"Hello, my name is—"

"Pillars!"

After hearing the boy's self-introduction, Madara didn't say anything, just silently turned around, bent down and picked up a stone, and then threw it to the other side of the river with a flick of his hand.

After doing all this, Madara turned back again and asked the young man who called himself the pillar, "You, are you my sword of slashing?" ”

Hearing Madara's question, Tsuruma shrugged his shoulders and chuckled, "I'm your Slashing Sword, but your Slashing Sword isn't exactly mine. ”

As if dissatisfied with Tsuruma's answer, Madara's brows furrowed, and he asked again, "What do you mean?" ”

As if he didn't notice the stiffness of Madara's tone, the smile on his face remained undiminished, but instead of answering Madara's question, he asked Madara rhetorically, "Do you remember what happened before you came to the Corpse Soul Realm?" ”

“？！” Madara was stunned for a moment after hearing the other party's rhetorical question, and then said lightly, "I don't remember." ”

"Really?" As he asked, Tsuruma came to Madara's side and whispered to Madara, "Did you lose your memory when you came to the Corpse Soul Realm, or did you ...... You don't want to remember at all? ”

Madara's gaze froze, and then he suddenly reached out and tried to grab the neck of the pillar, trying to ask this guy for clarification, but unexpectedly grabbed a void.

After stabilizing himself, Madara was suddenly surprised to find that he had somehow come to a bare cliff from the river just now, and below the cliff was a huge lush forest! Among the pillars, he sat on the edge of the cliff not far in front of him.

The wind on the cliff was so strong that the psychic suit Madara was wearing made a hunting sound, but for some reason he felt that the wind was unusually comfortable.

"Do you dare not admit it?" As he spoke, Pillar turned his head, a bright smile appeared on his face, and told the secret that Madara had been hiding in his heart all along, "Whether it's those memories or the surging power in your body, you don't dare to admit it." ”

“……”

Hearing this secret that had been suppressed in his heart all along, Madara put away the solemn expression on his face instead, and sat down beside the pillar with a hint of ease in silence, looking at the vast and endless forest under the cliff.

After a long time, Madara asked softly, as if inadvertently, "So what do you know?" ”

"Well, let me tell me my full name," Juma smiled, and for some reason, Madara felt a sense of peace in his heart, and then he could only hear him say, "My name is "

"Thousand, hand, pillar, room!"

“？！”

"That's right, I'm from the Senju clan known as the 'Uchiha's nemesis.'" Seeing Madara's tense body, Tsuruma's gaze gradually became alert, and he shrugged his shoulders and said lightly.

"So, why did you become my slasher?" Madara said after looking at the young man in front of him and frowning.

"I should have told you," Tsuruma squinted, "I'm your Slasher, but your Slasher isn't exactly mine. ”

"To be exact, I'm just a memory," Tsuruma sighed and explained to him after seeing that Madara still looked uninformed, "It's an illusion of your old enemy, Senju Tsuruma." ”

"In other words," Madara tilted his head and thought about it as he looked at the pillar in front of him, "If I want to increase the power of the Slashing Sword and enter here in the future, the person I see may not be you, but someone else in my memory?" ”

"That's right," Tsuruma nodded approvingly, "You won't forget the 'Uchiha Sharingan's curse', will you?" ”

"No clan has a more powerful power of love than the Uchiha people, but this power of love is difficult to grasp, and it is in danger of getting out of control at any time," Ignoring Madara's reaction, Tsuruma said to himself, "When the Uchiha people lose their strong love, that power of love will transform into a stronger power of hatred, and that power of hatred affects the optic nerves and changes the state of the eyes. This process is called eye opening. ”

"And when you open your eyes, the portrayal of your heart echoes your brain and you get the corresponding abilities," Madara said, reciting what his father Uchiha Tajima had said to him in his memory, "Therefore, the eyes that open their eyes are called 'Spiritual Portrait Hitomi', and they are called—"

"Writing Wheels."

"Yes," Pillar continued, "it can be said that the power of the Sharingan comes from memory, so when you regain your strength, you are also recovering your memory. ”

"You should be aware of it, too," Madara's voice became a little ethereal, making Madara's mind a little blurred, "That's why I've been suppressing the growth of my strength." ”

"But in that case, you'll be miserable, too, so now you can make a choice."

"Choose?" Madara said with some confusion, as Tsuruma said, he was now torn between strength and memory, hoping for an answer.

Pillar's face became serious, and he looked directly into Madara's eyes, and said earnestly word by word: "To choose power, you have to accept that painful memory, which may even make you a person you can't believe at all; The other option will deprive you of the terrifying power that can reach the peak and rise above the world. ”

"Are you ready to choose?"

"Power, or ego?"

―――――――――――――――――――――――― Dividing Line―――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Madara lay on the lawn under a cliff in the Spiritual Academy, looking up at the sky, holding a leaf in his hand to cover his left eye, and the words between the pillars echoed in his head.

Just now, after Madara woke up, he said goodbye to the Jingle Spring Water who was guarding by his side, and came to the lawn that he usually likes to come to.

This is where Madara and Aizen are found, and the two always come here at dusk to chat. Today, Madara came here unconsciously under the agitation of the mood.

As he thought about it, Madara heard a rustling sound next to him, and then he felt like someone was sitting next to him. Without looking, Madara knew it was indigo.

"What's the matter, usually even if you are defeated by Yeyi, you are full of vitality, why are you depressed today?"

The gentle voice didn't change at all, just as it had been when the two first met. It's just that... Madara glanced sideways at the brown square-rimmed glasses that Aizen had brought with him not long ago, and felt that he couldn't see through him more and more.

"It's nothing, it's just a question in my heart."

"Oh? Will you also be troubled? How about telling me your questions? ”

After a moment of silence, Madara finally spoke.

"Aizen, if you had a very powerful force, but if you could lose yourself if you got it, what would you choose? Losing yourself for power? Or is it giving up power in order to keep the ego? ”

Hearing Madara's question, Aizen didn't even smile in the slightest, but he could faintly hear a hint of seriousness in his voice.

"Madara, look at that flower."

As he spoke, Aizen stretched out his hand and pointed to the cliff. On the steep cliff face, a white flower grows, swaying incessantly under the fierce wind, and it looks extremely beautiful.

"It's beautiful. But why do we think this flower is beautiful, Madara? ”

"Because it's in that kind of place, or because it's beautiful?" Madara was a little puzzled.

"No, Madara. The reason why we think that the flowers on the rock wall are beautiful is because we always stop under the rock wall and do not take a step towards the sky like those undaunted flowers. ”

"We envy them, that's why we feel they're beautiful. Now tell me, Madara. What do you think it's beautiful? ”

Against the light, Aizen's figure looked unusually tall.