Chapter 16: Kappa
"YOU DID WHAT?!" a man yelled so loud the entirety of Blossom heights could hear him.
"I-i-it was an a-accident, dad!" Bear said meekly in reply.
"Yeah, you ACCIDENTLY put your mother's wedding ring on a fishing line, and you ACCIDENTLY lost it in the river!" his father yelled again, "I proposed to her with that ring! What were you thinking!"
"I-uh, just wanted to make you guys a big fish dinner for your anniversary!" the boy replied shrinking in fear.
"Then why in the hell did you use a ring!?" the man yelled, "how did you rationalize that as a good idea?"
"Internet," Bear replied bluntly. He swore he saw smoke come out of his father's ears.
"...And that's why we have to find it," Bear said to his three friends. Eddie had facepalmed while Nate and Katie were both just staring at him.
"So let me get this straight…" Eddie started, "you read on the internet that Fish are attracted to shiny objects, thought that using a wedding ring was a good Idea to catch one, and then were surprised when you lost it?"
"How dumb is this guy?" Damona asked.
"Well, you know what they say, in every group of friends there's the dumb one," Whisper replied. Soon after all present yokai started looking at him, "HEY!"
"Look that doesn't matter," Bear said in his own defense, "what matters is I find it before my mom finds out."
"How are we gonna find it? For all we know it was eaten by a fish," Nate questioned ignoring the fact that Damona had just knocked out whisper for yelling about how he was not the dumb one.
"No it definitely wasn't a fish," Bear said semi-nervously.
"Ugh, what makes you say that?" Katie raised an eyebrow.
"Well… I didn't tell my dad this because I knew he wouldn't believe me, but…" the vietnamese boy started to say, pausing to find the right words, "I actually saw what took it, it looked kinda human, except, it was really short... and had a duck bill… and was scaly… and had a turtle shell."
The three other kids looked at him in silence, before Eddie said, "Yeah, I don't believe that either."
"I'm tellin' ya, that's what I saw!" Bear cried.
"Name one animal that has all those traits, just name one!" the headphoned boy shot back.
"Could be a Kappa," damona said with a shrug getting Nate and Katie's attention.
" a what?" They both said quietly.
"Oh, a Kappa, good thinking, your highness, of course those pesky turtle yokai could be the culprits!" Whisper said quickly searching through the yokai wiki.
"You have nyo Idea what a Kappa is, do ya?" Jibanyan asked.
Whisper growled in frustration, "OF COURSE I KNOW WHAT A KAPPA IS, YOU LITTLE INGRATE!"
Damona knocked him to the side and said, "Kappa are water dwelling yokai that have a history of being at odds with humanity, they resemble humanoid turtles and have a love for shiny objects."
"Well when you put it like that, it does sound like one was involved," Katie said.
Nate nodded, "yeah, let's split up and see if we can find em, I'll take north, you take south."
"Right," Katie said as the two began walking in opposite directions with their respective yokai following them, leaving the remaining two boys still bickering over whether or not the creature Bear described was possible.
Nate, Damona and Jibanyan walked the northern half of the river. Jibanyan humming a tune as they walked, "I am a cat, and I like it like that, I tell half truths like a diplomat."
"So, how are we gonna find this "Kappa?"" Nate asked his fiance as he scanned the river with his watch.
"Relax, honey, Kappa were around since I was a Damini! I know the ins and outs of how they work," Damona said taking a cucumber from her kimono.
"Do I wanna know why you have that?" Nate asked really hoping he didn't get an answer.
The half-oni disregarded this and threw the cucumber towards the river. Just a few seconds before the vegetable hit the water, something leaped from the depths of the river catching it, and diving back in.
"Kappa love cucumbers," Damona said with a smirk.
The creature swam to the shore on the opposite side of the river, getting out revealing it's scaly green skin, dark green hair, brownish turtle shell, brown loincloth and pale yellow head plate. In one of its webbed hands was a gorge and the other was the cucumber. The Kappa took the cucumber and took a bite, donning a grin in appreciation.
"So that's him?" Jibanyan asked.
"Only one way to find out," Nate replied before saying, "uh, Hello! Mister Kappa!"
The kappa turned to him and asked, "ugh, you talking to me, kid?"
"Ugh, yeah, I wanted to talk to you!" Nate yelled to him.
The kappa nodded and jumped into the river, swimming over to their side and climbing up to shore, "Whatcha want?"
"Well, ya see a friend of mine lost a ring a little down south, and he said that a kappa might have taken it, or at least he described a kappa," Nate said.
"Wait a minute, are you calling me a thief?" the kappa said with a scowl.
"What, no, I just wanted to know i-" the boy started before his fiance interrupted.
"That was not our intention, we simply wish to retrieve the ring and from what we have heard a kappa is likely the suspect, we apologise if you took that as an accusation," Damona said in a calm tone ending with a bow.
"Hmph, well your friend here should word things better," the turtle yokai said returning the bow. As he did, water began to drip from his dish and onto the ground. The kappa took notice of this and instantly jumped back, causing the remainder of water to fly out of his head dish. He was instantly in a panic, he tried to run back to the river, but noticed his legs wouldn't move. He looked down as he noticed that his entire bottom half had turned to stone, and the effect was quickly rising up his torso. Within seconds a statue of the kappa had taken his place.
Nate and Jibanyan look at him in shock while Damona sported her wicked grin.
"What happened to him?" Nate asked.
"He turn to stone!" Jibanyan exclaimed.
"Of course he did," Damona said with a cackle, "when a Kappa's plate dries they turn into a statue of themselves until either someone refills is or it starts raining."
"So he'll be fine if we fill his plate?" her fiance asked, to which the oni princess nodded. Nate went over to the river and cupped some water in his hands, being careful not to let it spill out. He held his hands over the Kappa's head and dropped the water. The statue glowed a sea green as the Kappa was restored to his original state.
"Huh, thanks kid," he said as he was fully reformed, "I thought I be like that for a lot longer. Eh, I know the rules." he dropped to his knee, this time careful not to let the water drop from his head, "you returned me to my corporal state, so I am obliged to serve you in any way you see fit."
He glowed blue as his medal appeared. Nate caught and examined it, unlike the others, this medal was a bright red and the picture looked similar to early japanese artwork.
"Easiest catch ever," Damona smirked.
"Wait a minute," Nate said in realization, "you knew that would happen, didn't you!"
"Course I did, everyone knows you refill a kappa's dish, they'll serve you for life, and they value respect to much to deny returning a bow, Kappa are effective servants that are way too easy to recruit," his fiance snickered.
"You have no shame, do ya?" Nate sighed before turning to the Kappa, "well, happy to have you on board, I'm Nate, this is my fiance, Damona, and our cat, Jibanyan."
"The name's Faux Kappa," the turtle yokai said.
Faux Kappa: A rank
Classic Charming
"Wait, Faux Kappa?" Damona questioned, "why not just Kappa?"
"Eh, yeah, I'm one of the older kappa in the bunch, a lot of the newer ones thought it unfair I get the title of "Kappa" and started calling me "Faux," eventually, I got tired of telling them to quit," Faux said with a shrug.
"Well, anyway, about that ring that went missing," Nate started.
"Sorry, Nate, but really it wasn't me," Faux replied, "I occasionally mess with humans, but stealing ain't my style."
Nate looked puzzled, "but Bear said he saw something that looked a lot like a Kappa take the ring down south."
"Maybe he was lying?" Jibanyan suggested.
"No, can't be, he perfectly describes a Kappa and one just happens to be in the area," Damona shot it down, "that's a pretty big coincidence."
"Actually," Faux spoke up, "I'm not the only Kappa who calls this river home, Walkappa lives down south, and not to be mean or anything, but I wouldn't put him passed theft."
"So then he's our culprit," Nate said, "ya think you could lead us to him?"
"You got it, chief," Faux Kappa said leaping into the river and swimming downstream, "Follow me!"
Meanwhile with Katie, Whisper and Komasan, who had taken the southern half of the river…
"Here, Lil' Kappa, Kappa, Kappa," Komasan said as they walked along the river.
Katie sighed, "where could it be?"
"We should have brought some Cucumbers, it says they are a Kappa's favorite food, that would certainly get its attention," her butler read from his YokaI-pad.
"Hey, man, that's stereotyping," he heard a voice said with a surfer accent.
Whisper turned around to see a small blue Kappa, with lime green leaf like hair surrounding it's pale blue head dish, with a bottle wrapped around its neck and a yellow bill poking its head out of the river.
"Aha," the ice-cream like ghost exclaimed, "I found him!"
"Wait really," Katie said running over and shining her watch. When she was able to see the kappa she said, "well, hi there, my name is Katie."
"Name's Walkappa, Dudette," the turtle yokai replied.
Walkappa: D rank
Charming
"Ah yes," Whisper said pulling up Walkappa's yokai wiki entry, "Walkappa is a charming tribe yokai who is known for living in lazy rivers and often can be seen coming onto shore,is is debated on whether or not he is considered a Kappa based on having a lifestyle basically void of kappa traditions."
"What can I say, dude, I do what I like," Walkappa said floating on his back.
"Walkappa, a friend of my lost a ring in a bit up north, he said he saw a kappa before he lost it," Katie said, "you wouldn't happen to have seen it would ya?"
"Sorry, compadre, haven't seen anything," Walkappa replied.
"But the description of the culprit matched that of a kappa!" Whisper yelled.
"Gee wiz, can ya calm down, whisper?" Komasan said holding his friend back.
Walkappa thought for a moment, "well, I'm not the only Kappa who lives here, and the one who lives up north is an uber jerk, so it might be him. Come on, I'll show ya where he lives."
The kappa began swimming northward, gesturing for the three to follow him. A little later, Katie could see Nate and his yokai were within sight.
The two groups met up and Nate said, "well, good news. We found the kappa."
Katie didn't have any time to react before Faux Kappa jumped out of the water and joined the group. Upon seeing the classic yokai, Whisper was jaw dropped and began hyperventilating.
"Uh, is he o-" Faux began before Whisper exclaimed, "FAUX KAPPA! I'm such a big fan, it's a pleasure to meet a classic yokai in person!"
"Uh, ok Marshmallow," the kappa replied.
"Um, his name is whis-" Komasan started to correct him before Whisper cut him off, "Faux Kappa is a classic yokai, he can call me whatever he likes, and I am perfectly fine with the name "Marshmellow!""
"Ok, than, well we found Faux Kappa here up north, and he said he didn't have any idea about the ring, but he said there was a kappa on your end that might have it," nate explained.
"Wait, you found him up north?" Katie asked starting to put things together.
At that moment, Walkappa jumped onto the shore, looking visibly angry.
"That's him, that Faux Kappa jerk thinks just because he's older than me, that he's better at everything! I bet he took that ring!" Walkappa yelled.
Faux donned a similar scowl, "this is the little miscret I was talking about, he has no respect for tradition at all! Wouldn't be surprised if he was a thief too!"
The two looked like they were about to go at it, but before anything could happen Damona got in between them and said, "relax, I got this."
She bowed to Walkappa, expecting him to return the gesture. The kappa just stared at her with a confused look. Damona donned a frown and bowed again, Walkappa continued to stare. The frown was replaced by a scowl as she bowed a third time.
"Am, uh, I supposed to do something?" he asked rubbing the back of his wide head.
"Seriously?! When someone bows to you, you bow back, it's basic respect!" the other Kappa yelled.
"Dude, this is the twenty first century, nobody bows anymore," Walkappa retorted.
Whisper flipped a few pages on the wiki, "evidently, the tradition of returning a bow has been practised by kappa less and less every year, at this point only the oldest Kappa still do it and the youngest hardly know it was a tradition at all!"
"Yeah, dude, get with the times," Walkappa nodded.
"Why you little!" Faux Kappa said as it seemed violence was inevitable.
"Alright you both seem to be missing the point!" Nate said getting the attention of both of them, "neither of you seemed to be the one who took it, making this entire exchange utterly pointless."
"Eh… I suppose you're right," Faux Kappa admitted.
"Yeah, sorry dude," Walkappa sighed.
"Buuuttt," Katie said elongating the word, "you guys can still help us!"
Both kappa looked at her puzzled. Over the next half hour, both Kappa were diving to the bottom of the river and bringing up every shiny object they could find. After they had concluded the search the ring had been found… along with 37 silver dolls and a rusty bell.
"Haha, Bear is gonna be thrilled!" Katie said.
"Yeah, you guys are pretty good when you work together!" Nate added.
"Yeah, if you dudes need any help from now on, just call!" Walkappa said as his medal appeared and fell into Katie's hand.
"Welp, we better get this to bear," Nate said as he begun walking away, the rest of the group following after giving their goodbyes.
"Those two pretty cool," Faux said, "But I still hate you."
"Ditto," Walkappa said bluntly.