Medea did answer her phone, thankfully. But once the League heard what happened, they...kind of panicked.

"What about the rest of us?!!" Spinner was losing it. "I knew he would hate it if we crossed him! We're going to be nomu-ed!"

"Is that even a word?" Hawks wondered.

Silk slapped Spinner. "Get grip! Luckily, we packed already. Let's just get out of here. He needs specific location, right?"

"But how did he know where Mirko was?" Compress said.

"Maybe the radio is bugged or something?" Medea said. "I bet he heard us...gosh-dang it! We're so stupid."

She set the radio on fire.

"Hey, I think that is toxic fumes, stop it!" the others yelled at her.

"Look," Silk took the phone, "no worry about us. We'll be fine. We'll get out of here, and he won't find us. Just get Mirko back before she's dissected. You and Hawks have best chance of finding her. Call us once you do."

"Are you sure?" Shigaraki wasn't.

"Positive." Silk sounded convincing to him, though the other members thought she looked nervous. "Dasvidaniya." She hung up.

Hawks looked up from his phone. "Now what?" he said. "I mean...so let's say I buy this, that this Ujiko guy is behind this, is it too late? Is he the type to just send someone into the middle of the ocean or the arctic?"

"He won't have the range for that." Shigaraki was thinking. "But he could know any number of places. Narrowing it down in time could be impossible."

"So...it's hopeless?" Fuyumi said.

There was silence.

"She can't be that far away," Hawks said finally. "What is the range limit of that? 10 km?"

"More like 40, with enough control."

"That's...a big radius..." Hawks said.

Fuyumi shook her head. "You need to cover a lot of ground quickly, then... Do you suppose he'll wait to kill her though?"

"We don't know that is what he intends to do," Shigaraki said. "He might prefer torture."

"Is that supposed to make us feel better?" Hawks said.

"I think he's saying we might have more time than we think?" Fuyumi said smoothly. "Now how about I call my dad, and we try to get a search team out...? Or...wait, wasn't her brother that really smart tech guy who helped us with those Metas?"

Hawks looked up. "Ren? I don't know. Would he be able to track her down? She's not micro-chipped...I don't think."

"But she had her phone on her," Fuyumi said. "I remember she had it in her pocket while you were yelling. I saw it."

Hawks snapped his fingers. "That's brilliant... I mean, let's say that creep stalls... Would 10 minutes even be enough? Who has his number?"

No one did.

"I know where his college is," Shigaraki said.

"Oh, sure, that'll work," Hawks said sarcastically. "How far away is it--? Why do you know that anyway?"

"If you'll recall, we were visiting him after meeting with you last week," Shigaraki said sullenly, "and it's Millennium Falcon University for Specialized Fields."

"Wait..." Fuyumi said, "that's not that far from Natsuo's college. A lot of the students at his college take classes there too. By flight, it's just a few minutes from here."

"Oh." Hawks snapped his fingers. "Has a big sign with a lug wrench or something on it?"

Shigaraki nodded sullenly.

"I can fly us there, but I still think this is a long shot. I'm going to look around for her too." Hawks sent out several feathers.

* * *

It was just a few minutes. Fuyumi insisted on coming.

"I still think we should call my dad, and you two need to focus on finding her, so someone has to explain it to him."

Hawks set down in front of Ren's dorm. "But Endeavor's help couldn't hurt. Unless you want to object for some stupid reason." This to Shigaraki, but his tone also said any objection would be overruled immediately anyway, so Shigaraki said nothing.

Actually, he was kind of nervous because Ren was not going to be happy.

And he wasn't.

"Hijo de las mil putas! [Son of a thousand whores] Are you for freaking serious?!" He had a taser pointed at them. "You let Rumi get kidnapped by the same mamon [basically means idiot or jerk] who tried to off her just 4 days ago?!! You estupido!"

"Can you help us or not?" Hawks didn't care about him yelling in Spanglish.

"I---claro..." Ren said slowly, "but after this, I'm going to make whoever is responsible for this suffer. I'm betting es tu." He looked a Shigaraki murderously. "But you need her phone traced? Muy facile. Intelli and I do that all the time." He pressed a button on his phone. "I think I can hack them myself, but I'm not taking any chances where my sister's life is concerned. And by the way, Mama will bury me alive if she's dead, so I hope you're planning on paying for two funerals if we're too late."

"Wow...is the whole family this dark?" Hawks was either impressed or scared.

Shigaraki was silent.

Fuyumi was talking to Endeavor. "And there's no time to get a warrant...really? Thank you. No, I don't have any kind of...what do you call it? A perimeter...?" She looked toward Ren.

"Give me a few minutes." Ren was on his computer. "We are lucky in one way--a lot of Heroes have the same phone plan provided by the government. Personally, I think it's so they're easier to track down. A Top Pro can't really get out of it. At least I only have to worry about thousands, not millions... Hola? Padre? Si..." He was talking to Intelli through his earpiece. "Right, just like we talked about..."

Hawks sighed. "I'm going to fly around anyway. Maybe I'll see something."

All of them were already thinking it might be too late.

Shigaraki didn't think he was particularly upset at the moment about it...other than he felt sick. His mind was still racing.

One thing he couldn't understand was why Ujiko would do all of this. Why did it concern him? It was never his department who entered the League, who worked with them, etc. The only time he'd interfered was with the Giant. And that was months ago. Mostly just for AFO, too... He'd never seemed to care about their actions beyond them needing nomu.

Trying to eliminate Mirko indicated she was some kind of threat in Ujiko's mind, but though Shigaraki was smart enough to figure that out, he was too dense to figure out why that was. The lab thing, if Ujiko had caused it, was not really her fault--it was Ujiko's more for setting it up, so he wanted it destroyed, but why? Evidence?

And why did Shigaraki have the sinking feeling it might have something to do with something he'd said or done...

It took him awhile--awhile being a few minutes--to recall when he and Ujiko had spoken of it... Right, Ujiko had given him the wrong idea then, but he'd assumed it was an accident.

Even someone who never suspected his "benefactors" of ulterior motives couldn't help but put it together... This had started then...probably.

It must have been because he had refused to kick Mirko out then...

Shigaraki normally might have taken that as a sign to just kick her out, but suddenly he was angry. It was his decision, wasn't it? Ujiko didn't have to like it, but they had always said it was up to him what to do with his assets. And going behind his back like this, it was expressly what AFO would have never done.

[🎶Sweet Summer Child...🎵]

Childish as he was, Shigaraki kind of took Ujiko's resistance of it as a sort of personal insult. What did he think he was doing, trying to act all king-like, like he had the right to decide who did and didn't join this League?!

"Hey?" Ren looked back. "It's tracing now. Should be a minute or two. We could be really lucky, assuming he didn't just shoot her or something..." He bit his lip. "I don't really get emotional on the outside, kind of wired that way. My sisters and my mom do. My dad and I don't. So...don't mistake my calm demeanor for me not being absolutely livid about this... I just want to know, why? Why couldn't you just do what I said, not put her in harm's way?"

Shigaraki looked up. "It wasn't the plan," he said, surprisingly meekly for him. "Ujiko is doing some kind of rebellious thing. I don't know why. Perhaps because I didn't do something he wanted."

"And what did he want?"

"I think he wanted her gone, one way or the other."

Ren knew what that meant.

"So he told you that."

"In as many words...." Shigaraki said, "though I thought he was just especially concerned, and I told him it was unnecessary."

"I guess that went over well." Ren shook his head.

Silence.

"I guess, if I was laying aside that this is my family, I might normally say this isn't really your fault," Ren said, with forced control. "I don't usually blame people for just being too stupid to see that someone is going to go behind their back...but it is my sister, and we had a deal. Wouldn't it have been less selfish to just tell her to go before he got this uptight about it?"

Shigaraki was quiet.

Ren looked at him a long moment.

"Didn't want to, huh?" he said.

"The League wouldn't have liked it," Shigaraki said. "And if she'd wanted to go, she'd have gone. I don't make people's decisions for them."

"I see..." Ren said. "I wish I could say I thought you were lying, but I know mi chica loca too well..." He shook his head. "You know what? If she gets out of this alive, no hard feelings. I'll be generous... If not, well, I'll have to think about that I'm going to do."

Scary...

"I can kind of see why she likes hanging out with you lunatics, though." Ren sighed, eyeing his laptop. "Freedom with loyalty, that's not something you find too often in a group. Most of them end up kind of faction-like after a while. I guess the LOV could have ended up that way, but maybe the constant setbacks were a good thing, made you all a bit more flexible... Rumi's a free spirit, but she likes if someone has her back as much as the next person. She'd never want to admit it, but she likes it there. Weird for a Hero to prefer Villains, but Heroes have so much pressure...I can't say I wouldn't want an escape from it too." He sighed. "You know, she was happy, too. I could tell the other day...but I still wish..."

Wished she'd left? Wished she'd never joined?

Shigaraki wouldn't blame him... He was starting to feel something suspiciously like guilt about this, and even he was recognizing it as such for once... It was one thing to kill Heroes as part of their act, but this was family... He never had given that much thought. Mostly Shigaraki had killed people who seemed like loners anyway, not much to worry about there. But it was bringing back some very unpleasant memories to see Ren get upset about this the way his family used to... He felt sicker.

Suddenly there was a beeping sound.

Ren looked up. "Ah...got something." He leaned in excitedly. "Hmm, you were right--it's not too far away...a little patchy though, probably means it's not in the city. Cell service can be wonky out in the woods...but that means we could still have a few km margin for error here, if it's inconsistent." He motioned and his phone texted something without him having to touch it. "But it's a heckuva lot better than before. You got this, Miss Todoroki?"

Fuyumi looked in. "I got it. I'm sending it to my dad. But it will take them a while to get there. Hadn't you better go? Hawks is faster."

"Yeah, we're going," Ren said. "Where'd he go anyway?"

Fuyumi bit her lip. "Maybe I should come too."

"What?" Ren said. "But...you're not a Hero."

"Neither are you," Fuyumi said. "But I was thinking, if something changes, someone had better be ready to let my dad know, right? A few minutes could be the difference here, couldn't it? And you'll be busy trying to find her... I can at least do that. I did that before. I won't try to fight or anything. I know I'm not good at that."

"Hmm. I can see why Hawk likes you so much," Ren said. "S---, I got nothing against it. Let's get out of here." He picked up some more weapons while he was speaking.

Shigaraki didn't bother to argue either. Why should he care if Fuyumi came or not?

"It'd be faster to warp there," he stated instead.

"I'm down, but we still need Hawks Boy," Ren said.

Shigaraki scowled. "I can warp him from here."

Black ooze...

* * *

Mirko had found herself in...a cage?

So insulting, belittling, demeaning...

Ujiko was sitting on the outside of it, holding the nomu.

"The h---?!" she said. "What did you do, you weasel?!"

"You trust someone to do something, and then, after years of care and service, they don't do it." Ujiko spoke as if she was supposed to know what he was talking about. "Well, as they say, you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. Don't bother," as she kicked at the bars. "I'm sure you won't be able to break those. This cage is designed to resist quirks of all kinds. I got it from a friend of mine."

Sure enough, she didn't even rattle the bars.

"You don't find this a little...uncreative?" she said. "Putting me in a cage and then what? Electrocuting it?"

"I could have done that, but that seemed a little too humane," Ujiko said. "You hurt my precious toys. My life's work, you have a habit of destroying it. And for what?"

"To save people's lives." Mirko had no room for a pun there--she was just too mystified by his stupidity.

"As if that matters," Ujiko dismissed it. "You Pros can never appreciate the art that is my scientific research."

"I'm sure Oboro appreciated losing his brain," Mirko said.

"He was a failure anyway," Ujiko said, "but you win some, you lose some. It's still a shame I can't use you, but at this point, I don't think the League would be cooperative if I did. It's long process, one we don't have time for now... As it is, the plan was scrapped."

"Plan?" Mirko said.

"Even now, I won't tell you." Ujiko straightened his goggle. "Of course, you won't live long enough to pass it on, but I'm bound to secrecy even so."

"There's a plan other than your one for Shigaraki and taking over society?" Mirko said.

Ujiko shrugged. "Good scientists always have a backup plan, my furry friend."

"Never call me your friend ever again," Mirko said.

"It's just an expression," Ujiko said. He opened a container of tools. "Of course I plan to take a few DNA samples before, just so as to not go to waste. I'd like to clone your quirk...at least part of it. Could be useful. Just picture it, a nomu with rabbit feet."

"If the goal is to get me to hurl again, it's working." Mirko felt nauseated. "And don't touch me with that." She backed up as far as the cage would allow. "I'll get out of this somehow. I didn't make it this far to die in such a lame way... Anyway, you know that Shigaraki is on to you, right? Even if you succeed, he knows you planned the whole thing."

"Does he now?" Ujiko paused. "How unfortunate... I doubt he can prove it, though."

"They found your little radio plant," Mirko said.

Ujiko looked up. "Oh, I forgot about that... Absent minded scientist, you know... Oh well, it was useful though. I heard where you were, didn't I? I didn't listen much after that."

"Did you miss the part when the League told Shigaraki you set the whole thing up?" Mirko said, testing the floor to see if it was just as hard as the bars... It didn't have any give either. She eyed the ceiling... There had to be a door in this thing somewhere...

She zeroed in on one of the barred walls... There was a small latch, almost invisible in the metal, but there it was... It looked pretty thick, but if it had a hinge, that was her best bet. She'd need Ujiko to not be paying attention though.

"I'm suprised they would," Ujiko said. "Maybe this has gone farther than I thought...but if you think it will matter, let me tell you something about Tomura Shigaraki. He's a being of pure destructive force."

Mirko didn't like the look on his face there, like he was enjoying that idea way too much. 

"Master AFO is quite clever, you see. He saw the boy's true potential after he killed his family."

"So maybe he's got some control issues," Mirko said, "but it wasn't on purpose. How does that fit with your pure destructive force thing?"

"Why does it matter if it's on purpose?" Ujiko said. "You can't deny someone's true nature."

"So you're not doing that with nomu? They're just naturally that way, and you've put in the bells and whistles," Mirko said with cutting sarcasm.

Ujiko shrugged. "Touche... Some people are better specimens than others, aren't they? I see what it is--you imagine there's still hope for Tomura, don't you?"

Mirko was silent. She had never really said that...in words, anyway. Shine did. Shine believed there was hope for anyone, it would seem... D---, Mirko wished she was here right now. She'd know how to put this b-----d in his place. Mirko wasn't good with word matches. She preferred physical ones.

If Ujiko killed her, would Shine know about it? Probably eventually... That would suck for her... She might feel responsible.

Well, it was Mirko's own, dumb fault for not seeing this coming.

"How fetching," Ujiko was taunting her. "It's almost too naive to be funny. You think there's an idea in that boy's head that we didn't put there? Any type of affection, loyalty, or even anger he's ever experienced is under our observation. We're in perfect agreement. And he hates everything... Did you actually think you'd be an exception to that?"

"I never said that," Mirko said tightly. "I know how it is. I'm not stupid. Why would I even care about that? I just think, taking someone's free will, that's pretty messed up. I believe people should make their own choices in life without some old geezer twisting their mind for his own sick satisfaction."

"Ever the scathing little Hero, aren't you?" Ujiko was maddeningly condescending. "But you can't fool me. I've studied how to warp people's desires all one way for too long. This isn't what you want, is it?"

Mirko's heart rate sped up... What was he getting at...? Oh no, not him too... This was the last person she wanted to hear this from.

"Well, let me spell it out for you." Ujiko suddenly leaned closer to the bars. "Even if there was the slightest germ of any positive feeling for you there, it will die out. Killing you will only confirm all of it. Tomura Shigaraki doesn't get happy things--That ruins the experiment, you stupid bunny. The whole point is that mourning will always cling to him...and the only time to put that aside will be to embrace his destiny, and a wayward, poor Hero with a big mouth and disagreeable attitude is not going to ruin that for me or the Master. That is AFO's dream, and I don't intend to let you slow it down."

Mirko swallowed hard, but he'd made his mistake.

Suddenly she leapt forward and kicked him from between the bars. Ujiko went skidding several meters.

Turning to the door of the cage, she put her foot on the hinge and slammed down as hard as she could. It snapped off.

It was still more painful than she expected. Her foot throbbed... She didn't have her metal guard on. She wasn't in costume right now, so this was going to be harder as it was. 

She yanked the door open and bounded out. Where was she? The middle of the woods. Not good, she wasn't great at navigating the woods...but she lunged at Ujiko.

"I'll break every bone in your body this time!" she yelled.

The small nomu opened its mouth.

"Sorry, but you still aren't anywhere near my level," Ujiko said. "I wasn't going to resort to this until later, but I'll take your corpse over nothing. It was nice knowing you, Mirko." He vanished.

Resort to what? Mirko looked around. A terrible foreboding clutched at her throat.

But what happened next caught her off guard even so.

The ground shook, not like an earthquake, more like something huge and heavy had slammed into it.

The truth of the matter was Ujiko was fresh out of nomu, but he still had one pet left that no one had thought of in a while.

Gigantomachia....

Mirko had never seen the giant in person, or even on TV, but the League had told her about how powerful he was, and when she saw the huge monster's head over the tree tops, there wasn't a doubt in her mind who it was.

Her mouth dropped open, and her ears stood straight up.

Her first thought?

This seems really overkill to take on one Pro. What is this guys's deal?

Her second thought? Run!!

If the entire LOV couldn't take on this thing together, she doubted she had a chance, even with her ranking, and without her special shoes, she'd break her feet trying to kick that thing.

No help for it, she was running.

Not a moment too soon. Gigantamachia sniffed and looked down at her, then he said something about rabbits, and moved much faster than something his size should have been able to move. He shot over the forest, knocking trees aside like sticks.

Mirko had no clue where she was in the woods, but she hoped it was away from a city... Then again, other Heroes might be her only shot at surviving this...

She bounced off landscape around rocks, trees, anything to get a little more out of range.

She was faster than the giant, but only by the space of minutes at most. And unlike him, she was going to get tired from burning all those calories in a very short time. She didn't think she'd even eaten that much today.

So, sizing up her chances...it wasn't great if she didn't find cover of some sort. Maybe there was a mountain around here... She couldn't see much other than trees, d----it! Ujiko probably did that on purpose.

Maybe she could call for help.

She reached for her phone...and discovered it had fallen out while she was jumping over things...s--t....

She kicked off a tree and ducked around some bushes.

Gigantamachia crashed through some not far way.

Mirko's heart was pounding... Not good, so not good...

"Well," she muttered to herself, "crushed by a giant...not the way I thought I'd go...but I'm not taking it lying down. I'll fight till my last breath, you just watch... No regrets."

That wasn't entirely true. She regretted not ending things on a better note with Ren than she had. But he'd understand. Getting killed by a giant was a getting-out-of-apologizing-free card, after all.

It was too bad about Medea...

No time to get distracted! She jerked herself and ran for it again.

She needed some kind of plan, but she wasn't getting enough time to hold still and think of one beyond dodge!

Piccolo would be proud, but that wasn't going to save her...

The giant seemed stupid, at least. He was just charging and tearing things out of his way.... Wouldn't be much of a forest left soon... Wouldn't some Hero see something? Then again, no one had the last time this happened...

She lost track of time for a while then. It was just run, jump, run, duck, run again...

It was probably only a few minutes, though it felt like hours to her. She ended up with this dumb song going through her head, sort of internal pep music.

[Stamp on the Ground]

[Yeah, I know, but it's too fitting. Someone will make an AMV for her to this eventually, I know it.]

Mirko began to feel lightheaded... However good her endurance was, it wasn't as much as the giant's... You'd think something this size would get tired. [Scientifically, she's correct. The giant shouldn't be able to even walk normally--but quirk logic, naturally.]

But nope, he wasn't slowing down at all.

And even a professional fighter can't keep going at full speed for that long. Endurance is about stopping and starting again quickly, not continuously going... She was going to pass out soon.

Maybe now...actually...

She landed next to a larger rock... She might be getting close to a hill, judging by the terrain.thethe. Maybe a little farther and she'd be able to find a hiding spot...

She stumbled a little forward... No good...she was seeing black spots...

I can't give up now, she thought dimly. I'm so close... Gotta get ahead of this thing... Can't...die...now...

Then her vision just kind of went out. She wasn't sure what happened. She thought she hit the ground and then it went black for a second...

[I've never fainted, but my sister has, and she described it as more like this, not a nice experience like some people think.]

She heard crashing from Gigantamachia in the background and knew she needed to get up. Her limbs wouldn't work yet though... A few minutes, and she might be fine...but...

[Note: It's not a good idea to push yourself after you pass out from exercise, btw. Just a tip, but if it's life or death, of course, you don't really have a choice.]

She shoved herself up somehow.

Suddenly someone yanked her up from the side and around the rock.