After Joao made it into the boys' toilets, he stood by the entrance facing in to observe them first. The mere thought of what he was walking into repulsed him, but it subsided as soon as he acknowledged their cleanliness.
It was still a new place, and it smelt amazing, to say the least, the walls were pearly white and all the stalls were closed. The doors blue and clean, on the other end, were the urinals. They reminded him of the ones in school which he only saw once and immediately regretted.
"Beasts,' he whispered as he realized that this oasis will soon be turned upside down. He turned to the taps and let the water pour, after washing his face the tap automatically stopped running. He switched the tap off and moved to another one, it would be at least a minute before that one was usable again.
The eco taps only let out certain amounts of water prescribed by the "Natural Resource Ministry." The amount of water let out and the cooldown depended on what the family size at homes, type of industries and institutions, and finally how much money those in question can pay for the resource.
Dirty toilets and smelly street people were a result of this, there was only a hand full of people in Babylon 3rd who can afford water in abundance. Most of those people were now found in the oasis, mini heaven, and the gated community of Babylon 3rd.
Now that he thought about it, Po lived in the gated community side of Babylon, they are located close to the wall were the train rests. He apparently lived with both of his parents and Joao has never seen them before, they didn't even come to school during the parent-teacher day. Compared to the whole city they were more civilized, villas, community meetings, neighborhood watches, and everything.
"Parents?" Joao exclaimed as he thought back to his life in the inner circle. It was only a passing memory of his mother shoving him in a mini coffin. He could still remember how cramped up, cold, and dark it was in there. The same feeling carried across their household, everyone was cold, secretive, and imposed their egos onto the little boy.
'It's no use thinking about that now, I'm finally free. And I owe it all to him,' as if magic the mirror reflected an image of Monke from the time he rescued Joao. He was beaten up but still smiling helped Joao onto his feet and never asked anything of him ever again.
It was Joao who sought Monke out and started to follow him around, he wanted to see Monke fight again. But unfortunately, the opportunity never presented itself, so he decided to become an associate and join the gang. He had hoped to see his hero brawl again.
Whether it was for him, Monke's sake, or even Po's it didn't matter as long as he was given the opportunity. That also reminded him that he had a new enemy, a rival if anything. Tumi's existence had somehow managed to get itself attached to Joao's thoughts.
After having him chase him down the streets with the cops around, Joao now believed that Tumi won't stop at anything until he defeated him. Joao wasn't at all worried about the intention but the way the pursuit was being handled.
Tumi was like a nightmare to try and reason with, he appeared to only be thinking with his fists. Kind of like Monke but worse because Monke didn't wave his fists around every chance he got.
Joao thought that it was pathetic but for some reason, he couldn't embrace that thought openly. There was more pain in Tumi's eyes than there was hatred, Tumi was desperate and that scared Joao more.
He hadn't even yet thought about which one of them was stronger than the other, but he told himself that had it not been for the intrusion by the other gang members he would've won. But he knew that it might not be the case, physically, Joao was weaker than Tumi and his only strength was skill.
Nonetheless, Tumi's relentless pursuit still haunted him, he wondered if he could have Monke fight for him like he once did. He wondered if he could once again receive a helping hand from him.
Joao then again started to observe his attire, 'white leather gloves don't look good with this painfully blue uniform.' He thought as he moved his hand along the sides of his blazer, normally he would be wearing his gigantic jacket but it was dirtied by his escape from Tumi.
'If only the shirt stood out more and then its whiteness would balance these gloves. His heart started to pound quickly as he started to take slowly take his glove off.
BAM! "AH!" Joao let out a tiny scream and quickly grabbed onto the sink.
The door behind him was slammed, but he couldn't react fast enough to see who it was. Joao turned to look at it and there was not a single sound made from behind it. He leaned back against the basins and slid down with hopes to peek underneath.
"Oy, are you okay in here?" Monke said as he walked in on Joao kneeling on the ground. Joao's face reddened as he slowly faced Monke.
"I heard the door slam and you screaming… Nevermind those, what are you doing on the bathroom floor?" He asked as he pointed the large silver briefcase at Joao.
"It's impolite to walk in on people in the toilet," Joao whispered as he got up at a snail's pace.
"But this is a public toilet, anyway what caused that slamming?"
"A ghost, wanna check it out?" After walking past Monke, Joao ran.
Monke didn't look back, he bolted forward and paused by the door. "Is there really a ghost in here?" He wondered as he winded up his punch.
"MONKEY!" Po screamed and Monke punched the door in. He was unable to look inside and confirm Joao's claims as Po dragged him away to go and give a speech. His curiosity however still ate at him when he noticed that since their exit no one has gone to or out of the toilets. He started to think that it might have been a prank by Joao, but then again he still wanted to confirm. He went to the stalls and didn't find anybody.