"To insult someone we call him 'bestial. For deliberate cruelty and nature, 'human' might be the greater insult." - Isaac Asimov
"It is usually when men are at their most religious that they behave with the least sense and the greatest cruelty." - Ilka Chase
Ciel dies on a foggy Sunday morning, sometime during the twenty-fifth century. The year doesn't matter, Ciel's stopped trying to remember it after the twenty-second century. Too much of a bother, if you ask him, and he has Sebastian to keep track of things like that, in any case. Or, he had. Until the twenty-fourth century. When Sebastian died. Was killed. Who knew demons were so easily killed? A demon trap, a sanctified lake, a pious man of the cloth summoning the demon inside said lake, and all you're left with are a handful of air bubbles and some waterlogged clothes. Humans and their ingenious ways of killing. The demon's essence gets destroyed by the holy water like living tissue by sulfuric acid, and no one gets hurt (no one but the demon). Such a ridiculous way to die, however. Ciel would laugh, he truly would, but laughter was one of the first things he'd forgotten after becoming a demon.
It does fit their story, though, Ciel admits - him contracting Sebastian, him becoming a demon, Sebastian actually d-... dying. But it had had some nice parts to it, too, Ciel thinks as he recalls solving cases for the Queen (Britain became a republic at the beginning of the twenty-second century, but by then no one remembered the Queen's Guard Dog or Spider or their purpose, anyway). Savoring revenge was quite pleasant as well. Simply going hunting with Sebastian was fun enough on its own (the reason why he had to do it, however, was not - he abhorred the fact that, because of the way he'd been created, he was weak for a demon; it was a good thing Sebastian was bound to him by contract, as he didn't think he'd have survived his first century otherwise, or any of the ones that followed). And there was that time, during the twenty-second century, right before it ended, when the Nunda virus hit the NeoNet, and replaced everyone's encrypted files with pictures of cats. Sebastian had had a ball with that one, Ciel remembers with an indulgent smile. ("Think of the chaos, Young Master, think of the panic. You could fill your belly just by standing at the corner of the street, doing nothing," the butler had hissed oh-so-sweetly in his ear. "Think of the cats," Ciel replied drolly, rolling his eyes. It was what Sebastian was actually thinking of, anyway. )
And then the twenty-third century came, and some demon or another was accidentally invoked by a bunch of scientists trying to teleport a living human and everyone found about the supernatural world. Suddenly, there were demon traps and holy water reservoirs and Christian pamphlets everywhere and most demons decided to make a strategical retreat to Hell, only coming to the surface to grab someone every half a century or so. It was the equivalent of humans rationing food. It made Ciel sick to his stomach, even as he acknowledged that it was their best option if they were to survive - the humans had evolved quite a lot in the few centuries he'd been a demon, almost as much as they'd stayed the same, and they were a force to be reckoned, especially when they felt threatened. No self-serving demon was willing to fight the humans for something as unessential as freedom. A few might've tried it because of their principles (their pride), but the humans were so ruthless, so clever... they were always coming up with some new way to capture and kill Ciel's kind.
They say the best inventions and discoveries are made during difficult times. The humans proved that saying true once more. And the difference between the humans and demons got rather hard to see after the twenty-third century, in Ciel's humble opinion. It made it harder to tell who your allies were, but the sheer irony almost made it all worth it. Almost.
Still, as always, Ciel couldn't stand being like the others, just... giving up and crawling back to hell, and trying to escape from the Dutiful Brotherhood of the Contemporary Exorcists (humans and their inability to name things) was... amusing. Ciel was suddenly reminded why being at Her Majesty's command had felt so good, and it wasn't because of his conscience. No, not quite. But the chase, the thrill of the kill, the thrill of taking a human away in the middle of the night, from its own bed, or in broad daylight, right in the streets and getting away with it, now that was... positively intoxicating.
And while Ciel and Sebastian had quickly come to a mutually-beneficial agreement during the early days of Ciel's demonhood (you'd be surprised just how impractical annoying the person on whose well-being your life depended on could get), it was during the twenty-third century that he'd first begun to see Sebastian as something... more than just his butler. They'd ascend to the surface, spend some time disguised as humans and maybe kidnap some unfortunate souls they'd drag back to hell and feast on, and then they'd enjoy the intoxicating sensation rushing to their veins in the aftermath of their adventures. Together. In bed. Ciel very quickly learnt that Sebastian's talents included being good between the sheets, too. Or in the shower. Or in dark alleys, while people went on, innocently doing their jobs a mere few dozen feet away. Ciel would've found Sebastian's supernatural talent at being good at everything unfair, except that he was the one on whom that talent was usually focused on.
(And the things Sebastian could do - in his true form or his humanoid one were... phenomenal, Ciel had to admit. The grotesque appearance and wrongness of Sebastian's demonic form never failed to excite Ciel, even as he burned with envy at the thought that he'd never have one. The things the older one could do to him while in it... mm-hmm, the young demon enjoyed them very much, indeed. On the other hand, Sebastian's human-looking disguise appealed to Ciel's nostalgic and whimsical self, and the almost-shame he felt whenever he imagined doing those kinds of things before, when he'd still been a human and the mere rumor of such a relationship between two men was enough to send people into tizzies, well... it was almost as satisfying as sucking a man's soul right out of his body.)
But, as always, all good things must come to an end, and so they did when, during one of their... culinary incursions in the human world, the exorcists caught Sebastian in a devil's trap, and things had suddenly turned sour. Ciel only barely managed to escape and while he tried to convince some of the others to go back with him, rescue Sebastian and show those petty little humans just what they were fighting against, no one was willing to risk their lives for one careless, inconsequential demon. Ciel had even tried to rescue Sebastian on his own, but he was just too injured and heavily-guarded, and, in the end, killing his lover was the greatest kindness Ciel could afford Sebastian. He didn't think he'd ever felt as enraged about something as he did pulling the trigger and sending his a sanctified bullet straight through the other's head. Now, Ciel wasn't a sentimental demon, never had been, but he hadn't even got to kiss Sebastian goodbye, couldn't get close enough to, and that made his insides turn liquid with anger.
After that, things had stopped being quite so amusing. Ciel hadn't really understood just how dependent on Sebastian he'd become over time. (Or how powerless he was on his own.) Suddenly, the (not-so-)Young Master had no one to boss around, or make him tea (a sentimental concession to their early days), or keep him company (yes, because what Ciel missed most once Sebastian was gone was his company, sure). But he'd never realised just how well Sebastian distracted him from their boring life until he was gone, and Ciel was going insane under the sheer inaction of his demonlife. He began to look for danger, for exorcists, to antagonise them in the hopes of getting them to chase him, maybe try to catch him. The thrill of the chase was too good to resist in a world where Ciel no longer had someone to distract him (seduce him) from his destructive impulses and clever, clever plans. The humans had wronged Ciel, and he intended to take his revenge on them, just like before, when he'd been a mere human. How dare they take the only thing Ciel had thought of as his own, how dare they make him kill Sebastian to spare him from a fate worse than death? How dare they!
And as Ciel was good at surviving, at getting away with murder by the skin of his teeth and covered in still smoldering cross-marks (only the truly pious could use the sign of Christ as a weapon, but living in fear of being, at any time, abducted by demons and dragged to hell puts the fear of God in humans like nothing else), his revenge was cruel and mocking and bloody. Pipe bombs under people's houses and killing sprees in malls and I.E.D.'s in school gyms, it was all the same to Ciel so long as someone paid for what they'd done. And he was always so careful, so clever, so sly, that those disgusting little humans never truly managed to best him. He was a predator, had been one even before he'd been turned into a demon all those centuries ago, and the humans were always underestimating him because of his looks and demeanor and lies. By the time they figured out just (what he was capable of) who he was, it was already too late.
But a century of cheating death and getting away with it daily eventually takes its toll on any person. And maybe despite his innate cautiousness, but certainly because of his arrogance, Ciel one day became too bold. He doesn't remember exactly what led to his demise, but, honestly, it doesn't matter. What matters is that he got too bold and then got caught and then it was, as the humans used to say, game over. The humans had won, and Ciel was sharply reminded that just because they were humans, didn't mean they were harmless. Far from it, actually, as Ciel (painfully) came to learn.
They tortured him, of course, tortured him until he no longer remembered any of the names of his brethren, not even his own (no, only Sebastian's), until he'd told them everything (all lies, some truths), and no one came for him, no one came to kill him or save him or both, the way he'd done for Sebastian. Funny how, even dying and half-mad with pain, Ciel still knew better than to expect any help. It was a lesson he'd learnt well the first time, all those years ago, in the dark and damp basement crowded with narrow cages and small, malnourished bodies. The same basement where he'd died for the first time, where he'd met Sebastian, made a contract with him. Witnessed just how pleasurable murder could be.
And now he was in another dark and damp basement (the humans had figured out what putting holy water in a humidifier did to demons, and used that knowledge well - the darkness was just a form of psychological warfare). But this time, there was no Sebastian to save him, avenge him (care for him).
He supposes that even after being temporarily captured by the humans and then seeing what they did to Sebastian, Ciel hadn't really been aware of what mankind was capable of. Not even being captured and tortured the last time could compare to what he felt when he dies. He's never been as happy to have killed his lover as he is the day they take him to the holy lake and then summon him inside it - there's just so much water pressing down on him from all sides, and it feels like molten silver against his skin, and he can feel himself being eaten alive by the holiness of the lake, he realises with growing horror, parts of him literally disappearing in the water, melting and diffusing like sugar in hot tea, but faster.
Ciel opens his mouth to scream, to shout, to cry out for Sebastian, nonsensically, instinctively (he knows there's no Sebastian anymore) but he's underwater, drowning, disintegrating, so all that comes out is a handful of bubbles. He can feel panic taking over his body (I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die, echoing endlessly inside his head), but it's not like it'll help him now. He can already feel himself fading, skin and muscles and organs (no eyes, no lips, no tongue) dissolving until the holy water's reached his lungs, his heart and (I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to-) what's left of Ciel' body seizes up, once, twice, before it goes still and pliant once more, and from then on it's a matter of minutes until the only thing left of the demon that was once Ciel are his clothes, gently floating downwards to the bottom of the lake, where they land on top of piles and piles of other clothes, some big, some small, some new, some having been there for a while.
According to wikipedia "Mngwa (the strange one) or Nunda is a gigantic, ferocious, gray feline, said to stalk the East African country of Tanzania".
This was made possible by euphoria-glance's curiosity and encouragements. I don't think I would have found the will to upload anything Kuroshitsuji-related if it wasn't for her.
en . wikipedia wiki/ Mngwa