[Brain Drain, Semi-Twinning]

Whenever Gensokyo wasn’t thrown into turmoil as a result of yet another troublesome incident, the many Youkai and Fairies that inhabited it were usually up to no good. Nothing too bothersome that would lead to humans getting in trouble, but enough that people would raise an eyebrow in response.

One of these Fairies, Cirno, was well-known for her attempts to flaunt and brag about her strength. If there was one thing she thought was more important than anything else, it was how strong she was. And she liked to brag about it too, as anybody that ever met her would know.

However, after being brushed off by so many people, she had finally started using that brain of hers. Fine, if they weren’t going to listen to her when she came by and said hi, then she’d make them listen in her class. That’s what that Keine lady did to all the kids in the village, and they listened to her, so clearly that should work for her just the same.

It was thanks to this train of thought that a ‘classroom’ popped up at the edge of the frigid Misty Lake, complete with shoddy chairs and tables, and a blackboard where Cirno could draw anything she wanted on it. She even got herself a pair of glasses that made her look super duper smart, just so she could make sure that everyone listened to her.

“Okay, I’ve got everything I need! Now I can show Gensokyo that I’m the Strongest!” The young ice fairy cried out gleefully… only to realize something was off. The slightest, most crucial thing that an idiot like her could’ve overlooked.

She didn’t have any students. “Hmph! Guess they’re all too afraid to listen and get their world views shattered!” The proud little fairy pouted and huffed, her icy wings fluttering rapidly as they echoed her annoyed mood.

“Dai!” In a fit of fury, she called for one of her fairy friends, who popped up from behind the blackboard. “Find me some students! I need to have somebody to talk to, I can’t just teach you that I’m the best!”

The green-haired fairy commonly called ‘Daiyousei’ for her larger stature compared to her fellows, nodded rapidly as she fluttered off. She was always happy to help her friend, and she had just the idea in mind for guests. Somebody that could really help show that Cirno was the best of the best!

She just hoped that they wouldn’t beat her up as soon as she stopped by…

---

By the time that the larger fairy came back to the makeshift classroom, the icy fairy had fallen asleep, no doubt tuckered out by waiting. But if she had bothered to stay awake, she would’ve noticed that her friend had gathered a proverbial jackpot’s worth of figures that she could impress.

“I can’t believe you’ve talked me into this.” The dry voice of Patchouli Knowledge left her lips as she adjusted her robes, dusting them off and shivering thanks to the cold air around her. “What can an ice fairy even teach one such as I? I’ve got no business listening to her rambling efforts unless she’s managed to conjure up a new form of magic for me to study.”

One of her companions chuckled in response, as a plaid-clad woman took a step towards one of the shoddy looking chairs. “Patchouli, you must know that fairies like them have no sense of self-preservation. If we don’t lend them an olive branch here and there, they end up wilting like a flower that’s been left unattended. We don’t want nature to disappear just because it’s been neglected, now do we?” The woman, Kazami Yuuka, seemed much more willing to visit. For some peculiar reason, unbeknownst to even the larger fairy that asked for her to come.

“Your rhetoric is charming, Yuuka, but we both know you’re just doing this because you owe that little firefly a favor.” The last of the visitors was possibly the strongest out of them, as she was a bonafide Youkai Sage. It was Yakumo Yukari, the Youkai that controlled the boundaries between everything. With her smile hidden behind one of fans, she shot a snide glare at her fellow youkai, exposing her rhetoric as an excuse to repay a favor.

The flower-attuned Youkai shot a glare back at her that simply said ‘Shut up’, making it clear that she didn’t want to talk about this any more than necessary. It was already strange enough that the three of them were listening to a meager ice fairy, she didn’t have to make it more humiliating.

“Cirno, Cirno! You have students!” Daiyousei cried out as she shook her friend back and forth to try and wake her up. If she was going to keep sleeping, the three powerful guests would leave and it would all be for naught..!

The blue-haired fairy drooled a little as she was shook all around, only for her eyes to finally pop open after she accidently got slammed against the table. “Wha? Dai? What day is it? Are we going off to eat at Mysti-” She asked, completely unaware of what she was doing… right up until she saw a certain triad sitting at their desks, her eyes lighting up with stars as her memory caught up with her. “Right! Teaching people how great I am! Thanks Dai!”

Her modest and larger friend nodded as she floated away, leaving the fairy with the hard-to-please crowd. Except for Yuuka, who was smiling as she rested her head on her hands. She did promise her little Wriggle that she’d help her and her friends out after their little… ‘incident’ a few weeks back, so this was just a way to repay her. Even if she assumed that all of this would be pure nonsense.

“How come you even got the idea to try and teach people in the first place, ice-brain?” Patchouli asked, only to narrowly dodge a piece of ice fired at her. “What’s the big idea!?” She shouted, cheeks red as she got hit with another small piece of ice that plinked off her forehead harmlessly.

Cirno cleared her throat and quickly wrote a couple of words on the blackboard in bold lettering. ‘DO NOT SPEAK WITHOUT PERMISSION’. “I learned that one from Miss Keine’s class, she always tossed chalk at me when I spoke without my hand up. So you better not do that again, smarty pants!”

The lavender-haired girl mumbled and grumbled under her breath, as the blonde Youkai by her side raised her hand. “Sensei?” Yukari chimed, playing into the whole schtick, just to see how far the fairy would take it. “What makes you think you are the strongest? I’m sure that you’ve done a lot of things, but that’s why you’re teaching this class, isn’t it? Can’t you tell us everything?”

“Hmph! Looks like there’s somebody that actually knows how to follow orders! Take a lesson from her, smarty pants!” The proud fairy chimed, her ego being stroked by the particular words that the gap-wielding Youkai used. “Anyway, of course I’m the strongest! I can freeze like, a hundred frogs at once! That’s the strongest freeze that’s ever been done, the most Perfect of freezes!” She beamed with pride over something so benign, giggling all the while…

Yuuka clapped along to the young fairy’s explanation, though she was starting to feel a chill along her thighs. Was it really getting so cold? She knew that the Misty Lake was known for its colder environment compared to the rest of the region, but this was a little ridiculous. “Very impressive, Cirno-Sensei.” She spoke up, before clearing her throat a little as she tried to ignore the chill. “I just have one question, why are frogs that important? They seem harmless, like any other part of nature.”

“They’re very important! They cause no greater amount of trouble than the shrine maiden on her days off!” Cirno proclaimed as she yanked a frozen frog out from underneath her dress, plopping it down on her desk. “If I hadn’t frozen this fella, you would’ve all been spooked and licked in inappropriate places, so you better thank me!”

Patchouli narrowed her eyes as she raised her hand, avoiding another shard of ice slapping her face. “Ci-... Sensei.” She caught herself using the wrong name, not wanting to be hurt again. Even if her mind agreed that calling the fairy Sensei was the right thing to do, since she was clearly strong enough to warrant it. Even if that thought seemed awfully suspicious. “Surely you’ve done more than beat frogs, right?”

“Of course I have, smarty pants!” The fairy laughed as she pulled out a picture from her pocket, revealing a strange silhouette frozen in a block of ice with the fairy standing on top of it. “The biggest and baddest frog tried to attack me one day, but I froze her solid and got away without being hurt! Too bad she had some weird other snake friend, but I would’ve beaten her too if I had the chance!”

Yukari’s eye focused on the figure within the ice block, realizing that maybe the young fairy’s words weren’t completely fabricated. The girl in the ice was the Goddess Moriya Suwako, who presided over the shrine atop of the Youkai Mountain. if she had been bested by a mere fairy… No, by the Strongest Fairy, then maybe she was actually listening to somebody better than most. Maybe she should be listening more carefully…

“Sensei, sensei!” Yuuka chimed once more as she held her hand up high, not noticing that her usual plaid dress had gotten shorter the more the cold flooded over her body. In fact, it looked almost like the dress that her teacher wore, just with the colors that she preferred instead. “Have you beaten anything else besides a strong frog? Weren’t you working together with the Shrine Maiden a little while ago when the seasons were out of control? My flowers wept, but when they heard you were helping, they cheered!”

Cirno’s eyes lit up in response to the praise from the flower Youkai, making her grin from ear to ear. “I see I’m loved even by nature! See, I really am the strongest! You really should just all say it out loud, and it’ll be true! Try it!” She chimed, flying high into the air and letting the sun refract through her icy wings as it beamed down on the three youkai.

All three of them were unaware of what was happening to them, thanks to being engrossed and invested in what the fairy was telling them. None of them had realized that they all wore an identical outfit to the strong teacher flying above them, nor did they realize that the cold was freezing away any resemblance of independent and critical thinking. They were basically becoming fairies in all but name as they giggled along. “Cirno’s the Strongest!” They chimed in unison, pumping their fists into the air…

“That’s right! I’m the best of the best!” The small fairy laughed as she landed on the ground again, pride beaming from her expression. “Your teacher’s so strong that she’s even managed to beat Marisa during another incident! She was surprised and humbled by my strength, and I gave her another beating or two for causing trouble! That’s right! I beat one of the two incident solvers, aren’t you proud of your teacher?”

Patchouli, already having grown starstruck and losing most of her smarter aspects that made her resist and loathe the fairy in front of her, gasped loudly alongside her fellow students. “You beat Marisa? You really are the strongest!” She giggled like a complete ditz, utterly proud of having such a strong girl like her as a teacher…

Her other two students nodded along as they both got up from their chairs, running towards their teacher with their formerly smart lavender-haired friend in tow. “Please! Tell us how we can become stronger! We wanna be the Strongest just like you, Cirno!” They cried out in unison, practically looking identical thanks to how their doubts and strengths had been frozen over.

“If you wanna be strong, you gotta be proud of yourself and freeze everyone! That’s how you become strong!” Cirno chimed loudly and proudly as she crossed her arms. “But since you three can’t freeze anything, the best thing you can do to show your strength is to support me and get all your friends to come join and listen, so they can truly understand! You got that?”

The three degraded youkai nodded, each of them gathering their powers ever slightly to make wings that replicated the shape of their teacher’s. Whether it was the Philosopher’s Stone taking on different colors for Patchouli, Flowers in the shape of those six shards for Yuuka, or a set of bendable gaps for Yukari, each of them wanted to imitate the girl that they were so impressed with.

“We’ll be back with our friends, Cirno!” The would-be fairies laughed as they took off, disappearing into the distance as they obeyed her commands, not realizing that they had become nothing more than pawns to the young ice fairy… and she wouldn’t realize it either, since she was far too stupid to notice.

Cirno grinned as she threw her hands behind her head, proud of herself and her strength. She really did manage to convince them, and now they loved her so much that they wanted to be like her! It was great, she had proven that she was the Strongest to three of the other Strongest! Soon, she’d prove it to everyone else too!

Gensokyo would soon come to a common consensus, crowning Cirno the Strongest of them all, as her students shout her name to the heavens...