"Are you dead?"
Tenshi opened her eyes to meet a pair of wide, blue eyes staring down at her, and scowled at the stick the owner of those eyes had a moment ago been poking into her flesh.
"Sleep."
"What?"
"It's called sleep. It's nothing like death." Tenshi glared at the ice fairy looming above her. Looming, perhaps was something of a strong word; the ice fairy was too small to really loom over anyone except ladybugs. "What kind of an imbecile are you? And put that thing away!" She slapped the stick away and rolled over on the grass. She had come to this secluded field to be alone, not to be pestered by weaklings.
From the corner of her eye, she saw the ice fairy tilting her head. "You looked dead."
Tenshi scoffed. "Yes, I bet you're an expert on the subject of death. Listen, just because you little gits pop your clogs the moment someone as much as stares at you nastily doesn't mean you actually know anything about death." No point in starting with pleasantries. The fairy would come to hate her sooner or later, and it would be easier for them both if it were sooner.
"I don't wear shoes," the ice fairy said, looking down at her muddy feet.
Tenshi rolled her eyes. "It's called an idiom. Listen, you brat—"
"Cirno," the brat insisted.
"Cirno. Whatever. Listen." Tenshi propped herself up on her elbow and beckoned Cirno over.
Cirno leaned forward. "What is it?"
"Come closer. This is very important."
Cirno obeyed, with the credulous faith of a child. Tenshi kept gesturing at her until she was right by her, then brought her hand to her ear as if to whisper.
"Get lost!"
Cirno jumped into the air as she yelled and staggered backwards, hand on ear. Soon, the initial shock faded, and she glared at Tenshi with all the indignation the little fairy could muster.
"Wanna fight?"
Tenshi chuckled. "Is that really what you want to go with?" Despite herself, she was starting to be entertained. The only reason she had left Bhava-Agra for the day had been to be anywhere else but there, and all she had expected from Gensoukyou was a peaceful nap underneath the clouds. Certainly, some sort of amusement, no matter how dull, would serve to break the bleak monotony of her heavenly existence better far better than the empty corridors and grey fields of her dreams.
Cirno puffed out her chest. "Yes it is. You're being a jerk, and I'm going to beat you up to make you less of a jerk."
Unable to control herself, Tenshi threw her head back and laughed. This was some of the of the best comedy, unintentional or not, that she had seen in years.
"You're really challenging me?" she asked, pretending to wipe away tears of laughter. "You, some puny fairy from Gensokyo, up against a celestial?"
Cirno didn't appear the least bit stymied or hesitant. Although she briefly knitted her brow she soon beamed at Tenshi, hands on her hips. "Yup! Bring it on"
Tenshi snorted, and made the effort to sit up properly, hands in grass. "Nice attitude you have there. I don't know whether I should be impressed or insulted, or if it's merely sheer mindless bull-headedness."
Cirno glared at her. "Are you mocking me?"
"That's my line, squirt," Tenshi replied, rolling her eyes. "Look, even if you're the strongest fairy in Gensokyo— "
"I am. The name's Cirno"
Tenshi snorted. "I heard you the first time around. The strongest fairy in Gensokyo, huh? Kudos." Based on the look of dismay, even Cirno could tell her words were dripping with sarcasm. Tenshi shook her head. "However, that doesn't mean you can hold a candle to me." She stretched her arms and yawned, then leaned back down, keeping her head up with her hand. "Do you really understand what I am?"
Cirno frowned. "You said you're a celestial."
"So you do have basic hearing comprehension, after all. Good for you. Now, do you actually know what 'celestial' means?"
The frown deepened. "That you live in the clouds?"
"Bzzt!" Tenshi lied back down. "Sorry, but that's not the answer we were looking for."
Cirno blinked rapidly. "But you do live in clouds! Letty said so, and Letty's never wrong!"
Tenshi yawned. She was quite awake now, really, but she hoped to get a rise out of Cirno by feigning utter disinterest. "Letty, whoever that is, isn't completely off-base. However, if there is only one thing you know about celestials, it ought to be something else. She turned on her back and landed the soles of her feet firmly on the ground. Then, with one supple motion, she pushed herself up and straightened up to her full height, towering above Cirno. To her credit, Cirno didn't back down, but kept staring at her. "The real thing you need to know about celestials is that we're more powerful than anyone on earth."
Cirno stared at her. "You lie."
Tenshi grinned maliciously. "Oh, indeed? Do you need proof?"
Cirno folded her arms and stuck her chin up. "Yeah."
Tenshi laughed. The more apparent and seemingly fathomless Cirno's foolishness proved to be, the more Tenshi began to enjoy herself. It was certainly a change of pace: while she did scorn the majority of the inhabitants of Bhava-Agra, their idiocy was of a completely different calibre than that of the earthling ninny before her. "You really know nothing of celestials, do you?" she asked, casually picking up the Sword of Hisou, which she had deliberately left out in the open while she slumbered in hopes something interesting would happen, from the grass. Cirno looked on, still glaring at her fearlessly. "I suppose you do not, if you assumed me dead."
"You didn t look like you were breathing."
"You didn't look close enough. However, while I can't cure your idiocy, I can enlighten you on this matter: celestials cannot die."
"Oh." Cirno digested this new information for a moment. "Are you fairies too?"
Tenshi tossed her hair over shoulder. "Hardly. What happens is that whenever our so-called natural lifespan is depleted, the Ministry of Right and Wrong sends some poor sap to collect our souls. You can guess how well that goes."
When Cirno made no response and merely stared at her, Tenshi sighed. "No shinigami can match a celestial." That wasn't entirely true, but Cirno didn't need to know that. "We simply defeat them and continue on our merry way. What does that say to you? More importantly to you at the moment, my little friend," she leaned in closer grinning as evilly as she could, "What chance do you think you have against me? If I choose to do so, I can simply annihilate you. Danmaku rules? Who's going to stop me if I choose to break them? There is no-one around here who can stop me." Again, Cirno seemed to accept the lie without as much as blinking her eyes. "The shrine maiden who claims to sort out incidents? I defeated her without breaking a sweat."
Cirno stared aback at her obstinately "I'm not scared of you."
"I can't say I'm surprised." Tenshi examined her fingernails, carelessly waving the sword in her other hand in a small arch. "Have you ever heard the saying 'fools rush in where angels fear to tread?'"
Cirno looked on, unblinking. "Still not scared of you."
"Indeed? Is that strength, or merely another sign of blithering idiocy?" Tenshi lowered her blade. "Go on, then. Show me what you've got."
Cirno blinked. "Huh?"
Tenshi spread her arms to her sides, leaving herself wide open. "Attack me. Any way you prefer. Show me if you can do as much as a scratch."
Cirno stared at her with her mouth open. "What? Really?"
"Really. Show me what the strongest fairy in Gensoukyou can do."
Cirno still looked puzzled. "But hurting is painful. Why would anyone want that?"
Tenshi rolled her eyes, yet chuckled. "Hurting is painful? I wasn't aware you were a poet on top all your other accomplishments. How old are you?"
"Dunno."
"Assuming you have some decades under your belt, you must know that sometimes, there are times when absolutely nothing happens?" When Cirno nodded, Tenshi continued: "Now imagine one of those boring moments, but instead of lasting hours they last for years and decades and centuries, and never truly go away. Imagine that nothing ever changes, no matter what you do, and it keeps going until you think you're going to die out of boredom, and then it goes further? But you won't die, even then, even though you're starting to believe landing in Hell would be less of a torture than life in Heaven."
Cirno stared at her with a look of apprehension. Perhaps Tenshi had spilled too many of her personal thoughts. But then, what did she care? Who would the stupid fairy tell, and even if she did, what difference would it make? If anything, she felt some of the hideous weight that made it so difficult for her to breathe fall off. She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Imagine all that, and perhaps you'll understand why sometimes pain is better than monotony." When Cirno made no response, she grinned. "Not that you can come even close to hurting me. However, if you can somehow accomplish that, you will truly be the strongest fairy in Gensoukyou, if not of all time."
That did the trick. Cirno's eyes immediately narrowed, and she stood up to her full height. "Oh yeah? Just you wait! I'm going to freeze the blood on your veins!"
Tenshi chortled and brought the Sword of Hisou in front of her. "Ready whenever you are."
As soon as she had finished saying those words, she was pelted by a barrage of tiny ice shards. However, what the assault had in spontaneity and volume, it lacked it strength: the shards did nothing but tickle Tenshi.
"That's it?" she asked incredulously. "That's all the strongest fairy in Gensokyo can manage? No wonder everyone looks down on you."
"I'm just getting started!" Cirno replied, grinning. She didn't appear nearly as nettled as Tenshi had expected: in fact, as soon as she had began to create ice it was as if all of her previous irritation had melted away, and now there was room for nothing but the sheer enjoyment of using one's abilities the way they were intended to be used.
Tenshi laughed derisively. "Oh yes? What are you going to do, turn the ice shards into snowflakes? I'm shaking in my boots"
"You'll see!"
True to her words, Cirno soon created something more impressive: a large snow cone appeared in the miasma of ice surrounding her, not dissimilar to a dagger, looking very sturdy for something that was nothing but water and a little magic. It twirled in the air in front of Cirno, and with an energetic flick of her wrist, Cirno sent it flying towards Tenshi.
Tenshi raised her arms, and the ice dagger hit her at full force right between her ribs. For an instant, she almost felt something. The dagger, having lost its momentum, fell, and ricocheted from her boot onto the grass. Tenshi raised her foot, and snapped the dagger in half with one merciless stomp of her boot. The dagger showed some resistance, more than Tenshi had expected, but based on the look on Cirno's face as the broken shards flew through the air, not as much as the ice fairy had expected.
"Very well, you have now showed me more or less what I expected. Unfortunately, I expected you to utterly disappoint me. Is that it, then?"
"You want more?" Cirno laughed cheerfully, like it was a pleasantly sparring match between friends and not an affront to her and her entire race. "Okay, let me show you the final form of that attack! Ice Sign: Ice Lance!"
The miasma of frost intensified once more, to the point where Tenshi could barely make out the outlines of her opponent. The mist solidified into another dagger, then kept building up from there: the dagger became a spear, then a lance, taller than Cirno was high, taller than Tenshi herself. Beaming with pride, Cirno waved her hands until the lace was aimed squarely at Tenshi, then focused intently.
"Catch this!" she bellowed, and with one push hurled the lance at Tenshi.
Tenshi rolled her eyes. If the dagger hadn't hurt, a larger version of the same rot wouldn't either. Thus, instead of waiting for the lance to hit, she braced herself of swift movement and brought her hands to her front. One dodge, one grab would be all she needed to completely humiliate Cirno.
Effortlessly, Tenshi dodged the ice lance just before it collided with her. Then, with a near instant movement, she turned and caught the lance at her free hand, countless years of practice put into combat to ameliorate the drudgery of existence paying off wonderfully. Or rather, depressingly, as the moment she caught the lance she dreamed it could have pierced her heart instead.
"Pathetic," she snarled, disgusted with both Cirno and herself. She shouldn't have expected anything from a fairy, after all, but it was still disappointing to find out she was full of nothing but hot air. "Is that really the best you can do?"
Cirno pushed her chin up. "You say that, but that ice is unbreakable! Nothing but sunlight can beat it!"
Tenshi snorted. "We shall see about that." She took a firm grip of the lance and squeezed it tightly, intending to shatter it into innumerable pieces.
The ice wouldn't crack. Tenshi narrowed her eyes and squeezed harder.
Nothing. The ice remained as solid as ever.
Snarling, Tenshi began putting actual effort into her grasp, her grip like a vice. She glared at Cirno confidently, knowing she still had more than enough strength in her body to get through the task, but simultaneously pleased that the ice fairy had managed to surprise her after all...
She suddenly felt a horrible stinging pain as her palm was cut open, and relaxed her grip, eyes widening. She took the lance into her undamaged hand, wincing a little as it had been rather deeply embedded into her hand, and looked at the damage it had done.
In her grip, the honed edges of the lance had grown sharper and sharper, and due to the strength of the ice it had became sharp enough to cut deep into her flesh. She looked in amazement at the shallow cuts just beneath her fingernails, and with nostrils flaring at the sight of the deep, jagged line slicing her palm wide open. Droplets of crimson blood fell onto the blades of grass below, and she turned her palm downwards to allow the blood flow freely. It no longer hurt, but it still stung, in a way that was both mortifying and absolutely wondrous.
She looked at Cirno with new eyes. The ice fairy had her hands on her hips, and she looked at Tenshi with a serious expression unbecoming on her childish face. To think that this brat could conjure up something that could draw her, Tenshi Hinanawi's, blood!
"What was your name again?" she asked, discarding the ice lance.
Cirno puffed up her chest. "Cirno."
"Yes. Cirno." Tenshi squeezed her damaged hand shut, and idly looked at the blood oozing out of her closed fist. "I will remember your name." A dark, vengeful part of her wished to now show Cirno the full extent of her offensive output and mop the meadow with her. On the other hand, the part of her entrenched in ennui and desperate for any surprises was so impressed by Cirno that it wished to leave the silly fairy alone for at least the time being. She ought to leave some excitement for another day. "You have now been promoted from a pointless pest to a nuisance. So hail to you," she made a mocking bow with a flourish, but discovered to her great surprise as she bowed her head that she partially meant it. "Cirno, the strongest of all fairies."
Cirno beamed proudly. "Told ya so! Will you come play again sometime?"
Tenshi glowered at Cirno, but with an ever-spreading smile that appeared to be all Cirno saw, as her own smile remained unchanged. "Oh, yes. I will be certain to come and play again." She stroked the still bleeding cut in her hand with the fingers of the same hand, and raised them to her eye level, now dyed red, looking at them with wonder.
Cirno frowned. "Do you need something for that cut?"
"Hmm?" Tenshi shook her head. "No. I like it this way." When Cirno's frown only deepened, she smile. "So, until we meet again..." With one leap, she left Cirno, the meadow, and all of Gensokyo behind.
Tenshi sat up in her cot and looked out of the round window of her room. A pale moon, closer to Heaven than to any inch of Gensokyo, loomed in the horizon, casting the gardens and buildings in a nigh ethereal light. In a distance, she heard the sound of the never-ending carousing and merriment of her brethren: laughter, music, snippets of song.
Tenshi curled back into her bed, the black ball of hatred she had been nursing in her chest coiling out and feeding her thoughts. Her bed was sickeningly soft, the endless pure white pillows and heavenly soft covers a paradise all to themselves. In that instant, she wished nothing more than to tear them apart and lie down in a pit of burning coals instead. She curled up into a foetal position, trying to drown out the happy sounds that felt more like stabs than anything the little ice fairy had managed.
Her mind drifted back into the afternoon. The pain from the blade of ice, the clear-cut wound it had cut into her flesh, had been honest and cleansing, nothing like the insidious pain of averted gazes and the shunning of other celestials. With that pain, she had momentarily forgotten all else but the crimson drops falling into the grass, more beautiful than rubies.
The sounds of celebration grew louder, and the light of colourful paper lanterns merged with the light of the moon. Tenshi smothered her head beneath her mountain of pillows and dreamt of a swift retribution to everyone around her. She would cut down everyone for ignoring her and made fun of her, or simply for not loving her as far as her parents were concerned like her parents had, until the laughter finally ended and all of Bhava-Agra was utterly soaked in blood.
Just before she fell asleep, she saw in her mind's eye again the ice fairy, the cocky, but honest grin on her face, her boastful pose, and the strange kind of purity that Paradise despite all of its claims lacked. Most of all, she recalled the wonderful, clean pain, which she visualised as a beautiful white flame, untainted by Heaven's hypocrisy.
She unconsciously touched her palm, and the wound that had already scarred over. When she woke up, it would be nothing more than a memory.
Yes, she would pay Cirno another visit. As soon as possible, in fact.
And with that thought, she finally drifted to the land of sleep.