Shimada's POV

“Could have been one he planted before the fight for the supplies thinking he could draw you to it? Regardless, it probably didn’t do much. Tomorrow lets head to the other side of the island. We need to find some people that don’t know us yet to get some chips more easily. The ones around here know our faces thanks to Sakamoto or seeing us move away from the beach. The plane always drops 4 boxes, which means a group is likely somewhere over there. Either that or we can pick up some of the supplies that have been piling up over there.”

Togo nods to the idea and so does Himiko.

“I also need some time to recover probably about a day or two.” This makes Togo wince a bit.

“Sorry son, I’ve looked at your bruises, those will take at least a week with proper treatment in the best-case scenario… the majority might fade enough for you to move around sooner than that though!” He looks down on me sad, he probably feels a little responsible since I’m just a kid in his eyes. He doesn’t really understand how strong I am though.

“Hmm? No, it should be much sooner than that. I heal quickly! Don’t worry.” I wave him off dismissively.

I look at my treatment skill level as it ticks up finally to 25. Unlocking the bonus for treatment effectiveness. One of the odder skill effects, when close to max I can cover half a wound and the other half stops bleeding too.

The next day I may be super sore but at the very least I’m able to move around more.

Togo and the others all look at me. “Are you sure you should be moving around already? Sure, some of the bruises look a little faded but that was still some serious damage.”

“Yeah, I should be fine, thanks for the concern though! For now, we should definitely search for some other people. Let’s head towards where the supplies have been dropping in the distance away from all the action.” A few nods around the table. “But what happens if they get enough to leave and do before we get to them?” Higiuchi speaks up. “Well Togo you’re going to have to decide if you’re willing to give up your seat up for her or not because me and Himiko are taking the other two slots.” This disgruntles him a bit, Higuichi looks a bit upset at the idea of Togo giving up his spot, but the subject was quickly dropped.

After several hours of walking around we see the airdrop coming in. Much like the previous days it drops four different supply drops. We have been going after the ones on the other side of the island but this time we are heading towards new ones. While running up on it we sent out a radar ping every once in a while. At first, we were a little annoyed when we got a result at the site of the airdrop until we got there and realized it was coming from the drop itself.

Inside there were three BIM, their cases all look like half assed painted versions of other BIM. There was also a handwritten note detailing their use.

The first one looks like a red painted homing BIM that also has a tablet. The instructions say it’s a remote-controlled BIM with a camera connected to the tablet.

Second is a green painted timer BIM. Its description says rather than an explosion it will place a false radar ping where it lands showing up as a person moving slightly. Or if you hold down the time before throwing it covers everyone in the area with a sort of gel that constantly releases their radar location every time they move.

Finally, is a cloud BIM painted blue, it looks like they tried really hard to do an ice one since it releases a nearly 0 K gas that hovers around the ground freezing everything it comes into contact with, making it incredibly slippery while also likely freezing someone’s feet if they touch the mist.

Overall, I have to say they are a lot more interesting. They are also all very useful in specific situations. The decoy BIM could be amazing with my stealth and the Ice BIM is good for when people aren’t paying attention. I’m curious how it will work… a low mist will either immobilize them or freeze the moisture in the air to make the ground more slick or rough. I wonder how many people still have shoes? Looking down at the rough state of my own shoes it’s probably not many.

“Hey so who wants what? It says here these three are special and work for anyone using them.” I propose to the group but I’d rather like the decoy myself.

“I’d like the piloting one! I may not have a good arm, but I have a lot of gaming experience.” Himiko chimes in looking a little happy to be useful.

“I kind of want the decoy one just as a slightly less lethal option. We have seen that we can take them out without killing.” Togo grabs the timed BIM.

“I kind of want the ice one. I can’t be all that stealthy any more with how few people are left.” I look to Higuichi who would be the only one not getting one, but she doesn’t seem to upset.

“Its fine with me, so far you guys have been doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I just don’t want to be a burden…” She looks a little bummed out at the idea of dragging us down and probably slightly scared we may just stop at 3 and leave her behind. Not that she needs to worry about that since I intend to leave at 2 anyways now.

“Regardless let’s get going and try to see if the BIM in the case ahead are the same or different. Who knows we may even run into another group while we are there too.” We start into a slow jog pinging the radar occasionally.

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Higuichi gets a large ping from up near the coastline. We all freeze immediately as she holds up a hand and a ping washes by getting none of us but her.

“Group of five ahead not sure why they have that large of a group but its best we be careful.” I think back to the conversation with Miho’s mother and a particular comment about 7 useless people.

“I think it will be relatively fine. We do need to hide our extra BIM though and appear as if we aren’t playing the game.”

I move to some brush and stash my BIM in my bracelet acting as if I was storing the BIM instead.

“Put the combination of BIM you want in one bag then I can hide the rest. Unless someone dies other people can’t use the BIM anyways so it’s not like we need to be weary of them finding the BIM.” I currently have a bag full of our BIM bags. Thankfully bags no matter how large still only take one slot so long as I can lift it in one hand.

Togo looks concerned. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to go in there with less BIM? They have a large group we might be walking into a trap.”

“It should be fine they have a large group so that means they aren’t playing, or they have one person that doesn’t understand the situation they are in.”

After traveling for a while, we come up on a group of 5. There is a man in a hat and glasses with a camera out staring at us with a wide smile, an older man with a beanie hat and goatee with some slack clothes on, a middle aged women with long black hair, an old business man and a very old lady.

The first to speak is the middle-aged women “WOAH HOLD THERE! BACK UP OR WE WILL BLOW YOU TO SMITHERINGS!” She holds out a BIM and a few of the others seem to scramble for theirs as well.

I clear my voice before acting. “Thank goodness more people! We’ve been traveling around the island for a while and the only person we ran into were rapists and bad men.” I try to play up the younger than them act with Himiko. She doesn’t look all that comfortable but it’s for the act so she forces a smile on.

The middle-aged guy with baggy clothes doesn’t seem to buy it. “STAY BACK YO, we know everyone was sent here for a reason. So, yall did somethin to get sent here, so you ain’t exactly spotless. Now hand over your BIM and come with us or we will blow you to all heck right here!” He looks more at Togo and higiuichi while saying all of that. Not really seeing me or Himiko as a threat.

“I mine are defensive… are you sure me and Himiko here can’t hold on to our BIM? I…I understand if you’ll feel safer, but we would too…” I Keep trying to look innocent and the guys look at each other for a bit.

The old lady walks up and pinches our cheeks. “Awww aren’t you just the cutest dears.” That disarms most of the people except the very angry looking middle-aged women. “We can’t trust them! Let’s at least take the adults BIM. I won’t let your guy’s stupidity be what gets me killed I have someone I need to live for.” She puts her arm out and gestures to both Higuichi and Togo to hand over their BIM. Their faces look strained at first but eventually hand them over after realizing that I wasn’t putting up a fuss.

The older businessman speaks up. “Alright well follow us. We just got supplies but it may be a lot more strained with four more mouths to feed…”

I quickly speak up. “Oh, we got some on the way here! It had some food in it too so we should be able to make do for a couple days ourselves!” This brings a smile to their faces the idea that they don’t need to hand over food to the strangers.

We walk for a while we tell them fake names and introduce ourselves. They gasp at the stories of the large man we found attempting to force himself on Himiko and our run in with Yoshioka.

We mention that there was once a rocker punk guy with us. They all become a bit more tense.

“Did you mention that you were a group that had a man named Yoshioka?” the businessman and the man with the beanie seem to be looking at us with much more scrutiny now.

The beanie hat guy starts speaking up defending Yoshioka. “You claim he’s a rapist? What proof do you have? He could have just been sent here due to public opinion being bad… Or a former band mate…” Shit that means hes probably at their base or something.

Himiko has enough and bursts out. “DON’T YOU DARE DEFEND THAT ASSHOLE! HE… HE THE THINGS HE DID! HE RUINED THEIR LIVES! He called it signing autographs for his loyal fans… they carved their names into my friends’ bodies… leaving his mark so don’t you DARE say he might be innocent… I’m here because they even blamed me for bringing them to meet that asshole.” The two men take a step back looking a bit unsure about how to continue.

The middle-aged lady speaks up with a sly smile on her face. “Huh, I knew that guy was no good. Always asking people to grab things for him never being able to do stuff himself. No good is what he is.”

The beanie hat guy just can’t seem to believe it. He starts stammering out excuse after excuse. “He’s only asking that because his hands are useless. Which he told us a 17-year-old boy did to him. So, if anyone hasn’t been honest it’s YOU guys. He said you’re a lot more dangerous than you let on… You’ve probably also killed a lot of people… Let’s check them for chips!” they start to pat us down.

Himiko flinches away as the beanie guy moves to start patting her down. “Hey HEY don’t touch me! Men… Men are awful things. At least let her be the one to search me…” She points towards the middle-aged women, who makes a hmph noise before searching her and Higuichi who also didn’t want to get searched by the men.

“Yoshioka told us you had some sort of knives in your sleeves… We are going to have to ask for you to take it off and let us look at your sweater.” I do, they won’t find anything after all. They search for a while seeing the sweater doesn’t look any different.

“Hmm doesn’t look any different.” The businessman and the other guy look at it together crouching over it.

“They are all clean too… No extra chips from what I could find.” Bracelet you save the day yet again. I’m glad everyone trusts me with the chips. Otherwise, this would be a lot more difficult.

“We don’t have any intentions to hurt any of you. We just… we have run into so many people trying to hurt us… and even that rapist that continues to torment Himiko here.” I gesture to Himiko. She decided to introduce to herself as her nickname since the announcement was her real name.

At this point even the beanie hat guy seems convinced. “Awww maaaaan I trusted that guy! Even Kaguya said there wasn’t anything wrong with him. Then again, I guess she only sees ghosts and shit. Not victims…” his voice trails off.

“Yeah, who knew we had someone so despicable. This will make a fantastic documentary.” The guy with the hat adjusts his camera. Recording it from a different angle.

“Why are you recording all of this? Isn’t this a game to watch us all die? So, aren’t they already recording this all somehow?” He looks at me then frowns a bit.

“Yeah, but the people outside may want a first-person perspective. Who knows once people learn about this, the recording might become famous!” He looks awfully excited. He also tipped his hand a little he intends to get back to civilization. Also, he seems to want to become famous…

We start to come up on a small townish area with a bridge leading up into it. Surrounded by a chain link fence. A small spray painted sign says 'Sancuary' on the bridge leading into the broken town.