Undesired Memories

She woke up to the shrill ringing of the phone in the living room. She pulled the pillow over her head. The ringing stopped and she could hear the muffled voice of her father speaking into the phone. She peered at the clock kept on the bedside table, it declared 6:45. She heard her mother’s voice coming from the living room too. The commotion in the living room didn’t let her go back to sleep.

Reluctantly she pulled herself out of the bed and walked dragging her sleepy legs into the living room. Her father held the newspaper in his hand as he turned to look at her. She saw that her mother was wiping her wet cheeks with the end of her saree. Her mother turned around and hugged her warmly. She was surprised at the sudden show of emotions by her.

“What’s the matter?” She asked rubbing her eyes, not returning her hug.
 
Her father showed her the newspaper.
“Jaipur Girl Tops CA Exams”

The front page of the newspaper declared. She looked at her passport sized photo in the news item, the black eyes and hair slick with oil and tied tightly at the back confirmed it was her. She read the name at the bottom of the photograph again. It did read Neeta Sharma. The phone rang again as she read the news item. Her father picked it up.

“Yes, we saw the news.” He spoke into the phone, “Yes, yes we are very proud of her.”

Neeta looked at him, she could see genuine happiness in his eyes. The pride showed in his face. The wrinkles of his old age seemed to have disappeared. Her mother still sobbing hadn’t said anything yet. The small family hardly spoke with each other. It was a rare show of emotions that Neeta was witnessing from her parents. Somewhere in her heart of hearts she didn’t like it. There was a void inside her which told her everything was a farce. Her father turned around and gave her a rare bright smile. She threw the newspaper on the sofa and went to her room without saying a word.

She closed the door, fell on her bed, buried her head in the white pillow and wept softly.

“You know that I never wanted a girl.”

Her father’s voice played inside her head like an old record stuck in the player. Even though it had been two years since she had overheard him saying this to her mother in the middle of the night in their bedroom, she could still feel the cold sting in her ears. Upon hearing these words in an instant she had felt like an orphan. All she had done was ask him for money, so that she could take up tutorials for her CA exams. He had coldly refused it.

“It is enough that you have completed your graduation”, he had said.

Her father had always been cold to her. Even when she was a child he would never pick her up in his arms, even if he did, he did it like a duty which had to be performed. He was always warm to her cousin Ashish, showering him with goodies and affection whenever he came to their house. He never showed the same affection to Neeta, not even when she came first in the whole school, or when she won the district badminton championship and not even when she was sick of typhoid.

She felt a hand touch her softly on her head. She lifted her head and saw him sitting beside her. The pillow had dark marks of her tears and her cheeks were wet. She wiped her cheeks and sat up, moving away from him.

The first time Neeta had confronted him with the question of why she was an unwanted child, he was shocked. He didn’t get angry, he was shocked. He didn’t say anything. Neeta kept pushing him with questions like, why didn’t he want a girl and why didn’t they just aborted her, but he didn’t utter a single word. He had taken it all on his heart and remained silent.

“You know when I was sixteen or seventeen years old I had a huge crush on one of my distant cousins. Her name was Aditi.” Her father spoke looking away from Neeta. She was still sobbing softly. She couldn’t understand why he was suddenly talking to her like that.

“Aditi was seven or eight years older to me and a cousin so anything between us was simply out of question.” He continued speaking with a sigh as if he was trying to heave off something heavy from his chest.

“Well, Aditi got married into a rich family in Delhi and the same year I got admission in engineering in Delhi University. Her parents wanted me to visit her at least once a month so that she wouldn’t feel lonely or miss home.” He paused and looked at his hands as if trying to read the lines. Neeta looked at him intently.

“Then one day, I received a call from her mother at around eight in the night, her voice was panic stricken. She wanted me to immediately go to Aditi’s house. Her neighbors had called her and she thought something was wrong.” He stopped speaking and pulled off his spectacles. With his thumb and index finger he massaged his eyes as if they were tired of staring for long at something.

“I went there and saw that some fire fighters were leaving the house which was semi burned. There was a group of people standing near the house and who were now dispersing. The neighbors told me that the family had gone to the hospital. I found Aditi’s husband waiting in the hospital lobby. He took me to a room, where I saw Aditi’s charred body lying naked on the steel stretcher. Her clothes were stuck to her blackened body like her skin. The almond shaped eyes were reduced to hollow sockets. Her once beautiful face was now only a burnt skeleton skull. Aditi’s husband told me that the gas cylinder in the kitchen blew up while she was alone in the house. Her whole family had gone out of town in the morning.” He stopped talking again and looked at the floor. Neeta could see that his eyes were filled with water at the corners.

“It was later on I learned that her in-laws had been continuously torturing her for dowry. Her parents had already sold their house and their farm lands to marry her off. Still after the marriage the in-laws continued to harass her for more. Nobody spoke about it openly but we all knew how Aditi had died.

“I was broken from inside to see the ugly burnt body of the girl who had once been so beautiful, who had almost been my first love. It was then that I had made up my mind not to have a girl child. I didn’t have the courage to support a girl against this cruel world.” The father wiped his forehead with his palm. Neeta looked at him. He seemed tired, as if within moments he had grown ten years older. Neeta went over to where her father sat on the bed. She kneeled beside him with her hands on her knees.

Her mother stood at the door with the end of her saree on her mouth, sobbing occasionally. Her father looked at Neeta’s eyes as tears blurred his vision. Her lips were curved into a smile, as her eyes became moist too. The morning sun rose through the bedroom window behind her.

The Dilemma

“Hi everyone, my first book is out and it’s available at all leading book stores now, do let me know what you think of it. :) Bye!” Ira read the Facebook status message and smiled. She checked her wrist watch it was almost six now. Her friend appeared at her cubicle, “are you coming”, she asked. “Yeah, just a moment, Anu”, Ira replied. “Aah! I see you are checking Facebook, should I tell boss”, asked Anu with a chuckle. “Don’t you wish to live anymore”, Ira asked in reply. They both laughed. She picked up her handbag and they came out of the office.

“Hey, let’s go to the Corner Book Store, I need to pick up a book”, said Ira. “The book that you were reading about on someone’s Facebook status”, asked Anu. “Yes, he is an old friend, just got his first book published”, Ira replied reading the back cover of the book. “Come on don’t lie, his Facebook profile picture didn’t suggest that he was old”, said Anu with a laugh. At the book store Ira she found his book on the new arrivals’ shelf at the entrance. Ira went to the counter, paid for the book and they left.

Ira reached her flat and rang the doorbell. Her mother opened the door. She flopped on the sofa in the living room, rested her head on the back rest and closed her eyes. “Should I make you some coffee”, asked her mother sitting down beside her and softly massaging her head. Her mother did not ask again, she knew what her daughter had been through lately. 

It had been eight months now that Ira had left her husband. Immediately after her marriage with Kunal, he had lost his job. The software company he was working for was one of the hardest hit by global recession. One morning as Kunal arrived at his office he and hundreds of others heard a rude announcement at the gates, “people, whose identity cards are not working at the entrance, should collect their termination letter from the desk at the corner”. Ira had a well paid job as a lawyer which gave Kunal some breathing space. “Let’s move to Bangalore”, said Kunal one night after they had made love “it would be easier for me to find a job in my domain”. “Even I have been looking to get away from this crowd in Mumbai”, replied Ira with a satisfied smile “I can ask my office to give me a transfer in their Bangalore office”. 

Ira bought the flat when they moved in the city taking a home loan from the bank. “Paying the EMIs will be a lot easier when I get a job”, Kunal had told. 

After two months Kunal was still jobless. In frustration he started to drink. He came late in the nights most of the times too drunk to walk. Some days Ira would return home from office to find him lying fast asleep on the floor with an empty bottle beside him. When she protested, he started to abuse her. He started to blame her for everything and became violent for petty reasons. Ira somehow believed that Kunal would change once he got a job. She kept quiet, sharing her pain only with Anu. One day her boss asked her why her right cheek looked bruised, she made a lame excuse. It was only Anu who knew what Ira was going through. Soon Ira began to run out of excuses.

One night Kunal came home late, he was drunk and started abusing and beating Ira mercilessly, so much so that her left eye was blind. She tried to escape from him. She ran into the bed room and closed the door. She took out her mobile and called Anu. All this while Kunal kept banging on the door violently, Anu could hear the noise on the phone. She arrived with the police and rescued Ira. The police kept Kunal in their custody for a couple of days and then released him after his father gave the bail. 

Kunal left Bangalore and did not return again. Ira’s mother moved in with her. Both the families tried to bring them back together and in spite of Kunal’s apologies Ira was too scared to get back with him. Slowly life became normal once again. The scars on her face disappeared and her left eye healed with time. She became busy with her job and tried to forget what had happened.

--------

Her mother got up and went into the kitchen. Ira opened her eyes and went to her bedroom to change. 

After dinner, she took out the book from her hand bag and started reading it in her bed. The story was about a boy who was in college and had fallen in love with a girl who he had met online. It reminded Ira of the first time she had a chat with Kartik. She couldn’t remember how long ago that was, but the story she noticed loosely resembled her own story. 

When Kartik had first messaged her on chat, Ira was reluctant to chat with a stranger. But Kartik did not give up and continued to message her till she agreed to chat with him. They had been online friends for more than two years when Ira took up her first job in Delhi and Kartik also moved to Delhi to complete his MBA. That was when both of them met. 

Ira pushed her spectacles up the bridge of her nose and turned another page.

Slowly Ira fell in love with the shy but ambitious, fickle minded Gemini who thought marriage was a huge responsibility and he would never be ready for it. She however knew one day he would propose to her or if he wouldn’t then she would. Kartik had always told Ira that he would never settle for a nine-to-five job and after working for some company for a couple of years would start his own company. Every day he would tell Ira about some new business idea which he and a couple of his friends would be working on. Ira loved his enthusiasm and ambition and always listened to him seriously. 

Ira had known Kartik’s love for books and writing. He had always told her that he would write a book someday. It was there in her hands now, his first book and it was a story about her. Ira’s eyes were getting heavy, she checked the clock beside her bed it was 1:47 now. She turned another page and continued to read. Slowly her eyes closed and the book fell on her chest. 

Ira saw Kunal in her dream, he was smiling at her and she was laughing. Then suddenly he was angry and tried to slap her but Ira dodged him. Ira ran to escape from him, he ran after her. She ran and ran until she was sweating and was out of breath. She turned around to see if Kunal was still following her, but she saw Kartik standing and giving her his usual lopsided smile. She turned around and ran towards Kartik, hoping that he would protect her, but her feet slipped and she woke up with a jolt. 

Her face was covered with sweat, the book was still on her chest and her spectacles were on her nose. She switched off the reading lamp, put the book and the glasses beside the clock and closed her eyes with a sigh. Her thoughts wandered to Kartik again. 

The table clock began to chime.

She got up and walked into the living room. Her mother was making the morning tea in the kitchen, “Good Morning Ma”, she said. Ira opened the front door and picked up the morning news paper. The front page of Bangalore Times declared that Kartik would be in the Corner Book Store to promote his new book at three in the evening. Ira wanted to meet him again. She wanted everything to be like it was when she was in Delhi. 

All day in office her thoughts drifted to Kartik. Sometimes she would make up her mind to meet him at the book store. Sometimes she would convince herself that he didn’t want her back in his life, after all it was she who had decided to break up. At one Anu came to her cubicle to ask her for lunch, she told her everything. Anu somehow convinced her that she should go. Ira checked her watch it was already three. She immediately went to her boss and asked for an off for the rest of the day. “Best of luck” cried Anu as Ira left the office. Ira smiled back at Anu, nervously.

When Ira reached the book store it was already half full of people, with Kartik’s new book in their hands. He was sitting on a dais and signing the books with a smile which never left his face. She stood patiently at the end for her turn to come. Someone in the crowd said something and he looked up to reply. His eyes met Ira’s eyes as if he knew she would be there for him. Kartik’s face immediately lit up with a bright smile and he gestured Ira to come from the other side. He asked one of the volunteers to guide the lady in maroon t-shirt to the platform. The volunteers made space for her to come near the platform. She stood below the platform and handed over the book for him to sign. 

“Hi Ira, how have you been”, asked Kartik. 

“I am good. Congratulations Kartik, please sign my copy”, said Ira. 

Kartik signed the book and said “why don’t you sit over there and I will be with you after I am done. I hope you are not in a hurry.” 

“No, I will wait”, said Ira. 

Kartik gestured to a man and said “Ravi will you please show the lady to a seat and get something for her to drink”. Ravi nodded and said, “please come with me”. 

Ira sat at one corner of the store and in front of her she could see Kartik surrounded by what looked like a bunch of college kids. A volunteer appeared by her side with a glass of orange juice, she accepted it with a thank you. She saw Ravi go up to Kartik and say something in his ear. Kartik nodded. The volunteers cleared the bunch of college kinds from around the platform. A man was setting up a camera on a tripod in front of the platform. A young girl in her twenties with a microphone in her hand waited impatiently for the crowd to disperse from around the platform. The volunteers cleared the crowd from the stage and the young girl with the microphone got up on the platform and took a chair beside Kartik. Ira got lost in her thoughts and didn’t notice what the young girl was saying.

-------

When Ira had told Kartik that her parents wanted her to get married, he had asked her to give him a couple of years at least to settle down and then they could get married. Ira never wanted to pressurize him and always wanted Kartik to achieve his dreams. That weekend Ira had gone to visit her sister in Mumbai and there here sister introduced her to Kunal. Her sister told her that Kunal was a very close friend of her husband and was working with a software firm with a handsome salary. She told Ira that their parents had already met each other and if Ira approved their marriage would be fixed. Ira told them that she needed some time to think. 

When Ira came back to Delhi she wanted to tell Kartik that he should immediately speak to her parents and let them know that they intended to get married in two or three years. “Me and two of my friends have decided not to sit for campus placements. We will be starting our own company as soon as we are out of the college” said Kartik when they met. Ira stopped herself from discussing the marriage issue. “I have met someone at my sister’s place”, she told Kartik after much contemplation. Even though she saw the pain clearly on Kartik’s face she didn’t change her decision.  She cried all night. In the morning she called up her sister in Mumbai and told her that she was ready to marry Kunal.

---------------

The sound of clapping jolted Ira back to awareness. She saw the young girl was still sitting with Kartik, with microphone in her hand. “One last question”, said the girl. Kartik nodded. “Your Facebook profile says you are single, is that true”, asked the girl. Kartik smiled brightly, Ira could see the blush on his cheeks. “I see you have done your research. Well, I have recently got engaged, I am sorry I haven’t been able to update my relationship status on my Facebook profile”, he said smiling even more brightly. The crowd laughed. The girl thanked him for his time and signaled the cameraman to stop shooting. The girl got up and shook hands with Kartik. Kartik gestured to Ravi and said something in his ear. Ravi took the microphone and said “Kartik will resume signing the books after a fifteen minute break.” The crowd dispersed.

Ira got up and went over to the Music CD section and picked up a Mark Knopfler CD and checked the track list. 

“Still crazy about Mark Knopfler”, she heard Kartik’s voice. She turned around, to see him smiling at her. 

“I picked it up just like that”, she said with a smile. 

“I noticed a coffee shop on the other side of the street let’s go there”, said Kartik. 

“Yeah sure”, replied Ira, “and congratulations on your engagement.” 

“Thanks!” replied Kartik.

They reached the coffee shop and took a seat at the corner. They talked about old times and common friends, Kartik asked Ira about her family and how her husband was doing. Ira hadn’t told Kartik about what had happened between her and Kunal, and she decided that she would not do so. Every time he smiled at her she wanted to fall in love with him all over again. He kept looking into her eyes when she talked and she felt nice that after a long time someone was listening to what she had to say. 

Before they knew their fifteen minutes were over. A volunteer came up to Kartik and told him that he had to go back to the store. Kartik asked for the check and paid. Ira told him that she would like to leave. 

“Lets meet at my hotel and have dinner together, please bring your husband along too”, said Kartik. 

“But my husband is out of town”, replied Ira. 

“Then why don’t you come and have dinner with me, please Ira”, pleaded Kartik. 

Ira didn’t want to meet him again. Now that Kartik had achieved his dreams, was happy and ready to settle down, she did not want him to know about her feelings. 

“Please Ira”, he repeated with a smile. 

“Okay”, she said and promised herself that she would never contact him after the dinner that night. Kartik turned around and left. Ira stood there and saw him entering the store.

On her way back home she was happy that she would be meeting Kartik again that night. She was looking forward to something after a long time in her life. She thought of which dress she should wear. She smiled as she realized she was behaving exactly the way she used to whenever Kartik asked her for a date in Delhi. She noticed the rickshaw driver watching her in the rear view mirror, but she could not hide her happiness and continued to look out of the auto rickshaw and smile at nothing.

Her smile disappeared when she remembered that Kartik was engaged. It hurt her to think that her happiness was ephemeral. It was again like the old times when she had silently strangled her feelings so that he could realize his dreams.  This time she didn’t want to do it again. She wanted to tell him that she had committed a mistake by not accepting his love. She thought about his engagement again. She was confused; she wasn’t sure what to do now, whether she should convey her feelings to him or not go for the dinner at all. She could meet him and go on as if nothing had happened and she was happy with her life. “Why did I go to the book store in the first place”, she cursed herself. She was angry at herself for being so stupid to accept his invitation. 

The auto rickshaw stopped outside her building she got out and paid him. She was about to take the stairs when the mobile in her pocket started to vibrate. She took it out and checked the caller’s name on the screen, it was an unknown number. She pressed the receive button, hoping that Kartik had somehow managed to get her number and called her. 

“Hello”, she said into the phone. 

“Hi Ira, this is Kunal here”, said a nervous voice in the phone. 

“I don’t have anything to do with you now”, said Ira, her voice trembling as a bitter realization struck her. 

“Before you cut off the phone let me tell you that I am very sorry for whatever happened”, said Kunal. 

Ira listened to the voice, it sounded sincere as her eyes started to well up.

Snatched

The first time he saw her she was sitting in a Barista outlet sipping coffee. Her hair had green streaks and with her head bent, she was reading a book. Michael Crichton’s Timline, he had noticed.

“Are you a Sci-fi fan”, he asked walking up to her table.

She shook her head looking up at his face. “Ok”, he said and turned around to leave.

“But I am liking this book”, she said, as if trying to stop him from leaving. There was something about that smile of his and the way his brown eyes had looked at her that made her stop him and start a conversation.

“I am Kinichi” she said, extending her hand.

“Kinichi, that’s an interesting name. I am Anwar”, he said. They ended up sitting at the café for almost three hours talking about books over several cups of coffee.

The next day he found her sitting on the same table munching on some green vegetable with her coffee.

“What is that”, he asked.

“Carrot”, Kinichi replied casually.

“Green carrots”, he asked incredulously. She shrugged in reply.

Anwar worked in a publishing house and was an aspiring writer. His office building was near the café. Each evening after office hours he would come to the café to find Kinichi sitting with a cup of coffee and a book. Some days she would be munching green carrots.

****

That night around eight Anwar and Kinichi went for a walk on the pavement just outside the café. They walked slowly side by side.

“How wonderful would it be if, one day I woke up and realized that I was actually someone from another planet and had superpowers”, Kinichi said turning to Anwar.

“Yeah, superpowers like walking through a wall or flying or something”, Anwar said with a laugh.

“No, like a Queen with superpowers to disappear at will and bullets would bounce off my body.”

Thy both laughed heartily.

Anwar looked into her laughing eyes, took her hand and told her that he had fallen in love with her. She looked at him and smiled her eyes glowing faint green.

“But you don’t know much about me”, she said.

“I have nothing to do with your past, all I want is your present and your future”, Anwar replied.

“It’s not my past, it’s a life that I can’t escape.”

“What does it mean?”

Suddenly there was a flash of light on the other side of the street and almost instantly a man in black suit, white shirt and black tie appeared. He was a tall man with a strong build and wore dark glasses at night. Anwar stared at the man in disbelief. Before he could react Kinichi grabbed Anwar by his arms spun around and began to run towards the café. From the corner of his eyes Anwar saw several flashes of light all around them as men in black suits appeared.

They were still a good fifty yards away from the café when Kinichi saw the man who had first appeared running towards them pulling out a weird looking gun and pointing at them. Before Kinichi could react a car came speeding and crashed into the man throwing him in the air. The man fell on the street with a thud and immediately disappeared leaving behind some smoke.

There were others who were now running quickly towards Anwar and Kinichi. There was a brilliant flash in front of them and a black suit appeared right in front of them. They were now running straight in to the man who seemed as if he was being projected on a screen which was flickering due to fluctuating voltage.

A shower of pellets which looked green glow worms flew towards them from across the street. Kinichi covered Anwar. The glow worms bounced off her back. The man in front of them pulled out the weird gun from his back as Kinichi and Anwar tried to steer away from him.

The man’s finger pressed on the trigger and a green glow worm flew towards Kinichi. Anwar in a flash pushed Kinichi aside, the glow worm hit Anwar on the chest just above his lungs. Anwar felt as if melted iron has been inserted into his chest. He collapsed writhing in pain, unable to breath or move. Kinichi dropped over him shielding his body. As a fresh spray of green glow worms bounced off her, she pulled out a small white ceramic cylinder and pressed a pinhead sized button on it. There was flash of light and she disappeared along with Anwar leaving a plume of green smoke behind.

****

Anwar slowly opened his eyes to realize that he was lying on the floor. His head was propped on Kinichi’s lap. He looked around to see that it was the interior of a metro train. His chest felt as if a huge block of iron was kept on it, making it very difficult for him to breathe. There was a couple sitting at the end of carriage looking at them wide eyed in disbelief. A thin film of green smoke hung over his eyes as Kinichi’s sobbing face came into his vision. Tears were rolling down her chin and falling on Anwar’s face.

“Why did you have to do that”, Kinichi screamed at Anwar as he tried to adjust his vision.

“What happened? What are you? Who were those people” Anwar’s volley of questions ended in a bout of cough. Blood trickled from the side of his mouth. The metal floor below already had a small pool of red liquid forming.

Kinichi wiped the tears off her face preparing to answer.

“I am from distant planet as you Earthlings call it VSRB13 revolving around a pulsar PSR 1257+12, 700 Earth light years away. The planet’s inhabitants are actually Earthlings from what you call the ancient Mesoamerican civilization or Maya civilization. Five powerful Mayan Queens flew to VSRB13 some 2000 years ago. Mayan’s started living there and there was continuous traffic from Earth to VSRB13 as people flew to and back. Families settled there as a whole civilization began to flourish. The five Queens divided the planet into five kingdoms and began to rule them. They had special powers and so did their descendants. Soon the descendants of the Queens became power hungry and corrupt and started to fight amongst themselves. The commoners took advantage of this and took over the reins of the planet. The five kingdoms of the planet are now ruled by Kings who don’t have any special powers and are normal human beings. I am the only surviving descendant of the five queens left.” Kinichi sobbed as she finished.

“You mean to say you are an alien, with superpowers?”

“Well you can say that.”

Anwar lay on the floor looking at Kinichi trying to comprehend the situation.

“Who were those people in black suits?” Anwar asked trying to grasp the whole story.

“They are Proboids -C, half robot, half living cells, who are built to have almost similar capabilities like the queens had. But only a few Proboids –A have the full powers others are just subordinates.”

“And why were they trying to kill us?”

“They weren’t trying to kill us. They were there to capture me. The King of Zapotec in the eastern hemisphere of VSRB13 is trying to capture me so that he can fornicate with me as a result our kids will have the same superpowers as I do. The greenlets were fired at me to slow me down, they were harmless for me but for a human being like you they are worse than a bullet. Only a Proboid -A can capture me.”

Anwar smiled at her, his eyes glowed with the recollection of the past.

With every passing moment he was finding it hard to breathe. At the other end of the carriage behind Kinichi there was a flash of light and a black suit appeared, his image flickering in the air. Then there was another flash and then another. A shower of greenlets fell on Kinichi. She felt week, but tried to shield Anwar as much as she could.

A few greenlets hit Anwar. He couldn’t keep his eyes opened. Tears streamed from Anwar’s eyes as Kinichi held him close to herself, her sobbing became more violent. She pulled herself up as she saw a bright flash of light in front of her. A tall, heavily built man wearing a white suit and pointed white shoes appeared. Kinichi looked at the man as he pulled out his gun which looked like a bow attached to his right arm. The arrow was a thin long greenlet. The black suits fell back.

Kinichi looked up at the ceiling of the train gave out a howl and began to cry. The man in the white suit pulled the trigger. The greenlet flew like a rope coming out of the man’s wrist, towards Kinichi who was holding Anwar by his head against her chest and crying. The greenlet wrapped around Kinichi’s body. The black suits began to disappear one by one leaving behind a trail of green smoke all around.

When the greenlet had wrapped around Kinichi’s body a few times, the cord remained attached to the man’s wrist, the man disappeared in a puff, pulling the cord along.

“So I fell in love with the Queen with superpowers”, Anwar said smiling weekly and touched her face with his bloodied hand. A wailing Kinichi started to get sucked into the green puff of smoke atom by atom. Anwar’s lifeless body fell on the ground with a thud as Kinichi disappeared leaving behind a green smoke behind.