20 The Holy Maiden

"... Hmmm, how peculiar."

Kamijou cocked his head to the side. Indeed, it was a strange sight. The blonde nun was acting all confused while standing in front of the register.

"Excuse me, w-what would you like to order?"

The employee who didn't know how to handle the situation asked while making a nervous smile.

It was lunch time and Kamijou had taken Asia to a family restaurant. It seems she has never come to this kind of place before because she was just shifting her head here and there, and staring at the menu. Perhaps she was having trouble deciding what to pick.

Of course, Kamijou had offered his help but the nun declined and said proudly "It's fine, I will manage it somehow", so he has been watching her ever since.

Technically speaking, the nun cannot speak Japanese so there was no way she will be able to place an order in a Japanese restaurant.

Maybe if something like the language barrier did not exist, the world would have been a better place. Some may not agree with Kamijou's line of thinking but he felt he was right.

In the end, it looked like she won't be able to place her order at this rate. Like a knight in shining armour, I came to her rescue at once.

"She will have what I'm having. Sorry for the trouble."

"No, it's okay. I will get it right away."

The employee took the order. On the other hand, Asia was embarrassed. Was she pouting?

"Just what were you thinking? You can't understand Japanese, right? You should have just let me handle it from the start."

"Sorry, I'm ashamed."

I sighed.

"You don't need to apologize, geez. You just need to get accustomed to Japanese."

"I think that will help. But learning an entire language will be difficult, Yeah?"

"Maybe so. But it's good to start somewhere. Now where should we sit?"

Kamijou and Asia moved while searched for empty tables. On the way, the gazes of the customers was drawn towards them. It was mostly the male customers though.

Kamijou thought it was inevitable. Any healthy guy will look at Asia when they see her. It was beautiful enough to make any guy's head turn and more importantly, she was a foreigner.

They found an empty table and sat opposite each other. When Kamijou was about to eat his hot, delicious chilli fries, he noticed something strange.

"?"

The nun before him was staring at her food but made no attempt to eat it. Did she think it was an alien? Could it be she has not eaten something like this before.

It was strange, really.

"Em, princess."

"Hmm."

"Why are you staring at your food like that? Are you scared? It's not going to bite you, you know?"

"Ah! No, no, that's not it. Hm... I have not eaten something like this before."

'I guessed so.' Kamijou thought.

"Is that so? Then, what do you used to eat?"

"Hmm, mostly bread and soup. Sometimes, I eat vegetables and pasta food."

"Eh?"

Kamijou subconsciously made a strange face. He wondered how someone could survive by just eating such simple food.

'Not that I have any right to talk.'

He remembered the time where he had to eat ramen for five days straight before he ran out of money. It was the life of a peasant but he found no fault in his way of life.

'After all, I'm just an ordinary boy you can find anywhere.'

Kamijou shook his head and decided to speak.

"You should give it a try. It's delicious, I promise."

He said so proudly. After all, Chilli friess was his favourite food.

"Hm, okay."

She took one of the fries and placed it inside her mouth. She began to chew and then... she took more and more, and started eating very eagerly.

"D-Delicious! It's very delicious!"

The sister exclaimed with tears in her eyes but she was very happy. It was like what she had before was one big lie.

Seeing her eating like that made Kamijou to smile.

'She looks very cute especially when she is eating like that.'

It reminded Kamijou of a child discovering a new toy. Then his mind began to wonder. What was Asia doing alone at the park?

When he asked about it, she said she had some time off. But he was not buying it one bit.

From her body language, she seems like she was trying to run away from something. And when she saw him, she seemed relieved.

"Tck."

Kamijou started to feel irritated for some reason.

He was already aware of the sister's situation, but he abandoned her at that time. But it was not like he didn't want to save her from her situation, he didn't have the power to do so.

To summarise everything, he was just a coward. He knew that much and that's why it irritated him so much.

'If only I had power...'

The truth of the matter was that he already had power but did not know how to use it or anything else about it. If only he could his special right hand better, then maybe...

"Huh? Eh? What are you doing? Hey now, don't put salt on the chilli fries!!"

* * *

Like this, time slowly ticked by. Kamijou and Asia spent the hour eating while talking about themselves.

Before they knew it, they were now walking on the road side by side.

"Ah! I think I ate too much."

"You don't say? It looks like you added a few pounds."

"You Jerk."

Kamijou laughed while Asia pouted her cheeks. Her stomach was now big. From an outsider's viewpoint, it would look like Asia was pregnant.

'When women are in this kind of embarrassing position, you either ignore them to save face or tease them. Somehow, I belong to the latter category.'

Yes, Kamijou was definitely that kind of person. He couldn't help himself, right?

Kamijou suddenly looked at the sky. He noticed the sky had darkened and it was now evening. Did they really spend that such time in the restaurant?

"How funny."

Indeed, It was funny. He skipped school today and went to a family restaurant with a cute sister. Some would consider it a date even if he didn't consider it as such. If the student council president found out, he will find himself trapped in a full hour lecture.

Kamijou's body trembled for a moment. He made a mental note to prevent this from reaching the president's ears.

"Ryuji."

"Hmm."

Asia called his name and he turned. It seems she wanted to say something but she was deciding whether to tell him or not.

"What is it, Asia?"

"Oh, nevermind. It's nothing."

In the end, she decided not to tell him. But Kamijou was not letting that go. At least, not this time.

"Asia."

"Hmm, Y-Yes."

Kamijou looked deep into her eyes and Asia flinched. It was so sudden that she couldn't be blamed for her reaction. If someone suddenly looked at you like that, you will flinch, right?

"Asia, is there something bothering you?"

The way he said so seems like he already know the answer.

"Em..."

"C'mon Asia, if something is bothering you then you can tell me."

Her eyes shook. At the moment, she didn't know what to do. Should she really tell him or not and would he believe her? Finally, Asia came to a conclusion.

"Alright I will. Let's go over there."

Asia guided Kamijou to a bench on the roadside and they both sat on it. The sister's mouth moved.

"Ryuji, do you really want to hear about my circumstances?"

"Yes."

"But before I continue, I must ask. Do you believe in the supernatural?"

"You are a nun, right? Shouldn't you say believe in God?"

"That's true. But Believing in God means putting our faith in an absolute being, our creator. So they are related in a way."

Kamijou was shocked. He expected devils like Sona or Rias to ask him something along those lines but not Asia. And her manner of speech just suddenly changed. She sounded more mature.

'Is she the same Asia in the novel. No, she's the same but a little different.'

Even if she acted a little different, she was the same Asia he knew. Kamijou decided to answer.

"Yeah."

"Wait, you really do?"

"Yes. Believe me or not, I have come across my own share of strange events."

"I see. You must have had it rough."

"He he, you have no idea." Kamijou made a shallow laugh.

"In any case, why did you ask me about the supernatural?"

"Well, it's related to my story. Did you know that God can bestow certain powers to humans in order to perform miracles?"

Kamijou already knew what she was talking about but he decided to feign ignorance.

"I think heard about something like that. Why are you asking?"

"You see, I was one of those special people who received God's blessings. As you saw at that time, I have the power to heal."

"I see."

"When I was young, I was adopted by the church along with some other orphans. I followed the church teachings until the age of eight when I awakened this power."

Asia paused then continued.

"It was a rather unpredictable event. My power manifested when I tried to help an injured puppy and a person from the catholic church witnessed it by chance. My life completely changed on that day."

"I was taken to the main Catholic church and was symbolised by many as a Holy Maiden because of my power and I used that power to heal many believers. Before I knew it, rumours brought rumours and she was respected as the Holy Maiden. Even so, I did not mind my title as the holy maiden and I had no dissatisfaction on how I was treated. As long as I could heal people, I was happy. After all, this was the power bestowed to me by God."

Asia's expression changed as if recalling a bitter memory. But she continued with her story.

"However, I was alone. The people from the church always looked at me differently. Maybe they thought I was a creature from another world. My power was irregular so I was the same in their eyes. But that all changed though."

"By coincidence, there was a Devil nearby and I healed it. Yes, a wicked being recorded in the Bible. Yet I healed it. I thought that even if it was a Devil, I had to heal it if it was injured. But that act of kindness had deadly consequences."

"What happened?"

Kamijou asked even though he already knew the story.

"One of the people from the Church saw that incident and notified others of the Church. The ministers of the Church were rather shocked about it. A power that can heal devils. Impossible, they said. The power of God cannot heal devils, they said. According to what I heard, there were many people with the power to heal but none could heal devils."

"The people of the Church thought it was common sense that the power of healing doesn't work on Devils. Apparently, a similar incident had happened in the past. The power to heal beings not protected by God. But that was feared as the power of a "Witch". As such, my power was seen as an heretic. You can pretty much guess what happened next."

Kamijou did not answer and remained silent.

"I was kicked out of the church and I was later picked by a peculiar organisation because I had no where to go. To be honest, I don't want to be near those people but I have no choice. Even so, this was a trial God has given me so I have to endure it."

At some point, Kamijou stopped listening. Asia suffered silently for all this time but no one noticed. She prayed and prayed yet she was not saved. She was still under the delusion that she will be saved if she prayed.

Kamijou could not take it anymore.

"Why?"

"Hmm?"

"Why didn't you tell anyone about your situation? Why didn't you ask for help? Did you think no one will help you?"

He said all that despite abandoning her once already. If anyone had known, they would have called him the biggest hypocrite in the world.

Without knowing, Kamijou began to grit his back teeth. He could not start to imagine the terrible treatment Asia had received back there and how lonely she must have been. He could not stand to imagine how the church only viewed her as a tool they could dmup after she lives out her usefulness.

More importantly, the fact Asia was able to live through that with a smile was what Kamijou could stand the least.

"…Sorry."

He did not know why but that one word made him truly snap.

"I didn't think you would believe me. I thought you would think I'm weird and leave me. I didn't want that."

Those words only added fuel to fire. Then Kamijou heard her mumble 'I didn't want you to hate me' under her breath.

"Fuck that!" With a snapping sound in this head, Kamijou stood up from the bench.

"Don't look down on people and come up with your own estimation of them! What made you think I will hate you if you told me your circumstances, huh? Don't look down on me like that! Did you really think I would call you creepy or a witch? Fuck that shit!"

What made him mad the most was the fact that he had abandoned her before. At this point, he made up his mind.

"Asia, you can rely on me from now on. If someone is after you or if someone wicked devil is chasing you, it doesn't matter what. It doesn't matter who, I will definitely protect you."

This was a promise. Not only to Asia, but to Kamijou himself. At this moment, he felt like a knight making an oath to protect a princess. It was really shameless to think that but he didn't care.

Asia merely stared at Kamijou's face, dumbfounded. After a while, tears welled in her eyes and started flowing down. She began to cry.

She tried to contain those tears as she sobbed, but she failed miserably. Kamijou guessed those tears were not the result of what he had spoken but something else. All the bottled up emotions. They were all flooding out.

He lost sad that no one had spoken this words to her but when the thought that he had finally seen Asia's weakness, he felt a bit happy.

But he was not kind of pervert that liked seeing girls crying. In fact, it was pretty embarrassing. If Saji saw him making a cute girl cry, he will undoubtedly tell him to die.

"You see... I only have a special power, so no magician or devil is any match for me!"

"Why... Sob... Would you go that far for a girlk like me?"

"What's so bad about you?"

"I have no common sense."

"That can be easily fixed."

"I can't speak Japanese. I also don't know about its culture."

"I can teach you and I can act as a translator."

"More importantly, I have no friends."

"You Idiot, can you honestly say that?"

"Eh?"

"We ate lunch together, talked each other, and had fun with each other. We did all of that so aren't we already friends?"

She looked shocked. It seems she didn't think of it like that.

"Let's get along from now on."

Asia wiped her tears and nodded. She gave a heartwarming smile. Kamijou thought this situation was embarrassing.

It didn't matter now. If Asia was smiling, then it was okay. As long as he could beat his opponents and protect that smile then everything will be okay.

He didn't care about her circumstances. All that matter that he could protect her.

"I'm sorry, but that will be impossible."

A voice destoryed all of Kamijou's delusions.