Chapter 2 : Anika

When the satellite image came for the now closed site of the gate everyone was looking with curiosity and dread. They expected destruction never seen before and death looming in every corner. To their surprise they were greeted with a shocking sight. There was a crater which signified the opening site of the gate and then there were bodies of many demons and Raiders.

But the part that shook them to the bone, including Abid khan who had the first hand experience of years fighting with such monstrosities, was the one body that was different from the rest. It was laid at the edge of the crater, lifeless and headless. There was nobody else in the vicinity of the area. Abid looked at Pooja as if he would find some answers but found just the same questions that kept echoing in his mind.

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The A class heroes were all sent to the site to investigate. Among them was a newly promoted A class hero who had grinded his way to A from B. it took him 6 years to achieve this feat but in this time period he had amassed a wealth of knowledge about demons. This man was an Inspiration to many of the B class Raiders and was respected among A class. He was Rusjeet singh, a man of discipline with the family having military background. He had ambition of joining the airforce but it came to an abrupt stop after wave gates appeared and he found that he was one of the selective that could fight against their new enemy.

Rusjeet stood in front of the beheaded body, it had no life but there was residual demonic aura. From this residual aura which had exponentially decreased with passing time he could tell that this was not a drill. Whatever this creature was, it was very powerful.

He had heard of an S1 ranked creature once appearing in one of the african countries that was so poor that they could not afford keeping many heroes. So the demon was faced with very less resistance and finally when they managed to stop it, half of their country was in ruins and millions of people had lost their lives. This was supposed to be a S3 ranked demon.

He was someone who knew how the power level changes with each rank as he knew the struggle of grinding through rank B to rank A. so he knew could fairly estimate the big difference in the power of a rank S and S3. what gave him the sweats was the feeling that there is someone or something out there that could kill such a thing.

A demon forensic expert had been called in from the RUA. he carefully studied the corpse of the S3 ranked demon. He stood up and started removing his gloves,

"Fascinating"

Rusjeet singh that was showing a calm look on the outside said, "Indeed, this is my first time seeing an S3 rank."

"Oh no no." said the doctor with a chuckle "what's fascinating is that he was killed in one blow. Something sharp but hot. It's the reason why the bleeding is limited, the heat cauterised the vessels."

Rusjeet singh was a skeptic who would not believe without proof. A feat like that seemed impossible to him and yet there it was, with the body of evidence. Even Rusjeet singh could confirm what the doctor said was the truth even though he was not an expert in the subject.

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Abid Khan had already received the report from onsite Raiders. He was sitting in his seat late in the evening when most of the people had left for their homes, He held his head with the support of his hand on one of the hand rest.

He had left the heroes on standby and they were to not go to the site as it would bring too much undue attention to this event. For now nobody knew that such a calamity had come and gone.

He was in deep thought as to what he should do. Whoever did this did not want to be found and making the search too open would mean he would come to know of it. Only god knows what that person would do if they were to get on their wrong side. The current conclusion was that this person was most likely a neutral party who liked their privacy.

Pooja came in the room with her purse on her shoulder

"When will you be leaving? You know you are past the time of your duty right?"

Abid kept looking in the distance where his thoughts were playing, "We are never off duty my dear Pooja."

"You are not going to stop looking for that person, are you?"

"Definitely not" said the director as he looked towards Pooja,"we will be discreet about it and be in the shadows but we will find that one. That person is an asset, one that could change everything."

Pooja fiddled with the strap of her purse collecting herself and said, "When that error message came, I really hoped that it would be an equipment error but when you checked from another satellite it turned out to be an immeasurable quanta…" she paused as she let her heart settle "I was terrified."

Director gave the slightest of smile and said "I know."

Pooja resumed with an unstable smile "But now, call it a woman's intuition but I think that person isn't a bad one."

Abid still with the same expression, "I know."

Pooja's smile became constant and she checked her phone which had the notification of a message from her husband. She was happy that today was not the day she would have to worry about not being able to meet her family again, she also hoped that such a day may never come but she could only hope so as with every passing second a timer ticked towards the next wave gates event. She walked towards the door and heard the voice of director, "tomorrow I want the.." Pooja waved her hand and said "I know" as she left.

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When the sun came up Anika opened her eyes. She was expecting a lot of pain but there was only the sweet pain of muscle fatigue. She got up and checked herself thoroughly, she was mostly healed with some bruises and rashes still there to remind her that yesterday was not just a dream she had.

Old man Ganesh was on the floor still in deep sleep, 'he must have stayed up till late she thought as it wasn't like him to stay asleep for so long. She went to the bathroom and freshened herself up. She was still in her undergarments but Ganesh was like a father to her and he was asleep so she didn't bother to put something on.

She opened the door to the living room stretching and warming herself up, she did the second step of surya namaskar and then third. It was then her eyes saw something on the way to the third step as she was about to touch her toes.

There was Krishna who was holding a plate of snacks and sitting on the sofa where he had clearly slept. Krishna had his mouth full but open as he saw the voluptuous body of Anika in work and also the sight of a woman bending down in undergarments can be a little hard to ignore.

"Hi." said Krishna with a mouthful voice as he swallowed down the snack.

"Hey," said Anika who was in a little bit of confusion.

"Looking good." said Krishna only later realising his poor choice of words

Anika noticed her position wasn't the best at the moment and took the towel on her shoulders and covered herself up in haste.

She was having mixed feelings of anger and shyness as she tried to process things. Her expression changed to a now constant anger just as fast as she covered herself, "Perv." then she tried gathering her full strength and threw a punch but Krishna blocked it with ease. She was surprised as she retracted her fist "why can't I gather my aura."

"Oh," said Krishna raising his eyebrows "that's because I blocked it when I was healing you."

Anika was confused as she fell into a chair next to the sofa "You did what?"

"I am not the best of the healers but I know a thing or two, your erratic aura was hindering the process so I had to block it. Also the reason of me telling you look good because I wasn't sure if I did it right, I only theoretically know how healing works but to make that work in your case I would have to use my aura and circulate it through your body."

Anika felt a bit shy for misunderstanding the situation so she resorted to changing the subject, "but, why are your sleeping here?"

Krishna who felt hungry because of exuding so much aura to intimidate the Demon and the using healing which was an efficient process for him as he was inexperienced kept eating while talking, "The old man offered me to stay here, seeing as my apartment got destroyed in a blast by that demon."

Anika had a flash of the memory of the blast and the sheer power of that monster. She then remember the moment before she collapsed and how Krishna managed to hold the demon back so easily. She was surely a stubborn soul but at that moment the words of this man who stood calm and composed in the middle of a catastrophe made her feel safe.

"Are you a hero?"

"What's a hero?" said Krishna still munching on snacks.

"What! have been living in some other world or something?"

Krishna paused for a moment like he had been caught, "Yes, something like that." and continued his eating spree

"Anyone till A rank is known as a Raider and those possessing powers above them are heroes. I can't believe someone has never heard of this. They say survival of any country in a wave is solely dependent on the power of their Heroes"

Krishna understood that these strong people will obviously be treated a little differently. Everyone would want strong person on their side for more chances of survival. But nonetheless he couldn't care less, he wished to keep himself away from fight. Defending oneself was a totally different thing, the demon had destroyed his home, he had it coming.

"If you are not a hero than what is your rank? You must be in higher tiers of A." said Anika trying to make sense of the incident.

Krishna remembered his test in the hospital, he knew he had completely suppressed his power back then because he knew power always attracts enemy and that would mean fighting,

"I am an F rank."

Anika who had buried herself into the sofa chair pulled herself out in a burst of energy and said "No way! How did you defeat that super powerful Demon then?"

Krishna finished up with his plate and kept it down, he cleaned up his mouth and straightened his posture, he closed his eyes and cleared his throat 'this is all the time I can buy trying to look deep, I need to think of something'. He opened his eyes and Anika was waiting in anticipation.

"I know special Demon martial arts."

"Makes sense."

"No it does not." came a reply from Ganesh who had freshly woken up. "He is just hiding his power." Ganesh's eyes fell on Anika who was leaning closer to Krishna in a towel and said, "don't get too comfortable Anika dear, I understand that he spent most of the night embracing you but that was for healing. Could it be that you are falling for him?"

Krishna knew this was only gonna end a certain way, the old man knew that he had to increase the contact area to get his aura flowing into her, a proficient healer would probably require a handshake but he wasn't one. It took him considerable expenditure of aura to fully understand things that he only theoretically knew. He looked at Anika who now had a terrifying expression, she rubbed her wrist as if getting ready for the punch of her life and said in a demonic voice "How about the embrace of my punch, Mr pervert."

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Rusjeet singh was waiting in the lobby of his hotel. Generally an A rank hero would make substantially more in a developed country but he had the seed of patriotism in him and he liked his home anyway so he wasn't going anywhere soon. So the hotel he was staying at was second grade at best.

You don't get too much but its not a shithole either. He was contacted by the national bureau of Raider's, hero division also just known as the heroes association, to wait for a certain person. He knew the general ropes of what was to come, their mission is finding the one who cleared the anomaly gate but the hows of this job were not known to him, he suspected if even the bureau knew the way.

The time of meeting was 9 am but it was already getting 11 and Rusjeet was getting tired of waiting. He could obviously walk out of the mission but it wasn't something he wanted to do, he too was interested in knowing the identity of the possible new hero.

"You must be Rusjeet singh, I expected you to be some old bloke." said a well dressed young man who guided himself to sit down.

Normally Rusjeet Singh would have been angry at the one who made him wait, it showed a lack of discipline. His eyes showed the expression of anger when turning to this young man but the fire was extinguished as he saw who that person was.

He was the newest hero rank addition to the Indian lineup, Rishi Sharma. He was someone who was already from a rich background but joined the bureau for some reason. His affinity had awakened only recently but he lacked training. Being rich he had never had to lift his finger. So on his request it had been decided that his identity would be kept a secret for now but word gets around and Rusjeet Singh was not some small time Raider to not be aware of such things.

Rishi looked around at the hotel interior gave an expression of being mildly disappointed, "they don't pay you good enough I see." Rusjeet singh knew he was right, not just because he was rich but also there was a fact that hero's were paid a lot more.

Generally there would be an international demand of this class, so it was in the best interest of the government to pay them as close to their international counterparts as possible. Rusjeet singh put down the newspaper he had been reading till then to amuse himself and said, "We can talk about the details in a more private place but I would like to ask, why did they send you? You have no experience."

"Well, it's simple I needed training so we will be joining RUA, you as a teacher and me as a student, Also it is where we will likely find our subject. Then again what's better place for me to train than the biggest and the best."

Rusjeet singh thought to himself that it made sense as RUA was the closest place where such a powerful person could be so it would be a very good place to start.

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Things had cooled down a notch as everyone in the apartment had clothed and groomed up. There were faint hints of chaos here and there but to someone oblivious it would be signs of laziness. Krishna shared a glance of spite with Ganesh as Anika sat there silently with signs of faint frowning.

She spoke up to break the awkwardness building up "So when will my aura be back to normal?"

Krishna shifted his focus to her and said, "In about a day or two But I have something. I have heard those who cannot control their aura are called berserkers, you can change that."

Both Ganesh and Anika got interested in this proposition, so Krishna adjusted his sitting and said,

"For now her aura won't start regenerating till she has mine flowing through her and after that it will come back to normal in about 6-8 hours. If she is to reduce that regenerating speed and extend it to a week it would be more stable and in her control."

"How do you know that it will? And how am I supposed to reduce the regeneration speed?"

"For starters I am speaking from experience, I too had the same problem and for the second one it's simple, you keep using your aura for one week enough that you don't use it up fully. You had already used up everything in the battle before so it was easy to lock your aura. So you have already completed the first step."

Anika was sitting with lips tight thinking deeply. Ganesh knew she was in a conundrum ever since she was rejected in RUA because she could not control her aura but now an opportunity had presented and a person always feels this little anxiety right at the doorstep of what want that whether they should do it or not even though they struggle for their whole lives working to open that same door.

Sometimes all they need is a little push from someone they trust. "You know you have nothing to lose here dear. Might as well jump in while it's still possible."

She looked firmer than before and nodded her head towards Krishna.

"Cool, best of luck."

"What do you mean?" Said a confused Ganesh "aren't you going to supervise her?"

"Nope." Said Krishna almost immediately, he just wasn't putting himself through any more trouble.

"Aren't you a good sport, is this how you repay someone's hospitality for letting them stay at their home." Ganesh looked away dramatically "also after such an Intimate experience with her you are just gonna leave her hanging?"

Anika's left cheek was Twitching with anger, she knew Ganesh's love for old movies and their dramatics. Also the statement made her red from shyness the way it was presented. Krishna on the other hand knew this was emotional blackmail in way and he was stern not to give in.

Ganesh leaned into Krishna a bit and said "let's throw in free stay at my apartment in the basket too, what do you say? It's not easy to find apartments here you know."

Krishna was now wavered in his resolve.

What Ganesh said was absolutely true and he was almost broke, he had saved enough for a beefy gaming pc and it got destroyed with the apartment before he could enjoy his fruit of labour. He decided against going homeless and said "Ok, but just from the goodness of my heart."