Quote:
The Fireflies (6) : In the warm summer nights, little glowing lights begin to bob and dart through the city. Fireflies are mating, so this isn't uncommon in itself; in the past few days you've probably seen hundreds of fireflies. What makes these lights so unique is that they seem to change color; you might see a blue one, a green one, a red one. They flicker randomly, and something just seems off with them. If you come into contact with one, you will find yourself with a strange electric jolt. They cannot be caught, and will flicker away if you pursue too aggressively. This isn’t the first time they’ve appeared in Destiny City, but no one’s been able to tell where they came from or where they’re going. No matter how quickly you chase them, they always seem to disappear before you can find any answers.
The other day, Satori wrote a wish and hung it on the tree. Whether or not it would be granted is another story, of course. Regardless, even though she wrote a wish on the tree herself, she was far more interested in granting her own wish. Does this void the wish’s ability to be granted? Would that be a problem for the secret wish maker who found her wish of any interest? Satori paid no mind to these stipulations because, at the end of the day, there is an abundance of insects in this hot and humid summer season. There will always be plenty of interesting bugs to observe and catch at this time of year, so naturally, year after year, she was going to take advantage of it.
To that end, Satori without her twin in tow for fair reasons which often involve protests and needless whining, had left home earlier in the evening one day. She took her new bug-catching net and bug container with her. She was hoping to capture the largest beetles she could gather, but this time, she decided that it was worth trying to catch something more seasonal. Ideally, she’d like to catch at least one dragonfly. That was still on her bug capture checklist, but for a moment, her eyes were drawn to the glimmering floating lights in the distance. Fireflies! A whole bunch of them in rainbow colors! How about those?!
The fireflies from a distance were floating languidly. It made the plot of greenery appear dreamlike. They were of assorted colors. Huh? Really? Many kinds of colors? How bizarre! Now that sounds like a rare catch.
And so, Satori made an attempt to capture them, one another. However, they appear to go through her net or her aim was just that miserable, which wasn’t something she was willing to settle with. From what she generally understood if not simply concluded, these sorts of insects usually just float around with little intention to harm those bigger than them… and yet, what she didn’t expect from any of them was the sudden electric jolt. It didn’t matter which color was even the friendliest of colored fireflies seemed pretty hostile.
“Oww..! That hurt…” Sato whined to herself, rubbing her stung forearms. The pain was a tad bit painful, much like whenever she fell and skid her limbs, but the pain faded from these fireflies thankfully. Still, it hurt and some seem to be ready to retaliate. Of course, this resulted in her yelping once more, because another decided that it was a fine idea to shock her forehead as well. Ok, that’s it. It’s time to capture them all! And, well, store them somewhere!
For a few minutes, she experienced some kind of battle of attrition where she and the fireflies fought valiantly against each other. She got stung a few more times since, and the fireflies would fade upon attempted capture. At some point, it almost felt like a game to Sato where she had to capture the fireflies and have them fade away before they could sting her.
In the end, only she was left alone. What was once an eerie silence before now was blanketed with the familiar friendly sound of crickets and a soft owl hooting in the distance. It’s that late already?
Sato then checked her watch and bit her lip. Looks like it was time to head back home. Hopefully, Mama and Papa weren’t home yet, and hopefully, Nemu held down the fort well enough. Besides, she should be glad to learn that Sato has failed her mission of catching any bugs this evening.
