Chapter 2 - School Days
The blackbirds chirpped their morning song, as they searched through dew-soaked grass for their breakfast. Rays of light shone through the curtains of the guest room and landed on the young boy's pale face. The yellow haze transferred to his dreams, turning the various situations in his head into a solid colour. The boy's eyelids flickered before he closed them for an additional few moments, but it was clear his mind was ready to wake up.
He opened his eyes, and observed his surroundings. He had turned to face the rest of the room during his sleep, allowing him to witness the soft aesthetic created from the scene. Akira was sitting up in his bed on the opposite side of the room. He yawned, causing Daichi to have a quiet yawn. Daichi's ears hadn't adjusted yet, as he didn't hear the words Akira said. He could only let out a low "What?".
"We're late!" Akira screamed, and he jumped out of his bed.
Daichi laid in his bed processing those words, until he realized what they actually meant. They were late for school! Daichi grabbed his phone from the bedside table and turned it on – "09:05" was shown at the top. They really were late.
Daichi got up and ran to the closet at the end of his bed, but as he opened it he realized it was empty! He turned around, only to see his school clothes scattered on the ground. Although he felt bad for not folding them the night before, the fact the two were now late and rushing to school made him forget about that very quickly. He grabbed and threw his school uniform onto the bed and began to get changed.
In his shock and disbelief, he hadn't even noticed that Akira had left the room. That was until he was putting on his shirt whilst only in boxers and Akira ran in through door.
"Dude!" Daichi screamed, only to get an equally as loud "Sorry" from his friend.
Akira ran to the mirror next to the door indent and squeezed a bottle of hair gel into his other hand, and started to run it through his hair. Akira was already fully dressed in his grey navy slacks and blazer, along with his grey tartan tie. Daichi put on the closest socks he could find and pulled up his own slacks. He picked up his blazer and pre-tied tie, only to be ordered around.
"Come on! We have to go!" Akira shouted, running out the door and loudly going down the stairs, skipping steps.
"I am!" Daichi answered back.
He grabbed his school bag and ran behind his friend by a few seconds. He ran to the front door and slipped on his black loafers, before realizing that his naive friend was nowhere in sight. He slipped his tie over his head and put down his shirt collar. When Daichi made his discovery, he was rightfully confused. That was until he smelled something cooking. He ran to the kitchen doorway while throwing his backpack over one of his shoulders. To no one's surprise, Akira was standing next to the toaster with his school bag on the countertop.
"What are you doing?" Daichi yelled, coming off as more angry than he actually was.
"I was hungry." Akira replied with a pout.
He started to fiddle with the nobs of the machine, before snatching the passable toast from it and carrying them with one hand. He grabbed his bag and carried it in his other hand, and he ran pass Daichi. He didn't stop as he already had his shoes mostly on, even when he opened the door and started to go straight down the steps. Daichi was hot on his friend's tail. The mostly brown haired boy closed the door behind him and locked it.
"Here! I made this for you!" Akira mumbled loudly, waiting at the bottom of the steps for his frail friend.
Daichi looked over to see his friend with one slice of toast in his mouth and another slice pointed towards him. He took it and started to nibble at it, thinking about how better it would be with butter. Akira threw his brand name black and blue bag over run shoulder and took the toast out his mouth.
"Don't stop now, we don't want to be later than we already are!" Akira claimed with a smirk, before beginning his run. With his half eaten toast still in his mouth, Daichi followed suit.
The two boys were running down the pathway that would lead directly to the school with different intentions. Daichi hated being late and he hated when he made people disappointed, and having a teacher be disappointed in him for being late would be the worst thing possible.
Akira, on the other hand, didn't really mind being in trouble. Sure, he didn't like it as his mother could be quite strict but it wasn't the worst thing in the world. He just wanted to show their other friend Dawn the gadgets they had found, gadgets that Daichi had forgotten even existed. After ten minutes of straight, unbroken sprinting, they finally made it to the school gates.
They ignored the cherry blossoms falling around them and ran up the clean, concrete steps. They ran pass the rows of lockers that met them in the entrance, and instead choose to go up the set of off center stairs. They knew the class they had to go to, and it was the worst possible one to be late to.
It was their English class with Mrs. Fukuhara. She was a strict middle aged woman without even a drop of humor to her name. She wore a black suit daily with her black hair in a bob hairstyle. Rumors said that she had previously worked as an officer in a high security prison. No one wanted to be on her bad side. But the two boys knew what their fate.
As they ran to room twenty four, Daichi wiped his mouth of bread crumbs. Akira, who had been in front for the entire ordeal, stopped beside the door. He patted down his blazer and slacks to make himself look as presentable as possible. Daichi dropped his bag on the floor and put on his blazer after carrying it the whole way there. The two boys shared a knowing look and held their breath. Akira knocked on the door.
"Come in." A stern voice announced over the silent classroom. Akira slid open the classroom door and walked in with his head down, while Daichi walked in after with a terrified look on his face.
"We're sorry for being late, miss..." Daichi said in a polite tone, but that wouldn't help their case.
"Why are you late?" Mrs. Fukuhara glared at the two students.
"We accidentally slept through our alarms, miss…" Daichi replied.
"You'll have enough time to think through that mistake while you catch up on your work during break. Go to your seats."
"Yes, miss."
Daichi put his head down and walked to the desk next to the window in the back row. Akira walked to his seat, which was unfortunately the desk in front of the strict teacher.
"Now, after that interruption, look at the questions one and two on page five hundred…" Mrs. Fukahara continued her class.
As the hour and a half class came to a close, the bell chimed. It was the school's twenty minute break. The other students threw their English grammar books into their bags before rushing out of the door. Some stood around their friend's desks as they finished their writing assignment of the class and others spoke with the teacher, probably asking to move to another class. When the final group of friends walked out of the classroom, stood next to the door.
"You two. No talking or leaving your seats. I will be checking the cameras if I believe you two are acting strangely. Continue the questions from today's class, and I will be checking that you did the work." She left the room and closed the door behind her.
After he was sure that the teacher was far enough away from the classroom, Akira let out a huge sigh and rested his head on the table.
"Great. Now we have to wait three more hours until we can show Dawn those cool gadgets." Akira said.
He waited a few seconds, but he never received a reply. He lifted his head and looked towards his friend's seat. Daichi had one of his hands on his chin and cheek, and his other hand resting on his first arm. He was staring out the thin window into the brief forest that surrounded the school. Akira caught on immediately – Daichi was upset that he got in trouble. He always would be upset, even from the time he was young and spilt his juice bottle. He wouldn't cry like he used to, he would just be silent. That or he was following the teacher's guidelines.
"Dude, it's okay. It's only one time, it won't ruin your record." Akira pleaded but just like for his last comment, he got no reply. He turned his head and looked at his book. The questions were difficult, and Akira's mind had still not woken up enough to process them. He laid his head on the table.
A few minutes passed. Not a single word had been shared between the two, and Daichi's gaze had switched from the sparkling leaves to his textbook and copy. The only thing to be heard in the classroom was the Daichi's pencil scrawling across the copy's page. Akira had almost fallen asleep waiting for the bell to ring so they could leave. It felt like they were there for years. That was until Daichi glanced out the window whilst thinking about what to write.
"A…Akira-" He whispered, as his head flung to face his friend. Akira didn't open his eyes.
"Akira! GET UP!" Daichi shouted in an uncharacteristic way. Akira sat up, half opening one of his eyes and mumbled.
"What? I'm trying to-"
"There's a monkey on the flag pole!"
On the outside of the school, in the courtyard, the school's flag had been pulled down the pole by a few inches. On the top of the high grey pole, there was a brown furred monkey standing on one leg with it's hands stretched in front of it – similar to the warrior three position in yoga. No one else seemed to notice the monkey's presence nor was anyone even outside in the courtyard. The school was strict about keeping the students within the school during break.
The monkey was on the same height level of Daichi – The top of the pole ending at the same level of the second floor. As Daichi turned his head to confirm the monkey's location, their eyes met. They stared at each other for a few minutes without breaking sight. Daichi's lip quivered whilst the monkey had the same dazed expression on its face. This is when Daichi noticed the strange appearal of the monkey.
This wasn't the usual monkey you'd see at the zoo, it was wearing a strange metal helmet and bright yellow pants. It reminded him of the doodles and blurry photos that he had seen in that strange book. Its face stayed the same, even when the monkey stood up and jumped down from the pole.
Daichi gasped, whilst Akira was still confused and waking up. The boy with the brown hair moved his chair closer to the window and leaned over – looking down to see the school building's walls. To his horror, the monkey was jumping from window ledge to window ledge and was staring straight up. It made one long leap and landed on the window's outer ledge, its face meeting Daichi's – only separated by the window pane. Daichi jumped back in sudden surprize and fell out of his chair on the other side. Akira turned as soon as he heard the crashing sound.
"Daichi- What the…?" Akira screamed, as his focused turned to the monkey.
It was sidling across the outer window until he reached the window closest to the white board. It began to press and knock on the window, trying to see if it was open. After clearly getting nowhere, it began to climb above the window until only its feet were showing. Daichi rubbed his head and immediately climbed back onto his chair.
You could see the worry of getting into more trouble dripping off of his face. The monkey's feet began to swing back and forth, and neither of the boys caught on to what was happening until it was too late. The window was broken with a crash and the shards of the old pane fell to the floor around it. Daichi screamed.
It was break time. A young eleven year old girl had snuck out of sight of the other students and teachers, and was making her way to the courtyard garden. I can't wait, the tomboy thought to herself. She had always loved the garden, especially during the early spring time. The scene of falling cherry blossoms were her favourite. She went into the lone empty hallway and walked towards the sliding glass door. As she quietly slid open the door, the morning sunshine washed over her cherry red hair and reflected on her small pink hair clip.
The fresh breeze hit her face and waved her grey tartan skirt slightly. She closed the door behind her and strolled over to the large cherry blossom tree in the middle of the garden. Then she sat down between protruding roots, letting the petals fall on her head. Placing her arms on her knees, she started to relax by closing her eyes. The indirect heat of the sunlight, the flickering of surrounding leaves as birds flew away, all was calm.
A scream broke the stillness of the morning. Several birds flew away in the local trees and the girl's emerald green eyes flew open. Despite the scream's abnormal occurrence, she recognized the voice. It was a scream she had heard multiple times before – it was her cousin's voice. She had already been informed from his classmates that he was stuck in break detention with his friend, so hearing his voice out of nowhere concerned her.
Why was he screaming, especially whilst being stuck in a class where he would never talk? She immediately jumped up to her feet and skipped to the door, opening it and closing it as silent as a mouse. She speed walked down the hall as to not create too much noise and turned the corner and continued until she made it to the main stairwell. She ran up the stairs and towards room twenty four – the last room she knew her cousin had been in.
The monkey launched himself, foot first, through the now broken window. Miraculously, it managed to miss all of the shards on the ground below it.
"Hey, stop!...wait a second!" Akira shouted to the monkey, quickly realizing that he could control the situation.
He pulled back his chair and brought his school bag to his knees, searching through it. When his hand came back from the bag's depths, he revealed the two blue rods. Daichi's eyes, which were now facing his friend, lit up. Akira started his ascension.
"Come on, we gotta.."
"No!" Daichi interrupted. "You can but i just wanna stay sitting."
"Dude, come on." Akira pleaded, but Daichi had already put his head down on the table. At this point Akira gave up trying to convince his friend. "Fine, I'll do it. And it's gonna be in the coolest way possible!"
He jumped to put his feet under himself on the chair, before standing and stepping to his desk. At this point, the monkey had grabbed a marker and started drawing nonsensical things. It's back was towards the two boys. Akira dropped one of the rods onto the table below him before hitting the button of the one he was still holding with the palm of his hand. The metal ring and blue strings of the net popped out of the triangular shape on the rod.
He had somehow been able to tell the difference between the two rods. Akira moved one foot to the front of desk and one to the back, he bent his legs and grasped the handle of the monkey net in both of his hands. With the net positioned behind his head, he jumped…
…And completely missed. Akira had competely misinterpreted the amount he had to jump and missed entirely, landing on his feet and swinging the net. The net's rim made a clicking noise as it hit on the floor. Akira looked up, only to confirm his greatest fear. He looked like a fool, jumping off the table and getting nowhere. He looked towards the net, only to see the strings lose their blue colouration. He stood up.
"Huh? Why'd it do that?" Akira said, bringing some of the strings into his hand. They were transparent and felt like nylon, and it was clear that something was wrong. The monkey moved from the whiteboard and onto the old brick wall, beginning to draw all over the them!
"Hey, are you guys okay in there?" The young girl had made it to the door of the classroom.
She slid it open. She witnessed a weird sight. Her friend Akira was holding a weird mechanical bug net and was looking intently at the strings. Her cousin, Daichi, was sitting down in his chair with a very anxious look on his face. She turned the other way, and the situation only got stranger.
"Dawn!" Akira shouted.
"Is…is that a monkey?" She asked, looking towards the unusual ape.
This must have set something off in the monkey's mind, as it stopped drawing and suddenly jumped on the teacher's desk. It kicked a stack of corrected exams off of the desk and spilled a cup of pens all over the desk itself. It jumped onto another desk, and then another diagonally across from it – it keep jumping from desk to desk as if it was a child jumping on certain colours in a checkered pattern. Akira turned to his friend.
"I think it only works for you!" Akira announced to his friend. Daichi's pupils dialated.
"W-Why do you think that?" His voice was trembling, his eyes traced the monkey's movement.
"Look, the strings are only transparent when I was holding it, but it was blue when you used it last night." Akira answered.
One of Dawn's eyebrows kept rising from the absurdity of what was happening. When the monkey jumped onto a desk in Daichi's rows, he leaped up and skittered to the front of the room to join his friends.
"I-I guess we can check now, if you really want to." Daichi said, his eyes showing that he was clearly shaken by the reality of the situation.
He lifted his hand up, and Akira placed the net in it. As Akira had suspected, the strings had lit up blue again.
"Ah no- Does this mean I have to catch it?" Daichi whimpered.
"Well duh. But I'll help out!" Akira replied.
Akira had been running over to his desk. He hadn't noticed that the monkey's gaze was now on him, and was keen to mess with him. The monkey had already been steadily getting closer to the trio. As Akira bent over and grabbed onto the remaining rod on his desk, he felt a hand balancing on his head and a shadow on his hand and desk.
The monkey was balancing on Akira's head with only one hand. Said hand ruining Akira's hair that he had worked hard to perfect that morning. Dawn snickered as Akira stood still for a few seconds in disbelief. He suddenly straightened his back, throwing his head back along with the monkey. In the monkey's surprise, it said "Ukki". It tumbled to the ground and fell on it's bottom. It's head spun as if it was watching stars spin around its head.
"Urgh, Get it quickly!" Akira shouted at his friend.
"Uh, uh, oh- Fine." Daichi stammered.
He quickly ran over and threw the net behind his head, then swinging it in front of him and encasing the monkey's head within its strings and ring. The monkey's body was drenched in a light blue light before disappearing in an instant. Daichi let out a large sigh of relief. And yet, this event only confirmed what had happened the night before.
Were these two things related, Daichi thought to himself. Or could I have caused this, he continued. These thoughts never crossed his mouth. He simply closed up the net until it was nothing more than a weird rod.
"What just happened?" Dawn was rightfully confused. "Did you just put a monkey in a net? A really weird monkey? And it disappeared?"
The two boys clenched their teeth and looked at each other. In the mayhem, they had completely forgotten to keep the monkey business a secret. They knew they had to tell her the whole story. Akira turned with a fake smile to hide his internal wincing.
"Well, it's a long story." He let out a forced chuckle. "But first, let's just clean…" He was interrupted.
"What did you two do?!"
The screaming stern voice froze the children in their place. They had all missed the bell ringing due to being focused on the monkey incident. But it appeared as if there had been no monkey's at all, and that the trio have did this all themselves. It wasn't like they could tell their teacher what really happened, as the teacher would probably get even angrier. There were several groups of students looking in through the open door to see the untidy scene, some had their phones out recording the situation.
"Grab your bags and go to the principal's office immediately! Do I make myself clear?" Ms. Fukuhara was furious. The entire school knew that by then.
Daichi walked quickly to the back of the room and scooped his books and pencil case into his bag, despite his obsession with keeping it in order. He hid the now unrecognisable monkey net in the open space below his pencil case. He would organise it, but he didn't want to risk making the teacher more angry. Akira picked up his bag and threw the stun club's rod into it and zipped it up. He threw it rebelliously over his shoulder and walked out of the door. Dawn waited for her cousin to pass her before leaving the classroom. Ms. Fukuhara followed the children instensely. They knew that something bad was about to happen.
They all walked into the principal's office. The small room was covered in pictures of horses, the principal's horses. A desk split the room in half, designationing the sides in which the staff sit and where the students and their families sit. Mrs. Tanaka was sitting at the old desktop monitor, her keyboard clicking with every letter she typed. An old white desk fan gave the room white noise, the only good noise that ever came from that room. The older women looked up from the e-mail they was attempting to type.
"Please sit down. I will be with you all in a moment." She said sternly, but without anger.
She was calm, only emphasizing her authoritive position. Mrs. Fukuhara walked behind the principal, keeping a constant glare towards the children. Daichi was the first to sit down, quickly choosing the middle seat. He placed his hands on his knees and looked down at them. Akira took the seat to Daichi's left, and rested his head on his hand. Dawn sat down on the other side of her cousin, giving a pout. The white noise filled the room.
"Can we begin this meeting already? We already know the punishment that is coming." Mrs. Fukuhara impatiently requested.
"We are waiting for a parent or guardian." The principal replied, attempting to calm the furious teacher.
"Excuse me Mrs. Tanaka." The secretary said, standing at the door to the room. "Mr. Oishi is here for a meeting."
"Send him in." The secretary walked out of sight, and Mrs. Tanaka began to type on her computer. "….ah okay." She said with confirmation in her voice.
A minute later, the man in question walked in. His cherry red hair was messy, and this unprofessional look was not helped by his cream and blue floral shirt.
"Welcome, you may stand behind your daughter."
"I'm sorry no one else could make it, there's a lot going on…" The father apologized.
"That's okay, we've already decided on what will happen as a result of what they did." Mrs Tanaka explained.
"Ah, okay…what did they do?" Mr. Oishi was not prepared for the small outburst that was about to happen.
"They destroyed my classroom!" Mrs. Fukuhara screamed at the top of her lungs.
"What?" Mr. Oishi was shocked, he couldn't believe it.
"…Yes. That it what happened." Mrs. Tanaka was clearly disappointed in all of the children. "For that, they are facing two weeks suspension."
The children's pupils dialated. Akira knew that his mother would be enraged by the news, and became terrified. Daichi felt very bad, how would his parents feel when they got home? Dawn didn't feel as bad, however, since her parents were a lot more relaxed than the rest.
"Okay. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I will bring these three home." Mr. Oishi quickly said, to the point his words almost slurred.
"You are all dismissed. Homework will be sent through e-mails." Mrs. Tanaka turned back to his ancient computer, and it was clear that the meeting was officially over.
The group walked out of the school's front doors, and walked down the entrance stairs. The two boys didn't speak a word, and it was clear that Daichi wasn't happy. Dawn had walked ahead of them both, and close to her father.
"Dad, I promise I had nothing to do with what happened. I just walked in on it!" Dawn pleaded, not realising that her father was barely listening.
"Yes, Yes, I know." He chuckled. "Why don't we continue this in the car?" Dawn's emerald green eyes looked around, to see a white Toyota Corolla parked next to the sidewalk outside of the school. She gasped.
"Dad! Did you finally get a car?" Mr. Oishi laughed. "Hah, no. I borrowed Hiroki's car." Dawn's smile fell to a pout before going back to a cheeky grin. Mr. Oishi clumsily took out the car keys from his jeans' pocket and clicked the larger button with the "unlock" symbol.
The car's headlights flickered once, and Dawn ran over to the passenger door facing them and claimed her seat. Mr. Oishi looked for traffic before going around the car to reach the driver's seat. Dachi opened the left hand door behind the front row seats, and climbed in – sitting behind his uncle. Akira climbed through the same door, taking the seat behind Dawn. Mr. Oishi turned on the car as the children put on their seatbelts, but he didn't start to drive. He turned to face the children, but especially to be in Daichi's line of sight.
"I didn't want to say it in there, but something really…important has happen." He spoke, the worry was all over his face.
"Daichi, please don't be upset…But your sister is missing." The only adult said hesitantly.
"Heh…..what?"
Daichi let out a nervous chuckle, only to realize what he had heard was true – the seriousness of his uncle's expression told that much. His awkward smile fell to where only his mouth was open, his pupils dialated. His head turned to look out the window. The other passengers were less silent.
"What?! Lil' Yuki?!" Dawn screamed in disbelief.
"Since when?" Akira joined in, unable to process the entire situation.
"I'm not too sure what we know, but we'll know more when we get back to the Professor's. Your mother and his parents are there and looking into it." Mr. Oishi sighed, gesturing to Akira near the end of his sentence. The rest of the car ride was full of these types of questions, it was chaos. Dawn's father couldn't do anything else but give out the same unhelpful answer.
After the ten minute car ride was over and Mr. Oishi had successfully parked outside of the house, Dawn almost kicked the passenger side door off of its hinges. Akira flung the car door open, with a lot less force than his friend, and both the preteens ran out of the car and up the steps. Daichi still sat in the car, frozen in shock.
"Come on, bud, it's not…that bad." Mr. Oishi tried to comfort his nephew, but it was clear that he would have to help the child out of the car by gently dragging him. He had done it before, but that had been years ago. He knew that Daichi was just confused, and he couldn't hurt him. He couldn't even hurt a fly.
Dawn and Akira ran through the front door, which opened as they reached the top of the steps. As they ran in, they witnessed Dawn's mother carrying boxes out of the once sealed room – in her new signature white denim jacket and light blue skinny jeans.
"Mum! Wait…" Dawn looked at her mother and the opened door. "Why were you in there?" Her mother knew that this simply wasn't the time for that explanation.
"Oh good it's you two! Please go to the kitchen!" Her mother instructed. The two children didn't need to be told more, as they ran straight pass Dawn's mother and slid to a stop right inside the kitchen door.
The professor was sitting down on the sofa in the living room area that was directly attached to the kitchen, Charu was sitting next to him and had placed a cup of tea on the coffee table in front of the couch.
Akira's father, Hiroki, was in the cooking area and leaning on the connected countertop – a bit away from the sink. He probably didn't want his black bomber jacket or his black cargo joggers to be hit by any stray splashes of water, let alone his grey polo shirt. Akira's mother had been standing on the other side of the counter, closer to the dining area, and looking at a clock that was on the wall. She was holding her phone in one hand, that was clear. She was wearing her normal outfit, dark grey high waisted denim shorts and a striped blue and white ribbed turtle-neck body suit. Akira's mother turned her head when the footsteps stopped.
"Akira! Dawn! Go the living room, we need to have a meeting." His mother demanded, in a way only a mother could. Akira held his breathe.
"I'm sorry for getting suspended, mum!" He shouted.
"You what? Ugh, that's a talk for the later. Hikaru, hurry up!" His mother's eyes now filled with an extra bit of anger, which would surely be revealed to the orange-haired boy later that day. His father's face transformed into a smile, full of second-hand embarrassment.
The two children walked quickly to the living room, where Dawn sat down on one of the lounge chairs. Akira stayed standing behind her, his teeth clenched. His mother's attention was drawn to the people walking into the house. Mr. Oishi had gotten Daichi to his feet, and the young boy had started to walk in front of him. Mr. Oishi had stopped to share a few words with his wife. When he heard the fellow parent's call, he hurried Daichi into the kitchen and followed the young boy soon after.
"Ah, Daichi. Please sit in the living room." Akira's mother said gently. Daichi didn't say a word, he just walked and stood next to his childhood friend. The two sets of parents walked into the living room. Akira's mother walked in front of the tv screen, whilst the rest of the parents stood next to the lounge chair on the other side of the room. The trio and Charu looked towards Akira's mother.
"I feel like I should start at the beginning of the day." Akira's mother started. "At nine-thirty, we received a call from Charu saying that she couldn't find Yuki anywhere. She had checked every nook and cranny, but to no avail. Your father and I drove over, and waited for your parents to arrive, Dawn. When we arrived, Charu told us that she found something…interesting on the cameras. We both looked at the recordings, and we saw you two." Akira's mother looked over to Daichi and Akira himself.
Their eyes showed their shock, they had no idea there were cameras in almost every room. Their secret was exposed.
"We saw what you did." She sighed before beginning again. "We didn't want to tell you all so soon, but it turns out that some children are nosey. Something you clearly got from your father…"
"Natsumi!" Akira's father grunted.
"I'm….I'm sorry." Daichi spoke his first word since the car ride. "We- I- we didn't know…" Natsumi sighed.
"Daichi…we are disappointed. But there's nothing any of us can do now." She replied. "We should've seen this coming honestly, we would've had to tell you at some point."
"Mum! What are you talking about?" Akira begged, impatiently.
"Akira!...anyway, let's start from the beginning." Natsumi moved out of the way of the tv and picked up a remote control that had been left on the coffee table. She clicked the power button and maneuvered the television screen to the dvd screen. She pressed play and for a few seconds, the words "now loading" appeared at the bottom of the screen before it turned black completely. She walked up and stood beside the tv.
"This is where it all began." She started again.
An old video played without any audio on the tv. A strange albino monkey appeared on the screen. It was wearing a strange helmet before presenting with an even stranger headband.
"This is Specter. He was a cheeky little monkey that used to be in a local monkey park. One day, he got his hands on a prototype of the monkey helmet that the Professor was working on and gained impressive intelligence. He decided to try to take over the world and make it for monkeys!" She realized how insane the story she was telling was, as all the children had their mouths slightly open in disbelief. "I know, I know. But this all happened when we were young. And yes, we were young at some point too." She looked at her son, who conveniently looked the other way.
"We were able to stop him and he escaped a few times, but we always got him. Except for the last time he escaped. It was a good few years before any of you were born, and he never made a true reappearance. We didn't let our guard down, though, and still looked into any incidents we thought were suspicious." These words made the wheels in Daichi's mind turn, realizing that that was the reason there were newspapers scattered around that room.
"We had gotten what we thought was the location of their base, and wanted to wait until Kakeru and Haruka- or Daichi's parents were back. But now we see that you two wanted to start it for us." Natsumi looked towards the two boys.
Dawn still had the dumbfounded look on her face, and would probably need this reexplained to her later.
"In the last twelve hours, since you two caught the two monkeys, we've seen multiple reports of these monkeys wearing the pipo helmets – pipo monkeys, you could say – around the world. Including your school." A world map appeared on the screen. "But the monkey that was there disappeared and appeared in the paradise room – the room we have to rehabilitate these monkeys. Coincidentally, the two gadgets you boys had used last night also disappeared from this house." Her suspicion was clear to hear in her voice.
"We have them. They're in our bags." Akira said, defeated.
Akira dropped his bag to his hand and lifted it close to him, using his other hand to search for the stun club's handle. Daichi placed his bag on the floor and squated down to look through the bag for the monkey net's handle. They both lifted the blue rods out of their bags at almost the same time. They shared a look before Daichi stood up, and the duo walked to Akira's mother. They stopped in front of her and extended their arms, showing the gadgets' handles. Strangely, Natsumi looked at the gadgets with little interest. A smirk appeared on her face.
"Interesting." She laughed. "Seems like you two already know what you'll be doing until we can catch that cheeky ape once and for all." Everyone was silent in shock. Their pupils were tiny.
"Uh, what?! I'm not doing that!" Akira shouted.
"Well, you wanted to do it last night!" His mother responded.
"Dad!" He turned to face his father.
"Well, your mother does have a point." His father agreed.
"Okay. I guess that makes sense. But what about Yuki?" Daichi pleaded. Akira swung his head to face his friend, but he wasn't joking. He wasn't able to wiggle himself out of this situation.
"I was just getting to that." Natsumi continued. "The last time she was caught on camera was around ten minutes after you two left for school. She left though that door there." She had implied that Yuki had left through the sliding glass door that stood behind the couch in the living room. "It doesn't seem normal for her to do, wouldn't you say?"
"Yeah, it's not." Daichi replied.
"Right, and something else was caught on the camera near the same time. Those two…unusual monkeys you caught last night escaped. They seemed to have escaped near the back of the paradise facility, which would result in them appearing in the back yard of the building." Natsumi stopped talking, hoping someone else would continue.
"Are you saying that those…'monkeys'…kidnapped her?" Dawn spoke up, still not believing anything she was hearing. Akira's mother shook her head.
"I'm not sure it's that. She may just have seen them and wanted to know what they were doing. Either way, she's not here. And that's going to be our highest priority along with catching those apes." Akira's mother announced, proudly. A loud snore broke the strange atmosphere that had filled the room.
The Professor had fallen asleep during the entire conversation, and his snore seemed to mark the end of the talk – at least about the monkeys. Charu stood up and picked up the now cold tea mug, and brought it over to the sink. Dawn's father would follow soon after.
"I'm going to get something to eat." Hikaru said, making his way to the kitchen.
"Count me in!" Dawn replied, jumping out of the lounge chair and skipping to reach the connecting room.
"Huh, me too!" Akira attempted to join in.
"Not so fast!" Natsumi commanded, getting close to her son's face. "You and your father are staying here so we can talk about this school punishment." Akira's skin went cold, as he knew he was in for a good scolding. His father and him shared the same face, an awkward smile full of fear. His father walked over and stood beside his wife.
Realizing that the new conversation didn't include him, Daichi walked back into the kitchen. Am I really hungry, or can I last a bit longer before eating again, he thought to himself. He decided against it and instead walked out of the room, and to the stairwell. He wanted to go to his room to relax after the morning he had.
When he reached his room, he let out a sigh. It was still as messy as it had been when they rushed to school that morning. The first thing he did was get changed out of his overload-inducing school clothes. He took his time and hung up his blaizer and shirt in the closet. He took off his school shoes, not being able to take them off earlier. He placed them on the lowest level of the closet. He folded his trousers and placed them next to the shoes. After putting away the now somewhat useless school uniform, he got back into his signature clothing of his green striped shirt and his grey sweatpants.
He sat on the side of his bed, before falling backwards onto it. One of his hands fell across his chest with the other feeling through his own hair. He looked at the plain ceiling, where his mind was plagued with a variety of thoughts. But they all seemed to be indistinguishable from one another, and simply left Daichi feeling numb. He simply laid on the bed and tried to move his focus towards the texture of the duvet or the swaying of the curtains in the morning breeze.
"Daichi! We made shaped sandwiches, if you want some!" His aunt Sayaka shouted up to him. He stayed silent on the bed, before quickly sitting up.
He stared blankly in front of him. Should I go to the room, he thought to himself, no…that wouldn't change anything. He stood up and left the room, leaving its door cracked open a little bit.