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The eyes are the windows to the soul. When interrogators question prisoners with yes-or-no questions, they often stare into the prisoner's eyes—trying to catch even the subtlest of changes.
As long as the prisoner's will isn't firm enough, any hint of emotion or guilt will show in their eyes. From that, the interrogator can easily extract valuable information.
Once they get a clear answer, all that's left is to apply pressure through force.
Sato's sudden outburst just now had clearly caught Aoki off guard. Coupled with the pointed question, Aoki—who harbored a guilty conscience—panicked. His gaze instinctively averted, no longer daring to et Sato's eyes.
That one action played right into Sato's hands. He imdiately understood that the person in front of him must have so deep connection to Ranka and absolutely could not be let go.
"Mmph mmph mmph~~"
With his mouth still sealed shut by Ariados's silk, Aoki wasn't stupid. He quickly snapped out of his panic and forced himself to feign confusion, shaking his head at Sato in an attempt to convey that he didn't understand.
He knew all too well that the relationship between Sato and Ranka was one of open hostility. If Sato found out who he really was, he'd be dead for sure.
Moreover, all his Pokémon had been wiped out, and his storage backpack—along with the special device inside—was now in Sato's hands.
Which ant that his life was completely at Sato's rcy. He could be crushed at any mont. The realization made sweat pour down Aoki's back.
Unfortunately, it was already far too late. He had aroused Sato's suspicion.
And based on Sato's usual thods, anything that could potentially threaten his personal safety—if the conditions allowed—he would eliminate without hesitation.
Right now, with Aoki completely incapable of resisting, those "conditions" were more than t.
Sato's gaze flickered coldly. He retrieved the personnel dossier Nogu had gifted him from his backpack and patiently flipped through it page by page.
"Still trying to lie? Take a look at this, Aoki. You're one of the Athena faction's people. And you expect to believe you don't know Ranka—Athena's most trusted rookie subordinate? You think I'm an idiot?"
Eventually, toward the back of the booklet, Sato found Aoki's profile. He sneered and shoved the page in front of Aoki's face.
The dossier clearly listed Aoki's na, photo, and his affiliation with Athena's faction.
"Mmph mmph mmph~~!"
Seeing his own face and description laid out like that, Aoki's face went pale. But he still refused to admit anything, vigorously shaking his head as if to say he didn't know Ranka.
He didn't dare admit it. If he did, he was as good as dead.
"It's fine if you don't admit it now. We've got plenty of ti. Ariados, wrap him up."
Sato saw that Aoki still refused to give in, but didn't press further just yet. Instead, he gave him a cold smirk, snatched the number badge off Aoki, and gave an order to Ariados.
Aoki still had value. If he could get so intel on Ranka or the others out of him, that would be fantastic.
Even better—if he could obtain a way to contact them, he could use Aoki as bait to lure them in.
Ariados, having long since pledged loyalty after witnessing its forr kin subdued by Sato's overwhelming might, imdiately got to work after receiving the command.
"Mmph mmph mmph~~!"
Aoki's eyes widened with terror the mont he saw Ariados begin to demonstrate its web-spinning skills. He struggled with all his might—but under Ariados's precision webbing, it was all in vain.
Finally, when Ariados gently bit down on Aoki's neck, the paralyzing venom kicked in. His entire body froze, and as Ariados quickly wound webbing around his head, Aoki fell unconscious.
In less than a minute, Ariados had expertly wrapped him into a tightly bound cocoon.
Once Ariados finished, Sato had it drag the cocooned Aoki onto Arcanine's back and secured it tightly with more webbing.
Then, he recalled Ariados, mounted Arcanine, and dashed off in the direction of Slakoth Forest. He planned to stash Aoki sowhere safe for now, retrieve a Pokémon from base using the number badge, and then proceed accordingly.
On the way back to the Ursaring cave, Sato began checking the contents of Aoki's storage backpack.
Compared to Sato's own pre-departure stockpile, Aoki's gear could only be described as pathetic—both the supplies and healing items were limited.
That said, Aoki clearly wasn't stingy. What he lacked in quantity, he made up for in quality. These were high-grade supplies and treatnts. With this batch, Sato could easily go another three days without needing to lift a finger.
Of course, what pleased Sato the most was the backpack itself. Now that he had an extra space backpack, he could carry even more items and no longer worry about running out of room when he found rare items on the island.
Aside from that, the best loot from Aoki's backpack were three TM discs—Hyper Beam, Thunderbolt, and Endure.
Although none of the three TMs were exceptionally rare, they were still uncommon enough that they'd require a decent mix of luck and wealth to obtain on the black market.
All three moves were quite useful. Hyper Beam and Thunderbolt needed no explanation—they were both powerful offensive techniques.
Endure was more interesting. In the gas, its effect was to allow a Pokémon to survive a fatal hit with 1 HP. In reality, it let a seriously injured Pokémon hold out for just a bit longer.
This move worked especially well with techniques like Reversal or Flail, whose power scaled based on remaining HP. When a Pokémon was down to just 1 HP, Reversal and Flail could hit with a base power of 200—making them true coback cards.
(Note: Flail is a Normal-type physical move. Its power increases the lower the user's HP, maxing out at 200.)
"Endure... not bad. I could never seem to find this move before. And to think I'd stumble upon it like this—it really must be fate. Arcanine already knows Reversal, so if it learns Endure, it'll gain another layer of protection and a clutch move in a pinch."
Staring at the Endure TM in his hand, Sato gave it a spin and chuckled in satisfaction.
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