Togusa is giving her an appraising look right back. "Hey." If there are any clues he can glean about how she is really doing, he is trying to take it all in. It might just be his perception that tells him she is looking more sharply at him, that she is noticing what is going on around her, Retrospec-wise.

Togusa, on the other hand, is energized. He has someone back that he can truly bounce ideas off of. And breaking things down for another person, especially someone as perceptive as Mariko, often leads to new ideas for him.

"And I'll tell them the absolute truth, what I get up to with one of my best friends is none of their business, unless they give us a reason to have our sights on them." Togusa grins, and steps in.

He drops his folders to the stacks. "Some of this is going to look familiar from Tatsuo's update this morning. At least I don't have to go into deep detail on the layer theory bullshit. I just didn't know how it all tied in until today."

A deep sigh out. "That means, I'm less sure of where to start. What's the last thing you remember?"