The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

The Wishing Fireflies



Long before the Tokugawa regime ended there is the story of a man, now old and withered, when he was young and full of hope. He lived his childhood in a kendo school, learning swordsmanship with such passion he became the best fighter in the region at only seventeen years old.

- Congratulations! It’s amazing, you won again. Even though Edo is huge it looks like you’ve beaten every opponent here, Ryunosuke. Were you really invited to perform an exhibition match in front of the shogun?

- I declined that offer…how stupid.

- Why did you do that?

- I am not satisfied with who I am now. Lately, that feeling is getting stronger day by day. I want to become much, much stronger. I can’t do that with a wooden sword. A true samurai can never gain true strength unless he hold a real sword and fights risking his life. That is my belief.

- You’re already strong enough.

- I want to master everything. I want ultimate strength to be mine.

While the two friends were talking, a girl was waiting for them from behind a tree. Ryunosuke looked at her as greeted him shyly.

- You know her?

- She’s my older sister. I introduced you to her many times. Sister…

- We’re going. Hurry up!

She looked at him as he sadly walked away in a hurry.

- Sheesh, don’t you get it at all Ryunosuke?

The girl was praying.

- Don’t you know about the wishing fireflies? They say that if you pray for an entire year without missing a day the fireflies will grant your wish in early summer.

- Fireflies will?

- My sister has been going there for two months now. She prays that you will reciprocate her feelings, Ryunosuke.

The woman’s name was Kinu. The man hesitated. But, despite his hesitation, he grew to gradually accept Kinu’s feelings. A faint light sparked inside the man who only knew the way of the sword. But soon after that came a fateful day when light and shadow switched places.

It was a rainy night when he returned from the dojo, he ran under a tree to escape the rain when all of the sudden…

- THIEFS!!!! Get them, get them !!!

A thief with a black mask ran out of an alley followed by 5 men with swords. The men attacked the thief but he defeated all of them one by one. Ryunosuke saw the whole thing and had nothing to do but watch the five men get slaughtered. The thief stopped, looked at him, jumped on his horse and rode off into the night.

It was a sword that moved like lightning. The faces of the five men showed that they died instantaneously without ever realizing they had died. The man shivered. This was ultimate swordsmanship. The true face of combat can only be seen in that one moment when bodies collide and divide life from death.

Three thief that fell behind came out of the alley and tried to attack the man. He picked up a sword from one of the dead men and attacked the three thieves. That night, the man killed a human for the first time. It was the day after the incident…

- No, you’re lying…You killed a man, Ryunosuke?

- I’m going to abandon this town. I’ll master that ultimate swordsmanship even if I stain this sword the color of blood!

- Please, no! You can’t, it’s not right to kill.

- Out of my way !!

- If you’re going to slay any more people, please slay me !!!

He looked at her as she was crying and turned his back on Kinu and all that he knew.

From that day on he slew, and kept slaying men. He never focused his eyes on all the people he had slain, he only focused on that one night, on that ultimate swordsmanship.

- This isn’t it. The swordsmanship I saw that night wasn’t anything like this.

He kept walking…days, months, years…through snow, sun and rain, on the search of that ultimate swordsmanship. He kept wandering for ten, then fifteen years.

- No, that’s not it. I’m still far from it. What am I missing?

Then, one evening after twenty-one years the man was in despair, and even had considered suicide.

- A thief! Someone, help!

A thief with a black mask on his face rode out of a town.

- It’s him !!

It was the one from that stormy night, someone he could never forget. Before the man knew it, he had drawn his sword. The thief stopped, looked at him and pulled out his sword, answering to his challenge. In only two strikes, the thief was defeated. His face showed that he died instantly, without feeling any pain. The man realized that he surpassed the ultimate swordsmanship long ago. No, that’s not it, the ultimate swordsmanship never existed. He realized that what he saw in the storm was an illusion that resided in the shadows of his heart. He dropped to his knees and began crying with despair.

It was as if the man awoke from a long dream. For the first time, all those lives he had taken began to weigh down upon him. He began to see trees, bushes in the shape of the men he killed. Even the river he was walking by turned red as blood.

- How? How can I repent? Someone, tell me !!! Tell me, tell me, tell me…

He collapsed on the ground on the riverbank exhausted and fell asleep. He heard a voice calling his name…

- Ryunosuke…

It was then, he saw a woman dressed in white, calling his name…it was Kinu, the girl from his childhood, the one that he left behind twenty-one years ago.

- Ryunosuke, it’s finally over…the long journey of your soul. I’ve been waiting for you…for all this time

The man woke up an looked around, the girl was gone. The next day, the man had returned to that place he had left twenty-one years before. He saw a man praying near a tree, it was his old friend from the dojo, Kinu’s brother.

- A traveler? Have you heard the story of the wishing fireflies?

- Shinpachi !

- My older sister was waiting for someone here. She believed that he would return someday. She waited here every day for twenty years. Today is the anniversary of her death.

The man was so shocked that he remained there, frozen, until dusk.

- Welcome back Ryunosuke. We’ll never part again…ever…

Even if he were to regret it, he can’t ever go back. However, he now believes each man may meet one woman in his life that he can never forget. He just wanted to let the glimmer of life from that woman fragile like a firefly’s light, rest on someone else’s heart and not just his own.