Early in the morning, at the Spirit Blossom Gang hideout, Logan grabbed a cup with a little water in it and his toothbrush, then stepped outside the tent.
The moment he came out, he happened to see Vi crouched in a corner.
After thinking for a second, Logan walked over and stopped beside her.
He put the toothbrush—already dabbed with toothpaste—into his mouth and spoke around it.
"Vi, how'd you sleep last night?"
Vi turned around. Seeing it was Logan, she spat out the foam first, then nodded. "It was alright. A lot better than prison."
"Did Powder talk to you?" Logan asked again.
Vi heard that and ran a hand through her pink hair. "No. She came out of your tent early this morning, then took that little girl and disappeared. No idea where they went."
"Her name's Isha. She's a really cute kid," Logan said immediately.
Vi took a mouthful of water, swished it around with a loud gurgle, spat it out, then wiped the corner of her mouth and looked at Logan. "Logan, you know that's not what I'm asking."
"We grew up together, so I'm not going to dance around it. What's going on with you and Powder? You sleeping together?"
"Don't talk nonsense. Isha was there too," Logan said, the corner of his mouth twitching.
He said Isha was there, but he didn't sound very confident.
Because last night, when they slept, Jinx had thrown her leg over him. She hadn't said it outright, but seeing Vi again and actually talking to her helped ease some of the distance between them. It wasn't completely gone—but it was enough to make Jinx happy.
She was in a great mood, so her sleeping posture naturally became a complete disaster.
When she felt safe, she slept like she was about to start shadowboxing in her dreams.
And explaining this was complicated as hell.
Yeah, Jinx and he really had slept in the same place—and not just once or twice—but the problem was that Logan hadn't done anything.
They'd literally just slept. That was it.
But if he said that to Vi, would she believe him?
Oh, me and your sister just sleep together, don't overthink it—we just slept, we didn't do anything.
Vi would be weird not to throw a punch right then.
Logan could beat Vi right now, because she didn't have Hextech gauntlets yet, but the point was he wouldn't be in the right.
No matter what era, what time, what place—you said something like that out loud, it was explosive.
"Hah. Do I look like some innocent rookie?" Vi raised an eyebrow. "Even if you did, I wouldn't say anything. You saw her attitude toward me."
"Heh. Whatever. We didn't do anything," Logan said, squatting down too and brushing his teeth beside her.
Nice try. Trying to bait a confession?
No wonder you're basically Piltover's future Enforcer, huh.
Vi hesitated, then asked, "Logan… what are you going to do about Caitlyn?"
"Logan, Caitlyn's a good person. She—she's not like the other Pilties, not like other Enforcers."
"Of course I'm sending her back to the Upper City. She'll just get in our way here."
"Our?" Vi froze.
"What else?" Logan looked at her and continued. "You're not actually thinking about going back to the Upper City with Caitlyn, are you? If you really go back with her, Jinx will run up there that same night and blow you both to pieces. Do you believe me?"
"Of course I'm staying with my sister! And her name is Powder, not Jinx!" Vi snapped, then lowered her voice. "But if I really left with Caitlyn… she'd actually blow me up?"
"She's got something wrong up here," Logan said, tapping his own head. "If she's going to get better, it'll take time and medicine. We've got time. But the medicine? There's only one."
He pointed at Vi.
"You, Vi. You're her medicine. If you disappear without a word again, then this time she'll really go completely off the rails."
"…"
"I told you, I'm staying with her. I'm—I'm just worried about Caitlyn," Vi sighed.
Seeing Powder again last night, Vi could tell her mental state wasn't normal—agitated, muttering to herself, twitchy and on edge.
"You weren't like this before," Logan said, amused. "When we were kids, you told us Piltover people were all bastards and deserved to die, and that one day you'd become somebody and make those Pilties pay. So what happened to you now?"
Vi rolled her eyes. "I still feel the same way. It's just… not every Piltover person is a bastard. Caitlyn's a good person. Good people shouldn't get pushed around."
"Relax. I'm not going to do anything to her. She's House Kiramman's young lady. If anything happens to her, even Silco won't be able to carry that."
"Kiramman?" Vi jolted. "She's that Councillor's daughter?"
"Genuine. The next heir of House Kiramman is her." Logan nodded.
"Logan—speaking of Silco, what are you planning to do?" Vi asked. "He's looking for me, and he's looking for Powder too."
"Yeah. Leave that to me. When the time comes, I'll handle it."
"If you're going after him, you're bringing me with you," Vi said, her expression turning vicious. "Thanks to him, Powder ended up like this."
Logan spat out the foam, looked at Vi, and suddenly asked, "What about you?"
"Vi… you don't feel wronged?" He paused, then corrected himself. "I mean, you've suffered these years too. You didn't have it any easier than Powder."
Logan didn't actually care whether she was "Jinx" or "Powder." What he cared about was her—who she was.
But in front of Vi, he still used "Powder," just to keep Vi from correcting him every two seconds.
Vi stared blankly for a moment, then her eyes reddened. But she gave him a breezy smile, like it didn't matter.
"What suffering? Prison just had bad food and bad sleep. It's nothing." She shrugged. "Besides… I'm the older sister."
Logan smiled, reached out, and patted her shoulder. Then he stood, extending his hand to her.
"Officially—welcome to us, Vi."
Vi reached out and shook his hand.
Logan tightened his grip and hauled her up.
Back in the tent, Jinx and Isha still weren't back. But they hadn't gone far either—Marsen said they'd gone out early to pick through scrap, just at the dump near the Spirit Blossom Gang's territory, so there was no need to worry.
That said… Jinx taking Isha out first thing in the morning, deliberately walking right past Vi—was that her being tsundere?
Was she trying to make Vi jealous?
Because the "distant and prickly" part was definitely there.
Lying down on the bedroll, Logan kept thinking about what Vi had said.
Silco really was a huge problem. Logan personally liked Vander more. Some of it was the original body's memories rubbing off on him—of course Logan had more affection for Vander, the father figure of the Lanes.
But Logan also had to admit it: Silco wasn't wrong either.
Silco and Vander had clashing ideals, but their end goal was the same—standing Zaun back up, making Zaun better.
Kill Silco?
No.
If Silco really died, Zaun would only become more chaotic. Sure, Zaun already wasn't a place fit for people to live—but if Silco was gone, there'd be no one to keep the Chem-Barons in check, no one to force them into a single rope.
Zaun would collapse into endless internal war.
Silco was talented. When it came to management and development, he surpassed Vander by far. In all of Zaun, you couldn't find a second Silco.
Logan didn't believe he could run a city himself, so…
What was he supposed to do?
"In the end, it's still because I'm not strong enough."
Logan raised a hand toward the tent ceiling and closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, he was already inside the Spirit Blossom space.
He looked at the energy bar—during this time, he'd successfully accumulated one chance to Descend.
Counting the one he hadn't used before, he now had two Descend opportunities.
"Damn… Thresh isn't still camping me, is he?"
Thinking that, Logan reached out and touched the Spirit Blossom barrier.
He opened his mouth and murmured softly:
"Descend."
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