Your Own Skin (Black Butler)

A Djinn's Offer

Ciel was certain the creature was saying something, but Sebastian clamped his hands securely over his young master’s ears, somehow drowning out all noise.

“Sebastian, what are you-”

“Keeping you in place,” he whispered as he crouched down at his side. Ciel didn’t question how the only thing he could hear was Sebastian’s voice. When you had a demon in your employment, you stopped asking such questions.

The entire room was dark and Ciel watched as Grell’s vicious charge faltered as William’s legs went weak beneath her, and she tumbled hard to the ground. Another shinigami fell too, but Ciel didn’t immediately recognize him. His red hair was pulled up high on his head and he wore a simple, black suit. He blinked in astonishment when he realized it was Sutcliffe’s body, probably with Spears trapped inside. Then he spotted Undertaker leaning heavily against his satoba. There was something terrible about seeing him struggling to stay standing. His green eyes glanced over to Ciel, and there was no doubt about the concern in his eyes. Then he spotted Sebastian, his hands clamped over Ciel’s ears, and he smiled before falling to the floor.

The chant must have ended because the room lightened considerably, and the creature stood leaning with a hand on the wall. The room was littered with bodies, three shinigami and Druitt. Sebastian released Ciel and got to his feet. “You’ve switched all of them again, haven’t you? Even your own human master.”

“He’s not my master,” the creature hissed and Ciel felt a headache form between his eyebrows. “He’s my employer.”

“It’s Remley, isn’t it?” Sebastian asked, stepping cautiously forward. “I dare say that I haven’t seen a Djinn in London before. How odd for you to travel so far from your homeland.”

Ciel set his jaw and stepped forward. “Enough with the pleasantries. Will you switch them back willingly or must we force you to do it?”

Near the stand of brandy, Druitt was beginning to stir, but Ciel wasn’t sure who was truly in his body now.

“Why should I?” Remley asked and Ciel felt that same throbbing in his skull. Instead of responding to Ciel though, he was addressing Sebastian. The Djinn obviously hadn’t a scrap of manners, which wasn’t entirely surprising considering his employer. “Do you know what they do to our kind? We should destroy them now, while they sleep. With their blades, we could become stronger than Death itself!”

Sebastian chuckled, “And bring the entire realm of death down on our heads? That sounds like a brilliant plan.”

Ciel looked over to see Druitt staring at his hands with a dramatic sneer on his lips. “Really? I have to be this fop?” he muttered and gave a foul look as he looked down at his outfit. “He’s not even hot!”

Undertaker got slowly to his feet, and had to put his hands up to his nose to see them. Then his face flushed a bright red and he tried to adjust his nonexistent glasses. “Good grief…”

“Oh my,” Grell said as she got to her feet, using the cane that had been left at her side. “I say, Remley! You aren’t supposed to be dragging me into this mess, though,” he flattened his hands down his hips then rubbed his hands against his own backside. “Perhaps this isn’t quite so bad.”

A disturbing noise emerged near Ciel. He looked down to see William had rolled over onto his side, clutching his belly with laughter.

Ciel sighed and stamped his cane on the ground, bringing the bickering to silence. His patience was waning, and the throbbing in his skull didn’t help. “Sebastian, I grow tired of this. If we should kill him, will it revert the shinigami back to their original forms?”

Sebastian smirked, “I haven’t a clue.”

“Well that seems reasonable enough to me. Dispatch him, won’t you? I’ve had enough of this.”

“Very well, my lord,” he said with a low bow. There was a scream, but it was cut short. A curtain of blood splashed against the wall, and Sebastian stood on the opposite side of the room with Remley’s head in his hands. All at once, Druitt and the shinigami fell to the floor again. It was eerie how quickly the light vanished from their eyes and they were nothing more than crumpled ragdolls again.

Ciel turned to Sebastian. “You mean to tell me you could have taken him out in an instant?”

“Oh no, young master. I doubt I could have if he hadn’t wasted his energies on the shinigami. Really if he had worked harder to convince you instead of me, he might have lived.” He dropped Remley’s head to the floor and Ciel turned away so he didn’t have to see the wide eyes and the mouth still twitching.

“What should we do with them?” He asked, wanting to think of anything but the corpse behind him.

“You did promise Grell to make sure she and William had their bodies back. What will you do if they aren’t returned to their proper forms?”

Ciel sighed and looked down at William near his cane, Grell with her deathscythe discarded on the floor, and Undertaker with his satoba. “Perhaps we should at least remove their weapons. Just in case…”

Sebastian nodded and gathered them with a gleam in his eye. “In case Druitt decides to try them out.”

“No,” Ciel stated. “In case they aren’t in their right bodies. They would kill us in an instant.”

Sebastian went a tad bit paler.