Akuma's Charm

Preface

"Oh my such beautifully round and crystal clear eyes. I'm sure your mother loves seeing them everyday~"

Blocking the little sunlight from the early morning sky of this early spring day was a black mass, the demon the boy summoned.

"I didn't.. <cough> I didn't call you here to talk about my dead mother! Come here, damned demon! Do as I say!"

"Are you sure little one? Maybe your hunger has made you delirious. Maybe I'm just a figment of your clouded imagination. Why don't you just allow yourself to sleep--"

"BUT I DON'T WANT TO SLEEP <cough> ... I-I want to live."

"I assure you if you say the right words, I'll give you a long and fulfilling life. But I must warn you: it comes with a hefty price. And after all, you've summoned someone as wicked as I. You'll never see the gates of heaven."

"I don't care... I just want to live."

"Oh~ So you'll pay any toll?"

"Anything..."

"Even your withered soul once you're really ready to greet death?"

"Anything is better than starving to death."

"Well, then, I shall make a contract with you." The twisting mass of the akuma holds out a small black nailed hand. The emaciated boy takes it and clamps onto it as if it were a lifeline.

"I shall be yours to command every which way you so choose. I shall also brand you with my hallmark, as a sign of your possession over me. It'll be a lovely collar but you must also bare the symbol, so that I may always know where you are until the very end. Now, where might you want this hallmark?"

"...Hall..mark... You speak like an old British man.."

"I've lived many years little one and to be honest my language barely reflects that. But, again, where might you want your hallmark. I should tell you that the more visible it is, the easier I'll be able to find you, and the stronger the draw to you it'll have on me. Choose.."

"Well <cough> ... stamp my tongue. It'll mark the end of my life as a starving beggar, and I pray it throbs with pain every time I'm blessed to eat another morsel of food for the rest of my life. Mark me."

" Humans are so fascinating. To even mention a word like 'blessed' in front of a being like me is silly. And your sentimentality is also rather humorous, but your first command as my master be granted."

The akuma reaches out to the withered boy and stuffs it's hand into the boys mouth. The boy gags but is then instantly writhing in pain from the demon's marking process. The akuma withdraws his hand, now branded with a citrus yellow hallmark and flicks the blood and vomit he got there onto the ground. The boy is retching what little he has in him on the ground and in the pit of the akuma's emotionless stomach brews what a human would call pity. He disappears but returns in an instant with a white handkerchief and a basket of oranges.

"Wipe your mouth and eat these my little master." He hands the boy the handkerchief while he peels one of the oranges and gives the boy one of it's pieces. The boy is elated to be holding a fruit in his hands for the first time in a long time but the first bite sends him hissing in pain.

"You fool! <cough! Cough!> Get me something that won't burn my tongue!"

Smiling impishly at the boy's irony, the mass replies, "Yes master." The mass begins to drift away but stops, floating in midair. The boy looks up at the mass growing angry till it speaks again.

"Before I leave again master, I'd first like to know what your name is."

"Uhm... Jim Macken."

"What a bland name for someone as heavenly as you... And what shall you call me?"

The boy looked up at those defrosting spring clouds and sighed loudly.

"I'll call you Ciel Macken. You'll pose as my dead brother for the time being. Now go."

The mass begins to morph. In no time it dissipates, leaving a small boy with a willowy body, dark blue hair, porcelain skin, and fuchsia eyes. The demon bows, with a light smile on his pink lips, and cheerfully replies.

"Yes, big brother!"