Chapter 36 - INTERLUDE 4: THE THRONE

Three people were seated in a large room. The room was oval-shaped, with a table in the center. Behind each of those three, a door stood.

The first man had long spiky white hair that reached his shoulders, tanned skin and red eyes. His canines were slightly elongated giving him the appearance of a wild beast. He also had a black collar around his neck.

The door behind him was completely black with a red Cerberus drawn on it, but few traces of degradation could be seen on it.

The feature of the second one was indiscernible. He wore a red faceless mask on his face and had a black hood over his head. On his feet was placed a scythe.

The door behind him was also black, but with a few stripes of gold. On it, a reaper was drawn. What more, it was on pristine condition.

The last one was different from the two. The first two still had the build of a teen, but this one had the build and the look of an a.d.u.l.t. He wore a black coat and a black suit. His hair was longer than the first one but wasn't wild like his. What more, they weren't completely white but black on his left side and white on the right side.

His door was different from the other two. It was a pristine golden door with the image of a vortex drawn on it.

They were Kuroha three personalities. In front of them, images were defiling. Those images showed Kuroha meeting with Rei and the events that happened during it.

The third one who was resting tranquility had his eyes closed at first while his finger was gently tapping the arm his chair. After a while, he began to slowly open them. Surprisingly, they were heterochromatic. The left one was blood red, while the right now was gold.

"What happened while I was asleep?"

He was leaning on his chair, no his throne, with a hand under his chin as he asked this question.

He didn't scream, neither did he seem angry. But truly scary guys were those who could show a calm exterior even when their interior was boiling hot. Madness gritted his teeth and closed his mouth. The third one didn't seem bothered by his refusal to answer. He continued.

"What did I say about taking over his body even for a short while?"

Still, no answer. Despite this, no hurry could be seen on his face. Finally, Madness opened his mouth with a defiant look.

"I had to do it. He was wasting our potential aways. Even though slayer beat him every now and then, he never really understood."

"I see..."

This was all the answer he gave to the explanation from Madness. He seemed to be pondering something once more before opening his mouth once again.

"You saw what happened this morning with Rei didn't you?"

Even though it was phrased as a question, Madness knew that it wasn't. He was right.

"The reason we were born was to allow our original personality to keep his sanity. Madness, you're the first to be born. That's why I generally don't like to intervene when you act but this time you overstepped."

Madness's eyes began to glow Scarlett. His hair began to stand. He was really becoming angry. He roared.

"SO WHAT?!! SHOULD I HAD LET HIM... NO, LET US DIE? DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW DANGEROUS THE SITUATION WAS WHEN I TOOK OVER? DON'T F.U.C.K WITH ME!!!"

"SILENCE!!!"

This simple order was enough to make Madness stop and make him sit back with a sullen expression.

"I do not care why you did this. There's no way we would have died from simply having our head crushed. Because of you, Hope began to obtain more emotion too fast. This should have been a gradual process. But you nearly destroyed everything."

Madness really didn't have anything to say for his defense. He was unwilling to admit it but he knew the other was right.

"If we don't handle it well, some or perhaps at worst all of your memories will flow back to Hope. It would destroy him without a doubt."

He sighed. The four of them were part of the same whole. Hope, also called Crybaby by Madness only had a part of the memories from their four years of torture.

In his initial plan, Hope would have slowly grown, and once he reached a certain level of maturity, they would slowly make him recall the memories he lacked and by doing so they would...

But because of Madness's previous intervention, this plan now had a chance to fail.

As Hope was right now, any stimulus would make him react far more strongly than usual. A greater stimulus would make him have flashback about his past.

"Madness, from now one and for the duration of one year, you are forbidden from having any contacts with him. This would slow down the inevitable and allow your door to mend."

Madness was confused. Slayer finally opened his eyes.

"Why one year?"

His voice was cold and emotionless. It was like he didn't even care if he could get an answer or not. Still, he did receive one.

"In one year, something will begin. You could say that it will be the start of everything."

He had an enigmatic smile on his face as he said this. It was as if he knew something that they didn't.

Seeing this, the two nodded. They knew that when he acted like that, he wouldn't tell anything else.

What would happen one year later?