A/N: I'm working on planning out the rest of this book, and I'm getting super excited about it. For now, enjoy another chapter. Remember to follow, favorite, and review. Oh, by the way, thank you guys so much for all the reviews so far! I wasn't expecting to get that many after so few chapters, so that made me really happy. ^.^ Anyway, enjoy the chapter, because if I couldn't write about a few occult symbols, what kind of Kuroshitsuji fan would I be?

The black carriage, drawn by two midnight colored horses, rolled smoothly down the country road leading from the Phantomhive Estate to the city of London. Ciel hated to leave his beloved mansion behind, but it was necessary to do so for this case. Sebastian was driving the carriage, and the servants were following in a separate vehicle of their own. It made the boy somewhat uncomfortable to have them along, simply because he hated to involve any extra persons in this particular job, but it could be a long stay in London, and Ciel would need Sebastian assisting him, not busying himself with household chores.

The Phantomhive boy had stooped to requesting that Sebastian stay with him last night as memories of that dark time in his past floated to the surface of his mind. Very rarely did Ciel Phantomhive ever feel truly afraid of anything, but this case was beginning to make itself an exception. His body wanted to panic and run for the hills at the thought of having to face the cult that had been responsible for so much tragedy in his life, but at the same time, it was thrilling to imagine all the ways he could exact revenge on those fiends.

Peering out the window, Ciel noticed that they had reached the outskirts of London. Soon enough they'd be arriving at his townhome, and the real work would begin. Today he had planned to visit each of the sites the Queen had mentioned involving the uprisings. As long as Scotland Yard stayed out of the way, he would hopefully be able to form some basic conclusions about whatever group Her Majesty believed was behind the recent riots.

As the carriage was passing through a somewhat narrow alley, a flash of red outside the window caught Ciel's attention. "Sebastian, stop the carriage!" He shouted, grabbing his cane and preparing to stand up. The butler did as he was told, and came around to help his master out of the carriage, but Ciel had already leaped out of the carriage and was running back the way they'd come.

"He just loves to test my patience," the demon growled before racing after the young Earl.

Ciel, in the meantime, stopped. He'd found what he was looking for. They were in one of London's particularly poor districts, and here, smeared on the wall in a material that could only be dried human blood, was an enormous occult symbol. Eight arrows extended from a central circle. The arrows had been painted to look like feathers rather than arrows, and in the center of the circle was one letter: P.

"A chaos symbol," Sebastian remarked, surprise tugging at the edges of his voice. "I never thought I'd see one here in London."

"What do you know about this symbol?" Ciel demanded, turning to his butler with a fierce expression. Inside, a wave of relief washed over him. It was not the same mark that he had been branded with.

"It's often used in chaos magic, although it's not very well known. It stands for exactly what you'd expect: chaos," Sebastian explained, "However, this location is not on the list of uprising locations you were instructed to inspect."

"So then you think this mark isn't related to our case?" Ciel clarified with a slight frown.

"That's correct. Shall we continue, Young Master?" Sebastian asked with a smile. The Phantomhive boy followed his butler back to the carriage and allowed the demon to help him back inside. A prickle of dread had returned to the boy's stomach. There was still a chance, then, that this case would require him to track down that group.

The Phantomhive carriage and the servants' cart stopped a short while later outside the Phantomhive townhome. Sebastian instructed the servants to get the house ready for them, as he and Ciel had urgent business to attend to. Soon enough, Sebastian was steering the carriage through the busy London streets once more.

Ciel scanned the list of riot locations Her Majesty had provided him with in her letter last night. Sebastian had been right; none of the locations matched up with the symbol they'd seen earlier. Still, though, the incident didn't sit easy with him. There was no way a symbol like that could be completely unrelated to his task.

"Young Master, we have arrived at our first destination," Sebastian announced, opening the carriage door and helping Ciel down from its dim interior. The young Earl folded the Queen's letter into one of his pockets, and led the way toward a popular pub known as Abernathy's. His butler following protectively, Ciel walked around to the side of the pub and froze in surprise.

Painted on the wall of the pub was an image of a black snake devouring its own tail: an ouroboros. He moved closer to the wall to inspect the image more carefully. Running a ultramarine eye critically over the symbol, Ciel noted that it had been made with some kind of sticky black substance, probably tar. It was also textured in extreme detail, the tar forming ridges and dips as if it were actual snakeskin.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing?" Three men in dark cloaks ran out from behind Abernathy's. Ciel stepped back, temporarily startled, before flicking a hand toward the three intruders as a signal to his butler. In a flash, Sebastian had knocked out two of the men and held the other captive.

"I think the real question here is what do you think you're doing. Are you the one responsible for this?" Ciel questioned their captive. The man spat at the young Earl in contempt.

"'Course not. I don't know a thing about it!" The man protested, wiggling in an attempt to escape from Sebastian's grip on him.

Ciel's expression became almost sadistic as he began to pace back and forth. "I don't believe you. If you don't know a thing about it, then why did you run out at us?"

Their captive was silent for a moment. Sebastian tightened his hold on the man's neck, causing the bloke to choke and sputter before managing to say, "Alright! Alright, I'll tell you what I know!"

Coward, Ciel mocked in his head. Sebastian had inflicted worse tortures than that before. It was pathetic to see even a criminal such as this snap after so little pain. Soon enough, all he and Sebastian would have to do would be show up, and they'd have criminals lining up to confess their sins. That would take all of the fun out of his work.

"I don't know who made this mark, but some bloke in a real nice hat and coat like yours came along just yesterday while I was enjoying a drink at the pub here. He said he had to make an important delivery, and he could pay me if my buddies and I guarded this alley here, kept strangers like you folk out of it just for today."

"Did he say anything about what this delivery was?" Ciel asked.

"No, no sir. He just said he had a delivery to make, I don't know what."

"I see. And did he say when he'd be making this delivery?"

"He already made it, sir."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier?" Ciel exclaimed with a growl of frustration. Common criminals were always such… idiots. "Can you tell me anything about what he looked like?"

The man suddenly swallowed nervously. "Well, he's right over here, sir. He, ah… He's dead. The man he made the delivery to shot him after he handed him the package."

"You should've told me that in the first place!" Ciel roared. "Now Young Master," Sebastian warned quietly. Irritation still clung to Ciel's tense limbs, but he couldn't afford to lose his temper in public, especially not over a petty fool such as this.

"Show us the body. Can you tell us anything about the package, or the man who shot him?" Ciel inquired. Sebastian released their captive, who scuttled over the alleyway he'd appeared from. The Earl and butler followed him.

Hidden by the shadow of Abernathy's was the body the man had mentioned. The dead individual had no visibly recognizable features. A gray trench coat wrapped around most of his body, and a black top hat rested on his chest. He wore no glasses or jewelry, and none of the materials in his clothing looked particularly expensive, nor particularly cheap.

"Sebastian, take care of this fellow. We're going to see the Undertaker," Ciel announced, turning on his heel and marching out of the alley, heading back to the carriage. Sebastian pulled his gloves off with his teeth and uttered, "Yes, my Lord," before pouncing sinisterly on the unsuspecting man who had been their captive.