Disclaimer: "Detective Conan" belongs to Gosho Aoyama, and "Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon" belongs to Naoko Takeuchi.

This is an alternative story to my other fanfic "Encounter in Venice" and one of the possibilities of what could have happened if Ai had taken the antidote before Shinichi brought down the Organization.

Thanks a lot to my friends and betas Rae (Astarael00) and SN1987a and the Aicoholics on LiveJournal, without whom I would never have started this fic.

FS

g.

Ghost at Twilight

(edited version)

g.

Postscript

Index of References:

A:

Acheron: in Greco-Roman mythology, Acheron is the river of woe, which branches out into Styx and Cocytus; the connection between the world of the living and the world of the dead, the place where the souls are being cleansed from past sins

Addiction: Sherlock Holmes' cocaine habits; Shinichi's APAH addiction; the initial stage of infatuation

Algos/Dolor: personification of sorrow and grief

Amor/Eros/Cupid: god of love, who is often depicted as a cheeky boy or a teenager, whose stray arrows sometimes miss or hit the wrong target; lover of Psyche, goddess of the soul; during the wedding between Amor and Psyche, wild roses were scattered by the three Graces

Aphrodite/Venus: Hellenistic goddess of love and beauty

(Phoebus) Apollo/Apollon: Hellenistic god of sunlight, truth and prophecy (for this reason, ravens are often associated with Apollo), also in charge of healing/sickness, music and poetry; moves the sun across the sky with his four-horse chariot every day, causing sunrise and sunset; is sometimes depicted as an archer with a silver bow; Apollo's sunlight burned the phoenix every thousand years; Apollo was feared by the other gods since he didn't only heal but could also strike from a distance; the sun caused Icarus' wings to fall apart (Icarus fell to his death after soaring too high)

Ares/Mars: Hellenistic god of war

"As Time Goes By": song lyrics by Herman Hupfeld (film music of Casablanca); a song about love in times of war; "as time goes by", "a kiss is still a kiss"

Athena/Minerva: Hellenistic patron goddess of heroic endeavour, gives strategic advice in war but also tends to prevent fights whenever possible

Azabu Juuban: Sailor Moon Setting

Azalea: beautiful but poisonous flower; symbol of temperance, self recognition, or fragile passion; given to a lover to tell them to stay as beautiful as they are: "Take care of yourself, for me."

B:

Beika: Detective Conan Setting

Blue Moon: an exception of the rule as in "once in a blue moon"; even a real blue moon can look red in areas in which it causes a total lunar eclipse; "Blue Moon" is the name of a lavender rose

"The Blue Rose" by Maurice Baring: marriage needs careful consideration; the princess, who asked her suitors to bring her a blue rose, pretends that the rose of the suitor she has fallen in love with is blue

Butterfly: an allegory for Psyche, the Hellenistic personification of the soul (lover of Amor)

C:

Camellia: humility; discretion; ideal love (Pink Camellia: Longing)

"Can't Fight the Moonlight": song lyrics by Leann Rimes

"Charade": song lyrics by Johnny Mercer (love as a game of pantomimes; film music of Charade, in which the protagonist falls in love with a mystery man, who appears dangerous as he changes his identities and who might be the enemy)

Charon: Hellenistic ferryman who carries the souls of the newly deceased across the river Acheron and Styx (the border between the world of the living and the world of the dead)

Cherry blossom: great accomplishment; fragility, evanescence; beauty of life

"Cinderella": slippers; going out for a dance; pretending to be a princess until the time is up and Cinderella has to go home

Chronos/Kronos: Hellenistic god of time

"The Company of Wolves" by Angela Carter: a version of Little Red Riding Hood, in which Red Riding Hood survives by seducing the werewolf; compassion with the werewolf; there is a beast in everyone; maturity; coming of age; claiming your desires; coming to terms with your wild side; dangerous Full Moon

Crush: unreasonable, unexplainable attraction; a word with a violent connotation ("to crush", "crushing"); looks almost like the word "crash"

Cyclamen (Shikuramen): sorrowful resignation, farewell, death; all good things will eventually end; sincere affection, bleeding heart, true love

D:

Dodge Tomahawk: extremely fast, extremely expensive, non-street-legal, rather eccentric looking motorcycle; has space for only one driver in real life

Dolor: Algos

E:

Erynyes/Furies: three dog-headed, snake-haired goddesses; embodiment of self-cursing

F:

The Fates / The Moirai: the three incarnations of Destiny

Felicitas: goddess of happiness and good fortune

"The Fox and the Grapes": a viable coping mechanism when there no hope of success so that one can let go

Fleur-de-lis: in Dumas' The Three Musketeers, Milady was branded with the sign of fleur-de-lis as a criminal (her husband, the count de la Fère, hanged her when he saw the sign and, abandoning his estate, became a musketeer under the name "Athos", which refers to the mountain where women were definitely not welcome); a fleur de lis is also the French symbol for royalty (despite its name, it's probably not supposed to be a stylized lily but a stylized iris because in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, a fleur de lis was an iris and not a lily).

Fortuna: Tyche

Full Moon: a recurrent image in BSSM; the werewolf curse is bound to the light of the full moon; there are two full moons in the night after the accident and during the sunset on the next day

G:

Ghost: embodiment of restless dissatisfaction; the ultimate outsider; lonely rebel

Ginkgo: endurance, vitality, duality, hope

H:

Hades/Pluto: god of the underworld, judge of the dead

Hermes/Mercury: fast-footed, winged-sandalled messenger

Honey Locust: tenacity in the face of adversity

"Hope for Humanity": a velvety, deep wine-red shrub rose with a mild fragrance, winter-hardy

Hunger: need of substantial food; only satisfied for a short time by sweets; few things are as frustrating as having one's food taken away and given to someone else just when one is about to enjoy it

I:

"The Ice Maiden" by Hans Christian Andersen: two lovers with social issues separated by death before their wedding; the muse's fatal kiss

"The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen: snow; platonic childhood friends get separated; distortion of the truth by focusing on the negative aspects of things and people

Iris: the Hellenistic goddess of rainbow; one of the goddesses of the sea and the sky; the flower was called fleur de lis in the Middle Ages

J:

Jesters: court entertainers in the Middle Ages would be idols today?

Joker: wild card which can replace any other card; design is based on the jesters in the Middle Ages; in some card games, Jokers are the most powerful cards, in other card games, they serve as an excuse to take a break

Jupiter: Zeus

K:

Kinmokusei / Sweet Osmanthus: memory; truth; nobility; fairy tale; "golden tree of life"

Kronos: Chronos

L:

Lavender Rose: love at first sight, mystery, enchantment, discretion, unobtainable love; giving someone the unattainable (the lavender rose is the only natural blue rose since other blue roses have either been genetically modified or dyed); more about them can be found in The Red String of Fate (Chapter 8), an alternative prequel to Ghost at Twilight; since different lavender roses have different meanings, Shiho misread the meaning of Seiya's present after the talk with the landlady despite having grasped its meaning subconsciously (another misunderstanding which wasn't cleared up in the story)

"The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen: mermaid princess turns into mute girl (whose feet hurt with every step she makes) out of love to the human prince; impossible love which can't be expressed verbally; after her death, the mermaid got the chance to receive an eternal soul by wandering the world as a spirit and making children happy

M:

Mars: Ares

Medusa: winged, snake-haired Gorgon (a female-bodied monster), whose stare turns the observer into stone; mother of Pegasus, a white winged stallion (which, in Sailor Moon, was also Helios, the keeper of dreams)

Memory loss: the ability to create new memories can be lost forever when the hippocampus is partially destroyed (often during an accident); on the other hand, brain traumas during an accident can foster long-term memory (eight years ago I did this or that…) and worsening short-term memory instead (where is the damn phone?; where have I left my keys?)

Mermaid: "The Little Mermaid"

Mercury: Hermes

Minerva: Athena

The Moirai / the Fates: the three incarnations of Destiny

Morning Glory: bond of love; brief love; eternal love; two lovers meet for one day once a year; love in vain

Mother Holda: snow; diligence gets rewarded; do your housework; do the bed every morning so that it snows

"Mr Fox": "Be bold but not too bold…"; curiosity killed the cat; marriage can be deadly

N:

Nemesis: inescapable agent of someone's downfall; Hellenic agent of divine punishment; personification of implacable justice, goddess who distributes divine retribution and who curses arrogant mortals who have been blessed with too many gifts

O:

OCs: The landlady, the landlord, Igarashi Shizuka, and Shizuka's father are all OCs, but Misa is actually a canon side character (the little girl who drew Taiki a picture of a princess). I've only fleshed her out and given her the family name "Ishihara", which rhymes with "Haibara".

Orange Blossom: purity, innocence; marriage

Orange Rose: desire; pride

P:

Phoenix: firebird with a beautiful voice, usually associated with the sun god (Apollo in Greek mythology); symbol of time, resurrection, rebirth; often used as an image of an unconquerable spirit or fresh beginnings but also of futile endeavour and vain hope

Playing Cards: in most games, cards are ranked according to their numbers and court cards are higher than numbers, with the Ace as either the highest or the lowest card

Pluto: Hades

Pond: a liquid mirror

Poker Hands: Full House: three cards of one rank and two cards of another rank (in this case three queens and two jokers, which can replace any cards); Straight Flush: a hand of cards in the same suit in a continuous sequence; Royal Flush: the highest Straight Flush, which consists of a Ten, Jack, Queen, King, and one Ace or a Joker to replace an Ace in the same suit. In theory, Five of a Kind is the highest hand in a deck which has Jokers (Pluto had all the Aces, and Jupiter had a Full House with two Jokers). Jupiter and Pluto would have won if they had been allies, which wasn't stated clearly in the rules, just as the rules appear to include the exception that Jokers can't generally replace Queens, which is why the highest hand in Shiho's game is really the Royal Flush, just as Haruka said.

Poirot: flamboyant detective in Agatha Christie's novels, who presents his deductions like a stage conjurer (assembling an audience, deceiving the culprit and the suspects, delivering the solution with a theatrical flair); Shinichi's way of exposing the culprit is very Poirot-like

Potted Flowers: shouldn't be given to a patient in a Japanese hospital because they're believed to be a bad omen

Price: looks almost like "prize"

Q:

"Queen of Spades": song lyrics by James Young and Dennis De Young (about gambling addiction and fickleness of luck); "The Queen of Spades" is also a famous short story by Pushkin, in which the protagonist loses the card game due to the Queen of Spades

R:

"Rapunzel": edible, light purplish blue flower; image of the high tower or fortress surrounded by thorny rose bushes, which the prince has to climb to reach the girl, who has been imprisoned by the enchantress who raised her; the prince is blinded when he falls into the thorns of the rose bushes, but his vision is restored by Rapunzel's tears; balance, overprotectiveness, pain and confusion caused by love; compassion, seeing

Raven: god's messenger; symbol of bad luck; often associated with Apollo (the god of prophecy); in a myth Apollo sent a white raven to spy on his lover Coronis, and when he learned that Coronis was unfaithful to him, scorched the raven's feathers, turning it black; the raven was also seen as the harbinger of death in some cultures

"Red Riding Hood": name of a winter-hardy floribunda rose

"Red Riding Hood": well-known fairy tale with many different versions (retold by Angela Carter in "The Company of Wolves"); stay on the path; listen to your elders; beware of strangers, especially when they're attractive, friendly, and gentle; alluring protagonist; dangerous men; the most beautiful flowers can't be found if you stay on the path; bringing food to the sick grandma as the heroine's quest; overprotective elders; consummating one's passion regardless of the consequences; hunger; werewolf curse; losing one's inhibitions during a full moon

Red Rose: courage, passion, love

"The Red Shoes" by Hans Christian Andersen: a pair of cursed new shoes which ruin the vain protagonist

Red String (or Thread) of Fate: the red thread that connects destined lovers, who are going to end up together (sometimes against their wishes)

Red Veil: In some cultures, brides traditionally wore or still wear red veils on their wedding day. The veils often serve as protection or are supposed to cover their embarrassment (for example in China).

Rodin's "The Kiss": Auguste Rodin's sculpture "Le Baiser", which depicts Francesca da Rimini and her lover Paolo, who were immortalized in Dante's Inferno; the couple fell in love with each other while reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere and were killed by Francesca's jealous husband, who walked in on them

S:

San Hikari: The truth is bound up in the three lights of Shinto, which explains the foundation and the order of the universe.

Scarlet Rose: inner beauty, unconscious beauty, passion

Setting: a combination of BSSM's Azabu Juuban and DC's Beika and the real map of Tokyo; a few changes have been added (the bridge where Shiho breaks up with stranger-san)

Shooting Stars / Meteorites: heavenly shield, protection, divine gift, interaction between humankind and the divine (the Aborigines believed that shooting stars helped the souls of the dead to reach heaven)

Silver Bullet: means to destroy werewolves

"Sleeping Beauty": coming of age; magical kiss; success in love depends on the right timing; sleeping beauty surrounded by deadly castle walls of thorny roses

"Some Like It Hot": song music from Some Like It Hot, but deleted from the movie; movie which Shiho and stranger-san parodied while standing on his balcony

"Something Stupid": song lyrics by C. Carson Parks (Frank Sinatra's last hit)

"Soulmate": the name of a lavender rose

Squirrel: crepuscular creatures which are active during dawn and dusk; responsible, caring mothers who will kick their children out of the nest when they're old enough to survive on their own

Stranger: stranger than "strange"; a person one has only met once or twice and might have talked with in passing; a possible future arch-nemesis or a possible future lover

"Strangers in the Night": song lyrics by Bert Kaempfert, Charles Singleton, and Eddie Snyder; loneliness fosters love at first sight

Stranger on a Train: Anna Karenina and Vronski were lovers who met as strangers at a train station (Shiho was reminded of strangers on a train in the first chapter); Strangers on a Train, on the other hand, was a Patricia Highsmith novel about a fateful encounter between nemeses

Styx: a branch of Acheron, which leads to the underworld

Suicide: committed by Anna Karenina, Juliet, Isolde (in Wagner's opera Tristan and Isolde); the person who gave Sherry the teddy bear, which she neglected; M Jean Black

Sunset: endings, introspection, burst of passion, death; end of darkness; promise of a better future

T:

The Talented Mr. Ripley: a novel by Patricia Highsmith with a protagonist who gets away with murder; in this case, it's "The Talented Mr. Shortie"

Tarot Cards: hidden in the scenery and various objects like the Wheel of Fortune (the giant wheel at Ichinohashi Park), the Queen of Swords (the Queen of Spades), The Tower (the towers at Infinity), The Lovers (the Gemini statue at the fountain near Mizuno Hospital) etc.; Seiya and Kaito are both The Fool and The Magician

Themis/Justitia: goddess of justice, sometimes depicted with scales

Thornless Rose: love at first sight

Three Lights' age: Their birthdays from the character descriptions in the manga were given without the year (Yaten's in February, Taiki's in May, and Seiya's in July), hence Yaten could be either the youngest or the oldest of the three brothers. Yaten is likely to be the oldest of the three. (On their first day at school, Yaten complained about Seiya behaving like a kid when Seiya tried to win all the games he participated in while Yaten would rather take a nap. Yaten is also the one who always introduces the group first although Seiya is supposed to be the leader ("Penetrating the darkness of the night" is Yaten's speech). Yaten's name (Night Sky) also matches the first sentence of the introduction. Taiki continues Yaten's sentence with "streaking through the atmosphere"—a part which alludes to his own name (Atmosphere). Seiya is the only one whose name isn't literally connected to his part of the introduction ("resounding truth") although it alludes to it since the truth is "written in the stars" in the BSSM universe.)

Train: train of thought; Strangers on a Train

Truth: Seiya, Taiki, and Yaten's trademark introduction in BSSM: "Penetrating the darkness of the night, streaking though the atmosphere, resounding truth…"; Shinichi's One Truth; the detective's quest in all detective novels is to seek the truth and use the knowledge in a responsible way

Tyche/Fortuna: Greco-Roman Mythology; capricious goddess of fortune, brings either good or bad luck

V:

Venus: Aphrodite

"Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)": song lyrics by Don McLean; madness, hopelessness, and suicide

W:

Weeping Willow: healing, immortality, flexibility, tolerance

Werewolf: the beast in man (or woman, in this case)

White Chrysanthemum: truth, candour, honesty, loyal love, friendship

White Rose: loyalty, sincerity, purity, fleeting beauty

Wild Rose: love and adoration; simplicity, life, protection; wild roses were scattered by the three Graces during the wedding between Psyche and Amor

Wisteria: mystery; marriage; new life; good luck

Y:

Yellow Rose (fresh): optimism, friendship, "forget me not"

Z:

Zeus/Jupiter: king of the gods, god of heaven