Hmm now that I’m thinking of quests I’ve helped ‘collect’ a couple more chips.

I should probably put in another two of my points.

Name: Shimada Hitomi

Titles: Prodigy

Age: 17 243 days

Carried over skills: Rebirth, Mindscape.

Health status 100/100

Afflictions: Annoyed, slight dehydration.

Current skills

Throwing lvl 88 (Inborn skill) Martial Arts lvl 68 Stealth lvl 49 Search lvl 49 Treatment lvl 15 Disease Resistance lvl 90

Attributes: 2 points

Strength: 10

Speed: 11

Endurance: 10

Resilience: 10

Thought speed: 11

Perception: 10

My skills are growing nicely, disease resistance is nearly maxed out again. I’ll probably need to save that skill at some point. It’s such a useful one that’s likely saved me from catching some weird crap from here too.

Choosing where to put the two points is easy enough. Thanks to martial arts I don’t need as much resilience to combat the strain of higher speed. Haa I might as well be the one to test out the limits for the strain based on the reduction. I place one point into endurance and another into speed. Most of the other attributes won’t help me at the moment. Confirming my choices I feel a little rush of energy the feeling of being able to suddenly run for another several hours is intoxicating.

While basking in this feeling I’m shaken from my thoughts by Togo. “Hey Hitomi? Are you okay? You’re spacing out a bit?” Shaking my head to concentrate on what he said I nod to him with a smile.

“Yeah yeah I’m fine was just thinking about home.” Higuichi gives me a look with a frown. Stupid lie detecting ability.

“-sigh- Okay that’s what I was thinking about at first then I thought about how to improve myself for the battles to come. It’s always good to understand your weaknesses after all.” She nods at that smiling smugly. That lying detecting ability is getting annoying it’s too useful not to have help though.

We travel for a bit farther than before. I have a bit more pep in my step thanks to the bit of speed and endurance, much to everyone elses annoyance.

Higuichi is panting while following behind. “Gah kid! Not all of us are teenagers! We need a break after a long march!” We are less than an hour off from the radio tower now. I just want to go on a run though… It’s probably not smart but I kind of want to just get there.

I’m starting to feel a little impatient now. “But we are so close! What if she’s already there? The longer she is alone the more exposed she will be.” I look towards the radio. Off in the distance I can see the fat man from the airplanes frame making his way up to the radio tower.

“Besides it looks like theres already someone there I can probably get there quick and pick up another chip while waiting for you guys to catch up.”

Higuichi shakes her head trying to catch her breath “Well -hah- I’m sure -hah- you can handle it. -hah-.” She wipes her forehead and leans against a tree. “Besides if she’s a friend of yours I’m sure she’ll end up being some scary killer or something. Togo what do you think?” He chuckles at that and waves me off.

Chuckling it off as I continue to move. “Ha yeah right, the girl probably won’t even stomach killing a normal person.” I pick up a rock and toss it around a bit feeling fidgety trying to get rid of some of this energy.

Finally deciding on what to do I turn to them as they are all gasping leaning on trees. “Well, I’ll meet you all up there. Have a fun hike, make sure to watch over this fellow.” I smack Yoshioka on the side of his face a little. He shoots me a glare but stays silent.

Turning my eyes to Togo. “Even though he’s been… disarmed he could still be a bit of a threat.” I smile at him, he gives me a half toothy grin covered in old blood he tries to say something through the cloth gag but can’t get it out.

“Haha well just make sure he doesn’t hurt himself either it would be a shame if he did something stupid like try to free his hands at this point.” Togo winces a bit at the mention since he knows what I did, and it’s been about 16 hours since I applied the tourniquets to his arms. His fingers are turning fully purple from the lack of oxygenated blood by now. Even if he isn’t killed by the poison of his own dead blood, he will likely lose most if not all ability to use his arms.

With a final wave goodbye, I break off into a light jog. “See you all in a bit!” I check my surroundings with search and the homing BIM I don’t want to use radar considering I’d now be outnumbered if I ran into anyone. As I close the distance with the tower, I see something annoying.

Sure, enough right as I get up there Himiko is being assaulted by the fat man I noticed previously. He’s on top of her doing something as she screams for help. God damn it, I leave her alone for one day and shes already getting attacked? It’s not her fault I suppose but I’ll have to keep a close eye on her after I save her.

Hurrying my pace to get a better shot on the guy. It’s clearly the guy from in front of Himiko in line on the plane. I see him start to pull down his pants and grab at her skirt.

I hear his voice a half yell in excitement and crying. “I’m going to stick it in from the side of your panties! I love to do it like this! Uhuhuhuhuuh!” The fat man is cackling over her. He’s so distracted he doesn’t even see me approaching from in front of him. I finally get within range and throw the dagger followed by a quick second throw after quick grabbing a spare from my bracelet.

While the first one spins once twice thrice before slamming into his eye. It’s quickly followed by a second into his other eye. I feel the mental ding of a level up for throwing as well from that. His form seems to sway on it’s knees for a moment, like it’s body doesn’t realize it’s died yet.

Getting closer I see Himiko has a BIM in an outstretched hand holding it up in the air. Looks like it’s got a timer on it slowly ticking down from 10.

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!

Right as I get up to her the fat guy slumps down on her pinning her down.

“HIMIKO HES DEAD TURN OFF YOUR BIM!” I come running up as fast as I can.

“GET OFF GET OFF GET OFF! Wait hes… hes dead?” Her voice at first screaming ends in a croak as her hand holding the timed BIM falters and it falls to the ground.

I jump for it and grab it. Storing it with one second left on the timer... I wait for a moment nothing seems to have happened to my bracelet. I know from experience that time doesn’t freeze in there… So, if I take it out would it be an explosion or would it just be all the fragments?

While I’m distracted, she begins crying on the ground still stuck under the fat man that’s now bleeding on her from the wounds in his head. I get up from my prone position and start moving to help her out.

“Alright let’s get this fat bastard off of ya alright? Alright” I start to lug him off hes a heavy fellow easily over twice my weight through I am kind of small.

Once hes off of her I can’t help but see Himiko’s face is covered in tears and snot as she bawls on the ground. “Uh hey… are you um doing okay? You may want to cover up a bit.” I look away as I realize her chest is still completely exposed.

I feel a kick at the back of my leg not enough to knock me over just enough to feel it. “PERVERT! ALL MEN ARE ARE SCUM!” She keeps crying. Taking off my sweater I hold it out behind me she takes it. After a moment I feel like it’s safe to turn around.

“Eh I’d like to think it’s more just people are awful, aren’t they?” she nods

“He…He tried… He tried to rape me… Like… like Miho and the others were…I’d I I I’d Rather die than let THAT happen to me after everything!” That’s some conviction at least. Looks like she was ready to kill herself with that BIM if things had kept going forward…

She’s sitting down clutching her knees. I lean down next to her. “Well, no need to die. I’ve got you now. I’m going to make sure you get home alright.” She’s still avoiding my eyes looking off in the distance.

I look down and shes covered herself up a bit now. I suppose I should apologize for covering her in blood.

“Sorry about the blood. It was just the fastest way.”

She shakes her head rapidly. “No… I understand… I he um he had to die… If If you hadn’t then I would have…” She looks at the ground where the BIM would have landed and searches around for it panicked then questioningly.

I get her attention “I got rid of it don’t worry.” She gives me an odd look.

Deciding I need to change subjects away from the missing bomb. “Well, it’s good to have a resolve to kill. While on my way to find you, I met a group that is working together to get all four of us off the island.” I offer her a hand up, but she gets up on her own. She takes a few steps back from me obviously still a little weary of being close to someone.

I just act like nothing had happened. “Want to go meet them with me? Theres another girl in the group and a present for you~”

She goes through a few different emotions. “A present? A fucking present!? WHAT KIND OF PRESENT COULD I WANT HERE! I NEARLY JUST DIED! WHY THE HELL WOULD I WANT A PRESENT!” I guess she did just go through a bit of a traumatic moment. Being too casual might be bad.

She throws a bit of a fit going to the side and picking up a suitcase and gathering up her BIM.

“I’m sure you’ll like the present don’t worry its nothing weird. Also, whats with the suitcase?” It looks like it’s made out of metal and looks very out of place.

“There was a supply drop last night I found it. There’s a few medical supplies and some food inside too.” She clutches it a bit tighter to her chest. “It’s mine though since I found it…” She looks at me somewhat confused still about my comment on the present. No longer as mad just deep in thought.

“Well, that’s fine we have our own food so far as well. Also, for the present I just ran into an old friend and decided to wrap him up for you.” I reply while offering her some of the fat guy’s shirt to wipe off some of the blood.

She looks massively relieved and takes the slightly less bloody piece of shirt. After searching through the dead body, I kick it off the side into the river below. “Oh, thank goodness you got him? I was a bit scared since I met him but as long as you got him, we should be safe…”

I didn’t realize she had noticed him on the plane. “Yeah, he actually wasn’t that hard to take down. He was already half dead when I got to him.” She looks a bit surprised when I said this but still looks pleased anyways.

“Let’s go meet with the group, they should be coming from this way!” I start leading her towards everyone after taking out the fat guys chip and letting Himiko have it and his BIM’s.

“Protect these well alright Himiko?” I hand her two chips one from the fat guy and one from Yoshioka as a nice little gift before she even knows where it’s from. She gives a tight nod. She looks lost in thought a bit as we continue towards the group.

We walk in silence for a bit at a slow pace. Himiko breaks it likely just wanting to say something. “So… how did you meet Miho?”

I look up at the sky for a moment and think about that. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? “Ahhh well I was never the best at socializing in school… One day I got knocked out of my funk and noticed a girl staring off into space… I saw that and wanted to see if I could maybe try to cheer her up.” I chuckle to myself. “I ended up not only making it worse for her, but I also pissed her off haha. A couple of days later she was getting picked on and I stopped the guys doing it. I offered to help her get some martial arts lessons to protect herself. She agreed and we started spending some more time together. We ended up doing practice after school most days and grew a bit closer because of it.” I smile thinking about it. I’ll be home soon it should only take a couple of days to get back at this rate. Hell if I wasn’t saving Himiko too I’d already have enough chips after killing the other two.

Himiko lets out a small smile at the story. “I’m glad shes not as sad anymore… After everything that happened… It’s just… everything was just falling apart… After she yelled at me that day in the rain…I I just escaped from the world for a bit…” She looks on a bit dazed after admitting to shutting in.

“Things aren’t perfect she still has moments where she struggles even now. But shes doing much better now than when we first met… She started to really regret that day in the rain. She… she got depressed and thought she had killed her childhood friend. She may be upset with you. She may not talk to you for a long time, but shes never stopped caring for you despite everything. She thought the letter was fake and just got so upset with you that they signed your name. It was a traumatic experience and it’s still left its mark on her now. So, I can’t exactly blame her to be upset with everything that was involved with it. But she never meant for you to go off to your death.” She winces a bit at the mention of leaving a mark.

She cries a bit more and theres silence for the rest of our walk.