I wasn't able to tell why her eyes were confused at first, seeing her polite introduction, I still noted that she said Shiba and not Yotsuba, but her being in the Yotsuba Family Mansion was in itself a proof of her identity to the Yotsuba, the girl could have been kept her as a hostage and she might be his half-sister or something like that .
These thoughts suddenly invaded my mind, but I still kept them in mind and responded to the girl introduction with a polite response, I said :
" The pleasure is mine, Miyuki-san, I'm Number 40 .
My response left the two siblings a bit baffled, one had a faint trace of this on his face and the other had quite the drastic change of expression, the girl was the one with the drastic change in expression, she looked at me as if she was seeing a ghost, which was enough to make me believe that she already have some knowledge about me, but was so surprised due to something else .
Tatsyua looked at me with a discerning eyes wanting to understand why was I introducing myself like that, I myself didn't understand clearly why I was doing this, maybe because I was afraid of getting some negative comments from the people who are actually Yotsuba by blood and not by cloning and inheriting another Yotsuba Family member's conscious .
I may have also felt repelled by the atmosphere in this house, so I could wait to introduce myself to her again probably as just Ryuu or as Yotsuba Ryuu after I finish discussing and meeting the family matriarch, the woman that was allegedly my mother, so I decided that this was currently the best way to introduce myself .
After a few seconds both of the two siblings regained their composure, the older brother was much faster in doing so than the sister, but the confusion he had in his eyes was more apperant, without telling him my thoughts from earlier, he might not have reacted like how was he doing currently .
I was also able to get the reason to the girl's confusion, it seemed that it stemmed from something else than what I had in mind, she said after standing next to her brother in a strong-willed voice that weirdly enough didn't match her charm, yet it gave her an enhance to her charisma, she said :
Ryuu-san face and body are weird, are you using some illusion magic to interfere with the way we perceive your apperance in our mind .
So she indeed was well-informed about me, hearing her calling me Ryuu for some reason filled me with gratitude, but not wanting to keep her confused, I replied directly saying :
" That's indeed the case, I'm surprised that you were able to grasp this .
She didn't change her expression in the slightest before she replay to me, saying :
My brother had described me to you and also the Psions around you looked to be acting quite weird .
" So that was why you were able able to tell, you have quite the sensitivity to Psions, do you have eyes like your brother as well ? .
If I was the one who got surprised by Tatsyua describing how I looked and her ability to sense the changes in the Psions around me, too much surprised in fact that I was beginning to think that both of them shared the same Talent and discarding the half-sister theory, she now was the one who was now acting surprised .
But this time she wasn't surprised at me, but surprised at her older brother, she was looking at him, but he didn't say a word and simply nodded his head at her, she seeing him nodding was even more surprising to her for some reason, she kept looking at me then to him, as if she was lost of what to say and do, but as if wanting to remind her once again of her manners due to seeing her like this, he said :
It's not good to keep staring at someone like this, Miyuki .
She seemed to have finally realized that what she was doing was indeed wrong, she hurriedly bowed down and said :
I'm sorry for my earlier action Nii-sama, Ryuu-san .
" Don't worry about it, but about my inquiry earlier, you don't need to answer if you don't want to, so again don't worry about it .
It could have been my imagination, but I think that her tone of voice as she spoke my voice grew a bit more softer, as if she was promoting my social status with her from a stranger to an acquaintance or something like this .
In response to my words she shook her head, it was I who got a bit confused at this action of hers, but luckily this confusion of mine didn't last long, since she said :
No, it wasn't a bother, I indeed have a sensory ability that allowed me to understand that both the Eidos I perceived through my eyes and the Eidos that sensory ability of mine were different, so that was the reason I believed magic was in use .
I looked at Tatsyua and saw that he shook his head and rested his palm on his forehead before he sighed, I could now grasp a bit of what he was doing and why, the girl seemed to have become aware of since her brother told me about his eyes .
It was safe for her to tell me about such a piece of information, I almost couldn't help but react in a similar fashion to him, I was even about to laugh dryly at the girl way of thinking, she was linking the dots yes, but with linking the dots was this much needed even, was that guy really that lonely .
She said so much and seemed to be looking at her brother wishing for his praise but all she got was a shook of his head and him saying :
Miyuki, you said too much, you should have simply nodded and that would have sufficed .
For some reason, I felt like I had witnessed the girl lifelong dream get shattered, she looked so lost, but her brother seemed to have the cure for her, a few pats on the head were all it took for her to smile cheerfully and apologize for misunderstanding to that brother of hers and he nodded at her with a smile, the scene looked quite harmonious for some time, I looked at this unfolding and the only thought that I had on mind was to check the time .
Asking about the time all of a sudden caught their full attention, they didn't understand what I was asking exactly, I again repeated the question, seeing me like this both looked at me confused .
" It's about what happened at the town earlier .
He finally seem to understood what I was asking for and he nodded his head and checked his wristwatch, then told me that we were 6:30 PM, hearing his answer, I finally released the clones of mine that should have plenty of colorful memories, that all came to me in an instant, together with all the consequences of my actions as well .
I closed my eyes and directly deleted what happened in the last couple of hours with these clones of mine, I just wasn't interested in storing all these information, it was a solution that I adopted, I also didn't want these experience to keep existing in mind, they weren't real after all, so it was better to directly discard of them all .
I did that and once I opened my eyes, I was greeted by the curious eyes of the two siblings, the girl seemed to be quite curious, she directly ask :
What did he just do ? .
Seeing her bewildered expression, she closed her eyes and began to sniff the Psions in the air, she then opened her eyes and looked at her brother for explanation, seeing this I couldn't help but chuckle at this, wondering why was she acting like this and why was she so curious as well .
Her brother only response was to look at me, I was able to discern that he had an idea about what happened and even after I gave him a nod indicating that he could tell this little sister of his what was happening without a problem, he still shook his head .
Seeing her brother like this, the girl eyes darted towards me again, seeing her confusion, I was about to give her a basic idea about what was going on, but as I was about to do so, a calm and collected voice suddenly appeard coming from the now opened door leading to another area of the mansion perhaps, it was still closed until a few seconds ago, that voice said :
Good evening Miyuki-sama, welcome back Tatsyua-dono, greeting to our esteemed guest .
I looked at where the voice came from and the other guys also did the same, I was a bit weirded out by the ordeal of his words, the honorifics he used seemed to be changing depending on the person he was greeting, I looked at the man who opened the door and saw that he was an old man that looked to be at his 50s or 60s, he had a short white hair combed backwards .
He wore a black suit and looked to be having quite the stern face and voice as well, replaying to his greeting the three of us nodded at him, but none of us said a word, he was the one to suddenly speak, saying :
Now, we are a bit tight on the time we have, so if you will excuse me taking our esteemed guest to meet Maya-sama .
No matter how I looked at him, he doesn't look like a butler one bit, yet this guy called her mistress, so they were either fooling me or he might really be a butler of the house, I looked towards the guys whose excuse was being asked for, both of the two nodded their heads and I seem to notice that the atmosphere become quite heavy after that old man appeared .
From this way, Ryuu-san .
Seeing them nodding, he said this and was telling me to follow him, the girl that was still curious at me looked as if she lost her toy or something, I called her saying :
" Hopefully, we will meet again .
I said this and removed the effect of Fabrication on me, reverting back to my original apperance, the one she was supposedly told about, I saw her open her mouth wide as I flicked one of my fingers and a cute pink rabbit like the one decorating her pajamas, suddenly hopped on her shoulder and kept licking her cheeks tickling her, while I already went away following the old butler .
I don't know whether will Tatsyua try to shoot the rabbit this time too or not, but even if he did, it won't even make the date constructing the rabbit even glitch this time around .
As I thought of this in mind, I almost released a chuckle accidentally, threatening the desperate atmosphere I currently find myself in, we entered another corridor, one that had portraits of family members on the left and the right, the guy walking in front of me seemed to be quite unbothered to even talk to me and this didn't look like it will end soon and I actually preferred it that way .
Those walls were cold to me and I found myself responding to them in the same way, I kept seeing over 40 portraits of different people who all shared the same family name, Yotsuba .
After passing by the last portrait on that corridor, I came face to face with one last portrait In the end of the corridor that was leading to another room or office, I'm not sure, I noticed that there were cameras installed everywhere in the hall from before, the corridor and even here beside the final portrait, these cameras were many and they weren't hidden well like the ones back in the Matsumoto Base .
They were monitoring every move I made and most likely displaying my movements to the person who was sitting inside that office, but I had no opinion on this, I stood in front of the first Yotsuba Family Patriarch's portrait, Yotsuba Genzou, looking at the portrait of the man who together with a 30 lost family members exchanged their lives to save one of their own, leading to Dahan to collapse .
That's a man who I deeply respected even though I hadn't seen him before, but I felt like his beliefs resonated with mine for some reason, if I had something like a family or someone that I cared about get hurt or taken from me, I too would be willing to set this whole world on fire to get it back without letting anything holding me back .
That was why I respected that guy and that was also why I believe that this family still hold some good on it, I wasn't here to judge, I'm just here to relay a message, know if I had a room or wait for the military response on my offer somewhere out there .
Just as I was engrossed in my own thoughts and mind, I heard a somewhat annoyed voice sounding from a bit far away from me, no it wasn't far, but I was the one detached from it to the point that it didn't sound more than a quite noise beside my ears at first, but then it kept increasing in volume untill it finally reached my ears loud and clear, the voice was saying :
You may enter now .
It was the voice of the old butler holding the door open for me and motion me to go inside, looking at him squinting his eyes at me like that, made me feel a bit inconsiderate, I took one last long look at the face of my supposedly grandpa and took a deep breath then went to the door of the room, but I first bowed to the annoyed old man that looked like he wanted to kick me to inside the room with all his strength .
It seemed that my apology appeased him a little, but he still wanted to kick me inside, but I didn't leave him the choice to do so, I strengthened my resolve and went inside the room, I saw a desk, a couch similar to the one from before, and two doors leading to who knows where, the couch was put in front of the office for some reason, as I was wondering about this still standing beside the door, I heard the voice of the old man saying :
You can sit at the couch, Maya-sama will be here any second now .
Without waiting for me to even say anything, the guy shut the door and retreated directly after saying that, leaving me alone in the almost empty and plain looking room, seeing that there was no point in arguing with the already shut door, I accepted my fate and just sat on the couch like I was told, for some reason I couldn't help but getting nervous now .
Now when I'm just a few minutes from waiting the person that had me shed tears, all these years, WAIT IS THAT A PHOTO ON THE DESK .