The encrypted communicator buzzed in his subspace. Leon pulled it out.
"It's Cecil."
"What's up?"
"I've got something for you. Two names you should recognize. Walking Dread and Slaying Mantis."
Members of The Order. Leon straightened.
"I'm listening."
"Our intelligence indicates they're meeting in person seven, possibly eight days from now. That's unusual. These two don't operate in the same country, let alone the same room. Something brought them to the table."
"Where?"
"I'll share the location when it's confirmed. Right now, I'm putting together a sting operation. It's a small team, focused on a surgical approach. The goal is to capture both of them alive and squeeze them for information on The Order's operations."
"How did you get the intel on the meeting?"
"Classified."
Leon expected that answer. He let it pass. "You want me there?"
"I'm extending the offer. You've demonstrated you can handle yourself in a fight. And if things go sideways, I'd rather have someone who can improvise on the ground than a team that needs to call for orders. I'd call one of the Guardians, but they're busy dealing with something in another dimension. Don't know when they'll be back." Cecil paused. "Your involvement would also give me a chance to evaluate how you perform in a coordinated operation. So far, all I've seen is you working solo."
There it is. Leon had been waiting for that. Cecil's trust had grown since the Machine Head operation and the Sinclair tip, but trust and verification were different currencies for a man like Cecil Stedman.
Leon could live with that. Two Order members in a controlled scenario meant GP, combat experience, and a stronger position with the GDA.
"I'm in," Leon said. "Seven days?"
"Seven to eight. I'll narrow it down within the next forty-eight hours and send you the details."
"That gives me a week to train."
"Then I suggest you use it well. My team should be ready to move out with the kids soon. I'll let you handle that. Cecil out."
The line went dead. Leon pocketed the communicator and looked at the ceiling.
Two Order members and a sting operation with the GDA watching my every move. Didn't think something like this would happen so early.
He cracked his knuckles.
Better make this week count.
OOO
It wasn't long before Cecil's team decided it was time to leave. But some of the kids were still reluctant, a few even choosing to shove or hit Cecil's people whenever they tried to get close.
Leon stepped in. He crouched in front of the ones who wouldn't budge and talked to them the way he had that morning, quietly and by name.
"Aiden. These people are going to take you somewhere safe. To your home and not a pocket dimension attached to a motel bathroom." He patted Aiden's head. "I'll check on you in the future. I promise."
Aiden looked at him for a long moment before standing without a word and walking towards Nurse Okafor.
The others followed, one at a time, each needing their own version of the same reassurance. Caleb was the last to move. He looked at Leon, then at Mia still glued to his side, and something in his expression tightened.
"You said nobody takes us anywhere we don't want to go."
Leon nodded. "I did."
"I want to go with her." He put a hand on Mia's shoulder. "Wherever she goes, I go."
Leon had heard enough from the case workers to understand why. According to them, Caleb and Mia were orphans, sold to Machine Head's men by an insider who hadn't been caught yet.
That part had caught Leon's suspicion. Did Machine Head pick Caleb and Mia specifically? Were the other kids chosen out of countless others as well? And if so, why? What made them so special?
Leon put it in the back of his mind. Something to revisit later.
The two said they had been held in the same facility for the longest. And in the compound, Caleb had appointed himself as her protector, and she'd let him. Separating them now would undo the only stability either of them had left.
Leon looked at Dr. Ellison, who gave a small nod.
"We'll make sure of it," she said.
That was enough for Caleb. He took Mia's hand and they walked to the door together, Mia's blanket trailing behind her like a cape.
Leon watched twenty-three children file through the bathroom door and out of the Suite. Twenty-three names and twenty-three faces, each one taking a piece of the weight he'd been carrying since the first compound he raided.
The door clicked shut and as soon as it did, the Suite fell quiet.
Leon stood in the middle of the living room and exhaled.
And just like that, it's over.
Lily, still in his small form on the counter, said nothing. Nyx, perched on the armchair, ruffled her feathers once and settled.
Leon didn't let himself sit in the silence for long.
He cleaned up. Cleared the remaining dishes, wiped the counters, and put the living area back in order. The Suite's self-cleaning would handle the rest within twenty-four hours, but the act of doing it himself felt necessary.
By the time he finished, the soreness from his spar with Lily had faded thanks to Healing Light, and his mind was already turning toward the next priority.
Training starts now. But first, I need to see what the gacha has for me.
He pulled up the interface and checked his total.
[Current Gacha Points: 4,200]
Four thousand two hundred. Not bad. That's enough for a solid haul, but I shouldn't blow it all at once. Last time, I got a Legendary out of a Diamond, but I easily could've gotten a Rare or Elite instead. I think the smart play right now is to spread a smaller portion across different tiers.
Leon thought about it for a solid minute, weighing options.
One Gold, three Silver, five Bronze. That gives me a decent spread without burning too much. I'll keep four thousand in the bank in-case I really need it or if I get enough for another Diamond.Gacha, I want to purchase one Gold Ticket, three Silver Tickets, and five Bronze Tickets.
[1 Gold Ticket, 3 Silver Tickets, and 5 Bronze Tickets requested. Cost: 200 GP. Confirm purchase?]
Confirm.
[Purchase confirmed. You have received 1 Gold Ticket, 3 Silver Tickets, and 5 Bronze Tickets.]
[Remaining Gacha Points: 4,000]
Leon cracked his knuckles.
Bronze first. Let's see what the bottom shelf has this time.
He pulled the five Bronze Tickets. The capsules descended and clicked open, revealing three brown and two grey.
[Chompers]
|Common Trait|
You've got a big ol' pair of chompers on you. Your teeth are spectacularly durable and strong. You are even able to take bites out of rocks and chew them without any damage to your teeth. In addition, you will never have to worry about dental health ever again. If your teeth break, they will regrow like one might regrow fingernails.
-x-
[Rebake]
|Uncommon Ability|
You can expend your energy to recreate any food you have cooked with your very own hands. The created food is an exact replica that is a permanent matter. The energy cost depends on the complexity of the food, how expensive its ingredients are, and the volume of the food you are creating. Cannot create food with supernatural effects.
-x-
[Intermediate Discipline]
|Uncommon Skill|
Your discipline is remarkable. You are fairly disciplined, being able to endure hardship such as discomfort and pain without audible complaints. You can force yourself to train even when you don't want to and get out of bed even when it's very comfortable, you are pretty good at maintaining focus. People would say you have an excellent work ethic.
-x-
[Flash]
|Common Ability|
You can emit a bright blinding light from your hands or use it with less intensity for utility, does not work well outside of close range.
-x-
[Charming Smile]
|Common Trait|
Your smile is really charming, helping people feel more at ease and comfortable with you. It also makes you more attractive to your preferred partners.
Leon stared at the results.
Chompers. He could bite through rocks now? He ran his tongue along his teeth. They felt the same. Good to know, he guessed? At least he'd never need a dentist ever again.
Rebake was more interesting than it looked on the surface. Recreating food from nothing using energy wasn't flashy, but it was practical. If he ever needed to feed people without access to supplies, or if he was stuck somewhere without the Suite's pantry, he could just replicate anything he'd cooked before. The limitation on supernatural effects wasn't even something he cared about.
Intermediate Discipline settled into his mind like a mental brace being tightened. The difference was incredibly subtle. The part of his brain that whined about fatigue and soreness and "just five more minutes in bed" got quieter. It wasn't silenced, per se, more like overruled by a sturdier voice that said, "get up and do the work".
This would've been a godsend in high school. Always procrastinated too much on my assignments and study sessions.
Flash was a straightforward utility tool. A close-range flashbang without a grenade. Blinding an opponent at point-blank range during a clinch or a grapple could be the difference between getting thrown and landing a reversal. He personally would've placed it as an Uncommon reward just for how useful it could be.
Charming Smile made him blink.
My smile... is charming now?
He smiled. Nothing felt different. But knowing the gacha, the effect was probably passive and always-on. Combine that with Headpat, Goth Magnet, and whatever the hell else the system had given him, and Leon was becoming some sort of charisma build he had never intended to spec into.
RNGesus, I didn't ask for this. But I'll take it.
"Moving on. Silvers next."
He pulled the three Silver Tickets one by one. The first was green.
[Firebending]
|Rare Skill|
Avatar - You are an apprentice Firebender, being able to convert your internal energy into fire you can manipulate with your own form of movements and martial arts. The more experienced and trained you are, the stronger your bending.
Leon's brain stopped working for approximately three seconds.
No.
He read it again.
No way.
He read it a third time, just to be sure the words weren't going to rearrange themselves into something else.
FIREBENDING!
The sheer irony of it hit him like a truck. He had specifically complained not getting firebending after his first set of pulls. And now, days later, here it was.
Warmth ignited in his core. He could feel the heat coiled in his diaphragm, connected to his breath and movement the same way earthbending was connected to his stance and his will.
He already knew the theory behind it. Uncle Iroh's words surfaced from memory, surprisingly still intact.
"Power in firebending comes from the breath. The breath becomes energy in the body, and the energy extends past your limbs and becomes fire."
Leon placed a hand on his chest. He could feel it. That inner sun Zuko talked about, faint and newly kindled, sitting behind his sternum like a second heartbeat.
With Pyromaniac reducing fire energy costs and boosting potency, and the Great Swamp Ring amplifying fire abilities on top of that, and the Brand of Tzeentch accelerating his learning speed...
Leon pressed his lips together to keep himself from grinning too wide.
I'm going to be an absolute menace with this.
The next roll was grey.
[Mending Charm]
|Uncommon Ability|
Also known as the Repairing Charm, it is a magic charm that can be used to seamlessly repair broken or damaged objects and works on most mundane materials. Unlike normal witches and wizards, you do not require a wand, only needing to recite the incantation "Reparo".
A Harry Potter spell! This is a first. Never got any magic before.
He looked at the cracked wall in the gym from where Lily had thrown him earlier. Actually, that's convenient as fuck.
Leon held his open hand at the wall.
"Reparo," he murmured.
Invisible energy left his body in a controlled pulse, flowing through the air toward the damage. The cracks sealed themselves, fragments of paneling reversing their trajectory and slotting back into place like a rewinding video. Within seconds, the wall looked like it had never been touched.
Wow... That'll save me a lot of headaches here in the Suite and whenever I cause any collateral damage in fights.
The final Silver Ticket gave him a blue.
[Heavenly Tribulation Ticket]
|Elite Item|
"Pissing off the Heavens has never been easier." When this ticket is ripped, it will summon a Heavenly Tribulation, where lightning from the sky with power equal to Epic rank attacks will strike you down, aiming to kill you. But if you manage to withstand the Heavenly Tribulation, it will temper your body and your physical abilities will improve significantly.
Leon stared at it for a long time.
Lightning strikes that try to kill me with Epic-rank power. But if I survive, my body gets a massive upgrade.
He rubbed his chin in contemplation.
Hmm. I'll save this for later.
He stored the ticket in his subspace without hesitation. Using it now would be suicide. But later, after more training, durability, Reinforcement practice, and rewards?
This was an investment he couldn't pass up. A dangerous, terrifying investment that could kill him if he misjudged his readiness.
I'll know when the time is right. For now, it sits in the vault.
"Time for the Gold."
He pulled the Gold Ticket. A single capsule descended. It clicked open, grey light spilling out. Disappointing, but he held his breath just in case it was actually more useful than it seemed.
[Nakiri]
|Uncommon Trait|
Shokugeki no Souma - You are a child of the Nakiri Clan, a born gourmet and chef. You have a natural affinity towards cooking, allowing you to improve your cooking skills and recipes much faster than an ordinary person. You also possess the God Tongue, allowing you to discern taste at a level unimaginable by the average person, even being able to pick out specific ingredients and their amounts from others with a single bite.
Leon blinked.
Rebake plus Nakiri… The gacha just gave me an entire cooking build. The hell is this?
Leon's sense of taste sharpened to an absurd degree. He could suddenly taste the residual minerals in the water he'd been drinking, could identify that the faint sweetness in the Suite's tap water came from a specific mineral composition rather than any additive. He licked his lips and tasted the butter from the toast he'd made that morning, still lingering in traces so faint a normal tongue would never register them.
I can taste... everything. This is insane.
Combined with Rebake, he could cook a dish once, perfect it using the God Tongue's feedback, and then replicate it anywhere, anytime, using only his energy. And with the Nakiri trait accelerating his culinary learning speed on top of the Brand of Tzeentch accelerating everything...
Wait. He paused. Am I... becoming a cooking protagonist?
Leon looked at the full spread of rewards.
Chompers for indestructible teeth. Nakiri for godlike taste and cooking talent. Rebake for food recreation. Firebending for an entirely new combat element. Mending Charm for utility. Flash for close-range disruption. Charming Smile and Intermediate Discipline for passive improvements.
And a Heavenly Tribulation Ticket sitting in his subspace like a lit fuse with no timer.
I really need to stop being surprised by the gacha. It keeps giving me the most random shit that somehow works together if I tilt my head and squint. I don't even know if I'm lucky or unlucky with this spread.
"Lily."
The exceed looked up from the counter.
"I just got firebending."
Lily's tail stopped mid-sway. "Firebending. As in the manipulation of fire through martial arts."
"The exact same system as my earthbending, yeah. Same universe of origin." Leon held up his palm. A small flame flickered to life, dancing above his skin. The heat was comfortable, almost soothing, his Pyromaniac trait drinking it in. "I'm at an apprentice level for now, the same level I was with earthbending when I first got it."
Lily studied the flame. "Your Brand will accelerate you along the learning curve considerably. And your existing understanding of bending fundamentals should transfer. The philosophies differ between elements, but the underlying principle of converting internal energy through physical movement is universal."
"That's what I was thinking. If I remember right, Earthbending is rooted in Hung Gar and Firebending uses Northern Shaolin." Leon clenched his fist and the flame died. "They have vastly different stances and philosophies, too. Earth is stubborn and grounded. Fire is passion and driven by the breath."
"We'll add it to the curriculum," Lily said with a decisive nod. "Mornings for hand-to-hand sparring. Afternoons for bending practice. I may not be a firebender, but I understand the fundamentals of combat magic, especially after seeing a Fire Dragon Slayer in action back in Fairy Tail."
Leon grinned. "You just want another excuse to beat me up."
"I require no excuses," Lily replied. "I'm quite content to do it whenever you're ready."
Despite his words, the tip of his lips quirking upwards ever so slightly betrayed him. But it seemed the exceed hadn't noticed.
OOO
The next seven days were the hardest of Leon's life.
He had thought his first ten-day training period in the Suite was intense. That had been a warm-up. He would even call it a tutorial level. With Lily as his full-time sparring partner and drill instructor, every hour of every day was accounted for.
Mornings started at dawn. Leon and Lily sparred for two to three hours, bare-handed, the rules expanding incrementally as Leon improved. By the third day, Lily started using his Aera, the exceed's flight magic letting him attack from angles that no grounded fighter could replicate.
The aerial pressure forced Leon to develop new defensive tactics.
A fighter who could come at you from above, below, and every diagonal in between wasn't something his MMA training had prepared him for. He had to learn how to track a three-dimensional threat while keeping his own footing stable, his Void Child spatial awareness compensating for the visual chaos of Lily's dive attacks and giving him a precise read on distance and angles even when his eyes couldn't keep up.
If I can handle a flying cat with a greatsword, I can handle anything that can fly.
During a rest between rounds on the third day, Leon asked the question that had been sitting in the back of his mind since he summoned Lily.
"Can you teach me Aera?"
Lily paused, considering. "Aera is an innate magic of the Exceed race. Under normal circumstances, it couldn't be taught to a non-Exceed."
"The Brand of Tzeentch lets me learn magic I otherwise couldn't due to racial restrictions. That's one of its listed effects."
Lily's eyes narrowed. His tail flicked twice. "Show me the description again."
Leon pulled it up. He had found out days earlier after some experimentation that others could see his screen if he allowed it.
Lily read it carefully, his expression shifting from skepticism to something closer to reluctant acceptance.
"If what this says is accurate, then yes. Aera is a relatively simple form of magic. The caster generates and maintains wings composed of magical energy that allow for sustained flight and high-speed aerial maneuverability. It has the additional effect of neutralizing the weight of one passenger being carried. The difficulty in casting it lies in maintaining it without wasting magical energy and the instinctive balance adjustments required for aerial combat. Most Exceeds learn both naturally over their first year of living."
"How long would you estimate for me?"
Lily studied him.
"With the Brand and your existing energy reserves? A few hours at most for the fundamentals. You already have a strong foundation in energy manipulation, and the Brand eliminates the racial barrier entirely. True combat-ready flight..." His tail swayed. "Flight changes everything about how you fight. Your stances become irrelevant. Your weight distribution shifts constantly. Every technique you've learned on the ground has to be relearned in three dimensions."
And Viltrumites had none of those disadvantages. What an overpowered race of aliens. If only he could turn into a Kryptonian and show them what it was like to be the lesser race.
Leon smiled, eager to learn how to fly. "Then we start now."
"We start after today's spar," Lily corrected. "Priorities."
Leon couldn't argue with that.
Aera's initial manifestation came within the first afternoon of focused practice. The Brand of Tzeentch tore through the racial barrier like it was tissue paper, and the core concept behind Aera was straightforward.
Generate wings from magical energy, maintain them through sustained output.
Leon had been channeling energy through his body for weeks with Reinforcement and bending. Adding wings was a simple matter of creating a new application of a familiar principle.
His first successful flight lasted twenty seconds before his concentration wavered and he pitched sideways into the gym mats. Lily, to his credit, did not laugh. His whiskers twitched, which, again, was somehow worse.
By the end of the third day, Leon could maintain Aera for sustained periods and maneuver with enough control to dodge obstacles and change direction mid-air. The basic flight was natural enough that he could hold a conversation while airborne. Combat-ready flight was the real wall.
The moment he tried to throw a punch or kick while flying, his wing output fluctuated and his trajectory went sideways. Bending while airborne was even worse. The earthbending stances that generated his power required grounded footwork that didn't exist at altitude.
Lily assured him this was a coordination problem that would solve itself with repetition. The Brand would accelerate it, but muscle memory couldn't be entirely shortcut. Some things had to be drilled until the body stopped thinking about them.
Firebending progressed faster than anything else he'd trained.
The philosophical shift from earth to fire was jarring at first. Earthbending demanded patience, rooted stances, and an unyielding mentality. Firebending required the opposite. Aggression, forward momentum, and breath control. Where earthbending was a defensive art that struck with the weight of the ground behind it, firebending was offensive, striking with speed and ferocity.
But Leon didn't walk into it blind.
Power in firebending comes from the breath.
He'd internalized that before he ever threw his first fire punch. And the fuel came from within. Passion, drive, will. Like the sun, but inside of you.
He took about an hour of drilling basic forms, breathing through each movement the way the Northern Shaolin foundation demanded, before the pieces clicked. Once his body caught up to what his mind already knew, his rate of improvement soared. The Brand of Tzeentch compressed what should have been months of fundamentals into days, letting him grasp the rhythm within the bending forms.
By the end of the first two days, his fire punches produced concentrated jets that held their shape for fifteen feet. By the fourth day, he could throw human-sized fireballs, create sustained streams of flame, and generate enough heat to melt stone.
Pyromaniac and the Great Swamp Ring turned each of those benchmarks into something more. Firebending techniques that should have cost significant energy during prolonged use barely dented his reserves, and the Ring's amplification added potency to every flame he produced, making his fire hit with far more force than his experience level should have allowed.
If I keep this up, I could reach advanced firebending within a month or two. Maybe less. The Brand combined with being a Kure is ridiculous.
On the fourth evening, Leon stood in the training lot outside the Suite, staring at his hands. A thought had been nagging at him all day. He'd been so focused on the fundamentals of fire generation and control that he'd put it off, but he couldn't ignore it any longer.
Lightning generation.
In the show, lightning was the most advanced firebending technique and the most pure expression of firebending. Iroh had described it as separating the energies of yin and yang within the body, creating a discharge the bender could guide but not truly control.
Azula used it like a weapon. Iroh learned how to redirect by learning from the waterbenders. Zuko struggled with it for most of his arc because his inner turmoil made the separation impossible.
Wanting to test it out himself, Leon performed the movement, following the knowledge granted by the skill.
With his index and middle fingers extended, he thrust his right hand across his body in an upward, circular motion, shifting his lower body along. As his right arm descended, he did the same with the other hand. But this time, he stopped it halfway and drew his hands together at his chest.
He tried to separate the energies within himself the way he vaguely remembered Iroh demonstrating, pulling positive and negative apart, creating a void between them that the energies would want to correct.
If this blew up in his face like it did with Zuko, it would be the highlight of his day.
He took the plunge, thrusting his right hand's extended fingers into the air.
Nothing happened.
He tried again, adjusting his breathing, spreading his arms wider, concentrating on the feeling of division within his core. It was faint, but he produced a crackle. Static danced across his fingertips for a half-second before dissipating. His hair stood on end and his skin prickled.
There was something there. He could feel the separation starting, but he couldn't hold it long enough for the energies to build.
He tried five more times. Each attempt produced a little more static and a little more charge in the air, but none of them achieved the point where the separated energies would snap back together violently and generate actual lightning. The closest he got was a weak spark that jumped between his index and middle finger with an audible bzzt before fizzling.
Leon didn't think he was ready for this yet. His firebending fundamentals weren't deep enough to succeed with the energy separation. But the fact that he could feel the process starting meant it was already within reach.
He looked at the fading static on his hands and smiled. Shooting lightning out of his fingertips. He was going to make that happen no matter what.
He moved on, planning on revisiting lightning generation in a few weeks. But he'd be lying if he said it didn't keep him up that night.
Strangely enough, the breakthrough that mattered most didn't come from firebending, sparring, or Aera like he thought it would.
It came from a walk in the park.