Chisaki was a good girl. She never disobeyed her parents, she did her best to make sure all her homework was done on time, she tried to make sure her fellow students were on track, and she was always interested in what her teacher had to say.

So even she thought what she was doing now was out of character for herself.

She was a primary school student, at only nine years old, with short black hair and glasses.

And that made the fact that she was out by herself so late all the more unusual. But the fact was...

It wasn't just one of her friends. Two of them, Sakura and Taro, had both disappeared. Up and vanished without a trace. No-one knew what happened to them. Not their parents. Not the police.

There wasn't a single sign of anything. They weren't... they didn't seem to have died, or anything like that... it was just like they'd evaporated into thin air.

Chisaki thought of herself as smart. She thought of herself as mature. And she was worried... she thought, maybe, it would be possible for her to find something out, something she could tell the police. So they could save her friends.

So she'd snuck out at night. She knew her parents would be mad at her, but if it was for her friends' sake that was okay, right?

At least that's what she'd thought at first. She'd originally intended to meet her other friends here... but they couldn't get away from their parents.

So she was alone.

It was dark.

No-one was around.

Chisaki couldn't help but be scared. She couldn't help but worry. But at the same time, if she could find anything, anything at all that would help the police find Sakura and Taro...

It was worth being scared, right?

And then she heard it, from the alleyway...

"Chisaki-chan...?"

Sakura! That was Sakura's voice!

"Chisaki-san!"

Taro too?!

Excitement rose in the young girl's heart as she turned, immediately rushing into the alley. She'd found them! She'd found her friends! She-

The alley was empty. She heard a sound from behind her, a long shadow fell over her, and-

---

It was a dark, dreary, rainy day.

Naturally, there were few people walking out and about, unless they desperately needed to be somewhere. And even if they did, most of them were taking public transit or personal vehicles. There wasn't anyone in their right mind who would willingly be out for a walk when it was raining heavily enough, and this certainly qualified.

But regardless of that fact, there was one girl who seemed quite content to take a stroll right through the rain to her club's meeting place. Perplexing as this was, it became all the more unusual when she was observed more closely.

She was a petite blonde girl, her age difficult to discern form her youthful features and short height. It was unlikely anyone would place her older then perhaps thirteen, and many would place her a year or so younger.

If one were to ask her how she felt about such comments, it was unlikely they would hear anything particularly happy in response.

In her right hand, she held a black cane. She didn't seem to need it to walk, and yet she was using it all the same. Speaking of her right hand...

Her entire right arm was bandaged. Not a single piece of flesh could be seen underneath, the bandages extending up beneath her sleeve. Exactly why this was would be a complete mystery to most observers, as the range of movement that she exhibited with the limb indicated she was entirely uninjured.

But, perhaps, the strangest thing was the fact that there was an umbrella beside her. No, she was not holding an umbrella. Many observers would simply assume that was the case, as it was impossible that an umbrella would simply float beside someone.

But common sense could override the truth, in some cases. And to be fair, the umbrella was not simply floating beside her.

It was being carried by a girl, taller then the blonde, in a stylized kimono. Only the blonde herself, and others versed in the supernatural, could see this fact. They could also see the lengthy tongue hanging from the umbrella, and its single large eye.

Suzuki Tomoko, the intermediary between humans and youkai, had a club meeting to hold. And given the recent circumstances, it was going to be a particularly important one.

Seven disappearances. Seven children, both boys and girls, had disappeared in the last month in the local area. That wasn't even considering disappearances across the entire city that could be tied to these incidents. Each time, there was absolutely no sign of them.

It was as if they simply vanished into thin air.

As she reached the club's meeting place, the door opened ahead of her courtesy of her companion.

Indeed, she wasn't going to let this carry on any longer. She most certainly couldn't.

What sort of self-respecting intermediary could possibly let children continue to up and disappear? This wasn't a regular human perpetrator, not when the disappearances happened so swiftly and so without any evidence. Tomoko was certain of that.

No, the perpetrator had to be some sort of inhuman entity...

But who? And why?

These questions would have to be answered.

But first...

"Hello, everyone," began the blonde-haired girl brightly, "Today is the third meeting of the Miyama Occult Investigation club!"

@Rune_Alchemist@TheHangedMan@RolePlayerRoxas@Crab Bane@Raineh Daze

Shimamaru Asahi had plenty of experience hiding her true feelings behind a kind, bright smile. certainly, she was confident no human could ever hope to discern her true feelings. Perhaps present company were slightly more perceptive, but surely they knew nothing of the sheer, unbridled annoyance that the blonde "honour student" felt at having to attend this meeting.

"Here you are~" placing cups of tea before or nearby several club members, the smiling fox served the drink to everyone that wanted it, looking very much like a helpful girl, even though she was internally cursing out the one that brought them all together. Seriously, how did one as brilliant and intelligent as herself fall for such a simple trick!? Of course that little brat couldn't possibly have possessed any evidence of her harmless little prank! Pink was a way better colour for the principal's office anyway!

Not that she could back out of joining Tomoko's club, anyway. As underhanded as the "persuasion" was, Asahi had still given her word to join, and promises weren't something you just broke on a whim! How could any human accept her as their fluffy overlord of fluffiness if she couldn't even keep her word?! No, she would play along for now, and show that intermediary up at some point! She could almost picture it now...

Asahi was about to become lost in her daydreams when Tomoko herself arrived, startling the fox out of her reverie. Her smile became a tad more strained as she greeted the club leader, Good day, Suzuki-san. Would you like some tea?"

"Quite a lovely, dreary day isn't it." If someone happened to be looking, they'd have noticed a small spider skitter across the floor, right under Asahi's feet before disappearing under a table and skittering up Kaori's leg. "Thank you, Asahi." She replied in a friendly manner, taking a sip of the tea.

Like Asahi, the spider too, was mostly lost in her own thoughts while she waited for Tomoko to arrive. She likely looked quite elegant, sitting there, sipping on tea, with rain falling in the background.

Thankfully, no one could read her thoughts.

Dear gods there were so many cute girls here. In high school in general! She better start thanking whatever gods for giving her such delicious eyecandy now that she was attending highschool. Why didn't she think about it earlier? It was ingenious! And gym class! It had become her new favorite thing in the world. Aaaah, she really wanted to just...snatch a few up an-Ahem. No no, she had turned a new leaf. She had to behave herself. Couldn't cause trouble for Tomoko.

For now she'd be satisfied with knowing the color of the class president's undies.

"Ah...Tomo-chan." Setting the tea down, Kaori flashed a friendly smile towards Tomoko along with a friendly wave. "Asahi just made it. It's not half bad. I should bring some snacks next time."

Akari turned down the tea as politely as she could, apparently getting into a staring contest with the... water bottle in front of her. Much like the first two meetings of the club, Akari had arrived almost immediately after lessons had ended, eager to get away from the unfamiliar and unfortunately fragile people. It wasn't that she particularly wanted to be part of this club either, but between Tomoko and her mother there wasn't much choice.

Not that she entirely knew what to do. The class president seemed nice enough, as did the spider lady, but both of them felt slightly... odd to be around. Maybe that was just because they were youkai? It wasn't as if Akari had much experience with non-oni to know. Maybe she seemed just as odd, with her tiny un-onilike stature and barely-there horns. Though the spider lady didn't look much like a spider either.

"Ah, ya ain't wet?" she asked, looking at Tomoko as she burst in. No apparent umbrella and she was dry, huh...

Yuuto looked up from the paper he had been working on. Lately, managing his studies had become a bit more difficult, which was expected, given the circumstances, so he had to use these free gaps in time efficiently. As much importance as he put on his role as an onmyoji, he also had another role to play, that of a student, and he was loathe to under-perform in either.

"Welcome back, president. Have you kidnapped another member to your glorious cause?" he asked jokingly. Or perhaps it was half-jokingly? He held high regard for Suzuki, he really did, but he wouldn't put it past her to resort to, um, less than savory means to cajole others into joining their little club. It was just her personality.

Speaking of her victims, he smiled and thanked Asahi as she set down a teacup in front of him. He wasn't aware exactly what Suzuki did to convince her - who was already quite busy as the class president - to sign in with them, but the kitsune was not nearly as subtle with her thoughts on the matter as she thought she was.

Case in point, that smile.

Yuuto sipped his tea. She really was quite good at this.

Mikoto sat next to an open window, his headphones hanging around his neck as he waited for his phone to charge. The weather hadn't turned into a proper thunderstorm yet, but he could feel electricity gathering in the air. It put him in a state of just being relaxed, yet alert. The sound and scent of rain was also quite calming. He'd prefer not to be here, but it wasn't like he could refuse the club leader.

The youkai had nothing against humans. His grandfather certainly still held on to his prejudices to his dying breath, but what was the point in remaining angry at things that happened in the past? However, Mikoto was still a little miffed that the club president had used a combination of blackmail and bribery to get him to join this club. How the hell had she gotten those photos he'd taken and saved from the internet? Someone would have had to get into his room and to his computer, and, given the club president's role in the world, it wouldn't surprise him if she knew a youkai or two that could do that.

"Here you are~"

Mikoto glanced up at the class president. "No thanks," he said politely. "I'm not much of a tea drinker." That was a lie; he'd drink tea sometimes, but he didn't exactly trust Asahi. He knew full well that she was behind many, many pranks that had happened around the school that could never be traced to any student. Young kitsune were mischievous like that. However, he kept his mouth shut. No use stirring up drama. Plus, what teacher would believe him if he said that the class president, of all people, had committed the crimes? To them, it would make as much sense as if he'd told them that a youkai had done it.

"Hello, everyone! Today is the third meeting of the Miyama Occult Investigation club!"

He sat up a bit straighter, giving a terse nod. Mikoto couldn't help but think about Abe's question. How many of the people in the club had she blackmailed or bribed? Surely he couldn't be the only one.

The strained nature of the kitsune's smile wasn't lost on Tomoko, but she completely ignored it in favor of focusing on the tea.

"Ah, thank you," she commented as she took a seat at the head of the table, clapping her hands together as she did, "Tea would be lovely."

She cast a bright smile around at the assembled students. Yes, she'd done quite an excellent job at putting together various supernatural attendees at Miyama, and it hadn't taken very much effort at all!

At the oni's question, she simply cocked her head slightly.

"Of course, I wouldn't have walked if I was going to get wet," she said, simply. As someone who had been in contact with youkai for six years, effectively able to call many of them at will, well... Using their assistance to overcome things like a rainy day was only logical in the blonde girl's opinion.

"I'm sure you're all curious about our first order of business today, so I won't delay any longer," she continued, retrieving the daily newspaper from her bag. She didn't often read them, but picking up a copy seemed like it was a wise idea for illustrating the task at hand.

"Tada~" Tomoko declared, presenting the paper, or more specifically one of the articles.

The article in question was one that detailed all the publicly-avaliable knowledge on the recent rash of children's disappearances. There wasn't much, but it was enough to establish the fact that there was little to no evidence, and no way of knowing if the disappeared children were alive or dead.

Though given the length of time since the first known disappearance, the outlook was growing considerably more grim.

"Seven children have disappeared this month alone," she continued, "Without any evidence, with no sign of a struggle. Nothing is left behind at all. Even if I didn't have a few friends letting me know they thought something was going on, I think this would be plenty of reason to suspect it's not simply a human kidnapper, isn't it?"

At the very least, it was clear that Tomoko was taking the matter seriously, even if she had presented the newspaper article in such a lighthearted manner.

"I have my suspicions as to what it may be, but I'm curious if anyone else does," continued the girl as she put the newspaper down, waving her real hand idly, "Speculation and conversation are the best path forward!"

Indeed, assembling a plan of action meant discussing that plan of action first.

Tomoko had no intention of allowing another child to disappear, so letting the perpetrator go another night wasn't an option.

@Rune_Alchemist@TheHangedMan@RolePlayerRoxas@Crab Bane@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

Oh jeez! She was late for the meeting! Well, that much should be fine, right? They'd understand if she told them that someone was helping a teacher carry some boxes far too heavy for one person and she, in turn, helped them. Right? Well, she was cute too so that didn't hurt. She was briskly walking back to the room they held club in when she took note in the hallway that there was no one around. "..." She took another look around to make sure. "Well..." She took a step forward and used her power to create a small icey pathway that she started to slide across with a step.

The Yuki-Onna slid easily across the surface and came to a stop in front of the club room with a wide grin across her face. She opened the door and started to slid on in. There wasn't much clearance but she was fine with that. She could always stop herself if she needed. This room was filled with people she didn't need to hide from really. Tomoko had invited her to the club after Mugi mentioned her search for her "fated one" and the Yuki-Onna thought it would be a good place to search for someone. Of course, she wasn't really sure of that yet. Tomoko seemed to be talking about something serious.

Seven children kidnapped? That seemed like... What was that? Police? Yea, Police. Something for them to deal with. Right? Human society was still weird to her but she supposed they didn't have the resources to deal with the "paranormal" or something. Well, either way, it wasn't relevant to her was it? She just kept skating around the room until the girl finished what she was saying and even beyond that.

"I don't know anything about kidnappings. Sorry I was late though. I had to help this cute girl carry some heavy boxes to the storage room." The Yuki-onna just continued skating around the room with a smile on her face. She seemed to be getting out some energy. "Was it a "big bad wolf?" I heard a story once of a little girl trying to bring goodies to her grandmother only to fall victim to a "big bad wolf!"

Yuuto let out a light chuckle. Tomoko was just implacable.

In any case, he took in a big breath and set down his teacup, moving closer to Tomoko and the rest. The topic of the meeting was at hand, and it wasn't a pretty one. Their president might be acting casual about it, but he wasn't going to mistake that for callousness. He of all people knew how seriously she took her role. But still, seven missing children, perhaps...

"Perhaps it was a yamauba?" When it came to kidnapping and children, that was really the first thing that came to mind wasn't it? The demonic old women of legend where practically a parents' favorite thing to scare their children with. "Then again, it could be an oni - Shuten-doji and his gang where fond of kidnapping young girls, after all." He added as an afterthought. He didn't really consider it a possibility. It just seemed too subtle for an oni. If they were going to commit a crime, it wasn't going to be something so sneaky. They'd want to leave a mark.

The spider watched Mugi skate around the room, all the naive innocence of the world on her shoulders. Gods, she was adorable. Big bad wolf? That was some fairy tale or something from the west, wasn't it? Oh this adorable child. It was a good thing she was a good little spider that had some self restraint. Not to mention, the thought of someone kidnapping cute girls off the street infuriated her.

"Fuuu..." Kaori frowned, sliding her seat away from the table slightly. "Missing children, hm? Who would be so cruel?" The irony of that statement was not lost on her - but she never laid a fuzzy little leg on her girls. Well. Maybe some fuzzy legs. Maybe some other parts - ahem. Point was, there was a good chance some other Youkai was physically harming them. She was all for a little rough play, but it was all in good fun on her part. A Yamauba was a good suggestion in this case, but it was difficult to speculate without further information. It might be some odd one that wasn't quite run of the mill. "Perhaps an Aobozu? Though, I don't think they are known to take children in towns."

She hadn't really been keeping up with such cases on her own, and unfortunately for Tomoko, she was a bit distracted by the cute snow woman at the moment or she might of offered something more insightful. A small hand motion and a thread of silk had been latched onto the wall from between Kaori and where Mugi was skating.

The Yuki-Onna would suddenly find herself tripping, and falling onto Kaori, the girl's face meeting Kaori's chest.

"You should be careful. Skating indoors might get you hurt, especially in such a crowded room. I'd be quite distressed if you got hurt, so its a good thing you had something nice to land on, but next time you might not be so lucky, heheh."

Akari cringed at the description of the problem. Children were going missing? What if she were to walk home today and be mistaken for someone younger, then get abducted? If there was no sign of a struggle then how could her strength possibly be of use? Maybe it was possible that being a youkai was enough for her own safety, but... it would still have been nice to not have to come to school and be all caught up in this threat of abduction that was plaguing Mihama.

Fortunately, the short girl was shaken from her worries by the yuki-onna gliding into the room. Ah, she was pretty. So was the spider. And the fox class-president. Really, it was like Tomoko had gone out of her way to find attractive girls to put into the club... and her. Or maybe it was just a trait of youkai.

Mmm... Yuuto's suggestion was wrong. Well, so was calling Shuten-Douji "him", and Akari knew all her mother's stories didn't really have anything bad to say about Shuten... but on the other hand, maybe that was just because they were both oni in a time before there was a need to play nicely with people, so it didn't occur to her to say "and kidnapping people is wrong". Something that you couldn't get away with and honestly less fun, but not intrinsically wrong... though either way, she was still against it.

"Ah, it definitely ain't an oni..." Akari said, speaking up again and reaching up to play with her nervously, "Ma would've flipped and stopped 'em by now..."

@TheHangedMan

"Coming right up~" Asahi replied with forced cheer, retreating to the back of the room to prepare a cup. She could hear the arrival of a latecomer as Tomoko explained the reason for their meeting. When the fox turned, she was no longer forcing a smile. It would have felt wrong after Tomoko elaborated on those kidnappings, after all. She remained silent as she tried to navigate around the gliding Mugi and her trails of ice to reach the intermediary.

Thankfully reaching her safely, Asahi placed the cup on the table and peered at the newspaper with a troubled frown. As the caring class president, she could hardly condone these troubling incidents happening in her city. As herself though... honestly, she still didn't like it. It wasn't like she cared about a few human brats or anything! It was just...

...Well, Mama and Papa seemed concerned by the news, so it only made sense she'd prefer it to stop! Those kids being safe and sound was only ideal to ease their minds! Still, Asahi herself was not the most knowledgeable on other youkai, thanks to her relatively young age and upbringing. She'd certainly met plenty of them, but even the varied group gathered in this room was nothing more than a few common knowledge bullet-points to Asahi, and even then had trouble believing some things. She was still trying to figure out if the tiny oni with the cute accent had the strength to lift a whole building from the ground.

You already know, right? Just spit it out! Asahi wanted to demand of Tomoki, but held her tongue, and instead threw out a random suggestion, "perhaps a kuchisaki-onna? Not that I'm too confident in that answer..."
It bugged Asahi that she was going to have to do Tomoki's bidding, but whatever. She'll just grin and bear it, so this can be resolved as quickly as possible.

Mikoto listened. Seven children in one month. Suzuki assumed that it was a youkai or other spirit, and it could very well have been one. But there was still the possibility of a human doing this. He decided to speak up. "Given that we're all involved with what humans would deem the supernatural, I can understand looking at different spirits and monsters spiriting off children," he said to the club president. "Could be some onibaba. Could have been a kappa who decided kids taste better than cucumbers. Hell, for all we know, they could have been ambushed by a bunch of tsuchinoko and carried off into the mountains. That we can get involved with. But what if it's a human? Some sicko just kidnapping kids for their own amusement?

"I'm not against looking into this case, Suzuki-san," Mikoto went on. "I just want to rule out the possibility that we're not dealing with the supernatural. If we are dealing with some kind of youkai, then by all means, we should look into it. But if it's some pervert or killer, we should leave it to the police."

@VitaVitaAR

Tomoko listened for a few moments to the various proposals presented from across the room. Most of them were sound, though Akari had already noted why oni were unlikely and the less said about the 'big bad wolf' the better. Indeed, it was clear that everyone present had done some real thinking! Not that she needed this sort of assistance, but it was sometimes useful to have other people thinking for themselves! She did pause a moment to eye Kaori as she tripped the yuki-onna strategically. After all, given the jorogumo's past, well, noting what she was doing when a cute girl was so close to her was important.

A yamauba would capture children to devour them.

Some legends spoke of aobozu harassing children.

Kappa had an entire legend around them attacking people, including children.

And a kuchisake-onna would approach people at night, including children, with the question of her own beauty and a pair of enormous scissors.

And, of course, a depraved human being could have abducted the children. Murdered them, abused them, or both.

All of these could have been the perpetrator.

And one was more likely then the others.

"There sure are a lot of youkai who like attacking children," mused Tomoko as she leaned back in her seat, "Normally, that might make it challenging to figure out our culprit. But it's not so difficult when you have your wonderful intermediary and club president here, is it?"

She flashed a smile towards the assembled club members as she rose to her feet, the bow in her hair bouncing.

"Since most of your suggestions make sense based off the information we have, it would be a struggle to figure out which one makes the most sense. At least, at first glance," she continued, "But how many of those are known for their willingness to visit the city? These days, many of your child-hungry youkai aren't too fond of visiting populated areas."

The blonde girl picked up her cane.

"We could be looking at a human perpetrator, that's true. But if that were the case, I don't think anyone would have spoken to me," she continued. "I'll admit right now it's based on conjecture and hearsay, but I have a strong feeling about this. And so, we're going to go to the scene of the crime and have a chat with some witnesses."

Given Tomoko's nature, it wouldn't take too much difficulty to understand who the 'witnesses' she mentioned were. There were no human beings who saw the crimes or knew anything about them...

At least, there were no living human beings.

"Today's club activities will be spirit invocation~!" declared the short girl brightly.

@Rune_Alchemist@TheHangedMan@RolePlayerRoxas@Crab Bane@Raineh Daze@Pyromania99

As Mugi fell, she made some cute "Atatata!" noises before landing in the spider girl's chest with an "Ufu!" She went limp for a little bit as she somewhat didn't listen to a word Tomoko said. Soon though, she started to wiggle her head back and forth as her head rested into it's spot in the spider's chest and slowly turned up for air. "Fuwafuwa." The Yuki-Onna muttered aloud as she had a disgustingly contented face. "Fuwa Fuwa~" She reiterated as she started to listen half-way through Tomoko's speech.

She turned around some more, slowly, as she rested her head in the soft clouds until she could look at the person that had tripped her. Of course, she hadn't quite figured that part out. "Thank you for the soft landing zone." The contentedness hadn't left her face at all. She then continued to pay attention to Tomoko until she heard... "Wait, spirits?" The contentedness left her face as she gripped on to Kaori, "Ghosts?" She had heard ghost stories from the Elder in the past. "G-g-ghosts can be a good idea right? I mean, they do bad things to people right? Like, haunt houses and cause blood to fall from the walls right?!" Mugi didn't quite understand the Ghost Stories the Elder told her, and so assumed that this were all absolutely true. The more she mentioned and thought, the tighter her grip on the spider got. Kaori would also notice that Mugi's skin was cold to the touch.

"Fweh?" The spider blinked in mild surprise. Kaori hadn't expected this girl to cling to her quite so ah, fervently. Icyness aside, this was quite nice. Having a cute girl cling to her like this...ah, no no, she needed to behave.

"Spirit Invocation...hm." She let Mugi get comfortable as she listened idly to Tomoko. "Are we looking for anything in particular, Tomo-chan? I could ask around the area and see if any of my friends saw anything suspicious." She turned her attention back to Mugi, who seemed quite distressed at the idea of possibly getting involved with ghosts. Why a Youkai was terrified of ghosts, she didn't know, but she wasn't going to say that to this adorable thing clinging to her.

"Fufu, don't worry." Kaori placed a hand on top of Mugi's head, gently ruffling her hair. "I won't lay a fuzzy-ahem-I won't let any evil spirit lay a fuzzy hand on you." She didn't seem to mind the coldness as she wrapped her arms around the Yuki-Onna.

---

---

"Is that so?" mused Yuuto in response to Akari. Well, it was nice to have confirmation on her family's stance on how oni's operated. It was times like this that reminded him that he was not Abe no Seimei, no matter how lost he might be in the memories of the man. During the times he dreamed of his esteemed ancestors life, the yokai... they were much different. Darker, less human. Yes, some of them were kind, some were even benevolent, but there was a reason The Night Parade of a Hundred Demons inspired fear, instead of love.

The intensity of Seimei's encounters with the flip side of the world left impressions on him that he struggled to shake off when he returned to the present. He was not Seimei, and his clubmates, he yokai companions were not his old foes.

"The times really have changed huh?" he muttered to himself. He was Abe Yuuto, no Abe no Seimei. The girl next to him was Ibaraki Akari, neither Ibaraki-Douji nor his dread master Shuten. He turned to her, smiling. "I'm glad we're friends, Ibaraki-san. Remind me to treat you to a meal next time."

He didn't really know why he offered. Probably his way of affirming the times, he guessed.

"Spirit invocation, hm? It's been quite some time since I've preformed one. I'll follow your lead then, president."

Because though the times have changed, some thing remained the same, as his headstrong president was quick to remind him. There were evils to be fought yet.

If Yuuto had remembered that the girl he was offering a meal to was still an oni, friendly or not, then he might have reconsidered whether it was a good idea. If you wanted someone who could eat far more than was reasonable, then there was nobody more appropriate. Though the bright thanks she gave at the offer may have swayed him back anyway.

Much like Mugi, though, Akari seemed to have little idea of the actual goal of their spirit invocation, and jumped to her feet, downing the rest of her bottle. Then, seeing that the spider was occupied, and the class president was... well, a fox and by dint of that factor somewhat untrustworthy. Therefore, she instead threw herself at Tomoko, trying to hide behind the other short girl.

"Y-ya c-can't punch spirits! Don't let 'em take me!"

... that they were just here to ask the spirits questions rather than assume the spirits were behind the disappearances hadn't popped into her head.

"...Spirit invocation?" Asahi repeated with a raised eyebrow. They were going to call on ghosts? Just what was that supposed to accomplish? Well, knowing Tomoko, there was a good reason for it, and really it didn't take that much thought as to why. If spirits were floating around, they could be witnesses, right? Hardly one admissible in court, but more than good enough for their purposes, huh.
Well, if it meant they could clear up the unpleasant situation faster, she would play along. She had a school to conquer, after all! What was the point in capturing the hearts of those stricken with grief, worry and fear? That just wouldn't do! So the cunning fox would just have to play along!

From near the door, Asahi retrieved her umbrella, turning to smile at the group at large, "in that case, let's not delay, everyone~! If anyone needs to share, I'm more than happy to!" The offer to share an umbrella was directed at... just about anyone that wasn't Tomoko, who had her own anyway. Come to think of it, maybe she should hope Kaori didn't need to share, too? Something seemed a tiny bit suspicious about her, though Asahi wasn't sure what, even as she peered at the spider and snow woman clinging together in wonder.

Ah well, not that anyone would be so forward as to take her offer, even if they were in need, and that suited the fox just fine. It wasn't like they were real friends or anything! It was more like... an assortment of victims that brat had collected! That was all they were to Asahi, more or less!

Mikoto's frown turned into an outright scowl at the club president. "Even if you're a mediator between humans and youkai," he chided, "one shouldn't be so flippant about something like calling spirits." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Imagine being dead for years-- decades or centuries, even-- and some teenagers call you up just because they can. Worst-case scenario: we accidentally summon a kami that's been having a nice nap, and he gets pissed off by the fact that he was woken up by some meddling kids, even if they're youkai, onmyoji, and a shortstack arbitrator between the mortal and spiritual realms."

He cleared his throat. "I'm not saying we shouldn't go ahead and summon spirits to see what they know," Mikoto said. "I just think you shouldn't approach it in such a carefree manner, Suzuki-san." Mikoto glanced over the girl's shoulder at the oni. His lips twitched into a smile, if only for a brief second.

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze