Going to Hell

The blonde with pointy, elfin ears pushes the rotting carcass to the pile stacked together of other corpses. It's body lay half-devoured along with the other monsters in this collection. All the tasty and juicy meat had already been stripped, leaving only rough muscles and parts which were otherwise inedible. Anything of value has already been scavenged, so all that remains is cleaning up the trash. A particularly unsatisfying job, all she can do was bare with the smell and the maggots, and complete the necessary task.

"What in the hell happened here?" someone calls out to the elfin girl.

Through the mask that covers her mouth, the girl sighs. She's using a pitchfork to move the bodies. She spears that into the ground so it can stand on it's own, turns, pulls down her mask and addresses the woman who called to her.

"I bet you think that's clever," the girl complains. "It's not like I'd never heard that one before, Komachi."

"And you too, Parsee. You're as chipper as ever I see."

Obviously the two of them are acquainted. Friendly acquaintances was another issue, but they've certainly met each other a time or two before. In fact they used to meet each other frequently before the "Old" Hell was abandoned by the Yama. Now it's been a forgotten number of years since the two have seen another. It's like two former coworkers running into each other unexpectedly at a business convention.

"As you can see," Parsee tells Komachi, "we've had a bit of a war down here. Hundreds of thousands of youkai invaded the Ancient City and wrecked all kinds of havoc. It ended weeks ago, but we're still cleaning up. I wish I had it as easy as you and can go sightseeing whenever I damn well wished. I'm so jealous."

"You've got to be kidding," Komachi can't help herself from staring at the destruction. "What caused the youkai to run crazy like this?"

Parsee couldn't believe what she just heard, "Are you kidding me? What, have you had your head up your butt for the past month? The whole damned world was nearly destroyed from what I hear. All the youkai were flooding into Old Hell to try and escape the surface."

"Do you know what caused this fear?"

"I've been told it was someone named Cirno."

"The Ice Fairy?"

Parsee shrugs her shoulders, "I've heard that too, but I don't buy it. No way a fairy is that powerful. And second, she'd have no reason to destroy the world in the first place. To me that message sounded like some kind of cry for attention."

This was news, "'Message?'"

"What, you couldn't hear it in Higan? Someone claiming to be Cirno sent this kind of telepathic message to everyone saying she was going to freeze the world or something. Scared the heck out of all the youkai trying to flee into the underworld. Who, or what, could do something as crazy as that isn't the fairy that lazes about Misty Lake. Or at least that's my opinion. You should talk to the buzzard at that gaudy mansion. From what I hear she fought whoever that was on even ground."

This makes the second person to have a like story as Youmu's, but Parsee seems to have a completely different take on the situation. What exactly is the truth of this recent incident?

"Thanks," she's genuinely appreciative of Parsee, "I guess I should go talk to Okuu."

"Sure, whatever," completely the opposite, the Bridge Princess treats the shinigami with indifference. "I got to get back to shoveling shit. Not like anyone else will do it."

With a nervous smile Komachi watches as her former acquaintance turns her back to her. Without the slightest bit of delicacy, she takes the pitchfork and skewers a maggot infested corpse, dragging it to the main pile. While she may bitch and moan every other second, Parsee is dedicated, motivated, and committed to her job. Perhaps the exact opposite of Komachi, but not even a quarter the fun to be around.

The shinigami surveys even more damage as she heads through the Ancient City. Buildings are destroyed, people are injured, and the corpses of youkai lay discarded on the roadside. Despite that life continues. The oni are busy disposing of bodies, repairing damaged homes, and otherwise keeping themselves active. They've just suffered through a terrible incident, but they are quick to move on. This unbreakable spirit is the hope for the future. A future that Komachi is tasked with protecting.

The Palace of the Earth Spirits is a European-style mansion on the outskirts of a Japanese-style village. To many who dwell in this city that house is an eyesore. The residents don't share a particularly warm relationship with those in the village, Parsee included, so Komachi receives many a unsettling stares as she heads for the mansion. Every step she takes closer to the home of the satori, she feels the strong urge to turn around and check out either the Scarlet Devil Mansion or Eientei. She feels a bit of a bad omen resulting from this visit.

Komachi would knock, but the gate's been bent and one of the doors is broken off it's hinges. The oni don't seem too particularly eager to repair this place. Komachi lets herself in, but still announces herself beforehand.

"Hello? Anybody here? It's just your local shinigami making a visit."

Before she realizes it, a very large wolf stands before her. Like a vision from hell, it has dark fur that dances about it's hide like a flame, deep piercing yellow eyes, and an aura that radiates absolute obedience. Komachi doesn't know from where this wolf came, but she instinctively feels a force as powerful as Shiki's. She readies her scythe.

"What business do you have here, reaper?" the wolf asks her.

"Who the hell are you? Satori's new pet? I can't say I'm digging her recent tastes."

"If you tread upon my territory you have best answer all of my questions. One last time, what are you doing-"

A large cylinder object crashes upon his head. Frozen mid-speech, but otherwise unaffected, the wolf does nothing against the sudden intrusion. At the end of the cylinder is an arm. It's a woman only centimeters shorter than Komachi, but no less menacing. She has twin black wings, one foot encased in stone, and crimson jewel-like eye in the center of her chest. It's the one said to have been majorly involved in the incident, the Hell Raven Utsuho Reiuji.

"Bad Sköll!" Okuu scolds. "You don't treat guests like that!"

As if to suffer no further indignity, the talking wolf named Sköll speechlessly turns and paces away.

"Sorry about that Komachi," Okuu apologizes. "He came here just as the incident started, and he thinks he owns the place."

"I see," the shinigami honestly doesn't know what to make of what just happened.

"You came to see Master Satori, right? Come this way."

"Actually," Komachi stops her, "I came to see you. Orin too."

"Really? We were tidying up, but I guess we can take a break. I'll have everyone meet you in the dinning room. We can all talk there."

Okuu takes the lead like she almost knows what Komachi has come here to ask. That or she's learned to be a little bit responsible. Since the last time the shinigami has been here, that child seems to have matured quite the bit. Though she still has the speech patterns of someone very young.

Upon being led to the large room, the pink-haired shinigami sees the wolf resting in a corner. He gets a warning from Okuu not to bother the guest, but otherwise appears unresponsive. After sighing, the raven says she'll return after gathering everybody. Komachi finds the nearest chair and takes a seat.

An upside-down face suddenly clouds her vision, "And what may you be doing here?"

In surprise Komachi shouts, suddenly losses her balance on the chair, and falls backwards. Meanwhile the girl, who'd been standing on the backrest, leaps above the falling woman, does a somersault, and lands perfectly on her feet. Looking down, over her legs, the woman sees a young girl appearing of adolescent years. She has curly greenish-gray hair, pale skin, and a royal blue third eye circling around her. Unlike Satori, this eye is closed. Undoubtedly is the sister of the mansion's owner, Koishi Komeiji.

"Hello Koishi," Komachi says in dull enthusiasm. Picking herself off the ground, she returns the chair upright and retakes her seat.

"So, what are you doing here?" Koishi nearly cheers in over-enthusiasm. "Did you come to play? Were you sent by Shiki on some errand? Or is it some top secret reason that you can't tell anyone?"

Her cheerful and inquisitiveness are so much they're almost overbearing. However, Komachi has always found it easy to deal with this non mind-reading mind-reader. At least she's more pleasant than Satori.

"Not really," Komachi tells her. "I just want to ask Okuu and Orin about what they might have witnessed during the last incident."

"Oh really? What about? The crazy youkai? The Ancient? Or maybe the outsiders that have been wandering around lately?"

Wait a second, that's a bit more information than what she's heard before!

"What's this about Ancients and Outsiders?"

Koishi peers at Sköll, "Well, him over there is an outsider. He couldn't have come to Gensokyo more than a couple months ago from the outside world. He's totally brainwashing my sister and has some nefarious plot in play, and he's probably going to end up hurting a lot of people. He's just one of them, but there are a few more wandering about nowadays-"

"I'm not brainwashed," comes the dull tone of the master of the house. It's a pink-haired girl that greatly resembles Koishi, but her external eye is open. "You have to forgive my sister," Satori explains to Komachi, "her imagination seems to fly completely unrestricted recently."

Followed by Satori is Okuu, and the feline youkai with red pigtails, Rin Kaenbyou. The trio take a seat at the table where some of Satori's other pets serve them tea.

Satori begins the discussion, "It's rare that anyone who's since abandoned this portion of the underworld has ever returned. I know you wouldn't have done as much voluntarily."

In other words, she's peeved that nobody's came and visited after moving to the new hell.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that," although Komachi didn't see how that was her fault, "I'm sure Shiki would have wanted to come here in my place, but things have been really busy lately."

"I imagine."

It's clear she knows the shinigami is lying.

"So you came to speak with my pets, have you? I can understand Okuu, but what could you possibly need to discuss with Orin?"

The mind-reader must know this already, but she isn't exactly subtle with her disdain and pettiness. Nothing Komachi can do about that.

"You see, that person who nearly destroyed the world, well, we need her soul."

"You mean Cirno?" Okuu asks.

"It seems so. She is the one behind the recent chaos, right? Apparently her soul is so powerful and old, that if it's allowed to roam free it could become a malevolent spirit strong enough to destroy the world."

"That's what you want to talk to me about?" Orin asks. "You think I might have done something to Cirno's soul?"

This could turn more heated than Komachi would have wanted, "Shiki and I discussed the possibility," she gives a politician answer. "That soul isn't something you could hope to control. After it destroyed you it would take out the rest of the underworld, and possibly Gensokyo next."

Irritation at the accusation was clear in Orin's expression. The kasha feed off of souls of the recently deceased and lingering spirits. If found Cirno's soul would appear to be an excellent cuisine, but to think that it was so great it had the certainty of destroying her. It's no different than the poisonous blow fish or spotted mushrooms, but she would have known that. Likewise, Orin didn't appreciate being told that by someone else.

"It would be a meal fit for a king," the condescending tone in her voice is obvious, "but I was too busy defending my home to be thinking about a snack. Okuu was up there fighting, she'd know more about the soul than I would."

All glances face the raven. She blushes a little bit at the attention.

"Well, you asked if it was Cirno who caused all that, but I'm not sure. She was like a grown up Cirno, but she didn't remember me at all. It really felt like a different person. I'm just as confused as everyone else is about what happened."

Komachi leads the conversation again, "Yuyuko told me that Cirno survived the fight."

"Cirno's alive!" Okuu suddenly shouts. "That other person didn't feel like Cirno, but the one who showed up to the funeral was! I don't get it. It's like there's two Cirnos. This newest one feels the most like the little ice fairy, but she's different too. I just don't understand."

So that makes it, what? Three Cirnos? Komachi definitely fells like she's progressing, but doesn't appear any closer to solving the mystery."

"You said her soul was dangerous," Satori asks a question, "but how do you know that?"

The shinigami tells them, "It's her soul tile. It's been in the Enma's archives for as long as any of us can remember. We govern life and death, so we've existed throughout all human history, but that soul seems to predate even us. Shiki said she might be an Elder God, that she predates all known records and could be one of the oldest forms of life on this planet."

"'Elder God,' hmmm. A god's power derives from how much faith it's accumulated. Youkai are a bit different as they can grow stronger by amassing fear. But if 'Cirno' has existed before life and death, than neither of the two makes sense."

"What are you thinking?" Orin asks her master.

"There was a word used for a level greater than a god. In Greek mythology they were considered the ultimate existences Records show of their influences in the earliest stages of man, in the Golden Age. But of course this must have meant that they existed before man, before traditional gods could have been born."

"You're talking about-"

"Titans. Gods can only exist by faith, which is why gods such as Zeus, Odin, and Jupiter can simultaneously exist despite them being a single god. Titans, on the other hand, existed in the beginning, before the god's ascension. As far as we know it, they were the first. Now, as the legends have it, the Titans were defeated by the gods and banished to the bottom of Tartarus, or in other words, Hell. Since then there have been absolutely no records of their activity. Real or not, at that point they essentially died and the age of the gods began."

"So you think Cirno might be a Titan who survived?"

"Survived, laid low, came to an agreement with the gods, or was otherwise left alone." Satori leans forward in her chair. "I've been studying this ever since I heard the tale from Okuu. 'Cirno' is but one of many names she's used. I've also found that she's been known as Oh-ke-yah-nohs, Tauthe, Ninianne, Lir, and Dea Mundi to name a few. All of these are Titan-like gods who share common elements. As a titan, Cirno might have hidden herself amongst the gods and was granted warship like the others. If that's the case, then she hid in plain sight, almost like the ice fairy did before. Of course all of this is speculation. The only one who could know for certain is Cirno herself."

Komachi's impressed. Normally Satori can just look at someone and discover an answer. It's rare that she actually needed to look up some history. Actually, that might be considered uncharacteristic. The shinigami remembers hearing Koishi mention brainwashing. In fact, the green-haired sibling is staring at the guest rather intently at the moment. Koishi has closed her third eye and sealed her telepathic powers, but in it's stead she's developed an unparalleled intuition. This might be a plea asking for help. Unfortunately the shinigami doesn't have time to waste on their sibling problems.

"I would guess it makes sense that Cirno could survive being killed like that." The shinigami extrapolates. "Or that it may seem that there are two separate personalities. The Front Cirno, the ice fairy, is the one that takes possession when the Titan is recovering. Inner Cirno comes out after she's healed. That might be how she's stayed hidden and low key for so long."

"But," Okuu objects, "I was there when Big Cirno died. She told that flower youkai Yuuka that she wouldn't be coming back after this. To completely kill Cirno, her body needed to be destroyed and her magic completely depleted. She said both happened and she would permanently die."

"If that's right," Komachi continues, "than that explains why Shiki was able to observe the Unidentified Ancient's death. What if when Big Cirno said that she'd permanently die, it only meant the Inner Cirno, not the Ice Fairy that we know in Gensokyo?"

Satori nods, "That seems the most-likely case."

"But how did they separate?" Koishi finally adds to the discussions. "If they were one in the beginning they had to be one in the end, so what happened to split the two into completely separate beings?"

This surprises everyone. Nobody had considered this viewpoint, nobody had an answer. Satori seems especially upset, like that objection should have been her's. If Koishi is correct, than perhaps something happened that even the Ancient Cirno hadn't anticipated. If that's the case, then Komachi might never be able to fully understand what happened, nor might she ever be able to accomplish her mission. Cirno's alive but she's dead, her soul exists but it's gone. Would Shiki ever accept an excuse like that?

"The only thing you can really do now is look for Cirno," is told to the worried shinigami by the psychic, "the one that's still alive."

"That's probably it. If she doesn't have an idea what's going on, I might be on this wild goose chase forever."