Chapter 9

BWABWABWAAAAP! BEEP BEEP!!!

Bwabwabwaaaap~! Beep beep!

Eeek? Wh–what’s going on so suddenly?!

Is it a biker gang? No, wait—Is that Crazy:B?

Hang on, they’re blocking our path?! In that giant truck?!

Ohh~ It’s an art truck. This is the first time I’ve seen one in real life.

An art truck…?

They’re extravagantly decorated trucks. To put it simply, they’re giant vehicles with incredibly gaudy decorations all over them.

I always thought they were basically like vampires: endangered species that only turn up in manga nowadays.

S–so why do they have something like that…? Is this a common thing in Osaka? The one sitting in the driver’s seat appears to be Amagi Rinne from Crazy:B, but…?

Sure is. Those idiots belong to me. I can’t see HiMERU-han or Niki-han, so I reckon they’re sittin’ on top of the trailer.

Heeey~! Ya idiots! The heck’re y’all doin’ here?

Oh? Yo yo yo, Kohaku-chan!

Whatcha doin’ over there with Knights, huh? Sneaking around without even telling your onii-chans?

As If I need brothers like y’all. I got enough on my plate with my annoying older sisters.

Indeed! And I have already taken up the role of Oukawa’s older brother!

I knew you’d say that, but I wish ya hadn’t. Jeez, I really am surrounded by idiots.

Not to worry, Oukawa! HiMERU is here!

Yeah, HiMERU-han’s been mighty weird too, especially lately.

(But what is goin’ on here?)

(That art truck blockin’ the road sticks out like a sore thumb, but there’s a buncha other big cars that creeped up around us now. But this is a sidewalk, ain’t it?)

(It’s like they’re tryin’ to surround us with cars to keep us from gettin’ away.)

(But I don’t get why. It don’t feel like they’re tryin’ to throw some big welcome home party for me.)

Just what are you doing?! Why are you driving along a pedestrian path and making so much noise? You’re disturbing the residents here!

I would ask you to explain yourselves clearly, Crazy:B!

(Ngh~… Just like always, Bou’s totally makin’ a fool of himself. I’m kinda worried, but I’m sure his Knights buddies’ll take care of him.)

(Right now, I gotta figure out what Rinne-han an’ them are really up to. If this were some random gangster, I’d have no choice but to stick around an’ protect Bou.)

(Crazy:B may like messin’ around, but they’d never do somethin’ I really hate.)

(I trust ‘em enough to believe that much, and I know they care about me.)

……

Hm? Oukawa? Where are you going? It’s not safe to approach an idling car! You never know when it might begin moving!

Why don’tcha just worry ‘bout yourself, Bou?

But—

—Oh? What do we have here? You’re strong as ever, Kohaku-chan, you jumped right up onto the trailer ♪

Nahaha ♪ Pretty awesome! Just ho~ppin’ around like that!

Welcome back, Oukawa ♪

…Thanks. Why are y’all sittin’ on the back of this truck, anyway? You’re gonna get hurt if ya fall.

Huh~? No point in asking us why we’re doing it—It’s just for the fun of it!

Don’t lump us together. Shiina was up here showing off, so HiMERU followed him to see if there was something interesting.¹

People who copy idiots are still idiots, ain’t they HiMERU-han?

(whispering) In any case, was everything okay in your end? We haven’t heard from you in a while, so we got worried.

(whispering) …Yeah. Well, there were some things I didn’t expect, but we got it all smoothed over for the most part. From the looks of it, Double Face is gonna be A-okay.

Is that really the case?

…?

Take a look, Oukawa. Perhaps you’ll be able to see history in the making.

Huh? What’s that s’posed to mean…?