Later that day, the group went through the same procedures that Tadadshi did. They split into two and took turns to practice mindfulness right outside the hover ship. Since, Naoko had to be in the hover ship while Tastuya was out, Tadashi took Tatsuya, Isamu, and, of course, Aimi. At night, they went through another mindfulness practice, except that this time it was to tune into their own bodies. Tadashi offered to singlehandedly guide everyone through it so that Naoko could focus on her individual practice without interruption. For a newbie who sensed his own spiritual energy just this morning, Naoko had to say that his guidance was commendable.
Both times, Aimi behaved like she had a talent for it and got the sensation by the end of each session. Each time she did, she jumped at Tadashi in her joy, mimicking what Tadashi did to Naoko in the morning. It was a clear jab at Naoko, which she chose to ignore. It was not as easy for Tadashi, though. The first time, he was caught
As the days passed by uneventfully, Naoko caught on to Aimi's strategy. She was slowly but surely adopting Naoko's ways. The things she did. The way she dressed, behaved, and expressed herself. She even expressed an interest in the martial arts that Naoko practiced, then learnt it by herself through the web. However, with the knowledge that Aimi was a fellow transmigrator, Naoko was willing to bet that she definitely had prior experience and knowledge. The way she moved was far too natural. Nonetheless, it was increasingly frustrating for Naoko to witness how everything Aimi did, Aimi did and looked better. It was a painful reminder of how she would never amount to much. The others had only shown a brief and itsy-bitsy interest in martial arts until Aimi practised it too. Watching how Aimi could make the boys, including Tadashi, do things just by doing it herself made Naoko cringe. Unbeknownst to Naoko, it was merely a matter of coincidence that Tadashi expressed his interest at the
Not long after they resumed their comfortable silence in each other's embrace, there was a knock on the door. "I guess it's high time we should return." Naoko commented a little drily. "We don't need to." Tadashi tightened his hold on Naoko. [He lashed out at Aimi in front of everyone.] BaoBao grabbed the chance to fill her in on what happened with a single-line summary. Right after BaoBao said so, Aimi's voice traveled through the closed door. "Tadashi-kun... Na-chan... I'm sorry... Please, can you let me make amends?" "You can do so by leaving us alone." Tadashi harshly bit out. Naoko lightly pursed her lips, wondering how would this affect the rest of the story and journey. There was a pause before Aimi replied dejectedly, "Okay... I'll see the two of you tomorrow morning..." Naoko waited for awhile before she looked up at him and asked, "Erm... Tadashi, how long do you intend to st
Naoko considered confronting Aimi about it, but BaoBao warned her that it may not be helpful. [There's an extra restriction when hosts inhabit the body of lead roles. They have to stay in character unless changing it is needed for the scripted story to make sense. The purpose is so that the other characters do not gain an awareness, start questioning, and create further bugs in the world.] /So what you mean is... Other characters in the story cannot experience what Tadashi, or rather the familiar soul inside him, goes through?/ [Yes. That's why when there is a familiar soul transmigrating along with our host, it is taken as the host's responsibility to take that into account and manage the consequences of that or...]BaoBao fell silent. /I'll be deemed as incapable?/Naoko completed his sentence for him. [Yes...] BaoBao refrained from telling Naoko that the co
Isamu and Tadashi immediately went to the pilot seats. However, the hover ship refused to follow their commands. Everything ran as per normal, they were just not taking off. Tatsuya rapidly brought up images after images of the hover ship. Finally, an image showed their hover ship being pinned to the ground by the needle sharp tails of some bugs. The parts destroyed were not crucial but enough to hold them down. "I knew their exteriors were hard but not THAT hard!" Tatsuya exclaimed in terror. They had witnessed how it got violently knocked around and out by the sand twisters without suffering a single open wound. "Abandon ship! To the mechas now!" Naoko yelled decisively when Tatsuya's mind seemed to have frozen in panic. Just then, a tail shot through the roof dangerously close to the command table. "Naoko!" A strained voice rose above all the surrounding noise and made Naoko's heart feel like it was caught in a tight grip.&n
Naoko knew that Aimi was looking down on her by throwing her this chance to turn the tide around but her throat clamped down and prevented her from saying anything.She was having second thoughts about triggering a change in Tadashi's condition.Recalling how he was earlier when they were abandoning their hover ship, the only thing she was sure of was how painful it was for him to gain awareness. The chance that the familiar soul was alright and lying dormant within that body made her unwilling to try and trigger a change."Igarashi-san?"Now that she knew what her issue was, she found her voice back. "I was just jealous of her for having everyone's attention. I started to feel left out and forgotten." Naoko chose to say things that she knew Tadashi would not like.Aimi's eyes widened slightly in surprise upon hearing the familiar words.Tadashi stared unblinkingly at her in disbelief. Suspicions rose again. Som
The couple ignored everything around them and stayed in each other's embrace until Tadashi calmed down enough. As soon as he did, his eyes were instantly drawn to the red crescents on Naoko's arm. Bruises were already forming around each crescent, almost blending together into one huge bruise. His heart wrenched all over again. He lightly brushed the sides of her small wounds and asked in a small sorry voice, "May I patch you up?""Let's first move Kobayashi-san to Ai-chan's mecha."Tadashi looked reluctant."It's more efficient that way. After that, we can stay in my mecha." Naoko gently persuaded him.Tadashi nodded obediently, then swiftly carried out the job for her. He refused to let her do anything except tagalong beside him.Somehow, she could feel Tadashi's anxiety. He was still unsettled and it got worse the closer he got to Aimi's mecha. However, they were the only ones who could transport Isamu. Hansuke and Tatusya were
They woke up with the screen shining brightly in their faces. Visibility of the area, however, improved only by a little. They could barely see the figures of the others huddled together on the ground and eating with the mechas surrounding them."It's already lunchtime." Naoko commented somewhat dryly while she got off Tadashi to stretch a little. She did not really like waking up late but she came to peace with it because Tadashi could use the rest."Did you manage to sleep well?" Tadashi, on the other hand, was only concerned that the lack of bed may affect the quality of her rest and sleep.Naoko smiled reassuringly and nodded."Let's go find the rest then." Tadashi said while he stood up.Although he said it so normally, Naoko could feel Tadashi's reluctance to leave the mecha. "We don't have to join them, I have my own rations here that we can share.""It's okay, there's something I want to tell them in person anyway." Tadashi exp
After more and more shadows of withered trees, mushrooms, and puddles, it was awhile before they saw anything different. A blurry shadow that was much smaller than the trees made an appearance. The closer they got, the more defined the edges were, and the more human-like they looked."Am I seeing things...?" Tatusya whispered out in astonishment."Then we must all be seeing things." Tadashi whispered back.Everyone nodded with similar expressions of shock, surprise, and apprehension.Naoko had not read about a creature like this in the world book and did not remember coming across something like this in the creature encyclopedia."They look like us but they're at leastTWO times our size." Hansuke whispered."Are we about to meet giants?" Tatsuya wondered aloud.While Naoko was still pondering over what they should do, Aimi suggested "I think it's better to wait for them to approach