Kairos felt a little baffled by the situation. He could still somewhat understand seeing things from his own memories, but why was he now experiencing someone else’s? Not to mention, a random person to boot.
He thought about it for a few moments before deciding to just go with it.
One thing he noticed immediately, was that the place this boy lived in was more run down. He vaguely recognized it as the slums. The slums were quite far from where he lived, but he had explored for long enough for him to find it familiar.
There was a slight frown on the boy’s face, showing his defiance. To match, he had a glare that showed both confidence and disdain. It seemed as though he didn’t accept something, whether it was the state of his own life or the state of the world.
He was currently eating a sausage along with a cup of tea next to him. At the other end of the dining table was a little girl that appeared to be his younger sister, who was eating the same thing. One thing Kairos noticed about the sausage was that the inside looked a little different. Unlike the sausages he was used to seeing, this one looked like it had many layers folded within it, which felt somewhat disturbing to Kairos for some reason.
Right after finishing his meal, the boy went to head out. As he did so, his sister called out to him, curious.
“Where are you going now, brother?”
The boy stopped to turn and look at her. A confident smile formed on his face, while he put both hands on his hips exaggeratedly.
“I’m going to do hero things!”
This made his sister smile brightly. Her legs excitedly kicked back and forth on the chair that was too tall for her.
“My brother is a hero!”
The boy nodded enthusiastically but made a shushing gesture towards her right afterward.
“Make sure you don’t tell Mom and Dad! They’ll nag me again for hours again.”
His sister giggled and tilted her head to the side ever so slightly. She also made the shushing gesture.
“Ok! Secret, secret!”
From there, the boy left the place and ran down the trash-filled streets. He looked around, clearly wanting to see if there were any places that needed a “hero”. Unfortunately, most of what he saw were just people that appeared to be terribly hungry, with their sunken skin clinging to their bones.
Seeing them, the boy just looked away, trying not to focus on them. It wasn’t really like he was ignoring those that were hungry.
Because the boy looked just like them. He had the exact same problem they did.
In the end, he just kept running and running, desperately trying to find someone that had a problem that wasn’t related to hunger. Eventually, he heard the sounds of a tussle and excitedly ran to it. However, once he got there, he saw two people in rags along with unnaturally long facial hair in an alleyway fighting over a sandwich.
Seeing that, his expression fell. He once again began running with a now sad frown on his face. It seemed as though he was gradually becoming helpless.
In fact, he even began reaching the outer edges of the slums with all his running.
And all of a sudden, Kairos suddenly jumped to attention, almost unable to believe the sight before him. Because he saw himself in the distance, getting harassed by two other children.
Once the boy saw this, he grit his teeth, clearly looking pissed off. It was as though it somehow brought up old memories.
The boy immediately rushed over and slammed one of the other boys with his bony fist on the side of the head. With fervor, he yelled out loudly.
“Ganging up on one person is cowardly! Fight me if you dare!”
Kairos saw his younger self watch dumbfoundedly as that boy came to his rescue. The other two looked at the new person furiously, one of which was holding onto the side of his head in pain.
Without another word, the three fought with each other.
As Kairos watched, he couldn’t help but feel the fight was far more feral-like than what he remembered. While the boy that helped him was larger, it was still a two-on-one since Kairos was just standing idly by, not that the boy minded. Clothes were pulled, skin was scratched, and a lot of shoving happened. Neither side had any technique or even a semblance of a proper fighting style. They were kids after all.
But eventually, the two were astounded by how fierce and unrelenting the boy was and ran away.
Kairos saw himself reaching out to the boy covered in scratches, but without another word, the boy ran away once more.
At this point, the vision became rather fuzzy. It had suddenly blurred, after which Kairos heard faint angry voices clamoring. Despite the fact that the accents were completely new to him, they still seemed oddly familiar.
Gradually the voice became clearer, while his sight cleared up.
He saw a woman and a man both with bloodshot eyes looking down at the boy. They were yelling rather loudly, and it was clear that they were incredibly pissed.
“Look at what you’ve done now! Didn’t we tell you that you should quit your stupid hero act? You can’t protect anything!”
“We can’t even help ourselves. How stupid are you?”
The boy was looking down with both of his fists clenched. He was gritting his teeth so hard that his gums were bleeding. After a few moments, he suddenly bolted into a sprint, running away while his parents called out for him to stop.
But he did not stop. If anything, he just ran faster.
Kairos felt his vision get blurry before he saw the boy once more, but this time he was among nature. Dirt and soot had already covered his body before, but now it was far worse. Nonetheless, there was still a savage expression on his face as he continued onwards.
There was a shrill sound of growling near him, causing the boy to turn to the sound. That was when he saw a small fox. Once he finished turning, the fox lunged at him. However, the boy didn’t seem afraid at all.
Rather, he seemed so clouded with anger that he couldn’t even comprehend that the fox was a threat. Without caring about his own life, he fought the fox.
When it bit into his arm, he slammed the thing against a tree.
When it tried to scratch him, he did not even try to defend himself. Instead, he used that opportunity to scratch back.
Within just a few moments, the boy was covered in bleeding wounds that were far more severe than the fox’s injuries. However, the fox didn’t sign up for a fight to the death, thus tried to run away.
On the other hand, the boy rushed after the fox without abandon, despite the fact a fox runs pretty darn fast. Even as it was getting away, he didn’t once consider stopping.
The fox took a quick peek back to see that he was still chasing and picked up the pace. It agilely hopped around the forest, past the rocks and branches, though there was a bit of a hobble in its step, probably because it had been injured in the fight.
As for the boy, he ran like a bulldozer, slamming headfirst into trees, cutting his legs against branches, and stumbling over rocks. He clearly wasn’t suited for the forest, but his inexplicable determination let him continue chasing and chasing.
Kairos felt the vision get blurry and once it cleared up, he saw the fox still running, but it tripped, before getting its leg stuck in some branches. The boy that now looked more like a beast than a human, took full advantage of that, all the while panting so hard he sounded like a horse.
Without mercy, he beat up the fox. It violently resisted, and eventually freed itself from the branch, but before it could get away the boy grabbed onto its tail. All four of the fox’s legs scrambled around wildly as it was lifted up into the air, before getting slammed down onto a rock.
A cruel smack resounded. Blood splattered too.
ƥαṇdα- ηθνε|·ƈθm
This time, it truly stopped moving.
From there, the boy used his teeth to pull apart its skin and began eating its flesh raw, while it was still warm. He didn’t spare the organs or intestines either, truly feasting on them like an animal.
While he was in the middle of his meal, a voice called out from the side.
“I must say, I’ve never seen anyone chase like that before. It was a little messy… but you have the heart of a hunter.”
The boy vigilantly turned around to see what looked like an older teenage boy. The teenager had two different guns strapped to his back, one a hunting rifle and another that was an assault rifle. On top of that, he even had a pistol holstered at his belt.
The teen looked down at the boy with a smile.
“Follow me. If you don’t, then you’re just going to die once your wounds get infected.”
The vision blurred once more, and this time it lasted quite a while. Once it did clear up, it was still a little fuzzy, but it revealed a man perched on top of a rock, observing the forest nearby.
He had long yellow hair, and a bow in his hands, pulled back all the way.
Then, he let that arrow loose, after which a shrill cry of pain resounded. The vision promptly ended there. Kairos once again found himself in the world of nothingness, he couldn’t help but mutter to himself.
“Chase… So you were the one that helped me that time.”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“This place is far too strange… how am I able to see Chase’s memories?”
Sara’s voice resounded next to him a few moments later.
“This wasn’t the right place either… Sorry.”
After a few seconds, her voice resounded from a different place.
“Try breaking this wall down. It will… probably work out.”
With a sigh, Kairos retrieved his spear and walked over. Yet, as he did so he couldn’t help but find it hard to walk any closer. It was different this time. Before it was reluctance, then it became fear.
But right now, he was feeling guilt.
Kairos didn’t know why, but he felt that there was a memory he really didn’t want to see past that wall.