"…and so, I says to Mabel, I says, you'd better get yer claws out my sights, or I'll burn the skies bringing you down!"

Tat giggled behind Klonoa as she worked. The circumstances that the two had gotten together like this was somewhat amusing, but she wasn't complaining. Apparently the time she had roped Leorina into painting up her body to be white on one side and a dark purple on the other had spread through the grapevine, and Klonoa had bought it up on one of the rare occasions the two ran into each other and had a conversation.

To Tat's surprise, he had all but implied an interest in such a thing happening to himself, and after some prying to confirms her suspicions, she accepted the non-request, much to his blustering embarrassment. Relishing the opportunity to advertise her image, she'd invited him over and did things up not unlike a beauty salon, applying gratuitous amounts of purple and white paint to the corresponding sides of his body while going on about random gossip that had come by her ears.

"So, Klonoa darling, what spurned on this interest in taking on the Tat look?" she inquired after coating one of his massive ears in white paint.

Klonoa stuttered a little, still clearly embarrassed, but clearly enjoying the chance to try her look on. "W-well… I guess I've just been really interested recently in how my friends' outfits would look on me."

Tat smiled, slathering paint on the top of his head. "Well, you did look rather dashing in Leorina's pirate uniform, I don't blame you for wanting to experiment!"

Then, as she continued, a slightly evil thought sprang to mind. It would get Klonoa in a whole mess of trouble, most likely, but the payoff might just be worth it…

"Say… how many of your friends did you try this with so far?"

Klonoa thought for a moment. "Um… Guntz, Lolo and Leorina, I think. And Emperor Jillius before that. Why?"

"Well…" Tat said with a grin, fully on board with this new evil thought. "Then there's still so many of your friends you haven't tried it with. What's stopping you from trying their threads on?"

Klonoa looked back at her incredulously. "Are you kidding? I nearly got in a heap of trouble with the others, I'm not pushing my luck any further than I oughta!"

"Oh, c'mon! You know you looked fab in Leorina's, and the others! It's like you're absolutely stunning no matter what you wear! Frankly you'd be silly to pass the opportunity up!"

Klonoa turned back round in a huff, trying to hide his blushing face. "N…no, I shouldn't… it's a breach of privacy after all.."

"It'd only be borrowing them…" Tat drawled into his ear, continuing her paint job to make sure he got her look down perfect. "Besides, don't you want to go and express yourself?"

Klonoa tried not to give in to the idea, but gears were clearly going round in his head. His desire to try different looks and ideas, inadvertently placed there during his visit to Emperor Jillius' palace, was overwriting his conscience.

"I… I can't…"

"Go oooonnn…"

His will caved.

"Y…yeah, why not…"

Tat gave an evil grin.

"Attaboy. Now, let's start by getting this makeover done. You'll be looking as good as me by the end of it…!"

…

Guntz stood on the porch of his house, tending to a cactus displayed in a pot near the front door. His dad had suggested recently he take up a hobby for when he wasn't out on hero work, but so far he'd had trouble finding something that fit. He didn't get much out of reading, and he wasn't much of an artist. He didn't think he'd go as far as to take up gardening, but at least having a cactus to care for gave him something to tend to that wouldn't immediately die from his malpractice.

As he looked out upon the street in front of him, he saw Popka stomping around nearby in annoyance. Oddly enough, he wasn't wearing his trademark red scarf, and he positively looked naked without it.

"What's the matter with you, Popka?" he called out. "You look mighty pissed!"

Popka looked at him and sighed in frustration as he ran over. "I am! I looked all over this morning, but I can't find my scarf! It's just gone and vanished"

Guntz grimaced, sympathetic but unable to hide the mirth fully, a small smirk reaching his mouth. "That's rough, buddy."

"It's more than rough, it's catastrophic!" Popka huffed. "That scarf is my whole identity, no one's gonna recognise me without it!"

Guntz couldn't keep back a snort of laughter but tried to pull himself together before he made Popka madder. His bluster was always a treat to behold. "I'm… I'm sure you'll find it."

As Popka tried to nod despite his frustration, Guntz spotted Pango walking over to them. He too wasn't in his usual attire and seemed to be in some sort of cross between a poncho and a muumuu. He piped up once he'd gotten close.

"Excuse me, Guntz, but I didn't leave a pair of blue overalls at you and your father's house, did I?"

Not bothering to question in what universe Pango would have done that, Guntz shrugged. "Not that I know of. It would have stood out, for sure."

Pango winced, looking like he hadn't really believed the option but had been holding out hope regardless. "That's just great. My best worker's overalls, and they go and get themselves lost! I can't go to work in a damn dress!"

At that moment, a high pitched cry carried on the wind, slowly growing in volume, and Guntz buried his face in his hands.

It was turning into that kind of morning…

Sure enough, in the next moment, Chipple came running over in a mad panic, dressed in what appeared to be a shower curtain badly fashioned into a robe which covered most of his body, excluding his lower face. Tears were streaming down his face.

"Guntz! Guntz! Thank god you're here! It's horrible! My boxing outfit's been stolen!"

"Let me guess…" Guntz said as he glanced over at Popka and Pango, who seemed as surprised at the pattern forming as he was. "It just seemed to disappear overnight."

"Yes! Yes, that's right!" Chipple said between tears. "It wasn't where I always leave it, and now it's gone, and I can't box, and the tournament's in a few days, and I don't know what to do…!" And with that he collapsed to the floor in a sobbing mess.

"Guntz! There you are!" came a female voice from off in the distance, and Guntz looked round to see Leorina and the High Priestess, both looking perturbed and wearing their casual wear. Tat was trailing behind them both with a big smile on her face. Guntz let out a groan of frustration, knowing immediately what they were here for.

"Guntz, I don't know what's going on, but I won't stand for it!" said Leorina angrily.

"Let's see, your clothes disappeared overnight and now you're angry about it." Guntz said monotonously, holding a hand to his forehead in a mocking psychic gesture.

"Actually, mine did." The High Priestess piped up, looking less furious but still put out. "When I awoke this morning, my priestess robes had been stolen. We've been looking for them all day, without success!"

"And on top of that, the scarf of the King Of Hyuponia was stolen from its case too!" Leorina cried out. "How are we supposed to crown a new king of the lost kingdom of Lunatea without his scarf?!"

Popka looked up at the commotion in amazement. "Incredible… all these clothes going missing overnight…"

Chipple seemed to have picked himself up and was almost frightened by the prospect. "It's a clothes bandit! We're all doomed!"

Guntz met Leorina's eyes, and a moment of understanding flashed between them.

He gritted his teeth.

"Klonoa…"

…

"Klonoa! Open up!" Guntz yelled out as he knocked on Klonoa's front door, a crowd of the others behind him. "We know you have everyone's clothes, and we want them back!"

Receiving no response, Guntz tried to the doorknob, only to find it unlocked. Everyone pouring into Klonoa's front room, they began to search for him in earnest. Most of them seemed angry or at least stern, but Tat was grinning from ear to ear for reasons none of them could fathom.

"You think Klonoa really did take our clothes?" Chipple asked Popka in wonderment.

"Better believe it." Popka said with a scowl. "Lolo told me about how she woke up to him trying on her priestess garb."

Chipple let out an impressed gasp. "Wow, I never thought he'd want to try my outfit out… I'd have given it him to try on in a heartbeat if I'd have known!"

Popka shook his head in exasperation. Some people you just couldn't get through to…

As the group went through the house looking for Klonoa, they soon came upon his bedroom. All other options ruled out, they all got behind Guntz, who opened the door in a flurry of motion…

…they all stood their, mouths agape, aghast, almost paralysed by just what they were seeing.

There was Klonoa, alright. But he wasn't just wearing one of their outfits. He was wearing some sort of weird amalgamation of their clothes. The High Priestess' hat and robes, Pango's overalls, Popka's scarf, the King Of Sorrow's along with it, and Chipple's boxing gloves. All of which was either too big or too small for him so was hanging off his small frame, fragments of unused clothing items trailing all around him.

If he had looked ridiculous before, it was nothing compared to this.

He stared at them, frozen, a deer-in-the-headlights look upon his face, unable to even open his mouth to explain himself.

An awkward and uncomfortable silence hung in the air for a long moment…

…only to be broken by Tat's loud, uncontrollable laughter, which rolled on and on for what seemed like eternity…