Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroshitsuji
A/N: Heya guys! Here's the second chapter of Untold and Unravelling.
Thanks to the 2 guests and Neko-chan for reviewing :D
If you want more, review please :)
As the carriage drew up outside the building, Anais immediately stepped down from the carriage, accompanied by Amelia and Andrew. As she strode towards the large twin wooden doors, she pushed them open.
As if on cue, a young woman with her mousy brown hair twisted at the back of her head and wearing a black dress and a white coat curtseyed and greeted her, before her eyes popped open dramatically.
"Good afternoon, Sophia. Could you arrange a meeting with the other nurses in an hour, assuming there are no new patients or no unforeseen circumstances in that span."
Sophia smiled and curtseyed.
"Of course, Lady Anais."
Anais gave a small smile, however she then proceeded to chastise the nurse.
"Hush, Sophia. I will be Lord Anubis in public."
"Yes, sir."
Sophia nodded sheepishly. Anais smiled at the woman. She had been working at the hospital for a long time, chosen because of her skill with medicine and surgery. Sophia was a prodigy as the head nurse, however, that wasn't the only reason she was chosen for her job.
"Sophia, you may head back to your duty now. I will be visiting the patients."
Anais bowed, before walking off towards the first ward, with both Amelia and Andrew tailing her.
"My, my... You've grown into a lovely young lady, Anais."
Anais smiled at the the aged woman lying in bed.
"Maria, it's nice to see you again. Are you doing well?"
Maria was the mentor of Sophia. She had worked alongside Sophia until a year ago. She had been serving the hospital before Anais was even born. However, she had been left paralysed from an incident with a carriage not long ago, and ever since, she herself had been hospitalized...
Anais frowned as she looked at the frail woman lying on the bed, recalling that she was the one who had treated herself and her brother after that incident.
Maria chuckled lightly, causing wrinkles to crease her face as she smiled at Anais kindly.
"I'm glad to see that you have recovered from that incident well, my dear. "
Anais sighed, taking off her hat.
"Maria-san, I'm glad that you're doing well yourself. However, I'm afraid that the same cannot be same for my brother."
"You know, I never expected your parents to do what they did to you two... They always were good little kids... I remember when I visited the house for your checkup when it was all in flames..."
At this point, Maria trailed off and stared of into space.
Anais looked sadly at the patient. Adjusting Maria's covers, she then bowed, before putting her top hat back on.
"I'll check up on you later, Maria. Now I'm going to check up on Wilbert."
Stepping out of the room, she saw Amelia and Andrew sitting outside before frowning.
"You know, you can accompany me inside the rooms unless I say to wait outside. "
Her long time servants bowed and she gestured at them to follow her as she then turned to walk to the next room.
After checking up on the rest of the patients, Anais stopped in front of the private ward lying at the end of the hall.
Pushing open the door, her expression becomes solemn as she took a seat beside the figure lying motionlessly on the hospital bed. With his eyes closed, and his arms crossed over his chest, it was like he could have been sleeping.
Anais gave a rueful smile.
"When do you plan on waking up... Brother?"
Taking off her hat, she peered into the features that resembled her own. With her disguise on, they were practically mirror images, other than the fact that her brother's complexion was paper than it should be, and that his hair was messier than it should be.
"Anubis-nii, I miss you. So does Amelia-san and Andrew-san. I think even Ciel-san misses you... Don't get me started on Lizzy-san."
Glancing behind, she spitted Amelia and Andrew looking at the boy lying on the bed, their expressions clearly expressing their sadness.
Back then, Amelia had been her helper, and Andrew had been her brother's. They were very nearly the vision of a perfect family. Anubis excelled in everything he did, and Anais was always the one who had to train hard just to stay on par with him.
But apparently, their parents thought that their relationship wasn't perfect, wasn't intriguing enough.
Gritting her teeth, she shook herself from the direction her thoughts were heading to. She certainly didn't want to think about what that incident had turned her into... Or what it had done to her brother.
Giving Amelia and Andrew a sad smile, she gestured for them to step nearer.
"Come on... Anubis-nii would be angry that you're standing so far away."
As she spoke, she drew up another 2 chairs beside the bed as she gestured at them to sit.
They all stared at the unconscious figure lying on the bed. He had been like this for a year, lingering between the borders of life and death ever since the incident that happened.
Twisting the old ring on her finger, she sighed sadly as she saw a similar one with a different gem on her brother's thumb.
Realizing that the flowers she brought from the last visit had all but wilted, she stood up and wrapped them in a paper bag before depositing them into the rubbish bin at the opposite end of the room.
...
"Nii-chan!"
Anubis looked up from the book he was pouring over, before giving an glance at his sister.
"What is it, Anais?"
Anais grinned at her brother before brandishing a small white-coloured flower at him.
"I found a flower, nii-chan!"
Anubos frowned before shaking his head and sighing.
"You plucked it from the garden? Don't do that... Look, now the sides of the petals are wilting. Once a flower wilts, it will never regain back its beauty."
Anais nodded before fetching a cup of water and popping the stem of the flower inside.
"Now it's not going to wilt anymore!"
Anubis sighed. His sister had emptied his cup of tea and filled it with water, sticking the flower inside.
However, he rolled his eyes as a grudging smile appeared on his serious face, if not for a moment.
"Hey, can you play with me, Brother?'
Ruffling his sister's hair, he told her to go and play with someone else. However he immediately relented at the look on his sister's face.
Anyone watching from afar would be shocked to know that the duo was actually twins, Anubis being older by only a few minutes.
...
Jolting up slightly, Anais glanced at the wilted flowers peeking out from the bin before turning her back on the bin, about to take a seat by her brother's bed as she thought about that incident that caused him to be in the state he was. Her eyes trailed over the scar that was on his wrist, as she recalled the look of insanity in his eyes before pain surged through the arm where that needle had come into contact with.
She stiffened as she registered a new presence in the hospital, one that possibly didn't belong to a human.
Bending down, she brushed against the surface of her trusty dagger that was secured and bound to her ankle. Feeling reassured, she stood up and nodded at Amelia and Andrew.
"Please stay here. I will return shortly."
Picking up her black top hat, she put it on and her expression immediately turned serious, before she quietly pushed open the door, and walked back down the hallway, stopping when she was standing in front of the room that Maria rested in.
The presence was in there. Bending down, Anais loosened the bindings that secured the dagger slightly so she would be able to retrieve it with ease should this encounter have to end up in a fight.
Eyes flashing a hot pink for a moment, she silently opened the door and took a step in, before freezing in her footsteps.
A man who looked to be older than her by a few years was standing at the side of the bed. He was holding what seemed to be a hedge clipper to Maria's chest, and cinematic records flying out from the garden clippers.
She remembered seeing them once when she turned to look behind the door as she ran out, and seeing people wearing strange suits standing over the charred bodies of her parents, somehow not affected by the flames. She saw them stabbing her parents of sorts, before some sort of records that resembled films from a movie fly out from the tip of the weapon.
Then the doorway collapsed, and Anais managed to haul her brother out just in time before she too, fainted.
Some time after that, she had learned that those people were Death Gods who collected what they called cinematic records from the deceased, thus reaping their soul. They were more commonly known as...
"Shinigami."
She muttered as she watched the black-haired man push up his glasses nonchalantly before retracting his hedge clippers away from Maria's lifeless body.
"Sir, there's somebody at the door." A voice pointed out suddenly.
Looking around in slight surprise, she spotted another one standing at the opposite side of the room. He had stylish blond hair while the bottom half of his hair was a shade of black. He donned a pair of glasses that had extremely thick and bold black glasses as his bright yellow-green eyes peered at her curiously as he leaned on a red lawnmower.
The black-haired and serious-looking shinigami paid no attention to what the one with the lawnmower said, instead flipping open a book and stamping something over the page.
"Maria Rudy Jones. Time of death: 4.56pm... Passed away due to old age."
He snapped the peculiar book shut before turning around his hedge clippers at his side.
Anais looked at Maria's lifeless form sadly.
"Maria's gone..."
Forcing a closed-eye smile, she bowed towards the two shinigami .
"Forgive my rudeness. I am Anubis Mahogany Kane, and I own this hospital."
The black-haired man turned to look at her, his face expressionless as he spoke.
"What are you? Your soul seems to be human..."
He adjusted his glasses and straightened up more before continuing.
"However, you seem to give off a different vibe from ordinary humans."
Anais smiled.
"I'm sorry, Mr Shinigami, but I would rather keep that a secret to myself and a select few others."
Bowing as an apology, she sighed in relief as the shinigami didn't seem to take much offence that she had refused to tell him something.
"I see. "
The blond-haired one walked over to her, his lawnmower dragging behind him. A slight frown appeared on his face as he leaned in and stared at her face for a long time, his yellowish-green eyes filled with curiosity and intrigue.
To say that Anais was uncomfortable was an understatement. She sincerely hoped that she was not blushing.
The shinigami took a step back and whistled, leaning against his lawnmower as he remarked.
"Hey, y'know, for a guy, you look kinda cute."
Never mind that. She was already blushing.
Pulling her hat over her head in embarrassment, she cleared her throat as she took a step back.
Her eyes widened as something suddenly came flying towards her head.
Ducking, her hand rested on her dagger as she looked up to see her favourite top hat impaled by the black-haired shinigami's pruners or hedge clippers or whatever they were.
"That wasn't very nice, Shinigami-san. I really liked that hat."
Anais smiled at the serious shinigami before cursing slightly as she glanced up and saw that a strand of long dark hair had fallen from inside the wig and now hung in the middle of her face, in steak contrast to the light brown hair that was the color of her wig.
"I knew it. You're not Anubis Kane."
The black-haired shinigami stated matter-of-factly.
"Ah, so that was what you were aiming at, Shinigami-san."
Anais smiled. Inwardly, she was wondering what gave it away.
Turning at the serious shinigami, she stood up and took off her wig. Her hair spilled out as she quickly retied her hair in a bun before slipping back her wig.
She laughed at the stunned look of the blond shinigami, before turning towards the black-haired one.
"What gave it away, Shinigami-san? And may I have my hat back?"
The shinigami retracted his weird gardening tool of a death scythe. Anais caught the hat and inspected the hole in it the middle before sighing. She would have to fix it up later, when she returned home.
The shinigami held his death-pruners/clippers by his side as he adjusted his glasses.
"That is simple. The real Anubis Mahogany Kane is lying in a private ward twenty rooms away, in a state of coma."
Anais resisted the urge to scold herself. No doubt they had searched every room to search for Maria so they could reap her soul. The security here was supposed to be good, given that her family had personally selected the staff.
"I see." She replied, the smile on her face not changing a bit.
The shinigami with blonde hair suddenly grinned, his surprised look disappearing instantly.
"Y'know, for a moment there I thought I was swinging the other way. You up for dinner later?"
The blond shinigami shot her a wink.
Anais could feel her cheeks turning red again. It seems that she's been blushing a lot lately.
"Ronald Knox. Must I remind you that you are on duty now?"
The black-haired man glared at the younger shinigami in disapproval.
So that shinigami's name was Ronald Knox...
"But sir! This is the last soul to be collected anyway! And I finished all my paperwork long ago!"
Ronald whined slightly as he looked at the emotionless shinigami. The man shot him a stern look as Ronald then sighed in defeat, scratching the back of his head before turning to Anais.
"Well, I'll treat you to something the next time we meet! What's your name?"
Anais gave a dry smile. She hated to admit it, but she found the shinigami, Ronald Knox to be rather cute, even though he struck her as a womanizer.
"My name is Anais Ivette Kane. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr Knox."
Ronald smiled warmly at her.
"Ehhh~ Just call me Ronald!"
A side of her lips twitched slightly.
"Ok then, Ronald-san."
The shinigami pouted slightly, before shrugging.
He suddenly caught sight of his supervisor leaving without him.
"Bye, Miss Anais!"
He winked at her as he shot her a charming smile, before chasing after his superior, pushing his lawnmower in front of him as he did so.
"Wait for me, sir!"
Anais laughed as she heard Ronald call after the other stern-faced man, as both of them disappeared from sight.
Shinigami sure were a strange bunch.
Sighing, her expression turned grim as she looked at the lifeless form of Maria, lying on the hospital bed. For all you know, she could be peacefully sleeping right now.
Stepping outside, she looked at the empty hallway before calling out.
"Sophia-san? I need your assistance."
Almost instantly, the nurse appeared, smiling as she curtseyed, tucking a strand of brown hair behind her ear as she did so.
"I'm afraid that Maria-san has passed on. That meeting will have to wait. First, we shall have a funeral service to one of the most dedicated nurses that has served in this hospital."
A look of sadness flashed over Sophia's face as she peered inside the room and nodded, her lips straightening into a thin line.
"Yes, I will see to that, Lord Anubis."
Thanking the nurse, Anais walked off to find her servants with her top hat in hand.
She stopped and looked back towards the door, where she could see Sophia holding Maria's hand as she was undoubtedly mourning for her deceased mentor.
Anais resisted the strong urge to go and comfort Sophia, however, it was best to give her some space.
Shakily taking a deep breath, she calmly looked at the lifeless form of the aged woman before muttering.
"Goodbye, Maria-san. Thank you for everything."
Her eyes flashed pink as they temporarily became slits before returning to their normal color. She closed her eyes long and hard, before deliberately turning around and walking away as swiftly as she could.
Today, they would have Maria's funeral. Regrettably, Ciel's offer will have to wait.