The Life Of Normal-Taro

"Hmm, you could've done it in a less flashy way, right?" Thankappan asked Taro after the spar ended.

"I could have. But the excitement would have been far too less that expectation." Taro replied.

"Well, it would've been fine, you know? Without any excitement, it would've been fine." Thankappan sighed.

"... I'm a man of theatrics. My mind and body wouldn't allow me to do such a thing. I was getting bored, you know? A freaking hour doing nothing. I didn't want to spend another hour doing the same thing. So, I took the helm of the fight myself. Is there something wrong with that?" Taro asked.

"No, but being cautious is always for the better. Fighting recklessly like you did will only trigger something inside him, which thankfully isn't the case as of yet." Thankappan replied.

"Not really."

"Huh?"

"I don't know. All the time I'm around the guy, I feel like something's off. I don't know what, but something is surely off. Like, he asked about the gi like we thought he would and he deduced weird things about me." Taro spoke.

"The gi, huh? Well, that was to be expected, wasn't it? Anyway, what was this weird thing that he deduced?" Thankappan asked.

"My fighting stance." Taro replied.

"What's wrong with it?" 

"Well, if someone takes the stance I did, the first instinct that the opponent has is to attack him relentlessly to the point that I drop my guard. However, what he did was waiting on me to do the first attack." Taro explained.

"For a whole hour too. That's truly a weird scenario." Thankappan mumbled as his hand caressed the neuralyzer in his pants.

"What do you think the reason is?" Taro asked.

"Hmm, I could only think of two reasons. It's either his muscle memory of facing you. His body remembers about your mannerisms during a fight and fought accordingly. Or, the guy hasn't lost memories at all and is playing dumb with us. If that's the case—well, the neuralyzer will play a role again." Thankappan explained.

Taro sighed. "Damn, the usage of the neuralyzer has been way too high ever since I came around, huh?" He asked.

"Well, it is. But, it's not like it's a liquid solution or something that we have to refill again and again. So, it's kinda fun, that is, until the word reaches the HQ. If it does, we are royally screwed. Just thinking about it gives me chills." Thankappan was literally shivering as he said that.

"Hmm, isn't that why you lot wiped out John's memories? So, I guess it'll be fine—until someone does something stupid and forgets about it." Taro spoke ominously.

"Dude! Don't jinx it like that! We're literally in a tightrope right now. I mean, you remember the last flash? How the hell did he conjure up all those memories from seemingly out of nothing? I mean, the words weren't that significant, right?" Thankappan asked.

"It's as you said. But it's not like there is anything we could do about it, right? I mean, if it worked out as we hope it does, John wouldn't have remembered that event in the near or far future, and even if he did, the second flash would've made him forget literally everything about him. So yea, life works in strange ways." Taro explained.

"Ha, I guess that would be right." Thankappan had no choice but to agree with Taro's statement.

"Anyhow, I feel like we deviated from our initial point. I believe we should put someone to tail Harish until we can be entirely sure about his innocence in this matter." Taro suggested.

"Hmm, not bad! How about we tail them ourselves?" Thankappan asked.

"Well, isn't that MIB's job?" Taro asked.

"It is. But I thought you'd be bored staying at home doing nothing on a Saturday." Thankappan replied.

"Look, I didn't say that because I don't wanna come with you or something. As a civil servant on my home planet, I don't usually make a normal civilian tag alongside me when I'm on duty." Taro spoke.

"Hmm, I don't either. But this is unofficial duty, right? I'll be taking a holiday tomorrow. So, it's more of a private investigation than an official MIB one." Thankappan replied with a smirk on his face.

"I don't know why you'd do something like that, but I'm in." Taro replied.

"Oh, great—wait, why not? What's wrong with what I'm gonna do?" Thankappan asked.

"Well, I don't think you're that dim to realize it." Taro spoke.

"... Ha, I know. It would be stupid. However, these are some things that we can't detail in the MIB records. We are going after normal people. If we're gonna do it the MIB way, even if Harish knew about you, he would actually forget it since he'll grow old by that time." Thankappan explained.

"Whoa, are official investigations so hard to do in the sector?" Taro asked.

"Not really. We're free to do whatever the fuck we want when we're investigating aliens. However, civilians are an entirely different ball game, my dude. The papers have to be accepted by a helluva lot of higher ups. And if our luck is shit, the papers might end up in the HQ's hands. We're fucked if that happens in this case, you know that, right?" Thankappan asked back.

"Can't we just say that we suspect the person of knowing the existence of aliens?" Taro asked.

"They'd ask a detailed account on why you suspect them of such a thing and how you know about it and stuff like that. It's truly a hassle." The MIB agent explained.

"Truly a hassle, huh? I guess we got no choice but to do it ourselves then. By the way, are you gonna at least talk about it to Lonappan? I don't think we should do something like this without asking him first." Taro suggested.

"You are overly cautious, aren't you? I wasn't planning to do that, however I changed my mind now. You're right. I should tell him., I know he won't accompany me because of John, but he'll at least know where I'll be if some emergencies come by." Thankappan replied.

"Great! Let's tail Harish tomorrow!" Taro proudly proclaimed much to Thankappan's embarrassment, since he was the only one who got weird looks for some odd reason.

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