Riku, although a complete NEET who despised the outdoors, did in fact sometimes leave the house by his own accord, on very rare occasions. A certain outing two years back mainly had to do with the fact that he was sent to Rakuyo at the time, away from his beloved battlestation back in Aomori: while a smartphone with unlimited data was better than nothing, he was beginning to feel a bit bored with the small screen and poor sound system.

In any case, Riku was going to a famed maid café in Kyoto. A sane human being would question why Riku was going to a maid café when his family already employed maids, and even the people around him considered it a waste. But the mind of an otaku was variable and difficult to understand; Riku insisted that it was different somehow.

It wasn’t too much of a problem financially, though. His family had more than enough money already, so even daily visits to the establishment wouldn’t even be a drop in the bucket of the Shinosaki fortune. The two Shinosaki parents’ many vacations were much more pricey, anyways.

So the trip was merely met with weird looks on the part of Sena and Chiaki, which were easily ignored by Riku since he wasn’t taking them with him. Riku didn’t need assistance finding a maid café like he would for anywhere else; he always had an uncanny knack for getting to maid cafés, especially when he wasn’t looking for them.

Kyoto’s metro system was quite extensive, and served Riku’s purposes well enough for what he was doing. While Riku was slightly introverted, he had no qualms about being in the hugely crowded train cars. There was also no question that the metro was going to be faster at getting him to his destination than either car or foot.

Sexual harassment inside the crowded compartments of the subway system was a known problem in Japan, and Riku hated that fact with a passion, going so far as to keep track of the entire vehicle every time he used public transportation, making good use of the strong senses granted by his overpowered cultivation.

Of course, he rarely used public transportation, but Riku didn’t really consider himself as some superhero needing to save the day. Police existed for a reason. But if an incident happened right under his nose, when Riku could’ve easily stopped it, he wasn’t sure if he could forgive himself.

Unfortunately, on this particular trip, he found someone inappropriately groping a lady only a minute after the subway left the station. The girl was obviously distressed, but the molester was a twelve fart cultivator and had used a talisman to keep the girl immobile and unable to speak.

Riku knew that the particular talisman being used wasn’t something that most cultivators kept around; it was illegal for the general public, mainly being used by the police. His frown grew deeper. The molester was probably not new to molesting, and if not, he definitely didn’t have a clean record.

Riku equipped a surgical mask and did a short range teleport to the roof of the train car, swiftly leaping forwards towards the compartment the criminal was in at lightning speeds. A few seconds later, he landed on the right roof and teleported down, preparing to apprehend the molester.

However, someone else, similarly masked, had already put a stop to the pervert’s heinous crime, putting him in an armlock and crying, “Molester!” There was nobody left to apprehend, and the day was already saved before our hero had even arrived.

Riku sighed with relief. It was good that someone had helped the girl before he did, for every second away from hell was as precious as all the world’s riches. Plus, he wasn’t the type that actually enjoyed being in the limelight and saving the damsel in distress. Shockingly, it turned out that no damsel in the third dimension was 2D, a fact that made Riku lose all interest.

It totally had nothing to do with the fact that Riku was kind of bad at talking to strangers. Totally.

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With the situation defused, he took out his phone and called the police. The authorities would take it from the next station on.

In the background, he heard the captured molester yell something like “I’m the fifth son of the Kumochi clan! Release me now or you will regret it!” or something irrelevant like that. It was the obvious ramblings of a deranged person and shouldn’t be taken seriously: the Kumochi clan was very powerful, even slightly eclipsing the Shinosaki clan in influence, and their scions would have better things to do, like, perhaps, watch anime. The sexual assaulter was likely some random commoner who got their hands on some illegal goods.

Riku took a look at the man out of the corner of his eye and was glad to see the capturer slapping the criminal’s face hard enough to leave an imprint, clearly paying no heed to the pervert’s baseless threats. The pervert screamed in pain but then shut up after that.

When the phone call was over and the police duly notified, Riku got a good look at the hero of the day. Her face was mostly covered with a simple surgical face mask—a decently common sight during Japan’s flu season—but he could tell from the uncovered parts of her face and her general build that she was around the same age as him. If Riku was attracted to 3D, just the beauty of her eyes would probably have mesmerized him on sight, but he wasn’t.

It was pretty amazing for a middle or high school aged girl to take down an older guy, especially when the older guy was a fairly strong cultivator. Riku checked her aura, trying to ascertain the girl’s cultivation level; it was impossible for a complete mortal to even touch the hair of a twelve fart cultivator if the cultivator didn’t want them to.

Although she was trying to hide her precise level of cultivation, Riku’s power was nearly at the limits of what the mortal realm could bear. It was trivial to see through whatever pitiful concealing techniques she was using.

She was an eighteen fart cultivator at a similar age to Riku, meaning that she was very talented and would be someone averagely famous someday. (Of course, she was nothing compared to Riku, but it really wasn’t fair to compare anyone to him.) It also meant that she wouldn’t need help in restraining the criminal until the train reached the next station.

Riku prodded her shoulder. “Hey.”

“Yes?” She turned to look at him, replying in a voice as sweet as songbirds. If she was a voice actress, Riku would immediately watch every single anime she had a passing role in, but she wasn’t. He thought of offering her free training and the job, but she was probably attached to some cultivator clan, given her level of power. He doubted that someone would abandon the cushy life of a cultivator to do voice acting.

Cutting himself out of his reverie, he went back to the topic at hand. “Um, so, I called the police. They’ll be waiting outside the station. Err, I’ll show you the way.”

It was perhaps not the most eloquent of speeches, but Riku was not the most eloquent of people, less so around strangers.

“Oh.” She seemed somewhat surprised. “Thanks,” she added.

Riku chose not to reply.

The two of them waited in silence until the speakers sounded and the doors opened.

The masked girl took a glance at the non-masked girl, the victim of the pervert’s evil hand. Noticing that she was still in a shocked state and not paying much attention to her surroundings, the masked girl said, “Come with me. I’ll need your help to get this piece of trash behind bars.”

The other girl took a second to process her savior’s words. The next moment, a fire lit up in her eyes. “Yes!”

The trio marched out of the subway car, literally dragging the molester along.

Riku, having already mapped out the entire building with his divine sense, led the way, and they soon met with a pair of police officers, who handcuffed the culprit. The three were requested to have their statements taken at the station. It was a request they readily accepted.

They boarded a separate police car from the molester to the non-masked girl’s visible relief; nobody wanted to be in the same general location as the person who sexually harassed her.

It seemed that the stress of the hour had all caught up to her at that moment. She broke into tears, weeping silently into her arms. The masked girl softly patted the girl’s head. She flinched for a moment before accepting her hero’s touch and snuggling up closer.

The masked girl silently embraced the girl in her bosom, still gently caressing the non-masked girl’s black hair. The car ride continued in silence, the sound of the young girl’s mourning muffled by the clothes of her savior.

From the front seat, Riku looked away from the mirror with a smile.

Sometimes just the warmth of another person was more comfort than words could ever give.