Chapter 4 - Unwelcomed Announcement
Daichi strolled into the kitchen. It was the first day of his school suspension, the first school suspension he had ever gotten. The first thing he saw was quite unusual, Akira was sitting at the kitchen countertop next to his mother. He was working on some school work that was clearly overdue, and his mother was helping him by giving him ideas for answers and pointing at the questions he was on. This really confused Daichi, and he turned his head to look at the clock. He didn't even realise that he had slept in until midday!
It wasn't like he had anyone to make him do work. He walked over to the refrigerator and opened it, grabbing one of the pre-made egg sandwiches that had been lined up in a row. I should probably leave them be, he thought to himself in a daze. He walked his way over to the connected living room, where he saw Dawn and her father flicking through television channels on the couch. Akira's father had fallen asleep on one of the armchairs.
That's when Daichi realised that almost everyone else was already dressed like they were going somewhere, everyone except for himself. He was still in his pajamas. Dawn was in her everyday clothes, as there was no reason for her to be in her school uniform like the day before. She had her blue and white tie-dye crop top-hoodie over a black jumpsuit and the purple stripe on her dark grey leggings seemed to reflect the light of the day. Oh...I should stay in the kitchen, he thought. And thus, he made his way to kitchen table and sat down – beginning to eat his sandwich. He was still very tired as he chewed on the bread and eggs.
Daichi couldn't seem to focus on anything. Ever since he was told about his sister's disappearance the day before, he had been feeling different. It was as if the entire world was on his shoulders. He hadn't spoken much since the previous day, which everyone suspected would happen. It wasn't that he didn't want to speak, but he felt as if there was something physically preventing him from speaking. This same feeling prevented him from eating dinner the night before, so this was the first meal he had since the sandwiches Dawn's mother made the previous day.
His brain seemed to stay fogged for the entire day, even when they all watched television shows and even a movie whilst waiting to see if anyone would call in with a sighting. When night came and Dawn's side of the family went home, and Akira's parents stayed in another guest room, Daichi still didn't feel better. He couldn't sleep, his mind muddled, with thoughts slipping through to the light from time to time. He could only plug in his headphones and listen to music, whilst lying on his bed.
He didn't know what time he went asleep at, as one moment it was the middle of the night and the next he was waking up with his phone having barely any battery left. Before he went downstairs that morning, he left his phone to charge on the bedside table. But these recollection of the past few hours would also soon disappeared in the mist of his mind.
"Daichi! Do you know what I need to do for this question?" Daichi looked up, only to see that Akira's seat was slightly turned around and his friend was looking straight towards him.
"Akira, you're meant to be doing this yourself." His mother said, giving him a somewhat frustrated look. Daichi was taken back from the interaction, only blinking at first.
"Um, sure." He replied, with no clear expression in his voice. He left his half eaten egg sandwich on the table and got up, approaching his friend. Natsumi sighed and turned back to the homework. Daichi looked through the space between the two to see the English grammar homework Akira was working on. Of course it's English grammar, he thought to himself.
"So, what do you need help with?" He pondered clearly.
"This one here!" Akira responded, pointing a finger towards a question on the page. In bolder text, the question read "Fill in the appropriate indefinite article for the following sentences.".
"Uh, I think that's where you use 'a' or 'a-n'." Daichi said, even though he knew he was right. He lifted one of his hands and started to scratch the back of his head.
"Oh yeah, those things. Thanks!" Akira replied excitedly, before turning back to continue the work.
"Thank you, Daichi...You're up late, aren't you?" Natsumi sighed.
"Oh! Uh, yeah. I guess I was really tired from yesterday." Daichi muttered as he became slightly flustered. Akira's mother laughed.
"Well, that is understandable. But it is a bit late to still not be dressed." Daichi gave an awkward smile and responded
"Well, I guess that's true."
Attempting to remove himself from the uncomfortable conversation, he walked directly to the doorway. At that point, he had completely forgotten about his half eaten sandwich. He just wanted the make the conversation end. He clung to the one thought inside of his mind – to get changed into his day clothes. He kept mouthing the words to himself as he made his way up the stairs, even when he almost tripped over one of the steps he didn't remember was there. This continued as he walked through the guest room door and as he opened the doors to the closet to retrieve his clothes. He was scared that he would forget, and be left in a daze once again.
He finally stopped repeating the the phrase when he had put on his sweatpants and shirt. And then, once again, he had nothing to do and he was just standing still in the room. He looked towards his bed. Oh yeah my phone, he remembered. He sat down on his bed, with his back to his pillow, and picked up his phone. He opened the app for a popular video sharing website, and began to look through his favourite content creators' uploads.
There's...nothing?, he thought to himself in dismay. He was right, none of the creators he watched daily had uploaded in days. Strangely, no one had uploaded since the night that Akira and himself went into that room and discovered what they did. In the strangest time of his life, the one thing he would always turn to before dissapeared.
Trying to ignore this new disappointment, he picked up the headphones he had placed next to his phone on the bed side table and plugged them into the device. He flicked the screen over to his favourite music streaming app and searched for the specific song by the specific artist he wanted to listen to. He had listened to the song over a thousand times at that point but he loved it so much, he didn't care. But this time around, he felt as if some of the lyrics stuck out more than usual.
The words "Sou yatte kyou mo mata ichinichi ga owaru kedo, Kimi wa ikita you na furi o shite shite soshite nemuru" seemed to send a chill into his bones and refused to go away. Even as the song continued into the chorus, he couldn't get passed those lyrics. Even as the song ended, he opted to replay the song and once again, he felt a cold chill as he heard those lyrics. The rest of the song seemed grey in comparison to those two lines. He tried to figure it out. Why did these lines feel so different, he thought to himself.
"Daichi! Get down here, quickly!" A voice shouted from the floors below, breaking his music session.
He couldn't tell who exactly had called out, all he knew was that there was a sense of urgency in the person's voice. He ripped the headphones out of his ears and left his phone on his bed as he jumped up and ran out of the door. His speed slowed down as he made his way down the stairs, attempting not to trip and fall in the sudden rush.
As he turned on the second floor to continue his descent, he could hear an unusual siren type of sound, repeating the phrase "Saru! Saru!" continuously. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, his grip on the handrail got tighter. He jumped off of the third step from the bottom and spun himself around with his hand on the newel. He landed beside the staircase and lifted his head up, looking around.
"Hurry, in here!" Dawn declared, standing inside the once sealed room.
By this time, Daichi's momentum had slowed down and he could only briefly walk quickly in the room. A red light was shining next to the main monitor screen, and it would appear as if that was where the now quieter alarm had been coming from. Akira and his parents were standing in front of and beside the main monitor's module, and Akira's mother was furiously typing on its keyboard. Akira's eyes were fixed to the monitor itself, and his father was looking out on the rest of the room.
Charu was standing off to the other side of the module, next to a brand new tool panel. Dawn's father was sitting on an office chair that was located in front of a longer but thinner module below several smaller screens, on the opposite side of the room. Natsumi's attention was redirected as she heard Dawn talk to the young boy.
"Daichi! We've just received a notification about new monkey sightings!" Natsumi announced, before quickly turning her head back to look at the screen.
One of her hands had moved to grab onto the computer mouse while the other stayed on the keyboard. Daichi walked up to be next to his childhood friend and looked at the screen. There was a turquoise globe spinning in its own window in the corner of the screen, and a larger screen with the word "loading…" in grey text covered the rest of the screen. The text faded in and out from a lighter grey to a darker grey every few seconds.
Only a second or so after Daichi began to look at the screen, the text changed to say "analysis complete". The screen faded to a simple map of japan, the country itself being a darker shade of turquoise compared to the sea around it. A white box outline surrounded an area in the south-east region of the country, before quickly zooming in. This zooming technique continued until the view was in a city, with many people walking around and high buildings. The name of the area appeared clearly in the bottom left corner of the screen, in both kanji and romaji.
"Ah, Shibuya-"
"Shibuya?!" Akira screamed, interrupting his mother. "I've been waiting so long to go there!"
Akira's eyes shimmered in excitement as he looked towards Daichi and his mother.
"Akira, this is serious. We'll go shopping another time, but your mission is to catch the monkeys detected there! Along with Daichi." Natsumi ordered.
Akira's smile fell to a pout, knowing that he couldn't change his mother's mind. Daichi was simply surprised by the technology.
"Excuse me, but, how are we gonna get there?" He asked. Natsumi partially turned to the side, and gave a smirk.
"There's a teleporter over there. You used it, remember?" She remarked, in a joking manner. Daichi was somewhat stunned, how did he manage to forget that?
"Heh, oh yeah…" He muttered, moving his eyes to his shoes.
"Good thing we installed this, if you forgot about the giant thing so easily." Akira's mother continued, pointing towards the wall next to the monitor and module.
There were several hooks poking out from a pale yellow back board, and three hooks were already taken up. An open monkey net and an open stun club hung next to each other, and an unknown gadget hung next to the monkey net on its other side. Charu lifted one of her hands.
"They're here for whenever you need them." She smiled.
Akira became excited once again, but not as much as before. He skipped over to the stun club and lifted it from its hook, which was thankfully at an appropriate level for the children's heights. Daichi followed quickly, and lifted the net into his hands. A small smile grew on his face.
"Don't forget to take the gloves, they're at the bottom of the board." Charu instructed again, in her usual friendly tone.
The two boys looked down. They had completely missed the small shelf at the bottom of the back board, and there were two pairs of fingerless black gloves sitting in it. Akira quickly grabbed one of the pairs and placed the stun club between his legs as he put them on. His parents shared a look with each other. Daichi temporarily placed the net back onto the hook before he started to put the gloves on one at a time. Suddenly, Dawn ran over to the boys.
"So where's my gadget?" Dawn asked, with a fire in her eyes.
Her father stopped swinging in the chair, and had a dopey look on his face. Natsumi sighed.
"We've already told you, we don't have one for you yet."
"Please! There has to be one more, at least!" Dawn continued to plead.
Natsumi's face continued to have a sympathetic look. Before his daughter's fire had been completely extinguished, Dawn's father spoke up.
"Wait, but there is one!" Hikaru declared, running over to the other side of the room, almost knocking over Charu in the process. He grabbed the final gadget that had been placed onto the tool panel, and displayed it to Dawn.
"What is that thing?" She asked, moving her head to get a good look of the machine that lacked colour – unlike the other ones.
"It's a monkey radar!" Hikaru exclaimed. That didn't answer any of Dawn's questions, and that was apparent by the look on her face. Hikaru continued.
"As in, this thing up here will spin to locate the monkeys and then you can see them on the screen down here! And it tells you where the monkeys are specifically so you can find and get them!"
Natsumi let out a small chuckle at his explanation, as it was a very 'Hikaru' thing to do.
"Ohh, I get it! That's so cool!" Dawn exclaimed, ripping the radar from her father's hands. She spun the right control stick, located near the bottom of the device, and watched as the small satellite dish spun in unison. Even if she didn't actually think it was interesting, she was trying her hardest to look like she did.
"Alright then, I think you're all ready- wait!" Natsumi began, before suddenly running over to one of the boxes near the teleporter. She rummaged through it, before turning around with three watch like devices.
They were almost all the same, with a black band supporting a circular steel shape, but the steel shape had different colours in its center - one was green, another was red, and the last one was blue. She walked back over to the trio and gave them to the children one by one.
"Wear these, that way we can talk to you from here in the lab and we can transport you back to anytime. You'll get new ones soon, we're still working on them." She explained.
Daichi inspected his green coloured watch, before looking over to glance at Akira's red one and Dawn's blue – realizing that he was the only one who hadn't immediately put it on, he copied his friends.
Natsumi straightened her back and placed her hands on her hips.
"And you're all prepared to go…" She began, before briefly stopping and looking at Akira lovingly. She smiled. "Go in front of the teleporter as I get the portal started!" She said proudly, turning back to the computer module and beginning to move the mouse and type once again.
"Come on!" Dawn shouted as she grabbed Daichi's wrist.
She dragged her cousin as she ran to stand only a meter from the transporter's steps. She let go of his wrist and gave him a reassuring smile, before looking up and knodding to their orange haired friend who ran after them. It wasn't long after that when audible clunking noises were coming from the large machine, and the large antenna's electrical currents began to spin the oversized wind up key on its top. The spiraling purple portal materialized from the side, moving two its middle, and Dawn's mind exploded in confusion and intrigue.
The trio stood there for a few moments, before Akira started to run ahead of the rest with Dawn chasing only a few steps behind. Daichi was startled at first, before starting to run behind the others. They jumped in that order, and unlike the first time, they all kept a somewhat upright position.
"Haha!" Akira shouted.
"Woah!" Dawn laughed. Daichi could only let out an uncomfortable mumble. Within an instant, they were gone and the room was as silent as it could be.
The children soon found themselves on the other end of the portal, falling a few feet to the ground. They all landed on their feet this time, but Akira did loose his balance upon impact and almost fell over. Their entrance wasn't something they cared about, as they all looked around to see where they were. Akira gasp.
"We're at the Shibuya crossing!" He said excitedly. They were in the middle of one of the marked walkways, specifically the one that cuts diagonally across the area. Hoards of people were walking up and down each crossroad, some even walked on the road to avoid the other people. Despite all the people around, no one seemed to notice the trio's unique appearance.
There was a single young child who was being dragged around the capital by her mother that tried to say "Mummy, those people teleported!", but she was simply brushed off by her mother. Most of the pedestrians seemed to be focused on their phones or were in their own world. The kids received some dirty looks from passing adults, as they were standing in the middle of the crossing and not moving at all.
The surrounding buildings were showing advertisements for fast food restaurants and new soft drinks on their large screens. Dawn's eyes were bright with excitement, and Akira was raring to go. Daichi, on the other hand, felt extremely vulnerable and couldn't wait to be out of the district.
"Let's see where those monkey guys are!" Dawn laughed, pressing the power button on the monkey radar.
The small screen on the device booted up, appearing as an empty box blue box with several smaller empty boxes underneath it – all on top of a lighter blue background. Blue signal rings began to appear from the machine's satellite dish, and dissipate a few centimeters away from their starting point. Dawn looked down at the screen and began to spin the right analog stick, moving the satellite dish. Strangely, even after doing multiple full turns on the device, nothing appeared on the screen and the signal rings stayed blue and barely made an audible humming sound.
"Isn't this thing meant to show us where the monkeys are?" Dawn disappointedly asked. Daichi looked over.
"I-I think so. Is nothing showing up?" Dawn shook her head.
"Nope, nothing. It must be broken or something." Daichi's face revealed his confusion and that he was trying to figure out what was going on.
"Or…there's no monkeys. But then, why did- how did they think there were some here?"
The mostly brown haired boy lifted his head and began to look at each building individually. He looked at the top of the screens, at the top of the buildings, around and in as many windows he could – all to see if there were any monkeys about. And adding to his confusion, he couldn't see any animal in the district. It was almost too devoid of any other species.
"At least we can look to see what they have in the shops." Dawn pouted.
Akira turned around, revealing his huge child-like grin. He wasn't listening to anything the other two were saying or doing, his only focus was on the eye-catching commercials. "Heck yeah!" He shouted, causing more adults to glance their way.
But Daichi didn't share this excitement, and it wasn't just because he hated shopping. Something wasn't right. The adults seemed so sure that they were right.
Before anything could connect in his inexperienced mind, all the screens in the district turned black. Any music being played by them stopped, only leaving the sounds of people's feet on the concrete and beats of music from people's earphones. The sudden change was very unusual, and that was clear by the amount of people who stopped their commute. What was once a bustling commercial section of the capital was now at a stand still, and people began to whisper under their breath and talk frantically over the phone. Akira finally snapped out of his trance.
"Wait, what's going on?" He said, looking at his friends.
"I don't know, everything's just…weird." Dawn responded, slouching down. Daichi's breathing started to become heavy, and he began to walk pass the rest of the group. Akira noticed, as he took his phone out of his pocket.
"Daich, what's wrong?"
"Akira…" The other boy began, his voice shaking. His eyes were glued to the main screen on one of the corner buildings. It had changed from black to a dark blue static. It was clear that something was waiting to be revealed. Daichi gulped.
"If this was one of your favourite animes, what would happen next?"
Akira was taken a back. What type of question was that?, he thought. He didn't have enough time to actually understand what he was being asked before the situation continued.
"My, my, someone's catching on fast." A snarky voice rang out amongst the entire district.
Every single person in the area was looking around, their eyes finding the closest screen to them – which had all turned a dark blue static. A strange symbol faded into the middle of the screen. It was like a gold badge, showing the face of someone with spikey hair, some of which covering their right eye, and wearing a strange headband. It wasn't long before the blue static and the badge-like image switched to a live recording of the same figure that was represented on the badge. There was nothing to see behind the figure – all you could focus on was him if you watched the screen. The smug grin on his face showed his every intention.
"Though if I do say so myself." The figure began. "That is a very vapid comparison."
Daichi was speechless. It was the ape from the videos…but he also looked similiar to the first monkey he'd ever caught. How, he thought to himself. He wasn't able to follow up on those thoughts, as his friends were more open about their opinions.
"It's that monkey guy!" Dawn tried to shout.
"Specter!" Akira shouted over the confused crowd, throwing one of his hands back and lifted a fist in front of him – as if he was a character in a film. At this point, the mumbling of the crowds became louder and young children had begun to cry. The strange figure wasn't discouraged.
"That's right. Oh, but I must thank you foolish humans." Specter laughed. "Because, my monkey army is stronger than ever before, and you don't stand a chance."
People began to run into the surrounding buildings and into parking lots, some even threw strangers off of their bikes and stole them – cycling away. Others stood, paralyzed, in the cross roads watching the announcement. Daichi's face had gone pale, trying to connect all the pieces from the last few days, while Dawn simply stood dumbfounded. Akira, on the other hand, took matters into his own hands.
"Oh yeah? We'll show you!" He shouted. Daichi turned his head.
"Akira?!" He cried, but it was too late. Akira's words had made their stay in the monkey's mind.
"Oh really?" The ape said condescendingly. "Well then, you can start now if you're so ready. Have fun, ciao~"
The screens in the district turned black again. It was barely a second before chaos ensued. It seemed to begin with a scream coming from a connected road, and then everyone else who had once stood still began to ran in a multitude of directions. The trio were the only ones who continued to stand in place. That doesn't mean they were calm, however. Dawn grabbed Akira's shoulders and spun him around, rage in her eyes. Akira realized his mistake.
"Oh my- what did you do? Did you think you were being cool or something?!" She screamed, but was still muddled under the commotion around them.
"I don't know, I thought it would work!" He responded, regret in his voice.
"In what world…"
Dawn's voice had begun to dwindle in Daichi's head, along with all the other voices around them. It was almost as if he had noise cancelling headphones or another sound blocking device on, but he didn't. He seemed to be in a world of his own, where he could focus on his own thoughts without being distracted by anyone else. Despite this, or maybe because of it, he heard what would otherwise be lost in the crowd.
"Eek! There's a monkey, run!"
A woman's voice broke the muffled sea of voices, as clear as day. Daichi's head followed the direction in which the sound had come from. He didn't speak. He started to run through the crowds in the direction of the scream, gripping onto the monkey's net handle. Dawn noticed Daichi running immediately.
"Hey, where are you going?" She shouted, but she didn't get any response. She let go of Akira's shoulders and glanced at him. "Come on, we gotta follow him! He might be upset!" She explained as she ran in the same general direction of her relative. Akira was left flustered, before shouting back.
"Guys! Wait!" He started to run in the direction he thought he saw them go.
Daichi tried his best to avoid the frantic pedestrians moving around him, being too focused on moving that he forget to apologize like he usually would when he pushed pass. Dawn tried her best to keep up with the boy, and while speed and actually running wasn't an issue at all – the people in the way were. She was saying "'Cuse me, sorry!" every few seconds. She didn't even notice the signal rings change to a yellow colour from the radar.
Akira couldn't even hear or see the two, he had been completely separated and found himself next to one of the building that had been surrounding the square. Despite his incorrect navigation, he still found himself going towards the screams that were originally heard. Daichi pushed through one more person, and as he did, the world around him went back to its normal, clear sounding state. He found himself in an opening on one of the roads, everyone else was running past him and most of them were on the sidewalk.
There were several cars that had been left in the middle of the road, abandoned. He looked up and inspected the street lamps. As expected, there was a Pipo Monkey hanging from one of the street lamps. It seemed to be minding its own business, barely noticing the commotion around it. Daichi lifted the monkey net's handle to hold it in both of his hands. He didn't even get one foot in front of him before Dawn caught up and grabbed one of his shoulders with her open hand.
"Daichi, why'd you run off?" She said worried.
"Someone screamed about a monkey, and I'm the only one who can get it!" He replied, turning slightly to face her. Dawn looked at the monkey net and then back at Daichi. She gave him an awkward smile.
"I guess so, but you know that running off without saying anything isn't the best of ideas." She laughed. The mostly brown haired boy smiled and turned back to look at the monkey, still clueless to the humans around it.
The two ran up to the lamppost, now being on the same page. The next problem soon became apparent…the two children were of an average height for their ages, and the post towered above them. One of them would have to climb up the pole, but even that could take awhile.
"So, what now?" Dawn questioned. She looked towards her cousin-like relative.
"Uh…maybe if Akira catches up we can hold each other up on our shoulders..eh." Daichi said, what a scared smile. He knew the response he was going to get.
"Uh, what?! No, I'm not carrying you two. Especially not Akira, have you seen how much he eats?!" Dawn screamed, ending with an angry pout. Daichi laughed under his breath, awkwardly.
"I don't know what else to do." He mumbled. It was then when they heard another sound, that was quickly getting louder.
"Ahhhh!"
An unseen voice screamed. Out of the other two's view, Akira had also seen the monkey scaring the civilians. He had thought about all the anime he watched, and about what the exaggerated main characters would do in this situation. He knew he wouldn't be able to run up the pole, that was just impossible. Instead, he knew he could probably try to climb up it and hit the monkey with his stun club. After psyching himself up, he didn't waste anytime and immediately started running towards the pole with a long shout. This continued, even when he came into the clear area where Daichi and Dawn stood.
When he was a meter or so away from the pole, he started to put a hop in each step before jumping straight onto the pole. Dawn and Daichi stood, speechless, watching the stunt play out. They weren't sure if they should laugh or be proud, or even afraid. Akira didn't even stop then, he almost immediately started to drag himself up the pole with his one free hand and legs, which were now wrapped around it. He fell down the pole a few times, but that didn't deter him. He pulled himself onto the top of the pole, barely being able to balance on it. Fueled by adrenaline, he began to walk as if he was on a tight rope.
The other two began to walk back, out of the cover of the light, knowing the chance of him falling. The monkey had definitely seen the orange haired boy at that point. It hung from one hand as if to show off as the boy attempted to make his way to the ape. When the boy was only a step or so away from it, the monkey decided to be even more of a show off. It pulled itself up without any issue and looked at the boy, who could only open his mouth in confusion. It put even more salt in the wound, as it turned around and began to smack its own bottom to make fun of the boy.
"What the-?!" Akira shouted, both confused and angry.
He then remembered that he was holding the stun club in his left hand, and knew what he had to do. He swung the club, hitting the monkey's side and pushing it down…and the force of the swing brought himself down with it.
When the two hit the ground, it was almost as if a smoke bomb had gone off due to the amount of dust that surrounded them. When this dust lifted, the monkey appeared to be in the exact same dazed state as the monkey from the previous day, seemingly watching stars fly around his head. Akira was sitting on his bottom, one hand on the ground and the other still holding the stun club.
His clothes were covered in dust and his jeans and jacket were scratched. Daichi and Dawn accidentally stared at the sight, as the entire situation was just so absurd. Luckily, Daichi quickly snapped to his senses and threw the net's strings over the ape's head, catching it. As Akira got to his feet, he spoke.
"Why don't you say 'got cha' like your dad did in those videos?" He said, interest in his face. Daichi was confused, to say the least.
"Um, I don't know…should I?" The older boy replied, looking dumbfounded.
"You should! It's be cool!" The girl between the two was much more focused on the actual issue at hand, and lifted her hand with an annoyed look.
"Can we focus on the other monkey?" She announced.
Her index finger was pointing pass the lamppost and the stranded cars, and at another monkey that was looking through the windows of the cars. The boys looked over, and to their surprise, there was another monkey! For the first time, there was more than one monkey. This thought may have been shared by the monkey itself, except for humans, when it looked up and noticed the humans staring right at it. Its eyes dilated and its mouth hung open. The stare down lasted only for a few seconds before the monkey began to sprint to one side and ran into a nearby alleyway.
"Come on, we can't just let it get away!" Dawn insisted, running over to the side walk and going up it. For whatever reason, Akira started to dash to the exact location in which the monkey had once stood between the cars and turned – as if to follow the ape's every step. After fumbling with inaudible syllables, Daichi began to run after his relative, the net now delegated to only his right hand.
Despite taking the way that would seem as if it would take longer, Akira reached the entrance of the alley at the same time as Dawn, with Daichi only a second behind. They didn't waste any time as they turned left into the alley, looking to see why the monkey had gone that way.
"What do you mean you're scared? They're random children, you can easily overthrow their structure." The albino monkey that had once been viewed on the large screens was now in front of them, in a unique throne-like chair with a type of rocket on its bottom allowing it to hover. The monkey they had seen moments ago was now on its knees, as if it was begging.
"It's that monkey guy again!" Dawn shouted, speaking for the whole team.
The average monkey looked up and jumped in surprise, shouting back "Ukki!". It ran behind the albino monkey's chair, the albino monkey who had also been made aware of the children's presence.
"Oh, it's you three again." Specter snarled, before regaining his smug grin. "I guess you were able to catch one of my monkeys – but only when there were three of you. Quite inconvenient if you ask me." Akira was extremely frustrated with the last comment.
"Why are you even doing this?" He shouted, an eye twitching. Specter scoffed.
"Me? I seem to remember you two starting this…even then, I see that there's not much of a challenge here. You might as well already give in." He condescendingly laughed. Akira couldn't truly reply, he didn't understand what the leader meant in those words.
"Just wait and see!" Dawn interrupted, drawing all the attention towards her. She lifted her hand to her side, in front of her relative.
"Daichi here will get you, just like his dad did!" The oldest of the group didn't even have a chance to respond before his orange-haired friend chimed in.
"Yeah he will!" Akira shouted afterwards, raising a fist in front of him. Daichi couldn't respond, he didn't know how to. He felt a strange feeling mix with the already present anxiety. Almost instinctively, he frowned and nodded. It just felt like he had to. Specter scoffed again.
"Dad? No matter, I doubt humans like you can defeat what I have in store."
He turned his chair to face the scared monkey.
"You!" He demanded. The monkey stood up straight and gave him a salute. "Go back to the base, you're free for now."
The monkey smiled before running off. Daichi gasped and walked forward a step with his hand reached out, but he stopped himself, knowing that there wasn't a point. Specter turned back around, the flames from below his chair becoming more intense.
"I'll let you go for now, but next time won't be as simple." Then the flames beneath the chair intensified, and lifted him off higher as he laughed – keeping his smug grin.
"Wait!" Daichi screamed as he leaped ahead, but it was too late. The monkey was gone, and the alleyway went quiet. He kept his eyes on the skies, and gripped the monkey net's handle tight. Behind him, Dawn looked towards Akira. But before she could say anything, the trio disappeared from the city district.
They found themselves rematerialising in the laboratory. Instead of falling through the transporter like they would've expected, they appeared a few feet above the ground before landing on their feet. Akira and Dawn landed with balance, while Daichi stumbled a bit when his feet touched the floor as he was still in a mid-walk position. After he regained his balance, Natsumi began to talk.
"I knew that Specter was behind this and now that he knows who you are, he probably isn't going to hold back." She explained. Akira turned his head, a wave of confusion went over his face.
"Mum, what do you mean by 'he isn't gonna hold back'?" He asked. The other two children had turned to face the orange-haired woman by this point, as well.
"It just means that the monkeys you'll be dealing with won't be as easy as today or yesterday!" She announced, and then she looked towards her husband for a moment before looking back at the trio. "It also means he may have more tricks up his sleeve, so you'll need to watch out for each other."
Akira lifted his fist and nodded his head, with a grin on his face. Dawn smiled and looked to Daichi.
"…Yeah!" He said with a clear voice. Akira didn't seem to notice, however.
"Sooo.." He elongated. "When are we actually going to Shibuya?!" He questioned, walking up to his parents.
Whatever conversation that ensued was not important in Daichi's mind, as he blocked it out before it even began. But suddenly, Dawn grabbed his wrist again.
"Come on Daichi, let's see what's on tv!" Before he really knew what was happening, he was running behind the girl in the hallway into the kitchen – before falling onto the couch in the living room.
Dawn snatched the remote from the glass coffee table and turned on the tv, skipping over the news broadcasts that seemed to plague most of the channels. Daichi didn't care about what was on tv, he was in his own thoughts. Why did those two monkeys look so similar, he thought to himself. His mind couldn't stop thinking about the ''what if''s but even more so, the idea of them causing what was then happening wouldn't leave him alone.