Chapter 9: Messages Through Space

"YES! REM DID IT!" She yelled in excitement, after countless hours, countless continues, countless game overs, she finally was able to defeat that evil... dragon?... Turtle? Bowser! She jumped from her seat and without thinking, she threw the controller across the room, she, however, did not stop celebrating. "REM IS THE BEST!" She finally stopped jumping up and down, when she saw the result of her actions, Subaru was kneeling in front of his controller, with a sad look in his eyes. She quickly ran to her beloved Subaru, "Rem is sorry! Rem is sorry! Rem will take the punishment she deserves" Subaru with an eye raised looked at her in disbelief before erupting in laughter.

"Oh my God, Rem! We talked about this" He kept laughing "It was a gift from an old friend, but it isn't that important" He ceased his laughter and stood up, he offered a hand to Rem which she gladly took, he sat on his bed, and Rem sat across him in the moving chair. Subaru had to talk about Rem's little problem. In the past, it was way worst, in her mind the only thing that mattered was Ram, but now, it was him, he loved the special attention he received from Rem don't get him wrong, but he believed she deserved better, he tried to think about a way to break it to her but decided that the best way was to be direct.

"Rem, ever since I knew you, you had Ram in this pedestal above everything else, there was not a single thing Ram did 'wrong' " He air quoted "If she broke something, it was for the better of the mansion, she forgot to clean a spot, it was already in a perfect condition, she overslept, she did more than the both us combined yesterday" Subaru scratched the top of his head. "I get it, you love your sister, but why? Why do you have to put yourself below her?"

The atmosphere in the room suddenly felt heavy. Rem knew that this moment was going to happen sooner or later, but she wasn't expecting it to be this soon. "May Rem sit beside you?" "You don't have to ask" She nodded and took a seat beside him, she wrapped her hands around his waist and leaned on his chest. Subaru retaliated the embrace with his own.

Rem took a deep breath "As you know, Rem and her sister are onis. When an Oni is born, they are born with two horns, however, Rem and Ram are twins and they were born with one each." She closed her eyes, for her, it made it easier to speak. "Oni's were a proud race, due to the power they possessed. Having twin Oni's was a bad omen from the very beginning, even worst if they only had a single horn each, because, to them, that meant weakness and weakness cannot exist within the Oni's, so they saw to execute us," Ren shuttered as she recalled the events that were told to her "That was until Ram unleashed a powerful amount of mana that signified that she was stronger than she led on"

"Ok then, I guess, I can see why she regards Ram so high," He thought, but it didn't stop there, Rem kept talking. "That was the first time Ram saved Rem's life" She hugged Subaru tighter. "Ram is a prodigy, back then, everyone in the village was amazed at her strength, for such a young child to possess that kind of power, it could only mean that she was going to become the most powerful Oni the world has ever seen, Rem, on the other hand, was weak, the only thing she was good for was cooking and cleaning." Her anger began to rise. "Rem was so weak, so pathetic, I tried to become stronger, but my attempts were fruitless." Her anger became even stronger. "One night, Rem's village was attacked, by those bastards! Those witch cultists!" Her grip got tighter to the point that it started to hurt Subaru, but he said nothing, he needed Rem to let it all out. "They slaughter Rem's village, Rem's parents. and Rem... Rem was asleep throughout all of this! She was useless, when Rem woke up, my village was already gone. Rem walked out of her home, scared, crying, and she met a cultist who was ready to strike her, that's when Ram jumped in to defend me... losing her horn in the process" Her anger turned to sadness and sorrow. "If it wasn't for Roswaal-sama, that would have been the end of Ram and her sister's story" Subaru's shirt was covered in Rem's tear, he softly rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head.

"Let it all out" Rem kept on crying. "If only Rem was as half as good as her sister! If only Rem had not been born! Then her village would still exist, her sister would have both horns, and her parents would still be alive!" Her sobs became louder, she cursed herself, over and over again, calling herself useless, unnecessary, garbage, nothing but a waste of space.

Subaru, finally understood Rem's inferiority complex, and no pun intended, this problem became even more complex than he expected, after a few more moments of crying Rem finally stopped crying and looked up at Subaru "Now that you know the truth, are you going to leave, Rem? If so, I understand..." It was Subaru's turn to get mad, he looked at Rem in the eye with all the anger he could muster. and Rem was ready for her punishment. "How many times do I have to tell you this! I am never going to leave you! You are stuck with me whether you like it or not! I don't care about the past! I care about the present and the future! I am no fortune teller but I can only see the future with you by my side! I'm a greedy asshole! So I'm going to keep you with me!" Rem tried to talk but was interrupted. "If you think you're weak then we are going to make you strong! If you think you're trash we are making you, gold! If you think you're a waste of space than, we are going to suffocate everyone with your presence, because you already did that for me so I'm going to do that for you, starting today! So stop those tears!" Rem did as told and she wiped them off "We are going to make you so strong, Ram is going to be jealous!"

"Rem will do her best!"

"And that's what we are starting with!"

"huh?" Rem was confused.

"No more speaking about yourself in third person, no matter how adorable and cute I find it!" Rem giggled at that comment.

"Alright! Re-I I will stop doing that! Re- I will try Re- best- I mean my best. This is going to be tougher than Re-,I! Expected Fuck!" Subaru and Rem looked at each other before they started to laugh. Rem then quickly stopped and stole a kiss from Subaru, who wasn't expecting that. He froze for a second before doing the same thing, this time however for much longer. Their lips were locked and everything else was gone except for the two of them. They stopped needing to regain their breath.

"Wow..." That is all that Subaru could say.

"I feel the same way" Rem pushed Subaru to make him lay down in his bed, she got on top of him sitting on his waist, she locked lips again until they needed to regain their breath again. Rem took off her jacket, and took off her shirt, the only thing left in her upper body was a blue simple bra. Subaru was mesmerized by the sight of this beautiful demon undressing in front of him. Rem felt something poking her thigh and smiled. "Someone is excited to see Rem~" Rem grabbed Subaru's pants and slowly started to pull them down

"EYE OF THE TIGER IS THE KING OF THE FIGHT!" Rem was stopped by the sound of music coming from Subaru's pants. Subaru reached for his pocket while Rem growled angrily, she was so close, so close to getting what she wanted. Subaru tried to get compose himself as best as he could before answering the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, son! Your mom and I are almost home, can you and Rem come out to help us with the groceries?" Kenichi's call was both a blessing and a curse,

"Yea, be there in a second" Rem was able to hear what was said on the phone, but never the less she was beyond pissed off, even if she wasn't to stay mad at the man. Subaru hung up the call and told Rem the situation. Rem just sighed disappointingly "I know" She got off Subaru and started dressing.

"Besides the usual groceries, we got popcorn, chips, and ice cream for tonight's movie!" Kenichi was excited for tonight's movie, for it was one of his favorites, a movie that taught him a lot and was one of the inspirations for him to go to the gym and get buff, not only that but to always keep fighting.

"Dad isn't this too much junk food" Subaru knows that his father always watches what he eats, and seeing him ready to chow down on all of this, was weird. Kenichi chuckled

"Well... we're watching my favorite movie and besides" Like a man welcoming someone to the stage he turned his hand towards Rem "It's also for Rem to enjoy!" Even if Kenichi couldn't sense it Rem was not too happy with him due to reasons he didn't know, so she didn't show her usual enthusiasm. "Are you not excited for tonight?"

"I am," She said matter of fact with no emotion on her face.

"Okay then!" Kenichi was no dumb man and knew that Rem wasn't too happy right now so he decided to just skip this conversation in its entirety. He sat on the living room couch and placed all of the snacks on the table. He grabbed the remote and browsed in TV until he found the movie that he wanted to see. The preview picture was in black and white and it showed a couple holding hands with them facing away from the screen, the lady was dressed entirely in black and the man was only wearing shorts and boots, and his back was covered in bruises. Finally, the rest of the family joined Kenichi on the couch with sodas in their hands.

"Rocky?" Subaru wanted to laugh at the irony, unknowingly Rem was about to watch the movie that interrupted their 'moment'

"You know this is my favorite movie of all time, why do you sound surprised."

"Don't worry about it, dad! Just play the movie."

This movie is the story of a man who only did what he needed to do to get by, he was a boxer for he wasn't smart, but knew how to use his fist. However he wasn't a great fighter either, but what he did have and in spades, was will, no matter how many times he got punched, no matter how bad life would get, no matter how many times he got sent to the mat, he always got back up, he was a stallion that could not be knocked down, and Rem loved every second of this film, she didn't understand everything 100% but understood enough to feel for this characters. She watched the movie like a hawk while eating strawberry ice cream all by herself, and after almost two hours, and a fight for the championship, the movie froze in the last frame with a badly beaten Rocky holding onto Adrian.

"This can't be over! This was too good of a film to just end!" Rem got off the couch sad that her, now the favorite movie was over.

"Good news! There are like six more movies!" Kenichi was happy that someone else was loving this series.

"There are!? We must watch them!" Subaru shook his head and started to pick up the trash that was laying around them.

"Sorry, Rem but my parents need to rest for tomorrow, but we'll watch the second part tomorrow" Disappointedly Rem nodded, and started to help Subaru. "Mom, Dad, you guys head to bed, Rem and I will take care of this mess"

Naoko yawned "Thanks honey, you guys have a good night" Naoko got up with Kenichi by her side.

"You two as well!"

And with the last soda can thrown away, Subaru and Rem headed to their room, ready to rest, but they were stopped in their tracks when a small dark wormhole formed in front of their eyes. Rem pushed Subaru behind her, ready to protect him. The space anomaly then spits out three pieces of paper, before collapsing onto itself. Rem with an eyebrow raised kneeled and grabbed the envelopes that were laying on the ground, her eyes suddenly opened wide when saw the seal on the letters.

"These are letters from Roswaal-sama!" She opened one of the envelopes and in black ink, it said 'For Rem' She opened the other two, with both having 'for Subaru written down' she handed the letters that were meant for Subaru.

"How did they do it?"

"Re-I have no clue"

"Ok, let's just read them."

The first letter he read said the following.

"Dear Subaru

I know the last time we spoke, was not very pleasant. I understand the both of us were reaaaaally angry, but I want to apologize for I feel that it was my fault, and now that you are in another world, I'm afraid that could be the last time memory you might have of me. Please forgive me! I'm soooooo sorry! You are the only person to treat me as a friend and I don't want to loooose that! I don't want to lose you! Roswaal says that he can bring you back with the help of Beatrice, I will do my best to also help so I can see you again and apologize, face to face, with muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch hope to see you again. Emilia P.S Puck misses you, petting him" In the back of the letter there was an image of a cat, and if you squinted really hard, really really hard, it almost looked liked Puck! Almost.

Subaru felt guilty not only because of the way he left Lugnica, but because he didn't feel that bad about the argument, he didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

He looked over to Rem who was staring at her letter, she looked conflicted, her eyes didn't move, she already read everything that was written on it, but she was still locked on the letter.

"What's wrong" He got closer to the Oni

"Rem-I- don't know, I think I'm mad at my sister, still, I don't know" She grabbed the letter and folded it multiple times until it was a small square and pocketed away. "She wrote many things, but mostly she wrote about being careful with you, to not trust you... among other things"

"Mhm,mhm, yea I know what she wrote, I don't need to read it to know." He chuckled, Ram was known for the way she unceremoniously spoke about people.

"Let's ignore that for now, if you don't mind what did yours say?" Rem asked as she looked at what was in Subaru's hand. He looked at the paper and responded.

"It's an apology, and a drawing, from Emilia" He handed her the paper, she carefully took it from his hand and read it, she then flipped it to look at the drawing, she started to giggle "Is this meant to be Puck?" She tried to contain her laughter, she cover her mouth with her right hand.

"I know, it's a bad drawing but it's the intent that counts, now let's see what this third one is" He unfolded the card and read it out loud for Rem to hear.

"Deeeeeaaar Subaru

The mansion is quite quiet without you and Reeeeeem, I hope you did not end up in some sort of hellish land where everything and anything is trying to kill because you enraged an old ancient God who the human mind cannot possibly comprehend, it kind of yooooooou to do that. I'm just kidding, of course, I bet you two are having plenty of fuuuun~ Anyways, next week at this exact time, Beatrice and I will open a small gate in the world you are, enabling both of you to send something back, amaaaazing I know no need to thank me, DO NOT BE LATE, the gate will only last a little while, Hope to hear from you soon, Roswaal"

Subaru and Rem looked at each other and Subaru asked THE important question. "Next week? As in next week here? No, it has to be next week their time" Both of their eyes widened, "Oh no" Is What they both thought, Subaru wanted to yell but decided not to he did not want to wake up his parents, his mother can be scary if she doesn't have her 8 straight hours of sleep, apparently their neighbor still doesn't talk to them, he shook those thoughts away, right now he needed to focus.

"Perhaps it would be better to just think of it, tomorrow?" Rem suggested, Subaru nodded in agreement, "Yea, let's do that, my brain is not at 100% it needs a little recharge" They both walked to their room and got ready for sleep.

As they lay in bed Rem started to speak, "R-I can't wait to write to Ram all about this world." She turned around and met Subaru's closed eyes.

"Why send a letter when we can send so much more" Rem felt dumb, right now she lived in the 21st century. and something the size of a letter can now hold all the information of the world.

"How could Re-I I! I! I forget that phones exist! We can send them so many photos, videos, songs! We can send them Rocky!" Subaru laughed

"I don't think they'll understand Rocky"

"They will"

"That sounds like a threat"

"It's not" Her voice lacked any sort of emotion.

"You really liked that movie" Rem turned again, she felt better when being the little spoon.

"I do, It's a great story"

"Is the song still stuck in your head?"

"Annoyingly so"

"Yea me too." A small moment of silence was created before Rem spoke again.

"I wish to become stronger, to become the Oni I can be"

"Then, I'll be your Mickey,"

"Yes! With you in my corner, I will become the strongest Oni!

"Before we get you punching animal carcasses, how about we get some photos and videos to send to the other?"

"Ok, but we will do both"

"We'll do them, so when we go back you'll show them what you're made of"

As they both went to the land of dreams, something in Rem's mind kept repeating.

"Go back...?"

I still got not clue on how the time scale works, I know I'm dumb.

Sup it's ya boi Taco! With another chapter! I know! That was fast! But don't expect this to be the new form, holidays have given me some extra time to write in peace with a cup of coffee in my hand, Anyways, I want to thank everyone who is still reading this, I know my writing is not the best but I hope that it's getting better.

Also,big smoke, thanks for the suggestions! But every time you tell me one I keep saying "I thought about it, but I have some other stuff somewhat planned for that" Just wanted to let you know that I appreciate your reviews and everyone else! For that, I want to ask something, for the next chapter do you guys want me start with a training chapter or start with a Rem going somewhere new? Please let me know!

Well, that's it for me, so again. Thanks for reading! Following! and all that jazz! Have a wonderful day! and if you haven't seen Rocky... you should!

Hasta Luego!