Life in a Cliché World

Vacation, a time of listlessness or adventures, depending on who you are. Usually, I'd be stuck in my bed for the entirety of the vacation except for Halloween. Though, this year was different. After the craziness of Halloween, Nello, Merlo and I decided to meet up again two days later, the last day of the vacation.

"Welcome to my home," Merlo said with a grin.

Home? Isn't this just a village?! His home is huge. It might be bigger than the school. Just how rich is this guy? This place is way too immense. It had a massive garden outside of his door, multiple buildings within said garden and if my eyes weren't betraying me, I saw an airport in the distance. Also, we walked so far from the court's entrance, I couldn't even see the fences anymore. 

"Merlo, this is a village," Nello, who returned back to normal, said with awe.

I guess his transformation wasn't permanent. But the real question was whether or not he evolved during Halloween. Please tell me you did, Nello, otherwise that was wasted effort. 

"Haha good one, Nelbro!" he said while fist bumping Nello.

"No, Merlo, he wasn't joking, this is a village," I said.

"Haha, want to look around?"

"Hell yeah!" Nello yelled.

We entered the main mansion. This was Merlo's personal mansion. His dad lived in a castle somewhere in the distance. But Merlo didn't like castles as much so he picked a mansion that looked as if it came right out of the 1700's. It had paintings.. Of dinosaurs. There was a giant statue in the middle of a famous bodybuilder who won Mr. Olympia 6 times. 

"Welcome to my house, bros!"

"Sick!" 

"This place is cool."

"Hiss!" Lemon said while crawling down from the ceiling.

"LeBron! You're here!"

"Lemon!" 

Lemon high fived both Nello and Merlo, but left me out. But that didn't mean that he showed no affection to me. Instead, he pushed his head against my body like a cat would. I petted its head, which felt like I was petting a rock because of his exoskeleton.

Behind the statue was a double staircase. You know, the ones you usually see in movies about rich people. Well, because Merlo was rich, he had one of those. I heard footsteps coming from that direction. Someone was approaching.

"What are you doing here?!" Nello yelled.

"Oh! Adebro!" 

Why am I the only one that's not a bro?

"Greetings," Adeno replied as he walked down the stairs.

What's the situation here with Adeno? Why's he here? Let's think. 

Adeno is connected to Gregory, Merlo is connected to Gregory. Both Merlo and Adeno were Terrors at the same time, meaning the chances of them having contact were drastically higher anyway. Because of what Nello told me back when he was in the hospital, I can only conclude one thing.

"You've decided to abandon Gregory," I said to Adeno.

"Indeed, I have," he scanned me for a second. "You're that boy.." 

"Yeah, you saved me once."

"I do not believe I saved you."

"Oh well, that's a cool take but let's focus on the situation right now."

"You're joining us?" Nello asked Adeno.

"I am, I couldn't stand Gregory any longer."

"What about learning from the strongest?"

"That's why I've come here," Adeno said after closing his eyes, "I believe you are the strongest."

"Me?!"

"I saw you speaking to that beast. You are undoubtedly the strongest person I have ever laid my eyes upon." 

"Is that the only reason you want to join us?!"

"It isn't," I replied for Adeno. 

I get it, Adeno.

"He's joining us because it's against his morals. Gregory exploits, abuses and is destroying the nerds. What kind of self-respecting swordsman, who puts so much emphasis on strength, wants to ally himself with someone who picks such easy victims?" I said and turned my head towards Adeno.

"You're right. What may your name be?"

"I'm Henry Laress, and I'm Nello's best friend."

"I see, my name is Adeno Zanshu, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you too, Adeno. Glad you decided to join."

Now, will this guy end up backstabbing us? There's a chance. But that chance is low. There's one thing to absolutely take into account in this world.. His story as a whole. He entered school without being a student, he joined the villain but has a conflicting moral compass, then he met with the main character and had a conversation with him. And after seeing the main character in action, he's here. 

The story is pretty consistent, so I have faith. I don't think he'll betray us.

My head rotated towards Nello. His eyes gazed downwards, his open hand turned into a fist and his face turned into one of determination. He looked up and smiled. I knew exactly what he was thinking. That guy just had an entire inner monologue and was about to say some cliché stuff.

"Let's do this!" Nello yelled while punching the air with his fist.

"Yeah! Let's super smash this, bros!" Merlo yelled.

"Hiss!"

"Mhm," Adeno silently agreed.

"Yeah, let's do this."

Now, there was a reason our group got together today. Coming back to school next week will be hell. We had a clash with Gregory's group, Nello breached the contract and we know that Gregory isn't one to play around. We're going to get attacked the second we get there. 

So we had to be prepared.

We entered Merlo's gym. Nello had his gym clothes on, I had mine on. Adeno on the other hand remained in his kimono and Merlo was shirtless like always. I don't even have to explain what Lemon was wearing.

"This gym is insane!" 

"Haha yeah, Jim is crazy!"

Today was our first day of training. Obviously, you couldn't get stronger in just one day, but with enough motivation and "justification", we might stand a chance. After all, this world only surrounds one type of logic: story logic. 

I cracked my neck and walked in front of the group. I turned around, their attention was on me. I had to stand in the spotlight for this one, I felt like that was my role now. Instructing the group on how to function, that seems about right.

"Listen, guys."

"What's up, Henry?"

"Yeah, thin man!"

"Hm?"

"Hiss!"

"Gregory has no powers, we know this. He's mainly carried by his Terrors. But guess what? We have two of those terrors right now. And Nello here can probably stand his ground against one. There are four terrors left, but we only have the strength to handle three of them."

"What do you suggest we do?" Nello asked.

"Like any sane person would after a devastating encounter, we adapt. Grip Perry, Big Bunga, Tornado Tommy and Smoke Benny. We have information on how they fight, so we can adapt."

"Right!" 

"Adeno, what're Tommy and Benny's fighting styles?"

"Tommy fights with kicks, he's a skilled fighter at taekwondo. Benny.. No one's ever seen him fight."

"That's enough information." 

No one's ever seen him fight because he fights in the smoke. That's what I can conclude. If this follows the clichés, then obviously that's going to be the answer.

"Benny likely uses smoke bombs to blind his enemy. So Adeno, you take care of Benny as quickly as possible with your wind. Tommy kicks? Sure, let him kick Merlo."

"But what about Perry and Big Bunga?" Nello asked. 

"I'll handle them." 

"Really?! Are you sure you can do that?"

"Yeah, someone has to take care of Gregory."

"Are you saying.."

"It has to be you, Nello."

I walked over to Nello and placed my hand on his head. Merlo approached us too and smiled. Adeno pulled out his katana and nodded. Lemon hissed, he wasn't going to join because he's not from our school. Ironic considering Adeno's origins.

"I'll do it!"

"Good."

I walked away again. This should be a good character moment. Now for the plan, I would be absolutely fried if I fought against Perry and Big Bunga. But no worries, there's a reason I brought it up. There's such a simple reason as to why I'm fighting them. You may even be able to guess it right now. For that reason, I'm not explaining it.

But now comes the best point of every inspirational hero story. The music played inside of the gym. Things were going to go crazy now. And it started, the training montage. 

"One!"

"Two!"

"Three!"

"Grahh!" 

Merlo and Nello high fived.

"Go deeper, Nelbro!" 

"Yeah!"

"Remember the rule!"

"Ass to grass!" Nello yelled while squatting.

"What was that?!"

"Ass to grass!!" 

Protein powder flew around the gym along with evaporated sweat. The sounds of grunting could be heard from all directions as everyone, including Lemon and I, were pumping iron.

"Jab, cross."

"Jab! Cross!"

"Jab, close the distance, elbow."

"Jab! Close the distance! And elbow!"

While teaching Nello how to fight, Adeno was looking at me. He was swinging a large barbell. He knew I wasn't exactly a victim, I think the reason he's looking at me like this is because he's a martial artist. And for that very reason, I was also looking at him. Every movement of his was controlled, orchestrated with intent, I couldn't help but dissect it.

"Remember your footing, keep your balance up."

"Yes!"

"Let's rest."

"Okay!"

When we stopped, Adeno came to me.

"You know how to fight?"

"Maybe."

"Why aren't you fighting against the bullies?"

For a moment, I was silent.

"Because I don't like fighting."

"But you are willing to support those who fight. Besides that, you wish to fight against two Terrors."

I don't like this. He's going too deep. It's technically my fault, I was showing Nello how to fight. So it wouldn't be weird for someone like him to ask why I'm not defending myself, when I clearly could.

"I have my own reasons. I hope you can respect that."

"Hm, I see."

Glad he knows boundaries. After he walked away to resume his training, mine continued with Nello. I taught him the basics. Calf kicks, knees, jabs, crosses, hooks and more. This should help give him an edge against more amateur fighters, even without powers. 

Lemon and Merlo were training by doing hypertrophy training. Weirdly enough, spiders have muscles in their legs. But they only go inward, not outward. So he's able to train those muscles, but I don't know if it would actually improve his speed. Oh but what is improving his agility is him training his movement afterwards anyway.

After a hard day of training, we all sat down together at a restaurant. It wasn't a public restaurant though, it was one of Merlo's private restaurants on his family's domain. 

"Ahh! I'm dead!" Nello said while yawning and stretching his arms.

"Wooh, that was a great workout guys!" Merlo said while falling down into one of the chairs, "It felt like a fantasy!"

"It was quite a journey," Adeno said before calmly taking a seat.

"Yeah, I hope we got more power from this."

"Hiss!"

We all sat down at the table, each one of us was exhausted. This training session was fun, yeah. I'm not used to training a lot. Okay, sometimes I do a bit of training inside of my apartment but often than not I'm either watching a show or playing video games. So this was a nice change of physical activity.

"We should do this more," Merlo suggested.

"Obviously, we need to be ready for school," I replied.

"Mhm, Gregory is no easy opponent, our strength must be optimal."

"Yes! So let's train hard again and again!"

"Hiss."

We ordered food, rice with chicken. I wouldn't say this was the right meal for me, I'm not supposed to cut, I'm supposed to bulk. But it's still delicious nonetheless. I've never tasted chicken that was this high quality. That's rich folks for you, they get everything in high quality.

"Mm! This is delicious!"

"Haha thanks Nelbro."

"Mhm, Merlo, you should give compliments to the chef."

"It's good."

"Hiss."

"Guys, let's not forget our dessert," Merlo said with a smile.

And what came around the corner was nothing more but gym bro heaven. A whole table full of protein shakes was delivered to us. And of course, the majority of them would go to Merlo.

"Cheers!" we all yelled in unison before drinking our protein shakes.

After the day ended, I lied in bed. My eyes fixated on the ceiling. Next week was time for the battle. Readers, I know that today's chapter has been awfully short. But the last chapter was a bit longer, so I hope you're happy with that.

Oh, someone texted me.

I looked at my phone, it was Emma. She said she got it done. I hate to admit it, but I smiled. Tomorrow was the decisive day. I had to rest well. After all we've been through.. Going on dates, standing up against bullies, ending up in the infirmary, encountering large spiders, it was all for this. 

Let's do this.