The only interaction Satoshi shared with the party of 4 was being invited for dinner, which he readily accepted.

All members were awake by that point and sat around the fire they had started. They had already skinned the game before the sun set and collected all the profitable material they could extract from the dead bodies. Four bulging bags lay to the side, mostly stuffed with the overgrown bear’s hide.

The leader must have explained the situation to the rest of his team as all they did was bow towards him in thanks and said not a word. He had a feeling that the rabbit-woman was somehow particularly against his presence but she didn’t utter a peep to him, and neither did she look him in the eye.

Satoshi just contentedly sat in their midst, the hood still donned and examined the food as well as them. They had cut some of the meat from the animals that they had earlier killed and roasted it over the fire. Since he saw the process from start to finish, he disregarded any possibility of it being poisoned. As he indulged in the provided meat, he took time to look at each and every member of the party under the illumination of the fire. The leader, a wolf-man, had the same animal features as the ones he had met in the village; notably the ears and the tail. Now out of his armor, Satoshi could see that the man was very well built. He was smart and his party clearly respected him and followed his instructions.

The man with the dagger who had been severely injured was up and about, once again reminding Satoshi of the unnatural healing ability in this world. The man was out of his armor and clothes, fully displaying to the world the bandages around his chest and shoulders. The man had cat ears, was sharp and quick on his feet. He seemed to be the most light-hearted as he was doing the majority of the conversation even though he had been on death’s door just a few hours ago.

(Catman. Hmm.)

Satoshi briefly amused himself with the idea of an unhealthy fusion of Batman and Catwoman, before he moved on to evaluate the next member of the party. The mage, he was unable to discern his associated animal species just from the ears but he guessed it was mouse or squirrel from the two front teeth that were visible whenever he opened his mouth. The mage wore a robe just like himself, except his fit his frame. From the earlier display of magic that he’d seen, he was confused whether this mage was extraordinarily weak or the lizardman the other day extraordinarily strong, and whichever the case, where did he himself stand on the hierarchy.

(Also, what’s the deal with those chants?)

Satoshi recalled his encounters with all the mages. First the healer in the wolf-men’s village. Then the lizard-man, and then this squirrel-man. If he had to classify himself among the different roles in a party, he'd call undoubtedly label himself a mage. Yet, somehow he couldn't place him in the same category as the others he'd seen. For one, those chants. Not just that he didn't understand; obviously he didn't but that he didn't need any. Satoshi wasn't so base to not see that his ability outclassed the others by an immeasurable margin. And lastly, the after-effects. He had noticed the squirrel-man's condition first hand. Lethargy and feverish; these were bodily symptoms, something that you experience spending bodily resources like stamina. Yet in his case, all he felt were headaches. He knew for sure that his ability did not use anything other than his will and mental instructions to activate, so what was causing them to be so spent; or rather what was it that kept him going?

(Information, oh information. Wherefore art thou, Information?)

“Haaah….”

Satoshi sighed off the helpless situation and moved on to evaluate the last member; the only woman in the party. She was the one who had detected his movement twice. He looked at the rabbit ears on her head that stood on attention and even though she didn’t look at him once, he knew her focus was on him. He occasionally amused himself by making noisy movements and watching her twitch. He momentarily considered just standing up and going for her ears. From what he’d seen of the group, he wouldn’t receive a scratch even if all four attacked him together and the reverence just made him all the giddier.

“Man shall never be free of all earthly shackles...”

Satoshi suddenly stopped eating. He felt like he heard something, some words that he could finally understand in this world and even though it happened not a moment ago, the memory eluded him. He looked at the bone of meat that was almost only a bone at this point. Nothing wrong with it. He briefly glanced at the four other people. Either they were very good actors, or they really hadn’t heard anything. Even the rabbit-woman sat in the same position, facing the flames that burned with devotion as they cooked the meat. He had been feeling the surroundings using his ability the whole time, so he knew there were no beasts around. He finally looked back to the bone in his hand...

(Maybe I just imagined it.)

And bit into the wee amount of meat that remained. The only thing he failed to notice in all of that, were the brown eyes of the rabbit-woman reflecting the light from the fire; looking directly at him.

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Once, the feast was over and Satoshi’s brain started secreting serotonin thanks to his well-fed tummy, he decided to take his leave. He wordlessly moved away from the group and once out of sight, he covered himself with a sound barrier and flew up to a convenient branch.

“Phew… Tired..”

He smiled in content as he finally let his vocal cords out of their restraints.

“This is the first time I’ve interacted with natives of this world properly. Other than this, it’s just that wolf-man village and that doesn’t really count cuz I barely knew what the fuck was going on.”

Satoshi remembered his initial days to this world when he couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on. Well, he still couldn’t but at the very least he had some goals in mind now.

“Lizardmen don’t count either, not a single bit. Well, there’s that boar. Yeah, that giant fucking boar.”

The memory of that beast that almost took his life always brought to his eyes an unquenched fury. He grit his teeth as he clutched his half-leg.

“I’ll be back for it. I’ll kill its entire family. I will squash anything that even resembles that fucking pig.”

Satoshi did not know that he had killed the boar and Smirnie couldn’t tell him due to the language barrier.

*deep breathe in*

Satoshi used the muscles of his lungs to pump air into his lungs.

*deep breath out*

With a slow exhale of carbon dioxide, he also exhaled out his anger dioxide.

“I will go thank Smirnie and his family once I’m more used to this world.”

Satoshi continued talking to himself for a while before he retired for the night. The feedback from his air sensing would jolt him awake if any predator were to approach, so he considered little to no danger so high up over the ground.

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Next morning, having finished his business in some bushes and collecting some fruits, he got back to the beastkin party. The beastkins made complicated faces at his arrival but none spoke a word. Satoshi simply walked up to the leader, the hood covering his head and handed him the fruits. He had already eaten his fill on the way, so he saved none for himself. The fruits were delicious, sweet and juicy. It would prick the tongue just a little before spreading its gentle taste in the mouth with every chew. For a moment, he considered saving some for later but disregarded it. He didn’t really feel like carrying anything, and he could fly back anytime to grab some more.

The leader nodded in thanks as he accepted the gift and distributed among his comrades. Satoshi noticed how he didn’t show a speck of doubt on the safety of the consumables and proceeded to take a bite, but Satoshi attributed it to the possibility that they knew about the fruits or could've even had them before.

As the party started again on their journey, Satoshi simply followed behind without a word.

(I wonder if they see this as creepy.)

He didn’t really care even if they did. Rather, he was simply interested in the culture and the sociology of the communities and the people. He decided this was a good opportunity to observe some residents of this world from close range for the first time. The wolf-men village didn’t really count since he had been still new to everything then and had been only focusing on his own well-being.

Satoshi creepily followed behind the group of beastkins, keeping his detection up at all times. He decided he would only observe their fights unless intervention seemed necessary. He looked at the rabbit-woman. She was still wary of him, and he could somehow tell that part of her attention was focused on him and the fact that his footsteps didn’t produce any sound gave her the creeps. He had considered earlier whether he should emulate footsteps with his ability but the result of that consideration was ‘Bleh, too much effort’. He decided he’d let that be a quirk of him in her head.

He shifted his sight a little lower.

(Plumpy plumpy pumpkins.)

His mind drifted to his Vegas trip before the.. uhh.. ‘incident’. Normally that memory would have been enough to get his blood flowing and hormones rampaging but now, his pecker didn’t even peck. He looked back to his days in this world and recalled he had always been calm and composed. Even considering the boar-incident, the fury was a result of the constant reminder in the form of his missing leg. In fact, he had always had his brain working overdrive. Channelling his ability to breathe had shown him a world he didn't know existed, some part figuratively and some literally. He surmised that biological evolution didn't allow humans to use their full capabilities. This had further worsened over generations in accordance with the comfortable environment they had set up for themselves. By using his ability to pump air into his lungs, he would fill them up thoroughly till his chest muscles started aching. Though, now he had gotten used to it and knew his capacity (he also had an inkling that his lung capacity had increased), each breath still filled him with renewed energy and kept him invigored. He no longer found himself drifting off to unnecessary thoughts and worldly desires as he used to when he was human.

(I never considered that possibility before, but do I still classify as a human?)

Satoshi added another to his list of infinite questions that he had to search answers for. But given a choice, he would consider the ability a blessing. Not only did it help him control his emotions, but it also allowed him to use his brain excessively consistently, letting him live in a way he never knew possible.

(Is this how the greatest mathematicians and physicists felt? The old me seems so inferior now.)

He shifted his focus back to the enticing buns. He noticed the small fluffy tail rabbit tail sticking out of her butt.

(Damn I want to touch those ears and tail.)

Maybe all desires couldn’t be suppressed after all.

He looked at all members of the party one at a time. Except for the robed mage, all others had their tails sticking out of their armor. The wolf’s bushy and the cat’s slim tail.

(I wonder how they put on their clothes. Do they even wear underwears?)

Before Satoshi could let himself shamelessly picture the bunny-girl putting on her underwear, the few small reactions he had been sensing came into view and the beastkins evolved into action. It was a pack of 6 fox-coloured dog-wolf thingies. These animals were at the size of a grown wolf. Their snouts were much longer and slightly curved upwards. Their fangs were no joke as they were sharp enough to tear through flesh like butter. Their bodies, covered in foxy-red fur seemed weak due to their thin constitution. But because of that, they were fast.

A few seconds earlier when the rabbit-ranger warned them of the uninvited guests, they had thrown their bags to the back and upon the leader's commands gotten into position; the leader being the vanguard with the dagger-wielding catman right behind him. The ranger and the mage moved all the way back. The ranger stood, arrow knocked and the mage began to collect the bags and move them to a better location. From the looks of it, the mage had been told to stay out of the fight and the catman was also to engage with minimal strain on his body.

"haaaaaa!!"

The leader gave a shout to aggro the enemies, causing the beasts to turn towards the prey projecting the dangerous atmosphere. At the same time, an arrow shot through taking down one of the beasts at the rear. The leader walked a few steps back to draw them in while another arrow took down another beast.

As the beasts realized their numbers were down by a third in no time, two of them recklessly jumped towards the prey in the front. The leader dodged one of them to the right and bashed away the other one with his shield. The first one, unaware of the enemy behind the obvious prey, had its throat slashed by a dagger.

As another arrow flew, further wounding the confused beast that had been bashed, the remaining two looked around to find their entire pack annihilated. They immediately turned tails and ran back into the direction they had come from.

The beastkin party remained in battle stance. After a few seconds, upon the rabbit-ranger's audial verdict, did they finally relax. The leader gave instructions and everyone started to move.

Satoshi knew that two of the beasts were still alive since he could sense their breathing. But not for long. The catman made his way to each of the bodies one-by-one and stabbed them through their skull if they were alive. He carved out their flesh where the arrows had hit them and handed them to the rabbit-ranger following close behind. The ranger washed the arrows with little water and put them back in the quiver. Satoshi also noticed the catman doing something into the mouth of the dead animals.

Meanwhile, the leader and the mage carried over the bags to the others who were quickly done with their tasks. Satoshi noticed the catman putting a few long white fangs into one the bags.

Just like that, the entire scruffle had lasted no more than a minute and the party was back on track.

(Whoaaaaaa….)

Satoshi, who had absolutely no experience in hunting, was fascinated, with his eyes sparkling like that of a little kid, under his hood. The beastkins were perfect and professional with their movements, their coordination top-notch. It was clear they had been fighting together for a long time.

(I know I could have defeated the beasts much faster and let none escape but….)

Satoshi felt so inferior.

(I’m glad I decided to creep along.)