/jp/ - Otaku Culture

Pic rel: better days
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Although the three fairies of light knew of him, Cirno had never met Genji; the old turtle that lived behind the shrine; some of the other fairies said he had been with Reimu until the vampire incident. She had heard turtles lived for a long time, so it was a bit disorienting for the first turtle Cirno had ever met to be a dead one who retired before she even met Reimu in what seems like so few years ago.

But somebody had to take care of the body. Okina said some things Cirno hadn’t really understood, but he needed a funeral. Apparently, Okina had known him as well. Cirno wished she had interacted more with the previous shrine maidens. She probably would’ve met Genjo then; she wondered if they would have been friends.

He didn’t look dead; most of the dead things Cirno had seen were fairies, skeletons, and the undead, but Genji just looked like he was asleep. She didn’t know if she wished Reimu kept in contact or not. Reimu gave her conflicting feelings. She didn’t know what to think about, were they even friends? Or was that something Cirno had made up? Either way, she hoped Reimu appreciated her get-well package; she had put a lot of effort into it.

“Hey!” Cirno jumped as she heard two voices sound out in unison. Turning around, Cirno saw those odd humans Okina kept around. “The body isn’t going to freeze!” Siad one as she thrust her plant into the air, “Yeah!” The other one said as she followed with her own plant.

“Fine, you too, just give me some space,” Cirno said as she fluttered her wings, moving away from the rock on the edge of the pond the giant turtle rested on. She couldn’t just freeze him in a block of ice. Preserving a corpse was more delicate than that, and she’d have to be careful to preserve as much of the tissue as possible. She already had some experience with frogs, and Okina had some dead rodents to practice on. Luckily, her fine control had improved after her contract with Okina.

Casting a ray of delicate frost at the body, as soon as it made contact, Cirno started calibrating the ray, slowly changing it into a cone. Slowly, she flew around the body, covering from every angle surrounding the corpse in a fine, chilly mist and cooling the body. Then Cirno created a thin pane of ice, which she slid under the body. Slowly, she lifted the corpse with her magic.

“Just lead it over her behind this tree; we’ll get the back door open.” The smiling doujis said simultaneously as they skipped behind a tree.

Following their instructions, the trio disappeared and entered the world of backdoors.

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“You could come to the funeral if you want,” Okina said as Cirno finished putting Genji’s body into storage.

“Huh?” Cirno asked, surprised. “Those three friends of yours will already be attending. If you also promise to behave, I see no reason why you can’t. Others might be there depending on other factors.” Okina answered with a calm expression as she gestured with one hand.

Cirno stood still for a moment before thinking. She felt guilty, or maybe she was anxious about what she was about to ask, but she did not know why. “I-I want to say goodbye to Anon, and I don’t want my last memory of Reimu to be a bad one,” Cirno said. Okina could only nod in response to the fairy’s request.

Closing her eyes as she nodded her head, Okina sat still for a moment as her hand rested on her chin. “That’s fine, Cirno, although this wish of yours depends on the success of another one of our allies. I hope you understand,” Okina said in a soft tone.

“I-” Cirno stuttered for a moment beforesaying. “Thank you, ma’am.” Cirno as she bowed to the secret god.

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This ended up being a sadder than I wanted it to be, but I liked the tragedy of Genji's death and though it'd pair well with Cirno since I tend to write her as more introspective. Especially now that she's older and that Okina element had probably boosted her cognition. This is also pretty influenced by Cirno's phantasmagoria of flower view story.
Okina's being pretty sincere here by the way, she's a creep, but she's not entirely heartless.