Your Own Skin (Black Butler)

The Mocking Demon

It was never a good sign when any reaper of London Dispatch had to call in backup. They were all excellent fighters, even Ronald who hadn’t been out of Academy for as long as the others still had very high marks in combat. So when he had to call in assistance, William and Grell were quick to respond. Especially when they found out that demons were involved. What an understatement.

When they arrived the abandoned building, Ronald was trying to hold off all twelve of them. Apparently they had located him shortly after he sent off the pigeon to get help. His lawnmower deathscythe was quite good at keeping them back, but Ronald was young and he couldn’t hold up against such an onslaught for long. He had taken out three of the demons already, but the others were working together against him. The foolish ritualist was laughing in the corner, likely quite mad; he would have to be to summon so many demons without knowing what to do with them. It was just another mess that his dispatch would have to clean up.

“Grell,” he glanced to his red-haired companion. “Slice through them.”

She grinned at him with shark teeth and raised her deathscythe into the air with a deafening roar. It was a look that still made him nervous after sleeping with her for so many years. “Oh baby, I was hoping you would say that.”

Ronald used the distraction to bash one of the demon’s heads off. “It’s about time you two showed up! Here I thought you forgot about me.”

Grell rushed toward him and demons were darting for the rafters in shadowy streaks.

“Nonsense,” William said as he adjusted his spectacles. “Assistance is to arrive ten to fifteen minutes after a pigeon is sent. By my calculations, we arrived in eight.” He extended his scythe out to skewer one of the demons in the rafters, slicing through its cinematic record like tissue paper. “Unless you’re claiming my pigeons are slow.”

Ronald’s cocky grin cracked. “No, but I mean, I could’ve handled them on my own. I just thought Senpai would want-” He was cut short when he had to dodge away from three more demons that dropped down on him. Then a fourth one came behind him and kicked him in the back of the head. Grell gave out an animalistic growl and cut up the demon’s extended leg vertically, splitting it like a bloody log. The demon’s cinematic record emerged, but Grell was having too much fun turning the room into a bloodbath. Ronald fell to the ground unconscious.

William sighed. Ronald had been doing so well too. If he spent half as much time fighting as he did talking, he would have probably cut through all of the noxious beasts by now. He glanced up to the rafters to tear through a second demon, but spotted another shape lurking farther away. It was still unlike the others, and might actually have a bit of intelligence if it was keeping away from a trio of shinigami. “Keep an eye on him, Grell.”

She grinned back at him, her face drenched in demon blood. “I’m on it!”

He backed out of the building and stealthed before entering again, then made his way to the rafters. He crept cautiously along the wall, stepping along each piece of wood without making a sound. Here he could get a good look at the hulking demon. It was cloaked in shadow and crouched, its red eyes watching the battle below a bit too keenly for William’s taste. Those others must be its minions; this one was the real threat. He peered down at the ritualist who stood still laughing in the corner. It wasn’t even human, was it? This was some sort of set-up, a test concocted for this creature’s amusement. William narrowed his eyes then sent his deathscythe out to clasp around the demon’s throat. He let his stealth drop and stepped forward; the red eyes locked onto him.

“I assume you know it’s impossible to escape us.” The beast merely stared, and William wondered if perhaps it didn’t have the ability to speak. There were a few powerful demons like that, but they normally had little interest in visiting the human world. Unless there was some other purpose. “You are probably one of the more powerful demons in London at this point, and probably one of the least intelligent as well for daring to come here.”

The hulking form narrowed its eyes. Ah, so it could understand him then. Excellent. Striking their pride always seemed to elicit a reaction. He pulled out a scrolled up paper and held it up, allowing the paper to unroll before him.

“Do you see these names? These are human souls that have dropped off the map. Disappeared. I’m assuming your kind is responsible; more likely, you know who has done this. We want its name. Give that to us, and I’ll let you live tonight.” He allowed the blades of his deathscythe to tighten a miniscule amount so that they dug into the beast’s flesh, but not enough to draw blood. “Otherwise I’ll kill you and we’ll figure it out on our own. It really doesn’t matter to me.”

The demon stared at him, then shimmered as it gave a hoarse laugh.

William put the list away and adjusted his glasses. “You find this amusing? You find your own death amusing? I assure you it’s-”

Then the creature began to whisper words that William couldn’t identify, words that seemed to slither through the air like a smoke trail. He sighed, “Begging for your life won’t help. We are unaffected by your threats or attempts at pity.” The final word seemed to lodge itself in William’s ears, echoing over and over again as though he were trapped in a canyon. He shook his head, but when he looked over the world was still shaking. The demon was laughing again, it was above him this time and he saw the sharp-toothed grin and red eyes staring down at him. Then he slammed into the ground.