At the Last Drop, Silco lightly tapped his forehead, a flicker of anger in his eyes.
Upstairs in the Last Drop, Sevika sat on the sofa, her face covered, her eyes filled with dejection and unease. Beneath the rag on her face, two layers of cloth couldn't completely hide the overflowing blue-purple glow, which led Silco to guess what had likely happened to Sevika.
"So, not only did you fail to bring her back to me, but you yourself were messed up by her?"
Silco looked up at Sevika and asked.
"Yes," Sevika replied.
"This shouldn't be. I know Jinx is very capable, but her abilities aren't on par with yours right now, do you understand what I mean?" Silco looked at Sevika. Seeing Silco's gaze, Sevika immediately turned her head away.
She really couldn't face anyone right now.
That... wretched little brat!
She had drawn all sorts of patterns on her face that simply wouldn't wash off: little bears, little monkeys, and even a pig's snout. In short... all sorts of patterns.
How could Sevika go out and face people looking like that?
Did she even want to continue getting by in Zaun?
If Silco hadn't been pressing for answers so urgently, Sevika would have wanted to find a tattoo artist first to cover up these patterns on her face.
"It was an accident..." Sevika began.
Silco cut her off: "An accident?"
"I thought you were different from those people," Silco said to Sevika seriously. "I thought you wouldn't make excuses, but now, you've disappointed me."
Sevika fell silent, then, she said helplessly, "It wasn't Jinx, it was a kid."
"Wait, explain yourself." Silco heard Sevika's words and suddenly stood up. "She was with someone else?"
Even when disappointed with Sevika, Silco could usually maintain his composure, but upon hearing Sevika's words, he couldn't sit still.
He walked out from behind the table and stood in front of Sevika.
"Leo, the kid from the Undercity. You... you know him too, don't you?" Sevika said, frustrated.
"Leo? That black-haired kid who's a little afraid of me?" Silco frowned. "Don't tell me you were messed up by him."
Leo?
Silco had almost forgotten that name. If it weren't for the kid having black hair, like himself, Silco wouldn't have had much of an impression of him.
But... him?
That guy who hid behind the other kids, who would get scared when he saw him, who only dared to interact with Vander, a Zaunite kid who couldn't even drink alcohol, made Sevika suffer a setback?
How the hell could that be true?
Silco looked at the bowed-headed Sevika, the curses genuinely stuck in his throat, wanting to burst out.
"It was him. He... he changed. Even though he still calls me Big Sis, that kid isn't afraid of me at all anymore. His speed is faster than those chem-monsters we modified, and he's incredibly strong too." Sevika looked up, meeting Silco's eyes as she spoke.
"I'm not lying. It was all because of Leo that I let Jinx get away."
"Heh, heh-heh." Silco looked up, covered his face with a hand, then smoothed back his hair.
"Get everyone out there! Even if you have to turn Zaun upside down, you have to bring Jinx back to me!" Silco declared loudly.
"Now?"
"Now!"
"But Piltover is watching us. Making such a big move now would be... very troublesome," Sevika whispered.
"The biggest trouble for me is her not being by my side, understand?" Silco said, lowering his head, his voice laced with menace.
Sevika met his gaze and took a deep breath. "I understand."
Sevika stood up and left, but her eyes were dark and uncertain.
Changed...
Silco, he was becoming more and more like the person Sevika knew.
Becoming... weak!
....
"Vi, your plan failed."
"Failed? She'll come back eventually, how is that a failure?"
At a street corner in the Undercity, Vi leaned against the wall with one foot propped up, her hands in her pockets, looking at the tall woman beside her with a roguish air.
"We've been waiting all day, and also, why did you leave me alone in... that kind of place?"
"Huh? I thought you clearly liked that place? I looked for you, but weren't you chatting happily with those girls?" Vi rolled her eyes, a hint of disdain for Caitlyn's words.
She pretended to be well-behaved when she went in, but after a couple of drinks surrounded by girls, she exposed her true self, showing off and flirting with girls. Heh... Pilties, they're all hypocrites!
"That, that's different!"
"I was doing it for intel, okay?" Caitlyn retorted.
"Alright, cop, I don't have time for your nonsense. If you're impatient, go back to your topside, nice and safe." Vi waved her hand dismissively.
Caitlyn straightened up, looking at Vi seriously. "That's impossible. I brought you out. I told you, only when you complete the mission will I truly give you freedom. If you don't achieve anything, then you'll have to come back with me."
Vi glanced at Caitlyn and chuckled.
Go back?
Go back to Stillwater Prison?
Don't be funny~ Why is this cop's brain not working?
That place where you eat pig slop, who the hell wants to go back? Now that she was out, Vi would never go back, no matter what.
But Vi didn't argue with Caitlyn either.
At the same time, in Zaun's mid-level plaza, two figures, one tall and one short, pushed open a door.
The old door creaked open, and as it did, dust scattered, blowing straight into their faces.
"Cough, cough!" Jinx covered her small nose with one hand and waved the other in front of her.
"Damn it, this broken place costs so much money? Leo, do you think he's ripping us off?" Jinx looked at Leo and asked loudly.
"This is the mid-level plaza, this is the price here. He's not ripping us off," Leo told Jinx.
The landlord indeed wasn't ripping Leo and Jinx off. The mid-level plaza was unlike the Undercity's lowest level because Pilties would occasionally come here to buy things, so Enforcers would sometimes patrol to protect those upper-class Piltover residents.
Therefore, it wasn't as chaotic as the trenches.
The price of houses was naturally several tiers higher than in the trenches.
"Tsk, I thought we'd have a lot of money to use. Looking at it this way, we don't have much left."
"Don't worry, we'll earn more money together later," Leo said to Jinx.
Jinx would always say "us." If Leo only said "me," she would look very unhappy.
From this, it was clear that Jinx had a deep-seated obsession with the word "us."
"Earn money? How do you plan to earn it?"
"Hmm... find a job here?"
"I'm not going! I don't want to work for them. Do you want me to be a waitress? I can't do that kind of work," Jinx immediately shouted.
"Then we'll make money through illicit means," Leo said.
"I'm best at that! Tell me, whose stuff do we need to steal?" Jinx immediately said, her face lighting up with excitement.
This was indeed something she excelled at, and... she also wanted to show off for Leo.
She wanted to show Leo her usefulness.
"We'll talk about that later. More important than money, Jinx, what we need to do now is clean up." Leo rolled up his sleeves, looking at the messy and dirty environment.
No one had lived in this house for a long time. While the mid-level plaza was relatively safe, that was only compared to the trenches. Besides... those with money and influence who didn't rely on gangs would live in the Promenade, the area bordering Piltover. They yearned for that kind of life.
And those without money could only live in the trenches.
Therefore, as a mid-level plaza, this place didn't have a large population. More often, it served as a transit point.
"Me? I have to clean too?"
"Didn't you say Sevika couldn't even clean? Then you definitely can."
"I think you're provoking me," Jinx said, coming closer to Leo, her hands behind her back, gently swinging her pigtails.
"This is our new home. We'll be living here for a while, won't we?"
"..."
"Okay, let's clean!" Jinx jumped up, spreading her arms and legs wide, saying it boldly.
Home.
She liked that word!