Chapter 26: Shadow Boxer
School lets out and students mingle and meet with friends. Alix Kubdel and Stella Tenebrae meet up to talk about athletics. Stella mentions she loves anatomy and is actually acing the class. Giselle Winters-Blanchet is talking to Meera Pugliese and Raissa Deschamps about how much she enjoys ice skating. Meera goes off on a spacey tangent about fictional beasts. Viktor Vasiliev shows Fumikage Tokoyami the newest edition of DnD he picked up, as well as several figures. Tsuyu Asui is texting Ondine. Guy and Cameran Tyler arrive together since Guy Nigels is hosting Cameran while he's abroad. Lila Rossi is lying to Pierre Lefevre and Jean Duparc, telling them she knows the inside secrets of Magician X (yes, that is his stage name), but she can't tell them his tricks because she promised not to. Nicolette Lacroix walks in, as fashionable as ever, and Yvonne Garnier and Genevieve Faucher want to know where she went shopping. Nicolette answers, also trying to catch Etienne Fontaine's attention, but he's too in love with his own reflection, taking selfies, to notice. Yvonne scolds him; as the photographer for the school newspaper, he should be taking pictures of things they can use. He suggests they write an article about him, causing Genevieve to roll her eyes. (The images of all these characters is (( photos . app . goo . gl / cgLSrNi71rxfep9e8 ))(remove the spaces)).
At the lockers, Alya Cesaire notices Marinette is distracted, not noticing Adrien Agreste is by her side, retrieving his backpack. Alya nudges Marinette into Adrien; Marinette spazzes. Adrien laughs it off, then picks up his stuff for fencing practice. Kagami Tsurugi quickly joins him, having a normal conversation. She looks over at Marinette and smirks, causing Marinette to steam. Alya tells her that she has to talk to Adrien before she can get mad at anyone else besides herself.
Meg Delphinus and Rachel Beauchene meet up after class since they don't share a homeroom teacher. Rachel is going to go watch her boyfriend's boxing match and invites Meg to join. Tristan Fortier, her boyfriend, boxes as part of the city league as the school doesn't have a team (probably much like the swim club). Meg really doesn't get what Rachel finds interesting in dating, but she is interested in boxing due to its Greek roots, and she has nothing better to do, so she agrees. They join up with Guy Nigels and Cameran Tyler, Tristan's best friends, to go to the gym together. Cameran is pretty excited, even though he's more of baseball fan, because he gets to experience new things in France—most of his purpose in studying abroad.
Rachel is like Miyako from Bamboo Blade with a bit of Rachael from Animorphs thrown in. She's pretty, trendy, fashionable—and sadistically vicious who loves a good fight. But no one sees it in her or expects it at all. Except her best friend, that is.
Meanwhile, at the Agreste manor, Gabriel is working in his office. Nathalie Sancouer enters, her tablet open in front of her. True to what they discussed in the prior chapter, she's been doing research to hone their strategy against Ladybug and Cat Noir.
She starts to point out flaws with previous encounters and points out how Ladybug and Cat Noir are still teenagers. She mentions they often act on impulse and emotions, pointing out how Cat Noir responded during the prior chapter, but Gabriel shuts down that venue of conversation. "All I need to do is win once. And I'm willing to become the devil himself to make that happen." Nathalie wisely senses the defeats are a sore topic, so she changes focus.
Nathalie asks him about the B Team (remember, B Team, while it is what they call themselves, not everyone else does. It's just easier to refer to them in summary as B Team). Why doesn't he take them over again? She can help him split up Ladybug and Cat Noir, and then the B Team could finish them off.
Gabriel says that that is one of his last resorts for the B Team as it would undoubtedly drive them away forever. He has another goal for them—they are his key to finding out secret identities. Since, as Hawk Moth, he can track them once he knows who they are, it's his goal to do just that and then have Ladybug and Cat Noir be given or steal the miraculous without kwamis so he can learn who Ladybug and Cat Noir are—just as he tried with Chloe Bourgeois. (As a note, the butterfly miraculous gives insight into the identities of the person the wielder is targeting to akumatize. The B Team is an exception for Hawk Moth because he didn't target them—a prior butterfly user did. Had he targeted them, he'd know their names already and be able to pinpoint their locations.)
Nathalie says she understands. She agrees with this plan and will make it a reality (of course she agrees with this plan, the man she has a crush on developed it.) Nathalie then asks about the extent of power Hawk Moth has over the B Team, "if I am not overstepping any boundaries in asking."
Gabriel Agreste evaluates her (as it can be unwise to let people know your strengths and weaknesses) and her request and then decides to comply. He did agree to loan her the peacock miraculous as long as she follows his lead and helps him develop strategy, after all. Gabriel explains that (a bit of As You Know), the miraculous without kwamis were developed by a prior butterfly wielder. As such, he can sense when they're active within his radius, and his radius is all of Paris but not beyond. However, he cannot pin point the exact location without knowing who the wielder is. He just knows that five are currently active. This is different from his usual akumatization when he can sense the person with negative emotions, who they are, where they are, and why they have those emotions—because he wasn't the one to akumatize the items those seven have.
Nathalie confirms there's only five now as what she overhead confirms that the snow leopard and the bee miraculous have been sealed off, within the hands of Ladybug. Gabriel grumbles. This makes it harder and narrows the window he has to work with. If Ladybug seals the miraculous without kwami away as soon as she gets them, he won't be able to follow the fake miraculous back to Ladybug's identity.
Nathalie promises she'll come up with a plan to overcome that. She then asks if Hawk Moth can communicate with these wielders the same way he does the akumatized victims. Gabriel confirms he can but that he doesn't want to as it would guarantee the B Team stops using the miraculous without kwamis. He also elaborates that he can change the alignment of the fake miraculous towards evil; however, it takes considerable effort, and without Catalyst's help, he would likely struggle to turn more than one at a time. Nathalie also asks if he could send his own akuma on top of the akuma the previous Hawk Moth used. Gabriel turns toward her and away from his computer screen, intrigued. He says that that would likely work so long as he doesn't target the same item (one item, one akuma). Gabriel asks Nathalie what she's playing. She replies "give me a couple more days, sir, and I'll have a perfected plan for you to use the B Team against Ladybug and Cat Noir" to find out the B Team's identity and drive them into surrendering their miraculous to Ladybug—or to drive Ladybug into no other choice but to steal it.
Meg, Rachel, Guy and Cameran meet up outside the gym where Tristan's match will be held (he's already inside with his trainer warming up). They buy snacks and find seats, and the boxers enter the ring. Rachel shouts her encouragement really loudly, and Guy and Cameran hoot and holler and teasingly browbeat Tristan, earning laughs. Meg is more of a quiet observer, but she is enjoying herself. (Meg previously appeared when she was akumatized into Medusa.)
The match begins, and it's really intense. Everyone is paying attention to the ring, so no one notices when Rachel gets a rather sadistic expression as she's THOROUGHLY enjoying the vicious side of the fight, including throwing a couple mock punches in her lap. She then starts to shout her encouragement even louder. She's aggressive enough that even Guy Nigels notices, and he's not sure what to make of this change in her demeanor. In fact, all of Tristan's friends are loud—to the point of being distracting with their level of volume. During the climax of the match, Rachel is fully invested and cheers along the lines of "rip his guts out!" so loudly everyone notices.
Tristan Fortier's eyes slide towards her. In that brief second, he drops his guard and his opponent clobbers him in the face. The match is declared, and Tristan is the loser. His trainer hustles him out of the ring and he's taken into one of the back offices for examination. The trainer undoes his gloves while the attending nurse examines Tristan for a concussion. He definitely has a bloody nose.
Rachel, Meg, Guy, and Cameran are all sobered by Tristan losing and bleeding. They quickly collect themselves and their stuff and rush to check on him. However, the trainer won't let them see him. The trainer blames them and their "poor manners" for Tristan losing. He shoves the gloves into Rachel Beauchene, still berating them, and even lies and claims that Tristan doesn't want to see them. He shuts the door in their faces.
Tristan is struggling with awareness, but he tells his trainer he does want to see his friends. He also accepts responsibility for his own mistake—he allowed himself to be distracted. He needs to discipline himself better. His trainer tells him to hush and asks the nurse if there's a concussion.
Outside of the room, Rachel and the others are in shock that Tristan doesn't want to see them. Guy, who's known Tristan the longest, says that that can't be true. "No way Tristan said that." Rachel, however, does feel a burden of guilt for getting her boyfriend hurt—and for enjoying the brutality of it all. Meg Delphinus tells her not to blame herself, but that doesn't stop Rachel from feeling guilty.
Meg notices the akuma a mere moment before it lands on Tristan's gloves that Rachel is still holding. She's in the middle of shouting out a warning as Hawk Moth begins his usual spiel, promising Rachel power to fulfill her own bloodlust as well as to seek justice for the way they were treated. All he asks for is Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculous. Meg shouts at her not to listen, but it falls on deaf ears. Cameran, in a moment of braveness and foolishness, tries to yank the gloves out of Rachel's hands, but her grip is too tight. She's transformed into the akumatized victim Shadow Boxer right in front of their eyes. Guy is already entering the information on the Akuma Alert.
Shadow Boxer has the ability to step in and out of shadows as well as conjure a giant pair of floating boxing gloves made of solid shadow. She ignores Meg, Guy, and Cameran and instead punches in the door. Tristan thinks it's the concussion talking as Shadow Boxer storms in. She quickly targets his trainer with a one-two punch from her giant gloves. Fortunately, the trainer (who needs a name) is also a skilled boxer—he'd have to be, he's a trainer after all—so he's able to dodge. Unfortunately, Shadow Boxer is largely immune to punches thrown from a regular person. The trainer holds his own but eventually Shadow Boxer strikes him down.
She then turns to Tristan, demanding to know why he turned his back on them. That's when Tristan realizes Rachel is Shadow Boxer. He also had no idea what she's talking about. Meg, Guy, and Cameran pull him to his feet to get him out of there, and Meg wonders if it's wise to move him when he's injured. Cameran argues that they aren't being given much of a choice.
Shadow Boxer catches up with them fairly quickly, but by then Ladybug and Cat Noir have arrived. They draw Shadow Boxer's ire and allow the students to escape, finding a safe place where they can rest Tristan. Meg lingers a moment, shouting that Shadow Boxer is her friend Rachel to the heroes. She tells them a bit about who Rachel is and that the akuma went inside the gloves. Meg then joins Cameran and Guy.
Ladybug appreciates knowing where to strike. However, no matter how hard she and Cat Noir try, they can't get through Shadow Boxer's guard. The large floating gloves punch anything in mid-range, and she has her own two fists for close range. If they get closer, she just steps into a shadow and goes intangible before stepping out of a different shadow. Cat Noir thinks it would be nice to have allies again, but he also realizes that he can't become dependent on that because he needs to hone his own strength. However, thinking of allies sparked him to think of Firefly, which caused him to think of… "Light, Ladybug! Her ability is shadow, so we need light!"
Speaking of Firefly, Nathaniel Kurtzberg is watching everything go down from the news broadcast. He's also busy texting the B Team. Alpha reminds them all of their unofficial rules: only get involved if Ladybug and Cat Noir can't handle it and only if you have a spotter. Nathaniel agrees and texts Marc Anciel. Marc, however, replies and says that he's busy with his family. He'll try to see if he can make an excuse to leave, but it's going to take time.
Luka Couffaine is at home, also watching the news broadcast. He's tense, knowing he still doesn't have someone to watch his back. Fortunately, it seems as if Ladybug and Cat Noir have a handle on the situation. For now. But what if it gets to be an emergency? I need to tell someone. Once more, Luka weighs his options. His mother. His best friend. His sister. His crush. Who? His thoughts seem to linger on Marinette.
Meanwhile, Ladybug and Cat Noir lead Shadow Boxer out of the gym and into the streets of Paris. There's way more to this fight that I can think to summarize at the moment because Shadow Boxer is a very tough opponent.
(Insert stuff happening here, fight, fight, fight, cool moves and fake outs and stuff.)
However, with Cataclysm and Lucky Charm, as well as making use of Paris's street lights, they're able to prevent Shadow Boxer from escaping into shadow. They destroy the boxing gloves and free the akuma. Ladybug purifies it and does a world-healing wave. "Pound it!" This has an additional benefit of curing Tristan's concussion. (Sorta how in Timebreaker it fixed Alix's watch despite the breaking of the watch happening before the akuma.) Rachel wakes up, no idea what's going on save a very happy memory of fighting like a blood-lust soldier. Ladybug and Cat Noir start to fill her in, but when she remembers Tristan, she bolts away in the middle of their explanation to check on him. Fortunately, he's fine, and the couple has a happy reunion. Rachel wonders to herself about joining the female boxing league—no, something more brutal! Fencing? Kendo? Rugby? Water polo? Meg and the guys catch up, happy they're all okay.
Meanwhile, the B Team is talking about how everything went down. Froppy comments that it's probably a good thing they weren't needed. Firefly says it's a hard call though; they can't wait until it's too late—even though his spotter had been unable to arrive. Alpha comments that he's still impressed by all their self control and sets up another training meeting. He then hangs up.
Luka looks up to see Juleka attempting to experiment with different types of make-up than her usual quiet gothy type. It's a small houseboat, so there aren't many places they can go to be alone. Juleka is also trying to fix her hair and smile brightly at the mirror, but it's clear her timid nature is getting the better of her. Luka knows what Juleka is trying to do; he knows it's his sister's dream to be a model. And she's trying to build her courage.
Luka walks over and pins her hair for her, saying she was made for this. He believes in her. Juleka mumbles her uncertainties. Luka tells her to take it a step at a time, but Juleka replies that it isn't that easy. She says that he probably doesn't understand; he's always been confident and popular. He probably never doubted himself ever. Luka sits down and tells her that's not true. He's had plenty of doubts in his life and plenty of times he wasn't sure what he should do. Juleka is skeptical about that. It's clear her self doubt is eating away at her. Luka then realizes what he has to do. He tells her that's the truth. He tells her there's something he's been struggling with, something he needs to tell someone, a secret he needs to trust someone with. And he knows Juleka is that person. He tugs at his earcuff.
To be continued in Chapter 27: Cheshire…