19 Smoking

"Wait."

Aditya stopped the man named Bunny who just wanted to make a cool exit. He was never the person to take a blow lying down. Even if Aditya was shocked by the perverted strength of this bastard, he had to return the blow.

As Bunny stopped and turned with the same smile on his face as if everything was under his control and Aditya could not do anything which was out of his prediction, which tempted Aditya to punch his face until even Bunny's mom couldn't recognize him, he bore his temper because he knew it was not possible.

Aditya walked towards Bunny and he asked him with a solemn expression, "What is cube root of 24, 389?"

"..."

Aditya looked at the puzzled face of Bunny and let out a sigh of relief, it looks like his strength was only related to physical functions. He smiled as he said to Bunny, "it's 29, okay see you next time."Aditya strutted away with a triumphant smile on his face. He knew that Bunny couldn't make a move on him, he had derived that from Bunny's words and his mother's letter.

Veins popped out of Bunny's forehead in his anger, he had not imagined that a puny rabbit would dare contradict him. Didn't he know that his head was softer than the rock he just crushed? Bunny was shocked not by this kid's brain power but by this kid's guts. Since Bunny had obtained this power, no normal human who watched his strength dared to retort or contradict him but this kid who was sweating when he proved his power had come up with a way of retaliation immediately i.e. playing his strengths against opponents weaknesses. If it was anyone else who dared to do it, that person would have long left for heaven. But the same thing could be said for Aditya, Bunny had heard that Aditya's father was very important for a project planned by the organization. So Aditya was not to be touched by their organization. It was a pity that Aditya's father was not very cooperative and stubborn otherwise the organization would protect Aditya from all harm, if his father could join the organization, Bunny might even become the bodyguard of Aditya.

After calming himself down, he turned and took a last look in the direction Aditya walked, he shook his head and walked the other way. His mission objective had been renewed after he submitted Aditya's photo, this time he was posted in Zimbabwe, Africa, though mission details would only be explained in a detailed manner when you are on the site, Bunny's superior had hinted that the organization was planning a rebellion in that country. If he could accomplish sufficient merit, he could have a chance to exchange his credit points for the upgraded version of strength serum, he heard that those who took the second serum could resist bullet wounds as long as they were not targeted at vital points of the body. Bunny gripped his fist as he took a deep breath and went his way.

Aditya let out a breath of relief as he saw that Bunny did not intend to deal with him in any way, although he was sure of his theory that Bunny was not permitted to harm him, there was always a possibility that he could lose his temper and ignore his orders. But, from the looks of it, the organization had a rigorous discipline which did not allow disobedience. Aditya could not know that the idea of harming him had not passed in the mind of Bunny at all, that was the level of control the organization had on him psychologically.

"Brother, give me a cigarette," Aditya asked at a shop. The shopkeeper looked at Aditya with questioning gaze as he asked, "Which one?"

"Anyone"

"Are you buying cigarettes for the first time."

"yup"

"Okay, why don't you start with Parliament silver blue, its mild with less tobacco."

"fine with me."

"Here you are."

When Aditya was taking this pack with a lighter and was going out, he was stopped by a person who looked at him with anger and said, "Why do you need to smoke in such a young age, can't you wait until you finished your college, don't you know that smoking can cause lung cancer."

Aditya was not shocked or angry at that person's words but was shocked that the person who was lecturing him to stop smoking was actually doing so while holding a lit cigarette in his hands. He shook his head and walked away ignoring the person, he even disdained to have a talk with hypocrites.

As it was evening, Aditya walked towards the lake park which was near his home, he did not smoke immediately as smoking in public places was an offence, he had to wait till he went to a smoking zone or he had to smoke in areas where they were no people.

He walked on the fallen leaves which decorated the meandering paths in the park. Some kids were playing Frisbee while some played catch. Some young couples could be seen walking hand in hand while some parents strolled along with their kids. Aditya's mind relaxed when he saw this scenery and heard the happy laughter of children.

When the sky darkened, Aditya noticed that the people had not reduced actually as many food stalls were set up and the atmosphere was bustling. He walked towards the area which was on the other side of the lake. This area was a construction site, Aditya heard some people mentioning that four big apartment complexes were demolished to build a mall, the construction had been dull in the past weeks due to poor cash flow.

Aditya saw huge amounts of construction materials like sand, bricks, steel, cement bags lying around the construction site, the building was huge and the basic shape of the mall could be deciphered looking at the half-finished building. As Aditya didn't find anyone in this area, he took a cigarette and put it in his mouth. Although he was smoking for the first time, he had watched many heroes smoke in many films and practically he saw Jatin smoke so he didn't need a tutorial for this. As he lit the cigarette and inhaled, Aditya felt his lungs were engulfed in an irritating gas, the taste on his tongue felt awful. His mouth became dry as he coughed as his body tried to get this 'poison' out of his body. But still, Aditya continued to take the second puff, tears starting rolling as he felt the smoke was irritating his eyes from the inside.

After multiple puffs and coughs Aditya finished it, he had heard from Jatin that the first time was always uncomfortable but he didn't imagine it was this irritating. He didn't enjoy it a bit. After some time of deep gulping of fresh air, he felt much better, he felt a bit light-headed and a bit high. He felt that this feeling was good.

Aditya looked at the sky as he remembered a discussion he had with his parents when he talked about Jatin and his smoking habit.

"Adi, do you plan on taking up smoking?" Aditya's mother had asked.

"Not now, maybe in the future, I don't know." this was Aditya's reply, he did not hide the possibility that he might start smoking in the future, Aditya was truly curious of the feeling. Also, he was used to talking about all kinds of issues with his mother without many barriers.

"Well, I want you to remember that the day when you feel you have a become a self-reliant man who depends only on himself and not on anyone else, not even his parents, that day you can smoke if you want, until then don't even think about it." Aditya's mother said to Aditya with a calm, gentle smile on her face. Aditya knew that after that if he smoked, he would let his mother down. Aditya was never afraid of his mother's anger but feared seeing disappointment and grief on her face. So, he had committed himself to his mother's words.

"Ma, I have become a self-reliant man from today, I will only depend on myself to survive. I will make you proud of your son when we meet the next time." Aditya muttered as he raised his head to look at the dark sky and he gripped his fists tightly.

When Aditya was thinking to go back, he closed his eyes as he called Tya. Aditya had actually feared that Tya would never stop talking since that both of them were bonded. But to his pleasant surprise Tya had regretfully informed him that for Tya to recover its lost energy, it had to go into a dormant state. This was the reason that Aditya did not hear from him the whole day.

Aditya was shocked when he saw Tya enter the dormant state, the dormant form of Tya was a sphere which felt like water, they were fluid motions observable and ripple could be seen. All the myriad colours which were present in all the spheres in the world could be seen sparkling on the sphere. Also, the longer Aditya saw the more astonished he was. Aditya felt that the sphere represented some undiscovered laws and principles.

There was no response when he called Tya, so Aditya gave up. As he was thinking of his next destination, Aditya heard some noises in the dark construction site. As Aditya prepared to ignore it, he found that the noises transformed into fight sounds and painful screams. Aditya stopped his steps as he felt curious as to who would fight in this place in this time of the day.

When Aditya walked stealthily towards the source of the sounds, the darkness in the construction site helped camouflage him. He walked into an open place, the centre of which was lit with floodlights usually used in construction sites. Aditya thought this place would be the centre of the mall after it was finished where usually most of the decorations would be placed.

In that opening, Aditya found a mature woman who looked in the late twenties standing motionless as ten figures of strong men rolled in pain around her. She was very beautiful with a tall willowy queenly figure, healthy bronze complexion, her ponytail styled hair was midnight black. There was a staff in her hand which reminded Aditya of Donatello's weapon in ninja turtles game. Who were the good guys and who were the bad ones?