Bunny Blanche leapt from house to house, hurrying as much as possible, praying that she wasn't too late. Kurama followed her with his bike, keeping up. Noticing the black sheep towards her left, the rabbit heroine instructed her brother towards the right direction. As they neared, she saw Chat Noir fall, then all the sheep charging at Rena Rouge and Ladybug. She hastily detatched her kusarigama blade from it's chain and threw it towards them. She was too late to save the fox, but was in time to free the coccinelle from her tormentors.
"Oh, what now!" Nightmare Keeper growled. Bunny Blanche jumped in front of Ladybug and readied herself for a fight.
"Bunny-"
"LB, you see that guy down there?" She hastily pointed towards the waving Kurama. "He can protect you from the sheep with his magic, he's protecting me too. Go to him! I'll keep this guy up!" Ladybug nodded and leapt infront of the ginger man, who with a touch of his finger to her forhead, he drew up his mental barrier over her too. Bunny Blanche engaged Nightmare Keeper in a close ranged combat, trying to use her kusarigama's club and the blade agains't his crook, but the staff seemed sturdier than any wood or metal and kept emitting those horribly creepy black sheep. Once Ladybug joined her, she started annihilating the sheep while Ladybug tried to bonk out the akuma. Since Nightmare Keeper used his crook as a battle staff too, it was quite hard to get near him. If she grabbed it with her yo-yo, he would jerk the crook with a powerful gesture and shake the heroine off, or simply grab the yo-yo and unhook it from his crook. To top it off, Bunny Blanche kept the sheep at bay which kept flowing out of the shepherd's crook as an endless stream of terror, so she couldn't count on her help on distracting the akuma. Even Kurama - to Ladybug's surprise - attacked the sheep with viciously glowing orange, sometimes blue fire-like orbs, which she later came to learn that were fox fires. In the end, Ladybug got annoyed at her futile attempts and at Nightmare Keeper's uppity, mocking cackling. The spotted heroine used her Lucky Charm as her last resort, which gave her a tennis racket.
"Up to playing tennis, BB?" She smirked at the blonde bunny heroine after looking around. Bunny Blanche grinned, grabbing a sheep and tossing it to Ladybug. "Let's see if you can count your sheep, Nightmare Keeper!" The akuma gritted his teeth and as Ladybug swung her arm and hit the sheep, it sailed over his head and weirdly, he did have the urge to count them. One. Two. Three. Four... And even more as Ladybug and Bunny Blanche threw sheep over his head, exacerbating his compulsion of counting the mammals. By 63, he was drowzy, by 113, his eyes were drooping and by 175, he collapsed, falling under the pressure of sleep.
"Finally! I was getting annoyed of these sheep!" Bunny Blanche huffed, panting.
"Me too," Ladybug sighed, snapping the crook in two with Kurama's help.
"You guys weren't alone with that," the redhead male growled frustratedly at the sheep that started disappearing one by one as Ladybug purified the akuma. With her Miraculous spell, she fixed everything, leaving a dazed Matheus Jones in place of the horrid shepherd. Ladybug was about to approach him, but Kurama stopped her and motioned for her to deal with the rest of the heroes. He himself helped the victim off the roofs and spoke with him in hushed voice. Ladybug was snapped out of her surprise when she heard three shrieks and a laugh.
"Oh what no-" she turned around and was met with the dumbstruck faces of Alya, Adrien and Nino (on the neighbouring roof) and a guffawing Bunny Blanche. She froze, jaw going slack, realising that all of them had used their powers before they collapsed in their nightmares and that the fight had takem way more than five minutes, so it was only natural that their disguise would wear off.
"Secret identities aside this is hilarious!" Bunny wheezed next to Ladybug, whose earring beeped for the last time and her tranformation wore off, leaving a flabbergasted Marinette in the heroine's place. Plagg shrieked, laughing out loud, seeing who Ladybug was. Paris was shook by the power of Alya's, Nino's and Adrien's second shriek and Bunny Blanche's and Plagg's even more hysterical laughter.
"Okay, I think I just stopped working," Nino finally said, after managing to traips to the roof the rest of the group was on and hugging Alya.
"No, I think Mari and Adrien are the ones who stopped working," Bunny wheezed, pointing at said couple, who kept staring at each other, eyes wide as saucers, frozen in place.
"And pray tell me who are you? It's only fair if you tell us!" Alya said, sending a sharp look at Bunny Blanche.
"Pompom, ears down!" Bunny grinned, and after a blue flash, Naruko stood in her place. Marinette and Adrien promptly collapsed, their brains not coping anymore.
"Argh, we should've known," Alya smiled sighing and Nino chuckled.
"Someone pinch me," Adrien moaned and Plagg complied, pinching him hard. "Not that hard, Plagg!" The kwami merely cackled while Wayzz just shook his head and Trixx snorted.
"Mari, are you fine?" Tikki gently asked, slightly worrying.
"I hope she is," Kurama's voice suddenly said. The five teens turned to face the adult and Mari snapped out of her shock.
"How come you wanted to speak with the victim?" She asked.
"Because once the sheep he created touched my protective shield, I got stronger," Kurama stated. "He was akumatized because he had been having nightmares for a year now and he was sleep deprived. So I wanted to know how his akuma powers made me stronger. Guess what?"
"What?" The teens asked curiously.
"Turns out his deceased great-uncle posessed him and plagued him with psychologically nerv-wrecking nightmares. I took the spirit of the posessor off, so he is free and fine now, soundly sleeping in his bed," the fox concluded. "And so should you. Tomorrow's Monday, which means school." The kids groaned at that, but agreed nonetheless.
"Well, see you guys tomorrow," Nino yawned and bid goodby, just as the rest did. For Naruko's sake, Kurama made sure each of her friends got back safe and sound, without their parents noticing a thing.
