I turned off the monitor screen. Narue darted her eyes about while the Chief laid down the pile of paperwork attached to a clipboard he been holding. He looked frustrated.
"Why? How could I've been so blind? I knew from all the previous akumatizations, this man could pose a threat, so why didn't I take proper precautions?"
"Don't beat yourself over it, Chief. We did the best we could."
I tried consoling the Chief.
"Yes. You're right."
The Chief sighed.
Our meeting had concluded. Just like with what had happened to me, the Chief wanted Narue to withstand from using her Miraculous. Unlike myself however, getting a therapist/counsellor was out of the question, though instead there was something else the Chief wanted to know, to probe at.
It's been roughly half a month now since the defeat of the previous akuma. I've seen the people tear down the various posters of Narue's Miraculous superheroine form down, some even spray painting. I- I can't blame them. As far as they know, she's a superpowered giantess superheroine who up and went rogue just like my Miraculous superhero form. They just don't know the reason for that being.
No. Now that I think about it, I doubt they would even care. Just a few weeks ago, that group that's always trying to harass us has become more vigilante than ever.
"There's that giantess freak!"
"Look at him. She has him by her pinky."
"What a simp!"
"Incel!"
Now I'd like to say this is typical but unfortunately the efforts of these hate groups have been more radical and frankly, stupid.
"Narue! Watch out!"
"Oh!"
Narue held her left foot up, urging the man underneath to hurry up and more to safety. He just cursed and refused to budge- in fact when Narue tried to move her foot somewhere else, a crowd of people followed underneath, intentionally I might as well add.
The sounds of sirens could be heard. Man am I glad to see the JDSF. Working as a team, they managed to drive off our hecklers.
For the love of me, I can't figure out why some people are just so stupid. Do they have some sort of death wish? I know they hate macros yet why would they sacrifice themselves to be killed by macros just to spread the hate? All this hostility. It unsettles me. It's like they're being puppeted. Sure, most of this hostility they had beforehand was innate, but a part of me can't help but feel as though they are being spurned on, as if something or someone was amplifying their hate to a supernatural degree.
While the powers of the Ladybug Miraculous can fix any damage caused by another Miraculous or their proxies, there are some things those pair of earrings cannot fix. Memories and emotional scars and boy are there a lot of them and not the type you'd want to keep around.
"Why are you helping them? Don't you know what they did?"
I'm going to be frank. It's unlikely the people are going to be willing to listen to reason.
"The hell they aren't the same! My daughter was eaten because of her! She's a monster! A freak!"
I gulped when I watched the news reporting. While it was still not confirmed who the secret identities of Japan's newest superheroes who went rogue were, just the fact the public now knew or at least suspected the 2 ex-superheroes might have an alternative alias was trouble in of itself.
"That's what I've been saying, little detective. Or has all your senses dulled out?"
"I understand. Thanks for the update Erika."
I heard a growl from the otherside.
"Don't thank me, you piece of shit."
I chuckled a bit.
"Funny. Who would've guessed the klutz would keep on to her hatred for me even longer than my archrival."
"Hey! You leave Mia out of this."
I don't get it. According to Erika, Mia had taken the extra effort not to reveal our secret identities nor the fact our Miraculous forms had them to begin with. When Erika used Plagg's Cataclysm on Narue while she was akumatized, they say that she flashed, just like I did when my akuma was removed. The only difference this time however was the scale.
When Narue's Miraculous suit was destroyed, she flashed. At her size, virtually everyone in Japan could see it. Afterwards a huge cloud of thick fog had covered the area where she had shone. I'm guessing they put 2 & 2 together and concluded the most likely scenario, that Queenie, as she called herself or whom they also know as Kaiju Plastra had a secret identity. Looking back into Japanese and most superhero media, this isn't all that surprising now that I think about it in retrospect. What's more weird is the fact they didn't take much prevalence towards trying to figure out our secret identities. Hopefully they don't find out, especially these loons. Looks like I'm going to have to step up my game.
While Chijinda and Narue are recuperating, they are not the only ones needing to adjust and this goes beyond the people of Japan. Over in the States, that is the not so United States specifically New York in the Downtown district, Mia and Erika were busy finalizing their recruitment registrars.
2 weeks earlier…
"Julie, it's been about 1 week since we've been able to reestablish contact with Japan. Care to share what's going on?"
"Yes Patricia. I'm here at the Chiyoa City, home of Japan's National Diet Building where both houses of the National Diet of Japan meet. For our viewers back at home, this building would be the equivalent of the U.S Congress building. Here locals have reported of a monstrous giantess who had reigned over their lives forcing them to live in terror. They are saying she possessed some sort of 'power' that prevented anything from coming into and out of Japan and that she used this very building as her makeshift throne. Despite all these claims however, no signs of the giantess in question could be verified, thus leading our investigators stumped."
"Well I'm certain our viewers back at home would want a more solid answer."
"As do I, Patricia. And take a look at this-"
Whatever Julie was going to say, Erika would have none of it. She quickly pressed the button on the remote and just like that the tv screen turned off.
Hmm. Maybe we shouldn't have used the power of the Ladybug Miraculous to fix Narue's mess, eh.
"You planning on helping Chijinda?"
It's been roughly a week since we had helped Japan out of their latest crisis. Some time after we had retreated to our hideout, Chijinda had left us a message on via the Miraculous messaging app which is installed in all Miraculous tools and is alway up to date, at least according to Plagg.
Shaking her head, Mia turned around as she headed to the next room to brew herself some coffee. I could just taste the bitter aroma and its dark fragrance.
"Not worth it. First off, there's absolutely no advantage or benefit to us and second, we'd have no way of determining where that masked psycho's hiding."
"But we helped them out with Narue."
"Yes, and that was only to help launch our plans for world domination into hyperdrive. Fuck me. Why didn't I think of it sooner? I just had to use the Miraculous healing power of the Earrings right after I deakumatized Narue."
Silence
"Do you like Chijinda?"
"L-Like?! Are you out of your mind? No. The answer is fuck no. I still haven't forgiven him."
"Me neither."
"But you know what?"
I looked into her eyes as she took a sip of that bitter coffee.
"That's not what they expect from us, now is it? Tis a shame though. Looks like we'll be having to do this the hard way,"
And that we did. For the next couple of weeks we put our heroics into hyperdrive, we were working overtime. Given that the healing power of the Ladybug Miraculous heals and reverts any damages or changes caused by another Miraculous or its proxies and combining that with the fact that while Narue was akumatized, she had used her newfound powers to prevent entry into and out of Japan, it made sense why the Americans, nay, why most of the outside world was skeptical.
I should've refrained from using that power until- until… wait. What?
Would that have helped me?
"Got another request asking us to become their leaders."
"Did they offer anything?"
Erika shook her head.
"Then tell them it's a no go."
Erika picked up her pen.
"If we're going to take over the world via heroics, we can't just do it without playing out a strategy. We're not doing them favors."
Mia took out her smartphone and began strolling through the feeds. Her kwami, Tikki looked on confused. Taking over the world? That sounded like world domination, and world domination is evil. Still, why is she engaging in heroics? Does she intend to subjugate their minds? If kwamis could disobey the holder of their Miraculous, that's what she would do. Tikki was not a monster, a villain. All kwamis are fundamentally good, she just knew that. After all, she was the og kwami only sharing her position with Plagg as polar opposites in terms of abilities.
For their efforts for engaging against a fearsome adversary, Miawa and Erika have gained a considerable amount of exp, and of course here are the battle results:
Miawa's party has gained 35,000 xp!
Miawa Totsetemo is now level 149
Hp has been increased to 35,000
AP has been increased to 214
Spirit has been increased to 300
Atk has been increased to 245
Def has been increased to 510
Agi has been increased to 354
Erika is now level 149
Hp has been increased to 28,504
PP has been increased to 1200
Spirit has been increased to 440
Atk has been increased to 233
Def has been increased to 544
Agi has been increased to 371