Flandre could see from back at the surface that her partner was an immature kid. She could see it from the way she talked to Marisa, and the fact that she didn't seem to care about a thing in the world. On top of that, she's a fairy.

"... After that, they all learned something. I'm the strongest," Cirno said for the third time that they were there. "That was so great. The bullies have to think twice before doing something funny! And I don't spare them, no, even though they are my friends, heh." She grinned and threw her fist into the air. "I show them I'm the strongest!"

Flandre could only nod.

They were flying along the path that led deeper and deeper into the Earth. It was a cave, dark and humid. A cave like this should be cold, but it was warm. The air had some kind of energy in it.

Flandre had broken free of her room, finally. She wondered how Marisa was doing and, that was embarrassing. Patchouli had kindly strenghtened her red mist aura. Sakuya had just been just there. One thing led to the other, then she had promised her that she would stop this.

Cirno was quiet now. It was boring. Flandre didn't like the idea of talking to a fairy first, but there was nothing else to do. She looked around. The cave wall was a constant reminder of the basement. The silence that was her only company.

The vampire began, "Do you know who I am?"

"Flandre," her partner said. She didn't say anything else.

That counted as not knowing, Flandre thought. "What about Remilia? Ring any bells?"

Cirno shook her head. "I don't remember names."

They continued heading forward in silence.

Turned out the fairy was immature and stupid. It would not be unusual if no one knew her, but anyone in Gensokyo should have heard her sister's name at least once. She made an incident. She had a mansion. Why wouldn't this fairy know?

But then again, she was a fairy. She probably tripped and died, and lost her memories along the way. Flandre could make an exception.

It's okay if she doesn't know me, Flandre thought. I'll show her who I am. Soon enough.

Fairies. Set them aflame.

Spirits. Claw them apart.

Flandre expected a little more on this adventure, but this. This was so...

"So boring," she said.

They seemed to have entered a deeper zone of the cave. More vengeful spirits. More rocks flying their way. More cobwebs. They let the automatic danmaku shooting spells on and kept going forward. Her bullets were red, and her partner's were blue.

Cirno's danmaku reflected her choice of clothes. White bullets and ice shards covered most of the space around her small body. Those shards shattered when they hit the wall and turned into ice clumps, melting away. When she needed to do more damage, the fairy summoned some blue orbs that shot like a cannon. Wasn't her power manipulating ice? Does that mean making ice? Flandre would ask later.

More rocks. More spirits and fairies, an indication that this was an incident. Flandre cast some fire spell and killed fairies coming her way. She looked at her partner and noticed that the ice fairy seemed to be having an existential crisis killing her own species.

Tsk, I've gone through that.

Flandre thought, and immediately regretted it. She bit her lip. She shouldn't have touched that subject. It was just a short sentence that Patchouli blurted out. It might not even be true. C'mon Flandre.

The vampire sensed something ahead. She looked up to see a bucket. Any distraction was fine by her. Another thing to blast in flame. She created a fire in her palm with a flick of her wrist. The bucket span and ran away before she could throw the spell in her hand. Flandre growled. She could blast the rocks anyway, but a youkai appeared in front of them so she had to hold back.

"You're coming into my lair." A girl in brown dress blocked their way. She had blonde hair, but not like Flandre's. It was darker, dirtier, and wasn't well taken care of. "A fairy and a vampire? Entering this cave? That's unusual."

Her dress flared out and curved at the ankles like the spider's abdomen. What gave it away that she was a spider youkai was her four spider legs that came out from her back.

Fried spider might be nice. Flandre sniffed the air and winced. Too bad it reeked of diseases. Just when she thought she could hunt her own prey. "She's yours, Cirno. I can help in the background."

"Eh," the ice fairy said. "I don't think we have to fight?"

"I promise I won't use that, okay," The earth spider said. "If you want to play, I can make some web patterns."

Flandre, ignoring the spider, shrugged. "I don't want to fight, but I don't want to keep this energy I have. It would be nice to release them somewhere." She showed the fairy her hand, still holding the fire spell.

"Keep it," Cirno said. "Don't be rude to the spider."

"Don't use fire please," the spider said.

Flandre frowned. "Fine fine, I'll keep it." She flicked her wrist again, this time the flame disappeared. She felt the heat lingered in her arm, which is unpleasant. "But I still want you to fight that thing."

"I don't wanna fight," Cirno said.

"Just do it."

"Why?"

The vampire blinked. She wanted to see her partner fight and that's all. Flandre pretended to be angry and thought of a reason. "Because we need power and the experience of working together, idiot." She glanced at the spider youkai. "If I'm not getting a fried spider, I want to see an ice cream spider."

Cirno turned to look at her. "I, I don't wanna hurt her. Do we have to?"

"I don't need a friend who's weak," Flandre said. "Prove it to me, strongest."

Friends. Strongest. That was the little push Cirno needed to make up her mind.

The spider youkai groaned, having made up her mind as well. "Stop ignoring me!" She started her danmaku spell, shooting bright green bullets in eight directions.

"Wahooo!" Cirno dodged and countered with her ice bullets.

Flandre asked with a smirk, "Thought you didn't want to fight?"

"I dunno! I'm just feeling really strong now!"

Flandre followed behind her. The thought of fighting an opponent in a danmaku spell with a partner was… new, and exciting. She liked the idea. It was not the same as when she fought Marisa. At that time, she was the host of the Scarlet Devil Mansion. She was the main one who used spell cards and Marisa was the one to dodge. This time, Cirno and Flandre were partners, both being the guest of this underworld.

Also, she wanted to see how a mere fairy would fight. Or how she struggled. How much she could bear. How hope left her eyes when faced by fate.

What can you do? Entertain me.

"Ready?" Cirno asked. Her confident grin was back.

"Ready," Flandre said.