Cuts and Cake
Chapter 13
Somewhere in the ruins a crow cawed, setting the eerie tone to the scene. If either person lost they would have to pay a heavy price.
Ash stared at Ciel, suspicious of how easily he had accepted a change in terms.
"To make sure you don't play any tricks, we should have a mediator for our game- Angela can do-"
"I have already thought of that," Sebastian interrupted and held up his hand. "Lau, if you please."
A head poked through an opening in the wall and a tall lanky Asian male stepped into the space followed by a younger Asian female. They were both attired in traditional Chinese clothing.
"Hello Mr Michaelis, I'm Lau," the male introduced himself and bowed. "I will be moderating your match in case either of you cheat."
"How do I know that you're not on the brat's side?"
Lau looked puzzled. "Brat? Ah, the Earl- I have never met him until today when he called me so I'm not supporting him or you."
"If you say so. I'll take white so I make the first move," Ash said finally and moved one of his pawns 2 spaces forward. "What's the girl for?"
"Ran Mao? You will find out if you break the rules," Lau winked. "Now, what game are you playing?"
7 moves later Ash and Ciel had an equal number of pieces left, but Ciel was closer to check as he had taken most of Ash's powerful pieces. He estimated that he could probably force Ash's king into checkmate in 5 more moves if the game was played fairly. Of course he knew Ash never played fairly and if his opponent was going to cheat then now would be the time he was going to do it.
He cast a glance at his opponent who didn't seem to have much attention on the game as his eyes were fixed in another place. Ciel followed his line of sight and realised it was fixed on where Angela had been previously standing by the doorway. Then he saw that Sebastian had disappeared too.
Ash noted his unease. "Is there something wrong, Ciel? I think you were a little too focused on your little chess game. You failed to notice some of the things going on around you."
"Damn you…"
Ash picked up his King and twirled it around in his hand. "Since Sebastian nearly killed a girl and came close to damaging my reputation I hired someone to keep an eye on him. Imagine my surprise when it was reported that he had made friends with a boy named Ciel Phantomhive," he said and reached out to stroke Ciel's face. "You even spent a night at each other's houses so I knew you two were definitely close."
Ciel pulled away in disgust and knocked over the remaining chess pieces. There was no way the game was going to continue anymore.
"I was suspicious so I asked the person I hired to search your house and mine and he found that you were planning to kill me."
"So you have known what we were going to do from the beginning?"
"Yes. Angela has taken care of Sebastian and I just need to take care of you. And don't bother calling for help- I've already bribed your Chinese acquaintance to turn a blind eye."
Ciel looked desperately over at Lau who averted his gaze to the sky guiltily and then left the way he came with Ran Mao. There was obviously not going to be any help from that quarter. He was on his own again.
"So after killing my parents 6 years ago and gouging out one of my eyes you're here to take my other eye and kill me?" Ciel shouted angrily. "Why did you even do it in the first place?"
"I had gone bankrupt," Ash shouted back and drew a knife from his pocket. "It was the only way out and I had always hated your smug parents with their perfect son. So I killed them, but I was interrupted when I was about to kill you."
"So it was out of greed and jealously," Ciel concluded and backed away from Ash and his knife.
"I suppose it was," he answered and began to advance on his prey. "Angela and Pluto have probably finished with your lover now. You can join him on the other side."
They glared at each other for a few moments and time seemed to freeze. Ash with a knife in his hand and Ciel in a defensive stance. Then the sounds of falling stone and a dog's bark punctuated the silence and they unfroze.
Ash lunged at Ciel, aiming at his stomach so he would take a while to die. As he did something red flashed in front of him and his lunge stabbed someone else instead of his intended target.
"Madame Red!" He gasped in surprise and drew out the knife.
She winced in pain before drawing a knife of her own out her pocket and skilfully slashed his chest in one blow. Then she collapsed to the ground with her eyes closed, satisfied that she had maimed him enough and protected her nephew properly.
"Aunt An, I'm sorry, I didn't predict that he would do that," Ciel apologised as the blood poured out of the wound on her stomach. "You should be all right, it's not too serious."
Her mobile phone fell out of her pocket and Ciel picked it up and walked over to Ash who was lying gasping in pain in a pool of his own blood, annoyed with his failure.
"You see Ash, your confession was recorded by my aunt who edited it to blur out my face and then sent it to all her contacts and posted it on a few video sharing websites," Ciel explained, pressing the play button on the aforementioned video.
"…So I killed them, but I was interrupted when I was about to kill you…"
Ash groaned even louder, he hadn't considered the option that the plans that he had seen were fakes. He had assumed that they weren't smart enough to trick him and now he was paying the price.
"As a final nail in your coffin, we know you married your sister which is illegal and covered it up," Sebastian said, returning to Ciel's side. His face was covered in cuts and bruises and his clothes were a mess, but he was otherwise unharmed. "We have proof and we sent it this morning to some of your investors. Even if you don't die here or get arrested, your life as you know it is over."
"W-Where's Angela?" Ash croaked. "And you can't get away with killing me here. It would be obvious it was you because of that video."
"Your sister is dead," Sebastian informed him as he stood over him. "Along with Pluto. A wall collapsed and crushed them, intentionally of course- I lured them to a weak spot. As for murdering you- we have a scapegoat. It seems like you didn't know that Lau is the head a Chinese Drug syndicate and is very good at evading the Police."
"I wish we had never adopted you," Ash spat, beginning to feel his life draining out his body.
"Too bad. You couldn't have a child with your sister because of the almost certain possibility that the child would have deformities so you adopted me."
As the two argued Ciel examined his aunt and realised that the wound was worse than he had initially thought it was as she hadn't opened her eyes and he didn't have time to waste by exchanging insults with Ash.
"Sebastian, finish him off."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I order you to kill him!" Ciel shouted and bent down next to his aunt, not even caring that his trousers were soaking up the blood.
Sebastian cast a glance at him to make sure he was okay before looking down at the step-father he had loathed ever since he had been adopted. He knew he would have no regrets about killing him.
He picked up Ash' fallen knife, looked him in the eye disdainfully and smiled brightly before stabbing him straight through the heart.
"Yes my Lord."
The price was now his to claim, but he knew he didn't need to make anymore contracts. He had Ciel. But before he claimed his price he needed to rectify his relationship with Ciel.
Over the past 6 days he had come to realise that the boy was more than a toy to him.
One chapter left now! (I'm pretty proud that I have managed to write and upload 13 chapters in just under a month)
I decided to make Angela and Ash brother and sister because they are the same person in the anime and one of my friends who likes manga seems isn't fond of the Sebastian and Ciel pairing because of the age difference, but instead of saying it was lolicon she accidently said incestuous so I decided to add an incestuous pairing just for her.