Nooroo watched as the man levitated then placed his right hand palm facing forwards. An elaborately designed circle formed mid-air and a medium sized obsidian sword dropped out. A lanky silver creature then caught it with one of its antennae like feelers. Without even turning the man simply replied,

"Use this gift wisely."

With that the creature scuffled off. So these were his friends, Nooroo thought to himself. Funny, he didn't sense any akumas so then how-

"If you want to know, just ask, but please be cordial while you're doing it."

"eh-yes. Um, Why were you, I mean, how are you- just how are you able to summon a sword and levitate not to mention summon your friends without an akuma?"

It just didn't make any sense for the butterfly kwami. As part of his station, Nooroo is able to detect any akumatization energy, direct or indirect.

A moment later and the scene changed. Now they were inside of a recording studio.

"Unlike the previous Butterfly Miraculous holders, my akumas come out as pink and as we've seen with the new superheroine, Ladybird who is no doubt Miawa Totsetemo, this changed in coloration for the akumas provides them an extra layer of protection namely simply catching them with the yo-yo of the Ladybug Miraculous isn't enough to purify them and even when the purification process starts, they have a chance to hijack the user of the Ladybug Miraculous."

Nooroo nodded.

"Second, as you can see I can levitate and I have access to my own personal hyperspace."

"And your friends?"

The man smirked as he pulled out a ceremonial dagger. Its blade glistened. Yes, it had only been yesterday when this man had used this dagger. A few drips of his blood spilled on the floor which then formed various mantras.

All his akumas are pink and this unique coloration isn't just for show. He possess immense powers even without being affected by self-empowering akuma feedback loop. And his friends are apparently summoned through a detailed ritual of sorts.

"Are you a mage?" Nooroo asked.

"Bingo. That's exactly what I am and why the powers of the Butterfly Miraculous has manifested differently for me."

Yes, it made sense, how else could all his powers be explained? Psychic? If the man was psychic, then the Miraculous should've affected his abilities and yet they remained the same save for one thing.

"So that's why you detransformed."

"Correct. As we are both aware, these Miraculous suits are indestructible save for another Miraculous holder."

Nooroo nodded. It was all coming together now. How had he not seen it before? This man had demonstrated way too many abilities to be considered an ordinary user. Why hadn't he trusted his instincts? Nooroo had long felt that something was off, something was missing. Now he knew what it was.

The man then tucked his athame away before stroking a couple of keys. A video recording played.

[+

"So rise! Symmetechoun ston orko

Mia ekkliston elpida fonazei

And together we'll save the world the Holy Udaspes Folus's way."

]

A graveyard, a prison, the front entrance to a fancy hotel with a vintage-like internal structure, a port, an open plain with a couple of mountains in the background, a forest covered with heavy mist, a classroom flashed across the screen in rapid successions before finally pausing to gaze at the stars.

The man listened to the section a couple more times before pressing the spacebar then dragging the mouse cursor.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Editing, specifically video and audio editing."

"I didn't know you were into making videos. Who taught you this?"

"Oh I'm self-taught. When you can't afford to use those fancy and audio editing software, you learn a couple of neat tricks using free software, well I certainly did. Here. Wanna try?"

Nooroo nodded and for the next 13 minutes the man taught Nooroo how to edit videos.

"Now you see right here? There's this annoying bip noise. It takes away from the audio quality. Now, if we're feeling lazy we could either try to simply cut this portion of the audio track out and then smooth it over using some nearby ambience or just lengthen the difference of the subtracted audio so that it matches what the length was before. But since this bip is also mixed in with some vocals, if we do this we will also get rid of this portion of the rap, and we don't want that to happen."

Nooroo tapped his stunt like arms on his chin.

"So let's use the audio editor to target that frequency and cut it out."

"Nice try, Nooroo but people don't speak or sing in a monotone. Our voices fluctuate. Here's a fun fact. The pitch of your voice alone does not determine how masculine or feminine it sounds. There are various vocal techniques you can use to make a low pitch voice sound feminine and a high pitched voice sound masculine. Also, recording hardwares will somewhat distort your voice though this is hardly noticeable with a couple of exceptions."

"I didn't know that."

"Yeah, it turns out both the majority biological sexes share a common voice registry for the modal voice, or the one they use to talk with the most, their natural voice. Despite likely sharing the same pitch or being relatively close however, we can usually tell if the speaker is a male or a female and just to be clear, I am not talking about gender identities and yes I am very well aware of a genetic condition."

Nooroo looked confused. Who was he talking to? Whatever Nooroo's concerns were he brushed them aside as he intently listened. From what he gathered he learned this man definitely knew his stuff. In addition to being a mage he also had some skill in behavioural psychology, video and audio editing, voice work and had a flair for the dramatics.

"So then, what makes the voices sound distinctly feminine or masculine?" Nooroo asked.

"Timbre or the resonance of your voice"

Yes, with all this knowledge it only made sense for Nooroo to then conclude the man probably was also a voice actor.

"Are you a theatre major?"

"No, I had auditioned for that, but the head of the department wouldn't accept me. Oh well, their lost."

Nooroo's eyes darted uncomfortably.

"Oh it's not like I did anything to them."

"Whew. What a relief."

"After all, a couple of my buddies came one day and with their sharp talons and ripped that bitch into bloody pieces before guzzling her down. Oh! I can just imagine the agony, the sheer pain she must felt. Heheheh. Isn't it wonderful?"

The screen flickered before spazzing out, first in colors then in a black and white noise tone before correcting itself again.

"It wasn't just my parents I had a bone to pick with. Why, I remembered this one time someone pushed me from behind (forms a fist) or how these twins of a pathetic pastor falsely accused me of groping them. And I was just a wee lad."

Nooroo looked like he was about to throw up.

"Can you just imagine the sheer joy I felt as I saw their lives slowly drain out before their eyes? Heehee, so delicious. I made sure to reward my pal very well."

"Let me guess. As a reward for helping you on your revenge quest you then summoned them in a crowd of innocent people?"

"Ya bet! I basically told them to have at it and enjoy themselves. See, I'm a very nice guy. I'm a saint."

Nooroo gritted his teeth.

"Don't you think that might be a bit much? Vengeance is only going to make you feel empty and how are you even a saint? Your actions are downright deplorable!"

"Gyahahaha! That's rich! This is brilliant, (starts singing) it's all so stirring, I feel like purring, it's so pleasing to be the reason why so many will be soo deeeaaad. Heheh, see Nooroo, a saint need not be someone who is exceptionally benign. You can be a saint by being so holy, and my love for humanity, nay existence is so, so pure."

Nooroo's eyes dropped.

"Your concept of love is just so vile, how can you even say that?"

"And your concept of righteousness is so banal. Am I supposed to be impressed?"

"What."

"Think about it. As soon as I kick the bucket your Miraculous will fall into another's hands, presuming this Miraculous isn't destroyed of coarse."

Nooroo paused. Flexing his hands the man continued,

"Now you can hope that the next holder of the Butterfly Miraculous will meet your visions of a righteous person, a hero if you will but what are your odds of seeing this miracle happen?"

Nooroo just floated.

"Unless you can learn to stop giving every person who comes into contact with your Miraculous the knowledge of how to control you, I don't see any reason to believe your fate's ever going to change."

Hope, It's a funny thing. The motivation that drives us forwards, that encourages us to keep going is tempered by the results we see and just as well, an overabundance of hope can lead to ruin. Such is the case when you consider the sunk-cost fallacy.

"Nooroo. Have you heard of the sunk-cost fallacy?"

Nooroo shooked his head.

"When you remain devoted to a cause despite all the shortcomings, whereupon further commitment is detrimental, when it stands to reason that to give up would be more rational- that is the sunk-cost fallacy. It's a behavioral tendency. Who knows if things will turn around? You've been through countless iterations of abusive owners. Who's to say the next holder of the Butterfly Miraculous will break this trend?"

"I- I've just gotta-"

"Believe? Hope? You're running on a track. You keep using the same approach despite constantly failing. Let me spell it clearly for you. Your 'hope' for a more heroic holder of the Butterfly Miraculous is going to be the destitution of you."

"I- I can't just give up hope."

The man sighed. Clearly this was getting nowhere.

"Then at least change your approach. Don't just blindly teach everyone who gets a hold of your Miraculous."

Nooroo sighed.

"C'mon! Do you really enjoy being at their whims? You're better than this, carve your own destiny."

Soon my lesson on video and audio editing ended and he next taught me a bit of how to do magick, particularly of the kind he specialized in.

"So you don't need to call upon spirits, get into zen, align with your higher chakras or even believe in order to do magick?"

"Yes, this isn't well known throughout the occult community but none of those things are strictly necessary. Coarse, there might be a few statistical tendencies."

"Such as?"

"You know the Chinese Zodiac? Fire Tiger years are the most preferable and yes. I gathered a bunch of data, all the ones I could find, that is what was available on those who demonstrated or were reported to have demonstrated psychokinetic effects and the most common thread I found was the year in which these psychokinetic effects took place. The 2 elements of the Chinese Zodiac which are most favorable towards developing psychokinesis is Water and Fire, with Water generally taking the trend with the sole exception of pyrokinesis. As for the animal? The Tiger."

Nooroo nodded as he took in the information.

"Now, was I looking to prove this was the case? No, I just gathered the data and did the math."

"So the Chinese Zodiac appears to have some effect on psychokinesis. That's enlightening and all but isn't that a bit different from magick?"

"You're right, however the two are nearly interchangeable that we can draw some parallels. It won't be a perfect exchange but we can use this information as a guideline. Furthermore, while having a belief in psychokinesis isn't mandatory per say in order to develop it, the results do suggest however that belief seems to have some effect over that person's control over their powers and let me be clear. I am not talking about believing they can control their powers but simply that their powers exist and are theirs. It could also have something to do with attitude cause, after all, why would you bother trying to train a muscle that you don't believe exists."

Nooroo sipped his tea. While they were having this lesson, the man had decided to brew his kwami some tea.

Half an hour passed. It appeared this man did not follow the traditional rules of how magick was developed.

"It is often said that anyone can be psychic, that anyone can develop magick or psychokinesis. But why should we take this as fact? Most of these so called indicators are merely the result of being highly observant, completely psychological in nature."

Yes, the man knew what he was talking about. He had conducted a study, a meta analysis and had found a most uncomfortable truth. Even if we presume everyone can be psychic especially on account of belief apparently not being a prerequisite, not everyone is psychic, that perhaps there is a genetic component of some sort or some other unknown variable.

"Generally psychokinesis is seen as a pseudoscience, that is to say fantastical and non-real. To be fair, plenty of the claims purported are outlandish, at least if you look at it from the Western understanding of science."

Nooroo looked confused.

"If you've been taught the Western understanding of science, then you should be familiar with replicability, materialism and physicality. It is the concept that the world can be broken down into a mechanical work and I'm not talking about pieces of metal."

"Uh-huh. So then, would an Eastern understanding of science allow for the existence of spirits and thus magick?"

"Yes. If we define science based on trying to find knowledge about the surrounding universe, the Western approach systematizes and categorizes the knowledge in an attempt to find laws whereas the Eastern understanding uses a holistic approach. And a note to those watching us, plenty of words have multiple definitions which evolve over time and are highly based on context."

Nooroo took a sip of his tea.

"But couldn't a Western understanding of science also help explain how magick works?"

"In principle, yes. Remember, this understanding of science does not limit the world to a material plane. Think about the approach I used. I still eat meat, I have a bloodthirsty streak and I could care less what happens to others. And yet I still practice magick. You know what the Western understanding of science excels in? Pattern finding. Even if we take it that magick is a sentient force, we can gather its tendencies. Still, just having an inkling of how magick might work does not mean we can control it, admittedly the only criticism that is well grounded."

"Come again?"

The man was smart alright though he seemed to struggle with departing his wisdom. Perhaps it was because those around him, his kind could not accept it. Nooroo however absorbed the information. Having now learned the basics Nooroo watched as the man slit his palm and let a couple drops of blood drip.

"First rule. There is always an exchange. It might not be consumed right away but you can't get something for nothing. The exchange need not be opposite and occasionally the exchange is already innate."

"What happens when the exchange is innate?"

"That means that person can use spells by which the exchange is suited for free of charge. See, unlike spellcasters who have to actively make a sacrifice, whether it be a heavy amount of mental energy, blood or whatnot, if they are born with such an exchange having been made not necessarily by will, then when it comes to that area of magick, they don't have to actively sacrifice anything. In return however they cannot ever retrieve it. It is permanent."

Finishing his tea Nooroo tapped his cheeks trying to process it all in. It sounded contrary. Earlier the man had mentioned that magick always required an exchange of some sort but now he was saying for some, such an active exchange was not necessary? The rules seemed pretty complicated.

"Well look at the time. I say it's about time we retired. What do you say, ol pal?"

Yes. Rest, that sounds good. Nooroo nodded. He might not have been able to change the man's mind, but at least he now had a better understanding of how he operated and his thought process. Perhaps if he could connect with his frequency he could see the world through his eyes and who knows? This guy might have the potential to be a superhero as well.