Take Down Chapter 40: Another Rescue?

“We don’t discuss jobs outside of RFO,” Migata said in a stern voice, possibly the sternest you had ever heard him use.

You looked at him and he had a strange look on his face.

“Does Migata suspect something is going on here? He seems to have stifened up a little.” You looked from him back to Free, who was giving you a beautiful smile that seemed far too sweet for the current situation.

“Ahhh! I see. The mysterious beauty wants to remain mysterious!” she said with a little giggle, turning back to the crowd.

Migata tightened his arm around your shoulders and squeezed you protectively and you, in return, placed a hand gently on his knee to let him know you appreciated his help there.

“Who else should we talk to?” Free then asked to the expectant onlookers.

“Butterfli3!!” the people in the stands screamed in reply.

“Oh ho! Butterfli3 it is!” Free replied with a twirl and a snappy salute as she spun to face the visibly shaking top player.

“It’s ok,” O/N whispered to him, “it’s just in a game. You’re confident here remember, anxiety doesn’t exist.”

Butterfli3 hung his head and took a few deep shaky breaths before looking up at Free.

“What was your role in the daring rescue?” Free asked, “did you take any directions from U/N? She sounded like the mastermind behind this.”

You stiffened at Free’s comment and felt Migata react the same from beside you.

“I don’t like how Free is targeting me in this interview.”

“Do you know U/N in real life?” Free asked Butterfli3.

“Free,” Migata said to her, “if you aren’t going to interview us all fairly then we’ll go.”

“Why, whatever do you mean?” Free asked as she battered her eyelashes and swished her hair around, “Im interested in all of you and want to know how you work as a team! Sometimes the people who seem to be in charge.. aren’t always in charge.”

“I want to disagree with her but I can’t,” you thought, remaining as neutral faced as possible.

Migata gave Free a big grin.

“Well, people aren’t always as they seem,” he replied in a bright tone.

“You are correct, Migata! As expected of such a man,” Free replied with a bashful smile.

“Excuse me?” you thought tersely, “stop trying to muscle in on my man?”

Migata didn’t react to Free’s comment but instead turned to O/N.

“Tell us about the disc you made to assist Butterfli3 in his attacks,” he said.

“Really?” O/N asked excitedly, “do you guys want to hear about it?” she then asked the crowd.

“Yes!!” they screamed in reply, some of them waving flags with her username on it.

“She’s quite popular too?” you thought as you looked down the line at her.

Her eyes lit up and she started to talk about how she made the electrical disc and how it helped Butterfli3 take down the pterodactyl, making sure to add in all the parts where Migata was making jokes about ‘Pants.

Free slowly backed back a litle so that O/N could entertain the people present, and her attention turned to you again.

“U/N,” she whispered, giving you an endearing smile, “you seem like a lot of fun, I hope we can be friends?”

“I don’t know how I feel about you, Free,” you thought as you tried to return her smile, “theres just something not right…”

The rest of the interview went along a little disjointly but you managed to get by. You and Migata seemed to both be on the same page regarding Free and kept pretty tight lipped on certain things.

At the end of the interview you, Migata, O/N, and Butterfli3 went into the back room to discuss how it went.

“Well… that was good,” O/N said brightly, “she really liked you and Migata, U/N.”

“Unfortunately.” you said with a sharp sigh.

“Was it a problem?” O/N asked, confused and obviously not catching on to Free’s antics.

“In a way. But it’s fine,” you replied dismissively.

Just then there was an urgent knock on the door and you all stopped talking as O/N walked over and opened it.

“I’m so sorry” a female player said, glancing around quickly, “I’m not supposed to be back here but I really need your help. Some of my guild are trapped in a spider’s cave and it’s really similar to what you dealt with with the Pants thing,” she rambled, “please can you help? I don’t know what else to do!”

“We’d love to help!” Migata offered instantly from behind O/N and she looked back at him.

“Wait, hold up, don’t just decide for the team,” O/N said quickly as she turned back l to the player, “can you give us more details?”

“I don’t know what happened but some of our more experienced players went to take on some monster that they had heard was dropping rare items and they didn’t come back when we thought they would. Then one managed to send us a message via his spirit pet. He took a gamble and set it free but asked it to bring us a message. Thankfully it did.”

“Sounds familiar,” O/N mused, looking at you, “rogue monsters.”

You nodded with a thoughtful look on your face, “yep, sounds very familiar.”

“There you are!”A stern voice called from down the hall and the player jumped with fright.

“Oh no, sorry, I gotta go, I’m gonna be in trouble,” she said, turning and taking off down the hall as the security guards gave chase.

She would have gotten away had not Free rounded the other corner and bumped into her.

“Oof!” The pink haired interviewer gasped, both girls recoiling and crashing to the ground.

The security guards grabbed the player and wrenched her to her feet.

“Don’t try and run, we have you now,” one guy growled.

“Im sorry, I’m sorry,” the player apologized profusely, “I didn’t mean to break into the back area for any bad reasons, I just really needed help and I wanted to talk to the team. I’m sorry!”

“Oh?” Free asked as she pulled herself to her feet and brushed her skirt down, “you need help?”

“Yes, you see, some of my guild are in a similar situation to the people in Pant’s nest and I thought that maybe…”

“—The top players in RFO could save your members? What a wonderful idea!” Free gasped, “another daring rescue!”

You and Migata looked at each other warily as you heard the group talking a little way off.

“What do you say, team?” Free bubbled, skipping up the hallway towards you all, “let’s all go on an adventure together!”

<<< Take Down Chapter 39: Interviewer Extraordinaire

Take Down Chapter 41: Why Is She Meddling >>>