We walked for a while talking about what either of our groups had found out. Apparently when she landed, she found a group of three men. One of them was the fat guy from earlier another was a middle-aged man and the last was a French commando. The French commando apparently killed the middle-aged man which made her, and the fat guy run away. She ran away from him as well after he started to be a bit creepy, but he managed to find her.

She’s had quite the start, running into danger right away then being chased down. I feel kind of bad for her that I couldn’t land closer to her start. I told her about my group, keeping Yoshioka a secret as a sort of present just mentioning him as a betrayer. She seemed happy to join a group that had another girl and figured that Togo might be okay.

Using radar, I notice two groups of two. One nearby at the bottom of the cliff away from us and the two ahead of us coming from the direction of Higuichi and Togo. Damn there’s another group this close.

“Himiko throw a gas BIM off the cliff in that direction.” I point off towards where the stranger group is. She fumbles for a second a bit surprised by the sudden command. She finally manages to take out the correct BIM and tosses it off into the direction I pointed. Leaning over the side I can see the guy with brown hair and a black shirt from the plane is running away from the mist. Slightly further away in a river is an overweight guy searching the dead fat guys floating body. I use search to see if I can find the glint of any chips and see the small glint of light coming from two spots on the fat guy. Huh it must have leveled up. I can’t really make out where they are on his person, but I can definitely see a lot better now while actively searching. Shaking my head to put that thought away for later I turn my attention to the guy moving towards us away from the gas.

“Alright slight change of plans, let’s go take them on.” I start to head down. Himiko follows me but seems a bit scared. I pulse my Radar twice detecting Togo and the rest coming my way still. They fire their radar off twice in response and I move between the pulses in the direction I’m heading. Giving them an idea of what direction to head to get to me.

Down below the brown-haired guy looks up at us a look of concern on his face after he feels the double pulse from two sources.

Hes waving his hands in the air wildly to get our attention. He yells to us to grab our attention. “WAIT I’M NOT HOSTILE! I DON’T PLAN ON PLAYING THIS GAME! I JUST WANT TO LEAVE THIS ISLAND ALIVE!” He’s separated from his group member so he’s probably desperate.

Seeing that we are continuing to move towards him he panics again before yelling again. “CAN YOU PLEASE PUT YOUR BIM DOWN AND LISTEN TO ME I’M NOT EVEN PLAYING THIS GAME?!!”

“Look your friend already has two chips and you clearly have two satchels of BIM so you are clearly playing the game too!” He looks confused at this then looks back towards where the fat guy was lost in thought.

“FUCK! I uh, I didn’t know about them? HE LIED TO ME?” He seems to yell this as more of a question than an answer.

Himiko prepares an impact BIM slowly drawing if from her bag.

He takes a half step back before trying to calm us down again. “THOSE IN THE WRONG ARE THE PEOPLE WHO SENT US HERE! THE TYRANNOS JAPAN GAME COMPANY! WE SHOULDN’T BE CONTROLLED BY THEM AND ACTUALLY PLAY THIS TYPE OF KILLING GAME! ARE YOU WILLING TO JOIN ME AND TRY TO FIND A WAY TO LEAVE THIS ISLAND?!” Hes still yelling. He’s got guts and a soft heart. I might as well make use of that.

Himiko looks over to me. I look at his waist two BIM bags.

“IF YOU THROW YOUR BAGS AWAY THEN SURE! HOW ABOUT WE BOTH THROW OUR BOMBS TO THE SIDES AT THE SAME TIME THEN MEET IN THE MIDDLE FOR A CONVERSATION!?” I yell out. Himiko gives me a questioning look. “Don’t worry I’ve got this. Hes an unknown and I feel like I can handle this.”

He nods and puts his bags in his hands I do the same and so does Himiko. We make our way down the cliff side before coming into distance of one another. We all throw them to the sides at the same time. The other guy visibly relaxes after seeing us toss our BIM away. This idiot doesn’t even consider for a moment that we would carry them in some place other than our satchel.

We start to walk towards each other. Himiko stays slightly behind me likely getting ready to jump away if necessary.

“I’m glad to see you were open to reason!” He starts to come up.

A broad smile on my face I introduce myself. “Hey! My name is Shimada Hitomi nice to meet you. Don’t mind Himiko here she had a bad experience with a man on the island already.” The name makes the guy stop for a moment and stare at Himiko gawking at her. His eyes wander her all over.

I snap my fingers a few times. “Okay creep that’s enough gawking shes 17 arent you a bit old to be gawking at schoolgirls?” He looks to me with surprise. “UH It’s not like that um” his face burns red “The name’s just familiar, I use to play with a girl on Btooom! By the same uh username…” This gets some interest from Himiko as well. That’s too bad since he needs to die.

I let out a sigh. “Well what’s your name?” I get within arm distance of him now. I just need to get ready to stab his throat.

He seems almost surprised that I’m asking for his name. He’s probably not use to socializing with people in person. “Me? Um I’m Ryōta Sakamoto” This makes Himikos eyes light up slightly. Really? They know each other online? Oh well.

Himiko’s voice cracks slightly as she forces out a question. “Like the number ten spot on the btooom game leaderboard?” This could be rough, he might have more knowledge about the games mechanics but is probably a shut in with no real combat skills.

Hearing that question, he smiles brightly and rubs his neck. He looks slightly embarrassed but also proud. “Yeah! I’m glad to see someone at least recognizes my name! Are you the same Himiko I played with?” Hes ignoring me by this point staring intently at Himiko with a bit of a fervor. His eyes not staring into hers but looking at her chest. Himiko takes a half step behind me not answering him.

I step forward in between them further. “Well, nice to meet you.” I put out my left hand for him to shake, interrupting his stares. He frowns for a moment before smiling firmly grabbing my hand. I suddenly grip hard and tug him towards me as I summon my knife into my right-hand stabbing for his throat. His eyes light with panic as hes ripped forward. He brings up his right hand and catches my dagger with the center of his palm stabbing right through eliciting a hiss of pain.

His face morphs into anger as the pain wakes him from the shock. “GAH FUCK WHAT THE HELL!” he struggles getting out of my grasp backing up. Himiko quickly runs back for her BIM while I pursue after him.

Unfortunately, despite my speed attribute and good physical fitness his legs are much longer than mine and the rocky area isnt letting me move as quickly because of it. Gah Haru never had to deal with this shit. He was tall and could just bound about I have to fucking take like 3 steps for every two this guy does.

Looking over his shoulder he screams to me. “COME ON! WE COULD HAVE HELPED EACH OTHER!” He’s gaining more distance now, getting some lucky steps on the slippery rocks. Right as he reaches his BIM, I slow down a bit preparing for him to attack by taking out my shield BIM. Rather than throw them at us, he just continues to run. SHIT! I was hoping he would stand and fight! Instead, he’s just gaining even more of a lead.

I put the BIM away with a flick and take the knife back out. I try to keep pace with him carefully aiming the throw. I aim for his to get a hit on his spine but I slip a bit on the rocks right as I throw it. Making the otherwise perfect throw wing him in the shoulder instead. He keeps running and makes it into the forest out of view. I have no BIM and my spare knifes are in my bags rather than a quick slot. Hah, damn it, the first victim to escape. I’m shaken by my resigned defeat by an explosion rocking the side of the forest.

BOOOOM!

Looking back Himiko had attempted to throw an impact BIM after him but it fell short and landed just outside the clearing. I’m just glad I stopped chasing when I did or I might have been there. “Darn I’m not used to throwing things like that…” she looks a bit disappointed that she missed.

I chuckle slightly. “Uh good try, next time try not to throw any BIM in my direction though alright? It wasn’t a total failure though. At least his dominant hand was cut open. I also winged him in the shoulder so regardless of which hand he throws with he won’t be able to move as well as he normally would.” She looks a bit embarrassed about the throw.

She looks off at the direction the man ran into the forest. “He said his name was Sakamoto… I… In btooom! I married another player named that online… was that really him?”

I shrug “Probably? I mean does it really make a difference? You knew each other online but hes also an older guy that’s looking at you like fresh meat. If hes on this island that means he probably did something in his real life that made someone hate him enough to nominate him.” I try to pat her on the shoulder, but she cringes away. “DON’T! Sorry… just just give me some space.” It seems her near death experience left more of an impact then I thought.

Backing up and giving her some space. “Sorry about that, I’ll respect your boundaries. I’ll avoid touching you. We need to meet up with the group though.” Sending out a radar pulse I feel the two coming up near us.

“HEY! TOGO Higuichi!” They come out of the trees. That’s when I realize that Togo has a bloody nose and Yoshioka is missing. I frown looking between the two.

First turning my attention towards Togo. “Where is Yoshioka? Is he lagging behind or something?” Togo looks a little uneasy and so does Higuichi. When Himiko hears that Yoshioka was here she starts shaking in her spot and stares off into the distance. Fidgeting for her BIM.

Higuichi awkwardly coughs before speaking up. “Well… about that, soon after you sent the radar pulse, we assumed you were in danger so we started to hurry. He got up close to us and shouldered me towards the chasm. Togo reached out and grabbed me before I fell in, but Yoshioka kicked him in the face before running off laughing… It’s why it took so long to get here.” She looks really nervous while saying this. Looking off to the side while trying to avoid eye contact. As soon as I move closer to them, they flinch slightly. Are they that afraid of me?

Shaking my head slightly to try to disarm them a bit. “Hmm this is bad but could be worse. I mean hes disarmed and probably doesn’t even realize that hes probably lost use of both of his hands by now.” This makes Higuichi and Himiko look at me weirdly. Himiko no longer fumbling at her BIM nervously.

I look at Higuichi with a curious look. “Why do you think I tied his hands extra tight behind his back? It’s so even if he escaped, he wouldn’t be able to put up a fight. At worst he can kick someone and if he removes the ties hes likely to die.” I did more than just put a turnaquet on him. His wrists will be heavily damaged and with what I carved into him I doubt anyone would trust him if they see the scars. He's likely going to be on his own and disabled on a deadly island full of komodo dragons and people killing each other to survive. “I wanted to give Himiko here a chance at revenge against him, but I guess we will just have to hunt him down. Even then it shouldn’t be that big of a deal he doesn't even have a chip so his life has no meaning anymore. Show me to where you guys lost him.” I walk past them, scaling up the slight slope we came down. Himiko gets helped up by Higuichi after Togo gets shrugged off.