"What do you mean, just refusing outright? Don't you want to know who I'm taking you to meet, Ei?"
Miko hadn't expected Ei to decline so flatly. She immediately pushed back, having assumed that Ei would at least ask.
"I don't." Ei's answer was just as curt as the first.
She knew perfectly well that if it were something truly important, Miko would end up telling her eventually. She didn't need to ask.
"...Fine." Miko let out a small sigh of resignation, then pressed on anyway: "It's Kiana — the girl who looks so much like the Sustainer. I've already arranged things with her. Will you come meet her?"
She watched Ei as she said it, genuinely uncertain whether Ei would agree to go.
That girl...
At the mention of Kiana, Ei's expression shifted — just slightly. She hadn't expected this to be what Miko wanted to talk about.
If she was being honest with herself, she had no desire to have anything more to do with the Sustainer than was strictly necessary. But now there was someone who looked almost exactly like the Sustainer standing in her nation — someone who refused to admit to being the Sustainer — and Ei genuinely didn't know what to make of it.
If the girl had no ulterior motive and had simply appeared in Inazuma by chance, then she had no real reason to concern herself with her. But things were rarely that simple. That was precisely why Ei had wanted to understand who Kiana truly was — and what she was after.
And yet, no matter how long she'd sat with it, she was no closer to an answer.
Now Miko was telling her she'd arranged a meeting. That settled it — she had to go.
But before she did, there were a few things she wanted to know first.
"Ei? Are you still with me? Should I go back to the door and knock again?"
While Ei was lost in thought, Miko had already waved a hand in front of her face — and was now, with full theatrical seriousness, suggesting she step back outside and knock.
"Put that away, Miko. Stop doing strange things."
Even by Miko's usual standards, this was a bit much. Ei felt compelled to say something.
"I thought you'd retreated back into that place of yours to shut yourself away again," Miko said, making a show of looking utterly relieved now that Ei was responding.
"Enough, Miko. Didn't you say you were taking me to meet Kiana?"
"Yes — so are you coming, Ei?" Miko nodded, watching her.
She already knew the answer. Ei was going to come. She just had a few questions first — that much was obvious.
"You said you can take me to see Kiana. I want to know — was this your idea, or hers?"
Ei met Miko's gaze and asked the question slowly, deliberately. Given that Kiana was no ordinary person, she needed to be prepared.
"It was both of ours, of course," Miko answered without missing a beat.
"Both of yours?"
Ei frowned slightly at that.
She felt like Miko was being evasive. Miko was Miko; Kiana was Kiana. Saying 'both of ours' was just a way of not answering.
"I proposed it, and she agreed — so yes, it was both of our idea," Miko clarified immediately, reading Ei's expression.
She understood what Ei was getting at. But whatever else could be said, she had no intention of letting Ei down.
"So you've already gotten quite close to her," Ei said. It wasn't really a surprise — she'd half-expected this — but she hadn't thought Miko would take the initiative like this.
Of course, she was also curious exactly how close Miko and Kiana had actually gotten.
"Not that close, really. We just had tea together." Miko smiled lightly and kept it simple.
In her own mind, she didn't think she and Kiana were quite at the 'close friends' stage yet. But after spending time with her just now, she'd found Kiana surprisingly easy to be around — and that was why she'd suggested this. There was also, of course, the matter of Kaito — given that things had taken a step forward between them just yesterday, one thing had led to another.
Still, she was a little worried about what Ei might read into this. Specifically, that she'd somehow 'crossed over' to Kaito's side.
"Tea?" Ei raised a brow. She hadn't expected that.
"Mhm. She's still at the shrine right now — she's been waiting for you." Miko smiled with a trace of expectation.
"Your lover isn't there?"
Ei considered for a moment, then said that.
"My lover?" Miko blinked, thrown for a moment by how Ei had chosen to refer to Kaito. Then she answered:
"He's still in Liyue — doing something about the remnants of the fallen gods for the Geo Archon there."
"Remnants of the fallen gods?"
That surprised Ei — genuinely. Such remnants were, by all conventional understanding, impossible to fully purge.
She found herself wanting to know exactly what Miko meant by 'doing something about them.' With anyone else, she wouldn't have even asked — the assumption would simply be that they were managing around the remnants, not eliminating them. But this was the young man called Kaito. That changed things.
"Apparently he has a way to purge them completely," Miko said — careful to couch it as hearsay rather than stating it as fact outright, even though she knew full well that Kaito almost certainly could.
"To actually possess such an ability..."
By the time Miko finished speaking, Ei had already made up her mind: Kaito could do it. She had no real doubt. She'd already seen enough to know he was no ordinary person — and the women who accompanied him were each, in their own way, utterly unfathomable.
"I think we're getting a little off-topic," Miko said, noting that Ei's focus had drifted entirely toward Kaito, and quickly steering them back.
Whatever else was happening, she couldn't keep Kiana waiting.
"Then let's go."
It was as though she'd resolved something quietly in her own mind. Ei said those words and walked straight toward the door — and Miko quickly followed.
— The Shrine.
They're finally here...
I wonder what they ended up talking about...
Kiana rose to her feet and drifted toward the entrance, the thought moving through her quietly.
"Here we are, here we are — sorry to keep you waiting, Kiana." Miko smiled brightly when she saw Kiana step out to meet them.
"Miko-sis," Kiana said, looking at her, "you stepped away for a bit — and you didn't even call me 'big sister' just now. What happened to that?"
Ei: "?"
Standing to one side, listening to the two of them, Ei found a very distinct question mark forming in her mind.
____
👻🔥Read More: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Reincarnated as Mahito, Watch Me Manipulate Everyone
✅ Access up to 40 advanced chapters of ALL stories!
✅ Receive exclusive content and updates!
Help us hit our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone
🚀 140 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters of ALL STORIES!
👻 P - Walnut-chan