The game of "Eagle Catching Chicks," filled with laughter and joy, ended with everyone breathless and happy sweat glistening on their faces.
Jaden smiled and walked over to the ice cream cart next to the park, bought four ice creams of different flavors, and then returned to the bench.
"Here, Alya, this is your favorite mango flavor." He handed a yellow ice cream to Alya.
"Marinette, strawberry flavor." He gave the pink one to Marinette, who was still blushing.
"And for our little angel, chocolate flavor." He crouched down and handed the last one to Manon.
Manon happily took the ice cream, took a big, unreserved lick, making her mouth look like she had grown a circle of brown whiskers.
As she ate, she looked up with her innocent little face, gazing at Jaden with her clear, unblemished eyes, and suddenly blurted out a shocking question: "Jaden Gege, do you have a girlfriend?"
"Pfft—!" Alya almost sprayed out the ice cream she had just put in her mouth.
As for Marinette, she was about to remind Manon not to ask such an impertinent question, but the words caught in her throat.
Although her body remained in a seated posture, her ears, like two small radars, uncontrollably and quietly perked up, catching every subtle sound in the air.
Jaden was stunned by the sudden question, then smiled and shook his head, "No, I don't."
Receiving a negative answer, Manon's eyes brightened even more. She immediately pressed her advantage, saying in a very serious tone, as if announcing a major decision: "Then... then when I grow up, I want to be Jaden Gege's girlfriend, okay?"
This childish "marriage proposal" instantly made the atmosphere more interesting.
Alya looked at Manon's precocious and smug expression, then turned to look at Marinette next to her, who was almost shrinking into a ball, wishing she could dig a hole and crawl into it on the spot. She couldn't help but inwardly complain: Oh my god! Look at her! Even a little kid is more articulate than you! Get a clue, my dear lady!
Jaden didn't take the joke to heart; he just found the little girl incredibly cute.
He reached out and gently ruffled Manon's hair, saying in a doting tone, "Alright. Then, my little angel, I'll be waiting for you to grow up quickly."
"Yay!" Receiving an affirmative reply, Manon, like a victorious little general, jumped up from the bench. She put her hands on her hips and proudly declared, "Then I will surely grow up obediently and diligently! And become the most beautiful 'Angel Princess'!"
Seeing her adorable, innocent demeanor, Jaden, Alya, and even the shy Marinette couldn't help but laugh.
The sunlight bathed this heartwarming scene in a golden, soft halo.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the park, in the "work area" surrounded by various professional photography equipment—
"OK! Adrien! The last shot is done! Perfect!" The photographer put down his camera and gave Adrien a thumbs-up gesture of appreciation, "You can take a break now, you've worked hard!"
"Thank you." Adrien nodded politely, the professional, commercial smile on his face receding like a tide the moment he turned, replaced by a deep, relieved exhaustion.
He walked to the resting area, threw himself into a lounge chair, and then discreetly unzipped his backpack.
A rich, almost thick, cheese smell instantly wafted out of the bag. Plagg was sprawled out among a pile of cheese wrappers, clutching a half-eaten camembert cheese, eating with oily lips and a blissful, intoxicated expression as if in heaven.
A "#" shaped vein instantly popped up on Adrien's forehead. He lowered his voice, speaking in a resentful, gritted-teeth whisper, "I'm working so hard posing and basking in the sun here, and you're good, hiding in the bag and secretly eating?!"
Plagg didn't even bother to lift her eyelids, only emitting a few happy, indistinct "grunts" as a reply.
Adrien looked at its carefree, unconcerned appearance, and his slight annoyance was quickly replaced by a deep envy.
How wonderful... if he could also be like this little guy, not having to think about anything, just living for the things he loved, how great would that be?
He sighed, his gaze unconsciously sweeping to the other side of the park. Then, he unexpectedly saw that familiar figure—it was Jaden.
He was sitting on a bench with Marinette, Alya, and an unfamiliar little girl, chatting and laughing while eating ice cream. The scene was as harmonious as a vibrant oil painting.
Adrien hesitated for a moment. He knew that he had almost no interaction with the girls in his class (except Chloé).
Would it seem too abrupt to go over and say hello? But then he thought of the juice Jaden had offered him at the celebration party that day, and his sincere, friendly smile... Ultimately, the desire for friendship overcame his inner timidity.
He straightened his clothes, took a deep breath, and walked towards them: "Hi... Jaden."
Hearing the voice, the people on the bench all turned their heads.
"Adrien? You're here too." Jaden saw him, smiled kindly, and greeted him.
Marinette and Alya seemed a bit reserved; after all, in their impression, Adrien was more of a distant "handsome guy" who existed within the boys' clique, with almost no interaction with girls like them.
They just nodded politely at him.
Manon, however, shyly hid behind Marinette, only revealing a pair of curious eyes, secretly observing this suddenly appearing, blond-haired, blue-eyed handsome older brother.
"Yes," Adrien replied somewhat stiffly, "It's a photoshoot arranged by the company."
"You've worked hard." Jaden's tone was natural, "I, on the other hand, was invited to accompany these two... no, three, and a little angel, to enjoy the weekend time together."
"Oh... your relationship is really good." Adrien looked at the relaxed and familiar atmosphere between them, a hint of unconcealed envy in his eyes.
Just as Jaden was about to say something more, inviting him to sit down with them—
"Beep beep beep beep—!!!" A piercing alarm, indicating the highest level of emergency, suddenly rang simultaneously from everyone's phones present!
Everyone was startled by the sudden alarm and quickly pulled out their phones to check. On the screen, an emergency news push from the Paris City Government was forcibly displayed. The image on the push was the rooftop of the TV station.
In the image, the silver-haired girl with a Gothic Lolita dress and flowing hair—Stormy Weather—was floating in mid-air.
Behind her was the gloomy sky, already shrouded in dark clouds and a blizzard. Her originally sweet face was now filled with madness and obsession: "...I, Stormy Weather, am the true victor!
"Her voice, broadcast live, spread throughout Paris, "And now, I need my knight—Jaden—to come to my side immediately! To declare that victory statement that truly belongs to us, for me and for himself!"
She pointed the camera behind her, at the several TV station executives frozen into ice sculptures, and the trembling Mireille and Nathalie: "If, within half an hour, I don't see my knight... then, I will turn all of Paris into my eternal world of ice and snow!"
In the image, she laughed maniacally.
Jaden looked at his phone screen, his brows tightly furrowed. Something was wrong... this was too wrong. In the original story, after Aurore underwent a Akumatization, although she was also very angry, her actions were more of a childish, retaliatory revenge.
She would freeze the billboards supporting Mireille, she would attack the shops selling Mireille souvenirs... Her behavioral logic was to "destroy everything related to the victor."
But now, this "Stormy Weather's" obsession was unusually clear, even singularly directed at him.
Moreover, before her Akumatization, he had clearly used those words to gently mediate and comfort her.
Logically, her negative emotions should have been considerably alleviated, not reaching the critical point of Akumatization.
Was there some unknown, altered plot in this?
As he pondered, Marinette and Alya beside him were already so anxious they were almost jumping up and down.
"Jaden! You can't go! It's too dangerous!" Marinette grabbed his arm worriedly.
"Yes! She's a lunatic now! If you go, who knows what she'll do to you!" Alya also anxiously urged.
"Don't worry." Jaden, however, patted Marinette's hand reassuringly, his face returning to its usual calming serenity, "Look, her target has only been me from beginning to end.
And all she wants is for me to 'declare victory.' An Akumatized Person formed from such obsession usually won't harm the core of their obsession.
I'm just going to investigate; I'll be fine."
After he finished speaking, he bid farewell to the four and turned to walk towards the park entrance.
Just as he reached the entrance and was about to hail a taxi, the sky-blue TV station special car, he didn't know when, had returned and respectfully stopped in front of him.
"...It seems even my retreat has been arranged for me." Jaden chuckled self-deprecatingly, opened the car door, and got in.
By the bench, Manon watched the car carrying Jaden drive away, asking worriedly, "Marinette Jie Jie, Jaden Gege... will he be okay?"
"Don't worry, he will be." Alya stroked her head, comforting her, "Ladybug and Cat Noir will appear soon and defeat that villain!"
As she spoke, she instinctively looked up to see Marinette beside her. However, she was surprised to find that Marinette, who had just been standing next to her... and Adrien, who was not far away, were both gone.
"Huh? Where did they go?" She wasn't too concerned about Adrien's whereabouts, but Marinette's sudden disappearance reignited the bold speculation that had been swirling in her mind for a long time—
Every time... every time an Akumatized Person appeared, Marinette would suddenly "disappear" for various reasons.
Could it be... Alya glanced at Manon, who was still innocently looking at the sky, and made a decision in her heart.
In a deserted corner of the park—
"I can't let Jaden face danger alone! Tikki, transform!"
Behind a hidden bush—
"That crazy woman dares to target Jaden? Unforgivable! Plagg, attack!"
Two lights, one red and one black, simultaneously lit up in different places.
The next second, the figures of Ladybug and Cat Noir appeared on the bustling rooftops of Paris.
They looked at the blue car speeding towards the TV station, exchanged glances, and tacitly chased after it along the rooftops.
That day, a light blue sedan smoothly navigated through the slightly chaotic Parisian streets, which were in an emergency lockdown, heading directly towards the television station building that had become the focal point of the entire city.
On the rooftop, the cold wind was several times more biting than on the ground.
Stormy Weather elegantly floated at the edge of the rooftop, her silver-white long hair dancing wildly in the gale, like living frosty vines.
She overlooked the city below, which was gradually shrinking to the size of matchboxes, her ice-blue eyes burning with madness and obsession, eagerly searching through the traffic for the figure that was about to arrive, the figure that belonged to her.
Not far behind her, the television station executives, frozen into ice sculptures, maintained their terrified postures, like a silent, ironically charged symphony.
Meanwhile, Mireille hugged her arms, shivering from the unnatural cold, her lips turning a faint purple.
"Aurore… you… listen to me," Mireille mustered her courage, her voice trembling slightly from the cold, "things aren't what you think! Jaden… he…"
"Shut up!" Stormy Weather suddenly spun around, her sharp gaze like an ice blade, fiercely piercing Mireille.
"What right do you have to lecture me here?!" She pointed at the ice sculptures, her voice shrill and full of venom, "Did you hear them?!
They said it! You're just a 'backdrop' they chose to create 'buzz,' meant to highlight me! How can you win?! How can you receive His coronation?!"
Her emotions grew more agitated, and the ambient air temperature seemed to drop by several more degrees.
"And I! Aurore!" She proudly puffed out her chest, a mad glint in her eyes, "I possess intelligence! I possess beauty! I possess all the conditions for victory! That crystal crown! That gentle, princess title, meant only for the victor! It should… all have been mine! It was you, you and them together, who stole everything that belonged to me!"
"No! Jaden didn't mean that, he just…" Mireille still wanted to say something, trying to use Jaden to calm her down.
However, the name "Jaden" was like a spark igniting a powder keg.
Stormy Weather instantly appeared before Mireille, the tip of her ornate ice crystal parasol less than a centimeter from Mireille's throat.
The biting cold made Mireille instantly silent, even her breathing stopped.
"Don't…" Stormy Weather's voice came as if from the depths of an ice layer, full of warning and threat, "…speak my knight's name from the mouth of a thief like you.
If you don't want to turn into an ugly ice sculpture that can never melt right now, then be a good girl, quietly wait here, and see clearly… who is the true protagonist today!"
Mireille's face turned pale with fright, and she could only nod vigorously.
Nathalie, standing nearby, was also freezing cold, but her face maintained that almost inhuman, absolute calm.
She glanced at the situation below the rooftop, then spoke to Stormy Weather in her steady, unperturbed voice: "I have followed your instructions and, using the Agreste Group's media privileges, connected the signal here to all of Paris's live broadcast networks.
Now, the entire city is watching you."
The screen of her tablet lit up at the opportune moment, and Gabriel's authoritative face appeared again.
"This… Miss Stormy Weather," Gabriel's voice came through the tablet, carrying a deliberately cultivated, superior sense of oppression, "you have obtained the live broadcast you wanted.
According to the rules of our transaction, you should now safely release my assistant, Nathalie."
"No." Stormy Weather didn't even bother to turn her head, simply spitting out a single cold word.
"Oh?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow, unperturbed, "As a queen about to be crowned, do you intend to go back on your word?"
"Hmph," Stormy Weather let out a cold laugh full of disdain.
She turned her head, her icy gaze fixed on Gabriel in the tablet, "Mr. Gabriel, are you taking me for one of those simple-minded fools who only know how to destroy?
If I release your capable assistant now, won't you immediately cut the live broadcast signal the next second?
At that time, who will witness my true victory? Who will witness the moment my knight offers me his loyalty and praise?"
She slowly floated to Nathalie's side, gently lifting Nathalie's chin with the tip of her parasol: "So, she, and this so-called 'princess,' will both obediently remain here, as the most special 'audience' for my coronation ceremony. You can give up on that idea."
She faced the tablet, a crazy yet beautiful smile full of control on her face: "Now, I possess power, I possess the right to speak.
Therefore, I am the only queen who controls everything here."
Inside the secret room of Agreste Mansion.
Gabriel looked at the defiant figure on the tablet, completely beyond his control, and for the first time, a clear, undisguised trace of irritation appeared on his handsome face.
He felt that the Akumatization of Aurore was the biggest mistake he had made in weeks.
This girl's obsession was far more complex than he had imagined, and… far more fanatical, even to the point of ignoring other threats.
Her core objective had completely twisted from "revenge" and "acquiring miraculous" to "proving herself in front of Jaden."
Jaden, his existence was like an unpredictable, huge variable, disrupting his otherwise precise and flawless plans again and again.
He was like an invisible virus, silently eroding everything he could control.
Gabriel's hand subconsciously tightened.
He could, of course, forcibly undo Aurore's Akumatization state now, turning her back into that unarmed ordinary girl.
But… no.
He glanced at the huge monitoring screen on the wall; on the screen, the light blue sedan was getting closer and closer to the television station.
Jaden… was almost here.
This was an excellent opportunity to observe firsthand how that young man would react and what unknown trump cards he would reveal when facing the crisis he himself had triggered.
And in order to obtain those two miraculous, in order to ultimately achieve his great long-cherished wish… this small loss of control was still within his tolerance.
Let this farce continue for a while longer.
He faced the tablet, putting on an expression full of "helplessness" and "compromise" again, and slowly said: "…Alright, Your Majesty. I understand. Your stage, you are in charge."
Time, in the cold gale, passed minute by minute.
Finally, a light blue sedan, like a small beetle, appeared on the street below the television station building.
Stormy Weather's eyes instantly lit up!
She didn't even go down to greet him but stared intently at the door leading to the rooftop.
She knew he would emerge from there, like a knight, overcoming obstacles to come before his queen.
What she didn't notice was that shortly after Jaden entered the building, two agile figures, one red and one black, almost merging with the shadows, also silently slipped in through another entrance.
This scene, although clearly captured by Gabriel's miniature drone circling high in the sky, he had no intention of relaying this information to Stormy Weather.
He merely, as Hawk Moth, reminded Stormy Weather in a serious tone in her mind: "Be careful, my queen. I saw on the live broadcast that those two annoying little bugs seem to have followed."
"If they dare to come, I dare to turn them into the most magnificent ice sculpture decorations beneath my throne!" Stormy Weather replied carelessly.
At this moment, all her attention was focused on the door that was about to open for her, the door to glory.
Inside the television station building, in the elevator.
Jaden pressed the button for the top floor—the rooftop.
The elevator doors slowly began to close.
Just as the gap was about to completely seal shut—
"Whoosh—!"
Two figures, like ghosts, flashed in one after another!
The elevator doors closed perfectly behind them with a "ding."
The red figure was Ladybug, and the black figure was Cat Noir.
"You…" Jaden looked at the two uninvited guests before him, about to say something.
"Shhh—!" Cat Noir, however, preempted him, putting a finger to his lips in a silencing gesture, then lowered his voice, speaking quickly in what he thought was a cool, secret agent-like tone: "Listen, Jaden! I know you're brave, but the situation upstairs is very dangerous! So, we've devised a foolproof plan!"
He cleared his throat and began to eloquently introduce his "perfect" battle plan: "The plan is this! Later, you will attract the 'Stormy Weather' attention!
Use your eloquence to your heart's content, make her completely engrossed in conversation with you!
Then, my lady and I will quietly circle around to her back from the side! Next!
I'll dash forward, directly use Cataclysm, and with a 'CRACK,' destroy that flashy, broken parasol in her hand! As soon as the umbrella shatters, that troublesome Akumatization butterfly will fly out!
At that time, my lady will immediately use her magical yo-yo, and with a 'WHOOSH,' catch and purify the butterfly! Finally! She'll shout 'Miraculous Restoration'!
BANG! Everything will return to normal! Everyone's happy! How about it? Isn't it perfect?"
"Cat Noir!" Ladybug, standing beside him, rubbed her forehead, slightly annoyed, correcting him for the countless time, "I've told you many times! Call me Ladybug!"
Jaden listened to Cat Noir's plan, which was full of chuunibyou vibes and obvious loopholes, simply listening calmly without interrupting him.
It wasn't until he finished speaking that Jaden slowly looked at him with an expression like he was looking at an idiot, then raised his hand and pointed to the inconspicuous, hemispherical object above and to their side, which was flashing a faint red light: "The plan… sounds good.
"But, before you execute your 'foolproof' plan, do you want to… first look at what that is up there?"
Ladybug and Cat Noir subconsciously followed the direction of his finger and looked up.
Then, their expressions instantly froze.
That was a… surveillance camera.
Surveillance cameras, in such a modern building, are an almost ubiquitous standard feature.
And their plan… every word they had just spoken, every detail… wasn't it all likely heard clearly by Stormy Weather on the rooftop, word for word, through this tiny camera?