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"Wato Tachibana. Wato means a peaceful city."
Sherlock remembers how Wato introduced herself to her and her brother, how she emphasized the meaning of her name. Sherlock can see the reason behind the behavior. Wato just came back from a war zone where she had thought she could do something and help someone, but then was sent back to Japan and possibly believed that she had failed.
Tokyo is a relatively peaceful city compared with many others in the world, but Wato doesn't stop being who she is just because she lives in a different place now, no matter whether she realizes it or not. Sherlock knows it when they first meet. Wato wants to be a helpful and delightful person; always trying to do something for other people in general and for those she cares about especially.
Wato cares about lots of things.
Compared to her, Sherlock prefers to stay focused at any moment, not letting emotions, feelings, or any distraction get in the way. It's the truth that she cares about, and there are too many illusions covering the surface of this world that prevent her from accessing it. She doesn't care if it makes her a weird person at all.
When Wato asks to join the case for the first time, however, Sherlock lets her. It seems fine. Wato doesn't do it for any personal gain; not out of curiosity nor to scoop up the news. Wato asks to come because she cares about the truth as much as Sherlock does, though in different ways. And maybe that's also why Wato keeps joining the investigation. She can ignore those texts Sherlock sends, but she comes, prepared, to stand by her side every time.
Sherlock cares about the truth. Wato cares about how it can help people; what it can bring to those involved in the case. Some closures, if not always a comfort.
Sherlock never believes in saving the world in the name of love or justice. Self-centered emotions and politics are the same things in the end. Lies, the opposite of the truth. Those who claim that they do what they do in beautiful names usually aim to steal something. Illusions are particularly embarrassing things when their facades vanish.
What she wants is something that lasts. Something she'll never lose. All she has to do is to put all the clues together and find it. Will the truth comfort people? Will it hurt people? That's not her specialty.
It doesn't mean she has no respect for someone like Wato. In fact, Wato amazes her like a mystery, and Sherlock makes it her ongoing side project to study her.
As naive as Wato might seem to be at the first impression, she is real. She doesn't fear the truth as most people do. She doesn't make up lies to decorate herself. When they work on a case together, Wato brings whatever she had into the investigation. She has no hard feelings if her guesses are wrong. She accepts it if the truth is uglier than what she wants to believe. She takes the risk that the truth might cause her something she loves.
Wato doesn't fear to care about something that she might lose someday.
What Sherlock used to view as a weakness and try to avoid somehow doesn't look like one at all when Wato shows it, and Sherlock wants to know why.
She wants to know how.
Sherlock loves to think that their partnership (a word she only uses when talking to herself) is like a weird but perfect dance, where they both bring in something they're best at. Sherlock enjoys finding the truth, and now she also grows to enjoy seeing how Wato can do with it when she interacts with people.
Wato helps people no matter when she was on a faraway battlefield or in a city in Japan. The more cases they solve together, the more people Wato helps, the more Sherlock finds herself loves this city because of it.
When Wato introduced herself as 'a peaceful city' to them, Sherlock wonders while considering the clues that might lead to the stolen virus, could she imagine that one day this city would become a frontline, too?
Sherlock never realizes that she cares about this world before. Such a corrupt place, no one will be troubled if it comes to an end.
But it doesn't mean she'll be happy to let it happen without trying.
"Don't worry. I'll definitely get the virus back," she tells Wato.
Because she now knows the answer to 'how."
It's okay to care about something, or someone, she'll lose one day. Because she can still help them in the way she can. That's how Wato does it all the time.
She is the one who can do it. She will find the virus. She won't let it reach this peaceful, beautiful city where Wato came back to, lives in, and loves.
She doesn't choose to do it because of some great ambition she desires to achieve. That's not the truth.
The truth is, Sherlock will do it because that's how their partnership works. Because she's good at finding the answer, and because Wato believes the answer can help people.
Because it's the logical choice to care about those that she loves.