Year 7 Autumn Blood Moon
The halls of House Sanguis pulsed like arteries beneath the academy.Crimson light flowed through veins of glass along the walls, and the air smelled faintly of iron and incense.Master Veyric walked ahead, his cane striking the floor with a hollow rhythm.Ketsuraku followed in silence, his reflection flickering in every panel of black glass they passed.
They descended until the air turned cold and the torches burned blue.Veyric stopped before a door made of silver mirrors woven with Higanbana stems."This is the Veilborn Rite," he said quietly. "Every blood-born must walk it alone. The mirrors will show your truth, and the shades will feed on what you fear. Only when you sever fear will the river accept you."
He placed a gloved hand on Ketsuraku's shoulder."Do not fight what you see. Rewrite it."
The door opened without a sound.
The Chamber
It was endless—an ocean of mirrors stacked like shards of frozen water, each reflecting him from a thousand angles.No ceiling. No floor. Only reflections.
He stepped forward. The door vanished behind him.
At once, the mirrors breathed.
His reflection smiled back—then changed.He saw the alley of his first life, the blade that pierced him, the two girls behind him crying in the rain.He heard his own voice whisper, You failed them.
The sound multiplied.Every mirror repeated it until the chamber became a choir of regret.
Shadows seeped from the glass—thin, black figures with hollow eyes and mouths that opened wider than faces should.They moved like smoke and hunger, feeding on the tremor of his breath.Each step they took drained the warmth from the air.
Fear rose like a tide.Ketsuraku summoned his Blood Qi, but the light sputtered.His pulse quickened; the shadows grew stronger, feeding on it.Their whispers coiled around him.
"You couldn't save them.""You'll lose everyone again.""Even gods will abandon you."
He fell to one knee. His heartbeat echoed through the mirrors.The shadows reached for him.
When Time Stopped
The world froze.
Blood droplets hung suspended in the air like tiny rubies.The shadows halted mid-motion, mouths still open.Even his breath stopped.
The mirrors dimmed to red static.
A soft glow bloomed in one reflection.From it stepped Hel.
Her white hair flowed like water, her skin half flawless, half scarred with fire.One eye glowed red, the other blue.Her bare feet left ripples of blood-light across the glass.
"Enough," she whispered. "He has faced the current. Let the river speak."
From the opposite side, laughter rang—a sound too gentle to belong in silence.Ix emerged, hat tilted, coat fluttering like smoke.He balanced his cane across his shoulders, grinning.
"A fine performance, though the ending drags. Shall we improve the script?"
They stood on opposite sides of him—death and nothingness, river and void.
Hel drew a dagger from her wrist and sliced her palm.Crimson light spilled forth, forming threads that gathered in the air and shaped themselves into a blade—short, curved, shimmering like living blood.
"Face your fears with this," she said. "It was forged from the first drop that left my heart."
Ix twirled his cane and struck the empty air.Lines of red code flared through the mirrors, wrapping around the blade like veins of lightning.
"And I'll add a few… improvements. It should cut not just flesh, but the illusions pretending to be truth."
Together, they pressed the weapon into his hands.The hilt pulsed once—warm and cold at once.
"Name it," Hel said.
"Crimson Wakizashi," he whispered.
Ix smiled.
"Then let's resume the scene."
He tapped the cane.
Time returned.
The Fight
The Fear Eaters screamed, their bodies convulsing as time reawakened.Ketsuraku rose, eyes burning with twin lights of blood and void.He swung the wakizashi—once, twice.Each arc painted the air with crimson trails that tore through shadow and reflection alike.
The shades howled, dissolving into mist.One mirror cracked, then another.He turned and slashed through the final reflection—the image of his dying self beneath the rain.It shattered, and the chamber filled with light.
The blade vibrated in his grip, then melted into red liquid that flowed up his arm, etching a glowing mark across his wrist.The tattoo shimmered: a crescent serpent biting its tail.
Hel's voice echoed softly.
"You are blood that remembers."
Ix's laughter followed, distant and bright.
"And code that forgets. A perfect rewrite."
Rosa
The mirrors faded—except one.
It remained whole, trembling like water.Inside it stood a girl in a crimson field of spider flowers.Golden light wove through her auburn hair.Her eyes—gentle, defiant—met his.
Rosa.
"You really came here too… didn't you?" she said softly."The river carried us both."
The flowers around her swayed as if stirred by wind.He reached out; his fingers brushed the glass.Warmth. Real. Then the mirror rippled and shattered into starlight, leaving only the scent of Higanbana.
Hel's whisper lingered.
"Souls bound by the same current meet again, no matter the shore."
The Return
The great doors opened.Veyric waited in the corridor, silent.Ketsuraku stepped out, the mark on his arm still glowing faintly.The master looked at him once and nodded.
"You passed," Veyric said. "You've faced your ghost and lived."
"Rosa," Ketsuraku murmured, staring at his reflection in the blade mark."She's alive somewhere."
"Perhaps," said Veyric. "House Sanguis has its ways. Some mirrors do not show past or fear… but destiny."
He turned and walked ahead.Ketsuraku followed, quiet, the faint rhythm of his footsteps echoing through the blood-lit corridor.
Far above them, the Blood Moon hung enormous, bathing the academy in red.Somewhere unseen, Ix's laughter drifted through the wind like a forgotten melody.And beneath it, a single whisper of Hel:
"Walk both worlds, my son. When the river meets the void, even fate must bleed."
The mark on his arm pulsed once more, and in its glow the shape of a red blade flickered, waiting to be summoned.The Crimson Wakizashi slept—but the blood remembered.The child of river and void had taken his first step as a true Veilborn of House Sanguis.