Hina was unconcerned with Shina's teasing and Kaori's request. Of course Tomoko wouldn't allow that pervy spider to take her home and dress her up and let her serve as bait. As a detective, Tomoko would be willing to dress up herself. What self-respecting investigator would expect a Watson to do what they wouldn't? It was a sort of code of honor among detectives, Hina understood from stories. Knowing this to be true in the depths of her soul, Hina smugly listened as Tomoko explained the situation. The girl never could resist a good monologue, but this was something Hina respected as an artist herself.

"...Wait, what?"

Surely Tomoko misspoke. Hina had never volunteered to be bait. She volunteered Tomoko to be bait.

"T-tomocchi," Hina called the girl by a cutesy over-familiar nickname to re-establish their close friendship, "Tomo-tan... Tomo-tama...!"

Kaori gave Tomoko a tight hug before rounding on Hina.

"T-TOMO-DACHI," Hina whined as Kaori scooped her up and bound her with webbing, "TOMO-TOMO, PLEASE."

Hina squirmed and whined, flailing around like an unmanned fire hose but with the strength of a particularly agitated shrimp cracker. Her blubbering and squealing only proved how effective she would be at roleplaying a literal child.

"NOOO DON'T TAKE 'GOOD CARE' OF ME," Hina babbled, "OR 'BAD CARE' OF ME EITHER FOR THAT MATTEEER~"

And like that, Hina was easily carried off like a princess. Only whinier.

As Hina was carried away by a certain spider, Shina just sort of watched. Well, there was nothing to stop that perverse spider. Well, they probably had a bit of time before they really could go pick up their Zashiki-Warashi from the spider. "Hmm, well, while we wait, there's a cute little cafe I run nearby. We can pick up a little drink. Tea or Coffee. There are even cute little desserts if you want one." Shina was obviously trying to promote it. "It's called 'Tanuki Cafe'. Yes, yes. I know, original. It'll be my treat even." Really, it was about as likely a real offer as it were a trick... But it was a free tea or coffee. "I don't think we should get anything for the spider... Or should we get her a nice strong coffee..." A sly little smile covered the Tanuki's face as she wondered how a youkai spider would react to caffeine.

"'Course, we could also head over and make sure our spider comrade isn't doing anything horrid to the cute Zashiki-Warashi." She also offered, though despite her suggesting it, she didn't seem all too interested in it. "I really could go for a nice tea right now though."

Akari watched the proceedings with a sense of relief. Having an actual child around made her position much more secure... otherwise she was sure that their club leader would have taken some far more drastic measure to force her to act much younger than she actually was. And that would be a disaster! Aside from not wanting to be bait, or put on the spot like that, there was no way anyone, even a youkai, would have bought that. Right?

"Handy? Um... okay..." she nodded, polishing off the bottle. Right, ghost hand. She could do that.

"Hey! Wai-" And Kaori was already gone. Jeez, she worked fast. Though she probably was the best costume designer among the club members. Especially for short-notice costumes, with all that silk. Still, Homura felt like it would probably be better if she weren't left completely to her own devices, either.

"I feel like I should follow her. On the other hand, tea." Homura shrugged. "I suppose while we wait, we've got to plan our next move. No use letting Hina get disappeared because we weren't prepared with a good trap after setting our bait."

Tomoko's aggressively pleasant smile did not falter, not when she was hugged, not when Hina began to beg for mercy, not a single moment passed by where it showed even the slightest sign of fading.

"Have fun~ I'm sure Shimizu-san can make you look convincing!"

Completely brushing aside the zasshiki-warashi's pleas, the Intermediary happily waved at Kaori and Hina as they departed.

Somehow, the fact that she didn't have any sign of outward malice made the gesture even more threatening.

Clapping her hands together, she took a deep breath and turned towards her remaining club members.

"Now, Kiyohara-san is exactly right. I'm afraid we don't have time for a cafe visit," began Tomoko, "Not when time is quite a precious resource. We don't know exactly what Hasshaku-sama does with the children she abducts. Certainly, in the original story they simply died, but because of the influences of different iterations on the original idea there's no way to be certain."

It was quite possible that the first children abducted were already dead. Or worse.

"We have no idea if she is killing them, or simply keeping them locked away," continued Tomoko, "So we have to do everything we can to work as swiftly as we can, because we may be running out of time to save their lives."

She shrugged.

"Or we may already be too late. It's impossible to know until we find her. So, we need to have our plan ready to execute as quickly as possible."

There really was only one way to know what happened to the children, and that was to find them. Hopefully, they'd all still be alive.

But they had to get there first.

"I suspect that Hasshaku-sama is not occupying normal space when she isn't visible. It would explain where the children disappear to," Tomoko elaborated. Of course, it was just a guess, but ultimately unless the children were instantly disintegrating or turning invisible they had to be put somewhere, "I'm guessing she uses a closed space to get around, and to take the kids she abducts."

Grinning, she pounded right fist into her left hand.

"So, we'll just have to bust it right open once we've lured her out! Ultimately, a closed space is just a barrier, which means within enough force, especially from a a phantom entity, we should be able to crack it wide open and get inside!"

Of course, this plan wasn't without its dangers. If Hasshaku-sama really was using a closed space, the interior would be an advantageous territory for her, a location in which she had at least some control over its rules and functions. But at the same time, it was unlikely that such a closed space would be designed with combat in mind.

At least this made it obvious what Akari was intended to do.

@Raineh Daze@Vega7285@Pyromania99@Rune_Alchemist@Octo

Shimizu Kaori

---

Kaori had swiftly run from the playground back to where her house was. Somewhere along the line the spider thought it'd be a good idea to web Hina's mouth shut in order to draw less attention to herself as she ran happily down the street and towards a somewhat more rural area of the city where Hina would find the spiders house, tucked quietly away from the noise and buzz of the city...and away from more nosy neighbors that could potentially, hear a little ghost child calling for help.

While the exterior of the house was somewhat more traditional looking, the interior was anything but. While not hyper modern, the inside of the place was certainly not lacking for modern luxuries, but Hina wouldn't get very long to gawk or otherwise study the interior as the spider would quickly carry the ghost up stairs and dump her in one of the many rooms.

Once she was certain Hina was nice and safe inside, she'd close the door behind them.

"Now, Hina-chan, be a good girl and play with big sis spider for a bit okay~?"

click

And thus the door locked, and Hina had nowhere to escape immediately too.

Kaori turned on her heels towards Hina, hands clasped together, resting against her face with a fanged smile.

"I'll give you as many cookies as you want later if you do!"

Regardless of what Hina wanted to, though, the spider would do exactly as Tomo had let her do. Various outfits were tried on. Bunny. Kimono. Some stuff involving ropes and silk threads that were probably too extreme to really mention. Magical girl cosplay from a popular anime and a fox from the same series. A military uniform for some reason and a blond wig. Swimsuit. In all, there were about twenty different outfits the spider forced Hina to put on until finally, the ghost girl would be given some relief as the spider finally actually, put her in a proper outfit.

"Ehehe, I think this does it." Proud of her handiwork, Kaori would take one last picture of Hina for...posterity. She was dressed in a typical grade schooler outfit that was colored blue along with a randoseru upon her back and a yellow cap. An absolutely pristine example of a small, vulnerable school girl. "Thank you for the candy-ahem-cooperation Hina-chan~"

"Lure her out, break into her place and rob her blind! Ahh, when I say rob her, I merely talk about the children of course. I don't endorse actual steal. That's not something good... Unless it's cookies from a spider so you can incinerate them." Shina said as she stood there, wondering what to do with herself. "Anyhow, we just need to break into Schrodinger's Closed Space and see if there are children to free." The Tanuki broke it down into terms she thought she understood at least. "Hope they're still alive."

She seemed a little non-commital, almost like she didn't care, though it was more along the lines of she thought they would be fine. Most likely. She didn't really seem to have much to do in the current operation so she was mostly just twiddling her thumbs. Perhaps out of boredom, or because she was the only one who seemed receptive of the tea idea... The Tanuki snuck up next to Homura and wrapped an arm around the shoulder of the Youkai Hunter. "So, want tea? I can order one of my idi-- I mean, assistants to bring some." There didn't seem to be too much of a ulterior motive but, really, could one trust a Tanuki. With her arm still around her new friend's shoulder, she spoke up toward Tomoko. "So, what do you need a beautiful Tanuki like me to do?"

Hina whined stupidly as Kaori carried her off, and then when Kaori webbed her mouth shut, she whined stupidly except muffled, which ironically seemed like it would be more suspicious. The Bystander Effect, however, was in full swing and no one seemed interested in inquiring about this whining girl. Seeing as the two looked, to these Humans, to be completely normal young women, they probably assumed that Hina was Kaori's little sister or something.

Hina quietly hoped that the Spider would not make Hina refer to her as 'big sis', only to find out later that Kaori referred to herself as 'big sis', which was almost just as bad.

As Hina was tossed into a random room in the Spider's admittedly nice residence, and the door was immediately locked, she knew that her life was probably in jeopardy.

Then Kaori said she'd give Hina as many cookies as she wanted later and, dumb snack-Goblin that she was, Hina immediately felt a little better. She liked cookies, after all, and so why would someone offer her cookies if they wanted to hurt her? With this flawless logic, Hina concluded that this would probably be a (slightly) positive experience with the promise of sweets. She stopped whining a little, and started putting on all sorts of outfits. Hina knew and liked most of the things the cosplays were from (except the rope ones, which she was pretty sure were just for Kaori's enjoyment, which sent a shiver down her spine), but all-in-all, it wasn't so bad. She liked cosplay, after all, and they were good quality outfits. It's just that Kaori was weird.

Then Kaori snapped a picture of her in the gradeschooler uniform, and Hina frowned.

"Eh? If you were gonna dress me up like this anyways, then what was with dressing me up in all that other stuff? I mean, the cosplay was fun, but still! But still!"

Hina stomped her little feet demandingly, puffing out her cheeks.

"You must be pretty lonely, taking all the time you can with me. Well, as reparations for dressing me up in all that weird stuff, I demand cookies! Infinity cookies, or else I'll never play with you again! Also video games! And figures of pretty anime girls! Gimme a Madoka! And, uh, uh, I want a Holo! And Abigail Williams! I want two!"

Hina was pretty sure, despite being very childish, that Kaori would give her whatever she wanted right now. And Hina wanted things.

"Also also! Say I'm the cutest! Cuter than Tomoko, that smug Human! Say it and mean it, and I might be happy with you! It's your best deal, because you got to have a lot of fun already!"