That Butler, Compromising
I own nothing but my OC.
≤speech in Indian language≥
'thoughts'
"speech"
{setting/stage directions?}
SOUND EFFECTS
An entire sentence like this, without quotes, is narration for dreams or stuff like written letters.
=†=†=†=†= scene shift/time shift
—^—^—^— change of perspective/area of action within one specific time frame/location
Previously:
{First-Class Hall…}
It was empty now, completely devoid of people. Even the zombies were gone. All that remained were the bloodstains on the stairs and the disheveled tables. Those tables began to slide. Dishes that were still on them fell off as they tilted and crashed on the floor.
"Damn! The ship's listing like crazy," Rian Stoker said as he walked against the lean of the ship. "Where is he…!?" Suddenly, the ship swayed, and Rian was knocked off his feet. "!? Uwah…!" he cried as he fell over the railing on the second level, about to plummet to his doom, when someone's hand closed around his ankle.
"Oooh, I say! You're quite the catch, dear boy!" Grell said, leering down at him. "I've got you hook, line, and sinker~! "
BLAM!
"Set off all the fireworks and distress flares we have aboard!" a freckle-faced officer ordered. "Keep the ship lit!" Another crew member came running towards him.
"We've received a transmission from a cargo vessel sailing nearby," he said urgently. "They can reach us in about two hours if they hurry."
"… Is that so!" the officer said. "All we can do now is get as many people on the boats as humanly possible. Do it quick!"
"Aye-aye, sir!" the crew member said. Down below, water continued to rush into the ship.
"Two more hours, eh…?" the officer said as more fireworks went off.
=†=†=†=†=†=
{First-Class Lounge…}
Grell held Rian by his ankle, letting him dangle from the second level of the room over the first.
"So you're Rian, hm?" the Reaper said.
"Wha—!?" Rian said. "How do you know my nam—"
"Okay, okay! That's enough small talk," Ronald said, sliding over to stand next to Grell. "Are we right in assuming you're the fellow who doctored the corpses to make them move?"
"!" Rian said, furrowing his brow.
"Such a pain, aren't they? These 'irregular' types," Ronald said. " 'Death' is s'posed to be a rule that can never be overturned in this world."
"Well?" Grell asked. "How do you stop those corpses?"
"Th—There's a device in my room that will nullify their absolute salvation!!" Rian exclaimed.
=†=†=†=†=†=
Rian stood in his first-class cabin, staring at the empty room with a pale face.
"—So?" Grell said, playing with his hair. "You were saying? Where's this device of yours then?"
"Th-This can't be… it truly was here!" Rian insisted. He gasped. "Don't tell me…!! That man made off with it…!?"
=†=†=†=†=†=
{Corridor, First-Class Cabins…}
Sebastian was hurrying down the corridor with Ciel, accompanied by Lacey.
"So what do you know of this incident?" Ciel asked Lacey.
"What makes you think I know anything more than you do?" Lacey asked him.
"You're a Reaper, and you're from the future," Ciel pointed out.
"A different future. Zombies and stuff like this are pure fiction where me and Chêne are from. I only know what they told me, which was just enough to protect Chêne. They did give me a copy of this world's death list for tonight so I'd know what was happening when as far as the ship's concern—" Someone stepped out into their path.
"You're—!!" Ciel said as a familiar face turned to look at them. "The Viscount of Druitt…!?" There he stood, holding a glass of wine.
"Who?" Lacey asked. What was with the wine glass?
"Nn? And who are you?" he asked them as a strange contraption was carried out by other men behind him. "How do you know who I am?" Ciel and Sebastian froze and gulped. Did they just blow their cover? "Well, I suppose it is indeed difficult not to know of me, as I'm celebrated in society circles for being the personification of beauty." He ran a hand through his sparkling luscious locks. A laugh escaped Lacey that she quickly turned into a cough. She was really tempted to tell him she had no clue who he was, just to see the look on his face.
"With all due respect, what are you doing in a place like this, Viscount?" Sebastian asked. "The walking dead are ambling through this vessel as we speak." The viscount smirked. "There's something here that I daren't leave on this sinking ship, even if it means exposing myself to mortal danger." Sebastian, Ciel, and Lacey all exchanged a significant glance. "To begin with, those corpses amount to nothing more than useless dolls to me—oh, dear. I've nattered on for too long… if you'll excuse me."
"The eternal flame in this breast!" Sebastian said.
"Cannot be quenched by anyone!" the viscount answered. "We are—"
"Phoenix!!" they all said. Sebastian and Ciel performed the pose (sort of, since Ciel was still being carried) and Lacey copied them. The viscount did his own version of the pose.
"Ah! So you were comrades!" Druitt said. "Speaking of, I do get the feeling we've met before. Although, I'm sure I would have remembered you," he added, flirting with Lacey.
"I'm sure you would," Lacey said with a straight face.
"That contraption!" Ciel said, looking behind the viscount. "Can it perhaps stop the movements of those corpses?"
"!!" Druitt said. His expression became serious. "Where did you learn that?"
"I knew it…" Ciel said. "Then you're—!?" The viscount turned his back on them.
"If you wish to know, follow me," He said. "I shall allow you to bear witness as well." He glanced back at them with a sly expression on his face. "To the advent of a new aurora by way of medicine… that is." Sebastian, Ciel, and Lacey watched the viscount walk away with his device.
"Shall we take it by force, Sir?" Sebastian asked.
"No, we don't know how to use it," Ciel said. "Let's have him activate it for u—"
"Guh hee hee..." a familiar laugh issued from one of the men carrying the device. Ciel took a closer look at him.
"What the—!? Undertaker!?" Ciel exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"Wow, this is so weird..." Lacey said. "He looks just like my Undertaker!"
"Now you understand our reaction upon meeting your boyfriend," Sebastian said.
"Oh, yeah," Lacey said. "I can totally see why you stared." The resemblance was uncanny. In fact, she wasn't entirely sure it was a different person.
"Hee! Hee! Hiiiya!" Undertaker said with a grin. "Who is that charming young lady?"
"Lacey Lawless," Lacey replied. "I'm a friend of Chêne's."
"I thought your last name was Bianchi?" Ciel said, raising an eyebrow.
"It was when I was undercover," Lacey said. "In reality I'm only a few letters away from being a warrior princess."
"A wha—never mind," Ciel said, clearing his throat. There were more important things to discuss. "What are you doing here?" he asked Undertaker.
"I was told to carry this as I was in the middle of running for my life, you seeee!" Undertaker replied. "Then I caught sight of the earl hollering 'phoenix' once more, and..."
"Wipe that from your memory right now!!" Ciel ordered, embarrassed. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "But more importantly, do you have a clue as to how to work this thing?"
"Can't say that I dooo? I wonder if something like this serves any useful purpose at all, you know?" Undertaker said with a Cheshire cat grin.
—^—^—^—
{First-Class Lounge…}
They carried the contraption down from the second level to the stair landing between the first and second floor. Viscount Druitt had them set it down there.
"Be very cautious with it. It's worth more than your lives," Druitt told the men carrying it.
"Will you start it up now?" Sebastian asked.
"Not yet," Druitt said. "Our cast is still one player short."
"?" Ciel and Lacey said.
"One player?" Sebastian asked, his brow slightly furrowed.
"Ah!" someone gasped loudly. They looked to the second level and saw Rian leaning on the railing. "You rat!!" he yelled. "Why did you steal the device!!?"
"Hello there, Rian. I've been waiting for you!" Druitt said, opening his arms wide. "This day shall mark the fall of your empire in one night, as Pompeii once fell… and the day my new empire was born!"
"Eh!?" Rian said, taken aback.
"With the powers of this device… I shall build a new empire!!" Druitt said, raising his wine glass with one hand and gesturing to the device with the other.
"Come again?" Ciel and Sebastian said, sweat-dropping.
"Is this where we're supposed to laugh?" Lacey asked.
"He who possesses eternity shall rule with immorality and decadent beauty. And it shall be called—the Aurora Empire!!" Druitt said, striking his modified phoenix pose.
"This all seems to have gone kinda pear-shaped, huh?" Ronald said, watching the spectacle from the second level with Grell. "What the heck?"
"Hmph. I'll make that cad the reddest of reds in the blink of an eye!" Grell said, holding his death scythe at the ready.
"Easy now!!" the viscount said. He held his glass over the device, threatening to pour the wine on it. "Don't you care what happens to this machine?"
"!!" Ronald exclaimed when Grell tried to attack the man regardless, quickly grabbing him to hold him back. "Hey, Mister Sutcliff, time out!!"
"Fu-fu… This is what is called true 'power'," Druitt said proudly. "I can stand victorious against you all with nothing more than a single wineglass!! Fwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"This sense of irritation just grows and grows," Sebastian said darkly with slitted pupils. "May I kill him, Young Master?"
"Yeah, let's waste this bozo," Lacey said.
"No, not yet," Ciel said. "Though I do understand how you feel..."
CRASH!
It was as if all the windows had suddenly exploded. Shards of glass flew everywhere as the zombies forced their way through the windows that lined the walls of the lounge on both levels.
"Wha—!?" Ciel exclaimed. He and Sebastian were both alarmed. The zombies moaned as they crawled into the room. It seemed as if every zombie left on the ship had all decided to converge on this one spot.
"Aren't you glad I'm here now?" Lacey asked them, smirking.
"Quit enjoying this!" Ciel snapped at her.
"Hey…!" Ronald said, also alarmed. "Just look at these numbers!!"
"Viscount, start the device! Hurry!!" Ciel said.
"Non! I am no longer a viscount!" Druitt said.
"Hunh?" Ciel and Sebastian said.
" 'Kaiser'… I shall start the device if you call me that… with that lovely little mouth of yours, so very like a cock robin's," Druitt said, winking at Ciel. Lacey laughed.
"Let's kill him now, after all," Ciel said darkly.
"Now you're talkin'!" Lacey said.
"Please wait," Sebastian said. "Though I do understand how you feel..."
"Ooh… Ooh!" Druitt moaned. "Gladiators, who put their flesh and blood on the line, whose lives scatter like so many fallen petals." Zombies came after Ciel and Sebastian. Sebastian took the first one out with a kick while still holding and protecting Ciel. More came forward.
"Allow me!" Lacey said. She stepped forward and lopped their heads off with one swing.
"And we have a gladiatrix as well. This place is just like a corrupt coliseum. Gazing out as I sip wine, I truly am… just like Emperor Nero!"
"Aaaaaargh!! Can we kill him now!?" Ronald asked with a vein throbbing on his head, beyond irritated.
"Let me get this straight… you just stopped me, didn't you!?" Grell said, killing a zombie that came too close. "Do you want to get suspended!?" He glared down at the viscount. "Hey, you! Get a move on, and start that thing up, would you!?" he shouted at him.
"Heh…!" Druitt smirked. "Very well. The time for the founding of my empire is upon us at last." He raised his glass and placed a hand on his chest. "Now, then. All of you! Show me the dance of the phoenix in pledging your allegiance to your kaiser!" Ciel, Sebastian, Grell, and Ronald all stared at him with dark expressions on their faces.
'Right. Kill him,' they thought. Lacey snorted. She could tell what they were thinking from the looks on their faces.
"Guh! Hee hee… Dear, dear. Will you be satisfied with never learning what that gadget is for?" Undertaker asked.
"Kuh…!" Ciel said in frustration.
"It's supposed to stop the walking dead, isn't it?" Lacey said dubiously. "Hey, you!" she called to Rian. "That's your machine, right? What's it do?"
"He did say something about using ultrasonic waves to suspend the reanimation..." Ciel said, furrowing his brow.
"Whaaat? That sounds made up," Lacey said.
"And the rest of it is all within the realm of possibility?" Sebastian asked.
"It's happening, isn't it?" Lacey said pointedly.
"Touché," Sebastian said.
"Still, I guess it's better to try it..." Lacey said.
"Unfortunately," Ciel agreed.
"What is it? Come now!!" Druitt said, prompting them to fulfill his request.
"Th—The eternal flame in this breast..." Ciel, Sebastian, and Lacey began.
"… Cannot be quenched by anyone..." Grell and Ronald continued.
"We are! The new! Phoenix!!!" Druitt said dramatically as they all, including him, Undertaker, and the others who help carry the device, performed his version of the phoenix pose. "Well played, comrades! Now I shall show you… the army of death that bows before me!!" He pushed the button.
CLICK.
Silence echoed through the room. The zombies stayed upright, moving on as if nothing had happened.
"Eh?" Grell said.
"Huh?" the viscount said.
"Hn?" Ciel and Sebastian said. The zombie moans turned into a roar as they shuffled and staggered toward their intended victims.
"Noooon!!!" Druitt cried in alarm.
"Gyaaah! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha-ha-ha!" Undertaker cackled uncontrollably, rolling on the floor and drooling.
"Pfft! Ahahahaha!" Lacey laughed, tearing up a little bit.
"Don't you laugh too!!" Ciel snapped at her. No wonder they were a couple in Chêne's world! They had the same deviant sense of humor. "And What are you playing at!?" he shouted at the viscount.
"Why, Rian! The device you crafted is useless!" Druitt complained, while Undertaker continued to laugh.
"I-It can't be!" Rian said, shocked.
"Weren't you the one who made this thing!?" Ciel asked the viscount.
"There's obviously no way I could build a contraption like this!" Druitt said bluntly. "I simply borrowed it at my discretion." Undertaker was laughing so hard that he was crying.
"You bastard! Did you deceive me!?" Rian yelled angrily.
"!?" Sebastian said, wondering who he was talking to. It didn't seem like he was addressing the viscount.
"Hah! What a farce this is~!" Grell said, leaping over the railing on the second level. He landed squarely on the floor and proceeded to behead zombies left and right.
"Hmm. Not bad," Lacey said.
"Whoo-ee!" Ronald whistled. "Yeah, he really is somethin' els—Hey, wait, Mister Sutcliff, sir!!" Grell was rushing towards Druitt. "We reapers shouldn't be going' around killing humans, remember…!!?" Grell ignored him. He was inches away from the viscount.
CLANG!
Undertaker threw himself between them, casually blocking the death scythe with a wooden sotoba as the viscount fainted. Try as he might, Grell couldn't cut it.
"Wha—!?" everyone gasped, shocked.
VREEE!
The blade of Grell's death scythe spun uselessly against the wood.
"Hee! Hee…! It's been ages since I laughed this hard..." Undertaker said. "In my humble opinion, losing such an amusing chap would amount to a loss for this world. Wouldn't you agree with me, hmm?" His gravely voice became smoother. "My little Grim Reapers?"
VREEEEE!
"The blade of my death scythe won't cut through…!?" Grell said, furrowing his brow and gritting his teeth. Undertaker repelled Grell's attack and sent him flying. Undertaker's grey scarf fell away and his chain of mourning lockets came loose. Undertaker opened his robe wide, revealing more sotobas. In one hand, he held the original sotoba. In the other he clutched the lockets. Undertaker smirked.
"!!" Grell said, glaring down at him. Undertaker grinned. He whipped his robe around, flinging sotobas up at Grell while he was still in the air. Grell held his death scythe in front of him as a shield. The Sotobas speared the glass dome above him, sending down a shower of sharp shards.
"Guuh…!" Grell grunted as he was cut.
"Young Master!!" Sebastian said, quickly shielding Ciel, kneeling down so he could cover him better. Lacey swung her scythe and scattered the shards directly above them.
"Aah. How sad it iiis..." Undertaker said, holding his head. He pushed his bangs up, revealing phosphorescent green eyes. "… That laughter should vanish from this place."