####**Sato Hashimoto** // [Warakuma Shopping District, Nearby Café] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgPu_xk-fY8)

Upon arriving with their drinks, Riku swiped his can of juice and Chiaki took her fancy coffee thing. Both teens seemed to enjoy it (Chiaki even going as far as to compliment both him and the creator of her chocolaty drink) and Sato was pleased for the revelation, as well as the realization that he enjoyed strange soft drinks despite the almost disgusted feeling Sato got from consuming them. As he took another long sip from the Dr. Salt that sat before him, Chiaki continued on with a seemingly typical pleasantness in her one-sided conversation. Sato didn’t have anything to say in response to her smalltalk and it didn’t seem Riku did too, until he spoke up and proved him wrong when Chiaki asked about what they were doing.

_"Aah... I was just out... Uhhh... Beating people up... I guess."_ Sato thought about it for a moment and realized it wasn’t exactly entirely untrue. Maybe he was looking for people to knock out and that old guy just so happened to be a better target than Sato Hashimoto, some relatively irrelevant student on a reasonless trip through the shopping district. Riku didn’t really seemed pleased with his answer however, due to the sour look on his face.

“It’s pretty much what Riku said. He knocked a guy out after I spilled a drink on him and he got way too pissed off.” Sato took another sip from his Dr. Salt after answering the girl’s question. He didn’t feel like further explanation was required or even wanted. “This was the first time I’ve ever seen his face around here and I’m not sure it was the greatest first impression.” Sato smiled to himself at his words. He wasn’t sure why but he did.

Riku, with his same unpleasant expression, interjected before either Sato or Chiaki could continue: _"Whatever, you two are kids from the other school right? Has anything strange happened lately or something...?"_ The fact that he said ‘from the other school’ made Sato completely sure that this guy was from some private school or something nearby. But Sato nodded at the first question but stopped moving his head when he fully considered the second question. There _was_ something strange that had happened earlier in the week and Sato decided it relevant enough to mention.

Sato leaned forward onto the table and swished around what liquid was left in the can of Dr. Salt before answering. “Apparently a junior named Noboru Yamamoto went missing. Nobody really knows what happened to him, and I’m admittedly rather curious to find out myself. But didn’t you know him, Chiaki? I recall meeting you and him at the front gates a while back.” Sato took a long look at Riku to observe his reaction to the info. The question was out of nowhere and so an actual answer was sure to spark some kind of thought or emotion in the boy.