After discussing it, they decided to head to the construction site and see what exactly they had to deal with. If there was going to be a lot of people at the site, it was going to be a problem. They rode their bikes to the construction site and saw a green door with a C. They flashed the light onto the door, making it disappear and showing the group that there were only two people at the site.
"Well, it looks like it's just us for today. I'm going to Everymart to pick up something, so I want you to get some work done while I'm out."
The boss of the construction crew had left the site and Nate and Katie were confused about something.
"Do normal people not run into the Watch Lock doors or something?"
Whisper just shrugged.
"I would think so, otherwise people would be curious about the strange barrier keeping them away from some places."
"Were we immune to Watch Lock doors before we got the Yo-kai Watch or are we just coming across them recently?"
"Well, this one was at a construction site, which is a dangerous place in general, so it might be just a coincidence. The other one we saw kept us from trespassing into someone's yard, but it was also in a hidden alcove near Shoten Temple, so that one is kinda debatable."
As they were discussing the logic behind the Watch Lock doors, they heard the worker sighing to himself.
"I wish I was stronger than I am right now."
"Excuse us? Is anything we can do to help?"
"Hmm? Oh, you heard that? Yeah, if you know a way for me to get stronger, I'll gladly listen."
The worker turned away from them and started carrying some lighter items into the site.
"Whisper, is there anything you can think of?"
"Maybe Liver and Chives? It would work for me. If that doesn't work, we can try having Mochismo inspirit him."
"We'll give it a try, Whisper."
They pulled out a Liver and Chives and handed to the worker.
"Here, we heard that this dish can make you stronger."
"Okay, I'll give it a try."
He ate the Liver and Chives and for a few minutes, it seemed to work. He was at least carrying slightly heavier items into the site, but he eventually got tired again as he leaned against the doorway, facing away from the group.
"Man, I can't handle this much longer."
"Quick! Inspirit him before his boss gets back!"
Nate summoned Mochismo and after a quick explanation, he inspirited the worker and by the time the boss of the construction site came back, the worker had almost finished clearing out the site.
"Wow! I can't believe you managed all this while I was out!"
The worker smiled as he kept working and the group left the construction site, hoping that inspiriting the worker will get him away from the site for the night and walked to Nom Burger for lunch. When they got there, they ordered their food and sat down in a corner booth, and they discussed some things that they could do for the rest of the day until nightfall.
*****
Meanwhile....
Kyubi was getting impatient as he waited for night to come.
"Ugh! Why can't it be night already?!"
"Honestly, Kyubi, elementary schoolers are more mature than you."
"I really don't understand why you gave up a life of lesuire to teach human children, Kit."
"You're the one asking two elementary schoolers for help."
Kyubi glanced at the ground in embarassment and said,
"Look, it's personal, okay?"
"Just don't forget that you agreed to talk to the Koma Brothers about helping them with living arrangements today."
"Yeah, yeah...wait...of course!"
"Kyubi...what are you planning?"
"Oh...you'll see..."
*****
"Matt, come on! The clerk is worried about you! There's an angry mob forming!"
Whisper looked behind him and said with surprise,
"Wait, really?"
Matt wasn't paying attention to the group, so Nate cleared up the confusion.
"Nah, I said that to see if he was listening. I guess not."
The group had headed to the arcade to kill some time, but when they went to the counter to see if there was any new games put in, they were told that one of their classmates, Matt, was spending too much time and money on one of the crane machines. They decided to check on him, worried that there might be something wrong with him.
"I'll form an angry mob myself if that kid doesn't start listening to us, nya."
Whisper started dragging Jibanyan away from the scene as he said,
"Jibanyan, you stay out of this. We don't need to bring violence into this."
"Fiiine, but can I at least attack the Yo-kai inspiriting Matt?"
"Wait, what?!"
After a quick scan, they found a Yo-kai and Whisper quickly looked him up.
"Chansin, a Yo-kai that inspirits people to take chances, although he has run some people into debt through gambling. We might want to get rid of him. I don't think it would be healthy for your classmate to develop an addiction to gambling at a young age."
"Let me fight him! See if he's willing to take any chances after I'm done with him!"
"Not in the building, Jibanyan! Take it outside!"
"Weren't you against using violence, Whisper?"
"I thought Matt was just being stubborn. I didn't know that he was being inspirited. Jibanyan, go get Chansin outside. See if being away from Matt will stop the inspiritment."
"Okay!"
Jibanyan poked Chansin's leg and he knelt down. Jibanyan whispered something to Chansin, who then went outside with Jibanyan. Matt seemed to calm down when Chansin and finally left the crane machine alone and left the arcade. They went to the counter to tell the clerk that they managed to get Matt to calm down with the overspending and as Nate started up one of the arcade machines, Jibanyan walked back in with a few bruises and Chansin's medal in his paw and said,
"I managed to talk him into being friends after defeating him and giving him a few tips on battling. Here you go."
He handed the medal to Katie as Whisper dug through the bag to get Jibanyan something to heal him up.
*****
Kyubi had managed to convince the Koma Brothers to meet him at the construction site when it got dark and went back to wondering about if his plan would work.
"Kyubi, I swear to Lord Enma, if those kids get hurt..."
"Calm down, I'm not going to let them get hurt."
Geez, this is the second Yo-kai that's threatened me.
"You better not...those are my students you're sending in there."
*****
After dealing with a few things in Blossom Heights, Whisper had found a box near Everymart with a spirit symbol. Out of curiousity, he placed one of the bronze dolls they had collected and placed it in the box. The bronze doll disappeared and was replaced with ten dollars.
"Okay, I guess the new selling system is finally in. Do you guys have anything you want to sell?"
After looking through the bag and discussing what could and couldn't be sold, they sold the other bronze dolls they had collected, the books they had collected, and a few battle items they had no use for, the amount of money making up for all the food they had bought earlier.
"Woah...where was this box earlier?"
"I honestly have no clue. I guess it was still being set up."
"Okay, we'll head to Mount Wildwood to take care of the Mad Mountain at the Abandoned Tunnel and be one more step closer to a new upgrade."
*****
A quick bike ride later, they were at the steps leading to the shrine. They hopped off their bikes and were about to walk them up the steps when Whisper held his hand out.
"Let me try something."
"Are you going to teleport us up there?"
"If I could teleport all of us, we wouldn't have had to worry about being caught by Gargaros that one night."
Whisper opened the bag, picked up one of the bikes, and let it drop into the bag. Even though they all knew that the bag was bottomless, they were half-expecting to hear it hit something.
"Geez, is there an entire universe in there or something?"
"I would say it's more like a very organized void."
Whisper took the other bike and repeated the same process. As the group started walking up the steps, Whisper pulled out his Yo-kai Pad and started looking something up.
"Whisper, we know where the Abandoned Tunnel is. You don't have to look it up."
"That's not what I'm looking up. I want to see if there's an easier way of storing your bikes. It would be a pain to keep taking them in and out of the bag, but we don't know when and where we might need them."
"Fair enough, Whisper."
They had gotten to the small shrine when Whisper found something.
"Okay, I found a charm that can help."
Whisper showed them a picture of a white and rectangular charm with a clasp and went back to examing the charm.
"While it's mainly used for making moving heavy furniture easier, we can easily use it for carrying your bikes around. All you would have to do is keep it on your person and you can summon your bike whenever you want."
Whisper scrolled down a little and his eyes widened.
"Price too high?"
"No, it's decently priced. It's just if I order it, it won't come until tomorrow morning. I was planning on having you guys ride your bikes to the construction site so that we could save some travel time, but that plan's not going to work."
"Isn't there an instant delivery option?"
"I'm looking, but I don't see one."
Whisper opened a few more tabs and looked around.
"I can't find it anywhere else! We're going to have to-"
A small package fell out of a tree near them and after opening the box and examining the contents, Whisper realized that these were the charms they needed. There was also a note that read,
It has come to my attention that you might be in need of some assisstance. I just happened to have some extra charms that I am willing to give to you. I trust that you will use them responsibily.
- A Friend
While the group was rightfully confused, they were also thankful for the charms.
*****
Hiding in the leaves of the tree above the group was Mr. Barton in his true form. (Imagine Kyubi wearing glasses and a white overcoat.)
I might as well help you since Kyubi won't let me help him with his problem and is very persistant about having you two help him.
*****
Nate and Katie had taken one charm each and pocketed the charms, planning to use them later as they walked to the Abandoned Tunnel.
"How do these work?"
"You just tap the charm against the object of your choosing and keep the charm on your person. When you need the object, you just have to squeeze the charm and the object will appear and disappear at will."
"Is that it? But what if people notice when we make a bike appear and disappear out of nowhere?"
"Well, you can always say that you're praticing your magic. At least that claim you made to that idol will seem less crazy."
Whisper chuckled at Nate and Katie's faces and he continued,
"Relax, you two. I'm just joking. No one will notice."
"This might be just because I'm still new to being a Yo-kai, but how can anyone not remember a child making their bike appear and disappear?"
"Everyone else's memories will just be slightly altered to remember whether Nate and Katie had their bikes on hand or not. It's like with the Yo-kai Watches. Haven't you two noticed that no one close to you has ever questioned where and when you suddenly got these strange watches?"
Both Nate and Katie realized that Whisper was right. Their parents and closest human friends had never once asked them where they got their Yo-kai Watches from since the day they got them. The Yo-kai Watches were pretty strange in design, even if they didn't allow you to find and summon Yo-kai, so you would think that someone close to them would've gotten curious and asked by now.
"As far as your friends and family know, you two have always owned these strange watches. Everyone else either already knows about the world of Yo-kai in one way or another or they're just not interested in finding out more about your weird watches."
The group was becoming more curious about how Whisper knew about all of this. Sure, he might've just looked it up at some point as he did admit that he had to catch up on a lot of things he missed, but for some reason, it felt like there was more to him than they originally thought. However, before they could ask him about whether or not he had just looked the information up, they had found themselves in front of the Abandoned Tunnel.
"Okay, no one else is around. Let's use the charms on the bikes now."
Whisper started to dig the bikes out and Nate had to get the question off his chest.
"Whisper, be honest. Did you just look all that up?"
"For some of the information, yes. A few things have changed since my imprisionment."
Whisper didn't specify what he had to look up, but the group was at least satisified with his answer. Whisper finally got both bikes out and said happily,
"Okay, take your charms and tap them on your bikes."
Nate and Katie took the charms out of their pockets and tapped their charms against their bikes. The bikes glowed bright blue and disappeared into the charms. Both charms now had a light blue outline and a picture of their bikes, Nate's charm having his Breeze Bicycle and Katie's charm having her Sakura Bicycle.
Wow, this makes things a lot easier!
They squeezed the charms and saw their bikes in front of them in perfect condition and squeezed the charms again to make them disappear. They pocket the charms as Whisper and Jibanyan went forward.
"Okay, now that we've tested the charms and seen that they work, we can start looking for Mad Mountain."
They walked further inside the Abandoned Tunnel and found Whisper and Jibanyan looking over an old minecart.
"If it wasn't broken, we could ride it to the other side and solve some ancient puzzles left by the past generation!"
"Wow, Whisper. I was under the impression that you were a play-it-safe kind of guy."
"I am, but as long as I can find a way to keep Nate and Katie from getting too badly hurt, I don't mind them having some excitement."
The group walked to the right and found another minecart and after checking to make sure it was operational, they hopped in it and they traveled on the track it was on, seeing where it lead.
*****
After a couple of false turns on the tracks, picking up a few items, their biggest find being a dark blue Crank-a-kai coin, they started walking to an area where they believed that Mad Mountain was hiding. Just as they were walking by an A rank Watch Lock door, a Leadoni showed up from out of nowhere and yelled,
"You're here to uncover our secret, aren't you?! No one can know! Get out of here!"
It was admittedly a quick fight, since Jibanyan just took him out in two hits, mostly out of annoyance that he was keeping them from exploring the rest of the Abandoned Tunnel and finding Mad Mountain. When Leadoni was defeated, he disappeared and left behind a Leadoni Wheel, or at least, that's what Whisper was able to find out about it despite the terrible reception in the tunnel. They threw it into the bag and continued on. They were relieved to finally see Mad Mountain and got ready to battle with him.
*****
After the battle, Whisper was doing flips.
"That was the second to last Yo-kai we needed! We can go to Timer's and More and get the B rank!"
The group made their way out of the Abandoned Tunnel, befriending a Leadoni and Babblong along the way, only to find that it was early evening.
"Whoa, we spent a lot of time in there. We better head back before our parents start to worry, or worse."
Since for this group, 'worse' meant running into Gargaros, they started to make their way home, only stopping to catch a Rhino Beetle for the one request at Jungle Hunter. When they got to the bottom of Mount Wildwood, Nate handed Katie the Whapir medal.
"Use this to sneak out like we did for the Hot Springs. We'll meet in front of my house when our parents are asleep, so maybe around ten. I'll send Whisper to you when I'm outside."
"Best of luck, Nate."
"Best of luck, Katie."
They summoned their bikes and made their way back home. Thankfully, their parents weren't too worried about them arriving home close to evening since they expected that to happen with having a new bike and all. The kids had their dinner, Nate sneaking food to Whisper and Jibanyan when his parents weren't looking, and stayed in their rooms, Nate writing about what had happened that day and Katie drawing the Yo-kai they met and befriended. However, as they rested to have the energy they needed and to keep their parents from worrying, they were both excited and worried about what this late night adventure would bring.