“Did you talk to them?” asked the strong voice on the phone.
“No chief, I need a few more days.” the strange woman replied swiftly.
“We do not have a few more days, Jill. We have started getting calls from back home. All other squad members on Daikidageda have succeeded in their missions at their respective locations.” said the voice on the phone, sternly this time around.
“Chief, I will initiate contact within the next couple of days, you can trust me on that.” Jill, the strange woman, replied confidently. “You can ask the ones back home to keep their cool.”
“Not leaving us alone despite being light years away!” she muttered under her breath, as she disconnected her call and started walking towards the market, hiding herself from Rintaro and Rakuten, amidst the crowd.
She nonchalantly picked up some persimmons and pulled out her wallet to pay for them. “How have you been, Mr. Yamaguchi?” Jill asked the fruit vendor very politely, as she paid him for the bag of fruits.
The fruit vendor laughed, “I have been healthy. How have you been Jizen? I did not see you around for a while now.”
“I was busy with my book Mr. Yamaguchi. I preferred staying back home as much as I could." she said.
"Were you able to find yourself here, in Midohira? I am sure you made a few good friends." he said as he packed the persimmons in a bag and handed it over to Jill.
"I do not know yet, if I was able to find what I was looking for." she said pursing her lips. "However, I did make some good friends and memories, along the way." she paused momentarily. "But..." she continued, "I am afraid I will have to leave Midohira now. I have to go back to my homeland and spend time with my family and take care of their health. They miss me a lot!"
Mr. Yamaguchi was sad hearing that Jill was leaving the town. "We will miss you too, Jizen." he said.
"I promise, I will visit Midohira again and I will be able to bring my family with me next time. I will miss you too, Mr. Yamaguchi. You remind me of my father.” she said as she waved goodbye to all the fruit vendors in the market.
Jill kept following Rintaro and Rakuten whilst maintaining a safe distance, as they walked towards their home. She took a detour, hoping to intercept them, again, and sat on a bench on their way. Pretending to read the book in her hands, she kept glancing sideways, to keep an eye on the two. As they passed her, she felt them stop momentarily.
“You are scaring Rakuten." said Rintaro in a cold voice. "Why are you following us?” he asked in a rather strict voice this time. He clutched the sharp edged soda can in his hand, concealed from the rest of the people walking on the street.
Jill closed her book and kept it in her bag. She tried hard to not scare them. “I am Jizen. I have been trying to be your friend for a long time now, Rintaro." she said.
Rintaro raised his eyebrows, while Rakuten still had a puzzled look on her face.
Jill continued, "We have crossed ways briefly, in the past, if you remember. If I really wanted to hurt you, I would have by now.” she said with a welcoming smile on her face.
“Yes, I did find some striking similarities in those encounters at the hills today, the riverside festival three nights ago and at the market last week. You always crouch out of thin air. The people in this town are too kind and well mannered to not maintain their distance." Rintaro said, still a little cautious. "What is it that you want?”
“I apologize for scaring you, Rintaro and Rakuten." she apologized looking towards them. "I have no ulterior motives.” she added, bowing down slightly.
“Please get right to it, whatever your name is.” picked Rintaro, slightly irritated.
“I am Ji-” she bit her tongue “Jizen. Pleased to meet you Rintaro, and Rakuten.” she said as she looked at their faces. “I am sure, it will be really difficult for Rakuten, to believe what I am about to say next." she paused, "But since you are actively involved in sciences, Rintaro, I am, sure you will not disparage the idea. Can we please go to a place that is a little less crowded?” asked Jill, pointing towards a nearby park, which had a big empty corner on the opposite end.
Rintaro signaled her to lead the way and he walked behind her, slowly, Rakuten by his side.
“I am from a different planet.” Jill resumed, as she reached the corner of the park and sat down on a bench.
“YOU ARE WH-” exclaimed Rintaro, with an apparent shock in his eyes.
“I am from Earth. We are a planet from a galaxy called Milky Way, long, long away from where we are sitting right now. Our planet is the only one that has life on it, in the entire galaxy, at least as far as we know. We are very similar to you, Rintaro. The way living organisms, from a bacteria to a human, are composed, the way we look, the way we live, the way we speak, have striking similarities. We have existed for billions of years, just like you have. We made quite a lot of progress in science and technology, a little more significant than what I have seen here. Unfortunately, there were some bad elements on our planet, just like you would have here; they misused a certain technology and that has led to the start of the destruction of our planet. I come here, politely requesting you to lend us a helping hand. Probably, it is only you who can help us regain peace, on the once-so-great Earth.”
Shocked to believe what he heard, Rintaro kept staring at her, with his eyes wide open. Rakuten shied away from Jill and tried to hide behind Rintaro.
“I know this is a lot of information to process. We can talk about this, later in the evening with cooler heads.” Jill said bowling low in respect.
Rintaro thought for a moment. Although he could not believe what he had just heard, he wanted to give Jill a chance to explain herself. “I will see you here in the park, at sunset.”.
Rintaro and Rakuten left the park and started walking back, as Rintaro kept glancing back to keep looking at Jill.
Year 3000
Space
Station X3
“Do you think Jill would be able to strike a conversation with them?” Mujika, the deputy chief of the squad asked the chief.
“I trust her, and her confidence. Remember, she is more devoted to this mission than any one of us here, which is why we have sent her to do the most difficult and the most critical part of the mission.” the chief backed Jill. “She was betrayed by her own. She is not going to back down. Being loyal to a mission she is clinged to, is her most natural instinct now. I am sure she will successfully introduce Idiosyncrasy to the two subjects.”
“I fail to understand how you still trust her, after what she has done!" Mujika began irritated. "I wonder if they would even believe her!”
“If it comes to that extent of desperation, Jill will just show them her transformation. Any one sane in their mind, would believe what they see." the chief said.
"Or just freak out at the insanity that they shall see.” Mujika chuckled.
“Jill is smart. She has a knack of responding to delicate situations in the most welcoming manner. Her transformation should not be too overwhelming to the two of them, especially Rakuten.” the chief commented. "Rintaro, as we know, should be the first one to believe her."
Year 3000
Midohira,
Daikidageda
“I am glad you bought Rakuten along. I really wanted to talk to the two of you, together.” Jill greeted them with her usual smile at the park. “Sunsets really look beautiful, irrespective of which planet you are watching it from.”
“How many have you seen so far?” asked Rintaro, sharply.
“This is my third, after the earth. One of the three was taken down by the bad elements from Earth. The other one, well, was very different from Earth, so we couldn’t establish communication with the beings there. That leaves us with Daikidageda.” Jill replied with a straight face.
“How similar are we to your Earth? How similar are we, with the other planets?” Rintaro was very well invested in this conversation.
“We are a very similar species to you. We call ourselves humans back home as well. We have a similar ecosystem like you do, consisting of the plant and animal kingdom. We are also the third planet in our solar system, which means, the climate and temperature on Earth are similar to what you have here, on Daikidageda. Our atmospheric composition is similar, with oxygen in abundance; we also have greenhouses gases to regulate the heat. Water is available in abundance. Moreover, both of our food chains are established in a similar manner.” she continued getting surprised at Rintaro’s unwavered expression this time. “The evolution on the Earth has been fairly consistent with how you have had it here. Humans have been constantly advancing using science and technology.”
“I often have this conversation with fellow enthusiasts; we have always believed that there would be aliens out there; however, them being this closely related to us, is something that we could never imagine.” said Rintaro. Jill was taken aback by the fact that Rintaro called her an alien. She always thought of herself being on a mission to establish communication with the aliens; and instead, she was the one being called an alien.
“Why did you pick Midohira? Why did you pick me and Rakuten? How long have you been observing us?” questioned Rintaro.
“I did not expect any less from you, Rintaro. You indeed are very smart and I am happy we are at least talking.” said Jill with a smile on her face. Did she spot a hope in restoring humanity on Earth?
Excited, she continued “Midohira has a plethora of a certain natural resource, which would be absolutely germane for our mission to save Earth. I have been in Midohira for about a hundred days now. I wanted to find the right people suited for this job, in this region. I wanted someone who is intelligent, understands science. Moreover, I wished for someone who is kind hearted, yet, thinks logically.” Jill paused for a minute to catch her breath. “However, the right people to do this job must also have a non-negotiable empathy towards the other living species around them. The right people should be affectionate towards animals and other unfortunate beings out there.”
As Rakuten’s gaze met Jill’s, she opened up, “You are very kind, Jizen. Rintaro is everything you said, but..." she looked towards him, "He is not very affectionate towards animals. But he has me, and I love every animal out there.” she said smiling.
“I do not despise animals, Raki!” Rintaro said, slightly, irritated.
“Our people back home got carried away with all the advancements in technology, so much so that, one fine day, they realized the fact that technology can get you close to nature, but it can never replace it. Our greed persuaded us to try and be that nature; to try and be perfect. We were so focused on being nature, that we forgot how to exist as humans. We lost the excitement in simplistic little pleasures. We forgot how to smile, we forgot how to enjoy our day, enjoy each other’s company. I have forgotten what a friend feels lik-”
Rakuten held Jill’s hand and tried to calm her down. “Please do not be sad, Jizen. I will be your friend.” Rakuten hugged Jill and smiled politely.
“Are they so kind-hearted here? Were our people so welcoming, many years ago?” Jill thought to herself as she tried to wipe a small tear rolling down her left cheek. Connecting with other humans was very rare on Earth. She had not seen a human smile for a long time, probably, never.
“We had reached a point, where all of our materialistic desires were available to us, quite easily. Our avidity placed us on the pursuit of being the perfect beings; we felt a void in the attributes and natural abilities a human receives, by birth. Finally, we concluded that the only aspect of life that we do not possess, is what nature possesses. As a result, we tried tweaking those abilities by trying to be like animals. Although, we ensured to not let go our basic human instincts and composure, because being human, was what had brought us to that point.” Jill paused to let Rintaro and Rakuten process what she had just shared.
“Therefore, you tried to copy the fundamental composition of an animal and somehow flashed it into humans?” Rintaro tried getting ahead of the curve.
“Correct. We invented means to extract the DNA of an animal and programmatically incorporate it into the human body. Depending on which layer of the DNA is injected and accepted by the human body, we acquired the abilities of the specific animal. This allowed us to change our physical shape and form, tweak other bodily functions.” Jill stated, hurriedly.
“Can your people fly, Jizen? I want to fly!” Rakuten said with glitter in her eyes, as she failed at her mere attempt to hold back her excitement.
“Yes, my dear, we can!” Jill couldn’t control chuckling at Rakuten’s sense of novelty.
Dusk had set in and the lamp posts in the park were turned on. Rintaro stood up quietly, to stretch his legs after a long intriguing conversation, one that he had never imagined, he would ever have. He looked at Rakuten, who had seemed to have gotten comfortable interacting with her new friend.
But was it really safe to believe a stranger, he wondered.
“Why should we believe you, Jizen?” Rintaro asked, a little worried about how conveniently this conversation was progressing.
“I knew you would ask this. I can show it to you, but not here, in the middle of this park.” Jill sensed that a demonstration was a must, sooner, rather than later. “However,” she continued, “It is getting quite late in the night and I should take leave. We can meet atop the hills, at sunrise tomorrow.” she said as she got up, preparing to leave. "Take care of yourself, Rintaro and Rakuten." she said bowing down slightly and she waved them goodbye. Rintaro and Rakuten kept staring at her as she walked away.
“The breeze is getting colder, let’s head back before it gets
worse.” Rakuten said softly. “I think Jizen is very sweet and caring, Rin.
I feel bad for her; it felt as though she genuinely smiled after a really
long...long time. I know this is the first time we have interacted with her,
but my instinct tells me that she is our friend, and she needs our help.”
Rakuten said, shivering, as she held Rintaro’s hand. “I wonder what this Idiosyncrasy would be like! I wonder, how can
we help her and her friends back on Earth.” she said softly.
“Was Jizen really asking for help?” Rintaro wondered. “Or was this some sort of a warning, an indication to prepare us to defend ourselves, when the bad elements from Earth come to conquer us over, and acquire the natural resource available here? Will they attempt to disrupt the peace on Daikidageda, by capturing the DNA of all the living species here? Will animals be hurt in this process?” He looked at the now orange sky, trying to imagine what exactly this strange alien from Earth was planning to demonstrate.
To be continued
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