When the shrine maiden and the witch flew over Misty Lake for the first time, they met with a little ice fairy.
They did not take the little ice fairy seriously at all, and defeated her within a matter of minutes.
The witch did nothing wrong. It was in her nature to beat up the innocent bystanders of her escapades, and move on. But the shrine maiden was forgetting something important. The shrine maiden saw the little ice fairy as a sort of "warm up opponent" as she headed out to the devil's mansion. She was a stranger to her. They had never met before.
Oh, but they had.
The little ice fairy remembered, albeit vaguely. She remembered a time when she had seen the shrine maiden before, a long time back.
The shrine maiden, like she herself, had looked very different. Her short mop of black hair had been long and violet, and her uniform was more standard. But the little ice fairy was certain she was the same person.
Her shrine had been destroyed, and she had set out, infuriated, to find the perpetrator.
The little ice fairy had not been a fairy then, and she was certainly not small. She had not lived on Misty Lake, but...what was the place called? She knew the little librarian demon on the island was from there. But she couldn't recall the name.
The shrine maiden had come across her when she was at her post, assuming she was the source of her decimated shrine.
The one that became a little ice fairy fought with all she had, for hours upon end, but she lost to the shrine maiden.
And she died.
Oh, you grant wishes, right? I want...let me see...some money; donations for my shrine! I also want some unlimited cakes and rice and tea, and the meaning of life. Also, can you destroy the whole world for me?
When she had just been born, this is what the shrine maiden had said to her.
Even she, Gensokyo's resident "idiot," had been baffled as to why the shrine maiden would wish for such a thing. Of course, it wasn't like she could grant wishes anyway.
Sometimes the little ice fairy wondered if in the fact the shrine maiden was, in fact, the idiot.
Why did she not remember?
When she looked at her reflection in the lake, she could sometimes see her six wings of ice turn into feathers. The frozen shards of frogs in her hand would turn into a rod, topped with a swirling mass of blackness. Her hair would grow darker, and longer, and she could see herself saying Do not listen to their jeers. You're a fairy, yes. but you're an angel as well.
No matter how hard the little ice fairy tried, however, she could not tap into these "latent angel powers" her other self spoke of. She focused on the ice powers she had, and sharpened them.
Time went by. On a wintry day, she encountered the shrine maiden again, as well as the witch, and the maid from the island. All three passed her without a second thought.
As the maid went home, the little ice fairy discreetly followed her into the mansion. She stole the uniform of a poor fairy maid in order to blend in, and went straight to the library. She flew past the witch in purple, and searched for the little demon.
She was zipping around with a stack of books in her arms, and looked surprised to see the little ice fairy.
Um...you're the ice fairy from the lake, right? Cirno? The little demon seemed nervous.
The little ice fairy took a small half of the books, and helped her shelve them.
Koakuma, she began, what's the name of your home world? And how did you get here?
The little demon straightened her tie. I'm from Makai, the demon world. Lady Patchouli summoned me here as an aide.
But that was no good. She was an angel, not a demon. And she had stayed in Makai; the shrine maiden was the one who had barged in on her.
At least she knew the name of her true homeworld.
The seasons came and went. The shrine maiden took on a rowdy oni girl at her shrine, and for a little while there was trouble with the moon.
One spring, the flowers would not stop blooming.
Although she was young, she could remember it happening before. Several of Gensokyo's residents, including the shrine maiden, ran into her on their way to try and solve the mystery of the restless flowers.
It happens once every sixty years! she'd told all of them. It's sort of like a festival for the flowers, she'd joked.
She had planned on telling them that it was actually the charon getting lazy and letting souls accumulate in the world of the living. But as soon as she'd mentioned a festival, they'd shrugged her off as a simple-minded and delusional little fairy.
It gave her time to think. Her other self must have seen the flower-blooming incident many times.
One day, her home was destroyed.
She wondered if the shrine maiden had felt the same way. She also felt compelled to go out and pummel the source of the destruction.
She had deduced it to be those three trickster fairies...what were their names? She couldn't be bothered to remember.
So she pummelled them like she planned. And she ran into the witch.
Why're you tailing me? the witch asked, sweating a bit. I'm a human, not a fairy or a youkai.
I need to praa~ctice, the little ice fairy had said. Gimme a chance, will ya?
The witch indeed gave her a chance, and she fought with all of her might.
She remembered the day back then, when she had been in the witch's place.
The witch was powerful, as was she then. She was sure the witch did not expect too much of a fight from a fairy; the other her did not expect too much of a fight from a shrine maiden.
And unlike how it had been before, the one who was no longer an angel of death won the fight.
The witch was in shock, but not dead. You were...pretty good, she stuttered as she took her hat in her hand.
The little ice fairy wondered how things would have turned out had she, not the shrine maiden, won the battle.
Would she still be living in Makai as the angel of death? Would the shrine maiden be the one dead?
Would Gensokyo be any different then it was now?
But then, there, it did not matter to the little ice fairy.
The angel she once was was long dead, and would never be again.
And she was content with being the ice fairy of Misty Lake, shouting at the top of her lungs, I AM THE STRONGEST FAIRY!