Shape of a Miracle EP 1 - The Pied Player

Found You~!

"CLAWS OUT!"

She felt all the magic of the ring explode out and wrap her entire body in ribbons of green light. At her side, now existed the baton Plagg told her could extend with a press of a button. Grabbing the thing, she pressed it, promptly jolting her to a stop. She was safe.

In her haste she had extended it horizontally. One end crashed against the outside wall of the third floor, the other, mashed through a window of the second. Leaving her dangling in the middle like a kitten in a tree.

Arms shaking, she pulled herself on top of the pole, which was easier than she thought it would be. Once she was able to process what had just happened, she finally looked up to the roof. Which still had a performance of teenagers running around, searching for the cat miraculous, completely ignoring her. Except for one. There was one pair of eyes whose attention was completely on her and it was the very one she wished to avoid.

The Pied Player gave her a slow, ugly grimace. His finger twirled up and hovered just above the button of the player on his back. And right before pressing it, he slowly mouthed the words:

"Found you!"

Then every eye was on her. Every single person on that roof turned all their attention to her and quickly started marching towards the stairs. Jumping onto the railing, The Pied Player sat down with kicking legs, his smile staying completely transfixed on her. He didn't seem to be planning on leaving his spot anytime soon.

She wrinkled her nose at him. She needed to figure out a way to steal his disk before any of this escalated any further. She looked down. She could easily extend her baton against the ground to get her up and onto the roof. She would just need to do it on the ground.

But if she re-extended her stick now, would she be able to take the fall? Her eyes darted around the courtyard below her, searching for a safe place to land, but there were none near her, she was right above the stone fountain.

Shoko looked back down at the fountain below her. There, in its water, was a cat. But it wasn't a cat. It was a reflection, her reflection. The ring didn't just give her a weapon, it gave her an entire new look. Her entire body was now covered in black, including her face, which had a thick, dark mask concealing most of it. Her head wore a hood which formed cat ears at its top and around her abdomen was a green ribbon that was tied up on her back, giving the impression of a tail. The only part of her body that showed any skin was the top half of her face. But her eyes- since when were her irises' green?

She whipped her head to her left, she could feel that someone had just stepped onto one of the ends of the staff. She sat there, holding tightly to the middle of the staff, in complete disbelief, watching student after student jump out of a third story window onto that end of the baton. She quickly crawled to the other end of her staff, where it had smashed through a broken window. Once she climbed back into the school, she pushed the baton, as slow as she possibly could, downwards, letting all the students on it slide to the other end and onto the courtyard.

She retracted her staff, exhaling in relief. They were all safe. Maybe a little too safe, most of them had already left the courtyard to catch back up with her.

Then, she didn't know why, but she ducked and grabbed the pane of the window to swing her legs up against the wall below it. She pushed herself backwards and through the legs of one of the homeroom teachers.

Through shaky legs she stumbled back to her feet, did she really just do that? How did she know to do that? How did she know someone was behind her about to grab her? but she didn't have time to think, because all around her were more students than that hallway could fit.