In her effort to familiarize herself with the miraculouses, Marinette was going to spend time with one kwami each night. It would be good for them to get out of the Miracle Box and see the modern world, and they could tell her about their powers. Tonight, she decided she would wear the Goat Miraculous. As she adorned the twin hair clips, a sparkling gray light appeared and transformed into the horned kwami Ziggy.

The kwami gave her a bashful look. "Oh, is it my turn already?"

"Yes," she confirmed, lacking enthusiasm. "I actually need your advice on something."

"What's that?"

"Since you're the kwami of exchange, I want to know something: is paying back a good deed considered an exchange?"

Ziggy smiled. "The term you're looking for is reciprocity, and indeed it is! It's an exchange of help, each agreeing to take a turn benefitting the other. So tell me, what is it you're paying back? This must be no ordinary deed if you're seeking the help of a kwami to understand its magnitude."

"I don't know how much Tikki keeps you in the loop about each of my adventures, but it's about Chat Noir."

"She's certainly told us about him, and his affections for you."

Marinette blushed. "Yeah, well, the thing is, it's not any old affection he has. He really, truly loves me as Ladybug, and I don't know what to do. I told him in no uncertain terms that we can't date until Hawk Moth is defeated, because apparently it's the literal end of the world, and he seems to have accepted that. But he's still my partner, and I need his support to function with all of the stress I'm under, and he's giving that too. But now I feel like I'm just taking and taking without giving anything back, but I have to be careful because I can't play with his heartstrings. I also have a boyfriend as Marinette, who's also doing his best to support me without me having the capacity to reciprocate, and despite all this, there's a third boy who's the real one I've been madly in love with for the last year."

By this point, she had stood and was pacing back and forth. "And while we can't date and definitely can't know each other's identities, I can't help but wonder if Chat has a point about me falling in love with him if it happened anyway, which it did during an akuma that wiped our memories of it. Because the ways he complimented me today… were moving."

"Wow. That is quite an extraordinary problem," Ziggy said as her eyes followed Marinette's expressive movements. "It's a lot to take in, I'll be honest."

"Waaah, how on earth did I get into such a giant mess?" the human girl moaned, flopping down onto her chaise.

Ziggy put a tiny hand up to her chin, moving a little herself as she contemplated the issue. An idea came to her, and she flew to Marinette to hover where the girl could see her.

"This may sound unusual, but perhaps this isn't an issue solved with exchange at all."

"Really? How can that be?"

"It's just what you said: You need the support to continue being Ladybug and fighting Hawk Moth to save Paris. That means the support being given to you is not for your benefit, it's for Paris's. In that sense, you don't owe Chat Noir or your boyfriend anything, because they're doing what they need to do to help protect Paris and really, the whole world.

"Exchange isn't restricted to equal trades between two parties. A sacrifice is an exchange, giving up something of value in order to obtain another kind of advantage. And it doesn't have to be physical – collective sacrifice describes scenarios where individuals in a community agree to give up certain liberties equally so they can get a result beneficial to the whole group. It's a bit like Daizzi's prohibition in that sense."

Some moments passed without any response, and when she looked down, she saw that Marinette's eyes were closed.

"Uh… Marinette?" she asked, poking the girl's stomach with both feet.

"Mm? Sorry. I promise I was listening to all of that," Marinette explained, forcing herself to sit up. "Today has been a long day, is all. What you said… makes a lot of sense."

The bluenette looked relieved as she returned her full attention to the being in front of her. "I shouldn't be viewing this as a personal commitment; it's really all part of being a successful team. Now I feel a lot better about this. Thank you, Ziggy!"

"You could say I'm just doing my part as well!" Ziggy exclaimed cheerfully.

"Anyway, it's well past time for me to learn about what sorts of powers your miraculous grants, don't you think?"

"Ah, yes! Well, firstly, you need to transform with the activation phrase, which is, 'Ziggy, horns down.' The de-transformation phrase, as one might expect, is, 'Horns up.' The tool given while transformed is a broom, and I hear it can create a pretty decent gust of wind."

Marinette snickered. "Now I'm picturing a member of the Order using your miraculous because they got assigned cleaning duty."

The kwami frowned in response. "Guardians aren't allowed to wear miraculouses, to avoid exactly the problem that Master Fu caused. He only wore the Turtle since then because of the exceptional circumstances. And obviously, you were a wielder before becoming a Guardian."

"Oh. I, uh, didn't know that either…" she admitted, finding herself breaking eye contact as painful memories began to emerge.

Ziggy became concerned and flew down to try and meet Marinette's eyes again. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you sad!"

"No, it's okay," she denied. "This is the way it is, no point in pretending that it's not."

"No, really, this is a problem I keep having!" she explained, starting to pace in the air with anxiety. "I'm not very good with human etiquette, so I always wind up being too straightforward and making someone upset! Please forgive me!"

That caused the teen to give a weak smile, holding out her hand for the smaller being to perch on. "It's okay, Ziggy. I'm well-experienced in saying exactly the wrong thing."

"Thank you for understanding," the kwami said with a bow.

With the conversation stalled, another few moments passed, and Marinette's eyes slowly drooped…

"Marinette, stay with me!"

She jolted awake. "Sorry, sorry! Um… we should finish with your powers."

"Right, of course. The superpower granted to a Goat wielder is known as Scapegoat. It allows the wielder to trade places with another in order to protect that person from an attack, also granting the wielder immunity to that attack. To aid in this power, the wielder can sense danger towards anyone within a considerable distance while the power is active, being able to determine the location and severity of any threats."

"I see." The heroine thought for a moment. "So if I were to give it to someone, I would want the kind of person who is attentive and considerate, but who lacks confidence to advocate for their needs and principles. The Goat Miraculous would empower them to engage with others and make the exchanges they need to transform their potential into tangible results."

"That sounds like a good plan to me!"

Marinette's face grew a bit serious. "I do have one more question, though."

"Oh?"

"How can I be sure that any sacrifice I make will give me a worthy advantage?"

Ziggy sagged somewhat, her enthusiasm leaving her. "You can't, really. Making an investment always comes with the risk of losing it. Sometimes, the outcome of your investment depends on how the other party responds to it, or even if they choose to respond at all. This sort of thing is called a gambit, and it's a much-studied topic in xiangqi, or I guess the Western variant that you would know better – chess."

"Okay. I'll have to do some research later. I'm way too tired to think about it right now… I should really go to bed."

"That also sounds like a good plan."

With that, she removed the miraculous and returned it to the Miracle Box, before storing it away in its secret hiding place at the bottom of her chest.