2 Months Ago

.

Rem awoke one night to an anxious flutter in her chest. Turning over in her bed, she was met with the sight of an empty bed. Everyone should still be asleep, but where was her sister? She got out of bed, perplexed. There was a strange smell in the air, and muted discordant sounds reached her ears.

Onee-chan?

Cold premonition stole through her body. By the time Rem made it to the door of her room, the young oni was sweating and tense. Her hand found the doorknob. It was warm to the touch. Confused, unable to detect the source of her frightful feelings, she opened the door.

A nightmare greeted her eyes. Her home was burning. Images of her father and mother flashed before her eyes; instinctively, Rem knew that they were dead. Flames leaped and danced before her eyes, consuming the air, edging closer and closer. It devoured chairs and shelves, crawled hungrily up the walls, hissing and crackling.

Is... is this hell? Rem wondered, a vast emptiness expanding within her. The fire consumed her world, stealing relics of her childhood, memories of her parents. A whicker basket she had helped her mother make lay smoldering on the floor, half unraveled and disintegrating. A painting the twins had made, usually ornamenting the wall above the dining table, fluttered past Rem trailing embers. The flames twisted closer and closer, reaching greedily out to the young blue-haired oni. Her legs gave way and she collapsed onto the floor.

With a start, Rem's searching eyes caught sight of a small slender shadow dancing through a multitude of cloaked figures, twisting around and slicing. The sinister figures charged at the smaller elegant shadow and met their demise one after another.

Onee-chan. Rem's fear for herself turned to concern for her sister. She was surrounded now, a small pink-haired oni within a circle of tall, cloaked shadows. They towered over the girl, red eyes gleaming and dark pointy hoods rippling in the heat. Seemingly unconcerned by the fire around them, the cloaks raised their crooked daggers, aiming to extinguish the young oni's life. The daggers sliced down. Rem froze in fear.

At the last moment, blades of wind cut through the surrounding cloaks and dissolved them into fragments of black fabric that promptly turned to ash.

"Onee-chan!" Rem finally cried, terror and alarm and worry condensing into a single shout. Her sister came running to her side and turned, summoning a barrier of wind around the two oni. After a second, the wind exploded outward and cut through the remaining cloaks with a high, keening sound.

Her savior turned slowly, the single horn protruding from her forehead glowing serenely.

"Rem... I'm glad you're safe." A soft voice, barely audible over the crackling flames. Rem stared up at her sister in helplessness and vulnerability in the way a younger sibling looks up to their older sibling. A moment passed between them, a silent confirmation of each other's wellbeing. The pink-haired oni reached toward Rem to bridge the soundless gap between them. A cue that everything was going to be all right, that she would protect Rem with everything she had.

Yet in that moment, fate dealt one more twisted blow. A shadow rose from the flames much too quickly for either oni twin to react, and in one deafening strike, sent Ram's single horn spinning into the air trailing droplets of blood. Robbed of her power, the elder oni twin collapsed, lying still on the floor. The flames roared in satisfaction.

Tears slid down Rem's face, and unbidden, her mouth twisted into a small smile.

It finally broke off.

Years of being inferior, of reaching for standards set by her sister and falling short, of always failing at what her sister accomplished easily. She was free. Free of expectation, free to live her life.

With a gasp, Rem started from the feeling of elation in shock. She'd had never hated herself so much than at that moment. Even while her sister's life hung in the balance, when her home was going up in flames, she had felt alive. And Rem could not forgive herself for that. While the last cloaked shadow turned to ashes before her meager wind magic, while she bundled up her sister and stumbled out the door of their burning home, while she walked past the sights of her ruined village, Rem despised herself. She hated herself for having felt that way. But she could not forget the delight she'd felt when her sister's horn had hit the ground and shattered.
.


.
Rem walked and walked, carrying her unconscious sister. Out of the burning village, down the path that cut through the dark forest. She did not see the feel the moonlight on her shoulders, nor hear the breeze that whispered past. Her heart was heavy with pain and regret, a vast dark lake sending strong waves crashing incessantly against the edges of her consciousness.

They were two lone survivors of the oni village, a single spot of white in the darkness of the trees around them. Rem willed her feet onwards, her bare feet pit-patting across the cooling dirt, her arms straining under the weight of her sister. She had to get somewhere, anywhere. Just away from that nightmare.

The leaves rustled loudly in the wind.

Rem stopped dead in her tracks, cold dread tickling up her spine. The leaves sounded like a muted warning, a smattering of whispers.

Danger. Run.

Rem twirled, scanning the forest around them. The woods were still. Nothing moved in the darkness. However, the whispers grew louder.

Death. Danger. Run. Run!

Her breath started coming in short gasps. She desperately gazed into the darkness around, looking for the source of the warnings the leaves were giving her.

Suddenly, things shot out of the forest gloom, frothing and growling, dog-shaped shadows with bright red eyes. Mabeasts. Four, no five hellhounds barreled straight toward Rem and her unconscious sister.

The young oni froze in terror. She knew she had to do something; the only thing standing between these demons and her sister was Rem herself. But her body wouldn't move. Her feet were rooted to the dirt, her arms unmoving, still carrying her sister. The mabeasts drew closer, blood red eyes leaving lines of light in the darkness.

An image of hellhounds swarming over her sister, snapping, biting, tearing, surged into her mind. Horror clenched her heart and gave Rem a spurt of desperate energy. She quickly lowered her sister to the ground and raised a trembling arm toward the charging mabeasts.

"Fula!"

Mana left her palm and condensed into coils of sharp, unyielding air. The lead beast exploded in a cloud of blood as multiple blades of wind spiraled into its body.

But it had been too late. Before she could unleash another spell, the other mabeasts leaped through the red haze and were on her.

A powerful jaw locked onto her right forearm and dragged her off balance, instantly tearing skin and muscles. Rem screamed in agony. Simultaneously, another mabeast tackled her in the chest, sending the oni sprawling in the dirt. The impact drove the air out of her lungs. The beast then promptly bit into her left calve, inhibiting any movement its prey might attempt to escape. She screamed again. The two remaining hounds darted in and started tearing at Rem's stomach and chest to deliver the fatal blow. Blood splattered onto the dirt path.

Burning torment lanced Rem's arm and leg and abdomen. She frantically tried to beat away the hounds with her free arm but her blows glanced off their heads. The jaws clamped on her right arm and left leg were too strong; Rem felt herself succumbing to the waves of agony and the lure of unconsciousness. Growls filled her ears as her struggles grew weaker and weaker.

A sudden keening sound, accompanied by a blast of wind that ruffled Rem's hair. She lay still, wondering if she were dead. It hurt too much for that to be true, she thought. Yet the tugging on her limbs had ceased. Confused, Rem opened her eyes.

Her sister stood over her, slumped and barely keeping herself upright. Blood still trailed from the empty spot in the middle of her forehead, but her sharp pink eyes gleamed with determination. Framed in the moonlight, her sister had never appeared more beautiful.

Fighting the pain and exhaustion following the loss of her horn, Ram had stirred from unconsciousness after hearing Rem scream. Rem drew strength from the fierce protective spirit in her sister's eyes and sat up, looking around.

Another hound had been disintegrated by her sister's magic. The remaining three had jumped back, warily upraising the new foe before them. Puffs of white smoke billowed from the side of their jaws as they growled a challenge.

Rem knew that her weakened, drained sister was no match for them. Even now, after one spell, her sister was on the verge of unconsciousness again. But when Rem tried to stand, her injured leg gave out and she crashed into the hard dirt with a cry.

Sensing a quick victory, the remaining mabeasts charged toward them.

The hounds' red eyes glared in the darkness of the night, dipping and diving as they shot across the path. Froth seethed in the crevices between their sharp, sharp teeth.

Thick red blood stained her clothes and patterned the dirt path.

How dare they take her home and family.

How dare they hurt her sister.

How dare they.

And in an instant, Rem's horn protruded from her forehead, and she felt her sanity slip under the maelstrom of churning emotions.

.

"Rem..."

The next thing Rem knew, she was standing over the mutilated corpses of three hellhounds, her horn retracted. Her heart hammered in her chest. Raising her hand, she saw that they were covered in blood. Not her own, but that of the mabeasts. With a gasp, she stumbled back.

"Rem..." A weak voice.

Onee-chan!

Rem froze, fearing the worst. Had the beasts gotten to her sister? In her demon rage, had she struck down the most important person in her life? With mounting horror, she whirled around.

Her twin sister lay on the dirt path. No blood other than the thin trail running from her forehead. Intact. Safe.

Her worried gaze was met by dim, half-open pink eyes. Visibly struggling, the pink-haired oni reached out an arm toward her. Rem fell beside her sister and grasped the offered hand. The blood on her own hand was slick and warm, but Rem felt the tender reassurance from her sister's hand over it.

I will protect you.

The deep wounds on her leg, arm, and abdomen had mostly healed, but Rem felt drained. She eased her arms under her sister's body and stood, faltered for a moment, found her balance and started walking again.


The morning sun found Rem on a small path in the forest, trudging up a shallow incline. Her arms had long turned to wood holding her twin sister's unconscious body. Sometime through the long night, Rem's emotions had fizzled out, leaving only bleakness in their wake. Still, Rem moved on, step after step, glazed eyes seeing nothing but the path directly in front of her.

One foot forward. Another foot. Again. And again.

Rem did not know how long she had walked until her legs gave out. The twin oni crashed into the cold unforgiving dirt. Unable to muster the strength to stand back up, Rem reached out with quivering arms and gathered her unmoving elder twin to her chest.

I'm sorry, Onee-chan. Even in the end, I couldn't do anything for you.

Lying there in singed, torn, and bloody traditional clothes, Rem felt the numbness in her heart spread. It stole through her body with long reaching fingers, claiming and stealing all sensations. The feeling of cold hard dirt against her cheek faded, the pain in her legs and arms merely a memory.

As the world gradually faded away, she glimpsed a large shadow stalking toward them in the corner of her vision.

Memories of her sister standing over her fighting pain and exhaustion surfaced in her mind. Rem valiantly tried to shift her head toward the shadow, but her body did not obey. Hours of walking, fighting, and despair had pushed her past any limits long ago. It was nothing short of a miracle she had lasted the night. The shadow drew closer.

Fu... la...

But with depleted mana and energy, her wind blades did not materialize.

Rem lost all sensation and the world turned black.