Cirno flew over the Misty Lake, her personal nemesis. She had tried for a long time, but she never managed to freeze the whole lake. The last attempt was thwarted when a fire fury was causing an incident and the incident solvers beat her up just because she got in their way. On a second thought, perhaps she shouldn't have taunted them.
But, a new day, a new opportunity to play, freeze frogs, and to prove she's the strongest. And to receive objects crashing at her face.
"Ouch!"
In the most literal sense.
When she recovered her senses, she took one hand to massage her head and another to pick up what her face crashed against.
It was a gemstone. A bright, blue jewel just crashed against her face. If she knew how to identify, she would see that it was a lapis lazuli.
"Who threw that?" She cried, throwing her fists in the air.
"It seems that belongs to me."
Cirno turned around and saw someone. She was a fairy like her, even if she had no wings, she could recognize a fairy when she saw one. She had a blue and white outfit with purple trimming, and a bun of short lavender hair, two bangs falling either side of her face, also lavender. On top of her hair was a headband, furnished with a diamond on her right side.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Lapis Aoki," she pointed to herself, "And I'm the fairy of gems." She punctuated her introduction with a patronizing smirk.
"Really?" Cirno came closer to her, eyeing her suspiciously, "I never saw you around here!" However, she stopped and sneezed. She scratched her now sore throat, but she ignored it, she would care about it when she wiped off that arrogant smirk from the new fairy's face.
"Perhaps you should pay better attention to what happens around you."
"This doesn't matter! I'm Cirno, and if there's something you should know is that I'm the strongest fairy of Gensokyo!" She near-screamed at her.
"So what? Fight me then if you're truly the strongest!" The diamond in her headband glowed.
"You'll regret it! I'll freeze your jewels to the core!" her ice wings glowed as well. "Cast your spellcard!"
"Spellcard?"
"Of course, du-uh!" Cirno made some weird faces at her. "Don't tell me you don't know about it!"
"I happen to be suffering a little amnesia, snowflake." Lapis scoffed and crossed her arms.
"Really? Just call its name and think about it." Cirno smirked, "So let me show you first hand! Perfect Freeze!"
She drew her first card, and ice stacks appeared around her. Lapis seemed confused with the sudden appearance of the stacks. The temperature dropped, but Lapis didn't feel cold because of all that effort dodging the ice projectiles that were closing on her. Then, she simply had the idea of flying forward in Cirno's direction.
Lapis smirked when she saw Cirno had her front unguarded. But the smirk disappeared when Cirno stretched her both hands at her direction, firing a huge orb of ice at her, hitting her straight.
"C'mon, you have to dodge it!" Cirno said, as the ice stacks disappeared.
Lapis grunted as she rubbed her belly.
"You're so weak, perhaps I should let you make a spellcard before I continue to trounce you."
Lapis grunted, but took advantage of Cirno's offer. She closed her eyes and let the diamond in her headband glow. She opened her arms horizontally and a card appeared in her front, and said its name:
"Chinese Peony: Umbrella and Rain!"
The card disappeared and, in its place, a vortex of gems appeared. Emeralds, sapphires, rubies, onyxes, gems of all shapes and colors swirled over her head, while the diamond glowed brighter and a cloud of gems formed above.
Then, true to the card's name, the cloud of gems precipitated, creating a shower of jewels, right at Cirno's direction. She sneezed once, after gulping with the unexpectedly tricky spellcard, and, while she moved away to avoid the gems, she summoned a gale of icy wind.
The gems froze in the midair, creating a multicolored frozen mosaic.
"You cheater!" Lapis said.
"I'm only using my powers." She stuck out her tongue at her.
"I'll show you!"
"Show me what? No one can stand against the strongest!"
"I said, I'll show you! The song only ends when it ends, and it ends now!" She clapped her hands, like a pianist ending her piece.
But nothing happened.
"I don't understand," Lapis said, clapping three times, "There's supposed to end with the gems exploding!"
"Ha! What a lousy spellcard." Cirno said, but then she saw that the frozen gems still gleamed with magic. Cracks in the ice spread like fire and the ice was thrown forcefully everywhere. Cirno and Lapis had to evade the projectiles, but there was no pattern to them: they were just stray bullets, and one of them right Cirno straight in the gut.
After a while, Cirno reformed, after a gale of icy wind soared and reconstructed her body. She shook her head to recover her senses. The deadly mosaic disappeared, she didn't sense the magic that sustained it anymore.
She smiled. Even though she died, she still won the duel.
"Yeah, how does it feel? I'm the strongest!" She sneezed after that.
Lapis, however, didn't pay attention to her bragging. She had her right arm over a stump that occupied the place that should be her left arm. Circuits sparked and a metallic fluid dripped around it. The metallic fluid made Cirno a bit nauseous, but she had strength enough to endure it. Judging by the cut, it was cut off by a sharp piece of debris from the deadly mosaic.
"Where's my arm?" She asked, but then she finally noticed Cirno recovered. "What? I thought you had died! It scared me!"
"I'm a fairy, duh!" She waved her hand to dismiss her concern. "This happens like once per week. And, aren't you a fairy? Make it grow again!"
"But the nanomachines will take days or even weeks to grow another!"
"Huh? What are nanomachines?"
"I...I'm not sure." She looked at the stump. "Wait, why do I know this word?"
"Are you sure you're a fa iry" Cirno asked, sneezing again.
"I told you I had amnesia. But I am a fairy of gems, I should be, right?" She didn't look at Cirno's face.
"That," she pointed to her stump and sneezed, "That's definitely something a fairy shouldn't have. And I know why I'm sneezing and my throat is sore! I'm allergic to metals and you have a lot of it!"
"I really need my arm..."
"Ha!" Cirno placed her hands in her hips and proclaimed proudly, "The duty of the strongest is defeat her enemies and let them bask in her favors. So, do you admit I'm the strongest?"
"Yes..." she said between her teeth.
"And what are the magical words?" She leaned forward to her.
"...please?"
"Consider yourself lucky for having me help you!" She pointed to herself, trying to strike a pose she thought to be awesome. However, she failed when she sneezed so strongly she flipped in the air.
After asking to a certain mermaid, and fighting a spellcard duel against her, which she won, the mermaid mentioned that the arm didn't fall in the water, so they should look among the trees in the shore.
"We're lucky that Waggy-saggy is a nice person, she helped us even after we lost." Cirno said.
"How are we going to find between all these trees?" Lapis asked.
"Is your arm hot?"
"What? Huh, I mean, more or less..."
"No problem, because I wanna use something I learned some time ago." Cirno said and she flapped her ice wings, creating a thin breeze. It enveloped the surroundings into a thin mist that permeated the area.
"Cirno?"
"I'm almost there," she said, eyes closed, arms stretched horizontally. Then, she opened her eyes, "Found it!"
She flew past a few trees (and Cirno crashed twice, due to low visibility, not paying attention to the surrounding to not forget where she sensed the arm), but they found the arm, under the roots of a tree.
"Thank you, Cirno!" Lapis said.
"That's the way the strongest goes!" Cirno smiled proudly. "I AM the cold, so I can feel anything the cold touches!"
Lapis attached the arm to the stump. The metallic liquid covered the part that was broken and after a few moments the wound disappeared, even though it still dripped with the liquid, which Cirno still found it to be disgusting.
"My arm will be fully recovered later," she said, moving her fingers, "However it works for the moment."
"Atchoo!"
"Again, bless you, Cirno."
"I'm definitely allergic to you," she said, wiping her nose, "Can't you do something about it?"
"I'm sorry, but that would need me to change my nature." She said, while touching her arm.
"I never saw a fairy like you, that bleeds gray blood, that has a detachable arm. You're weird!" She pointed to her.
"I...it's just..." she said, visibly embarrassed, although Cirno didn't seem to notice that she had embarrassed her, "I don't remember," then she pressed something in her that made a holographic panel emerge from her arm, startling them both.
"What's that?" Cirno asked.
"It's a panel of light." She used her finger to navigate through the holographic panel. Then, she pressed a few buttons, and music started to play.
"Wait, I know this song!"
"Sing it, then." Cirno said, ending with another sneeze.
Lapis took and deep breath, held her hands together and started: "I spent the night awake thinking about you…"
As Lapis sung, Cirno was so impressed with her voice that she decided to sit down in the grass to pay attention. She could see by the corner of her eyes that a good number of fairies, who resided in the trees next to where they were, also appeared to see the show. At one moment, she realized that she wasn't sneezing neither her throat wasn't sore anymore. In fact, she felt better than before she met her.
After she finished, the Cirno and the rest of fairies applauded her. Lapis made a quick thanking signal and the multitude dispersed, commenting on her presentation. The fairy of gems, however, stood still where she was.
"You have a beautiful voice, Lapis, and," she stop to take a good breath, "My nose returned to normal, I'm feeling much better now!"
Lapis, however, stared in the void, as if in shock, earning a confused look from Cirno. Then, she muttered: "I remember, Cirno."
"You remember?"
"Cirno, I'm not a fairy. I'm a vocaloid."
"A what?"
"A program that was developed for entertainment purposes, collecting samples from a human voice, a woman named Nako, synthesizing it, and giving a design. I was first online in 2013." She turned to Cirno, "And then technological advances allowed humans to build a body for me, and to program a high-enough artificial intelligence. I remember I even passed the Turing-Wellstein test in my first try. Thus, I am an android-shaped fairy."
"Oh, that explains a lot…whatever it means…" Cirno said, scratching her head.
"Cirno," she looked at her hands, "My developers explained to me that fairies don't exist, they were fiction created in the early ages of civilization. They gave me this shape because... Because they wanted to market me like this."
Then, she looked at Cirno, "I've always wondered what's like to be a fairy." Cirno looked at her expression and was puzzled that she doubted in first about her nature: she saw that Lapis was confused, or wanting to cry.
She flew at the ice fairy and grabbed her hands and pleaded, "Cirno, you're the strongest of all fairies. Teach me how to be a fairy."
"Well, uh, I don't know," she let go of Lapis's hands and flew backwards, "You can't learn how to be a fairy. You just are a fairy."
"Oh," she looked down, her smile disappeared, her eyes widened, "I suppose it makes sense. A fairy is a fairy. A vocaloid is a vocaloid, even if it's shaped like a fairy. Logical, just like a program." She landed on her knees. "The gift of true intelligence has its downsides. Disappointment. Unfulfillment of expectations. A logical result for illogical phenomena."
"Calm down, there's no need to get gloomy!"
"Fairies aren't even supposed to exist. Why do I have this silly fantasy of mine?"
"Because, this is Gensokyo!" Cirno said, dramatically pointing to the skies. "And this is the land of fantasy!"
"I know Gensokyo is the Japanese world of fantasy."
"Didn't you summon those gems? Heck! Didn't you even heal me? I bet you can't do that in the Outside World!"
"Looking this way," Lapis said, looking at her hands, "You're right. How did I manage to do that in first place?"
"Try again."
She nodded and then she closed her eyes and cupped her hands. Dust started to accumulate in her hands, it took the shaped a shiny cobalt and it finally glowed. Lapis looked at it and smiled, marveled that she was the one who did that.
"Forget whatever you learned in the Outside World! Kick away the logic and make the impossible possible!"
"Huh?" Lapis tilted her head, "What are you talking about?"
"Eh, I don't know, I don't remember where I heard this phrase, but just as I can make ice, you can make jewels, if you're a gem fairy." She said, pointing to the cobalt in Lapis's hands.
Lapis smiled again. "Thank you, Cirno. I feel much better now. If I had tear ducts, I'd be crying now."
"That's the way I like, no gloomy thoughts around the strongest, right diamond girl?" She said, poking playfully her jewel.
"Actually, this isn't a diamond, this is a tourmaline from Paraíba." Lapis said, adjusting the gem.
"It doesn't matter," she said, picking her by the wrist, "I need to show Gensokyo to you, there's just so many things I need to show you, I need to introduce you to my friends, together we can even beat that pesky shrine maiden…" Then, something started buzzing, and the noise came from Lapis wrist.
"Oh, did I do something wrong?" Cirno said, letting go of Lapis.
"No, no," she said, examining her wrist. "This is works like a distress signal. It means my owners will be soon here to pick me up."
"Oh, does that mean that…" the ice fairy said, concerned.
"Unfortunately, I need to go." She said, not looking at Cirno's eyes.
"But you just arrived! I mean, you could stay here, you're not one of those stupid outsiders!" Cirno said, shaking her arms.
"Cirno, my place is with my people, I have a job, I would disappoint a lot my fans." She now looked at her. "I have a sister named Merli and even if we fight each other constantly, I know that I wouldn't be able to just leave her."
"You idiot, why are you doing that?" Cirno said, fuming, red-faced, using all her strength to contain the tears.
"Even though I'm a vocaloid, while I'm here I'm more of a fairy than a vocaloid," Lapis said, "I don't think I'll be able to use my fairy powers outside Gensokyo, but I want you to keep this as a memento."
She gave the cobalt she had created earlier to Cirno. The sound of the signal increased.
"Tell me, children, do you know how you are going to find your way?"
"Who's saying that?" Both Cirno and Lapis looked around and saw a woman sitting on a purple hole, filled with soul-staring red eyes. Even though Lapis didn't know who she was, Cirno and anyone who lived in Gensokyo knew who she was, even if they never saw her.
"Lapis, I am Yukari Yakumo, youkai sage and overseer of Gensokyo." She said, clasping both hands under her chin. She also smiled at the ice fairy and the android fairy. "As much as you have enjoyed your time in our world, I agree it is time for you to leave."
She moved a hand, making a portal appear right in front of Lapis, filled with the same red eyes that could stare forever.
"Now, don't be afraid, you have my word you'll return in safety," then her eyes sharpened but she still kept her smile, "We in Gensokyo like to stay separate from your world. You can enter in this portal only if you promise to not tell anyone about us."
"I can't promise that because I want to tell it to my sister about this place! I want to come back one day with my sister, for her to be a fairy, at least one day!"
Yukari at first frowned, which made Lapis cringe, but then blew a raspberry. "Tch, nobody will believe you. You can pass."
Lapis smiled and held Cirno's hands. "Cirno, me and Merli will be back one day! Until there, thanks for everything!"
"Bye Lapis! I won't forget you!" Cirno said, waving as Lapis entered the portal.
"You're a fairy, Cirno." Yukari said, after Lapis was gone. "You'll forget everything by the morning."
"No! I won't! I didn't forget red-white, neither black-white, nor I'll forget blue-white!" Cirno said, making a tantrum around Yukari, to which she ignored.
"It's true," she said and stopped to sigh. "It's been almost half a century they're gone and you, a simple fairy, still remember them. Again, they left a good legacy."
"I'm the strongest fairy." Cirno said, crossing her arms and pouting. But then she quickly returned to normal to ask, "But was it you who brought Lapis?"
"Nope. That android-vocaloid-whatever wished so badly to know what a fairy is that her desire brought her to Gensokyo." She waved her hand dismissively. "Humans have advanced enough to build fairies of their own. And they like to think this is something new."
"What are you talking about?"
"Things too complex for the little fairy brain of yours." She poked her in the forehead and disappeared into her gap.
Cirno, on the other hand, stuck her tongue at where the gap disappeared and continued flying, smiling that she made a new friend.
A.N.: Thanks for reading! While I know that there is a Vocaloid/Touhou crossover section, but I want to stay in the main section for day to test one thing, besides the Touhou setting is the main one.
Lapis was designed to be a fairy, so I had some liberties with her actual size. The songs "Umbrella and Rain" and "Daydream Flight" are on youtube, I tried to emulate "Umbrella and Rain"'s musical beat in a spellcard.
Thanks to duwee-davis-II for beta'ing the fic, please support his works.