The Red Flower on a Moonless Night

by Shikihime

After a boat ride with many tourists and some locals returning to their hometown, the Aiba siblings arrive at Rougetsu Isle. It's already autumn, but the weather is still hot, the sea breeze is the only relief for the travelers.

"Onii-chan, look! There are so many masks everywhere!"

Whenever Iori Aiba gets excited she ends up acting younger than her age. She is looking around the port which is filled with people, and the masks that are characteristical to the Rougetsu Isle used as decoration on walls, and there are stalls selling masks to tourists. Takashi Aiba examines the masks with interest, observing the details that only an expert in the field would notice. He came here to learn more about the masks that are only made in the Rougetsu archipelago, with techniques that were developed while the island was still closed to outsiders.

Even the masks made for tourists have something special about them, so Takashi can't wait to see the ones that are central to the Rougetsu Kagura. The siblings spend some time distracted by the stalls and flyers advertising activities for tourists, and it starts getting dark.

"Ah! We should hurry to the inn, Onii-chan, they might think we're not coming and give our room to someone else."

"It's okay, I called them before we left the mainland to confirm our reservation, they know we're coming"

Iori grabs Takashi's arm and playfully drags him to the inn.

"Onii-chan, when will I get to meet your detective friend?"

"Um, I know he has some business in Rougetsu Isle, but I'm not sure when he's coming. I'll write him a letter tonight, and I'll have them send it tomorrow morning."

"Oh. Don't forget to tell him I want to meet him! Maybe he'll decide to come here earlier if he knows it's to meet your cute little sister~"

"Iori~" Takashi sighs. His little sister really is a handful.

They arrive at the inn, and Takashi writes the letter before dinner, which is served in their room. Before the employee leave, Takashi takes out his letter and gives it to her.

"Could you take this letter to the reception? I'd like to have it sent to the mainland tomorrow morning, if that's possible"

"Yes, I'll put them with the other letters"

Takashi gives the employee a tip for her trouble and sits down to eat dinner with Iori. The dishes seem to be local specialties.

At the inn's reception, the employee gives the letter to the receptionist, who checks the envelope.

"The customer said this one is for the mainland"

"I see"

The receptionist pretends to put the letter in the drawer with the other letters, but hides it in the sleeve of her yukata. She noticed the letter is addressed to Choushiro Kirishima, the detective that has been searching for the Young Master. She will take this to the Haibaras tonight, and see what they want to be done.

The Aiba siblings go to sleep right after dinner, without knowing that the letter is now in the hands of the fugitive Choushiro has been trying to catch.

--------------

In Director Haibara's office, the receptionist hands the letter to You Haibara. He opens it carelessly and reads it.

"Oh? It's just this?" You Haibara was a bit apprehensive when he got the letter, but after reading it he looks smug as usual. There are no new players in this game of cat and mouse, so there's nothing to worry about.

"So should we send it?"

"Nah. It's better to keep him in the dark, and we should also keep an eye on those two. They're only tourists, but since they're here for the masks and the Kagura, they might end up learning something about what we're doing, and it'd be better if they don't get to meet and give the detective any ideas. Just act normal, and if they try sending any other letters, just bring them to me."

"Understood."

The receptionist leaves, and gives the Young Master's orders to the other servants of the Haibara family. They are to keep an eye on those siblings, but to treat them as guests, lest they notice something suspicious. The Haibara family is a pillar of the community and has eyes everywhere.

--------------

The next day, the Aiba siblings go on a guided tour recommended by the receptionist. The guide takes them to all the famous sites of the island.

"And this is where the Rougetsu Kagura will happen in a week."

"I've heard that masks are very important for this Kagura."

"Yes, not only the ones performing the Kagura, but all the spectators must also wear masks."

"Can I take a closer look at the masks before the day of the Kagura?"

"Um, it's a busy time for the mask makers. I might be able to convince some of them to let you see their work, but some of them might not want outsiders to see their hidden techniques. I'll see what I can do."

"If I could see them working on masks, I'd be grateful to you for the rest of my life."

"Onii-chan, they're just masks~ Are they really that different from the masks you've seen elsewhere?"

After Iori seems to belittle the Rougetsu Isle's masks, Takashi looks more offended than the islander, and starts listing all the things that make the Rougetsu Isle's masks unique. Iori deeply regrets making her brother this riled up. Takashi truly is a mask otaku.

"And I'm sure I'll get to learn even more things about them if I get the chance to speak with the mask makers"

Takashi looks at the guide, who just laughs and says:

"I got it. I'll do my best to convince them to talk to you"

"You're a real life-saver~"

From there, they go to the Rougetsu Hall.

"The Rougetsu Hall was built as an annex to the Haibara Infirmary, and the Moonflower Garden is a famous touristic spot. There's also the Asou Museum, but I believe it's not open today."

"Wow~ There's even a pool!"

"Be careful, Iori, don't run around!"

Iori runs to the pool, and the guide follows her, while Takashi takes a look at the garden. There are many people here today, and they're all enjoying the good weather.

A man walks up to Takashi and starts a conversation.

"Is that your sister?"

"Ah, yes, we came here to watch the Kagura, and we're taking a tour around the island."

"How nice~ I miss the days I could go on vacations like this with my older sister."

"Oh? What happened?"

"She's been sick for some time. But she'll get better soon, and we'll get to do things like this again in no time."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Iori looks at her brother, who's talking to a stranger.

"Onii-chan~ You're taking too long~"

"Sorry, I have to go."

"Don't worry about it, I need to go too."

Takashi goes to where Iori is waiting for him, and the man leaves the garden. Takashi looks around, and the garden looks much emptier than before, it seems most of the other tourists also left.

--------------

In his hidden room, later that night, Dr. Haibara is scolding his son.

"What if he had recognized you? You could have ruined all that we had planned!"

"I had everything under control. If he had recognized me, he would have reacted in some way, and I had some of our men around to subdue him if necessary."

"What if he noticed there was something fishy and just pretended everything was okay in front of you?"

"Then he'd have said something in his letter. And look!"

You shows a new letter addressed to Choushiro Kirishima that he received tonight. It's already open, and the envelope was discarded somewhere.

"Nothing about our encounter. He just talks about the Kagura and about masks."

"I see... but you should still be more careful."

"I did this exactly because I am being careful. You know I need to walk around some parts of the island to oversee things, and it's better to know early on if he's aware of who I am. Since he's not, I don't have to worry about him walking around the island, and we can also make sure those two and the detective don't meet."

Director Haibara sighs and prepares to leave. His son has always been like this, impulsive and overconfident. That's what got him in trouble on the mainland in the first place, but at least here they can control all variables, and no one is going to find out what's been happening and ruin their plans.

"I'll leave you to it then."

You just smirks and closes his eyes while relaxing on his bed.

--------------

The Aiba siblings spent the last few days looking around the island, and while Iori played, Takashi kept reading about the masks and the local folklore. The islanders have been really helpful, always taking them to the places they wanted to see, and letting them know the best time to visit the tourist spots, what places they should avoid, and at what times. There always seems to be someone nearby to help when you need it on this island, which shows how much they've been trying to become a famous spot for tourists.

Takashi was even able to see some masks being made, and even read some important tomes about mask-making on the island, but he only got to have a brief conversation with the master mask maker of the Yomotsuki family. It can't be helped when he's so busy because of the approaching Kagura, but maybe he'll get the chance to talk to him again before he leaves the island.

Takashi has sent some more letters to Chousiro, but he hasn't received any replies yet. Choushiro is always busy with police cases, so that's not uncommon, but it would have been nice to spend some time together on the island. It's a pity they didn't end up coming here in the same period.

It is finally the night of the Rougetsu Kagura, and the doors to the Temple of the Lunar Eclipse have already been locked. The stage is packed, and they're even filming the performance. Takashi and Iori are wearing masks, and Takashi looks even more excited than Iori was when they first arrived at the island. The Vessel and the Organs enter the stage, and the Kagura finally starts.

The music feels like it's reverberating inside his very soul, and Takashi feels like he's not only watching the Kagura, but like he's also part of it. He can't stop looking at the dancing Vessel, and he feels like he's seeing what is there but isn't, like a shadow, or the reflection of the moon on a stormy sea. There's red, but more than that, there's something black, like the darkness of the vanishing moon in the night sky.

Takashi feels that if he focuses a bit more he'll be able to see clearly, but suddenly the music stops, and the Vessel and the Organs all collapse. There is panic, many islanders are running to the door, while only a few go check the performers on the floor, and the tourists present all look confused.

"Onii-chan, should we go see if they're okay? Or call for help?"

"Let's go to them, there are too many people trying to leave right now."

Takashi goes to the Organs first, with Iori hiding behind him, wondering if they fainted, but when he touches her he realizes there's no pulse. She's not breathing. Takashi is shocked, and checks the other Organs, and then the Vessel. They're all dead.

"What's wrong, Onii-chan?"

"We better leave, Iori. Look, it's not crowded now."

"But are they going to be okay?"

Takashi doesn't want to scare Iori, but he doesn't really know what to tell her.

"We... should go get someone to help them"

One of the islanders approaches them.

"We will take it from here, you don't need to worry about it. Go back to the inn."

"Oh... I got it. We better leave then, Iori."

The siblings go back to the inn, prepared for a sleepless night, but when they wake up, they're not in their room. They're not even inside the inn. They're outside, one in the back garden, the other at the entrance of the inn, and they feel like they've been there for a while. They end up meeting when they go inside, and they're both surprised.

"Iori, what were you doing so late outside?"

"I- What about you, Onii-chan?"

"I... don't know. I just woke up there."

"Me too. I just remember feeling like I had to find something, and then I woke up outside..."

They hear something crash. An employee of the inn heard their conversation and dropped the tea cups and teapot she was carrying.

"Y-you two should go to the Haibara Infirmary. It's probably not too late yet. You have to go before you bud."

"Bud?"

"Go, now!"

The siblings are a bit scared, and follow the employee's advice. They don't know what is happening, but it seems serious.

--------------

Later that day, Takashi is in his hospital room, and Iori is sitting next to him.

"A disease that you can get by watching the Rougetsu Kagura..."

"I can't believe this is something they don't tell tourists before they watch the Kagura! That's so irresponsible! Onii-chan, what should we do?"

"We can only stay here until we get better, they said we only have mild symptoms, I'm sure we'll be fine soon."

"Still~ Why did they keep you here in the hospital, but decided I should stay at the Rougetsu Hall?"

"You're lucky, Iori. You don't have to share a room, and you can visit that beautiful garden every day."

Iori looks at the bleak hospital room, and the many beds, and starts to consider her brother's words.

"I guess so, but I still wanted to stay with you, Onii-chan."

"You can always visit me. It's practically the same building, there are just some walls between us."

"Okay~"

Iori seems convinced, but she's still scared. She found out the girls performing the Rougetsu Kagura all died. Was it because of the Kagura? Did they also get Moonlight Syndrome? Is that why they died? Will that also happen to them?

Iori hugs her brother's arm for comfort.

"I hope we can leave soon, Onii-chan. This island feels... weird."

--------------

Inside Director Haibara's office, Dr. Haibara and his son are having a talk. You is sitting leisurely, while Dr. Haibara read some patient files.

"So you decided to keep the sister in the Rougetsu Hall?"

"Yes. It's more of a whim, but we had an empty room, and you know how Ayako always needs new toys."

Dr. Haibara is exasperated by how similar Ayako and You are, always doing whatever they want without thinking of the consequences. It's good that he's here to clean up after them, or they'd end up in trouble.

"Well, keep an eye on her. But I suppose we don't need to worry about them anymore. Their symptoms are still mild, but they're advancing faster than usual."

"Because of the Rite of Descent?"

"It should be. More people were affected than usual, and I've heard some of them say... that they saw Sakuya."

"They saw Onee-san?"

"Well, they seem to think they saw her performing the Kagura instead of that nurse. Even the film, there's something wrong with it."

"I see. I'll go check on Onee-san, don't forget to tell them to remove anything suspicious from the film."

"You don't need to remind me. Just go."

--------------

A couple of weeks have passed, and Iori is visiting Takashi at the hospital, and even though they're both patients, she's cutting some bunny apples for him.

"Onii-chan, I've been thinking about the Rougetsu Kagura. My memory has been feeling fuzzy lately, but I feel like there's something I've been forgetting about the Kagura. Or maybe it's something that I've been remembering? I'm not sure. When I think about the Vessel dancing with her red kimono-"

"Red?"

"O-oh, white. I meant white. But... sometimes I feel sure there was red. I know it was white, but..."

Takashi stays silent. He knows that their memories are being affected by the Moonlight Syndrome, but sometimes he thinks of that night, and he also feels the same doubts as Iori. Not only about the red kimono, but there was something else that caught his attention, that deep blackness that seemed to draw his eyes to it. A mask? If it was a mask, and the Moonlight Syndrome was caused by the ceremony, maybe if he reads more about the masks of the island, then he'll learn something. He does have a lot of free time now, so he might as well use it to learn more about them.

When Takashi looks up, Iori is looking fixedly at her finger. There's a drop of blood, and Iori is just staring at it.

"Iori! Are you okay?!"

"Oh! I suppose I got distracted... I'm glad we're already in a hospital, hehe"

Iori tries to make fun of the situation and leaves to find a nurse, but Takashi looks at her, worrying about what happened.

--------------

A few months have passed, and Takashi has been spending most of his time reading about masks. He has no problem getting the reading materials he needs, the library next to the museum has everything he needs. The nurses said that it's good for the patients of Moonlight Syndrome to devote themselves to their interests, so they don't try to stop him. He's also written more letters about the things he's learned, but he just leaves them around, and sometimes the nurses take them and tell him not to worry about going out to send them.

Iori still comes to visit him, and he also sometimes goes to see her in her room, or in the garden, but they don't see each other daily anymore. Takashi knows it's because he's forgetting that she's there and that he should go see her, and even forgets about her, and he knows that that's probably also why Iori hasn't been visiting him as often.

These past few days, Takashi feels like he's also been forgetting himself. There aren't many mirrors in the hospital, but when he was at the library, he looked at the mirror and wondered who that was, until he realized he was looking at himself. He dropped the books he was holding and ran away until he got to the hospital. After that, Takashi decided not to look at more mirrors, but he has to go back there to get more books.

Iori has been spending most of her time in her room. She only goes out when she remembers to visit her brother, but one time she took the elevator and she saw a man covered in paint. What caught her attention was the brilliant red paint on his clothes. She forgot about going to her brother, and followed him instead, to the third floor. She went to the gallery and saw him staring at a painting, a painting of a woman in a red kimono.

After staring at her for a few seconds, Iori got scared. It was the woman she saw that night. So there is a red kimono, or is it just a painting? Iori runs away and ends up in a room full of paint and canvases. She notices right away she got in the wrong room and turns to leave, but then she sees cans of red paint, and she knows she must have them. Without even realizing what she's doing, she grabs them and takes them back to her room.

When she realizes what she's doing, Iori already painted one of the walls red. She worries a bit about what the nurses will say when they see it, but she hides the paint cans under her bed, so they won't take them from her.

--------------

Many more months have passed, and the siblings have stopped visiting each other. They still wander around sometimes, but they don't seem to know where they're going and why. Both Iori and Takashi have tried to blind themselves because of their worsening mental health, and now they're both partially blind, being able to see only blurred images.

Iori damaged her eyes after seeing her reflection on the window, while Takashi got worse after seeing a picture in one of the books in the Asou Museum. He wrote a letter before his condition got worse, but soon after smashed his eyes.

Iori painted her whole room red, and then broke the doorknob so the nurses wouldn't come in. It's been a couple of days since then, and the nurses decided they must do something before the patient ends up hurting herself.

But on that day, it was like the air, and time itself, were standing still.

Takashi felt like there was something wrong. He didn't remember himself or others, but he knew that the woman who was wearing that black mask was going to come. Takashi gets up and leaves his hospital room, there's somewhere he has to go before he runs away. There's something, someone he has to get, that he can't leave behind.

Takashi goes through the halls guided by muscle memory and the faint shadows and lights he sees. He hears a voice that somehow feels familiar, but he has no time to go after it. As soon as he gets to the Rougetsu Hall he feels something coming after him. He knows it's her. He can feel the stillness and darkness of death trying to pull him in, but he runs away.

He ends up in the kitchen, trapped, trying to find a way out, he still needs to find that person, to take her somewhere safe. But Sakuya finds him, and he blossoms as soon as she touches him. Sakuya leaves the kitchen and keeps wandering inside Rougetsu Hall, searching for all the sounds within it.

Meanwhile, Iori is curled up in her room, looking at all the red surrounding her. The nurses have been trying to come inside, but they haven't tried to open the door today yet. Iori is feeling weak because of dehydration, and she's also hungry, but she doesn't want to move.

She just wants to keep looking at the red that envelops everything. Even inside her head, it's all red. A vibrant red that seems to consume everything around it.

Suddenly, she felt something else. It was both terror and anticipation, like something that should have happened a long time ago was finally going to happen.

Iori was no longer alone in her room. From the closed door, a red flower began to bloom. It was like a majestic red spider lily, blossoming among the hellish fires, not being consumed by them, but sprouting directly from them.

As she looked fixedly at the flower of destruction, a part of Iori seemed to return, but for the last time.

"So it really was red..."

Like her brother Iori blossomed, her soul shattering beyond repair. Sakuya then left the room, looking to make all the ones on the island blossom as they should.