Shido met Kotori’s eyes and intuited from her gaze that his little sister had also realized what story Natsumi was mixed up in.
Natsumi seemed not to notice this moment between them as she walked smoothly toward the guard. “Good evening,” she purred. “I wonder if you might let me through?”
“Y—! Yes, go ahead. Please enter.” The guard stepped aside, his attitude entirely different now.
Kaguya pursed her lips together with displeasure. “Oi, you. Does not your demeanor differ from when you spoke with us?”
“Qu-quiet, you!” the guard cried. “She’s a noble lady and you’re nothing but tramps!”
“Oh dear.” Natsumi arched an eyebrow. “Were you all also trying to get into the palace then, Kaguya?”
“Indeed,” Kaguya responded. “But that dunce has obliged us to stay outside.”
“Hmm. Is that right?” Natsumi turned to the guard and caressed his chin with a bewitching hand. “These ladies are my attendants. Would you mind letting them in with me?”
“Ah…?! B-but that’s—” The guard inhaled, sharply, his eyes growing wide.
“Come ooon.” Natsumi giggled, her lips slackening into a smile as if this was all a game. “It’s all right, isn’t it?”
“Ah…Pl-please, go a—,” the guard started.
Gong, gong. The large clock on the wall of the palace sounded the hour, and Natsumi’s body began to glow.
Poof! She shrank abruptly.
“Gaah?!” she cried, as the gown she was wearing turned into a patchwork dress, and the carriage she’d ridden in transformed into a pumpkin. “Wh-what is going on?!”
Natsumi, in a panic, was now herself and not noticeably different from Yoshino in size.
Shido looked up at the big clock, and everything came together when he saw the time. The hands of the clock were pointed squarely at midnight—the hour when the magic wore off in “Cinderella.”
“…”
The guard, who had only seconds earlier been utterly transfixed by Natsumi, grew stern once again and glared at the now-tiny Spirit. She jumped, her shoulders shaking, and hid behind Yoshino.
“Argh! What magic is this?! Witch, you shall not pass!” Glaring at Natsumi and the others with hostile eyes, the guard blocked the way forward to the palace. It seemed this had all only fanned the flames of his suspicion.
That said, however, Shido and his party couldn’t exactly give up. He groaned, took a step back, and began to whisper to the others so that the guard couldn’t hear him. “This is no good. We have to do something.”
“But what. Exactly are we supposed to do?” Yoshino said, her eyebrows furrowing.
“Ah!” Nia held up a finger. “Maybe we could give him one of Tohkki’s sweet dumplings like with the wolf. I mean, those things are good on dog, monkey, bird, y’know? And when you think about it, human beings are a kind of monkey. Could work, yeah?”
“Ah, even if it could, he’s not going to eat anything some weirdo gives him,” Shido said. “But if we were actually dressed properly like Natsumi before, then he’d have to let us in, right?”
Kotori scowled. “Then the question is how we’re supposed to get dresses. Sorry, but I don’t have a penny to my name. I was about to freeze to death there ’cause I’m so broke. About all we’ve got are sweets and match—” She stopped abruptly and put a hand to her chin like she’d just had an idea.
“Hm?” Shido looked at her. “What is it, Kotori?”
“…Gang, mind coming with me a sec?” Kotori said, and then moved away from the castle.
The guard snorted and made a shooing gesture like he was chasing off a dog.
“Oi, where are we going, Kotori?” Shido called.
“It’s fine. Just come.” She walked along the road until she came to an alley and turned into it. She picked up a piece of scrap wood there, and then she ripped the hem off her skirt and wrapped it around the piece of wood. Almost like she was making an impromptu torch.
“You’re…,” he said slowly.
“What I’d like to do is soak it in oil, but, well, it’ll last for a while at least like this,” she said with a shrug. She took a match from her basket, closed her eyes in something like prayer, and set the match to the torch.
Illuminated now by the flames of the torch, her outfit transformed before their eyes into a vivid red dress.
“Whoa?! What the…?!” Shido’s eyes flew open in surprise, and the Yamai sisters clapped fists into palms.
“Ah, yes. The illusion matches of the Little Match Girl!”
“Understood. This does indeed look like you are wearing a dress.”
Even as Kaguya and Yuzuru spoke, their clothing also changed into dazzling dresses as all the Spirits within range of the light of the torch were transformed into noble ladies.
“Ooh! What?”
“It’s. Beautiful.”
The Spirits let out cries of surprise.
Shido didn’t understand the principle behind whatever was going on, but like this, they might actually be able to fool the eyes of the guard. When he looked down at his own body in the light of the torch, however, beads of sweat popped up on his forehead.
“…Uh. Why am I in a dress?”
Yes. For some reason, he was also in a fancy gown. And there was makeup on his face, and his hair was long, falling down his back. He looked like his cross-dressing persona, Shiori.
“This is the Cinderella ball, so I figured it’d be easier for girls to get in,” Kotori told him. “Like, the Prince is looking for someone to marry, so he probably invited all the noble girls in the area. I didn’t do it to be mean.”
“…For real?” Shido asked, side-eyeing her very hard.
She nodded in the most nonchalant fashion. “Uh-huh.”
“…”
Although this still didn’t sit entirely well with him, he couldn’t argue the point. He let out a short sigh before following Kotori and the others back to the castle.