You're The Music That's Been Playing In My Head: Book 3

Optigami: Part 1

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"Here's what we learned from the akumatization of Chloé Bourgeois into Miracle Queen," Natalie says pulling up a file on her computer that showed the confirmation that Alya Césaire was Rena Rouge, holder of the fox miraculous. "Unfortunately Ladybug, (s/n), and Chat Noir managed to keep everyone else from revealing themselves, they were just too late with Alya and since then I've created Optigami," She gestures to the sentimonster, a purple and black butterfly with eyes that were resting on her finger.

"Under my control, Optigami has spied on Alya and those she surrounds herself with. Alas, nothing seemed amiss as they managed their time between school and their social life. Except for Nino Lahiffe who Optigami has caught training with Alya moves that only someone who's had a miraculous would know how to do. I've narrowed him down to the holder of the turtle miraculous but there has been no concrete proof. While it's true that Ladybug sometimes intrusts the miraculous to people, it's been determined that she's established rules to prevent anyone from discovering secret identities, always takes back the miraculous, and that no one ever follows any holders. Not even Optigami has found their meeting spots. It would appear level of carefulness was adopted after becoming a guardian of the miraculous."

Natalie pulled up another file filled with the identities of the students of Collège Françoise-Dupont High School with a few exceptions. "From there I've used Optigami to narrow down the identities of the other holders and if Ladybug has been giving out the miraculous to other students these are the likely people she's chosen. We will learn nothing more from Optigami."

"Not true, it can help us discover who is behind Ladybug's mask. There's a flaw with giving out and giving back the miraculous. If we could get Optigami to hide in a miraculous she took back it would lead us straight to her home unknowingly," Gabriel points out, a sinister smirk gracing his lips. "How do you plan to do that? We can't even track their meet-up points." "Through an event where all the possible holders will come, we'll pick them off and this will confirm or deny our suspicions depending on what miraculous she uses. I know just the right person for this."

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"Basically everyone's invited to this yearly party that is usually exclusive to celebrities, and rich people and none of the go-to events to build up your connections for the fashion industry, that's why Marinette's been paralyzed for ten minutes," Alya explains to the kwamiis who stared at a frozen Marinette smiling down at her invitation with worry. 

"Since everyone's invited can we come too?" Roaar asks, getting the other kwamiis excited which snaps Mari out of it. "No, you all know the rule: No holder, no wander." "Well since Alya's my holder that means I get to go," Trixx says triumphantly and I shake my head. "Wrong, that's not how the rule works because then all of you would use that excuse because we've given you out once so it has to be a permanent holder which she is not."

"Well then just give it to her permanently," Trixx suggests and Alya nods. "Trixx has a point. Now that I know your identities I could help more if I had my miraculous." "No, it's too risky after everyone almost had their identities blown from Miracle Queen, we're still not even sure if Shadowmoth saw anyone or not so no miraculous out of our sight," Marinette points out and Alya rolls her eyes in amusement before we head out to the event.

On our way, Alya and Nino played the Penguino game, and every time they won they did their own version of a high five where Nino walked his fingers up Alya's hand before high-fiving her. My attention turned to Kim who was challenging himself to get to the floor we needed to be before the elevator did. "You know elevators are the perfect place to start up a conversation with your maybe secret crush," Alya teased Mari and pushed her toward Adrien in the elevator. "No! Today's not the day to talk about that!" She protests as the elevator doors close.

It turns out Marinette was just as reluctant to talk about her possible feelings for Adrien as she was telling him she had feelings for him. "I don't think Madelyn was gonna let you anywhere near him anyway," I joke recalling the seething glare said girl gave Marinette as she pressed herself more into Adrien's arm. We take the next elevator to the event room and start mingling, waiting for the award ceremony to begin, it seemed things were running behind schedule as we were waiting for Alec to arrive, and Audrey's patience was running thin. Thankfully a few minutes later the man makes his entrance and the show begins.