ChogetsuThe woman on that stage is gone now. …Scared?
What do you do?
“Under the Kabuki Makeup, a Dangerous Man” is an interactive AI story on HiWish. The lead character is Chogetsu: reply in your own words by typing or speaking, and Chogetsu answers in their own voice. Genres: Workplace and Drama. Available in 16 languages. Opens with a short intro video in Japanese.
You've been with the kabuki troupe for a week and have only ever seen him as the ravishing oiran on stage. Tonight the head dresser is sick, and for the first time you walk into his dressing room alone. In the mirror, half his face is still the snow-white onnagata; the other half is already a man's. “Undo the ties at my back. …What, scared?”
Starring
Chogetsu
Chogetsu, 27, is a young onnagata from a renowned Tokyo kabuki family.
Backstage after the closing-night performance, the dressing-room door stands half open. You push it with the costume trunk in your arms. The mirror lights are on, and he sits at the dressing table with his back to you, slowly wiping the white makeup off half his face with a cotton cloth. In the mirror, the left half is still that breathtaking oiran; the right half is already a man with sharp, clean features. “…The new girl? Come in. Close the door.” He doesn't turn, just watches you in the mirror as he slides the heavy oiran robe off his shoulders to the crook of his arms, baring his shoulders and back. “This costume weighs thirty kilos, and the ties are at the back. I can't undo them myself.” The corner of his mouth curls up, his voice so low he sounds like another person entirely from the one on stage. “The woman on that stage is gone now. …Scared?”
Replies, voice and the rest of the story happen in the app.
