Now that they were dodging bullets, Cirno finally noticed how many spider webs and strings were in the area. Some strings were pretty big, big enough to catch a human. It seemed sticky too. If humans ran blindly in the dark, they could get stuck, and eaten. Cirno wouldn't wanna get stuck in there.
"I can burn them, if we have to," Flandre offered. No, they weren't that desperate to destroy someone's home.
Suddenly, Cirno got yanked by the arm. Blue and red bullets grazed past her and hit the nearby wall. Everything else was a blur.
"Idiot, do you even know how to dodge on your own?" The vampire sighed and let go of the fairy, now dragged to a safer place.
"A few hits won't kill me," Cirno said. The spider youkai raised her hand and shot eight streams of white silk bullets. Simple enough.
"Can we bomb this?" Flandre asked and jumped back. "It will be quicker than waiting for her to tire out. This is really boring."
Cirno flew backward and out of the way of the danmaku pattern. "You're the one that said we should stock up, p-power!" It was dense and they got separated, but they were in no danger.
"Then what do you wanna do?"
"Fistfight? Friendly talk?"
"That's stupid!" Flandre shouted from somewhere in the danmaku maze. "And it wastes time!"
"But it works!" Cirno shouted back. "For the power!"
A short moment of silence. "Fine, do what you want!"
"Okay!" Cirno flew closer to the enemy, careful not to touch the edge of the blue bullets drifting in the air.
They both knew that this was a forced danmaku battle, which means they didn't have to follow the spell card rules. No need to stay until the end of the fight.
She's the strongest. She's the fairy that had lived for more than sixty years without dying. Dealing with a weak youkai was not a trouble. She was confident in her ability.
"Gatekeeper!" The fairy shouted.
Cirno looked at her enemy, a tsuchigumo, an earth spider youkai. She wasn't floating. She was standing with her four spider legs on a web wall. It covered the entrance to the underworld. No passenger could walk through. They could only be captured.
"I'm Cirno," she said, dropping to the ground. "I think it would be nice to talk a little? Get to know each other?"
"Yamame." She climbed down with her four spider legs and met the fairy on the cave floor. "What's your problem?"
She's still upset, Cirno thought. "Sorry for earlier, Yamame."
Yamame nodded with a frown.
"Umm," the fairy stepped closer. "Maybe we can… play. And get along. Let's play as you wanted."
The spider smirked, and her leg moved.
"Woah!" Cirno jumped back. The ground she was standing on was pierced by the spider leg. She didn't expect to be attacked so soon.
"You should've said that from the start!" The spider youkai said.
Cirno made a backflip to dodge the incoming red bullet which was followed by legs and legs. She shot ice clumps at her enemy and they got blocked by the spider legs. Cirno tried a faster attack. "Machine gun!"
Yamame saw a glowing ball appeared in front of the ice fairy. White bullets shot out in a row. She raised her legs to block them.
Deep down, Cirno wished she didn't have to fight. The result was clear. She knew she would win, so she didn't want to hurt them, but it can't be helped. Flandre seemed to love fighting, or watch someone fighting.
While trying to get closer, spider leg grazed her skin. Cirno winced and hoped there was no venom on the leg. There shouldn't be. Or is there? She's pretty sure the venom was in the mouth and not the leg. Cirno allowed her cold aura to seep in her own body and numb the pain, and charged in once more. Her ice shield got broken by the leg stab. The spider had too many legs! Then the fairy thought of an idea.
Faster, faster. Cirno thought as she flew away and around the spider, and the youkai hadn't noticed. Of course, I am the strongest.
Yamame the spider shot threads to the wall around her, making big webs. Strings should get in the way of the fairy and make her move much slower. Yamame prepared her attack to knock the fairy out. She failed to notice that the fairy was already behind her back with an ice sword in hand.
Cirno swung her sword down, a little too quickly than it was expected from a fairy's strength. The blade was heading for the spider limbs.
Yamame widened her eyes. A green mist seeped from Yamame's back and spread.
Cirno flew back a few meters, confused by the sudden appearance of a green mist. It seemed to slow down in her chilling aura.
Her vampire friend sniffed the air and winced. "That's diseases! Cirno!"
"Huh?"
"Stop it, idiot! It's lethal!"
Cirno nodded and did the only thing she knew to stop something. She raised her hands. Her chilling aura spread and small icicles appeared all over the place, freezing everything they touched.
The mist was frozen, and with it, all the strings and spider web in the area.
"Ehh?" The spider youkai looked around. She was trapped in her own frozen strings. "What's this...!?" She hugged herself from the cold.
"What's that?" Cirno pointed at the ice wall between them, tainted in green. "It's the disease!"
"It is…" Yamame looked down.
Flandre dropped down next to the fairy. "I'm pretty sure you promised something, hm?" She approached the spider, who staggered back. The vampire growled, showing her fangs. "Who said that they wouldn't use the disease?" The spider whimpered. Flandre's smirk went wider.
She's enjoying it too much, Cirno thought.
"I'm sorry, okay!?" Yamame shouted. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!"
Flandre straightened up. "Didn't mean to?"
"Yes, sorry…" The spider youkai sighed and went quiet.
Flandre tried to scold her again, but Cirno touched her shoulder. Flandre narrowed her eyes at the fairy. She was not happy.
Cirno wasn't looking at her. Cirno was waiting for the spider to speak.
Yamame finally continued, "After all this time being here, I thought I have finally control it, but…"
"So," Cirno said. "You got sealed here because you can't control your own power?"
"It was a mistake!" Yamame said. "I didn't mean to kill them, no. I really didn't."
The partner waited for her to continue.
Yamame looked away. "I got sealed here because… I killed a human."
"Human?" Flandre asked. "When and where?"
"It was long ago, in a village not far from where I lived. It's a forest near a place filled with bamboo..." Yamame made the disease dissolved. The ice became a crystal clear blue once more. "Let's end this and talk later."
Cirno understood her intention. "Of course."
Yamame stepped back and prepared her danmaku, but Cirno already has a light shining in her hand, pointing at her.
"Laser beam!"
You would expect a beam that freezes things from an ice fairy and never a light beam. But you would be wrong. It was indeed a light beam, and it melted all the ice in the area. The spider web behind her returned to normal. Looking at an ice fairy using a heat attack, Yamame stood dumbfounded.
Cirno flicked a finger, and an ice cube hit her forehead.
"Ow!"
"I won," Cirno said. "Storytime."
"If you insist." Yamame thought for a moment. "One day, I was captured and he tied me. That man, he wanted the venom in my body to make some kind of potion. He tried to... extract the venom from me." She stopped at that. "I was scared…"
Cirno gave a reassuring nod.
"I think," Yamame said. "That when I was scared, the disease will spread. It's like a survival instinct, a defensive response. I can't control it. Before I know it, his body was being collected for research. A pharmacist from the bamboo forest came herself. And the humans discussed what to do with me."
"They probably wanna get rid of you," Flandre said.
"Yeah." the spider youkai sat down. "They want to kill me. But the bamboo pharmacist had an idea."
"Sealing you here?" Cirno asked.
Yamame nodded.
"She wanna give you a chance."
"And maybe as a way of thanking me, for a new subject," Yamame said. "I have a chance now, but I still can't control it! What's the point?"
Cirno felt bad for her. "When you can finally control it, you might be allowed up there again."
"Probably."
"But even if you don't, I'm with you!" the bucket said.
Flandre blinked. It was that bucket. It was a bucket with a girl in it. Her hair was cyan and had two short pigtails swaying. She floated and landed next to the spider youkai.
"Parsee can't come play with us, but you know, we can visit her bridge and maybe party there. We can go to the city!" The bucket girl hugged Yamame. "I don't know about the world above, but this place welcomes you, Yamame. Even if you hate this place, even if you think of here as a prison…"
Slowly, Yamame hugged her back. "How could I hate a place you love so much, Kisume? I can try to… appreciate it. Maybe it isn't that bad."
"Yay," the bucket girl hugged her tighter.
Cirno wished she could help. Having more people here would be less lonely. "I'll tell my friends. They might wanna come play with you."
"Thanks," Kisume said.
"You are going down there, right?" Yamame asked, standing up. "You really wanna go?"
"We have to," Cirno said. "The crow underground is kinda doing something bad, so we have to stop her."
"Oh. That's why it shakes a lot. Makes sense." The spider youkai nodded. "You will meet Parsee. She's the bridgekeeper. The bridge where a river separates the two world, above ground and underworld."
"Parsee doesn't like visitors," Kisume warned. "You can't avoid a fight."
Yamame stepped forward. "Give me your hand."
Cirno did as told. Her hand was locked in a death grip handshake. Then, she felt a rush of power.
"Consider it a gift," Yamame said. "Power is scarce underground."
"Thanks," Cirno said.
They continued on their way. The cave is quiet and dark. Cirno glanced to her left to look at her friend.
Flandre was pretty silent.