12 11. A Small Change

"Look. It's that child." A nun of the church whispered to her fellow nun as she looked at a girl walking beside Kirei.

That girl is revealed to be none other than the girl that Kirei had saved from the battlefield. She is now dressed in a nun habit with her hair being able to flow freely. She still has the same blank look on her face when she heard them as she walked beside him.

It has been almost two months since Kirei had saved her from the place. He has been trying to help her get out of her mentality and develop a sense of self by interacting with the other people of the Church. But she likes to stick to him and doesn't like to leave his side. He could still remember the time when he had brought her to the Church.

Flashback 2 months ago

"You wish to take care of this child?" The cardinal asked Kirei as they are at his office.

The girl is sitting on a chair in normal clothes as she is looking at the conversation between the two adults with a blank look.

"Yes. She does not possess a sense of self and I wish to help her gain one." Kirei said to the Cardinal.

"But it will be difficult for her don't you think?" The cardinal asked him in response.

"I am willing to put in the time and effort. Besides, as part of the Church we should be doing these kinds of things for others." Kirei said to the Cardinal.

"Alright then boy, I will allow this. Make sure to take care of her and help her." The Cardinal said to Kirei as he nodded.

Flashback End

It has been two months since then and he couldn't exactly say that he has made progress. He has taught her about the Bible and the rest of the world and considering her skills and the fact that she follows him around the Church decided to make her a nun as well. A decision he didn't think would become a hindrance.

She has stayed vastly the same but there is one small instance which shows that she has started to change. Which is the reason why the two of them are in Kirei's room as he sat at his desk with her sitting at a chair.

"How are you doing Maria?" Kirei asked him as that was the name he decided to give her.

"I'm doing fine." Maria said with a blank face.

"That's good." Kirei said before he patted her head.

Maria closed her eyes and enjoyed the petting as a small almost unnoticeable smile appeared on her face which Kirei had managed to see as a smile appeared on his face.

'At the very least it has started to work.' Kirei thought to himself as he gave her a gentle smile.

"I have a mission that I have to complete so do behave yourself while I'm away." Kirei said to her as he stopped petting her.

"Understood." Maria said as she stood straight as if he was giving her an order.

Kirei just sighed at her behaviour as she shook his head a bit before smiling at her. While he wasn't able to feel those emotions he was able to control his facial expressions and fool others into thinking they know what he is feeling.

'If this goes on then I will have to get used to being emotionless. Well, Buddhism is based on helping others and its focus is on getting more mental strength so it might help.' Kirei thought to himself as he turned to his computer as Maria watched him.

6 months since Maria was saved

"You're coming with me on my mission?" Kirei asked Maria surprised.

"Yes, I have been asking this for sometime now and the Church has finally authorised it. I wish to support you and fight alongside you." Maria said to him with a blank face.

Kirei looked at his fellow Executors and they shrugged as he was known to have become an Executor when he was only ten. Owing to that fact he knew that he couldn't persuade her so he turned to her.

"Fine, but you must observe caution when fighting since the ones who were hunting are Magus." Kirei said to her as she nodded.

Then the group made their way to their target's location. They had surrounded the place of residence which is a mansion like place and were ready to attack when suddenly mutated birds and animals ran out of the mansion and went towards the Executors.

"Mutating the animals and birds. How disgusting." An Executor said in disgust as he got ready to fight.

Some were also making their way to Kirei and Maria who got ready. They pulled out their machine guns and with silencer equipment shot the many mutated beasts and killed them as they kept on coming.

'There are a lot of these things here.' Kirei thought to himself when he saw it.

Soon her and Maria were out of ammo, so they discarded their guns and pulled out their melee weapons. Kirei's own specialised Black Keys for himself and two combat knives engraved with prayers for Maria as they used their circuits and reinforced themselves and shot towards the coming beasts.

Kirei stabbed and slashed at the coming beasts killing them instantly by attacking their necks or vital areas with Maria doing the same. The two of them worked together and dealt with the horde of Beasts coming towards them and soon managed to kill all of them.

After that they took some time to take a bit of rest as they got ready to raid the mansion from different sides. Kirei spotted the other Executors as they nodded to him and he nodded back. Then they entered the mansion together with Kirei and Maria as a group.

Inside they came across Golems which didn't surprise them that much as they had kind of expected it as they got ready. Kirei put his Black Keys inside his coat and then got into a fighting stance with Maria also doing the same. Then reinforcing themselves they shot towards the Golem.

The Golem is 3 times larger than Kirei but it lacked speed which he intended to use to his advantage. As it gave a right punch Kirei jumped on its hand and immediately came to its face and gathered more energy in his right arm before punching it. The strength of the punch was enough to destroy the head of the Golem, but its body still tried to fight.

Kirei and Maria proceeded to destroy the Golems arms and then limbs before crushing its chest as it was now nothing more than some pile of rocks.

"It is a good thing that we were able to take care of it fast." Kirei said to which Maria nodded.

Then she turned to him and showed her head which confused him for a bit before he understood what she wanted. He then patted her head as she smiled more brightly from the sensation. After he stopped she kept the smile for a few more seconds before turning to look ahead as her usual blank face came again.

"Let's go and find the Magus." Kirei said as she nodded and went inside the mansion.

The Executors then went through the mansion and turned it upside down but they were able to find anything about the Magus. Kirei had however come across a table which has some of the Magus' research papers which gained his attention as he walked to it and looked at it and read it. But then what he had read caused his eyes to widen as he looked at it surprised.

'A Holy Grail.' Kirei thought to himself as his eyes widened when he read it.