Kuroshitsuji © Yana Toboso
OCs © reaper-of-lost-souls
A/N: Oh another chapter? XD Well now we get deeper into the darkness and see a bunch of events that Sophie has no clue about =O Anyways I hope you guys are enjoying this story. I don't know if you have or not… so yeah. We're going to focus more on Sophie in this chapter now. I hope you guys won't mind ^^ Oh! And now you see the origins of a few of these critters… Yep that's it! ENJOY!
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"Hello Guardian."
"Guardian hi."
"Hi Guardi – we have another trapped soul here? Hello!"
Sophie heard the shadows around her speak, and with time they slowly became visible to her as souls and spirits. She was amazed at how many souls were walking around in the shadows, becoming their own person as they walked by. She looked down at the boy and wondered why he was getting so much attention since he was the soul of a young boy… right? "You must be confused," the boy chuckled. "As I said, your soul is currently in the shadows. We are slowly being devoured till there is nothing of us left… as is the way of the world I suppose."
"That sounds… sad," Sophie frowned, the boy stopping and shrugging at her.
"Not really," he responded. "I guess I can explain everything to you, but you have to promise to tell me everything about yourself too," he grinned happily.
Sophie gave him a smile and gave him a slight nod. "Of course."
The boy nodded and sat down on the ground, Sophie following along and looking at him intently. "My story begins in Egypt, my home," the boy began slowly, "I was the firstborn of my father's children and as such I was going to be the heir to his throne. Then… well to make the story short, a man came to my father demanding that the slaves be set free. My father found this ridiculous, but as time went by weird things started to happen. First our river turned red with blood. Next frogs started jumping around and tainting our food. Then gnats suddenly came out of nowhere and caused my head to be itching. Flies came around and became pests. Then my people started getting sick. After that we started to get boils on our skin… then the sky began to hail. Locusts came out of nowhere to diminish our crops and the sky suddenly turned back. Then… the very last thing… it was the worst."
"What would that be?" Sophie asked sweetly as she put a gentle hand on top of the boy's shoulder, noticing his nervousness.
"The death of every firstborn of Egypt, from young to old, from humans to animals," he frowned. "The next thing I know, my people and I are stuck here in the darkness. This is a scary place," he tried to explain. "Not only is there the darkness, which can be unbearable, but there are creatures lurking in the shadows that will come up to devour you. If devoured you will be transported somewhere else, leaving the group and being tortured in more ways than one." He sighed, shaking his head before giving her a smile, "So what happened with you?"
"Well…" Sophie thought quietly, unsure of how she could describe it. "I… I am not exactly human," she sighed, "I am part human and part grim reaper. I died and became a grim reaper, taking souls and evaluating them. Then… an angel awoken powers inside of me and the next thing I know I'm stuck here in the darkness. I never was a real fan of the dark," she huffed to herself. She looked around, watching as the souls passed in front of her and looked at her curiously. She could see that the lights of some souls were different from others, some brighter than others. "Why do they call you Guardian?" she asked inquiringly.
"… I protect them," he said simply. "I am a god you see, son of Pharaoh and –"
"You are not a god sweetheart," she chuckled interrupting him. "You are human, which is fine in my opinion. I don't see anything wrong with being human –"
"Yes, but I am son of Pharaoh," he huffed back, "and inherit his godliness from him. These souls see me as ruler and thus I act as their protector if anything bad happens. It is just the way it has been."
"W-wow…" Sophie paused before cracking him a small smile. "Well~ my name is Sophia young one, but you can Sophie for short."
"Sophie…" the boy answered quietly. "… My name is Oba," he grinned happily.
"Oba…" she smiled. "It's nice to meet you Oba. I hope I can get to know you and everyone else around here better," she chuckled lightly as they shook hands.
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"Could someone tell me what is going on around here?" Grell yelled, shaking Alex back and forth with murder in his eyes. "Where is Sophie? Where is she? Tell meeeeeeee –"
"Miss Sutcliff please~" Rose huffed as she pulled him off of her husband, "We are as clueless as you are on this. All we've been told is to keep calm and don't get hysterical –"
"I will get as hysterical till I find out where my little apprentice vanished to," Grell huffed back at her.
"Sutcliff," Fiona growled at him as she walked down the stairs with her hands in her pockets, "what are you doing with her –"
"You! You probably know!" Grell jumped as he rushed over to her to pin her against a nearby wall. "Where did Sophie go? She's been gone for days now! Where! –"
"Will I have to suspend you for disorderly conduct Miss Sutcliff," Fiona glared at him, causing Grell to flinched and let her go.
"N-no miss," he sighed as he stepped a few feet back, "but my question still stands. Where is she?"
"We don't know," Fiona sighed, "Undertaker went off to find her a few days ago –"
"Then she could be dead right now?" Grell huffed. "Why isn't anyone else investigating anyways? Isn't that what the Paranormal Operations was created to do is investigat~ –"
"It was by my order Miss Sutcliff," Fiona glared at him, "and Undertaker's too. Trust me; he'll be the only one who can find her anyways. Don't worry about it –"
"I will!" Grell snarled. "You may not care, but I~ care about her safety –"
"As so I," Fiona admitted in a small voice, "but we can't jump into things –"
"What things?" Grell growled. "You're not telling me! I need to know! –"
"Fine," Fiona sighed, "then follow me to my office and I will explain the situation." As she began to turn around she paused, Grell having to stop as to avoid running into her back, "And if you sass off to me one more time I swear to all the sanity I have left in me that you'll be demoted and thrown out. Understood?"
"… Yes," Grell answered as simply and cleanly as possible, determined to get his questions answered by the end of the day.
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"Guardian they're coming!" a little girl ran up to Oba and pointed to the shadows, Sophie feeling a strange familiar presence among those shadows.
"Thank you," Oba nodded, grabbing Sophie's hand and pulling her out of her trance as they made their way to the group of souls. "Listen up," he called to the group, everyone turning their heads before they could run off, "We need to stay as a group. Women, children, and elderly leave first with half of the men to protect them. The rest of the able-bodied men will stay here to fend them off to bide them time. Understood?"
"Yes Guardian," the group said meekly, the chaos commencing as everyone split off into their groups and ran off.
"… What are you still doing here?" Oba huffed at Sophie. "You may be new, but you're a woman and should go with the group departing –"
"I am staying here," she huffed back at him, glaring him down. "I have more power than you can anticipate. I may be able to help you."
"… Alright fine," Oba sighed, "but stand in the back. You may not like what you see."
Sophie nodded and headed to the back of the men, looking over and under them in an attempt to see the monsters the other souls were describing. When they came into view Sophie couldn't help but chuckle, recognizing almost every creature that was coming towards them. Knowing these men wouldn't let her fight, she stood in the back trying to summon her scythe. "Again?" she huffed as her black death scythe wouldn't come to her call. Not even her guns would come. Then she started hearing screaming, seeing a large beast growl past her and run in the direction the group ran in. Sighing she ran as fast as her feet would carry her, jumping on top of the beast and grabbing hold of its ears. "Damn it settle down!" Sophie growled, the black beast jumping up and down trying to get Sophie off of it.
"Sophie!" Oba yelled, growling as he ran towards her with a handcrafted spear in his hand.
"Wait!" she yelled before he could throw it, "Let me handle this!"
"But –"
"Ahelie listen to me!" Sophie hissed in the beast's ear, "This is your master. Now settle down or else I'm not taking you with me ever again."
Slowly the giant black cat stopped, its growls slowly turning into whimpers as it settled down and lay submissive on the ground. Oba looked at them in shock, taking several steps back as he whimpered. "W-who are you?" he asked quietly, Sophie jumping off of Ahelie's back and giving her a pat on the head.
"Good girl," she chuckled, turning her attention back over to him as she glared at the other monsters behind him. "I will tell you later. Let's get rid of these other creatures, okay?"
"O-okay…" he stood there stunned, shuddering as a chill rolled down his spine as she walked past him. He could feel her aura and it felt very intimidating compared to his own. Turning around Oba followed after Sophie, dismissing the gigantic cat in the back of his mind as he stayed closed behind her.
Sophie smirked, feeling very confident with herself. If she could order Ahelie to stop attacking in her demon form, then perhaps the other creatures that were attacking would obey her. Who knows? Perhaps she was brought here for a reason. "Tibi, creaturas tenebras, mox pugna prohiberent," she said with great authority in her voice, standing tall and proud between the other souls and the demons.
Oba shuddered at her voice, feeling the sternness that passed her lips. At the sound of her voice the beasts slowly stopped, lying down in submissive positions as Sophie came up to them and glared them down. The men gulped, running past her and to the young boy. "W-who is this creature?" several of them said at once, the boy putting up his hand before they could continue.
"I do not know," he admitted, clutching his fists to his side as he let in a deep breath, "but I'm going to find out." Leaving the souls behind Oba walked forward towards Sophie, who was trying to communicate with the creatures. "W-who are you?" he growled at her, causing Sophie to turn around and raise an eyebrow, "Are you hear to kill us? Are you a beast also –"
"I am no beast boy," Sophie huffed, turning back around at the large black dragon that stood before her. "I am a human: part human, part God of Death, with a few other creature mixes in between. I am a soul like yourself, trapped here by events I do not clearly know, but I have authority over them and I will see that my questions get answered," she admitted. "Now will I have to let one of them devour you or can I do my job?"
Oba gulped before letting up a huff and crossing his arms over his chest, "Go right ahead, but I am staying here and listening."
"Be my guest," she cracked a smile before her face became serious once again and she glared at the creatures. "Quid facis hinc? Quid devora animae?"
"We were created in the darkness to serve the darkness," the dragon explained in a tongue Oba could hardly understand, letting a puff of smoke escape its nose and blow into their faces. "Which is you… Magister," it bowed, the other creatures' heads staying low to the ground, or what Sophie assumed was the ground.
Oba's mouth dropped at the only familiar word in the beast's sentence, magister. "D-did they just call your master –"
"You still haven't answered my question," Sophie huffed, "Quid facis hinc? Quid devora animae?"
"…" the dragon frowned, keeping its head low to the ground as it tried to keep out of Sophie's glare. "Do you know where you are Magister?"
"Actually no," Sophie admitted, "but perhaps you can explain this to me and to the little boy next to me. If I am really your master, then explain the situation to me in his native tongue."
"Very well," the dragon began to speak in ancient Egyptian, Oba's mouth dropping as he heard his own language being spoken by this beast. He looked up at Sophie in awe; both amazed and terrified by the power she must possess to be able to control these beings just by her words. "Master –"
"First tell me who you are," Sophie growled at them.
"Several of us go by names," one of them explained, "but most of us go by no name. Only by names humans have given to us over the years."
"Still say them," Sophie narrowed her eyes. "I don't like to be kept waiting…"
"You are in a place of Abaddōn, the lowest place of the low in Hell and in all creation. Where nothingness arrives from nothing and something becomes nothing," a half-goat, half-human being said, standing and bowing to Sophie in reverence. "I am Aza'zel, a creature destined to be sacrificed when this world comes to an end."
"As we said there are many of us who have no name," a large three-headed dog stood up and crept towards her, "but we are all here because we were created to be here. I am Kerberos, the dog that guards Hell as the Leviathan does, but I do not devour. I only make sure no one comes in and out unless I am told they can."
"I can't believe I can finally talk to you!" an excited cat jumped up and down and pushed Kerberos away, causing the mutt to yelp in surprise as it was shoved leagues away from them. "You named me. I am the only one that is named by master!"
"M-me?" Sophie pointed to herself with a huff.
"Yes you master," the cat smiled. "Ahelie, demon cat of the lowest reaches of Hell. Accompanies souls as they travel through the afterlife. Devours evil souls and rewards the good. To explain to the little Egyptian," the black cat chuckled, "I am like Ammit, but not quite her. That is a different creature entirely, but I have the same roles as her… she's somewhere around here, but is probably taking a nap or something," Ahelie shrugged.
"And I have been called several names," the dragon pointed to himself, "Apep by Egyptians and Dracul from the Romanians. I am simply a dragon, a serpent, who, like Ahelie, serves only you in your missions if you require us to, master."
"… Okay thank you," Sophie began, "but you still need to explain to me why you're trying to devour this group of souls… don't tell me it's because of me."
"We reward the just and let them move on to paradise in the afterlife, but if the soul is deemed unworthy then they are devoured by us… any of us master," the dragon continued to explain to Sophie, who supposed his name is Apep, "Our main role is to devour souls. These souls have been sent by your soul to be here in Abaddōn, thus they will forever be tormented and devoured over and over by us –"
"I see…" Sophie thought quietly. "Well how do you know I am your master?" she huffed. "Why do you call me master?"
"Your soul was created before us," Apep explained, "and we came from you. The darkness you see around you is your soul, master, and you can control what happens here. If you want this place to disappear then it can and if you want to create more of us then you can. We are creatures that serve and have no authority other than the authority you can give us. We do not know if you created us or we are only created from your side, but we are a part of you… but you are not a part of us."
"Let me get this straight," Sophie held up her hand, "You're telling me that my soul is the darkness? Does that mean my soul's name is Abaddōn? Is that what you're trying to say??"
"N-no master," he trembled slightly as she began to raise her voice, "Y-you miss understood –"
"You're only making everything complicated," Ahelie huffed and pushed Apep to the side, staring at Sophie with big sapphire/golden eyes and a gigantic grin plastered on her face. "No, you have no name master. In fact, even we don't know if you are Abaddōn or Abaddōn is also a part of you. It is a question within a question without an answer I suppose," the black demon cat shrugged. "Your soul is the darkness. It is the~ darkness. Not that you came from the darkness, but you are the darkness. Or perhaps you're not… I don't know," she shrugged. "Thus, master, we do not know you. We only come from you. Actually not even anyone in Hell knows where you come from. You're older then Hell itself. Older then the world itself. Heck, you may be older then the heavens itself! We just don't know… only you would know that."
"Huh…" Sophie thought to herself, keeping a stern glare on the creatures. "Then, as your master, this is my thoughts on the matter," she began, beginning to walk and kept a stern glare at each creature, "It seems to me that when I sent these souls here I did not properly evaluate them. Thus I want to review each soul that is here and evaluate their true destination for the rest of eternity. Some may stay here, some may go to Sekhet iaru, but if they can then I will leave it up to them to go. If they do not want to go to Sekhet iaru and would rather stay here for eternity then they can… I owe it to these souls that have been trapped for three thousand years to choose their paths." Letting out a sigh she scratched the back of her head, making sure Oba was still in her sights as she turned around and began to walk back towards him. "As your master this is my order: You will not torment these souls till I have done my evaluation. If you eat or touch one without my consent then you will be destroyed on sight. Once I have given my consent then you may resume tormenting these souls, but in the meantime I will not allow you to touch anyone of them. Understood?"
After hearing several grunts and roars Sophie nodded, wrapping an arm around Oba's shoulder protectively and pushed him away from the beasts. "There is one last thing," she began again, "is your obedience to me. If I call upon you in battle then I want you to come with no moans and groans on the matter. Sometimes I will need help, for I have chosen to not eat the evil spirits myself. So if you're called then come and in the world I can explain to you what I need to you do… understood?" After hearing more grunts and roars of approval Sophie smirked, "Good. Now you are all dismissed except for Kerberos."
"W-wait me!" the three-headed dog woofed at his name being called, keeping his heads low to the ground as Sophie walked up to him, grabbing him by the nose and tilting one of his heads so she could glare into his eyes. The dog flinched back, seeing the crystal blue, shinigami green, and yellow colors swirling rapidly in her eyes and barring at him.
"You know how to get out of here correct?" Sophie asked.
"Y-yes master –"
"Good," she huffed. "I need to get myself out of here as soon as possible. While I'm gone I want you to keep guard of the souls. I will not have one of them disappear on me before I can complete my mission."
"Y-yes master," it whimpered, Sophie letting out another huff as she shoved his nose to the ground and skipped over to Oba.
Sophie smiled at Oba, whose mouth was open in shock. "Y-you're not going to kill us are you?"
"I don't plan on it," Sophie shrugged before letting out a tired sigh. "I… I know I wasn't the soul responsible in trapping your soul and the other bas here in the lowest pits of the darkness, but my other soul is. The soul that grows inside of me did, I know that… a-and I won't be able to live with myself if I am able to leave this place, but everyone else is left behind. I can't accept this."
"T-then what are you saying master –"
"Don't call me master," Sophie huffed. "It's Sophie. Don't call me by any other name… unless you want to call me Sophia. That's fine too," she smirked. Oba flinched in fear before he gave her a slight nod of the head, a chuckle escaping her throat as she continued to think. "And what I'm saying is I need to bring a soul with me to earth who knows every soul that is trapped here so I can collect their records. Even a soul as old as you should have records somewhere… so I need to revise them and read each one of them over before I can permit some of you to leave. What I want to ask is… do you know every ba that is here and can help me?"
"R-really?" he gasped. "Yes! Y-yes I will!"
"Good," Sophie smiled, rustling up his black hair before looking over at the Kerberos that was keeping his heads to the ground. "Make the list for me here, but you can come with me to the living world to assist me. You will only be a ghost and must follow me around, but I don't see a problem with you tagging along. Since you're a god~ and all," she snickered.
"N-no I'm not," Oba sighed as he looked to the ground, "I-I'm not. You're right, I'm only a human… but if I can help you," he said as he lifted up his head and his brown eyes shined with determination, "then I will!"
"Then help me explain the situation to the rest of the bas," Sophie told him, pushing Oba along as the Kerberos followed obediently behind them, "because they will listen to you. You may not be a god, but you are their leader and must continue to act as such." Oba nodded and stayed close to Sophie, flinching away as the Kerberos breathed down his neck and barked at him.
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"And the Wepwawet family, the father and daughter," Oba told Sophie, a different soul writing down the information for them on a long scroll that spanned on and on and disappeared into the darkness, "who were with me in Egypt. That is the last of them," the young boy explained, looking over the scribe's shoulder and looking over the information.
"We had about 940,508 souls trapped here in Abaddōn when we, us Egyptians, were captured," the scribe began, "and –"
"There were about 6,600,600 souls trapped here in the beginning," Sophie interrupted him, "and about 1,099,400 since my father, Maurus, was created. That means there are exactly 7,700,000 souls that need to be evaluated."
"That's a lot of bas," Oba huffed at the large number, "How are you going to finish all of that?"
"It will be hard," Sophie chuckled, "but it's not impossible. I can get some help on this, but I will be the one and only being who evaluates the souls. You understand what you'll be doing, right Oba?"
"Yes," he nodded. "I'll be hiding in your body right?"
"You can say it like that," Sophie chuckled, "but don't worry. I'll let you stretch once everything is situated and I'm working on the cinematic records –"
"I-if you don't mind me asking," Oba asked, "b-but what's a cinematic record?"
"To make is simple," Sophie sighed, "a cinematic record is a record of a being's soul as it plays out over time. A human's cinematic record is simple, from their birth to their death. The records can get more and more complex as time goes on; if the being is supernatural or not can play a factor too. If they can time travel is or go to parallel universes are other complications. It all depends on the individual."
"Ah," Oba nodded, "Understood…"
"Yes," Sophie nodded back, using her powers to roll up the scroll into a tight ball and turn it into a small scroll. Then she stuffed it under her trench coat, tucked under her clothes and close to her heart so no one would find it. "Now come," she held out her hand to him, Oba quickly accepting the hand and gripping tightly to her side, "we have a long journey ahead of us. Thank you sir for writing the names down on the scroll."
"You are welcome miss," the scribe bowed to her, Sophie giving him a nod as she kept a tight grip on Oba's hand and pulled him along.
"… Are you scared?" she asked him quietly.
"Yes," Oba answered behind chattering teeth, "b-but I'm ready for whatever comes." Sophie nodded and put her hand in her pocket, Oba let in a tight gulp as his eyes darted around in the darkness as they slowly walked along.
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A/N: Wow I'm having too much fun finding different names for this XD Anyways I hope you like this so far. I had a MAJOR case of writer's block and didn't know how to execute this. So I hope you understand everything… Well that's pretty much it. (I REALLY need to get rid of some of these chapters. Too many! XO) I hope you've enjoyed this so far. Tell me if you have! I don't get a lot of comments from this fanfic anymore it seems ^^'
Oba – Egyptian – scepter holder; king
Tibi, creaturas tenebras, mox pugna prohiberent – Latin – I order you, creatures of darkness, to stop attacking at once
Quid facis hinc? Quid devora animae? – Latin – What are you doing here? Why are you devouring these souls?
magister – Latin – master
Abaddōn – Greek – derived from Hebrew abaddown, meaning "destruction, ruination." In the New Testament bible, this is the name of the place of destruction. And it is a name given to the angel of the bottomless pit, the Destroyer Apollyōn
Aza'zel – Hebrew – meaning "entire removal" and "scapegoat." In the bible, this word is found in the law of the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:8, 10, 26). It refers to a goat used for sacrifice for the sins of the people. In modern times, Azazel was interpreted as a Satanic, goat-like demon. The name has even been used for the "Angel of Death"
Kerberos – Greek – meaning "demon of the pit." In mythology, this is the name of the three-headed dog that guards the entrance to Hades
Ammit – Egyptian – female demon with a body that was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile—the three largest "man-eating" animals known to ancient Egyptians. A funerary deity, her titles included "Devourer of the Dead", "Eater of Hearts", and "Great of Death"
Dracul – Romanian – "devil" or "dragon"
Sekhet iaru – Egyptian – "reed fields"; paradisiacal land of plenty where the dead hoped to spend eternity