"Hm hm hmhm hm, hm hmhm hmhm..."

"You're really vibing with that tune, aren't you?" Issei smirked as we walked down the gravel road through the middle of nowhere.

"It's catchy, I like it." I nodded, "By the way, you gave me a hint at the end of the previous chapter, but you still haven't told me exactly who we'll be meeting."

"You're still running with that gag even though we're not in a fantasy world anymore...?"

"Hm? Were we ever in a fantasy world to begin with?"

"...Never mind." He sighed, "Yeah, we'll be meeting an old family member, actually. He has a personal plane he likes to fly around in, kinda like his own air-motorcycle, so we'll be traveling with him that way."

Hm, family? Huh, personal plane!? Is Issei's entire family composed of rich people!? The only rich family that came to mind before this were the Gryses, but even they didn't have something like a personal air-motorcycle! Then again, the technology of our world hasn't yet graced us with aircrafts, so it makes sense. But I see now, the reason we're going so far out into the field, where no one else is. It's because we're technically going to be hopping borders to illegally travel to all these places. It's risky and dangerous, but given both of us will be getting a wish each, even if something bad does happen, we can just wish it didn't and use the other wish to have me and the girls swap worlds. Simple as.

"I think it was here somewhere..." Issei checked the directions on his phone, "Ack, these paths are so confusing! If we look at the map he sent, we should be right where he said, but he's nowhere to be found!"

"Who, goddammit!" I shouted, "Who're we waiting for!?"

"Dammit, stop shouting! We're looking for..." Issei noticed a flying speck approach us from the distance and smiled, "Gasp! Uncle Freddy!"

"Haha! Issei, chum! Is that you down there!?" The man piloting the foreign vehicle shouted down at us, "You look just like you did when you ran away from home! Haha, haven't changed a bit!"

"What the hell are you riding, uncle!?"

"Whoa, hold on. I'll tell you everything, but for now let me land this thing!" The guy wobbled on the thing a bit before the propellers under it stopped spinning and it fell to the ground, "Ah, no matter how many times I land it, I just can never get it to look smooth..."

Okay, what the hell is this? The man riding it, he's the fabled uncle Freddy. In other words, Itsuo's brother. I say he's Itsuo's and not Asa's purely because they look way more similar, though he looks a lot more laid back and chipper in comparison. And this aircraft, it looks nothing like a plane, or anything I've seen in this world for that matter. It's got six propellers aligned under it, presumably giving it the lift required to soar the skies, and it seems the guy steers it with two handles in the front. It's got one singular long seat, which implies we'll have to sit right behind one another instead of the standard parallel seating. Issei seems just as confused as I am, so maybe it's a new invention from during the time he was absent?

"Uncle Freddy!" Issei hugged him with all his might, "Haven't seen you in ages! How've you been?"

"Better than you, I'd say." He ruffled his nephew's hair, "What the hell, man? I'm nearing 45 and I still look way hotter than you."

"Got a girlfriend though?" Issei smirked back.

"Don't need one. Too much of a hassle, too little to gain." Freddy shrugged, "I told you this before, didn't I? You'd always ask me why I didn't have one, and I'd always give you the same reply."

"Nah, just asking again, cause..." Issei grinned, "I got two."

"...Okay? Way to go, doubling your headaches, I guess?"

"Grrr...! You're supposed to freak out at how impossible that sounds!" Issei stomped the floor, "And come on, show some envy, dammit!"

"Again, you already know my opinion on love." Freddy patted his airbike thing, "The only girl I like is life, and I plan on living it fully. Girls get in the way of that, so I'd much rather fly around, visiting all sorts of locations on my airbike."

Ah, so it's called an airbike. But these two, they haven't talked in ages, and yet now they're speaking as if they're just continuing off from yesterday's topic. I can tell Issei really does think highly of his uncle, in spite of his little tantrum he's throwing.

"This the guy we'll be taking with us?" Freddy stuck his hand out, "Sup, I'm Fuuji Kaido, but my foreign friends call me Freddy, so you're free to use that instead."

"Ah, so that's why your name was Entropic..." I blurted out, "I-I mean, it's a great nickname, and an even greater real name, Freddy! Nice to meet you, I'm Lune Grimheart."

"Mmm, Grimheart, real viking vibes there." He complimented(?) it, "Welp, a friend of Issei's is a friend of mine. Though you guys really are asking a lot out of me with this, y'know?"

"Hey, you still owed me a solid from the last time we came to visit you in America." Issei reminded him, "I went to go buy us extra chips after we ran out in the scalding hot weather because your ass was too lazy to unstick from the couch."

"And I still don't regret it. That couch had my groove imprinted on it and everything." He proudly nodded, "Well, until it started to rot through from years of sweat and bacteria accumulating. But hey, that was around the time I found this bad boy!"

"Yuck..."

What an... interesting character, I must say. Fuuji Kaido, nicknamed Freddy probably on account of people in America mishearing it, so it eventually must've stuck with him. Like I said, he seems way more similar to Issei than to his brother Itsuo, but I doubt Asa would ever cheat on her husband like that. Nah, these guys are uncle and nephew no matter what, though even then they act way more like brothers do. As someone who now has a younger brother, I can testify to this with absolute certainty.

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***

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

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"So, now that we're all properly acquainted." Issei pointed to it finally, "What the hell is this, uncle? You said you were picking us up in your private plane. Called it your own air motorcycle and everything."

"Other way around, you idiot. I said it's an air motorcycle, but since you were too busy bagging otherworldly chicks when it was made, I described it as having your own personal airplane. Get with the times, nephew."

"Get with the-!? Oh you did NOT just say that to me, you damned baby boomer!"

"I'm one of the cool adults! I'm a boomer in body, but my soul is that of a millennial!" Freddy panicked, "You agree, right Lune!? I got a freakin' flying bike I use to travel wherever I want without any need to even go through the hassle of buying any plane tickets, I've been around the world countless times and tried everything this world has to offer! That can't be uncool, right?!"

"Eh, I dunno." I shrugged, "I'm as confused as you are, Freddy. I visited a lot of places in my world too, yet my kids still think I'm not cool one bit."

"Augh, other people just don't get us at all, do they! It's all just 'Get a real job' this and 'Find a girl to have kids with' tha-!"

"Hm? What's wrong, uncle? You got quiet all of a sudden."

"Did you just say you had kids, Lune?" Freddy stopped dead in his tracks to ask me this.

"Hm? Yeah, teenage daughter and tyke son."

"...Aren't you like, a kid yourself?"

"I'm twenty nine."

"Yeah, but that's still pretty young to throw your life awa-YOUR DAUGHTERS A TEEN!?" He jumped, "Who the hell fiddled you so early on in your life, dude!?"

"Wha-!? T-There was no fiddling, Nelly's adopted!"

"Eh? So you adopted her as a teen by yourself?" He furrowed his brows and cocked his head back, "Isn't that kind of irresponsible?"

"No, I had Cecily, my then girlfriend, with me." I puffed my chest out, "Who is still with me to this day."

"Goddammit, how do kids these days do it!?" Freddy tensed up, "I traveled the world over hundreds of times and still not a single normal girl showed up!"

"I thought you said girls were a hassle." Issei asked.

"Shaddup!" He sat back on his airbike, "And get on. I heard the story from big bro, we gotta travel to all the World Wonders to get you your girlies back, right?"

"Yeah, actually." Issei figured, "Hey, while you're going with us, why not wish yourself the perfect girlfriend too?"

"I can-!? Ahem, I-I mean, that's an interesting idea." He recomposed himself, "Who knows what this journey will entail..."

"There is just no way you could ever hope to recover any shred of enigmatic intrigue after that initial reaction."

"Whoa, your English really improved since the last time I saw you. The accent especially." Freddy noticed, "Don't tell me the other world is full of Americans."

"And Brits, and Aussies, among many other dialects and accents. Thankfully they only use like 5 languages in total, and they all seem to translate perfectly into our ones."

"Convenience squared, what the hell..."

"Hm?"

"Ah, modern slang the kiddos use." He explained, "You'll hear it a lot from now on. Basically means it's really convenient."

"So you're single squared?" Issei tilted his head.

"Just for that, you're sitting in the back." He unamusedly revved the engine, "Come on, Lune. Hop on!"

"Alright, so I just...?" I wondered if it was alright to hold onto his flabby torso.

"Seatbelt." He demonstrated pulling it up on himself, "But you're free to hold on if you're scared."

"Nah, I trust your vehicles-"

"That makes one of us!" Issei practically strangled me as he cried out, "Why are those fan blades so strong!? If I was a Japanese schoolgirl instead of the hunk I am, the entire world would get an incredible view!"

"I'll buy you a kilt in that case." Freddy smirked, "That way you can be a schoolgirl and a self-proclaimed hunk all at once."

"Gah, let me go, Issei!" I shoved him back, "Just keep your butt on the seat and the propellers won't touch you!"

"See? Be a bit more like your adventurous friend Lune here!" Freddy applied pressure to the pedal, lifting us a bit off the ground, "Close your Eyes during liftoff, boys! Every time we're near ground level, it's like all the dirt and grass of the world gets picked up by the blades!"

"Ptu! Coulda told us earlier, jackass!" Issei spat out a mouthful of grass.

"Haha! Grass squared!" I smiled, "Ptu!"

What a marvelous invention! And unlike the other inventions of this world, it actually looks simple enough to construct back home! Just imagine - I could fly with Cecily and Cene to visit my parents within days! Ed and Anna could visit Arthur in a flash, and above all - I can visit Nelly and Meil whenever I fear they got too close! Haha, it was worth intercepting the ritual to come to this world with Issei, after all! I'm actually an evil genius!

"Yeah, but it's a shame piloting the airbike is expensive as hell." Freddy shook his head, "We'll have to refuel mid-air with these giant batteries I have stocked up in the glovebox. It costs $1500 just to buy one, and these damned things run on 2 per refuel."

"T-Three grand per refuel!?" Issei jolted, "And how far does a single tank take us...?"

"Mn, about three tanks in between each stop." He estimated.

"That's a lot of electricity... It might not be that easy to introduce it to our world after all." I sighed.

And so, as the three of us flew off away from the sunset (yes, away, since we're going west to America), only the journey in front of us occupied our minds. Issei, excitedly telling us all the kinky cosplay stuff he wants to try with Eleanor and Othelia, Freddy desperately holding back from doing a loop-de-loop just to shut him up, and me. What was I thinking about? Perchnace Cecily? Mayhaps the kids, or my family back in Whitehood? Hell no, right now I was only thinking about all the marvelous things I'll get to see in this world! Time for some adventuring... squared!