Now, that makes me thinking. What if the Mad Hatter's objective is to make Laughing Parter stop being, well, just a partner and relying on others, and force her to fight on her own? So she'll become strong enough to play whatever incident comes next by herself, and not just as a stage 2 boss or bad ass Ran's projectile.
Edit: wait, it's "Panther"? Oh, that was embarrasing.
Updated
I'll buy you time.Go find Tewi and the others and join them.Ran-sama!Youmu-san!Ouch!U-u... Tewi...