Mario hopped and hopped until he fell free from the tree. He brushed leaves off his overalls and looked around. Olivia was nowhere to be found. Mario walked along the path until he found Olivia, down a separate path, currently trying to get her head out of the floor. Mario started to her.

"Wait, Mario, STOP!"

Mario stopped. "What's wrong?"

"I saw it before I got stuck...There's a huge hole separating us. You'll get hurt if you fall in, and you might not be able to get back out. I think I stole something from Olly that can help us out..." She held up a multi-colored bag. "Here. It's a confetti bag. Olly made your world paper when he went haywire, and this is the only thing that can fix the holes."

Mario looked at the flat grass. "I didn't even notice."

"Catch! I'm going to try to throw it to you!"

Olivia threw it, and it landed on the floor in front of Mario. He picked it up and checked inside. It was empty.

"There's nothing in it."

"Drat! I must have lost all the confetti when we fell! Mario, try hitting...I don't know...a tree or something? You should be able to find confetti anywhere now!"

Mario trusted Olivia's word and started whacking at a tree with his hammer. Colored confetti fell from the leaves and were magically sucked into the bag. Mario checked it. It was about a quarter of the way full. To play it safe, he filled the bag entirely and went back to Olivia.

"Okay, I got the confetti. What now?"

"Throw it into the hole!" She kicked her feet.

Still trusting her word since she seemed more knowledgeable on the subject, he did as she said and grabbed a handful of confetti. He tossed it into the air, and it fluttered down to the hole.

"Yeah, I think that was right," Olivia said. "Do it again! But can you make sound affects? It'll make it more fun. You don't have to..."

Mario grabbed another handful. "Like...POW!" He tossed it.

Olivia giggled in the dirt, then started coughing. "Gragh! Dirt in my mouth! Bleh!"

"Whoosh!" Mario exclaimed, tossing more confetti and making Olivia laugh again.

The hole glew faintly, then appeared as the rest of the grass when the glow vanished. Mario hurried to her and pulled her out the floor. She shook dirt from her folds and smiled.

"Thank you, Mario! No wonder people call you a hero, you always put everyone else first."

"Well..."

"Just don't forget to take time for yourself, okay?"

Mario nodded.

"So...where are we?"

Mario pulled out a map. "We're probably in the Whispering Woods. That's the only place with trees like this anywhere near the Mushroom Kingdom."

"So...are we close to the castle or not?"

Mario gave her a thumbs-up. "We just have to get through the woods first, is all! Thankfully, they aren't too big."

Olivia did a little dance. "That's great! The sooner we stop Olly, the better."

They continued in silence, Mario deciding to strike up conversation.

"So...About you..."

"About me?" Olivia asked. "Why do you want to know?"

"Just because I can. If we're going to be journeying together, why not get to know my ally?"

"Fair point. Well, you already know that my name's Olivia! I'm Olly's younger sister, but you probably already figured that out."

Mario nodded. "I have a younger brother. His name's Luigi."

"Oh, cool! I like nature. I mean, just feel this mountain air! It's so nice!"

Mario nodded again.

"And...I like Olly, I guess. But he's been acting so mean lately. He isn't supposed to be like this, I'm sure of it. And...I like you! You're super nice!"

"Thanks! I'm sure you and Weegee will get along just fine." Mario filled another hole. "What...happened between you and Olly?"

Olivia seemed a bit sad again, but put on a fake smile. "He used to be really nice to me, when I was first folded. I drew him lots of pictures. I'm not sure if he was faking it or not, but when he folded Princess Peach was when I drew the line. I didn't want anyone getting hurt. I fought against him, and he snapped at me. He trapped me in that wall you saved me from. I just didn't think he had to hurt anyone for Origami Folk to thrive. He kept mentioning something about a Toad, but he refused to tell me what happened before I was born." She fiddled with her hands. "And I'm glad you saved me. Maybe I might be able to convince Olly to stop this time. I know he still has good in his heart, but he just pushed it deep down so he won't feel guilt doing any of this."

"You seem to know a lot about Olly," Mario said.

"He's important to me. And he did take care of me, for a little bit."

"But what about you?"

"I...haven't been alive as long as him, so I don't really know much about myself yet. But I don't think Olly knows much about himself either, since he denied ever being kind when I confronted him. I think...maybe I'll be able to find more of both of us while on this journey with-what the heck is that thing?!"

"A Goomba?" Mario said. "Out here? But they don't go this far out. Olly must really be trying to stop us." Mario started running to it, planning to stomp it.

"Wait, Mario. This is an Origami-ruled world now!"

He stopped. "What does that mean?"

"You have to play by our rules now if you ever hope on stopping Olly. I don't want you going in unprepared. Olly's going to fight like the Origami Folk do so it's best you practice now, and master it by the time we get there."

"I get it, but how do we do that?"

Olivia held out her hands. "Like this!"

A circle appeared under Mario, and a ring system grabbed a few Goombas. The Goombas were scrambled around the rings. There were only four of them.

"Oh, I hoped I'd line them all up in a row...Oh well. I guess I can teach you how to fight the origami way easier now!"

Mario looked to her, then the Goombas, then to her again; confused.

"Okay, so you just tell me which ring to move, and I can do it for you! Knowing that all the enemies we'll be fighting are going to be Origami Folk, they'll have control over the rings too."

Mario pointed to the nearest one, which was two ticks away from him, in the second row from the center. "Can you line him with the first one? The one right in front of me?"

"Sure!"

Olivia went down to the ring and spun it twice, lining the Goomba with the other. Mario guided Olivia to lining up the other two in a row in front of him.

"Great! Now that that's done, grab your boots and stomp them! They're in a row, so you can jump them one after another!"

Mario stomped on the first one, used the force to jump to the next, and so on. He struck a pose after the last jump, just for the sake of it. He jumped back to the circle from the end of the rings.

"Nice job! You're doing perfect!"

Mario gave her a thumbs-up.

"Okay, now get ready. They're going to attack you now. Wait until they're about to hit you, then block! You should be able to avoid taking damage entirely depending on how weak the enemy is."

Mario blocked the Goomba's headbonks. They scrambled back to the row, then jumped to different spots. Two were in the same row now, in two different squares.

"Oh! They changed it up on you! The good news is, we can still get them in a nice little row. Just let me know where to move the rings. Also, let me know if you want me to move them diagonally to get those two pesky guys in the row too!"

Mario figured the ring battle pretty fast, and was able to defeat the Goombas quickly thinks to Olivia's guidance. The rings vanished when all the Goombas were defeated.

"Olivia, why'd they wait until I finished attacking them to fight back? What stopped them for attacking me while we were playing with the rings?"

"That's the cool part about the way Origami Folk are," she explained. "If you line up the rings properly, you get the advantage and get to attack first! But if you don't they get to go first, and so on. The reason they waited for your turn was because we try to fight fair. So we go one at a time unless the rules are specified otherwise. Make sense?"

Mario nodded. "I think I got it. Let's head to Toad Town and stop Olly!"