The girl tried to lower her head and run away quickly, but Yusei firmly grabbed her arm, asking seriously, "Hina, why are you running?"
The girl's struggling stopped abruptly. She seemed to lose all her strength, her body trembling slightly, tears dripping onto the ground from her bowed head.
Yusei glanced at the surrounding pedestrians, frowned, and led Hina to an unmanned stairwell.
Looking at the girl who had cut off her beautiful long hair, Yusei sighed, a trace of pity flashing in his eyes.
"Hina, you heard it that day, didn't you? From that phone call."
Hina, hearing Yusei's words, jerked her head up, then slowly lifted it, her voice trembling.
"You... you admit it?"
"Admit what? Are you referring to what you overheard on the phone last time?" Yusei's tone remained calm.
"Yes." Hina stared straight at Yusei, her eyes still glistening.
"Why did you lie to me? Why pretend to be nice to me?"
What Hina couldn't understand the most was why Yusei was kind to her initially. If he wanted to kidnap her, why didn't he just knock her out and take her away from the start?
So, the only reason she could think of fell into the category of 'playing with her feelings', a twisted amusement in watching her become grateful, only to cruelly abandon her and witness her despair.
Yusei rubbed Hina's head and said, amused, "When did I ever lie to you?"
"That phone call..."
"That phone call was also real. I was commissioned to find the person in Tokyo who can change the weather and bring her to the [A] mentioned in the call."
Yusei looked at Hina and continued, "But the premise was that I knew you were that weather-changing girl. In fact, I didn't know initially. It wasn't until after you left that I made the connection."
"So... you... you weren't lying to me?" Hina raised her head to look at Yusei.
"Of course not. There's no reward for me to lie to you. What's more, I never intended to hand over the weather-changing girl to that old hag."
Yusei smiled slightly, "Also, I didn't know about you being a wanted person. I only found out from the news a few days after you left."
Yusei touched Hina's newly cut short hair, "It must have been hard for you, being on the run lately. But don't worry. I came looking for you this time precisely to help you resolve these matters."
Hina looked dazedly at the gentle Yusei, then somewhat dejectedly lowered her head again.
"Why...?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you so good to me..." Hina's voice was as faint as a mosquito's hum.
"As for the 'why'... I'm not too sure myself. Probably because you're my employee. What boss would just stand by and watch their employee get captured?"
Yusei scratched his head, 'That explanation should be reasonable enough, right?'
Truthfully, he himself wasn't entirely clear why he was helping Hina.
If it was for her body, that was obviously impossible. He had encountered many beauties, so why go through all this trouble and effort just for Hina?
Looking at it from a kind-hearted perspective, it was a boss protecting his employee.
From a power-level perspective, Yusei was very interested in the weather power Hina possessed.
Of course, he already had weather powers now.
"A boss protecting his employee..." Complex emotions flashed in Hina's eyes.
The words seemed somewhat unreal, yet for some reason, hearing them from Yusei felt incredibly genuine.
Even though she was wanted by society, her boss still wanted to save her.
Hina bit her lip tightly. Her heart had solidified somewhat, but she still slowly shook her head.
"Boss, I... I should still go alone. Otherwise, I'll drag you down."
"Don't talk nonsense."
Yusei shook his head helplessly, looking at the dark substance she had smeared on her face, now streaked by her tears, revealing patches of her originally fair skin beneath.
"What did you put on your face?"
Hina scratched her head sheepishly, "It's... cocoa powder. I wanted to make my skin darker, and I cut my hair short. I thought no one would recognize me then."
"Alright. First, I'll take you back to the apartment. You can wash up properly, eat something, and get some proper rest. These days on the run must have been exhausting, right?"
Hina nodded, then looked at Yusei, "What about you, Boss?"
She remembered Yusei just said he would help her resolve things. She was afraid he would go to great lengths for her...
She didn't remember the identity of 'Shinomiya Family's young master', so Hina didn't want Yusei to trouble himself too much on her account.
"Me? My job is to stop these people for you."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Yusei saw several figures in black appear ahead. Seeing this, Hina immediately tried to pull Yusei away to run.
"Yusei, hurry, let's go! They're the ones chasing me. I don't know why, but they've been pursuing me constantly these past few days."
"It's too late now."
As soon as Yusei spoke, he saw the men ahead had already surrounded them.
Clearly, their appearance here wasn't a coincidence, and they were tracking her with a purpose.
Hina stepped in front of Yusei, which made him both touched and puzzled.
'By the look of it, are you trying to protect me?'
The men opposite also spotted Hina and immediately stopped.
"Boss, it's that damn girl the old lady wants captured."
One of the men in black spoke to the leader, a man with a fierce expression.
The leader nodded, "I see."
As he spoke, he took two steps forward, looking at Yusei and Hina, finally settling his gaze on Hina.
"So it's you. The one who used unknown means to kill the chairman's son, and made our pursuing brothers disappear one after another."
The man in black showed no intention of holding back. He raised the pistol in his hand, its muzzle already fitted with a silencer.
This was a stairwell. Normally, people in the department store used the elevators, and few would take the stairs.
And judging by the situation, they probably had people guarding the entrances and exits to prevent anyone from entering.
"I won't take any chances. Originally, the chairman wanted you alive, but now, dead or alive doesn't matter!"
The muffled sound of a silenced gunshot rang out. Hina instinctively closed her eyes.
At this close range, she couldn't dodge. She couldn't use her ability either. Moreover, this was a department store, densely crowded with people. If she summoned lightning, many would surely die.
Then, she only felt someone pull her into an embrace, heard a sound of metal clashing, and then... nothing happened.