KAMIYO Episode 33: The Taboo of the Living, to the Country of the Dead — Izanagi's Obsession and the Door to Yomi

Prologue: The Blood-Stained Sword and the Faded World

The gruesome scene where the head of Hinokagutsuchi-no-Kami was severed, and from his blood, fierce warrior gods and mountain gods uttered their first cries.

Izanagi stood completely still, gazing at the blood dripping from the Totsuka-no-Tsurugi (Sword of Ten Hand-Breadths) he had wielded.

Around him, the newly born gods raised powerful roars toward the heavens, and Oyashimakuni (The Great Eight Islands) was overflowing with unprecedented, mighty energy.

But in Izanagi's hollow eyes, this beautiful world full of vitality reflected merely as a faded landscape of nothingness, like ash.
He had achieved his revenge.

He had swung his sword, giving himself over to rage.

However, killing the hateful god of fire did not in the slightest fill the bottomless sense of loss gaping in his chest.

"...It is meaningless. A world without Izanami by my side holds absolutely no meaning to me."

Chapter 1: The Unshakable Attachment, the Obsession of Madness

Izanagi cast the blood-soaked sword onto the earth.

His pride as a creator god, his mission to protect the harmony of great nature—none of that mattered to him now.

Only one thing dominated his heart.

"As I thought, I cannot give up on my beloved wife...!"

That intense obsession began to twist even his logic as a god.

All that lives will one day die, and the dead souls shall return to the earth. That was the absolute "rule" they themselves had established in this world.

However, Izanagi made the decision to tear that rule apart with his own hands.

Crossing the boundary between life and death, stepping into a realm that must never intersect—to commit the taboo of taboos.

Chapter 2: The Walk to Yomotsu-Hirasaka

Izanagi turned his back and walked toward the ends of Oyashimakuni, even deeper beyond Mount Hiba.

As he distanced himself from the sunlit world of the surface, the temperature of the air dropped rapidly, and the breath of life completely vanished from his surroundings.

Eventually, an unfathomable dark cave gaping open in a giant rock face appeared before him.

This was the sole boundary connecting the world of the living (Ashihara-no-Nakatsukuni) and the world of the dead (Yomi-no-Kuni)—the entrance to Yomotsu-Hirasaka.

Woooosh...

From the depths of the cave, a bone-chillingly cold wind blew out, as if rejecting the intrusion of the living.

It was as if the world itself were issuing a warning: "Beyond here is not the realm of the living."

"Wait for me, Izanami. To hell with the rules of death. I will not allow our love to end in such a way."

Without a shred of hesitation, Izanagi set foot onto the dark slope.

Chapter 3: The Country of the Dead, Into Absolute Darkness

As he descended the endless slope leading underground, the light enveloping Izanagi was completely lost.

It was an absolute darkness where neither the light of the sun-governing god, the rustling of trees, nor the chirping of birds could reach.

What stung his nose was the smell of mold and damp earth, and above all, the cold, stagnant scent of "death."

(What a heavy and oppressive presence. Is this truly the country where the dead head...)

Even with the mighty divine spirit of Izanagi, the creator god, the unfathomable pressure of darkness in this Yomi-no-Kuni was almost suffocating.

But his steps did not halt.

The deeper the darkness became, the more fiercely his obsession for his beloved wife burned, like the flame of a torch.

Chapter 4: The Palace of Yomi, the Closed Door

How long had he continued to descend?

Eventually, a giant, ominous stone palace appeared before Izanagi's eyes.

Those massive gates, completely devoid of life, were the very entrance to the abyss of the Yomi-no-Kuni.

The gates were firmly closed, and from behind them, the presence of countless dead, indistinguishable from groans or sighs, leaked out like a black mist.

Izanagi stood before that giant door and slowly placed both hands upon it.

Then, toward his beloved wife who must be on the other side of that heavy door, he cried out as if wringing out his soul.

"Izanami!! It is I, Izanagi! I have come to take you back!!"

His voice tore through the silence of the country of death, echoing deep into the darkness.

"My beloved wife! Our country-building as two gods is not yet finished! I cannot leave you in the dark, torn apart by those flames! Come, let us return to the light of the surface together!!"

Chapter 5: The Answer from Behind the Door

After Izanagi's cry echoed through the Yomi-no-Kuni, a terrifying silence returned to the surroundings.

(...Did it not reach her? Has she already become a resident of Yomi...?)

Just as Izanagi's face began to contort in despair.

"...My dear..."

From behind the thick stone door, a faint but distinctly familiar voice echoed.

It was undoubtedly the voice of Izanami, the wife he loved so dearly.

But that voice was not warm and full of compassion like before. It possessed an eerie stillness, somewhat distant, cold, and tinged with an unfathomable "shadow."

"...My beloved husband... To think you have come... all this way to take me back..."

In the darkness beyond the door, Izanami, who had fallen to the country of death, quietly answered her husband's call.

The living and the dead.

The two gods who must never intersect confronted each other once again, separated by a single door.

A door that must not be opened.

A truth that must not be known.

The obsession of Izanagi, who had set foot into the Yomi-no-Kuni, was right now about to pull back the curtain on an unprecedented tragedy and terror.