The guy gives me a confused look. “Hey um can I help you?” I feel it in my heart, I knew that this would happen, but it still hurts.

“Yeah, is uh Saiki Tomiyo here?” He looks at me in surprise before turning back calling out over his shoulder. “Hey babe someones here for you?” I can hear the sound of feet moving around inside the small house.

Turning back to me. “So uh, what do you need her for?” He looks me up and down. I’m in a vest over a button up with a tie carrying a briefcase. I probably look like a door-to-door salesmen.

“Just here to fulfill an old promise. If she still wants the help that is.” He gives me an odd look but eventually Miho comes down. She’s… matured. She looks a lot like her mother, but I can see the hints of several tattoo’s peeking their way up her neck line and wrists from under her shirt sleeve.

“Hey honey whats the…” She sees me at the doorway and freezes in her place. A look of abject fear crosses as she starts to scramble away in terror. Her boyfriend or… Yeah, no ring so boyfriend seeing her that distressed turns to me and attempts to hit me. I take it without flinching. I gain 1 attribute point per chip I’ve collected. I’ve been playing their game for several years now collecting chips from players and tossing them to the ones I feel deserve another chance. A punch from a normal person doesn’t even hurt now.

I just adjust my tie and step inside. As he groans holding his hand. “That was uncalled for. Miho! I’m here to fulfill a promise!” She seems even more terrified now. Starting to scramble up the stairs.

“Look don’t worry I’m only here to remove your scars and to maybe help out a bit.” This gets a pause from her. She stands up slowly turning to look back at me.

“How do I know you aren’t here to trick us?” She starts. The boyfriend still shaking his hand as he looks at me in a mix of fear and anger backing up while looking rapidly around likely for a weapon.

I dismiss him. He likely wouldn’t have anything that could hurt me. “I don’t really need to. If I really wanted, I could have killed you both before you even noticed. Look… I’m the one that’s been sending information. I just… want to help you out.” She seems a bit distressed but seems to find herself and calms down a bit. Meeting my gaze she doesn’t say much else other than waving me in. She seems on edge but seems to realize that there is nothing that can really be done about it so is just going along with it.

We start walking into a side room while her boyfriend seems to run into the back room to grab something.

“So… I still haven’t told anyone…” She starts. I nod, not that anyone would believe her anyways. It sounds like fantasy that I have powers. Sure, I can take hits and move fast but most just think it’s technique and that I’m tough or wearing advanced gear. I do work at the R&D department after all.

“I figured, now I’ve finally achieved the means of helping you out. I have two options for you. First would be to administer a local anesthetic to remove the pain in the regions I’ll be working on. Alternatively, I’ve achieved great success in replicating synthetic skin tissue so I could replace scarred areas with a more durable alternative.” She looks at me confused.

“Why? I thought you could just wave your hands and remove them?” her face scrunches a bit in memory with a bit of concern touching her voice as she says it.

I let out a small chuckle seeing it. “No no um It may sound barbaric but I’m going to have to uh… Skin… the regions scarred over. The scarred tissue won’t come back, and instead normal tissue will heal in those regions rapidly instead.” She cringes a bit at the sound of that process but calms herself. She seems to trust me since I really have no reason to lie.

We get to a room when her boyfriend comes rushing back in. In his hands is a crowbar as he glares at me. “Hey Miho, can you tell me what the hell is going on? Don’t stand near him. He seems dangerous…” He looks down at me since I’m several inches shorter than him. “Who the hell is this guy? He sounds like he’s part of the company or something, but you said you didn’t talk with your mom anymore?” Oh, so he’s part of their little extremist group… Should I kill him? I mean I’d be legally allowed too… He is a bit in the way… No no Miho would be upset. I shouldn’t be thinking like that anyways…

She turns to him with a bit of concern. -sigh- Probably realizing that I am dangerous, and he might set me off. “Sorry Takata but I need to talk to him… alone.”

He turns towards me scowling. “Like hell I’m leaving him alone with you. The bastard could take a punch from me without flinching. I think I even broke one of my fingers.” I’m a little impressed that he didn’t scream in pain considering how painful that is. looking at his hand rather than a break it’s more likely a dislocation going by the angle of the limpness and where the inflammation is starting.

I give him a flat look. “Please leave the room this matter doesn’t concern you.” He cringes back slightly but settles back up and gets ready to get in my face when Miho gently places her hand on his chest. “Please just… wait outside… we need to have a talk alone like I said… I can tell you all about it afterwords. Just… for me?” He looks conflicted for a bit and I feel that familiar pang in my chest even after all these years. Seeing her touching someone hurts a bit but it’s not my place. She’s not mine… She is her own person… I need to set these feelings aside.

He gives me one last look before heading out. “Fine fine… I’ll wait right outside. Miho if you need anything please just yell. I’ll come at this bastard even if he’s hard as a rock.” I quark my eyebrow at the phrasing and Miho sighs.

After he leaves, she turns to me. “He’s got a good heart, you know? He just wants to stop the company as much as I do… they have hurt so many including him. The company isn’t even taking criminals anymore, they are using the islands to remove the poor that don’t conform to them… Boasting about removing the homeless problem by shipping them off for their games… People are dying out there that didn’t even do anything wrong. Why did you join up with them Hitomi?” She looks at me with slightly teary eyes. Losing that fear she had when I first arrived. Turning into that hardened Miho I used to know… Stop it.

Letting out a long sigh… “Well, It’s the best way to get into their good books really. They think that since I signed some papers, I’ll be eternally loyal. That I’ll always work for them. At first, they kept me on a short leash. Now? Now I’m able to go wherever I please. I have names, I have the tools and most of all I have access to places that would help bury them. But for now… for now I play the good pet.” She looks at me with a conflicted look. Like she’s happy but also disappointed.

“You’ve killed all those people on the islands… You killed them… to end it? Why not just end it sooner? Why not join us from the start?” She doesn’t raise her voice, but I can still feel the same steel in it. She starts slowly rolling up her sleeve revealing the old scars. They have faded a bit to time and she’s gotten some tattoos to help cover them up, but you can still see the outline, still make out the names if you squint enough.

I’m lost in thought for a moment just staring at her arm. “Because I know that if I don’t take it all down at once they will just point fingers and squirrel it all away. You know that if they pulled out right now the whole world’s economy will plumet? They have so many people from all over that are using their banking service that if all of it just disappeared, they would have nothing left. If the company goes down it needs to fall correctly. I want results and as much as your method is nice… it won’t solve anything… it’d just lower the amount of suffering, but it would never end…” I place my suitcase on the table and pull out some instruments and start setting everything up.

She seems to think for a moment before I interupt. “Ah do you mind if you lose these tattoos? They won’t come back.”

She shakes her head clenching her fists a bit at whats to come. “No, It’d be nice to see my skin clean…”

Nodding I start to apply the anesthetic as I arrange some of my other tools. I tell her to relax her arm since she could hurt her hand by clenching it too hard without pain. She relents but still looks a bit nervous. I pause as I reach for the blade. “You may want to look away for this part.” She levels her look at me then looks right at her arm instead. “Still a bit of that white knight in you huh… I don’t need your babying. Just do it I want to see it leave.”

I hesitate for a moment before finally starting the process. She watches as I slowly skin her arm. With delicate fingers I slowly move along the paths immediately wrapping the areas that are finished with special gauze with my other hand. The level 75 bonus to treatment… I can do no harm while treating a patient. Cuts don’t become infected, skin doesn’t scar the body, everything heals to the ideal form from the method of treatment. This doesn’t mean they can’t die from the process they still lose blood and can die from mistakes. It just adjusts things so no additional complications pop up as a result of the treatment. Skin cut away heals back naturally Haru used this plus the increased effectiveness of treatment to slowly rebuild Saeko’s arm muscle by slowly skinning her arm rebuilding flesh layer by layer as it would heal back the level % more than just the skin layer each time. This doesn’t work with bone but transplants have little to no rejection and without any scarring they are almost as good as the original. Certain complications such as bloodtype and other changes can still complicate things such that the ‘effectiveness’ boost isn’t enough but it still helps a lot.

She watches with morbid curiosity as I wrap her arm up to cover the skinned regions with a type of cream between the wrap and bandage. Almost immediately any bleeding that had started stops and the raw layer begins to crust and rapidly go through a healing process.

“It’ll take about a week before you can remove the bandages fully then another two to three days before the swelling will go down completely. That side is done… anywhere else?” She nods slowly. She seems hesitant before removing her top still covering her modesty. I get a bit embarrassed, but I can be professional as I begin working on her shoulders and other areas. We spend a good amount of time removing all of her tattoos and old scars. She wanted a fresh start and by the end of it had a small smile on her face.

“Thanks… Shimada… I… Thank you for doing this… I may not agree with your methods, I may not agree with what you’re doing but... Thank you for coming back and doing this for me.” I nod.

I scratch my neck a bit. “No problem… I still care about you, you know?”

She makes a bit of an awkward between me and the door. “I know… you aren’t really subtle despite claiming to have a skill like stealth… it’s just… so much time has passed. I’ve been so angry with you for so long… I just… that night when you left. I thought about it for months. I felt guilty, I felt like I was what lead you to them. I felt like I was what made you go to that island… You said you had a quest, but like usual I feel like you were just trying to be a white knight and save someone without their consent.” I shake my head.

“No, I really did have one. Still do, every chip I collect makes me 10% better at something. I’ve been getting better and better the whole time. Now there isn’t much they can really do to me without dropping a bomb or something.” Her eyes go wide. Probably thinking about just how many chips I’ve collected over the years. They started putting more and more people on the island to make it more of a hunting gameshow rather than a survival show. Other countries started doing the same with their own special games that they would have me guest star in. Overall though the number of chips I’ve collected is enough that very little can really stop me.

“You… I didn’t realize just how much stronger you were… I thought maybe you were still… human.” She looks at me with a bit of fear still. Bandages covering most of her body.

The comment annoys me but I let it slide. No reason to overcomplicate things. “Ha I take offense to that. Besides… I’m just going to finish what I started, then I won’t make any more trouble…” I look at her arm avoiding her gaze.

She picks up on something I said. “What do you mean? You can… You can come visit me and…”

She can’t honestly believe that can she? “No… I… I still care about you. Seeing you is nice. But you know it hurts to see you with someone else. I… what I feel isn’t healthy and despite knowing I still have some feelings for you, I also know that I shouldn’t be with you. It would just make things worse for both of us. So just remember it’s not your fault, I know it’s mine for feeling like this even still after all this time. You will see me on the news but… for better or worse this is probably the last time we meet. I’ve been holding out this long because I wanted to finish this promise first.” I see a few tears fall down onto the gauze… whether they are from her or from me… I don’t know for sure.

“Just don’t do anything too stupid… Go out and find someone else!” I pause in my work for a moment to let out a long laugh.

Turning to her confused face I let her in on something that’s apparently been kept from her. “I know I know… I actually tried that. Can’t say I’m not surprised she never told you though.” This gets a bit of surprise from her.

“Who? Do I know them?” She seems a bit more interested in this. Old friends catching up… Gossiping one last time.

“Yeah… Himiko? She and I tried for a bit. Didn’t work out though, I wasn’t there for her most of the time either in the lab or the island. We tried for a while but… one day she just mentioned finding someone else and that our relationship was turning into more of a chore than a real one. So we separated… after that I tried a few other times with a few other girls but nothing serious, so I just gave up on all that. Did you know her dad was one of the ones that put this all together? Shocked her quite a bit when we found out. She never knew him, but I guess he’s got bastards all over the world.”

This seemed to surprise her as well. “She never mentioned…” Oh they are back on talking terms that’s nice. Himiko was keeping her distance from Miho after we started dating but it’s good to hear they are back in contact.

“Well of course not. You hated me and him for everything that’s been happening. Why would she tell you?” She awkwardly looks away.

I finish up the last wrap and start to pack up my stuff. I don’t really care about it all, but I don’t want to leave a mess for them to clean up. “Anyways I better be getting out of here. Your boy- that... guy is going to blow his top when he sees you’re covered in bandages. At least if he’s worth anything he will.” This gets a chuckle from her.

“Go on then… just… don’t do anything more you’d regret okay? I get what your doing… I just… I wish there was a better way…” With that we say our goodbyes. She doesn’t even notice an old bracelet on the countertop as I leave.

Heading out and there is a small gathering of people. The boyfriend and a few other guys are waiting there with a few misc melee weapons. Some have crowbars, others have bats heck one guy even has a chain.

“About time you left. I get that you know Miho’s mom or something, but you work for the wrong people. Huh Hitomi?” He lets out a long chuckle. “See it wasn’t hard to figure out who you were. You looked so damn familiar… I’ve been staring at the face of the guy that killed my brother for years in hopes of meeting him but after all this time I didn’t even notice until I stopped to think of it. So, I called up a few others since I can’t let ya leave my place without a proper goodbye… After all everyone here has someone, you’ve gotten rid of.” The others around him all stare at me with a deep fury in their eyes.

He looks at me with a bit of a sneer. He doesn’t even know Miho is inside covered in bandages… revenge was more important to him than her… If I really was some deviant, then he wasn’t even around to hear her yelling if she had been attacked because he was too busy getting his friends get together… That slightly annoys me, but I put it aside. That’s not my problem I’ll let her make her choices, it’s not my place… relax…

Settling down I look left and right at the gathered people. “You sure you want to do this? I’m going to just leave. I don’t want to hurt anyone.” I toss my suitcase aside with my hands slightly raised. It’s served its purpose I don’t need its contents anymore. A few of the people back up from it like it will explode.

“Ha! Don’t wanna hurt anyone? Buddy you hurt people for a living. You’ve killed so many of our friends and family on that damn show o’ yours that people think you’re an actual monster. But you’re just a man, everything bleeds.” He chuckles at that. “Miho might not want us getting in a fight with ya but we gotta take the chance while we can. No one can find where ya live so.” He shrugs as if ending his statement. “We gotta do what we can with what we got.” They start circling in on me.

I let out a drawn-out sigh before sprinting forward faster than any of them can react, shouldering one person out of my way. The resulting blow launches them into a wall with a loud crack and thud… I might have put a bit too much effort into that… I pause for a moment as everyone stares at me in shock.

I level a look at the closest person to me. “Oops” before I run off faster than they can move. Rapidly shrinking into the distance before slipping into crowds, hiding in plain sight.

Several months later.

It’s finally time… It’s time to end all of this. I have the names and locations of everyone in the upper brass. Through coercion and threats, I’ve slowly but surely gained access to the main systems for ‘Thimas’. I’ve been working with Miho’s mother to make it all lock down. She’s ruthless and heartless to company members and strangers. But she still loves her daughter. Our plan is to shut things down so withdrawals can happen but no more deposits. To stop the broadcasting, end all of the streams…

I’ve spent years stealing little parts from the company over time. Writing them off as part of shrapnel from experiments in designs. I’ve hidden explosives in each major heads’ office and personal homes, vehicles, wheelchairs… It’s taken so long… So many have died to get to this point. But I’ll be able to stop what I started.

I look at the final button to start the process… It’s taken a lot. The final point… to make this all worth- no there is nothing left for me after this. It’s just pure and simple revenge. They took my family from me… They took… no, no my actions drove Miho from me but I’ll still never forgive them for that. I press the button.

Nothing happens… Well, nothing here at least. It feels a little anticlimactic really. A virus slowly infecting the accounts of millions of users. Shutting down the business accounts of employees removing funding towards all company businesses that contribute towards the islands. Allowing for one-way withdrawals but no deposits for normal personal accounts.

Turning on the news not a single explosion is heard but thousands of small implosions happened all at once the locations suddenly having vast winds sucking in from every direction. Crunching all matter in areas of 6 meters around them as they are scattered in every high personnel’s locations… On the news I see the fallout as they realize that their own funding comes from those people that died and that they won’t be paid… Trying to calm the public being thrown aside as they realize they aren’t being paid to do it.

Was this the right thing to do? Yes, it was… Were their better ways? Probably, but they wouldn’t remove the problem. They would just treat it over time. Letting everything stay horrible until there is nothing left.

I look over my skills… Most have gotten to 99 now besides treatment and Unseen Eye which has been stubbornly stuck at 74. Nothing really threatens me here anymore. Nothing is at stake so none of my skills really grow… Even this wasn’t really a threat to me. Just something I felt I needed to do before passing…

I rub my wrist that feels naked. I’ve worn it for so long it feels odd to be bare… I hear a notification ding.

Personal quest: Become acqknowledged by an assassination organization complete!

Reward: Title Master Assassin

Huh a title of assassin that sounds kind of counter productive to be able to be identified by the title.

Master Assassin

Discription: You have assassinated many high-end officials in one fell swoop. No evidence was left behind every murder left behind a single ball of crushed matter. Everyone will wonder who? But the mystery may never be resolved.

Equip bonus: This title becomes visible to only those that truly wish to use your services.

Passive bonus: Attacks that a foe is unaware of are slightly stronger.

Not nearly as bad as I thought. If I have it equipped, I wouldn’t be screaming to everyone to arrest me. It’s also not like people can use it as means of stopping me and during an actual mission I wouldn’t be wearing that title. Looking at my other options I finally decide on which skill to upgrade. I use it on Treatment… Looking at the skill nothing changes besides becoming Treatment+… Well, I’ve already committed so I choose Treatment and Unseen Eye as my skills for my next life. I take a swig of whiskey as I walk out to my balcony listening to everything going on in the city as I stare at what’s in my hands.

I can hear chaos in the streets below. It may not have been the best solution… People might be scared for now. But things will settle. The company is gone… That’s all that really matters.

I thumb over the BIM in my hands. I toss the whisky glass behind me as the winds start to pick up. Such a fascinating thing BIM… the wind picks up further as air begins to suction in at an incredible pace before a slight pop… then nothing…