The Queen's Blade: Lady Phantomhive

Chapter 7

~Capturing the Demon's Photo~

After they got back from Houndsworth, Aurora pays most of her attention on Pluto, much to a certain demon's annoyance. The demon hound doesn't seem to listen to anyone but her, in some occasions, Pluto does listen to Sebastian, but he wouldn't stay obedient to him for over 5 minutes...

Ciel summons the servants; Baldroy, Finny and Mey-rin to his office. They were rather nervous and thought that they were going to get fired, but instead, Ciel gives them a task.

"This is a camera said to have been famous in the Talbot's collection." Ciel takes out an old camera and shows it to the servants. "it's got a story to it. It was missing for some time, but I heard it was coming up at auction and went to great pains to get it." He says

"Talbot...?"

Tanaka appears and explains. "William Henry Fox Talbot. He was an English scientist and one of the inventors of photographic technology. There were queer rumors about the last camera he used. Legend has it that when you photograph someone with this camera, whomever he think of most fondly will appear in the picture... maybe."

"Whomever he thinks of most fondly?!" Mey-rin exclaims in excitement

"Can such a clever camera really exist?" Baldroy questions

"Shall we take a shot to test it out?" Ciel suggest behind the camera.

Finny look towards Ciel

"Don't move. Exposure takes ten seconds." Ciel orders, taking the camera lid. Finny stands still.

"what's 'exposure'?" Mey-rin questions

"To put it plainly, it's copying an image of Finny." Baldroy explains to her

"If you don't stay still for ten seconds, the image will blue and we won't get a good picture." Ciel says as Finny was having trouble with staying still. "....8, 9, 10... done." Ciel pops the camera lid back on and Finny was finally able to move and breathe. "It would have been alright to breathe." Ciel tells him

They then move to process the photo and a little bird was present in the photo.

"Wow! It's my little birdie!" Finny exclaims

"huh? you have a birdie?" Baldroy asks

"it's so cute!!" Mey-rin compliments

"I gave it food every day, and one say it started eating out of my hand! I was so happy I gave it a gentle pat, and.......... it stopped moving." Finny sulks

"y-you mean...?"

Tanaka then pops up again. "Ah, I forgot. The only loved ones that the camera will show are otherworldly beings... in other words, they dead."

"th-the dead..!?" "y-you mean...!?"

"The photo contains the otherworldly being you remember most fondly: in other words, someone dead." Ciel explains to them with an amused smile.

Mey-rin and Baldroy screams in fear and excitement.

"Like anyone would believe such an occult story in the 19th century!" Baldroy says, nervously

"Amazing, yes! what an outstanding camera!" Mey-rin exclaims

Finny on the other hand was crying in a corner, remembering about the sweet little bird he had killed...

"Take a picture of Sebastian with this camera. But don't let him notice." Ciel tells them

"eh? so you mean, like a candid photo?" Baldroy asks