A/N: Hey, I know it's been forever since I last updated. This story has sort of lost its appeal to me, but I promised myself I would finish it no matter what, so if the chapters seem a little rushed or whatever from here on out that's why.

Chapter 24: Undertaker

"Are you really a princess?"

"No."

"Is that you in the video that was on the news?"

"No."

"Jas are you even listening to me?"

"No."

So I should probably explain how Emma ended up in my room endlessly questioning me about the things I didn't want to talk about.

After the embarrassing incident with the news I was tempted to ring the complaints department again, but instead I dragged Allen away and basically threatened him until he agreed to bring me home through the Ark. That way I could slip back home under the radar and not cause an even bigger stir than what was already turning out to be. Once that was dealt with I managed to get Lavi's email address, although that wasn't really that difficult since he's such a flirt. It was slightly more eventful than that though.

After I talked with Allen he disappeared, but I got lost trying to find my way back to the room with all the computers. Lavi found me wandering the corridors and started questioning me. He actually sounded genuinely worried about me, but I don't see why he bothered since I had already told him that I didn't like school. It didn't bug me that it gave me an excuse to quit. Since I was determined to go straight home it occurred to me that I wouldn't have a chance to question him about the Noah, which is where the email address issue came up. He happily gave it to me, and he already knew mine since he hacked it not all that long ago.

When all was said and done I forced Allen to open the Ark, even though he didn't have authorisation to bring me home. I reassured him that I would take full blame and responsibility for anything the higher ups had to say about it. He still didn't look too happy about it, but I guess he felt bad for me since I'd had my face flashed around on the news.

Slipping into town under the radar was surprisingly easy since I hadn't come in on a plane. Apparently the Ark was good for more than just efficient travel, if it opened up in the right place. Once Sebastian and I had made it back home I had Erika ring the school and tell them that I was quitting. The principal didn't even try and stop me, she just accepted it and moved on, which had to have been the most understanding she had ever been about someone trying to leave her school.

And now we are back to the present, a week after my return to the city.

Emma was lying on my bed mucking around on my laptop while I sat on the couch flipping through some files Sebastian had managed to obtain. On the couch beside me was a manila folder with information concerning the shinigami that he had put together for me from his own memory, while the one I was currently reading was about the Black Order. It was honestly shocking how much he had managed to gather considering no-one had ever heard of them before.

"What is so damn interesting over there that you won't pay attention when I'm talking to you?" She demanded, sitting up.

"It's nothing Emma, and I am listening, I just don't care." Frowning she lay back down and started going through the files on my laptop again. All the classified stuff I had on there was password protected, so I didn't care what she did.

"Hey Jas, isn't that Lavi?" I looked up from the paper in my hands and looked around the room.

"Isn't what Lavi?"

"This." She said again, jabbing her finger at the computer screen. Sighing I climbed to my feet and walked over, sitting next to her on the bed to see what she was on about. Apparently I hadn't put a password on EVERYTHING I didn't want others to see.

"Um, maybe."

"When were these taken? And why do you have a sword?"

"Uhh…" Luckily my computer chose that moment to inform me that I had a new email. "Sorry, I have to check this." Snatching the laptop away from her I opened my email and looked at it. I had almost expected it to be from Lavi, but it was from Allen instead.

'Hey Jasmine,

I hope you're doing alright. I know I've already apologised before but I'm really sorry about what happened over at the Asia Branch. It was awful that the reporters would eagerly jump to conclusions and say things that could have adverse effects on people's lives like that. They really ought to do something about privacy laws or something.
Lavi's been acting really strangely since we got back to HQ. So far he has refused to say a single word in regards to the mission. Luckily Bookman filled Komui in on the necessary details, but it would appear that Lavi knows a lot more about what happened than Bookman does. According to Bookman anyway, Lavi was with you quite a lot during the mission. Did something happen between you two to make him so quiet? I know I said he only refuses to speak about the mission but he doesn't really speak much at all now.
I'm sorry to be burdening you with all this, but if you think you can help him then it would be appreciated. It's very disconcerting to see him like this and it worries me. So you think you can talk to him?

Allen.

P.S. I don't know if you realised but there was a golem in your bag, so it's probably somewhere in your house now. It's your own golem, we just hadn't had a chance to give it to you and then it slipped into your stuff and…'

I let out a long, low sigh and moved the message to the work folder, away from prying eyes. Closing my email I handed the computer back to Emma and fell backwards onto the bed. If Lavi was acting strangely it was definitely my fault. Or, more specifically, Grell's fault, but I couldn't be bothered trying to find him and beat him up over it. Plus he would just whine and in the end we wouldn't get anywhere with the whole deal.

"Jeez what is wrong with you? You're all over the place today, it's no fun. You've been off school for a while and somewhere along the line you got to spend time with Lavi. That's cheating! You're not the only one who thinks he's cute." I blinked, turning my head to look up at Emma.

"Cute?" Well sure, he was pretty good looking, but I had no reason to care for that. I'd just escaped death once and my final rest would be coming sooner rather than later.

"If you plan in chasing after him then this is war." She warned me, her expression dead serious. I couldn't help myself; I starting laughing. Emma gave me a strange look as I laughed, but it only got odder once I suddenly stopped.

"I guess Allen wasn't lying about the golem." I muttered, staring at the ceiling where I had just seen a flash of black metal.

"Aren't golems some mythological thing made of earth or something?" She queried, trying to figure out what was going through my mind. "And wait, who's Allen? Is he your boyfriend? You didn't tell me you had a boyfriend!" Groaning in irritation I pushed myself up off the bed and grabbed my phone from the bedside table, flipping it open. The date in the corner of the screen caught my attention and my eyes widened in shock.

"Emma I just remembered I have to go somewhere, so you sort of have to leave." The older girl frowned, eyeing me with a fierce look as she tried to determine whether I was being serious or I just wanted her to go away. The almost pained look in my eyes apparently convinced her and she reluctantly shut down my laptop and climbed to her feet, grabbing her shoes. I shoved my phone in the pocket of my black jeans, grabbed the hoodie I had abandoned on the couch, put it on over my red and blue shirt, and followed Emma out of my room and down the stairs. We were both silent the whole way and Erika was surprised to see us when we passed the living room.

I walked her to the door and held it open for her as she said her farewells and wandered off down the street. It was probably a tad harsh of me to just kick her out like that, since she lived a fair distance away and hadn't had a chance to call for a ride, but it was necessary. I had only just remembered what day it was. Sitting on the floor in the doorway I shoved my feet into a pair of ballet flats.

"Sebastian." I called softly as I got back to my feet. The demon was at my side in a matter of seconds.

"You sent her home already?" He asked curiously, watching as I tried to piece together my mask once more.

"We're going to the cemetery." I informed him, ignoring his question as I walked out of the house and over to the car. Sebastian smirked, following my order silently. He was in the driver's seat with the engine on by the time I threw myself into the backseat. Sebastian knew why I wanted to go there, but the look on his face made me feel like he had some sort of ulterior motive. That fact alone was enough to intimidate me. Demons under a contract shouldn't have any ulterior motives that don't include the devouring of said person's soul. It just isn't right.

"If you don't mind my asking, what is that thing in the backseat?" Sebastian questioned, his red eyes looking at me in the rear view mirror. I stared back at him in confusion until I felt a slight weight on me head. Digging my phone out of my pocket I took a picture so I could figure out what it was.

"Oh…" I mumbled when I looked at the picture. "That's my golem. I guess it's programmed to follow me around or something."

"So the Order can spy on you?" My mood darkened further and I frowned at him.

"I highly doubt it, but even if they did use it for spying I wouldn't care. They can't do anything to interfere with how I live my life; they can't even make me go back to school." With that I closed communications and turned to stare out the window, ignoring the little black bat like golem flying around my head.

"We could have stopped and bought flowers you know mistress." My hands curled into fists at my sides at his annoying words as I stared down at the plain grey headstones.

"What's the point? It's not like they're actually there." I muttered darkly, waving a hand at the graves. It was the anniversary of their death. I'm not entirely sure who put the headstones up, because I didn't arrange it, but someone did and that's why I had kicked Emma out and dragged myself to the cemetery. There were many less depressing places that I could have gone to. Their bodies had disappeared without a trace, so I could go almost anywhere and just pretend that I was paying my respects. I guess it was just something that should be approached properly and not half-heartedly, even if that's pretty much how I felt about being there. It was half-hearted. I didn't even really want to be at the cemetery, in all honesty I just as easily could have stayed with Emma and let her drone on about Lavi and harass me about Allen.

"Are you done here?" The deep voice interrupted my wandering thoughts and I glared up at him, only partially angry about his intrusion.

"Yeah." I expected him to head back to the car, but instead he just stood there.

"How would you feel about taking a small detour before returning to the house?" Turning I watched him, trying in vain to get some sort of information from his expression. It failed, as per usual.

"I guess it depends on the sort of detour."

"I believe you may like this particular detour." Shrugging I turned around and followed Sebastian through the cemetery grounds, not really caring where he was taking me.

"So… I'm not really sure what's so interesting about this place." Staring up at the building in front of me I tried to figure out what Sebastian found so interesting about an undertaker building in a cemetery.

"Do you not understand where this is?" Glancing sideways I raised an eyebrow, a disbelieving look clear on my face.

"It's an undertaker's. There are places like this all over the place; it's hardly something to be excited about." The smirk on his face was unnerving and I was starting to believe that I had overlooked something. Confused I looked around again, trying to find anything that I hadn't noticed the first time.

"I give up." Brushing off my failure I pushed open the door and stepped inside, only to be greeted with crazy, maniacal laughter.

"Ihihihi, what do we have here? The Phantomhive's demon and… who are you?" A man with long silver hair cackled as he messed with an anatomy doll, looking over at the doorway from behind his hair. I paled when I saw the doll; there was an extremely good reason as to why I wasn't doing biology at school.

"Undertaker, it has been a long time since I have… required your services." There was an almost bitter undertone to Sebastian's statement and I ripped my eyes away from the horrific doll for long enough to gape at him.

"You're the Undertaker?" I asked curiously, turning my attention back to the eccentric man. "Wow! This has got to be the coolest thing to happen to me since that sparring match with Lavi!" I babbled excitedly, causing the shinigami to erupt into a fit of laughter.

"You're a strange child. You know what? I'll tell you anything you want to know." Sebastian almost looked relieved, but if it had even really been there at all he quickly hid it.

"Umm…" For the life of me I couldn't remember what the big deal was. I couldn't remember why we had to go and see him in the first place. All that was running through my mind was that I had gotten to meet another person from the stories I forced Sebastian to tell me.

"Undertaker, can you locate her soul?" The silver haired man paused, a thoughtful yet creepy look on his pale face. Putting the doll to one side he climbed to his feet and wandered over to me.

"What an odd question. It never left." I shuddered slightly as he ran a finger down the back of my neck, tensing as Sebastian's eyes flashed a menacing, possessive red.

"Grell told us otherwise." Sebastian growled.

"Well, it's not all here…" I flinched away as he waved his hand across my torso. "Some of it is here." He dragged a finger gently in a circle around the innocence fragment in the back of my neck.

"M-m-mr Undertaker… How is that even possible?" The weight shifted from my shoulders and I straightened up, stepping over closer to Sebastian.

"More importantly, how do we fix it?"

"Ah, well, it would seem as though it has been trapped inside that mysterious fragment. I'd have to say that you're only chance would be to destroy the fragment and hope for the best." I stared at him wide-eyed in confusion. Sensing a lull in the conversation Undertaker pulled a miniature cauldron from somewhere and started eating oddly shaped biscuits.

"Destroy… my innocence?" He looked over at me, biscuit hanging from the corner of his mouth.

"Oh, is that what it is?" Narrowing my eyes I glared at him, putting my hands on my hips out of annoyance. As I was trying to work my mind around his cryptic attitude I heard an odd beeping noise.

"Ah, mistress, it would appear your golem followed us." Looking around the dimly lit room I finally located the black golem and coaxed it over.

"What's going on?" I wondered out loud as I reached out and touched it. The golem shuddered before opening up to reveal a screen like Lavi's did at school.

"Jasmine is that you?" The man in white on the screen asked, looking as though he were having trouble seeing me.

"Chief Komui?" Purple irises showed my shock at his sudden call. Taking a breath to compose myself I tried to put on a more serious expression for the older man. "Is there something you need?"

"Ahahaha… Not really. Reever was getting mad at me and when Allen said that you hadn't sent him a reply I thought it would be the perfect time to see if your golem was functioning properly!" I rolled my eyes, using one hand to push away the offered cauldron of biscuits.

'The email…'

"Hey Komui, how's Lavi? Allen said he was acting odd…" The science chief shrugged before turning and shouting at someone off-screen.

"I'm not sure, but whatever's wrong has been upsetting my dearest Lenalee."

"Look, if you're going to go on a rant about Lenalee then I'm disconnecting, alright?"

"… Fine." I tilted my head forward slightly so that my hair covered my eyes.

"Do you think… that you could tell Lavi that I'm sorry and I'm worried about him?" I asked nervously, refusing to look at the screen. There was a short pause in which I could hear other people in the background.

"Sure, hopefully it might lift his spirits a bit." Nodding I thanked him, said goodbye and ended the call, not even batting an eyelash when the golem settled on my shoulder.

"Undertaker, thanks for answering our questions. Sebastian, we're leaving now." Silence enveloped us as we left the building, and it followed us all the way back home.

A/N: So yeah, other than what I said at the top all I can really say is that I'm back at school which means that I literally have next to no time for writing.