[There's the brief moment when Birthday almost thinks that, hey, it worked, it actually worked, with this he avoids having to tell you about the whole not-death (or several), about Nice, and Murasaki, and the Freemums and Saikyou and--
-- and then Art's voice rings out, sounding steady and too much like the last time he heard it, too similar (and yeah, he remembers Nice's comments about you, he does, how he thought you were just like before and somehow that is even less reassuring, now), and he was an idiot to think this was a question he'd be able to avoid. If anything, it was this one...]
Isn't it obvious? [There's that lilt to his tone, still, until the pause wipes it away and all that's left are the stripped basics of the fact, here, and a tone that finally acknowledges the gravity of this situation.]