"Well, with that, I've got nothing else to really teach you, Rumia." Seiga said. It had been a year and a half, and the darkness youkai had taken to the Dark Energy lessons like a fish to water. Seiga had taken over a hundred years to get to where she was now, before she hit a wall and got stuck.
The hermit blamed natural ability for her fast learning, and thought back to the youkai when they started the training. Rumia was a totally different youkai now. Not on
ly had she mastered everything Seiga taught her, but she had also been learning Martial Arts, and even how to use some principals of Feng shui to manipulate her Qi, making her far stronger physically than she was before.
Indeed, when Futo started to train Rumia, Futo frequently knocked her out easily in spars, in but a couple of blows. Now, the two were evenly matched in terms of pure physical combat. Seiga considered Futo one of the strongest physical combatants in the whole of Gensokyo, although she knew the like of Byakuren and Remilia were stronger.
Soga and Miko had trained Rumia to control her inner rage. Quickly into the training, it became clear that Rumia was getting more aggressive and short-tempered, a side-effect of the evils tied into her own powers. While she was no Taoist, that didn't stop Rumia using some of the Taoist principals to control her inner evil's rage and fury.
One thing in particular that Rumia had taken on board was the idea of Ying and Yang, appropriately. There is darkness within every light, and light within the darkness. One cannot exist without the other. She had even made some spellcards based on the concept. Her danmaku had also grown. Despite not having her true power yet, Seiga was confident that Rumia was now easily one of the stronger youkai in Gensokyo.
Rumia herself had changed. She now looked like one who would be sixteen or seventeen, a testament to her powers approaching maturity. Her hair reached her waist now, instead of being short. Her outfit had changed too. Instead of wearing a black two-peice, a sleeveless shirt and a skirt, she now wore a sleeveless black dress, with white-and-black patterned hems. She still wore a white shirt under the dress, covering her arms, but the arms had black lines running down them. She wore a small Ying-Yang handing off a necklace as well. Mystia and Wriggle had expressed envy at her developing curves as well, although it was more in jest, since as a bird and an insect, those two knew they would be forever flat.
Indeed, what used to be a cute little girl now looked like a young woman.
While the Darkness youkai had visited everyone else over her training, she had been spending far much more time in Senkai training than with the others. So they would not be surprised when they saw her. They hadn't seen her strength, of course, but the way Rumia saw it, the less people knew about how much more power she had now, the better it would be when she would have to use it.
"Ehehehe, I womder if Mystia will be at her shop or at the lake?" Rumia asked herself, before she felt a chill.
This was strange. It was not winter. In fact, it was the middle of summer. A chill like ice was not... natural.
The closer Rumia got to the Misty Lake, the stronger the chill became, until she decided to fly up, and see the lake from above the treeline.
There was a spire. A spire of ice, glittering in the sun. Rumia flew towards it at top speed, and as she approached it became clear that the entire lake was frozen. The fairies, Wriggle and Mystia had gathered around a bulge at the top of the spire, which was pulsing with light.
"What's going on?!" Rumia asked when she arrived.
"Cirno suddenly stopped and... she froze!" Wriggle said.
"Then the ice around her spread all across the lake, and this happened. Cirno's in the bulge that's glowing!" Mystia added.
"I tried kicking it apart, but it's solid. My foot also started to freeze from mere contact!" Wriggle said, indicating her damp foot.
"The fairies are all entranced by whatever this is. We can't look away..." Daiyousei said. "This, and the natural energy I feel coming off this, makes me think this isn't something bad."
The fairy was also stareing at the bulge, holding a book. Rumia noticed Sunny, Luna and Star were also staring. Every fairy of the lake was.
"Well... I guess there's only one thing to do to find out what's going on." Rumia said. "I'm gonna go ask Patchouli. She's gotta know, if anyone! She knows more about the fairies than the fairies themselves with her elemental studies!"
"I hope Cirno's alright..." Wriggle commented, as Rumia flew to the mansion.
The Darkness youkai couldn't help but chuckle when she noticed Meiling was as wide eyed and entranced as the fairies.
Despite going to the Scarlet Mansion to see Remilia somewhat often, Rumia did not often step into Voile. The magical library, stocked with more knowledge than most would ever be able to cram into their heads. Magical tomes of legend, and myth, as well as obscurity. The library was bigger than the mansion was outside, a side effect of Sakuya's time manipulation, as well as Patchouli's own magics.
To find Patchouli in this place, Rumia knew there was one thing she needed to do.
Follow the coughs. And that she did, and it wasn't long until she found the asthmatic magician, floating next to a bookshelf, her daemonic assistant, in Gensokyo on a contract with Shinki, Koakuma, by her side. Rumia always found it a little funny that Koakuma wore a similar outfit to her. She assumed it was general attire in Makai, especially as Yuki also wore black and white.
"Yes?" Koakuma asked, on Patchouli's behalf, after her master nodded at Rumia. It seemed it was one of Patchouli's off days, since she was making Koakuma ask for her.
"Something's happened to Cirno! She's encased herself in ice, and frozen the whole lake." Rumia said.
"... That's not possible. A fairy shouldn't have that much power." Koakuma said.
"It is possible... there is a myth." Patchouli wheezed, before she said; "Shelf 1,458, Book number 45 on the shelf. Chapter 12."
Koakuma flew off immediately, seeming to know exactly where she was going.
Rumia chuckled.
"You have this entire place memorized, don't you Patchy?"
"I have not memorized... everything. Else I would not need the books for reference. But I know where to find the knowledge I need. It's is arranged well enough, interesting points..." Patchouli explained, before coughing harshly. "bookmarked."
"Bad day, eh? Sorry." Rumia said. "You should really go see that Eirin person..."
"My illness is part of who I am... I wouldn't want it gone, despite the... inconvenience. It lets me... stay here and read." Patchouli said, as she did every time someone brought up Eirin.
"Fine, suit yourself..." Rumia said, as Koakuma came back, holding a book: "Legends of Fey".
"Here's a book. The mark states other books with the same topic too. Apparently... there's something beyond a fairy. A fairy is simply an embodiment of nature. However, according to this myth, when a fairy becomes strong enough, and focused enough on one thing, they become more than simply an embodiment of nature's force... they become part of nature's force itself. Their power magnifies hugely, to the point they are no longer called fairies, they are too powerful. These... ascended fairies... are called... Sprites. They are so intertwined with their aspect of nature that they can create it."
"That spring fairy... Lilly White. She's probobly... a Sprite. She literally brings Spring... where she goes." Patchouli wheezes. "I expect the idiot... would have far more potent... ice powers."
"The book says when a fairy becomes a Sprite, their key features are enhanced. So Cirno would become even stronger than she already is... and maybe more stupid."
"She's pretty smart for a fairy though. She's just stronger so people actually notice her stupidity. A smart fairy is still dumb." Rumia said.
Koakuma shrugged her shoulders, and put the book down.
"It says the process doesn't take long. You may want to go and wait." Koakuma said.
Rumia flew out of the mansion, and the spire of ice was gone. The lake had thawed. There were crystals of ice glittering in the sunlight. In the center of them, was a figure. The figure was clearly Cirno, but she didn't look like a young child anymore. She looked like someone in their early teens. Her wings were no longer six separate icicles, they had a membrane of ice connecting them. On her head seemed to be a tiara of ice.
Rumia recalled something Cirno told her, just after that incident when Cirno mentioned the flowers had bloomed like sixty years before. She said someone had told her, if she kept pushing herself, and getting stronger, she would become something that was no longer a fairy. For a couple of days, Cirno was actually worried, before she forgot.
It seems that the prediction had come true.
"Dai... why are you so small?" Cirno asked. "Why are all you guys so small?"
"You grew Cirno." Daiyousei said.
"That's silly! Fairies don't grow! You guys all shrunk!" Cirno said.
"No Cirno... you grew." Rumia said. "You're not a fairy anymore either."
Cirno turned and looked at Rumia, tilting her head.
"Not a fairy anymore? Did you take one too many hits over the noggin?" she asked.
"You're something more than a fairy Cirno. At least, Patchouli says so." Rumia replied.
"More than a fairy?" Cirno asked.
"Yes. Patchouli said you became so strong you became something stronger than a fairy. She said you're a Sprite now. Instead of being an embodiment of ice, you are part of the force of nature itself, or something like that. She said Lilly White's one too."
"I don't get it..." Cirno said.
"Well, Lilly dosen't just make it Spring around her. She makes it Spring where she goes, and it stays Spring afterwards, right?" Mystia said. "You can't make ice that stays thereon a hot day, can you?"
"No..." Cirno said.
"Make something of ice now. In the summer heat!" Wriggle said. "See if it melts, without keeping it frozen yourself!"
Cirno made a block of ice, which indeed did start melting. However, there was something else about the block of ice.
Cirno showed no effort making it, but it was as large as the largest blocks of ice she could make before.
"Uh, that's bigger than I thought it would be guys." Cirno said.
"Because you're stronger!" Dai said.
Cirno looked at Rumia and grinned.
"Ya'know, for a few seconds I was a littl' worried I might not be the strongest anymore! But that can't happen! I'm the Strongest, I always will be!" Cirno said, grinning from eat to ear.
Rumia laughed, and hugged her friend. Cirno's ego was huge, but she wouldn't be such a good friend if not for her unflinching confidence in herself.
Author Notes:
And thus, Arc 4 begins. This was inspired by Eiki's words to Cirno in PoFV, combined with something I mentioned in the notes before, about how powerful Lilly White was in game position compared to any other named fairy. Lilly literally making it turn to Spring seemed something more than a mere fairy could do. Letty hinted at it a little in the Cirno chapter too, although she's had another winter with Letty since.
There's other reasons for me introducing Sprites as well, 'something beyond a fairy'. But you'll find out the other reasons much, much later. Of course, you'll get to see Rumia and Cirno's new powers long before that.