>>54102 Yes, I know, sorry.
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[x] Sure, you might as well try joining in. Maybe you can find out what kind of “chi” your powers use?
“Yeah, I’ll give it a try.” You reply, nodding.
“Ah, really?” Meiling blinks, looking slightly taken aback.
“Sure. Seems like it could be fun, given Cirno’s enthusiasm at least.” Granted, Cirno seems enthusiastic about many things, but still. “Why, is that so surprising?”
“A little, yes. Most of the maids here would be too scared to try, I haven’t had any sparring partners in a while besides Cirno.” Meiling taps her chin, thinking. “…And Miss Sakuya, I suppose, but that’s different.”
“Right…” you mutter. “You said that the maid fairies would be scared of doing this? Should I be?”
“Eh, there’s no need to worry,” Cirno cuts in. “Sure, we play pretty rough, but, well…” She shrugs. “You’ll heal, right?”
Dai groans softly. “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to go-“
She’s interrupted by a wordless battle cry from Cirno, who lunges at Meiling with a spinning, ice-laden kick. Meiling responds with a quick sidestep, dodging the blow save for a few ice crystals, and a looping vertical kick of her own.
“Easier…well, I tried.” Dai sighs. “Be careful, would you? They won’t be used to having a third.”
“Thanks, but I’m not that worried,” you say, waving a hand airily. After all, you picked up danmaku and snowball fighting easily enough –well, in the latter case more like you figured out a way to bypass the actual fighting part, but that still counts- how much harder can this be?
You stare at Meiling and Cirno’s struggles, watching for an opening, Within a few seconds, Cirno’s circling about and jabbing at Meiling has managed to turn your mutual opponent completely around, leaving her back exposed and an inviting target. Wrapping your fingers around your thumb, you lunge at Meiling, extending your right arm to strike.
Something grabs and yanks on your forearm, Meiling blurs out of your view, and you find yourself accelerating
much faster forward, crashing to earth face first and skidding through several feet of rough, unyielding granite.
…That much harder, apparently. You spit out a mouthful of gravel and compacted snow, twisting your neck to fix Meiling with a pain-intensified glare. Or you would, at least, if she was even sparing you a glance instead of remaining embroiled in combat with Cirno, trading ice-laden blows for rainbow-trailing ones. Nice to know she’s paying you close attention as a threat.
Show her your pain, then. Pay her back. Sounds good to you. You clench your hand -the left one, this time- into a fist and charge Meiling again, keeping your feet firmly planted on the ground. As Cirno stabs down with her ice sword, you throw a punch at Meiling’s side, putting all your strength behind the blow.
Nonchalantly, Meiling knocks aside Cirno’s sword, and as the ice fairy unwittingly drives it down into the ground, catches your fist in an open palm. Your attack is stopped cold with both a cracking sound and a cracking feeling, and a wordless shriek escapes your mouth as you jump back, frantically shaking out your stinging hand.
You’re not very good at this, are you? “Never make a fist like that!” Meiling calls to you, kicking down at Cirno who rolls away. “Fingers around your thumb will make your punches crush it. Always better to strike with an open hand.” As Cirno jumps up with a snarl, Meiling whips a flattened hand into her stomach, driving the air out of her lungs with a gasp. “Like that, see? –Aah!”
Cirno returns the favor, slamming a hand into the back of Meiling’s knee and forcing her to leap away, brushing off the rapidly-expanding frost.
“Or that,” Cirno continues with a cough. “But, uh, if you want to help out, shouldn’t you be sticking with
other kinds of attacks?”
Oh. Right.
Yes, yes! Take my strength, use it to strike her down, as we did before. Hey, wait, no need to do that, I can help you out too… And use unfamiliar tactics against such a seasoned foe? Foolish. Here, act now! You shudder as warming energy suffuses your body, and, with a quick glance up at Meiling, stomp the ground.
Leafy vines erupt out of the earth around you, and Meiling, already in descending flight towards you and Cirno, gasps and tries to halt her movement. Too late, though, as your new arboreous allies grab and constrict her arms and legs, suspending her parallel to the ground.
“Nice one!” Dai cheers, grinning at you.
Okay, maybe now you can actually get a hit in. You bridge the gap to Meiling, priming your leg for a kick. She’s closed her eyes, as if in acceptance of defeat.
She’s also started mumbling.
And glowing.
…Being right next to her is seeming like a really bad idea, all of a sudden.
Meiling’s eyes snap open, sclera flashing from red to violet in an instant. “Colorful Sign: 「Colorful Wind Chime」!”
There’s a woosh of air, accompanied by a horrible ripping sound, and Meiling spins, surrounding herself in a colorful corona of gyrating energy. The vines restraining her are shredded in an instant, fragments splattering onto your face and dress, and one of her rotating arms smashes into the top of your head, driving you straight back down to the ground. At least you landed on your feet this time, is your first thought as your knees buckle.
Your second is: Gods
damn it.
…Agreed. That trick of yours is getting awfully useless, isn’t it? Gah… “C-can’t you just freeze her solid or something?” you gasp to Cirno, who nonchalantly tilts her head towards you, evading a jabbing elbow from a now de-spiralfied Meiling.
“Huh? Well yeah, probably, but what’d the point of that be?”
“…We’d win?” A simple solution to the rather pressing issue of blunt force traumas. “Isn’t that kind of the goal, here?”
“No, not really –uh, duck.” You instinctively obey, feeling the rush of air from a blow swinging over your head. Cirno shoves herself between you and Meiling, kicking out with a flurry of icicles to force Meiling back.
“Um, okay then,” you say, backing a bit farther behind Cirno. “Can you enlighten me as to what our goal actually is?”
“Training, obviously.” Cirno says, kicking up and having three massive icicles follow her foot, making Meiling hastily reconsider her forward lunge. “Getting better at fighting forms, coming up with stronger attacks, having a chance to test them out. That sorta thing.”
“Ah. Right, I guess if you’d wanted to win quickly you would have had better ways to.” That giant snowball, or something like it, comes to mind.
“Yeah, and it’s not like Meiling would be helpless either, if I tried. You didn’t see what her hat says, didja? Uh, don’t check now.” She quickly adds, as you stick your head out to the side and nearly have it taken off by an energized fist.
“But anyway, point is. Freezing things solid? I’m good at that, really good at that, already. Freezing frogs, lakes, bullets even- that’s all easy, and not something I really need training in. Heck, I can freeze
fire if I time it right, you can’t go much higher than that.” Cirno pauses, knocking away several rapid strikes of Meiling’s and tossing an icicle at her. “Well, lasers are still kinda problematic, I guess, but that’s not the point.”
“Please don’t try and freeze Marisa’s Master Spark again. That’s just never going to end well.”
“Givin’ a speech here, Dai!” Cirno calls over her shoulder, before refocusing on the battle. “The point, and I really mean it this time, is that these? Actual fights, danmaku or physical? Those are the things I can still lose at, things I need work on, and Meiling’s nice enough to help me with them. Actually help, not just ‘let’s-attack-the-stupid-fairy-because-she’s-in-the-way’ kind of help. And with her help, I’ve been able to improve, and get stronger. I’m not saying that winning’s not important, or that you should always hold back like that dollmaker, but it’s better to lose and get a lot stronger for it than to win and get nothing. Because eventually, if you keep working to overcome your weaknesses and don’t give up, then they’ll all be gone. That’s what it means, that’s what it really takes, if you want to be the strongest.”
“So, just because I could do something like this…” She slams the ground with both palms. There’s a cracking, keening sound, and a field of jagged ice columns sprouts up from the ground, leaving gaping holes around you two and Meiling.
“Or this…” Cirno stretches her hands up, there’s an aquamarine flash of light, and an enormous mass of ice, shadow encapsulating all of you, materializes in the air above them. She effortlessly tosses the miniature glacier to your right, and the earth shudders as it slams into the ground, making you stumble.
“…It’s a lot more rewarding to manage this.” As her icicle field fades away
what, is it evaporating?, Cirno zips in close to Meiling, dodging a jab, a hook, a kick, and slams a double-palmed blow into Meiling’s chest, blasting her backwards into the gate and sending sparkling shards of ice flying everywhere.
Cirno remains in that pose, arms outstretched, for a few seconds, before sighing and turning back to you. “So, think you get it?”
“…” You nod hesitantly, then with a bit more confidence. “Yeah, I think so. Thanks, Cirno, for that...impassioned speech of yours.” Even if you don’t really see the point of many things she said, the general point is clear. You’d gotten caught up in beating her
just like with that tree, right? That was smart… , but you should be seeing this as a learning opportunity. That was one of the reasons you’d decided to participate, after all.
“Good, because here she comes again!” Meiling’s gotten up, leaving the gate a bit dented where she impacted, and a pale glowing aura surrounds her body. Cirno rushes forward to meet her, forming a sphere of ice in one hand.
You inhale deeply, and close your eyes for just a moment- you can afford to, Cirno’s keeping Meiling occupied.
All right, then, er… non-growing voice. Care to show me what you can do? Oh, thank you, I thought you’d never ask. Right, let’s give this a try… A wave of chilling energy, this time, floods over you. It’s not uncomfortable, exactly, just a distinctly odd feeling, and you shiver.
Okay, now go up and hit her. That, uh, didn’t work all that well the last time I tried it. Or the time before that, or the time before that- Just do it, it’ll be different this time. No it won’t, she’s useless to you. You ignore the latter voice, advancing on Meiling and Cirno. The former is still surrounded by that glow, and the latter has evidently coated herself in ice. To- match Meiling, counter her maybe? Whatever. With a quick propulsion of your wings, you close the distance to Meiling, lashing out with a kick-
And missing, as Meiling shifts her torso marginally to the side. You’d sigh if you had the time and weren’t distracted by the woman twisting towards you to counterstrike.
And feel…absolutely nothing. Meiling’s eyes widen in surprise.
Your managing to turn and chop her in the throat adds to this, you like to think. It seems to do approximately as much damage as her own attack, but it’s still the first hit you’ve managed to land.
So when she hits you uselessly it doesn’t count, but when you hit her uselessly it does? Shut up. “Whoa, what the-?” Meiling stumbles backwards half a step, staring at you. “How did you do that?”
“Well, you let your guard down, so I-“
“No, not that. The flow of your body’s chi just …froze, for a second. Completely stopped moving or changing. I’ve never seen anything like that before, I don’t think.”
…How on earth did you manage that? And why didn’t you before? Well, there wouldn’t have been any point with you-Oh! Meiling’s launched herself into that tornado attack from before, throwing off Cirno and beating her limbs against you repeatedly. You grit your teeth instinctively, but there’s no need: though you can see the contacts against your arms and torso, you still feel nothing.
…Phew, almost lost it for a second there. These attacks aren’t enough to break my concentration, though. No, really, we need an explanation here. What are you doing? Personally, I’m fine just knowing that this keeps me safe- Yes, well I’m not. Where did you get this ability? “Huh, so it looks like my normal techniques won’t do a thing against you, then. However you’re doing that with your chi, it makes you really resilient, especially for a fairy.” Meiling pauses, then grins. “Interesting. Guess that means I’ll have to try something with a bit more power behind it…”
That…still shouldn’t be an issue, right? I don’t have any reason to let you know. Perhaps I’ve always had it. No, if you had then you would have used it against me, and we wouldn’t have gotten into this in the first place. …Right? Hello? Meiling draws a Spell Card, holding it aloft, and it flashes. “Fiery Attaaack…”
…Well, you did catch me by surprise. Still, I don’t care to give you any more information. …No, I don’t care, I’m satisfied. If this failed you against me once, it won’t save you again. Will you two shut up and help me, ideally now- “「Roc-killing Fist」!” Her hand, now surrounded in a vivid rainbow ring, launches towards you-
What? Ohhhh, fu- The world explodes into blinding prismatic pain, centered on a fist-sized area of your chest. Your eyes overload and take this as their cue to shut down, your field of view shifting from all colors to none
black is still a color, you know. You remain dimly aware of wind rushing past and around your backwards-propelled body, buffeting at your clothes and chilling your body.
Ugh…No, that’s still me, actually. You’re welcome. You attempt to take a breath, and fail, bringing to your immediate attention that you’re still in pain. Incredible pain, in fact.
…Also my fault. It was this or being disintegrated, sorry. Oh, stop that already, the threat has passed. Let us heal. The chill lessens, and the agony permeating your body starts to dull. Rather more slowly than you’d like, admittedly, but it’s progress.
Your flight ends abruptly, head impacting against something soft and your body doing the same half a heartbeat later. A pair of arms, wrapped in white cloth, wrap around you as well. Looks like someone’s caught you mid-flight, that’s nice of them. Probably.
You hear a low, throaty chuckle, and the arms tighten around you.
That…sounds horribly familiar. Of something from a long while ago, but still… You crane your neck back, looking up. Your head is pressed against a yellow strip of cloth tied around a woman’s neck. She’s not wearing a dress, unlike every other person you’ve met so far, but rather a divided crimson garment, with darker crisscrossing lines spread over it, over a white piece of clothing. A pale pink parasol floats by her side, and you have the inexplicable feeling that it’s
alive, somehow. Looking up further, forest green hair frames knowing crimson eyes and a mature, lovely face.
And she’s smiling at you. Now, in most cases, this would be a reassuring thing to notice: most of your friends are prone to smiling, after all, and it’s a pleasant expression in all their cases. But while Star’s perpetual smile indicates a blasé contentment with her surroundings, or Cirno’s grin shows the bright confidence typical of her being...this woman’s mouth forms the grin of a predator, whose unsuspecting prey has just leaped neatly into their jaws and is struggling futilely to escape.
“My, my, my, my…”
Oh, no. Not her... What? Who is this supposed to be? As you stare into the woman’s blood-red eyes, you are filled with the rising feeling that running away, far away, would be an exceptionally good idea. If only you could.
“What do we have here~?”
