Of Demons and Librarians chapter 4

Pandemonium seems to have settled in the small village. It had only taken a few minutes to get to Irlam though when they got there they quickly realized that they were too late. They started asking around for the situation at hand and quickly realized why everyone was running around in panic the kids went missing.

"Damn it, doesn't this place have any protection Rem." A frustrated-looking Shirou asked the maid who seemed rather composed but ready.

"A Barrier was set up by Lord Roswaal, it was supposed to ward off the beasts but if they were able to come in…" she stopped talking and closed her eyes, before opening them again and running off without saying anything.

"Hey wait."

By the time he caught up to her she was looking at a crystal, he had seen some of them but this one was unlit, "Is this where that dog came from."

Rem nodded and looked at the ground noticing the footprints, before getting surprised by Shirou who started walking towards the forest. She was about to call towards him but hesitated, she had decided to give him a chance but the thought of fighting side by side with him wasn't something she could do with a clear head, still….

"Aren't you coming?" Shirou was looking back at her with slight disappointment "If you hesitate now I will leave you behind, we have no time for this, either you trust me or you don't." Frustration in his voice kept mounting.

She gave him a serious look "Why are you doing this, what do you have to gain from saving these people, why do you care."

Shirou glared at her but still talked calmly "I don't need to gain anything out of this, I'm not doing this for praise."

Rem stared into his eyes before grabbing her weapon a morning star, Shirou looked at it "So you made your choice then."

Rem joined him and started walking deeper into the forest without answering.

"Can you tell me anything about what we're fighting." Shirou asked after joining her.

"Wolgarms fight in groups other than numbers they don't have much else, considering we're going to be fighting a pack be prepared to get attacked by all sides. If they bite you, you'll get cursed. It's how they eat, they feed off the energy of those they bit." Rem said without turning to him.

"I see." Shirou said.

Rem looked down and saw his clenched hand that was quickly turning white "You're angry, try and not let that get in the way, or rather try and not make a mistake."

"Huh?" Shirou asked surprised by the direction this conversation turned.

"I understand your frustration and Rem won't try and tell you how to fight it seems Shirou has that experience already." She stopped and looked at him with her one uncovered eye "But take Rem's advice and don't make a stupid decision over this situation. It wasn't your fault."

"Why are you telling me this until now you could barely look at me without flinching or looking prepared to attack at the slightest provocation."

"True and I won't lie about still having reservations about you, but I made my choice I'm here now make sure Rem sees she made the right one." and with that, she resumed walking and following the footprints.

Shirou stayed and looked down at his hand releasing the pressure after a while, shaking his head and clearing his thoughts he went back to walking side by side with her.

They walked in silence in preparation for an attack, an attack that never happened. He couldn't stop thinking though based on the way Rem talked, these beasts had the same intelligence as a pack of wolfs and if they attacked the village they should have no problems attacking them, to beasts they probably looked like easy prey, which meant they were ordered not to never mind the fact that they only attacked kids and based on the footprints they were led into the attack no way an animal had that type of intelligence. The image of a little girl who had a puppy in her arms appeared in the mind of Shirou.

They reached a clearing in the forest, immediately noticing the kids that were on the floor, running to them Rem begun to check for bite marks.

"Are they okay?" Shirou asked before noticing that two of the children were still missing, looking around he saw what looked like blood smeared in front of a tree, a clear message.

"They've been bit, the only thing I can do is heal them until they are good enough to carry… Shirou? Where are you going?" Her eye widened at what Shirou grabbed.

Shirou's form trembled as he took out the severed arm of a child that was beside the tree, he looked to his left and saw that every other tree was marked with blood making it clear that someone wanted to follow it.

"What are you going to do Shirou I can't move right now while I'm healing, and it's going to take a while before anyone in the village comes around."

"I'll go on ahead and take care of this, I'm pretty sure I know who did it." Shirou started walking back into the forest.

"You know it's a trap right."

Without looking back Shirou stepped deeper into the forest "Stay here and look after the kids I'll be back before you know it."

She wasn't able to see his face but the lack of emotion in his voice made her feel uneasy especially when it was someone who until now had been friendly towards everyone they met. She only hoped no one had to die today.

"Be careful." She said mostly to herself the man already too far away to hear her.

(With Shirou)

"My fault, my fault, my fault, MY FAULT."

A voice kept pounding on his head as he moved forward careful of any movement on the foliage. If only he had noticed that the dog was different, or that girl… what the hell was he going to do about her if everything he feared was true, she was a threat not to mention she already hurt if not killed a kid.

He stopped and cleared his thoughts no matter what happened before he was about to get into battle so he'll leave his regrets after everyone is safe.

It had taken him way too long to reach what he thought was the last blood mark, he could hear the growling from the other side of the foliage. It was time to confront whatever was on the other side. That was his last thought as he stepped onto the battlefield.

He was surrounded, he looked back at the path he had come from and only saw more bloodthirsty hounds snarling at him a clear indicator that someone was controlling them due to their use of rudimentary tactics a beast would've simply attacked instead of trying something like this, though that someone was nowhere to be seen, he looked up and saw the puppy growl near him rested Lucas his arm fully bandaged.

Before he could finish checking on the kid the puppy's body started to morph turning bigger and bigger until it was shadowing even him "Rem you didn't tell me about this." before dodging one of the beast's swipes gaining some distance.

"There's a lot less of you than I thought." looking around Shirou noticed only about ten or so of the wolf-like creatures surrounded him.

Either the mastermind had a limit on what they could control or something was amiss.

He decided to cut his losses and just kill the pack leader and save the kid, he could see him from here but the giant body of the shaman was blocking his path. He would have to deal with this thing fast he still didn't know if anything was happening back with Rem.

"Trace on." He jumped back and traced his most trusted swords immediately getting attacked from both sides by the closest wolgarms, something he expected. Before they could even get close he threw both weapons in opposite directions to each other, their magnetic like ability made them arc hitting both beasts in the neck easily cutting their head off not even stopping the momentum the weapons had, before meeting their target the large shaman borrowing themselves deep into its front legs the beast giving out a pained growl.

Shirou immediately traced another kanshou spinning back before another wolgarm could attack him from behind cutting its neck cleanly. Looking around for a second, there weren't that many left but most importantly he had a clear path to the shaman. He traced bakuya and started running into the large wolf-like creature throwing both swords into its chest, he jumped before he could get struck by a spike coming from the ground made from earth magic, putting himself in the best position to attack from above. The shaman noticing its precarious situation tried to move but due to how damaged its front legs were it wasn't able to do it fast enough getting struck on its back, the damage making it tumble though not enough to actually kill it.

Before it could counterattack Shirou gripped the handles of the blades harder, blue-like lines appearing through the swords connecting to the other ones impaled on the giant hound.

"Burst." with a single word the front of its body exploded in a red mist leaving only leaving the back portion of its body, giant swords appearing where its front used to be dissolving a moment later.

The rest of the pack started running away after their leader's death. Shirou sat there for a second panting slightly, looking to his right he could see the missing kid mostly unharmed he went to him quickly and looked at his arm or what was left of it. "Seems they took care of the wound, at least you won't get an infection or die of blood loss." He looked around to see if he could find any clues on the other girl that was missing he knew there were a lot of signs pointing towards her having something to do with this but she deserved the benefit of the doubt.

What he didn't know was that the girl itself was watching everything from a distance "So that's the one who defeated my sister." she gave a big smile before looking towards her left, her eyes settling on something in particular as her smile widened "I wonder how you'll deal with her." she said as she got up and went deeper into the forest petting one of the wolgarms while humming a tune.

"Nothing. I better bring you to Rem so she can heal you." He grabbed Lucas careful to make him as comfortable as possible but couldn't stop the pained face the kid had even in sleep. He started to make his way back to the clearing, as he got closer though he could hear the sound of battle and something else.

"HAHAHAHAHA" It was a crazed sound the biggest problem with it was he knew that voice, he had to wonder what made the usually composed Rem like this.

Setting Lucas down on a tree that was a good distance away from the current fighting zone, he mentally prepared himself for yet another battle.

He reached the clearing and…

"MABEASTS!MABEASTS!MABEASTS!MABEASTS!" His eyes widened, corpses of the wolgarms littered the floor, the ground more bloody than green at this point, and the girl who often seemed so emotionless was laughing hysterically as she stomped on the head of an already dead beast.

"So you weren't human after all, huh." noticing the horn on her forehead, looking around he spotted the rest of the villagers cornered and afraid must have come back for the kids, though they weren't hurt, in fact where they were was the only place without any of the corpses. So the maid was still in there somewhere.

At the sound of his voice, she turned slowly to him her grin getting bigger and bigger "Witch cultist." she said in a rather calm voice despite how crazed her face looked. Before he could attempt to read the situation she was already on the attack grabbing her chain and throwing her weapon at him.

He quickly rolled to left the tree behind him turning to splinters due to her morning star, before she could make another move he traced a weapon cutting through the chain effectively destroying her main weapon.

"Calm down Rem, I'd rather not use force to stop you okay." Shirou said giving away his weapon to show he wasn't an enemy, his words falling on deaf ears apparently as magic built up around her.

"EL HUMA." multiple spears of ice appeared and shot to him at high speeds Shirou weaving left and right trying his best to dodge the coming onslaught.

His only chance at getting this finished quickly and without hurting her was to get close, on the last spear he shot up towards Rem without any weapons intending to do the least amount of damage as possible throwing an overhand punch with his right arm, Rem seeing the move coming ducked under his punch easily.

"HAHAHAHA." before he could make any other move Rem punched his gut knocking the air out of him, he immediately took a step back trying to gain some distance but the maid was faster than he was kicking his leg and putting him on the ground. He looked at her from bellow only seeing her foot going down with the intent of stomping his brains in, he rolled barely getting away her foot slamming into the ground with such force that it borrowed into it getting stuck. That's not to say she let Shirou have any time to gather himself, before he could try standing back up she used what remained of her weapon as a makeshift whip the attack so strong that it sent him flying.

Shirou stood up shakily, his shirt had been ripped off from below his chest, showing a red slashing mark dripping blood in his midsection "Ugh…" spitting a bit of blood he got from biting the inside of his cheek when he was thrown, he looked back up just as Rem managed to get her foot out, now grinning maniacally as she grabbed her chain spinning it around.

If this continued further one of them would get severely hurt if not worse, she was coming with the intent to kill from the get-go if he didn't follow suit he would lose, but he just couldn't do it no matter what she did to him. He could see the bloody marks all over her body, she got that protecting the villagers because he wasn't fast enough.

Still, he couldn't let himself die, he had promises to keep. Standing back up he summoned the married blades into his hands, preparing to at least defend himself.

She grinned at him before doing a half spin sending her chain flying onto his right side, this time though he was prepared, deflecting the chain with his own weapon parts of it coming undone as it hit both blades. Not one to be disturbed by it Rem continued sending her chain in various directions.

"Damn it find a weak spot anything, I can't continue like this." Shirou said running around and deflecting attacks from Rem, cuts, and burns appearing on his arms due to how fast she was whipping that chain around.

The only thing he could think of was that pink horn on her forehead, she didn't have it before so it only made sense that it had to do something with this state, clenching his teeth he made his decision. "You were always walking around with that damn frown all the time, glaring at me I worked so hard to try and make you happy with my presence, and now that I finally see a different expression you're trying to kill me. You maids are TOO MUCH WORK."

"GAAAAH." Rem screamed in anger at not being able to hit him as she grabbed her chain and put all her strength into her swing, Shirou lept forward ducking under it. Rem grabbed the chain trying to control its momentum pushing it back towards Shirou's direction who this time jumped above it stabbing kanshou into it forcing it to stop and get stuck on the ground, this wouldn't give him much time but the temporary loss of her weapon gave him an opening.

Forcing his legs to move as fast as he could he flipped bakuya around "Wake up REM." he said as he hit the horn with the back of his weapon. The girl's forehead started bleeding as her eyes started closing as she lost consciousness. Before she could hit the floor Shirou grabbed her and hugged her to his chest.

"Ah damn it, looking at you now, maybe you are worth the work." Sighing as he heard footsteps coming.

The villagers noticing the fighting had stopped started walking towards him with a bit of trepidation "If any of you are Lucas's parents, he's safe." Shirou said pointing at where he hid him.

"Thank you for saving us. I don't know how much more we could take." said a woman almost crying.

"I didn't save you at all." Shirou said getting up carrying Rem "She did."

"But you saw what she became…" said a rather old male looking at her in fear.

"She became that to protect all of you." Shirou was glaring at him at this point "So show some respect."

Shirou stopped himself from saying more after he heard Lucas's parent's cries at seeing the state their kid was in, these people passed through too much in just one night wasn't fair for him to take his anger out on them.

"You guys can move in front, I'll watch the back." he said to try and get some distance from the villagers, he would protect them if need be but he'd rather be alone right now the woman in his arms notwithstanding.

They began to walk back towards the village, Shirou simply walked in silence reflecting on this very long night. He didn't accomplish anything not really, he didn't save the kids and now one of them had to live their lives without an arm. He didn't even protect any of the villagers the girl in his arms did that.

As if she knew he was thinking of her she begun to stir "Shirou?"

He looked down surprised at her quick recovery but still gave her a tired smile "Hey we're almost back at the village everyone is safe."

She began to look all over him before turning her head away "I hurt you."

Shirou's eyes widened at that "So you remember, huh."

She didn't say anything and just continued to look in front of her, a few moments passed for the two the only sound being the heavy discussion of the group of villagers in front of them.

"Why didn't you…" Rem tried to speak but she seemed like she couldn't find the words "I hurt you, if my sister were here instead of me none of this would've happened."

Shirou looked down at her "She wasn't though, and it wasn't me protecting them it was you, be proud of that."

She was finally able to look back at him only to see him smiling "But I hurt you, I was going to kill you. If you didn't stop me, I would…" Rem had tears in her eyes now.

"But you didn't, I know that doesn't fix every problem we've had but it gives you a chance to do so, besides look in front of you." Shirou said smiling "They're alive because of you, your sister didn't do that and I didn't do that, like I said be proud and don't let a fixable bad moment ruin it for you, I'm still here."

They remained in silence for the rest of the journey eventually reaching Irlam. Shirou could tell that his words didn't really impact how she felt right now, he wasn't the best at explaining how he felt rather letting his actions do the talking but his actions today showed nothing so he had nothing to give her.

They returned to the village it's people dispersing and setting the kids down so that they could be healed better, the two employees of house Rooswal on the other hand settled near the entrance on some chairs onlooking the road back to the mansion "My sister and lady Beatrice should be coming soon to fully heal the children."

"How do you know that."

"My sister and I can share feelings, she's coming I know it."

"I see."

They sat there for a bit under a heavy silence, until Shirou decided to break it "Can I ask you a question Rem."

"Hmm?" She mumbled not even looking back at him.

"Why do you always keep putting yourself down."

"Does it matter?" The girl said looking down.

"Only you can tell me that." It was probably not the best idea to pressure the maid into telling him her secrets so he didn't say more than that just looking at the sky.

"You know my sister and I only had one horn." Shirou looked back at her surprised but allowing her to continue "As an oni having twins it's considered a sin because of it we are only able to have one horn instead of two."

There was silence after that every word seemed to take a lot of the maid "The only reason why we were allowed live was because my sister was a prodigy of incredible power, while I… Rem was…"

"Rem I…" Shirou started talking before getting interrupted.

"Shut up, I don't know why I'm telling you this right now but I feel so tired of keeping it so don't say anything and just hear Rem okay." She said still looking at the sky her lone visible eye now crying.

"I was never good enough, I tried so hard to be as good as her but I was never able to, why did Rem even exist if I didn't sister would have two horns and be even better I was nothing but a leech." Rem was panting now her hand clutching her skirt.

"That's why I was so happy on that day when we were attacked when her horn was cut off, I felt so happy I was finally better than her." She was openly crying at this point "That's why someone like me shouldn't have survived right? While everyone died while my sister got something taken away, I was the only one not to lose."

Shirou gasped the image of a kid surrounded by flames and corpses appearing on his mind.

"That's… not true."

"Huh?" Rem's confusion appeared clearly on her face as she turned to look at the red-haired man on her side, who now seems almost frantic.

"I..." Shirou gave her a pained look "You are more than that, you have to be, you're not just your guilt over surviving."

Rem stared at him "This isn't just about me is it Shirou."

Shirou shook his head "I've seen you despite clearly being exhausted you still worked harder than everyone in the mansion, despite people being afraid of you, you still protected them even getting injured because of it. You're a strong person much more than just a copy of your sister, you have… you have to…"

"It seems you have some things to work on as well Shirou." Rem grabbed his hand giving him a small smile.

"You're smiling at me huh seems I didn't break that promise." Shirou said now calming down.

Rem's eye widened before giggling "Guess not, really though having to hurt this pure maiden just to get his way."

"Oi don't say it like that." They laughed together and sat there with their hands locked for a bit just watching the sky.

"Rem, can we make another promise."

She didn't give him an answer but still, he continued.

"I'll be one of your pillars and you'll be one of mine. We need people to tell us we are more than our past, we need more reasons to live than that."

"Rem thinks she would like that."

They sat there back in silence this time a comfortable one of two people who understood they were a bit broken but content in knowing someone understood if only a bit, their hands interlocked as they watched the moonlight sky.

Until the moment was inevitably broken…

"SHIIIIIIIIIROU." a white streak came through barreling into Shirou making him wince as he hit the floor. "I was so worried."

Rem on the other hand looked aghast "Lady Emilia please, sir Shirou is currently injured."

Her words went ignored as the white-haired girl continued to cry on his chest, Ram who reached the village by now did a once-over on her sister before giving a glare to the man on the ground.

"Oi stray didn't I tell you to not let anything happen to my cute little sister." her stare burned a hole into his soul actually making him scramble back a bit.

"You two stop, I suppose." an annoyed voice came through as Beatrice made her presence known "Girl get off him."

"I'm sorry Shirou I didn't mean to hurt you." Emilia shot back up with a blush on her face.

"It's fine, I'm already okay though you might have gotten a bit of blood in your clothes." that caused the girl to look in horror though not because of clothing. Her eyes strained from Rem back to Shirou seeing the multitude of injuries the two sustained, making her eyes drop to the floor almost in shame.

Before Beatrice could attempt to heal him he grabbed her hand "Can you please check the children and Rem first I'll be fine trust me."

She glared at him almost as if she was going to ignore his comment and heal him anyway "Fine, I suppose I can heal everyone else but if I do so I won't heal you, in fact."

"That's fine too." Shirou said with a sigh.

"Rem will heal him then." The blue-haired maid said with a cute smile as she looked at him.

"I was only joking, I suppose." Beatrice muttered but she went unheard.

Ram hearing that from Rem just glared harder at him.

He just couldn't catch a break huh.

Hey guys it's been a bit huh, sorry about that this chapter kicked my ass and to be honest I still don't like how it looks but I can't keep running away from posting it, it's my first combat chapter and well ugh I'm in way over my head with this one.

Anyway I'll post a new chapter soonish it's not going to be a new chapter per say more of a small epilogue for the arc.

I had to rewrite this mess of a chapter like 4 or 5 times I swear, I just want to be done with it at this point there's a lot of things I'm not happy with it, like the fight against the shaman i wanted a cool ability to kill it but I thought using a powerful noble phantasm would be way too much for this lvl of threat and I recently watched the fate kaleid movie so I took the move he used against shinji don't know if I described that well, about the Rem one well it was very much shirou holding back a lot of his stuff sounds like a one shot kill against her.

I don't know hopefully it's good enough for the wait I know I spent like a month on this but I really didn't, anyone who does weekly updates you have my respect because after doing 4 i was almost burnt out needed a break then i started another story and shit snowballed until today. I'll try and do 2 chapters monthly at least.

Anyway hope you like it.