Adrien entered the dining room. "Kagami! Hi! It's nice to have you over!" He smiled and went over to where the girl was standing to do la bise, the traditional French greeting of kissing both cheeks. "And Mrs. Tsurugi… good to see you again." He gently took the woman's hand and brought it to his lips.
Gabriel smiled approvingly at his son. Perfect manners, just like I brought him up to have. "Please, be seated. This is a celebratory dinner, after all! I couldn't be happier that Mrs. Tsurugi is joining the board of Gabriel Fashion." He pulled out the chair next to where he was standing, and gently guided Mrs. Tsurugi to it. Adrien pulled the chair next to her out for Kagami. He and his father then took their respective seats across the table from their counterparts.
With everyone seated, the first course - a tomato bisque - was brought out. Mrs. Tsurugi smiled approvingly. "This smells wonderful, Gabriel. Although, given the nature of our partnership, I was expecting something with a more Japanese flair."
"All in good time, of course." He turned to Adrien. "Mrs. Tsurugi is a celebrity in Japan, as you know. Given her status as an international fencing champion, we will be partnering with her to introduce Gabriel fashion in her home country. Japanese sensibilities with a French twist."
Adrien looked at the woman. I wonder how she became an international champion, even though she's blind. That's probably impolite to ask… maybe I'll Google it later. "That's great news, Father," he said, hoping he sounded enthusiastic enough without going overboard.
Kagami gave him a look that he couldn't place.
"Indeed it is," Gabriel continued, then continued eating his soup.
The conversation meandered around pleasantries over the course of the meal. The main course of Japanese beef and Roquefort impressed the Tsurugis, as did the fruit tart that followed for dessert. "This tart is fantastic," Mrs. Tsurugi gushed. "I love summer fruit; it's one of my favorite things to eat."
"I'm glad you are enjoying it," Gabriel said. When everyone had finished their food, he said, "Let's go to the living room so we can talk more about our arrangement. Adrien, take young Miss Tsurugi to your room. Nathalie will fetch her when it's time for her to leave."
"Yes, Father." Adrien inclined his head. "It was a pleasure seeing you again, Mrs. Tsurugi." He stood up and walked over to Kagami's chair, pulling it out slightly when she moved to stand up. "My room is this way. Follow me, please."
"Master," Marinette greeted the Guardian.
"Marinette," Master Fu replied. "Tell me about last night. You and your friend were in some serious danger." He hustled her into his apartment and gestured to the mat in the middle of the room.
Marinette sat down cross-legged. "It wasn't like anything I'd ever seen before. Aside from the video, I don't really have that much to offer. I've never seen an akuma run away before. Most akumas will immediately demand the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous, and some will go after us directly, but Serket didn't do either of those. I don't know if Hawk Moth was trying to lure us somewhere, or if there's something new going on. Another weird thing that I haven't told anyone else yet - not even Chat Noir - is that when I tried to use my Cure on what Serket did to Alya, it didn't work. That's never happened, and I'm scared.
"And then there was another akuma this morning. This one was completely different than Serket… it wasn't really focused, and eventually it just got mad and broke the akumatized object itself. Both Serket and the one from this morning really seem out-of-character for Hawk Moth. I wonder what could be going on with him.
"I'm really lost here… what do you think, Master?"
Master Fu hummed. "I think we need to look more closely at what happened last night. There must be something that we have missed." He closed his eyes and contemplated for a few seconds. "What was the Lucky Charm object you used?"
"Oh, um… well, the thing is, Master… I was so focused on getting Alya better that I didn't really pay attention to it. I just caught it as soon as it materialized and cast the Cure. Sorry," she said sheepishly.
"I don't think I have to tell you to not be that careless again. The Lucky Charm magic is powerful. It taps into your attributes of Luck and Creation to direct you in ways that will be the most advantageous to you. I'm not even sure Tikki could explain exactly how it works. Speaking of…" He turned to the kwamis, who were chasing each other around the room. "Tikki, Wayzz, can you come here, please?" The kwamis zipped over to their holders. "Tikki, can you tell us what the last Lucky Charm item you created was?"
The kwami thought. "My perception is limited when Marinette is transformed. Let me see if I can tap into the magic and find out." She hummed and started doing backflips in the air. "Let's see… the last Lucky Charm was... " She stopped turning and said brightly, "A keychain!"
"Wait, Master… that was the Lucky Charm from this morning. Can you do one more back, Tikki?"
The kwami resumed her backflips. After a few minutes, she stopped and announced, "This one's not as clear, unfortunately. A roundish-flat object, with four or five things sticking out of it. Almost like an upside-down bowl, or…" she looked at the green kwami floating next to her, "...a turtle! Yes, that was it, it was a small turtle!"
"Thank you, Tikki," Master Fu smiled. "Marinette, if you had recognized it as a turtle, what would you have done with it?"
"That's a good question, Master. I probably... would have come back here and asked for the Turtle Miraculous?"
"And I would have referred you directly to Wayzz, who alerted me last night that he felt the aura that he felt on Monday night again. The person who called themselves Serket is therefore almost certainly the holder of a previously unknown Miraculous."
Marinette was aghast. "Master - a new Miraculous? But - how could that have happened? You said that there wasn't a way to create new Miraculous, and the Miracle Box is full, so… oh no, I should have come to you right away last night! Or earlier today!"
"I'm sorry, Marinette. I would have told you this sooner, but you will need to learn on your own how to come to these sort of conclusions. You made a mistake by not regarding the Lucky Charm that was created for you. I trust you will not make that mistake again."
Marinette hung her head and mumbled an apology.
"Do not worry yourself too much about this, Marinette. Mistakes are what help us grow. The universe has balance. You cannot have success without failure. Often, the biggest successes come after the biggest failures. Remember that.
"Now, since we are almost certainly working with a new Miraculous, I must teach you how the Miraculous were created… or at least, how much I know about that. As I said, the secrets of Miraculous creation have been lost for thousands of years…"
"I don't understand you, Adrien," Kagami told him.
"Wha- what do you mean?"
The two teens were sitting on Adrien's couch, the end credits of Fill My Shoes rolling.
"I don't understand you," Kagami repeated. "Even though you clearly don't care that much about fashion, you're still a model. You're good at your hobbies, but I'm going to guess that you don't enjoy them all that much, either. Except for fencing - I can tell you enjoy that. Why do you do all these things?"
"It's what I'm supposed to do."
"Says who?"
"My father… well, he says I should do things that benefit the family. Since the family is the Gabriel brand, then I have to model for him. It's kind of what I was brought up to do. Following family traditions and things like that. Father plays the piano, that's why I play the piano. Father takes a trip to Tibet, I take Chinese lessons. It's funny… he wants me to take fencing, but I don't know why, and strangely enough, that's the one I like. I wonder if I'd enjoy it as much if I knew why he wanted me to take it. I don't think Father is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant."
"See, that's the difference between you and me. My mother has traveled all over the world, including Tibet for that matter, and I only ever had to learn French because it's the international language of fencing. It helped when we moved to Paris a few months ago, of course."
"I only can imagine I'm learning Chinese to help work with the manufacturers down the road for if and when Father launches his global brand. I can't really see a use for it here in Paris. And my English is passable enough. So's yours, by the way. It was fun hanging out in London with you."
"What, even though you spent most of the weekend running around the city trying to find a pharmacy? English food must not agree with you very much."
"Ehh… forget about that. I'm not sure what that was about, either. Knowing Mar- err, the girl who gave me the mystery letter, there may have been a mixup."
"You're still going on about Marinette, even though at the ice rink she was with another boy?"
"It's complicated. Besides, I think she and that boy are officially together now."
"Well, that's great! Now you can switch targets!"
"Marinette… wasn't the initial target. She wants to be a good friend and I value her for that. I don't think there could be anything romantic there."
"But the other girl…?"
"It's, um, complicated too. That's the best I can tell you," he shrugged.
"It sounds like 'complicated' is making you miserable. You should go for something simple instead. All these trappings —" she indicated the room in a large sweeping gesture "— show what others want you to be, but how about you? Who do you want to be? Let me ask you this… When was the last time you did something for yourself?"
"Um… when I asked to go to public school?" Adrien guessed.
"Wait, what?! You asked to go to public school? Nevermind... how long ago was that? You let other people control your life and your emotions, Adrien. You should take charge and control them yourself, or else they're going to eat you up. Don't you remember what they taught you in fencing? Control your emotions. Control your reactions. Control your surroundings."
"Yeah, but that's fencing, though," Adrien protested.
"It's life, Adrien. Life is just a fencing match. You're exceptional at fencing. Take the lessons you have learned doing that, and apply them to your life."
"You can't just swipe at everything with a saber, though!"
Kagami pinched the bridge of her nose. "Please tell me you are being dense on purpose. Here, let me explain…"
"It takes a lot of magic to make the Miraculous. I'm not sure I'll ever understand it," Marinette said. "I can barely get through one of Ms. Mendeleiev's classes without my eyes crossing."
"Do not worry about that right now. You are young, and even Guardians do not understand everything about how Miraculous are made. Our job is to protect and watch over what we already have, not create more work for ourselves. I worry that you may not be holding the right Miraculous to be a Guardian, since Tikki is the kwami of Creation… but since there is inherent good luck with the Ladybug Miraculous, that is probably the wisest choice for now."
"Master, I can't ever imagine myself wearing another Miraculous… but I understand what you mean. Creation is a powerful concept."
"It is, Marinette. When you choose which kwami you want as your companion as Guardian, consider the concept that the kwami embodies. And that is what will conclude our lesson tonight: learning which concept each Miraculous embodies. Which ones do you know so far?"
"Ladybug is Creation, Black Cat is Destruction, Fox is Illusion, Turtle is Protection, Bee is Subjection. I'm guessing the Tiger is Passion based on our conversation the other night…?"
Master Fu smiled and nodded.
"The Butterfly is… hmm… creating giant evil monsters?"
"The Butterfly Miraculous is a simple one: Generosity, or Transmission. Essentially: giving people the power to become something they're not. Usually it's something better. Hawk Moth has twisted this power for evil. The final main Miraculous is the Peacock, which is the concept of Hope."
Marinette sat silently, processing the information Fu had just given her. "Is there a known kwami of Vengeance? Vengeance was the first word spoken by Serket when she made her announcement in the video."
"There is no known kwami of Vengeance. You could very well be onto something with that, Marinette," Fu confirmed.
"One thing I don't get is… Miraculous holders generally represent in some form the animal associated with the Miraculous. I have a red costume with black spots. Chat Noir has a tail and, oddly, a bell on his neck. Serket didn't look like an animal, she looked like… well… this." She pulled her drawing from earlier in the day out of her pocket and unfolded it. "This looks like something out of my Egyptian History class."
"Hmm… Marinette, I can't say that I've ever seen an Egyptian-themed Miraculous before… but your costume is generally a representation subconsciously of what you imagine yourself to be as a superhero."
"I'll have to ask Kitty about that bell, then," Marinette grinned.
"Perhaps," Master Fu conceded. "But the more important question is, what can we learn about the villain from their costume choice? Does it give them strengths? Weaknesses? It's a shame my studies were all on Chinese and French history."
"Wait! We haven't seen an Egyptian-themed Miraculous before, but we have seen an Egyptian-themed akuma before. Maybe going to see him can shed some light on this."
"Can you find him again, Marinette?"
"It will be easy. He's the older brother of one of my classmates, Alix. His name is Jalil Kubdel, but when he was an akuma, he was the Pharaoh."
"Well-deduced, Guardian. Let me know what you find out."
"So you're saying L- er, my initial target - is constantly parrying me?"
"That's right. She doesn't want you to get close, so she constantly deflects you."
"Huh, I never thought about it that way," Adrien mused.
"There's more. What do you do after you parry?"
"That's easy: you riposte. That's one of the first things they teach."
"Exactly! And does your target riposte ever? Or does she just constantly parry?"
Adrien thought for a moment. The constant brush-offs of Chat Noir's advances. Getting pushed away by the nose. The all-business attitude. There were some things, like her trying to make puns recently, but overwhelmingly she was showing signs that she wasn't interested in Chat Noir as anything but a partner in crime-fighting. "Just parries, usually. And some feints."
"So, that shows that she doesn't want to engage you. And just like I said before… you need to change targets, Adrien. Attacking the same target in the same way over and over will only drive you insane, and you will lose! You must try different targets and different methods of attack. That's the only way you will grow as a fencer, and that's the only way you will grow in life. Otherwise, you become too predictable, and predictable is boring."
"That makes sense."
"Of course it makes sense, it's the truth! My mother has been teaching me about this sort of thing for as long as I can remember. She's probably forgotten more about fencing than I will ever learn."
Adrien considered his next words carefully. "You know, there's something I wanted to ask you…"
He couldn't finish his thought, as Nathalie knocked on his bedroom door and entered without waiting for him to answer. "Mrs. Tsurugi is ready to depart," she said.
Kagami took Adrien's phone and tapped the screen a few times, she smiled and handed it back to him. "Remember what we talked about. You'll need it."
The Tsurugis rode back to their house together in the back seat of the Agreste limousine. Kagami felt a vibration in her pocket and took out her phone. Opening the message app, she smiled when she saw the latest message.
[Adrien] Thanks for tonight… I really enjoyed talking with you. Dinner on Saturday? I promise, no repeats of the ice rink
Her thumbs danced over the screen.
[Kagami] omg, it's about time. Yes and yes. I'll be at your place at five.
Next time:
* "Of all the things you had to learn from Chat..."
* "I thought you'd never ask!"
* "I'll be down to six lives before you know it!"