Sixty-Fifth Spell: Distracting Raincloud
Then Haru, still in character, walked over to Muni, who was shuttering in his child Jiraiya outfit. Raising his short sword, Haru was about to strike when the two identical bandits came over to him with a large bag they dragged from a corner of the shack.
"Boss!" shouted one of the bandits.
"What?" Haru snapped.
Phāph Prasert, who was playing the bandit that spoke, hid his surprise at Haru's harsh tone and continued with his next line, "I think we found their valuables, Boss."
"Can we go now?" asked Phāph's twin Phlang in the role of the other bandit. "Or do you want to kill the kid first?"
Looking down at child Jiraiya, Haru sheathed his short sword. Then he took a few steps away before glancing over his shoulder.
"If you ever come to find me, I'll definitely kill you," Haru said menacingly. "Though since your father died before I could give him my name, I shall give it to you. It's Madeno, and don't you ever forget it, boy!"
For the rest of the play, Haru felt like he was watching someone else speak his lines for him. As Madeno, he got angry at his fellow bandits when they realized the bag was full of nothing but radishes. This made the two bandits stab Madeno, thinking they had been double-crossed, and leave him for dead. Not long after, the puppet of Yamata no Orochi appeared in the form of a green serpent with multiple heads. It made an offer to give Madeno ultimate power in exchange for his soul before touching his body.
When this happened, the Costume-Changing Spell Tsuchiku Biàn was cast by Muni. This caused Haru's clothes to switch from the brown yukata and dirty pants into a silken purple-and-green robe while a wig of long black hair appeared on his head and his face was painted pale white with purple spiked lines from his eyes. Now having become Orochimaru, no ounce of humanity was left in Haru's performance as he ruthlessly attacked whole villages with his magically summoned snakes and kidnapped Princess Tagoto from her castle by the sea.
"Hey, the kid playing Orochimaru is using real Aruku to speak to the snakes," a member of the audience whispered. "Isn't that kind of strange?"
"But the snakes are just puppets," another audience member said. "He could be just imitating Aruku to make it seem realistic."
"You're a monster!" said Princess Tagoto, who was played by a Seiryu girl named Riniri Ushū. "How could you force me to marry you?"
"That's because I can," said Haru with the same cold voice as before. "And if you refuse, there will be great consequences."
"Such as what?" Tagoto folded her arms.
"If you don't marry me, I'll kill one person for every day you refuse."
Gasping in fear, Tagoto's hands fell limply.
"Now I'll give you a day to think it over." Haru then walked offstage as Tagoto collapsed onto the ground.
Behind Tagoto, the scene changed to show a boy with black crow wings flying through the air. This was Rikimatsu, who was rushing to find the antidote to cure the now-adult Jiraiya and Tsunade from the poison Orochimaru gave them earlier. As the audience cheered him on, Rikimatsu obtained the antidote from an Indian Wizard and flew back to Japan as fast as he could.
Following a brief curtain drop, Haru was now riding the back of a giant green snake. Jiraiya, played by a handsome Byakko boy named Rēki Bau, was on top of a giant brown toad that complemented his crimson-red robe quite well. Then between them stood Tsunade in a mint-blue kimono, who was portrayed by Hikari Genma's understudy Reika Kishi, carrying a puppet of a giant white slug to represent her transformation into the slug.
"Madeno!" shouted Jiraiya. "I'm finally going to kill you to avenge my father's death!"
"Father?" Another evil laugh escaped Haru's mouth. "That pathetic warrior wasn't your real father, Jiraiya."
Jiraiya was shocked to hear this. "What do you mean?"
"Since the Yamata no Orochi possessed me and I became Orochimaru, I have obtained a supernatural understanding of many things," said Haru, glowering at Jiraiya. "I now know for a fact that your true father was a Wizard Lord who was killed in a battle with a rival Wizard Lord. But before he died, he sent his faithful samurai warrior to whisk you away and raise you himself. Though after I killed this warrior when I was Madeno, you became a bandit and nearly murdered an old man who turned out to be the Sage Wizard Senso Dojin.
"He taught you the ways of Toad Magic, and you became a hero to the people. Meanwhile you, Tsunade, were taught Slug Magic by Senso's twin brother Iyè. Now you two may think you can defeat me in a two-versus-one battle, but you forget the basic principles behind each of our magics. Snake Magic, for instance, beats Toad Magic."
"But Slug Magic beats Snake Magic," Tsunade pointed out.
"Yes, but if you tried to combine Slug and Toad Magic it wouldn't work because the Slug Magic would just completely dominate the Toad Magic thus defeating the purpose of combining your magics in the first place," Haru retorted.
"I have an idea!" said Rikimatsu, who suddenly arrived from stage right carrying Princess Tagoto in his arms. "Let's settle this with a game of Ken!"
The audience laughed.
"Ken?" Tagoto looked at Rikimatsu like he was crazy. "Are you serious?"
"Of course I am," Rikimatsu argued. "It would prevent further bloodshed and settle the matter more firmly."
Just as Haru was about to speak, he looked out into the audience. He recognized the dark-blue robe of Daizō Maki's father Ryosei and the silky black robes of Sayuri Shō, who were sitting a few seats apart from each other. But what caught his attention was a small raincloud that suddenly formed over Shō's head, followed by a light rain shower.
"Ugh!" shouted an audience member. "I'm getting wet!"
"Where is that water coming from?" Another audience member said as they abruptly got up.
Embarrassed, Shō left the theater with the raincloud following her out the door. But the commotion caused a bunch of other people to get up including Ryosei who looked briefly confused. Then Haru suddenly had a massive headache followed by his body becoming weak as he fell off the puppet snake he was riding.
To be continued…