Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 294: The Last Emperor & The Last KGB Officer (9)

Dragon Raja 3

“You’re giving me the punishment of the fivefold finger-severing sentence instead?” Tachibana gasped, smiling bitterly through his pain. His speech was broken as the pain in his fingers was intense.

“In this world, those who make mistakes must face consequences. If I don’t punish you, how can I face the clan members lying beneath those white sheets? But killing you won’t serve any purpose either. Father, if redemption is the goal, your life alone isn’t enough. Stay alive and witness me kill Osho. As for Erii, I can’t promise to care for her. The most I can do is keep her company and play video games with her.” Chisei tied the knot tightly and patted Tachibana’s shoulder. “For all these years, I’ve merely been a sword in your hands. Father, whoever you told me to cut down, I never objected. Now you say to kill Osho, so I will kill Osho. You may have lost the hand that wielded the sword, but the sword itself is still here!”

“I’ve told you everything I know. Now, go and search every inch of Tokyo for the god,” Uesugi Koeru said, putting down his cup. “If there’s nothing else, let’s wrap up this reunion. It’s 3 a.m., and I’ve got to be up early tomorrow to buy ingredients.”

“You were once the head of the Yamata no Orochi, responsible for safeguarding the resurrection of the Holy Remains, and yet you act so indifferent.”

“But I’ve already abdicated, haven’t I? An emperor who steps down no longer meddles in state affairs! If you have issues, go talk to the current clan leader!” Uesugi Koeru replied with a shameless grin.

“The previous leader was Tachibana. He was just replaced a few days ago. The new leader is named Chisei. Do you know these two men?”

Uesugi Koeru froze for a moment, then sneered, “Even if the inner three families are wiped out, they don’t need to fabricate heirs from the Tachibana and Gen families. These younger generations are getting more ridiculous by the day.”

“What do you mean?” Anjou was stunned.

“The inner three families have long since died out. I am the last emperor. Don’t think that the Yamata no Orochi will produce another super hybrid. It’s over. With me, the line of super hybrids has ended,” Uesugi Koeru shrugged.

“Are you saying Tachibana and Chisei aren’t true descendants of the inner three families?”

“They could adopt a few kids from the outer five families and change their surnames to Gen, Tachibana, or Uesugi, but it’s all fake. The true inner three families are those who inherit the emperor’s bloodline. No matter how hard outsiders try, they can never become emperors.”

“But you, a mixed-blood of Chinese and French descent, became the Shadow Emperor. How could the Yamata no Orochi fail to produce another super hybrid?”

“Fine, fine. If I don’t explain, you’ll keep coming back to bother me. You’re the kind of guy who never gives up.” Uesugi Koeru sighed. “But you have to promise that once you hear this story, you’ll forget it and never tell anyone.”

“A story?”

“The story of the last emperor’s life. And no, I’m not talking about that fake guy. I’m talking about myself. Once you’ve heard my story, you’ll understand why the emperor’s bloodline has been severed and why I fled my family and spent over sixty years living the hard life of a ramen cook.”

“Alright. I give you my word—I won’t tell a soul. I’ve never understood why you ran away all those years ago. Otherwise, you’d still be a big figure in the underworld.”

“Your word isn’t worth much. Swear on something valuable!” Uesugi Koeru grumbled.

“What do I have left of value to swear on?” Anjou smiled. “What is there left in this world that matters to me?”

Uesugi Koeru picked up his cup, suddenly falling silent.

“Let’s start by explaining the difference between the inner three families and the outer five. The inner three families have far fewer members than the outer five. When the outer five have a hundred members, the inner three might only have one. But the inner three families are the ones who can give birth to emperors. We are the descendants of the three god-priests—Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, and Susanoo—making us the purest White Empress bloodline in the Yamata no Orochi. Among the children of the inner three families, you’d be lucky if one in a hundred turned out to be an emperor. So the emperor’s existence is truly one in ten thousand.”

Uesugi Koeru paused. “My father’s name was Uesugi Hideo, a member of the inner Uesugi family. By his generation, the inner three families were already dwindling. But he had no interest in reviving the family. He was completely immersed in the art of Go, and at a young age, he earned the title of ‘Go Saint.’”

“I never would have thought someone as reckless as you could have such a refined father,” Anjou interjected.

“My dad was just as much of a fool. A guy who abandoned his position as a yakuza patriarch to become a Go saint, isn’t that foolish? Looking back, I think my dad took up Go mainly to escape reality. He hated his own bloodline. If the dragon blood were like an arm, something he could cut off and throw away, I think he would have done it without hesitation.”

“Blood that’s as precious as gold and grants superhuman abilities—why hate it?” Anjou asked.

“You’ll understand soon enough,” Uesugi Koeru said. “My mother, named Charlotte Chen, was a French-Chinese mixed-blood. She was a novice nun at the time, representing the French Catholic Church on a visit to Japan for a cultural exchange festival. She played a quick game of Go with my father, and my father won, which is when she fell in love with him.”

“A Go saint defeating a nun—that sounds pretty normal,” Anjou commented.

“It wasn’t that simple. My mother’s Go skills weren’t weak. They were playing a quick game, and the only handicap my father gave her was that he played blindfolded.”

“So, your father had no time to memorize the board, yet he still played a quick game against your mother?”

“Exactly. Only someone like him, completely immersed in the art of Go, could do that. My mother admired his simplicity and brilliance. On the ninety-eighth move, my father said, ‘You’ve already lost. I can hear your heartbeat faltering.’” Uesugi Koeru sighed. “It wasn’t the game that made my mother lose control; it was her heart. But she was a novice nun, sworn to serve the Lord. Nuns have to complete six years of training. If they don’t regret their vows after that time, they commit to the Lord for life. On the last day of her six years, my parents boarded a boat and fled to Lyon. It was a grand elopement for love, betraying both the Catholic Church and Japan’s most powerful yakuza family. The Church was lenient and didn’t pursue punishment, but the clan elders were furious. They sent Fūma clan ninjas to France, determined to kill my mother and retrieve my father.”

“They opposed your father marrying a foreign woman? A tragedy like Madame Butterfly?”

“No, it had nothing to do with national pride. It was because my father was seen as a valuable stud for the clan. Even though he wasn’t an emperor, his offspring might produce one. He may have been a useless chess addict, but he was supposed to sleep with women for the clan’s sake. Eloping for love was a joke to the yakuza family; he had to return to Japan and breed with women every day!”