Enter Lucrecia Sakurazaki

The next morning, the three adults were already awake by eight-thirty. They were sitting outside on a beautiful deck looking at the fish swimming in the pond. Their food was brought out to them by a butler and a maiden. They were having scramble eggs and rice for breakfast. Kevin was enjoying his scramble eggs very much as Jody eats her rice.

"These eggs are delicious." Kevin smiled. He takes another bite of his eggs.

"That's nice of you to say that, Kevin." She smiled before shifting her attention to Jody.

"It's very good, Megumi." Jody said.

"So what's the plan for today, Commander?" Kevin looks at her.

"We will go and meet Lucrecia, Zoey and Mana. They're at Mana's house right now and her house is just down the road, or we can take the path in the forest." Jody sets her cup of coffee down on the table.

"Morning." Haruto approaches them.

"Slept well last night?"

"Yep."

"Good."

"Now, after breakfast, I'm going to visit your grandmother today, Haruto."

"How come?" He tilts his head.

"Your grandmother may know more about this book."

"That's fine." Jody folded her arms. "Because we need Lucrecia and Mana's help to track down the missing pages and find out more about these pictures."

"When will you be back?" Haruto asks her mother.

"It could be a while." Megumi said before looking at Jody. "I'll see you all later on."

A young woman with long black hair that was tied into a ponytail. She has some bangs that covers half of her right eye. Lucrecia was wearing a tight white shirt that exposes her stomach and back, black hakama and black shoes. She drew her nodachi, opening her dark brown eyes as she heard a noise coming from the bushes. Coming around the bushes was Haruto, Kevin and Jody.

"Morning, Lucrecia." Kevin greeted her with a smile. "We missed you last night."

"My apologies." The young woman bows to them. "I had to chase after the attacker who got Mana sick with a surprise attack."

"How is she right now?"

"Mana is better right now."

"So why are you two back here in Japan?" Lucrecia asks Jody and Kevin.

"We're here because we need your help." Kevin said.

"Alright. We'll talk back at the house." The swordswoman said to them.

The four of them walks to Mana's house. They walked for half an hour and arrived in the front yard of the house. It was nice and clean. Once they walk around to the back of the house, Zoey was cleaning her camera's lens at the table. She looks up to see them walking to her.

"Good morning, you three." She greets them with a smile.

"Morning, Zoey." Haruto said.

The sliding door opens up behind Zoey and reveals a young woman who is taller than Lucrecia. She has brown skin; long black hair and her hazel eyes met her guests. The woman was wearing a black shirt underneath her opened blue jacket, black pants with a dog tag hung around her neck.

"I see that we have some guests today." Mana smiles at her guests. "Commander Jody. Kevin."

"Commander Mana." Jody nodded her head to the hybrid.

"What brings you back here in Japan?" Mana steps out onto the stone floor.

"Apparently these." Jody takes the book out and puts it on the table with the pictures. "And the current update about the Dragon Soldier, Leo and Panther."

With the mentioning of her two childhood friends from the Jody, Lucrecima became concerned and interested.

Jody and Kevin spent the next whole hour explaining everything to the three young women.

"So Leo and Panther are alright in that universe." Zoey smiled. "And Twilight Titans even met Leo and helped out James."

"Don't forget that they were not the ones who sent Leo there." The young swordswoman lowers her head.

"You think whatever made these paw prints have something to with Leo?" Mana looks up at Jody.

"Possibly, but I'm not sure about it. Crow thinks it has something to with The White Tail Tigress that disappeared fifty years ago." Jody answered.

"Hm." Mana looks at the picture. "It looks like these pictures you found were photoshopped."

"Someone made it like that and left them in the library?"

"Yes. And I think this photo was taken less than fifty years." Mana examines it.

"That's exactly what I was thinking too. Jenna found Leo in a basket with blood stains on the blanket in the middle of a field. They visited Doctor Elton to examine Leo a few weeks later. He thinks that Leo could be several months old in his opinion." Jody replied.

"True. But there are some things that don't make any sense. Several destroyed towns and villages weren't mentioned on the news along with the people, a presence inside Leo's mind, Leo not having his skin burned when he was covered in flames and the disappearance of the two people and the White Tail Tigress. Why didn't anyone investigate it?" Zoey wondered.

"I don't think it's the "curse"." Mana replied. "It could be that someone doesn't want anyone to know what happened."

"Is it possible that it could be connected to the book here? I took the liberty of looking at a couple pages last night." Kevin holds up the book.

"What did you find?"

"Lab Discovery." The man said. "It's what I found in the book last night."

"Lab Discovery..." Lucrecia rubs her chin. "I don't think I heard that before."

"Jody, have you heard about that lab when you and your team were investigating the SHIELD ship five years ago?" Mana asks her.

"No." She shakes her head. "There was nothing in the database that has information about Lab Discovery."

"If we need answers, then we should head to the underground library and the shrine to learn more about the pictures and the book." Lucrecia said.

"But let's work on a plan first."

"That's fine with me." Jody said before looking at Kevin, Zoey and Lucrecia. "We'll let the three of you know about the plan later."

"Understood, Commander Jody." Kevin nodded his head.

Jody and Mana got up from the table and went inside the house. Standing up from the table, Lucrecia left the table and heads back into the forest. Kevin and Zoey knew that Lucrecia wanted to be alone right now.

"So when do you think they'll talk to each other?" Kevin asks her.

"No idea." Zoey shrugs her shoulders. "I know Panther and Lucrecia are fine, but Lucrecia has stopped speaking to him after the incident. It would be nice if those two did speak to each other."

"She doesn't need to punish herself for fourteen years because of the incident."

"True, but she asked Panther to watch over Leo after she and Panther started talking to each other again."

"I remember you were telling me that you went to Japan after visiting China with Leo, Panther and a few others. Isn't that where you met Mana and some of the girls from Class 1-A?"

"Yes. Kazumi and I got some great pictures with them."

"How is Kazumi doing, by the way?"

"Kazumi is doing good right now. She's looking up everything about The White-Tailed Beast to use as her first story since she is a reporter. Chinatsu is still searching for Leo's real parents for five years at the request of Panther after Leo left the Tao Palace."

"But she hasn't found anything yet. It's like searching for a needle in a haystack."

"True. I know Leo doesn't even want to talk about his real parents or his family after his last encounter with the prince. And we don't know what will happen if Leo accepts the truth."

"One day, Leo will have to accept the truth when the time comes. I know he really hates the exiled prince a lot. So what happened to the attacker last night?"

Lucrecia was walking alone in the forest with her nodachi in her left hand. She felt relieved that her two childhood friends are safe now. It was good to know, but very concerned. The flames that Leo was engulfed did not burn him and he has fiery wings at that. Not to mention he teamed up with Saber's clone. How did the clone survive the destruction of SHIELD? Has Leo been a Meta Human after all this time?

Lucrecia doesn't think he's a Meta Human, but he earned the title to be called The Bloodthirsty Monster five years ago. After Class 1-A heard what happened from Panther, they all decided to help find Leo's parents. Chinatsu will let Panther and Lucrecia know if she comes across anything. So far nothing has come up in five years. From what she heard from Panther, Leo never celebrated his birthday every year, but attended to the others birthdays. Not to mention Christmas was his least favorite holiday. Seeing Leo hanging out with Crow instead of training for example was rare. He would usually train or mediate. Whenever Crow had a nightmare, Leo stays with her as a professional so she can sleep better after getting nightmares from her father. And everyone knew Leo doesn't shed a tear through hardships and tough times.

Or when Panther got sick, he stayed by her side to take care of her.

Panther and Crow believes Leo may be slowly opening up to them.

Panther did talked to Lucrecia with a few of their friends the last time a couple days before Leo's disappearance. The two childhood friends were talking about Leo alone in her room at Aunt Megumi's house. Panther hopes that Lucrecia will talk to Leo like they used to when they were kids and come to Wuji City to visit Leo soon. The swordswoman smiled a little but she reminded herself that she's not ready to meet Leo. Lucrecia has been training in kendo for fourteen years to become strong enough to protect her two childhood friends after the incident. When Leo and Panther came to visit Japan with a couple team members of Crimson Dawn and Crimson Dusks, Lucrecia began to watch Leo from the shadows by staying out of sight. Panther hopes that her childhood friend would talk to Leo.

Lucrecia couldn't face Leo. She knew she asked Panther to watch over Leo. But meeting and talking to Leo, she believes she failed to protect him. As Lucrecia was thinking, her thoughts were interrupted when she saw a black figure lunging towards her. With quick reaction, Lucrecia slices the black figure in half and the black figure disappeared.

"Hm." Lucrecia sheaths her sword. "I should set up a couple talisman to keep these low-level demons away. They've been appearing frequently for the past several weeks. I wonder if a sorcerer or a sorceress is summoning these low-level demons. And there's no connection that Crow's father is the one summoning these demons because he's inside that shard when Leo and Crow made it out of Crow's power, Leo's chi and blood."

She felt her phone vibrated in her pocket and takes it out to see a text message from Mana.

We're leaving tonight.

Lucrecia texted back with a response and resumes walking to a big area where a small shrine stood on a flat rock. She drew her weapon to begin her training.

The young swordswoman has been training for three hours. It was getting close to lunch time as she sheathes her weapon and walks back to the house. Lucrecia was walking on the path when she noticed Zoey and Haruto walking towards her with a couple of water bottles.

"Oh, there you are, Lucrecia. Here."

"Thank you, Zoey." Lucrecia opens the bottle to take a drink.

"So, how are you about Leo and Panther?"

"Relieved to know they're alright in Gongmen City right now." Lucrecia replied.

"We knew that you wanted some time to think about your childhood friends." Zoey smiled at her. "They can take care of themselves."

"How do you think Leo is doing with his fear of felines?" Haruto wondered.

"Still the same. It would be nice to see those two again back here in the real world." Zoey said. "But it would also be nice if Leo got over his fear of felines."

"I remember Zuko telling me he had to snap Leo out of it when he saw that tiger. Leo stood like a deer at headlights until he got slapped in the face." Haruto replied.

"Not only that, but Leo is also brave and strong. He's fearless, and willing to do anything to protect his friends. He can be unafraid to express his opinions. Leo can be temperamental if not outright violent when confronted by enemies. He gains compassion and understanding over the years as he matured considerably with his adoptive family and team." Lucrecia said.

"And we know where that considerable point in Leo's maturity. It's because of Panther, Crow, Riki, Serena, Evelyn and you, Lucrecia. Leo spends a lot of time meditating with Crow in her or his room whenever they have time. He slept with Crow as a professional because Crow was suffering from a nightmare because of her father. Ron and Leo took Serena to her room after she fell ill. He stayed with her until her fever broke. Riki saved Leo when he got poisoned at night. Leo helped her to calm the former chief's scorpion that was rampaging in the desert. Moving onto Evelyn, those two works well together on a mission and always patrol the city at night by going solo or working together on a case while Crow joins them. Leo and Panther trained together under Master Lee. Leo became sick after he was stabbed on a mission. Panther took care of Leo at the tower until he got better. There were some other missions where Leo had to work with the girls I just mentioned for a mission. Then there's you, Lucrecia. When Leo came to Japan with the others after they visited China, you began watching Leo from the shadows without interacting with him while Panther was with Leo, even that you left a Shikigami with those two. You know can protect him by his side when you're talking to him, right?" Haruto looks at her.

Lucrecia frowned and looks away from them. "It wouldn't be proper for someone like me to talk to Leo and he might..." She started muttering.

"Hm?"

"Never mind. Come on, let's get something to eat." Lucrecia walks by them.

Haruto and Zoey looks at each other with confused looks on their faces before going after the young swordswoman. They and a few other people hopes that Leo and Lucrecia will talk to one another like they did back when they kids before the incident.

Author's Note: I've been looking forward to add Lucrecia in this story for a while. I thought about adding her much later on in the story and this is the perfect opportunity to do it. I hope you all enjoyed this great chapter, everyone! Don't forget to Follow, Favorite, PM and leave a review! See you all in the next chapter of this story, everyone!