THE OPPORTUNITY AND THE DANGEROUS WIND
Chapter 6: Miracle Cure
A Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction
by Bill K.
Miraculous Ladybug and all related characters are © 2021 by Zagtoons and are used without permission, but with respect. This story is © 2021 by Bill K.
All dialogue in brackets [ ] is in French. All other dialogue is in Chinese.
Springing through the Chinese countryside, leaping over obstacles, three women in strange garb carried a fourth. Their destination was a stream north of Liangzhu, a stream that flowed from the mountains of the north and fed into the Yangtze River and eventually to the Pacific Ocean.
"How fares Kongque?" Pianzi Huli asked as the pair sprinted forward, their stamina enhanced by their Miraculous powers.
"She is so pale," Piao Chong answered. "And she mumbles words that do not seem to be her own. It is as if a demon has taken possession of her."
"Perhaps Empress Feng cast a spell upon her," Pianzi Huli proposed.
"Perhaps so. Perhaps that is why Ying e sent us north. Perhaps the waters of this stream are divine and will chase the demon from her."
Ladybug heard all of this as she brought up the rear, glancing over her shoulder regularly to detect pursuit. It amazed her twenty-first century mind that rational people could actually believe such things. Of course, this was twenty-five something B.C. and knowledge of the world and how it worked was in its infancy. She reminded herself not to think of herself as superior to them.
After all, they hadn't gotten their Miraculous Box Guardian exposed to an enemy.
"Is this stream close?" Ladybug asked.
"We are near," Pianzi Huli asked. She glanced back in a taunting manner. "Tiring?"
"I can keep up," Ladybug replied, though her thighs were beginning to burn. "I'm worried about Kongque."
"As are we all," Piao Chong said, acting as mediator. A prodigious leap took the three women and their passenger over a bank of trees. When they landed, Piao Chong nodded forward. "There is the stream now."
Ladybug looked. It was like a picture you'd see in a brochure: Green trees, grasses, wild flowers all growing around a sparkling blue stream of water roughly seven feet across. Ladybug's breath caught at the simple, unspoiled beauty of it all. As they approached, she slowed and took in the fragrance of the flowers, the sounds of the busy insects and the cool radiance of the water fresh and clean and cool from its trek from the north.
"I wish I had my phone with me," sighed Ladybug. "This would make a beautiful picture. Rose and Juleka would love seeing it." As she stared, Piao Chong gently lay Kongque down near the stream.
"Come!" Pianzi Huli barked impatiently. "We are here! Work your healing magic!"
"I'm sorry," Ladybug offered. "I was just struck by how beautiful this area is."
"Flowers and trees," Piao Chong shrugged. "You see them all the time." And Ladybug realized that such natural spots were regular sights for someone of this era, so regular as to be common place.
"Not from where I'm from," Ladybug sighed. She knelt down next to Kongque. "Do either of you have a cloth?"
Pianzi Huli produced a cloth from her tunic. Ladybug soaked it in the cold spring water, then applied the compress to the welt on Kongque's forehead. She kept the compress held to the wound until she felt the cloth warm, then dipped it in water and applied it again. Ladybug felt both of her companions staring at her in anticipation and it made her uncomfortable.
"Is it working?" Piao Chong asked.
"It's hard to say," Ladybug alibied.
"Do you not know? Are you not a healer?" Pianzi Huli demanded.
"No, I'm not a healer!" Ladybug exclaimed. "I'm just a school girl who knows a few things. I heard this would work. And I don't know what else to try!"
Piao Chong's hand closed over Ladybug's. "You do your best. It is all we can ask. Pianzi Huli meant no offense. She is just concerned over her friend." Piao Chong glanced at Pianzi Huli. "Is that not correct?"
"Yes," Pianzi Huli replied, chastised by her comrade's words. "Forgive me if you were offended."
Ladybug nodded and dipped the cloth in the stream again.
"What is this 'school' you mentioned?" Pianzi Huli asked.
"School is a place where people learn," Piao Chong tried to explain. "Even women!"
"You apprentice under a master?" Pianzi Huli tried to understand.
"Kind of, but not quite," Ladybug grimaced. "It's a lot more complex, but the general idea is the same."
"Girls are taught trades where you come from?" Pianzi Huli asked.
"We're taught language and math, science and history, and all sorts of things," Ladybug replied. "And we're taught how to interact in society, though we don't realize it at first. And girls and boys both learn it."
"Why?"
Ladybug thought a moment. "So we have the opportunity to choose our own path, rather than have our parents or our society choose it for us."
Pianzi Huli and Piao Chong looked at each other in astonishment.
"Are your parents not shamed by such a thing as choosing a path different from what they decide?" Pianzi Huli asked.
"Depends on the parent," Ladybug replied, thinking of her own parents in contrast with someone like Gabriel Agreste. "My parents are fine with the path I've chosen. Some are more controlling."
"You come from a place that I am not certain I would be comfortable in," Pianzi Huli shook her head. "It is too different from what I am used to."
"But think of it," Piao Chong began. "What if I wished to go to the city and become a pottery maker instead of being a farm hand? What if I wished to raise the children of a man I am in love with, rather than of a husband arranged for me?" The curious glanced she got from Pianzi Huli made her realize that she was being too specific. "As a random example, of course!"
"Of course," Pianzi Huli replied with a sly grin. "What if you were able to choose for yourself to marry Po Zhizhe with no shame brought to your family?"
"I WAS NOT TALKING ABOUT PO ZHIZHE!" spat Piao Chong. Pianzi Huli giggled and even Ladybug tried to smother a smile. "Sometimes you are too much like the fox."
A groan from Kongque brought them all back to reality. Ladybug removed the compress to look at the welt. It had receded a little, but the welt was still purple and ugly.
"How long is this to take?" Pianzi Huli asked anxiously.
"I don't know," Ladybug replied. "Kongque, can you hear me?"
"Yes," Kongque whispered. "My head feels as if it were squeezed between two giant boulders. What was done to me?"
"Do you not remember being struck by the top of Mifeng Zhanshi?" Pianzi Huli asked.
"No," Kongque sighed. "Why would she attack me?"
"Some memory loss is common," Ladybug assured her. "Kongque, you suffered a bruise on your brain when the top struck you."
"Am I dying?"
"We're trying to get the bruise to go down," Ladybug said as she replaced the cold compress on the welt.
At a silent signal from Piao Chong, Ladybug and Pianzi Huli joined her in conference a few feet away.
"Is she dying? She is still so pale," Piao Chong asked.
"Most people recover from it," Ladybug said, drawing from her very limited knowledge of medicine. "How long it takes to recover depends upon the person and where and how bad the bruise is."
"You said 'most'," observed Piao Chong. "There is a chance she will die?"
"I suppose, yes."
"Then there is only one thing to do," Piao Chong said and produced her yo-yo. "Luc . . ."
"No, Piao Chong," Ladybug said, stopping her. "If you use that, you'll turn back into your other identity. Nobody must know who you really are."
"I will not reveal what I learn to anyone," Pianzi Huli protested. "I vow upon my ancestors."
"And you already know," added Piao Chong.
"I don't count. I don't know how much longer I'll be around," Ladybug told her. "And I know you won't intentionally reveal her identity, Pianzi Huli," and a momentary painful memory stilled Ladybug's tongue, "but you might slip and unintentionally put her in danger to the Empress or someone else. I'll do it."
"Will the same consequences not fall upon you?" Pianzi Huli asked.
Ladybug shrugged. "Like I said, I don't know how much longer I'll be here. It's less of a risk if my identity is exposed."
After some consideration, Piao Chong nodded. That made Pianzi Huli agree. Ladybug pulled out her yo-yo and launched it into the sky.
"Lucky Charm!"
Twinkling sparks exploded from the yo-yo. Emerging from the sparks was a plastic bandage shaped like a heart and colored red with black dots. It fell into Ladybug's hands.
"What is that? A magical poultice?" Pianzi Huli asked.
"It's a plastic bandage," Ladybug replied. "But it has special healing properties through the Lucky Charm magic. I used something like this once to heal Cat Noir."
Coming over to Kongque, Ladybug peeled off the paper backing and applied the bandage over the welt on her patient's forehead.
"It is indeed magic! It sticks to her skin by itself!" gasped Pianzi Huli.
"And this will heal her?" Piao Chong asked hopefully.
"I've never known the Lucky Charm magic to fail yet," replied Ladybug. "Have you?" Piao Chong shook her head. "How do you feel, Kongque?"
"Better," Kongque replied. "The pain and dizziness is retreating. I still feel very weak."
"Give the bandage time to work," Ladybug assured her. "You won't be doing any fighting for a while."
"But what of Empress Hou? She must be stopped."
"She will be stopped," Piao Chong offered. "Trust in Ying e."
"Perhaps I imagine things," Pianzi Huli said with a smirk again on her face, "but you speak of this 'Cat Noir' with the same starry-eyed reverence with which Piao Chong speaks of Ying e."
"I DO NOT!" Piao Chong and Ladybug said at the same time. They looked at each other in surprise while Pianzi Huli enjoyed a good laugh.
Po Zhizhe sat in the back room of his shop, the strange figurine before him on the floor as he sat. He had assumed the lotus position that the monk had taught him. He poured his mental energy into the figurine, again as the monk had taught him. He had learned much from the monk during his time in the north, though he had never learned the man's name. Po had only addressed him as Master after the man had divulged some amazing truths to the pottery maker.
Such as focusing one's spiritual energy into an object, fusing it with properties from the heavens and earth itself. The monk was also the man who entrusted him with the Miraculous Box before going to his ancestors.
Unknown to Po Zhizhe, though he would not be surprised by it, the butterfly pin he wore on his tunic would glow brightly as he focused his energy into Mingyun Zhi Jiao. The pin's glow was in harmony with the glow of the figurine and both pulsed faintly as he chanted.
Abruptly the chanting ceased. The glow of the pin and the figurine died away, plunging the back room into near darkness. Po turned slightly and listened. Someone was entering his shop and, from the sound of them, it was not a friend. The man rose to his feet and, realizing he didn't have time to hide it, picked up Mingyun Zhi Jiao, carrying the figurine into the main room.
There, two soldiers of the local army were standing at attention on either side of his door. They looked grim and menacing, and stood ready to use their spears should Po attempt to flee. Instead he waited patiently for who was to come next.
Striding into the shop with an imperious gait was self-styled Empress Feng Hou, followed closely by two more soldiers of her army. The burly men, sheathed in leather armor and helmets plumed with heron feathers, stood at attention, deferring to their monarch while ready to repel any attack upon her, even at the cost of their own lives. Feng Hou stopped in the middle of the room and stared at Po. He met her stare unflinchingly.
"You are proprietor of this," and she glanced around disdainfully, "shop?"
Po Zhizhe set Mingyun Zhi Jiao on a table, then sank to his knees and pressed his head to the floor.
"You honor me with your presence, Divine One," he said neutrally.
Feng Hou leisurely began walking around the shop. Po sat up, but remained on his knees until she gave him leave to stand.
"I was in the mood to purchase some serving platters," the Empress uttered blandly.
"I am honored you chose me," Po replied.
"Initially I was not going to come here," Feng Hou said. "Apparently you have a customer whose taste I hold little regard for." She turned and glanced at Po. "My brother, Prince Bai?"
"He was here earlier," nodded Po. "He is very generous."
"Perhaps, but he has the taste of a frog," Feng Hou replied. "Still, I thought I might look your work over, just on the slight chance that he and I share something in common besides blood." The Empress sauntered over to a serving dish on display. "Then you did meet with my brother. Did he purchase anything?"
"He did not, Divine One," Po replied.
"Typical. This is very nice work. You have a unique and skilled touch. Naturally he would not see that," she scowled. "Oh, you may rise."
"Thank you, Divine One," Po said, rising to his feet. "That serving dish near you is quite sturdy and very inexpensive. And you have already judged its beauty."
"Yes, but it is not quite what I want," Feng Hou demurred. She turned and leisurely approached Mingyun Zhi Jiao. "And what is this?"
"A figurine, Divine One," Po replied calmly. "I hoped to expand my business into art and statuary."
"What is it a figurine of?"
"Of humanity reaching for the sun," Po explained.
Feng Hou stared at it. "I do not see it. I suggest you do what you do best."
"My Empress graces me with her advice," Po said, bowing to her.
The woman slowly moved toward the other side of the shop and a collection of vases and pots. Po patiently waited for her next remark. From her presence and her line of questioning, Bai Hou had been spotted entering the shop earlier. The question now was how much more had he unintentionally revealed.
"The designs on this are quite eye-catching," the Empress said, looking at a bowl. "Your work, I assume?"
"It is."
"Could you replicate it onto a set of serving dishes? Eight or ten would be sufficient."
"It would be a great honor to produce such things for her Divine Majesty," Po said, bowing again.
"In three days?"
"Alas, that is not enough time," Po told her. "It is a very intricate pattern and to reproduce it on one platter would take more than three days. Ten would be impossible."
"Pity. I was planning a feast," she sighed. Then she turned to him. "I wished to celebrate my recent victory over the Miraculous Warriors. Had the news come to you here in this dingy little shop?"
"It is known to me, Diving One."
"Some did not take it well," Feng Hou began, slowly approaching him. "My brother, for one. He has always opposed my efforts and is jealous of my power and my victories." She stopped within six feet of him. "The fact that he is the Miraculous Warrior Hei Mau may have something to do with it as well."
Po willed himself not to react.
"Did you know this, potter?" the Empress asked.
"Yes, Divine One."
"And you did not report it?"
"He transformed before my eyes, Divine One," Po replied, "and leaped out a window. Perhaps he sensed something that needed his attention and could not act to protect his secret."
"That was this afternoon," Feng Hou countered. "Why did you not report it in the time between then and now?"
Po knew she had him and that there was nothing he could say to talk his way out of things.
"Perhaps you are in league with this Miraculous Warrior?" the imperious woman glared, her long black hair switching behind her. "Perhaps you know who the other warriors are as well? Perhaps you supplied them with their magical kwamis?" Her glare became cold. "Perhaps you are the one who holds the Miraculous Box?"
Po remained silent and unmoved.
"Guards!" Feng Hou snapped, turning to her soldiers. "Seize this man and imprison him! Whether by interrogation or torture, I will learn what I wish to know!"
Continued in Chapter 7