Doctor

Originally, Leon had thought he would just give those four punks a good beating. After all, nighttime was criminals' proper working hours.

Those loafers clearly weren't real gangsters. They didn't even belong to a proper crew!

They really didn't look like they were capable of accomplishing anything big.

Who would have thought that, while those guys weren't doing so well in life, they had good judgment!

They actually ran!

Th-this... It wasn't as though Leon couldn't catch them, but he belonged to the chaotic neutral camp, at least according to himself~

If he really caught up with them, what could he do?

Kill them?

No need for that! It wasn't like he was an actual homicidal maniac or had some kind of mental illness.

Beat them up?

Was he five years old?

It wasn't worth it!

So Leon could only watch those four brats flee with a gloomy expression.

Fortunately, he was wearing Rorschach's Mask, so no one could see his gloominess.

In a bad mood, he simply decided to leave.

Just as he was about to fully activate the Sky Dance Technique and fly home at top speed to sleep,

the woman in red behind him unexpectedly spoke.

"Hey!"

Hm?

Leon turned around. So you're not afraid of me anymore? As a doctor, it's perfectly reasonable for me to carry dissection tools around!

Could you show me some respect, please!

"Um... thank you for saving me!"

Perhaps she had realized that Leon truly meant her no harm. He was most likely just an ordinary cross-dresser or some other kind of abnormal person. In any case, Leon had saved her. That was a fact.

"I'm Barbara."

Only then did Leon carefully examine this "weak woman" who had come out in the middle of the night pretending to be Joey Wong.

Brown-skinned, glamorous features. Dark golden hair in large waves. A short-sleeved red plaid shirt on top, black denim shorts below, and black open-toed high heels.

Then there was her makeup and that metallic-style shoulder bag.

Had she just come out of a bar?

So the question was: dig... no!

How could a normal person appear on the streets of Hell's Kitchen at this hour?

Leon?

Did Leon count as a normal person?

Perhaps his prolonged silence and the way he looked her up and down finally reminded the woman calling herself Barbara that the person standing before her was a strange and unsettling man.

Barbara took two steps back and watched Leon.

"I'm a doctor!"

The sudden introduction startled the woman. She hurriedly held her shoulder bag across her chest.

"Lister Freud."

"You can call me Doctor Lister!"

"Interested in cosmetic surgery? Our clinic has a strong team of physicians and fair prices. We won sixth prize in fire safety training and possess advanced experience in taking eight patients' families to court at once and winning the lawsuit."

"First-class advertising! Second-class renovations! Third-class equipment!"

"I serve patients sincerely; you test our advertisements through results!"

"Professional cosmetic medicine! Let you become a man with dignity!"

He rattled on for more than twenty seconds, finally getting revenge for being cut off earlier.

By the time Barbara finally worked her way through the logical leap between third-class equipment and becoming a man with dignity, she already had a pen and a sheet of paper in her hands.

"Come on, sign the contract! Have surgery today, and you can work normally tomorrow. Easy three minutes, and accidental life vanishes without a trace."

As though she had grabbed a red-hot branding iron, Barbara hastily threw down the paper and pen. She turned sideways and swung her elbow at Leon's neck, though he had somehow already appeared in front of her. Then she flipped away, widening the distance again.

Naturally, Leon had dodged her attack. It wasn't a matter of skill.

From the very beginning, Leon had felt that something was off about this woman.

The timing of her appearance was wrong, and so was the location, but those were minor issues.

The most important thing was that she wasn't afraid of Leon!

A man in a black trench coat, wearing a mask and a wide-brimmed hat, standing on a street late at night!

Leon asked himself: although he was handsome enough to produce that effect, wasn't his face covered by the mask right now?

Thinking back, those four loafers had been strange too!

As an awkward group that was neither black nor white, neither up nor down, with holes in their heads and no money in their pockets, these guys had been far too smart.

There were actually loafers who knew how to weigh profit against harm, quit while they were ahead, and assess the situation?!

He had been careless.

He lightly shook the blank sheet of paper that was supposedly a contract for her to see, then chuckled and tossed it onto the ground. Looking at her expression of feigned indifference while her jaw muscles twitched, Leon felt that tonight might not be so boring after all.

Barbara kicked off the high heels that hindered her movements and took two metal batons from her bag. The former streetwalker instantly evolved into a futuristic warrior, looking highly professional.

"I've been exposed, sir."

Her red lips parted. She seemed to be talking to herself, but she was actually reporting the situation to her superior through the communication device in her ear.

Seeing those batons and this strangely familiar scene, Leon finally remembered who this woman named Barbara was.

Barbara Morse.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s nineteenth agent, code name Mockingbird. Fury's right-hand woman and one of his most trusted subordinates. Coulson had once sent her on an undercover mission.

That was right, her name really was Barbara, though she later changed it to Bobbi.

Leon did not know much about her. He had mainly watched Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before, so he had some impression of this curvy woman who suddenly appeared in the second season.

Since he had recognized that the woman before him, still holding a combat stance, was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, it could not have been more obvious what this encounter was about.

"Ah~~"

Leon let out a bizarre cry, clapped his hands, and shouted, "You're here to take a dump, aren't you!"

Since she had already been exposed, Barbara wondered whether she should rush forward and hit him with a baton. However, the order coming through her earpiece forced her to suppress that impulse.

"Mr. Lister, I think we can have a proper talk."

Leon did not answer. Instead, he asked, "If I capture you now, will you negotiate with me, or will you directly attack both of us?"

Upon hearing that, Barbara, holding her batons, took another small step back and lowered her body further.

"Hahaha, don't be nervous. Just a little joke." Leon still looked utterly carefree.

"How about you let your superior come out, and we have a real talk?"

Barbara did not answer. She knew her superior could hear the other man's voice. She waited for instructions through her earpiece.

After a moment, Barbara nodded. "Fine."

As Barbara spoke, more than a dozen fully armed tactical personnel gradually emerged from the surrounding alleys and buildings.

Leading them was a short, balding middle-aged white man in a black suit.

Oh ho ho! An old acquaintance! Wasn't this Phil Coulson?

"Hello, Doctor." Coulson, who was still wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night, removed them and greeted Leon with his hands hanging naturally at his sides, looking completely harmless.

As the tactical personnel raised their guns and aimed, amid their superiors' orders, Leon abruptly floated into the air, sitting cross-legged in midair as he returned the greeting.

"Would you consider coming to our hospital for a hair transplant?"

"Civil servants get twenty percent off~"

The contract arrived in Shanghai today. Its status would probably change soon.