The smell of charcoal and various seasonings lingered in the air as the barbecue pit's flames died down back at the campsite. While Chelsea and Megan were washing the dishes, with the former groaning and sighing the entire time as it turned out to be more work than she anticipated, everyone else had begun toasting their marshmallows over the campfire for the s'mores.

"Oh man, this is gonna be great!" Bear smiled while drooling. "If there's anything more exciting than barbecue it's dessert!"

"Just don't leave your marshmallow over the fire too long like you did the last three times." Warned Eddie.

"Yeah, wasting food like that is pretty uncool." Alex chastised.

"Oh back off!" Bear retorted. "I like my marshmallows extra toasty, okay?"

"Do you like them with dirt and grass too? 'Cuz that's what they ended up getting on them when they melted onto the ground." Alex teased, playfully sticking her tongue out.

Bear irritably groaned and mumbled: "I bet yours won't come out any better."

Mr. Johnson walked by them and asked: "Excuse me, but have any of you seen Forester?"

"Here I am!" Katie shouted running up to them then stopping to catch her breath.

Before she could say anything else, Mr. Johnson put his hands on his hips and angrily asked: "Where have you been!? Don't you know it's dangerous to go off on your own!?"

Katie and her Yo-kai friends flinched upon hearing her teacher's rare irate tone with her.

Alex tugged on Mr. Johnson's shirt to get his attention and put her hand on the side of her mouth signaling him to lean over so she could whisper into his ear. "Restroom."

"Eh?" Mr. Johnson blushed and cleared his throat. "I see. Well that's fine but just tell me next time, okay? No need to sneak off like that. After all, even outside the classroom the same rules apply."

"Uh, sure." Katie replied. She glanced at Alex who responded with a friendly wink. She scratched her head and asked herself: "What did she tell him?"

"Well in any case, I guess it does pay to have a predator's nose, Blazion." Whisper complimented. "Being able to smell meat from far away is a pretty impressive skill and made getting back here a breeze."

"Blaze blaze. (You're welcome.)" He replied while nodding.

Whisper crossed his arms and smiled with his eyes closed before saying: "Of course even if you weren't here, my amazing sense of direction would have gotten Katie and I back no problem."

Katie chuckled, causing Whisper to open his eyes and give her a suspicious look.

"Whis? What's so funny?"

"It's just that you don't have your Yo-kai Pad to give you directions so I couldn't see that happening."

An anger vein appeared on the side of Whisper's head after hearing that. Trying to keep his cool, he turned away from her with half of a grin on his face and replied with: "Y'know I've been through this forest many times in my own dimensiverse so I think I would know how to navigate it without the use of technology."

"Blaze blaze. (Katie's right.) Blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze, blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze. (If you had led the way instead of me, we'd be at the bottom of a gorge right now.)" Blazion proudly boasted with his arms behind his head.

More anger veins appeared around Whisper's head as Blazion talked and his grin disappeared completely. "I'm telling you I don't need the Yo-kai Pad's GPS to navigate through this place."

"Blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze blaze. (Lord Enma will pull your tongue out for lying like that y'know.)"

"IT'S NOT A LIE! I KNOW MY WAY AROUND THIS STINKIN' FOREST, OKAY!?" Whisper snapped as he suddenly grew flared nostrils and his eyes bulged out of their sockets.

Katie shrugged. "Whatever you say."

—

At Catfish Pond, Kappa and Pallysol were patrolling from the water and the sky for signs of Kunekune. After a few seconds in the air, Pallysol descends onto the ground.

"Darn it. That's the third time I've landed." He grumbled. "The wind is just too calm for me to maintain a proper altitude tonight." He then looks in Kappa's direction to see him frantically and noisily swimming around and under the pond. "Hey what are you doing!?" He shouted at him. "The legend doesn't say anything about Kunekune living underwater!"

Kappa stopped and shouted back with: "Yeah I know but I swear I just saw another legend a minute ago! The giant huchen!"

"The what!?"

"An extremely rare fish that's said to only come out when it rains at Catfish Pond! Catching one when the weather is clear like this would be bodacious! Now stop yelling or you'll scare it off!" Kappa quickly dived back underwater.

"Hey! Get back up here you idiot!" Pallysol let out an annoyed sigh. "All that talk about wanting to beat up Kunekune and the only thing on that meathead's mind is fishing. Hmph!"

He then bent his leg forward in a squatting position. "Alright, big jump this time." He took a huge leap into the air, opened himself up at the peak of his jump, and began to float around again while looking at the ground. "Feh. Still nothing. Hmm?" He noticed something unusual near the edge of the pond and started to descend to get a clearer look at it.

"Is that… Master Baddinyan!? I haven't seen him since he took me, Boyclops, and Lady Longnek to the Next HarMEOWny concert a month ago using fake tickets! And we got away with it too!" Pallysol started waving both of his arms in the air. "Yoo-hoo! Master Baddinyan! Up here! It's me, Pallysol!" He landed near him and saw that his outfit was tattered, he had several scratches and bruises across his face, his paw was swollen and blood red from a splinter that was stuck in it, and he could barely stand up straight as he struggled to stay on his feet.

"Master Baddinyan! What happened to you!? You're a mess!" After analyzing Baddinyan for a few seconds, Pallysol slapped his forehead. "Ah, but of course! You must have been here in the forest practicing your cheering for the next Next HarMEOWny concert. I always imagined your training regimen was intense and looks like I was right! Still, let me at least get that awful splinter out of your paw!"

He pulled out a roll of duct tape from behind his back. "I hear that duct tape is the most efficient way to remove splinters and luckily I always keep a roll on hand in case my canopy gets damaged while I'm out." He put a small strip over Baddinyan's paw. "This might hurt a little but at least the pain will be temporary compared to what you've been feeling up until now." He quickly ripped the strip off causing Baddinyan to flick his wrist in pain.

Pallysol looked at the tape to see that the splinter came right out, along with some fur. "See? I told you! This stuff is some kind of miracle worker! And you didn't even as much as yelp when I ripped it off you! I'd expect nothing less from the great mast-OW!" He exclaimed after getting sucker punched in the eye. "Okay I probably should've expected that."

"Yo, Pally!" shouted Kappa as he walked in their direction, holding a large fish. "Well unfortunately this dude isn't a giant huchen but a giant catfish, in which case he'd sure make a great meal! Oh hey, who's this?"

Pallysol groaned in pain as he rubbed his eye. "This is the great Master Baddinyan. The one I told you about a while back."

"Ah, so you're the famous 'Next HarMEOWny Guru' Pally and his pals talk about so much, eh? Nice to meet'cha. The name's Kappa. I'd shake your hand but as you can see mine are kinda full here, heh."

Baddinyan looked in Kappa's direction but didn't say anything.

"Hey, you alright man?"

Pallysol opened his eye again. "Oh don't worry. He just finished a hardcore cheer training session and is probably just exhausted."

Kappa raised his eyebrow. "I dunno Pally, something seems off about him aside from all the battle damage."

Pallysol rubbed his chin. "You're right come to think of it. He hasn't said a word the whole time." His eye widened after thinking about a possible explanation for Baddinyan's silence. "Wait, don't tell me." He removed Baddinyan's sunglasses to reveal that his eyes and facial features were gone. "Oh no!"

Kappa dropped his catfish out of shock. "Him too!?"

"This isn't good! I have to get him to safety!"

"Don't bother." A voice from behind them said. "Soon you'll share his fate."

Pallysol's entire body froze up in fear as sweat started to run down his leg. "N-No way. Th-th-that voice. D-Do my ears deceive me?" He couldn't bring himself to turn around or move at all. The sheer disbelief he was feeling made it difficult to think clearly.

Kappa on the other hand felt nothing but rage and fury building up inside him. He clenched his fist and quickly turned around to deliver a massive blow to whatever was behind him. "TRAITOR!"

"Kappa no!" shouted Pallysol as he turned around to stop him.

—

In the Jumbo Slider area, Furdinand was using his power of hair growth to extend his arm into the bottom slot of a vending machine to snag a rice ball without paying.

"Almost got it…" he grunted as he tried to wiggle the treat out of its slot. "Success!"

As he carefully removed it from out of the vending machine, Tublappa ran up behind him laughing with glee. "Hee hee! That thlide ith tho much phun!"

"Oh, you're back already?"

"Yeah! Getting back up here ith getting eathier! Onthe again I didn't thee Kunekune on the way down or at the bottom tho I'm about to go phor another thlide! How about you? Phind anything in the rethtroom?"

Furdinand nervously unwrapped his snack. "Err… No."

"What about near the riverth?"

Furdinand popped the whole rice ball in his mouth and put his arms behind his head. "No."

"Around the baby thlide? On the bridge? The mountain trailth?" Tublappa's eyes widened a bit. "Wait, don't tell me you've been in thith one thpot the whole time."

"What makes you say that?" Furdinand asked with his mouth full.

"Come on Phurdinand, don't you wanna thave Eyethoar?"

Furdinand swallowed his food. "Oph courthe- I mean of course I do but this place is just so dirty, and you know how much I hate unfiltered water! And I thought filthy restrooms were your thing! I refuse to set foot in there! You must understand all of this is not good for my sensitive hair!"

"Philthy bathroomth are my 'thing.' Not rethtroomth. Thtill, Kunekune doethn't really thound like the kind oph thpectre to haunt rethtroomth, there'th really nowhere phor it to hide around the baby thlide, and each time I've been down the jumbo thlide I haven't notithed anything unusual in the other areath I mentioned. Hey! How about you thlide with me thith time? We'd have double the coverage that way and can look in all directionth!

"Me slide down a structure that's been besmirched by many a bottom for Enma knows how long after just getting my hair done? Are you deranged dear boy?"

"Oh come on you big primadonna! Eyethoar'th counting on uth! Jutht ride on top oph my head iph you're tho worried about getting dirty!"

Furdinand noticed roaches and spiders crawling around in Tublappa's hair after he said that. "Eugh. Uh actually, I have a better idea. No peeking." He pulled a large sleeping bonnet from behind his back, stepped into it, and then pulled it up around his body. "Ready!"

Tublappa looked at him with perplexity. "Gotta thay, that'th the phirtht time I've theen one oph thothe thingth uthed like that."

"You'd be surprised at how versatile a sleeping bonnet can be, my boy. This is just one of many functions I've recently discovered for it."

"Cool, I gueth. Anyway, let'th go!" They both make their way up the stairs to the top of the slide. Tublappa then hops into his bucket as if it were a teacups ride at the amusement park causing Furdinand to shudder in disgust. He knows where that thing has been. Tublappa then pushes himself forward and begins sliding down. "Latht one down'th a rotten egg!"

"But you went before me so of course I'd be the last one down!" Furdinand shouted as he began to slide too, albeit slower than Tublappa whose bucket slid down faster.

"Woohoo! Thith ith more phun than a rollercoathter! The thrill oph reckleth abandonment! The wind in your hair!" Tublappa cheered as he let his tongue blow in the wind, causing the saliva from it to fly into Furdinand's face.

"Oh yuck! Puh puh!" He sputtered. "I knew this was a terrible idea!" He hid his entire body in the bonnet to prevent anymore spittle from flying in his face. "Why on earth did Pittapatt pair me up with the likes of you!?"

"Don't let all thith exthitement dithtract you phrom our mission though! Keep your eyeth peeled for anything thrange!" Tublappa instructed as he was scanning the area carefully. "Nothing unusual on the path up the mountain again! River thtill lookth clear! Nothing on the bridge! Thee anything back there!?"

"Boohoo… It's going to take weeks to get this horrible smell out of my hair!" Furdinand whined.

Soon they were headed towards a portion of the slide that had its side destroyed. "Sharp turn coming up!" Tublappa leaned in the opposite direction of the curve so his bucket didn't fly off.

"Sharp what!?" Furdinand stuck his head out of the bonnet and saw that he was about to fly off the broken side of the slide into a puddle of mud. "Oh no!" He used his power to increase his volume so the extra weight would let him slide away from the edge in time. "Phew. That was a close one." He sighed, returning to his normal size.

Eventually they both were nearing the end of the slide. "Thith ith it, Phurdinand! Get ready to phall!"

Furdinand hid in his bonnet again and prayed: "Please don't let there be any mud puddles at the bottom!"

Tublappa flew off the slide and tumbled onto the ground with his bucket landing on top of his head. "Ha ha! That wath even better the phourth time!" He lifted the bucket off his head a bit and saw a pair of sandals in front of him. "Hey!" He then looked up at the wearer and said: "It'th y-"

Furdinand landed shortly after and popped out of the bonnet. "Phew! All dry down here!" He then looked in Tublappa's direction. "Oh, why hel-"

—

In front of the shrine, Boyclops was sitting on top of the offering box staring at the ground with his chin resting on his hands and his elbows on his knees while kicking his feet back and forth.

Pittapatt ran up the stairs leading to the shrine while panting and sweating. "Huff huff, I think, huff, it's time for a break." He exhaled before plopping on the ground. "Phew. I'm guessing you didn't find anything, huh?"

"Nope." Boyclops replied, without even looking up.

"Hey, don't get discouraged. Eyesoar's gonna be alright. If we can't find Kunekune then I know Katie can when she comes back."

"It's not that. It's… Well… I can't be 100% certain but I think I have an idea of what's really going on."

"What do you mean?"

"You know how the legend says that Kunekune has no facial features, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, you know who else doesn't have facial features?"

"Hmm." Pittapatt's eye widened after realizing who Boyclops could be referring to. "Wait, you're not thinking…? There's no way it could possibly be… I mean he can't even do that with his power. Right?"

"I don't want to believe it either but seeing as how everyone at the party has learned something new, regardless of how mundane it may be, it's not out of the realm of possibility."

"But even if that were the case, why would he do such a thing? And to his own friend even?"

"I dunno. Why don't we ask him ourselves?" Boyclops looked up in Pittapatt's direction. "Hello, Faysoff."