"Skill issue," says Lea, appearing out of nowhere (to all but Taharqi). "You can do it out of Cloaking, too."

Annika doesn't twitch, because she is the master of her own body, but she does have to suppress it.

Akiho does not have such perfect self control. Not only does she jump, but her tail goes fully straight, and fluffs up.

“Oh. Good. You’re here,” she says, failing to fake casualness even as she slowly begins to de-poof. “Then I can give the rest of this bundle to you for later, I’m just about done reinforcing this.”

"Sure, sure, I can do that. So you're all going back in?" Aren't you kind of weak and inexperienced?, she doesn't ask, but one can fill in the blanks.

She finishes applying the seals where she can and hands Taharqi the remaining ones 

"We've got a specialist and a plan!"

And then, yeah, sure, clothes go back on. It's uncomfortable but they do actually provide value besides looking nice.

“This is essentially a sabotage mission, not a direct confrontation! If we cannot successfully sabotage her, we will teleport out, because otherwise we’d just die! Essentially, we want to get the spirit herself to help us, by sealing just the fox demon inside of her. … I have a binder, I should give you the binder.”

She touches a bead on the ribbon around her obi, and out comes a tidy little binder that goes Lea-wards. It lovingly has an explanation of the theory behind what they are doing, and also a copy of the seals she’s plotting to use.

Taharqi will go read the explanation then because he thinks he's the most likely one to get up close and personal with the spirit.

Her notes are rather technical, and the bulk of them are about how to differentiate the difference between the spirit’s energy and the fox demon’s energy. It’s assumed that the two types are currently mixed together into something of a slurry, but they are still very much two separate energies. This specification is followed by how to separate them - which leans rather heavily on Akiho herself having a similar energy she can compare and apparently use as a lure - and then after that, the sealing itself is very straightforward.

...okay this is going wayyy over his head, he's just gonna hand it to Annika. "So how do I actually use it? Throw it at her, hope she doesn't dodge?"

“Use the… seal? It’s a set, not one, there are different ones for different points, if you turn to page 12–” is he ready for an explanation of the reasons for the order of seals, and how any of these stages might need a number of seals before moving on to the next stage? Too bad, he’s getting one. About this, and other things, before she finally finishes off with:

“Anyway, I’ll be the one using them?? You do not, these are mine. You will be basically trying to get her to emotionally distance herself and fight against her fox demon half. So, you know. Squishy emotion stuff that doesn’t fit in a binder.”

"...roger that."

He is so glad that other people who are smarter than him exist and can help with this stuff.

Annika finds it all fascinating, though, and very smart. It's not exactly her area of expertise—she can do some spirit stuff, herself, but it mostly stems from the training to perceive and still and control her own soul—but it's still very interesting to observe.

Anyway that was long enough that he is no longer naked, and he has armbands keeping the seals attached to his arms in place.

He offers the unused seals to Akiho. "Ready to go, then?"

“Not quite. Let me check your coverage…”

She does a circuit around him, while humming thoughtfully, then:

Cheekily places another seal directly on his forehead, the bottom of which ends just above the bridge of his nose. It’s not really long enough to get in his way or do all that much flapping around, but it does look very silly.

“I was serious about the hat, you know,” she chides.

...he cracks up. "I don't think this is gonna stay on. And neither would a hat."

“Headband?” she offers, a little amused. “If not, well. It’s very sticky, so try your best.”

"...does it need to hang off my face in this way or can I fold it up? A headband could work."

“The seal needs to not be overly crumpled or folded up too much. So. Yes. It does.”

"...a single fold? In the center? More seriously this does impact my central vision." Not impossibly so, he has two eyes, but he's a rogue, he wants to make full use of those two eyes.

“One single fold, right here,” she points to a specific point of the seal that he, of course, can’t see. Because it’s on his face, “or turn it 90 degrees and attach it to the headband there. But I was working under the constraints of gravity.”

Taharqi grimaces when she does that and sighs. "Horizontal it is." He can acquire a headband to hold it in place.

Excellent. In the time it takes him to scrounge one up, Akiho has efficiently attached a number of seals to herself. She did not have any need to strip; her clothes have obvious places to attach them, including one decorative hair clip that is both cute and functional. Then she can reach out and touch their souls to strengthen them. The weird feeling of it is fairly subtle, but what can be felt is nice. Like a soft warmth, or extra bastion of strength they didn’t know they had. Even for Annika, with her own control of her soul.

Then they can go in, yes.

Well, first they'll need to do something about the seals that are completely blocking the entrance. "Don't suppose you can teleport in there?"

"No hook."