School was still a complicated affair. Koishi had tried her hand at a few of the school's clubs - partially to search for Sirens, and partially because she just wanted something new to do with her time. She'd never been quite athletic enough to find acceptance in one of the sports clubs, but groups like shogi and journalism had been more keen to take her in. In the end, though, being a Siren meant she didn't have enough time for regular attendance. She could barely afford to study in her spare time.
One lunchtime a week was devoted to the study group consisting of herself, Sango, Mokou and Cirno. Mokou was the group's go-to girl in questions of biology and chemistry, reciting facts and numbers instantly without needing any references. Unfortunately those were her only real strong points, and in every other area she looked to Koishi for guidance. [This still put her well ahead of Sango, who was trailing in more or less everything.]
Yet Koishi felt awkward in Cirno's presence sometimes. Sometimes she would ask if Cirno remembered anything unusual, just to see if the Fairy really had forgotten everything. So far, the answer seemed to be yes, and more than once Koishi had been tempted to just tell Cirno what she'd been through - but Nitori had given her explicit orders against that. She forced herself to bite her tongue and join in the congratulations when Cirno cracked a difficult problem.
Earlier events hadn't just affected how Koishi saw Cirno, though. Nitori, the clumsy but well-liked math professor, was secretly the head of some sort of magical underground sect - and Koishi had to act as if she had no idea about it. She had never been so conscious about her choice of words before - and to keep herself on the straight and narrow, she kept herself to 'Kawashiro-sensei' at all times. Calling the professor by her first name could lead to some very uncomfortable questions.
After a day like that, Koishi was always more than happy to leave the school behind. With every moment demanding her full attention and focus, the patrols she took around town with Sango were the closest she got to relaxing outside of sleep. She was also keeping an eye out for that chef the woman from the bakery was looking for - Sakuya, wasn't it? - but really she couldn't do much beyond stare into the crowd and watch for a pair of giveaway blonde braids. The handkerchief gave her more information to work with, but she was hardly going to stop every girl she walked past and measure her height to see if it matched up.
"You okay, phwee?"
Sango caught her staring at a random girl in the crowd, and it was only then Koishi realised she hadn't found the time to tell her companion about the favour she was doing for the baker. She relayed the story in pieces, passing the handkerchief to Sango as evidence she wasn't making it up.
"34, 27, 32? Koishi-san, what do these numbers mean?"
"You'll understand when you're older." Mokou snatched at Sango's hand, pulling away the handkerchief to look at it herself. Sango glared at her momentarily, but got back to her duty as the group's phwee-er.
"Man, blood type AB? How exactly did the crazy asthma chick figure THAT out?"
"I don't think I want to know."
It was unusual for Mokou to accompany Koishi and Sango on their daily rounds, but today's trip was something out of the ordinary. Since travelling along the usual paths hadn't turned up any results, they were instead starting to patrol around some of the less densely populated areas. Today's trip was set to take them into one of the more questionable areas of town, and Mokou had volunteered to come along as extra muscle. None of them were familiar with the district, but the rumours around school more or less spoke for themselves.
There were stories of middle-school students playing around there only to be robbed blind of their lunch money. Senior students would head there after dark for some adult entertainment (Sango had asked for clarification, but neither Siren could bring herself to explain it further). There were stories of drunken brawls, and even murder when things got really rough. The awkward part was that the district had almost no distinctive qualities, save for one building that stood out above the rest - the Rabbit's Foot, Gensouto's only casino and easily the largest gambling house in the country. Through a variety of loopholes in Japanese law, the Rabbit's Foot had managed to get away with the sort of gambling that was otherwise illegal. Gone was the stranglehold of pachinko - the Foot let its customers play from dusk 'till dawn at blackjack, roulette, poker, craps, and every other Western gambling game that came to mind.
Of course, a place like this undoubtedly had a dark past behind it. The incidents mentioned in the school rumours conveniently started alongside the casino's inception. There was talk of shadowy groups running with the Rabbit's Foot as a front, a mafia-like syndicate that rigged its games and used the profits to run all sorts of unlawful goings-on. Nothing had ever been officially held against the casino's owner - a Mr. Morichika, whose personal life was a mystery to everyone bar himself - but the police force had been trying to pin his name to something for an age.
Frankly, if this was the sort of area they were going to be looking over, Koishi was glad to have Mokou along. They were getting glares from passers-by the moment they entered the district - as the sun began to set in the distance, the gamblers were starting to migrate towards their hunting ground. It was only an equally venomous glare from Mokou that convinced some of the angrier looking ones to stay away - Koishi and Sango wouldn't have made it more than two or three blocks without someone trying to relieve them of their possessions. The fact Sango's jacket had a large bulge where her wallet was stored did nothing to help on that front.
For a while, Sango let up on her phweeing. They stood out in the street clearly thanks to being the only girls there, and men in their twenties and thirties were glaring at them without welcome. As the casino drew closer, she caught one or two girls in the street, dressed far too well for their age and looking barely old enough to gamble, doing nothing beyond telling stories about the amazing jackpots they'd won at the Rabbit's Foot a few days ago. Koishi had never seen such blatant advertising before.
The glamourous girls grew more plentiful as the trio approached the casino itself. It was the sort of building that seemed like it would be visible from space; Koishi couldn't look at the gaudy lighting for more than a few seconds before her eyes began to water. The name was emblazoned above the entrance in blindingly bright red, with a four-leaf clover next to it for good luck. Maybe it was a cunning advertising ploy on the part of Mr. Morichika - make the outdoor lighting so painful that intrigued customers would literally run inside to escape from it. The same would apply for everyone living within three blocks of the casino, which could only be good for business.
Sango marched on, unfazed by the tacky light display above her. Koishi and Mokou were a few steps behind, both of them shielding their eyes from the neon bombardment. A red carpet ran for a good two dozen steps before stopping at the entrance, with a pair of double-doors that would have suited a palace separating them from the casino itself.
Unfortunately, there was also a rather large man in a jet-black suit who intended to do exactly the same. Sango was a few paces from the door when an arm suddenly flew out in front of her, sending her stumbling back a few steps.
"Sorry, kid. Tonight's Mr. Morichika's No-Limit Festival. Invited guests only."
Sango pouted, pulling out what Koishi quickly identified as a passport. It had to be a fake, but Koishi definitely wouldn't have realised it if she didn't know Sango was far from an ordinary girl. The dolphin held her ID right in front of the bouncer's eyes, as it declared her to have turned twenty-one just days prior. [Koishi wondered for a moment if Sango had several IDs claiming she was several different ages; and more importantly, what Sango's actual age was.]
"Why do you call it a no-limit festival if there's a limit on who can get in? I'm legal, phwee!"
The bouncer was unimpressed, not so much as budging even with the passport about to smack him in the nose. He adjusted his glasses slightly, sighing.
"Very funny, kid. It's called the No-Limit Festival because it's the one night we lift the usual limits on how much folks can bet. You can stick a million yen on one hand of blackjack if you want, but because we're a respectable gambling house we're only letting in people on the list. Can't let in kids who'd bet their mom's savings on one hand of poker, see."
Sango looked incredulous, pulling a childish face but not offering any sort of response as she pulled her arm back. Koishi felt strangely relieved by that - Sango knew the rules of blackjack about as well as she knew the history of the Sengoku era (in other words, she had absolutely no idea). Mokou took her place, an eyebrow raised in faux curiosity.
"You're letting people gamble as much money as they like? Is that even legal?"
That earned more of a reaction than anything Sango had said. They couldn't see his eyes move, but his brow furrowed in frustration.
"Girl, I'll have you know that the Rabbit's Foot is a perfectly legalised gambling house. We've been given permission to run this event, like every other event we run, by the national government itself. If you're going to walk up here and start spouting slander about us with no evidence or basis, I'll carry you back to your goddamn mother kicking and screaming. You got me?"
Mokou returned the glare she was given without a hint of doubt. She seemed perfectly confident that she could handle this man, and given past experience Koishi had no reason to think otherwise. For a second, she actually thought Mokou intended to go through with it, but at the last minute the health nut let off a reluctant sigh.
"Alright, alright, I got it. Sorry for wasting your time. Have fun standing there for the next six hours."
With that, Mokou made sure to start on a quick retreat before things grew even more difficult between the pair. Sango stormed off in a huff, still offended, while Koishi bowed and offered muttered apologies about the behaviour of her friends. They collectively disappeared around the next corner, where a building was kind enough to shield them from the casino's onslaught of light.
"...Well, looks like we aren't getting in," Mokou said. "Bit of a dumb place to look for a high school girl, anyway. Wanna just call it quits for tonight?"
Koishi nodded. She could use a chance to relax after taking in that much gaudy architecture at once. Sango wasn't quite as eager.
"Lemme check with the boss first. She kinda insisted we give this place a proper look."
Sango pulled out her cellphone, hitting the speed-dial option and waiting for the professor at the other end to pick up. Koishi noticed her language suddenly growing much more formal and polite as the call began.
"Agent Sango reporting. ...Yes, patrol in progress. Attempts to enter the casino have ended in failure. Requesting abort."
Koishi giggled slightly. It was hard to watch Sango pretend to be so formal with a straight face. There was a slight pause as Sango waited for a response.
Then she got one, and her face fell.
"...Ma'am, are you sure we need to go that far?"
The giggling stopped. The look of utter confusion on Sango's face was just panicked enough to have Koishi frightened.
"We've got no evidence linking a Siren to the building, ma'am! Not to mention the place is guarded pretty carefully, and there's all the rumours about underground activity-"
Sango stopped mid-sentence. Slowly, but definitely, her face began to turn bright red.
"O-Operation Toad-In-The-Hole? You're kidding, right?"
The operation's name alone was enough to puzzle Koishi, and the exasperated look on the dolphin's face only served to unnerve her further. Mokou, for now, managed to keep her visible emotions down to a single raised eyebrow.
"...No, ma'am, of course I wasn't doubting your authority! It's just that...it's so extreme when we don't have any evidence, and the Sirens won't have any clue how to-wait, no, don't hang up, we should consider this more before we-Hello? Hello!?"
Sango shook the phone from sheer desperation. After a few seconds of silence, her shoulders slumped as the life faded from her eyes.
"...Uh. We'd better go get something to eat, because we'll be out working tonight."
Koishi had figured as much from the conversation, but there was an important question that she didn't have an answer to.
"Sango-san...what's Operation Toad-In-The-Hole?"
The dolphin didn't answer at first, which in all honesty was more frightening than any answer she could possibly have given. All she did was blush and fidget, muttering incomprehensibly to herself.
Mokou and Koishi looked at one another briefly.
They gulped in unison.
Technically, she should probably have felt good about this.
From the way Sango had responded to Nitori's demands, Koishi had figured they would be breaking in by force, or doing something else equally likely to result in pain and loss of life. In regards to lethality, this plan was actually a good deal better than what she'd been expecting.
At the same time, it impressed her seeing just how well the professor had planned for this. Her official occupation was that of a teacher, but she ran several companies behind the scenes that existed solely for covert operations. None of these companies operated on a regular basis - they were fronts so that the Pearl could get through whatever red tape happened to be in their way. When she needed them to, though, Nitori had the equipment and the know-how to run everything from a birthday party to a golden anniversary.
Unfortunately, the only company that worked for this situation was a catering company, offering a variety of snacks and refreshments for the tired gambler. And Nitori needed something unique to sell the company to the casino and make sure they got in. Something that went along with the theme of the Rabbit's Foot, in particular.
This was the reason Koishi was wearing a bunnysuit right now, and she prayed to whatever god happened to be listening that this was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime occurence. It was tighter than anything she'd ever worn, was a shade of white that made it feel like she'd turned into an abominable snow-woman, and just to add insult to injury came with a pair of rabbit ears on top.
She would have been less heartbroken about wearing it if she wasn't surrounded by men, some of whom had been drinking constantly for the last hour.
"Hey, lady! Gimme a gin and tonic over here!"
A customer called out to the bartender, a grown woman wearing a suit matching Koishi's but in a deep shade of blue. She winked at the customer, pulling an arm out in Koishi's direction.
"Sure thing, buddy. Hey, Flopsy, come give this man his drink!"
Nitori pulled out a glass from behind the bar, twirling it around with impossible grace. She lifted a bottle out from below, removed its top, and hurled the whole thing upward into the air. In an effortless display of style, the bottle stopped pointing straight down, its contents landing neatly in the glass. Even as the bottle of gin began to fall, Nitori took out a second bottle of tonic water and poured it in alongside the waterfall of alcohol. Only when the gin bottle came dangerously close to colliding with the glass did the former teacher grab it with her spare hand, pulling both bottles away and leaving behind only a dry bar and a perfectly prepared gin and tonic. She found plenty of time to add a lemon for garnish amidst the applause.
Koishi had a moment to glare at Nitori as she came to the bar to collect the drink. The kappa seemed totally shameless, and if anything she seemed to be having fun. Koishi, on the other hand, was working miracles by keeping a straight face, and her cohort offered her a friendly nudge to keep her spirits up.
"Relax, Flopsy. It's for the greater good and all that, y'know?"
If the greater good involved embarrassing herself in public repeatedly, then sticking to the sidelines was becoming more and more appealing by the second. Eventually Koishi sighed, taking the glass and being careful not to spill its contents.
"Yes, Kawashi-I mean, Cotton-Tail."
Nitori was pleased to hear Koishi stick to the codenames she'd handed out earlier, offering her a friendly pet on the ears. Koishi stepped back as far as she could in a single step before beginning on the painful march to the man's table. No-one spoke a word to her, but she could feel a few glares headed in her direction, and a wolf-whistle or two in the background.
To be fair, though, she was having it easy compared to Mokou - or Mopsy, as she was currently known. She filled out the outfit much better than Koishi did, and as a result she'd earned more male attention than either of her counterparts. The fact that Nitori had picked out a sultry scarlet outfit for her only served to make the matter worse. Koishi hadn't seen much of her during her time on the job, but the few times their paths crossed she heard the phoenix whispering words that would have probably made even their customers blush.
Sango couldn't take part in the bunnysuit shenanigans, simply because a back-fin on a bunny-girl would raise all sort of questions. Koishi looked over to a nearby pool, where snacks and appetisers were being handed out by what Nitori had titled the Mer-Maid. Sango had been set out in what was effectively a swimsuit with an apron in front of it, swimming from one side of the pool to the other to retrieve food for paying customers. The fin, she could now insist, was part of the outfit, and nothing worth commenting on. For a moment, she looked Koishi in the eye, and the Siren was almost bowled over by the shame in Sango's gaze.
One thing was for sure. If this 'covert operation' didn't turn up a Siren, the professor would be looking over her plans and getting rid of anything that even resembled Operation Toad-In-The-Hole.
Her subordinates wouldn't give her a choice in the matter.