"I'm sorry, Yuugi-kun, I can't make it... my father's in town; he'll want me to stay there with him tonight. Maybe next year..."
That had been the excuse that Ryou had given Yuugi when the other boy had asked him to join them at the festival in Domino that night. Of course, it was a blatant lie; Ryou had wanted to go - after all, Tanabata only came once a year - but there was something else that he had to do.
He was on the train to Toshima, wearing a light blue yukata, and there was a red balloon floating before him. There weren't many people on the train, as many of them were out celebrating the holiday, so the train ride was rather peaceful. There was nothing there to distract him from his thoughts - nothing, except for the lights on the railway passing him by.
Attached to the string of the balloon was a small paper crane. Ryou gently cradled it in his hands - tightly enough so that it wouldn't float away, but not so tight that he would be crushing the delicate object. Paper cranes were one of the seven different kinds of decorations used during the Tanabata festival; it represented family safety, health, and long life. There was a morbid sense of irony about the crane: he was bringing it to someone who had already passed on.
It wasn't the first time he'd done this, either. He'd done it every year since his sister had died - on the seventh day of the seventh month, Ryou would board a train to Toshima wearing a yukata, and once he got there, he would release a balloon into the sky, taking a paper crane with it. Upon first glance, the crane looked like any everyday paper crane, but when they got a closer look, one would notice that the paper used to fold the crane was actually a letter.
Ryou always wrote letters to his sister; it was his own way of coping with her death, and somehow, through writing the letters, he felt as if it still kept her there with him. It made him feel a little selfish, honestly - keeping her there instead of letting her go into the afterlife - but since Ryou was usually so selfless with everything else, he allowed himself this one indulgence.
And with as many ties to the occult as Ryou had, it wasn't all that unusual in the first place.
The train screeched to a stop, bringing him back from his state of detachment. He was at his destination, and now it was time for him to take a bit of a walk.
Gingerly holding on to the balloon, Ryou stepped off the train and began walking through the streets of Toshima; they were all lit up with paper lanterns, streamers reached from street lamp to street lamp, children chased each other through the streets with sparklers. However, the place he was going was so much more quiet than the streets of Toshima - so much more solemn. There was no celebration there: only mourning, or in Ryou's case, remembrance.
The noise and merriment died down as he drew closer to the cemetery where Amane lay at rest, and yet, at the same time, Ryou could feel a sense of warmth well up inside of him. As he walked, he took a moment to observe how lovely the night was - the air was warm, stars were scattered throughout the sky, and every once in a while, a firefly would leave a trail of light hovering near the ground. It was the kind of night that Amane had always liked best, and as such, it was the perfect night to pay her a visit, even if it meant turning down the chance to socialize with Yuugi and his friends.
It was a sacrifice that Ryou was willing to make.
The air was silent as he entered the cemetery, and he could feel the spirits begin to stir almost immediately. Nobody else was in the cemetery but him; everybody else was out playing carnival games and waiting for the fireworks to begin. Inwardly, he wondered if anybody else even cared about visiting the departed on a night like this, but that thought was brought to a halt as he found himself standing at Amane's grave marker.
He stood there silently, closing his eyes; he could almost feel his little sister running up to embrace him, but when he opened his eyes again, he found that it was only a cool breeze that had started to blow through the area. Letting out a long sigh, Ryou looked up at the sky for a few moments before his gaze returned to the grave marker.
Ryou smiled. "Hello, sister," he greeted quietly, "I've brought you a paper crane. Just like I promised you last year."
Still holding on to the balloon's string, he slowly reached out, letting the crane rest atop the grave marker. "If you take good care of it, I'll bring you another one next year." And with that, he let go of the string, and the balloon began to float up toward the heavens, taking the crane with it.
He watched the balloon float away for a few seconds, and he finally turned around to head back toward the train station.
As he drew further away from the cemetary and back into the excitement of the festival, the sky became illuminated with multicolored fireworks. To everyone else, they were just another way to celebrate the union of Vega and Altair, but to Ryou, they meant that Amane had received the paper crane and was now dancing with joy.
And that thought merited its own celebration.
Author's Note: Tanabata is a Japanese festival that celebrates the meeting of the stars Vega and Altair. Wiki it if you want to know more.