Chapter 7: Furious Fu

Marinette had received a call: Wang Fu, the former Guardian, and his partner Marianne, were coming on the Startrain from London to Paris. Marinette was going to meet them.

The kwamis were very excited. They all wanted to go and see their former Guardian, who had cared for them for over a hundred years.

"Pleeease!" they all begged together.

"You know why you can't come", said Marinette. "When he made me the new Guardian, his memory was magically erased. Now, Master Fu is just like everyone else. He can't know about the Miraculous, my secret identity, or you kwamis!"

She picked up her purse. "Come on, Tikki. Let's go."

This made the other kwamis jealous and start arguing again about how it was not fair.

"I'm sorry, friends, but you know I can't leave Marinette in case she needs to transform," said Tikki.

The others continued to argue.

Wayzz said, "Marinette, even so, you know Master Fu trusted me to help him protect the Miracle Box. I was more than just his Kwami - I was his friend. And I miss him so much..."

Wayzz began to cry, and Marinette gave in and said he could come. This gave an opening for the kwamis to argue even more.

"I can't just take all of you at once!"

"Why not?" Trixx demanded.

"Because... because the Miracle Box has to be guarded; protected - that's why!"

Trixx said, "So you're saying is if one of us stays here to keep watch... the rest of us can come, right?"

"No!" said Marinette. "You don't understand the situation. Shadow Moth used a sentimonster to spy on Max, and he must have spied on all the other people I chose as temporary heroes. He may have made the connection that they're almost all in the same class at my school. He could send another to spy here at any time."

"Why hasn't he done that already?" asked Sass. "It seems obvious."

"I can't read his mind, but I guess he thinks Chat Noir and I are special cases because of the timing. He started using Nooroo to make akumas in order to draw us out, probably thinking we were already active and working secretly. It was actually his activating a kwami for evil purposes that caused Master Fu to choose us. It was pure coincidence that I was in the same class where he chose to strike first."

"I see, but what does he think is the connection between all the temporary heroes?" asked Trixx.

"It was quite a while before we needed any other heroes, and by then he had chosen a lot of victims from my class," said Marinette.

"Shadow Moth doesn't know that Master Fu let you choose the temporary holders," said Tikki. "So it might look like Master Fu chose them all from the class because of convenience, right?"

"Yes," said Marinette.

"Then we don't need to be on guard," said Mullo. "We can all go see Master Fu!"

"No, we still have to be careful," said Marinette. "He could widen his search at any time."

"I think the kid has a point," said Barkk, who had been sitting by the computer watching a movie about knights. "What if an akumatized villain or a sentimonster shows up? I have a bad feeling about this. You go, I'll keep watch. "

"I need more than one kwami watching here," said Marinette. "I'll tell you what. Once I finish visiting Master Fu, I'll get away and transform. You can come out of the yo-yo portal one at a time and see that he's all right, from a distance."

The other kwamis groaned, but Marinette stood firm. She left with only Tikki in her purse and Wayzz in her bag. In the kitchen she grabbed a basket of bakery goodies to share.

Marinette was at the Startrain station to meet the couple. Wayzz stayed quiet in the bag – she was glad the others weren't there or they probably would have made too much noise.

A mysterious man was watching her, hiding inside a trash can.

Marianne and Wang Fu got off the train. Marinette hugged Marianne.

"Hi, Marianne," said Marinette.

"Hello, Marinette," said Marianne. "Do you remember her, my love? She's the young girl who found you after your paddleboat accident. The one that caused your amnesia."

Marinette gave him a hug. "I'm so glad to see you again, Master... I mean, Mr. Fu."

"My dear child, you reunited me with my beloved Marianne. I can never thank you enough," said Wang Fu with a smile.

They sat on a bench by the Seine. Marinette handed out small cakes from her basket.

"Yes, life in London has been quite wonderful," said Wang.

"Would you believe it? Wang discovered a passion for painting," said Marianne.

"Actually, as a thank-you for helping me, I want to give you this painting," said Wang.

It was an abstract painting that was mostly red and black.

Marinette thought, "That's as close as he can come to remembering me as Ladybug."

Marinette took it. "Thank you. It's... really... Uh, am I holding it the right way?"

"Yes. I'm not sure myself what's supposed to represent," said Wang.

Marinette saw Wayzz crawling on the ground, getting close to Wang! She tried to grab the kwami without attracting attention, but failed.

Wang continued, "But when I think of you, this is what I see. So, there you go."

Wang noticed Wayzz on the ground in front of him, and picked the kwami up.

"What's this? That's such a cute little doll. Is it yours?"

Marinette gave a forced laugh. "Yes, it probably fell out when I took out the cake."

Marinette jammed the kwami back in her bag. Fortunately Wayzz wasn't inclined to talk without other kwamis around to speak to.

Marinette didn't notice the mysterious man spying on her, who had somehow managed to get into a small basket on the back of a bicycle.

"So, what are you going to do while you're visiting Paris?" Marinette asked.

"Paint, of course," said Fu, setting up his paints and easel. "Montemart, the Tuileries Garden, the banks of the Seine. Is there any better place to paint than Paris? Go on. Don't mind me."

Marianne and Marinette laughed. Fu painted a watercolor of them on the bench, with Marinette giving Marianne another slice of cake.

When the visit ended, Marinette remembered her promise to the kwamis. She found a place to hide and transform, and swung up to an observation point where she could let them see their former Guardian.

She opened a portal to the box. Barkk flew out immediately.

"Gusrdian, there's an intruder in your room!" said Barkk. "He says he's the Cel–"

Before Barkk could finish, a hand reached up through the portal and grabbed the kwami! The portal slammed shut.

"An intruder in my room!" thought Ladybug. "An akuma? A sentimonster?"

She decided not to call Chat for help right away, since letting him know where she lived would expose her identity. The risk of Chat Blanc was too great. Maybe she could deal with this threat alone. She had to try.

Labybug entered the room through the skylight trapdoor, with her yo-yo ready. Wayzz followed her.

A bald man wearing an old-fashioned monk outfit was in the room. He was holding the Miracle Box under his right arm, and Barkk in his right hand. In his left hand was a wooden staff with a glass ball on the top. The other kwamis were huddled against the far wall.

"I told you I had a bad feeling about this," said Barkk.

Ladybug called out. "Thief! Let go of that kwami and that box."

She sent her yo-yo flying at him. He dodged it easily, but let go of Barkk, who flew back with the other kwamis.

"How come you are in possession of the Mother Box, young lady? Do you realize you are abusing priceless magical artifacts to transform yourself for your own amusement?" asked the man.

"I'm a hero who protects this city. You are a burglar who has broken into my home," said Ladybug. "Or worse, an akuma or a sentimonster under the control of Shadow Moth."

"I am Grand Master Su-Han, the Celestial Guardian of the Mother Box."

Wayzz spoke up, "I recognize him. The Grand Master is who he claims to be."

"I'm the Guardian of the Box now," said Ladybug.

"The Celestial Guardian was in charge of it before the incident caused by Master Fu," said Wayzz.

"How did you find me?" asked Ladybug angrily.

"The Guardian's staffs hold compasses that allow the Boxes to be tracked at all times." said Su-Han, showing the compass in the glass ball at the top of his staff.

"That's not fair!" said Ladybug. "Why didn't I get a staff?"

"Precisely because you are not a true guardian!" said Su-Han. "This is all a misunderstanding, and the incorrect shape of the Box proves it. You have also broken a sacred rule. A Guardian must never wear a Miraculous."

"But Master Fu wore one himself!" said Ladybug.

"FU?! As in Wang Fu, also known as Whiny Chicken Leg?! That incompetent disciple unable to spend one entire day without eating, or do a thousand finger push-ups?! Fu should never have been a Guardian. That low-life never lived up to the hopes that were placed in him."

"Master Fu may have made mistakes when he was young, but he bravely protected the Box for years! He even sacrificed himself and erased his own memory to save us!" said Ladybug. "And now he's become a great painter."

(She would have shown the abstract painting, but she had left it and the basket up on the roof to leave her hands free for a fight.)

"That old man is Whiny Chicken Leg?! Wait..." said Su-Han, looking over all the kwamis. "Some kwamis are missing."

"When Master Fu gave up the Box, he had already lost Nooroo, Duusu, and their Miraculous, the Butterfly and the Peacock."

Su-Han gasped in shock. "He lost two Miraculous? He's even more incompetent than I thought! PLAGG! Young girl, where is Plagg!"

"That I know. Chat Noir is his holder."

"And who is Chat Noir?" asked Su-Han suspiciously.

"Well... I don't know, since we're supposed to keep our identities secret," said Ladybug.

Su-Han said, "So this is the modern world: protected by a group of careless fools. Guardians must never wear a Miraculous! Some jewels missing and Plagg is roaming free?! The end of dinosaurs and dragons - doesn't that alarm anyone?!"

Su-Han struck his cane against the floor. "That's enough! Kwamis, get in ying-yang patterns and back inside the Box."

All of the kwamis sadly entered the Box at his command.

Su-Han put the Box into his bag and drew out a book. He flipped through the pages and recited all the rules that they had broken.

"...Neither you nor Fu were up to the role of Guardian, because neither of you have respected the ancient absolute rules of our order! Not to mention the fact that no child should be a keeper of kwamis! They are ultra-powerful cosmic entities! One must manage them with authority, which you are obviously incapable of doing!"

Just then, Su-Han was startled by a voice from the computer, which was still playing the knight movie. "En garde, my Lord!"

"Challenging me like this is akin to pulling on the tiger's whiskers, you villain!" said Su-Han, preparing to fight.

"Whoa! Easy there. Calm down! It's just a movie. See?" said Ladybug, getting between him and the computer before he smashed it.

"Such a powerful spell! How did that warrior end up in this flat prison of glass and metal?" asked Su-Han. "Anyway, we must waste no more time! Take me to Chat Noir, young lady."

Ladybug was uncertain. Su-Han seemed to have the authority and skills to make a better Guardian than she was. (The kwamis certainly minded him better.) But she wasn't ready to give up yet. Bringing Chat Noir into it would give them a better chance to get the Miracle Box back if that was their ultimate decision.

She made a call leaving a message for Chat, and used the buzzer to alert him.

Su-Han commented on the strange use of her weapon to communicate. He thought they would have to send doves to each other.

"That's one point in my favor as Guardian," thought Ladybug. "He's way out of date."

They met with Chat Noir on a rooftop. Su-Han wanted them to hand over their Miraculous so he could assign them to carefully-chosen adult holders instead.

"We can't just give our Miraculous to some guy who just showed up out of the blue," said Chat.

"I... I don't know," said Ladybug. "The kwamis confirmed that he's the real original guardian of the Box. Maybe Grand-Master Su-Han is right. Maybe Master Fu was wrong. Maybe that's the reason why we can't defeat Shadow Moth."

"That's ridiculous!" said Chat. "You've always delivered! Trust yourself, Ladybug, like I trust you. If I have to give my Miraculous back then fine, I will. But only if you ask me to. You're the only Guardian here."

"Then it's settled," said Su-Han. "Order him to give you his Miraculous back and let's be done with this. Then you will renounce being the Guardian so I can retrieve the Mother Box."

"But... if I do, won't my memories get erased like Master Fu's?" asked Ladybug.

"Does that mean you won't remember me?" asked Chat.

She looked down with a sad face. Chat thought about it for a moment, then glowered at Su-Han.

"You want my ring?" said Chat. "Then come and take it!"

"Fine," said Su-Han.

Ladybug tried to calm the situation down, but it was no use. They began to fight. Su-Han was highly skilled in what he called Mira-Kung-Fu, designed to take down rogue Miraculous holders. He called out a fast series of attacks, throwing Chat down. When he grabbed for Chat's ring, Ladybug pulled him off with her yo-yo and tossed him to the top of a nearby chimney.

"Grand-Master, the last I heard, I was the Guardian! And I say that Cat Noir keeps his Miraculous, and I keep mine!" said Ladybug.

More furious combat followed, with the advantage in Su-Han's favor.

"I don't know how he's doing it, but he's guessing our every move in advance!" said Ladybug.

"My Mira-Kung Fu is like water. It adapts and finds its way anywhere. And you are barely afloat at the mercy of the river current!"

Thrown against a wall and temporarily out of Su-Han's reach, Ladybug came up with a plan. "Chat Noir, grab his staff!"

Chat Noir rushed into combat again, as Ladybug set her yo-yo to play the knight movie that Barkk was watching before. She sent the yo-yo under the Grand-Master's feet, behind him.

"En garde, My Lord!" said the knight in the movie.

Su-Han looked around. "Has the warrior escaped?"

Ladybug used the yo-yo to grab Su-Han's bag with the Box. Chat kicked him, sending his staff flying into the air. Chat grabbed the staff and they both escaped.

Ladybug and Chat Noir arrived at the Parc des Princes stadium.

Chat said, "What do we do? Should we hide it? Maybe keep it at our new laboratory?"

Ladybug said, "And then what? He knows who I am, anyway. He knows where I live!"

But Su-Han had already caught up with them. "Ladybug! Cat Noir! Give me back the Mother Box and your Miraculous! Return them to the right hands!"

"Hey, that's Master Fu's cane," said Ladybug.

A tall, masked, gray-bearded man appeared at the top of the stadium.

"Master Fu has been akumatized!" Labybug whispered to Chat.

"I want my cane and an apology!" shouted Furious Fu. Her wrote a word in Chinese characters with a paintbrush on a scroll. "Thunderbolt!"

The sky darkened above the stadium, and lightning strikes began. Ladybug and Chat Noir had to dodge them

Ladybug was also fighting Su-Han, who tried to grab the Miracle Box from her. A lightning strike caused them both to drop it.

Furious Fu came down after the box. Ladybug and Chat Noir kicked it back and forth like a soccer ball, until Chat got so carried away that he kicked it into the goal.

"Goal!" Chat shouted. Then he realized the others were still running after it. "Hey!"

Furious Fu wrote another word. "Teleportation!" Instantly he was with the Miracle Box and he swooped it up in a bag. He got into a fighting stance facing Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Su-Han retreated to the sidelines.

Ladybug and Chat tried to fight Furious Fu. Not only was he faster and more agile, but he had martial arts moves that could push them halfway across the field with a flick of his fingers.

Su-Han called out instructions to them. "No! Higher! Watch out! No, not like that! Ugh! So slow! Come on! Not that way!"

Chat called to him, "Hey, Mr. Bossy Pants! Would it kill you to help us out here?"

Su-Han folded his arms and said, "Mirakung-Fu is a martial art designed to neutralize rebellious Miraculous holders! Not to fight super villians created through the magic of the Miraculous!"

"So we're supposed to fix your mistakes?!" asked Ladybug.

"Uh..." said Su-Han, his jaw dropping for a moment as her words struck home.

"Phantom Palms of the Awakened! The wise man moves mountains without touching them!" Furious Fu generated a burst of air that pushed Ladybug and Chat Noir away. "You're next!" he called to Su-Han.

Su-Han charged him. shouting, "The hundred thousand dragon talons! Pagoda-breaker iron feet! The rage of the centipede with ingrown nails!"

"Statue!" said Furious Fu, placing a magic word scroll on Su-Han's forehead and immobilizing him. Grabbing back his cane, he said, "Finally!"

A purple mask outline appeared on Fu's face as Shadow Moth sent him a telepathic message.

"Very well, so I have to take the wingless bat's bell, right?" said Fu.

As Fu listened to a correction from Shadow Moth, Chat Noir said, "I am not a wingless bat!"

Chat was about to charge into combat again, but Ladybug held up her hand.

"Chat Noir, wait! We'll never defeat him," said Ladybug.

"What?" asked Chat.

"We just need him not to defeat us, either!" said Ladybug. "I have to do something. Cover me!"

"That I can do," said Chat.

He ran out to fight Fu, who said, "The kitten can meow all he wants, but he will never roar like a tiger!"

"Lucky Charm!"

She came running out toward a cage full of soccer balls with a pair of bolt cutters in her hand.

Furious Fu summoned "Vision" and charged her to stop her plan.

"We're not finished yet," said Chat, knocking him down.

She used the bolt cutters to get a soccer ball out of the cage.

"Cataclysm!" called Chat Noir.

"NO!" she cried.

Furious Fu grabbed Chat's glowing hand and forced it towards his body. "You're going to turn yourself into cat food!"

"Take this!" she said, throwing the yo-yo. He caught it in his teeth.

"And that!" she struck at him, but he caught her arm and held her up by one hand.

She dropped the soccer ball to her feet and placed it between Chat Noir's hand and his body, protecting him from the Cataclysm.

"There! Voila! We win!"

"Win, you foolish pink beetle? We're just stuck now!"

"Wait, you are pink!" said Chat Noir. "And those ears?"

She took the tambourine from her belt in her free hand and swiped it. "Gift!"

An image of Wang Fu and Marianne, happy and in love, appeared before Furious Fu.

"Aah!" said Fu, overwhelmed as his greatest wish appeared.

His mouth opened fully, letting the yo-yo loose. His arms dropped, releasing Ladybug and Chat Noir.

Chat Noir grabbed the brush with his right hand, destroying it and releasing the akuma butterfly.

She caught it and purified it. She threw the bolt cutters into the air.

"Miraculous... Pigabug!"

Magic Ladybugs flew out, restoring all damage.

"Pigabug?" said Chat with a chuckle.

"The best name I could think of at short notice."

Su-Han apologized to Wang Fu and handed back his cane, "I'm terribly sorry. Forgive me Whiny- uh Sir. I- I mistook you for someone who has been long gone."

"Don't worry about it. It's already forgotten," said Wang Fu.

They took Wang Fu back to the park, to Marianne.

"Marianne, I thought about calling you, but I wasn't sure you could get to the stadium in time," said Pigabug.

"Thank you for bringing him back safe," said Marianne.

Pigabug gave Fu a Magical Charm. "Here, carry this with you at all times. It will protect you from future attacks."

"And it will remind me of you every day," said Fu. "Thank you Lady Pig Beetle and Mr. Bat."

Su-Han spoke to Marinette later in her room. He admitted that her ways were unconventional but effective, and that Master Fu had not made such a bad choice after all. He had decided to trust her, but to keep watch from a distance and take the Box back if she made any mistakes. He would make the most of his time in Paris to become familiar with modern life.

"Thank you, Master," said Marinette. "I have something for you too. I think you're gonna need these."

Marinette gave him a new pair of shoes. (His old ones were completely worn out.)