While Lila had decided to stay in school, Marinette had reached Master Fu's massage parlor... where the old guardian sensed her presence before she even opened the door.

"Hello again, Ladybug." the old guardian greeted his red-tipped-haired pupil, sitting in the middle of the room like he usually did when she visited and lifting his gaze from his cup to watch as Marinette entered the room.

"Hello, Master Fu. I think I have something that you might be interested in seeing." Marinette replied, closing the door behind her and pulling out the book from her bag to show it to him. At the sight of the book in Marinette's hands, Master Fu gasped in shock before rising to his feet and walking towards her.

"I can't believe it! I haven't seen this book in 172 years." Master Fu uttered in awe as he took the book from Marinette's hands, opening it up to look through the pages.

"So you do know what it is?" Marinette asked, Tikki flying out of her purse as she spoke.

"Indeed I do." Master Fu admitted, followed by him gesturing to his tea table and the two of them sitting down on opposite sides of it. "As you know, when I was much, much younger, I made a mistake that destroyed the guardian temple and also resulted in two of the Miraculous lost that same day." the Guardian began to explain, opening the book to the start of it.

"However, I didn't mention how another thing was lost that day... the ancient spellbook." Master Fu added, turning to one of the pages within the book and landing on the one with an ancient Turtle Miraculous Holder on it.

"Tikki said earlier that it holds secrets of the Miraculous. But all I've seen that it has are drawings of old superheroes and a bunch of strange symbols." Marinette brought up, pointing to the symbols written on the page presented.

"Not strange to a Guardian." Master Fu simply stated, a smirk appearing on his lips. "Back in the days, I was never allowed to even have a look at it, but I know enough to be able to partially decipher the code." the guardian explained, revealing his previously unmentioned skills and causing a smile to appear on Marinette's and Tikki's faces.

"As Tikki has said, these pages contain various spells and techniques capable of giving the Miraculous Holders special abilities we haven't known about. Until now, that is!" Master Fu elaborated, turning the pages to show the images depicting different transformations of each Miraculous. "Obviously, this book is invaluable." the old master breathed, leaving Marinette in awe.

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Meanwhile at the Agreste Mansion, things were not looking good for Adrien. After Plagg had explained how important his father's book was, Adrien had immediately tried to leave his room to go and find it. But before he could even mutter the words to transform, his father barged into his room with a scowl, followed by Nathalie as she held a tablet in her hands. The next few minutes after that consisted of Adrien meekly sitting in his desk chair while Nathalie revealed images from his father's office... specifically of Adrien taking the spellbook out of the safe.

"Why did you take the book?" Gabriel calmly inquired of his son, facing the wall of windows and holding his hands behind his back while he retained his unnerving posture.

"I... I just wanted to know what you were hiding behind that portrait that was so important." Adrien replied, trying to explain his actions to his father as he stewed in silent fury. "You never told me about those things." the blonde muttered to himself, mopily looking down at the floor before looking back at his father.

"I was intending to give it back to you, I swear! But then... I lost it." Adrien explained, hoping his words would help get him out of punishment.

"How can I possibly trust you again, Adrien?" Gabriel questioned, still facing the windows while Adrien curled in on himself with his father's words.

"Sorry... I'll get you another copy." Adrien offered, still hoping to settle the score between him and his father.

"It's one of a kind! That book is the source of my inspiration." Gabriel nearly shouted, his voice filled with thinly veiled rage towards his son's ignorance of how special the book was.

"I didn't know that. I hardly know anything about you, Father." Adrien softly remarked, feeling even more guilty than he had before.

"And how exactly is it an excuse?! I know you struggle too, and this is why I not only took time away from my work. But, clearly against my better judgment, I allowed you a greater freedom of actions, something which you repaid by betraying my trust!" Gabriel exclaimed, his anger growing and making Adrien feel smaller than before when Gabriel turned his cold glare at his son. "You won't be returning to school. You'll be home-schooled again... with Nathalie." the fashion designer decided, composing his rage long enough to make the announcement, leaving Adrien crushed before his father and Nathalie exited the room while the poor boy sulked.

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Back at Master Fu's massage shop, the old guardian had started reading through the spellbook with Marinette still sitting next to him while Tikki and Wayzz were playfully chasing each other around the room. However, the more Master Fu read through the book, the deeper his brow furrowed in thought while Marinette was curious about what he was thinking.

"Is everything okay, Master Fu?" Marinette asked, hoping to satisfy her curiosity and pulling the guardian's attention from the book and directing it onto her.

"Yes, everything is fine, Marinette. I was just thinking." Master Fu assured, which did little to quell Marinette's worry/curiosity.

"Thinking about what?" Marinette asked, hoping he would explain.

"A little theory I had since Hawkmoth first appeared." Master Fu began, a small sigh leaving his lips before he looked back at the pages within the book. "Ever since he arrived, I've always believed that he must have also possessed this spellbook and the Peacock Miraculous as well since they were all lost on the same day." the guardian explained, leaving Marinette in shock with his words.

"Wait a second... You mean whoever owned the spellbook could be Hawkmoth!?" Marinette exclaimed, her eyes widening at the implications... especially since they were against her crush.

"How did you discover this book, Marinette?" Master Fu questioned, causing Marinette to have a flashback of how she got the book in the first place.

"I... uh... I found it, lying on a bench in a park... close to the school." Marinette replied, lying to her mentor with a stutter and pulling Tikki's attention away from playing with Wayzz and back to her holder.

"You didn't see who it belonged to, then?" Master Fu inquired, an eyebrow raised at the nervous girl.

"No. No, I...didn't." Marinette lied, causing Tikki to look at Marinette in bewilderment.

"What a shame. For a moment, I thought we were about to discover the identity of Hawkmoth. We would've had a chance to defeat him." Master Fu muttered in disappointment, leaving Marinette less than pleased with his reaction.

"Uh... I could investigate if you want." Marinette offered, hoping to brighten Master Fu's sudden sour mood.

"A wise idea, Marinette." Master Fu cheered, followed by him closing the book before looking at her seriously. "But you must be very careful. If you succeed, you may find yourself face to face with Hawkmoth." the old guardian warned, hoping to prevent Marinette from getting herself into any unnecessary danger.

"I'll be careful, I promise." Marinette assured her mentor before quickly standing up to leave the shop, Tikki following her. As soon as Marinette exited the building; Tikki flying back into her purse, she started frantically running down the streets of Paris, heading back home in a panic.

"Why did you lie to Master Fu?!" Tikki worriedly questioned her holder, popping her head out from Marinette's purse while trying to consult the panting girl.

"I couldn't tell him that Adrien was the one who had the book. Adrien can't be Hawkmoth!" Marinette explained in her panic, only to stop as she arrived at her school. "But what if he is?" the designer gasped before hiding behind a Gabriel advertisement pillar, starting to think about the possibility.

"Th-That would mean that I'm crazy in love with a supervillain! I can't be crazy in love with a supervillain..." Marinette exclaimed, her mind spiraling as she imagined Adrien being Hawkmoth. "Not only would Jim have a field day with this, I... I'd have to fight him and..." the pigtailed girl continued, now realizing the outcome of the idea being true.

"Calm down, Marinette. I'm sure there's an explanation." Tikki said to her holder, interrupting Marinette's spiraling thoughts so that she would refocus on the task at hand. Thankfully, it had worked if Marinette taking a few deep breaths to center herself was any indication.

"Thanks, Tikki. I needed that." Marinette thanked, now able to think of a solution to her current problem. "But now, I need to get to the bottom of this!" the red-tipped-haired girl announced, eager to clear Adrien of the accusations he had unknowingly earned.

"Do you know where to find Adrien?" Tikki asked Marinette, happy that she was now working to solve the problem instead of fretting over it.

"I know that boy's schedule by heart." Marinette proclaimed, a smirk appearing as she placed her hand over her heart while looking at her kwami.

"Let's go." Tikki cheered, prompting Marinette to run out of her hiding place and towards the school.

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It had taken her a bit to sneak around the fencing class practicing in the school quad, but she eventually made it to the locker rooms. However, she was disheartened to see that out of the several fencing students present in the room, Adrien wasn't among them.

"Okay, something's definitely up. Adrien never misses his fencing lessons." Marinette quietly remarked to Tikki, finding Adrien's unexpected absence disturbing.

When seeing that her original idea of trying to find Adrien wouldn't work, Marinette exited the locker rooms and began searching the hallways for any sign of Adrien. She had just started searching the upper-level classrooms when she heard the unmistakable sound of Chloé's voice as it loudly echoed within the school halls. With her curiosity piqued to find out why Chloé was so upset and proclaiming 'This is a terrible tragedy!', Marinette ran over to where the crying voice was coming from. The pursuit was rewarded when Marinette was greeted by her classmates crowding around a crying Chloé, holding her phone while Sabrina attempted to comfort her, when arriving at the classroom.

"What's up with her?" the designer asked Nino after walking up to the group, not understanding why Chloé was so upset.

"Adrien's never coming back to school! Ever!" Chloé wailed before she continued crying, inadvertently answering Marinette's question.

"His dad grounded him!" Kim explained, reporting what Chloé had told them earlier before her breakdown.

"For life." Max simply added with a readjustment of his glasses, leaving Marinette in shock at the answer.

"What? Why?" Marinette questioned.

"Something about losing this important book that belongs to his dad." Nino elaborated, pulling Marinette's attention onto him with his words.

"His dad?" Marinette softly said, taking the new information before it finally sunk in. "Ha! Phew!" the designer breathed out with relief, now having all the pieces to the confusing puzzle she had given.

" 'Phew'?!" Chloé irately exclaimed at Marinette, causing everyone in the room to stare at the pigtailed girl and un-nerve her at the sudden attention.

"Uh... 'Phew', because I was scared it was super serious." Marinette quickly replied, hoping to explain her relief about this misfortune befalling Adrien, but soon realized that what she had just said wasn't any better. "I mean, yeah, sure, it is serious but it's not like he's sick or anything, you know. Surely we can fix this, right? We won't just stand by and let this happen!" She sheepishly added while backing away from the group, going towards the classroom door before running off and leaving her now confused classmates.

As soon as she cleared the classroom, Marinette raced to the girl's bathroom, quickly looking around to make sure no one was there. Once she was sure she and Tikki were alone, Marinette entered one of the stalls and closed the door before letting Tikki out of her purse.

"So it wasn't Adrien's book. It was his father's! Adrien isn't Hawkmoth!" Marinette exclaimed, followed by a sigh of relief. "I knew it! Adrien doesn't have an evil bone in his body." the designer gushed, hugging herself with a love-sick smile before turning to face her kwami.

"Except, Adrien did take the book without his father's permission. At least according to Nino." Tikki remarked, bringing up that little missed detail in Marinette's relief.

"Well, he must've had a good reason to do it." Marinette rebutted, her arms lowering back to her sides as she defended Adrien. The boy was usually well-behaved, so he had to have a good reason to have borrowed the book without his father's permission. But it did little to sway Tikki from what she had to say next.

"You realize that if we apply Master Fu's theory to this discovery, it could mean that Adrien's father could be Hawkmoth!" Tikki exclaimed, shocking Marinette with her accusation.

"No way! It couldn't be!" Marinette argued, finding her kwami's claim a little outlandish. 'But then again...' the designer thought to herself, soon spiraling down the rabbit hole of that possibility being a reality.

"Hmm, an eccentric artist who never leaves his home. Mysterious, very intelligent, but cold, even with his son." Marinette mused out loud, now seeing that Gabriel being the one behind Hawkmoth's mask could be true. "This is a strong lead, Tikki!" the pigtailed girl announced, convinced it was worth investigating.

"Please be careful, Marinette!" Tikki warned, hoping that her holder would be mindful of her safety.

"I will be, don't worry." Marinette assured her kwami, activating her Ladybug disguise before saying... "Tikki, spots on!" the red-tipped-haired girl shouted, transforming into her superhero alter ego.

Once she was in her superhero persona, Ladybug threw her yo-yo out of one of the bathroom's open windows and made her way up to the school rooftop. Upon reaching the tallest point of the school, she landed in a crouch before she attempted to call Chat Noir to tell him of her theory/discovery. But she had been greeted by the familiar sound of 'Has the cat got your tongue, leave a message' from Chat Noir's voicemail, instead.

"Chat Noir, I think I know who Hawkmoth is! Get your whiskers over here fast!" Ladybug spoke to the voicemail box, hoping her partner would get to her as soon as possible with the message she left. With the message sent, Ladybug closed her yo-yo and began pacing the roof, waiting for her partner, eager to see if she was right.

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Over at the Agreste Mansion and inside Gabriel's atelier, the fashion mogul was looking at the Klimt-style painting of his wife in thought while Nathalie stood behind him.

"What will you do without the book?" Nathalie questioned her boss, only to be responded by Gabriel opening a blank sketchbook in his hands to stare at them before quickly closing it back up.

"You know where this goes." Gabriel simply stated before handing the book to Nathalie, having a plan already in mind.

Once Nathalie took the book from him, Gabriel walked over to the other side of his office while she walked toward the painting, pressing the buttons in the portrait to enter the lair. After she descended into the secret elevator; the floor hatch closing behind her, Gabriel started to trash his office by grabbing the pictures off the wall and throwing them to the floor. The sound of sad piano music could be heard from upstairs as the fashion designer continued his rampage, leading to him walking to a hidden cupboard near the back corner of the office.

Upon opening it, he briefly stopped trashing the room to take out a drawing Adrien had made of him and his parents when he was younger that sat on a shelf inside the cabinet. It was only a minute after he had begun staring at the picture that a small smile appeared on Gabriel's face, only to be shaken away before he threw it to the ground to focus on the task at hand. No sooner than he had done so, he proceeded to smash other objects around the room, all with an eerily calm fury.

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Unbeknownst to Gabriel, the piano music playing throughout the mansion had only been Adrien's playlist as it played on his speakers. It was a method Adrien recently discovered to avoid anyone coming in and 'disturbing his practice'. In this case, Adrien had only put it on so that he could try and think of a way to get out of trouble with his dad.

"Look on the bright side. Your father could've found out about me! It's a good thing we kwami's can never be filmed or photographed." Plagg brought up as he sat on the end of the Foosball table Adrien was playing around with to try and spark some ideas on how to make things right. "Ah, those photographers have no idea what they're missing!" the cheese goblin added in the hopes of cheering up his holder and banishing the seemingly mopey expression on Adrien's face, leaning back to watch as the boy scored a goal. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

"I've gotta find that book, or I'll never be allowed to return to school." Adrien stated out loud, stepping away from his foosball table and surprising Plagg.

"Look Kid, I'm all for finding the book, but 'returning to school'?! Are you crazy?!" Plagg exclaimed, flying up from his lounging to float in front of Adrien out of shock. "No more homework, no more alarm clocks! We should be celebrating!" the black kwami cheered as he loop-de-looped through the air, trying to convince Adrien that he was better off without going to school.

"Hey, I know!" Plagg said before he flew off, only to return carrying a jar of Camembert balanced on top of his head. "I named this piece 'El Plaggo'. It's been maturing for nine hundred and ninety-nine days!" the cheese-loving kwami announced, the horrid fumes of the cheese filling Adrien's nostrils and making him recoil away from the 'best' of Plagg's stash. But before the boy could say anything, Adrien suddenly hears loud noises outside his room and runs to the door.

"What was that?!"Adrien exclaimed once he exited his room, his bodyguard standing right next to it before they both ran downstairs to see what was going on. However, just as they ran towards Gabriel's atelier, they were stopped/greeted by Nathalie; who had exited the lair underneath the house just a few minutes ago, as she guarded the door.

"Your father is very busy." Nathalie explained just before the sounds of objects breaking had died down, which settled a little of Adrien's current worries. "Shouldn't Adrien be practicing his piano right now?" the stoic assistant questioned Placide, drawing a nod from the beefy man before he quickly escorted his charge upstairs. But as Nathalie silently watched them, Adrien sadly glanced back at the door and decided to fix things as soon as he was back in his room.

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Meanwhile in Gabriel's office, the middle-aged designer had neared the end of his smashing things to pieces inside his atelier. To finish off his rampage, he had thrown a stone mannequin to the floor in displeasure, the statue breaking it in two before one last mannequin was toppled over concluding the seeming tantrum. With the space disorderly enough in Gabriel's eyes, he calmly walked over to the portrait of his wife and pushed the buttons to enter his lair, the designer now disappearing into the floor and descending below the house.

Shortly after entering his lair, Gabriel transformed into his villainous alter ego and walked up to the center of the observatory-esque space. As soon as he was in the center, the lair window opened up and disturbed the butterflies resting on the floor around him to start fluttering around the villain.

"I feel...the wrath of a father betrayed by his son. What perfect prey for my akuma!" Hawkmoth exclaimed; with what could have sounded like... excitement, as a butterfly flew into his open palm before he turned it into an akuma. "Stay close, my little akuma!" the resident supervillain ordered his little parasite after letting it fly out of his hand and head towards the window. But instead of exiting the lair, the akuma stopped short and took to hovering at the opening.

"Dark wings, fall!" Hawkmoth shouted as he drew his arms into his chest before he transformed back into his civilian self, Nooroo coming out of the Miraculous and now facing the all-too-familiar man.

"Uh, why is the akuma still here?" Nooroo meekly questioned his holder, nervous to see the corrupted butterfly still inside the lair. All the purple kwami had gotten in response was Gabriel removing his candy cane-themed ascot and simply stating...

"I must become someone else to lead them astray." Gabriel replied with a mischievous smirk, his Miraculous glinting in the light coming from the lair's giant window.

"I don't understand, Master." Nooroo admitted in a frightened tone, not at all eager to find out what Gabriel was planning while the fashion designer reached for the broach on his suit's undershirt.

"Nooroo, I renounce you..." Gabriel proclaimed as he took off the Butterfly Miraculous, causing Nooroo to get sucked into it before putting the Miraculous into a small box. "...temporarily." the cold-hearted man added in a menacing tone, followed by a spotlight shining on the empty replacement notebook he had given Nathalie as it rested on a small table behind him. After closing the lid of the box holding his Miraculous, Gabriel walked over to the table and grabbed the book, placing the box onto the table before opening the book towards the akuma.

"Come to me, my little akuma, and evilize me!" Gabriel commanded the akuma, causing the little bug to fly into the empty sketchbook and transform him into an akumatized villain.

"I am now... the Collector!" The Collector proclaimed with a flourish, showing off his new form to a non-existent audience. "My book of inspiration has been taken from me, so I shall build a new one! And perhaps pick up a Miraculous or two while I'm at it!" the nearly monochrome akuma continued before laughing evilly to himself at his plan.

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While Gabriel was putting his plan into action, Adrien had been escorted back to his room and was left alone to his own devices. But while Placide I.T. was still standing guard outside of his room, the model already had another way to escape his 'incarceration' and evacuate his room to find the spellbook he had lost.

"My father's angry because of me! He won't forgive me until I find that book." Adrien exclaimed as he used a remote to open his window, opening them wide in preparation for his egress.

"Only one problem, you're grounded." Plagg reminded his holder, even though he had a pretty good idea of how his holder would work around that little detail.

"Adrien is, but Chat Noir isn't." Adrien replied, a sly smirk on his face before activating his Chat Noir disguise and calling out... "Plagg, claws out!" the blonde boy shouted, triggering his superhero transformation.

As soon as he was decked out in the familiar leather of his super alter ego, Chat Noir jumped up onto the sill of the open window in preparation to leap out into the city to begin his search. But before he could, he received a notification from his staff and opened it up to see that he had received a message from Ladybug, prompting him to click on and raise his staff to his ear to hear what it was about.

"Chat Noir, I think I know who Hawkmoth is. Get your whiskers over here, fast!" the recorded message from Ladybug played, surprising Chat Noir with the news.

"Wow! I guess the Spellbook will have to wait a bit longer." Chat Noir remarked after he lowered the staff from his ear and extended it to vault off towards the rooftops, leaving his room before chaos could break loose within his own house.

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Just seconds after Chat Noir had left the Agreste Mansion, The Collector had returned from his underground lair to start the chaos part of his plan. And that started with kicking down the door Nathalie was guarding, knocking her down to the floor as The Collector made himself known to the remaining inhabitants of the mansion.

"Nathalie! You'll be the first of my many inspirations to come." The Collector proclaimed from the demolished doorway, causing Placide to run to the rail of the second floor to see what the commotion was.

"Mr. Agreste?" Nathalie breathed out in surprise whilst still being sprawled across the floor, having not been told the plan her boss had come up with and resulting in her reaction being genuine.

"You will call me...the Collector." The Collector replied as he stepped into the entry space of the mansion, followed by him throwing his sketchbook at Nathalie as she tried to get to her feet to escape.

But she only had a second to gasp at the book coming at her before it touched her, making her disappear into thin air as the book boomeranged back to The Collector. Upon catching his book, the akumatized fashion mogul looked within the book to see a terrified Nathalie appear on the first page, smirking at his successful capture. A glance back up at the second level of the house then revealed Placide making to head down to attack the Collector, resulting in the akuma doing the same to his son's bodyguard as he did to Nathalie. With no one left to capture, The Collector closed the book after he caught it again and stalked up the stairs towards Adrien's room.

"Adrien...I have a great collection I want to show you." the nearly monochrome akuma tauntingly spoke as he knocked on the door, thinking his son was still inside.

When he didn't receive an answer, The Collector furiously kicked open the room door and stomped inside to find his son. But after entering the room, he saw that his son was nowhere to be seen and that the piano music playing had been from a CD player perched on the instrument. Furious to see that Adrien had once again snuck out and disobeyed his orders, the Collector angrily swiped up the CD player, adding it to his collection with a growl before exiting the mansion.

Once The Collector had left the mansion, he immediately went off on a rampage to draw out Ladybug and Chat Noir, starting at the Louvre. As he arrived at the museum and trapped the Louvre pyramid within the pages of his sketchbook, the pedestrians in the surrounding area started screaming and ran away with fear. The Collector's rampage continued into the actual museum, where he started to collect famous monuments and objects; the portrait of the Mona Lisa included, into his book. He continued with his collecting by extending it to famous people when he spotted Jagged Stone doing a concert at the Trocadero with his crocodile, Fang, trapping them as well. The more The Collector trapped within his book, it was no surprise that he soon ended up at the TVi studio, where Nadja Chamack was about to make a news report on his exploits.

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news. I'm Nadja Chama—" Nadja greeted the audience at home, unaware of The Collector entering the filming area until he approached her and trapped Nadja in his notebook. With the reporter gone, The Collector turned to face the camera as it continued to run.

"Since the book that used to fill my life is gone, I'm going to use your life to fill up this new one!" The Collector proclaimed, followed by him continuing his rampage through the city.

Said rampage led to The Collector arriving at the Hôtel de Ville, where Mayor Bourgeois was about to deliver a speech in regards to what had happened at the TVi studio. Considering the majority of the city had seen what happened, he thought that it would be a good idea to assure anyone to remain calm. But before Mayor Bourgeois could even get past the greeting of his speech, The Collector had trapped him within his sketchbook, causing Lieutenant Roger and the other pedestrians to gasp at his disappearance.

Quickly following the Mayor's entrapment, The Collector decided to finish off his rampage with a bang and trap the Eiffel Tower within his book's pages. So once he arrived on a rooftop across from the monument, he threw his sketchbook right at the Eiffel Tower and made it disappear in a flash before the book boomeranged back to him. A quick look within the book greeted The Collector with the sight of the iconic landmark, resulting in a malicious grin appearing on his face.

"Nothing can inspire me more than imprisoning Ladybug and Chat Noir in these pages forever." the akumatized fashion mogul announced out loud, jumping off of the rooftop he was on to look for said heroes.

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While all the chaos was happening in the city, Ladybug was still over at Collège Françoise Dupont, now pacing the rooftop as she waited for her partner. But she soon grew more impatient the longer she had to wait for Chat Noir, leading to her angrily pulling out her yo-yo to dial him up again.

"Chat Noir, what did you do?" Ladybug nearly growled, only to be alerted by the sound of someone approaching her from behind and being greeted by Chat Noir's arrival. "Chat Noir, did you get my messages?" the spotted heroine greeted her partner, immediately calming down from her earlier rage as she put her yo-yo away.

"Yeah, and I can't wait to know more, M'Lady-tective." Chat Noir purred as he walked up to her, stopping just a foot away from Ladybug before he pulled out his staff and used it as support while flirtingly leaning towards Ladybug. "So, who's the suspect?" the feline asked, eager to start the investigation as soon as possible.

"Gabriel Agreste." Ladybug simply replied, causing Chat Noir to gasp in surprise before almost tripping after hearing the suspect's name. "You know, the fashion designer?" the red heroine clarified while Chat Noir managed to stop himself from falling and turned away from his partner to stare at the roof in shock.

"How did you reach this conclusion?" Chat Noir questioned, his heart hammering in his chest at the accusation made against his father.

"Well..." Ladybug stammered, not sure of how to explain her process of thinking Gabriel Agreste was a suspect.

"Do you even have proof?" Chat Noir continued to interrogate, finally turning his slightly panicked gaze to Ladybug and unnerving her even more than she had been a second ago.

"Look, I can't tell you all the details right now, okay?" Ladybug finally replied, which only seemed to make matters worse.

"Why not?" Chat Noir nearly growled, his eyes narrowing at Ladybug as a large number of emotions went through the feline's head.

"It's a long story, and we don't have the time for me to tell it if we are to see if it's even correct." Ladybug explained in hopes of pacifying Chat Noir's sudden curiosity, only to be responded with him looking off to the side again. At the sight of her partner's reaction, Ladybug sighed to herself and tried a different approach. "Chat, I know I've asked a lot of you when having faith in my reason to not elaborate on my connection to the Trollhunter, but I need you to just trust me a little bit more. This is a serious matter that I don't take lightly at all, okay?" the spotted heroine admitted before taking a step towards Chat Noir and placing a hand on his shoulder, snapping him out of his sour demeanor for a precious few seconds.

"You got 2 minutes, so you better have a good reason why you think Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth." Chat Noir managed to let out, hoping that Ladybug had good reasoning behind her theory.

"Thanks, kitty." Ladybug replied, grateful that he was giving her a chance to explain and decided to not waste any more time. "So while I can't yet tell you my main reason for suspecting him, it has led me to think on a lot of things and it all makes sense." the red heroine began, diving headfirst into her explanation to avoid any questions Chat Noir had that would derail her roll.

"First off, Gabriel Agreste is a secretive man and he never leaves his house. Secondly, when we were fighting against Simon Says, I noticed that Hawkmoth didn't interact with him after Gabriel Agreste was captured." Ladybug continued, listing off some of the recent red flags she had noticed. "Adding on to that particular akuma, he seemed rather interested in my earrings when we were speaking in his office before you arrived. Not to mention afterwards he tried to get a look at your ring before we left that day." the spotted heroine added, causing Chat Noir to recall that certain interaction and go through it step by step within his thoughts.

"Now that you mention it..." Chat Noir mumbled, now seeing that she had some strong points to her theory... much to his displeasure.

"And get this." Ladybug said as she pulled out her yo-yo and pulled up an article on Gabriel Brand, quickly showing it to Chat Noir. "Check out his brand's logo." the red heroine pointed out, zooming in on the images of Gabriel's fashion design logos to reveal that they looked eerily similar to...

"A butterfly?" Chat Noir breathed out, left stunned by the revelation before he had flashbacks of the butterfly patterns on furniture inside his house. With all the evidence stacked against his dad, all Chat Noir could do was sigh in defeat, now knowing that Ladybug had quite a bit to go off of.

"You okay, Chat Noir?" Ladybug asked, noticing the less-than-pleased reaction he had and snapping him out of his warring thoughts.

"Yeah, it's... nothing." Chat Noir hastily reassured, hoping to avoid her questions. "Why do you ask?" he questioned, now a little nervous that he had been too obvious about his secret identity and she figured him out.

"You're concerned about Gabriel Agreste being Hawkmoth. Almost like you're a little... too invested in this." Ladybug explained, giving him a side eye as she spoke and making Chat Noir panic that she might figure him out before she huffed in thought. "I don't know. Maybe you should sit this one out if it's bothering you." the spotted heroine offered, which was an even worse thought to Chat Noir than her finding out his identity.

"What, no! I'm fine!" Chat Noir protested, not wanting to be put to the side for this crisis.

"Are you sure?" Ladybug asked, thinking about what was best for her partner's well-being since he seemed so tense.

"Yeah, totally." Chat Noir assured, which seemed to work just the tiniest bit in settling some of Ladybug's worries. "However, your points are pretty solid, and worth checking out." the hero in black declared, now all the more eager to get through this investigation as soon as possible.

"Good. I was thinking of going to The Agreste Mansion to ask Mr. Agreste some questions. Figured it would be a good place to start." Ladybug explained, outlining her plan of trying to find out the truth to Chat Noir in hopes that it wouldn't rub him the wrong way.

"Good call. We better head over now." Chat Noir agreed, happy that Ladybug was taking a more cautious approach to this matter before turning to face the end of the roof. "I don't know about you, but I think it's time to get to the bottom of this." the feline said with grim determination, prompting him and Ladybug to leave the school to go and make their way to the Agreste Mansion to start their investigation.

But while jumping across the rooftops, the two heroes were unaware of The Collector watching them as he hid behind a statue near the school. At the sight of the heroes making their way to his house, the supervillain couldn't help but grin evilly at his desired outcome.

"My plan is working perfectly!" The Collector purred to himself with sick glee before jumping out of his hiding place and following after Paris's protectors, eager for the chance to defeat them once and for all!!