Reincarnation
Chapter 1:
Sebastian Michaelis, to give the name that his master had given him, had had a hellish time living in the underworld with no other demons for company aside from the puny brat that he was still unfortunately bound to and forced to cater to his every whim.
For example, despite the fact that demons did not need to eat, his master insisted on him performing the rigmarole of serving him morning tea, breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, and a five course dinner. All of these meals consisted of china teacups and plate and thin air. He wasn't even allowed to repeat the same type of tea twice.
In addition to that useless ritual he was ordered to dress the aforementioned brat every day even though his master never left the house. The house itself was an exact replica of the Phantomhive estate that his master had left behind on the surface. Sebastian had copied everything down to the last detail for the second time.
After 10 years of the pantomime; obeying all of his master's orders, dressing him and pretending to serve him tea and never being allowed to leave and meet with others of his own kind, Sebastian snapped.
On that fateful day he had been ordered to give his master a dance lesson- his feet had been squashed by the clumsy boy, then he had been instructed to re-wall paper every wall in the entire manor (he had also been told to make the wallpaper himself) and after he had been told that the new wallpaper clashed with the furniture and that he would have to do it again or make new furniture by himself.
At the point he had felt like he could simply not take any more of his mercurial master.
He had been starving for a long time as he had found that souls were more satisfying if you were mad with hunger and had originally believed that his contract would only take the maximum of a few years to fulfil. He had been correct about that. What he had not expected was to lose the soul as he was about to take it, have several fights with a rival demon over it, be double crossed by that demon and lose his master and lose the mouth watering soul that he had been cultivating and end up permanently bound by contract by a demon, subject to his every whim.
The condescending and smug looks that the frail looking boy always gave him whenever he was forced to say "Yes, my Lord" irritated him as well.
In a fit of anger he had torn of his master's head as the boy had been about to give him another order and he had thrown it down the staircase. His master, ever mindful of Sebastian trying to find a way to escape the contract, had ordered him not to ever drown, stab, strangle or shoot him, so he was well within his right and not going against orders to tear his head off. In any case a something like that would not kill a demon.
He had been expecting Ciel to wake up again with an annoyed expression on his face when he placed the head back on top of the headless body so it would heal and reattach itself.
The expected did not happen. The head fell off again and rolled away.
Sebastian had frowned in puzzlement and then rolled up the eyelid of the decapitated head's right eye to check if the contract symbol was still there.
It was not. What was more surprising was that both eyes were azure blue again.
His demon master was dead.
That same evening he had knocked down the house before using some of the rubble to construct a small tomb for the corpse. He had even carved a headstone. As he started down at the lifeless and soulless body that he had once fought hard to protect he wondered if he would ever be able to make a contract again with anyone after him.
Then he left the underworld for the human realm.
His only regret was that he had never tasted Ciel Phantomhive's soul.
***
The demon had taken the bait.
Ciel walked down the street to his house at a normal pace, not bothering to check whether or not he was being followed by the demon. He would be able to find that out later.
He turned up his driveway and walked up the steps before ringing the doorbell so his parents could let him in.
Sebastian followed Ciel home, always walking a few metres behind the boy in case he was spotted. Fortunately for him the boy was unsuspicious and had not changed pace or turned around at all. His eyebrows rose as he watched the boy walk up the driveway of a very familiar house.
He recognised it immediately as being the London townhouse that his young master had owned in the 19th Century. Although the street had changed completely the house was untouched and the exterior looked the same as the last time he had seen in 1889.
His already raised eyebrows rose further when he watched the front door open and a blonde haired woman step out. This blonde woman matched the portrait that he had seen of his former young master's mother exactly. It was one thing to meet a boy called Ciel that looked exactly like his former young master, but for the boy to have a mother that resembled his former master's mother was another thing.
What was going on?
As he pondered the answer to his question he strained his demon senses to hear their conversation.
"Ciel Phantomhive, why are you out so late?" the woman asked in an annoyed voice.
So he definitely had the same name as his former master... Sebastian thought to himself. Now he needed to learn why and how.
"Sorry Mum," Ciel apologised. "I had another headache so I went out for a walk to clear my head."
Her gaze softened. "Next time, tell me first or leave a note. There are weird people that roam the streets at night, looking for people to prey on."
"I know. I walked into one that was just randomly standing in the middle of the pavement. He asked me my name. Creep."
The boy turned around to look straight at the bush that Sebastian had hurriedly ducked behind and smirked.
"That's why you should not stay out late by yourself. Come in before you catch a cold," his mother said and Ciel followed her inside.
Once Ciel had said goodnight to his father who was in his study working on a new product for their company, he went upstairs to go to bed. Instead of going to sleep after he turned his light off he used his mobile phone to contact his best friend and partner in crime, Alois Trancy.
"Did he follow me?" he asked as soon as Alois had picked up his phone.
"He did. He was so intent on stalking you that he didn't notice that he was being followed himself. Nice joke about the creep, I don't think he appreciated it."
Ciel smirked. "He wasn't supposed to."
He gained a reply a few seconds later.
So the boy's name was indeed Ciel Phantomhive and his mother was the spitting image of Rachel Phantomhive. He had seen reincarnated souls before, but them to be in the same mother and son relationship as last time and keep the same names as their ancestors was positively eerie. He would certainly need to do some snooping around.
Sebastian paused and reconsidered. Getting involved with the boy in the 19th century had ended up as a curse so it might be better if he did not get involved at all. But he had already stalked the boy and the temptation of being able to actually taste that delicious soul was too much.
He used the night to weigh up the benefits against the probability of previous events repeating again and eventually decided on a plan of action. He would do some research into the Phantomhive family and then try to persuade the boy, or trick him into making a contract with him which was the option that was more likely to work considering this cautious day and age where children were warned about talking to strangers.
In any case he missed the days of being the perfect butler for the human Ciel Phantomhive. He had enjoyed teaching and teasing the boy and all his contracts afterwards had felt dull and grey in comparison- possibly because they had all wanted money and material items and nothing exciting like having to stop a train with his hand, had happened in 113 years until now.
He would have to get the new Ciel Phantomhive to make a contract with him.
I have to get the demon to make a contract with me, Ciel thought to himself the next morning as he jammed his unhealthy breakfast- a slice of chocolate cake, into his mouth and left his house for his morning walk to his private school was very close by. He did his tie as he walked down the road and chewed cake.
His phone vibrated as he walked. It was the signal from Alois to alert him to the fact that the demon was following him. Just to be sure he dug the phone out of his pocket to read the message.
As he did so he felt a pair of hands cover his eyes and a familiar voice sing, "Guess who?"
"Hmm, Alois," he guessed pulled the hands off and turned round to face his best friend.
The playful blonde laughed and linked their arms as they walked.
"Correct! Ciel Phantomhive is a genius. I, Alois Trancy is clearly a dumbass."
"That part is right," Ciel replied with a smile. "Come on, we will be late if we don't hurry up."
That was interesting, Sebastian thought from his discreet position behind a nearby tree. The Trancy brat had also been reincarnated in this timeline. Who would come next, Lady Elizabeth?
Besides that, seeing the spitting image of his former master dressed in his school uniform, black shorts, blazer, striped tie and waistcoat reminded him of the time they infiltrated Weston College. The uniform was eerily similar. Was that a coincidence as well?
The number of coincidences was rising since he had bumped into the boy. He was going to have to do some research.
Half an hour later Sebastian located the local library through an open window without attracting any attention to himself and quickly found the local history section, which was conveniently right at the back. He ran his fingers along the spines, looking for "Phantomhive". The closest thing he found was The Rise and Fall of Nobility. He scanned the index and found "Phantomhive, Earls".
For the first few pages there was nothing that he hadn't known already about his former master's family. Then he came to a photo of the Ciel Phantomhive II and a man looked exactly like Earl Vincent Phantomhive.
The caption read: the latest Earl Phantomhive and his son Ciel. The pair have a strong resemblance to some of their ancestors.
Is it reincarnation or just a strong resemblance, Sebastian wondered in his head.
His thoughts were interrupted by an extremely familiar and high pitched feminine voice that summoned up the image of a certain flamboyantly gay redhead.
"Remember to keep as quiet as possible- it's a library. You're here to finish your history projects so we can finally stop visiting here every lesson."
"Says you, who spends most of the lesson in the erotic literature section," Alois Trancy's voice retorted.
Sebastian peeked through the gap in the bookshelves to check that he was indeed hearing Grell Sutcliff and Alois Trancy.
A man with long red hair dressed in a blindingly red suit and had green eyes framed by red glasses was standing in front of a class of pupils dressed in black blazers. His eyes fixed on the back of a short pupil with blue grey hair standing next to a blonde. He was positive that it was Ciel Phantomhive.
Was it really another coincidence that a Grim Reaper was his history teacher?
There was definitely a number of coincidences that could not be explained as just being coincidences. After all, there is no such thing as a coincidence, there is only inevitability.
Sebastian made up his mind, he was going to investigate the reasons behind the presence of the Phantomhive family that looked exactly like their 19th Century counterparts, Alois Trancy's doppelganger and finally the appearance of a Grim Reaper.