They sat in silence for a moment before an annoyed face popped in between their seats. "Hey, can you two be quiet? It's too early for this level of volume." The male said in a snotty tone, taking Haruki by surprise.
"S-sorry sir!" He stuttered, causing the other guy to laugh sharply.
"Don't call me 'sir', I hear that too much; I am Osamu Yamashita. Call me that." He retreated to his own seat, giving Haruki a great deal of confusion.
"Hey wait!" Haruki turned in his own seat to see the mysterious male behind him. "What's your problem?"
In the seat, Osamu was sitting upright and appeared to be sleeping peacefully. He opened his eyes and spoke again.
"It's not often you get the opportunity to relax without any idea of what you need to do. You should take advantage of it." With that, he went back to sleep, simultaneously closing the conversation. Haruki fixed his position so he was facing forward again and sighed.
"I guess he doesn't want to make friends on this trip.." He spoke dejectedly, slumping in his seat.
In front of Chouko was a small person fidgeting and looking back to Haruki for moments at a time. When they locked eyes, the other person squeaked and looked away promptly. Haruki leaned forward to see the person barely peeking out of their seat.
"Hey are you okay? You look upset.." He asked, trying to be as non-threatening as possible.
Before the small person could get a word out, a woman two seats ahead of Haruki popped in.
"Tsu just wanted to tell you there was something under your seat. They're pretty shy, so be nice." She smiled softly and the one she referred to as 'Tsu' nodded contently.
Haruki was confused. "How do you two already know each other so well?"
Again the woman spoke, "I guess I'm naturally good at connecting with shy people. We aren't twins or anything, don't worry." She gave a small laugh.
"That's not what I was worried about.." Haruki mumbled only loud enough for him to hear. He then spoke louder, "Oh yeah, something under my seat!" He swiftly looked under his seat and, sure enough, there was a black box about the size of a small guitar amp on the floor. Where the clasps should be was a clunky blue lock. Whatever was in the box wasn't heavy, he found out after picking it up.
"What could be in that?" The girl asked, putting her hands out for a transfer. Haruki awkwardly gave the box to her, letting her examine its exterior.
"What if it's something dangerous?" Tsu asked.
"I don't think so." Haruki hesitantly responded. "It didn't feel like anything heavy. Besides, who would put anything dangerous in there?"
"We'll never know until we open it." The woman added.
Just then, the brown bear popped up in between the three kids. Tsu screamed lightly, and the woman tried to push the bear away.
"Hey, where'd you get that box from? It's super important!" The bear asked.
"I just found it under my seat!" Haruki desperately defended himself, gesturing to the other two people there. "Right, guys?"
"Yeah, we don't even know what's in it" chimed the woman. The bear sighed in annoyance.
"Okay, well if you really don't know what's in it, then I'll just take it from you until we get to our destination!" Little Kuma let out a cheerful laugh, took the box and carried it away with ease.
"That bear is so weird..Oh by the way, I never got your name." He pointed at the woman. "What is it?"
"I mean, you didn't tell me yours either, but that's fine. I'm Chika Hanae." She smiled.
"That's a nice name. Mine is Haruki Hashimoto. I hope we can be friends!
"I just remembered I never actually said my name either.. It's Tsubasa, but you can call me Tsu since it's easy to remember."
During the next half hour, everyone woke up and started to introduce themselves when the bus took a sudden turn and pulled into the parking lot for a large building. It reflected some light into the bus, giving its passengers a small glimpse of each other. After so long without pause, it was refreshing when the vehicle came to a slow stop. The lights in the bus flashed on without warning, provoking a groan from all the students.
Before they could complain more, Little Kuma spoke up via the buses intercom system. "Okay everyone, we have arrived at our destination! Please file out and wait outside for me!"