TOCINO ARC – Chapter 3: OMINOUS PRESENCE

How beautiful the radiant bride

Who waits for her groom with the light in her eyes

How beautiful when humble hearts give

The fruit of pure lives so that others may live

The wedding went as planned. They were all eating now, as of this moment.

Miel was standing in the farthest table. She was tired and sleepy. She could feel her eyelids getting heavier and heavier as each second passes by.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, her eyes shot open.

She could sense an ominous presence.

She looked behind her, beside her, she looked everywhere her eyes could land on. And yet she saw…

Nothing.

But the ominous presence still remained.

She knew it was coming from behind her, beyond the trees, in the forest beside the place where the reception was being held. Miel looked at the event happening before her.

'I can't risk any chances,' Miel thought.

Once she knew no one was looking, she dashed into the woods. And when the event venue was out of sight, she started to walk briskly.

Her sleepiness from earlier was gone.

She continued to walk around the forest. But she couldn't find anything or anyone. And she couldn't just return to the venue, for the presence still remained.

After ten minutes of aimlessly searching, she thought about returning and informing Ciel and Sebastian. Once she turned her back, she heard a wicked laugh.

"Mr. Phantomhive, thank you for accepting my invitation," Miwa said to Ciel with all due respect.

"You are very welcome. My schedule was free for today, so I may stay here as long as you please," Ciel replied.

"Very well, then. Uhm… May I ask where your sister is?" She looked at Ciel, then at Sebastian, and back to Ciel again.

"She should be by the farthest table… She's rather tired."

"Alright then, I'll be attending to my guests now. If you would excuse me." Miwa bowed politely before taking her leave.

Ciel sighed. "Miel isn't at the table, is she?"

"I'm surprised you noticed. Although, you did handle that question well, my Lord," Sebastian smirked.

"Where did she go?"

"I noticed that the mistress was gone earlier, but all thirteen brothers and three sisters are accounted for, so I believe she wandered off my herself. A most likely place she went off to would be the forest—the place closest to the venue."

Ciel and Sebastian walked back to the table, where they suddenly felt the same thing.

[Love.] It was the same ominous presence that Miel felt earlier.

"Master… Knowing your state now, I believe you can sense it as well." The Black Butler glared into the woods.

Ciel looked behind him and took note that both Miwa and Rintarou were occupied. So now was the best chance.

"I believe we should go in…" Ciel turned back towards the woods.

And so they both went into the woods to go after Miel, and to seek that ominous presence.

"N-nani kore…?" (What is this…?) Miel whispered to herself, frightened.

In front of her were three bloody carcasses with the humans' limbs torn apart and the body rich in scratches and cuts (most likely from an axe, Miel thought).

A shadow came out from behind a tree, its figure to far into the dark to be properly identified by Miel. "A~re~?"

Miel took a step back and exclaimed, "Who's there?!"

"Ehhh?"

Someone with shoulder-length, black hair, a pair of yellow-green orbs, and in a black suit stepped out of nowhere. Even with a proper face, the person's gender still couldn't be identified. In his hands were two pairs of sickles. Miel concluded that they were the ones used to cut up the bodies.

"Who are you?!" Miel yelled furiously. "You killed them, didn't you!?"

'He' rolled his eyes. "Who else could've done it?"

Miel glared daggers at the stranger. And if a glare could kill, she knew hers would've done so.

"Although… I'm just as aware that you, yourself, aren't human. Aren't I right?"

"Not like you're one yourself."

The 'young man' laughed. "My name is Rian Tocino. I'm a Shinigami."

Silence.

"So what's your gender?"

It was a very rude and straight to the point question, but Miel didn't entirely care. She wanted to know who this Hideyoshi was.

Tocino grew silent for a moment. Then he started to chuckle creepily. "Who knows~"

Tch. Miel stepped backwards.

"Ah, are you thinking of running away, my dear?" 'he' smirked.

The young girl clenched her fists. "After what you did to these innocent people?! Che. Of course not!"

Tocino smiled cockily. "I'm stronger than you think I am."

Miel grinned from ear-to-ear. "So am I."

Hah! "What can a little girl do? Sure, you're not hu–"

The 'young man' cut himself short at the sight he saw.

Miel's eye glowed. It turned into a lilac rose.

'Bara tenshi. An angel, yes, but they choose their side. Either they side with the Demon King or God. I can' tell which side this one chose, though… Possibly none, possible human…'

"I can hear you," Miel interjected, reading all of Tocino's thoughts. "Yes, I'm a Bara Tenshi, and one of the only ones. As a whole, we are a neutral race, and we have the freedom to choose whose side we are on, and not a single one would care. And we are stronger than you think."

"However–!"

A blinding light cut the 'young man' from finishing his sentence. A blinding light that came from Miel.

Miel was glaring at Tocino with only her right eye open. And the rose in her other eye glowed bright purple as angel wings sprouted from her back and a thousand feathers flew around. The bara tenshi was engulfed in light.

The Shinigami tried to see what was happening, but the light was too bright and 'he' was only able to cover 'his' eyes.

The light ceased, and right when Tocino was about to open 'his' eyes, a harsh blow to the stomach met 'him'. 'He' looked up and saw Miel in a different get-up.

'So this is her transformed version…?' 'he' wondered.

Miel's most prominent feature was the huge, carnation rose in her flowing hair. She had on a long, lilac tube top extending to just above her thigh with white trimmings, and a blooming lilac rose, almost as big as the one on her hair, that settled on her collar bone.

She wore a tulle looking, flowing skirt that was lilac in color, laced-up gloves with thorny vines crisscrossing here and there, and a pair of thigh-length stockings styled in the same way as her gloves. And her shoes were probably the plainest things about her.

There were many vines surrounding her that had sprouted from the ground.

Tocino held onto his stomach that was probably hit by one of those dangerously large vines.

"Ugh, is that Miel?!" Ciel exclaimed, pointing to the blinding white light in the distance.

"It appears so… She may be facing an enemy. We must hurry now, we don't know who or what she may be up against," Sebastian replied, picking up his master bridal style [Ohhh, honeymoon time.] and running forward quickly as the light suddenly ceased.

+—CHAPTER END—+