Stepping behind the veil, Leo followed the speeding tiger to an opening where the rest of his beast group was standing, all of them facing the same direction with raised ears and readiness clear in their posture.
As Leo reached them, he sensed life signals approaching. Moments later, five people emerged on the opposite side of the open space.
What Leo did not expect was the happy shine in their eyes, as if their prey was handed to them on a silver plate.
"Lucky, we didn't even have to enter that deep," the man who arrived last exclaimed excitedly. "Boss, your luck is over the top today. Our prey just handed herself to us."
Leo raised an eyebrow. From those words, he could tell their intent—they weren't here by coincidence; they had come for him.
The man in front glared at his subordinate to shut him up before returning his gaze to Leo. This time, his eyes opened wide at what Leo currently held in his hand: the head of said subordinate.
Looking back again, he found the man who had just been talking as if he owned the place now kneeling behind him—headless. The stump on the neck was scorched black, trapping the blood from leaving the body. The burning was so fast that it didn't even leave a smoke or smell.
"So, want to talk? Or need help with it?" Leo threw the head in front of the leader, the meaning clear: either start talking about why you're here, or get the same treatment.
"I don't have to, do I?" the leader shot back, flaring his aura, trying to pressure Leo down. He stared with visible rage. His intended assassination mission was now discovered.
Now, not only was Leo waiting for them, but he had also taken down one of his backups without being noticed, showing he had no chance with speed or hiding, choosing a more direct way.
Funny fact, Leo wasn't that fast in movement, it's just they didn't see him. Thanks to the training that barely avoided torture, his already high senses and observation haki took another leap.
The first, now let him track the focus of his enemy. The second had passed the point where he could see the next move of an opponent.
Using them together, Leo came up with a technique that let him move between people unnoticed. Well, thanks to Unohana, the idea became reality. So yeah, freaky technique for the win.
But thanks to it, the leader of the group felt a massive speed gap, forcing him into a front clash, old-supernatural style. That was a bad move, as that was what Leo wanted.
"I see," Leo murmured, unleashing his own aura. Blue and purple energy from both sides clashed mid-air, and with every collision, lightning scorched the ground in the clashing surface.
The subordinates of both of them were forced to step back. The leader, seeing he was toe-to-toe with Leo, smirked, thinking he had a chance.
In the supernatural world, most fights start with an aura clash.
Primarily to gauge the levels of the opponent or pressure the weaker one to submit. After all, fights here (behind the veil) usually end with death or annihilation; hardly anyone lets an enemy live.
Sadly for him, he was completely outclassed. Leo was simply using him for training.
Thanks to the past month, Leo's control over his energy had risen noticeably. Right now, he was holding back, releasing only thirty to forty percent of the total count—something few could do in an upfront aura clash.
Noticing the man's smirk, Leo decided to end the game.
He released his full aura, infusing Hoshoku Haki into it. His aura exploded outward, gaining a purplish-red tint and devouring the man's aura like a flood.
Everything in a hundred-meter radius was pressed down like gravity had multiplied tenfold, saved for his subordinates.
Leo walked toward the man with slow strides.
"So? What do you think now?" Leo squatted in front of him, staring for a few seconds before sealing his aura.
Giving orders to his beasts to finish the remaining men, he picked the leader up and was about to return to his house, only to stop when he sensed a life signal in the bushes.
A familiar one.
"Shihion-han? What are you doing here?" Leo got closer to the cat hiding in the bushes. "I just sent Rose to look for you."
Hmph. She turned her head, about to leave. Leo, not minding her attitude, sneaked close and picked her up. A couple of scratches under her chin, and all her resisting thoughts vanished.
"It's nighttime. How about resting in my house until morning?" he asked, still patting and scratching.
Seeing her not talking, he took it as confirmation. Looking back at the man, he snorted and used his element manipulation to create ice chains, dragging him along.
Yoruichi watched, cold sweat forming on her body as she remembered that this could've been her end if she hadn't been in her current situation. After all, she had broken into more than one of his high-security properties.
Now she looked at Leo with mixed emotions, confused between the feeling of the pressure before, and the calm, caring petting she was getting.
... Back at the house.
Leo sat on a garden chair with the man kneeling before him. Behind Leo stood Unohana with her ever-calm smile. Yoruichi stood to her right, trying not to react to Rose's observing eyes from the other side of Unohana.
"Now. Start talking. Name, affiliation, purpose," Leo said, leaning forward. "And don't start spouting nonsense. I can smell it."
"Ijiero Yamah, America Second Division vice-leader of the Dark Treads," the man forced out between clenched teeth. It wasn't Leo he feared—it was the women behind him, both famous in their line of work.
Yeah. Lying or escaping was out of the question; at least he could keep his life, or try to.
"The reason we're here is revenge for the man you killed," he said venomously, referring to the man Leo took down before.
"Ah, now I see why you felt familiar." Leo smacked his fist into his palm in realization. "If I remember correctly, his name was Virgon… Virgin?"
"It was Vegus!" Ijiero snapped, then looked aside, thinking he was done.
"Done already?" Leo asked. "Keep going."
"What do you mean? I answered all your questions."
"I see," Leo said simply, staring at him for a moment.
Before anyone reacted, Leo's eyes turned feline. His middle claw extended and stabbed straight into the man's knee.
Twisting slowly, the passive burning effect made flesh sizzle, mixing with Ijiero's painful screams.
Retracting his claw, Leo let him fall back to catch his breath.
"Why!!" Ijiero spat, barely holding back another scream. "I answered your questions!!"
"Why?" Leo looked at him with disgust. "You think I am an idiot."
"You said revenge?" Leo asked. "That's only half the truth, right? Your little syndrom is basically a dark-side job broker for assassins and psychopaths—profit only. All your members share that trait."
Leo picked up his phone, projecting a hologram. "After your guy attacked, I did some digging."
The screen displayed a report of the organization—enough to make Ijiero sweat.
"You didn't lie about the revenge part. You're from the same race, and he was actually in Japan before getting here, so I won't dismiss it. But that's not all, is it?" Leo said. "Your smell is telling me you're still hiding something. What is it?"
His voice was lazy, but his eyes were not. "And choose your words carefully. What the ladies behind me can do isn't comparable to what I can do to you."
Ijiero, Unohana, and Yoruichi all widened their eyes, surprised that Leo picked up on that.
Rose had a different reaction entirely—she gulped, squeezed her thighs, cheeks flushing, and breath short. Thankfully, no one noticed.
"How…" Ijiero began.
"Please!!! I'm a freaking high beast!! I can literally see the emotions of my prey! And you think I wouldn't catch that?"
From the moment they arrived, Leo had already noticed his reaction to Unohana and Yoruichi—clearly fearing them more than Leo. He let it slide only because it was useful.
Ijiero's mind clicked, remembering something an old associate once told him:
'Be careful around Rageheart. A lion cub is still a lion.'
He'd thought it was a metaphor back then. Now he understood the real meaning—he had hit a hard stone this time.
"Now…" Leo hovered his claw over the top of Ijiero's thigh.
"I got it! Just stop!" With a defeated, terrified sigh, he finally spoke honestly. "I had a personal mission. A client is looking for a certain object—they suspect either you have it or it's somewhere in this house."
The mission was to retrieve an object, using revenge as a cover since the client wanted silence. Their organization had banned missions against Leo anyway.
Thanks to the stunt he pulled on the clan household, a few guardian elders personally visited their master to warn him.
Forbidden or not, he still used the excuse, hoping to avoid future problems.
But seeing Leo's expression now…
he knew he f***ed up.
"So that's how it is. What's the object?" Leo asked.
Ijiero pulled a picture from his pocket and handed it to him.
"Before you ask, I have no idea who the client is, I swear." Before Leo could even speak, he hurriedly produced a phone like the same one Vegus had. "The client hacked my phone directly for contact."
He handed it over with shaking hands. "That's all I know."
Leo looked at the picture to stop minding Ijiero anymore. The object in question was his late mother's necklace.
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