﻿<strong>Takeo Satoshi<br/>Time: June 5th, 2018. Monday, Midday.<br/>Location: Library.<br/>Tagged: No one. Yet.</strong><br/><br/>The scratch of Satoshi's pen against the notebook page sounded through the nearly empty library like the claws of a feral cat on a very unfortunate couch. He stopped for a moment and checked the equations he'd written against those listed in the text, peering hawklike at his notes as he searched for any trace of a mistake, and a smug little smile passed over his lips as accuracy was once again confirmed. The air conditioning whirred in the vents high overhead, sending a breezy chill through the stacks and making the skin on Satoshi's arms prickle. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, enjoying the cool air's caress.<br/><br/><em>'I'll give it a few more hours of studying, then...guess I'll go grab a bite to eat or something, and maybe take a little stroll through the shopping district. Sakura's birthday is coming up soon; I'll need to find something she'll enjoy that can slip through the old tightwad's 'security filters','</em>Satoshi thought, a grin followed by a grimace crossing his face as he thought about his younger sister and their control-freak father. He'd probably have to resort to the same trick he used last year for Mai's birthday, and smuggle something cool into the house inside one of those lame porcelain tribute dolls their father thought were so proper. A rare sincere smile lit up Satoshi's expression as he remembered how Mai had danced joyfully at discovering the newest model of personal music player, pre-loaded with over a hundred of the hottest new albums, hidden within the zippered doll's stuffing. The old man never had a clue, as usual.<br/><br/>The next hour passed uneventfully, and Satoshi concluded his day's studies without interruption. He gathered his books and was about to leave, but as he snapped the clasp on his satchel his thoughts turned to the book he'd found weeks before, an old, small textbook hidden in one of the stacks. He'd discovered it by accident as he was looking for a different book, but when he opened the cover it felt...strange. Like<em>deja vu</em>, or something. Eerie. Creepy. Familiar. At first Satoshi thought it was just an old chemistry text, but as he began to read he realized it was actually an<em>alchemy</em>book. His natural skepticism faded as he read through the chapters that day, each equation and formula seeming to etch itself into his brain as he read. There had even been some formulae supposedly designed to summon...<em>something</em>, although Satoshi was unclear on exactly what. Some of the other students had come along and distracted him, and he'd wound up leaving the book in the library that day, but today he wanted to find it again and take it with him. But where was it?<br/><br/>Satoshi left his things at the desk and wandered through the stacks, trying to recall the section where he'd found the book last time and hoping the librarian had actually re-filed it properly; Mrs. Kide, the library's chief of staff, ran a very loose ship, so to speak, and as a result many of the librarians probably couldn't tell a Dewey Decimal from a Dewey Duck. It could take hours to track down the text, if he could find it at all...