《Splintered Soul》Chapter 60 Btom! Part 22: Hot Cup of Tea.
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Everyone calms down a bit, everyone is pointedly avoiding looking at me and Himiko though. Amakusa pours us some tea they got in some mugs they found around the buildings.
Everyone is here now including Torio.
It seems like it’s time to start the discussion. “So now that everyone is here.”
“What about the old hag? She isnt here yet?” Shibata nods to that as well but Torio looks surprised.
“Well, that’s exactly why we should all discuss this. While everyone was busy earlier. Someone choked her to death.” This makes all three suddenly get up and exclaim loudly.
“Are there any suspects?” Torio speaks up acting scared looking around at everyone like they might jump up and bite him.
“The best subject is you actually Torio. Where were you? Everyone else was together or those two went and wrestled down Yoshioka. Kiyoshi’s hands are too small and would have cut into the neck from strangling the old lady. So, it’s just you.” I stare at him for a bit taking a sip from my mug.
He laughs it off. “What are you talking about? After I finished putting my camera on the charger I went to go meet up with Soga and Shibata, I helped them take down Yoshioka. They should be able to mention that I was there very quickly after leaving but had to go start prepping to make food.” They both nod. I guess he helped in subduing Yoshioka after the other two got hit.
“Okay but the person that did this wouldn’t have needed long. She’s old after all. It would only take crushing her throat and leaving to kill die. Without much of a struggle. Heck whoever did this didn’t even take the time to remove her chip.” I point out.
“How are we sure it wasn’t someone else you guys brought with you? Another member sneaking in and killing one of ours.” He starts to get angry at this point jamming his finger towards me and my group.
“Because she had no defensive wounds, she probably knew her attacker. Not to mention if we were in this to win like that why would we have more than four people in our group? Only four people can win this after all.” He seems to become a bit more desperate looking to the others to defend him.
“So, unless Shibata and Soga worked together to kill her, or Kiyoshi has someone hiding with her. It’s probably you.” His eyes stare around at everyones gaze directed towards him.
“NO! NO! it’s not like this… It’s supposed to be EASY I prepared for so so long… But… I won’t let it stop me here!” He pulls out a flame BIM. It’s easy enough to recognize with four sections. The BIM likely works through sending out a gout of napalm. I definitely don’t have the ability to survive that nor would Himiko or Kaguya.
“NOW nobody move! If-if you do everyone here goes up in flames! Not even your shield will protect you from flames.” He stares at the group as he starts to back up. The others looking a bit scare now. Interesting so there are limits on the shield I’ll tuck that information away for later.
“I’m going to get the fuck out of here. Just… give me your extra chips and I will go!” His gaze lands on my group.
“Ah so you recognized us. That’s a little awkward. You guys already frisked us; we don’t have any. Another group stole them from us on the beach…” I try to appeal to him. I gently finish off my tea thumbing the ceramic coffee cup in my hand a bit.
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“BULLSHIT! You have multiple types of BIM in your bags. I know, I checked. You all have killed at least 5 people. You should have enough chips…” He looks around at everyone here. Theres enough people here for one person to go home alone with some extra.
“Now that I’m looking… you’re enough for me to leave anyways… I just have to make sure I get 7 of you…” He turns to run towards the door tossing the BIM backwards as he starts to open it.
I throw the ceramic mug at the BIM in the air. My rapid increase in mental processing speed allows for a more perfect aim. A spiraling shot with the mug top open towards the BIM.
The flaming oil type shoots out napalm which burns 800 to 1,200 °C (1,470 to 2,190 °F) little known fact about ceramic once it’s been properly treated. It’s extreamly heat resistant at least so far as it would crack before it would melt. Common ceramics include aluminum oxide, melting point (MP) 3720˚F, Titania 3245˚F, Chromia 3450˚F, and Zirconia (calcia stabilized) around 4870˚F and Tungsten Carbide/Cobalt 5200˚F. Which means that rather than melt through the cup it will spray out the only way it can…
“GAAAAAAHHHH” The cup spinning in a spiral with the lip facing towards Torio forces the liquid to splash only towards him rather than the rest of the room. It’s angled in such a way that when the force of the napalm shot hits it inside it launches into the ground next to his feet rather than being shot back to us. Causing the contents to burn him even more.
“LET’S GET OUT OF HERE! EVERYTHING IS ON FIRE!” Togo starts leading people out. I hang to the back and on the way out I notice that Shibata the older man is still stuck staring at the flames in utter panic. I choose this moment to get rid of him. Walking up behind I push him forward into the 1300 degree flames him letting out a yelp of surprise as he falls face forward. Togo looks at me wincing but stays silent as we are the last two to make it out of there.
“Ha haa haa. Is that everyone?” Amakusa speaks out to the group trying to get a head count.
“I think so? What the hell was that throw? Hitomi? How the hell did you do that?” Soga speaks out from the side staring at me with aw.
“Oh well I was a baseball player before. So, I have a good aim. I also knew that ceramic has high melting temps, my goal was to just throw it to direct the majority of it away from us. I didn’t realize that it would completely direct everything away and towards the other wall.” Higuichi is staring at me in utter horror but that slight lie at the end there makes her twitch slightly.
“I won’t even be surprised anymore. Hes utterly ridiculous.” Higuichi just throws her hands in the air.
“Where’s Shibata?” Kiyoshi speaks up finally realizing we were short someone. The building behind us slowly burning more and more.
“I don’t think he made it… he was staring deeply into the fire. We tried shaking him out of it, but he wasn’t moving so we left him behind.” I look at the group. Considering I just saved everyone my input has some weight. Kaguya looking at me hides behind Amakusa and Higuichi gives me a look since she knows I’m lying but doesn’t speak up.
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“That’s a real shame… He was kind of nice you know? But it’s not like there was much else that could have been done. It just means more food for the rest of us now that theres less mouths to feed.” Kiyoshi speaks up with a bit of a smile. Only four of the original eight people are left. We only need to get rid of the women and Soga. Amakusa would never fight back unless we intended to fight Kaguya but since my goal is to give her the chips, he won’t help but he also won’t fight us back.
“About that, does everyone have their BIM? Some items were left behind in the room before it caught fire any supplies in there?” Himiko speaks up. Making everyone realize that’s where we left the food supplies. Even I wince a bit at that since I hadn’t considered it in the heat of the moment.
“Shiiiiit all the food is in the case in there! We need to get it somehow…” Kigyoshi is looking around wildly then her eyes land on me. “ITS ALL YOUR FAULT! Why not just let him think he got away with it until later? Confront him when he’s not expecting it or some shit! Now we have no food, so you better be willing to pay for it!” She starts yelling at me blaming me for the loss of supplies.
I raise my hands placidly to calm her down. “Relax okay? We got an ice BIM from out care package. It should negate the fires a bit, right?” Either that or superheat a cold BIM and cause an explosion not sure which but considering the chemicals involved at least I don’t assume any toxic gas would be made from the combination.
“Here just toss this in there and it should lower the flames slightly.” I hand her the BIM she looks at me odd but does it anyways. Soon enough the flames start to die down. I’m pretty sure there should have been an explosion but I’m not going to question the physics here. I had taken some slight cover behind the others just in case.
“YES, someone go get the supplies now that the flames went down. Hitomi? It’s your fault anyways, right? Heck I’M the one that stopped the fire.” That girl is starting to get annoying.
“Why don’t you go in since you’re so desperate for them? Our supplies weren’t in there so the 4 of us still have food. You’re the one that mentioned we had to get our own supplies anyways when we came here. So those are your supplies.” She looks even more annoyed at this and looks over at Soga who hangs his head low.
“Damnit, I guess I’ll go…” He starts to slowly make his way in. Eventually we hear a sound. “Hey hey guys I think I’m stuck. My shoes arnt moving from the floor! AH FUCK COLD COLD COLD” Then a thud crash. Running up to the doorway the smoke inside is still coming out but the flames have been quashed. The problem is the low hanging smoke. Leaning down for a better look I see Soga’s body slowly freezing.
“Looks like he got to the supplies then his hand froze to the metal and fell into the mist that’s freezing everything…” I look over at the girl who had killed someone. “Well… it looks like you killed him sort of? He went in there willingly. Didn’t realize these BIM were that deadly.” I mention. Now Kiyoshi is looking around wildly.
“FUCK FUCK! IT’S NOT MY FAULT! HE… HE DID IT ON HIS OWN YOU ALL SAW IT! The food is all gone too… he just… he just died…” she looks into the room looking a bit out of it. I looking at the body in the room. I move up behind Kiyoshi and push her into the room as well. I watch as she lands hands first into the low cold mists. Closing the door that had been left open.
Inside theres a scream and a stream of curses. “YOU FUCKING FUCKERS I HAVE A DAUGHTER WAITING FOR ME OUT THERE I WON’T DIE HERE!” stepping back from the door a blast from a BIM goes off. But the sudden heat in the cold makes the blast a bit larger than usual. Sending shards of the door everywhere. I feel as a few shards of it embed into my arm as I cover my face.
Looking up from the explosion I see kiyoshi dead inside likely too close to her own explosion.
“WHAT WAS THAT FOR! God fuck…” Higuichi is off on the side with a piece of wood in her leg.
“Well that certainly was a lot worse than I was expecting…” I look down at my arm and see it riddled with small splinters. Checking myself over I don’t have any major injuries. Most of the damage was from small wooden shrapnel which with two points in my resilience meant it didn’t do nearly as much as it would normally. I look over to the others and although everyone has some degree of injury none of them are life threatening.
“Well Kaguya, you might not like it but everyone but Amakusa is dead. You’re going to be the third person to survive the island whether you like it or not.” Looking over she looks scared, and I see a couple of splinters on her but a majority of them are in Amakusa’s back since he shielded her.
“Hnnn” she looks at me with tear filled eyes.
“With that we have a total of 22 chips assuming Togo and Amakusa’s are willing to give theirs up for you. Would you look at that we are over halfway done!” The others are a bit disturbed by my casual remark as I start plucking out pieces of wood and the wounds don’t even bleed.
“Are… are you even human?” Amakusas stares at my arm in shock. Kaguya starts to shake her head slightly before receiving a glare from me and she gives a small unsure nod.
“Come over here and I’ll treat all your wounds and such. I don’t think anyone needs anything more than a bandage after that though.” I start picking out all of the little bits out of everyone to make sure everyone is okay before we go inside. The frozen mists have finally settled. There are still bits of fire in some places on the walls outside the room, but they are dying out. I stroll past two dead bodies taking out their chips along the way. The ice makes it a bit hard to chip out of their bodies but these little chips are well made to sustain so much damage.
I walk over to the supplies and pick up the case and check the insides. Nothing seems to be wrong with them either. I guess the cases are nearly indestructible as well, something to keep in mind for later.
Dusting my hands off a bit. “Let’s go find ourselves some more chips. Considering how few people are left it shouldn’t take long. The remaining survivors probably even have some extra chips on them meaning that as long as we get three more chips, we deadlock it and someone else can’t leave while we are preparing.” I really only need two more, but the logic is still sound. Everyone else looks uncomfortable but nods regardless. We all sit down to eat before heading out.
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