The businessman gathers all of our attention. “Anyways, we are going to need all the BIM collected together from here forward. If we wanted to attack you, we would have earlier after all. So, you’re just going to have to trust us.” These people are all pretty pathetic, even without the BIM I could probably handle all of them. I’m pretty sure Togo could too so long as we fight on a relatively even playing ground.

“I’m Shibata by the way and we need you guys to meet Kaguya and Amakusa, they are able to see your true selves!” The older businessman introduces himself. Then they start to explain how the two we are about to meet were once high members of a moonlight cult… Shit…. Cultist. That’s not a good sign. Oh well we won’t be dealing with them long.

“Alright I look forward to meeting them. Are they husband and wife or something?” I look around keeping an eye out for any more people.

This gets a big laugh out of him before Soga the beanie hat guy comments. “HAHA GOSH NO, that little brat can’t even speak she can see the dead though. We need to go secure Yoshioka… If he really did all those things, you said… and his story doesn’t exactly add up either. We need to make sure hes not able to get away.” Soga the beanie hat man and the older man leave to go get him. Kiyoshi the middle-aged women starts leading us to the leader that’s apparently a little girl. Ono the old lady just happily brings the BIM to another building while Torio the young man with a hat and glasses mentions he needs to go charge his camera and runs off.

“Come along now knowing her she is probably sitting near the waterfall area.” We move along in a group. We get to the edge of the clearing before the middle-aged woman whose name is Kiyoshi apparently sends us off inside alone. Apparently having better things to do.

That’s when I see the little girl from back on the plane… shiiiiiiit. Didn’t she freak out when she saw me last?

Sure enough “Ahhhhhhh eahhh eahhhh!” She starts gesturing wildly at me making sounds that aren't quite words while hiding behind Amakusa a somewhat well-built man with squinting eyes and short hair.

“More evil spirits? No? What do you mean then?” She pulls out a pad and starts rabidly writing. I wonder if she just has insider information or something? Perhaps someone has been sending her messages on that little tablet?

“Come on little girl I’m not that scary.” I start to walk up with a smile. She immediately hides behind the man again and pulls her back from me slightly. She turns her tablet towards us.

On it the tablet reads. ‘His spirit is fragmented there are two spirits tied down to one inside him. He is surrounded by thousands of evil spirits all vying to get inside his body. But beside him is a woman. She has a sword and long hair and a skirt. They seem nice but they are fighting off all of the other evil spirits. I’ve never seen anyone so plagued before.” The moment I read the part about Saeko my eyes go cold. I hear a quest ding in my mind as the fake smile I’ve had this whole time drops. I feel Haru rush up next to the desk too in order to hear what she has to say.

“How do you know about them?” I stare at her more interested now.

The man protecting her seems a bit on edge. “She can see spirits. Why is your soul like that? Are you truly human?” He looks at me confused and thinks about the implications that I have thousands of souls vying to attempt to reach for my soul that is split.

I look down at the little girl… She might be able to let us talk to Saeko again… “Of course, I’m human. I’m just a bit special is all. Now Kaguya was it? You mentioned a woman. Can you speak to her? Is she doing anything around me?” I look to her no one in this world could possibly know about her. I haven’t even told Miho about Saeko before. This little girl can really see spirits…

She slowly nods then writes that they ‘They are defending your soul… when I looked sad, they tried to smack my head, but their hand just passed through me.’ Haru briefly pops in breaking out into a smile. That sounds like them.

We look around us small tears coming from our eyes. “Thank you both for protecting me… I’ll be sure to greet you one day! Now who is the other spirit?” Is it Saya? Or maybe our daughter…

The little girl quickly writes out that the second spirit looks a lot more harried like shes been around for much longer. She has short green hair and looks very skinny. The longer she describes them the easier it is to tell that it’s my mom from the last life… All this time… She… it’s been decades and she never gave up…

We… Haru can’t help but try to speak to her. “Mom… you’ve been here with me all this time… Thank you.. and I love you too… sorry you had to watch me do those things…” We collect ourselves for a moment. Before turning to the little girl. “WELL, Kaguya your safety has just become a lot more important to me.”

I mentally check the quest notifications and sure enough.

Story quest: Collect 7 chips for Kaguya to leave the island.

That confirms it she’s getting one of the four slots sorry Togo and Higiuchi at least one of you needs to go.

Himiko is confused. “What does all of that mean Hitomi? Who are those women? Are they friends of yours that died along with your mom?” Meanwhile Higuichi seems to have caught on and starts to slowly back away pulling on Togo a bit who looks at her confused.

We wipe a tear from our eye before separating again. I look back at the group. “Since only four people can survive… I guess I’ll need to make room for you Kaguya. Togo, Higuichi which of you are willing to give up your spot for the little girl? You should choose now before I choose for you.” I turn to them and smile. I can’t help it knowing that they are still with us. It makes me feel a little guilty about some of the things I’ve done, but they would forgive Haru they would understand. He wasn’t the one that did many of the things it was all me.

Higiuchi starts to panic and back away faster. “We…we don’t need to do this Hitomi… We can… we can escape…more than four people can get off that way!” I slowly walk towards them.

Togo seems to finally understand and moves to get between me and Higuichi. “STOP, I’ll let her take my place. I don’t have anything to come back to once I’m out of here anyways. It’s better a little girl has a life then me…” He is putting on a strong front but he’s shaking like a leaf. It must be hard to put yourself on the line like that. Kaguya starts writing on her board. Pointing it towards Togo.

‘The men following you are very nice. They want you to know they forgive you!’ he looks at the message. “Who are you talking about?” she frowns and starts writing again ‘the nice men in uniforms around you. They want you to know it’s not your fault they died.’ A look of utter horror crosses his face. “How do you know about them? And they forgive me? HOW WHY?” He starts to shake on the floor in front of her now too.

Higiuchi looks scared rapidly looking between me and the crumpled form of Togo. She backs up a bit picking up a rock and raising it threateningly. “Togo… you don’t need to die… We…we can take him!” That’s a mistake. Now you’re definitely not making it out of here.

Togo silently reads some of the messages that Kaguya writes. “No… no she’s the real deal…”

He finds his resolve standing up with tears in his eyes. “She MUST survive this… shes worth so much more than me. So, if she takes my spot so be it. But I will still work hard to get the chips for it.” Togo looks up with determination.

Amakusa the girl’s handler speaks in. “What do you all mean? Get the chips? We are a peaceful group here in sanctuary, we plan on lasting until help arrives.” I look at him with pity.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

He might take Higiuchi’s place it depends on how important he is really. “Don’t worry she will survive. I hope you understand if I don’t extend the same invitation to you.” I look over at him and Kaguya clutches his back a bit scared.

He looks down at Kaguya sadly. “As long as she survives then nothing else matters…” He has a bit of a distant look in his eye like he’s still not fully processing what’s happening.

“Alright there are only a few other people besides this group. I feel as if we should handle them first.” Right as we hear this there is a scream in the distance.

“Crap let’s check that out…” We move along and sure enough the dead body of the old lady from before is laying on the ground. Kiyoshi the middle-aged girl is hurling onto the side of a building. She had found a dead body.

We all look at her for an explanation. “I walked over here… and and she was just dead!” I check the body over. The neck looks strangled. Checking her nails, she didn’t scratch her assailant or anything so its likely someone they knew, and it was fast so someone either physically strong or that knew what they were doing. Still, that rules out the rapist since he lost the use of his hands. Next, I rule out Kiyoshi the middle-aged woman since her hands aren’t large enough to leave these sorts of bruises and her nails would draw blood.

Looking up from the body. “Where are Shibata, Torio and Soga? They are the most likely ones to have done this. Torio at the top since he was the only one that didn’t go with anyone else.” This makes everyone think for a moment.

Kiyoshi speaks up first giving me a long look as she wipes away some of the vomit. “How do I know it wasn’t someone in your group the snuck in and started to pick us off huh?”

“Simple really there’s no defensive wounds. She didn’t scratch the person that strangled her meaning she knew the person. She also doesn’t have any bruising on her arms to show trying to defend herself from an attack.” I point at her hands, and this makes Kiyoshi get more annoyed. “She was just a senile old bat she might not even recognize any of us. Err well she probably couldn’t have known to even defend herself?” She looks around awkwardly realizing she may have been old and out of it but she would have still likely defended herself.

“You know what! Let’s just get our BIM. I don’t feel safe with a killer around anyways.” She moves past the body. Looking down I notice that the killer didn’t even take the chip. When people start making their way towards the BIM room, I pop the chip out. Looking up I see Kaguya staring at me.

I give her a little smile then toss her the chip, she looks surprised and misses catching it before fumbling to put it in her pocket. Clearly not sure what to do with it. Mentally opening up my status really quick I dump my points into mental speed. It’s more important than speed or strength right now because no one else seems superhuman and as long as Haru supports me in a tough fight we should be able to out skill anyone else here. The world slows down slightly around me before I adjust and start seeing it normally again.

“Come along we all need our BIM.” Once we start arming up the others catch up to us. Shibata the old man has a bloody nose and Soga the beanie guy’s face looks like it got hit a couple times, but they have Yoshioka in tow.

Soga winces a bit after meeting my gaze. “We uh got him… as soon as we called him out on his shit, he uh started talking about how they would have wanted it and shit. Surprised we didn’t realize it sooner. God damn, he put up a fight though…” Soga and Yoshioka have busted faces. Likely from a headbutt that hurt both of them.

I smile and turn to Himiko who looks very conflicted. “GREAT! Himiko it’s your choice what to do with him. Though in my opinion you should just kill him or do what I did to his hands with his legs so he’s useless.” I look over at Yoshioka who starts to struggle even more after hearing me. It’s been a couple of days and his hands are looking much much worse. He is currently gagged with a piece of cloth and pulled along by sort of cloth chain connected to his hands which are now in front instead of tied behind him. His once cool look with slick hair and sweater is ruined from being unable to fix anything. He looks haggard and a bit malnourished since others had to feed him.

She walks up and looks determined until the idea of actually killing him occurs. “I…He should die… just I… I don’t think I can just kill him…”

I can’t help but tempt her just a little bit. “But he would keep doing horrible things if you don’t. Look into his eyes” He’s glaring at us as hard as he can if looks could kill. The only reason he probably hasn’t attacked us yet is that he knows if he does it would no longer be the innocent Himiko that chooses his fate.

She looks very conflicted now looking between him and her BIM bag. “But… ending someones life that’s trying to kill us is different from one that’s just… that’s just defenseless…”

One last push. “Just like those girls were when he did that to them? How about this, let’s break his legs and stomp his crotch in. He won’t die, he just won’t be a threat to anyone anymore.” I don’t mention that he would eventually die from no one helping him with his injuries or feeding him. She doesn’t need to think about that part.

She looks a little conflicted before slowly almost robotically nodding. I spot a small smile at the idea of stomping his crotch in. This gets a reaction from Yoshioka though, he starts to try to run away pulling away on the rope as hard as he can. I move forward and give a kick to his legs knocking him over to the floor.

“Well, go get a big rock or something.” Everyone else is looking on in horror at the idea that we will just break his legs here and now. I give Yoshioka a quick kick to his head leaving him unconcious on the ground as Himiko robotically moves towards the shore. Meanwhile I’m tying off his legs so he won’t bleed out from anything breaking.

The middle-aged women speaks up. “This… This is barbaric you’re just going to torture him?”

I let out a sigh. “No no no, hes going to survive. Just his existence will be hell. It’s the least I can do for Miho.” This makes the others still back away a little bit further.

Kaguya looks at me terrified as I finish wrapping up his legs. On her board she says that an evil spirit made its way into me. Swaying my actions towards evil. I don’t really feel any different and Haru can’t see anything out in the white space. Maybe she can only see ghosts but misunderstands how they effect people?

“Well, there isnt much to do about it. Evil spirits? Was it? What do they do?” I ask Kaguya who refuses to be close to me.

She writes out ‘they control the person they inhabit making them crueler and driving their spirit towards hatred.’

“Ah theres a mistake though. I’m already cruel and hate people that have hurt me or mine. I would have recommended this regardless.” This makes Higuichi speak up.

“-sigh- just when I thought you had a good excuse that maybe it was one of these spirit things that made you so crazy. Maybe you were just so crazy to begin with and it’s like a demon trying to coerce the demon king to kill someone…” Higuichi avoids my eye contact when I look over at her.

“That’s just rude. I’m perfectly functional in a modern society.” I give Yoshioka a kick to the leg. Watching as he doesn’t even stir in his unconciousness meaning it’s gone numb a quick pulse check and his leg is properly secured. Moments later Himiko comes back holding a rock in her hands staring at it unsure what to do. She looks back and forth between the rock and Yoshioka repeatedly.

“Go ahead. It’s the only way to make sure he won’t do anything else right? Either that or putting him out of his misery.” The others all watch in a fascinated horror as Himiko sobs to herself as she brings the rock down on his leg with a sickening crunch.

“That…that was for Miho…” tears run down her face falling down on the body below her as she does her work.

She brings the rock down again on his other leg theres a crunch but not as loud.

“That was for…-gulp- that was for Yuki…” She pulls the rock up again hitting the same leg that hadn’t fully broken a loud crunch happens this time. “That…..Arisa.” she can hardly get words out at this point. She looks at the rock then at the body and moves it to the side.

“And this is for ruining all our lives…” She starts stomping him repeatedly in the crotch. There is a pop sound, and his body starts to thrash a bit.

“That’s enough Himiko that’s enough.” I move up not touching her but knowing I’m there with her. She turns and is sobbing with snot streaming down her face, ready to cry into someone but as she sees its me her hands shake as they look close to touching me. Until she forces herself forward and hugs. Crying but also shaking the entire time.

“Well, that’s enough of that.” I pat her head. Looking down at the mess of a man down below. Hes lost the ability to move his hands. His legs are bleeding and will likely not function even if he received medical aid right now. His crotch is also bleeding profusely but unlike his legs that I wrapped up to cut off blood flow nothing is stopping this from bleeding out. He’ll probably die after a while. I’ll just wait for the quest notification.

“Well that was… that was something let’s um, let’s get the others, we have a lot to discuss…” Amakusa speaks up. Himiko sobbing has apparently snapped people out of their stunned states. Togo and Higuichi also agree trying to get away from here quickly.

The two that brought Yoshioka here both look sick and snap out of it as well. Quickly trying to avoid the place.

As Higuichi and Togo leave I overhear her whispers. “Hes corrupting that young girl… she seemed rather normal besides hating men before…”

We just stand there for a while as Himiko lets it all out and I continue to pat her head and back letting her get it all out.

Eventually Yoshioka wakes up again and just starts grunting in pain. Unable to scream due to the cloth in his mouth and probably in so much pain to not be able to form coherent thoughts. We move out from there leaving him behind.

“You got him… He will never be able to hurt anyone else again. Now all that’s left is escaping the island.” She gives me a little nod.

“Then we can see about you meeting up with Miho… and maybe the others. Maybe the relationship is ruined maybe it’s just damaged a bit and needs some time. First let’s worry about surviving.” I guide her over to the others who are getting their BIM out of a storage area.