Chapter 39: blast to the past
"Familiar?" Nate questioned the floating cat, "you're… you're my familiar, Meganyan?"
The nekomata nodded, "however in this form I am not Meganyan, In my true form, I am Hovernyan!"
Hovernyan: B rank
Brave
"Well whatever your name is," Damona interjected, "we want answers! Why are the Wicked back? What's this watch got to do with it? Spill it cat!"
"Uh, right," Hovernyan said, a little nervous around the demon. If she could popped Meganyan, than she could definitely take him on, "let's with the model Zero."
"You mean my grandpa's yokai watch?" Nate said.
"Not just any yokai watch, my dear boy," Hovernyan declared, "That was your grandfather's crowning achievement, the Model Zero, the original Yokai Watch!"
Hovernyan pulled a notebook from his cape. Flipping to a certain page, it showed crude, roughly drawn blueprints of the device, scribbled words detailing how it worked, and what pieces made it.
"Your grandfather created it to unite humans and yokai, as well as fight off the wicked," Hovernyan continued.
"You knew my grandfather?" Nate's jaw dropped.
The blue nekomata nodded, "Nathaniel was my greatest friend… and now he needs your help."
"He what?" the human asked.
"Didn't he die like twelve years ago?" Damona raised a brow.
"Yeah, should we really trust the guy who didn't tell us anything until we popped him?" Jibanyan said, sharing her skepticism.
"I assure you, I am telling you the truth. For the past few decades I've been looking for someone who may help Nathaniel in his quest," the flying cat replied, "curiously, fate chose you."
"Wait, a wicked army of this size existed for decades and you didn't think to sound the alarm!?" the half demon yelled.
"I didn't want to send the yokai world into mass panic!" Hovernyan defended himself, "besides, I'll we have to do is defeat their leader, the rest of them will fall with her."
"I still don't get how my grandpa is involved in this," Nate said.
His recently discovered familiar sighed, "come with me, it'll be easier to just show you."
The blue nekomata motioned for them to follow before leaving the forest. He lead them to the edge of the village before setting down a purple blanket.
"Keep all appendages inside the blanket until we've arrived at our destination," Hovernyan said, imitating a flight attendant.
Nate, Damona and Jibanyna all looked at him as if he had gone mad.
"Well, come one, we haven't got all day!" he said in an urgent tone.
Still a little weirded out, but also curious, Nate sat on the blanket, ready to get to the bottom of this. His demonic fiance sighed before sitting next to him. Jibanyan came over and sat between them.
Hovernyan flew in front of the group, taking a fist sized, round stone from his cape, "Time, Stone, Time, to, Re, Wind, Time!... CRACK-A-LACKA BOOM BOOM!"
He through the stone into the air, it exploded into purples sparks, creating a small vortex. The vortex quickly grew large enough that all four of them could realistically fit into it, on the other side, a purple river of sorts was seen.
Damona reeled back in shock, "OH NO, NOT THIS AGAIN!"
Her plees made Nate and Jibanyan rethink the validity of going along with this, but before they could say anything Hovernyan flew behind them and pushed the blanket into the vortex.
All three of them screamed as they shot down the purple river, holding onto the blanket for dear life. The blue nekomata remained calm as he seemingly steered the cloth down stream.
"I HATE THIS!" Damona screamed.
"I can see why!" Jibanyan said, struggling to hold his lunch.
"Here's our stop!" Hovernyan said, pushing the blanket out of the river, then flying out after it.
The outer world returned to Nate as the vortex closed behind them. That was about when he noticed two things, one: it was suddenly night, and two: they were really high up.
"AAHH!" Nate and Jibanyan yelled as the plummeted. The human shut his eyes in fear just before he could hit the ground, only to notice the ground never came. He opened his eyes to find himself hovering a few feet above the ground, as well as the bottome half of jibanyan sticking out of a hole. He looked up to see Damona holding onto his arms.
"You are such a baby," the half demon said, dropping him.
"Ow!" he landed with a thud.
Hovernyan flew down to them, "Alright, assuming I did this correctly, this should be our desired location."
"Desired location? All ya did was make it night!" Damona yelled in his face, "Speaking of which, how did yo-"
The flying cat put a paw on her mouth, "Keep your voice down, they might hear you!"
"Who?" Nate asked as he pulled a dazed Jibanyan out of the ground.
His familiar surveyed the area, quietly looking around. It was hard to make out in the late hours of the night, but he could see two men walking toward each other, "them!"
The group's attention turned you across a stream. They saw the two men randomly start a fist fight, punching each other while yelling nonsense.
"Two angry drunks?" Damona questioned.
"No, they're inspirited," Hovernyan answered quietly, "When wicked yokai inspirit people or yokai, they become angry and violent, a danger to themselves and those around them."
"Why?" Nate asked.
"They feed on negative emotion, more negative emotion means more food for the wicked, who then inspirit more people, creating more negative emotion, and so on," the flying cat replied, "they're a large part of the reason these past thirty years have been so hectic."
"Wait.. past thirty years? But it's been peaceful since the nineties… for the most part," Nate said.
"Well, that's true in our time, but not here," Hovernyan explained, "Nyate, welcome to Nineteen Sixty."
"Nyineteen Sixty?!" Jibanyan screamed, "WE WENT BACK IN TIME?!"
"No, Shush!" Hovernyan said. But it was too late, he saw the two wicked yokai leave the fighting human's bodies. One was a serpent, while the other was humaniod, both set their eyes on the group, "great, they noticed us!"
Little did they know, the wicked weren't the only ones who noticed their presence. Not far away, a figure watch them from the shadows, bringing a marble to his eye level.
"What have you done now, Hovernyan," he grumbled to himself.
The two wickeds flew near the group, Hovernyan went near the serpent, his paw surrounded in a cyan aura.
"Gusty, Cross paw!" the cat exclaimed punching the wicked yokai with the force of a charging bull, propelling the evil creature out of sight.
The more human looking wicked grabbed a hold of Damona's arm.
"GET OFF ME YOU WICKED TRASH!" She yelled, ready to blast him with her other hand. The wicked laughed as his grip dissolved into her hand, she felt a shiver role up her spine, "GROSS, GET OUT OF ME!"
The wicked laughed further as he was fully absorbed into her body, her eyes began glowing red as she started cackling.
"THEY GOT DAMONA!" Nate and Jibanyan yelled in unison.
"This little ladies got a lot of power!" the possessed princess giggled, she slowly approached the two.
"Nate!" Hovernyan said, flying back over to lend an assist.
"You know what i'm going to do with that power?" 'Damona' asked. Nate nervously stepped back, almost frozen in fear. The possessed demon was less than an arm's length away. she leaped onto them, the human and yokai screamed in fear… until they realised she was just hugging them, an adorable smile on her face, "I'm gonna luv you, and hold you, and kiss you, and give you chocolate, and always make sure you're happy!"
The two sighed in relief.
"What the…" Hovernyan questioned, "she… should be turning evil?"
"She was already evil!" jibanyan said.
"Damona's cursed skin makes inspiritments opposite to her," Nate explained as the possessed demon continued to hug them.
"Oh…" Hovernyan said in surprise, he regained his composure, then stuck a paw in Damona's back, "Let's get you out of there!"
He pulled the wicked yokai out of her body, throwing it to the ground. The black creature quickly ran off.
"Ugh," Damona's eyes returned to normal, she then noticed what she was doing, and released the two, "I didn't do anything weird did I?"
Before either of them could answer, another voice cut through the air, " HOVERNYAN!"
The group turned as someone jumped from the bridge. He seemed to be a boy, maybe a year older than Nate. his face was obscured by a cardboard mask and blue cloth wrapped around his neck like a cape. The rest of his attire was a white T-shirt, tan shorts and japanese style sandals.
What was visible of his body was tan skin and dark brown hair… in a strangely similar style to Nate's. In his right hand, he held what looked like a wooden baseball bat that was half painted red.
"Who are they?" he spoke full of venom.
"Nathaniel, I brought reinforcements for the cause!" Hovernyan said floating forward.
"Reinforc-, I told you, I DON'T NEED HELP!" the boy yelled!
"Wait, your name's Nathaniel?" Nate spoke up, bringing the other boy's attention to him. He removed his mask, revealing they had near exact same features, course the older boy's eyes were a bit more narrow.
"Who are you?" Nathaniel asked, his cold gaze meeting Nate's.
The intimidating young teen's glare put Nate at a loss for words. Thankfully, Hovernyan answered for him.
"He's your grandson, Nate," the familiar said.
"Grandson…" the boy looked dumbfounded, but it wasn't long before his anger returned, "You used the Wicked's time stone!"
"I had no choice, you can't fight this war on your own!" Hovernyan shot back, "besides, he has the model zero!"
"My concept actually works?" Nathaniel's expression became a surprised one, he looked at the group and sighed, "Come on. You can stay at my workshop for tonight, then I'm getting Miradox to send you home."
The asian boy began walking off, his grandson quickly ran after him.
"So… you really are my grandpa?" he asked. Even after learning of yokai, meeting his deceased grandfather had never crossed his mind, and now it was happening.
"Don't call me that!" Nathaniel yelled, "I'm 13, I can't be a grandpa! Just call me Nathaniel."
"Um.. sorry…" Nate said, trying to think of another subject, "So you know about yokai too, huh? You must have a lot of yokai friends!"
The younger version of his grandfather stopped in his tracks. He looked back at him with eyes of rage, "Yokai are not my friends!"
Nathaniel kept walking, leaving his grandson with a shocked face, not even looking back.
Damona floated up to her fiance's side, "Your grandpa's kind of a jerk."