The next morning, three people discreetly arrived at the isolated Sitri Mansion.
The three of them observed the situation from a distance first before making their approach.
One of them, the old and former Monkey King, Sun Wukong, looked at the Nekoshou sisters beside him and asked, "What do you think?"
Kuroka, in her usual black eastern attire, asked, "What are you trying to suggest by asking that?"
"The three of us here know exactly what it takes to cure Lord Sitri..." Wukong paused for a moment before continuing and walking ahead, "I'm just trying to remind you to watch your backs. We'll all benefit from it if we all do so."
As the sisters watched him leave, Koneko sent a telepathic message to Kuroka, [I heard that he's been becoming increasingly paranoid over the past few years, but I didn't expect it to be to this degree.]
Koneko was still a tad bit shorter than Kuroka, but she was already as well-endowed as her sister. As she just came from work, she was currently wearing office attire with her medium-length hair tied up in a ponytail, [Just what happened to him?]
[Who knows, nya?] Kuroka shrugged her shoulders, [The work he's doing for Indra must be already getting to him.]
Soon, the sisters also followed him, and they were directly led to the room where Sona, Cordelia, and Dylan were.
They briefly exchanged pleasantries, but since this was not why they were there, they immediately took turns examining Dylan while also exchanging what they found out and discussing their ideas.
After about half an hour of this back and forth and a few questions to Dylan, they all concluded that the former head of the Sitri Household had been cured.
Wukong then turned to Sona and asked what he had been curious about all this time, "Do you mind sharing with us what happened?"
"...Someone helped us." Sona was silent for a short while before giving her answer, "That's all I can say about this for now."
Wukong was, of course, not satisfied, but there was nothing he could do to force her to give him an answer. He sighed and turned to Dylan, "I see... Well then. Congratulations on your recovery, and as I see it, it won't take long before you can do your usual activities. I shall take my leave first."
'In any case, this is another thing that we have to put our attention to... Just when there are signs that Rudra is trying to escalate things.' Wukong thought to himself, feeling helpless.
The Sitri family thanked him, and Cordelia personally escorted him out, leaving behind the Nekoshou sisters.
Once Sona was sure that he and her mother had completely left, Sona also sighed and audibly muttered, "It's very obvious what he's thinking... It's understandable, though." She then turned to Kuroka and Koneko and said, "Shall we talk somewhere else?"
The sisters said their goodbyes to Dylan before following Sona to her office.
After serving them tea, Kuroka asked, "Can you really not tell us, nya?"
Sona also sat down, "I'd like to, but not now."
"Did you really perhaps accept one of those guys' offers just like the old Monkey King suspected?"
Sona thought about it for a moment before giving another non-answer, "I'd like to keep that to myself too."
Kuroka and Koneko looked at each other, but despite her reluctance and her recent efforts to distance herself, they still trusted her. Sure, it'll be safe to keep Sona at arm's length, but they couldn't just do that, even though that's the logical thing to do.
"So what are you going to do now, nya?" Kuroka decided to let it go and asked something else, "Will you still keep your isolationist policy?"
This time, the sisters received a more concrete answer as Sona shook her head with confidence, "If my father can recover, he'll be able to take care of the Sitri Household just fine. I plan to slowly involve myself with current events. As you probably remember, I still have some unfinished business I have to take care of."
Kuroka and Koneko froze in their seats. They knew exactly what she was talking about, and although it had been decades, it was still fresh in their minds—the events that led to the war. They lost their friends, but Sona felt this the most, and if it was still vivid to them, they couldn't imagine how much it replayed inside Sona's head.
The regret of not even being able to retrieve their corpses or stop them from being collected by enemies wouldn't leave them for a long time.
[Once she gets going, it'll be inevitable that she'll receive that information, right?] Koneko asked Kuroka.
[Let's not mention it, nya... It's still not confirmed, and I don't want to ruin her happiness right now by mere speculation.] Despite her words, Kuroka clenched her fist under the table and felt very conflicted. Some time ago, they started receiving reports that several new Evies were wreaking havoc on the Evie Etoulde boundary, and there's a certain line that bothered everyone who had seen it. One of the new Evies may have been created based on Great Red's corpse.]
Sona didn't find their reaction strange and pivoted the conversation, "With that said, I heard you guys are chasing after this unknown group that has suddenly appeared. I'm curious about them too. Do you mind sharing a bit of information about them?" Sona was trying to pass it off as just sudden interest and thought that she'd have to say a few more things to get anything, but to her surprise, Kuroka immediately jumped into this topic and spilled what they knew.
"About them, nya... Aside from the time of their appearance, we don't really know anything about them. Even our inquiry to the Etoulde-controlled worlds didn't come up with anything, so we're at a loss as to what we should do."
Sona thought that they were just seeking her opinion, but Kuroka was just glad to jump to a different topic, "Could you give me more to work on?"
But about an hour into their discussion about various things, an emergency call was suddenly issued to both Kuroka and Koneko.
"What's going on?" Sona asked curiously.
The sisters first carefully inspected the contents of the report they received before Koneko answered, "An Evie legion suddenly mounted their assault on several of our outposts, and they are requesting backup."
...
Early in the morning, Kisuke came out of his shop with a broom in hand to clean out the front. The moment he opened the door, however, he saw Helmwige, Kurobara, and Shirayuki standing near the entrance, "Good morning... Should I make another entrance for you guys?"
"...We'd appreciate it." Helmwige replied while carefully and discreetly scanning Kisuke's body.
Kisuke noticed this, naturally, but his 'current' ability shouldn't have any way to figure out what she was trying to do, so he just ignored her actions. 'I'll look the other way as long as she doesn't go too deep.' He thought to himself while also warning Benihime and Tiamat, who were inside eating breakfast, of her rude behavior.
He let them in and swept the front for about a quarter of an hour. He thought of working on the extra opening when his senses caught something moving around, "...Hmmm?"
He immediately cloaked himself, and as soon as his presence disappeared, he used Flash Step several times to arrive near the now-famous Hyoudou Residences, only to discover several mechanical beings surrounding the place, '...They are not Evies?'