To say that the old man and Wayzz were blown away by the amount of information Plagg had gathered in one day- or, to be more accurate, in one evening- would be an understatement. They sat there with wide eyes as they listened to Plagg and Adrien report.
Or, well, Adrien reported. Plagg was too busy sampling the cheese plate Fu had made for him to add in. Besides, Adrien had scribbled down pretty much every last detail that Plagg had relayed the previous night. He didn't really have much more to add.
"There were notes on how to find our training temple?" Fu asked in surprise. "I mean, that explains how he found it, but I didn't know that there were accurate enough legends still floating around for anyone to actually be able to find it."
"Or what was left of it," Plagg couldn't help but interject helpfully, speaking around a mouthful of Gouda.
"I will be interested in seeing those journals once Hawkmoth is defeated and we can recover them," Fu said, ignoring Plagg as he poured more tea for Adrien. "I would like to go and see if there is anything else left at all to recover. Paintings, journals from the old masters, anything at all. There was a whole lot of research and experimenting done during the period that the temple was active."
Plagg made a face. He remembered that. He had been questioned for hours and days and weeks on end as scholars crowded around him and tried to figure out the full extent of his powers. There had been a whole lot of bitten fingers and broken quills and smashed ink pots by the time they finally let him go.
"Did you read much?" Wayzz wanted to know. "What did it say?"
Plagg shrugged and swallowed. "I scanned. And some of the handwriting was really cramped, I couldn't read all of it."
"Your father must have done quite a few trips to Tibet to gather enough information to actually find our temple," Fu told Adrien. "It was quite hidden in the mountains."
"Both of my parents went to Tibet really often," Adrien said, reaching for a cookie on the plate Fu offered. "That's where they went for their honeymoon, they told me, and they really liked returning for trips. My mother vanished during their last trip in Tibet."
"Really?" Plagg asked, interested. That was an interesting place to go missing. "You've never mentioned that before!"
Adrien gave Plagg a look, though Plagg wasn't sure why. "I did so! I mentioned it right after you came back from the safe last night!"
Plagg thought about it. All he remembered was that lovely creamy mac 'n cheese he had had before he broke into the safe, and then that perfectly aged Camembert that he had gotten upon return. He had probably just assumed that Adrien had been talking to himself.
"I think it would be a good idea for you to see what else is in those journals," Fu told Plagg. "And look through the folder and see what is in there. I know Nooroo told you that all of the deciphering work was done on the computer, but we want to be sure that there aren't any printouts or assorted scribbling elsewhere. I was pleasantly surprised today at the amount of information you got, and now we just need to keep that up, if you can."
Plagg preened at the praise. Who said that he couldn't be attentive to detail? It just took the right incentive- lots and lots of cheese.
(And keeping his Chosen safe was a pretty good incentive too, but Plagg couldn't tell anyone that. He had a reputation to keep, after all.)
"I've been working on making replica book pages and contacting a book binder for the cover, and once that's done I'll work on the scrolls," Fu continued. "It will still take a bit, of course, but I am pleased by that progress. The replacement book will be slightly thinner than the original since Ladybug and I didn't take pictures of all of the pages, but it will be close enough."
"I would also suggest making certain that you know about all of the security measures in the office and any on the computer itself," Wayzz said. "And I would also look into seeing what security exists for the lair itself. I wouldn't be surprised if it is heavily protected."
"Ladybug will be visiting me tomorrow afternoon, and I will bring her up to speed then," Fu told them. "She's been coming weekly since she found the book to learn about some of the lore- and to bring an old man some fresh treats, of course. I had asked her not to tell you about me until the time came, so I'm sure she'll be pleased to hear that the two of you can discuss what she's been learning at our meetings. She was rather frustrated to hear that I should be kept secret until I gave her permission."
Plagg didn't even have to look to know that there was a lovesick grin spreading across Adrien's face at that. In fact, he wasn't going to look, because then he would just lose his appetite.
"Once we have more information, then we can start having meetings with all of us present," Fu continued, and again Plagg didn't even need to look to know that Adrien had perked up. "You and Ladybug will have to stay hidden from each other behind screens and you'll have to communicate via your kwamis so you don't accidentally recognize each other by your voices, but having to keep relaying messages back and forth and discussing the same information over and over is not terribly efficient."
Plagg made a face. That sounded like a lot of work and not a lot of eating cheese for him. Maybe Fu would make him a cheese bag to go.
"Besides, it will be easier for us to catch things and brainstorm together if we all hear things firsthand," Wayzz added. He certainly seemed on board with the plan, probably because he wouldn't have to act as a mouthpiece for Fu. Plagg wondered if he could maybe persuade Wayzz to talk for Adrien, especially considering the fact that if Ladybug was present, then she would probably have stuff from her parents' bakery, and she might even have cheese bread.
And if there was cheese bread, then Plagg wanted some before it started going cold.
"Unless something comes up, I will see you the day after tomorrow, then," Fu told Adrien and Plagg. Plagg caught the old master frowning at him as he discreetly started gathering up the leftover cheese slices, but he chose to ignore it.
After all, Plagg was going to be doing even more work tonight at the old man's request. He was going to need more energy, and that meant more cheese. Obviously.
"I have fencing after school tomorrow," Adrien told Fu. "But I could probably sneak out after dinner, at eight or so?"
"That should work well," Fu said with a smile. "Now, unless an old man's ears mistake him, it would appear that there's an akuma out and about, so I should let you go. I will see you Friday at eight."
Adrien was unusually quiet after the akuma had been defeated and he was back at home. He worked on his homework silently, without even complaining about the smell of the cheese, even though Plagg had been inching closer and closer to him with his snack to try to get some sort of reaction out of him.
"It really seemed like Hawkmoth- I mean, Father- I mean-"
"He's Hawkmoth when transformed," Plagg said helpfully, though he wasn't sure why Adrien needed reminding. "And not Hawkmoth when not transformed. I mean, he is, but that wouldn't be the proper name to use."
"It seemed like Hawkmoth really had something against me today," Adrien grumbled, frowning. "The akuma was focusing more on me than on Ladybug. Like, there were a ton of times during the fight when the akuma could have attacked either of us, but it chose to go after me every single time, and Chat Noir wasn't even supposed to be the target!"
"It was probably Hawkmoth being frustrated that he hadn't figured you out," Plagg said, yawning. "So he behaved like a little child and decided to take it out on you, as if you're to blame for not wanting a supervillain to know your secret identity. Toddler logic, really."
Adrien smiled slightly at that.
"I'm sure he'll get over it soon enough," Plagg added. He yawned again. He needed a nap. Maybe he could sleep while Adrien ate dinner, unless there was something cheesy on the menu. All of this running around and planning and spying stuff was really eating into his sleeping schedule. "And then the akumas will go back to kicking you around only a normal amount."
Adrien made a face and fiddled with his ring. It had become a habit of his, a way to work off excess energy without fidgeting too much. Plagg glanced at it, noticing that it was the decoy again. Adrien must have changed it back practically as soon as he detransformed after the fight.
"Did you ask Nino about pretending the ring was from him?" Plagg asked, suddenly remembering the conversation they had had that morning. "What did he say?"
Adrien frowned at him. "I asked him at lunch. What, didn't you hear?"
"Of course not, I was sleeping."
"I think he was a little confused, but he agreed," Adrien said. He was smiling, but soon enough the expression dropped away. "I think he guessed that I was hiding something from my dad and didn't want to talk about it. It's crazy to think that just mentioning my father is enough for Nino to just agree to cover for me with no questions asked, and he doesn't even know that my father is Hawkmoth!"
Plagg was rather of the opinion that if Nino ever found out that Mr. Agreste was Hawkmoth, he would probably be tempted to go after the man as revenge for his own akumatization. Plagg had once overheard Nino complaining to Adrien about how ridiculous he looked as an akuma and how he would like to have "a word or two" with Hawkmoth about it.
Dinner that evening did not have any cheese (a travesty, in Plagg's opinion) so he napped through most of it, only waking up once to Nooroo practically giving him a heart attack by popping into Adrien's bag unexpectedly to tell him that the ring ruse had worked perfectly and that Mr. Agreste had been caught between stewing about the lost lead and being moderately cheerful about his son not being one of the superheroes fighting against him.
"Yippee," Plagg had said grumpily, not at all pleased about being interrupted mid-nap. "Fabulous. Now can I sleep?"
Once Adrien was done with dinner and had started washing up for bed, Plagg headed out towards the office again. This time, with Nooroo's warning, he could sense the motion detectors in the office, guarding it from any nighttime intruders. Some night when he wasn't tired and grumpy he probably should disarm that in some way where Nathalie and Mr. Agreste wouldn't be able to tell and fix it.
Inside the safe, Plagg shuffled through the papers in the folder first. Normally he would have just tossed everything all over and then settled down to read- that was what he always did whenever he was looking for something in Adrien's bag, after all- but somehow he suspected that Mr. Agreste would notice if something was out of order. So instead, he worked very, very carefully.
There first few pieces of paper were photos of Mr. Agreste and his wife in what was probably Tibet, considering the mountains in the background. The scenery actually looked pretty familiar, so much so that it only took Plagg a few seconds to place it.
They had been close to the temple. Really, really close. Some of the photos were even taken from the same valley that the temple had been in. They had times on them, with the ones from the valley being the most recent. The very last one had Mrs. Agreste alone, walking towards the ruins of the temple.
The rest of the papers in the folder looked like notes. There was a page filled with series of numbers, each followed by a date. The last one was circled in red. There was what looked like a hastily drawn sketch of the temple ruins, and then another sketch that looked more like a map of the ruins. There were scribbles labeling the different parts, with one part circled with red pen. Plagg squinted, trying to make out the writing, but it was a lost cause.
Apparently Adrien's father didn't have the best handwriting in the world when he was in a hurry. That was going to make reading a lot of his notes a pain.
The rest of the papers were scribbles about more legends, something to do with trapped souls and releasing them. Plagg scanned through them, but couldn't make heads or tails of them. Trapped souls? What did that have to do with the Miraculous?
Eh, maybe Fu would know.
Plagg (carefully) stuffed everything back into the folder and propped it back up where it had been. Once it looked just right, he headed over to the journals.
There were a lot of them. Like, a lot a lot.
Sighing, Plagg settled in. He had a feeling that this was going to be a long night.
A/N: For those of you that might have missed it, there is now a Plagg and the Butterfly Costume: Outtakes story, with the first chapter focusing on Mr. Agreste's POV from the first couple of chapters. I don't know if I can link other stories from this one, so that story can just be found on my author's page.
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