we have a deal. I’ve had my fill of unhelpful adults as is.”

Atlas Moth merely nodded, beginning the transformation. Dark energy bubbled up and encompassed Yosuke, transforming him into the newest akuma. Yu took in his details as he began to float in midair.

Yosuke’s hair was now much much longer and stood straight up in a DNA-helix pattern. He had yellow triangle shades in lieu of a mask, and his lower face was covered by the V-neck of the orange jumpsuit that covered him from neck to toe. He also had cowboy boots which were the same color as rain-boots. Tucking his phone behind his ear like a pencil, the akumatized Yosuke turned to look at Yu. 

Yu took a step back involuntarily. “You’re new to Inaba,” his crush growled out in a raspier edition of Yosuke’s, “and you’re one of the few people I care about around here. You should leave this forsaken town… I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Yu swallowed, but something in his heart told him if he left his crush alone that Yosuke wouldn’t be the only one regretting his actions. Thus, he steeled his resolve and said, “I’m not going anywhere.” 

Yosuke turned around and tilted his head curiously. “I… I won’t get in your way,” Yu appealed quickly, “I don’t think I can stop you. But you still deserve someone who’ll be there for you when you need them.”

“... you’ve made your case,” Yosuke eventually nodded, still staring the silver-haired boy down, “But I’ll need to keep you out of trouble…”

Yu grimaced, only to yelp as a powerful gust of wind blew him off of his feet and held him up in midair. “You wanna come with me?” the akuma shrugged, “Fine. But I won’t be letting you go without good reason. Please understand!”

Yu could only gulp as Yosuke - or Gust Rush, as he was proclaiming himself to be - stepped out of the alley and began throwing powerful gusts of wind that blew anyone he saw into walls and buildings. What had his emotions got him into?

Miss Fortune had been looking for Yosuke when the screen on her baton caught her attention with a buzzing sound not unlike that of a ringtone.

“What’s up?”

“There’s another akuma,” Lady Mushi’s voice groaned from the other end of the line. “He calls himself Gust Rush. He’s downtown in the Shopping District, but he’s heading towards JUNES. So far, I’ve only seen wind powers, but… Miss Fortune, he has a hostage.”

“A hostage?” Miss Fortune breathed.

“Narukami Yu… a high-schooler!” Lady Mushi revealed grimly, making Miss Fortune recoil in horror before her face settled into a grimace. “I… think I know who the akuma is. I…”

“... you what?”

“... n-nothing, sorry. I’m currently waiting for you to get here before I confront the akuma. I’ll evacuate anyone I can… please, hurry!”

Quickly, Miss Fortune assured, “I’m on my way, Aka-chan!” She wasted no time before she launched herself across the rooftops, practically flying towards the Shopping District. The sooner they stopped this akuma, the better.

There was no way she was making Lady Mushi go it alone.

Lady Mushi sighed in relief as Miss Fortune landed next to her. “What do we know?” Miss Fortune asked. “Wind powers, hostage… anything else?”

“Nothing yet…” Lady Mushi sighed as they watched an akumatized Yosuke literally raise a storm, “You can tell he’s got something against JUNES, which I didn’t see coming… he’s the eldest Hanamura kid - Hanamura Yosuke.”

“I know who he is…” Miss Fortune said. “Well, do we want to see if we can talk him down, or should we take him down with whatever magic comes out of your yo-yo today?” The part about attacking Yosuke, akuma or not, felt filthy the second it left her mouth. 

Lady Mushi seemed to feel the same way, if the stressed look was any indicator. “Let’s… try to talk to him.”

Miss Fortune nodded enthusiastically, eager to make up for her poor phrasing.

“Great,” Lady Mushi said. “… what do we say?”

“There’s nothing you can say,” Gust Rush roared as he threw out his hands, sending miniature slicing tornadoes their way, “I’m coming for you!”

“Can you give us two minutes to plan here?” Miss Fortune complained as they jumped off of their perch.

Gust Rush laughed mercilessly. “Why would I do that?”

“Because… please?” Miss Fortune asked tentatively, flashing him a nervous smile.

Gust Rush gave her a truly unimpressed look. “I don’t know if you actually thought that would work, but here’s your response!”

“Never hurts,” Lady Mushi shrugged, and pulled Miss Fortune out of the way of another burst of wind. Miss Fortune ducked and rolled under a lunge from the akuma as Lady Mushi looped her yo-yo around a building feature and swung to another angle.

“No, I suppose it doesn’t,” Gust Rush agreed, and summoned a tornado to knock Lady Mushi out of her flight and send her tumbling roughly to the ground. She rolled away as he landed next to her, practically tossing herself out of his reach.

Miss Fortune extended her staff, launched herself into the air towards Narukami, hoping to snatch him away from Gust Rush, but the boy’s phone emitted a loud ringtone (NOW I FACE OUT, I HOLD OUT-), drawing the akuma’s attention and allowing him to move his hostage away from Miss Fortune’s grasp.

“Where’s the akuma?” Lady Mushi called.

“It’s in-” Narukami cut himself off with a yelp as Gust Rush hooked an arm around his neck.

“What was that earlier about not stopping me?” The akuma’s voice and expression were deceptively light. “Come on, you of all people know why I have to do this.”

“Aka-chan,” Miss Fortune hissed, landing next to Lady Mushi and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Look behind his ear… isn’t that an odd place for a phone?”

Lady Mushi nodded. “That must be it.”

Gust Rush noticed their whispering, and his face flickered into a frown. “Don’t tell me…?” he muttered. Then, louder, he hollered, “Catch me if you can!” and flew away.

Lady Mushi stood, preparing to go after him, but Miss Fortune hesitated.

“You’re worried,” Lady Mushi noted.

“He’s going to try to trap us,” Miss Fortune pointed out, “Of course I’m worried!”

“Obviously,” Lady Mushi said, “But we have to go after him - he’s not going to become harmless just because we’re not there. In fact, he has more potential to do harm that way - innocent people are going to get hurt.”

“We should still approach it carefully,” Miss Fortune said, still thinking of the tone that Narukami’s phone had produced. “Something tells me we haven’t seen everything he can do yet.”

“... should I use my power?” Lady Mushi wondered.

“Go ahead,” Miss Fortune said, “I’ll go after Yos… Hanamura and keep him from hurting people, see if I can rescue Narukami as well.”

“All right… Lucky Charm!” A phone fell into her hands.

“Who’re you going to call with that?” Miss Fortune inquired.

Lady Mushi looked around. The phone lit up in red and black, then Miss Fortune’s baton, then the fading figure of Gust Rush.

“I have an idea, Nyoko-chan,” she said. “Go after him, and when I show up and distract him, extend your weapon out and poke the phone off of his ear, ‘kay?”

Miss Fortune nodded before taking off at top speed after Gust Rush. Now on her lonesome, Lady Mushi found a hiding spot and whispered, “Tikki, Spots Off.”

Chie watched Tikki eat a cookie she’d packed in her bag for her before asking, “Mind if I explain my plan to you?”

“I already know it,” Tikki smiled, “While transformed, a kwami can sense what their owners are thinking. I think it’ll work, but Miss Fortune and you have to be in perfect sync.”

“You think we can?” Chie asked, flushing a little.

“I know you can,” Tikki assured her.

Chie certainly hoped so.

After reducing most of JUNES to rubble and releasing a lot of aggression on frustration out at his parents - though he’d spared Teddie and let him run - Gust Rush had set himself up outside the electronics department. His eyes sharpened as he saw Miss Fortune appear from his peripheral, and he glanced back at her. “No bug?” he called. “What a shame. I was hoping to handle you both at once.”

He threw a large computer at her, only to have it fly back at him with one swing of her baton. Moving his head, it flew into a flatscreen, the sound of the collision loud enough to make even Gust Rush wince.

“Mind the merchandise, would you?” Miss Fortune taunted.

“I could care less for the shit in this pernicious store!” Gust Rush roared. He had plenty of energy, but he was slowly reaching the end of his limits in patience. “Everyone hates me here! My parents don’t care about that - all they care about is the cash they’re raking in!”

Pinned to the wall by gusts of wind, his mother Sumiye stammered out, “That’s not-”

“Can it!” he snapped, effectively shutting her up. “If you cared, you would have said something before all this! You would have and should have been there for me when she died and people started saying it was my fault! Did you even notice? Or were you blinded by those gold-tinted glasses you always wear?”

Hanamura Atsushi had been quiet since Gust Rush had finished ranting and pinned him to the wall with his wife. “Yosuke…” he spoke up at last, shoulders hunching more when Gust Rush glared at him, “You’re right, son. We’ve been so busy with work that we haven’t paid much attention to you. We’re going to try and take more opportunities to spend time with you… and Teddie. I’m very sorry…”

“We’re very sorry,” Sumiye amended, “and we’re going to work to do better-”

“Oh, boo hoo,” Gust Rush sneered after a moment of pondering. “You’re making promises now that I can fight back? Why should I expect you to keep your word if I lose this power? You’re pathetic… I’m going to rip you to shreds -”

NOW I FACE OUT, I HOLD OUT, I REACH OUT TO THE TRUTH-

Gust Rush laughed, whipping around to where he had Yu pinned. “I can’t believe you got caught by a ringtone twice! Today must be my lucky day-”

Miss Fortune wasn’t in sight. “What?!”

A whizzing sound got him to turn around just in time for Lady Mushi’s yo-yo to snag his phone.

“Hey!”

“Gotcha good, didn’t we?” Lady Mushi smirked, before mentally dialing down the casualness; she was Lady Mushi, not Chie. 

Gust Rush looked in the direction of the ringtone again, finding Miss Fortune had stepped out from behind a knocked-down stack of soda pack cases. She waved the Lucky Charm at him tauntingly. “We sure did!”

Shaking her head sorrowfully at Yosuke, Lady Mushi swore, “Yosuke, we’ll make things right.” before punching his phone out. The akumatized moth flew out, and she purified it with her yo-yo.

Miss Fortune tossed the red and black phone to Lady Mushi. She caught it, and tossed it into the air, the loveliness setting Yu back down on the ground, fixing the damages Gust Rush had wrought and reverting him to Yosuke.

“Oohhhhh…” Yosuke groaned as he came to his senses. “What happened?” He looked up at Miss Fortune and Lady Mushi with a confused face that grew horrified as he put the pieces together. “Oh, no… I didn’t…”

“It’s okay, Yosuke,” Lady Mushi said. It was then that she noticed other people recording. 

Yosuke, who noticed too, merely sighed. 

Lady Mushi had known Yosuke and his parents had slightly-more-than-occasional spats since Saki’s passing. Something inside her bubbled with rage seeing people watch and record him now, snickering to each other like this was some sort of entertainment - like it was what he deserved, she realized rather numbly. Would it kill them to be a little more sensitive to the situation?

Her mouth moved before she could stop it. “Hey!” she yelled at the snickering recorders, “You guys be nice to the Hanamuras!”

“What for?” someone in the crowd shouted, “They’ve all but taken over the Shopping District! All of us local stores are losing customers because of these JUNES bastards!”

Yosuke looked close to tears, but Lady Mushi remained adamant. “Maybe their business practices are shit, but that’s not a reason to bully them!” She sharply turned to look at Atsushi and Sumiye. “Can you guys figure out a business practice that’ll make everyone happy?”

“Like what?” Sumiye inquired.

At this, Lady Mushi admitted, “I don’t have an answer for that… there’s gotta be a way to make everyone happy here…”

Miss Fortune, who had been awfully quiet so far, spoke up hesitantly. “She’s right. Maybe you could collaborate on everyone’s businesses! This building is big enough to create a market area where you could advertise and sell local products…”

“That’s genius!” Atsushi exclaimed, “Sumiye, darling, the kids are alright! Everyone, let’s talk this out and put our feuding to bed!”

As Atsushi, Sumiye, and many other Inaban townspeople converged to talk shop (pun not intended), Miss Fortune and Lady Mushi went to Yosuke. As they approached, they saw Yu had beaten them to the punch, the two in a strong hug.

For every I’m sorry that Yosuke (who hated crying, as it made him feel vulnerable - not unmanly, not weak, but vulnerable) murmured into Yu’s shoulder, the silver-haired teen threw it’s okays, it’s not your faults and I forgive yous back.

“That looks handled,” Miss Fortune said. “I think it’s time for us to go- it’s the middle of the day, you know? People will be worrying about him… probably us, too.”

“Right… see you around, okay?” Lady Mushi watched Miss Fortune make her exit, she felt a twinge of sadness at seeing her go. Her earrings beeping snapped her out of her thoughts, though, so she hastily made her way out as well. 

As she left, however, she didn’t miss Teddie, Atsushi and Sumiye joining the hug.

Things were looking up, but it wasn’t a happily-ever-after… not yet.

“How dare they… how dare they!”

Chapter Text

Change really did happen since Gust Rush. JUNES and the local stores had reached a fair agreement on things, with plenty of farmers, business owners and even a few creators selling their stuff at the chain store in exchange for a decent cut of the profits. The animosity towards the Hanamuras had dropped a lot, too. 

Even the Konishis and Hanamuras were now getting along somewhat. Turns out when you’ve been impacted by the same person’s death that you have a lot you can talk about.

Everyone in Inaba seemed to be in higher spirits - arguably higher than the pre-Atlas Moth era!

Well, except for King Moron. The school rules and faculty hierarchy were the only thing keeping him from throwing Yosuke in detention for a week or two. Outrageous as it was, no one particularly expected him to apologize for, as Teddie called it, “poking the bear” that was Yosuke’s grief.

Chie had work today after school, hanging out (read: babysitting) a young kid in a nearby neighborhood. When school was over, she found and hugged Yosuke, Hanako, Sofue-san and Daisuke (a task she’d followed dutifully doing every school day since Queen Tut; at their confusion, she’d played it off with the excuse that Lady Mushi had asked her to check on what akuma victims she could as to prevent them from being akumatized again).

She didn’t know if people could be akumatized more than once, but she didn’t want to find out if it could be avoided.

Yukiko understood Chie was busy sometimes, being an oft-busy girl herself. She’d managed to get a hug from Chie too before the green-clothed girl hurried off.

Yukiko hoped her hugs would be just as good as her best friend’s someday. Chie’s hugs always made her feel warm and light… if Chie’s momentarily-red face had been any indicator, she was off to a good start.

“Hey, Princess?”

Plagg’s quiet voice made Yukiko jump. “Plagg, we’re in a classroom!” she hissed quietly.

“Nobody’s here besides us, though,” Plagg pointed out. “Look - your prince was in an awful hurry, huh?”

“Prince? Chie’s not a boy-” Looking to her best friend’s seat, Yukiko saw that Chie had left a shopping bag on her desk. “Oh! I should get that to her!”

Taking the bag around her arm, Yukiko gave Plagg an extra piece of cheese and prepared to hurry in the direction she knew Chie was headed to before remembering she had a training shift for most of the day and thus would have to stop by that night at earliest.

Rather satisfied, Plagg decided not to bring up that he hadn’t actually stated Chie was her prince.

“You’re sure you don’t need me to look after her today?” Chie asked.

“I’m sure,” Dojima Ryotaro, one of the cops who’d been there during Crusher, said, “but I appreciate the offer. She’s been getting along well with Yu, so he’s offered to look after her when I have work in the afternoons. You’re still welcome to spend time with her, of course, and I’ll pay you roughly the same as I have.”

She nodded. “I like hanging out with her. She’s a fun kid. Very sweet, too!”

Dojima-san sighed. “Hah, well, she got that from her mother…” 

Chie merely nodded. She’d long been privy to the whole story about Chisato, Nanako and Ryotaro Dojima - arguably, she wasn’t certain if she knew more about Chisato’s death than Nanako did - but she hadn’t learned much about the rest of Ryotaro’s relatives, never mind his sister or her part of the family, until she’d met Yu.

Narukami Yu was a whole mystery and a half, she had to admit, but Chie had never really been one to get hooked on mysteries for their own sake.

For example, she knew she’d need to find Atlas Moth’s hideout, if not his identity, sooner or later, but it wasn’t just for the sake of the truth coming out or her own personal satisfaction. It was because he was hurting people, and some-fucking-how, it had become her job to stop him. If she found him, she could make him stop.

No… she would.

For now, though, she just wanted to spend time with Nanako. Hopefully, that would be a good enough distraction from all her heroic responsibilities.

“Well, you did come all this way…” Dojima-san reasoned. “I can’t pay you full rate this time, Satonaka, but if you want to hang out with Nanako… oh, and if Yu and I are both busy and we need someone to look over Nanako, I’ll definitely keep you in mind.”

“Thank you for the opportunity, sir,” Chie smiled politely. “It’ll be just like old times! … that said, I don’t think she’ll need me to ‘babysit’ her for much longer, will she? She’s… six, right?”

“I think she’s turning seven soon… I need to check my calendar so I don’t forget her birthday.” He turned back to unlock the door. “Go on in - I’ll be right after you to let Nanako know you’re here, but I need to get to the station soon, so…”

As they entered, Dojima-san kindly called, “Nanako, Yu, Satonaka’s stopping by for a few! Stay out of trouble!” before hurrying off.

Yu and Nanako were polite enough to come downstairs. Yu seemed surprised to see Chie. “Chie? What are you doing here?”

“I occasionally hang out with Nanako,” Chie responded, respecting Nanako’s long-stated desire to not ‘be babysat’. “As in, before you came to Inaba.” She then looked at Nanako and noticed her face was a little red. “Hey, Nanako! Uh… you got a lot of sun this summer, huh?”

Nanako looked away unhappily, garnering a cringe from Chie. “Oooh… I said something insensitive, didn’t I? Sorry, Nana-chan…”

Yu shook his head. “Not your fault. Nanako and I were having a talk about something… it’s sort of private.”

“Ohhhh… sorry if it feels like I was intruding…”

“It’s okay…” Nanako said softly. “I trust you, Miss Chie.”

“Mm?” Yu looked down at his cousin. “You trust her, then. Chie, do you mind…?”

“I’ve got you guys,” Chie agreed instantly. “Nanako, is something wrong? Is there anything I can do to make you feel better…?”

Nanako shook her head dolefully. “… not really… it’s just that… ummm… I wish Daddy was gonna be there for my birthday…”

Shit. Dojima-san had forgotten Nanako’s birthday after all? Had she forgotten Nanako’s birthday? Oh, this was bad. “Shoot, I missed your birthday, didn’t I? Sorry I didn’t show up… when was it?”

“You’re not too late, Miss Chie. It’s on October 4th…” At last, Nanako looked hesitantly up at Chie. “Would you please come?”

“Of course!” Chie promised right away. She took out her phone to create a reminder in her calculator. “That’s… a Tuesday, right? I’ll come by after school, but I might see if I can get you something first, so it might take me a while…”

Something then occurred to Chie as she finished making the reminder and pocketed her phone. “Are you sure your dad isn’t able to make it? What’s keeping him?”

Nanako was one of the sweetest and most patient kids - no, people that Chie knew. So when the girl pouted, a look on her face that pained Chie to describe as bitter, Chie figured she was probably entitled to feeling that way. “Me and Big Bro talked to Daddy about it, and we made a calendar of days he’d be busy, and for how long, and he’s likely to be busy all night on the 4th!”

As Nanako explained, Chie had mouthed Big Bro…? to Yu. His quick response was a mouthed Later.

“That’s… unfortunate,” Chie said. “But he’ll probably bring you something really cool to… well, try to make up for it. What do you think it’ll be?”

“I don’t really care about the presents…” Nanako answered, “I just wish he could be here.”

Shit, she was too mature for that to work. She’d forgotten how Nanako was unnervingly mature for her age. “He’s never open…” Nanako grumbled. “When Mommy died… he closed himself off. He’s always working, and as a detective, he can't even tell me why he’s so busy other than ‘work’!” Tears threatened to spill from her eyes now. “I don’t wanna be mad at him… but I don’t wanna lose my temper, either…”

“Nanako…” Chie glanced at Yu again, hoping he had some idea how to ameliorate Nanako’s distress. Worryingly, he looked equally clueless.

Nanako took a few shaky breaths to calm herself. Whether or not she knew about Atlas Moth and was attempting to avoid akumatization, Chie wasn’t sure.

Yu looked around in a way that wasn’t all that subtle and grabbed a small, rectangular box. Opening a flap, he pulled out a card - the eight of hearts. “Nanako, check this out.” He tried a card trick that even Chie couldn’t keep up with. 

Nanako’s sniffles slowed as she observed the trick, wet eyes now beginning to sparkle in awe. “Cool…”

“How’d you do that, Yu?” Chie asked.

He smiled in response. “Here, I’ll teach you both.”

Chie and Nanako scooted closer to watch his hands as he ran through the trick more slowly. By the time night fell and Dojima-san stepped through the door, Nanako had mastered the trick and a few other tricks Yu knew involving rubber bands and interlinking paperclips.

During the span of the hours until nightfall, Yu had explained how Nanako had called him Big Bro by accident one time. Yu had laughed it off, and the nickname had just stuck.

When Dojima-san arrived, though, Nanako immediately went to Dojima-san as he sat down on the couch and waved the pack of cards around excitedly. “Daddy, look! Big Bro showed me how to do magic!”

“Sounds cool…” he yawned. It wasn’t in any sort of rude way; he was just tired, and Nanako knew that. “Maybe you’ll have to show me on my next off-day. It’s not that long from now…” He paused in thought. “… is it?”

This was definitely the wrong thing to say. 

Nanako’s tiny hands clenched, and her head bowed. “The 18th…” she mumbled angrily.

Dojima-san didn’t catch what Nanako said. He shot her a quizzical look. “…?”

“I don’t get to do anything with you for almost two weeks!” Nanako snapped. “But it’s not like that matters, because you’ll just tell me you’re busy on the 18th!”

“Nanako…!” Chie grimaced.

Dojima-san gaped, clearly taken aback. “What’s gotten into you?”

“I never get to see you unless you’re all tired from work !” Nanako snapped. “Work’s always more important! We never get to do anything together anymore, and you always break your promises about spending time with me!”

“Not alway-”

Nanako began counting off her fingers. “Golden Week, my friend’s birthday party that I almost missed, and almost all summer! We’re not even gonna do stuff on my birthday!” Her teary eyes bored into Dojima-san’s soul. “Why, Daddy? Why? Do your stupid criminals matter more to you than I do?”

The room went dead silent at the proclamation. Nanako’s watery eyes stared up at her dad before she ran out the door, sobbing her heart out.

“Nanako, wait!” Yu, Chie, and Dojima-san called in unison. 

A few moments of silence passed before Yu whipped out his phone. “I’ll call Yosuke and Yukiko,” he declared. “We’ll find her, Uncle, I swear.”

“Then what are we standing around for?” 

However fortunately, Yukiko had decided to transform into Miss Fortune to save travel time and thus would miss Yu and Chie’s calls. It was rather dark out tonight, so she doubted anyone would see her as she carried Chie’s bag… her parents had allowed her to go out this late because she was to return as soon as possible.

She’d just approached the neighborhood where she knew the Dojima family lived when a pink blur barreled by her. She didn’t even have time to see what was going on before Chie appeared. “Nanako, please come back!” the girl hollered before seeing Miss Fortune. “Y-you’re…!”

“Chie… er, Satonaka Chie, right?” Miss Fortune was fast to correct herself, but not before seeing the worry all over Chie’s face. “What’s going on? You seem worried…”

“Trying to track down Dojima Nanako, the girl that sped by you,” Chie answered frantically. “She’s angry at her dad, and I think we’d both rather find her before At… that Moth guy does. Help me find her, please!”

“Right. Tell me what happened on the way…” It was then that Miss Fortune remembered why she’d been looking for Chie. “Oh, that reminds me! Your friend Yukiko wanted to get this back to you, but she had some work to do that kept her from getting to you. She saw me and flagged me down…” She held the bag out for Chie to take. “You left this while you were in school.”

“Oh, I forgot about this!” Chie gasped. “Thank you. I’ll just carry it with me while we search for Nanako… sorry to drag you into this…”

Miss Fortune just smiled and giggled. “In case it wasn’t clear, I fancy myself a superheroine, Satonaka-chan. This is exactly the sort of thing that heroes do!”

Chie found herself blushing in spite of everything. No way was she going to fall in love with her superhero partner… besides, she was already interested in Yukiko!

W-wait, no, she wasn’t! She didn’t like Yukiko like that! They were best friends - they couldn’t be-

“Chie!” Yu’s normally-soft voice hollered as he, Yosuke, and Dojima-san ran over. “Did you find Nanako?”

“It doesn’t seem so…” Miss Fortune said, her presence catching the three gents off-guard, “but I’m on the job now. Let me help you!”

“Is… is Nanako okay?” Dojima-san, if Miss Fortune recalled his name correctly, gasped. “Where would she go…?”

“Maybe the Samegawa Riverbank…?” Yu questioned. “She told me once that you guys used to skip stones there on bad days.”

“I remember those days…” Dojima-san muttered in thought. “Let’s go check there first!”

“I’ll go over some alternate places!” Yosuke said. “Plus, I wanna see if I can track down Lady Mushi and let her know what's going on.”

Atlas Moth knew where Nanako was first.

He’d been hoping for a good akuma today, and this seemed well enough as choices went. 

“So much tragedy and pain for someone who’s only six years old…” he mused. “I should really send an akuma after her… help her with her problems if I can…”

It hadn’t escaped Atlas Moth that Nanako was, quite simply, a child. He’d akumatized teens, yes, but they were the most emotionally vulnerable, and they weren’t full-on children. Plus, he didn’t feel comfortable about sending one as young as her to fight his battles, let alone allow her to get beat up by those accursed ‘heroes’… he knew neither he nor his love wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if he’d let a child get beaten like that.

He would just have to make sure that Dojima Nanako did not face such harm.

As he sent an akuma out, he swore, “If they get close to harming her too badly, I will personally see to it that they stop!”

It wasn’t long before his akuma made the connection, the akuma embedding itself into the pack of cards she’d been clutching like a lifeline. “Lucky Seven…” he whispered patiently. “I am Atlas Moth. I know the plight that is loved ones falling away from your grasp… I would not stand for it were I in your shoes. Together, we can fix our messes, but we would need the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses to succeed. Would you like my help in making things right?”

As Yu predicted, they found Nanako sitting at the river’s edge. “Nanako…” Dojima-san whispered. “Someone, talk to her before she attracts an akuma or whatever they’re called!”

“You do it, then,” Chie scowled at him. “You made this mess. Go clean it up!”

Dojima-san knew she was right, and he acknowledged it with a small nod before slowly approaching his daughter. “Nanako…” he whispered softly, “I’m sorry I haven’t been spending much time with you lately.”

“Lately…” Nanako whispered after a few seconds, clutching the pack of cards like a lifeline. “That’s not the right way to say it… you got all cold after Mommy went away.”

Dojima-san knew she was right, too. All four teens (was Miss Fortune a teen like her? Chie could only wonder.) were silent from the distance as father and daughter conversed.

Almost absentmindedly, Miss Fortune looked around. That’s when she noticed the akuma. She was surprised to see it fluttering through the darkness of night; perhaps the Miraculous granted her night-vision like cats were supposed to have?

She didn’t even get to warn the Dojima family until the akuma embedded herself in that pack of cards Nanako still held.

“Dojima-san!” she called. “Get behind me!”

Dojima glanced back at her in alarm, before looking back to Nanako. By now, the beginning stages of the transformation were obvious; the butterfly mask of light hovering in front of her eyes, the deepening scowl etching its way into her face, the darkened shape of the pack of cards clutched in her hands…

“Yes, Atlas Moth,” Nanako whispered, and the darkness spread over her. Her outfit resembled the Dark Magician Girl from Yu-Gi-Oh! but it was mostly colored purple rather than blue and it was far less revealing as befitted a 6-year old. The red drawing in the akumatized item in her hand had turned purple as well.

Miss Fortune lunged forward, putting herself between Nanako and her father. “You need to get out of here,” she told him. “She’s mad at you - you’ll be at risk.”

“I can’t do that,” Dojima said immediately. “She’s my daughter, I can’t just leave her like this-”

“Miss Chie… Big Bro…” the newly-costumed Lucky Seven begged, voice quiet yet desperate. “Please, go. You tried to cheer me up, even though you couldn’t do much… I don’t wanna hurt you.”

Deep down, Ryotaro felt a pang in his heart about how Nanako didn’t mention him.

Yu, ever-compassionate, attempted, “Nanako-”

“IT’S LUCKY SEVEN NOW… PLEASE!” Lucky Seven begged, already reaching for cards from the pack she’d been holding.

“Run, all of you!” Miss Fortune urged the civilians again. “I don’t want any of you to get hurt.”

Especially Chie…

Yu and Chie began to back up (Chie would have stayed for Nanako, but she needed to be Lady Mushi), but Dojima-san held his ground. Miss Fortune wasn’t sure if she thought it was brave or foolish of him, but her attention was divided mostly between Lucky Seven and keeping her best friend safe at least until Lady Mushi showed up.

As Chie and Yu took off, Lucky Seven pulled out a green-glowing 8 of Spades and flung it at her father. In a flash of light, it burst into a huge gust of wind that sent Dojima-san flying into Miss Fortune. The two ended up sprawled across the riverbank, right at the edge of the water.

Soon after Chie and Yu got far away, Yosuke hurried over. “Hey! I didn’t find Lady Mushi, but-” He noticed their frazzled expressions. “Everything okay?”

“Nanako… got akumatized…” Yu answered worriedly. “She’s- we- I-”

“Miss Fortune and Dojima-san are there,” Chie continued. Looking at Yosuke’s thoughtful and resolute face, she groaned. “I know you’re gonna record, but stay at a safe distance. If you get hurt because you got too close, you'll have to worry about me, got it?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Yosuke nodded fervently, pulling out his phone to record. “I swear I will, Chie! You two go make sure nobody else gets caught up in the crossfire!”

Chie couldn’t have found a better opportunity. “Got it! Yu, go that way!”

Yu nodded wordlessly before hurrying off. It wasn’t long before Chie had found a safe hiding spot and transformed into Lady Mushi.

“She has wind powers too… joy of joys…” Miss Fortune muttered. “Well, the akuma is obviously in her pack of cards-”

“This is my fault, isn’t it…?”

Miss Fortune turned to Dojima at his words. “She was right… that I was prioritizing work over her. Every time I look at Nanako, I see her mother… I’ve been running from Chisato’s death… if I’d manned up, maybe she wouldn’t have gotten upset like this. She wouldn’t be…” He looked up at his akumatized daughter, who was angrily approaching them with more furor than any almost-7-year old should have.

Miss Fortune sighed. “You made those choices, and while I think you’ll have to wallow in the bed you’ve laid in, you have to focus on doing right in the future. However, for now, I need to take down Lucky Seven-”

“Don’t you dare hurt her!” Dojima yelped.

“I wouldn’t dream of it!” Miss Fortune assured him quickly. “I won’t! But we need to destroy that card-pack to get the akuma away from her.”

“I heard about that part…” the detective mused, “the reports we have at the station indic-” 

“Sorry to interrupt your conversation…” A brown glow from Lucky Seven’s next card, the Jack of Diamonds, caught their attention. Holding it aloft, sharp-looking pebbles flashed into existence and pointed their sharper ends at Miss Fortune and Dojima. “… but let’s see you skip these stones!”

Just in time, however, Lady Mushi’s yo-yo wrapped around Lucky Seven’s wrist and pulled, sending the stones off mark. Miss Fortune perked up at the familiar whizzing sound and deflected the ones that came too close before turning to her partner. “Aka-chan!” 

“Hope I’m not too late,” Lady Mushi gave a big smile, blushing lightly.

“No, you’re right on time,” Miss Fortune said.

“You really are!” smirked Lucky Seven, who had untangled her wrist. Pulling out the 8 of Clubs, a myriad of fireballs flew out from the card.

“Jeez!” Lady Mushi yelped, her yo-yo already ready to go. “Take ‘em to the river, Nyoko-chan!”

“Right!” Miss Fortune extended her baton, and they began slowly advancing towards the akumatized child and deflecting fireballs into the river. Anything they couldn’t be fast enough to aim at the river was moved to the rocks at its bank or the stone pier, so nothing caught fire.

The card must have ran out of juice, as the glowing pattern on it died down. Lucky Seven growled. “I only wanna say this once…” she growled, “give me your Miraculouses!”

“How about you hand us your akumatized item?” Lady Mushi said patiently. “Your dad won’t be able to spend any birthdays with you if he’s torched, or impaled by rocks, or-”

Lucky Seven held out the 10 of Clubs. It suddenly grew big and spewed out a huge breath of fire like a flamethrower.

“I…” Miss Fortune said, “I don’t know if we can rationalize with her right now. I think- I think we might just need to take it.”

“Yeah, but how do we do that…?” Lady Mushi snapped her fingers seconds after. “Duh! Lucky Charm!” In a flash of pink-red light, what landed in her hands were…

“Two packets of neri ame?” Miss Fortune realized. “This is quite a sticky sit-”

“If that’s the best pun you’ve got, no more puns.”

“Fair enough… we knead to focus on Nanako now.”

Lady Mushi snickered. “Much better!” With that, they focused their attention on the kid they had to save.

“You can’t bribe me with candy, Lady Mushi!” Lucky Seven all but screamed. Dramatically, she reached into the pack of cards and pulled out the King of Hearts. “I warned you!”

It was made clear quite quickly that this card granted Lucky Seven water manipulation. She leaped above the river, from which a watery hand shot out and allowed her to land on it like a pedestal. Another hand shot out and swatted Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune into the stairs, followed by a head that resembled Dojima-san… if he was the same species as Perfect Chaos from Sonic the Hedgehog. It let out a deafening roar; while it did not sound like Dojima, it did likely wake up most of the residential area and maybe a bit of the Shopping District residents.

“A-ah…” Lady Mushi mumbled nervously.

“… shit,” finished an equally unnerved Miss Fortune.

“GET THEM!” Lucky Seven shrieked. The water monster lunged at the girls, who managed to dodge the attack.

Lady Mushi looked around and saw the monster’s ‘teeth’ light up, followed by Lucky Seven’s whole body, then the pack of cards, and finally Miss Fortune.

She looked back at the sticky candy in her hand. “I really hope this works.” Looking up at the water monster who had been focusing on her partner, she hollered, “Hey, Nessie! Come get some!”

Turning back to her slowly and menacingly, said monster whipped out and closed his jaws around Lady Mushi before anyone could react. 

A few seconds of horrific silence passed before Miss Fortune screamed out a scream that felt as if it had filled the entire world. Even Lucky Seven froze.

All eyes were on where Lady Mushi had disappeared when the water monster abruptly began to shake and attempted to squeal in pain. As it tried to open its suddenly-stuck-together mouth (courtesy of the sticky neri ame), Lady Mushi burst out the back of his neck in a splash of water. She landed atop the back where Lucky Seven was perched, shook herself off, and turned to the akumatized 7-year old, who took a step back.

Regretful, Lucky Seven begged, “I-I didn’t mean to almost kill y-”

“I know you didn’t… but I’m gonna give you what you deserve, Nanako.” Lady Mushi charged Lucky Seven before she could pull a card out…

… and hugged her.

“You’ve been bottling this stuff up for a while now, haven’t you?” Lady Mushi asked gently. “With your dad working so much, I think I can understand. I would be, too.”

In spite of the commands to fight the Ladybug wielder being shouted in her mind, Lucky Seven’s whole body sagged. “I want my Daddy back…” she whispered in the tiniest, most heart-breaking voice, the box of cards beginning to slip through her fingers. “I miss my Daddy…!”

As Lucky Seven softly sobbed into Lady Mushi’s arms, the pack fell from her hands. Lady Mushi caught the cards atop her foot. She kicked it over to Miss Fortune, who only whispered Cataclysm as she caught it, the pack of cards turning to black dust in her hand.

“Sorry, Nanako-chan…” Lady Mushi broke away slowly and cast the Miraculous Cure. The summoned magical loveliness dispelled the water monster and remaining flames before returning her and the now-reverted-to-normal Nanako to the riverbank.

When the Miraculous Cure died down, Nanako was unconscious in Lady Mushi’s hands. “Is she okay?” Miss Fortune asked worriedly.

“I hope so…” Quickly, Dojima checked her pulse. “Yup, everything’s fine. Nanako’s had the habit of falling asleep after really emotional days since she was born.”

“Is that so?” Miss Fortune inquired curiously.

“Mmm…” Dojima took his daughter from Lady Mushi’s arms into his. “She barely cried the day my wife… well. She’ll feel better in the morning. Some sleep will do us all a lot of good.”

“Tell me about it…” Lady Mushi grumbled. “I’m gonna sleep like a rock tonight…”

“I think we all are,” Miss Fortune agreed. She suddenly froze. “Oh, and before we forget!”

Dojima turned back to acknowledge her. “We promised we’d tell you what we could about this whole situation,” Miss Fortune reminded them. “Aka-chan, is Saturday or Sunday good for you…?”

“Huh? Oh! Uhhhh, I think I can do either. Just after lunch or so, yeah?”

“Good idea,” Dojima said. “An army fights on its stomach, and if you want to work with us… well, I shouldn’t keep you. Good night, both of you.”

He walked off. "Well, that worked out," Lady Mushi mused.

She turned to Miss Fortune, only to be squeezed in a hug that she was quick to return. "I thought I lost you...!"

With that, Miss Fortune and Lady Mushi returned to their homes. Chie had to explain the girl she was babysitting was akumatized, and Yukiko that there was an akuma attack near the place she had dropped off the area in, but their parents were decently understanding. 

As punishment for making her mother and father worry, however, Yukiko had been relegated to extra training time on Saturday, though. As she and Plagg fell asleep together, she mostly hoped she and her crush partner would meet on Sunday.

“I commend you for taking down my latest akuma, Lady Mushi and Miss Fortune,” Atlas Moth mused from his lair, “and I am relieved you chose not to harm an innocent child.”

His scowl deepened. “But just you wait… I’ll have the right cards in my hand to claim your Miraculouses… someday…!”