A dozen story books, all of Shinji's clothes, some bath products, his favorite cutlery, and other typical things for Shinji rattled in the backseat as the young boy looked out the vehicle's window. Fuyutsuki couldn't stop himself from adding several pictures of Yui into Shinji's keepsake box. Of course he included every picture that had Shinji included (especially the embarrassing ones), and a few of Gendo. He didn't want Shinji to not know about his father after all. Just because Gendo didn't want to foster any love with Shinji didn't mean that Fuyutsuki would be comfortable letting the young boy not have anything of his father.

The two ate in the kitchen for the last time as well. He listened to Shinji talk a bit about a few of his favorite memories in the kitchen. About how Yui almost burned Gendo's bento box due to having it too close to the lit stove. The time Shinji poured his first cup of orange juice, only for the cup to be Gendo's coffee cup and the man poured coffee moments later into it without looking. The look on Shinji's face as he laughed about the spill made Fuyutsuki smile. He hoped, by making Shinji remember as many memories as possible, he'll have some good memories to think back on as he lived with whoever Gendo trusted.
He made for Shinji some snacks for the trip which, thankfully, were keeping the young boy content on the long drive. The radio played some music he didn't recognize during their trip, but he'd rather listen to that instead of any somber news about society. Today had already taken enough from him. As they drove further and further away from Tokyo-3 and into rural Japan; however, something felt different. Was it the air seeming cleaner? The vibrant colors of life versus the monotone of modern society? Who could say for sure.

The town they drove to was so small that, upon later investigation, Fuyutsuki would discover was never officially a Tokyo-Listed location. Its name, Hikage no Shūkai, or Shady Coven, is a town with a thousand residents that call it home. Its historical worth to Japan was little other than being a location of many folktales and having a decent fishing industry due to its location next to the ocean. There were only three officially listed schools, a handful of grocery stores and restaurants here, and everyone seemed friendly with each other. Of course, Second Impact and the modernization of Tokyo-3 made the population drop from the tens of thousands to what it currently is.

Driving through the town gave Fuyutsuki an opportunity to get a feel of the town. There was certainly a friendly quality to it, he noted as he noticed many smiling faces and the sound of laughter broke through the white noise from the radio. There were kids playing in a playground near the center of town. Fuyutsuki found himself rolling down his window to take in the smell of fresh produce from the local market.

Damn, he might need to move here himself. Just to keep an eye on Shinji of course.

Eventually, the end of their journey was upon them. The house Fuyutsuki drove upon was a single story, though long with a big yard. The house was yellow with a brown roof and thick tree trunks acted as fencing around the front of the property. A sea of tall, healthy trees enveloped the property from behind gave the house an otherworldly feel. A car was already in the driveway, thankfully, so Fuyutsuki helped Shinji out of his car seat and both made their way to the front door. A few knocks on the door later and he began to worry. Were the residents of the home asleep? Did they walk into town instead of take their car?

"Who are you?" A tall, muscular tan man walked around the left of the property. He only wore a pair of torn carpenter pants and brown leather boots with a sturdy black tool belt around his waist. Much as Fuyutsuki wanted to have some dignity, he couldn't stop himself from gulping a bit before the man.

"Ahem," he coughed a bit to straighten himself up. "I'm Fuyutsuki, Gendo's associate from over the phone. I'm here to help Shinji get adjusted here." The man looked at Shinji with an expression close to apprehension. Shinji, much to the young boy's credit, politely said 'hi' behind Fuyutsuki's leg.

"Ah so he's the scamp huh?" The man bent down to look at Shinji in his eyes. Shinji shook his head, looking down for a split second before, for reasons unknown, made his eyes as wide as possible. Was he trying to intimidate the man? This made the man straighten himself and let out a mighty laugh. "I'm Tetsuya! I was just getting the backyard tidy for you to play with while I have some words with Fuyutsuki here. Would you like to explore the yard a bit? There is a little playground for you."

"A playground?" Shinji whispered with his eyes even wider than moments ago. When the young boy turned to him, Fuyutsuki simply nodded with a smile of his own. Who was he to stop Shinji from having fun on a playground? Plus, all things considered, there must have been things Tetsuya didn't want to discuss in front of the boy. He could respect that.

"Please be careful." With a pat on the boy's back, Shinji made a beeline straight behind the house. A few seconds passed...

"It's so big!" Fuyutsuki and Tetsuya couldn't help but to let out a laugh at the happiness in Shinji's voice. The little pitter-patter of footsteps could be heard as he must have ran through whatever playground was in the backyard. But, much as he wanted to see the playground for himself and take in more of Shinji at his happiest, the look on Tetsuya's face took precedence.

"May I grab Shinji's things?"

"I'll prop the door open for you."

"Thanks." Like night to day, the man's friendliness was gone. Immediately replaced with stern dislike. The next few minutes were spent disconnecting Shinji's car seat and grabbing his packed boxes to place by the front door. Once the car was double checked for belongings and locked, Fuyutsuki finally took his first steps into the house. The living room was immaculate with not a single spec of dust to be seen. Their walls were busy with pictures of many kinds. A large auburn couch with a matching loveseat were adjacent from each other with a rustic iron table made of a rusty red. There seemed to be a few objects for a child scattered through the space. A coloring book near the cabinets parallel to the entryway to the kitchen, and a chest of large blocks near the table for example. Did they have a kid of their own?

"Leave the car seat by that table. Then follow me." Fuyutsuki didn't have many opportunities to observe the walls as he followed Tetsuya through their house. A sense of deja vu hit him as, just hours ago, he did something similar at the Ikari home. The room he was led to was pretty bare. A typical twin size bed sat on top of a black metal frame with chipped paint sat in the middle of the room with a matching dresser and a bookshelf beside the bed. A light brown wooden table with matching chair were shoved against the far right corner of the room next to the only window of the room. There were a few shelves built into the walls at various spots, but there was nothing else to note.

"Is there some place you want me to put it?" Tetsuya grabbed the box from Fuyutsuki without a word. It took great control to keep his face still from the rudeness of this man. Tetsuya placed the box on the table and turned back with a glare.

"I get that you're doing your job for Gendo, but please shut the fuck up." The man shook his head and walked past him without another word. The coldness crawled up Fuyutsuki's spine as he followed the man back to the living room. Tetsuya gestured to the love seat before he sat down on the couch.

"Look..." Fuyutsuki began as he sat down on the couch. "Maybe we started off on the wrong foot. I don't want things to be hard for Shinji. Things-" Tetsuya loudly tapped his foot on the floor. The hardwood flooring made the action sound similar to a hammer.

"Don't bring that boy into this when my wife and I are still..." Tetsuya paused and looked at him. He looked at him with a puzzled expression. Was there something on him? Fuyutsuki didn't dare to look around himself to see if he could spot the oddity. "You really don't know?" Tetsuya laughed and shook his head. "Gendo, that bastard, is scum. Couldn't even bring his own kid!" On the one hand, he understood that Gendo should have brought Shinji to Tetsuya himself. Gendo, in all honesty, should have kept Shinji with him so the father and son could grow through the incident and become healthier from it. Leaving Shinji to this unknown stranger was a scum move. There was no denying that.

But hearing this man, by proxy, insulting Yui? That was something Fuyutsuki could not stand.

"Gendo and Shinji just witnessed losing Yui in a terrible accident. Gendo is dealing with trauma in his own way right now."

"My wife and I are still dealing with the death of our son not even a month ago!" Color drained as his blood went cold. Of all the things to ask from a person... "So you can understand why this is a little hard to do right? To JUST PRETEND that things are fine when there hasn't been any time to heal. If we can even heal from our own trauma!" Tetsuya brought both of his hands to his forehead as he leaned his head down to stare at the floor. "I don't even know if my wife got my message or not. She works as one of the teachers here. Can you imagine, being someone who has to stare at children who are unappreciative of the love their parents give. To breathe air that our kid no longer gets to have!" Tetsuya, at this point, was screaming into his hands. The man's fingers bulged as they dug into his own head. Would the man make himself bleed?

"I can't say I understand what you're going through to the same capacity." Fuyutsuki started off as a whisper. "I'm handing you the last piece of my favorite student. Someone who I just spoke to hours ago. Someone whose house is being demolished and every little part of her is gone save for everything Shinji and I could take with us. I'm not even sure if Gendo will even allow me to see Shinji after today." Tetsuya looked at him with eyes not quite wide in horror, but hollow in understanding. To what extent, Fuyutsuki would never know, but he pressed on. He didn't care at this point. He felt his own feelings spilling out of him. "Am I asking you to pretend that you and your wife are fine with this? No, not to each other. Shinji is a smart child. He'll understand that you two need space just as much as he does. But he needs to understand that this place is safe. His asshole of a father would not provide that for him! Yet here I am, practically begging, for you to take care of him where I can not!"

The sound of crumbled stones caught Fuyutsuki's attention for a moment before something shifted in the air. An uncomfortable heat, followed by a loud, intense slam and heavy footsteps came from the front door.

"GENDO, YOU BASTARD!"

To Shinji, being stuck in Fuyutsuki-san's car for so long made his legs sore. He didn't have his mom to cuddle with anymore, or a daddy to comfort him. He knew that he didn't like how that felt. The big weirdness of not having a mom or a dad anymore was upsetting and awkward. So, seeing the wooden playground behind the house with a large yellow slide, monkey bars to swing from, and a few swings was amazing. It is a great way to stretch the soreness away!

The wooden playground smelled fresh and alive, unlike the cold metal rods of the playgrounds he went to in Tokyo-3. He felt as if someone kept pushing him down the slide to make him go super fast! A pair of hands that kept him steady to reach each monkey bar without falling! He ran round and round the playground as fast as he could, pretending he was the fastest boy alive! He turned to look around for him mom and dad...

"Oh." Shinji stopped running, slowing down to a pause and noticed a weird pile of rocks a bit away from the playground. Curious, he walked over to the pile. As he got closer, he heard the sound of water bubbling and something splashing moments before he made it over to the rocks. Before him was a large, clear pond full of large, dark green lily pads slowly floating on the water's surface. He could see dozens of koi fish swimming in a school around the edge of the pond, a dance of nature as mom would tell him.

"Oh." Shinji shook his head and sat on a smooth, gray boulder near the edge of the pond. He looked down, staring at himself and realized that he had been crying for who knows how long. His hair was a mess of curls, as if he ran hands through it to grab at something. His eyes were tinted red with puffy splotches of pink on his cheeks. He was sad. So very sad, and didn't know what to do with no one to talk to. Fuyutsuki was inside talking to Tetsuya and moving his stuff in. So Shinji didn't want to bother either of them with how he felt. A shimmer of white and purple caught Shinji's attention from himself. It bobbled up and down under him, as if trying to reach for his face. It looked like a mushroom with a thick purple stalk, but it weirdly looked familiar to him. But what could it be?

"Ta."

"Hmm?" What had he heard?

"Ta-ta, Taaaaaattlllleeeee!" A pair of very long arms tried to grab his face with its mouth opened wide in frustration. A name spoken in his mother's voice surged through Shinji in that moment. Eyes wide, he looked down and saw, for the first time, something his mom would describe to him many times before.

"A Yo-kai." The Yo-kai froze, arms shaking like branches struggling against the strong wind as it tried its best to not stare at him. It was a Yo-Kai his mom warned him about many times. It was known as a nasty prankster that made victims say the truth no matter how silly or hurtful the truth could be. "You're Tattletell!" As if broken by a spell, the Yo-kai suddenly fell into a ball on the ground by his feet. The Yo-Kai immediately began rolling from side to side, yelling something in the language only it knew. "Oh I'm a huge fan!"

"Tattle-wattle?" The Yo-kai stood straight with shock on its face. Shinji nodded his small head, pointing at himself.

"My mom taught me a ton about Yo-kai, and now I get to see one for the first time! Thanks for letting me see you! Oh, I have so many questions! Like, what do you eat? Where do you sleep? Do you sleep? Do you like to drink tea or coffee? Where, where are you going!" Tattletell suddenly took off past the pond, and Shinji found himself running several steps behind the little Yo-kai. Tattletells were supposed to be elderly Yo-kai, but it certainly made him feel slow with how fast it was! Maybe he shouldn't have ran so many times around the playground earlier.

Soon, Shinji noticed that the wide, trimmed backyard of his new home was replaced with a barrier of strong, thick trees and the cloak of shadows from their wide grasp far as he could see. Aside from the Tattletell he was chasing of course. It ran through what seemed was the only lighted path to follow, and Shinji was not going to lose it now! No matter how many branches it broke, Shinji swerved side to side, avoiding the falling debris the small Yo-kai tried to send his way. It tried, once more, to send a big, thick branch with tons of tiny branches his way. However, despite how strong Tattletell must have been, the thick branch was too strong for the Yo-kai, and flung it deeper into the forest. Not wanting to give up, Shinji ran through the last few meters through the forest, partially blinded by the sudden brightness...

"...Woah." A graveyard with tombstones faced him with an odd shimmer of something otherworldly. The trees behind him were healthy and green with thick, brown bark; and yet, from where the first tombstones stood to where an unusual sight laid, the ground held no life. Just brittle, dead grass that, with every step, crunched beneath his feet. Excitement pumped through him as Shinji took each step. The unusual sight, with each step, began to look something very familiar to him.

"When I was a little girl..." his mom's words held him in an embrace, "I remember my first time seeing it. I was looking around the forest for some mushrooms for my mother's stew. I swore that mushrooms popped up in a row guiding me deeper into the forest. Whispers in the wind followed my steps as I went into the center of the forest. There, in the middle of clearing was a machine I only heard about from my friends who went to Tokyo, sitting on top of a mossy stone with the biggest mushroom I had ever seen encased around it. There, before my very eyes, was what I would learn was the-"

"Crank-a-Kai..." The boulder the Crank-a-Kai sat on had cracked long ago, its thick, white rope torn, stained, and brushing against the ground. The Crank-a-Kai itself seemed to be made of obsidian with its glass tinted blue. There, behind the mysterious gashapon machine, was a gigantic dead tree with sharp branches that almost seemed to reach out towards Shinji. Seeing the legendary artifact from mom's lessons made Shinji excited. He didn't see Tattletell anywhere, but that didn't matter as he approached the artifact. Upon getting close to artifact, Shinji could see how much dust settled on it. "How long has this been here?" Shinji muttered to himself as his hand brushed against the center knob.

Oh.

OH.

OH!

Shinji immediately dug his hands through his pockets. He felt a toy car, a piece of fruity hard candy Fuyutsuki gave Shinji for being a good boy during breakfast, a toy soldier... Yes! He pulled out a 500 Yen coin and felt his cheeks pull in what was probably the biggest smile he ever had today. He put the coin in the offering slot and turned the knob. He wondered what Yo-Kai he would obtain from the legendary artifact. His mom told him many stories of her first Yo-Kai friend and the many adventures they did. The times she got into trouble thanks to the Yo-Kai she dealt with. It made him wonder if the Yo-Kai he released would be as cool as his mom's first.

The capsule dropped out of the machine. The capsule, though covered in dust, was bright pink. Charming tribe? Shinji couldn't stop himself from picking up the capsule and began to pull it apart. The brightest light appeared above him, the language of the Yo-Kai danced around him as he felt something within him open. Then, as sudden as the mystic moment appeared, it suddenly shrank into a form that stood as tall as him. It had blonde hair with a pair of cat-like ears where the tip of its ears were orange. It wore a pink kimono with a light blue sash around its waist, though it did nothing to hide its short, thick tail with the tip of its tail was orange like its ears. It opened its eyes, revealing the brightest magenta eyes ever. Not even cartoons could match how bright they were!

"Hi, I'm..."