Chapter Text
Cirno flew ahead with Daiyousei following close behind her. A never ending sea of trees passed beneath the pair as they headed towards their ultimate destination. Up ahead, a pillar of steam rose up from a massive hole in the ground. Cirno flew straight towards it.
“Cirno, you really shouldn't do this,” Daiyousei said.
“I have to. I need to show that bird my true power,” Cirno replied.
“But, didn't you win last time?”
“No, I just escaped from her. I need to really beat her.”
“On her own turf?”
“Yep.”
Daiyousei sighed, then fell silent.
The pair reached the edge of the pit. The heat rising from the hole was already insufferable.
Daiyousei stopped at the edge, while Cirno continued forward.
“Cirno, wait!” Daiyousei called out.
Cirno flew downwards, ignoring Daiyousei's words. Cirno's eyes were locked forward like a dog staring at food. Even as the steam engulfed her, she kept going deeper and deeper.
After a short flight, Cirno landed at the bottom of the pit. She stood in the middle of the nuclear reactor, the belly of the beast.
The reactor was bathed in yellow light. A series of metal catwalks stretched out in all directions. They were the only place to stand over the infernal blaze beneath them. The heat was totally unbearable now.
“Alright, you big dumb bird! Come out and fight me!” Cirno yelled.
The reactor continued to hum. Cirno stood alone.
“I'm ready to fight!” Cirno screamed. “There's an obstruction in your reactor! Come clean me out!”
Cirno groaned. She was already sweating. Her eyes began to wander.
There was a door at the end of one of the catwalks. It looked almost exactly like the rest of the wall, but Cirno was able to spot it anyway. She didn't have anything better to look at.
Cirno put her hands behind her head and strolled over to the door. A paper note was taped to the door. It was soggy from steam, but still legible.
“Getting lunch. Will be back soon. Will clean reactor soon,” the note read.
“Are you kidding me?” Cirno muttered.
Cirno reached out to knock on the door. She swung her fist forward, then pulled it back a second later. She reeled away in pain. Her knuckles felt like she'd just pressed them up against an oven.
Cirno hadn't even touched the door, just gotten within a few inches. The pain in her hand subsided after a moment.
A large button sat next to the door. Cirno created a ball of ice in her hand. It was dripping in a matter of seconds. She threw the ball at the button, and hit her mark.
There was a loud buzz from some sort of intercom. The door slowly slid open, unseen machinery rattling and humming the whole way up.
Cirno didn't bother waiting for the door to finish opening. She walked right through it as it gradually pulled itself out of sight.
A long tunnel greeted Cirno. She walked forward, not closing the door behind her. The heat of the reactor faded away, and the orange glow was replaced by soft green lighting.
Eventually, Cirno entered some sort of control room. It was a large, open room. Desks with computers built into them were scattered around. There were too many lights, buttons, and meters for her to count.
Wrappers and empty cups sat on the desks. There were several overflowing trash cans dotted around.
Large screens dominated the walls. Cirno recognized one of them as some sort of temperature reading, another had a line graph.
The graph was green, everything seemed to be going well. One line was very high, while the other was at the bottom. It only had a few words on it, so Cirno decided to try and read it. It took several minutes.
“R-Road? Uh... That's an “L”, right?” Cirno muttered, thinking out loud.
“Load” was followed by some decimal number, Cirno could figure out it was less than one, at least. After that was “GW”. Cirno had already gotten bored with this line, so she just skimmed over it.
“Out...put?” Cirno muttered.
“Output” was followed by “4521097534004621123528 GW”. Cirno had no idea what it meant.
Cirno stared at the floor. She tried to make sense of what she'd read, but failed. Her eyes began to wander around again.
There was a big red button on one of the computers. Cirno decided to read that one.
“SCRAM,” the button read.
“I don't want to run away,” Cirno said.
There was another button, close to that one.
“Re-reactor... purgy... purjay?” Cirno said, reading aloud.
Cirno shook her head, then turned to the tunnel she'd come in through. She walked back to the reactor itself. She'd wait for the bird there.