Tampered

"Okay, that'd be all for today!"The master said as they bowed towards each other. "You did pretty good for just a beginner. Have you tried martial arts before? Your body looks like it's familiar with some amount of martial art." He said.

"Well, tried some before." Taro answered with minimal words as possible. The master didn't ask further questions since he could see Taro's discomfort with holding long conversations.

"Cool, you can go now." He waved goodbye. Just then, he remembered something. "Wait! Take this. Next time, change to this when you are inside the dojo. It's your uniform." The master handed in the uniform and replied.

"Thank you." Taro bowed and received the uniform. However, he had nothing to put it on. The dojo master noticed this and gave him a plastic cover which was just lying around. Taro thanked him for his generosity. However, the master was thankful towards him because ever since the government banned the mass usage of plastic, these covers had just been lying around. He just didn't want to throw it away and take part in polluting the Earth directly. He was totally fine if Taro threw it away though. Just didn't want to carry around more sins than he already had.

Taro, seemingly unaware of this, was distressed about something else. "Shit! This translator's really limiting my speech. Well, it's better than nothing, but it honestly annoys me. I should just give a full check. Hell, I'm a support class graduate! Therefore, checking out a translator will be much easier for me than the people on Earth." Taro thought as he walked towards the Holy Land.

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"Shit!" Taro shouted out loud, visibly furious about something.

"What happened?" Gibli asked. He was genuinely scared of Taro's actions since returning from the dojo. Like, half an hour earlier, he returned and headed straight towards the only free table in their room and started working on his translator without even talking to anyone. It was seriously concerning. And moreover, he gave out an uncharacteristic shout, which made him concern about the Wadorian even more.

"Where is Lonappan?" Taro asked. He looked seriously annoyed.

Gibli had tasted a fraction of Taro's power when he was as calm as a rock and hence, didn't want to imagine what the case would be in his annoyed state. "Oh, don't worry! I'll get him as soon as I can." He said and ran as fast as he could, far away from a fuming Taro.

Kunjan, who saw Gibli running like a madman, wanted to ask him the reason. However, Gibli didn't seem like he wanted to stop. Therefore he headed inside to check on what he was running from. "What happened to Gibli?" He asked Taro.

Taro sighed. He looked slightly relaxed. "I don't know man! I wanted to know where Lonappan was and he started running away saying that he'd find that guy." Taro replied.

"Did something happen?" The plankton asked.

"Well, I'd like to talk with him about something." He replied.

"Hmm, is it about the translator?" Kunjan asked. He could see the disassembled translator before Taro on the desk.

"Yea." Taro nodded his head.

Suddenly, Lonappan came bursting through the gates of the Holy Land. "What happened? Gibli came up to me and said it was something important and then started spouting some random gibberish. I came running since I heard it's something important. What is it?" He asked, as he tried hard to catch his breath.

"The translator's been malfunctioning. It starts to translate my words to some other random language midway through the sentence." Taro complained about the faulty appliance.

Lonappan sighed. "Oh, was that it? Didn't I tell you that it's a fast tracked product. So, it's supposed to have certain faults." He explained.

"I know that's the case. However, that's not my problem." Taro replied.

"Then what is it?" He asked.

Taro held up the translator in Lonappan's face and replied. "This seems like it's been tampered. And before you try to slither away from this, let me remind you that I can assemble and disassemble the translator like it's child play and I'm a graduate of the support class of the Wadorian hero academy. Therefore, I can assure you that there's not a human being in your planet who could claim that they're more of an expert in this sector than me, so choose your words carefully. This piece of equipment is not of poor quality because it had been fast tracked. It's poor quality equipment because someone wanted to make the lowest grade translator but couldn't and ended up using it to make a normal one because they had no choice. Now, I understand why they had no choice, because as you said before, a certain someone pleaded to get it fast tracked. So now, the question remains. Why the hell did MIB try to set me up with the lowest grade translator?" He asked.

Once again, Lonappan sighed. "Well, I hope you didn't forget about the little scene you created back in the MIB base. You remember what Ponnappan told you back then? He did say that he'll provide you with the low grade translator. And that's exactly what he tried. You should be thankful that instead of actually making you wait, he actually changed his mind and handed you a normal one, even if that's a bit faulty." Lonappan explained.

Taro dwelled in Lonappan's words for quite some time, before finally opening his mouth. "You're right. I apologize for the rude remarks. Ponnappan did say that he'll hand me the lowest grade translator. I'm sorry. Maybe, it's because of this constant language glitch annoying me, I'm worried for the past few hours. And because of that, I tried bad mouthing you and the organization. I'm truly sorry." Taro apologized multiple times.

However, Lonappan didn't care much about Taro's outbreak anyway. Everyone has their own reason for losing it one time or the other. "Meh, it's fine. You know what? I'll meet up with Ponnappan on this one. Don't worry. However, it might take a bit of time to make you a new one. Will you be fine with it?" He asked.

"Yea, no worries! I'll use this one in the meantime. Who knows? It might just stop annoying me!" Taro chuckled.

Before leaving the premises, Lonappan looked back and asked one more question. "Didn't you say that you're a support class graduate or something? Why couldn't you fix it?"

"Ah, since the materials were already salvaged once to make a normal translator out of a low grade one, I can't salvage it for a second time, since the materials will end up being useless." Taro explained.

"Hmm, understood." Lonappan gave out a thumbs up and exited the Holy Land.

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"Weren't you a super busy person? Why are you here for the second time this day?" Ponnappan indulged in a little bit of sarcasm as he saw Lonappan in his office.

"Shut up! I'm here to talk about the translator you gave me." Lonappan said as he jumped into a seat.

"Oh? What about it?" Ponnappan asked.

"Well, you jinxed it. The translator seems to have a problem. Taro said that it glitched between languages at times which proved to be really annoying." Lonappan sighed. "And by the way, he actually found out about you planning to give him the low grade translator." He replied.

"How did he find out? Not that I was planning to keep it a secret, however, I didn't expect him to find it out on his own." He replied.

"Well, he checked on the translator and found it." Lonappan replied.

"See, this is exactly why I wanted to give him the lowest grade translator. That alien can sniff out everything about these technologies we might have no idea about. It's really a scary skill." Ponnappan spoke. "So, tell me now. What do you want me to do?" He asked.

"I'd like you to make another translator. Let the dev team take their time, however there shouldn't be any faults with that one." He suggested.

"Well, I had already made the preparations for this. The dev team are in their way to make the lowest graded translator." Ponnappan replied.

"May I give out one more suggestion?" Lonappan asked.

"Shoot."

"Maybe stop with your obsession with making this lowest grade translator? I get it; you don't like the alien. You don't like how the alien reiterated the old man's line. However, cut him some slack, will you? You're gonna build the next batch of normal translators, right? Just make an extra one for him. Just don't make him pissed with your lowest grade bullshit and all. Who knows? Might even end up with a 'calamity' in the office." Lonappan gave out a gentle threat and shrugged.

"Even though I don't like how ominously you phrased it, I'll be generous enough to take your suggestion to consideration. I don't really like 'calamities', you know?" Ponnappan smiled.

"That's all I wanted to hear. Now that that's done, I'mma scoot!" Lonappan waved goodby and exited the room.

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