Arjun arrived, heart beating in staccato. He expected a trap. He expected silence. Instead, he found a little circle of listeners — older women clasping umbrellas, boys with mango-stained fingers, and Raghav stepping out with a camera and a grin that said his payment was worth more than their lives.
They called him Kaavaljan, the Night Sentinel. He wore no cape; his mask was a simple black half-face, cracked like dried clay, with eyes that burned with quiet intent. By day he was Arjun Velan, an unassuming systems engineer who fixed servers and smiled at tea stall owners. By night he became a question the city could not ignore.
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