Chapter 10
When Mukuro gained his consciousness again he found himself in a rather well-known place. The floor was covered with bones and skulls and there were candles floating around spending a scary green light. It was a cold place with a burning hot air. It was hard to breathe easily, but Mukuro was used to this. He covered his face with the hood of his coat taking a quick look around. Nothing had changed at all, this place still sucked.
He hesitated for a second trying to remember everything before he had died. That was not just because the moment when Kyouya had shown up, had been somewhat intensive, but also because it was important to actually remember everything. People tended to like to forget about their death, because it was either disturbing and painful or just really sad. But Mukuro had already noticed the first time that it was actually an important thing to remember. He had just been thinking about it, because death itself had been interesting for him. All the overwhelming feelings, the fear he had felt when he had died the first time, he had been amazed by it.
Then he had made it through the first path and accidently met her. She had been really amused and fascinated by him so he granted him the right for another life. Since then he had known that your memory was the only thing to get out of hell again. From time to time she had asked for some things from him, because she felt a bit mocked by him coming and leaving the place as she wished, but his tongue sure saved him most of the time. She was a narcissistic being and it was easy to persuade her.
With his memory in mind he went on passing some other souls that were kept down here forever. They had probably already forgotten who they had been and where they were at the time being, but he would never end up like this. Even, if she'd decide to keep him someday. He went on not speaking to any of the other souls. It was another fact you should never do in the underworld. Speaking with other souls kept you imprisoned and you couldn't move on any longer.
Mukuro stopped when he had finally arrived at a large gate. In front of that gate the so-called gate-keeper was standing. He just existed of bones which seemed to be melted away and was covered in the same cloak as the souls. But the souls weren't bony; they were rather lightly transparent mostly looking like a bad shaped human with a sad expression on their faces. Only a few managed to keep their looks from the life before, but they also had a rather sad expression.
When Mukuro stood in front of the gatekeeper he was smiling not saying anything but watching the creature. A while they were standing there in silence until the gatekeeper finally seemed to look at him. "What do you want?" It said with a voice that remembered of a dry branch breaking. Mukuro waited a second before he answered the question. "I am here to choose a path."
The gatekeeper chuckled like leaves rustling in the wind. "Which one?" "The path of hell." The gatekeeper chuckled again. "You have my permission to enter." Mukuro smiled again and went over to the gate to open it. It was forbidden to open it without permission although the gatekeeper loved to give his permission to every soul.
The reason behind it was, that normally no one made it through one of the paths being either lost or just fading away forever. The thing behind asking for permission was that the gatekeeper had to open the path for you. Otherwise the gate wouldn't lead anywhere. But like that there really was a path behind the huge gate. Mukuro chuckled and closed it right behind him. This would be the hardest part of his journey or at least he thought so.