Tomoko listened for a few moments to the various proposals presented from across the room. Some of them were sound, though the less said about the 'chupacabra' 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 fondled the squirming mujina. 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 namahage would torture and terrorize children.

Some legends spoke of yamauba devouring them.

Urban legends spoke of a myriad of phantoms that would target children.

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

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 yokai 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 [i]some[/i] of your suggestions are logical based on 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 the child-eating yokai 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. Indeed, it was possible some creep was the perpetrator as well.

"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. Those who guessed at urban legends might just have had a little bit of my wisdom rub off on them."

Winking, Tomoko raised one finger beside her head.

"Just a little!"

But the fact was that they still didn't have enough information to go off of.

"But we don't have enough information to come to any conclusions. Dubious conclusions about nurikabe aside, Hina-chan's questions are the right ones. Unfortunately, I don't have any answers. The kidnappings have happened in broad daylight, in the evening, from crowded locations, from lonely ones, even right behind the parents' backs. The only consistency is in the victims, and the lack of evidence."

Even the Intermediary couldn't produce evidence from thin air. But she had a plan to fix that.

"So," continued Tomoko, "We're going on a little field trip to talk to a witness!"

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 [i]living[/i] human beings.

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

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