"That's one way to put it," Kaito said with a nod.
Since Miko had already figured it out on her own, there wasn't much left for him to add.
Still, he had a feeling she — and probably Lumine too — were about to ask what Mobius actually looked like in that other form.
And for that question, Kaito had his answer ready: he didn't know. He'd never seen it.
As for how he knew Mobius even had that kind of form in the first place, without ever having seen it himself — well, that was simple. Mobius had told him.
"So... what does she actually look like, specifically?"
Just as Kaito had anticipated, Miko was the one to ask.
"I don't know. I've never seen it." Under Miko's steady gaze, Kaito slowly shook his head.
"Then how do you even know she can look like that, Kaito?"
Again, exactly as he'd expected — this time it was Lumine.
"Right, you said you've never seen it. So how do you know?" Miko echoed, equally unconvinced.
"She told me. Obviously."
Kaito answered Lumine and Miko's joint skepticism with perfect nonchalance, as though it were the most self-evident thing in the world.
"Honestly? She might just be lying to you." Since Kaito had never actually seen Mobius's other form, Miko thought there was a very real chance she'd made the whole thing up.
After all, Mobius had apparently told him all about it — and yet he still hadn't seen it. If that wasn't stringing someone along, what was?
As for why she'd do that... Miko had no idea. Maybe to make Kaito feel like he owed her something. Maybe to keep him off-balance.
"I think so too." Lumine nodded in full agreement.
Hm...
Why do they both think that?
Just because I said I've never seen it?
Kaito hadn't expected both Lumine and Miko to land on the same conclusion — that Mobius had simply been lying to him. It caught him off guard.
He'd assumed they'd start worrying about whether Mobius might pull something here in Liyue. Instead, neither of them went there at all.
Not that it mattered much either way. They'd see Mobius's other form for themselves eventually, and once they did, they'd believe him.
Right...
I should go talk to Zhongli about all this now.
With that thought, Kaito stood up.
"Where are you going, Kaito?"
The moment he rose to his feet, Lumine was immediately on alert, asking just that.
With the whole Mobius situation hanging over them, she was still a little uneasy about Kaito going anywhere on his own — there was no telling what he might run into.
"I need to go see Zhongli. I have to fill them in on what's going on with Mobius."
He glanced over at Lumine and Miko, both of whom had already risen to their feet as well, and answered them.
"Then we'll come with you," Miko said. Whatever the situation, sticking together was clearly the smarter call right now.
"Alright, let's go."
Kaito gave a nod and headed for the door first. Lumine and Miko fell in step right behind him.
If they both wanted to come along, then together it was.
Outside.
"I keep getting this feeling like Mobius is right next to us, peering at us from somewhere we can't see," Miko muttered, her eyes constantly scanning their surroundings as she walked alongside Kaito.
The fact that Mobius hadn't shown herself directly meant she was almost certainly lurking in the shadows, cooking something up.
Though, of course, there was another possibility — that she hadn't actually come to Liyue at all, and had genuinely moved on.
Miko couldn't say which it was. She wasn't going to let her guard down either way.
"If that's actually what she's doing, she sounds terrifying," Lumine said, her own gaze drifting around them as she heard Miko say that.
Being watched without knowing it was, frankly, a deeply unsettling thought.
Wait...
Earlier, when Kaito and I were...
...sleeping...
Was that Mobius person already there, watching us?
The thought hit Lumine out of nowhere, and a cold, crawling sensation ran up her spine.
If it had been Miko watching, she'd have been embarrassed — a moment like that was something she only wanted Kaito to know about. Anyone else finding out would just be mortifying.
But if it had been Mobius watching? That didn't produce embarrassment at all. Just a deep, bone-level dread. She wasn't entirely sure whether that was because of the way Kaito had described her, or something else entirely.
"Just going off appearances, she's actually... not bad-looking, honestly. But obviously that's not a reason to let your guard down — I nearly fell for it myself, before." Miko continued, following up on what Lumine had said.
She had to admit — Mobius was genuinely beautiful.
But the more beautiful she was, the more dangerous Miko thought she was, after everything Kaito had just described. That kind of gap between face and nature was deeply unsettling.
So this Mobius is supposed to be very pretty...
I wonder what Kaito thinks of her.
Hearing Miko say that, Lumine found the thought surfacing before she could stop it.
Not that she was going to ask. She wasn't going to say it out loud.
Besides, she didn't need to. She just had to wait for Mobius to show up herself.
How did we end up talking about what Mobius looks like?
Kaito had been quietly listening to the two of them go back and forth, and that thought rose in him unbidden.
He hadn't expected the conversation to drift all the way over to Mobius's appearance. And yet, somehow, here they were.
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