Misty Lake

"THOSE WHO CALL ME AN IDIOT, ARE THE IDIOTS!"

Following her angered yell, Cirno began to slowly unleash her powers, causing the surrounding area to become as cold as the middle of winter, and the surface of the Misty Lake around her immediate area to freeze instantly.

...Or not, as that is all happening in the ice fairy's head. From Reimu and Marisa's POV, Cirno is just assuming a pose that resembled an idiot trying to look terrifying and ended up looking silly instead.

"This one is so full of ego..." Reimu deadpanned as she watched Cirno "raging".

"She looked like she ain't got no brains or brawn..." Marisa also deadpanned.

The girls watched on with raised eyebrows as Cirno continued her "rage-induced empowering" phase.

"Should we just shoot her right there?" Marisa pondered the option as she raised her magic wand.

"Go ahead. I was going to, myself." Reimu responded to the witch, as she raised her gohei with the same intent.

Having made their decision, the girls proceed to fire at Cirno, while the ice fairy is still focused on her "empowerment".

Cirno did notice the attack. In response, she cancelled her "empowerment phase" to form a chunk of ice which she used as a shield to block the danmaku.

"I guess you're the impatient type! In that case, we should make this quick!" The ice fairy announced, then formed a sword made of ice before charging toward Reimu and Marisa.

...

"Pache..."

"Yes, Remi?"

"I can feel the defenders of this land coming close."

"And?"

"I want them to see this manor in its mighty glory, let them know just how powerful I am, and how little hope they have at defeating me."

"This is just a rundown mansion your father claimed as a spoil of war 500 years ago, which you then refurbished with all kinds of unnecessary decors that made it look more silly than intimidating. If anything, the defenders you mentioned will ignore how it looked, and just barge their way in..."

"Nnnggggghhhh... You've just ruined the atmosphere again! Can't you ever be anything but a deadpan?! Ju-just make sure they can see this manor!"

...

While Cirno did the smart thing using a shield made of ice, she simultaneously did the stupid thing by fighting with a sword against two people with experience in danmaku, one of who also has experience in hand-to-hand combat. Doesn't help in the ice fairy's case is that there is nothing superpower-related about her swordplay aside from her flight capability.

That being said, Cirno is still a fast-moving small target. So actually hitting her is difficult even if her attacks are pathetically easy to dodge or parry.

Reimu raised her gohei to parry a diagonal slash from Cirno. She then raised her legs in an attempt to kick the ice fairy away, but is unable to reach her. Reimu opted for a headbutt instead, which worked as it sends Cirno backing away, disoriented by the blow to the head.

"Strange..." Reimu wondered as she rubbed her forehead. "I thought a headbutt will disorient both the target and the user..."

In the meantime, Marisa took the opportunity to fire at the disoriented Cirno.

Cirno recovered fairly quickly, as she raised her ice shield to block the danmaku. However, ice isn't as tough as wood or metal, especially for a shield that is to be small and light enough for a fairy to carry. As such, on top of the damages it has already suffered, the ice shield didn't last more than a few seconds before it shattered, allowing the rest of Marisa's danmaku to hit her.

Astonishingly, Cirno withstood what should have downed a fairy instantly. But it still strained her a lot to stay in the fight after taking those hits.

"You may be able to hurt me, but I, the Strongest, won't go down so easily!" Cirno declared, then dispelled her ice sword and raised both her hands up, firing what appeared to be a weak-looking blue beam into the sky.

Reimu and Marisa didn't think much about the ice fairy's weak little gesture. Then they noticed pebble-sized chunks of ice beginning to rain down from the sky.

"Ha! Have a taste of my special: Icicle Fall!" Cirno declared and then laughed loudly. "Ice to see yo- oh..."

The ice fairy's gloating grinded to a halt when she realized that the rain of ice didn't reach far away enough to even bother Reimu and Marisa.

"Really...?" Marisa rolled her eyes at both the hilariously ineffective attack and the lame pun that came before it. "That is the lamest pun I've ever heard. Even James Bond can do better..."

"Lame?!" Cirno became outraged. Apparently ice fairies have next to no tolerance for minor insults. "I'll show you what is-"

Cirno's rant was interrupted thanks to the Ying-Yang Orb slamming right into her face.

"Most fairies may be stupid," Reimu complained as she called the Orb back to her. "but they are still smart enough to know when to shut up!"

At the same time, Cirno tumbled out of the air and fell into the lake with a splash after being knocked out by the Ying-Yang Orb.

It was very anti-climatic, but Reimu is glad that the noisy, scenery chewing ice fairy is gone for now.

"Ice to see ya too, Frosty!" Marisa followed on with a quip, then taunted the ice fairy by pulling one of her eyelids. The witch paused as she noticed her companion's confused look. "Uh... terrible pun intended?" She added.

"Pun? What pun?" Reimu asked with a quizzical tilt of her head.

"It's a pun with the words 'nice' and 'ice'. Y'know, because they rhyme?" Marisa tried her best to explain to Reimu, only to confuse the shrine maiden even more.

That was when the witch remembered that she and her companion literally aren't speaking the same language - Reimu in Yamato, and Marisa in her western language. The translation spell is the only reason they could even understand each other (or any other non-Yamato people in Gensokyo, for that matter). Marisa figured that the pun doesn't translate well into Yamato, and so Reimu heard a more straightforward sentence from her perspective.

"Oh right. Ya don't speak a lick of my language, while I don't speak a lick of yours. Literally." Marisa said as she scratched the back of her head in realization. She then spent the next few seconds wondering what she sounded like if she - from Reimu's perspective - spoke entirely in Yamato.

At that moment, Cirno emerged from the surface of the lake, lower body still underwater, before waving a clenched fist at Reimu and Marisa, and yelling, "You may have beaten the Strongest, but you haven't seen the last of-"

"Oh shut up, ya loudmouth!"

Marisa didn't even wait for Cirno to finish her declaration. She just fired lightning from her magic wand at the lake, electrocuting the ice fairy as well as any fishes that are unfortunate enough to be near her at the moment. A few seconds later, Marisa dispelled her lightning spell, and there is no need to guess what happened to Cirno.

"I know fairies can resurrect themselves at a later time, but isn't that a bit overkill?" Reimu asked Marisa as she un-summoned the Ying-Yang Orb.

"Ain't got no such thing as overkill!" Marisa cheerfully answered.

Just as Reimu is about to open her mouth to say something, she is interrupted by a bright flash that occurred for a split second.

"Did you see that?" Reimu asked, blinking her eyes several times as she try to compute what that split second bright flash was.

"I sure did..." Marisa answered. "Is something comin' our way?"


Strongest? More like loudest.

Anyway, here's the anti-climatic battle against Cirno that you all have been waiting for. It took so long because I was very busy with real life stuff lately, and this might be the case for the rest of year.

Also, if you think the battle against Cirno is anti-climatic, that's because it is my intention. Cirno may be the strongest fairy in Gensokyo, but she is still a fairy, and it has already been established in canon that fairies in Gensokyo are so low on the power scale that even ordinary humans with the slightest combat capabilities can hand them their asses easily (before you say LoLK, that doesn't count due to some rock-paper-scissor things going on). Cirno may be above other fairies in the power scale, but she is still below everything else, and thus can't possibly beat anyone (except perhaps the Little Witch Mob, and that's only because they were ambushed) in a straight fight.

Before I end off this chapter, I would like to announce that the official Young Maiden's Chronicles Discord server is finally up and running (well, since about three weeks ago as of this writing). You can find the invite link to it in the YMC Tumblr page. In addition, I'm planning to resume updates to Mystical Knowledge soon, seeing as I've left Bella and friends in the shed long enough. Also, I currently have an independent secret project in mind. What is this secret project, you might ask? Well, all I can say is that it'll be another fan remake. You'll see soon enough.

"And that, as they say, is that."

Afterword ends here...