The detectives found Kōrima the Undying traveling by horse-pulled cart around Mount Fuji, disguised as a merchant transporting his wares. Mobius drove his team in their own horse-pulled carriage, all still hidden from sight with Loki's magic.

"That's him." Healer told his team. "I can tell from the piece of me I attached to him that he has your DNA, Loki, and I found out he has the treasures stored in his magical stash, like you useee."

"Then we'll either have to wait for him to bring them out or find a way to make him!" Sylvie proposed.

"Let's continue to follow him and wait for him to make his move." Loki suggested. "That way we can find out what he's plotting while he's still short one treasure."

"And then, when we recover the other two treasures, that's when I'll make my move!" Fiamma asserted.

"Just as long as you're aware he's probably going to try to manipulate you for his own gain." Mobius warned her. "It's a common pattern among Lokis."

"Without a doubt, but I'm not exactly naive. Besides, I've met enough Lokis by now myself that I wouldn't be fooled by their games."

"Alright."

They continued to tail Kōrima unnoticed before he reached the shore of the Philippine Sea. The shinobi ran on the water's surface once more, patches of ice forming underneath his feet as he advanced. Signaling his team to stay, Loki shapeshifted into a shark and followed him, until he stopped in the center of a group of jagged rocks. Kōrima glanced around before speaking.

"Susanoo sama, I have returned with the three treasures."

"Good work, wayward shinobi." Susanoo's voice echoed from below the waters. "Now drop them to the sea bottom, and when I utilize them together, I'll be able to break free from this prison and return to the heavenly realm to get revenge on Amaterasu for trapping me here!"

"And you'll give me the answers I seek."

"I will, now bring them down."

Kōrima let go of the ancient relics, waiting for them to reach the bottom. However, shark Loki dove down after them and snatched the mirror and the sword in his jaws. He then swam back to his friends while Kōrima was none the wiser.

"Well, that wasn't so hard." Loki remarked. He stowed away the remaining two relics into his own magical inventory and smirked. "He was speaking to that kami Susanoo whom Watari told us about; he struck a deal with Kōrima, apparently using the three treasures to free him from a prison of his sister's doing in exchange for information."

"What kind of information?" Mobius asked.

"I don't know, but it must be important for him to work so hard for it!"

"We could probably dig up the information he wants... we can search through all of time and space for it, after all." Fiamma theorized. "Then he won't try to steal the treasures back."

"Unless if this info happens to be the locations of, say, Infinity Stones or other dangerous artifacts." Mobius said. "Like Loki said before, he's most likely seeking some form of power."

"Don't forget though, all Lokis are different... unique, even if it doesn't seem like it." Sylvie reminded him. "For me, I grew more powerful on my own to eliminate the most powerful force I'd ever known, but only to free myself from that force... I didn't seek his powers for myself."

"You're saying he might be more noble than the average Loki?"

"Undoubtedly. Think back to his thefts: he may have snuck past and disoriented his enemies, but he hasn't killed a single person during any of them! He's only done what's necessary to take what he needed!"

"Yeah, that's true, but that doesn't necessarily mean we can trust him."

"I didn't say we could or we couldn't. There's only one real way to find out."

"You mean get Verity Willis back on the line?" Loki clarified.

"And meeting him face-to-face." Sylvie added. "No more hiding in the shadows!"

"That's more like it!" Fiamma exclaimed. "Let's go introduce ourselves."

Loki nodded. "Okay, but Syl, you stay hidden until we can be absolutely sure he won't attempt to harm you."

"Fiiine!" Sylvie moaned.

They spotted Kōrima speeding towards the shore, desperate to find the missing treasures after his mystical employer informed him of the situation. However, before he could locate any of them, he was ambushed from under the surface as Loki, shapeshited into Atlantean physiology, placed his hands over the ninja's eyes and knocked him onto dry land!

Upon making contact with the ninja's form, Loki discovered that his opponent cast an illusion of himself over a tall block of ice, which Kōrima controlled to spread around Loki and trap him. Yet to the ninja's surprise, the ice began to morph the detective's features from Atlantean to one similar to his own.

"Who... what are you?" Kōrima asked his mirror image. "How can you match my powers so easily?"

Loki grinned, his deep red eyes looking off to the side. "In a way, I'm the same as you. Perhaps we could talk this over, properly introduce ourselves, as opposed to all this sneaking around and spellcasting?"

But Kōrima remained focused. "Or a better compromise: you give me the three treasures, and I don't trap your mind in a nightmare far worse than what those guards experienced."

Loki merely turned his back and shrugged. "Been there, done that. I've endured my fair share of both torture and mental/emotional manipulation, so go ahead, give it your best shot."

Kōrima accepted the challenge, creating multiple duplicates of himself and surrounding his opponent before firing an array of shuriken in his direction. Loki watched for and deflected the oncoming weapons, but he was struck from another flurry of knives from above, pinning the detective to the ground. The real Kōrima then appeared before him, squatting down to look him in the eye.

"Now, tell me where you've hidden the treasures." Yet Kōrima fell to his own trick as the pinned Loki was reverted to a man-shaped block of his Jotun ice! "He really can copy all of my abilities, even remaining transformed into my appearance in the heat of battle!" Kōrima thought. "I've never once fought a being who could even pose a challenge to me, let alone rival my skills; it would seem Amaterasu sama has chosen well!"

"I told you we're the same." Loki's voice echoed in Kōrima's head. "However, if it's a fight you want, there's a member of my team who's been itching for a rematch far more than I have."

On cue, Kōrima became surrounded by a ring of fire! He attempted to freeze it with his ice magic to no avail, so he searched for a method of escape until he beheld Fiamma emerging from the flames and walking right up to him, watching his hands for signs of spellcasting instead of his eyes. Though she towered over him in height, he kept his cool and looked her over.

"The flaming woman from the wagon..." Kōrima recognized. "You're not... Amaterasu sama herself, are you?"

Fiamma smirked. "Let's see if you have the guts to find out, shinobi."

Kōrima responded by disappearing from sight, sneaking up on his fiery foe, but without even looking, she hurled a fireball to her left, which knocked Kōrima backwards. The ninja skidded his momentum to a halt before he could collide with the flame wall.

"She didn't even glance in my direction once... she couldn't have heard me, could she?" Kōrima reviewed in his head. "No, I've long mastered the art of silent movement... it must have been another of her senses." He tried again, this time observing her more closely. The Muspeless gave a slight shiver as she noticed him approaching, though he was able to dodge the stream of fire she sent his way. "That's it. Now I just need to think of a way to get around her sense of temperature..."

Still invisible, Kōrima crept around to the other side, this time coming the way she was facing. She lobbed another fireball at him, but when he ducked to avoid it his time, the intense heat revealed another man-shaped ice statue in his place! Fiamma rolled her eyes and waited for the real Kōrima to reveal himself. However, her eyes grew huge as she felt a rush of bitter cold envelop her! She looked back to find his block of ice blasting her with full force!

"So, that was the real you the whole time... you're clever!" She commended, firing herself up. "Good, I was starting to fall asleep!" She blasted a stream of fire at the ground beneath her and shot up like a rocket! "Let's see if you can match this!" She then changed her trajectory, shooting herself straight towards her opponent, who nimbly dodged her. She kept up the assault, sharply turning as she kept her aim focused on Kōrima's center.

"That should be me fighting." Sylvie complained. "I could take him out faster if I wasn't pregnant!"

"You certainly could, but if I know Fiamma, she doesn't want to take him out quickly." Loki explained. "You see, Fiamma's not fighting here merely to win: she means to size him up, taking her time to really get to know him."

"He's right." Moved agreed. "That way she can see if he's the kind of Loki she's looking for, almost like a very violent matchmaking date."

"Yeah, I figured that, but I still wanted a chance of my own to fight an actual ninja!"

Loki smiled. "Syl, after the baby comes and you've rested from the aftermath, I'll take you to fight an entire army of ninjas, and we'll both cheer you on!"

Sylvie raised an eyebrow. "An army of them? I didn't say I was bonkers! So, d'you think he's the one for her?"

"I couldn't tell you that; that's up for the two of them to decide amongst each other."

Kōrima dodged another strike with a rolling somersault, and then he aimed his icy magic at Fiamma's stream of flame, causing her to drop to the ground, which he previously froze. However, before she landed and slipped on the ice below, she spit lava down underneath her feet, melting Kōrima's trap!

She smirked as her lava sank into the ground. "Unfortunately for you, this isn't my first fight against a Frost Giant, and I've learned from last time!"

"Frost Giant?" Kōrima repeated. "You... do you know what I am?"

"I'll tell you if you can defeat me."

More determined than ever, Kōrima focused his magic and chilled the air around them, following up by casting duplicates of himself, each of them prepping their attack at once. Fiamma created a barrier of fire around herself as the team of shinobi each drew their bow from their stash and fired a flurry of arrows at her. However, Fiamma wasn't prepared for the real arrows exploding on contact with her fire shield! Staggering from the explosion with her shield down, Kōrima followed up with his coldest flurry of ice, cooling the Fire Giantess down enough to solidify her molten body and weaken her further.

Fiamma shivered violently as her Jotun foe finished his attack, taking a moment to recharge. Fiamma shakily raised her arms while he paused, and when Kōrima prepared to finish her off, the lava underneath her shot upward and collided with Kōrima's icy blast! The two elemental attacks pushed at each other until the lava evaporated the ice, which in turn caused the lava to bubble as it headed towards Kōrima. He leapt backwards until his path was impeded by the wall of fire once again. Fortunately for the ninja, bubbling lava had hardened inches in front of his face, saving him from being scorched.

"This woman... she's... just amazing!" Kōrima silently remarked. "As stubborn and unyielding as the greatest of warriors, yet as cunning and secretive as the most skilled of shinobi... when I best her... if we both survive this, I'd very much like to know more about her as well!"

Fiamma slowly made her way back towards the wall of flame, planning to reignite herself, but Kōrima teleported himself between it and her with a speedy hand sign. He pulled out a pair of knives and coated them in his frost, so Fiamma was forced to dodge his barrage of strikes. As she continued to dance around his blades, she grabbed his wrists one at a time, pushing them down with all her might! Kōrima moved his arms in the opposite direction, struggling against her in spite of her weakened form. When Fiamma felt him lifting his arms at full force, she stopped pushing, and he inadvertently catapulted her over his head. She then gracefully dove into the ring of fire and relit her body from the inside.

"I can tell she's been improving since we fought." Sylvie noticed.

Mobius nodded. "She's got Kōrima on his toes, but he's bouncing back from everything she's throwing at him and thinking on his feet like a real Loki! I think they're perfect for each other! Of course, he'll need to be interested in her in return."

"Alright Kōrima, let's dial things up a notch." Fiamma emerged from the flames once more and then several more times from every direction! The gang of Fiammas all surrounded Kōrima, curious to see how the tricky ninja would react to her fiery duplicates.

"They aren't illusions, are they?" Kōrima quietly assessed. "I can feel blazing heat emanating from all of them... well, I was hoping for something interesting to happen, some sort of challenge... it seems I really got what I wished for!"