"Yahiko, don't you feel that this is embarrassing for the both of us to walk alone together?"
Mai asked Yahiko as they both walked inside the jungle of the mountains. Mai had a point, after all she had some common sense in her own way. Normally, anyone would get a little bit shy, but she was talking about this to Yahiko, who doesn't give a shit to things like walking alone with a girl or so. Therefore, Yahiko negatively nodded in reply.
"Is that so?" Why doesn't he care of these stuffs? I'm blushing as hell.
Yep! Her face was unusually red from the very beginning of their inspection.
"What are we looking for? Is there any reason to wonder around without a clue?"
She had a point to herself as she clearly didn't have any idea about the inspection strategy Yahiko had. But for just to let her know and probably keep her mouth shut, Yahiko wrote something on his notepad's paper and gave it to Mai.
THE BASE OF NUCLEUS' TEAM. Mai read the paper.
"Why? Is there any particular reason, Yahiko?"
Then Yahiko wrote another big note to her and she read,
KANAO TOLD ME TO LOOK FOR THEM AS SHE SAW THE NUCLEUS HEADING THIS WAY. HER EXPLANATION WAS IF YOU ARE TRYING TO LOOK FOR SOMETHING THEN SEARCH THE BIGGER GOALAND IN YOUR WAY YOU MIGHT STUMBLE ACROSS THE MINOR GOALS YOU SAVED FOR LATER. YET THE THIRST FOR THAT BIGGER GOAL NEVER ENDS.
Mai finished reading. Kanao had never spoken these words in front of her a single time. She looked at him wondering why even he followed her instruction for a mere and nothing but a philosophical quote. But she still continued to follow him.
"She's quite thoughtful, isn't shewp!!"
Yahiko had pulled her behind some bushes before she could even finish her words. He covered Mai's mouth by his left hand and held her tight by her belly by his right hand. Mai's face flushed red as she felt very embarrassed and she had thought he was going insane.
"What are you trying to do?" is what she tried to say but he covered her mouth too tight to speak.
"Weird? I thought there was someone here?" a voice spoke from the other side of the bushes where Yahiko and Mai hid. It was Yarashi from Orbital-F. He was out of his campsite which was covered by dense trees, making that a perfect hiding spot.
Mai realized why Yahiko had pulled her like that. Yet, she could not help but get embarrassed of the moment.
"Yarashi! What in the world are you doing here?" It was a different male voice, Fujio Izaki from the same team.
"You are the Team-F's leader, come back."
Leader? Of Team-F?
"No, I thought I heard something."
"Heard something?"
"C'mon, Let's get back."
The boys left. Finally, Yahiko let go of Mai with a sigh letting out as well. She was almost out of breath. Yeah, he also covered her nose.
"Y-you-you almost killed me, Yahiko." she inhaled and exhaled deeper than her reach. Yahiko grabbed his pen-paper and wrote, gave it to her and started walking.
LET'S HEAD BACK. Mai followed him as she read the note.
After a while both of them returned to their camp.
The camp looked a bit organized. Yahiko thought that Kanao and Kanabe had been doing their jobs very well. And speak of one of the devils, Kanabe came to them to ask questions about the inspection.
"How did it go guys?" He asked, giving them a genuine smile. Yahiko handed a note to Kanabe which he wrote before arriving at the campsite. The note had all the details of the previously happened occurrences Yahiko had noticed. To Mai, it was only inspecting the jungle, looking for the other teams. But Kanabe learned that Yahiko had found out and located eleven locations out of twenty given in their side quests and had marked them down in the locator of the watch.
"Eleven?!" Kanabe exclaimed. "You located eleven locations out of twenty? How did you pull that off?"
Yahiko then wrote something and gave it to Kanabe.
I JUST GOT LUCKY. he had written down and Kanabe read.
Kanabe had no choice to believe that. Because one or two could be a coincidence, five or six could be calculation. But to get more than half of them right was pure luck, or was it?
"You might be right. In any case, we genuinely need this much luck."
Without a further ado, Yahiko had left for his tent, which Kimada and Sanji had made. Three of them would be staying under a single tent. The tents were actually designed this way, having enough space for three people to rest, sleep and even they could have wrestling match inside the tent.
Kanabe revised the note again but then his eyes went towards Mai who was still red as a rose.
"Mai, are you okay?"
"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine."
She explained what happened to her. Kanabe laughed out loud.
"Don't make fun of me!!!"
"Sor- sorry! Anyways, forget about it. You know he's not like that."
"Yeah, but"
"Now go and rest."
Right at that moment, the friend group of Kanabe which also includes his sister and Yahiko, knew that Yahiko never was interested in any girl and he could possibly have these intentions. And, after realizing it, Mai had not any obligations nor any objections and she left to rest.
Kanao was walking with some fruits and some sticks for the campfire which they'd light up in the night.
I wonder what he is doing? Did he come back. Kanao thought. then her eyes located the devil she thought of. Yahiko was coming towards her. He paused just right in front of her.
"Yahiko!"Kanao exclaimed. "How did the inspection go?"
Yahiko explained everything through morse code.
"What do you think? Is Yarashi the Special leader?"
"No, I don't think so." he clicked his pen.
"Because he was being way too careless. In fact, he doesn't even care of being the leader, let alone the red leader."
His deduction was right in a way. Maybe it was his own way?
"I see. Well then, see you later, Yahiko." she left after giving him a sweet smile.
"Well then, see you later, Yahiko." the line, spoken by a very similar voice to Kanao, popped up in Yahiko's memory. For some reason, his eyes glowed. He clicked his pen.
WHY ARE YOU BOTH THE SAME?
Shawn was in his tent, resting like hell. Lara and Rikka were talking to each other, no, whispering.
"Rikka, do you think he can find the special leader?"
"I'm sure, he can."
They both clearly had faith in him. Shawn, Lara, Rikka, Kiriya were together as a group since their day one on the Atom. Four of them have been considered as a fearsome group.
"Shawn, I have some news!" Kiriya rushed inside the tent and spoke.
"What news? That one?"
"Yeah."
Just when the test had started officially, Shawn had Kiriya spy on different leaders. Kiriya went to spy on every team and at last he went to spy on Kanao. And then,
"There was the informer, the one we'd talked with before." Kiriya said.
"The informer, I see. Then, is it-?"
"Kanao Kimamoto, yeah, it's her, the red leader."
"Then get on to the side quests, we need points as well." Shawn had fallen to sleep.
"Kiri, who is this informer?" Lara asked.
"Sorry, but I can't reveal it without his permission. And he's sleeping so, later someday." He left the tent.
"Can't believe that they'd have a traitor in their own pack." Rikka said. And by pack she meant the Team-S.
The campfire had been turned off, yet the smoke was still ongoing upwards. The river's water flowed very calmly. But there was the sound of water splashing from the other side of the dam. The stars were blinking a lot, and the sky itself was clear as water. The crescent moon was kind of massive. The wind was blowing from north a little too much if someone had to put in that way.
Kanao opened her tent's zipper and got out of the tent. She took a mini yawn. She walked towards the dam, probably just wanted to wander around. As she reached the dam, she noticed that someone was sitting on the dam. She went close to that person. It was a boy.
What would a boy do here at this hour? she pondered as she stepped forward. She stepped on a stick which cracked and made noise. The boy then looked behind. His left eye reflected the stars' blinking lights and the right reflected the crescent moon. Half of his hair was glowing due to the massive crescent moon's light and Kanao saw that they were brown and the hair were messy. And she knew only one person who had messy brown hair.
"Yahiko, why are you here? Couldn't sleep?" she asked as she sat next to her. he grabbed her hand and tapped.
"Yeah. You?"
"Just woke up. Never knew that Mai would snore like a boar."
It was just her bad habit as she sometimes doesn't remember that she was a girl.
"So, why here?"
"Nothing important, just enjoying the starry night."
"It's beautiful!" Kanao exclaimed as she blushed a bit.
Kanao had always wanted to enjoy these little moments with Yahiko. She was at ease to have him by her side this moment, alone and together. Her unconfessed love was being satisfied with this moment.
"So, do you intend to show any emo-" she stopped before finishing as she noticed Yahiko who was looking up at the stars. His eyes almost felt like they were ready to drop tears whenever he wanted. They glowed. They shone. They twinkled. The sparkled. They glimmered. They held every emotion one could have imagined.
He-he looks lonely, sad, even though you can't find his emotions on his face. Kanao thought.
"Yahiko," she said and he turned his glaze at her.
"Thank you for being there for me." she smiled.
"Anytime, Kanao." he tapped fingers and she smiled. Then he looked at the stars again as Kanao leaned against his right.
"Are you enjoying this camp test?"
He nodded affirmatively.
"I never had these before."
"Yahiko," called Kanao and he looked at her.
"Let's do our best in this, together." Kanao smiled.
Yahiko suddenly remembered the same smile, but it wasn't Kanao.
"I would love to look at the stars with you, Yahiko." The smile said and Yahiko again heard that close to Kanao's voice.