Toadette's Story: Book 2

Chapter 82 - The Nightmarish Ninjutsu of Kat and Ana

Kat and Ana fell back, their vanishing abilities failing them.

However, to their surprise, the flare didn’t come in their direction. It instead shot into the night sky before bursting out into a vibrant explosive.

“Hurry up! Get them now, Toadette!” Toad ordered.

Though her side bled, Toadette ran forward and snatched up Kat. She punched the girl into a tree then yanked at her sister’s orange hair. Once Ana was in the air, Toadette kicked all the wind out of her.

I definitely can’t take my time with these girls.

Case in point, she heard a ninja star spin past her head. Now there was a second one. And soon she found herself dodging many at the last possible second, only lucky because the girls were aiming at her head: a far smaller target than her body.

“How are you throwing so many?” she wondered aloud. With her annoyance rising, she ducked underneath the stream of stars and swung at Ana’s legs. “What the…?”

The girl didn’t just vanish. Toadette’s hand went right through her body. It was like she was interacting with a hologram. She stumbled back, dread spreading across her face as she spotted a dozen ninja girls encircling her. Just then, the sharp clang of metal echoed from behind her.

“You fell for it!”

“So sorry!”

The real twins swung simultaneously. Toadette suddenly hit the dirt, barely escaping a potential beheading from them. As she felt the weight on her back, she gritted her teeth, for one of the person’s knees was digging into her wound.

“Look at that. You needed my help after all.”

Toad’s cap colours were inverted, with white spots glowing amongst a red surface. And his body was hot to the touch.

Without wasting a second, he engaged with the twins in a dance to the death. As they unleashed a flurry of ninja stars and katana slashes, Toad countered with two massive fireballs that erupted from his palms.

The girls shrieked, their hair catching fire. But Toad pressed on, grabbing their katanas and spinning, his body temperature climbing to hellish levels. The heat turned the blades a bright red as they cut into Kat’s and Ana’s midsections.

Ana tumbled, sobbing as she clutched her bleeding wound. Yet Kat continued to stand, albeit with tension etched into her pale face.

“Curse you,” she growled, staring down the slowly approaching Toad.

“What’s wrong? Baby got a boo-boo?” He chucked the katanas far into the dense forest. “And this is why you don’t mess with your superiors.”

Kat’s legs wobbled. The redder her tank top got, the tighter her fists clenched.

Toad smirked. “If I didn’t have to care for two more babies here, this scene would look a lot worse. As is, you’re coming back to Toad Town with me. The princess will have some questions for you, kids.”

“What are you doing?” Minh shouted. “Don’t give her a chance to heal!”

“Heal? She’s bleeding… Huh?”

In an instant, Toad felt a heavy kick to his neck, hurtling him backwards like a ragdoll. He crashed into a stump, the world spinning around him. When his vision cleared, he looked up to see a smug girl slowly taking off her flats.

“Wario will be pleased.”

***

“No luck yet?” Carrying a bag, Princess Peach approached a maid on the second floor.

“Not one peep.”

The maid had been knocking on Penelope’s door repeatedly for the last hour, but not one sound came from the child’s room. Sure, Penelope could’ve been sleeping, but the chances were low when she was the kid who thought naps were reserved for babies.

Peach sighed and kicked off her shoe, revealing a pink key inside.

“If you’d just answer, Penelope, you’d know I have something for you. Since I can’t take you to this big event.” With a click she unlocked the door and stepped into her daughter’s chamber.

In just five seconds Peach was already out. She tossed her bag against the wall.

“MPA! MPA!!” Her voice echoed throughout the castle and provoked gasps from the staff.

They went into action, some rushing to check every room whilst others secured the castle grounds and went into Toad Town. While this wasn’t the first time Penelope had left by herself, it was the first time she left without people not knowing where she was going. Oh, Peach had an idea, but the target was so far that it couldn’t be predicted how Penelope would try to get there. And so the MPA had to be used for the first time—the Missing Penelope Alert.

“She couldn’t have gotten that far!” Peach yelled to her workers. “The moment you find her, you’re to contact me so I may deal with this!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Peach placed her heel back on, growling under her breath. She walked past her bag, and inside was a device that wasn’t even meant to be out yet: a Nintendo Wii U with a label that read “special prototype”.

***

Toad couldn’t believe he was getting tossed around by a little girl of all people. His Fire Flower abilities had worn off, and even though Kat’s katana was lost to the forest, she still had plenty of ninja techniques to take him down.

Not only did she stun him with several ninja stars, but her feet were doing a number on him. Every time she landed from a jump, it felt like a heavy anvil was crushing his skull.

“Left, right, left, right.” Kat’s kicks stung each of his cheeks, and worse was when he had his mouth open, and her sole dirt entered.

This final kick left a red mark on his face, and he bonked his head against a tree.

“Sweet dreams, mushroom,” Kat scoffed, looking over to Toad and the still-downed Toadette. Then she shot a fierce look at Minh. “You wanna take me on too?”

Minh gasped, frantically shaking her head.

“Now then, the radar.” Kat looked to Ana. “Girl, hurry up and heal that wound. Don’t make me waste any more energy.”

“It hurts so bad,” Ana cried, gritting her teeth at the feeling of her stomach stitching itself back together.

“Ugh, you’ll survive.”

Minh reached into Toad’s bag.

Jeez… I really am useless here. But what else am I supposed to do?

She kept rummaging through the bag until she managed to grab the radar. She lingered for a moment, but then saw Kat start tapping her foot. Carefully Minh walked the device over to Kat, holding up her hands as if to say, “Please don’t hurt me.” Once she handed it over, she took a quick step back, observing as Kat celebrated.

“Thank you very much,” Kat said, pocketing the radar. “Now then, I still have to take you all to see Wario. I believe you have some business with a friend of ours.”

“Um… That’s not going to happen. I have a flower shop to run back home.”

“Oh?” Kat’s eyes widened. “A fellow nature lover.”

Okay, Minh, maybe it’s your time to shine.

“You sure you’re a nature lover? All these ninja stars in Rose Town seem to tell me otherwise.”

“Well, you know, we had to hit some trees, but trees are pretty dang strong. I know I didn’t hit any flowers. Ana, did you?”

“I wouldn’t dream of doing that.”

“You never know. Some flowers have stems so strong that even a blade can’t cut them.” As Minh gave the girls a botanical lecture, she tossed Toadette an item from behind her back. Neither of the twins even gave the other Toads a second thought, conversing with Minh about various sorts of flowers.

Toadette remained on the ground as she slowly sipped her elixir.

My bleeding might slow down, but the pain’s gonna persist. And they’ve got magic healing… Means the only way I’m gonna stop them is by knocking them out, getting back that radar, finding the Ethereal Star and hightailing it out of here. You only get one chance, Toadette!

“You two don’t seem like horrible girls,” Minh continued. “So why are you working for a guy like Wario?”

“He’s our friend,” Ana said with a smile.

“He’s in his forties.”

“Like he says: age ain’t nothing but a number.” Kat rubbed her hands together. “It may not look like it, but Wario has the best interests for our city. Now, let’s see if I can make this trance ninjutsu work on your—”

“Come here!” Toadette vaulted over Minh and tackled Kat and Ana to the ground.

Kat and Ana lay trapped under Toadette’s left and right foot respectively, squirming like kids who were desperate not to go to bed. Toadette pushed as much weight as she could onto their legs, screaming for Minh and Toad to help her. With Toad out of commission, it was up to Minh to restrain the girls’ bodies.

“This is for your own good, kids,” she said in a soft tone, pressing her right foot atop Kat’s head and her left foot over Ana’s. Sitting opposite Toadette, the adults had the little warriors restrained.

Though Minh knew that this wasn’t some freaky pleasure session. Having adventured with Toadette so much recently, she knew what secret weapon Toadette was ready to unleash. And sure enough, Toadette’s flats slipped off her nyloned feet, and she tossed them near Toad.

“Enjoy that scent, Toady. These two are getting an even worse deal.”

“Ew!” yelled the twins in unison. “Stinky!”

“Proud of it,” Toadette chuckled. She spread her toes before pinching Ana and Kat’s nose into the tainted nylons.

The stench that Toadette was so used to caused the girls’ lungs to initially shrivel. They held out trying to inhale any extra air for as long as possible, with Kat turning blue in the face.

Once their bodies forced them to breathe, their eyes started to water. It was as if they were breathing in a mixture of cheese, garlic and onions. Not helping matters was just how moist the nylons were, even amongst the winter weather. Ana could’ve sworn she was being suffocated by a wet, mouldy blanket that should’ve been tossed out years ago.

“Stop it,” screamed Kat, her vision blurring. “We will not go down like this!”

“It appears you are,” teased Toadette. “It’s a shame you can’t appreciate the…mmm…enchanting aroma of my feet.”

“I’m gonna puke,” Ana moaned as the heat filled her nostrils.

Toadette looked up at Minh, who responded with a thumbs-up gesture as she wiggled her toes on the girls’ foreheads. Each plump digit stained their white skin and vibrant hair with a smutty tinge.

The more they struggle, the quicker they’re gonna exhaust themselves, the florist thought.

A full minute had turned the twins from skilled ninjas into babies, sobbing from the sheer odour of Toadette’s nyloned feet. Little did they know that Toadette was being merciful, for her bare feet would be far worse than anything a clothing article could provide.

“Don’t hog their nostrils to yourself, Toadette.” Minh pushed Toadette’s toes out of the way. “Remember what season we’re in.”

“By all means, if you wanna torture ‘em, go ahead.” A satisfied grin was plastered on Toadette’s face as she shoved her feet in the girls’ mouths.

Minh forced their noses between her toes. Though, due to the reverse position, they weren’t so much shoved into the salt pockets but rather surrounded by two walls of filth and funk. When Minh wiggled her digits, Ana’s whimpering increased. Compared to Toadette’s nylons, the stench of Minh’s bare feet hit both twins like a truck. That they had to endure the grossness of the filth on their face only heightened their discomfort, especially when they felt the tiniest bits of dirt travel up their nostrils.

Kat banged the ground, trying to muster enough energy to use some more ninjutsu. But it was as if Toadette’s foot odour had already sapped much of her power. And now that she was simultaneously sucking on Toadette’s feet while smelling Minh’s noxious soles, her body prioritised survival over utilising mystic techniques.

Minh giggled. “It’s not you who I have a bone to pick with, girls. Tell your boss to quit sending kids to do his dirty work.”

“If he keeps doing it, though, let your friends know that we’re not as easy to stomp on as you think.”

Toadette and Minh applied so much pressure to the girls’ faces that Ana had already succumbed. Her breathing was slowed, and now it was only Kat who struggled against them. Kat writhed for an additional minute, her eyes red as she huffed in the aroma of dirty feet.

“Heh, it’s just like when Penelope first got a good whiff of my odour,” Toadette chortled, recalling that moment in the desert. “But even she didn’t look as pathetic as you do right now, just dying underneath my feet!”

Kat spat Toadette’s toes out her mouth. “Don’t get cocky!”

An intense force pushed Minh and Toadette spiralling into the air. So fierce was the blast that the sturdy trees swayed as if they were in a violent hurricane. In the centre of the generated force stood a panting Kat, who held her hands out in Toadette’s direction.

“Prepare yourself for Kat’s Hubuki Saw!”

“Her what?” Toadette yelled, opening an eye to spot something terrifying. Two crystalline buzzsaws shot up into the sky, aimed directly at her. But she couldn’t move on her own. All she could do was try to brace herself for the slice.

One of the saws sliced her hand. Yet then it went to her right. Perhaps it wanted to aim for Minh? But no, it went past her as well. The saws simply followed an unspecified arc until falling elsewhere in the forest. Toadette and Minh fell back to the planet, groaning as they landed on the dirt.

Upon looking at Kat, Toadette gasped. The little girl was restrained, with a shoe over her nose and mouth. Behind her, Captain Toad kept a tight grip on her body while he forced her to inhale Toadette’s toxic aroma. In seconds, the lack of energy and clean oxygen caught up with Kat. Her legs tumbled, and she hit the ground with a light thud.

Toad immediately tossed Toadette her shoe. “And you want me to smell something that dangerous.”

“It’s only dangerous if I choose to suffocate you,” she said with a cheeky grin. “Play nice, and I’ll be gentle.”

“How long do you predict they’ll be out?” Minh asked.

“Could be four hours. Could be ten minutes. We need to find the Ethereal Star before they wake up, though.”

“Good luck with that…”

Toadette and Minh gasped. Kat launched herself at Toad for one last time.

But Toad was quicker to the draw. “Enough, human! Geno Whirl!”

A yellow disc emerged from the doll’s fingertips, and Kat’s pupils shrunk. She let out a bloodcurdling scream, for it felt like a thousand jolts of electricity was being pumped into her in three seconds. No, worse. It was as if every molecule in her body was being rearranged. The attack ran through her just like one of her own saws, and upon seeing how much blood she lost, she collapsed.

Toad smirked. “I don’t know what the hell this thing did, but it was cool.”

“Is she out for good this time?” Toadette asked.

Minh tapped her with her foot. “Looks like it.”

“Then let’s get a move on!” Toad yelled. “Double time!”

The girls nodded, and retrieving the radar back from Kat and Ana, they ventured deeper into the Rose Forest. They gradually went deeper underground, with Toadette limping as she held onto her side wound. While Toad assured her that she’d be fine once they got back to Rose Town, she felt as if she could fall asleep right then and there. If it wasn’t for the threat of the twins, she’d have collapsed.

Forty minutes of exploring the soil-rich forest led them to a dead end. Toadette let out a heavy groan.

“You know, what are the odds that this thing is buried underground, and we’ll never know where?”

“Those girls were digging when we found them,” Minh said. “Man, that’d be lame.”

“Welp, then I say we get to digging.” Toad rolled up his sleeves. “Make yourself useful, Minh.”

A little appreciation would be nice since I set up that foot-smothering attack.

Toad used his bare hands to dig, while Minh retrieved a small trough from her bag. Minutes passed before one of them hit something solid, the sharp sound waking Toadette’s senses.

Please be the star. Please be the star. Please.

Toad squinted, then removed his gloves to feel the object properly. He let out an exasperated sigh, one that left Minh and Toadette looking down in defeat. And yet he then started to snicker.

“We hit the jackpot, ladies.”

“Still a lot of digging to do,” Minh chuckled.

Toadette began to scoop out the dirt with her fingers. “Won’t be much if we do it together.”