Four hours passed with Sasaki's teaching. It wasn't a formal teaching per se, but something coming from his own, rather, Sasaki's existence. The superimposing legends affected his existence enough to grant him the title of a strong swordsman who fought Miyamoto Musashi in a duel.
"These exercises… I'll add them to the blindfold regimen."
Months had passed since Aleph received the blindfold and the cursed sword. These two items were the main reason why his control over his cursed energy increased drastically. The blindfold was also helpful in sharpening his senses other than his sight. Once it superimposed with [Deathly Intuition], Aleph's senses became extremely sharp.
"Yawn…"
Aleph was about to test out this new training regimen when his lack of sleep came into play. Although it didn't affect him that much, it was more than enough to make him postpone it tomorrow.
"I'll set an alarm just in case…"
Little did he know it wouldn't be effective.
******
"There's something wrong."
"Hm?"
"I saw this before. It was when…"
Mei thought for a while before she recalled it.
"You were running late in class!"
Aleph tried to organize his hair but to no avail. His bed hair remained quite messy in the looks of others.
Last night, he set off an alarm as he had a meeting with Mei. However, perhaps it was due to his consecutive fatigue that he overslept. By the time he woke up, he rushed as fast as he could to their meeting place.
"I never thought I'd see you like this again."
"Things happen." Aleph reasoned out. "That was the only time I got in late."
"That was completely unlike you. We thought you were busy with your studies or something."
In the end, Aleph's tardiness elicited the teachers' concern instead, which was in sharp contrast to other students who often got in late.
"Anyways, what's with the sudden meeting? I thought you weren't available until the end of this month." He remarked.
"Some things happened." Mei replied. "Other councilors claimed that the research institutes are guilty of hiding some of their findings. They are planning to force them to hand them over."
"How ridiculous."
The sheer audacity of that statement made Aleph laugh sarcastically.
"The tension made by the person who killed the fourth Herrscher… you, reached their bottom line. Everyone's in a panic to uncover his identity."
"So, it's not a matter of the institutes alone."
"Exactly."
Aleph realized what was going on and let out a genuine laugh.
"They sent you here to settle some things? And you took it as your free time?"
"That's right." Mei admitted to her slacking off. "It's mostly perfunctory. Everyone wanted to create a mess to uncover who is hiding which."
After some talks related to MOTH's politics, Aleph steered the topic away.
"Back then… in the MOTH Night, you looked at Mobius seriously. What's the matter?"
"..."
The dangerous feeling he sensed back then wasn't directed to him, but to Mobius beside him. It was so potent he momentarily mistaken it as his.
Although Mei didn't know how Aleph knew it, she accepted it as such.
She fell silent for a while.
"I didn't want to tell this." Mei said helplessly. "What would you do if I suspected Doctor Mobius of something? Your ambush, for example. The raid, too."
Mei had been harboring several suspicions on Mobius. Everything that occurred was simply too favorable for her.
Aleph's raid, for example, brought data and funding on the fifth institute. It was also too coincidental that he was ambushed right after leaving the said institute. Even Vill-V's cuts indirectly benefited the fifth institute, something partially caused by Mobius.
However, she kept it all to herself. Mei was not the type to slander others. Although there are a lot of nasty rumors circulating around Mobius, Mei kept it at an objective viewpoint. The help MMobius provided not only to him, but to Fire MOTH, far outweighed these suspicions.
"...Mobius."
Aleph thought for a while and sighed. Unlike others, he trusted her fully—at the very least, the Mobius who hasn't gone as crazy as opposed to the one he knew. Her most trusted friend, Klein, was still alive. Only the fourth eruption had occurred as of now.
There wasn't any pressure that forced her to hastily produce MANTISes with emperor-class honkai genes.
That level of trust was the foundation of their relationship. Now that Aleph knew a lot about Mobius—details even the game did not explain—it became stronger.
Then again, it was difficult to explain this to others.
"She could be trusted with my life. Just like you."
"..."
"She wouldn't do that. At least, that's what I believe."
"...Alright. It is my bad for speaking out of turn."
Mei sighed before her previous look was wiped out.
"Well, you should get ready soon." Aleph spoke out.
"Mn?"
"Mobius' project is about to succeed."
"You mean… the Soldier Project?"
In the game, the Soldier Project was completed when the seventh Herrscher descended and scorched the entire Australian Continent. That huge pressure made way for Kevin volunteering to Mobius, in turn resulting in the Soldier Project's success.
With the help of Aleph, it was brought forward.
'With my help, it shouldn't be as limited as before. Though, we still have to work on countermeasures for MANTISes who acts out of bounds…'
"When will you start making a mess?"
Mei asked him in a joking tone.
"We might delay it by some time. We'll let you know once it succeeds."
She immediately grasped the crucial point in Aleph's words.
"You're planning to involve yourself further?"
"Well, I'll be the first test subject."
"...Huh?"
Mei stopped walking. She fell behind Aleph who walked several steps forward.
"...Why?"
"I'm confident with it."
"Don't tell me about it. You must've read that paper years ago. Even the ones from those councilors directly stated how dangerous it was."
Perhaps it was caused by her previous agitation, but Mei almost couldn't maintain her calm demeanor.
"It'll be fine. Mobius already did it once on her body. At least we have a successful case to infer from."
"..."
Once again, she fell silent.
Their meeting was supposed to be a light one. Yet, it shifted to heavy topics twice in a row. Almost everyone would find it mentally taxing to deal with two such occurrences.
Nevertheless, Mei wasn't ordinary either. The past eight months allowed her to completely adapt to Fire MOTH's climate—be it the murky politics or her management skills.
"Alright. I will be waiting for the good news."
Seeing Mei accept it with a solemn nod, Aleph sighed out of relief.
'Things must be put in motion…'
Slowly, the plans he couldn't make in the past fell to their rightful places.