Chapter 5: Caren's a Nun?!
"Eh?"
The nun tilt her head in confusion and repeated herself, "Are you not the scary white haired bitch with creepy powers? Those men tried to attack me because they thought I was the one who destroyed their friend's family jewels."
"You were attacked by that guy?!" Kiana said in shock as she remembered a certain man that tried to trick her before her meeting with Maya. She looked at the red stain on her sleeve before catching a glimpse of white bandage on her forearm.
She gasped in shock, as she started to feel both panic and anger, "Are you hurt?! What did those guys do to you?! Do we need to bring you to a hospital?! How bad is the injury?! Dammit! I didn't know someone else was going to get hurt by that bastard! I'm going to skewer those guys!"
The nun looked at the young girl with surprise before she grabbed Kiana by the cheek and pinched, "Calm down. You're making a scene."
"OW!OW!OW! SHTOP IT!" Seeing the girl came back from her panic rambling, the nun brought back her hand. Kiana hissed in a bit of pain as she checked on her cheek, "Don't just pinch someone like that. It hurts..."
The nun shrugged, "It was the fastest way to get your attention. After all, you were going to start rambling about going to kill the man. Please remember we are in a public area. The others are getting uncomfortable with your... loudness."
Looking around, she saw some people stared at her before going back to what they were doing before. "Ah... Right, that's embarrassing... That's twice today... But what about your arm?! How bad did those guys hurt you?!"
The nun tilted her head in confusion before realizing what she was talking about. Pulling her sleeve up, she showed her the bandaged forearm before slowly unwrapping to reveal her soft, untouched skin with no sorts of injuries whatsoever.
Confusion was clear in the girl's face as the nun explained, "When I told you they attacked me. I had never said that they had succeeded in their goal or had dealt any damage to me. You panicked and jumped into a conclusion that I had been beaten badly by those thugs."
"Then- What about the red stain on your sleeve?!" She asked as she showed her the stained sleeve. The nun looked at the stain and was mildly irritated, "This is going to take some time to clean... Father is going to lecture me about cleanliness again... How annoying..."
'Father? Does she mean her biological father or Kirei as in the priest? It's probably Kirei. Since, he is the one who likes to watch others suffer. Boring lectures have always been one of my worst enemies in both of my lives.' She thought.
The nun pushed away those thoughts and answered, "The stain must have come from the men who attacked me earlier. Since, I didn't necessarily pulled any of my punches when I was fighting them... Could it even be called a fight, I wonder..."
'It was a beatdown wasn't it?' She thought before she had a weird realization. 'Are all white haired nuns this powerful? You got my Divine Prayer, Theresa, and now this nun... Must be a trend I didn't know of...'
A loud girlish ringtone began to play bringing both Kiana's and the nun's attention to her pocket. The nun frowned in annoyance as she looked at Kiana with a strained smile, "Excuse me for a moment, as I answer this annoying man's phone call."
Kiana merely nodded as she listened to one side of the conversation.
"..." "You changed my ringtone again." "..." "Oh how sinful. Lying to your own daughter." "..." "Ha, funny. No, I don't need any help." "..." "It was only a group of thugs." "..." "Of course, I wouldn't do such sinful things. I'm not you." "..." "I know." "..." "How funny... I'm going back soon." "..." "No there was no Mapo Tofu today." "..." "Oh, how sad indeed." "..." "Alright. Good bye." "..."
The nun ended the call and took a deep breath to calm herself down. She stayed silent for a few moments before looking towards Kiana and asked, "Do you need to go somewhere at the moment?"
Kiana shrugged and answered, "Not really. At most, I would need to be at home by 3 before my cousin finishes his school. Why are you asking?"
The nun shrugged as she pointed at a certain direction, "If you don't mind. We could travel to the church before we go our separate ways. I... would like to know you better. You are the only white haired person I have known other than my mother. It would be nice to have... friends..."
Kiana took a few good seconds of contemplating whether she should go. 'On one hand, I could go and explore more parts of the city with someone and possibly become friends with her. On the other, I could potentially meet Kirei and lose the advantage of being unknown... What am I even saying, Kirei would know regardless because of the nun.'
Sighing to herself, she smiled at the nun and said, "Sure, I can go with you. Oh right! We haven't introduce ourselves. My name is Kiana Kaslana. How about yours?"
The nun smiled and answered, "Caren. Caren Hortensia."
Tuna Tuna Tuna~!
That was twenty minutes ago. The time was spent on getting to know more about each other. Like what is your favorite food? Spicy Mapo Tofu. What is your favorite color? Black and Yellow. How did she became a nun? Both her father and mother comes from a religious family. Naturally, she joined became as well.
It was honestly innocent questions, you would have asked to know someone more. But what confused her the most was why she was here. Her only knowledge of Caren was from fanfiction and Kaleid Prisma Illya.
In Kaleid, Caren was a sadistic doctor that was dispatched by the church to oversee the situation with the class cards. She chose to be a doctor because her sadistic side likes to see others in pain, including children. She doesn't even take her job seriously.
Although fanfiction was not really a good source of information, all fanfiction has a bit of truth in their stories. She just doesn't know which was taken from the source and which was changed by the author. A story she read told her that Caren was just as sadistic like in Kaleid but had good intentions overall...
So all in all, she is sadistic but good... She hopes.
"-shoved a spoonful of spicy mapo tofu into my mouth. It was painful and I felt betrayed. He said it wasn't too spicy since, he could handle it. But it was as if the Devil had summoned hell fire onto my tongue and cursed me forever... Because from that day forward, I would always have a weird craving for spicy foods."
"Wow... That is... Mean..." Kiana said feeling a bit speechless.
Caren nodded wholeheartedly, "Yes. He is mean. Very mean. He was laughing at me while I was crying for help. I cannot believe such a man had the capability to become a priest. Tricking young maidens to eat food from hell itself."
'Oh... Kirei did it... That makes sense.' She thought, as the two finally reached the other side of the big bridge that connected the west and the east.
"How about you?"
"Hm? Me?" Kiana asked.
Caren nodded, "Yes. All this time, I had only been telling my side of the story. I haven't heard a single story from yours except random things like how white and blue is your favorite color or how Cup noodles are 'food from the Gods' as you said it."
"Ah... Sorry. It's kind of a hard topic for me but I could tell you some stories. Like how I kept eating from my friend's lunch boxes because her cooking tastes good... I miss eating her cooking..."
Caren forced down her urge to smile, as she nodded, "Ah... That is quite unfortunate. I also missed my mother's cooking... But I had long forgotten the taste of her food."
"Huh... I guess both of us have sad pasts." Kiana said with a wry smile.
The nun smiled, "Yes... Yes we do."
The two shared a nice silent moment together as they reached the the start of the white cobblestone path to the church.
Kiana looked at the scene and thought it was nice. She would have thought it was much scarier but she remembered that this was still a church. They do Sunday sermons.
"So this is it? I thought you were joking when you said you lived in the church."
Caren sighed, "Yes. I live behind the church where there are rooms for both me and the evil priest. I guess this is goodbye for now."
"Yep! This is goodbye for now. It was nice meeting you Caren. I hope we'll meet again someday."
Caren had a small smile as she opened the door to reveal a priest with brown hair and lifeless black eyes. "Ah... Caren, my daughter. How was your morning walk?"
"It was... Interesting."
That was the last thing Kiana heard before the door closed on her. Her jaw dropped as she finally processed the words that came out of Kirei Kotomine. 'CAREN IS KIREI'S DAUGHTER?!
Tuna Tuna Tuna~!
"So, I see that you got yourself a new friend." Kirei said as his face showed that he was clearly amused by the situation.
Caren didn't smile nor frown as she answered, "Yes. That girl made quite some trouble and a few thugs tried to get revenge for their friend. The only clue they got was white hair. So they went after me."
Kirei chuckled, "Oh, is that so? Such fun. Is that why there is a red stain on your sleeve and why the bandage covering your palm is gone?"
Caren nodded, "Yes. Some of their blood soaked my bandage, staining it red. I couldn't keep it with me while walking in public."
Kirei shrugged, "That is good. Walking around with blood would get unwanted attention. So, are we going to start our lecture of cleanliness in the battlefield-"
A shoe was quickly caught by Kirei, interrupting him. Caren glared at the man as she said, "I am not in the mood, father. Right now, I want to lay down on my bed and rest."
A small smile rest upon the priest's face, "Oh? Such sloth. You're not even going to clean your sleeve-" *bang!*
Kirei looked at the closed door and huffed in amusement, "How rude. I must say, this must be a punishment from God. Do you think so as well, your highness?"
On the other side, Caren fall face first onto her bed as she groaned in annoyance, "What a horrible father..."
The girl suddenly shivered after she momentarily felt a powerful being appearing in the church. "That thing again... What is father hiding from me? It isn't daemon... Since, my constitution isn't giving me any changes. But that magical power tells me that it is strong..."
The small burst of energy reminds her of when she met Kiana... She still remembered the scene clearly in her head.
"-I'm going to skewer those guys!" Kiana muttered as Caren could see frustration and anger from her eyes.
'How violent... Is this how people feel angry for someone-What is that?!' Caren's thoughts were quickly interrupted when she saw Kiana's eyes switched from blue to an ominous orange with a four pointed star replacing her pupil. She felt a dangerous energy starting to leak from the girl and in panic, she pinched her cheek that brought her out of that state.
She sighed tiredly as an image of the girl smiling happily appeared in her head, "You are such an interesting person, Kiana... That energy felt so powerful but dangerous... Yet, you are the opposite of that... If a magus were to know of your existence... I fear for what you will do to them."
Tuna Tuna Tuna~!
Arriving back home, Kiana immediately went to the fridge to get a beer and started drinking. "Caren is Kirei's daughter! How could I have not seen such an obvious clue?! The two are sadistic and likes to watch people suffer! How did Kirei get a family in the first place?! Is she as bad as Kirei... Nein! She may be as sadistic as he is but from all the talking we did, she seem to be a bit better. Maybe... Ugh... I don't know what to think about her..."
Kiana kept going until she finished her can of beer. She sighed and flopped onto the floor, "I think she's fine... She seem to be a good person albeit her twisted personality... Maybe I could try and help her to not become Kirei 2.0..."
"Kiana-chan~! I'm home~!" The voice of the woman surprised her as the sound of footsteps slowly became louder.
The door opened violently and revealed Taiga in her casual attire. The woman was in a good mood as she brought out a small blue flip phone, "Tada~! I got this for you as a present! Grandpa said this should help you contact one of us if you're having any trouble."
'Her cheerfulness is infectious' Kiana thought as she smiled, "Ah! Really? Thank you so much!"
Taiga felt proud before she gave the phone to her, "Yep! I was the one who asked Grandpa to get one for you this morning! Grandpa was a bit shock at the fact Kiritsugu's niece came here and said that he wants to meet you when you had the time!"
'Another one?! First was Maya and her husband. Second was Caren. Now, Raiga is the third! I am meeting a lot of new people today...' Sighing mentally, she turned her attention to the happy Taiga and smiled, "Sure, I can meet him. Though, I don't know where does he stay."
"Oh, you won't need to worry much! I can call for one of Grandpa's men to bring us there!" She said as she immediately took her phone out of her pocket.
"Ah... So we're going now?" Kiana asked with a dry smile.
"Yep! Grandpa really wants to meet you! I'm sure you will have a great time in the base!"
Kiana could only sigh to herself as she thought, 'I should have came back earlier...'
Omake : Deal with a Serpent and a God
Kiana Kaslana : Dead
Mei looked at the tablet in despair as she tears started to fall from her face. "No... No no no no no! This can't be! She must not be dead! She must still be out there somewhere! I can feel it! She must be alive!"
Kevin stared at the the girl's cry of denial and sighed, "There was nothing Mei Raiden. No signs of her anywhere in Arc City or anywhere close to the city. She's gone for good. We're stopping this futile search."
"No! Please don't! Just keep searching! She's somewhere out there! I can feel it! I'll do anything!"
Kevin frowned at the face of the girl and felt bitter at the fact she looked like Dr. Mei. 'If she is anything like her, we can use her... Hm... That sly man must have planned this as well.' "Alright, let's make a deal."
---
"Ready?" The man in the intercom asked.
Mei clenched her fist in frustration as she looked at the dark cloudy sky, "Do it."
Suddenly a large crack appeared below the city shooting off large amount of Honkai energy. Mei sighed as she start bringing the energy inside her. She felt weak and her consciousness was blurry but she hanged on til the end and suddenly found herself in a white void.
"What is this? This wasn't what Kevin said was to happen." She muttered before she saw a throne of white manifested in front of her and her breath hitched. A figure with braided hair and wearing a familiar battle suit sat on the throne.
"Kiana... No! You're not Kiana! Who are you?!"
The figure merely snaps her finger as large amount of information began to enter Mei's brain.
"Ack!" She bit her lips and hold her head in pain as she started to process the information. Her eyes widened in shock as she quickly looked back up and gasped, "You...! You're the Honkai... Impossible... but that..."
She suddenly felt the need to run away but her determination to bringing back Kiana was stronger, "If you're the Honkai as the information you gave me! Then Kiana is important to you right! She has the core of the void and both gems of conquest and serenity! So let's make a deal!"
'How arrogant.' The figure said in Kiana's voice. Mei suddenly kneeled down at the sudden change of gravity. She gasped for air as she tried her best to pull herself up but to no avail.
The figure walked to the kneeling girl and said, 'What makes you think, she is important to me? She is but a mere mortal who couldn't do what I ordered. Why would a God would care for a such a disobedient and dead minion? Answer me, Mei Raiden.'
"I-"
---
"Raiden Mei, Herrscher of Thunder... How interesting..." Otto mutters as he watched the live camera footage of Mei's ascension. "So the theory was right. Even without the gem of Conquest, her past influence from the gem had caused her to still be able to become one..."
Closing the video, he brought up another one to the screen titled, 'Kiana Kaslana - Dead'. Otto sneered, 'I knew that man would go for the bait. Now to plan Fu Hua's revival and hope for Bronya's victory... I wonder, how this will go without you, K-423...'
A/N = The Omake was just something I had in mind... It's probably bad but eh? I was going for her to become Herrscher of Wind or Fire but decided against it... Thunder is more fitting for Mei. Also sorry if this took awhile. Got tests, got sick, got house problems. Literally all in this four days. Such bad luck :'(
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