Title: The Demon on Academy Street
Genre: romance, tragedy, horror
Rating: M for language, violence, and suggested themes
Pairings: JohanXJudai (spiritshipping); hinted others
Summary: Based on "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street". After fifteen hard years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, Johan Andersen, now adopting the name Jehu Ralleigh, returns to London to find his beloved husband supposedly dead and his son in the hands of the evil Lord Viper. In his anger, Johan goes on a murderous rampage on all London. With the help of Ms. Asuka Tenjoin, an old friend of his, he opens a barber shop in which he lures his victims with a charming smile before casually ending their lives with a flick of his razor across their necks. But not one man nor ten thousand men killed can satisfy Johan's lust for vengeance on those who've caused his years of pain and the loneliness of losing his family. But to get his revenge, all he needs to do now is try to convince the wicked lord who accused him of the crime, raped his husband and drove him to supposedly committing suicide, and stole his son, to sit in his chair of death.
Me: This is the next chapter! Kinda of short, but the next one will be just a bit longer, and then the one after that is going to be my favorite chapter of all of them! xD
Lucy: So we hope you all will like these chapters as we update them!
Me: So please enjoy this story, guys!
Chapter Nine: Boys in Their Sensitivities
"Walk with me," Lord Viper said as he walked through town with Beadle Napoleon by his side. "I have news for you, my friend. In order to shield him from the evils of this world I have decided to marry my dear Cecil."
Napoleon flashed the man a congratulating grin.
"Oh, sir, happy news indeed!" he said, clapping his fat hands together over and over. He was an idiot who would do anything or say anything to please his lord and keep his title.
"Strange, though," Viper said, rubbing his finger over his chin in thought. "When I offered myself to him, he showed a certain... reluctance." The raven-haired lord looked to his Beadle with a questioning expression, as if looking for the answer on why Cecil had show reluctance when Viper had proposed to him.
Napoleon smiled and proposed an idea to the lord.
[Napoleon]
Excuse me my lord may I request my lord permission my lord to speak
Forgive me if I suggest my lord you're looking less than your best my lord
There's powder upon your vest my lord and stubble upon your cheek
And young gentlemen, my lord, are weak
"Stubble, you say?" Viper ran his hand over his chin with a frown. "Perhaps I am a little over-hasty in the mornings," he said with a small frown on his dark-colored lips.
[Napoleon]
Fret not though my lord I know a place my lord
a barber my lord of skill
Thus art with a shaven face my lord
Some eau de cologne to place my lord
And to enhance the chase my lord
You'll dazzle the boy until...
"Until?" Viper asked.
"He bows to your every will," Napoleon said with a wink.
Viper 'hmm'ed at the thought of such a thing happening. He looked to the Beadle with narrow eyes, scanning his face for any type of lies that he might be trying to pull. When he saw none, he stood straight.
"A barber? Take me to him," he ordered at once.
--
Asuka poured the boy his second cup of gin, which the boy eagerly chugged down. The blond woman sighed as he gulped down another pie, took a big sip, and then pigged out on another pie.
"Ought to slow down, dear," Asuka warned. "Gonna go right to your head."
"Oh, I'll be all right," Martin assured her.
Asuka stood and brushed dirt off her skirts. "I'm gonna go upstairs and check on Mr. Ralleigh," she said. She gave the boy a worried look. "You will be all right on your own?" she asked.
"Leave the bottle?" Martin asked.
"Aye, lad," Asuka murmured, turning and walking up the stairs. She came into the room where Johan was, and she saw him still cleaning one of his blades. Asuka brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "God, he's drinking me out of house and home. How long until Signor Cronos comes back to get him?"
"He's not coming back," Johan said absent-mindedly.
Asuka gave him a confused gaze. "What do you mean he's not coming-" Her eyes widened when she saw the blood on his sleeve. "Oh my..." She looked at the chest and rushed to it.
She opened the chest, gasped when she saw the crunched body of the Italian barber on the bottom, and slammed it down with a thud, glancing wide-eyed over at Johan.
"You're barking mad!" she squeaked, heart racing in her partially revealed chest. "Killing a man what done you no harm!"
"He recognized me from the old days," Johan murmured, looking at his reflection in his blade. "Half me earnings. He called Judai a whore. I could not let him keep living with that."
Asuka's face seemed to calm.
"Oh," she said. "Well, that's a different matter entirely. For a moment I thought you lost your marbles." She opened the case again. "Ugh. Look at all that blood. Poor bugger. Ah, well."
Asuka reached into his pocket and fished out his money purse She snapped it open, fished through, and then opened her dress and stuck the purse into her cleavage.
"Waste not, want not," she told Johan. "What about the little boy?"
"Send him up," Johan said.
Asuka's eyes seemed to widen. "Ah, M-Mr. Ralleigh. M-maybe he can stay and help me in the shop? Maybe?" she asked, her eyes pleading. The bluenette looked at her with a vacant expression.
"Do what you will," he murmured.
"Better stock up on the gin," Asuka joked. Johan sucked in a breath as he looked out the window. Asuka looked down and saw Lord Viper heading towards their shop. She nodded to Johan, kissed his cheek, and then rushed downstairs so she could stall the man enough for Johan to change his bloody shirt.
---
Me: All right! So, Johan might get his chance to get his revenge on Viper, after all! But will he?
Lucy: If you would all like to find out what Johan does, then please read the next chapter as soon as I am able to update it! So please enjoy this story as it goes on, guys!
Me: Please, please, please review it!