Normal Saturday with My Completely Normal Friend
Chapter 2
On Saturday morning Nate and his friends had gathered in the living room of Nate's home before they would go to town. Of all the people present only Nate knew that Whisper and Jibanyan too were in the living room, waiting to leave with humans.
"So, Nate," Eddie said while sitting on the sofa, "who's this friend of yours? You've never mentioned him to us before."
"Yeah. What kind of person he is?" Katie, who was sitting next to Eddie, inquired curiously.
"Well…" Nate, who was standing next to the sofa, began thoughtfully, thinking for a moment how to describe Lord Enma. "He looks a little scary but he's actually pretty casual and friendly. Of course he can get mad if somebody angers him but he also calms down quickly."
"Is he coming soon?" asked Bear who was sitting on the other side of Eddie. "I want to go already."
"Or have you agreed to meet him somewhere else?" Katie asked.
Nate's eyes widened a little bit. "I knew I forgot to check something," he chided himself in his thoughts.
Nate was planning to make up an excuse to go and ask from Whisper what they had agreed on the meeting place, when his mother suddenly asked from the kitchen: "Is something wrong, Nate? You fell silent suddenly."
"Oh no! Nothing is wrong," Nate assured quickly.
"Good. Since you haven't left yet, you can take the trash out," Mrs. Adams told as she rose a trash bag in her hand.
"Yes, mom," Nate replied obediently as he walked into the kitchen and took the trash bag from his mother before heading towards the entry.
After he had put on his shoes in the entry, Nate stepped to the door while thinking to himself: "I really hope that Lord Enma hadn't been waiting for us for a long time somewhere-"
Nate's thoughts were interrupted when he opened the door and almost ran into Lord Enma's human form. For a moment the user of the Yo-kai Watch and the king of the Yo-kai World were just staring at each others in surprise, Nate's hand on the door handle and the trash bag in the other hand and Enma's finger raised towards a doorbell.
Finally Enma broke the silence. "Hi."
"Hi," Nate replied, looking still surprised, before he snapped out of it. "Hold on. You know where I live?"
A small smile rose on Enma's face as he lowered his hand. "A little bird told me if you get my hint," he told.
"Oh… I get it," Nate admitted.
Enma glanced at the trash bag Nate was holding. "Are you going to take that with you on the town?"
"What? No! Mom just asked me to take it out before we leave."
"I was just kidding."
"Alright. Just wait for a moment that I've taken care of this and then we can go to tell my friends that we're ready to leave soon."
Enma nodded and Nate hurried towards the garbage can in the yard of his home.
"Okay, guys. My friend came," Nate announced as he returned into the living room with Enma following him.
Mrs. Adams and Nate's friends turned to face the boys. Their eyes widened slightly when they saw the human form of the king of the yo-kai.
"Oh… You haven't introduced me this friend of yours before, Nate," Mrs. Adams stated, studying Enma with unsure expression.
"Yeah. I haven't had a chance to introduce him before," Nate explained.
Enma stepped in front of Mrs. Adams and stretched out his hand with a polite smile. "Emmanuel Underwood," he introduced himself.
Enma's polite gesture seemed to break the ice since Mrs. Adams' unsure expression changed to a small smile as she grabbed the outstretched hand. "Lily Adams, Nate's mother."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Adams," Enma said friendly as they shook hands.
Nate's friends had followed the situation curiously and now they got up from the sofa to gather around the others.
Eddie stopped next to Nate. "You weren't exaggerating when you said that he looks scary," he whispered.
"You'll see soon that he's a good guy," Nate assured while watching Bear and Katie introduce themselves to Enma before Nate announced to everybody: "I'll go wash my hands and then we can leave."
After washing his hands and saying goodbye to his mother, Nate and his friends – both human and yo-kai friends – stepped out from the house.
"So… Where are we going first?" Enma asked.
"To the game store, of course!" Bear announced eagerly.
"Actually, guys…" Eddie said suddenly with awkward expression as he rose a novel in his hand. "Dad asked me to return this book he loaned. So would it be okay to you guys if we make a quick visit to the city library first?"
Nate and others glanced at each others.
"I'm okay with that," Katie stated.
"Of course you guys can go to the game store without me. I'll catch you up later," Eddie offered.
"But what if you miss something cool? It would be upsetting to all of us," Bear noted.
Nate turned his head to face Enma. "What do you say?" he asked.
"Visiting the library wasn't on my mind when we agreed on this day but it's better to take care of before it's accidentally forgotten," Enma replied.
"Alright. Sounds like everybody agree," Nate concluded.
His friends nodded and together they began walking towards the city library.
Nate, Whisper, Jibanyan and Enma lagged a little bit behind the others and Nate used this chance to lean closer the yo-kai king and whisper to him: "Just you know that my friends and family don't know anything about the existence of the yo-kai. So if such a situation arises where a yo-kai is involved, behave like there's nothing supernatural going on. And don't reveal your powers."
"Got it," Enma replied.
"One more thing," Nate said. "'Emmanuel Underwood'? This is first time I hear you using that kind of name."
Enma shrugged. "Zazel said that if I'm going to visit the human world, I have to use a humanly plausible alias."
It didn't take them long to arrive at the library but then a little problem occurred there.
"No way," Eddie groaned as he saw a piece of paper on the library's self-service returning machine announcing that the machine was out of order. "Now I need to find a librarian to handle the return."
"Why don't you just leave the book at the librarian's desk?" Bear asked.
"Dad has said that if you can't use the machine, you have to take your loans to the librarian to make sure that the returning really happens," Eddie explained.
Just then their classmate Shelly happened to walk by while carrying some books in her arms.
"Oh, hi everybody," she greeted, gaining their attention.
"Hi, Shelly!" Katie greeted cheerfully.
"Are you looking for books for our literature essay?" Shelly asked after walking to them.
Nate and Bear's eyes widened in shock.
"Oopsie…" Nate muttered under his breath.
"I forgot that…" Bear groaned.
Eddie and Katie gave them a look that said that they weren't surprised at all.
"The due date for the essay is next Thursday. If you want, I can-" Shelly said before she noticed Enma standing next to them. "Uummm… hi?"
Enma smiled politely to Shelly. "Hi."
Neither of them said anything else, so Whisper leaned closer his young master. "You know what, Nate? It would be polite to introduce Lord Enma to your other classmates as well," the yo-kai butler instructed.
"I got it already," Nate whispered to him before he addressed Shelly: "Shelly, this is my friend Emmanuel. Emmanuel, this is my classmate Shelly."
"It's nice to meet you," Enma said casually.
"L-Likewise…" Shelly replied awkwardly while avoiding his eyes.
When a tense silence fell between them for a moment, Eddie asked from Shelly: "Have you seen the librarian anywhere? I have to get this book returned."
Shelly snapped her attention briefly at Eddie before thinking for a moment. "If I remember correctly, I saw one of them in the adult fiction section," she told finally.
"Okay, thanks," Eddie said and turned to face his friends. "I'll be back soon," he stated before heading towards the aforementioned section.
When Nate turned his attention back at Shelly and saw that she seemed still uncomfortable with Enma, he said good-naturedly: "You don't need to be afraid of Emmanuel. He's really nice."
Shelly lifted her face with startled expression. "Ah… I'm sorry! I didn't mean to be rude!" she explained hastily.
"Don't worry. I don't judge you," Enma replied with a wave of his hand.
"I'm still sorry," Shelly assured quickly before she sighed. "Excuse me but I have to go now. I know that you have other plans for today and I don't want to hold you back."
"Alright. See you in the school," Katie said.
"Yes. See you," Shelly replied before she walked towards the library's door, giving a quick greeting to Lucas who had just entered the library.
"Shelly's a little shy. She means no harm by it," Katie explained to Enma while offering a comforting smile.
"I understand," Enma replied.
"Hi, guys," Lucas greeted them as he stopped by the others.
"Oh, hi Lucas," Nate greeted him jovially as he and others turned their attention at their another classmate.
"I don't usually see you guys together in the library. What's going on?" Lucas asked.
"We're waiting for Eddie. He's returning his dad's loan," Bear explained as he pointed with his thumb vaguely in the direction of where Eddie had gone.
"I see. By the way, have you-" Lucas began when he suddenly noticed Enma. "Oh, hi."
"Hi," Enma replied while staring at him calmly but somehow expectantly.
Lucas returned his gaze silently before his eyes suddenly widened.
While Enma and Lucas stared at each others in silence, Nate, Bear, Katie, Whisper and Jibanyan followed the situation wordlessly.
"Uumm… Is something wrong? Why did they suddenly engage in a staring contest with each others?" Bear asked with worried expression.
"I don't know…" Katie replied unsurely.
Jibanyan looked up at his human partner. "Aren't those two related, Nyate?"
Nate's eyes widened in realization. "That's right. I almost forgot that Lord Enma is Lucas' nephew. They also have met each others already," he muttered so quietly that only his yo-kai friends heard him.
Enma and Lucas continued staring at each others for another minute before a friendly smile rose on Lucas' face.
"I think we haven't been introduced yet," Lucas stated.
"Not properly, at least," Enma confirmed as he returned Lucas' smile and held out his hand. "Emmanuel Underwood."
Lucas grabbed his hand and shook it. "Lucas Schiffer."
The others continued looking at the boys, feeling that whatever had been between them was now settled.
"Wow. Looks like Emmanuel and Lucas have already befriended," Katie commented jovially.
"Apparently Lucas is able to identify Lord Enma despite his disguise. It must be an Enma clan thing," Whisper deduced.
"Seems like it," Nate stated with a smile.
"It's great and all but…" Bear noted while glancing around, "what's taking Eddie so long? Are all librarians at lunch or something?"
The rest of their group started looking around for their friend but Eddie was nowhere to be seen.
"You're right. It has taken him some time just to return a single book," Nate admitted. "Should we go look for him? Just in case?"
"Sure," Katie replied.
"I can help," Lucas offered, earning grateful smiles from others.
Without saying more their group scattered to search for Eddie.
Enma looked curiously around as he walked past many shelves. He had been in the libraries of his own world, of course, but the library of the human world was still somehow interesting to him in its own way.
"This place is in much better order than the palace's library," Enma commented to himself while letting his eyes roam on the backs of the books.
Suddenly a certain book made the yo-kai king halt and before he knew it Enma had already picked it up from the shelf and studied its cover.
The book's title was written in white letters on the gray covers of the book: Yo-kai: The spirits from our history.
Almost bursting with curiosity Enma began flipping through the book's yellowish pages. He recognized Kyubi, Pallysol, Frostina, Noway… Even Drizzelda was in the book, although her description didn't match the yo-kai Enma knew at all. No wonder Drizzelda had such a low self-esteem.
"Is that book interesting?"
Enma looked up from the book to see that two girls had stopped beside him.
One of the girls had blue hairs with bangs covering her eyes. The second girl had short black hairs and a pair of glasses. Both of them were carrying couple of books in their arms.
Deducing quickly that the girls weren't threat, Enma replied calmly: "Yes. This book deals with a very fascinating topic."
Blue haired girl stepped closer. "May I see it?" she asked politely. "I would like to know what has caught your interest."
Enma gave the book to her and both of girls began studying it. Enma, in turn, happened to notice that the title of the topmost book the girl with glasses carried was The Invisible Life: Reports of Paranormal Activies.
"Ah… I've heard of humans like them who are interested in the things they call 'supernatural'," Enma thought to himself while he felt a smile tugging the edge of his lips.
Enma was aware that most of humans didn't believe in yo-kai anymore but he found a thought of human trying to prove their existence a little amusing since his people were very much real. However, Enma didn't voice his opinion because some Classic yo-kai were still complaining how humans didn't show them respect anymore and he didn't want to offend them.
"I see… Yo-kai. The spiritual beings that were well-known in ancient times," the blue haired girl stated with a smile before both of girls lifted their eyes from the book. "Have you ever seen one?"
"Perhaps I have," Enma replied with a playful smile.
The girls perked up noticeably.
"Tell us more," the girl wearing glasses ordered. "What did you see, where you saw it and what happened?"
Enma didn't have time to reply when a familiar voice said suddenly: "I didn't know that you believe in stuff like that."
Enma and the girls turned their attention in the direction of the voice and saw Eddie walking towards them.
"Oh, it's you, Eddie," the blue haired girl stated.
"Hi, Zoey and Lina," Eddie greeted the girls as he stopped next to Enma.
"You know them?" Enma asked.
"Yeah. They're in the same class as Nate, me and others," Eddie explained.
Zoey turned back towards Enma with curious expression. "I didn't know that you two are friends," she commented.
"My friend Nate introduced us to each other," Enma told.
"Nate?" Lina repeated, sounding surprised. "I didn't know that he has friends like you."
Eddie turned his attention back at Enma. "But honestly, Emmanuel. Do you really believe in yo-kai and other supernatural things?" he asked.
"Why wouldn't I believe?" Enma inquired as he rose one of his eyebrows questioningly.
"Because yo-kai are made-up creatures from the time when the science wasn't yet advanced enough. In the old days, people blamed ghosts and spirits for all their troubles but as the science developed, they understood that their belief was wrong," Eddie explained.
Lina and Zoey snorted audibly, causing Eddie to glance at them with a slight annoyance.
"Why yo-kai and other supernatural things can't exist?" Enma asked from Eddie while straightening his posture, a common habit of his that occured everytime Enma felt that an argument was starting in the council meeting.
"I just told you. There's a reasonable explanation behind everything," Eddie announced.
"Not necessarily," Enma countered calmly. "It's true that people have come up with new solutions for their problems with the help of science but it doesn't mean that there has never been supernatural things."
"I like that guy's way of thinking," Lina commented to Zoey with a smile.
Eddie sighed. "I understand your point of view but it doesn't prove that supernatural things exist either."
"You're right," Enma said amicably, "but that's the main reason why both scientific and supernatural research are done; so that we can discover and study new sides of the things that interest us. We don't know what we'll find out before we study them further and that's what makes researching them so interesting." Enma stopped talking for a moment to relax his posture. "I believe in supernatural but I'm also interested in the development of science and technology because by following them I can keep my mind open to different ideas and get to know new people and new enviroments and understand them better. Don't you agree that the life is much funnier and more fascinating when you don't stubbornly stick to one single thought pattern and focus on living only according to it?"
Eddie fell silent for a moment with thoughtful expression. "Well… I guess I can't argue with that," he stated finally.
"Eddie! Emmanuel!" Nate's voice called.
Both boys and girls turned to in the direction of approaching Nate and Lucas who were followed by Whisper and Jibanyan.
"There you two are," Nate said before he focused his attention to the girls. "Hi, Lina and Zoey. I see that you've already met my friend Emmanuel."
"Hi to you too, Nate and Lucas," Zoey greeted them.
"Actually we haven't really gotten to know him properly yet," Lina informed. "So if you could give us a moment to talk about his yo-kai sighting, we would be grateful."
Nate and his yo-kai friends' mouths dropped open while Lucas' eyes widened in surprise. Luckily Enma's voice saved the situation.
"I would love to share my experience but we have already planned to go elsewhere after Eddie has taken care of his return," Enma told the girls.
The girls stared at him with disappointed expressions.
"It's pity," Zoey sighed.
"But of course we understand," Lina replied.
"I'm grateful for that," Enma thanked politely.
"But you know," Zoey said as she lifted the yo-kai book in her hand, "if you aren't going to take this book, I'll be more than happy to take it."
"Go ahead. I don't even have my library card with me today," Enma stated casually before he turned to face Lucas. "We're going to the game store. Do you want to join us?"
"Thanks for the invitation but I have other plans for today. Maybe some other day," Lucas said.
"I see," Enma replied with a nod.
"But if you ever want to hang out with us, just say," Nate told Lucas good-naturedly.
"I keep that in mind," Lucas replied with a smile.
Enma turned to face the girls once more. "It was nice to meet you two."
"Same here," Lina replied. "And it would be nice to see you again."
Enma shrugged. "Maybe we'll run into each others in town. Who knows?"
"Are you done, Eddie?" Nate asked from him. "If you are, then we can go to look for Bear and Katie and continue our day."
"Of course. Let's go already," Eddie said eagerly.
"Great," Nate stated before addressing the others: "See you guys in the school."
"Yeah," Lucas replied with a smile.
With a quick wave of hand Nate, Enma, Eddie and their mostly-unseen companions went to find their remaining friends, leaving three other children stare after them.
"Hmmm… That Emmanuel seemed interesting," Lina thought aloud.
"He sounded a little theatrical but my curiosity has already been piqued," Zoey commented before she glanced at Lucas. "How well do you know him?"
"I met him today for the first time," Lucas claimed calmly, which, technically, wasn't a lie. This was Lucas' first time when he met Enma in his human form, after all.
"Alright then," Zoey said with a frown.
"See ya later," Lucas said as he turned and began walking away from the girls. While walking, he thought to himself with a slightly amused smile: "You really know how to leave an impression, Lord Enma."
While Nate and others were looking for their friends, Nate leaned closer to Enma and whispered: "You didn't really reveal them that you're a yo-kai, did you?"
"I did nothing like that," Enma replied calmly. "I told them that I might have seen a yo-kai."
"Thank goodness," Whisper sighed. "I almost lost my hair from sheer fright."
"But you're already bald," Jibanyan noted.
"I can grow hair if I want!" Whisper shouted in annoyance.
Nate ignored his yo-kai friends' bickering and sighed to Enma: "How about we forget the yo-kai topic for now? This day was meant to be reserved for fun and relaxation."
"You're right," Enma agreed with a smile.
"Hey! Bear and Katie are over there!" Eddie said suddenly.
Nate and others turned their attention in Eddie's direction and saw their friends waving at them from the library's door. Without wasting time the boys hurried towards them.
To be continue...
I know that Enma's alias isn't very imaginative considering that the name of his opposite gender reincarnated counterpart character from Y School is Emma Daiouji. But I'm still quite pleased with the alias.
I also want to apologize if my characterization of Nate's classmates isn't spot-on. My source material is limited to games and Yo-kai Watch Wiki.