Chapter 2

“Alright, is everyone ready?” Our stoic, powerful leader asked.

A passionate “Yes sir!” was echoed around by all except me who just answered with a simple

“Yes, Drill Seargent!”

I was expecting at least a chuckle, but instead I was met with silence.

“Cmon, that was my best Forrest Gump impression!” I gave an awkward laugh.

“Can you take this seriously? At least for a little bit?” He asked.

Currently we were preparing to go take on another treacherous villain and save the world......again......third time this week.

“I'm just trying to lighten the mood; everyone takes this way too seriously. We need some comedic relief. We all know it's going to be the same outcome that’s happened on every mission for the last two years. No need to fret over a couple jokes!” I replied with a forced grin and shrug of my shoulders.

“I think you're taking this way too lightly. Look at yourself, Lee! A seemingly unwashed hoodie, sweatpants that I’m pretty sure you slept in, and sandals? This isn’t beach day man...” The aforementioned ‘Drill Seargent’ sighed as he critiqued my choices.

“First, comfort before style, I can’t spectate- I mean fight good, unless I’m comfortable! Secondly, I am not going to be facing the enemy. You're going to single handedly take them out because, in a crazy twist no one saw coming, it turns out they have some personal vendetta against you.... Specifically, you. For some reason.... Then you'll defeat them with low difficulty, give them that good ‘ole fashion friendship speech, and we'll all be home in time for dinner!” I said with a chuckle. He merely looked at me with concern.

“I’m worried about you,” he said. “We used to be a partnership, both of us against all the evil the world could throw at us, fighting side by side. Now you’re unenthusiastic about everything. Are you okay?” He frowned.

“...You’ve got bigger things to concern yourself with. We’ve got those two girls that stick to you like glue no matter how hard we try to get rid of them. There’s that self-proclaimed rival of yours training to surpass you. And now we’ve got the enemy you, er, we are going to fight.” I brushed off his concern.

Years had passed and it wasn’t just my brother and I anymore, we had found new group members. But they don’t matter. The only thing that has changed is that the ‘partnership’ has turned into a one-man show with four groupies.

“Yeah, I guess,” He paused. “......if you say you’re alright, I’ll stop pressing it.” He said as he began walking away.

“Wait! What do you mean two girls we can’t get rid of?”

“Oh, you’re right, only one chick. Shai can stay.”

We left the base and the mission had begun.

***

“You can do it!” she screamed at him as her hero stood there, clutching his bleeding arm and panting for breath.

A tear rolled down her cheek. She prayed for things to turn out okay. She needed things to turn out okay. They had always turned out okay, why should this time be any different? She hadn’t had any time to tell him how she felt yet either, and he couldn't die before then, not before she told him, before she told him-

She was obviously hopelessly in love with our ‘hero’, even an idiot could tell. Yet, he was clueless as they come, and she was way too shy to tell him. It’s what I call ‘Dense Protagonist Syndrome’. They got to keep the “will they, won’t they?” thing going to keep fans engaged.

Her name is Shai too, Shai! Quite literally pronounced the same as ‘shy’!

“Don’t give up!” The girl to her left said in a very high pitched and yet deep voice that had always slightly annoyed everyone. I know that’s an oxymoron, but it’s the only way I can put it. She was a rather tall, easily irritable girl. She always acted like she didn’t care about anything. A true nihilist.

She didn’t care about the hero much more than she did for everyone else in the group. Yet she seemed to be under the impression that he was in love with her. As a result, she was constantly cold and always had that classic ‘tsundere’ attitude towards him.

Personally, I never understood the appeal of that archetype. He must not get it either. The reality was her assumption was far from the truth.

“If you die, who's going to pay me?” She finished her otherwise encouraging words, with the sour tang of selfish greed.

Her name doesn’t matter. Instead, I refer to her by the fitting moniker of ‘Useless.’

“The only one who ever beat me is you! No dying until I have my rematch! Don’t forget it!” said the rival.

He was too prideful a man, the hero of this story was the only person to ever beat him. Instead of admitting his own weakness like a normal person, he decided that if the one person who could beat him was the strongest person alive, that would also make him strong.

Pathetic really, all he focuses on is that one goal of being the strongest. Without stopping or faltering even once he’s pursued it. Nothing else matters to him but that goal, and yet he’ll never achieve it. Rather, he’ll always be stuck in the shadow of the protagonist. Poor, poor, Roku.

“Pathetic! To think you, a ‘hero of modern legend’, are this weak? Don’t even bother getting up, it's futile!” The villain said with a cackling laugh.

And that's our villain of the week, the squabble is something about how his master was disgraced by our master, and that caused some unfortunate and completely unrelated accident that he now blames us for? I don’t really understand, nor do I really care, as I won’t have to fight him.

As always, he made the classic mistake of challenging the strongest fighter first.

But what really annoys me is the timing. Something like this happens every other week, but of all the days for it to happen, it had to happen today?

First, I already wasn’t feeling good, that's why I was being somewhat of jerk earlier.

Second, I had plans today. Plans that I now had to cancel because of this maniac.

Lastly, it’s my birthday, and now I can’t tell if everybody forgot or if they’re too busy and preoccupied to care. It doesn't really matter all that much. It just makes this encounter more of an annoyance than the others.

Not wanting to be the odd one out I also joined in on the words of encouragement.

“End this already...you got this.... Yeah!” I, very enthusiastically, shouted knowing that they had no meaning. He had already won. It doesn’t matter who you are, the second you find yourself fighting against the protagonist, your story is over.

“You’re right! I can’t hold back anymore......I have to give it my all!” The hero said, rising up off of his knees.

“Here we go...time to finish it!” He took his signature fighting pose and began charging up his energy. From the looks of it, this was one of his classic finishing moves.

This fight that had gone on longer than necessary, was at its conclusion.

A surge of energy and heat radiate through the air around us. The sheer force of it almost pushed us back. As he charged up his energy, an all-familiar glow began to start up in his hands. Things around us began to ignite as the heat got to its peak intensity, he was about to finish this.

“Incinerate!” All of the energy he built up was being unleashed on his foe.

A pillar of white-hot flames blasted from his hand towards the enemy. We all instinctively put our hands up to shield us from the blast and cover our eyes from the blinding brightness of his attack.

The sweat evaporated off our skin due to the intense heat. The grass seemed to dry up around us, and the buildings almost bended from the sheer concentration of power being unleashed. And if it did that much to us onlookers, imagine what it was going to do to the unfortunate soul on the receiving end.

“I-Impossible! How can one man have this much power!?” the aforementioned unfortunate soul shouted as he began to go up in flames. The attack had yet to reach him, but the heat was enough to ignite his clothes and singe his hair.

The attack was perfect at illustrating the gap in strength, and didn’t do much outside of that, as the hero stopped the flame just before it connected. Leaving the villain naked, bald, and dumbfounded, but still very much alive.

That was very stereotypical of Diran, the Protagonist of this story. To always show mercy, even when it was a rather stupid decision. Even when they were completely undeserving, he would still show mercy.

Right about now he's probably going to start the friendship speech, and then the villain is going to remember something about his past, completely change his ways, and everything's going to turn out a-okay.

Diran is the protagonist, and I just happen to be his younger brother, Lee. He's better than me at just about everything, I'm basically an off-brand version of him. Strength? He's far passed me on that. Abilities? All vastly superior to mine. I still don’t know the full extent of his. Charisma? He could have a harem if he really wanted to.

But me? If you were blind you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between me and a dead lobster. Maybe the dead lobster would be slightly less annoying than me. According to him I'm a little smarter than he is, but who could really tell?

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Yup, there’s the shy girl named Shai, the deadweight tsundere Useless, the Vegeta rip-off Roku, the overpowered protagonist Diran, and me. Everything about this scream ‘average battle Shonen team!’ And that’s because it is.

Every week we fight some new villain. Every other week we go through some new story arc. And every week it plays out exactly like you’d expect. Shai does shy things; Roku gives some cool one-liners and fight the occasional mini-boss. Useless does.... well, nothing. Sometimes, they seem more trope than person.

After Diran finished his power of friendship speech and the villain had a change of heart, he left to never become plot relevant again.

“Y-You did it Diran, good job.” My internal narration was ended by Shai’s congratulatory remarks, which were soon echoed by everyone.

“Took you long enough, idiot!” Remarked Useless.

“You should have won a while ago, quit going easy on them!” Said Roku.

“Aw, thanks everyone, but it was nothing. I’m sure any of you guys could handle it just as easy!” Diran laughed.

“Anyways, let's go get some food, I’m parched after all that action!” Said Diran with a chuckle.

Another day, another enemy, another win for Diran, and another free meal at the same restaurant as always.

We soon arrived at our favorite noodle place and where we ate after just about all of our excursions. It was a fairly modern place with some good food, and we accounted for almost 50% of their business, considering we came here after every mission.

“So, what can I get for you guys!?” said the waiter with a rather cheery tone. I didn’t recognize him, he must be new here, or maybe I just never noticed him before.

We all told him our orders and were brought to our table, the same one as always.

I zoned out the conversation as we waited for our food. It had gotten so repetitive. Villian shows up, Diran fights them, we win, we eat, repeat.

At least in the beginning there was more variety, sometimes it would be multiple enemies. I even used to have a major role before I got shelved. The villains have gotten far less creative too. They used to at least kidnap Shai or something, anything to get us involved. I think one time they brainwashed Useless to turn against us. Didn’t do much for them, but A for effort.

Now it's the same shit but slightly different setup. Maybe the writer just got tired of coming up with original stuff and is now just following the battle Shonen formula to a tea.

I grinned at the thought. Kids always wanted to live in a comic, movie, or anime, and yet here I was, my life exactly like a typical battle Shonen manga you would read. But I guess reality is often different than fantasy.

You would expect to be the protagonist, but if I'm any indicator, you would probably end up being the equivalent of a dog in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure; and we all know what happens to dogs in JoJo’s.

I’m not saying I literally live in an anime or manga, but my life is pretty damn similar to one. Maybe this is just how I cope with getting the Gohan treatment, who could say.

“Sorry for the wait, here’s your food!” The waitress came around the corner carrying our food.

“Oh, it's you guys” She quickly added once she saw us. She then turned to me and with a huge smile said

“Happy Birthday Lee!”

I couldn’t help but blush. Tsubusu was a rather short, attractive girl my age, and the only one here who remembered my birthday. She had green eyes and dirty blonde semi curly hair that stopped just above her shoulders, and she was always nice to everyone. We had similar interests and I consider her one of my closer friends.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, I get the concept. She's going to be the girl I thirst over for the entire series, to finally confess my feelings at the end and we'll live happily ever after, but that's not it.

For one, I'm not the protagonist, I'm not going to get that kind of ending, and for two I've already told her how I feel, multiple times, and she's shot me down every time. And she's almost definitely not going to be relevant to the story again.

“Oh yeah, have I not told you yet? I didn't have a chance with the whole fiasco that was happening today.

Sorry for not saying it earlier, happy birthday Lee!” Spoke

Diran, better late than never.

The others soon followed. I know Diran cares about me, after all we are brothers, and we've been through almost everything together. It was late, but finally hearing it did lift my spirits somewhat.

Jesus-Tapdancing-Christ! Now I’m even thinking like one of his fan club members!

Everyone got their food and began eating as if it was the first meal they’ve had in weeks. It would make sense for Diran to be hungry, but these guys did nothing.

“Oh my gosh! It’s Diran, the strongest hero in Central City!” Our meal was interrupted as a young girl had recognized Diran.

“I’m a huge fan! I can’t believe it’s really you!” The girl began to fan her face in excitement.

“Ah, shucks. I don’t do anything special, I just fight the bad guys, anybody strong could do it!” Diran gave the fan a warm smile which made her blush beet red.

“C-Could I get a picture please?” She shyly asked, her previous excitement quelled by Diran’s warm smile.

“Of course! Lee, why don’t you take the picture?” The girl handed me her camera and posed with Diran. A simple *click* and it was over...Or so I thought.

“Everyone get over here! It’s him, it’s Diran!” The girl excitedly yelled to her group.

One by one they lined up for pictures. First individuals, then odd assortments, then finally the final group picture. I didn’t even make sure the camera was focused before I took that last photo. That’s five minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

As the drinking and partying began, I kept my usual ritual of retreating to the roof. I enjoyed watching the stars and feeling the cool night air, it helped me clear my head and reflect.

Another day, another mission, and another day of watching Diran do everything from the sidelines. It went just as I expected it to go, so why did I have a sense of disappointment? I mean, I get paid pretty well for basically being my brother's cheerleader, it’s a seemingly pretty good gig. Besides, if I did start trying to pitch in, I’d just end up in the hospital or dead, so why do I feel the way I’m feeling?

“Up here brooding yet again I see.” A friendly voice said as they came up and sat beside me. It was Tsubusu. She must be on her break.

“You know it, Batman would be proud.” I joked back.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen on the mission?” She kindly asked.

“Nope, the mission went fine. Diran beat the guy no problem. Nobody got injured, and there was hardly any damage to the city. By all means it was perfect.” I replied.

“Then what’s the problem?” She asked.

“I’m not sure.... Like I said it was perfect just like always.... I didn’t even need to do anything. It was a flawless victory as usual. There should be no reason for me to feel any disappointment at all.” I explained.

“And there lies the problem.” She sighed.

“How so?” I asked.

“I’ve known you for a while now, and I’ve had to hear you complain again and again about these things, and yet you still haven’t figured out what it is that is making you so upset.” She said with a laugh.

“Oh, come on, I don’t complain that much.” I laughed back.

“Think for a second Lee, I know you're not very good at it, but I need you to think. You’ve been complaining about how predictable and boring all the missions and scenarios are for a while now, but is that really the part that's annoying you?” She asked.

“Well, yeah. Excitement in life only comes when you don’t know what could happen next, a movie isn’t good if you already know everything that’s going to happen. This mission played out the exact same way as every mission we’ve had for the past two years. I've gotten bored with it, but I shouldn't be disappointed.” I replied.

“And I don’t want to hear any digs at my intelligence from you.” I quickly added.

“Well, you’d have to be pretty stupid not to see it.” She quipped back.

“Ok fine, maybe I am stupid. Would you, in all your ingeniousness, please enlighten me with the knowledge I lack?” I bowed to complete the joke.

“I’ll comply since you asked so kindly.” She said with a laugh.

“Think about it this way, you complain about things not changing, but what have you done to try and change them?” She asked.

“You know I’m not on Diran’s level, I can’t do anything against these guys, I haven’t done anything because I can’t do anything.” I said back with a laugh.

That was the reveal this conversation was working up to?

“We’ll that’s not all you can do. Why not get a different job? If you hate it that much, then why do you still do it? Why did you even become a hero in the first place?” She questioned.

......Why did I become a hero? Why am I still a hero? I hadn’t thought of that in a while.

“You say you’ve tried to change it, but you’ve only tried one thing, from one perspective, and one angle. Think outside the box. There's plenty of things you can do differently. The only problem is you don’t want to try those other things, you only want to do things your way. Why did you become a hero, and most importantly, why are you staying one? If you can’t figure that out, I can’t help you anymore.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but no words came out. I didn’t know how to respond. What did she know? She hasn’t lived my life, she hasn’t been through my struggles, so how would she know how to solve them.

“Well, let's get back downstairs, Roku is probably drunk out of his mind and trying to fight Useless by now. Plus, with that idiot brain of yours it’ll take ages to find the answer.” She said with a flick to the side of my head, knocking me out of my trance.

“It is that time of the night.” I said as I joined her.

We went down to rejoin the realm of the living, and It was exactly as we thought. Roku and Useless were about to drunkenly fight, Diran was holding Roku back and Shai was freaking out about the whole thing. It looked to have been a fun party. I walked between the two of them to grab a drink and join in on the fun.

***

“Well, I guess we’ll be going our separate ways now, see you guys.” I said as we all split off. We ate and drank late into the night. Diran had gotten a taxi for Roku and Useless as they were both passed out drunk. Shai had already left. So now It was just Diran and I. We lived in separate directions, so I began the walk home.

“Wait up, are you sure you want to walk home alone?” Diran asked me.

“Why wouldn’t I? I live alone, so I’m used to walking home alone. Wait, don’t tell me......are you worried I’ll get mugged?” I sarcastically said.

“No, it's not that, I just feel bad that today turned out the way it did.” He said with a sympathetic tone.

“I can’t say I didn’t expect it, it turned out to be just like every other day.” I responded.

Just about every day we go through an event like that, I didn’t expect things to change just because today is the anniversary of my birth.

“It’s true we have to deal with a lot of enemies, but it's for a good cause. I just wish they’d take a break every once in a while, so you could properly celebrate.” Diran put a reassuring hand on my shoulder.

“It is what it is. Nothing you or I could do would change it. It's our fate and it's just best to accept it.” I said with a shrug.

Diran had a sad, worried look on his face at my remarks. I didn’t know what he was thinking, nor did I care. I understood what he was trying to say, but it wouldn’t make a difference. Words and saying “I wish” wouldn’t change anything, I’ve learned that much.

“I’ve got to be heading home, the plants need-a-watering and my TV need-a-watching.” I joked as I turned to continue walking.

“Oh, alright then. See you Lee......Happy birthday!” Diran said as he turned to go to his house.

“Thanks Diran, catch ya later!” I responded as I began my walk home.

Another day, another dollar, that’s what they say. Every day we work is a day we get rewarded. That's the principle that society is built upon.

For some, the work itself can be the reward, but that’s not my case. Every day we risk our lives in a fight against some idiot, and everyday Diran does all the work. Some people might see that as a perfect deal, but it's the opposite.

When all you are doing is watching from the sidelines, knowing there’s nothing you could do, knowing that your help, your power, wouldn’t make a difference. It’s not your body that dies, it's your spirit.

I opened the door to my house and after grabbing a bag of chips from the pantry, went straight to my room. There wasn’t much inside, my bed was on the left side and faced the TV. I had a shelf of manga, light novels, and anime on the right side. A game console sat below the TV. It didn’t get much use nowadays, but I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of it.

I plopped down on my bed and turned the TV on. I was met with an episode I’d already seen. There was an emotional death on screen, one that pushed the MC past his limits and let him gain new power. The character's death shaped the protagonist and changed the direction of the show. I couldn’t do much in life, I didn’t have power, I was weak and lacked charisma. At least maybe I could do something in death.

I watched the show late into the night, reflecting on all the happenings in the day.