The Life Of Normal-Taro

No matter what plan they touted, none of them seem to impress the both of them. To capture a person like Scarlet, they needed something extraordinary and none of the plans seem to give off that spark.

"Should we stop this shit?" Lonappan asked.

"Huh?" John slightly tilted his head.

"I mean, all we did was come up with a bunch of nonsense, which in now way could be considered as a solid plan of any sorts. So, what choice do we even have?" Lonappan asked. "And by the way, there's no confirmation if the Crimson robber would come by our place. So why even bother?" Lonappan asked to which he received a slap from John.

"Why bother, you ask? Because there's a chance. There's always a chance and it would suck if I were to miss the chance to have a decent talk with the person." John spoke passionately, which didn't impress Lonappan, but impressed someone entirely different was definitely so.

"Dang, I never knew that there were actual people who respected me. Had I known that the situation was like that, then I wouldn't have to suffer the way I did." Scarlet thought as he walked invisibly alongside John and Lonappan.

Anyhow, in the flow of the movement, Scarlet accidentally whistled, which changed the course of the journey—or so Scarlet believed would happen. Thankfully, it didn't. But that doesn't mean that the whistle did not pass through the skillful ears of John.

"Dude, wait! I just heard someone whistling. Could it be…!" John looked all excited as he said that. But Lonappan was quick to follow up on that.

"No. Just no. Don't go down that rabbit hole. You are hallucinating right now, you know that?" Lonappan sighed.

"Wait, no. Believe me. I'm not kidding. I just heard someone whistling." John cried.

"Poor soul. The hallucinations have gone too far. I feel for you now." Lonappan patted John's shoulder.

Since it seemed like Lonappan's not gonna believe him anymore, he stopped himself from talking about it.

In this whole ordeal, the one who was the most thankful was the Crimson Robber himself, Scarlet. He legitimately whistled but Lonappan came for his save.

Even though Lonappan refuted the possibility of the Crimson Robber being around them, John wasn't willing to let go. While Lonappan frolicked carelessly, John just raised his awareness level to an even higher plane.

Scarlet noticed this and tried walking carefully around them. However, the occasional tree twigs and stuff screwed him up since John noticed every single one of those noises like crazy.

Anyhow, even with all the snooping around, John didn't have a legitimate reason to believe that the Crimson Robber was near them, so he subsided eventually.

"Yo, guys!" A person came in to welcome the two. It was Ponnappan.

"Yo, Ponnaps!" Lonappan waved his hand and tried getting in the MIB base. However, Ponnappan stopped him before he could do so.

"So, what do you think of it?" The commanding officer asked.

"About what?" Lonappan questioned.

"About the Crimson Robber." Ponnappan replied.

"Hmm. I don't think he's-" Lonappan was about to say that the Crimson Robber wasn't in Kerala or at least, inside their jurisdiction, but John interrupted before he could say so.

"He's here." John sounded confident as he said that.

Scarlet, who was watching the event unfold, was partially impressed by the resolve John had. It's just that he didn't appreciate the fact that the resolve was aimed towards his head.

Anyhow, Lonappan sighed upon hearing John's words. "Damn, still not off your delusions, huh? The Crimson Robber is not-" He was about to cement the fact that Scarlet wasn't around them, however, someone interrupted this time and it wasn't John.

"No." Ponnappan replied.

"Huh?" Lonappan looked confused as he didn't get the meaning behind the no.

"He's here. He's for sure here." Ponnappan spoke as he stared at what looked like a blank space with a flower vase. However what people didn't know was that Scarlet stood at that exact place.

Scarlet got a little nervous with Ponnappan's action. First of all, his confident announcement that Scarlet's among them and secondly, the cold stare towards him. This made him question the real identity of the commanding officer.

So, after staring at the blank wall, Ponnappan began walking towards it like a possessed man. Lonappan and John were confused about it, just like Scarlet was, but none of them spoke a single word since they were slightly curious.

But Scarlet didn't have the luxury to simply wait around till Ponnappan came to him. He didn't want to do that. So, he slyly moved away from the flower vase and towards another secluded corner.

After walking all the way towards the flower vase, Ponnappan finally stopped. He didn't talk for quite some time. Instead, he took a flower from the vase and stared at it.

"Are you even gonna talk?" Lonappan finally cracked since he saw nothing of value in that slow walk that Ponnappan just did. He was legit annoyed.

"Ah, damn. I just forgot about it." Ponnappan chuckled. "What were we talking about then?" He asked.

"We were talking about your confident response on the Crimson Robber's existence in our jurisdiction." Lonappan replied.

"Ah, that! I'm confident because…" It seemed like Ponnappan was gonna give an answer, but instead he started his walk yet again. This time around, it was towards the secluded corner where no one stood—except Scarlet, of course.

Scarlet was confused for the umpteenth time that day. He didn't know if what Ponnappan did was intentional or totally random. If it was intentional, then he was supposed to be a difficult enemy. And if it was totally random, he had amazing luck.

He wanted to decipher it further, but Ponnappan was coming, so he had to move away from that corner. Since he believed that Ponnappan's not gonna go back to the place he already went, he decided to occupy the space with the flower vase yet again.

"For fuck's sake! Why the hell are you walking again?" Lonappan sounded impatient as he said that.

"Zip it and appreciate the theatrics. I mean, it looks cool, right?" Ponnappan asked.

"Cool in what way? You're literally just walking around. What's that to do with anything cool?" Lonappan asked. 

"Ha, you just won't understand. And if you don't understand, you won't be able to appreciate it." Ponnappan spoke.

Lonappan sighed. He couldn't just handle it. "Look, if you got something to say, then just say it. If not, then don't waste my time like this." He replied.

Upon hearing this, Ponnappan stopped on his tracks. Then he did a sharp turn back to the flower vase and lunged towards the place as if he had someone to catch up to.

Seeing this, Scarlet was pretty shocked. He was ninety nine percent sure that Ponnappan was aware of him. And this brought him to a conundrum. That one percent of uncertainty screwed him over more than the ninety nine percent.

He had two choices basically. He could either move away like he did twice and have Ponnappan follow him the entire day, or just put an end to it by getting a hit at him and escaping the place. 

But, the escape plan had a significant constriction with two people named Lonappan and John standing by. And in this case, plan number one certainly seems feasible. 

However, he also had to consider the fact that if Ponnappan was aware of him, then there's no chance to escape unless he actually gained the upper hand.

Scarlet was stuck between the two choices that he actually forgot to execute either one of them. In the end, without his knowledge, Ponnappan got centimetres close to him to the point that he could hear the commanding officer's breath.

Once he got that close, he stopped for some unknown reason. For some weird reason, he was hugging Scarlet and this made him really agitated. It was as if Ponnappan was making fun of him. 

Scarlet finally got the answer he was looking for.

Since he was this close, there's no way of missing the punch. He clenched his fist and was about to hit the punch of his life when Ponnappan suddenly retracted and walked back to where Lonappan and John were, causing all sorts of confusion in Scarlet's mind.

The Crimsoner looked around, searching for what Ponnappan did to him, until he realised that something was missing on Ponnappan. The flower he took from the vase was no longer in his hand. 

Scarlet looked back and saw that the flower was back in the vase, which meant that Ponnappan didn't head there because he was aware of his presence, but merely because he wanted to put the flower back into the vase.

At that point, Scarlet realised something. Ponnappan had an insane amount of luck to the point of it being actually terrifying. He could totally fool someone on something by literally walking around, just like what he did right then.

#