A/N: For anyone who worried I wouldn't update, here it is. Sorry for the wait, but college exams are coming up so I had to rush this chapter a bit. However, we've arrived to our first mystery. It's a work in progress, but hopefully y'all enjoy the ride. Also, a belated Happy Thanksgiving. Hopefully, everyone had a great time. Otherwise, enjoy the story and forgive any grammar mistakes/lapses.

As for reviewers, much thanks to 8shadesofmadness, bonitalito, and steph557. My silent readers are appreciated as always, as well as the recent favorites/bookmarks. Your support helps either way.

8shadesofmadness: Defintiely am excited for character development as well, especially around Undertaker and Sebastian. Much kudos to you for staying with me since the beginning lmao, and I hope you're still around for more.

bonitalito: It'll take a while for our infamous demon to make an appearance, but according to the manga timeline, it'll be in a few month's time. Storywise, however, you'll have to see. And I hope you enjoyed your favorite holiday, btw.

steph557: I'm really glad you think so. Hopefully, you stick around for more in the future!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kuroshitsuji nor will I ever. Everthing read not included in the manga are my ideas and characters alone unless mentioned otherwise.

Chapter 9
Rachel's POV (1st)
My eyes narrowed on his, or presumedly where they'd be under that shaggy mess of hair, when the bell above the door announced a new customer/visitor, breaking our impromptu staring match. We both looked to find Diedrich and Vincent staring at us inquisitively, the latter more amused.

"What are you two doing?" Diedrich seemed especially bothered for whatever reason.

I arched an eyebrow. "What's it to you?"

His mouth dropped, taken aback. Obviously, he wasn't expecting that answer.

But, case closed.

My attention drifted to Vincent who donned an apologetic look, holding his hands up in surrender. "Now now, we're here for business, especially one concerning a mass of bachelor's deaths. I'm sure Undertaker can fill us in."

Has this been going on since before her arrival? I glanced back to see him grin cryptically.

"I did receive a guest just now, I did, milord~ Although, rumors have been circulating round about their involvement with a certain noblewoman, it may appear to be moreso than just a coincidence. Buuuut, I'm sure Lord Phantomhive knows the value for such information, gufu~" He was already drooling, swaying from side to side.

I sweat dropped only to see Vincent step forward with a self-assured smirk. Alright, he must be rather adept at hitting Undertaker's funny bone.

"I'm sure you all quite know this, but my German dog is quite reliable for situations such as these, am I right, Diedrich?"

Correspondingly, our neighborly German sputtered with indignation. "Wha- Now, hold on just a second! That's your job, isn't it?!"

Vincent pouted. "Are you to tell me you lack the skill of telling jokes?" He seemed especially offended.

All this fuss over making Undertaker laugh?

I sighed, exasperated, seeing Undertaker smirk at my reaction. Of course, he was only mildly amused, but he still wanted his laugh.

Diedrich's eyebrow ticked before apparently growing the balls he needed to face our deranged mortician. "Fine, if this will speed up the process." He paused for dramatic effect before continuing. "Which is the most biggest rope?"

I already knew the answer, but Vincent and Undertaker said nothing.

"Europe."

A deadly silence followed before a I facepalmed so hard that it actually made a sound. Even /the Undertaker/ was frowning. Vincent only sighed in humiliation. "Oh Diedrich, how could I ever doubt you?"

I snorted. "Probably because he comes up with the most pathetic joke to exist. I've even got a better one." Diedrich flushed on the side, but I ignored him. "What do you call a German virgin?"

Vincent looked distraught at the question, as if appalled that a woman could speak so vulgar. Diedrich couldn't look more red without becoming a tomato while Undertaker started to grin.

"Good n' Tight."

There was a pause before Undertaker burst out in tears, falling to the ground with heaving breaths. His hand was slapping the floor from laughing so hard while I maintain a blank face. Vincent tried hard to keep from smirking that he ended up covering his mouth with a hand while Diedrich's mouth flapped like a fish.

I rubbed my forehead. "Undertaker, we need to get going."

Said mortician twitched on the floor, a few giggles escaping as he slumped over a coffin, apparently giving up from trying to get up. "Hihihi... so good, my dear, so good~" His clawed hand gripped the edge of the coffin while he recovered his sanity. "Ah, now where were we~ Right, the noblewoman, yes? See, every one of my clients have had an unfortunate event of arsenic poisoning, most probably masked as food poisoning, but you can distinguish because of the internal hemorrhaging. The intestines and stomach do have physiological changes not to mention quite a bit of black urine and diarrhea." Undertaker's nose crinkled, likely from recalling having to open up the body and actually encounter the fluids with his bare hands.

I shuddered. Not the most enjoyable experience.

"However, the decaying process held most of my interest because of its peculiarity to resist decay, even months on end unless if you cut up the body and boil it in distilled water, remove the organic remains with nitric acid, and you can see traces of arsenic~" Undertaker was grinning quite widely at this point, enjoying the terse atmosphere.

Vincent held his chin with his hand in thought. "Hmm, and has the Underworld said anything?"

Undertaker tapped his chin with a nail. "There has been recent sales of arsenic goin' up~ Rumors say a certain noblewoman by the name of one Lady Evans has sent a servant on errand around twice a month to purchase amounts enough to poison an entire neighborhood's worth. Perhaps slipping in gradual amounts per meal so as to escape public notice until the bachelor dies. Especially since the decaying process is significantly delayed, the bodies can pile up until she has nowhere to put them, and so she delivers them inconspicuously to the dump where they were then delivered to me~"

I blinked. "Then that means that this incident could've been occurring for far longer than anyone expects. Especially since the body can take eight to ten weeks to decompose. But the softer parts are converted to a greasy mass, right? And it's only until after ten days that putrefaction appears."

"Ah, seems my assistant has been studying~ But right you are, my dear. Although, I must say that it's quite well enough that they take longer to decay, the garlicky smell from when they do is less than enjoyable~"

I quirked an eyebrow. "You think?"

He smirked, but didn't answer. At this point, he was already used to my cynical responses whenever I got short with him. But really, who could help it if your boss constantly teased you for a reaction?

This time, Vincent piped up. "Then that would require of us an investigation for further detail. We have to know if there is a certain reason for the culprit to act in this manner seeing as there is no relation between victims aside from association and socioeconomic standing."

Diedrich suddenly intervened, "Wait, does this mean we're going now?! We're not even prepared!"

Vincent smiled all too calmly. "Nonsense, I had Tanaka prepare us in advance. As well as for Miss Rachel and the Undertaker here, there are clothes provided for you two. We'll be staying at Lady Evans' residence for the time being until we crack the case."

This time, I sweat dropped. "Um, aren't you at all worried that she'll be poisoning your food?"

Vincent suddenly smirked, and the scene was so reminiscent of the manga that I couldn't help but picture OurCiel, aka "not Ciel", smiling in that same manner in my mind's eye. My face blanked. To think that those two would eventually be torn apart and have a sibling rivalry left a queasy feeling in my stomach.

"Trust me, my Lady. I have everything worked out for this particular purpose." Vincent held my eye, maintaining that confidence before lighting up and smiling. "Now, then, shall we?"

I wanted to feel skeptical, but being the Queen's Watchdog, I would expect that he was aware of the situation, so I let it go.

A hand was at my back, and I turned to see Undertaker grin before leading me out the door. Seeing that there wasn't much of a choice in the matter, I followed compliantly, accepting Tanaka's hand to help me up before scooting to the window so Undertaker sat next to me. Since we were the commoners and Diedrich and Vincent the aristocrats, we were facing the back of the carriage and them the front. Unfortunately, I had motion sickness easily, and facing the back wouldn't help, but we'll see if I could stomach the ride.

…

As fate would have it, I had to switch with Vincent before I ended up puking in the carriage. Fortunately, this was more than halfway into the journey, which took way longer than I expected from the bumps and constant stops. But after reaching the countryside, it was smooth sailing, until my headache decided that I'd suffered more than enough. The Earl was rather gracious to give up his seat, especially since he seemed to be the only person besides me to sit comfortably next to the Undertaker. Besides, the look on Diedrich's face was enough to convince anyone that he would strangle whoever coerced to sit next to the weird mortician.

Anyhow, we were an hour and a half into our journey, an hour left to go until we reached our destination. Throughout the ride, light conversation, gossip, and a few jokes set the mood, but of course, knowing nothing about recent events aside from our current murder mystery, I was the oddball out, so I spent the majority of the ride staring out the window, getting lost in my thoughts until a certain Earl decided to take pity on me.

"So, Miss Rachel-"

"Just Rachel will do, I don't care for stiff upper lips." I could only handle so much of the rules and stiffness of English society before I lost my mind.

Vincent only rose an eyebrow and only receiving a shrug from Undertaker, decided to play along. "Very well, Rachel, if you would, why don't you tell us a bit about where you come from?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I would've thought the news should be sufficient enough for you."

He smiled. "I find that personal experiences are far more entertaining than just listening to objective views of the world."

Ah, well, I'll have to tread carefully here considering there's a difference in the fact that I live in a different time period than just the country. "Hm, well, aside from the fact that I find a democracy far more favorable conditions to live under than just a monarchy, the quality of living is also rather improved. However, there is the major difference in time period as well."

That earned me an arched eyebrow. "Time period, you say? How so?"

I tilted my head. "Hmm, well that depends. Can I trust that whatever I say doesn't leave this carriage? Undertaker already knows, so it's no issue for him. However, as for you two, I don't even know you, but if you're both to trust me, I need to know that I can trust you." I went silent for a while, letting them absorb the information. "Although, it's not like anyone would easily believe you without proof, especially since I'll deny all and any knowledge of where I actually come from to parties uninvolved." I actually felt proud of coming up with that. However, it deflated as soon as Undertaker snickered. Of course, the asshat took any opportunity to ruin my fun.

Vincent's eyebrows rose with intrigue while Diedrich scrutinized me skeptically. "And what does this entail?"

I blinked. "Me coming from the future."

I heard a snort to the side of me and glanced blandly to see Diedrich waving his hand dismissively. "Hogwash."

I rose an eyebrow. "What makes you say that?"

He looked at me as if I asked the most stupid question. "Your words may simply be the prattle of a suffragette."

Suffragette? Ah, was this supposed to refer to the feminist movement of the 19th Century?

I smirked, "Although it may seem so, but no, most assuredly, I come from the future, and here's why." I held up the most incriminating piece of evidence known to mankind: my iPhone.

Everyone but Undertaker stared blankly while the exception wore a wide smirk.

Vincent looked absolutely sold over my claim. "And what is that supposed to be?"

"A phone."

"You mean the kind that calls people?" That was Diedrich.

"Yes, you idiot, what else do you think a phone does?" Me, this time.

Snickers erupted while the German sputtered.

"Oi, it was a legitimate question!"

I sighed. "Well, you do have a point since this phone does more than just call people."

The Earl's eyebrows couldn't raise anymore unless it wanted to integrate to his hairline. "Is that so?"

"Mm, it can text or email people, which is like a form of writing letters, but electronically so that they receive it instantly rather than have to wait for days. However, text is for more informal contact while email is far more common in the workplace. Plus, you can also shop, play games, and a plethora of other activities."

"Truly? Will you show us then?"

I got quiet, but the looks of excitement in their faces had me giving in. I shrugged. "Why not?" After all, it's not like they could tell anyone.

I pressed the home button, and the screen flashed on, but since this was the iPhone 5, my thumbprint could unlock it easily.

"Oh, it even tells the time and date?" Vincent was holding his thumb in thought, peering close to the screen.

"Sure, it can do a lot more than just that. I can also play music, look up information online without having to go to the library, read books, anything." My finger hovered over the Safari app but then decided to swipe the screen to the games section. It'd be a lot easier for them to understand than have to explain about the online web.

So, see these little squares? They're what we call apps, and each one differs in function, although some may share the same characteristics."

"How does that work?" Even Diedrich looked interested at how sophisticated my phone worked.

"Well, you can see the labels, right? They should be self-explanatory. Like Calendar, Clock, and Weather, those apps provide me the dates for today or even activities for future reference, the time, and the temperature for today and the upcoming week."

"My, how peculiar~ And how do you come across this information?" Undertaker looked keen on searching through my phone for something it can't do.

"Well, we have people that upload, or share this information, through satellite so that everyone can access info via networks."

Based on the owlish stares, they didn't understand half of what I said. I sighed. I'm sure you could imagine that the rest of the ride pertained to me explaining concepts as "online", the internet, etc until we reached the Evans estate, and by the time we did, everyone was far more invested in my phone than the case itself. However, safe to say, I was exhausted from my mini lectures.

"If possible, can we continue this conversation another time? This is all so very interesting, and I'd like to know more?" Vincent was utilizing his charm, and I had to close my eyes from the brightness of his curiosity.

I groaned, rubbing my temples. "I guess…"

A clap startled me as he grinned. "Splendid, then off we go!"

The door to the carriage was opened by a footman of Lady Evans' and Tanaka was smiling calmly. "My Lords and my Lady, we have arrived to the Evans' Manor. If you will?" He held out a hand towards me.

Ah, proper etiquette once more. Pity that my dress didn't correspond. I accepted it, stepping down from the carriage and taking a look around. The manor was very refined with it's homey dress of light tan bricks and brownish roof, the garden surrounding it highlighted in reds and blues. A refreshing change of scenery, in my opinion. However, as I looked around, I could feel the weight of a heavy stare on my back, and looking towards the entrance, approached a towering figure of a woman, dressed smartly in blue to compliment her fair tone and black hair. Accompanying her was a maid, surprisingly. No butler?

She was eyeing me intensely, paying no mind to the men as she neared before reaching considerable distance to hold a conversation. Our gazes held for a few moments before hers moved to Vincent's with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Lord Phantomhive, I see you've arrived with company no less. Welcome to my estate. I hope the journey hasn't been too stressing?" She held out her hand which Vincent took and kissed.

"Not at all, my Lady. My companions here did well to take our minds off of it, after all." Vincent smiled, ever the perfect example of an English gentleman. "Here with me are Diedrich, the Undertaker, and Miss Rachel Rose."

"I should hope so, my Lord." Her smile strained even more, but she acknowledged the Undertaker and Diedrich with the tip of her head. "My Lords." When her gaze landed on me, again, I felt an odd feeling, and taking a subtle whiff using my powers, I could smell even smell… lust?

Either it was my imagination or not, but she cringed a little when looking back at Vincent before retracting her hand to her side a little to quickly. She covered it up with a hasty, but charming smile and gestured to her manor. "If you would, please, follow me." With one last glance towards me, she looked straight to the manor, never looking back as the maid bowed before following her Mistress.

I don't know how, but during our exchange, it felt as though she looked like she wanted to eat me. I couldn't help a small shiver and glanced back at Undertaker to find him smiling comfortingly at me. He giggled before joining me, nudging me to follow. Uncertainly, I remained by his side. I guess there's more to this manor than just a murder mystery.