On August of 2011 I started role playing as Luca. I had wished for a version of the story where he did not die, so that I role played him as a teen. On 22nd of July in 2012, I made a short story that explained how my little boy got out alive after the destruction, where I based everything (Twenty Six Demon Tears - can be found on my page).
As a side character, Luca was also hard to connect with other characters, so I started working little headcanons, where little by little created a story, picturing the years from the moment of the destruction of the village, up to the point of where I have been role playing him, through the story I made sure to mix him up with a lot of the characters both in anime and the manga, leaving the 'ending' of his story open for continual through role plays.
Having built up the story, with some mixes from my at the time role plays, on the 9th of January at 2013, I attempted to write this story as a fanfiction (The Rat that Death Rejected- can be found on my page), but I had too many details on my mind, and a very slow pace on writing. So, since I thought I might never finish that fanfic, I summarized the whole story, just for the sake of having it written down, before I forget it completely. On April of 2013, I had made a series of headcanons that were based on my fic, but they really made no sense without the actual story. So, I thought I could share in case I decide to attempt rping my precious boy once more.
I really messed up with every plot I could cling to. Damn, this summary is very rushed and leaves out most details I had worked on (naturally) but anyway
The Rat that Death Rejected
At the age of five, Luca Macken committed his first massacre. Not through his own hands but by the hands of a demon who reached out to his wish, in exchange of his soul.
A soul the demon never claimed.
The first year that Luca passed on his own is still fuzzy in his mind. His memories were shaken, leaving him with the knowledge of only his brother's name. Jim. And that was the name he introduced himself with, because if it was the only thing that he remembered, it only made sense at the time that it must have been his own name.
From the wrecked village he was shoved to an orphanage, and soon after he was sold off along with a bunch of others to a camp. People usually spoke about him like he wasn't present, possibly assuming that he didn't understood, but he did. He understood that he was given to the orphanage without much hope of a future. And he also understood that the mark onto his collarbone brought fear to the ones that saw it, which was why he was given away as soon as the people at the orphanage had seen it. He didn't know exactly what Satan or Hell were. On the rare occasions that someone bothered to acknowledge his question and explain, they didn't seem very different to the boy than every day people and every day world.
The camp was a peculiar place. There were older children and very few younger children than Luca. There were also people that could be described as teachers. And every so often there was blood. The first time Luca was present at a kill, both the girl that held the gun and the boy that dropped dead had been crying. Some of the other newbie's were shaken, while Luca was unfazed, something that seemed to amuse one of the 'teachers'.
When he was first called to a kill or get killed he had considered to just let himself die, because he couldn't see any point in living in that world. He wasn't even scared or upset. Just indifferent. The other boy had been trebling when he had raised the gun and neither of them realized how the bullet ended up on his forehead, but there was no denying that it was Luca who had been holding the steaming gun, aiming steadily and straight where the other child had been standing.
He had been praised that day. Only by the teachers, one of which favored him after this. He made sure to keep a close eye on the child's improvement. He wondered about the child's motivation and his will to live, but Luca had no answer. He only knew that he had someone to find. He didn't know who or why. But there was definitely someone he had to find, and for that he needed to stay alive. The inexperienced children started to fear him for his willingness to kill. The experienced hated him for the claim of attention. Luca cared for neither.
The second year away from the real Jim, Luca had remembered everything. His goal was clear, and his inspiration was his brother. He kept the name 'Jim'. It was how everyone knew him after all, and every day when someone called it, he was reminded of why he was still going. It was also the year of discoveries.
Luca discovered that it was very logical they brought new children once a month. The weaklings were dying very fast, since they mostly served for target practice and the stronger ones pulled through. He obviously belonged to the second category, which he didn't even need to discover since he was being told so quite a lot, when the teacher that favored him whispered it to his ear in an attempt to motivate him even more.
He discovered that among the weapons he had used by time he liked the sharp ones the most. Close combat was much more interesting. He could play with the other for his own amusement and you could feel the other's life leave their body once he finally was done with them. He discovered how refreshing that felt, too. He really liked being the one doing the stepping over…
He discovered how easily the tongue that praised you can spit venom if you misstep. He discovered this the hard way when he hesitated to kill.
Only once.
It had been a girl. A beautiful and graceful girl whose colors resembled Jim's a lot. She could have a life ahead of her, and it had downed onto Luca for the first time. It was quite funny how the obvious thing that killing meant stopping someone from advantaging was always there. Luca had forgotten about it the moment he had committed his first kill by his own hand, when he had chosen his own advantage over the others'.
His 'teacher' had been disappointed at him. Luca had seen him being violent but he was always kind and gentle with him, always whispering sweet encouragements at him, and when the caress turned to claws he felt scared for the first time since he could remember. Words that were regularly used on others settled on him with one mere mistake, and they seemed much more painful now that they were directed at him.
He discovered that too. As well as to where the children that disappeared only for some while went. Luca didn't even know that a room could be so silent, and the smell of decay didn't make it any more pleasant, but the smell was more bearable than the silence. It took him less than an hour to break down, upon only hearing his own breathing and heart, and less than a day for the doubts upon killing to disappear.
The teacher was gentle with him again when he opened the door, and the girl was dead the next morning. Her blood was on Luca's hands.
A little after he turned seven, he discovered that humans have a tendency to lie to make their goals come true. He discovered that he wasn't a good liar, and it got him into three more visits at the silent room before he managed to get a hang of it. His goal was to get out now. It could have been because he wanted to find Jim, or because he was tired from being a good little soldier, he wasn't sure.
The second to last thing he discovered that year, was that his teacher wasn't as proud for him for his great ability to take a life, when said ability was directed to him.
And the last was that adults were really amusing when they started suspecting each other.
On the third year, Luca found himself once again moving places.
It had been a couple of months after he had turned seven, when the Queen's Watchdog discovered the camp and shut it. It was a noisy day. The training assassins had their wildest instincts at large, and the 'teachers' weren't very willing to surrender either. No more than fifteen of the children made it out alive. The 'outsiders' had close to none casualties.
Vincent Phantomhive seemed to be thinking of what to do with them all. Files came and went from his hands, while Diedrich walked beside him, looking extremely glum. Luca had almost managed to slip away in the ruckus, but in the end he was captured at the last moment. Years later it would seem that Vincent's son picked up his father's habit of picking strays, because he took Luca in at that time, after a short check onto his file.
Surprisingly Luca found that he liked the new environment. He wasn't taken in as an adoptive child, but as a worker. There had been rules that he had to follow. He was not to talk to any members of the family, like his sons or his wife. His sister or her daughter. Just keep a low profile and in occasions that he was needed cover up some of Vincent's chores in the underworld. Easy. He almost never had to kill though, and after two years of constant murders, it was something he had to get used to.
He was allowed to education for the first time. It wasn't anything big, just a few hours at a public school, but even this was enough and he found out that he really enjoyed reading. Vincent provided him food and clothes. Generally he covered all of his basic needs, to the point that Luca even grew fond of him. He did speak with Phantomhive co-workers a lot, and not all of them were likeable, but he didn't care.
Luca was slightly jealous at times when he saw Vincent with his family from afar, but he knew he was already given a lot and he couldn't get greedy.
On the fourth year, Luca dared to talk to his master or guardian about Jim. He didn't expect anything if he had to be honest, and even if Vincent smiled and agreed to help, the child had difficulties to trust that smile. He had seen this gentle smile before. Liars wore it a lot and he wasn't sure if he could tell the honest smiles apart, and he didn't trust his fondness either.
He never found out of Vincent was really going to help. Had he looked for Jim at all? Had he even considered it, he will never know. The house of Phantomhive fell. The mansion was burned down and his guardian was nowhere to be seen again.
For the first time in his life Luca wondered if he was carrying a curse.
The same year Luca chose to keep working for the underworld. Sadly it seemed to him like the only place he had ties with, and his assistance toward the Queen's Watchdog, had created a positive image for him. It wasn't hard to find the next person willing to give him a job.
He changed a lot of masters after that. He saw more things than he had wished to. He didn't expect to see the world through a darker point of view than he had at his time at the camp, but it seemed that humanity had always a worst face to show. Luckily he was never the center of the darkness. Only doing 'chores'. But that didn't mean he couldn't see… The murders he had committed seemed merciful some days.
On the fifth year, Luca started giving up on the idea of finding Jim. He had seen so many things. And every day he saw more and more discouraging realities that he doubted a little boy in an orphanage had even managed to make it through. If he had gone to an orphanage. It was possible that Jim wasn't even alive anymore, or if he was he could have a different name. Locating him would be impossible…
And if he located him, how would Jim be? Would he even remember him anymore? Had he suffered? If he had, it had all been Luca's fault. His idiotic decision to give up his life had only brought misery.
What if he did find him but Jim didn't like him anymore…? That possibility was what he dreaded the most. He had changed. He had done so many things, including leaving Jim alone. He was only nine and he didn't feel like he was a kid anymore. Kids were supposed to be pure and innocent and as time went by Luca realized that he was far from it more and more.
At times…
'They should all just die!'
What did it say about him that he clung to these words. Of all the things that Jim had told him, Luca clung to these the most. It was what he had been doing. He was cleaning the place. After all, no one in that world mattered like Jim did. Everything he was doing was to reach him, and he didn't care how Jim would have changed if he found him. He only cared to find him.
He wondered how many things and people he was willing to sacrifice for Jim's sake.
The answer was simple.
The whole world was disposable…
His thoughts of Jim though got more distracted when one of his 'missions' went wrong and he found a place to hide momentarily at a circus that had settled at the town he was in. He hadn't been at the best health, and being chased hadn't helped, so he wasn't very amused when he was almost eaten by a snake. The snake on the other hand had been lucky than in his exhaustion he missed to kill it and Luca himself had been lucky that the snake charmer himself had found him before he was eaten.
Soon after this, the child was taken to the leader, treated by the doctor and cared by various members of the show. He liked the ladies the most if he had to be honest. Beast was a charming woman that treated him very motherly. Doll was funny and precious, and managed to open him up after so many years of socializing only under certain codes. Wendy was friendly and helpful. The one that really didn't like him was Peter, and Luca found himself for the first time 'teasing' rather than hurting someone. It was just as fan and had no casualties. Doll and Dagger tough him how to tease. Dagger also tough him how to use the daggers for entertainments others than killing.
He liked Snake too. He made him feel safe, and he was also new to the team so they were both a little awkward... Joker made him a little uncomfortable… When the circus left the town, Luca left with them.
On the sixth year, Luca had placed finding Jim to the back of his mind. He loved his new life more than any other he had had before. It was the closest to 'normal' he could remember having, and he had the chance to act like a kid again. It was like a little piece of heaven after years of misfortunes.
He made small excuses to himself, saying that since the circus moved around he could look for Jim at other places, but it was just a cover on him giving up. There were actually more legit reasons that he feared to touch now… So he buried them, along with his past. When he had met Vincent he had cared for only a bit. But this was different, these people had grown to him, and he had loved them. After Jim and Hannah, they were the first people he truly managed to love. He didn't want to risk losing them…
Luca had been with the circus members for more than a year when it happened.
He died.
Not one of the members. Luca himself died. He wasn't sure what had gone wrong this time, but he remembered falling, and parts of the stage fell on top of him. He remembered hurting a lot, probably the first time in his life that he hurt so much. He remembered screaming from familiar voices. And he remembered everything fading away. The last thing he heard was Snake's voice, calling his name. Not 'Jim'. The name he had been given when he was accepted in the family of the circus. The name that replaced 'Jim' the latest year.
Rat
Twenty six hours later he gasped, sitting up with his eyes wide, and his lungs hurting. He panted heavily and almost screamed when he realized that he had been laying in a coffin. He managed to feel grateful that he wasn't buried when he got a grasp of what was going on.
Somebody cackled, and said they expected he would come around.
Luca recognized the voice. He had met Undertaker at Vincent's place but he was still quite surprised to see him sitting opposite him smiling in amusement with his head resting on his hand. He considered asking what happened, but knowing the man, he wasn't sure how much of an answer he could have gotten.
Within the next hours he managed to find out that he had died. He had been taken from the circus but were already dead, and as soon as he had been buried, the circus members had to go. Luca remembered that they were gathering their stuff to move to the next town that day, and if he was dead, then they naturally had nothing to wait for…
But he wasn't buried.
He wasn't dead.
The seventh year, found an eleven year old Luca working as Undertaker's assistant. He had met a lot of people, and 'friends' of his new boss. Some of which he doubted were human. He also was certain that his boss wasn't human, but he didn't really care.
He also encountered familiar faces. He saw Vincent's son but didn't speak with him, he laughed a lot when he found out that his butler had the same name with his dog though. He encountered Lau and Ran Mao. The Charles duo, and Angelina Durless. He really liked her, and she liked him too. She visited sometimes with her butler, who was looking at him in a way that he couldn't pinpoint for sure but if he had to guess he would say… Wary.
Three days after her sixth visit to Luca, Madame Red was lying in her final bed.
Luca had stared at her, while Undertaker was preparing her.
At that time the grave digger had questioned if Luca had ever wondered why people kept dying around him. The boy gulped at the man's question. He had. He had been wondering this forever. He had thought it was a mere coincidence but it just kept happening. People were dying. And he was still alive when he shouldn't be.
Undertaker had smiled as Luca turned to look at him. The man reached and poked a long nail onto the boy's collarbone, over the closed up button shirt. Where the demon seal was lying… He smirked.
He said that reapers are not very fond of tainted souls. That the demon he had made a deal with spared his life, but touched his soul…. He called him a peculiar existence with a chuckle.
Undertaker then said that every person has a certain amount of time to live. That Luca's had ended a long time ago. He had sold it off to make his brother happy, but his demon did not claim it. This way it placed him out of reaper and human reach. With a demon seal on him, no reaper would touch him. The demon did not want him to die so he cannot die. No matter what he does. He steals life from the people around him. If he gets close to death, he will most likely escape one way or the other, and if he died he would revive, like he had already done more than once. This would just keep happening.
Luca had let out a shaky breath, staring at the man wide eyed. Had that been quite literally stealing lives the whole time. The circus members were lucky that they hadn't died while being so close to him, unlike many others. Vincent, Angelina, the children in the camp, the crime scenes he had been at.
The boy had desperately asked how to stop it.
The Undertaker had cackled and shrugged, claiming that he did not know. Obviously he found the whole ordeal interesting
Luca hadn't really believed that, but he had dropped it.
After that he tried to find an answer in the library. He even got a work there too, as well as the morgue. He passed hours through the books, and even when he found nothing concerning his case, he found some peace of mind in fairytales.
He concluded that either he had to keep killing or find Hannah. Maybe she could help, but the demon had probably returned to the demon world. He wondered why he had never bothered to attempt and summon her. It hadn't crossed his mind. And even now he wasn't sure if he should. Most likely remembering that he caused a disaster the first time he summoned her.
At that point Luca gave up the idea of finding Jim or the circus crew. Still, it would be a lie to say that if either of them appear, he wouldn't selfishly run to them… He knew that unless he found a way to break this, he was only going to bring death upon anyone who made the mistake of coming close.
The selfish part of the boy wished that they would come. Any of them. He wished to see them again. The part of him that loved them simply wished that they stay the furthest away from him as possible and wherever they were to have a good life
After that he limited himself on work.
Maybe at some point the routine would break…
Kuroshitsuji belongs to Yana Toboso