Chapter 18: A Hero

That figure gradually shifted from a blur to sharp focus.

When she finally saw clearly who was coming, the tiny flicker of hope that had just kindled in Haruka Himuro’s eyes was instantly snuffed out.

It was actually... him!

That new transfer student—he seemed to be from America—named Quillan. She had heard Ruri say he was an utterly despicable guy who even boasted about wanting to hit on all the pretty girls at St. Sakura Girls’ High School!

A person like that had to have terrible character. Besides, he was just a high school student—he couldn’t possibly help her...

Her gaze only lingered on Quillan for a brief moment, yet Haruka Himuro’s inner turmoil swirled violently—from initial despair, to a flicker of hope, and finally back to complete ruin.

Meanwhile, those fierce-looking thugs clad in black leather jackets grabbed her. Two of them flanked her on either side, dragging her away in an attempt to leave the area.

At the same time, Quillan grew curious. What was this silly girl thinking? Why wasn’t she shouting for help at the top of her lungs?

This didn’t fit the expected script at all...

Weren’t all those "hero rescues the beauty" scenarios in books supposed to unfold like that?

In reality, Haruka Himuro was simply too paralyzed with fear to cry out, and her father truly owed these men a massive gambling debt, leaving a high school girl like her with no way to resist.

At this point, not a single trace of hope remained in Haruka Himuro’s eyes—they had faded into a dull, lifeless gray.

Despair. Coming to this point, her life from here on... was probably going to be miserable, wasn’t it?

Actually, maybe it was for the best. At worst, after being degraded by these men, she could just end her own life. Who asked her luck to be so rotten—her mother died in a car crash, and her father was hopelessly addicted to gambling, completely neglecting her.

With her mind consumed by thoughts of utter ruin, Haruka Himuro didn’t dare wish for even a sliver of hope in her life. But...

Just then, Quillan finally walked over, an easygoing expression on his face and a faint, subtle smirk playing at the corners of his lips. "Hey, you bastards! Debts have debtors, and wrongs have causes. That guy named Kento owes you money, so you should go find him! What kind of skill is it to bully a little girl who’s still in high school?"

Although Quillan didn’t speak very loudly, on a quiet early morning like this, as long as those men weren’t deaf, they could hear him loud and clear.

"Oho!" The four burly men in black and sunglasses turned around slowly. A bald guy turned to their boss and said, "Boss, some blind kid is here to make trouble!"

"Do I need you to tell me when I can see it myself?!" The man called Boss grunted in annoyance. With a fierce glint in his eyes, he glared at Quillan and sneered sinisterly, "Hey, kid! Do you have a death wish, daring to poke your nose into my business?"

Quillan replied nonchalantly, "I just can’t stand watching a few grown men strut around, picking on a weak young girl."

"XXXXX!"

The boss let out a string of slurred curses, then glared at his subordinates and urged, "Are you idiots stupid? Why haven’t you gone over to teach this brat a lesson yet?!"

Upon the boss’s order, the two leather-jacketed men dragging Haruka Himuro let go of her, charging toward Quillan alongside the third henchman.

Haruka Himuro had finally broken free from the villains’ clutches, but she couldn’t bring herself to be happy at all. Instead, she looked toward Quillan with immense worry.

Because of the distance, compounded by her tear-blurred vision, Haruka Himuro could only see that in the pale yellow morning light, three imposing, leather-jacketed thugs were rushing toward a relatively slender figure.

By comparison, that slender figure looked so frail and defenseless under the crushing presence of the three burly men.

Haruka Himuro closed her eyes in utter despair, her mind automatically picturing the scene of Quillan being beaten half to death, making her feel terribly guilty!

This was supposed to be her own miserable fate, yet it had dragged an innocent person like Quillan into it. She felt she had ruined him—and... Quillan could have easily stayed out of this, yet he... had stepped forward without a second thought!

Next...

His end was going to be terrible, right? Haruka Himuro thought in agony. She had seen this gang’s brutal methods with her own eyes—her father had once been beaten into a bloody mess and bedridden for days, not to mention Quillan’s frame couldn’t compare to a fully grown adult at all!

Quillan-kun... he isn’t a bad person at all!

This thought suddenly popped into Haruka Himuro’s mind at that moment.

While Haruka Himuro was lost in her desperate, chaotic thoughts, a blood-curdling scream dragged her straight back to reality.

Her body froze. Her frame, which had been trembling from fear and despair, gradually calmed down as her eyes locked back onto Quillan.

"Argh... my, my arm! My arm is dislocated!"

The man who had rushed ahead of the others turned out to be the unlucky one. Because he charged too fast, he failed to anticipate Quillan’s nimble side-step. In that split second as they crossed paths, Quillan grabbed his right wrist and, leveraging the momentum of the man’s forward sprint, snapped his arm backward. A sharp crack echoed through the air, immediately followed by the man’s agonized wail!

Next, Quillan seamlessly delivered a kick toward the second attacker. The speed and precision of this kick were executed to absolute perfection—his shoe struck the second man squarely between the legs with infallible accuracy!

"AWOOOO..."

Having taken such a devastating blow to his vital area, accompanied by a sound like crushing eggs, the man rolled his eyes back and fainted on the spot!

Finally, Quillan completely ignored the third man who stood frozen in hesitation, sprinting right past him. Quillan’s target was the boss of this gang. But this third henchman didn’t know what was good for him—as Quillan passed by, he actually tried to launch a sneak attack from behind!

Seeing this, Haruka Himuro practically screamed out of instinct, "Quillan-kun, watch out..."

Before she could finish her sentence, a scene she would never forget for the rest of her life unfolded right before her eyes.

As if he had eyes on the back of his head, Quillan didn’t even turn his head around. He precisely caught the man’s striking hand, pulled forward with sudden force, and the thug crashed helplessly onto the ground without a shred of resistance.

And then... Quillan simply dragged him by the arm, walking step by step toward the boss with a provocative smile and a keen gaze.

By now, every ounce of the boss’s swagger had vanished into thin air. His eyes crossed in sheer terror, and his wide-open mouth betrayed the immense shock in his heart. He didn’t even notice his sunglasses slipping right off his face!

It wasn’t until Quillan dragged the man right up to his feet that the boss’s knees buckled, and he... fell to his knees directly in front of Quillan!

"I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!"

The boss apologized frantically to Quillan, his expression thoroughly panicked as he babbled, "Sir, you must be... you must be a master from a martial arts family, right? I hope you can forgive a blind fool like me..."

The skills Quillan had just displayed terrified the gang leader to his core, leading him to mistake Quillan for a disciple of some martial arts clan. Quillan didn’t bother to explain, uttering only a single, icy word: "Scram!"

"Scram? Oh, right... we’ll scram right away, scram right away!"

This boss was pathetic to the extreme—hearing the word ’scram,’ he actually felt overjoyed beyond measure!

"Hold on!"

Quillan glanced over at Haruka Himuro, calling the thugs back and issuing a stern warning: "Like I said, debts have debtors, and wrongs have causes. If any of you dare trouble this young girl again..."

"Please rest assured, sir!"

The boss hurriedly raised his hand to swear: "If we ever blindly trouble this young lady again, we’ll... we’ll commit harakiri!"

"Fine." Quillan snapped his fingers, signaling the thugs to beat it. He then turned around and winked at Haruka Himuro, who was standing there completely dumbfounded.

Haruka Himuro didn’t offer any response to Quillan’s wink, simply because... she was utterly stunned!