The Guardian

Victories should be celebrated

"Hello Nathalie!" Adrien shouted happily and jumped full of energy the stairs down "Hi Adrien, how was your school day?" "Great we end earlier so I ran home and played some video games" "Shouldn't you practice the piano?" "Well... um..." Nathalie smiles and ruffles his hair "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone!" "Thank you, lets go to the tournament," he says, smiling and enthusiastically pulling her towards the exit. Nathalie giggles. "I've really tried my best at training and I'm better than ever, I promise you I'll beat anyone and make dad proud" "You know he can't come?" the woman asks cautiously, Adrien nods calmly "I thought so... anyway you're here and you're going to cheer me on until the end, aren't you?" "I'll try" "I'll take that as a yes" the gorilla opens the car door for them and they get in. "If I win the tournament I qualify for the youth national tournament, isn't that exciting?" "Oh, yes it really is. Adrien Agreste, the famous model, is switching to fencing," she muses aloud. "Oh yes, I'm going to defeat Kagami." Nathalie loves it when she could see her boy so happy. A month has passed since school started and Adrien has really blossomed, even though his father still didn't have any time for his son, he was more and more interested in investing as much time as possible for his new friends and told her everything that happened. Adrien went to his friends' house as often his father would allow, which increased his interest in video games. Sometimes she can hear him talking and playing with his friends on Discord, it warmed her heart. His grades didn't suffer, on the contrary they were better than ever. The only thing that didn't improve was the attitude of the father, who didn't even let a word of praise slip from his lips.

They were just arriving at the tournament hall, the Tsurugi family's car was also pulling up. "KAGAMI" excites Adrian and literally jumps out of the car to greet the girl. "Hello Miss Tsurugi" Nathalie greets the girl's mother "Your Miss Sancoeur" replies the woman. "Come on let's go inside, Kagami. SEE YOU NATHALIE!" Adrien calls out to her and already runs into the hall with the girl. "We should also look for places," the assistant suggests, Tomoe nods. Many parents and other people are already looking for places and are waiting with interest for the start of the tournament, Nathalie notices through her Miraculous that Tomoe has expectations, she suspected that this woman was a strict mother and will expect Kagami to win. Not long after they've snagged a few seats in one of the front rows, the tournament begins. In the first rounds there were a few children she didn't know, so she was all the happier when it was finally Adrien's turn to slay each of his opponents brilliantly. However, Kagami was also very strong. So it wasn't a big surprise that they ended up facing each other. Kagami versus Adrien, that could certainly get interesting. Adrien was the first to launch the attack, the girl parried, but then went straight into the attack and Adrien dodged. "Adrien, you can do it," she cheered him on. The boy's mask didn't reveal any facial features, but Nathalie knew that he had smiled at her and now she continues to fight with even more zeal. He skillfully dodged his opponent's attacks and actually managed to finally hit her and win the fight. "Disappointing" Tomoe murmured and left the room. The girl looked after her mother. Now the results were called and Adrien grinned at Nathalie, who signaled with a nod that he had done well. The crowd was relatively excited that young Agreste had won, but the mood changed immediately when Kagami suddenly transformed into an akuma. "Merde, can't you celebrate a win normally?" she growled and without thinking about it jumped onto the tournament field. "ADRIEN, WATCH OUT!" yelled the woman as she saw that Kagami had chosen him as her target and now aimed her sword at the boy. "I'm going to win this time, Adrien" she giggles triumphantly, Nathalie introduces herself to Adrien "First you have to get past me!" The Akuma doesn't hesitate for a second and lunges at the woman, who dodges her attack. "You stand before Riposte, the best fencer ever!" she bounces. "Adrien run away, I'll stop her," she says to the boy, as she continues to dodge their attacks. 'The sword is firmly in her hand, I can't take it from her, so I have to incapacitate her without getting hit.'

Nathalie jumps back and tries to keep her distance until at least the heroes come. But Riposte doesn't let the distance bother her at all and lets her hits hit from a further distance, Nathalie didn't expect that and couldn't dodge in time, which meant that she was hit. She holds her upper arm in pain. "You can give up now, you're just a weak person" Riposte grins. "I'm not giving up and I'm definitely not weak," the woman replies and runs towards her opponent. "Still not enough? Well, that's fine with me too." This time Nathalie dodges every attack from her opponent again, grabs the Akuma's arm and throws her over her shoulder onto the ground. She puts her knee on the girl's chest so that she cannot get up or continue to attack. 'Where is the Akuma?' she lets her gaze wander over her opponent. "Ma'am what happened?" as she hears Cat Noir's voice "NAT-MA'AM YOU ARE HURT" the boy then yells and runs to her side, Nathalie raises her head in shock as he grabs her to help her "I'm fine, I-" she becomes interrupted as Riposte jerks out of her grasp and she kicks away. "Oh now the cat has come to play!" "Miss Sancoeur, we'll take care of this," says Ladybug, who is standing now next to her and helps her on her feet. "Watch out, she's very strong..." Nathalie whispers and leaves the tournament area just to get herself out of sight of the heroes and secretly watch the fight after she transformed. The heroes find it just as difficult to defeat their opponent. Hastily, Mayura searches for an object suitable as an akuma 'She wears no jewellery... the sign, it could be the sword!' she realizes that the Akuma is turning his back on her, she runs towards her and holds her tight. "The sword, Cat!" the boy nods "Cataclymus!" and then destroys Akuma. "Well, Grandma has decided to come too," the boy greets her. "Unlike you little kid, I have a use for society" "Oh, well, at least I won't be retired soon without having a child" "Not everyone needs to have a child" "Oh, you're just saying that to cover up that nobody loves you" "MY JOB IS MY CHILD!" Cat Noir bursts out laughing "WHAT? SERIOUSLY? Mon Dieu you must be a really boring person!" "Boring? I have my own sense of humor!" "Why do you always have to argue?" the heroine sighs "We don't argue! We fight!" both answer at the same time and grin. "I still have work to do, bye" then says Cat Noir and jumps away, "Me too Au revoir Madam Ladybug" Mayura runs inconspicuously after the boy.

"Plaag transform me back" she then hears him and carefully looks around the corner "A-" she covers her mouth with her hands and hides again 'ADRIEN?' Her Adrien is Cat Noir? The angelic boy who would never hurt anyone should at the same time hopelessly flirt with Ladybug, crack irreverent jokes and risk his life fighting evil every day? She can't believe it, why did her father choose him? Was that why no one wanted to initiate her? Because she was in a conflict of interest? "Hello who is there?" she hears the boy's voice. He had heard her! The woman took a deep breath and walked out of her hiding place "Don't worry it's just me" "Mayura? Is there anything else or did you miss my jokes so much that you're right back to me" "Idiot, I was just wondering how well you make sure no one follows you well as you can see I am here and if I were Hawk Moth I would now know your true identity and you would be screwed" She looks at him sternly "Oh... but I'm always careful!" "It's ok, black cats always bring bad luck anyway" "Hey, you won't make me responsible for everything that goes wrong!" "I can and will, it will always be the unlucky cat's fault, how tragic" both grin "I wish you a nice afternoon nap" she ruffles Adrien's hair and jumps away.

'He's clearly Cat Noir. Mon Dieu, now that was unexpected' she herself now transformed back and went back to the gym. Adrien hugs her as soon as he discovers her. "NATHALIE! I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT YOU!" he calls, "Are you hurt?" "No, don't worry, the heroes undid it all" Adrien sighs in relief. "I won the tournament, Nathalie did you see it? I finished every opponent like nothing!" "I saw it, you did well" he smiles "do you think dad will be proud too?" "If he's not, he'll be in trouble!" both giggle