章 38: The way of martial arts

Few hours later; back in the Holy Land. The aliens were all awake, meanwhile the one human amongst them was still in deep sleep. However, his peaceful times ended when Lonappan came in and kicked his ass out of the bed.

"Oww, not again!" Thankappan cried, as he rubbed his ass in pain.

"Well, I'll stop when you actually grow out of this phase and become responsible." Lonappan replied, shrugging.

"What? Is sleeping that big of a crime?" Thankappan asked a valid question.

"In my eyes, you sleeping around is a grave crime." Lonappan replied.

"Whatever, dude! Why did you wake me up?" He asked as he rubbed his eyes.

"No reason! Just felt like waking you up." Lonappan answered.

"I hate you. I'll get you for this! I swear on that." Thankappan cried. He treasured his sleep more than anything in this world and it pained him when Lonappan disturbed it.

"You do you, my brother! By the way, where's Taro?" Lonappan turned away from Thankappan and asked to the plankton.

"Oh, he's-" Just as Kunjan was about to reply, someone flushed the toilet and came out.

"Don't worry. I'm still here." Taro came out and answered.

"Oh, well. Aren't you going to the martial arts place of yours today?" Lonappan asked.

"Yea, but nature called before I could do so. Therefore, I'm still here." Taro answered.

"Huh, I never thought about this before…" Thankappan said as if he was about to start a conversation.

"Don't." Kunjan interjected.

"Huh?"

"I know what you're thinking. And I'm not interested in talking about that." Kunjan replied.

"How do you even?" Thankappan was surprised by this.

"Of course, you were gonna ask why an alien would need to go to the toilet. I know your tendencies pretty well." Kunjan replied.

"Well, I didn't say that. You did!" Thankappan laughed for no apparent reason.

"Can we please just stop this conversation?" Lonappan requested.

"Why? You got something better to talk about?" Thankappan asked.

"Well, literally anything is better than this conversation." Lonappan sighed. "Although, I do have a better topic to speak on." Lonappan smiled.

"Which is?"

Lonappan turned towards Taro and tossed an object towards him. It was the translator. "Catch!"

"What the!" Taro caught it and was pleasantly surprised. "Well, I didn't expect to receive it this soon!" He smiled.

"Well, you gotta thank a certain someone for literally pleading with the higher ups for a faster production speed of this stuff!" Lonappan rubbed his nose in pride.

"Oh? Thank you, Thankappan! You've been pretty vocal about it these days." Taro turned towards Thankappan and thanked him.

"The hell? I was the one who pleaded with the higher ups." Lonappan cried, unlike his usual composed self.

"Really? You should have said so then.Thank you, Lonappan!" Taro bowed towards Lonappan.

"Ah, really! Don't thank me! I just did what a friend usually does!" Lonappan said, although his expressions said the opposite.

"So, are you gonna try it on?" Thankappan asked.

"Yea. I'm going to." Taro took a deep breath in before he placed the translator near his ear. He closed his eyes for a few seconds to actually calibrate the system before opening his eyes. "Hello, guys!" He said, but this time, unlike all the times he spoke in Wadorian, the words that came out from his mouth were in Malayalam.

"Nice! It's working perfectly!" Kunjan replied by giving a thumbs up.

"Yea. However, Ponnappan did give me a warning though!" Lonappan said.

"What warning?" Kunjan asked.

"Well, since this equipment was made in such a hurry, he said that it wasn't quality tested. Therefore, he can't promise its smooth functioning." Lonappan replied.

"Hmm. Well, the important thing is that it is functioning at least and now Taro can hold a normal conversation with people. If there's any problem with the system, we'll see it at that." Gibli jumped in and replied. He was really happy that Taro could finally go to places himself and not creep people out like he did with the dojo master.

"True. Then I'll get going." Taro headed towards the door.

"Have a safe journey." Gibli said, nearly crying his heart out. He felt like a mother finally letting a child leave the house on its own.

One hour or so later; Taro stood before the dojo like he always did. However, this time unlike before, when the dojo master noticed his presence, he did not turn his head away. Instead, he rushed towards him and invited him in.

"Hey! What are you doing out there? Come in!" The dojo master shouted.

However, Taro was hesitant. He could see the shock in some parent's faces when the dojo master invited him in. Although, what pained him the most wasn't the parents, but the disdain and pure terror in the faces of the children training in the dojo.

However, the dojo master didn't bat an eye towards these gazes. Instead he took it upon himself to invite Taro in. Well, he had to drag Taro in for the most part. Thankfully, Taro was just half hesitant about this. Had he been completely hesitant about going in, the dojo master might have had a really hard time getting him in.

"Kids, he's the new student in our dojo! His name is… What's your name?" The dojo master turned towards Taro and asked.

"Ta.. No, my name is Sadanandan." Taro almost said his real name. He never had to introduce himself ever since he reached this planet so it was a bit awkward for him.

"Huh? Well, it seems you can speak to me now!" The dojo master was surprised.

"I've been practising." Suddenly, his translator suddenly glitched and he spoke Spanish, a language he had never even heard before, in the midst. "Hmm, this is what Lonappan's warning was about, huh? This is gonna get weird now." Taro thought.

"Well, I can see that!" The dojo master said, noticing the sudden change in the language in the middle. Well, it's not like Taro tried hiding it or something. "Anyway, kids! This is Sadanandan and he's the new pupil of this dojo." The master welcomed Taro, without much fanfare.

Suddenly, one of the parents came in running. "Master I actually forgot! My kid has his morning classes today. So, he actually has to leave now!" The parent gave out a nervous laughter.

The master sighed. "Is that so? Well, education is important for a child. So, I won't be stopping you." He replied.

"Oh, thank you! Come on kutta, let's leave!" The parent held her kid's arm and dragged him.

"But mom! I don't have-" The kid tried saying something, however his mother covered his mouth.

"Shh, if you don't say a word now, I'll buy you ice cream! How about it?" The mother whispered to her child's ears. For the child, it was music to his ears. He shut his mouth almost immediately and let himself be taken away by his mother.

The dojo master looked at the other parents after this, who seemed eager to take the kids away too. "Now, do you guys have something to say?" He asked.

"Ah, well. We have a function to attend to. So…" One of the parents shamelessly jumped up into explaining his obvious lie.

"Well, there's this feast in our church…"

"Friend's birthday.."

"Sports tournament…"

One by one, the parents started giving out their lame excuses and left with their children. Well, it wasn't like the dojo master didn't expect any backlash. However, he never did expect it on such a level.

"Master, you do know that they aren't coming back, right?" Taro asked, in his broken Malayalam with a tinge of English this time.

"Yea, I know. Well, it's obvious that they are concerned about their child's future in this dojo with you around as an official pupil, since they weren't particularly fond of our 'actions' before. Therefore, I guess it's for the better since I decided to teach you the way of our martial art. There's no going back, you know?" The dojo master smiled.

"But, master! I don't understand! If they were concerned about my actions, they should have left the dojo beforehand, like the others did. Why now?" Taro asked. The glitching of his translator proved a pain in the ass for him.

However, the master didn't mind. For him, it was much better than Taro creepily staring at him for hours. "Well, I think they didn't like how I pitted you in with them. Before that, you were just an outside concern. However, once I brought you in, the shit turned real. And they didn't want their kids to mingle with you." He explained.

"Then you should have given me a different schedule!" Taro spoke. He didn't like how his master lost his entire pupils because of him.

The dojo master chuckled. "You don't get it, Sadanandan. Before me, you're all the same. You're a rookie, a beginner to follow this path. And I can't just differentiate you because you're a bit Different in what way?different. That'd be discrimination. Well, I wanted the kids to learn a bit more about you too, so that they won't consider you as a threat. Can't do that now, can I? However, I'm happy that you're still here, Sadanandan."

Taro was nearly on the verge of tears. This was one of the few times when someone treated him as an equal. For a guy who had never been equal or normal within a group, this was a big deal. He never thought that a man who barely knew him would sacrifice his livelihood for him. Hence, he felt like he had a responsibility to do his best. In that very moment, he swore in his mind that he'd study his master's way of martial arts diligently.