His Butler, Moonlighting
This is the first Black Butler fanfic I've ever put out, although it is one of my favorite mangas/animes, so please tell me how I did. It's meant to be short, like an episode or maybe an OVA… I'm not sure.
Chapter One
Of course, although Sebastian was deeply distraught about his Young Master becoming a demon (for it meant that he could no longer savor the taste of his soul), he got over it. Over the years and decades, he repaired his relationship with Ciel as Ciel, despite being a demon, got married as planned to Elizabeth, and fulfilled his duty as a husband, and had a child with his loving and beloved wife. The child was, as perhaps expected… different… Not fully demon, but neither fully human. However, the child is not the subject of this story, nor is Ciel, and nor is anyone else, really. They simply needed to be brought up for some background. Obviously, Ciel, proficient as he was in political, and social intrigue, was highly deficient in many other areas, one being being a decent father. Sebastian couldn't help him with that, unfortunately, for though he was one hell of a butler, there was only so much that a butler from hell could do.
As such, he found himself relying on Maylene's help more and more and Sebastian's less and less. So, after about ten years or so… Was it ten? Maybe it was twenty… It's hard to tell when the child ages so slowly, and the father is a demon… Anyway, he gave Sebastian permission to form a secondary contract, so long as he was available when needed. This was difficult, even for a hell of a butler. However, eventually, he found his perfect match in a terminally ill girl who had perhaps three months to live, despite all that the doctors had done.
She was truly lovely with long chestnut hair, and chocolate brown eyes that seemed to swim when she cried. She had a secret, though, one that she couldn't tell to her friends, her counselor, or even her own mother and father for fear of being shunned and hated. She was in love with another girl, and even though she knew she was about to die, she wanted terribly badly to confess to this woman. It didn't matter to her whether her love was accepted or not, really. The problem wasn't fear of rejection… The problem was that even before she became ill about a year and a half before, she was cripplingly shy, and could barely speak without having a fit of what her parents called 'nerves'.
To be fair, of course, it didn't really help that her parents were highly strict and conservative people, and that they would likely fly off the handle if they learned that she was attracted to a girl. Perhaps that's why she ended up calling on Sebastian, having been reading into the occult, and came across a book that had his seal in it. She held no hope for surviving her illness, especially since the doctors didn't even have a name for it. She only wanted to find something to take her mind off of her own death in the last months of her life. So finally, she drew up the circle in her own blood, and made an offering of a dog that she bought… She didn't even really like dogs. She preferred cats, so her parents were shocked when she asked for one. She felt a little bit bad for slaughtering a defenseless animal, but not so bad, as she had been attacked by a dog as a little girl and put in the hospital from the experience.
"Greetings, potential Mistress…" Sebastian said mysteriously, his true demonic form hidden by vast fields of feathers. "Was it you who called me?"
"Y-y-yes…" She stuttered. Sebastian grinned, revealing pointed teeth. "A-are you… R-really… A-a demon?"
"Are you scared?" He asked, his grin widening until it split his cheeks in an unholy smirk.
"T-t-t-terrified… B-b-but you're th-the only one wh-who can grant my wish…" She said miserably.
"You understand that once you make a contract with me, you can go neither to heaven, nor hell…"
"Y-yes. H-h-heaven has no place for me, though, and being eaten is preferable to the fiery pits…"
"Then you feel that there is no escape for you? Very well…"
And so, the contract seal was burned onto her eye, proof that she had dealt with a demon, and could never go back to her old life.
"Now, Young Mistress, what is your wish?" Sebastian asked, turning into his human form, and falling to his knee before the girl, causing her to blush frantically, and gasp for breath. She was not used to being treated so deferentially.
"P-p-please d-d-don't bow to me! Y-you don't need t-to be so submissive! A-and don't call me Young Mistress!"
"What would my Mistress prefer that I address her as?" Sebastian continued, smiling politely."
"Rachael… M-my name is Rachael Crowley…"
"Of course, Miss Crowley. Please tell me your wish…"
"I-I want to be able t-to confess my feelings f-for someone b-before I die…"
Sebastian looked at her, deeply surprised, and more than a little bit amused.
"You surrendered your soul for that? Please forgive this humble servant's audacity. You might be shy, but surely you do not need a demon's assistance for such a mundane thing?"
"I-if it was just confessing, it would be different, I-I could figure it out myself… However, i-it is the person to whom I wish to express my feelings. Y-you see, I-I'm in love with another girl, and I'm afraid that if I tell her my true feelings, she will hate me. I-I don't care if I die, my life isn't that important, but I do care if she curses my memory."
"I see. You are afraid of the stigma of being a lesbian. Humans are so foolish. In ancient Greece, homosexuality was not only common, but widely accepted as being a legitimate form of love. It is only modern humans who treat it as something repulsive…" Sebastian said disgustedly. This caused Rachael to cringe. However, she straightened, and nodded.
"Is it your wish that I make sure that she returns your affections? Or perhaps that you might go on a date with her?"
"N-no… I-I just want to be able to express my feelings… Whether they're returned or not… But… D-do some research first… P-please…" She said, seeing the amused look on Sebastian's face, and thinking that it was a look of annoyance.
"What would milady like me to do the research on?" Sebastian asked kindly, kneeling again to her, looking down at the floor in the perfect imitation of a butler's behavior.
"Um… I-I… I just want t-to know what she likes… I-I'm afraid I've always been too scared to get close to her for fear of being f-found out…"
"Of course, Mistress…" Sebastian said, his eyes glowing fluorescent pink. As he was about to leave, though, she stopped him.
"W-wait! What is your name, sir?" She asked in a tone far too polite to be addressing a typical butler… Although it was true that Sebastian was far from 'typical', and indeed, was 'one hell of a butler', he was not used to being called 'sir' by his master. He had served many people throughout history, both important and unimportant, powerful and ordinary. The power that his master wielded mattered nothing to a creature such as Sebastian. Some of them were more loathsome than others, but he found himself keeping a professional distance from all of them, and of all his masters and mistresses, this Rachael girl was the only one who had ever called him 'sir'.
"Please address me however you like, My Lady."
"W-well, what name were you given at birth?" She asked, unwilling to decide on a name at the moment for fear that he would dislike it.
"My 'birth' was something completely dissimilar to how humans are born. I was… For lack of a better term… spawned from pure Dark energy. I have a truename, but Milady must already know that if you summoned me. Beyond that, my 'birth' created me fully grown and ready to serve humans."
"W-would you mind the name Johann?"
"I am Johann, then…" the newly named 'Johann' said, bowing.
"Before I begin my research, though, might I enquire as to the object of Milady's affection's name?"
"R-right! Eliza Thorpe! Sh-she should be in class right now! Class gets out in three hours…"
"Very well, then I must make haste…" Sebastian, or rather, Johann said politely.
"My Lady… I have collected the information that you desire…" Sebastian said calmly, looking into the room and climbing in the window like a thief in the night. Rachael sat bolt upright, coughing violently from shock, blood coming from her mouth and dribbling down her chin and front.
"S-so fast! H-how did you do that!?"
"I am merely one Hell of a butler, My Lady…" Sebastian said, bowing beside her bed.
"W-what did you find?"
"Miss Thorpe is very athletic, and also very intelligent. Her strongest subject is math, and from what I have gathered, she seems to have an approximate IQ of 182. She is talented in Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Trigonometry, but lacks talent in History, although she speaks Latin and Esperanto fluently… I have seen her playing Chess, and she seems to be at about grandmaster level. She is a clumsy dancer, but is talented at sports like Soccer, Tennis, and fencing. She writes in a diary in Esperanto to prevent anyone else from reading it, and likes to read Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde, and other gothic horror authors. She is also especially fond of Lewis Caroll, although he is not gothic horror. She is weak in sewing, and other stereotypically feminine activities, driving a rift between her and her parents, and she seems to have few friends at her school, although the friends she has are very close to her."
"W-wow… H-how did you g-get all that?"
"What kind of butler would I be if I could not even do that?" Sebastian asked with a mild laugh. At this, Rachael blushed, and looked away. Now, if anything, she was even more nervous.
"Would you like me to arrange a meeting with Miss Thorpe?"
"Y-you can do that!?" Rachael blurted out, causing Sebastian to smile in amusement.
"Of course. I can do anything the Mistress requires of me." Sebastian said, disappearing into the night.
Sebastian in his cat form sauntered up the front lawn of Eliza's home, and scratched at the door. When he received no answer, he looked around the house, and noticed that the light was on in Eliza's window. So he went over and climbed up the wall, scratching at the window. He knew that Eliza loved cats, and often allowed them in to feed and play with them, even if they were strays. Although her parents didn't like animals period, so she always hid them from her mother and father.
"Hey, little kitty! What a beautiful cat you are…" Eliza said, opening the window, and allowing Sebastian to slide in.
"What's your name, little guy?"
"My name is Sebastian, Milady…" Sebastian said, after purring a few times as Eliza petted him gently.
"EEEK! A-A talking c-c-cat!? A-are you a messenger of Bast, the Egyptian goddess of cats?"
"I am not. I am merely one hell of a cat." He said in his deep, soothing voice that seemed to sussurate through the room, lulling Eliza into a strange sense of security. She seemed excited, now, that the horror tales that she read about magic and demons weren't just fairytales.
"What have you come to tell me o great feline messenger of the demons? Have you come to take my soul?"
"I have not. I am merely here to deliver a message. Are you aware of a girl in your class named Rachael Crowley?"
"Of course. We all know her, although I'm sad to say that she doesn't really have any friends. She's…"
"Terribly shy… correct? Yes, well, she is ill, and is likely to pass on sooner rather than later, and would like to invite you to her house. She would like to make at least one friend before she expires."
"How terrible! The teacher said she was sick, but didn't say when or if she'd be back! What does she have?"
"There is no name as of yet for her illness, though in the future, doctors will diagnose it as Cancer. It has already metastasized, or spread throughout her body from its place of origin, and is fatal, though not contagious."
"W-what is… Cancer?"
"The specifics are difficult to explain. However, it is essentially a rapid spread of malformed, immature cells that form a malignant mass inside the body. In the future, there will be drugs and other treatments to defeat it, but Victorian England has not yet seen such treatments, and even if I told the doctors what it was, and how to treat it, they would not understand, as the technology to create such treatment does not yet exist."
"I-I see. When is the soonest that I can see her?"
"Why, tomorrow, of course. She wishes to speak with you at length."
With this, Sebastian went to leave. But Eliza grabbed his paw, and held him back momentarily. He looked at her, narrowing his feline eyes.
"Wait! Who are you?"
"I have already told you. I am merely a demon and a cat."
"Mistress… I have extended the invitation. She understands to the best of her ability your situation, and will come to call on you tomorrow at 4 pm. I hope that you are staying well. Please take this pill. It will give you the energy you require to stay focused on your meeting. Take it one hour before she arrives, and you will be energetic for six hours." Sebastian said, holding out a blood red capsule. She looked at it, and put it on the table by her bed.
"Mr. Johann? D-do you know what I have? I know I probably won't understand, but I'd like to know before I die, even if the doctors can't help me."
"You have Cancer, Milady. It began in your stomach, but spread via metastasis to the lungs, liver, and several other organs. Cancer is a malignant mass of immature, mutagenic cells that basically shunts your organs to the side. It is an insidious disease, and no treatment will arise for it for at least another sixty or seventy years after treatments using drugs and radiation are discovered."
"What is radiation?"
"How to describe it? Radiation uses unstable elements such as Uranium and Plutonium, although those aren't by any means the only radioactive elements, and they haven't been discovered yet. They create waves that are known to kill rapidly growing cells, and although in excessive amounts they will be known to cause Cancer, in proper doses, it can reduce the size of the mass it creates. Such technology will be used by Americans to end World War II. They will drop a Uranium bomb on Hiroshima, and a Plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. It will create a fission reaction that will vaporize about half the city, and will kill millions of people. However, after that, Japan will surrender to America, and lives will be ironically saved. After that, war will become very different due to the technology that people can employ. Nobody will want to risk having a nuclear war, and so, wars will become acts of attrition rather than acts of outright combat… For the most part, although war will still hold the same appeal to humans as an act of domination and violence."
"H-how do you know all this? C-can you see the future?"
"I cannot personally see the future, although I have acquaintances who have some ability to do so, and I have spoken at length with them."
The next day, Rachael bathed thoroughly, dressed up nicely, and waited eagerly for Eliza to come over. The girl jumped when the front doorbell rang, and she leapt out of bed, but was beaten to the door by her older sister, who greeted Eliza, and invited her in.
"Oh, Rachael! I was sure that you would be in bed, resting. I wasn't aware that you were inviting a friend over."
"W-well, w-we're kind of new friends, a-and… I-I'm sorry I d-didn't tell you, and…"
"No, no, don't worry. Just go have a good time. I'm glad to see you're making friends…"
"So, Rachael, a little kitty told me you wanted to talk to me. I never even knew you knew who I was. You always had your nose buried in a book. I was always curious as to what kind of person you were."
"I-I'm actually not a terribly interesting person…"
For the next three hours, the two girls talked, and got to know each other better. Then, when it was starting to get dark, Rachael stopped, and took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She confessed to Eliza, and watched the other girl's expression as she did. Eliza didn't seem disgusted or angry. Only surprised, and when she was finished, Eliza smiled, and spoke. "I'm flattered that you feel that way about me. I thought I was the only one who felt that way about girls, so it's refreshing to know that someone else feels like I do…" Eliza said, kissing the emaciated girl on the lips.
"Sebastian, a-a cat that came to my house last night told me about your illness. I was amazed that anything like that even existed. I've always wanted to become a medical researcher, but I guess now, I have another reason to do so."
"S-Sebastian? Oh! Of course. Johann! C-c-could you come in here!?" Rachael asked nervously, and Sebastian entered, bowing to the two ladies before him.
"Good evening, Miss Thorpe. We meet again, this time in my 'human' form. My previous master actually called me Sebastian. My current Mistress calls me Johann. The name by which I go actually makes no difference to me. Is there anything I can do for either of you?"
"No. I-I just wanted to introduce her to you." Rachael said sweetly. Sebastian nodded, and bowed, leaving the room, and the two girls.
"So, d-did you, like… Promise your soul to him or something?"
"Yes. After you leave, he will take my soul… But it's alright, because I've had my wish granted. I got to spend time with you."
"That was your wish? Not to beat this Cancer, or get well enough to live a little bit longer?"
"No. I knew that he couldn't heal me, and I think he knows it, too. Besides, it would be an empty victory, as I still wouldn't have been able to confess to you. Love is more important than life."
"I see. Well, I'll always remember you when I'm doing my research. After all, you've given me every reason to continue training to become a medical researcher."
After Eliza left, Sebastian reentered the room and bowed to Rachael, who smiled politely at the demon. She sighed, and thanked him, sitting down on her bed.
"I know why you're here. You're going to take my soul, now. Thank you for granting my wish."
"Yes. I have granted your wish, and now, your completed soul belongs to me. That is the way it works. However, as your servant, though only for a few more minutes, I must ask if you have any final requests."
"Only that you thank Eliza for being so kind to me. I hope that she makes an excellent medical researcher."
"I shall do that. Is there anything else?"
"D-does it hurt? Having one's soul taken?"
"I will try to make it as painless as possible…"
"Thank you."
"I do not deserve your thanks. Please remain still, Milady, for I do not wish to cause you any discomfort…" Sebastian said, leaning over, and drawing in breath as his lips touched hers, and took her soul.
To describe the taste of a soul to a human would be like trying to describe the feeling of sex to a virgin. It is nigh impossible to do. But her soul tasted of sweetness and innocence. He could taste her shy personality, and her pure maiden's heart. He tasted the love that she felt toward Eliza, and the fear that she felt both over dying, and of being discovered as a lesbian. To say it tasted good would be a slight misnomer, but it was satisfying, and neither did it taste bad, as some of the souls that he had devoured had. He had tasted some of the foulest souls in existence, those of degenerate, vile humans, and he had tasted souls that gave him the greatest of senses of ecstasy, greater than the most potent sex, better than the strongest drug, souls that sent his mind spinning into virtual Nirvana for the few minutes that it took to flow through him. This soul was neither… It was not the best or the worst… But it may have truly been the most innocent soul he had ever devoured, and for that, he felt no pride in stealing away such a naïve, innocent soul. However, it was his job, and his duty after having completed her wish, and truth be told, he had been starving for a soul, not having had one in over fifty years since the contract that he fulfilled before Ciel's. He felt the sustenance and the power that came of devouring a soul, and reveled in it. Then, he left before he was discovered, left to return to the demonic master that he would serve for eternity, the one that he loved and resented with almost equal vigor.
The End
A/N: Hi, hi! This was my first Kuroshitsuji fanfic. Please leave plenty of reviews on it. I can't say for sure whether it's good or not. That's for my readers to decide.