The question had only just occurred to her, but the moment it did, Miko's curiosity was fully ignited.
She probably ought to be asking about Mobius right now — but clearly she knew far too little about Kaito. And whatever else was going on, they'd already taken that step together, so not knowing something this basic really was a bit much.
"So how old is Kaito, anyway?" Miko asked, looking between Kiana and Acheron.
The Mobius business could wait until after she'd gotten an answer to this far more important question.
"Why the sudden interest in Kaito?" Kiana looked a little puzzled. She'd been expecting Miko to ask about Mobius — not pivot to Kaito out of nowhere.
"Just a little curious, that's all. To think someone could be swept off their feet by a little girl who's tens of thousands of years old..."
"Tens of thousands of years old?"
Acheron hadn't expected Miko to phrase it quite like that, and couldn't help repeating it back to her. Tens of thousands of years old — and she was still calling her a little girl?
"Ahem, ahem. Don't get hung up on that little detail."
Realizing her phrasing had been a bit off, Miko gave a theatrical little cough to paper over the awkwardness.
Not getting hung up on it is easy enough... but how am I supposed to answer this?
Just tell her the real age?
But wouldn't that be a little strange?
It was, genuinely, a difficult question to answer. Kiana turned it over in her head for a moment — then decided to just be honest about it.
"Here's a question back at you — how old does Kaito look to you?" Kiana settled into the seat beside her and turned the question around.
"Well, she just looks like a little girl, doesn't she? Who could've guessed she'd already... lived that long."
Miko could tell Kiana was already working her way toward an answer, but she had a feeling Kaito wasn't quite what she appeared to be.
"Kaito looks exactly as old as she looks — no more, no less. She's not like Mobius, and she's not like you either." Seeing Miko's expression, Kiana decided to just spell it out.
Miko: "..."
She wasn't at a loss over Kaito's age, exactly — it was more that she had a distinct feeling Kiana had just implied she was getting on in years.
Well, that said, Kiana had asked her to call her Sis, which meant Kiana was definitely the older one. That was a comfort, at least.
"Alright then. I was half-expecting Kaito to be tens of thousands of years old too, honestly..."
At any rate, Miko now had a rough idea of how old Kaito actually was. Which meant it was time to move on to the real topic.
"So — was Mobius here in Inazuma looking for Kaito?"
"No idea. She didn't say." Kiana shook her head.
Left with no other option, Miko looked to Acheron.
"I don't know either. And I'm not exactly close with her." Under Miko's gaze, Acheron shook her head as well.
"Fair enough. Though based on what you two said earlier, it does seem likely, doesn't it." Seeing that neither of them knew, Miko reasoned it out for herself — and then a possibility struck her.
"You don't think..." She shot to her feet. "...Mobius has already gone to Liyue to find Kaito?"
How perceptive of her...
Acheron watched Miko spring upright and said nothing, the thought passing through her mind in silence.
"It's possible. But how would she know Kaito is in Liyue right now?" Kiana nodded, looking as though she were working through something.
"If neither of you said anything... then maybe it was that little rascal Wendy who told her." Watching Kiana think, Miko zeroed in on Wendy as the most likely culprit.
After all, apart from Kiana and Acheron — and herself — Wendy was the only other person who knew where Kaito was.
"But those two are even less acquainted with each other." Acheron pointed out.
Letting Wendy take the blame this time wasn't exactly out of the question — but after thinking it over, Acheron decided against it.
After all, right now what mattered was that Mobius had indeed gone to Liyue. How she'd known Kaito was there? Unknown. And letting it remain unknown would give Miko the impression that Mobius had her own means of finding things out.
"Not being close doesn't mean the little rascal wouldn't have said something."
Miko still felt strongly that Wendy was the most likely person to have let slip to Mobius that Kaito was in Liyue.
"We haven't even confirmed that Mobius has gone to Liyue yet." Kiana hadn't expected Miko to be quite this convinced, and gently pushed back.
Fine...
I'll just have Wendy come over here for a bit.
With that thought, Wendy immediately set off making her way toward the shrine.
"Hold on — is that stir-fried pork with chili peppers?" At that exact moment, Kiana caught sight of the dish sitting on the table and looked visibly surprised.
Miko: "!"
She'd been about to bring the conversation back to Wendy when Kiana's words made her heart skip a beat.
Kiana hadn't noticed before, and that had made Miko forget all about her own plate of stir-fried pork with chili peppers still sitting there.
"Miko was still craving some, so we went out and bought more ingredients and fried up another batch." While Miko was still figuring out how to answer, Acheron stepped in and answered for her.
"Oh, is that so? It does look a bit different from mine, though."
Kiana kept her gaze on the plate, looking genuinely curious.
Of course it's different...
My dear Kiana...
This is what stir-fried pork with chili peppers is actually supposed to look like!
Miko kept the inner grumbling to herself. She wasn't ready to say any of it to Kiana's face — not yet.
Regardless, the priority right now was to discuss the Mobius situation.
"Yeah — Acheron finished off the last batch, and since there wasn't anything else going on, we went out together to grab more and cook another round." Catching the grateful look Acheron shot her, Miko picked up the thread and relayed it to Kiana.
She knew perfectly well that this would just mean Kiana dragging her into another round of culinary catastrophe later — but there was nothing else she could do right now.
Wait.
I could have Kiana taste my stir-fried pork...
See if she can tell that what she's been making isn't actually normal food at all...
The thought came to her all at once, and Miko followed it up immediately: "Kiana, give this a try — tell me how you think my stir-fried pork with chili peppers turned out."
"Sure."
Kiana nodded and picked up her chopsticks, taking a taste of Miko's stir-fried pork.
Since Acheron hadn't been able to tell the difference, it was up to her to give it a proper go.
____
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