Crimson Butler: A Shakugan No Shana/Kuroshitsuji Fanfiction Story (Vol. 1)

Chapter 4: His Butler, Bonding

One morning, Ciel was waking up to a nice cup of early morning tea. “Young master, it is time to wake up.” Sebastian said as he opened the curtains. The sunlight lit up Ciel's room as Ciel awakened from his sleep. “Good morning, young master.” Sebastian said. “Good morning.” Ciel said, “The schedule for today?” “Nothing in particular is scheduled for today.” Sebastian replied, “Today you are free to do whatever you please. You and lady Shana.” Sebastian smiled. He handed Ciel his cup of tea. “Shana and I are free to do whatever we please. . .” Ciel said. “Good morning, Ciel.” Shana said as she walked into his room. Ciel looked over at her.

It was morning in Misaki City, the day after Shana was teleported back in time. Yuji was on his way to school when he saw Wilhelmina outside waiting for him. “Wilhelmina, have you found anything yet?” “Yes, I have.” Wilhelmina said, “Let me tell you something about faustian contracts. . .” “Faustian contracts?” Yuji asked. Wilhelmina explained to him about faustian contracts. “A link between a human and a demon whereas the latter offers specific services and fulfills the individual human's wish in compensation of consuming the said human's soul is what a faustian contract is.” Wilhelmina told Yuji, “They are also called deals with the devil. In order to create the contract, a human has to summon a demon. However, it seems that they do not need to be aware of the existence of demons, attempt to summon a specific demon, or even summon one intentionally. It is implied that the human must be desperately searching for a way out, if the situation is indicative of a typical summoning process, and have little or no faith in God. And once summoned, this fact will not change for all eternity. All the same, it seems that the human still has the option to go through and create the contract, or dismiss the demon. Once the contract forms, the human bears a mark in ambiguous places. In a sense, the contract is viewed as a 'scar' the demon leaves so the demon would not lose the person he contracted with. No matter where, the contract has the authoritative power; the demon is able to detect where the human is, and irrefutably, the latter can never escape the demon.” “Okay,” Yuji said, “so what does this have to do with what's going on?” “This vampire butler that you are speaking of,” Wilhelmina said, “he is a Denizen who forms contracts with humans wanting to accomplish something difficult in exchange for the their souls. I've heard of this one before. He goes by many names from the many humans he had consumed as a Denizen. It appears that a boy wants revenge on the mistress because he thinks she killed his parents. And somehow, he summoned this Denizen, and they both formed a contract together.” “But if faustian contracts can only be made between humans and demons, then why does this Denizen make these contracts with humans?” Yuji asked. “It is because this Denizen indeed has demonic powers.” Wilhelmina said, “This denizen also has the ability to obtain other abilites by blood sucking.” “Blood sucking. . . ?” Yuji said. “This Denizen can be indeed dangerous,” Wilhelmina said, “especially if he's trying to obtain the Flame of Heaven's ability. Alastor is said to be the strongest of the Crimson Gods, and if this denizen obtains his abilty, who knows what could happen?” “So we have to find Shana and bring her back here as soon as possible!” Yuji said. “Indeed, I am still trying to find a way to go the time period she has been sent to.” Wilhelmina said, “I shall look into a way to get to the time period she was sent to. I should be letting you go off to school now. I'll contact you if anything comes up.” “Allright then, thank you.” Yuji said as he began to walk to school. Oh Shana, I hope you're all right. . . Yuji thought to himself.

Back at the manor, Ciel was in his study room with Shana. He was asking her if she could train him to fight like a Flame Haze. “You want me to train you to fight like a Flame Haze?” Shana asked. “Yes.” Ciel replied, “I have no intention in becoming a Flame Haze, but I just figured I would be able to help you fight these Denizens if you trained me a bit.” “Hmmm. . . Alastor, what do you think?” Shana asked Alastor. “Ciel does have a point.” Alastor, “He may need to assist you in your battles, especially with that Crimson Denizen that's going after you. If that is the case, he must become stronger because this Denizen could be almost impossible to defeat.” Shana nodded. “Then it's decided.” She said, “Ciel, I will train you to become stronger. If this Denizen is as strong as he is said to be, then I'm definetely going to need you in this battle.” “I like your answer, Shana.” Ciel replied with a smirk on his face, “Very well then, shall we start with the basics? I want to test my fencing skills on you.” “Fencing?” Shana asked. “Yes, fencing.” Ciel replied, “Surely, you have heard of it before. It's a sport in which foils are used for-” “Oh yeah, I've heard of it.” Shana said, “Sure, we'll start with that.” They went out to the manor's backyard to have a fencing match. They were thrusting their foils and trying to hit each other. At one point, Shana manages to hit Ciel with her foil. “Not bad, not bad at all.” Shana said. “Shall we go another round?” Ciel asked. “Sure.” Shana replied. After a series of fencing matches, which Ciel and Shana both won half of the matches, they called the training a day and Shana decieded to have some melon bread she had stored inside her night cape. “Say, what is that you are eating, Shana?” Ciel asked Shana. “Melon bread. My favorite food.” Shana replied. “Melon bread. . .” Ciel said. “Want to try some?” Shana asked. “Yeah.” Ciel replied. Shana pulled out another pack of melon bread she had stored in her night cape and gave it to Ciel. He opened the pack and took a bite of the melon bread. Ciel was delighted by its taste. “This is really good.” He said. He took another bite of it. Shana watched him eatin the bun. “You're not eating it right.” Shana pointed out. “I'm not?” Ciel asked. “This is the correct way to eat it: first, you bite off the crispy bun, then you savor the spongy, soft filling.” Shana explained, “Another bite of the crispy part, followed by more spongy filling. This allows you to balance both textures equally. Got it?” “Yeah,” Ciel replied. As they were eating their melon bread thoughts of Shana were filling Ciel's head. You know, I really don't know much about Shana. . . He thought to himself, Nor about that Alastor person. . . “Hey Shana,” he said. “Yes?” Shana said. “This Alastor person. . . who exactly is he?” Ciel asked. “I am not human.” Alastor said, “I am a lord of the Crimson World.” “You, mean like those Denizens that eat existences?” Ciel asked. “There are those that consume existence without restraint. And there are those like me who oppose them” Alastor explained, “This world is filled with the power of existence. Something that the Crimson World lacks. That is why the Denizens are drawn here, to seek out this power. Because it can be used to fufill their desires.” “And where do these Denizens come from?” Ciel asked. “From the crimson world, the world next to this one that can't be reached by ordinary means.” Shana replied. “Like a different dimension?” Ciel asked. “A good enough definition,” Alastor replied, “but toying with the power of exsistence would upset the balance between the two worlds in time. Thus the need for flame hazes. It is our duty to prevent it from happening.” “I see.” Ciel said, “It does sound like there are others like you out there.” “There are other flame hazes, but we are all on our own.” Shana said. “Their reasons for fighting and methods vary from one to the other.” Alastor added, “There are even times where flame hazes would battle each other. Some of them are really short tempered.” Ciel and Shana had just finished eating their melon bread when Sebastian told them it was time for them to take their bath. “Young Master, Lady Shana, your bath is ready.” He said. Ciel and Shana went to the bathtub. As they were relieving themselves of their clothes, Shana noticed that Ciel had a weird mark on his chest. “Ciel,” Shana said. “Yes?” Ciel said. “What's that mark on your chest?” Shana asked as she pointed at the mark. Ciel looked at the mark, and his eyes widened as he remembered something from his past. “It's. . . rather. . . a long story,” Ciel replied. As they were relaxing in the tub, Shana had one thing on her mind: Where is Ciel's parents? “Hey Ciel,” Shana said, “I. . .” “Go on.” Ciel said. “I want to ask you something. Where are your parents?” Shana asked. Ciel eyes widened, then he took a deep breath. “This estate has actually been around here for about a good two years now.” Ciel said, “It was built to be a replica of the previous estate. It is identical to every exact detail. The previous one was burned down about three years ago, and. . . my parents. . . they. . . perished in the big fire. . .” Shana felt a little sad just by learning this fact. “So sorry to hear that. . .” Shana said softly. “Since then, I had taken over as the head of the Phantomhive family.” Ciel said, “And. . .” He was not exactly sure how he would put what he was about to explain to her. “Can you keep this a secret between you and I?” Ciel asked. “Uh. . . yeah, tell me.” Shana replied.” “After my parents perished, I summoned a demon.” Ciel said “That demon was Sebastian Michaels, who is currently my butler.” Shana was surprised by what she was just told. “Sebastian's actually a demon?” Shana asked. “Yes,” Ciel replied, “though his real name is not Sebastian. That's just the name I gave him.” This reminded Shana of when she first met Yuji. She originally had no name at all until she came across Yuji, who gave her the name Shana. It is actually short for the name of her sword, the Nietono no Shana. Since then, she has used the name Shana. Ciel turned around to face Shana, who was facing the direction he was facing in the bathtub. “I made a contract with this demon.” he said, “He will serve me as a butler, as well as help me obtain one of my goals: to find the fiends that have murdered my family, burned down my manor, and tortured me like a slave so that I would bring the same exile they brought upon me.” Ciel took off his eyepatch to show Shana the insignia of his contract with Sebastian on his right eye. “This mark here on my right eye shows that I am in the contract with Sebastian.” he said. Shana turned to face him, and saw the insignia of the contract on his eye. Shana took a close look at the purple pupil, which had a glowing star in the middle. She couldn't believe what Ciel was telling her. “After I've achieved my goal, Sebastian will eat my soul. That is the rule for when a human makes a contract with a demon.” Ciel said. Shana realized that it was the same thing that Peter and Drac had explained to her and Yuji before she was warped to Ciel's time period and place. For a second, she was thinking that Sebastian must be someone else like Drac, but just as quickly she dismissed the thought. If Sebastian was really a denizen, she would have been able to sense it. However Drac is a denizen with demonic powers, and it would be nearly impossible for any flame haze to sense him, which was demonstrated in the first chapter when He and his master Peter first confronted Yuji and Shana. Having that in mind, Shana started to have some suspicion for Sebastian. “Is something on your mind Shana?” Ciel asked. “What you just told me. . .” Shana said, “. . . that was the boy and his denizen butler I was talking about. Tell me, is Sebastian a denizen too?” Shana gave Ciel a mad look. “I assure you, Sebastian is not a denizen. He is a full blooded demon.” Ciel said, “If he was a denizen, wouldn't you have sensed it?” “Yes, but I wasn't able to sense the one I encountered back in my time period.” Shana said. “Interesting,” Ciel said, as he stood up in the tub. “Wait,” Shana said. She started to hold on to Ciel's upper right leg, and he slipped and fell back in to the tub, landing on his butt. He had his hands on Shana's chest, and Shana had hers on Ciel's hips. Their faces were near each other. When they realized that, they both yelled, and Shana gave Ciel a good clobbering.