What Do You Mean By This?

"What the hell is going on?!"

Mobius covered her ears and plopped down at the table with Michael and Elysia.

On stage, Kosma's singing continued. It was a truly powerful sonic assault.

The audience below was filled with regret, waving their fists and begging the boy to stop, but their cries were drowned out by his ear-piercing voice. Lost in his performance, feeling like he was finally hitting his stride, the young man had closed his eyes, oblivious to the furious expressions around him.

"Give us our money back!"

Shouts like that rose and fell. Michael, who had been deep in thought, seemed to snap out of it at the sound, and a chuckle escaped his lips.

It was only then that he looked up and saw Mobius and Elysia staring at him with their hands over their ears.

"What's with the looks?"

Michael casually used a Imaginary Space barrier to block out the external noise. Mobius and Elysia finally lowered their hands, visibly relieved.

"Wow! Michael, how did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You were totally unfazed by that terrifying sonic attack! You're amazing!"

Michael couldn't tell if she was genuinely praising him or just teasing, so he simply replied calmly:

"How bad could it be? Compared to a Honkai beast, could that singing cause any actual physical discomfort? In the end, being 'unable to accept it' is more about having 'excessive expectations'. I didn't have any hope for Kosma's singing to begin with, so naturally, his awful voice couldn't faze me."

He raised his chin slightly, seemingly trying to appear mature in front of Mobius.

But Elysia didn't let him get away with it:

"Michael! You try taking out your earplugs!"

Michael shrugged, a few strands of hair falling over his ear, hiding the flash of blue light that briefly appeared there.

"What earplugs? There aren't any!"

Seeing Michael's extremely innocent expression, Elysia wrinkled her nose, rolled her eyes, and was about to retort when the smaller girl beside her, Mobius, cut in:

"Enough!"

Perhaps because of her young age, her voice, which was supposed to sound slightly annoyed, had a distinctly tsundere vibe to it.

This annoyed her even more. She reached out her small hand and slammed it on the table, trying to make her voice as deep as possible. "Enough!" she yelled.

This action finally caught the attention of Michael and Elysia.

Watching her eye twitch, pulling her already red hand under the table, and trying to puff out her chest to look serious, Michael thought she was about to say something important…

But she just raised her other hand, rudely pointed at Elysia, and said, "The Meta-Morph surgery was her own idea, it has nothing to do with me! If you have any complaints, don't come to me!"

Michael's lips parted slightly, his tongue hovering in his mouth. He blinked, at a loss for words.

After a brief moment of surprise, Elysia completely lost it, collapsing onto the table in laughter.

Michael shook his head, confused about what she was trying to say.

Mobius was beyond furious. She jumped off her chair, pulling at her green hair (though this only made her as tall as Michael when he was sitting) "Wasn't it you who told me that this woman's hyper-fusion surgery could only happen with your permission?"

Michael lifted his chin, squinting. His mind started running through his memories to find the relevant information.

But he still couldn't recall anything.

Regarding Elysia's Meta-Morph surgery, he did have a conversation with Mobius, but if he remembered correctly, he only said, "The Yaksha isn't suitable for Elysia. She wouldn't like a Honkai beast that isn't cute enough... so if she really wants to do this surgery, I'll get her one that she likes."

Hmm… that should be it…

"You don't remember! You don't remember, at all?!"

Mobius furiously slapped the table. Michael just added another layer of Imaginary Space barrier, creating an optical illusion so that from the outside, it looked like the three of them were having a friendly and lively chat.

"I don't care!"

Mobius glared at them with bloodshot eyes. "I don't care! I didn't know anything! That day, after I went back to my lab from the meeting room…"

She suddenly stopped. Michael winked frantically, but Elysia just rested her cheek on her hand and casually asked, "Oh? From the meeting room? Michael, what exactly did you guys do in the meeting room that day? Even if you got a last-minute distress call from Mei, it wouldn't take that long, would it? And you'd usually tell me first about these things, you know?"

Michael's heart clenched. Then it felt like it was falling, free of any restraints, down into an endless abyss.

He didn't know what to say, what to do. His soul seemed to have flown from his body for a moment – he was finally facing his greatest fear.

What should he do?

Run away, escape, avoid her – Michael didn't know if this was truly what he wanted, but his body was already acting on it.

But just as he was about to flee, his soul returned, finally remembering to grab Mobius and run.

Seeing their figures being swallowed by the space rift, Elysia could have stopped them. She had the power to stop them, but she didn't do anything.

Without the Honkai energy supply, the Imaginary Space barrier dissolved without a trace. Yet, with Vill-V's captivating performance, not many people noticed Elysia, sitting alone at the table.

She lowered her eyes, her lashes fluttering. It was impossible to know what she was thinking.

A moment later, accompanied by a faint fragrance, Aponia silently sat down beside her.

"Oh, isn't it my dear Aponia?"

"Elysia, why do you seek the truth of that night so persistently?"

"..."

Aponia used her psychic power to open the bottle of red wine on the table, pouring herself a glass, taking a small sip, and then setting it back down, leaving a red stain on the glass.

"The warning Michael gave Mobius was my doing. It was just a joke, after all, this matter isn't that important to you, right?"

Her gaze swept over Elysia's pointed ears.

"My dear Aponia, did you come to tell me the truth about what's happened these past few days?"

Elysia didn't accept her kindness. Instead, she stubbornly met her gaze.

"I'm sorry, Elysia. Please, forgive him. Of all the paths I have seen, he made the most compassionate choice."

"Don't use your [Discipline] on me, dear Aponia!"

Aponia looked at the crystal rose that the girl was idly twirling in her fingers, her eyes calm, as if she already knew this would happen.

And because of that, she wasn't worried.

"I'm just… Of course, I wouldn't blame Michael for anything, and I don't think he did anything wrong—I believe in him unconditionally, and I know that everything he does, all the bad things he thinks he's doing, he does it so I don't have to suffer. But, why doesn't he believe in me unconditionally? He doesn't believe that I can love him unconditionally, and he doesn't believe I can accept all of humanity – good or bad. So, he'd rather only show me his perfect side while showing his flawed, vulnerable, and guilty side to Mobius… why…"

Aponia spoke softly, but without making a sound, instead offering a knowing smile.

Sure enough, the next moment, Elysia naturally said, "But it doesn't matter! When everything is over, when everyone can finally relax and think about the future, I'll make Michael tell me every single thing he thought he was hiding from me... hehe!"

As if thinking about something fun, Elysia laughed again.

She then touched Aponia's cool, pale face. "Dear Aponia, when that day comes, would you and good ol' Eden help me get dressed in new clothes and put on my first ever makeup?"

Aponia smiled and said she would.

But when Elysia lowered her hand and turned her gaze back to Vill-V's performance, she slightly turned her head away.

Elysia's words always reminded her of the threads binding her... of their original trajectory.

Then, smiling, she snatched the cake from Elysia's hands.

"Aww! Dear Aponia, I'm angry!"

"Michael asked me to not let you eat too many sweets."

"Ah-" Elysia rolled her eyes, "But this is a side effect of my hyper-fusion..."

"What side effect? Being unable to live without sweets? I don't buy it."

"No! It's that I can eat anything and not gain weight, and I have good curves without exercising! How's that, are you jealous?"

"...But Elysia, you've clearly gained weight... I wonder, did you just make up this side effect, or is it that you're just..."

...

"Anyway! Anyway... That woman sneaked into my lab and did her own hyper-fusion surgery using the automatic operation mode. It has nothing to do with me!"

Mobius was still stubbornly arguing, but Michael shut her up with one sentence:

"Maybe, but Mobius, how could your hidden lab be infiltrated so silently, and why were your experimental procedures saved as a program that could be automatically controlled? You clearly left that loophole for her on purpose."

She slowed down slightly, as if trying to create a bit of "safe distance" from Michael, but she knew this was futile.

The two of them continued walking through the darkness.

"Where's Pardofelis? Why isn't she at the party?"

"You know her. With so many people gone, do you think that little cat would pass up the opportunity to ransack their rooms?"

"Yeah…"

Michael chuckled lightly, temporarily setting aside the heavy thoughts in his heart.

They continued deeper into the tunnel until their skin started to feel the cold. Then, the figure of Sakura appeared.

"You guys are early."

Sakura's smile was as cold as the temperature.

Michael said nothing and simply turned on the lights.

Mobius's pupils contracted slightly in response to the sudden bright light, but it didn't affect her vision.

But that was exactly why her eyes continued to tremble, staring at the scene in disbelief.

"What do you mean by this?"

She turned back to Michael, her tone half-angry, just like the time when she had thrown the Second Herrscher core at him and he had asked the same question.

"It doesn't mean anything."

Michael said coldly. In front of him was a warehouse containing hundreds of Poison Cocoons who had survived the earlier riot.

"Mobius, I don't think my earlier restraints on you were wrong, but... we may not have time anymore."