Well, it's time for another chapter! This chapter may seem somewhat shorter than the others, but I wanted to get it out there, and this seemed like the best place to cut what I've written for the Heavy into a chapter. Hope you enjoy it.

And, as always, thanks so much for reading!

The Heavy awoke to the feeling of water washing over his boots. He looked down to find his legs on the shore of a lake, water trickling over them every time there was a tiny wave. Groaning, he pulled himself out of the way of the lake, and sat up. He put a hand to his aching head, murmuring, "What happened to Heavy?" Then his memory caught up to his present situation, and he growled. "When I find wizard, I am going to crush him, and crush him, and CRUSH him." He got up and stretched, joints cracking with every movement, and turned around to find himself face to face with a small girl with bluish-white hair and blue eyes, and strange crystalline wings on her back. They both yelled in astonishment and took a step backwards. The girl recovered first.

"Who're you?" she asked, hands behind her back, looking slightly guilty.

"I am Heavy," said the Heavy, "Who is small fairy child?"

"Hey, I'm not a child! And my name is –"

"Cirno," yelled another fairy coming up to the pair. She had green hair tied in a ponytail and more insect-like wings, "there you are! I was looking everywhere for you!"

"Dai," Cirno yelled, turning towards the newcomer, "look what I found." She gestured towards the Heavy. He frowned.

"Heavy not 'what.' Heavy 'who.'"

"What?" asked Cirno, puzzled.

"Not what! Who!"

"What?"

"Who!"

"Who? Oh," Cirno said, "This is Daiyousei, but everyone calls her Dai. I was going to introduce you if you'd just waited."

The Heavy groaned and rested his head in his palm.

"I think he meant that earlier, when you said 'look WHAT I found,' it should have been 'look WHO I found,'" said Dai, who had been politely following the conversation. The Heavy looked thankfully at her and nodded.

"Oh. Well why didn't he just say so," Cirno said, shaking her head. "That's just silly."

The Heavy growled in frustration and Dai gave him a sympathetic glance. "Does tiny baby fairy WANT to fight Heavy," he asked, clenching his fists.

"Ha! I'm the strongest in Gensokyo! You wouldn't stand a chance." The Heavy doubled over laughing. "Wha- hey! I am! I'm definitely the strongest! Dai, tell him I'm the strongest!"

Dai backed away a bit, waving her arms, "Cirno I don't think we should provoke -"

"Daiiiii! Ugh fine, I'll do this myself! You want a fight you weak human, then you'll see the full strength of the strongest in Gensokyou!"

The Heavy stopped laughing, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "What did you call Heavy? Did you call Heavy weak?"

"Yeah! Cause you are!"

"Cirno, I really don't think –" Dai began, before Cirno cut her off.

"Shut up Dai! He started this," she yelled, collecting some ice shards around herself.

The Heavy stood up to his full height, towering over the fairies. Reaching into his back pocket, he took out a pair of red mittens and put them on.

"Ha," Cirno said, "too cold for you already?"

"Pff, this is nothing! In Mother Russia, this would be temperature of heat wave." The Heavy took a step closer to Cirno.

"Well I'm just getting started," she said, summoning more ice shards and lowering the temperature further. She began sending bits of ice towards the Heavy as he trudged forward, step after step.

"Pah, this is summer weather, baby fairy," he said, flecks of ice bouncing off his skin. He was about five steps away from her now.

"Sh-shut up! I've still got more you big…big…human!" she said, freezing the air and sending more ice at the Heavy.

The ice shards hit him more often now, leaving tiny marks where they hit, causing him to grunt in pain a bit. "This is still early autumn weather, little fairy." He stopped a foot away from her, and began to pull back his arm.

Cirno squeaked and used as much of her powers as she could, trying to freeze the man in place, or at least create some sort of shield to block him, but it wasn't enough.

The Heavy's mitten-covered fist hit her right in the chest, and she crumpled to the grass, the ice shards melting and temperature rising rapidly.

"Cirno!" Dai cried, flying in front of her, arms out wide. "Why'd you do that you big meanie!" She began punching him with her small fists. The Heavy merely looked annoyed and rolled his eyes, gesturing to where Cirno lay. Dai continued punching him until she started hearing laughter. Looking behind her, she realized Cirno was laughing, and looked completely unharmed.

"Ahaha, ha, Dai- Dai- you have to, ah ahahaha, you gotta try this, ahahahah, it's it's, hahahahaha," she managed, rolling around on the grass.

"Cirno, what-" Dai started, before turning to face the Heavy again, "What is this?"

"Is mittens. They make people laugh," he said, shrugging.

"Wha- why? How could they even do that?" Dai asked, shouting to be heard over Cirno's laughter.

"Heavy not know. Heavy receive them as gift for Smissmas, but no name was on gift. Heavy assume it some of Saint Nick's magic."

"Who-haha-who cares how they-ha-they work, they're awesome," Cirno chimed in, laughter dying down. "Hit me again!"

"Cirno, it's untested magic! What if it's dangerous? Remember that time you took one of Marisa's potions without her permission?" Dai asked, remembering.

"Hey, the smell went away eventually," Cirno said. "Besides, what harm could just causing laughter do?"

"Well what if you couldn't stop laughing? Think of how much of a hassle it'd be!"

"Laughter does not last forever. It lasts for somewhere between twelve and twenty seconds. Medic tested this," the Heavy said. "Many trials were done on teammates and I." He shuddered. "Laughter never seemed so scary."

"See Dai, it's fine," Cirno said. "C'mon, just try it once!"

"Cirno, just because he says it's safe doesn't mean it is. No offense," she said, turning to the Heavy, who shrugged, "but there could be something about it that this 'Medic' didn't find out about."

"Medic is smart man," Heavy said, confidently, "If something bad about mittens, he would know."

"Look, I just think we should be cautious," Dai said. "If it's something we don't know about-" she continued talking, but Cirno was miming punching motions behind her back, then nodding towards Dai and giggling silently. The Heavy sighed. On the one hand, Dai'd been the only sympathetic face he'd seen so far, but on the other, she was worrying a bit much.

"Little green fairy," he said, holding up his hands. "Is nothing to worry about. Heavy swears. Besides, is better than punching without mittens, yes?"

"Well yes, but-"

"Is fine. Trust Heavy, he wouldn't want to hurt tiny fairies," he said, patting her on the shoulder. She instantly started giggling, continuing into full-blown laughter. He withdrew his hand. "Oops. Heavy's mistake. Sorry." Dai tried to glare at him through the laughter but could only muster it for a half-second before she went back to looking amused. Cirno was laughing in the background.

"You should see your face Dai, it's hilarious!"

The Heavy groaned and rested his face in his palm with a thwack. Then he also began to chuckle, the holiday cheer the gloves spread getting to him too. This caused Cirno to laugh even harder, and Dai to smirk in between giggles. Eventually all the laughter faded.

"Oh man, that was great," Cirno said. "I told you it was fun Dai!"

"Well maybe, but it's still not something I'd trust without getting some magician to study."

"Wait," the Heavy said, in the process of removing his mittens, "Magician? Like the puny wizard Merasmus?"

Dai frowned in concentration, "I've never heard of a Merasmus. I meant like Miss Marisa or Miss Alice. Sometimes Miss Patchoulli, but she doesn't come outside very often, and after that incident with CIrno trying to freeze the mistress' parasol-"

"Hey, it was a great prank! Or would have been anyway."

"Well we're not allowed inside there anymore."

"Hmm, these wizards-" the Heavy began, a possibility occurring to him.

"Witches or magicians," Cirno said. Then she lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper "They get really mad if you call them wizards. Last time I did, they yelled something about sexist stereotypes and blasted me into oblivion."

"Witches then. Would they know way to get Heavy back home?"

"What do you mean back home? Aren't you from the village?" Dai asked.

"What village? Heavy was in city before this. Puny wizard," he growled, "blew open swirly hole, which pulled Heavy and teammates in."

"Wait, you're from outside?" Dai asked, incredulously.

"Outside what?"

"Gensokyou!"

"Heavy never hear of that place."

Dai looked worried. Then she turned to Cirno, who still looked confused. "We should go tell Reimu."

Cirno frowned angrily, "Hmph. Why should we tell that meanie?"

"Cirno, someone's broken through the barrier, it's important! She's the one who deals with this kind of stuff."

Cirno remained unconvinced. "She's a mean, angry, jerkface who goes around whacking everyone with a stick. Especially me. I'm not going."

"Cirnoooooo..."

"No."

Dai sighed, frowning. After a couple seconds her expression brightened. "How about Keine then? She's ok, right?"

Cirno's frown lightened a bit. "Well, she does headbutt me all the time, but…I guess I usually deserve those, at least." She sighed. "Alright, fine. Let's go see the teacher lady. But I better get something for this, Dai."

The Heavy, who'd been silent throughout the conversation, spoke up. "Are Heavy's teammates likely to be there?"

"Well, it's really the only human settlement around, so they'll likely be heading there if they haven't been, well, attacked."

The Heavy frowned at this. "If teammates are in trouble, Heavy should help them." Then he sighed, "But if we don't know where they are, getting help finding them is best bet, Heavy supposes. This 'Keine' will help find them, yes?"

"Of course," Dai nodded. "She's really nice."

Cirno, who had flown off towards the village right after she'd agreed to go to Keine, turned back and yelled at them to hurry up. They ran after her.