Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 327: Withered Oni in the Well (4)

Dragon Raja 3

Princess Taema’s golden eyes disappeared. Chisei stood amidst the sea of blood, trembling uncontrollably. It wasn’t just the shock of having accidentally killed someone that shook him, though it did sadden him. His real fear came from the moment when he looked into Princess Taema’s eyes—he felt as though he had seen himself in the mirror, dressed as a woman, with long, delicate eyebrows, red-tinted eyes, and a cherry blossom pattern between his brows. He finally understood what he was hunting. No wonder the first victims had been the most beautiful girls in his high school—his classmates, and his brother’s classmates.

He should have realized this earlier. There were two children with dragon blood in this town, but now only one remained. To protect the last heir of the Gen family from being targeted by enemies, Tachibana had only ever publicly acknowledged Chisei’s existence. Chime had returned to the mountains after a brief trip to Tokyo, waiting for the right time to reveal himself. But how could he have known? All Chisei had thought about was finishing this mission and visiting his brother, bringing him the gift he had bought in Tokyo—a video game console.

That night, the town was swarming with police. Sirens wailed, and beams of flashlights crisscrossed the area. But the school was silent. It had been closed for a while because of the missing girls.

Chisei walked down the dim, winding corridors, descending layer by layer until he reached the abandoned equipment storage room. Only he and his brother knew about this vast storage room, filled with old gym equipment. It was too deep and damp, never seeing sunlight, making it unfit even as a storage room, with mold growing over everything. It had long been abandoned. But Chisei had lived here for several months when he had no home to go to. It was his and his brother’s secret base. Chisei had discovered it when he was twelve, declaring it the “base of justice.” “From this base, we will protect world peace. If we get hurt, we’ll come back here to heal,” he had said. His brother had said nothing, quietly following him as they swept away the dust and wiped off the mold.

He didn’t turn on the lights because someone had already turned them on for him. The missing girls stood on either side of him, dressed in exquisite kimonos, their faces heavily made-up. Their pale skin had an eerie, wax-like texture, and they could no longer breathe or speak.

Chisei had heard of this terrifying process—body plastination. While the body was still soft, liquid polymers would be injected into it, and once the polymers solidified, the body would forever retain its appearance from life.

Among these girls, he saw characters from Narukami, The Tale of Genji’s Fujitsubo and Ukifune, Sukeroku, and Yatsuhashi from Kagotsurube. Their faces were full of life and allure, but their eyes were hollow and lifeless.

From deep within the storage room, someone was singing. The song was lonely and slow, like the ancient songs women sang as they washed clothes in the river, their voices blending with the sound of the flowing water. Chisei stepped around the rusting parallel bars and vaulting horses, getting closer and closer to the center of the storage room. The dragon blood raged inside him, and every joint in his body was on high alert, ready to react at any moment. Yet, strangely, he felt his body turning stiff, hollow—like an empty shell. The beautiful girls lining his path seemed to come alive, their powdered faces showing delicate smiles, though what came out of their mouths was the wailing of ghosts.

He wanted to turn and run, but he was a friend of justice. In his heart, he sang the “Friend of Justice” song, and that song gave him the strength to reach the end.

At the end was a bathtub filled with a strong chemical odor. A delicate boy was pulling a pale human figure out of the tub—it was the most beautiful of the apprentice shrine maidens, the one chosen by Princess Taema. He had used the blade hidden in his mouth to slit her throat. Now she had undergone some simple processing. The boy wiped her body clean with a cotton cloth and placed her on a nearby chair to dry. He sang a lovely song as he measured her body with wax-dyed fabric, seemingly preparing to tailor a fitting garment for her. He even danced around the girl, mimicking her shy expression when he had kissed her, looking fragile and helpless.

Chisei had never known his brother to be such a talented actor. It was as if he had absorbed the girl’s soul, perfectly recreating her beauty on his own body. On stage, he could captivate any audience.

As he imitated the girl’s expressions and gestures, he did so with such seriousness, like an innocent child untouched by the world’s filth. Yet, he was still wearing the bloodstained scarlet hakama from the moment he committed the crime. His bare upper body was drenched in blood, which clung to him like a grotesque totem.

At some point, the once-shy and silent younger brother had turned into a demon, or perhaps the demon had always been hidden inside him, waiting for the right time to awaken.

“Chime,” Chisei called out.

Startled, Chime snapped out of his performance. His golden eyes, now fierce and menacing, locked onto Chisei with the gaze of a predator ready to strike. But the moment he recognized Chisei, his expression began to change, flickering between that of a fierce demon and an innocent child. In the end, the childlike side won over the demonic one, and he smiled, delighted, his eyes showing the familiar warmth that Chisei knew so well. He began walking toward Chisei, then broke into a run, arms outstretched, saying…

But Kumogiri pierced through the boy’s chest. He had never expected this to be his fate. Blood gushed from his mouth, and tears streamed down his face unconsciously.

He had no time to adjust to the shock, no time to change his words, so he uttered the sentence he had meant to say all along: “Brother, you… you’re back?”

Chisei held him tightly, twisting the hilt of the sword to destroy his blood vessels and organs. His grip on the blade was firm, and the arms holding Chime were just as strong, refusing to let him escape before all the blood had drained. But Chisei wept uncontrollably, like a mourning wolf.

He threw his brother’s body into the abandoned well, locking the demon away in hell forever, and set fire to the basement before fleeing into the stormy night—fleeing not only from the police, but also from his own memories.

From that night onward, he erased Chime from his past.

“We grew up together, depending on each other in the hardest of times. Since then, I’ve never felt guilt when killing Oni, because I’ve already paid the highest price for justice.” Chisei spoke as if to himself, completely ignoring Tachibana. “But I can never forget the look in Chime’s eyes as he stared up at the sky from the well. I’ve had nightmares, over and over again, where I’m in that pitch-black well, no matter how hard I climb, I can’t see the light. That’s why I want to leave this country. No matter how much power or status I have, nothing can free me from that nightmare. My only option is to run far away.”

“Chisei… I’m sorry. It was I who raised you to become a demon-slayer, burdening you with so much sorrow,” Tachibana sighed deeply.

“You think I regret it?” Chisei turned to look at Tachibana, his gaze as cold as a drawn blade. “No, I’ve never regretted it. I only feel sorrow for him. My brother was born as a demon of pure evil, something neither of us could change. The only thing I could do for him was to end his life as a demon. I will kill him again, and with him, I will end my career as a demon-slayer!”

“Hearing you say that, I’m relieved,” Tachibana said with joy. “When you brought me all the way out here to see the old family home, I was worried you might hesitate, but now I see the Emperor’s resolve!”

“No, it’s not the Emperor’s resolve,” Chisei said softly, “it’s the resolve of an elder brother.”

The rain poured down, thunder rumbled in the distance, and the two stood facing each other under their umbrellas, rainwater flowing in torrents off the edges.

“You’ve grown up, Chisei,” Tachibana said softly. “You’re starting to act like a family head.”

A buzzing sound came from Tachibana’s sleeve—it was his phone vibrating. Incredibly, despite being in this desolate mountain town, there was still a signal.

Tachibana pulled out his phone and glanced at it, his expression changing. “The drilling team by the Tama River has detected an anomaly underground. We need to send a helicopter there immediately!”