When Logan got the message that Big Head had arrived, he rushed home, excited—only to walk in on a scene like this:
Little Isha was blocking Ekko, refusing to let him go any closer, and it wasn't clear what she was even trying to do.
Meanwhile, Academician Poppy was sitting with Jinx in the courtyard, the two of them leaning toward a glass dome and discussing something. Mostly Jinx chattered away while Heimerdinger nodded, then responded.
"Sorry I'm late." Logan pressed down on the brim of his hat. After sprinting all the way back, his cat-ear hat had nearly flown off several times.
He'd just been at Silco's bar drinking with Silco. Silco had a ridiculous stash of good liquor—stuff you couldn't buy in Zaun even if you had money, the kind that needed special channels. And Silco just happened to have far too many of those channels.
Logan, of course, wasn't going to feel bad for him. He drank like it was free.
And it wasn't just drinking. Logan had also talked over something big with Silco—something big enough to change Zaun's current situation.
These past few days, Zaun had calmed down again. The chem-barons had returned too, but while they were gone for those two days, it wasn't like Logan had been sitting on his hands.
The Spirit Blossom Gang had been recruiting in other communities. As long as someone genuinely wanted in, Logan was willing to bring them into the Hope Community and the Firefly Community.
Of course, plenty of people didn't follow rules. But Zaun was full of people who didn't follow rules. That was something you changed little by little. First you got people together—everything else could come later.
Because of that, Hope Community now had around eight hundred residents. Firefly Community had even more. It used to be a chem-baron's turf, so it was larger than Hope Community and the location was better. Its population had already passed fifteen hundred, making it a large community.
How many people lived in the Lanes year-round anyway? Ten thousand at most?
And under Logan, just those two communities were already close to three thousand people. The Spirit Blossom Gang's membership had climbed too. After the Enforcers incident, a lot of Hope Community residents had joined—going from rejecting "gangs" to becoming a "gang" themselves, actually stepping up and doing their part for the community.
"Logan! Get over here—this little guy is incredible!" The moment Jinx saw him, her eyes lit up, and her face softened into something sweet and almost childlike.
Ekko saw it—and for a split second, he saw Powder's shadow in her.
If it were Powder… she would've made that expression, right?
But the next moment, a small fist slammed hard into his thigh. Ekko looked down.
Isha.
She was glaring up at him, cheeks puffed with anger, tiny fist raised like she was ready to go again.
Ekko: "…"
He hadn't understood why Isha wouldn't let him go over there before, but now he did.
With a faint, helpless smile, he shook his head.
He got what she meant. Just like how Marsen had stopped him from looking at Jinx back then, what Isha was doing now was protecting the relationship between her brother and her sister.
Thinking that, Ekko chuckled. He reached out and ruffled Isha's hair. Isha yanked herself away in annoyance. Ekko didn't mind. He said softly, "This home of yours really can't function without you."
Isha froze, staring at him, and suddenly realized this dark-skinned guy wasn't quite as annoying as she'd thought.
"Relax. I'm not going to do anything—not just because I wouldn't, but because I don't have the right anymore." Ekko crossed his arms, calm.
Joining the Spirit Blossom Gang and letting go of old hatred—that was the biggest thing he could do now.
"Professor Heimerdinger, hello. I'm Logan. I'm really glad you came to Zaun." Logan walked over to Jinx and sat down beside her, looking at Heimerdinger as he spoke.
Jinx immediately wrapped both arms around Logan's, clinging to him as she started excitedly recounting what had just happened.
She told him all the ideas Heimerdinger had been teaching her.
Logan, of course, didn't understand a single one.
Seeing that, Heimerdinger looked at Logan and said, "You didn't understand? It's very simple. Everyone here understood it—except you."
Logan opened his mouth, then turned to Isha. "Isha, you understood too?"
"Eeya!" Isha nodded vigorously.
"…"
Damn. So if you looked at it that way… in this whole room, I really was the dumbest one.
Heimerdinger was obviously the smartest. Then came Jinx and Ekko. And Isha… she was smart too. She was the kind of little genius who could take apart weapons Jinx built and then modify them into something new. Her talent was terrifying.
"Sorry you had to see that," Logan said.
"That's strange." Heimerdinger tilted his head. "From what they said, you're their leader. But you truly don't understand science at all? Then how do you get them to listen to you?"
"Professor, in Zaun, everyone has their own craft. Knowledge isn't what I'm best at," Logan answered.
Logan's impression of Heimerdinger was that he was a simple, straightforward, kind Yordle.
You could tell even from the show: Big Head was pure in a way that made him incapable of playing politics. At the concert, the other councilors couldn't sit still, all thinking their own thoughts, but he'd be genuinely delighted by the music—bouncing, dancing, ears twitching with joy.
And that was exactly why, even with his status, he could still be voted out.
After he was removed, he didn't think about revenge. He looked for what he'd done wrong, then went to Zaun to see the problems Jayce had mentioned.
For someone like that, even if he spoke bluntly, Logan wouldn't get angry.
Heimerdinger was an elder worth respecting.
Like Mel, he didn't want war between the two cities, and he didn't hate Zaun—no matter how much people called him the Father of Piltover.
But Logan not being angry didn't mean no one was angry.
"Enough, fuzzy." Jinx suddenly raised her voice. Still hugging Logan's arm, she stared at Heimerdinger, her expression darkening. "I'm starting to hate fuzzies. You can get out with Ekko. You're not welcome here."
"Why?" Heimerdinger blinked, stunned.
He had no idea why she'd suddenly gotten mad. They'd been talking fine just a moment ago.
And Jinx's talent had made him genuinely excited—he'd even started thinking about taking her on as a student.
Leave?
How could that be allowed?
Logan laughed and patted Jinx's hand, amused. Beside them, Ekko stepped forward too, his voice low and firm. "Professor. Apologize. Apologize to Logan."
"You don't even know what he's done for this city—for us."
Ekko's tone was serious.
As a member of the Spirit Blossom Gang, as Logan's man, he had to stand up for him.
Logan was their leader. Heimerdinger was a Piltover councilor. Even if Ekko could tell Heimerdinger was genuinely innocent—maybe he didn't mean harm and just spoke without thinking—that still wasn't acceptable.
Their leader gets looked down on by a Piltover councilor, and the people under him just stand there and watch? What the hell is that?
Besides… Zaun being like this—actually changing, little by little—Ekko knew exactly who that was because of.
Ekko knew how much effort Logan had poured in, how many things he'd changed.
"I—I did something wrong?" Heimerdinger looked panicked as he turned to Logan. "If I truly did something wrong, then I apologize. Please don't let those two hate me."
Ekko and Jinx were exactly the kind of talent Heimerdinger had been searching for.
This pair wasn't any worse than Jayce and Viktor!
Logan smiled. "You don't need to apologize to me, Professor."
"But if you really do feel sorry, then there's something I need your help with."
Heimerdinger puffed out his chest, his sharp voice ringing out. "Tell me! If it's something I can do, I'll help."
"It's this." Logan pointed at the glass dome in front of Heimerdinger. "Professor, this device you and my Jinx were just working on—it can change Zaun's future. I want you to help her refine it. Help us change Zaun."
Inside the dome, vivid green vines and pale white mist were clearly visible. It was an air purification device Jinx and Ekko had been developing together.
But it was still the same problem: the energy consumption was too high, and the filters wore out far too fast. If you used it on a large scale, even Silco's money wouldn't hold out.
"This…" Heimerdinger hesitated, then spoke carefully. "With all due respect, it's an excellent invention. It can purify the air and improve your ecology."
He shook his head and continued, "But if you don't solve the root cause, then installing more of these won't matter."
As soon as he finished, guilt showed on his face, and he added awkwardly, "That's… sorry."
He was simple, but he was very smart.
Zaun's environment had become what it was because of Piltover—wastewater, toxins, all of it dumped down through the pipes.
The root cause was Piltover.
"That part doesn't need you to worry about," Logan said with a smile. "I'll solve it at the root."
He reached up, took off his cat-ear hat, and gently placed it on Jinx's head.
From the moment Logan had said "my Jinx," Jinx had been grinning so hard she couldn't close her mouth. Her bright blue eyes curved into crescent moons. She clung to Logan's arm like her life depended on it, pressing herself into him so tightly it was like she wanted to melt into his body. Staring up at his face, she looked like she had the sudden urge to bite him.
And Logan, calm as ever, spoke to Heimerdinger with the most matter-of-fact tone in the world:
"Starting tomorrow, Piltover won't be able to send wastewater into Zaun anymore."
His voice was steady, but it carried a force that made people believe him.
Unseen, the power Ahri had granted Logan stirred—his charm maxed out in that instant.
Even Heimerdinger, a Yordle with natural resistance to magic, froze for a moment, eyes going unfocused—like little heart shapes were about to pop into them.
"Ow!"
Jinx couldn't hold back anymore. She lunged, tackled Logan, puckered up, and kissed him right on the face.
"Logan, you're ridiculously handsome!"
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