Under Oath | Ladynoir ✓

38 | brouillard

LADYBUG WAS VERY CONFUSED, AND very disoriented.

Following Alya's instructions, she called her Lucky Charm—it gave her a gas mask—and pulled it on. She didn't remember how she came to be in the middle of the street, surrounded by fog so thick that she couldn't see her own hand in front of her face.

She wanted Alya to tell her that Chat Noir was on his way, that Hawk Moth had created a villain that stole people's memories, and that she just had to find the poor akumatised person and de-evilise their akuma. Just like normal.

Instead she said, "I don't know where Chat Noir is. I don't know if he's coming. At the end of this block, get under the manhole and into the sewers. I'm watching you on my sensor network; I'm trying to get you out of the fog."

"Okay." Just as Alya said, there was a circular metal grate on the pathway at an intersection.

Squinting through the haze, Ladybug had to swerve around cars left empty and running in the streets, apologise for bumping into people aimlessly walking around. Ladybug lifted the manhole cover and stepped down the ladder, sliding it back over her head.

Alya sent information and clips of her footage to the news stations, to the disaster response units, to the police. The message would be out there within minutes, transcending breaking news level. This was a public health emergency.

"Where is Nino? Where are you?" Ladybug wondered, taking corners through the dimly lit underground as Rena directed. The gas mask rasped as she breathed. It was truly impossible to see anything. "Where's Adrien?"

"Nino's in the cafeteria, keeping a watch over our classmates. I'm in the girls' bathroom. Adrien is in Le Grand Paris." Apparently, Alya was consulting a spectroscopic feed—whatever that was, however she had access to that—to see the extent of the fog, which was seeping into the streets of the city like something spreading its fingers, and calculated an exit route.

"What? Why is he in the hotel?"

"We don't have the time to talk about that," Alya said, threads of her composure snapping under the blade of extreme concern. "I'm sorry, I know you don't remember. Take a left here."

Ladybug launched her yo-yo and swung across the water, landing on the far walkway. "Okay. Just tell me how to defeat Hawk Moth and I'll do it. Has a villain shown up?"

Alya spoke with an uncomfortable, hesitant tone. "Hawk Moth is out of action. This is the Peacock Miraculous holder—I think this fog is a type of sentimonster."

"Alright. Then how do I find Mayura?"

"It's not Mayura," Alya admitted. "I don't know who. No-one knows."

"So..." Ladybug spluttered. "What do I do?"

Give her a distressed civilian to comfort. Give her a supervillain to confront. Give her an object to break, a token to purify, a city to save. Don't say I don't know.

"I'm just trying to get you to safety. And then we can regroup and figure out what to do. There are other people in the fog, all losing their memories. I don't want it to get so bad that they start endangering themselves. Or forgetting how to breathe."

"Can humans forget how to breathe?" Ladybug said, her blood running cold.

"Let's not find out."

"B— but what am I supposed to do? We don't know who is responsible, or which object we need to find. And I can't remember anything before... what month is it?"

"January."

"What?" Before Ladybug could freak out at the lost time—it was September, school just started, right?—she leaned back against the smooth concrete wall and slid into a sitting position. "Okay. If I used my Lucky Charm on this mask, I need to de-transform and feed Tikki."