Excerpt

Naoko's odd behaviour on the branch left Tadashi feeling thoroughly bewildered. 

She left her mecha just to touch the tree? 

He could not help but wonder if Naoko may have lost her mind. However, he soon caught himself grinning from ear to ear and his eyes burning with excitement. He could not deny that he had the passing thought of wanting to do the same now that he saw her try something like that. Shit, I'm must be crazy as well.

He continued to watch her carry on with her antics with envy in his eyes. 

As soon as she returned back to her cockpit, he sent a message to her. "Done with what you wanted to do?"

She quickly turned her camera back on before anyone noticed it then replied Tadashi. "Yes, follow me please."

Tadashi did exactly as she said. Her excitement rubbing off onto him.

"Dig here." He only received that single message from Naoko before he saw her take out her pickaxe to hack away at the branch. 

What's she up to now? Did she find something? He wondered while he obediently did as she instructed.

Thanks to the speed that a mecha's could dig at, it did not take very long for the gemstone to reveal itself. He gasped in awe. How did she know?

When they were done with harvesting this one, Naoko led him to another seemingly bare spot that eventually revealed yet another green gemstone. This happened several more times, with an occasional harvest of those hanging off twigs, before Tadashi finally asked Naoko. 

"Do you want to call Doi-kun and Saito-kun over to help us?"

"For now, let's keep it between us please?" Naoko did not want to attract any trouble by standing out too much.

"Fine by me." 

As soon as their storage compartment was full, they flew off in high spirits, leaving behind a tree riddled with tiny holes on some of its branches.

Suddenly, Tadashi turned around and tackled Naoko's mecha down and pinned her against branch while exclaiming, "Devourer at your 5 o'clock!"

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