Summary
Luka and Adrien have a chat. Kagami receives new instructions from Tomoe.
Luka followed Adrien into his office. The room was smaller than he anticipated, but it did have a small worn-out couch that Adrien gestured to for Luka to sit down. Adrien sat across from him at his desk, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms across his chest in a defensive posture. He had a somber look on his face, but said nothing as Luka sat down.
Luka braced himself for what he was about to ask. He was taking a risk, something he never liked to do. But as the Tsurugis closed in on him, he was running out of time. If Felix was right and Adrien had the information he and Marinette needed about the Black Cat miraculous, then this would be his only chance to ask. He just hoped it wasn't a trap.
"You've come about the stolen dossier, haven't you?" Adrien spoke first.
Luka was startled at how forward he was. He wondered if Felix had already spoken to Addrien about what Luka and Marinette were really in Paris for. But Marinette had assured him that Adrien was trustworthy. He would just have to trust that Adrien would not pass the information on to Kagami or her special task force.
"I won't waste your time denying it," Luka admitted. "That is what I came here for."
"It seems to be the general impression in Paris that I have that file," Adrien replied, sounding a bit annoyed but otherwise maintaining his neutral expression.
"And do you?" Luka pressed.
"I don't want to do anything to bolster or deny that impression," Adrien answered, not making eye contact.
This answer confused Luka. By dodging the question, he may as well have confirmed he did have the stolen information. Why play word games?
"Suppose we proceed under the assumption that you do?" Luka offered after a brief pause.
"Go ahead," Adrien shrugged, seemingly unbothered by the assertion.
"It's very important I get that information," Luka continued.
"I'm not interested in why you want it," Adrien interrupted. "I try to stay out of politics. The problems of the world are not my department."
"I'm surprised," Luka admitted. "Most influencers like yourself would say quite the opposite. One might say you have an obligation to be interested in the problems of the world. Or the problems of Paris, at least."
"You and I are very different types of influencers," Adrien countered.
Luka couldn't pin down Adrien's motivations. He thought at first Adrien had hidden the information he got from Max in search of getting a payout. But surely the Tsurugis could pay more than any black market dealer. His dodgy answers made him think maybe he really was a supporter of the resistance in Paris, but was simply unwilling to risk his social standing by helping someone as prominent as Luka directly. If that's what was scaring him off, he certainly wouldn't help if he discovered he wasn't just helping a resistance leader but Ladybug and Viperion themselves.
"Marinette speaks highly of you," Luka changed strategies. "So does your staff."
Adrien's mask fell for a moment in reaction before he composed his poker face again. It wasn't the reaction Luka was expecting. Perhaps the nightclub owner was not fully aware of all the extra curricular activities of many of his employees.
"Let's cut to the chase," Luka conceded. "Name your price."
"You can't afford my price," Adrien scoffed.
"Do you really want to hang on to the file for too long? Tsurugi Corp and the Paris Special Taskforce are both looking for it," Luka reminded him.
"I'm well aware," Adrien replied. "But, hypothetically of course, if I did have the file, I would not be concerned about that. As you've already pointed out, I have quite a bit of influence in Paris."
"Influence that could very quickly disappear if it became public knowledge you were helping the resistance," Luka countered.
"I'm not helping the resistance," Adrien responded quickly. Luka noticed he was starting to sweat, despite the office being quite cool.
"There must be a reason you won't let me have it."
"There is. I suggest you ask your wife."
Now it was Luka's turn to look surprised. Adrien clearly knew more than he had originally suspected.
"Excuse me?" Luka sputtered out.
"I said, ask your wife," Adrien repeated, uncrossing his arms and leaning forward onto his desk.
If Adrien knew they were married, how much more did he know? Did he suspect Marinette was also involved in the resistance? They had scoured the Internet and publications across France, there were not even rumors of their superhero identities being compromised. It wasn't possible he knew the truth, was it?
"My wife?" Luka asked again, still not able to grasp what Adrien could be implying.
But Adrien didn't get the chance to answer. At that moment, a ruckus in the club roared from the floor below, and Adrien stood up and made for the door without excusing himself to see what the commotion was.
Luka sat alone for a moment in the office, trying to gather his thoughts. As the noise from the club got louder, he recognized the song they were singing and quickly stood up to follow Adrien out to the floor.
He found Adrien at the base of the stairs wearing a tight-lipped frown and giving a disapproving stare to the large group of club-goers who had taken to the dance floor to start singing their own song, loudly ignoring the techno filler beat that was playing from the empty DJ booth.
Luka had heard the song before. It was a crude parody of a popular pop song, with the lyrics replaced to mock the city's former hero.
La punaise rouge inutile,
on l'a envoyée en exil.
Luka recognized several members of the singing crowd as personnel employed by Tsurugi Corp or the Special Taskforce. Their demonstration had drawn the attention of everyone at the club, although he was glad to see that few people were rushing to join in the singing. Luka looked back at Adrien, who was still scanning the club silently. Probably looking for his missing DJ.
Luka spotted Nino first. By the looks of it, Nino had taken a short break and put on some holding music, but was now blocked by the crowd of spectators from returning to his equipment. Luka didn't wait for Adrien to take action, instead Luka calmly but quickly made his way across the dance floor, moving aside the people who were blocking Nino in.
"Thanks, dude," Nino patted him on the back as the two men pushed their way through the crowd back to the DJ booth.
"Think you can do something about this?" Luka asked, nodding toward the singing crowd.
"Oh yeah," Nino agreed. "Their screeching is killing the vibe."
Nino cut the backing track that had been playing in his absence, which caught everyone's attention as the speakers fell silent. Most of the patrons fell into silent whispers, but the main instigators were not deterred, raising their voices to sing even louder.
Elle n'a pas aidé, elle s'est enfuie.
Elle n'est pas le remède, elle est une maladie.
Luka locked eyes with Marinette from across the club and a wave of guilt washed over him. No one sang rude songs about Viperion. He got to remain a hero in the people's minds, while she faced all their ire. But if he had been there that last day in Paris, maybe Ladybug would have never gotten hurt. It was his fault she had to leave Paris, and yet she was the one who suffered the shame and embarrassment from his mistakes.
"Nino man, you gotta start playing something," Luka told him.
"I know, I know," Nino replied, sounding flustered. He was frantically turning dials and checking cord plug-ins. "But I think someone messed with my setup, I can't connect to my track library."
Someone caught the corner of Luka's eye, and he had an idea.
"You still have the filler tracks?" Luka asked.
"That's the only thing I got dude," Nino answered in frustration.
Luka took a few steps away from the booth to address the woman he saw a moment ago.
"Hey, Clara, do you think you could give us a hand singing something a little better than this noise?"
Clara Nightingale's face lit up at being recognized and she immediately nodded excitedly, following Luka back to Nino.
"Nino, can you give Clara some backup?"
Nino nervously looked at Clara, then across the club at Adrien. Luka looked too, worried that Adrien would put a stop to his plan. But Adrien turned away from Nino to talk to Zoe, although it almost looked like he had nodded, imperceptibly.
"Good enough for me," Nino mumbled as he plugged in a mic and handed it to Clara. "What kind of beat do you want?"
"Something that would go well with Miraculous?" Luka suggested.
Nino grinned and sidestepped to pull out a small eclectic keyboard. He pressed a button to start a pop-rock drum beat, and started playing the opening chords to a song that Clara had written some years ago, during Ladybug and Viperion's heyday in Paris.
As the crowd began to recognize the new song, an uncertain murmur rolled through the club. The disrupters tried to raise their volume, but when Clara started singing, Nino made sure her voice was heard over all the speakers in the club.
At first Clara was the only one singing the new song, but then Luka noticed someone pull away from the crowd on the dance floor and stand on her own. Chloe Bourgeois stood out in the open, loudly joining in singing along with Clara.
One after another, more and more people started to join in with the new song, and as Clara reached the chorus, the song written to celebrate the city's heroes drowned out everything else.
Miraculous, porte-bonheur
Lady magique et Lady chance!
Miraculous, Lady du coeur
Être héroïque en cas d'urgence!
Luka looked around in astonishment at the display. It seemed that despite the near-constant propaganda to the contrary, there were still quite a few people in Paris who had faith in the old heroes. As the triumphant notes rang through the club, the original crowd of disrupters fizzled out and gave up their attempt to compete, realizing they were vastly outnumbered.
The song came to a roaring finish, after which the club erupted into cheers and toasts. Everyone was celebrating, and as happy as that made Luka to see, he knew he and Marinette couldn't stick around much longer at Chez Adrien.
Kagami turned her back to the crowd to look at a message on her phone. It was a text from her mother, with a link to a video post. Kagami didn't need to click it to know what the video would be. Anticipating what was coming next, Kagami slipped out the door to stand outside where the noise from the club was less obvious, although still very audible.
The phone call from her mother came only moments later.
"Good evening, mother."
"Kagami, I am very disappointed."
"I understand." Kagami tried to shift into damage control. "I'll speak with Adrien, see if we can disperse the crowd, stop this… demonstration."
"If Couffaine's presence in a club can inspire this unfortunate demonstration, what more will his presence in Paris bring on?" Tomo seethed.
"Yes mother, I understand, but-"
"I advise that this place be shut up at once," her mother interrupted.
"I don't think-"
"Yes exactly, you weren't thinking." Tomoe cut in again. "I can't believe you would allow this to happen. Kagami, you will close down this club."
Kagami felt her chest tighten in anxiety.
"But I have no excuse to close it," she tried.
"Find one." Tomoe's decision was final.
Kagami silently put the phone back in her pocket, unenthused about what she needed to do next. She didn't like using her "authority" as chief of the Special Task Force this frequently, and they had already been publicly active in Chez Adrien once this week. Incidents like these were sure to get Gabriel's attention, even if he was seemingly trying his best to forget his son existed.
She slipped back into the club and signaled to one of her plain-clothes agents to come to her. After giving him the instructions, he barked some instructions into his earpiece to the rest of the team.
Within minutes the agents were in position. The music cut out and the house lights were turned on, displaying the dance floor in uncomfortably bright clarity. The agent who had commandeered the DJ booth made an announcement.
"Everybody is to leave here immediately! This club is closed until further notice," he shouted.
Confusion swept through the crowd and there were some angry shouts from the darker corners of the club.
"Clear the room! Now!" the agent shouted.
The rest of the team began ushering people out, sweeping across the floor to make sure no one stayed behind.
Adrien came up from behind Kagami and firmly pulled on her shoulder.
"How can you close me up? On what grounds?" He looked as shocked about the development as she felt. But she couldn't show weakness now, and so quickly composed herself.
She briskly pulled away from his grasp to gesture pointedly toward the entrance to the VIP lounge, which had already been breached by her agents.
"I am shocked, shocked to find that there is gambling going on in here!" she told him, projecting her voice so the exiting clubbers could clearly hear the official reason the club was being shut down.
Adrien's mouth was agape with shock and he looked at Kagami in confusion and anger.
Before he could say anything in response, his croupier appeared at his side, seeming to be casually exiting with the rest of the club patrons. Before she passed, Alix handed off a roll of bills to Kagami as if she were passing her a soda.
"Your winnings, Ms. Tsurugi," she said to Kagami in a sweet customer service voice she had certainly never heard from Alix before tonight.
"Thank you very much," Kagami answered back smugly, pocketing the cash. Depending on how long her mother demanded this investigation of Adrien continue, this might be her last receipt of untracked cash for some time. Best to not waste the opportunity.
"Everybody out at once!" the agents continued to shout.
Kagami turned away from Adrien, not willing or able to give him a further explanation at this time. He must know that a display like the one Couffaine put on was unacceptable. If his father were to hear about it he'd be in deep trouble himself. Mr. Agreste had not been keeping a close eye on his son lately, but Kagami suspected that would change if he knew the kind of environment the club had become.
Kagami noticed one of the hostesses, Alya, passing a slip of paper to the bartender, but before she could move to investigate further a more important target caught her eye.
The woman who had been traveling with Couffaine was near the main exit, being jostled by the crowd and security agents while trying to remain inside. She must not have reunited with her date yet.
Kagam jumped on the opportunity. She wanted this Couffaine business cleaned up quickly. If she couldn't make the man see sense, maybe his girlfriend could convince him that these charades were futile.
Kagami pulled Marinette to the side, away from the exiting patrons. The woman seemed surprised but didn't resist.
"Kagami! I was just leaving," she tried to excuse herself.
"Mademoiselle," Kagami placed a firm hand on Marinette's shoulder to keep her in place. "After this disturbance it is not safe for Luka to stay in Paris."
Marinette's expression shifted from politely apologetic to firmly upset. "This morning you implied it was not safe for him to leave Paris."
"This is also true."
"Then what choice do we have?"
"There are only two paths for him. It is possible the French authorities will find a reason to detain him here," Kagami suggested.
"And the other alternative?" Marinette asked, her eyes shining with naivete.
"My dear Marinette," Kagami spoke softly but sternly, so even over the commotion of the closure the French woman would hear. "Perhaps you have already observed that in Paris, human life is cheap."
Marinette's breath hitched, and Kagami gave a triumphant smile. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Luka approaching, and decided to take her leave.
"Good night, mademoiselle," Kagami dismissed herself.
As walked away, she caught only a few words of the couple's exchange.
"What happened with Adrien?" Marinette asked him.
"We'll discuss it later," Luka replied.
Kagami clenched her fist in frustration. Adrien was going to get himself into trouble, she knew it.
Zoe watched from behind the bar as the Special Task Force escorted out all the customers. They had told the staff that they could stay, that they were only closing the club for "public safety" reasons. They weren't even trying to be subtle these days with their cover stories.
She started cleaning up behind the bar, if only to keep her hands busy. She knew there was nothing she could do right now to really help. She glanced at that piece of paper Alya had handed her, but didn't turn it over again to read it. Better it just went unnoticed, but if they started searching the bar again she would have to grab it.
"Excuse me," someone interrupted her train of thought.
Zoe looked up to see the Tsurugi employee who had been flirting with her sister earlier, the one who almost started a fight. As far as she knew he was not law enforcement, but the task force agents seemed to be ignoring his continued presence in the club as they rounded up the last stragglers.
"What are you making?" the man asked.
Zoe was a bit confused by the question, until she realized she was holding a dirty glass with a bit of soapy water. She looked at the glass and made a split second decision.
"Some new drink," Zoe answered casually.
"I'll have it," the man insisted.
Zoe shrugged, as if it was no bother to her. She mixed a few other things into the dish water in the glass so it looked like a proper drink, and happily slid it across the counter to him. The man threw down some coins for payment and downed the whole drink in one shot. Zoe did her best not to grimace.
He nodded to her and headed out to the exit. Zoe went back to wiping down the counters as she watched him leave out the glass doors of the front of the club. Lucky for her, he made it all the way to the bushes outside before he doubled over and vomited.
Zoe smiled to herself as she started her closing checklist. She didn't want to hang around at work too long tonight. She had somewhere to be.