Katie stared at her uninvited, five-tailed houseguest for a few seconds before saying anything while he ate her family's leftover gyoza with his own chopsticks and dish.
"Do you have any gyoza sauce?" he asked.
"Lie-in Heart, what are you doing in my house!?" Katie angrily asked. "You're supposed to be delaying Tattlecast!"
Lie-in Heart started talking with his mouth full. "Rest assured, all is going according to plan. Tattlecast is sleeping now and she should be waking up in exactly six hours. From there we will carry on with the original plan and she should be ready to gather more materials for her podcast again by next Saturday evening."
"Next Saturday evening!? That's when Next HarMEOWny's concert in Breezy Hills is! If you stop delaying her by then she'll go to the concert and make the idols reveal their secrets! You've got to delay her longer!"
"Impossible. Any longer than that and she will be completely unorganized when the time comes to record her next podcast, so it is crucial that she gathers the materials she needs beforehand and the best time to start is next Saturday evening. By then, her mind will be sharp and she will have necessary energy to go out and-"
"Alright! Alright! I get it!" Katie closed her eyes and put her fingers on her forehead. She was clearly not prepared to deal with this tonight. "Geez, and here I thought I could count on you. I'll just have to figure out something else then."
Lie-in Heart continued to eat as Katie talked. "So, about that gyoza sauce…"
"Is that why you're here? To mooch free meals off of me and my family?"
"Do not worry, I left my donation on the counter near the sink. Also, if Sun Pavilion wasn't closing down I wouldn't even be here."
"Closing down!?"
"Yes. I always went there at this time of night to get my gyoza fix, but when I got there I saw a sign on the door that said the restaurant was closing down. You wouldn't happen to know anything, would you?"
"It's because of Tattlecast! She made the chef reveal some secrets that caused customers to stop going there!"
"Hmm. I'm not a big fan of spoilers, but seeing as I have a while before I get to the latest episode and Sun Pavilion was my favorite Chinese restaurant, I feel like I need to know what happened."
"Well the chef was using imitation crab in the crab omelette because of cost cuts and they were also having a problem with gnats in the kitchen that sometimes got in people's food. All of that to me screams Yo-kai involvement, though."
Lie-in Heart finally stopped eating and opened his eyes. "You don't say? I have noticed that two non-regular Yo-kai have been hanging around there a lot in the past two weeks."
"Non-regular? As in they're not regular customers?"
"Right. They also never use their Yo-kai Changeling Leaves to disguise themselves as humans to order anything like I do. They just loiter around the bar."
Katie put her hand on her chin. "Interesting. I might have to do a little investigation before the restaurant closes down for good. Do you remember what they looked like?"
"If I recall, one of them had the appearance of a little boy with red hair, big lips, and a missing tooth who wore a red cape and shorts, and the other one was a mosquito-like creature who had black hands and wore a purple robe. Any of that sound familiar?"
"Not really, but I'll keep those descriptions in mind when I go there. Thanks, Lie-in Heart! Who knows? After this is all over, I might be able to convince the chef to open Sun Pavilion back up!"
"I'd appreciate that a lot. I'd also appreciate if you told me where you keep the gyoza sauce."
Katie sighed. "Refrigerator door, top shelf, behind mom's pudding which you'd better not eat. I mean it."
"Thanks, and I won't."
Back upstairs Whisper and Sailornyan were still listening to The Tattlecast until Katie opened the door with great force, surprising the two of them and almost knocking the potted plant next to the door over. "Time for bed guys, 'cause first thing in the morning we're headed to Sun Pavilion!"
"Goodness Katie!" Sailornyan panted with her paw on her heart. "Do you not know your own strength, child?"
"Also, much as I love the idea of Chinese food for breakfast, did you already forget what was said on The Tattlecast?" Whisper asked.
"You're one to talk about forgetting stuff, Whisper." Katie replied, giving her butler an unamused look. "Listen we're not going there to eat. Lie-in Heart's downstairs and he just raided our refrigerator because Sun Pavilion is closing down after Tattlecast made the chef reveal his secrets."
"How rude!" Commented Sailornyan. "Should I go say something to hi- Wait, that means Tattlecast is free!"
"Wrong. She's still under his influence until next Saturday evening, but she's sleeping right now so-"
"WHOOPIE!" Whisper exclaimed while doing a backflip in the air. "The show will go on, whis~!"
"No it won't!" Katie replied, sounding angrier than before. "Because after we save Sun Pavilion tomorrow, we're gonna come up with a plan to stop Tattlecast from making the idols reveal their secrets next week."
Whisper slouched over in disappointment. "Oh."
"Now listen to me, Lie-in Heart went to Sun Pavilion every night to eat gyoza for the past two weeks and while he was there, he saw two unknown Yo-kai who weren't customers each time. All they did was loiter and never ordered anything, so I have a hunch that they're responsible for the gnats and cost cuts. Tattlecast possessing the chef just made everything go downhill from there."
"Oh dear, and here I thought the chef was just being a con artist." Commented Sailornyan. "Now I feel awful."
"Well hopefully you both finally understand why Tattlecast can't keep making people reveal their secrets like this." Katie looked at Whisper with a serious expression, causing him to sweat a bit. "Whisper?"
"Erm… I… I'm sorry!" He exclaimed falling to the ground and bowing repeatedly. "I don't understand! I just don't! Please forgive me Katie, but I just don't understand why you want to stop something so great!"
"I figured you wouldn't, so imagine this for a minute: I lose the Yo-kai Watch somehow so the only Yo-kai I can see are you and the friends I made so far. Tattlecast possess me without me knowing and makes me reveal that I can see and talk to Yo-kai in front of all my classmates. Even though I'm telling the truth, other people can't see Yo-kai so they all call me a liar and a freak. They all keep their distance from me and before you know it, I'm labeled as the crazy girl who talks to herself. Then my parents find out and try to get me professional help. That doesn't work either and as the years go by, I'm still friendless, labeled insane, and most likely a shut-in because society rejected me.
But hey, what does it matter if my life's a mess as long as it's good material for The Tattlecast, right?"
Whisper thought hard about this scenario that Katie came up with. What was more important, his favorite podcast that's been running for years or the happiness of his best and possibly only friend/ temporary master? "My job as your temporary butler is to ensure that you are happy and enjoying your life." Whisper then looked up at Katie, smiling with happy tears flowing from his eyes and his left fist clenched. "So if that means that I have to sacrifice something I love in order to make that happen then so be it! Let's stop Tattlecast together, whis~!"
Katie's serious expression turned into a big smile as ran to give Whisper another big hug. "I knew you'd come around eventually you big lunkhead!"
Whisper stopped crying. "Eh, what can I say? That smile of yours brings me more joy than some old podcast ever will, whis~!"
The two of them then laughed together while Sailornyan looked and smiled herself. "I guess he's not total a moron after all." She thought.