Hello people! Here we are again, under attack by Undertaker's bizzare dolls 😱! Let's see how that will play out, right? Just a small WARNING: Grab some tissues to have nearby and... please, don't hate me too much 🙏! I didn't enjoy it either, but it made sense storywise. 😢

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 59: The Tutor, Confrontation

"Wh-wh-what is going on, Mrs. Selina?" Finny asked, his face white as paper and his eyes wide, filled with terror, even though his pupils were smaller than usual, something that happened when his strength was at its maximum.

"There are more like the ones you already defeated." Sebastian announced having reached the spot the servants stood. "They are swarming the manor's basements and cellars. You could not have seen or sense them if they were buried in the cellars' ground!" He finished, staring at the bloodied Selina, who was biting her lower lip angry at herself for missing that possibility.

"Hey, Undertaker, did we miss them in any other place in the manor?" Selina asked the obviously quite amused reaper, who was playing with his scythe in his hands, waiting for the attacks to begin.

Undertaker shrugged. "Who knows? The cheap imitation cannot say for sure, mmm?" He responded and smiled at her. "But do not worry; they are less than on Campania!"

"Thankfully!" Ronald said, the moment a scarlet bolt returned at his side.

"The house is clear; they come only from below." Grell said seriously, exchanging a nod with Selina and then signalling Ronald to follow her and join the others.

In a blink of an eye, Sebastian had disappeared and reappeared at the first landing of the manor's main staircase with Bard's machine gun in hands, only to disappear again and come back with about a dozen of Mey-Rin's riffles and bullets. He called a shocked chef – Bard could not believe Sebastian actually knew about his secret weapon stash in the kitchen – and a bedazzled maid – Mey-Rin could not help but once again admire Sebastian's speed and strength at carrying such a heavy weapon – to him calling them back to order and giving them directions.

"Bard, aim for the right side. Mey-Rin, finish off any undead that slips away from the others. Both of you, do not forget, aim only at the head... wasted bullets will be deducted from your salaries." He said coldly and resumed his place beside Selina and the two reapers, leaving chef and maid prepare their weapons.

In the meantime, Selina had collected all of her daggers and Polaris' knives and distributed them to Snake and Wolfram. "Finny and Snake, we need you to take care of the left side." She looked a little apologetically at Snake, whose hands were shaking a little, making obvious he had never harmed a human being with his own hands. "They are far from humans, remember that, please." Selina told him and he nodded. "Wolfram we will need you too and, Prince Soma... your hand of God could be really useful right now!" She finished by pining a brooch on Wolfram's lapel.

"Wolfram, do as Selina says!" Sieglinde ordered her butler before he made a protesting sound.

"Gladly! But... who will protect Ciel and Sieglinde?" Soma asked worried and eyes filled with questions, seeing Selina placing a hair pin on his hair.

"I will." A new voice was heard and all heads turned towards it. Miranda was standing there, in her grey suit and with no gloves covering her white nails or her flowery contract seal; determination made her green eyes sparkle, sharing a smiling look with Selina and one of mutual assent with Sebastian.

"Oh my, my, my! Am I such a great threat that even Heaven and Hell decided to work together? This is truly a historical moment and I feel so honoured it occurred during my time!" Undertaker said and bowed slightly, perhaps even a little mockingly, to Miranda.

Miranda made a disparaging sound. "Do not flatter yourself, Undertaker. This is not Heaven's war... we care only for the souls of the innocents and that is why I am here. I will not interfere in any way." The red headed angel said with emphasis.

She guided the two children and dragged a frozen and speechless Blavat to a corner of the entrance hall where she could protect them from all sides without any difficulty; a semi circle of green flames around them appeared with just one swift movement of the angel's hand. Young master passed his gun to the left hand and used his right one to hug and support a little of Sieglinde's weight as she still clung to him. Sieglinde made a last attempt to reason with Lizzie, pleading her to join them, but her words were in vain, as the stubborn blond girl did not move from her place.

"As I said before... Do not lose your trinkets!" Selina reminded everyone and mumbled something.

To Wolfram's and Soma's surprise, a soft purple light came from Mey-Rin's glasses, Bard's pocket where he usually kept his cigarette's, a small earring on Snake's ear, Finny's and Soma's hair pins and Wolfram's brooch. It was strange but right after that they all felt like a protective shield had covered them from head to toe.

A sudden stillness and quiet covered everything as reapers, humans and demon were staring at each other, waiting and the gurgling sounds of the undead stopped. But that was only for a moment... Loud crashing sounds and new roars flooded the air, as the bizarre dolls managed to escape the narrow spaces of the hallways and corridors downstairs, and now started flooding quite quickly the wide space of the Phantomhive manor's entrance hall.

At an instant, guns started blazing and humans stabbing or punching and destroying the heads of these abominations with the grey, parched skin, marked by deep and long scars. Clawed fingers with broken nails, insanely burning eyes and unnaturally wide mouths were maniacally searching for their victims. Wolfram swore in German and Soma called the name of Vishnu to protect and help him in battle, as he released his blessed hand, his only keepsake from Agni.

At the same time, the four attackers lunged themselves to Undertaker in perfect coordination. Grell and Ronald attacked the scythe, while Sebastian and Selina attempted to draw a little blood from the reaper; however, Undertaker was strong and insanely fast to push away the two other scythes and bring his down right on time to block the couple's blades and manage to land a blow on Sebastian's right side making the demon draw back in pain, his legs shaking a little.

"Sebastian!" Selina cried and ran to him. She was lucky that Grell let out a battle cry and attacked Undertaker from behind, forcing him to turn away from the witch, otherwise she would have also felt the scythe's hard kiss. "Are you okay?" She asked with voice and eyes filled with fear and agony standing by her demon's side.

"This is nothing, you know it. I was just a little surprised!" The demon said; his pride not allowing him to admit the blow had quite some force behind it, although in the naked eye it did not seem so. His eyes were burning fully demonically, and his jaw was so clamped and stiff it would hurt if he was human. "Come on, I am not done yet!" He announced and dashed forward followed by Selina.

The attacks went on for quite some time. The group of battling supernaturals kept twirling and jumping around the entrance hall, sometimes mingling with the undead dolls that kept coming - and instantly falling permanently dead, destroyed - and sometimes clashing above everyone. The problem was that no one could manage to land a significant hit on the rebel reaper, even if it was just to delay him for a while; that proved Selina's and Sebastian's theory right.

Undertaker had indeed trained himself to rely on all his senses, except vision... he functioned exactly as a blind person that has learned to listen even the movements of the air around him. Selina was getting angrier seeing Grell and Ronald kept blabbering before every attack, literally telling Undertaker where they were and where the attack would come from. At some point, the witch managed to grab the already quite bruised and battered scarlet reaper and her helper, pulled their ears close to her mouth and her voice came out hard, reprimanding and totally out of patience.

"Seriously guys, are you brain-dead or something? Why can't you just shut up before every attack? You make it easier for him to spot you when you talk, especially when you want to sneak behind him!"

"But he cannot see clearly!" Grell said with evident displeasure to have the ugly woman touching her.

Selina... actually growled, starring at the effeminate reaper. "Just think of him as a blind man that has trained the rest of his senses! You will be the one who will teach me how to fight without relying on my eyes, for fuck's sake!"

She let them go and to prove her point ran in a circle behind Undertaker, who all the while was kept busy by Sebastian, allowing her blue flames to engulf her body, as she silently slipped close to the silver haired reaper and plunged her phantasmal right hand in his back. She tickled his spiritual core enough to make him cry out in pain and lose his footing and concentration for a moment. However, Undertaker seemed to have also trained himself in enduring tremendous pain, if his multiple scars were enough evidence. He abandoned his sparring with Sebastian and turned his attention fully on the retreating witch. His scythe crossed the air very fast and the outer side of its blade, also quite sharp as it was proven, tore in the woman's stomach, obviously nicking her very soul. She was fast enough to pull back so that the hit was not lethal but enough to make her turn corporeal, cry out in pain and fall heavily on the floor.

Seeing that, Sebastian let out a roar and lunged himself to stand in front of Selina protectively; his eyes dripping with the intention to kill, his perfect face contorted to a... not so beautiful mask of deep hatred and his teeth sharp, as if they would tear up anything and anyone they find. Black tendrils came out of his body, their tips resembling sharp blades ready to stab Undertaker.

"Yes! This is it, master butler! Show your true colours to everyone, to the fool humans following you without question and aiding you in your twisted plans!" Undertaker cried out triumphantly, his body shaking from excitement. "Do they know what you are or what binds you to the little lord and how all this will end? I doubt they do! Hi hi hi hi, let us see how amazing they will find you after they learn the truth, after the veil of lies is ripped off their eyes!" He looked like he was already victorious; his yellow-green eyes sparkling with an insane light, his smile wider than ever and his normally deathly pale face dusted by a light crimson colour.

"I will kill you this instant!" A beastly voice came out of Sebastian's throat, as he got ready to attack, but a screaming voice he knew very well stopped him. He turned to look at his master with an equally murdering intention.

"Sebastian, do not kill Undertaker! That is an order!" Young master cried out harshly, and his now uncovered right eye glowed where the Faustian seal was engraved in his deep blue iris. "Pull yourself together and obey your master! Look at Selina, she will be fine, look at her! You too Miranda! Stop throwing such ridiculous fits, both of you!" He said, looking at his demon and then at the angel standing beside him, struggling to force her innate, dormant demonic side to return to her depths.

Both angel and demon seemed to take deep breaths and calm down, seeing Selina back on her feet with a little help from Grell and Ronald. When the woman gifted a bright smile to Grell – who instantly started rolling her yellow-green eyes and complaining about how much she hated the witch – Sebastian pulled his blackness back in his body and Miranda's pupils turned back to their normal shape, not the slits of a demon's, her teeth became less sharp and the grey dust retreated from her white nails, allowing her angelic light to flow from her body freely.

"You will not get rid of me that easily, guys." Selina said with a little panting and send a smile to her mate and her cousin. A relieved sigh was heard by the servants and Prince Soma, who had finally finished with the small undead army Undertaker had unleashed upon them.

Right at that instant a horrible cry of pain was heard from where real Ciel and the others were; everyone turned and saw the said boy - having somehow violently slipped out of Tanaka's arms - biting into Lizzie's wrist, snatching the sword from her, hitting and puncturing a little her side with it and then dashing forward after pushing her away, obviously without caring that she fell on the floor bleeding. His face showed how seething with fury and madness he was. He did not look nothing like the gentle, smart and composed boy he normally was; on the contrary, his bloodied mouth and slightly unsteady feet made him look more like Undertaker's unsuccessful bizarre dolls.

"Lizzie!" Fake Ciel cried with agony in voice and eyes. He turned to Miranda immediately. "Bring her here, quickly!" The angel nodded and followed the order.

Before Sieglinde and Blavat could blink, Miranda disappeared and reappeared with crying Lizzie in her arms. Gently, she laid her on the floor and young master loosened his hold on Sieglinde, who without having to be told, knelt and started ripping ribbons from her own dress to bandage Lizzie's wounds tightly and stop the bleeding.

From the moment Lizzie's first cry was heard, Sebastian's attention was entirely focused on the revived and now rapid boy running towards his master brandishing a sword... He could not afford having young master getting harmed by his brother! Instantly, a black mist enveloped him, as he ran to the boy, crossed paths with a white one heading to retrieve Lizzie, and reformed in his human shape extending his clawed hand to grab real Ciel. The boy paused and turned to look at him with eyes dripping hate and bloodlust, but did not had the chance to act further as a furious "No!" was heard and Undertaker's scythe almost cut Sebastian in half. The demon avoided certain death, perhaps, only thanks to Selina's scythe-like blade he still held in one hand. Undertaker pushed him back, putting distance between demon and boy.

"Master butler, did you really think I would let a beast like you touch my lord?" The renegade reaper said and his yellow-green eyes were shining in absolute insanity and fury for the demon.

"Likewise, Mr. Undertaker, I would never allow an abomination like your creature harm my lord!" The demon said and tried to also push and free himself from this entanglement.

Demon and reaper pushed at each other for a while, before Grell and Ronald joined Sebastian once again and the battle among the strong supernaturals resumed, taking them all over the now free from undead entrance hall. As soon as Undertaker cut off Sebastian's assault, Ciel continued his way towards his brother, who ordered everyone to stay put. Selina, although standing with difficulty, attempted to throw a knife directly on the zombie boy's head and Mey-Rin and Bard got ready to shoot, while Finny, Soma, Snake and Wolfram trembled with the anticipation of bashing his head and finish this.

"If anyone needs to finish this... that is me, only me!" Young master said after taking some deep breaths, calming himself down from the verge of a new mental breakdown, similar to the one he experienced when facing Baron Kelvin.

He clenched his teeth and stood up, leaving Lizzie's side - still crying with heavy sobs deriving from something deeper than physical pain, since her wounds were not deep and the masterful young healer had stopped the bleeding really quickly. The boy living under the name of Ciel for three years, pushed a terrified, trembling Blavat aside and put himself in the first line, waiting for his brother. He pointed his gun to the approaching twin.

"Ciel! My brother, stop where you are! Please, do not push me to do this..." He whispered the last part.

Real Ciel, still preserving a relative logic, stopped and stared at the mirror image his younger brother was. "Why, dear brother?" He asked a little mockingly. "So that you can shoot me with ease and steal once again what is mine? My future, thief! I am Ciel Phantomhive, only me and no one else!" He cried out furiously and resumed his unsteady running.

With a simple flick of Miranda's fingers, the low green flames protecting the small group grew taller, but, to the angel's terror they seemed unable to stop the boy's advance. A few steps before Ciel reached his brother - who seemed to have a difficulty in pulling the trigger - Tanaka appeared, gathering all his strength to reach him by jumping over the flames, knelt in front of the boy and grabbed his hands stopping him. Deep sorrow and plead evident on his elderly face.

"Please stop, my lord! He is your brother, that cannot change! And we both know him very well... No matter how selfish he wants to make himself appear, all he did was to honour his beloved brother! He erased himself so that the world would always remember how great the Earl Ciel Phantomhive was!" Stressed the ex-butler. "He went through so many hardships for that and has helped so many people!" He turned and looked at the servants who were standing frozen, watching such an unthinkable drama unfolding in front of their sad and teary eyes.

Real Ciel's burning with madness eyes did not move from Tanaka and then a cold mask covered his face. "Gramps... could you shut up for once?" He said with a monotonous voice, before his mouth opened wide, wider than what it was humanely possible, and in a flash descended on the old man's throat.

A terrified scream rose from the two teenage girls, as Sieglinde pulled further away the bandaged Lizzie - both girls holding onto each other desperately - and the servants rushed to save their colleague and friend. However, Miranda was faster, in a blink she had grabbed Ciel, freeing Tanaka from his iron jaws - the old butler fell back in young master's arms - forced his hand to let go of the sword and was ready to smash his head, ending him once and for all; but his twin's cry stopped her in mid movement.

"No, stop! I said I will do it! I am his brother, no one has the right to touch him anymore!" His voice was harsh and his eyes sparkling with determination, his right one even more due to the purple pentacle. "Just... hold him for now..."

Miranda was so angry and disappointed at herself for failing to prevent or even think that, of course, the zombie child would not allow anything or anyone to stop him from reaching his brother and - as a soulless creature - would remain unaffected by her flames, that she hesitated to stop and obey. But young master's authoritative and insistent stare, along with Selina's and Sebastian's voice calling her back to order did the trick. She nodded and then held the animalistic Ciel thrashing in her arms in place, preventing him from attacking anyone else.

In the meantime, Sieglinde had called Wolfram closer - Miranda's flames extinguished for now - as she lifted her skirts and started ripping pieces of her cotton petticoats, handing them to her butler and ordering him to press on Tanaka's wound, since he was stronger and the wound quite a huge one. Selina had managed to force her now trembling from exhaustion and blood loss legs to take her by Tanaka's side, where the others had knelt and watched him with tears in their eyes.

Even the supernaturals had paused their fighting, watching the so horrible scene in front of them and the only sounds were the servants' muffled sobs and Tanaka's gasps as he struggled for breath. The two younger reapers, still standing on guard ready for everything, seemed a little numb watching the humans' efforts in vain and their expected tears; however, what struck their interest was the fake Earl's face.

So composed, dark and heavy at the same time, like the dark sky, heavy with clouds right before a storm breaks out, only this sky was doing everything in his power to hold back the storm indefinitely. For a moment, Grell looked at Sebastian and was surprised to see the heartless and emotionless demon looking so on edge, as if he too wanted to run by his predecessor's side but hesitated to leave Undertaker unguarded.

Once Tanaka managed to breathe without chocking in his own blood for a while, gifted a gentle smile to everyone through his own tears. "Seb-ast-ian..." He called weakly.

Sebastian looked at the frozen in place Undertaker and then, to his surprise, saw a totally serious Grell nodding him to go. In a flash, Sebastian was kneeling in front of the dying man, who smiled even more grabbing both demon's and witch's hand.

"I always... knew... you two could not be... a simple man and woman... or humans. It is fine... as long as... you both stay by... young mas-" A cough that resulted in a spit of blood shook his body.

"Rest assured, Mr. Tanaka. There is no way we would leave young master's side. For one, I am, after all, a butler to the core... and I dare say I learned from the best." Sebastian said with a friendly smile.

Tanaka turned his eyes to Selina, who nodded and tried to smile through her tears, and then to the servants again, Prince Soma and Sieglinde were next and all nodded, feeling the dying man asking them the same favour he did to Sebastian and Selina. Then he looked at young master with apology, asking for forgiveness. The boy was staring at him with unblinking eyes, because if he allowed them to blink, uncontrollable streams of tears would burst out of them and... the Earl of Phantomhive could not afford meaningless tears at a time of crisis!

He cleared his throat before speaking "It is fine, Tanaka, no... Gramps. You did your duty and served the Phantomhive family fully and perfectly. You can re-" He stopped, as he saw a pleading look in the man's eyes. "Ah, yes, you are right... I will see to it."

As gently as possible, he passed Tanaka to Mey-Rin's lap, put down his gun and stretched his hand towards Sebastian with his palm upwards. The demon looked at the small palm and then at his master.

"Young master, are you certain you want to do this? I can do it for you, just give me the order!" He said with his usual silky voice, the voice that broke his master's nerves, because he usually used it when he was mockingly playing the role of the perfect butler, caring for his master.

For a second, the boy thought this time there was something resembling honesty instead of mockery in the demon's words, but chased away that impression as it was impossible to happen. Selina, even though staring at her demon's face, could not say for certain whether the demon offered to do the dirty business in order to protect his master's sanity or in order to test the boy's perseverance... although, for an instant, she thought she heard something entirely new lacing his voice, but could not put her finger on it.

Whatever both master and mate heard in the demon's voice, had an immediate effect on the boy. He furrowed his brows with determination and stretched his hand more to the butler. Sebastian sighed lightly and pulled one of the Phantomhive silver knives out of the inside chest pocket of his coat and gave it to his master, who took and tightened it in his hand, afraid it would slip away at any moment, taking his courage with it.

"My brother thought me as a thief, stealing his future... perhaps he was right... so now I will complete the job and rob him of his... second life. As simple as that!" He said, while standing up and facing his wild brother.

Hearing that, Undertaker goggled his eyes and immediately relaxed his battle stance, lowered his scythe and as if forgetting the two other reapers still standing in front of him with their weapons extended, he took a couple of steps closer.

"No, young lord, do not do this! You will regret it greatly. Remember what I have told you about having only one soul... there is still time for saving yours." The pale reaper said, agony and pain evident in his eyes.

Young master pulled his gaze from the totally empty one of his brother, and looked at the reaper with a look clearly saying he knew he would regret this, as much as he regrets many more, but had already chosen his path and there was no way back for him. It is not certain whether the almost blind ex-reaper saw the boy's look or sensed it, but his agony intensified and got ready to approach faster but was cut off by the scarlet reaper and her blond assistant pushing him back.

"Undertaker, you have lost everything and the boy you took so much pain to unnaturally revive is completely lost... Whatever your big plan was, it failed. Be reasonable! Let the boy die properly this time and surrender yourself!" Grell spoke and her voice was so deep and serious like never before; so much that Sebastian had to take a look to make sure the one talking was the same effeminate, scarlet reaper, always fawning like crazy over him.

"Nothing failed... I can still make it work! I am close to finding an alternative and overcome the blood shortage!" The renegade reaper said decisively.

"How exactly, my friend? By draining the entire world in search for the perfect blood for your doll? Man, that is simply insane! I mean... look at the boy!" Ronald added, shrugging his shoulders while pointing at Ciel still imprisoned in Miranda's arms.

"I can still make it work!" Undertaker repeated stubbornly; his usually calm and cheerful, handsome face was distorted by an angry determination. He stopped pushing forward, but his fingers turned white as they tightened on the scythe and started lifting it once again with a vibrant green light building up around him.

"Oh man... Not again!" Ronald said, as he and Grell got ready to jump away from the eminent burst.

A new ring of green flames circled the group in the corner of the hall, strengthened by a purple dome appearing out of nowhere covering everyone. Sebastian instinctively took a defensive position in front of his master and mate.

"Will you please stop already?" A cold, monotonous voice came from behind, as an extremely extended garden clipper appeared and struck Undertaker's scythe, interrupting its lethal green light. "Could we please wrap it up a little quickly? I am in no mood of working overtime and even more, along with a vile beast." William T. Spears said, straightening his glasses with the other hand.

"Well... Silver Fox, do you not think it is time to let it go? It would not work either way." Said a smiling Othello, standing beside William, one hand in his pocket and the other playing with a pair of strange handcuffs that were glowing a little and had the mark of Grim Reapers engraved on them.

Pardon me for borrowing Viscount's Druitt line but... "The cast is now complete!" William and Othello are here too and the final act begins! Can their appearance shift things? Let us see next week! 😉

Lizzie & Tanaka: Guys, I'm really sorry for this and the agony I'm causing you! I may not like Lizzie that much, but I would never wish to see her harmed. Same goes for Tanaka (although I like him more), but... the story needs it. Seriously now, story and canon-wise, even if OCiel and his team end up victorious in this entire thing with Undy and RCiel, I doubt it will be without any other loss on their side... and it seems that's the path Toboso is also taking (it saddens and excites me at the same time). However, even though logic was telling me to indeed seriously hurt one of the four servants (since it would corner OCiel quite significantly), my heart could not take it (that's why it's a fanfiction 😁), so... I had to do it to poor Tanaka... and perhaps add one more trauma to OCiel 😢😢! Now, will he and Lizzie be alright in the end? Does Selina have a healing potion? Let us see next week! 😉

Miranda's green flames and her "innate, slumbering demon side": It has been quite some time since I showed Miranda's power as a grey witch, so let me explain for whoever feels confused. Just like Selina's blue flames can destroy a magical soul or a spiritual core of an angel or demon, Miranda's flames can prevent a magical soul or spiritual core from reaching and harming someone else. In short, she can protect humans. This time however, she miscalculated. Bizzare dolls have left no trace of their souls, even magically altered by Undertaker, so her flames were quite useless in this case. Tanaka is a simple human, so even if he walked right through the flames, he would not be harmed.

Like in Selina's case, where I have her making mistakes and not being perfect, same goes for Miranda. She might be an angel, but she is far from perfect... Is it because she has preserved her human consciousness or something else? Well... you will have to wait and see. Same goes for her demonic side. 😊 (Heads up, I do have the intention of writing stories about Miranda, showing more in depth how I imagine angels, demons and everything!)

Till next time! Bye! 😘