The Life Of Normal-Taro

The said resolve didn't last that long though, since Scarlet started having doubts just like before when he got near John. So he thought that it would be better if he doesn't approach John for the time being.

"Ha…" Scarlet sighed as he slumped into a chair outside. 

With John inside, he couldn't be comfortable there. Thus he was always outside to the point that it became a habit.

"What happened? You look a bit down today." Taro, who happened to see Scarlet's slouched appearance came by to check on him.

"Am I actually useless?" The Crimsoner asked.

"Is this about that punch I gave you?" Taro asked.

Had he known that his one punch would end up demotivating Scarlet entirely, he wouldn't have done it. 

However, on the other hand, he only did it since he sensed massive bloodlust. So the only person to blame was himself—was what Taro thought, before he remembered that he was actually there to cheer him up.

"The punch… And several other things. I mean, the punch was a reality check for me. But, nothing seems to have worked out ever since then. I simply don't know why. Is that because I'm useless?" Scarlet asked.

It looked as if Scarlet wanted to hear Taro say that he was useless for his own self satisfaction. However, Taro wasn't willing to give such a cheap satisfaction.

"That's what you would like to hear, right?" Taro asked.

"Huh?" Scarlet looked as if he didn't understand what Taro meant.

"You want me to say that you're useless so that you could just give up. Take the easy way. But I'm not gonna do that. You wanna know why? Because that would be me disrespecting the efforts you made. The hard work you put in. The status you attained, albeit being one of notoriety." Taro replied with a determined look on his face.

Scarlet stayed silent. Somewhere in his mind, he wanted Taro to actually call him useless. And this hurt him on a whole new level. All this time in his life, he was able to get ahead by struggling and now he simply wasn't willing to put that in—that something extra that could help him surpass his barrier. This pissed him off.

"Hmm. I guess you're right. The current me would've been smacked around by the past me if he saw me now." Scarlet replied.

"Ha, by the way, if you were useless, you wouldn't have been known by all those people as the Crimson robber. So, chin up, dude! You still got a lot to give to this side of the spectrum." Taro spoke as he chuckled.

Upon hearing this, Scarlet sprung up from where he sat, looking all energetic and enthusiastic. "I gotta go now. Thanks for all the advice!" 

"What are you gonna do now?" Taro asked.

"Well, I'mma do something that I've been putting off for quite a while now!" Scarlet replied as he ran to the inside.

#

John was having a quiet few days—well, not in the ordinary standards, but certainly in John standards.

Till a few days ago, he heard a constant buzz that annoyed the heck out of him. He never knew where that sound came from, but he certainly wished to obliterate it once he got his hands on whatever it was.

Anyhow, as all those sinister thoughts brewed up, the voices stopped entirely all of a sudden, as if there was no voice to begin with. The days of peace and prosperity came back to John's life.

"Yo, John! Ready to go?" Lonappan asked as he stood by the door.

"Yea, just wait a minute." John replied before staring at a mirror beside him. He slapped himself into reality and turned back to Lonappan. "I'm ready now! Let's move." John spoke as he took the lead, while Lonappan stared at him from the back as if he saw something extremely weird.

"You look awfully happy all of a sudden." Lonappan indirectly referenced the incident that occured before him.

"I don't know… I guess it's been a really good day today." John shrugged.

"Is that so? Good for you! I hope your productivity increases by a tenfold with this good feeling then." Lonappan chuckled.

"If that's what you want me to do with all this energy of mine, so be it." John scoffed.

"Well, what else would spend your energy on other than that?" Lonappan asked.

"... Why can't I think of anything?" John scratched his head, but no thought came to his mind.

"Because you're an MIB agent. And you love this job more than anything else in this whole wide world." Lonappan gave out an all knowing smile.

"Is that so? That explains a lot then." John mumbled as he walked. "By the way, what are we gonna do today?" He asked.

"Well. We're gonna apprehend a particular person." Lonappan replied.

"Just the usual then?" John asked with an annoyed look on his face.

"Nah, man. This is a bit different. I guess this guy's a high profile one." Lonappan spoke. "Apparently, the guy is named Crimson robber or something like that." Lonappan read the case file and spoke.

"Holy hell! The Crimson robber's here? On Earth?" John looked kinda excited as he heard that.

"Seems like you're a bit too hype about it. Why, though?" Lonappan tilted his head in confusion.

"Ah, seems like you don't know much about the Crimson planet and stuff, huh? The dude is a freaking legend, if you ask me. For all the wrong reasons, of course, but he was a legend nonetheless. The last thing I heard about him was that he mysteriously disappeared and his home planet was frantically searching for him since he's an important figure." John explained.

"Wait. If we had this Crimson robber in our custody, we should simply get hold of him until we could strike a deal with the Crimson Planet on transferring him. Maybe they can protect our planet or something." Lonappan spoke.

John sighed. "There are a lot of fundamental problems with what you just said. First of all, we have yet to see the formation of tar. And even if we saw it, we would never be able to communicate directly with the Crimson planet officials as long as the Glomerans have a hand in it. And finally, no one and I mean no one strikes a deal with the Crimson planet people." He concluded.

"Huh? Why is that?" Lonappan asked, with a curious look on his face.

"Whatever you say about them, they are first-class criminals with whom people don't like to associate since they would also be targeted due to their contact with the two." John replied.

"Oh, I see. It's like that, huh?" Lonappan dwelled deep in thought before coming back to reality. "Well, there's no use thinking about it. We gotta find the man or the woman, according to the gender stuff for the Crimsoners, right now." He spoke.

"Hmm." John looked at the characteristic features of Scarlet in the case file. "It's a pretty extensive case file now that I look at it. We Earthlings could never do something like this." He spoke.

"Yea, the Glomerans were the ones who gave us the info, I believe." Lonappan spoke.

"I know. I've been receiving stuff like this for the longest time." John spoke. "Anyhow, characteristic feature, invisibility. Ha, how the hell are we gonna find the guy if he's invisible for the whole time?" He scoffed.

"I don't think it's that overpowered skill. I believe that he gotta take a break with that." Lonappan spoke.

"Invisibility, huh… Just imagine… He might just be around us right now." John spoke, to which a long silence followed.

The long silence was then broken by the cackling of the two people. "Haha. As if that would happen!" Lonappan laughed along as he said that.

After laughing for some time, John's mood got serious. "I know that we're laughing about it right now, but there's a chance. I mean, until a few days ago, I felt this disgusting feeling in the house at times followed by a buzzing noise. I'm not insinuating that it's the Crimson robber, but what if?" He asked.

Lonappan thought for a while. "Well, if it was the Crimson robber, then that means it's actually impossible to find him by normal means." He spoke.

"Impossible by normal means, huh? Then that would mean that you got some abnormal means to find the guy, huh?" John asked.

"I guess. I haven't thought of it yet, but I don't think it's downright impossible to catch this guy. Nothing is impossible. Take out a pen and paper. We'll jot down the ways to catch the guy." Lonappan ordered.

John nodded and took out the pen and paper as he was asked to. Anyway, they were hopeful to catch the Crimson robber. However, the thing that they weren't aware of was that the Crimson robber was right behind them hearing all the shit that they said. Had they been aware of that, they wouldn't have said some stuff that they did.

#