Toby surprised Sho when he willingly entered the fleshy room on his own and began exploring the walls. He never expected the timid guy to be the first to go in a potentially dangerous place like that. In fact, he had been prepared for Toby to want to hang back in the classroom or try to talk them out of it.

[i]I guess first impressions aren’t always the right impressions,[/i] Sho thought.

[b]“I'll...I'll go in. But, I just won't look, at first. Maybe I'll get u-used to it… Could...you just, hold my hand and lead me? I'll be c-calm. I swear.”[/b]

Sho looked back at Suzume to see her covering her eyes and holding out her hand to him. She looked anything but calm, but he said nothing. At least she was willing to go inside the giant stomach, and that was good enough for him.

“Sure,” Sho replied, taking her outstretched hand in his. He laced his fingers through hers and gently guided her through the doorway. The pulsing floor sucked at his shoes like a layer of mud (he didn’t want to think of it as working organs).

“The ground here isn’t completely solid,” he warned Suzume. [i]If you can even call it ‘ground,’[/i] he added to himself. He heard Haruka calling out to the misshapen figure on the platform. Sho didn’t think it was alive, but hey, better safe than sorry. Toby moved back to the doorway to join Haruka. Sho momentarily wondered at that gesture, but pushed the thought aside. They had more important things to deal with.

Sho suddenly recalled the figure in the window earlier and the spatter of red. [i]Red?[/i] This entire room was red, and there, right smack in the middle of the platform, was a red figure. His brain made unwanted connections to the current situation and the one from earlier. He eyed the thing suspiciously. Maybe it really was alive…? If not, then there was still [i]something[/i] moving out here. His hand tightened over Suzume’s.

Whatever was in here, he had to protect her and the others.