Moving Forward — Chapter 10
The pained look in Nino's eyes hurts her as if it was telling her that Alya personally hurt him. And she didn't like that feeling.
As she walks slowly, she gradually points at the reason for what's happening around her. Marinette.
It has been four months since Marinette left Dupont behind her—four months of advanced knowledge and a circle of friends who accepted her wholeheartedly. Despite the awkward situation between her and Felix, it didn't hinder their budding friendship.
He also took the initiative to guide her through her other job. He was always there waiting for her to return to safety, normally with a bottle of water and sometimes a whole snack after a fight. As Guardian, she felt uncomfortable in lending out any miraculouses at the moment. Learning her lesson that not all she calls "friends" are trustworthy of such jewels. So instead of distributing the Cat Miraculous to balance out the creation magic at play, she turned to wear it all the time.
She doesn't use the Cat miraculous often, only turning to breaking the object and letting the butterfly fly out on its own before capturing it with her yo-yo.
Some kwamis are worried that the balance of the universe might tilt due to the long absence of the Cat Miraculous, aside from Plagg. The kwami of destruction enjoys not getting used to it and always spends its time roaming around her room, sleeping or eating cheese.
For Marinette, transferring to Jeanne d'Arc l'Académie was a great decision. It opened a lot of different opportunities for her. Despite expecting that it would be a tough time for her to be alone in the hero work, Félix was a great help to her, no doubt.
If she was experiencing happiness on the other side of town, a class of teenagers are experiencing a whirlwind of emotions.
The sudden drift in their class was nauseating. The silence between them can be cut through with a knife, but no one was willing to break it.
However, the silence between all of them was broken by the opening of their classroom door, a woman in a deep emerald green pantsuit entered followed by another woman wearing casual clothing yet can be considered formal.
"Good Morning Class, due to unspeakable offences, Mme Caline Bustier will not be returning to teaching for a while—"
Gasps and wide eyes ran through the room.
"And I know that all of you have met Mme Cheilr, but she has to go back to her own homeroom class thus, I'll introduce to you your new homeroom teacher, Mlle Irina Cèalza." The first woman said while hovering her hand in front of the second woman.
"Good day everyone! I hope to have a fun year with you lot!" Mlle Irina said.
Lila, who was sitting at the back, slowly turned pale when the new homeroom teacher turned it's her eyes towards her. "And do stay after class, Mlle Rossi, we have much to talk about."
"Mdm Bustier is gone?! When did this happen?!" Alya shouted the moment the class ended.
Students started filtering out of their own respective classrooms.
The class, instead of answering, ignored her statement and preferred to huddle in small groups to gossip about the recent changes in Dupont. Alya was peeved that no one was listening, and since Lila was held back by the new teacher, she was alone at the moment.
Seeing all her classmates huddled in a group without her was annoying her to her ends wit.
"Guys! What the! Hello?!"
"What, Alya?! Stop screaming for god's sake!" Alix sneered.
"What was that show back there?! Ignoring us, for Marinette?! And come on when did you all not care for Mdm Bustier?!"
"Since we realized she was enabling that liar inside that room."
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that Césaire." Alix said to her in a very cold tone.
"Why are you guys suddenly so protective of her?! She has done nothing but antagonize Lila the moment she stepped foot in here!" Alya rebuttled.
Césaire, couldn't understand why her friends are suddenly acting like this.
"When will you see yourself as a hypocrite Alya? Marinette didn't deserve that treatment. She treated you as her best friend, but you threw it all away for someone new? How low of you." Alix said before leaving, Max and Kim in tow.
Alya was left dumbfounded in the middle of the hallway. She found herself alone since Lila was left inside the classroom.
"Ready as you'll ever be. Are you sure about this?"
Transforming, she gave a nod to Félix. Despite persuading her and offering help to finish the unfortunate task given to her, Marinette refused to have another innocent soul carry the burden of the miraculous. This fight started between Hawkmoth against Ladybug and Chat Noir, however Marinette will make sure that everything ends tonight. Even if it's only Hawkmoth against Ladybug.
With a plan in mind, she'll just pray to whoever is out there that everything will go well.
"Remember, it is an inside job. Treat yourself as a thief if you have to, he's slightly weakened due to you taking the peacock miraculous from before. However, we still need to know why he decided to start this ridiculous villain thing of his." Félix explained.
"Like I said from before, it might be connected to his family, mainly his wife. Adrien Agreste mentioned before that his mother just vanished into thin air, and was soon presumed dead by the family. If my theory is correct, that Emilie Agreste was the previous holder of the peacock miraculous before Gabriel and Mayura, then she might have succumb to the curse of a broken miraculous." Marinette rebutted.
Plan they came up with was simple. Go inside, steal the miraculous for good, return to the dorm and live a fairly normal life. Easy right?
To Marinette, she didn't care if there were no big explosive fight between them, what she wants is to end it for good. To finally close this chapter of her life. That was Marinette's goal.
"Don't worry too much, the kwamis are with me, and we have a good plan on entering without being detected. I only have a one shot on this, and I won't let any kind of stupidity nor nervousness weigh me down." Marinette spoke in a determined voice.
Félix looked at her before stepping back. "Then I wish you luck, Ladybug."
Marinette nodded, before turning and left the room. Deep down, Félix knows that the girl will do it successfully, he just hopes that nothing will be escalated into a full blown battle.
During her travel to Agreste Manor, Marinette couldn't help but feel nervous and anxious that things may not go as planned. And as the distance of the manor slowly dwindles and thus appearing in front of her, those feelings didn't fade away but grew more instead.
The battle between Ladybug and Hawkmoth... you wouldn't be able to say it was an 'epic' battle. With Ladybug figuring out the villain, a simple slip in and stealing the brooches on top of the night stand could hardly be called an epic battle. But jumping from roof to roof while clutching the two brooches, Marinette felt exhilarated... perhaps a slight excitement.
That night, it marked the opening of Marinette's new chapter in life while closing the previous one. With the silent defeat of Hawkmoth, Marinette can finally sigh a breath of relief, Parisians can finally go back to feeling all sorts of emotion without fearing of being a sudden puppet of a villain.
Upon landing back on her dormitory's balcony and de-transforming, meeting Félix's expectant gaze on her form, she just felt tears brimming on her eyes, all her emotions just poured out. There on the floor, kneeled Marinette wailing like a newborn, finally releasing all the kept emotions that she wasn't able to release. Félix and all the kwamis staring at her curled up form on the floor, knowing to leave her alone for now, letting her release all the build up tension, finally allowing herself to breath.
Chapter 9 — Moving Forward: Masterlist — Chapter 11
Wow! I have been gone for a while~ To be quite honest I wasn't sure myself if I'll be able to upload this T^T but here we are after what? 2 years? Chapter 10 was able to be get out of my dungeons—
Anyways, I lost my taglist in the process, but also saw from older chapters that some usernames where not tagged ;-; So I'll be making a new taglist, let me know if you'd like to be added!~
Anyways, do hope for me to get Chapter 11 out of my drafts as well T^T
