There was no time to waste! Barreling through the portal, they jumped through, landing barely a few meters from the newly renovated daochang. Marrinette knew that despite Fei's protests, Marinette's uncle, Wang Cheng, had heavily invested in the project...in exchange for accordion lessons he had claimed. The end result was truly impressive.
Ladybug and Chat Noir glanced around, and Lady Justice leaned on her staff. Ember stayed out of sight.
Chat Noir let out a gasp, and turned around in surprise to Ladybug. Then he looked back to where two figures dressed in hàn fú robes. "Did you see...no, never mind," Chat Noir shook his head. "For a second there I thought I saw Chloe's boyfriend Komar!"
Ladybug looked toward the young man that Chat Noir had been looking at, but although the young man had similar eyes, he didn't look all that much like the blonde model at all. The girl with long chestnut hair next to him didn't turn around. Instead the two wandered off through the double doors of the main hall.
"Stay focused Kitty," Ladybug reminded him. "We've got to find Fei before Merlin shows up!"
"I think the search is over!" Chat Noir pointed over Ladybug's shoulder as the chosen of the prodigious pulled up on her motor bike. Fei looked surprised, but elated to see the super heroes at her door.
As she approached, Fei placed her hands together, and bowed low. Ladybug ran up to her, throwing her arms around her neck, and nearly knocked the RenRen off her feet!
"It has been too long!" Ladybug squealed in excitement.
Fei laughed, "it is good to see you too! I got all your urgent messages, but couldn't get a hold of you! What is up?"
"This is going to sound crazy..." Ladybug started. "There is someone who is planning to show up at your school looking for you! He'll probably try to convince you that he wants to train here."
"Ever since I reopened the martial arts training school my father started, this has once again become a sanctuary for travellers and those searching for a chance to redeem themselves,"Fei said passionately, "This is a place for all to make a fresh start."
"Well, this guy, is an ancient magician whose purpose here is without a doubt to steal the prodigious...or get your help to open a dragon portal thing!" Chat Noir squared off against her. "I really doubt redemption is on his mind!"
"In fact, it is my belief that redemption is his primary goal here," the solemn voice of Lady Justice spoke up behind them, and the three looked back at her, as she drew her hood down. Her cloudy eyes seemed to search her memory, of a turbulent memory that she had long ago pushed aside.
"You are of Maat!" Fei breathed in awe, stepping back.
"How did you..." Chat Noir started to ask.
Fei touched the prodigious amulet. "The renlings, they sensed it," she said.
"It was so long ago when we decided to seal the prodigious away. Its power became more of a threat than a blessing to the world. The lion has become increasingly protective of who he allows to serve as the Renren," Lady Justice said. "Now the question is...can this truly be the right moment for it to re-emerge into the world?"
Fei took a step back, and grasped the prodigious around her neck protectively. Ladybug and Chat Noir gasped, and looked at Lady Justice in shock.
"You never said anything about coming here to take the prodigious! You implied our mission was to stop Merlin from taking it and to protect Fei!" Ladybug jumped between Fei and Lady Justice defensively.
"She has done an awesome job defending the world! She's a hero!" Chat Noir jumped to Ladybug's side.
Lady Justice did not flinch, nor did she take a fighting stance. She instead said, "Maat, Scales Balanced," and released her transformation, leaving the three facing a withered old blind woman, who shuffled to a nearby ledge along the outer wall, and settled herself down stiffly.
They eyed her suspiciously, while she quietly fed her ostrich kwami, Maat. Then she shook her head, and patted the space next to her. "Come now, young RenRen. Why don't you just come have a chat with an old woman who has seen a thing or two in her days."
Fei glanced at Ladybug and Chat Noir, before cautiously stepping over beside the ledge and sinking down next to the frail elder.
Justice just sat patiently, while Fei studied her. Finally she breathed in deeply, and removed the amulet from her neck. Fei was left staring down at the prodigious in her hands.
"There have been wars that I fought side by side with your predecessors," Justice said thoughtfully. "And other ages..." she continued, "that I fought against them."
"You...you're one of the ancient!" Fei's eyes were wide, and Ladybug and Chat Noir Noir shifted on their feet. "My father, he used to speak about them...of you! They...I mean you, were time guardians...immortal!"
The white-haired woman chuckled, "Is that what they say! Well, not immortal, but yes, I have been granted time to get more perspective on the future."
"The future..." Fei paused, moving the chain from one hand to the other. "So you feel that I was never meant to guard the prodigious...that this was never my destiny..."
"But of course it was your fate to weild it child," the old woman patted her knee.
"But, I don't understand! I thought you said..." Fei would the chain around her finger.
"I said, is this the right time for it to re-emerge into the world," Justice repeated. "Mei Shi has already judged your heart, and deemed you worthy. After all, you yourself were able to channel all the animal forms, not the least, the dragon, Long herself. In the darkness that is coming we will need you...that is certain...but until the right moment we might need to help you lay low."
"I can avoid being seen when I wish," Fei said (more as a fact than boasting). "I've had to avoid unwanted attention before."
"You are a survivor. I can sense it in your voice," Justice clenched her jaw before continuing... "But what hunts you is no mortal man. It is discord itself. A pestilence on mankind. A shapeshifter. The wild kwami of chaos. Even with the power of the prodigious, you will not be able to defeat him."
Fei put the prodigious once more around her neck, and her brows furrowed. "I won't give in no matter what the odds! I am ready to fight!"
"And when the time comes you won't be fighting alone," Justice looked over to the direction where Ladybug and Chat Noir stood listening. "But until then, we just need to find somewhere you will be safe."
"That's right!" Ladybug chimed in. "And I think I know the perfect person who can help us too!"
"Me?" Chat Noir smiled endearingly, bounding next to ladybug.
"You're usually the purrfect one for the job," Ladybug nudged him, "but for this to work we need her to find someone further away from me...someone who is impossible to read...someone unbreakable, unshakable...someone like..."
"Kagami!" both Ladybug and Chat Noir said at the same time.
"And this...Kagami...she is someone you trust without hesitation?" Justice asked carefully.
"She has laid down her life to save me multiple times," Chat Noir thought back with a knot in his stomach to the time the brave fencer had pushed him out of the way of Queen Wasp's attackers getting stung herself, or how she lunged for Despirada when she had tried to go after him. Even after they had broken up, and he had hurt her by keeping things from her, she still had tried to protect him from Style Queen at the magazine awards.
Ladybug nodded in agreement, "Kagami is determined and capable...not to mention, her mother's home in Japan is more impenetrable than Fort Knox!"
"That doesn't sound like much fun to me!" Fei raised a eyebrow. "You think that I want to sit back and hide when you've just told me the greatest threat on the planet is threatening World-Wide chaos?!"
"Kagami also happens to be the best fencer I know...even better than me, dispite a certain biased referee's calls," Chat Noir winked at Marinette, and she elbowed him in the side with a pout.
Marinette hadn't meant to miscall the match between Adrien and Kagami the first day they encountered each other. Although it certainly had been a rough start to their friendship...well, one sided rivalry...and then friendship.
"She's also is quite masterful at archery and kendo,"Chat Noir added, leaning in.
"Kendo too hmmm...Sooo...do you think she might be willing to train me while I wait for the signal that you need me?" Fei started to come around to the challenge of a new training ground to refine her skills.
Chat Noir smiled, "A skillful sparring partner? Yeah, I think Kagami would go for that!"
The aged weilder looked hesitantly over at Maat, who settled on her shoulder, and asked, "You think she will be willing to put herself at such risk at the request of Ladybug and Chat Noir?"
"She has been willing to before," Ladybug said with certainty. "Kagami Tsurugi was the weilder of the dragon miraculous, Ryuko."
"Hmm...Ryuko...The wandering child of the dragon and tiger, who were themselves two fierce rivals!" Justice murmured to herself.
"What do you mean?" Ladybug asked curiously. She had never questioned the name Kagami had taken for herself as the dragon weilder...but now the cryptic phrases Justice had uttered made her wonder.
"Legends of past weilders," Ember clarified, reappearing over Ladybug's shoulder. "But many people unfamiliar to the existence of the miraculous' might call them folk tales or myths. Old Japanese legends that get spun over time. While we are in Japan you might just come face to face with some of the ghosts from the past."
Fei's eyes grew wide at the sight of the Phoenix kwami, but she only had a moment to stare in stunned wonder at the burning bird, before her attention was stolen by Lady Justice again.
"The dragon renling and the dragon kwami together under one roof," Justice nodded decidedly. "Such a thing has not happened in...well has certainly never happened in my expansive timeline!"
"The only thing is...I have just barely reopened my father's school. What will I tell my students? Those who now make this their home?!" Fei spread her arms, gesturing to the space around the school.
"I'm sorry! We can't stay! It is already a risk that we've stuck around this long," Ladybug laid a hand on her friend's shoulder. "There is no other way!"
"Could I offer my assistance?" Lady Justice asked with a low bow. "You two weilders must continue on through the trials, and get the Ren Ren to safety. I, however, feel it is my duty to wait to confront Merlin, and to guide and protect the students following the sacred way. I know it is a great act of trust to leave your students and your fathers legacy with a stranger, but I swear on my life that I will defend what you have built."
Fei looked at the old woman carefully, and bowed in return. "It would be a great honour to have the weilder of Maat give wisdom and guidance to my students. They are my family. They will be your family now too."
There was a nod of understanding between them, and Fei signallled to two young dark-haired girls, to come help Justice in, and inform the others of her role till Fei's return.
Before Justice turned to go, she put a withered hand softly on Fei's shoulder and said, "Quickly now! Remember to keep your identity a secret. The fewer people aware of who you truly are the better it will be for all of us!" Then she turned to Ladybug and Chat Noir. "And no matter what happens you must keep following Ember through the trials. It is imperative that you complete them, especially now...Chaos will try to distract you. He will only get stronger as time draws near."
"Don't worry!" Chat Noir's smiled, putting an arm around Ladybug. "You can count on us! Nothing could ever come between us!"
Justice looked like she was about to say something, but the opening of the school's double doors made her glance back. The two students from earlier had their heads together whispering. Even from a distance the girl with chestnut hair seemed irritated.
"Till we meet again!" Justice concluded, and turned with the two girls to go up the steps.
Fei was not ever permitted to retrieve any personal items from her room. Ladybug already had merged the powers of the Ladybug and Horse. Before Fei knew what to expect, the hero had drawn a portal and had vanished through the other side.
The two whispering students on the steps parted ways. The young man stalked off down the street, while the girl with the chestnut brown hair turned toward Justice and the two other students coming up towards her. Graciously the girl bowed to the elder and smiled up at her sweetly saying, "nin hao."
Justice returned the greeting, and the girl smiled again. "Excuse me, but can you tell me where to find Master Wu? I've been looking for her everywhere!" The girl blinked her olive green eyes, and added. "I've been working on improving my offensive skills, but I thought she might be able to help me!"
"Not to worry my dear," Justice said, with a glance toward where the portal had closed. "Master Fei Wu will return when the time is right...but until then, I will help you. What is your name child?"
The girl smiled brightly, and clasped her hands behind her back, "It will be so great to learn from a true master!" Then she twirled one of her ponytails that draped over her ears, "my name is Lila, and I can't wait to get started!"