Chapter Ten:

"Ooo~, creepy alleyways!" Aries giggled, peering into the dark abyss that lead into the Underworld of London.

"Is this the place?" Ciel asked, falling in step behind the girl.

"Yes," Sebastian confirmed, leading the way down the long, dark steps. Aries skipped down in front of the two, carelessly. "Please, watch your step," he warned to both his Master and Aries.

Sebastian opened the door for the duo, and Ciel immediately covered his nose, "What's that awful smell?" He grumbled. Aries waltzed into the room, bouncing on the balls of her feet, hardly caring for the acrid scent the attacked her nose.

"Drugs~!" She giggled, wading towards the two figures of a body in the room. The snook cleared as they neared the two, revealing themselves as Lau and his sister, Ranmao.

"So you finally found this place, huh Earl?" Lau commented, his voice low and dangerous. "It feels kinda weird for you to see me this way... However, I always knew the day would come."

"And what kind of day is today?" Ciel demanded, his tone hinting at agitation.

"Welcome Earl!" Lau cheered, "Long time no see! How have you been? Ah! Wasn't your birthday recently? Congrats."

"I really don't care about such things," Coel commented nonchalantly.

"I have something to ask you — ah!" Lau gave him a sly smile, "The Earl has come all the way to Anagura to as me about that incident. Am I right...?"

"The news has spread to you already? You sure are fast," Ciel commented. A pair of girls walked up to them, offering Sebastian and Aries a smoke. Aries giggled and tried to take one, but Sebastian batted at her hand. She frowned, glaring at the man. "I have been investigating that incident," Ciel continued. "If it's about orientals, the fastest way to find anything out is to ask you who has strong influence around here. The president of the British branch of the Chinese trading company, Kunlun." Lau's smile widened as he pulled his sister closer to him. "Shanghia mafia, Qingbang executive... Lau."

"Meh, I don't like it when you address me like that," Lau commented, lifting his sister's chin to meet his eyes. "It's too formal, right Ranmao?"

"I'll leave the East End to you — quit smoking opium and listen!" Ciel rolled his eye, "The number of people who come in and out of this street are in your control, right?"

"Of course I have done what you asked," Lau said, taking another drag of opium. "It's the bribe that allows me to do business with the Underworld of this country."

"So?"

"Well firstly, I also want to ask you one thing..." Ciel quirked an eyebrow, and Aries giggled. "What exactly is 'this incident'?"

Ciel deadpanned and Aries fell into a fit of giggles, "You..." He growled.

"Typical of a Yes-Man," Sebastian said.

~•~•~•~

Aries hummed a senseless tune as she strode down the street, "I see," Lau spoke after Ciel finished explaining the situation to him. "So you want to arrest that mischievous kid?"

"Since there's no casualties, it must be because he targeting underclass citizens and soldiers," Ciel explained.

"Setting an example for the common people? It must be tiring for you, Earl," Lau teased, his tone light.

"Nonsense," Ciel waved the comment away.

"Nevertheless, we have walked for a long time now," Sebastian spoke. "So, where is this stronghold of Indian people?"

Ciel rose an eyebrow, looking around, finally realizing that Sebastian was right. "Ah, sorry, I got lost in the conversation that it seems we are lost now!" Lau laughed, "Sorry to disappoint you!"

"Why you...!" Ciel grumbled, Aries giggled, and he turned to her, "Did you know we were lost?"

"For a while now, but I like adventures," She shrugged, looking at all the people.

Ciel made a sound of annoyance, "Firstly, we'll return to..." He paused to think, just as an Indian man stumbled past him.

"Ah!" He cried out, "It hurts! My ribs cracked!"

Aries sniggered and Ciel turned around, confused, "What?"

Voices began to erupt in the crowd as they converged on the group, "Someone come and help!" One person cried out.

"Are you okay?!"

"What's wrong!?"

"He's so cruel!"

"Oh..." Lau muttered.

"Looks like we were in the right place!" Aries giggled.

The Indian man who claimed his ribs to be broken, bent down and grabbed the front of Ciel's shirt with his dirty hands. The smell of cigarette smoke was faint on his breath, but enough for Aries to catch. His clothes were thin, but stuffed with discarded newspapers in order to provide warmth. "Showing up in a place like this, you're asking for it," the man growled under his breath, his voice deep and eyes narrowed. "That's quite a nice dress you have there, young man. A noble, eh?"

Ciel was quick to smack his hand away from his shirt, in the same moron stepping away. A glare was evident in his singular eye, but it wasn't of anger, but of annoyance. "Pay me consolation money!" The man roared, returning to his injured act, but not showing any signs of being injured in the first place. "Strip of everything you have and give it to me!!"

"And the girl too!" Someone in the crowd piped. Aries looked over, seeing an older man eyeing her, primal lust on his features. She grinned, this group would be so much fun to toy with!

"It seems we are caught amongst some irritating punks again, Young Master," Sebastian commented, showing as much annoyance as Ciel. "Shall I...?"

"Dispose of them right away," Ciel said, any signs of hesitation were not apparent in his tone.

"As you wish," Sebastian replied as he his glove tighter.

"I'll tell you," the man with non-broken ribs began, "All of us here despise noblemen. The brought us all the way to England and then dumped us like trash! All of you British are selfish!"

"Well that's a bit narrow minded," Aries commented as the Indian's followers loudly agreed.

"Because of you guys, we ended up like miserable gutted rats!" He continued and so did the support of the other Indians that besieged them. "Our country was walked all over by your shoes!! We'll give you a taste of how it feels to be plundered and humiliated!" The men were getting progressively louder, to the point that their leader nearly had to shout to be heard over the others.

"First of all, I have something to ask of you!" He continued, "If the answer is useful, I will treat you to some delicious food as an reward!"

The man opened his mouth to speak again, but was cut off by a much younger sounding voice. In their late teens, maybe early twenties. "Wait a second," he called out. "That's not how it goes..." The man stepped forward. He was Indian with dark hair, pulled into a pony tail. He wore very decorative clothing, decorative enough for him to be a noble, certainly very high in India's caste system.

The young man held out a picture of a very bad drawing of another seemingly young woman — although it was hard to judge, even for Aries, because the drawing looked like it had been drawn by a five year old. "We've been searching for someone. Has anyone seen any Indians who look like this?"

"What the--!?" The Indian man who started the riot exclaimed, glaring at the younger male. "You're in the way, you bastard!"

"How rude, calling me such impolite things," Aries' eyes narrowed, a smirk stretching across her dark features. Not used to being so heavily insulted, not only is he young, but exceedingly sheltered, and by association, naïve. Easily manipulated.

"What's, are you joining the fight too?" Someone shouted, but the young man was silent. His eyes shifted in the direction of Aries, Sebastian and Ciel. It didn't take him long to recognize his high status.

"He has a butler," he finally spoke. "You are... British noblemen?"

"So what if we are?" Ciel replied skeptically, but there was no way to hide it, not with the way he was dressed. Also, his body language screamed 'authority'. Even rats like the men surrounding Aries would be able to recognize him.

"Then I shall side with the people of my country," the boy announced, standing straight, "Agni!"

Another man, dressed in expensive robes stepped out. His right arm was wrapped in bandages, and Aries' eyes narrowed. "What the hell...?" She murmured, staring at the man. Sebastian and Ciel looked at her, confused.

"Yes?" His butler, Agni, replied.

"Defeat them," the boy's voice was cold, in a way, but Aries took notice of his words. 'Defeat', not kill, not maim. Just, put them out of action. Obviously, the young man isn't used to having blood on his hands, or having a close relative die. Which explains his naïvety, and how he was so desperate for this girl to come back.

"Your wish is my command," Agni replied, slightly unraveling his hand. "I will swing his fist blessed by the gods for my Master's sake." Then, the man's eyes narrowed. With a blinding speed, he jumped at the trio. Aries grabbed Ciel's hand and moved him behind Sebastian. This allowing Sebastian to take the young boy by the waist as he blocked a powerful punch with his forearm.

Several times, the man struck, and again Sebastian blocked. Aries turned as a man came behind them, running, "Don't forget that we're here also!" He yelled, a serrated, curved knife in his hand. Aries sidestepped as Agni misguided a punch, which landed in the man's face. Aries could hear his nose break on impact, and laughed.

"Don't worry, I won't forget," Aries giggled, grabbing the knife from the dazed man. Then, she kicked him in the face, striking him unconscious.

Now that she had a knife and her gun, Aries tore through the crowd, slicing ankles and gabbing flesh wounds in their bare arms. Men began to drop like flies and others began to fear for their lives. Finally she made it to the prince and brought out her gun. A quick shot to the air drew everyone's attention to her.

"Thank you," she grinned as Agni looked at her with alarm, and then rage when he noticed that her gun was pointed at him. "Now that I have your attention, let's settle this feud," Aries turned to the young man, who was looking at her angrily and also nervously. "You're looking for you friend, yeah?"

"Yes, I am, have—"

"I'm sure we can find a way to get her back to you. However, we can't do this when some people are fighting like caged monkeys."

A man in the crowd's face twisted to anger, "Caged—"

"Shut up!" Aries snapped, glaring. "So, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to put down my gun, and you're going to call your butler off. Then, we'll deal with these Indian barbarians together."

"If you didn't want to fight them, you shouldn't have engaged them, little girl," The young man snapped, annoyed.

"Engaged them?" Ciel repeated, "We barely stepped foot in this place and those guys picked a fight with us! It must be true that all Indian men act like barbarians and indiscriminately attack the British!"

The young man's face turned to puzzled confusion, "What?" He turned to the Indian men, or what were left of them, "You lot! Did you really attack this kid for no reason?"

"Eh?" One of them spoke dumbly. It almost hurt Aries' ears to listen to him, "A reason?"

"That's not right," The man scolded, "Picking fights without reason is childish. Agni!" His butler stood at attention, "Our brothers are the wrong ones here. We shall help the kid now."

"Yes sir!" Agni agreed, and turned to the other men. It didn't take two minutes for him to finish, rounding up all of the barbaric Indians and defeating them. He dragged the injured one away as well, cleaning them all up in a nice little pile. "It is done, Lord Soma!"

Aries holstered her gun and walked back to Ciel and Sebastian. "So you guys," The young man began, picking up Ciel's hat that had been discarded in the fight. "I hope you're not hurt or anything."

"Peachy," Aries grinned. "I would apologize for threatening you, but it got the job done. And, this was fun," Aries giggled.

The young man shot her a strange look, "And you?" He asked, turning to Sebastian and Ciel.

"Er... No," Sebastian said, and Ciel gave a shake of his head.

"Also kid," The young man said as he put his hat on him, "This place isn't a kind of place for a kid to wander about. So anywhoo... I'm in the middle of a search so I need to split."

Aries grinned, stepping forward. "I hope you find your friend," she smiled, then strangely, gave him a hug. Ciel blinked, taken aback, but he didn't notice her fingers shifting as it stuffed a piece of paper in between the folds of the scarf around his neck. A tiny corner poked out, just enough for someone who would be walking behind and watching him closely to see.

Aries let go, and grinned, "Good luck!"

The young man also looked slightly dazed, "... Thank you. Agni!" His butler came to his side, "See ya." Then, the young man walked away.

"What was that about?" Ciel asked, giving the girl a very strange look.

"He'll know when he sees it," Aries giggled. "Don't worry your silly little head about it, silly Ciel~!"

They began to walk, until they heard yet another voice. "Yaa... Those two are amazing!"

Ciel turned to the roof, where Lau and Ranmao were hiding from the confrontation. "And what exactly have you been doing?!" Ciel demanded, irritated.

"Meh, just waiting for the right chance to jump in~," the man lied, stroking his sister's hair. "By the way," Lau asked as he jumped down from the building, his sister following. "Who exactly were those two? They are definitely not people who live in the east end. Also, they wear pretty dresses. Their English accent is pretty too."

"Oh well," Sebastian said, "It looks like our first job is to deliver these people to the city Yard."

Aries let out a groan, dramatically leaning against Sebastian, a hand swept over her forehead. "Oh, no! More work? Can't we just leave them? I think Ciel looks awfully tired, aren't you awfully tied, Ciel? Say you're tired!"

"Quiet, Aries," Ciel grumbled allowing the girl to burst into a flurry of giggles. "You're right, Sebastian. And, the faster we get this done, the faster we can go home."