Demon and the Nun (Kiersa/Mary/Cirven/Aayla)

It was a cloudless day in the crowded streets of the Capital Crocus, not a cloud in the sky and with just a gentle breeze. It was a beautiful Maker blessed day for the tainted girl, the one named Mary Mahoney. She looked from far away at the church in the city, reminiscing about her peaceful time in the convent. Happier times for her...

Shaking her head she started walking away, stomach growling for hunger and yet no coin to pay. The bakery just finished baking a fresh batch of donuts as well, it was maddening to see it, smell it... Hence why the argument with Ursulla in the girls head.

You could always steal it.

Thou shalt not steal.

And how is that going to when you starve to death?

I will figure it ou-


It was immediately interrupted as Mary walked headfirst into a lantern, causing her to fall flat on her back with swirls in her eyes. Ursulla laughed loudly at the girls accident as the ex-nun got on her feet. Little did she know that the accident would attract someone from the past...

Kiersa looked out across the city of Crocus from where she stood, a content look on her face. Her team had just finished up some training and had decided to relax a little before their next job, whatever it may be. She'd been "elected" to get something for the group to eat whilst Aayla and Cirven did whatever it was that siblings did. "Given the last job, probably fight some more..." she said with a sigh as she headed for the bakery.

Before she got near though, the sound of a lantern clanging caught her attention. The nun turned her gaze towards the source of it, her eyes widening at the sight of the cause. "No..." she whispered before running towards the girl as she got back to her feet. "M-Mary?" she asked tentatively once she reached her. "I-Is... is that really you?" Kiersa tentatively put a hand forward, half dreading that this was a hallucination brought about by the earlier training, and half hoping that that was not the case.

Mary rubbed her head in pain, it hurt a lot and left her dizzy, it was not fun to be at receiving end of a head on collision. The lady got up on her feet as a figure from her past approached her, asking if she was real. This was the absolute last person she wanted to see or maybe this was an illusion caused by the concussion she received. She took the hand and felt it was real. The girls eyes widened and she took a step back. There was sadness in her eyes, looked down on the ground, ashamed to look at her face. Mary said, "Yes Kiersa, but it would be unwise to associate with me anymore... I don't feel the warmth of the Maker anymore, but instead there is the only the voice of the demon tainting my soul."

Mary sighed, she did not want to be mean to her sister in the convent, but she had to know the truth. The cold harsh truth of life, "Uru infected me with a seed of power before he left and the soul attached to me is trying to consume me... And you know why this happened don't you Kiersa?" The tainted girl straight up at Kiersas eyes so that they would match and the nun could see for herself. The pupils in Mary's eyes were rectangular instead of round, the first signs the Order taught the nuns of demonic taint. Mary was slowly becoming the very demons Kiersa was trained all her life to fight...

Kiersa blanched at Mary's words, frowning. "U-Uru... h-how..." she began to ask even as she saw her fellow nun's eyes. "I-I d-don't care!" she said, trying to hug the older girl comfortingly. "I... I th-thought he h-had... killed e-everyone..." she said shudderingly before looking at Mary's face once more. "I... I'm j-just g-glad... th-that s-someone e-else s-survived..." said the nun softly, even as Mary's last question hit her.

She looked to the ground and nodded slowly. "I... I w-was a f-fool... and b-believed h-his lies..." admitted Kiersa with a sigh. She looked back at Mary with a fierce determination. "I won't let you suffer... not for my mistakes... I promise... The Maker watches all His children, even those whom darkness has touched..." she said, thinking for a moment. Her eyes brightened as an idea came to her. "I know someone who can maybe help you! He's a demon slayer mage... maybe he'll know something about getting rid of the demon inside you?" suggested Kiersa as she tried to take Mary by the hand and lead her towards her team-mates.

"Training after training and now this." He grunted as he leaned against the wall outside of a clothing store for women. "I almost would rather be going through one of gramps' awkward training sessions than this. Almost." He sighed as he realized he was talking to himself in front of a store full of dresses. Not even the dog demon gave him a mental remark. "Ugh... Hurry it up Aalya!" He spoke moaned and groaned more as he waited for his sister to come out of the store.

A growl came out from his stomach and he looked off towards the way the young nun had went for food earlier. "And hurry up Kiersa.." He held his stomach and stared off into the distance where he saw the holy girl with someone else.

Without thinking much he walked towards them but stopped for a second as he felt something was odd coming from Kiersa. He smelled something different from anything else. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was but Inuki had told him of a awkward scent before that he could pick up on. "A demon!? Here?! With Kiersa?!"

He pulled out his katana from its sheath and ran towards the girl dressed in white. "Snow white, get away from that girl! She reeks of demon!" He stopped in front of them and where he stood in a stance with his blade out in front of him. "Or is that the weird smell of some food you got...?" His stomach growled again after he spoke and he dropped the stance a little.

Mary felt comforted from the hug that she received, it was like she was back at the convent. Even tears were beginning to flow. Maybe everything was going to be okay, but that was until the Mary's eyes opened wide upon hearing that the solution was to find someone that profesionally slayed demons for a living. Was this girl trying to kill her? A slayer wasn't going to help! She stammered, "N-no everything is fine! No need to bother him!" Her hand was taken and she had to be practically dragged to Kiersas friends. She was putting up a fight the whole way until they arrived.

She was brought towards the blue haired warrior that immediately identified her as a demon. Her eyes opened wider than ever as a sword was pulled out on her, it was over... She was going to die right here and now. So she did the most logical she could think of...

She fainted.

Kiersa gave a squeak as Cirven brought out his sword. "P-Put that away!" she said, eyes widening as Mary fainted. "Mary!" she cried out as she caught her, slowly lowering her to the floor before frowning at the man. "Look at what you did! You frightened her!" said the nun before remembering both sides words and the fact that nobody but her knew who Mary was.

"Umm... y-you w-were r-right though... sort of..." she said softly, as she looked back at the unconscious girl. "She's from the same convent as me... Only... he infected her..." explained Kiersa before looking back at Cirven. "So I thought... maybe you know something that could help?" she asked, glancing at the sword. "Th-that doesn't i-involve k-killing her..."

He realized the new girl had fainted and lowered his blade to his side. "Kind of looks like I was wrong..." His stomach growled out loudly this time. "Ugh... Food.." His mind had switched back to nourishment again as he listened to Kiersa.

"So you want a way of exorcising thing that is inside her?" He put his blade away and shook his head. "I don't have any abilities like that for demons. I slay them but I don't know what to do when they slayed has to be a person. I'd rather avoid hurting a person to get to a demon but I don't want something like in our past happening again." He rubbed his chin in thought. "Only thing I can think of is she tags along with us until we find some sort of answer. She seems like she needs help anyways."

Mary dreamed of a better place, a happy place as she was for al purposes unconscious of her sorroundings. There was the smell of doughnuts in the air and the convent in prayer at mass. There was peace in such order and the spiritual fulfillment was grandest of joys. The fall of the convent was too swift, to quick for the spiritually fulfilled people. They did not deserve this, nobody did. She watched those that she cared about killed by Uru and then approached Mary...

The girl woke up with a scream and remembered where she was and what she fainted from. First thisng she did was jump behind a lampost, closed her eyes and started waving an arm like if it was a weapon. Mustering up as much courage as she could despite certain death from the Slayer she cried, "I don't want to do this, but a can grow a claw arm and I won't be afraid to use it! Just let me go!" There was actual tears in her eyes, she actually thought she was going to die.

Kiersa sighed at Cirven's words. "There must be-" she began to say before she was interrupted by Mary's scream, blinking at her actions. "Mary... Mary calm down please..." she said softly as she approached her old friend. "He's not going to hurt you... I just thought he might have known some way to exorcise you... I swear by the Maker, he won't hurt you Mary." said the nun before she tried to give the older girl a comforting hug. She even went to her tiptoes to try and kiss her on the forehead, the same way that the sisters back at the convent would do to placate anothers nerves.

He jumped back as the girl screamed and placed his hand near his katana's hilt while his other lit into white flames. He had to be sure that the girl was not suddenly being consumed by the demon but quickly changed his stance as she started yelling at them in fear.

"Yeah. I'm not going to hurt you." His stomach went into a growl again. "I'm too hungry to even hurt a fly." He walked closer to the fear filled girl with his hands up to show he meant no harm. "You look like you haven't ate anything good in awhile so maybe you would like to come eat with us?" He put one of his hands out towards the girl. "No worries about money. I'll pay for scaring you the way I did earlier I guess. Sound good?"

Mary was still scared and was about to run away and not go back. She did not want to die, not without without cleansing her soul of the taint. She wanted to return to the warmth of the Maker after all. It was then that she was hugged by the nun and kissed on the forehead like back at the convent. She started to heavily breathed, heartbeat going at 100 mph and shivering in fear. It seemed the worse was over, but Mary was still hugging Kiersa for good measure. She still did not trust the Flame Demon Slayer, but for Kiersas sakes would play along. Besides she was in no place to argue free food when she was starving.

"Hello... my name is Mary Mahoney. And I thank you for offering to pay for my food."

You glutton. Such a sin you commit.

Shut up.

Aayla finally walked out of the store, adorned in a new baby blue sun dress that stopped just above her knees. The dress was adorned with cute white frills at the and wave like designs on the fabric. It was simple, but it was just what Aayla had wanted right now, something she could easily move in, something that wasn't her usual skirt, shit and jacket... those would need tailoring soon... or she might have to find new ones.

She sighed as she looked around the entrance of the store, growing furious when Cirven wasn't right where she had left him, but sighed once more when she found him not too far away with Kiersa by his side, and another girl that she did not recognize.

"You left me again..."
The young girl pointed out before walking passed Cirven towards Mary, smiling brightly.

"I...I'm sorry if he's caused any t...trouble. My brother can be a real pain sometimes... my name is A..Aayla, Aayla Mizune."
She extended her hand to the young girl as she spoke. She had no idea what was going on... but better to start off on a happy note, right? She was upset with Cirven, not anyone else.

Kiersa smiled and kissed Mary's forehead again before looking at Aayla's approach. "H-Hey Aayla... this is Mary Mahoney... Sh-she's a Sister from the s-same convent as m-me. A-another s-survivor..." she said, introducing the girls to each other. "Mary, th-this is m-my friend Aayla Mizune. Oh, and umm... d-don't b-blame your b-brother f-for leaving his spot Aayla... th-that w-was my fault..." explained the nun.

"S-See... I th-thought h-he may know how to e-exorcise a d-demon since... well, demon slayer... B-but..." sighed Kiersa before blinking as her stomach grumbled as well and she blushed. "I-I f-forgot... w-was m-meant to get the food... I-I'll go f-fetch some n-now. Y-You three g-get to kn-know each other b-better okay?" she suggested before looking back at the older nun. "Y-you'll b-be alright... I'll b-be right b-back..." said Kiersa before she left for the bakeries direction, leaving Mary alone with the two Slayer siblings.

What could possibly go wrong?

He felt like he had shown the new girl that he didn't mean any harm to her and was about to continue speaking but was cut off by his sister joining them. She had an attitude with him as usual for something this time for moving away from his spot on the wall near the store she was in.

"Ugh.." He groaned and dragged his hand over his face. "..Whatever." He turned away from the group and found a bench to sit at by himself to avoid fighting with his sister in front of their new friend. He heard from the bench that Kiersa was leaving for food and figured he would pay her for it all later. He leaned on the arm of the bench with his elbow supporting his head up. He used the fingers on his free hand as a sort of entertainment and lit them on fire then put them out. He kept doing this to calm himself down.

Mary sighed in relief, she was feeling much better now that Kiersa calmed her nerves considerably. The man was not going to kill her... yet anyways at least. She was actually going to try and escape to stay with Kiersa, but was distracted when a blue haired lady arrived and started arguing with the Demon Slayer. She was so surprised at the 2 that the next moment that she looked to her side, Kiersa was gone to the bakery. The nun left her with the one person that could kill her and the sister.

Mahoney sighed, what kind of situation did she end up in this time? Regardless she returned the handshake to the young girl, obviously the smarter of the 2 siblings. Mary said, "That is a beautiful dress you are wearing. It really suits you very well." She was going to talk more about designs and shopping, but Cirven started lighting his fingers on fire and turning them off. Mary in her mind perceived it as a threat like in the manner of 'you better not try anything funny with my sister demon.' Which was why Mary decided to step an additional 5 feet away from the blue haired male mage that never bothered to introduce his name yet.

"O..oh thank you. I just got it... I wanted something simple and easy to move in..."
She said softly, glancing down to her dress then back up to Mary only to find she had taken several steps away from them. For a moment she looked at her curiously, wondering if perhaps she had annoyed the girl by talking too much... but then, her eyes followed Mary's to find Cirven flicking flames onto his finger tips on and off.

"Don't worry... he really won't hurt you."
She brought her own hand up, forming a small little bubble of water to show her just what sort of magic she could use... well to some degree anyways. Before she scared the other girl, she quickly closed her hand around the bubble, causing it to vanish.

"Even if he does, he'll have to go through me first."
She said with a light smile before spinning on her heel to look at Cirven. Maybe she was being too hard on him... but it had been so long since she had felt any emotion of the sort... it was hard for her to forgive him...

Kiersa browsed through the bakers until she spotted the absolutely most perfect thing for the group to munch on, and also help Mary out of her mood for a little while. She quickly purchased eight of them, not even attempting to haggle with the baker's prices before she practically skipped out of the bakery and made her way back to her friends. When she got back, she was smiling, but that smile dipped a little at the scene in front of her. Cirven flicking fire around in his fingers, Aayla demonstrating a water bubble, and Mary a few steps back from each of them.

"E-everything g-going alright?" she asked of all of them before she opened up the bag and started to pass out the chosen item of perfection from the bakers. What was this most delicious thing that Kiersa had procured that she thought would help everyone's mood?

Strawberry Jam Donuts.

"I g-got two for e-everyone..." she said before a horrible thought crossed her mind before she looked over at Cirven and Aayla. "Umm.. f-forgot to a-ask... e-either o-of y-you... a-allergic t-to s-strawberries?"

He overheard his sister talk about how she would stop him if he tried to attack the new girl. He growled to himself at first and stopped playing with his flames. It was like she was against him at every turn and had no trust in him still even after she almost got him killed in their last job. He stood up and moved towards the them as Kiersa showed up with their food.

"Don't worry about me." He pulled out the money he thought that would cover the food and more then held it out to Kiersa. "For the food. I'm not that hungry anymore so just let Mary have my share. She needs it more than me." After giving the money to the blonde nun he started to walk away. "I'm going for a walk. I'll find you guys later."

"Ahaha okay then."

Mary still felt slightly awkward with the whole situation with being alone with 2 strangers. Aayla seemed niced, but the fire mage seemed to be an utter jerk. Complete opposites of one another, maybe it was time to bid adieau and be on her merry way...

...That was until doughnuts made an appearance.

Mary's eyes lit up and sparkled, grabbing her 2 doughnuts and started to happily unwrap them. Kiersa managed to spoil the girl as she managed to gift her with her favorite treat, doughnuts were Makers gift on the world! After a small silent prayer for the bounty she received, which caused her a headache, she munched on the first doughnut. As she started to finish the first doughnut, she received another one from the demon slayer. Was he trying to be nice to her? She looked down on the ground and asked, "Is there any room for someone as tainted as I am?" She couldn't believe what she was considering joining a guild, but it was either that or be alone for when Ursulla devoured her soul and take over her body. At least this way she would be slain before she got too many people killed and not rampage on civilians unchecked.

She then looked at Kiersa and stated, "And Kiersa, marry me!~" It was an old saying that Mary said when someone did something she absolutely loved, like giving her doughnuts.

"There's always room Mary!"
Aayla exclaimed with a bright smile on her face, having been absent for the whole conversation about demons and demon slayers and what not. She took the donuts from Kiera with a light blush. It definitely wasn't her favorite food, but she couldn't turn them down after she had gone through all the trouble of getting them for the group.

"Of course we're not allergic..."
She said in response to Kiersa as she finally bit down into the first donut, her taste buds greeted suddenly with the sweet strawberry filling. Aayla scrunched up her nose but attempted to continue to eat the pastry. It wasn't that she didn't like it... it was good! It was just so... bloody sweet...

Kiersa giggled as Mary immediately perked up at the mere sight of the donuts. “I r-remembered h-how much y-you liked them.” she said with a smile. She blinked a bit when Cirven handed her the amount she had paid for the donuts… and more, including handing over his ones to Mary. “Th-this is t-too…” she began to say before sighing as he had left. Kiersa put the jewels away into a separate pouch to return to him whenever he got back. Maybe giving his donuts to Mary was a peace offering maybe? She mused.

When Mary asked if there was room for her it took the nun a second to understand her meaning before hugging her. “Of course th-there is!” she said with a smile. “They l-let Cirven in a-after all.” she said with a smile towards Aayla, noting the scrunching nose. To understand what was going on she took a bite herself into her own strawberry donut and let out a small ah in realisation. “Th-they used a s-sweeter s-strawberry… eh, s-sorry.” she apologised towards Aayla, before giggling as Mary proclaimed her desire to wed the nun. Kiersa simply scooped out a bit of her strawberry jam from her donut and plopped it onto her old friends nose. “N-not for a-another t-two y-years yet.” teased Kiersa with a smile.

Cirven moved away from the group as they spoke happily. He wasn't in the mood to be around them and didn't want to ruin their fun with his mood. He hoped they would understand somehow. He turned a corner not too far away from the three girls and stopped as he heard a voice. "Hey mister!" He turned his head to a ice cream booth near him. "You want some great ice cream?" A girl who looked to only be around nine of ten years old spoke out to him from the booth. He smiled at her and nodded his head. "Yeah sure."

Somehow seeing the young girl had reminded him of his own sister when she was that age and helped to lighten up his mood. He gave the girl money for a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream with sprinkles. He gave her some extra for no reason. "Use that for something good." He gave her a wink and turned to walk away but stopped as he saw two crossbows aimed at him by some armor clad men. "We got him sir!" The small girl spoke out from behind him. "We got the filthy demon!"

"I honestly can't believe that worked. Your charm is really something else young lady. Good job Dieria." A bearded and armored man said as he stood behind the two men with the crossbows. "And I just started to not feel so annoyed. I'm a demon slayer you idiots." The bearded man laughed. "No you filthy beast. I am Lagen and a demon slayer. I lead these men here and more. I hunt you and kill you so that others don't get hurt. Your pointed ears are a clear give away of your demon essence as well as your dark aura. Pretty bad disguise if you ask me." Lagen grinned as he spoke.

"Hey boss! The demon detector talisman is pointing towards the way this guy came from. I bet there are more of them over that way." Dieria spoke out from behind Cirven. "Don't worry. I already sent some of the men over there to deal with them. We get to deal with this one though."

Mary just laugh as she wiped the glob of strawberry off her nose and procceded to eat the doughnut as the demon ex-nun hummed happily away. She was in doughnut heaven right now and was blushing madly right now, there was absolutely nothing that could destroy this happy moment!

She would be wrong.

As Mary unwrapped the last of the doughnut to eat happily on when she was slapped straight across the face and landing on top of her doughnut. The strawberry goodness squirted all over her jacket and stained it. She was was in shock and then quickly changing to anger.

"We know what you are dem-"

The demon hunter was not allowed to finish his sentence as Mary quickly got up activated her inner strength and kicked the hunter straight in man's pride. The man crumpled immediately in pain as he grabbed his crotch as the other 2 hunter just watched in fear. Mary angrily shouted, "THATS FOR RUINING MY DOUGHNUT YOU JERK!!!" And Kiersa of all people would know that Mary got violent when someone messed with her doughnuts.

Aayla looked up from the doughnut she had been nibbling at when she heard something strike skin nearby. She hadn't picked up on the hunters scents, thinking that they were only other passers by in town. Whenever she looked up to see Mary with a face full of doughnut though, she quickly stood to her feet, dropping her own doughnut, in preparation for what was to come. She didn't get to do or say much though as the first one was taken down with a simple kick to the nads.

"... nice shot... What is it you people want? Picking a fight with Sabertooth isn't the smartest idea."
Aayla warned the other two that were still standing while the first tried to recover. Did these people know Mary? Or where they merely thugs trying to start a fight? She really wasn't sure, but she began to grow uneasy knowing that Cirven was out of sight...