Shape of a Miracle EP 2 - FreezeFrame

A perfectly ordinary memory

3:42 PM.

Turning away from the clock, Ishida continues aimlessly wiping the furthest window in the now empty classroom. Three minutes. Just three more minutes. Then he can go home. Not that he particularly wants to go home. Really, what's he even gonna do there? Read comics? Play video games? Watch tv? Been there, done that.

" Seriously? "

Ishida halts, glancing to his right. There, a group of teenage girls huddle around the room's entrance.

"SSSH!" One of them hushes "Not so loud!"

"Who're you afraid will hear?" contends an annoying girl with long black hair " Nobody's around. "

Ishida turns back to his window. Great , just what he needs: a bunch of brats giggling and crackling their heads off. -Well, don't worry! This guy has way better things to do than listen in on some stupid gossip.

"look, it sounds crazy." Another girl says "But I know what I saw!"

"So..." hums the annoying girl "You think some delinquent wrecked your old school?"

Ah, he gets it now. A couple of months ago, his and a few nearby schools got mysteriously vandalised. One got so bad it had to be shut down temporarily with most of its students transferring to his school. She must be one of the transfers.

Not that he particularly cares. It has nothing to do with him.

"He wasn't some... delinquent!" The transfer replies "He was parkouring all over the place and was, like, decked out in all these wires and boomboxes playing... playing music!"

His grip tightens around the wet rag.

"It's all kinda a blur..." she continues "But the next thing I know that guy's running around in the science lab, ruff-housing with some cat thing! It got so bad one of my old teachers had to intervene!"

His gaze shifts back to the clock: 3:43. Two minutes. Just two more minutes.

"D-don't give me that look!" He hears her cry "I saw him! All of my friends saw him!"

He closes his eyes. Soon, he can leave.

"-And yet, we're just...not talking about it?" She says "Like we're all supposed to pretend everythings fine..."

Soon, he can go home .

"Like we're supposed to forget all about it..."

Soon, he'll be back in his room .

"Like it didn't even happen..."

And there he was, back in his room. Back to a memory of it . It was about two months ago, near the end of october. He had just gotten home from a very uneventful day. Getting ready for an even more uneventful night.

Or atleast, that's how it should have been.

"Hello! My name is Tikki! And you, Shoya Ishida, Are the proud new owner of the Ladybug Miraculous!"

There, in the middle of his room, a red bug-like creature had just flown out of a little red box he had found and spoke complete nonsense to him.

He blinked.

"Huh?"

The thing continued to speak: "I know all this might seem a bit strange to you. But I need you Shoya! Your city needs you! You're the only one who can stop the akumas from wreaking havoc!"

He blinked again.

"You see, I'm the kwami of the Ladybug Miraculous, that's the little red earrings in the box you're holding. With them, you can transform into a superhero with the power of creation. All you have to do is put them on and say 'spots on!'. Are you following so far, Shoya?"

"No..." he whispered.

"Oh, that's ok." it smiled "How about I explain it in simpler terms."

"N-no..." He choked, standing up.

"Alright." It said "Maybe we should take a breather, This must be a lot to-"

"Shut up."

"Shoya." It asks "What's wrong?"

"This. Isn't. Happening..." He said before clenching his head and shutting his eyes. "THIS ISN'T HAPPENING!"

"Shoya!" It cried "Everythings okay. Dont be scar-"

"ShutupshutupSHUTUP!" He screamed "I. don't. hear. ANYTHING!"

Falling back to his knees, he clutched his hair so tight he felt like his skull could crack. "I am a LOT of things but I am not a crazy person! I am NOT a CRAZY PERSON!"

"Shoya, please!" It cried.

"I am a SANE, STUPID, BORING PERSON!" He sobbed "I'm gonna open my eyes and NOTHING is going to be there! I'M GONNA OPEN MY EYES AND SEE MY SAME STUPID, BORING ROOM!"

So he opened his eyes and saw his same stupid, boring old room. Nothing else.

At his feet the little red box still sat. He quickly closed it shut and threw it into the bottom of his drawer. Then, he just sat there. He sat there and tried to think of any reasonable explanation of what happened. But his head was empty. So empty, in fact, that he decided to not even think about it...

"...Because it probably didn't happen."

He blinks back to his present day. Back to the cold, mostly empty classroom, back to cleaning windows and back to listening in on the girls gossiping behind him

"Huh?" The transfer cries "O-of course it did. Didn't I just say-"

"Yeah, but doesn't this all sound kinda...?" The other girl says.

"I'm NOT making this up!" She cries.

"Woah, Hey, I'm not calling you a liar. I'm just saying... That day was a blur for all of us. Don't you think you might be making this more of a thing than it is?"

Dirty water seeps out of Ishida's wet rag, dripping down his stupid face reflected on the window.

"Yeah, you're right..." the girl replies "Just forget about it."