Chapter 6 – Double Trouble
The paradise room. A room made by the professor specifically for the purpose of holding Pipo Monkeys and rehabilitating them. It had everything a monkey could've ever needed. There was a sizable ocean and a long beach connected to it. Several buildings, including a small church, were on the outline of the beach. A large jungle or forest type of area filled the rest of the land, with plenty of trees to swing from or relax on.
A kitchen similar to the one upstairs was connected to the huge room, with stairs which human guests would walk down. The kitchen had a countertop around the actual cooking area and a medium sized table. A fruit basket laid in the middle of the table, with only a single banana left. There wasn't a table cloth or napkins, as the monkeys would only take them and use them for their own shenanigans.
In one of the chairs, closest to the door, Daichi was sitting. He was flicking through his phone, looking for any news updates or for any new posts made by those he followed. He was waiting for some of his other relatives his age, one of which said she had more information about the two monkeys that had escaped.
He didn't get to see them often, as they lived further away than Dawn and her side of the family. He scrolled past a fake leak for a video game, when he heard the electronic door open from his side. He looked up to see who it was.
His uncle Hikaru was saying something to someone behind him, dressed in his usual day clothes. He walked into the room and moved over to the side, revealing who he had been leading to room.
It was a young girl. Her electric blue hair was pulled back and in a ponytail, that laid on her shoulder. Her eye lids where half closed, with an unimpressed expression on her face. A brown messenger bag was strung over her lime green denim dress, which she kept closely to her side. She had her white socks pulled up to the same level, and had her beige trainers laced up all the way. She looked around the small room before seeing Daichi.
"Ah, there you are." Amelia said, an equally unimpressed tone in her voice. Daichi tilted his head.
"Oh, is Augustus not coming?" He questioned.
"No, dad thought it'd be easier for him if he stayed upstairs and go for coffee or something." She replied, walking over to one of the nearby chairs and pulling it out. As she started to sit down, she carefully pulled up her bag and placed it on the table. Daichi looked at it.
"I guess that makes sense." He laughed, in his usual awkward way.
Amelia's eyes didn't look away from her bag, as she started to unzip it. Hikaru had started to walk back up the stairs at that point.
She pulled out several items from the bag, starting with a tripod and several different camera lenses before taking out the actual camera. It seemed pretty good, and expensive. She moved her seat to be almost right next to Daichi on one side. He was kind of glad that she was never one for small talk, because he never liked it. He put his phone down and crossed his arms with his elbows on the table. Amelia grabbed her camera and threw its strap over her shoulder.
"Okay, so do you remember a few days ago when that western pop up town went on fire?" She asked, clicking one of the buttons on the camera which made it start up. "Uh, yeah?" Daichi responded.
"Well, I had to go there to take pictures for my school's newpaper and I'll be honest, the only good ones are of the fire." She assured, beginning to look through the saved photos.
"Okay..." The boy laughed under his breath, an awkward smile on his face. The girl's expression didn't change.
"...When I decided to zoom in to get a more detailed shot...well, look for yourself." Amelia commented, and moved the camera to be closer to the older boy. On the camera's screen was one of multiple pictures of the inferno that had once been the wooden town hall. However, partially obscured by closer flames, was a figure on the roof. It was hard to make out, but it was clear that it had long legs, its face was covered and it had something similar to a monkey helmet – as a red alarm light was clearly on the its head.
"Woah." Daichi gasped, being amazed by the photo. The girl didn't feel the same, though.
"Well, is it one of the two that escaped? Or just another one entirely?" The boy moved one of his arms up and softly scratched his face with his index finger, as if to imply he was thinking.
"Oh- uh, yeah! I think it is. Most of the monkeys look the really similar, except for those two. One was really tall and the other looked..like us-" He tried to reply.
"Okay, okay, I get it." Amelia interrupted, moving her camera closer to her and pulling her chair out. "Now that I have a headline, I need to get some pictures of the 'usual' monkeys."
As she said that, she stood up out of her seat and walked over to the archway that lead to the main paradise room. She put the camera's strap over her head and grasped the camera in both her hands, and her attention was caught by something off to the side. The older child was kind of taken a back by how quickly the girl got up and went to take more photos.
When he realised that she was most likely maneuvering herself to get a good shot of an newby monkey, he grabbed his phone and started to look through the app he was on again. But he could hear something from a bit away, that had been getting closer by the second. He tried to ignore for as long as he could.
"Daichi! We need you!"
It was Akira, who had burst through the door, shouting at him. He had his phone raised up in one hand, and the shouting on the other side was loud enough to hear.
"Move your phone before ruining my ears again!" Dawn's voice was clear and angry through the phone's speakers. The older boy was initially confused, turning his head to face his friend.
"Huh?" He faltered.
"There's a monkey at the Café those guys went too!" The orange haired boy shouted again, which got the attention of the girl with electric blue hair.
"Oh- Wait, why aren't you dressed if we need to go get it?" Daichi questioned, noticing Akira's pjyamas.
"Yeah, I'm not going. I'm finally on the final boss!" Akira exclaimed. An annoyed "Here we go again" came from the boy's phone.
"I can't just go on my own!" The mainly brown haired boy remarked.
"Well I can't just leave during it!" The argument seemed as if it could go on forever, despite the ongoing situation. They didn't even notice the girl turn around and walk back to the table.
"I'm coming with you." Amelia announced clearly. The two boys turned to look at her, stunned.
"...what?" Daichi mumbled, not understanding what she meant.
"I said, I'm coming with you. I'm won't ignore an opportunity to get an amazing action shot." She repeated, her determination shining through. There was no point in trying to tell her otherwise. Daichi still had a dopey look on his face, but responded.
"O-okay. Then let's go!"
The electric blue haired girl ran back over to her bag on the table, with one hand keeping a firm grasp on her camera. She carefully, but quickly, scooped her photography equipment back into her messenger bag and slid it off the table. She threw its strap over one of her shoulders and went straight up to Daichi, who had stood up by then.
"Well?" She probed, which only freaked Daichi out.
"Oh, yeah, this way!" He blurted out, and started to run to the stairwell.
He didn't slow down as he started to go up the stairs, followed by the girl a bit behind. It wasn't long before neither of the two could hear the strange one sided conversation going on between Akira and Dawn on the phone. It was only a few minutes before they reached the top of the stairwell, but even that didn't stop Daichi's momentum.
Daichi ran straight pass the living room and through the kitchen, not actually saying where he was going. Amelia had fallen almost a metre behind trying to keep her camera and her bag safe from any bumps. The boy grabbed onto the kitchen's door frame and flung himself through the door, continuing down the hallway. He repeated the door frame technique when he got to the lab's entrance. Luckily, the girl had been at the kitchen doorway to witness the second attempt of the technique first hand.
He wasn't interested in conversation, but did slow down to a jog within the lab, and started to make his way towards the tool panel. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed who had decided to stay at home instead of going into the local village. Charu was at the main computer module and was clearly typing something, whilst Hikaru was a few steps away with an awkward smile on his face.
Hikaru had probably tried to do something, and failed. Daichi didn't have time to know more about the situation, so he ignored whatever imaginary scenario his mind tried to create. As a result, he didn't even realize that the girl had entered the lab and was standing at the doorway.
The mostly brown haired boy tried to put on his black gloves quickly and took the monkey net off of its hook. He didn't even realize that the girl behind him had taken a few pictures of him in the brief moment he was holding the net.
"I'm going to get the monkey now!" Daichi announced, and he jogged passed his companion. They both ran out of the front door of the large building, and the boy immediately started to make his way down the stairs. The girl slowed down and was amazed as she watched how seamlessly the automatic door closed.
Daichi had stopped at the bottom of the steps and waited for Amelia, who had carefully ran down the same steps after him. The boy gave her a friendly smile.
"The village is down this way." He said, lifting his arm to indicate the direction. The girl's demeanor stayed the same.
"Okay." She stated.
The straight forward and emotionless response made Daichi feel weird.
"Uh..right! Let's go!" He awkwardly stammered, and began to run in the direction he had pointed towards moments before.
The girl didn't respond, she just started to follow after him. The boy could feel the uncomfortable atmosphere building around them, and he really didn't like it. It made the situation much more tense, and that wouldn't help anyone stay alert.
"So...do you know which café they said they were going to?" He asked, trying to make any conversation possible during the few minutes they'd be running to the village.
"No, why would I?" Amelia responded, with a cynical tone in her voice. "Besides, you probably go here all the time – you should know which one Dawn or even Natsumi would go to."
The truth was, Daichi didn't really like tea or cafés. He enjoyed coffee, but he always preferred to drink it in the comfort of his own room. The entire reason he was at home that day, was because he declined the offer to go to the coffee shop. And yet, he didn't bring any of this up.
"Uh, yeah, I guess so." He laughed, but he was hoping that the shop was on the main road. If not, then the whole issue could've taken hours to resolve.
After the roads had begun to thin out and the buildings seemed to grow longer and taller, the two children turned the corner and entered the local village. Shops of all types lined the pathways, and a single statue of some famous person from the area stood in its own open part of the path. Several cars were parked up beside the curb and left there for hours. There were several cross ways without traffic lights, and yet traffic seemed to flow well.
The girl remained unmoved, and Daichi expected that. He looked around, and there seemed to be no commotion at the buildings they were near. He squinted to look farther off into the village's long main road, when he saw a girl with cherry red hair moving around with one arm up near her head. The boy stood still for a few seconds, thinking it over in his head. What if it's not Dawn, he thought to herself. His mind quickly settled with a single thought - Well, there's no harm in seeing. He turned.
"They're up there! Let's help them!" He announced, with his innocent smile, and started running up the side walk.
He didn't care about a response or a conversation at that point, especially since he didn't want another response. The mainly brown haired boy looked over his shoulder, and saw that the girl had started running after him once again. He sighed in relief and turned his head back around, focusing on the moving figure in the distance.
Ignoring the comments they received from the passing people they pushed through, they had seemingly reached the now ruined day out. They were only a few steps away from the shop when the figure the boy had seen noticed them.
"Yes, Daichi! Get that thing, will ya!" Dawn cheered, bringing her hand down from her head and revealing she was holding a phone. She used her thumb to hang up on whoever she had been talking to through it.
The situation was clear. There was a monkey, as expected, hoping between the two tables that were placed outside of the shop to allow for outdoor customers. Satoru was trying his best to catch the monkey whilst it jumped, but he always missed and half landed on one of the tables. Whilst Natsumi had moved off to the side along with Dawn, there was one person who stayed sitting by the table.
A young boy, around Daichi's age, with short spikey electric blue hair. It was Augustus, Amelia's twin. He sat there with a scared expression on his face, his head moving to match the monkey's movement. Through the shop's window, there were two employees watching the situation happen. The girl with electric blue hair ran next to Dawn and lifted her camera to her face, closing one of her eyes.
"Whenever you're ready!" She announced, in a somewhat expressive tone.
Daichi smirked awkwardly and gripped the monkey net's handle with both of his hands. He began to walk up to the closest table, where Augustus was still sitting. The blue haired man sighed and walked over to stand next to Natsumi, giving up on trying to catch the ape himself.
As he approached the table, the mainly brown haired boy noticed something.
His relative who continued to sit at the table was seemingly looking away from him, with his eyes squinted and his mouth in a frown. Was something wrong, he thought to himself. He didn't have enough time to explore what was up with the very pale preteen, as the ape prepared to jump once again to the very same table. Realizing the opportunity, Daichi moved slightly faster.
Augustus winced, preparing for the monkey's landing. As its feet fell firmly onto the small ironwood table, the monkey's legs bent and put it in a sitting position – just as it had done the previous times. Catching onto that fact, Daichi threw the monkey net over his shoulder and entrapped the monkey's upper body inside the net's strings. Just like the times before, the ape's body glowed blue before disappearing in front of everybody's eyes.
A soft 'get cha' was said under Daichi's breath and a loud 'clink' sound rang out around the group.
The employees inside the shop began to cheer for the young boy who had caught the ape, and Natsumi sighed in relief.
"Wow, you made it look easy." Satoru laughed proudly, walking back over to the table.
"Yeah!" Dawn shouted in support. The electric blue haired girl was silent for a minute, her focus on her camera. Eventually she looked back up.
"I guess this will be good enough. Maybe it'll even be on the front page." She leered to herself.
The mainly brown haired boy smiled, flustered, and moved his hand behind his head. He dropped his other arm to his side and turned to the only other boy in the area.
"That monkey got so close to you, how were you not scared?" He said innocently, being genuinely curious.
The other boy finally turned his head and looked at Daichi, revealing his furious and cold expression. He didn't respond, he only glared at his relative.
"Hey, are you okay?"
The brown and blonde haired boy was taken back. Suddenly, the electric blue haired boy stood up and clutched the small black bag that had its strap wrapped around his body. Standing up revealed his whole outfit, from his navy and white gradient shirt to his three quarter length dark grey ripped jeans, with his black trainers partially obscured. The bags under his eyes only added to his angry look.
"No, I'm not." The boy snapped. "You just had to show me up, again!"
He was borderline shouting and his face was almost turning red. A wave of absolute confusion went through Daichi.
"What do you mean?" He said in a friendly tone with a wavering awkward smile. He didn't even get to see this cousin-like relative as much as he saw Dawn, how could he have done anything wrong within those few minutes?
"You know what I mean! Why can't you leave me alone for once?!"
And with those words, the electric blue haired boy stomped off. His father didn't attempt to stop him as he continued to go down the sidewalk away from the café, he simply sighed. Almost everyone stood silent at what just happened, half from confusion. Then, Amelia spoke up.
"I can't believe he did this again! We can't do anything with him!" She ranted, dropping her camera down from her face and looking to her father. Dawn turned to look at her.
"Oh...was that one of those angry fits he's been having?" The cherry red haired girl asked, and her cousin nodded.
"Yep. It's so annoying, because I swear, anything can set him into one. He freaks out if he sees me working on the newpaper at all." The angry girl huffed, beginning to lift her camera once again and look through the pictures.
"That sucks!" Dawn sighed. "But wait, shouldn't someone go after him before he gets lost?" At that comment, everyone – child and parent – looked at Satoru, who could only sigh.
"He should be fine. He knows where the professor's house is if he can't find us." Despite the reassurance, Daichi still felt worried for multiple reasons.
"Um...did I do something wrong?" He asked, looking in the general direction of everyone else as oppose to anyone in particular. Before anyone else could speak, Natsumi spoke up.
"No, you didn't. He's going through a lot of tough emotions right now, and this is how he's dealing with it at the moment. You know how people your age are." The young boy let those words sink in for a few minutes before giving his response.
"Yeah, but why is he acting as if I'm doing something on purpose to make him upset?" He was somehow hiding the fact that he was deeply hurt very well. A loud, frustrated groan was let out by the left-most person.
"It's because he's jealous of you doing gymnastics and stuff, even though he hasn't bothered to do anything!" The electric blue haired girl was clearly fed up.
"Amelia! You know it's not that simple for him. He physically wasn't able to do those types of things." Her father snapped, leading his daughter to pout.
Daichi was very confused at this point, as if he had just walked into the conversation with no background.
"But...I stopped doing gymnastics years ago...and what do you mean he wasn't able to do things?" The boy queried, but he realised that he wasn't going to get a direct answer – at least not from the other boy's family. The blue haired duo had moved down the sidewalk a bit and the daughter was being told off for being so rude towards her twin brother, even if he wasn't there.
Dawn had already started to go into the café to get a drink to go. Akira's mother was the one to respond to her son's best friend.
"Oh, I guess you were too young to remember." She started, and walked over to the young boy and placed her hand on his closest shoulder.
They both started walking in the opposite direction of the other family.
"Do you remember how he wouldn't come out and play with you three when you and Dawn would meet up with those two? Or how you wouldn't see him sometimes?" Daichi nodded in response. "Well, he was really sick and his breathing still isn't that good, that's why he has that bag with him now. Now that's he's becoming a young man, we think he's mad about being sick when he was younger. That makes sense, right?"
The young boy thought about it silently.
"I guess so." Natsumi smiled with a small chuckle and shook the boy's hair, causing the boy to smile too.
"Guys, wait for me!"
A voice shouted from behind them. The two of them looked over their shoulders, only to see Dawn running up behind them – trying to prevent her cup of coffee from spilling.
"You can't go home without me." She laughed as she caught up with the duo.
"Oh, we're going home?" Daichi asked, not even realizing how far they had walked.
"Well, those guys went to go find Augustus and you're walking in the opposite way." The cherry red haired girl said.
The boy looked farther into the background, and she seemed to be right. The father and daughter were no longer in his sight. Natsumi laughed.
"You're right, besides we can't let Hikaru decide what's for dinner!"
The two children looked at each other with cringe-filled smiles.
"Yeah" The boy chuckled. With the end of that conversation, the three started to walk back to the professor's house.
Unexpectedly, when the trio were only a few meters from the house, Daichi spoke up with a question.
"I was thinking...wasn't that a bit weird?" He gripped the monkey net in both of his hands. The girl close to his age turned her head.
"What do you mean?"
"It's just- That Specter guy said he wouldn't hold back, and yet the next time the monkeys show up properly – there was only one."
Dawn could only grin in response.
"Did you forget about the whole building on fire thing? They probably meant that." The boy's gaze moved down to the sidewalk in front of him.
"Maybe...but still.." The girl tried to look straight at her cousin's face.
"You've been watching too much anime, you're starting to sound like Akira!" She laughed. The boy looked up in surprise.
"N-No I don't!" He stuttered, but the girl continued to giggle.
"Don't worry, I'm just jokin'!" She patted him on the back and gave him a friendly smile, which caused him to chuckle and smile in response. But even then, he still thought that something wasn't right. It seemed...too perfect.