Thankappan sighed. He kinda expected that the Wadorian had something up his sleeve. However, he never expected that it would be that he knew how to play badminton all along. It was kinda like a non-essential skill to know. However, right then, it worked in his favor.

Anyhow, Thankappan was worried about something else. He knew that the match was gonna be heated as hell, which meant that both their powers might accidentally leak out before a civilian. So, the first thing he did was to take Rita to the high school block's staff room and promised her that he'll bring Taro around once he loses his match. Rita was fine with it since she wasn't that fond of badminton, and she also had to correct the papers of the exams she conducted a few days ago. So, it was a win-win kinda situation for her. Thankappan was relieved as well, since he hadn't planned any further after this—which meant that if she had no right then and forced her way back to the indoor stadium, he would have no choice but to knock her out.

So, the MIB agent went back to the stadium/ground to check upon the match. And it was just what he expected—pure madness. The way they played badminton wasn't something that humans could even comprehend. For instance, Gibli tried aiming for the farthest corner when Taro was in the other corner. Normally, it would've been easy points for Gibli. However, Taro accelerated to the other corner at an impossible speed and returned the cork back to Gibli's court. Such kinda insane things continued to happen in the said game. Gibli wasn't bad as well. Even though his speed wasn't top-notch compared to Taro's, his lanky figure could cover up that weakness. Meanwhile, both seemed like they didn't have a dominant hand, since they played with both hands the entire game.

The first round ended after a whooping one hour of back and forth play, where Taro ended up as the victor with the slightest margin. They were playing for three rounds, so Thankappan had nothing to do but tally the scores which came in after five minutes of rally play.

The second round had a similar vibe as the first round—except, it was even longer than the first one. It took two hours for this one to end. And this one ended with Gibli winning as well, which meant that they were gonna have that third round as well. Thankappan was suspicious of Taro in this case. He felt as if the Wadorian deliberately lost that round to get that final round.

"Wait, you lost! You said that you'll stop if you lost once!" Thankappan screamed as he thought of what Taro said to him previously. "You're not gonna go against your word now, are you?" He gave out a smirk as he spoke.

"Hmm, you're right." Taro agreed with Thankappan this time around, which the MIB agent totally didn't expect. He thought that Taro might've refuted his words and tried playing that third round.

"Huh, really?" He didn't even hold back his surprise that time.

"Yea. I'm sorry, Gibli! I guess we'll never have our fated third round." Taro looked gloomy as he spoke.

"What the hell are you saying? You're gonna play the third round with me and there's no doubt about that!" Gibli confidently proclaimed.

"Really?" Taro looked happy for a second, before going back to his gloomy mood. "But Thankappan wouldn't like it." He replied in a really low voice.

"What the—Thankappan. You would agree with us having the third round, right?" Gibli turned towards Thankappan and asked.

"Ah, yea! Totally!" Thankappan replied subconsciously. He didn't expect that he himself would end up agreeing with this notion. However, when Gibli asked him like that, he felt as if he couldn't refuse his request.

"See? What did I tell you, Taro?" Gibli laughed like crazy as he felt proud of himself.

"You were right, Gibli! And thank you, Thankappan!" Taro glanced at Thankappan and gave out a smile. If someone with no experience in studying expressions of people and the meaning behind it saw Taro's smile, the person would probably think that his smile was gentle. However, Thankappan knew. It was a smile of victory. He fell into the trap that Taro created. However, at that point, he could only sigh and give back an awful smile.

So with Thankappan's permission, the two of them played the final round. It was as exhilarating as the last two rounds, except the rally was the longest of them all. It was as if they took ten minutes to get one point. So, it took about two and a half hours to get to the match and game point, which was in the favor of Taro.

While they began the rally, footsteps were heard from the high school block. It was Rita, who had been waiting for Taro's arrival all this time. Hours passed, however Taro never came. So, she finally made her way back to where they were playing.

"You guys! This is bullshit! You know I just corrected the papers I planned to work on tomorrow. I mean, I gotta go back home now! How many games have you been playing-" She was screaming from the time she was in the corridor; however she stopped doing so once she saw Taro literally soaring in the sky. It was as if she fell in love all over again.

"This is their first match." Thankappan whispered low enough for Rita to catch hold of his words.

"Wot?" She was dumbfounded. She thought that they would've played more than ten games by then, so to hear that this was the first totally surprised her.

Anyway, this sudden shock didn't stop her from watching the final rally—at least, the final one, if Taro won. She understood why the single match took so long. Both looked experienced in this game. However, she couldn't fathom the level of stamina both had to play nonstop like they did just then.

In the end, Taro was the victor with a really narrow margin—literally, Gibli was this close to saving the match for himself, however he couldn't reach the cork. While on one side, it was pure elation, on the other, it was heartbreak. However, they did appreciate each other's efforts as a token of sportsmanship as they shook each other's hands.

"Wow, that was simply seriously amazing! Are you two even humans?" Rita asked, staring at both in awe. Although, she meant it as a compliment, that wasn't really the case when it came to those two since they were actual aliens. Thankappan thought of even flashing the neuralyzer on her that was given to keep John in check, however stopped himself from doing so. He wasn't as dumb as his senior who just jumped into conclusions from all the vague terms which hold no substance. He knew she meant it as a compliment, so he stopped himself.

Meanwhile, the two aliens gave out a nervous laughter upon hearing such a compliment from the vice principal. After all, she wasn't wrong about that.

"Anyway, I gotta tell you one thing, especially now that I know of your athletic prowess. We got an inter-school teachers sports meet coming up sometime after the flood subsides. Would you be interested in joining it?" Rita asked.

The aliens thought for a while before coming up with a decision. "I mean, why not. It'd be pretty fun, right?" Taro chuckled, while Gibli nodded his head in agreement as well.

"What about you, Thankappan? Are you interested in joining as well?" Rita posed the question before Thankappan.

The MIB agent sighed. It felt as if he didn't have any choice but to participate since his main job is to monitor the aliens, after all. "Yea, I don't know how good I'll be, however I'm in as well." He replied.

"Sweet! Our school's gonna reap some serious shit in that tournament this time around!" Rita spoke as she laughed maniacally.

"Umm, yay!" Taro gave out a short cheer before heading to the sports room to keep those rackets back in their original position.

"Wait, you're going?" Rita asked. She thought that they would continue playing.

"It's getting late, right? Don't you wanna go home as well?" Taro asked.

"Ah, I lied about going home. I live in the hostel." She mumbled as if she had some grave backstory behind why she was in the hostel.

However, Taro wasn't interested in that even a bit. "It's like that, huh? But, we still gotta go home though. So, we're gonna stop it here." He replied.

"I see. Then how about I walk with you to the Holy Land?" She proposed an idea.

"Nah. Then you would've to return here all alone. You know how that's dangerous for a young maiden like yourself, right?" Taro smiled. Rita was shocked upon hearing her own words thrown back at her.

"Well, you could always walk back with me to the school." She spoke.

"Ah, who in their right mind would do something so useless and time-consuming. We're just gonna head back by ourselves." Taro gave out a stern reply as he waved goodbye at her. The extremely disappointed Rita could only helplessly wave back at this point.

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