Hello, my fellow Kurofans! I cannot believe it but yes! The time has come! After three years of writing, editing and many... many real life delays... I'll finally manage to start publishing my Kuroshitsuji fanfiction! It will be uploaded on a weekly basis around Fridays (Greece time, I'm useless in figuring out time zones, sorry) and... that's it actually. Every Friday a new chapter will be published here and in Wattpad under the same profile name/title (whatever suits anyone better).
Now, since I'm very interested in a more professional writing, I treated the structure of the story as a partly original story, so there might be parts that feel boring since events are known to us, fans, especially manga-readers, but I repeat them for continuity's sake. Please, bear with me. For the same reason, professional writing... *falling down to my knees* I implore you to give me feedback on the story, characters, everything! Positive, negative, I don't mind, as long as it's given in a constructive and kind way! I'm very interested in hearing how people like or dislike my work! :)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kuroshitsuji or its characters. I entirely own only my OCs, arcs and ideas/themes not mentioned in any form of the franchise (manga, anime, games, movies or musicals).
Chapter 1: The Tutor, Introducing
Ciel had just descended into Campania's cargo hold, having left Lizzie waiting for him at the stairs above; now he was looking around, illuminating the deep darkness with the light beam of his lantern. Everything was covered by silence, interrupted only by the expected creaks of the moving ship.
"So this is the cargo hold…" Ciel began saying when a sudden noise cut him off. "Who is there?!" The boy cried, turning around and pointing his gun to everything and nothing in particular; a light hint of fear in his voice. "Snake!" He finally said when the light fell on a kneeling pale figure.
"Too bright… says Wordsworth." Snake said lifting his hands and squinting his eyes in an attempt to block the blinding light.
Ciel breathed in trying to calm down and looked at Snake. "What on Earth are you doing here of all places?"
"The food was so delicious, I wanted to come and share it with everyone… says Donne. The cakes were much yummier than the food, you know."
"Is that right?" Ciel sighed, but before saying anything else, clacking footsteps came closer and a very flustered Lizzie appeared, still holding the plate with the cake she wanted Ciel to eat. "Lizzie?"
"Gosh! Do not just leave me alone like that!" The young girl cried, trying to hold back her tears, knowing how crying angered Ciel.
"I told you to go back upstairs, did I not?"
"But I wanted you to eat your cake, so… It is your favourite kind, with the strawberries on top! And I brought you the biggest piece! See?" Lizzie said bringing forward her hand with the plate and then "Oh?" when she saw the plate empty.
A deep gurgling sound was heard behind her that made Ciel draw his gaze upwards, only to see a terrible creature standing right at her shoulder. Mouth stuffed with the cake, but with naked teeth grinding violently the soft food; blindfolded and a monstrous human face at the first stages of decomposition.
Ciel's eye opened widely and Lizzie, after watching surprise, disgust and a little terror on her fiancé's face, started turning to look behind her. Before she could complete her movement, Ciel pulled her with one hand to him and with the other bashed the lantern on the strong snapping jaws of the creature, right before they bite Lizzie. Ciel's momentum was very strong and resulted on his back crashing on some crates behind him, while holding Lizzie in his arms. The lantern fell on the floor shedding more light to the walking terror that made guttural, disgusting sounds.
It was an undead body, like the other one upstairs, in the Aurora meeting, but different at the same time. Tottering while trying to reach out and catch the two children, knowing exactly where they were. Ciel and Lizzie were looking at the bizarre monster, eyes wide open, not knowing what to do at the moment.
Running footsteps were heard and a dark figure slammed on the monster, sending it to step back and then struggle to gain its footing, its body shaking violently. The dark figure walked towards Ciel and Lizzie.
"Miss Clark?!" and "Selina?!" Ciel, surprised, and Lizzie, happily, cried out.
"My lord, my lady. Are you unharmed?" The woman standing in front of them asked. Blond hair tied in a tight bun, blue eyes looking at them in utter fear and worry. Her dark grey dress made her almost invisible in the shadows.
"Yes, thank you!" Said Ciel. "What are you doing here? It is dangerous."
"Well… my lady Dankworth had no need of me upstairs. I wandered exploring the ship and I got lost." The woman said in complete innocence.
Their attention turned once more to the body; now it had more or less steadied itself and started forward towards its prey.
"There were more of them?" Asked Ciel and his gaze dropped on the casket lying open on the floor, with a fire bird engraved on it. "That is… the insignia of the Aurora Society! So Rian brought another reanimated corpse along with him?"
Lizzie was listening to him, but could not understand a thing he said. What she could understand was, there was a walking corpse heading towards her and her fiancé with a sole purpose of hurting them, although she did not know the reason, and the protective, trembling hand Miss Clark stretched in front of the two children would not be enough.
"Snake!" Ciel yelled to his footman, now standing close to them with two snakes loosely wrapped around his shoulders. "Leave that one to me. You take care of Lizzie and Miss Clark! Snake? Hey! Did you hear what I…" Ciel continued when he saw the young man looking past him with a slightly surprised look on his usually apathetic face.
Snake, along with his two snakes, pointed at the back of the cargo hold. "The mark of the bird… There are lots more of them over there…"
Ciel followed where Snake was pointing. Numerous lines of upright coffins had started to shake violently, since their occupants were freeing themselves from their confinements.
"…says Oscar." Snake finished as more and more limbs of walking corpses were revealing themselves from inside the coffins.
"No… Every last one of these is-?! It cannot be…" Ciel thought watching the monstrous horde breaking the coffins and immediately zeroing on their prey.
He felt Lizzie shaking in his arms, terrified by the sight, and even he felt his mind not able to grasp the monstrosity of what he was seeing. He knew that without Sebastian he could not do much, but he had to do something, he had to protect Lizzie!
"Lizzie, run!" He finally said pulling the girl towards the stairs; Snake and Miss Clark following.
They did not get the chance to take many steps, because more undead were already blocking the exit. As soon as they realised it, a roar was heard behind Lizzie and the girl ducked right before undead jaws clamped on her. Ciel shot the creature on the head blowing its mind in the process, but soon realised it was in vain since many more took its place. He started looking around in search for a place to hide; he eyed some crates, one on top of the other, that were quite high and he was hoping that the monsters would not reach them.
"Snake! Take Lizzie and Miss Clark and get on top of the crates! Hurry!" The boy said and started shooting the heads of the undead army to buy the other three some time. Soon he was cornered in front of the crates shooting with no result. "Damn! There are too many of them…" He said thinking that his pistol was not that useful after all.
"Ciel, behind you!" Lizzie screamed as soon as she spotted one of them launching itself towards the boy.
Ciel lifted his hands in defence, but suddenly the attacker pulled back and when Ciel opened his eye he saw a snake wrapped around the undead face. He heard Snake calling him, with his stage name as always, turned towards the voice and reached out to the offered hand of the young man, but at the same time, two grey clad arms from above circled his torso and pulled him up, just as another living dead was ready to take hold of him.
Ciel found himself on the crates, sitting between Lizzie and Miss Clark, whose arms were already retreating from his body. For a moment, he felt very confused by the action of the seemingly small and weak woman. The speed and strength in which she acted were somehow familiar to him, but when he looked at the woman's face saw evident fear above everything else, and so he thought that she just acted on instinct.
"Thank you, Miss Clark."
"Do not mention it, my lord. It was my duty." The woman said with a trembling voice.
The four people looked at the monsters beneath them, observed them and came to the conclusion that their sole purpose was to consume living flesh, although they still did not know the reason for that; and that they acted based on the sounds they heard. However, when they tried to distract them and Snake threw away the plate Lizzie was still holding, the undead did not react at all… so there goes the sound theory.
Before Ciel could think anything else, the crates started shaking and soon, the four people on top, saw the walking corpses breaking the wood with teeth and nails.
"Snake! Can you stop them with your serpents?" Ciel asked.
"No way! Not that many… says Oscar."
Ciel started thinking how long would take for Sebastian to get here, when a blade appeared right in front of his eye. The blade stabbed mercilessly the head of one living corpse destroying it entirely. Ciel followed the blade with his eye and saw a feminine hand holding it steadily with great confidence; the hand belonged to Miss Clark, whom Ciel looked now wide eyed from surprise.
The mask of fear the woman had previously on, now had slipped away and the boy saw an almost stone cold face with cat-like eyes burning with fury and disgust. She removed the blade from the ruined head without batting an eyelash at the sight of blood sputtering all over the place. With a speed that was at the limit of calling it non human she continued stabbing the corpses that were close to them, using both hands now, since another short, sharp sword had appeared in her other hand, while balancing her knees at the edge of the broken crates in a way that she could reach her target without breaking the crates entirely.
"Just like a cat!" Ciel thought, but Lizzie's terrified scream brought him back to reality. His gaze scanned the area underneath them and realised that, even though Miss Clark had already and was continuing to kill numerous walking corpses, there were even more coming towards them. A quick glance at the woman's eyes told him she was of the same opinion... but she kept going.
"Lizzie, I will protect you without fail… Come whatever may!" The boy Earl yelled with evident determination in his voice.
"How admirable of you, young master." A cool, deep voice was heard followed by silver table knives flying in the air, ending up forcefully planted in the heads of even more collapsing corpses. "That is how an English gentleman should behave."
Sebastian, Ciel's black clad demon butler, was standing at the far end of the cargo hold. His appearance flawless, like he himself had not partake in a deadly battle with a Grim Reaper just a minute ago. He smiled in his usual over confident way.
"Sebastian! Do not just stand there! Hurry up and take care of them!" The young master ordered and in response the butler started running towards the mass of undead corpses milling around the crates.
His speed was indeed inhuman, his movements a blur to the human eye. Ciel hugged Lizzie tighter, covering her face in an effort to shield her from Sebastian's bloody dance, resulting in totally destroyed bodies dropping to the floor, dead for good and in pieces. Ciel saw Snake watching the battle surprised but also confused, since the young man could not clearly see what the butler was doing. Then, Ciel's eye fell on Miss Clark and kept staring at her for a while, perplexed.
The woman had wide round eyes, if she could open them a little more they would fall off their sockets and her blue cat-like orbs were darting around, almost in perfect coordination to Sebastian's movements; her brows arched in awe the moment Ciel thought he heard a low, beastly roar like a dark chuckle coming from the demon as he was smiling in a totally demonic manner. The woman was so entranced by the sight that paid no attention to the two bloody blades in her hands dripping on her grey skirt. Finally, a breathy whisper reached Ciel's ears.
"I didn't expect that. Only with his hands! Wow!" The woman exclaimed with pure admiration in her voice.
That statement made Ciel's gaze to be drawn towards the scene in front of him. Black and blood red were one; Sebastian was destroying these unnatural creatures without even sparing a thought to it, no hesitation. Actually, he looked like a beast killing just for fun, his red eyes flashing entertained under long, black lashes... and then that roar-like chuckle was heard again.
Ciel suddenly felt like he was being swallowed by a black sticky pool, drowning. Images of another bloody dance performed by the same beast played in his mind; the feelings of utter terror, desperation, imprisonment and loss resurfaced and agony took hold of his mind for a while, before determination, hate, desire for revenge and power pulled him through darkness and brought him back, the moment Lizzie was once again calling to him. The boy was trembling and his hand a tight clamp on the girl's arm hurting her. He immediately forced himself to calm down and relax his hand.
"All done, young master." Sebastian said in a very pleased voice and what Ciel saw was the tall man drenched in blood, some even on his face, that was smiling happily, perfectly satisfied with himself.
"Like a small child after a day full of playing around with his toys!" The boy thought and felt a coldness creeping up his spine while looking at the gruesome toys scattered around destroyed and the demonic "child" standing in a pool of blood, smiling.
"Is something wrong?" Asked the butler, watching with amusement his master's young face distorted by disgust and perhaps terror. "Now. Here, please let me help you." He said offering his blood red gloved hands.
"Do not touch me with those hands. You will get me dirty." Ciel answered, fully composed, and started getting down.
"My apologies, sir." Sebastian responded and in a flash changed his gloves with new, clean ones.
He helped down the young earl who stepped in a pool of blood and then supported Lady Elizabeth in order to safely get to the ground. He then offered his hands to help Miss Clark but, at his surprise, the woman had already landed in front of him. Now he looked at her more closely and for the first time he felt confused and positively impressed by a human.
Young lady Dankworth's – a dear friend of lady Elizabeth's – usually silent and shy tutor, always blushing uncontrollably - annoyingly reminding him of Mey-Rin - the few rare times he addressed her these two days they met on the Campania, was now clutching two bloodied short swords and her eyes were sparkling revealing excitement and great confidence in front of a so gruesome scene. She looked like a professional assassin, who was even enjoying her work… nothing like Mey-Rin at that point.
"Miss Clark, impressed, my lady." He kindly noted, drawing her attention to him, and pointing at the swords.
"Oh, thank you. Likewise, Mr. Michaelis." She responded smiling and in turn pointing to all the bloody limbs scattered all over the hold's floor. The butler also smiled and slightly bowed his head to the human woman.
"Could you please leave the pleasantries for later? We have more pressing matters." Ciel Phantomhive said in an authoritative and grumpy tone as he was looking the now blood soaked sole of his shoe. "Could you not have done it a little more gracefully? You were like a beast."
"Please do forgive me, sir. It was a matter of some urgency after all." The butler responded seemingly regretting the extent of violence he used… but of course without convincing his master. "Moreover, their bodies appear to be frailer than even that of an average human."
"Indeed. They had a… spongy feeling. They seemed quite squishy, if I am allowed to say." Miss Clark informed them, while she rested her swords on a crate and started fumbling something at her waist underneath her short, grey jacket.
At everyone's surprise her blood soaked skirt, along with the layers of petticoats underneath, fell on the ground revealing black trousers hugging her legs instead of the expected drawers, black high heeled boots reached to her knees and black straps on her calves and ankles were steadying her swords' scabbards along with a set of small, sharp daggers.
"So… they were easy to destroy, I get that. But why are so many of them on this ship?" Ciel asked, still observing the strange woman, who now had taken one of her daggers, slipped it underneath her clothes and seemed to wrestle with something at her back. Soon enough laces started falling down in pieces and with a sudden move her corset was pulled out.
"Phew! Freedom at last." The woman said to herself dropping her corset, quite unceremoniously, on the floor.
She then turned, took her swords and by kneeling down cleaned them on her discarded skirt, before sheathing them. As a finishing touch, she took some pins out of her bun and released a gold ponytail reaching her shoulder blades and some curly locks circling her quite lively coloured face, highlighting her arched gold eyebrows and lashes making her significantly more feminine and beautiful.
As the mysterious woman was finishing her… transformation, Sebastian whipped his right hand in the air, throwing some more table knives that nailed themselves in a crate right in front of Dr. Rian's terrified face. The butler immediately caught the trembling man in his unbreakable grip and the desperate scientist, without needing much persuasion, confessed that the second cargo hold in the bow of the ship had ten times as many test subjects, meaning the reanimated corpses, as the cargo hold they were currently in.
"Did you say ten times as many?" Ciel asked not believing his ears.
Sebastian heard the number of monsters soon swarming the ship and even he felt a bit shocked by the news. Well… he could not deny that he would…
"All right. I cannot deny that I would enjoy a small rumpus, like the one here, after so much time of lying low, but that number of zom… of undead is really too much." Miss Clark said and the butler looked at her again feeling amazed. She could not have said it better, although he himself did not mind the number… but indeed it was too much.
"This is not good, young master." He finally said.
"'Not good' does not even begin to cover it!" Ciel said. "One of these monsters is bad enough and you are telling me there are still ten times as many as this? Then the interior of the ship… is most likely crawling with droves of them."
"Oh no…" A small, trembling voice came from Lizzie.
"Sebastian. Go on ahead, with Miss Clark, and get my aunt and family somewhere safe." Ciel ordered the butler.
"And you, young master? What of you and Lady Elizabeth? And, pardon me for asking, but why do I need Miss Clark? Have you no faith in my… abilities?" Sebastian asked and it was obvious he did not like the idea of dragging a human with him, even if said human seemed quite capable.
"We will only get in your way. I have my pistol, so we should be able to manage for a while. As for your abilities… I know that I cannot doubt them, but I saw a small sample of Miss Clark's abilities and I believe we can use them in order to clear up this matter faster, if you do not mind of course, Miss Clark." The boy said and looked at the woman with a look that did not leave room for arguments.
"I am at your disposal, my lord." Answered Miss Clark without hesitation and without feeling intimidated by the looks the child and the butler gave her. "I have only one question for Dr. Rian. The people that gets bitten by these reanimated corpses… do they also come back like this?"
"What? N-no. No, of course not. How could that ever happen?" The scientist answered totally confused.
"Okay, then we got this. Many people will be lost, that is inevitable, but at least that will be the end of it." Miss Clark seemed like a great weight had just been lifted from her shoulders.
"All right, go. Return at once after you have secured their safety." Ciel ordered Sebastian, who immediately started running, after glancing towards Miss Clark with a look full of challenge, saying something along the lines of "catch me if you can". The woman sprinted right behind him.
There it goes. First chapter is out! I'm so excited! I look forward to everyone's opinion! I know, it's too early to form one, but... it's a start, right?
Thank you all for reading! See you next week! Take care! :D