Staying up a bit late at night I look up some tips on how to help someone from abuse. I honestly feel out of depth doing this. Like killing a zombie or a person is one thing. Trying to help someone emotionally? The most Haru had to deal with in his life was some drama between the kids and leading groups. He left most of the support and stuff to the others to deal with. Saeko was really good with those types of things and Saya was a good logical mind that settled most of the other problems. So, I don’t have anything to really reference.

While thinking this I finally gave in, I looked up my old town.

It... It doesn’t even exist here. There is no Saeko or Saya. A load on my minds lifted but also, I feel sad knowing that I’ll never see them for myself even if we are strangers... It hurts for a bit. It makes sense I’ve put off doing it for 17 years but finally had a good excuse to maybe look for one of them. At least now I know… At least that means it’s probably not zombies.

The next day I pay attention to what Miho does, watching her flinch from others touch, I realize that I’ll need to avoid that. I notice she has a Btooom! Keychain so that’s a potential talking subject. God, I feel like a stalker, avoiding looking at her for a while is probably even less subtle though. I look away from her and see a lot of the girls in the class staring at me and then staring at Miho with a glare… Oops.

I guess I did sort of deny a lot of girls over my time here. I never really paid any attention to them. Suddenly going from no interest in any of them to a lot of interest in one girl that hasn’t done anything interesting and is kind of plain compared to a lot of them might cause a little friction… I screwed up again, didn’t I?

Two weeks pass.

Shes getting picked on now thanks to me, which makes me feel even worse about it. She took a few days off school after an especially bad incident that I didn’t hear about until the next day.

When she got back a few boys were waiting for her at the entrance. I happen to be nearby enough to overhear. “Look the little sluts back in school? You know if you’re looking to practiced, I might even pay you a bit after if your any good, you know?” One of the boys blocking her way looking down on her with a perverted smile. He starts to reach out for her arm.

“NO! DON’T TOUCH ME!” She pulls away violently stumbling back slightly unable to fully keep her balance. Fuck I’ve gotta do something this is my fault.

I run up towards them. “Hey! Leave her the fuck alone!”

“Oh, look the high and mighty Hitomi, gracing us with your presence. Here to save your tramp! Emi said how you had eyes for her. Maybe now she will learn who’s on top.” Shit so this is my fault. He looks back at Miho.

“Shes not mine shes not anyone’s she belongs to herself. So back the fuck off and let her move along or we will have problems.” Glaring down the guy. Hes got a decent build big and bulky but that doesn’t matter much when I have a full life of fighting for my life and real martial arts training to reference.

“Ha, our little baseball players gonna what throw a ball at me? You know what? Your face is pissing me off. Emi just keeps saying shit like Hitomi this, Hitomi that, maybe if your hand gets broken and you stop playing baseball then she’ll start singing my name instead.” He muscles up to me starting to look down at me.

“I have no idea who Emi even is. But I doubt that she would be interested in a dumbass like you all muscle and no brains. You’re not exactly the brightest stooge when you realize shes using you.” This pisses him off even more.

“Ha I’m gonna enjoy breaking your face. Then maybe see if your tramp wants to see what a man is like.” Miho is staring at him in horror zoning out. The bully is emboldened by her look and puffs up. Probably expecting me to fold before him and his friends.

“Hmm you went a tad too far I think.” I cheerfully reply to him before I kick out his legs sending him to the floor. His two friends still blocking the way just look in surprise as their friend just got knocked down.

“GAH! You fuck!” He starts getting up with anger in his eyes.

I don’t give him the chance to recover stepping on his back. I may only be 5ft 7 but I’m dense with muscle and carry around supplies everywhere with me in my backpack.

“GAH GET OFF ME!” He struggles and tries to reach for my foot pressing him down. I grab him by the wrist pulling it back. He lets out a hiss of pain as I pull back threatening to over extend his arm and dislocate it.

He starts to growl out and resist. “No no no none of that now. If you resist any more, I’ll just pull this out of socket. That’s a lot more painful than this.” See this THIS is easy. Helping a girl with her emotions? No that’s freaking hard to do. Beating the shit out of some kid that’s bigger than me? Striking fear into them? That I have practice with.

“Get…GET OFF!” Looking down at him the fear in his eyes. I rub the bottom of my shoe across his face leaving some dirt smeared on it. Looking down at him with a smile I let go and back up.

“Now leave her alone or next time I’ll bruise more than just your ego.” He gets up pissed off dusts himself off trying to look tough giving me a long look likely mentally thinking if it would be worth trying again. Before deciding its not and walking away.

“Tch not worth the effort.” He walks off trying to look cool.

“Sorry about that Tomiyo. I guess I got you into a bit of trouble. I didn’t mean for that to happen.” I back off from her to show I’m not going to do anything and start to walk off so that it’s not like I’m using this to force a conversation or wanting anything in return.

“You! ITS YOUR FAULT THEY ARE PICKING ON ME?” She yells at me from behind. I Jump slightly from the sudden yelling. Shit… I was hoping I could just walk away in the positive here. Turning back around I see tears coming from her eyes now.

“ALL OF THIS! SO WHAT? YOU CAN COME AND RESCUE ME? WAS IT ALL PART OF YOUR PLAN? I-I JUST WANTED A FUCKING NORMAL LIFE! WHY CAN’T PEOPLE JUST FUCKING LET ME LIVE MY LIFE HOW I WANT!” shes crying while screaming at me now. A few other people are watching from the classroom and halls.

“No no! I just I didn’t realize that the other girls might get jealous from the attention I was giving you. I’m sort of bad at the whole socializing thing.” I awkwardly look off avoiding her burning gaze.

“Yeah! I can tell! Now fuck off! They are all going to give me shit for being near you anyways I don’t need your FUCKING pity too.” She glares at me.

“Um are you interested though?” Immediately realizing that I phrased that wrong.

Her already red face turns into a snarl. “NO! I DON’T WANT YOU TO TOUCH ME!”

I sort of awkwardly rub my head starting to sort of shrink from the awkwardness. “That’s… That’s not what I meant. I wanted to know if you were interested in learning to defend yourself.”

This stops her. She just stares at me for a moment.

“I mean I’m probably not the best instructor you probably don’t want to ever see me again but if you want, theres a Dojo I go to that has spots available. I think it would be good if you learned to defend yourself too just in case, I’m not around you know?” I was going good until that last part seems to piss her off again but not as bad.

She continues to glare at me for a bit before nodding.

“Fine! But your still an idiot white knight. I don’t need your help I don’t want anyone’s help! They will just… They will just abandon you when you need them. Or are just using me so you can go right fuck off with your condescending pity.” She storms over to her desk which now has a couple of very crude insults written on it from some of the other girls in the class. A glare at her desk then back at me she sits with a harrumph.

“Well once we start getting you trained up you won’t need to rely on me or anyone else. Just kick their ass yourself!” I smile at her. She still looks upset but her mouth twitches slightly at this.

Three weeks pass

We start talking more, she opens up a bit begrudgingly. We train after school. I show her a bit of Karate and Taekwondo. I’ve got the most experience in the dojo besides the instructor, so I give tips being careful not to make any contact. She didn’t feel comfortable at the dojo after one of the instructors got a little too touchy for her liking while adjusting her form. So, I started teaching her after class instead at the public gym. I show her using myself and let her see the form. I tell her up or down or shift to let her slowly adjust until she gets it right. It’s a slow process but I can be patient, it helps that I have a lot of older life experience, I don’t want to move out of her comfort zone yet.

Taking her to the gym to give her something to attack seems to have helped her cool down a bit too. It’s been a good public place for us to train together. I noticed that despite working out constantly she always wears long sleeves and covers herself a lot. By the end of the workout shes a sweaty mess but I haven’t commented on it yet, scared of screwing up again. I offered to let her come over to my place since we’ve moved into a house since I was younger, and I have a gym room with a sandbag. She gave me an earful about the idea of going to a scum boys house and so it was decided we won’t do that.

Two months pass

“You’ve made a lot of progress! Here pretty soon you’ll be able to kick my ass!” It’s a lie but I don’t want to discourage her.

“Ha yeah right. I’ve seen you practice. No need to treat me like a child hmph” she puffs up her cheeks at me. It’s… It’s kind of cute.

“Hey, no need to look like that at me! Let’s just keep going. That asshole from when we first started can’t hold a candle to you now!” This brings an actual smile to her face, but it quickly gets wiped away.

“Hmph, I guess. Anyways, what are you doing after this?…” she looks away a bit embarrassed.

“Ohhh? Whats this? Is Tomiyo blushing?” I start teasing her.

“SHUT UP! Like I would be interested in a guy! Besides… I told you to call me Miho…” She puffs her cheeks again looking away.

“Ha right right my mistake. Well, I was just going to go home and play some Btooom!. Wanna join me online?” This gets a slight smile. I was so focused on fixing her at first that I didn’t consider just acting naturally around her. Give her the space she needs no contact and careful wordage but overall don’t treat her like an object that will break in the wind. Everyone around her is either too careful or callus she just wanted a bit of normal.

Several weeks pass.

We were resting after an intense workout just laying outside in the grass staring up at the sky.

“You know… I’m… I’m a monster…” after practice shes been quite the last couple days. Going through the motions but shes getting eaten up by something inside that she hasn’t told me about yet. Shes looked conflicted about it for awhile but shes finally deciding to speak up about it.

“Naa you aren't, you’re not nearly good enough at martial arts to be a monster yet!” I smile over at her.

“SHUT UP! That’s not what I meant… I… I killed a girl…Himiko…” Oh? Wasn’t she also involved in the incident from before?

“What do you mean you killed her?” I speak in a gentle voice now sitting up on the ground near her.

“I… We… My friends and I after… After it happened. We had this slip of paper… It asked for you to nominate someone to disappear.” I heard about those. I got one in the mail soon after I started hanging out with Miho. I haven’t done anything with it I assumed it was just junk mail if not for something else I got with it.

Second quest in Chain quest: Keep letter to recommend someone for disappearing

This popped up after I got it. The reward I got for cheering her up was a bracelet. It took a bit to figure out what it does. Essentially, it’s a extradimensional storage item. It has one storage slot able to carry any one item able to be held in one hand. With a mental flick I can have a knife drawn and ready to throw. So, this must be the next stage of that chain quest.

“I got one of those too! Do you think it’s real?” She looks a bit surprised that I got one too.

“Ye-Yes its real… Recently I received the money it promised.”

Thinking back to the note. It essentially asked have you ever had anyone you want to disappear? Then it offers 100,000 yen if you sign someones name. It has a deadline of the end of this school year to get the form in.

“So, you think it’s real since you actually received the money for it?” I hold out my hand to let her reach out for it if she wants or not if she doesn’t.

She stares at it for awhile looking at the grass we are laying in.

“Yes… I… I killed my friend… I was so mad at her… While While it was happening… She was the one that introduced us to the band… She left to get snacks… while she was gone… they were really nice at first. Passing out drinks and laughing… I loved the band so much… I had the biggest crush on the singer going in… We were so distracted we didn’t realize what was happening…” She wipes her eyes a bit, this is obviously very hard for her to tell me. Her hand finds mine and squeezes hard.

“I’m here for you. It will never happen again. Continue if you want or stop for now If you can’t.” Wincing slightly at how tightly shes squeezing my hand. I don’t voice it though since It’s been a huge leap in our relationship that shes able to touch me without recoiling. This is also the first time shes told me what happened after months of knowing each other.

“No no its… its important you hear this. Its important someone knows… knows that I’m a monster too… Important you know that I’m… that I’m broken…” She swallows down the sobs and continues her story.

“They they grabbed me when I started feeling woozy… I I was dragged into the back room…. I could hear the other girls… They were being beaten and and I could see them being touched… I tried to fight back. I clawed at the floor, the doorframe. My nails scraping at anything I could reach for.” She looks at the nails of her other hand like they betrayed her. Quivering while staring at them.

Shes sobbing harder now.

“That’s when I saw her come back. She didn’t realize anything was going on until she saw our friends beaten and used on the floor. When I heard her I… I felt a bit of hope in my mind there was this chance that she would help. I screamed I tried to get to her with all my strength. I-I called out for her… I screamed for her to help me! To help US!” she starts shouting… My hand hurts a bit considering how hard shes holding it. Her knuckles white with her grip.

“She she ran away. It took hours before the police to arrive. By then… by then it was already too late. They already got what they wanted from us… I’m I’m damaged.” She looks down now.

“You’re not damaged! You’re still you! What happened was horrible. But you’re the you I got to know. You’re the you that works out with me and laughs at dumb jokes. Theres nothing damaged about you.” She looks embarrassed at this sniffing in a bit of snot.

Traumatizing content

“No… Its its more then that I mean…” She gulps. “I mean I’m damaged…” She raises her sleeve a bit and there are long scars and jagged shapes that look a little bit like letters.

“I… I was able to take a plan B pill.. but they did more to me… They they marked me… They laughed at me saying that I’ll always remember… Remember their touch when I look in a mirror… That since I’m one of their biggest fans, I should get their signatures somewhere that I’ll always be able to see.” Shes sobbing now. My head runs through everything I can do for this. If… I could take the treatment skill again? It may take awhile but the level 75 milestone last life could remove scars and help damaged tissues.

End to traumatizing content

For now though I need to be here for her. “Those scum… you’re still not damaged though. You’re still you no matter what happened.” I reach out to touch the scar, but she pulls away finally letting my hand out of its death grip like it was on fire.

“I… I’m sorry… Just I Please don’t touch me…” She looks sad at this, but I can see the conflicting emotions playing on her face.

“Its fine… I understand, take as much time as you need.” I pull the rest of my body away. Eventually after waiting for a while in silence her hand slowly snakes its way across the grass holding back on to mine. She looks a bit annoyed but also conflicted about it all.

Figuring that shes calmed down a little bit again. I start it back up. “You were saying you killed your friend though?” That startles her.

“Ye-Yes… well after it all happened… we were all so mad at her no… I was so mad at her for leaving us there. I know it’s not her fault but deep inside I can’t help but blame her… Not only was she the one that invited us, but nothing happened to her! She ran away while I begged her to save me…” I squeeze her hand. She gets surprised by realizing that I finally squeezed back.

“SO…so I wrote her name on the sheet. I… I think I killed her… I was just… I was so mad at her! I’ve calmed down a bit since then… realized some things about it all, but… but even now I can’t forgive her. But that doesn’t mean I want her to die. Shes still the girl that I grew up with… I was just mad at her and wanted her to know I was. So, like I said… I’m a monster, I killed my best friend for something that’s not her fault and I can’t even look myself in the face anymore. Do i even deserve to be happy?” She looks into my eyes. She looks so scared, sad and... defeated.

“Want me to save her?” She looks at me a series of emotions playing out. At first confusion at what I said. Then fear as she realizes what I might do then utterly mortified.

“NO! Don’t leave me too… I… I may be upset with you sometimes… You may be an idiot that for some reason decided to talk to me. But…” She swallows some tears. “But you’re the one that’s been here for me… My parents just kept trying to hug me… they kept trying to keep me inside. Telling me everything will be okay in sweet little lies. It was all so… So, suffocating! You were the one that was there that taught me how to defend myself. You waited and never asked what happened… You waited for me to come forward about it… Dad can’t look at me anymore without getting upset and mom is so worried that when I mentioned learning Taekwondo at a dojo after school, she gave me this…” She pulls out a stun gun. “She also told me to call every hour, or she will call someone to come check in on me…” So that’s why she needs to run off to her phone every once in a while. “I…I already killed my childhood friend… I don’t want you to die too.” She looks at me with tears.

“I wouldn’t die. You’ve known me for a while now. I’m good at everything I do! So, I just need to find her and get her back, right?” She looks at me with a conflicted look.

“I’ll make sure you don’t become a murderer. I’ll look for her and get her back, okay?”

Chain Quest: complete!

Reward: Upgraded wrist band storage space by one!

New Chain Quest: Sign your name on your form and nominate yourself.

Story quest Updated!

Save Himiko and yourself from the island by collecting 16 chips

Interesting looks like I’m going to have to save her now. If I want to move on to the next world without damaging my soul.

“Remember how I said I had that form?” Her eyes widen when she sees what I’m planning.

“NO!” She tackles me. The first time shes ever really touched me. Her arms are shaking tears running down her face. I’m more surprised than I am upset that shes attacking me.

“NO NO NO! YOU WONT DIE BECAUSE OF ME TOO!” Shes put on a good amount of muscle since she started working out with me but shes still pretty light. I lift her off. Tumbling about.

I just look up at at her “It’s my choice it’s not yours… It’ll probably take me a bit to get her but I promise I’ll fix it all.” I smile at her. Causing her to scowl down at me.

“STUPID WHITE KNIGHT ASSHOLE!” She hits the ground as I shift her weight off and knock her onto the ground getting up quickly and running off.

“Yup! Now if you don’t mind, I’ve gotta go plan some stuff. I’ll see you tomorrow~” I run away as she desperately tries to chase after me to change my mind.

That night I plan for the rescue.