Chapter 42 – Shinigami of the Manor

Sai Summers

The Executioner Manor was nothing short of huge. Done in grey brick and white trim, and four stories tall, it dominated the area and dwarfed the surrounding buildings. While it had a small front lawn in comparison to an average neighborhood, it was the only one in the vicinity to even have one.

Standing in the front lawn, I looked up towards the roof. A spotlight on the near-end of the roof shone down on us, and I was forced to shade my eyes in order to look up. "I don't get it, why such a large house?"

Kid, on my right, turned and looked at me in mild confusion. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

I tried again. "It's just you and the sisters. Why live in such a big house?"

He turned away and sighed. "It's not my home by choice. It's the family manor."

We were met at the dark cherry double-doors by a thin, pale woman in a black and white maid's uniform. In the doorway Kid stopped and made a request. "Sara, please prepare a room for Sai. She's going to be spending the evening."

Sara nodded quickly, but I couldn't help but notice her slight embarrassment at the request and it made me uncomfortable.

Walking in front of us, Sara let the way into a dinning room.

Liz and Patty sat in which I assumed was only one of the dinning rooms. Done in dark blue stones, and black marble floors, the room should have been quite dark. Most of the room's illumination came from a pair of black wrought-iron and glass chandeliers; one over each end of the long, dark cherry-wood dining table. The chairs were matching uprights, and padded in black velveteen cushions. On the left was a flight of dark stone stairs, and the right an archway to another room. Sara gave us a nod and left us at the doorway; she rounded the table and went through the archway.

While Patty busied herself with coloring a picture with pigment sticks, Liz filed her nails with a neon pink cardboard file. Both sat on the same side of the table, in the dead center of the table. Liz looked up at us as we entered, blinked twice, and then exclaimed, "Sai! What happened?"

I had forgotten what I looked like; in the previous confusion with the Demon Tool I had put aside the fact that part of my hair had be hacked off and that my jacket and skirt were sliced open.

I couldn't help but feel embarrassment at my condition, even if it wasn't my doing. "It looks worse than it is, I promise." I explained with a grin, waving my left hand downwards, while covering my abdomen with my right.

"Will you please try to make Sai's hair more…" Kid seemed to be struggling to say it. "Even…on the sides."

Liz smiled, but looked confused; she tried to cut the tension in the room with humor. "Uh, sure Kid…but I'm kinda surprised you don't want to 'design' her hair though." She used her index and middle fingers to elude to quotation marks.

Kid looked towards the direction we had come in, his expression blank.

Looking up from her drawing of a bright yellow giraffe, Patty's eyes were wide in concern. "Kid, ya okay?"

"I'll be in my room."Was all he said before turning about-face and starting up the stairwell behind and to our right.

Liz leaned to her right. "He seems extra-moody this evening." She whispered to Patty, who simply giggled.

He looked back over his left shoulder, while standing on the bottom step. "I'll have one of the staff bring you another shirt. You'll end up with a chill wearing that damaged coat around here."

Disappointment at his attitude set in with me. "Alright."

I watched him walk up the stairs until Liz took notice of the frustration on my face, and pulled me over to the table. She pulled out one of the chairs on that side and pushed my shoulders down.

I could feel the frustration building up in me. I didn't want to sit here and idle while someone bothered with my hair. My current look, while not suitable, felt the need to take a back-seat to a variety of other issues.

"We'll be right back." Liz explained, and dragged Patty away from her picture into the adjoining room.

They returned in a few minutes with a full-length mirror and a red table cloth. Liz set the mirror up and pulled out another chair from the table; she placed it in front of the mirror. I stood from the chair I was already in, rounded Liz and sat down in the new one. Patty flapped out the tablecloth and tied it around my neck. She then pulled out a pair of scissors from her puffed pants and handed them to Liz. She went to cutting off the parts of my hair that were damaged, and the started to try and make a shape that was level on the ends.

Watching Liz in the mirror reminded me that I had no family I could otherwise ask for such a thing; my eyes started to burn and I sniffed.

She immediately panicked and looked me over nervously. "Ahh, Sai, did I cut you with the scissors?! Are you bleeding?!"

I tried to giggle, but my emotions were heavy. "I was just thinking how you don't even have to be nice to me, but you treat me like family, anyway."

Liz's lower lip quivered and she broke into tears. "You can never have too many sisters…" She sobbed, putting her arms around my shoulders.

Patty hopped up from her chair and stood at our right. She patted Liz on the back. "There, there." She kept repeating.

It feels weird to be like this with them…they shouldn't even like me…

There were footsteps behind us on the heavy floor stones.

Kid had come back downstairs. He began to rummage in his left coat pocket. "Here."

He held out a clean set of black and purple ribbons. Liz, managing to control her emotions for the moment, took them from his hand and started to tie them to the sides of my head.

I ended up stating the obvious. "You bought another set…"

Kid shrugged. "The other ones were bloodstained; didn't have much choice."

I tried to inject humor into the situation; his dulled expression depressing me. "A lot of people would assume that someone like you always has a choice."

His eyes dropped. "Money and power aren't synonymous with freedom."

Patty started to pat him on the back while giggling. "There, there."

I could see Kid holding his head in his left hand, in the reflection. "I'm not sure I can handle this right now…I'm going back upstairs." In the mirror Kid turned on his heels and returned the way he had come, slouched over with his hands in his pants' pockets.

I sighed. Don't walk away like that…

"Will that be okay?" Liz asked as she removed the table cloth. "Is it too short?"

It was far shorter than I was used to, but I didn't have the heart to tell her I was unhappy with the results. "It looks fine. Thanks Liz." I noticed she was looking downwards. "Liz?"

Patty watched Liz with her head cocked to the right. "Sister?"

She half-smiled. "I get worried when he gets like this. He carries so much around inside himself, and forgets to tell people about it."

Her comment triggered my memory. "Hey Liz, has Kid ever mentioned Eibon?"

She seemed to ponder the thought for a moment and then blinked. "No, sorry." She paused. "But…"

"But what…?" I asked, confused.

"If he had….I might not have been paying attention. A lot of what he says…is above me."

I giggled. She's so right…

***

After only an hour I managed to get myself lost in the house.

I knew I was on the third floor, but only by the number of floors I had taken in the closest stairwell. Even though most of the hallways were lines with oversized, white candles on tall wrought-iron stands, the walls were lined with the same dark stone from the first floor.

This place must be freezing in the winter…

On the third door on my left, I found a light coming from an open doorway. As I quietly pushed it open – it decided to creak anyway – something grabbed at my right shoulder. "Gee…ya…! Who's there?!" I shouted, in error.

It was the maid Sara who had let us into the manor earlier; her pale skin was nearly translucent in the candlelight of the brass candelabra she carried. "Shh! Please, Shinigami-san is sleeping." She whispered, her right index finger to her lips.

I looked inside and found Kid asleep in a dark wood desk chair on coasters, in front of a dark roll-top desk. Candlelight flickered from the desk, but from my position, I couldn't tell from what. "It'll be fine." I told her, not paying much attention.

She continued to pull on my coat sleeve. "Please, I ask you not to disturb him."

This time I turned and yanked my arm from her grasp. "Leave me be. Who the heck do you think you are anyway?"

"Please." She begged. "I'll be in trouble if you disturb him."

I eyed her curiously. "I don't think that's true."

Something's weird here… I thought. Ah, who cares…overprotective nonsense…

I left Sara standing at the door, and let myself into Kid's room; I was done having to explain myself.

I could feel my brow furrow. My relationship with him is none of her business…

I shook Kid's left shoulder, and even though I knew the answer, I asked anyway: "Kid…you awake?"

After a moment, his golden eyes snapped open and he shifted forward in his seat. "Eh! Oh…yes, I am." He announced, startled.

"I didn't mean to wake you, I was just…"

He looked up, but it was difficult to tell if he was actually seeing me. "No, no, I shouldn't be sleeping while there's company." Kid frowned. "…and they didn't get you a new shirt…"

"Don't worry about it." I stood nervously at the left of his chair. "Kid…tell me what you know about Eibon."

Kid sighed and sat far forward in his seat; he held his knees with his hands. "Please Sai, don't ask me about that."

"I need to know." I griped.

He was doing a good job of avoiding the discussion. "You're not going to be happy with what I tell you."

I dropped my shoulders. "Stop it, Kid. You're avoiding the subject."

He blinked and looked at me in consternation. "I'm not. You don't seem to understand…"

"Understand what?" I interrupted with a spat. "I don't understand because you won't tell me."

He seemed to have lost his patience with the subject and pounded his knees. "Fine! Would you at least stop being rude! The Demon Tools were created from the souls of Independent Weapons." He announced.

Kid sighed, and looked down and to his right.

I laughed darkly. There was a red velveteen chair to the left of the desk; I pulled it over to Kid's right and sat down. "No, this is too cliché…You really expect me to believe that someone killed a bunch of Weapons and turned those souls into the Tools." I paused. "And said 'killer' is…Eibon?"

He remained stoic. "That's what I believe, yes."

I could feel my brow crinkle. "Kid…when was this…?"

"Around 800 years ago."

My shoulders dropped. "Think about that…why would Death-san let someone get away with doing that…?"

Kid stared at the candle. "I think it may have just dawned on you the reasons behind me not wanting to bring it up."

"There's no way he…are you saying he let it happen…? No, no way he would have done that. I don't believe it." I shook my head aimlessly.

Kid covered his eyes with his hands for a moment, and then put them back in his lap. "Don't misunderstand, Father would have never allowed it to go on willingly."

"Well…same time period." I dropped my shoulders.

He gesticulated with his right hand. "Let me explain at least. It was before the time of Shibusen. Father was assisting in the elimination of the Kishin eggs. The witches were encouraging the production of the eggs, and Father was looking for a way to combat that…"

"Well, yeah, even a first year Shibusen student knows that much." I lightly smacked my forehead with my left hand. "Kid…doesn't that seem a little far-fetched?"

Kid sighed. "Perhaps…"

I put my hand down. "So where are you getting all of this from?" I eyed the piles of books on his desk. "From these books…"

My eyebrows rose. "Those are the books from the Level 3 in the library."

I noted the codes from the library catalog on the spines. "I see that."

Kid remained firm to his decision. "They seem to be from reliable sources."

I picked up the closest one – Ancient Weapon Techniques and Technicians – and flipped it open aimlessly, thumbing through the pages. "Do you remember what I said about the Independent Weapons being rare and how much of what you read is heresy?"

Kid sighed and looked gloomy at remembering my words; I decided to not press the issue.

I held the book in my arms, against my chest. "And besides…what difference does it make? It's not like we can change the past." I tried to avoid sounding overly harsh by lowering my voice. "Getting mad about something that happened 800 years ago seems kinda…silly."

He pushed his chair back slightly. "You think that this is moronic then, I presume."

"No." I paused when I saw the dejection on his face. "You've been really worried about this, weren't you?"

Kid sat silent and unmoving.

"I wish you could understand that I'm not going to run away just because of something like that." I returned the book to the desk, organizing it into the grouping I had removed it from. "Besides, It's not like you did anything wrong."

Kid turned to me; he was looking defeated. "But, Father, if he…"

I put my left hand to his right cheek, and he lowered his eyes. "You haven't done anything wrong." I reiterated.

I leaned forward and pressed my lip lightly to his, and he didn't resist me.

I was happy to find him not as cold as he had been lately.

After a few moments I felt Kid's posture go rigid.

I pulled back but left my left hand on his right shoulder. "Ah Kid, you have to remember to breathe."

Kid coughed. "Eh, sorry…kinda new at this…"

I bit my lower lip to keep from looking too amused.

The abrupt sound of a rotary telephone broke the quiet moment.

Kid lay back in the chair once again. "You pick it up…I'm tired." He muttered, shutting his eyes.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't live here…"

He feigned sleeping and ignored me.

"Fine." I muttered, rolling my eyes. Such a brat…

I dug the phone out from behind the piles of library books and found the phone; it was modern, electric form of a old-fashioned candlestick phone. Moving the phone into a position I could hold the midsection while talking into it, I picked up the receiver and held it to my left ear. "Executioner Manor." I said pedantically.

The male voice on the other end of the line sounded tired. "Hello? Is Shinigami-san there?"

Hmm. Most people don't call him that…

"I'm afraid his unavailable at the moment, may I take a message?"

There was a slight paused, and then, "Ms. Summers? Is that you?"

I blinked. "Um, yes…who is this?"

The voice lightened slightly. "It's Jonathan, from the Library."

"Oh! Hello. It's quite late, was there something you needed?"

I could hear the hesitation in his voice. "Umm…I have bad news."

My voice darkened. "What is it?"

"I sent the documents you and the Sir were looking at to a foreign language specialist in town. And…" His voice trailed off.

"And what?" I asked with reservations.

His voice was dull. "The courier is missing."

I set the receiver in my lap, and shook Kid's right arm. "Hey, wake up, it's Jonathan." I returned to the phone and Kid struggled to awake. "Wait; tell me exactly what's wrong."

Kid squinted in the candlelight. "Sai, what's wrong?"

I listened to the situation and watched Kid; I then held the ear piece away from my. You could still hear Jonathan talking, as his voice seemed unusually loud for the evening quiet. "It's Jonathan at the Library. The documents from Level 4 are missing…"