Chapter Text
As Emperor Moth, Hyoka reakumatizes Tsukasa back into Beast King, commanding him to capture the heroes and bring their Miraculous to him. He also has Homura transform with the Peacock Miraculous, turning her into Firefan. She then creates a sentimonster from Beast King’s emotions called Menagerie, which is similar to Beast King in that it takes the form of various animals, but also mutates them and duplicates over and over, spreading out across the city.
The heroes meanwhile have had little time to regroup, and are quickly put on the defensive, forced to split up to avoid getting corralled together and captured. They also discover that even if they defeat one of the animals, another duplicate will pop back up almost instantly. Kurodora concludes that they have to either find the original sentimonster, or locate and destroy its object, neither of which will be easy.
Tsukasa meanwhile is fighting Emperor Moth within his own mind, the two having more or less equally matched wills but Emperor Moth having the upper hand with the Butterfly, his complete lack of restraint in causing him physical pain if he resists, and the fact that he’s effectively holding Mirai hostage. He also gloats that Tsukasa was foolish to trust him, since putting trust in any mere human being leaves you liable to betrayal. Emperor Moth however has gotten around that completely by creating Homura to assist him, a sentimonster of his own making who is completely incapable of defying him or even thinking of such a thing.
Eventually, Carmine catches onto the fact that Tsukasa is fighting, and she suggests to Kurodora that they rescue Mirai in order to help Tsukasa shake off Emperor Moth’s control. They then coordinate the entire team in smaller groups in order to launch a raid on Tsukasa’s house while simultaneously defending civilians from the army of monsters terrorizing the city. They do manage to grab Mirai, but end up being forced to make a run for it and are driven out to the northern city limits outside of Adachi Ward, where they finally take down Beast King. Tsukasa himself then passes out from the physical pain that Emperor Moth put him through.
Annoyed that the heroes have evaded him but otherwise undeterred, Emperor Moth makes his headquarters in Akasaka Palace in the very center of Tokyo, taking a number of politicians hostage as he does so, including the prime minister. He broadcasts this to the entire city, causing people to become so embroiled in fear and other negative emotions that he’s able to akumatize several people into becoming his minions, each being given dominion over an area of Tokyo.
And so the war begins.