"Why?" Wakaba Mutsuki tilted her head slightly, her eyes filled with pure confusion.
"Because you and Shoko are two completely different, independent individuals." Qianyi patiently looked into her eyes and explained word by word, "The one I like is you, Tsukushi, not Shoko. So no matter how close you and Shoko are, or how deep your bond may be, this is absolutely not okay."
Wakaba Mutsuki listened with a half-understanding expression. After two seconds of silence, she seemed to find a flaw in his logic and asked in confusion, "Then why is Mortis allowed?"
"..." Qianyi choked on that irrefutable logic.
Faced with the special case of two souls in one body, he genuinely didn't know how to explain the difference between multiple personalities and living, breathing people to this child.
Because it involved complicated philosophical questions.
Fortunately, when faced with a question he couldn't answer, passing the buck wasn't necessarily a bad solution.
"That's a good question." Qianyi nodded and, with a mischievous smile, offered a solution. "But rather than asking me, why not ask Shoko? After all, she might be able to give you a 'correct answer' that leaves a deeper impression?"
"Ask Shoko..." Wakaba Mutsuki considered it seriously. Finding Qianyi's words reasonable, she obediently nodded, planning to ask Shoko about it later.
With that thought in mind, she hugged Qianyi and drifted off to sleep.
???
The warm nighttime conversation came to an end.
When the morning sunlight streamed into the room and the exhausted Wakaba Mutsuki slowly awoke, Qianyi carried her aching, limp body into the bathroom and carefully washed her in the warm running water.
After the two changed clothes and ate breakfast, Qianyi drove Yamada Ryo, Ijichi Nijika, and Chihaya Anon to school amid the frantic urging of the three girls, who were in