"Eat, eat — I'm starving."
Hearing Miko say that, Kaito decided to stop overthinking things.
He really was hungry. He needed to start eating, and fast — especially with the smell of all those dishes drifting over to him. He could barely hold himself back.
"If you're about to starve, then eat before you actually do." Seeing that Kaito wasn't going to ask, Miko said as much and left it at that.
Even so, she was still curious — had he caught the meaning behind what she'd said just now? Had he heard it and chosen to play dumb, or had it genuinely not even registered?
Oh well...
I can't be bothered thinking about it...
The last thing I need is for him to think I was hinting at something...
With that thought, Miko scooped herself a bowl of rice and started eating.
"Speaking of which — Mobius isn't off somewhere right now, tinkering away at some research project, is she? If she is... is she actually planning an attack on Liyue?" Between bites, Miko suddenly brought up Mobius, tossing the thought out like it had just crossed her mind.
She couldn't help it — she was genuinely curious what Mobius was up to.
"Maybe she just got so absorbed in her research that she forgot what she was even supposed to be doing."
Mid-meal, Kaito heard Miko mention Mobius and answered quickly.
He needed to start laying some groundwork — since Mobius would eventually need to be redeemed, he had to gradually build up the image of her as someone truly passionate about research, not just someone who cooked up weird experiments for the sake of it.
"Got so absorbed she forgot what she was doing?" The way Kaito described it, Lumine found herself feeling like her impression of this person called Mobius had somehow softened, just a little.
After all, if Mobius could get so wrapped up in research that she forgot all about Kaito, there was something almost... endearing about that.
Of course, that was just a passing thought — she didn't actually believe it.
"What makes you say that?" Miko was curious about how Kaito had arrived at that description.
Faced with two clearly curious pairs of eyes — Lumine's and Miko's — Kaito opened his mouth and said: "This is probably her first time coming here, so she's likely running into all kinds of things she's never seen before. She probably just fell down a research rabbit hole. It's happened before."
That "it's happened before" was something Kaito was making up on the spot — he had no idea whether it was actually true. But if neither Lumine nor Miko pushed on it, he wouldn't have to flesh it out. And if they did ask, well — he'd just keep improvising.
"What a research-obsessed little girl she sounds like."
Hearing Kaito's answer, Miko murmured to herself.
She already knew that Mobius was tens of thousands of years older than her, but whenever she tried to picture the girl, she couldn't help calling her that.
Besides, Mobius couldn't hear her, so she could call her whatever she liked.
And more importantly — the first time they'd met, Mobius had called her 'big sis.' That made calling her 'little girl' completely justified.
Yes. Entirely justified!
[Author's note — Reader comment: Miko, just how much do you love calling people 'little girl'?]
Kaito couldn't help thinking to himself: she already knows how old Mobius is, and she's still calling her that?
He'd fudged the numbers, sure — but Miko hadn't suspected a thing. And even knowing the rough figure, she still called Mobius "little girl" without missing a beat.
"Little girl?" Lumine found it strange — hearing Miko refer to someone tens of thousands of years old as a 'little girl.'
"She's just a little girl to me. First time we met, she called me 'big sis' — she's honestly way better than that little brat Wendy, I'll tell you that much." Miko laughed and brought Wendy into it.
"You'd better watch out she doesn't drag you off to use as a research subject, Miko."
Seeing that Miko had already decided Mobius was an improvement over Wendy, Lumine said it half-jokingly.
Even though Kaito's description had softened her impression of Mobius a little, she still thought Mobius was dangerous — that much hadn't changed.
"Please. If she's grabbing anyone, it's Kaito first — why would she bother with me?"
Miko shot back in the same joking tone.
Joking aside, she actually did believe that. After all, Mobius had come here because of Kaito — he was the obvious first target.
Though, if Mobius took issue with Miko and Lumine being around him, there was always a chance she might do something to the two of them as well.
"All the better. The last thing I want is to drag you two into this."
Kaito's expression had turned serious.
"What are you saying? Like we'd just stand on the sidelines and watch whatever you two get up to? Right, Lumine?" Miko clearly wasn't having it, and she turned to Lumine for backup.
Lumine nodded. "That's right, Kaito. We're not just going to stand by and do nothing."
You two, standing on the sidelines, watching me and Mobius... 'get up to' things?
Something about the way Miko had phrased that felt a little off to Kaito — though he couldn't quite put his finger on what.
This wasn't the moment to bring it up, though. So he said: "Right. Hopefully this time I can get her to stop bothering me for good."
"Actually — why doesn't Mobius just come straight to you, Kaito? No one even knows what she's doing right now."
Lumine asked the question out of genuine curiosity.
If Mobius had been pestering Kaito all this time, shouldn't she be appearing right in front of him? Could she really have gotten so distracted by research, just like Kaito said?
"That is a bit strange, isn't it." Miko agreed.
Back in Inazuma, Mobius had shown up directly. But now that they were in Liyue, she wasn't showing herself at all — that was odd.
"Probably because I kept ignoring her before. This time, she wants to stir something up and make me come to her."
Seeing both of them puzzling over it, Kaito answered offhandedly.
He'd known this would seem strange, so he'd had the explanation ready. If they didn't buy it, there wasn't much he could do — it was just his guess, after all.
"Ha. Drama queen, for a little girl." After hearing Kaito out, Miko couldn't help muttering.
At this point, she was starting to feel like Mobius — tens of thousands of years old as she may be — really did act exactly like a little girl.
"But... Kaito, you've already started looking for her, haven't you? So why hasn't she shown up yet?"
Lumine threw out another question.
Before Kaito could even answer, Miko stepped in for him: "Because Kaito has already started looking — that's exactly why she won't show herself so easily."
"Huh? W-why not?"
Lumine stared blankly, completely lost.
____
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