The battered sedan roared along the desert highway, its stereo blasting an energetic rock song as the lead singer screamed at the top of his lungs.
"We-will-we-will-rock-you-!"
"We-will-we-will-rock-you-!"
If you ignored how cramped the car was, the timeless song might have made this feel like a pretty nice family trip.
The one driving was Kite, his silver hair flowing and his demeanor dour. He barely said a word.
Ging had earned the right to sit in the passenger seat, and he was taking it easy.
As for the other five, they had to make do with squeezing into the back.
From left to right, the back seat held Shizuku by the window, Gelman in the middle, then Sheila, and Kurapika by the other window.
Kurapika had been squeezed into the window seat.
Shizuku, on the other hand, had asked for the window seat herself. She said she wanted to see the scenery outside. She was the only one who was genuinely prepared to treat the "Kakin Empire trip" as a vacation.
Four people sat shoulder to shoulder and thigh to thigh, with practically no room between them.
They were definitely over the car's capacity, but they had no choice. Ging and Kite had only brought this battered sedan, and Beyond had chopped their jeep in half.
They would just have to squeeze in. Everyone accepted that.
So where was the last of the five, Biscuit, sitting?
Her original, muscular build would never have fit inside the car, so she had changed back to her petite form.
Once she got in, the only way to save space was to have the girl-sized Biscuit sit on someone else's lap.
It wasn't very dignified, but it was more feasible than squeezing five people into the back seat.
Biscuit looked left and right, then