"Miko? What are you doing back here again?" Kaito's voice cut through their exchange, drawing both of them to look over.
It was Kaito... though he was alone.
So the girl called Mobius still hadn't tracked him down yet?
Lumine watched him walking toward her and Miko, that quiet thought drifting through her mind.
And while Lumine was thinking that, Miko had already taken offense.
"What? I'm not allowed to come over?"
She'd been about to ask Kaito straight out whether he'd run into Mobius — but his phrasing had rubbed her the wrong way, and the words slipped out before she could stop them. Mobius could wait.
In that moment, Miko felt like every bit of goodwill she'd brought with her had just been waved off without a second glance. She was half a step from turning right around and heading back to Inazuma.
She couldn't help it — the way Kaito had said it made it sound exactly like she'd barged in and interrupted his precious alone time with Lumine.
"No, no — I just meant I was surprised you got here so fast... well... anyway..." Kaito hadn't expected her to take it that way, and scrambled to explain himself, only to realize mid-sentence that he had no idea how to actually fix it. He gave up and went with: "You might as well just stay in Liyue for a while. We can all head back together later."
He'd only been trying to show how genuinely surprised he was to see her. The words had just come out all wrong.
Haah...
Is that really how you say things, Kaito...
Lumine, standing off to the side in her own pocket of awkwardness, couldn't help thinking exactly that.
She wanted to jump in and smooth things over for him, but she had a feeling that anything she said would only make Miko misunderstand even more. So she kept her mouth shut.
"Forget it. Let's not get into all that." Seeing Kaito's apologetic expression, Miko could tell he'd just fumbled his wording. She let it go and moved on. "But where did you disappear to just now? You didn't say a word to Lumine before you left."
Miko decided not to bring up Mobius right away — first things first.
"Oh, that — I just went out for a walk. Lumine was asleep at the time, so I didn't want to bother her."
He'd had his answer ready for this one. Still, after everything that had just happened, he was genuinely a little worried Miko wouldn't buy it.
"And... has Mobius come to find you?" Miko didn't comment on his answer. She went straight to the question that actually mattered.
After what had just happened, she wasn't entirely ready to take him at his word. But then again — Kaito had never tried to hide his other girlfriends from anyone. She was used to new ones turning up out of nowhere. So she skipped the preamble and cut to the point.
"Mobius?!" Kaito looked like he'd been hit with a jolt of electricity. He glanced around the immediate area, scanning, as if genuinely nervous she might materialize right then and there. "Where is she? How do you know about her?"
What is this guy doing?
Is he really that scared of her?
She hadn't expected this reaction at all. Miko turned it over in her head, then said, "She showed up in Inazuma while you were here in Liyue, and then vanished not long after. So I figured she probably came here looking for you."
"So the two of you have already met."
Kaito murmured it quietly, like he was working something out.
"We have. And she put on this whole act in front of me — playing the sweet little girl, calling me 'big sis' every other word. I never would've guessed she's tens of thousands of years old." By now, Miko was fairly certain that Mobius hadn't found Kaito yet.
But then — why not?
Had Mobius not actually come to Liyue at all?
Or... had she simply not figured out where Kaito was yet?
Or...
Was Mobius somewhere nearby right now, watching them from the shadows?
The possibilities turned over in her mind, and Miko did a quiet sweep of the area with her eyes.
Naturally, there was no sign of Mobius anywhere.
"Come on, let's head inside — we can talk there." Kaito clearly had no interest in continuing this conversation out in the open.
"Alright, let's go in." The street wasn't the right place for this anyway. Miko gave a nod, and the three of them made their way back toward the little courtyard.
A little while later.
"Mobius is a girl I used to know... well... not quite — more like a researcher, let's say." Back in Kaito's room, he was walking Lumine and Miko through the backstory he'd prepared in advance about Mobius.
"A researcher?"
Miko looked visibly taken aback. The last thing she'd expected was for that little-girl-looking Mobius to be a researcher of all things — which only made her more curious about what exactly she researched.
"So what does she research?"
"Monsters."
He'd had an answer ready for this one too.
"Monsters? What kind of monsters?" This time it was Lumine who spoke up — she'd been wanting to ask but Miko kept getting there first.
"How to put it... something like the creatures you'd find in the Spiral Abyss." Kaito answered without missing a beat.
"Abyss monsters? Why would she be researching those?"
Miko pressed again. If Mobius was dedicating herself to studying those things, she must have something specific in mind.
"Immortality, I'd guess."
Kaito's answer came with just a hint of uncertainty.
"So she's lived this long because of her research?" Miko stared at him, genuinely stunned.
She'd assumed Mobius had simply been born that way — capable of living for tens of thousands of years by nature. Apparently she'd been wrong.
Even so, Mobius impressed her — more than before, actually. Because being born with longevity required nothing. But Mobius clearly hadn't been born with it. She'd clawed her way to it. That was a different thing entirely. Something almost terrifying. Flying in the face of everything that was supposed to be possible.
"More or less. And she wasn't always this small, either — she used to be... roughly your height, Miko, I'd say."
His gaze settled on Miko as he said it.
"What do you mean?" Miko blinked, not quite following.
Not always this small?
She met Kaito's eyes with a look of open confusion.
"Her appearance, I mean. She didn't always look like that."
Kaito answered simply, watching Miko's mix of surprise and bewilderment with a calm, even tone.
"Then how did she end up so small? Did she age in reverse?" Lumine finally found a gap to squeeze her question in.
It wasn't easy — Miko moved fast. There was barely any room left by the time Lumine got a chance to speak.
"No. She shrinks a little every time she dies."
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