Sixty-Fourth Spell: In Character

On the evening of the first performance of Jiraiya the Gallant, Haru was profusely sweating. He had been in the dressing room backstage for half an hour trying to put on the costume he was supposed to wear for the play's first act. It consisted of a brown yukata with sewn patches, dirt-stained pants, and torn sandals. He also took a Crocetin Kampo pill that was made from Crocus and Gardenia flower extract, which Otoma insisted he should take to improve his eyesight so he wouldn't have to wear his glasses for the duration of the play.

"Are you ready yet?" Otoma said as she came into the dressing room.

Instead of her blonde wig, she was sporting her natural short brown hair and silver ring-shaped earrings. She also wore a black robe with white embroidery as part of her role as the storyteller for the play. Though when she beheld Haru, she looked disappointed.

"Is that the best you can do for the Madeno part of Orochimaru?" Otoma asked.

Haru was unable to speak, looking away in embarrassment as he put his square-framed glasses down on the dressing room table.

"Everyone gets nervous before their first performance," Otoma said as she came over and straightened out Haru's costume. "I felt the same way before mine."

"What happened?" asked Haru.

"To be honest, I was so nervous that I passed out onstage and woke up in the Healers' Wing a few days later," replied Otoma.

Haru's confidence waned upon hearing Otoma's story.

"But you'll be fine!" Otoma assured as she took some brown makeup from the vanity mirror and smeared it over Haru's face to make him look dirtier. "Just embody the character you're playing as and well, become them."

"You're asking me…to become Orochimaru?" Haru thought back to his Remedial Magic History lessons and shuttered at the thought.

"Not literally," Otoma corrected. "But try to speak the way you think he would speak, even if you don't remember your exact lines. And besides, Orochimaru's been dead for thousands of years! He's not going to come after you if you badly imitate him."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Haru said, remembering the stuff Koi and Gumo said to him about the Mark of Orochi.

It also didn't help that he was an Aruku, which were allegedly related to Orochimaru in some way. This made Haru afraid of embodying Orochimaru, even if it was just pretend.

"Look, just give it your best shot and don't think about the audience! They're invisible to the world onstage."

Suddenly, the lights turned dim onstage.

"It's showtime," Otoma said quietly as she grabbed a biwa from a chair in the dressing room. "Break a leg, Haru."

Haru didn't know how to respond to Otoma's phrase, even though she explained what it meant days ago, because he was still nervous. So he tried to calm himself down by re-reading his lines from the script. Meanwhile, Otoma started playing the biwa onstage while doing the opening narration in a singsong form.

Behind Otoma, the second curtain rose showing a background set depicting an old Japanese castle where a samurai warrior was carrying a bundle on his back that was supposed to be Jiraiya as a baby. He was set upon by ninjas, but he fought them off with his sword that had a wand inside the hilt like the Hikagi Swords the Kōsen used. Then the scene changed to a rundown shack with child Jiraiya sitting near the back, played by a nervous-looking Muni who was on his knees wearing a special costume to make him look smaller. Fortunately, he didn't have any speaking lines as the warrior was silently polishing his sword with a rag.

"Okay, now's your queue," Kishi whispered to Haru from behind a curtain.

Nodding, Haru took out his prop short sword and approached the shack from the left side of the stage. Then two bandits with similar raggedy outfits came in from the right, played by a pair of identical Thai twins named Phāph and Phlang Prasert. With their short swords drawn, Haru and the Prasert Twins entered the shack startling the warrior and child Jiraiya.

"Who are you?" the warrior said, holding his Hikagi Sword in a defensive position.

"I-I am nobody," Haru said, trying to sound intimidating as Madeno.

From the audience came a few laughs.

"Then if you are nobody, why do you have friends?" the warrior asked, glancing at the two identical bandits behind him.

"Friends?" Haru attempted an evil laugh, but it came out all choked and awkward.

More laughs erupted from the audience.

"Only the weak have friends," said Haru as he ignored the laughs. He raised his short sword at the warrior. "These men work for me, and nothing more than that."

"So if these men are bandits, that makes you their leader," the warrior assumed. "And you're here to rob me, correct?"

"You assume right, Samurai," replied Haru, gripping the hilt of the short sword tightly. "Now give me everything you own and no one has to die!"

"How do I know you will keep your word?" The warrior looked back at the two bandits. "What's going to stop your comrades from cutting me down right now? Or my son?"

Haru glanced at child Jiraiya and attempted a sneer. "That weakling over there is your son? Give me a break!"

While the Prasert bandit boys laughed haughtily, the warrior attempted to attack Haru while he wasn't looking. But Haru saw him from the corner of his improved eyes, which he briefly marveled at, before attacking the warrior with a quick strike of his short sword. The warrior flinched as he notice a visible red cut along his stomach, causing him to drop his sword and roll on the floor in pain.

"Now that wasn't very honorable, Samurai," Haru said, turning to face the writhing warrior.

Inside Haru's mind, he felt something take over. He felt his chest burn for a moment, followed by a rattling sound in his ears.

"You'll go to Hell for this!" said the warrior in agony. "But before I die, would you please tell me your name?"

"And why should I do that?" Haru's voice had changed, now sounding colder and less emotional.

"So I can remember…the man who killed me," replied the warrior.

"If I give you my name, it's only fair that you give me yours."

"Fine. My name is…."

The warrior suddenly passed out, having lost a lot of blood that was actually red streamers. When Haru prodded the warrior's body with his short sword, he didn't move.

"Now you are Nobody!" Haru then did a second evil laugh, only this one was more convincing which left the audience as silent as an empty room.

To be continued…