Chapter 9: Riposte

Adrien attended team tryouts for D'Argencourt Fencing Academy, which were being held at Françoise Dupont High School. (He already took lessons from D'Argencourt himself).

He was surprised to see Marinette trying out for the team. He approached her wearing his fencing mask.

"Seems like you're looking for someone?" Adrien asked.

"Yeah, I thought Adrien was here. You know, a boy this tall, blond, nice, super handsome?"

Adrien lifted his mask and said, "Thanks for the compliments!"

Marinette squawked and flushed. It was funny how shyly she behaved around him as Adrien compared with how confident she was as Ladybug.

"A-Adrien! Nice to fencing, I'm totally into you! Uhh, I mean, nice to see you! Yeah, I'm totally into fencing," said Marinette.

Adrien laughed and smiled, getting a smile back from Marinette.

Mr. D'Argencourt ordered them to take their positions. Adrien gave Marinette some tips on stance and they faced off. She turned out to have surprisingly good reflexes for a novice. She even got a couple of points off of him. Perhaps her Ladybug skills were rubbing off on her civilian identity.

Before they got very far, a newcomer in a red suit jumped up on the scoring block and said, "Hey, you! Are you Mr. D'Argencourt, the fencing master? I wanna join your team."

"Only the best are accepted, knave," said D'Argencourt.

"So I have been, everywhere I went," said the newcomer.

"This whippersnapper has nerve!" said D'Argencourt. "All right. I may consider your admission, should you defeat one of my students."

The red-clad stranger faced the class. "Which one of you is the best combatant?"

The crowd parted, and Adrien accepted the challenge for the fencing school. They hooked up to the scoring wires and began. The challenger showed off with flashy moves that didn't contribute to the fight except perhaps by intimidating the opponent. Adrien didn't let himself be cowed.

The first point was simultaneous, and the second an abstention by the referee.

"Wait. I request that we do it the old-fashioned way. We'll be much more at ease without the machine," said the challenger.

Adrien agreed, and they began a wild match that went up the stairs and even, destructively, into the school library. Adrien kept expecting the fight to be stopped for one rule infraction after another, but D'Argencourt seemed to be too caught up in the swashbuckling excitement of it all to care.

When they finally each got a touch at nearly the same time, the only one who saw them was Marinette.

"Who got the first hit? Who?" demanded the challenger.

D'Argencourt crawled up, looking a bit battered. "Who touched first? Tell us now!"

Marinette looked uncertain, "I don't know! I think... It was... Adrien?"

D'Argencourt jumped up and stood proudly. "Ah-ha, wonderful! This victory is an honor to D'Argencourt Academy!"

The challenger accepted a handshake and walked out stiffly.

Adrien wasn't sure it had been the right call, and neither was Marinette when he asked her again, but D'Argencourt said the referee's decision was final.


Adrien went after the challenger and found the saber with a red guard stuck into the ground, its protective tip broken off.

"I'm going to offer a decisive match," Adrien said to himself. He ran after the newcomer, calling, "Hey! Wait! Your saber!"

The newcomer removed her helmet, revealing a face with beautiful Asian features. Adrien was stunned for a moment and just stared at her. There was a ring on her finger with the Chinese character for "woman" crossed vertically by the image of a fencing saber.

"Let's do a... decisive match?" he asked finally.

"What's the point? You won. There's no such thing as a second chance in my family. Goodbye."

She got into the car without taking back her saber and the car drove away.

"H-Hey! What's your name?" Adrien called, but she didn't answer.

Adrien climbed into his own car and told the Gorilla, "Follow that car."


As they drove, Adrien looked up fencing school symbols on his cellphone. The symbol on her ring linked to the webpage of the famous Tsurugi family. Her name was Kagami, and both her mother and grandmother were world-champion fencers. Their page said Kagami had just moved to Paris with her mother.

Something struck the car so hard that it split neatly in half. The front half with the driver spun around and crashed. The Gorilla looked stunned, if not knocked out. The back half tipped forward and Adrien was flung into the street. It was fortunate that he had learned to roll with a fall as Chat Noir.

Arien looked back at the half-car. Standing on it was a metallic woman with a sharp sword extending from her right arm. An akumatized villain. But that meant his father...

"I am Riposte. I'm taking you up on your offer of a decisive match!"

"I- I can't fight you like this! You're not... yourself," said Adrien. He knew reasoning with akumas rarely worked, but there was no way he could defend himself in this form.

"Fight!" yelled Riposte, and Adrien picked up the red saber beside him in desperation.

A glowing butterfly-shaped line formed around her eyes. From his experience Adrien knew that Papillon could see through the eyes of his victims. Surely Papillon would realize he had accidentally picked the wrong target, his own son. He would call her off immediately.

"Understood, Papillon," said Riposte. She did not attack.

"He called her off," Adrien thought. "Now I can go transform and defeat her before she hurts someone else."

Adrien started to run, but Riposte leaped in front of him. "Where do you think you're going? Stay there. Nice and patiently."

Adrien's stomach lurched. She wasn't called off him at all. She was just supposed to do something else first, like take the Miraculouses.

Ladybug's yo-yo wrapped around the sword and tried to pull it away, but that didn't work because the sword was built into Riposte's hand.

"How'd you like to start a duel with me?" asked Ladybug.

"Give me a moment, Adrien. I must finish her off, first! But don't worry- I haven't forgotten about you! I won't be long," said Riposte.

Riposte charged Ladybug, lunging and thrusting rapidly. Ladybug could only defend herself by running backward and keeping her yo-yo spinning as a shield. Soon she would run out of room.

"Don't let Riposte close in on you! Fight back!" called Adrien, tossing Ladybug the red saber.

Ladybug said, "Thank you, but now get out of here. She doesn't deserve you."

The fight continued. Riposte knocked Ladybug down, then leaped up for a scewering dive.

"Watch out Ladybug!" said Adrien. Momentarily forgetting he was not Chat Noir he dived and rolled Ladybug out of the way. It worked, but he twisted his ankle in the process.

While Riposte was trying to work her saber-hand loose from the ground, Ladybug took Adrien to safety on the roof. When Riposte chased them up there, Ladybug pulled a chimney down on her and took Adrien to hide in the Louvre. She hid him in a mummy sarcophagus and went to challenge Riposte.


In the sarcophagus, Adrien finally had a moment to think and privacy to transform.

"Hey Plagg and Duusu, what do you think is going on?"

Plagg said, "Don't ask me."

Duusu said, "I think your father suspects you are Chat Noir and he's testing that theory. He last attacked Marinette and now it's your turn."

"It's time we went and joined Ladybug," said Adrien. "The longer we stay away the more it confirms his theory. And we'll need a little something extra to convince him, like last time."

"Didn't you hear what she said? She said to wait here! You can't disobey her!" said Plagg.

"Duusu, Fan Out!"

Le Paon pulled a feather of Healing. "Fix my ankle," he ordered it.

Then Le Paon consulted Foresight and got a plan.

"Duusu, Fan In! Plagg, Claws Out!"

"Duusu, here's what I need you to do..."


Chat Noir joined the fight in a painting gallery, blocking Riposte's lunge at Ladybug with his staff.

"Chat Noir!" said Riposte.

"A fencing tournament at the Louvre? How come I wasn't invited?" asked Chat.

"Let me guess: you were late because you were at the groomers again?" asked Ladybug.

"I was preening myself, m'Lady. You know how long it takes cats to get ready."

With both attacking, Riposte soon found herself pushed back into the wall.

"Checkmate, Riposte!" said Ladybug.

"You've got the wrong sport, Ladybug! I think you mean: attaque toi!" said Riposte.

Riposte pushed back hard against Chat Noir, throwing him back several feet. Chat Noir landed easily. Ladybug kept her eyes on Riposte, saber ready.

Riposte made a long standing leap into the next room. She slammed the tip of her saber into the alarm button and metal bars came down between herself and her opponents.

"I will have my revenge first and then come back to deal with you," Riposte said. She charged away down the hall.

"Chat, we have to get to her quickly," said Ladybug. "She's after Adrien Agreste - she thinks he beat her unfairly in a fencing match. I hate to waste it, but please Cataclysm the bars."

"Cataclysm!" Chat Noir ran his right hand over the bars and they rusted out and broke.

Riposte had gone down the stairs. The heroes followed, Ladybug swinging down and Chat sliding down the banister.

They ended up in a large gallery with exhibit halls coming off of it in several directions. Riposte was not in view. Ladybug looked anxiously in the direction of the Pharaohs exhibit and the mummy case in front of it.

"Of course!" said Riposte, leaping out of hiding and heading toward the sarcophagus, bouncing high off the walls and staying out of reach.

"Is that you, Ladybug? Is it safe to come out?" asked a muffled timid voice from within the sarcophagus.

"No!" cried Ladybug as Riposte charged.

"The hour of revenge has come!" shouted Riposte, raising her sword hand.

She paused for an instant as a line of light surrounded her eyes. "No, Papillon, I have waited long enough. I will take my revenge now."

But now Chat Noir was in front of her. He blocked her sword with his staff and pushed her back.

"Is this an honorable rematch, to cut up an opponent in a box?" asked Chat. "Do you want victory or sushi?"

"I don't care, his biased girlfriend referee cheated me out of victory!"

Chat struck again and again, forcing her out of the room. When they were both out, Ladybug smashed an alarm button to lower the bars in front of the exhibit.

"If you think those will stop me, you are wrong!" said Riposte. A slash of her sword cut the bars apart.

"Lucky Charm!" called Ladybug. She got a radiator. "What am I going to do with this?"

After a little more fighting, she had an answer. Chat used the radiator to capture the sword and ladybug used his belt to wrap around the hilt so that the blade could be snapped off. The akuma butterfly was released.

"My time has run out, m'Lady," said Chat. "You can take it from here."

Knowing Ladybug would shut out the outside world completely while capturing an akuma butterfly, Chat slipped into the sarcophagus and de-transformed.

"Good work doing that voice for me, Duusu."

"Glad to help, Master."

After a "Miraculous Ladybug" she opened the sarcophagus and got Adrien out.

"Adrien, that was too close! I picked a terrible hiding place for you," said Ladybug.

"No problem. It worked out all right. Sorry I gave away my position."

"She was already going to attack because I looked your way. How is your ankle?"

"Completely healed, just like all the damage that gets fixed when you do your ladybug trick."

They walked back to Kagami, who was sitting on the floor.

"Everything's okay," Ladybug told her. Then her Miraculous beeped and she had to leave.

Adrien walked out with Kagami, apologizing along the way. He eventually got her to take her saber back, and suggested she would like Marinette if she met her.

"You really like her, don't you," asked Kagami.

"She's a good friend," said Adrien, realizing that was true in spite of his suspicions.


Kagami got a car and went home. Gorilla took Adrien home, if he could still call it that. He lived with a psychopath who had nearly killed him to test a theory. Adrien had temporarily put him off the track, but it was only a matter of time...

Adrien had looked up French child protective services, but he was not impressed. They might not believe him, and even if they did his father could turn an annoyed civil servant into a killer in seconds.

A life on the streets, with the Cat and Peacock powers, might work for a while, but how long, with everyone hunting him?

If he could find his mother, if she were alive and in a good state to take care of him, that would be the best. That was a lot of "if"s...