Title: Firefly
Author: La Fortuna
Email: linxl@mail.com
Chapter 1/?
Rating: PG-13
July 05, 2001
Disclaimer: SM does not belong to me.
But the story dies. Try to take it, and
-d-i-e- an agonizing death. -_-
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The fireflies are truly one of the most
Delightful creatures to grace the world,
Hotaru thought with a wistful sigh. She
sat outside on a roughened wooden bench
beside the pond situated at the edge of
the university campus, her dark brown
eyes directed forward looking across the
small body of water. In this light, her
eyes appeared lavender as they reflected
the darkening rouge of the sky.
It was twilight hour, the time of the day
when the setting sun had just cast its last
few rays upon the earth, the radiant
celestial body now just below the horizon.
The fireflies must have instinctively known
it was time to leave their resting places
during the day, as more and more of them
appeared with the fading light and the
approaching darkness. Each was so small,
so fragile, Hotaru smiled to herself.
Each one, a luminescent beetle, a
lightning bug emitting flashes of reddish-
orange light. The smaller ones with
flashes that occurred more frequently
than those of the larger, more mature
ones.
What was it that she had learned when she
was younger in Tokyo about these beloved
little insects? That they existed as larvae,
vulnerable and delicate, before becoming
the flying beings that they were now? The
light played a role in sexual attraction
between members of the opposite sex, didn't
it? These nocturnal creatures that coalesced
during the night, dancing and flitting with
each other in a game of procreation? And that
they died... as easily destroyed as a paper
crane could be crushed?
Tokyo, she remembered, her birthplace, a city
whose people revered these lightning bugs with
a deference rarely owed to any other insect.
Tokyo, a place that existed not so far in her
past. A haunting place, filled with vague and
bloodymemories, frightening nightmares too.
But then there were the good things as well:
caring friends, adoptive parents... the
experiences she remembered fondly as a child.
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Hotaru wasn't a child anymore. She had lost
her childhood the first time around. As a
toddler, she enjoyed running around her
father's laboratory at the University of
Tokyo, glancing around, playing hide-and-
seek with the lab assistants. There were
the cell cultures, the hazardous-looking
machinery, and here and there, the
prevalent presence of data sheets and
computer screens.
What is that there? she would ask.
Her father would respond, Oh, it's just a
mainframe for the Cray computer, my dear.
Don't touch it for fear that your hands
will press a button and all of Daddy's
information will be lost.
Oh, she would smile, her naturally
inquisitive nature satisfied for the time
being, and then she would float away to ask
another question of one of the assistants.
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She had just turned her fourth birthday a
week past when Mommy took her to visit
Daddy's laboratory one more time before the
weekend. Hotaru was so happy, rejoicing
over her gifts from her parents and friends,
by chance wearing one of those said gifts
on her tiny frame. She was anxious to see
her father and show him the lovely dress
that she had received from her great-aunt.
She whirled in her gown of violets before
reaching the entrance to the lab and then
waited for her mother to help her open the
doors with handles too high for her to
reach. Her mother smiled, picked up her
daughter within her arms, and gave Hotaru a
peck on the cheek before twisting the knob
and opening the door. She barely opened her
mouth to greet her husband with loving
words when an explosion occurred within the
laboratory.
It was like, an observer of the destruction
would say later before news reporters, a bomb
had exploded or as if an earthquake had
happened and the epicenter was located where
the building once stood. The center of the
laboratory, which was located on the first
floor of the building, where the immediate
explosion occurred was obliterated first,
then the immediate surroundings were
destroyed, and then a small mushroom-like
cloud appeared above the remains of the
structure that had collapsed. The huge cement
blocks and steel skeleton that had once
supported the structure had broken down,
streams of smoke rose from the ruins.
Any ideas how this could have happened?
Anything else that you heard, saw, or
learned? The reporters asked, anxious for
clues.
No, the observer replied. I don't know
anything, except that it might have been a
failed experiment. But... I did hear a
scream though, a desperate scream. And then,
silence. But only a few minutes after, it
seemed like there was a child among the
ruins.
Then, the observer paused for several moments
before speaking again.
He murmured quietly, almost inaudibly,
it sounded like a child was crying.
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AN: The basis of this fanfic is loosely based
on what happened in the anime/manga by Naoko
Takuechi. While there are great similarities
in events, I have taken many liberties in
interpretation and creation. I'm not entirely
sure where I'm going with this fic, but it
seems to be writing itself so far. O_o;;
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