@TheFake

"Ah, of course" Hotaru replied, in a rather chipper voice

As she reached for a bag of bread, Hotaru came to realize that this was probably the most extended contact she had had with Haruko. They weren't particularly close, but they knew of each other.

Hmm, maybe I should change that, she thought to herself, reaching back for the bread, and picking out a nice looking specimen. Most of Hotaru's freinds came from similar interests and groups as her; language nerds, others obsessed with foreign cultures and countries, and gamer kids. It might be nice for a change to have someone to talk to who could introduce her to new things

Break up the monotony a little bit, she smiled at the thought

"Here you are," Hotaru said brightly, handing the bread over to Haruko.

"Say, Haruko," she spoke again, "You said you didn't really have any plans for today, and well, neither do I. You wouldn't mind if maybe we hung out or something would you? I mean, I know we don't really interact much but, you seem like a nice person"

She chuckled a bit, "in any case, it'd be something to kill some time"

There didn't seem to be any new information. As such, it was difficult to determine who was at risk and who wasn't. Once again, it seemed as if everyone who had used Strange Gospel was at risk of disappearing. Just how and why was so far without evidence, but the single thread that connected every single victim was Strange Gospel. It didn't even appear that they needed to have it on their phone, deleting it or using another's phone seemed to make someone just as much of a potential victim as someone who religiously used the app even after the Apocrypha update. Frustratingly, it seemed like there were few clues of any kind. However, Hikaru was nothing if not persistent. She was determined to find some sort of common thread between each disappearance, and so she was going to interview as many of those who knew the victims as possible.

Unfortunately, it seemed impossible to attempt to monitor everyone who had used Strange Gospel. The sheer number of individuals who had downloaded the app or simply seen it at some point made it quite difficult to attempt to keep an eye on them.

But Hikaru would discover the connection. She was certain she would. Even if no-one else could, she could. This was fact in her mind.

"I'm not at liberty to say," she responded, when Umeda asked about the possibilities. "However, I can say that we are investigating every possibility to the fullest extent. For the moment, I can recommend that you do not travel alone and that you fully obey the curfew."

@Mercurial

Chiyu Shoukei

There were times when Chiyu Shoukei regretted being part of the Student Council.

Not because she disliked standing above her comrades in the student body or anything, especially when the events that had lead up to her taking power had allowed her to finally triumph over her hated foes, but hey, the workload was insane sometimes. With the new financial year soon to begin, it was that time again for the Student Council to review the expenditures of the clubs, and if necessary, increase or decrease their budgets to something more fitting of their situations. By the "Student Council", of course, that meant her, the Treasurer, who needed to stalk the campus grounds in search for club leaders to shanghai into talking about finances. Yeah, it was her job and she really needed to fulfil her responsibility as the "money person", but she'd been planning on going home to finish homework before the Prez had dragged her aside to send her out on this quest. Aahh, she was probably going to have to pull another late night again if she wanted to get that lab report in by tomorrow.

She'd have to slot in a nap during lunchtime tomorrow too.

Considerations of her workload and sleep habits aside, she really needed to come up with a better way of shaking down all the club leaders. Yamamura may not have been one of the largest high schools, but that didn't mean that hunting down classrooms for her fellow students wasn't a long and arduous affair. Her legs were already dying on her, and Shoukei wasn't even done yet! Well, she was nearly done, or at least, for today; not every club leader had been found, but on her list of people to talk to for her Treasurer job, she was already near the end. Just a few more names, and she could go home ... until she turned up the next day to find all the folks who hadn't chosen to be conveniently around.

Why did they have to make her job so hard?

Shoukei sighed, closing her eyes before opening them once again to look down at the notebook in her hands. Underneath a column of scribbled out names was "ARCHERY CLUB", the next group to be graced with her awesome presence. Sort of awesome presence. Not actually awesome presence. Actually given what she was about to reveal to them, she was probably going to be a hated presence. Like an insect that spread malaria. She needed to find their boss and give him the unfortunate news.

Well, not unfortunate for her, but they would see it that way.

Hopefully they wouldn't shoot the messenger.

They had bows, after all, and she was way too young to die.

With a deep breath, the pink-haired girl strolled down the hall and into the sports building, turning a few corners before she entered the archery room. Her feet squeaked against the floor material, a sound that she realised really wasn't going to help hide her presence at all. And it meant that they would be immediately wondering why she was here when she didn't even do archery.

She needed to get on the initiative.

Green eyes zeroed in on the most noticeable person in the room. Hoshitani Yuuga. Flashy dude. Brunette. Pulled off a ponytail better than her. Shoukei quashed that sudden spurt of envy; what was important was telling this guy about the budget stuff. But how could she start the conversation? Just say hi normally? Was that too casual? Be more formal? Polite? Start off with small talk before getting into the nitty-gritty? Wouldn't that be time-consuming too? She wanted to get her job done as quickly as possible, not laze around in a club full of archers. What was her tone supposed to be like? Actually, would Hoshitani be fine with her just bursting into his clubroom like that?

She pondered for a second. They were probably going to notice her all silent, actually. That wasn't good. She needed to get what she wanted to do as quickly and directly as possible.

"Yo senpai," she blurted out, hand instinctively waving at Hoshitani in greeting, "we're cutting your budget."

Fuck.

Way too direct. No mercy there. And she was stuck with this atmosphere now.

Welp, no choice but to keep going.

@banjoanjo

"Well, I'll try..." Maiko began. She wasn't so sure it could possibly be as simple as staying safe around the city, though. With so many people having vanished, it couldn't be that they all just happened to walk down the wrong street at night, could it? It was still sound advice, but she couldn't help but imagine whoever was behind this as being some sort of determined organisation with oodles of resources. Nothing short of half an army could keep someone safe from that. Of course, that was just her overactive imagination talking, and she still had no idea what was actually happening. "I'm afraid I still have a job to do though, and Mainichi doesn't fork out to have it's part timers escorted around the city."

Then a random idea popped into her head. "Ooh, ooh, can I get a police escort? I mean, you guys think I'm in danger, right? You gotta keep me safe, riiiiight?" Anybody could make use of having a police escort, but Maiko wasn't really asking for serious reasons. She was thinking more along the lines of how cool it would be to have the police making a path for her through the city. It would be like she was some big-shot VIP. Of course, she didn't actually expect to be taken seriously, and neither did she really think it would matter. With all this uncertainty around town, who was to say the police would even be able to keep people safe by sticking around them?

@VitaVitaAR

Hikaru paused for a moment. A police escort was, unfortunately, entirely out of the question for her or any of the victims. Even though it was Maiko's relative that had disappeared in this case, there was no way of knowing whether that increased the chances of her being targeted or not. As a result, they simply couldn't spare officers to use as an escort. Once they began to do that, surely other potential victims would wonder why they were not being escorted. If they acquiesced to the requests for an escort, then there was simply no way the situation would remain sustainable. They couldn't afford to spread their officers so thinly, especially when it wasn't as if other crimes simply ceased to occur. They would have defend the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people who had ever looked at the app. It was impossible.

"Unfortunately, that's not feasible at this time," Hikaru responded in a rather blunt fashion, "If we were to begin providing police escorts, we would have to provide them for every potential victim. There's far too many potential victims to provide an escort for every single one of them."

It was a regrettable fact, but it was still a fact.

@Mercurial

"...As long as you can keep it short. The quicker we get home, the better it'll be," Manami replied, her tone completely lacking in the casual spirit displayed by Keita. The disciplinarian seemed incapable of dropping her no-nonsense persona, even after school hours, which made conversations very difficult with her. Not that she seemed to notice. After all, Manami was only looking out for her fellow students. She walked alongside him to the supermarket, deciding she could get a few supplies in the meantime. If nothing else, it'd be one or two less items on the list for the weekly shopping later on.

Her eyes glanced towards him as he tried to advertise his father's restaurant in an awkward manner. What had gotten him so flustered, all of a sudden? Perhaps he was worried about pushing his family's products? How silly. Manami may be tough about studying, but even she could understand if familial obligations took precedent... somewhat. Either way, it was disheartening to know that the issues with Strange Gospel were even affecting their business. She held no illusion that her patronage alone would keep them afloat, but every little could help, right? Besides, it couldn't be so dire that they were about to close up shop or anything.

"I don't mind visiting, I suppose," Manami replied to Keita's advertisement coolly, "if nothing else, I suppose it gives me an opportunity to discuss your slacking with your family..."

Manami was more likely serious with that statement. She wasn't known for her wit, after all.

HOSHITANI YUUGA

Yuuga froze at the sudden announcement, dropping the last of the arrows into storage. This was… uh… What?

He flipped through his mental catalogue of the students of Yamamura High, hastily trying to identify the girl addressing him. Chiyu Shoukei. Pink hair. Second year. Treasurer, surprisingly. Now this was an interesting case.

Cute. Diligent. But notably unpopular. These were just things he’d heard through the grapevine. All three qualities seemed completely justified from the bluntness she’d just shoved in the faces of everyone in hearing distance. It was the last point that made Yuuga jot a mental note to avoid spending too much time with the Treasurer. Reputation, both good and bad, had a habit of spreading quickly.

The girl’s sudden interruption had roused a sudden wave of whispers from the club members. They’d heard her budget cut announcement too, huh. Not ideal.

The long-haired boy glanced around for the club president. The guy was currently indisposed, having gone with the advisor to discuss tournament details. Guess Yuuga had to cover as the face of the club. Geez, if he’d known that having his arrow-nocking image emblazoned on this year’s recruitment papers would bring so much trouble he never would have agreed to it. At least club membership had gone up by at least 150%.

All eyes were on him. It was up to him to protect the club’s prosperity. Yuuga felt his back stiffen reflexively at the realisation. Damn. He didn’t even know how to handle club finances. He could’ve just told the girl to wait until President came back, or just pointed her towards the staff room. Or…

He could make this look good.

“Woah, hey!” the tall boy raised his hands in surrender, flashing an awkward but still sparkling smile. Those sorts of showy moves usually eased troubling situations. All he needed to do was stall until President returned. And girls generally did whatever they could to spend more time with Yuuga. This should be easy!

“Can’t we discuss this a little before any hasty decisions are made? What brought this on anyway?”

"Yeah, don't worry, I shouldn't be too long," Keita responded in turn, pausing for a moment as his companion commented that she'd end up discussing his 'slacking' with his family instead. His pace slowed for a moment before the programmer shook his head and looked at the young woman beside him with a look of incredulity.

"...Really. My slacking? I don't think you can call placing in the top 5 rankings on every exam we've taken 'slacking', Motoyama-san. Though it may be the start of the school year, I'm still able to keep up with you, y'know. Well, 'cept for anything athletic, but that'd cut into time I have set aside elsewhere. Even so, catching a few z's during break isn't on the level of 'slacking', is it?" he continued on, a plastic basket whisked off its place on the stack and now hanging on the crook of his arm, before the young man walked over to the produce section to scan over what they had of... Reasonable quality.

"Regardless, thanks for hearing me out, though. My dad's been getting waaaay too many grey hairs over this mess, and I fear I might follow suit. Most stressful weeks of my life, I tell you what," he remarked, picking up a potato and looking it over from multiple angles before chucking it (along with a few others) into a plastic bag. "Hm... Today's feeling like a curry day, from the looks of things... Meat's next on the list, I guess... Ah, goddamn, can't decide. Yo, whaddya think is a good fit for curry in April? Pork, chicken or beef?"

The question itself seemed to come out of nowhere, but as programmers were, lazy was lazy. If someone else could make the choice for him, then it'd end up saving him some time staring at the choices until he finally gave up.

Deciding on food was easy, but when it came to choices within choices, well... He wasn't so quick on the draw there.

Maiko made a faux pouting face in response to Hikaru's statement. "Oh well. I guess I'll just have to go and get kidnapped on my own then." She had already made up her mind that it didn't matter much either way. She also wasn't about to just stop living her life because she might get nabbed at any time. While she might not need the money, she kind of enjoyed her work, and when it came to a mysterious force that could seemingly kidnap you from anywhere, it's not like it mattered if she biked around the city or hid away in the bowels of her house.

"Speeeeeeaking of which, I do kinda sorta need to get back to work. The people still need their newspapers. Heck, Strange Gospel is what half of the newspapers are all about..." It was almost like Strange Gospel was finding a way to permeate into every aspect of her life, sometimes. "Oh, and could you write me a note or something to mention this? If I'm late finishing up, I'm going to need to prove this happened so I don't seem like I just stood around for a while." However, Maiko did think she could still feasibly finish on time in spite of this delay. It was better to have an excuse on hand just in case though. They were definitely going to notice that she didn't finish at the same time she usually did.

@VitaVitaAR

CHIYU SHOUKEI

We already discussed this for hours.

It wasn't that she didn't understand where the upperclassman was coming from, but he definitely wasn't the first person to protest to her about the Student Council's decisions. Although yeah they were at least protesting to the right person, given that she did give opinions on where and how to balance the budget but the President was still the one who made all the final decisions, and that decision (after all the discussions back in the meeting room) was that the Archery Club was going to have to deal with having less cash around for the time being.

"Sorry senpai," she replied apologetically, a note of formality dripping into her cadence as she gave the archer a short bow. The one where she was bowing, not the weapon that the guy probably already had. She needed to pull back a bit; that had been way too direct and casual. But damn this was getting awkward.

She really should've thought things out more instead of being stuck bowing to Hoshitani in front of his entire club. All the attention being put on her was really, really not what she was down the alley for, or something like that. She had just wanted to talk a bit about the budget then leave and find the next guy so she could get home before it got too late.

Goodbye, pillow-chan. I'll see you tomorrow night instead.

"The President decided that you didn't need as many funds," Shoukei continued, looking back up. She was beginning to feel very aware of all the gazes in her direction. She needed to find a distraction. Like that funny smile on Hoshitani's face. "All the clubs are undergoing budget rebalances, not just Archery."

The administration was pretty intent on funnelling more money into the Kendo club. Every other club she'd talked to today were victims of the intense desire to throw more money at their most successful sports ... physical activity? She didn't know if kendo was actually a sport. But yeah, she had been telling a lot of people about budget cuts today, and there were still a few more places on the list.

She really wanted to go home, but this was her responsibility.

HOSHITANI YUUGA

“Oh really?” Yuuga raised an eyebrow but cringed when Chiyu bowed. This girl really didn’t know how to sugar-coat, huh.

This was not the sort of response he wanted with so many people watching. Were his club members going to think of him as some kind of tyrant? Or was he gonna come off as more of a charismatic diplomat type? He guessed that it depended on what kind of stance he was taking, whatever the mood was. And right now the mood was getting really, awkwardly formal. Yuuga laughed nervously in response. He needed to defuse quickly.

“All the clubs, huh? Even those guys on the Kendo team?”

Damn, was that too on the nose? Too cynical? He must’ve sounded like a salty bastard just then. Quickly now, before the tide of conversation became too unfavourable for the both of them.

“I mean… it’s just that…” More effort into his smile. Don't let the Treasurer know that he had no idea what he was doing. Yuuga scratched his head, recalling President’s rant last week about the other ‘glory-hogging sport hounds’ and their budget bonuses, “The Kendo Club’s the school’s clear favourite. Nothing wrong with that. But we’ve got more than twice as many recruits than last year. You’ll have to ask Prez for more details but personally I don’t know how we’re gonna handle these many members with a cut budget. Are you sure there’s no way to work around us?”

Was that good enough? No, one more push should do it.

“And this is just between us,” Yuuga said lowly, knowing full well that his club members were listening in, “But we’ve got a lotta first years still showing up. Wayy more than we can handle with a cut budget. Plus, kyudo's been a staple in the school community for ages! A lotta people could get affected here.”

His strategically off-hand remark triggered whispers of agreement from the older club members, garnering some small satisfaction in him. Jackpot. Even if he couldn’t negotiate their budget back, it’d still look like he tried.

In the face of that pout, Hikaru was as stonefaced as ever. It was regrettable that they couldn't spare escorts for every potential victim of the kidnappings, but there wasn't any way that they could possibly supply that many officers. The best option was to increase patrols, especially around areas that had the most density of kidnappings. At the moment, that was worryingly a rough ring around Yamamura High School. But from what she understood, it wasn't limited to this city. No, other departments across Japan were dealing with their own rash of disappearances. There had to be some sort of organized element here, but what was it? Was it some kind of strange cult? Some sort of terrorist organization?

Of course, this internal speculation was cut short when Umeda Maiko asked for a note to explain why she'd been held up. It only made sense, and there was no reason not to provide it. Taking a notepad from her pocket, Hikaru scrawled a swift note down.

Held up during investigation. Apologies.
Detective Sasegawa Hikaru

She quickly offered the note to the girl.

"If anything strange happens, be certain to report it, no matter what it is," Hikaru asserted.

@Mercurial

Haruko took the bread and walked up to the counter, pulling out a handful of coin from her bag and sorting out the correct amount.

"Sure, that sounds great."

She put the rest of the coins away along with the bread and lifted the bag onto her shoulder. Haruko didn't really know the other student that well either.

"Well, I think a movie might be a bad idea, but anything else sounds good."

@Nerevarine

Shuusuke was, quite honestly, tired of dark purple asymmetrical pentagons dotting his vision. Every time someone said those two words, "Strange Gospel", those shapes danced around in his eyes, and with how frequent those words were uttered in the past month or so, he was frankly getting tired of them.

Repetition was stale. Repetition was boring.

And speaking of repetition, there was that dream that he'd been having for a while, as well. He'd found himself in a blue and white room, confused as all hell. It kept happening, and Shuusuke couldn't figure out why... something had to have happened that his brain was fragmenting together; that's how dreams worked, after all. But Shuusuke couldn't even begin to think of what that could be.

Purple pentagons again. Shuusuke shook his head.

He absent-mindedly passed by the school gates, passing by two other students, talking about... something or other. Shuusuke picked up the words "pork, chicken or beef" before he realized that the conversation wasn't something he would be interested in.

Blue circle... red triangle.

Shuusuke scratched his head as he walked. Maybe he could stop by the convenience store... he was feeling a bit peckish, and he did have a bit of extra change. He nodded, deciding on this course of action, before taking a left where he would normally take a right. It was that much of a detour, anyway.

As he approached the store, he wondered whether it would be worth it to head to the arcade today. The new update was out, and Shuusuke did want to have a stab at the new songs, but he had been going to the arcade a lot recently, and he was a bit worried about his parents thinking that he was slacking. He snapped out of his thoughts just in time to narrowly avoid bumping into two girls standing just inside the store.

"Oops..." he said, sidestepping, "Sorry about-"

Who the hell put this display stand here?!

Shuusuke's foot caught on the bottom shelf, sending him tumbling down.

Quick. Clean.

At least he didn't knock anything else over.

@TheFake @Nerevarine

CHIYU SHOUKEI

Think they care more for school rep over the students, there, senpai.

They had definitely taken into account the large jump in membership since the previous year, but the President still thought that the current amount of funds enjoyed by the Archery Club was a tad bit more than what was thought necessary. Sure, kyudo was important (an opinion she was stating without any grounding in the art), but it wasn't like they could compete with the Kendo Club's massive popularity with the administration, and without that, they wouldn't have a great shot at keeping up the case for more money. She personally didn't think a tiny bit more was too much, but then they'd have to rejiggle the budget again (see: her and her alone) and weather the complaints of the other clubs (see: the Council would throw her at them).

But keeping on the same track was getting really awkward. Shoukei was expecting blowback of course, but the million-watt smile being thrown her way by the upperclassman was way too much. Her green gaze shifted minutely, avoiding the smile to focus on Hoshitani's neck; it was probably still close enough that he wouldn't think she was looking away or anything. She'd feel really bad trying to deny him, but in front of all these club members she'd seem like a pushover too. Aaah, and it was taking up time too.

The Kendo Club just had way more links with the Board pockets right now, so she couldn't just unilaterally decide against giving them more cash just so Archery got squeezed a bit less. Her right hand ran through her mane of pink hair. Hoshitani seemed like a genuine guy and if the 1st years were pretty good, investing was just the way to go, but money was limited, you know? They weren't some wealthy private school that demanded 1.5 million yen a year or something.

And it'd be her ass that'd be grass. Not that these club members weren't already going to rib her as a weirdo already.

Aargh.

Shoukei finally let out a sigh. Okay, she needed to find a way to compromise. Something that didn't put too much effort on her. "I'll try and talk to the President, but don't expect any promises," she said. There, say something nice but meatless and push responsibility onto someone else.

She didn't know if the President would be a lot more lenient on their budget, but in any case, it would mean more work for her. Aaah, she'd have to squeeze the humanities clubs a bit more if she was to give the boost in cash for the Kendo Club that the administration ordered.

HOSHITANI YUUGA

Success!

Yuuga clapped his hands together, the already wide smile on his face beaming even brighter. Ah, he actually managed to do it! A brief glance was sent over the club members. Their whispers had turned to ones of excitement. He’d done it and everyone saw him do it. Best case scenario. Sure, it seemed like just a temporary fix but he’d done the best he could at the time. That was enough, right?

“Thanks, Chiyu-chan! Hope we didn’t trouble you too much!”

They probably did. Yuuga had heard plenty of stories of how brutal Student Council work could be. Ah well, it was Chiyu or the club. The choice was easy. The Treasurer wasn’t really anyone he needed to concern himself with. Her opinion wouldn’t sway anything too important. He began to turn away, thinking that the conversation was finished.

“Ah, I gotta get changed. Was supposed to do a grocery run tonight.”

Manami, carrying a basket for herself, followed alongside Keita as they traversed the shop. Out of respect for his troubles, she opted to not pursue further argument of his alleged slacking, but she would not let the matter die. There was always tomorrow to remind him. Again.
Her basket was considerably less full than Keita's, with only a few condiments occupying a corner of the container.

She tilted her head in his direction at the sudden question, obviously not expecting such a thing. She... was not a consumer of curry, so finding an answer was difficult. She had a preference for chicken, but did that go with curry at all? How relevant was April to the equation? Was there even an objectively wrong answer...?

"...You should go with whatever appeals the most to you," Manami gave her evasive reply with the air of someone delivering great wisdom. Adjusting her glasses with her free hand, she offered a stiff smile to Keita, "After all, onlu you truly know your own taste."

It maybe have been at that moment that one of the many students who had seen that unusual dream noticed that the moon was out. It was hardly unusual, on a clear day at this time the moon's visibility was not an unlikely thing. Still, somehow it may have seemed slightly more attention grabbing...

Or perhaps it was the brief glimpse of a black-haired girl sprinting by in a trenchcoat, in the distance. That may have been quite noticeable, too. Either way, something caught their attention, even only for the briefest of moments...

And the next time they opened their eyes after blinking, their surroundings had completely changed.

No longer were any of them outside, or in a small restaurant, or anywhere else that looked remotely familiar. Instead, they were in what appeared to be an elevator, a dark blue elevator that could be felt going slowly downward. Somehow, it was large enough to accommodate everyone, in spite of not seeming like it should. There didn't appear to be any door to leave it, but the sensation of going downward marked it as absolutely an elevator. Or perhaps it was upward? Somehow, it was hard to tell what direction they were moving in, even though the difference between up and down should have been obvious.

This could be counted as one of the few times that Detective Sasegawa Hikaru was stunned into complete silence.

For what seemed like it could have been anywhere from ten seconds to ten minutes, the elevator inexorably carried on, its dark blue velvet walls making it seem like they were surrounded in nothingness.

Then, suddenly, the front of the elevator slid open. Suddenly there was no elevator at all, and they were standing in a large, circular room. It was also blue, with a blue velvet couch in the center. Surrounding the room, towards the ceiling, were a set of various screens displaying images of... a city? A dark city...

This was the same location as in their dreams.

On the couch, just as in their dreams, was a a young brunette girl dressed in a stylized miko outfit. When she noticed them, she stood, the bells in her hair jingling.

"Finally," she began, "Let me introduce myself. I am Tsukuyomi, and I'd like to welcome you to the Hollow Space."

Keita paused for a moment as something seemed to fly by the corner of his eye. His initial though was that it was an insect that had just flown by, and thus swiveled his head to get a better look. After all, places like these didn't generally have any bugs, and letting one slip in through the entrance, while relatively harmless within the grander scheme of things, was still pretty damn annoying.

His surprise at the sudden change of scenery, of course, caused the young man to stop for a moment and blink a few times before looking around in haste. The groceries yet-unpaid were still in hand (or, rather, in his basket), and that was certainly a troublesome issue. What was more notable (other than the spontaneous teleportation and/or hallucination) was that there were a bunch of other people wearing their school uniforms also in the elevator with him. He recognized a few others other than Manami (who had also apparently been dragged along for the ride), but rather than freak out in any meaningful way, Keita held his tongue and waited. The entire matter was incredibly disconcerting, but the scenery seemed oddly... Familiar.

Once the elevator came to a stop and disappeared into nothingness, Keita's eyes widened in realization at their current location. Everything seemed so surreal, but that dreamlike quality that this place had made things click.
...
The fact that he could still feel the basket dragging down his arm also meant that he hadn't just spontaneously fallen asleep or was having a lucid dream or something.

Which... Actually made for a lot more questions than he'd have liked. It answered a few, yes, but...

"Okay. Hold on a moment, here. What's with this game-like scenario here? Why's this place the same one my dreams keep gravitating towards? Why are we here physically now? And most importantly, what the heck am I supposed to do with this load of unpaid groceries?!" he asked, waving off the matters of what sort of problem they had been dragged into. That would probably be explained in due time, but that last question was a necessity. How would he explain becoming an accidental shoplifter to his family?!

If it hadn't been for the absolute absurdity of the situation, Maiko would have been thinking that there truly was some unseen force trying to prevent her from getting to work today. With her mouth agape, she stared wildly at her new environment. At first, she had no idea what was going on, but then it dawned on her; this is the same place she kept seeing in those wacky dreams. Or at least, it was one of the places she kept seeing. The one big difference from her dreams, however, was that she was now sharing this elevator space with a pack of other people. Detective Sasegawa was here, a bunch of people from school were here, and so were some other people.

When they finally arrived in that strange room with the miko girl, Maiko was at a loss for words for once in her life. This was just all too much supernatural for her to handle. She just stood there dumbly as one of their number starting ranting about some random stuff. His words reminded her of her own concerns; how was she going to explain to work that she got trapped in the twilight zone? Her dad was going to be so pissed. Trying to form some more cohesive and relevant thoughts, Maiko made one solitary contribution to the situation...

"I thought Tsukuyomi was a male god???" She blurted out. Surely an integral observation to make in a situation like this.