And with Krishna, he was eating food near the college. He was about to take a bite when he heard Priya asking her question, stopping his movement in midair, and looked quite stupid.
" What do you think of Supriya's question?" And he replied stupidly.
" What question?" And she looked at him.
" About Krish." And he after hearing this answered.
" Didn't you say we'll,," And she cut him off and asked.
" What do you really think about it?" And he pondered and then replied.
" I really don't know, I just helped cause I could help. I really never cared if I'm Krish or not. Isn't it just me behind it, the mask ... it was an accident." And just as he said that, a sagely annoying voice came from behind.
" There are no accidents, my friend." And when they both turned, they saw Sakshi taking their photo. They both looked stupid, and she laughed at them for it. And then she entered their personal space, and stole Krishna's evening feast, which he tried to save, but it didn't work.
" Hey, fate has made you Krish, just accept it, and save kittens from trees like a hero usually does."
" There are no kittens in the tree to be saved, that's fantasy." And just as they said that, they heard a little girl's crying voice, asking someone to save His cat.
" Well, who said it's fantasy." And Krishna helped the cat out of the tree.
" How the hell did it get there?" Mutters an annoyed Priya.
" Well, how about now? See." And she pointed at the cat.
" We need Krish."
" It was Krishna who saved him, not Krish."
" Aren't both the same." Said Sakshi, while she was feasting on a Krishna meal. And Priya groans.
" Don't you have classes right now?"
" Have. But it was delayed for some reason, and they actually gave us time to roam free, and I saw you there, yapping something." And Priya just wanted to stay away from her, and she would have continued if Krishna hadn't come back from his cat mission. And seeing this, Sakshi went close, and hugged him enthusiastically, which he felt was a little awkward.
" You know I was so worried when you didn't come and didn't answer, where is your phone, I couldn't find it? And are you ok? Where did I sleep? Is everything ok? And how did you blow that subway? Can you tell me?" And she started her mouth cannon, not giving him any chance to answer. Which makes Priya speechless.
She put her hand on her forehead, she had a headache for sure, and when she saw Krishna's confusion, she was sure of it. This girl is born with a headache, for others of course.
" Can you let him answer?" Said Priya, a little annoyed.
" Yep, sure sure." And she looked happy. And just as he was about to reply, she cut him off.
" No need to answer, my class is about to start ok, by." She said and left just like she came. Krishna was puzzled, and Priya just sighed.
" Forgot it, let's go back first. She is just like this."
And in the class, she entered late, and soon the bell rang, the room became more quiet, sakshi who was in the far back, sitting with his friends talking and laughing, when the professor entered the classroom. Everyone became quiet, and when she saw him, he was a little different. First, he was wearing sunglasses, and he looked really confident, not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense.
And the class started, but it felt different. She has a feeling of ants crawling all over her body, and when she looked at her hand, she could feel it moving, she grabbed it with others, and she saw Dr Arya writing formulas, but she felt something. It has a sense of disharmony for some reason. She took out her camera, and just as she was about to take out her camera, when she hears a familiar voice
" Please do not check your phone, in my class." And when she looked up, she saw a girl apologizing, she was just a few steps ahead of him. She was a little confused, how did he notice this far?
She shook his head, and she was about to take out the camera when she suddenly felt a resistance in hand, and then a sudden pain when she tried harder.
" I said don't check your phone." And she felt it was said to her, as did the previous one. She felt a pressure pushing her hand back, and a look of horror appeared on her face.
And soon the class ended. And on the podium, Arya felt a pair of eyes following him, and when he looked up, he saw Rohit's daughter, Sakshi.
He can see her looking at her with fear.
And when she left, he looked at her hands again, and he could feel everything around him, and he was seeing everything differently with his eyes, he could see the bonds and cells of their body, he could perceive everything about them, he knows the student in front home has a diabetic tissues, and he'll probably have in future. The girl behind him hasn't had her periods, he could see the things inside there begs and he can predict what they gonna do, he can control them, he could feel what they're gonna say.
" But?" And he looked at his hand.
And in his lab, he was recording his log again.
" It seems I'm getting a little frustrated."
" My anger is more prominent." And he looked at the broken pieces of pen in front of him. And they slowly floated, and reassembled the pen back.
" Now I can stop the bonds."
" Which means, I can destroy anything." And just as he said that, the pan became dust.
" Well, that's not all." And the dust became a pen back, and then melted slowly.
" By increasing the friction of bonds, I can increase or decrease the temperature." And after that, he changed the molten lava to a mouse, a really small one, and then he made it walk and act like a mouse.
" I think…..I'm changing a bit, maybe the sudden change has some effects on my nervous system."
" I've to check." And when he did, he looked at the serum, and he did find many flaws but they are negligible, and he couldn't see any problem in it, but he got insight in the serum.
" Well, there is no problem that I can see that might cause this scenario, but the serum was indeed not finished, it has some minor flaws of adaptability and compatibility. Now anyone can use it." And he looked at the mirror in front of him.
" But? Why?" And he looked at him,
" Maybe, my brain?" And be thought a little longer, and think of many possibilities.
" Is it a genius thing?" He muttered.
" Maybe I'm adapting." And he thought of many ideas for what to do next, and what his next goal should be, and thinking of his power, he decided to focus on them, when he felt a sudden headache, and his eyes went blank for a moment for some reason, and when he got his senses, he felt little more lite, and he saw his hands which has become little radiant, and he looked younger. He was genuinely surprised by this, and he felt a sense of power in his bones.
And after feeling his power, he looked at his body closely, and he could feel that his body was attracting energy from the environment around him, which exceeded his expectations. And he can feel it continuously absorbing it from his body. He was happy but he soon discovered a problem, the amount of energy, what if it needs way more than my body needs? and what if my body couldn't handle it?
He thought for a moment and two solutions came to his mind.
To solve the energy problem, just make more blue serums, and for the body, just upgrade it by his bond ability. And he just did that, making his body stronger. Stopping the cell decay and Reaging it a bit.
And while he was doing it, he saw a message on his phone, which made him frown.
He stepped out of the staff lounge, his coat barely swaying as he walked through the quiet corridor. The evening light from the skylight cast long rectangles on the floor as he passed, each footstep echoing faintly. After a while, he reached his classroom, pushed open the door, and paused.
Inside, seated casually at the teacher's chair like he owned the room, was Rohit—his old friend.
"Ah," Rohit said without looking up.
"if it isn't the father of our local hero."
There was a faint attempt at humor in his voice. Arya stepped in, brow raised, letting the door swing shut behind him.
"I'd say good evening," Arya replied, "but I doubt that's what this is."
Rohit stood slowly. His eyes scanned Arya with the kind of look reserved for dangerous animals or men with too much knowledge.
"You used your power on my daughter."
Arya exhaled, not surprised but clearly disappointed that the conversation had gone straight to that; he likes it when they start to talk round and round.
"It was a mistake," he said calmly, "I hadn't calibrated my power field properly. I accidentally scanned the class before…"
Before he could finish, Rohit's hand twitched. A pen from the desk flew at Arya's face, sharp and fast like a dart.
It stopped inches from him, suspended mid-air, the particles trembling. Then, before Arya could blink, it disintegrated into a fine cloud of dust atoms separating like obedient soldiers and a second later, it rebuilt itself back into a pen, hovering in the air before gently falling to the ground.
Arya blinked once.
"Matter... no, it's the bonds," Rohit said.
And Arya looked at him with a tinge of admiration, and approval.
"You're still brilliant, Rohit."
"I see the bonds," Arya said, confirming his conjecture.
"I rearrange them. Like memories. Lego I guess." He stepped closer. But Arya didn't care, and Rohit asked.
"And you used your ability on my daughter. Arya's calm demeanor didn't break.
"It was unintentional. I was scanning the classroom, to see for residual bond tension patterns. She was I just in my proximity of.. "
" You almost destroyed her arms," Rohit cut in, voice low and dangerous.
" You were testing if she had any powers or not ." It was not a question but a statement. And Dr Arya also nodded.
" You figured it out, my power also…"
"I'm not here for a lecture, Arya. I don't care about your power or scanning field, your new theories on Meta-gene, or whatever journal or experiments you are doing."
"I'm here to ask you one thing. Do you have any idea what you were doing?"
Arya stood straight, shoulders tight but voice steady. "Yes."
"No," Rohit said, stepping forward. He was taller now, angrier than Arya remembered.
" You understand your power, but you don't understand people. You were seeing them as particles. What did you feel when you stopped my daughter's elbow from moving? What was on your mind? It is just a show for me to see, saying "hey I'm special." Arya didn't respond. His fingers twitched faintly, like they wanted to defend him more than his words could.
"She won't be in your class anymore," Rohit said. "Sakshi, your students deserve better than being a test subject. And I hope to God you realize what you're becoming before someone else gets hurt."
He turned, walking past Arya without waiting for a reply. As he reached the doorway, he added, without looking back:
" Control your power, or be controlled by your power. The choice is yours. "
Then he left.
Arya stood still, the silence settling around him like a second skin. A flicker just a flicker of rage passed over his face. His jaw clenched, and for a moment, his irises shifted, glowing faintly.
The table beside him started to vibrate. The metal in the legs warped, the floor tiles shimmered, and the air itself seemed to fracture. Dust began to lift from the floor around him in swirling eddies.
But then he closed his eyes. One breath. Two. His fists unclenched. The distortion collapsed like a folding card house, the dust falling back to the ground like nothing had happened.
He opened his eyes, calmer now, and looked at the vacant seats in front of him. His voice was almost a whisper.
" I never meant no harm."
He sat down slowly, the metal chair creaking under his weight. His fingers trembled over the surface of the desk, tracing invisible diagrams in the air—molecular bonds, energy flows, simulations for stability.
But even in all the perfect math he could conjure, one variable now refused to be solved.
He looked at the site where Sakshi was situated before, and he recalled the feeling he had before.
Rohit was right, he was scanning for her power, he wanted to see what made his father and his brother to have this incredible power. And he wasn't wrong, there is something special in it.
He walked out of the classroom, Rohit's words lingering in his mind, he walked out of school, and turned back to look at the whole school feeling a little heavy in his heart.
He sat down on a bench near school, and looked at the dark night sky up above, and the bustling underneath it. He could see the plane's lights in the night sky and started farthest from it. Back then he used to think they were far off, but now not anymore.
He looked at his hand, which was not shaking anymore, and as sturdy as when he was young or even stronger, he didn't care. He looked at the huge billboard which was near the schools and on the edge of a small slum which formed after a small flood a year before. He could remember that time clearly, he remembered several news clips that happened, and several deaths that occurred. He saw several kids playing under the lights of that billboard, which said, everyone has the right of education.
Laughable when I think about it, the fees and other stuff are secondary, no matter how high it is. To enter it, you first have to have a score that surpasses almost all of your peers and then you might have a chance to attend the entrance exam for the seats that are left. Don't forget there is a ticket of recommendation. Even he has one which he never gets the chance to use. You have to be very talented or very lucky to get this short cut. And I'm not talking about recommendations, I'm talking about exams. For those who know, these screen methods are just that, a shortcut and a way to differentiate between horses and camels.
He was silent, thinking of irrelevant things, and irrelevant matters, his mind a den of gibberish and nonsense. He could feel the headache coming from his thoughts.
He shook his head, and looked at the billboard again, and this time he focused on the billboard only, and saw a lonely kid sitting on top of it, writing something, that kid was studying. And seeing this, he smiled, and shook his head a little. He stood up ready to leave, when he heard a gunshot. He instinctively duck, even though it was far away. He looked in the direction where he heard that sound, and he saw near the billboard several gangsters pointing at each other, which from this far nothing more than ants, and if different, just a bigger ant. He looked closely and several children were running away from this, not wanting to be part of this. His eyes shifted to the boy on the billboard, who just hid closer to the billboard, but kept looking at the gun scene from gaps between the platform he was on.
He frowns thinking this situation is not good, the kid should run, but stays in the place, poorly hidden. He could easily get caught if he stays there.
Another gunshots rang, and the gangster shot down a few people, and they were ready to leave, when the child on the billboard made a mistake, and one of his books slipped through the gap of the podium he was on, which got the attention of the gangster.
His eyes flicker, and he sees one of the gangsters waving and another following his wave, climbing the billboard. He likes knowing what's gonna happen, closing his eyes, and a look of unwillingness flashed in his face. He opened his eyes, which had become moist and a little angry. He yelled, and yelled loudly at the gangster below, to make them stop, or at least make them run, but it was to no help, they were too far away to see or hear . He waved his hand in frustration, his powers going haywire in his emotional state, but it was of no use. He closed his eyes in unwillingness, and like he expected another gunshot sounded, and things around him also got affected, the bench he was on cracked, the road became bumpy, and the ground muddled.
He slowly opens his eyes, which he is filled with rage.
He moved his mind, and the ground under him shook.
And down there with those seven gangsters, they were putting down their guns, and cursing in a language that was harder to understand. When they felt something hitting the ground, they all turned, and saw a huge pile of road and rubble creating a dust cloud. Some of them frowned, some of them were startled, some of them just amused. But none of them were scared. Not yet.
And just as they were about to move, ground beneath them turned them into quicksand, their bonds separated, swallowing them full.
Arya floated toward the billboard, and just saw the kid laying in the pool of blood, his heart sinking, he closed his eyes, and raised his hand, and his hand began to shake again. And he didn't dare to look, but his mind was doing his thing.
And after a few minutes of closed eyes, and shaken hands. He saw the kid, normal, but he wasn't moving. He scanned the kid's every bond, and it was perfect, but she still couldn't understand why he didn't work. And he tried to use a little lightning to start his brain, but it didn't work, and even tried to save his brain, but it didn't work. And he tried every scientific way possible but it didn't work. And deep down he had an answer, but he didn't want to believe it.
" Soul." he muttered to himself, and then looked at the place where he buried those people.