Reincarnation

Chapter 6:

1889

Earl Ciel Phantomhive sat down at the desk in the study of his London townhouse and began to write on the blank white paper of his empty journal. He had come to realise that he needed to write everything down in order inform his future ancestors about the other side of his life. The darker side that involved killing people for the sake of Queen Victoria.

I, Ciel Phantomhive, am now a demon. I am still contracted to the demon Sebastian Michaelis who is the current source of annoyance for me.

Now that he has lost his meal he walks around with a blank face and speaks in a deadpan voice. I now recall my earlier days with him fondly. I am willing to do anything to return him to his original personality. I miss that personality.

Ciel stopped writing for a second and hastily scratched out the last sentence. He wasn't planning on showing too much weakness in his diary. He re-inked his pen and continued writing.

On the subject of memories I now have all of mine and I have realised all the trouble Sebastian went to in order to frame Alois Trancy for the death of the my parents. This has proved to me that he was willing to do anything in order to consume my soul. This may be the reason that explains why he is so emotionless now. He put in all that effort and yet he achieved nothing. Now he is still contracted to me until I die or he consumes my soul which is currently not possible.

Ciel paused to take a bite of the Bakewell tart that Tanaka had baked for him- it wasn't anything like Sebastian's, but Sebastian only faked making food for him now. He had accepted the snack from Tanaka to dispel the old butler's suspicions, although Ciel knew that he was aware of the change in him.

In this journal I am going to document the important events in my life.

I was born in 1876...

My aunt became a vicious mass murderer called "Jack the Ripper"...

I was turned into a demon...

The documenting continued late on into the night. Tanaka had supplied him with candles and suggested that he go to bed, but Ciel refused. He had to finish before Sebastian arrived back at the townhouse. He had sent Sebastian away for a few days on the pretext that the entire manor needed to be refurbished.

At 3 o'clock in the morning he finally finished describing the events in his life which filled two whole journals. He quickly skimmed what he had written and came to a decision about how he should end his description of his life.

The ancestor that finds these journals should be a worthy ancestor if they have managed to solve all the puzzles I left behind to hide my secrets. I would also like the ancestor that finds these to be just like me, young and curious.

If you are the person that solved the puzzles that I left behind and meet the aforementioned requirements, then please take the ring that should be with these journals. The ring has fragments of my soul contained within. If you wear it, sooner or later Sebastian will be drawn to you, attracted by the scent of my soul.

There is also something important that you must know before following the aforementioned instruction.

I am a made demon, therefore I can die.

I cut myself on a paper knife yesterday and I still have the scar. It did heal quickly, but it left a mark. Judging from this I believe that I can die.

I do not want extra life, I achieved my life's aim, I achieved revenge. There is nothing left for me here. I want to die.

If I die, the contract ends and Sebastian is free.

I will try my best to aggravate him into trying to kill me- it is only fitting that he does it.

Ciel added on final line and drew out his silver wrought ring from his pocket. Despite the fact that he never wore any of his rings anymore he had paid a jeweller to make a replica so Sebastian would not notice the disappearance.

He stacked the two journals and added Tanaka's to the pile before placing the ring on top. He had prepared a special hiding place for them in his townhouse and had hired a builder to make some additions to the house during the time that Sebastian was away.

Now all that was left to do was annoy the hell out of his one hell of a butler. It might take a while, but he had a lot of spare time.

Present Day

The boy was definitely up to something, Sebastian thought to himself as he neatly remade Ciel's bed- this Ciel also seemed to be incapable of carrying out simple physical tasks.

Sebastian had of course found the hiding place in Ciel's wardrobe when he had been dusting which had been empty much to his disappointment. The contents must have been carried away in the boy's suitcase, a correct assumption judging by how the boy had hurried away from him when he had offered him help.

He plumped the pillows and made sure that they had nothing hidden inside. So far he had found nothing suspicious in the house. Ciel's bedroom, the library, the sitting room, the music room and Earl Phantomhive's bedroom had unearthed the positive side his search had reminded him of how satisfying it was to wipe a thick layer of dust off everything and to polish silver until it shone.

Finally he yielded something when Vincent Phantomhive invited him into his study to see the painting of Earl Ciel Phantomhive and his supposed "ancestor".

It was an oil painting depicting his former young master in a gold painted chair with his best suit on and one leg crossed over the other, looking every part an aristocrat. Standing behind the boy was himself dressed in his butler outfit with the silver head butler badge glinting. He remembered the day of the sitting exactly. His young master had been unable to remain still without fidgeting or moving and he had resorted to threatening to withhold Ciel's after dinner desserts and sugary snacks if he didn't stay still.

"The boy is Earl Ciel Phantomhive who was the best leader of Funtom, possibly due to his age- he was only 13, but the sad thing was that one day he packed up the manor he that he lived in and left it to the servants and disappeared with his butler Sebastian, never to be seen again," Vincent explained to Sebastian who naturally knew the truth better than he did.

"Do you still own the manor?" he asked interestedly.

"Unfortunately, I had to sell it 10 years ago. Our sales were down, the manor was in a bad condition and I was offered a very good price for the land by a developer. It's a housing estate now."

Sebastian recalled the title of the book he had read in the library, "The Rise and Fall of Nobility". It seemed as if the Aristocracy had really fallen in this century.

"There is something mysterious about the portrait," Vincent said, returning to the previous subject of the conversation.

Sebastian's ears pricked up. Maybe there was something hidden in the house after all.

"What is it?"

"When I had it reframed last year a piece of paper was found wedged between the canvas and the frame. It was a note from Earl Ciel Phantomhive."

"What did it say?" Sebastian's heart picked up pace. The young master had been doing something behind his back after all when he had been sent back to the manor to redecorate unnecessarily.

"It has a riddle on it. I couldn't solve it so I gave it to Ciel. I think he said that he solved it and it didn't lead to anything."

The plot was certainly thickening, Sebastian thought to himself deviously. Now he had another piece of the puzzle to work with.

"Can you remember what the riddle said?"

Ciel's father shook his head. "We all looked at it and couldn't work it out so I gave it to Ciel to keep. I did make a photocopy of it, but I misplaced it." He looked around gloomily at the mess of papers on his desk. "I would ask you to tidy up in here, but I have lots of work at the moment. "

"I look forward to tidying when you are finished," Sebastian replied, knowing full well that he would snoop around before then. "I must get on with preparing lunch."

He exited the room and closed the door behind him. He would make a visit when Vincent Phantomhive was out the house.

As he took off his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves to start preparing the cheese soufflé his sharp ears picked up the hollow thunk sound of someone landing on the roof.

Sebastian hurriedly pulled his jacket back on. The soufflé was going to have to wait.

He shimmied up the drainpipe at top speed and pulled himself up to stand on the roof. He looked around, but he couldn't see anyone and he had a slight blind spot where the bright sun was shining.

"I'm over here!" A voice shouted helpfully and the owner of the voice stepped out from behind the chimney to reveal himself to be the blonde and black haired Grim Reaper, Ronald Knox. "Hello, Sebas-chan."

"What are you doing here?" Sebastian enquired politely. He was now a Phantomhive butler again so he had to treat guests with courtesy even if they had just landed on the roof.

"Surveying the situation," the reaper replied casually as if he wasn't face to face with a demon. "I thought I sensed a demon in the vicinity. Now that I know it's you, I'm leaving."

"Not so fast," Sebastian said and gripped the reaper's arm tightly. "I can't let you go at the moment. I need some questions to be answered."

"I need to go," Ronald grunted in reply and managed to detach his arm from Sebastian's extremely tight grip and jumped off the roof onto the next door neighbour's roof and then disappeared from Sebastian's view.

The butler drew out his pocket watch and saw the it was almost nearly time for lunch. He would give up the chase for now and attend to his soufflés. He couldn't serve his new master and mistress a mediocre meal. That was not befitting for a Phantomhive butler.

Sorry this chapter is a bit late. I've had to write a few chapters in advance to make sure I don't make any mistakes with little details later on.