When Cirno woke up that morning, the forest was covered with a cool fog, making her want to return to her slumber once more. And she would very well have done so if not for the fact that she heard a very peculiar voice coming from below her treehouse.
It was a very peculiar voice indeed. Cirno had never heard such a sweet and charming voice like that before. The night sparrow's voice was nothing compared to it. It recited a poem about the majesty of the emerald forest, the glitter of morning dews that shone beyond any diamonds ever worn by princesses, the pulsing heartbeat of the beasts and bugs of the land. And, most importantly for her, the beauty of the dancing fairies on the lake.
Now, she was never big on dancing herself, but she could agree with the "beauty" part.
Demanding to be satisfied, her curiosity carried her nimble body towards the voice. And the more she got close to the voice, the more she felt as if she was hearing the Goddess of Poetry herself, gracing her insignificant self with her presence.
The source of the voice turned out to be a girl, around fourteen or fifteen in human age. Her appearance was nothing special, with a dull brown hair and a dull dress, complete with a pair of dull hazel eyes, which quite disappointed her since she had expected a beautiful face behind the beautiful voice. When she noticed her presence, she stopped her recital, bringing her soul back from the heavenly clouds.
"Oh, hello little fairy."
Normally, she would object strongly to being called that. However, when she called her that with that voice, it just felt right, as if it was a honest praise instead of a mockery.
"Uh, hello," she replied back, still not sure what to say to her.
"What is your name?"
"Cirno! The strongest fairy in Gensokyo!" she said proudly. For some reason, she felt obligated to impress this person more than anyone else.
"Then, Cirno. Would you like to hear a story? Today is a dreadfully dull day and I haven't gotten anyone else to play with. I promise it's an interesting one."
Being asked with a voice like that, who could resist?
"Wonderful. Now, let's see, which one should I tell?"
She opened her book she had carried with her, which Cirno, oddly enough, didn't notice before, and flipped through its pages, until she said "This one would be nice", stopping on a certain page.
She sat down on the wet grass, Cirno hovering near her, looking at the words written in the page. She couldn't read it however.
"Once upon a time, there was a little fairy living on a forest..."
"Achoo!"
Meiling sniffed. She didn't like this weather. Not in the slightest.
She had hoped that at least the fog would go away, but alas, after standing here for three hours it seemed the heavens had no plan to change their "chilly morning with a fog" schedule.
"Come on, Meiling, stay positive!" she thought to herself. "At least with this weather, no one would come to the Mansion and you could just take it easy for the rest of the day!"
Her newfound optimism was soon dashed however, as a cold gust of wind blowed at her.
"Brrr, what's wrong with this weather? It's not even winter yet and it's already this cold!"
Her question was soon answered. By five icicles heading straight towards her face.
Without delay, her lightning-quick reflexes worked their magic. She blocked the first one and punched the other four, shattering them to pieces before they could hit their bullseye.
"Not bad! Not bad at all!"
She heard clapping coming from the fog in front of her, followed by a familiar figure stepping out from the shadows.
It was Cirno. She was with her usual self-satisfied expression that she had seen many times, mostly when she challenged her to a spellcard duel, which usually ended up with her running away (or "doing a strategic retreat" as she would say) while swearing she would win the next time they fought. However, Meiling found she was somewhat… different today. She couldn't exactly tell you where however.
"Hey, what was that for?"
"Oh, that? That was just a simple morning greeting. You know, just in case you were sleeping on your job again."
As she thought, there was indeed something strange about the fairy. She wouldn't just break the spellcard rule willy-nilly like that. As stupid as she was, she was not stupid enough to do one of the unforgivable things to do in Gensokyo. Not if she didn't want to earn the wrath of the shrine maiden herself.
"Go home. I'm in no mood to play with you today."
"Oh? Well, that's unfortunate. Because I'm in a perfectly good mood for that."
Without warning, the fairy dashed towards her, each hand holding a blade made out of ice that she had manifested in a split second it took to reach her position.
She failed to disarm the first blade coming towards her, blocking it with her elbows instead. It pierced through her skin, earning a yelp of pain from the gatekeeper. The second blade she knocked off course with her palm, flinching the ice fairy and buying her the window she needed for a counterattack. She did a high kick with her right foot, hitting her straight in her stomach. The fairy was sent back a few feet away from her, but not too far where she couldn't follow up with her Rainbow Fist coming from her still-bleeding right hand. It connected right under her jaw, sending the fairy upwards a few feet more. However, before she could finish her with her famed Rainbow Kick, the fairy formed an ice shield around her. It shattered when her feet connected with it, but the damage had already been done.
"Ice shotgun!"
Three giant icicles Cirno fired off point-blank at her. And all three pierced through her body.
"Gah!"
Meiling was in pain. She hadn't felt pain this intense in a long while, not when she did all her battles in spellcard rules designed to prevent things like this.
Not giving up, she countered by firing off a swarm of rainbow-colored bullets from her hands. Unfortunately for her, Cirno had erected her ice shield once again, this time absorbing the blows without a single scratch.
Meiling fell into the ground, with Cirno floating smugly above her.
"So, ready to give up and admit that you're weaker than me, the strongest in Gensokyo?"
Meiling could feel her consciousness going away. If she couldn't somehow turn the tables back now, she would really lose.
And she couldn't bear losing to a fairy. She would really be a failure of a gatekeeper if that were to happen.
Then, she remembered. The technique she had developed yet abandoned because of its awful strain to her body. The last time she used it she could only stay conscious afterwards for one minute. And considering her weakened body right now, she doubted she could maintain it for more than ten seconds.
But then, ten seconds were more than enough.
"Hey, what's the matter? You sleeping or something? I said are you ready to give up already?"
She spread her energy, or chi as her martial arts doctrine would call it, around her entire body. She forced it to seep through every single muscle in her body, strengthening them to beyond their normal limits.
And then, she moved.
She rose with a quick flip, surprising the ice fairy who was more than assured of her victory over her. Then, without waiting for her reaction, she unleashed her Rainbow Fist at her. But not just one. Or two. Or three. Or even four. It was a flurry of unrelenting punches. Her ice shield would stand no chance even if she had the time to create it, and the fairy could only watch as her body was crushed mercilessly.
In a mere five seconds, Cirno was defeated.
The fairy lied battered on the ground, Meiling watching her with panting breath.
"So that's it, huh? How disappointing. This won't do at all for my story. Won't do at all."
Meiling quickly rose her guard once again. Another one? But she didn't recognize the voice.
"Who are you? Show yourself!" she shouted.
"Now, now, my little gatekeeping youkai. Be patient. Patience is a virtue after all. Or, do your mother not teach you that?"
Cirno's body began to melt, to the horror of Meiling, its moisture floating and forming a figure on the air before freezing into ice crystals. Then the ice crystals shattered, revealing a girl she had never seen before in Gensokyo.
"You… just who are…"
"Satisfied, now that you have a good look at me?" The girl giggled, with a giggle of a mother who heard her child making a cutely naive remark.
Meiling suddenly felt she was being very stupid.
"Now, on to main course." She took away her gaze from Meiling as she skipped around, as if Meiling wasn't even there. "You see, I'd like you to announce to this world's inhabitants that they have won the joyous privilege of being told in my eternal and everlasting tales. Now, now, don't make such a boorish face, it is not in your tale to understand mine."
Meiling, once again, felt really stupid. There was something about her voice that made her believe her words, even though they were insulting her.
"Oh, and because it would be terribly inconvenient for you to not know what to call me with, you can call me 'The Story Girl'. I've forgotten my own name a long time ago."
Before she could bring her lips to ask all the questions stuck in her mind, the girl melted into a puddle of water just like Cirno did, only this time the water didn't rise up again.
And then, Meiling's technique started to take its toll. Her muscles relaxed to the point where she fell into the wet grass straight away.
"The… Story… Girl? Just… who… is…"
Then, the world turned black.