Someone who disappeared into the Dust
Time quickly passed, until night fell.
Earlier after Kouro heard Mei's confession, he went out of the evacuation site to calm down while eliminating the few Honkai Beasts he found.
Now, illuminated by the moonlight, Kouro was currently lying alone on an ordinary bed in a small room, his current room was a special room used as a resting place for the Valkyries.
This room wasn't supposed to be used for just one person, but since Kouro alone is a male warrior, so he didn't have a roommate.
Well, although when the Valkyries found out that Kouro was alone they were quick to offer themselves as his roommates.
But unfortunately, Kouro politely refused them all including Kiana and the others.
At first, it was like that...
__
Kouro who was lying on the bed at this time turned his head to the right looking at Sakura who was sitting leaning against the wall with her eyes closed.
"..." Sakura who had her eyes closed seemed to have a calm expression with her ears that seemed to twitch restlessly.
It seems... Her calm expression was just a facade to hide her uneasiness...
"..." Kouro could only remain silent while glancing at Sakura's restlessly moving ears.
'I really want to grab Sakura's ear and...' Kouro thought while focusing on her ear.
Just when Kouro was thinking like that, Sakura was seen opening her eyes and looking at Kouro with a wary expression.
She seemed to be sensitive to a person's gaze, let alone a gaze towards her fox ears.
"What are you looking at?" she asked in a wary tone.
"Sakura-san, are your fox ears... are they... real?" asked Kouro.
Well... This was no surprise since Kouro saw that Sakura had a pair of human ears and also a pair of fox ears.
Sakura touched her fox ears with a pensive expression before answering, "Yes. These ears are real."
(E/D: Yes they are as real as any t*tties in LA,)
"Can I touch them-" Kouro asked quickly.
"No." He was quickly rejected by Sakura.
Their conversation ended then and there.
'How very awkward...' Kouro thought with a bitter smile.
He got up from the bed before turning his head to the left to look at Higokumaru who was sitting near the balcony looking at the shining moon.
How could Kouro accept the two of them? Was he not afraid of the angering of Kiana, Mei, Ayame, and the others?
Actually, Kouro himself invited the two of them to be his roommates, of course, he invited them with hidden intentions, but certainly not lewd or dirty intentions like that.
He invited the two of them or rather Higokumaru to ask something about the previous Era, and of course, about someone who looked like him, 'KOURO'.
Kouro knew that if he asked Higokumaru about this, he would be suspected, but right now he had no one else to tell this to.
Moreover, Higokumaru or better known as RIN in the previous era seemed to know 'KOURO' very well.
Given the memories, he saw Higokumaru together with KOURO.
Why not ask Fu Hua? Actually, he had asked her about this, but...
Kouro recalled Fu Hua's expression which looked sad and lonely when he asked her this.
'Sorry, my memories of you in the previous era have faded... I only remember your name, your face, and my feelings at that time...' Fu Hua muttered in her last sentence.
Even so, it seemed like Fu Hua was absolutely sure that he was KOURO's reincarnation, even though Kouro himself was not 100% sure that he was KOURO.
After all, there were many things that were odd if he really was the reincarnation of KOURO.
And all these irregularities made him want to ask Higokumaru, who was the only Herrscher who survived the previous Era.
This is very important to him even if the consequences will be getting beaten to death by Kiana and the others.
Thinking of all these things, Kouro then walked over to Higokumaru who was focused on looking at the moon.
He stood next to her while leaning both hands on the balcony railing.
"..." Kouro looked up at the full moon that was shining and seemed to be very close to the two of them.
"...Higokumaru."
".. Mhn?"
Both of their eyes were still gazing at the moon.
"Can I ask you something?"
"...What do you want to ask?" asked Higokumaru in a soft voice.
After hearing this, Kouro finally turned to look at Higokumaru who coincidentally was also looking at him.
"..."
Higokumaru's eyes and mouth opened slightly, her expression looking as if she was expecting something from him.
Seeing her expression, Kouro finally knew that Higokumaru's relationship with KOURO was somewhat close.
"...Can you tell me what KOURO was like?"
Hearing his question, Higokumaru smiled gently, for Kouro this was the first time he had seen her smile like that.
Sakura's ears seemed to stand up as if she wanted to listen even though she didn't move from her place.
"I see... So you already know..." she murmured softly while turning her head back to look at the shining moon.
"He's not the person you think he is... He is not a famous Singer, not a talented handsome prince, and not someone who is very smart and clever either. He is... He's a person you can find anywhere."
Higokumaru seemed to close her eyes as if recalling the past before opening her eyes again.
"What makes him different is probably how his heart was always haunted by the regrets of him being unable to save the people." When saying this, Higokumaru seemed to have a sad expression.
"He has neither strength nor talent, he can only work hard just to get something. And the ember that drives him to work hard is that regret."
"He himself once said that he didn't want to be a hero, and he is indeed no hero."
"He... was just an ordinary person tormented by the regrets of his past, even at the end of his life... Those regrets didn't disappear, but instead grew until they drowned him."
Tears involuntarily fell from Higokumaru's eyes into her palms.
"The people who supported him... Either died in his arms or died in front of his eyes... And it wasn't once! It happened so many times! I don't know how many times his heart has been broken into pieces until he felt nothing but numb and empty of pain."
After saying this, Higokumaru seemed to fall silent with her head bowed, and both her hands seemed to be clenched very tightly.
"...I couldn't help him back then, and there was no one who could help him... He was alone, fighting against his regrets that pierced his heart, he was alone fighting against the fate that cursed him, and... He was alone fighting against a world that is unfair to him... He was... always alone."
Kouro seemed to have a pensive expression, his eyes seemed to stare blankly down.
Sakura who heard this also seemed to have a pensive expression, her eyes looking down as if she was remembering something sad.
"Until... At his peak, he was alone fighting against the disaster that took away all his loved ones... 'Honkai'. He alone fought the Herrscher of the End on the moon. A Herrscher that not even the strongest armies of Humanity could defeat."
Kouro's ears perked up when he heard this, he was very curious how someone who was called an ordinary person by Higokumaru could fight against the strongest Herrscher.
Sakura's ears also stood on end hearing this.
"To fight the Herrscher of the End... He sacrificed the most important thing that kept his sanity, he... Became a Herrscher. I don't know the reason why he did that..." she murmured.
Kouro who heard that was just silent, he kind of knew why KOURO did everything to fight against the Herrscher of the End.
In the past, Kouro felt that KOURO was fighting for a new future, even though he himself would not be remembered by history.
"I..., no, I along with the remaining humanity could only stare at his back that looked so lonely back then, before finally..."
"Finally what?" asked Kouro quickly.
Higokumaru was then seen shaking her head before saying "I don't know."
Kouro almost fell downstairs at her words.
Damn it! Why does the story always stop at the fun part?!
"I really don't know, I together with the remaining human army on the moon immediately fled to the place of humanity's last defense."
"What about the state of the Herrscher of the End at that time?"
"I don't know for sure, but if I'm not mistaken, one of humanity's strongest warriors with the 'Selene' combat flying ship had made the Herrscher of the End stop moving for 12 hours."
"KOURO-Nii... At such a time he seems to be relaxing and sitting while talking to the Herrscher of the End." Higokumaru said while wearing a thinking expression.
"What did he talk about?" asked Kouro.
"I don't know, but it seemed like Herrscher of the End offered him a deal. But unfortunately, it seems that KOURO-Nii rejected the deal."
"Hmm..." hearing that, Kouro put on a thinking expression, he recalled the core fragments of Herrscher of the End in his 'inventory' and the hidden quest about collecting the remaining core fragments of Herrscher of the End.
Wait a minute, if he didn't remember wrongly, Higokumaru said that KOURO was a Herrscher... But what Herrscher?
From all the information he gathered including from Schicksal's data storage archive, he only found 14 Herrscher, though he only found 13 Herrscher names.
This Herrscher whose name he did not find, if his estimation was not wrong, then the Unknown Herrscher was Elysia.
But for someone like her to be a Herrscher...
Kouro immediately shook his head, the first thing he needed to pay attention to at the moment was Herrscher KOURO.
"Higokumaru, can you tell me the codename of KOURO when he became a Herrscher?"
"Sure, he has the codename 'Herrscher of Shadow'."
"Hmm...? Why was he given that codename?"
A Herrscher's codename is taken from how they use their Herrscher abilities, for example, the Herrscher of Thunder who can control electromagnetic waves or the Herrscher of Void who has the authority of 'Void' or space.
Kouro thought KOURO would have been an Herrscher with a powerful authority ability that could defeat the Herrscher of the End and then seal it away.
But 'Shadow'? Why is it always 'shadow'?
Kouro recalled the system notice, the project Fu Hua had said, his power that Alter Ji Xuanyan herself said was connected to the shadow, and so on.
Everything related to him always led to 'Shadow'.
"Why... Did you say? Well... You didn't see it yourself back then so I kind of understand why you're skeptical of Herrscher KOURO-Nii's power..."
"He was given that codename because his shadow had covered the entire universe back then when fighting against the Herrscher of the End." said Higokumaru with a nostalgic expression.
"Wait! What? The entire universe was covered by shadow?" Kouro wore a surprised expression when he heard his words.
He couldn't imagine it... But if it really is like that... Where did the energy come from?
Kouro thought in confusion, after all, from what he knew, in the previous Era, there was no such thing as Herrscher siding with humans, and even if there were examples like KOURO and Elysia, this should not be possible, considering that Herrscher's power came from the Will of Honkai.
And the Will of Honkai has the goal of exterminating humanity or perhaps more precisely giving a test to human civilization.
If they pass, their world is not destroyed, and will be able to continue to survive, but if they fail... Their world will be destroyed by the Herrscher of the End before finally the failed universe will fall into the 'Sea of Quanta' and become nutrients.
Herrscher VS Herrscher, this in normal circumstances is impossible to happen especially in the previous era.
But for some reason, KOURO could use a Herrscher's power and fight fiercely against the Herrscher of the End before finally... Losing or winning?
Kouro recalled his encounter with the 'Will of Honkai', he also pieced together other information from his knowledge derived from the game.
'Did KOURO make a deal with the Will of Honkai?'
It seems... This was not impossible.
Thinking of this, Kouro then raised his head before looking at Higokumaru.
"Higokumaru, what was the situation of Herrscher of Shadow's battle against Herrscher of the End back then?" asked Kouro.
"Hmm... I don't know if it can be called a victory or not, but KOURO-Nii returned to earth after the battle against Herrscher of the End, and he brought with him the fragments of Herrscher's of the End core."
"It's just that... Kouro's condition at that time was also very critical, perhaps because his body was unable to bear the weight of Herrscher's power, his body was seen turning to ash slowly at that time."
"He hid all the fragments of the Herrscher of the End core throughout the world. Before finally giving his own Herrscher core to Aponia nee-san..."
'Aponia?' this name sounded familiar to Kouro.
"At that time, the remaining human beings had fallen asleep in cryogenic pods, thinking that KOURO-Nii, had failed to defeat Herrscher of the End."
"So... KOURO-Nii chose to die alone in his final resting place... I was with Aponia Nee-san, and Eden Nee-san who were the only people who accompanied him until... He breathed his last." Higokumaru said with reddened eyes.
"He disappeared into dust..."