Alright, back to the regularly scheduled nonsense! Hmm, I wonder how the mangaka will spin this? "Mascot that gets active at night and kills you and turns you into a toy" is extremely normal, "you have to keep smiling" is as conventional a plot point as any. But the mangaka has a reputation for setting up a conventional plot (see the hot springs that make you young) and avoiding the traditional horror element (...by draining the vitality from others!) and going in a WILDLY different direction (...those aren't the people that went in)