"Souta failed, didn't he?" That voice! Why did it sound so familiar to her? "Are you not afraid to die?" His dark eyes bore down on the excused girl standing in front of him with a searching look in his age-old eyes.

"The Ever After is a beautiful place, yes, but it's the realm of the dead." His eyes narrow again as he stares stight into Marrinette - no - Suzume's - determined chocolate-coded eyes. "That much at least should frighten you."

The normally soft-spoken girl's eyes narrow even more and she grits her teeth to stop herself from lashing out at Souta-san's long-time caretaker.

"A world without Souta-san, that's what terrifies me." Marinette hears herself crying out. "I made a promise to Souta, and I plan on keeping it!" She gave the man one last look and left the room.

The young sixteen-year-old high school student sighed softly to herself as she walked out into the hallway and over towards the bathroom to take a long-overdue shower and change out of her dirt-stained outfit and back into her school uniform.

She's in the middle of tying the laces of a pier of Souta-san's shoes when she hears a small voice calling her name a short distance away from where she's crouched on the cold tile floor.

"Suzume-san! Hey, Suzume-san!" She gasped sharply, her eyes widened as she turned to face the owner of the voice. "I'm so glad you're alright!"

Huh? What the hell? Is that cat talking? Holy shit! How the hell does it know my name?

But much to the French-Asian girl's shock, she responded right back to the strange cat. "Daijin! What happened? Why can't I find you?"

The cat just gave her a sad smile in response. "Oh Suzume, you'll find out everything soon enough." Daijin giggled lightly and gave the girl a cheeky grin.

"We're out of time, Suzume-san! You're waking up now! But don't worry though, we can play again together some other time." Daijin smiled up at the girl, his yellow eyes bright and warm, shining brightly like the sun as he sat calmly on the windowsill across from the fourteen-year-old superheroine.

"Huh? But Daijin! I don't understand! What are you talking about?"

"See you again soon, Suzume-san!" Was all the little white kitten said before the world around her disappeared.

XXXXXX

Marinette awoke with a sharp gasp. The pigtailed bluenette shot up in her bed, her breathing heavy and her bluebell eyes frantically searching the room.

"What a weird dream, but I don't understand..." Marinette sighed softly and tried to calm her racing heart. "What on earth was Daijin talking about?"

She was abruptly knocked off of the thinking train when another voice spoke up from literally out of nowhere.

"Is everything okay Marinette?" Tikki asked her charge, a worried expression forming on her tiny face as she stared up into the dark-haired girl bluebell eyes.

Upon hearing the worried and concerned voice of her kwami calling out to her, the dark-haired girl shook her head and gave her friend a small smile.

"Huh? Oh yeah, yeah I'm fine Yikki." Marinette waved away her friend's concern and started to get ready for school.

She was just slipping her black combat boots onto her feet when she caught sight of the date written on her pull-down calendar.

"May 20th, only one month left to get everything prepared." Marinette said to no one in particular as she tied her shoulder-length blue-black hair into a high ponytail.

"Just like in my dream! I look just like that Suzume girl!" She blinked a few times and tilted her head to the side. The girl in the mirror did the same and Marinette felt something prodding her in the back of her mind.

She caught a flash of something out of the corner of her eye and she spun around, ready to fight if need be.

Marinette felt Tikki land on her shoulder and say something but she didn't hear any of it. Her body seemed to be moving on its own, her bluebell eyes zoning in on the small necklace sitting precariously on her windowsill.

With shaking hands, the pigtailed bluenette reached forward and carefully reached down and lifted the necklace up to get a closer gasped sharply, dropping the necklace and clutching at her head with both hands.

A flood of memories rushed past her vision faster than she could blink. Marinette squeezed her eyes shut, her hands clenching into fists at her sides as she shook herself out of her trance.

"Oh shit! That's Souta-san's pending! Why is it here? Did something happen to him? I don't understand? What the hell is going on?" A determined look crossed Marinette's face and she grabbed the pending and did one last check at her appearance before turning and heading downstates. The bluenette's thoughts were racing with more and more questions that she had no answers for and it was making her feel like she was loosing her mind.

"Huh? What in the actual hell is happening? What the fuck is this crap? What in the world is wrong with me!" Emo Marinette groaned loudly and put her head in her hands. "I think I finally lost my mind! Oh God, what am I gonna do? I can't just stand here like some damn fool! I need to think about this in a calm and logical manner."

The pigtailed bluenette sighed for like the twentieth time and tried to distract herself with other, more important things like getting a nice warm drink from Starbucks before heading off to school.

Marinette felt a wide smile splitting across her face as she entered the small coffeeshop. As she took her seat near the back, the dark-haired half Chinese girl felt herself relax a little bit as she took a drink of her hot coco..n