If I had to describe myself in a few words when it comes to how I am when it comes to physical activity, I'd have to say that 'poor endurance' and 'non-athletic' would fit nicely. Although, I did enjoy a good walk if I felt up for it. Especially if it was a nice day for it. But it was definitely no fun trudging up the mountain path. I mean, walking uphill is NEVER a good experience, you know? I wasn't sure if my exhausted panting after reaching to top was due to Nagito's stamina or my own, but I wasn't the only one who was exhausted at least. Looking to the others, they seemed pretty tired from the uphill trail as well.

As soon as I caught my breath, my eyes fell upon a two large, wooden crates laying a few feet away from us, both equally as big as the other. By my guess they had to be... Four feet all around, give or take? Five? I'm not too good at measuring this kind of stuff, much less at a distance. But I could make out that one of them had what appeared to be sticks poking out of the top.

Once I approached the crates, I could make out a small pamphlet leaning on the side of one of them with the words 'Mountain Guide' printed across the front. After bending down and picking it up, I opened it to instantly figure out that it had to be a sort of showcase involving the materials around the area. At least, that's what my assumption was after seeing the first page, which had different pictures of the red flowers that Usami had brought us for the practice pin... Yet after flipping to the next one, all I could see were empty pages, as if someone neglected finishing it. Hm. Maybe we had to figure it out ourselves. Or maybe we had to find things that looked useful and document our findings inside it? I didn't see a pen or anything to do that though.

Reaching the back of the pamphlet, the word 'Rules' was printed in big bold letters followed by a list of guidelines.

Since I was at it, I decided to read them to my team as they came to see what I was looking at.

"'Rule number one: No taking the tools from the location. Rule number two: Don't leave anything lying around. Rule number three: Use the appropriate tools for the appropriate materials. Rule number four: All materials collected go in the designated crate and taken to Jabberwock Park. Rule number five: Cease all work as soon as you hear the whistle. Tip: If you find an item that's useful, it'll be documented into this pamphlet on one of the blank pages.'"

After I read the rules, Hajime made his way to the crates, peered into one, then blinked as he reached inside. After grabbing onto something, he pulled it out, revealing something... Well, I guess unexpected is the right word.

Hajime pulled out a pickaxe.

Upon seeing the tool, Fuyuhiko came closer to get a better look at it. "Is she expecting us to mine stuff here?" he scoffed, clearly unamused with this development, "This is bullshit! I'm not some coal miner or whatever! And I'm NOT gonna go around picking flowers like some pansy ass!"

"Um... I can look around for the flowers," I offered nervously as Fuyuhiko fumed. This resulted in him turning to me and crossing his arms as he gave me a glare. I'm not exactly sure if it was because of his prior irritation or because of me, but it still was terrifying. Hell, he was terrifying regardless of his adorable face (though, the same could be said for Hiyoko, so maybe it wasn't too much of a surprise).

"Since we need the flowers for the goal, I can help you out if you want," Hajime responded to me, then turned to Fuyuhiko, "Can we leave finding other things to you and Kazuichi?"

Upon being addressed, Kazuichi turned his attention to Hajime, then pouted once he processed the words said. Yeah, not many people would like to be told to do anything like this. I don't really blame him. "This sucks, man... Didn't even think that we'd have to do something like this..." he grumbled, "Think we're being exploited for, like, child labor or something? I mean, there's more of those cameras scattered around even up here."

Looking around to see what he was talking about, I noticed one camera positioned right at us. Then another in a different location of the mountain. Hell, everywhere I looked, there was at least one to be found. "Yeah. Judging by where they're all placed, I think they're surveying practically every corner of the area," I confirmed, which resulted in Hajime and Fuyuhiko looking for themselves as the latter spat out a very distinct 'what the fuck'. You know? I'm starting to think that Kazuichi might just be right about the whole child labor thing.

Hajime turned to us after his look around and gave us a nod. "Okay. Let's get started," he announced, then looked at me, "If I had to guess, those flowers are in a field or something nearby. So, let's head on over to one with some flowers in it."

Alright, so MAYBE I was a little bit excited. I like flowers, okay?

I also like Hajime.

He's... Really nice.

I'm really glad he offered to help me out.

I doubt he actually wants to be friends with me though. I mean. What teenager would even want to be friends with some body-snatcher that's six or seven years older than them who honestly has no clue what to do with her life?

"Ginevra? You okay?"

Hajime's words snapped me out of my thoughts. "Yeah. Just lost in my mind is all. Lead the way," I replied with a small smile, which was returned by him. He then pointed to a small field dotted with an assortment of flower patches, each containing all sorts of flowers. Fortunately, the walk there didn't take too long. Maybe because it was already at the top of the hill? I'm grateful for that at least. I truly am.

Once the two of us had our own patch of flowers to sift through, it was time to get to work.

I figured that I should take some other flowers in case of the chance that one of them might be useful for a project. You can't be too careful, right?

But you want to know something about those red flowers?

They were small. Well, small compared to the flowers here. So finding one in a bunch of flowers and weeds was definitely the same as trying to find a needle in a haystack. And apparently, these flowers weren't the most common thing around. "Are you having any luck over there?" I called out to Hajime as I plucked out what turned out to only be a darker pink flower instead of a red one. It's pretty, that's for sure, but I doubt that replacing a material was an option.

"No. It's almost like there's no such thing as a red flower in this place," he called back, but then quickly followed up on his reply, "Wait! Hold on! I think I found one!"

"Really?!"

In what had to be less than a second, I was making my way over to him, excited to see the elusive red flower... And sure enough, there it was. The same deep red color as the one we were given by Usami. Looking to me, Hajime gave me a grin. "I'm going to go put this in the crate. You okay with looking on your own for a few minutes?"

I returned his grin as I responded, "I don't mind. After all, we need two of them, right? And maybe I'll find more for some future goals, yeah?"

Now that I thought about it, just how many goals will we have to do in order for Usami to be satisfied? If two days have already passed and we have about the rest of the week to finish this one... And this trip lasts fifty days... God, multiplication was never my strong suit... Okay, so three sevens are twenty-one...two twenty-ones are forty-two...and one more seven is forty-nine.

So, seven sevens since you can't really cram another week into one day. Seven goals for seven weeks. Well, maybe. Not sure if we'd get more time for some of them or not, but hey. It's a good guess. But whatever. Back to looking for the flowers.

I figured that my patch probably didn't have any and Hajime's was now devoid of any. So, I took to another patch to look. Well unfortunately, as soon as my eyes fell upon the field stretched out in front of me, the mesmerizing sight simply put me in a trance. I really can't help it when I see vistas like this! The beauty of it all was just amazing! The way everything just comes together in these places are just so captivating. In fact, the peacefulness of it was making me a little sleepy. And the flowers really smelled nice. Especially when they were so close like this.

"Ginevra? Why are you sprawled out in the flowers?"

I jumped as I heard my name. Quickly, I scrambled out from my 'flower bed' and sat up straight in front of Hajime. Fuck. He must think I'm a freak now. An absolute weirdo. I blew it. "I-I'm really sorry. I just really like places like these and added to how calm everything was, I uh. Yeah," I said sheepishly as I played with one of the flowers next to me.

I expected him to scold me for slacking off. Or laugh at how stupid I was. Or tell me how weird that is. But instead, he just sat down right next to me as he stared towards the field I had been looking before. The words he said weren't anything bad as I had thought they would be either. "Yeah. This place really is nice. I don't blame you. I didn't expect that I'd be seeing this at all in my lifetime. Only on TV or pictures."

To say I was stunned would be an understatement, but as soon as I took in what this scene probably looked like I mentally groaned. I'd most definitely see this in one of my mom's rom coms.

Okay, time to get out of this tacky situation before we started talking about our past experiences with love or whatever the hell this leads up to in those movies. Getting up from the spot I was in, I was now a bit paranoid about this whistle the rules talked about. If we only collected one flower, then that means we'd have to come back. And I could tell that in a couple of hours, coming back wouldn't be what my legs wanted to do the next day. Especially after the hike down the mountain while carrying a big crate.

I knew that it would most definitely mess with me later, but I had no choice. With all of my willpower, I put my faith into Nagito's 'superpower'. It's lucksterin' time. Well. I had my belief in the luck. But how exactly should I go about this? So far the luck's only been spontaneous. Would this actually work if I were actually thinking about it? Closing my eyes, I outstretched my hand and felt around the flower patch, using equal chance for each flower.

I stopped. This is the one.

Plucking it, I opened my eyes and—oh. Another pink flower.

The Lovin' Spoonful was wrong. Magic isn't real. There is no magic in rock and roll. Nothing will set me free. My life has been a lie. Before I could get up to leave, something now caught my eye.

A red flower. Just. There. On the edge of the flower bed. Almost as if it were waiting for me to get up to see it.

Well, of course I picked it. With a sunny smile on my face, I presented it to Hajime. "I got the last one we needed!"

TWEEEEEEEEEET!

A loud sound echoed through the area. It actually resembled a whistle now that I thought about it. Was that what the rules meant about the 'whistle'? There's no way it could have been anything else, right?

"I guess that's the signal to get going," Hajime said to me after the whistle sounded, "Pretty sure the others will need help with the crate. I peeked in there while dropping off the flower and they definitely were busy. I think I saw some ore in there."

I got a concerned feeling after hearing that. "Wouldn't a tiny flower be crushed underneath a bunch of ore?" I asked nervously. No way in hell was I gonna come back here because some guys crushed a flower with some raw metal.

Fortunately, Hajime shook his head with a laugh. "Don't worry. There's a toolbox in the crate with the pickaxes that I put it in. We'll have to find a way to carry them back without it because of the rules, but it's safe," he reassured, then turned towards the direction of what could be called be called base camp, "I'm sure those two will need help with the crate since everything in there are rocks and minerals, so let's go before Fuyuhiko blows his top."