Chapter 36: Chapter 34: Queen's Tutorial
(Marinette's pov)
We stood outside Kaneshiro's palace, trying to decide on Makoto's nickname.
"Erm... shoulder pads?" Skull suggested.
"Skull..." I sighed.
"Why on earth would you focus on that?" Mona scolded.
"I refuse to be called that," Makoto said.
"What about Rider?" Fox said.
"Sounds too much like a smuggler, next!" Makoto said.
"Fixer?" Panther suggested.
"I'm not a mastermind, next!" Makoto said.
"She reminds me of an empress... What do you two think?" Mona asked, looking at Joker and me.
Empress... President... hmm... Oh!
"Queen." Joker and I said at the same time. We looked at each other in surprise.
"You guys are seriously in sync..." Skull said.
"Yeah..." Panther said.
"Anyway, I totally see it! We have a queen and a princess!" Panther continued, looking between Makoto and me.
"It has a nice ring to it... I like it!" Makoto, now Queen, said.
"Well then, you are now an official member of the Phantom Thieves, Queen!" I said with my signature bright smile on my face.
"Thank you, Princess. Now then, will you explain the strategy for this mission?" Queen asked.
"Erm... Strategy?" Skull asked. Mon Dieu...
"You don't have one? Wait. The Phantom Thieves were acting without any plans?!" Queen asked, looking shocked.
"Not really! Since every palace is different, we just explore it until we find the treasure room. From there, we form a plan around stealing the treasure. Mona usually gives navigation... and we dispose of any shadows in our way as discreetly as possible." I told Queen.
"Sounds simple enough... I feel like I'll be helpful for sure. It seems my role is to be the brains of this team. I'll analyze Mona's information and give out orders. Any objections?" Queen said.
"N-none, Queen!" Skull said, standing to attention.
"I bet Skull's definitely the type that'll be under a girl's thumb..." Panther sighed.
"Mona, will you begin navigating us?" Queen asked, looking down at him.
"Y-yes, Queen!" Mona answered.
"Him too, it seems..." Fox sighed. Joker and I also sighed and looked at each other. This is going to be a fun one...
(One trap door under a golden piggy bank statue later...)
Guard dogs... excellent... and it spotted us... oh no...
The dog-shaped shadow ran towards us and howled before turning into a two-headed wolf-like thing with a spine-like tail! It immediately attacked Mona before any of us could react.
"Not bad... But I think it's time for that finisher we were talking about earlier, Panther!" Mona said.
"Huh? You want to do that now?" Panther asked, a little flustered.
"Geez... fine! Let's go!" Panther said. Suddenly, I felt something... I'm not sure what it was, but it felt like a gush of wind blow around me and to Mona and Panther.
Then, the scenery around us changed. We were in a flower field with a winding path. Panther and Mona were there, and the shadow a few meters away from them. Mona presented a bouquet of roses to Panther. She smiles before reaching into the roses and pulling out her guns. Panther shot wildly around before jumping in the air with Mona. She shot at the shadow before Mona pulled out a cartoonish bomb and threw it at the shadow. They landed gracefully while the shadow blew up, earning us our victory!
I was speechless... How... what just happened?
"Erm... did all of that just happen, or did someone slip something into my tea earlier?" I asked.
"We all saw that..." Joker said.
"What you saw was the magic of teamwork!" Mona said.
"I'm also surprised... you don't think that star had something to do with it?" Panther asked.
"The star?" Fox asked.
"You know that kid in Mementos Jose, right? When we first met him, he gave us this blue star thing." I said.
"It did glow when Mona proposed the idea... so it is possible!" I said.
"So that star is a wish-granting star?" Fox asked.
"I don't get it, but what I do get is that if Mona and Panther could do that, then maybe we can do something like that too!" Skull said. I nodded, looking at Joker.
"I wonder what else is in store for us?" I wondered aloud. My fellow Phantom Thieves nodded, and we continued to explore.
(Time skip! Brought to you by Plagg bugging Akira for cheese!)
After finding a control room and grabbing a key card, we discovered a saferoom and decided to rest. As we were relaxing, I took out my sketchbook and sketched a hoodie based on Panther's costume. As I drew the cat ears on the hood, Queen then asked something.
"You know... I've noticed something strange..." Queen started.
"Yeah?" Skull said.
"You guys have powers other than your personas," Queen said. The rest of us stiffened.
"For example... Joker, you managed to reduce that shadow to dust just by touching it. While you did it, I noticed strange black energy radiating off of your hand. How did you do that?" Queen asked.
"We'll tell you after we steal Kaneshiro's heart," I told her.
"Really?" Queen asked, tilting her head.
"Think of it as a rite of passage for a new Phantom Thief who completed their first mission," Fox said.
"Is that so? Well then, I look forward to it!" Queen said. I smiled and nodded. Turning back to my sketchbook, I wondered what Miraculous she would get. A few minutes later, Joker was finished with whatever he was writing in his journal and told us that it was time to head out.
(Art: Akiranette Pride!
<a href="https://ibb.co/4KYnz3m"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/Bcr5bFz/Akiranette-Pride.png" alt="Akiranette-Pride" border="0"></a>)
(A/N: More filler, I'm sorry! Like I said last chapter, Writer's Block... But, I hope you enjoy my art! Yes, in this fic, Marinette is Demisexual and Akira is Bisexual! It will be acknowledged later in the fic as well as everyone else's sexualities, but until then, see you next week!)
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