"Nyaattee...wake up!"
Nate rose out of bed after Jibanyan yelled at him and after checking to make sure that his parents had fallen asleep, Nate summoned Baku to take his place in bed. After he got dressed and got out the door without waking up his parents, he sent Whisper over to get Katie.
*****
When Katie saw Whisper floating in her room, she had Whapir to take her place in bed, got dressed, and sneaked out with Whisper. She grabbed her bike and rode over to Nate's house. She waved at Nate as he was getting his own bike.
Let's get this over with!
After getting Jibanyan into Katie's bicycle basket, they turned on the little light on their bikes and took off towards the shortcut that would take them towards Downtown Springdale. Jibanyan was grumbling about wanting to ride on Whisper's back, but since he wasn't walking, he couldn't complain too much.
"I really, really hope Terror Time doesn't activate right nyow."
They stopped at the crosswalk in front of Piggleston Bank, pressed the button for crossing the street, and looked around. After not seeing any strange fog and the crosswalk light turned green, they continued to ride over to the construction site.
*****
They skidded to a stop in front of the wall in front of the construction site and after making their bikes disappear into the charms, Whisper floated up to see if there was anyone that would keep them from stepping inside the site or worse, call the police. The last thing the group wanted was to have to explain to a bunch of adults that couldn't see Yo-kai that they were meeting a fox Yo-kai to find out why he was messing with people on Flower Road.
"There's one guy here, but I think he fell asleep. We can probably sneak past him if we're quiet enough."
"Kyubi better have a good explanation for this when we find him."
The group didn't head into the area to the construction site just yet, staring at the large building in front of them. At this point, it was almost close to completion. On one hand, that meant the building had walls to block out the elements and no one would see them climbing on the structure. On the other hand, there would probably be some unfinished floors, blocked stairways, and many dangerous ways to get around. The group had to whisper to avoid accidently waking up the guard or drawing unwanted attention.
"I don't know, guys. Is it really worth it?"
"Tengloom's here, remember?"
Nate sighed softly.
That's right. We really need that upgrade.
"Okay, let's head in and hope that Kyubi isn't tricking us into getting in trouble."
The group quietly walked in, thankful that they didn't have to worry about leaving their bikes in the area, further getting them into trouble if they were to be discovered.
"Hold on!"
Whisper stuck an arm out and the group stopped as Whisper looked around.
"I thought I sensed something."
"Whisper, not to sound rude, but are you sure it's not your imagination? It's pretty late and there's a chance that Terror Time might hit us or that we might get caught by someone."
"Nate, when I say I sensed something, I sensed something."
"Whisper's right. I can sense it too."
The group looked at Katie, who seemed to be concentrating on something.
"There's two figures, about Jibanyan's height. They're hiding in the construction site for some reason."
Whisper was amazed.
"Wow...I mean...wow. Katie, I had no clue that you could sense Yo-kai auras. Why didn't you say something? Did you just develop this power or something?"
Katie shook her head.
"No, I've always been able to detect strange auras. When I was younger, I would call them 'feelings' because I didn't know the proper term until recently."
Before the others could ask her about her aura-sensing powers more, she walked into the construction site.
"Yep, there's a lot of Yo-kai in here, but I think the Yo-kai Whisper sensed was over...here."
The rest of the group went into the construction site as well and went over to where Katie was. She was near a pile of random construction materials where they heard two voices speaking to each other about...something. The voices were too quiet to understand, other than that the speakers might be from the countryside.
"Excuse us?"
The two voices shrieked and the group saw two pairs of glowing eyes, one pair of blue eyes and a pair of green eyes, from the pile of construction materials.
"K-kyubi! We were just-"
"Waitwaitwait. You two are looking for Kyubi too?"
The two pairs of eyes seemed to blink in confusion before they widened in shock.
"Oh my swirls! We're so sorry! We thought you were Kyubi, zura!"
One of the Yo-kai walked out, revealing himself to be what Nate could only describe as a white lion-dog with green eyes, two red swirls on his cheeks, and a pair of blue, firey eyebrows carrying a green pouch on his back. The other Yo-kai that came out was identical to the first Yo-kai, but he was light brown, had blue eyes, darker brown firey eyebrows, which were the same color as the swirls on his cheeks, and he was carrying a blue pouch on his back.
"Eeee...komainus!"
Katie's eyes were sparkling as she squeed about how cute they were. Jibanyan and Nate were confused at Katie's behavior while Whisper looked up something.
"Ah! These are the Komainu Brothers or the Koma Brothers for short."
Whisper gestured to the white komainu.
"This is Komasan, the eldest of the two. The brown komainu is Komajiro, the youngest. I have to admit, I didn't expect to see any komainus here in the city. They usually hang around in the mountains, countryside, basically anywhere where a shrine can be located."
Komasan shuffled his feet slightly.
"Komajiro and I had to leave our shrine in the country due to something happening in the Yo-kai Realm that could effect us. We came to this city looking for someone that could help us find a place to live until things can get sorted out. We ran into Kyubi earlier today, but he told us to meet him here. I really don't understand why, but who are we to argue with a powerful Yo-kai like him?"
The group was now concerned. There had to be a reason for Kyubi to send the two komainus here to the construction site on the same night he told them to meet him.
"Who are y'all? Are y'all trying to find a place to live too?"
The group shook their heads.
"Oh no. We already have a place to live. I'm Katie Forester and this is Nate Adams, Jibanyan, and Whisper. We have to meet Kyubi too, for a different reason, and maybe if we all go look for him together, we can figure out why he wanted us to meet him here."
Two bright lights shined from the komainus as a pair of Yo-kai medals flew into Katie's hands.
"Thanks, y'all!"
The komainus each hugged one of the kid's legs and as Katie pocketed the two Yo-kai medals, she looked around and saw an Eyepo.
"Umm...Whisper? Why is there an Eyepo over there?"
Whisper turned to where Katie was pointing with a confused expression on his face.
"Huh...I don't remember that being there. Do you want to...use it or something?"
Katie nodded and went up the the Eyepo. She touched it and after looking over the Yo-kai medals they had on hand, she switched out Negatibuzz and Buhu and replaced them with the Komainu Brother's medals and also decided to bring Dimmy back into the group, replacing Walkappa.
"Okay, there's some escalators over there we can use to climb to the next floor."
The group of six headed towards the escalators, noticing that there was a purple Watch Lock door with a large S.
"Okay, we might be coming back later. Not in the near future, but later."
They kept walking until they found an escalator that wasn't blocked off. They walked up the escalator, thankful that it was stable. Komasan was shaking as the group got off. Nate looked at the shaking komainu.
"What's wrong?"
Komasan looks at the group, which has gone further ahead and asked Nate,
"Can I tell you something, Nate?"
Nate nodded and knelt down to Komasan's height. Komasan shuffled his feet and said,
"I'm trying to be brave for Komajiro's sake, but I can't handle this, zura. I'm homesick, I can't understand city life, and I was too much of a scaredy-cat to talk Kyubi out of arranging to meet us here at the construction site."
Nate petted Komasan's head.
"We're all nervous about meeting up with Kyubi here. We don't know why he wanted to meet us here, but we're going to go find out!"
Komasan was confused by Nate as the two of them went to catch up with the rest of the group.
How can he be so calm when we're facing danger? We're about to meet Kyubi, one of the most powerful Yo-kai in existance, and he's treating it like we're taking a stroll through the countryside, even though he admitted that they're all nervous about meeting him. How does he do it? How do they do it?
The group looked around the area as they were carefully walking around.
"Whisper?"
"Yes, Jibanyan?"
"If we ever find Kyubi, remind me to kill him."
"You know that Kyubi is a S rank and you're a D rank, right?"
"I'll smack him, then."
"Can I talk you out of doing that, Jibby?"
Jibanyan had a slight blush on his face when he heard Whisper call him that and didn't answer right away.
"Jibanyan?"
Jibanyan shook his head to clear his mind and said,
"...Maybe."
The group looked around and saw that any escalators that could easily take them to the top floor was either blocked off by a gate that wasn't a Watch Lock door or they couldn't get to them safely.
"I remember seeing an escalator downstairs that might be able to get us to that side safely, but I don't remember if there was a clear way over there."
Whisper looked over to see a rope and a metal girder that was the only thing connecting the area they were in to the area the rope was located.
"Good news and bad news, everyone. The good news is I found a way to get down that might get us to the escalator we need to take."
"That's great, Whisper! What's the bad news?"
Whisper pointed to the rope.
"It's over there."
The group walked over and looked at the metal girder.
"We'll have to go one at a time. Whisper, would you mind holding my hand?"
Katie got on the girder and after seeing it not wobble, Whisper took her hand and started to walk with her across the girder until she got there safely.
"Made it! Go get the others!"
Whisper helped Nate walk across the girder and started to help the Komainu brothers across, starting with Komasan, then Komajiro. When he came to get Jibanyan, he held a paw up and shuffled his feet in embarrassment.
"Can I...ride over on your back?"
Whisper blushed, thankful that the others couldn't see his face at the moment, and said,
"S-sure..."
Jibanyan climbed onto Whisper's back and held on as Whisper floated over to the rest of the group as they were climbing down the rope. Whisper just floated down with Jibanyan on his back and let Jibanyan hop off as the Koma Brothers hopped off the kid's backs.
"I'll go ahead and see what we have to deal with."
Whisper floated out of the room and found not only the correct escalator, but also the Tengloom they had to fight for the upgrade. He floated over and practically dragged the group over to battle Tengloom.
*****
One battle later...
Tengloom disappeared into a puff of purple smoke and Whisper was celebrating.
"Yes! We're a step closer to having the best watch in the world!"
Whisper was doing some sort of silly dance as Katie took his arm and dragged him along with the rest of the group.
"Sorry for not putting you two in battle, but we want to save you in case there's a big battle with Kyubi."
The Koma Brothers nodded in understand, Komasan being secretly relived that he didn't have to battle yet, but was nervous about a possible battle against Kyubi. Sure, his Soultimate was pretty powerful, but would it have worked against Kyubi? Probably not, seeing as they were both Fire Attributes. As they walked up the escalator, Komasan felt the nervousness bubbling in his chest. At this point, it felt normal to him, but back home, he wasn't always this nervous.
*****
Admittedly, he wasn't the strongest komainu. That title belonged to his older brothers, Komane and Komiger, and his ancestor, Komashura. Komasan, Komajiro, and their mother, Komama, were more like pacifists, in that they didn't fight unless it was absolutely necessary.
The two brothers spent their days lazily laying in the grass at their shrine, playing in the small river nearby, and transforming into humans to go to the nearby town to get ice cream and mingle with the humans in the small village. Life was perfect for the Komainu Brothers until one day, they got a letter saying that their shrine had been targeted by a group of Yo-kai that hated humans and any Yo-kai that supported being friends with humans. Komane and Komiger had already gotten the news and had helped Komama move to their vacation house in the Yo-kai Realm, but before Komasan and Komajiro could join the rest of their family, the portal to their vacation house closed suddenly and they were forced to find a new shrine quickly.
They hopped on the next train out of their small village and got off at what they hoped was far away enough from the war that separated them from their family. The two brothers had been wandering around Springdale for days, trying to find somewhere to live that hadn't been taken or targeted by the human-hating Yo-kai when they met someone that promised to have Kyubi, who was the guardian of Flower Road, help the two find a place to live. The brothers were estatic that they would soon have a place to live in, but when they actually met Kyubi face-to-face, he told them to meet him at the construction site that night if they wanted a place to stay and disappeared without explaining why.
They were very terrified as they entered the construction site and they both hid the moment one of the Yo-kai that lived in the consruction site tried to attack them. Komasan had promised himself that he would be brave for Komajiro, but it was proving to be very difficult.
*****
Komasan snapped back to reality as he found himself at the top of the escalator with the rest of the group. Whisper had went over to check on him while the group tried to figure out which way to go.
"Komasan, is everything alright?"
Komasan shook his head.
"No...I was forced away from my home, I have to find a way to contact the rest of my family, and I don't even know what I'm doing."
Whisper placed a hand on Komasan's shoulder.
"Kyubi probably thinks that we're all scaredy cats, but we're going to prove him wrong. We're going to show him why he shouldn't underestimate us and get what we need from him once and for all!"
The two Yo-kai went back to the group and as the group walked down the hallway, Komasan stopped and looked around.
"Hey...are any of y'all...getting the feeling that someone is watching us?"
No one noticed the giant humaniod Yo-kai staring at the group through an open window and faded away before they turned back to the window.
"There's a lot of Yo-kai here, so it would feel natural that you believed someone was watching you, Komasan. Let's keep going, everyone!"
*****
The group eventually found another set of ropes and went up the rope that would take them to the top floor. They saw a lot of Yo-kai in the building of course and had battled with them, but only managed to befriend a Blazion. As they walked, Katie told the Komainu Brothers about what the group had done before. To Komasan, it all made sense now that he heard it.
They've gone through more danger than someone in a fireworks display! No wonder they're so calm about meeting Kyubi!
They were getting close to the area where they suspected Kyubi would be, so they stopped and healed up.
"Okay, everyone! Let's get to the bottom of this once and for all!"
The group saw the nine-tailed fox just floating on the balcony-like area that was strangely big enough for the whole group and their Yo-kai companions.
Okay, this is getting weirder. Kyubi told Nate and Katie to meet him here, we meet the Komainu Brothers, who were also told to meet Kyubi here, and he's floating above an area that's just big enough to us to battle on. Just what is he planning?
Whisper had to shake the thought out of his head as the group went to confront Kyubi.
"Took you all long enough. I thought I was going to have to get you myself."
Whisper started shaking as he was in front of Kyubi. Kyubi was still powerful enough to smack him into the next country with one of his tails if he wasn't too careful. Even Jibanyan seemed to be regreting ever thinking about smacking Kyubi as payback for being so dodgy about giving them information.
"Kyubi! Why are we here?! Couldn't you have told us why you cursed Flower Road without forcing us to come here so late at night?! And why are Komasan and Komajiro here too?! What are you playing at?!"
Whisper was about to put himself in front of Nate in case Kyubi attacked, but the kitsune rolled his eyes.
"None of you really know the truth about all of this, do you? Especially since I just lead you to the true culprit!"
The building started to shake as Whisper quickly grabbed Nate and Katie to keep them from falling while Jibanyan and the Komainu Brothers grabbed their legs to balance themselves.
"You want to protect Springdale, don't you? Well, go for it!"
Kyubi flew away from the group, being more dodgy about the whole thing.
"Hey!"
The group ran out to the 'balcony' and Kyubi chuckled childishly as he flew farther away.
"Where do you think you're going?!"
The building started to shake again as Kyubi bowed.
"I bid you farewell, little ones."
A giant hand came up from behind Kyubi and he disappeared before it could make contact with him. The hand then smacked down on the area where the group was, barely just missing them.
"Maasssi-faaaccceee..."
The group soon came face-to-face with a giant humaniod Yo-kai and prepared to battle.
*****
Whisper was looking up the creature that they were about to fight.
"Massiface, weak points are eyes and forehead. It is best to blind this Yo-kai so that he'll miss more often."
Massiface slammed his hand onto the ground, making a bunch of stuff fall on the attacking party.
"Ow!"
"Ack!"
"Tell!"
Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of damage done to the attacking party and Tattletell healed Cadin as Jibanyan used his tail flames to get a hit on Massiface.
"I got one of his eyes!"
Cadin used Cicada Cut and he hit all of Massiface's weak points and Tattletell threw a nearby rock at the eye Jibanyan had managed to hit earlier, forcing Massiface to close his eye in order to get it to heal. The attacking party would've celebrated, but they had to get his other eye closed or they would get hurt by whatever attack Massiface planned next. Tattletell and Jibanyan focused their attacks on the other eye while Cadin attacked Massiface's forehead.
"Do you think they'll make it, Nate?"
Nate took Katie's hand and squeezed it to comfort her.
"They will, Katie. We've gotten this far with them, didn't we?"
She nodded and sighed.
"You're right, Nate."
Massiface tried to flick Cadin, but since Cadin was on the side where his eye was closed, Cadin was able to jump out of the way before he could be hit and attacked the other eye. However, just as he managed to land a hit on it, Massiface opened his closed eye and flicked Tattletell, inspirting her.
"Tell..."
"We have to switch out and purify Tattletell!"
Before the kids could switch out the front party, Massiface unleashed his Soultimate, Massive Swat, and managed to get the attacking party down to low health.
"Switch them out! Switch them out!"
Nate switched out the front party and placed Dimmy and the Komainu Brothers in front and Katie started working on healing and purifying the others as the same thought started to form in everyone's mind.
I hope Komasan and Komajiro are up to this.
Komasan felt panic rising in his chest. He and his brother had to help hold off this giantic Yo-kai until the others had been helped, but the only time they had ever fought like this was during their practice battles with their older brothers.
It's one thing to be fighting with my brothers because we can stop at anytime to take a break, but we can't do that with this Yo-kai. We have to defeat him or get him weak enough for the others to deal the final blow.
Komajiro sent a lightning attack towards the eye that had been injured by the party currently in the back and Dimmy smacked Massiface's forehead, only to be flicked away and taking damage.
I have to this...for Komajiro, my family, for my new friends, and to prove to Kyubi that I'm not the scaredy cat that he thinks I am!
A spark ignited in Komasan as he sent a flame towards Massiface's recently opened eye and made it close again.
"Komajiro! Let's prove that we're worthy of being guardians someday!"
Both komainus closed their eyes and a strong aura started to surround them as they prepared their Soultimates.
We've only done a double attack once, but if we can pull it off, we can defeat Massiface once and for all!
Both komainus snapped their eyes open.
"Spirit Dance!"
"Wild Zaps!"
A barrage of flames and lightning came from both komainus as both attacks hit Massiface and made him faint.
*****
The group watched as Massiface disappeared into purple smoke and the aura surrounding the Komainu Brothers faded away. Both brothers fell to their knees and started to pant from using so much energy.
"Oh my swirls, that took a lot out of us."
"Do any of y'all have any milk?"
Katie digged out two bottles of milk and handed them to the komainus, who quickly downed the drinks in two seconds. Nate then broke the awkward silence.
"What was that just now?! Are you guys normally this powerful?!"
Komasan shook his head.
"Nope, that was the Guardian Spirit that inhabits us komainus. It's only to be used in extreme circumstances, but I considered this to be extreme enough. The reason Komajiro and I activated it at the same time is due to our bond as brothers."
The group nodded as they went back into the building, just wanting to go home and not bother with Kyubi anymore.
"Huh...I didn't think you were that powerful."
The group stopped and turned around and saw two Kyubis. The one wearing a white lab coat and wearing glasses was giving the other Kyubi a death glare for some reason and the Kyubi on the receiving end of the death glare was becoming very sheepish as he said,
"What? I said I wouldn't let them get hurt too badly."
"Why didn't you deal with this youself?"
"For the sake of Lord Enma, my reputation was being ruined by this jerk and I'm too busy with other stuff to deal with him! You know that!"
The glassing wearing Kyubi gestured to the group as a whole.
"I meant, why did you bring them into this?"
"The other komainus were either helping their families or dealing with something else and these kids have been building up a reputation, so I figured, why not test their ability against Massiface and I'll add the komainus to the mix to see what happens."
Kyubi turned to the group and said,
"It might be a surprise to you, but I like living in the Human Realm and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon, but I will warn you. There are bigger things ahead for you, so be on your guard."
Kyubi bowed and disappeared. The glassing wearing Kyubi just sighed and turned to the group.
"Sorry about him. He means well, but he has a very odd way of showing it."
Nate tried to remember where he heard that voice before, then it hit him.
"Mr. Barton? Is that you?"
The glassing wearing Kyubi turned into their science teacher, proving Nate was right.
"Mr. Barton, if you're a Yo-kai, why are you teaching elementary school students?"
Mr. Barton had a smile on his face as he said,
"I made a promise to a friend that I would help human children grow into wonderful people, so I took up teaching at the first school I found that had an opening for a new teacher, Springdale Elementary. Sure, teaching science wasn't exactly what I had in mind at the time, but I managed and besides, it's not like elementary schoolers need to know the more complicated sciences right now. That's what junior high and high school is for."
"Umm...Mr. Barton? Is there any chance you can help us get out of here? It took us forever to find a way up here and I'm pretty sure that it'll take forever to get back down, not to mention that the guy sleeping outside might have woken up by now and we can't really afford to get in trouble with our parents."
Mr. Barton turned back into his true form and said,
"Well, considering that Kyubi didn't think this far ahead, I might as well."
Nate and Katire each took one of the Komainu Brothers and Jibanyan had hopped onto Whisper's back, claiming that it was so there wasn't any added weight to either child, but they all had their suspicions about Jibanyan's actual reason for riding on Whisper's back. Mr. Barton wrapped an arm around both Nate and Katie and lifted them up with no difficulty as he flew over Downtown Springdale with Whisper and Jibanyan following him. The group was amazed by how small the town looked from where they were and Mr. Barton dropped them off on the roof of the elementary school.
"There we go. Hopefully, no one should notice us up here. I'll walk you through the school so that the Yo-kai living here won't attack you."
"Couldn't you have dropped them off closer to their houses?"
"Yeah, but then someone would freak out about a Yo-kai potentially kidnapping a pair of kids."
"Point taken."
Mr. Barton took out a set of keys and unlocked the door to the roof and lead the group through the school before taking them out the side door.
"Get home safely now, okay?"
He pocketed the keys and petted Nate and Katie's heads.
"Oh! Just so you know, if you need any help with anything, you can find me here all summer or somewhere in the area if I'm not here."
The group waved goodbye to Mr. Barton as they all walked back home, quickly hiding from anyone that might recognize them and tell their parents.
"Hey, Whisper? Why didn't Terror Time activate this time?"
Whisper shrugged, just as confused as Nate.
"Happens randomly, I guess. I could've sworn it was an every night thing, but maybe things have changed since my imprisionment."
"Oh, right! About that, Whisper...how are you on catching up with everything you missed out on?"
"I can't tell you exactly how much I have learned or need to learn, but it's more than what I knew before."
Nate accepted that and realized something.
"Oh, right! We need to find a place for the Koma Brothers to stay!"
"They can stay with me. I have room and I wouldn't mind having them hang out with me."
"Really, Katie? You'd let us stay?"
Katie nodded.
"Of course! We're friends, after all!"
As they parted ways, sneaked back inside, filled out what they had learned and done that night into their books, and went to sleep.