"Undertaker!?" Ciel had a look of disbelief on his face as he stared at both the silver haired reaper and me. I saw Adrian glance over at the boy with a smirk on his face. The rest of the glass shattered as soon as it hit the floor making this scene even more dramatic.
A thump brought my attention to the ground a few yards from the stairs. Grell had landed in front of the other sotoba on his knees with a growl. I crossed my arms and leaned back against the man behind me. The mortician was still chuckling over the shocked faces of the others in the room. I saw Ronald's eyes narrow searchingly at the older reaper, but it didn't seem like he could place his face.
"He masked his presence skillfully. If it weren't for the fact that he doesn't possess the 'eyes', I would say he is a grim reaper." Sebastian commented in a puzzled tone. I blinked before I remembered that I gave the silver haired man perfect sight on my grandfather's request. The redhead wiped the blood out of his eye as the younger soul collector made his way to his superior.
"Same here. He fooled us good. I'm not sure what he is to be frank." Grell narrowed his eyes at the mortician as he tried to figure things out. Adrian started to chuckle louder at the others, as he took his left hand and brushed my bangs out of my eyes with a gentle touch of his long black claws.
"Heaaaaaaar that, kitten? They doooooon't know what IIII am!~" He laughed as he curled his arm around my shoulders. I tilted my head back to look at him with a smirk on my face. The silver haired man was finding this very amusing giving the way his eyes were flashing. It had been a long time since we were able to have this much entertainment.
"Do you want to tell them?" I asked in a playful manner. "Or do you want to keep them guessing?" The mad man took on a thinking pose as he mulled it over, but his eyes were alert as I watched him glance over the demon and the two reapers from under the slightly parted fringe of his hair. He gave them a shrug as he played with a lock of my copper hair with his usual grin.
I giggled at him as he purposely showed that he didn't think the others in the room were a real threat. Then again, with how strong Adrian really is, I'm not really sure if the demon and other reapers are a serious threat to him or not. The demon gave a small growl as he set his master on the stairs slightly behind him, and the black haired man moved in front of the boy.
"Perhaps if they do that Phoenix pose one more time, I'll tell them!~" This caused several glares to be made in our direction as we both snickered. Ciel was about to demand an explanation on what was going on, but a shout from up above him stopped the words. The sounds of running footsteps made us look over to see Rian coming down the stairs.
"Undertaker! Explain yourself! You told me I could control the dead with that device!" The doctor sounded very angry at the mortician. I giggled from my place in his arms as the reaper dropped his smile while cocked his head. My partner was an excellent actor and comedian, and I enjoyed the way he was able to make everyone dance to his tune.
"Did IIII say something liiiike that, love?" Adrian asked me in a bored tone, as he tapped his black clawed finger against his chin with a knowing smile forming on his lips. The young man came to a stop in front of us as he continued his questions. The volume of his words were growing louder the more questions he asked.
"Was everything you told me a lie!? Sailing to America to spread the absolute salvation…was nothing you told me the truth!?" Rian shouted at the retired reaper, waving his hands as if he couldn't express his anger with words alone. Adrian pulled the sotoba off his shoulder to shrug at the human. The silver fringe was covering one eye as he responded with that creepy giggle in his tone.
"Weeeeeeell, I found it so aaaaaamusing that you were try to resurrect the dead with medical science. You were the perfect person to assist in my little task." I felt his silver hair tumble over my shoulder as Adrian explained, and I played with a lock of it in my hand completely bored out of my mind as I listened to the brunette whine on and on. The doctor looked at the mortician in shock, and his expression was slowly transforming into one of horror.
"B-but, what about our desire to save mankind with absolute salvation? The world would be healthy and whole through medicine….?" Rian was starting to sound a little broken, but he needed to understand that humans cannot stop the cycle of life and death. I gave the man a condescending sigh as I took over the explanation. I couldn't take another second of his ignorance anymore.
"That was your dream, right? When did we say we wanted the same thing?" The doctor brought his shocked gaze down to me. Adrian placed his hand on my shoulder as I continued to speak. It was like explaining things to a child.
"The moment you began to rely on Undertaker's techniques was the moment it ceased to be medicine. One cannot revive the dead with the medical knowledge you have now, and I don't know how you can claim to be a physician if you don't understand the process conducted on your patients." Rian collapsed to the ground in devastation. The aged reaper gave him a pat on the head.
"You are a good chap. So naïve to buy everything I said without looking deeper." I gave the man a look full of pity as the little Earl started asking questions. The boy had a look of betrayal on his face that made me a little sad, but you need to nip things like this in the bud before real problems begin.
"So, you are the one responsible for all these corpses? And the mastermind behind the experiments?" His voice was surprisingly calm as he asked his questions. The other reapers were also listening in on the conversation as Adrian smirked at the child. Sebastian took out silverware knives and held them between his fingers as he got into a defensive stance.
"I would looooooove to tell you it's a secret, but you have paid for information numerous times with that pose, Earl. I don't think I've ever seen Cal laugh so hard before!~" I stuck my tongue out at the silver haired manic as he snickered before the image of Ciel shouting out "Phoenix" in that comical pose caused me to bust out laughing again.
"Remove that from your memory right now!" The navy haired boy shouted at us with a finger pointing in our direction making me laugh harder at him. He must be mistaken if he thinks I'm ever going to forget something like that. While I was laughing, Adrian placed the tip of his wooden sotoba on the floor and resumed talking.
"With the compensation you have provided for me…tell you, I shall!~ hehehe!" He turned to fully face the young lord and the demonic butler. He gave them a smile as he admitted to making the reanimated cadavers. Ciel went into professional mood as he inquired the purpose of such a thing. I got serious as well, knowing that a fight was probably going to break out soon.
"Let meeee thiiiink…at first it was simple curiosity about humans. Humans live their lives with bodies of flesh and a soul. If both are present at the same time, humans live and record their memories of life as a cinematic record. When the flesh dies and the grim reaper collects the soul, the cinematic records come to an end hand and hand with death." I looked up at the reaper as he went into lecture mode. His velvet voice always held my attention when he was teaching me something.
"Grim reapers follow the death lists to harvest human souls and end the records. Day after day they do the same thing over and over again. The only thing a reaper hunts for is the souls of the dying. The records of live and the bodies of flesh remain in this world." The silver haired man paused so everyone could keep up with his explanation. The two active reapers were slowly piecing the fact together, and I saw the lightbulbs go off when they realized Adrian was a grim reaper.
"After a long time of collecting souls and bringing the records to their end, a thought occurred to me. What if there were a continuation of those records after the soul leaves the body? What would happen if the records continued to play after death?" I watched as shock came over the faces of the other reapers in the room.
"Wait. Your telling me you're a grim reaper? One that has edited the cinematic records of all these corpses?" Grell stood up as he asked in a serious voice. So the drama queen does have a professional side…will wonders never cease?
Ronald was still very stunned over the fact that Adrian was a reaper to add anymore questions, but he seemed just as morbidly curious as to how the cadavers were able to move like the rest of the group. The mortician gave a smile as he pointed over to a couple of the dolls on the second floor with his long black claw of a fingernail.
"Why don't you take a look at their records for yourself if you don't believe me? Hee hee!" The redhead glared at the older reaper before he launched himself up and cut off the heads of the dolls. The reels flowed out of the bodies and when everyone saw the film of Adrian as Charlie Chaplin, annoyance covered their exclamations. Grell even started to flail his arms around as he watched the additions.
"The end title never appears because I attached counterfeit memories to the end of the reel. Imagine my surprise when the bodies began to move without the soul. The flesh is under the impression that life is still going, but they came with another surprise. One that nearly made me stop in the middle of my experiment if it posed a threat to my clever kitten." The silver haired man pulled both his sotoba and me closer to him as he continues on educating his audience.
"All living beings instinctively seek that which they lack. Solitary people seek out company, the injured attempt to heal the wounds…they also seek what they lack." Adrian forms a heart with his fingers just above my collarbone.
"They rip open the bodies of the living in an attempt to find their souls. It is to balance out the never ending record. Editing records is easy for me to do, but I can't create new souls. Most of my experiments are nothing more then living dolls of flesh. With them being neither living or dead, I have named them Bizarre Dolls. They are puppets, but I only have limited control over them." He finished with a smirk. Not one of the other beings picked up on what he hinted at with that last statement. Ciel gave a grimace at the speech.
"This is sickening! What is the appeal of them?" He held a hand close to his mouth in a fist. Adrian let me go to walk over to one of the female dolls that was trying to devour the man the Viscount had pushed in her path. He stabbed the sotoba in the ground and gripped her wrists stand in her upright. The reaper turned her to face his still captive audience. Her bloody mouth gaped open as she hung limp in the mortician's hands.
"There are some humans who desire my dolls. These beings don't feel pain or fear. All they seek out are souls and devour the living to find them. Don't they sound like the best military beasts?" Gasps of shock rang out from the demon, reapers, and the humans in the room. The grin the silver haired mad man sported was diabolical as he explained to the other living beings in the room. I had to admit that he had a talent for story telling.
"Someone contacted me about the effectiveness of the Bizarre Dolls, so I set this cruise up as an experiment to see who would be still be standing once the dolls got out on the ship. I was curious to see who and how many would be left when everything was over." He let the girl doll go as he walked back over to me. I looked over at Sebastian when he growled out his words.
"…you really are insane." I glared at the demon with a sneer on my face, and I felt the flicker of my flames coming from my clenched fists. He certainly had no room to talk when he was half mad with hunger. A black clad arm wrapped around my waist pulling me against a muscular frame as Adrian laughed at the demon. The squeeze he gave me helped to reign in my powers from lighting the boat up like a torch.
"Yooooou may call it that, buuuuut I call it satisfying my curiosity. In a way, I'm glad I don't have my list anymore. I can view the results of my experiment with a better degree of objectivity." He sounded just like any other scientist would as he ignored the butler's comment. I caught a glimpse of the chartreuse colored orbs, and wasn't the least bit surprised to see the bloodthirsty gleam. The retired reaper must be itching to punish Sebastian for trying to lure me into his trap.
"Weeeeell, at least I won't haaaave to worry about sinking the shiiiip. I'm a little unsure of something though…. Because of your interference, Earl, a lot more humans survived then I expected. Will I get scolded for that, kitten?" He asked me with his usual grin in place. I shrugged at the retired reaper.
"I never had any contact with the group you're talking about, but I'm sure they will be pleased with the results we got. From what I could tell, the Bizarre Dolls are very efficient." I crossed my arms over my chest as I thought out loud. Adrian have a hum of agreement as his eyes drifted over the room. The devastation the cadavers caused in their quest to find souls was astonishing. Multiple, half eaten bodies were strewn around the doorways and floor of the lounge.
"Cal, you knew everything as well? You are apart of this?" Ciel had his single blue eye on me. I met his gaze with a blank look on my face. The boy's hand was clenching on the stair railing, and the silver haired manic was pulling me closer to him as his grinning face was place on top of my head. Acknowledging that I was helping the rogue reaper will make me become his prey, but I gave him a sharp smile anyway.
"Yes, Ciel. I know everything, and am apart of it as much as Undertaker."