Unfortunately, I do not own Kuroshitsuji. I think everyone here would like to, but we sadly do not.

Also, this is the story of Sebastian's past, so no Ciel. I'm also calling him Aquila, which means Eagle in Latin.

Thoughts on this chapter: I think this chapter's going to be significantly longer, or that's just my wishful thinking. Anyway, read on!

To Madame Grell: I actually have that idea in my plans for the next chapter!

Chapter Nine: Training

Summary: "AAAAH!" "I haven't attacked you yet." "I know. I'm just getting warmed up."

The morning may have dawned bright and cheerful, with birds soaring into the clear blue sky, but it was kind of hard to tell in the hidden caves. Aquila tried to ignore the hunger that was nearly literally gnawing at him, and dressed in some comfortable black clothes. The tunic had tight sleeves that covered the tops of his hands, and a loose collar with dark maroon ruffles against the black fabric. His pants were black, long and slightly flared at the bottom, allowing for swift and acrobatic twists in his movement (he experimented with this by running over the ceiling of his room and flipping off the chandelier). His shoes were simple and flexible (and also black), allowing his toes to gain traction through their soles (this was discovered while running up the wall). The white battle robes of his past were folded neatly in a drawer of his dresser. Aquila had been momentarily chilled at the sight of bloodstains along its back, and had grown impatient at his memory despite his mother's assurance that he would remember, given time. He was beginning to have a bad feeling about why he couldn't transform into a bird.

"Morning, Aquila," Asmodeus was creeping right outside his doorway, which Aquila found slightly disturbing.

"Morning...Azzy...why are you right outside my door?" he asked nervously.

"To show you countless delights..." Azzy batted his eyelashes at him and smirked. Aquila's disturbed meter shot up. Picking up a random book on a table in his room (The Demon's Guide to Fashion, by Asmodeus Swiftgale), Aquila chucked it at him.

"Oh, you want to play rough, eh?" Azzy's grin widened as he caught the book casually.

"I can see why you get on my brother's nerves," Aquila edged around the pink-haired demon and took off down the hall.

"No, come back, mi corazon!" Azzy begged.

"Yes, I shall come back...with black paint to dump on your head!" Aquila shouted back.

"You wouldn't!" Azzy's eyes grew wide, and he clutched a brightly colored lock in terror and crooned to it soothingly. "It's all right, mon amour, Azzy's not going to let the big bad bully do anything to you..."

Aquila shuddered violently and turned a corner. His brother was standing there in a small room, attempting to read a newspaper. At the same time, he was carrying on a conversation with himself. "Yes, well, of course you'd say that. No, I don't...now wait just a second! Who said you could just-oi, I'm talking to you, don't you go to slee-oh for the love of all that's demonic!"

Aquila weighed his options. He could continue walking along the same hall as the person whose sanity was in doubt, or go back to the escapee from a maximum security asylum. Aquila chose to go with the former. "Morning, brother," he attempted to have an intelligent conversation that did not involve a crazy pink-haired thing making innuendoes.

"Morning, Aquila. Training starts as soon as everyone's awake and not killing each other, which could take until this afternoon if Bel's anything to go by," Luke folded the newspaper and looked around for anyone else. "Tell me Asmodeus isn't the only other person up."

"Mrgramuffin, 'm up," Elze came walking into the room doing battle with a massive biscuit stuffed with eggs and bacon and jelly and pretty much anything else one could possibly have for breakfast.

Aquila sniffed the air, confused, and detected a trace of the sweet scent of a human soul somewhere within the biscuit's contents. "Hi, Elze."

Elze stuffed the rest of the biscuit down his throat and swallowed it whole. "I can't believe I live in the same house as these madmen..." Aquila's mouth twitched at the barely audible whisper from his brother.

"'Lo, Aquila. Ready for training?" Elze ran a hand through his shaggy grey hair and yawned.

"Training for what?" Aquila looked from Luke to Elze.

"Battle training, obviously. The angels run patrols up top on a regular basis, so we have to be prepared in case we run across any of them while we're out," Elze explained. "Here, you'll need this." He produced a sheathed sword out of thin air and tossed it to Aquila. He caught it and looked at it with interest. He'd never seen this particular sword design before. It was slightly curved, but it wasn't a katana. "That's a saber. They're good for keeping the angels' short rapiers away from you, and then we have these little blades-" he tossed another sheathed item to Aquila- "which are khukris. If they get their rapiers past the saber, you can deflect their attacks with this." Aquila looked at the khukri in his hand, which appeared to be a weird hybrid cross between a boomerang and a scimitar.

"Mmmpillowneedstocomeback...MORNING!" this shout made them all jump, and announced the arrival of Bel, dressed in a tunic, shorts, and leather X-shaped bands across her chest, stuffed with a very disconcerting array of weapons.

"AAAH!" Azzy screamed and hid behind Luke.

"I haven't attacked you yet." Bel smiled earnestly.

"I know. I'm just getting warmed up." Azzy shot Aquila a meaningful glance, but not one that had anything to do with his words.

"I'll throw another book at you if you don't quit the creepiness," Aquila threatened. "And I'll make sure to hit you with it this time."

Azzy waved him away dismissively. "Ah, young grasshopper, you are no match for the master's skills. Train hard, and I maaaay deem you worthy to hit me through what is known as 'beginner's luck'."

The others wandered into the room, all dressed in various battle attire. Vannessa yawned and twirled a spiked, whip-like chain that was painful to look at. "Don't ya just love my new weapon? Made it just the other day. Haven't had a chance to try it out yet!" she gave a very demonic grin and everyone within range leaned back slightly.

Luke sighed and muttered a few words to himself. With a hum, he divided into his two personas. Iram ran a hand through his red hair, making it stick up even more. Aquila decided not to mention the fact that his morning hair would be quite attractive to a porcupine. Iram shot him an irritated glare, as if he knew what Aquila was thinking.

Mon walked in, casually avoiding Vannessa. The demoness grinned and cracked her whip-chain. "Jealous?" Mon stood on the opposite side of the room and fumed silently. "I'll take that as a yes."

Luke rolled his eyes at the two of them and clapped his hands. "Alright everyone! To the training room!"

The eight of them were now occupying the near end of a massive underground cavern, one which had mostly been left alone when the demons moved in, with a few weapons racks lining one wall. Aquila decided that "a few" was a bit of a stretch. That implied 2 or 3, not, for example, 10 or 12. "Here's the fun part," Luke flashed a smile at Aquila. "Everyone pair off. We can finally do this in even numbers!"

Mon and Vannessa faced off rather than paired, and Azzy and Elze trooped off to the far end of the cavern. Bel clapped Luke on the shoulder, and Aquila watched with a fleeting sense of panic as his brother voiced a very innocent-sounding "Good luck" to him.

Iram grinned at him with his creepy yellow snake eyes. "It appears that I am your training partner."

"So it appears," Aquila said faintly. "Um, Luke? Help?"

"Just try not to die," Luke offered unhelpfully. "NON-weapon sparring first, Vannessa," he added over his shoulder. Vannessa made a pouty face and put down her whip-chain.

Aquila looked at Iram. Iram looked back at Aquila. Aquila blinked. Iram didn't, mainly because he wasn't there anymore. Aquila's brain had about half a millisecond to think "Wh-" before a massive force slammed into his side and sent him flying. Aquila instinctively twisted like a cat in midair and skidded across the floor on his feet. He told himself he'd be ready the next time creeper eyes attacked. And then said creeper punted him again. Aquila rushed him the second he regained traction, and managed to barely skim his fingers through his sparring partner's wake. Iram spun deftly on his heels, pivoting so that his weight was now on his toes. Slower now, but still supernaturally fast, he danced across the floor, a mere acquaintance of gravity's impact. Aquila huffed angrily and feinted to the right, before diving to the left. Iram stumbled briefly as Aquila clipped his leg. This allowed Aquila to get a possible upper hand by working his head into something of a modified choke hold. Iram wriggled out and twirled around, now putting Aquila in the exact same position. More from annoyance rather than suffocation, Aquila heaved and flipped Iram up and over so that he was now flat on his back on the floor. Iram gripped Aquila's wrists in a death grip and slowly smiled, showing all of his long demon fangs. A small nudge of terror started in the back of Aquila's brain. Something was not right here. He had not won.

Iram did a rather simple maneouver. He did a kick-up. The problem with this was that he still had Aquila's arms in his hands. Just before he was vertical, he let go. Aquila went sailing through the air. Everyone else looked up and watched as he flew by. Aquila managed to do a series of rolls rather than a skidding crash when he touched earth again, and he spun around and charged faster than he had before. His peripheral vision blurred, all focus narrowed down to what was directly in front of him as he sprinted across the cavern, bowling over Iram and running flat into the wall. Or up it. By the time Aquila realized that he was running on the ceiling, gravity remembered he was there.

Iram's mouth twitched in a rather sadistic smile. "Enjoy your flight?" he asked, leaning over Aquila as he attempted to blink the stars out of his head. Aquila responded with an uppercut to Iram's chin, which he dodged easily.

At that moment, the terrifying pineapple demoness Quis came running in, so worked up that her eyes had shifted to vermillion cat's. "Quickly, my lords! Legion patrol ambushed Malphas while he was out hunting! He was holding them off when I left him, but I don't know how much longer he can last! And..." Quis looked directly into Luke's eyes. "Gabriel's with them."

Luke's eyes flared with an anger that Aquila had never seen before, one which chilled his blood to the bone.

All done for this chapter! In case you don't remember, Quis' name means 'pineapple' in Latin. It was the only thing I could think of at the time! Don't give me that look! And once again, sorry this chapter took so long! I kept having to write snippets of it off and on as I got the chance. There's an angel fight coming up next! And poor Aquila's past is about to be revealed in its entirety (not next chapter, possibly a couple chapters ahead, but soon, okay?)!

All the weapons mentioned in this chapter are real, except for Vannessa's whip-chain thing. That is from the PS2 game Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. It is possibly the most awesome weapon ever. A khukri is a knife commonly used in Tibet and Nepal, and can come in different sizes, depending on whether or not you want to go hunting or cut off someone's head. Lovely, isn't it?