The Equation of Hearts

√𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟸𝟷ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩ

Kato returned to his new home and was greeted by Irū, who smiled at him. "My oh my, you certainly seem despaired by your day of work." She opined and went over to see his duffel bag, "may I?" She tried to take it and found it too heavy. "Nevermind." She looked up at him.

"Sorry." He apologised and left it on the floor, "you can look through," he pulled off his boots and opened it. There emerged papers, clothes, guns, and other things. She looked through and saw a hat. It looked like a military hat. She tip-toed and pushed it onto his head. He fixed it on and looked down at her. She took in the image. He looked like a royal guard. He even stood with the class of one.

"Kid." Tenshi stuck his head out of the doorway, Kato pulled off his blindfold and looked at Tenshi, who beckoned him over, "c'mere. Did some stuff, help me out will you?" He nodded and fixed his goggles. Kato nodded obediently and took off the hat. His phone was buzzing but he instead left it on the sofa where Irū could see it. He didn't have anything to hide anyway. He followed Tenshi into a room.

Irū looked at the phone screen and her smile remained, she hummed in thought, looking at the texts before dialling her favourite person. He picked up quickly, "second time today?" He teased her instantly.

"Expect a call or request from Elena." She sighed while looking at the phone.

"What happened?" Soji queried. The sound of gunshots in the background, and yelling, for Irū to be charmed by. Amazing how even in whatever situation he was in, he picked up for her.

"Well, she has a few things to say to Kato. And she apparently has plenty to say about my dear brother. So: you deal with her. I may rip out her vocal chords." She theorised calmly while looking at the apology texts he was getting. It was starting to get to her as well. Because Elena wasn't the only one texting. An unknown number referring to a mother (so Irū assumed Elena's daughter) was also texting him. She turned off his phone entirely and hummed to the sound of Soji on the other side.

"That's reassuring. He brings a change from her then I assume." Soji hummed.

"He won't be here for much longer." She shrugged and he hung up. His phone probably got shot.

Kato on the other hand, entered a dark room, surrounded by fans and plenty of monitors. All with calculations similar to the ones on his laptop. Just done better. "What do you need, father?" He asked quietly, finally getting some alone time with his dad. The man mumbled and then looked around,

"Help me with this, I've lost my train of thought." He highlighted an equation and Kato saw the issue instantly. He pointed to a number,

"It isn't the negative reciprocal... in an alternate dimension, you use a negative reciprocal because they are parallel." He explained. Tenshi nodded slowly and continued doing the maths as Kato watched. And when he finished, he started a new line and the whole screen went black. "Oh no... I'm-" Kato thought he had made a mistake and Tenshi had lost all of his progress, he felt terrible, "I'm so sorr-" but soon enough, the screen lit up again.

And there, on the screen, was Tenshi. His hair was done up the exact same way, except he didn't wear goggles. He wore a crown on his head and unlike the scruffy, comfortable clothing this Tenshi wore, the one on the screen was dressed formally, with a good shirt and a blazer, as well as a distinctive, dusty green neckpiece.

"Mateo?" He asked, tilting his head and offering a small smile. Kato felt his throat tighten and he looked at the screen, reaching in utter disbelief, "you coloured your hair," he whispered and rested his head on his hand. Kato choked and covered his mouth,

"Father," he reached for the screen, the Tenshi with him stopped him,

"The screens get incredibly warm." He warned.