Forgotten Remnants

7

"Alright! Keep it moving you louts!" Raven hollered at the raiding group as they streamed past her. "You can get drunk later! Cut the bitching and keep moving!"
It looked like the take for today would be pretty good, not to mention that she wasn't seeing any injuries more serious than a few scrapes. All in all, not a bad night of work.
"Raven!" she turned and saw Vernal jogging to her. She frowned when she saw that Vernal didn't seem to have Shirou with her. "The kid disappeared!"
Raven blinked, twice. "Come again?"
"The moment the flare went up!" she gasped. "He just charged into town! Hells he was the first one in! I have no idea where he went!"
Raven blinked. To think the kid had that much killer instinct…then again she probably should have suspected it. He was always asking how to pay off the debt she'd made up, he'd clearly figured that the best way to prove himself was in a raid.
Yes she'd expressly told him he wouldn't participate and he'd gone against her instructions, meaning she'd have to give him a beating so he learned not to disobey orders, but his heart was in the right place.
"It's fine," Raven said with a shake of her head. "You take over here, I'll find him."
She was off before Vernal could say anything further.
Raven kicked herself as she ran in the direction of the town. Shirou should have pulled out when he saw everyone else retreating, and since she had expected him to remain with Vernal she had not bothered to let him know of the rendezvous location. So chances were he was either still fighting or had escaped into the forest in the middle of the night.
Still, it was good to see that he had that much spirit. He was usually so quiet and subservient that she'd almost forgotten how dangerous the kid could be. Still, turning into a raven and looking for him in the middle of the night would not work.
Raven's Semblance, Kindred Link, allowed her to create a portal in the nearby vicinity of someone she had a strong emotional bond with. 'A very kind Semblance,' Ozpin had called it, the bastard.
She wasn't the most sociable person on Remnant, but she had been friendly enough with enough people in school. Most of whom were dead or she hadn't spoken to in years. Point was, she had a strong enough bond with at least one person in every continent.
The bond with Shirou had been something of a surprise. Somewhere along the line he had just…crept in. She wasn't sure how to feel about that, except that it would be helpful now, she opened the portal to be near his location and jumped through.
Only to be smacked in the face by the heat of an out of control blaze.
"What the!?" she coughed, covering her mouth she cast around looking for Shirou.
A wall to her left exploded as a small red blur jumped through it and she saw that he was carrying a kid that was bigger than him. He dropped the kid he'd just saved and dove back into the flames. Raven backed off and hid in the dancing shadows cast by the burning building.
Five trips Shirou made into that inferno each time carrying or dragging someone out. There was a manic light in his eyes as he cast them around before rushing off down a street.
Raven turned into a bird and followed.
She saw him throw his small frame fearlessly into burning buildings as well as charge at and destroy grimm. Each time he would save a person or dispatch a grimm he would cast around without pause. Feverishly throwing himself into danger over and over.
It took hours for him to slow down on a street, and fall to his knees, she fluttered down to a barrel and heard him muttering "Never again. I promised. Never again." over and over.
She caught a glimpse of his eyes, they were wide and bloodshot, yet vacant, staring blankly. She could not help but wonder what it is that he was seeing.
"It's not enough," he said, his voice sounding strange. As if it should be deeper than it was. He raised his hands in front of his face and closed his eyes, then muttered "Trace, on."
Raven had had enough, she jumped off the barrel and turned back into her true form.
"My Body Is Made Of Swords." A deep voice intoned and Raven felt something tug at her guts. Blue-green lights blazed into being along Shirou's arms, they soon glowed bright yellow then a blinding white.
"My Blood Is Of Iron, My Heart Is Of Glass."Raven felt sick to her stomach, vertigo assaulted her as the world seemed to fold. Blue sparks began to pop between his fingers and Raven realized that his hands were curled around…something. As if he were holding something cylindrical, a hilt. He was doing that thing with his Semblance.
She ducked silently back and hid, she had seen him make a hairbrush before as well as that blade storm the day she met him, as well as pinpoint attacks tonight. This seemed to be something else though, something more…involved.
The sparks became long lines of lightning which spread out into the rough form of a blade, then with a flash of blue light a long corkscrew weapon settled into his grip. It was slender and from the spiral's edges sprouted steel thorns. It was twice as long as Shirou was tall, yet he held it without trouble.
Raven felt a breeze gently stir her dress. The smell of smoke was vanished and replaced by the scent of petrichor. She felt something stir within her, something in the weapon called to her, challenged her. She could feel the power she hid reacting jealously to this intrusion into its domain. She almost stepped out of her hiding place to put him in his place but forcibly restrained herself.
A whirlwind formed around him as the weapon began to emit a soft white light, pulsing with the tempo of a quickening heartbeat. The sword began to vibrate, it didn't emit a sound that she could hear but she felt its vibrations through her whole body. Not long after the walls of the buildings around her began to shake as well, the wind picked up, the smell of rain becoming stronger.
"Storm Ruler!" Shirou screamed and jumped into the air just high enough to reverse his grip on the weapon and plunge it into the ground to the hilt. Immediately she felt it release a pulse into the earth, she felt it both from the power within her and through the soles of her feet. Something flexed and a vast shadow began to blot out the stars, soon even the moon was swallowed. She could feel the far-off winds being forced to drive clouds onwards.
The skies rumbled with unreleased fury. The winds wanted to rage and howl and rend but something held them at bay. Something calmed and scattered them leaving just enough of their fury behind for a deluge to begin.
Shirou released the sword and staggered back from it and Raven tensed to pick him up.
"How'd you do that!?" the sound caused both her and Shirou to jump. A young dog-eared faunus was holding a scroll pointed at Shirou in a trembling grip. "You did that didn't you!? You're the Sword Hunter!"
Shirou stared at the faunus long and hard. And then in a whirl of his half-cape, he was gone.
"Wait!" came the belated cry. Raven ignored the idiot, she threw a knife at his scroll and absently jumped to the nearest roof to follow after her wayward assassin.
He made a beeline for the edge of the town. Stopping a few times to help someone, but fleeing the very instant anyone tried to thank him.
Raven grit her teeth. To think he was holding this much back. She was going to have to teach him to be more honest with her.
Just like last time, a few of the more adept of the town tried to follow him. But in the pitch black of a stormy night they managed little more than dirtying their clothes. Even Raven nearly lost him a time or two so frantic was his flight.
She did not know how long she followed him, but light began to push through the clouds bathing the world in grey-tinted light, and the storm in turn became a slow drenching shower. She came upon a clearing where he slowed to a stop, put his back to a tree and slid down it to the grass. He proceeded to pull his legs to his chest and pressed his face against his knees, moments later she could hear quiet sobs through the gentle pitter patter of rain.
She steeled herself and marched forward, he looked exhausted and it was likely he was low in Aura, which meant that now would be the safest time to discipline him.
She planted herself in front of him and crossed her arms beneath her breasts, and growled, "Shi-ro-u."
He shuddered and looked up at her. His breath coming in great heaving sobs.
"Stand up!" she demanded.
Slowly, unsteadily, he pushed himself to his feet.
"Take off the mask!"
Again he quietly did as she demanded, the rain instantly drenching his hair and face the moment they were exposed. She stomped forward, twisted her hips and torso, and drove her fist into his stomach so hard that his feet came off the ground, the impact smashing his breath out of him in one great whoosh.
He fell back to the ground, his legs collapsing under him as he vomited the scant contents of his stomach onto the grass.
"Stand up!" she shouted.
Again, he pushed himself to his feet on unsteady legs. Again, she drove her fist into his stomach, leaving him to dry heave on the ground.
"Stand up!" she demanded, and was surprised when he complied with his legs shaking like a new born foal's. This time she followed through on her punch until his back slammed into the tree trunk, pinning him in place when she did not draw back.
"Do you know why you are being punished?" she growled.
Shirou coughed.
She grabbed the collar of his armor and raised him to her eye level, his hands holding her wrist with a weak grip.
"You are being punished because you ran away from Vernal. You are being punished because you ran into the town after I explicitly told you that you weren't part of the raiding group. But most of all," she drove her fist into his stomach again, causing him to spasm and lose what little breath he'd managed to regain. "You are being punished because you forgot the most important law I taught you. Tribe! First!"
She flung him to the ground, where he landed with none of the grace and agility he usually displayed when she threw him about. He lay there, curled up in a ball, coughing until he was able to take a single deep breath.
He pushed himself slowly to hands and knees, but couldn't rise any farther. She walked slowly to him, causing him to cringe back as she crouched next to him. "Now your antics will definitely be tied to the tribe, idiots might well come from far and wide looking for you."
She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and roughly plucked him off the ground and set him down on his feet, only his grip on her wrist keeping him upright. "Qrow will come looking the moment he comes across the video that idiot took. So why don't you tell me exactly what the hells you thought you were doing!?"
"I was helping the tow-" he was cut off by Raven as she slapped him so hard he was flung face-first into the muddy grass. He raised his face off the ground and spat out the mud he'd accidentally inhaled.
"You were helping the town!" she screamed at his prone form. "The town we just finished raiding! You obviously weren't thinking were you!? And what the hells did you do!? How did you make it rain!?"
"T-The sword," he coughed out. "The sword made it-"
He cut off as she lifted him off the ground again by the collar, his legs kicking uselessly at the air. "So you had an artefact sword on you, this entire time, and never saw fit to tell me. Your leader."
He licked his lips, his eyes wide and afraid. "Y-You never ask-"
He cut off with a cry as she slammed him against the tree trunk.
"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath. "You're an amnesiac, clearly you don't remember how this is supposed to work."
She loomed over him, all but pressing her nose against his. "You do what you're told, you don't keep secrets from me, you don't go behind my back, you don't bring danger to the tribe! Do I make myself clear!?"
"Y-Yes," Shirou coughed out.
"Good," she said with forced calm. "Now apologize for what you did, and we'll make our way back to camp."
He remained quiet, his eyes were still afraid but she could see a deep light of stubbornness enkindle in them.
"Shirou," she growled.
He opened and closed his mouth a few times before saying. "It cannot be wrong to help people."
Raven felt her left eye twitch.
"Shirou," she said in as calm a voice as she could muster. "I order you to apologize."
He liked his lips nervously, and repeated in a trembling voice. "It cannot be wrong to help people."
She shifted her grip on his collar until he was being choked by his own cloak.
"I'm going to start beating you now." Raven said in a too-calm tone. "I will stop when you apologize."
She then let go of him, and as he scraped down the trunk she drove her knee into his stomach hard enough to rustle the leaves of the tree behind him, what small amount of stomach acid remained in him dribbled out over her stocking. She retracted her leg, and he fell the rest of the way to the ground where he stayed, curling as tight as he could around his stomach. She crouched next to him, grabbed a handful of his hair and brought his head up off the ground.
"Are you ready to apologize?" she asked neutrally.
"It's…not wrong…to help people." he forced out weakly.
Raven's other hand curled into a fist.
=][=
Hours passed, Raven had punched, kneed, kicked, slapped, headbutted, and thrown him. He had passed out twice and she had waited patiently for him to wake up before continuing. But no matter what she did the stubborn light in his eyes remained. Both afraid and unrepentant.
He stared back at her, his eyes streaming from the pain, trembling from head to foot but defiant nonetheless, not once raising a hand against her which she found odd. He should have recovered enough of his Aura by that point that he could have fought back…yet he hadn't.
Raven was finding this whole passive resistance crap rather infuriating. Not to mention her knuckles were feeling really sore.
She looked down at his bruised and battered form, lying as he was, pinned under her as she straddled his hips. Absently she delivered another savage blow at his side, causing him to emit a low, pained moan. He didn't react in any way other than that, with her pinning him he couldn't even curl around the wound.
Was he too exhausted to fight back? Or was he simply choosing not to? Damn swords-for-brains.
"Are you ready to apologize?" she asked tiredly.
He emitted a pained groan. His eyes screaming that no, he would never apologize for protecting someone.
She rolled her wrist, feeling and haring it crackle.
"I shall choose to take that as an apology." she growled.
She stood up and stretched. The moment he was free, Shirou moaned and tried to curl around the worst of his pain. Which currently was just about everywhere.
Raven saw that and felt a pang of guilt stir inside her, a pang that was ruthlessly quashed. The idiot kid had brought it upon himself! All he'd needed to do was apologize! Just one little apology and she would have ended it then and there!
She sighed, putting one hand under his head, the other under his legs, and gently scooping him up off the floor.
"Don't squirm." she chided gently. "You'll only make yourself more uncomfortable."
She felt him nod, emitting a low moan or a sharp intake of breath with each of her steps, one of his hands clenched tight on her dress and he proceeded to pass into unconsciousness.
When he began to moan and mutter nonsense Raven stopped and looked down at him. His face was scrunched up, in pain or anger she wasn't sure but it was different from his usual scowl. He panted and pulled himself closer to her, muttering "I promised" over and over.
She couldn't help but wonder where his resolve came from. Adult members of the tribe had folded after taking less than a third of the beating this child had, and they certainly hadn't done so lying down.
Raven knew that he could fight back, she was fairly certain that he couldn't kill her once her guard was up but he could certainly push her. It would be difficult to duck and weave through an endless storm of blades after all.
But the kid simply…hadn't. Almost as if he accepted the beating as the price for aiding others.
"Dumbass kid," she growled.
Raven wondered what to do, taking him back to camp as he was…was less than ideal. She was always busy in the aftermath of a raid…maybe Vernal would actually be able to hold him down now that he was hurt?
The storm started to pick up pace again, and with a growl she set off looking for a place to get out from under the rain, bemoaning the fact that she couldn't turn into a bird big enough to carry the kid.
It was after she walked for a few hours with Shirou drifting in and out of consciousness. That she found what looked to be an abandoned house, it was entirely covered in creepers and the windows she could see were smashed, but it was better than nothing.
She kicked the door open, or at least she tried. The hinges were so thoroughly rusted that the entire thing simply came off the frame and fell in. She stepped inside, checking the corners and listening for any sign of habitation. The place looked to have been abandoned in a relative hurry as there were a few pieces of furniture covered in dust-coated plastic tarps.
The roof didn't seem to be leaking however so she counted it a win. She shuffled her burden so she could carry him with one arm and threw back the tarp on what she correctly guessed was a couch. Giving it a quick inspection and deciding it wasn't too moth-eaten, she knelt and gently set down her bundle of stupid.
When she tried to get up his grip on her dress stopped her. She took hold of his wrist to pry it off, and found herself merely holding on to him.
"Stupid swords-for-brains." she muttered and knelt down next to the couch as Shirou coughed in his sleep. She put a hand on his head and brushed his bangs off his forehead, with a frown she realized he wasn't nearly as wet as he should be, looking closely his clothes seemed almost dry. For a moment she wondered exactly what material they were made out of before dismissing the thought as unimportant.
"Why'd you have to go and make me beat you up? All you had to do was say you're sorry, you didn't even have to mean it. Stupid." She sighed and scratched the side of her head. "Seriously, what am I even doing?"
She sighed again and popped her knuckles one by one, when she looked back to Shirou, she saw he was awake. And staring right at her.
The worst thing was that his eyes were, as usual, apathetic. They didn't blame her, they weren't angry, if anything he seemed to be a little afraid but strangely enough, not afraid ofher. She opened her mouth to tell him off, but nothing came out. So she promptly closed her mouth and stared back.
He let go of her dress, laying his hand down on the couch next to his head, and continued his unblinking stare.
The prickly silence between them grew longer and longer. The longer the silence grew, the more Raven was sure she'd messed it all up. Either he hated her or he was afraid of her. Out of the two the latter was more useful, but in her haste to teach him a lesson she had probably alienated him, completely shattering whatever modicum of trust that had come to be between the two of them. She'd not be able to use him in the role she had already envisioned because fear did not lend itself to forging true loyalty.
She clicked her tongue and turned around so her back was facing the couch, no longer able to bear the weight of that stare. She immediately kicked herself for showing weakness. Now he'd think she was soft, which might well mean she'd have to give him another beating in the future when he thought he could get away with going behind her back. That would only further erode their relationship, not to mention that keeping him against his will would certainly not be worth the hassle of dealing with blade storms.
Maybe…maybe she should offload him onto Qrow?
She felt something pulling at her hair, she peeked over her shoulder and saw Shirou slowly and gently running that brush through her sodden hair, gritting his teeth so hard that she could hear them grinding against each other, ignoring the pain that even the slightest movement had to cause him.
Maybe things weren't so bad, she could at the very least try keeping him around a little longer.
"Stupid," she muttered, turning around and gently taking the brush from him. "You're hurt, just lie down and sleep."
He moaned and once more took hold of her dress with a shaking hand, he winced as he took a deep breath and winced again as he wheezed out. "I'm sorry…I won't…apologize."
Raven blinked. Twice.
"I can't…apologize," he continued, taking a short painful wheeze in between every word. "I can't…betray…I promised…I forgot but…I promised…I can't apologize but…please don't…don't…hate me."
Raven sighed and gently pried his hand off her dress and held onto it, she could feel his hand trembling in hers as he tried to grip her hand.
"I don't hate you," she said tiredly. "Just go to sleep."
"Promise?" he coughed.
Raven sighed morosely. "Yes Shirou, I promise."
His eyes drifted shut and he was out like a light. To think the idiot kid would apologize for not apologizing, she wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that.
"'Don't hate me' is it?" She sighed again, "Damn kids."