Authors Note: Well, here it is, Chapter 11, hehe...sadly I was not able to get to the part I wanted to, but I'm kind of glad I decided to quit when I did. For those of you who have been eagerly awaiting this chapter, I hope you have some time on your hands because this ones a long one! I think this is the longest one so far, it also has no breaks so...Anyways, thanks for those who do read it, I hope you enjoy it! ^^
Chapter 11: Spider Lilies
"What does he mean, Shizu, why would Utsuho know about you?" Rin asked, her question trying to push Shizu to answer, Shizu only responded with,
"Well, I think that theory you had earlier about her not being human was actually not just your paranoia."
"What?!" Rin asked disturbed but this question did not have an answer at that moment as both Utsuho and Shizu remained silent.
"A grim reaper quietly harvests the souls of the dying." Sebastian started as he turned his attention back towards Grell who now looked to be pouting again, "A butler subserviently follows his master like a shadow." Sebastian then placed his long, black top coat over his said master's head, his master in return giving him a confused but mean look, he then turned around to face Grell once again as he continued, "Your vulgarity violates the aesthetics of both, and quite frankly, I find it sickening."
"Oh Sebas-chan, you wound me, I'm a more deadly efficient butler than I look!" Grell stated as he posed with his tongue out and his right hand making the "I love you" sign as it hovered over the right side of his face.
"In my own black name and that of the Queen's, I order you, put an end to them!" Ceil ordered who Shizu assumed to be his butler as he lifted his makeshift eye patch to reveal his usually concealed eye. This eye did not look to have the same qualities as his other eye, instead it had a light purple pentagon-like shape inside the pupil with strange star like patterns all around the inside of the iris that seemed to surround the pupil. The entire symbol started to glow brilliantly at the end of his command.
"What's wrong with Ceil's eye?" Shizu heard Rin ask terrified, but Shizu stayed silent for she did not have an answer to that question and secretly wished Rin would stop asking her all these questions.
"Yes, M'lord." She heard Sebastian reply from in front of her.
"Yeah, you don't have to tell me twice!" Shizu responded to the command that was not directed towards her. She then started hastily forward before the arm Sebastian held out in front of her stopped her.
"What's the big idea, you demonic trash?" Shizu asked her teeth tightened in anger.
"I'm afraid I cannot let a lady fight this battle." Sebastian replied still trying to act like a gentleman, his face turned slightly to look at her, the outside of his dusty red eye seem to take bits of the small black slit in the middle that served as his pupil.
"Aww that's cute, now let me pass!" Shizu commanded her eyes lowering and her face turning to a scowl.
"I'm afraid I cannot, miss Kanjiru." Sebastian replied as a matter of fact.
"Aww Sebas-chan, are you protecting me?" Grell asked happily.
"Aww, enough of this!" Shizu hissed as she took her arm, swung it and punched Sebastian in his side, sending him against the brick wall a few feet to the left of her, causing a slight crack in the exterior. Everyone stood stunned for a moment, even Rin who sat in total silence in the depths of her new host's mind.
"Now it's your turn!" Shizu declared setting her sights on Grell, she then proceeded to run towards him like she had originally planned in the first place, her blade in front of her. Grell in turn held his death scythe up in front of him to block her, and they stood blade to blade for a few minutes, enough time for Grell to ask,
"If you're not a reaper, where did you get that blade, only reapers are allowed blades like that!"
"Not true!" Shizu retorted as she shot Grell backwards and into another brick building in front of her, his impact causing a larger amount of damage to the building than Sebastian's.
"Had enough buddy?" Shizu called tauntingly as she held her weapon out to her side, it's blade reflecting the silver moonlight. Grell in response to her taunt started to slowly make his way out of the little whole his impact had made for him, bits of debris falling from his shoulders.
"Shizu, you hurt him!" Rin screamed anxiously from inside Shizu's head.
"Eh, he's fine, he just has to shake it off, he'll be back!" Shizu assured her host as she stood battle ready for Grell's next attack, her body slightly lowered and her blade out in front in front of her. She watched as Grell suddenly disappeared from his current position and then reappeared in front of her, his spinning blade out in front of her.
"I don't care who you are, I will make sure I paint your body a pretty shade of red!" He declared as he came at her, and she scoffed,
"Gross, I rather kiss that-but before she could finish, the man mentioned in her unfinished sentence appeared before her, his body showing no signs of scratches or tatters from his impact, unlike Grell. He had his back to her, and held his arms out in front of the two, as if they were two children misbehaving on the playground.
"You just don't quit, do you?" Shizu asked irritated.
"I'm afraid first statement still stands, miss Kanjiru." Sebastian responded as he looked over his shoulder to glare at her.
"Geez, sexist much!" She screamed at him just before looking over her shoulders to check out the scene behind her. Madame Red stood in front of her small, cowering nephew holding a knife out in front of her. Shizu smirked,
"Geez, what happened to being that "one hell of a butler", you can't even protect your own master when he's being traumatized by his own aunt." But by now, Sebastian was pinned against a wall trying to keep Grell from cutting his arm off, Grell's blade digging into the brick wall behind him, inches from Sebastian's arm, the loud roar of it's engine echoing through the alleyway.
"It's so much more stimulating when it hurts, isn't it?" She heard Grell state sadistically.
"Keep it PG guys!" Shizu shouted back at them as she proceeded to walk towards the group of Madame Red and Ceil, At closer look, it seemed as though Madame Red had already cut a tear in his arm, the small, blood stained tear in his sleeve made it obvious. She now pressed him against a wall, gripping his small, delicate throat tightly in her hand.
"Shizu, save him! Rin pleaded as Shizu stood in front of the group and watched for a few minutes,
"Yeah, yeah alright" Shizu replied with a confident smile, "Hey, Priss, get your hands off that boy if you don't want to get hurt, You saw what I did to that demon trash and that crazy boyfriend of yours, and don't think I won't do that to you, unlike that demon, I am not sexist!"
"You!" Madame Red turned to look at her, her deep red eyes burning with hate," Get out of here, this is a family matter."
"Afraid not honey, I may not be part of this crazy family, but I have someone here with me that is, and she kind of wants that family back, or what's left of it anyways." Shizu demanded for Rin who stood still inside her mind, waiting for Madame Red to answer,
"Huh, you think I care about her, as far as I am concerned, she's not even part of this family, heck I barely know the first thing about her, for all I care, she's a nobody, you as well, now get out of my site!" Madame Red hissed as she turned back towards Ceil who stood breathless in his aunt's grip.
"What did you just say?!" Shizu screamed as she felt Rin's heart start to sink. She then picked up her blade and tried to cut Madame Red, but Madame Red ended up dodging her almost inevitable death, dropping the boy, she came at Shizu who stood frozen for a moment giving Madame Red the opportunity to stab her hard in the shoulder, Shizu screamed in pain.
"Huh, you think I didn't see you trying to pull something like that, now like I said before, get out of my site!" Madame Red laughed as she kicked Shizu to the ground, her delicate nightdress becoming soaked in leftover rainwater and blood.
"Crap, Why didn't I see that coming!" Shizu spat as she held her hand over her open wound, as she did so, she could feel it slowly start to close and the pain started to lessen ever so gradually, but she wanted to keep this from Madame Red and the rest. She looked around slowly and noticed that someone was missing from the group, that someone being Rin's maid.
"That's odd." Shizu mused to herself, "Where'd she go?"
"You and that little cousin of yours should have never been born!" She heard Madame Red's scream pierce through her ears.
"Young Master!" She then heard Sebastian yell from over the noise of the blade next to him. There was then a large splatter of blood and the noise of Ceil's voice screaming,
"Stop, Sebastian, don't kill her!" She heard next what sounded like metal fall to the ground and turned to see Sebastian standing next to Madame Red, in front of his master, He panted heavily as he looked to be in agony.
"Sebastian…" Ceil trailed off as he stared at his unusually wounded butler.
"Oh Sebas-chan, you've got backbone" Grell laughed as Shizu heard him take his blade from the building it was stuck in, "To think you'd sacrifice an arm to go save that kid, but how poorly you compare, Madam!" She then watched as he started walking towards them,
"Hurry up and kill that brat!" Grell commanded hastily and when Shizu looked back at Madame Red, she could see she was not acting on Grell's command, but instead, it sounded like she was crying,
"I loved my sister, I loved him, I loved their…." Her words faded out, "I can't, I can't do it after all, I can't kill him." she then replied in a mumble.
"You're saying that now, you've sliced so many women to bits?" Grell pointed out, "If you don't erase him, he'll erase you!"
"Madam…" Ceil trailed off ignoring Grell,
"But, but..." Her words faded again, "This boy is my—" those words ended up being her last as Grell took his blade and placed its spinning end inside her chest.
"Holy Crap!" Shizu screamed from within her head as she heard Rin go silent with fear. Shizu looked around to see everyone else's eyes widen in horror along with hers.
"I'm disappointed in you Madame Red, I have no interest in you if you are just another woman!" Grell explained angrily as he threw Madame Red's body to the ground as if it were nothing but a broken, used up piece of trash he no longer had need for. Suddenly, a burst of light shone through the alleyway and Shizu could clearly see what look like little video film tapes coming out from inside Madame Red's body, each seeming to contain it's own little part of a video.
"What is this?" Rin asked Shizu, but Shizu didn't respond, instead, she let Grell do it instead,
"Our part as grim reapers is to replay and examine the memories of those on the "To-Die list" distributed by the Powers that Be." Grell started to explain as streams of video started to flow around both Shizu and Sebastian, "We determine what kind of person they were, what kind of life they lived, whether they should be killed of left alive."
"In other words, you make their life flash before their eyes." Sebastian tried to simplify Grell's explanation.
"Ugh, don't call it something so dull, this is the grim reaper's true ability: dramatic pain, this is a Cinematic Record!" Grell finished as he held up his blade,
"Yeah, I think you already covered the "dramatic" part." Shizu laughed feeling back to her old self.
"Wait, you can see all of this?" Grell asked in shock.
"Oh no, I was just staring awfully at your hairline because I wanted to get a better view, of course I can see this!" Shizu screamed sarcastically, Grell's face tightened and he spat back at her,
"Rude, there is no way you can be a normal human being, human's are not allowed to see the Cinematic Record of another human being!"
"Well, maybe I'm special." Shizu suggested with a shrug before everyone went silent to watch the show that was now playing in front of them. The clips the story was presented on were a little washed out, but Shizu could still make out the colors in them. The story was about a young girl name Angelina and her sister Rachel, Shizu assumed that Angelina was Madame Red given her obvious red hair, but she had no idea who Rachel was supposed to be. Rachel was blonde and if she looked closely, Shizu thought she had bright blue eyes, almost similar to Ceil's. Rachel was taller than Angelina by a few inches and very attractive. Angelina on the other hand came off as short and very shy. The two young girls were presented to a man named Lord Phantomhive.
"Oh, I see where this is going." Shizu groaned at the obvious plot.
Angelina was obviously in love with this Lord Phantomhive by the way her face lit up when he smiled at her.
"I hated the hair I inherited from my father." She heard the voice of what sounded like Madame Red resound through her ears.
"Well, I would too, red is such an ugly color." Shizu commented as if she were talking to that voice of Madame Red's. She then heard the voice of Lord Phantomhive compliment "An's" saying "her hair was like the color of spider lilies that blazed the earth". Angelina then started to explain how she came to love her red hair as well as the color and how she came to love the man who had complimented her. The picture then changed to show Rachel and Lord Phantomhive sitting in the same mini couch Lord Phantomhive had been sitting in when he was first introduced to the girls. It showed Madame Red standing in front of them, the same place she stood when she had met Lord Phantomhive, but this time, her sister was not with her and she was alone wearing only the mask of a fake smile to hide her grief. The video changed to show Rachel and Lord Phantomhive at their marriage ceremony and Angelina in the back clearly highlighted in the color she loved so much, which she then ended up stating she hated again, but she couldn't bring herself to hate her sister or her new husband. Angelina then continued to explain that she married a man she had met at a soiree and she ended up getting pregnant, only to end up losing both her husband and her unborn child in a carriage accident. The scene then changed to show her in another carriage and heading for an unknown destination. Madame Red then jerked forward as the carriage came to a sudden stop. The scene then showed her exiting the carriage before looking up. Her eyes widen and her mouth hung open in horror as bright red sparks danced around her. The scene then showed a large mansion enveloped in a deadly flame.
"Hey doesn't that kind of look like…? Shizu began to ask.
"The Phantomhive Manor?" Rin gulped finishing her question as the scene switched out to show a funeral service that, as Shizu listened, it ended up being for both Rachel and Lord Phantomhive.
"Does that mean Ceil's parent's…. died in a fire…. at the manor?" Rin dragged out the inevitable question.
"I…I guess, but then how is the manor still there?" Shizu asked but again no one had an answer to that question. The scene changed again to show Madame Red at her job, sitting at a rather large desk that stood against a wall with a sign above her head. A woman, who Shizu assumed worked as a prostitute, stood in front of her,
" A kid would only get in the way, I don't know who the father is, and I can't take customers with a kid in tow." The woman explained unbeknownst to Madame Red's feelings. Madame Red then looked down slightly; the glare in her glasses obscured her eyes, her mouth a small frown. The scene then showed Madame Red at a large sink washing her hands, water stained with blood was flowing from her hands to the drain next to her, the mirror in front of her showed her reflection, the only thing that could not be seen in that reflection were her eyes as they were covered in a large shadow. The scene then closed in on her eyes as they were reflected in the mirror. Her eyes were shown to be as dark and cold as the shadow that enveloped them, so cold it made the mirror in front of her crack causing a split between her eyes. The next scene showed the viewer gradually closing in on the same woman from earlier, by the way they walked, they seemed to be rather angry and they may even have been holding a weapon. By the use of darker grays, even black tones in the video suggested that the scene took place at night or perhaps even past midnight. The woman was shown to be entering what one would most likely assume to be her home, she is about to open a pretty sizable, old wooden door when she stops and turns her head slightly to look at the viewer,
"Oh, you're that woman from-" She remarks casually but cuts herself off, and when the viewer continues to move towards her, she turns around to look at them, her eyes widen in fear,
"What are you doing?" she asks them anxiously as she looked down, and the viewer moves in even closer,
"St…stop!" her voice can be heard screaming as the viewer was running at her. The scene changed to an upward view of the possible same alleyway everyone else at the present moment may have been standing in. A large splatter of blood then fills the viewers screen as Madame Red's voice can be heard stating,
"I'll stain everything red with my own hands." The blood disappears and what is assumed to be the blood stained hand of her current victim is shown lying fingers curled on the street of the alleyway. It then shows Madame Red looking away from the viewer and down at her assumed to be first victim, the edge of her black coat tainted with blood.
"Goodness me, you really went to town on her!" Marveled a familiar voice, startled, Madame Red looked up; her face seemed to be tainted with blood as well. The scene altered views and showed the silhouette of a person on top of one of the tall, pointed towers of London, the moon behind them a light red splattered with spots of darker red that served as the craters. The scene closed in on the figure to reveal it to be none other than Grell Sutcliff and Madame Red's voice could be heard once again,
"A blood red reaper smiled at me." At the end of her statement, the scene changed and Madame Red could be seen over a bucket filled with water and in that water was the reflection of her face, a look of shock seemed to display itself on it, strands of, what was assumed to be her hair, littered the floor around her.
"A few month later, my missing nephew suddenly came back." Madame Red could be heard explaining as more strands of her hair fell into the water causing ripples to run across her reflection, the scene changed yet again.
"Ceil!" Madame Red screamed as she ran through the doors that led to the room where her said nephew was waiting, he was shown to be sitting solemnly in a chair in front of a large table, his dead, uncovered eye was staring straight at her, the familiar figure of Sebastian was shown to be standing at his left. Madame Red's face changed from terrified to relieved as she replied,
"So you're safe." She then ran over and embraced Ceil who didn't bother to stand up from his chair to greet his aunt; she held his face close to her shoulder as she stated happily,
"Thank goodness, you're safe at least." She then pulled away and taking his head in both of her hands she positioned it so that he would look directly at her, she replied,
"Let me get a good look at your face." The scene than switched faces so now the viewers were looking into Ceil's cold, empty unconcealed eye, his mouth but a small downward sliver. The scene changed again to show a large, elegantly set table set up inside the Phantomhive's garden, red roses could be seen around the corner of the scene slightly obscuring the view. There sat Ceil and Lizzie as well as Madame Red and they all seemed to be having somewhat of a tea party as their the servants stood around the table and observed their little get together. They closed in on Madame Red taking a tiny sip of tea from her small teacup, holding the saucer it was placed on underneath it. The look that was portrayed on her face was a look of both sadness and somewhat confusion as she was explaining to the viewers why only Ceil had come back and not him. The scene shifted to show Madame Red and Grell hovering over another victim, Madame Red almost exactly the same except for the blood that marked her face, and Grell was in the back behind her with his butler attire on and his hair tied back, but with the glare that obscured his glasses and his sharp, pointed teeth barred in his smile as well as the large blade he hung over his shoulder, he looked like a mixture of both human and reaper Grell. The scene then quickly changed to a more recent, angrier picture of Ceil as Madame Red was explaining she would not let anything be taken from her this time, then changing for the very last time to the most recent scene of Madame Red screaming angrily,
"I won't give anything up!" The scene then faded out and Shizu continued to sit there in awe.
"Wow, I wonder how much the box office was paid for that?" Shizu wondered jokingly after a few minutes of silence, she then proceeded to laugh humorlessly; she then heard the disturbing thump of Madame Red's body as it hit the cold, wet ground next to her.
"I loved you when you were dyed crimson with your victims' blood, Madame Red." She heard the voice of Grell state, his voice being the trigger to releasing her earlier bottled up anger. She didn't know why, but she was ticked at him, not because she really felt bad for Madame Red, she didn't really like that woman anyways, no, she felt it was a bit more personal than that,
"I'm disappointed you turned out to be such a trite woman!" Grell continued as she heard his footsteps coming closer to her, "You don't have what it takes to wear red." She turned around to watch as Grell removed the coat that Madame Red's corpse had been wearing and was now placing it on his own shoulder,
"Your cheap little melodrama ends now."
"Why you little-" Shizu hissed through clenched teeth before she could feel the cold metal of Grell's blade behind her, she spun herself around to see that Grell had it pointed directly at her and looked up to vaguely see the expression on his face was a cold, spiteful glare, his greenish-yellow eyes reflecting some of the light of the moon making the only thing really visible on his face,
"You." He began, "I don't know who you are but I think it's best you don't exist in this world." He then started up his spinning blade, the sound of the engine resounding through Shizu's head,
"Crap, this isn't good!" Shizu thought as she froze in her place, she wasn't really used to not having a plan, but at this moment, she did not have one and that frightened her more than anything.
"Grell, stop!" Rin and Ceil screamed simultaneously as Grell lowered his blade to Shizu's chest.
"That's enough!" A voice pierced through the obnoxious roar of the engine. Everyone turned to look to see a figure perched on the flat rooftops of one of the large buildings that surrounded them. As the light got closer to the figure, its features were showed to be that of Rin's maid, Utsuho Reiuji, though this time, she was dressed completely differently. She now wore a bright white puffy sleeved shirt with a large dark red orb in the middle of her chest and at closer glance, it looked to be almost like an eye. A long green skirt went down to her knees with black boots underneath, and on her left leg, she wore a large metal piece that went up to a little bit above her ankle, almost like another boot. A large, flowing ribbon was place atop her glossy black hair and seemed to be the same color as her skirt. One of the striking things about her was that now, she seemed to have grown large black wings that seemed to be draped in cloth that showed white at the top of her wings and the part that draped down below her feathers seemed to reflect the galaxy. The other striking thing about her was that her left arm seemed to have transformed into this large, orange colored cannon, that cannon was now being directed at Grell.
"Now drop your weapon, or I will be forced to shoot." She commanded sternly, all three of her eyes now burning with her target's favorite color.
A little Bit of background on:
Shizu Kanjiru: Shizu, being the complete opposite of Rin, confident, violent and seems to have a knack for knowing when something big is about to happen. Shizu does not take orders from anyone unless she feels she can trust them. She has incredible strength and can take out both demon and reaper no problem. It is not yet known if Shizu has her own body or not, it is also not yet known if Shizu is really a human. She also despises the color red.
Song I feel most likely compliments her: Novocaine by: Fall Out Boy