Inside Mayweather's office, which was surprisingly hard to find, the trio of Alaukik, Divya and Lina sat in silence.
While Alaukik was thinking of what his future steps should be, Divya was carefully observing Alaukik,
'He's back to normal now.. I wonder what happened that made him look so cheerful before?'
And along with Divya, Lina was also observing Alaukik, although for completely different reasons,
'Does he know? But there should be no way he knows! Nobody knows about my identity except for the higher ups, and there's no way they would leak it to him!! No, I can't just do nothing about it, I need to confirm that he knows something… but how do I do that without arousing his suspicion?'
"Say … it's been a while since we've known each other hasn't it?" asked Lina.
Cocking his head to the side, Alaukik thought for a second and replied,
"Indeed, it's been around three days."
"Right? And yet, it feels like we haven't really gotten to know each other properly. Don't you think we can take this chance to get to know each other better?"
Narrowing his eyes, Alaukik thought,
'Where is she going with this? Did my little joke really rattle her this much?'
While not so obvious to Alaukik, since he knew Lina's identity from the moment he stepped into this world, the fact that Angie Sirius and Lina are the same person is a very hidden fact privy to only a few people in the world.
Alaukik also did not realise his own worth. Being the sole connection to Asha Chandrashekar, he had suddenly become a very major piece on the board of international politics, with many wanting to get closer to him.
While this did not make him an all important piece in the eyes of the major players in the world, if it turned out that Alaukik in fact knew details about the USNA government that nobody should know, his worth would increase ten fold in an instant.
And since Tatsuya doesn't know Lina yet, that means that the only ones who know her identity are her immediate superiors and those very, very close to her. So even the slight possibility that Alaukik - Asha Chandrashekar's supposed nephew who had popped into this world out of nowhere - could have some kind of information on her would have very dire consequences for the USNA government, as that would be a pretty clear indication that Asha, and thus the entire RC had such information, which would lead to the question,
How much of the USNA government's secrets does the RC know?
And so, Lina believed it to be the highest priority to find out if Alaukik really knew about her identity, or whether he was simply joking.
"For example," Lina continued, "I don't even know your last name, and I doubt you know mine."
Extending her hand towards Alaukik, Lina smiled and said,
"I'm Angelina Kudou Shields, and my hobby is to help the people around me. What about you?"
Eyeing her hand for a second, Alaukik let out a smile and said,
"I'm Alaukik Khoda, and my hobby is exploring new places. It's my first time in the USNA, so I really want to explore the country and see all its sights for myself. For example, I've heard that the New Niagara Falls, discovered after WW3, is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It would be lovely if I could one day see it for myself. But even the local neighbourhood is so different from the Federation that it makes me want to look around even in the most narrowest of alleys."
'This should allow me to have an excuse for my late night explorations,' thought Alaukik, smiling inwardly.
Hearing this, Lina let out another bright smile as she shook Alaukik's hand vigorously,
"It's so nice to meet you, Alaukik!"
Turning around to Divya, Lina asked,
"What about you Devya? What are your hobbies?"
"Hobbies…" Thinking for a bit, Divya looked Lina straight in the eyes and said,
"I want to grow stronger."
Pausing for a second, small enough to not be noticed by a normal person, Lina restored the smile on her face and quickly took Divya's hand in hers,
"I'm really happy to know you too, Devya! I hope we become close friends!"
Turning back to look at Alaukik, Lina leaned into the sofa, relaxing a bit as she spoke,
"So, how was life before you guys came here? How was school back in the Federation? Do you have good friends back home?"
Hearing the barrage of questions, Alaukik thought,
'Well, I guess we have a bit of time to kill, so why not amuse ourselves with this?'
"Aah, where do I start?" thought out loud Alaukik.
"Honestly, school back in the Federation was similar to what you guys have here. Although I guess we didn't have combat classes, instead we had magic training classes and all that."
"That sounds nice. What did they teach you guys?"
Stopping for a second, Alaukik looked at Lina and then suddenly, he clapped his hands together,
"You don't know, do you?" he asked.
Questioning him, Lina asked,
"What do you mean?"
"Ah, it's just that I am a born - specialised magician. I guess you know what BS magicians are right?"
Lina answered Alaukik's question by nodding her head.
"Then you should also know that we suck at normal magic, so I was never really around for the magic training classes you know. I'm afraid I don't know what they were teaching."
"Oooh," nodded Lina in understanding.
"What about you, Devya?" she asked, turning towards her.
"Ah, she's also a BS magician. I know, it's quite rare, but that's kind of why we became friends in the first place," quickly responded Alaukik.
'I can't allow Divya to answer these questions. F***. We should've spent time going over our backstories before we started attending classes. It completely slipped my mind…'
When Divya heard Alaukik's response, she quickly shot him a look of surprise, before managing to control herself and focus back on Lina, who was suddenly fidgeting wildly.
"Awww," squealed Lina, "So are you guys like, dating?" she asked, looking at Alaukik again.
Hearing this question, Alaukik suddenly went silent and just stared at Lina, his eyes empty.
"Uh… Did I say something wrong?" Lina asked, noticing the sudden silence from Alaukik.
"What is dating?" asked Divya, her face a portrait of confusion.
"You don't know what dating is?!!!" exclaimed Lina.
Shaking her head, Divya asked,
"Is it something good for you?"
"Ahh… honestly it depends. Sometimes dating can be good for you, sometimes it can go horribly wrong. But essentially dating is when two people who love each spend time together and try to make each other happy."
"Oh," replied Divya, losing interest in this topic.
"According to what you say then, we," she said, pointing to Alaukik and herself, "aren't dating."
"We're just … friends." she said, unconsciously stressing on the word.
Unfortunately for her, Lina was quick to notice this undertone, and quickly came to her own conclusions.
"Do you guys have some hidden past between yourselves?!" she whimpered, her eyes turning into crescents, while trying to hide the smile on her face with her hands.
'What the hell…?' thought Alaukik, his eyes focused on Lina.
'Since when did she do that?!'
Seeing Lina make an expression he had never seen her make in the entire Season 2 of the anime, Alaukik realised something he might've been subconsciously ignoring this entire time.
'This isn't an anime - nor is it a manga.'
'This - This is real life.'
A/N
Gahahaha
Here I am with another chapt - fine.
This isn't much in plot development, but this arc isn't focused much on plot. This arc will mostly be exploring Alaukik's emotions and identity, so chapters without much action will be somewhat common.
Of course, we still have to figure out how Ash has the power of teleportation, albeit limited teleportation.
The ending of this volume/arc is going to be quite good, I promise you. It's a while away, but it's gonna be a good one.
And then the next volume we'll be in First High! Right along with Tatsuya, Miyuki and the others.
Also for all those guys who wanted me to ship Alaukik and Lina ... Imma try k? I was anyways undecided whether I wanted Divya to be more of a sister figure or a girlfriend figure, but I guess I can accommodate my fans a bit. I'll try to see if I can fit in a romance between Alaukik and Lina, although it will be a tall order - since Lina was never supposed to be a major player in my story....
Let's see.
Thank you Void, Ramon and Manuel for the powerstones!!
Comments would be much appreciated too!
And as always, thanks for reading and I hope you guys have a great day ahead!
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