and a dark net has closed around me.
[Stockholm, 8. 8. 1960]
There are so many friendly hearts and hands about us. See, please, how close they are, how many they are!
Yet it is light again -- the net, the dark one, has gone away -- hasn’t it, Nelly, you see it now, you see that you are in the open, in the light, with us, among friends?
Yes, you see it, Nelly, as I do, as we do: we can breathe and exist unimpeded, you and we and the many friends all about us.
And I can see the words waiting for you, Nelly, the words that you will inspirit with yourself and the rays of your new clarity -- to the joy of us all
Paris, on August 9, 1960
I am not in the open yet, Paul, the net of fear and terror that they threw over me hasn’t yet been raised ... I hope to overcome all the pain that awaits me or to find quiet release, I long so much for my beloved dead ones.
[Stockholm, 8. 16. 1960]
thanks, heartfelt thanks for your letter! You are still in such distress and you find, you dear, you still find words -- no, word-gifts for us!
Nelly, dear one! I can see that the net is still there, it can’t be taken away by the wave of a hand...And yet: it can be removed, it can and should be removed, for the sake of all those to whom you know you are near, for the sake of your nearness, of your living nearness! You have your hands, you have the hands of your poems, you have Gudrun’s hands -- take, please, take ours as well! And take whatever is a hand and wants to be helpful and remain helpful through you, through your being, through your being-there, and being-at-one-with-yourself and being-at-one-with-yourself-in-the-open, take it, please, let it be there, by virtue of this being-able-to-come-to-you-today-and-tomorrow-and-for-a-long-time!
I think of you, Nelly, always, we are always thinking of you and the life you have bestowed! Do you still remember, when we spoke for the second time of God, in our house, the one that is yours, that awaits you, how a golden light shimmered on the wall? Through you, through your nearness, such things become visible, there is need of you, need of you on behalf of those to whom you feel and think you are near, need of your being-here and being-among-people, there is need of you for a long time yet, your gaze is sought after -- : send it, this gaze, back into the open, send your true, freedom-bringing words with it, entrust yourself to it, entrust that gaze to us, who also live, who live-with-you, let us who are already free be the freest of all, the ones standing-with-you-in-the-light!
Look, Nelly: the net is being drawn away! Look, Nelly: there is Gudrun’s hand, she has helped, she is helping! Look, there are other hands helping! Look, yours is helping too! Look: It is getting light, you are breathing, you are breathing freely. You will not be lost to us, I know it, you will not be lost to us, we know it; with all that is near, with all that is near from so far away, you are there and here and at home and with us!
On August 19, 1960
from the Correspondence of Nelly Sachs and Paul Celan, translated by Christopher Clark, edited by Barbara Wiedermann
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Chapter 10: Fusions, Nokos, and Files
When they got to Catfish Pond, they saw that Bear’s fishing stuff was gone, but Bear himself wasn’t there.
“Dang it! We just missed him!”
“Well, he lives in Blossom Heights, so he might just be on his way home. We can try to meet him there or maybe we’ll run into him on our way over.”
“Let’s tell the old man that we solved his cat problem before we go.”
*****
They told the old man that a wild dog had been eating the cat’s food and that they were able to scare it off so it wouldn’t be eating the cat’s food anytime soon. He was thankful at the very least, so he gave them some free talismans, one Speed, one Strength, one Defense, and one Spirit.
“I run a talisman shop here at the shrine, so if you ever need to buy some talismans, just come here.”
They thanked him and went on their way, hoping to run into their friend.
“I just realized something. I don’t have my bug net on me, so even if we did find a Rhino Beetle, I couldn’t catch it.”
“Yeah, neither do I. I guess it just slipped our minds.”
“Well, there’s really no rush for the Rhino Beetle thing. We can find Bear, give him the ring, and explore Blossom Heights for a bit before we head back home.”
“I was actually thinking of going home to put away our fishing poles. We can’t carry these all the time.”
“Well, we can’t exactly take our bug nets everywhere either.”
“Give me the fishing poles. I know where you can put them.”
Curious, Nate and Katie gave their fishing poles to Whisper, who had opened the bottomless bag and pushed them inside.
“Oh, right. I forgot we had that.”
“That’s the beauty of this bag. If you want to, we could run by your houses and pick up your bug nets so it can also be within easy reach. No more having to worry about whether or not you should take the fishing pole or bug net.”
“We really shouldn’t waste too much time. We have to find Bear.”
“Okay, okay. It was just a suggestion.”
“When we have time, we can go by our homes and pick up our nets.
As they walked down the steps, Nate turned to Whisper and asked,
“How are our fishing poles able to get in there? I didn’t think fishing poles or bug nets counted as Yo-kai related items.”
“If a Yo-kai has been in contact with it, then it counts as a Yo-kai related item. Plus, you never know. Maybe there’s another Yo-kai that wants fish or a Yo-kai that needs a bug for something.”
*****
After quickly dealing with a Dimmy inspiriting their classmate Shelly in the schoolyard they rushed to Blossom Heights and found Bear moping in front of the candy shop. Nate slipped his hand into his pocket, pulled out the ring, and the group walked up to Bear.
“Is this the ring you were looking for?”
Bear’s eyes widened as he took the ring out of Nate’s hand.
“How did you find it?!”
“You know those big splashes at Catfish Pond? We think the ring flew out during one of them.”
Bear was too happy to care about asking how the ring had gotten into the pond and after thanking Nate and Katie, he ran back home.
“It’s nice to see him so happy. What should we do now?”
“Go back home and get your bug nets?”
“Okay, but we should come back here to see about getting a new Yo-kai Watch upgrade.”
*****
After running back to their homes and grabbing their bug nets, they happily walked back to Blossom Heights, fighting some Yo-kai along the way and befriending some new Yo-kai, Noway and two Dullumas.
“You’re both making great progress so far with befriending Yo-kai. We should see about befriending some more Yo-kai in Blossom Heights.
“We will after we get the requirements for the new upgrade.”
*****
They walked into Timer’s and More and asked about getting a new upgrade.
“Hold on a minute.”
Mortimer looked through a pile of papers near his work station and found a piece of paper with various names separated into sections labeled with a specific letter.
“Let’s see here…you two need to upgrade from Rank D to Rank C….here we go!”
He wrote something down on another piece of paper and handed it to Whisper.
“Here’s a list of the Yo-kai you need to defeat and where they can be found. I put a little device in your Yo-kai Watches that’ll tell me when you’ve defeated the specific Yo-kai on the list for your upgrade so that you don’t have to worry about proving to me that you battled them. They’ll get reset for every upgrade until you reached Rank S, the highest level of the Yo-kai Watch.”
Whisper looked over the list, which listed the following Yo-kai and their locations:
1. Signibble in the Academy Shortcut.
2. Suspicioni in the alley behind Frostia’s Place
3. Tantroni in the delivery bay south of the arcade.
A look of confusion crossed Whisper’s face.
“Where are these places?”
Nate took the list from Whisper and after reading it, realized where they had to go.
“They’re all in Downtown Springdale. We can probably deal with them tomorrow. We’re not in any rush here.”
After thanking Mr. Goodsight for the information, they walked out of Timer’s and More. Since they were in the area, they decided to check on Bear. He was currently in front of his house, happily humming as he fixed his fishing line. He waved when he saw Nate and Katie.
“Hey, Bear. How did it go?”
“Oh, it went well. Mom was happy about the gift and she just left for her class reunion. I’m in charge of the house until she gets back. Her words, not mine.”
After a few quick words, Nate and Katie said their goodbyes to Bear and went in their way.
“Whisper, what are you looking for?”
Whisper had been looking at his Yo-kai Pad when Nate asked, so he answered,
“There’s a temple around here that Nokos like to hang around. I was thinking of showing you two what a Noko looks like after doing that woman’s quest.”
“Oh, that’s great, Whisper!”
Whisper pointed southwest and said,
“To Shoten Temple!”
*****
“So what does Noko like to eat?”
“Hamburgers. Don’t ask.”
“We have some cheeseburgers, so that’s good.”
“Nokos are hard to find and befriend due to some greedy humans trying to abuse their power of luck for many, many, many years, so try to not be disappointed if you don’t see one on our first visit or can’t befriend one right away.”
The kids nodded as they walked up the steps to the temple and after finding a small alcove to the side of the temple, they slowly walked in to find a small garden and some Yo-kai walking about. They recognized Manjimutt, Mochismo, and Pandle, but they didn’t see any new Yo-kai, a.k.a Noko.
“This is where Nokos are known to hang out, but like I said, they’re hard to find and befriend.”
The kids walked down the steps, deciding to at least try to befriend a few Yo-kai.
*****
It took a couple battles, but they befriended two Mochismos, and a Manjimutt.
“Okay, we may not have seen Noko yet, but at least you have some new friends.”
The kids walked back up the steps and looked at the temple.
“Do you want to check it out?”
“Yeah, I’m a little curious about it. Whisper, if you and Jibanyan want to wait outside, we understand.”
“No, no. This temple is safe for Yo-kai. There’s something special about it. I can feel it.”
The group walked in, not really expecting much. They saw a priest, a crystal ball laying in the corner, and a gong, but that was about it.
What’s so special about this temple?
The priest looked over at the group, having been preoccupied with some papers.
“Oh! Hello, children. I’m Mr. Zen, the priest of Shoten Temple. Why don’t you and your Yo-kai come over and sit down for a bit?”
“Wait, you can see Yo-kai?!”
“Of course. I’m a priest, after all. A very special priest, in fact.”
Whisper muttered,
“Well, it was a monk that imprisoned me, so I’m not really surprised.”
“Relax, my pale friend. I’m much more open-minded. I’ve been studying Yo-kai fusion for quite a while now. Maybe you four would be interested?”
They had nothing better to do, so they sat down and listened to Mr. Zen’s lecture.
“Do you happen to have any Dulluma and Mochismo medals you’re willing to give up?”
The group did, so they handed him the extra medals of the Yo-kai he requested. He took out a box with three holes in the top, dropped one medal in the left side, dropped the other medal in the right side, and covered both holes.
“Okay, now to fuse these medals into a new Yo-kai. Fusion….HA!”
A bright light errupted from the middle hole and when it died down, Mr. Zen reached in the middle hole and pulled out a new medal of a Yo-kai Nate and Katie didn’t recognize.
“Ah, Darumacho. Here you go.”
Mr. Zen tossed the Yo-kai medal to the group and said,
“I can fuse more than just Yo-kai. I can fuse two items together and I can fuse a Yo-kai and an item together. As long as they’re compatible, they’ll fuse with no problem.”
The group thanked Mr. Zen for the example and they left the temple.
“Is there any other fusions we could do?”
Whisper found a long, long list of fusions written by Mr. Zen himself and simply said,
“Yes. Oh! There’s some fusions that Jibanyan could do!”
He showed the group the Jibanyan fusions, Baddinyan and Thornyan.
“Let’s see here…for Thornyan, we would need a Coughkoff and for Baddinyan, we would need a Roughraff.”
“Nyo! I’m nyot fusing with Roughraff!”
The group was startled by Jibanyan’s yell, but they understood why he didn’t want to fuse with Roughraff. After being bullied by one, he wasn’t exactly keen on the idea.
“Well, if we somehow befriend a Roughraff, we promise to keep the two of you separated.”
Jibanyan sighed with relief.
“Thank you. But seriously, I don’t want to be fused.”
“Well, according to the Yo-kai Pad, we might not have to. There are some wild Baddinyans and Thornyans here in Springdale. Their locations are a bit random however, so it might take a while to find them. The point is, we don’t have to worry about fusing Jibanyan.”
Jibanyan seemed satisfied with the answer as Nate looked to the sky.
“Guys, it’s starting to get late. We should make our way back home.”
Jibanyan pointed to the alcove and said,
“I’m pretty sure I saw a shortcut through here.”
“It’s better than nothing. Let’s hurry!”
They rushed to the alcove, only to stop near the stairs when they saw a yellow snake-like Yo-kai hanging around the bushes near the little vegetable garden.
“Whisper? Is that a Noko?”
Whisper nodded as Katie squeaked,
“It’s so cute! How do we befriend the little guy?”
“Well, he might make a break for it if he sees you two, but maybe I can try to talk to him for you.”
Whisper dug through the bag and pulled out a Cheeseburger.
“Wish me luck.”
The kids watched Whisper float down near Noko and give him the burger. They heard the Noko squeak a few times and they tried to hear what Whisper was saying, but his voice was too low to hear. Noko started squeaking more and nodded. Whisper smiled, picked Noko up, and flew up to the group.
“Good news! I convinced Noko to give you two a chance. Here, talk to him.”
Whisper handed Noko to Katie while Nate dug through the bag for the other Cheeseburger and gave it to Noko, who then ate it and gave a satisfied squeak.
“Okay, he seems to like you better.”
“I just wish we had more burgers for you.”
“There’s a Nom Burger in Downtown Springdale we can go to tomorrow while we’re getting the battles for our Rank C upgrade.”
“That’s true. Noko, how do you feel about being friends with us?”
Noko squeaked happily as Whisper said,
“He’s willing to be friends with you two, but he wants to stay here in the alcove. He promises to let the other Nokos in the area know that you two are nice.”
After Noko gave them his medal, they walked Noko over to the bushes and placed him down gently. He gave off a squeak as he burrowed into the bushes. The group then walked through the empty alcove, taking some loose carrots and cucumbers and they found a strange blue door with a large letter D blocking their way to the other side.
“Whisper…what is this door?”
“Watch Lock Door. They’re very annoying and only exist to remind you to upgrade your Yo-kai Watch. Thankfully, we have the proper Rank for this one.”
They flashed the light at the door, making it disappear and they walked until they found themselves near a house. They unlocked the gate from their side, quickly walked through the gateway, and closed it, hoping that the owner didn’t mind them walking through.
They started to head back home and after discussing stuff to do tomorrow, they parted ways, Whisper and Jibanyan going with Nate for the night.
*****
Meanwhile…
The mysterious Yo-kai that had been helping Nate and Katie had been reading a few files, trying to confirm his thoughts.
Let’s see here…Adams and Forester…I know I’ve heard those names before.
“Hello, old friend.”
The mysterious Yo-kai didn’t bother looking up from the file in his hand.
“Hello, Kyubi.”
“What are you doing?”
“There’s some kids that have caught my interest, but I can’t quite figure out why.”
“Here, let me help. I don’t need you pulling another all-nighter. It’s bad enough with the Yo-kai Realm in constant chaos and you trying to keep everything in control after Lord Enma’s passing.”
The mysterious Yo-kai sighed and said,
“I know, I know. But I made a promise to Lord Enma to protect the humans and Mckraken isn’t exactly making things easy.”
Kyubi took one of the files and read through it.
“Adams and Forester…ah!”
Kyubi took a photo of two boys and took a picture of Nate and Katie and put the two photos side-by-side. He pointed to both photos with a clawed finger and said,
“They look awfully similar to each other, don’t they?”
The mysterious Yo-kai looked up from his file and after examing the two photos and checking back to the file in his hand, his eyes lit up.
“Of course! Those two are Nathaniel and Kenny’s grandkids! That must be why they’ve caught my interest!”
Kyubi chuckled.
“Once again, destiny has the Adams and Forester families involved in Yo-kai hijinx, and they’re both at the same age too. How fitting.”
Previous Chapter: https://libraryofrewrita.tumblr.com/post/161932571939/chapter-9-battles-favors-and-scams Next Chapter: https://libraryofrewrita.tumblr.com/post/162221276499/chapter-11-what-dad-forgot
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