A day or two passed from the "incident" that no one were so keen to discuss, however the mental wounds still remained fresh from that incident.

"Thankappan! Wait a minute!" Lonappan chased after his junior, who was about to step out to work with his alien mates.

Upon hearing Lonappan's voice, Thankappan flinched and hid himself between the aliens.

"You do know that he can still see you, right?" Kunjan asked the cowering Thankappan.

The junior field agent sighed. "I know. It's just for reassurance purposes." He replied.

"Oh! Then that's cool." The plankton nodded.

"Hey, Thankappan. Why are you hiding over there? We got stuff to discuss." Lonappan spoke towards his junior.

"Ah, it's nothing. I can still hear you! You can speak to me like this." Thankappan assured.

"Dude, it's MIB business. You still wanna act like this?" He asked.

On this, Thankappan stopped hiding and dragged Lonappan towards a secure location where the aliens couldn't hear them. Not that the aliens were too keen to hear about it to begin with though. "What is it?" Thakappan asked.

"The state tournament that Taro talked about; you're gonna accompany him." Lonappan replied.

"I don't get it. Why?" Thankappan asked, not hiding his annoyance about this decision.

"Because you're one of the best rookie field agents that the MIB has ever seen and I wholeheartedly believe in you!" Lonappan smiled.

"Ugh. Enough with the buttering. What's the real reason?" He asked.

"We do need footage to show the HQ that Taro isn't a calamity threat, right? Well, no one did a fucking thing to record the municipality tournament. Although that went well for us, I don't think there will be a second time. Hence, you'll accompany him, capture the footage, submit it to me and then I'll submit it to Ponnappan and in due time, it will reach the HQ. Simple." Lonappan shrugged.

"I see. However, I don't get one thing. WHY ME? I don't like doing this stuff. I'm fine with doing the construction work. Why don't you head over with Taro for the tournament? You don't have anything to do, right?" Thankappan literally wailed before his senior.

Lonappan sighed. "I swear that you're the strangest kid I've ever seen. So, you wanna ditch your main job of doing nothing but watching a damn martial arts competition in this case to work in a construction site, which takes real effort. Is that what you're saying?" He asked.

Although it didn't make sense in his senior's mind, it made all sorts of sense in Thankappan's. "YES!" He replied emphatically. "As I previously stated, you don't have anything to do! So, you better go with him." Thankappan spoke. It was less of a request, but more of an order to speak frankly.

This seriously ticked Lonappan off. "Nothing to do, huh? While you're loitering around with your alien friends, I'm out here properly doing what I was actually assigned to; my MIB work. Most of the time, I team up with other senior agents to track down rogue aliens and stuff. If not, I would be having strategic discussions with our commanding officer. Beside all this, in my free time, I head in as a guest lecturer in the MIB boot camp. Now, tell me, what's important? Your little construction job or my hectic schedule?" He asked with a fierce gaze in his eyes.

The heavy atmosphere around him was slightly unbearable for Thankappan. He gulped down a little. However, he thought of giving out his true feelings rather than putting up a front. "Well, if you ask me, and consider just my opinion alone, you know what my reply would be, right?" He asked.

Lonappan sighed. "So, you're telling me that you'd put your satisfaction before saving the world, huh?" He asked. Although, he didn't care either way, since he cared so little, he had to act like a proper senior in this scenario.

"When did saving the world enter this conversation? Hmm... if it hinders my satisfaction.. well, I don't really know!" Thankappan failed to give out a definitive answer since he had never properly thought out such things. Even though he thought of getting promoted as a senior agent as soon as possible, his current way of living was pretty nice. So nice that it slightly shifted his perspective.

"Well, keeping check of a possible calamity threat is the same as saving the world if you ask me. So, even if you don't care too much about this, you just don't have any choice, do you? You're still bound by the chains of hierarchy and that would mean defying my orders would lead to grave consequences like.. I don't know? A possible farewell from this place and all your alien friends out there?" Lonappan asked. He hated every single moment of this conversation because he never cared about such things. However, he deemed this as necessary since Thankappan seemed like he wanted to move forward.

For a few minutes, Thankappan stood silently. Then, he finally opened his mouth. "I'm sorry, sir. I'll take my job more seriously from now on. And I'll make sure to go with Taro to the tournament." WIthout spouting another word, Thankappan left the premises and joined up with the aliens.

"Damn, the kid sounded really pissed off about it!" Someone's voice rang out of Lonappan's phone. It was Ponnappan. He heard the entire conversation. "But why did you let me in on this conversation?" He asked.

Lonappan finally let out a heavy sigh as he placed the phone to his ears. "Well, I did it to show you that I'm still doing my duty properly! I'm keeping the kid in check and it seems that unlike me, Thankappan knows how to do his work diligently. That's a good thing, right?" He asked.

"You know, you really shouldn't preach the things that you don't follow. MIB boot camp's lecturer? Really? You've never come by that place for the past six months. You're busy? As if! You're either doing some political work for WPP or sleeping in the base. So, what you said was kinda shitty." Ponnappan, who used to act the same way towards Lonappan as he did to Thankappan right then, replied. However, unlike Lonappan, Ponnappan actually followed up on his words and took his job seriously.

"Do you really think I don't know that? It's just.. Look, I know his dream, okay? And to follow that, it's better to have your mindset rather than mine. Well, even then, I don't wanna mold his mind or something. He could choose his path upon getting promoted as a senior official, like I did. Until then, I'll act as the strict leader like you did." Lonappan replied.

"Huh, you sound like a parent talking about his kid for some reason. Meh, whatever. I hope your efforts pay off! Ciao." Ponnappan hung up the phone. Lonappan dwelled on that he might've been hard on his ki...junior, however, he quickly left it aside.

#

Few hours later, the guys were having their scheduled morning break from work and they were casually chilling. It was a poor person's gig after all.

"Hey, so what happened in the morning out there?" Kunjan dropped in the conversation starter.

"Oh? That reminds me." Instead of replying to Kunjan, Thankappan stood up and walked towards Francis. "Pranchiyetta, got a minute?" He asked.

Francis, who was having difficulty sipping the piping hot tea, looked up towards him. "What is it?" He asked.

"Well, myself and Sadanandan would be taking a leave next week. So, you think you could manage that?" Thankappan asked back.

Francis thought for a second. "Well, next week, we would still be doing this job, so I guess you two won't be missed. So yea, it's fine!" He replied.

"I see. Thanks, boss." He bowed and turned back.

"So, you won't tell me what's going on?" Francis stopped him and asked.

"Well, Sadanandan's participating in the state martial arts tournament. And you know how he's shy around new people, right? I'm just heading with him so that he doesn't get nervous." Thankappan explained.

"Martial arts, huh? His humongous power makes total sense now!" Francis replied, looking a bit surprised by this fact.

"Yea!" Thankappan chuckled. "It's totally not because he's a possible calamity level alien!" He thought as he walked back to the pack.

"So, you headed out abruptly. What was that all about?" Gibli asked this time instead of Kunjan. Thankappan cutting him off without giving a proper answer seriously hurted the little plankton.

"Well, the thing's this. Tar...Sadanandan, I'm heading to the tournament with you. So, you better win!" Thankappan smiled.

"I see, that's what the talk in the morning was about, I believe?" Gibli asked.

"Yup, I got orders to accompany him to the tournament. And I might as well record the match for you guys to watch, eh?" Thankappan asked.

"That would be pretty cool!" Gibli liked the idea.

"I would want them to watch my match as well! I'm happy that you're coming with me!" Taro really felt happy. Now, he could no longer wait for the state tournament.

"Hehe, no mention. I'll cheer for your victory too!" Thankappan smiled upon seeing Taro happy. "Well, accompanying him to the tournament isn't bad, after all!" He thought to himself.

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