Objects themselves have no color; the colors humans see are actually light reflected by objects.
Therefore, under different lighting conditions, the color of the same object will appear different to human eyes.
Muer Si's pupils are blue, but in the dark, they tend to be slightly purplish.
Unlike the method of holding a banknote up to the sunlight to check for watermarks, if the sunlight were blocked, it might further confirm whether Muer Si's eyes were still the same as before.
Kikyo stood unmoving in the position that blocked the sunlight. When she realized she couldn't find that hint of cold blue-purple at all, her wavering heart froze, followed by a premonition of breaking. The tremor in her voice was uncontrollable, "Muer. Do you have any dissatisfaction with your mother?"
Even though her fingers, which held Muer Si's, began to tremble, Muer Si still looked at her quietly, without uttering a word.
This was Muer Si's usual method of resistance—passive response.
Muer Si always refused to communicate proactively; she had been like this since childhood.
For twenty years, Kikyo had held her in the palm of her hand, yet she couldn't melt her shell or touch her heart.
How stubborn.
How it grieved her loving mother!
Kikyo had expected to be angry because of this, but the words that came to her mouth turned into a sour taste, and her hard teeth seemed to soften. "If you don't like blue eyes, changing them to another color is fine. But you haven't changed the color. Do you… not like the eyes your mother gave you?"
"...I did not," Muer Si moved her lips.
"Don't lie to me." Kikyo's voice continued to drop. She didn't believe Muer Si's denial and became even more certain of her judgment. "Where are your original eyes?"
"Can you tell me?" Kikyo was almost begging, as if she had lost something very precious. "You don't have to tell me why you changed your eyes, but at least tell me, where are your original eyes?"
"They are also a part of me." Kikyo was genuinely upset.
Ten months of pregnancy, the arduous nurturing, the unknown amount of effort poured into this creation, and now a piece of it was suddenly dug out, equivalent to her flesh and blood being torn away. She even had a hallucination-like sensation of her own eyes aching faintly, as if she too had lost her original eyes.
Kikyo had long been psychologically prepared for the changes in Muer Si due to prolonged lack of supervision, but when it actually happened and exceeded her expectations, the accumulated fatigue from her cautious attitude made her suddenly weak. Her hands slid down from Muer Si's cheeks, and she collapsed to the ground feebly.
For a moment, their positions seemed reversed. Kikyo, kneeling at Muer Si's knees and crying, appeared to be the weaker party.
Recalling Kikyo's years of discipline towards Muer Si, Muer Si felt a cruel satisfaction at this moment.
But Kikyo wasn't entirely "bad." She didn't deliberately torment Muer Si and had even learned to restrain her assertive words and actions, making some changes herself. This made it impossible for Muer Si to hate her completely.
Muer Si regretted accepting Kuroro's repair. If her emotional perception disorder still existed, she wouldn't have to recall her mother from the "real world," whom she both hated and couldn't let go of.
Being together was painful, and being apart was equally painful.
It was painful when they were poor, and it was still painful now that they were wealthy.
She would never attain pure happiness.
It was truly vexing.
Muer Si placed her hand on Kikyo's shoulder, [activated] the vocalizer, and responded to her fervent plea with cold, honest words, "I threw them away."
Kikyo's shoulders stopped trembling. "Why?"
"There was no need to keep them." Muer Si recalled the fiery red eyes preserved in formalin. "Should I keep them for display?"
"Muer." Kikyo raised her head, extended her arms, and placed her hands under Muer Si's armpits, just as she had held Muer Si when she was a child. She looked up at Muer Si. "Besides your eyes, have you had any other part of your body altered?"
"..." Including Kuroro's repairs, Muer Si's brain had indeed been worked on.
"Will you... gradually abandon this body?"
"..." Considering her future plan to be reincarnated as a Chimera Ant, Muer Si indeed intended to abandon her relatively fragile human body.
Kikyo's foresight startled Muer Si.
"No." Her denial was extremely calm, but her increasingly cold gaze betrayed a hint of displeasure.
Muer Si realized Kikyo's inherent greed for more. Although Kikyo appeared humble on the surface, she was mentally encroaching upon her, attempting to reach her core.
She had to admit that Muer Si had underestimated Kikyo simply because she was a supporting character in the original work.
Don't forget, the supporting characters in the original manga were all intelligent; the election arc was so complicated for a reason.
She probably wouldn't see the manga's ending in her lifetime. No, it was hard to say whether she was alive or dead in the "real world" right now, Muer Si thought.
"Muer Si." Kikyo's arms wrapped around Muer Si's arms, enclosing her in a hug.
It's useless. In this situation, I can still use [Anchor] for instant teleportation, Muer Si thought. However, unless absolutely necessary, it's better not to use the trump card of "instant teleportation."
Given her post-brain surgery lack of emotions, Muer Si didn't resist, trying her best to appear indifferent in Kikyo's increasingly tight embrace.
The embrace, so tight it felt like it was digging into flesh, couldn't satisfy Kikyo. She turned and bit Muer Si's lips, searching for any sweetness she could obtain.
The milk flavor mixed into the black tea, sweet jam, rich cream.
Kikyo cradled the back of Muer Si's head with one hand and her waist with the other. She stood while Muer Si sat, being pushed back by her, but not quite leaning against the tabletop—Kikyo held Muer Si's waist firmly.
Now Muer Si's upper body was suspended, with Kikyo as her sole support.
And that sole support was also the source of Muer Si's oppression.
"Kikyo's Love"
After preparing tea and snacks, the attendant butler withdrew as ordered, but not too far, remaining within earshot of the call bell on the table.
However, what difference did it make whether there were others present?
Kikyo had no need to consider others because she was the mistress of the house, the sole lady of the manor. She could dispose of any unimportant butlers and servants as she pleased.
It's about time, Muer Si estimated. Even after her brain surgery, she should show some resistance.
Kikyo's embrace was too tight, leaving no space. Muer Si couldn't push her away from her chest, so she had to raise her hand and grip Kikyo's waist, using it as leverage to push Kikyo away.
Muer Si's movements were not at all rough; they were even gentle. She was afraid that displaying too much emotion might expose her brain repair.
Kikyo, however, correctly assessed Muer Si's usual "passive resistance" strategy and increased her force, pressing Muer Si down onto the table.
A crashing sound of shattered cups and saucers echoed. The distant butler heard it clearly, but he remembered the survival rule of the Zoldyck family and suppressed his instinct to look back, remaining rooted to the spot like a wooden post, as if he hadn't heard the disturbance.
"Muer Si." Kikyo placed both hands on Muer Si's shoulders.
The prolonged kiss had turned Muer Si's faint lip color into a vibrant, moist red, a color that seemed due to swelling or perhaps from Kikyo's lipstick.
Kikyo loved wearing lipstick. When she married Silva, Silva had asked her what else she wanted, and she said she wanted lipstick, so Silva gave her an entire set of red-toned lipsticks.
This surprised her somewhat. "Do you know my favorite color?"
"Because every time I see you, you're using the same color," he replied.
"It's not the same color at all!" The young Kikyo had raised her voice in indignation then, protesting for the part of her that had been overlooked. "I change it every time!"
Alright, even though Silva, like most men, couldn't distinguish between similar lipstick shades, he gave Kikyo more than most men. And whatever he could give, he was always generous.
What more could Kikyo be unsatisfied with?
Of course, Kikyo still had reasons to be unsatisfied.
"You were the first gift from Silva that I was most satisfied with." Kikyo placed one hand on her abdomen. "When I got pregnant with you, and later found out you were a girl, I was overjoyed. I looked forward to your birth every day. I thought of countless names for you but overturned them countless times, always feeling they might not be worthy of you. No matter what, I wanted to give you the best, not let you suffer even the slightest bit."
"When you were born, your condition was very abnormal, as if you were about to die. Rather than watch you die, I decided to do it myself—I tried to kill you."
Kikyo's bold confession of past secrets had no effect.
She didn't know that Muer Si possessed the consciousness and memories of an adult from birth. Muer Si remembered what had happened to her back then from the very beginning.
"Just like this." Kikyo's hands loosely grasped Muer Si's neck. "Other than that, I have never mistreated you."
"I gave you everything I could. I gave you everything." Kikyo's hands tightened slightly, touching Muer Si's neck skin. "After all these years, even as atonement, it should be enough, right? Do you hate me, Muer Si?"
"...No." Muer Si moved her lips, answering with lip-reading.
"Then do you love me?"
"..." Muer Si remained silent.
Just like in the "real world," when faced with the topic of "love," she found it difficult to speak because she disliked lying about the special word "love."
A silence of two to three seconds was enough for Kikyo to understand Muer Si's answer.
"I love you, Muer Si." Kikyo tightened her fingers, her fingertips pressing into Muer Si's skin. "No one loves you more than I do."
"I truly want to eat you, bit by bit, and have you return to my womb."
"This is how much I love you."
Although Muer Si didn't give Kikyo a satisfactory answer, Muer Si's lack of resistance was the response Kikyo had expected.
It was as if they had returned to the day Muer Si was born, with Kikyo holding the newborn's fragile neck.
With force.
"Don't leave me," Kikyo's fingers were on the pulse on Muer Si's neck. "Stay with me forever, Mama."
As the oxygen in her body gradually thinned, Muer Si instinctively opened her mouth to gasp for air—this was a biological survival instinct, an action Muer Si couldn't control with willpower.
Next, her eyes would probably roll back. Thinking of the unsightly scene, Muer Si closed her eyes.
As the oxygen deprivation worsened, her instinctive struggle also occurred. Muer Si's dangling hand moved, raising to grasp Kikyo's arm. But she didn't try to break free from Kikyo's restraint; she merely gripped Kikyo's arm, pouring the urge to survive into this grip.
Muer Si didn't use Nen. If Kikyo defended with Nen, she wouldn't be injured.
However, both of their bodies began to creak.
"Kikyo."
By the time Silva appeared, it was already over. Muer Si had fallen from the chair to the ground. Kikyo turned towards Silva's direction, her arms hanging limply.
As Silva's footsteps entered the gazebo, Muer Si, propping herself up with her hands, straightened herself—she had merely become dizzy from severe oxygen deprivation.
If Muer Si wanted to resist, Kikyo couldn't act so freely. Was it voluntary? Silva wondered, looking at the finger marks on Muer Si's neck. But the shattered cups and saucers scattered on the ground looked like traces of a struggle, leaving him slightly confused.
"What are you doing?" Silva asked Kikyo.
"I..." Kikyo was about to answer when she saw Muer Si standing up and walking out of the gazebo, her attention shifting.
"Muer Si." Silva then called out to her.
Below the steps of the gazebo, Muer Si looked up at them. Her subtly barbed, unfamiliar gaze stunned them both.
"Father. Mother." Lip-reading might be misinterpreted, but sound wouldn't, so Muer Si [activated] the vocalizer. "If I die, please scatter my ashes into the sea."
After speaking, she bowed slightly and walked away without looking back. No one called out to her again.
"You... did you see it?! You saw it, didn't you!" It wasn't until Muer Si's figure disappeared that Kikyo regained her breath. "Did you hear what she said?! She said it herself! You heard it, didn't you!"
"..." Silva glanced at Kikyo's unable to lift arms. "I know."
"Know what!" Kikyo wasn't hysterical now; she spoke in her usual tone. "Her eyes are different from before! She changed her eyes! Do you know?!"
"Are you sure?"
"You really didn't see... That's right, besides me, who else could tell?" Kikyo recalled the lipstick she used as a girl. "Ah—they're all the same color, right?"
"Perhaps you're overthinking it," Silva habitually reasoned logically. "What's the point of Muer Si doing that?"
"Of course, there is!" The red light dots of Kikyo's cybernetic eyes flickered, and her speech quickened. "Didn't you hear what she just said? She's going to abandon everything! She doesn't want anything anymore! She even left a last will! She changed her eyes this time, will she change her body next time! She's going to leave us forever! Leave the Zoldycks! Do you know what else she might do?!"
Nen abilities possess infinite possibilities, and Muer Si's actions are difficult to predict. What Kikyo said was not without reason.
Silva frowned.
"Does she want to distance herself from us that badly?! She doesn't even want to leave her body here! She must be crazy!" Kikyo spoke in a rapid-fire manner. "Or she's been corrupted by those tattooed guys! The fact that she openly declared war on us today is likely due to their instigation! I told you long ago that choosing bad friends is harmful to her! But you said, 'At least she doesn't have actual tattoos.' That's not the point! My dear, we can't let Muer Si continue like this! Something absolutely irreversible will happen!"
"..." Silva's gaze shifted to the side. "Illumi."
As soon as he spoke, a dark shadow leaped from the seemingly ordinary tree line, landing silently on the steps a few feet away from Silva and Kikyo.
"Do you have something to say too?" Silva knew he hadn't just arrived.
"No." Illumi, with his large black cat-like eyes identical to Kikyo's, spoke in a calm and harmless tone. "I was just worried Mother might need help. Since everything is fine, I'll be leaving now."
Silva didn't stop him, and he quickly vanished.
"We've tried to keep her many times; we've done all we can," Silva said, looking in the direction Illumi had disappeared. "She is not your possession alone, nor mine. If something really happens, then do as her last will states—her request is not unreasonable."
"Accept reality, Kikyo. You've done well enough. Don't keep trying to hold onto her." Silva reached out, placing his hand on Kikyo's cheek, and gently brushed away a strand of hair from her temple. "If you don't want to regret it in the end, you should rethink how you interact with her and cherish the remaining time."
This was tantamount to declaring the end of everything.
"..." Kikyo gritted her teeth, trembling.
It was hard to say whether it was from anger, sadness, or despair.
Tears streamed down her face.
On the other side, Illumi returned to his room, unlocked a drawer, and took out a glass jar. Inside the clear liquid, floated a pair of blue pupils—Muer Si's original eyes, which she thought she had thrown away.
After Muer Si's eye transplant surgery, Illumi didn't undertake any other tasks. Instead, he dedicated himself to researching information about the Kurta eyes. He didn't need to travel far; the Zoldyck family's intelligence network and information technology were among the world's best, so he had been staying on Kukuroo Mountain during this period.
One piece of information that drew his particular attention was "Red Eyes are messengers of demons."
This sounded like ordinary superstitious thinking, used to alienate outsiders. Because apart from the Kurta clan, no other humans' eyes had the ability to change color at will.
"Sister usually does some inexplicable and thankless things," Illumi said, placing the glass jar in his palm and examining the two eyeballs within, as if he were looking directly at Muer Si herself. "But this time... was it a coincidence? Or intentional?"
At that time, the eye transplant surgery had been performed three times, and Illumi noticed a phenomenon: those who received the scarlet eyes experienced an increase in their surrounding "aura" when their eyes turned red.
If the scarlet eye state could enhance combat power, then "Red Eyes are messengers of demons" might not be mere superstition.
"...Messengers of demons." Illumi murmured the phrase, raising his other hand to stroke the jar. "To gain such a title, does it imply even more extraordinary power? But if they were truly powerful, how could the Kurta clan have been so easily annihilated?"
Sister was quite concerned about the scarlet eyes. For this, she obtained eyedrops used by the Kurta clan to maintain the scarlet eye state and commissioned Illumi to analyze and replicate the ingredients of the eyedrops. She wanted a total of 99 bottles as backup.
She really did like the number "9."
"What exactly are you thinking?" Illumi placed the glass jar against his forehead, his eyes separated from the eyeballs within by only a layer of glass. He gazed at the lifeless blue pupils inside the glass. "Sister."
At this moment, Muer Si had already pushed open the Trial Gate and stepped out of the Zoldyck's private territory on Kukuroo Mountain.
It seemed the Zoldyck matter was temporarily concluded. She thought she could start arranging for Kurapika in her "game backpack."
However, an unexpected voice emerged as the Trial Gate slowly closed.
"Muer!" A cheerful male voice and footsteps approached.
...It was Shalnark.
Before considering other matters, the first worry that surfaced in Muer Si's mind was:
At this moment, her tongue bore no spider tattoo.