After having experienced Kaori's attitude and affections for a considerable length of time now, Tomoko had learned to be prepared for this kind of treatment.

The karakasa wasn't the only friend she brought along today.

Letting her surprised decoy 'enjoy' Kaori's affections, Tomoko stepped to the side and around the clingy jorogumo, ignoring any muffled pleas for help.

"Tea would be lovely, thank you," she said, in response to Homura.

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!

"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.

Meanwhile, the shapeshifted mujina in Kaori's grip squirmed frantically. She'd altered her usual human form to be identical to the intermediary, but she hadn't been told [i]why[/i] this was happening.

Only now did she understand.

[@Raineh Daze][@Vega7285][@Pyromania99][@AzureKnight][@Rune_Alchemist]