The Salt Files: Additional Cases (MLB)

Someone Gets Hurt (Song Request)

Marinette shows how much she was hurt and how corrupted the school was under their rule. A new era has started.

After Marc made sure his cousin got home, he created a new group chat with everyone but her to discuss their suspicions. He started a call and waited for everyone to join.

They joined, one by one. The moment Luka joined and looked at the people, Chloe stopped him.

"Before you ask where's Mari, that's what this is about. I assume you here all know about what happened at school today?" Everyone nodded. Most of them were in school, already left for lunch, or were out of town.

Luka however, learned from Juleka. She was in the school and returned home frantic. Luka hugged her and stayed with her through her lunch break and walked her back to school. He even made sure to be there when she got out too, but didn't see Marinette anywhere. He sent her a message and left, but never got a response.

"We believe that situation was caused by an akuma, and we believe it's Marinette." There was a pause, then an uproar. They were denying the accusation, but the duo was prepared. Luka was silent.

"Before you bite our heads off, we have proof. Something that Alya never has nowadays." That got a chuckle out of them. Marc continued. "Earlier today, when shit was hitting the fan, Marinette was acting different. Like she said she was hiding in the shadows so she wasn't going to get dragged into the drama, but there was something about her aura...it was like she knew full well what was going on. She seemed super confident but was kind of downplaying."

"And," Chloe added in. "While she was hiding away in the darkness, her eyes were glowing purple." The silence returned.  

"...alright." Luka spoke up. "So if she is akumatized, we need to figure out the main motive and what the possessed object is. Based on how things have been lately, the stress of the lies most likely got to her at her weakest moment."

"Adrien might have had a hand in it too. He started looking for Marinette while Alya was getting her ass handed to her. He probably thought she was behind it too." Aurore described. She remembered the blonde asking her if she saw the girl pass her. By the time he suspected Marinette had left, the girl was already led out by Marc. It wasn't Aurore's business to tell him where she was, and it wasn't her problem.

"Ok, so tomorrow we will ask the nurse if Marinette visited. Maybe she can help us try to figure out where the akuma is." The group nodded and agreed not to draw attention to their suspicions while Marinette was around. As much as it hurt them to betray her, if she really is a danger it must be handled immediately. There was no telling how dangerous of a villain the girl could be if it took this long to break her.

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The next day, Kagami and Aurore headed to the nurse's office. The duo agreed to go so it wouldn't cause any suspicion if Marc and Chloe went instead. Once there, the nurse told the girls about the meeting with Marinette beforehand. They thanked her for her time as they left. But right as they turned the corner, Adrien was there with his arms crossed.

"So you guys also believe Marinette was behind yesterday's chaos?" He rose an eyebrow. Both girls glared at him.

"You probably had something to do with it too. We suspect she got akumatized because of the stress, and you had a hand in it as well." Adrien tried to defend herself, but Alya and Lila came up behind him.