Mentioned Characters: Cirno

There's a leisurely little world out there full of odd creatures known as yukkuris. Turns out, they're not living beings at all. They inherit certain traits from their master and make odd little sounds like "yu-yu" or "yukkuri!" Nobody's ever quite figured them out. But even though yukkuris can't speak like people do, they perfectly understand every word their masters say. Yukkuri Cirno is one of them. "C'mon! Follow me, Cirno!" is what Yukkuri Cirno intended to say, but all that Cirno heard was: "Yuyuyuu! Yu-yuyuyu, yukkuri!"

Cirno is an ice fairy who lives near the Misty Lake, a self-proclaimed strongest fairy, and famously not the brightest. "I'm right behind you, Yukkuri Cirno!" she called out, chasing after Yukkuri Cirno's mysterious cry of "Yuyuyuu!" almost as if she'd understood every word of it. "Watch out, there's a bucket rolling around over there!" Yukkuri Cirno warned, and Cirno grinned back, "Thanks for the heads-up! I almost stepped on it." The whole exchange looked like a perfectly normal conversation, which made it easy to forget that Cirno couldn't actually understand a single word Yukkuri Cirno was saying.

Supposedly, Cirno never stops to think things like "yukkuris obviously can't talk." She doesn't bother trying to figure out what Yukkuri Cirno's thinking. Not one bit. That's why there's not a hint of hesitation when she talks with Yukkuri Cirno, and somehow it really does look like they understand each other completely. Maybe it's actually her not being the brightest fairy around that makes it all work. "Time for a snowball fight!" "OK! Can I use frozen frogs?" "Hm... Nope!" The conversation has no business making sense, yet somehow it does, and telling which lines belong to Cirno and which to Yukkuri Cirno is anyone's guess.

Snowball fights are, by definition, about throwing snowballs. But when an ice fairy and her yukkuri started throwing snowballs using their ability to manipulate cold, it stopped being a snowball fight and turned into a battle of bullets. Frozen frogs, icicles, all sorts of solid objects that they'd decided were banned were flying through the air, and it was way too dangerous. Then again, that just proved they hadn't understood each other at all. Sensing a fun battle of bullets brewing, the fairies of the Misty Lake started joining in too, flinging shots around however they pleased. Cirno's igloo-shaped house got chipped away piece by piece by the bullets. And every spot Yukkuri Cirno slammed into got carved right out. The other fairies weren't playing by any rules and had turned Yukkuri Cirno into the biggest, most out-of-control snowball on the field.

"Hey, knock it off! Yukkuri Cirno isn't a ball!" Cirno reined in the fairies who'd gotten a little too carried away with their own "snowball bullets." She really did earn that self-proclaimed strongest title. She might have been the fairy everyone loved to make fun of, but around here, Cirno genuinely was the strongest. Yukkuri Cirno wasn't nearly as strong, but she still wore a confident little smirk as she said, "Don't you dare think you can toy with the strongest yukkuri around!" If nothing else, her attitude was the strongest thing about her. Meanwhile, she was still being tossed around by the fairies like a ball. "...Look, Cirno. I blasted through some stuff over there and a Seal Crystal fell out." "Whoa, Yukkuri Cirno! You found a Seal Crystal! Let's play beach ball with it!" "In the snow? You're such a weirdo, Cirno, I love it." And through this entire exchange, all Yukkuri Cirno ever actually said was "Yuyuyu... yuu!" Somehow, the two of them still hit it off perfectly, and dashed off along the wintry lakeshore with the Seal Crystal in hand. They really were the strongest, in their own way.