Binato Sotobara

## Name

**Binato Sotobara** (卒斗原 ビナト, *Sotobara Binato*) is a character in the Hidden Bats ARG. His primary Twitter account is @Binato\_Sotobara and his burner is @TESTESCAPEGAME.

Binato is a university student who lives in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. Prior to May 6th, 2022, he was kidnapped for a mysterious experiment, where he would be forced to communicate with the outside world every 48 hours to find the necessary clues to escape. His disappearance was initially reported by Sunaiku Foundation.

## Design

Binato is a young man with green eyes and short, unkempt light brown hair. He wears a plain black face mask and a yellow hoodie with a red design on the front. He wears a blue jacket with striped yellow accents and several tags, including two tags hanging from the sleeve that read "ROOT 99" and "good vibes only." Binato also wears dark brown pants.

## Story

In 2021-2022, Binato Sotobara began attending a university in Saitama Prefecture, Japan.

On April 7th, 2022 (Japan time), Binato began posting to his burner account @TESTESCAPEGAME about his pursuit of various women. He went after a girl from his school club, and continued until she finally agreed to go out with him. He then dropped his previous date plans for her, only to drop her for a CEO's wife a few days later. Binato continued bragging about different women being interested in him, going after women who were in a relationship, and going on numerous dates back to back. On the 20th, he mentioned getting "bad vibes" from some women, and had a vision of one of them stabbing him.

On April 22th, Binato became interested in a new hire from the agency he worked at. He followed her to the train station, and was shocked she called him a stalker for it. Two days later he went to a drinking party with his coworkers, where he intended to get the hire drunk to make a move on her, but she left early. Binato claimed he was "researching her likes and interests," which only made her more uncomfortable, and she continued running from him and accusing him of stalking.

On the evening of May 2nd, Binato followed the new hire (likely to her home) to "clear up a misunderstanding." When she threatened to call the police, Binato panicked and pushed her over. While her fate is unclear, Binato's panicked tweets suggest he may have killed her.

### Kidnapping

In the first week of May 2022, Binato Sotobara mysteriously went missing while on his way home from college. His disappearance, along with Aine Ichirai's, was reported to law enforcement and reported on by the Sunaiku Foundation on May 6th. The Foundation began cooperating in resolving his disappearance.

On May 9th, 2022 (Japan time), Binato found himself in an unknown room with only a phone and a box with a numerical buttons. A deadly game began, in which he was given 21 minutes to exclusively use Twitter and ask for help in opening the box. Once the time ran out, he would have to wait 48 hours until the phone activated once more. Binato tweeted about his situation and the contents of the room, including the locked box, and posted a photo of a puzzle he had to solve just before the time limit approached.

Two days later on the 11th, Binato was able to access Twitter again, and thanked everyone who gave him the code to open the box. Inside, he found another piece of paper and another locked box, and shared a photo of the next clue. Before the time limit, Binato learned that Aine was in his same situation and wondered if she was next door, hoping she could make it out.

On May 13th, Binato opened the next layer of the box to find another box and a clue, which he posted to Twitter. He wondered about the nature of the kidnapper, and whether Aine had made it out. He also mentioned having a fever earlier and hearing a girl singing, but when he put his ear to the wall, he could not hear anything. As Binato reached the time limit, he wondered if he was going crazy.

On May 14th, Binato's burner account @TESTESCAPEGAME was exposed by the code inside Aine's locked box.

On May 15th, Binto opened the final layer of the box to discover a paper with the word "THIEF" on it, which he posted to Twitter. He also discovered a number of photos in the box. While Binato did not share what was in the photos, they unsettled him, and he begged to be let out, wondering if the kidnapper worked for his boss. After the time limit, Hidden Bats tweeted that there would be an announcement about his fate the following day.

On May 16th, Binato's account tweeted "Save Binato." According to the rules posted by Hidden Bats, either he or Aine would be saved if their tweet received a higher total of likes and retweets, or both if they tied. Binato's final total was 4 less than Aine's.

## Puzzle Questions

### Binato: Question 1

The first puzzle was two columns: one with four images of animals (red frog, orange bat, black turtle, green rabbit), and one with the letters "N," "E," "W," and "S." Using the cipher from the Bats489 video, the animals become "4134." The solution can be found by taking the nth letter of the corresponding cardinal directions (norTh, East, weSt, souTh) to get the word "TEST." Inputting the Nirvana Spell in the Hidden Bats website revealed the code [117247967] to open the first layer of Binato's box. The site also revealed the following text:

> If you continue to prove proofs of proofs, eventually you will reach something unanswerable.
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> Something that is impossible to prove.
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> Our existence is based on that unprovable "something."
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> Can any of us say that we really are alive if we exist on that foundation?
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> Are you really alive?
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> Can you prove it?
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> We are alive because our brains emit electrical signals.
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> What is that electrical signal?
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> What is an electron?
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> What is a subatomic particle?
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> What is the universe?
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> What does it mean to exist?
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> Our existence is working backward from that unprovable end.
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> What am we?
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> We know.
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> Until next time.
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### Binato: Question 2

Binato's second puzzle was a column of four animals with a dot on either end. Using the Bats489 code, the sequence came out to . ... -.-. .- .--. . including the two dots, Morse Code for "ESCAPE." Inputting the Nirvana Spell on the Hidden Bats site revealed the code [999149539] to open the second layer of Binato's box.

### Binato: Question 3

Binato's third puzzle was a row of four animals, then "SHIFT," a left arrow, and a black giraffe. Using the Bats489 code, the four animals became "LFRJ," while the black giraffe indicated to shift the letters back by 5, resulting in "GAME." Inputting the Nirvana Spell on the Hidden Bats site revealed the code [911646576] to open the third layer of Binato's box. The site also revealed the following text:

> Are you conscious?
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> Do your neighbors have free will?
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> How can you be sure that the kind people around you are not simply NPCs?
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> How do you prove that they are not programmed beings?
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> Measuring their brain waves or dissecting them would prove nothing.
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> What if they are an otherwise healthy human being with no consciousness - a philosophical zombie...
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> Until next time.
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## Trivia

* Binato's initials, along with fellow captive Aine Ichirai's, spell out "ABIS."