Authors Note: Sorry for the long wait with this one, but I was going back through some of my older Chapters and kind of sprucing them up a bit, and man, did they need some sprucing up! If you haven't already and would like to check out this older chapters out, please feel free to do so, but for those solely waiting for this chapter, well my friends, wait no longer because here it is! Sorry if it's a bit long, but I wanted to finish the episode, it actually didn't end the way I thought it did, oh well! Thank you so much for reading and have a lovely morning/evening! ^^
Also, sorry to those Madame Red fans out there, I know I make her seem like the bad guy in this, it's just that I think she would make a pretty good mean girl, I don't know, but I do apologize!
Chapter 9: Awkward Teenager Stage.
"These days, I often get customers who are incomplete." The Undertaker started to explain to the group, who sat encircling him on top of bulky coffins, the servants stood in the back and listened carefully. In their hands were clear beakers filled with warm tea.
"Incomplete?" Sebastian asked inquisitively.
"Yes, incomplete, the wombs are missing. " The Undertaker continued to explain as he took out a large, doll-like figure, it's body showed half human flesh and half muscle as well as some other bodily insides. He then proceeded to point to where the womb would be, everyone in response gasped in horror.
"Though the killer makes quite violent splatter, the wombs themselves are neatly cut out." The Undertaker said almost admiringly as he took the doll and turned it to make its eyes face him, as if now he were talking to it instead of the audience.
"It was done on a public road, even if it was not a high-traffic one, wouldn't such an excision have been difficult of an amateur, particularly in the middle of the night?" Sebastian asked as the Undertaker put the doll away, he then started to stroke it gently.
"You're a smart one, butler, that's my opinion as well." The Undertaker stated as he turned from the doll and started to walk towards Ceil and Rin. He leaned into Ceil first whispering,
"First the ripper slashes their throats with a sharp hand weapon." He then proceeded to make a hand gesture indicating just that near Ceil's small, fragile throat. He leaned into Rin who sat next to Ceil on his right. He then started to whisper into her ear as well, the odor of death and decay masking his breath as well as his shadowy clothing,
"Then cuts this part open, cutting out what's precious to them." He then made a hand gesture at the lower part of her body, to demonstrate what he was saying.
"I'm sure there will be others killed." The Undertaker remarked as he started to get up,
"People like that don't stop until someone stops them." He then started to walk back towards his doll, he then stopped to turn around and ask a question, his question directed at Ceil,
"Can you do it, o villainous noble Lord Phantomhive?"
"On the honor of my family crest, I eliminate anyone who defiles the Queen's garden without exception and by any means necessary." Ceil answered stoically.
"What he said narrows down the field of suspects considerably" Ceil stated as their carriage made it's through the town. Rin tried to her hardest to collect all of her sanity after it had been scattered throughout the Undertaker's shop, she didn't even care if her cousin and maid were slowly squishing into her with every small bump they hit.
"First, those well versed in medicine or dissection, from among them, those who have no alibis for the nights before the murders discoveries, and given the removal of internal organs, it seems ritualistic, we should also consider, those involved with secret societies and black magic." Sebastian explained to the group.
"That doesn't narrow the field at all, I'm a doctor, I could have done the dissection!" Madame Red pointed out, "And summer is ending, before another week passes the season will be over and any doctors the nobleman brought in from the country will go back ho-
"Then we'll simply conclude our investigation before then." Sebastian affirmed with a large confident smile.
"What?" Lau asked alarmed.
"A Phantomhive butler who can't do that much isn't worth his salt." Sebastian informed the group with another slightly smaller smile as the others stared at him in shock.
"Whatever." Shizu stated from Rin's head as Sebastian started to lean in closer to Ceil to explain,
"I'll make a list of suspects now and question all of them." He then began the throw open the carriage door and started to climb out.
"Now, if you'll excuse me." Sebastian said humbly as he hung out of the carriage door as if it were not moving at all, Ceil waving him off as he continued to stay there. After a long second, Sebastian suddenly vanished leaving the carriage door to close by itself. Soon after a long pause, both Madame Red and Lau got out of their seats to look out the back window of the carriage for Sebastian.
"This Carriage is moving!" Screamed Madame Red in horror.
"Thank you Captain Obvious!" Shizu grunted sarcastically, "Ugh, I hope that guy gets run over by another carriage."
"Sebastian said he'd do it, we can just sip some tea and wait." Ceil stated completely unfazed at what just happened to his butler.
Once she was guided out of the carriage, Rin, with Utsuho at her heels, ran to catch up to the group who were already unlocking the front door. They all seemed to freeze right in their tracks as Rin finally caught up to them. She couldn't really see what they saw since they all had blocked her view, but something in her gut told her that Sebastian was home.
"Welcome back, I've been awaiting your arrival, your afternoon tea is ready." Sebastian announced as Ceil gladly made his way into the house, handing Sebastian his top hat as he did so. Rin was a bit more hesitant with straying from the stunned crowd, so she decided to wait patiently as Madame Red asked loudly,
"How did you get here?"
"I finished my errands, so I came home ahead of you." Sebastian answered plainly, another smile planted on his lips.
"You already finished your suspect list?" Madame Red asked a bit more quietly, but still clearly surprised.
"No, I merely created a list of names based on the criteria we discussed, contacted them all, and directly collected their statement." Sebastian responded as he held up three rolled up pieces of paper, each decorated with a small black ribbon that tied around its neatly compressed body, complete with a small flower-like seal in the middle of the ribbon.
"Come now, Sebastian, even for you that would be impossible…. but before Madame Red could finish her statement, Sebastian ripped open the neatly wrapped scrolls, and began to read the names off the gigantic list that was now being revealed to them,
"Richard Oswald, family doctor of the Duke of Bailey, has an alibi: he spent the night with his friends at the White Horse Pub, no connection to secret societies…" Sebastian continued to read the list as Rin watched along with the rest of the group. She looked over at Lau who had a small smile on his lips; she looked next to her and noticed that Grell was blushing heavily. She then saw Madame Red who stood in front of her and even though she couldn't see her face, she could tell she was shocked by the way her large, red and black hat kept sliding ever so slowly off her head. She didn't have to look at her cousin; she just knew somehow that he was smiling with arrogance. Once Sebastian was finally finished, he let the last bit of paper he held in his hand to fall to the floor and he started to explain,
Through this investigation, I've narrowed it down to one person who met the criteria."
"Are you really just a butler, are you sure you're not a military intelligence officer?" Madame Red inquired with skepticism starting to replace her astonishment.
"No, I am merely one hell of a butler." Sebastian replied with another large, proud smile.
"Aleister Chamber the Viscount of Druitt, he graduated from medical school, but has not gone into practice, he has thrown several parties at his home, however, people say he simultaneously holds secret parties that only his intimates may attend" Sebastian started to explain as Rin looked down at her hands that sat palms up on her lap, shaking ever so slightly with nervousness, sweat building from the hot, humid air inside the moving carriage mixed with the anxiety she was feeling. Rin had never remembered being to a party before, and she was afraid she would somehow end up embarrassing herself, that was only part of the reason she was so nervous. Utsuho had picked out a dress for her to wear to the party; it was a pretty deep red that spit into black down the middle. Long, flowing red sleeves draped most of the way down with hints of black at the cuffs as well as some draping the rest of the way down to her fingertips. The collar of the dress went almost all the way up her throat, decorated with two red ribbons at the base of her neck. Rin liked the dress, she really did, and Utsuho had told she had liked it as well. It was just Shizu had told her she hated the color, and thought it looked absolutely horrible, and now Rin was starting to doubt that it looked good on her, she never had worn any shade of red before, maybe it really wasn't her color. She also noticed that from the corner of her eye, her aunt kept giving her dirty looks, but she had no idea why, what had she done?
"I've heard rumors that he's into black magic and that sort of thing." Madame Red added.
"So you suspect that at these underground parties, they preform ceremonies and sacrifice the prostitutes?" Lau asked as their carriage proceeded to pull up to a massive, beautifully lit manor. An escort of the manor's then proceeded to open the door of their carriage as it sat next to the front entry way. They first escorted her cousin out, who wore a beautiful, draping pink and white dress with tiny bows at the bottom. A large, white ruffled top that also acted as sleeves encircled his chest. There was a large black and white stripped ribbon placed upon the front of his dress with a large, light pink rose in the middle of it. A small, white and pink ruffled chocker was placed around his neck. His hair was made to look longer with the help of two ponytail extensions that matched the same dark blue as his hair. Concealing most of his hair as well as cleverly masking his usually covered eye was a large, light pink hat with a white ribbon tied around as well as a crown made of light pink roses that drooped down over his usually hidden eye, and adding a beautiful touch to his dress, the dress Rin was not sure why he was wearing.
"We only have one chance." Ceil stated as they all made their way into the manor.
"Ceil will play my niece visiting from the country." Madame Red started to explain to the group excitedly as Ceil stood pouting at his new role, "and Sebastian will play Ceil's tutor." Madame Red continued as Sebastian fixed his newly acquired glasses. Sebastian was dressed in a long, tan overcoat that covered his normal butler attire, the only difference to this attire though was that instead of a tie, he wore a large, reddish scarf –like piece that was tied around his neck and then tucked neatly into his suit.
"Why do I have to play your niece, why can't Rin do it, she's a girl?!" Ceil asked as a deep blush started to form around his cheeks.
"I always wanted a girl!" Madame Red chimed and seemed to be completely ignoring the fact that Rin was a girl, Madame Red wore almost the exact same color scheme as Rin, Her long, sleeveless dress went down to her feet, a white, fluffy boa draped around her shoulders. She wore black, elbow length gloves, and her normal black and red hat was replaced with an all red hat with white feathers placed at the top that drooped wore a large choker around her neck with a sizable, deep purple gem in the middle and another gold necklace that attached to it and encircled the rest of her neck. She held a black, lacey fan with white tips in her hand; Grell stood behind her and wore his normal butler outfit.
"That's your reason, then why didn't you use Rin?!" Ceil screamed furiously at his aunt as Rin could feel herself looking down almost shamefully. Ignoring Ceil's question, Madame Red leaned in closer to Ceil and whispered with the black, laced fan she held covering her chin slightly,
"You can't let them find out you're a Phantomhive, can you, what's more, I'm told Lord Druitt is a ladies' man of catholic tastes, so this is to your advantage." Madame Red fished with a large, satisfied smile as she watched her cousin's face turn from embarrassed, to disgust.
"Didn't you say you'd use any means necessary?" Sebastian asked mockingly, and Ceil in response turned to give him another one of his famous, death glares.
After parting from their group, Rin and Utsuho made their way through the large crowd of people that occupied most of the room. Rin had started formulating a plan, a plan in which she would end up being the one to find Aleister Chamber, she didn't know why exactly, but she wanted to prove herself to her aunt. She assumed that Shizu had a lot to do with why she was feeling this way, even if she hadn't heard from her in quite some time. She wanted to keep this plan from her maid, though she trusted her, she feared that Utsuho would try to stop her in fear of Rin getting herself hurt.
"M'lady?" Utsuho finally asked after a long moment of silence.
"Yes, Utsuho?" Rin giggled.
"Where are you planning on going?" Utsuho questioned with a giggle of her own. Rin then stopped abruptly in the middle of the room, Utsuho was right, where was she going? She didn't even know what Aleister Chamber looked like, how would she ever find him in this massive gathering? Rin also had to think of some way to get rid of Utsuho for the moment, though she didn't like the thought of it, she had to find this man by herself as not to make him too suspicious. She started to look frenetically around the room for some sort of excuse to leave her maid. She finally found it, a refreshment stand; she would ask her maid if she could get herself something to drink.
"Well, here goes nothing." She told herself as she felt herself start to open her mouth.
"Utsuho, would you mind if I got myself something to drink?" Rin asked shakily.
"Oh, M'lady, I can get you a drink." Utsuho offered politely and Rin started to panic a bit, she was afraid her maid would offer to get it for her,
"No, that's okay, I got it, you just wait over there, and I'll be right back." Rin replied pointing to a wall at their right, the anxiety choking her making it hard to speak and point properly.
"Are you sure M'lady?" Utsuho inquired, starting to become worried and Rin nodded becoming too afraid to speak. Rin then watched as her maid made way over to the wall, and Rin started to make her way over towards the refreshment stand in the back. The stand was a long, gorgeously decorated table with a bright white tablecloth covering it. There was a massive amount of food and beverages lining the top of it, the guests had eaten most of the food, and the punch bull was halfway full. Rin gradually made her way over to the punch bowl, looking over her shoulders every so often to see if she could find anyone somewhat resembling Aleister Chamber. She was pouring a fair amount of punch into her small, glass cup, hoping nobody had drugged it, when she heard a loud, male voice announce,
"Ahh, such an exquisite gown, on even more exquisite woman!" and Rin quickly turned her head to see a tall, blonde man standing behind her, He was dressed quite handsomely in almost all white, his long, golden blond hair reaching his to about his shoulders, his dark purple eyes fixated on her. Rin seemed to have lost all ability to speak as he started to make his way towards her. Once he was in front of her, Rin felt him place one of his hands on the bottom of her back, the other propping her chin up to look into his dark, purple eyes. His clothes smelled highly of expensive perfume, and his breath smelled slightly of wine.
"A…are you Aleister Chamber?" Rin finally managed to ask as seriously as she could as the man kept his hand on her chin.
"And what if I was, my sweet Scarlet Tanager?" The man asked, a slight purr at the end of his question. Rin started to feel herself go silent, what was she going to say, she didn't even think she would get this far this fast, her hands started to shake slightly and her mind raced to find something to say. Suddenly, she could sense a presence stir inside her mind, and only hoped it was her.
"Aww geez, I try to take a two hour nap and this is what I have to wake up to?" Shizu screamed aggravated, "Are we still going after Jack the Ripper?" but Rin couldn't answer either out loud or in her mind, her mind started to go dead.
"You seem quiet my song bird, why don't you sing for me?" Aleister suggested as he brought Rin's lips closer to his, "why don't we go finish this somewhere private, my sweet Scarlet Tanager?"
"Hey, if Jack the Ripper is looking for another prostitute, I think we found one!" Shizu declared somewhat happily, "Hey Jack the Ripper, over here, we found a prostitute for you!" but when she didn't get the response she was looking for, Shizu kept screaming within Rin's head,
"Jack the Ripper, get you lazy butt over here and kill this piece of crap, geez, where are you when you are actually needed!" Rin looked over to see if her maid was watching, but she seemed to be talking to Sebastian instead, Rin then tried to see from where she was if Ceil was with him, but she couldn't see him. There came a sudden, small, sweet voice from behind Aleister, turning his attention away from Rin and giving her time to free herself a bit.
"Excuse me, are you Aleister Chamber?"
"Jack The Ripper?!" Shizu asked almost too eagerly when in fact it was not Jack the Ripper but instead her little cousin dressed beautifully in his quite unnecessary gown.
"Aw man, it's not Jack the Ripper, it's just your cousin going through an awkward teenager stage." Shizu sighed disheartened as Rin started to make her get away, while her cousin had distracted the so called "culprit". She started to feel as disheartened as Shizu had sounded.
It had been a couple of hours since she had escaped the grasp of Aleister Chambers and she had watched both Sebastian preform a "magic trick" and Ceil disappear along with Aleister in a secluded room in the back of ballroom. Rin now stood with her back against the wall, watching as the guests made their way gracefully around the large floor in front of her, spinning in small circles as they preformed another waltz with their partners. Rin heard herself sigh in sadness; she knew it was stupid to feel this way, it wasn't supposed to be her mission to find Aleister, it was Ceil's, what did it matter that she didn't complete it. No matter how much she tried to tell herself this though, she still felt ashamed with herself; she just wanted to be useful to this family in some way.
"Hey!" Rin heard Shizu shout abruptly.
"What is it?" Rin asked trying to stop herself from crying.
"Why are you crying, stop that, you're not six!" Shizu yelled coldly to Rin, only making her want to cry even more. Shizu did her famous sigh of irritation as she asked,
"Listen princess, what does it matter if you lost, you weren't even in this battle to begin with?"
"I just wanted to be useful to my new family, I wanted my aunt to like me." Rin admitted with a small sob.
"You are useful to them Rin, you helped lure out that creep for your cousin to find, I would have never thought that someone like you would have ever thought of a plan like that, I may actually be rubbing off on you." She started with a small, delighted giggle at the end. "And who cares if that little priss doesn't like you, I like you and that's all that should matter!" Shizu finished sternly, and Rin felt pride take the place of her shamefulness for the moment, she smiled happily as she thanked Shizu.
"Yeah whatever now stop crying, you're making me sick!" Shizu replied trying to sound uncaring, but Rin could tell she was just joking as she started to rub her eyes free of any loose tears. Suddenly, she heard a loud clacking of high-heeled shoes coming closer and looked over to see her maid running towards her. She stopped once she was in front of her nobleman and asked,
"M'lady, why are you here all by yourself, are you okay?" and in response, Rin nodded happily, making Utsuho in return smile as she informed,
"Well, as long as you're okay, now it's time to get going, Sebastian already brought Ceil home and the others are waiting to leave, it is said that the Jack the Ripper case has been solved!" And taking Rin's wrist, she led her to the doorway. Halfway to the doorway however, Utsuho stopped walking making Rin stop as well, she then turned around, her face comforting as she stated,
"Don't worry about what Miss Angela thinks about you M'lady, between you and me, she doesn't seem to be a very nice lady, at least to you, and you are the only one that I care about, therefore, I do not care very much for her." Utsuho was now looking Rin in the eyes as she continued, "There was also no need to hide that plan from me, I trust you M'lady." Rin smiled as she thanked her maid, but she also began to wonder how her maid knew all about these things she had been thinking about, had she told her without remembering. She wondered this the entire way home and hoped Utsuho couldn't hear her.
"Jack the Ripper strikes again?" Lau read the newspaper heading aloud to the group with surprise. It was heated morning for some, but not Rin. She was still trying to wake herself up, but she could still feel the sleep trying to pull her back. She was dressed in her normal, slightly dark orange dress with large puffy sleeves that straightened as they got to the tip of her wrists. Her hair was straight except for the few curls at the end of some of the strands. Utsuho stood behind her silently as she sat in one of the chairs in the drawing room, watching as the rest of the group started to argue over the newspaper, hoping that the sleep wouldn't win her over.
"So that means the Viscount wasn't our man?" Madame Red asked puzzled. Rin looked over to see her cousin in his chair. He looked down at his lap, his body taut, and his eyes nervous, his skin covered in sweat. Rin felt bad for him, he had done so much to try and solve this case, but it ended up being all in vain. Sebastian stood against the wall to his left, eyeing his master carefully.
