Part 3

Time passes, Kei has never discussed anything about Elli or the crimson moon to Popuri anymore. He feels that as long as his wife says that there is nothing to worry about, then there is no need to be afraid. He feels a bit silly for believing in such tales as curses and demons.

Elli may be gone and missing, but he wants to forget about her. He is married to Popuri, and he doesn't need to think about someone else so much. He decides to ignore any odd things Elli may have said or done when they last saw each other. Elli's disappearance still floats in his mind, but he tries his best to forget about it.

The situation with his grandfather still does worry him, but he feels that he can get over it. As long as he has his family, he feels that he can overcome any worries or fears. With that in mind, he throws the letter written by his grandfather away. He never figured out what the strange characters meant, but he feels that he doesn't need to know.

Summer eventually fades and Fall arrives. The leaves turn colors of golden brown, red, and yellow. The days are getting a bit colder and darker. But even so, Kei loves this time of year. Many food related festivals occur in Fall, and he loves the taste of warm cookies and pies on cooler days.

The Fall days has been keeping him quite busy. With milk and eggs being so high in demand, he has brought many cows and chickens to meet the demand. He's not complaining about the work at all. With so much work in his hands, he has been making more money than usual. That means he can purchase more sweets when the season of Winter comes around.

Fall is ending soon. With only a few days left to go, Kei wakes up, and gets ready for another day of work. But unlike most days, Kei wakes up feeling a bit ill. He feels quite light headed and confused. As soon as he stands up, he almost collapses and becomes slightly dizzy.

Popuri wakes up, and notices Kei acting a bit strange. She sits up and asks, “Kei dear, are you all right?”

Kei looks back at his wife and says, “I'll be okay. I just need some headache medicine or something. It'll pass.”

He then walks over to the bathroom where he washes his face. He then takes some aspirin for his dizziness so he can head to work. But as he is about to leave the bathroom, he stares at the mirror for a moment. For a split second, he thought he saw something unusual about his eyes. He isn't sure what it was, but he ignores it feeling that being slightly ill has made him see things.

Popuri wakes up, and makes breakfast for Kei. He starts to feel much better as soon as he is done eating. With that problem solved, he feels that he was feeling ill because of the cold weather, and being hungry at the same time. He then packs his tools, and heads out to work.

It takes him all morning to finish caring for the animals, and shipping all the goods for the villagers. Afterwards, he decides to take a walk around town, mainly to drop by the bakery. But as he walks around town, he notices something strange. All the villagers are preparing for a big event. Everyone except the shop keepers are running around making plans for some type of festival that Kei is unaware of.

As he sees everyone making preparations, he notices someone in particular doing something highly unusual. Saibara, the old man who runs the artisan shop is building some type of wash tub. However, the tub is much larger than any one that he has seen before, and none of the villagers use wash tubs to do laundry anyway.

Curious to know what he is building, Kei walks over and asks, “hey Saibara. What is that you're making?”

Saibara stands up and wipes the sweat off his forehead. “What does it look like boy? It's a collection tub,” he answered him.

“Okay. . . But what is it for? It looks a bit heavy for collecting apples,” Kei asked curiously.

“It's for the festival coming soon.” he grunted at Kei.

Kei stares at the tub, and says, “I see. So I can only guess it's for that game. You know, bobbing for apples or something?”

Saibara looks a Kei with the meanest glare he has ever seen. He then yells, “I'm busy boy! Why don't you go home, and bother someone else!”

“Okay, sorry I asked,” replied Kei as he leaves the artisan to do his job. Saibara is not the only one with a negative attitude. Just about everyone else Kei tries to talk to is in a grumpy mood. Everyone wants to be left alone so that they can make the preparations in peace.

With the village being so sour, Kei returns home. He cannot figure out on his own why are the villagers acting so strange. Everyone is usually good natured and kind. He has never seen everyone so serious and ill tempered.

At home, Kei and his family sit together to have dinner. Kei is mostly eating while Popuri is busy feeding Mint. She is the only person who's mood has not changed. She is still as cheerful and happy as she’s always been.

As soon as he is done eating, he becomes very curious about this coming festival the other villagers keep talking about. Since Popuri is not going to bite his head off, he decides to ask her about it. “hey Popuri, is there a festival coming soon?”

“Of course there is,” said Popuri. “The Moon Viewing Festival is coming on the last day of this month. Everyone is so excited about it!”

“Moon Viewing Festival? I never heard of that. Why didn't we celebrate it last year?” he asked.

“The Moon Viewing Festival only happens once every 22 years. It's when the moon is full, and most beautiful of any other year. I'm excited because this will be my second time seeing it. I was only a baby the last time it happened. And I'm so excited that Mint will see it for the first time!”

Kei scratches his head in confusion. He has never heard of a lunar phenomenon that occurs once every 22 years. But if it's a tradition that the whole village shares, he will have to accept it and be a part of it. He feels that the villagers must be that serious about this festival, so that must be the reason they are ill tempered. Rather then complaining about it, he'll just have to leave the villagers be, and wait for the festival to be over.

The next morning, Kei wakes up to the cool Fall morning once again. This time, he feels even worse than yesterday. His dizziness has turned into a splitting headache, and his body feels very hot. He tries to get out of bed, but he collapses on the floor.

Popuri wakes up upon hearing Kei crash on the wooden floor. She looks over, and sees Kei trying to get up with a hand on his forehead. “Are you okay?” she asked him.

Kei gets up heavily and answers, “yeah, I'll be fine. I just need some medicine, that's all.” He can hardly stand, but he tries with all his might to struggle to the bathroom. Popuri just gets up, and starts preparing breakfast.

Kei looks into the bathroom mirror, and sees his face as pale as a ghost. His skin feels clammy from all the sweating he did as he slept. Looking at his condition, he feels that he might have caught a fever overnight. He has been working hard within the last few weeks, so he feels that's the main cause of it. He then opens the cabinet behind the mirror, and takes out some medicine. Afterwards, he closes the cabinet, and pops a few aspirins into his mouth before washing his face. After he splashes his face with some water, he takes a quick look in the mirror. He then jumps back in shock after seeing his own eyes glow a bright blue color in the mirror. As he jumps back, he loses his balance and hits against the door, which opens and he then falls on his back in the kitchen.

Popuri who was in the middle of making breakfast hears Kei slam on the kitchen floor. She walks up to him, and asks, “Kei dear, are you all right?”

Without answering her, he runs back to the mirror and checks himself again. But this time, his eyes are not glowing anymore, just plain brown like they always were. Popuri hugs him from behind and asks, “Kei dear, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost.

Kei looks back, and says, “Nothing. I'm just not feeling very well today. I just took some medicine, so I'll be fine.” Popuri smiles for her husband, and goes back to the kitchen to finish preparing breakfast.

As Kei eats breakfast, he can't stop thinking about what he saw in the bathroom. For only a moment, he clearly saw his eyes glow an eerie blue color, just like in his dreams he had last year. He feels that he has seen these blue eyes somewhere else before, but he cannot put his finger on where or when.

“Are you sure everything is okay Kei dear?” asked Popuri. She noticed that Kei has been very lost in thought during breakfast.

Kei sighs and says, “lately, I haven't been feeling well. And I have been seeing strange things. I'm sure it'll pass.”

“It must be the Moon Viewing Festival coming tomorrow evening.” commented Popuri. “The moon can make some people feel strange. I'm sure you'll feel better afterwards.”

Kei has never heard of a case where the moon has made someone feel ill. He is not sure if the reason he has been feeling ill has something to do with the moon, or if it's the work in the cold air. However, winter is coming very soon, so he'll have to endure it if he wants to be a successful farmer.

The next day is the Moon Viewing Festival. Later that evening, Kei, Popuri, and Mint dresses up warmly so that they can watch the moon from the summit of Moon Mountain. But as they reach the top, Kei notices that they are the only ones who has arrived.

“Where is everyone else?” asked Kei.

“I'm sure everyone is on their way here. After all, this is a very important festival, nobody is going to miss it,” answered Popuri.

Kei nods. He is confused as to why is watching the moon so important. He looks up, and he doesn't notice anything unusual about it, it's as white and round as any normal full moon. And if the festival was so important, why is everyone else late? Usually in festivals, people set up stands where they sell food and drinks. Some people play music, and people dance. This festival seems different to Kei.

Kei doesn't complain too much, as long as Popuri is enjoying herself, he is happy. So he sits on the summit, and watches the moon beside his wife and daughter. But after a few minutes, the moon starts to do something very unusual. The moon begins to change color from white, to a pale yellow color, to a bright orange. Kei has never seen such an odd phenomena occur, so he feels a bit excited. But his excitement turns into fear as the color of the moon continues to change color from orange to a deep red, almost the color of blood.

Kei stands up, and takes a few steps back. He then points at the moon and asks, “what's going on? What the hell is happening to the moon?”

Popuri looks back at Kei and answers, “isn't it beautiful? It's called, the Crimson Moon.”

“The Crimson Moon??” asked Kei. He then quickly remembers Elli's warning about the moon. He is unsure why, but he can almost feel something bad is going to happen soon.

He quickly grabs his wife's hand and yells, “Popuri! We have to get out of here!” but before he goes anywhere, he sees the other villagers walking up the mountain towards them. Just like the dream he had over a year ago, the villagers have glowing blue eyes.

Kei can't help but to panic in fear. The villagers have completely surrounded them, and there is no way that they can escape. Directly in front of them, he sees some of the villagers carrying the large tub that Saibara was making a couple of days ago. He doesn't know why are they bringing it towards them, but he can only assume that it's not going to be good.

The only thing he can really think about doing is distracting the villagers, and allow Popuri to escape with Mint. But as he turns to warn his wife, he sees something that completely paralyzes him in fear. His wife's eyes are glowing as well, but with a wicked red color instead. Mint just rests in her arms sleeping peacefully.

Moments later, the villagers grab Kei, and start to drag him away from his wife and child. Kei yells and struggles, but there are too many people restraining him to do anything at all. The villagers bring him into the tub that they brought along, and they hold him in there, making sure that he doesn't move.

As Kei struggles uselessly, he notices that Popuri is not running away. Instead, she is walking towards him carrying Mint in her arms. She doesn't look even the least worried or scared at all. As Kei continues to struggle, he yells out, “Popuri! What are you doing!? You must run away! If you don't, the villagers will-”

As soon as Popuri gets very close to him, he feels something piercing through his abdomen. He looks down, and sees that his own wife has stabbed him with a kitchen knife. However, she holds the knife inside of him, preventing him from bleeding to death.

“Popuri. . . Why? . . .” asked Kei.

“I'm sorry sweetheart.” answered Popuri. “But I'm afraid that we need your blood. After all, Mint's hair cannot turn pink until we bathe her in the blood of her father under the Crimson Moon.”

“I see. . . So this is. . . The curse I hear of. . .” Kei struggled to say.

“Curse? Don't be silly, there are no such things as curses.” said Popuri. “This is more like a family tradition.”

“I don't understand. . . What kind of sick family tradition is this?” asked Kei.

“You see Kei dear, our ancestors all had pink hair. They are called the Yaminochigo, the children of the night. They all had pink hair, and their eyes glow red with the Crimson Moon. But their home land was destroyed, and they were forced to live here instead. They then married the humans who lived in the nearby villages, but their children were born with normal colored hair and eyes. So in order to keep the bloodline strong, my ancestors were chosen. We had to bathe our children in the blood of their fathers under the blessing of the Crimson Moon.”

“What. . . About. . . Elli?” asked Kei.

Popuri grinned and answered, “Every generation, there's always someone who wishes to take the one chosen to be the groom of the Yaminochigo. These people needs to be sacrificed to the Harvest Goddess.”

Everything finally starts to add up to Kei. Elli's warning, Louis' story, the message from his grandfather. However, there isn't anything he can do about it at this point. Even with the knife stuck in his belly, he is still slowly bleeding to death.

Popuri looks into Kei's angry face and says, “don't look at me that way dear. After all, you did promise you'd marry me when we were children. Not only that, you do have the same blood as all the rest of us, your glowing eyes is the proof. And if it will make you feel any better, I really do love you. But this was decided even long before I was even born. Now, be a good father, and die for your child!”

Popuri pulls out the knife from his abdomen, and the villagers finally release Kei. He is too weak to move from the loss of blood. All he can only do collapse in the tub, and bleed to death. As he looks up at his wife, he can vaguely see tears falling from her cheeks. This is the last thing he sees before he finally dies inside the tub.

Several years later, Popuri and Mint are in front of Kei's grave praying for him. Just as Popuri said, Mint's hair turned pink just like her mother and grandmother.

After they've finished praying, Mint asks her mother, “Mommy, why did daddy die?”

Popuri looks at her daughter and says, “your father died for you. Mint sweetheart, you are the new Yaminochigo. Someday when you're older, you will find a man who you will choose to be your groom. And that man will give his blood for his child.”

The end.