#OC: Yukino Eusford

[keikaku-sama]

Book of the Atlantic: Chapter 7

Rating: Some early chapters are rated T. Some later chapters are rated M. Reader discretion is advised.

Side note: Sentences in Italics without quotation marks are thoughts. Sentences in “Italics” with quotation marks are characters on the other end of a phone call speaking. Sentences in “Bold and Italics” with quotation marks are characters saying things angrily, venomously, for emphasis, or the like.

And, sentences in “Italics and are in headline font” with quotation marks, are two characters speaking in unison. Sentences in “Bold, Italics, and are in headline font”, are three or more characters speaking in unison. Sentences in Bold and Italics without quotation marks is a character telepathically speaking to another character.

“Now rise from the ashes, my dear!

“Like a phoenix!!”

Adrian placed a hand on the gun holster on the back of his belt, glaring at the corpse, as it rose.

“Please, take a good look!

“Our medical science can overcome even death!”

The mourning woman-The corpse’s mother, then hugged the corpse.

“Maggie! Oh, Maggie, my sweet child!! Thank you so much, doctor!!”

“This is ‘Absolute Salvation’!”

Ciel suddenly stood in shock, as he gaped. “What exactly is going on here?! Did a corpse really just come back to life?!”

The corpse’s maw then opened wider than any human could.

“As long as you are alive, your mothe-“ The woman then screamed, as the corpse bit into her neck.

“M-Maggie-?! What is the-Ow-“The woman was then killed.

The audience screamed, and ran for their lives.

The corpse then got up out of the coffin, and headed for the nearest person.

Which, apparently, was Yuki.

The ghoul summoned her weapons, and was about to draw her shotgun, when-

BANG!!

The corpse’s head exploded, splattering brains, blood, and skull fragments, everywhere.

Yuki, and Ciel, looked to the source, and saw Adrian with a large hand gun….cannon, pointed at where the corpse had been.

“Adrian?”

“I told you I’d protect her just fine on my own if Larten didn’t get here in time, Vlad.”

At that, the ghoul’s eyes widened, before she, Ciel, and Sebastian, looked to see a tall man in red glaring at the mortician.

“Okay, I was wrong. You don’t have to rub it in…..I’m staying, though.”

“Alu~!”

The black haired man was then hugged tightly by the white haired girl, who looked up at him with a radiant smile.

Alucard stared at her, before smiling softly, and ruffling her hair. “Hey, flower.”

“Undertaker, what-How was that corpse moving?! Wouldn’t it have been soulless?!”

The renegade reaper looked at the Earl, as he let his arm drop to his side.

“It was being made to move by the electricity, and a chip implanted into its brain. The electric currents send signals from the brain to the rest of the body. So that it can move, even in death.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “So, by destroying the head, you destroyed the chip?”

Adrian smiled politely at the demon, before responding. “Yes. Or is that too hard for you to understand?”

At that, the butler’s eyes glowed red, as he glared at the Undertaker.

Yuki had to bury her face in her uncle’s chest to keep herself from laughing at that, while Ciel’s eye twitched. “Would you stop it?!”

“May I kill him, young master?”

“No, you may not!”

“Hee Hee Hee Hee~! Insulting you is fun, master butler~!”

“I’m going to kill him.”

“I order you not to kill him!”

Michaelis was halted in his steps toward the laughing reaper by that.

“I see that you killed it before I could get here.”  

A blonde man rode in on a lawnmower, making Yuki laugh. “A lawnmower? Really?”

“Hey! I like it! The girls at administration let me get it modified!”

“So you didn’t have a choice.”

“Shut up!”

The man glared at the ghoul, before going over to the half eaten corpse in the coffin. “You gonna eat this?”

“I’d rather not eat something someone’s already taken a bite out of. And I ate two weeks ago.”

“Hee Hee Hee~! But you steal my food all the time, Yuki~!”

“That’s different!”

The white haired girl then looked back to the vampire king, who she was still hugging. “Alu?”

“Hm?”

“Do you know where Larten is?”

“Let’s go.”

“Wha-“ The vampire then gently pulled his niece out the door Rian Stoker escaped out of, Adrian following behind.

Meanwhile, Sebastian and Ronald were talking.

“Would you happen to be the famous ‘Bassy’?”

The demon’s face lit up at hearing his ex-girlfriend’s nickname for him. “I am indeed Sebastian Michaelis, butler to the house of Phantomhive. And you are?”

The reaper plastered on a fake smile. “Ronald Knox. Grim Reaper dispatch, retrieval division. Thanks for lookin’ out for my senior.”

“N-“

“Not.”

“Huh?”

Ronald glared at the demon butler. “Really, you’re an asshole. You weren’t there for her when she needed you the most, you threw her away like she was garbage.”

“Young master, I believe that you should go find Rian Stoker.”

“Sebas-“

“Now.”

Ciel tensed at that, before nodding reluctantly. “Al…All right. Come find me later, then.”

“Yes, my lord.”

The slate haired boy then ran out the door that Alucard, Yukino, and Adrian had gone through.

Sebastian glared at Ronald with glowing red eyes. “Now, what were you saying before?”

The reaper scoffed at the butler. “She told you didn’t she? She said she did, and you said that they weren’t important enough.”

“Tell me what?”

“That she gave birth to your daughter thirteen years ago.”

■————————————————————————————■

Yuki sighed, as her uncle stayed silent, ignoring her questions.

“Yuki!”

The girl perked up, and looked behind her, to see Ciel running to catch up with them. “Hey, Ciel. Where’s Michaelis?”

“He’s fighting with a grim reaper I believe, over an insult.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

The ghoul’s eye twitched at that, as she turned back to watch where she was going.

“Oh, Lizzie, you may need this.”

Ciel blinked in confusion, when Yuki said Lizzie’s name, before ducking, as the ghoul had thrown a weapon behind her.

“Thank you!”

The Earl yelped, and jumped, startled when he heard Lizzie’s voice behind him.

Which made Adrian laugh.

“May I ask what kind of weapon this is?”

“Rapier-machine gun. I have more rapier weapon combinations than that, if you want a different one.”

“No thank you~ I quite like machine guns~ I almost always use them in Fallout 3, and any other game with guns in it~”

The ghoul smiled at that, before walking next to Alucard. “Alu, did you get into an argument with Larten?”

“We’re almost there.”

Yuki growled, and pouted, as her uncle avoided answering her.

They had almost made it to the cargo hold, when Adrian grabbed the vampire king’s shoulder tightly. “You guys go on ahead of us. I need to have a word with Vlad.”

The ghoul looked at the renegade reaper worriedly, but nodded, and led Ciel and Lizzie further down the hall.  

Once the trio was out of earshot, the silver haired man glared daggers at Alucard, as he squeezed the other man’s shoulder.  “What did you do?”

The man in red raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what the fuck I mean, Vlad. What did you say, and do, to Larten? Did you actually throw him overboard as you said you would, when you muttered it under your breath yesterday?”

The black haired man’s eyes widened, as he thought that Adrian hadn’t heard him.  “I was just kidding. I wouldn’t actually do that. He’s my nephew, after all.”

The Undertaker dug his claws into the vampire’s shoulder, and glared death at him. “You don’t kid about things like that. And I wouldn’t be surprised if you actually did throw him overboard, given all that you’ve done in the past.”

At that, the No-Life King snarled at the reaper.  "Don’t you fucking dare bring that up, Adrian. Especially not in front of Yukino.”

“Why not? She’s read about you. She knows what you’ve done. She just chooses to ignore that, in favor of loving you unconditionally, what with her belief of ‘The past is the past. What matters now is the present’.”

Alucard tried to shake off the mortician’s claws, and strike him, but Adrian’s grip wasn’t to be trifled with, and he caught the vampire’s fist in his hand, and squeezed, nearly breaking the other’s hand.

“Let me tell you something, Vlad.”

The vampire king growled, and tried to strike the other man again, only to be kneed in the stomach.  

“The anger of your dear big brother’s that you know so well, is not his own.”

Alucard coughed, as he raised an eyebrow.  “Huh…?”

“It rubbed off on him.”

The man in red blinked at that. “What? Then…who-“

“It rubbed off on him from me. Except, my anger can be much, much more deadly at times.”

The vampire’s eyes widened, as Adrian released the fist he was holding, and tightly clamped his hand over the vampire king’s mouth, then brought the other’s face closer, before whispering in his ear.  

“I don’t care if you’re Crowley’s little brother. If you hurt my step-children, or anyone else in the family that I have come to love so much, you will find yourself a pile of ashes. Understand?”

Alucard tensed at that, before grunting in understanding.  

The Undertaker grinned at that, as he let go of the vampire, who quickly jumped away from the silver haired man. “Good~! I’m glad we understand each other then~! Now, come along~! We don’t want to keep them waiting, do we~?”

Not trusting his mouth, the vampire king shook his head, and followed the renegade reaper, to wherever the teenagers were.

They found them waiting at the entrance of the cargo hold, and Yuki was showing Lizzie how to actually use a real life machine gun, and Lizzie showed-or tried to show-Yuki how to use a rapier.

“GAAAAAH! I don’t like just stabbing things! I like going ‘Slashy! Slashy!’ and ‘Hack! Hack!’ You can’t do that with a rapier!”

Adrian, and Alucard, burst into laughter at the ghoul’s use of sound effects.

“GYAH HA HA HA HA!!!! HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE!!!”

The white haired girl blushed, and glared at them.

“S-Shut up!”

Yuki then quickly turned her head to Ciel and Lizzie, as she heard them chuckling. “Stop!”

The ghoul whined, making Lizzie stop, as she thought they were hurting her feelings. “Oh, I’m sorry, Yuki. It’s just that, you were so very cute when making those sounds~! ♡”

Ciel stopped chuckling and blushed, his eyes widening at what Lizzie just said.

“L-Lizzie!”

“What?”

“Where did you hear such dirty pick up lines?!”

“Believe it or not, that was not the dirtiest one I know. I believe that the one Adrian told me yesterday is the dirtiest.”

“UNDERTAKER!”

“Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee~!”

Lizzie suddenly noticed that Yuki was being silent, and looked, to see the ghoul’s whole body flushed, and she was swaying back and forth. “Yuki?”

The white haired girl then fell to the floor, with her soul flying out of her mouth.

“Waaah! Yuki!”

The blonde girl panicked, and crouched next to the younger, then grabbed a hold of Yuki’s soul, and stuffed it back into her.

The girl ‘came back from the dead,’ before she began to stammer, and fumble over words in Japanese, as Lizzie began shaking her friend, trying to unfry her brain.

“I believe we should go look around in the cargo hold now~”

At that, Yuki sat up, her blush gone, as Lizzie helped her up, before threading her arm through the taller girl’s, as they followed the males down the dark staircase.

“Why’s it so dark….”

“No one comes down here until the ship gets to port, dearest.”

The ghoul whined at that.

Before she stood up straight, as she had an idea.

The white haired ghoul requipped black and green leather gloves, before the one on her right hand suddenly combusted seemingly spontaneously.

Ciel yelped at that, startled and worried about the ghoul. “Yuki! Put it out! You’ll burn your arm!”

“It won’t burn me, Ciel. These gloves are fireproof, and make it so the flames don’t travel unless I want them too.”

“Wha-How-How-“

“Magic~”

Ciel’s eye twitched at that, before he looked ahead to watch where he was going.

The light of the flames engulfing Yuki’s hand was much brighter than any flashlight could ever be, and helped the ones with human eyes see better, as they made it down to the cargo hold.

And when they did, Yuki was tackled in a hug by a silver blur, making the flames go out.

“Yuki~!”

“Papa?!”

The one who tackled her kissed nearly every inch of her face like a thousand times, making the ghoul whine, and try to pull away. “Papa! Stop it!”

“But I just wanted to give my step-daughter some love! I haven’t seen you in forever, you know!”

“You saw me five days ago!”

“That’s too long!” The man then nuzzled her cheek, as Yuki tried to crawl out of his iron grip.

“Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee~!!!”

“Shut it!”

“Mr. Bathory, I believe that you should let Yuki go, as we need light, and she’s it.”

“Hm? Oh. Sorry.” The silver haired man let go of his step-daughter at that, kissed her face once more, then helped her up.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome~”

The flame burst back to life, letting Ciel and Lizzie see the man who hugged the ghoul, as well as two other men behind him.

The one who had hugged Yuki, had long silver hair that was in a ponytail, ruby red eyes, long, pointed ears like Yuki’s, and wore a white vampire noble uniform.

The tall, orange haired man behind the silver haired vampire stood defiantly, with his hands on his hips, and had a smile on his face, and wore a white Rend Collective t shirt, under a black leather jacket, with military green cargo pants, and brown, knee high combat boots.

And the third man, was crouched on the floor, feeding food to snakes, and had white hair, with golden eyes, and had scales on his cheeks and forehead, and was wearing a footman’s tuxedo.

“Snake?!”

“TenTen!” Yuki was happy to see her older brother, and had to restrain herself from hugging him, as she had her hand engulfed in flames that could hurt him badly.

The orange haired vampire smiled at his sister in greeting.

“T-Too bright. -Says Wordsworth.”

“Oh! Sorry!”

Yuki then made the flames become smaller than her palm, before yelping in surprise, as a certain pitch black King Cobra slithered up her leg, and wrapped himself around her shoulders. “Well, hello, Bram~!”

The cobra hissed happily, while Larten and Ferid looked at her in confusion.

“Yuki…”

“Hm?”

“You do know that you have a very venomous snake around you, right?”

“Yep!”

“Then why are you letting it on you?”

The ghoul raised an eyebrow, and frowned, while letting Lizzie pet Bram. “Cause he’s my friend. And aren’t you being a bit hypocritical? You let probably the most venomous spider in the world crawl on you, and let her spin a web over your open mouth, and countless other things.”

“But I’m a vampire. The venom would have no effect on me if she bit me. You, however, aren’t, the venom could kill you should your cobra ‘friend’ decide to bite you.”

“He wouldn’t bite me. He-“

“Alright, that’s enough, you two.”

“But-“

“That’s enough.”

”Yes sir.”

“Jesus Christ! This place is like a maze!”

At the new voice, Yuki’s eyes widened.

A figure walked forward, and came into the light of the flame.

It was a man, with messy sky blue hair, and matching eyes, with teal markings like a panther’s around his eyes. He was wearing a white sleeveless denim jacket, had on white distressed Levi’s, donned white fingerless gloves, and wore black combat boots.

The most peculiar things about him, however, were a sword strapped to his waist, that seemed to give off the same sort of power Yuki gave off, and a jaw bone mask on his cheek.

[keikaku-sama]

Book of the Atlantic: Chapter 6

Rating: Some early chapters are rated T. Some later chapters are rated M. Reader discretion is advised. Side note: Sentences in Italics without quotation marks are thoughts. Sentences in “Italics” with quotation marks are characters on the other end of a phone call speaking. Sentences in “Bold and Italics” with quotation marks are characters saying things angrily, venomously, for emphasis, or the like.

And, sentences in “Italics and are in headline font” with quotation marks, are two characters speaking in unison. Sentences in “Bold, Italics, and are in headline font”, are three or more characters speaking in unison. Sentences in Bold and Italics without quotation marks is a character telepathically speaking to another character.

“The eternal flame in this breast, cannot be quenched by anyone.  

“We are-“

The two teenagers, and the two adults, then got into ridiculous poses, which made Yuki and Adrian burst into laughter internally, while Sebastian seemed to be completely ignoring the pain that came with putting all his weight on his bad leg.

“Phoenix!!”

Ciel blushed in embarrassment, as he glanced at the ghoul and the mortician, before glancing at Sebastian with concern.

All three of them held straight faces.

What kind of pose is this?! No one would believe them sane!!  

If we’ve got it wrong, all will be lost, Sebastian!

This must be the right pose, though. If it wasn’t he wouldn’t even bother with doing this.

The man in front of them widened his eyes, before striking the same pose.

“Phoenix!! Welcome to the Aurora Society.” The man then gave them fire bird pins, similar to his. “Here are your membership badges.”

After the man left, Sebastian walked over to Ciel to fasten the slate haired boy’s pin onto his lapel, without his cane.

The Earl blinked in confusion, while Adrian and Yuki raised an eyebrow. “You taking oxycodone?”

“Hm? Oh, yes, I am. Surprisingly, it helps.”

“Guh! Hee! Hee! Hee…”

At the laughter, the demon, ghoul, and Earl, looked to Adrian.

Who was glaring at someone behind them, as he pulled both Yuki and Ciel close to him.

“EEEE! HEE! HEE! HEE! I NEVER IMAGINED YOU’D DO SUCH A THING!”

—————————————————————————————————————-

The Earl and his butler’s eyes widened, while Yuki seemed to realize something.

So he was the one I saw hiding behind the pillar this morning.

The ghoul then paled, as she also realized what that meant.

Oh no.

The white haired girl hid behind Adrian, and hid her face in his leather jacket, as she whined silently.

Shh…..Don’t fret, dearest. I gave you my word that I’d protect you kids, and I intend to keep it.  

“And that one looked so funny while doing it! Hee! Hee! Hee!” The other reaper was referring to his twin, who was still glaring at him.

”W-Why are there two of you?!”

“Hee Hee…! I’m from another universe, you seeee~! I was dropped off in this universe after mine was destroyed~!”

Adrian moved a confused Ciel behind him, before speaking. “I figured as much. But why are you here on this ship?”

The other silver haired man grinned. “Hee Hee~! For work, you see! Hospitals are valued clients of mine!”

Yuki then chose that moment to peek out from behind her step-father. “May I ask how long you’ve been in this world?”

“Of course, dearieee~! I’ve been here for thirteen years!”

The ghoul raised an eyebrow. “And you’ve set up shop in that time?”

“I have~!”

“But Adrian is well known around London, not to mention that he’s well known around the world. How did you set up shop without us knowing?”

The renegade reaper in front of them chuckled, before speaking. “I did so without you knowing, because I told the city that I’m his long lost twin brother that he didn’t know about~! And my shop’s in Edinburgh, East Lothian, Scotland~! Hee Hee Hee~!”

Adrian had to grab hold of the white haired girl’s arm, to keep her from walking over to the other one, as her eyes sparkled in excitement. “Wow~! I bet Scotland’s even more beautiful in person, than in photos and movies! I can’t say that I’ve been there myself, though…”

Sebastian glared at Yuki, as she made idle chit chat with the other reaper, before looking to Ciel, to speak.

The Earl blinked, before nodding slightly, and peeking out, or trying to peek out from behind the reaper in leather.

The man just kept moving his arm in front of the boy’s face, so Ciel just popped his head out from between Adrian’s arm and torso.

The reaper’s eye twitched at that.

“We’re investigating illegal human experiments that are said to be conducted by this hospital. Would either of you two happen to know anything about the dead being resurrected?”

The question was directed at both reapers.

Adrian sighed exasperatedly, before responding. “I know of a few ways to resurrect the dead, but out of all of them, only one works. But, that way would not work here, and I would not recommend that you try it, unless you want to become a walking contradiction.”

“Walking……contradiction? What the bloody hell does that mean?”

“I’ll tell you later.”

The leather clad reaper’s twin seemed to be quite interested in the R-System to Yuki and Adrian, but Ciel and Sebastian didn’t care to notice, as the other began to speak. “Hee Hee…! I’m not as lenient as he, so if it’s information you want, I must have compensation for it!

“Yes, let me think…How ‘bout Lord Earl and the girl do that pose for me one more time, hmm?”

At that, Adrian growled lowly, and had to be stopped from punching the other by Yuki.

Ciel, however, only yelled at him angrily. “What do you take us fo-“

“Phoenix!!!”

The Earl was interrupted by a certain perverted moron, who greeted Sebastian and the reaper in a bad mood with that ridiculous pose.

“Do excuse me for adapting the pose to suit my style.”

Ciel and Yuki were hidden from the perverted moron’s view by Adrian, who turned around to greet the man with Michaelis.

“Isn’t that the Viscount of Druitt?!”

The disguised Earl whisper yelled this to the ghoul next to him, who was trying to make herself smaller than she already was to avoid the Viscount’s attention.

“He did have a physician’s liscense. Michaelis must’ve forgotten.”

The perverted moron clinked glasses with Adrian and Sebastian in greeting. “Oh, I say! Are you two newcomers here?”

The two teenagers behind the leather clad reaper internally sighed in relief, as the perverted moron hadn’t seemed to notice them.

Adrian smiled politely at the Viscount, while Sebastian’s eyebrow twitched. “We are indeed. We happened upon the newspaper article, you see…”

At that, the perverted moron elegantly placed a few fingers to his forehead, as if he had a headache. “Oh…Madam Samuel’s loose lips will cause us no end of grief. To think that she would reveal our secrets so readily!

“Though, it is a miracle that it hasn’t ended up on the internet…”

That was when Yuki’s phone went off, alerting the Viscount to her presence, as she fumbled with her phone before managing to turn it off.

However, the damage had already been done.

Viscount Druitt peeked around Adrian, to the silver haired man’s dismay, to see Yuki burying her face in her step-father’s back.

“Oh? And who have we here?”

The ghoul buried her face even further into Adrian’s back.

“She’s terribly shy around strangers.”

“I see. My dear flower, please let me see your face. I won’t hurt you, I swear.”

At being called ‘flower,’ the girl tensed, before doing as asked.

The Viscount was breathless when he saw her face.

Her face was framed by white hair, and she had a bit of baby fat on her cheeks, her lips plump, and light pink with gloss, while her eyes were big, and a cobalt blue with speckles of amber scattered throughout the iris.  

However, she was glaring at him.

He pouted at that, before his lips pulled into a grimace, as he saw her tattoos. “Dear flower, why did you mar your skin so-“

“Call me flower again, or say one more word about my tattoos and how ‘unladylike’ they are, and I will castrate you with a rusty, dull knife, then feed you to the sharks.”

The Viscount of Druitt yelped, and jumped away in fear at that, making Adrian chuckle.

“V-V-Very sorry, m-m-madame.”

The ghoul glared at him, before turning, and walking over to an empty table, and sitting down.

The renegade reaper sighed at her, before waving goodbye at the Viscount, then having Ciel and Sebastian follow him over to Yuki.

■————————————————————————————■

A black eyebrow raised, as a pale man growled in anger at his phone. “Shit…Why didn’t she pick up? Has something already happened?”  

The black haired man went silent, before scoffing. “Fuck it. I’m going to go check on her myself.”

The man was then engulfed in black and red, fire like shadows, before they vanished, showing that he had disappeared, with only a note lying where he had been sitting.

■————————————————————————————■

After they had sat down, with Adrian insisting that Ciel sit in the chair at the back of the table, and Sebastian sit in a chair sat in front of the Earl, the door closest to them opened.

Four men carrying a coffin walked in, followed by a brown haired man in a doctor’s uniform.  

Ciel raised an eyebrow. “Who’s that?”

Adrian hummed, gently rubbing circles in the back of Yuki’s hand, before answering. “That would be Rian Stoker, the founder of the Aurora Society.”

“So that’s…”

■————————————————————————————■

Black and red, fire like shadows roared to life outside, on the second class deck, near the barroom, before disappearing.

A pale, black haired man, with red eyes, snarled, as he followed the scent of his nephew to the barroom.

Meanwhile, a silver haired man watched silently, curious as to what the other would do.

Larten laughed at a joke Ronald cracked, before glancing to the door.  

He saw a tall man in red looking at him.

At that, the orange haired vampire stood up, and grabbed his coat.

“Hey, Larten. Where you going?”

“I have to go meet up with my sister. I promised I’d take her to the arcade again tonight.”

The women at the table, and the men, seemed sad to see the man go, while the blonde reaper nodded in understanding. “Ah. Right. Well, you go on then. Wouldn’t want to keep her waiting.”

Larten smiled at his friend, before leaving a few pounds for the bartender, then walked out of the barroom, only to be grabbed by the collar of his shirt.

■————————————————————————————■

Everyone in the room became quiet, as the founder was starting to speak.

“The eternal flame in this breast, cannot be quenched by anyone.

“We are-“

The brunette man then struck that ridiculous pose, making Yuki gain a small smile, as she was put in a good mood.

“Phoenix!!!”

■————————————————————————————■

“What the hell are you doing here?”

The orange haired vampire sighed at his uncle, who seemed to be paranoid, and jumping to conclusions.

Again.

“Adrian told me that I should have a bit of fun before everything goes to hell. He also said to leave and go find Egin and Lady Elizabeth, then take them with me to where he and Yuki are, once I see you.”

“You shouldn’t have listened to him. You should have stayed with your sister!”

“And what? Have him become anxious, and start being as paranoid as you?”

Alucard growled lowly at the new voice.

■————————————————————————————■

“Esteemed friends and colleagues!” Stoker bowed to the audience, before continuing.

“I thank you for attending the Aurora Society’s research presentation, ‘Absolute Salvation of Mankind through Medical Science,’ on this fine day.

“What is Absolute Salvation, you might ask? Well, it’s…

“Perfect health!!”

Rian then began to strike all sorts of ridiculous poses, making Yuki, Adrian, Ciel, and Sebastian, groan internally.

This is so stupid.

“A healthy body.

“Healthy teeth.

“A healthy mind residing in a healthy body.

“And healthy weather.

“Good health is a many-splendoured thing!”

A somber look then took over the man’s face. “However, there continues to exist a state of greatest, most profound unhealthiness that we are unable to conquer, try as we might.

“And what is that state?”

■————————————————————————————■

“Stay out of this, Ferid. It’s none of your business.”

The silver haired man-Ferid, glared at the vampire king. “None of my business? None of my business?! He may not be related to me by blood, but he is still my son! So, yes, I do think that it is indeed my business, Vlad!”

The No-Life King snarled at his brother-in-law. “He needs to be with his sister. Or do you not care about her anxiety, fear of ships, and large bodies of water either?!”

At that, the silver haired vampire flipped.

“You’re seriously asking me if I don’t care about my daughter and her phobias?! What the fuck, Vlad?! Of course I care about her! I’m just not flipping out like you are, because I know that Adrian will keep her safe!

“He gave you his word that he’d make sure she would make it out of this alive! He never goes back on his word! You know that! When you first met him, you asked him to protect Crowley for eternity, and he gave you his word that he would!

“He has continued to protect Crowley to this day, and the same can be said for Crowley’s children. Adrian told me what you said over the phone. I understand why you’re worried, but Adrian will be able to protect her just fine, if Larten doesn’t make it in time.”

Alucard’s eyes glowed red with anger, as he growled, before dropping Larten onto the deck. “I’m going to go find Yukino.”

Ferid blinked confusedly, as the vampire king let the venom slip out of his voice, seemingly not angry anymore. “……..Alright. You go on ahead. We’ll catch up with you later.”

The man in red grunted, before turning to leave. “Larten.”

“Yes, uncle?”

The black haired man stayed silent for a bit, making Ferid worry.

Before the vampire king turned his head to the side, to glare at his nephew with eyes still glowing red in anger.

“I regret turning you into one of us every damn day of my life.”

The silver haired man snarled at Alucard, as the taller man lowered himself into his own shadow, before it traveled up the side of the ship.

Ferid scoffed, before turning to his step-son.

Who was trembling, and staring wide eyed at the spot Alucard had been, looking to be on the brink of tears.

The silver haired vampire looked at Larten with concern, as he crouched down in front of him.

“Larten?”

He didn’t answer.

“I know that you’re not okay, but….Do you want to cry?”

“I don’t know.”

The ruby red eyed man gazed as the other sadly, as the orange haired man’s voice was cracking.

“Do you need to cry?”

“I dunno.”

A hiccup.

“You’re gonna cry.”

“Y-Yeah.”

The blood works started as Ferid pulled his step-son into a hug, the younger vampire’s sobs muffled, as he had buried his face in his step-father‘s shoulder.

The silver haired vampire rubbed Larten’s back soothingly, before running his hand through his hair.

“Shh…..”

“Papa….What did I do to make him angry at me?”

“You did nothing. He’s just a paranoid, mean, old coot who doesn’t know how to care for his nephews properly.”

The two stayed like that for bit, before Larten pulled his face out of the older vampire’s shoulder, with a determined look on his face, that surprised Ferid.

“Are you going to be okay now?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m going.”

The orange haired vampire stood up, and went to leave.

“Going where?”

Larten paused, then looked back with a smile. “I’m going to do as Adrian told me, and I’m going to prove uncle wrong.”

Ferid blinked at that, before quickly getting up, and running to follow his step-son.  

“Wait for me!”

■————————————————————————————■

Stoker placed his hand on the coffin, before continuing.

“It is death!

“And the wonderful, singular power that will save us from this calamity? That is…

“The medical science of the Aurora Society!”

The doctor then took his hand off the coffin, letting the men who brought it in open it.

Yuki immediately covered her nose, as the smell of the corpse was too much for her, making Ciel raise an eyebrow.

“Now I shall demonstrate to you the fruits of our research, the ‘Absolute Salvation of Mankind through Medical Science.’

“Here lies Margaret Connor, age seventeen. She lost her young life in an unfortunate accident.  

“Her death was truly tragic, the result of a catastrophe that never that never should have occurred.”

There was a couple in black standing next to the coffin, the woman crying, with the man comforting her.

“Her untimely end brought ill health not only upon her own heart, but also upon the hearts of her loved ones.

“I wish to absolutely save this young lady and her family!”

Despite seeing Yuki cover her nose, Ciel leaned over to her. “Is the corpse real?”

“Yeah. Been dead for at least two weeks.”

The men next to the coffin placed electrodes on the corpse’s chest, and forehead, before Rian raised his hand, to show off some sort of generator.

“Allow me to show you, everyone! The power of medicine!”

The brunette then pulled the lever on the generator, making electricity travel through the electrodes, to the corpse.

“Absolute Salvation!!”

■————————————————————————————■

“Oh!

“It’s nearly time.”

The women Ronald was with looked disappointed. “Hm? Where’re you goin’?”

The blonde reaper slid his coat on, before waving goodbye to the women. “I’ve got a little work to do.”

“Awww! Leavin’ so soon?” The brunette woman pouted, before smiling. “Then ‘ow ‘bout we meet again ‘ere t’morrow?”

Ronald smiled back at her. “Okay! If we’re both alive, that is.”

■————————————————————————————■

“Now rise from the ashes, my dear!

“Like a phoenix!!”

Adrian placed a hand on the gun holster on the back of his belt, glaring at the corpse, as it rose.

“Please, take a good look!

“Our medical science can overcome even death!”

The mourning woman-The corpse’s mother, then hugged the corpse. “Maggie! Oh, Maggie, my sweet child!! Thank you so much, doctor!!”

“This is ‘Absolute Salvation’!”

Ciel suddenly stood in shock, as he gaped. “What exactly is going on here?! Did a corpse really just come back to life?!”

The corpse’s maw then opened wider than any human could.

“As long as you are alive, your mothe-“ The woman then screamed, as the corpse bit into her neck.

“M-Maggie-?! What is the-Ow-“ The woman was then killed.

The audience screamed, and ran for their lives.

The corpse then got up out of the coffin, and headed for the nearest person.

Which, apparently, was Yuki.

The ghoul summoned her weapons, and was about to draw her shotgun, when-

[keikaku-sama]

Book of the Atlantic: Chapter 3

Rating: Some early chapters are rated T. Some later chapters are rated M. Reader discretion is advised.

Side note:  Sentences in Italics without quotation marks are thoughts. Sentences in Bold and Italics with quotation marks are characters saying things angrily, venomously, for emphasis, or the like.

 “Wow~!”

 “Got a knack for that, y’do!”

 Snake was currently peeling oranges, with his skills of peeling being fawned over by the cute boy with green eyes, and the red haired girl-Finny and Mey-Rin.

 The half demon gained a small blush. “…..I-It’s nothing, really….I used to help my mother make dinner all the time, so this just comes naturally to me….”

 Finny smiled at him. “Well, I’m sure she’d be very proud of you~!”

 At that, the half Naga paused peeling, before continuing, with a soft look on his face. “Thank you….”

 Sebastian internally groaned in disgust, at the mention of the half breed’s mother, before focusing on butchering a fish.

 “Hey, Sebastian. My man.”

 The demon’s eyebrow twitched, as Bard whispered to him.

 “Takin’ on a guy like that, a fella not one of us knows a thing about…y’sure you know what yer doin’? And didn’t he hurt your leg? Why’re you lettin’ him stay?”

 “Regardless of who or what he may be, if the young master has decided to hire him, we must simply obey. Even if I bear a bit of ill will against him, I cannot disobey our master’s wishes.”

■--------------------------------------■

 “Well? How is he doing?”

 Ciel sipped his Earl Grey tea, while watching his demon butler limp over to the food cart, a tray of half eaten fish soufflé in his hands.

 “I believe it will take some time to train him. I suspect that he is quick to learn though, as he only just recently met his father, and has already begun to master two of the slayer magics his father has.”

 “Well, if he isn’t, you would have no problem at all, making him so, as you excel at making someone quick to learn, correct?”

 The old crow looked over to his master with an amused looked on his face. “Yes….Is how I would like to reply, but, my teaching abilities are nothing much of which to speak if your dancing skills are anything to go by. You’re horrible with both modern choreography, and dances of old.”

 The Earl grumbled at that, and glared at the newspaper he was reading.

 The headline read ‘The dead return to life!? The Karnstein hospital makes miracles happen!’

 The slate haired boy stared at his butler, who become confused as to why he was doing so.

 “Is something wrong?”

 Ciel then looked back to the paper, as he and Sebastian heard a slight commotion, and footsteps running towards the room the two were in. “No, not at all.”

 “Wait! No!! You can’t just barge in! You can’t!”

 The door slammed open, to reveal a Chinese man, a woman in a quipao, and Mey-Rin.

 “Hi~ there, Lord Earl! I trust you’ve been well~?”

 The Earl looked at the man in shock. “Lau?!”

 The man-Lau, looked at the boy disappointedly. “I was hoping to help myself to breakfast, but you’ve already eaten…”

 “What in blazes are you doing here-“

 The slate haired boy was cut off when Lau looked to Sebastian confusedly. “Oh? Didn’t you die the other day?” The demon laughed without humor at that.

 “Listen when I’m talking to you!!”

 Lau looked back to the angry boy, as the girl he came with-Ran-Mao, threaded her arm through his.

 “What business could you possibly have with me at this hour? Surely you didn’t come all this way just for a handout of breakfast?”

□-----------------□

 “A hospital that raises the dead? Is that the one mentioned in today’s paper?”

 Lau and Ran-Mao were now seated at the table, and had plates of breakfast in front of them. “Yes, that’s it!”

 “Sorry, but I haven’t the least interest in the occult-“

 “But occult it may not be!”

 Ciel jolted in shock. “Come again?”

 “Karnstein hospital. They seem to be doing quite a bit of shopping at the black market docks Lord Earl has left in my care.”

 The Earl raised an eyebrow. “For drugs?”

 “No. People. They’re illegally purchasing slaves from overseas, but the numbers are quite extraordinary. I wouldn’t think for a minute that they could fit all of those people into the hospital.”

 “Might they not be disposing of them once they’ve served their purpose?”

 Lau placed his fork on his plate, before speaking. “Well, to be frank, I don’t care about those details one way or another, but…

 “A hospital like that really shouldn’t be making such headlines in the average citizen’s newspaper, don’t you agree?”

 Sebastian looked at the man, his brows furrowed. “So in other words, you mean to say that there is a possibility that they are resurrecting the dead via illegal human experimentation?”

 “Exactly!”

 Ciel sighed, and looked at his butler. “If this turns out to be true, it’s a case of the underworld forces meddling with society at large. It’s best to strip roses of their thorns before they cut one’s hands.  

 "Sebastian, look into it at once. And, while you’re out, get a cane for yourself as well.”

 The demon blinked, before smiling, and bowing slightly, his weight distributed mostly to his good leg. “Of course, sir. Leave it to me.”

■------------------------------------------------------------------------------------■

 “Bringing the dead back to life…hm? How absurd…”

 Ciel looked out of a window in the hallway, and watched Finny and Snake greet the car Lizzie came to the manor in.  

 He then heard someone running down the hallway to him. “Ciel~! Listen to this! Listen to this!!”

 The Earl raised a brow at his fiancé, before she held his hands in hers. “It’s been decided that we’re going on a family trip in April! A three week excursion to New York on a luxury passenger liner, starting on the seventeenth! And! And! Father was wondering if you might like to join us!”

 “I think not.” The slate haired boy said this bluntly, making Lizzie let go of his hands, and look at him in confusion. “But it’s a ticket for the maiden voyage of The Campania, said to be the most opulent passenger liner in the world, you know! Why, even mother said Ciel should take some time off once in a while!”

 Ciel sighed at the girl. “I truly appreciate the thought, but I’m afraid I can’t absent myself for such a length of time.” Lizzie deflated at that, with her eyes tearing up.

 “A place nearby would be all right, I suppose.”

 “Huh?!”

 “I can make the time to take a few days’ leave, and accompany you wherever you want to go. So-!” Ciel yelped, startled when his fiancé suddenly hugged him tightly.

 “Anywhere is fine if we’re together~! I’m so happy~!”  

 The Earl blushed, as the blonde squeezed him. “That ‘anywhere’ causes me the most concern…”

○----------------○

 “I’ll buy you lots of souvenirs, okay~!?”

 Ciel sighed through his nose, as he watched the car Lizzie was in, drive off, with a soft look on his face.

 Before shouting in surprise, as a certain demon butler suddenly popped into his line of sight, giving him a sort of jump scare.

 “What is making you grin so?”

 “Good God, man! Don’t scare me like that! Moreover, what is that your wearing?! And how the hell did you get to the second floor window with that leg?!”

 Sebastian opened the window, and jumped inside.

 “As they say, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ As for how I got up here….” The demon lifted his bad leg a bit, showing Ciel a sort of mechanized contraption on his leg and foot, most of it hidden by the black haired man’s pant leg.

 “What the hell is that, and where did you get it?”

 “This is a mechanized device, that hospitals use to help patients paralyzed from the waist down walk again. However…I made a few….’adjustments’ to it myself. It now has a sensor in it, that is able to tell when I want to jump, or run, just by sensing what my good leg is doing.

 “When the sensor goes off, it activates a few gears, and a spring, that pushes a metal plate shaped like the bottom of my foot down, and pushes me off the ground, with the help of my right leg.”

 The Earl stared at Sebastian. “If you could make contraptions like this, why haven’t you done so before?!”

 “Because I didn’t need to.” The slate haired boy’s eye twitched at the man, before they both headed into the Earl’s study. “So, what did you find out, Sebastian?”

 Michaelis smiled, and bowed slightly, leaning a bit on his new cane as he did so. “I have discovered some rather intriguing tidbits of information, Young Master.”

□-------------------------□

 “I told you to bide your time.”

 “I did.”

 “I DIDN’T-……I didn’t mean till nightfall. I meant to wait until you got stronger to go one on one with him.”

 Egin jumped, startled when Yuki began to yell. However, he was confused when she cut herself off, and began to speak in a calm, but cracking, voice. “S-Sorry….If……If it makes you feel any better….I did hurt him a bit before he knocked me out…”

 The ghoul raised an eyebrow at that, silently asking her half demon friend to elaborate.

 “I scarred his cheek with Devil Slayer lightning, and I charged so much lightning into a kick to his left leg, the pain from when you nearly crushed it when he was human came back to bite him in the ass, full force.”

 “Huh?”

 “And now his leg is permanently damaged, and he has to use a cane….or some contraption he comes up with.”

 The white haired girl blinked at him. “Seriously?”

 The snake man nodded, before Yuki’s eyebrow twitched. “And how did your talk with Ciel go?”

 “He figured that I knew what happened to the other first stringers.”

 “And…..”

 “I told him you saved Joker.”

 “Go on….”

 “…….He said that…..Joker and the others kidnapped children at each stop on the tour……is that true, Yuki?”

 The blue eyed ghoul sighed sadly. “Unfortunately. I’ll tell you about the reason why when we have more time…Now tell me, what else did you talk about?”

 “He asked me who my parents were, and I told him.”

 “In front of The Heathen?”

 “Yes.”

 “What else?”

 “Smile said he would help me catch my mother’s murderer.”

 Yuki stared at him confusedly. “You didn’t….No…if you did, he’d kill you….Did he threaten you?”

 “In a way. He glared at me, after I told Smile that I’ve seen Jack the Ripper’s face. I caved and told Smile that I must’ve mistaken Michaelis for him, that I saw red, and my vision distorted in anger when I saw The Ripper’s face.”

 “Hello, Yukino.”

 Egin and the ghoul screamed, and jumped across the room in surprise, when the demon they were speaking about showed up behind them.

 “WHAT THE FUCK, MAN?!”

 Sebastian tilted his head in mock confusion. “What? All I did was say hello.”

 “NEARLY GIVING ME A FUCKING HEART ATTACK IN THE PROCESS!”

 “Oh, really~? I must be getting better at my scare tactics then. Maybe I could practice a bit more on you~?”

 At this, Bram the King Cobra, who was wrapped around Yuki’s waist, hissed angrily at the demon.

 Michaelis raised an eyebrow at the snake, and chuckled. “Oh, I do apologize, but I’m afraid that I don’t speak snake.”

 “He said ‘Fuck you and your fuck ugly face, you lamentably non-intuitive malingering barbaric feces-collecting molester of small furry animals! And while I’m at it, you’re like a dog with two dicks’!”

 Multiple tick marks appeared on the black haired man’s head, his eye twitching, as Yuki translated for Bram, while Egin spluttered, and had to restrain his laughter.  

 The maroon eyes the demon held now glowed red, and his pupils were narrowed into slits, as he growled in anger and annoyance. “Tell me, Snake. Where did you find that Cobra?”

 Said half breed coughed, before answering. “I found him near a guarded manor on the outskirts of London. Why?”

 “It appears that that snake is one of the vampire’s familiars, and closely takes after him.”

 The ghoul blinked at that, before looking at the snake with a smile. “So that’s why he likes me so much….”

 Sebastian glared at Yuki, who stared back at him. The white haired girl scanned the demon’s body, and found the scar that Egin had told her about, then looked to the left leg of the crow demon.

 It was bent a bit, as the crow was putting most of his weight onto his right leg, and his cane. And there was a sort of contraption device thing that went to the bottom of Michaelis’ foot.

 Sebastian raised an eyebrow at her, and smirked teasingly at her. “Like what you see?”

 “Shut your piehole, fuckface.”  

 The man’s eye, along with the corners of his mouth, twitched in anger and annoyance at that. He was about to say something scathing, when Ciel walked into the room.

 “Ah, good. You’re here.”

 The girl raised an eyebrow. “Why is it good that I’m here exactly?”

 “I want you and a family member or two of your choosing to come with me on a cruise to New York.”

 Yuki stared at the Earl, before turning to leave. “Nope! Not a chance!”

 “Lizzie will be there.”

 The ghoul halted, and slowly turned around. “Lizzie will be there?”

 “Yes. It’s a three week excursion, so you’ll have plenty of time to spend with her.”

 The white haired girl’s eye twitched. “What’s the name of the boat?”

 “It’s called-“

 “So this is the Campania, huh~?”

 “Whoa, it’s huuuge!” Finny, Bard, Mey-Rin, and Tanaka, looked at the ship in awe, while Ciel only stared at it blankly.  

 Sebastian limped back over to them, after getting the keys to his, Ciel, and Snake’s suite.

 Finny smiled, still looking at the boat. “I’m jealous that Mister Snake gets to go with the Young Master!”

 Michaelis looked at the four other servants sternly. “A footman’s duties include accompanying his master on his travels. I am counting on each of you to carefully see to your duties while we are away.”

 The four saluted him. “Yessir!”

 “FUCK THIS! I AIN’T GETTIN’ ON THAT DEATH TRAP!”

 “It seems that Yukino has arrived, Young Master.” The demon said this without even having to look at the shouting girl to know it was her. Though he was curious to see as to who she brought with her.

 He was surprised, to say the least, when he looked over.

 “Oh, don’t worry! It’ll be just like the last time we went on a cruise to New York!”

 “I DON’T WANT IT TO BE LIKE LAST TIME! LAST TIME ONLY HAD ONE BRIGHTSIDE TO IT!”

 “Oh, come now, Yuki~! Hee Hee~! It’ll be fun~! Hee Hee Hee~!”

 “NO IT WON’T-EEEEK!!!” The ghoul screamed, when she saw someone with a giant caged tarantula getting on board the ship. “WHY ARE THEY LETTING SPIDERS ON THE SHIP?!”

 “Well, they are letting snakes on it too, so it’s only fair.”

 “Hee Hee~! Spiders on a boat~! Spiders on a boat~! HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE~!”

 “Please stop that, Adrian, you’re making me even more scared to get on it…” The white haired girl whined weakly, as her step-father pranced away to get the keys for their suite.

 Larten sighed at his little sister, before glaring at a few guys who were looking at her with lustful eyes.

 “TenTen?”

 “Hm?”

 The ghoul fidgeted, before speaking. “You think the ship has wi-fi on it?”

 The orange haired vampire’s eye twitched. “Wi-Fi’s what you’re worried about?”

 “Well, I kind of need it to update mama on the situation…..and I also need to write my will before I die.”

 At that, the man patted Yuki’s head. “You’re not going to die. Adrian and I will make sure of it.”

 “Quite right, Larten.”

 The two siblings looked to see Adrian back from getting the keys. The renegade reaper had pinned the left side of his bangs up, leaving only his left eye visible.

 The silver haired man gave them a soft look, as he ruffled their hair.  

 The white haired ghoul looked at him worriedly. “But what if-“

 “Shh…No ‘What ifs.’ I give you my word, that I will make sure of it that you, Larten, Ciel, Lizzie, and Egin, make it out alive.”

 The blue eyed girl pouted at the Undertaker, before hugging him. “Then I’ll be the one to make sure you make it out alive. I promise.”

 Adrian stared down at Yuki, before a soft smile appeared on his face, as he picked the girl up princess style. “You’re a sweet girl, Yukino.”

 The ghoul hid her face in the silver haired man’s neck, her hands clutching his shirt, as he carried her across the gangplank, with Larten, Ciel, Sebastian, and Egin, following behind.

■-------------------------------------------------■

 Yuki clung to Egin and Larten’s arms, while Adrian stood off to the side, laughing after hearing what his charge did to Michaelis, as the demon glared at him.  

 “Continue laughing, and you’ll find that you have been gutted of your innards, Undertaker.”

 Ciel sighed, as the mortician continued to laugh, despite the threat from his butler. “Would you two please behave? I don’t want you to start fighting, only to destroy the ship.”

 “Sorry, Lord Earl~! Hee Hee Hee Hee~! I just didn’t think that-Hee Hee Hee Hee~! Noxious beasts such as him- Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee~! Were able to be permanently damaged~! Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee Hee~!”

 Michaelis’ eye twitched in annoyance. The demon went to say something, before a blonde blur hugged Yuki.  

 “Yuki! I didn’t know you were coming~!”

 “Y-You’re squeezing me too tightly….”

 The blonde girl wearing a Victorian lolita dress let go of the ghoul then. “Oh! Sorry! I’m just so glad that you’re here!”

 Lizzie then looked to Larten, and Adrian, who had finally managed to stop laughing, and smiled at them. “It’s good to see you two again, Larten, Undertaker!”

 The orange haired vampire smiled back at the girl, while the renegade reaper grinned. “It’s a pleasure to see you again as well, Lady Elizabeth~! Hee Hee~!”

 After having greeted the strange trio of a ghoul, a vampire, and a reaper, Lizzie noticed Ciel, and glomped him, which made Sebastian chuckle.

 “I-I had hoped to surprise you.”

 “You said you wouldn’t come with us! I’m so very happy!”

 “Elizabeth! If you wish to continue cosplaying a girl from the Victorian era, you must stop behaving so indecently in public!”

 Lizzie’s mother, a blonde woman, scolded her daughter, as she walked up to them, followed by her son and husband.

 “Quite right, Lizzie. Besides…” The son, Edward, then yelled angrily at Ciel, who’s arm was being held by the blonde girl. “I have yet to acknowledge you as my future brother-in-law!! So hurry up and move away from her!”

 Lizzie pouted at her older brother. “Really! There you go again, Edward!”

 The slate haired Earl felt someone staring at him, and turned his head to see Lizzie’s father glaring. “L-Lord Midford. It has been quite some time since we last met.”

 After a moment more of glaring, Lord Midford suddenly squeezed Ciel to him, and nuzzled the boy’s cheek. “It has been far too long, my future son~!! You are adorable as usual~!”

 Lady Francis hit her husband’s arm with a folding fan, and scolded him. “Really, my lord! That’s quite enough!!”

 After the blonde man let go of Ciel, the Marchioness of Midford glared at Sebastian, Egin, Larten, and Adrian, before pulling out a comb, and quite a few pins from her purse.

 Sebastian sweated, while Egin and Larten were confused, and Adrian grinned in amusement.

 “Really! What is with Phantomhive servants and associates, and long bangs?! And you two! You should be ashamed of yourselves for dressing in such way in front of ladies!”

 Lady Francis reprimanded Larten and Adrian the most, as the orange haired vampire was wearing the style clothes he usually wore when going out with his sister, while the silver haired man wore one of his more casual outfits.

 The vampiric Irishman wore a black My Chemical Romance t shirt (he was still sore about the fact that the band had broken up the year before), distressed black jeans, a black biker jacket, and black and red hiking boots.

 And the renegade reaper donned a large black sweater he stole from Grell that had ‘Pizza is cheaper than therapy’ printed on it, acid washed and distressed black skinny jeans, black fingerless leather gloves with a bow on the back of them that, again, were stolen from Grell, and black leather Demonia Creeper 306 wedges with a height of nearly six inches.

 Yuki snickered at Sebastian, after he and Egin’s hair had been combed back.

 Before holding her hand over her mouth, and swallowing bile that had nearly made its way out of her throat.  

 The ghoul tapped Egin’s arm, making him look at her confusedly, before he realized what was wrong.

 After having excused himself and his friend, the snake man led the girl to the nearest women's restroom.

○-----------------------------------------○

 “I hate boats…..”

 Yuki had finished retching a while later, with her hair being tied in a ponytail, and her bangs pinned back by Egin, who was smiling softly at her as he wiped her face with a wet towel.

 The snake man helped the ghoul up, after having put the towel back where he found it, and opened the restroom door for her, before taking her hand in his, and leading her to where the others were, as they had gone to sit at two tables pushed together in a restaurant area.

 “Are you alright, young lady?”

 “Hm?”

 Yuki blinked confusedly at Lady Francis, who had come to stand in front of them, her eyes showing concern. “You were in the restroom for quite some time.”

 “Oh, I’m fine, milady. I just have motion sickness that’s the worst on boats.”

 The blonde woman’s eyes widened in realization. “I see. Aren’t there medicines to help with that?”

 The ghoul smiled sheepishly at the Marchioness. “There are, but I forgot to take some before we left, and I forgot to take some with me as well, so I’m just going to have to settle for having to vomit once every few hours.”

 “Oh, you poor girl. If I had some, I’d give it to you, but I don’t. I’m terribly sorry.”

 The white haired girl gave the woman a small smile. “I appreciate it, Lady Midford.”

 Yuki then went to sit with Adrian and Larten, while Lady Francis stayed with Egin to comb his hair back again, as it had somehow gotten messy while he was worrying over the ghoul.

 As the blue eyed girl sat next to Adrian, she looked at him, as his hair was now in a fancy bun with most of his bangs pinned and french braided to the sides of his head.

 The Marchioness of Midford had apparently given up on trying to tame his wild bangs when she was actually almost done, as some of his bangs hung over the sides of his face.

 Larten, whose long sideburns were pinned behind his ears, with his bangs pinned to a few spots on the top of his head, looked at his little sister with concern. “Are you alright, Yuki?”

 “I’m fine, TenTen.”

 He raised an eyebrow, before sighing, and going back to talking with Lord Midford.

 It was then Adrian’s turn to question her. “You didn’t bring your travel sickness pills, did you?”

 The ghoul’s eye twitched. “No.”

 The renegade reaper then grinned. “That’s fine~! Because I brought them with me~! Hee Hee~!”

 Yuki blinked at the silver haired man, before smiling at him. “Thank you! How did you figure I’d forget them though?”

 “You always forget something. That, and your mother insisted you take them so you don’t suddenly vomit at the wrong time.” The white haired girl hugged the Undertaker’s arm, as she couldn’t hug his torso, otherwise she’d fall off her chair. The man patted her head gently, while smiling softly at her.

 “So we’ll get to be together for three whole weeks?”

 “Yes, that’s right.”

 Lizzie was excited, as she would be able to spend more time than she ever has before with her fiancé and her best friend. “This will be our first time being together for so long! You must escort me to the dinner parties, Ciel!

 “….Though of course if you’re too busy, I wouldn’t mind at all to be escorted to them by Yuki~!”

 Said ghoul blushed at that, and stuttered, while Ciel stammered angrily. “I-I’m not so busy that I wouldn’t be able to take you! I will be the one to escort you, of course!”

 Adrian chuckled at his step-daughter and the Earl’s reactions.

 The blonde girl next to said Earl smiled at that. “Yay~! I’m so glad~! Though I would still like for Yuki to escort me to one…”

 “I-I could, but I don’t think I’d be able to eat much of anything, seeing as whatever I eat could possibly come back up later…”

 At that, Lizzie stood, and walked behind the younger girl, to hug her gently. “Wonderful~!”

 Ciel, along with Edward, were confused as to why Lizzie wanted the other girl to escort her.

 Sebastian, seeing his master’s confusion, chuckled. “I believe Lady Elizabeth may not be ‘straight’, young master.” The Earl’s eye twitched.

 The blonde girl then gasped, seemingly remembering something, before pulling two wrapped decently sized gift boxes out of her pink messenger bag, that had a cute chibi bat with a red heart in front of it, and a banner with the word ‘Hellsing’ on it, embroidered into the middle of the flap, while the ‘Cirque du Freak’ logo was embroidered into the top left corner of the flap.

 “Here you are, Yuki. I apologize for not being able to celebrate your birthday with you two days ago. I had a prior engagement that I couldn’t get out of.”

 The ghoul smiled at the older girl, as she took the two boxes. “It’s fine, Lizzie….May I open these?”

 “After I get my phone out! Now, where is-Ah! Here it is! Alright! Go ahead!”

 At that, Yuki immediately tore into the wrapping paper, before trying to tear into the first box. She was struggling a bit, as Lizzie had accidentally went overboard with how much tape she used.

 Sebastian chuckled at the ghoul, and Adrian laughed at her, making the white haired girl glare at both of them.

 “Do you need some help, Lady Eusford?”

 “Shut your piehole! I don’t need your help, Michaelis!”

 The demon’s eye twitched in annoyance at that.

 Adrian chuckled, before getting out a letter opener that looked like a miniature Halloween Town Keyblade, and handing it to Yuki.

 Who took it eagerly, and stabbed it into the very middle of the box, then gave it back to the reaper, before tearing the lid of the box apart from the hole she made.

 The ghoul then pushed aside the black tissue paper (she was confused, as she had never seen black tissue paper before), to see the last five volumes of Hellsing, the complete first season of Death Note, and orange lensed sunglasses that looked almost just like a certain Vampire King’s.

 The white haired girl smiled. “Thank you Lizzie!”

 “Don’t thank me yet! There’s still more! Now open the next one!”

 “There’s more than these two?!”

 “Yep! The third and last one was too big to put in my bag, and it was too heavy for us to carry, so it’s being brought here by a few men, and should be here in a few minutes! Now go on! Open the box!”

 Yuki quickly did as told, and excitedly ripped into the wrapping paper, and used a claw to cut the tape on the medium…..Hopkins Tailors box.

 When the ghoul opened it, she found a large brimmed, floppy, red fedora with a brown leather strap fastened around the hat, on top of a white long sleeved dress shirt, with a crimson cravat, a black suit jacket, black slacks, a red duster, dark brown boots, and…..a proplica 454. Casull, along with a proplica Jackal.

 The girl stared at the contents of the box, before a large grin broke put on her face. “Lizzie?”

 “Yes?”

 “Have I ever told you how awesome you are?”

 The blonde girl blushed at that. “You have, many times. You like it?”

 “I love it~!”

 “I’m glad that you do~! Ah! Here comes your third and final present!”

 At that, Yuki, and everyone at the table(s), looked to the entrance of the restaurant, to see six men carrying in a large, rectangular, crate.

 The ghoul blinked at it, confused as to what it was. Everyone else, except Adrian, was confused as well.

 “Lizzie?”

 “Yes, Ciel dear~?”

 “What is that?”

 “You’ll have to wait and see!”

 Ciel stared at the crate nervously, hoping it wasn’t a cannon.

 Lizzie has done, and will do, absolutely anything Yuki wants. Be it have weapons made, buy a book store, or any other store out of anything the ghoul wants, and, probably would do much worse if it was what Yuki wanted, or what Lizzie thought she wanted.

 Yuki has been said to have her cousin’s unusually extraordinary charisma. Ciel would say that that would be true, if you went by how Lizzie was with the white haired girl, and by how easily Yuki could convince people sometimes.

 Please don’t be a cannon. Please don’t be a cannon. Please don’t be a cannon. Please don’t be a can-

 The Earl’s thoughts were interrupted by an excited shriek from the ghoul, as she had used a crowbar to open the crate.  

 Inside the crate, was a large, black, wooden coffin, with purple trim on the sides, and crimson lilies engraved on the top, had a quilted square pattern on the lid, and the words ‘The question, do fairies have tails or not? Or even the more basic one: Do fairies exist…? It’s an eternal mystery, and an eternal adventure. That is why we are Fairy Tail.’ engraved on the lid, with the Fairy Tail guild mark under the words.

 Yuki stared at it with tears in her eyes, making Lizzie worry that she didn’t like it.

 “Ah! Don’t cry! I’ll take it back and get something better for you, alright?”

 The ghoul shook her head, before hugging the older girl. “I-I love it, Lizzie…Thank you….You….You have my word as a member of Fairy Tail, that I will cherish it forever.”

 After that sentence, the white haired girl began to sob in Lizzie’s shoulder, with tears of happiness streaming down her cheeks.  

 The blonde girl blinked, before smiling, and hugging the younger girl back. “You’re very welcome, Yukino~! ♡”

 Adrian grinned, as he watched his step-daughter. The renegade reaper was the one that made the coffin for her. It was just one Miss Lady Elizabeth Midford who commissioned it.

 When the blonde girl had commissioned it, the silver haired man immediately realized who the coffin had been for, and cursed his self, for not coming up with the idea himself.

 Lady Francis’s eye twitched. “Elizabeth, why did you get her a coffin? She won’t be needing it yet…”

 The Marchioness’ daughter looked at her mother, while running her hand through Yuki’s hair soothingly. “I know that she won't be needing it yet, but, I figured that since she likes to sleep in her uncle’s coffin so much, why not get her, her own?”

 The blonde woman, and her son, paled, while Lord Midford smiled at his daughter. “How very thoughtful of you, Elizabeth! And to get her one engraved with words meaning so much to her, yet!”

 The Marchioness quickly turned to her husband confusedly. “Why are you commending her?! And why aren’t you saying anything about Miss Eusford sleeping with a corpse?!”

 “While their uncle is very much dead, he is not a corpse. He’s more like ‘the living dead,’ than a corpse that does nothing but lie still in it’s coffin, decaying over the years.”

 “Pardon my french, but what the bloody hell does that mean?!”

 The blonde man gestured to the orange haired man beside him. “Larten here told me that most of their family is made up of vampires, their uncle, and himself, included.”

 The Marquess of Midford’s wife’s eye twitched at that. “So…You’re telling me that he's a vampire?”

 “That is what I said, isn’t it?”

 “But he looks to be in his early twenties!”

 “Well, we vampires are known for not aging physically, as we are technically immortal.”

 “Then how old are you?!”

 “Two hundred twenty four as of March seventeenth.”

 Lady Francis and Edward gaped at that, making Adrian smirk. “If you think Larten’s old, him and Yuki’s other step-father is over two thousand years old~! Hee Hee~!”

 “HUH?!”

 While all that was going on, Yuki had stopped crying, and was now only sniffling. “I-I’m sorry about ruining your dress, Lizzie…”

 Lizzie waved it off. “Oh, no! Don’t worry about it! I can just go change later! But, for now, we need to show these men to your suite!”

 The ghoul nodded at that, and led the way to her, Adrian, and Larten’s suite, with the blonde girl, and the men, who were carrying her coffin, following behind.

■------------------------------------------------------------■

 “Whad awe you doing, Adwian?”

 “Shh.”

 Yuki whined, as Adrian was currently pinching her cheeks, and pulling them, with an intense look on his face.

 He had undone the fancy french braided bun hair do Lady Francis had given him, and had pinned his bangs to the sides of his head with Nightmare before Christmas barrettes.

 “Adwian….”

 “Hush. I’m thinking.”

 “Why does thinking involve pinching my cheeks?”

 “Hush.”

 The ghoul’s eyebrow twitched, as the silver haired man continued ‘thinking.’

 A short time later, the Undertaker let go of the girl’s cheeks, and hugged her tightly.

 “Adrian?”

 “I won’t let him hurt you, your mother, Larten, or Ciel. I promise.”

 The ghoul blinked in confusion, as the mortician tangled his fingers into her hair, and gently pushed her head to his shoulder, before lying his head atop hers. “Adrian? What’s wrong?”

 “Hmm…..It’s nothing, dearest. Just the musings of an old man.”

 Yuki sighed, knowing that he wouldn’t tell her, most likely fearing he’d make her even more anxious than she already was, if he did.

 “I love you, Yuki.”

 The ghoul’s eyes widened in surprise at that, before they softened, and she smiled into his shoulder, then hugged him back. “I love you too, Adrian~”

 At that, her step-father kissed the top of her head, before scooting to the other side of the bed, lying down before pulling the covers over himself and his step-daughter, then snuggling with her, as they both fell asleep.

[keikaku-sama]

Book of the Atlantic: Chapter 2

Rating: Some early chapters are rated T. Some later chapters are rated M. Reader discretion is advised.

Side note: Sentences in Italics without quotation marks are thoughts. Sentences in Bold and Italics with quotation marks are characters saying things angrily, venomously, for emphasis, or the like.

 Snake stopped in front of a lavish town house, and scanned it. His eyes stopped at a window on the first floor, as he saw a white haired girl flail in anger. The golden eyed male chuckled at her, before opening the gate, and walking to the front door, then knocking on it.

 “MOTHERFUCKER! CAN’T A GIRL PLAY VIDEO GAMES WITHOUT SOMEONE INTERRUPTING HER?!”

 Silence.

 “ITACHI NOOOOOOO!!!”

 The white haired man on the porch chuckled at the girl’s yelling, before stopping, as the door opened, to reveal an angry girl in sweats. The anger soon turned to happiness, as she saw who it was. “Egin!”

 “Hello, Yuki.”

 The man’s snakes hissed happily at her, making her hiss back in delight. “Oh! Why don’t you come in?” The snake man nodded, before stepping into the house, and closing the door behind him. “Yuki, is there anyone else here?”

 “No, but Soma and Agni should be back soon….Let’s go up to my room. They won’t disturb us th- Wait. On second thought, let’s go to the basement. They’re terrified to go down there. We definitely won’t be disturbed there.”

 Egin stared at her, before nodding silently, following her to the sub floor. Which was just as lavish as the first floor. “Why are they terrified of the basement if it looks like this?”

 “They watch too many American horror movies.”

 “I see.”

 Yuki sighed, as she sat down on a couch, the snake man following suit. “So, what’s up?”

 “I need to know where a couple of people are.”

 The ghoul raised an eyebrow at that. “And what do these people look like?”

 “A lad possibly an inch or so taller than you-” The half demon dodged a pillow to the face, tilting the top half of his body to the right. “Maybe a year younger than you, and has slate hair.”

 “And the other one?” At that, Egin nearly crushed the arm of the couch they were sitting on, clutching it so tightly in anger that his knuckles turned white. And he was glaring death at the floor, with a snarl marring his face. “A man I hoped to never see again, no matter how much I wished to catch him a century ago.”

 Yuki looked at her friend sadly. “And I suppose now that you know he’s still alive, you’re bent on catching him again?”

 “Yes….But how is he still…..I thought……”  

 “He was reincarnated as a demon, in another world, where time goes by much faster than it does here. That’s how he’s still alive. That’s what he told me, at least.” The half Naga stared at her with wide eyes. “What?”

 “He was with Ciel because he’s his demon butler. Five years ago, they made a contract. The deal was, that he gets Ciel’s soul, as long as he helps him get revenge on whoever killed his parents. After that, he will go back to Gehenna, or whichever Hell is his home.”

 “Smile’s…..in danger?”

 “Very much so.” Egin looked at her with a concerned frown. “Is there a way to get him out of the contract?”

 “There are a few ways. One of them is to turn Ciel himself into a demon, and the other….”

 “What is it?”

 “The other is to get Michaelis away from Ciel for twenty four hours, transplant a ghoul heart into him, making him a ghoul in turn, and have Ciel defeat Michaelis in battle.” The snake man looked at her confusedly, as she drummed her fingertips on her thigh in irritation. “I don’t understand….”

  “I suppose Amaimon hasn’t told you about the non-human food chain yet. Ghouls are higher than demons. Vampires are higher than ghouls. Demons are higher than vampires……I honestly don’t understand it one bit.” The half Naga stared at her with wide eyes. “Ghouls are higher than….seriously?!”

 “Yep.”

 “So you could defeat my father and I in battle?”

 “It depends. You and your dad know how to use magic?”

 The half demon nodded. “Father has Lightning Devil Slayer, Lightning Dragon Slayer, and Lightning Angel Slayer magic. I however, have only begun to learn how to use magic, so I only have lightning devil slayer, and lightning dragon slayer magic.”

 “You two would wipe the floor with me.”

 “HUH?!”

 “I have Ice Devil Slayer, Ice Make, and Water Angel Slayer magic. My magic is based on water. Electricity based magic like you and your dad’s would electrocute me if I tried to fight you.”

 “But what if you were really determined?”

 “Hmm…Maybe.” Egin gave her a cute look, his eyes sparkling in excitement, and his mouth open wide, gaping at her. The ghoul blushed, and looked away. “Um…..Yuki?”

 “Yes?”

 “Could you tell me something?” The blue eyed girl looked back to him, raising an eyebrow as he looked serious now. “Sure.”

 “Did….Smile and…..Michaelis….kill Joker and…..the other first stringers?”

 Yuki looked at him sadly. “Ciel didn’t kill them…The Heathen did. And…Joker’s still alive…he’s in the Fairy Tail guild’s infirmary, recovering from his wounds….”

 “Joker’s still alive?!”

 “Um…..Yeah…..I saved Joker….But….I couldn’t save the others…I’m sorry…”

 Egin stared at her, before suddenly wrapping his arms around her, and pulling her close to him. “Thank you…..Thank you, so much…..”

 “Huh? But I didn’t…..”

 “Just knowing that you tried to save all of them means a lot to me, Yukino. I appreciate it.” The girl went silent for a moment, before letting out a sob. Both her, and Egin, then began to cry. ○———————————————○  A short time later, the two had stopped crying, and were now just lying in each other’s arms. “Yuki?”

 “Hm?”

 “Amaimon brought my father to one of our meetings two weeks ago.” The ghoul looked up at that. “So, you got to meet him, and talk to him a bit?”

 “I did.”

 “And is he as awesome as I’ve heard?”

 “He is, despite what I thought over a century ago. He is a very likable man.”

 “Cool……Did you tell him what happened?”

 “No need. He said that he visited this world occasionally to check up on us, and Adrian told him what happened, the day after the murder.” The white haired girl hummed. “How did he react?”

 “He was devastated, and furious. He had hoped that Mother would die in peace, of natural causes, not be brutally murdered by ‘some douchebag trying to play God’, as he put it.”

 “Did he tell you why he left?” Egin nodded at her. “He did. He said that he left because he was getting too powerful, and needed to go somewhere where he could seal his power, and that ended up being Earthland. He left to protect Mother and I, as he feared that he would accidentally hurt us. He truly did love my Mother….”

  Yuki gave him a small smile, as she bonked their foreheads together, making him frown cutely, and his eyes widen in surprise and confusion. “W-What was that for?!”

 “My cousin used to do that to me to cheer me up.”

 “To cheer you up?! All it would do is make you a bit angry!”

 “And then you’d forget why you were sad! It works!” The snake man stared at her, with his eye twitching. “Is your whole family like this?”

 “Yep~! Along with my extended family in Fairy Tail~!”

 “Your family is crazy.”

 “Well, technically they’re your family too, as your dad is one of the people that founded Fairy Tail.”

 “HUH?!”

 “Yep. Mavis Vermillion, Yuri Dreyar, Warrod Sequen, and Precht Gaebolg were the four that founded Fairy Tail one hundred and four years ago.” Egin stared at her. “But…”

 “And your younger brother was the third guild master.”

 “Was?”

 “Alu’s mate, Zeref is the current guild master. He became the master six years ago, after a dragon called Acnologia destroyed Tenroujima, or Sirius island, where a team of some of Fairy Tail’s strongest, along with your brother, and grand nephew were.”  

 The snake man blinked at her. “So they’re dead?”

 “No!” The white haired man jumped, startled when she shouted angrily at him. “S-Sorry….”  

 The ghoul glared at him, growling with her sharp teeth bared in anger, before turning away, and breathing deeply, to calm herself down. “No….I’m sorry…..I just……get upset when anyone says that they’re……Sorry.”  

 Note to self: Never make Yuki angry. And by extension, never make anyone in Fairy Tail angry.

 “Y-You’re fine…Um…they’re not….”

 “No. They’re just in a protective stasis field called ‘Fairy Sphere’ that Mavis’s spirit cast. It’s weakening, and should be down by my birthday next year.”  

 “They’re alive?”

 “They are. Fairy Sphere suspends the target in time, essentially halting physical aging, so you may get to meet your little brother next year, if you so wish to.” The half demon hummed. “May I ask how old my brother is? Father didn’t tell me.”

 “Eighty...Ninety four.” The white haired man smiled at her, in thanks, before she spoke again. “How is your dad so powerful?”

 “He’s been revered as a deity in Japan since the fifth year of the Yamato period, and is a Nagaraja.” Yuki stared at the half demon. “Holy shit….Can I seriously not tell them?”

 “No. I’m sorry.”  

 The ghoul groaned in frustration, before looking back at him. “What are you going to do?”  

 “I’m going to infiltrate Phantomhive Manor and kill Jack the Ripper.”

 “ARE YOU CRAZY?!”  

 “You said that your family, and extended family, is crazy. Your extended family technically includes me, so, yes, I am.”

 “But- But-“

 “I-Is everything alright down there?! Agni and I heard you yelling! Did the basement murderer get you?!”

 Yuki’s eye twitched at that. “I’m fine, Soma! Just talking to a friend that I let in!”

 “Oh~! A friend~?” They heard two people run down the stairs, before seeing an Indian duo, made up of a teenage boy with purple hair, and a twenty something man with white hair. The teenager looked absolutely ecstatic that they had a guest, while the man was glad that his friend was excited. “Any friend of Yuki’s is a friend of mine! Tell me, what is your name, friend?”

 The snake man glanced at Yuki, who’s arm was being slithered upon by Bram the King Cobra. “I….I am Egin Nichols….Though I go by Snake…”

 “Well, Snake~! Welcome to the Phantomhive townhouse! I am the caretaker of this wonderful place, Prince Soma Asman Kadar, and this is my butler, Agni! Would you like some curry, Snake? Agni makes the best!”

 Egin looked to Yuki, who shrugged, before responding. “I would love some, but I’m kind of in a rush to get somewhere…”

 “Oh! No worries, then! We’ll just make you some curry buns, and you can be on your way in a jiffy! ….Yuki, did I say that right?”

 “Yep.”

 “Agni! Some Curry buns for our friend Snake, Please!” The man behind Soma bowed. “Right away, my prince!” ■————————————————————————————■  “Egin-“  

 “No.”

 “But-“

 “No.”

 “Egin-“

 “You cannot talk me out of this, Yuki.”

 “But-“  

 “I said no.”

 “Listen to me!” The snake man looked at her. “What?”

 “Don’t attack him head on. Don’t provoke him. Play along with the lie Ciel will tell you, act like you don’t know what happened to the first stringers. Bide your time, and get stronger.” The half demon raised an eyebrow at her. “Why?”

 “You’re my friend. I’m only trying to make it so you don’t get hurt, or worse. Just do what I said. Alright?” He blinked, before nodding.  

 Yuki smiled at him, before suppressing their spiritual pressure, as Phantomhive manor came into sight. “Hide in the green house. Don’t attack him if he goes in there…I’ve gotta go now. Call or text me if you need something. Bye.”

 Egin smiled at her, before waving goodbye. After the ghoul left, the snake man hid in some shrubbery, waiting for the last few people arriving to go inside. “Let’s bide our time somewhere until night falls. – Says Keats.”

 The half demon then quickly ran to the green house, and shut the door behind him, before looking around.  

 Plenty of places to hide…Yuki said to bide my time..,I’m going to do just that.

 The white haired man then sat on a short brick wall, and pulled the bag of curry buns Soma and Agni gave him, out from his coat pocket. “It’s so warm here. It’s like paradise, don’tcha think? -Says Wilde.” ■————————————————————————————■  The door of the green house creaked, as Sebastian closed it. He had found a snake inside the manor, and in his Young Master’s room, no less. So, he had followed the scent the snake left when it slithered into the manor, back to the green house.

 The demon quickly glanced at every nook and cranny that a human, or demon, could hide in. He growled, when he didn’t see anything. Before his eyes widened in surprise, as he just barely dodged a sudden spark of lavender electricity.

 “Ah. I hadn’t expected to see you again so soon, Mister Snake…..Or should I say, Egin Nichols?”

 A loud roar, that sounded something between a hiss and a growl, was heard, as a white haired snake man jumped out from behind some bushes with lavender lightning sparking around his whole body, and…..black markings appearing on the right of his body, going over his eye, making it glow an electric lavender, as the man rushed at Michaelis.

 “DON’T YOU DARE SAY THAT NAME!! YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO!”

 Snake bared his teeth at him in anger, and pulled his fist back, it charged with even more lightning, before he launched the fist at the crow demon.  

 Sebastian’s eyes widened, as he sensed extreme danger from that lightning. He narrowly dodged Snake’s fist, the lightning grazing his cheek, making it burn terribly. The black haired man breathed sharply in slight pain, as it actually hurt…..and wouldn’t heal. The demon kneed Snake in the stomach, before quickly knocking him out.

 Or, tried to knock him out.

 The white haired half demon had better reflexes, and was quicker than Michaelis thought. The half breed recovered from the knee to his stomach, and dodged the fist to the back of his head, before having the lightning travel to his leg, and wiped out the older demon by kicking the leg that Yuki nearly crushed with her kagune one hundred nineteen years ago.

 Sebastian grit his teeth, and growled inhumanly in pain, barely managing to refrain from screaming, as that would only wake the people remaining in the manor. The lightning fueled kick hurt immensely, but not as much as having the bones in his leg nearly crushed by a biological weapon.

 The full blooded demon fell onto his back, before Snake quickly straddled him, and opened his mouth wide, revealing a ball of lavender, and yellow lightning, sparking inside of the snake man’s throat. The maroon eyed man underneath him widened his eyes at that, as the lightning quickly traveled into the white haired half demon’s mouth.  

 The half breed was going to take his head off by burning it to ashes with some strange lightning. Sebastian quickly slid out from underneath Snake, the lightning narrowly missing the taller man’s bad leg.  

 Michaelis growled, and roundhouse kicked the snake man in the head, knocking him out before he good do anything else. The crow demon panted, trying to get air back into his lungs as he glared at the unconscious half breed, before glancing at his leg, then getting up.  

 And losing his balance, gritting his teeth and taking in a sharp breath, as the pain he had felt in his leg when he was human seemed to be coming back full force. The demon growled, then leaned against the glass wall nearest to him, before looking around the green house.  

 It was a mess. 

 One bed of flowers and bushes had caught on fire, the lightning having touched one of the leaves, a lightning strike that had moved toward the black haired man left a trail of an ugly burn mark across the stone on the ground, and where that…..elemental roar, had aimed, where the demon’s head had been, was a large circle shaped burn mark, that Sebastian doubted he could get out with only soap and water.  

 Michaelis gaped at Snake.

 How the hell did this half breed, this half Naga, get to be so powerful in just one hundred nineteen years? ■————————————————————————————■  “Well, now that the professor has gone home, I shall see to luncheon-“

 “Wait.”

 “Hm?” Sebastian tilted his head in confusion at his young master, who raised an eyebrow at him.

 “I kept silent because it seemed like you purposely didn’t want to bring it up in front of him, but…you haven’t explained how Phelps’s murder occurred.”

 “Anything else, Young Master?”

 “Why the hell are you limping, and why is there a scar on your cheek? I don’t know what happened, but shouldn’t it have healed?”

 Michaelis hummed. “That’s just the thing. I tried to heal it myself, but it just won’t disappear….And, the limp…We had another visitor at the manor, in addition to our invited guests. This visitor put up quite the fight, and I fear he was strong enough to permanently damage my leg.”

 The Earl’s eye widened at him. “What?! How?!”

 “I don’t know, but it must have had something to do with that lightning…….magic he was wielding.” The demon growled, and put as much venom into the word ‘magic,’ absolutely hating it, as Yuki, Crowley, and one of the many demons in Gehenna that he hated, wielded magic.  

 Ciel blinked in confusion, before speaking again. “That is most unfortunate. I do hope that you will be able to continue your duties as my butler, despite your leg.”  

 “What kind of butler would I be if I couldn’t?”

 “You wouldn’t be a butler at all.” Michaelis chuckled, as the slate haired boy sighed. “So, tell me. Where is this thirteenth person?” The demon blinked, before his eye twitched, as he crouched with a bit of difficulty, and pulled out a large crate with chains and antique padlocks surrounding it. “What the hell is that?!”

 “As I was not expecting him so soon, I showed him to these special accommodations here.” The Earl walked to stand next to Sebastian. “The killer is in there?”

 The old crow grunted with effort, and pain, as he used the crate to pull himself up, before leaning on the table, ignoring his master’s look of concern. “Yes, he is…Or rather, they.”

 “Let me see what’s inside.”

 “Are you certain?”

 “Just open it!”

 Michaelis nodded, and obliged. He pulled a pair of giant plyers out from under the table, and used them to break the chains on the crate, honestly not wanting to crouch again. He then dropped the plyers, and attempted to quickly dodge a strike of yellow lightning.

 He dodged it, but not as quickly as he wanted to, seeing as his leg was busted.

 I may have to get another cane for myself…

 Ciel’s eyes widened at the lightning, before he looked at the one in the crate.  

 “Snake?!” The white haired man ignored the slate haired boy, and glared at Sebastian, yelling muffled profanities at the full blooded demon. Michaelis sighed, before explaining to Ciel what had happened. After doing so, the Earl stared at Snake, his eyes wide. “He tried to kill you?!”

 “Indeed.”

 “Why?!”

 “Let’s just say that he and I have had a long running feud.” Snake’s muffled yelling became louder, and sounded much angrier, when Sebastian said that. “Oh, do be quiet, Snake. We can’t understand what you’re saying, so why speak at all?”  

 The white haired man snapped. Yellow and lavender lightning discharged from his body, making Ciel quickly move backward to a safe distance, while the crow demon just stood where he was, and sighed exasperatedly. And, despite Snake’s confines being metal wire, the lightning burned it to ash, not electrocuting the man.

 “A FEUD?! SERIOUSLY?! THIS IS MORE THAN A FEUD, MICHAELIS! YOU FUCKING MURDERED MY MOTHER! YOU MURDERED AN INNOCENT WOMAN, WHO WAS JUST DOING WHAT SHE COULD TO PROVIDE FOR HERSELF AND HER SON!

 “YOU’RE A MONSTER, JA-!”

 Snake was cut off when Sebastian wrapped both hands around the snake man’s throat, and strangled him. The half demon coughed, as he choked and gagged, trying to get air into his lungs, as he clawed at the crow demon’s hands, tearing apart the man’s gloves.  

 Ciel tensed, as his eyes widened in fear, when he looked at his butler. Michaelis was glaring pure death at Snake, his body engulfed by pitch black shadows, the only feature of him visible being glowing red eyes.  

 “You would do well to remember your place, half breed. You are nothing more than a weak, worthless child, who thinks he can bring justice upon his mother’s killer, who clings to others like a parasite, afraid that the people he loves will leave him, just like she did.”

 Tears threatened to escape from Snake’s tear ducts, but he refused to let them fall. “N…no…….you….you’re wrong….”

 “What was that, worthless child?”

 “I…..I may…..be weak…….but I……..am not…..worthless…..” The half demon suddenly dug his claws into Sebastian’s hands, making the older demon let go of the snake man. The half Naga quickly crawled away from him, before coughing, and hacking, to get some air back.

 “Every person is worth something…..Everyone is important….Yuki and….another friend of hers once told me…That they’ve travelled the whole universe, and travelled to other universes…..and during their travels…..they’ve never met anyone who wasn’t important…….

 “So how fucking dare you put people down like that. No one deserves to be treated like a piece of shit. No one except people like you, who step on, use, and walk all over others….you’re nothing more than a piece of shit yourself.”

 Sebastian growled at him, as he limped over to the half demon, who didn’t cower away. Michaelis caught sight of a blue, metal thing, under Snake’s shirt, and went to grab it, when the half Naga viciously bit his arm, the white haired man’s fangs breaking skin, and drawing blood.

 “Don’t you fucking dare touch that.”

 The black haired man raised an eyebrow, and smirked, before going to grab it anyways. “Sebastian! Stop it!” The demon scowled, before using his left hand to pull Snake’s hair, essentially pulling the half demon’s maw off of his arm, then limped back to Ciel.

 The Earl glared at him, before walking to the golden eyed male. “Snake.” Said man looked at the slate haired boy with uncertainty. “You may have come here to try and kill Sebastian, but….you know what happened to the other first stringers of the circus, don’t you?”

 “Yuki didn’t tell me everything. She only told me that most of them were dead.”

 Ciel and the crow demon blinked at that. “Most of them?”

 “She saved Joker. Told me she tried to save the others too, but didn’t get there in time.”

 “She went into a burning building to save a man she doesn’t know?”

 “Yes. It’s just the kind of person she is.”

 The Earl and his butler’s eyes twitched. “Did Yuki tell you what they were doing?”

 “No…?”  

 The slate haired boy stayed silent for a moment, before speaking. “Your circus troupe was kidnapping children one after another from each stop on its tour. We joined up with you to seize any evidence of those crimes.”  

 Snake’s eyes widened at that.

 Could this be the lie Yuki mentioned?

 “J-Joker and…..the others…..were….k-kidnappers?”

 “Yes. I won’t tell you the full details, as I’m sure Yuki would be able to tell you if you asked her….Could I possibly ask your real name? And who your parents were, along with your legal guardian’s name?”

 The half demon stared at him, before nodding. “My name is Egin Nichols, though I go by Snake. My legal guardian is Adrian Crevan, an Undertaker. My father is Yuri Dreyar, a powerful demon called a Nagaraja. And….my mother…my mother was Mary Ann Nichols.”

 Ciel’s eyes widened, while Sebastian glared at the half breed.  

 “Mary Ann Nichols?! But she was killed by Jack the Ripper! While I have no doubt that Sebastian has murdered quite a few people in his life, but I’m pretty sure that he’s not The Whitechapel Murderer. And besides, no one ever saw the murderer’s face clearly.”

 “I have.”

 “Well, you could’ve just mistaken Sebastian for him.” Michaelis glared at Snake, silently telling him to play along with Ciel. The half demon was silent for moment, before he spoke with a sad frown. “…I…..suppose I did……I remember seeing red, and my vision was a bit distorted by anger, when I saw him….”

 “Alright then…..Snake….What with your legal guardian being Undertaker, I’m sure he let you read, and watch movies, about Jack the Ripper, along with a few detective movies, right?”

 The white haired man nodded. “Tell you what. You come to my manor, and help me close the ‘Jack the Ripper case.’ And you can stay here until we solve this, or, stay long after. How’s that sound?”  

 Sebastian looked at his master in surprise, before glaring at Snake, whose eyes were wide. “R-Really? You…..You’ll help me…..catch him?”

 Ciel gave him a rare smile. “Yes, but, don’t get your hopes up. He’s avoided being caught for one hundred twenty six years, so who’s to say that he won’t be caught for a another century?”  

 The half demon stared at him, when tears suddenly started streaming down his face, before he hugged Ciel, and sobbed into his blazer. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

 That surprised the Earl, who stood there, letting the snake man cry, with his arms awkwardly wrapped around the half Naga. “T-There, there….” ■—————————————–■  After Ciel had gotten Snake to stop crying, the Earl had told him that to stay at Phantomhive manor, he would have to act as a footman. The half demon eagerly accepted, and was now sitting in a room of his own, with his snakes slithering along the floor.

 He was waiting for the Earl to get back from a funeral for Michaelis. Why they were having a funeral for someone who wasn’t dead (yet), he would have to ask Yuki, or Adrian.

 Speaking of Adrian, he just barged into the room with a scowl on his face, which wasn’t completely covered by his bangs for once. “What’s with you?”

 “Having to deal with that insufferable demon is tiring.” The renegade reaper sat down next to his charge, before collapsing behind him, then pulling the white haired half demon down, and snuggling with him.  

 Egin blushed at that. “A-Adrian! I’m not a kid anymore! You don’t need to snuggle with-“

 “Let me sleep.” The snake man shut up at that.  ■————————————————————————————■  “YIIIKES, SNAAAAAKES!”  

 “Do pipe down. They will not bite until he commands them to do so.”  

 “He?”  

 At that, Snake nervously peeked around the doorway, and looked into the kitchen. There were four people in the room, excluding Sebastian, who hadn’t been able to get an actual cane for himself yet, so he was just using a contraption he made, which was basically just two walking sticks Ciel didn’t want anymore, stacked on top of each other, and kept from falling apart with duct tape.

 Michaelis walked to stand next to Snake, then slapping the half demon on the back harshly, making the white haired man stand up straight. “Stand up straight now! Introduce yourself in a loud and clear voice! Now that you are here, you must follow our below-stairs rules!”

 He’s enjoying this, isn’t he?

 “I-I’m Snake. W-We look forward to working with you. -Says Oscar.” The snake man’s cowlick trembled, as he introduced himself.  

 A cute green eyed boy looked at him confusedly. “Umm…You’re Mister Oscar?”  

 “No! This is Snake, and I’m Oscar! -Says Oscar.” The half Naga pointed to himself and the green snake on his shoulders respectively, before pointing at some other snakes in the room.  

 The snake next to the red haired girl. “That’s Emily…”  

 A snake above the blue eyed man. “And the one next to you is Bronte.”

 A snake on the counter behind the cute boy and the short old man. “And Wordsworth is over there.”  

 A pitch black king cobra with glowing red eyes, currently being charmed with a flute by the old man. “And the one by you is Bram.”

 After Snake finished that sentence, Sebastian clapped, his temporary cane leaning against the wall behind the snake man, as he put his weight on his good leg, getting everyone’s attention. “All right. That will do. Let us leave the introduction of those servants for another time. Else it will be night before we know it. In any case, he is the Phantomhive footman as of today. Do try to work together, you lot.”

[keikaku-sama]

Book of the Atlantic: Chapter 1

Rating: Early chapters are rated T. Later chapters are rated M.

“Ye did a good job today, Snake!”  

Joker patted the white haired man on the shoulder, commending him for a job well done during the show that had just ended.  

When he got no response, he looked at Snake. He was staring at a black haired girl who was standing off to the side, texting someone on her phone. The man also had a blush on his face, with his cowlick trembling in nervousness.  

“Snake!”  

The man jumped, startled at the sound of Joker’s voice. “Yes? What is it? -Asks Emily.”  

The ginger frowned at his friend. “I called yer name ten times!”  

“Apologies, Joker. I was preoccupied with my thoughts. -Says Emily.”  

The taller male raised an eyebrow, not believing that one bit. “Preoccupied with yer thoughts, ye say? Then why did it look more like ye were starin’ at that girl?”  

Snake blushed, his eyes widening. “……S-Sorry….it’s just that….I think I met that girl a long time ago…when I was a child…”  

Joker’s eyes widened in surprise.

“A childhood friend then, eh?”  

“Y-You could say that….”  

“Then why don’t ye go over there an’ talk to ‘er?”  

The white haired man’s whole face flushed at that. “Wh-What?! N-No way! I’m not even sure if it’s her!”  

“Well, there’s only one way to find out, ain’t there?”  

“Wha-“ The golden eyed man was cut off when the ginger pulled him towards the girl with a mischievous smile on his face.  

Joker pushed Snake forward, then tapped the girl on the shoulder, before quickly leaving, as the girl looked up at Snake.

He gaped at bit at how beautiful the girl was. She had a small bit of baby fat on her cheeks, her lips lightly glossed pink, while her hair was black and went to her mid thigh. She had a cute pout on her face, and her eyes…they were heterochromatic…a beautiful cobalt blue with speckles of amber scattered throughout the iris.  

It is her.  

“Yuki…”  

The girl blinked, before her pout turned into a smile as she realized who he was. “Egin!”  

Yuki hugged him tightly, nearly crushing him.  “C-Can’t…….breathe…”  

At that, she quickly let go of him. “Sorry! I’m just so happy to see you!” Egin gently patted her head. “You’re fine….You dyed your hair.”  

“I wanted to try something different.”  

The snake man curled a few locks of her hair around his finger. “Do you like it?”  

“No, but it’ll be a few weeks until I can get it out.” Her eyes then sparkled in awe, as she noticed the snakes around Egin’s shoulder, neck, and arm. “Wow~ Your snakes are really pretty~!”  

The boa resting on the man’s shoulder hissed in annoyance. “’Men aren’t supposed to be pretty, woman!’ Yes, I wholly agree, Wordsworth.”  

Yuki smiled, and tried not to chuckle at the voice her friend gave his snake-Wordsworth. “Oh~ Well then, let me rephrase that~”  

Egin raised an eyebrow, as Wordsworth seemed to glare at her, when she coughed, getting herself to stop laughing. “Your snakes are beautiful, Egin~”  

The white haired man blushed, as the ghoul smiled radiantly. “Thank you. -Say Emily, Wordsworth, and Wilde.”  

The girl then spoke a language he had never heard anyone else speak before. “You speak Parseltongue?”  

“Yeah. Alu taught me.”  

The snake man hummed at that. “That’s cool…Um…Could I talk to you?”  

“Aren’t we already talking?” Egin’s eye twitched in annoyance. “I meant in private.”  

“Why didn’t you say so then~?” The snake man groaned, then gently grabbed Yuki’s hand, and lead her toward his tent.  

Before they were stopped by a freckle faced, ginger haired female. “Hi Snake! Oh, who’s this? A new recruit?”  

“Hello, freckles. This is Yuki. She’s a good friend of mine. And no, she will not be joining the circus. We’re just taking her to our tent so we may catch up, as we haven’t seen each other in while. -Says Emily.”  

The ginger’s visible eye widened, before she nodded in understanding. “Oh, I see! Well, it was nice meetin’ ya, Yuki! I gotta go now! Bye bye!”  

The ghoul smiled, and waved goodbye at the girl who was about the same age as her. “She was nice…and cute too~” Egin raised an eyebrow at his friend. “Could you not?”  

“Not what?”  

“Do that.”  

“Do what?”  

“Flirt with every girl you see!”  

“I’m not flirting with every girl I see. I just like to brighten up girls days with a nice compliment if we’re talking.” The snake man’s eyebrow twitched at her, before he dragged her to his tent.  

Yuki’s eyes sparkled, as she saw a pitch black King Cobra with red eyes as they walked into the white haired man’s tent. She walked over to the cobra, and fawned over it.  

“His name is Bram.”  

“Like Bram Stoker?!”  

“Yes.”  

“Awesome~!” Egin chuckled at his friend, who’s arm and shoulder were now resting places for the cobra. The white haired man went to sit on the ground a few feet away from the girl, before he spoke. “Yuki?”  

“Hm?”  

“…..I’m a half demon.”  

The ghoul turned away from the snakes in front of her to look at the snake man. “Cool.” The snake man blinked at her. “Cool?”  

“Yup.”  

“But….”  

“Nothing’s going to change just because you’re half demon.”  

“Huh?”  

“My dad used to be in an organization that was created by the Vatican, called the Knights of the True Cross. There are plenty of people in the Knights of the True Cross currently, who have demon blood in them, and are exorcists. Being half demon just makes you more powerful. It won’t create problems with your friends…as long as you’re not literally the Spawn of Satan, anyways….”  

Egin tilted his head in confusion. “Why would being the Spawn of Satan cause problems?”  

“Because, Satan is the God of Gehenna, and, the God of demons. If someone was the Spawn of Satan, it would be a bit of a problem for the Knights, as the Satan Spawn would be unpredictable for them. They wouldn’t know how to handle them.”  

“I see.”  

Yuki raised an eyebrow at him. “How’d you find out?”  

The snake man looked down at that. “I….I’ve known for a while…..over a century, actually…..Mother told me…..the day before she was killed…after she bought me a necklace with the money she made at work the night before….I just….didn’t know how to tell you when we first met….

“I was afraid that you’d be scared….Hell, I was scared. I didn’t know exactly what the hell I was. All I knew was that I was half demon. And back then, anything even relating to the devil was to be immediately shunned, or killed…I hated myself…

”…I believed that I was the cause of Mother’s death, that the killer had found out that she had had intercourse with a demon, and conceived a half demon child. But then….you came along…..and showed me how to love myself….I’m grateful for that, Yuki. Thank you.”

The white haired man smiled radiantly at her, making her blush, as she had never seen him smile like that before. “Y-You don’t need to thank me….All I did was become your friend…"  

“And by becoming my friend, you showed me that someone could love me. And that helped me learn to love myself.”  

At that, the ghoul hid her flushed face behind Bram’s scaly body, as the cobra had wrapped himself around her neck loosely. “….N-No problem….I guess…..”  

The half demon chuckled at her. “M-May I ask….what kind of half demon you are? I mean, I have an idea, but I’m not completely sure.”  

“Naga.”  

“Knew it~!” The blue eyed girl shouted this in a sing song voice, making Egin laugh. Yuki then tilted her head questioningly. “You know who your father is?”  

“I do. The demon king of earth, Amaimon visited me a few years back, and told me that my father is his most trusted and most powerful servant.”  

“Did Mai give you a name?”  

The half Naga raised an eyebrow at her. “Mai?”

“My nickname for him. He’s a good friend of mine.”

“Ah. I see….Yes. he did give me a name.”  

“And….”

“Yuri Dreyar.“

The ghoul stared blankly at him. “Tell me you’re joking. Please, tell me you’re joking.”

“No. Amaimon was quite serious when he told me.”

The girl was silent for a few moments, staring blankly at him, before she spoke. “But Yuri Dreyar’s dead. He passed away ninety years ago, in Earthland.”

“Amaimon did say that father went to a world with that name, and stayed there for forty six years after I was born.”

Yuki went silent again. “…..But…..he’s……dead…”

“No, Amaimon said that he is very much alive.”

“But…..how….HOW THE HELL AM I GONNA TELL THEM THAT HE’S ALIVE AND KICKING, AND AS A POWERFUL DEMON SERVANT IN GEHENNA?!”

“It would be best if you didn’t tell them, whoever they may be.”

“But- Fairy Tail wizards are supposed to be honest with each other!”

“I’m sorry, but Amaimon said not to tell anyone that he might’ve known while he was in Earthland that he was alive.”

“But-But-But-“ The ghoul cut herself off by growling loudly in frustration.

“Everythin’ alright in there? Ye aren’t ‘avin’ too much fun, are ye, Snake?” Egin jumped at the sound of Joker’s voice outside the tent, then blushed at what he was implying. “Everything is fine, Joker. Yuki is just very frustrated at the moment. And we aren’t ‘having fun’ as you put it!”

They heard a melodic laugh outside. “That’s good!….But we wouldn’t mind at all if ye made love to ‘er!”

“Joker!”

“Sorry, sorry. Anyway, I’m goin’ out to get dinner. Ye want anythin’?”

“Wimpy’s, please.”

"Got it! Oh, and before I forget….” The flap suddenly opened to reveal the ginger, who then walked to stand in front of Yuki, and gave her something. “’Ere. Some souvenirs. Ye looked like ye needed a pick me up earlier.”

The ghoul raised an eyebrow, but took  the bags that she was handed. “Huh? Oh, uh…thanks.”

Joker smiled slightly at her. “‘Tis no problem. Oh, and there’s no need to pay me back for it, or anythin’. All I ask in return is that ye take good care of Snake for us.”

The ghoul stared at him, before smiling sadly. “Of course. You have my word that I will do my best.”  

The purple eyed male sighed through his nose, before gently ruffling her hair. “Thank ye. ‘E deserves the best….I’ve got to get goin’ now. Wimpy's ain’t open for much longer, and I’ve got to order a lot. It was nice meetin’ ye, Yuki. See ye later, Snake.”

Before leaving the tent, Joker crouched down in front of the snake man, and kissed his forehead, making the half demon blush, and stare at him confusedly, as he walked out.  

“What was that about? He was acting like he was going to die soon…”

“I’m sure it was nothing. Anyways….can I really not tell them, Egin?”

The golden eyed half demon blinked at her, as she quickly changed the topic. “No. I’m sorry, Yuki.”

The girl deflated at that, before putting the souvenirs Joker gave her in her requip space. “Egin, can I ask you something?”

“I believe you just did.”

Yuki glared at him, with her eyebrow twitching. “Egin…”

“Sorry, sorry. Go ahead.”

"Um….You still have that necklace your mother got for you?”

“Yes. It’s…..not what it used to be, as it has been one hundred twenty six years, but it’s still got some charm to it…I always keep it on me. Why?”

“I could fix it.”

“Huh?” Egin stared at her with an eyebrow raised in confusion, as the girl gave him a cute smile. “I know a spell that uses runes, that makes broken and antique stuff like new.”  

“Have you tried it before?”

“I have. It works.”  

The half demon stared at her, silently, before pulling out a very old, worn, necklace with a dragon shaped charm, that protected a teardrop shaped locket that might have held a small portrait inside. “How do you go about this?”  

“I just need to use my runic pen to write a few runes onto the necklace. So, I need you to lie it down on a flat surface, and I need a good light.”

The snake man nodded, before doing as told. He gingerly lied the necklace down on a table at the back of the tent, before he turned on a few battery powered lanterns that sat on the table.

The ghoul soon got to work, focusing intently on the necklace and runes. ■————————————————————————————■ “Egin.”

“Yes?”

“One more rune and I’m done. Get your ass over here and watch.”

The snake man nodded, and did as told. He stood behind Yuki, watching over her shoulder as she wrote the last rune…..over the necklace’s chain.

The half demon’s eyes widened, when the runes Yuki had written began to glow, before the necklace burst into runes, the strange magical written language soon disappearing, revealing a silver chain, holding a dark sapphire dragon charm, that protected a teardrop shaped locket which glowed blue with magic.

Egin stared at it, and said nothing.

“Egin?”

“Y-Yu…ki….” The white haired man sobbed, as tears of joy ran down his scaled cheeks. “Th-Thank you…..s-so much….”

The ghoul smiled softly at him. “It’s no problem.”  

The half Naga hugged his friend, and sobbed into her chest, as Bram was still around her neck.  

The girl sighed at him, before running her hand through his hair soothingly. ▪————————————–▪ A half hour later, the man had stopped crying, now only sniffling, and resting his head on his friend’s shoulder, as Bram the king cobra had slithered off of the girl soon after the man started crying. “Egin? You okay now?”

Yuki got a nod in response. Egin then stood up, before using his sleeve to wipe his eyes.  

The half demon looked at the ghoul with a smile. “Thank you, so very much, Yuki. It means a lot to me.”

The blue eye girl smirked at him. “As I told you before, it’s no problem. I just like making people happy.”

“Well, you’ve made me very happy.”

“Awesome. Oh, and Egin.”

“Yes?”

“You have a phone?”

The snake man raised an eyebrow. “Yes, I do. Why?”

"Give it to me.”

The golden eyed male was confused, but obliged, and pulled out a black, Samsung Galaxy S3, before giving it to her. He got it back a few seconds later.

“There. Now you can call me, or text me, whenever you like, or whenever you need to. I’ve gotta go now. Sorry.”

Egin frowned sadly at her. “Can’t you stay a bit longer?”

“No, I can’t. Adrian told me to be back by eleven, and it’s eleven ten now. Sorry.”

The half demon stared at her, before smiling. “Alright. Could I visit sometime?”

"You don’t need to ask, you know. It’s your home, not mine.”

The smile on his face grew into a grin, before he hugged her. “Alright. See you later then.”

The girl patted his head, and said goodbye to the snakes, before snapping her fingers, summoning a Garguanta, before disappearing into it.

[keikaku-sama]

Book of the Atlantic: Chapter 5

Rating: Some early chapters are rated T. Some later chapters are rated M. Reader discretion is advised. Side note: Sentences in Italics without quotation marks are thoughts. Sentences in “Italics” with quotation marks are characters on the other end of a phone call speaking. Sentences in “Bold and Italics” with quotation marks are characters saying things angrily, venomously, for emphasis, or the like. 

And, sentences in “Italics and are in headline font” with quotation marks, are two characters speaking in unison. Sentences in “Bold, Italics, and are in headline font”, are three or more characters speaking in unison. Sentences in Bold and Italics without quotation marks is a character telepathically speaking to another character.

 “Larten, may I ask why Mr. Undertaker and Miss Eusford are sleeping together?”

 “Hm? Oh. Yuki likes to sleep with someone by her side if she’s somewhere that makes her uncomfortable.”

 Lady Francis had come to visit the strange trio first thing in the morning, wanting to see if any of them knew how to fight with a sword.

 Larten had let her in, and quietly led her to Adrian and Yuki’s room to see if they were awake, and opened the door silently, letting them see Adrian, and his hair, sprawled out on the bed, with one arm around his step-daughter, with Yuki lying on top of him, snuggling into his chest.

 Needless to say, the Marchioness of Midford was confused as to why a teenage girl was sleeping with her step-father, as she had thought that all teenagers wanted their own room.

 “She…doesn’t want her own room?”

 “Here, no. She…has a phobia of boats on top of her motion sickness, along with a phobia of large bodies of water. So, sleeping with Undertaker helps her feel safe while on the boat. She also occasionally……okay, she often sleeps with someone by her side at home. Mostly our uncle, or her boyfriend, though.”

 “You let her boyfriend sleep with her?”

 The orange haired vampire raised an eyebrow at that. “Yeah. They don’t do anything, other than talk about stuff, or read, until they fall asleep, though. They’re still virgins, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

 The blonde woman looked a bit put off, when the man said the word ‘virgin,’ so casually when talking about his little sister. “How do you know that they’re still pure?”

 “Vampires can taste it in their blood. Yuki and her boyfriend often donate their blood to us Eusford vampires, so we can easily tell if they still are or not.”

 Lady Francis’s eye twitched, before she sighed. “That aside, I was wondering something.”

 “Yes?”

 “Do any of-“ She was interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing. Though it wasn’t a normal ringtone.

Despair, you call to me, with your poison and your misery.

Oh death, you come to sting, with your poison and your misery.

Death, death, death, death

Death surrounds me, singing to me softly (Death, death, death)

When the shadows spreads its wings around me-

 Larten smiled in amusement, while the Marchioness looked appalled at the ringtone.

 “I suppose that would be Mr. Undertaker’s phone?”

 “Nope.”

 Her eyes widened. “That’s……Miss Eusford’s?”

 “Yep.”

 “Why?”

 “She likes the band. As do I, and nearly everyone in our family.”

 “May I ask the name and genre?”

 “Skillet. They’re a Christian rock band from….Tennessee, I believe.”

 The woman looked confused. “Christian?”

 “Yep.”

 “Coffee.”

 “Tea.”

 The Marchioness of Midford yelped in surprise, at the sound of the two half asleep people behind her.

 Larten smiled at them, and waved. “Mornin’. Coffee and tea’s already made, just the way you like it.”

 The two grunted in thanks, before going to the kitchen.

 “Are they….always like this, first thing in the morning?”

 “Not always. For Undertaker, it depends on whether he wakes up next to mother or not. And for Yuki, it depends on what time she gets up, and the weather.

 “Undertaker’s usually genuinely happy when he wakes up next to mother. And Yuki acts like she’s on a high, and is all blissful and happy, like a hippie fairy, if she ‘wakes up with the sun,’ as she puts it.”

 “In other words, waking up to beautiful sunrises makes her happy, and almost nothing can upset her during the day?”

 “Right on the nose….So, what were you saying before?”

 Lady Francis blinked, before her eyes widened, as she remembered what she was going to say. “Oh! I was wondering if any of you three know how to fence?”

 The orange haired vampire blinked at her, before responding. “I…..have no idea how to fence, and for that matter, I’m rusty with a sword as well.…..Undertaker….I believe he knows how to use a sword, but he hasn’t fought with one in a while….

 “And….Yuki doesn’t know how to fence, but she does know how swordfight, and she’s pretty damn good at it too.”

 “So, Miss Eusford would be my best bet in looking for a sparring session?”

 The orange haired man stared at her confusedly. “Yes, but….Why do you want to spar with someone?”

 “I’m bored, and I haven’t won a sparring session since last week.”

 Larten’s eye twitched. “Lady Francis…..”

 “Yes?”

 “If you’re to fight Yuki, a piece of advice for you.”

 She smiled at him. “Of course, Mr. Crepsley. What is it?”

 “Don’t underestimate my sister. Doing so would be the worst mistake you could ever make.”

 The Marchioness raised an eyebrow. “I understand that you care for her, as you are her older brother, but I doubt-“

 “No. I’m being serious. She’s been trained to fight by our oldest brother, Shimazu Toyohisa, who used to be samurai, until he was turned into a vampire in the battle of Sekigahara.

 “And the phrase ‘hold back,’ doesn’t apply to her.”

 “So, you’re telling me that…..”

 “I’m just telling you that it would be a huge mistake on your part, to underestimate her.”

 Their conversation ended at that, as Adrian, and the ghoul they were speaking about, came out of the kitchen with mugs of coffee and tea.

 “Miss Eusford?”

 “What’s up?”

 Lady Francis gave Yuki a smile. “How would you like to spar with me?”

 The girl stared at her blankly. “I don’t know how to fence, and my fightin’ style ain’t exactly for sparrin’.”

 “That’s fine! We’ll just spar with real swords then!”

 The ghoul blinked at the woman confusedly.

 She reminds me of Erza.

 I know.

 “Um…..Okay….I guess…”

■-----------------------------------■

 It was later that morning, and Lady Francis had taken Yuki to the arena the ship had, after the ghoul had changed into the clothes she usually wore while on jobs in Earthland.

 The white haired girl looked around in awe.

 “Holy shit…..This is fucking awesome!”

 The Marchioness cleared her throat at Yuki cursing so openly, which the ghoul ignored, before speaking, and gesturing at the girl’s weapons, which were strapped to her waist with white sashes.

 “May I ask what those are?”

 “Huh?”

 Yuki blinked, before looking to her weapons. “They’re weapons.”

 The blonde woman’s eye twitched, while Adrian, and Lizzie, who were in the stands with Ciel, Sebastian, Egin, Edward, Lord Midford, and Larten, laughed at Yuki’s clueless act.

 Or, her sassiness. It could be either.

 “I know that. But are they real?”

 The ghoul stared at her, before looking to her brother. “TenTen? Can you see if there are any dummies around for me to demonstrate with?”

 “What kind?”

 “Sparring dummies, though you wouldn’t mind being that dummy for me, would you?” The girl had a sweet smile on her face that imitated Mira Jane’s, as she subtly insulted her big brother.

 The orange haired vampire’s eye twitched, while Adrian laughed. “GYAH HA HA HA~!!! HEE HEE HEE HEE~!!!”

 The vampiric Irishman glared at the renegade reaper, and threw a Styrofoam cup at the man’s head, which he caught.

 Larten growled, before sighing, and getting up to go find the dummy his sister wanted.

♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡●♡

 “Here.”

 Larten set the wooden sparring dummies (3) down in front of Yuki, before going back up to sit with the others in the stands.

 Only to glare with his eye twitching at Michaelis, who was chuckling at the vampire. “Though I dislike your sister, her jokes are quite funny.”

 “Shut up.”

 Yuki then drew her katana, which was nearly as long as she was tall, and poised it to strike.

 The girl smiled, as she quickly charged at the sparring dummies.

 She swung at the middle dummy, slicing its arm off, before switching her sword to her left hand, and quickly drawing her shotgun, and shooting the left dummy where its heart would be, then rushing at all three dummies.

 She shot another bullet, which exploded on impact in the middle of the right dummies chest, before quickly slicing her katana too quickly for the human eye to see, then flipping backwards a few times, and shooting three times, and sheathed her sword, and her shotgun.

 The people in the stands who didn’t know how she fought (Ciel, Edward, Lord Midford, and Lady Francis), gaped, while Sebastian and Egin’s eyes widened, as they hadn’t seen the full extent of Yuki’s fighting abilities.

 The dummies had been sliced and blown to pieces, the stands they had been on had not even been given mercy.

 Yuki was whistling along with the song that she had stuck in her head, when she noticed long silver haired man hiding behind a pillar above the stands.

 She blinked, before looking to Adrian.

 Who was still sitting in his seat next to Larten.

 “Y-Yuki…..I can call you Yuki, right?”

 “Hm? Oh, of course, Lady Francis.”

 The woman’s eye was twitching, and her skin had paled a bit after seeing what the ghoul could do. “U-Um…..c-could you use just one weapon?”

 “Yeah, sure. Adrian, catch.” The girl quickly drew her shotgun, and pulled her short sword which was still in its sheath, out of its spot hanging from her waist, before throwing them up to the Undertaker, who caught them, and gingerly held on to them.

 Lady Francis wished that she had on a full suit of metal armor, instead of just a fencing jumpsuit. Despite only having one weapon, the blonde woman felt that Yuki would be just as deadly.

 “So, on three?”

 “Huh? Oh, uh, yes.”

 “One.”

 “Two!”

 “Three.”

 At three, Yuki immediately rushed the Marchioness, with her katana poised to strike. She held it at arm’s length, at her side, then quickly swung at the woman’s left.

 Lady Francis’s eyes widened, as she blocked the strike, before countering it, nearly striking Yuki’s side.  

 The ghoul smiled, and dodged, before putting both hands on her sword’s grip. The girl then jumped back a bit, before running to the wall.

 And running up it.

 The Marchioness’s eyes widened in shock, before coming back to her senses, and dodging a strike Yuki flew at her with. The woman then used that moment to spin around, and stab at the girl’s arm, only to find that she had disappeared.

 Then quickly turned, as she had felt a breeze on her neck, and blocked a fatal blow.

 Edward paled, while Lord Midford was nervous, and felt as though his wife was fighting for her life.

 Adrian smiled, feeling as though his step-daughter was having a spot of fun, while Lizzie watched, torn between who she wanted to win.

 Larten watched interestedly, as he had never actually seen his sister fight before, and……Sebastian was glaring death at the ghoul, while Egin watched n awe, and Ciel’s eye twitched.

 I am so glad that she’s my friend.

 Yuki then glanced to the right, making Lady Francis think the ghoul was going to come from that direction, and preparing to block a strike from the right.

 Oh, how wrong she was.

 The white haired girl vanished, leaving behind an after image, which soon disappeared as well. The Marchioness glanced around quickly, trying to figure out where Yuki was, when her son shouted.

 “She’s coming from above!!”

 The woman’s eyes widened, before she looked up.

 And sure enough, the ghoul had pushed herself off the ceiling, having stayed there due to her using…..ice?

 She was now dive bombing the blonde woman below her, with her katana poised to stab Lady Francis’s shoulder, and from how fast she was falling, the sword could either graze her heart, or, go right through it.

 The Marchioness hoped it would do neither, as she bent backwards, and positioned her sword so that it might send the girl off trajectory.

 Yuki grinned maniacally, as she turned the blade in her hand sideways, before she was right on top of the woman.

 Or, rather, hanging right over the woman.

 Lady Francis fell to the ground, and sighed in relief, that she was still alive, before her eyes widened, at how Yuki was hanging from the ceiling.

 She had four blue, purple, and red, scaled tentacles wrapped around two rafters.

 The woman then looked to the girl’s eyes, and gasped quietly.

 The scelera had turned from white to black, and her irises had turned from blue speckled with amber, to red.

 The Marchioness then blinked in confusion, and, despite having a ghoul hanging over her, she took her attention off the girl, as she felt something warm and wet roll down her cheek.

 She put her hand to it, then held it in front of her face.

 It was blood.

 Yuki had managed to strike her.

 Lady Francis looked at the ghoul, who was still hanging over her, but was trying to figure out how to get down, as her tentacles had gotten all tangled up in each other, and wouldn’t come apart.

 When the white haired girl noticed the Lizzie’s mother was staring at her, she smiled triumphantly. “I don’t know how to fence, but I once heard that one of the rules of a fencing match, was that if you strike your opponent once, you win, and the match is over. So, I win!...I think….”

 “You won, Yuki!”

 The ghoul looked excited at that. “Cool!....Um….I’d help you up, Lady Francis, but, I…..I don’t know how to get myself down….sorry…”

 The blonde woman blinked before smiling slightly. “You’re fine, dear. I must say though, that was a most exhilarating sparring match! It felt as though I was fighting for my life! I never get that feeling when sparring against the usual people! I thank you, Yuki, for sparring with me!’

 Yuki blinked, then smiled radiantly. “You’re welcome. But, that feeling of fighting for your life…..sorry……the habit of not being able to hold back rubbed off on me from my extended family.”

 “That’s fine, dear. Not everyone is able to control their strength. Including me! Haha!”

 The two on the arena floor smiled and laughed with each other, before Adrian spoke.

 “Yuki, I believe that you can get down if you disperse your kagune~! Though you should disperse them-“

 “Owwie…..”

 “One at a time…”

 The Undertaker sighed at his step-daughter. “You should’ve waited until I was finished talking, dearest.”

 “Sorry……Oww…….” The ghoul had fallen flat on her face, on the floor of the arena, which was a gym floor wood painted white, and was now sitting on her legs, rubbing her nose. The bruise that had formed, had healed as quickly as it came, as with the bruise that had been on her forehead.

 Despite the bruises being gone, her nose still hurt, and she had tears in her eyes.

 “Are you alright, dear?”

 “I’m fine, my nose just hurts a little…..Wait….” Yuki kept her hand on her nose, as she looked at Lady Francis, with her Kakugan still activated.

 “Yes, Yuki?”

 “You’re…..not….You don’t look to be….afraid of me….Why?”

 At that, Adrian gained a soft look as he watched the ghoul, while Larten smiled sadly.

 The Marchioness blinked at the girl. “Why am I not afraid of you?”

 The ghoul nodded. “I’m a ghoul…..I eat human flesh……Why aren’t you scared, or running to tell security?”

 Egin’s eyes widened, as he heard what Yuki had said.

 Ghouls eat human flesh?

 “Snake? Why do you look confused? You knew ghouls ate human flesh, didn’t you?” The snake man looked at Sebastian, still wide eyed, and shook his head. The demon blinked, before gaining a look of understanding. “Ah. I see. She didn’t tell you, because she didn’t want to scare you off. She was afraid of losing a friend, or getting hurt.”

 The white haired half demon gaped, then looked at Yuki.

 Lady Francis looked at the ghoul with a soft smile. “I’m not afraid, because you’re one of the sweetest….yet strangest…..girls, I have ever met. I don’t believe that you’re capable of killing an innocent human, or that you’re capable of thinking of humans as only food.

 “If you were, I’m sure you would’ve killed and eaten almost every last human on this ship, as you are certainly strong enough to do it.”

 Lizzie then cut in. “Actually, mother, if she killed almost every last human on the ship, it would’ve been for sport. Ghouls only need to eat once every one or two months. Though there is the exception of that Binge eater a few years back….

 “Oh, and some ghouls-“

 “Lady Elizabeth, I think that the rest of your extensive knowledge of ghouls should be saved for when we aren’t on a ship, where people get nauseous easily.”

 The blonde girl blinked at Sebastian, before smiling. “Okay~!”

 Lady Francis’s eye twitched, before she sighed at her daughters antics.

 “You’re….not……afraid?”  

 At the small, quiet, and cracking voice, the Marchioness looked back to Yuki, who had started to cry. “You heard what I said, didn’t you? You’re too sweet to be feared.”

 The ghoul let out a quiet sob at that, making the blonde woman crouch, and hug her. “Shh….Don’t cry…”

 “I-I’m not-I’m not crying! I-I just got s-something in my eye!”

 “In both of them?”

 “Y-Yeah!”

 Lady Francis chuckled at that, making the ghoul attempt to pout cutely, but it ended up looking like a severe frown as she was crying. “There, there…”

 Yuki went to wipe her tears away, but scaled hands did it instead. “E-Egin?”

 The snake man smiled at her, making her cry even more, and leap forward into his arms.

 “I-I’m sorry I didn’t tell you…..”

 “You’re fine, Yuki. I understand.”

 At that, the ghoul bonked her forehead against his, and nuzzled his nose affectionately, making him blush.

 “Sorry to interrupt the moment, dearest, but here are your weapons.”

 Yuki looked up, to see Adrian smiling softly at her, as he handed her short sword, and shotgun back to her. “T-Thank’s, Adi.”

 “You’re welcome, dearest.”

 “W-Wait, hold on!” Everyone looked to Edward, making him yelp, before he spoke again. “A-Are we all just okay with her being a ghoul? I mean, this is the first time we’ve met her, mother!”

 Lady Francis frowned at her son. “What, you want to turn her in to the CCG, and have her be locked up, or worse?”

 At that, Yuki hid her face in Adrian’s chest, and whined.

 Edward paled at how protective his mother was of the ghoul already. “W-Well….I mean, it wouldn’t …..be a bad….idea…”

 That made Lizzie get up, and jump the barrier, before she walked angrily over to her friend, and hugged her tightly. “Wha-?! Lizzie?!”

 “Edward.”

 “Yes, mother?”

 “Did you not hear what I said earlier? She means no harm. She’s just a child. She isn’t capable of killing innocent people. We will not be calling the CCG on her, or her family, if there are more.

 “Understand?”

 The blonde boy internally groaned at the tone in his mother’s voice.

 It meant she would not, and could not, be swayed.

 “Yes, mother….”

 “Good. My lord. Do you have any objections?”

 Lord Midford smiled. “Not at all, my dear! Miss Yukino has done nothing to earn my ire. She’s just as innocent as a toddler in my eyes!...Though she is a very deadly toddler…”

 At that, Adrian had to restrain himself from laughing.

 The Marchioness smiled, then looked to Ciel, and Sebastian. “Did you have any objections, or did you know the whole time?”

 “We knew.” Ciel spoke before Sebastian could get a word out, as the boy just knew that the demon would say something to upset everyone.

 Adrian smiled at the Earl, before looking down at Yuki, as he had felt her tugging on his shirt. “Adrian, I’m hungry…”

 The mortician blinked, before smiling softly at his step-daughter, who had the cutest pout he had ever seen. “Alright, dearest. We’ll leave shortly. Okay?”

 The girl nodded at him, as her tears went away, and she smiled.

■-------------------------------------------■

 “Ciel, Yuki, look! Those cakes are so cute! Oh! And there are cakes inspired by Nightmare before Christmas!  

 “I’ll go get some for us, okay~!” Lizzie ran down the stairs, leaving Ciel and Yuki.

 The ghoul was currently being used as a crutch, by one Sebastian Michaelis, who was squeezing her head tightly, seemingly wanting to see if her head would explode.

 “Could you stop squeezing my head so tightly?!”

 The demon looked confused. “Oh? Why? I thought you had a hard head.”

 The girl growled at him. “I do, but your strength ain’t normal. My head will explode if you keep squeezing so tight.”

 “Maybe that’s what I want to happen.”

 “Fuck you.”  

 “Would you two behave?! I am not in the mood to deal with your bickering!” The two reluctantly stopped, making the Earl sigh in relief, when they made it down to the floor.

 Yuki pulled Michaelis’ hand off her head with a bit of difficulty, before going to sit at a table with Egin, as they waited for Adrian. The renegade reaper said he had something to do before going to the dinner party, and had promptly left soon after that.

 Ciel leaned against a pillar tiredly, while sighing in frustration. “Aristocrats really do do nothing but get together daily to talk nonsense about this family and that…And they will do it with exactly the same conversation partners every single day!! I feel like a fool for having traded in my work for this…”

 Sebastian limped back to his master, with a plate of food in his hand. “Then how about you accept the Marchioness’s invitation for a fencing lesson tomorrow?”

 The Earl’s eye twitched, as he took the plate of food. “Do you really want to keep me from greeting the goddess of freedom that badly? She may have lost in a swordfight with Yuki today, but she’s still confident in her fencing skills. She’d wipe the floor with me!”

 Michaelis chuckled at that, before turning serious. “That aside, young master. Tonight is the night.”

 “I know. It seems the convening of the ‘Aurora Society’ will be signalled by a waiter carrying empty glasses and walking the hall. Participants are to take a glass and then head to the meeting place.

 “Don’t miss that signal.”

 “As you wish, sir.”

 Egin scanned the crowd, watching for Adrian, when he caught a couple of women in Victorian get up speaking about him.

 “See there? Just look at his skin.”

 It seemed that Yuki had also heard them, as she raised her head from its resting spot on the table, to look at the women with a frown.

 “It’s like that of a snake.”

 Yuki began to growl, but cut herself off when they heard the other woman speak.

 “My goodness. There are certainly some very talented people in the cosplay community. The scales look so real! Maybe we should start getting into that kind of cosplay as well?!”

 The first woman chuckled at the other. “But dear, we know nothing about how to make those detailed cosplays the anime and video game community makes. And we only know how to pretty ourselves up, not how to make ourselves look-Pardon my french-badass.”

 The second pouted. “But the internet is a girl’s best friend! I’m sure there are tutorials somewhere! And practice makes perfect!”

 Their conversation then changed to Yuki. “And look at her! She’s rocking those awesome tattoos! And the one from Supernatural looks really good on her!”

 The ghoul’s face flushed at that.

 They think my tattoos are awesome. They think my tattoos are awesome. They think my tattoos are awesome.

 “Excuse me?”

 “Huh?” Yuki yelped quietly when she saw the women standing in front of the table her and Egin were at. “Y-Yes?”

 The second woman smiled politely at them. “Could you tell us where you got that wonderful Charmain?”

 The white haired ghoul blinked, before stuttering. “M-My dad g-got it for me a-at Hot Topic….”

 “I told you.”

 The woman who spoke to the girl huffed, before speaking again. “Well, I just wanted to be sure. May I ask how your boyfriend’s scales look so real?”

 At that, both Egin and Yuki blushed.

 “S-S-She’s not my-“

 “H-H-He’s not my boyfriend….um….but….I’m flattered that you think his scales look real. I made them, and painted them. I’m an art major.”

 The two women, and Egin, looked surprised at that. “You’re in college? But you look about 15!”

 “I am. I got in to college early because the elementary school, and high school thought that I was too smart for them, and sent me to college with a scholarship.”

 The two women looked impressed, while Egin gazed at the ghoul in awe. “Are you in your first year?”

 “Third year, actually.”

 “Y-You were twelve when you got to college?!”

 “Didn’t all of the adults intimidate you?”

 Yuki smiled sheepishly. “They did at first, but my big sister was there with me, so the intimidation didn’t last long.”

 “Well, that’s good…Oh, dear. We have to go now. We promised our husbands we’d go dancing after we came to the dinner party. How may we contact you? You seem like a nice girl to talk to.”

 The ghoul blinked, before responding. “My Tumblr URL is reapers-daughter. You can contact me that way.”

 “We’ll have to write that down. Thank you! Goodbye!”

 The white haired girl waved at the women, before turning to her friend. “They were nicer than I thought they’d be.”

 Egin nodded in agreement, before yelping, and jumping into Yuki’s lap, startled, as someone had suddenly touched his shoulder.

 The ghoul smiled amusedly, as she held the snake man.

 “Why so jumpy~? It’s only me, baby boy~! Hee Hee Hee~!” Adrian grinned amusedly at his charge’s ability to be startled easily, and laughed.

 The white haired half demon blushed at the nickname the reaper had called him. “Adrian! I’m not a child anymore! You don’t need to call me that!”

 “But I like to~! You are my baby boy, and you always will be~! ♡”

 Egin’s face flushed even further at that, as he pouted at his legal guardian.

 Who proceeded to smile softly, and chuckle at the snake man’s childishness, before going to pat the man’s head gently.

 “Aaawww~ You’re cute when you pout, Egin~”

 “Y-Yuki!”

 “Very true~! Hee Hee~!”

 That made the half demon get off of his friend’s lap, and huff at her and the renegade reaper.

 “Snake.”

 Said man, and the two he was with, looked to Ciel, who had walked up to them, with his demon butler following behind, surprisingly keeping up with his master’s fast pace, despite his leg. “Yes, Smile?”

 “Take care of this. We have something to do.”

 The Earl placed a plate of half eaten food in Egin’s awaiting hands, before the slate haired boy and Sebastian went off somewhere up the stairs, with Ciel helping the demon up them.

 The snake man blinked, before looking at the food. “Adrian, Yuki, would you like some?”

 “I’ll have a bite of the beef, please, baby boy~!”

 “Huh? But…….Fuck it. I’ll have a small bite of the chicken.”

♧-------------------------------------------------♧

 “So good!  

 “Ale! Ale’s the way to go! Much better than any fancy champagne! Y’think so too, don’t ye, laddies?!”

 The dual tone haired reaper smiled, as he picked up a mug of ale, while his friend, an orange haired man, had a glass of whiskey. “Still, if you’re drinking with your lass, a real famous brand of champagne’s the way to go!”

 Larten laughed, after setting down his now half empty glass. “I don’t know ‘bout you, but I’d rather give my lass a fine glass of Saint George’s red wine!”

 “Oh~! ‘Ow nice! I envy your girlfriends!” The woman sitting next to Ronald looked at the reaper longingly.

 “If only we had ‘em!”

 “Wot?! You don’t?”

 “Another glass o’ whiskey o’er here!”

 The blonde reaper, and everyone at the table, gaped at the orange haired vampire, as he had drunk his whiskey quicker than anyone they had ever seen before. “That’s like your fourth glass, man! Your stomach’s like a bottomless pit!”

 The vampire smiled, and laughed merrily at that, as someone poured him another glass, before he dropped a blood pop in the alcohol.

 Ronald smirked amusedly at his friend, before grabbing his mug of ale, and raising it. “So! Even if we don’t have girlfriends, we do have plenty of time!”

 Larten sighed in relief internally at that, as he was planning to leave as soon as Ronald, to make sure his sister was alright.

 “Cheers to our free time!”

■-------------------------------■

 “Would you care for some ‘Absolute purification water?’ It costs thirty pounds.”

 Adrian’s eye twitched, as he brought out his wallet, and gave sixty pounds to the man. "Sure…”

 Yuki raised an eyebrow at the renegade reaper, as they walked into the first class smoking lounge. “What’s up with you?”

 “Thirty pounds for water is outrageous.”

 “How much is thirty pounds in Yen and USD?”

 “About eight hundred thousand to one million yen, and about eight thousand to one hundred thousand dollars.

 “And in addition, about eight hundred thousand to one million jewels.”

 Yuki gaped at that. “What the hell! Why are they making people pay more than they should for water?!”

 “No clue.” The outrageous price for water was only one reason why Adrian was in a bad mood at the moment. The other reason, would be that the Earl and his insufferable demon butler were behind him and his step-daughter, and the butler was currently glaring daggers at the ghoul.

 Yuki and Adrian hadn’t bothered to put on disguises like Sebastian and Ciel had, so the ghoul was just wearing the clothes she wore earlier, as was the renegade reaper.  

 The white haired girl hid behind her step-father, and clutched his hand, as she felt anxious around such a large crowd.

 The silver haired man gently squeezed her hand in reassurance, and gave her a soft smile, before looking ahead, as a large man with fancy glasses walked up to them.

 “Is this your first time here?”

 The Undertaker gently ushered his step-daughter out from behind him, so that the man would be able to see and hear her, as she and Ciel began to speak in unison.

 “The eternal flame in this breast, cannot be quenched by anyone.  

 “We are-“

 The two teenagers, and the two adults, then got into ridiculous poses, which made Yuki and Adrian burst into laughter internally, while Sebastian seemed to be completely ignoring the pain that came with putting all his weight on his bad leg.

 “Phoenix!!”

 Ciel blushed in embarrassment, as he glanced at the ghoul and the mortician, before glancing at Sebastian with concern.

 All three of them held straight faces.

 What kind of pose is this?! No one would believe them sane!!  

 If we’ve got it wrong, all will be lost, Sebastian!

 This must be the right pose, though. If it wasn’t he wouldn’t even bother with doing this.

 The man in front of them widened his eyes, before striking the same pose. “Phoenix!! Welcome to the Aurora Society.” The man then gave them fire bird pins, similar to his. “Here are your membership badges.”

 After the man left, Sebastian walked over to Ciel to fasten the slate haired boy’s pin onto his lapel, without his cane.

 The Earl blinked in confusion, while Adrian and Yuki raised an eyebrow. “You taking oxycodone?”

 “Hm? Oh, yes, I am. Surprisingly, it helps.”

 “Guh! Hee! Hee! Hee…”

 At the laughter, the demon, ghoul, and Earl, looked to Adrian.

 Who was glaring at someone behind them, as he pulled both Yuki and Ciel close to him.

 “EEEE! HEE! HEE! HEE! I NEVER IMAGINED YOU’D DO SUCH A THING!”

[keikaku-sama]

Book of the Atlantic: Chapter 4

Rating: Some early chapters are rated T. Some later chapters are rated M. Reader discretion is advised.

Side note: Sentences in Italics without quotation marks are thoughts. Sentences in “Italics” with quotation marks are characters on the other end of a phone call speaking. Sentences in “Bold and Italics” with quotation marks are characters saying things angrily, venomously, for emphasis, or the like.

 “Adrian, time to wake up!”

 The man was hit with a pillow once, before the renegade reaper’s eyes opened, and glared at the offender.

 Who smiled cutely at him.

 “Good morning!”

 Adrian stared at Yuki. “Coffee?”

 “Already made. Just the way you like it too!”

 The Undertaker blinked at her, then smiled slightly, before slowly getting up.

 The ghoul smiled, before leaving the room so the silver haired man could get dressed.

 When she got to the living room of the suite, she was surprised to see Lizzie sitting on the couch.

 “Lizzie?”

 “Huh? Oh! Good morning, Yuki!”

 Yuki blinked at the older girl, who stood up, and walked to stand in front of the white haired girl. “Good morning…Why are you here?”

 The blonde smiled at her, as she held the ghoul’s hands in hers. “I wanted to get an early start, so we could try on dresses~! Oh! Good morning, Adrian~!” The mortician grunted, and smiled politely in response, as he walked to the kitchen to go get his coffee.

 Yuki tilted her head in confusion, and groaned internally at the thought trying on dresses. “Why, exactly, do we need to try on dresses?”

 Lizzie pouted cutely at her, making the white haired girl look away with a slight blush. “Why, you’re escorting me to a dinner party tonight! And we need to look our best!”

 “Can’t I just wear a tux, or something?”

 “Your hair is too long for that, and even if you did put your hair up in a bun, everyone would still know that you’re a girl.”

 “That ain’t the problem. I don’t like dresses as much as you do…..And people will stare at me…”

 Lizzie blinked confusedly at her friend. “Why? Because of your tattoos?”

 The ghoul nodded, making the blonde girl frown, and place her hands on her hips. “Well, I say let them stare! Your tattoos are meant to be stared at, aren’t they? Like the one on the back of your neck, one of the tattoos on your left arm, and another on your right shoulder!

 “Your tattoos are different, and that’s what makes you, you. You’re different, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of that. People’s personalities differ from others, and that’s fine. It would be boring if everyone were the same, wouldn’t it?

 “If they stare, the reason won’t be because they don’t like you. It’ll be because they envy you, for your ability to rock those awesome tattoos, and your beauty, inside and out.”

 Yuki blinked, before hugging Lizzie. “……..Thanks…..”

 “No need to thank me! It is true after all! Now, let’s go try on some dresses!”

■-----------------------------------------------------■

 After the two girls went back to Adrian and Yuki’s room(Yuki didn’t want to sleep alone), Lizzie had asked what the ghoul had done with her coffin.

 The answer was that she had put it in her requip space, not wanting it to get lost or destroyed if something happened to the ship.

 The blonde girl nodded, understanding her friend’s fear of boats, and large bodies of water.

 The older girl then had Yuki pull out every dress, and, tuxedo, she had in her requip space.

 The two then tried on every outfit, and dress, for six hours, all the while, Adrian was watching NCIS on his phone in the living room, as Larten had already gone out to who knows where.

 After six hours of trying things on, Lizzie had decided to wear a dark red, gothic, Georgian period ball gown, with large trumpet sleeves, black bunched up fabric lining that looked like flowers, and black brocade designs almost all over the dress, except for the middle.

 She had also put on a black, ruffled choker that matched the dress, and wore black and red demonia corset boots that stopped mid calf, and had four inch heels.

 And Yuki had decided to wear a purple, celtic dress, with pagan and celtic designs on the bands around the elbows and waist, and the sleeves were cut off at the elbows, and purple lycra hung from the ends of the sleeves, and were almost the length of the dress, which dragged along the ground, like that of an elven princess’s dress.

 And she wore purple lacy elven gloves, and purple suede corset boots, with five inch heels.

 Lizzie had let her hair down, instead of keeping it in her signature pig tails, and had french braided some of her hair to the sides of her head, and had also french braided her bangs.  

 The older girl had also decided to french braid Yuki’s hair in the style of a double waterfall, with a ponytail hanging down the middle in the back, with small, purple flower vines woven in.

 The blonde then grabbed a woodland elf crown, with a purple gem in the middle, and fastened into the younger girl’s hair, the front of the crown coming to rest over the ghoul’s forehead, the gem resting in the middle.

 Lizzie stood back, and admired the ghoul.  

 “There! All done! Now, let’s go~!”

 The white haired girl smiled, as she was gently pulled by her friend, out into the entryway of the suite.

 Where Adrian was waiting for them, wearing a dark burgundy suit, with a black dress shirt, and no tie, and wore the same black leather fingerless gloves he wore the day before, and had on black loafers, with 7 inch heels.

 He had pinned his bangs back, and put his hair up in a messy bun.

 The silver haired man smiled at them, and held his arms out for them to take. “Well~! Don’t you two look absolutely beautiful~?”

 The girls smiled at him, as they walked out of the suite, closing the door behind them. “Thank you, Adrian~! You don’t look too bad yourself~!”

 “Hee Hee~! Why, thank you, Lady Elizabeth~!”

■---------■

 The trio had almost made it to the ball room, when Yuki’s cell phone, which was in Adrian’s pocket, began to ring.

Despair, you call to me, with your poison and your misery.

Oh death, you come to sting, with your poison and your misery.

Death, death, death, death

Death surrounds me, singing to me softly (Death, death, death)

When the shadows spreads its wings around me-

 “Eep!” Yuki squeaked in embarrassment, as people looked at her strangely, after she had gotten her phone out of her step-father’s pocket.

 She was relieved when she finally managed to make it stop ringing, after fumbling with it.

 She then quickly put the phone to her ear, and spoke to whoever it was that had called her. “Hello?”

 “Are you alright?” It was a familiar, deep voice, that sounded worried.

 “I’m alright, Alu. Nothing has happened yet.”

 The man on the phone sighed in relief. “That’s good….Where’s Adrian?”

 “Right next to me. You want to talk to him?”

 “Please.”

 “Kay. Hold on.” The ghoul pulled the phone away from her ear, and gave it to the renegade reaper, who was telling a few jokes to Lizzie.

 “Alu wants to talk to you, Adrian.” The man blinked at that, before taking the phone. “Alright. Why don’t you two go on ahead? I’ll catch up with you later.”

 The girls nodded, before going through the doors, arm in arm.

 Adrian sighed, before putting the phone to his ear. And Alucard, somehow knowing that he just did, immediately began to talk.

 “Where’s Larten?”

 “Second class deck, spending time with one of his reaper buddies. Why?”

The vampire on the phone growled. “Why isn’t he with you?! He’s supposed to be protecting Yuki!”

 The silver haired man raised an eyebrow at how worried Alucard sounded. “I believe that you’re forgetting that I’m here, Vlad. I’m perfectly capable of protecting her myself. And I’m sure Larten would come running if he sensed his little sister was in danger.”

 “But you can die. He can’t. And what if he couldn’t get there in time?! His sister could be hurt severely, or…..or worse, in the time it could take for him to get to her!”

 “Calm down, Vlad-“

 “DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN, DAMN IT!”

 Adrian flinched as the vampire yelled into his ear. “Vlad, you need to breathe. Take a few deep breaths, and clear your head, then tell me why you’re so worried.”

 “But-“

 “Vlad.”

 The line went silent, as the man on the phone did as told, before he spoke again. “S…..Sorry......I’m just......worried that Yuki will have an attack.....She is afraid of ships.....and large bodies of water.....I just....worry that if she has one…....my precious…..my darling snow flower will…….”

 Adrian’s eyes softened at that. “I know, Vlad. I worry too. But if she does have one, I’ll be there to protect her, and to comfort her if Larten can’t make it in time. I give you my word.”

 “…….Alright………..but…….I may transport myself onto the ship tomorrow…just to make sure…”

 The renegade reaper smiled softly. “Alright. I’ll be waiting.”

 “…..See you tomorrow…”

 “See you~” At that, Adrian nearly hung up, but stopped, when he caught Alucard muttering something under his breath.

 “I swear, if I catch Larten partying when he should be with Yuki, I will throw him overboard…”

 The silver haired man’s mood changed quickly, from happy, to angry.

 After hanging up, the man growled lowly, scaring a few people in the hallway, as he glared at anyone he passed while walking through the doors.

 Upon entering, the renegade reaper found Yuki and Lizzie talking with Sebastian and Ciel.

 Or rather, being sassy with them.

 “W-What are you two wearing?”

 Lizzie smiled brightly. “They’re called dresses, Ciel dear~”

 The Earl’s eye twitched, as he then glared at Yuki. “You’ve corrupted her.”

 The ghoul scoffed. “No I haven’t. She’s always been like this. You’re just too busy to notice this side of her personality.”

 The slate haired boy stammered at that.

 “Oh~! Yuki! They have cake! Let’s go get some!” The girl cosplaying an elven princess, smiled, and let her older friend lead her over to the dessert table.

 Yuki took a few small bites of a piece of cake, that had all the frosting scraped off, courtesy of one Elizabeth Midford, and glanced at Adrian.

 He was sitting on the stairs, drinking a glass of wine, and glaring at anyone who went over to try to talk to him.

 The ghoul raised an eyebrow at her step-father, wondering what could have been said between him and her uncle that put him in such a bad mood.

 Before stepping closer to Lizzie, as two guys walked up to them, thinking that they would walk away with submissive girlfriends who would obey their every command.

 “Hey, baby.”

 “The only ones allowed to call me ‘baby,’ are my mother and father, so fuck off.”

  A sleazy smile appeared on the guy who spoke’s face. “Oh, feisty. I like it.”

 The second guy smiled as well, and lightly slapped the first guy’s arm. “Hey, you can have the elf. I want the cute one.”

  Yuki growled at the two. “Are you seriously discussing who gets who?! We aren’t objects that you can buy at a store, you sons o’ bitches.”

 “Oh~? Then how about I give you three million pounds to be my girlfriend?”

 The ghoul snarled at them, as the first guy whipped out his wallet, as if he was able to buy her love. “Your British money means nothing to me, as I live in America, and was just invited to come on this cruise. I don’t need the money, and neither does she.”

 The two looked disgusted at that. “You’re American?!”

 “Actually, I’m Japanese-Hungarian. I was born in Japan, I just live in America.”

 While this was going on, Lizzie just watched her friend rip into them, with a smile.

 The two guys looked at each other, then gained looks that worried Yuki. “So, you’re into that kinky, tentacle stuff, eh? How about we do some of that?”

 “I’m not into-“

 “Get away from them, if you know what’s good for you.”

 Yuki was interrupted, when Adrian appeared in front of her and Lizzie. And, if looks could kill, the two perverts would be dead.

 The renegade reaper snarled at the two guys, positioning himself so he blocked their view of the girls behind him. “Yuki. Call Larten.”

 “Y-Yes sir.”

 Larten?

 As soon as she finished saying his name, black and red fire like shadows burst to life next to Yuki, before disappearing, with Larten replacing them.

 He gave his sister a worried look.

 “Take the girls somewhere else.”

 The orange haired vampire looked at Adrian confusedly. “What-“

 “Please, take the girls somewhere else.”

 At that, the vampire nodded, and ushered the two girls that were behind the reaper, out of the ball room.

■---------------------------■

 “MOTHERFUCKER! WHO’S THE SON OF A BITCH THAT JUST FUCKED ME IN THE A WITH A FIREWORK?!”

 A slate haired boy across the room laughed evilly, before shouting, as someone ran over his character in game, and kept doing so as he tried to get up. “WHAT THE FUCK?! WHO’S THE DUMBASS WHO KEEPS RUNNING ME-NOOOOO!!”

 Ciel screamed, while a certain demon butler exclaimed loudly in confusion, as two cargo bobs dropped propane tanks loaded with c4 onto them, before the propane tanks blew up, making the two males’ characters go sky high in the process, as well as killing them.

 “Sorry, Smile! My target was Michaelis!”

 “And my target was you, Ciel! Hahahahaha!”

 Egin grinned evilly, and Larten laughed maniacally, as the two they had targeted glared at them, with the younger yelling profanities at them.

 “WHY YOU PRICKY FUCKFACE! YOU BETTER HOPE I DON’T FIND YOU, YOU GOBBY LIT’LE BITCH!”

 Larten had taken the girls to the first-class arcade, and the three from the Phantomhive household had joined them, and they were now playing Grand Theft Auto V online multiplayer.

 Yuki glanced at Lizzie’s screen, and saw that she was teaming up with someone to kill Sebastian’s character with a titan, and a train.

 “What the-…….Who were the prissy mcfucks who got me run over by a train, then dive bombed said train with a titan?” The demon’s eye was twitching, as he said this.

 “HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE~!!!!! This game is fun~! I may just have to buy it for myself when we get back on land~!”

 “Undertaker?!”

 “Please do get it! My game disc has too many scratches on it to be played now….”

 “I said for myself, dearest~ Though I wouldn’t mind buying you a digital copy~!”

 Yuki grinned at that. “Really?! Thank you!”

 “Hee Hee~! You’re welcome, dear~!”

 After that, Adrian teamed up with Egin, and they ganged up on Michaelis with a tank, and a fighter jet that was loaded with homing missiles.

■---------------------■

 “Adrian?”

 The renegade reaper pulled Yuki closer to him, and kissed her cheeks, forehead, nose, and chin, repeatedly, before kissing the top of her head.

 “Hmm….Yes, dearest?”

 “May I ask what you did to those two guys earlier?”

 Adrian nuzzled his step-daughter’s cheek, before kissing her temple. “I reported them to security, and tried to get them thrown overboard, but the guards said that the least they could do was keep an eye on them, then have them do community service when the ship gets back to England.”

 The silver haired man felt the ghoul tense at that, and start trembling, before he hugged her even tighter, and ran his hand through her hair soothingly. “Shh……Don’t fret, my love….They’ll probably be thrown overboard anyways…..”

 The girl whined at that, and buried her face in his chest.

 The two stayed like that for a bit, until Yuki pulled her face out of the man’s chest, with a pout on her face. The renegade reaper looked at her softly, with an amused smile.

 “Adrian?”

 “Hm?” The man kissed the girl’s ear, and rubbed her arm soothingly.

 “…………Why….Why were you in such a bad mood earlier? Did…….Did Alu say something to upset you?”

 “Hmm…..No, not really.”

 The ghoul raised an eyebrow at that. “Adrian….”

 “Time to go to sleep, dearest.”

 “What?! But-“ Yuki was cut off when the mortician gently pushed her back onto the bed, before he tucked both her, and himself in. “A-Adrian-“

 He gently pushed the girl’s face into his chest, before kissing the top of her head. “Good night, dearest.”

 “But-“

 “Good night, dearest.”

 At that, the ghoul tensed, before nodding, and closing her eyes. “Night, Adrian….I love you.”

 “I love you too. Now sleep.”

[keikaku-sama]

So....I will be posting the first chapter of that story i told you guys i was writing earlier on tumblr, because I can’t figure out how to make Fanfiction.net stop making the first chapter look like a fucking source code, and I won’t be able to get an Archive of our own account til april 1.

The story is mostly based around my OC, Yukino Eusford. I will be posting her profile sometime in the next week or so. The first two or three chapters are centered around Snake. The story is set in present times(2014), and is an alternate universe where every damn fictional character lives in our world, or can transport themselves to our world easily, via Garguantas, Senkaimon, or whatever.

The Campania is the second Titanic in this story. And, that one certain serial killer that I’ve sort of been obsessed with for the past two months or so will be playing sort of a big part in the story.

I am basing Jack off of the one in Ripper, by Stefan Petrucha.

Oh, and, in this particular part of my chain of fanfics, Grell just got a transitional surgery, otherwise known as a sex change.

[keikaku-sama]

Just to clarify, in Book of the Atlantic-My fanfiction-Lizzie is 15(I believe her birthday would be sometime in May), Ciel is 14, and my OC, Yukino Eusford, is 14 in circus and book of murder parts, along with the part before the Campania, while on the Campania, she is 15.