Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 324: Withered Oni in the Well (1)

Dragon Raja 3

The Hummer sped along the Meishin Expressway. It was late at night, with torrential rain pouring down. The car’s headlights cut through the endless darkness, while the wheels splashed up walls of water as tall as a person on both sides.

Chisei was driving, and Tachibana sat in the passenger seat. No one else was in the car. This was unimaginable under normal circumstances. The current and former heads of the family were out together without any escorts. If someone successfully ambushed this car, the entire balance of Japan’s underworld would shift.

But Chisei insisted on this arrangement, and Tachibana had no objections. No one could stop them.

Due to his injury from the severed finger, Tachibana had been in the hospital. At 11 PM, Chisei suddenly pushed open the door to his private room, drenched from head to toe. Rainwater dripped from his trench coat.

“Father, let’s go back to the mountains for a look,” he said, staring into Tachibana’s eyes.

Tachibana was stunned for just a second, as if he understood what Chisei meant. He threw off the blanket, got out of bed, and donned a black haori. The two of them left the hospital one after the other, got into the Hummer parked downstairs, and headed towards Kobe on the Meishin Expressway. Chisei had disabled the GPS and mobile phone modules in the Hummer, making it impossible for Kaguya-hime to track them.

The car’s headlights briefly illuminated a road sign that read “Kadotori Shrine.” Chisei steered the Hummer onto an inconspicuous side road, leaving the highway and heading onto a winding mountain path. The road was extremely muddy due to the rain, but the Hummer’s top-tier off-road capabilities made it easy to navigate the curves and swollen mountain streams. The further into the mountains they went, the narrower the road became, with rocks scattered everywhere. It was clear that the road had not been maintained for years, and no vehicles had passed through in a long time.

“How has it fallen into such disrepair in just a few years?” Tachibana sighed.

“The shrine was already struggling. There were fewer and fewer visitors every year. The shrine’s priest passed away in the second year after I left, and they couldn’t find anyone suitable to take over. The shrine fell into decline, and people from the town gradually moved away,” Chisei explained. “Later, an earthquake destroyed more than half of the old buildings, and the government provided relocation housing south of Kobe. The remaining people moved there.”

“You’ve been keeping an eye on this town all this time?”

“Yes, this is where I grew up,” Chisei said softly. “I’ve buried many things here.”

The Hummer came to a stop by a river with turbulent white waves. This had originally been a mountain stream, but the heavy rain over the past few days had turned it into a raging river, full of trees that had been washed down from the mountains.

“We can’t drive any further. We’ll have to cross the water on foot.” Chisei turned off the Hummer, took two black umbrellas from the back seat, and handed one to Tachibana.

Crossing a rising mountain stream in the pitch-black night was undoubtedly dangerous, but Tachibana didn’t seem to mind. The two of them rolled up their pants, put on the rain boots they had prepared, and stepped into the icy cold water. The Hummer’s headlights shone on their backs as Chisei helped Tachibana wade through the knee-deep water. Across the river, black buildings loomed in the mountain pass, but there wasn’t a single light. A flock of crows, startled by the unexpected visitors, flapped their wings and took off, cawing loudly.

After passing through a torii gate that had already begun to change color, they finally reached the silent mountain town. Trees and weeds grew unchecked, and the buildings that had collapsed in the earthquake resembled the corpses of giants lying flat on the battlefield. Rotten beams and rafters formed the spines and ribs of these fallen giants.

“Why did you suddenly decide to come back to the mountains?” Tachibana asked. They were standing in front of an abandoned school. The concrete building was the most modern structure in the town, forming a stark contrast to the ancient Kadotori Shrine, which stood nearby like an elderly monk.

“I just wanted to see what I was like years ago,” Chisei said softly. “Do you remember, Father?”

“Of course I do. How could I forget?” Tachibana handed his umbrella to Chisei, took out his wallet from the sleeve of his kimono, and opened it to show Chisei a photograph inside.

It was a group photo of twelve-year-old Chisei, wearing a dark blue school uniform with an open collar revealing a crew-neck shirt underneath. Tachibana, dressed in a tweed suit and wearing a flat cap, stood beside him. He didn’t look like the imposing leader of the underworld at all, but more like an ordinary office worker in the big city. In the background was Kadotori Shrine, bathed in the light of the setting sun. Tachibana and Chisei had never brought anyone else to this mountain town, nor had they ever mentioned its name, because too many secrets were buried here. Secrets that should never be unearthed.

As far back as he could remember, Chisei had lived in this mountain town. The town was built around the eight-hundred-year-old Kadotori Shrine, and half of the town’s population worked for the shrine. The town’s economy relied on selling souvenirs to tourists who came to visit the mountains.

Chisei opened his wallet and showed Tachibana another photo. It also had Kadotori Shrine in the background, but more prominent was a light helicopter. Two boys stood side by side, leaning against the helicopter, both wearing white “kariginu” robes made of hemp.

“You still have this photo? This was taken when you and Chime were studying at Kadotori Shrine, right?” Tachibana asked. “I remember the boys in the town had to take turns studying at the shrine. The priest said that the best students could become the next head priest.”

“Yes, originally the priest had high hopes for Chime to become the next head of the shrine. But Chime is dead, so there’s no one left to inherit Kadotori Shrine,” Chisei said softly. “I also thought Chime was perfect for the role. He learned everything quickly—the shrine’s dances and rituals, he memorized them all after just one look. But… he’s dead.”

He repeated “he’s dead” twice without realizing it himself.

No one knew Chisei had a younger brother, except for Tachibana. Sometimes Chisei would tell Yasha and Crow stories about his school days in the mountains, but he always left out the name of the town and, naturally, omitted one person. In his stories, he had always been alone, from growing up in the mountains to arriving in Tokyo, and eventually becoming the most powerful figure in Japan’s underworld. The younger brother named Chime had been erased from his past, leaving only the photograph hidden deep inside his wallet. Only that photo proved the boy had ever existed—until, years later, that same photo appeared on an iPad.

When Chisei saw Ruri’s performance photo on CNN, he hadn’t been absolutely certain it was Chime. But when he stepped into that empty room, he knew Chime had returned, like a ghost escaping from hell.

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