The rest of Aotori checked the havoc, and behind a burning building, they found Kurouzu lying down unconscious. Before the other Akazaru villagers get to see him, they took him out of there. But little did they know, one of the blacksmith saw what happened that night.
It was Akira, the remaining family member of the ones Kurouzu had killed. He was late to come home because he had to attend to one of the forge that was damaged. He caught a glimpse of Aotori when the house was just beyond the horizon. When he tried to chase them, they were gone without noticing him. Akira was left alone witnessing his own house burned down with his wife and children in it. Not long after that, the neighbors finally noticed, and helped him afterwards.
----
"It was me... he came and trashed everyone in my house. The guards didn't believe me just because he is Kurouzu. Everyone turned a blind eye of the situation and called me crazy... some even called me a murderer--- and that it was me who burned my own house and kill my own family..." Kentarou (Akira) stomped the earth and made a small quake, "After that, they vanished, nowhere to be seen, but after years of hard work..."
----j
"At this rate, our reputation will be tarnished," Hikiri wondered, Aotori was once again in the middle of a deep discussion about what they should do next. Volkus' curse seemed to have altered Kurouzu almost completely. Worse still, he didn't remember what happened that night at Akazaru village, "we should find a way to hide,"
"Hide? From all this chaos? We have to fix this! There's nowhere to hide, we brought this curse onto the land, and now you suggest we hide it all?!" Yamato was triggered, he wanted the team to come clean about their dark endeavor. But if they do so, the people would be plunged into chaos, maybe even hunting them down.
"I agree with Hikiri," Natsuki replied, worried about the one she loved, "if we can keep Kurouzu away from everyone, while keeping order here through someone else we choose, then everything will be fine," she then looked at Karito for validation.
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"Natsuki's right. If we tell the people about the truth, then we'll be hated just like Yamisuke did. We don't want that to happen to us, do we? It's hard to build a revolution--- I suggest we keep the status quo, and give the people a false history," Karito conveyed his extreme view, "we tell people about Yamisuke cursing the land, then we tell them that we'll find a way to curb it. But in actuality we hide from them,"
And so, the main team of Aotori followed Karito's plan. They soon chose one of the people to lead in the new Ookami kingdom, then told them about 'Yamisuke's curse' while covering their own footsteps. Yamato was in on the plan, but promised if the plan failed, he would not side with them again.
----
Years went by, while the new Ookami kingdom prospered, Aotori themselves suffered. Multiple internal conflicts happened between them. While Yamato is still convinced that they should tell the people about what they actually did, the others keep wanting to protect Kurouzu and their reputation.
On one evening, Aotori once again faced internal conflict. Kurouzu got out of control and attacked his own team. Even the vegetation near where the hidden base took considerable damage. Both Hikiri and Karito were trying to hold Kurouzu's attack, but got blown away towards the base walls. His ethereal arms were twitching erratically, his eyes turned purple as his overall aura became darker. In the distance, Akira finally caught up to their hideout, he sensed Kurouzu's aura, then scouted the base from a tall tree.
"That's..." he was floored when he found Kurouzu in deteriorating condition. Weirdly, his tears started to fall uncontrollably, "why the hell am I crying?!" he thought to himself. Feeling Volkus' presence through Kurouzu made him remember the dread he went through before hunting down Aotori by himself.
"Kurouzu!!" Natsuki tried to run towards him but got stopped by Yamato, "Wake up! It's us! Stop this!" she tried to force her way through, but still failed. Hikiri then followed up with his sword. They traded attacks, but Kurouzu managed to defend himself by once again throwing Hikiri away.
Akira then became more unstable as well, as he was triggered by the scene of Kurouzu even hurting his own team. His right fist was heating up, he couldn't hold it anymore, and launched himself from the branch of the tree he was standing on directly to Kurouzu.