The first time Gakuto saw fireflies he stopped and stared, eyes wide and his little mouth dropped open in awe. After a moment he snapped his mouth shut and hurried to catch up with his mom, still not able to tear his eyes away from the little dancing sparks of light that followed them along the path as they walked. "Momma! Momma, what are those?" The little redhead called, grabbing onto his mother's hand and still looking over his shoulder as if afraid the pinpricks of light would disappear if he looked away.
His mother turned, followed Gakuto's gaze and smiled when she saw what her son was watching so intently before calmly replying, "Those are fireflies, Gakuto."
"Oh." There was a long pause as they continued walking, Gakuto stumbling over a small stone as he fought to keep his attention on these fireflies. "Fi-re-flies." Gakuto tested out the word on his tongue slowly and made a face at the unfamiliar feeling. "They look like little spirits."
His mother smiled slowly and gave her son's hand a light squeeze, casting a glance over at the lights beside the road. "They kind of do, don't they?"
Frowning, Gakuto looked back to the path and seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before he looked back out at the fireflies. "Does that mean one of those little lights is grandma?"
There was a falter in his mother's steps, and a pained look came over her face before she managed to smile sadly down at him. "Probably." She kept her answer simple, cryptic, hoping Gakuto wouldn't ask more questions. Another long pause between the two of them, and for a moment she thought he might just let it go.
"Do you think if I said please, they'd give her back?" The question was asked very quietly, and Gakuto tore his attention away from the fireflies to look up at his mother; completely sincere.
It took all of her willpower to smile sadly and hold back her own emotions enough to respond. "I'm afraid not. It's your grandmother's time to be with them. That's just how the world works, Gakuto."
Gakuto frowned, and slowly looked back over his shoulder through another drawn out pause. "Someday, I wanna be a firefly."
"Oh? Why is that?" Confused by Gakuto's whole-hearted and naive acceptance of life, she too turned to look over her shoulder at the entrancing yellow sparks of light.
"Because... I wanna make other people remember too."