"If that's the case, then I'll give it a try."
With everyone watching, waiting on him with barely concealed hope, Zhongli finally gave a slow nod.
If they wanted him to go look for young Kaito, then he would go look for young Kaito.
Besides — he was curious himself. He wondered whether Kaito had already thought of this. After all, no plan, however carefully laid, could ever guarantee a hundred percent success.
With that settled, Zhongli vanished from sight almost imdiately.
"...He just — left?" Lumine, who had been quietly wondering what Mr. Zhongli was going to do next, blinked when he simply disappeared. She hadn't expected him to go just like that.
"Don't worry — Mr. Zhongli will definitely be able to find Kaito."
Childe offered the reassurance from beside her.
Not that he actually felt all that confident saying it. Pinning his hopes on soone else wasn't exactly his strong suit, and it left him with a distinctly uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Well...
He couldn't just sit here relying entirely on Mr. Zhongli, either.
Turning it over in his head, Childe decided he might as well send so of his own people out to search as well. No matter how you looked at it, more hands ant better odds.
His mind made up, he spoke: "Then I'll take my leave, you two."
And with that, Childe departed.
Just like that...
He still felt off, sohow.
Miko watched Childe's retreating figure in silence, that sa quiet suspicion she'd been carrying since the beginning stirring in her chest again. She had no evidence — she never did — but the feeling wouldn't go away.
"Should we go look for Kaito too, Miko?"
Seeing that everyone else had left, Lumine turned to Miko with the question.
Mr. Zhongli had already gone ahead to look for him, but that didn't an they should just stand around doing nothing.
"Oh — right." Sothing had just occurred to her. Lumine quickly spoke up: "I think I know sowhere Kaito might be."
"Sowhere? Where?" Miko, who had still been turning the matter of Childe over in her mind, snapped to attention the mont Lumine said that.
She was curious — what place could Lumine possibly an?
Sowhere she and Kaito had been before, maybe? Miko had stepped away for a while earlier, so that was the direction her thoughts went.
"There's a little island — I can't rember its na, or maybe I never knew it — but you can see it from the docks." Lumine thought about it for a mont, then gave up on recalling the na and simply described it by where it was visible from.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."
Miko was dying to ask what exactly Kaito and Lumine had gotten up to on that island, but she knew now wasn't the ti. Whatever the answer, it could wait until after they'd actually gotten there.
"Alright, I'll lead the way." Lumine gave a nod and headed toward the door first.
She was the one who'd brought it up, after all. It only made sense for her to guide them — even if Miko probably knew the way just as well.
"So what were you two doing up there before?" Walking along beside her, Miko couldn't help herself and asked anyway.
It was just a small question. It wouldn't take long to answer.
"Oh, that — we were passing through Liyue and happened to spot it, and then I noticed soone on it, so we went to take a look. That's all."
Lumine, up ahead, answered right away.
"Soone? Who?"
Miko followed up. She wasn't particularly invested in the answer — she just didn't want Lumine thinking she only cared about why they'd gone to the island in the first place, so she asked.
"Who was it again... I think I... forgot." Lumine scratched her head, realizing she genuinely couldn't recall the person's na.
Or perhaps she'd never known it to begin with.
Either way, she didn't have it now — so all she could do was admit she'd forgotten.
"Doesn't matter — I was just asking."
Miko stepped up beside Lumine, watching her strain to rember, and gave a small smile. She'd only been asking idly, after all.
And truly, she had been. She'd already gotten the answer she actually wanted from Lumine's earlier reply.
"Oh... there are a lot of Millelith."
Lumine noticed them first — soldiers of the Millelith, lining the road in considerable numbers.
"Probably sothing to do with Mobius," Miko said, glancing at the assembled soldiers. She could guess at the situation well enough.
"Huh? But how did they find out?" Lumine turned to look at Miko with so surprise. She hadn't expected the Millelith to already know about Mobius.
"Have you forgotten? Kaito had Mr. Zhongli pass the word along to the Qixing a while back."
Seeing Lumine's blank look, Miko brought up what had happened before.
"But it seems like they actually knew Mobius might appear today specifically." Lumine still found it strange.
After all, what Miko was referring to had happened so ti ago — and back then, there certainly hadn't been this many Millelith suddenly appearing in the streets.
"Maybe the Liyue Qixing have gotten hold of so new information."
Miko offered the thought offhandedly.
"I suppose so." It made sense to Lumine, and she let the matter drop.
As the two of them talked, they arrived at the docks.
"Do we need to take a bo—"
"With your big sister Miko here? Of course not." Before Lumine could even finish wondering aloud whether they'd need a boat to reach the island, Miko had already grabbed her hand and taken off into the air.
"Is that the island up ahead?"
Miko pointed at a small island in the distance and asked.
"That's the one." Glancing in the direction Miko was pointing, Lumine confird it with a quick nod.
The two of them landed on the island shortly after.
"Kaito? Are you here?"
The mont her feet touched the ground, Lumine called out loudly to the island around her.
She had a feeling that if Kaito was here, he would have already sensed their arrival — but she called out anyway. This way, she could be absolutely certain he'd know they were here.
"Don't tell that guy actually fell asleep."
When a mont passed with no response, Miko muttered to herself and began walking toward the center of the island.
Might as well go look.
"Of course not~"
She had barely taken a few steps when a voice rang out from sowhere around them. But it wasn't Kaito's voice — it belonged to soone else Miko knew.
Miko: "!"
"It's Mobius!"
Almost the instant she heard it, Miko stopped dead in her tracks and called out a warning to Lumine behind her.
"Mobius?!"
Not having expected Mobius to be here at all, Lumine spun to look around in every direction, equally stunned.
Almost imdiately, her thoughts went to Kaito. She began to worry.
"I wonder if Kaito is alright..."
"You'd do better worrying about yourself, little sister."
With those words, Mobius stepped into view before them.
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Danmachi: Summoning Ruri Gokou, And other Chuunibyou Brats
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!
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