Take Down Chapter 20: Useless

“Well then let me get in touch with some people and see if there’s any way we can narrow Goha’s location down.” Hansu said, reaching up and running his hand through his grey hair and ruffling it a bit.

There was a moments silence before Mirio spoke.

“I hate to quit so early in the game but I need to go home and sleep before work tomorrow.” 

He said with a sheepish chuckle, “I’ll be back tomorrow evening though, Y/N, so we can go and meet with Butterfli3 and O/N.”

“Oh! Yes, that would be great.” You said enthusiastically, “see you then, good luck at work tomorrow.”

“Thanks.” Mirio said with a tender smile.

You smiled softly before scratching your cheek and looking away.

“Bye, Hansu, thank you for overseeing our dive.” Mirio said to your assistant as he got off the table.

“Welcome.” Hansu said as he nodded politely to the young hero.

You and Hansu watched Mirio go and with one final hand wave he was off and out the door, disappearing down the hall.

The minute he left, you relaxed and let your guard down, a burning question teetering on your lips as you hung your head and sighed heavily, hoping Hansu would ask what was wrong, but your somewhat stoic assistant just pushed off the bed opposite you and strode back over to the desk to write some things down.

You scrunched your nose with slight annoyance and sighed again, hoping he would respond to the second sound but still no response.

“Hansu?” You asked softly.

“Mm?” He hummed, acknowledging that you can caught his attention.

“Have you ever felt useless?” You asked with honest disappointment-at yourself- in your voice.

Hansu paused what he was doing and looked at you, the light in the room glinting off the frame of his glasses.

“Nope, never.” He said suddenly, cutting the darkening mood with ridiculous cheerfulness, “I’m amazing.”

You deadpanned and he burst out laughing.

“Can you be serious for just one minute?” You asked in a vexed tone, “I’m actually feeling a little vulnerable right now and I want to talk about it.”

“Oh?” Hansu said with a smirk as he straightened and walked over to you, stopping in front of you and pushing his hands into his lab coat. “The amazing professor admitting weakness?” He asked sarcastically.

“Stop it.” You grumbled with a scowl as you looked away.

“What happened?” He asked.

“Well… I… I tried to help on the game but for the first time ever I actually made things worse.”

“So we’re completely forgetting the whole Goha incident then I see?” Hansu mused in a teasing tone.

“Why do you have to be such a jerking jerkface you… you…-.”

“That is some astounding vocabulary you’ve picked up there, Y/N.” Hansu mocked, “did Pants the pterodactyl teach you that?”

“Shut up!” You fumed, “you know what, forget it.”

You got off the bench and went to walk away but you were were stopped short when he grabbed you by the arm.

“Hey.” He said in a soft, low tone, “I’m glad you’re alright, I could see your heart rate going wild and was going to pull you out of the game. But instead I just suffered and let you take care of yourself.”

He quickly turned his head and let go of you, walking back to his desk silently.

Your eyes widened as you realized just how hard it would have been for him to let you go and not be beside you. He had been your assistant for a long time and this was the first time he had had to let you do things without his guidance.

“I’m sorry.” You said with a sympathetic look on your face, “doing this was very selfish of me, I didn’t even consider how it would make you feel.”

“I’m not going to be around for forever.” Hansu said calmly as he looked back at you. “You will need to learn to fend for yourself. And this is a really controlled way of doing it so I approve.”

You nodded glumly.

“Ok.” You said softly as you turned and left the room.

Hansu let out a troubled sigh.

“I didn’t think it would have been so hard to sit back and not have a full handle on this.” He thought as he remembered watching your face contort with fear as beads of sweat dotted your brow, with him- helplessly stuck in reality while you were struggling in RFO. “I lied to you, Y/N, I have felt useless… right now I feel VERY useless and I don’t like it at all.” He thought as he scowled down at the desk and smacked his palm against it in frustration. “But I can change that.”

He reached his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone, dialing a contact.

“Hey.” He said into the receiver when the person on the other end had picked up. “Need to drop by today if possible, I have some new information…”

………………………….

You moped out of the room and down the hallway, equal parts embarrassed and upset at your interaction with Hansu.

“Why does he always do that to me?” You thought with annoyance as you walked, “just makes fun of me so casually then treats me the the fucking child I am. He’s always so in control and calm is infuriating.”

Your eyes flicked to a room nearby as you went to walk past it, halting in your tracks when you heard voices inside.

“So who would take over?” One voice asked inquiringly.

“Dunno, probably Hansu.” Another replied.

“Wait are they talking around my position?!” You thought in a sudden panic, “am I being demoted?! But they can’t do that! I still need sort out the Goha situation! Hansu wouldn’t take my place like that would he?? He knows how much I love my job!”

You froze in place, hand clutched into your shirt as you tried not to burst into tears.

“But what about Professor L/N?” A third person asked, “she’s worked so hard, it would be a waste to let her go because of one mistake.”

“She created a fucking villian AI, you can’t just come back from that without a bad reputation preceding you, it looks bad for the whole company.” Another piped up.

You hung your head and quickly turned to go back the way you had come, not wanting to be found standing outside the room eavesdropping.

“What if I really do get let go? Then what?” You thought sadly as tears pricked the corner of your eyes.

You quickly walked to the emergency exits stairs and left the building that way, heading home on your own to be alone with your thoughts. As you left to go home, Hansu left to head to the RFO headquarters to meet with the technics friend that he had spoken with before.

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Take Down Chapter 21: Moving Forward >>>