But Origami herself was not angry with Tohka. In fact, she was shaking her head, as if pitying her. “I bought this outfit from a traveling tailor. Those with no love for Shido can’t see it. So the fact that it’s invisible to you, Tohka, means…”
“Wh-wha—?! H-hang on a minute!” Tohka said in a panic, and peered closely at Origami. “M-mm… This is… The cloth is so magnificent, almost like human skin…”
“…Please don’t force it, Tohka.” Kotori patted her shoulder. “Origami, you were lied to… You are without a doubt in ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes.’”
“…”
Origami stiffened briefly and then drew her cloak around in front of her.
“Aaaw!” Miku cried in dismay. “Just a bit more! Just a liiiiittle longer!”
“The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Shido was pretty sure this was the story of a king who was tricked by a tailor into buying a suit invisible to fools and then thoroughly shamed. It was well-known enough that most Japanese people had also heard it at least once.
“I absolutely did not realize,” Origami said, shaking her head slightly from side to side.
“…You didn’t think it was weird?” Kotori asked with an arched eyebrow.
“When they told me that the suit couldn’t be seen by those who did not know love, I felt like I could see it somehow.”
“Y-yeah…? Wow, you Wizards have some real imaginations, huh?” Kotori gave her a pained smile, sweat trickling down her cheek. “W-well, at any rate, we’re all back together. Now we have to find a way out of this world. I guess subjective time’s different here from the outside, but it’s still been a decent chunk of time since we got dragged into this place.”
Kotori turned her eyes on Origami and Miku, and briefly got them up to speed on this world before asking, “You were both sent to separate locations, yeah? You see any characters or items or anything that looked like they could help us escape from this world?”
Origami and Miku looked at each other before shaking their heads from side to side.
“Nothing that jumped out at me.”
“I didn’t see anything, eeeeiiiither. The only people I met were the witch and the fisherman.”
“Huh…” Kotori likely hadn’t expected too much, but she nevertheless let out a rueful sigh.
“But I’m the king of this land right now,” Origami continued. “I can send out a proclamation. I should be able to order the citizens to look for that sort of character or item.”
“Right… Human wave attack, huh?” Kotori nodded thoughtfully. “That would be way more effective than us going out looking by ourselves. Would you?”
“Roger that. But what specifically should they be looking for?” Origami asked.
“Mm-hmm, right. Yeah,” Nia responded. “Very broadly speaking, this world allows for pretty much anything, so any item that’s treated like it grants wishes inside of a story should be okay. Like the magic lamp in ‘Aladdin’ or the magic hammer from ‘Little One-Inch.’ Prob’ly characters from manga or video games who could teleport and stuff, but my bet is, more people know the magical items, so those should be easier to find.”
“Makes sense. Understood. I’ll—,” Origami started, when she was interrupted by the earsplitting sound of glass shattering.
The castle wall broke apart, pieces tumbling to the ballroom floor, and an enormous wolf charged in through the opening.
“Eeeeeaaaaah?!”
“A monsterrrrrr!”
The ball guests screamed at the monster that had appeared out of nowhere and clearly did not belong in this place.
Crushed by the wave of people pouring toward the ballroom exit, Kotori dropped her torch. “Ah…!”
It was a simply made torch, nothing but cloth wrapped around a piece of scrap wood, and so it had likely already nearly burned up anyway. Either way, the fire fortunately did not spread when the torch hit the ground. The flames simply vanished in a puff of black smoke.
No longer illuminated by the fantastical light, Shido and the Spirits found themselves back in their old clothes immediately. But their dress was no longer the most pressing issue they faced. They had an even bigger obstacle before them now.
Without so much as a glance at the fleeing ball guests, the wolf lumbered straight for Shido and the Spirits.
“Heyyyyyy, if it isn’t the kind little piggies,” the wolf growled with annoyance. “Really amazing how you turned me into your little maidservant, hmmmm?”
Shido furrowed his brow. “The wolf from before…?! How, though? I thought you were all nice now thanks to the dumpling from Tohka?!”
“Ha!” the wolf roared as it patted its stomach. “I digested that thing and crapped it out ages ago!”
“Is that how the dumpling thing works?!” Shido cried reflexively, as the palace guards marched back into the hall and turned their lances toward the wolf.
“Your Majesty, please get back!”
“We’ll handle this!”
The wolf swung a tree-trunk arm and knocked them flying. Guards rolled into tables and slammed against the wall as the wolf snarled, “Cheeky bastards! Stay out of this!”
“Yikesies,” Nia said, drawing her holstered guns. “Guess a famous storybook villain really is on the next level, huh? Tohka, babe. You got another of those dumplings?”
“Mm.” Tohka nodded and thrust a hand into the pouch at her waist. “I got this. Hey, wolf. Try eating this!” She tossed a dumpling toward the wolf’s large maw.
But just as the dumpling was about to hit its tongue, it stopped in midair.
“Wha—?!” Tohka cried out in confusion.
“Keh-keh-keh.” An old woman with a hooked nose and wearing a loose black robe materialized out of empty space and laughed in an unsettling manner. She crushed the dumpling she’d caught in her hand. “Wolf, perhaps you should be more careful?!”
The Yamai sisters gasped.
“Whoa. You’re…!”
“Shock. It’s the old woman from the house of sweets.”
“Keh-keh-keh-keh-keh-keh!” the witch cackled. “It is indeed, my despised Hansel and Gretel. You take what you can of my house of sweets and then run off! I was planning to eat you after fattening you up soooo nicely, but I can’t wait anymore. I’m going to gobble you up from your heads to your toes right now.”
“Hya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! So full of life, hm, Granny?” the wolf said, laughing loudly. “But the little piggies and Red Riding Hood are my prey, yes?”
“Ngh…” Kotori’s face grew hard abruptly. “The wolf alone’s annoying enough, and now we’ve gotta deal with this witch, too?!”
“Hrrm? I think you have the wrong idea.”
“What…?!” Kotori furrowed her brow, and the wolf grinned broadly from ear to ear.
“Who said we were alone?”
Seawater gushed in through the broken castle wall and flooded the ballroom. It swirled and burbled and rose up to create the form of an older mermaid.
“Wha—?! This is—” Miku snapped her finger out toward it. “Aaaah! You’re the sea witch who tried to steal my voice!”
“…Kah-kah-kah! That I am.” A lurid smile rose up on the face of the sea witch. “I’ll have my revenge for that slap on the cheek you gave me. It won’t be just your voice. I’ll yank that whole tongue of yours right out of your mouth!”
Apparently, all the villains with a grudge against Shido and the Spirits had joined forces.
Half a second later, the world around them shook with heavy footfalls, and an enormous demon in a tiger-striped waistcloth burst through the castle wall and entered the hall brandishing a metal bat.