Chapter 53: 31. Facing ACPA
"What's your name?"
Hearing Carl's words, the target in his arms fell silent for a moment. Just as Carl began to wonder whether she had passed out from blood loss, she asked his name in an extremely faint voice.
"Carl. My name's Carl. KK is fine too."
Glancing at the girl in his arms, Carl said, "If you don't have the strength, don't talk. The less you say, the better your chances of making it out."
"But Carl, aren't you saying all this because you want me to keep talking?"
The girl's face went a little paler, but suddenly turned serious. Then, as though she were saying something terribly important, she moved her cherry-red lips, now tinged with deathly white, and spoke her name.
"My name is Haruko."
"Haruko?"
Noticing her solemnity, Carl kept walking as he replied, "If I remember right, Haruko means about the same thing in Japanese as it does in Chinese. Child of a sunny day. Were you born on a sunny day?"
"It doesn't suit Night City, where it's always gray and overcast."
Haruko smiled. Whenever she smiled, it seemed dazzlingly bright. "Maybe that's why I got hurt."
"Superstition."
Carl wanted to show some scorn, but faced with Haruko's pale face, so utterly out of place amid Night City's dazzling colors, he simply could not manage it.
"Hold on a little longer. We're almost there."
Carl desperately wanted to flag down a car by the roadside, stuff Haruko inside, and send her straight to Azure Tower. But perhaps the gunfire and artillery booming from the distant battle were simply too loud. Along the way, he had not seen a single car approach. The only one that had been driving in this direction immediately spun around in a drift and sped