Looking for a master
"Are you master Shi?" Ladybug asked with all the confidence and air of a Ladybug, in the best Chinese she was able to muster, as she remembered the name of the master mentioned by Fluff, who should be training Alix. Chat looked proud, Bunnix and Peagasus were confused.
The old man did not answer, he observed the four heroes slowly, his eyes moved over them one by one as he took in all the details of their suits. The dim light of the cave did not help his efforts that were further hampered by his poor eyesight due to the old age.
"How did you know when to go?" Chat Noir asked Bunnix teasingly as he leaned onto the stone wall and waited for an answer from the old man. He remembered his first meeting with master Tenzin rather vividly. "Did Ladybug tell you? Or Fluff?"
"What? No! Nobody told me … I just … I wanted to try out this thing." Bunnix pointed towards her umbrella. Her miraculous issued a warning and she flinched from the sound. Chat Noir chuckled and shook his head. Peagasus smirked, he knew what the answer was.
"You used your power and you are going to detransform soon, you have to feed your kwami before you can transform back. I would advise you to do it outside of the cave to keep your identity hidden from us. Although I think someone else here knows it already." Peagasus adjusted his glasses as he spoke and glanced towards Ladybug. Bunnix miraculous issued a warning.
"Detransform, yes, right, I remember that, the older me also detransformed and fed my kwami, I mean, her kwami, I mean our kwami, I mean she fed Fluff, urgh!" Bunnix groaned and took a few determined steps around the old man to get out from the cave.
Ladybug stared at the old man while she waited for an answer. The longer he kept quiet, the longer it took him to observe the young heroes, the more nervous she was. Because if this was a wrong time, and they were hardly so lucky to hit it right, then they were in trouble.
"Are … you … master … Shi?" She asked again as she pronounced the words slowly, one at a time, to make sure she said exactly what she wanted. She glanced towards Chat Noir as if she asked for some support, but he just nodded with a proud smile that she spoke correctly.
Peagasus wasn't feeling very comfortable, but he trusted the permanent heroes and simply mirrored their reaction, which was hard to do because Ladybug was alert and Chat Noir was rather relaxed, at least he appeared that way, casually leaned on the stone side of the cave.
"Um." Ladybug flailed her hands nervously, then touched her index fingers, she took one more breath and focused. "Which year is this?" She pronounced slowly and then exhaled and concentrated on the old man unsure if she was going to understand him.
That however produced little reaction in the old man, his eyes flicked quickly towards Ladybug's face when she spoke and he did flinch lightly at the mention of the word 'year' but all those reactions were rather subtle.
"Ladybug and me are the guardians of the miraculous. We are looking for master Shi. He should train our fellow hero, Bunnix, the wielder of the rabbit miraculous." Chat Noir spoke, he felt obliged to help Ladybug as he noticed how she became more and more nervous.
Ladybug mustered as much confidence as she was able to, she was (almost) always the picture of self confidence when she was fighting an akuma, but now she was also a guardian and she was talking to one of the monks from the temple in a language she did not really master.
There was a moment of awkward silence in which the old man first stepped towards Ladybug and observed her carefully, then he proceeded towards Chat Noir and finally approached Peagasus, he walked around Peagasus and observed him from all sides.
Peagasus shifted from one foot to another and glanced nervously towards Ladybug and Chat Noir unsure on what to do, but when the monk finally stopped in front of him and their eyes met, he stilled and they stared at each other intently.
There was a moment of awkward silence, before their breathing evened and they just looked at each other. Chat smirked and nudged Ladybug in the ribs, she glanced towards him but then returned her attention towards the quiet exchange before them.
"Hey, I'm back if you missed me. Fluff eats rather quickly." Bunnix stormed into the cave only to be stopped by a red hand with black spots on one shoulder and a black hand with black claws on another, Ladybug put her index finger over her mouth.
"I am master Juli. And I am the guardian of the miraculous too." The man finally spoke. Ladybug and Chat Noir acknowledged that they understood then they translated for the other two heroes. "You can take them to master Shi." Master Yuli spoke to Peagasus.
The said hero was confused when he was explained what was said, how was he supposed to know. But then the old man took his hand and laid it on the stone side of the cave, then master Juli did the same with the other hand, and then he moved between them.
"I thought master Shi was in the temple." Ladybug spoke quietly. "I was wrong."
"We are lucky Bunnix here hit the right time on accident." Chat noted.
"Who is master Shi." Bunnix inquired.
"A guy who is supposed to train you." Chat replied.
"And you were not supposed to just test out your powers, time travel is the weapon of the last resort." Ladybug chided.
"Sorry Ladybug, I didn't think there would be much damage if I just skipped a few centuries backwards and take a peek! It was just that dull cave, besides I was supposed to learn about my powers, right?" Bunnix replied sheepishly.
"We were not trained at all before we engaged in our first battle Bug, don't be so harsh." Chat teased.
"Yeah, remember how that one turned out?" She reminded him how he wasted his power, not that she was much better herself.
"I do … but we learned our lesson and improved quickly." He countered.
"This is not a joke, this is the power of time travel, this is not something to mess with, that is exactly why it is considered the weapon of the last resort, ugh." Ladybug groaned. The whole time, Peagasus and master Juli were in a bubble of their own.
Peagasus turned around and created a portal with one swift motion of his hand. Rather confused, he turned around towards the older man. Master Juli returned one firm nod and motioned with his hand for the young hero to go through.
"Where is he going?" Ladybug frowned as she looked at Peagasus who just passed through the orange glowing disc. Master Juli turned towards them and motioned with his hand to the others to follow through the disc.
"Where are we going?" Chat Noir asked while he casually strolled towards the disc.
"To see master Shi." Master Juli explained.
"Okay I'm in!" Chat Noir jumped into the disc. Ladybug's eyes went wide at that.
"Like a little caution would kill you." Ladybug muttered and marched towards the portal.
Alix stared at the portal, then at the old man and then back at the portal. After Ladybug disappeared behind the orange disc, she shrugged and decided she had no choice but to follow through, everyone else had already gone through.
"Where are we?" Chat asked as he approached Peagasus and turned around to take in the scene around. Peagasus stood still rather dazed and confused with the place he found himself in. It was flat, wide open space with grass and few trees and a lot of small homes.
"It is a place … Master Juli directed me to, but I don't know what this place is, just that the person we are looking for is somewhere here." And while Peagasus was talking, his miraculous issued its first warning.
Ladybug walked out from the portal with confidence and determination, as long as nobody was shooting anything directly at her she was fine, she was ready to see anything, to meet anyone, they were looking for master Shi and he was a teacher specialized for time travel that was a weapon of the last resort, it had to be something dramatic.
They stood in the middle of a wide path, covered with dirt, it was soil from which the grass was missing. There were plenty of patches of grass and there were buildings, houses, probably homes, built all around them. And nobody was shooting anything at them.
It looked like a really wide street, except there was no pavement, and no separate route for the vehicles and pedestrians, only a few metres wide path with different dwellings built at different distance from the same path. There were no flames or a wall of water, no imminent danger.
There were no monsters, the planet earth apparently still rotated around its axis, and on its usual orbit around the Sun, there was no big city destroyed by flood and the moon was probably whole although it wasn't visible, no major disaster that required intervention from a time traveller.
"Where are we?" Ladybug inquired while she looked around and observed the scenery, it looked peaceful, few people tended their vegetable gardens. Bunnix had just passed through the portal behind her, shook her head at the question and walked towards the heroes.
"I …. have no … idea." Peagasus admitted. This was entirely different from anything that he had ever seen. There were homes build from wood and stone and plastered with mud and covered with grass and dry hay. And there were definitely ducks somewhere near, at least they sounded like ducks.
"A place long ago and far away … " Chat grinned.
"How did you decide where to go?" Ladybug inquired.
"Master Juli directed me." Peagasus shrugged.
"How? We did not hear him talk and even if he did … " Ladybug wanted to understand, she narrowed her eyes, she was barely able to communicate in basic Chinese and she was rather certain Max wasn't able at all (at least not without the assistance from Markov).
"I wouldn't understand a word. It was just, I had that feeling that I knew where I'm expected to go." Peagasus shrugged, he had no explanation, just a feeling on what to do, and Max was never a person who worked on a hunch, everything had to be precomputed with a margin for error.
"So we got here based on a hunch?" Ladybug put her hands on her hips. It was actually starting to make sense, because she started the whole process based on her own impulse.
"You mean that old man did not tell you where to go? Haven't given you coordinates or something? You just created a portal to somewhere and you all just hopped through without knowing where you were going?" Bunnix inquired and snickered.
"Isn't that exactly what you did?" Chat leaned in towards Bunnix, smirked and teased.
"Nope, I knew exactly where I was going." Bunnix replied and leaned towards him with hands on her hips.
"Yeah?" Peagasus raised an eyebrow, he was there when she spontaneously decided to give her miraculous a test drive.
"Yeah! And we got exactly there, to the same cave!" Bunnix was standing face to face with Peagasus.
Chat started to laugh loudly.
Ladybug groaned and pulled fingers down her face.
"Yeah." Peagasus breathed ou, she got him there, they did end up exactly on the same spot, there was a catch, she was a time traveller, he put hands on his hips. His miraculous issued its second warning. He flinched. "So tell us, then, when exactly are we?"
"Now?" The truth was, Bunnix did not think of a specific time, somehow, it was probably Fluff who decided that for her while she was transformed, and the kwami probably had some default time, and it was the time when the teacher, master Shi was most active. But Bunnix did not know that, not in advance, she looked around with narrowed eyes and then she grinned.
"I know exactly when are we." Bunnix turned around theatrically and raised her hands as if to emphasise her words.
"Yeah, you got us to the when." Chat smirked.
"Um, that is not the reason, I sort of just wanted to go to some other time because I was bored. Just to give my miraculous a test ride." Bunnix admitted. Ladybug crossed her arms. Chat smirked. "But there are other clues." She added.
"Ok, when and where?" Peagasus demanded. He knew the distance and the direction from the cave he too them to, but it wasn't sufficient information for him. He was missing Markov, the tiny robot would have compared this scene to anything he was able to find in some database … wait … this was probably ancient past … there were no databases … at least not those with remote access.
"At the time of master Shi?" Ladybug frowned, she was hoping they were right. "The monk, master Juli, he directed us to master Shi. We are looking for master Shi, he is a teacher and this is why we are here." It wasn't that far fetched as some of her plans in akuma battles.
"Are you sure we are looking for the right master Shi?" Chat half teased. "I mean, what if there wasn't only one master Shi? What if there were more?" Right then he was the only hero who did not make a decision for all of them based on nothing explainable by common sense, aside from the mysterious power of miraculous.
"Statistically speaking … " Peagasus adjusted his glasses. Bunnix turned towards him with a hint of recognition in her eyes, but it faded quickly. Both Ladybug and Chat Noir gave him warning looks. The portal disappeared with a pop.
"Hey, the old man did not follow us." Bunnix frowned at the place where the portal used to be, the other three heroes were rather busy by frowning at each other.
"He is master Juli to you!" Chat teased. Then he noticed how Ladybug looked at him. "Well, to all of us." He corrected. Bunnix nodded to acknowledge she heard and understood but turned around and observed something in the direction where the portal used to be.
"As I was saying, I don't know how common was the name Shi in this specific time period, but it is safe to assume that even if one percent of population is named Shi and the title of master is assigned ot only one percent of them, that would still leave us with … " He trailed off as he got interrupted.
"Okay, no, this has to make sense. I just need some time." Ladybug raised her hands. She narrowed her eyes and looked in the direction of quacking ducks. She was tempted to actually call for a lucky charm, with some luck, she would get a calendar with exact date and a year.
"Want me to distract those ducks for you?" Chat teased. He was turning everything into a joke, as usual. Ladybug clenched her yoyo as she tried to decide weather to call her power or not, yet, she would probably just got a vase from the contemporary dynasty that would be no help at all.
"I have no idea who this master Shi is, but I know exactly when and where we are." Bunnix motioned with her hands again to encompass all their surroundings. That turned the attention of all three heroes back to her.
"Okay, so tell us then." Peagasus demanded.
"How do you say?" Bunnix smirked.
"Please?" Ladybug and Chat Noir replied in unison.
"Yes. Please." Peagasus repeated with his arms crossed. His miraculous issued another annoying warning.
"This is late 13th century Xanadu." Bunnix announced.
Ladybug flinched. Chat Noir smirked. Peagasus was confused and looked around. How did she know? There was nothing particular on the soil, the few houses around them did not look like much, there were few domesticated animals and poultry roaming around the fenced yards.
"How does she know?" Ladybug and Chat Noir whispered simultaneously.
"How do you know?" Peagasus voiced the question louder.
"Because that is the tower and the gilded palace of the Kublai Khan." Bunnix pointed in the direction where the portal used to be. "Look far, really far." She advised.
And right there, in the distance, they saw it, a palace that glittered with gold and a white tower next to it.