Mobius had wanted Kaito to come looking for her — that was the whole point of everything she'd been stirring up.
But now that Kaito had actually started looking, she had no intention of showing herself.
What on earth...
What was going on here?
Lumine stared at Miko with a completely baffled expression, utterly unable to work out the logic.
What she didn't know was that, at this very moment, Kaito couldn't work it out either.
Yeah, Miko...
Why?
Keeping his expression perfectly neutral, Kaito waited for her answer.
He'd actually had a prepared explanation ready for the question Lumine had just asked — but he hadn't expected Miko to step in and answer it for him, and with something completely different from what he'd planned.
Not that it mattered. If Miko said it herself, there was no risk of anyone being suspicious. That worked out just fine.
"Little one." Miko glanced at Lumine, who was waiting expectantly for an answer, and let out a small laugh — leaving Lumine thoroughly confused.
Miko didn't keep her in suspense for long, though. "Think about it. Up until now, Kaito had no interest in dealing with Mobius whatsoever — right? So now he's suddenly the one going to look for her. Would she really show up that fast? Of course not. He ignored her before, so naturally she's going to turn around and ignore him right back. If you want a straightforward term for it — it's just spite."
Under Lumine's gaze, Miko laid it all out with cool, easy confidence. Lumine's eyes went wide with a sudden flash of understanding, while Kaito had to fight the urge to laugh — he hadn't thought about it anything like that at all.
Though, he had to admit, Miko's explanation was remarkably good. Far better than what he'd had in mind.
Women really do understand women. Men really do understand men...
After listening to Miko's take on it, Kaito couldn't help but think exactly that.
Then he put on a mildly helpless expression and said, "Yeah, I think you're right. And honestly, I'm worried she might do something even more drastic next."
Since Miko's explanation was so much better than his own, he saw no reason not to just go with it. It wasn't like she knew he'd been planning something different.
"Then let me give you a suggestion, Kaito."
Seeing the resigned look on his face, Miko decided to share the idea she had in mind.
"A suggestion? What kind of suggestion?"
Kaito hadn't expected her to offer one, and he was genuinely curious what she was thinking.
"Stop looking for her altogether. Don't have the Geo Archon do anything either — just act as if Mobius never came to Liyue at all."
With both Kaito and Lumine watching her, Miko laid out her idea.
Her reasoning was simple: if Mobius already knew Kaito was looking for her and had decided not to appear, then having Kaito drop the search entirely would flip the dynamic. Without anyone chasing her, Mobius would almost certainly come out on her own — and then there'd be no need to go hunting for her at all.
"But what if Mobius just gets angry instead?"
Before Kaito could say anything, Lumine voiced her concern.
She thought it was a decent plan in principle — but if Mobius flew into a rage over being ignored, that would be a whole different problem.
Mobius was, after all, extremely powerful.
"That's actually perfect," Miko said, unbothered by Lumine's worry. "If she gets angry, she'll definitely show up to do something about it. Which means we get exactly what we want either way."
What they needed, at the end of the day, was for Mobius to appear. Once she did, Kaito would surely have a way to handle her.
"I see... that does sound like it could work." After hearing Miko's reasoning, Lumine mulled it over and had to agree it made sense — though something about it nagged at her, a vague feeling that it might go sideways.
"Still, I'm worried she might do something bad before she actually shows up." Knowing that Miko was likely thinking along the lines of just wait for Mobius to appear and then deal with her, Kaito raised the concern that Mobius could cause damage in the meantime — and if that happened, there was nothing he could do until she surfaced.
"Fair enough. That is a real possibility."
Miko gave a small nod, conceding the point.
Which meant, frustrating as it was, they were back to slowly searching for Mobius the hard way — with no idea what she was even doing right now.
"Let's not overthink it for the moment. Come on, eat — the food's going to get cold."
Everyone had been so deep in discussion about Mobius that they'd barely touched their meal, so Kaito nudged them to eat first and deal with the rest afterward.
"Mm." Miko nodded and picked up her chopsticks.
And while the three of them sat there eating, out in the city streets, Childe was turning over a very different problem in his head — specifically, how to arrange another meeting with Mobius.
Haah...
Seeing Mobius again isn't going to be nearly as easy this time...
And there's every chance someone notices...
Watching a Millelith patrol pass by, Childe drifted aimlessly along the street and turned that thought over in silence.
With the Qixing now searching for Mobius as well, he knew it would be nearly impossible to pull off another meeting as quietly as before.
In other words, if the two of them met again, word might get out — the number of eyes on the situation was growing by the day.
And what made it more complicated was this: Mobius would almost certainly not be discreet about their next meeting, simply because she had no idea that was something he cared about.
So he needed to find some way to let her know about that concern — and hope she'd be willing to do something about it.
But for now...
What was he supposed to do?
Just wandering around the city wasn't going to lead to a run-in with Miss Mobius...
And the Guili Plains had Millelith patrols on them now...
Walking without any real destination, Childe found himself at a genuine loss.
He was fairly sure Mobius was somewhere out in the Guili Plains — but with Millelith stationed there, he couldn't exactly stroll around the way he had before.
Which meant running into Mobius again was going to be remarkably difficult. A frustrating impasse.
Unless Mobius decided to come find him on her own, of course — in which case none of these problems would matter.
But the odds of that? Basically zero. He could wish for it all he liked.
Hm?
Just as Childe let out a helpless little laugh, something caught his eye — a strange object darting back and forth directly in front of him.
What is that?
He stared at the peculiar flying thing with a look of pure bewilderment.
And before he'd finished puzzling over it, the thing had already zipped off in another direction.
Is it... leading me somewhere?
The thought crossed his mind, and Childe immediately moved to follow it.
Whatever it was, he'd tail it first and figure out the rest later.
Following the strange object, Childe was eventually led all the way out of the city.
Could this be something Miss Mobius sent?
Trailing quietly behind it, the thought suddenly struck him.
If it really was, that would be almost too good to be true.
But Childe also knew better than to get ahead of himself — things didn't always go the way he imagined, and he'd need to stay careful.
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Samsara Game: Starting with Shirogane Kei
Let's achieve our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 extra chapter for everybody