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Sometimes, in order to move forward, one must look back to what used to be. One never knew the secrets that could be revealed if they took the time to look at the people who had come before them.
Or the revelations about others that could be found when they did.
Chapter Foreword: Hey all, Part 2 of the Sports Festival is fighting me a lot more than I’d thought it would. I’ve decided to straight-up replace the Cavalry Battle with something original for this story and it’s eating up more of my brain power than I’d thought it would. (Well, and a lot of IRL stresses. Those are eating my spoons too.) Either way, the chapter still isn’t finished and might not be for a while longer.
SO! To buy myself time, and give everyone something to chew on for the rest of the month, I’ve written a little intermission about what’s got Nedzu’s attention.
This is also to get some proper MLB lore for the folks reading this who also haven’t actually watched/read any of it. This is just to get some folks up-to-speed and to show what could be dug up by the bnha heroes about people with powers “similar” to Sasakia.
Chapter 19: Look Back to Look Foreword
Nedzu’s ear twitched, watching the old recordings he’d managed to locate, his paws pressed together in thought.
This… Was not what he’d anticipated finding in his research into past heroes. He had been looking into powers similar to Sasakia’s. Trying to find a past figure who may have contributed to the young informant’s history. An ancestor or predecessor of some kind.
And he’d found one. He’d found someone similar, in the history of Paris, France.
The catch? The person in question was a pre-quirk era super villain. A terrorist who had plagued the city in the 2010’s who had called himself ‘Hawkmoth’. The power set he’d had was certainly similar, but there were differences between them.
His french was not the best, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him. (The subtitles helped, but it was obvious the poster had added them herself, and her Japanese was about as good as his French. Which was to say, it was passable, but there really needed to be a proper translator involved.)
Finding out about the villain was far from easy, however. The passage of time had cost him much of the primary sources he could have used in his research.
Old news outlets had emptied their old archives, clearing room for new articles and stories and getting rid of the “old news” that didn’t matter anymore. Old servers shut down because there was no one to continue paying for them or updating them. Websites shut down because the person who’d started them no longer owned domain or the web-hosting to keep it.
But some of it had managed to survive.
Web pages here and there, the occasional video that survived as reference to history, pictures and recordings that managed to escape destruction and reach the modern day.
The museum archivist he’d reached out to had promised to get him more data to study, but it required more time and paperwork before they could ship it out to Japan for him. However, they were allowed to zip some video files and old web page archives for him to comb over until the rest of the important data could arrive.
One of which was a video created and given to the museum by a young lady who’d lived in the city at the time of the villain’s reign of terror.
The girl, one miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng, was a half-Chinese and half-French teenager who had (apparently) wanted to ensure there was at least one unbiased record about Hawkmoth, his ‘Akuma’, and the city’s heroes Ladybug and Chat Noir. A valiant goal, considering the hubbub that apparently went on about the personal lives of the heroes at the time, and the attempts to keep the full scope of the situation hidden that the politicians of the era attempted to use to keep people from realizing just how bad things in the famed city actually were.
He’d gone through the initial posts of the so-called ‘Ladyblog’, as it had been the most acclaimed for it’s information. But he’d found it more-than-a-little lacking when it came to the information he’d wanted from it. He wasn’t sure how much he could accredit to the blog itself or the limited surviving information from it.
No, Dupain-Cheng’s video bore far more information for him than the blog did.
He hit play again, restarting the video once more.
Dupain-Cheng fiddled with her camera, making the recording wobble slightly as she tried to anchor it after it had started to slide off of it’s perch on her desk. The girl’s face was tired, in the manner of someone who hadn’t been sleeping well for a while. She sat back down in her chair, the over-sized jacket she was wearing sliding off one shoulder. Her hair was long, tied back in a braid with a few lose strands falling out. He’d seen bandages on her hands, the sort he usually saw on students who took boxing classes and often over-did their training without meaning to. Blue eyes looked out from the screen as the girl finally gathered herself together to speak.
“Hello, everyone, I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I’m a student in College Franciose Dupont, in what’s ‘affectionately’ called the Akuma Class. I… Honestly don’t know if anyone will find this video helpful or informative, or if it will just be some video that gets thrown out later. Not when the Ladyblog is more common for people to look for their info about Hawkmoth and the Akuma but… I feel like someone has to properly sit down and explain things for people who don’t know what’s going on here in Paris. A kind of warning video, for anyone visiting.” The girl sounded as tired as she looked, slouching in her seat and leaning her elbows on the desk. “I’ve, uh, been thinking about recording this for a while. Making a couple videos to just- explain things from the perspective of someone who has to live with all of this happening. As someone who isn’t a reporter who’s tangling their reputation into this. And there was an… Incident that’s been messing with me that’s been pushing me to finally do it.”
Whatever this “incident” was probably why the girl looked so tired. So exhausted.
Nedzu scanned her face, trying to read as much as he could. (This wasn’t the first time he’d watched the video. But rewatches allowed him to find more details that he hadn’t spotted the previous times.)
It was one of a series of videos, this one was labeled “Hawkmoth and the Akuma”. Unfortunately, due to data dumps and deletions, Nedzu hadn’t found or been given the rest of the videos in the series yet. He dearly hoped the museum would come through and would send the rest to him.
Dupain-Cheng took a fortifying breath before she launched into her story;
“As of September, 2015, Paris France has been under near-constant attack by a man who calls himself ‘Hawkmoth’, a Super powered Terrorist who’s been springing attacks on the city almost daily. To the point where people have pretty much started thinking of the attacks as part of ‘normal life’ here, even though we all know that it’s not how things used to be,” Dupain-Cheng said with a sigh, resting her head on her hand. Her eyes slid to the side, looking at someone or something out of the camera’s view. Her jaw set before she continued speaking. “He attacks through creatures he calls ‘Akuma’, they look like little eerie little black and purple butterflies. Like, they actually look supernatural and ominous, and the leave little black trails behind them when they fly. They let him possess people who are extremely emotional and turn them into… I guess monsters wouldn’t be too far off the mark. Villains might be another word, if you like comic book comparisons.”
“Sadness, anger, grief, embarrassment; any kind of intense emotion makes people a target, no matter who they are. He uses the butterflies, the Akuma, to take them over and promises them power. The power to fix whatever it is that upset them. The power to make whatever was wrong ‘right’ again. In exchange for the powers he gives them, he always asks for the same thing; the Miraculous belonging to the heroes who’ve appeared to fight back against him, Ladybug and Chat Noir.” The girl paused for a moment, humming as she searched for her words. Something told him that she hadn’t actually rehearsed this speech. She wasn’t reading from a script, she was just recording herself and saying her thoughts as they came. “I’ll… Get into the thoughts and theories about those in a different video. But to sum up some general stuff, it’s some kind of item that Ladybug and Chat Noir have and losing it will take their powers away. And some of the fights imply that Hawkmoth has one too. So, uh, both sides seem to be trying to take away the other’s powers.”
Powers from an item… Meaning they didn’t have those powers on their own. Something gave them their powers. Nedzu thought back to the blog videos of the attacks. Of the two heroes, both of whom looked like teenagers to him, fighting and struggling against the villains to keep their home city safe.
“Akuma are… volatile. Violent. They want the thing they were given powers for more than anything else, sometimes even ignoring Ladybug and Chat Noir in favor of the thing they wanted. Thing is, giving them the thing they want doesn’t help. Because, usually, it’s not enough for them anymore. In fact, for some of them, it just makes them exponentially worse than they were before. Their powers are usually related to either something specific to them, or whatever they were upset about. And it seems like there’s no real limit to what those powers can be. Anything Hawkmoth feels like, I guess, but usually it’s something tangential to whomever he’s transformed.”
So not even the villains truly had powers of their own, they were given the powers by this Hawkmoth fellow. His power was to give others powers to use.
Sasakia hadn’t truly given Shouta a new power, he’d simply enhanced the powers he’d already had. But, he had physically transformed Shouta to be able to fight, even though he’d been severely injured. And, if the general theories were correct, Hawkmoth’s powers could be taken away and given to someone else…
“Ladybug and Chat Noir are able to fight the Akuma’s off and keep the damage to the city and everyone in it minimal, but it’s not… It’s not easy for them. Akuma sink into an object the upset person is usually holding or wearing and they can’t return those people to normal until the object is destroyed or the Akuma leaves it. But even then, Ladybug is the only one who can actually fix everything afterwards. She has this move, ability, whatever, that restores everything back to the state it was in before the Akuma was made called the “Miraculous Cure”. I don’t know why it’s called that, it’s more like it just… Restores everything to how it was before the event that set off the Akuma.” She leaned back in her seat, letting it bounce slightly. She blew her bangs out of her face when they flopped over her eyes from the movement. “Hawkmoth can also remove the Akuma himself but… He’s too prideful to do it most of the time, I think. I’m pretty sure there have been a few Akuma that have turned on him, or caught him in whatever thing they were trying to do, or were just… Really, really dumb ideas and he just- Sat back and waited for Ladybug to fix his mistake.”
Dupain-Cheng let out a bitter laugh, her face and voice worn down with an exhaustion he associated with heroes who burned their candles at both ends and tried to keep going despite it.
He wondered what went on in her life to wear her away like that. He couldn’t believe that Hawkmoth alone could have torn her down like this. There had to be more that he wasn’t privy to. (He would likely never know, not unless he looked into this worn down child from the far past.)
“It sounds minor like that, doesn’t it? Hawkmoth makes an Akuma, Ladybug and Chat Noir fight it, Ladybug fixes everything like it never happened, and everyone moves on with their day. Lather, rinse, repeat. Right?” Haunted blue eyes look out from the screen and, not for the first time since he’d found this video, he wished he could have done something to help the suffering child on the other side of the screen. “It’s not that easy. God I wish it could be, but it’s just not that simple or easy for us. A lot of people bury their real feelings under nonchalance, or fake cheeriness, or whatever they need to do to feel in control but… I’m tired of living like this. I think a lot of people are.”
The girl looked like she was going to cry, but she simply scrubbed at her eyes. There was a heaving sigh, then she was speaking once more.
“Being turned into an akuma… Resisting it hurts. It hurts a lot, from what I gathered by asking the people it happened to. It’s so hard to say no when he’s talking into your mind, to keep your senses and not let him get into your head. To keep him from taking control of you. And it’s worse when they’re freed, because they never remember anything while under his control. They can’t remember the things they said, the things they did, the people they hurt, while they were like that. It’s nothing but blank nothingness from the point he forced them to agree to when Ladybug and Chat Noir turned them back to normal.” She buried her face in her hands, taking a shaking breath to calm herself. Before the villain could sense her and strike, he assumed. “I’ve been… I’ve been lucky, so very lucky, because I’m one of the only people in my class who’s never been Akumatized by Hawkmoth so far. I’m-I’m not putting my money on it staying that way forever. Better to not tempt fate by not saying that it’ll never happen. There’s every chance it’ll happen to me eventually. But I’m going to try and avoid it happening for as long as I can.”
“It-It’s awful, having to live like this. To not be allowed to feel normal, human emotions because some terrorist madman with brain-jacking empathy-superpowers might turn you into a monster at a moment’s notice and make you hurt everyone around you, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Not until he’s found and his miraculous is taken away and he’s finally, finally put in prison for everything he’s done.” Dupain-Cheng sucked in a sharp breath, holding it for a few moments before slowly letting it out. “Sorry, sorry, gotta keep my head. Can’t risk him getting a shot in. It’s just hard. I- yeah.”
Dupain-Cheng looked at the camera, giving a weak smile.
“Anyway, that’s the basic gist of Hawkmoth and his Akuma. Other than, like, he’s terrible at designing costumes. They’re hideous most of the time. Like cheap knock off toys and costumes for 80s and 90s cartoon characters. I think the costumes from super cheesy, sentai shows look better than the stuff Hawkmoth puts his Akuma in. But that’s more from the fashion designer side of my opinions than anything really factual about the guy himself. See you in the next video, I guess.”
As the girl leaned over the camera, obviously trying to turn it of, the microphone caught her mutter of ‘I need to come up with a better sign off for the next one. That was awful.’ before the screen went dark.
Hawkmoth. A butterfly themed villain with telepathic butterflies, who sense the emotions of others and could transform people through their powers. A terrorist who used his powers to torment one of the most famous cities in France for years.
Hawkmoth, who’s powers were granted by an item in his possession and could be taken away if someone took it from him.
Sasakia. A vigilante informant who’s powers took the form of emotion sensing, telepathic butterflies who had the power to transform others and grant them new forms and powers. A kind, caring young man who used his powers to help people and save those who were lost and in danger in Musutafu.
There were similarities between them. He would have to be blind to not see it.
But.
There were considerable differences as well.
Sasakia didn’t coerce Shouta into accepting his powers, he offered them and Shouta had (as far as Nedzu could tell from his employee’s testimony) had every ability to refuse them if he so chose. Further more, Erasure Anansi seemed to have a clear mind, as opposed to a scattered, erratic one that Nedzu had noted from the Akuma footage he’d seen on the Ladyblog.
Shouta had returned to his injured state after Sasakia had run out of strength to maintain the Kamiko state, but that may have more to do with a lack of Ladybug’s “Miraculous Cure” being present to restore everything afterward.
However, Hawkmoth’s powers came from his so-called Miraculous. That meant that, if someone else had it in their possession, then they could use the same (or similar) powers.
Nedzu rubbed at his chin in thought, a theory slowly forming in his mind.
Perhaps… Perhaps they weren’t as different as they seemed. Intent, after all, played a tremendous role in how something impacted others.
Hawkmoth coerced others to do his bidding because he wanted them to obey him for a personal goal of some kind. He had fully fallen into the role of a true Super Villain, from what Nedzu could tell. The quirked animal couldn’t tell what the man’s goals actually were, but power and control were fairly standard motives for people like him.
By contrast, Sasakia had wanted to help save the lives of innocent people, to keep people safe. He used his powers to pass on warnings and to help find people who were hurt and afraid. People who needed someone to help them and keep them safe.
Was it possible that… That Sasakia had, somehow, found the Miraculous that had been the source of Hawkmoth’s powers? And these differences between their power-sets came from the intentions that fueled their use of it?
He huffed, sulking in his chair.
He needed more information! But much of it was out of his reach at the moment.
There was a knock at his door. Nedzu quickly hid his frustration, straightening up in his seat.
“Ah! Yes, please come in!” He called, quickly switching to his usual, pleasant tone. Iki opened the door, giving him a smile.
“Nedzu-san? Did you have something shipped to the school instead of your apartment again?” The dark-skinned human asked wryly. “Because I just had a very interesting chat with a very bewildered delivery man about where he needed to put a package he had…”
Nedzu smiled cheerily, waving the teacher in. Tucked under one of their arms was a small package.
“I can’t see why he had trouble. It’s not as though I’d given special instructions for where he needed to take it!” Nedzu said, well aware of the mischief in his voice. Iki laughed, setting the box down on the desk.
“Well, I think he got rather turned around by the crowds for the Sports Festival today. Next time, leave them a note to always bring the delivery to the front office, won’t you?” They asked with their hands on their hips, still chuckling. “Security was giving the poor guy a hard time when I found him.”
“I shall endeavor to remember that for future orders, Iki-kun.”
They shook their head in amusement.
“Do you plan on joining us in the teacher’s box any time soon, Nedzu-san? Or are you going to stay in your Plotting Burrow for a while longer?”
Nedzu hummed.
“I think I’ll be able to join during the tournament. I have a few things I want to examine before I wrap up for today,” said Nedzu, eyeing his new package. If that was what he thought it might be then… “Save me a few treats, won’t you Iki-kun? You know what I’m fond of by now.”
“Sure, Nedzu-san. I’ll have some of your favorite fair-snacks waiting in the booth for you.”
Iki left, and Nedzu turned his full attention to the box.
Well, it was finally time to see if his hunches were right.
Afterword: So here’s a peek into the past, mixed with Nedzu’s theorizing!
As some of you can guess, the Marinette from this universe is a little different from canon. She’s a couple steps to the left because of the stress she’s under as Ladybug. Some of the stuff I brought up comes from fan aus and comics I adore that explore more of why it seems so hard for people to refuse Hawkmoth, as well as the kind of day-to-day stress build up from living with him as a constant, looming threat over the city. But this Marinette is separate from those inspos, but she IS very stressed.
She wanted to record some videos/essays about everything that’s, you know, genuinely about the Truth of Hawkmoth, the Akuma, Chat Noir, and Ladybug. She cares a lot about Alya, but she knows her friend isn’t as unbiased as she likes to think she is and doesn’t try to be as honest and objective as she should be. She made the videos for archival reasons, as well as to give herself the chance to really sit down and get her own thoughts in order about everything happening.
(She was very tired of living through Major Historical Events in Paris and really wished the world would take a god damn break already.)
Nedzu gets SOME lore, but he’s still missing a lot pieces to thread everything together. He’s making educated guesses at this point.
Like I said, this is a buffer chapter, and also me trying to give myself more time to work on the next part of the actual sports festival done.
It’s… Um… Harder than I thought. I think it’s also gonna turn very, very long. Like, more than 3 parts. But a lot of stuff happens between the characters so it makes sense.
