Bab 30: Critical Stalking
The next morning. The one person who came last was the first to wake them up. Lonappan somehow was able to wake up before everyone else. Or maybe, he never slept—no one will ever know.
"Get your dumb ass up!" Lonappan shouted as he shoved Thankappan off his bed.
"Ouch! Be gentle with me next time!" Thankappan cried.
Instead of heeding Thankappan's request, Lonappan rained a couple more swift kicks on him. "Piss off! Who told you to make a sexual innuendo the first thing in the morning?" He asked as Thankappan cried in the background.
"I just can't help it! It's natural stuff!" Thankappan cried, caressing his aching regions.
"As if!" Lonappan scoffed. However, he didn't want to dwell in such a stupid conversation first thing in the morning. So, he ignored Thankappan and decided to focus on the other four instead. "Wait. Where's Taro?" He asked as he looked around.
"Ah, he might be doing his morning practice in the out." Gibli replied, casually picking his alien nose.
"Nah, I didn't see him when I came here." Lonappan countered.
Gibli sighed. "Well, he might be at that dojo then. He did say that it's his morning routine, didn't he?" He asked.
"That's true." Lonappan nodded his head. However, yet again Lonappan had gone off topic. So, this time he changed the topic again. "Look, I'm here to tell you a few things. First of all, once more, you don't have any work today. Second, I'm gonna be super busy today, so I can't check upon you or cater your needs. Thankappan, I hope you'll handle that. Finally, as I said in the last point, the stuff today is an important job for me—like, life or death, kinda important. So, if one of you dare mess with me in between that, make sure to suffer my wrath." He said in an ominous tone.
Everyone gulped. They didn't even want to imagine the wrath they were supposed to face on top of the other one he had promised earlier—yes, no one had forgotten it! Therefore, they readily agreed to his conditions. "Sir, yes sir!" They screamed simultaneously.
"Good. Then, Thankappan, you're leading the squad and plankton, you're in charge of Thankappan. Ciao!" Lonappan didn't waste further time and rushed out of Holy Land.
"Why do you guys talk like I'm extra baggage?" Thankappan cried.
"Hey, at least he made you the one in charge. That way, you aren't totally a waste of a human." Gibli tried consoling him, which further aggravated the mental hit he got earlier.
"Dude, you're certainly great at giving backhanded compliments even if you are a total dumbass." Thankappan hit back with a counter.
"Oh, will you look at that? Finally learned how to counter an insult, huh? Even if it is a totally lame one, you could consider this as progress." Gibli patted Thankappan on his back.
"Fuck you! You know what? I'm gonna show you that I'm a good leader today. I'll make Lonappan proud of my surveillance!" Thankappan announced.
"Good luck on that!" Gibli scoffed.
"I can sense a hint of sarcasm in that, you know?" Thankappan spoke.
"No shit, Sherlock!" Gibli scoffed yet again.
This 'friendly banter' continued for a few more minutes. However, it subsided soon after. And then, it was just the normal stuff. M'Baku went to Shivani's home, Thankappan started doing a hard survey on things, and Gibli slept soundly, Kunjan sat in a corner reading Earth's literature and Taro…
"Guys, where's taro?" Kunjan asked, closing his book.
"Didn't I told you before? He'll be at that dojo." Gibli yawned and got back to sleep.
"Nah, man. He never gets this late. Something's wrong. Did he go missing again?" Kunjan raised his suspicions.
Now the other two started having doubts. "Well, isn't the guy beside you supposed to be leading us aliens? Don't you think he should take responsibility on this?" Gibli asked.
"Don't you put the blame on me! He went missing before I was made in charge. And weren't you the one who confidently said that he'd be in the dojo?" Thankappan asked.
"Now then, did you check the dojo? No, right? First, bring in the evidence before you pin the blame on me!" Gibli scoffed.
"Enough! Both of you, shut the hell up. Taro might be missing and all you want to do is have petty fights?" Plankton asked.
Both felt shameful about their behavior. "I'm sorry." Thankappan apologized.
"You're right. We should focus more on finding Taro." Gibli chimed in as well.
"Good. Then, that's what we're gonna do." Kunjan got up. "Shall we start with the dojo then?"
#
Few hours earlier. As Gibli stated, Taro was before the dojo, literally staring at the morning practice. The warnings weren't enough to stop him from entering the dojo. Even the parents of the kids who had been practicing gave up on chasing him out of there. Instead, they transferred their kids to other dojos.
The dojo master had nothing to lose now—well, except for the last ten students or so. Therefore, he too gave up on trying to get Taro out of there. As to secure the handful students left with him, he decreased the training fee, which made their miserly parents extremely happy.
The morning practice ended in an hour or so. The dojo master had a shower before he got into his casual clothes. He then proceeded to close the dojo and exit the place. Usually, this was when Taro leaves the premises. However, this time, Taro didn't move.
"I can't leave like this. He already has a bad impression of me, so why not go all the way until he actually ends up accepting me as a pupil?" He thought as he decided to "follow" the dojo master.
Upon seeing Taro relentlessly following him, the dojo master decided to pick up his speed. However, no matter how he tried, he could never completely escape Taro's clutches. No matter where he went, he saw Taro.
Taro had recently seen a movie where the hero relentlessly followed the heroine, stalked her to no end and even dressed up a woman to get her attention. While this was glorified as pure love, Taro knew that this was stalking—just like how he was aware how his current action could be considered as stalking. However if people could accept the movie's stalking as noble and for true love, Taro was convinced that he stalked the dojo master for all the noble intentions and his undying love for martial arts and hence should be held in the same position too. Therefore, he followed the master to the ends of the Earth.
Morning soon turned into evening. The dojo master was tired. Taro had kept up with him that entire time. He appreciated the tenacity, even though he was a stalker. However, it was time for his evening dojo classes, so headed to the dojo, even though it was just a formality at this point. Ever since Taro's stalking, he lost his entire evening batch, because parents were afraid to send their kids at night to a dojo with a stalker.
This irked the dojo master. Even after everything that happened, Taro still continued stalking him. He couldn't hold it off any longer. It was now or never. He chose to face his stalker.
#
"Damn, as expected he's not here!" Thankappan sighed as he faced the dojo's entrance.
"Well, you can consider my confidence as shattered." Gibli spoke.
"So, what are we gonna do now?" Thankappan asked.
"What else? Let's ask around. There's no way that no one knows of his whereabouts." Kunjan ordered.
The other two agreed and the trio went around searching for Taro. In the midst of this search, Thankappan suddenly got a phone call.
"Hello? Yeah? It's that important? Sure, I'm coming." Thankappan hung up the call and looked at them in dismay. "Okay, look. It was Lonappan. Seems like the job was so important that he needs more hands now. So, I gotta go. Kunjan, I guess you're in charge now." Thankappan told.
"Don't worry. We'll find Taro." Kunjan assured. Thankappan nodded his head and left the premises.
However, things didn't go exactly as Kunjan planned. None of them actually knew Taro's whereabouts. "Huh, it seems there's actually a way for people to not know one's whereabouts!" Kunjan sighed. Hours of search and yet he ended up with nothing.
"Wait, isn't that Taro out there?" Gibli suddenly pointed.
"And the dojo master. Has he been following that guy this entire time?" Kunjan wondered.
"Damn, that'd be super stalking then." Gibli replied.
"What else can he do at this point?" Kunjan asked.
"Look, it seems they are heading back to the dojo. Wait, what's happening?" Gibli asked as he saw the dojo master turn back.
"He's finally going to confront his stalker it seems." Kunjan assessed the situation.
"Should I put a stop to that situation? You know Taro's strength. One wrong step and the dojo master might end up as flesh and bones." Gibli asked.
"Wait. I need to see it to the end. I believe in Taro in that case. He won't pointlessly pull out violence. So, I'm interested in what will happen. Let's watch." Kunjan replied as he pulled Gibli with him and hid in a corner.
#
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
The_Chimp
The_Chimp Hey! Let me tell you, I'm comfortable with this story. The previous rendition of TLNT was about a place I wasn't familiar with but loved. But this is right up my alley. That's why I love it. I hope you lot love it too!
Thank you for reading. Cheers!
Hadiah
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