[h3][b]Sato Hashimoto[/b] // [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpUy8r7pE5Q]???[/url][/h3]	Sato managed to get himself back up on to his feet after a while. From the back of the room, he watched the presumed rescue party battle that... that... thing. Bleeding and groaning grotesquely from its malformed body and its puppets, the very sight of it made him nauseous. Was that supposed to be 'him'? Soon, after a few decisive strikes from the group, the shadow seemingly melted away into the air as it returned to its more human form. Back to his face. Sato didn't really need to think about what he needed to say. He knew the truth already.

	 The teen walked up to the shadow being, stopping a few steps  before it. It wore the same kind of cocky grin as it had before, but Sato could feel some kind of melancholy to it now. Perhaps it sensed its end drawing near.

	"About what you said earlier, you're not right. Those thoughts, those things you told me... I can't deny that those were my own. I'm not proud of them, and I wish I hadn't ever thought them. But those aren't the only things that define me. I may be selfish, and I may be callous, but I'm more than that. Seeing everyone fight for me today, I realized something. I guess... I had this delusion about myself, thinking that I had to be the best. That I had to push everyone away in case they'd ever drag me down. As cheesy as it sounds, people are strongest when they're with each other..." Sato clutched the dirty bottoms of his mangled uniform coat, knuckles white. The sting of the blows he'd received earlier paled in comparison to this.

	"I'm not sure I can repair the bridges I've burned over the past few years, but I can try. It's better than waiting for everything to fall into place like I always have. So that's why you're wrong. Or rather, that's why [i]I[/i] was wrong. We're one in the same after all, right?"

	The shadow smiled again, this time a pleasant one. Tucking the clipboard under his arm, it quietly clapped for Sato as it began to fade away into a swirl of blue light. Sato watched in wonder as the lights spiraled upwards, transforming into a figure as they rose. [url=http://i.imgur.com/QaEy0p4.png]A graceful guardian appeared before him, the dull glow it radiated almost calming.[/url] As it stood before the teen, words echoed in the back of his mind.

[center][i][color=skyblue]I am thou... and thou art I.
I am Chronos, the ruler of bounded time...[/color][/i][/center]
	Once the voice had finished, Sato looked back to the light. It began to fade away, a warmth in Sato's chest replacing it. Just as he was about to turn to the others, Sato noticed something was in his hand. A strikingly familiar card had appeared between his finger, but he quickly forgot about it as he looked back at his heroes.

	Sato took a few steps towards them, but his vision began to blur again, knees weak. The warmth began to consume him, eyelids slipping shut. After everything that had happened, he felt like he could sleep for a week. Catching himself as he began to fall and lowering his body to the floor gently, he forced out one last sentence. "Thank you, everyone. Thank you, for... everything..."

	With that, he was out like a light.