After the lengthy introduction, head to the right (ignore the bomb symbol on the wall to your left), crossing the bamboo until you get to a short scene with General Rat. He throws something onto the bamboo, transforming it into something evil. It now has fangs, and they move up and down together to try and crush you. When they go up, hurry up and move to the left, hiding in the small alcove before they come back down.
Continue going until you have to use Calibrus to get past another section of them. As you keep going, you'll eventually reach some bounce pads, so use them (being mindful of the platforms with the spikes) until you are presented with a choice of going left or right. Going left will have a giant caterpillar appear out of one of the bamboo shoots; hit it with Pikarina to grab the CATERPILLAR HEAD. Use the leaves to reach the gateway from the last bounce pad.
In this screen, you should see some koi banners in the background, but the blue ones are important. The panda, on the other hand, is important and you should use Pikarina on it to make it go away. Keep moving to the right, making note of the panda again near the bud (have Pikarina hit it again). There will be a red koi banner near the second bud, which will give you the KOI-NOBORI HEAD.
Yet again, you will see the panda a third time above a Grub, so hit it again to get the PANDA HEAD. The Panda Head action will be right where the giant panda is located and just past that will be your first encounter with the transformed carp, who have spikes all over their body. They will be jumping into the air, with a few of them also jumping onto the platforms, so be careful. When you get to the big stream of leaves, use that to get to the next screen.
You're now on a bridge with a big waterfall behind you, so use the leaves to start climbing. When you get to the bouncing bonsai trees, watch out for the fish from behind the waterfall, as they can harm you when they come out. There will be a huge shadow at the next spot, which is a huge fish, so when it subsides, move past it. At the second spot, you can use the Koi-Nobori Head action to gain access to a bonus stage.
The next screen places you right in front of a giant cherry blossom tree, which General Rat will transform into something evil. If you have the Caterpillar Head, you can use its action at the bottom to summon a caterpillar that will turn into a butterfly. This butterfly will bring you to the top of the tree (which you would have to scale normally), where you can hit the bud to return the tree to normal. Back at the bottom, the CHERRY BLOSSOM HEAD will appear.
You'll be transported to a cave, where you will see a scroll sitting on a rock. Have Pikarina hit it and then use Calibrus to free it from its confines, earning you the second of the Hero Heads, the NINJA HEAD. This allows you to throw bombs and you will have to go through a tutorial with Ezma Potts, who will show up after grabbing it.
Lantern Mini-Boss
After finishing the tutorial with the Witch, you are thrown in front of a gate and will have to fight a mini-boss. You will see all sorts of drums on the bottom of the screen and the Lantern will slam its bottom half to the ground three times. Now, right before it does it the third time, one of the drums will turn golden and that's your cue to lay down a bomb on that drum before it attacks it, which will launch it into the air. Use the smoke to get up to its weak spot and attack it.
The second phase is similar to the first, except some of the drums are missing and there will be fire in their places. The right-most drum will be the golden one, but it won't turn that color until the fifth attack, so time your bomb drop until then. The third phase has the drums disappearing when the Lantern attacks them, with the last one reappearing as the golden one.
With the Lantern defeated, it will transform into a full on Weaver, looking like a samurai helmet with two spiked clubs as weapons. You should jump on each drum as they appear, laying a bomb on the golden one, which will spring up and smack the Weaver. Use the scissors to get up into the air and cut the cloth connecting the boss. Do this two more times, which will drop the boss onto the ground, where you can free the souls to finally defeat it and earn the TAIKO DRUM HEAD.
