"Adi, come here quickly," an adorable shout was heard when Aditya was preparing to read a book before having breakfast.
Aditya held an illusory looking book which was titled as 'The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Discovering and Exploiting Security Flaws'. The book looked like it was alive and moving as the words in the book seemed to change their colours once in a while as hey floating above the pages which seemed to be made of milk as waves and ripples could be seen when Aditya turned the pages like he was holding onto a semi-opaque object.
Aditya was about to finish this book so he did not respond to Tya's shouts and finished the book quickly as he activated 'Sensifull' ability. With 'Sensifull' ability, he could take in the contents of the whole page at once instead of reading the book line by line. With his super comprehensive abilities and memory capability, it was possible for him to read at such pace. He was fortunate that he had these crazy cognitive abilities to supplement this ability otherwise even if Tya was able to copy all the books into this world, it would take him years to complete one reading let alone understanding, remembering and putting them into practical application.
"Adi, I am going to get angry if you do not come right now," an angry warning was heard which Tya successfully managed to make it sound cute and harmless somehow.
Aditya smirked as he pressed the finished book in his hand. The book turned back into the fog and went back to its original form. He did not want to spare any space for the books which he had already finished reading as there was no question of him forgetting the knowledge. He turned and took another book which was titled 'Black Hat Python: Python Programming for Hackers and Pentesters' and sat down.
He smiled as he thought, 'this Tya is getting out of hand day by day, especially since I started spending more time here during night times. I need to start disciplining him otherwise, who knows what he will do if I spoiled him too much. Even Hamsa is laughing when I sing children songs and licking lollipops. This has to end...' before he finished this thought, the book he had just opened turned into fog.
Aditya was dumbstruck when he saw the book which he had not read yet, vanish. It did not take long before he knew who had done it as he angrily stomped out of the small library as he shouted, "Tya, what are you thinking about yourself, do you know the value of the book that you just destroyed (cough). Do you know how much I had to sacrifice for getting that book? (cough cough)..."
Sniff Sniff...
Before he could complete his outburst, he saw Tya's unbelievably cute face which was contorting a little as he pouted and looked at Aditya with disproportionately big, round, watery eyes as he held the book which had just vanished in his small chubby hands.
All the act that Aditya had built up to use this chance to discipline Tya dispersed when he saw Tya's pitiful expression. It can't be helped, Tya was so adorable and endearing that Aditya just couldn't stand seeing Tya crying in front of him.
"Nothing, it's nothing, I was just playing with you, how could I not know that you can recreate any books which had already entered, don't cry, I am teaching you social interaction so that you won't be bullied by anyone in the future. You need to know how to deal with angry people otherwise you would be hurt if you are not prepared. Cough cough.." Aditya rambled on as he tried to assuage Tya's grief.
Sniff Sniff...
"Okay, sorry, I am sorry, I will never shout at you ever again," Aditya admitted defeat immediately when he saw that Tya's darling face did not become normal still.
"really?" Tya asked
"Yup, I promise on the life of teacher Suresh," Aditya nodded seriously as he looked at Tya 'earnestly' (for people who have trouble remembering Suresh, he was basically the teacher in charge of the cafeteria when Yu Yan was bullied by Karan and Aditya defended her. He is basically a douche bag. Tya doesn't know him.)
"Who is that teacher Suresh?" Tya asked in a lovable manner as he tilted his head cutely.
"You don't know the great teacher Suresh? He was a legend in my previous school, all the students worshipped him for his fairness in teaching and moral integrity." Aditya said in an unnaturally low and deep voice to make himself believable.
"Oh," Tya listened earnestly as he said, "I also want to meet such a legendary figure."
"Yeah sure, definitely," Aditya also nodded, "right, Tya, why did you call me?"
"Elder brother Adi, take a look at the sky," Tya replied in an anticipatory tone with a bright smile on his face. It was good that Aditya had developed a certain immunity towards cuteness while staying with Tya for a long time. If it was not the case, even a stone-hearted person wouldn't be able to resist lifting Tya and kissing his cheeks.
"Sky? We don't have a sky…" Aditya stood transfixed as he saw that the colourful fog and spheres had vanished and replaced by a dark sky filled with pentagram shaped stars placed symmetrically at uniform distances from each other. Except that these stars looked tens of times larger than the usual ones and they were not radiating white light but scintillating gleams of bright and diverse colours which caused Aditya to mistake them as disco lights rather than stars. Also, the sky somehow seemed more reachable than the real one. But the view itself was splendid and fascinating as he stood for a long time basking in the colours with a serene look on his face.
"Where did you get this idea from?" Aditya asked after some time as the feeling of euphoria finally settled down.
Tya corrected his tone as he started singing the most popular rhyme in the history of rhymes,
Twinkle Twinkle little stars ♪♪♪
Here Tya paused as he looked expectantly at Aditya who did not open his mouth as he looked like he was making a life-changing decision.
How I wonder what you are ♫ ♫ ♫
Aditya had a helpless expression on his face when he saw Tya's eyes becoming watery, he sighed as if he was going to sacrifice something as he opened his mouth at last.
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky.♬♬♬
Adi: 0
Life: 1
…
"Why are you looking so depressed," Hamsa asked with concern as she and Aditya had breakfast. Most of the time, this was the only meal that they had together. Aditya had a dull look on his face as his eyes conveyed helplessness. He would sometimes smile bitterly as he looked at the street visible through the window. Hamsa started to think if the breakfast was not tasty but she did not find any defects as usually, Aditya liked her cooking a lot.
Today's breakfast was Pongal (a popular south Indian rice dish made of rice, mung beans, peppers, jaggery and cashews).
Aditya snapped out of his depressing thoughts when he heard Hamsa's words as he hurriedly shook his head and started to dig into the hot, steaming breakfast with a spoon. His eyes lit up when he took in the first spoon as he complimented, "this Pongal is amazing but I think that there are too many cashew nuts added, right?"
Hamsa hesitated before she finally replied, "I think that you need to eat a lot of nuts in your diet so that you could get the necessary proteins. You know..." she stopped there as she took a look at Aditya's lean physique and thin arms with genuine worry.
Crack!
Aditya felt that his heart cracked as it was unable to withstand two heavy blows in one morning. He hurriedly finished his breakfast, wore his mechanic uniform and went downstairs step by step as he cut a sorry figure.
Adi: 0
Life: 2
…
"Adi, what happened? You look a bit dep..."
"Depressed, I know, cut it. What are the repairs today?" Aditya asked as he did not want to discuss the philosophy of life with Chakri.
"catalytic converter replacement, clutch assembly replacement, head gasket replacement..."
"Stop, cylinder head gasket replacement it is," Aditya began his work. Most of the repairs usually cost the most on the replacement parts while the actual work involved is less but head gasket replacement parts are very cheap when compared with its repair cost as the labour involved in getting the head off and skimming it, is pretty huge.
A cylinder head gasket usually never needs a replacement but when it does get blown, the main part of the repair is not the actual replacement but discovering the primary cause of that blowing. If that cause was not addressed and only a replacement was done then the gasket is bound to fail again.
It can be due to some kind of blocking or cracking or warping of the cylinder head which can be caused due to overheating. Again overheating is not the main cause as that can be caused due to radiator problem or intake manifold defect or a thermostat issue.
Aditya whistled lightly as he saw the Grey metallic Toyota Corolla Altis VL car which required the head gasket replacement. It looked like a pretty new car, not more than a year old.
"Nice car, right?" Chakri said as he looked at the design but Aditya did not speak as he looked at the car.
"What you don't like this car? The design of this 11th generation Corolla is much better than it's predecessors," Chakri said as he continued to look at this car with appreciation.
Aditya shook his head as he said, "Don't get me wrong, I respect Toyota for their reliability and quality but as a layman, my first response after looking at the dashboard was 'Eww'. don't you think that it resembles that of a truck."
"That I can't refute," Chakri nodded, "But the exterior design has gotten much better, don't you..." his voice trailed off when he saw a teen girl hugging Aditya tightly from behind.
The girl cried excitedly, "Adi, it's been such a long time, I missed you so much. Did you miss me too? That idiot Kranthi had posted on the social network that he had helped you get a job and a load of other crap. Why didn't you contact me when you had some difficulty? You didn't think that the first girl you ever kissed was not worthy of sharing your difficulties."
Aditya did not move but a warm smile could be seen forming on his face as he said, "Kumari, if it was not for your voice, I would have mistaken that it was a boy that hugged me, looks like you have not 'grown' yet."
"As expected from our very own lecher, playboy Adi," Kranthi smiled as he walked towards them as his fat jiggled while the girl who had just hugged Aditya started kicking him and raising up a fuss while Chakri watched on not knowing what to do? He had only one thought in his mind, "Damn, she is beautiful, a pity..."