In the vision, he saw the man turn to look at the window, seeing his faint reaction. With an incredibly soft and deep voice, he spoke out.
“Hello there.”
Kairos wasn’t paying attention to the crazy antics of the man, instead doing everything he could to just stand up and listen for Azami’s voice. Though at the same time, the man shut the book before slowly lifting his hand and pointing in a direction.
“Go that way.”
It was incredibly strange, as though the man was schizophrenic. In fact, another rough looking guy had walked up to him with a baseball bat on his shoulder.
“Huh? Who the hell are you talking to?”
“Nobody…”
With the vision pretty much dominating everything else, Kairos decided to go out on a limb and follow the instruction, even though it should’ve only been a memory. He almost tripped several times, but caught himself beforehand just barely thanks to his future vision.
He often lost his coordination, forgetting which direction he had been going in. However, the finger remained pointing in the same direction, letting him get back on track. Though while he continued on, his vision gradually became blurry, while his legs started to slow down.
Kairos didn’t even notice that he was faltering.
While that was happening, the pointing man let out a soft sigh before closing his eyes.
“While we may regret the things we’ve done and remember them clearly, the true regret comes from inaction. When the consequences seep in slowly, and only show their insidious nature when it’s already too late.”
His words made Kairos’ eyes snap open, as he realized what was happening. He grit his teeth, refusing to let pain become the reason why he died. If it was just something like this, then this wouldn’t be the first time he overcame things.
While his vision was still blurry, he still kept his eyes wide open in an attempt to get what information he could.
And as his life hung in the balance, there were other voices from the vision.
“Hah? You’re still talking to the window? Are you crazy?”
“That would be unlikely. While his actions may differ from the norm, it is improbable that his mind would manifest in wild or improbable ways.”
“Ah, I know! ‘Tis the adventures that he has been planning out! Such a thing would be an action that occurs to me all the time!”
Although the voices weren’t helpful on their own, they were at least something to distract himself from the pain. Only seconds had passed, but to Kairos, it felt like hours.
And within that painful cycle, the man suddenly shifted the direction they pointed.
“Turn left.”
Kairos didn’t question it, and decided to do as he said.
Then, just a few steps later, he found himself in his room once more. The pain of all the visions substantially decreased, while he could now finally make sense of the real world. Though it did come with a strong sense of dizziness Azami was heaving, and spoke in a hoarse crackly voice.
“For god’s sake… it was so hard to get you back here.”
Kairos took several deep breaths one after another.
The vision in his mind became considerably less clear, with the man now looking away as the memory faded away entirely. Lingering wonders filled his head from the man that somehow saw and guided him.
Kairos held onto the side of his head as he began wondering for a while. Azami had her arms crossed with a somewhat displeased frown. She didn’t seem happy, though there were traces of relief on her face.
“Your welcome for calling out… at the expense-“
She coughed in the middle of her sentence before continuing on.
“-of my voice.”
Kairos gave a small nod before closing his eyes.
“Thank you for that. Though I have to say that if it wasn’t for one of the visions guiding me the right way, I would’ve died.”
Azami raised an eyebrow, with clear disbelief.
“What? These things act more as memories of things, not actual consciousness. Any visions you saw from them would’ve just been events that previously happened that contained strong emotion.”
Kairos furrowed his brows and leaned back against the wall, putting his hand onto his head.
“But… the guy was talking to me. He even pointed out which direction I needed to go and told me to take a turn left to get here. Not to mention, the guy even encouraged me when I was starting to lose myself. It would be way too much of a coincidence if it really was just a normal memory.”
Azami remained silent for a little while, keeping still as she stared Kairos down.
“…What did the man look like?”
He let out a small sigh, taking a second to recollect it all.
“It was a guy like me, though he looked a bit more… uncaring, I guess. He seemed to be wearing a company outfit by its design, but it was also a jacket for some reason. He was on a bus with some other people, though I wasn’t really paying attention to them.”
Azami looked up to the side for a moment.
“Strange… that doesn’t sound like any gods that I know of.”
Kairos tried to shake his head, but stopped himself because it hurt.
“Well, more importantly, where is the dog?”
Azami let out a small sigh before crossing her legs.
“The doggy should be fine. While seeing those visions might be overwhelming, it shouldn’t hurt him since he is compatible with them. The only issue would be how long it takes for him to get back to his senses and run back here.”
Kairos let out a long painful sigh through clenched teeth, deciding to just trust her judgment.
“Alright then… I’ll just try to deal with this.”
He laid down on the bed, with both hands on his head. Although it was still very much painful, it didn’t seem so bad after experiencing what it was like feeling the force at full blast.
While in the silence, he continued to see vague visions. Though he couldn’t really focus on them, instead thinking of the previous ones that he experienced. It was honestly taking him a little while to really recognize that all of them were fake, and that this was his real self.
It made him feel incredibly detached to himself as a person, which was an awfully strange sensation. He began thinking about them, recollecting what happened in all of them. Though as he did that, Azami’s crackly voice came from his side.
“Don’t do that.”
Kairos weakly opened one of his eyes to look at Azami.
“What are you talking about?”
She sucked in a cold breath before explaining.
“You’re thinking about the other memories you experienced. It’s already bad enough that it happened in the first place, but if you keep thinking about them, it’ll be hard to retain your sense of self. Instead, you’ll become an amalgamation of personalities that aren’t even yours.”
Kairos’ eyelid twitched.
“What? So then… do I just have to think of something else? I need to at least think of something if I want to deal with this pain.”
Azami looked to the side, staring at the outside for a little while.
“You could just talk about random things.”
She coughed right after saying that before letting out a yawn. Kairos blinked a few times and pressed against the sides of his head.
“Then… what’s your favorite food I guess. Or do you even eat food in the first place?”
The corner of Azami’s lip twitched. She seemed to be a bit surprised by that question, not because it was ridiculous, but rather what it reminded her of.
“In my current form as just a projection, there is nothing that I need to eat. Along with that, I don’t really need to eat if I don’t want to in my main body. Though before I became a god I believe that my favorite food was blueberries.”
Kairos couldn’t help but open his eyes slightly and lift his head up a little bit, catching onto a small detail.
“Wait, before you were a god?”
Azami shrugged her shoulders and waved dismissively.
“Eh, it happened a long time ago and is less exciting than you’d think. Besides, I don’t even really remember what happened that accurately.”
Kairos tried to sit up, but stopped halfway and went back down.
“Did you remember how you became a god in the first place?”
Azami looked at him blankly, knowing full well why he was asking that. More than curiosity, it was imagining a way to become a god himself. She closed her eyes and tilted back.
“…It’s a bit complicated. The only real way I know how to explain it is… I was chosen to be one.”
“Chosen? Like The Chosen One in video games?”
Kairos put his hands down and looked at her. Though Azami simply shook her head.
“A bit less dramatic than that. As in we were randomly selected and found ourselves as gods.”
The corner of Kairos’ lip twitched. He laid back down and closed his eyes.
“…I guess it’s not really something you can just give away.”