﻿<strong>Takeo Satoshi<br/>Time: June 5th, 2018. Monday, Midevening.<br/>Location: Mirrored World.<br/>Tagged: The Old and New Investigation Group.</strong><br/><br/><em>All the lights were off. Satoshi blinked rapidly, eyes trying to adjust to the dark as he crept down the hallway. At the far end, muffled <strong>thumps</strong> and <strong>slaps</strong> sounded into the hall through a heavy, solid oak door. Fear made Satoshi's hands feel cold, sweaty, and he gripped Kuma-kun's suede paws tight against his chest as he shuffled through the dark toward the door.</em><br/><br/>Satoshi blinked again as the darkness receded, his body tense as he braced for the next wave of agony -- that never arrived. His breathing was short, ragged, and his whole frame shook as he gritted his teeth and tenderly felt his chest, fully expecting a hot, wet, bloody hole where his heart should be. Poking through the gaping slice in his shirt, his fingers found intact skin, sore and tight but otherwise undamaged. The others were standing over him, milling around, a few of them looking down worriedly at him. His eyes found the bastard's, and Satoshi managed a small smirk as he sat looking up at him. His voice was weak and breathless as he spoke, but the half-mocking, insincere tone was still unmistakeable.<br/><br/>"I thought you were here on some kind of rescue mission. What are you doing standing around here for? Don't you think you should stop tending to strays and go do what you came here to do?" Satoshi pushed himself to his feet, still gasping for breath from a wound his brain said wasn't there but his body sure as hell remembered, and stood on unsteady legs as he waited for the others to start moving again. "Better...<em>unh</em>...lead on,<em>sensei</em>," he said, gesturing ahead.