Chapter 4

Back at the Forester residence, Sailornyan had just finished watering Katie's plants.

"There that should do it." She stated, standing proudly. "Plants watered, bed sprayed, floor waxed, and incense lit. Even though I promised not to change anything without her permission, I can always make little additions here and there. Katie hardly ever messes up her room, but it could always be improved little by little."

Sailornyan was about to sit back on the bed and finish reading her magazine until she noticed Katie's closet. "Huh. I'm finished with the room, but what about the closet?" Sailornyan walked up to closet door. The whole time she was there, even when she redecorated the room without Katie's permission, she somehow never noticed it until now. "Katie didn't give me permission to go in there, but a quick peek shouldn't hurt." She slid the closet door open to find Shadow Venoct who stared back at her, with the two dragon heads that acted as a scarf around his neck suddenly snarling at her. She quickly closed the closet and after standing there for a few seconds, she ran and jumped off of Katie's balcony and ran from the house in fear of her life. "NYAAAAAA~! KATIE! THERE'S A DEMON IN YOUR CLOSET!"

As she ran she saw a summoning portal appear in the sky. "Yes! Perfect timing! That demon won't catch me now!" Sailornyan was carried in the air through the summoning portal and landed on a rainbow path. She walked down the path to the beat of an instrumental version of the Charming Tribe summoning song, taking moderate steps with her back straight, head held high, arms relaxed, and a confident smile. She did a graceful twirl as she made it to the center. Back at the café, Katie turned the Model Zero Watch's dial to 2 ending the summoning process.

"Summoning Charming." The watch announced.

Sailornyan appeared at the café panting and hunched over. "huff huff Sailornyan…"

"Hey Sailornyan," greeted Katie. "Are you okay? Were you exercising or something?"

"Not exactly." Sailornyan took a deep breath in order to catch her breath. "Did you know there's a literal demon in your closet!?"

"You saw it too!?" asked Whisper. "Did it not have menacing red eyes and black serpents around its neck?"

"Yes! They almost ate me! What in God's name is that thing Katie!?"

"Um, I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about." Katie replied. "The only thing in my is Shadow Venoct and he's no demon."

"It has a name!?" asked Whisper.

"You know Shadow Venoct, Whisper! The day we met him was a really scary day."

"I can imagine, whis~."

Katie sighed. "We really need to do something about that memory problem of yours. Anyway, Sailornyan you need to stop Tattlecast from revealing-"

"OH MY GOODNESS IT'S TATTLECAST!" shouted Sailornyan. "I can't believe she's here!"

"What? Don't tell me you listen to her podcast too!"

"Everyone who's anyone listens to her podcast!"

"That's what I said!" Whisper happily chimed in.

"Oh brother." Katie facepalmed. She then got a great idea and her expression changed to a smug one. "You know Sailornyan, indulging in petty gossip podcasts is pretty low class."

"Nya~?" Sailornyan reacted.

"I'm just saying. Certainly a real lady would never find enjoyment in something as unrefined as the revelation of other people's secrets."

Sailornyan wagged her finger. "No no no Katie, you've got it all wrong. The act of revealing other people's secrets is unrefined. Listening to other people's secrets get revealed is not."

Katie's expression then changed from smug to annoyed knowing that her ruse failed.

"There's a difference between revealing someone's secrets when you're not supposed to and having a laugh at them and I'm just doing the latter."

"But what about Tattlecast!? She's revealing people's secrets when she's not supposed to! Aren't you going to chastise her like you did me for not being 'ladylike' ?"

"I would, but Tattlecast is an elderly woman, not a young impressionable girl like you. Even if I did want to chastise her it wouldn't do any good and would be disrespectful."

"She has a point you know." Whisper added.

"I guess," Katie sighed. "But that still doesn't change the fact that what Tattlecast is doing is wrong so if you won't make her stop, I'll call someone who will!" Katie pulled another medal out of her pocket. "Come on out my friend! Calling, Lie-in Heart! Yo-kai Medal, do your thing!" Katie inserted the medal into the Model Zero watch and turned the dial to 1.

"Oh! Summoning time!" the watch announced.

As an instrumental of the Brave Tribe theme played, Lie-in Heart ran down a rainbow path with his sword unsheathed, stopped and sat for a couple of seconds, then got back up and ran towards the center. Katie then turned the watch's dial to 2 causing a bright red spiral to emit from the center, ending the summoning process.

"Summoning Brave."

"Lie-in Heart!"

Lie-in Heart appeared in his trademark pose, sitting down with his arms crossed and eyes closed. "Greetings, Katie. Now was the perfect time to call me."

"Awesome, because I need your help, Lie-in Heart." Katie replied. "Tattlecast is making my friends reveal their secrets causing everyone in the café to leave. Can you stop her?"

"Tattlecast you say? How fascinating. I just finished the first episode of her podcast a moment ago."

"You're only on the first episode!?" Whisper and Sailornyan asked in unison. "What took you so long!?"

"One must wait for the perfect time and atmosphere as well as finding the right environment and making the necessary preparations. Then and only then can a podcast be enjoyed to its fullest extent."

"But just how much prep time did you need?" asked Sailornyan. "You do realize how many episodes behind you are right?" Katie pushed Sailornyan out of her way. "Nya-ha!"

"Never mind that! Does this mean you're not gonna help me either?" asked Katie.

"Hmm. This is quite the predicament. Even though I just started listening to it, I find Tattlecast's podcast to be quite humorous and I wouldn't dream of interfering with her work in any way." Replied Lie-in Heart.

Katie groaned.

"See, Katie? You're hard pressed to find anyone who'd help you with this situation." Explained Whisper. "Tattlecast is far too popular."

Lie-in Heart then quickly opened his eyes. "However! The time has not yet come for her to be gathering material for a podcast."

"Whis~!?"

"Tattlecast is an elderly woman. She must take this time to properly rest before gathering new material. Right now, it is 12:30 in the afternoon meaning she should be taking an afternoon nap followed by dinner at 5. Because of her age she most likely wakes up at approximately 4 in the morning, meaning she'll need to be asleep by 9 to get the maximum recommended hours of rest. Doing anything else right now could throw her off of a preferred sleep schedule, causing her mind to become too stressed to be able to record a podcast and-"

"All that sounds great Lie-in Heart, but could you please just possess her already before my friends reveal something they'll really regret?" Katie interrupted.

"But of course." Lie-in Heart began to walk over towards Alex and Sarah to inspirit Tattlecast.

"This is bad! If Lie-in Heart inspirits Tattlecast then who knows how long it'll be before the next podcast!" Worried Whisper. "Days, months, years, decades, centuries, millenniums," -his voice cracked- "Eoooons! I can't stand the thought of waiting that long, whis~!"

"Just think of all the followers she's bound to lose just after the first week of inactivity!" fretted Sailornyan. "Katie, how could you do this!?"

"I already told you, because this is wrong." She sternly replied. "How would you like it if someone made you reveal your most embarrassing secrets in public and then repeated them on a podcast you didn't know about?"

"But that's the thing! Humans don't know about the podcast!" argued Whisper. "Haven't you heard of the phrase 'what you don't know won't hurt you' ?"

"Whisper, what about all the people who heard what Alex and Sarah said and left the cafe because of them? They're probably gonna gossip to all their friends about them."

"But what does it matter? We're probably never gonna see them again, whis~!"

"I wouldn't be so sure," bet Sailornyan. "Café Shanista is quite a popular place and some of those people have to be regular customers. And now that I think about it, it's the last place you'd want to reveal a gross secret in unless you wanted to be labeled for life. Oh dear. Those poor girls."

"See? It does matter." Affirmed Katie. "Alex and Sarah's reputations are forever ruined here now. And who knows who else's lives Tattlecast could potentially ruin if she isn't stopped."

"But… I…" Whisper began to feel even worse than before. He was sure Katie hated him now for defending something she thought was wrong. It was one thing to disappoint Nate, but disappointing Katie was something he would never dream of, even if he can't remember being with her as long as she said he has. Katie showed him much more kindness than Nate so whenever she was disappointed with him, he took it to heart. Even so, he loved Tattlecast's podcast and hated the fact that Katie wanted to shut it down without at least giving it a chance, even if she had a good reason to. He hadn't felt this conflicted in a long time.

Meanwhile, Lie-in Heart made his way over to Tattlecast who noticed him staring down at her. "Tell tell? (Uh, can I help you?)" she asked.

"Tattlecast, I've only recently started listening to your podcast and I find it hilarious," started Lie-in Heart. "However, in order to maintain the quality of it you must take the necessary precautions to ensure that you're mentally prepared before starting your next episode. The time has not yet come for finding new material, for now you must rest and clear your mind of any distractions."

Lie-in Heart then inspirited Tattlecast by pushing his arm forward and releasing a purple aura that shrouded her. She then gained a serious expression and removed the speaker jacks from Alex and Sarah's necks causing them to come back to their senses. Afterward she sat in a position similar to Lie-in Heart's. "Tell tell!" (The time has not yet come.) she said. Lie-in Heart nodded in agreement.

"Yes!" Katie quietly cheered while doing a fist pump.

"Well there goes years of successful weekly podcasting down the drain." Murmured Sailornyan. "But I suppose it's for the best."

"Sure." Whisper melancholily replied looking depressed. He wasn't sure how to feel at the moment.