Yumichika and Ikkaku followed Bonnie back to civilization and up to a hospital, where they stopped and waited as Hanatarou hopped off the bike and pulled off the borrowed helmet. He handed it to Ganju, then smiled in a pathetic sort of way, waved and trotted into the building. Ikkaku frowned uncomfortably as Ganju crammed his large head into the pink helmet.

"He's not some sort of cancer patient, is he? Did we seriously just beat up a cancer patient?"

"No, nothin' like that." Ganju spoke through the now-open visor, which Hanatarou apparently did not prefer to open, ever. "He's a PA. Pretty smart stuff. Just wish he'd finally save up for a car so I can quit carting him around."

"PA as in physician's assistant?" Yumichika was appalled. "He's what, twelve years old?"

"And puny! Why is he puny?" Ikkaku was similarly affected.

Ganju shrugged. "I don't know, genetics? Don't ask me! Let's go, or my sister'll be on my case for loitering around in town again." He took Bonnie back to the road. Yumichika and Ikkaku followed once more, pondering the puzzle of the puny PA.

Ganju led them back out of town and away from Route 66. It was their first major deviation from the faithful old byway, and they were almost sad to go. Almost. They would see it again soon enough if their newfound luck held.

After driving for nearly forty minutes, which felt even longer since they had to stare at Ganju's back the entire time, they saw a sign saying "Welcome to Old Town Boron. Twenty Mule Team Museum. NASA Tour Info Ask at Museum." They stared, but it was apparently old news to Ganju. He drove right on past. They quickly entered a little armpit of a town.

"So do they do the NASA tour at the mule museum?" Ikkaku had used up the last of the lotion during the drive, turning it a nice shade of pink with his nose blood, and was once again sitting with his elbows resting on his knees, narrowly avoiding the glove box. It looked pretty cramped.

"Keeping mules and space ships in one building is a serious faux pas, Ikkaku. You should know that by now. Or were you asleep all the way through New Mexico?"

"Sorry, don't know what came over me. That was foolish."

"You're probably just sensitive to the magical aura of the fifth element."

Ikkaku looked like he was wracking his brain for that reference, but to no avail. "I thought that was love. Is it space, then? I don't love space OR mules, and I sure don't love you."

Yumichika wanted to head-desk on the steering wheel, but taking his eyes off the road had not been working out well on this trip. "Google it."

Ikkaku rolled his eyes. He was getting pretty good at doing that without messing up his nose. He dug around in his pants pockets until he found his phone. He poked it. He looked back at Yumichika and said flatly, "I can't."

"Why not? What did you do?"

"Besides get tossed into a ditch with it? Nothing."

"Huh. It's boron, then."

"What's boron? Does that mean I need a new phone?"

"The fifth element, you stinking baboon! Boron! This town is called Boron!"

Ikkaku contemplated that for a moment, then huffed in exasperation. "Give me a break! I'm distracted! My nose is throbbing, I'm covered in this stupid lotion crap, and now I have to buy a whole new phone! It wasn't even a good joke!"

Yumichika gasped in outrage. "That was pure comedy gold! You're phone's a piece of junk, and you can probably fix it, anyway! Do you know how many times I've managed to think of jokes that good? Not a lot!"

"That's the best you can do for jokes and you call ME a baboon?"

They did not quite run Ganju over when he stopped, but it was close. Thinking back over the drive through Boron, trying to sift past the mouth noises coming out of Ikkaku's stupid face, Yumichika vaguely remembered seeing a huge open pit mine. Maybe. It had not seemed notable at the time. They were past it, anyway. Ganju led them slowly down a long driveway.

The driveway led to a house. Something like a house. A house with arms. The arms held a banner. The banner proclaimed "Kuukaku Shiba" in impressive, intimidating lettering. Yumichika and Ikkaku stopped sniping at each other in favor of staring at the spectacle, but again this seemed to be old news to Ganju. He drove right up under the ridiculous banner and parked Bonnie next to the house. Yumichika did likewise with the jeep, but stayed well away from the arms. The stone muscles were creepy.