The Equation of Hearts

√𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟺𝟺ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـﮩ٨ـﮩ

Athena tipped herself into view of the kitchen doorway curiously and saw Kato cooking 10 minutes later. She raised a brow curiously and frowned, "you were here this whole time? We thought you went back into your room." She mumbled and he looked up from what he was doing,

"You must be hungry." He offered instead.

"Oh, absolutely. Where's the chef?"

"You have multiple."

"I know, but they all have training today. The newbie offered to stay, he said he wanted to make us a home recipe." She leaned against the doorframe and watched Kato return to the station she saw him in originally, where he went to put something in a pan and returned to the cutting board with more ingredients, "shame, I was actually curious. He looked excited. It was kinda cute how genuine it seemed." She mumbled and Kato hummed, nodding,

"The... blond one." He glanced down and saw the still alive boy below his foot. He took note of the hair colour,

"Yeah! He's actually really young, you know. He's only 22 and made it out of a culinary uni. Kinda impressed." She played with her hair, "super nice guy, apologised for confessing how he did before. Not that I minded." She praised him. She was hoping to make Kato jealous, but he only nodded.

After all, Kato had that very cooking prodigy under his foot, gagged and tied. With his jaw completely under Kato's boot, he was terrified.

"I didn't see him." Kato shook his head,

"So you took the initiative to cook? That's so cute!" She praised him, "though I thought you would have heard him. He dropped something a bit ago. I got a bit worried. It would be a shame for such a nice," as she spoke, Kato was applying more pressure downwards, "person to get hurt. You know? Rich coming from me, but still!" She conversed naturally with Kato and froze as she heard a crunch. Kato stepped through and pulverised the man's jaw. Tears streamed down his face and Kato moved his foot to the man's neck before he could scream without an actual mouth. Not that he would live long with the amount of blood catching on Kato's boots and his clothes. Even as the cook was dying, he was terrified at that fact, Kato positioned him in a way where no blood would flow and be visible to the doorway, nor the back entrance. "What was that?" Her ears twitched. Kato supposed even those not built for survival would know the sound of death. It was an innate feature. He ignored her for a moment and stepped through the neck for another crunch to ring out. "Again?" She looked around.

"Nuts." Kato raised the cracked shell from under the knife and showed her.

"Oh, loud nuts." She mumbled and moved along.

"I'll bring you your food. You can stay in your room." He whispered. She giggled, liking the sound of that idea and going off into her room.

Kato looked at the pool below him from the dead man and hummed, the smell of blood was so disgusting. He just continued to cook and once plating the food for the four of them, he gathered the body and head in a bin bag. He looked at the pool and whatever residue from the purée he made. He'd clean it easily. It was just his footprints that was the issue. He ignored it and went to the back door, carrying the bag he stuffed into another bag.

The back entrance was rather useless and no staff actually used it. It was locked by a number pad and had rows and rows of stairs moving down to the alleyway where the bins lay. It was more of a fire exit from the penthouse they never needed to use. He looked at the bag and tossed it over, watching it fall into the bin and burst, where the blood seeped out into the rest of the bin. He didn't care. He pulled out his phone and called Soji, who responded after a moment,

"What's up kid?" He asked on his end. Kato hummed, hearing Adonis laugh.

"Leave the three of them." Kato ordered blandly. Soji excused himself and it became more quiet, "I don't have much time," he began,