Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 325: Withered Oni in the Well (2)

Dragon Raja 3

He distinctly remembered killing his brother and throwing his bones into an abandoned well, covering it with an iron lid, and securing it with a heavy iron lock.

“Chime has come back?” Tachibana suddenly realized, his hand trembling involuntarily as he gripped the umbrella. Clearly, overwhelming fear had exploded within him.

“Yes, he is now a high-ranking officer in the Oni Clan. Just a few hours ago, there was a spectacular Kabuki performance at the Kabuki-za Theatre in Ginza. The name of the play was A New Kojiki, and Chime played the role of Izanami. This event made it to CNN News. Caesar Gattuso and Chu Zihang were there in person, sitting in the VIP box.”

“Is he the Dragon King?”

“He should be. We didn’t manage to completely uproot the Oni Clan. The elite Oni survived, and they are secretly regrouping. Among them are your old acquaintance, Osho, and my old foe, the Dragon King,” Chisei said quietly.

“They’ve bet everything on the gods. They’re gambling on the awakening of Yamata no Orochi and the return of the White Empress. That will usher in their era.” Tachibana’s face turned pale.

“Yes, the ghosts we killed have come back to haunt us, wanting one last gamble.” Chisei pulled out a shovel he had prepared in advance and handed Tachibana a flashlight. “Father, you’ve only got one hand, so it’s inconvenient for you, but I still need you to hold the light. It’s time to dig up what was buried here years ago.”

He walked 120 steps west from the school gate, then 35 steps south, and drew a cross on the open ground with the shovel. Tachibana held the umbrella, trying to raise the flashlight higher. In the pale circle of light, Chisei dug through the wet topsoil. After about half a meter, the shovel hit something solid. Chisei didn’t care about his expensive handmade leather shoes as he stepped into the muddy pit. He cleared away the surrounding soil, revealing a round iron object—an old well cover. The iron chains crossed in an X-shape, locking the cover in place. The rusty old padlock had become a chunk of useless iron. Chisei flipped the lock over, and the flashlight illuminated the patterns on its surface.

“How does it look?” Tachibana asked, somewhat nervously.

“Exactly the same as when I sealed this well years ago.” Chisei pulled out Kumogiri from his waist. “It looks like it’s never been opened.”

With one swift stroke, he cut through the lock, pulled the chains out of the holes, and lifted the heavy well cover. Inside the well was complete darkness, and the stench of decay and dampness rose, choking them. Chisei tied the flashlight to his trench coat belt and lowered it into the well, illuminating the surface of the water. The abandoned well was only four or five meters deep. Rainwater had seeped through the soil and accumulated at the bottom. The water was pitch black, and it was unclear how many years it had been stagnant. Something blood-red floated faintly on the surface, vaguely human-shaped. Tachibana’s face showed a look of terror—what could remain so vibrantly red after being dead for so many years, as if it were freshly spilled blood?

Chisei’s face remained expressionless as he pulled out a lighter, lit it, and dropped it into the well. As the flame was about to touch the water, both Chisei and Tachibana finally saw what the blood-red object was: a crimson hunting robe, propped up on a stick at the bottom of the well, as if a person were standing in the black water. The lighter fell into the water, and instead of extinguishing, the flames surged up, and the entire well burst into fire. The hunting robe danced in the flames as it turned to ash.

The scene resembled a brutal execution by fire, a boy in a hunting robe being burned alive in the well. Tachibana dropped his umbrella and pulled Chisei back, but Chisei easily pushed him aside and stood at the edge of the well, watching the ashes of the robe rise with the hot air.

“Be careful, the flames might be poisonous!” Tachibana warned.

“It’s fine. The water at the bottom of the well was replaced with fuel. He came back here and put that hunting robe in the well,” Chisei said quietly. “He knew I would come back too.”

“Was that the hunting robe you both wore when you studied at the shrine?”

“Yes, it bears the mark of Kadotori Shrine, but it’s been dyed red,” Chisei replied. “He’s telling me something—back then, I destroyed him, and now he’s returned for revenge.”

“Chisei, that wasn’t your fault. Chime was a monster. He couldn’t control himself. The dragon blood slowly eroded him from the inside out, turning him into the most terrifying Death Servitor. Herzog deliberately created that evil spirit, and even he couldn’t control it,” Tachibana said, resting his crippled hand on Chisei’s shoulder. “You did the right thing by killing him. He was beyond saving. He was wandering this town, killing people, no different from a bloodthirsty mad dragon. What else could you have done? You’ve always been a friend of justice, but justice always comes with a price. This is the price we must pay!”

“Yes, but the one who grew up with me all those years was this evil spirit… Until the very last moment, he didn’t believe I would kill him. This evil spirit never saw me as his prey. He was covered in blood, his face was bloodied too, and he walked toward me out of the darkness, saying, ‘Brother, you’re back,’ as if he were welcoming me home.” Chisei’s face twitched slightly, as if a great storm of sorrow was brewing inside him. “An evil spirit that welcomes you home.”

He closed his eyes slightly, and the memories resurfaced before him. The scent of blood seemed to still linger around him. It was a night of wild wind and heavy rain. The blade of Kumogiri glowed with a faint blue light, illuminating the crimson stage.

What turned this mountain town into a ghost town in just a few years was not only the decline of Kadotori Shrine and the earthquake, but also the “Kadotori Serial Murders” that shocked all of Japan. In just three months, thirteen girls mysteriously disappeared from the town. Some of the disappearances were baffling. In one instance, a girl was seen walking into an alley with high walls and no windows on either side. Her classmates watched her enter, but she never came out the other end. When they went in to look for her, she was already gone, and only her backpack remained in the middle of the alley, as if she had simply dissolved like a soap bubble.

Information quickly reached the Japanese branch of the Execution Bureau, and the Bureau swiftly determined that a Death Servitor was preying on young girls. This creature carried the weight of a 40-kilogram girl, scaling the high walls in seconds. The Death Servitor was determined to be male, as it only targeted girls, and male Death Servitors often had a violent lust for the opposite sex. At that time, Chisei had just joined the Execution Bureau as the youngest temporary officer. After summer ended, he was supposed to go to Cassell College for further training. Because he was the most familiar with the town, he was assigned to complete his first mission in the mountains, with Tachibana handing him Kumogiri as the head of the family.

On the Shinkansen, Chisei read the full list of the missing, and he recognized every name. The town had only one elementary school and one middle school, and all the girls had been his classmates. He had briefly had a crush on a few of them, and some of the girls had liked him, standing by the basketball court to watch him play. It felt like a war tailored for a “friend of justice.” Chisei had every reason to angrily and vengefully hunt down the Death Servitor—it had invaded his life. He hadn’t told anyone he was returning to the town. After getting off the train, he crossed the familiar mountain paths like a stealthy leopard and arrived at the town at sunset, quietly waiting on the rooftop for nightfall.

That night, a torrential downpour fell. Groups of girls carrying white lanterns and paper umbrellas crossed the torii gate, heading toward Kadotori Shrine. They wore the white and red robes of apprentice shrine maidens, stepping gracefully on high wooden sandals, their hips swaying as they walked.