All the mysterious phenomena in the world are caused by Yo-kai. The Yo-kai Watch can let the wearer see those Yo-kai in our world. How will Yo-kai affect your life if you ever shall meet them? No one really knows the answer to that.
Story #3: Un-face Your Fears!
On the afternoon of the camping trip, Katie along with seven of her classmates: Nathan Adams, Alex Yamaguchi, Barnaby "Bear" Bernstein, Eddie Archer, Chelsea Suzuki, Eric Ito, and Megan Jones were walking through Mt. Wildwood on their way to the lodge while following their homeroom teacher, Mr. Johnson from behind. Everyone was happily chatting with each other until a shadowy figure flew out of a nearby tree, causing Megan to scream. When the figure was out of view, everyone looked at Megan with annoyance.
"It was just an owl Megan, geez." Pointed out Bear. "That's the third time you screamed at something that wasn't scary."
"First the cat that appeared at the shrine, then the catfish that jumped out of the pond and now this. Are you sure you're cut out for camping?" asked Eddie.
Hearing her classmates question her mettle caused Megan to regain her composure. She closed her eyes, stood up straight, puffed her chest out and boldly stated: "Of course I am! I come to Mt. Wildwood every summer! At night too, no less!"
Bear and Eddie both gave her cold looks and thought: "She's talking about the summer festivals."
"And anyway, those were just screams of excitement. Cats and catfish are adorable, and everyone knows that owls are a sign of good luck so-" Megan suddenly felt a slight tickle on her shoulder.
"Hey Meg, there's a spider on your-" Alex started before Megan cut her off with another loud scream.
She frantically dusted her shoulder off while rapidly sputtering: "Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff!" She then ran towards Bear and climbed on top of his shoulders out of fear. Even though Bear was the strongest boy in the class, he wasn't prepared for that much force and ended up losing his balance and falling over, followed by Megan falling on top of him. Everyone else had a good laugh at the sight.
"I guess spiders are exciting too, eh?" Alex smugly asked while waving a piece of green bristlegrass showing Megan that's what rubbed against her shoulder.
Megan pouted and folded her arms. "Very funny, Alex." She blushed out of embarrassment. "What if it had been a poisonous spider and it bit me? Then what?"
"Alright children settle down." Mr. Johnson calmly ordered. "Remember the only thing to be afraid of out here is your imagination. I promise we're all going to have a safe weekend, so let's continue to make our way to the lodge. We're almost there."
"Good. It's almost time for my afternoon siesta." Megan replied as she got off of Bear and continued to walk with her arms folded.
Bear eventually got up and dusted himself off while grumbling: "Man I sure hope I don't get paired with her."
As everyone continued their trek to the lodge, Whisper floated by Katie's side and broke the silence by asking: "Megan doesn't seem like the type of person who would enjoy a trip like this, does she? If that's the case, then I wonder why she even signed up in the first place?"
"Probably because of the added incentive of extra credit." Katie replied. "I assume that's why most of them are here anyway. It's kind of a shame since camping could be really fun on its own."
The whirl on Whisper's head took the shape of an exclamation point for a split second upon hearing that. He then quickly floated in front of Katie and stated: "Oh right! I forgot to tell you something important! Katie, feel free to ask me anything in regards to camping! I have a vast amount of knowledge that will surely prove useful to you, whis~!"
"Whisper, you're not allowed to use technology remember? I even made Shadow Venoct hide your Yo-kai Pad away before we left."
Whisper slowly chortled. "Yo-kai Pad. I have no need for such frivolous tools."
Katie raised her left eyebrow. The Yo-kai Pad is Whisper's pride and joy. Now all of a sudden he speaks so lowly of it?
"For you see…" He donned a beige shirt and cap as well as a badge sash lined with various badges. "In my younger days I was part of the Scout Association of Yo-kai!"
Katie looked at Whisper in bewilderment. "Eh!? There's a scout association for Yo-kai too?"
"Yes! And as you can see, I earned every badge there was and even received countless awards. So if there's anything you need to know about camping just say the word and I'll steer you on the right path." He saluted. "Scout's honor, whis~!"
"That's… Really cool! Thanks, Whisper!" Katie smiled.
"Tch! What a poser!" a voice from nearby hissed.
"Whis~!?" Whisper winced at the accusatory comment and frantically looked around for the accuser. "Who dares question my qualifications? Show yourself!"
A bush began to rustle, drawing Katie and Whisper's attention to its location. They both fixed their gazes on it, waiting for the heckler to come out and reveal themselves, Whisper especially as he had a few choice words for them. Suddenly, a dark-purple pompadour protruded from the bush.
Katie's eyes widened. "No way!"
Soon the owner of said pompadour walked completely out of the bush. It was a small, purple, two-tailed cat-like Yo-kai with a tear on its left ear, wearing a purple jacket and purple pants, black shoes, and sunglasses with edges so sharp that they could cut through glass, which semi-covered the scar on the left side of its face.
"Baddinyan!" happily exclaimed Katie.
"B-B-Baddinyan!?" stuttered Whisper.
"Don't listen to this guy, toots." He warned while in his signature 'squatting while eating two chocobars' pose. "He barely got all the basic stage badges, nya~. They were given to him outta pity beclaws he sucked at everything, nya~. All those "awards" he got were fur pawrticipation and nyuttin' more, nya~. He's got as much camping smarts as a stinkin' litterbox, nya~."
Whisper hesitated to respond and began to sweat. "Th-That's preposterous. Of course I made it past the basic stage. Even a toddler could. Come on Katie you believe me, right? A ruffian like Baddinyan isn't exactly the first Yo-kai I'd put down as a reliable source after all."
"Oh, is that right nya~?" Baddinyan pulled a book out of his jacket. "So I guess nyer diary is just a buncha made up stories then, nya~."
Whisper's eyes bulged out of their sockets, and his jaw gaped open. "MY DIARY!? I've been looking all over for it! YOU'VE had it this whole time!?"
Baddinyan took another bite of his chocobar and began reading from the diary aloud with his mouth full: "Heh. Get a load of this, sweet cheeks. 'Day 3: I wannya go home. My tent keeps collapsing, it's too hot, I ate all my snyacks, there's bugs everywhere, all the other scouts keep making fun of my shape and won't stop "accidentally" lighting me on fire during the marshmallow roasts.' What a crykitten."
Katie wanted to feel bad for Whisper but she couldn't help but snigger at that passage. Even in the past he was really unpopular and a total loser. Whisper turned completely red out of anger and embarrassment, with the heat building up from his emotions causing his uniform to burn off him. He wanted to strangle Baddinyan for stealing his diary, soiling the pages with spittle and chocolate stains, and revealing his secrets to Katie, but he knew he be laid out faster than a bedspread.
"This thing is a freakin' gold mine, nya~. I don't even knyow where to start nyext. His paw-writing is so crappy that even I can read it, nya~."
Katie giggled. "Yeah, his penmanship is pretty poor."
"Katie! You're supposed to stick up for me!" Whisper whined.
"After you just lied to me? I don't think so." Katie turned her head the other way with her eyes closed and arms folded. Saddened, Whisper slouched over hanging his head low.
"Anyway, I gotta ride. Don't let this guy's lies get nyou killed toots, nya~." Baddinyan warned as he began to walk away.
Katie looked back at Baddinyan and replied: "Well hold on, Baddinyan. It's been a while since we've seen each other. Don't you wanna catch up or something real fast?"
Baddinyan continued walking. "Nyah, I'm good. Smell nya later."
Katie's eyes widened for a second out of shock. "Huh? Well… You know my room's back to normal, right? So you can come back home now."
Baddinyan didn't respond. He simply raised his paw in the air and waved 'goodbye' from behind.
As she continued to watch him walk away from her without even glancing back, Katie felt a tightness building up in her heart. Baddinyan was a Yo-kai who's always been rough around the edges, even when Katie first became friends with him, but he's never acted this cold towards her. Why is one of her closest Yo-kai friends suddenly acting like he wants nothing to do with her? "Baddinyan…"
When Baddinyan felt like he had gotten far enough from Katie and Whisper, he stopped to look back and make sure. Neither of them was in view. He pulled out a chocobar and took a bite. "I'm sorry, Katie." He mumbled with his mouth full.
"Ya know we can't run from 'er forever now after showin' up like dat." A voice said to him.
"Hiss off." He replied.
"'Ey, I'm just statin' da facts yo. If you had kept yer trap shut and just minded yer own beeswax, then she never woulda found out we were here."
"Tch! What the nyan was I supposed to do? That marshmallow freak would've gotten her eaten by a bear or something if I hadn't told her he was a liger, nya~!"
"All I'm sayin' is, avoiding her's gonna be like 10 times harder now."
"Well dang! It's not like I wannya avoid her or nyuttin', nya~! You knyow why I can't show my sorry mug to her right now, nya~!"
"Excuse me, Mr. Cat, but who are you talking to?" A different voice asked.
Baddinyan looked in the corner of his eye and saw what appeared to be a young boy behind him.
"Nya~? Who's this kid?" He thought to himself. "How can he see me? Meh, who cares?" He didn't bother to look back at the boy and continued to eat his chocobar. "Beat it short stack, nya~. Didn't nyer momma teach nya nyot to talk to strangers?"
"Sorry I just happened to catch your conversation with… yourself, and you sounded really upset. I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to help you."
"The only thing nyer gonna catch are these paws if nya don't bug off."
"No really! I want to help! Please!"
Baddinyan scoffed. "Nya got any chocobars on ya? 'Clawz that's the only thing that'll help me right now."
"I do as a matter of fact! Want some?"
"Nyeah toss me a couple."
"Oh actually, these might be different than the ones you like, see?"
"Nya~? What're they generic brand or somethin'?" Baddinyan turned around to see what kind of chocolate the boy had and flinched upon looking at him. "Nya~!? You ain't no kid! You're-" Baddinyan noticed that his speech suddenly became muffled. He felt around his mouth area only to find that his mouth had completely disappeared. Then he found himself being unable to smell anything and felt that his nose had vanished as well. Finally, his vision began getting blurry until he was no longer able to see; the 'boy' was the last thing he saw before his vision went blank. At that point, it became clear to him what was going on and he fell to his knees, with his sunglasses falling off his now featureless face.
The 'boy' chuckled. "Another one for my collection." He then teleported away from the faceless Baddinyan who tried to scream for help (and shout obscenities at the 'boy') but the only sounds he could produce were muffles only able to be heard by him.
He then got up and started flailing his arms and legs around, hoping to get a hit on the 'boy', but ended up punching a tree and getting a splinter instead. His muffled cries of pain were heard by no one and he couldn't use his teeth to try to remove the splinter as his mouth was no longer a part of him. Since trying to get it out with his other paw was futile, his only option was to bear with the pain. This combined with the fact that there was no air flowing in and out of his body, thus making breathing impossible, Baddinyan fell to the ground certain that this was the end for him. His only chance of survival was Katie summoning him, which she hadn't done in a while.