In the empty room formed by her visualisation Miyuki called out the spell and synced the five of them again as they had done that night.
They all sat across from each other shaping their forms in the mindscape to resemble their real bodies.
Once they were all ready Miyuki said," We are ready for you know Takae."
"Thanks," she replied," I'm sorry for the setbacks but I just had to get as much information on them as I could."
"Don't worry about it," Izumi blurted.
"We just used up the last of our interface tags and we can't risk sending in more so we have to sort this out right now," Yuriko said her tone far from her usual one.
"Right," Takae responded," without wasting any time let's get into it."
"The subject Tsubaki Hanasuba who was presumed dead suddenly appeared back at the shrine looking completely fine," she continued," we had Izumi and Lloyd go back and confirm if the body was still there and it was which means that this new Tsubaki is an imposter."
"I've been watching her trying to understand how the ability works and so far I've garnered that it is a near perfect impersonation ability," she continued," I couldn't sense any odd source energy from her or any signs of defects."
"The only proof that I could find of her being an imposter was the change in her behaviour."
"What kind of change?" Lloyd asked.
"She's become more introverted and has slowly began withdrawing from her usual group of friends," Takae replied," i don't think this is because of the imposter's personality."
" I'm sure that they are aware that a drastic change in behaviour can cause unwanted suspicion," she continued," so that fact they still can't help themselves means that it is probably tied to the nature of the ability itself."
"So you think that being to hyper and extroverted might affect the impersonation?" Izumi asked.
"Yes," she replied," the impersonation is probably on some kind of timer and expending less energy probably makes it last longer but that's just an assumption of mine."
"I think it makes sense that the ability has a timer given how all the imposters leave the shrine after a certain amount of time," Yuriko added," if it didn't then they wouldn't need to keep looking for people to impersonate."
"But the priestess and her guard have been part of the shrine for more than two years so what about them?" Lloyd asked,"Could whoever is using the ability be replacing them too?"
"I don't think so," Takae answered," back when we listened in on them they gave off the sense that they were major players in the operation."
"Then could one of them be the one who casts the ability?" Miyuki asked," is that why they're exceptions to the rule."
"I was thinking the same thing," Takae replied," they are at the heart of the operation so its safe to assume that it is one of them."
"Who specifically do you think it is?" Izumi asked.
"Given that she seems to be the superior officer the two it think that the one with the ability is the priestess," she answered," so taking her out could mean disabling the ability."
"Which would expose the other imposters thus making our work on the second night easier."
"That way they would lose their advantage," Miyuki said," that's a great idea."
"So how should we go about it?" Izumi asked.
"The second night is when all the families come to give offerings to the shrine through the priestess so it makes sense that they would attack then," Yuriko replied," we should use the opportunity of giving the offering to get closer to her and disable the ability."
"It's a good thing that we stayed in the shrine or we wouldn't be able to pull it off," Takae added,"After all the offerings are made she is supposed to give a big speech with most of the people listening in. I'm sure that's when she will initiate the attack so disabling the ability and exposing them will definitely disorient them."
"The chaos will cause an uproar an the people will scatter preventing them from taking them all out in one fell swoop."
"Then we can face them head-on," Miyuki added.
"There's a few problems we didn't account for, though," Lloyd cut in.
"What do you mean?" Yuriko asked.
"We did recently confirm Kobayashi's relation to the council, and given their plans, there's a high chance that he's going to try and take them out," Lloyd replied. "They won't be part of the crowd since they have their New Year's tradition of having a party at the headquarters. Since they won't be with the other townspeople, they have no choice but to eliminate them separately."
"The headquarters is also where most of the Doshin will be stationed that night, so it makes sense to attack it then."
"You're right," Izumi said. "And we also can't forget about the captives that they have locked up in the cave."
"If the corps do react to the chaos, then having saved the imprisoned men would definitely put us in their good side."
"We were already stretched thin, and now you're saying that we have to split up too?" Yuriko sighed.
"We have no choice," Takae said. "Neglecting any of these fronts could have serious consequences."
"You girls should handle the chaos at the shrine, and me and Lloyd will handle the rest," Izumi said. "Since the shrine is where most of the people will be, it would be best if the majority of us go there."
"I'm okay with that," Lloyd said.
"No problem here," Yuriko added.
"Sure," Miyuki said.
"Then it's settled," Takae concluded. "We have four days till the second night. Use that time to get as much rest as you can and prepare for hell. Yuriko and I will keep watch over here."
"I'll slip in some tags on the first night when the gates are open for families to bring the maidens supplies," Miyuki said. "It's safer than sneaking them in through the mail like we've been doing until now."
"We're counting on you," Takae said.
The sound of her voice became muffled, and the shape of the room twisted, a sign that the duration of the interface was up.
As their silhouettes faded from each other's sights, they steeled their resolve and stared into the distance with fierce looks in their eyes.