"Sigh..."
"At this point, no matter how much you sigh and groan, brother, it's useless, so you might as well accept reality sooner."
Sitting in the back seat of the car, Komachi spoke to the unmotivated Hikigaya in the passenger seat: "If you want to blame something, blame yourself for being blinded by beauty."
"Saika and I aren't in that kind of relationship."
"Whatever, ever since you joined the Tennis Club, Brother, Komachi has already prepared herself mentally."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Simply put, it means Komachi will support your sexual orientation."
Immediately after, the girl ignored Hachiman's pale defense and very tactfully thanked the driver: "Thank you for driving us over... By the way, have we really never met before?"
"Absolutely impossible."
Asakura, who was driving, answered with a serious expression.
As if nodding in agreement with his words, the vintage car also chugged and vibrated twice.
"Is that so... Then it seems our compatibility is very good. Komachi always has a false impression that she once spent a period of time together with Senior."
The girl said happily from the back seat.
'Your memory erasure doesn't seem very secure.' Hachiman mouthed to Asakura from the side.
Asakura looked straight ahead, completely righteous: "Komachi-chan, your brother is making faces at me."
"Brother! How can you do something that distracts Asakura-senpai while he's driving! How thoughtless, you're truly thoughtless! Baa!"
"Asakura, you bastard!"
"Komachi-chan, your brother is threatening me."
"Dear Brother, Komachi points are getting a huge deduction!"
"Damn it all—!"
☆
"We're finally here."
After Asakura properly parked the car into a parking space, Hachiman climbed out of the car and took a huge stretch.
Having sat in the car for an entire night, he felt his waist had long reached its limit, and he even had a false impression that he could hear his joints cracking.
After all, Komachi had at least slept for a period of time, whereas Asakura had the blessing of the spell [Snake]; when necessary, it wouldn't even be an issue for him to slip off into hibernation somewhere, let alone just nesting in a car seat for a night.
"Don't get a bargain and then act like a victim, even I as the driver haven't complained yet."
Asakura also stretched his body and said.
At the beginning, flying in the sky was fine; as long as he ensured the general direction didn't have any major problems, he could drive however he wanted. However, after Komachi woke up, he could only honestly drive on the ground—more precisely, on the highway.
This made Asakura, who always liked to drive completely wild and loose, feel rather miserable. Especially when encountering traffic jams, he almost drove the car right onto the sidewalk.
I was thinking to myself, I didn't have road rage in my past life either, did I?
In the end, Asakura could only blame it on Japan's roads being truly too narrow and cramped, making one's psychology turn distorted the more they drove.
"It should be right around here, right?" Komachi placed her hand over her eyes, gazing toward the distance.
"Further ahead is the woods, the car can't get in," Asakura checked the navigation on his phone and replied, "This volunteer activity should be taking place in the forest cabin inside."
"By the way, Komachi, you don't need to tag along, do you?"
Hachiman looked at his enthusiastic younger sister and couldn't help but say.
"Eh~ Dear Brother, can you really find the heart to leave your younger sister at home all by herself?" Komachi immediately spoke in a pitiful manner.
If it were the Hachiman of the past, he would probably genuinely believe that Komachi staying home alone was better than running off to this kind of place with him.
However, after witnessing a true corner of the world and understanding in a sense just how dangerous this world was and how easily ordinary people could meet with accidents, he unexpectedly couldn't even voice any words of opposition when faced with Komachi's questioning (which was actually more like acting spoiled).
Komachi, who was excellent at reading the room, was originally waiting for her older brother's complaints. Yet, when she saw her older brother's expression changing non-stop like an amoeba while he failed to utter a single word from beginning to end, the girl couldn't help but feel a bit surprised.
"Onii-chan?"
The girl nudged Hachiman with her elbow: "Even though Komachi already knew you were a siscon, displaying it so undisguisedly makes even me feel goosebumps."
"That's not the case, I was simply considering what risks there might be if Komachi were left home alone, that's all."
"Like Dear Brother's notebook used for writing his dark history and custom settings being flipped open by Komachi?" Komachi asked with her mouth shaped like a cat's.
"An unexpectedly massive risk?! No, I don't have that kind of thing!"
Hachiman spoke with a guilty conscience, a cold sweat dripping down his face.
"Well, let's just leave it at that~"
Komachi said with a beaming smile.
Immediately after, she looked back toward Asakura: "But Asakura-senpai's driving skills are really great. Did you get your driver's license a long time ago?"
"No, your brother and I are the same age," Asakura shook his head, "I don't have such a thing as a driver's license."
"N-no driver's license?" Consequently, it was now the girl's turn to break out into a cold sweat: "Then where did Asakura-senpai learn his driving skills? Hawaii?"
"Regrettably, I didn't have that kind of money to go to Hawaii," Asakura shook his head once more, "If I have to say, it falls under being self-taught. The kind where one is exceptionally gifted and masters it without a teacher."
"...Hey, hey, Dear Brother, Komachi thinks it would be better to take the train when we head back later. I suddenly really want to appreciate the scenery along the train route!"
Komachi immediately tugged at her older brother's hand and pleaded.
"Hearing you say that makes me, as your senior, quite heartbroken." Asakura let out an affected sigh.
"Since it's Komachi's request, then naturally there's no problem!" Hachiman, on the other hand, grinned and held up his thumb to act cool: "How is my Komachi score for this sentence?"
"7 points." Komachi said.
"Subtle... is that considered high or low?"
"It's equivalent to Dear Brother's dead-fish-eye level."
"Oh, oh, then that means it's very high... Damn it, feeling so tragic for naturally assuming my dead-fish-eye level is exceptionally high makes me feel so pathetic."
Hachiman held his head, squatting on the ground drawing circles, not knowing whether he was happy or dejected.
"Don't mind!" Komachi patted his shoulder: "As long as you don't have those dead fish eyes, Dear Brother could actually be considered a handsome guy, you know."
"So right now I don't count, is that it?"
"As long as you don't have those dead fish eyes."
"You could at least give me a denial, Komachi!"
Meanwhile, in a corner where no one was paying attention, as Asakura imperceptibly and gently rubbed his fingers together, the old Ford car silently sank into the ground.
It wasn't that he was intentionally trying to evade parking fees or anything; rather, the flying vintage car was a magical creation. Although it wasn't apparent under normal circumstances, this thing inherently carried a bit of biological attributes. If he just abandoned it here and left it alone, there was a chance it might completely mess up all the other cars in the parking lot.
"Wait for me." After finishing all of this, Asakura nodded with satisfaction, and only then quickened his pace to catch up with the Hikigaya siblings, who were still performing a comedy double act.