Introduction: The Vow of “The gray pledge”
“The gray pledge” is a song that overlays the clash between revenge and faith as depicted in the Old Testament with the contradictions and instability of modern society.
Its setting evokes a fictional world reminiscent of medieval Europe—yet the pain, prayer, and emotional gravity it portrays are deeply connected to our present time.
At the heart of the story is a girl named Rahab, a female spy.
Caught in the flames of war, she loses her loved ones one by one, until her sense of self dissolves. Eventually, she marks her forehead with ash and prepares to throw herself into the act of revenge.
Her figure feels like a rebellion against God—and at the same time, a desperate pilgrimage in search of something to believe in.
It is Sister Moka who quietly reaches out to her.
Though she serves God, she is not blindly devout. Rather, she becomes a messenger—a guide urging Rahab to choose life.
She takes Rahab’s hand just as it slips toward death, and gently leads her toward a future, as if dancing.
The title “The gray pledge” symbolizes the color gray—a shade that lies between extremes.
Neither purely revenge nor purely faith, neither life nor death—gray represents ambiguity, fluctuation, and fragility.
The ash Rahab places on her forehead is, in the Catholic tradition, a sacred symbol of repentance and rebirth used on Ash Wednesday.
But Rahab adopts it as a sign of vengeance.
This song is a requiem written with the hope that, someday, she may come to understand the true strength found in believing.
Full lyrics posted
We will live on…
The Holy Mother is no more
Mad party by fallen angels
With ash upon the forehead…
Swear revenge
この景色は君を生かす為のもの
黒で塗りつぶす必要はないわ
全ては新たに創造される
ラハブちゃんの義務だよ
(On Wednesday)
(On Thursday)
(On Friday)
(On Saturday)
(On Sunday)
(On Monday)
(On Tuesday)
After 46 days
We will live on
誘い舞い散る灰の前で
Holding back hatred
君は誓うよ
A chain of hatred lasting 3000 years
The clash of ‘holy war’ and ‘holy severance’
That lake was stained red
With ash upon the forehead…
Swear revenge
この感情は君を生かす為のもの
黒で塗りつぶす必要はないわ
全ては新たに創造される
ラハブちゃんに生きて欲しいの
When I put ash on my forehead
I heard ‘Believe in the gospel’
But this is a vow of revenge
Faith without action is death
Come on, let’s keep dancing.
You laugh in the depths of hell
As long as the enemy does not stop fighting
I will not stop until I excommunicate the enemy.
Because this is the will of God
Sister Moka
I’ve long been ready to give up my life
I just want to be beside my most beloved
But that can no longer happen
I don’t believe in resurrection
And I no longer have any will to live
愛と憎悪の交差
創造されるの何色かな？
この色こそ人生なんだよ
深淵への大切な鍵なの
あの樹海を思い出して
一方の色で塗りつぶさないで
透明なものを見たければ
君に奇跡が起きるから
We just keep on living
誘い舞い散る灰の前で
We just keep on dancing
ボク達踊り続ける
We will live on
誘い舞い散る灰の前で
Holding back hatred
君は誓うよ
English translation
We will live on…
The Holy Mother is no more
A mad party of fallen angels
With ash upon the forehead…
Swear revenge
This scenery exists so that you may live
There is no need to paint it all black
Everything can be created anew
This is Rahab’s duty
(On Wednesday)
(On Thursday)
(On Friday)
(On Saturday)
(On Sunday)
(On Monday)
(On Tuesday)
After 46 days
We will live on
Before the swirling, drifting ash
Holding back hatred
You swear an oath
A chain of hatred lasting 3000 years
The clash of “holy war” and “holy severance”
That lake turned red
With ash upon the forehead…
Swear revenge
This emotion exists so that you may live
There is no need to paint it all black
Everything can be created anew
I want Rahab to keep on living
When I put ash on my forehead
I heard, “Believe in the gospel.”
But this is a vow of revenge
Faith without action is death
Come on, let’s keep dancing
You laugh in the depths of hell
As long as the enemy does not cease fighting
I will not stop until I excommunicate them
Because this is the will of God
Sister Moka
I’ve long been ready to give up my life
I just wanted to be by the one I loved
But that can no longer be
I don’t believe in resurrection
And I no longer have the will to live
A crossroads of love and hatred
What color will be created?
That color itself is life
It is the precious key to the abyss
Remember the sea of trees
Don’t paint it over with just one color
If you want to see something transparent
A miracle will come to you
We just keep on living
Before the swirling, drifting ash
We just keep on dancing
We go on dancing
We will live on
Before the swirling, drifting ash
Holding back hatred
You swear an oath
🎥 Dancing in the Ashes: The Presence of Rahab
Visuals and Lyrics: The Drifting Ash and Rahab’s Symbolic Presence
The MV unfolds in a quiet world where ash drifts constantly through the air. Rahab stands within this stillness—not merely as a human figure, but as an embodiment of faith and vengeance.
One of the most striking moments is when she applies ash to her forehead. This scene corresponds with the lyric, “With ash upon the forehead…” While evoking a religious ritual, it resonates more as a vow of revenge. In the video, the ash surrounds and envelops everything—it becomes not just a visual motif, but a presence representing the dead, guilt, and loss.
How Does the Viewer See Rahab? Madness, Prayer, or Hope?
To viewers, Rahab appears as a question, not a conclusion. Her continued dancing, expressionless and silent, evokes a soldier stripped of identity. Yet her eerie beauty does not fully align with death—it leaves space for the possibility that she may still be clinging to life.
The audience may ask: “Does she truly seek revenge?” “Or is she using the mask of vengeance to protect herself?”
This distancing is deliberate. The MV doesn’t invite empathy; it commands observation. Rahab becomes the object of faith itself.
Dance and Ash: Movements as Unconscious Prayer
The dance isn’t traditional choreography. It’s more like a trance, movements guided by unseen forces. Rahab seems less like she’s following rhythm, and more like she’s being moved by the ash itself.
A particularly symbolic sequence: Applying ash → Opening her arms to the sky → Beginning to dance → This is a ritual of faith, but also a cycle of anger.
Repeated turns and collapsing to the ground—these movements visualize a loop of resurrection and despair, life and death. The ash falls from the sky, rests on the ground, then rises again. Her dance within it is a ritual of choosing life. Not being kept alive, but actively choosing to live.
🔚 Conclusion: The MV Frames Rahab as a Sacred Question
By resisting emotional immersion, the MV frames Rahab not as a heroine but as a mirror. A mirror that asks: “How would you live?” “Between revenge and faith, what would you choose?”
She is neither saint nor sinner. Just one person, dancing in the ashes. What you see in her depends entirely on what you believe.
📖 ZINE-Based Reflections
Ash, Faith, and Vengeance
Ash is both the end and a beginning. Rahab’s act of marking her forehead with ash serves as both a trigger for revenge and a distorted echo of Ash Wednesday in Catholicism.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a time of repentance and rebirth. But Rahab turns the ritual into a vow of revenge. It becomes an anti-faith gesture, a reflection of belief turned inside out.
Thus, ash in this work becomes both a vessel of vengeance and a signpost back to faith. It is not the remains of what was burned, but the will that refused to be extinguished.
Reinterpreting Creation
“Everything will be created anew” appears multiple times in the lyrics. While this might suggest hope or rebirth, it isn’t straightforward here.
Because this “creation” is not divine, but human—Rahab’s. Broken, grieving, unstable. She doesn’t overcome pain; she lives with it. Her creation is not perfection, but survival:
- Rising with a damaged body
- Loving despite deep wounds
- Believing in a future she can’t forgive
This is not God’s creation. It is human. And that is the radical theology of this ZINE.
Rahab’s Duty and Innocence
Rahab echoes the biblical Rahab, who protected enemy spies in a doomed city. Her actions were betrayal and faith in one.
This Rahab, however, has lost her will. “It’s your duty,” someone tells her. Duty, loss, war—she lives out a role imposed on her. She is told to live. Told to dance. But she has chosen nothing.
Yet even in that, there is innocence. The power of someone who tries to choose despite being given no choices. That’s why she dances—not out of faith or vengeance, but as a neutral act of resistance. That is the quietest prayer of all.
The Meaning of “46 Days”
The listing of weekdays reads like a ritual chant: (On Wednesday) (On Thursday) … After 46 days
In Catholic tradition, there are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. This journey is one of loss, purification, and rebirth.
But Rahab says she doesn’t believe in resurrection. And yet the song ends with: “We will live on.”
That paradox invites us to consider: perhaps faith is not required for survival. Perhaps 46 days is not time to believe in God, but time to keep living without Him.
The Color of Life: Black, Transparent, or Gray?
“This color is life itself.”
Here, color is not mood. It is the texture of existence. Pain can be blackened out, but Rahab refuses that. She senses that life is not black or white, but something closer to transparent.
Transparency contains all colors, yet appears colorless. It is a paradox, like gray. Faith, vengeance, forgiveness, sorrow—all held within.
Gray is not indecision. It is total inclusion. And that is “The gray pledge.”
🔚 Final Thoughts: ZINE Interpretation of “The gray pledge”
This is not a song about what to believe. It’s about how to live. Not by obeying a voice from heaven, nor by surrendering to hatred. But by choosing life, again and again, through the simple act of dancing.
That is the vow: to live in the ashes. “The gray pledge” is not black or white. It is the realism of surviving.
🗣️ Comments and Reflections: What Is Your Gray Pledge?
This is Rahab’s story—but also the story of the gray place in all of us.
To live with what we’ve lost. To hold both rage and sorrow. And still move forward.
💬 What did you feel listening to this song?
💭 What did Rahab’s journey mean to you?
🎨 And what color is your life, really?
Leave a comment below. One word or many. This space is for your pledge.
#TheGrayPledge #AshGospel #ZINEReflection
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