Life couldn't be any better for them. Nate was on a picnic at Mount Wildwood with Katie, Whisper, Jibanyan, and the Koma Brothers to celebrate their friendship and the sky was blue and clear. They all laughed at a story Whisper had just told them when Lucas appeared. He gestured to an empty spot near Nate and Nate nodded, giving him permission to sit there. Lucas sat down and took some food as Jibanyan curled up in Lucas's lap. Lucas chuckled and petted Jibanyan's head as the sky started to grow dark. They were all worried as they finished eating and packed up to move to another location, but then the winds picked up and blew everywhere, forcing the Yo-kai to cling to the closest person for dear life to avoid becoming a victim of the wind.
"We have to get out of here!"
Suddenly a light blue beacon started to shine from an unknown location and they traveled to it, hoping it was safety from the winds. To their surprise, it was the tree that the Crank-a-kai was in front of and there was a small light blue light coming from the key around Lucas's neck. There was a stone pillar with a keyhole, so Lucas inserted the key into the keyhole and turned the key. There was a soft click as the Crank-a-kai disappeared and was replaced with a set of doors that opened to reveal an elevator. The group walked into the elevator and found themselves in a beautiful area filled with Yo-kai. They walked forward and saw the teenage Yo-kai with the dragon scarf. The three kids just stared at him for a bit before they started to glow. When the glow died down, Lucas was wearing the same outfit he had worn at the festival and Nate and Katie looked the same except that they had a glowing aura surrounding them, light blue for Nate and pink for Katie, that seemed to originate from their Yo-kai Watches and they were wearing golden armbands with a spirit symbol within the Yo-kai Watch symbol on one side and on the other side was a light blue star and a pink heart. An evil laugh echoed through the land and the teenage Yo-kai pointed to Lucas and said,
"Protect him at all costs."
Just as Nate and Katie nodded, the ground started to shake and white tentecles shot up from the ground. Nate and Katie quickly got in front of Lucas and saw that their aura scared the tentecles away from grabbing Lucas. When their Yo-kai friends came over to them, the aura grew bigger and the tentecles shrank away from the group.
"Prove that you're both worthy of bearing the Yo-kai Watch. Protect both humans and Yo-kai from the evils that wish to keep them apart. Be the bridge that covers the gap between us."
*****
Three kids jolted up in the middle of the night after having the same dream and they all sat up on their beds, wondering what the dream was trying to tell them. Two of them realized that it was a sign of approaching danger, but one wondered if it was connected to his forgotten past and everything that's happened to him recently. They all went back to sleep, determined to figure out the answers in the morning.
*****
"Wait, you had the same dream too?"
Nate and Katie had been heading towards the riverbank with some Custard Bread in hand when Nate told Katie about the dream he had last night, only to discover that she had the same dream.
"That's freaky. The same dream, down to the small details."
Katie nodded as she ate, then Nate mumbled,
"It's odd though. In the dream, Lucas was able to interact with Jibanyan, petting his head and everything. He even laughed when Jibanyan was curled in his lap. I don't know...it just feels weird."
"Considering that we don't know if Lucas can see Yo-kai?"
"Well...remember when you were talking to Lucas about the fire he had witnessed? We didn't say anything because we didn't think it was important, but I swear that Lucas was looking right at me and Jibanyan."
Nate and Katie tried to think back to that day and they realized that Whisper was right. Lucas had been looking in the general direction of both Whisper and Jibanyan, but it never crossed their minds that he was actually looking at them.
"But what was that place we were in?"
"That would be the Yo-kai Realm. It's where us Yo-kai usually hang around when we're not in the Human Realm. The area you were specifically in leads to the throne of the Yo-kai Realm's leader, which that Mckraken guy seems to be in control of. What happened to Lord Enma that resulted in someone like him taking over?"
"The Great Lord Enma passed on some time ago, zura. He went on to the afterlife, having finished his duties as our leader...but something happened during the preparations for our new leader. I don't know the exact details since I lived in the Human Realm with my family at the time, but all I knew was that the throne had been taken over by a non-family member and that he hated humans and any Yo-kai that believe that humans and Yo-kai could be friends. The problem is that the late Great Lord Enma was a strong believer in that philosophy, which in turn made a lot of Yo-kai firm believers in that philosophy."
"Yo-kai like him caused us to be separated from our family and we haven't been able to contact them since then, so we're not even sure if they're okay or not. They might not even know that we're okay!"
They saw the Koma Brother's fire flare up for a moment, but they managed to calm down after a moment.
"Well, we need to make plans. Whisper, do you know how to get the the Yo-kai Realm?"
"There are many ways to get there, but if someone like Mckraken is in charge, they're most likely closed off."
The group sighed as they finished their breakfast and got up to prepare for a possible Yo-kai invasion.
"Nate! Katie!"
They turned around to see Lucas rushing towards them and he was out of breath when he got to them.
"I've been looking for you guys! I need to talk to you about something!"
"Sure, Lucas. What do you want to talk about?"
Lucas nervously fiddled with the key around his neck as he said,
"Well...I have this secret I've been keeping for a while. You might think I'm crazy, but I have to tell someone."
Lucas sighed softly before he continued.
"I can't remember my childhood at all. It never bothered me at first because it's not like anyone has ever asked about it, but lately...I have been getting weird flashes of what I think are my forgotten memories, but I could never tell, then I started seeing these strange creatures everywhere. Kinda like the four hanging around you two right now."
"Wait, can he actually see us?!"
Lucas jumped at Whisper's voice.
"Gah! He can talk!"
Whisper looked at Lucas's wrists and flew around him before stating,
"Odd, I don't see a Yo-kai Watch or anything that can allow him to see and hear us."
"Wait...is he talking to you two? You can see and hear him too?"
Nate and Katie realized that there was no point in denying it. Lucas can see and hear Yo-kai, just like them.
"Yeah, pretty much."
Lucas mumbled,
"I mean, I did see him hanging around with you whenever we met up, but I never put that much thought into it until now."
Lucas knelt down and started petting Jibanyan, who started purring out of habit.
"Heh...you're as soft as you were in the dream I had last night."
"Wait...did your dream start with the three of us having a picnic on Mount Wildwood with Yo-kai and-?"
"We had to go to somewhere on Mount Wildwood to avoid the sudden winds? Yep. Although...that dream was what made me decide to seek you two out and find out what was going on. Even before I started to get curious about my past, I always wanted to be near you two, but I didn't know how why. I thought it was just because I wanted friends and I was too shy to say anything about it, but it wasn't until recently that I realized that it was a combination of wanting friendship and feeling safer when you guys were around."
"Wait...safer?"
Lucas nodded with a grim face as he picked up Jibanyan.
"I've been stalked by Yo-kai a lot recently and I'm pretty sure they wanted to attack me, but they always seem hesitant to do so, even when I'm alone."
Were those Yo-kai afraid that they would be hurt if they attacked Lucas? If that's the case, then why were they following him? What's so special about him?
Lucas looked towards Mount Wildwood.
"I have a feeling we have to head to Mount Wildwood...right now."
"Wait, now?!"
Lucas nodded as he started walking towards Mount Wildwood. They walked with him, remembering that the dream told them to keep him safe, but why?
This just gets stranger and stranger...
*****
"This is the tree, but how do we acess the elevator?"
They had stopped at the Crank-a-kai tree on top of Mount Wildwood. If their dream was correct, the elevator to the Yo-kai Realm was inside the tree, but how do they get to it?
"If I remember correctly, there was a stone pillar that Lucas put his key into that made the elevator appear. We just need to find it."
Whisper searched the ground, tapped a specific area, and a stone pillar appeared.
"Like this one?"
Nate and Katie nodded as Lucas inserted the key into the small hole on the stone pillar and turned it. True to what they had seen in the dream, the Crank-a-kai disappeared and a set of elevator doors appeared in the tree. The doors slide open and Lucas took the key out of the stone pillar.
"Lucas, you should probably wait here. I know you want answers as much as we do, but the dream told us to keep you safe and if there are a lot of Yo-kai willing to hurt humans, we don't want to risk getting you hurt."
Lucas nodded as the four Yo-kai joined Nate and Katie in the elevator.
"To the Yo-kai Realm, please."
To their surprise, nothing happened. The elevator doors didn't close and it showed no signs of moving. Instead, it glowed a sickly white, which made Whisper panic.
"Oh, no! Mckraken must have made the elevator inaccessible! We're stuck up here!"
"Whisper, I'm sure we can find another way to the Yo-kai Realm."
"If the elevator isn't working, then nothing else will be working! The Human Realm is about to be invaded and we can't even delay it! We're doomed, I tell you!"
Lucas stepped into the elevator out of concern for Whisper when the doors suddenly closed and the elevator started to glow light blue and shook before descending.
"Whisper? Are you okay?"
Whisper nodded as the panic he had been feeling started to fade, but he knew that it might appear again later on.
"Why are we moving now?"
The best the Yo-kai could do was shrug as the elevator continued to descend until it stopped at the place that they had seen in their dream. It looked to be enternally spring, if the cherry blossom trees blooming in summer were any indication.
"Now what?"
"I guess we continue forward."
The group walked forward to a set of double doors. They pushed the doors open and they saw a winding path with a red gate towards the end of the path they could see.
"There's only one path and three gates to go through, so all we have to do is keep going and we'll reach the throne room."
"I'm afraid that I can't allow you to go any further."
The group looked up to see the teenage Yo-kai with the dragon scarf blocking their path.
"If you want to continue and get the answers to your questions, you'll have to battle me."