"Get back here!" Cirno shouted as she dove down at the frog catching it by the leg. She lifted it up to her eye level as it struggled to free itself from her grasp. She studied the creature for a moment before she tossed it up higher into the air, threw her hand forward facing it and released a common ice beam causing the frog to freeze into solid ice in seconds. She levitated the iced frog back down to her waiting hands and set off toward the lake to put the frog in the warm water to thaw.
Misty Lake was crystal clear with the mid-afternoon sun beaming down, reflecting off the water in a beautiful sparkle of blue and white. She spotted the shadow of a fish swimming freely just off the shore. Setting the frozen frog down on the ground, she pointed her finger at the fish and fired off an ice beam that penetrated the lake's surface, sending an ice beam through the water, all the way down to the fish. The fish froze and slowly floated to the top. Cirno picked up the frozen frog and tossed it into the lake, then fluttered out over the water to collect her fish.
She sat down no the shore with her legs crossed and rested the frozen fish on her lap. Cirno stared off at the shimmering lake and sighed. Her thoughts drifted off toward memories of her younger days. She remembered the events as if they were yesterday...
~*.*.*~
It was a long time ago, at least 40 or 50 years, she couldn't remember exactly. She was really young then, and still couldn't read, write or do math. She also had limited knowledge about the full extent of her powers. She was in the learning process about the world; about people, and about herself. At this point in her life Cirno spent much of her time in the Forest of Magic and Misty Lake with the other fairies. The other fairies would always prank the humans, so Cirno would often tag along and watch.
Cirno and many of the other fairies knew how to speak the human language. They picked up speaking the same way as any child would, since some fairies were not at all shy to be around humans. They learned how to speak and passed down their knowledge to the more timid fairies.
The little ice fairy looked the same then as she does now with her usual 6 ice wings, 3 on each side. Her body size never changed since she was manifested into this world, as goes with all fairies. She wore white shorts with a red t-shirt and her hair was fairly long, extending down to her mid-back. She also didn't wear any hair ornaments.
Fairies loved their pranks and Cirno was no exception. She loved to prank especially after watching the other fairies have some success. But her powers were really more suited for combat than pranking, especially because she always radiated cold around her that she could only control to a certain extent, but was always present.
Cirno always felt at competition with the other fairies over who could pull the best prank. Luna Child always angered the humans by muting their voices especially when they argued with each other, she would mute the person who was trying to make his or her point before they could finish talking. Though Luna mainly used her powers over sound to help her perform acts of thievery.
Then there was Sunny Milk. She caused people to lose sight of each other by making them invisible, even to themselves! She had most of her fun by making people's houses invisible so they would get lost trying to find their way home. Cirno watched her and Luna work together to stage a prank against a married couple who were on their way to their new home.
The married couple were given a cabin just outside the human village. They set off down the trail leading to their new home. The husband stepped away for a second to go to the bathroom and when he returned his wife was gone! Sunny caused her to become invisible and Luna muted her voice. The man called out to his wife but she couldn't answer. She started tugging on his shirt and hitting his arm to let him know she's right there but he started to panic, flailing his arms forward hitting his wife as if she were some ghost. He thought the trail had become haunted and his wife was a ghost attacking him! Even Cirno could not stop laughing at the man's priceless reaction. He ran back to the village shouting like an idiot about ghosts, completely forgetting his wife.
Cirno couldn't do these kinds of unique pranks but she still tried her best. She once went into the human village at night and found a wooden house. The couple inside were sleeping so she flew along their roof and the sides of the house expanding her cold aura to create frost everywhere. She wasn't that clever with her powers yet so her method of freezing that house got her caught by the couple who felt the sudden intense cold seeping through the windows. She stood in front of the house snickering in anticipation over the couple's reaction. She was hoping to trick them into thinking winter was already here when it was really in the middle of summer.
"Get out of here you damn fairy!" A man shouted as he held a bow with an arrow nocked, aiming at Cirno.
She flailed her arms up and down in panic and flew out of there immediately as to not anger the man further. Unbeknownst to her, the fairies of light were watching her failure. She arrived back at Misty Lake only to be approached by the 3 fairies grinning at her.
"Ne~ Ne~ Cirno you're not supposed to prank yourself!" shouted the 3 in unison
"S-Shut up guys!" Cirno clenched her fists at her side and her face took on a shade of red. "I'll show you a good one you guys! just wait until tomorrow!" She shouted, turned around and flew off in a fit of rage.
She arrived at the forest just off the shores of the lake at a large oak tree. She sat in front of the oak tree and released her cold into the area. The ground beneath her started to frost and the tree behind her starting icing up. Cirno thought over what her next prank would be, though she wasn't able to come up with any great ideas and ended up dozing off due to boredom.
The sun rose over the trees, its light beamed onto the lake creating a beautiful sparkle. Cirno awoke to the sound of a man whistling. She opened her eyes and focused her eyes in the direction of the whistling. She saw an old man sitting at the shore fishing. She could only see the back of him but he was wearing a gray hat with white hair sticking out under the brim. He wore a red sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. Cirno noticed a basket next to him with a large fish hanging out of it. She grinned and knew exactly what her next prank was going to be!
She slowly crawled over to the basket and snickered, her eyes lit up with the excitement. She tried her best to control how much of her cold aura was being released from her body so she could at least remain unnoticed by the old man and it seemed to be somewhat of a success. She reached the basket, touched the fish and it froze solid instantly. She giggled to herself while crawling backwards towards the forest.
"Thank you." The old man said as Cirno was backing away.
Cirno froze in place. She grumbled and slapped at the grass with her hands. Cirno was annoyed that he had seen her but she was also upset at her failure to prank sneakily. She stood up and turned around to see the old man smiling and looking at her. She prepared for take off !
"You know this fish will last for almost 2 days now thanks to you freezing it. You have quite the useful power there little miss. What is your name?" The old man continued to beam a smile at her.
Cirno looked right at his face noticing his gentle blue eyes. He had wrinkles around his cheeks and forehead. She had no idea how to respond to what he said since she really hadn't had a lot of interaction with humans and she sorta felt stupid for getting caught. She tilted her head down to hide her face and prepared to fly out of there.
The elderly man began walking up to Cirno. He didn't seem upset in fact, he seemed calm and gentle. He stood in front of her and patted her on the head.
"I'm Keishi Sojiro." He smiled and extended his hand to her.
Cirno tilted her head to her side and stared at his hand curiously while squinting her eyes. "Hmm? Cirno..." she muttered.
"Your name's Cirno is it? Just take my hand! It's a hand shake!" Keishi beckoned her to put her hand forward so she slowly extended her hand forward and grasped his hand. Cirno was rather surprised and pulled away from the handshake.
"Phew, you're a cold one aren't ya? I guess I should have known you were an ice fairy from your wings!" He chuckled a bit. In fact, he knew she was cold because of the cold radiating from her body but he didn't want her to feel uncomfortable around him so he didn't mention it to her. Cirno continued to look at him curiously. She really didn't know what to say but she felt he wasn't a bad person at all.
"You are a beautiful fairy! I was wondering if you would help me? I need to catch a lot of fish today and if you freeze them they will last for awhile. I catch the fish for myself and some of the villagers. Your powers are really great. In fact, they are very useful and you seem really powerful for a fairy! I've never seen a fairy like you before."
Cirno giggled at Keishi's praise and fluttered over to the shore. This whole thing sounded like fun to her. He made his way back to the shore, sat down, grabbed the fishing pole and started fishing. After several hours, his bucket filled with at least 10 fish of various sizes. All the while Cirno hummed various fairy melodies to occupy her time.
His job done for the day, Keishi collected his gear and placed his bucket of fish in a nearby wheelbarrow. He rubbed his hands together and blew warm breath between them. Cirno thought it odd behavior, but she was not accustomed to all the human ways.
"Well now! Would you like to accompany me back to my house so you can freeze these fish for me?" He said to Cirno with a gentle smile on his face.
"Yeah!" Cirno said with excitement. She felt comfortable around Keishi and today was a lot of fun for her.
She volunteered to push the wheelbarrow and took the handles to push it toward the village. She marched forward rather stiffly raising her legs high into the air before dropping them down while chanting, "La la la".
She was just a child at heart. For a youkai, Cirno would need a couple hundred years before even developing mentally but since she was a fairy-class youkai, not even she really considered how strong and developed she could get. Humans developed mentally much faster due to their natural short life span.
Cirno did think it strange for a human to roam so far out from the village. She thought that maybe some of the village youkai protected him while he gathered food for the village.
Keishi and Cirno said nothing to each other during the walk back to the village though upon arrival the other villagers felt it strange for a human to be accompanied by a fairy. Humans didn't particularly mind most fairies, at least when they aren't causing trouble, but her cold aura was troublesome.
Cirno parked the wheel barrel in front of the house and picked up the bucket. Keishi's house was a rather common wooden house with a yellow straw thatched roof, the house appeared to have only 1 window to the right of the front door.
He unlocked and opened the door and in they went. Cirno's cold aura in such a confined place created a rather chilly environment. He rubbed his hands together again and went into his room.
The little ice fairy stood there in what appeared to be a living room but the interior of the house was quite small as it seemed. There weren't any real rooms besides the bedroom. The closest thing to a kitchen would be the wooden stove in the back. The couch in the middle of the room and the two rocking chairs on each side of the couch combined with a long rectangular dinner table with a single empty plate resting on it marked the room where guests would gather and socialize and eat.
Her eyes roamed towards the doorway the old man went into, there was a desk with a blue book on top of it then her eyes caught glimpse of this lonely looking wardrobe sitting in the corner of the room.
Keishi soon came out of the bedroom wearing a warm fleece winter jacket with thick sweatpants, socks and warm winter slippers. He even wore fleece gloves and a winter hat that covered his ears and forehead. Cirno wasn't completely oblivious to the cold making him uncomfortable though, she tried her best to reduce the cold aura through magic to make herself less bothersome to him.
"Cirno, come look at this." Keishi said to her as he picked up the blue book that rested on a desk next to the bedroom door.
She was still holding the bucket so she set it down on the table and walked over to him. He held the book out in front of her. It was a curious looking blue book with the words written, "My Beloved Tomboyish Girl". He put his hand on Cirno's shoulder to guide her over to the couch.
They sat down on the couch and opened the book. It was a scrapbook with several photos of a young girl who appeared to be 10 years old. A tiny little girl with short green hair and a blue ribbon tied to her hair from the back of her head. She seemed to always be wearing this same blue-strapped jumper dress in each photo. The dress extended just below her knees with a white sawtooth border over a white short sleeve blouse.
"My granddaughter Lilith..." The old man said in a low tone. He pointed to a passage written next to one of the photos. Cirno looked at him confused and perhaps a little embarrassed but she couldn't read it.
"U-umm... I can't read." she said this while ducking her head down to hide her face. Keishi read it for her.
"To my beloved tomboyish girl, Lilith. It has been too many years now since you passed away. I'll always love you..." Keishi stopped there and eyes began to water. Some tears rolled down his cheek falling onto the book.
Cirno looked up at him, her eyes watered up a little too. She couldn't really understand why he was so sad actually because the concept of death was fairly new to her. She didn't know why she was sad but she put her arms around Keishi and hugged him. She started crying a little too, her cold tears soaking into his shirt. He simply smiled, wiped his eyes and patted Cirno's head.
"It's OK. She was my granddaughter. She was attacked by a youkai many years ago. My daughter was also attacked by a youkai years before. It's just me here now." he said with a smile.
She broke away from the embrace, smiled and wiped her eyes. His smile was soothing to her. Keishi stood up and walked over to the lonely looking wardrobe she saw before in the corner of the room. He pulled out a blue-strapped jumper dress and a white short-sleeved blouse from inside. It was the same exact outfit as seen in the photos of his granddaughter. He waved Cirno over to him so she jumped off the couch and fluttered over to him. He took the dress and pressed it against her to check for fitting.
"I think the other fairies wear dresses but you don't. My granddaughter always wore this outfit so I think it would fit you perfectly. Why don't you take the outfit into the room over there and try them on?" He said while pointing towards the bedroom.
Cirno smiled brightly, her eyes lit up in excitement as she looked at the outfit. No one had ever given her anything before and the outfit looked really cute. She graciously took the outfit, headed into the bedroom and shut the door.
She looked around but the bedroom was rather common. It had a short wooden dresser, a gold bordered mirror on the wall and a straw mattress that was propped up with some wooden planks.
Cirno removed her red shirt and white shorts, put on the white blouse and set the jumper dress over the blouse. It sat just below her knees and fit perfectly, as if the outfit was made specially for her. She couldn't help but flutter up to the mirror on the wall to get a look at herself in the new clothes. She smiled brightly and twirled around, it looked lovely, though she wondered if she could actually keep it. She scooped up her shorts and shirt and fluttered out of the room.
She stood in front of the door next to the desk with her hands to her side staring forward. Keishi's face lit up as he beamed a bright smile. He looked like he was ready to cry yet he was happy. He walked back over to the desk, opened a large drawer on the bottom and pulled out a large blue hair ribbon and a red ribbon. He asked Cirno to hold still as he walked behind her and tied the large ribbon into her hair and then tied the red ribbon under her shirt collar.
Aside from her icicle wings and long-blue hair, Cirno was a striking resemblance to the old man's granddaughter. He dropped to his knees and embraced her.
"You look really cute! I want you to keep the outfit and ribbon Cirno. They're yours forever! I have a surprise for you but it's getting late now. You can stay here for the night and sleep on the couch." He released her from his embrace and patted her on the head.
"I can stay? I was just gonna go back to the other fairies anyways but they're kinda boring." she said as she fluttered over to the couch to lie down.
Keishi walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out a blue blanket then walked over to Cirno, covered her with the blanket and knelt down next to her.
"Would you like to hear the song I used to sing to my granddaughter?" Keishi asked.
Cirno nodded and cuddled up into the blanket. She didn't need to sleep, but she felt comfortable in Keishi's home. She also didn't need the blanket for warmth, she was the source of the cold, after all. Keishi started to hum a tune and Cirno felt her eyelids growing heavy. It sounded upbeat, almost inspirational. The song was curious to her but it was calming. She closed her eyes and soon dozed off...
"Goodnight... my beloved tomboyish girl..."
Come to me~ I'll sing for you tonight~
Your daughter is alright~ they're all waiting for you
Come to me~ don't let yourself suffer~
They are waiting for you once more~
An alluring melody echoed through the window of the house, waking Cirno up but as she opened her eyes she saw Keishi opening the front door and walking out. He looked like a zombie, entranced by this melody. She shuddered a bit as the melody repeated itself but grew more distant with each passing minute.
She came to her senses , jumped off the couch and flew out the door after Keishi only to see him get scooped up by some female bird-looking youkai with pink hair and purple wings.
"Wait!" Cirno shouted in horror. She immediately took to the sky and chased after the bird youkai. She couldn't seem to fly as fast as the youkai but she was able to at least keep the general location of where it was heading. She saw them land in the forest but by the time she caught up with them, they were gone.
She began to panic but the youkai started to hum an eerie song. Cirno heard a shout of horror, the voice was definitely Keishi. She flew as fast as she could in the direction of the shouting only to see the claws of this youkai about to slash into the his back.
"No!" she shouted in panic.
She clenched her fists and stared down the bird youkai. A deep blue radiating frost emanated from her hands as her skin glowed deep blue. From the palm of her hands formed two large icicles that she pointed at the youkai and without hesitation, launched them.
The youkai seemed taken by surprise, perhaps because she didn't think Cirno, being a fairy, had this kind of power. The large icicles penetrated her arm and she fell to the ground writhing in agony. Cirno quickly flew over to Keishi, took his arm and began pulling him away down the path leading back to the village.
"A fairy, you protected this human? I've never seen a fairy as strong as you." The youkai shouted this down the path Cirno and Keishi were walking on but it didn't follow them. Cirno was obviously much stronger than that youkai, it would have to give up its hunt as long as Cirno was around.
They remained silent as they hurried back to the village, eventually arriving back at the house. They walked inside, locked the door and plopped down on the couch. Keishi started breathing exercises to regain his breath. The run was exhausting to him.
"Thank you Cirno... Ahh I don't know what happened to me just then. You are really the strongest fairy I've ever seen. Those powers are quite a gift. I think it's time for that surprise." Keishi rubbed his hands together and started
shivering.
Cirno's recent power usage had caused her to become colder than usual and he was feeling it. Even the couch beneath them was starting to frost. She was unaware that her cold aura was too strong. The fight scared her so she lost control of herself and acted on instinct. "Ahh... you can calm down now Cirno, it's ok." He pointed to the couch beneath her as he stood up.
"Wah! I'm sorry Keishi!" She flew up to the ceiling immediately and began channeling her magic to try to control the strength of the aura. She flew down in front of the couch, waved her hand and all of the frost on the couch moved into the air and out the window. Keishi patted her on the head and smiled.
He walked over to the desk next to the bedroom, opened the drawer, pulled out a couple books and walked back to the couch. He sat down and patted the spot next to him and asked her to sit.
They were fairly thick books with bright colorful text on the cover. Cirno tilted her head towards the books and peered at them curiously. She couldn't really read the titles but they fascinated her.
"These are the same books I used to teach my granddaughter how to read, write and do math. Do you want me to teach you?" He smiled and opened the reading book.
"U-umm... you really want to teach me? I really wanna learn but maybe it's too much work." Cirno began swinging her feet up and down as they hanged down in front of the couch.
"Look at this. It's a list of all the letters in the alphabet. This one is "A", like eh or ah." He pointed to the letter as he spoke. Cirno at least knew how to speak so she only needed to learn the sounds of the letters to apply them to words.
"Ahhh, ehhh" Cirno elongated the vowel sounds, attempting to commit them to memory.
They continued like this for an hour with Keishi successfully walking her through the sounds of the whole alphabet. She was already able to read some words and even very basic sentences but she still had some ways to go. The moon's glow beamed brightly through the window reminding Keishi how late it was. He clenched his fist and stretched his arms upwards.
"We'll continue tomorrow with some math. I'm going back to sleep." He patted Cirno on the head.
"Hey, Keishi?" Cirno said curiously.
"Hmm?"
"About that song you sung to me last night...?"
"Ah! It's a song passed down through the family."
"So you always sung this to your granddaughter. What kind of person is she?"
"She was quite a tomboy. While most girls were picking flowers, she was playing in the mud. She was all I had after my daughter passed away. Ah... well I really should go back to sleep." Keishi seemed quite exhausted over the events tonight. He shivered a little and rubbed his hands together as he stood up, patted Cirno on the head and walked into the bedroom.
Fairies didn't really need to sleep but they they often did it as a means to kill boredom. She looked around curiously, her mind still racing with thoughts after being taught so many things. Her face lit up with excitement as she spotted a pencil and some pieces of paper on the desk so she fluttered over to the desk, grabbed them and fluttered back to the couch.
She spent the remainder of the night writing all the letters in the book and even practiced making words. She was able to make connections to words she already knew just by combining some sounds but she really had a long ways to go.
She heard the door open to the bedroom, looked over and saw Keishi standing there smiling. He seemed happy to see her studying so energetically. She really did like to learn. The writing on the paper looked exactly like a little girl's first handwriting. He walked over to her, sat next to her, grabbed the math book and opened it.
"I'm going to teach you math today. You know I used to be a teacher when I was younger. I remember hearing that fairies aren't stronger than humans and fairies don't have the mental capacity to learn beyond basic communication skills." He stopped there and looked at Cirno, she was looking up at him listening intently with a smile on her face.
"Ah! You're an exceptional fairy! Very clever and strong maybe you're really a human!" Keishi chuckled a little and smiled at her. He seemed to really like her energetic nature.
Cirno smiled and began swinging her feet as they dangled off the couch. He wrote a simple math problem on the paper. He didn't ask her to solve it but instead counted out loud from one to twenty and had her repeat it. She already knew how to count but she didn't understand the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Keishi asked her hold up 5 fingers on her right hand and 4 fingers on her left hand. He told her to count her fingers 1 at a time on each hand where she stopped at 9. This was her first lesson on how addition works.
"9!" Cirno shouted with a big smile on her face.
"There you go!" he said and chuckled a bit.
Keishi coughed a little. She looked at him curiously but was met with a smile so she smiled back and forgot it. She was beginning to get a bit fidgety.
"It's ok Cirno. You can go out and play." He knew all this studying in one day was tiring for her.
"I'll come back every day and learn some more!" She said as she stood up and started walking to the door. "See you tomorrow Keishi!"
With that, she left the house and flew back to the lake. A gray gloom permeated in the area as the clouds obscured the sun. The birds continued their songs as a gentle breeze rustled the plants around her creating a truly tranquil setting.
Cirno stood off the shore of the lake and gazed up at the gray sky. Her dress waved around in the wind. She picked up a rock and skipped it across the water, counting how many times she could get the rock to bounce.
Suddenly, the sounds of the wind and rocks skipping along the water disappeared. She scowled and stomped her foot, she knew exactly what was going on. She looked behind herself and there was Luna, flying around in the forest. Luna has always been careless with her powers so it was increasingly obvious when she is around.
Cirno attempted to shout at her but stupidly forgot that her voice couldn't be heard by anyone. She waved her fist around violently towards her but Luna didn't seem to care as she casually flew along the path. Cirno twirled her hand in the air and several large icicles formed in front of her. She threw her fist forward, launching them at Luna, one of them stabbed into her arm. Luna flew sideways into a tree from the sudden impact of the icicle and sat there wincing in pain. The bird songs resumed. She pulled the icicle out of her arm and her injury would soon heal.
"Cirno! W-Why would you do that!?" Luna shouted in annoyance.
"Stop being annoying. I like the bird songs today. I-I'm the strongest fairy someone told me this so you better listen!" Cirno glared at her, her smile turned into a wide grin.
"Cirno~" two familiar voices sung out her name in unison. Seemed Star Sapphire and Sunny Milk had arrived.
They flew to Luna's side and all three of them faced Cirno. She felt a little intimidated with the three fairies in front of her so she backed away a little.
"Cirno~ what's the deal with the old man?" Sunny said with hints of sarcasm in her voice.
"I-It's none of your business!" Cirno replied defensively, raising her hands and conjuring a couple more icicles.
"Wahaha, Cir~no~ likes humans."
"Shut up Sunny! He's just teaching me some things!"
"Oh ho ho ho what's with the new clothes Cirno? Did that old man give 'em to you?"
"I'm going to beat you if you don't stop! H-He said I'm strong!"
"You're so boring. Fine, fine. Enjoy your human, Cir~no~"
The fairy trio laughed amongst themselves and flew off into the forest. Cirno shouted and threw the icicles at a tree. It wasn't that uncommon for fairies to be seen around the village but a fairy to befriend a human was certainly unusual. She also remembered that the spooky mansion by the lake has fairies serving as maids. "What's the big deal if I want to talk to a human anyways?" she shouted in frustration.
Cirno visited Keishi every day regardless of the criticism by the fairies. Nobody else wanted to even be around her because she always emitted that cold aura. Still, Keishi encouraged her to visit despite the aura making him uncomfortable at times. Keishi taught her math, reading and writing every day. She felt really comfortable around him and he treated her like his own daughter. She really loved to hear his praise.
Four weeks had passed since she began her daily visits with Keishi. Cirno studied hard under his guidance, especially because he would always praise her for doing a good job. She was already able to read many words, write the whole alphabet and perform basic math problems. Keishi's cough had become more persistent as the weeks passed. Cirno would often ask him about it and he would always tell her not to worry about it. He told her to meet him at the lake tomorrow for some fishing.
When the next day came Cirno was already at the lake freezing various flowers. The flowers looked lovely when frozen. As the sunlight reflected off the crystallized flowers, a blueish tint glowed brightly. She fluttered over to the lake and sat by the shore with her feet touching the water and her hands propped behind her.
The water from the lake splashed onto the shore touching her feet as the wind picked up. Clouds moved over the sun creating that gloomy gray look around the lake. "Rain?" she thought to herself but she didn't really care much. The rain didn't bother her because of her natural cold body temperature. The morning seemed so peaceful with the the sound of the foliage rustling through the forest and the birds singing their melodies off in the distance.
The wait bored her so she dozed off only to awaken an hour later. "Hmm? Keishi still isn't here" she thought to herself and decided to fly over to his house and see what he's doing. Cirno arrived at the house in just a few minutes of flying through the air and opened the door. She heard loud coughs coming from the bedroom so she walked into the room and peaked her head in. Keishi looked sickly with bluish skin and rapid breathing.
As she approached Keishi he started shaking violently.
"G-Get out, Cirno! I... I don't want you to see me like this." He said tried to smile, but failed.
"K-Keishi?" Cirno said confused. She didn't understand this illness and as such, she couldn't understand what was wrong with him.
"G-go Cirno..." He said again followed by a cough.
Cirno's eyes filled with tears. She turned around and flew out the door and stood in front of Keishi's house with her back against the side. She sniffled a little as tears rolled down her face onto the ground. Some of the villagers were staring at her making her feel uncomfortable so she flew off to the lake.
She calmed down a little after she arrived at the lake but her mind still raced with thoughts. She didn't understand what was going on. Suddenly, Cirno had a good idea. If Keishi couldn't fish, then she would get the fish for him!
She stood in front of the lake and started to form a net made of ice. It was a solid net with a large bowl attached to the end of the handle. The bowl had several holes to sift through the water. She took the net over to the lake and dipped it in after spotting the shadows of some fish swimming around. After catching a couple fish, she conjured a very simple ice bucket to store the fish in.
Within a couple hours Cirno had scooped up at least a couple dozen fish and put them into the bucket. She grabbed the bucket and started flying back to Keishi's house. When she arrived, she flew back into the bedroom.
"Keishi! I got the fish for you!" Cirno beamed a smile at him holding the bucket up so he could see it.
Though Cirno's presence around him, once again, caused him to shiver violently and his cough got worse. She looked at him even more confused at his reaction towards her.
"Keishi! I got fish for you!" She repeated her words and smiled again.
"Ah... Cirno... I guess a fairy as young as you wouldn't
understand this thing." He fought a cough and continued his words, "I'm sick Cirno."
"What's wrong Keishi?" Cirno asked and stared at him curiously.
"I... No, it's nothing. Cirno, I'm dying. My sickness has gotten much worse. I'm afraid I'll be visiting the Yama."
"Dying? Y-You'll be ok! You'll be..." she looked at Keishi, his blueish skin, shivering, coughing, struggling to breathe. Her eyes began to water a bit. She was trying not to believe this but deep down she knew it was true she was going to lose her friend.
Keishi smiled at Cirno and shakily extended his arms out to her, "Don't cry Cirno. You made me happy."
Cirno moved in closer to him and hugged him, resting her head on his chest, her tears soaked into his shirt. "Come on Keishi! Stop it! You can't go, right? You have to stay with me forever."
"Cirno, h-humans are not the s-same as fairies. We don't live forever. Having you around me felt like my granddaughter was still with me... I want you to take the books and continue learning. You are better than a normal fairy, the strongest and smartest fairy I've ever seen..." As he spoke those last words he closed his eyes. A single tear rolled down his cheek.
"Keishi...?" Cirno broke free from the embrace as she felt his grip on her loosen. She hovered next to the bed and continued to call out to him, tugging on his arm to try to wake him up. Deep down, she knew what was going on but she didn't want to believe it. She told herself he would wake up then wiped the tears from her eyes with her arm and started fluttering out of his house.
She returned to Misty Lake and started spraying the area with frost. It was a little too hot today so she thought to cool off the area. After she filled the area with snow, she lied down near the shores of the lake and closed her eyes.
She was feeling too depressed to play or do much of anything. Her mind raced with thoughts but she tried to hold on to the hope that Keishi was still OK. She eventually dozed off.
After several hours Cirno was awakened by the noise of several humans from the village. She immediately jumped up and flew off into the forest to hide. She observed them holding shovels, torches and... Keishi? They were holding Keishi, she was sure of it.
"Keishi!" She shouted as she started to fly over to the villagers.
"Don't bother us fairy, this is a burial for one of our deceased. Show some respect." One of the villagers swung his torch at Cirno to scare her away.
She clumsily fell backwards and retreated back into the forest. Now she could only watch as the villagers started to dig. After the hole was dug, they tossed Keishi in and started to pile on the snow-covered dirt. Then they put 2 odd looking sticks into the ground to mark his grave.
"May you have safe passage through the Sanzu River. May the Yama judge you fairly and grant you passage to heaven." The villagers chanted this small prayer, bowed and left back towards the village.
When they were out of sight, Cirno flew over to the grave and knelt down in front of it. She couldn't deny it anymore... Keishi was gone. Her eyes watered up as she let out a loud cry, tears rolling down her face onto the grave. She wiped her eyes a few times with her arm and stood up.
She fought against crying, "I was like your granddaughter... I was your beloved tomboyish girl?" So many thoughts ran through her head about what she meant to him. She stood over his grave in silence for some minutes and then began to hum his family's song... Shortly after, she remembered his last words:
"Cirno, h-humans are not the s-same as fairies. We don't live forever. You were like a daughter to me. I want you to take the books and continue learning. You are better than a normal fairy, the strongest and smartest fairy I've ever seen..."
She smiled and said, "I'll never forget you Keishi..." She flew off back to Keishi's house to take the books. She would continue to learn and make herself stronger...
~*.*.*~
A strong gust of wind picked up causing a tree branch to fall in the forest. Cirno shook her head as she heard the branch fall. It was now night time and the fish was still frozen on her lap. She smiled and stood up while grasping the fish in her hand, then she threw it in the lake.
"I can read, write and do math now." She smiledd as she looked at the ground below her. "And I'm the strongest now! I even beat a human magician!" Her smile now formed into a grin. Clouds moved across the sky covering the moon. The trees rustled in the wind, the water splashed up against the shore. Cirno looked up at the sky, took a deep breath and with a light smile, she flew off into the moonlit sky.