Touhou belongs to Team Shanghai Alice. So do concepts, characters and everything else you have experienced while playing the game, except the dishes. Here's another man who wants to use his ideas for a story.
"Are you homeless, young one?" the smiling man asked her.
"… yes…" replied the timid young girl. She was dressed in what passed to be rags which barely covered her well in the approaching winter. Signs of frostbite, such as cracking lips and bruised skin on her exposed forearms, were obvious as she fruitlessly tried to keep herself warm only with her arms. She kept her head down to prevent herself from getting her hopes of getting some money too high.
"Well," he said, extending his right arm out to her. "Why don't you come with me? I can provide you with some shelter, away from the cold weather. There's food and warmth, too."
The little girl immediately brightened up and brought her head back up, a desperate and pleading smile plastered on her face. "R-r-really?"
"It's real, young lady. I've got more of your type living in my house, too, so you aren't alone. Who knows, you could make friends with all of them and play?"
The girl needed no hesitation as she sprang up from the moldy crate she had been sitting on and grabbed the offered hand, her mind at the moment only occupied with what she would get to eat at the man's dwellings. "T-thank you!"
"You are welcome, young lady," the man ruffled her dirty blue hair as they began heading towards the man's dwelling. "What is your name?"
"Umm…" she placed a finger on her lips, thinking hard. "Ah, Cirno. Cirno is my name. I'm… I… I can't remember how old I am…"
"Cirno, huh. What a nice name!" the man pulled out a small candy and gave it to her. "This is for you. Eat it up while we walk the way to my house."
After an hour of walking, only taking that long because of Cirno requiring many stops to rest due to lack of energy, they arrived at one of the houses in another street that Cirno had never explored before. The small girl had been homeless since a time she could not remember and had only survived so long on donations by passer-bys or scavenging for food along the road and dumping ground. She had practically known most of the roads in the neighborhood by heart, but had never been to this particular stretch of the city.
Nobody had ever offered to adopt her or at least bring her to a shelter or sorts. Such compassionate groups had not existed then.
There were two buildings, one larger than the other. The man led the way to the smaller adjacent house, which seemed to be built as an annex to the main house in the same yard. Throwing open what looked like barn doors, they stepped into the annexed house.
Unknown to Cirno, it was actually an unused horse stable filled with hay, baled and loose stacks, along with many blankets strewn around. "The other children sleep here, too. I'm afraid I don't have any spare rooms in my house, but this place works," the man admitted. "You won't see anyone here now; they are all out at the moment. You will be able to play with them during the night, though."
"Really?" Cirno looked at him.
"Yes."
"Oh…"
"But let's not worry about this, yet," the man walked into the barn and gave her a quick tour of her new home, appointing her sleeping spot and telling her where she should go to wash up. "It's almost dinner," the man said as he wrapped up the tour. "The other kids are coming back anytime now, so you could use that time to meet and introduce yourself to them. I will bring your dinner here, and you can eat along with everyone else."
As he left the barn, Cirno crossed back to her appointed sleeping bed, which was basically a stack of hay with an old blanket laid on it, and sat down. This is going to be my new home, I guess. Better here than out there under the rain and cold winds. At least it seems to be warm and well-lit in this house. I had never thought anybody would have been so kind to offer me a home, and it seems I had been wrong all along.
When I grow up and become stronger, I will repay this old man's kindness. He has given me this new lease of life by rescuing me from living on the streets and will feed me. What more can I ask for now? I will be ungrateful if I complain about living in this small house while he lived in that bigger one. But then again, I wish I did ask him for a change of clothes-
At that moment, the doors opened again. Thinking it was the other children coming back, she quickly got up, but instead, standing at the door, was the man again, holding a small bundle of cloth in his arm. "I thought I should get you some new clothing," he strode in and handed her the bundle. "Change into those now and give me your old ones."
The man turned around as Cirno happily dove into her new clothes, which was a simple white blouse and a blue jumper dress. She had always seen something like that dress being sold in shops, but never thought she would, one day, get to wear one. Glancing at a window, she saw her own reflection on it and was deeply satisfied.
After half an hour of waiting, the other children finally started returning, some in groups while most entered the barn alone. Initially, Cirno would smile and greet each of them, but as she began to realize that none of them would even talk to her, she quickly retreated to her makeshift bed and waited for dinner.
The last of the fifteen children entered almost an hour after everybody else. This particular child wore a lavender and white dress, and had a particularly large blue ribbon bow tied clumsily to her hair on the back. Staggering unsteadily on her dirty legs, she slowly made her way across the room and threw herself, face first, into a bed adjacent to Cirno's.
"Um…" Cirno reached over from her position and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hi… what's your-"
"… you are new here, huh?" the girl's muffled reply came.
"Um… yes…"
The girl remained face down on her bed as she continued. "You looked like someone who can survive on her own. Why are you here?"
"That kind old man-"
The girl's head snapped around and stared at her, an angry expression on her face. "'Kind old man'? I dare you to repeat those words again!"
Cirno remained silent, suddenly confused and frightened. As she pondered over how she should reply without further incurring her wrath, the doors opened again, allowing the man to enter with a large metal pot. The other kids broke off from whatever they were doing and made a beeline to where the man set the pot on. Cirno was about to follow when she realized her neighbor wasn't making any move to get her dinner.
"Hey," Cirno tapped her shoulders again. "Let's eat, okay?"
The man straightened up as he heard her. "Letty's not eating today, leave her alone."
Cirno then left the girl, whose name, apparently, was Letty, alone and joined in the queue as the man ladled some sort of thick soup into large bowls and gave each of them one. Without saying anything else, after serving the last of the children, he gathered up the pot and immediately left the barn, shutting it behind him.
As Letty was the only other kid who had remotely made conversation with her, Cirno took her bowl and sat beside her strange friend before starting on her dinner. "Hey," she whispered to Letty's ear. "Why won't you eat? Want some of mine? I can share mine-"
Letty immediately got up and sat on the balls of her feet, this time showing a desperate look. That look of hope quickly soured back into something akin to hostile. "Are you stupid?"
"What?"
"Everyone here barely gets enough food and you… want to share yours?"
"Of course!"
Suddenly, Letty's hands shot forward and grabbed the bowl out of Cirno's hands and lifted it to her lips, as if to accept her offer to share, but then changed her mind and returned it to Cirno with a sigh before planting her face on the bed again. "I'm not hungry."
Shrugging, she knew she had done her best to get her neighbor to have a share of her dinner and so proceeded to start on her dinner. Halfway through the bowl of soup, Cirno noticed that Letty was peeking at her from beneath her mop of matted hair. Smiling, she offered the bowl again.
"Why?" Letty asked, her voice again muffled by the hay. "Nobody shares food around here, but why are you sharing it with me?" When Cirno did nothing but to continue to offer the bowl to her, Letty finally caved in and took the bowl, this time gently with two hands which signaled appreciation to the giver.
"That man said you weren't eating today. Why is that so?" Cirno queried as Letty finished the remaining soup.
The lavender-dressed girl hung her head low as she replied. "I… I didn't sell enough of the matchsticks."
"Sell?"
"Each child here needs to earn his or her own living," Letty explained. "Some of the kids here earn theirs by stealing."
"Stealing?"
"They slip their grubby hands into the pockets of unsuspecting adults on the streets and run off with whatever they get their hands on. At the end of the day, they turn it over to that man, who will take their 'earnings' and allow them to stay for another day."
"You mentioned selling matchsticks. That surely has got nothing to do with stealing, hasn't it?"
Letty grunted as she pulled up the hem of her dress to show Cirno her injured left leg. "Others like us sell the loot, or whatever else that scumbag man has for sale. Each day, we are to turn over our earnings to him, and if we don't, we will get beaten up by him and get no dinner for that night. He will keep threatening us to try living on the roads on our own again if we didn't like it. All of us in this barn are homeless children, but you-"
"I am homeless, too," Cirno confided softly to the softer side of her new friend. "This man offered me shelter, which is why I'm here too, Letty."
"You won't like it here… um…"
"Cirno. My name is Cirno."
"You really shouldn't be here, Cirno," Letty said. "You have already done well on your own for so long, there's no need for this man's faux sympathy."
"Why won't you run away, then?"
"Because… because… I'm not as strong as you are."
"No! You are a strong girl!" Cirno protested, even though she wasn't sure if that made any sense.
"If I was," Letty balled her fists. "I would have gathered the courage and run away, but then again, unlike you, I have never lived on the streets before."
"Then… what… what happened?"
"I… I was sold to him." A moment of silence passed between the duo before she continued. "I was the first kid in this place, Cirno. That man treated me well at first, then began to develop some wild ideas and started picking up homeless children, to whom he would make them work for him, or die through starvation."
The doors opened again; Cirno quickly took the bowl away from Letty, hoping the man wouldn't notice that Letty had illegally drunk his soup. Fortunately, none of the other kids ratted on them and she returned the bowl to a waiting bucket before scampering back to her friend's side. "Thank you, Cirno, for your quick thought," Letty leaned her head onto Cirno's shoulder. "It wouldn't be good if you had got onto the bad side of him on your first night here."
"I will be here for you, Letty," Cirno assured her. "You are the first and only kid here who would even talk to me."
"I hate this life."
"What?"
"I hate myself for being so pathetic. Why do other children get to live a happy life with their families while kids like us have to give up any dignity that we had to serve that bastard?"
"It isn't fair for us. I, too, am scared of not living to see the next day."
Letty reached into a pocket and her hand came away with a matchbook. Flipping it open, she showed Cirno its contents. "Whenever I'm scared, I can feel her presence comforting me."
"'Her'?"
"The Fairy Godmother. She is a figure of security and warmth for me. I've heard stories from other kids in the past about how she would visit an impoverished child and offer to take him or her into her home and live happily ever after. Look," Letty plucked one of the matches from the box and placed it along the coarse striking surface. "One day, I found out that she had wanted to take me in. All I had to do was to light this matchstick up, and she will appear."
A tiny yellow flame appeared in front of their eyes when Letty brushed the matchstick across the striking surface. Although Cirno saw only the yellow flame, Letty's eyes began to take on a mesmerized glitter as she reveled in whatever she could see in the tiny fiery soul of flame. A small smile that had began growing on her face became a full blown blissful emotional scene to witness as tears rolled down from her eyes. The flame, however, extinguished shortly and Letty's eyes reverted back to normal, which were almost red, seemingly ready to cry anytime.
"I… I see nothing in the flame," Cirno whispered, noticing that the other children had already hit their beds and were falling asleep.
"She exists," Letty insisted, but without any of her earlier hostility. "I know she does."
"… I believe you, Letty. I want to meet her, too."
Letty's eyes glanced over to her friend. "You are a fool, Cirno, to have fallen for that. If she really exists, wouldn't you think all of us will have been living happy lives by now?"
"You are lying, Letty! The way you behaved when you lit that match said so!"
She pushed Cirno away and began lying back down on her own bed. "I'm tired, so goodnight." Cirno followed suit quickly and the barn was then devoid of any noises shortly after.
True to what she had said, during the next morning, Cirno found herself having to work for her right to stay in the barn and had chosen to peddle some of the items 'acquired' by the other kids the day before. Letty had apparently got up and left the barn before she woke up, so she had went out on her own.
Looking into the small sack in her hands, she found out that they were matchbooks similar to Letty's. "Do me a favor by doing what that rat could not," the man had told her, referring to Letty's incapability to sell a single matchstick. Better dressed than the days before and her hunger pangs quelled by a morning's breakfast of, again, soup, Cirno felt energized as she went around, doing what the other kids did to sell her items.
The day went well and by dusk, she had sold off her share of items and so headed back to the house, where she handed the money over to the man. After making sure the children did not pocket any loose change by doing a thorough search, they were sent back to the barn to rest for the evening before starting the work cycle again on the next day.
As Cirno was pondering over the eventless day she had gone through and tried to think of reasons why Letty was unable to sell any matchsticks, the said girl reentered the barn again, this time almost two hours after the last kid returned. Fresh bruise marks seemed to sport her exposed limbs and she was struggling to maintain her balance. The only kid to help her back to her allocated bed was the same girl who had been given a blue dress the day before.
"Letty… did that man beat you up again?"
"Obvious, isn't it?" Letty snapped back, pushing Cirno's hands away when she tried to attend to her wounds with her bare hands. "I gave him a million and he gave me hugs!"
"You did? Wow!"
Letty sighed in defeat at Cirno's honest stupidity. "You are an idiot, Cirno. Of course I didn't!"
"You mean you lied?"
Letty started shaking in anger and irritation, which seemed to only grow as Cirno tried to soothe her bruises with her hands again. However, something within her stopped herself from reaching up and slapping the perceived idiot in the face. She was aware of Cirno whispering something comforting to her, but did not pay attention to what exactly she had said.
"Tomorrow, we will sell matchsticks together, okay?" Cirno suddenly said, still rubbing the sore spots on her leg.
"What?"
"I said, tomorrow-"
"Why would you bother? It isn't easy to sell those, as you probably have figured out today!"
"I will show you how."
This time Letty did reach up and slapped her, sending her reeling sideways slightly, away from her. "This isn't a game, Cirno! It's about survival! Only the strongest survive, okay? If you give your coins away to another kid, you won't have enough to meet that bastard's demands!"
"But…" Cirno's voice was quivering from shock. "If you don't have enough, you will get beaten up and not have any food for the night!"
"Then that's MY business, not YOURS."
"Letty?" Cirno called into the back alley. "Is that you?"
The little girl, sitting on the ground and had back leaning against a wall, looked in her direction. Her face visibly scowled at the newcomer at the entrance of the alley and shortly got up and ran around a corner, leading deeper into the back alley.
"Letty! Wait!" Cirno tightened her grip on her small sack and ran after her. However, as she turned the corner she was sure Letty had taken, she was only greeted by a wall, indicating the end of the path. Where could she have gone? "Letty? LETTY? WHERE ARE YOU, LETTY?"
At the base of the walls surrounding her were piles of rotting cardboxes and other thrash that people had dumped. The stench of rotting wood and decomposing wood dominated the alley; Cirno began feeling queasy, despite having lived with that kind of smell for ages. Something from inside her began making its way up her throat and she almost submitted to the urge to expel from her mouth.
While she was doing so, she felt a sharp bolt of pain on the back of her neck, the impact sending her sprawling to the ground. As her consciousness ebbed away, the vision in her eyes clouding at a rapid pace, Cirno felt the sack in her right hand being tugged at before she completely lost all senses and fainted.
Recovering her senses some hours later, Cirno slowly trudged out of the alley, nursing a sore spot on her neck before realizing what had happened, and would happen when she returned to the home. Letty must have stolen my matchsticks! What do I do now? If I return back, that man might beat me up like he did to Letty!
…
Well, at least Letty wouldn't get beaten up today if she sells off the matchsticks, would she? I don't know if she would even try to sell those matchsticks, but if she had already planned to beat me up in the alley, she probably had wanted to avoid getting beaten up by the old man.
The sun was already setting when Cirno, in her light-headed consciousness, managed to pull herself out of the alley. Letty was nowhere to be seen and neither was her sack of matchsticks. Looking at her reflection in a half-frosted window, she saw no physical injuries on her face and, other than some mud specks in certain places, looked fine. He's not going to believe that Letty had beaten me up today. Why would he care anyway, if what Letty said last night was true?
Half an hour later, Cirno found herself standing in front of the old man, who had been yelling at her for almost ten minutes for losing her goods and not bringing any money back. Sending her back to the annexed house with a stern warning and not being given her share of dinner for that night, the man slammed the door in her face.
When she opened the door to the stable, she saw Letty already laying on her hay bed, a leg hooked over the other, humming a soft melody to herself. Her fists balled in anger, she marched over to where Letty was. "Why did you do that?" Cirno demanded.
"Ahh, it's you," Letty stopped humming and smirked. "I made a windfall today selling your matchsticks. And guess what? I still hid some extra coins for tomorrow, so that I don't need to do anything."
"That's not fair!" Cirno stomped her foot. "Give me that money!"
"No way, it's mine. I worked for it."
"You stole the matchsticks from me!"
"Not really, I picked it off the ground from an unconscious girl this morning. I didn't see you."
"Liar! You are a liar! I was calling your name in that alley and you disappeared! Shortly after, you knocked me out and took my sack!"
"Oooh!" Letty visibly bulged her eyes in surprise. "You aren't that dim, are you? And here I was thinking that you would even believe me if I had said that I was waiting around the corner to give you the money for your matchsticks that I sold for you."
"I'm not an idiot!"
"I didn't say you were. Then again, maybe you are one."
"Hmph!"
That night, Cirno went to sleep without dinner. She had begged Letty to share some with her to repay her earlier kindness for the past two days, but the other girl turned a deaf ear on her and happily finished her share without even blinking. None of the other kids had bothered about her when she approached them, and Cirno finally realized that everybody was, indeed, as Letty had told her on her first night, selfish.
But I doubt Letty is really that mean. She has even said that the fairy godmother had visited her numerous times, but she has yet to be taken in by the fairy. What about all the other children here? What about me?
The fairy godmother has never visited me.
Maybe it's because I am really strong, as Letty said. The fairy godmother only takes in children who deserved a better life. Maybe I am being seen as the strongest of these children.
But why hasn't she taken in Letty yet? Is it because Letty has been naughty, such as her earlier mean prank on me?
"This is the FIFTH day that you are bringing me NOTHING!" the man yelled into her face, splattering saliva coupled with bad breath into her face. "Are you trying to make me regret taking you in last week?"
"No…"
"Oh, don't try to tell me about Letty beating you up and taking your share of the items to sell!" the man kicked a chair away from his position, the loud crash when the chair hit a wall startling Cirno. "She's got no guts to even run away from me, what makes you think she would do something like this?"
"But it's true-"
"SILENCE!" the man reached behind a cabinet and his hand came out with a broken broomstick. "Maybe it is time I treated you like that rat!" the man raised the broomstick high in the air, his eyes focused on the quivering child in blue dress.
Cirno closed her eyes, her arms held in a crossed manner in an attempt to block the incoming hit, but the man was aiming for her legs instead. The blow came and Cirno cried out, a burning sensation forming rapidly from the impact, sending tears flowing out of her tightly shut eyes immediately.
Before she could even react, the next blow came and hit her again on the same spot. Already crying out earnestly, she block the next blow with her forearms, a red mark forming on the left arm instantly. The ordeal continued for the next minute with Cirno screaming for the man to stop and the man, in return, increasing his fury and strength.
Finally finishing with a hard hit on her shins, which sent her crumbling to the ground on all fours, he opened the front door of the house and threw her out of it before slamming the door in her face, leaving her out in the snow.
Cirno laid there crying while other children walked past her, giving her some stares before heading into the annexed house, as if it was an everyday occurrence. It was not untrue in any way, as all the kids knew what would happen to each of them if they did not bring back money for the old man. Letty had been the latest victim before Cirno, and the other children were already used to looking at a bloodied child limping his or her way to bed.
The man, bringing the pot of soup for their dinner, stepped over her along the way to the house and when he returned, yelled at her once again for being a useless pile of rubbish before sending a boot flying to her ribs, causing a fresh burst of pain to explode in her side and resulting in more crying.
An hour later saw Cirno finally attempting to crawl her way into the house. However, before she could open the doors, they opened on their own, and in the doorway stood the girl with that large blue ribbon bow on the back of her head and wearing a dirty lavender dress.
The same girl that had got her into all the troubles for the past week.
Ignoring her, Cirno attempted to crawl past her, but instead felt a pair of hands grab her arms and was dragged into the house, to which she had no strength to resist. Once in, she heard the doors close and was again dragged inside, finally being thrown lightly onto something soft. Already exhausted from her ordeal, Cirno simply remained as she was, face first on her mould of hay.
The same pair of rough hands shook her hard on the shoulders. "Hey," Letty's voice boomed into her ears. "Cirno?"
"… go away… ugh…"
"Cirno… look at me."
"…"
"Look," Letty took a deep breath before continuing. "I know what I did was wrong, but I had to teach you a lesson to never be so naïve again."
"…"
"I'm really sorry, you know?"
"…"
"The fairy godmother," Letty paused for a short moment, hoping Cirno would react to the words, but was disappointed when Cirno continued to ignore her. "She has stopped appearing. Every matchstick that I had lit up with your matchbooks, she would never appear. Have I done something wrong?"
"… you are… asking… me?"
"I… I don't get it," Letty said. "We are all living in poverty right now, yet She hasn't visited you. I tried to bring misery to your life in hopes that she would come to you."
"… liar…"
"It's true."
"Why… should I… believe you?"
"…"
"… you are a liar, Letty… liar…"
The next morning, Cirno woke up to fresh jolts of pain from her wounds, which were mostly lumped bruises all over her exposed limbs. A particularly incapacitating strike on her shins prevented her from standing up straight, so Cirno had to either resort to crawling on the ground or using nearby walls as a support to move.
She had decided on limping slowly out of the barn towards the old man's house. The man met her at the doorway, where she simply took the waiting sack from his hands without looking into his face and slowly turning away, intending to get about with her sale of matchsticks.
Hungry from not having any food to eat for the past few days, coupled with her injured legs, Cirno took close to half an hour to reach the town's centre, where she had been on her first two days to sell her matchsticks to passer-bys.
Back then, people sympathized with her situation and bought matchsticks from her whenever she cheerfully approached them, but that day, all Cirno could do was to sit wearily on an empty crate along the pavement and wait for someone to buy from her. People generally noticed that she had kept appearing in the town centre and guessed she was part of a syndicate to earn money through sympathy, so they ignored her totally.
For the previous three days, Letty would attack her and steal her sack while she was on her way back to the house after selling off her share of matchsticks, but this time she did not appear to rob Cirno, who had not managed to sell a single matchstick. Her mind, already exhausted from lack of sleep due to pain and fatigue from her hunger, began racing scenario after scenario about what would happen when she returned back without any money.
Each imaginary scenario had ended up with Cirno receiving a brutal beating by the old man and leaving her for the dead outside the house. Unable to find solace in her nightmarish train of thoughts, Cirno decided not to return for that night and instead seeked refuge in the same alley she had found Letty in days ago.
'Whenever I'm scared, I can feel her presence comforting me.' Cirno remembered Letty's words when she confided in her about her encounters with the fairy godmother. I am really scared now, but was Letty telling the truth about the existence of the fairy godmother? I don't know if her presence is nearby to comfort me.
'One day, I found out that she had wanted to take me in.' Cirno became depressed. But I have not been visited by her. Am I really all alone in this world?
'All I had to do was to light this matchstick up, and she will appear.'
All I have to do is to light the matchstick up? Cirno asked herself. Will this really work?
Letty is a liar, she could be lying about this.
And if I return with a matchstick less and no money, it is going to be worse than a beating.
I don't wanna die.
Dear fairy godmother, if you can hear me, please… I don't wanna die. I am the strongest among the kids! Isn't that why you hadn't come for me, because I could survive on my own? Well… I can't. Not anymore. I'm hungry, cold and tired. Any moment now, Letty could come along, knock me out again and take these matchsticks from my limp hand.
Before that happens… please… I beg you…
Be here for me… fairy godmother… please…
And with that, Cirno plucked one of the matchsticks from its book and struck it along the rough surface. A soul burnt on its sulfuric tip, granting a small orb of light in the darkness of the alley. Cirno cupped her free hand around the lit matchstick and stared intently.
…
…
…
Nothing?
The flame died out an instant later. No… she's there. She HAS to be there! The weak child quickly plucked another matchstick and lit it, repeating the cupping of hands and staring. Nothing? Why?
A strong gust of wind extinguished her light of hope as it passed through the alleys. No! I won't give up! I am the strongest! I will never give up! The fairy godmother is simply testing me! She's-
Footsteps echoing from the entrance of the alley startled her, shaking her away from her feverish thoughts. A girl bearing similar physical features to Letty limped her way towards Cirno in the same fashion as Cirno herself had in the morning.
In fact, that girl was Letty, as she found out when she was less than five meters away. "Letty…"
"… he found out."
"Huh?"
"That I had been pocketing some of the money."
"… serves you right," Cirno grunted, then returned her attention to the matchsticks. Despite the lack of light in the alley, Letty apparently managed to guess what the girl in front of her was doing.
"You've been trying to find Her?"
"…"
Without waiting any further for a response, Letty, with much effort, sat down beside Cirno and leaned heavily on the wall behind them. When Cirno struck her fourth matchstick, the light illuminated both of them and when it did, Cirno uttered a surprised cry and dropped her matchstick; Letty's head was hanging low, allowing numerous rivers of blood to flow freely from somewhere beneath the mop of hair, even staining the blue bow ribbon she was wearing.
"Letty!" Cirno grabbed said girl's shoulder and shook them with whatever strength she had left in herself. "You are bleeding!"
"Heh…" Letty managed a weak laugh as Cirno undid the bow ribbon and used it to mop up the blood. "I'm seeing everything double now…"
"What did he do to you?"
"A bottle on my head."
Letty may have really deserved this, but this is too cruel! "Letty, stay still," Cirno commanded, a sudden burst of energy from somewhere within her fueling her compassionate side once again. I may have been fooled once again, but this looks real! "I will get help."
Letty blindly groped for her hand and managed to grab onto one of Cirno's arms when she tried to leave the alley to seek for help. "Too late," Letty breathed. "Just… just sit down."
With a sharp yank, Cirno found herself landing bottom first onto the ground beside Letty, who slowly leaned towards her shoulders and rested her bloodied head on them, staining Cirno's dress with her blood. "I'm… I'm really sorry… 'kay?"
"Don't say sorry…"
"Really… I am…"
Cirno felt Letty's entire weight on her shoulders right after she stopped talking. Gasping, she moved away, hoping Letty would attempt to break her resulting fall, but the wounded girl in lavender dress simply hit her head on the ground with a soft thud. Letty's dead.
Letty died.
…
…
What should I do from here?
Should I run out and scream for help? Or should I stay here and accompany her till my own death through starvation arrives?
'I will be here for you, Letty.' That's what I said. That was what I had said five days ago. That was what I had said five days ago to the girl laying on the ground beside me right now. And I will stick by my words, because she was the first and only kid who would talk to me in the barn. Letty is my first and only friend that I ever had in this world.
'I hate this life.' I hate it too.
'I hate myself for being so pathetic.' To be honest, Letty, I am pathetic, too. I am really a fool, as you had said. I get tricked easily, first by that old man in promises for a sheltered life, and then by you. But I want to believe that you were never lying.
'I, too, am scared of not living to see the next day.' I don't think I will get to see the next sunrise too, Letty. I'm hungry right now, and I feel myself being eaten from inside out. My mind is now filled with worries about returning to the house tonight, and when I knew I couldn't, I began worrying about how I would survive tonight. I don't have the energy to even think now, it's killing me surely and silently.
'Whenever I'm scared, I can feel her presence comforting me.' Letty, please tell me this is true. Please tell me that the fairy godmother does exist, because if she does, she will have to come for me now. I don't wanna die, I want to see the fairy godmother, too. And when I see her, I will ask her to take you in as well, because we children are now suffering, as you said.
Cirno opened the matchbook again and withdrew another matchstick before lighting it up again. The glow revealed a motionless Letty laying on the ground beside her, confirming her suspicions that Letty had, indeed, died from her injuries. Looking into the soul of fire, she still saw nothing. Tears welled up as her hopes of meeting the fairy godmother became diminished.
Not wanting to abandon her last hope, Cirno tearfully tore off another matchstick and tried again, only to see the empty fire once again. She had gone through all the matchbooks that the sack had held and was down to the last stick, by then her body could no longer function normally without enough energy, forcing her to lay on her back on the ground beside a dead Letty.
She could not cry from despair anymore; her tears had either run out or she simply had no more energy to cry, her throat only producing weak gargling noises.
She could hardly breathe; her heart beating in her chest, once an energetic pulsing organ, now only a soft beating that even a doctor with a stethoscope might not pick up.
Her eyes, already not being able to see well in the darkness, saw whatever that she could like a hazy dream; she wasn't sure if she was hallucinating or already in a state akin to dreaming.
The last, desperate sign of her will to survive was the movement of both of her hands, one that held a matchbook and the other, a matchstick. With a final breath, she forced herself to strike that last matchstick. A fuzzy glow in the black world in her view appeared and Cirno focused her will to stare at it.
We are the Children of Nature.
All of us are: each and every fairy of Gensokyo represents a part of nature.
Myself, I am the one who brought these children to become a part of nature, where they simply serve nature's life cycles with only a common goal: to maintain and preserve Nature herself.
All these children came from similar backgrounds, where they were either abused, left for dead on the streets or simply abandoned.
Why were such children picked?
Because Nature's promise is to alleviate all suffering and bring about peace. With the children serving Nature herself, their minds will become non-factor in their eternal gratitude to Her for ending the unfair suffering they had been enduring since birth. Fairies are the Hand-Maidens of Nature: we exist only to serve Nature.
Where do I come in as a fairy, then?
I am the Greater Fairy, otherwise known with affection among the fairies as the fairy godmother 'Daiyousei', She who rescues impoverished children and offering them a second chance at survival and eternal peace. Every fairy in Gensokyo has been picked personally by myself, yet none of them remembered their past lives as humans.
When a child is picked and then be visited by me at the brink of death, he or she has a choice between death and salvation. If the child picks to be saved, he or she will follow me to Gensokyo and be transformed into a servant of Nature, a fairy. During this process, the pain that the child had endured while alive will be erased from memory, only to be replaced with thoughts of peace and tranquility.
This is why fairies, in the eyes of humans, are seen to be so carefree and ignorant of human existence.
But you, of all people, were wrong, Reimu. These fairies are not soulless sprites, but simply had their unnecessary impure memories locked away somewhere while they served Nature with pure hearts and minds. Nobody but us fairies will know that every time a fairy gets shot down by danmaku, other fairies will feel the pain and anguish of death, even if it's for a millisecond, as us fairies gets recycled by Nature and be renewed whole once again.
Cirno, my greatest addition to Nature's servitude, was indeed the strongest of the fairies. The circumstances surrounding her at Death's door was so painful that she shut her emotions inside herself, which in turn manifested into physical shards that would become the wings that you saw. Each of the shards of ice that made up her wings is the crystallized form of the pain of her past life.
Cirno has no memory of her former life in Earth, as to be expected when she accepted by invitation to this world, but in her hands, she held a bloodstained ribbon, the same one that adorned her hair. She could not remember why she was always looking out for Letty Whiterock, a Winter Spirit that haunts the plains during winters.
Speaking of Letty, I had initially picked her, but ultimately, it was Nature Herself who rejected my proposal for her to serve as a fairy. Nature has Her own eyes, ears and heart; she judged Letty to be unfit for servitude for reasons that even I cannot comprehend, but I must accept Nature's judgment. She was to be cursed to remain lonely for her existence in Gensokyo, only allowed to appear during the harshest of winters, the same winter that she had endured during the last moments of her life.
Even without the memories of their human lives, one thing that cannot be totally eradicated from a simple mind erasing transformation is their human characteristics. All of us fairies were children while still human, and we retained our behavior and thinking of such. Even as Time passes, none of us matured in any way. In fact, we will never mature at all. This explains our tendencies to simply have lots of fun at the expense of others, namely annoying other humans and youkai alike.
All of this is true for every fairy, except for myself. I was the first fairy to step into Gensokyo ages ago and had been spared from most of the memory erasing. After all, the fairies, much like humans, need a figure whom they can respect and turn to. That person is me, every fairy in Gensokyo looks up to me as a motherly figure representing Nature. I was able to mature in my ways of thinking, and, do not be insulted, but I definitely am more experienced in dealing with matters of the everyday life than you are, Reimu.
One day, one of the fairies suddenly developed a desire. This desire was born when she witnessed a human in the Human Village regaining memories after years of amnesia. She desired to remember something about herself, something which had been locked away in a small corner of her mind. At first, I saw no harm in allowing her to envision her past, but Nature warned of adverse consequences should she attempt to do so.
Despite this, I allowed that fairy to traverse back to the world she had belonged to. Upon seeing her former life, her heart and mind instantly became overloaded with emotions. Anger, rage, sorrow, fear, these strong emotions became a whirlwind of hatred spinning in her heart, so much that she was no longer able to remain as a servant of Nature and hence, lost her status as a fairy. Once back as a human being, she instantly succumbed to her emotions and, shortly after, was picked up by the shinigami on a ride of no return. Her soul was forever lost to Death and there was nothing Nature could do about it.
What that is happening right now, in front of me, just a hundred years after that incident, history threatens to repeat itself, should I allow Cirno to return to Earth.
Which is why…
"NO!" Daiyousei forcefully shouted, her arms spread out wide, as if to shield the fairies behind her from the woman standing in front of them. "THEY WILL NOT BE GOINGTO THE OUTER WORLD!"
"Think about this, fairy," the woman, appearing to be floating in midair with her lower torso missing, said. "Fairies may be immortal, but in a world that is no longer capable of sustaining life, how many times do you desire to die and be resurrected by whatever mythical means you have as a fairy before you get sick of it?"
"The Outer World could be fun, Dai," Cirno whispered. "There are lots of humans there, as Yukari had said. I can probably show that I am the strongest-"
"Shut up, Cirno!" Daiyousei barked furiously. "We are NOT going, and that's that!"
"But Dai-"
"No buts!"
"What is it that you are protecting them from, Daiyousei?" Yakumo Yukari, the woman that was hanging half in, half out of a gap, asked. "All I offered was another hospitable environment for you to continue your little kingdom."
"There is no room for fairies in the Outer World," Daiyousei crossed her arms. "That world is too polluted, fairies serving Nature there would simply be wasting our efforts."
"What about 'fairy tales'? Such books wouldn't have been available if there were never fairies in the Outer World."
"Yukari, I'm not telling you again," Daiyousei stepped forward, the rest of the fairies behind her exchanging confused looks. "We are NOT going to the Outer World."
Hushes and whispers among other fairies became audible as all of them began talking about the Outer World all at once. Some of the fairies, the Three Mischievous Fairies of Light among those, were excited about the prospects of living in the Outer World, while others were simply wondering what games and pranks they would be able to do there. "Seems to me that you are the only one who is against the exodus of the fairies to the Outer World, Daiyousei," Yukari smiled.
"I am the Greater Fairy among them, they will heed my words. My decision is final."
Yukari simply closed her eyes and shrugged. "If that is your decision, so be it. Farewell."
The fairies at Misty Lake watched as Yukari retreated back into the gap before it closed on its own, totally removing itself from existence in the sky. "Dai…" Cirno pouted. "That was no fun! I wanted to go!"
"Get over it, Cirno!" Daiyousei scolded. "And continue with your pranks here!"
Because I don't want to see Cirno hurt. Her six wings are always a constant reminder to me of her life, and I really hate to see any of the fairies having to suffer for the sake of humanity's selfishness. I bear the knowledge of each and every one of their past lifes alone.
Because being the big sister to Cirno has, strangely, allowed my matured mind to act out my role as a mother.
A.N.: Hello fellas! This is uploaded at 3am, I probably don't know what I'm doing, but it seems to me that I could only write anything during the wee hours of the night. I hope everything sounds right.
This chapter is in response to questions about the fates of the fairies, namely Cirno and Daiyousei. As you can see, none of them had left Gensokyo after Yukari had executed her escape plan. The part about Cirno was to explain the origins of her appearance and, to some extent, stupidity. However, the letter segment switched over to Daiyousei, who explained why she refused to allow the fairies to join the exodus to Earth.
Also, note the loose reference to Little Match Girl.
Anyway, I did say 'a couple more' in the previous chapter. Now I'm not so sure, judging by whatever else that is still on my to-write list.