Chapter 4: Rising Suspicions
"Hmm, she'd probably like this," Nate muttered to himself, inspecting one of his Emperor Krill action figures, before placing it back in the toy bin and searching through it again. "What else do I have?"
"You know, Nate, young Lina is probably going to get sick of talking to you, if all the two of you discuss is Space Wars, and your 'non-existent' connection to the supernatural," Whisper pointed out as he hovered around the boy, "You should really consider broadening your topics a bit, or else she may lose interest in you!"
Nate glanced up from his Space Wars collection, giving an annoyed look to the yo-kai butler, and huffed, "Whisper; would you be so kind as to butt out!?"
Whisper gawked at the sudden comment, before he shook his head/body, and glared at the human boy, "Nathan, that was rather rude! Is this how you treat those who are only trying to help? You'll never keep Lina interested with that attitude!"
Nate just groaned loudly at his butler's continued insistence of a romantic relationship between him and Lina, before he decided to ignore him and continue looking through his stuff to possibly bond with Lina over, as friends!
"Nya…?" the resident nekomata glanced up from his relaxed position on the bed, looking over at the human boy questioningly. "What's Nyate doing nyow?"
Whisper took notice of the feline's question, floating over to him and giving a big smile, "Well, isn't it obvious? Young Nathan is finally coming around to the idea of liking a girl who's not Katie!"
That response got a skeptical look from the cat yo-kai, with him giving a yawn and his ears twitching a bit, "I don't knyow, Whisper. I still find it really hard to believe that Linya likes Nyate, or that Nyate would ever move on from Katie."
"You should find it hard to believe, because none of what Whisper said is true," Nate commented, not looking up from his collection of Space Wars toys.
"Thought so," Jibanyan grunted, turning over to face away from the other two.
The yo-kai butler gave an annoyed look, floating back over to his master and crossing his arms, "Come now, Nate, are you still in denial about this?"
"Are you?" the human countered, turning to look at his butler with an annoyed expression, "I don't understand why you're so stuck on the idea of me and Lina dating. She started talking to me because she was suspicious of my behavior and thought it may have a connection to ghosts…" the boy glanced away, giving a small cough, "And, she wasn't entirely off base there." He shook his head, looking to the yo-kai butler again, "We have become friends now, but nothing more."
"Yeah, friends; just like with him and Katie," Jibanyan rolled over again, raising a paw into the air.
Nate's body twitched, before he sent an annoyed glare the cat yo-kai's way, which had Jibanyan sticking out his tongue with a smirk.
Whisper gave a disappointed sigh as he drifted around the room, keeping his eyes on the human boy, "Nate, you really need to open your mind a bit more, it's clear as day to me that Lina's carrying a torch for you! The fires of love have ignited in that more than ordinary girl, and you can't ignore them, Nathan!"
Nate stopped glaring at Jibanyan, looking back towards Whisper and releasing a tired sigh, standing up and moving away from the toy bin, "Whisper, it bugs me that I can't tell if you're trying to mess with me, or you genuinely believe Lina has a crush on me…"
Whisper nearly fell out of the air at that moment, an offended look crossing his face, "I would never 'mess with you,' Nathan! You are my master, and I am your butler! Every word I speak to you is the absolute, and most sincere, truth!"
"Sure," Nate looked plainly unconvinced. "So, what's with the continued insistence of me and Lina? Sure, I've been spending time with her lately, but I've also been spending time with Zoey, you don't have a leg to stand on here!"
"Correction; I don't have any legs!" Whisper gave a wide smirk.
Both Nate and Jibanyan released loud groans.
Whisper gave the annoyed response to his joke no attention, "Anyway, you can't really compare your interactions with Zoey, and the ones you have with Lina. There's a clear difference in your interactions, and Zoey clearly notices what's going on between Lina and you as well!"
Nate put a hand to his forehead and gave another sigh, "Trying to convince you is both tiring, and pointless. I need to get to school!" with another huff, the young boy turned, and walked out his bedroom door.
"Hey, wait for me!" Whisper called out, quickly tailing his master.
"Oh man, I've been missing so much plot development lately," Jibanyan groaned as he pulled himself up, stretching a bit, before he jumped down from the bed. "Well, I'm nyot gonnya miss anymore! Wait up!" the nekomata called out as he scurried after Nate and Whisper.
The front door to the Adam's home opened, as the child of the family exited, prepared to head to his school, and not expecting anyone to be standing in front of his house when he did so.
"Finally, what took you so long?" Zoey questioned, chuckling a bit as she grinned at the boy.
"I knew you would come out soon, the timing made the most sense," Lina grinned in a gentler manner than the other girl she stood beside, letting out a tiny giggle, her hands behind her back.
"I still say we should've thrown rocks at his window to make him come out faster," Zoey scoffed, inciting a louder giggle from her friend.
Nate remained in a stunned silence for a short moment, but he quickly shook that off as he looked between the two girls standing in front of his home, "Lina, Zoey, what are you two doing here?"
Lina's smile widened a bit, "We wanted to walk to school together with you; we are the Ghost Club after all, aren't we? Tee-hee!"
"You know, Nathan, it's very impolite to keep a lady waiting, let alone two," Zoey gave a teasing smirk as she crossed her arms.
Nate's brow rose at the criticism, "If you guys were waiting for so long, why didn't you just knock on the door?"
Lina let out another giggle, waving her hand at the boy, "Don't mind her, Nate, we actually only got here about five minutes ago."
"Hey, don't tell him that, I wanted to guilt-trip him," Zoey chuckled mischievously.
"My bad," Lina gave a similarly mischievous smile.
Nate grunted, pulling the straps of his backpack a bit, "I'm choosing to ignore that statement, let's just head to school." The boy walked forward and onto the sidewalk, moving in the direction of the elementary school, the two girls, as well as the unseen Whisper and Jibanyan, following not far behind.
"Hmm, are you not even going to offer to take our hands?" Zoey smirked as she crept up on Nate's left side, "Not very gentlemanly, Nathan."
Nate gave an annoyed huff, lightly glaring at the glasses wearing girl, "Shut up, Zoey."
"You two speak to each other with a surprising level of familiarity," Lina commented in a curious tone, moving up to Nate's right side. "Is there some history between you I was unaware of?"
Nate rolled his eyes, "It's nothing, Lina, we just hung out a bit when we were younger."
Zoey chuckled, "A bit? Is your memory working correctly, Nate? We were practically inseparable all through kindergarten!"
Nate shook his head, "Inseparable? I think you might be the one remembering wrong, Zoey. We played together, sure, and yeah, we went to each other's houses a few times, but I would hardly have called us 'inseparable.'"
Zoey let out scoff, for the briefest of moments, the girl's smirk was replaced with a frown, and the smirk was back as if it never left her face, "Hmm, yeah, I suppose you may be right…"
Something about Zoey's tone had Nate averting his eyes from the girl, looking towards the ground as he kept walking, a look of guilt briefly flashing across his expression.
Lina stared at the two with a blank expression as they kept walking, before she let out a small cough, deciding to change the subject, "So, we've listed everything we need for our trip to Nocturne Hospital tomorrow, haven't we Zoey?"
The black-haired girl looked to the other, before nodding her head with a grin, "Yup! We still need to gather the supplies, but I figured it all out. You told your parents about the 'camping trip,' right Nate?" she turned her focus to the boy.
Nate reluctantly looked up from the ground, giving a small sigh, "Yeah, I told them. It took a bit of convincing, but I'll be able to come."
"Excellent, this investigation is shaping up well," Lina smiled, sharing a nod with Zoey, before she noticed how unenthusiastic the boy looked. "Nate, something wrong?"
"Don't go party pooper on us now, Nate!" Zoey quickly warned.
Nate flinched, "I'm not, but… is this really a good idea? I have some misgivings about lying to my parents." 'As well as sniffing around an abandoned, and most likely yo-kai infested, hospital.'
Lina smiled softly, "I understand, but remember; you didn't lie, we are going on a camping trip. We will just be investigating the Nocturne Hospital while we're camping."
Nate glanced up at the clear blue sky, before the trio came up to a crosswalk, waiting for the light to turn green and looking both ways, before crossing the street.
"A lie by omission of truth, is still a lie," the brunette boy said with a faraway look in his eyes.
"Disagree," Zoey countered with a snort.
Nate narrowed his eyes slightly at the snickering girl, before he felt the stare of the other from his right.
"I agree with you Nate; a lie by omission, is still a lie," Lina spoke calmly, her mouth a straight line, her unseen eyes seemingly scanning the boy. "Though, in certain situations, surely you agree that omission is an easier alternative, than trying to explain the truth…"
Nate started to sweat a bit as he felt an intense stare behind the girl's blue bangs, "I… I guess."
Zoey gave a quizzical look between her fellow Ghost Club members.
Nate gulped, "A-Anyway, regardless, I already went through the trouble of getting the okay to go camping with you two, so I'm not going to back out now. I'll be there." He smiled, still clearly unnerved.
Zoey kept glancing between the two, before she let out a snort and smirked once more, "You know, you two have a very interesting way of flirting."
Both Nate and Lina paused, before they turned to look at Zoey, Nate's face going bright red, while Lina gained a faint dusting of pink on her cheeks.
"WE WEREN'T FLIRTING!" the boy denied loudly, all signs of nervousness demolished by the wave of embarrassment.
Lina did not say anything, glancing away with a thoughtful look on her face, humming a bit as the pink on her cheeks faded.
Zoey just gave an amused chuckle as the three came up to the school's gate.
"Hey, Nate! Wait up!"
The familiar voice had Nate, as well as the two girls, stopping and looking back.
Nate smiled and held up his hand, "Eddie, Bear, Katie! Hey!" he waved back to the Eddie, who was the one that had called, as the other trio of kids approached.
"So, you walked to school with Lina and Zoey?" Katie questioned curiously, smiling at Nate as she walked up to him.
Nate blushed as he averted his eyes from his crush, "W-Well, yeah. T-They were waiting outside my house, and I guess we are all part of the Ghost Club…"
Lina glanced at Nate as he grew more flustered talking to Katie, a subtle frown coming to her face.
"So, Nate, you going to be walking to school with your girlfriend from now on," Bear spoke up in a teasing tone, patting Nate on the shoulder as the other boy's face turned bright red.
Eddie chuckled, "Yeah, you and Lina do seem to be getting pretty close!"
Nate stuttered a bit, waving his arms, "Lina's not my girlfriend!"
"Nathan and I are not dating," Lina spoke bluntly.
"Denial," Zoey butted in, giving a winning smirk as she walked between Eddie and Bear, chuckling to herself. "Those two have a serious case of it!"
Unseen by all but Nate, Whisper nodded along with Zoey's words, while Jibanyan just watched with a curious expression.
"We're not in denial, Zoey," Lina stated curtly, putting her hands to her hips as she frowned. "It would be more accurate to call the continued disregarding of our words towards the matter as such."
"Y-Yeah!" Nate piped in, nodding his head. "What Lina said."
Eddie, Bear and Zoey chuckled a bit more, clearly undeterred.
"Oh, come on guys, cut it with the teasing," Katie interjected, shaking her head, before smiling towards Nate and Lina. "Whether you're actually dating yet or not, I do want to say that I think you'd be really cute together!"
Nate's whole body went stiff as soon as Katie finished speaking, a cold chill running up his spine, and he began shivering ever so slightly, his expression unreadable.
"… Nate?" Whisper poked at his master's head, concern crossing his features.
Lina glanced towards Nate, and her frown deepened…
Before any of his other human companions could take notice, Nate quickly shook himself out of his trance, flailing his arms about, "W-We're not like that! Okay! Can't Lina and I just be friends without people making all these assumptions!?"
Eddie, Bear and Zoey did not lose their smirks, but the laughter died down.
"It's no use, Nate, they have already made up their minds," Lina commented as she crept up to the boy's side, her frown having changed to a thin line.
Nate groaned, his posture drooping in reluctant acceptance.
Katie let out a small giggle, "Well, I believe you guys; but I also think there could be something there, if you look hard enough." The brunette girl gave a playful wink, before running ahead and into the school.
Nate released a much louder groan of despair, a dark cloud forming over his head, which had Lina glancing up curiously…
"That's abnormal," the blue-haired girl commented.
"Huh…?" Nate blinked, glancing upward, but the metaphorical cloud had vanished. "… What?"
"Huh…?" Lina looked just as confused as Nate.
"… Alright than," Zoey muttered, giving her two clubmates a weird look. "Moving on…"
An awkward silence settled between the children, before it was broken by Bear releasing a fake cough, drawing eyes to him. "So, Nate, are you gonna eat with us today, or ditch us for the Ghost Club again?" he asked with a bit of a huff, but the smirk that crept onto his face indicated he was not really upset.
"Yeah, you did kind of just blow us off the other day," Eddie added in, giving an amused chuckle.
"I, uh– "Nate tried to answer, but was quickly interrupted by a cackling Zoey.
"Sorry, boys, Nate has an obligation to the Ghost Club now!" the bespectacled girl insisted, placing a hand on the startled boy's shoulder. "We need to prepare for our next investigation, so we can't have any of our members skipping out on a meeting!"
Lina nodded her head, giving a thoughtful look, "It's true, it is best if we're all present for a meeting of this level of importance. Attempting to relay the information later could lead to complications."
Nate looked between the two girls, before sighing and giving his other three friends an apologetic look, "Sorry guys, I kind of am obligated to participate in the club now. I promise we'll find the time to catch up later."
"Hey, man, don't worry about it," Eddie waved off the other boy's concerns with a laugh.
"Yeah, it was just a joke," Bear assured cheerfully.
"Have fun with the Ghost Club, Nate, we'll all hang out soon," Katie added in, giving a big smile. She winked and gave another wave and chuckle, before skipping ahead and into the building.
"Y-Yeah, b-bye…" Nate awkwardly waved after the girl, glancing down with a red face and giving a small groan of embarrassment.
"No time to contemplate your failures in life, Nate, we don't want to be late to class!" Zoey suddenly shouted, a wide smirk on her face, before she ran ahead.
Nate just stared after the bespectacled girl with eyes wide and a stunned expression on his face.
"Zoey, that's rude," Lina muttered, following closely behind the other girl, but stopping to look back at the boy. "Come on, rude or not, she's still right."
Nate remained standing in silence for a couple more seconds, before he nodded his head quickly, running to catch up.
"Well, things are certainly getting interesting," Whisper chuckled as he floated after his master.
"I'm nyot so sure about the supposed 'romance' going on, but I don't want to miss another second of this train wreck," Jibanyan smirked, not far behind the butler as they followed the kids into the school.
Nate tried hard to listen to his teacher as he droned on, he did not want to have another embarrassing 'incident' like the other day. Yet, despite his attempts to remain focused, the boy could not stop his mind from wandering…
'Katie thinks I like Lina…' Nate internally reminded himself, glancing down at his desk, emitting a slight sigh under his breath. 'Katie is supportive of the idea of me dating Lina...' the boy's head drooped, until it was flat on his desk.
"Nate don't do that, your teacher is going to think you're taking a nap," Whisper warned as he floated over the boy's head.
"My life is over…" Nate moaned under his breath, quiet enough that none of his classmates noticed, but Whisper did.
"Okay, now you're just being overly dramatic," the butler sighed, a hand on his forehead.
"I am not," Nate grunted, his voice muffled from his face being planted on his desk.
Whisper stared, crossing his arms, "Really, Nate, get your head up before you end up in detention!"
"Let the detention come, I don't even care anymore," the disillusioned boy muttered, refusing to lift his head.
"Uh… Nate?" Shelly looked at the boy next to her with a bit of concern, "Nate…?"
The voice of his classmate had Nate turning his head a bit to look at the shy girl, "Oh, hey Shelly…"
"… Are you alright?" she asked carefully, seeming unsure if she should say any more.
The brunette boy sighed heavily, "Oh, I'm fine. I'm just dealing with the decimation of all my hopes and dreams, but don't mind me."
"O-Oh…" Shelly flinched, glancing down at her desk awkwardly, and then back at the boy, "I'm, uh… sorry to hear that…?"
"Thanks, you're such a nice person, Shelly," Nate rolled his head, so his face was flat on his desk once more.
"I… you're welcome?" Shelly looked somewhere between extremely confused, and very worried for her classmate.
Whisper scoffed as he floated over the boy's shoulder, "'Decimation' of all your 'hopes and dreams?' Come on, Nate! You surely have more aspirations for your life than just ending up with Katie!"
"I could believe he didn't," Jibanyan poked his head up from the side of Nate's desk, a half-eaten choco-bar in his paw.
Nate pointedly ignored both yo-kai, letting out another depressed groan.
"N-Nate…?" Shelly still seemed unsure.
"WHA!?"
The sudden shout from the teacher, as well as the sound of him crashing onto the ground had Nate's moping momentarily forgotten as he, as well as the rest of the students, looked towards their teacher in surprise.
"Ow…" the teacher groaned from his position on the ground, pulling himself up and rubbing his head.
"Mr. Johnson, are you alright?" Nate questioned with a concerned and confused tone.
The adult brushed his clothing as he stood up straight, and gave a forced confident smile, and placed a hand on his desk, "N-No need to worry, class. I just tripped, but it's just–WHA!?" his hand slipped off the desk, and the teacher found himself falling face-first onto the ground once more, taking most of the papers and items off his desk in the process.
"Mr. Johnson!?" nearly the entire class called out in surprise and worry this time.
"R-Really, I'm fine," Mr. Johnson assured unconvincingly, pulling himself back up, starting to gather up the fallen items, only for him to trip again, "Ow!"
Nate's worry faded to suspicion after a moment of watching his teacher, holding up his watch, "I'd believe Mr. Johnson would trip one or two times, but this is too weird. This must be the work of a yo-kai!"
The brunette boy did not notice as Lina glanced over at him from her seat.
Whisper scoffed at his master's assumption, "Nate, how many times do I need to tell you; you can't blame yo-kai for everything! Your teacher is simply having an off day, and– "
"Found it!" Nate announced his yo-kai watch's light shining on a spot next to his teacher, where a blue dinosaur creature became visible.
"There really was one!?" Whisper shouted in shock, before quickly regaining his composure, "I-I mean, of course there was, this yo-kai… um," he quickly turned around, trying to hide his yo-kai pad as he quickly swiped through different pages.
"Are we still pretending you don't nyeed to look it up?" Jibanyan grunted in a bored tone. "You knyow, we wouldn't give you so much flack for it if you'd just– "
"Got it!" the yo-kai butler shouted as he put away his yo-kai pad, clearly ignoring Jibanyan, before he pointed towards the dinosaur-like yo-kai, "That's Clodzilla!"
Slippery Tribe: Clodzilla
"Clodzilla?" Nate blinked.
"Yes, he's a powerful S-Ranked yo-kai," Whisper explained as he looked through the info on his yo-kai pad, "But, he's so clumsy he always ends up doing more harm to his surroundings than anything else!"
"Sounds troublesome," Nate muttered, letting out a small sigh as he got up from his chair, "Well, let's just ask him if he'll knock it off."
"If he'd just leave without a hassle, that'd be good!" Jibanyan chimed, relaxing on the floor, "I'd rather not have to fight that big guy right now."
Nate nodded, "Yeah, I'll try and– "the boy paused, the strange sensation of feeling watched filling him. Glancing across the room, the sensation changed to the feeling of a stone dropping in his stomach as his eyes came across Lina, looking directly at him.
The blue-haired girl took notice of the boy looking back at her, giving a playful smile and silently waving.
"I, uh, I'll…" Nate found himself unable to speak coherently, his pupils shrinking as sweat starting to drip down his face.
"Nate, what's the matter?" Whisper tapped on the boy's shoulder, looking concerned.
"I, um…" Nate shook his head rapidly before facing Whisper, "It's n-nothing, let's deal with this yo-kai."
"Yo-kai?"
"Gah!?" Nate jumped a bit, turning around to find that Lina was no longer in her seat, but was in fact standing right behind him, giving a curious smile.
"What are you talking about yo-kai for?" the blue-haired questioned with a tilt of her head.
"I…I… I…" Nate was at a loss for words, his brain failing to process the current turn of events.
It seems at that moment, the teacher had finally collected himself enough to take notice of the students, "Nathan, Lina, why are you both–WHOA!?" only for him to go crashing down once more.
Clodzilla flinched as he watched Mr. Johnson fall to the floor, "Sorry," he muttered in a deep, gravelly voice, despite the fact the teacher he was inspiriting could not hear him.
"Mr. Johnson, are you okay?" Lina turned her focus to the teacher with a tone of concern.
Nate took a deep breath, taking the momentary distraction to move his focus to the dinosaur-like yo-kai nervously shuffling in place, walking over and quietly speaking, "Hey, could you maybe knock it off?"
"Huh…?" Clodzilla blinked, turning to look at Nate, before his eyes widened, "Wait, you can see me!?"
Nate nodded, quickly glancing back at Lina, helping the teacher stand back up, and then focusing on the yo-kai again, "Yeah; could you please stop inspiriting our teacher? We're never going to get through class at this rate."
Clodzilla looked confused, squinting his eyes a bit at the brunette boy, "What? Why are you whispering?"
Nate flinched, his eyes darting to Lina again; the girl still distracted with talking to their teacher, his eyes facing the dinosaur-like yo-kai again, he whispered a bit louder, "Please, stop inspiriting our teacher."
Clodzilla still looked confused, "Ah, hold on, I'll lean in a bit–WHA!?" blue-scaled yo-kai attempted to move closer, only for him to trip, and send his large head hurtling towards the human child, "LOOK OUT!"
Nate's eyes widened at the incoming dinosaur snout, but before it could come crashing down on him, he felt the back of his shirt get tugged, and he was pulled out of the way just in time, "Huh…?" he glanced back, to see Lina.
The blue-haired girl had a tight grip on the boy's shirt, a confused, but also slightly frightened expression on her face.
"L-Lina…?" Nate stuttered a bit as the girl released her hold on him, the boy was thankful for the intervention, but it filled him with many questions, "W-Why did you do that…?" he glanced down at the fallen Clodzilla.
"Ow…" the blue dinosaur grunted dizzily.
Lina didn't seem to hear the yo-kai, nor did she appear able to see him, she kept looking at Nate with her confused and frightened frown, "I… I don't know," she admitted, glancing away unsurely. "I just… felt something, and suddenly I was pulling you…"
Nate just gave the blue-haired girl a look of surprise, "Oh…" he shook his head as he tried to think, "Thanks…"
Lina gave a confused look, "Thanks? For what, I just pulled you for some reason…"
The boy suddenly felt his nervousness returning, his eyes darted back to the dinosaur-like yo-kai briefly, before waving a hand at Lina and giving a forced smile, "E-Er, well I'm sure you had a good reason, so thanks, for whatever reason that was!"
Lina gave an unconvinced look at that response.
"Alright, both of you back to your seats," a still wincing Mr. Johnson interrupted, stepping over to the children and waving them away, "I appreciate the concern, but it's about time we got class started."
Both Lina and Nate returned to their seats without argument, though Nate's gaze lingered on the dinosaur-like yo-kai, and Lina's lingered on him.
Taking his seat again, Nate gave a heavy sigh, "Well, that didn't work. I didn't even really get to talk to him…"
"I'll say, you got pretty distracted by Lina there," Whisper chuckled as he floated over to his master before he noticed the glare that he was giving him.
"Whisper, how am I supposed to talk to the yo-kai now? Another attempt would just draw a ton of attention to myself," Nate pointed out with a huff.
Whisper did a backflip, "Don't you worry about a thing, young Nathan; you know very well that I am a master yo-kai conversationist, I'll have a chat with our scaly interloper!"
Nate did not look so sure, but seeing little other choice, he nodded.
Jibanyan just remained in his relaxed position, keeping on eye on the yo-kai butler as he floated over to the dinosaur.
"Ahm," Whisper cleared his throat as he made it over to clumsy reptile, who was brushing himself off after his previous fall, "Excuse me, Mr. 'Clodzilla,' is it?"
"Yeah!?" the dinosaur yo-kai quickly turned to face Whisper, only to send him flying with a whack from his tail.
"AH!?" Whisper cried as he crashed into the wall.
"… Oops," Clodzilla muttered, glancing down shamefully and letting out a sigh. "Sorry about that!"
"I'm okay," Whisper grunted from his position on the wall, before he fell off and onto the ground, "Ow, again… I'm less okay than I thought!"
Nate silently watched this scene, the concern in his eyes growing.
"Oh brother," Jibanyan groaned, getting up from his relaxed position, and trotting over to Whisper's fallen form, before poking him with a paw, "Hey, come on dummy, let's try this again."
Whisper waved the cat yo-kai's paw away as he floated back up, giving an annoyed huff, "I am not a 'dummy,' that simply caught me off guard…"
"Yeah, because you're a dummy," Jibanyan snickered, looking away innocently when the butler glared at him.
"I'm really sorry about that," Clodzilla apologized again, making himself known to the two smaller yo-kai as he loomed over them.
"NYA!?" Jibanyan jumped back, startled at how easily the large yo-kai snuck up on them, before he quickly got into an aggressive pose, "Okay, you wanna throw down, buddy!? Then let's do this!"
"Jibanyan, no," Nate hissed under his breath at his nekomata companion, but his words either went unheard, or ignored.
"PAWS OF FURY!" the cat yo-kai jumped up, pounding on the dinosaur's large snout in a flurry of strikes.
"Huh…?" Clodzilla just blinked in confusion, as the nekomata's paws harmlessly bounced off his blue scales. "You okay there, little buddy? You seem kind of agitated…"
"Nya!?" Jibanyan jumped back in shock, staring at the unharmed 'enemy' in shock.
"Paws of Fury didn't do any noticeable damage at all…" Nate muttered in awe, and a bit of fear, from his seat.
"Of course it didn't, Clodzilla is an S-Ranked yo-kai, and an incredibly bulky one at that!" Whisper interjected, floating back over to Nate while looking at his yo-kai pad.
"Seriously!?" Jibanyan sent the butler a scathing look, before he noticed the dinosaur-like yo-kai taking another step closer to him, "Nya!? Stay back!"
"W-Wait, hold on, I'm sorry about all this, just hear me out!" Clodzilla waved his small arms around frantically, trying his best to keep his balance as he stood before the frightened nekomata.
Jibanyan paused, his expression changing from one of fear, to confusion, "Wait… what…?"
"I knew it…" Nate whispered, letting out a small sigh, "He's not a bad guy at all."
This time the nekomata's twitching ears picked up the human boy's words, causing him to turn and give an annoyed look, "Then why didn't you say something earlier!?"
Nate flinched at the criticism, "I, uh…" he subtly glanced across the classroom again, to where Lina was sitting, releasing a sigh of relief when he saw she wasn't looking at him, before looking back to the yo-kai, "Sorry, my mind got away from me for a second, but let's get this out of the way; Clodzilla, could you please stop inspiriting my teacher?"
The dinosaur-like yo-kai glanced back at the teacher, flinching as he saw him fall over trying to write something on the chalkboard, "Oh right! Sorry about that too!" with a whip of his tail, an invisible purple aura faded from Mr. Johnson's body, and he quickly found himself regaining his composure.
"Huh, why in the world was I having such trouble with simple tasks…?" the teacher muttered to himself as he went back to writing on the board, without any issue this time.
Nate smiled, "Good, that's over with…" he then looked at the dinosaur yo-kai, frowning again, "But… what about you? You stopped inspiriting him so easily, so what was your reason in the first place…?"
"Yes, what is the meaning of this mischief!?" Whisper questioned loudly, his eyes narrowed into a glare, "And with smashing me into that wall, for that matter!"
Clodzilla flinched, bowing a few times to the yo-kai butler, "Ah, right! I'm so sorry about that, it was a mistake and–OW!" during a bow, the dinosaur yo-kai's head went too far down and smashed right into the floor.
Nate flinched at the crash, remaining in his seat as he looked down at the fallen dinosaur, "Look, we understand it was an accident."
"I'm not so sure," Whisper scoffed, but a quick glare from his master quieted him down.
"… But why are you here? Why were you inspiriting Mr. Johnson?" Nate asked, watching as the dinosaur yo-kai pulled himself back up.
"Well…" Clodzilla looked nervous, despite his large and intimidating form, before he focused on Nate's watch and his eyes widened, "Wait, it's you! You're the one I'm here to see! I need your help, Yo-kai Master!"
Nate, Whisper and Jibanyan all went silent at the reptile's words, blinking a few times, "… Huh?"
Clodzilla didn't seem to notice their confusion, as he continued, "I had heard you went to this school, so I was just following this teacher to try and find you, but it seems I had ended up inspiriting the guy without realizing it!"
"Really?" Jibanyan was giving a skeptical look at the explanation.
"What would you even need my help for?" Nate asked, a sweatdrop forming at the hopeful look the dinosaur-like yo-kai was giving him.
"I heard you had a ton of yo-kai friends, I was thinking, maybe, you might know one who could help me out to… you know, not be so clumsy all the time…?"
Nate looked at Clodzilla with consideration, he quickly glanced towards Lina again, and nearly froze when he noticed she was looking towards him again.
"… Yo-kai Master?" Clodzilla looked at the boy with concern.
Nate stiffly turned back to the yo-kai, giving a nervous smile, "Eh, this isn't the best time, but if you leave your medal with me, I'll call you after school and we can figure this all out… if you don't mind…?"
The dinosaur-like yo-kai gave a wide grin, his body glowing before a medal appeared and dropped into the human boy's hand, "Thank you, Mr. Yo-kai Master! I know you'll be able to help me out!"
Nate waved unsurely as he watched Clodzilla head for the exit, tripping on the way out, but getting back to his feet and waving again before charging down the hall.
Once the yo-kai was gone, Nate let out a sigh of relief, pocketing the medal, before subtly looking to Lina; she was not looking at him anymore, but he still felt uneasy…
The lunch bell rang, and it was not long before Nate was, unsurprisingly, shuffled off to the clubroom by Lina and Zoey, and seated in there once more.
Like usual, Zoey took the head and started going over what their plans for the next 'investigation' would be, though Nate quickly found his attention drifting elsewhere.
'Is Lina watching me…?' Nate internally questioned, trying not to appear as nervous, looking towards the blue-haired girl out of the corner of his eye.
Lina wasn't looking towards Nate, her unseen eyes seemingly focused ahead on Zoey.
'I could have sworn…' Nate shook his head, turning his own attention back towards the bespectacled girl.
"We've already got the permission for the camping trip, so all we need to consider is how we're going to investigate Nocturne Hospital, and that nobody finds out," Zoey spoke confidently, drawing out some lines on the chalkboard sketch of the abandoned hospital. "There's not likely to be anyone around, but we still need to be wary. If any adults happen to be out, they're not likely to leave it be if they see three kids wander into an old, abandoned building."
"Well, reasonably, they probably shouldn't," Nate shrugged.
"We're elementary school students, we could hurt ourselves," Lina reasoned with her own shrug.
Zoey stared at her two clubmates with a slightly annoyed expression, "Right…"
"… Well, that's the reasoning they'd likely use," Lina pointed out, with Nate nodding in agreement.
"Realism has no place in a Ghost Club," Zoey scoffed while shaking her head.
Nate rose a brow at that statement, "Aren't you trying to prove ghosts exist? Wouldn't realism be kind of important?"
"Ghosts don't adhere to realism, Nathan, if ghosts are real, we must accept that realism has been thrown out the window," the glasses-wearing girl stated calmly, looking towards the boy and giving a shrug.
'Well… can't argue with that…' Nate thought, recalling many of the yo-kai he had encountered since he got his watch.
"I find that statement short-sighted, Zoey," Lina interjected, frowning towards her friend, "Ghosts follow their own set of rules, but that doesn't mean those rules don't adhere to the rules of our reality; they are merely rules we don't know yet."
Zoey's eyes squinted as she stared at Lina, "… We're getting off topic. Let's get back to our plans for the investigation of Nocturne Hospital! Now, where was I…?"
"You were talking about how we shouldn't let anyone find out about this, because no adult would reasonably let three elementary school students run around an abandoned hospital," Nate reminded, a tired expression on his face as he slumped in his seat.
Zoey blinked, before giving a grin, "That was it, right! We can't let anyone find out, especially not any adults; because they're all killjoys!"
"You mean being responsible and not letting kids get themselves injured, and/or killed?"
"Nathan don't speak unless you have something meaningful to add to the discussion," the black-haired girl's eyes narrowed as she glared at the brunette boy.
Nate groaned, sinking even further into his seat.
Lina repressed the urge to giggle as she watched the boy, a few laughs escaping despite her efforts.
Nate turned his head towards the blue-haired girl, but she was already looking away with an innocent smile on her face. "… Lina, I know you were laughing at me."
"Hmmm…?" Lina turned her head back towards Nate, her innocent smile remaining etched on her face, "Laughing at you? Doesn't sound like something I'd do."
"Hey, hey!" Zoey snapped her fingers a few times, bringing the attention back to her, "Focus now, flirt later!"
Nate's face turned red as he sputtered, before slamming both his hands on the table in front of him, "WE WEREN'T FLIRTING!"
"We really weren't," Lina added, in a more subdued manner, rocking in her chair a bit.
"Sure, you weren't," Zoey smirked with a little cackle, before crossing her arms. "Anyway, just so we're all on the same page; we all remember what to bring tomorrow, right?"
"Rope, sleeping bags, two tents, flashlights," Nate recounted as he slumped down until his arms and head were resting on the table in front of him.
"Food, water, first aid kit, walkie talkies," Lina added in, still rocking in her chair with a little smile.
"Wait, we all have cell phones, why do we need to bring walkie talkies again?" Nate questioned, glancing up from the table and between the two girls.
Zoey snorted, "Come on Nathan, haven't you ever seen a horror movie? Cell phones never work when you need them!"
Nate looked at the bespectacled girl, about to voice a protest against that logic… when he stopped and considered how his life usually ended up going, "… Alright, fair enough."
Lina nodded her head, stopping in her rocking and leaning forward in her chair, "Plus, some ghosts are known to interfere with radio waves, so we might be able to use walkie talkies to communicate with them."
"Right, another reason to bring walkie talkies!" Zoey agreed, giving a chuckle and smirking in the boy's direction, "So, remember to think things through before you have objections, Nate!"
Nate gave an annoyed grunt, nodding to the black-haired girl.
A few more general items, mostly camping essentials, were listed off by Lina and Nate before Zoey turned back to the chalkboard.
"Now, as for our approach for entering Nocturne Hospital, I do believe the front door is our best bet," the bespectacled girl stated, drawing a line to the point in the drawing meant to represent the front door. "Too many issues with trying to enter another way, but there is, of course, still an issue with the front door; being spotted!"
The two other club members nodded.
"As we said, any adult who spots us is probably not going to just look the other way to three kids walking into an old, abandoned hospital," Nate reasoned, crossing his arms. "And is it really even a good idea in the first place? Ghosts or not, it's sure to be dangerous."
"Nate, discussion on if we're going or not has already finished, we are not changing plans now," Zoey responded bluntly, glaring at the boy. "Current discussion is on how we get into the hospital!"
Nate sighed heavily, his head drooping.
"You knew that wasn't going to work," Whisper commented, floating behind the boy.
"Maybe, but worth a shot…" Nate mumbled under his breath so only the yo-kai butler could hear.
"Our best would be to head in late, when most people will be at home or asleep," Zoey concluded, crossing her arms with a thoughtful expression. "However, we don't want to head in too late, or else we'll lose valuable investigation time, and there's always the risk of late-night walkers out and about."
"I'm sure there won't be too many people thinking of guarding the abandon hospital from children late at night," Lina reasoned, shrugging her shoulders. "If we keep our eyes out to make sure nobody spots us, we should be able to get in with no issue."
"The door will probably be locked," Zoey muttered, glancing back at her diagram of the hospital, "That's the part where getting in is going to get tricky, if we need to pick the lock, or find an alternate entrance, that will give more risk for us being spotted and possibly ruining the entire investigation."
"Maybe we could just observe the outside of the hospital…?" Nate weakly suggested, which only got both girls to stare at him blankly, causing him to lower his head in shame, "R-Right, of course not…"
"Smooth," Jibanyan snorted from his spot near the corner of the room, which got him a glare from his human friend, but the cat yo-kai just shrugged.
"Nate, how about you stand lookout while Lina and I try to figure out how to get it in," Zoey suggested, giving an evil smirk.
Nate quickly looked back at Zoey, "What!? Why me!?" he questioned, before his expression changed to a dull one, "Wait, why am I asking that? Of course, it would be me."
"Finally getting a bit quicker on the uptake, eh, Adams?" Zoey sneered, "Well, let's hope that keeps up during the investigation."
Nate sighed, averting his eyes from the bespectacled girl.
"What's with this sudden tension…?" Whisper questioned, glancing between Nate and Zoey. "First this morning, now here…"
Lina frowned at the other girl, "Zoey, don't be mean. He's still new to this, and we want him to be closer to the main event if we want his spiritual connections to act up." The blue-haired girl stood up, putting a hand to her chest, "I'll be the one to stand lookout, while you and Nate look for an entrance." 'And hopefully work out whatever issues you two have…' Lina kept that last thought to herself.
"That won't do, Lina, I need your help to find a way into the hospital," Zoey countered with a glare.
"Why do you need my help, specifically?" Lina looked at the other girl blankly.
"Uh, guys…" Nate spoke carefully, bringing the attention back to him, "How about we talk about who plays decoy, or whatever, tomorrow, and just get to eating now?" Nate suggested, holding up his bento, a hopeful expression on his face.
"… I am kind of hungry," Lina voiced her agreement, holding up her own bento. "And we do want to eat before lunch is over."
Zoey snorted, still looking dissatisfied with how this meeting had gone, but a quick glance at the clock had her relenting, "Oh, fine. Let's eat."
With each of their lunch boxes placed on the table, and the children taking their seats.
There was a moment of silence as each child examined their lunches and started to eat the food within.
"So, Nate, what were you doing in class earlier?" Lina gave a curious smile as she leaned over the boy's shoulder.
"Huh!?" Nate jumped in a bit in his seat, looking at the blue-haired girl in surprise, "Lina, when did you– "
"Get behind you?" Lina finished for the boy, a playful tone to her voice. "I walked over, you really should be a bit more observant, tee-hee!"
"I, uh…" Nate stuttered a bit, trying to think of something to say to defend himself, before he just gave a huff and drooped in his seat, "What was your question again?"
"What were you doing in class earlier?" Lina repeated, walking around to the boy's left side. "I noticed you started acting strangely."
The brunette boy froze up for half a second, before he let out a few fake coughs, and looked at the girl, a nervous smile on his face, "Um… s-strange, how…?"
"You know exactly 'how,' Nathan," Lina's tone was mysterious, her smile widening. "It's the same odd behavior I've been noting from you for a while; speaking to something the rest of us can't see or hear, shining that light on that watch of yours, and all of it ending as soon as the strange behavior from our teacher ended as well…"
"What… exactly are you implying…?" Nate questioned, subtly scooting his seat a bit further from the blue-haired girl, sweat started to gather on his brow.
"I'm implying, that Mr. Johnson was being influenced by a spirit," Lina stated curtly, leaning towards the boy.
"A spirit, y-you think there was a spirit?" Nate averted his eyes, his sweat increasing.
Lina nodded, "Yes, a spirit that you were able to see and interact with, unlike the rest of us."
Nate scooted his seat away a bit more, "C-Come on, Lina, that's ridiculous– "
"And, you dealt with it, just like you had many times before," Lina got up from her chair to lean in further, staring at the boy with her hidden eyes.
"L-Lina, don't you think you might be reaching here?" Nate nearly fell out of his chair but caught himself by holding onto the back of it.
"Hmm… maybe I am," Lina let out another soft giggle, pulling back from the boy. "However, the way you dodge my questions is rather suspicious, you must admit."
Nate released a sigh of relief from the girl backing up, before he gave an awkward cough, placing his hands on the table, and averting his eyes, "I, eh… guess that's true…"
Lina stared at the boy, crossing her arms behind her back, the smile on her face turning into a small frown, "Why do I make you so nervous, Nate? You behaved very similarly when last I tried to question you, about the events the night we investigated the school."
"D-Did I…?" Nate muttered, his eyes nervously darting around the room, "I, uh… just don't like being questioned."
"Is that so?" Lina didn't seem at all convinced by that excuse, but she let out a small sigh before nodding, "Then, I suppose I will not question you any further, for now."
"Thanks," Nate sighed, turning his focus back to his food.
"But I'll definitely get my answers soon enough," Lina smirked, sitting down back in her seat, and looking down at her own food.
"Guys, I hate to interrupt your entertaining back and forth, but you do realize I'm still here, right?" Zoey pointed out with dull expression.
The sun was setting in the distance as Nate walked towards his home, along with Eddie and Bear, though the boy's mind was still on the events from the Ghost Club earlier, as well as the coming investigation of Nocturne Hospital...
'I really don't think going into a place like that is a good idea,' Nate thought with a heavy sigh, 'Yo-kai are bound to be swarming the place… but it's not like there's anything I can really do to convince the girls otherwise…'
"So, you guys have any plans for tomorrow?" Eddie questioned, walking with enthusiasm in his step. "I was thinking about us, and Katie, maybe having some kind of 'friends' day out.'"
Bear grinned at that idea, doing a fist pump, "Oh yeah! We can go to the arcade, the beach, hang out at Flower Road, and do all kinds of fun stuff together, just the four of us!"
"You bet!" Eddie gave a thumbs-up, before he turned his attention to the third of their trio, who seemed to be lagging a bit, "What do you say, Nate, sound like a good time?"
"Huh…?" Nate paused in his step, before he processed what was said between his two friends, and gave an apologetic look, "Oh, uh… sorry guys. Sounds great, but I already have plans with Lina and Zoey all weekend; Ghost Club stuff."
Both Eddie and Bear stopped in their tracks as they looked back at their friend with a bit of disappointment in their expressions.
"Oh man, that sucks," Bear groaned, his posture drooping. "It wouldn't be a friends' day out if it were only three of us…"
"Yeah, that's too bad," Eddie sighed, but soon gave an understanding smile, "I get it though, you've got an obligation to your club, and I only kind of had this idea as a spur of the moment sort of thing, you've probably had these Ghost Club plans for at least a couple days."
"Well, since yesterday," Nate admitted with a shrug, giving a small, awkward smile. "Thanks for understanding."
"No problem, dude," Eddie gave another thumbs-up, though this one had noticeably less enthusiasm behind it.
"Well, there's no helping it, Nate's got obligations to his club," Bear nodded in agreement to Eddie's previous words, before a mischievous smirk crept onto his face, "And, of course; an obligation to his girlfriend."
Nate's expression turned to an annoyed glare, "Oh come on, not this again!"
"Not what again, Nate?" Eddie gained a similar smirk to Bear's as his voice took on a teasing tone. "Talk about you and your girlfriend?"
Nate silently fumed as his friends continued to laugh and tease him, "Would you guys knock that off already!?"
"Alright, alright, we'll give it a rest," Eddie let out one last chuckle, patting Nate on the back. "We know Lina's not actually your girlfriend, Nate."
"Yeah, it's just fun to tease you!" Bear exclaimed with a wide grin, which quickly turned apologetic, "Er, we didn't take it too far, did we?"
Nate let out a bit of an annoyed groan, before giving a bit of a smile of his own, "Not really, I kind of knew you guys were teasing me the whole time, Zoey too. It did get annoying, but not that bad."
The three friends shared some good-natured laughs as they continued walking, easing any tension that might have been between them.
The laughter slowly dying down, Eddie started to thoughtfully rub his chin, "Still, even if you're not actually dating, it's pretty clear Lina's interested in you."
"Yeah, she's been staring at you a lot," Bear agreed. "That's gotta mean something."
"That's not why, guys, Lina's…" Nate sighed, putting a hand to his forehead, "Lina doesn't have a crush on me, she is 'interested' in me, but it's not that sort of 'interest.'"
"Really? Because it seems to me like there's something more there," Eddie gave a skeptical look. "And I think you may be coming around to the idea of liking her too."
Nate nearly lost his balance, catching himself before he fell to the ground, "W-What!? You think I have a crush on Lina!?" the boy's face took on a slight red tinge at that thought, but he quickly shook it off.
"Maybe not exactly a crush, buuuuut…" Eddie kept looking at Nate skeptically.
"… But?" Nate turned to Eddie with a questioning look.
Eddie seemed to be in deep thought for a couple moments, before shaking his head, "I don't know, man. I believe both you and Lina think there's nothing between you, at the least."
That statement got a strange look from Nate, "We 'think' there's nothing between us? What is that even supposed to mean…?"
"Yeah, I'm drawing a blank here too, Eddie," Bear interjected, a clueless expression on his face. "Either they're into each other or they're not, how could they think they're not, but actually be?"
"It's not that simple, Bear!" Eddie gave the larger boy a critical look, before focusing on Nate again, "What I'm getting at is, something's clearly in development, but neither of you can see it, because you're both in denial for various reasons."
"Wait, really?" Bear blinked in surprise, glancing to Nate.
Nate sighed out of frustration, rubbing his forehead a bit more. "No, not really." An annoyed glare was sent the headphone-wearing boy's way, "Eddie, you're reading way too much into this. Lina and I are friends, we are also in the same club, we will naturally be interacting and spending a lot of time together. That does not mean there is any sort of deeper feelings developing between us!"
Before Eddie or Bear could give a response, Nate let out a loud huff, before quickly stomping forward, making the turn that led to his home, and leaving the two behind.
"… Well, I guess that reaction proves there's something going on," Bear concluded with a shrug.
Eddie groaned, "I think we should just drop it; I'll apologize to him later."
Bear blinked, looking at his shorter friend strangely, "Apologize? Why?"
Eddie groaned even louder, putting a hand to his face.
"Well, today was exhausting," Nate muttered, shaking his head as he walked into his bedroom, Jibanyan and Whisper not far behind. "I still don't have a great feeling about this 'investigation' of an old, abandoned hospital…" he sighed unsurely, before glancing towards Whisper, "Plus, the annoying amount of teasing towards Lina and I didn't help."
"Nate, you can't stay in denial forever, Lina's eventually going to get bored and quit waiting around, you know!" the butler warned as he flew around his master's head.
Nate growled a bit under his breath, swiping his hand to try and swat Whisper away like a fly, which was easily dodged by the ghost.
"I'm starting to think you may be reaching, Whisper," Jibanyan commented, walking over to the bed and jumping onto it, getting back into his comfortable spot. "I kept expecting something funny to happen but watching Nyate and Lina ended up being pretty boring, I think they really just may be friends."
"Thank you, Jibanyan," Nate muttered appreciatively, while still looking annoyed with Whisper.
Jibanyan shrugged, curling up on the bed, "Nyo nyeed for thanks, Nyate, I just don't think any girl would be interested in you."
"Thanks a lot…" Nate muttered in a much less appreciative tone, glaring at the feline yo-kai out of the side of his vision.
"Don't mind him, Nate!" Whisper quickly capitalized on the opportunity to get his master on his side, floating up to him and placing a hand on his shoulder, while the sending the cat a snide glance, "While you may not be the sort most young ladies would show interest in, everyone holds different interests, and you clearly hold Lina's!"
Nate let out a low hiss, pushing his butler's hand off his shoulder, before he walked over to his bookshelf to grab a manga, and sat down on the floor to read it.
Whisper paid no heed to the boy's thinning patience, floating back over to his side, and giving a shrug, "Why, that foolish cat simply has no sense for the subtle tells of a girl in love!"
Jibanyan looked up and glared at Whisper, "So, you've nyow gone from claiming Linya has a crush on Nyate, to her being in love with him?" the cat groaned, placing a paw on his forehead, "A subject you clearly knyow nyothing about."
Whisper seemed to take great offense to this comment, as he moved from Nate's side and over to the bed, glaring angrily at the cat yo-kai, "Now see here! I know plenty about the art of love, much more than a feline miscreant such as yourself! The fact you can't pick up on the chemistry between Nathan and young Lina just shows how inept you are at picking up on these sorts of things!"
Jibanyan hissed, hopping up onto his hind legs, and futilely swiping at the floating butler, "You knyow-nyothing loud-mouth! You're just projecting this whole situation onto Nyate because you can't get a girlfriend yourself!"
Whisper gasped at that accusation, "Why, I never– "
"Had a girlfriend before!" Jibanyan interrupted, sticking out his tongue.
Whisper fumed, his body starting to turn red as he glared down at the feline, "Why you little!"
The conflict between the two yo-kai continued to escalate, meanwhile; the human occupant of the room was trying his best to ignore the argument, still seated on the ground and flipping through a comic, though not really doing much reading, as his mind was currently occupied elsewhere.
'Lina having a crush on me, why is he so insistent on that idea?' Nate shook his head with a grunt, pretending not to notice his face heating up a bit at that thought. 'Sure, we've become better friends in the past couple days, but she's not interested in me like that, and I love Katie. The very idea of dating Lina…' the boy's face heated up a bit more as he imagined the spooky girl giving him a cute smile. '… Is maybe not so bad…?'
Nate's eyes widened as he tossed his comic aside and jumped to his feet, "GAH!?"
The two yo-kai stopped their arguing in response to the sudden shout.
"Nyate?" Jibanyan questioned, turning to look at the boy.
"Is something wrong?" Whisper asked with concern.
Nate let out a few heavy breaths, looking away from the two yo-kai to hide his fading blush, "I, uh… it's nothing, just a… surprising comic…"
"… Surprising? It's Doraemon," Whisper pointed out bluntly, gesturing to the cover of the manga, which depicted a blue cat-like creature.
Nate nervously scratched his head, scrambling to think of an excuse, "W-Well, eh… Doraemon is very surprising!"
Whisper gave a skeptical look at that explanation.
"… Have you ever read a Doraemon manga," Nate held the manga up with a serious expression, "There are some shocking twist and turns!"
Jibanyan had now joined Whisper in staring at Nate with skeptical expressions…
"… You two don't know anything about the greater world of manga," Nate huffed, putting his Doraemon book back on the shelf, turning away from the yo-kai and crossing his arms. "I refuse to continue this line of discussion any further, I'll be playing video games in the living room if you need me!" with another huff, the boy left the room.
Making his way through the hall and down the stairs, the boy kept a firm scowl on his face, though his mind still rattled with various questions towards his own reactions and feelings.
'I don't have a crush on Lina," the boy repeated in his mind several times, even as an image of the blue-haired girl, smiling cutely, flashed through it. Nate shook his head, the red tinge returning to his face, "I don't."
"Wait…" the boy paused, reaching into his pocket, before pulling out a yo-kai medal with a depiction of a blue dinosaur on it, "I still need to call Clodzilla, and help him with his clumsiness problem…" glancing around his house, and imagining the dinosaur-like yo-kai stumbling around and crashing into things, the boy changed course, "I… probably should do that outside…"
Finished! Phew, that took longer than I thought it would.
This chapter was actually mostly finished for a while, but I hit a snag when it came to the yo-kai causing trouble in this chapter; it was originally Lamedian, but I had so much trouble trying to come up with 'bad puns' to the point that it was becoming practically impossible for me to write his scenes.
In the end, I finally decided to just swap him out for a different yo-kai, which of course meant some rewriting, luckily which yo-kai was causing trouble was not that huge a plot point, so not much outside of the classroom scene needed changing.