To say the very least in the most polite way possible, some of the other kids were pretty brave, if not rude.The oldest boy and the other girl with the weird pink hair in particular were audacious enough with their opinions. Neither had sounded particularly threatening, at least, in Tori's eyes, since they [i]were[/i] kind of going against some sort of witch here. Tori continued to fidget, biting her lip; it's like something bad was probably definitely going to happen.This Lady Katashi person seemed like the kind of wicked hag who invited children into her candy house so she could eat them, except maybe Lady Katashi wouldn't invite them and just grab them off the street instead.

As expected, disaster struck in a fraction of a second; Tori blinked and suddenly everyone was staring at something over to the side. When she went and peeked over as well, she saw a pig wearing the oldest boy's clothes squealing and running around. Honestly, Tori almost laughed at how comically bizarre and random this dream was getting, but no one else was laughing, and something about the fear in the animal's eyes felt awfully piercingly real.

Ugh, this was an awful nightmare. And it was taking so long too.

Tori watched the pig flail around for the longest time, getting more uncomfortable and restless by the second, until finally the thing turned back to the boy, and only then did Tori [i]really[/i] realize that the thing [i]was[/i] the boy along and the witch had turned him into a pig when Tori wasn't looking. The girl mentally slapped herself for being dumb, then returned to rocking slightly back and forth on her heels and spying on Lady Katashi from the corner of her eye, fully convinced now that now would really be a good time to shut up. 

She screwed her eyes tight as the old hag made a speech about spirits and money-making and other stuff that didn't make sense. Tori turned the word "spirits" over and over in her head, heart slowly sinking as her trail of thought chugged deeper down the ravine: since she was (probably) dreaming, and dreaming was just like spirits leaving bodies to go to nicer, more fantastical places, then if Lady Katashi was telling the truth, she would be stuck dreaming forever and ever earning money for a scary greedy crone who turned boys into pigs because she wanted to.

Tori didn't like that idea, but the bathhouse itself seemed super cool (ignoring the geezer in charge of it), and she didn't want to become a panicky pig or cow or chicken, so she blurted, "Yes, ma'am!," snatched the quill in front of her, and signed the contract with the eighth signature she had invented that week, a series of scribbles and swirls that turned into a blot. She realized it was probably different from the last time she'd done it (again), but she shrugged it away and decided that this was her new signature (again). Besides, she was too nervous to really [i]remember[/i] things at the moment; goofing off at the extravagant bathhouse (away from Katashi's office) for a while was starting to seem fun now that she thought about it more, but she wondered if her family would miss her. She didn't want to make them worry. Tori told herself that when the people in other stories like Alice or Dorothy got out of the other universe, it seemed like no time had passed at all, so now she'd stick by that idea and escape this place when she got tired of it, which wouldn't seem like it'd be soon; the palace was gigantic.

Slowly, the idea of the bathhouse was starting to feel enchanting again; maybe she would meet spirits who actually liked humans. The idea excited her, and she fervently prayed that the other kids would be excited, too; the last thing she needed at the moment was killjoys.