Early in the morning at the Lotus Gang's hideout, Leo grabbed a cup with a little water in it and a toothbrush and headed outside the tent. As he stepped out, he happened to see Vi squatting in a corner.
After a moment's thought, Leo walked over to her.
Placing the toothbrush, daubed with a bit of toothpaste, into his mouth, Leo spoke.
"Vi, how did you sleep last night?"
Vi turned. Seeing it was Leo, she, who was also brushing her teeth, first spat out a mouthful of foam before nodding. "It was alright. A lot better than in prison."
"Did Powder talk to you at all?" Leo asked.
Hearing this, Vi ran a hand through her pink hair. "Nah. She came out of your tent early this morning and took that little girl off somewhere."
"Her name is Isha. She's a very sweet girl," Leo said immediately.
Vi took a swig of water, swished it around, then spat it out. Wiping the corner of her mouth, she looked at Leo. "Leo, you know that's not what I want to ask."
"We grew up together, so I won't beat around the bush. What the hell is going on with you and Powder? Did you sleep together?"
"Don't be ridiculous, Isha was there too, wasn't she?" The corner of Leo's mouth twitched.
He said Isha was there, but he said it with a distinct lack of confidence.
Because last night, Jinx had thrown her leg over him in her sleep. Although she hadn't expressed it outright, seeing Vi again, talking with her, and bridging the gap between them—even if it wasn't completely gone—was enough to make Jinx ecstatic. Her mood was excellent, which naturally meant her sleeping posture became atrocious. Once she felt safe, the only thing she didn't do in her sleep was start shadowboxing.
But this was a complicated thing to explain!
Yes, Jinx and I did sleep together, and more than once or twice. But the problem is, I, Leo, didn't do anything!
We just slept! Purely and simply!
But if he said that to Vi, would she believe him?
"Oh, your sister and I just have a purely platonic sleeping relationship, don't get the wrong idea. We just slept. We didn't do anything."
It would be a miracle if Vi didn't just punch him in the face!
Leo was sure he could take Vi in a fight now, since she didn't have her Hextech gauntlets, but that wasn't the point... Leo was the one in the wrong here. No matter what era, time, or place you looked at it from, the situation was absolutely scandalous!
"Heh. Do I look like I was born yesterday?" Vi raised an eyebrow. "Even if you did do something, I wouldn't say anything. You saw how she acts towards me."
"Haha, well, we didn't do anything," Leo said, also squatting down to brush his teeth next to Vi.
Nice try. Trying to fish for a confession? You really are the future Enforcer of Piltover, aren't you.
Vi hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Leo, what are you planning to do about Caitlyn?"
"Leo, Caitlyn is a good person. She... she's not like the other Piltovans, not like the other enforcers."
"Of course I'm sending her back to the top-city. She'll only get in our way here."
"Our way?" Vi froze.
"What else?" Leo looked at Vi. "Don't tell me you're planning on going back to the top-city with Caitlyn? If you really go back with her, Jinx will be up there that very night to blow you both to kingdom come. You believe me, don't you?"
"Of course I'm going to stay with my sister! And her name is Powder, not Jinx," Vi said loudly. Then, she added in a softer voice, "But... if I really left with Caitlyn, would she actually try to blow me up?"
"She's got some problems up here," Leo said, pointing to his own head. "To heal her, she needs time and medicine. We have the time, but there's only one medicine, and that's you. Vi, you're her medicine. If you leave without a word again, this time she'll really go completely insane."
"..."
"I already told you, I'm staying with her. I... I'm just worried about Caitlyn," Vi sighed.
After meeting Powder last night, Vi had also noticed that her mental state wasn't normal. She was manic, talking to herself, and seemed extremely neurotic.
"You never used to be like this," Leo said with a laugh. "When we were kids, you used to tell us that all Piltovans were bastards who deserved to die. That one day you'd become a big shot and show those damn Pilties what's what. What happened to you?"
Vi rolled her eyes. "I still feel that way. It's just... not every Piltovan is a bastard. Caitlyn's a good person. Good people shouldn't be bullied."
"Relax, I won't do anything to her. She's the young lady of the Kiramman clan. If anything happened to her, even Silco couldn't handle the fallout."
"Kiramman?" Vi was shocked. "She's that councilor's daughter?"
"The one and only. She's the next in line to inherit the Kiramman estate," Leo nodded.
"Leo, speaking of Silco, what's your plan? He's looking for me, and for Powder."
"Hmm... leave that to me. I'll handle it when the time comes."
"If you're going to take him on, you have to include me. Thanks to him, Powder turned out like this," Vi's expression turned fierce.
Looking at Vi, Leo spat out the foam from his mouth and said suddenly, "And what about you?"
"Vi, don't you ever feel wronged? The hardships you've eaten all these years aren't any less than what Jin... Powder has gone through." Leo corrected himself. He didn't really care if she was Jinx or Powder; what he cared about was the person she was. But in front of Vi, it was better to call her Powder, just to save himself from Vi's constant corrections.
Vi froze, her eyes turning red. But she quickly flashed a carefree smile and said dismissively, "What hardships? The food and sleep were just bad in prison, it was nothing. Besides, I'm the older sister, after all."
Leo smiled and patted Vi's shoulder. He then stood up and extended a hand to her. "A formal welcome to the crew, Vi."
Vi reached out and clasped his hand.
Leo pulled, hauling Vi to her feet.
Back in the tent, Jinx and Isha hadn't returned yet. They hadn't gone far; Marson said they went scavenging for junk early in the morning at a nearby scrapheap, so there was no need to worry about them.
Speaking of which, for Jinx to take Isha out so early, and to specifically walk right past Vi... could that be considered tsundere behavior? Was she trying to make Vi jealous and angry? It seemed like it was all pride and no payoff.
Lying down on his sleeping mat, Leo thought carefully about what Vi had said.
Silco was indeed a huge problem. Although Leo preferred Vander—the memories of his original self still influenced him, giving him a natural fondness for the father figure of the Black Lanes—he had to admit that Silco was also right.
Silco and Vander had conflicting ideologies, but their ultimate goal was the same: for Zaun to rise up, for Zaun to become a better place.
Kill Silco?
No... if Silco really died, Zaun would only descend into greater chaos. As bad as life in Zaun was now, if Silco were gone, there would be no one to keep the Chem-Barons in check, no one to unite them into a single force. Zaun would be torn apart by endless civil wars.
Silco was a talent. In terms of management and development, he was far superior to Vander. You couldn't find a second Silco in all of Zaun. Leo didn't think he himself could manage an entire city, so...
What was he to do?
"In the end, it all comes down to a lack of power."
Leo stretched out a hand towards the top of the tent. Then, he closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he was in the Spirit Blossom space.
Looking at his energy bar, he saw that he had accumulated enough for one Manifestation opportunity. Including the one he hadn't used before, he now had two in total.
"Damn it, Thresh better not be camping my spawn point."
With that thought, Leo reached out and touched the luminous curtain of the Spirit Blossom.
He opened his mouth and whispered:
"Manifest."