First Chapter | Previous Chapter | Next Chapter
A single Miracle becomes Two and someday a Peacock Butterfly will take wing.
Chapter 15: Me, Myself, and I (With a Peahen and a Butterfly)
Jin was hunting for butterflies. At night. Again.
If he wasn’t already certain that he was a madman, this would have driven him to that point.
But he had to find them. He had to.
There was no way a guy like him could get normal work, he needed to find someone to give him work. He was a notorious criminal, one of the government’s most wanted for his crimes, so he had to go underground for any hope of work he could live on. He’d heard a rumor, a good rumor, about an incredibly illusive informant. One that was impossible to find. Sure, he always tipped off cops and heroes, but no one had ever seen him. No one knew what he looked like or where he lived or anything!
He knew, he was sure, of how he could find someone like Giran to get in on something bigger. Giran was already a big name himself, signing up with him was sure to net Jin a good gig. A place he could actually live and not just survive. It was a sure-fire ticket, from what little he could tell. (Sure, it was dicey, but it wasn’t like he could do something legal anyway.)
But a guy like Sasakia had to be Big Time too. He had to be. How else could he have managed to keep himself under wraps so well? He must have something that sets him apart from the rest. Something that could help Jin too.
If he could just get his hands on one of the butterflies to talk to the guy!!!
“Don’t forget to pace yourself, Jin-kun! It won’t help to run yourself ragged before we even spot a butterfly.” The little blue-pink bird-thing he’d grown used to popped up beside him. The little creature hummed pleasantly, flitting over his head and twirling. “Maybe you should stop for a drink? I think I can see a vending machine ahead.”
The little being, Duusu, had appeared after he’d managed to open a jewelry gift box he’d stolen at some point. He didn’t remember where he’d gotten it, but he remembered that it had been locked away in a safe.
Duusu said she was lost, and had lots of brothers and sisters, but she’d been separated from them a long time ago. She had some kind of special powers that someone wearing her weird broach could tap into, but his problems with splitting would make them too dangerous for him to try using them. Something about too much anger at himself? He didn’t fully get it, but he got that she thought he would get hurt if he tried and she didn’t want that.
And she thought that Sasakia guy might have one of her siblings helping him. She wasn’t giving too many details, but there was something about them being really similar to her.
Jin didn’t have any family left. He hadn’t had any for a long time. Seeing how heartbroken Duusu was about being without her siblings for so long with her big, sad, watery eyes and sad, droopy head feather-things… He was a criminal, a nationally wanted one, but he wasn’t totally heartless when he saw something like that.
So now he was wandering Musutafu, in the middle of the night, looking for little glowing butterflies.
Duusu gasped, her tiny hands smacking her cheeks.
“Jin-kun! Look!”
“Do they have something with almonds in the machine?” Duusu always got excited about almonds. They were her favorite snack, apparently.
“No silly, a butterfly! By the wall there!” Jin’s head snapped to the tiny, glowing butterfly fluttering past the stone wall ahead. He lunged for it, his fingers barely catching it before it was out of his reach. He felt… Something, before a gentle voice spoke into his head.
“Good evening, Bubaigawara-san. I am Sasakia, is there something I can do for you?” The guy sounded younger than he thought he would. Young enough that he suddenly felt a lot less sure the guy would have the connections he needed. But he’d gotten this far, he couldn’t just back out. Not yet.
“I- I, uh… I need to-” Except, of course, that was the moment his brain decided to short circuit and not let him think of anything to actually say. Usually all the parts of him had something to talk about, but suddenly all of his words were gone.
“Ooo~ That’s a new butterfly shape. They’re usually pointier than that.” Duusu popped up in front of his face, giving one of her stupidly sweet smiles. “We’ve finally found Sasakia, right? When can we meet him? Will he be able to get you the help you were looking for?”
He could hear a gasp in his head, but it gave him what he needed to get his head working again.
“Haven’t asked yet, Duusu. So, Sasakia, I- uh- I wanna work out some stuff with ya. I need work and Duusu here thinks you know where one of her siblin’s is. I don’t have a lot to offer you but…”
“I have a feeling that this is a conversation that shouldn’t be held in through a butterfly, Bubaigawara-san. Tell me, do you know where Daigobah beach is?”
Thank god. Doing this in the alley was making him nervous, his face was covered with a balaclava and a flu mask to keep him from splitting but at least one part of him was still worried about him being recognized. Which would be a big problem for him, for many reasons. Only one of which was being arrested. (Duusu had helped pick the masks, when he told her about his… Issues. So far, it was working. Fake coughing helped sell the “I’m just sick, that’s all” shtick that kept people from looking too close at him. Honestly, the little critter was a genius.)
He listened to the careful directions he was given to find the abandoned community center near the beach. It wouldn’t take long to get there, then he’d hopefully have better prospects.
At the very least, he’d help Duusu find her brother. He could do that for her.
Izuku had never thought he would end up with a second Miraculous in his possession. If anything, he was constantly wondering when one of the guardians that Nooroo had told him about would appear and take the kwami away from him.
But then Bubaigawara-san appeared with Duusu, who was determined to be properly reunited with Nooroo.
He hadn’t had much he could offer the man. He was able to connect him to someone who might be able to help him make peace with his personal issues, but that was all he could really do. His contacts were all volunteers, he had no money he could offer (nor did he take any) for the information he shared. All he could really do was point someone to a safe person and hope it would be enough.
(He was just a teenager. There was only so much he could do…)
Duusu had been very kind to the man in her farewells, encouraging him to give it a shot and that there was always a chance for things to get better with the right help. Izuku felt a little bad to be separating them, but Duusu was adamant about him not being able to use the miraculous safely. And all he could do was trust the kwami’s judgement, even if he didn’t have all the details about how her particular powers worked. (She would probably explain them to him later.)
He carefully landed on the roof of his apartment complex, thankful that the sudden rain meant no one was out that could have seen him. He gently tapped the cane on the ground as he walked to the things he’d intentionally left on the roof. He let out a breath at finding everything just as he’d left it.
“Light wings fall.” He felt Nooroo’s magic retreat from him, quickly reforming as the butterfly kwami. Who was promptly tackled out of the air by the peacock kwami that had been hovering beside them for most of the flight.
“Duusu! I missed you so much! I’m so happy to see you again!” His best friend was tearing up, Izuku could tell by the warble in the kwami’s voice.
“Nooroo! You’re safe! You’re okay!” Duusu’s voice was just wobbly as she clung to her sibling. He couldn’t help but smile at the two kwami hugging each other tightly, his thumb gently rubbing over the peacock miraculous in his hand.
He could feel a chill that he wasn’t up for at the moment sinking past the protection of the rain jacket he’d put on that evening before transforming. He really didn’t want any of them to get sick, even if Nooroo had taught him what to do if the kwami ever came down with something.
He slipped the broach into the inside pocket of his jacket, beneath where he kept Nooroo’s locket pinned. He scooped up the umbrella, telescope, and picnic basket he’d left on the roof.
He’d left them there to create an alibi for the lone security camera pointed at the roof access door, pretending to star gaze for the limited time he could manage it before the storm came in. An archaic hobby, but a peaceful one that few people would look too closely at. Especially now that someone was working to change the lights in their district to help fix the light pollution levels. They were part of a city experiment of streetlamps that were being implemented in rural areas.
(He hoped it worked, Nooroo had told him about what the night sky used to look like and he really wanted to be able to see it himself some day.)
He carefully picked the two up kwami from their spot on the gravel covered roof, tucking them into the empty basket to try and give them some kind of shielding from the weather. Duusu let out a little chirp at the action, blinking up at Izuku in surprise but quickly settling down in the nest of towels at the bottom while still staying pressed against her brother’s side.
“I think we should head inside, before we all end up coming down with a cold,” he said as an explanation for lifting the two. He would have tried to tuck them into his jacket, but he wasn’t sure if Duusu would be alright with that level of contact after only just meeting Izuku. He didn’t want to cross too many boundaries before he could properly know what they even were.
“Oh! Yes, that’s probably a good idea.” Nooroo agreed, easily relaxing into the towels. He smiled brightly at his holder. “You should hurry! You wouldn’t want to end up having to be excused from school because we spent too much time outside in this storm.”
He nodded, quickly gathering up his belongings and lightly jogging to the access door. It took a little juggling, but he was able to get the door open and slip inside without getting too wet. Better still, he was able to get to his apartment without running into anyone, stepping inside to the sound of the TV playing and the smell of a warm dinner being cooked.
“Mom! Eri-chan! We’re home!” He called, though it wasn’t really needed. It wasn’t as though there was anyone else with a key to their apartment who’d be coming by. “Mom, can you get one of Nooroo’s parfaits? Also, do we have anything with almonds?”
Bubaigawara-san had been very clear that Duusu liked almonds, when he’d asked about the little kwami’s likes and dislikes. Duusu had let him, knowing the questions were just as much for the older man’s peace of mind as they were for caring for her. It was also how he knew she liked being referred to with she/her and not just the they/them that Nooroo said was standard for most kwami.
He heard a little gasp from the picnic basket, sudden flurries of whispers exploding inside.
“I’m not sure, honey. Let me check, I know I made some snacks with almond flour the other day…” He heard rustling in the kitchen as he passed, heading to the den and setting the basket down gently on the coffee table, avoiding the papers strewn over it covered in Eri’s latest drawings, and sitting on the floor next to her. Eri looked up at him curiously, looking at the unusually noisy basket. “Ah! Here they are! I knew I’d had some almond cheese crackers around. Will these do, Izuku?”
Izuku carefully lifted the lid so he could peek inside at Duusu, tilting his head in silent askance at the peafowl kwami. (He wouldn’t force Duusu out if she felt too shy to be introduced to Eri and his mother.) Nooroo gently patted his sibling’s side, smiling encouragingly at her. She slowly peeked her head out, not fully leaving the safety of the basket yet.
“Um… Those sound good,” she murmured softly. He nodded, raising his own voice to confirm that they were alright.
Duusu was much quieter than she had been around Bubaigawara-san, a shyness that hadn’t been there before appearing. (He wondered if it had to do with the maelstrom of emotions he’d sensed from the man. Trying to be calm and cheerful to counter the anger and worry from the person she was with. Or maybe it was how open he and Nooroo were with his family?)
Nooroo popped out with very little prompting, holding his arms out for his parfait, which his mother happily handed him before ducking back into the basket to be with his sibling. Izuku took the small plate of crackers and carefully slipped it into the basket, feeling Duusu take the plate from him. He pushed himself up onto the couch, letting the soft sounds of the apartment sooth his nerves.
He felt too fidgety. Too antsy and twitchy from how his night as Sasakia ended.
He stood up and walked into the kitchen to help his mother with the meal prep she was doing.
“Is there anything I can help with, Mom?” His mother looked at him in surprise. Something must have shown on his face, because she waved to the cutting board beside her.
“You can help chop up some of the veggies for me. I need to check on the chicken I have cooking on the stove.”
“Okay.” He took the carrots from their waiting spot, picking up a knife and chopping them up in thin slices. There were a few moments of peace as they worked, the pots on the stove gently simmering, the frying chicken hissing as his mother turned them over in the pan.
“How was the evening?” His mother asked. Inko didn’t bring up the odd treatment of the picnic basket, which Izuku appreciated. He wasn’t too sure how he would dive into the details of that. Not until Duusu felt comfortable coming out on her own.
“It was okay, for the most part. Unohana-san’s started a degree in quirk counseling, she was really excited to tell me about it. She said that if I heard about anyone that might need her help, I was welcome to point them her way.”
“She was the nurse from the Ijutsu hospital, right?”
“Yes. She wants to branch out, apparently. She originally went to school to become a pediatric nurse, but she’s been seeing a lot of kids coming through because of Variant quirks and their family’s not reacting well. She really wants to help those kids have happy lives, no matter how different their quirks are from their family.” His mother nodded, smiling slightly as let himself ramble just a bit. He loved quirk analysis and he had definitely spent more time just chatting with Unohana-san than he probably should have. “She’s been taking online lessons from a local medical school that’s willing to let her remote learn while maintaining her nursing work.”
“That’s wonderful! The world always has room for more people like that.”
“Yeah. Wanaguchi-san is keeping his head down, so he’s managed to avoid getting into any more trouble. He’s been getting antsy though, I’m worried he’s going to sign up for another fighting ring soon,” Izuku said with a sigh, brushing a loose chunk of hair from his face. “There really isn’t anything I can do to stop him, if he does. But I wish I could figure out how to talk him into being more sensible. His current “job” is already dangerous enough.”
The crocodile man was going to make him go grey early. He was sure of it.
Inko shook her head fondly. She’d heard him complain about the rough-edged man plenty of times before.
“I met someone new tonight, though. I, uh…” Izuku hesitated. But he’d promised his mother that he would be honest with her whenever he could. “I had to meet them in person. It just- wasn’t the kind of conversation to have over a butterfly.”
He took a fortifying breath. It would be better to tell her about it here, where there was enough noise to keep Eri from overhearing it. He wasn’t sure how it would affect her to hear about something like this.
“Bubaigawara-san, was his name. I’m, um, pretty sure he was the armed robber that was all over the news about… Half a year ago, now?” He saw his mother tense up, but she didn’t speak yet. Waiting for him to continue before she gave her thoughts. “He wasn’t well, Mom. He’d had a lot of bad stuff happen that pushed him to that and I think it- it hurt his mind, too. He needed help but there wasn’t really anything I could do for him. I could tell that almost as soon as I connected to him. It- It felt like I was trying to talk to more than one person, but they were all speaking in half sentences through the butterfly. I could get his spoken words, but his emotions were hard to keep up with. Something happened with his quirk that caused it. Or, maybe made it a lot worse than it used to be? I don’t really have a baseline to compare with to be sure.”
It had been horrifying to listen to the man describe what happened to him, what pushed him to becoming a villain. Losing his parents to an accident, losing his job and home because of someone else not being careful, being so isolated that he used his quirk to make copies of himself to feel less alone, barely scraping by for years until he turned to a life of crime.
About watching his clones kill each other in fury because he hadn’t fully known or considered the consequences of making clones of himself to commit crimes. Watching helplessly as people with his face died in front of him over who wasn’t a clone, until his own sense of self was so thoroughly destroyed that he wasn’t even sure if he was the “real” Bubaigawara-san at the end. And he still suffered from the feeling of tearing himself apart, that all that stood between him and shattering completely were masks that he wore to hold himself together. Like a giant bandage over an unseen wound to his very mind.
He had managed to keep the horror from his face during the conversation, but there was still a sick feeling weighing in his stomach. He’d stayed quiet and calm as a nationally wanted man poured his heart out to him in a desperate plea for help. Help he wasn’t sure he could give.
“He had been looking for me to ask for help. Something that could give him some kind of safety, some kind of stability, but I couldn’t give it to him. I directed him to Ikuduon-san, they were the only person I could think of that might have an idea of what he needed. That was all I could do.”
Ikuduon was the only Plural person he knew and, as such, the only one he could turn to in hopes of understanding what went into a condition like that. All he could do was pray that it was the right choice.
He wished he could have done more. His throat felt tight just thinking about it.
“Oh honey…” His mother stepped away from the stove, tugging the knife from his hand and setting it on the counter before she wrapped him in a tight hug. She didn’t say anything more. Because, really, what was there to say?
They were a small family, living on a single parent’s income. It wasn’t like they could just give him enough money to live on, or hand him a job to work that his criminal record wouldn’t hurt, or an apartment to move into on a whim. He was a vigilante, working entirely from free tips and working with the morals of people living in the city who didn’t have means of their own to make it better. And, more than that, Izuku was just a teenager. Miraculous or no, he had no real power of his own to call on to fix the life of someone who’d suffered a bad hand.
“You did what you could, Izuku. We’re only human, and there’s only so much we can do for others,” she said after holding him for a few moments. He felt his mother lean away to kiss his forehead comfortingly. “I’m proud of you for trying. I think it was dangerous for you to meet that man alone, but I’m so proud to have such a kind son.”
Izuku let out a small hum, feeling both warmer and calmer. Even if his eyes had gotten misty again. (No tears yet, but it never took much.)
“He made a fuss over Sasakia. Not a bad one, he seemed really surprised that I was “just a greenhorn brat” but he was also really impressed about it? His emotions rocked around really fast, it was hard to keep up with them. But that wasn’t really the reason I felt like I needed to meet him in person,” he murmured softly, resting his head on his mother’s shoulder. He really needed to tell his mother about this before Duusu ended up surprising her later. “He had something that I had to see myself and not just through the connection. And, um, well… We… Have more than one kwami in the house now?”
There was a pause as his words sank in.
“Oh. Is that why you were asking about almonds?” She sounded calm, but he couldn’t tell if it was genuine calm or if she was too shocked to really feel anything about that yet.
“Mhm. Her name is Duusu, she’s a peafowl kwami, and apparently almonds are her favorite snack. Bubaigawara-san picked up a gift box that had her broach locked in it at some point, but he hadn’t gotten it open until recently. He’d heard about my butterflies somewhere and Duusu figured out I had Nooroo, but she didn’t really explain that to him. She just told him that it sounded like I was being helped by one of her brothers. That was the other reason he was looking for me, he wanted to help Duusu find her brother.”
“Okay. Is she still in the picnic basket?”
“Uhuh, unless Nooroo’s managed to coax her out to watch Eri-chan’s cartoon. I think she’s just feeling shy? It seemed like she was surprised that you and Eri knew about Nooroo. So it might just be that she’s not used to the idea that everyone here knows about the miraculous and kwami.” That would make sense, now that he’d said it out loud.
Nooroo had told him that miraculous and kwami were usually something their holders had to keep secret from the people around them. Friends, family, spouses; they weren’t supposed to not let anyone know they had them. For their safety and for the safety of the Miraculous. So Izuku had broken a pretty serious tradition by letting both his mother and his little sister know about it. Nooroo hadn’t seemed too bothered about it anymore, but he’d definitely been really shy when the secret had first been let out.
But that just made him wonder why Duusu had been locked away by herself and not in the large boxes that Nooroo had told him about. Why wasn’t she with one of the guardians? Had the last holder she’d been given to refused to return her? Had she been stolen and locked away to keep her from being found? Did she know where the guardians were? Did she know why they had yet to appear and take his best friend away from him?
“Um…”
The two jumped, turning to the entry of the kitchen, and the little blue and red bird kwami hovering shyly with a plate in her hands. Her tail feathers flicked slightly then she held out the plate.
“May I have some more crackers, please?”
“Oh! Oh, of course you can, dear,” his mother said warmly, letting go of Izuku. She turned away, opening the cabinets to pull out the bag she’d put the almond crackers in. Duusu floated over to the table, waiting patiently for her plate to be filled again, lighting up when it was piled higher than it had been before.
Izuku turned back to the vegetables, picking up the knife to get back to work.
He could ask Duusu about her strange situation later. Or ask Nooroo if she’d told him about it. He would wait until Duusu felt comfortable telling them about it, either way.
There was no reason to rush headlong into things. The answer would come eventually.
Afterword: NGL, I kinda chickened out on part of this one. Because I have no idea how to write from the perspective of someone like Jin and was terrified of accidentally doing something bad with it. So I skipped ahead to Izuku’s pov once I got the main stuff down, but I did want to set him into a better/more stable place bc of Izuku.
The person that Izuku set Jin/Twice up with is someone who’s been medically diagnosed/confirmed as a DID System, who (as it happens) studies psychology and has been working to an official degree. Izuku doesn’t know much about the topic, so he thought it would be better to set Jin up with a semi-professional. Said person is also part of a forum/group of people that have been helped by Sasakia and help each other out/connect with each other. Izuku doesn’t know about this group (yet) but it’s basically his own 100% volunteer network for semi-legal activities and a support network that isn’t afraid to use less-than-legal methods. XD
He’s going to be very flat-footed once he finally does learn about it.
And now I’ve touched on the mystery of what happened to the other miraculous! I’m hoping to lean further into it later, but for now things are vague and concerning. This is how Izuku gets Duusu! Not via Nedzu but through his work as Sasakia! I had actually planned this before I posted the other chapter, so this wasn’t a spontaneous change because of it. Duusu, Nooroo, and Izuku will have a chapter talking about how the addition of her will affect this, as well as giving a little more info on the overall mystery of what’s going on with the Miraculous. Just not today.
I joked about this in a comment on Ao3, but I think I’m gonna follow through with it. What should Nedzu get as his mail-ordered magic-item? GIVE ME YOUR FUNNIEST ANSWERS!!! If you can make me laugh hard enough to have tea come out my nose, then I’ll use it.
