30 years later:

"So like… do you ever wonder who made the Yo-Kai Watch in the first place?"

Bruno stopped typing on the computer to look at his fellow detective partner, who was staring at her watch. He had to admit he did wonder who created that version himself, what his grandmother told him, all versions of the Yo-Kai Watch were destroyed, why was that one the only one still around? Bruno Arihoshi wrapped his brain around this question for a while, ignoring the world around him. He placed his finger on his desk and began to tap, wondering the same thing that Natsume was wondering. Who created the Yo-Kai Watch in the first place? And furthermore, why? "Probably just to link the connection between Yo-Kai and humans." Cole said, taking a sip of his soda that he got from the fridge. "But… but why? What connection between us and those… things?" Summer said, pointing to the two Yo-Kai in the corner, who were flexing their muscles. "Okay maybe not Whisper and Sly, but come on, we have made many Yo-Kai friends." Bruno said, holding up his own version of the Yo-Kai Watch… it wasn't really a watch per say, but it fit with the theming everyone else had so he went with it. Natsume had the Yo-Kai Watch Arcane, Cole had the Yo-Kai Watch Ogre, and Bruno had the Yo-Kai Watch Animas. Granted, the Animas wasn't exactly a watch, more or less a teleporter for Celestial beings such as Suzaku and… that was all he knew. It wasn't anything special but it was his and he loved his so-called watch.

"Just some food for thought because nothing is happening tonight!" Summer said, getting up and stretching. It had been a day since they had a case, the last case they had ended up with Summer getting kidnapped by some crazy Yo-kai going around kidnapping girls to star in some girl band. They defeated him and sent him on his way to help some girl become an idol herself, all the while making a new friend in the form of Isabelle. Bruno's face turned red as he thought of Isabelle, oh sweet wonderful Isabelle. The perfect girl that came every one hundred years. Having the ability to see Yo-kai as well and being athletic, caring, popular, and even knowing how to do karate. She was the perfect girl, and it was no secret to the rest of the agency that he had a crush on her. "Fatty's all red again!" Junior said, tapping the well rounded boy on the cheek. Bruno waved at the small floating Yo-kai, who simply giggled at the anger of Bruno. Junior was tiny, almost like a small plush toy that could work as a keychain. He had a swirl where his left ear should be while his right here was intact. He had yellow eyes and black pupils, as well as having short arms. Apparently he was born from the remnants of Jibanyan after he got shot in the chest by Reapers. This world was… strange, but Bruno loved it, he wouldn't choose a better life to have.

Summer herself, on the other hand, was indifferent. She stared at the watch on her wrist, why her? Why was she the one dealing with Yo-kai all of a sudden? It wasn't fair for her, she had almost died multiple times trying to save the world from a literal god, better known as the Oni King. She almost drowned or got mauled to death by her own mom and brother because of it. Now she was dealing with a detective agency, getting kidnapped, almost getting killed every day just to make sure everyone slept better at night. She could be considered a hero, that was what Sly and almost everyone told her. In Summer's eyes, while she loved helping out the people, it was difficult to try and survive each day while also making sure her little brother stays alive as well. Tate was the kind of kid to not believe any of this yo-kai stuff. He didn;t believe in prophecies or fortune telling or any of that stuff either, said it was all just a bunch of baloney. Summer couldn't help but giggle every time he said that before she stared back at her watch. "Hey, Whisper. You've been guarding this thing for quite a while right? Surely you know who had it first right?" Summer asked, turning her head back to the watch. "I regret to inform you that I do not know." Whisper said, floating over to the thirteen year old girl's side. Summer sighed before looking over at Bruno. The boy was definitely pudgy, he tried to play it off as him being big boned but everyone knew the truth.

Bruno apparently came from a long line of people that knew magic. Well, magic and yo-kai, but mostly magic. Summer was much more interested in the magic element that Bruno and his grandmother had, apparently they have been doing it for generations. Bruno inherited some of that magic, being able to draw a star seemingly out of thin air and use it as a weapon. She remembered him using it a bunch when they fought the Oni King. Summer smiled, while that whole thing with the Oni King was very traumatizing, she was very happy to have made all these friends. Cole, Bruno, Whisper, heck, even Sly. Summer was grateful for all that had happened to her, for all the friends she made, all the people she helped. Even though there was the risk of death every day, knowing that she was helping people, both humans and yo-kai. Summer got up and stretched, "Welp! I better head home, it's almost time for bed and mom and dad are going to get cranky with me if I don't come home on curfew." The thirteen year old girl said, Bruno seemed troubled by this. "Aw come on, just a little longer?" he asked, Summer shook her head. "Can't, like I said, curfew. Me and Tate will be over tomorrow though." Summer said, walking over to the doorway. She turned to everyone with a smile, "Goodnight guys!"

"Goodnight!"

Both the boys said to her, Summer gave them one last smile before she left the Detective Agency and went home. She went out to find Bruno's grandmother patting Komasan on the head. The dog gracefully accepted the head pats. Although it was time to head home, her mind was saying something different. She looked at her phone and back at the grandmother. "Hey!" she said, jogging over. Bruno's grandmother smiled at her. "Ah, Summer. To what do I owe the pleasure?" Mitsue asked, Summer looked at the Yo-Kai Watch and back at the elderly woman. "I want a few books on Yo-kai, if you don't mind." Summer said, Mitsue smiled at her. "I hope they are for that brother of yours, always talking about how all this is crazy yet he stays with us." Mitsue chuckled, Summer chuckled back as the elderly woman walked inside. Mitsue had wrinkles all around her face, yet for someone her age, she looked nice. Summer thought that at least, her hair was gray but she dressed up like someone important, like a sorcerer. She had a green, black, and red hakama with wooden shoes which were best described as geta. As the elderly woman left, she took notice of Komasan looking at her. Komasan was completely white, and looked a lot like a big dog. He has fiery blue eyebrows and the same blue flames were by his front paws. His eyes were always closed, yet he could see very well. He also didn't walk like the others, he hovered off the ground, similar to Whisper.

"Here you go dear." Mitsue said, stacking four big books onto Summer's hands. Summer struggled to adjust to the weight, but she managed. "Thank you! Goodnight!" Summer said, walking away. Mitsue simply waved back while she patted Komasan on the head once again. The walk home was a bit hard but she made it. "I'm home!" she said, closing the door and slipping off her shoes, all the while still carrying the books. "Wow, quite a lot of books you have there." Her mom said, the ponytail in the back of her head tied tightly with a pink band. "Yeah, forgot I had a school project on something that's fiction and decided to do Yo-kai." Summer said. "Oh really? Interesting, your father used to know a lot about that stuff, maybe you can ask him." Mom said, looking back at the TV. It was on the weather channel, the forecast was supposedly supposed to be really good this weekend. That was good, only a few more days until summer and the weather was already getting nice. "I might be up a little late studying." Summer started making her way up the stairs. "Alright, but not too late though, I'm making eggs in the morning." Mother said, "Sounds good!" Summer replied back, making it up the stairs. Tate was leaning on the railing with a smug smile on his face. Summer frowned at him, "What's your deal?" she asked. "I thought you believed in Yo-kai and used that dumb watch of yours." Tate said, walking Summer to her room.

"I still do, I just can't tell mom that I'm researching the watch. Imagine what she would say if I told her 'I'm trying to learn who created my watch that helped me save lives from people who have tried to kill me on multiple occasions'." Summer told her little brother. "Yeah… but I'm watching you, and I will pull you out of that cult." Tate said, hugging his sister's arm. "Not a cult." Summer said with a smile as she entered her room. She placed the books down on her bed and grabbed one of them. "Well, these won't get to reading themselves." Summer grabbed one of the books and began to start reading. She felt time fly by her as she read the books, information entered her brain as she read about all of these interesting Yo-kai. There were more yo-kai out there than there were hands on her fingers. There was another cat Yo-kai similar to Jibanyan called Shogunyan, a woman similar to Blizzaria called Damona. There was also someone who could control the weather called Hare-onna. It was all interesting, but she wasn't exactly into all of this right now. What she wanted to know was who created the Yo-kai Watch? She flipped through countless pages, reading every word. She went through multiple books and found nothing that led to any clues on who created this dumb watch. Not even a hint on what the design meant? It certainly wasn't a watch, it couldn't even tell the time. She started flipping through the last book, looking at her alarm clock. It was close to one in the morning. "Wow!" she whispered loudly, she really lost track of time. She wanted to sleep, but she was already flipping through the last book. As she read through the pages, this one was definitely more interesting, as it was talking about Yo-kai in the past. Summer now realized that she didn't really know much about the Yo-kai in the past, and why would she? It was the past, of course they have been around for a while, but nothing could change drastically in thirty years, right? Summer took that thought out of her mind as she came across a passage that even had its own illustration.

"There was once a legendary master of Yo-kai, being able to communicate and make friends with them. He did this with the power of the Yo-Kai Watch. With this power and all the friends he made, he was able to bring peace to both the human and yo-kai realms. But as the boy grew up, he lost the ability to see Yo-kai. As for the watch, it threatened the lives of both Yo-kai and humans, and thus, had to be destroyed."

There were a few drawings that went along with it. All of them piqued Summer's interest. The drawing at the bottom of the page resembled an actual watch, with a hand that was at the halfway point of ten and eleven o'clock and a hand at the halfway point between two and three o'clock. It had a wrist strap and what looked like a dome over it. It was an interesting design, meaning that there was a Yo-Kai Watch completely different from the Yo-Kai Watch Arcane and the Yo-Kai Watch Ogre. The second picture was of her watch, but drawn crudely. It had to be drawn by Bruno considering next to it is handwriting that said "Summer wears this!" the thirteen year old girl couldn't help but giggle at the drawing. She then took a peak at the third drawing and frowned. There was something familiar about the boy in the picture. He had spiky hair, specifically three spikes in his hair. On the stomach of the boy was a star and on his wrist was the Yo-Kai Watch. Summer tapped the desk as she tried to figure out who this person was. It was so familiar to her but at the same time, it was alien to her. She tapped her fingers on the desk to try and figure out exactly who this is. She tapped her cheek a few times with her index finger before it came to her.

It was her brother, Tate! He had spiky hair!

Summer got up from the desk and held the book in her hands, quietly tiptoeing out the door and into the hallway. She could hear her parents sleeping not far from her room so she had to be extra quiet. She moved over to Tate's room, he was snoring. Summer could hear it through the door. She silently opened the door to not wake her parents, the snoring got louder as she made her way into her brother's room. The room was decorated like her father's old room back at his old house. There was a globe on his desk and a stack of books to which Summer thought was his homework. There was a closet right next to her and a good few feet away from her was a balcony, and right in front of her was Tate's bed. Tate was sleeping soundly on the bed. His back was turned to her so she could only see his back. He was sleeping in his racecar bed, which he had since he was four. He loved that bed even now, Tate was sleeping soundly, almost kinda cute. Summer walked over and poked him on the cheek. "Tate… Tate…" she whispered, continuing to poke him on the cheek. Tate awoke, but you could tell he was still sleepy. His eyes were squinted and his hair was messy. But he still had the spike in his hair. "What?" he mumbled, drool spilled from his mouth and went down his chin. Summer frowned, opening the book once again. She left a bookmark in her place to make sure she could see the picture once again. She looked at the picture, and then back at Tate… and then back at the picture and back at her brother again. "Nevermind, go back to sleep." Summer said, Tate almost fell off his bed in anger. "That's why you woke me up?" Tate almost yelled, jumping off the bed. The girl sighed and turned to her brother, showing him the book. "I thought the legendary Yo-kai master was you, seeing as how he has spikes in his hair." Summer said, showing Tate the picture. Tate squinted at the picture, while poking the spikey point in his hair. "You're right, he does look similar." Tate said, holding his chin with his hand. He scratched his chin as he paced around the room trying to think. A thought came to his mind, "I know!" he almost yelled, but kept it down because he could wake up his parents. "Follow me." Tate whispered, the two children snuck downstairs and over to a shelf in the living room. This was where the family photos were kept, they were of Summer and Tate, along with their friends. But there were also photos that belonged to their parents with people they didn't recognize much. Of course there was Uncle Bear and Eddie, who weren't really their uncles but were very close friends with their parents, especially during birth. Then there was some purple haired girl that had glasses that neither Tate nor his sister knew, and it seems their parents didn't know. They said it must have been a photobomber or something like that.

What Tate was most interested in was the two people in the middle, or more exactly, the one person. The two people in the middle of the picture were their parents. Nathan Adams and Katie Forester. Both of them were around the age of twelve when the picture was taken. Mom still had her ponytail, but now it was being held up by a pink bow. She had a teal jacket on with a black and white striped undershirt. She was wearing jean shorts and had one leg in the air while the other leg was keeping her on the hands were clasped together and up by her face, her mouth was open with a smile. Meanwhile, their father was striking a much more average pose except for one thing. He had his left arm raised for some reason. Tate grabbed the photo and pointed at the spikes in the hair. Summer looked at the photo and back at the book. "Oh my god…" Summer said, the hair was a perfect match. Now she didn't want to jump to conclusions, maybe it was just similar hairstyles, people had that. But it was still odd nonetheless, and the way he was holding up his left arm. She then looked down at her own left arm and realized, the Yo-Kai Watch was on her left wrist. Could father have owned a Yo-Kai Watch on his own left wrist?

The next morning:

"YOUR FATHER IS THE LEGENDARY YO-KAI MASTER?!"

Summer covered her ears as Bruno screamed at the top of his lungs. Cole looked at her with curiosity. "Well… that's the theory." Summer said, placing the book down on the table and opening to the page of the legendary Yo-kai master. She used a picture of her father in the past that she found in her attic. Thankfully there were more pictures of him and mom in the attic. She said she needed them for a scrapbook for another school project. They were so happy about it that she might have to actually make a scrapbook now just to make them happy. But the scrapbook can wait, right now she was more focused on the theory she had. She placed the two pictures side by side. This one was of his father standing in a big open area right next to a tree. Once again, his left arm was raised up like he was showing something off. "See, look at the hair, they match." Summer said. "That's… a coincidence." Cole said. "But look at the photo, he is clearly showing off something on his left arm. So what if?" Summer grabbed a marker and made a crude drawing of a watch and labeled it "Yo-Kai Watch!" on the side. Bruno was amazed, it was all lining up. "Interesting theory!" Whisper said, popping into the picture. Sly did too, looking at the crude drawings. "Miss Summer, what amazing drawing skills you have!" Sly said, staring at the picture with his one and only eye. "There is one fatal flaw in your logic however, Summer." Whisper said, getting closer to the human girl, who was now backing up to the couch. "Hmmmmmmmm… Jii finds him average. Not legendary!" Junior said, looking at the picture. Summer was about to retort when she got a text alert on her phone. She pulled it out and stared at it. "Huh, it's from Isabelle." she said, looking at the phone. Bruno gasped, running over to look at Summer's phone. There was another text directly after. "At the park. Come quick!" the first message said, the second message was what interested both Bruno and Summer. "Yo-kai related." Bruno said the second message out loud. Everyone looked at Summer, who was just staring blankly at the phone, what could be going on at a time like this? Nevertheless, it was their job as the Yo-kai detective agency to investigate anything Yo-kai related. So before long, they packed up and made their way to the park, where they found Isabelle. Bruno's face got red as Isabelle ran up to them, her light-ish brown hair traveling behind her tied up in pigtails. "You made it!" she said smiling. Bruno jumped in front of Summer and said "Of course we did, we will always help members of the Yo-kai detective agency!" Bruno said, Isabelle giggled before looking back. The problem is right over there.

Summer looked around to see if anything was there… but there wasn't. She then resorted to using the Yo-Kai Watch and instantly found it… it wasn't a Yo-kai though. "Sorry, but considering most people ran by it and some even smacked into it, I assumed this was Yo-kai related." Isabelle said. Summer looked at the thing, it looked to be more like a door. The coloring on it was colorful, pink and purple on the left side and green and blue on the right side. In the middle appeared to be a blue flame. "Is it a… door Yo-kai?" Cole asked, walking up to the door. Nothing happened, even when he knocked on the door. The detective agency plus Tate made their way up to the door and started messing with it. "Hey… maybe we shouldn't mess with something that isn't ours." Tate said, trying to get the entire detective agency to back off. "The door… has a familiar pattern on it. I can't quite figure it out though." Whisper said, investigating it from behind. Summer put her ear to the door and it was almost like she could hear voices, but they were faint and muffled.

Just what was this thing?

A/N: Imma be honest, I had no clue why I just decided to not make anything after Episode 15 canon to this AU or whatever you wanna call it. I knew that I didn't want to have the whole Princess subplot, not because I find it dumb, rather I just didn't think it would work here with how different Shadowside is from the original anime series. Nate and co are already going to lose their minds when they find out about possession summons, the Light and Shadow sides, and (as the English translations call it) Celestial disks. I don't know if he would handle his own daughter being a reincarnation of a princess. I really should have just stopped when they introduced Komajiro but I guess that means some chapters will have Nate and co interacting with the Shadowside World so I guess that's cool. Not really much else to add. Forever Friends won't be the next chapter, that won't come into play for a bit actually. But hey, thanks for reading, glad to know there are still people out there who care for Yo-Kai Watch like I do!