"Although it feels a bit late to ask now, but..." Kita Ikuyo, sitting in the old Ford and watching the scenery flash past the window, brushed back her hair that had been ruffled by the wind and asked: "Does Asakura-kun have a driver's license? I feel like you don't look much older than me..."
"Don't be afraid." Asakura said, and that calm demeanor made the girl involuntarily relax.
Surely Asakura just looks a bit baby-faced, maybe he's actually already 29? After all, he is the owner of Rabbit House, so he shouldn't be much different in age from herself.
"I've long since had enough of those red-tape formalities!" Asakura continued.
"You really don't have one, do you!?" Suddenly, Kita Ikuyo felt that the seatbelt that was originally secure around her had become unreliable.
"Even parents don't need a license, so on what basis do you need to take a test just to drive!"
"Of course it's because driving is dangerous! Especially for pedestrians and innocent passengers like me!"
"The next move is..." A sharp light flashed in Asakura's eyes, "Victory Charge Dragon Tornado!"
"Don't perform such dangerous stunts on ordinary roads! Or rather, this kind of vintage car can't spin at all, right! It'll fall apart!"
"But I feel like spinning on the sidewalk would be even more dangerous."
"Are there no options that don't involve spinning!?"
Although he joked around and bickered with Kita Ikuyo in the car for a while, in reality, Asakura didn't actually perform any of those irrational behaviors.
Rather, from start to finish, he kept the car speed within a very safe 60 kilometers per hour.
And Kita Ikuyo had actually noticed this early on; she was just reading the room and playing along with Asakura's antics.
Truly worthy of being the only person in Kessoku Band with high emotional intelligence.
"It seems Mahiru-san drank quite a lot; she's really drunk. To think she still hasn't woken up even after all this." Kita Ikuyo looked at Momoka, who was deep in sleep beside her, only occasionally letting out a few blurred mumbles in her dreams, and sighed.
"Right, I almost forgot to ask." Asakura suddenly seemed to remember something and glanced through the rearview mirror at the girl who was taking care of Momoka: "Kita, where is your home? I instinctively started driving toward the Rabbit House shopping district..."
"Ah, it's fine. Once we get to the shopping district, I can just take the tram back myself." Kita Ikuyo said.
"If I did that, I'd be scolded by Ijichi—" Speaking to this point, Asakura realized saying it like that could easily confuse the Ijichi sisters, so he corrected himself, "Ahem, I mean Miss Nijika would blame me for not knowing how to take care of a junior."
"Since Asakura-kun has said so, then I can only accept your kindness~"
Kita Ikuyo revealed a somewhat playful smile.
Eventually, her gaze became much more gentle, and her eyes were glistening: "But I didn't expect that I could actually rejoin Ryo-senpai and the others' band... it really feels like a dream."
"Well, although it's partly because Nijika and the others are quite kind, it's mainly because your own performance won them over. After all, that fellow Yamada Ryo's requirements for the band aren't something just anyone can meet."
Asakura said: "And there's Hitori too."
"What about Gotoh-san?" Kita Ikuyo froze for a moment, not expecting it involved Hitori as well.
"The one who first noticed the calluses on your hand were caused by practicing guitar was that kid." Asakura answered.
This wasn't him putting a good word in for his own little friend. Although Asakura had noticed the wounds on the girl's hands two days ago, at that time he didn't think toward the direction of guitar practice. Instead, based on his own empirical experience with daily-life anime, he thought she had blown up the kitchen or something... after all, with the existence of 'Kitchen Demon' Yuigahama and 'Drink Demon' Momoka, it felt like something he could accept...
In the end, it was Hitori who first noticed this point and quietly told Asakura.
"Eh, when did she say that?" Kita Ikuyo blinked her eyes, asking blankly.
"When I was patting her head just now..." Asakura recalled the soft touch of the girl's hair and praised: "It's really a good head of hair."
Kita Ikuyo couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"What kind of strange compliment is that? Even Gotoh-san wouldn't be happy about it."
"Don't look at how she always has a cold face and says nothing in front of strangers like an ice-cold beauty; she's actually a fellow who is quite easily satisfied. This level of praise would make her very happy." Asakura said seriously: "No, specifically speaking, just the act of 'patting her head' itself is enough to make her happy."
"Is it because she's a Bocchi (Dog)?" Kita Ikuyo quipped.
"Now that you mention it, she does have the feeling of a slightly neurotic small dog..." Asakura responded cheerfully, "By the way, Nijika would be a large dog, and Yamada Ryo's 'do as I please' attitude feels a bit more like a cat."
"What about me?" Kita Ikuyo asked curiously.
"A fox, probably."
"Is it because my hair is red?" Kita Ikuyo subconsciously toyed with her side-ponytail.
A rather interesting point was that if one viewed Hitori's cowlick as a ponytail, then in Kessoku Band, everyone except the short-haired Yamada Ryo had a side-ponytail hairstyle.
In a sense, could this be considered a sign of fate or a shared understanding?
"Because you look very cunning but in reality, you belong to the Canidae family too." Asakura said: "You get that feeling of wagging your tail as soon as you get a little bit familiar."
"Really, you can't say things like 'wagging your tail' to a girl, it's too rude."
Although Kita Ikuyo complained verbally, looking at her expression, she didn't seem angry at all.
"Right, what about Mahiru-san later?" The girl then asked.
"Throw her onto the bed in her room..." Asakura's answer was clean and crisp, "Case closed."
"That's too perfunctory!?"
"That's true... anyway, it's getting late, so I'll just sleep at Rabbit House too."
Asakura nodded in agreement.
"Ah-oh, Asakura-kun is also going to stay at Rabbit House? Together with Momoka-san..." Kita Ikuyo's gaze looked a bit strange, "Would it be a bit, um, inappropriate..."
The girl wanted to say 'dangerous', but considering Asakura's feelings, she cautiously changed her wording.
"Don't look at me like this..." Asakura said seriously, "I'm also a man in the prime of his youth!"
"Doesn't that completely fail to refute the point that it's inappropriate for a lone man and a lone woman to be together!?" The girl complained loudly. She rubbed her brow and said with a tired heart: "Forget it, please let me stay at Rabbit House for the night too. I'll just sleep on the sofa; I'll take good care of Momoka-san."