Following Professor White's death at the end of his torment in Sepulcher manor, a piece of his soul had been trapped inside one of the remaining fragments of the Mirror of True Reflection that he had smashed in order to escape the pocket dimension. Since his soul was no longer in one piece following that fracture, he could not pass on or find peace. He remained in limbo for months, perfectly aware as the spiders of the carnival carried off the mirror fragment containing his anchor like it was some pretty bauble. For all intents and purposes, the entire affair was like being trapped in a prison of his own mind.
 
For all his shackles, though, Aaron was not powerless. During his captivity, he discovered that, because the curse that had found him in the manor remained until true death, he was still able to communicate with anyone who shared the same curse regardless of distance. Natsumi, a student he remembered well, just so happened to possess that same curse, and so he called her to the Hallowed Carnival as soon as it was open.
 
His intent had never been malicious. The Professor was not even aware that he was disturbing the girl's sleep. He just wanted so desperately to be free, and he was tired of being wrapped up in webs, only able to look out at the arachnids that constantly gathered around his prison. So intense was his desire for freedom that he even began straining himself just to communicate telepathically with his student as soon as she arrived.
 
~The mirror: you must destroy the mirror where the spiders lie.~ His Wyllmochvarian stressed with every syllable. He was clearly desperate, but, bound to the mirror as he was, completely incapable of freeing himself.

After ascending to the webbed sky, Natsumi found herself face to face with the massive nest of spiders. A cacophony of voices louder than that of the carnival below assaulted her ears almost immediately, causing them to sting for several seconds even as White continued his incessant egging.
 
'This is going to be difficult,' the young woman thought whilst holding her hands over her ears in pain. The ghost guide in the cocoon left her alone during this period of acclimatization, pre-occupying himself with other entrants until the newcomer was ready to hear him. Even when their inevitable conversation took place, however, Natsumi could still barely even hear him. All she was able to glean from the conversation was, "collect vials of venom," and, "don't kill the spiders." Other than that, all rules of fair play – of which there were none – had escaped her notice.
 
It is useful to note at this point that pain can alter a person's behavior. Normally, Natsumi used theft only as a last resort for survival, and never in competition. However, in the case of the venom collection challenge, the young woman was being bombarded with painful amounts of sound. This extra burden made leaving the cocoon – rather than maintaining what little she had left of her Nisshoki honor – her highest priority; and, since she felt she had to seem busy while pursuing her true objective, Miss Yamauchi resorted to common larceny just to succeed at the venom collection activity.
 
"Pardon me," she said in a hurried voice as she rushed into the room and bumped into the nearest participant. Her target had just finished collecting his third vial and was already on his way to see the ghost guide when Natsumi collided with him. In that instant, three became two as one of the full vials in the man's pouch was seamlessly exchanged with an empty one. The transaction appeared quick and painless, or so the druid thought until the man retaliated.
 
"Back in Egjora, we took the hands of thieves." A flash of steel shown in the ghostly light of the cocoon for a moment, its source grazing Natsumi's arm just before she was out of striking distance. The attack had been meant to slice her hand clean off at the wrist, but it was not quite quick enough to find her. "I'll have you suffer the same fate as them, whorish thief."
 
The girl winced from the pain in her arm, but paid no attention to the threat of future violence behind it. She had been cornered by worse than this relatively unarmed swordsman, and those previous encounters had been on her opponent's home field. This spider's nest was much different than a proper city.
 
In spite of her audio induced disorientation, Miss Yamauchi had not failed to notice the large queen lurking at the top of the cocoon. It didn't take a genius to figure out that her presence was probably the reason for the spider-killing tenet. Simply by wielding his short sword in such an enclosed space, the unnamed man was playing a dangerous game. He didn't seem to realize this, at least until he took another swing at the cloaked girl in front of him.
 
When the man's arm finally came forward to bludgeon her for easier striking, the druid entered a defensive stance: the same stance she had seen some monks use before. Protecting her head between her arms, she allowed the man's elbow to collide with her deltoid before pushing him to the side. The act startled her attacker enough for his follow up strike to miss its intended target; but, unfortunately for him, that swing did still manage to impale a baby spider through the top of its head.
 
"Oh bollocks," he said after realizing what he had done. Rage turned to fear as he looked up at the angry queen that quickly descended and grabbed his head between her mandibles. One clean motion and head was separated from body almost instantaneously. Thankfully, Natsumi was far enough away to escape the blood shower that happened immediately afterward.
 
"Yes! Another new friend!" The guide was positively giddy over the development, even if the wealthy merchant's son – whose ghost was quick to materialize – was less than thrilled over his new station in death.
 
"Angela's ass…Dying was NOT in my schedule!"   
 
 

Amidst the carnal aftermath of his student's theft, the restrained professor could only feel disappointment. When he thought of Natsumi, he remembered a little girl hungry for the knowledge denied to her. Now, however, he saw a thieving woman dressed in commoner's garb: a person whose image was far from that of any Nisshoki noblewoman.
 
~Where is your honor, girl?!~ he shouted at her from his mirror fragment that just happened to be right next to her head. ~Have you forgotten what it is to be a member of one of the most honorable families in Ataiyo?~
 
He didn't know the truth. He couldn't know, because his telepathy was one way only. Thanks to White's current state, past events were hidden from his vision, and so he assumed that Natsumi was still the young, inquisitive girl he remembered. In contrast to this idealized form, all his vision allowed him to see in that moment was a pickpocket who had inadvertently murdered her target.

Ears continuing to sting, Natsumi was less than thrilled at the uproar her actions had caused. The addition of White's chastising did not help the sudden panic that swelled within the other adventurers, and the resulting pain was becoming so intense that the young girl began quickly gathering tufts of web to use as earplugs. These makeshift objects worked to mute the sound, for the most part, but the young druid was still annoyed at the pervasiveness of her late professor's high and mighty attitude.
 
'You weren't there when I ran away from that life, sir. You have no right to chastise me.' Her thoughts simmered with hints of suppressed rage, emotionally fueled by her final memories of home. Yamauchi didn't know for certain that the Professor could read her thoughts using the same telepathic link, but, just in case, she had spoken in her own mind: a vain attempt at silencing her lecturer. Suffice to say, while she was glad Aaron's words led her right to his prison, she was eager for him to pass on so she no longer had to listen to such derisive talk.
 
Despite this wish, however, Natsumi still had to wait a bit longer before she could destroy the mirror anchor.  A baby spider was currently standing guard over White, jealously hissing at any who attempted to approach the precious bauble. The ecologist had no wish to anger the queen like the now dead merchant had, so she decided to wait and see if the spider would move far enough away from its relic for her to safely steal it. Since she still had two venom vials left to collect, that is what she took to doing in the mean time.
 
'What a mess,' Natsumi thought as she approached the corpse of the spider that her mark had killed. Taking out her tanto, the girl carved out the venom gland from the already dead arachnid; then, after making a gentle incision on the underside of its body, she carefully squirted out the venom into a single vial.  Corking that container, she moved away from the bloody mess and toward the mirror. 'Two vials down; one to go.'

While disappointed and angry with his student, Professor White was far from insensitive. He may have chastised Natsumi, but his harsh words masked his concern over how much she seemed to be protecting her ears compared to the other humans around her.
 
'Perhaps it has something to do with the curse,' he thought? His state only allowed him so much leeway to pursue such inquiries, so he was simply left to wonder in obscurity. He couldn't even hear Natsumi's rebuttal to his lecture, and simply assumed she had ignored him until he saw the resulting cold look in her eyes. Those piercing eyes were enough to silence him even in the face of the joy that was being found, for the memory of the Puppet Master was still fresh in his mind. 'Blue eyes that pierce the darkness: she really has found you.'
 
Aaron was about to say more to the woman he remembered as a girl, to warn her about the danger he thought she was in, but the sudden return of his spider guardian interrupted all such thoughts.
 
'Confound you, stupid arachnid! Leave me be!' The trapped phantom was helpless to move the creature's bulbous butt that had seen fit to occlude his only window into the real world, but that didn't stop him from pointlessly shouting at the thing. Fortunately for Natsumi, none of that conversation was actually transmitted to her telepathically.

With one vial left to obtain, the young druid turned her attention back toward White's anchor. The young spider standing guard over it had yet to move, leading Natsumi to the conclusion that she would have to think up another way to get her hands on her true prize. Luckily for her, the spider webs in her ears and noticeable lack of the Professor's voice made it far easier for her to think than it had been since she first arrived at the carnival.
 
'Plan B, I guess.' Tanto still in hand, Natsumi walked over to the nuisance arachnid and began slicing up the webs around it. She had to be careful, as the creature was lunging at her during the entire activity, but she eventually managed to slice off just enough to actually roll the baby spider up in its own web. With her one obstacle now immobilized, Yamauchi took out her remaining, empty vial; placed it firmly on an exposed fang; and allowed the sufficiently agitated spider to eject its venom.  The venom was contaminated with regurgitate using this method, obviously, but the girl hadn't heard about any rules that mentioned needing pure venom.
 
Regardless, that action called an end to the entire venom hunt. With the spider guardian now removed, Natsumi was able to safely retrieve the mirror fragment she had been after. She didn't break it open immediately, though, feeling that it was a good idea to go somewhere else before doing anything that might get her in more trouble than she already was. Instead, she opted for holding the anchor in her left palm while performing all tasks required prior to leaving the venom collection challenge. Cleaning her tanto on the ball of webs enveloping the final spider, the woman placed her precious blade back in its scabbard and then handed off the filled vials to the ghost guide. Then, at long last, she descended the acid ropes with teacher in hand.