Upon hearing Tiana's request to leave, Quinn wasn't even slightly bothered.
"Ah, that's good timing. I actually was thinking of eating sothing."
He stood up, and without tucking his chair in he left the room.
Tiana let out a small sigh once the door shut.
"That man... really is a handful. Though it doesn't seem like he will be a burden at the very least."
She smirked.
"I suppose I should've had more trust in the people you've decided to recruit."
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
"Honestly, he sowhat surprised too. The only reason I brought him was that he was able to create a really nicely engineered barricade and thought it wouldn't be too much of a burden."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"But it turns out he's one of those smartasses, and has a Ph.D to prove it. Though it is sowhat weird he never beca a scientist."
Tiana rolled her eyes.
"It's a good thing soone like him didn't beco a scientist. Or at least, it would be a good thing if the apocalypse didn't happen."
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you say that?"
Tiana stretched her arms.
"Well he clearly does not even slightly care about human life that isn't directly related to him. He is one of those that are so insanely logical, that it makes one wonder if he even has emotions left. A scientist like that surely would have found a way to do so shady experints."
Kairos scoffed.
"I don't see how that's a bad thing. He would be the only scientist in recent tis brave enough to actually do a aningful study."
Tiana smiled.
"Well, I wouldn't call it useless..."
Kairos waved his hand dismissively.
"I guess it's a little unfair to bla the scientists, when it's really the system itself making things difficult for them."
Tiana chuckled.
"You seem to know quite a bit about the processes."
Kairos sighed.
"Yeah, one ti I was curious about a lot of things. But anyway, more importantly, you wanted to talk to about sothing?"
Tiana nodded and also lowered her voice.
"Yes."
Kairos waited, but she did not speak. After a minute or so, he couldn't help but speak up.
"Um, do you plan on starting to talk any ti soon?"
Tiana let out a soft sigh.
"Hm... I just... wanted to say that you can look at the charts I have here to get a grasp on the overall state of the city. After all, that's your job as the one that handles logistics, right?"
Kairos's face twitched.
"Um, ok. I'll take so ti to go over it."
Tiana nodded.
"Go ahead then."
Kairos turned to look at the charts, but soon turned back to face her.
"But for now, could you tell why you really wanted to have this conversation?"
Tiana let out a quiet chuckle.
"You aren't letting go, huh?"
Kairos rolled his eyes.
"It's a waste of ti if you don't tell now. It can't be that bad, right?"
Tiana did not respond for the next few seconds, instead opting to look up at the ceiling as though there wasn't a white ceiling, but a vast sky.
"Well let first ask you this."
She looked back at him with a cordial smile.
"Do you find trustworthy?"
Kairos instinctively found himself replying, lying as though he were breathing.
"Yes."
However, in his future vision, he saw that the butterfly attached to the back of her hair abruptly glowed red. Kairos imdiately stopped himself from telling that lie. He took a deep breath.
"...No."
Tiana raised an eyebrow in interest as a smirk spread across her face.
"Hmm. I totally expected that you would lie, as that seems pretty natural to you."
Her eyes beca a little curious.
"But it seems you suppressed that urge sohow."
Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his finger.
"Alright, so what does that have to do with what you wanted to talk about?"
Tiana put a finger on her chin.
"It seems you are in quite the rush."
Kairos' eyelid twitched.
"It's you that's wasting ti purposely."
Tiana laughed.
"I suppose so. I'm not exactly sure how to say this exactly..."
She sighed once more.
Kairos was beginning to lose his patience, but held on for just a little bit longer. And that was when Tiana spoke up.
"I feel like I'm going insane."
Kairos cald down, then took a look at all of the papers around him.
"Well, that makes sense with how much work you've done. Maybe you can assign so of the stuff to other people."
Tiana slowly shook her head.
"No. I'm not losing it because I'm overworking myself."
A strange smile ford on her face.
"Rather, I feel the only ti I'm at least sowhat sane is when I'm focused on work. So that's what I've been committing to."
Kairos found it hard to respond.
"...Oh. That's not good."
The corner of Tiana's lip turned upwards sarcastically.
"Co on, can't you be a little bit more comforting?"
Kairos shrugged his shoulders.
"That's not my specialty. Honestly, I don't really know how to reassure people."
Tiana held on the side of her face with her hand.
"Ha. I feel that's more you are unwilling to do so."
Kairos let out a sigh.
"Well, I can't deny that's part of it, but I'm actually bad at it, alright? You should've found soone else to talk about these problems with."
A hollow smile ford on Tiana's face.
"Rember how I asked if you thought I was trustworthy? Well, I think of you in the exact sa way, a person I can't trust at all."
Kairos adjusted his glasses.
"It seems like quite the dumb idea to confide in soone you can't trust at all."
Tiana leaned back in her chair and sighed.
"Exactly. I'm doing so because I don't have another choice."
Kairos clicked his tongue.
"You surely had another choice, there were seven billion people in the world before. Although many have died, there are still more than enough."
Tiana tilted her head to the side slightly, which would've been cute in normal circumstances, but instead gave her a bit of a strange air.
"Seven billion people, but not a single one of them was my friend. The only people I could sowhat confide in are my parents."
Kairos opened his mouth, but quickly shut it after. He rembered that Tiana told him her parents were dead.
Seeing his lack of response, Tiana continued.
"Hearing Quinn talk about the importance of preserving sanity reinforced my realization that I need to manage my own."
She began smiling, but this ti it beca creepy.
"I easily understood what he ant, by the sane side reigning in the other. Because I know that a part of is craving violence. I am sure that before I was a rather peaceful girl, that was disturbed simply by the sight of blood. But now..."
She raised her hands and began clasping them with much more strength than required.
"Whenever I see a person, I imdiately think of all the ways I can painfully kill them. Tearing out their eyes, ripping apart their intestines, breaking all of their limbs. Even just imagining eating human flesh gives a strange euphoric sensation."
Tiana then took a deep breath, putting her hands back down.
"There is an extrely powerful desire within to act upon those urges, but the logical and sane side of always ties it down in the end."
Her eyes slowly began to widen, and also appeared bloodshot.
"But I can't help but think that eventually, the sane side of will just give up. It will no longer desire to stop from performing these actions. And honestly... that doesn't even sound too bad right now."
Kairos beca serious, staring at her silently as she explained everything.
"...I honestly had no idea those were your thoughts from how calmly you were speaking earlier."
Tiana laughed, but it sounded sowhat like a serial killer's.
"To be honest, I was fooling myself into thinking that I was perfectly in control of my actions. That's probably how I got by so easily."
Kairos took a deep breath.
"You do realize this makes see you as a huge threat, giving a reason to kill you, right?"
Tiana suddenly cald down, as an empty look ca to her eyes.
"Look, I didn't want to confide all these things to you either. But there's nobody else. Nobody else would understand."
Kairos frowned.
"...You say that I would understand so confidently."
Tiana grabbed onto the sides of her face. From the way her knuckles were whitening and her face was distorted, it was clear she was using excessive amounts of strength.
"Yes, but there's a kind of realization that cos when you beco like this. For whatever reason... it becos super easy to sniff out people just like you."
Kairos clasped his hands in front of his face and didn't respond for quite a while.
"...I'm no longer like that."
Tiana grabbed onto the sides of her head, as her eyes widened fully, giving her a fully-fledged insane look.
"THEN TELL HOW YOU SAVED YOURSELF."
Kairos shook his head, which imdiately sent Tiana into a rage, prompting her to slam the desk in the middle, causing it to split into tiny pieces. She then lunged towards him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and bringing her face right next to his.
"What? You aren't going to tell ?"
Her voice was no longer loud, and was in fact pretty quiet. But it was also shaking, as though in tune with how unstable she was right now.
Kairos was imdiately surprised by Tiana's strength, because he could tell that it was higher than his own. However, he wasn't really focused on that.
With an unconcerned expression, he sighed.
This set Tiana off even more, as her smile grew unnaturally large.
"You think I'm a fool, don't you?"
Kairos smiled bitterly.
"It's because I never saved myself."
Tiana froze in place, not fully understanding his answer.
Though Kairos found this position uncomfortable, he decided to continue.
"Honestly, there was a ti where I was quite close to becoming a serial killer. What you said was eerily familiar to my experiences. When I saw my mom chopping a waterlon, I couldn't help but see her chopping up my dad's head and eating it."
Tiana flinched when she heard that and relaxed her grip, though was still holding him up.
Kairos continued as though he was casually talking with a friend.
"Pretty much everything in my life was shit, which made see everything as hateful. However, there was one contradiction to that."
A small smile ford on his face.
"That contradiction was called Nicole."
He closed his eyes, almost like he wasn't right next to soone incredibly ntally unstable.
"No matter how I treated her, she stayed with . And I did so... pretty nasty things too. Yet, she was always the one that forgave ."
Kairos sighed.
"It made realize that I was becoming part of the world that I hated so much. It's not like that psychopathic part of ever disappeared. Actually, it cos in quite handy in so situations."
He raised a finger, despite their awkward position.
"But there's also a part of that still enjoys living, so I fully intend on doing that. Because as shitty as it is, those few flickering monts are worth it for to continue on."
Kairos sowhat regretted being so open to Tiana, but there was a part of him that pitied her, making him do so before he realized it.
Tiana's grip gradually weakened, but out of nowhere, it suddenly strengthened.
However, Kairos didn't do anything, despite the dangerous situation.
Tiana's grip only continued to tighten, but right when it seed like his life was in danger, tears began to spill out from Tiana.
"Then... what am I supposed to do to be saved?"
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