The Elemental Contestant (Running Man Animation Fanfiction) [Book 4]

Chapter 16: Much Needed Advice

"We need to talk." Those four words instilled dread into Gai. He might or might not have an idea on what the conversation was going to be about. After looking around for anyone listening, Gai whispered to her, "Let me guess, it's about my secret, isn't it?" Sabriye nodded, looked around and grabbed his wrist, dragging him away from the spot, "Come with me."

The next thing he knew, Gai was being dragged into her room. Sabriye hurriedly locked the door and checked to see if anyone else was outside with her Scanning Eye. She was totally not hoping for another run-in with Miyo for eavesdropping on their conversation. Once she noticed that the coast was clear, she closed her eyes and continued to use her Psychic power.

Sabriye opened her eyes and her pupils revealed to be a bright lavender. Gai felt the energy flowing to him from where he stood. Finally, her pupils reverted back to her usual onyx grey before Gai heard the sudden appearance in his mind, "Can you hear me?" That startled him as he visibly flinched and shouted, "WOAH!"

Sabriye immediately shushed him and harshly whispered to him, "Shush you!" Gai immediately slapped both of his hands onto his mouth as Sabriye used Scanning Eye again to see if anyone was there to hear him. 'No one was there,' Sabriye told him telepathically, causing him to sigh in relief.

'I just established a mind link between the both of us, so that we can talk without worrying about anyone listening to this,' Sabriye explained. Gai raised an eyebrow and questioned telepathically, 'Isn't closing the door enough, though?' Sabriye merely shrugged and replied, 'I'm just playing safe. Wouldn't want Charming Gold to be listening to this from his tower, right?'

Hearing that, Gai widened his eyes in realisation and looked around for security cameras. Much to his relief, there weren't. Gai shifted from relieved to serious as he spoke telepathically, 'Now, back to the subject at hand. You know I'm Man X, so why are you helping me keep this a secret from everyone else?... Why help a villain?'

Sabriye gave him a solemn frown for that, especially with how straightforward he was. 'Is that really how you think of yourself?' she asked. Gai looked away from her and clenched his fist as he retorted, 'Isn't it obvious? I rigged the games, so that I could win. I hurt my friends! I hurt you!... I'm an awful person...'

Sabriye went silent for moment and finally spoke, 'You're an idiot, you know that?' Gai stared at her, taken aback. She then proceeded to explain without giving him a chance to respond, 'Gai, there's a difference between what you think you are, a villain, and what you actually are, which I might say, with the lack of a better word, a lackey.'

Gai grimaced at the bluntness in that word. 'A villain is someone who dares to do villainous deeds, hurt people of their own free will. What you did was against your will. You had no choice, you had to do it. Charming Gold forced you to do it. Gai, I know you. You're not what you think you are. You're not a villain.' Gai simply stared at her and said, 'How can you be so sure?'

Sabriye replied, 'You proved it yourself, didn't you? You helped everyone out in the last game. Sure, you made a mistake by hurting them in the first place, but look at you; you made a mistake and you learned from it. You learned that you care more about your friends than winning. I mean, the opposite of that had been going on at the start, but that's the case for everyone here, except for me, of course.'

'Kuga and Miyo became less aggressive and started to open up more, Lonky and Popo became less... traitorous,' that last word brought a snort out of Gai, which Sabriye counted as a win. She then continued, 'Then there's you. Before the championship, you only cared about yourself. Then, love at first sight happened and you started to care about Miyo.'

Sabriye smirked as she said that when she saw Gai blush a bright red. 'And then, you gradually started to care about everyone else too. My point, Gai, is that everyone changed for the better, even you. So, tell me, if you really were a villain, wouldn't you have left us to die and won the last game?' That questioned left him speechless for a moment before he nodded in response.

'But did you do exactly that?' Sabriye then asked, despite knowing the answer. Gai then shook his head, resulting in Sabriye smiling as she replied, 'Exactly. So you see, you're not a villain. You have a heart. You have a sense of justice. You know what's right and what's wrong. I know it. So don't you dare call yourself a villain, okay?' Gai nodded at that.

Sabriye then stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. 'It seems to me that you have two choices in front of you. You can either continue being Man X and work your way up in achieving victory and the Materion... or you can quit.' Gai looked at her, almost incredulously. Sabriye continued, 'Quit being Man X, rebel against Charming Gold and be the hero the team, or maybe even the world, needs.'

Gai looked down in though and slowly cracked a smile. Deciding to talk to her verbally, he thanked her, "Thank you, Sabriye. I guess I needed that." Sabriye snorted at that and quipped about his word choice, crossing her arms, "You guess?" Gai rolled his eyes, still with the smile, and replied, "Okay, okay, I really needed that." Sabriye smirked triumphantly and said, "Better."

Gai chuckled and commented, "You know, you're pretty wise for your age." Sabriye raised an eyebrow and asked with a smirk, "Do you even know my age?" Gai scratched the back of his neck and responded, "No, but you seem to be younger than us." Sabriye chuckled and simply said, "Oh, you'd be surprised by how old I actually am."

Gai raised an eyebrow at that and was about to ask her what she meant by that when Sabriye checked her watch and abruptly said, "Oh, it's pretty late. I've held you back from your brothers long enough. It's about time you head back and get some rest. Oh, and here." Sabriye then summoned some canned drinks and handed them over to Gai.

"For you and your brothers. That is, in case they need them," Sabriye explained, to which Gai smiled and thanked her for, before they wished each other goodnight as Gai left the room. After that conversation, he felt the weight leave his shoulders. He then thought about the choices Sabriye told him about. He thought for a moment and finally made his choice.

Sabriye already knew what he was going to choose. She knew it was the right choice.
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A/N: Hey, guys. Back with another chapter and wow... I never knew that there would be people loving my books so much. Honestly didn't expect that, haha. 😅 Anyways, thanks for reading this, hope you guys liked it, stay tuned for more updates and I'll see you in the next chapter. Bye. 👋🏼