Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 314: Kojiki (2)

Dragon Raja 3

The newcomer on stage was Ruri, performing in a production of New Kojiki.

The curtain on stage hung low, the stage was pitch black, and the audience murmured quietly. These were regulars of nightclubs, used to loud laughter and banter over drinks, but tonight no one was making a sound. They were all dressed in refined kimonos or evening gowns that touched the floor, sitting demurely like proper ladies. Although Ruri came from a host club background, his performances had been praised by several Kabuki masters, who had unhesitatingly written in the newspapers that they lowered themselves to visit the bustling nightclubs just to hear this Kabuki enthusiast perform. This was no casual show; it was a traditional Kabuki performance, a masterpiece.

Not far away, a group of wealthy women sat, eagerly waiting, likely having spent a fortune to buy tickets after hearing Ruri was performing at the Kabuki-za. Caesar and Chu Zihang sat in a second-floor box, dressed in black “Iro Muji” haori, holding white paper fans. They had received invitations from Ruri himself, treated as VIPs of the highest order, with royal treatment upon arrival—assistants helped them change and led them to the best seats in the box. Lu Mingfei, meanwhile, was out taking a stroll with the humanoid weapon, so the extra ticket went to Whale. Whale wore a white headband with “Kazama Life” written on it, binoculars hanging from his neck, looking every bit the crazed fan.

“Have you seen a Kabuki performance before? Do you understand it?” Chu Zihang asked softly.

“I saw one in New York, at a reception hosted by the Japanese consulate. The actors’ faces were so pale, they looked like corpses.”

“That’s all you remember?”

Caesar thought for a moment. “Also, the girl who went with me wore a nude-colored evening gown with a waist encrusted with rhinestones. Her slim waist really caught my eye as she walked.”

“So, you didn’t understand the Kabuki performance either, right?”

“You just have to read the subtitles on the screen above the stage. The assistant said earlier that Ruri personally requested the screen. The audience is all Japanese, but you and I are the only ones who can’t understand the lyrics, so the screen was installed just for us.”

“Seems like Ruri really wants us to understand his performance.”

“Well, then we should watch carefully,” Caesar said, lightly shaking his folding fan. “As a creature of the night, who knows if this will be his last performance?”

Suddenly, the lights went out. Someone struck a small drum, the sound low and raspy, like a ghost whispering from a distant ancient era. The curtain rose, revealing a pale woman standing silently in the center of the stage, her long black hair flowing freely.

“All the happiness in this world is but a fleeting flower in the moonlight; only loneliness and pain linger in the depths of Yomi.” The woman sang softly as she slowly raised her head, her face as white as paper, with only the corners of her eyes a bloody crimson.

Her appearance resembled a vengeful ghost from the depths of Yomi, yet her figure exuded grace and charm, like a peerless beauty draped in a thin veil, subtly stirring the heart.

“Ruri?” Caesar was startled.

It turned out that Ruri was in female attire. While Caesar wasn’t entirely surprised that Kazama, who had a delicate and youthful appearance, was playing a female role, seeing a woman’s sensuality in a man gave him a strange, eerie feeling.

But he couldn’t mock it. He was genuinely struck by Ruri’s feminine allure, feeling as though a thousand-year-old ghost had possessed the colorful costume, embroidering it with patterns of skulls and maggots.

At that moment, the subtitle screen above the stage displayed information about the play’s background: Ruri was playing the role of Japan’s mother goddess, Izanami. The newly adapted mythological play told the story of the divine marriage between the father god Izanagi and the mother goddess Izanami, and their eventual fallout.

Izanagi and Izanami were originally a pair of siblings, but they were the only young people in the vast world, unable to find companions, so they married each other and gave birth to the gods of Japan. However, when Izanami gave birth to the fire god, she was fatally burned and died. Izanagi, longing for his wife, journeyed to the depths of Yomi to save her. They spoke through a curtain, expressing their sorrow, and Izanami eventually agreed to return with Izanagi to the world of the living, but she asked him to wait outside the grand hall of Yomi while she prepared herself. Izanagi waited for a long time without seeing her, so he broke off a tooth from his comb and lit it. The small flame illuminated the eternal darkness of Yomi, and Izanagi finally saw his wife’s body, which had not yet recovered. It was a rotting corpse, crawling with maggots, dressed in a colorful shroud.

Horrified, he fled from Yomi, and Izanami, furious at his betrayal, chased after him with the ghosts of Yomi. Izanagi reached a place called Yomotsu Hirasaka, where he used a large boulder to separate the living world from Yomi, and Izanami could no longer reach him. They angrily annulled their marriage from opposite sides of the stone. From that point on, Izanami became a malevolent goddess, killing a thousand people every day, while Izanagi built 1,500 birthing houses each day to ensure Japan’s population gradually increased.

Warm golden light enveloped the stage, symbolizing the transition from the dark Yomi to the living world. Izanagi, wearing a golden robe, entered the stage. He wore a wooden mask, walking in perfect circles while chanting poetry, praising his three children. These children, named Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo, were born after his return from Yomi and had no connection to Izanami. Izanagi commanded them to help him guard the world—Amaterasu was entrusted with ruling Takamagahara, the land of the gods; Tsukuyomi was given control over the night; and Susanoo was given dominion over the sea. Izanagi gifted the Yata no Kagami, symbolizing the sun, to Amaterasu; the Yasakani no Magatama, symbolizing the moon, to Tsukuyomi; and his sharpest sword, Ame-no-Habakiri, to his youngest son, Susanoo.

While Izanagi joyfully danced with his children at the front of the stage, Izanami cried and sang behind a thin black veil. The white human-shaped figures folding again and again on stage symbolized the sharp pain of abandonment.

The black veil represented Yomotsu Hirasaka, the eternal divide between the worlds. Izanami, forever trapped in Yomi, danced and reminisced about the divine marriage. Back then, Japan had just emerged from the sea, and the only thing standing on the desolate earth was a sky-reaching jade pillar. They had asked fate if, as siblings, they could marry and bear offspring. Fate told them to walk around the pillar, forget their identities, and when they met, it would be as if they were meeting for the first time. So, they each walked around the pillar. When they met, Izanagi, acting like a bashful young maiden, exclaimed, “Oh my, what a beautiful woman!” Izanami responded, “Oh my, what a handsome man!” And so they sealed their marriage, giving birth to countless descendants.

“They later harbored such deep resentment only because their first encounter was so beautiful,” Chu Zihang softly commented.

The song echoed around the hall. If you closed your eyes, you could easily imagine Ruri as a sorrowful woman, dancing in her burial shroud in hell, surrounded by nothing but bones. The audience was deathly silent, and a few connoisseurs of Kabuki quietly shed tears. Whale pulled out a handkerchief and covered his eyes as they welled up with tears. Caesar himself had been somewhat moved, but seeing the club manager crying so pitifully made him feel too embarrassed to express his own emotions.

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