Impish Ire;; Job w Strawberry

317 words of 2,400 words
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Fluffy had been out on another walk through the woods when she came upon a caravan of traders who were arguing among themselves about something. Upon sneaking closer to listen in on what was being said by the group? Fluffy found they happened to carry some questionable merchandise that would likely get them arrested if legal guilds noticed them, but they had a problem getting through the canyon due to some aggressive imps infesting the space, willing to pay but cautious to hire anyone outside of dark guilds due to the goods they carried. While she was from a legal guild herself? The female never had gotten any sort of solid idea about what sort of alignment she fell into guild wise, the Kasha was just happy if she ended up having some simple and enjoyable stuff to do within the day, missions if one were to call them such. The prospect of being able to exterminate the imps to keep herself busy today and get payed for the activity afterwards seemed perfect! Seemed she had found her task for this given day, detected what she would be doing until she decided to go back to the guild hall of golden phoenix.

"Excuse me, I believe I can help with your problem I may be feline but I am a mage, I'll go take care of the imps just pay me when I get back." she made the statement with a small smirk, using the brush around them to hide the tag on her collar so they would not see she was from one of the legal guilds and instantly spook into running. Having informed the caravan that she intended to take on the job? The female headed towards the mouth of the canyon, walking steadily towards it and stopping when she arrived there, so she could make sure nothing was amiss before running into things here.

Strawberry had been one of the formally hired attendants of this caravan. The people inside were affiliates (or rather... Subordinates) to the large hive mind that was Grim Heresy, but not so much by will rather than by force. So Strawberry, despite obviously not being able to fight, had been appointed to protecting those of the caravan. Maybe it was that an official guild logo would scare away any possible threats. Not only that, but the road ahead was supposed to be clear.

Supposed to be.

The boss of the job halted everyone, which brought a questionable look to Strawberry's face.

"We've got word of Imps in these parts. We'll have to delay until they can get taken care of."

He spoke with a strong voice to those of his party, but that was merely a facade as he was cowering on the inside.

"Uh... M-Ms. Strawberry..."

The man stepped closer to the robot, the fear shining through his voice and visage extremely clearly. He was obviously terrified of the maid, or rather terrified of her guild. He wasn't one to normally transport "legally questionable" items, nor was he one to affiliate with Dark Guilds, but he was in this situation now and there was no escaping it.

"W-We're gonna be delayed for a bit. Maybe a couple days at most. We're gonna need to gather up our strongest to take care of an Imp problem so they don't tear apart our-I MEAN-your merchandise. Uh... If you could... Could you maybe... NOT tell any of the higher ups? I'd definitely hate to be on an Ash Wight's platter if you know what I mean... Heh heh..."

Just as Strawberry was about to respond, a familiar voice cut through her ears. The voice of a certain feline that aided her in what was definitely NOT a pleasant outcome for a job that was merely about searching the contents of a portal.

,Lady Fluffy is here? I wonder why she's out in the middle of a canyon at a time like this. Maybe I could get her to stay... Cook her up a good meal as an apology for ditching her that one time. Yeah, that'll-huh!?

Her train of thought was interrupted as she heard that the cat was going to go rid the nuisance's existence, and only requested a sum of pay in return. Didn't she know that these fools are shady bastards whom deal and buy illegal goods? Okay... Maybe that was a bit of an overstatement as Strawberry's guild did force them to be that way... But regardless, that still should shine off some bright lights.

"I'm going to go catch up with that cat. Don't leave the area! If you're good, I'll cook you all up some of my famous... Well anything!"

"Y-Yes Sir! I mean Madame! I mean, will do Miss Strawberry!"

The maid then left out of the carriage that she was in, and dashed towards the mouth of the canyon - that was where the other members had told her Fluffy went. Once she finally caught up with the feline, Strawberry walked behind, stepping a bit louder to announce her presence and not startle the demon cat, and began to speak.

"Hey I uh... Sorry for that one time, you know? The whole 'me leaving you for dead because of my natural pacifistic programming' kinda deal. If you want, I can cook you up anything you want back at the caravan! My treat!"
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579/2.4k

874 of 2,400 words
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Often when things were suppose to be clear was when the storm really started, she had learned this some time ago when she thought that her place in the world was finally clear only to have it ripped away from her! Not long ago she had believed that she would always be with the supernatural investigation and extermination ghost hunting group she had started running with when she was a tween. However? They clearly could not keep something supernatural with them, could not shelter something they would normally kill, especially when one of them was dead and his body was nothing but skeleton thanks to her eating it after she transformed! It was all Izayuki's fault if the cursed Tanuki had just taken her demise like a good demon, than none of this would be happening, she would have the life she wanted, but instead she was a fucking cat!

Anyway's such things were far off topic for the current happenings, since she was just now finishing her inspection of the mouth of the canyon. Right before she could start taking her first steps into the location she noticed footsteps coming up from behind and turned her pale creamy head to see what was going on, catching sight of strawberry before the brown haired woman began to speak to her. "Its fine, I didn't expect you to fight remember? I was prepared to take them on my own." However some of the bandages wrapped around the feline's body hinted they might have taken some substantial damage recently, nothing that would not heal perfectly given time, but wounds the same. "Uh- As fabulous of a cook as I am sure you are, and as much as I am sure I would have enjoyed your cooking a few months ago, in this form my tastes are, unique, to say the least." and by unique she meant corpses, to be exact the body of those who had committed sins by their own thoughts and beliefs. If the maid could make something out of dead bodies like that? Well than she would likely be the best cook in the world.

"Nothing to do with you, but I don't think you'd like cooking what I eat, there is a reason I could not tell them I am not a monster." her ears flicked slightly as she tilted her head to the side, sighing out subtly, clearly upset when she mentioned being a monster, eyes screwed shut as she saw the whole reason she was like this, a single woman! Fluffy shook her head slightly, clearing her brain. "Anyways no reason to be sorry, want to come with to watch me wreck the imps, I've seen the one's that live near here before, I could handle them before I was- I just know I can take these easily, they won't last more than a few moments once I find them and I have some more tricks now, you seemed to enjoy watching me fight the last time." the female chuckled slightly, nodding to her back and lifting one paw to make it easier for Strawberry to jump on if she wished to. Clearly thought, Fluffy was hiding something related to her past, something that had almost slipped but was otherwise tight lipped. She didn't like talking about when she had been human.

Strawberry nodded at the note about the demon cat wanting to fight all of the enemies on her own, however the mechanical servant knew that Fluffy wouldn't have been able to fight all of those enemies by herself without substantial damage, or at least a massive loss of mana. Strawberry had seen those that appeared to be "just fine" on the battlefield, yet had exerted themselves far too much to the point of near death. If Fluffy had used too many spells, she'd lose a lot of mana, and exhaust herself, then surely slow down her skills in combat. That could lead to dire consequences, but Strawberry was there to help, as little as she wanted to regardless. She cursed herself for harming those poor spiders, but even the pacifistic nature of her programming would have allowed the maid clad in green to give those shadow birds a good thwacking.

The next section of the conversation had caught Strawberry off guard. She had set her recorder on when she was first walking to catch up to Fluffy, but didn't expect anything to this degree to happen. If anything, the maid just wanted more information on the fighting style of the cat, and perhaps some info on her guild, but nothing to THIS degree. Fluffy mentioned that she had a unique and peculiar diet, one that wasn't like any normal human. Albeit that was interesting enough, Strawberry was sure that not even Fluffy realized what she had told the robot maid.

'a few months ago, in this form'

That simple phrase was the ball dropper for Strawberry. Had Fluffy not always been a demon cat? It seemed that something occured a few months ago that had forced Fluffy into becoming a cat with flame powers, and that incident was something that Strawberry was sure to inquire more on.

"If you're worried about your diet being peculiar, well don't. I've cooked for people of all backgrounds and to all tastes, and if you're implying what I think you are, then yes, I've cooked that before too! All the time, actually, where I'm from they're quite the delicacy. You mean humans, right? I could definitely cook you one as payment for your forgiveness. But, I have one question.".


The maid's wide smile never left her face until this point. Now she seemed serious, something that not even her guild mates could even say they saw as an exptrssion on Strawberry's face.

"What happened a few months ago? If what you're implying what I think you're implying, you were once not in the form you possess now. I'm assuming by that you mean you were once a human, as I see no other possible explanation for it. So, was it a curse? A deal gone wrong? Maybe you were a witch who was tinkering with the dark arts a liiittle too much? This would explain why you find your diet strange, perhaps even intimidating, and why you think yourself to be a monster. You're scared of even yourself, and that could also be the reason you refer to your body as "this form," as though it isn't something you always are. So... If you tell me, I could provide you a way to get your former human body back."

That last part was the border, the maximum information she could provide about herself and her guild. Not only was Strawberry programmed against giving guild information, her pact physically prevented it. Not even the strongest of mages, those with the most powerful wills could break the Pact that way. Should they ever attempt to, they'd be prevented, and lose all of their memories, and probably be hunted by quite a bit of Ash Wights. However, the robot had a plan, and that plan was to convince the cat to follow her - making use of herself even more. She was a servant, and providing for her mistress was one of the things she wanted to do. She raised her hand and shook her head when Fluffy offered her a ride. The Imps could wait, neither of them would suffer. Strawberry was merely an overseer of the caravan, and Fluffy would get paid regardless, so long as she took care of the Imps. The only ones that were suffering were the members of the caravan, and Strawberry couldn't care less about them.
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1306/2.4k

1,431 of 2,400 words
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Honestly? Fluffy had trouble with the idea of relying on anyone besides for herself these days and she really could not pin point any particular reason for this, but guessed it had something to do with how close she had been to the ghost hunter's when she was human and how drastically everything changed when she transformed. Upon turning into a Kasha the female's entire life had basically been turned upside down on its head, for all essential purposes it was one of those nothing would ever be the same again moments! Right now though, her bigger issue was the fact Strawberry had guessed she devoured humans, which caused her to whip around with narrowed eyes and take a single step back. "It's not just any human's, only those who have by their belief's sinned immensely are able to be eaten by me, as part of a Kasha's job is sending sinful souls to the underworld, my flames actually likely come from it." even though she had never seen the underworld herself due to how forceful her transformation into one of the Kasha species had been.

When Strawberry began asking the questions she did, Fluffy's face fell as she realized the mistake she had made. How could she had let her past slip to someone smart enough to all but figure it out like that?! However at the comment of turning her human again, the feline seemed to perk up, become wide eyed, it almost seemed words would flood from her mouth at any second. Clearly, being human again was something she desired, however honestly it was impossible the only thing left of the human version of her was the shell of her body which her soul was now largely incompatible with as it was the soul of a kasha. "We aren't going anywhere until I tell you the story, are we?" she narrowed her eyes with a scoff plopping down to sit on her rump, trying to decide where to start in the story of how she had come to exist like this.

"I used to be Human, yes, I traveled with a group called Ghost Hunt we specialized in exterminating supernatural phenomenon and creatures who were becoming dangerous to people's day to day lives. Though honestly I was the weakest of us. Anyways one day we got hired to take care of a Tanuki that had apparently been causing problems, we almost succeeded however when I spoke to her, my vision blacked out, than I was in agony and when it ended I was this and one of my team-mates skeletons was beside me, the other's had left so they wouldn't have to kill me."  the female spoke slowly but also seemed to be trying to get through the story swiftly as she could, not being fond of recalling those days. Looking at her human time while she was like this? Corrupted her human form in her brain, a frown marring her face for one second.

Hopefully that would be enough to sate Strawberry's curiosity about things because it was clear Fluffy did not want to discuss things further. Thinking back on everything? Was painful. "Can we get going now?" she breathed slightly through her nose, turning her head to look at the canyon again, hopping the other girl was ready to set out now.

Strawberry's listened intently to the story that the Kasha had to say. A Tanuki, huh? She'd keep an eye out for one. Someone with the ability to slaughter someone and turn another person into a demon cat would certainly be someone interesting to say the least. Perhaps a valuable ally, or maybe even a helpful addition to the guild. Regardless, the person sounded powerful. But, the idea of retrieving her former body seemed to give Fluffy a moment of perkiness amongst the sadness that she obviously contained within her. So, Strawberry continued to hammer that nail on the head, to give her a light in the darkness.

"We can go... But first I want to give you a gift..."

Within the palm of Strawberry's hand materialized a coin, a large one about the size of her hand in full. On one side rested the Blazing Hand - the guild crest of Grim Heresy, but then again only certain people would know of the mark of the Grims - the guild itself was unknown to most of Fiore. Regardless of wether Fluffy knew of the guild's existence or not, Strawberry would hold out her hand to the cat.

"Take this coin. It is called a Talisman. It is worth more than any king's crown, and can unlock one's deepest desires. Immortality, wealth, love, prosperity... Or even a new... Or rather old... Body. This coin could return you to your original body. And if you want to retain your Kasha powers while also retaining your original human body, do not fear it can do that too. It all depends on what you desire. These coins literally make dreams come true. I would like you to have it - and use it. I can't stand to see someone else in agony simply because they couldn't live as they wanted to. You are just as human as any other, and I would like to see you return to your former glory. And, before you say, don't worry about the value of such a coin. I have two, hand can always get more."

With that another coin materialized in Strawberry's left hand, just to show it off. Assuming Fluffy wouldn't say no to this offer - no one really ever did, as no one would want to turn down a free ticket to all of their life's desires - Strawberry let go of the original coin, placing it on Fluffy's back. Instantly, the coin seemed to melt into the cat, disappearing in seconds.

"Do not fear, I didn't do anything wrong to you. I did not curse you or anything of that sort. The coin is an extention of the will of the goddess that I serve. Should you ever wish to use the coin to "buy" what you desire, you will have nothing happen to you. You simply bind yourself as a permanent ally to her. And that doesn't mean becoming a servant or anything of that like... It simply just means that if you ever, after using the coin, prove yourself to be an enemy to her, your desire will be revoked. And... I can't stress this enough, as people always try to do it... Don't throw away the coin. It will fail. The coin is bound to you, and it won't go away until you either use it or give it to someone else. Only you can see the coin, or others with one, like myself - unless you want someone else to see the coin. If you never use the coin, so be it. And if you ever do wish to use the coin to fulfill your wish..."

Strawberry's giant grin returned to her face.

"Be sure to let me see what you look like! I'm so curious about humans sometimes."

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1939/2.4k

2481 of 2,400 words, wc met.
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While the female had always wanted some way to return to being human, desired some magical way to make things normal for her life once more? Fluffy had found throughout her life that things did not work that way, nothing had ever been so easy for her, everything in her life so far had been a ragged bumpy road even if she seemed to be a very generic sort of dime a dozen person in terms of her personality. Some gorgeous maid with a magical coin that could restore her to the form she really wanted to exist within, a magical coin that could grant any hearts desire, well it sounded a bit too good to be true, almost like a deal with the devil sort of thing. When she had traveled with the ghost hunt group? They had advised her to be very careful of such deals, having almost taken a similar deal when a demon promised her the strength to protect her friends from being hurt. If the world could really work that smoothly it would be amazing, but she had a very difficult time believing anything could be that simple.

"Its very appealing." if she had been subtly younger the female would have taken this deal without second thought, wished upon the coin instantly, not hesitated a single second. Today thought? The coin vanished into her body for storage until she wold one day decide what to do with it, well more like when the desire of her heart lined up with what she thought she desired! Truthfully all her actual heart wanted was a body that looked human, it didn't want to be exactly who she used to be, while her mentality could not yet accept how she had changed. Of course, adjustments like the one she had been through? Those took considerable time at points! So it was not very surprising that she might be imbalanced between what she actually wanted and what she lusted for. Anyway's since she was not yet planning on making her wish, the female pushed the thoughts of the coin out of her head, it was no use dwelling on it when she had these jobs to complete right now.

The female took a few steps into the canyon looking down at the ground. "I'll think on it a bit." to be honest she did not believe gods were quiet all that, she believed those who claimed those powers had those powers, but she did not view them as gods, she had already met one of them, Chaoris. Upon thinking back on the Blood God a stray through struck her head, glancing at Strawberry for a second. "You're a dark mage aren't you? The only person so far before now that was alright with this was the god of blood, skulls and war." the female chuckled slightly when she brought the male up, it was actually rather suiting for them to know each other, the god of destruction and the consumer of sinful souls, pretty much everyone she could eat might also cross paths with him, they walked the same road now. NO! She would never walk on such a path, she was not going to become like the monster's she had once hunted... But who was the real monster when she had done nothing wrong to be transformed and the one's capable of accepting her happened to be those normally called dark.

"So you aren't human, I mean considering your weight and everything I figured you weren't, but I wasn't going to bring it up. What are you than?" the female walked along as the robot girl walked not too far from her, going through the shade dappled canyon as the feline kept her senses alert for the imps she was suppose to be going off exterminating. Hopefully Strawberry would not mind revealing what she was, it would allow better team work in the future that was for sure. Team?! With the darkness?! The female pushed all thought from her head, realizing the dark path her brain was heading down, eventually people like Chaoris and Strawberry would corrupt her to the dark side if she was not careful! Little did Fluffy know that was were she would be heading anyways, the Kasha was destine to walk in the shadow.

"There we go, finally found them." it seemed that as the night drew in closer the imps that had been pestering the trade route all retreated back to roughly the same place in the canyon, as if they had their own camp. The cat was very grateful they had grouped together, it would make this easy! "Ready to see some imps burn?" she giggled at the comment slightly, her flames coming to life as her fangs burst into fire and she lunged forward, lightning up the slightly shaded area. Instantly the imps sprung up from where they had been resting, panic spreading through the clearing as she sunk her fangs into one of them, the small creature being impaled and clearly killed by one of her saber fangs, snarl rising from her throat. Oddly it seemed that the feline was much more comfortable with the fighting now than she had been the last time, no hesitation in her steps to dodge nor attack even though she clearly knew she may end up taking the life of the imps.  Fluffy was not the most skilled fighter, but she was improving drastically with each battle she partook in, her Kasha body seeming to be designed to be used in fights or something of that nature. Soon enough she had taken down all of the imps or chased them off, some of them having been killed.

Fluffy turned to look at Strawberry once she was done "Sorry about killing some of them, I know you might now like seeing that. Anyway's, lets go back to the caravan, I can get payed and than I'll go see Chaoris about getting a body for you to cook next time we meet, he always has dead sinner's laying around." actually he had once agreed to help feed her from time to time, back when she could not bring herself to kill anything much less a human, though now her qualms had started diminishing in that regard.

The Kasha seemed to be quite interested in the ideal behind the coin. Although, the simple "I'll think about it" response is something that every member of Grim Heresy got when they proposed giving their coin to someone else. It always seemed too good to be true, the old "I can have anything I want just for simply remaining loyal???" Yes, it was sketchy, but Grims are known for their honesty. Albeit this seemed like, and was literally a deal with the devil, Strawberry meant no harm. She was simply doing the demon cat a favor, out of kindness. Besides, she still had another Talisman, and could always get a new one.

"Yes, please do. It's quite the offer."

Strawberry was shocked that Fluffy only just now caught onto the fact that she was a dark mage. Of course she was quite the ecstatic individual compared to most of the other edgy or insane dark mages, and she didn't have a visible tattoo, but just given the shown evidence, Fluffy should have been able to figure it out. Then again, even if the guild tattoo was visible, Fluffy wouldn't know what guild it belonged to. She proved that statement simply from not mentioning the Blazing Hand print on the Talisman.

"Yes, I am a dark mage. Although I can't describe my guild or say its name, I can for sure tell you it's a dark guild. And your guild is Golden Phoenix, no?"

This question was rhetorical, Strawberry knew the answer ever since their first job together. Her guild was a legal one, so it was likely that openly wearing her crest wouldn't get her into much, if any, trouble. Unlike the dark guilds, whom faced this problem, legal mages could prance around with their guild tattoos open for the world to show.

Next, as the two had began to walk towards the Imps' hideout - given it was becoming late - Fluffy inquired about Strawberry's race, or rather lack thereof. This was naught but a simple question, although could be interpreted differently if the two had been enemies and not allies. Fluffy could have been inquiring on her so that she could find and exploit possible weaknesses, seeing as she wasn't susceptable to normal human weakness. Strawberry took it as not being the case however, as that'd be silly. She was interested in the Grim Talisman, after all. Should Fluffy try to attack Strawberry, the coin and its power would be useless in the cat's hands... Paws... Whatever...

"Ah yes, I forgot to mention that, didn't I? Well, I'm a robot, machine, cybernetic organism, whatever you want to pin it with doesn't matter, I'm fine with anything. I'm made out of a basic steel alloy but it was enhanced with the magic of my creators to give me basic vitality."

After Strawberry explained herself, it seemed the Imps were attracted to her voice and came out in a rush - only to be torn apart just as fast. While the violence and killing / harming part of it could have been avoided with the maid, what Fluffy said next was quite caring, especially for one who thinks she js a monster.

"It's fine, people will always kill and be killed. It's a part of society. I have just simply dedicated myself to simply NOT harming or taking the lives of others. I am programmed not to interfere with others, however. And no problem, just make sure the body is a corpse, otherwise I can't do anything."

The two returned to the caravan, and then parted their ways.
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WC met, end topic