"Now that you're awake, don't press your hand so close!"
Chloé's familiar, imperious, and possessive shriek exploded like a clap of thunder in the room's brief, suffocating silence.
While Jaden and Alya were still immersed in the great confusion of "Who am I? Where am I? What happened?", Chloé's pampered young lady's brain, with a reaction speed far exceeding that of ordinary people, had already completed its reboot!
She immediately saw Jaden's hand still half-supporting Alya's arm! The pose was so intimate, so... an eyesore!
A raging fire of being ignored, of having her "property" trespassed upon, instantly replaced all the confusion and lingering fear in her heart!
She didn't even give herself any time to think!
Her body had already reacted instinctively, and in a manner most consistent with her personality, before her brain could catch up!
Like a pink little cannonball with its fuse lit, she suddenly sprang from the soft sofa, launching herself at Jaden in an explosive manner completely unsuited to her delicate young lady image, utterly disregarding everything else!
Her posture wasn't like welcoming a friend found again; it was more like an angry lioness guarding her food, launching the fiercest, most territorial attack against a clueless intruder who dared to covet her prey!
Jaden only felt a golden, fragrant afterimage flash before his eyes, and a huge impact came straight at him!
His brain hadn't even had time to process the complex philosophical question of "Why is Chloé pouncing on me?", but his body's instinct had already made the fastest and only choice for him!
He subconsciously let go of the hand that was supporting Alya.
Then, he opened his arms, and in a standard, self-sacrificing posture, steadily caught the unreasonable "cannonball" that was rushing into his embrace!
"Bang—!"
A dull thud of flesh making intimate contact with an expensive carpet!
The immense impact prevented him from maintaining his balance.
He was thoroughly tackled to the ground by Chloé!
"Ugh…" Jaden felt the back of his head make intimate contact with the soft yet slightly rebounding carpet.
He groaned in pain, feeling the whole world spin.
A warm, soft pressure came from his lower abdomen, mixed with Chloé's cloyingly sweet yet aggressive high-end perfume, making his already chaotic mind even more muddled.
Jaden was completely bewildered by her sudden action.
He could only coax her in a gentle, slightly helpless tone: "Chloé, get up first… the floor is cold…"
"I won't!" Chloé's tone was filled with an unyielding, childish stubbornness, "I don't care! How heartless you were when you were under Akumatization!
How merciless! You actually said your Knight's name belonged only to that four-eyed nerd!
Do you know my heart was shattered into pieces! Now, I want you to put it back together, piece by piece!"
Chloé buried her face deep in his chest, speaking in a tearful, nasal voice.
As she spoke, she rubbed her cheek back and forth against his chest, as if pouting.
Her beautiful eyes, always adorned with exquisite eyeliner, quickly welled up with a thin layer of moisture, looking utterly pitiful, as if she had truly suffered a great grievance.
However, her two seemingly weak hands resting on him were far from well-behaved, drawing circles on his chest again and again, enjoying this hard-won, intimate physical contact.
Just as Jaden was still getting a headache from her incoherent, accusatory words, a powerful, warm hand suddenly reached out and, without a word, grabbed Chloé by the back of her collar!
It was Alya!
"Get up! Chloé!" Alya's face was etched with an displeased expression, like a protective mother.
She almost used all her strength to pull Chloé, who was clinging to Jaden like an octopus, a "large pendant," off him!
"What are you doing, Alya!" Chloé, whose "good thing" had been ruined, immediately became displeased!
She straightened her somewhat disheveled, comical cosplay outfit, placed her hands on her hips, and glared at Alya with a hostile gaze.
"I should be asking you what you're doing!" Alya retorted, not backing down, shielding Jaden behind her, and said in an accusatory tone, "If it weren't for you!
If it weren't for you, using your identity as the mayor's daughter, twisting the facts and wrongly accusing me!
How could Jaden and I have been taken advantage of by Hawk Moth?!
It's all your fault!"
"Blaming me?! You dare to blame me?!" As soon as she heard this, Chloé's face, which had just been looking pitiful, instantly changed!
She pointed at Alya's nose and retorted in an even sharper voice, "If it weren't for you! If it weren't for you, like a pervert, secretly peeking into my locker after school!
Would any of this have happened?!
You are the instigator!"
Seeing that the two of them were about to erupt into another fierce, personal-attack-filled war of words, Ladybug, who had been standing by, trying to minimize her presence, finally found an opportunity to interject.
She walked over to Jaden, watched him slowly get up from the ground, and asked with concern, "Are you… are you alright? Is there anywhere on your body that feels uncomfortable?"
Jaden shook his head, the dizziness from the impact had gradually dissipated.
"I'm fine." He gave her a gentle, reassuring smile, "Thank you, Ladybug."
"…"
It was that smile!
It was that familiar, gentle smile, as if it could melt winter snow!
Ladybug looked at his gentle and harmless appearance, feeling her heart, which had just been pierced by his "heartless declaration" and was still faintly aching, instantly healed by a warm power.
This… this is her Jaden… she thought to herself, a little dreamily.
That cold, elegant "Mr. Information" who belonged only to Alya just now must… must have been a terrifying illusion!
As she was immersed in her beautiful, pink-bubble-filled self-delusion, Jaden's brow furrowed slightly.
He felt as if he was holding something in his right hand.
It had a cool, hard metallic feel.
He opened his palm in confusion.
A completely black ring with a bright green, cute cat paw design lay quietly in his palm.
"This… isn't this… Cat Noir's ring?"
This thought struck him like lightning! He immediately recalled Ladybug's words, "You were under Akumatization!"
He suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief, at Ladybug.
"Where is Cat Noir?!" he asked.
Ladybug didn't have time to answer before she was drowned out by the voices of the two girls still arguing nearby.
"That stupid cat?" Chloé, still fuming, heard the question and, without thinking, replied with disdain, "He was sent home by some method you used when you were under Akumatization!
What? Do you still want him to help you? Too late!"
What?!
A huge wave surged in Jaden's heart!
This… this was completely different from his previous experience of being under Akumatization as Winter Knight!
Last time, although he was also under Akumatization, he still retained his conscious awareness!
He exerted his own unique power!
But this time… he actually had no memory… of anything that happened during his Akumatization?!
Could it be… could Hawk Moth's butterflies have upgraded again?!
He thought to himself.
That's not right either… Time didn't leave him much room for thought.
He immediately made the correct judgment.
He tightly wrapped his hand around the ring, then quickly walked to Ladybug.
Under her confused and puzzled gaze, he extended his other hand and gently tugged her wrist.
"Huh?" Ladybug didn't understand what he was going to do.
Jaden didn't explain.
He simply opened her hand, then carefully placed the ring in his hand, which was crucial for all of Paris, into her warm, gloved palm.
Then, he let go of her hand.
Ladybug didn't even have time to glance at the ring in her hand before Chloé's confused and displeased cry came from nearby.
"Hey! What are you doing?! Jaden!" Chloé rushed over, pointing at the ring in Ladybug's hand, and said in a tone of disappointment, "Why are you giving it back?!
Put it on! As long as you wear it, you'll gain powerful superpowers!
Then, you'll be Chloé's Knight!"
"I don't intend to be that kind of hero." Jaden turned around, calmly facing her question, and slowly said.
His life goal was simply to enjoy a happy and peaceful life with the girls he liked.
Not to become a so-called "hero" who has to rush around every day to save the world.
After he finished speaking, as if he suddenly remembered something, he turned his head and looked at Chloé again.
"By the way, Chloé," his tone returned to its usual gentle manner, "Why did you specifically call me here after school this afternoon? Was there something important?
And… why are you dressed like… cosplaying Ladybug?"
Alya also leaned over, scrutinizing Chloé from head to toe with a curious and examining gaze.
Neither she nor Jaden mentioned anything about "punishment."
"Oh right!" Alya echoed, "Why are you dressed like Ladybug? Don't you hate her the most?"
Under the simultaneous gaze of three probing eyes, Chloé's always proud face, for the first time, showed a suspicious, unnatural blush!
She couldn't possibly say directly to Ladybug's face, "I originally wanted to play a private, intimate role-playing game with him, where I played Miraculous Queen and he played Cat Noir," could she?!
Her mind raced!
Finally, she could only lower her voice, like a mosquito humming, and mumbled in a shy and embarrassed tone:
"Be… because… I'm… Ladybug's… number one fan…"
Finally, after a chaotic and awkward farewell, Jaden and Alya finally left the magnificent hotel.
Chloé stood by the huge floor-to-ceiling window of the top-floor suite, watching the two figures walking side-by-side down the street, gradually disappearing, and the unwilling, jealous anger in her heart flared up again!
She stomped her foot hard in frustration!
Then, she turned around, rushed back to her room, grabbed the cute teddy bear from the bed, and vented all her unwillingness and anger on it!
"Useless bear! Useless bear! Useless bear!"
She tossed and turned on the bed for a while until her last bit of strength was completely exhausted.
Then, she hugged the disfigured teddy bear and fell into a deep sleep.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
After Ladybug confirmed that they had all left safely, she also silently disappeared from the hotel's terrace into the vast night.
She swung all the way back to her familiar, cozy attic at home.
"Restore"
The pink light faded, and Marinette's petite figure reappeared in the room.
"Tikki," she said, looking at the Cat Noir ring in her hand, her face filled with seriousness and solemnity, "You know who Cat Noir's wearer is, right?"
"Mm! I know!" Tikki nodded.
"Then… then I'll trouble you." Marinette placed the ring into a small, pre-prepared package and handed it to Tikki, "Please, return it to its owner."
Tikki solemnly accepted the small package. It knew what heavy, unspeakable secrets and trust it carried.
At the same time.
At Agreste Mansion.
Adrien was still slumped on the carpet in his room, completely lost in a state of "Who am I? Where do I come from? Where am I going?"
He was in a deep state of self-isolation.
Just then, the air in front of him suddenly rippled like water.
A small package, meticulously wrapped in red gift paper with ladybug spots, silently appeared before him.
He stared blankly, reached out, and unwrapped the package.
The silver ring, which he knew all too well, lay quietly inside.
He almost trembled as he put the recovered ring back on his finger.
A green light flashed, and the perpetually sleepy, tiny black figure reappeared before him.
"…My… my Camembert cheese?" Plagg yawned, saying weakly.
Responding to it was Adrien's handsome face, suddenly magnified countless times, full of the ecstasy and emotion of having something lost and found again, as he leaned in.
And far away, in the principal's office of François Dupont High School.
Principal Damocles was frantically hitting the last key on his keyboard!
"It's done! I've done it! My perfect, brand new, independently thinking albert 2.0! Finally—"
He hadn't finished speaking.
Outside the window, a pink, magical light, like a ripple, silently swept through the entire school building.
The computer screen in front of him suddenly crackled and flickered.
Then, the futuristic, brand new interactive interface he had just completed instantly disappeared. In its place was the familiar, retro-pixelated, "artificial idiot" albert's… black screen crash interface, complete with two comical small mustaches.
"No—!!"
A wail filled with unwillingness and despair echoed throughout the entire, silent campus.