It had been a usual patrol, a usual mission. The akumas had been getting harder and harder to get, as time went on, but it hadn't been anything Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn't handle. Maybe more bruises, more close calls, but nothing too serious, nothing that interfered too much with their lives. It had been a bit of a dream, being able to be the hero of France, being able to be free, no matter if it was behind the mask. Being able to have people look past how normal she was, looking at who she could be, looking at how she was helpful. It was a wonderful feeling!
But, as with all dreams, it had to come to an end eventually.
"Chat!" Ladybug called out, as her partner narrowly dodged yet another attack. This akuma was the most dangerous they'd had to face yet, using numerous amounts of swords as their attacks. Even Chat Noir's surprising knowledge of some fencing had no help here, since the swords were of a different style, closer to what was known as a "samurai style". With the swords being wider, and sturdier than the practice swords for fencing, Ladybug was already far out of her reach of knowledge on it. What she did know was that she had to avoid the attacks the best she could, something that Chat Noir apparently didn't know.
"Chat, what are you doing?!" She exclaimed, as Chat danced out among all the swords yet again, before ducking behind a vase, not unscathed this time. A shallow cut along his arm had begun bleeding, and Ladybug was caught as to what to do. She certainly couldn't just hide the whole time, yet she had to be careful how she got out there or she'd get hurt worse than Chat had. How could she get to Chat without getting hurt, or using her Lucky Charm?
"Trying to get close! We can't stay at a range forever, and he's already moving closer! What if more people get caught in the middle?" Chat retorted in a whisper-yell, peeping from behind his vase every so often to see how far the akuma had advanced. "We're supposed to be the ones putting their lives at risk against the things the police don't know how to handle, not the citizens!"
Aren't we citizens? Ladybug wanted to retort, but she held her tongue. She didn't know Chat's regular life, for all she knew he was some super spy. "What do you suggest we do when we get close in?" She asked. If he had a plan, even half-formed, it was better than nothing. And maybe she could build on it. Going into this fight with no plan was going to get them seriously injured, at the least.
"Not sure, I was going to see what would happen with him when we got close," Chat responded, spending a precious moment to turn to her and shrug. Ladybug restrained herself from facepalming, and glared instead. "What, do you have any better idea? I can at least block some of his attacks with my staff a bit better than you can with your yo-yo."
She grit her teeth at Chat's disregard for his own life, and almost came out from behind the corner she was hiding behind. "Are you insane?! We can't do anything if we're dead!"
A grin, before he turned back around almost to recoil from the realization that the akuma had gotten close since he'd last looked. That was all she saw before Chat burst out, staff extended, darting around, trying—and succeeding occasionally—to land a blow on the akuma, while mostly deflecting blows from the sword. The sound of metal clashing against metal filled the air, and Ladybug looked around frantically for something she could do to help Chat, when she noticed that the swords that had been floating in the air, were slowly disappearing as the akuma focused on Chat. With any threat against her disappearing with the swords, she just had to keep quiet and sneaky, to keep the akuma's attention on Chat, not her.
Glancing around, she quietly snuck farther behind the corner, using her yo-yo to pull herself up onto the roof for a better vantage of the fight below. The ringing of the staff colliding with the black sword the akuma was using continued to ring clearly through the air, simultaneously comforting her and worrying her with it's sound. What would worry her the most was when the ringing stopped, signaling that the sword had likely collided with something other than the staff.
Looking from above, she had a better view of the fighter's pattern. What had he called himself? Katana No Sensei? Something like that? It wasn't anything she recognized, and occasionally throughout the fight, he'd say something that confused her and Chat, being in a language they didn't know. Whatever his name was, he was fighting in an interesting pattern. He held his sword with both hands, pointing straight in front of him, whenever he wasn't attacking or defending. It was his default stance. More than that, his attack was a combination of stabs and slashes, neither leaning towards one or the other. How were they supposed to deal with that? The other akuma's had stuck to a sort of pattern, or it was easy to tell when they were dealing a serious blow. This guy was moving too fast for them to see when his attacks were harsher than the others.
Watching the fight, Ladybug glanced around the scene, looking for something she could use against Katana No Sensei. "Tikki? Do you see anything I could use?" She asked her kwami hopefully. Tikki had hinted at being around for a very long time, maybe she knew something that could deal with this style of attack.
Tikki hummed in her ear. "Get his sword out of is hands. Besides the fact that you need to break it to get the akuma out of him, and besides the fact that it's the source of his powers, if he doesn't have his sword he won't be able to hurt you guys at all. Unless he summons another sword before you get it out of his hands. You'll have to be careful about it. I don't know how much the Lucky Charm will help you here. You've got two similar, but different goals, and it will be incredibly hard to do both, even with a lot of good luck on your side. The Lucky Charm might only help you get the sword out of his hands, it might not help you stay safe."
Ladybug nodded, shoving the voice that began whimpering about things like possibly dying into the back of her head. Chat was right, they needed to keep the citizens safe, and the police couldn't get the akuma without hurting the person. The person wasn't the one committing the crime, they were just a puppet of the akuma. It was something that Ladybug doubted anyone besides her and Chat knew. The ringing called her attention back to the fight, and she looked over Chat worriedly. He was getting tired, starting to bring up his staff at the last minute rather than in plenty of time, while Katana no Sensei was keeping his vicious pace. 「僕がパリで一番偉い武士と確認になるんだぜ！」Katana no Sensei roared, as he shoved Chat several paces back with a parry. Ladybug gasped, and hurried her pace in looking for a way to distract him and get his sword out of his hands. Chat was unbalanced, and the akuma was moving fast towards him. If she didn't do something, soon, Chat wouldn't get out of this without getting seriously hurt—or dead.
"Lucky Charm!" She called out, as she summoned her greatest ability. A mistake, since it called Katana No Sensei's attention to her as soon as she did so. A sword appeared behind her with a swoosh and clap of the displaced air as it came into existence, and her heart raced. Just as a red and black-spotted sash popped into existence and dropped into her hands, the sword struck, slashing across her back, and pushing her off the edge of the roof as she cried in pain.
A laugh from the akuma pierced the air that was silent for a moment, before he spoke cruelly. 「みんなが僕の力に負けすこと！」
"Ladybug!" Chat called out to her, his footsteps starting towards her until he suddenly stopped, likely by the akuma. She had already halted her fall by catching herself with her yo-yo with a sign, but she was still far enough off the ground that it would hurt if she fell from here. "Ladybug, are you alright?"
"I'm fine, Chat! Just keep attacking him!" Ladybug replied, slowly lowering herself down so that she wouldn't get hurt as much, watching carefully for any more floating swords so that she could have at least a chance of swinging out of their way. Chat thankfully obeyed her, rather than trying to help her get down, distracting the akuma long enough that she could get down to the ground, to be able to use her yo-yo to deflect attacks again. Looking around, she tried to see what she could use with the sash to get the sword out of his hands, but besides his hands and the sword itself, nothing came to her. Should she really get up close to that deadly blade? She didn't have enough time to think much through.
"Eyagh!" Chat yelled, as he was shoved back and tripped by the akuma, his head making a painful crack against the pavement. Ladybug winced, then her eyes widened in panic. This would be the fight that they got injured the most in so far. What if Chat had gotten a concussion, or worse? She wrenched her gaze from her injured comrade to the akuma—she didn't feel the need to give much consideration to his name anymore, he was just a threat that needed to be taken down. No one hurt her friends that much—and glared. «Desolé, monsieur, mait tu ne peux battre cette fois!» Ladybug spat at the enemy, her yo-yo whirling next to her, before darting forward to engage him in close combat.
Dodging the sword as best she could, numerous cuts began to form on her body, shallow and deep, from when she failed. A sound of metal scraping along the pavement behind her told her that Chat had gotten up, and she would have heaved a sigh of relief if it weren't for the fact that she was fighting for her life. Ducking once underneath a strike, she saw her opportunity, lighting up for her in red and black spots as clear as day. His hands were wrapped around the sword, tilted towards the right, close to where she was. If she hadn't ducked, her head might well not even be on her shoulders. But if she could take the sash, and bind his hands to his chest, she could get the sword out of his hands. She just had to work quickly to catch him off guard.
Darting up, she grabbed his hands, surprising him, and shoved them towards his chest, continuing to keep him off balance. He must have thought she would have tried to pry the sword from his fingers while he could keep swinging it at her. Not something that would have been smart to try. As quickly as she could, she wrapped the sash around his hands, swinging around him carefully to tie it without releasing him. He grunted and shifted, trying to throw her off balance, but she finished tying a knot anyways. Huffing a sigh of relief when she was done. Finally, he couldn't attack them anymore.
The akuma continued to wriggle to try and free himself, as Ladybug gathered her breath, and Chat pulled himself up by his staff. 「パリのレイでィバッグとシャ・ノアーってやつらに負けるもんか。」He cried out, sounding frustrated and confused. Ladybug relaxed further, a mistake.
A slice of pain ripped across her back, from her shoulder to her hip, sending her stumbling forward to fall to the ground, a bloodied floating sword above her, and the akuma smiling cruelly. "Ladybug!" Chat yelled, before running over to the akuma with a growl, ripping the sword out of his hands. «Je ne vais pas permettre que vous attaquez My Lady.» He spat, activating cataclysm and ripping it along the length of the sword.
A purple butterfly came out of the quickly vanishing sword, and Ladybug struggled to get up, managing to suppress her pain just long enough to stand, swinging her yo-yo around tiredly as she captured the akuma, releasing it into the air as a purified white butterfly. "Bye bye... pretty... butterfly..." She said tiredly, before dropping again.
Chat caught her this time, ignoring the poor guy who was now released from the akuma's grip, muttering 「ん？ここはどこ？どうしてここにいるの？」Softly before going unconscious. He lowered her gently to the ground, cradling her head in his hands.
«Comment est-ce arrivé?» He questioned, looking over her worriedly. Ladybug tried to smile encouragingly, but with the pain it was likely more of a grimace. "Oh, my lady, how could they hurt you like this?"
"Your transformation is about to wear off," Tikki whispered in her ear softly, sounding worried and sad. Ladybug was grateful for the warning, but it seemed like this would finally be the time when her partner learned that behind the mask, she was plain old Marinette.
"I guess you'll learn what you've been searching for for a while, Kitty-Cat," Marinette murmured, starting to close her eyes. "You'll be meeting plain ol' me behind the mask..."
"No no no, Ladybug!" Chat called, as she began slipping into the darkness of sleep. She was just so tired... She would talk to Chat when she awoke...
Translation time!
「僕がパリで一番偉い武士と確認になるんだぜ！」= I will be recognized as the best swordsmaster in all of Paris!
「みんなが僕の力に負けすこと！」= All will bow before my strength!
«Desolé, monsieur, mait tu ne peux battre cette fois!» = Sorry, sir, but you won't defeat us this time!
「パリのレイでィバッグとシャ・ノアーってやつらに負けるもんか。」= How could I be defeated by the Ladybug and Chat Noir of Paris?
«Je ne vais pas permettre que vous attaquez My Lady.» = No one hurts My Lady.
「ん？ここはどこ？どうしてここにいるの？」= Huh? Where am I? How did I get here?
«Comment est-ce arrivé?» = How could this happen?
Also! The akuma's name really should be 刀の先生 but I figured you guys would like to be able to read it a bit more if you weren't able to speak/read Japanese. I got some help on the translations from a friend, who I can't always get a hold of for this stuff, and there won't be translations like this in every chapter. I just wanted to add some contrast between the akuma and Ladybug and Chat Noir. So there aren't likely to be any chapters with any more languages, though if there are there'll be French with translations at the bottom. Thanks for reading!