~Chapter 1~
The Resurrection of Vincent Phantomhive
Note: Female pronouns will be used for Grell, however I will avoid any mention of Sascha's gender
Enjoy~
...
...
An echo.
..
The muffled sound of water..
..
What is this?
Vincent became aware of his thoughts, his last memory being of death.
The flames..
His home.. His family.. All burnt to ash like him.
But if he burnt to ash, then how was he-
Perhaps the reapers had forgotten to collect his soul, for how was it possible that he had any conscious right now?
Slowly, the dripping of water became louder and a smell became clearer, that of decaying wood and mold. Another drip of water fell, landing on his forehead. This seemed to bring him back into consciousness, as he sat bolt upright, suddenly aware of his physical body.
He realized that the impossible had happened.
He had awoken from death...
Squinting his eyes open, Vincent looked around only to notice that he was in a small dark room with water dripping occasionally from different points on the stone ceiling. There was an old broken pew next to him- clearly the location of the decaying wood scent- and ahead of him was a small cracked stained glass window along with a flattened table and what appeared to be decaying roses.
It occurred to him that he had awoken in a tiny chapel, which, from the looks of it, seemed like it had been abandoned for quite a while now.
Over in a dry corner lay a dusty black cloak, it was old and had plenty of bug-induced holes in it, but it would serve as a good coverage for when he went outside seeing as he had no clue what year it was.
Speaking of which, he donned the cloak, making sure to hide his face is the shadow of the fabric, and cautiously pushed open the decaying barred wooden door. The sudden light blinded him for a moment before he noticed that the small church was merely hidden in a tiny grove of trees and overgrown grass, just beyond of which he could see the tops of buildings.
London.
Once he arrived in town, he immediately asked the nearest salesman for the newspaper, for it would educate him on the date and recent events.
"'Ya got any money fer it?" The salesman raised an eyebrow and the cloaked figure before him.
"N-no Sir, in afraid I do not." It was then brought to his attention that he did not have any money left on him, since it had supposedly burned to cinders along with the Phantomhive family.
"Ya speak like a noble.. I aint seen ya 'round here before. Mind takin tha' cloak off?"
"I am sorry, but I can not, as I do not wish to draw attention to myself." That part was true, he did not want the late earl Phantomhive to be seen wandering the streets in broad daylight. That would probably freak plenty of people out.
And so, Vincent was only able to glance at the date above the headlines before the man shooed him off, glaring at him suspiciously.
3 years? Not quite as long as he expected..
Vincent continued down the street when he turned a corner, he noticed a large crowd beginning to gather in front of what seemed like an old castle. There was a properly dressed man standing by the front doors, he was clearly the doorkeeper.
Vincent spotted a woman near him and walked up to her. He asked her what was going on.
"Ah, some kinda crime scene." She said, shrugging. "Apparently some kids playing 'round on the private grounds got attacked by a so called 'phantom doll'. One of em lost an eye an' the other's stuck in a coma."
Sounded to Vincent like someone was trying to keep people of of the castle grounds by instilling fright into the locals. In his years of work, he would have been thoroughly convinced, but now.. He himself qualified as a resurrected corpse, so now he had no idea what to believe..
There was a sudden gasp from the crowd and all heads turned as a duo pushed their way to the front where the doorkeeper stood.
The taller one was a man in a black coat, dark hair fell down the sides of his face and his irises were a dark burning red. The person in front was a short boy with dark blue hair and an eye patch over one eye, he wore the obvious clothes of a noble and leaned on a walking cane that was almost as short as himself.
Could it be..?
The boy held up a letter with the seal of the Queen on it. "I request entry under order of Her Majesty, I am here to investigate the events of yesterday."
The doorkeeper raised an eyebrow.
"And what purpose do you serve here, little child? Go on, go home now, this is no place for a kid to play!" The man smiled down at the blue-haired boy.
"I am earl Ciel Phantomhive, owner of the Funtom toy company and the Phantomhive name. I am the Queen's loyal guard dog, feared and respected by all nobles." Ciel said loud enough for everyone around them to hear. "I am not a child!"
Immediately all the people froze except for the one who had first spoken, who threw his head back and laughed, only cutting himself short once the barrel of a gun dug itself into his chest.
Ciel held the gun steady, holding eye contact with the man. "You will let us pass, or I shall not hesitate to shoot you here and now, for one less drunkard on the streets would not upset the Queen."
The man grinned even wider.
"Ha! I'd rather be shot by the devil himself than a child." He exclaimed quite loudly.
Ciel smirked and passed the gun to Sebastian. "Very well then, if you wish for my butler to shoot you then please say so."
The man's eyes widened as he realized that the boy was serious. "W-what does the devil have to do with that b-butler of yours?" He got on his knees in front of the two. "Please don't shoot! I didn't mean it!"
At the moment of the man's begging, boy and butler walked past him unnoticed and entered through the doors into the castle.
Vincent blinked in confusion at his son's actions and appearance, was this really Ciel?
The man timidly opened an eyelid, and upon noticing that the duo were gone, he swore. "Damn you Lord Phantomhive! You and your dirty tricks!"
The crowd began speaking again and Vincent decided to draw his attention from the door keeper to a curious conversation between three men off to the side.
"That boy is no child.
He is close friends with death, acquaintances with a witch, and has one foot following the other into the devil's territory. He can not be swayed off of his path, for it is a dark one."
"I'd stay clear of that kid, he always seems to leave behind a reign of death and destruction wherever he goes."
"He does it all for the Queen, and for his own success, he is her loyal guard dog until the end."
"Oh that is true! For Ciel will be the last to die in all of London!" A new voice exclaimed.
The men, including Vincent looked up to see a man in a white coat sitting on the roof above them. The person had short and messy hair and round glasses perched on his nose. He looked down at the four, green eyes gleaming as he held up a book. "I have the written proof of that! Of course, you all can't know more because if you can see me you're either already dead or going to be, within the next..." He opened the book and flipped to a page, scanning it over before looking back up at them. "..10 hours!"
He looked up in the direction of the castle towers, seeming to notice something the others did not.
"Ah, I must be off now." He stood up and waved to them before seeming to vanish within the blink of an eye.
The other men laughed it off as the mysterious person being "just a weirdo" but Vincent had seen enough grim reapers during his life to know. But this one was dressed differently from the reapers Vincent knew, perhaps they were from one of the other divisions..
Glancing around at the trio of men next to him, Vincent realized that they were going to die that next morning, as the reaper had said. But what was this about Ciel being "The last to die in all of London?"...
"Excuse me Sir; but do you have permission to enter?" The doorkeeper said suddenly, pulling Vincent out of his thoughts.
A whisper swept through the crowd and he could hear a woman ask her husband "Who is he talking too? There is no one there."
It appeared that a person dressed in red had paused with one glove-covered hand on the door handle.
They laughed. "I don't need permission~!"
They turned around to flash a grin and Vincent caught sight of sharp menacing teeth and glowing green eyes.
..Another reaper? What is this?..
The red-clad reaper licked their lips. "I have friends to catch up to.. Oh! And next time, please recognize a lady." She- or at least Vincent supposed it probably was a woman now - winked. "Besides, I'll be seeing you all tomorrow morning, won't I?" Giggling, she clicked open the door and left.
Vincent took the moment of the crowd's confusion to run after her, his cape covering his face as held the door open.
He turned to the doorman before leaving. "My apologies sir, it appears that I am to catch up with her as well."
"Hey wait! You can't just-"
..But Vincent was already gone just like the others.
...
Othello watched from the top of one of the castle towers. "It seems that something very interesting has begun.."
"Well of course, if there wouldn't be anything that important happening then why would we be here?" Sascha exclaimed, fingers drumming on the stone in boredom. "How long do we have to wait?"
"Stop asking questions!" Ludger hissed from next to them, at the same time trying to look past the tower into the castle courtyard, where boy, butler, and red reaper, were now walking, a cloaked figure followed them from farther back.
"But what else am I supposed to do?! Why does Grell get to go with them but not us?!" Sascha exclaimed loudly, clearly becoming annoyed.
" Mein Gott, don't talk that loud!" Ludger yells at an equal pitch to Sascha.
Othello sighed.
"Why am I stuck with you two again?"
What are the reapers up to, I wonder?
Since this is taking place in the cannon universe, I am partially using the excuse of "mysterious revivals" to bring cannon dead characters back into the story. But like I said, I'm not just coming up with things on the spot and in fact I actually have up to chapter 16 fully written now.
Fact to remember for this chapter: it is stated in the manga that only humans who are going to die soon - or in this case, are already dead - can see grim reapers. (with the exception of the Phantomhives , this being the reason why Vincent knew what they were.) So when you think about the scene with Grell, just try imagining it from the view of someone in the crowd and realize just how funny that would look: the doorkeeper just starts talking to thin air, then the door opens and closes on its own, and then a man in a cloak just runs up and says "I'm with her" and enters too. Pretty funny, you have to admit!