The next day, Alya rented a box at the central Paris post office, then at 10 PM put the box address on the Ladyblog for precisely ten minutes. The day after that was Sunday, no mail service, so she enjoyed a day out with Nino. Then came Monday: there were classes and homework, and a quick trip to check her new mailbox (empty, no surprise), and though she'd never admit it, rising tension. If this worked out, what would that mean for Ladybug, and the Ladyblog? No more akuma incidents would be good, of course, but… she'd miss being Rena Rouge.
Then again, who said she had to? Paris was pretty peaceful, but even so, there might well be other occasions when Ladybug and Cat Noir would need Rena Rouge and Carapace. Not to mention the others, except for Chloé of course. There were such threats as only superheroes could effectively counter, police too little and the military too much, like every akuma victim, and others where superheroes weren't needed, but still useful. In a better mood, she slept well.
Tuesday. The hoped-for day when the Miraculous arrived, or such she expected when she picked up the little padded envelope. Weird, she thought as she walked out of the office. Feels like there's three things in there. She slipped it into her bag, and headed for her apartment.
.oO()Oo.
Above the streets, Ladybug swung and leapt toward Alya's apartment; she touched down on the balcony, tapped on the glass, and found herself under assault not from Nora but from a pair of extremely small sapient tornadoes by the names of Ella and Etta. She picked them up by their ankles and let them dangle as she stepped inside. "I seem to have found two new supervillains," she told Nora, who struggled mightily to rein in her laughter, while the twins fumed and squirmed in semi-genuine outrage. "Any suggestions on what to do with them?"
"PUT US DOWN!" the girls demanded, and Ladybug smiled. Holding them over the couch, she let them drop, knowing that three to four centimetres onto cushions would do them no harm. They squealed, popped up onto their feet, and tried again to drive off the intruder.
She simply turned and hopped as needed, until the twins had to face an even more implacable foe: Alya, who took in the scene before she called out, "Surrender, villains! For now you face the might of Ladybug and Sunshot!" The twins squealed in well-feigned fear, and surrendered, then dashed over to hug their big sister.
Alya rummaged in her bag. "Glad you're here," she said, and tossed the envelope too high and fast for the twins to grab; Ladybug snatched it and stowed it inside her yo-yo before the twins could dash over.
"Thank you, Alya," Ladybug said while she stepped back out, then departed via yo-yo and a cheery "Bug out!"
.oO()Oo.
Back in her room, Marinette opened the envelope, then slid the contents onto her desk: a brooch, a pin, and a USB key? But when she donned the jewels, out flew the kwamis, all three immediately hugging with Tikki before they turned to Marinette, and Nooroo and Dusuu bowed to her. "Greetings, Guardian," they chorused.
"Greetings," Marinette answered. "I need to put you back in the miracle box until tomorrow, if that's all right."
They smiled brightly, and Nooroo answered. "That would be wonderful, we can be with the others again!" Marinette decided not to ask, simply restoring the two jewels to their proper places and returning the box to the bottom of her truck cum bench. Then she turned to Tikki.
"What did they mean, with the o… ther… oh, the world in the miracle box! Now I remember!" and Tikki confirmed it. Marinette returned to her desk, and slotted the key into her computer. She opened it, and found two files, one labelled "Read Me" and the other "Archive." After scanning them, she opened Read Me into her simplest editor, a single line. "Guardian. The archive is encrypted. You know the password." Marinette pushed away from the desk. "Something I already know. Something the Guardian must know. Something Hawkmoth knows. I wonder… Tikki, do you know the activation phrases for the other Miraculous?"
Tikki shook her head. "I've never known it. I'm sorry, Guardian."
Marinette returned to her musings. "Maybe… " She rose, and dug out the Miraculous box, then donned the Moth brooch. "Nooroo, can you read the Latin alphabet?" she asked after briefing the little being.
Nooroo nodded. "But Tikki has to hide first. I can't reveal it to other kwamis," the purple kwami told her. Tikki flitted behind the computer, and Nooroo hopped about over the keys, typing in "dark wings rise," then when that failed, omitted the spaces. The file opened, and its extraction started.
.oO()Oo.
Marinette paged through and the images. This… this couldn't be. But it was! Impossible, but there it was. It was the grimoire, but… it wasn't. The images were the same, but the text was in French. How had Hawkmoth decrypted the book? Or had Mayura done it? She put the question aside as best she could, focusing instead on what this meant, though the question wouldn't go away entirely. Tomorrow, she'd need to complete her end of the bargain, but tonight, she needed to talk with Nooroo and Duusu and do some planning.
.oO()Oo.
"So… what martial art is your, ah… I don't what to call it, for?" Marinette asked, as they walked toward a sidewalk cafe at the end of the Friendship Day game.
"A shinai, for kenjutsu," Kagami said. "The Japanese art of the sword."
Marinette frowned a little. "I thought that was kendo?"
Kagami shook her head, "That is the way of the sword, a sport and a form of moving meditation. Kenjutsu is a combat style. Sadly, it is slowly dying out."
"So… it's pretty rare?" Marinette asked, but the answer had to wait when the waiter arrived to take their orders, one orange juice and one limeade.
Kagami took a sip of her orange. "Yes, especially among women. Mother and I are likely the only women in Europe who practice it; most Japanese women who practice at weapons practice at spear or naginata."
Marinette quickly searched for the term. "Oh! My mother practices something like that! The guandao. I've never tried it, I'm way too clumsy, I'd decapitate myself!"
Kagami smiled a bit."I can think of people who could improve the world by so doing, but you are not one of them."
Marinette smiled back. "Thank you. So… where do you go to practice? I don't think it's something you practice in a living room."
Kagami shook her head. "Most often, we practice in the Jardin des Tuilieres. Perhaps, when I am more proficient in kenjutsu, I will consider branching out."
.oO()Oo.
She debarked near the Jardin's east end, and began looking for the Tsurugis; it was a short search, then she realized she had no idea where to go to change. But… yes! She walked the Jardin's perimeter to its public facilities, and took a stall until the room was otherwise empty. Then she stepped out. "Nooroo," she commanded, "dark wings rise!" The transformation filled her with power, and her street clothes went away as her new costume appeared, along with her cane. She put it over her back, then spread here arms. "Nooroo, Duusu, unify! Now I am Moonbow!"
.oO()Oo.
The match ended as it always did: with Kagami flat on her back. She kicked herself upright, ready to start again, when the akuma alert began sounding. She looked about quickly, and saw the presumptive supervillain approaching in great leaps, longer than should have possible, almost as if the victim were gliding. But where were the speeches, the strikes at bystanders, the shouted demands? She and her mother readied their shinai, knowing a supervillain beyond their ability to defeat. But they would not run; they would fight to the last to buy Ladybug and Cat Noir time to arrive.
The villain landed lightly before them, clad head to toe in white: white bodysuit, white cowl, white streamers making a cape of sorts, all of it shimmering with highlights of faint iridescence. In her right hand, a cane of white, etched with many-coloured designs suggesting both eyes and feathers. She stood tall and calm, and bowed to them. "Greetings, Ladies Tsurugi," she said to the two. "I am Moonbow." To the mother, "I wish to request a service of your daughter."
The elder Tsurugi was by this point quite baffled at the villain's behaviour, but chose to play along, stall for time. "What service would this be?"
Kagami noticed the villain's faint smile as Moonbow spoke further. "To fly swiftly over as much of the city as you can in the time available."
She barked a brief laugh. "And how am I to do that?"
Moonbow simply continued to smile. "I am no trickster; my promise is true, and the things that I ask, I give the power to do. Accept and you will become Onna-Bushi, able to call and dismiss the weapons of the samurai, and I will grant you a flying mount. But you will only have five minutes, and the moment you transform back, you must land lest your mount dissipate in mid-air."
The women looked to each other, and conversed very quickly. "Why should I allow this?" Tomoe demanded.
"Because this flight will mark the completion of a bargain to end Hawkmoth's reign of terror," she answered.
She considered again. This villain, she was starting to think, was not a villain. She certainly acted nothing like a normal akuma victim. And if she spoke true, this was an opportunity too good to miss."Very well," she said. "I will permit it."
"Come, my messenger," Moonbow called, and a butterfly fluttered to land on her hand; she cupped her other hand over it. Spicules of deep purple flowed into it, then the shimmering purple butterfly entered Kagame's pin. In a moment, the o-yoroi, the riding armour of the highest ranking samurai, enclosed her. Then Moonbow raised her cane, said, "Let your courage be embodied in a powerful mount," blew across it, and a feather-like shape of iridescence floated out, quickly shaping itself into a ryu, a Japanese dragon, some five metres long; Onna-bushi mounted just ahead of the forelegs, and took to the air. "And now, I have to go," at which Moonbow sprang away,
,oO()Oo.
As she flew, exulting in the motions of her mount and the wind on her face as she spiralled out over the arrondissements from the Premiere onwards, taking advantage of their unique spiral layout. To feel the wind, the power of her mount, the fantastic might and superb balance of Onna-Bushi, such a wonder and joy! Not better than holding the power of Ryuko, no, but just as good, different in a way she couldn't describe. She noticed how the people in the streets watched her, some taking photos, then when she did nothing threatening, went back about their business, much as they might react to hearing sirens; that was a great relief, that she wasn't spreading panic. As her mount crossed the boundary to the 12ème, the power left her, and she quickly directed her mount to the nearest green space, barely touching down before her mount dissolved, leaving her to drop about a metre, and run several steps to stop safely. She pulled her phone from her blazer, checked her location, then called her mother. "Yes, just as she promised. I'm at the hospital right now… no, no, I'm fine! It's just where I touched down. I'd rather make my own way home; I'm not likely to run into trouble, and if some runs into me, I have my shinai," she assured her mother, then after making several promises, finally ended the call.
.oO()Oo.
On the roof of the Louvre, the Moth and Peacock timed out; Marinette thanked the two kwamis, and gave Nooroo a piece of honey-cake and a seed cake to Duusu. Easy enough to get such things when your parents ran a bakery. She slipped the Miraculous into their boxes, and their boxes into concealed pockets in her jacket, then turned to Tikki, grinning fit to split her face. "This… is… great! No more Hawkmoth! We need to tell Cat Noir, so Tikki… spots on!" The little god spiralled into the earrings, and a brief red flash later, Ladybug opened her communicator to find a message from her partner. She called him. "Hi. I'm guessing you're chasing down that new akuma?"
"Of course!" came the reply. "What else? But I can't find a trace. A samurai on an Eastern dragon should be easy to find."
"Meet me at the Place des Vosges, I'll explain everything," she said, then cut the call and double-timed it to the meeting.
Cat Noir was in the trees surrounding the statue of Louis XIII at the centre, puzzling over the brief conversation and the strange elusive akuma victim. It just didn't add up. Maybe his Lady would be able to shed some light on this.
She arrived shortly after he did, and joined him in the tree. "Hey Cat," she said. "We need a better place to talk, how about there?" she asked, and pointed to a flat roofed building to the northwest. He nodded and they quickly moved there.
"So, care to fill me in?" he asked, impatience showing.
"Well, that wasn't an akuma," she said. "It was a tenshi, and Onna-Bushi's time ran out."
"Wait, what?" he asked. "What's a tenshi? And how do you know his name?"
"Simple: I created her," and she brought him quickly up to date. "Hawkmoth kept his end, I kept mine. I didn't tell you because we can only contact each other when we're transformed. But I did leave a message."
He checked his phone, and played the message. "So… we're done with Hawkmoth?"
She nodded. "Until the new one shows up."