Chapter 19
Mordecai
[Author's Note: So, this chapter and the next will feature some of my more weird headcannons, shall we say. But of course, this is almost inevitable, as the story has of course gone way beyond the point where things are as of now in the manga. :) So, I hope people forgive it if the ideas seem a little... strange. Also, I am sorry if I offend anyone with my strange ideas about religion, too. It has always been my impression that the Kuroverse is sensei Toboso's own version of a combination of Japanese Shinto and Judeo Christian themes, anyway, so I have kept my headcannons in keeping with this as much as possible, but with my own twists on it. :) I hope people are entertained by it, at the very least. Thank you!]
They were here. The Shinigami home world.
Ciel swiveled about where he stood, turning his head this way and that to peer at all the sights around him. The air smelt of freshly cut grass and fragrant blossoms from flowerbeds scattered throughout the green which they had landed in the midst of. All about, walking up and down the street that went past the square, as well as in and out of the buildings and shops that lined it, strode Shinigami. Grim reapers: some with small scythes tucked away in their belts, a few with large, flashy ones which they had obviously had custom made and wanted to proudly parade before everyone's eyes. There were also many who were scythe-less, appearing to have other jobs besides reaping souls. The sun shone down brilliantly upon them all from a sky of crystal-clear blue, and the air seemed somehow too sharp and pellucid, making everything look unnaturally luminous.
The demon seemed wholly unfazed by this, however. He simply gazed back down at Ciel with an amused crinkle to his eyes. Ciel scowled at him.
"So, where should we start?" Ciel felt the need to say something to deflect attention from the open-mouthed gawking he had obviously just been doing. A few of the inhabitants had by this time espied the intruders, and were giving them suspicious sideways glances as they hurried by, but none had so much as stopped to greet them, much less interrogate or help them. Seeing one tall, dapper lime-green suited young Shinigami briskly trotting by, Ciel made the decision to act.
Jumping up to intercept the man before he had completely whisked past, he just barely made it in time to halt him in his lanky steps.
"Excuse me!" he exclaimed with a smile, trying to sound as amiable and confident as possible. The Shinigami stopped in his tracks, and gave Ciel a piercing, analyzing look. His face was pleasant-looking enough, with a shock of carrot-orange hair which stuck out in all directions. He looked in amazement at the young man so bravely standing his ground before him, a stranger in a strange land. But then his face twisted into a grimace of disgust as his gaze moved to Sebastian. Turning back to Ciel, he spoke.
"And just 'oo are you, me fine lad, t' come waltzin' into a land not o' your own, wit' a creature beside you who is unwelcome in spades 'ere?"
Hmm? Ciel wasn't sure of his slang or his odd accent, a sort of Liverpudlian cockney with shades of Irish and Scotch thrown in, as best as he could make out. Well, at least the reaper seemed to hail from his own country, back on earth, anyway.
"I am Earl Ciel Phantomhive," he stated, chest puffed out.
Yellow, green-rimmed irises stared at Ciel with uncertainty, and then suddenly opened wide, as he exclaimed.
"Oi! You… You're t' new one! T' newest Worthy! By George!" Surprise was replaced with merriment on his face, and Ciel couldn't help feeling like a freak in a circus show. "Didn' think I'd be lucky enough t' get t' meet you! Darryl Townsend here, meeself." He reached out a friendly arm, and Ciel obligingly took his hand and shook it.
"Ah yes. We was discussing your case over a mug at Mugsley's just t'other day, me and my buddies were. Interesting shenanigans those were, what?" He winked and grinned at Ciel, as if he should be in the know of some great joke. Ciel just nodded and smiled. Then suddenly Darryl seemed to remember the demon.
"So, I see you've brought your collared beast with you," he said somewhat sneeringly but mostly good-naturedly. Ciel simply ignored this latest remark.
"Ah, yes. Hmm, ah…" Ciel hesitated, unsure how to respond. "So, I imagine being a reaper must be quite the demanding job, collecting souls, as it were," Ciel ventured, as a means to secure the fellow's good will.
"Me? No, I'm just a gardener. Got off easy I did, w'me sentence. Guess they figured with what I'd been through… But yeah, sure beats what I used t'… Anyway, I di'n have what it takes to e'en get into training. Eh! But still, hopefully I won't be a gardener forever," he ended with a wistful smile.
Ciel felt vaguely sorry for the man the reaper used to be in his past life, for him to have committed the act that had caused him to wind up here as a grim reaper, doomed to perform his duties for centuries perhaps, until forgiven by the gods. He had been made aware of their fate only this morning, as he had asked Sebastian for as much information about the grim reapers that he could give him in preparation for his trip. The demon had then told him what reapers were; that is, what they used to be, and how they got to be the beings they now were, having been granted almost godly powers in their new incarnations and roles as Shinigami.
"If you please, my good sir," he addressed the man. "Would you be so kind as to help us out, and direct us as to where to go for assistance with our business here?"
"Eh, yes! You'll be wanting t' know how t' get to the Ministry of Worthy Souls, won't ye? Yes, of course! For sure, 'n I can help 'ee." Pointing back towards the massive building down the avenue, he continued. "Just go into t' front door o' that there building yonder, and up t' the front desk. Harry'll help ya." Grinning widely again, he said, "Well, I've got t' be off; got gardens t' tend to 'n all! Top of the day t' ya!" And with that he tipped his hat to them, and went trotting off down the street before turning the corner and disappearing.
Looking at Sebastian, who just raised one eyebrow in mild amusement, Ciel nodded, and the two immediately headed towards the huge building they had been directed to. Upon reaching its wide front steps, Ciel gazed up at the column-lined portico of the building. He watched as reaper after reaper would walk up to the entrance, and then through the two tall, glass-paned doors that magically parted somehow on their own the moment someone approached them. Slowly ascending the stairs, he and Sebastian made their way up until they stood upon the veranda. Feeling slight trepidation again, Ciel looked back up at his butler standing beside him.
"Shall we proceed, then?" Sebastian intoned calmly. Ciel nodded with a gulp. "After you, then, my lord." Bowing, the demon stood back, and with a wide sweep of his arms, waved him in. Ciel strode forth through the doors which parted for him obediently, the demon following, and heard the doors whoosh close behind them immediately after. He looked all around the grand marble-floored foyer, stern and stately, with many doors and hallways leading off of it. Now what? Was he just to find his own way around here?
Spying a grand, crescent shaped desk off to the left, he strode over to it, butler in tow. A white-haired, bald-pated, round-bespectacled reaper behind the desk looked up at them with a bored look, but which suddenly changed to one of surprise and awe. Jumping up abruptly from the chair he was sitting on, he spoke with a failed attempt at sounding poised, a noticeable tremble to his voice.
"What… I mean, how… How may I help you?" he sputtered out.
"Good day," Ciel answered. "I am Earl Ciel Phantomhive, and I am here to visit the deceased soul of my choice, as I have been told is my privilege as a soul of worth." This was getting tedious, Ciel thought; how many times would he have to explain who he was?
The reaper's green-yellow eyes opened even wider than before, and he tore them off the sight of the young man standing in front of him, to land on the taller of the two, with deep mistrust and disturbance. Eyes narrowed, he hissed. "And this? What is THIS doing here with you, may I ask?" he added with only a minimal effort at sounding polite.
"This is Sebastian Michaelis, my butler. He has been granted permission by the reaper, William T. Spears to accompany me on this trip."
"Oh, he has, has he?" The white-haired reaper whirled around, retrieving a book from the shelves behind the desk after a moment of searching, and whipped through the pages in it, until he stopped, and read quickly a certain segment. Looking back to them, the reaper paused, and seemed to gather his composure before saying, "Well… very well. It seems that he is here with legitimate clearance. Hmph." He spoke with apparent reluctance. "Harold Rupert, head concierge of Reaper Legal Affairs and Ordinances, at your service. Please have a seat, while I summon the Minister of Worthy Souls."
They were finally getting somewhere, thought Ciel with relief. Looking to the direction the concierge had vaguely waved in, Ciel saw a row of fairly comfortable-seeming chairs and did as the reaper suggested, sitting down gratefully upon one. Sebastian followed, but did not sit, instead remaining standing to his side.
Ugh, thought Ciel. Bureaucracy; it was the same everywhere, apparently. Always time consuming, never efficient; ever annoying.
Within moments, however, the clack, clack of shoes rang sharply across the floor, and Ciel looked to the left from whence the sound came. Another reaper, this time in a neatly styled black suit approached them, with a thin, tight smile and an obviously forced friendly expression plastered on his face. Short, wavy, light brown hair fell about a roundish, unremarkable face, with a pair of black-rimmed, square-framed glasses partially obscuring his yellow-green eyes.
Making a deep bow as he stopped before them, he announced solemnly.
"Welcome, my worthy young lord, to the Shinigami Realm. I am Trenton P. Farnsworth, Minister of Worthy Souls, and Warden of the Vault of Souls, to which I will be pleased to take you." He didn't seem too pleased at all, not even deigning to glance in Sebastian's direction, nor seeming to take any notice of the demon at all. Ciel rose from his chair, taking the man's outstretched hand however, and shaking it obligingly.
"Ciel Phantomhive. Pleased to make your acquaintance," was all Ciel said in reply, and disengaged contact with the reaper's hand as quickly as possible.
A broad smile spread then across the shinigami's face, as if amused at something. "Please follow me, if you will." Bowing once more, he then turned sharply on one heel and headed off without a backward glance.
Striding after him, Ciel and the demon followed in his footsteps over to a somewhat narrow, high-ceilinged hallway to the right of the front desk, which they then headed down.
"Sebastian," Ciel asked nervously. "Have you ever been to this place to which we are going, this Vault of Souls?" he asked curiously.
"No; I've never been inside it, at least," the demon said, although by the tone of his voice, he seemed eager for the experience, though.
After walking some distance, past many doors on both sides, they finally stopped at the very end, having arrived at a gleaming white door with a golden key hole directly in the center of it.
Pulling out a chain from around his neck, the Minister brought forth a golden key of oddly shaped pins that seemed almost blurry, as if they didn't stay in one form for more than an instant. Closing his eyes and humming, the reaper extended the key towards the lock, and remained that way for many seconds. Snapping open his eyes suddenly, he swiftly inserted the key. The door promptly vanished, leaving a swirling, misty vertical surface, which Trenton then put one foot through. Looking back, he simply nodded and shrugged his shoulders in the direction of the door in indication for them to follow him.
Ciel and Sebastian made eye contact for a brief second, which told Ciel that Sebastian was just as wary of this as he was. But the fact that he was unperturbed enough to not hold Ciel back was enough for him to stroll confidently after the Shinigami, who had now gone completely through the misty wall. Upon approaching the strange opening, he slowly lifted one foot to tap a little at the mist, with one hand outstretched to test its surface, and felt a slight tingling. He realized this was another type of Shinigami portal, as both his hand and foot disappeared through it, and gathering his courage, he jumped through the rest of the way.
He landed lightly, Sebastian stepping through immediately after him, and saw the reaper standing back, waiting for them. Looking around, he felt a wave of dizziness go over him and swayed a little in his tracks. All about them, as far as the eye could see, which admittedly wasn't very far, was… nothingness. Well, not exactly nothingness, he realized. More like a very bright, white mist that got thicker and thicker the farther away it was. It pervaded the area all around, above, and even below them, like wispy clouds that glowed with almost inherent shine to them.
Adjusting his glasses a little with left thumb and index finger, Trenton then grinned at them a little mischievously. "Come." The reaper turned and began walking steadily away from them, and Ciel thought it prudent to follow along, as he didn't want to lose him in this mist. Trudging together in the Minister's wake, they soon found themselves brought up sharply when the reaper stopped at another door. Just how many doors were they going to have to go through before they got there, wondered Ciel in exasperation?
Many times the height of a man, the grand door seemed made of pure gold, ornately carved with fancy scrolling designs and inlaid with tiny, sparkling precious gems. The handle was made of gold as well, in the shape of the head of a lion, mouth agape, with tongue lolling out.
Turning around, Trenton addressed them.
"We have arrived, gentle… men," he announced a little sneeringly. Then turning back towards the door, he knocked on it sharply three times with his knuckles, which actually startled Ciel in its mundaneness. Shouldn't there be a trumpet to blow or something, to announce their presence? But then he started, and took a step back. This action landed him squarely against the demon's solid frame, whose tailcoat-suited arms immediately came round to steady him, and hold him securely in place by the shoulders.
A small window had opened up in the door, which hadn't been there before, and which was now filled with a huge eye. An iris of nebulous light blue, certainly more than twice the size of a man's, slowly blinked, and swiveled around to look at each of them.
Abruptly, the door was thrown open, and Ciel quailed further back into his butler's embrace. Huge, luxuriantly-plumed wings of radiant, glistening white rose up from either side of a creature, twice the size of a man. Fluttering powerfully and fluidly to lift the figure into the air, they deposited him before Ciel. Before him, his form draped in folds of white linen belted with a woven-gold circlet, stood a being who stared ominously down at Ciel, pale blue eyes piercing into his very soul it seemed, with terrible judgement.
An angel. It had to be; there was no doubt in Ciel's mind, or need to ask. He was in the presence of an angel, those beings of a belief he had long since forsaken and even come to think unreal, despite his consorting with a demon himself. Shaking in his shoes, Ciel wanted nothing more than to turn and bury his face in his butler's coat; but he stilled his fears, and stood his ground. He would not be daunted by this menacing creature, angel or no.
Long, wavy, flaxen hair streamed from around a face more beautiful than any living human he had ever seen. The angel raised one arm, and brought it slowly and portentously towards where Ciel stood. He wanted to swat it away, but forbore as he realized the finger was not pointed at him, but at Sebastian.
"How dare ye enter the realm of the gods, foul beast?!" the angel bellowed with righteous indignation. "I am Mordecai, guardian of the Vault of Souls, here to safeguard it from all who would presume to enter it unlawfully."
Ciel quaked anew at the sound of the angel's voice, which reverberated throughout the atmosphere all around them, seeming to bounce off the very clouds.
"Ahem." The sound of Trenton's voice sounded small and weak following the angel's booming tenor, but it broke the tension enough for Ciel to be glad of it. "Ahem," it continued. "Actually, there is… umm… Well, he is actually here with special permission, per William Spears's petition, and, ah… authorized by the higher ups."
"William T. Spears?" the angel sneered in recognition of the name. "Ah yes, head reaper of the management division. Ha!" he bellowed indignantly. "I care not what you miserable underlings do or say. I am in charge here!" Trenton slowly backed away, eyes averted, putting the book he had taken from his jacket nervously away, and stuttering something Ciel couldn't quite make out.
"Do you think I would let a starving demon into the sacred Vault of Souls?" the angel roared, turning back to them. "Yes, 'Sebastian Michaelis'," he sneered. "I know all about you, and your heinous deeds throughout the ages. You wouldn't last one second inside there, anyway, amongst all those millions of succulent, mouthwatering souls. Admit it!"
Sebastian smirked calmly, stroking his chin with one hand absent-mindedly. "Well, I can't say that I have heard of you, Mordecai. Maybe that's because you were spawned only quite recently, possibly." He chuckled, but then all mirth left his face, to be replaced with a calculated look. "I can control myself, I assure you," he growled. "In any case, you cannot keep me from entering in after my master; he is contracted to me, and I am sworn to follow him wherever he goes and to protect him from harm. I will not be kept from accompanying him within. You cannot stop me."
"Oh, but I can," retorted the angel. "I am Mordecai! Guardian of the gate! And I will not allow you to step one rank, impure foot into this realm, and desecrate it with your filth!" he screeched wildly.
There seemed to Ciel to be a darker mist beginning to swirl around the area now, curling about his toes and feet, winding itself along his legs as he looked down. And then he realized it was not coming from all about him, but from behind. Fear and foreboding coursed through him as he slowly shifted to turn around, and look at his demon who was no longer clutching him protectively. It was as he had suspected: he was changing; changing into that form which he had only seem him take a very few times before in his life. Once, when he had first come to him, in the cage, and made the contract; once when he had taken it into his fancy to scare the wits out of a certain author he fancied; and once when he had had to shake Ciel out of his inner world of self-pity and self-loathing. This time was no less terrifying.
He stepped back another pace as the figure before him grew even murkier and taller still, his limbs becoming now vaguely amorphous, with wispy strands of black smoke effusing from his body. He looked at Ciel, dipping his head down and turning to regard him with a penetrating look.
"My lord." The words came from as if far away, in a voice that didn't sound like Sebastian's, but yet did, at the same time. Just slightly less familiar sounding; more grating, and malevolent; but still Sebastian's, overall. "Young master, it would be best for you to turn away, so as to not witness this. I do not wish to tarnish my master's image of me as the butler you have known so well up to now."
Ciel's eyes widened in alarm; what was Sebastian going to do? But then he felt calm fall back over him; he trusted the demon not to make a demand of him that wasn't prudent and to his best interest. He would comply. He nodded.
"Of course. Yes, of course, Sebastian. I shall do so, if you wish," he replied, turning his body away from the direction of the three other figures.
The air around him got even darker with the black mist, which then abruptly all swooped away, scooped up into the air, presumably to the spot where Sebastian stood.
"You wouldn't! You wouldn't dare!" he heard the angel shriek. The demon laughed.
"Oh, but I would!" the demon retorted.
"No! Don't you dare!" the angel screeched, this time with an edge of panic to his voice. "Don't you come near me! Disgusting, foul, loathsome beast!"
"Ha!" Sebastian snorted. "You are no less loathsome yourself, and you know it!" he roared angrily.
There was suddenly a great rush of wind, and the sound of wings flapping. The ground seemed to shake a little, as insubstantial as it was, and Ciel staggered a bit, and shivered. What was happening?
He struggled not to turn around and peek. He had given Sebastian his word. But try as he might, he could not free himself from the desire to look; to see just exactly what was going on that Sebastian didn't want him to see. The wind rushed by him so strongly it lifted his hair, and he could hear something that sounded like the rustling of paper on leather and the clinking of metal. Against all his efforts to keep his promise, he found he couldn't resist sneaking just a glance from the corner of his eye.
What he saw made him stagger back, forgetting all about his promise, or even where he was. All he knew was that he was in the presence of… something; a being he had never imagined before in his wildest dreams; or nightmares. For the creature that stood there, having taken the place of the demon he had come to know so well, was not Sebastian. It was not anything he had ever seen before, except perhaps in children's tales of fairies… and dragons.
Huge, leathery black wings, sparsely dotted with glossy black feathers, stretched out from either side of… a creature. A few sharp talons twitched impatiently atop each wing, which swayed and fluttered slowly and majestically up and down, stirring the air around Ciel with the scent of dark musk with a vaguely sweet edge. The creature was at least twelve feet tall, towering even over the angel, with a wing-span of at least twice that, and stood on great, beast-like limbs, which ended in long, sharp-clawed toes. The top of its head was dotted with a few sharp spikes, and was set on each side by long, shapely, almost cat-like ears, downy and tuft-fringed. Long, flowing strands of ebony-black hair fell about its shoulders and floated about down to its waist.
From either side of its torso, which was covered by a finely-cut tunic of some dark material, two shapely but muscular arms extended, also with long, black-clawed digits, but more slender and dexterous-looking. Its skin was dark, but with a hint of iridescence, and was of an almost scaly, but smooth, soft-looking texture Ciel couldn't quite make out. He found himself wanting to touch it, though, to see... And then quickly pulled back his arm which had extended outward all on its own. The creature… no, Sebastian, Ciel corrected himself, turned suddenly at his movement, and speared him with eyes that told him he was, indeed, no other than the demon he had come to know so well and even care for. Huge, coruscating, vermillion eyes, with slit pupils, narrowed in concern as they spotted Ciel's transgression in his promise not to look.
Guilt filled Ciel, but not regret. He would not have given up the chance to see this for anything in the world; the chance to see his demon in his true form. For he knew that was what he was seeing.
The demon's eyes softened of a sudden, as he looked at Ciel from a face of wide cheekbones and narrow chin, with nostrils like slits at the end of an only barely hinted-at nose. Ciel shivered and trembled, but then felt a wash of calm go through him when the demon's mouth smiled. For, although it was a mouth much wider, and with teeth just a little more numerous and perhaps a little more pointed, it was still in every other way Sebastian's, particularly in the devious smirk it now sported.
"I see my master is ever impetuous and as willful as ever," the demon scolded, but not without an obvious note of affection. Ciel smiled back; he could not even be afraid in the least now of this monster, beautiful in its awesome power. Sebastian then turned back towards the angel the next moment, in response to said opponent's heated roar of rage.
"How dare you show your true form with the confines of the Godly Realm? The land of those noblest of beings, who gave us the greatest gift imaginable; to whom we should show only the greatest gratitude for and worship thus, all our days?!"
Nothing was said by the demon in response to that; he only kept slowly coming nearer and nearer to the angel, who stood grimacing in disgust, along with a trace of fear on his features.
"Thou shalt not intimidate me, demon!" the angel yelled shrilly, although at the same time cringing and backing away, despite his words.
"I will not back down! I am not afraid of you!" But the angel's face said otherwise, as it was contorted in sheer terror, a terror which was mirrored a thousand-fold in his pallid blue eyes.
Sebastian strode relentlessly closer to the now huddled and quaking angel, the demon's long, glistening, black locks trailing behind and all around him with an almost tendril-like weightlessness.
"Stop! I command you, stop! Unworthy, ungrateful, backsliding fiend! Have you no sense of gratitude for what you have been given? You should bow down right now, and beg forgiveness for your sins!"
"Ha!" roared the demon sneeringly. "Why should I bow down to beings no more worthy than us, we who once ruled the worlds all around, and who were second to none?" He scowled. "Yes, they gave us a great gift; a wonderful gift, alright, if you can call it that. But that doesn't make them better than us!"
Closer and closer he came to the angel, until he was towering over the sniveling, cowering creature, no longer beautiful and terrible now, but instead just a pathetic and blubbering mess.
"Get back! Stay away from me," the angel howled desperately. "Begone, you spiteful, evil, worm! Go back to Abyso-atono, from whence you came!"
"Ha! We are from the same place though, you and I, aren't we?" Sebastian grinned wickedly. "No, I will not debase myself to the level of such miserable wretches like you, wallowing in the slimy muck of your twisted minds, thinking you have to subsist on the lowest of creatures and prostrate yourselves before beings unworthy of such reverence. I will bow down to no such gods!"
"No! Nooo!" Mordecai wailed piteously as Sebastian advanced even further. "No! Please, stop! Go away! Leave me be… noooo….." His voice trailed off into terrified sobs of undecipherable syllables of some arcane language that Ciel couldn't make out. "Garantaa vablena, zortenix corra sorrr!" he warbled.
Just as Sebastian was almost directly on top of him and reaching up one long-clawed hand to swipe down at him, the angel darted up quicker than lightening, and dashed for the golden door. With a blur of white robes and feathers, he whooshed past and through the doorway, pulling and slamming the door behind him with a thunderous bang that resounded and echoed around them for many long seconds. But the sound of continuing wails could be heard even through it, the distant crying out of screamed curses, which gradually grew dimmer and dimmer, until all was silent.
Ciel felt all the energy holding him upright leave his body in one long exhale of breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. Feeling dizzy, he staggered a bit, and then despite all his efforts to prevent it, sank to his knees. The demon turned swiftly towards him, still in his true demonic form, but then in the space of just a few steps toward Ciel he had turned back into his usual, tailcoat-suited butler self. Ciel's heart gave a leap, and he sighed again in relief. It had been more disconcerting than he had realized to witness who the familiar being he had known for so many years, and been so intimate lately with, truly was and to see how he appeared in his genuine form.
The demon knelt down before him on one knee, and looked up at him with crimson eyes that gleamed with contrition.
"I am so sorry, master, for you to have been compelled to witness such a… thing," he whispered to Ciel in a voice most unlike a voice he had ever heard the demon use. It was a truly apologetic, rueful, voice.
"I never wished for you to see me in that state. That angel angered me, I admit. I lost my temper; something I hardly ever do. And I am abjectly remorseful for that." Ciel looked at the demon, ruby eyes boring down into his.
"It's alright, Sebastian. I wasn't really… frightened."
It was true, Ciel realized. "It was startling, certainly; there can be no denying that," he went on. "But I didn't find you… repulsive." That was all he found the courage to say. He didn't want to admit that he had actually found the demon's true form quite wondrous a sight; beautiful even.
"Ahem. Well, then. I… Uh, I should…" Ciel turned around at the sound of the reaper's voice; he had completely forgotten about him. "I'll just let someone… I'll just inform the office of what happened, and get permission for us to go in then; yes, yes…" He took a strange device from out of his breast pocket, a small black box with a silver disc on it, and held it to his ear. "Yes. Yes, this is Trenton P. Farnsworth, main vault entrance, shinigami level. We've had a bit of a… nonconventional event, yes. If you would be so kind as… Yes. Yes. That is exactly what I am saying. If you would be so kind…" That was all that Ciel heard before the voice turned into low-volume mumbles. Ciel shrugged with disinterest and looked away, back towards the demon, feeling bewildered still.
"I don't understand why the angel was so frightened of you, Sebastian. Had he never seen a demon's true form before?"
Sebastian looked thoughtfully at Ciel for a moment before answering. "My lord, you recall how I told you that the Meerlia consist of both demons, as you call us, as well as the others of our race who, unlike us, worship the gods, and eschew the taking of human souls?"
Ciel nodded; it did come back to him now that the demon had jogged his memory.
"The others, the angels as you humans call them, denounced us, we demons, for going against the beliefs that we all once ascribed for at a time, in the very beginning, when we were first given the gift of immortality, before the Soul Wars. But we demons renounced that faith, instead choosing to be true to our natures, and live off the souls of other beings, as we were meant to. The angels shunned and scorned us, despite our winning the right to lawfully engage in contracts with humans to obtain their souls. They despise us now as the disgusting, horrible creatures we are, and as they once were. That is why they never allow themselves to take on their true forms, themselves—the forms of our ancient ancestry that they share, along with us. Instead, they choose to remain permanently in the guise of the most perfect, beautiful humans—those beings whom the gods they serve love so well." He paused. "Thus, to be reminded of their true nature is the thing that frightens them the most."
Nodding slowly in new comprehension as he took in what the demon had said, Ciel was shaken out of his reverie by the sound of the reaper's voice, which had risen in volume once more.
"Yes, thank you so very much. Good day." Trenton then stowed the device back in his breast pocket and turned to them. "We may enter now. I apologize for the… inconvenience," he said, as if it was his fault the angel had run away.
"Well now, well now," Trenton hummed. "Let's see. Just which soul was it then, my good sir, whom you wished to see?"
Relieved to have finally made it to this point, Ciel hoped his questions would soon be answered as he replied boldly and clearly.
"Claudia Phantomhive."
