I rewrote twice the explanation of this chapter. If you have doubts in that part, ask them.
"Bring me a coffee." orders Max.
"Well, okay."
Not that I can do much more.
I'm currently at Max's house. And since I have no fracking idea about computers, I've become a waitress.
I get to the kitchen. It doesn't seem strange to his mother that I walk around here like I own the place.
Max told me that I had to be here while he did the hacker stuff. I think he had a clever plan that if he wasted his time, I'd be wasting mine.
Sometimes I'm afraid that he is smarter than me and finds out the lie.
I go up with the coffee.
"I still haven't found anything about this Butterfly Society. It's like a shell company."
And it's when Max says things like this that my worry goes away.
"A shell company? How then can he pay the television networks?"
I play clueless. I'm sorry Max. It's for a good cause.
To find the "Butterfly Society" we have searched among the investors of the main television networks and social networks that defame the Triple Super. We take out the matches and weed out old investors. Voilà: the Butterfly Society.
It's clearly Hawk Moth, not just because of the name, but because it appeared after Max tracked down the unknown bank account after Climatika's akumatization.
Hawk Moth has noticed and doesn't wanna take any chances. Cautious bitch.
"The truth is that I don't want to know. For all we know, it could be the mob." It's actually worse. "And you already have proof that the media is corrupt."
"An unknown investor is not proof. And you're not committing a crime this time, you're just finding information that most people can't."
Max puts down the keyboard and takes the coffee out of my hand. He takes two long drinks and makes a face of disgust.
"What have you done? This is gross."
"It's exactly the same coffee you drank a while ago. It's your tongue's fault, not mine."
Max wrinkles his face in disgust. I don't know what was expected, it's coffee.
"Test it." He hands me his drink.
"No way. You have drunk from there."
Max shrugs. He passes me the cup. He goes back to his keyboard. I think he's covering the trail. If he suspects we're dealing with the mob, it stands to reason he'd want to.
I look at the cup. Oops. There's a hair of mine. I guess the colored mask doesn't taste good. I remove it carefully without him seeing it. I don't think he's had enough to drink to be worrisome.
Max finishes his computer roll and gets up to sit next to me.
"I'm done for today. Do you stay to eat?"
It's a very tempting offer. At home we always eat precooked food or on request.
My phone vibrates and when I look at it I see a message from my father.
"Come home. I have to tell you something important."
Good. Noodles from the Thai next door again.
"I'm sorry. I have to go."
Max pouts, like little kids. I squeeze his shoulder before leaving. It is what it is.
I take my time getting home. I don't like it when my father gets too serious. The last time it was on my birthday and he was pretty bad. And besides, he ended up in the disastrous way he did.
"What do you think your father will want to tell you?"
Fluff's voice interrupts the quiet. Being hidden in my hat, I can hear her comments very clearly, and also, I have a trick to talk to her in public.
I take my phone out of my pocket and pretend to talk through it. Simple and effective.
"I don't know. You have some idea?"
"Some... but I'm not going to tell you. I'm just curious to know if you have it."
Fluff is such a bitch, never wanting to tell me what she thinks or what she knows. I guess I will be to others too, so I can't really complain.
I'll find out in a bit anyway.
When I get home I find my father sitting at the dining room table, waiting for me. In front of what appears to be home cooked food. Has he cooked?
My brother is there too, looking at the food like a stray dog.
My father must have forced him to wait for me to eat.
"Wow, dad! I didn't know you could cook."
He is just as serious. He couldn't be offended by that.
"You've been long enough. Where were you?"
"At Max's house."
"Again?" Those words are said by my brother. From the look on his face, I know what he's thinking and it couldn't be more disgusting.
That idiot doesn't know anything.
"We're not here to talk about that. First of all, I know that you are Bunnyx."
I didn't expect that. He says it like he's talking about who really ate the last piece of Black Forest cake. It leaves me paralyzed.
"You know?"
He nods like it's obvious.
"It was I who gave you the miracle."
He knew it from the beginning. Even before it all started. And yet he hasn't helped me. He has left me alone against the akumas, carrying this weight. I feel hot in my chest.
"You knew what it was." I repeat. How could he do this to me? My own father. The heat rises to my face. "Screw you! You've left me alone all this time! How did you come up with giving me such a ticking time bomb?! You're a shitty father!"
I know that saying that to my father isn't right, but neither is what he has done to me.
"Alix!" Jalil gets up from the table. His plates are empty. I haven't even noticed when he ate it all. "That's not the way to talk to dad." He scolds.
My father raises a hand to signal him not to interrupt. My brother sits back down. He tries to be just as serious, but I've hurt him.
"I'm sorry, dad."
"No, you're right. I deserve it. I know the price of carrying that burden, and I gave it to you without telling you. Although I did what I had to do. Believe me when I tell you that I didn't want to impose something so important on you. With Hawk Moth acting, I had to give the miracle to the next holder. I was hoping it was your brother, who is older and more responsible, but it turned out to be you. I didn't tell you anything because I thought the miracle could help you grow up."
To grow up? How desperate is he? Am I such a bad daughter? Was that why he preferred him? Yeah, well, I'm a mess who gets into fights with gang members over graffiti, who fails in high school and repeats.
Maybe I should trynna be more mature, like he wants.
"Don't take this the wrong way, Alix. I do not have favorites. It's because Jalil already knows about all this."
What does he mean by "this"? I wait for him to explain himself, and he does.
"By this I mean magic. The existence of kwamis is not unknown to our family. Today I have made you come to talk to you about this."
"There are, throughout the world, or so my research concludes, people with magical ability."
I don't know how to answer this. It's a logical thing after meeting the kwamis, but at the same time strange. The kwamis are something new and different, but these people... I bet they're indistinguishable from us.
"In general, these types of people do not know much magic beyond their close circle. That is, there is no society or world organization around this. This is not like any fantasy story you have ever known. There are no wizarding schools, no governments, just small groups of magic people who know each other. Like a network, I know a family, that family knows another, and so on. At least that is the behavior in societies with more complex technology, like ours. Cultures with simpler technology are much more aware of this."
"Anthropologically speaking it is very interesting." Jalil interrupts "Magical people organize themselves in groups, here in France, despite the fact that our social organization is..."
My father raises his hand again to shut him up before he starts using terms I don't understand. He so far he's using a common language, which I can understand.
"In Europe and Asia, especially, all the families that know they have magic and are aware of it, know the miracles. We know the miracles. They are very important. They maintain the balance of the world and only a privileged few, always magical, are chosen by a higher force to be holders." Does that mean that the three of us are magical? "It is the greatest honor we could have. Although in reality, I have a different opinion than the rest of magic people about miracles: they bring problems. People think that the great power that miracles have is due to the object, however, the Kubdel family always has one in the family and we know that what gives power are the kwamis, not just the objects themselves."
"As for the magic itself, there are many types and depending on the region, one or the other is done, although none of them comes even close to the power of the kwamis. And much of it, if not all of it, needs objects to channel it, like miracles. Magic is curious, interesting, that's why your brother and I studied it. For now we have the theory, after many field trips, that magic is the accumulation of energy. And with it you can influence the environment. It is transmitted genetically, so to speak: the amount of energy that a person has is the sum of the energy of their parents and when a person has accumulated from a certain amount of energy, it is a magic person. We have also found that energy is not always inherited, although we don't know why, resulting in offspring without magic, even if the parents have it. Do you have any question?"
He has said so many things that I don't know what to ask. Although regarding the latter... something occurs to me.
"So there are people with magic who don't know they have it."
My father nods. I have guessed correctly. And I suppose that these people who have it and do not know it will not be able to enter the scene.
"And our family?"
"Our family is different, Alix. Just as the guardian is in charge of protecting everyone, we must protect him. Your brother and I are currently working on finding him."
Is that why they're always so busy?
"But if you know I'm Bunnyx, why haven't you asked me?"
My father shakes his head.
"No. It's not a good idea for you to use the miracle to find out someone's identity. Your kwami had to explain it to you."
"She hasn't." I inform him. He doesn't either.
Coming to class is a little more difficult now. I haven't been here for a while because of the expulsion, which my father didn't tell me about. But it's not only that, but my thoughts weigh me down.
My world has already changed when I met Fluff, but that my family has hidden something from me for years that is supposed to be ours.
Max gives me extra looks when I sit in my place. I guess I'm showing it on my face.
Kagami doesn't even notice my turn. She is too busy writing something in Japanese on a small notebook.
"What are you doing?" I ask.
She doesn't even stop typing while she answers.
"I write down the things I have lost this week. Clumsiness is unusual for me and I plan to get it all back."
She then she stops writing, raises her head and looks at me. She almost smiles. Almost. But it's Kagami and that's the most I'm gonna get.
"You have returned."
I smile. I know Chloe is watching me, so I turn in her direction and smirk just for her. It hasn't been the longest expulsion in the history of Paris.
"Tinkerbell!" a voice shouts from the door. It's starting to give me a headache. "You've been out very little time time, right? I just noticed you were missing."
At his words, Max raises his eyebrows and Kagami blinks more times than usual. Besides, if he hadn't noticed my absence he wouldn't have reacted like that to my return. It's a lie.
Especially considering that he still hasn't gotten to his seat and he's yelled from the door.
Although I'm not gonna tell him that I was expelled because of him. I have pride.
"Not much. And I still didn't feel like going back."
"Do not say that." Kagami says. "You need to study to get good grades."
Bustier arrives and classes begin.
First hour: extreme nap training! Second hour: sketches of upcoming graffiti! I neither confirm nor deny caricatures of classmates. Third period: drum roll... and yes, I keep thinking about the magic story that my father told me yesterday!
Needless to say, I haven't heard anything about the lessons.
Recess is even worse because Kim drags me into the yard by the face.
"You have to meet Ondine."
Why? I don't have to meet her. I don't need to meet her. I could go my whole life without meeting her. Anyway, I've already seen her: she is a tall and pretty girl. What else do I have to know?
As soon as Ondine sees Kim she smiles like those in love with him. Yuck. And as soon as she sees me she stops smiling. Even worse.
"Ondine, this is Tinkerbell, Tinkerbell, my girlfriend Ondine."
The girl puts on a fake, uncomfortable smile. I get it, I don't wanna be here either.
"So this is the girl you told me so much about." she says to Kim, although she looks at me. "Is Tinkerbell a nickname or is it that your parents are extravagant?" she tries to joke.
"No, it's a nickname I gave her. She calls me Hercules."
"Oh! You have nicknames for each other. Kim, you didn't tell me."
From Ondine's expression, she already dislikes me. And I get it too. I don't know how Kim could have been such an idiot to talk to her about another girl a lot. Not even to tell her that we have nicknames, although they're more like insults, when she doesn't.
"I had to leave something for you to discover yourself. You'll get along great, you look a lot alike. You're both amazing."
I see Kim's look of excitement that we get along, Ondine's face of discomfort mixed with a little jealousy. And then there's my own discomfort. This is one of those moments where I think "earth swallow me", something that doesn't happen often, since I'm quite shameless.
"Alix!" Kagami's voice interrupts. I don't care why she's calling me, I'm gonna take advantage of it.
"That's me. That's my real name." I explain to Ondine. "I'm sorry I have to go. I mean, it's Kagami. She doesn't scream for nothing. I'm sure it's something urgent."
Ondine seems to relax a bit. She understand it.
I say goodbye with my two-finger salute and eagerly run towards the direction Kagami's voice came from.
It's not hard for me to find her, if I could hear her, it's because she wasn't very far away.
Kagami is sitting on the bench by the stairs on the left side of the school. Next to her is Chloe.
"What happen?"
Kagami is a bit more serious than usual.
"I have lost my pen. It is a gift from my mother. Pretty expensive one." she explains.
"Do you want us to help you find it?"
"I can buy you a new one." Chloe intervenes. "Your mother wouldn't know."
Kagami almost smiles. It amazes me that Chloe can even come across as friendly. She is serious, it's a real offer.
"Thanks Chloe, but it is personalized. It has the family name." Kagami says as she shows us her ring.
I notice movement in my peripheral vision. I look up and see Marinette leaning over the stair railing.
"Have you lost your pen?" she runs down the stairs followed by Alya. "We'll help you find it, right?" She says looking at her friend.
Marinette is a bit... nosy, but always with the intention of helping. I don't know how she knows when people are in trouble.
"Of course. I have two little sisters, I'm good at finding lost objects."
"Thank you all very much. It is very important to my mother, if she found out she would be disappointed, and she might even punish me without going out." Kagami worries.
What was that? For a moment I thought Marinette... I must have imagined it.
"We could ask Adrien for help." Alya suggests looking at Marinette.
This isn't the time to play matchmaker, Alya. Although I think it's a good idea, he is a friend of Kagami.
Alya sends a message to Nino. We stay here waiting. In time I notice that Chloe has a strange expression, which I've never seen.
Hate. Pure hatred towards Marinette. I didn't even see that expression when I dumped a garbage bag on her. Now I know that she doesn't hate me like I thought, she just doesn't like me.
The boys aren't long in coming and Alya isn't long in dividing us into pairs: she with Nino, me with Chloe and Marinette with Adrien. Kagami alone.
I don't know why she put me up with Chloe and I don't know why we listen to her. Today I don't feel like arguing, although the brat should have.
We go to the art room, where art classes are obviously held. Kagami has been here today, like everyone else.
Inside it's, surprise, surprise, Nathanael. It may be because of him that Chloe has chosen this place. She stares at him for a few seconds before speaking.
"Hey, you amateur cartoonist," she says in a tone that she tries to sound threatening, but with her husky voice she just sounds like an old curmudgeon. Yes, Chloe, I'm sure you're gonna pick him up that way. "Have you seen Kagami's pen?"
Nathanael is caught off guard.
"Kagami's pen? I will help you."
Nathanael closes his notebook and puts it in his shoulder bag. Doesn't this boy have recess?
What he doesn't have is friends. He may not have anything else to do on the break. I wanna be her friend. Decided: this afternoon, at the art club, I'll chat with him.
The three of us look for the art class and we don't find it. Chloe seems so pissed off all the time.
We still have ten minutes of recess left.
On the way to the girls' toilets, the next place they gave us in the division, I ask her about it.
"You don't care."
It's so edge!
"Look, I know you're a jerk and such, but I was trying to be nice, kind. You could too from time to time."
Chloe hesitates.
"You wouldn't believe me." she says finally.
She is Queen Bee. I have to believe her, to be able to trust her. Besides, she is magical too, like me.
"I'll believe."
"You won't do it." Chloe shakes her head in denial. "You hate me."
"I don't hate you. It's true that I threw garbage at you, but I don't hate you. I just dislike you."
She frowns. Yeah, people don't usually say that kind of thing to your face. I do.
"I don't like you either. I'll tell you when we're alone, away from prying ears."
Prying ears... I know what it means, though I didn't expect Chloe to know the expression. Still, I don't know who would be interested in hearing our conversation.
Once in the bathroom, we wait until no one is there. Chloe has even checked for feet in the gaps under the cubicle doors.
"It's Dupain-Cheng's fault."
The statement surprises me.
"Marinette?" Chloe nods. "But what are you saying? She would never do something like that."
I know I've been urging her to tell me what she thinks, but still...
She crosses her arms.
"She would do exactly this. It's her style: something that can't incriminate her."
"You're crazy. Marinette is a good person. She always helps everyone."
"The way…" she starts trying to scream, which makes her cough. "The way to know if someone is a good person is to see how they treat those they don't like. She is a rotter."
Now I'm the one who crosses my arms. She just excluded almost all of humanity from it, even me.
"If you think that's the definition, then no one is a good person. Not even you."
She looks away. She is aware.
"I have never said that I am a good person. Who yes, it's Kagami, that's why I'm pissed off."
"So, why would Marinette dislike her?"
It's a silly question on my part. I could answer it myself.
But before she can do so, Kagami sends us a message: 'Marinette has found it.'
Chloe raises her eyebrows wryly.
I think she's blinded by her hate.
In art club time, I plan to carry out what I have thought of this morning.
It's true that I have been quite distracted by what my father told me yesterday, but I have to continue with my life. And that's what I'll do. Something I've wanted for way too long: get close to the lonely geek in class.
Today Nathanael is in his world, as always. Fully concentrated on drawing something. He never shows anyone what he paints.
Before I address him, I finish mine. It's nostalgia. Abstract art is simple and at the same
time complicated. It's not easy to make a figure that can really represent what is intended instead of making a simple doodle.
For my part, I find it much easier to choose colors. I've done nostalgia with pastel blue, some touches of white and others of mauve.
"I like it." comments the teacher. "You have done it very well. I guess now you'll go for another. How about anger? It usually has much more powerful colors."
"Now I would like to talk to a classmate, find out what the others are doing."
"That's a good idea, Alix. You are all very talented here."
I smile. That's a lie. There are people here who draw as if they were four years old. Although this teacher is one of those who says that there's no correct way to make art. An idiot.
He doesn't realize that encouraging untalented people to pursue art is ruining their lives. I myself would think he was lying to me if it weren't for the hundreds of thousands of followers I have on my Instagram art account.
I trynna sneak up on Nathanael. It's true that no one has ever seen the drawings in his notebook, not even the teacher. So I trynna do it without him noticing.
But he does. Seeing me, he mumbles something and closes the notebook. I haven't got it.
"What have you said?"
"Why are you all so annoying on me all of a sudden?" he repeats out loud. "Kagami said hello to me in November, Chloe has been looking at me for weeks, and now you. What do you want from me?"
Is that being annoying? And he even seems a little overwhelmed.
It's funny that he can get flustered by something as silly as that.
Makes me wanna mess with him.
"Oh, that." I approach him a little and lower my voice. "You see, the three of us have talked about how we wanna have an orgy with some boy in the class." Nathanael freezes and his eyes pop out of his head. It's a very funny expression. I hold back laughter. "And we've chosen you."
Nathanael's face turns red and he begins to stutter. I can't contain my laughter anymore and let out a laugh.
"It's a joke!"
Nathanael visibly relaxes.
"It's not funny."
"For you. For me it's hilarious."
Nathanael lowers his eyes, he is shy, but also sincere.
"If you have come to make fun of me, go away."
"I'm not here to make fun of you." I calm him down, or by his incredulous expression, I try. "I'm curious to know what you draw. I've never seen your art, not even the required class assignments."
"You can ask the teacher. He uses them as an example for the first years."
Really? How good is it? Now I wanna see it even more than before.
"And the ones in your notebook? The one you always carry with you." I point to it, it's on the table.
"That is private."
He is silent, still and looking at me for several minutes. I think he is uncomfortable.
Okay, that joke hasn't been the best way to approach him. I'm gonna try something else.
He walks over to the shelf where I've left all my stuff and grabs my notebook from this morning and a pencil.
When I return to his table, he's already continued with what he was doing before, absorbed again. He's believed that I have left him alone. How deluded.
I sit next to him, which makes him realize that I'm here again. He blinks more times than normal in bewilderment.
That expression is great for my drawing.
I calmly open my notebook to a blank page as he watches me. I take my pencil and start to draw it.
"Are you drawing me?" he realizes with horror.
"Yes."
"I don't like being drawn."
I don't stop doing it.
"Oh, I'm sorry."
Nathanael puts a hand between my pencil and the sheet of paper. Now he seems confident, the first time I've seen him like this.
"Don't draw me, please."
"You don't ask whoever you spend the day painting for permission, do you?"
From the way he goes from confident to nervous again, I guessed right.
"I have no intention of telling anyone, I just wanna see them. You can see mine."
Wouldn't he like to make friends? Does he wanna be alone forever?
He thinks for a long time and then does something that condemns him forever to something that he can never return: having me as a friend. Nathanael hands me his notebook and takes mine.
During all this time I had gotten an idea of what Nathanael's mysterious drawings are like. The real ones, not the ones that force us to make everyone the same in art class.
Still, I didn't expect to find such beauty. The drawings are made with all the possible techniques that the materials in this classroom allow. In normal classes I only see him use a pencil. He's made these drawings here, in the art club.
There are all kinds of drawings: hyperrealism, surrealism, caricatures, still lifes, comics, manga, graffiti... And portraits, plenty of portraits of the same person: Marinette.
That's why he didn't wanna me to see them. But I already knew that he likes Marinette, and also that she ignores his existence.
"I won't say anything to Marinette, I promise. But man, this is awesome!"
I smile a lot, so much that my cheeks hurt. I love art, good drawings. And Nathanael should dedicate himself to this, he is very good.
"You have to show it to more people, not Marinette's, but the rest. You can't deprive people of this wonder. You're too good."
He smiles too and has blushed.
"You think?"
"Of course, and I'm sincere. For example, Lea is wasting her time."
"Go to hell, asshole!" Lea yells from the other side.
This time, Nathanael does laugh.
"I believe you."