83 Not a Human Anymore

"Gaggu, did you bring the items I asked you to purchase," Aditya asked as he watered the flowering plants in his official room. There were Petunia, Zinnia, Cineraria, Snapdragon and yellow Daffodil. Aditya took special care of the Daffodil plant as his mother liked these flowers.

His office room was not different from others, it was not separated from the main space but connected to it. Any employee could see him and vice versa. He did not go into extravagant spending on luxurious furniture and decorations. He kept it simple and natural.

Gagan's face became bitter when he heard how his boss addressed him. The one thing he felt more difficult to adjust was that his boss treated him like how students in a university dormitory would treat their roommates. He would ask him to buy groceries and other food ingredients on the way when he came to office. He would also sometimes pull him and his wife along to watch films on weekends.

During the lunchtime, Gagan felt that a normal restaurant would be less noisy and chaotic than this office. His boss would become a chef as he would take orders from all the employees and cook for them. The surprising thing was that his boss was an amazing cook and was specialized in almost all cuisines he could think of. As long as his boss cooked an item, it was bound to be delicious. Even he enjoyed the food but the noise his boss makes as he gossips with his employees during the break is on a whole other level.

One might think that his boss had asked him to buy some important things for official purposes but he had actually asked Gagan to buy 'Rainbow Trouts' as his boss wanted to make some 'Tandoori Trout' today. Gagan smiled bitterly to himself as he decided to not think whether he was fortunate or unfortunate that he ended up with this person as his boss.

The thing which intrigued him was that only Mr Kapil was able to keep his boss in line to some extent. The second best option would be his wife Fenny as the boss respected her very much and was careful around her as she was pregnant. The irony was that his wife seemed to actually enjoy seeing him played by their boss. Unfortunately, today Mr Kapil had gone to the bank on some official purpose and was not available which was why the boss seemed to be in a relaxed mood.

Gagan nodded as he said, "Yes, Boss, I ordered them, they will be here by lunchtime." As the order was big, a free delivery option was there.

Aditya nodded as he continued attending to plants. He turned to see that Fenny was coming while holding a gift package as he smiled as he said, "Sister Fenny, don't walk too much, just take a seat. I am truly astonished that you are still thinking of work even when you already at seven months of pregnancy. Gaggu, you really don't know anything. You should have a little care bro."

"It's really nothing, I am fine. Also, a little work is good for the baby," Fenny smiled as she placed the package on Aditya's table with one hand while she held her baby bump with another. She turned to take a look at other plants which also needed some organic fertilizer to be added.

Gagan felt unjustly treated when he heard Aditya's words. He had already asked his wife to remain at home to take rest as she was already in her third trimester. But, she would not listen and frankly the reason was something that Gagan could not dispute. The atmosphere at their office was more comfortable to her than there own house. The office was peaceful when the boss was not there and it would become cheerful and jubilant when he came. Fenny enjoyed this ambience, along with the healthy environment and Gagan was always there to take care of her. She felt that she would be bored if she stayed at home alone.

"Gaggu, see what's in the package," Aditya said as he kept the gardening tools in their place as he took his seat in his chair. The aroma in the room was really refreshing in this cool climate with the morning light warming them. Aditya took a deep breath as his mind relaxed, he had stayed up last night writing a software. Thanks to the 'cellular regulation' ability, Aditya has finally started leaving humanity to evolve into something more. He was now able to restrain from sleeping altogether through regulating his brain and other parts which required sleep to rejuvenate and repair themselves.

Although the body did not feel any different, his mind was still not accustomed to being active day and night. So, he would sleep for a token period of two hours before waking up and continuing his work. He would spend most of his nights in Tya's world. A month has passed since Tya had created the 'Body Control' ability or 'Cellular Regulation' as Tya called it. In the beginning, Aditya had taken it as an ability whose only practical application lied in camouflaging but even after a month, Tya continued amazing him with all kinds of applications this ability was useful for.

For one, Tya was now able to monitor his body easily. Any abnormal changes in his physiology like the introduction of a germ or toxin can be dealt with immediately and effectively. His blood constituents were maintained in an optimum state along with all his vital organs. Aditya truly experienced the feeling of being 100 per cent healthy.

Some people might think that there is nothing special about it as everyone is usually healthy. But the truth is that everyone normally wouldn't be 100 per cent healthy, they usually lie in the middle of 'Full Health' and 'Illness'. Even if they are able to function normally every day, their bodies will be accumulating some toxins or taking other kinds of damage which would manifest as illness once in a while when it crosses some kind of threshold.

Aditya remembered when he smoked, a black substance was expelled through his mouth the other day. Tya had said that was the preliminary stage of this ability which could regulate a little bit of 'detoxification' and 'Body Temperature' (which came into effect when he slept outside on a cold night when he rescued Hamsa). But now this ability was on a whole other level with far-reaching applications.

For others, the time might be only a month since the ability was activated but for Aditya, it was close to two years if you take the time he spent in the 'Quantum Realm'. He had spent most of this time learning everything about the medical knowledge and studying his own body which was now completely 'visible' to him. Tya was able to create a 3D hologram visuals of his body in a transparent way. Each cell, tissue, blood vessel, muscle fibre, neuron etc was portrayed in detail and microscopic clarity. Aditya had even modified his genetic signature to avoid been discovered by anyone even if they collected his DNA samples.

These two years truly broadened Aditya's perspective on the human body which everyone takes for granted. He realized why this body was called 'the most complicated machine' in the world. The processes which work in coordination with each other baffled him as to how this body managed to survive without anyone knowing a tiny bit. Everyone was fully concentrated on studying, making a living, falling in love, supporting their families, that most of them have failed to appreciate this biological marvel.

Tya was even more fascinated with a human body, he had put everything aside to immerse in this knowledge. It was Tya who came up with all kinds of applications with this ability that Aditya wondered that his body has become a kind of chemical laboratory for Tya where he would create all kinds of hormones, chemicals and verify their effects with the knowledge available in books.

Of course, these experiments were not completely harmless as one day when Aditya woke up, he found his skin had become soft, his body hair was gone and his voice transformed into a high pitched tone which almost pulled his soul out as he screamed at Tya. Later he found out that Tya was experimenting with female hormones.

Tya was never the same again as Aditya was sure that his scolding had left a mark on him. Aditya could not imagine what would have happened if Tya went on like this. So, he established a strict monitoring policy where every experiment would have to be approved by him before implementing in his body. It might slow the process of discovering new applications but at least he could sleep peacefully.

All kinds of scars and mild injuries that Aditya had which were remnant of his mischievous childhood were erased because of this ability. Tya did not delve into genes as he felt that a lot of studies was required before he tried modifying genes. Any impulsive action in this regard might result in disastrous consequences for Aditya so Tya did not start tinkering with his genes yet which was a relief.

Because of this ability, Aditya's body has reached the highest, most perfect manifestation of a human body within limits of his genes. Even though he was not able to break the shackles of human DNA, the strength, speed, stamina, flexibility and reflexes of Aditya was not something a normal human could compare with.

While Aditya indulged in reminiscence, Gagan opened the package to find a glittering Rubik's cube as he exclaimed, "these fellows from Beijing are quite persistent, aren't they? They even gifted you this Rubik's cube studded with Swarovski crystals. It should be 50,000 bugs at least (a little over 700 USD)."

Gagan played with this Rubik's cube for some time as a smile spread over his face as if he was remembering some sweet memories. He threw the scrambled Rubik's cube at Aditya as he boasted in a low voice while verifying that Fenny was not looking at them, "You know boss, when me and Fenny were paired together by our parents, I always doubted if we would be happy together because we were total strangers to each other, three months prior to our marriage. But one day when we were together, I solved this Rubik's cube in just ten minutes. At that moment, when I saw Fenny's pure and innocent look when she looked at me with awe, my soul melted. It was then that I vowed to myself that I would take care of this girl for the rest of my life to the best of my capability."

Aditya smiled at Gagan when he heard these words as he remembered Hamsa. He still did not where she was but they were in contact so he knew that she was fine. He threw the Rubik's cube back to Gagan as he said, "Then, treat this as my gift to your couple. I hope you never disappoint sister Fenny."

Gagan smiled as he accepted this gift but was stunned when he saw that the jumbled Rubik's cube was solved perfectly. Gagan's brows slightly wrinkled when he tried to remember if he had given a solved one instead of what he assumed. When he looked at Aditya, Aditya coughed lightly as he stood up and said, "Time for lunch, let me show you how a trout is to be cooked. Fish contains Omega 3 fatty acids which are beneficial for sister Fenny's pregnancy. So yeah, let's go."