3 Holy Land (1/2)

”Sure. Tell me, do I really have to wear this?” He voiced his concern one last time, hoping for a miracle to occur.

”If you want to blend in, then yes.” Lonappan said the truth that Taro already knew, yet desperately opposed.

”Fine. Let's get a move on already.” Taro sighed and followed Lonappan to the lift. Thankappan was already waiting for them on the outside. He took a deep breath and smiled. ”Wow, I did not notice it when I came up before, but this place is really nice!” He exclaimed.

”Ah, we take pride in ourselves for keeping it clean.” Lonappan smirked.

”Not that. The air here is really good!” Taro said, taking another deep breath in.

”We do have one of the lowest pollution rate in the city.” Although it was not the answer that he expected, but Lonappan really took pride on that little fact too.

”It reminds me of my planet. Like the carbon dioxide, sulfur, nitrogen and all? Ah, too good! Except the oxygen pollution is a bit high here, isn't it?” He said as he sniffed his nose.

Lonappan sighed. ”I see, you're the kind who breathes in the pollutants, huh?”

”What do you mean?” Taro asked.

”We breathe in oxygen, not the other gases.” Lonappan explained.

”Well, that would make you the ones breathing in the pollutants, am I right?” Taro asked.

”If we were in your planet, sure. However, this is our planet and here you are the weird one.” Thankappan included himself into the fray.

”Man!” Taro sighed. He was supposed to be in a planet with no superpowers, but he was still considered weird. He wanted to cry; the poor guy wanted a normal life! But he decided to not worry about it anymore. ”Whatever. So, what's this place?” He asked.

”It's called snehatheeram [????].” Thankappan explained.

”Snehatheeram?” Taro asked.

”I guess it means lover's bay or something?”

”That's weird. I don't see any lovers here!” As he glanced over the beach, he saw multiple families glancing at the sunset, but no lovers. He took the name quite literally and was really disappointed at one point.

”There may be some couples around. It might just be that you can't see them.” Lonappan said, looking around noticing that they weren't any actual couple.

”Maybe, it's just for the namesake. Just like the black in your name.” Taro laughed with a slight mockery in his face.

”It could be that too. Anyway, it's a family spot these days. So you might be right.” Lonappan decided to end the conversation and continued walking.

”I don't know. Lonappan's the one who knows. Only he could lead us there.” Thankappan answered.

Taro directed his question towards Lonappan upon hearing that. ”Where is it, Agent Lonappan?”

”Follow me.” He instructed. Thankappan and Taro followed.

#

They followed him for so long—so long that they didn't even notice that they swapped multiple buses and ended up in some unknown place. ”We sure took the long way. Tell me Lonappan, why are we so far away from your base?” Taro finally asked after snapping out of it.

”Only the single digits are fairly closer to the base. The special agent has asked me to lead you to #306. That's the reason for this distance.” Lonappan explained.

”So, where are we now?” Taro asked.

”We are in a place called Mundur.” Lonappan said.

”Mundur? Lonappan, have we already reached Palakkad? [????]” Thankappan asked, quite surprised that they travelled that far in the short period.

”No, we're still in Thrissur.” Lonappan said, shaking his head.

”Hmm, I don't get what's going on, but will I get to see my new residential soon?” Taro didn't quite get what this explanation was about, so he asked about the thing that interested him.

”Don't be frantic. We still have to walk for a good five minutes and reach Pazhamukku.” Lonappan said, nodding at Taro.

”Aw, man!” Taro didn't quite like walking. The man honed himself with multiple martial arts throughout the galaxy, wasn't rather too fond of walking. He sighed. However, Lonappan was right in his estimation. In exactly five minutes they reached Holy land, a quite good looking two story house. ”Is this it?” He asked.

”Yes, it is.” Lonappan nodded his head.

”Finally! Let's get in then!” Taro said quite excitedly.

As he was about to get in, a man watering the plants outside the house jogged towards them. ”Lonappan, how are you?” He asked.

”Timothy-chetta! [????] These are the two I talked about over the phone.” Lonappan replied, dawning a smile that even Thankappan hasn't seen before; a smile so fake that it nearly made Taro puke.

”Two?” The confused Thankappan whispered at Lonappan.

”I tell you about it later.” He whispered back and changed his focus back to Timothy. ”Chetta, I'll lead them to the room.”

”Sure, see you later then. Lonappan, we do have to talk about the rent later though. We have extra people living in there now.” Timothy said, rubbing his fingers, signaling money.

Lonappan laughed. ”Sure thing!” He assured Timothy.

”Who's that?” Taro asked while they headed over to the first floor.

”Timothy, your landlord from now on.” Lonappan explained.

”I see. So, let's go!” Taro gave a thumbs up. He was still excited about stepping into his new settlement.

”Let me remind you, you're not the only one who's living in that place. Beside you, three other people reside there—all aliens.” Lonappan said.

”At least I don't have to act different, am I right?” Taro laughed.

”Yea, however the people living across the hall are humans. So don't act all alien-ish before them. I hope you'll remember it. Get in.” Lonappan invited them into the second floor. Holy land was not that big. Taro was surprised that the landlord actually agreed to stuff him into that one room too. Three tenants in the small house including the landlord, he sure was a shrewd guy.

But, even though one might think that it would be crammed, the room was actually spacious. It was really weird—a room too small yet spacious. Two things in contrast, still they ended up working in harmony this time. ”Whew, this place is nice! I thought the place would be shitty when I saw the higher up of yours smile like that.”

”????????????????'???? ???????????? ????????. ????????, ???????????? ???????????????? ????????????????! ????????????'???? ???????????????????? ???????????????? ???????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????? ????????????????.” Lonappan thought, as he glanced at Taro with sympathetic eyes.

Taro didn't notice the glance. Instead he saw two people and a dog before him. ”Welcome to the bachelor pad, newbie!” One said. But, Taro didn't quite get the one saying that until the other one pointed at the one who stood there without much movement.

”Wow, your mouth's not even moving! Where are you even talking from? Wow, you're aware of my dialect already?” Taro asked. It was a weird phenomenon indeed. Taro's guess was for the man to be a philanthropist or something.

”Wow, disgusting!” Taro gulped subconsciously.

”Hey, I'm a really high level species, you know?” The small creature retorted. Its voice somehow was much cuter than before, since its voice wasn't amplified like before. It wasn't disgusting either—it was just small, really small.

”I wasn't talking about you, but the way that mouth tore open!” Taro explained. ”And I believe that there's no one in the universe who won't recognize someone from plankton civilization. It's truly a pleasure of mine to finally see a personality of such great species.” He replied as he bowed respectfully at the creature.

”Oh, so you do know me, huh?” The creature was small, yet its pride in particular stood above all.

”Well, who could forget the ones that destroyed eleven bases of the liberation army during the galactic wars and caused their defeat?” Taro buttered the creature a bit more. But it wasn't a lie.