Hello guys! Another week at its end... a sad week for everyone in Greece... A tragic train accident happened the other day, two trains clashed. Around 50 people dead, 50 more missing and 80 wounded. For once again Greece "shined" with gigantic idiocy and neglect that cost so many people's lives... many young people as many were university students returning to school after a short holliday at home. Honestly, sometimes I think Undertaker's bizarre dolls might be a lot smarter than Greek people/governments buying navigation systems that are never installed or are incompatible with each other!
Anyway, I apologize, you are not here to read my rants... you are here to have fun, and I hope I deliver what you desire in this chapter too! Thanks everyone for your support and... please enjoy! :D
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 12: The Tutor, Tea Party of the Dead
"Headmaster! Why not ask for the Yard's assistance in getting to the bottom of this?" Ciel asked the shady man with the top hat sitting right across from him at the midnight tea party table.
It was a little after midnight and Ciel was attending this mysterious party as the winner of the annual cricket tournament. The party was taking place in one of the school's gardens and Ciel had been led there by Clayton, Lawrence Bluewer's fag, and then by the four prefects of the Houses themselves. Now, he was sitting along with the prefects, their fags and the headmaster. He had just inquired about the missing students, implying the purpose of his enrolment in Weston school, shocking prefects and fags alike, and at the moment he was waiting headmaster's answer to a most reasonable question.
"There is no need to do that." A cold voice responded and everyone turned to look at vice headmaster Agares who had spoken from headmaster's side where he was standing. "For… they are right here in the school." He continued with his flat voice and pointed somewhere behind Ciel.
The young Earl followed with his eye the pointing finger and with dread saw the handle of a door behind him slowly turning and the door opening.
"Hullo… I detect the wonderful aroma of tea." A young voice, flat as Agares', followed and Derrick Arden, the missing nephew of the Queen, appeared smiling and in full costume with a top hat on his head.
Ciel could not believe his eye, watching the young man proceeding in the garden as if he was never missing; the prefects were also watching in great disbelief and strangely enough they all seemed very pale and sweaty.
"Well, rats! There he is; all fine and dandy." Cheslock said with a bored expression.
"Arden? Are you really f-" Herman Greenhill asked as Arden was passing behind him. However, he never finished his question since he looked up and saw two completely dead eyes looking at him from Arden's cold face, his mouth a twisted smile.
"Hullo… I detect the wonderful aroma of tea." Arden said again, only this time his voice sounded more like a gurgling sound.
This made Greenhill freeze in his place and started trembling as Arden leaned closer to him. Suddenly, before anyone realises what was going on, Arden had grabbed Greenhill and his teeth had clamped on his arm, tearing up clothe and flesh and making Herman scream in terrible pain and agony.
Everyone was frozen in complete terror and only Edward Midford had the courage to jump over the table and throw a very strong kick on Arden's face. "You cur! What do you think you are doing?" He screamed as he managed to release Greenhill's arm from the violent teeth.
Arden's head snapped back and his top hat fell to the ground, but the problem was that the boy did not follow, he did not even stagger, he just snapped his head forward again, revealing a forehead opened in two and then stitched back, a pair of hungry and bloodthirsty eyes and a bloodied mouth wide open and snapping the air in search for the flesh of his prey. Something that the other three prefects would not allow as they had grabbed Arden and were trying to pull him away from the bleeding Greenhill.
Ciel immediately remembered Undertaker's bizarre dolls onboard Campania had very similar wounds and identical behaviour. Without losing another second, he tore off his eye patch and summoned Sebastian. The demon appeared right behind his master like he came out of thin air and landed on spot.
Lawrence Bluewer took notice of him and remained looking with eyes wide open, since he could not comprehend how young Ciel called professor Michaelis here so fast. However, surprises were not done as another dark figure jumped over the wall and joined the professor and the Earl; it was the blond female servant seen earlier outside the showers waiting for Ciel. Now, she was dressed all in black, had trousers and high heeled boots on, but the most curious thing was that she was swinging two short swords and her gaze was not very different from that devilish look the strange professor had in his red eyes.
"I command you, apprehend Derrick!" Ciel yelled and Sebastian obeyed gladly.
He moved away from the boy and his place took the blond woman positioning her swords in a way that no one would dare approach the young Earl. Sebastian on the other hand, took a good hold of the long tablecloth and with one move removed it from the table without disturbing any of the objects lying on it, something that for once again left the fags speechless. He then jumped in the air, got close to the prefects struggling with the undead student and in a matter of seconds he had rolled and tied him up, thus releasing Greenhill's arm.
"M-My arm!" Greenhill growled trying to not give in to a fainting feeling he had from time to time.
"I will see to your injury presently." Sebastian announced and kneeled down beside the wounded. He untied Greenhill's tie and wrapped it tightly around the bitten arm tightening it even more to stop the bleeding. "He bit away quite a bit."
"Hey!" Selina called and threw towards Sebastian a round vial. "Wash the wound with this. It will help with the tissue regeneration."
Sebastian followed the instruction and surprised saw that at some parts where the flesh was in a really bad shape new cells seemed to already start growing.
Ciel put his eye patch back on and without hesitation answered the fags' question about what is going on; the boys seemed rather shocked that their new teacher was actually a butler and their classmate was an investigator sent by the Queen. Vice headmaster did not seem really bothered by that.
"The episodes were too rough in the end…" He mumbled, but of course it did not escape Sebastian's attention.
Joanne Harcourt, fag of Edgar Redmond, seemed he could not comprehend how Derrick was already dead since he was still moving; the answer to that came when Derrick turned his face towards Harcourt and repeated the only thing he had uttered right from the moment he came into view. His speech had a decaying quality and his eyes dead, although burning with an inhuman hunger. The young fag chilled to the bone in front of this sight and retreated even further.
"Now, I would like to hear an explanation from you, headmaster!" Said Ciel calmly and produced a small pistol from inside his jacket, pointing it towards the still seated figure; Selina had stepped back to give him more room.
Clayton terrified started yelling to Ciel but Edward cut him off actually demanding that no one would challenge or defy the Earl Phantomhive. Clayton was left speechless as Cheslock was yelling, trying to understand what is going on, but no one answered him.
"I have seen transformed humans like Derrick before. Tell me! What have you done to him?" Ciel asked the headmaster, steadying his pistol's aim to him.
For a while silence blanketed over everyone, until a hesitant Greenhill said the only thing they wanted was to protect.
"To protect?" Sebastian asked trying to understand what the boy meant.
Then the other three prefects took it upon themselves to explain how they had murdered Arden Derrick... and how through Redmond came into contact with a very enthusiastic Rian Stoker, who together with his mysterious benefactor, took Derrick away to revive him properly. In light of these news, Ciel and Selina felt a dreadful surprise taking hold of them, while a calm Sebastian, perhaps even slightly enjoying the situation, connected the dots between Aurora Society, the undead and the dead student. He finished by pointing an accusatory finger towards the headmaster. The prefects were quick to try and relieve the man from any responsibility on the matter, since they were the ones who did everything.
"I never said the headmaster was involved." Sebastian informed them, his eyes never leaving the figure across him. "Well? What do you say we both drop our school acts?"
The said man remained silent for a while, but then a smile spread on his lips. "Alas!" He said in a slurry voice very familiar to Ciel. "I did quite enjoy this profession, I'll have you know."
Sebastian stretched a protective hand in front of Ciel and Selina stepped in front of the boy clutching her blades with fire in her eyes. The headmaster continued pointing to the three of them, to Ciel more particularly.
"I watched your most delightful struggles from the grand tier. Once again you bestowed upon me the choicest of laughter, see…?" Then he started laughing as he removed his top hat and releasing silver streams of hair cascading on the man's shoulders and back, finally fully revealing he was no other than Undertaker himself.
Selina could feel fury whirling in her in view of Undertaker and how the rebel reaper and the demon were chitchatting right before Sebastian turned to the four prefects.
"You four prefects murdered Mr. Derrick… and then… you commissioned the Aurora Society to bring him back to life… What did you wish to protect so badly that would force you to resort to such measures?"
Lawrence Bluewer was the one who managed to finally talk. "He- Derrick Arden was an individual who should never have been at this school."
Silence followed for a while; the only thing breaking it, the more loud gurgling sounds the undead Derrick made. Then Ciel could not wait any longer.
"In what sense?" he asked.
"Well, you see-"
Bluewer went on and disclosed the whole story. How Derrick was seemingly so perfect, as a student, as a talented artist and sportsman, as a fag; how he informed them, the four prefects, for cases of bullying; and in the end how they found out that Derrick himself was the mastermind of these events and how he used every other student to fulfil his obligations and make him look perfect. However, the worst part was that vice headmaster Agares had full knowledge of all these, but turned a blind eye with the proper bribe of alcohol.
The moment Derrick said in a very arrogant and mocking way that next year he would become a prefect, was the one that made Greenhill snap, grab the cricket bat Derrick and his friends had used during 'practice' on the bullied students and with it crack Derrick's skull. The series of events that followed was quick; Violet blocked the exit so no one could get out, Bluewer and Redmond grabbed Agares and soon the end came for all guilty parties. The four prefects took an oath at that place and time; all four of them would take part of the responsibility, if the story was ever to be discovered, since all four of them were the Weston prefects and they did what they had to in order to protect the school and its tradition, which was absolute and above all else.
"We have done their loved ones wrong, for sure… but we had no other alternative in order to protect tradition and order. We did not wish to bring disgrace to this school by ruffling feathers. Surely you understand, Phantomhive?" Bluewer finished looking at Ciel all serious.
The younger boy had a wide open eye, shocked by what he heard. "How could you say that when you have taken their lives?"
No one spoke for a while and then, suddenly, Undertaker burst out laughing, almost tipping over his chair. "Human beings… are supremely tragic, supremely absurd… and supremely delightful." He finally said fully amused from the whole situation.
"Oh? How curious. For once, I must say I agree with you there." Sebastian said with an equally amused look on his face.
After a while, Ciel could not stand Bluewer's ramblings on how distinguished their school was and how important it was maintaining it like this and how the tradition of elite personalities graduating from it should be safeguarded at all costs; he could not stand how brainwashed everyone was. However, it was not his issue to address; therefore, he informed them that since he was investigating the matter on behalf of the Queen, he could not remain silent, but reassured them their situation and their reasons for the specific way of action would be taken into consideration. Ciel turned once again to Undertaker asking him what he was after.
The rebel reaper accepted to explain since the young Earl had gifted him with so much laughter; he then began explaining that his 'bizarre dolls' had evolved since Derrick had consciousness even for a few minutes.
"The dead can also advance by way of episodes." He said.
"Episodes?" Asked Sebastian thoughtfully. "Do you mean these counterfeit memories you have created? Connecting them to the cinematic records of the dead was how the corpses began to move."
"Guess again. You are close enough. These memories were gibberish. The current corpses are being moved… by their longing for the future."
Undertaker continued his explanation. What he actually did was to extract the images of a possible future a dying human had envisioned and then stitched them back after the end of their cinematic records, so that the reanimated corpse had something resembling to memories, memories of things that could happen and therefore continue striving to achieve these possibilities. Undertaker was aiming on making these memories, these episodes as he called them, longer and of better quality of the already existing cinematic record, although success was still very low.
"Cruel! That is so cruel!" A trembling voice was heard as soon as Undertaker finished his story. Everyone turned and looked at Selina, who seemed really shaken from what she had heard. "Do you know how cruel it is to taunt humans with a future that will always slip through their fingers?"
"Oh, the cheap imitation speaks!" Undertaker laughed. "Why would it slip? They would have all the time in the world to achieve it. They would have the chance to live the life they did not the first time."
"Because no one, not you, not he..." She said pointing to Sebastian. "Not even God himself can guarantee a human this future will be achieved! That is the case for living humans, how can it differ for a creature that is already dead? A creature that has to recover from the greatest shock in life, that of death, and then of losing and always searching the most important element of existence, the driving force of human… the soul. No matter how corrupted, broken or anything else a soul is, it still is the force that mobilizes everything inside humans and helps them move on!"
Undertaker nodded. "Yes, but what if the desire for the future takes the place and role of the soul? Then gone would be the shock of death and the search for soul. He he!"
"If that is what you think, you are so mistaken. There are things in life that become human's sole purpose. Humans obsess over them, get consumed and become unable to look around and see other options that might make them happier, give them the feeling of fulfilment through a different path. And the greater the thing they desire and miss, the greater the pain, the greater the struggle to achieve it… no matter what. The shock of death of a loved one can be fatal, even for the ones that continue to live, because they feel a part of them is already dead; like a part of your soul is torn away from you and you see it, you know it. How much more painful must be for someone to get over his or her own death when having full knowledge of what happened?" Selina's voice was loaded with obviously a lot of emotion.
Undertaker slammed his hand on the table, the only evidence that Selina's words affected him in some way. "How dare you speak of these things? You have no idea how it is to really feel your soul being torn away!" His voice was calm with a subtle hint of fury.
Selina sighed, quite composed now. "I do know. Not in the way you know, else I would not be a cheap imitation… I know it in the way he does." She looked at Ciel "And I know that hatred, fury and every related feeling is the perfect mask to cover emptiness… it works quite well. But despite that… bringing back the dead, incomplete creatures, giving them the illusion of a normal human life… You have surpassed every demon I know in terms of cruelty, depraving human of a chance in finality."
"I disagree. I simply want to look beyond the fated end." Undertaker resumed his cheerful manner of speaking. "Has it never occurred to you that something exceedingly amusing may unfold beyond the rolls of the credits?"
"I disagree with you on that point." Sebastian said in a very serious, conversational way. "'Death' is a hopeless and absolute 'end', a finality as my dear partner said. That is why I find it… most beautiful."
Undertaker smiled and then announced he would take his leave, since it would be a nuance to him if certain individuals where to find his whereabouts. Ciel ordered Sebastian to catch him and the demon gladly complied, but suddenly was cut off by the brute force of Agares, who turned out to also be one of the corpses, Undertaker's 'crowning masterpiece for now' as he himself admitted. The reaper snapped his fingers and the ground began moving at places, revealing emerging undead students, Derrick's accomplices. To Sebastian's surprise he was circled in a tight embrace with vice headmaster, who was holding him in an iron grip, preventing him from moving.
Edward Midford took the lead and ordered everyone to get out of the garden, forcing them to release themselves from the paralysing fear the image of the emerging corpses caused them. Ciel guided everyone towards the exit and then realised that one fag, Harcourt, had fallen on the ground unable to move due to fear as the undead approached him. Selina did not lose a second, with her sword destroyed the undead's head while she pulled Harcourt standing and pushed him towards Ciel, waiting to guide him to safety.
At that moment Sebastian released himself from Agares' grip by flipping him over and throwing him heavily on the ground. The strange thing was that instead of running to Undertaker he chose to follow Ciel and Selina, who headed towards the door. Undertaker ran to the opposite direction getting further away from his hunters, while praising Sebastian's loyalty to the young Earl; he did a happy dance standing on the garden's walls, saluted them and vanished into thin air.
"Hey, Sebas-" Ciel called as he saw Sebastian standing in front of him protectively and pushing Selina almost on him.
"Stay behind me!" The butler demanded as the undead students were coming closer and he grabbed the face of one who launched himself towards Ciel too fast for Selina to do anything more than pull the boy away and push the undead chest away.
"Sebastian! Why did you come to me? I ordered you to seize-"
"By the terms of our covenant, your life is my first priority. I have gone to great pains to cultivate you. I cannot afford to have him steal you away." The demon explained while crashing the undead skull in his hand; his eyes glowing their characteristic demonic red, emanating a well known coldness that even now left the child speechless.
A thump was heard behind them and they saw Harcourt fainting in view of this gory sight. Sebastian said to his master to let the boy sleep and then went on to clean up the rest of the undead's with a furious Selina by his side. When they finished he looked at her questioningly, waiting to explain why her eyes were glaring daggers at him.
"You could chase Undertaker since I was by master's side and even if he did a move on us I could handle it!" She yelled at him.
"No, you could not." Sebastian said disregarding her opinion as he was pulling on new, clean gloves.
Of course, that only managed to infuriate Selina even more. "You don't know that! I may not be able to harm him, but I have been trained to fight him by people who have fought him, don't forget that!"
"I assure you I do not, but at this point he could use my attack to him to get me further away from both of you and then he would easily reach master, after he would have cut you and your little blades in half with his scythe, which of course he was carrying with him." His words had a tone of finality.
"What? My blades can perfectly withstand a scythe attack, they are forged that way. He would not cut me in half because he would not have caught me by surprise again; thank you very much for your concern." She finished in a mockingly polite way gaining a rather amused but still disregarding look from the demon. Her face got red from anger. "Don't push me, I could even battle you if I wanted to and you would find that I am not that easy to beat. Care for a demonstration?" Her eyes almost glowing in challenge.
"Could you please stop? I have no idea what you are talking about, and honestly I have more important things to think about than your bickering and power contest. How am I going to explain all this to Her Majesty?" Ciel said in an authoritative manner.
"Why not give her all the facts as they are? Tell her that 'a perverse, erstwhile Grim Reaper is reanimating the dead'". Sebastian suggested in his familiar cool voice.
"She will never believe-" Ciel began only to be interrupted by Edward, who came to inform that everyone was safe.
The blond boy remained silent for a while, taking in all the blood and the scattered bodies around the garden. Then he spoke with a trembling voice, clutching his sword in hand.
"Ciel… it frightens me to no end… that I might have ended up… like those prefects too. That I might have become a man who deludes himself into thinking that… the sin of murder is equal to justice."
Ciel looked him with understanding. "Do not worry. Consider yourself normal, if it scares you so… Unlike me." He finished with an obviously fake smile just to calm the elder boy. Strangely enough he did not react when Selina lightly hugged and squeezed his small shoulder.
In a while they all turned and left the bloody, ruined garden behind them. As Selina was ready to pass the door, following Ciel and Edward carrying Harcourt, she felt a strong hand on her arm pulling her back.
"Challenge accepted. Tomorrow night, when everyone will be asleep, in our master's fencing room. No weapons, please. Hand to hand combat." Sebastian said, his hot breath softly caressing Selina's ear as he was standing behind her.
He then released her and went through the door before her. For a second he turned and looked at her, standing there frozen and all red in face and ears; he could not resist and lightly licked his lips, only to see the woman turn in a deeper scarlet colour and then an angry scowl appeared on her features, her eyes shooting more daggers at him. He left chuckling to himself as he was certain that his little witch would gift him a delicious time the following night.
Ooooh, naughty Sebastian challenging Selina like that! You'll get what you deserve... at some point... :P
Not many new things in this chapter, but I wanted to give Selina a chance to express her view on Undertaker's experiments, because it makes clearer why Undertaker scares her more than Sebastian, actually. At least that's how I thought about it.
So that's all from me this week, I always welcome your comments and feedback if you like and... Till next time! Bye!