Aman yawned as he sat down on his seat at school. He had spent a sleepless night thinking of what to do if Ashok realised his involvement in the ant incident.

Even if he took it as a prank, it wouldn't stop him from trying to get at him again.

It wasn’t like he could use his powers again. Exposing himself would be worse than taking a beating. Specially if Nama was discovered.

But, he soon realised that he needn’t have worried. Ashok and his cronies hobbled into the classroom with sour looks on their faces and ignored him.

Apparently, they had taken it as a coincidence and hadn’t connected the dots.

Aman relaxed. That was good. His eyes gleamed with determination. He needed to cultivate faster and restore all his genes so he wouldn't be as helpless anymore.

The first bell rang and the teacher entered and began teaching after the roll call.

Suddenly, an announcement blared out over the public address system.

“Aman Batra, Ashok Rana, Rohit Kumar and Ronnie Bindra, please report to the principal’s office immediately.

“Repeat. Aman Batra, Ashok Rana, Rohit Kumar and Ronnie Bindra, please report to the principal’s office immediately.”

Aman raised his eyebrow. What was this all about?

The four of them went out of the class and made their way to the floor where the office was.

Midway, Ashok stopped and grabbed his collar. “Hey, did you snitch on us again?”

Aman shrugged. “What use would that be? You know what happened last time. I don’t know what this is about either.”

“Hmph.” Ashok snorted and let him go with a shove which caused him to stumble and nearly fall.

Smoothing the creases from his shirt, Aman tamped down his anger and followed behind the trio.

Reaching the office, they knocked.

“Come in.”

Pushing the door open, they entered. Their eyes widened as they noticed that the principal wasn’t alone.

Sitting on a couch to the side with her legs crossed was the president of the student council: Ananya Adhikari who was currently sipping some tea.

“Come, sit, the four of you.” said the principal as he gestured to the sofa in front of him.

They took their seats, shooting Ananya glances, confused by her presence.

Aman’s heartbeat had actually sped up. It was like planning a burglary in someone’s house and the next day they show up at your house for lunch.

He had been planning how to target Ananya, maybe use her aid to restore his physique. But, those plans were all for the future as from yesterday’s contact he had realised that her soul was quite a bit stronger than his.

On the verge of the second tier of soul density according to Nama’s estimate.

But he hadn’t expected to meet her so soon. Did she figure something out?

The principal began speaking. “It has been brought to my notice that the four of you have been involved in a deplorable case of bullying. Mister Batra, you had complained to us once before about this. We tried to bring about a peaceful summation but it seems that Mister Rana and his friends didn’t take us seriously.”

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Aman had a strong urge to check outside the window to see whether the sun had risen from the west today. What tune was this sly principal singing today?

Wasn’t school policy to suppress such incidents to preserve their unblemished reputation?

Aman shot a look at the girl on the couch who was still calmly sipping her tea. He became aware.

So that’s how it was. Everyone knew that Ananya’s father was a big deal but nobody knew what exactly he did. Nobody had the courage to ask her directly before.

Although rumour was that the owner of the industrial chain that ran the school was her father, it was unconfirmed.

But, seeing today’s situation, there might be some truth to it. But the question remained… why would she help him? Did it have something to do with yesterday?

The principal continued. “For that, Mister Rana, you will be suspended for a week, seeing that you weren’t a direct participant but you were clearly the one to incite the incident. As for your two friends… I fear that our institute has no place for them anymore. They are to be expelled.”

“What!?” exclaimed Ashok as he shot up to his feet, knocking over the table in front of him in haste.

“You can’t do that! I’m in my final year. How am I supposed to apply to colleges with such a stain on my cv?”

The principal shrugged. “You should have thought of that before doing all this then.”

“But… but I am the football team captain. With a disciplinary record, I can’t participate in the finals of the state junior tournament. The team needs me. You can’t do this to me over that useless lump!” He exclaimed as he pointed at Aman.

A crisp and cold voice cut through his shouting. Ananya put down her cup and spoke, disdain clear on her face. “If you don’t remember, before an Ashok, there was an Aman. When he left, it didn’t take long for you to fill in the gap. The same is true for you. This school’s team is strong enough to win with or without someone as disgraceful as you. No one is indispensable. Please leave and only show your face after a week has passed, or not. Your choice. Your friends aren’t welcome back, ever.”

The principal pointed to the door. “Please leave before I have to call security. I would like to keep the unpleasantness to a minimum.”

Ashok stood rooted to the spot, opening and closing his mouth like a fish before he shot Aman a venomous glare and strode out of the room with his cronies.

Aman watched the whole exchange silently, trying to figure out what might have brought his about.

The principal stood up and smiled at Aman. “It seems that the young lady wants to speak with you alone, so I won’t intrude much longer. For any inconvenience you might have experienced at our school, I apologize for my mismanagement.” Even though he was smiling when he spoke, the smile didn’t reach his eyes. He lowered his head slightly towards Aman before leaving the two of them alone in his office.

Ananya stood. Walking up to the principal’s vacated chair, she sat down and began to study Aman from across the desk.

She had read his file yesterday and was touched by his sacrifice for his family. Reading about the bullying and the school’s attempted cover up, she had been quite upset.

So, she had settled upon this way to both crack down upon the principal’s corruption and gain Aman’s favourable impression and an excuse to chat with him.

She wanted to see whether she would feel the same as yesterday in his presence. She was disappointed… that electric sensation wasn’t there.

But, after reading his file, she was at least slightly impressed so she continued speaking.

“Firstly, I am Ananya Adhikari and as you have probably guessed, I am the daughter of the owner of this school. I apologise for our neglect.” She lowered her head slightly to him.

Aman hastily stopped her. “No. It’s okay. At least you acted to help me. I’m quite grateful.”

“No. It was my duty to do so. No need for thanks. Frankly, I quite admire your sacrifice spirit and I felt letting you suffer from bullying would be quite unjust.”

“Well. Thank you then. I feel that this isn’t the only thing you wanted to tell me.”

“Right. I heard that you performed very well in your selection test for the Indian Institute of Eugenics. Unfortunately, you still missed with it due to your circumstances. Right after that, your scholarship was discontinued. Then this bullying…

“I can’t help but feel bad about how the school has been less than supportive.”

Aman couldn't help but snort derisively. ‘Less than supportive’? she really had a sweet tongue on her.

Ananya’s lips quirked up into a small smile. “But, from an official standpoint, discontinuing your scholarship is justified. That is why, I have personally decided to compensate you.”

Aman’s eyebrow couldn't help but rise.

Ananya took out something resembling a credit card out of her handbag and slid it over the table to him.

Taking it up, he studied it. It was a dark grey card with black highlights and a QR code on one side and a 10-digit number on the other.

On the side with the number, ‘VR’ was embossed in silver.

“That,” said Ananya “is a pass to the Spirit Dimension. A virtual reality.”