Chaos! It was chaos! Booms and bangs and people shouting a lot! Also Myouren was missing, which means you needed to show everyone how good of a baptist you were!
… What would a good baddist do, again?
You settle down on one of the little shrine side buildings, your wings fluttering, as you frown down at the fighting. You really wanna just start blasting the nasty rabbits, but that doesn't sound like what Myouren would do. He would… well, he'd dodge everything, which is super cool, and then he'd talk and stuff. And he told you to talk to Koa and that other blue lady when they were gonna fight too.
But who would you talk to? You cross your arms and frown, watching as Marisa uses her broom to block a big glowy sword thing that looks really fun to fight. She's got a weird, big smile on her face, so she must be having a lot of fun.
Uuuuuuuuugh. Everyone's super busy, would they even listen to you?
Your frown deepens, and your eyes narrow as you try to concemtrabe. Something seems weird about all this. You've seen big fights like this before, but this one seems different somehow. Hmm.
They're all fighting to hurt each other a lot, but that's not really the weird part - it's how things used to be all the time, really. The blood and the hate and all that mean stuff… it only stopped with Reimu, really.
So if it's not that, then what is it? It feels like something's missing.
One of the giant metal rabbit thingies gets thrown towards the building you're standing on by Byakuren, but you can tell that it won't hit you, so you don't really bother moving - you just start hovering slightly, as the building slowly collapses under you.
Oh. That's the issue. There aren't any fairies! Fairies love a good incident! If you go talk to Dai, you bet you could get a whole giant pile of fairies here to help beat up the rabbits. And since you'd be talking to get
other people to beat them up, it'd be just like Myouren!
You firmly nod, staring down at the fighting, glad that you figured that out, and slowly turn to leave.
And then, just as you're about to stop paying attention… you notice something.
Right after Reimu blew up another one of the big metal rabbits, after it opened its mouth and breathed a bunch of fire all over everything... Reimu stopped fighting.
It's just for just a second, a small empty spot in the middle of the bigger fight, before she goes right back to tossing those paper thingies at the other rabbits. But you notice it, because it's weird, because Reimu doesn't
do that.
And because of the look she had, when she stopped to look at her shrine. She didn't cry, or frown, or yell, or anything like that, when she saw it start to catch on fire. She was just blank, but it made you feel sad inside somehow anyway.
It's not like you like Reimu's shrine that much. Reimu's fun and her parties are super cool, but the shrine is just a building. And Reimu's mom was suuuuuper grumpy and stomped you whenever you got close, which was lame. It's hard to remember much before even then, before Reimu's mom, but you remember remembering, and what you remember remembering was the shrine was a scary bad place not to go.
And if you go get the fairies you'd be talking to people and being more like what Myouren would do.
But…
[Put out Reimu's shrine!]
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYQl33f4xGI
But even if you don't care about the shine, you know Reimu does, and you like Reimu.
And suddenly you realize…
There's been a whole fight going on, and you've just been sitting here thinking? It's been long enough. It's time to
do stuff.
You shoot forward, ducking and weaving between the scattered attacks and yells and fighting - just as if it was danmaku, just as if it was that old tree. You can feel the snow and ice all around you, whispering to you. And with just the right
twist - the ground underneath the rabbit with the sword turns into slippery ice, just as Marisa brings her hakkero up. You've already shot past them, looking ahead. The wind shifts with you, and then keeps going as you turn, a thick sheet of snow piling right into the face of the rabbit that Ichirin and that cloud guy are fighting.
And then you're right in front of the shrine, as the fire grows. It's not really a normal fire, you can tell, because it feels extra icky. All fire feels kinda gross, but this one feels super extra gross.
Also you can see it making the shapes of dragons and stuff as it burns, so that's a hint too.
But it doesn't really matter. You touch down, your hands grabbing the leftover snow nearby that hasn't melted yet, and you
concentrate. Byakky and Myouren had both asked you
why you wanted to be the strongest. It was a stupid question. You wanted to be the strongest, because you
were the strongest. Because you had to be the strongest. Because you had been
asked to be the strongest.
It's what you were supposed to be! And right now? Now without fighting
anybody? You felt like you needed to be
really strong. You surge forward, ice following behind. You
burst through the shrine, crashing through the walls, covering everything,
anything in ice and snow. The heat licks at you, the flames, they don't die down. Your body stings, it
hurts. But you don't show it, you're the strongest. The flames roar around you, burning up all the furniture and the little knicknacks Reimu keeps about in the center of the building where she serves you tea sometimes.
"Freeze Sign - Perfect Freeze!" you shout.
You feel it, you feel it all at once. The heat rushes into you, the flames, it
burns. Then you unleash it, white blanketing everything. Snowballs fly out of your hands, splashing against the fire. They melt in midair, sending water all over the place, the fire sizzling and
popping, but not going out. The heat rushes into you again, it was hot. It was
too hot. Your felt your skin start to get sticky, bu-
No! You were the strongest!
"Blowing Ice - Ice Tornado!"
"Cold Sign - Insta-Freeze Beam!"
"Freeze Sign - Freeze Atmosphere!"
Your vision becomes a blur, your feet leave puddles on the ground as you sprint. Dragons of flame roar as you pass, trying to challenge you. But you are the strongest. The scent of… something fills the air, not burning like wood or stuff. But you ignore it. Moving, running, flying. Your wings drip across your back.
More.
You are the strongest!
More!
Snow
pours into the building, blanketing the roof, it melts, it melts nearly instantly. But you pour on more, and more. There's shouting, only it's not the fight outside. You think it's you. It's hard to tell. You're on top of Reimu's table now. You don't know how you got there. The flame
lunges towards you, yelling, angry. A wave of the hand, a wave of ice, flame licks around it, tickling you. The strange smell again.
Why is there so much fire?
It hurts.
It hurts.
You stand, panting, everything was wet. Everything was hot and cold. Your chest was burning, your head was hurting. But those strange flames kept kicking up again. What kind of flame ignores snow?!
"Come on already!" you shout.
It roars in response, and
lunges.
You dive out of the way, sliding on the icy floor and into Reimu's kitchen. The flame
chases you, sizzling the ground but not catching. It surges through the door, chomping, howling.
You swing the frozen pan with all your might, hitting the fire in the head and forcing it back into the main room. The pan sizzles and
pops, exploding into metal bits as it glows a bright orange. Pain, but only for a second before you freeze your hands. Then you chase after it. It rears around, and you both face each other.
The flame
wasn't, not really. It was some sort of… living super fire. You are sure Myouren would know more about it. He knew everything. Or maybe Byakky. You couldn't see her at the moment, or Marisa… or Reimu. It was hard to see anything. Your eyes were really watery and there was a lot of smoke. But you saw it, it was a tendril… thing of flame, and it was rearing back. Then it turned and
dived towards Reimu's room.
"Oh no you don't!" you shout.
"Snow Sign - Diamond Blizzard!"
The doorway becomes a wall of ice,
melting ice, but still ice. And the thing jerks around, glaring at you.
You glare back. "Don't mess with Reimu's stuff. Her mom was mean but she didn't leave a lot!" you are panting, there was a lot of water around now. Everything was
wet. But the flames were catching again. You were the strongest but this thing was…
It dives, and so you do. Your face
burns as the thing narrowly misses you, the heat flooding your body and causing the ice and snow to fade away. The flames catch again as it runs along the wall. Setting more on fire.
You stare at it, you are tired. Really tired.
But you were the strongest, and Myouren was counting on you.
"Hey ugly!" you shout.
The flame lurches around.
You stick your tongue out at it.
It lunges.
Myouren said you were supposed to help people. You didn't really know why. But he always seemed happy when he did it. You liked being happy, and you liked him being happy. And you
liked Reimu. This place didn't mean anything to you, no place really did, not even the super secret places you hid in with Dai. But it was important to Reimu, and that was enough, wasn't it?
You couldn't really see much anymore, and your arms as you raised them didn't so much move as
slosh and feel all icky. But you concentrated, you concentrated harder than you had ever concentrated before.
It roared.
You scream.
"Freeze Sign - Absolute Zero!"
And then everything just stops. You sleep, a faint
tingle on the edge of your consciousness before you even lose that.
Did I do good mom?
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGZ6d61Ztlw
—
*Reimu POV*
The shrine was wrecked, again, because of the Lunarians, aga-. Well, maybe not 'again', they were one of the few who hadn't, yet.
Yet. Marisa was busy tossing all the rabbits in a pile, Mima watching over them with a sort of maniacal glee only a particularly bored ghost could possess. The Buddhists were… around, you really didn't care at the moment. Kyouko was off laying on the floor unconscious with a rather large bump on her head and Nazrin was leaning over her. You ignored them, and Byakuren carried two more Lunarians on her shoulder. The fight was over now, which meant you needed answers, but at the moment, you wanted to see if any were hiding in your shrine.
There were holes in it, but there were
always holes in it after a battle. Flame marks painted the outside but… beyond some smoke coming from the holes in the roof. It didn't seem abla-
You stop, just shy of the precipice. There was a large icicle on your table. It was crystalline and gleaming, though dripping on the floor. Surrounding it, on… everything, was frost. Every bit of furniture, every bit of glass. Surrounding it was a large blotch of
black on the ground, smoking heavily, but not longer aflame.
And inside the ice… slumped over, was Cirno. Her skin is red in places, black in others. Burns cover her, her clothing, what little of it remains, is singed and ruined. A good chunk of her hair was gone as well.
… And for some reason she was smiling.
You look around the shrine for a moment, some things were damaged… but most of it was just wet. Some walls would need to be replaced. But the fire hadn't actually damaged anything important. You look back towards the giant icecube sitting on your dining room table, and ponder.
Then, walking over, you raise your gohei.
Thwack
Crack.
—
Elsewhere.
[] [Myouren]
In conversation with an invading princess of unimaginable power.
[] [Cirno]
Dreaming of the past.
