Now hopefully this chapter will involve less me being chased by a girls and more chilling and meeting Linda and who knows maybe even get her to be a good guy now. But I'm getting ahead of myself, getting back to the present we were currently in a forest for some quest the girls picked up in the guild. It was just going around the forest removing a couple of annoying monsters around the city, I was mainly in it for the money and the company. Like people company not PMC or bank company.

"Dammit these dogoos don't give up" Neptune grumbled, slicing through another couple dogoos. "Noire how many are left?"

"About three left, we have to stop them from getting to that farm and destroying the crops again" Noire replied, destroying one of the last few remaining dogoos.

"Crap they are about to get away!" Blanc pointed towards the last two remaining dogoos as they bounced towards the lone farm, a young couple gasped in shock.

"Keep your hair on I've got them" I replied, with a Crack! the bullet slammed into one of the dogoos, Pulling the bolt back I started to squeeze the trigger when Neptune dashed by me, now transformed, and began to cut up the last dogoo. "You know I said I had them"

"Yeah but as I am the main character I get last hit rites" Purple Heart stuck her tongue out before flicking a few scraps of goo from her arms.

"I could of shot you in the butt you know?" I slung the rifle onto my back and walked up to Purple Heart, this was the only time when she was as tall as me.

"Yeah" Purple Heart shrugged "But I trust that you cared enough to not shoot me in the butt"

"Well if that is your thoughts" I mimicked Purple Heart's action. "Just don't turn the whole 'Round in the ass' thing out of context"

"Aw why not?" Purple Heart whined, putting her hands on her hips while glaring at me "Only got eyes for Noire? and also Bow Chika Bow Wow"

"Nope" I replied popping the 'p' "I'm still free for anyone I have an interest in. And really? Red vs Blue reference?"

"Well I'm sure any new characters to this story will be pleased to hear that" Purple Heart remarked as she turned back to her original form as we started walking back home "Also yes, it was too perfect of a moment to avoid making the reference"

Sighing I simply ruffled her hair and began walking back towards the guild, it seemed like till this evening I was going to be spending time with Neptune. The other girls had already left, having stuff to do that required their immediate attention so that means Blanc has writing to do, Noire probably needs to go check up on her newest cosplay idea and I heard a new game had recently came out in Leanbox (By heard I mean Vert would not stop gushing about it) so she shot off when that last dogoo fell.

"What's on your mind?" Neptune asked as she walked beside me, slightly struggling to keep up due to my faster walking speed, tall legs for the win.

"Just thinking you have had a big character change" I replied with a smirk at her surprised face

"Really?"

"Yeah you've become more flirtier"

"I have not!"

"Yeah you have, you would of never of made that "Round in the ass" Joke before"

"I-I would of!"

"No way"

"Yes way!"

"Are you jealous of the attention Noire gets?"

"Shut up!"

"That's a yes"

"No its not!"

During our little argument we have actually managed to walk back to the guild without running into any trouble, whether that was because the Author wanting a smooth trip to the guild while giving some character development or maybe it was because no one really wanted to mess with a goddess and a heavily armed man, whose face was covered by a white mask.

Walking over to one of the terminals I loaded up our contract and pressed a small button to complete it thankfully we had made a little group, like in adventure game in video games, so the funds were split evenly across everyone.

"Aand the job is finished" I turned and looked down at Neptune "And I now have you for a couple of hours before I get the evening to myself"

"Don't sound so disappointed!" Neptune huffed, crossing her arms

"Trying my best" I retorted before patting her head "So what can we do to spend these hours together till this evening?"

-one hour later-

"Ha! I win again!" Neptune cawed flinging her hands into the air as I slumped onto the arcade machine.

We had moved to a close by arcade and were currently about half way through all the arcade machines, currently it is actually a tie between us as while I excel at combat games, whooping her ass on every arcade machine; she in turn gave my hide a seeing too in every racing game. We were both equally crap at singing games and equally good at rhythm games.

"It has been one hour of constant gaming and neither of us has gained a big lead on each other" I muttered as Neptune did her trademark victory run around the arcade.

"Well this is using up time till we go our separate ways" Neptune chuckled coming to a stop beside me.

"True true" I replied before a thought crossed my mind "Neptune how much money do you have left?"

The smile on Neptune's face froze up as she pulled a small purse out and looked inside to find nothing left.

"Looks like our gaming spree has come to a close" I commented while Neptune adopted a nervous grin.

"Yeah... Character dev time between us or time jump?" She asked

"Time jump I'm thinking, can't have the future relationship between us advancing too quickly" I winked

"Wait what?" Neptune almost shouted in shock.

-four hours later-

"Well that will officially mess with her till I next see her" I snickered before straightening my coat out and making my way towards the cafe. "Here's hoping I don't intimidate Linda too much with my new look"

It didn't take too long to get back to the cafe and true to her word Linda was leaning against the wall of the cafe I guess trying to look intimidating so no one talks to her and not look nervous but she's failing at both of them.

Walking over to her I tapped on her shoulder causing her to jump.

"Nice to see you showed up" I smirked as a nervous smile passed across her face.

"Y-Yeah you have changed" She replied

"Yeah I guess I have" I shrugged before gesturing towards the door of the cafe "Ladies first"

Slightly nodding Linda walked in, she was probably thinking it was a trap still but I could not change how she thought except by how I act.

Following behind her we sat down in one of the booths, there was a group of girls in one of the other booths and they seemed to be of little importance at the moment that I'm not going to give them any detail, and an awkward silence settled between us, she was trying not to stare at me and vice versa. Deciding to remove my helmet to help ease the tension I set it down on the table beside me I looked up to see that she was staring even more but with a little less fear in her eyes.

"See? Like I said I'm human" I smiled

"Yeah that is true" She seemed to relax a bit more.

"Well do you want that drink and bite to eat?" I asked which caused her to nod furiously "Well come up with me and you can choose"

"O Okay"

Getting up we made our way over to the all too happy to take your money blue haired girl and decided to both get bacon sandwiches again and she got a soft drink that that was apparently meant to be really good.

As we sat back down again the awkward silence fell between us again it was only this time punctured with the occasional sounds of us eating and drinking.

"Well this is a riveting conversation" I stated dryly which she flinched at "Sorry, so I'll get on with asking you those questions"

Linda just nodded and sat a bit higher in her seat as if that will show that she's paying more attention than she already was.

"So why have you been following me?" Might as well start with the biggest question on my mind.

"I uh..." She looked around as if the answer will appear out of the walls "It's kinda awkward to say ya know?"

"I can guess" I replied, chewing on a bit of bacon that had fallen out of my sandwich "But I need to know"

"You need to huh?" She paused for a moment before nodding, to herself I guess, and looking me in the eyes for the first time "You're different from the others"

"I'm different?" I raised an eye-brow at this. Normally when someone calls you different from others it usually is a bad thing but something tells me that this isn't a bad thing this time.

"Well first you call me by my name, not Underling like those girls and everyone else does" Linda explains, scratching her cheek slightly "You didn't do some over the top beat down on us when you defeated us or gloat about how little effort you put into it like others might of"

"Over the top beat down huh?" I mused thinking about how flashy the girls attacks can be "Yeah being flashy and the centre of attention is not exactly my style. I prefer just being noticed by the people who matter to me"

"Your armour catches attention" Linda pointed out but I smirked at that.

"It's meant to attract attention as it tells people not to fuck with me or the people I know" I replied "Think of it like an alternate personality. While I may be a jokey, charming if I do say so myself and flirtatious person normally my armour paints a person who is cold, calculating and deadly"

"Wish I could do something like that" Linda murmured sipping her drink "The red looks kinda cool too"

"Ah well I'm changing that to a green, it's more my style" I replied, leaning back I decided to try and sneak a compliment in. To boost her moral so she may become a bit more talkative "Like the colour of your hair I really like it"

"Y-You do?" She blushed slightly at that and started fiddling with her hair.

"Yup!" I smiled reassuringly "So the reason you came back was because of the reasons you've already stated?"

"Well..." She trailed off before starting again "Well also because you seem a hell of a lot cooler than the other people I have followed for a while now"

Oh? Now this has become interesting, seems like I really did change her perspective on things when we first met. That and I think I may of broken her original character somewhat but this is a fan fiction.

"Go on. You have my undivided attention" Leaning slightly on the table I couldn't help but smile as she seemed to perk up hearing that

"Well there is another thing you do better than what the others do. You seem to listen to everyone but still stay chilled and cool about it" Her eyes seemed to be sparkling slightly... Oh god have I just gained a fan girl? I know she was a pretty big fan girl but after CFW Magic nearly killed her I guess that left a hole in her fan girl heart and I've accidentally just gone and filled it.

"I try my best to spread my attention equally among people" I replied, it was probably best to let her get used to me a lot before trying to convince her to tag along with me. This story did not have any major plot points so far so I guess I'll have to find one. That and go on various adventures with people.

"You're humble too, from all the time I've watched you, you've never gloated over anything seriously" She hummed as if agreeing with herself "In battle you always seem to know what is going on and when to act, even us low level antagonists seem to be equal in your eyes. All a threat and that feels nice in a weird way"

"While the way you said it definitely sounds weird I know what you mean" I felt like progress was definitely being made as she laughed at what I said. Believe me or not but she has a really cute laugh when she is not trying her best to be evil

"So yeah that is why I was following you. Though this morning was a complete accident that we met" Linda blushed slightly, I guess she was remembering how she acted when I approached her.

"Well you have certainly convinced me that you have turned over a new leaf" I replied, shifting slightly to remove some of the weight on my arms. I'm not that fat shut up. "But I have to ask why were you stealing the other day?"

"Well me and Warechu needed cash for food as after the CPU's beat Arfoire and her lot we were out of a job but you stopped us so we were stuck deciding what to do after" She replied, her mood dropping to sadness in a heartbeat "While I wanted to follow you and ask to be your und- I mean just find stuff out about you he wanted to stay as far away from you as possible as you left a big impression on him that you were a scary badass who we shouldn't mess with. So we split what remaining cash we had and went our separate ways"

"Damn... I'm sorry to hear that" Reaching across the table I lay a hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her. I really don't work well with crying girls, for a guy it's so difficult to try and cheer up girls when they cry. With a guy it's easy. Girls not so much.

"We are still friends but..." She sniffed and rubbed her eyes "But I haven't heard from him for a while now and I'm worried"

"Please don't start crying" I replied "He'll be fine, he can fly and is really bouncy so nothing will really hurt him"

"Still I'm worried" She murmured

Deciding this might be the moment to change the subject so she can cheer up a bit I decided to bring the topic of our conversation around to her.

"When we fought I was actually having to stay on my toes to avoid taking a hit from you" I commented which caused her head to flick up in shock.

"You were?" She almost gasped "But you said you were stretching your legs"

"Scare tactics, it made you think I was much more prepared than I actually was" I smiled "That stuff I had on would not of protected me from a single hit of your pipe"

"Wow.. So I was a bigger threat than I thought?"

"Yup, so I made sure I took you down first quickly"

"Yeah you flipped me onto my ass"

"Sorry bout that but it was the only way to get you out of the fight quickly without causing too much damage"

There was a pause before I finally breached the idea to her.

"Would you like to join me as a friend and work together?"

The response was instant, she suddenly sat up, drank too quickly so she spluttered and kicked the table by accident in her shock.

"W work together as a friend!?" She spluttered a bit more before clearing her chest and looking down at the table "Don't you mean as an underling or minion?"

"No I mean as a friend, buddy, ally" I replied, poking the top of her head lightly "Everyone deserves a second chance, you're no different"

"But with everything I've done, the people I've hurt I can't just suddenly wipe that away" She mumbled, fiddling with her fingers.

"No you can't" I replied before sitting back "But you can begin to make up for them and start doing the right thing. We can even go looking for your friend Warechu too"

There was a pause while she thought over it carefully, I was aware that this could be one massive trick composed by Arfoire or something to get someone they have to gain our trust etc. but I don't think that she is that smart. Arfoire not Linda, Linda could actually think of a plan like that.

"How would you get the CPU's to trust me?" Linda asked, looking up at me carefully.

"That part is easy. They have all been trying their best to stay hidden and listen into this conversation discreetly; not realizing that they stand out from the crowd"

There was an audible gasp from the booth behind us and Linda's face grew pale as the girls all sort of fell out of the booth. Apparently they had all been on top of each other trying to listen into the conversation. Neptune looked up from the floor and flashed a nervous smile

"Busted" She said timidly

"Oh yeah" I replied, crossing my arms and looking at the group of girls that lay frozen on the spot. This was going to be interesting next chapter.