Shattering Humanity-Chapter 296: One Branch Evolving To Rule Land. The Other, To Rule The Waters.
"And commissioned by Time, a Brahmana of the name Kalki will take his birth.
(He) will glorify Vishnu and possess great energy, great intelligence, and great prowess.
(He) will take his birth in a town of the name of Sambhala to an auspicious Brahmana family.
Vehicles and weapons, and warriors and arms, and coats of mail will be at his disposal as soon as he will think of them.
(He) will be the king of kings, and ever victorious with the strength of virtue.
(He) will restore order and peace in this world crowded with creatures and contradictory in its course.
(That) blazing Brahmana of mighty intellect, having appeared, will destroy all things.
(He) will be the Destroyer of all, and will inaugurate a new Yuga(Time/Universe).
Surrounded by the Brahmanas, that Brahmana will exterminate all the mlecchas(foreigners/nonbelievers) wherever those low and despicable persons may take refuge." -Aranyaka Parva Chapter 189
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[Sanpaku Cafeteria]
Back within the safety of Sanpaku, the entire Takamagahara group is present and eating lunch in the cafeteria of the old Department for Water Treatment headquarters.
Amongst two large, foldout, school cafeteria tables, the large squad, built of two divisions, are seperated but still close enough to share a conversation together.
Sitting at one table (in order clockwise) is Katsu, Shelly, Aiden, Daisuki, Scylia, Zoram, Princess Rebekah, Drakania, and Jormungand.
At the other table, (in order clockwise) Saku(w/ Friend under his chair), Xaaydagaay, Itsuka, Laban DaeMon, Charybdis, Dom, Sol, and finally TayTay, are sitting down enjoying their meals.
Xaaydagaay has both her hands clamped down on her spoon, trying to use the eating utensil to stab and up her cooked slab of meat.
As expected, the orca girl is unsuccessful in her none the wiser attempts.
Xaaydagaay: "*grrrr*"
With both hands she tosses the spoon, it soars, hitting Laban on the head while the DaeMon is cutting into her own steak.
Laban DaeMon: "Aye, fuck you Fish!"
Uninterested in Laban’s anger, the orca girl uses her sharp teeth to rip off a piece her food while she holds it down in place with one of her hands.
The highly intelligent and coordinated mammal hybrid swings her head back, tosses the torn off chunk in the air, before perfectly catching the meat and chewing it with a smile.
Xaaydagaay: "*click-click* *Eeiiiiieek*!"
Once again, more focused on his consumption of knowledge over actual nutrients, Aiden is face deep in a large book. His plate is once again untouched while his scholarly trained eyes scan each page and his organic computer processes the newly received data.
To his right, Shelly finishes the last bite off her plate and then stacks the 8th plate to her small tower.
Katsu: "Since you finished that one so fast, I already know you can go for another helping Shell.
I’ll go get you another plate of food!"
He jumps out of his seat and heads alone through the archway into the ’Food Pick-up Area’.
Shelly: "Katsu, wait atleast take one of my..."
But he’s already out of sight.
Shelly: "...Plates."
A silent chuckle escapes from her as she shakes her head at his eagerness to restore her energy.
While she waits, Shelly looks over at Aiden. His brown eyes moving left to right behind his large framed glasses.
The first person to ever out rank and surpass the highly competitive Valkyrie descendant is metaphorically trapped between the pages of his new textbook.
Shelly: "Don’t forget, your brain relies on energy and substance to properly function too, Aiden."
Breaking free from the textbook, as well as his inner thoughts, Aiden blushes and sees everyone else is (almost) finished with their lunch.
Aiden: "Oh, sorry.
I’ve been locked in on something ever since we got back from the fire station."
Shelly looks at the open textbook.
On the page he paused on, there is an artist depiction of an orca whale colony, swimming through the vast ocean.
Shelly: "So, what’s the lesson for today, Aiden Sensei?
Haha!"
The young boy genius is bright pink in the face from being called "Sensei" by his highly respected peer.
Aiden: "W-well, ever since this morning, I’ve kind of been curious about Saku’s newest girlfriend..."
Sitting at his respective table but is sitting close enough to hear the presumptuous start to Aiden’s thought process, and the Izanami captain gets annoyed.
Saku: "You better watch how you word things, Nerd!"
Not looking in the direction of the intimidating voice, timid Aiden’s fist clenches at the fabric to his pants.
Nervously, he looks at Shelly and his face relaxes after spotting her breathtaking, head tilted smile.
She is clearly fixated on wanting him to continue his thesis.
Smiling Katsu exits from the food selection section of the cafeteria.
The Izanagi Captain is holding the edges of a full plate with both hands. There is a steaming steak(cooked medium), a side of garlic mashed potatoes, and a few "trees" of boiled broccoli with melted butter on top.
The chivalrous adopted brother places the 9th meal down in front of the most trusted and most important person to his existence.
Shelly: "Thank you Katsu."
He nods as he retakes his seat.
Using the knife and fork next to her plate stack, Shelly precuts her food while Aiden continues. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺
Aiden: "...Well... actually, my curiosity had all time peaked after seeing her control that tail."
Shelly(taking a bite), Katsu, and Saku look over at the "mixed species mammal" of topic.
With her eyes of the moon, she looks down at Friend who is looking up at her, giving the unsuspecting victim his begging puppy dog eyes.
The adorable trick works and manipulates her "complex organic computer", triggering her sympathetic emotions.
Aiden: "I-I wanted to learn whatever I could on her original species.
Their anatomy.
Their evolutionary chart.
Their brain’s wave patterns.
The way they famously manipulate their ecology, their combat techniques, and how they can communicate to construct social agreements amongst colonizing pods."
Xaaydagaay picks up the last small piece of her lunch steak with her teeth and drops it for the furry companion.
Friend pops up from the floor and gladly accepts the exchange.
Aiden: "Thankfully, the new library Ms. DaeMon brought over has plenty of source materials that I wouldn’t have bothered with if not for Xaaydagaay’s appearance."
Laban DaeMon: "You’re welcome, Nerd!"
Friend puts his head on a curious Xaaydagaay’s lap.
She stares at the canine with it’s two different eyes.
Itsuka: "Why not?
You already know so much about the world above the surface, it’s hard to believe you’ve never dabbled in marine science."
Aiden: "We know more about space than we do about what is hidden in our oceans.I was never really into marine bio.
For instance, did you know, when she was in her whale form, Xaaydagaay had a five digit bone structure.
Just like a human hand?"
Xaaydagaay is remembering a moment from earlier, when Saku had used his hand to pet the same "pup" of his soft head.
Her eyes never blink while they are stuck, looking at her new human hand.
Katsu: "Wait, whales have fingers?"
The professor shakes his head with a chuckle.
Aiden: "I wouldn’t go that far Katsu, but with the way an orca whale’s bone structure has evolved, the alignment of bones inside their pectoral flippers, looks just like a human hand."
Katsu: "Woooaah!"
Daisuki: "I mean, it is common knowledge that human beings and whales share every category of character states. The only difference is humans walk vertically on horizontal land, while whales evolved more horizontal bodies within the vertical depths of their respective watery domain."
The Head Hancho keeps the act up perfectly but...
Daisuki(thinking): *Phew!
Now I don’t have to worry about looking like a complete idiot.
Boy, I’m lucky that I looked over and was able to sneak a peek at that introductory paragraph while he was reading right next to me!*
Aiden: "If what my apophenia has been connecting has any legit tread of logic at all, I might be onto something amazing!"
Saku looks at his new half orca, half human division member.
While petting the companion’s furry head under the table, her sharp teeth become exposed due to her wide, joyous smile.
However, her expression suddenly turns to a shocked confusion once the friendly Takamagahara mascot uses his wet tongue to give the back of her hand a doggy kiss.
The Yin Vessel leans his arm on the back of the chair, scowling at the brainiac with his Below Sanpaku gaze.
Not saying a word, but definitely listening.
Aiden: "All of my research on orcas is even more intriguing. Especially now that I know ’the truth’ about the meteor that hit this planet 66 million years ago."
Sol is smiling, also listening but with her chin resting in the palm of her hand.
[FLASHBACK]
Aiden: "It’s- It’s been my personal intelligence and the search for ’the truth’."
Sol: "...’the truth’?
Aiden(nods): "What I have believed was ’the truth’, is what’s right, and explains what is correct in this universe.
I didn’t want to learn ’the truth’, necessarily to relay the information I absorbed to others who wanted to know. It was for own my peace of mind.
My ability to regurgitate information on que, was just a byproduct of my happiness, but that byproduct allowed me to leave the depressing, grey life of foster care behind."
[END FLASHBACK]
Sol(thinking): *Learning helpful information for the sake of the group, and not just using your convenient intelligence to gain respect.
There ya go, Smarty-pants.*
Sitting next to her, TayTay is comedically crying while slowly eating a 1 yard long sandwich.
Bite for bite.
Aiden enthusiastically continuing his present lecture.
Aiden: "The truth of how our interstellar, genetic designers, with their unfathomable knowledge and with the assistance of the ’Eyes of Wisdom’, they had the capabilities to inject what would eventually become our genetic makeup into the ocean of this life sustaining celestial body.
If what I’ve been hypothesizing is correct, those ’Anjells’ may have used the Chicxulub Impact, not only as a mind-blowing metaphor for "insemination" and "fertilization" per se, but also as a way to ensure there would be two seperate evolutionary branches for their project as well."
Scylia: "So humanity wasn’t the only species those aliens created?"
Aiden(shakes head): "Because of the scarcity of food due to the change in climate and the realization that the waters were warmer, those conditions eventually forced the orca’s oldest known ancestor, a four legged mammal of prey resembling a deer/dog hybrid, into the waters it would normally seek refuge to escape from predators before the dinosaur’s own version of the apocalypse happened."
