Shape of a Miracle EP 1 - The Pied Player

Press The Button

Then with his face keeping the same smug expression, he pressed the button on his CD player.

Oh no.

In an instant the movement of the crowd surrounding her completely changed. A couple of teachers pinned her to the wall while a first-year student came at her with their fist. She reflexively kicked them away before the punch could hit and barely managed to swing up onto the shoulders of a teacher. She jumped to the ground and ran away.

Running through the slippery hallways, she looked back at the huge crowd stampeding towards her, catching up to her fast. The new song's rhythm buzzed under her feet, it was much more intense than the previous and even a little faster, but she couldn't place the beat. Go figure, running for your life doesn't exactly help you concentrate at the slight vibrations around you. But even if she could find the pattern, The Pied Player would just change the song again. Even if she could figure out enough songs to get to the end of the track, he could just restart the CD.

Then it clicked. Back in the recording room, she saw him restart the CD. After he clicked his button he had to click it again and take the disk out. Her nose wrinkled. Plagg told her that her main objective was to destroy the CD, to destroy the akuma within it. And there's only one way to get that CD within reach. She would have to keep getting The Pied Player to skip to the next song, to skip to the end of the soundtrack. So he would have no choice but go through all the necessary procedures to restart the songs.

Using all the stamina she had left she shot through to the end of the halls. Kneeling to the ground she looked back at her adversaries whom she had managed to create a fair distance from. She closed her eyes and centred her focus onto finding the pattern in their steps.

By the time the crowd had reached her she could easily avoid every single one of their attacks. The Pied Player watched through the windows, pouting at the lack of a captured kitten. On queue, he dolefully pressed his little button again.

So, for exactly thirty-four minutes Shoko fought through eleven different songs from that little disk. Every time he switched to the next song, she would rush as far away from the brainwashed teenagers as she possibly could, and figure out what the new rhythm would be. It got tougher and tougher as each song got more and more aggressive.

Shoko could hardly breathe. She was terrified that her legs would cave in on themselves at any moment. All the energy she was getting was solely from the adrenaline that shot through her body due to the intensity of the situation. But that was quickly starting to fade.

She was fighting in the school science lab when all her adversaries jolted to a stop. She shot her head to the other side of the room where The Pied Player stood, rolling his eyes in annoyance. Finally, she had done it. She had made him play through all his songs. Her entire body begged her to collapse on the floor, but her mission wasn't done yet. Taking in as many deep breaths of sweet air as she possibly could, she readied herself to snatch the disk right out of his grasp the moment he opened his player. Watching him, as he tediously hovered his finger up to press the button, hopefully, for the final time.

Then he stopped himself. And slowly he turned to the pair of cat-like eyes that were eagerly watching him. Staring right at Shoko, he lowered his hand.

He had figured out her plan.

She crumbled to her knees. Of course, he did. He's defenceless without his army, yet the second he loses control over them, she stands there and waits for him to make the next move instead of attacking. How could she have been so obvious?

She took a deep breath and looked at him in his empty eyes. He was standing on the other side of the science lab she had gotten herself into when she was fighting his minions. Surrounding them both was a plethora of dishevelled students and teachers, slowly coming to.

She took a deep breath and pulled herself back up. Looking at her opponent right in the eyes. He may have not fallen for her trick but he was now completely defenceless, letting himself be vulnerable to her. He was, after all, defenceless without his army. Now nothing was stopping her from just pressing his silly little button herself. It was just him and her now.