To armadas: "Inconvenient" is one word for it!

To Lyger 0: *sips coffee* That's a very good question…

To yellow 14: Yeah… A normal lion she could probably handle on her own. But the kind of Lion that bursts from the ground and immediately starts wrecking shop? Not exactly solo material…

A little over an hour after they had left Rio, Kagami stared out the window at the city of Magé as their SUV cautiously picked its way down the open streets. Decorations – less than she had seen in Rio, though still an impressive array – covered the buildings and hung across the street. Even this early, a little before lunchtime, the party had already begun. Revelers – some of them locals, some who had driven in from the countryside around them, some who were obviously tourists – clogged the sidewalks and spilled out into the streets, forcing Paola to slow down and honk for them to move out of her way more than once. Venders stood beside their stalls, hawking their wares. The smells of a hundred different types of food permeated the air around them, filtering into the SUV through the open windows, which also allowed in the music of a dozen bands. Were it not for the reason for their visit, Kagami woiuld have been ecstatic for the opportunity to experience the celebration; she could tell just from the looks on Rose's and Juleka's faces that they wanted nothing more than to listen to the band they had just driven past. Kagami frowned. How were they supposed to find Mira in a city of this size and in the middle of the festival? For that matter, how did Mira expect to find the Bat in a city of this size on her own?

As if reading her thoughts, Luka placed a hand on her shoulder. "She knows what she's doing," he reminded her. "And we can find her."

She nodded as the SUV stopped in one of the last parking spots left in front of a small convenience store near the center of the town. "I just wish we had a little more to go on." She smacked her phone against the seat in frustration. "And I wish I actually had cell reception here…"

He shrugged and pushed his door open. "If we spread out, we can cover more ground faster." Looking at the others, he added, "Meet back here in an hour."

"We'll find her!" Rose declared, squeezing Juleka's hand. Juleka nodded briskly, and the two of them ran off together toward the closest block party, disappearing into the crowd.

"I'll check in here," Paola announced, gesturing toward the convenience store. "They may have seen something that can help us."

When Paola was gone, Kagami raised an eyebrow dubiously. "I doubt it," she muttered. "Mira has said that she learned how to disappear about as soon as she learned to walk!"

Luka placed one hand on the small of Kagami's back and steered her in the direction opposite of where Juleka and Rose had gone. Kagami leaned into his touch. Above the crowd a small three-piece band stood on an improvised stage, working through a sound check. "Even still," Luka told her, "she's bound to leave some traces."

"Hopefully." As they entered the crowd, Kagami took Luka's hand, holding on tightly to keep them from being separated. She could feel her concern starting to rise as the crowd thickened around them. Mira could be here… but so could Night Bat. The band started to play their first song, a pop tune that Kagami didn't recognize. Beside her, Luka started humming along, though she could hear him working strains of her heart song into the melody. Kagami forced herself to talk a slow, measured breath, hold it, and release it. She was worried for Mira, but acting solely from that fear would not help. Her tension and anxiety could not do anything for Mira. On the contrary, all it could do was to distract her and cause her to make mistakes. Luka squeezed her hand, and she squeezed it back, glancing to the side to find him looking at her with a small smile on his lips. She pursed her lips in annoyance. "Why did she think she had to go off on her own?" she wondered, sighing heavily. "I mean, I'm sure she thought it was the best way to keep us safe, but she could have at least brought me with her…"

"You're still recovering," Luka pointed out, shifting his arm to wrap around her waist, holding her close to himself. They emerged on the other side of the crowd, starting down the side street beyond, walking opposite the flow of traffic. "You've been training, but I know you're not back to 100%." She furrowed her brows. "I watched you spar with Rose the night before we left," he explained.

She scoffed. "I was just going easy on her…"

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "I'm sure. But regardless, after what happened with the Yakuza – to say nothing of the last time you fought Night Bat – I don't exactly like the idea of watching you go off to fight him again…"

She arched her eyebrow in a challenge. "Are you going to stop me?"

He raised an eyebrow back. "Are you saying that I can stop you?"

"I would listen to you," she told him defensively. He gave her a dubious look. "I would…" She paused. "But that doesn't mean I would do what you say!"

He chuckled. "I know you don't really mean that."

"During 'Second Chance time', no," she agreed, nodding. "The rest of the time?" She shrugged. She absolutely trusted him – with her life and more. He knew that, too. But… "If you're just being an overprotective boyfriend…"

"I would argue I'm being exactly as protective as I need to be," he retorted, his arm around her waist tightening. He ran his free hand through his hair anxiously. "Do you think she heard me saying I didn't want to have to choose between the four of you, who would live and who would die?"

She frowned. "Maybe," she allowed. "But that doesn't mean your concern is wrong…" She hugged him with the arm she already had around his waist. "I know how much you worry about that. But you need to know that all of us trust you."

He nodded, his shoulders slumping. "I do worry about that," he admitted, staring down at the ground. "But that doesn't mean I don't trust you. I do! I trust all of you to do whatever I say so I can guide us through the fight the best way possible. There's no way I would give up the chance to help you through a fight. In fact, I think – no; I know – I worry more about what could happen if I weren't there while you were in a fight. I would feel worse – actually, I did feel worse when you went into a fight without me and you got hurt."

She stopped and hugged him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a kiss. "I know." Luka hugged her back vigorously, placing his hand in her hair and holding her close. She let out a sigh, her anxiety disappearing momentarily. This was where she belonged. When the two of them were together – when they were united – nothing could stop them. But the moment couldn't last forever; Longg nudged her in the side through her purse. Reluctantly, Kagami pulled away from Luka and looked down at her watch. She frowned. They had been at this for almost an hour now; by the time they returned to the SUV, the others would be there waiting for them. "We need a new strategy," she decided, nodding in the direction they had come.

A few minutes later they arrived back at the SUV to find Juleka, Rose, and Paola all leaning against the side of the vehicle with similar frustrated expressions. "I take it you didn't find her, either?" asked Juleka, raising an eyebrow, her arms folded. Rose put a hand on her arm.

Kagami shook her head. "If we just had some clue of where she went…"

Paola's jaw dropped, her eyes widening. "A 'clue'…" She slapped her forehead, groaning. "Of course… The answer was right in front of our noses the whole time." She looked down at the Kwami peeking out of her purse. "Think we can find her, Balamm?" He furrowed his brows, looking around what he could see of the parking lot. Finally he let out a breath and nodded, eyes narrowed in concentration.

Fifteen minutes later, the five heroes had transformed in the alley between two buildings and leapt up to the roof of one. Onça Feroz closed her eyes and muttered, "Spot-Senses." Her miraculous ears twitched and her head turned in either direction. Her nose turned up and she sniffed the air carefully, frowning. Suddenly her eyes shot wide open and she sprinted north. "Come on!" she shouted behind her. "I think she went this way!"

Ryoku raced to keep up with her headlong pace. "'Think'?" she repeated. "What do you mean, you think she went this way?"

Onça Feroz shrugged. "I can't exactly be certain… if you want certainty, you need El Bandido; Mask and Answer will identify specific clues; Spot-Sense only improves the senses. But I can smell her trail in this direction – not many people in Brazil use French shampoo, and I'm looking at all of you!"

Viperion chuckled. "Good enough for me," he observed, racing after them, Bengalia and Miss Pinky only half a step behind him to start.

Ryoku inhaled deeply of the mountain air as the countryside passed by them in a blur. Bengalia and Miss Pinky to either side of her; Viperion behind. All of them following closely after Onça Feroz as she tracked Hato Gozen. Finally they had a clue to point them in her direction. Perhaps nothing was happening; perhaps Hato Gozen had found Night Bat and was even now fighting him. But whatever was waiting for them at the end of their journey, they could handle it together. The buildings almost immediately gave way to forest as they left Magé behind, following the highway north. The heroes raced alongside the road, their miraculous enhanced speed allowing them to keep pace easily with the small number of vehicles driving north, opposite the larger number driving south. Onça Feroz didn't slacken her pace, running straight past the smaller town to their right, following the roadway into the park that spread out in all directions around them, the nearby trees broken up by the distant mountains stretching upward into the clouds.

"I hear wings up ahead!" called Onça Feroz, pointing to the side, just off the roadway. "It's got to be her! We can't be far now!"

Ryoku nodded, her face setting in a hard mask. They were going to find Hato Gozen, and hopefully they would also find Night Bat – and then they could defeat him and take his miraculous away and stop this illness!

ROAR!

Ryoku's jaw dropped and her heart almost stopped on hearing the roar that shook the very ground below them and reverberated off the mountains, through the trees. Onça Feroz let out an agonized scream, dropping to the ground and covering her ears with her hands. Ryoku almost paused to check on her, but the enraged roar repeated, louder this time. Ryoku's eyes automatically turned in the direction of the noise to find the tops of the trees shaking in that direction. "Follow me!" she shouted to the others, putting on a burst of speed and racing past Onça Feroz, who crouched leaning against a tree, a grimace on her face. But Ryoku couldn't worry about her at the moment. With Bengalia and Miss Pinky on either side of her, Ryoku raced through the forest, narrowly skirting around the trees, barely avoiding the roots that threatened to catch her ankles and trip her up. Another roar shook the forest around them, followed by a higher-pitched shout. Her eyes turned up to look through the tree cover as it parted.

Hato Gozen sailed over the trees on a parabolic arc, directly toward the distant shapes of the mountains rising into the clouds.

Whipping her sword out and pointing it directly in front of Hato Gozen, Ryoku bellowed, "Wind Dragon!"