Mako affirmed their mutual struggles, though Sato couldn't help but frown as Mako brought up his ability to use Debilitate, which seemed exceptionally useful for one-on-one fighting. Sato lacked any such trickery in his arsenal. Anyone else could do what he does; magic and hitting things is in no short supply in the Investigation team. Though, the weight of his bow reminded him of one thing: he had more range than the others did. Besides the obvious arrow thing, a lot the others often simultaneously fought with their personas, combing their attacks. Chronos was more of a knight of his command, in a way, while he could focus on his own safety and maneuvers... Maybe he was over-thinking it wrong, though.
"You be safe yourself. Lack of experience is no excuse for carelessness." Sato said, only able to look Mako in the eyes because Mako himself was looking to the floor. Taking a breath, Sato grabbed Mako's wrist, surprising himself with such a bold move. "Nobody is going to die today, and especially not you..." Sato immediately turned heel and walked briskly away, glad he could remain composure until a cool exit. That was a total senpai move.
Sato walked back over to Rui, and in a quick moment everyone was ready to proceed into presumably the final area of the dungeon. The gaudy signs and lights suddenly faded behind them as they stepped onto the veranda, leaving a shadow of the team cast onto the stairs before them. A voice came from up them, though, so they had little other option to head up. As they climbed the stairs, Sato could only try not to notice the progressively worsening interior design. While the lighting was a bit duller, the decorations were only getting more obnoxious and lewd. He was trying to take the mission seriously and keep an eye out for traps or shadows, but the mysteriously changing images of girls naked (and related activities?) littered the walls. Not that Sato minded, but he didn't exactly not mind either...
Thankfully, once they got to the top, everything appeared normal again, and Sato mentally prepped himself for another edgy session. While it was never quick as bad as his own due to the lack of context and relevance, baring witness to all the built up troubles and emotions of a stranger was certainly something. Though, as Sato set foot into the final room, it appeared as though the victim was already in mid-conversation with her shadow. The blonde hair felt weirdly familiar, but that was hardly important; whoever this girl was, she was already visibly agitated and there was no way this was gonna end with a peaceful resolution.
Sato felt a weird nausea inside of himself as the shadow made a point of the shame of sexuality the girl had. He couldn't quite relate with the other father part in general, but he could sympathize with her regardless. Though, again, not that sympathy really mattered, because it was almost palpable when the girl finally snapped.
She brandished a katana on the shadow, and with the typical "You're not me!" uttered, the shadow started laughing. The form of it started contorting and warping in an unreal fashion, the features turning to black as it morphed into a stronger form. That moment of stillness hit, and suddenly a longsword swung out from the amorphous darkness. From the shadows emerged a shogun figure, cradling a woman in its free arm. The contrast between the demonic features and the almost saintly femininity was irking, to say the least. The girl's attack on the shadow, of course, was a complete an utter failure as her weapon literally didn't even touch it despite a direct blow.
The shadow swung its sword at her, but Rui quickly blocked it with Askr, signalling the start of the real fight. The entire team suddenly moved into combat position, the girl being dragged into safely at the same time. Sato almost felt cocky with their numbers against one shadow, but that feeling was quickly stopped when he noticed shadows emerging from the side walls, forming into a set of three knights. There was no gauging any of the shadows' strength, so Sato could only hope in his friends' abilities to cover anyone who needs it. Rui quickly belted out his orders to Sato and the others, their team being delegated to deal with the big bad itself. Akane and Rui of course took the front-line, while Kotori was to keep an eye on the entire squad. Sato, of course, was best suited for his task of slinging spells and maybe some magic arrows for good measure.
Everyone formed a circle with the girl in the middle. There were attacks coming from every direction, and Sato couldn't but steal glances at Mako as Chronos was summoning blasts of winds when the time was right. Despite his previous confidence he exuded about the whole no-causalities thing, this entire dungeon wasn't normal, and this shadow probably wasn't anything usual either. The best he could do was stay out of harms way for his and Kotori's sake, keep an eye out for surprises, and dish out all the spells he could as one of the only dedicated black mages of sort.
