Joachim, who was taking off his costume and changing into his regular clothes outside the door, had no idea that he had already been labeled a "bad guy" by Yae Rin due to his poor taste in aesthetics.
Of course, being a bad guy or not didn't matter. Joachim was already mentally prepared.
His act of taking a child like this was too impulsive. It was hard not to be seen as a villain. The police chasing him would probably see red after reviewing the surveillance footage from the alley, and the intensity of their next attempt to capture him would likely increase by two difficulty levels.
Coupled with the interests tied to this little girl, it might even push the entire city of Sapphire into a lockdown, with door-to-door "water meter checks."
That would be a real problem. If it was just him, it would be fine. At worst, he could walk out of Sapphire City using the Mosquito's Breath and find an unnoticed spot to swim across the river.
But what about this little girl? Should he return her to that hospital, to continue taking that unregulated medicine?
During a lockdown, if people from Future City wanted to take Yae Rin away, someone would have to show up. The person he had contacted would need at least twelve hours to arrive, and that was with a direct flight through special channels.
Moreover, that kind of travel was too high-profile. From the moment they entered the Chinese mainland's territory, all parties would know. Combined with the girl's disappearance, the purpose would be obvious.
The local forces could then use these few hours to lay their plans, grease the wheels, and wait in a prepared state to face the hastily arriving personnel from Future City. It was very likely the little girl would end up staying here.
Joachim's original plan was to hide in Sapphire City with the girl for two days, allowing the Future City personnel to enter the Chinese mainland normally. After some maneuvering, they would leave with Yae Rin directly, a fait accompli.
Then, after a month of back-and-forth, they would let the treatment results speak for themselves.
I managed to curb her illness in just one month. What about you? You can't even handle a medical racketeer, just arresting and releasing them repeatedly, causing this little girl's condition to worsen.
Can you bear to watch such a little girl continue to suffer?
It was roguish, it was shameless, but the treatment progress would be there for all to see. It was irrefutable proof. Once that was achieved, Yae Rin would receive the best possible care.
So, from the very beginning, Joachim was prepared to be the bad guy.
What? You say I'm a bad guy because [Alahato] looks too much like a villain?!
Then today, I absolutely must have a serious discussion with you, you obnoxious little brat, about how Alahato was designed!
Although he was quite confident in Alahato's appearance, for the sake of the child's mood, Joachim still changed into his regular clothes, put on the non-prescription glasses he thought were cool, and walked into the room with a profound expression.
He immediately saw Yae Rin, wrapped in a quilt, curled up in a ball in the corner of the bed, shivering.
Her eyes were filled with fear... and curiosity?
Well, that was normal. It was already a great achievement for a child not to cry after being taken away by a stranger. This was a fantastic start.
At least he didn't have to worry about a nosy neighbor reporting him, right? The Chinese mainland's prisons weren't a place every Future City leader had to check into.
He, Joachim, the "prince" of Future City, the future leader of Future City, would absolutely not make the same mistake as that data lifeform who only liked Homu.
Clearly born with a sacred body for mecha, yet he loved Homu and fairy tales. What a waste of natural talent!
This time, he would let that guy know that Alahato was the future number one IP in the world!
With this thought, Joachim gave Yae Rin a gentle smile, but she shrank back. The smile clearly didn't have the desired effect.
Joachim dropped the smile and chose to maintain his preferred aura of "detached from the world."
"Child, don't be afraid. I mean you no harm," Joachim said calmly, observing Yae Rin's reaction.
The child might not be calm; she might be scared stiff.
But Yae Rin's action of wrapping herself in the quilt and only peeking her head out to nod made Joachim dismiss that thought. She could still communicate, so she was indeed calm.
But for a child to be so sensible made Joachim's heart ache a little.
This child... what has she been through to be dragging her seriously ill body to that place?
Looking at Yae Rin, whose fatigue was plain on her face, Joachim offered a few simple words of comfort and then gestured for her to rest easy.
It was almost five in the morning, and Yae Rin looked like she hadn't slept all night. This was too much of a burden for a child, let alone a sick one.
This base was small, a single room with a living area, and cluttered with various items. If he stayed in the room, he would disturb her rest.
So, he might as well take this opportunity to go out and see the night view of Sapphire City, and the sunrise. He was an adult; an all-nighter was not a problem.
Joachim left the room, quietly locking it with a lock that could be opened from the inside. He stretched and prepared to go out and handle some matters.
This wasn't his only operation in Sapphire City. Dealing with those medical racketeers was just to uncover the industrial chain behind them. His real target was the gray areas fostered within Sapphire City.
Although he could directly access the relevant information from Future City's database, which was far more convenient than investigating it himself, logging into the database required a password, and that password...
Who in this day and age still uses a password full of loopholes instead of biometric data as a key?
And the password was "Homu IP is the best in the world"? Joachim could guess with his toes who came up with this terrible idea.
Damn you, Albert. That guy must be a Homu spy hidden in the Alahato camp.
Look at Dr. Tesla. That's a proper Alahato fan.
Joachim snorted inwardly in indignation and pushed up his non-prescription glasses, making a glint of cold light flash across them.
Inside the room, after hearing the "click" of the lock, Yae Rin's tense mood finally relaxed.
Everything that had happened today was beyond her expectations. Although she hadn't even expected that she couldn't open a bottle cap, the feeling of her worldview being bombarded still made her hold her breath.
The monster that looked like a villain was gone, and now a strange man who called himself "Yang" had appeared.
Although this strange man looked like a good person, his stern face involuntarily reminded her of her sister when she had caused trouble.
They both had the same stern face, not smiling, not getting angry, but their actions were terrifying. Not only would they slap her palm, but they would also make her read books.
Wow... Thinking about it now, Rin felt her sister was the scariest person in the world.
But it was this sister who had been helping her get treatment, even letting her future be delayed time and time again...
So, compared to going back and letting her sister continue to suffer like this, Rin felt her current situation wasn't so bad.
Er... at least that Uncle Yang isn't a bad person... for now. We'll see if he makes me read books or slaps my palm.
Now relaxed, Rin felt her eyelids growing heavy. She was on a bed, wrapped in a quilt. All she had to do was lie down to sleep.
She had grown up sleeping on the floor in a village in the Far East, so she didn't have the habit of being picky about beds or pillows.
But this was the first time she was sleeping without her sister nearby, which made her a little worried.
Her worry couldn't overcome her body's needs. Rin obediently lay down on the bed, gradually closing her eyes, casting aside her complicated thoughts. Her mind began to focus on a single, still sakura blossom.
This was a method her sister had taught her. As long as she continuously focused on one unmoving thing, she could fall asleep quickly.
Normally, a child's mind is scattered, but her sister said she had a special talent for concentration. Although Rin always felt her sister was indirectly calling her stupid, she had practiced this method so much it had almost become instinct.
Unless there was a sudden loud noise, Rin only needed a minute to fall aslee...
"BANG—"
Something crashed to the floor. The sound was incredibly jarring at five in the morning.
Yae Rin's eyes shot open. Already prone to being woken by the medical racketeers, she felt a painful arrhythmia in that instant.
The feeling of having to consciously force herself to breathe, the sensation of her heart beating against her trachea and lungs inside her chest, and the conflict of her brain being forcibly rebooted only to crash repeatedly...
Rin practically turned into a wooden sculpture. After gasping for a while, she hastily scrambled out of bed and looked meekly in the direction of the sound...
Wow, what a beautiful big sister!
Seeing Kallen, who had suddenly appeared on the floor of the room for some unknown reason, Rin's first reaction was to be captivated by her beauty.
She didn't even notice how such a large person had suddenly appeared in her room...
Huh? How did this beautiful big sister appear in my room?
After marveling at Kallen's beauty, Rin's expression suddenly froze. The next moment, her face began to turn the color of Kallen's hair.
Appearing suddenly in the room, with snow-white hair and a beautiful face... Rin uncontrollably recalled the ghost stories her sister used to tell to scare her.
Like the famous monsters of the Far East: the Snow Woman, the fox spirit, the kappa...
Could this be the legendary Snow Woman?!
Rin began to tremble. She wasn't afraid of being alone, nor was she afraid of her illness. She had no concept of death.
But at this moment, she was truly scared. She didn't know what she was afraid of, because she hadn't thought about what the other person might do to her. She was just afraid of fear itself.
So, this fear came quickly and went just as fast.
A few minutes later, seeing no movement from Kallen, the fear in Rin's heart gradually dissipated. The big sister's beauty once again took over her impression.
She was so beautiful. Rin felt that among all the people she had ever seen, only her sister was as beautiful as this big sister.
As mentioned before, Rin's aesthetic had always been cute, splendid, and beautiful.
And Kallen possessed all three of these qualities. It could be said that Kallen was a perfect match for Rin's tastes.
She even began to think in reverse, that Kallen wasn't some legendary monster, but a legendary Magical Homu Girl.
After all, only Magical Homu Girls had such beautiful hair.
So lamented Yae Rin, who possessed a head of exceptionally rare sakura-pink hair, completely unaware of how many people envied her for it.
And as soon as she associated the other person with something like a Magical Homu Girl, Rin's courage grew.
She quickly scurried to the edge of the bed, clambered down, found the slippers she had worn from the hospital, and approached Kallen.
Stare—
Poke, poke—
The wonderful sensation from Kallen's face made Rin gasp. She reached up to touch her own face and found that the texture was completely different.
However, Kallen showed a slight reaction to Rin's actions. Her brows twitched and furrowed slightly.
But Rin didn't notice Kallen's movement, nor did she notice that Kallen's hands had begun to tense.
She was distracted by the urgent sound of a lock being picked.
The next moment, the door to the rental apartment opened, and Joachim rushed back in.
The detector he had placed in the room had alerted him to an extra person, scaring him enough to run back.
He arrived just in time to intercept the instinctive, explosive strike from Kallen.
"This is—"
"WHACK!"
The moment Joachim entered, he saw Kallen lying on the floor. His pupils behind his non-prescription glasses constricted, and Kallen's name was almost on his lips.
He knew this person! He knew her very well!
But she probably didn't know him, because he had only become a candidate for the next leader of Future City after she had left. Before that, he was just a nobody.
But why was she here? Why did she suddenly spring up from the floor? Why was she attacking him?
As Kallen's explosive punch rushed towards Joachim's chin, his rapidly thinking mind suddenly stalled.
Oh, Senior Kallen is a Kaslana. Well, that explains it.
And the standard uppercut sent Joachim flying, landing in a pile of junk, knocked out cold.
Consciousness then transferred to Kallen, who had sprung up holding Yae Rin.
Yae Rin watched Joachim get sent flying, watched the tall man get "beaten to death" with a single punch by this incredibly beautiful big sister, and her small jaw practically dropped to Kallen's chest.
This big sister really was a Magical Homu Girl!
Because that's how Magical Homu Girls sent their enemies flying and left them in this state!
Could it be that Uncle Yang was really a bad guy, and this beautiful big sister was here to save her?
No... Yae Rin's face grew even paler.
As everyone knows, Magical Homu Girls fight bad guys.
So, what did that make her, who had run away from home?
Oh no, she's here for me!