A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in centuries, I kind of forgot it existed (look at me making excuses :3) hope you enjoy the next 2000 or so words.
Disclaimer: I do not own Black Butler.
"You got us into this mess, Sutcliff, and as I can clearly see, you don't seem to have any intentions of getting us out of it in the not-so-distant future. Look at the chaos you have created before you; at this rate I'll have so much overtime I might aswell not even bother thinking about sleep. As reapers, and especially on this mission, we should go strictly unnoticed. Honestly; you would think being a reaper as long as you have, you would have learn a lesson or two! Or at least-"
"OI!" Will's ongoing lecture was swiftly interrupted by a man suddenly standing behind what once used to be a bar counter, now only pieces of shredded wood on the ground. "Was zum Teufel ist hier passiert [1] ?" The man's trembling knees soon gave in and his slim form dropped to the floor, blonde choppy hair covering half of his face and tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.
William, deciding that he had to be the responsible one (as always), walked up to pained soul, bowed slightly and spoke; monotonously as ever:
"Dear Sir, I am terribly sorry for what my colleague has done to your bar. However, much to my regret and as much as I want to, there is nothing I can do to help you in this situation." This was obviously a lie, but William just simply couldn't be bothered to to clear up another one of Grell's reckless mistakes. Will expected some kind of over-dramatic: "My life is ruined" or "Jump off a cliff" reaction, but instead the man looked up at him, trying to encrypt William's words.
"Umm…...bitte was [2] ?" The bar-owners face quickly changed from one of misery to one of complete and utter confusion.
William sighed, knowing that his lack of foreign-language skills wouldn't exactly just disappear in a split second because he wanted them to. He decided the current situation was unproductive, and so turned around, slapped Grell around the face and walked out; dragging along the red-head behind him with his thumb and index finger tightly pinching Grell's ear.
At the centre of the German city stood the remaining of the team of six. The ginger was continuously tapping the tip of his shoes against the concrete waiting for his superiors to return. The loudmouth and the redhead were busy whining while the remaining female was stuck, gripping each of their shirt-collars like an owner would with a small pack of untrained puppies.
"Samiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" Lela whinged on "I thought you said William and Grell would be here soon."
"Exactly!" The other two being restrained began to join in.
"Yes. I know what I said. Just wait for five minutes."
"THAT'S WHAT YOU SAID FIVE MINUTES AGO!" The three chimed in unison. Then, as if life had finally decided to stop her suffering for just a bit, the tallest of the four was finally able to spot a pissed of William dragging a pain enduring Grell. Releasing the three she crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation to exactly why she had been stuck baby-sitting the three useless reapers for the past half an hour.
"Sutcliff, being the useless waste of space he is, demolished one of the bars we were investigating. We were also unable to find the person we were looking for. Did you have any better luck finding- "
Before being able to elaborate his question, he took notice of the state three of his colleagues were in. Jess and Lela were both completely soaked head to toe in what smelled like beer.
Jess' hair looked like a wig put on backwards, each strand sticking to the blazer slowly crawling down her torso due to the alcohol she was drenched in. Her tie was somehow still done-up, although the same thing could not exactly be said of her shirt. The buttons mismatched, unparalleled with the openings they were supposed to pass through. The soles of her shoes were also gradually curling off the heavy boots they were supposed to be fixated to, revealing her secret stash of miniature-weaponry she was currently desperately trying to hide.
The other of the two drenched females had her sunglasses tucked messily into the chest pocket of her blouse. Her hair, still soaked, stuck to her scalp except for one rebellious, short strand which decided to curl upwards. She was for some reason missing a sock, even though both her shoes were clearly still attached to her feet. The tie once secured 'neatly' around her neck collar now depressingly sunk off her shoulder inch by inch.
Ronald not only looked like a mess (much like the other two), he also seemed to be lacking a few items of clothing, including his blazer and left shoe. His glasses rested on the bridge of his nose in a rather dodgy way, one of the lenses cracked.
"How…?"
"Well. While you two were checking through all the East, we went West-ward - like you said - although…. we sort of…. didn't."
William was now curious to how it was even possible for someone to fail the mission even more than his red-haired companion.
"Elaborate."
"Sure…"
That Morning
"Can I lead for once?" Lela screamed in Sami's face. Silently debating the request of the shorter reaper, she decided that one time couldn't hurt…. right?
After making her decision she pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a slightly irritated sigh. "Fine. Just. This. Once. Got that? We clear? Once. Then never again, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. Once. Got it. Totally. Saved right here." Lela pointed to her cheeks.
"That's not where you store information. That's where you store food, you idiot."
"Same thing."
It was fair to say Sami's was already regretting her decision.
"FOLLOW ME! PERSONIFICATIONS-OF-DEATH-SQUAD, MOVE OUT!" The brunette shouted and marched forward.
"Why did she have to move dispatches at the same time as us…?" Jess grimaced in her bad luck. "I mean, we'd be punished for suicide and all… but why this?"
"I don't know. But for now, I guess we're kind of stuck with it."
At this the brunette's ears perked, as she snapped her head back with a judgmental glare.
"Keep walking you strange creature." Jess commanded, and Lela immediately did as she was told, jumping off the roof they were on and shouting:
"TO BAR NUMBER ONE!"
Having no choice, the other three followed, looking back at their life (and after-life) choices, regretting every single one which even slightly doomed them to be stuck in this position.
After about ten minutes of walking, they arrived at the place they were told to investigate. It was packed with people, seeing as it was around lunchtime. Eyes scanning the beerhall like a machine, Sami decided it would be too difficult trying to find the man they were looking for in a singular group.
"Alright. Here's what we'll do. As much as I know I will regret this later; Jess you go with Lela to search the right side of this place and me and ginger here will search the left. Understood?"
Jess gave a swift nod and Lela was about to do the same; however a quick realisation came to her mind.
"I thought you said I could be in charge for once…."
"Yes. I did. And being our tour-guide as 'once' enough. Now go."
"WHAT!? BUT THAT'S NOT FAI- " She was promptly cut off by Jess' hand cloaking over her mouth, and turning the brunette's toxic words into mere muffles.
"Jess you're in charge. Off we go, we'll see you in a bit. Come on Ronald."
"Aye, aye captain." The ginger cheered, following along like a lost puppy.
"Don't say that, it's so cringy it actually causes me physical pain."
"Sorry." Ronald muttered in disappointment as they walked off.
Lela meanwhile was desperately trying to remove Jess' hand from her mouth.
"Oi. Why do you have to always do that? Huh? I DON'T EVEN TALK THAT MUCH." The rest of Lela's blabber Jess was attempting to block out, but to no avail. After almost thirty minutes of having to listen to Lela's endless whinging and complaining, she had had enough.
"WHAT CAN I DO TO SHUT. YOU. UP?!"
"Well. We kind of are in the middle of a beer hall so…. What do you think huh?"
"You know what. I can live with that."
On the other side of the large but crowded space were Sami and Ronald. Sami was informing Ronald on details which would probably be important in forthcoming assignments, but he didn't really care. He was sitting at the bar attempting to ask for a refreshing beverage but was interrupted when he noticed a young woman eyeing him flirtatiously from the other side of the tavern. One smirk was all it took to quickly aggravate the woman's husband. The man arose from his stool and took heavy, daunting steps towards the ginger.
"H-hey." Ronald's pitiful attempt to fix the situation was not exactly taken lightly, and the toned man rolled up his sleeves.
Sami had seemingly gotten a bit too intensely focused in her search and stuffed what she had just found in her pocket after hearing a cry for help from Ronald. She got up and turned around to face Ronald's direction. After watching the reaper get beaten for a few seconds, she decided it would be best to leave right about now and went to go find Lela and Jess, only to find them drunk beyond compare.
Now, she was stuck with a pair of drunk halfwits, and trampled ginger… and somehow had to get them back to William's meeting place.
"And now I'm here. Covered in alcohol and whatever else those three got from that cow-barn." After a quick pause, she suddenly remembered what she had found at the hellhole she had just managed to escape around an hour ago. "But, unlike the other four delinquents in our group I actually found something helpful. Although we weren't able to find the disappeared-dead person, I was able to find this." She took the item she had picked up earlier, which now revealed to be a handkerchief, and handed it to William. A small choir of "Wow. You actually did your job? How b-o-r-i-n-g." and "When did you even find that?" coming from the row of three shunned reapers now leaning against a wall.
William's eyes quickly scanned the top side of the handkerchief, which had the name: "Frederick Smithers" imprinted on it, coincidentally the name of the person whose soul they were supposed to collect only a few days ago at the ball.
He let go of the suffering redhead, letting her face drop to the floor; holding the cloth in both hands to more clearly inspect the handkerchief Sami had given him. He instantly turned it around to reveal the words that stained the fabric:
"Sitneurc eaniger ilos"
Above the writing, blood had seemingly soaked into the material to create a mark which closely resembled a symbol William recognised.
"It looks strange." Jess stated once she had peeked at the object in question.
"It looks familiar." Ronald further examined what they were looking at. After a short while of silent thinking Lela pointed out:
"It looks like a rabbit."
Grell quickly joined the small inspection and squinted her eyes to try see what Lela had just mentioned. "What? Where? All there is, is just some weird lines- OH WAIT NO! There it is! Goodness that's so CUUUUUUTTTTEEEE~"
"Sweet Lucifer! You see it too? I FEEL UNDERSTOOD!"
"'Course I can see it, it's so cool, must be one of those illusion things- "
"HEY!" William and Sammy simultaneously yelled.
"The adults are trying to talk." Sammy added. "Besides, it doesn't even look like a rabbit."
Grell and Lela looked down, sulking quietly.
"If anything, it looks more like a pentagram…" William muttered without thinking, but when he realised what he had just said his eyes shot open in realisation.
"Pentagram huh?" The words rolled off Sami's lips in pure intrigue.
"I think we should just go back to the dispatch for now and tell the Higher Ups what happened and then go from there." Sami glanced at the other reapers now behind her. "Okay, maybe we can skip out a few of today's…. complications."
"Sounds like plan, Miss. Evergreen."
Translations:
Was zum Teufel ist hier passiert [1] = What the hell happened here?
bitte was [2] = Sorry what?