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Chapter 59: Volpina Part 2

While Volpina was chasing after Ladybug, the heroine in red was enacting the group's plan and was running after 'Hawkmoth' in hopes of catching him. But after following the flickering 'Hawkmoth' for about five minutes, she lost sight of him when she landed on an empty roof a fair bit away from City Hall.

"Where did he go?" Ladybug wondered out loud, walking on the roof in hopes of spotting the resident supervillain until her foot landed on a trigger point, chiming as it turned from green to red when it locked onto Ladybug's foot. When she saw that her foot was in a red trigger square she tried to move it out of the outline, but it remained around her foot just as an array of bombs and missiles came out of nowhere and were aimed at her.

"I wouldn't move an inch if I were you." A voice called up from above the suddenly terrified Ladybug, causing her to look up and gasp when she saw Volpina had appeared on a chimney above her. "Don't worry Ladybug, I don't wanna be your friend. But at least now you won't be able to say we don't know each other." Volpina taunted her enemy, laughing to herself while Ladybug finally connected the dots.

"Lila?" Ladybug uttered in shock, now realizing who was behind Volpina's mask and quickly angering the sneaky fox.

"You will call me Volpina!" Volpina shouted as she glared at the bug below her, not liking that Ladybug had referred to her by her civilian name.

"You're not a superhero. You're another one of Hawkmoth's akumatized victims!" Ladybug exclaimed, trying to reason with the insane akuma holding her at missile point.

"Not that anyone would believe you. Everyone thinks I'm a superhero, including Chat Noir." Volpina pointed out, thinking she had the upper hand against Ladybug. "So you won't be able to call me a liar anymore 'cause everyone will think you're the liar." the vixen akuma shouted in triumph, pointing her flute at Ladybug just as Hawkmoth enacted the link between them once more.

"Admirable job, Volpina!" Hawkmoth praised his latest akuma, impressed with how close Volpina was to fulfilling her part of the deal. "Now take Ladybug's Miraculous! The earrings!" the resident supervillain exclaimed, growing impatient with how close his goal was that very moment before cutting off the link and leaving Volpina to continue her plan.

"Before I get rid of you, you are going to give me your Miraculous." Volpina demanded from Ladybug, causing her to recoil as far back as she could from the fox akuma out of worry and shock.

"Never!" Ladybug yelled back, covering her earrings to prevent the vixen from taking them from her out of an unconscious reflex. But her words only caused Volpina to somehow command the missiles and bombs aimed at Ladybug to move closer to the heroine.

"Do you think you've got a choice, Ladybug?" Volpina questioned her enemy, confident in her assured victory. "You'll give me your Miraculous or the building goes down!" the fox akuma threatened Ladybug, pointing to a nearby building across from them.

"You wouldn't do that!" Ladybug growled, to which Volpina responded by playing a tune on her flute and sending the manifested light orb at the building, causing it to collapse on the unsuspecting citizens in the area. "Stop!" the spotted heroine shouted, hoping to appeal to Volpina's better nature.

However, she soon saw her effort would have been futile and reached for her earrings, Volpina and the egocentric psycho that is Hawkmoth both watching in anticipation as she did. But just as Ladybug was about to take off her first earring, she glanced at the crumbling building just in time for it to hit a passing pigeon, breaking the spell Volpina had placed and revealing that it was never falling in the first place.

"It's an illusion! Just like the meteorite! Just like Hawkmoth!" Ladybug exclaimed when the truth had been revealed, now understanding what Volpina's powers were. "That's your power isn't it, Volpina?! Illusions! The perfect power for a liar!" the heroine in red proclaimed before she threw her yo-yo at all the bombs, causing them all to disappear into an orange mist.

Once the dangerous projectiles aimed at her were gone, Ladybug set her sights on Volpina and tried to capture her as well, only to find that she was an illusion as well, making the whole trick vanish. With no sign of Volpina anywhere near her, Ladybug retracted her yo-yo and used it to call Chat Noir, hoping to warn him of Volpina's treachery.

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Suffice it to say that when Ladybug finally managed to get through to Chat Noir to warn him about Volpina, he was left in shock to learn about the vixen's true allegiances and powers. After apologizing profusely for ignoring Ladybug's gut feeling and promising to make it up to her at a later date, Chat Noir hung up the call after she explained that Volpina was going after Adrien... his civilian self. With the new information, Chat Noir raced back to his house and arrived in his bathroom, transforming back into his disempowered self and deactivating his disguise to return to his civilian self.

"Wouldn't Chat Noir be more useful in this situation?" Plagg asked his holder, laying on the boy's cupped hands after Adrien transformed back to normal.

"If Volpina's got a thing for me, I can make her see sense without Chat Noir." Adrien explained as he walked out of his bathroom, hoping to get Plagg on board with his plan. "Maybe then she'll listen." the blonde model muttered to himself in a slightly hopeful voice, a worried look filling his facial features while Plagg flew out of his hands before he started walking to his room's windows.

"You really think you can take down Volpina without your superpowers? Without me?" Plagg questioned his holder incredulously, zooming over to Adrien just as he saw Volpina approaching his open window.

"Hide Plagg, she's coming!" Adrien exclaimed, holding his overshirt open and prompting Plagg to hide in the garment just as Volpina landed on his window sill.

"Adrien!" Volpina cheerfully greeted the boy, jumping down into Adrien's room and walking over to him.

"Um, who are you?" Adrien replied, pretending that he didn't already know about Volpina or her powers to seem non-threatening to her.

"Do you remember this necklace?" Volpina asked when she stopped walking up to him, standing just a few feet away from Adrien as she held up her necklace to show it to him. "I didn't know how to tell you the truth, but at least this way you can see for yourself that I'm not lying. I am a superhero." the vixen akuma announced, giving Adrien the out he needed to 'connect the dots' on Volpina's true identity with outing his own.

"Lila!" Adrien uttered in fake amazement, having to lay it on thick with how conflicted his feelings of Lila/Volpina were at the moment.

"You can call me Volpina." the fox 'heroine' akuma replied, a flirty tone filling her voice as she took another step towards him. "I'm sorry about the scene in the park earlier today. Ladybug's just jealous because she's not as powerful as me." Volpina explained, to which Adrien knew she was blatantly lying to him now.

But while Adrien was talking to Volpina, neither of them had seen Ladybug hanging outside of Adrien's window and watching their interaction. Needless to say, she could also hear them thanks to Adrien's open window and was none too pleased with the slander the vixen akuma was throwing her way.

"You'll see Ladybug isn't just a figment of your imagination, Volpina." Ladybug growled to herself before lifting herself to the mansion roof, pulling out her yo-yo to call Chat Noir to find out his ETA. But she was surprised to find that he didn't answer, immediately going to voicemail. "What is he doing?" the spotted heroine questioned out loud, wondering where her partner was before her patience had grown too thin.

"No time to hang around and wait any longer." Ladybug decided, having had enough of waiting, and swung into Adrien's room, pulling his and Volpina's attention onto her when she landed behind them.

"See what I mean! She's jealous of me, of you, of us!" Volpina exclaimed to Adrien, delusional to the reality that Adrien wasn't interested in her like that before turning to face Ladybug. "But this time you aren't going to ruin our date Ladybug." the fox akuma growled, standing ready to fight against her spotted adversary while Adrien found her choice of words less than appealing.

"Excuse me, it wasn't a date." Adrien protested, only for Volpina to turn and face him with a glare, clearly not happy with his remark. "Uh... what I meant was it could've become one right? No need to get bent out of shape!" the model quickly corrected, hoping to keep Volpina appeased long enough for him to slip away and transform again.

"Excuse us, but I need to have a chat with the super liar." Ladybug said to Adrien, unintentionally giving him the opening he needed. "And as for you, Volpina! Stop thinking your illusions are reality!" the heroine in red shouted at Volpina, the two girls beginning their fight just as Adrien ran into the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

"So, was I right, or was I right?" Plagg snidely questioned his holder, flying out of Adrien's overshirt once they were alone in the bathroom.

"Not the time, Plagg." Adrien replied as he pulled out his runestone necklace, activating his chat Noir disguise before saying... "Claws Out!" Adonis shouted, turning into his superhero self before exiting the room the way he came in the first time.

Once he was back outside of the mansion, Chat Noir made his way to his civilian self's bedroom window while Ladybug and Volpina were fighting each other. During the fight, Ladybug had tried to hit Volpina with her yo-yo, the vixen-themed akuma having taken the high ground on the room's second-level balcony, wacking the heroine's weapon away from her with her flute. She then jumped to the other side of the balcony and had to evade another throw of Ladybug's yo-yo before jumping down from the balcony and sliding down the skate ramp underneath it to land on the floor. But when Chat Noir had landed on the window sill, he was just in time to witness Volpina finally land on the smaller skate ramp across from the room's entrance, trapped between it and Ladybug when they noticed his presence.

"Chat Noir, about time!" Ladybug greeted her partner, glad that he was finally there to help.

"Sorry, I'm late. I had some trouble finding the place." Chat Noir explained as jumped into the room, prompting Volpina to pull out her flute and play a new tune on it to summon her powers.

When the orb of orange light was done growing, Volpina threw it to the ground and created a large bunch of Volpina copies just below her spot on the smaller skate ramp. With the illusion in place, the fox akuma jumped into the middle of the group and hid amongst them, forcing Ladybug to swat them away with her yo-yo. But when they disappeared in a cloud of orange smoke, nothing remained.

"Illusions!" Chat Noir grumbled with both annoyance and awe, now having witnessed Volpina's powers first-hand. But before he had any more time to process what he had just seen, Ladybug had spotted Volpina on a roof outside as she leapt away with a captive 'Adrien'.

"Chat Noir! She's taken Adrien!" Ladybug exclaimed, forcing Chat Noir to look where she was pointing and see that Volpina was indeed escaping. But the only problem was that he was Adrien, so...

"That's an illusion, too!" Chat Noir argued, knowing that Adrien was perfectly safe since he was the boy himself.

"How are you so sure?" Ladybug worriedly questioned, panic rising in her voice at the thought of something bad happening to her crush.

"Uh...my..um...feline sixth sense. It's legendary!" Chat Noir nervously lied, having no other way to explain how he knew without outing his identity. But it did little to convince Ladybug as she went over to the bathroom to see if Adrien was still safe, only to find it empty.

"Really? You don't say! 'Adrien' is gone!" Ladybug nearly growled, followed by her running past a nervous Chat Noir before leaping out the window, leaving her partner in the room alone.

"Yeah, I'm not even gonna try to get out of this." Chat Noir muttered to himself before leaping out of the window, having no other choice but to follow after Ladybug before she did anything to try and save the illusion version of him.

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After the heroes had left the Agreste Mansion, they made their way to the Eiffel Tower and were greeted by the sight of Volpina dangling 'Adrien' from a high brace near the top. When seeing the heroes approaching the monument, Volpina evilly cackled just as Chat Noir and Ladybug had started climbing up the tower, only to stop just below her to try and reason with the akuma.

"Give me your Miraculous now or I will drop him!" Volpina threatened the heroes as she started swinging her captive around, unknowingly hitting Ladybug right in her heart at the sight of 'Adrien' in danger.

"I thought you loved him!" Ladybug fired back as she used her yo-yo to stay on the tower, needing to hold herself from lunging at the akuma to not provoke Volpina to drop 'Adrien' out of spite.

"Not as much as seeing you two defeated!" Volpina admitted, a crazed smile appearing on her lips as she spoke. "No hard feelings, right?" the vixen akuma nonchalantly questioned 'Adrien', lifting him towards her to look him in the eye as she asked.

"You're bluffing. It's another illusion." Chat Noir shouted as he held onto the tower with his claws, knowing that Volpina was full-on lying and was confident that he was right... for reasons obvious to him, of course.

"You wanna bet on that?" Volpina threatened, followed by her releasing her grip on 'Adrien' one finger at a time.

"NO, DON'T DO IT!!" Ladybug cried out when seeing how serious Volpina was in her threat, not being able to take it anymore before she fell to her knees and reached for her earrings. At the sight of his partner surrendering, Chat Noir scurried to her side and stopped her from taking out her earrings.

"Don't do it, Ladybug!" Chat Noir protested, soon accompanied by him throwing his staff at Volpina and 'Adrien' to prove that he was right.

"No!" Ladybug shouted in worry when seeing the staff sail towards Volpina and 'Adrien', only for them to vanish in a puff of orange smoke before the weapon bounced back to its owner. When seeing that Chat Noir's instincts had been right, Ladybug sighed with relief before she suddenly spotted the real Volpina angrily glaring at them from the other side of the tower.

"There she is!" the spotted heroine exclaimed when seeing the fox, causing Volpina to start climbing to the top of the monument with the heroes following after her, second behind.

With Volpina's lead on them, she reached the top of the tower first and had enough time to use her powers one last time in an attempt to defeat the heroes. So when Ladybug and Chat Noir arrived on the last observation deck of the Eiffel Tower, they were greeted by the sight of even more Volpina copies as they occupied the remaining section of the tower, keeping the real one hidden. Seeing the new conundrum they had, Ladybug decided that now was the right time to call upon her...

"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug shouted, summoning her powers and receiving a roll of tin foil sporting her signature spotted pattern.

Looking at the object in her hands in confusion, Ladybug then unrolled some of the foil from its cardboard roll... causing the shiny wapping to catch the sunlight on its surface, making her squint at the refracting light. But it was just the thing her mind needed to get to work on the plan to defeat their enemy.

"I've got an idea to take down Volpina!" the heroine in red announced, leaving Chat Noir more confused than he usually was.

"With tinfoil?" Chat Noir questioned, not seeing how this particular Lucky Charm would be effective in this problem.

"Trust me and get ready." Ladybug assured her partner, making him shrug in acceptance before calling on his...

"Cataclysm!" Chat Noir proclaimed, summoning his powers.

Once Chat Noir had his power ready to go, Ladybug ripped off a piece of tinfoil from the roll in her hands and raised it into the air, shining it at the group of Volpina copies. Her plan worked flawlessly when the reflecting light blinded the real Volpina, singling her from the group and revealing her location to the heroes. Seeing the outlier in the group, Chat Noir jumped up into the air and used his Cataclysm on the metal structure above Volpina, the corroded bars falling around the vixen akuma to make a cage to trap her. With Volpina trapped; causing the illusions of herself to disappear as well, Ladybug and Chat Noir lept to where she was and watched as she tried to escape from her new prison.

"Trapped like a fox!" Ladybug remarked before she grabbed Volpina's necklace, leaving Volpina in shock that she had been beaten. "Your days are over, akuma!" the spotted heroine exclaimed as she threw the necklace to the metal structure under her feet, breaking it and releasing the akuma before opening her yo-yo to reveal the sparkling pool of cleansing energy inside of it.

"Time to de-evilize!" the heroine in red shouted before she threw her yo-yo toward the akuma, catching it in her yo-yo. "Gotcha!" Ladybug cheered when the yo-yo was back in her hands. A second later, she released the purified akuma, setting the white butterfly free.

"Bye, bye little butterfly," the spotted heroine said as the butterfly flew away, right before throwing the Lucky Charm up into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" Ladybug cried out, summoning the cleansing cure and the magic ladybugs. Her powers swept through the city, restoring everything Volpina had done and the damage done to the Eiffel Tower back to normal, including restoring the vixen akuma into Lila.

"Lila?" Ladybug tentatively greeted a disoriented Lila, leaving the olive-eyed girl in surprise when she looked up to see her.

"Ladybug?" Lila questioned from her spot sitting on the metal structure of the Eiffel Tower, not believing what was happening at that moment.

"I... I'm sorry about earlier. I overreacted and never should've spoken to you like that." Ladybug apologized, kneeling to Lila's level and putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I hope you can forgive my appalling behaviour." the spotted heroine continued, extending an olive branch to Lila in hopes of making up for earlier.

"Forget it, Ladybug. You were right. We'll never be friends." Lila replied, immediately brushing off Ladybug's apology and hand off her shoulder before she rose to her feet, picked up her necklace, and walked away, leaving both heroes in shock at her reaction.

"That definitely could have gone better." Chat Noir remarked, not having any other way to respond to Lila's response to Ladybug's apology.

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While Lila was leaving the Eiffel Tower, Hawkmoth was still watching the scene from his lair and was left intrigued by what he had seen.

"She's still angry." Hawkmoth noted, surprised by Lila's remaining anger. "You're not done with Volpina yet, Ladybug and Chat Noir. You haven't seen the last of her." the resident supervillain proclaimed, excitement lacing his words at the thought of the future uses Lila Rossi would bring him when the time was right.

With his proclamation made, Hawkmoth exited his lair and headed back up to the Mansion, now interested in Lila's potential as a future minion or a potential puppet in general. As such, he then decided to use his civilian identity to create circumstances for her to reach her goals if she proved herself good enough, knowing it would be in his best interest if he gained her loyalty.

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Back at the Eiffel Tower, Ladybug and Chat Noir had made their way down to the observation deck below where they defeated Volpina, where one thing was still nagging in the back of Ladybug's mind.

"Wait a minute, if Volpina didn't capture Adrien, then where is he?" Ladybug questioned out loud, sending Chat Noir into a panic at the possibility of his identity being discovered.

"Everything's been put back to normal, right? So he must be safely back at home." Chat Noir nervously suggested, hoping that it would be enough to satisfy his partner's worries.

"I should check to make sure!" Ladybug argued in a panicked tone, dashing Chat Noir's attempts to convince her otherwise as she hopped onto the railing of the observation deck to leave.

"Don't worry about it! I'll go! Plus you're about to change back." Chat Noir protested, quickly grabbing Ladybug's arm to stop her from leaving just as her earrings beeped their first warning.

"So are you." Ladybug fired back, pointing to Chat Noir's ring as it started beeping as well, having less time than Ladybug. "Looks like there's no more arguing, then. I'll take care of it." the spotted heroine decided before she jumped off of the tower, throwing her yo-yo out to swing herself to the Agreste Mansion while Chat Noir watched her leave.

"Ugh! That stubbornness... It's so...so..." Chat Noir groaned in exasperation... only for it to fade immediately as a love-sick grin appeared on his face. "...irresistible." the feline hero sighed to himself in admiration, before leaping off the Eiffel Tower to follow Ladybug in hopes of getting to the mansion before her.

Needless to say, Ladybug had made it to the mansion first and had landed on the open window sill of Adrien's room before entering, landing on the floor in front of the windows. Meanwhile, Chat Noir had also reached the mansion just seconds after her and had used the open window in his bathroom to make sure Ladybug didn't see him, landing in the middle of his shower. But he only had a second to catch his breath before he heard Ladybug's footsteps coming towards the bathroom door, which quickly turned into running until she reached the only thing standing between her from discovering his secret.

"Adrien? Are you there?" Ladybug called out from beyond the door, clearly in front of it if her volume was any indication and sending Chat Noir further into a panic. "Can I come in?" the spotted heroine asked, sliding open the bathroom door just as Chat Noir thought to turn on the shower to dissuade her from coming. At the sound of the running water, Ladybug quickly slid the door shut again and jumped back from the bathroom out of shock.

"This is...Ladybug. Is everything okay?"Ladybug shouted in question to 'Adrien', managing to compose herself from the almost awkward situation that had happened, which had triggered a sense of deja vu in her thoughts as well.

"Uh...yeah, I'm fine. I just had to grab a shower after all this excitement." Chat Noir assured from inside the bathroom, walking over to the door and leaning to place his ear up to the door to await Ladybug's departure.

"Uh....oh...yeah...sure. I'm sorry." Ladybug called back, mostly embarrassed but glad that her crush was okay. "I'll be off then!" the spotted heroine announced, eager to leave before her transformation wore off.

"Thank you!" Chat Noir replied.

However, instead of leaving right away, Ladybug had leaned her head against her side of the door with a sigh of longing, unaware of Chat Noir doing the same on his side. After a few more seconds of unknowingly mirroring each other, Ladybug walked away from the door and went to the window, throwing her yo-yo's out through the window to swing home. Once he was sure she was gone, Chat Noir finally opened the bathroom door and walked out into his room, sadly staring out the window as he thought about just how close he had been to having no secrets between them. But he filed that thought away and went to turn off the shower in his bathroom, now focusing on getting the book he found in his father's safe to Master Fu like Plagg asked, hoping that one thing could go right that day.

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(Time Skip)

With Volpnia defeated and Adrien safe, Ladybug had finally made her way back home. Once she did, she transformed back into her civilian self and settled down on her balcony with Tikki after grabbing Adrien's book out of her backpack, eager to look through it. As she started perusing through the superhero book, she could see why Tikki had been so interested in getting it when seeing the images of ancient Miraculous Holders on its pages.

"Now do you see why it was important to get this book, Marinette?" Tikki asked her holder, floating in front of the book while Marinette held it against her raised knees so they could look through it.

"Yeah, I do. This book is amazing Tikki!" Marinette exclaimed, impressed with all the amazing images she had seen before her face fell a bit. "Though it could've been my connection to Adrien without my Ladybug mask for once." the designer added in a melancholy voice, her excitement dropping a bit.

"But I get that I'm not gonna be returning it to him." Marinette said to Tikki, knowing that since this book was related to the Miraculous, it was best if she got it to Master Fu as soon as possible.

"I'm really sorry Marinette, but its information is invaluable." Tikki revealed, turning away from looking at the pages to redirect her gaze at an intrigued Marinette.

"Information? But it's all written in code." Marinette pointed out, flipping through the book again to make sure she didn't miss anything readable.

"Master Fu knows how to decipher the codes. He's been looking for this for a long time." Tikki explained, solving some of Marinette's confusion as she placed the book back against her knees.

"So what exactly is so special about this book?" Marinette asked her kwami, hoping to finally know the true reason behind the book's uniqueness.

"It contains all the secrets of the Miraculous powers." Tikki revealed, zipping around in the air in front of Marinette as she spoke. "Including the powers discovered by the Troll Miraculous holders." the red kwami added before she zoomed over to the right side of the book, flipping through to reach the start of the blank pages.

"Wait a minute... are you saying that the Trolls had discovered more powers of the Miraculous?" Marinette questioned in awe while Tikki kept flipping through the book and finally arrived at the blank page section.

"Yes. As creatures of magic, the Troll Miraculous holders had a deeper connection to their Miraculous than humans, leading to them discovering many sub-uses of their powers." Tikki confirmed, flying to the top of the book to sit on it while Marinette looked down at the section of pages she had turned to.

"Then, why aren't they documented in the book? All I see at the moment are blank pages." Marinette continued to ask, looking at the blank pages with a confused look.

"That's because they aren't blank." Tikki simply replied, causing Marinette to look up at Tikki with awe before she continued. "After the Battle of Two Orders, the Order of the Guardians enchanted the book to hide the section containing any information about the Trolls as a means to further protect them." the Ladybug kwami elaborated, explaining why the pages appeared to be blank.

"However, the spell has a catch to it that only allows creatures of magic to see what is written on them. Creatures like Trolls—" Tikki added.

"Or kwamis." Marinette interrupted, now understanding what Tikki was insinuating. "So you can see what's on the blank pages?" the pigtailed girl asked, causing Tikki to nod in confirmation.

"Only a section of the blank pages are dedicated to the Trolls. The rest are truly blank." Tikki elaborated, clearing up any confusion about just how much information was actually on the Trolls in the book. "Regardless of its state, this book is sacred and extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, so Master Fu needs it back." the red kwami stressed, lighting a fire under Marinette's butt to get the book to Master Fu.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go and give it to him!" Marinette exclaimed as she rose to her feet, grabbed her backpack, and headed back inside her room to make her way over to Master Fu's apartment, putting the book back into her bag while Tikki zipped inside just before she closed it.

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Meanwhile, in Adrien's room, the blonde in question was looking through his bag in his search for his father's book. But his hopes of getting it back into his father's safe before he found it gone were dashed away when he couldn't find it at all.

"Did you take my father's book, Plagg?" Adrien worriedly questioned his kwami, who was sitting on Adrien's couch while gouging himself on camembert while the model tipped the contents out of his bag.

"Of course not!" Plagg replied before he stuffed his mouth with cheese, waiting for Adrien to find it so they could take it to Master Fu.

"If he finds out it's missing, I'll have something worse than Hawkmoth to deal with." Adrien exclaimed, stopping Plagg from putting another piece of cheese in his mouth as he took in his holder's words.

"Wait a minute..." Plagg started, slowly turning his head to face Adrien with a wide-eyed stare. "You're telling me that you... LOST THE BOOK!?" the black kwami shouted, shooting up into the air in his panic and shocking Adrien at Plagg's response.

"Y...yes." Adrien meekly replied, prompting Plagg to zoom over to him and fly mere inches in front of his face.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE!! YOU JUST LOST ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS IN THE WORLD!!" Plagg yelled into Adrien's face, making him wince as he leaned back to save his ears from suffering his kwami's loud volume.

"Well, you didn't tell me how important it was! How was I supposed to know?" Adrien remarked, which only seemed to make Plagg even more angry.

"I TOLD YOU TO GET IT TO MASTER FU AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!! HOW IS THAT NOT A SIGN OF HOW IMPORTANT THE BOOK IS!?" Plagg argued back, causing Adrien's frightened stare to harden into that of an angered one.

"YOU COULD HAVE MADE IT A BIT MORE CLEAR!!" Adrien shouted back at his kwami, pushing Plagg back from him before he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "Look, we'll get nothing done with arguing. So tell me exactly why that book is so important, Plagg." the blonde model requested, hoping to get to the bottom of why the book was so important that Plagg was acting so strange.

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While Plagg finally explained to Adrien the significance of his father's book, Marinette had reached Master Fu's massage shop. Upon reaching the old guardian's apartment, Marinette knocked on the door to let any inhabitants in the housing area know that she was there and then entered the room with Tikki. As she did, she was greeted by the sight of Master Fu sitting on the mat in the middle of the room, sipping on a cup of tea.

"Hello again, Ladybug." Master Fu greeted the red-tipped-haired girl, lifting his gaze from his cup to watch as Marinette entered the room and closed the door behind her.

"Hello, Master Fu. I think I have something that you might be interested in seeing." Marinette replied, followed by pulling out the book from her bag and showing it to her mentor.

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Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Lila had finally arrived back at her new house, having moved in just last week with her mom. Contrary to what she had the whole school believe, Lila was not well connected to any celebrities and only had said that she was to garner some attention to seem more likable. However, her mother was an Italian diplomat who was recently transferred to the embassy in Paris and brought Lila with her. With a new school and a new city, alongside her mother being so busy, the Italian girl had tried to find ways to not be an outcast the only way she knew how, by lying about her social and personal life.

It had become a habit of hers over the years since her mother's job called for them to move around a lot, trying to make friends as quickly as possible. When her mother got transferred to Paris indefinitely, Lila decided to use the opportunity to set up permanent popularity among her peers. But with Ladybug's exposing of her lies to Adrien, the biggest step to her goal had become unobtainable and had her reconsidering her options. So when she entered her new apartment and closed the door behind her, she pressed her back against it before sliding to the floor with a frustrated groan, hiding her head in her knees.

"Is that you, Ma Bella?" a voice further into the apartment called out to Lila, causing her to look up when hearing her mother's voice.

"Yeah, it's me, Mom." Lila replied, furrowing her eyebrows as she tried craning her head to see where her mom was. "I thought you said that you wouldn't be back home until late." the olive-eyed girl recalled, thinking back to the voicemail her mom had left her that morning before heading to her first day of school.

"The embassy experienced a problem in the I.T. department. The whole system is down until tomorrow." Ms. Rossi explained, poking her head out of the dining room and seeing Lila sitting at the foot of the door. "Lila, what's wrong?" the diplomat fretted as she raced over to her daughter, hoping to help cheer her up.

"I just had a rough first day at school, Mom." Lila explained while her mom reached her, the older woman kneeling to hug her tight.

"Oh, Lila!" Ms. Rossi apologized, holding her daughter close.

"It's not your fault, Mom." Lila responded, brushing off her mother's guilt before she hugged her back.

"So, what happened today at school?" Ms. Rossi asked, pulling back from the hug to look her daughter in the face.

With that, Lila explained what had happened to her that day, excluding the lies she had told her peers at school to prevent her mother from scolding her for her dishonesty. But she did include her humiliation and akumatization, fibbing that the students were the cause, and 'admitted' her worries of it happening again. Needless to say, Ms. Rossi was left shocked when she learned that Paris seemed to be plagued by a supervillain who preyed on negative emotions. But she was even more distraught when she learned that her daughter had been targeted by this so-called "Hawkmoth".

"Oh, honey. I'm so sorry that you went through that! And on your first day too!" Ms Rossi cried out of guilt, feeling bad that her daughter had such a bad first day at school while she and Lila were sitting in their living room after moving away from the front door.

"Again, it's not your fault, Mom. I know that you need to move around for your job." Lila pointed out, sitting on their living room sofa next to her mother. "But I don't think I should go back to school. It might not be safe for me." the chestnut-haired girl admitted, pulling up her legs to bunch up and make herself seem smaller. At the sight of her daughter in despair, Ms. Rossi reached over and placed a comforting arm around Lila's shoulders, pulling her in for a side hug.

"Oh honey, I know it's not easy starting at a new school in the middle of the year. Especially since it has happened more often than it should, and now with this city's spazzatura terroristica (terrorist garbage) having targeted you." Ms. Rossi said, sympathizing with her daughter's worries and trying to make her feel better. "However, maybe you should give them another chance. I'm sure that it was only a misunderstanding." the older woman suggested, making Lila look at her mother like she was crazy.

"But Mom..." Lila began to protest against her mother's idea.

"I've had my fair share of bad days, Ma Bella and the thing I always do is pick myself up and try again." Ms. Rossi interrupted, followed by her trying to convince her daughter to try again. "You can't give up after your first failed attempt at trying new things," she added, watching as Lila's face turned from looking appalled to looking in thought instead.

"Well, when you put it like that..." Lila began, trailing off as she thought more on the idea and soon came to a decision. "Okay, Mom. I'll have another crack at getting to know my classmates." the olive-eyed girl decided, now seeing that if she continued to go to school, she could become popular and get close to Adrien in other ways.

"That's my girl! Oh, I'm so proud of you, honey!" Ms. Rossi exclaimed, pulling her daughter into a tight hug.

"Thanks, Mom." Lila thanked her, hugging her mom back with a soft smile. "I just know that tomorrow will be better already!" the chestnut-haired girl announced, eager to try again to achieve her goals.


A/N: And here's to the end of the first book of the Miraculous Hunter series!!! It has been a wild ride for this one and will only continue getting more intense the deeper we go!!! Hope to see you all in Book 2!!!

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