Shape of a Miracle EP 2 - FreezeFrame

stop

"No."

Ishida opens his eyes, still sitting on the dark, icy river. Tikki is gone. He looks down at the earrings lying in his hands. They slip through his fingers and fall into the darkness. He's done listening to voices telling him he can be more.

He looks back at Mew: still standing there, magically frozen, as the akumatized villain stares daggers at her. He assumes they would have already stolen the cat ring from her by now, but they haven't.

Because they can't; Mew's hand is clenched into a fist, frozen from the monster's magical flash. FreezeFrame claws at it, desperately trying to wriggle the miraculous off of her finger. But it's stuck, trapped on the superhero's finger, wrapped in an unmovable fist. Mew has positioned herself in a way that makes Freezeframe's own power be the very thing preventing them from winning.

Realising this, FreezeFrame lets go of the frozen hero, takes the photo of Mew from its mouth and rips it. Mew feels her body relax, she's free from the monster's spell. Then she feels pain; FreezeFrame smacks her to the ground and immediately takes another photo, trapping her once again in a state of immobility. But Mew's hand is still in a fist, FreezeFrame still can't take the miraculous.

They yank a polaroid from their own mouth and tear it to shreds, freeing Mew once more. They ram their foot right onto Mew's torso, pinning her down in place. Snarling down at their enemy, they grab her fist and try to pry it open with their sharp, spindly claws. But it won't budge. Mew won't budge. Even free from the akuma's magic, she doesn't move. She just lies there, looking up at the monster, at her sister.

She did this. She turned Yuzuru into a monster. If she wasn't so harsh on her, then Yuzuru wouldn't have been so distraught to be targeted and akumatized. But if she didn't try to cut her out, then Yuzuru may have actually found out about her double life for real, and she would have to give up the miraculous, leaving someone else to risk their lives protecting the world from supervillains. Even now, there's no winning this fight; If she wins, the building will fall, and if she loses Yuzuru will be like this forever. Either way, someone gets hurt. She's cursed. No, she is a curse. She's the wielder of the miraculous of destruction. That's all she is, and that's all she'll ever be. But no matter how cold that ring feels on her finger, she just has to hold onto it. It's all she has left. She can't let go. She can't fight. She can't win and she can't lose. All she can do is stop. Stop trying. Stop fighting.

Just Stop.

Ishida looks away from the stalemate, closing his eyes, still sitting on the icy river. This has nothing to do with him. These aren't his battles to fight. This isn't the life he's going to live. Stop hoping for anything else. Just stop. No matter how much it pains him. He has to face it.

He opens his eyes and looks out in the storm. He needs to face his future.

It's all black.

And cold.

He lets out a breath. He can't feel anything. The frozen air around him bleeds through his jacket and into his body, slowly taking over it. He sinks deeper and deeper down, as burning, cold water soaks into his trainers, seeping out of the cracks growing in the ice beneath him. Slowly growing, and growing, and growing, until-

CRACK!

A hand snatches him up to his feet. The ice he once sat on breaks. A jagged hole is all that's left. He Gasps for air. He nearly fell into it! He would be sinking to that frozen inky abyss if it wasn't for-

He snaps to the hand that pulled him away, still holding tight onto his wrist: It's Mew's hand.

It's Mew.