Ruggie stayed with Leona like glue. Nari wasn't much better. One of the other gangs had brought him back to them, and he was already in the grips of the poison.
From the looks of things, Leona had been given an undiluted dose of the poison. Considering he was the only person who had likely gotten a glimpse of the culprit, several were waiting for him to wake up with baited breath.
In the meantime, all the gangs and enforcers had teamed up to pass out safe water to the areas affected, since Leona had at least given them warning which pipe had been hit.
For three long, agonizing days, Leona was out cold fighting for his life.
On the fourth, he started to mend and on the fifth he woke up. He was ravenously hungry, but as they had learned the hard way, he would be unable to hold down the meat he loved so much.
Ruggie had learned a special stew from her grandmother that the afflicted could at least keep down.
Leona ate an entire pot of the stuff, albeit slowly so that his stomach could hold it down. Once he could stand without wobbling, the first thing he did was get a pencil, some paper, and start drawing a rough sketch of the bastard who dosed him.
The next thing he did was give a rough description of the scent so that the other gangs knew when it was around and when to check the pipes.
By the sixth day, Leona was in the mood to murder the bastard and was well enough that he could try and track him down.
It had taken him three days now that he knew who to look for. Everyone in the slums wanted this man gone, and things to calm down. Winter was coming and with it the flu season. Everyone in the slums was exhausted and worn down from fear of being the next victim, and what little medicines they had to combat the common sicknesses were used up. It was going to be a bad year if anyone caught the usual illnesses.
Seeing the man, Leona did not immediately chase him. For one thing, he had no idea if the bastard was working alone or if he had help. Instead he silently signaled one of his kids to follow him.
Nari broke off from the group without a word, and began to silently stalk him. Another joined him after a few minutes from a side street.
After about thirty minutes, the kids silently switched out. It wasn't the first time they had to stalk someone, and by this point they all had points picked out.
The man wasn't local. He didn't know that Leona lived, and that he was stalking him.
It took them three hours. The man tried to blend in, but the second the locals realized what Leona's group was doing they discreetly made it harder for him to fully hide by slipping into crowds.
Everyone knew Leona had gotten the full brunt of the poison by now. The group hadn't been discreet about that. They just hadn't told anyone yet that he was alive and pissed as hell.
Once he went into a warehouse on the outskirts, away from other gangs, they silently waited before sending out the alert that his possible base was found.
In less than an hour, other gangs joined in on the watch. They were going to mark all the people responsible and make sure that word spread to the other Nobs not to try this shit again or else.
It was an unspoken agreement with the enforcers who patrolled the area that they would be 'conspicuously late' when the gangs went in to bust this operation. Any survivors would be handed over without a word...and if they were bruised, then so be it.
A day later, a high ranking nob showed up. It was obvious from his finery that he did not belong.
Leona marked his scent and appearance for future reference. They were unlikely to take him down, but they'd make damn sure he remembered them.
Leona looked to the other gang leaders. All exits were silently manned, and any guards taken care of as quietly as possible. They were not left alive, as the gang leaders knew better than to let a paid merc live. There was no telling what sort of tricks they had up their sleeve, and this was personal by now.
Then...Leona struck. Using his magic, he caused the door to disintegrate with a massive roar that scared the living shit out of the people inside. It turned to sand without him having to touch it at all.
The people inside tried to scatter, only to fall victim to the people waiting outside.
The nob, in his infinite wisdom, tried to use magic.
Ruggie was on him like white on rice, using her own signature spell against him. He went stiff as a rock while she held him, before they bound him so thoroughly there was no way in hell he was getting lose.
The bastard who poisoned the slums attempted to run. Leona vaulted over the tables inside, before dropping on top of him without much restraint. He went down like a heavy sack onto the floor, his ribs breaking from the force.
Leona held him up by his throat, voice snarling.
"This is for all the innocent people you killed, you sick fucks," he said.
"Innocent? They're just slumrats! There's no innocence here!" he choked.
Leona didn't reply. Instead he tightened his grip, causing the man to begin clawing at his hands to get any air at all.
The nob had been handed over to the enforcers, but the one who had been poisoning everyone did not leave the building alive. Leona used his signature spell again to insure there would be no burial for him.
The enforcers gave Leona a slight nod of acknowledgment and respect, before leading the nob away.
With everything said and done, Leona was exhausted. To be fair, he had been casting two major spells without a manastone. Ruggie wasn't much better.
"I want to go home," said Leona.
"Ditto," said Ruggie.
Both of them headed to Leona's apartment, and promptly crashed on his bed. Nari made sure to cover them up, not that they really needed it, before crashing himself.
Two weeks later...
Leona was not surprised the nob got off with a slap on the wrist. However the lion had marked him and would not forget what he had done, or at least helped.
There was a subtle change in the slums though. Before they had a delicate balance of power between the gangs, but now? Now everyone looked to Leona first. It was oddly pleasing to be known as the "big boss" of the slums. He could care less about the gangs fighting between each other so long as they didn't drag others into it. The second they did, he would step in on them hard.
Ruggie looked at the nearest sick kid with dismay. Everyone's immune system had taken a nasty hit due to the poison incident, and all the medicines that could be used to combat it were gone keeping the victims alive.
The flu had spread like a wildfire, despite the best efforts of the parents.
Even Nari had gotten a mild case of it, but was powering through it like a champ because he knew there were others worse off.
Leona took one look at the number of cases before sighing.
"What's the call boss?" asked Ruggie.
He sighed.
"I'm going to have to make another run to the nobs territory," he said. "This isn't going to be cheap."
Two runs this close together? Especially in the quantities he was going to be buying? He'd be lucky if the nob enforcers didn't come poking around.
No way could he afford to fund this himself... he was going to have to get donations from the other inhabitants.
The kids who hadn't caught the flu yet all put on masks to be safe. Each of them were given a box and given strict instructions to gather donations, but not press the issue. Simply explain what it was for and that Leona would be using it to buy medicines for everyone.
Leona...honestly did not expect the influx of cash he got.
Armed with the money, Leona went straight into nob territory.
Several hours later...
Leona was irritated. It seemed the nobs had been buying out the medicines he needed, and he only had a few bottles from the ones closest to the slums.
He would have go deeper to find more, and that always grated him because the staring got worse.
Leona pulled his hoodie down further, and made sure his tail was hidden. He had about given up when he saw another pharmacy still open and went in.
They still had ten bottles left, so Leona scooped them all into the basket. He had left his bag near the register, so the nobs couldn't accuse him of stealing.
He went up, paid for the medicine and had to deal with the cashier remarking on the amount.
"You sure are getting a lot of cold medicine. You cooking them up or something?"
"Stocking up," said Leona gruffly. He counted the change to be sure, before dumping it all into his duffle. He didn't notice or care that the clerk noticed the other bottles inside along with the receipts.
Unnoticed by Leona, the clerk immediately called their manager to let them know about the purchase. The manager called the police and gave them a rough description.
Leona noticed the stalkers, but kept his silence as he walked the boundary between nob territory into the slums.
The police paused, but someone made a call to the side. They weren't very good at being discreet at all.
Lazy and unprofessional. They were so used to their cushy lives they'd never last an hour as a slum enforcer.
Leona rolled his eyes when one of the police managed to track him down an hour later, right as he was heading to his turf.
"Hey Leona!" Ruggie called out, openly ignoring the cop. Buying medicine wasn't illegal and no one was going to waste this medicine on making illegal drugs when they could make more selling it straight.
If they did, Leona would kick their ass.
"Leona-nii!" Nari greeted, hugging him tightly.
Leona calmly removed his hood, unaware of the shocked expression on the cop's face. His tail unwound itself as well, since he was in his turf.
No way the cop made it back to his precinct unless Leona gave the okay.
"Get the kids who did the donations. I got the medicine," said Leona.
"On it boss," said Nari, dashing away.
Leona didn't really care if the cop saw him handing out free medicine. It wasn't like he had opened any of it himself.
Two hours later...
Ruggie snickered as the cop finally left, with silent permission from Leona.
"Wonder what the cushy cop is going to report back," said Ruggie.
Even the Enforcers had a bemused expression at the obvious outsider.
"Let me get this straight...a lion beast kin has been coming out of the slums to buy large quantities of cold and flu medicine...then he gets the slumrats to line up and gives them all at least two or three doses for free?" said the chief incredulous.
"Yes sir," said the cop. He was a gazelle beastkin who had been on the force for three years now.
Everyone who heard him was utterly bewildered by the behavior of the slum rats. Even more so at the fact it was a lion kin who was handing out the medicine with a gang of hoodlums without demanding payment for it.
And if that wasn't bewildering enough, it was the fact the slum rats lined up for the medicine as if they expected him to do so.
"Sir that's not all," said the officer nervously. "I know I saw at least two rival gangs in that line and they didn't even try to fight each other over the medicine. They simply took a box of vials and went to their own turf without a word."
The chief was completely bewildered at this point. The worst part was that they had no idea what the lion was up to...it wasn't like he had committed a crime.
"Set up a watch at all the pharmacies. I want to know if this lion comes back," said the chief finally. He would get to the bottom of this... the last thing they needed was a huge scandal so close to the crown prince being born.