Chapter 33：The real almighty one has been revealed

The words "game over" were heard from the TV screen. It was closely followed by a groan of defeat. "Oh come on. How are you so good at this game?" Matthew asked, he turned to look at Kaiden as he ran his hand through his hair in frustration. Kaiden chuckled and replied, "I'm an otaku [1], what do you expect?" Matthew childishly rolled over on the floor and said, "I expected this level of skill from a weeaboo [2]."

Kaiden laughed again. "One more round! You're getting better, don't give up now. Your defence is good, but focus on your offence as well!" He said as he picked up the game controller. Matthew nodded and was about to pick his up too when he felt his phone vibrate. Again. And again. And again. It was a phone call.

"Oh, gimme a sec," he said as he pulled out his phone and stood up to leave the room.

"Hello?"

"Is this Matthew?'

"Depends. What business do you have with Matthew?"

"Okay, I'll tell you straight up. We got Renae with us right now, and if you, assuming you are Matthew, don't come to the location I send you yourself alone, then you can say bye bye to her for the rest of your life. You can't call the police either," the person on the other end threateningly said.

Hearing this, Matthew's brows furrowed. "If you have business with Matthew, don't drag his friends into it. It's extremely shallow. Hurry and send the address, he'll be there. But don't forget, I heard this too, and I can't go cause' you asked Matthew to go alone. You better be prepared for when you get arrested," Matthew replied.

After which, he hung up. He was playing with the person's emotions so that the situation would lean towards his favour. In this game of chess, it was only tilting towards him slightly. His eyes narrowed and he slipped his phone back into his back pocket while he leaned against the wall to think for a bit. How could they get out of this situation? It was 100% blackmail.

In the end, Matthew decided he would just go there and see what they want. He thought that he'd really do anything for Renae, so this decision would be easy for him. He was just afraid they might physically hurt Renae and break their promise or it would hurt her emotionally. Either way, she was bound to get hurt, and knowing that, it pulled on Matthew's heartstrings.

After taking a few deep breathes, Matthew returned to Kaiden's room. "Sorry, I need to go soon. How bout' just one more match?" He said as he settled back down next to Kaiden. Kaiden nodded. "What happened by the way? Was the call serious?" He asked as he started the game. Matthew let out a laugh. "If it was serious, I wouldn't be back here playing this with you right now," he replied, his eyes staying on the screen while Kaiden turned his head over to look at Matthew.

"Oh... alright," Kaiden said, switching his attention back to the TV screen.

After a match of about 15 minutes, Matthew left Kaiden's house filled with anxiety and worry. He pulled out his phone and saw the message he received from the unknown number which had called him just now.

He sighed as he read the location, it was at a pretty deserted area. The timing wasn't too suspicious, it was 4 in the afternoon. Maybe they picked that time because it was when policemen went for doughnut breaks. He tried to joke with himself to bring up his mood but it didn't work.

Matthew started up his car and his journey begun. At a traffic light, he decided to send his location to Kaiden just in case something really was to happen. He accompanied the location with, "I'm heading to this area since my friend wants to take pictures there but I heard it might be dangerous so I'm sending it to you for in case."

Kaiden responded with a simple "okay".

Matthew's car radio lost connection and soon, an abandoned house came into view after about 45 minutes of driving. His expression grew serious as he pulled up and got out of his car. A man wearing a mask greeted him.

"You must be Matthew. Come, follow me. Renae is being held hostage here," he said.

Matthew obediently followed behind. He led him into a room where he saw Renae bound to a wooden chair... with scratches on her left arm, leg and face! "What happened? The scratches..." Matthew exclaimed with widened eyes.

At first, Renae giggled and explained, "I fell asleep and my head fell towards the left side so I fell to the left." After she said that thought, she froze up and looked straight at Matthew. This time her eyes were big. "Matthew? Hey, ain't this a problem Min has with me? Why'd ya'll idiots bring this doofus here? Huh?" Renae spoke so loud she was almost screaming. She didn't want Matthew to get hurt while they could use her against him.

"Doofus? Hmph, maybe I shouldn't come here and save you," Matthew joked, but surprisingly, Renae replied, "Please do go home. You shouldn't be here. Why did you guys bring him here? What are you guys doing? Reply me!" Renae was growing angry as she spit those words out in roughly.

"Just wait. You'll know in a bit. The ma'am will arrive soon, and all of this will be explained. You can't escape right now," the guy said.

"Could you give us some alone time?" Renae asked, trying to calm herself down. The guy nodded and left the room.

"Come here," she said, a sad expression slowly appearing on her face. Matthew walked towards her and bent down so that he was on the same level as Renae. She loosened up the knot on her hands, which she tied herself, and threw a slap across Matthew's face. "H... Hey! What was that for?" Matthew asked, his hands flew up to cover his left cheek as he backed away.

Renae casually retied her knot and said, "It was to show you I had this situation under control. I even untied the stupid knot they tied. This obviously involves Min. And is it not obvious enough to you what she wants? What she called you and I here for? If it's not obvious enough, then you dense little brat will have to wait till the "ma'am" arrives to find out."

Matthew's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "If you can escape, why don't you escape?" He asked. "Because this has been interesting. The kidnappers are a bunch of idiots. Where does Min find her sources anyways? The first thing that pops up when she googles it? Hmpf. How stupid. Anyways, just follow along. We'll escape the moment they think they've won," Renae said with a tint of evil in her eyes.

Matthew nodded. "I'll follow along."

Their conversation, excluding the slap, wasn't too loud since the guy might've been listening.

"Okay, we're done!" Renae shouted. "Great! Good timing, ma'am just arrived as well," he said as he opened the door. Min entered, she held her head high as if she was looking down on Renae. "Aren't you grounded? How did you get out?" Matthew asked. Min let out a disgustingly cute laugh and said, "I escaped. It wasn't heard especially with the help of my precious mother."

Matthew gritted his teeth behind his closed lips. "State what you want in exchange for Renae's safe return," he said, his stare turning into a glare.

"Easy. 4 conditions and she's outta here. Number one, we get married. Number two, we have at least 2 kids. Number three, you can't divorce me. There's no way I can be a divorcee! And last but not least, number four, you can't ever see or speak to Renae EVER again! Hehe... deal?" Min smiled sickeningly at the two.

Matthew unconsciously looked towards Renae. She nodded, pretending as if she felt miserable. Seeing this, Min's ego grew and she covered her mouth as she laughed. "Deal. It's a deal. Now let her go," Matthew looked down as he said this.

"Hmm. You actually thought... I was letting her go? She's staying. And I'm going to use her to threaten you to do things with me for the rest of our married lives!" Min cackled, it was almost as if there was a heart right above her head. This was what Matthew was afraid of. His body tensed up and he let out a sigh in frustration.

They were so busy discussing this the whole time, they didn't realise that Renae had untied herself completely from her hands to her legs. She got up, picked up the chair, and smashed it on the guy. After which, she did the karate chop which would knock one unconscious. "Come on, fight me like a woman instead of using dirty tricks like that," Renae's voice resounded loud and clear throughout the room as she got into the same fighting position as before.

This time, she didn't only place her focus on what was in front of her, but around and even behind. She took note of the wind movements around her to know if someone was moving. Min fell back a few steps in shock. She reached behind her for whatever she could find and ended up grabbing a sharp piece of glass.

She stood unsteadily with the piece of glass held in front of her. Her lip trembled in pure hatred and she screamed angrily as she charged towards Renae with the glass. It wasn't a hard dodge, but police sirens were heard as Min tumbled to the ground where Renae previously stood.

Renae let out a "hmpf" and pushed her back down to try and put her hands behind her back, but the vicious woman managed to squirm her hands out and swung the piece of glass towards Renae's face.

"What do you think you're doing?" A familiar male voice said, catching the piece of glass... between his fingers! They were so concentrated on the fight that they didn't hear the door open. Kaiden's gaze pierced Min as he said, "Don't you know... that this piece of glass can injure someone VERY badly?" After which, he threw it on the ground and the sound of glass breaking was heard. It wasn't necessarily a scary thing to hear someone say, but Kaiden made himself sound so almighty they were all terrified, even Renae and Matthew! Kaiden tightly grabbed Min's arms and pinned her down fully so she wasn't able to move a single bit.

It wasn't long before a few familiar policemen poured into the room. They were the police from the investigation about the bank robbery. Renae gasped as she saw them. "Renae, Kaiden and... boy in the corner, are you guys okay?" Policeman 1 asked. Renae and Kaiden both burst out laughing. "His name is Matthew," Renae said before Matthew could. "Oh... erm, nice to meet you, Kaiden, I'm policeman 1. Anyways, you two seem to always get yourself in trouble, huh?" He said as he handcuffed Min.

"You guys are familiar?" Matthew asked as they left the room. "Yea... we'll explain some other time," Kaiden said. "First thing's first, let's get Renae's wounds cleaned up. Let's go," another policeman said.

They left the premises and headed for the police station.

[1] (in Japan) a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills.

[2] next level of an otaku