4 The Quartet

Inside the warehouse, the sleeping beauty finally woke up from her slumber. When she opened her eyes, panic engulfed her mind. Seeing the unfamiliar place gripped her heart in fear. All she could remember before she lost consciousness was a heavy impact on her head and when she woke she is already here.

She tried to lift her hands to check the possible injury but she paused feeling that she is bound to a chair. Both of her arms are bound to the armrest with both of her legs tied to the chair. A cloth gags her mouth. She tried struggling to loosen the ties but it proved to be futile seeing the knots were especially tied so that the harder she struggled the tighter it would get.

'Where am I? Who took me here?' She thought to herself. Although she is a somewhat strong mage but the fact that she could not channel any mana to free her from the bindings due to the throbbing pain inside her head made it more despairing. She did not know the persons who took her. What were their motives? What will they do to her?

She hasn't found herself in this position all her life. Her family trained her since she was young but in this kind of situation, all of it was for naught. Negative thoughts about what will happen to her started to swirl inside her mind but before she descended into further depression a series of footsteps were heard.

"Look what we have here. She's finally woken up." a voice sounded.

"See I told ya, that slam on her head was nothing painful." Another voice was heard.

"But I swear I heard a crack when you slammed her head though." The voice said with slight worry.

"All is well, as long as she wakes up everything's fine." The final voice reassured the other 3.

In front of Akari are 4 men dressed like school punks. One sporting a green Mohawk, but his face looked too girly for the Mohawk. The other one is a bald guy carrying a metal bat on his shoulders. A man filled with piercings on his face is currently tapping on her cellphone. She could even here the piercings bang against each other with each movement. Lastly, the man who seemed to be the leader of the quartet. A tall and muscular man, his arms wrapped in heavy chains, the smirk on his face made her a bit terrified.

"Who are you? What do you want?" She tried acting tough despite her situation. "Oh relax your time will also come. And if it would…. ehehehe." The man then plastered a creepy smile on his face, in which terrified Akari making her tremble even more.

"Look she's scared now, this will be fun." The Mohawk guy also came near scanning her body with his perverted eyes. He then caressed her face and took a bunch of her hair inhaling the young maiden scent coming from her. "She smells fresh boss, a fine piece to play with later." And he laughed evilly.

Meanwhile, the inside of Akari is in full-mode-red-alert-will-suicide-later panic. Seeing the quartet held no good intentions towards her made her heart sank into the vast and deep ocean known as despair. She was sure that they will do horrible things to her. Once, she conducted a study about r*pe victims and based on their statements, the whole ordeal was not very nice.

This time she is about to undergo such a horrific situation. And it may even get worse, they might kill her to silence every possible witness. Her body might be found tomorrow floating in some random sewer. Although she feels a bit of dislike on having someone saving her but this time is different, clinging onto a tiny thread of hope she thought of a certain white-haired teen. 'Ye Han, save me.'

On the other hand, Mohawk is still laughing like a maniac until the leader pounded him. "Ouch!" Mohawk clutched his head in pain and an obvious bump forming on his head. "Stop acting like that you are scaring her. Look at how much she is trembling." The leader reprimanded him. Behind the two other members are shaking their heads in disappointment.

This brought Akari to reality from her depressing thoughts. "Huh?" Before she could further express herself, the man filled with piercings came to her explaining things. "I'm really sorry about your current arrangements. Here let me free you from the binding." He then slashed the ropes with surgical precision carefully avoiding cutting her skin or some parts of her clothes. "There, you're free." She then massaged her arms feeling the blood coming back after being restricted.

"Once again we apologized about this." He then presented a perfect 90-degree bow while also making clanking sounds with his piercings making Akari shudder. "I'm sorry about my bro here, he can get rowdy sometimes." The bat carrier also bowed.

The apology confused Akari even more. If they were not going to do unspeakable things to her, why did they kidnap her? "So you are not going to anything to me?" The 4 then put on disgusted expression. "How could we do that?!" This increased her confusions even more.

"Please don't compare us to savages who would start *beep*ping anyone with a *beep*." The leader put on a hurt expression. "That's right we are human beings, we are vastly different from those animals." The chain guy said as he wiped a single tear off his eye.

The Mohawk guy wore a weird expression as he scanned her again but this time instead of a perverted gaze it was a more critiquing one. "I apologize for my behavior earlier. I'm regretting those actions." Then his voice turned harsher. "and to be honest, we would not even consider touching you. You're just not our type."

Now she stood there with her mouth hanging in shock. She felt conflicted, terrified by her current situation and at the same time insulted due to that fact that the quartet discounted her worth as a woman.

"You see, I like girls with little stature. I don't mean kids, I would be thrown to jail." He then waved his hand with exaggerated gestures explaining his innocence. "I just find little girls, and for the last time, not kids, although cute. I want them to be at the height of at most my chest so that I could hug them endearingly." Waving his hand he explained for good 5 whole minutes why "little girls" are the best. "And you, my dear, is taller than my chest, you don't look cute and…. Bleh." He then looked sideways, snickering.

She looked at the others for support but was met with the same sideway snicker.

"I like women with big chests not a washboard like you." The leader stated.

"I like mature women, not an unripe fruit like you." Piercing guy said while scratching his head.

Bat Carrier put on a pitiful expression directed towards Akari. "I'm sorry, I like girls with sex appeal and you severely lack on that department."

That was the last straw that broke the camel's back as she kneeled sobbing. She is now considering suicide so that she could be reborn with better assets in her next life.

"I think we broke her boss."

"Don't worry she's a woman."

"Yep, woman."

"Woman indeed."

Hearing more spiteful comments from her captors, she forcefully composed herself. "Why am I here?" She asked while wiping tears from her face.

"Wow, she recovered fast."

"Well, we kidnapped you to lure someone." Replied the leader. "By the way, the names Chain."

"Mohawk."

"Bat."

"Pierce."

She just looked dumbfounded by their respective names. It seems that they were too lazy to think of names and just used whatever seems to be the most defining features. The quartet also had blank expressions looking like they were already used to the reaction. "We are REALLY sorry for having boring names."

"I don't mind." She said waving her hands.

"Well, while we wait for our target we should probably play with you right now." Chain suggested. But Akari felt a little scared. "Relax, we won't play with you like that. We'll play with you, with that." Mohawk said while pointing at the 5 computers lying around the corner.

"We'll play co-op in the game. You see we were forced to trade our hard earned, legendary tier items for information regarding him. So we could use some help, we'll let you use our alt accounts since we're going on a raid and it requires a 5 man party. Don't worry, we'll carry you." Chain explained.

"Don't worry about me, I have an account it's fairly high level." She then approached one of the computers, logging in her account.

"Hey does the IGN (In Game Name) 'yo-yo-yo' rings a bell? I swear it's very familiar."

"Yeah me too."

After she logged in, the 4 were shocked and delighted that she was not just a random high-level player, she was the Thunder Mistress a top ranker within the game. "Never knew the Thunder Mistress is playing with us. It is an honor." They all pounded their chest in fanaticism.

"I was that famous? Who could have guessed."

"Please add us as friends!" They shouted in unison.

"Ummm, sure?"

"Wohoooo!!!!!!"

"Is this a new map? It's been months since the last time I played." She asked. "Yep, it's an event dungeon. First clear receives a legendary item. And with you Thunder Mistress, everything should be a breeze." Pierce explains eagerly.

"Huh. And by the way who was your target?" Chain then pulled a photograph of an all too familiar white head. Seeing the picture, her heart clenched in worry. She knows he's a weak guy and she can't even use enough magic to protect herself. 'I need to save him. Whatever they have in store for him is probably not good. Maybe I could stall time.' She thought to herself. "Okay boys, let's start the raid."

'Please be safe.'