FWOOSH.
The fire in the giant goblet burned strongly.
"Tomorrow will surely be a day of fierce battles," Agares said. "So please enjoy this evening's opening festivities to your hearts' content." Everyone clapped, while Agares left the podium, but then he tripped on one of the steps exiting the stage, tumbled so that he landed on his head twice, and slid face down across the floor.
"V-Vice headmaster!!?" the master of Green House exclaimed with concern while the dining hall buzzed with people whispering.
"Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me," Agares said as blood spurted out from under his hat. He was quickly helped to his feet, and he left to wipe away the blood, claiming he was all right.
The party ensued, with most of the houses sticking together.
"If you don't fill your bellies, you won't be able to keep up the fight through to the final! So eat up! And then eat some more!!" Herman ordered his team fiercely while holding a half-eaten turkey leg.
"Yef, fer!!" the team responded with full mouths, also holding half-eaten pieces of food. Just next to them the Red House team was exuding a sparkling aura. They were surrounded by women, young and old. The Purple House team had formed a creepy sculpture of turkey legs, lobsters, and a skull and were eating while gathered around it with their faces cast in shadow from their hoods. The eerie gloom they cast about them shocked some of the nearby guests.
"Hmph... What a very relaxed bunch," Lawrence remarked, pushing his glasses up. "Blue House will hold a meeting to perfect our strategy! We cannot afford to waste even a minute."
"Understood!" his teammates responded.
"Don't be such a bore," a feminine voice said as a hand landed softly on Lawrence's shoulder. "Let your hair down a little at tonight's party, why don't you?"
"B-Big Sister!?" Lawrence exclaimed as his seven sisters descended upon him like locusts. The sister with her hand on his shoulder poked him in the cheek as he turned his head to look at her. She had asymmetrical bangs and a teasing smile. Another older sister was smiling kindly and had her long hair parted to the side and pulled up. His third big sister also wore a teasing expression.
"Let it down! Let your hair dowwwn!" two identical twin sisters, who appeared to be the youngest said, hugging their big brother. His other two younger sisters stood on the edge of the group. One was smiling and had her hair braided up with flowers. The other was a little plainer than the rest of her pretty sisters and had her hair twisted up with a bow.
"Look at you acting all high and mighty when you're the exact opposite at home!" his third older sister said.
"The little boy who would always play house with me has grown up to be a prefect. How perfectly novel!" the sister with the kind(?) smile said.
"Big Sister!!" Lawerence exclaimed, becoming agitated. "Please stop with the unnecessary commentary, and go over there, would you!?"
"Ah, how do you do, everyone? Thank you for treating our little brother kindly," the sister with the kind smile said to Ciel and the others, who stood there dazed by the unexpected scene that was unfolding before them. They had never seen Lawrence like this before.
"Now just a minute, Lawrie! 'Unnecessary'!? How dare you!?" his older sister with the asymmetrical bangs snapped angrily.
"Heyyy! Heyyy! Big Brother, where's Lord Edgar!?" his little sister with her hair braided up with flowers asked excitedly, blushing.
'This is just like Violet's painting,' Ciel thought, sweat-dropping as he watched a flustered Lawrence struggle against his sisters. 'Be that as it may, this situation is quite mad.'
"Oh?" the third oldest sister said when she spotted the young earl. "And you must be young Phantomhive, hmm?" She pointed at him. "The extremely talented first-former my little brother mentioned in his letters home."
"You're too kind..." Ciel said as the older sister with asymmetrical bangs zoomed over.
"My, you're rather charming, aren't yooou?" she said with the gleaming eyes of a hunter.
"He has a good face, a good brain, and a good family. Why he's ideal. Though he is a little on the small side," the third older sister said, appraising Ciel.
"Erm...?" Ciel said.
"What do you say? Won't you have our little sister for your wife, hmmmm?" the older sister with asymmetrical bangs said brightly, pushing the little sister with her hair put up with a bow toward him.
"Hunh!?" Ciel exclaimed, paling at the prospect. He couldn't be rude to one of the P4's sisters, but if Lizzie heard them say such a thing, there was no telling what she'd do!
"Stop it, Sister!" the little sister said, blushing furiously.
"Why is your face all flushed!? Whoo! Whoo!" her older sister with the asymmetrical bangs teased her.
"You're being most improper, Adela," the older sister with a kind smile scolded her lightly.
"No, um..." Ciel said with a pale face, taking a step back. How should he get out of this?
"Ciel!!" a familiar voice shouted. He looked and saw Lizzie hurry over as gracefully as she could, greeting everyone with a curtsey. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, everyone! I am Ciel's... bride-to-be... Elizabeth!" Edward was not so tactful.
"Ciel, you little...! When you have a certain someone called Lizzie !!" he yelled while shaking the younger boy violently by the front of his robe.
"Aww. So he has a fiancée, after all," the third older sister said.
"All the good men do, don't they? Come with fiancées, that is," the older sister with asymmetrical bangs said, disappointed.
"Sheesh!" the younger sister they had embarrassed said, still blushing furiously.
"Edward, stop that!!" Lizzie said, squeezing her eyes shut as she hit him with a strong blow to the back of his neck.
"Ah!" Ciel said, flinching at the power behind the attack. Edward immediately fell unconscious.
"Hm? Big brother?" Lizzie said innocently, holding him up. He was limp in her arms.
"Blue House is boisterous as always," Edgar said, amused.
"Ah ha ha ha ha! Ciel! That strange hat looks good on you!" Soma said, pointing and laughing.
"Goodness! They must be the sisters we've heard so much about..." Joanne said.
"I still can't believe you were chosen to play for your house..." Ciel told Soma.
"Hmmm-hmmmph! Naturally!!" Soma said proudly.
"Kadar is a deft hand at cricket, you know!" Joanne said with a smile.
"Cricket, introduced by the British, is all the rage in India," Soma explained. "Why, I even assembled my own team at the royal palace!"
"Hohhh," Ciel said.
"Ah! Lord Edgar! How long must I wait before you ask me to dance!?" Lawrence's little sister with her hair braided with flowers asked urgently.
"Perhaps until such a time as you stop trampling on my feet?" Edgar suggested.
"You are so cruel!" Lawrence's little sister said, beating her fists against his abdomen. Despite her tantrum, she inflicted zero damage to her target.
"What foul words to fling at a fair lady, Edgar!" a familiar voice said. The Viscount Druitt approached them from the crowd. "Have my teachings escaped you, dear nephew!?"
"Viscount of Druitt, my lord!♥ Kyaah!♥" Lawrence's little sister said, switching targets.
"Uncle Aleister—!" Edgar said, smiling.
"Non!! Do not call me uncle!" Viscount Druitt said as Ciel paled at the sight of him.
"Geh!" Ciel said, cringing as he stared at the viscount in horror. 'I couldn't shake the feeling that Redmond reminded me of someone, but... to think it was him—!!' He shuddered, breaking out in goosebumps.
"Aah... My beloved alma mater! The fresh springtime of my youth, like roses moist with morning dew, washes over me as if it were only yesterday," Viscount Druitt declared with a sparkling aura.
'And he's a graduate of this school to boot...' Ciel thought, sneaking away before he was noticed.
'I cannot bring myself to like gaudy men like him!!' Francis thought darkly as she watched the viscount. She noticed a familiar face in the crowd.
'My, my,' Sebastian thought, watching their group. 'A most troublesome bunch has gathered in one place.' A bead of sweat slid down his face as he sighed. 'Better to keep my distance, I daresay.' He began to speed away, when a hand clamped down on his shoulder, stopping him cold.
"You there, indecent manservant. What brings you here?" Francis asked with a dangerous aura, making the most displeased face Sebastian had ever seen on her before.
"Goodness me... Marchioness Midford," Sebastian said as a bead of sweat slid down his face. "Quite impressive of you to manage to catch me..."
"Just look at you!" Francis roared, grabbing Sebastian by his bangs. The demon paled and flinched in shock. "What housemaster in his right mind would go around in so dissipated a guise as this!!?" Then she suddenly released her grip on his bangs. "Hmph. No matter. If you're here, then that must mean Ciel's enrollment in Weston is..."
"It is as you suspect, my lady," Sebastian said, placing a hand over his chest as he bowed his head to her.
"—Hmph," Francis said.
"Oh?" Lizzie said, spotting the butler too. "Why, if it isn't Seba—"
"Shh—" Sebastian said to her, holding a finger to his lips.
"!" Lizzie gasped, covering her mouth.
"Oh? Who is that chap, Mother?" Alexis asked.
"Sir, are you acquainted with my mater?" Edward asked.
"Oh, really now, you two!" Lizzie said, making them lean down so she could whisper to them. "That tutor is..."
"It has been quite a while, gentlemen," Sebastian greeted Edward and Alexis, pulling his glasses down a little bit.
"Ohh! I didn't realize at all," Alexis said as he and Edward each hit one hand into palm of their other hand.
"Me neither," Edward said.
"You mean you hadn't actually noticed and weren't keeping quiet about it this whole time!?" Ciel asked, startled by how slow they were, especially Edward. The number of chances he had to realize it was Sebastian in disguise were too numerous.
"Well, when Lizzie's around, everyone else fades into the background, don't they?" Edward said matter-of-factly. Lizzie sparkled so much in his eyes that everything else looked kind of hazy.
"Don't come right out and say that like it's some kind of given," Ciel said.
"Does your work have anything to do with tomorrow's matches—?" Edward asked.
"Can't say it doesn't, but you can have at it without worrying about that," Ciel said. He planned to win either way.
"Then that's just what I'll be doing! Hmph!" Edward said confidently.
"I'll cheer my heart out for yoooou, so make sure you come back victorious!" Lizzie told Ciel, hugging him tightly.
"R... Right," Ciel said, holding his hat on with one hand so it wouldn't fall off.
"Ngah!!" Edward exclaimed in shock and dismay. "Hmph! You talk as if the perennially last place house has even a hope of winning!" Edward fumed with a vein throbbing on his face.
"Oh, but it does," Alexis said. "Blue House did once win the tournament a long time ago." He would know, being an alumnus of Weston College.
"A-Are you perhaps talking about... the 'miracle of sapphires'!?" McMillan asked, popping up to insert himself into the conversation.
"Wah!" Ciel said, startled. How long had McMillan been listening in on them?
"Oh! I'm McMillan, Phantomhive's best friend," McMillan said, shaking Alexis' hands enthusiastically.
"Best friend...?" Ciel said.
"Oh, won't you tell us the story, Marquess!?" McMillan pleaded.
"Very well, young man!" Alexis said happily, crossing his arms. "It was back when I too resided in Green House and was the prefect's fag, just like Ed—"
««« Flashback «««
"Why, that little—!"a stern-faced young man with his black hair parted to the side said as he stomped toward his prey. A vein throbbed on his temple. Like Herman, he wore a green vest, marking him as Green House's prefect, and he was carrying a cricket bat. "He's got another thing coming if he thinks he can get away with it this time!!"
"Please do calm down," young Alexis said, wearing the same hairstyle he would sport even as an older gentleman, as he hurried after the prefect.
"How can I be calm in the face of this, Midford!?" the prefect snapped angrily. "What sort of prefect neglects preparations for the fourth of June!? First of all, he's..." He stopped when he saw a gathering of boys who were murmuring amongst themselves. Looking beyond them, he spotted a certain someone lying on his back in the grass near a fountain with one leg crossed over the other, holding a book over his face to read. "!" The prefect recognized his prey immediately. He marched over to the other prefect with Alexis following him. "Hey, wake up!! Mole!!" he yelled at the lazy so-and-so.
"Ohh dear. Three more minutes, and I would've finished this book," the other prefect said, sitting up.
"We prefects aren't allowed on the lawn just to take afternoon naps, you know!" the Green House prefect scolded at him.
"Don't get so worked up, Diedrich," the other prefect said, snapping his book shut. "Moreover, my name isn't mole. It's Vincent Phantomhive." Young Vincent was wearing a blue vest that had thin and thick black stripes, with thin white stripes running down the middle of the thick black stripes.
"Don't address me by my first name!" Diedrich said sternly with his arms crossed. "It is against school rules!"
"From its bread to its countrymen, Germany certainly is the land of the rigid," Vincent said, picking up his discarded jacket as he stood.
"How dare you...!?" Diedrich snapped, furious about the slight to his homeland. "I won't stand here and endue your insults!!" He swung his cricket bat at Vincent.
"Wai.." Alexis yelled.
WHACK!
Alexis flinched as the cricket bat made impact, but he needn't have feared. Vincent had dodged, and the cricket bat had only made contact with the book, which fell open when Vincent dropped it as he dodged.
"I say! What a rather large bookmark," Vincent said a little mockingly.
"Gnh...!" Diedrich said, gritting his teeth with a vein throbbing on his head as he glared at Vincent.
"Whew!" Alexis breathed a sigh of relief.
"Tch! Why did you skip out on the preparations, you sod!?" Diedrich asked angrily.
"Oh? Was that today?" Vincent said innocently.
"Wha—!? I've about had it with you!" Diedrich snapped with multiple veins throbbing on his head.
"Sorry, sorry," Vincent said lightly.
"The P4... It's the P4!" one of the boys watching them said.
"Those two again...?" another said.
"Are they quarreling?" a third asked.
"Thanks to your listless ways, all the work fell to me!!" Diedrich snapped again, still fuming.
"Oh...!? So you did my share too!" Vincent said. "What a good friend you are, old chap."
"How someone like you got made a prefect is beyond me!" Diedrich huffed.
"Same here!" Vincent said, pulling on his jacket.
"A prefect like you speaks volumes about the level of your house residents," Diedrich said. Vincent twitched.
"Say whatever you like about me... but won't you spare the other Blue House residents your scorn?" Vincent asked.
"A commanding officer is the embodiment of his company. Thus, those who obey a prefect of your ilk can only amount to so much... or perhaps I should say, so little," Diedrich said scornfully. The wind rustled Vincent's hair as he gazed coolly at Diedrich.
"If you're going to go that far, let's make a right game of it," Vincent said.
"What?" Diedrich said.
"We'll bet on which house will win the fourth of June cricket tournament," Vincent said. "And the lose must comply with any one demand made by the winner. Well, what do you say to that?"
"... Fine," Diedrich said.
"What are you—!?" Alexis said.
"How can Green House possibly lose to the house that always come in last!!?" Diedrich shouted. He pointed his cricket bat at Vincent, who was sitting on the fountain. "If Green House wins, I'll have you resign from your position as prefect."
"Is that really all? Not terribly greedy of you," Vincent said. He stood up. "Well, in that case, I'll come up with something too."
"You had better keep your word," Diedrich said as Vincent walked away.
"My sentiments exactly," Vincent said.
=†=†=†=†=†=
On June Fourth, the crowd in the stands were cheering. The Green House team were kneeling or sprawled out on the field, exhausted.
"No... How could I—how could Green House—!!?" Diedrich said, shocked and distraught. "How could we lose to Blue House—!!?" Vincent and the members of his team were ecstatic. They were cheering and hugging each other.
"We did iiit—!! Blue House's first ever championship in history!!!" they cheered, tossing Vincent into the air.
=†=†=†=†=†=
Vincent was relaxing in the Swan Gazebo, reading a letter, when Diedrich found him.
"Phantomhive," Diedrich said, getting his attention. Vincent smiled behind the letter.
"Finally recalled my name, eh... Diedrich?" Vincent said, sitting up.
"We were soundly beaten. So, as promised, I will comply with your one demand," Diedrich said.
"We did say something of the sort, didn't we?" Vincent said, tucking the letter into the pocket inside his jacket as he stood up. "Well, then I only ask this of you... become my fag."
"Hunh?" Diedrich said, shocked and dumbfounded. "Wh-What are you saying? I'm in Green House, and you're in Blue House. Besides which, I'm already a prefect, you know!?"
"Tradition's tradition. A promise is a promise," Vincent said. "I did win, after all, didn't I?"
"Urgh...!" Diedrich said, unable to find a suitable argument.
"So from now on, whenever I call for you, you must fly to my side wherever you are. No matter what!" Vincent said, walking onto the pier.
"H-How many months do you think we have left until graduation—!?" Diedrich asked incredulously, blown away by Vincent's selfishness.
"Oh, dear—! I don't remember saying anything about this being only until we graduate?" Vincent said. "Ha ha!"
"Eh!? Just what do you mean by—hey!?" Diedrich said as Vincent hopped into a boat moored at the pier and began to row away. "Wait! We're not done talking yet!!"
"Well, I aaam!" Vincent called, waving as he drifted away.
"Get back heeere! Phantomhiiiive!!" Diedrich yelled. Vincent chuckled and lay down in the boat.
"Mine at last. Just like I've always wanted. A faithful German dog of my very own," Vincent said, smiling.
"Waaaaaait!!!" Diedrich yelled, wading into the water to chase after him.
"Ah ha ha ha! You're ruining the mood, dieee!" Vincent said, laughing. Meanwhile, Alexis, who had witnessed the whole conversation was moved to tears.
'Just look at how much those two have opened up to each other...' Alexis thought.
»»» End Flashback »»»
Elizabeth, Ciel, and Soma all stared at Alexis with wide eyes, while McMillan was positively sparkling. Sebastian glanced sideways at Francis, who avoided direct eye contact. She knew full well what her brother was like.
"Th-The previous earl was in Blue House?" Ciel said, astonished. He had never heard this before.
"I can't believe your dad was a key player in the 'miracle of sapphires'!! Whoooa!" McMillan said excitedly while looking at Ciel with sparkling eyes.
"Ahh... You didn't know yet, hm, Ciel?" Alexis said. The poor boy knew so little about his own father. Elizabeth and Edward were staring at their father, shocked. They looked as though they had just learned some dark secret.
"Eh...? Father was a fag...?" Elizabeth said.
"He's younger than Uncle Vincent...?" Edward said.
"It was a truly brilliant game. It pains me to say this, but we were utterly clobbered!" Alexis said to Ciel, putting his hands on his shoulders. "You have the blood of a genius game strategist in your veins. Have faith in yourself and give it your best." Agares walked up onto the stage again.
"Oh! Something's about to begin!" Soma said.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for waiting. We will now draw lots to decide the tournament fixtures," Agares announced, holding four small tiles.
'In keeping with the tradition of Weston College... the opposing teams are fairly determined by drawing lots,' Ciel thought, getting serious.
"You there. Lend me your hat," Agares said to Clayton.
'However, it has already been decided who Blue House is to play against,' Ciel thought, watching Agares drop the tiles into Clayton's hat. 'That's because—'
"Now then, all housemasters—come forward to draw lots!" Agares said. Sebastian and the other housemasters stepped onto the stage to do as Agares said. The Green House housemaster was a man with strong features, a goatee and thick buzzcut. The Red House housemaster was a dandy-looking older gentleman who had blonde hair and a classic mustache. He also wore a cap decorated with a feather. The Violet House housemaster was an eccentric-looking fellow with a gaunt face and dark curly hair. The three of them and Sebastian prepared to reach into the hat at once to remove a tile at the same time.
'I trust Sebastian to do his job,' Ciel thought. 'A 'preliminary' celebration, was it? Don't be daft. The game's already begun!!'
"We will now announce the teams for the first fixture!" Agares said.
'The 'miracle of sapphires'? What a joke,' Ciel thought, smirking.
=†=†=†=†=†=
'I don't believe in miracles,' Ciel thought as he stepped onto the field the next day with the rest of his team. The crowd in the stands were cheering loudly. 'So I'll snatch up the victory by force!' He stood facing the Scarlet Foxes, determined to win.