Marinette groans internally, why didn't she decide to practice Parkour with Bloom instead?! Being Ladybug doesn't need fencing, she uses a yo-yo for Kwami's sake!

She didn't listen, though, and now she's stuck trying to decide who managed to land a hit before the other between Adrien and the mystery-fencer. She really needs to start listening to Bloom - but, noo, she got it in her head that fencing would help her as Ladybug...and Adrien would be there. Bloom absolutely knew she was trying to get closer to Adrien as well, but didn't call her out for it...and Mari's wishing she had, wishing the red-head had talked her out of fencing like she has twenty other hare-brained ideas.

She's absolutely going to get an 'I told you so' from Bloom later. Likely coupled with laughter, if Marinette's being honest. Since her magic is emotion-based...Bloom feels everything like a freight train. Including amusement. It's why she has such an explosive temper, for instance,

If anyone should've tried for the spot, it should'a been Bloom. She's the one with the sword!

And she'd have a better chance of seeing who landed a hit first! A part of her, likely Bloom's influence, is tempted to tell the two Fencers and D'Argencourt that she has no idea who got the hit in. Unfortunately, the part of her brain that insists on helping everyone demands she pick someone.

After playing 'eenie, meenie, minie, mo' in her head, Marinette nervously says "Um, I think it was…Adrien?" She hasn't got the slightest clue, honestly, it's a 50-50 chance she's right.

D'Argencourt straightens up at once, declaring it an honor to have such a victory for the Academy. The mystery-fencer just shakes Adrien's hand and walks out without a word, though both Adrien and Marinette are skeptical he actually won.

Adrien goes to offer a decisive match, but the fencer - who turns out to be a girl, when literally everyone thought she was a guy - says "What's the point? There are no second chances in my family."

Adrien notices a ring on her finger with a symbol, and just knows he's seen it somewhere before - he races to the limo, and has his Bodyguard follow the girl's while looking up the symbol on the ring. Her name turns out to be Kagami Tsurugi, the only daughter of a line of prestigious and famous fencers.

He's just looked up when the front of the limo gets separated from the back - cut in half, to be specific. When he looks up from where he landed on the pavement, he sees…it must be Kagami, an Akumatized Kagami. She's all-silver, and it looks like she's holding a sword…or her hand is the sword, it's a little hard to tell with the glare coming off her.

Ladybug comes in and distracts Kagami - Riposte, now - and then Dragon Fyre lands right behind him hard enough to make a crater in the pavement. She scoops Adrien up at once, signing that she'll be right back with one hand, and leaps up to the rooftop and whispers "I don't know what happened, and something tells me I don't want to know."

Adrien winces, and says "Marinette was the only person to see the end of the fencing match between myself and Kagami down there. And she had no idea who actually won, so she guessed."

Dragon Fyre deadpans "And picked you."

Adrien nods, and says "Personally, I think she won…but I don't think she wants to hear that right now…"

When Cat Noir lands next to Ladybug, he sees…his sister swordfighting Riposte. And, if he didn't know any better…he'd say the two of them are enjoying the fight. Both leaping forwards, swords meeting, taking a few swings at each other that get blocked only to separate a few feet and repeat the process.

Wait a minute…dear Kwamis, how alike are they?

After a few attacks, Riposte says "You're a worthy adversary, Dragon Fyre, but I will have the Miraculous'!"

Dragon Fyre smirks, and asks "You just saying that to keep Butterfly-Boy happy and keep him from torturing you like he has other victims of his? Or do you really want to help a terrorist?"

A butterfly mask appears over Riposte's face, and she snarls "Lies! You can't distract me so easily!" Whether she's talking to Dragon Fyre or Hawk Moth is up for debate, but either way she rushes forward towards the red-head she's battling.

Dragon Fyre blocks the strike, saying "I don't lie if I don't have to, Riposte. You think he can't make sure his victims do what he wants? I've seen it firsthand. If they don't do what he wants, he starts making them." Doubt flickers across her face, and Dragon Fyre presses "There's no shame in losing to an opponent, you know. Especially one as good as I heard you faced. The Academy's best fencer, right?"

Riposte nods, and says "His friend saw me lose."

Dragon Fyre deflects an attack, and asks "Was this friend particularly confident in her choice? Or was everyone pressuring her to give an answer, even if she said she didn't know?"

Riposte stares at her in shock, only for the transformation to suddenly fail and a purple butterfly comes out of the ring she's wearing. Kagami looks around, asking "What? What happened?"

Ladybug quickly catches the Akuma, and Dragon Fyre offers Kagami a hand up while saying "You got Akumatized. Luckily, it seemed all you wanted was a rematch. My advice? Take it. As I heard, a newbie was forced to make a near-impossible call."

Kagami blinks, then says "I see. Well, it seems I'll have to accept that decisive match then."

Once Ladybug and Dragon Fyre are alone, Ladybug deadpans "I quit fencing, Scales. No matter if Adrien's there or not. I'll leave that to you and Cat Noir."

Dragon Fyre bursts out laughing, ending up doubled over and clutching at her stomach as she slides to the roof they're standing on. "Oh man, oh man, Spots, I told you it wasn't your thing! Good reflexes or no, unless you and Kitty suddenly switch Miraculous' it won't do you much good!" She spent three hours trying to talk Marinette into a different hobby, then gave up figuring Marinette would come to the conclusion on her own - she isn't going to use it as Ladybug, and Marinette and Tikki are way too attached for Marinette to suddenly switch to a more offensive Miraculous. Ergo, she figured Marinette would drop it eventually - and, between being Ladybug, half of B&M, and student rep, there's not much room for anything else in the day.

Bloom would know, she helps with all of that!

Later that night, Kagami Tsurugi is staring out the window of her room…she remembers everything. Leaping out of the top of the limo, slicing Adrien's car in half…fighting Dragon Fyre.

The only person she's ever come across as skilled as her mother with a sword, even if the style of swordsmanship differs. She blocked or countered every strike, never stumbled or faltered…she was truly a worthy opponent.

But…why does she remember as much? She researched what happened to her, and found it's a daily problem…but, at the end of it all, nobody remembers what happened! Bits and pieces can come back, yeah…but nobody remembers the whole thing.

Was it because the emotion disappeared naturally? They didn't have to fight tooth and nail for the Akuma?

She doesn't know, but it's extremely disturbing - Hawk Moth's voice in her head, even more so. Egging her on to get the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous' - and to get Dragon Fyre out of the way by any means necessary, keep her from using her magic somehow.

Magic?! She's going to have to look into that, honestly - it was obviously magic, what happened to her, but Hawk Moth seemed to be under the impression that Dragon Fyre had some kind of magic of her own. A dangerous magic, at that.

AN: Hey, everyone! Next chapter is up! Not much to say here, really - why Marinette decided Fencing was a good pastime for her when she's already got so much on her plate - yeah, I know Adrien was there and that was her whole motivation in canon, but still! - is a mystery to me. Being Ladybug is basically a full-time job...with the worst hours ever, since Hawk Moth has Akumatized someone at basically every hour of the day by this point in the show. Class Rep is another job, between organizing events and raising funding for field trips and such. She's constantly designing clothes and such, which takes a considerable amount of time between sketching it out, getting the materials, and making the clothes and accessories. For someone with - apparently - no time management skills, Marinette manages to jam quite a bit into a day.

Anyway, enjoy! More chapters coming soon!