The day was hot, not unordinary for any day that week, but for Satomi it felt like she was being suffocated from every plane surrounding her. Having actually been suffocated many times before made the exaggeration something she kept internally, unlike the orange haired boy who never truly learned what internal thoughts were.
"We've been doing stealth training all week! Can't we have a nice day indoors for once?" Nakano pestered the lot of adults guiding them outside of their fairly cool compound and into the sweltering air. An irritated growl dared to escape through Satomi's chattered teeth, but the word stealth reminded her the importance of her silence.
They were all prepared in one way or another for the plans written up by both Nagai and Tosaki, but they could never be prepared for absolutely any occurrence; some things sneak up on them no matter how much they thought of every nook and cranny of a detail, surveying location, knowing personal specs—anything they knew and anything they practiced could amount to nothing if they truly were not prepared. Hence stealth training becoming their new past time, where a course of action was created in the span of five minutes only to be executed in the next three.
Satomi remembered this timing as she quietly adjusted herself in her position within the tree despite her eye never leaving the scope of her tranquilizer rifle. This time, she was the one who everyone was to fall victim to—the stand in Sato if you must. If Nakano knew of it ahead of time, he would have done anything in his verbal and physical power to make her wear the dumb hat.
In the grassland ahead, she could see Nagai looking around where they previously left the compound from and the area in front of him all at once. "Let me guess… Eto's a part of the course?" Satomi bit her tongue as she noticed his eye roll, adjusting her scope away from his line of sight and towards Nakano as directed by her mercenary superiors. At this point, these courses seemed to solely be for his benefit, but no matter what the kid never took the clue to check his surroundings.
"Actually, she's out in the forest with Ogura doing some IBM training."
"Ha, seem's you two have switched places!" Nakano jumped in after Hirasawa's comment. Satomi didn't need to look to know Nagai scowled, likely muttering one of his many insults under his breath. What she did need to look for was his eye sight, heading straight for the forest as though he speculated the lie. Quickly, Satomi internally called on her ghost to run through the forest, able to hide herself and her IBM's mark with the wind rustling the trees. Expecting the sound of a fallen tree to satisfy Nagai's curiosity, she adjusted her scope to check him once more, though the satisfaction expected was lost as his eyes bore right through the sliver of glass acting as her own.
Hearing the soft sizzling sounds of creation behind her, her finger immediately tugged on the trigger—but everything went black before she could hear the fire.
Within seconds of revival, she blurted a curse.
"What the fuck! I thought we said no IBM's allowed!" Satomi's word cut through her teeth as she got her grounds, sitting up from her new position on the dry grass. Though dying repeatedly made each death easier, it was never the greatest of experiences. Also, it didn't help that Nagai's aim was always the midsection through the fibers of clothing, making her wardrobe increasingly limited as the days went on. Her disgruntled mumbling continued as she picked up her fallen rifle, slinging it over her shoulders as she made her way to the group left standing in the field. The silence of the occurrence tingling a bit as her hairs stood on ends, normally the result of her ghosts dissipation though today because of something a bit more pressing.
Kei Nagai laid on the grass, only visible through the gaps in surrounding bodies from where Satomi currently stood. With wide eyes she quickened her pace to become a part of the incredibly small crowd, looking down at the unconscious body before them.
"You… You did it…" Nakano's voice was that of a whisper as he tediously kicked Nagai's leg with his foot, jumping back in fear of there being a reaction. When silence followed, Satomi found herself taking yet another step closer towards the body, and for a second, she thought of him not as Nagai but as Kei—silent, sleepy, Kei.
Hirasawa pulled a gun out of his holster, hitting the silent, sleepy Kei directly in the heart. When he too revived, his voice also let out the same curse, causing the rest of them to take steps back and Satomi to roll her eyes.