Chapter 1
Until the Storm

The spears of ice came flying towards her. She could stop them the old way, but that wasn't the point. Instead, she incinerated them with a blast of flame, then formed her own ice spears and sent them at her opponent. Her opponent did the exact thing she'd chosen not to do, taking control of the spears and diverting them; her old way was the new way for her opponent.

"Right," her opponent said after the opening volleys had been exchanged, "let's kick it up a notch." And they did, launching increasingly difficult and deadly attacks at each other and countering what came at them.

"Here's a harder one for you," her opponent said eventually. "Match this!"

The spellcard version was called 'Mega Flare', but this was not a danmaku battle, it was no spellcard, and the spheres of nuclear fire coming towards her were very dangerous. But she didn't evade. That wasn't the point. Instead, she countered each 'star', as her opponent called them, with one of her own. At first, the stars came one at a time, with a few seconds between each one, but the pace steadily accelerated until both of them were creating and launching stars as rapidly as they could. They kept it up for some time, until her opponent said to stop.

"My turn," she said. She formed an enormous block of ice, flinging it towards her opponent at very high speed. Her opponent could have done any of a number of things, but they'd already gone through all of those. This time, her opponent didn't burn through the ice, or divert it, or anything like that. Instead, her opponent focused, and as the block of ice flew at her, it simply came apart, and not just into smaller blocks of ice. It came apart completely. 'Disintegrated', right? Their roles reversed, her opponent sending a huge block of ice at her. She did the same thing her opponent had done.

"Now let's do this," her opponent said, beginning to throw stars again. This time, however, she didn't counter with her own, instead dissipating them just as she'd done with the ice, although it was harder to do it with the stars. Then she sent some at her opponent, who did the same thing. "And now for the big one," her opponent said. Her opponent formed a massive star and sent it towards her. She focused on the approaching star, and eventually, she succeeded in dissipating it. She then formed her own, which was in itself a test for her; she'd never made one this large before. But she formed it without difficulty and sent it at her opponent. And as she'd just done, her opponent disintegrated it.

"That'll end the practice, then," her opponent said. "Now it's go time. Let's see how long we can last." And they went back at it, throwing everything they could at each other. It was, if nothing else, an impressive display. The wanton expendature of energy was wasteful, but efficiency wasn't the point. The two of them were going all-out, using all of their power, every ounce of ability they'd developed, in a spectacular clash. If they'd been anywhere else, the area would have been devastated by their assaults, but here, there was nothing except the fire below, making it an ideal location for their battle.

The two of them had developed their powers to an amazing extent over the years, but this was the first time they'd truly used everything they had. That was the point of this battle; they knew what their limits once were, but they were far beyond those now. This battle was a test of their new level of power, a trial to see how far they could go, to see just what their limits were now.

The spectacle lessened over time as the two of them began to wear out, but they kept at it even as they tired, continuing for as long as they possibly could.

She and her opponent flew up to each other when the battle ended. "I… didn't… think… it was… possible… to be so… tired," she managed to get out."

"I… know… what you mean," her opponent said. "But… we… did well. Good… job, Cirno."

"You… you too, Utsuho. Let's… go back. Get some rest."

"You don't… have… to say that twice. Come on."


It began with a single death.

My name is Cirno. As a fairy, death is something I had never given much thought. I was a child then. I had been one for quite some time. Not in the sense of age, of course, but mentally, I was a child for a long time. In addition, death isn't something that meant much to those like me. When fairies die, they resurrect. I've died a few times myself. Until it happened, I gave little thought to dying; it hurt, but that was all. But not anymore. Not since she died. Now, I cannot be certain that I will resurrect if I die. Because she should have, but she didn't.

I don't know what killed Daiyousei; I never got a clear look at it. I remember being unconcerned as it left, waiting for Daiyousei to get up. But she didn't. And then the chaos began. Other fairies came rushing by, with more of the… things in pursuit. I grabbed Daiyousei's body and got out of there myself. I was faster than the others and made it away, but many of the others were caught and, I would assume, killed.

I carried Daiyousei with me as I continued my flight. I kept waiting for Daiyousei to resurrect, but I think that even then I knew she wasn't going to. And I was terrified that the same thing would happen to me.

I didn't know or care where I was going. I just kept going until I quite literally ran into another. She was on the run herself, she said, but she actually had a destination. She introduced herself as Utsuho. "Come with me tonight," she said. "Let's find a place where we can hide."

I got her story later on. As a result of her power, she was in charge of the power plant. The power plant was attacked by things that sounded like what I was attacked by, but she couldn't just run. She said that others were there at the time: Satori, Koishi, and Orin. The three of them, Utsuho told me, held the things off while Utsuho shut the plant down safely. They bought her enough time, but all three of them died doing so. She was heading back underground to hide, and when we ran into each other, she brought me with her.

I stopped at the entrance to the underground. She hadn't yet told me where we were going, so I thought we were stopping there. "Will we be okay here?" I asked.

"We're not stopping here. We're going in. Let me show you how we'll stay alive." She grabbed me and pulled me into the hole with her. "I doubt we'll be seen; this isn't the main entrance to the underground. Follow me." And I did. I didn't know what to do, so I just did what she said.

She led me to a place she called the 'Palace of the Earth Spirits'. "This is home," she told me. "We all lived here, but… Satori and the others are gone now. Nobody ever comes here; they all kept as far away from Satori as they could. They didn't want her reading their minds. It should be a while before anyone realizes that… that she's dead. And it'll be a while before anybody decides to come here. They won't know we're here."

"Is that important?"

"Satori told me to hide," Utsuho replied. "I didn't want to, but I… I had no choice. I couldn't have taken those things. She told me to hide out, but when you and I ran into each other, I… I knew I didn't want to hide out alone."

I didn't want to be alone, either. And I couldn't go back home; what if some of those things were still there? Or what if they showed up again? Or what if… I had many such thoughts, not all rational (although some were), but I was just a scared child, and they were there, and I didn't want to be alone. So I stayed.

We'd needed to get rid of Daiyousei's body. Doing so was hard for me, but also necessary. And it was the first step away from the child I'd been. We took her to the 'Blazing Hell' and placed her in the fires there. I think it was just as significant for Utsuho as it was for me; for her, the body represented the ones she had lost.

We made a decision that day. We resolved to train ourselves, to get stronger, so that if or when those things showed up again, we would be ready.

We used the Blazing Hell our training grounds. And as we proceeded with our training, it became apparent that we had some sort of sensitivity to each other's abilities. It was Utsuho who figured out why. She showed me books from the outside world, obtained from Rinnosuke; apparently, Satori had sought out these 'textbooks' in an attempt to understand Utsuho's power. Utsuho didn't really understand what was in them, and neither did I. But we could understand what the two of us had in common.

According to the textbooks, everything is made up of things called 'atoms' or 'molecules' or 'particles' or something; most of it was incomprehensible to us. But we could understand that our powers both involved manipulating them in some way.

My power was the ability to manipulate cold. The textbooks said that heat comes from the motion of these particles. Apparently, the faster they're moving, the hotter it is. So what I did was slow this motion. As for the ice, water is one of these 'molecules', apparently. In forming and controlling ice, I was actually forming and controlling water molecules; I just hadn't known it. Ice and cold were all I'd known how to control, but Utsuho said that I might be able to control other molecules, as well.

Utsuho's power was something called 'nuclear fusion'. We didn't understand what that was; Utsuho knew, of course, but she didn't truly know, if that makes any sense. But Utsuho did know that 'fusion' referred to something along the lines of combining molecules. Her power, like mine, involved the creation and manipulation of these things.

To test this, we began attempting to copy each other's abilities. And eventually, we succeeded. So in addition to working on the powers we already knew we had, we began working to master each other's abilities; I helped Utsuho learn to perform the cold manipulation I did, and she helped me learn to do what she did. And from there, we worked to expand the range of our powers as much as we could.

We learned to sense objects even when we couldn't see them. We learned to move and control objects through the particles they were made of. We learned to destroy objects by dispersing their particles. We learned to form objects. And so on. We didn't really understand any of it-and my explanation is undoubtedly very inaccurate-but we could do it. And we also learned that something-we don't know what-separates living objects from non-living objects. Makes them different. Different enough that, with the exception of sensing things, the power over non-living objects we developed has no effect on life (it is, I think, worth mentioning that trees and other 'plant life' occupy some sort of middle ground; whatever the difference is does exist in plants, but not to the level it does in true life. As a result, our power could affect plants, although not to the same degree; in particular, we cannot create or disperse them, although other abilities work at least to an extent). Also, dispersing anything of a significant size currently requires enough time and concentration to make it impractical in a combat situation, although we're working to change that.

It's funny, really. Back when I was a child, I would always boast that I was 'the strongest'. And now, it's quite possible that Utsuho and I actually are. We've definitely, over the years, developed and strengthened our powers to a degree we hadn't thought we possibly could. And we are certainly very, very far beyond anything I'd ever seen before we began our training. And we can still go farther. That's the truly amazing part; we can still go farther.


"That," Cirno said once they'd returned to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, "was a workout."

"Yeah," Utsuho replied. "The good kind, though. If you want to get better, you have to push yourself."

"I know. And it was a very good fight. I still can't believe how far we've come."

"And we can keep going," Utsuho said. "We can keep going. If we see those-" A crash cut her off. "Uh-oh."

"Again? It's been over a year. I thought our little haunted house routine scared the last of them away."

"Seemed that way, didn't it? But no, there'll always be some. A haunted house will always attract… certain types. Although our last routine kept even those away for a while."

Eventually, people had come to the Palace of the Earth Spirits, and found it deserted; Cirno and Utsuho had hidden themselves. Then there was nothing for a while, but then others started to show interest in the place. Which they'd expected; someone would surely think about moving in eventually. So they'd set up a haunted house routine to scare them off.

At first, the routine had simply been various tricks to make it seem like something was there, some sort of spirit or something. Not a ghost; people knew about those, knew what they were. And they were identifiable. They wanted people to not know what was there. And it had worked, mostly; it was rare for anyone to come in. And as Cirno and Utsuho had developed their newer abilities, the routine had gotten more and more convincing. Their last one, over a year ago, was the best yet; Cirno was particularly fond of the finale, which involved taking the part of the floor the uninvited guests were standing on and using it to throw them outside (and putting the floor piece back and repairing the damage was easy now, too).

"I don't sense anyone," Cirno said.

"I don't, either. Well, let's go take a look."


"I think it's obvious what happened," Cirno said. "Something hit the wall with enough force to break through."

"Yeah," Utsuho said. "Um, am I hearing things?"

"No," Cirno said. "I hear it, too."

"I think it's getting louder."

"Let's check outsi-"

Cirno was cut off when something came crashing through the wall right next to where the first one had hit. It picked itself up, and-

"Them," Utsuho said.

As the… whatever it was flew out, Cirno and Utsuho rushed to the opening its entrance made and looked outside. "It would seem," Utsuho remarked, "that our time's up."

The… things were attacking the underground. The residents were putting up quite a fight, but it looked like they were losing.

"Right there," Cirno said, pointing. A number of them were approaching the Palace, but not deliberately. They were chasing someone. And that someone was giving them a hell of a fight.

"Yuugi," Utsuho said. "Not surprising. She's a tough one."

"You think she's the one who threw the things into our wall?"

"Most likely."

The two watched. "Damn it," Cirno said, "we're too worn out for a fight like this. What do we do?"

"We may be worn out, but even at our worst we're still better than our best was before we started training. We can-incoming!"

Yuugi threw another one their way. This time, it wasn't given the opportunity to get up. Cirno sent an ice spear through its head as soon as it came through the wall. "Well, you're not so tough."

The thing was motionless for a second, but then got up as if nothing had happened. "What the hell?" Cirno sent an ice spear into its chest, and another right below that one, but it kept moving. She threw a ball of nuclear fire at it, followed by a storm of ice shards. And as the shards hit, the thing finally stopped moving. The ice spears fell to the floor as the thing… came apart, as if only some force had been keeping it whole. "Okay, what the hell? What are these things?"

"Did you feel it?" Utsuho asked. "They're not alive."

"I felt it. But then what are they?"

"I don't know. They're not living, but they aren't non-living, either. They're like life in one way, though; I couldn't manipulate the thing in any way. I could only sense it."

"And what happened when I hit it? A spear through the head, and it kept moving. It's like it kept going until it had taken a certain amount of damage, then just… 'die' isn't the right word for something that's not alive, is it? It… stopped existing, then."

"And when you did defeat it, it just came apart. It looked a little bit like when we dissipate things, but… different. It's as though when it was defeated, whatever force was holding it together just… vanished."

"What are these things?"

"I don't know," Utsuho said, "but there are more of them to deal with."

"Why did they have to attack right after we wore ourselves out like that?"

"Well, I think we can handle this despite that. Especially with Yuugi's help; she's tough. She often holds back a lot, but when she doesn't, she's at least as tough as I was pre-training. Not even close anymore, of course, although as worn out as we are right now, she may actually outperform us."

'I guess it's either that or run," Cirno said, "and we didn't put so much effort into our training just to run away again."

"Agreed. Let's do this."