While the two time travelers were cruising the nineteenth century highway by foot, Akutaro and Akujiro took it by bus. They were just starting to worry they might have lost their quarry's trail, when said bus pulled off the highway to make a pit stop.

The cabin was near empty when Akutaro got a load of where they had ended up. He nudged his brother awake, making him hit his head against the window.

"Ow, Jiro . . . What the fu—"

"Check it out, man!" Akutaro pointed out the window responsible for Akujiro's sudden headache.

"So what? It's a convenience store."

"A convenience store just off the highway? Dude, maybe it's the one those chicks said they ran into Kasanoda in!"

Never mind that there might have been hundreds of such convenience stores. Akutaro had a feeling about this one. Judging by his brother's "Hey, yeah!" it seemed Akujiro did, too.

They disembarked, and strolled into the establishment with the toughest swagger they could manage. The snack foods and soda machine trembled.

The proprietress, however, was not impressed.

"Check it," Akujiro said to her. "We need some information about a couple guys who were in here last night."

"Do you know how many people I see a day?" the woman snapped back.

"Yeah, but, see," Akutaro tried, "this one guy had a really ugly mug you wouldn't forget real quick, and this greasy Raggedy Andy hairdo—"

"Like this fellow here?" The woman pointed to Akujiro.

Whose licorice-rope lips pouted self-consciously. "It's feathered. . . ."

Akutaro elbowed him. "Hey. Show her the sketches you did. He's a really good artist—"

"Some people confuse my stuff with Go Nagai." Akujiro's confidence returned as he fished out his sketchbook.

He opened it up to the appropriate page. There were two faces on it, one a heroic visage of Tetsuya with a sweet smile and surrounded by cartoon sparkles—basically the only thing missing was the halo. The other was a hideous mess of fangs, evil eyes, devil horns, dark vibes, rocket punch, and crazy bed-head. The latter had "Kasanoda: villain" written in clumsy katakana next to it, because, judging by the scratched out part, Akujiro couldn't remember which kanji to use for their arch-enemy's name.

Both were drawn so abysmally, however, that the proprietress wouldn't have recognized who the pictures were supposed to be of if the two in question had walked into her establishment right then. Go Nagai, her ass. . . . "Is this some kind of joke?"

Akujiro and Akutaro's faces fell. "You . . . you sure they don't look familiar? You hardly even looked—"

"Like that atrocious scribble would look like anybody. My four-year-old draws better."

"It's a perfect likeness!"

"Besides, I wasn't the one working the store last night."

"Well, bring them out, whoever it was! Show us the security tapes! It's a matter of utmost importance!"

"I'm not calling my employees at home! Now, either buy something or get out of my store, you punks!"

The two brothers exchanged glances, humbled.

Then they turned back to the wall behind the proprietress. "Can we get two packs of Lucky Strikes?"

The proprietress just put her hands on her hips. "You boys got ID for that?"

Akutaro and Akujiro exchanged even more uncomfortable glances.

That was when they heard the hiss of air brakes disengaging and the loud rumble of a diesel engine.

They ran out of the convenience store just in time to see the bus they rode in on pulling out of the parking lot and back onto the road.

Without them.

And with their bike still on the front rack.

"Hey, that's our ride!" Akutaro yelled after it.

"That's my bike!" Akujiro shouted.

The two came to a stop at the end of the parking lot, realizing there was nothing they could do. The bus was moving too fast for them to ever catch up. Plus, it cramped their style to actually give chase and exert themselves. They were stranded at the convenience store in the middle of nowhere, with a proprietress who hated their guts. Hell would freeze over before they asked her to call them a taxi.

Then, as their luck would have it, a bright yellow Vespa swerved around them to pull into the convenience store parking lot.

The two brothers watched, a plan hatching in their heads, as a young woman with shocking pink hair and a guitar slung across her back parked it and dismounted, and walked into the convenience store.

Akutaro didn't have to ask Akujiro if he was thinking the same thing.

They waited until the young woman was turned toward the refrigerated case, hopped on the Vespa, and started it up. They heard the mechanical "Welcome!" chime sound behind them as the store's door was thrown wide open, but only had time for a glance over their shoulders at the Vespa's pissed off owner, as they were already buzzing out of the parking lot, Akutaro holding onto Akujiro for dear life.

The last road sign they had seen before pulling off the highway said Hakone, Shizuoka, and eventually Ise were that way. If they just kept on this road, they must eventually run into Kasanoda.

And then justice would be served.