A/N: I own nothing. Everything belongs to their respective owners.
"Stupid Mabel, always making fun of me."
Deep within the land of a forest in the state of Oregon, there was a 12 year old boy with somewhat messy brown hair, brown eyes, and relatively pale skin with a pinkish nose, he had noticeable bags under his eyes. He wore a reddish-orange t-shirt, a navy blue hooded vest that made him look like he had big shoulders, grey shorts, and black shoes with white soles; atop his head was a hat that was mostly forest green, with some of the top being a lighter green with a dark green star on it. As he walked down the path, kicking stones out of the way, he constantly had to jostle the signs he held in between his right arm and side to keep them from falling out of his grip.
"Stupid Stan for making me do this," he put down the signs and prepared to hammer one of them into a tree, "no one ever listens to what I have to say." He hammered the nail into the tree, only for it to bend and the tre to make a hollow metallic banging sound. Curiosity taking hold, he put his ear to the tree while lightly hitting it with the hammer, only to be met with the same metallic hollow banging. Stepping back, he ran his hands over the sides of the trunk, quickly finding a gap to grip on. Pulling on the gap, the trunk of the tree opened to reveal a machine reminiscent of a ham radio from the early 1900's.
"Woah," the boy softly whispered in awe at his discovery of the old dusty machine. Curiosity taking further hold on the young boy, he began flipping the two switches on the device. Only to be met with a metallic squeaking from behind. Turning around, he saw that a large square hatch had appeared in the ground in front of a large fallen tree. Cautiously stepping toward it, he nearly fell from shock as a platform raised from it's depths. The platform had an old, dust, and decrepit crank-a-kai machine atop it, with an even dustier book on top of it. Taking the book off the machine, he blew the dust off of it revealing a maroon red cover with a gold six fingered hand that had a big black three adorning it.
"What in the name of Cthulhu?" The boy said as e examined the old worn book, surprised that no critters had eaten it's pages.
Opening the cover just a crack, an object fell out of the old book. The boy kneeled down to see what it was, picking it up and blowing the dust off of it to get a better look. What he had just found was a silver coin with the number five and the cent symbol on it, it was as big as a quarter, clearly from the mid 1900's- if not earlier.
"Feed me." The boy looked behind his shoulder in shock at the voice, and stood up to get a slightly better view of the area around him.
"Mabel if that's you, then it's not funny!" The boy said in an annoyed tone of voice, clearly sick of the girl's antics.
"Not Mabel, feed me!" The boy listened harder to better pinpoint the voice's location, only to look behind him when he realized that it was coming from the crank-a-kai.
"Feed you?" The boy asked, looking at the coin in his hand and back at the machine.
"Yes, feed me, feed me now!"
"Okay, okay, don't get your gears in a grind." The boy said as he walked over the the old device, inserted the coin, and turned the dial three times. After the third time an orb that looked to be made of stone came out, landing at the boy's feet, with it's top part being a dark grey and it's bottom part being a light grey. Looking at the orb that was at his feet, the boy picked it up and tried to pry it open. "This better not be a prank-!"
The orb popped open, and from it a blinding light blue light appeared where it had once been whole. From the light a spiral of light blue runes and symbols flew around the boy, the book, and the crank-a-kai. Inside this spiral was also a spherical formation of runes and symbols surrounding the silhouette of a ghost like figure, who looked at the boy with a big, wide, goofy smile, and let out an equally goofy laugh.
"Hehehehohoho!" As soon as the laugh ended the spiral vanished, along with the spherical formation, revealing a cartoony, marshmallow-like white ghost with a black mask-like mark around his eyes, and blue lips; with the upper lip vaguely resembling a mustache. He had a small wisp atop his head, and a wispy tail that constantly billowed from the looks of it. "Why hello my corporeal friend, I am Whisper."
The boy looked at Whisper in shock, before pinching himself. "Ow, okay I am definitely not dreaming."
"Of course you're not dreaming If this were a dream I wouldn't be here." Whisper said a he raised his finger in a making-a-point fashion.
"R-right," the boy said as he examined Whisper, "not to be rude but what ARE you?"
"Why I'm glad you asked," Whisper said as he grabbed the book from the boy's hands and turned to 112* page and showed it to the boy, "I am a Yokai, a mysterious being of legend that influences humanity and the human world in an infinite number of mysterious ways. We're responsible for life's daily annoyances, and the inexplicable behavior that humans exhibit on the most odd of situations and times." At the end of his explanation Whisper placed the monocle on a string at the page to bookmark it, before closing it and handing it back to the boy.
Looking at Whisper in awe, the boy couldn't help but ask. "But if Yokai are responsible for something like, a boy blurting out his crush on a girl while said girl is right next to him, then why haven't I ,or anyone else in the world for that matter, see you?"
"That is quite simple," Whisper opened the book again to the bookmarked page and gestured to the next one*, "we Yokai herald from a world that's parallel to yours, and can travel between them at will, however when we come over to your world we become invisible to the human eyes. Which is why your dogs or cats bark or hiss at nothing for seemingly no reason at all."
"Wow," the boy said as he read the pages, "so can I see all Yokai or just you?"
"Right now you can only see me, but there is a way to see other Yokai." Whisper said as he held up his hand, a bright light appearing on it. The light leapt off of Whisper's hand and flew towards the boy's left wrist, where a light blue watch with light blue markings on the dark blue straps, a white button on it's left side, and a face colored green, blue, pink, and purple with each color sectioned off by black wavy lines with yellow hour and minute hands that was almost completely covered by a bubble like lens- with the exception of a coin sized gap and an indent meant to function as room for a thumb -appeared on his wrist.
"Woah, what the, how, what is this?"
"This is the Yokai Watch U, one of the many models of a marvelous device created over 30 years ago that allows humans to see and interact with Yokai, there are other models with their own functions and capabilities, but this is a model made specifically for the United States of America, although it is compatible with other models." The boy looked at the watch in awe, before he noticed the button on the side and pressed it causing the bubble like lens to pop up. "That is the Yokai lense, as the watch is shining it's light looking through it will allow you to see Yokai."
The boy looked into the lense, testing out the watch before noticing something in the trees, it was a shadowy figure looking straight at him."What the-?" He said under his breath. The light made the shadows around the figure disappear, revealing a cat on it's hind legs with yellowish fur, two tails with blue flames, blue eyes, and a tuft of fur atop of it's head sticking out and resembling cowlicks. It wore a red and blue haramaki and a silver bell. It's muzzle was white and resembled the wisp atop Whisper's head. "Whisper, what Yokai is that?"
Whisper, seeing the Yokai, discreetly pulled out a pad-like device and looked at the screen. "Ah yes, that is the American Yokai known as Tomnyan, a Fire Attribute, Rank B Yokai of the Charming Tribe."
"Who of the what now?" The boy looked at Whisper in confusion at the terms he used.
"I'll explain later, for now why not go talk to him, he seems to have taken a liking to you." Whisper said as he pushed the boy toward Tomnyan.
As he was moved closer toward Tomnyan, the boy eventually walked toward the American Yokai himself and waved. "Um Hi, Tomnyan, I'm Dipper, Dipper Pines."
Tomnyan tilted his head in confusion at Dipper's words, "You can see meow?"
Dipper rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Yeah, it's because of this watch," Dipper showed him the Yokai Watch U before asking, "not to be rude or anything, but why were you watching me?"
"Oh, sorry about that, you reminded me of someone." Tomnyan said as he looked down in sorrow.
"I reminded you of someone?"
"Yeah, my owner, he and I were the best of friends always hanging out at the park, at home, or when he was working on his school work or conspiracy theories he was interested in." Tomnyan had a look of nostalgia as he remembered the fun times with his owner, before he looked down in sadness again with tears beginning to appear in his eyes. "Until, one day I was hit by a convoy and his parents helped bury me in the backyard, his sister stayed behind as their parents comforted him inside the house. By that time I had become a Yokai and I heard her say something horrid."
Dipper and Whisper looked at the other before Dipper asked, "What did she say?"
"She said "Good riddance you stupid cat." After that I watched as she grew closer to him, making him forget me. I left after that, travelling across America, before I came here. I lived in this forest by myself until I saw you today." Tomnyan sat down as tears flowed down his cheeks.
"Oh what a sorrowful tale," Whisper said as tears flooded out of his eyes like waterfalls, "what they girl said was beyond cruel!" Dipper said nothing as he looked at Tomnyan in shock, a minute had passed after the tale was said and he asked Tomnyan a question.
"Did this boy have a birthmark of the big dipper on his forehead?"
Tomnyan looked up at Dipper in shock before answering, "Yeah, he did."
"Was the girl a near exact duplicate of him, with long brown hair in pigtails, brown eyes, and wearing a pink sweater with a black cat on it?"
"Yeah, she was his twin sister, I was given to him on their 4th birthday as a kitten. While she got a black cat with green eyes that she named Skittles." Tomnyan said as he wiped the tears from his face. "But how do you know all of that?"
Dipper said nothing as he took off his hat, and raised his bangs revealing a birthmark of the big dipper on his forehead. Tomnyan and Whisper gasped in shock as the reveal.
Tomnyan slowly stepped toward Dipper, tears now flowing down his face at a faster pace. "M-M-Mason?"
"Hey Tommy," Dipper said as tears began to flow down his cheeks, "it's me."
"Mason!" Tomnyan leapt at Dipper in joy, grabbing him into a hug, "I-I m-m-missed you so m-m-much!" Dipper said nothing as he wrapped his arms around Tomnyan, reciprocating the hug.
Whisper blew his nonexistent nose with a handkerchief as he watched the tender moment. "Is there nothing more touching than loved ones reuniting even after one has passed?" He blew his nose once again before picking up the book that was discarded. It was a half hour later that the boy and Yokai stopped crying and left toward Dipper's summer home, chatting nonstop about their lives after Tomnyan left.
About halfway into the journey home, Whisper decided to give Dipper some bits of information.
"Oh, before I forget, no one else besides you can see Yokai. Unless they have a Yokai Watch then you are the only one that can uncover us from our invisibility." Dipper looked at Tomnyan before looking at Whisper and giving him a thumbs up. "Also, unless you're putting on a different model, then the watch is impossible to take off. Once the watch is on, and you've seen your first Yokai, then your life will never be the same ever again."
Dipper stopped walking as soon as Whisper said that, looking at the ghost-like Yokai with a calculating look. A moment passed before he smiled. "Fine by me, I've always been interested in the weird and strange, and if both this watch and that book can provide that, then bring it on."
Whisper smiled at Dipper, "Good answer Master Pines." The three began the trek home as Dipper gave Whisper a quizzical look.
"Master?"
"You freed me, so I am now indebted to you, what better way than to be your Yokai Butler? Anything you need to know about Yokai, just ask me."
"Awesome!"
"Agreed," Tomnyan said as he rode on Dipper's back.
As the three continued on home, none of them noticed two shadowy figures hidden within the trees, watching them.
"Master will not be pleased about this. No, not one bit." One of them said in a condescending tone.
"Agreed, we must consult master for a plan of action." The other said before the two vanished from sight.
Back at the area with the crank-a-kai, Dippers had had been left on the floor forgotten in the excitement. Before a goat came in and ate it.