The elderly guardian's eyes widened with surprise at the young sorcerer's arrival as the latter casually stepped inside his massage shop.
"It's you!" he cried.
The last time he had met the boy was when he used to reside in England before he came to Paris. Somehow, the boy was able to detect that he was in possession of a box containing powerful magic jewels called Miraculous, and that he was a Guardian despite Fu keeping his identity as a Guardian a secret. That essentially made him the second person besides his first love Marianne Lenoir to know who he really was. At first, he was understandably skeptical of Eriol until the sorcerer waived his concerns away by explaining that he had no need for the Miracle Box or the Miraculouses inside it. It was also then that he learned that the boy was actually a very powerful magician who possessed great magical abilities that paralleled all the kwamis' powers combined.
"It has been a while since we last met, hasn't it?" Eriol asked as he sat himself down on the shop's floor. "Back then you used to live in England where I reside. Then one day, you suddenly left."
"How did you know I was here in Paris?" Fu inquired, narrowing his eyes. "Or where to find me?" Even if Eriol Hiiragizawa was one of the world's most powerful sorcerers to have ever lived, he doubted that his magic extended to being able to know a person's whereabouts no matter where in the world they are.
"Oh, well, when my dear successor who is here on vacation informed me of strange events happening in Paris, and how she and my cute little descendant met the superheroes Ladybug and Chat Noir, it wasn't hard to figure out that you were probably here in Paris. After all, how else would you have given out the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous?" Eriol answered. He glanced in the direction of where Wayzz had hidden himself after Fu told him to. "You don't have to keep hiding, Wayzz. It's alright."
The tiny green turtle-like kwami floated out of his hiding place and hovered next to Wang Fu. "For what reason and purpose did you come here, Eriol Hiiragizawa?" he asked, his eyes fixated on the magician.
"Like I said before, my dear successor and cute little descendant are here on vacation so I thought I'd pop in on a visit since Paris is only less than a two hours' train ride away with the new Startrain," explained Eriol to both Fu and Wayzz. "And just a while ago, I had the pleasure of meeting both Miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Mr. Adrien Agreste, whom you chose to wield the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous, as well as Miss Dupain-Cheng's kwami, Tikki. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to meet Mr. Agreste's kwami."
"Do they know?" Fu questioned, referring to Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien/Chat Noir. "About who you really are?"
"That I was the world's greatest and powerful sorcerer Clow Reed in my past life? Why, of course!"
Fu frowned. "That's quite bold of you to reveal yourself like that."
Eriol just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps, but my dear successor and cute little descendant revealing themselves to Ladybug and Chat Noir without knowing anything about their true identities in the first place is perhaps even more bolder. Speaking of them, Miss Dupain-Cheng has probably told you about them since she often confides in you, correct?"
"She did tell us of a girl and boy close to her age who are here on a short vacation trip and who have been helping her and Chat Noir defeat akumas with magical powers that neither she nor Chat Noir has seen before," Wayzz pondered, recalling the time when Marinette told Fu about the two young magicians about her age who could use magic without the help of magical beings, "but she didn't say who they were. Are they the two you speak of?"
Eriol nodded. "Yes, their names are Sakura Kinomoto and Syaoran Li. Sakura is the new master of the Clow Cards that my past self created and my successor, and Syaoran is my cute little descendant. I told them before I came here that it would be nice if they could meet with you once before returning to Japan."
Fu pulled on his small goatee thoughtfully. Normally, he did not reveal himself to even those whom he has given a Miraculous unless there was a reason to, such as when Tikki took Marinette to see him because she had gotten a hold of the Miraculous Spellbook, or when Marinette requested that he also show himself to Chat Noir so he wouldn't feel left out. To other people, he was just a normal, elderly man who ran a massage shop. However at the same time, he was a little bit curious about meeting the two young magicians that Marinette talked about, especially after Tikki brought up the fact that the girl possessed a set of magical cards that could easily help them disarm and defeat Hawkmoth.
"Hmm, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to meet them at least once," he mused. "I am rather curious about them."
Eriol smiled. "I do believe that you would take a liking to them once you meet them."
Fu chuckled. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng told me the same thing. She even said that if I had been in Japan instead of Paris, perhaps the girl you and she mentioned could've been Ladybug instead of her."
Eriol let out an amused laugh upon hearing that. Of course that obviously didn't happen since he saw nothing in the future about Sakura being in possession of another magical tool besides the Clow Cards. Still, that would've been interesting to see: a ladybug-clad Sakura Kinomoto capturing the scattered Clow Cards. However, that would also mean that she wouldn't be able to wear Tomoyo Daidouji's costumes, which would make her best friend very sad.
Looking up at the clock on the wall, he then stood up. "Well then, I believe I should be going now. I return to England tonight and Sakura has requested that I stay a little longer and hang out with her group until then so it would be best if I get going now. I do apologize for my sudden and unexpected visit."
Fu smiled. "Your visit did surprise me, however it was a pleasure to meet with you again. I hope that I can meet with the Sakura Kinomoto and Syaoran Li you spoke of."
After Eriol Hiiragizawa left his massage shop, Wayzz turned to Fu. "Master, do you think it's possible that those magicians can help us and Ladybug and Chat Noir bring down Hawkmoth?"
"Unfortunately I cannot predict the answer to that," Fu replied. "But even if they are unable to uncover Hawkmoth's identity and take back his Miraculous, they have surely found great and formidable allies on their side."
"Sakura and the others must be having a good time with their new friends from here," Yukito commented to Touya as they walked through the Louvre museum.
"Yeah," Touya muttered.
"It's too bad that we're going back to Japan after tomorrow," Yukito said. "I'm sure they'll be sad when they leave."
"Well, they can always send letters and call each other," Touya replied.
"Oh yeah, I heard from Sonomi that one of their friends from England came to visit. The one who transferred to Sakura's class in the fifth grade of Tomoeda Elementary."
"Hmm, the one who is the reincarnation of that troublesome guy who created you, Clow Reed, is it?"
"Yeah!" confirmed Yukito. "Tomoyo asked if it would be all right for him to join us for dinner tonight and Sonomi said yes so it seems we'll have an extra person with us."
"Hmm..."
"It's amazing, isn't it, how Paris has Ladybug and Chat Noir to protect them from evil," Yukito said.
"Living here sure sounds troublesome though," Touya sighed. "One moment you're trying to mind your own business and then the next the whole city's under attack. At least Tomoeda wasn't this crazy."
"Haha," Yukito chuckled.
It was true, though-even back when Sakura was going around capturing the scattered Clow Cards or transforming the cards in order to diffuse the situations created by Eriol, things weren't as hectic as they are here.
Meanwhile, at the Agreste mansion, Gabriel Agreste couldn't help but think back to that night where he witnessed that girl and boy use a different kind of power from those of the Miraculous through his Akumatized victim to aid Ladybug and Chat Noir as he stood in his atelier behind his tablet. Somehow, he could've sworn he saw them somewhere, but where? Suddenly, it hit him.
"Ah!" His son had introduced them to him the day of his fencing competition through Nathalie's tablet screen. If he remembered correctly, they had a designer friend who was interested in seeing his designs. His lips then curled into a smirk. Perhaps he could use that opportunity to formally meet with them.
He approached Adrien's bedroom and knocked on his door, but without even waiting for his son to open it, he invited himself inside, anyway. His son was sitting at his desk in front of his computer, and upon his entry, he looked up at his father with surprise since Gabriel almost never went into his son's room unless he had a personal reason to.
"Father?" asked Adrien.
"Those new friends of yours you introduced me to the other day, the ones you said are from the same country as Miss Tsurugi..." Gabriel began.
"Oh, you mean Sakura, Tomoyo, and Syaoran?"
"...Yes, I thought I'd follow up on one of their wishes to meet with me. Tell them that they may meet with me now if they so wish."
Without waiting for a response, Gabriel turned on his heels and marched out his son's bedroom. Now he would just have to wait for them to come, that is, if his son actually obeyed his order.
Staring at the spot where his father just stood, Adrien frowned. Did he really just give him permission to let his new tourist friends from Japan come?
"So are you going to invite them over?" Plagg asked.
"Well, my father said they could, so why not?" Adrien answered as he sent a text to Tomoyo. "Besides, this would be the only opportunity for Tomoyo to meet with my father and study his designs up close since they're going to be at the music festival tomorrow and are going back to Japan after tomorrow."
It wasn't long after he sent the message that he received a response back from Tomoyo saying "Thank you very much ^^."
Over where Sakura and company were, they waved goodbye to Alya and Alix as they left the Palais de Tokyo after seeing some of the exhibits. Upon getting a notification on her phone, Tomoyo took her mobile phone out and glanced at it for a second before showing it to her friends. "It seems Mr. Agreste is letting us meet with him. I must take advantage of the opportunity to learn everything I can so that I can create more cute costumes for my Sakura to wear!"
"H-Hoee..." Sakura muttered.
This would also be a chance for us to see who Chat Noir's kwami is, Syaoran thought. So far, we've only met Dupain-Cheng's kwami, Tikki, also known as the Kwami of Creation.
"By the way, did Hiiragizawa go back to England?" Tomoyo asked. "He said that he was going back tonight, right?"
"Yeah, but I asked if he could stay a little longer since it's been a while since we last saw him," Sakura replied. "He actually went to find someone he previously knew who lives here."
"I see. I hope their meeting goes well," Tomoyo said.
"It was a very pleasant meeting, indeed," a voice spoke from behind them.
Sakura's eyes lit up with excitement as she turned around to see Eriol approaching them. "Eriol!"
"I went to the museum Miss Daidouji said she was at hoping to find you there but those two girls said you had already left. Did you find it enjoyable?" Eriol asked.
"Yes, it was marvelous," Tomoyo replied with a smile.
"France sure has a lot of museums, doesn't it?" Sakura wondered aloud. "If my dad was here I think he would really enjoy them, especially the National Archaeological Museum."
"Perhaps next time you can come here with him," Tomoyo suggested.
"Yeah, I hope so!" Sakura exclaimed.
"By the way, you said before that your mother made dinner reservations for you, right?" Eriol asked Tomoyo.
"Yes, but it's not until another hour," Tomoyo said as she looked at the time on her phone. "We're planning on visiting Agreste's house before then since he said his father's allowing us to meet with him. Oh yes, I told mother that you came to visit us and asked if it was alright for you to join us and she said it was OK."
"Thank you very much, Miss Daidouji," Eriol replied. "I look forward to meeting with everyone."
In the meantime, Marinette had returned home after transforming back from Ladybug. Boy, what a day, she thought. She'd thought that her afternoon would just be hanging out at the Couffaine's houseboat and watching the band practice before the big music festival tomorrow; she didn't expect to meet the world's greatest magician of all time on top of that. On top of that, he said he knew Master Fu and that Master Fu was an old friend of his, too.
"That Eriol Hiiragizawa sure is impressive, isn't he?" Tikki asked rhetorically.
Marinette nodded. "Yeah, but I'm more surprised that you and none of the kwamis have ever heard of or crossed paths with this Clow Reed in the past."
"It is a mystery, but it's probably better that way," Tikki replied. "By the way, they're going back to Japan after tomorrow, right? Once they go back, it'll just be you and Chat Noir fighting the akumas."
Marinette nodded again. "Yeah, I'm thinking of giving them some of our bakery's products as a goodbye gift."
She knew from their repeat visits to her parents' bakery just how much they liked and appreciated her parents' baked goods and confectioneries. Of course, she eventually came to find out that one of the main reasons they kept coming back was because Keroberos had a major sweet tooth and kept begging Sakura to buy him sweets from her parents' bakery. But any business was good business, according to her parents.
Mulling on the last part of what Tikki said, she then frowned. Tikki was right-once Sakura and Syaoran leave, it would be just her and Chat Noir like it had always been, plus the occasional other Miraculous holders depending on whether she needed their help or not. Speaking of the other Miraculous holders, Sakura did say that she saw them in her precognitive dream, so that meant that their next akuma battle would require some extra hands. But which ones did Sakura see? She hoped Chloe wasn't one of them-she was the most risky to give a Miraculous to since she literally exposed her identity as Queen Bee that one time.
"Marinette, dinner's ready!" Sabine called from downstairs.
"I'll be right down, mom!" Marinette called back. "I hope tomorrow goes well."
"I hope so, too, Marinette," Tikki said.