Hospital For Souls (M i c h a e l i s) [Kuroshitsuji 3]{Completed}

Chapter XVI : One Troubled Artist

We're gonna try something new today...

"Sebastian? Sebastian!"

I couldn't see him, in the dark of the woods. It was near impossible – the trees were simply too dense, too close together. I could, however, hear the struggle – the snapping of wood underneath bodies, the grunts of exertion as two equally strong beings fought each other. "Sebastian!"

"I told you to get back inside!"

"Oh, is that your one, eh?" The stranger was laughing now, a maniacal, twisted laugh. "How about I cut her throat open? How about we see how that makes you feel, Sebastian?! Because that's your name, demon, isn't it? You and your master, the pair of you are rotten to your absolute cores, and you will pay for what you have done to my friends, my Grace, I swear to God."

Grace? Grace... he was looking for Grace. I shoved through the branches, the sharp leaves ripping at my skin, into a dirt clearing. All that was visible was a mess of black, red, purple – that's how fast the pair of them were moving.

"Stop!" I shrieked. "Stop, I can tell you where she is. I can tell you where she is."

The glint of a scythe was present as the two grappling creatures slowed down marginally. A Reaper? I knew that I should be frightened – every single part of my being was telling me to be afraid – but all I could think about was Sebastian. Keeping him safe.

"Celeste, don't --!"

"I can tell you where she is," I said carefully. A Reaper. He was obviously looking to put right what was wrong, the natural order of things. After all, Grace's soul didn't belong in her body. And they would have noticed her absence eventually – the Reapers. It was a sad state of affairs, it really was, but there was no point in changing the inevitable. And I couldn't let Sebastian die. I knew the powers that Reapers possessed.

In a flash of ink, the attacker sprung up; and I was faced with possibly the most beautiful Shinigami I had ever laid eyes on. His hair was a mane of inky black, whispering against the shoulders of his black suit; black on black, black on black, with a thin purple tie swinging from his untucked jacket.

At the front, separated from the rest, was a broad streak of white that toppled down over his forehead, pale against his snowy skin. His acidic green eyes, characteristic of a Grim Reaper, were rung with black eyeshadow, matching his lips and nails. He would look very dapper, suave, if not for the fact that he had just come out of a scuffle with Sebastian.

Sebastian, who was under the man's foot, the blade of some sort of instrument pressed against his smooth throat. He didn't appear to be particularly flustered; but he was obviously bleeding copiously, and did not have the upper hand in the battle. That belonged to the man who was now entrapping him.

"Who are you?" As soon as he addressed me, his voice had slipped from the throes of passion to an almost inaudible monotone.

"My name is C-Celeste." I gave the Reaper a nervous smile, and stepped forward, my hands clasped behind my back. "You seem to have given Sebastian there quite some trouble."

"Yes, that is to be expected. Physically, we are superior to... demons." With a curl of his lip, he nudged Sebastian under the chin with his blade, who snarled back in a feral manner. "Anyway, make it fast, little girl, I have business."

"I – you're looking for Grace?" I said quickly, trotting forward again. Sebastian's ruby eyes were warning me off, but I paid no heed. "Grace Harcourt, yes? Slightly smaller than myself, curvy, copper hair, grey eyes?"