The burly man really wanted to retort with, "Right here, right now?" but time did not permit.
The crowd had already been cleared for a while. In that time, he could have run nearly a hundred meters. He was desperate to make a deal and get this woman to let go!
No matter how useless those city defense team grunts were, they were still vetted and armed.
Even though his set of prosthetic limbs was expensive and top-of-the-line, they were no match for the city defense team's actual guns.
This was a commercial district; there were always city defense patrols nearby. He had specifically chosen the shift change to make his move, but he hadn't expected to run into this person.
"Let go!" the burly man roared, holding the buzzing circular saw up to the young woman. She hesitated for a fraction of a second, and in that instant, the man's leg slipped free from her grasp.
The girl was startled. She hadn't meant to let go! She was just trying to think of a way to stall for more time. She never thought he'd use a cheap trick...
Huh?
The young woman with the short blue ponytail lay on the ground, watching the burly man fly through the air with a dumbfounded expression. Her intuition told her that a proper escape shouldn't look like that.
Looking up, she saw Siegfried holding a flying kick pose.
"In broad daylight—" Siegfried began to shout, but a dazzling neon light shone on him, making him choke. He glanced up, then shook his head violently and stuck his neck out. "That's no excuse for you to do evil!"
He retracted his leg and pointed at the burly man who had landed nearly ten meters away. "Put the water down and come with me to the city defense office to confess!"
The burly man struggled on the ground for a long time but couldn't get up. All he could do was glare and curse.
"Which blind bastard kicked me?" He didn't think anything was wrong. The place Siegfried had kicked was his half-mechanical body. The man hadn't installed pain sensors there. He had only felt a massive force, a dizzying spin, and then he was on the ground.
So when he looked up and saw that the closest person was ten meters away, the burly man was stunned but still didn't understand. He tried to prop himself up to teach this guy a lesson.
But after struggling twice, he still couldn't get up. The frustrated man slammed his mechanical limb twice. "Why did you have to malfunction now! Dammit!"
From an angle he couldn't see, his mechanical limb had been severely deformed. That was the power of Siegfried's kick.
It had to be said, these advanced mechanical limbs were truly something. As long as they didn't have a sensory system installed, they could be twisted like this without causing the host any discomfort.
Siegfried, of course, knew the power of his kick. He stared at the burly man and casually asked, "Kira, you alright?"
The blue-ponytail girl scrambled up from the ground, theatrically dusting herself off behind Siegfried. She then raised a fist to her mouth and gave an awkward cough.
"Ahem... You were a little late, don't you think? I'd been holding that guy off for a while."
As she spoke, Shigure Kira didn't dare look in Siegfried's direction, a clear sign of her guilt.
"I was a bit far, wasn't I?" Siegfried scratched his head sheepishly. "Took me some time to run over. Sorry about that."
Shigure Kira turned her head even further away. Of course, she knew it would take time for Siegfried to run over; she hadn't even seen him here a moment ago. The distance between them must have been quite large.
The only reason she said that was... well, she had her pride, especially in front of this guy Siegfried.
Normally, she would have found something to nitpick about him, especially when Cecilia was around, but for now...
Siegfried had saved her, after all. So she'd let it slide.
But he shouldn't expect her to be nice to him! Some things couldn't be let go of so easily!
"I'll leave this guy to you, then. I've got things to do, so I gotta go." Shigure Kira waved her hand and started to walk away. Siegfried's abilities were beyond question; leaving this to him would be fine.
She had been out of her mind back then, challenging him to duels several times. She had tried everything from sneak attacks to poison, but she had never once beaten him. By now, Shigure Kira had given up on the idea of getting the better of him in a direct confrontation.
In fact, after being put down by Siegfried so many times, she had started to let some things go. But while she had let that go, what about all the times she had made a fool of herself?
That grudge was fresh. She really couldn't let that go.
She! Shigure Kira! Was just that petty!
She had to think of a really outrageous rumor, something worse than "Siegfried groped all the female researchers in Future City." Preferably a rumor that would reach Cecilia's ears...
Ignoring Siegfried's shouts at the burly man behind her, Shigure Kira stroked her chin and fell into a deep, uninspired contemplation.
It wasn't that she couldn't think of more outrageous rumors, but she wanted something that was outrageous without crossing a real line.
She just wanted to see Siegfried frantically explaining himself to Cecilia, not to actually turn him into a public enemy.
Hmm...
The burly man's defiant shouts came from behind her. Shigure Kira didn't understand some of the local slang; there were always some regional idioms that translators couldn't handle, but it sounded pretty foul.
Because she could already hear Siegfried rolling up his sleeves. Don't be fooled by his carefree demeanor; if she even thought a bad word about him, he would turn his head with pinpoint accuracy and look right at her.
He really could sense it when someone was talking about him!
Amidst the sounds of pained cries and beatings, just when Shigure Kira thought her brainstorming for the day would be fruitless, she saw another little girl standing in the open space.
Golden hair, a dazed look, holding a small white cat. She looked incredibly cute.
Shigure Kira's eyes narrowed. She stared at the little girl's bangs, using the unique observational skills of a top-tier sniper.
Those bangs...
They were familiar, incredibly familiar. She felt like she had seen them somewhere before, the kind of thing you see every day.
And that face was getting more and more familiar, even the little girl's aura... Oh~ Isn't she a spitting image of Kiana as a child?!
Shigure Kira had an epiphany. Suddenly, an expression of utter disbelief appeared in her eyes.
Kaslanas don't have golden hair! She had seen every member of the Kaslana family! Absolutely none!
Therefore, there was only one possibility for this little girl...