Chapter 9
Confrontation

As Cirno and Utsuho approached Eientei, they found that they were not the only ones doing so. "Someone else is approaching Eientei," Utsuho said.

"I know," Cirno said. "I sense it, too. Just one person, though. Who do you think- wait, now there's a second person. Following the first one?"

"It certainly appears that way," Utsuho said. "No, hold on. The first reversed course. And... more people?"

"The first one's alone," Cirno noted, "but the others seem to be in a group."

As soon as the first person reached the group, the group scattered. "They're running from whoever it is," Utsuho said.

"Then why was the person moving away from them at first? And the person's not following any of them," Cirno noted. "Why not?"

"Whoever it is was probably just playing around."

"Should we check it out?"

"I don't think it's any of our business," Utsuho said. "We can't involve ourselves in everything."

"I want to check it out," Cirno said.

"Why? Wait, do you think it's-"

"I do."

"I see. All right, then. Let's go."


The two of them landed in front of the person, and saw that Cirno had been correct.

Rumia faced the pair as they landed. "Ah, you're still alive. Good."

"Why do you care?" Cirno asked.

"So hostile. Shouldn't we be allies? After all, our situations are similar. If the three of us team up, then I don't care how many come against us. We could take any number of them."

"Or we could avoid hostility in the first place."

"That won't happen," Rumia said. "It doesn't matter what we do. They will fear us, and that fear will drive them into action against us."

"It's your fault they came for you," Cirno said. "You were killing people, weren't you?"

"Of course. That's normal for youkai."

"Something tells me you were doing it a bit more that most. And you told us you enjoyed making a scene, enjoyed having them fear you."

"I did say that, yes, and it is true."

"Maybe that's why they turned against you," Cirno said. "Did you ever think of that?"

"That was a factor, sure, but not a deciding one. It may have moved up their decision, but they would have come for me eventually anyways. It doesn't matter what we do, Cirno. They will come for us eventually. We can perhaps delay this, but eventually, it will happen. Not because of anything we do, but because of what we are."

"And you don't think you did anything to deserve it? Like, say, what were you doing with that group of people?"

"Oh, you saw that?"

"More or less," Cirno said.

"Well, yes, I was having some fun with them. I do enjoy making a scene, remember. But that's all it was. Hell, I only killed one of them."

"You did kill someone?"

"Yes. He was good, too. I hadn't had human in ages. So what? Are you trying to tell me you haven't killed anyone?"

"I didn't kill them," Cirno said. "I had my fun with humans, sure, but I didn't kill them. You should know that."

"She would know that," Rumia said. "That's what this is about, isn't it? Not what I do, but how my actions compare to hers. How I compare to her. You see me, and you can't help but see her. But I do not act like her. That's it, isn't it? That's what's bothering you. Well, guess what? I'm not her."

"No, you're not," Cirno said. "She would never say or do things like that. What has happened to her?"

"She no longer exists. Even if I am sealed again, she will not resurface. Rather, a new personality would develop in the same way she did. And this personality would remember nothing from my life or hers. Its memory would begin anew."

"She's dead, then."

"Well… I don't know if that's really the right word, but the way you mean it, yes, she is dead."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?" Utsuho asked.

"Oh, that's easy. You can see it, can't you? Cirno here is just about ready to kill me. If I told her that yes, the Rumia she knew could return, then she would be… less willing to do so. No matter what happened next, that would be to my benefit."

"Then why not say it?"

"Because lies are boring. The truth is always far more interesting, don't you think? I find no enjoyment in deceit. Sure, I'd love to give Cirno an emotional problem, but if I know it's something I made up, well, that's no fun."

"Is that all that matters to you?" Cirno exclaimed. "Just what's the most 'fun'?"

"Why shouldn't it be? What's the point of living your life if you don't enjoy it?"

"And you can't do that without killing people? Without making yourself into a villain?"

Rumia laughed. "Oh, but it's so much fun playing the villain. You should try it sometime. And youkai kill people anyways. Why not have some fun with it? But you're not going to agree with me, are you?"

"You've got that right."

Rumia responded not with words, but with a blast of darkness directed at Cirno. But Cirno wasn't hit. Utsuho pushed Cirno out of the way and took the hit herself. She charged right through the blast, collided with Rumia, and slammed her up against a tree. "You leave her the hell alone."

"So that is how it is," Rumia said. "I thought as much. Well, then, let's have some fun with it."

Suddenly, Rumia was gone, Utsuho spun around, sensing her by Cirno. And indeed she was. She hit Cirno with a dark blast. Utsuho fired a blast of her own, but Rumia suddenly wasn't there. And then she was right in front of Utsuho, holding a sword to Utsuho's throat.

"When I said you two could probably take me even at night," Rumia said, "I may have been… understating my abilities. Oh, you've got a chance, don't get me wrong. However, I think you'll probably find yourselves on the losing end. Especially since I've already seen you fight. I've seen your abilities, whereas you have no knowledge of mine."

"I think there's something you don't realize," Utsuho said.

"Oh? And what would that be?"

Utsuho stepped forward and punched Rumia in the gut, using her power to add extra force to the hit, which sent Rumia flying. She hit the ground and skidded to a halt. "What the hell?" she said as she got to her feet. Darkness gathered around her hand, forming into her sword. "Huh. Well, let's try this again." She vanished and appeared in front of Utsuho again, her sword once more at Utsuho's throat. Except that she had no sword.

Rumia took a step back. "How the hell are you doing that?"

"I don't know what that sword of yours is actually made of," Utsuho said, "but I don't need to know that in order to take it apart."

"Take it apart?"

"At a molecular level, if you know what that means. You could say I'm destroying it, although that's not quite accurate. Close enough, though."

"Basically," Cirno said, "we can do a lot of things you haven't seen."

"I see. Perhaps I've underestimated you. Still, you do have your limits, do you not? You can't do it to me, obviously, or else you probably would have. Which means that all you've done is prevent me from using my sword. Which I don't actually need, really. So let's get back to business, shall we?"

Rumia vanished again, once more appearing next to Cirno. But this time, Cirno was ready, and she hit Rumia with a block of ice, sending the being of darkness flying. But then Rumia was back, right in front of Cirno. Cirno sent another block of ice at her, but she vanished, reappearing behind Cirno and hitting the fairy with a strong dark blast.

Utsuho fired a blast, but Rumia vanished once again. She reappeared and launched a blast at Utsuho. Utsuho evaded the blast and moved over to Cirno, taking aim at Rumia and firing as she did so. But as usual, Rumia vanished, appearing to the side and launching another attack. Utsuho pushed Cirno away and took the hit herself, returning fire.

Rumia appeared again and fired. Except that her aim was thrown off when the ground heaved beneath her. Cirno took advantage of her confusion and froze her. This proved ineffective, however, as Rumia simply vanished again, appearing outside of the ice that had contained her. "Sorry, but that's not going to work. Nice trick with the ground, though. Not that your tricks will be-"

Rumia didn't notice the falling tree until it landed on her. Utsuho immediately followed up with a blast, as did Cirno. Rumia took the hits and went flying back a ways. She vanished, appearing closer to them. "Nice one. Now try this."

Dark energy began swirling around Cirno. Utsuho reacted immediately, charging through the gathering energy and shoving Cirno out just before the energy concentrated, enclosing Utsuho within. The energy contracted towards Utsuho, but she countered, pushing back against it with her own power to hold it off.

Cirno tried to get to Utsuho but she was thrown back upon making contact with the concentration of dark energy. "Utsuho!"

"Predictable," Rumia said. "Stupid, too, really."

"You bitch!" Cirno attacked with a storm of ice, but Rumia dodged as usual. She kept blasting, but Rumia would always vanish and reappear elsewhere. And then she noticed something.

She's not attacking, Cirno thought, continuing to fire ice blasts at Rumia. Why isn't she- wait, divided focus. Her attack on Utsuho is strong enough that she doesn't have enough power left over to actually attack me. She's just wasting time until Utsuho wears out. And she can outdo one of us, so Utsuho will wear out before she does. Damn it, I have to do something! But what? I can't get through to Utsuho, so I have to hit her. But she keeps teleporting. How does she- wait, she's moving through the-

Cirno fired another ice blast at Rumia, who easily avoided it. "Damn it, stay in one place!"

Rumia laughed. "Aw, what's the matter? Can't hit me? Come on, give it another-" she broke off as she vanished again, avoiding another blast from Cirno. "Sorry, but no."

Cirno fired more blasts, and Rumia avoided them all. "You're boring me, here," Rumia said. "You should really try something else, you know? You can't hit me."

"Only because it's night," Cirno said. "You're moving through the darkness. You can't do that in the light."

"That's correct," Rumia said, "but what do you plan to do about it?"

"I can stall for time, too."

Rumia laughed. "Stupid of you. You won't see the sun for a couple hours yet."

"Oh? Well, then, maybe you should've looked up."

Another laugh. "How dumb do you- what the-?"

Rumia cut off as a star blazed into existence above them, illuminating the area. "It's not the actual sun," Cirno said, "but it can light a small area just fine. If you'd looked up, you might have noticed something; it took some work to make this one. Too bad I kept you busy dodging. Speaking of which, dodge this!"

Even though she couldn't vanish, Rumia still managed to avoid Cirno's attack. And then she took a nuclear blast at point-blank range. "Too bad you're weaker in the light," Utsuho said. "In the light, you can't keep your little field strong enough to hold me, can you?"

"Damn," Rumia said. "I definitely underestimated you. Looks like this may be interesting after all. I think it's goodbye for now, though. See you," she added as she flew away.


Seeing Rumia like that couldn't be easy for Cirno, I knew. She knew Rumia, but now, that Rumia is gone. I don't know how she thinks of the current Rumia. Does she still think of her as Rumia? I don't know, but I don't think so. I think she sees the current Rumia as having killed the Rumia she knew.

I didn't know just what was going through Cirno's mind, but I knew this was important to her. That's why I was willing to divert and go after Rumia. But I have to wonder what her emotions are where Rumia was concerned. Rumia had been a friend of Cirno's before Cirno and I hid underground. The loss of Daiyousei was devastating to her; even if Rumia hadn't been quite as close a friend, I still would have expected something. So why didn't she seem similarly affected by the loss of the Rumia she knew?

Perhaps it has something to do with the time between the two losses. For several years, Cirno and I were alone. We hid ourselves away together; we interacted with nobody else. Perhaps Cirno has already felt like she lost her old friends. Or perhaps I ended up replacing them in her mind.

I had only just realized what my feelings for Cirno really were, but that doesn't mean I didn't have those feelings earlier; I simply didn't realize what they truly were. I found myself wondering if Cirno was the same way. Were her feelings for me the same as mine were for her? And had she been aware of this for a while, or had she, like, only recently realized it? I loved Cirno, but…

Did she love me?


"Well," Utsuho said as Cirno eliminated her star, "that takes care of that."

"Yes," Cirno said. "Um, I just have one question."

"Yes?"

Cirno rose to look Utsuho in the eye. "What the hell were you thinking?" she exclaimed. "Are you stupid? You could've gotten yourself killed! Why did you do that?"

"If I hadn't," Utsuho replied, "then you've have been in there instead of me."

"But that just put you in there! It didn't help anything! And you could've died!"

"Was I just supposed to let you end up in that situation?"

"I'd come back! As long as it's not the twisted, I'll come back! You won't!"

"I don't care. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"And what if you die? Damn it, Utsuho, I don't want you to die! I don't want to lose you! What about that? What if you get yourself killed? What if I lose you? What if that's what happens to me? What then?"

Utsuho was silent for a moment. "I… I didn't… I never thought of it that way. I… I don't know. I don't know, Cirno. But what am I supposed to do?"

"Stay alive!"

"I can't do that forever. I'm not like you. I'll die eventually."

"So stay alive as long as you can! Don't… I love you, Utsuho. Don't make me lose you."

Another silence. "You do, then."

"Love you? Yes. Yes, I do."

"Then I didn't need to worry. Good."

"Huh?"

Utsuho embraced Cirno. "I love you, too."


You thought I'd forgotten about Cirno and Utsuho's newer abilities, didn't you?