The silver and blue plane sat on Yushiro's palm, its propellers giving off bubbles. Chachamaru stared at the toy, the green-haired boy noticed the feline's curiosity and moved the toy away from him.
"What's your problem?" Chachamaru questioned angrily.
"Don't you dare lay a finger on it." Yushiro responded firmly.
Chachamaru growled at him. "Jeez you don't have to be such a snob about it!" Flying past him was a red helicopter belonging to one of the kids at the booth. When more bubbles emerged from the helicopter's propellers, they started clapping and cheering.
Ignoring the feline's sulking, Yushiro flipped the switch on the toy plane and watched it hover above them with the bubbles floating around. The toy plane then flew towards the trees causing Yushiro to panic.
"Get back here!" The green-haired boy chased after the plane, Chachamaru following after him.
Shinobu heard the commotion happening. While Douma was looking at the sky, the violette called out to Yushiro and Chachamaru. "Don't run off like that!"
With how urgent the situation seemed, the violette ran after them.
Yushiro sped through the forest, following the trail of bubbles left behind by the toy plane. Skipping over a few twigs and branches, Yushiro managed to catch up with the plane.
"That thing is crazy!" Chachamaru yelled.
"I almost got it." Yushiro stretched his arm and swiped the toy plane a few times before his finger struck the side of the toy.
Gleaming, Yushiro watched the toy plane descend lower from the impact and quickly caught it in his hands.
"Gotcha!" Holding the toy plane tightly, Yushiro stared at it for a while as if it was a child stirring trouble, he didn't realize that he was still running down the slope, pass the hut and towards a circular area at the bottom.
Yushiro's foot lost its grip on the ground causing him to speed up down the slope and trip over a statue of a humanoid-looking creature.
"What was that?" Confused, Yushiro got up from the ground with the toy plane still in his hand and looked behind him to see the pieces of the statue he knocked into scattered on the floor.
A wave of embarrassment and guilt washed over him. "Um yeah time to get out of here." Yushiro crept away from the strange area. He noticed a few other statues surrounding the dome in the center, they looked ancient but the teen didn't have time to explore these relics he had to leave before someone finds out what happened.
This is weird, what's a bunch of statues doing here? Oh never mind! Yushiro wished he had answers but there was no time to wait.
When he ran back up the slope, Yushiro realized this part of Dice and Roll Valley was rather quiet, no doubt there was a hut and signboards for visitors hiking around here but still, there was nobody else here.
Which made the presence of the dome and statues even creepier, Yushiro sprinted out of there hoping to encounter Chachamaru soon.
Little did he know that a strange smoke was starting to emerge from the broken statue.
~~~
There was a large crowd gathering in front of a circus show. The clown was making balloon animals and conducting tricks with some of the animals and hoops.
However there was no sign of Yushiro and Chachamaru anywhere.
"Oh well they'll be back." Shinobu walked back to the crowd and watched the show, meanwhile Douma was still standing at the same spot.
Suddenly, his phone rang, Douma picked it up and heard Mr Oshiro's voice at the other side.
"Hello? Douma is that you? This is urgent."
"Yes it's me Mr Oshiro."
"That's great I have something really important to inform you, is Chachamaru there?" Douma turned around and to his surprise, everyone including Shinobu had disappeared.
"Well uh-"
"Alright so earlier we were browsing through some reports. Apparently, one of them is still open to investigations." Mr Oshiro continued.
"Not sure if you've heard, about two decades ago a meteor landed in one of the islands surrounding Dice and Roll Valley but was never found. We suspect it's still there but not in the form we expected it to be, especially since it's been years."
Douma thought about what Mr Oshiro had just explained to him. The only island that everyone's aware about is the one hosting the Bird Migration show, but since Mr Oshiro indicated there's more, it can't be the island that we're heading off to. Someone would've found the meteor by now.
"And just to clarify, no it's not the island where events are hosted. It's too small for a meteor landing anyways, there's another uninhabited island nearby that most people don't know about. Which makes it convenient for us to go about this case."
"Mr Oshiro, I'm not trying to disprove your point or anything, but why hasn't anyone found the meteor if its location was stated in the reports for a long time? How do we know this isn't a fraud?"
At the other side, Douma could hear Mr Oshiro grumbling. "Are you seriously trying to undermine Atlas' research? Our works are approved by the government too! This report appeared on the news with numerous organizations wanting to dig deeper into this case! The reason why nobody found the meteor is because it disappeared from the spot it landed! However the contents of the pungent smell on the island after rainfall proves there's an unidentified source of mineral there!"
Before Douma could say something, Mr Oshiro immediately cut him off. "Which brings me to my next point, beware of the shores of Dice and Roll Valley. There are bandits lurking around there and with people like Yushiro carrying around free tickets, they're very much aware there's going to be more people setting sail to the island hosting the Bird Migration show."
What? There are bandits around here?
"Mr Oshiro, you mean all this while there's a possibility that we're being watched? What about security? Don't they know about these bandits?" Douma was worried now, Yushiro and Chachamaru had the tendency to stray from the group. The fact there were bandits means they had to keep a lookout for each other.
"They don't normally hang around crowded places, just the shores but there have been cases were people were taken to the secluded island instead, where they were robbed and killed. It's happened twice and who's to say it won't happen again?" Mr Oshiro cleared his throat. "It always happens whenever someone wins the lottery or a big event is happening. We can't let our guard down, these bandits were never caught they can be just about anyone you've met during your time there."
A meteor at a nearby island and bandits. There seems to be a connection here and Douma was sure this situation was more severe than what's been stated in the reports. It involves wealth and greed to the point people's lives were at stake. A popular attraction being the scapegoat for these goons.
"We've sent a team to Dice and Roll Valley to patrol the area. Both you and Chachamaru will be following one of the groups to the secluded island. Now that investigations are up and running again, we're going to make sure these bandits get locked up for good."
Unfortunately, it seems Douma and Chachamaru won't be able to spend more time with Shinobu and Yushiro, it was fun while it lasted but there were more important things to do that'll ensure their safety here.
"We'll arrange a boat, now remember should you and the others find yourselves in the bandit's trap, look out for the mist at sea. The secluded island lies beyond it. Get everybody off the boat if that happens." Mr Oshiro warned him.
"Alright, got it." Douma replied, these obstacles carried out their role better than the ones he and the others saw during the tramp ride. Who would've thought the angel and Chachamaru would be hunting down bandits at Dice and Roll Valley.
"A few vessels will be lining up at shore, be careful when retrieving the meteorite."
"Any idea what kind of minerals it holds?" Douma asked, sounds like Atlas was about to discover something incredible.
"With enough dedicated research we might be able to forge a new material. This meteorite opens a lot of doors for us to find out about its origins." Mr Oshiro responded, taking another glance at the picture of its landing on the island.
"We'll do our best." Walking towards the area where large crowds were gathering, Douma hoped to find his friends as soon as possible.
"Atlas appreciates your dedication and efforts."