Beta read by n1ch, Shigiya and Solitary heart.
Important note down below.
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Kuoh, Hachiman POV-
Living in modern times allowed most people to be connected with everything and everyone around the world.
News traveled in an instant, word spread around fast and nearly everyone was able to be kept up-to-date with the latest trends.
It is in this case that some people would judge others for not knowing of either a popular movie or hit song that came out a few days or weeks ago. Joking about whether they lived under a rock this whole time or what. A harmless jab that both parties knew the answer to–a joke between two people.
Yet here I stood or sat in this case at a local fast food restaurant, holding a cup of coffee which might kill me, if I consumed any more caffeine. Watching in fascination and disbelief as a young girl in her teenage years, who came all the way from Italy, trying to figure out how to hold a freakin burger.
I felt like those people who were staring at a exotic animal in a circus.
'Has she been locked in a room for all of her life?'
Not just the burger, even simple things like the road, the nearby buildings and even his smartphone awed the girl to an unbelievable extent. She behaved like a child who just left the house for the first time.
"Oh no, I broke it!"
Oh, she held the burger incorrectly and spilled everything on the plate. In her panic she tried reforming it but failed miserably, she even began adding her fries in it without noticing.
"I-I'm so sorry! I ruined the chef's dish!" To my horror, her eyes began watering with tears threatening to spill at any moment. The surrounding people even began giving me dirty looks, somehow thinking I was responsible for making her crying. "Please forgive me lord, for I have wasted perfectly good food!"
And now she was praying.
Good thing I wasn't a devil or else her prayers would have given me a killer headache.
I decided to help her out… again.
"Alright, alright stop your crying, Argento-san. Take my burger, I'll just put yours back together." I switched our plates and showed her the proper way to eat the meal.
She watched me in fascination as if I was in the middle of performing a magic trick.
"Muuuu!" The moment she took a bite of the burger, her eyes sparkled in delight, a radiant light appearing out of nowhere, as if to show off her innocences. With a bit of sauce on her lips she kept munching on her burger, humming in delight with each bite..
"This is so delicious! I never thought such amazing food could exist!" She grew excited after her proclomation, excitement nearly bursting from the young girl. "Thank you very much, Hikigaya-san! This is all thanks to God that I met such a kindhearted person!"
Jeeze, I never seen someone enjoy a burger this much?
"I can guess you never had a burger before, right?
She shook her head, "No I haven't, I only ate soup and bread everyday. On special occasions we would have pasta and some vegetables. Sister Bianca would always make the most delicious espagueti alfredo in town for my birthday!" Asia stated, her joy just seemed to intensify as she started to talk about this 'Sister Bianca'.
She started to eat her fries one by one. I gave her some ketchup, and was nearly blinded by her excitement.
'Is this her sacred gear?'
"You two must be close." As soon as I said that, her smile faltered a bit, showing me that I stumbled upon a sensitive subject.
"Yes… we were… " She mumbled quietly.
Shit, I need change the subject quick! "Umm, what about the pizza? I know Italy is very famous for it, surely you must have been to such places." Since she liked the subject of food, I tried to keep talking about it to get her out of this funk.
"Oh no, I always lived in the church and rarely went out. I could never leave someone in need of healing waiting just because I wanted to have some fun."
Wow, that is kind, maybe too kind in my opinion. Not many people are willing to give up their freedom to help others. Maybe this is expected from a nun.
'But still, her situation seems a bit excessive.'
After our small accident at the park, I came to know her name as Asia Argento–a nun from Italy. She asked me about needing directions to the local church, which further cemented her being the one we were looking for.
Before I could even give an answer, her stomach started to growl like a starving beast, that I thought it was Vritra for second. The poor girl became so embarrassed that she nearly fainted from both hunger and shame.
Honestly, this girl is too adorable for her own good.
I brought her to my favorite local diner, 'Restaurant Yukihira', a new place that opened about a year ago, which steadily began gaining popularity with its amazing food.
Not to mention it had a beautiful view of the Forest. Away from all the car noises and bustling people, this was an ideal place to relax and enjoy the delicious food.
Now that I think about it…
'Did I bring an unknown girl on a date before my girlfriend?' No, my mind refused to admit this as a date. There were no romantic feelings involved and this girl gave me more of the little sister vibe–just like Koneko, both are super adorable.
Man, if anyone heard me say that they think I'm creepy.
We just continued eating our meal, I reveled in the peaceful atmosphere, which I couldn't for the last few years. My mind is always preoccupied with the ongoing changes to my psyche after the incident. The growing intent on killing and destruction in general became a regular war of attrition, one side seeking to wear down and take over the other part.
I hide these facts from the girls, not wanting to reveal to them such an unnerving detail about myself. It would definitely worry them if they ever found out. The only person who knew of my case was Azazel, and I wondered if the reason he called me had anything to do with it.
I wasn't dumb, I knew the only who could definitely help me out for good was none other than Vritra. So I just needed to hold on, long enough for him to wake up.
At least that's what I previously thought.
Being near Asia made those feelings disappear for a while, no longer feeling those dark urges pressing down on me until I was crushed.
I just felt… at peace.
"Awoo!" I got cut off from my thoughts when I felt something brush against my leg.
Asia noticed my surprise, we both looked down below and noticed-
"A puppy!"
Yep beneath our table was a small dog who probably lived on the road due to the lack of any collar. It was wagging its tail at Asia while looking at her expectedly. And of course being the gentle soul she was, the nun shared some of her fries with the dog.
Not wanting her to give away everything she had and end up hungry once more, I shared some of my food as well. "May the lord bless you, Hikigaya-san! For you have shared your meal with this adorable stray." She said with a dazzling smile, making me feel self-conscious of my actions.
No, I was just making sure you don't give up all of your food instead.
As the small dog began eating my food, Asia noticed a small wound on the back of the dogs head and ears, "Oh no! It's wounded!"
Indeed it was, small blood patches stained it's fur far on the back of its head. Most likely from getting attacked by other wild animals or street dogs.
"Here, let me help you." Asia got off her chair and went on her knees as she brought the dog closer. The animal didn't resist her as he nuzzled at her touch.
"-!"
With her hand hovering on the dogs head, a green soothing halo of light surrounded the dog. With the two rings forming around her fingers, this green energy miraculously healed the dog's once grevious wounds in a matter of seconds.
She is using her scared gear!
I immediately scoured my brain of all the sacred gear description that matched what she was currently showing.
The healing type gear was extremely rare, in the thousands of different variations and unique gears only a very few held healing properties.
A shard of the Grail came to mind, I remember once of its effects being mending wounds and restoring life to an individual, but that wouldn't explain the two rings or the green coloured light.
It wasn't until I racked my brain even more that I finally remembered–Twilight Healing!
Yes, the green aura, the blessed ornaments–which in her case, took the form of rings. And that high speed regeneration that could heal all physical wounds.
There was no doubt in my mind.
"There, all healed." Asia rubbed the dogs on the head before it ran away, "Ah! Wait!"
Too late, the little bugger took the remaining fries before disappearing in the bushes. I never was a dog person, with my lazy attitude it would be impossible to raise one properly. With its high energy, the dog would pester me constantly for attention and force me to play with it or bring it for a walk...
Now that I think about it, wasn't Yuigahama basically one? She seemed to enjoy my headpats.
"That thing you did there..." I tried changing the topic, I wondered if she knew about the rogue Fallen's plan for her and the matter about her being abandoned. I prided myself as a good judge of character, even though it has failed me once in the past–I could read a persons character, most of the time.
This girl didn't even have an iota of evil intent or sinister plan in her being for me to grow apprehensive of. She just seem to radiate kindness and innocence like a damn beacon.
The moment I talked about her sacred gear, the glimmer in her eyes dimmed considerably. "Yes, it's the power to heal. It's a wonderful power that God gave me." She said with a fake cheerful smile–she couldn't hide her sadness from me.
"Are you not afraid that I'll report you to the police for performing magic in public? After all, this is not a normal thing you just did, no human can do that." I wanted to test her out first.
Her expression didn't change, she still looked up to me with that same pure smile, which felt wasted on me. A part of me wanted to reprimand her for being so nice to someone like me, it felt wrong receiving so much happiness and acceptance from other people.
"I do not have to worry." This feeling she gave me of peace and tranquility, did suppress the dark encroaching emotions and made me feel normal once more.
"After all,..." The pain that I stopped feeling about my deeds years ago, the guilt, the loss of Vritra and much more–began resurfacing slowly.
"...Hikigaya-san is a nice person!" She said with so much conviction and confidence as if to say that the sky was blue.
Yet I wholeheartedly disagreed with her.
…
After our lunch, I brought the young nun for a tour around Kuoh, to make her familiar with the place.
Just like I expected, she marvelled over the most mundane of things. The street food vendors, the vending machines, the park and even watched in fascination how the kids played in the arcades.
Guessing from her origin, I was certain she never got to visit or play around in an arcade. I don't know about other countries but in Japan these things were quite common.
I brought her to the game center, we played around the racing games with Asia treating it like a real life driving simulator.
"Ah-ah! I can't go so fast, it's above the speed limit!"
"Oh no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hit you!"
"Ahhhh! I'm going so fast, Hikigaya-san!"
"Lord forgive me for my reckless driving!"
"Huuuuuu, please help me Hikigaya-san." I couldn't help it and burst out laughing. I couldn't believe there existed someone so innocent and pure in the world. She's absolutely adorable!
Even when playing Road fighters, she would apologize to me for every hit she gave me. Everybody around constantly gave us weird looks. Seeing a teenage kid playing a beat up game with a remorseful nun was a weird sight.
When I went to exchange more coins, I couldn't find her in our last spot. Searching around for a bit, I saw her standing in front of a crane game.
'I went through enough dates in eroges and anime to know where this was going.' Even Rias would be proud of my way of thinking in this flag route.
"Is there something you want?" I said while showing off the bag full of coins.
"Hau! N-No... I-It's nothing." She tries to hide it. "You have done enough, Hikigaya-san. I don't want to waste more of your money and I'll promise to repay you back."
Young lady, if I ever demanded money from someone like you, I would literally punch myself in the face till I beat the douche out of me.
When I looked inside the crane game there was a pile of two different dolls–"Garf-kun" and "Rache-kun". The latter was a cute mascot based on a mouse. If I remember correctly, this character came from Japan but it's popular worldwide.
The other was a chubby looking cat with bored eyes and a fat belly.
"Asia, do you like Rache-kun?"
"Eh? N-No, t-that is not…"
Asia's face gets red, and she tilts her head downwards shyly. "I want Garf-kun…"
The fat bored looking cat? Sure why not, each girl has their own taste, I guess. "Okay. I will get it for you!"
"Eh? B-But…!"
"It's okay, I will get it." If anyone thought I would waste the entire coin purse on this damn machine couple with my horrible luck, they were damn wrong.
"Oi, Takagi!" I called out one of the people who worked here. His name was written on the badge so it was easy to call him out.
"Can I help you?"
"Listen, my luck sucks and I don't trust crane games in general cause we all know they are a scam. So I want to buy one of those the fat cat plushies." I told him straight, Asia was too distracted with the plushies to hear me out.
"I'm sorry sir, but you'll have to win-"
"20,000 Yen." I may have lost nearly all of my money with those phoenix tears bottle but I still had enough money to be considered well off.
"Uh-um, sir I-I don't think-"
"50,000 Yen." Why was I wasting so much money on a girl I just met today? I don't know, but my conscience refused to let her down.
"Ah-ah… sir ple-please." The poor guy began sweating nervously, but he was at his breaking point.
"80,000 Yen, no one will know about this, and you can keep the extra money to yourself while dumping the rest in the freaking machine." I gave him an ultimatum.
In the end the man broke under the pressure and opened the glass box of the crane.
"You can pick whatever plush you want, Asia."
She immediately snatched a Garf-kun plushie and held it close to her chest. "Thank you very much, Hikigaya-san. I will take care of this doll."
"Hey, if a plushie like that makes you happy, then I'll get you more next time." I could probably buy out their entire stock if I wanted.
Hey, don't look at me like that, this is what happens when you hang out with a redhead who has no concept of money and is super rich–you become like her in the end.
She shook her head.
"No, this Garf-kun that you gave me represents the wonderful day I met you. It also reminds me of you, Hikigaya-san."
Are you calling me a lazy fat cat?
In the end, I let that comment slide, she genuinely loved the plush and for me–that was more than enough.
…
After we were done having fun at the game center, I made sure to contact Kalawarna on Asia's living arrangements. She still doesn't know that the church no longer existed, so she would obviously need a place to sleep.
I got her confirmation a few seconds later, she would meet us soon enough and escort Asia to her new home.
"It's already evening? We played in the center for hours!" Asia said in surprise as we left the area.
"Ha! You kept giving away those coins we had left to those children, it's your fault they all invited us to play along." On top of being a pure hearted angel, Asia was also a bleeding heart. For every prize she won, she would give it away to a small kid who didn't win.
She gave away everything except for her Garf-kun plushie which she still kept holding onto tightly.
"It is my duty as a nun to help the young ones in any way I can." She said with a ernest smile, like it was natural for her to do this.
"..."
Sniff
My head whipped around to Asia only to find her starting to cry. Tears rolled down her face as her shoulders kept shaking.
"Asia, what's wrong!" I called her by her first name, but I didn't care about that. "Why are you crying?"
I gently brought her closer and gave her a hug like I used to do with Komachi when she used to be a small kid. I brought her to a nearby bench, and she calmed down after my efforts of comforting her.
"D-do I deserve such ha-happiness?" She asked, her voice still broken from her crying.
"Of course you do, why are you asking such a ridiculous thing?" I asked her, using my handkerchief to wipe her tears.
After a moment of silence, she told me a story about the girl who was once called the "Holy Maiden".
In a certain region in Europe, there was a girl who was discarded by her parents at such a young age that she couldn't even remember them.
She was raised in an Italian Church nearby, by a nun along with other orphans.
Ever since a young age, the girl was a devout follower of the God. She never missed a prayed, always adhered to his teachings and remained consistent with her lifestyle–always being grateful for what she had. And to the surprise of everyone, she awakened one of the lord's gifts at the age of 8.
Just like today, she healed a wounded puppy, and a person from the Catholic Church witnessed it by chance.
From there on, her life changed.
The girl was taken to the main Catholic Church and she was symbolised by many as a "Holy Maiden" because of her healing power.
She used her power to heal many believers and they were told it was a power of divine protection.
Rumours brought rumours and she was respected as a "Holy Maiden".
Even without her approval, she never thought of herself as someone important–she only wished to help people.
She had no dissatisfaction for how she was treated. People from the Church were kind and she didn't hate healing people. She gained happiness from healing others.
The girl was thankful to her power which was bestowed to her by God.
But she was a bit lonely.
She didn't have any friends she could open up to, her title placed her on a pedestal.
Everyone treated her nicely and was nice to her. But there was no one willing to become her friend. Even Sister Bianca treated her respectfully, but never as a friend.
She understood why.
She knew that they were looking at her power as something irregular.
They didn't look at her as a human but as a creature that could heal humans.
But one day, it changed.
By coincidence, there was a Devil nearby who was terribly wounded.
The girl couldn't ignore it and she healed the devil
She thought that even if it was a Devil, she had to heal it if it was injured. People are people in the end, no matter their race–she would always help them.
It was her kindness that made her take such an action.
But that changed her life forever.
One of the people from the Church saw that incident and notified others of the Church.
The ministers of the Church were shocked about it.
"A power that can heal Devils!"
"Something absurd like that cannot happen!"
"The power of healing can only heal the followers of God!"
Yes, there were several people who had the power to heal.
But the power to heal the Devil was out of the question. The people of the Church thought it was common sense that the power of healing doesn't work on Fallen Angels and Devils.
Apparently, a similar incident had happened in the past.
The power to heal Fallen Angels and Devils that were not protected by God. But that was feared as the power of a "Witch".
So the people saw her as a heretic.
"Damn witch can heal Devils!"
The girl who was respected as a Holy Maiden was then feared as a "Witch" and the Catholic Church abandoned her.
She didn't have anywhere to go and the organisation of "Stray Exorcists" picked her up.
In other words, she had to get divine protection from the Fallen Angels.
But the girl never forgot to pray to God. She also never forgot to thank God.
Even so, the girl was abandoned.
God didn't save her.
What shocked her the most was that there was not even a single person in the Church that was willing to defend her.
There was no one who cared about her.
"…It's because I didn't pray enough. It's because I'm clumsy. I'm so stupid that I can't even eat a burger by myself."
The girl, Asia, wipes her tears while letting out a laugh, but it sounded so broken and empty. A far cry from the girl who was enjoying herself a few hours ago.
.
.
.
.
'I'm going to kill them all.'
My blood boiled in rage, the madness which I usually kept at bay began surging like never before. Even with her presence by my side, I let that feeling crawl into me, inviting it's hatred and will to destroy.
Unbeknownst to me, the red crystal-like sphere which I once saw deep in my soul, began shaking.
A familiar violet sheen of light emerged from it's cracked crevices. Even deeper in my soul, in the phantasmal plane of existence where all sacred spirits resided, a giant snake like dragon who was asleep for years–showed signs of waking up.
Just as my anger was about to reach its peak–I felt her hand on my shoulders.
Immediately, in an instant, my anger was snuffed away like a candle in a snowstorm, making me cool down considerably. The madness itself was purified till it retreated back into the deepest corner of my being.
I felt like I've been taken out of a cold and deep ocean, and have the sun warm me up
"There is no need to be angry for me, Hikigaya-san." Said Asia, who probably noticed my anger but did not realise how close I was to loosing it.
I should.
"I do not deserve such a treatment."
You are wrong, you deserve so much more.
"I am a witch, I commited a grave sin, enough for the lord to abandon me."
Then I'll force him to acknowledge you again and make them apologize.
"I am a bad person."
Then what am I?
My wings materialized behind my back, much to the shock of Asia.
"You call yourself a witch? A sinner and a bad person? Then let me, a monster, tell you otherwise."
I took her hand, without an ounce of protest on her part and began the process of teleporting somewhere far away.
"A-Ano, you have a sacred gear as well?" Asia spoke, her voice awed by my wings.
"Yes, and I'll show you how wrong you are." After my location was set, the black magic circle enveloped both of us.
…
In a few seconds we found ourselves at a place surrounded by thousands of graves. All circling a huge memorial monument made of stone.
"Wha-where are we?" Asia wondered, staring at me with worry. Probably at the blank look on my face.
"Paris."
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I will not be posting more chapters for about a week or before the 12th. I will be working on writing more chapters for The legendary Saiyan in a fairy's world.
But you can read 4 chapters in advance weeks early on my p@treon at /NimtheWriter, you can get the next chapter for a buck.