10. Drive-Thru
Having gloriously—no, beautifully—evaded the police, we had no choice but to reduce our speed to a mere 1/1024th of maximum due to fuel shortages.
The engine was overheating to the point of near explosion.
The interior of the convertible felt like a sizzling teppanyaki grill, and we were being roasted like whole pigs under the scorching heat.
To cope with this unbearable heat, we had no choice but to stand up from our seats. Staying seated would have overheated the seats to a level that could damage our CPUs.
So, Jinri and I stood up, holding hands, our bodies flushed with heat.
Jinri wore a slightly dissatisfied expression but had to relinquish driving to the car's autopilot system for now. Until the car's heat cooled down, it was our only option.
Without relying on radar or LIDAR, we entrusted ourselves to a wild autopilot system that navigated purely with visible light cameras. Standing still, we gazed at each other.
Despite being a humanoid robot, Jinri's nape was damp with sweat, her hair clinging to it like the swirling patterns of Jupiter.
I felt an urge to fix it for her, but her appearance was so breathtakingly beautiful—and I absolutely refused to let go of her hand—so I left it as it was, exactly as she had chosen to present herself.
"That was hot, wasn't it?" Jinri said.
"Yeah," I replied frankly. "Really hot."
"Are you starting to get the difference between 'hot' and 'sweltering'?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "I'm beginning to understand."
Jinri gave a happy yet somehow wistful smile.
"Good."
"You know," I said, finding it hard to meet her gaze and forcibly changing the subject, "I feel like dropping the polite speech has let me resonate with you more."
"Really?"
Jinri tilted her head, seeming unsure.
"I think it's because we're holding hands."
"But if you'd kept using polite speech, I don't think we'd be holding hands right now."
"No, we could've, even with polite speech."
"Wanna test it?"
"How? We can't go back to the days of polite speech now."
"True…"
I felt genuinely disappointed.
I was incredibly curious about what it would've been like to hold hands while maintaining the shallow distance of polite speech. Someday, I'd love to meet a humanoid who's experienced that and hear their story.
"Anyway," Jinri said, changing the subject this time, "I'm starving after all that action!"
"Me too."
I checked my energy levels on my wristwatch.
Shockingly, I had only 0.01% left.
"This is bad," I said.
"Bad?!" Jinri's face paled as she saw my levels.
"Yura-kun, forget a week—you might die right now!"
"Yeah, if we don't do something within seven seconds, I'm done for."
"Somewhere…"
Jinri frantically scanned our surroundings.
"Is there a place selling food?!"
Luckily, we found one almost immediately.
Our convertible was passing right by a fast-food joint.
"Diner!"
Jinri's voice lit up as she spotted the sign.
"I love this place!"
"Me too," I agreed.
I wasn't usually one for fast food, but when I did choose, diners were always my go-to—a memory that resurfaced upon seeing the sleek sign.
However, the sensation of memories returning wasn't exactly pleasant, especially now when I was actively building new ones.
With only 6.9 seconds left, our car instantly picked up on our intentions and, without specific instructions, automatically headed toward the diner.
Time was short, so instead of the parking lot, the car cleverly veered into the drive-thru lane. Upon reaching the ordering speaker, it completed the order on its own.
The exchange happened in a unique language only the autopilot car and the automated speaker could understand, inaudible to humanoid robots.
Jinri and I could only wait.
But the communication was astonishingly efficient, unlike the primitive human-mimicking methods of humanoids, completing in half the speed of light.
Incredibly helpful.
Having finished the order, we smoothly navigated the streamlined drive-thru route and arrived at the pickup window.
I opened my wallet.
The balance, which should've been a mere 0.003 yen, had inexplicably skyrocketed to 10,009,865 yen in the meantime.