The Power Enthusiast

MINERVO 23: The Lonely Man

When Cherry throws a threatening word at Nico, the horn of a truck passing by the highway sounds very loud, making the atmosphere even more tense. The five of them - Paul, Jeddy, Colin, Cherry, and Nico - were standing by the side of the road, that is why the sounds of cars milling about on the highway seem to be the background music of what is going on between them.

Occasionally Nico wiped the blood coming out of his nostrils, before finally, he ventured to respond to the threat Cherry had posed to him. With a slanted smile, Nico began to say, "It's so low," hissed Nico with eyes that stared intently at the Cherry in front of him. "If you so badly want to tear, squeeze, cut, slam, hit, stomp, pull, stab, and smash this mouth of mine, I will gladly accept it. You don't have to worry, just do what you want, but I don't want to take responsibility for what's going to happen after you've done it all to me."

Cherry was surprised to hear that, her teeth were grinding so badly. Because in Nico's words, there was a message in which Cherry would get in big trouble if she did her wish to hurt the man. The threat that Cherry made had no effect on Nico at all, the teary-eyed man even replied to her with another threat, leaving the girl a little jolted.

"Stop, stupid!" Paul didn't like what Cherry was doing, he felt that the girl was very annoying. "You don't have to interfere! Let me just tame this guy! You're just gonna make the situation even more complicated, you idiot!"

Cherry's gaze instantly shifted to Paul, she displayed a disappointed face. Whereas what Cherry is doing now aims to defend Paul's self-esteem that was trampled by Nico, but what is this? Instead of thanking him, Paul snapped at Cherry ferociously, as if what he was doing right now was just annoying. Cherry then exclaimed, "YOU SHUT UP PAUL!" Cherry paused for a moment, then continued, "Cherry doesn't like this guy because he constantly belittles you! Just because you look like a delinquent! He's the kind of guy Cherry hates! A person like him shouldn't have been born in this world!"

Suddenly, Nico was shocked to hear, for some reason, this time Cherry's words succeeded in piercing his heart. Until Nico was almost out of words to reply as he was shocked by the remark the girl had just called out. However, his surprise began to fade, replaced with a super-super-large anger, until finally, Nico spoke with a fairly loud voice.

"You said that a man like me shouldn't have been born in this world, right?" Nico held back his anger a little, then smiled a thin smile, even though his heart was very upset right now. "I'm curious, actually, based on what until you judge that people like me shouldn't have been born in this world? Can you please explain to me in more detail about it? If I can give you other details so that I can understand your opinion well, garbage," Then Nico's attention was diverted to Paul. "And also, I wonder at you, why are you scolding that girl instead? Wasn't he trying to defend you? Are you insensitive or stupid? Is your sleep less sound? Heh! Basic delinquent."

Hearing Cherry and Paul being humbled before his eyes, Jeddy did not accept, he directly advanced to Nico's place and patted the man's shoulder hard. Make Nico turn his head on Jeddy. "Oi-oi-oi-oi?" said Jeddy, furrowing his eyebrows, he looked dislikeful of Nico. "What the fuck? Looks like you've gone too far, bro?"

Arcing his thin smile, Nico again voiced in a calm tone to Jeddy, "What's wrong? Trash like you should be treated so, otherwise you will be more arrogant. And that's very disgusting" Nico said with a blink of an eye. "Didn't you like my words? If so, it's okay if you want to punch me in the face, please. After all being beaten a hundred times by garbage like you will not make my degree go down or your degree go up, because trash is still trash. And diamonds are diamonds. It's that simple."

"And you call yourself a diamond, do you?" Now Colin began to walk to Nico with a nose that bloomed, his anger so explosive. "So the point is, do you consider yourself to be someone of great quality, right? I'm sorry, but I wanted to ask you something, don't you have the slightest shame? I mean, you seem to belong to the types of geniuses, but from the way you speak, you show your stupidity clearly to us. Because the main rule of geniuses is to respect their fellow human beings. That simple. But see? You're bragging about yourself like a kid who's just been bought a toy by his parents, and that's a pathetic."

Paul, Cherry, and Jeddy gasp at Colin's very sharp speech, leaving Nico speechless for a few seconds. The three of them didn't expect a loser like Colin to be able to reply to a speech from a scathing-mouthed man like Nico. However, because he did not want to lose, Nico began to chimed in Colin's words by throwing his cracked glasses in any direction, revealing his two narrow eyes.

"Interesting," Nico glanced sharply at Colin with a faint smile. "Compared to the black, the green, and the pink, it turns out that you are quite competent of the three of them. I'm amazed at you. From the beginning I had already guessed that you were a bit different from your friends, even from facial expressions, you didn't seem like a delinquent."

As his body was already very limp, Nico walked back, setting his feet in slow steps, leaving Paul, Jeddy, Cherry and Colin still silent there. It seems Nico has been too lazy to reply to Colin, plus his condition is battered. And finally, Nico's back was getting further and further away, and it seemed, the four of them had no intention of pursuing him at all. They even looked at Nico's departure with pecking.

Finally, Paul made a sound with eyes still staring at Nico's back. "So, I've been lazy chasing him again."

"Me too, Bro! He's a real bitch, isn't he, Bro!?" timpal Jeddy scratched his neck.

"No" Paul answered briefly. "That's not what I meant. I was lazy to chase after him because I think behind his sharp words, he harbored millions of fears inside of him when he confronted us, but strangely enough! He was very good at hiding his fear with a smile and spicy words, so that others would not know that right now, he was frightened. What a jerk, yeah, a guy like him."

"Eh!? Why do you know that, Paul!?" Colin was shocked to hear that. "Even in Poppe City, you can easily deduce the core of the problem, actually, where can you deduce it from?" colin asked with a wedge.

Paul turned to Colin, then scolded, "Don't ask you too many questions!" sergeant Paul roared. "But I'm still surprised, how come you were that brave? Reply to the scathing speech of the man with the spicy words as well, damn it! you learned that when and where!? Goddamn bum!? You should have learned such things with me! Because I am your mentor! Bastard!"

Paul clutched Colin's jacket collar tightly, while shaking the body of the blue hair very fiercely. Colin smiled stiffly at her, then he replied, "I'm just a reflex! Seriously! I really didn't like that shit!"

Meanwhile, Nico had reached his doorstep, but before knocking on his door, he daydreamed for a moment muttering, "Lonely. Lonesome. And lonely. If only I had friends like them. Maybe my day will be more colorful, "Then Nico looked up, he immediately regained his senses and immediately slapped his own cheek hard. "God! Since when have I been that sad! Remember that! The happiness that creates it is yourself! You don't need anyone else! Think of others as despicable, strange, and disgusting! That's enough!"

Taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, Nico's emotions returned to normal, and he immediately smiled his thin smile until he finally knocked on his door slowly and said, saying,

"I'm home."