Unlike last evening, the group of four made the right decision this time. They rejected Vineeth's advances and avoided another potential disaster. Hence, they reached Holy Land without much commotion.
"Ah, you're back! Why didn't you go to 'party' this time?" Lonappan welcomed with a scoff.
"Haha, very funny—not! Look, that was just a mishap. It's not like that's ever gonna happen again!" Thankappan retorted.
"Mishap, it seems! Well, whatever. Go do whatever shit you wanna do. And here, take this." Lonappan handed a lunch box to his junior.
"What is this?" He asked, looking around the package.
"My wife made this. Hope you like it." Lonappan gave out a genuine smile.
"This looks small. This was supposed to be your lunch, wasn't it?" Thankappan put forth his suspicion.
"Well, I thought you guys might like it!" Lonappan replied with a sly laughter.
"Dude, you gotta stop lying to your wife about these stuff." Thankappan sighed.
"It's the nature of our job, isn't it?" Lonappan asked.
"Yea, you do you, my man. By the way, if you heard loud noises from the house tonight, it's just the TV." Thankappan spoke.
"It's your house and your television. Why would I care?" Lonappan asked.
"Well, that's true. However, I just wanted to give you a heads-up. Don't want our neighbours to complaint about the noise from here!" Thankappan replied.
"What's up with the sudden interest in television and stuff? Don't you have work tomorrow?" Lonappan asked.
"Not sure. Even if we do, Taro rarely sleeps so he'd manage." Kunjan jumped into explain.
"Yea, I'm the one staying awake." Taro nodded.
"Hmm. Your choice. I'mma scoot." Lonappan spoke and walked back to his home.
#
Later that night, everyone had their pajamas on—except for Taro. His eyes brimmed with excitement.
"You ready?" Thankappan asked as he turned on the television.
"Yea, just tell me how to surf channels." Taro spoke.
"Sure. This is the remote and this is the up and down buttons; this right here is volume and these are a whole bunch of other buttons." Thankappan instructed while Taro carefully listened.
"That might be enough, I guess? Thanks, Thankappan." Taro smiled.
"No worries. But look, there ain't gonna be many good shows or movies this time of the night." Thankappan warned.
"Nah, that's alright. I can't determine what's good or bad in this planet's entertainment industry, after all." Taro shrugged.
"You're right about that." Thankappan chuckled. "Enjoy your viewing then."
Taro nodded as he indulged himself into the world of television. He actually didn't understand nothing of what was shown in the television. However, motion picture is not always about the dialogues but the actions. Although, most of them he surfed through were much more dialogue centric than action.
However, through the plethora of channels, he finally found one that's suitable to his tastes. It showed a man in yellow jumpsuit fending off multiple people in what was a spectacle. The appearance of this man reminded him of the denizens of the martial planet.
Taro was instantly hooked on this. Not only did the man felt nostalgic to him, but the way he moved deserved immense praise too. The moves was undoubtedly martial arts. Learning of the existence of this unique style, Taro had this immense desire to learn this art as soon as possible. Therefore, for the rest of the night, rather than enjoying the movie for its plot, he deeply studied the actor's moves and patterns.
By the time morning came by, Taro could merely copy a fragment of that man's moves. Although, his innate power and years of learning multiple martial arts might cover up this inability to do anything more than copy it, Taro was adamant about learning the real thing.
"So, how was it?" Thankappan, still in his morning blues, asked.
However, Taro didn't speak. Even though, the television currently broadcasted a telemarketing ad, Taro continued to stare at it attentively. This concerned Thankappan.
"Dude, you fine?" Thankappan vigorously shook Taro and yet there wasn't any response.
Taro, retracing the entire movie marathon scene by scene didn't even noticed Thankappan beside him until much later when the commotion grew louder and louder.
"Huh, what is it?" Taro asked, breaking out of his focussed state.
"Damn, why didn't you respond earlier?" Thankappan looked concerned as he asked.
"I didn't realise that you were calling. What were you talking about?" Taro asked instead.
"I asked how is it going?" Thankappan spoke.
"Ah, it was fucking awesome! So, I saw this guy doing these stuff and he was fucking amazing!" Taro looked excited.
"Hold on. Who exactly are you talking about?" Thankappan asked.
Unable to describe the guy he saw on the TV, Taro was in a pinch. He knew how the guy looked, however, he didn't know how to accurately describe a jumpsuit. Therefore, instead of describing his appearance, he decided to imitate the move set of that person that influenced him the most—a one-inch punch. Although, he did it, he made it sure to do the move in thin air.
"Wait a minute! They broadcasted a Bruce Lee movie at night?" Thankappan looked at Taro with awe and a slight hint of jealousy.
"I see, his name is Bruce Lee, huh. He's freaking amazing!" Taro exclaimed.
"You just spoke out a universal truth." Thankappan smiled.
"By the way, is that the kung-fu thing you spoke about?" Taro asked, as he remembered that one conversation with Thankappan.
"Yea, pretty flashy, eh?" Thankappan spoke as he imitated some moves.
"Where can I learn that?" He asked.
Thankappan stopped in his tracks. "Dude, how strong do you even wannabe?"
Taro chuckled. "As strong as I can be."
Thankappan got lost in the track of thoughts for a moment. Then he grabbed Taro's phone and searched something before he gave it back to him. "Look, it's a dojo. Let's go tonight and apply for it."
"Why make it tonight? You can go there right now, if you wanna!" In came Lonappan with a cheeky smile.
"What do you mean? We've got work then." Thankappan retorted.
"Well, I called Pranchiyettan and he told me that there ain't no work for you today since you guys finished it pretty soon yesterday." Lonappan answered.
"If that's the case, may I head there on my own?" Taro asked.
"Sure. If that's what you want, then go for it." Thankappan replied.
Happy about this decisions, Taro hurriedly left the Holy Land and headed towards his destination.
#
After an hour or two of walking, Taro finally reached his destination with the help of his mobile device. However, once he reached before the dojo, he remembered one important thing—that he couldn't speak. What's more amazing is that none of them remembered this fact. They worked on more of a reflex action back then and ended up with Taro being in a totally unknown place with no one to speak for him.
However, Taro wasn't one to give up due to these minor inconveniences. He fearlessly entered into the dojo. And yet, this fearlessness fizzled out once he saw the smallest amount of crowd in the dojo. It wasn't just another crowd—those were kids.
After careful consideration, Taro decided that it'd be apt if he view the lessons from the outside. Therefore, he fully immersed himself into what the teacher was teaching. Although he failed to consider the fact that he looked like a pedophilic creep gazing on the children out there. As soon as the parents of these kids saw him do this, they quickly threw him out.
Taro was disappointed, yet he understood their concerns. However, he wasn't ready to give up. He still had the burning passion to learn kung-fu.
#
Back in the Holy Land. "Yea, we messed up huh?" Thankappan spoke.
"Obviously! We forgot that Taro couldn't speak the language. I guess it was a knee-jerk reaction since we understood Taro's speech because of the translator." Lonappan replied.
"Yea, they threw me out. Probably thought that I'm a creep or something." Taro sighed.
"Well, you probably stared at them for too long." Thankappan shrugged.
"I was learning!" Taro retorted.
"Dude, you should probably stop doing it that way." Thankappan suggested.
"I'll take that into consideration." Taro nodded.
"So, what are you gonna do now? Do you want us to talk to the dojo?" Lonappan asked.
"No. I want to do it by myself. This is a trial that I set for myself." Taro replied.
"Even if they continued considering you as a creep?" Thankappan asked this time.
"Even then, yes." Taro replied. He had finally found a goal within reach; a thing that he could do right now.
"Alright then. I'll try my level best to accelerate the production of your translation." Lonappan assured.
"I appreciate that." Taro nodded in approval.
"Now that that's done, let's wait for the other three." Thankappan spoke.
"Where are they?" He asked.
"They went to the amusement park." Thankappan replied.
"Amusement park; without asking me. They have no idea what's in store for them." Taro clenched his fists and grinned.
#