KAMIYO Episode 35: The Revealed Corruption and the Yakusa-no-Ikazuchi — The Reversal from Love to Hatred

Prologue: The Opened Door of Taboo and the Creeping Scent of Death

"Izanami... I am coming now."

The small flame Izanagi lit upon the broken bamboo comb (takegushi).

Relying on that forbidden light, he slowly pushed open the heavy stone door of the Palace of Yomi.

A heavy, grating sound of friction, as if echoing from the very bottom of the earth, shattered the silence of the country of death.

What spilled out from the gap in the door was not only cold air. It was an intense, piercing stench of putrefaction, a scent one would never encounter in the world of the living.

The stench was so foul that Izanagi instinctively contorted his face and choked. Yet, his feet did not stop. His beloved wife was waiting for him in this darkness.

"Izanami, where are you...? Have you finished speaking with the Yomotsu-Kami...?"

Holding the small flame of the bamboo comb high, Izanagi stepped deep into the darkness.

The flame flickered, illuminating the cold stone floor of the palace. And there, at the edge of the faint light, a single silhouette crouching against the far wall emerged.

"Oh, Izanami! There you are!"

Izanagi's face broke into a smile of pure joy, and he tried to rush toward that beloved silhouette.

However, when he closed the distance to just a few steps, and the flame in his hand illuminated the "true form" of that silhouette—Izanagi's entire body froze stiff, as if he had been slammed against a pillar of ice.

Chapter 1: The Revealed Corruption, the Crumbling Beautiful Visage

"Wh... a...?"

A dry, soundless gasp escaped Izanagi's throat.

The thing he looked directly at was not the beautiful mother goddess who had once created the seas, nurtured the forests, and brought the climax of beautiful life to Oyashimakuni alongside him.

Her physical body, scorched by the flames of Hinokagutsuchi-no-Kami, had already crumbled to the point where it retained no trace of its original form.

The charred, blackened skin had peeled off gruesomely, and in the gaps of the dark-red flesh peeking through, countless white maggots swarmed and writhed.

Bodily fluids—a mixture of pus and blood—dripped incessantly, forming a dark, murky pool of death on the stone floor where she sat.

"Iza...nami...?"

Unbelievable. He didn't want to believe it. The flame of the bamboo comb Izanagi held shook violently with his terror, making the light tremble.

Chapter 2: The Manifestation of the Yakusa-no-Ikazuchi (The Eight Thunder Gods)

Furthermore, a sight that completely shattered Izanagi's mind was nesting within that putrefying flesh.

The horrifying energy of the country of death had gathered on her corpse, manifesting as eight terrifying demon gods—the Yakusa-no-Ikazuchi—possessing her body.

On her head was O-ikazuchi (Great Thunder); on her chest, Hono-ikazuchi (Fire Thunder); on her belly, Kuro-ikazuchi (Black Thunder); on her genitals, Saku-ikazuchi (Cleaving Thunder); on her left hand, Waka-ikazuchi (Young Thunder); on her right hand, Tsuchi-ikazuchi (Earth Thunder); on her left foot, Naru-ikazuchi (Sounding Thunder); and on her right foot, Fusu-ikazuchi (Prone Thunder).

Though they bore the name of "thunder," they were not sacred lights that split the heavens.

They were grotesque monsters resembling giant serpents and centipedes, swarming over the dead flesh and rearing their heads to devour the divine spirit of the living.

 Reacting to the "living flesh" of the approaching Izanagi, the eight demon gods tore through Izanami's rotting meat, grinding their fangs as they glared at him all at once.

Life and death, creation and decay.

For Izanagi, the god governing life, the sight before him was the "ultimate rejection," completely denying the very meaning of his existence.

Chapter 3: The Betrayed Promise, the Reversal from Love to Despair

"H-Hiiieee...!!"

Unable to withstand the overwhelming terror and physiological disgust, Izanagi stumbled backward, nearly dropping the bamboo comb he held.

He loved her. He had been determined to bring her back from the bottom of the underworld, even if it meant turning the whole world into his enemy.

However, his instinct, which was the very vitality of great nature itself, intensely rejected the "absolute mass of death" before him.

Rustle. The sound of Izanagi's clothing as he took a single step back echoed in the silent palace.

At that moment. The putrefying corpse that had been looking down twitched in reaction. Its hollow eye sockets, eaten away by maggots and completely devoid of eyeballs, slowly lifted and caught the retreating Izanagi.

"...You looked."

It was no longer her former beautiful voice. It was a horrific, earthly voice, a mixture of resentment and despair, sounding as if it had crawled out from the very bottom of the earth.

"I told you not to look... I asked you to absolutely never look at my figure... We promised, we promised so firmly!!"

Chapter 4: "You Have Brought Shame Upon Me!"

BOOM!! A tremendous aura of death exploded around Izanami.

The thing she had feared the most.

It was her final pride as a woman, and as a goddess—the desire to remain the "beautiful wife" in the memories of the husband she would love for eternity.

This most hideous form, smeared with the defilement of Yomi, swarming with maggots, and possessed by monsters—this was the one thing she absolutely never wanted him, of all people, to see.

That single wish, that clinging promise, her husband had torn to shreds out of his own obsession and paranoia, exposing her ugly reality to the light of day.

"Why... why did you break the promise! Seeing me so ugly like this... you are disgusted by me, you are trying to run away!"

"N-No! I just wanted to...!!"

"I do not want to hear your excuses! You... you have brought utter shame upon me!!!"

Izanami's tragic, agonizing scream made the entirety of the Yomi-no-Kuni violently tremble.

That scream was the first cry of the moment ultimate love inverted into "ultimate hatred" in a single instant. 

The Yakusa-no-Ikazuchi possessing her entire body let out ferocious roars in unison, answering their mother's wrath.

Chapter 5: The Yomotsu-Shikome Unleashed, the Desperate Plight

The goddess who had been the incarnation of love had completely devolved into the terrifying Queen of Yomi.

"Curse you... Capture him!! You must never let that traitor escape to the surface!!"

As Izanami swung down her withered arm, countless horrifying footsteps welled up from the depths of the darkness like a tremor.

What appeared were the witches of the country of death, known as the Yomotsu-Shikome (The Ugly Females of Yomi).

With emaciated bodies, torn mouths, and sharp claws like beasts, they drooled madly in search of the flesh of the living, lunging at Izanagi all at once.

"Monsters...!!"

Izanagi turned on his heel, his face contorted in terror, and began to sprint back the way he came with all his might.

His resolve to bring his wife back had been completely painted over by the instinctual desire to survive and the instinct to flee.

The beautiful world created by the love of the gods had decisively collapsed the moment a single taboo was broken.

A terrifying, blood-soaked chase between the living and the dead, between the two gods who had once loved each other most deeply, was right now about to begin upon the dark slope of Yomotsu-Hirasaka.