Outing and Combat classes

Laying his head on the desk, Alaukik decided to ignore his fellow classmates once again. Of course, he didn't mind the extra wink or two he got, considering he didn't sleep much last night. 

'Ugh, this is going to be impossible. I can't go around searching the entire north east of this continent. Simply searching a 100 km around this town took me an entire night, and I didn't even check deep underground. What if the twins' base is deep underground like Jamshed's?'

'You could if you simply decided to embrace our full potential.'

Clutching his head and wincing, Alaukik decided to stop thinking now and simply rest for now. He can think of a solution later today; for now he needs to sleep. 

At the same time, Divya was also noticing Alaukik's slight movements. Looking at him holding his head, she knew that his condition was getting worse and worse. Unconsciously biting the inside of her cheeks, Divya was slowly beginning to worry about Alaukik and his well-being. 

'He came back home at 4 in the morning, and even then didn't sleep,' she thought, remembering waking up at that time when she heard the door open. 

'And even after coming back, he didn't sleep. Instead, he was listening to the report that he asked Asha to send…' 

Stretching her arm a bit towards Alaukik, Divya debated whether to ask Alaukik about what he did last night, but then she immediately pulled her hand back, knowing that Alaukik wouldn't like her asking about his business. 

Suddenly, she heard a voice say her name,

"Devya! Good morning!"

Turning her head towards the voice, Divya had an weird expression on her face. Looking at Lisa who was quickly making her way towards her seat, Divya took a deep breath and said,

"My name is Divya."

Coming to a sudden halt in front of Divya, Lisa slowly started turning red. Opening and closing her mouth a few times, she finally said

"Devya?"

"Di."

"Ddi?"

Shaking her head, Divya gave a chuckle and continued,

"Di."

"Ddi."

"Forget it. How was your day?"

"Honestly it was great! I went home and did some basic training (caught some criminals), read some books (caught up on international news), talked to my friends (contacted my boss) and then slept. You know, the usual."

"What about you? What did you do yesterday?" asked Lisa as she sat down.

With an awkward smile on her face, Divya started to fumble around with her hands and said,

"Uh… after reaching back home, me and him called our … aunty. After that I directly went to sleep,"

'Or at least that's what I tried to do. But the thought that I have to come back here the next day made me so stressed that I couldn't get a wink of sleep either.'

Lisa, pretending not to notice her pauses and fumbling, simply nodded and said

"Hmm, if you're free this weekend, then why don't we make a plan to roam around the city? We'll explore the area around us. What do you think?"

"This weekend … today is Tuesday, meaning 4 days later?"

Taking a quick peek at Alaukik, Divya, who was thinking of whether to agree or not, suddenly saw Ms. A enter the class. Quickly turning to Lisa, she said,

"Let's talk about this later."

Meanwhile, a minute before Ms. A walked inside, a boy walked up to Alaukik and poked him in the shoulders. Seeing no reaction from Alaukik, he poked him once again, this time whispering in his ear,

"Yo bro, what was your name again? My name's Ash. Wanna be friends?"

Noticing that Alaukik didn't move again, he whispered once more,

"I know you aren't sleeping, so are you ignoring me? Come on bro, why the cold attitude? Did I do something wrong?"

Even though Alaukik tried not to react to Ash whispering in his ear, one question ran through his mind,

'My breathing is even, and I haven't made any extra movements, so how does he know I'm awake? Is he simply guessing?'

"Anyways, I had a question," continued Ash, unfazed by the fact that Alaukik wasn't responding to his chatter. 

"Why are you wearing sunglasses in the morning? And that too inside the school building? Do you have something to hide? Don't worry, I won't judge you no matter what your face looks like without your glasses," said Ash, giving Alaukik a thumbs up and a smile to go with it. 

However, Alaukik, who had been trying to ignore Ash, was slowly reaching his limit. 

"By the way, do you know that girl named Lisa? Do you think you could introduce me?"

Sighing, Alaukik slowly lifted his body and simply thought it beneath him to get angry at a 14 year old, and so noticing that Ms. A had walked in, just looked ahead, hoping that Ash would go away by himself. Little did he know, 14 year olds can be quite annoying.

He felt this first hand during lunch, when before Alaukik could even take a seat, Ash appeared beside him. 

"So? Why are you wearing those sunglasses?"

Taking a deep breath and trying to control his rising irritation, Alaukik slowly put down his plate on the table and took a seat. Once he was sure that he wouldn't lose his cool, he turned to Ash and said

"These are prescription glasses, meaning I have to wear them all the time. Now, if you don't have anything else to do, I'd like to eat my food in peace."

However, as if he didn't hear the latter part of Alaukik's words, Ash also sat opposite Alaukik. However, instead of bugging him again, he stretched his hand across the table and motioned for a handshake. 

"Wanna be friends?" he asked again. 

Sighing, Alaukik simply ignored him once again and started eating his food. Noticing this, Ash simply chuckled and moved his hand towards Divya, who was sitting beside Alaukik watching the two of them.

"My name is Ash. Would you like to be friends with me?" 

Suddenly, Divya seemed to have flashbacks of when Lisa walked up to her and asked her the same question. Smiling, she nodded towards Ash and said

"Yes. My name is Divya."

"Hmm, D-ivya?"

Surprised he got it right on the first try, Divya nodded, her smile just a bit brighter now. 

"So, do you guys know the other transfer student too? She seemed close to you guys. I would like to be friends with her too, you know. You all seem like lovely people."

"She is my friend," replied Divya, giving a slight nod. 

"And she is quite a nice person."

Hearing this, Alaukik let out a snort, before quickly focusing on his food again. 

"Oh? It seems that our dear friend disagrees," said Ash, raising his eyebrows.

"You don't think she's a nice person?"

At this, even Divya turned to face Alaukik, curious as to why Alaukik was so against Lisa. 

"Speak of the devil," said Ash, pointing behind Alaukik. 

"Here she is."

Slowly walking up to them, Lisa noticed the three of them turning around to face her and quickly waved towards them, to which Divya replied with a wave of her own hand. Seeing this, Alaukik's expression immediately fell, before he managed to control it, while Ash, noticing this, let out a smirk.

Taking a seat beside Divya, Lisa noticed Ash sitting on the same table and said,

"Oh, is this your new friend?"

Giving her a smile, Ash replied,

"Yup! Nice to meet you, I'm Ash."

"Lisa," she said, shaking his extended hand. 

"So, what were you guys talking about?" 

Hearing this, Divya paused for a second with her spoon hanging in the air, before continuing as if nothing happened. Ash, on the other hand, placed his hand in front of his mouth to cover his smirk while Alaukik was currently deep in thought.

'Should I get close to Lisa? Honestly, the only reason I was avoiding her was because I didn't like her in the anime, but, if I can somehow get her on my side, then I could use the resources of the USNA government to start searching for the twins and their base. But, how will they search for it? All I know is that they are somewhere in the north east of USNA, but have no clue as to where exactly. On the other hand, the twins and their group will probably get to know that I am here, which makes me an easy target-'

"We were discussing the combat training class that we're gonna have today. Isn't that right bro?" said Ash, after seeing that both Alaukik and Divya weren't responding to Lisa's question.

"Ooh. Indeed, it's quite new isn't it? Combat training was recently added as a mandatory course that all high schoolers have to take. Personally I think it is a great decision," Lisa said out loud, while adding smugly to herself

'It was my idea, you know.'

"Combat training?" questioned Divya, 

"I did not know we have combat training."

Hearing this, both Lisa and Ash were surprised, since everyone should already have known the changes.

"Didn't we get our schedule the day before classes started? We have combat training every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. It's the only class we have during the afternoons," said Ash. 

Hearing this, something sparked inside of Divya, however, knowing this wasn't a place she could act freely, she maintained her calm and asked,

"We will learn how to fight in that class? Will we become stronger?" she asked, a bit of her excitement leaking into her voice. 

"Indeed," nodded Lisa. 

"It's going to be a class led by instructors who have been certified by the government and are the leaders in their field. For example, us freshmen will be taught by an ex-army major who has a lot of experience training military recruits. At least, that's what was written in the mail they sent us."

'In fact, the only reason he was willing to come here was because I asked him and also because he lives in this city, so it is easy for him to come and go,' Lisa added to herself. 

Hearing this, Divya, who was maintaining a calm facade, started to become very excited. 

'I can finally become stronger! If I can grasp this chance properly, and learn from an army major, then I can become much much stronger! Yes!'

"Exactly what she said," said Ash, nodding his head. 

"By the way, Divya, did you think about what I said? Would you like to explore the city on Saturday?"

"Uh…" suddenly, Divya, who was feeling excited about her future, felt like a glass of water was thrown on her. 

'Explore the city… but I really don't want to. I'd rather stay inside our house. I barely managed to learn English, but exploring a new city in a new country on my own? I don't think that's a good idea' thought Divya, pondering on how to reject Lisa.

However, Alaukik, hearing this asked,

"You're planning on exploring the city this Saturday?"

Seeing that Alaukik seemed interested in the idea, Lisa immediately replied,

"Yup! Are you interested too? In fact, all four of us could go together!" said Lisa, motioning to Ash also. 

"Oh I'm interested! Just tell me the time and place and I'll be there!" replied Ash instantly. 

"Great!" said Lisa clapping her hands, 

"What about you two?"

Before either of them could respond however, the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch time, and the start of their first ever combat class. 

Hearing the bell, Divya instantly got up from her seat and said excitedly,

"Let's go to combat class!"

Alaukik on the other hand, slowly got up from his seat and said,

"Well, let us think about it for a while. We'll let you know tomorrow."

Hearing this, Lisa smiled and nodded.

'Well, at least I've gotten closer to them. We should be on track to become friends now.'

Ash, on the other hand, kept switching his gaze from Alaukik to Lisa and back to Alaukik.

'There is something special about these two,' he thought.

'All I have to figure out is what.'

A/N:

I keep forgetting, but anytime Asha, Alaukik and Divya talk amongst each other, they are talking in Hindi. When they talk to characters from the USNA, like Lisa or Ash, they are talking in English. Alaukik is proficient in English due to his past life, but Divya is a bit awkward with it. While it isn't obvious, there a few places where he dialogue is intentionally written wrong to showcase this. Did anyone notice? ;)

We're slowly getting to the secrets behind this all, so remember to not drop this novel okay? I promise it will be interesting soon. 

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day ahead!

PS: Thank you Ramon and Void for the Powerstones, love you guys.