(Morning)
Marinette was in her room, sitting in her chair while looking at her computer screen with a photo of Adrian as she fixed her hair.
"Happy birthday, Adrian..." Marinette strokes the computer screen gently.
"Marinette, can I talk to you?" Tikki says, flying over to Marinette's side.
"What is it, Tikki?" Marinette asks, paying attention only to the screen.
"I wanted to talk about... about Shinji." Tikki says, sounding curious.
"Shinji? What would that be?" Marinette asks, now paying attention to her Kwami.
"It's just that... I'm not sure, but he seems to me to be... quite enlightened." Tikki says with one of her hands on her chin.
"Enlightened?" Marinette asks confused.
"Yes, it... it gives me a good feeling of illumination and light." Tikki says.
"Marinette!" Shinji knocks on her bedroom door. "You're going to be late for school."
"Oh yeah!" Marinette jumps out of her chair, but ends up falling on the floor.
"Ouch, ouch..." Tikki clicks her tongue.
(Agreste Mansion)
Adrian was eating breakfast alone, as usual after his mother's death. He let out a tired sigh, but he knew that his mother wouldn't want to see him feeling down.
Adrian spots Natalie passing by and catches her eye.
"Ah, Nathalie. My dad, what did he say about my birthday party?" Adrian asks.
"I'm sorry, Adrian. Your father... he doesn't think it's a good idea." Nathalie says apologetically.
"Why?" Adrian asks suspiciously.
"But why... well he... eh..."
"You can't even come up with an excuse." Adrian sighs. Grabbing his backpack, he heads for the exit of his house.
(At school)
"Dude, did you see the video of the fight?!"
"Dude, that lion Ryukendo summoned! It was so cool!"
"And that cut he gave?!"
"And his sword?! That sword can talk!"
"Man, I still can't believe Ryukendo has a talking sword." Nino said, walking up to Adrian
"Yeah, even I was shocked." Adrian says.
"What's up, Adrian!" Shinji waves as he approaches the boys.
"What's up, Shinji! What's up?!" Nino says, greeting Shinji.
"Just getting used to school. Also, why are most of our class wearing more... prettier?" Shinji asks, looking around.
"Oh, you don't know." Nino hugs Adrian by the shoulder and points to his friend. "It's just that today is this guy's birthday!"
"And you didn't even tell me!?" Shinji asks, sighing. "I couldn't even buy him a present."
"Come on, man. You don't have to buy anything." Adrian shrugs.
"Still, even if I give you the late present, I'll give you a present!"
Off in the distance, Chloe angrily grabs Sabrina's collar.
"Why didn't you tell me!" Chloe grabs Sabrina and swings her around.
With the three boys talking, Alya and Marinette approached.
"What's up, kids! Happy birthday, Adrian!" Alya said, greeting Adrian.
"Oh, hi. Adrian. I, well..." Marinette greets him a little nervously. "I made you this-" Marinette takes a small box out of her bag, but is pushed away by Chloe.
"Hi Adrian!" Chloe says, she approaches him while making a cute expression. "Happy birthday Adrian! Did you get the present I sent?"
"... No."
"Ah! Those stupid delivery boys!" Chloe quickly tries to leap on Adrian to kiss him. "Then let me give you an early e-present."
"Are you all right?" Adrian asks, helping Marinette to her feet.
Nino and Alya watch that ridiculous scene of Chloe hugging the air.
"What's your problem? She could have gotten hurt." Shinji says, looking at Chloe.
"And what does that matter to you, new boy?" Chloe looks at Shinji with disdain. "And you didn't even buy a present."
"I'm sorry I don't have the president of the country to carry me under his wings!" Shinji says, bowing with fake sadness.
"Okay people, okay." Marinette breaks up the fight, laughing at Shinji's joke. "I think we'd better get to class."
"Don't defend me like I need it!" Chloe mocks Marinette as she walks away.
"Did she suck on a sour lemon to act like that?" Shinji asks.
"That's because you've known her for three days." Alya says, slapping Shinji lightly on the back.
After class is over, Marinette and Alya arrive in front of the Agreste mansion. Marinette looks nervous.
"Are you sure we should do this?" Marinette asks nervously.
"Girl, just go for it. Deliver that present at once!" Alya says, pushing Marinette closer to the gate.
Reluctantly, Marinette presses the bell and a technological eye appears in front of her.
"What do you want?"
"Oh, well... it's just that I came to deliver Adrian's present and..."
"Put it in the box." The eye says and a drawer appears in front of her.
Reluctantly, Marinette puts the present in the drawer and it closes. And the two girls are in shock.
"Oh my god... that was so scary."
"Marinette, did you sign your name on the present?"
Marinette slowly looks at Alya, and when the girl realizes that her friend hasn't signed her name, she slaps herself for the situation.
Inside the Agreste mansion, Nathalie sits at her desk as she sighs.
"Adrian seems to have really good friends."
With Nathalie's tablet ringing, she answers a call from Gabriel Agreste. "Nathalie, did you remember to buy Adrian a present?"
"Oh yes, but you didn't ask!" Nathalie speaks nervously and with a slight fear.
"Sweetheart, how long have you been working for me anyway? Well, get on with it." Gabriel disconnects the call.
Nathalie looks around nervously, but soon sees Marinette's present and picks it up, whistling as she does so.
After Nino arrives at the Agreste mansion and tries to convince Adrian's father to let his son have a birthday party. But after a small argument and Gabriel being rude to Nino, the boy starts to leave in frustration, until Adrian enters the house and sees his friend angry.
"Nino, what's wrong, man?"
"You old man who knows nothing about fun."
Nino leaves the house, Adrian looks at his father before turning around and trying to leave.
"I'm going to dye my hair."
"Adrian!"
At the Dupain Cheng bakery, Shinji says goodbye to yet another customer after making yet another sale.
"You're very confident talking to people." Sabine says as she replenishes the bread on the shelves.
"It's just customary." Shinji quipped. "Even, Miss Cheng, where is Mr. Dupain?"
"Oh, Tom went shopping for dinner." Sabine says. She finishes restocking and goes to the back of the bakery.
Shinji sighs; he soon notices the silence taking over the place. Strange, as there are usually quite a few people on the streets at this time of day.
"AHHHAHHH!" Sabine screams. Shinji quickly runs over to where she was.
Shinji looks around, seeing nothing, but then Gekiryuken speaks.
[Shinji, outside!]
Shinji runs to the window and sees several people, or rather adults, inside giant bubbles floating in the sky. Shinji is shocked by this, but is soon snapped out of his thoughts when Gekiryuken speaks.
[Shinji, it looks like that butterfly has claimed another victim].
"Yes, I urgently need to find this Akumatized and purify him! Gekiryuken, the cloak!"
[Got it.]
Gekiryuken speaks, Shinji's body glows and he is wrapped in a black cloak that covers his entire body. (If you're curious, imagine the cloak of the members of Organization XIII - Kingdom Hearts)
Shinji leaps out of the house, jumping through the window. Meanwhile, a red being that looks quite ridiculous creates bubbles around the city.
The bubbles approach the students and speak to them. "Hey guys! Bubbler in the aria! So, I've decided to bring you a special present, all the adults have gone into space! Oh, and a little something for the Dupont students! Come to Adrian's party, or fly into space!"
Marinette bursts the bubble and looks at Tikki.
"Marinette, we have to go!" Tikki says worriedly.
"Calm down, Tikki..." Marinette thinks. "But that's kind of nice."
"What do you mean good?!"
"Adrian's father has forbidden him to have a party, so we can enjoy it for a while before purifying Akuma."
Shinji, who was in a building further away, had heard Bubbler's message.
[Adrian is your new friend, isn't he?]
"Yes, so he'll be at Adrian's house. But where is it?"
[You really should study up on the geographical map of Paris].
"When I get a cell phone, I'll do that."
Shinji leaps across the rooftops while continuing to look for the rough mansion.
Adrian leaves home to go to school, but is surprised to see his classmates in the courtyard of his house.
"Happy birthday!" All the students say at the same time, with a false cheerfulness that Adrian didn't notice.
"What's up birthday boy! Guess what, Blubber brought all his friends here for one purpose. To celebrate!
Adrian quickly enters his house and closes the door behind him.
"What, maybe we'll never get another chance like this." Plagg says, mocking Adrian.
"Maybe... this is the first time I'll actually have a birthday party! Although Ladybug and Ryukendo will have to fight him alone..."
"Ryukendo can handle him on his own."
"Are you saying that Ladybug and I are useless!?"
A few minutes pass. Shinji stands on the roof of the house and watches the party.
Shinji looks down, seeing everyone sad and pretending to be happy as they dance.
[He's there at the music table.]
Shinji looks down and sees Chloe talking to Bubbler as she tries to convince him to change the music and put on a slow song.
"Nice party, can I join?"
Shinji says, and everyone looks up and breathes a sigh of relief.
"It's Ryukendo!"
"He came to save us!"
"I'll record that one!"
"Looks like you came, huh?" Bubbler stops playing the music and picks up his 'sword' (I'll call the thing he uses to make bubbles a sword, I don't know the name of it!).
Marinette and Adrian quickly move away from the others to transform.
"You think I'm going to let you break up the party that easily?!" Bubbler uses his sword to throw bubbles at the hooded boy.
Shinji just draws Gekiryuken and cuts the bubbles.
"Sorry, but I'm someone who likes peace. And the songs were awful."
Bubbler and some of the students feel a slight anger towards Ryukendo because, as much as they were forced to be at the party, they liked the songs.
Ryukendo opens Gekiryuken and takes out his key and activates it.
"Gekiryu key!" He fits the key into his sword and closes it. "Activate!"
[Change, Ryukendo!]
Shinji raises his sword above him. "Gekiryu Henshin!" Shinji swings his sword and a blue dragon flies around him, before flying up into the sky and roaring.
"I recorded everything!" Alya speaks with her camera raised to the sky.
Shinji jumps off the roof while doing a pirouette. The dragon flies back to Shinji and merges with him. As soon as he lands on the ground, Ryukendo is now wearing his armor.
"Come on up!" Bubbler raises his sword and runs towards Ryukendo.
Ryukendo does the same and the two begin to exchange blows with their swords. All the students stand back as they watch the two fight.
"You see that!?" Kim says, excited by the fight.
"Absolutely!" Alya says happily.
"How incredible! He looks like a knight from the romance stories I used to read!" Rose says delighted.
"Ah, but I need to draw a picture of it!" Nathaniel says, taking several photos of Ryukendo from as many angles as he can.
"See that, Max?" Alex said, excited by the fight.
"No, I don't have my glasses on." Max says, squinting to try and see the fight.
The fight between the two continues, Ryukendo continuing to attack as he seems to have the upper hand in the fight. Bubbler steps back, he raises his sword high, but is grabbed by a thread and kicked in the back towards Dj's table.
"Did you think we weren't going to show?" Catnoir taunts after kicking the villain.
"That's right!" Ladybug jumps up and lands next to Catnoir.
"Hey! Three against one is cheating!" Bubbler says angrily, he uses his gun and throws bubbles at the two heroes, which are easily cut off by Ryukendo.
"You took your time." Ryukendo says, he stands in front of the two and faces Bubbler.
"Sorry about that, I was a bit busy." Catnoir scratches the back of his head. He raises his staff and gets into a combat pose. "So, why don't you use your Final Key and finish him off for good?"
"Better! Use that angry lion!" Kim shouts in the distance, and most of the students join in the request.
"You take the sides, I'll take the middle!" Ryukendo ignores the students' requests and runs towards Bubbler, with Ladybug and Catnoir following him.
The three of them attack at the same time in an impressively synchronized manner. Bubbler tries to defend himself, he tries to hit Ladybug with his gun, but she is cut in half by Ryukendo.
Catnoir throws a kick at him which sends him sprawling, Ladybug uses her yo-yo to pull him back and throw him to the ground.
Bubbler tries to get back to his feet, but Ryukendo is quicker and slashes him across the chest, sending him crashing to the ground.
A black aura surrounds Bubbler before the Akuma comes out of his chest and Nino returns to normal. The Akuma flies away, but can't get far, as Ryukendo kills it with a quick, clean cut.
"Wow! We didn't even have to use our powers!" Catnoir said as he approached Ryukendo.
"Really, and I didn't even have to call on my Luck Charm." Ladybug says in surprise.
[Still, it's better to call it, it fixes everything that's been destroyed, doesn't it?]
"Oh, yes, you're right, sir..." Ladybug tries to remember the name of the sword.
[Gekiryuken. But I think you should do it soon].
"Right!"
Ladybug summons her Luck Charm and fixes all the destruction and the people who flew into the sky have returned to their homes.
"Ryukendo! Ryukendo!" The students ran up to him and surrounded him as they spoke.
"Give me an interview for my Ladyblog!"
"Dude, shake my hand!"
"How do you do that?!"
"Are you a knight?!"
"Does your sword really talk?!"
"They don't even care about us anymore." Catnoir whispers despondently in Ladybug's ear.
"Don't start with that nonsense." Ladybug retorts.
(Next morning)
Shinji gets ready, grabs his backpack and heads downstairs to leave for school.
"Hey, Shinji! Wait up!" Tom says as he sees Shinji pass by.
"Oh, Mr. Dupain, what happened?" Shinji diverts his path and goes over to where Tom was, he's surprised to see Sabine there too. "Did I... did I do something wrong?"
"No, of course not." Sabine says. We realized that most of your time is spent studying or listening to music on your Walkman."
Shinji looks at his Walkman, which is on his waist on his right side.
"That's why we decided to buy this for you." Tom approaches Shinji and hands him a box.
Shinji looks confusedly at the box and takes it. Opening it, he sees a cell phone inside.
"Oh, no, I can't take it." Shinji tries to return the box, but Tom pushes it lightly back towards Shinji.
"Shinji, we know you don't have a cell phone yet. And frankly, I kind of like that. You're studious and don't care much for these electronic gadgets." Sabine says, laughing a little.
"But we're still looking after you at the request of the Paris orphanage." Tom says. "And we need to know where you are."
"The cell phone already has our contacts and Marinette's. If you want to get your friends' numbers, you can." Sabine says. "Just call us if you get into trouble."
Shinji is thrilled to hear this. Yes, he's very grateful that Sabine and Tom agreed to accommodate him at the orphanage's request. And he's very fond of both them and Marinette.
Bowing in thanks, Shinji says.
"Thank you very much indeed. Mr. and Mrs. Dupain Cheng!"
Shinji walks down the street, approaching the school, he sees a conversation between Chloe and Sabrina.
"What do you mean not for two weeks!?" Chloe yells at Sabrina.
"It's just that there was no adult to deliver it yesterday." Sabrina says, frightened by Chloe's screams.
"Why is she still involved with Chloe?" Shinji wonders.
"I don't know, maybe emotional dependency." Alya says behind Shinji.
Shinji looks back, blinking a few times before speaking.
"If I hadn't heard your footsteps, I would have been scared."
"Hi guys!... *heavy breathing* Did I take long?" Marinette asks, pausing for breath.
"Not at all, you're early." Alya says.
"Hi guys!" Adrian approaches the guys and they all let out a few gasps of surprise.
"Look, that's nice hair." Alya says in a slightly provocative tone. "Don't you think so, Marinette?"
"Yes, very... beautiful..." Marinette says charmed by Adrian's appearance, and most importantly the scarf around his neck.
"Come on, Adrian. Man, I'm sorry I was Akumatized and forced you to go to that party." Nino says apologetically
"No problem, don't worry about it!" Adrian shrugs.
"What's up, guys!" Shinji approaches them both. "Nice hair, Adrian."
"Thanks!"
"What's with the scarf?" Shinji asks curiously.
"Oh, that? It was a present I got for my birthday."
"I still feel bad about not giving you a present yesterday, but I promise I'll give you one late!"
"Oh, come on, don't worry." Adrian waves his hands, not caring that Shinji doesn't know, after all, he's new to Paris. "But anyway, that scarf..."
Marinette and Alya stood nearby listening to the conversation while Marinette looked excited.
"Well, my dad gave it to me for my birthday. Isn't that nice of him!
Marinette felt something inside her break.
"What?!" Alya asks in disbelief. "But that was his present-"
"No, it's nothing." Marinetti says with a forced smile while covering Alya's mouth.
With the bell ringing, everyone heads for their classrooms.
End of chapter.