"No karuta today, I'm afraid," Tomoko added, smiling as she did.

"Mumumumuuuu..." the ghost seemed to fume for a few moments, hands clenched into fists at her sides, "And I was sure I was going to win this time!"

Tomoko simply kept smiling.

She'd never lost a single game.

The ghost was distracted for a moment when Hina came close, and offered her tips on how to beat Tomoko... or an OC? The ghost had no idea what an OC was, but she definitely wouldn't reject getting a drawing of one.

"Wow, I was going to help anyway, but that sounds amazing, let's do it!" she said, cheerfully, in response to the zashiki-warashi's offers.

"Your frightening form was good enough to scare both an oni," commented the blonde girl, "So at least you can count that as a win."

"Heeeeh?! Really?! An oni!? Wow!" the ghost exclaimed, clearly excited at the fact that she'd managed to frighten a yokai. Tomoko declined to mention the fact that Akari was irrationally scared of ghosts to begin with. There was no need to spoil the ghost's mood, at least not at the moment. After all, they wanted to ask her some questions, and making her upset wouldn't have helped in that goal at all. "Fufufu, I'm really impressive, aren't I?"

At the compliment from Kaori, the ghost's aura of smugness seemed to grow in power. But with it came some concern.

"Disappearances...?" asked the kimono-clad phantom, a frown coming across her lips. "Does she mean [i]disappearances[/i], ojou-sama? Like, the kind you might deal with?!"

"That's right," Tomoko said, unable to help but be mildly amused at the fact the ghost felt the need to clarify this to herself and choosing to elaborate on her club members' words, "Seven children have vanished in the surrounding area this month alone, and one of them was last Friday in this very park. Since you haunt this playground, we were wondering if you might know anything. Did you see anything strange last Friday afternoon?"

The ghost looked thoughtful for a few moments. Perhaps some people would think it odd to ask a ghost if she saw anything strange, but what Tomoko was looking for was anything that the ghost felt did not match up to ordinary events. After all, if she haunted this location and saw the usual routine day in and day out, something that did not match that would naturally stand out. Even if she hadn't directly seen the disappearance...

"Well, a few kids noticed me, so I was playing hide and seek with them!" declared the ghost, clearly considering this to be a happy memory, "But when I got done with that... I remember there was a woman I'd never seen around before."

"A woman that you'd never seen before?" Tomoko asked. At first glance, there was nothing particularly unusual about that. Surely new people showed up to the playground all the time, bringing their children with them. But the fact that it had specifically stood out to the ghost...

"That's right! She didn't have any children with her or anything," continued the girl phantom, "And I remember thinking that was strange because adults don't normally show up to the playground on their own, at least not the [i]good[/i] kind of adults. So I decided I was going to keep an eye on her, and spook her if she tried anything with the kids! But then I noticed that no-one else seemed to see her... so I think she must have been a ghost like me."

A phantom woman who appeared the same day as Makishima Taro disappeared, at the same time? Tomoko had long since concluded coincidences were a rarity, and this didn't sound like one.

"Then what happened?" she asked.

"Well, I was going to keep an eye on her... but then the kids wanted to play hide and seek again, and I couldn't say no! But after that, I think I remember hearing some of the parents calling for their child... Who had the same name as the one Spider-san described!"

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