Chapter 11 - Accident

In the garden behind the professor's house, the young boy with mainly brown hair apart from a streak of blonde was sitting alone. With his legs pulled close to him and his arms wrapped around them like a ball, he looked out onto the view of the town.

His mind, however, was focused on a memory much closer to his location. It came to him out of nowhere, and he may have never remembered it if he wasn't there at that one time. It was quite a but ago, and had to be one of his earliest memories.

That had been some sort of virus or disease going around the entire world, and the only thing that most people could do was to stay inside. His parents had been staying at the professor's house at the time with Daichi – as the memory was there.

Though the borders of his eyesight were white and blurry, he could still make out the scene. There were in the very same place, and sat in a triangle. They were sitting on a red and white checkered blanket and a picnic basket was in the very middle, surrounded by paper plates.

He didn't know the day or the month, all he had for any sort of timeframe was the fact of the epidemic and that he had knowledge that he would be getting a younger sibling. He had no clue what his parents were speaking about then, being more focused on his little sandwiches that had been cut into stars and moons.

This memory lead to him thinking about his parents, and more importantly, what they must be thinking. Did they know about the entire monkey situation? He hadn't been told if anyone had told them or not, or if the saw the message from Specter.

But what scared him more was the idea that they knew that Yuki was lost. It was only realistic that they would've known if their young child had gone missing, but a bit of the boy was still hoping they didn't. Not because he liked the fact she was gone, not in the slightest.

The boy was scared of how they felt about him. It was his only job, to take care of his little sister – and he couldn't even do that. Were they disappointed, were they angry? Somehow, not knowing the answer only made it worse. He'd rather know he had upset people than to be left in the unknown.

While that worried him, he found comfort in the memory. It was a reminder of when times were simpler, easier and a whole lot less frustrating. Being able to look out onto the city, feel the slight breeze on his skin during a somewhat sunny day.

"Why can't this last?"

His phone had been left in his room, and he was a bit away from the sliding glass doors. He just wanted to be alone. The reason? To decompress, and to not accidentally lash out.

Every time he had heard a certain someone talk about the ape situation – and how he was really happy about the entire thing – he couldn't helped but find himself annoyed. Especially since he hated the situation. But he had been finding it harder and harder to hold himself back.

At that moment, however, he was calm and was enjoying scenery. His heart rate was in the normal range and his breathing was automatic. He could've fallen asleep there if he wasn't so freaked out by bugs in the grass.

"Hey Daichi!"

He turned around. It was Dawn. She had half of her body out through the open sliding door, and overall seemed as relaxed as she always was.

"Oh, hi!" He responded. "Have you come to look at the sights too?"

"Nah," Dawn said. "You know I've never been one to just look at things. Too boring."

The boy chuckled in response. Before the conversation had stayed quiet for an awkward amount of time, he spoke up again.

"So, why did you come out here then?"

"I'm came to get you!"

"For what?" He questioned, as his eyes opened.

"Akira has a surprise for you!" The girl smiled.

Daichi bit his lip, but in a way that made it look like he was still smiling. He internally groaned and stood up.

"Really?" He tried his best to sound excited.

"Yeah! Come in!"

He sighed through his teeth, already feeling an unusual bout of annoyance begin to build inside him. He walked inside, where Akira was nowhere to be seen.

The television was turned off and all the adults had to of been in another room. It was almost like a ghost town, within a single room.

"Just sit of the sofa, he'll be in in a minute." The girl instructed, in her usual friendly manner.

Daichi nodded and walked around to sit of the couch. The girl leaned over the rested her elbows on the top of it while Daichi looked aimlessly at the room. He could feel himself relax a bit more.

It wasn't long until they heard footsteps getting closer to the nearby kitchen doorway, and heard the door zip open. Who else but Akira walked through whilst talking on the phone. He peered over to the two others and smirked.

"Mhm, yep – that's great! Thank you so much!" He said to whoever was on the other side of the phone, before hanging up. "Great, you're already here!"

He walked over to the related duo and rubbed his hands excitedly. He placed himself in front of the coffee table and began to speak, but it was clear who it was towards.

"Okay dude, guess what." He started.

"Uh, what?" Daichi replied.

"Well," The orange haired boy elongated. "My dad was able to pull some strings with some of the biggest newspapers around…"

He stopped for a minute before finishing.

"We're gonna be interviewed about catching apes!"

Daichi froze in his seat while Dawn could only smile. But that annoyed feeling started to build back up.

"Cool." Dawn chimed in.

"It's awesome! Right, Daich?" Akira continued, now looking at the other boy.

"Um, do I have to do it?" The boy let out, quietly.

"What?" Akira asked back, somewhat in shock.

"It's just that…" Daichi stood up. "I don't want to do it."

The mainly brown haired boy had started to fiddle with his hands, whilst the other put one hand on his hip. He wasn't impressed.

"Why not? We'll be famous!" Akira countered.

"I…I don't like that we're monkey catchers…" He said louder than his last sentence.

"Since when?!" The orange haired boy snapped back.

"Since...Since the start!" Daichi admitted.

"Then why did you keep doing it?!"

"I didn't have a choice…"

Akira was absolutely pissed off, and Daichi started to feel energy move through his bones out of frustration. Dawn wasn't sure if she should've intervened, and there wasn't a single good point to do so.

As Akira's and Daichi's voices started to get louder and louder, it was clear that their conversation was seeping into the other rooms of the house. The floor boards creaked for a second before stopping, as if waiting for something more to happen.

With an enraged look on his face, almost turning red, Akira continued.

"But you started this whole thing in the first place!"

"No I didn't!" Daichi responded, his voice continuing to raise in volume.

"You were the one who encouraged me!"

"And then I tried to stop you, but you dragged me along!"

The footsteps from the floors above started again, and didn't stop this time. Dawn tried to speak, but every time she was ignored.

"Still, why wouldn't you want to be famous about being a hero?!" The orange haired boy threw his arms in the air.

"I-I…" Daichi's stutter had decided to kick in.

"You what-"

"I don't want my parents to know!"

Natsumi and Hiroki had just made it through the kitchen door at that point, and Dawn looked at them – trying to gesture that the situation was only getting worse. They didn't get any time to talk before it continued.

"My parents already know, so maybe you should stop whining!"

Daichi was taken back in shock. He couldn't even respond, his brain could barely process what he had been told. He could see Hiroki's face obtain a shocked expression aswell.

"Then again, my parents actually want to be around me!"

Whether or not the boy actually understood what he had said, it was too late to take it back. Dawn couldn't help but gasp, while the parents simply stayed silent. Did their child that they spent eleven years raising really say that to someone? They couldn't believe at first.

The other boy was filled with hurt and unbearable frustration. Even though he tried to tell himself that what he had heard was wrong, it still cut deep into him. And his mind seemed to disconnect from his body, which had turned on its own autopilot mode.

Daichi lifted his right hand and punched Akira across the face.

It wasn't until after he did it that he seemed to regain control of himself and look back up at his childhood friend. The other boy was staring at him as his hands were up to his cheek, with tears coming out of the corresponding eye.

He looked to the three people behind them. The young girl was absolutely dumbfounded, and her mouth hung open. The mother had her hands over her mouth and the father held an even more expressive shocked look.

The young boy, becoming overwhelmed by regret and guilt, did was he felt he had to. He dashed out the back door and ran down the hill he had been sitting on only minutes ago.

He launched himself off of the hill as it approached it's end, and continued running into the woods that surrounded the town. He ran pass the trees until he reached the border of the road leading out of the area. He looked both ways.

There weren't any cars, and he took the opportunity to cross over into an alleyway between two of the buildings. As he exited out on the other side, he knew exactly where he was. He was in the town, which was completely different to the area he had come from. It was completely normal.

The shops were open, people were walking back and forth on the sidewalk and even on the road, and people parked up in front of shops and went to pick up food they had ordered. In fact, Daichi was the only one who wasn't walking in the area.

He knew that Dawn would probably start trying to look for him straight away, and he didn't want to go back – at least not yet. Following the social standards of those around him, he turned to face the area leading deeper into the town and started to walk.

He didn't have his phone, he didn't have a bag and he definitely didn't have the monkey net. The only other things to focus on apart from his thoughts were his hands and his shirt – but those didn't keep his mind busy for very long.

How could he have done that, to his own best friend no less? Even though he knew he didn't mean to hit him, he was still scared. Remembering the look Akira gave him afterwards, the shock, only made it worse.

The young boy didn't want to hurt anyone. Was that event saying something? Was he only going to get more violent as the years went by? He felt the skin on his hands. He didn't used to have times where he lashed out.

Even when he was younger, he wouldn't show anyone that he was getting mad. When other children in school pushed him during playtime, ripped up any drawings he made or simply made fun of him – he would only cry. He was frustrated, but he didn't like being mad.

And now he had showed he was angry, and it went bad. And even worse, he was all alone in public. He couldn't go to his room and shut down, because that would mean he would have to go home. He didn't want to see anyone.

It wasn't helped by the fact that the strangers around him only glanced over as they walked by. He had no idea if they were pitying him or judging him, and that made it all the more worse. One person, then two people, then 4 people running pass and never stopping…something was wrong.

Daichi snapped out of his dazed state and look around, people were running away from something up ahead. He recognized the fear, it had to be another monkey. Even without having anything to allow him to deal with the situation, he had to know what was going on.

He was the only person running forward. He did see some people hiding behind cars and recording videos and taking pictures on their phones, which he thought was strange. Why did they feel the need to hide behind such machinery?

It wouldn't take long for him to get an answer to his questions.

It wasn't a regular ape, it had to be part of the special group. It was huge, well over six feet tall. It had almost impossibly large muscles as well, only made more noticeable with its tight red uniform – that seemed to come straight from a mediocre shounen anime. It seemed to have a red and white helmet, going along with the look of a team leader.

The young boy ran into the middle of the road to get a better look. As he did, the ape threw over a car that had been parked near it – looking under it. It…was searching for something.

"That damn kid has be around here somewhere." It mumbled under its breath.

He felt the instinct to try and redeem himself, and didn't have time to think before he ran closer to the monkey.

"What are you doing?!" He accidentally screeched in horror.

The ape turned around.

"There you are, twerp!"

"Uh, what?"

Before he had time to do anything, the leader ape grabbed the boy's arm and picked him up. He tried to kick and wiggle free, but his breathing was impaired by his arm position.

"H-hey! Let me go!" He shouted.

"No chance. We've got a lot of unfinished business with you."

The boy was speechless. "We", who was this we? He wasn't about to ask questions to the person who could easily throw him into one of the surrounding buildings, though.

He moved his sight from the ape to back in front of him, where he saw what he actually expected. Dawn and Akira's father, Hiroki, had turned a corner and saw the situation.

None of them expected what would happen next. As Dawn was half way through shouting the young boy's name when the ape teleported away, bringing Daichi with him.

When the two reappeared, Daichi had no idea where they were. The room was a bright, silver metal from top to bottom – aside from the bars of light energy that separated the main room to the several smaller cell-like rooms.

Beside one of the cells was another tall monkey, but not as tall as the super villain like one, wearing various shades of purple. His head was pointed down and he had one leg holding him up against the wall. He was clearly awake, though, despite what it may have looked like from farther away.

The large monkey holding the young boy chuckled loudly, and started to move closer to the cell that seemed to be guarded by the other monkey. His free hand moved up to a button on the other side of the doorway and hit it, causing the bars of light to dissipate.

Suddenly, the young boy felt the ape's other arm move backwards and throw him forward into the room. He felt something pop his in back as it landed first onto the cold flooring. The blow knocked the wind out of him, and it took him a minute or so to regain it.

As he turned onto his side to take pressure off of his back, he could make out some sort of short conversation going on between the two monkeys in the main room – but he couldn't figure out what they were actually talking about. After lying down for a few minutes, he forced himself up to his feet.

The room was nothing more than a metal platform as a bed being held up with chains and a toilet next to a sink, all the same silver colour. Daichi's first thought was to go the doorway and see if he could find a way out.

"Hey!-"

He tried to shout, but he was electrocuted to the bone as his hands tried to grip the yellow beams. He fell back onto his bottom in shock, and could hear the bigger ape laugh at his pain.

The boy shook his head and got back up, only to see a glimpse of the larger monkey leaving through the only real door in the room. He was left alone with the other ape, the one that looked much less interested in conversation. He walked closer to the doorway, but kept some distance from the bars.

"Hey…"

"What." The ape spoke sternly.

"Um, can I ask something?" The boy asked.

The ape didn't speak for a minute or so, possibly hoping that the boy would give up. But as the child showed no intention of going back, it continued.

"Go ahead."

"Is…is Yuki here? And is she okay?" He tried his best to be neutral and clear, but his worry was impossible to miss.

Another minute or so of silence went by. The monkey didn't turn to face or even glance at the boy the entire time.

"Yeah, she's fine. We sent her back to the house she followed us from."

Daichi sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness, I don't know what I would've done…"

Another thought suddenly made a home in his mind, and he couldn't help but continue asking questions.

"Wait…how do know who Yuki is?"

Once again, the room fell silent. You couldn't even hear the monkey breathe in and out. And seemingly out of nowhere, the teenager turned his head to glance at the younger boy.

"Like I said, she followed me and…" The ape paused for a few seconds. "..Phantom. And you're the brother she would always talk about."

"She talked about me?"

"Yeah, about how nice and helpful you are. Not sure what else I expected."

"Heh…and is Phantom like a brother for you?"

Almost immediately, the monkey spun around entirely to face the boy. Staring with an expression of scorn, he spoke again – louder.

"Don't even try to imply that I'm in anyway related to that damn freak."

Daichi was taken back in surprise, throwing his main arm up in front of him.

"That's really rude to say about someone." He shakily said.

"Well it's the truth. You're sister wouldn't be able to understand, but if she could – she wouldn't go anywhere near him." Frustration seeped out of every word.

"Yuki liked being around them?"

"Yeah, she did. And he messed it up like he always does."

The ape's face softened up a bit, but was still overall condescending and uninterested. Daichi didn't notice that the teenager had already taken a step backwards before he spoke again.

"That's why you have to stop him."

And with that, the teenager spun on his heel and started walking towards the only door in the room. He didn't even glance back once, even when the human boy gasped and tried to getting as close to the doorway as he could.

"H-hey wait, what do you mean!?" The boy shouted.

It was only when the ape reached the doorway that he turned his head back, before the door opened. After looking at the boy for a few short minutes, he finished his only conversation with the child.

"We all have a role to play in this now, and I need to start my scene."

And he walked out of the room. The human was left speechless, and could only think over that last sentence – eventually figuring out what the teenager meant. He was alone, and could only turn around.

Now being on his feet and more awake whilst looking around, he saw something he had somehow missed. A window. Okay, he thought to himself, at least I can see if I know where I am.

He didn't try to prepare himself during the few seconds of walking he had to do from the beams to the window, he should have though. For he almost passed out when he saw what was outside his containment.

In front of him was Earth. Not a hologram. The planet.

Whatever he was in…was in space.