Checking to see what notifications I missed.

Side Chain Quest: Collect a chip complete!

Side Chain Quest: Collect a second Chip Complete!

Rewards: 2 attribute points

Okay so I gain one attribute point per chip.

Side chain quest: Ensure Yoshioka dies painfully

Oh, that must be the next part I was waiting on from the helping Miho side chain questline. It should be easy enough to do. I’m curious if it will upgrade the bracelet or if it will give something different.

Placing my two attribute points in speed and mental speed. I Don’t feel a couple of points in resilience will help much in a fight against explosives and strength won’t help much when it doesn’t take much effort to kill with a knife or BIM.

I stay awake for about half an hour listening to Togo on watch. He mostly just grumbles to himself. After half an hour of not attempting to stab me in the back I sneak out and sleep on the roof. I might give them more trust in time but for now they are unknowns and they already had two people betray them. While I’m out of sight I grab two things from my inventory for later and tuck them in my pockets.

Several hours later.

Yoshioka finally wakes up and starts cursing up a storm causing me to smile.

“YOU FUCKING FUCKER! LET ME FREE AND I’LL KICK YOUR ASS!” Ah what a wonderful sound to wake up to. Togo stirs awake surprisingly he switched at sometime while I was resting. Him and Higuichi move over to look at Yoshioka.

“So, your finally awake Yoshioka.” I hop down from the rooftop startling Togo and Higuichi strolling over I kick him a little to shut him up.

“GAH guys! What the hell! Are you just going to watch this asshole hit me? Why am I tied up?” He wildly looks around trying to stand up just to trip on his legs being tied.

“Well… he mentioned something about what you’ve done in the past…” This got his eyes wide for a second.

“Oh, were you a fan of the band? There were easier ways of getting a fucking autograph you psycho! If it’s about those rumors they were bullshit, you know! Just some girls trying to get a bit of fame! Our band had to separate after that BS and we got cyberbullied by all sorts of people.” The longer he talks the worse hes making this for himself.

“Hmm he believes what hes saying is true…” Higuichi acting like a lie detector. Well that goes to show shes not infallible.

I turn and look at the scum on the ground “BULLSHIT!??? HOW CAN THEY BE BULLSHIT!? YOU AND YOUR BAND MATES RUINED THEIR LIVES! MIHO HAS YOUR NAMES SCARRED INTO HER SIDE! YOU ASSHOLE!! Her other two friends? The ones that are still suffering from trauma. They hardly speak or go out anymore. THAT is your fault.” He seems surprised by the outburst at first looking off with a contemplative look.

He thinks really hard before he grows a shit eating grin. “Huh? Miho miho miho…. OH! One of the girls from that trial? She was a fan, you know? She wanted it so bad! We just needed to ensure that they didn’t go around spreading bad rumors about us, so we got a little bit of insurance. Hell, she should have been happy after we were done man. We even signed our names! Now she can always remember the fun times we all had.” He seems smug about himself. Right until I kick him in the face breaking multiple teeth. Hmm maybe higher strength would have been useful.

“GAH FUGH YOU AFFHOLE!” He lays on his side. Swearing at me trying to wiggle away from me.

“What… what the hell! He he really did THAT didn’t he? HOLY SHIT! I TRUSTED YOU! I ALMOST WENT INTO THE FOREST ALONE WITH YOU!” Higuichi starts kicking him too now, realizing that while he didn’t lie from his perspective hes so warped that he doesn’t even consider it as a lie.

Togo moves up and starts to move Higuichi away. “Calm down, Higuichi calm down… we gain nothing from killing him now. He doesn’t even have a chip anymore. Hes just a criminal and he deserves to see justice for his actions.”

“Now that we know the situation a bit better, I think we can agree to joining up with Hitomi here?” Togo asks and Higuichi nods in agreement giving Yoshioka a dirty glare.

I clap my hands seeing this all working out. “Nice! First order of business supplies and finding my friend. A team of four is better than a team of three and we need more BIM and fighting force to survive.” Togo nods seriously but also looks at the limited fire we have.

“More people also means needing more food. We have enough for a few meals but not much more.” He looks at some cans they have scattered around the inside of the house.

Higuichi also looks a little worried at the mention of no food. I calm them down though. “I’ve got some supplies tucked away. I wasn’t sure if I could fully trust you guys yet so I didn’t bring them in but if you want, we can go grab them.” I don’t want to tell them about my bracelet if I don’t have to. It has 4 slots two of which are throwing knives one is medical supplies with a spare throwing knife and the last is one full food supplies.

Togo smiles at the mention of food and supplies. “Smart move I’m glad we can get some supplies. Where did you find them?”

Glancing at Higuichi the human lie detector I choose my words carefully. “Well I’m sure there are food supplies in some of these buildings. Did you guys find any in here?” Knowing that Higuichi can detect lies I answer it carefully. I never lied I just didn’t answer the question directly.

He walks up to a cabinet in the shack house opening it up there are a couple of uneaten cans. “Yes, some but not much. Are we going to feed Yoshioka?” He looks down at the guy trying to use his shoulder to wipe the blood from his mouth.

“I don’t want to, that would only keep his strength up. We don’t want him escaping before I show him to Himiko. Speaking of which I should do something about that to make sure hes manageable.” I lean down towards him he starts to try to fight back a little but then just looks at me confused when I just tie some cloth tightly just above the upper arm tight against a vein.

“There we go.” I look at my watch before keeping note of the time.

“Alrigh fugin weirdo” The rapist just looks at me dumbly. Togo just stares at me curious but not saying anything. I think hes the only one that realized what I did.

“Let’s head out of here I’ll show you guys my supplies, and we can look for my friend. We’ve got at least two hours to kill.” Laughing slightly at my joke. We start to move out forcing Yoshioka to stand between me and Togo. He looks like he wants to dart for it but with his sweater tied to his angles hes more likely to trip and face plant on a rock than sprint.

After a bit we come up to a bush and I stop them for a second as I reach into it with my right arm and pull out the food supply bag from my storage. I replace its slot with one of the shield BIMs I have. This way I have two knives, a medical bag and a shield BIM in there.

“Here we are! Its not much but should last us a bit even without finding more supplies.” Turning around to look at the others holding up the bag they both look a little surprised at the size of it.

Higuichi looks at me confused before somewhat awkwardly kicking her feet about. “I’m sorry to have doubted you for some reason it seemed like you lied about your supplies. I was getting prepared for an ambush from your friend or something. ”That’s when I realize shes been holding onto a gas BIM this whole time palming it while following behind me. DAMN those things are small so easy to conceal but probably very deadly if the video was anything to go by.

“No worries you were being careful… Just never raise a BIM against me again and we wont have a problem. Understood?” I give her a glare fully thinking about killing her if she ever does raise it against me. Then I break into a smile like nothing wrong happened.

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She looks at me a little wide eyed. “-gulp- yes… you’re one scary kid…”

Togo looks a little annoyed at my comment. “No reason to threaten her kid. We are all in this together after all. Let’s look for that friend of yours, shall we? You told her to head towards important places right? Theres a radio tower I noticed while parachuting down that way. Its probably the easiest to see landmark on the island. We might even run into other groups on the way there.” Togo makes a good point. That will also allow us to take down a few people before they start to group up.

“Good idea we can get them before people start pairing up too giving us the number advantage.”

We all start moving again.

After about an hour Yoshioka starts making some more noise. “Heyy thshh ish a bigh pighp arounph my handsh gan yu looshen hem?” (Hey, this is a bit tight around my arms can you loosen them?). This makes me smile. “No no it should be fine until we stop to rest, I’ll loosen them a bit then. Just gotta get to the radio tower alright?” I call back to him. His hands are starting to turn red since the blood is pooling at his fingertips and his veins are bulging on his arms.

Its just a matter of time now. I take a look at the time. Just another hour or so to kill. Smiling all the way as we continue our march forward.

“ogay fiiine” (okay fine) he starts grumbling as he follows along.

Another thirty minutes in we feel this sort of sudden presence ahead of us. Like we are suddenly aware of a person being there. “What the hell was that?” I hope everyone else felt that. It could be a weird skill thing with a quest or something though.

Togo takes command of the situation. “I don’t know? But theres someone up ahead everyone split up and approach with caution.” I head to the left he goes right. Higuichi stays to watch Yoshioka.

I take out one of the homing BIM that the old lady had. Putting it up to my eye I can see an outline of a person hiding in the woods ahead of us like thermal vision. “Guys! My BIM can see through objects hes right there hiding behind some cover!” I gesture forward to let anyone else see. The guy probably hears me because he stands up and starts to run away. Probably realizing that it’s a group. After looking at his body for a second in the BIM a little icon pops up that says locked on. NEAT!

“I got this!” After it locks on, I throw the BIM in an arc above the guy. I watch as it unfolds its little propellers in the middle of the sky and flies down towards him zooming in at a slightly slowed speed then the throw. He jumps to the side dodging it once. This is when I get a good look at him. Short with youngish features looks around 26 with wavy medium length hair. “OH GOD OH GOD I’M GOING TO DIE!” Hes screaming from the other side. That’s when he pulls out a BIM a grenade impact one like Himiko’s type. He throws it at the ground behind him.

BOOOM!!

It destroys both my BIM and the tree nearby. He raises his hands in the air one BIM in hand but tears and snot streaming down his face. “GUYS GUYS PLEASE DON’T KILL ME! OH GOD NO! I’LL JOIN YOU! PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!” I look at the others.

“Hes telling the truth?” Higuichi says from the side. Hmm alright let’s see if we can use this.

I start to call out to him with an idea in mind. “Come over here! We only have 3 people and one prisoner. If you want, you can join us! There are 34 people so that means 4 people will leave that can be us!” The others all look at me in surprise. The guy gives us all a look and sees that Yoshioka is tied up and relief washes over his face as he smiles. “OH, THANK GOODNESS!” He collapses in on himself to the ground. We make our way over to him slowly. I approach first making sure to show my hands are away from my BIM he does the same placing his one back in his bag. “How about we both lose our BIM and have a talk first?” I toss my two BIM bags to the side. He nods and does the same realizing that no one else has their BIM out.

He looks up at me with a smile wiping some of the snot and tears from his face. “Uh my name is Kenya Uesugi haa nice to meet you all!” hes still on the ground sitting up though. Probably trying to put a name to his face so we are less likely to kill him. Like naming an animal to force the person to treat them more like a pet rather than food.

I smile and nod walking up right next to him. “Nice to meet you Uesugi! I’m Shimada Hitomi.” I hold out my nondominant hand to shake his hand rather than help him up. He looks at me a little odd since its my left hand but shakes it anyways. “So why is he a prisoner anyways? Did he do something to betray your trust or something?“ He looks over at Yoshioka.

“Yeah, hes a rapist I recognized from the news. By the way what was that weird feeling from before. We suddenly all felt your location.” Looking back to Uesugi to figure it out.

“Oh that? It’s the radar thing, you just have to sort of move your hand a bit like this” He wiggles his fingers, and we all get that feeling again.

“Interesting…Like this?” I do something similar, and I feel a sort of pulse but no response.

“It didn’t work?”

“That’s odd? It worked before with you guys? Maybe its because we are close or standing still?” Hes sitting cross legged now thinking hard about the problem.

“Hey Togo, Yoshioka start walking” they grumble a bit and I send out the pulse again this time I feel Togo but not Yoshioka.

“Alright that’s good info! Nice to have someone with a good head along!” I reach out my hand again this time to pull him up. He takes it and I start to pull him up from the ground.

He has a smile on his face as I do. That’s when I summon the throwing knife into my other hand and slide it right through his eye. His face goes through several emotions quickly. First surprised then anger to fear finally it goes slack as he falls backwards on the ground.

“Shhhh there we go. Don’t worry. We’ll be sure your chip makes it out of here. Uesugi was it? Well thank you for your assistance. I’m sure we will all appreciate your help getting us that much closer to getting out of here.” I start taking the chip from his hand that I’m holding.

“What the hell was that!? Are you a monster or something? You did that without any hesitation…” Higuichi stares at me a bit slightly scared.

Glancing over at her I shrug. “Hmm? So what? It’s not like there was any room for him in our group anyways and he has a chip. We need to get them all eventually anyways. No need for remorse or delay.” She looks like she wants to argue but the words seem to be caught in her throat for a moment.

Togo looks at me more seriously though. Shifting his weight a little and taking a half step away from me. “Hmmm I have to admit it’s a bit worrisome how quickly you came up with the plan to kill him. Where did you keep that knife? I didn’t even see you take it out?” I pull the knife out of the down mans eye and store it again. “Hmm? Oh, it’s something up my sleeve it helps me flick out my knife. I came here expecting a fight, so I made sure to come prepared.” Togo just looks at me for awhile before nodding his head. Higuichi didn’t catch any lie since its true. Most people would assume it was some sort of wrist guard though while its actually the storage bracelet.

Togo nods seeming to come to a conclusion. “Well, I’m glad we are on the same side at least. The BIM he had look offensive. I only have the shield BIM. Mind if I take it?” I nod and so does Higuichi.

“Whats your starter BIM anyways Hitomi?” Higuichi asks from the side looking away from the corpse as I search his pockets. “Oh? I started with the shield ones like Togo over here!”

I put up airs like I don’t know what hers do too. “What about you? whats your BIM?” She looks a bit awkward.

“The uh video showed a giant gas explosion type so not really good for up close fights I think.”

In the guys pockets I find a switchblade I’m excited at first until I realize its just a comb. What a waste of time.

“huh this guy had a comb do you want it Higuichi? Me and Togo both have short hair.” She looks a bit conflicted probably because it came from a dead guy. She shivers for a moment though after feeling a knot in her hair.

“Hmmm sure I guess it will be a while before we get off the island.” I toss it with barely a glance making it land perfectly into her hand that’s fiddling with her hair.

She gets surprised by that at first. “Nice throw! I noticed before you threw one of your knives is that a hobby or something?” Togo tries to strike up a conversation as we start moving on again leaving the body behind. Yoshioka stares at the body for a long time before being urged forward again by Togo.

“Kind of? I play baseball. I’ve got scholarships lined up for it and everything. Throwing knives has just been a bit of a passtime. It helps mix up throwing practice to add different weights and stuff of things thrown.” Everyone just gives me a strained look before ignoring me.

I return the question back at him. “What about you Togo? Any hobbies?” Its probably worth getting to know both of them a bit. We are going to be stuck together for a while. Well unless me and Himiko find better allies.

“Hmm not really, once you’re older hobbies just sort of fall to the wayside to work…” He looks off in the distance lost a bit.

“Hmm any kids or anything?” He looks a bit sad with that question.

“Yes… one son, my wife and I divorced recently though so I havnt seen much of him… I failed him as a parent.” His walking slows down a bit as he continues to stare off.

“Well once you make it out of here you can make it up to him. I guess theres a HUGE pay for the winners of this too.” I smile at the lot of them. The only one that doesn’t look surprised is the rapist guy who’s face is a bit too swollen now to tell.

“Wait what? Where did you hear this?” He seems a bit excited about the idea of making it up to his kid.

“Oh, the grandma from before. She overheard it from one of the guards on the plane that’s why she was trying to kill Yoshioka here.” I give him a good smack on the chest. His hands are starting to change from a deep red to a slight purple.

Higuichi gets super excited at the idea of this. “Wait your telling the truth?! We are going to get paid too when we leave?! YES! I WON’T HAVE TO WORK ANYMORE! Romo we can live a life of luxury!” She cheers something about someone named Romo?

I nod along with the two of them cheering. “Haha yeah hopefully that’s true. I think I’ll still work anyways I’m not even out of school yet, so I’ve got plenty of options. Heck maybe we can hang out after this is all over!” This is the most I’ve really socialized with someone other then Miho or my parents in a while it feels a bit nice?

They both look a little conflicted at that. “Well, no offense Hitomi but you kind of scare me… I don’t know if I’d want to meet up after this…” Higuichi is at least honest. Togo just awkwardly looks away betraying that he feels the same… Haaa damn. There goes making friends.

Yoshioka seems to be laughing a bit at my attempts at making friends until I give him a fast slap on his likely broken ribs. He grunts in pain much to my enjoyment.

“Well alright, I guess. By the way Togo here's your chip since I found it on the guy. Its best to split the chips up evenly that way we can all trust each other better and so no one person gets any ideas.” I toss the chip I got from the guy before to him.

They think about it for a moment before nodding and we continue again. After another thirty minutes we take a short break before walking for another hour. Every time Yoshioka complains about his hands, I make up an excuse for why we will wait until we get to the radio tower.

We don’t need to kill time anymore. Hes already dead and just doesn’t know it yet.