The sun shone in Fauxnuki's eye as he padded back to his lair. The walk from Kooperston to his hideout in Dimble Woods had been a long one, and he had made sure to leave the hotel early. He was just happy to arrive "home" for the first time in a while. But wait – didn't he have to go meet up with Popple and Rookie soon?

He didn't ponder on this for too much longer, as he had arrived at the entrance of his lair. It was covered up with dirt and the only thing that signified that something was there was anything there was a certain amount of claw marks on a nearby tree. He dug in the very specific spot and trotted down the hall.

"I'm hooooome~!" Fauxnuki called out, Mario's hat in mouth.

The grumbles of his prisoner was the only response.

"Ooh, are we going to be grumpy today?" Fauxnuki cooed, only angering the prisoner more.

Fauxnuki trotted over to the prisoner's cage, which was casually sitting to the side. It barely held the prisoner's large frame, in fact, he couldn't even stand up, only move his arms around, and his legs to an extent.

"Shut up, racoon," the prisoner growled.

Fauxnuki ignored this statement and asked, "So, how are you, Bowsy?"

"First of all, it's Bowser. King Bowser, preferably," the prisoner snapped, "And second, I'm terrible, thanks."

"Oh," Fauxnuki replied. "Well that's a shame, isn't it?"

There was a pause as Fauxnuki realised something – he still had the hat in his mouth.

"Just wait a sec, I'll be back."

Bowser just scrunched up his face with irritated confusion and shrugged.

Fauxnuki trotted through a hole that he dug out and entered another room. It had been carved out so there was a long shelf that snaked around the room. On this shelf were several hats that he had collected over the years. This collection was his pride and joy…

He jumped up on the shelf and spat Mario's Cap between the party hat and the fedora. He smirked as he gazed at his newest addition to the collection, then left the room and went back over to Bowser.

As he approached the imprisoned king, he puffed out his chest and proudly stated, "I stole Mario's hat today."

Bowser raised his eyebrows with surprise. "Really? I thought it was a fake."

"Why would I steal a fake?" Fauxnuki replied. "Of course I stole Mario's hat. Would I lie to you?"

"Yeah, actua-"

"That was a rhetorical question," Fauxnuki said bluntly. "Anyway."

"Did you steal Luigi's hat as well?" Bowser asked.

"What, you mean Greenie's hat? Of course not!" Fauxnuki exclaimed.

Bowser gave him a disappointed look.

"What?"

"Anyway, I'm hungry, so I'm going to make tea now," Fauxnuki added, before walking off to another hole that led to the kitchen.

There wasn't much in the kitchen - some bowls for the food, cubbies that held all the food, some pots that made the room feel more like a kitchen, and of course, a carved-out bench. He pulled out four packet of instant noodles from a cubby, jumped up onto the bench and placed the packets down gently. He then got two bowls and brought them over to the noodles. As carefully as possible, he opened the packets of noodles and tipped the contents of a pair of packets into each bowl. Once he had done with that task, he (somehow) held the two bowls in his mouth, jumped down from the bench and walked over to the "door". He placed the bowls down and pushed them through until he was satisfied, then pushed them the remainder of the way through as he exited. Once he had gone through, he picked up the bowls again and carried them over to Bowser. He placed the bowls down and nudged one over to his captive, who only mumbled, "Dry noodles? Again?"

"Yes, again, and if you don't want it, I'll have it," Fauxnuki growled, glaring at the koopa.

Bowser gulped, then reluctantly picked up the bowl and started nibbling away his noodles, while Fauxnuki broke his up and then gobbled it up. Neither of them said anything during their meal, making the minutes in which they ate very awkward.

Once they had both finished their noodles, Fauxnuki spoke up, "So, there's a reason I brought you here, Koopa."

Bowser muttered something under his breath, but Fauxnuki decided to ignore it, as not to ruin the mood.

"I need to heal myself, and the only way I can do that is by getting a certain leaf from a certain dimension. So I ask you this – do you know anything about the Mirror World?"

"The… The what-now?" Bowser asked.

"The Mirror World!" Fauxnuki snapped. "Surely you've heard of it!"

Bowser's mouth went dry. It wasn't often that he was intimidated, but somehow he was scared of the tanuki.

"I'll say it again – do you know anything, and I mean anything, about the Mirror World?"

At first Bowser couldn't speak. He just couldn't find the words to say. After a few moments he shook his head, and managed to croak, "N-No. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about."

Fauxnuki sighed. "Well then. I thought that maybe you'd have even a little bit of knowledge about the Mirror World, but it seems you're as thick as I was told."

He trotted over to another room and grabbed a couple of Super Leaves and put them in his storage.

'I guess if I want it done right, I'll have to do it by myself.'