Disclaimer: "Abaranger" is owned by Toei Company. The characters "Doyle" and "Roxton" are mine.
The day had started quiet, as did any other day. And despite Emiri's attempts to get some kind of activity going, with at least two more serious people in the house, and one quiet one, and with the absence of a certain family as they were gone out for a walk on their own, this was something that couldn't last, or even begin.
What no one expected, was that the one to cause a riot was Mai, immediately after coming back from school.
"Hey! Look what I found!" she cheered.
She had a folded sheet of paper in her hands, which she unfolded to show everyone. When everyone indeed looked at it, they all looked at it in awe.
"That's good news." Nakadai said.
"Where did you find this?" Yukito asked.
"At school!" Mai replied, still in her cheerful mood, "And everywhere else!"
"Really." Ryouga said, "You can find lots of these outside. Someone's really..."
"And we don't need to see it?" a voice called from outside the crowd.
Everyone was seated there where the chef of this house would be cooking his meals, whereas the one who spoke had put himself at a distance from them.
"Oh come on, Doyle!" Ryouga said, "If you wanna know what this is about, why don't you come here to look at this?"
"You're the one that's already standing." Doyle replied, "Should I have to stand up just to see... that?"
Ranru concurred with him: "He's right. Maybe you sh..."
"I tell you what." Ryouga said, interrupting whatever Ranru was about to say, "You come over here and I'll show you. But if you don't, you'll never..."
"What?!" Ranru interrupted him now.
"That's just mean, Ryou-chan!" Mai agreed.
"If he doesn't want to show you, it's probably not worth the trouble." Roxton told Doyle.
"Yeah, you're probably right." Doyle sighed.
Mai cried of anger: "Why are you doing this?"
Before Ryouga could say anything, Ranru had already taken the sheet of paper out of his hands.
"Hey!" Ryouga protested, but Ranru didn't listen to him.
"Here you are." she said, as she gave Doyle the sheet.
Doyle looked at it for a few seconds. It was a notice of somebody missing. Other than the number of somebody to contact, should this person be seen, there was a picture of the missing person in question. It was Doyle himself.
"It's you, Akakuro-kun." Ranru said, "So you do have a family out there."
Doyle didn't say a word. Although he did recognize himself on the picture, he didn't appear excited about hearing this news.
"Isn't that great!" Mai cheered on, "Finally, you'll find out more about yourself! You'll find your real parents and even know your name!"
Doyle still wasn't at all excited about this: "I don't know..."
"What do you mean, you don't know?!" Ryouga couldn't believe he's hearing this, "Don't you wanna know your past?"
"He's right." Roxton replied, "This just doesn't feel right."
"Doesn't feel right?!" Mai suddenly sounded enraged, "That's all you're gonna say?"
Doyle turned to look at her, so he could see how she ran to him and punched him in the belly, for she couldn't aim any higher. Luckily for Doyle, he's grown accustomed to pain of every kind, so this didn't hurt him at all.
Nevertheless, Ranru stopped Mai from trying to harm him any more: "Hey! What's that for?"
"He doesn't want to see his own parents!" Mai explained, "They are looking for him, and he doesn't want to see them! Why else would I be mad?!"
"You know, 'Doyle'..." Ryunnosuke was backing Mai up with this, "... you're really lucky to still have parents. Mai's have died a long time ago. She can't go and see them even if she wants to. You're just given the chance to find any possible living relative and you say 'I don't know'?"
"I think so too." Ryouga said.
"Roxton!" Mai turned to Doyle's Dino-minder, "Your family is dead too. You should understand!"
"I do." Roxton replied, "But, something just doesn't feel right about all this."
"I don't blame him." Yukito said, "He's must have been missing for months by now. Why do these notices appear now and not before?"
"Akakuro-kun." Ranru suddenly started, "You going to be quiet again?"
"You can't seem to let go of that, can you?" Doyle bit back.
"If you don't want to contact these people, then I will do it for you!" Mai exclaimed.
"This girl doesn't know when to stop shouting, does she?" Roxton said.
"Obviously not." Doyle agreed, after which he turned to the rest, "Can I just have a minute, by myself, about this?"
"Why would you..." Ryouga started.
"It may be best for him." Nakadai interrupted him.
"Thank you." Doyle said, after which he took his coat and left the house.