Three days before December 20th, a sweating Mia slumped on to Aimee's couch, wiping an ice scarab on her forehead.

"Doing alright?" chimed Aimee, sitting down beside.

"…I-I don't want to ever do that again."

"Same time next week?"

"Of course."

Trying to find some upside, she let her eyes travel down to Aimee's muscular thighs in her running shorts. She hadn't sweat at all, but that was alright: Mia was a woman with imagination.

"Does that sound good?" said Aimee and Mia coughed.

"E-Er, what?"

"Can tell you what Rider does when you get back?"

"M-Mmhm." Her hungry eye was pulled over to the table by her phone vibrating. Confused at the unknown number, she took it quick. "Hello?"

"Mia. It's Hirogane. Need to speak with you."

"Why?"

"Nothing bad. Need to speak with you. I'll send over where to meet me."

He hung up, and her phone vibrated a few seconds later. She relayed it to Aimee, and the two came up to the restaurant an hour later. Gesturing for Aimee to stay outside, she went inside and found him sitting alone at a booth.

"You wanted to speak with me?" she said, sitting down as Hirogane nodded.

"S'right. Don't tell anyone I called you. 'specially not staff. Don't tell Aimee, either. Saya, Luna. Nobody else. It's something - well. Doubt I could get fired for it - but it doesn't look good. Not taking a risk."

"…alright."

He handed her a sheet of handwritten paper. "Don't read it out loud."

'The man you're fighting is named Magnus Egashira. Five years ago, he killed twenty professional heroes in the Eastern League. His Revenant is named Scourge. It's implantable mind control with no known counter.'

Mia felt dread build up, but wondered why he'd kept her alive, gave her Worldwide, and advice. She stared at it for a while.

"All I have." said Hirogane, and Mia nodded. Maybe he was mind controlled, but his eyes looked normal, and whatever she'd gone through last month wasn't something that wouldn't have shown. She held the paper up, and as he nodded, burnt it to ash, then got up & left.

Outside, Aimee asked her what he'd said, and she said he reinforced Worldwide's incompleteness with another checkup.