Chapter 182: The Real Enemy

Kouro furrowed his brow, he now understood the reason why Hanagami was in such a state of illness even after being given the best medical care.

Because it wasn't his physique that was sick, but his soul.

Even with today's most advanced medical technology, curing the Soul was impossible.

After all, according to most people who believe in Science, the Soul does not exist.

Because even Otto himself, who was the brightest scientist of the current era, didn't really know anything about the 'Soul'.

Kouro then thought of himself taking over the body of 'Hanagami Kouro' because it became the vessel of the Herrscher of Shadows' core.

While the Herrscher of Shadows himself was KOURO who was a 'Traverser', he didn't know if KOURO was reincarnated or a transmigrator, but the point was that the Herrscher of Shadows knew that this world was a game.

He didn't know if the Herrscher of Shadows' core could store KOURO's memories, but if that core really could store memories even to the point of being able to pass them on...

'That means my memories of my previous life are KOURO's memories?' Kouro thought with a complicated expression.

Although it was just a guess but if it was indeed true, then his true identity would be...

Persona Herrscher KOURO? No, technically 'Hanagami' isn't dead, perhaps more accurately he is Persona Herrscher Hanagami Kouro?

This made him subconsciously remember Kiana(K-423) whose 'soul' is Sirin while her body is from the DNA of 'Kiana Kaslana'.

Is this the real purpose of Project Shadow?

Creating someone similar to KOURO including his memories and abilities.

Kouro then glanced at Ashborn before remembering the younger Shadow, 'Have they considered failures, for not having KOURO's memories?'

He recalled Vill-V's introduction to Shadow and Ashborn. Although she introduced them briefly, after seeing their faces and their abilities, Kouro could be sure that Ashborn and Shadow were clones of KOURO.

Although he himself never saw Shadow's abilities, he could still guess that Shadow had shadow abilities considering that Shadow himself had a similar face to KOURO.

Ashborn and Shadow are KOURO's clones who only have KOURO's shadow ability but not his memory.

Meanwhile, Kouro himself only has KOURO's memory but not his shadow ability. No, maybe the 'System' is technically KOURO's true ability?

Kouro's emotions became complicated after thinking about this, he thought that all the obsessions, goals, and personalities he had were set by KOURO himself.

'No! My emotions, goals, and personality are real things, not something set up by him! I am not KOURO! I am me!' Kouro shouted in his heart.

His eyes involuntarily shone brightly before dimming again after Kouro inhaled deeply to calm down.

'This is not the time to think about this, I need to cure Hanagami first. I promised father.'

After thinking like this Kouro then closed his eyes to focus his mind before pouring his consciousness into Hanagami's 'soul'.

The moment after he did that, he felt like he was drowning in a deep whirlpool, he felt short of breath and dizzy, his body felt torn apart, and the pain he experienced surpassed all the pain he had ever suffered.

... 

Kouro did not know how long he had been experiencing this before he opened his eyes.

His eyes saw a white room as wide as the eye could see before looking down to see a black-and-white coloured floor.

"This is... The consciousness room?" Kouro muttered.

The clothes he was currently wearing were still the same even the black mask he was wearing was still there.

He raised his head again and looked around before quickly finding an empty chair in the centre of the room and another chair with a small child sitting on it, drawing something with his back facing Kouro.

The little boy had white hair and silver eyes, he was Hanagami Kouro.

Kouro seemed to be silent and just stared at Hanagami from afar, he did not move, because his intuition said that once he moved, then his body would automatically sit into that empty chair.

In the white room, only the sound of Hanagami's crayon scribbles could be heard.

Time passed, Kouro didn't move his body and only stared at Hanagami who was drawing before suddenly he heard someone's voice from behind him.

"Why don't you sit on that chair?"

Kouro didn't turn his head, he simply replied, "Because I don't deserve to sit on that chair... I'm not the owner of that chair."

Just after Kouro said that he turned around slowly and looked at a little boy who had the same appearance as Hanagami Kouro.

That little boy was Hanagami Kouro the original owner of Kouro's body.

(E/D: From this point on I recommend playing the Ashes theme from God of War.)

"Is that what you think?" said the child with a casual smile before walking past Kouro.

The child then turned into an adult shortly after passing Kouro, with the same face as him the child had black hair with silver eyes.

"You know, Kouro Nii-chan, the reason why you were able to reincarnate into my body was because I made a deal with KOURO Nii-san."

Kouro's expression instantly changed when he heard this, he tried to move and wanted to reach out to move only to realize that his body could not be moved at all.

This made his guess instantly confirmed.

'Hanagami Kouro is still alive even after I took his body, in fact, Hanagami can control his own body without my intervention.'

'But why didn't he do that all this time? And let me control his body at will? Is it because of the deal he said about before?'

Kouro, who was still thinking, saw Hanagami walk up to the little boy who was drawing with crayons on the floor.

Hanagami squatted down and looked at the child's drawing before saying happily, "Your drawing is very good~"

The picture depicted a man with black hair sitting in a chair.

The little boy turned to look at Hanagami before smiling happily showing his white teeth, "Hm! Thank you oni-chan!"

Hanagami returned the smile before extending his hand towards the little boy, "Let's draw together."

The little boy stared at Hanagami's hand before innocently taking it before his expression changed.

Seeing this Kouro then asked with a puzzled expression, "Why don't you sit on that chair? Isn't that how you can easily control this body and absorb that little boy's soul?"

Hearing his question, Hanagami smiled before saying without turning to look at him.

"...Because I don't deserve to sit in that chair either. That chair is neither mine nor yours, it belongs to this little boy."

Hanagami's body slowly faded away, but before it completely faded away he turned to look at Kouro and said.

"Kouro Nii-chan, my deal with KOURO Nii-san was to let you reincarnate into my body at the price of letting me reincarnate into Hanagami Kouro's body in another world."

That meant that after this, Kouro had completely become the owner of Hanagami Kouro's body from his world.

With a serious expression, Hanagami then continued.

"You must become even stronger Kouro Nii-chan, achieve all of his legacies, achieve a new future and... Achieve the truth, Kouro Nii-chan."

"For the purpose of your reincarnation... I can't say much, the point is that you are the only one who can defeat 'Him'."

"Who do you mean by 'Him'?" asked Kouro with a serious expression.

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"The Herrscher of Shadows," Hanagami replied.

"Wait, what do you mean? The Herrsher of Shadows is the enemy? Isn't KOURO himself the Herrscher of Shadows?!" asked Kouro with a completely confused expression.

Unfortunately, no one answered his question, Hanagami had completely disappeared and absorbed into the little boy's body.

He seemed to have given his soul to the little boy.

The little boy with a blank expression then sat on the empty chair.

The white space simultaneously shook strongly and made the floor under Kouro's feet crack making him fall into the abyss.

Before his body completely fell, Kouro looked up at the little boy, he was somehow momentarily able to see a faint purple glow from his eyes.

After that Kouro fell into the abyss.

...

Kouro suddenly opened his eyes and took a strong breath as if he had dived for too long before falling on his butt.

"Hah... Hah.... Hah..."

[HP: 44,000/44,000]

[SP: 18,040/18,240]

[Fatigue: 98]

Seeing his fall, Ashborn unceremoniously jumped in and helped him before asking in a worried tone, "Kouro! Are you alright?"

Kouro nodded his head, he then with trembling legs tried to stand up but couldn't, his body was too tired so Ashborn then carried him up before walking over to Sagaki.

"How was it? Did it work?" Asked Sagaki carefully, he recalled Ashborn's shout calling the man in front of him 'Kouro'.

'No, he probably happens to have the same name as my son.' Sagaki thought.

Kouro nodded his head in response to Sagaki's question and said, "Your son has fully recovered, in a few hours he will regain consciousness."

Hearing that, Sagaki smiled happily with tears of joy coming out of his eyes and immediately ran over to the sleeping Hanagami.

Kouro glanced at Hanagami who was being embraced by Sagaki with a lonely expression before whispering to Ashborn, "Let's go."

Ashborn turned to look at Kouro, although he didn't know what expression Kouro was wearing now, he could feel that Kouro was daydreaming now.

He didn't ask much and said goodbye to Sagaki before sinking into the shadows.

__

The present.

Kouro and Ashborn were currently standing before Welt, Ryoma, Higokumaru and Siegfried.

Higokumaru, Welt and Siegfried first looked at Kouro who looked exhausted as if he had been wrung out.

Siegfried looked at Kouro and Ashborn back and forth with a suspicious expression.

"You guys... Did you guys just..."

The only thing he could think of when he saw men together and one of them looked like he had been 'squeezed' out...

"No." Ashborn and Kouro said simultaneously.

Welt and Higokumaru saw that other than extreme fatigue, Kouro had no injuries on his body which made them sigh in relief before looking back at Ashborn.

"What do you want Ashborn?" asked Higokumaru with a wary expression.

Ashborn raised both hands signifying that he had come here peacefully before saying, "As I said before, Kouro and I want to join you in fighting the Second Herrscher."

Kouro then added, "What he said is true, believe me, the World Serpent is on our side now."

He then turned to look at Higokumaru and said in a pleading tone, "I know you have a grudge against Ashborn, but... Please, you must hold your grudge now, we are on the same side."

Higokumaru wore a complicated expression, she looked back and forth at Kouro and Ashborn before sighing.

"Alright."

"Don't worry, I didn't come for nothing, I will give the blueprints of 'Selene' to you, Mr Welt as my apology." Ashborn said.

Faced with his words, Welt did not immediately agree but put on a thinking expression for a moment before finally agreeing.

He looked at Ryoma and told him to guard the place before turning to look at Kouro, Ashborn, Higokumaru and Siegfried.

"Then follow me you four."

Kouro who was walking after Welt at this time could finally calmly process the information he had gotten from 'Hanagami Kouro'.

The first and most important information is that KOURO is still alive, this can be seen from Hanagami's words that he made a deal with him.

For KOURO's own state Kouro did not know, but he guessed that KOURO might have reached the divine realm and might be equivalent to the Will of Honkai.

KOURO turned into dust probably because he had ascended to become a 'god', he threw away his body probably because it was his soul that touched the divine realm not his body.

But because he has become a 'god', it is possible that he has been bound by certain restrictions that make him unable to directly intervene in the universe.

Because of this, KOURO then 'created' him and made a deal with 'Hanagami Kouro' to let him reincarnate into his body and in return KOURO promised to make Hanagami Kouro reincarnate into his other body in another universe.

As for the purpose of his 'Reincarnation'... Is to defeat the Herrscher of Shadows.

But this made Kouro confused, isn't the existence of KOURO and the Herrscher of Shadows the same?

When he thought of this, Kouro's expression instantly changed, fortunately, no one noticed the change in his expression because he was wearing a mask.

Perhaps... The Herrscher of Shadows is KOURO's Herrscher persona?

This is possible considering Higokumaru's words that KOURO has been experiencing depression and deep sadness for failing to save his loved ones.

Especially because he is a 'Traverser' so the pain of losing someone he knows his future and has even tried to save but unfortunately failed, the pain is hundreds of times more painful than what ordinary people feel.

This is likely to make KOURO have a mental breakdown just like SAKURA.

Kouro doesn't know how the Herrscher of Shadows is still alive and why he is an enemy, but one thing is for sure...

With his purple eyes shining brightly, Kouro calmed his racing heart.

The Herrscher of Shadows was likely the reason why the Honkai still existed even after the Herrscher of the End was defeated.

Even the Herrscher of the End was likely his ally now given the [Secret Quest] given to him by the system to collect all of the Herrscher's core fragments.

If what he thought was true, then he really did have a clear reason to defeat the Herrscher of Shadows.

There was only one thought that crossed Kouro's mind now.

Herrscher of Shadow CE VS Herrscher of Shadow PE.

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