"You might want to prepare for battle. It's the only way to get him to calm down enough for us to explain what we were doing."
Nate and Katie were hoping to not battle, but it looked like there was no other option.
"Okay, just tell us what his gimmicks are and we'll try to make the battle as quick as possible."
"Got it."
Realizing that they still had their fishing poles in hand, they placed their fishing poles down to have their hands free to help their Yo-kai friends.
*****
The battle started with Jibanyan, Tattletell, and Walkappa in the front row.
"SV Snaggerjag uses fish to help him in battle, so try to take out the fish before attacking him. If he has a fish on both sides, he'll be able to unleash his Soultimate Move."
Jibanyan went first with a quick scratch to Snaggerjag's face and helped Tattletell reach him so that she could inspirit him easier.
"I have three fish helpers. The blue fish is Shuter and he uses water attacks, the red fish is Grumpus and he uses physical attacks, and the green fish is Meditatum and he heals me. Why am I telling you this?!"
Snaggerjag quickly purified himself as he threw his hook into the water below to catch a fish, leaving Nate and Katie to dwell on the possible outcomes.
If he manages to catch two fish, we have to get rid of at least one of them so that he doesn't activate his Soultimate Move. And we just had a huge battle last night too!
After what they had witnessed last night, that last thing they wanted was another Soultimate Move going off and making their Yo-kai faint again. Sure, they have some Nasty Medicine to revive the Yo-kai with, but they had to also give the revived Yo-kai some food to heal with and that was if they could find something that could at least heal them enough to not let them faint in one hit.
"Whisper! What does the talisman we got do?!"
"That one is for defense! It'll give the Yo-kai you use it on more defense in general. There's also defense talismans for elemental attacks, but we'll deal with that later! Pay attention to the battle!"
As Nate threw the Defense talisman to Jibanyan, he glanced over and saw Snaggerjag pull up a fish, which was colored blue.
Okay, that's Shuter. He attacks with water, so we should get rid of him so that he doesn't attack Jibanyan, regardless of the Defense talisman I just gave him.
Before Nate could say so, Tattletell smacked Shuter, lowing his health by a third. Snaggerjag pulled out another fish in response, this time it was Meditatum. Walkappa attempted to attacked Meditatum, but did little damage, so he was switched out for Cadin. Cadin released his Soultimate Move, Cicada Cut, damaging both Snaggerjag and his fish. Shuter had fainted and Meditatum was now at half health, so Jibanyan started to warm up to release Paws of Fury. Snaggerjag attempted to attack Jibanyan with his hook, but Tattletell jumped in front of it, taking the hit for Jibanyan. Nate dug through the bag to find a healing item and pulled out a Plum Rice Ball, handing it to Tattletell so that she could heal a little. She healed herself the rest of the way, bringing her back to full health as Cadin put a hit on Meditatum to lower his health even more. It wasn't enough to make him faint as he managed to heal up Snaggerjag a bit. Jibanyan then released his Paws of Fury, taking down Snaggerjag's health by a chunk and made Meditatum faint.
"Go, Jibanyan!"
They switched Walkappa back in and let him prepare his Soultimate Move, Mega Waterfall, as Snaggerjag used a water move on Jibanyan and pulled out Grumpus, the final choice of fish he had. Grumpus headbutted Jibanyan, but thankfully, the Defense talisman kept Jibanyan from getting too much damage. Katie handed him a Hamburger to heal with as Walkappa released Mega Waterfall on Snaggerjag. Jibanyan scratched Grumpus a few times before letting Tattletell deal the final blow on Snaggerjag with Loving Slap with Grumpus fainting along with him.
*****
"Ugh...I was told that lifeguards got more respect than this."
"Sorry to burst your bubble, sir, but you attacked us before we could explain what we were doing. We were just trying to get something for a friend of ours. Wait, where did he go?"
"Oh, he left before the battle. He was muttering something about the lake being haunted."
"Great, now we have to track him down again. Why extactly did you attack us?"
"I'm the guardian of Catfish Pond. It's my job to protect the fish that live and vacation here. I just attack anyone that disturbs the fish here in an attempt to scare them off. You two are actually the first ones to fight back."
"Oh. Well, we're sorry for disturbing you. We're just going to go on our way now."
SV Snaggerjag disappeared after that conversation and as Katie picked up a Water Ring and fourty-one dollars off the ground, Nate took the ring Walkappa found, cleaned it off with the bottom of his shirt and pocketed it.
"Okay, let's go find Bear and return the ring to him. We'll just say that it flew out during those big splashes."
Before they walked out of Catfish Pond, they grabbed their fishing poles, acting like they had been just fishing, and Nate said,
"Since we're here, do you guys want to check out the Crank-a-kai real quick?"
They walked over to the area where the Crank-a-kai was.
"I'm surprised no one noticed that the gate was gone."
"Eh, no one really seems to care anyway."
When they got up to the Crank-a-kai, they noticed that the glass had been cleaned recently and they could see the capsules inside. There were gray, red, blue, purple, golden, and black capsules, much to the kid's surprise. Whisper let off an involuntary shudder.
"Whisper, are you okay, nya?"
"Sorry, just being near it freaks me out. I really hate that thing."
"Don't worry, Whisper. We're just going to use the Purple Coin and then we'll leave it alone."
Nate put the the Purple Coin into the coin slot, but before he turned it, he asked Whisper,
"Is it random what I get or is there a system?"
"It depends on the coin. With the Purple Coin, you'll either get a Yo-kai from the Eeriee tribe or some sort of item. Actually, you'll proably get an item regardless of what coin you use, but the Yo-kai depend on the coin."
Nate turned the knob and a capsule popped out. The capsule was gray and Nate twisted it. It released a puff of smoke and in it's place was a Bronze Doll.
"What does this do?"
"Nothing. You sell it for cash. Bronze Dolls go for ten bucks, silver is fifty, and gold is a hundred."
"So, how do we convince the Everymart cashier to buy these dolls if they don't do anything? In fact, how do we convince them to buy any weird Yo-kai items we get that we don't need?!"
"When it comes to that point, I'll tell you. Right now, we have to find Bear. I didn't see him in this area, unfortunately."
"Well, he left his stuff at Catfish Pond, so he's probably going to get them back at some point. We can wait around for him and do some requests in the meantime."
"We can't do the Rhino Beetle request until it's late, remember?"
"There's other people around here, they probably have problems we can solve."
They walked out of the Crank-a-kai area and saw the old man at the shrine with a worried expression.
"Excuse me, sir. Is something wrong?"
"Yes. I've been feeding the cats that live here, but recently something's been eating their food."
"Do you want us to go check on them?"
"Yes, please, if you two wouldn't mind. The feeding grounds are to the west of here. Just look for a group of cats gathered in one spot."
They group thanked him for the information and walked to Catfish Pond to use as a shortcut. As they were walking up, they came across a woman looking at the ground looking for something.
"Um...did you lose something?"
Are we dealing with another theft?
"Nope! I'm trying to find proof of the existance of Tsuchinoko!"
Whisper did a quick search of the term and 'ohhed' when he found the information.
"She's looking for proof of Nokos. Tsuchinoko is the longer name for this Yo-kai. They're rare and hard to find and don't get me started on Pandanoko. They're so rarely seen that it's considered a blessing if they'll befriend you."
"Miss? Why are you looking for Tsuchinokos?"
"I'm doing this for my college club, the MMR club or Mysterious Monster Research club, if you want to get technical. If I can find some of proof, I'll be happy."
"Do you mind if we help?"
"No problem. Can you check by the river that goes into Catfish Pond? I heard that Tsuchinoko often hang around there. I'm just checking this area in case they hang around here too. Here's some plastic bags to carry the proof back in if you come across any."
The group walked back the way they came and started looking. Katie found a Noko skin, which had a fading aura according to Whisper. It just meant that the Noko had shed it's skin some time ago, but not recently. She placed the skin in one of the bags and they continued their search. Nate came across something that Whisper stated was Noko dung, so Nate quickly picked it up with one of the plastic bags and they came across some Noko tracks as they were heading to the woman. They gathered some dirt from the tracks, hoping she'll accept it.
"Here you go, miss. Some genuine Tsuchinoko evidence."
She seemed to squee with delight as she took the bags of evidence and thanked them.
"When the MMR club becomes an international thing, I'll try and get you on the team when you're old enough! I'll never forget you two! See ya!"
She ran off, acting like a child on their birthday when they got what they asked for.
"Did I just see our future?"
"Nah, you wouldn't be that crazy, Nate."
"Hey!"
Whisper giggled as he said,
"Can't take a joke, Nate?"
Nate just gave Whisper a playful glare as he said,
"Come on. We should deal with the cats before we forget."
*****
After much investigating, they found a group of cats hissing at an invisible foe. Jibanyan offered to translate what the cats were saying and after asking the cats, he turned to the group and said,
"There's a Yo-kai bothering them and stealing their food."
"Of course there is. Which one is it?"
A quick shine of the Yo-kai Watch revealed a toy poodle dog with a man's face. Shocked couldn't even begin to describe the feeling both kids were having.
"Manjimutt, or the Human-face Dog Yo-kai. He has terrible luck due to his apperence and can't be taken seriously."
"Oh, drat! I've been caught! I'll make you pay for innterupting my meal!"
Nate and Katie just sighed as their Yo-kai took out Manjimutt in two hits.
"Please leave these cats alone from now on, Manjimutt."
"Oh, there goes my free meal!"
Manjimutt left the group, not even bothering to ask for forgiveness or to be their friend.
"...We could've been friends with him if he just asked. Oh well."
The cats purred as Jibanyan said,
"They want to thank you for your help with getting Manjimutt away from their food."
"You're welcome, guys."
Whisper started muttering to himself,
"Well, the old man didn't seem to be able to sense me or Jibanyan, so he probably wouldn't believe that a Yo-kai was bothering his cats, but we have to tell him something. Maybe a wild dog? That should work. It's technically the truth, so it's not a total lie."
Whisper saw Nate and Katie staring at him and he just gave a sheepish grin.
"Sorry, I was just trying to think of something to tell the old man at the shrine. We can say that a wild dog was bothering them, right?"
"Hmm...yeah. That should work."
As they were heading back to Catfish Pond to see if Bear had come back yet, they heard some yelling.
"Get back here, you rotten thieves! You're not going to get away with messing with my stuff again!"
The group went over to investigate the noise and to their surprise, they saw a Peckpocket and Roughraff were running away and screaming their lungs out.
"We don't want your stuff, you weirdo! Stop trying to attack us!"
"It was bad enough being attacked by those two kids with their Yo-kai!"
Oh, joy. It's that Roughraff that was bothering Jibanyan and that Peckpocket that tried to steal our stuff and insulted Whisper.
The group just kept watching as the Roughraff and Peckpocket looked over at the group. A look of horror crossed both of their faces as they begged,
"Please help us. This Yo-kai is crazy!"
The group gave the two Yo-kai a disapproving look.
"I don't know...you did bully Jibanyan a lot and stole his prized photo, Roughraff and you're not exactly innocent either, Peckpocket. You inspirited a child to steal a comic from their friend and almost ruined thier friendship, you tried to steal our Yo-kai Watches and Jibanyan's collar, and you insulted Whisper."
"Oh, just forget it! We'll just take your items and throw them in Catfish Pond like we did with that stupid ring that kid had!"
"You stole Bear's ring?! That was a present for his mother, you jerks!"
As the group were about to yell some more at the two Yo-kai thieves, they saw a child-like Yo-kai with a green button eye and stitched up like a doll giving the two thieving Yo-kai an evil glare. The group started to back away slowly as the two thieving Yo-kai made a sudden realization and slowly turned around to meet the Yo-kai that had been chasing them.
"You rotten thieves..."
Before the Yo-kai could land a hit on the two thieves, a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere and struck the two thieves down. A human-like Yo-kai with slightly singed gloves and carrying a book walked into view along with Detective Holdit.
"There are those scam artists. I'm going to enjoy putting these two behind bars. Thank you for helping me locate them, Detective."
"Let me just file the report and we can lock them away for good. If we only knew where they stored the stolen goods. Oh, hey Nate and Katie. Did you find your friend's ring?"
"Hi, Detective Holdit. Yeah, we did. These jokers threw it in Catfish Pond, but we asked Walkappa to get it for us."
"Of course they did. Did he happen to find anything else?"
"I don't think he did. Are you going to check or something?"
"Might as well, unless they stashed the stuff somewhere else."
The child-like Yo-kai pulled out a faded sack out of the bushes and tugged on the human-like Yo-kai's sleeve.
"Is this what you're looking for, mister? Those mean Yo-kai were near my collection of stuff and tried to make off with my bag instead of their own."
The human-like Yo-kai opened the faded bag and after investigating the items, nodded and patted the child Yo-kai on his head.
"Thank you for giving this to me. These items will be returned to their rightful owners."
As Detective Holdit was tying up Roughraff and Peckpocket, the human-like Yo-kai walked over to the group and said,
"Has these Yo-kai given you any trouble that I should know about?"
"Well, that Roughraff bullied Jibanyan here and stole his picture and that Peckpocket tried to ruin a friendship through inspiritment, tried to steal our Yo-kai Watches and Jibanyan's collar, and insulted Whisper here."
He wrote down everything and handed them his medal.
"I'm Shizen. I've been asked by some associates to track down these Yo-kai criminals. I'm quite a busy Yo-kai, so I unfortunately won't be available to be summoned, but since you have given me more reasons to put these two away, I might as well give you this as a reward. It's best if I get going now. Their trail isn't going to start itself, after all."
He picked up the two scam artists and waved goodbye as Detective Holdit walked away to find something else to investigate. When everything had calmed down, the child Yo-kai glanced at the group and said,
"Hi, I'm Rontao."
He tilted his head as he studied Nate and Katie.
"You two remind me of someone I knew a long time ago."
He started to tear up and burst into tears, prompting Nate and Katie to kneel down and hug the poor Yo-kai. Rontao buried his face into their shirts and after collecting his breath, he wiped his tears away and said,
"Sorry about that. That's the reason I stay up here at Mount Wildwood, to control my emotions so that I don't accidently hurt anyone that doesn't deserve it, unlike those thieves."
Katie handed Rontao a Gooey Candy and he munched on it, his mood getting better.
"You two are alright, so I'll let you and your Yo-kai friends come through my area whenever you want."
He handed them his medal.
"I wouldn't recomend summoning me for a while. I just want to get my powers under control before I can be summoned by anyone. Please forgive me."
"Oh, no. It's not a problem. Just let us know when your powers are under control or if you just want to hang out with us without battling."
Rontoe gave them a smile as he created four dolls that looked just like the group.
"It's nice to have some friends. Goodbye, you guys."
The group bid their farewells as they went back to Catfish Pond to see if Bear had returned yet.
*****
A/N: A quick thank you to Wattpad User DWN024ShadowMan for letting me use their OCs, Rontao and Shizen, for this chapter.