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Adrien felt guilty about his list.
He tried to rationalize it, telling himself it was for their own good. Hawk Moth would doubtless be doing everything in his power to identify Ladybug and Chat Noir, and it made sense to put the evidence he would have together to see how close he might be getting.
It made sense.
It was a good reason.
So why did he feel so guilty about it?
Ladyblogger Alya Césaire found Ladybug’s history textbook. Thanks to some digging, there were a limited number of people with reason to have such a book.
Alya had, of course, recanted the evidence as circumstantial after finding evidence of an ancient egyptian depiction of Ladybug. But the List wasn’t about the public finding out. It was about Hawk Moth.
Hawk Moth, like Adrien, had a kwami. He would know that the ancient egyptian Ladybug was likely a different holder of the same miraculous.
Thanks to some light questioning of Nino, Adrien knew there were 43 suspects. 43 girls - all in his school, no less - who would have that textbook. Adding Alya back to the list of suspects, that made 44.
Maybe if he’d made a similar mistake - not that he blamed Ladybug for dropping the book - he’d be investigating Chat Noir instead. But as it was, Ladybug was the center of attention. There was just more evidence for her.
So, Adrien got to snooping.
After compiling his full list of suspects, Adrien quickly crossed out Alya. As much as he wouldn’t put it past Ladybug to be running a blog about herself to throw people off; he’d seen Alya and Ladybug in the same place, the first day they’d met.
From there, Adrien crossed out everyone who had been akumatized to date. The general public didn’t know the identities of some of the akumas he crossed off, thanks to privacy laws, but Hawk Moth would certainly have that information.
The next thing he did was look into who he could confirm had their history textbook during the time Ladybug’s was in Alya’s possession- between the time of the livestream and the akumatization of Jalil Kubdel into The Pharaoh. Since there had been almost a full day between the two events, and several of the other classes had been studying for an upcoming history test at the time, Adrien was surprised how easy it was to narrow his list down.
Now there were 8 names.
- Angeline G
- Chloé B
- Juleka C
- Marinette D
- Mireille C
- Ondine N
- Sabrina R
- Yvette A
Chloé was the easiest to rule out- having caused more than her share of akumas, Adrien had seen her and Ladybug in the same place plenty of times.
Adrien reflected on the akumas he and Ladybug had dealt with over the months they’d spent as partners. The most obvious clue, he figured, was Horrificator’s attack. Nino still had the video evidence of the encounter, which could be used to rule out Sabrina, Juleka, Chloé (again),
Adrien nearly crossed out Marinette, as well, since she’d been there at the time- but something made him hesitate. Going back through the footage, he never saw her, or heard her voice, after Ladybug appeared. Even during the roll call in the basement, he only had Ladybug’s word that Marinette had been present, despite the video evidence of the event. Something about that didn’t sit right.
Adrien thought back to Nathaniel’s akumatization, as Evillustrator. Marinette had been right in the middle of things, and yet… Ladybug had been conveniently absent. On a ‘secret mission’ that she’d still yet to explain to Chat.
Surely there was some other time Adrien could remember, where Ladybug and Marinette had both been present? His class had been targeted enough times by akumas, after all. The Bubbler? Almost his whole class had attended the forced birthday party. Everyone, except… Marinette.
Adrien wanted this to be good news - he found Ladybug! - but he knew it wasn’t. He’d intentionally only used information that Hawk Moth could access, during his investigation. The official list only had 5 names, and the evidence singling out Marinette was circumstantial, but it was only a matter of time.
Hawk Moth would find Ladybug.
He’d target her friends and family.
He’d target her.
Ladybug was in danger.
And only Chat Noir could protect her.
Time to visit the bakery, then.