Featured Image: (Pacer Graphic / Dylan Sulcer)

“Firefly Wedding” is a historical shoujo manga series that follows noblewoman Satoko Kirigaya after she gets kidnapped by a mysterious group. 

The manga alludes to her heart condition throughout the series, showing as her condition progressively worsens. Satoko is shown throwing up blood on multiple instances after Chapter 30. From Chapter 70 and beyond, her condition becomes so aggressive that she is shown having purple hands and feet from overexertion.

The name of the manga is even assumed to signify her short life with the name “Firefly Wedding”. The fandom thinks this is because fireflies have short life spans and the main character is more often than not hinted at possibly having her life cut short at the end. 

The actual ending shows Satoko and Shinpei going through their daily lives after he is pardoned by the Duke’s son and her father is arrested. In the following days, they go on to live in a house that he found for the two of them so that they can have the life they wanted. 

There is trouble in paradise when her diagnosis comes forth to haunt them. Right before Shinpei takes Satoko to live the rest of her days with him, she receives the news that she only has a month left to live. 

She doesn’t tell him and honestly doesn’t believe that she has only a month left. She claims that her pain is no different than it was before and she hadn’t noticed herself getting any worse, so everyone takes her at face value. The Duke’s son, despite still being in love with her, relinquishes her to live on with Shinpei and to spend the rest of her days happy while he continues to look for a doctor to cure her condition. 

From Chapter 75 to Chapter 78, things become more troublesome. Satoko’s condition comes back to hit her at full force and she is unable to do simple things that she wanted so desperately to do.

Satoko collapses and Shinpei comes home to her lying on the floor, trying to collect herself. He forces her to take it easier after that incident. In a moment to herself, she takes opium that she was provided so that she can live out her last days with her lover comfortably, regardless of everyone else’s refusal for her to. 

As soon as Shinpei finds out that she’s been taking opium, he immediately takes it from her, claiming that it will make her an ‘invalid’. She finally tells him about her condition worsening and he reminds her just how badly that she wants to live. 

The last scenes of “Firefly Wedding” are emotionally devastating to read. It makes for an emotional roller coaster because now, at the very end, you expect that she’s going to die. It leaves you wondering not how, but when. 

The worst question of all that it leaves you with is “how is Shinpei going to deal with it when it finally happens?”

The answer is revealed in Chapter 98 when he finds her lying limp in their bed. He tries his best to wake her, but these attempts fail. He then rushes her to the Duke’s estate. 

The next part of the manga is where fans are left puzzled. It’s heavily implied that she dies in the end due to the very open ending that the manga provides. Then, Chapter 99 comes out and dashes what everyone thought to be the true ending.

It shows Shinpei wandering everywhere, excluding where he and Satoko lived together, for 50 years, reminiscing and feeling miserable without Satoko. Then, he receives a letter from her, revealing that she had been alive the entire time in the house that they shared before. 

He goes back to the house and finds her there waiting for him. She had apparently been healed by a foreign doctor right after he left and presumed her death. The ending is widely disliked across the fandom and most people wish she had stayed dead. 

The manga is still worth a read. Unfortunately, Chapter 99 is really hard to find. For those curious about it or that need to catch up, the chapters have finally been released in English.