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The Trip :Kuroshitsuji: Pt. 20

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CHAPTER TWENTY

It was a stupid plan and Grell had known it before he pushed himself away from the ledge. If the rope had not broken before, why should it now? Still, he was out of options, and so found himself pushing and pulling against the wall a few times in an attempt to weaken the rope. If anything however, it just served to tighten it and eventually he just decided to jump. He held his breath and leaped as far out as he could, hoping that he might be able to catch it on a sharp rock or something. Instead, he felt the rough feeling of it constricting around his throat and he started to choke a little. Using what little strength he had left, he started to swing himself slightly from side to side, hoping he could cut the rope further up.

Suddenly, as if by some form of miracle, the rope broke and caused Grell to start falling towards the river below. As he landed in the water, he saw something glistening above him before a large saw fell from the sky and narrowly missed hitting him on the head.

Back on the ledge a bit further along, Eric gasped in relief, still with his arm outstretched from where he had at last managed to summon and throw his scythe. He could only hope that Grell had landed okay, as he could not see him any longer through the mist generated by the river. He slumped back against the cliff face and felt his heart start to slow down again. He had tried for a long time to summon his weapon and had become increasingly panicked that he wouldn’t make it in time. He just prayed that the person he had helped to save was not a decoy and really was Grell.

***

William felt his lungs fill with water as the thing above him kicked him forcefully in his already injured back. I guess this is it for me… he thought, resigning himself to his fate. Above him he could hear the once beautiful woman seem to whinny in glee before it dove into the water and wrapped itself around him, pulling him deeper still. William’s vision was staring to go black and he didn’t know whether it was due to passing out or merely the darkness of the water. Whichever it was, he knew he would not last much longer and seemed to feel himself start to float away from his body. I wonder if this is how people feel when we reap their souls… he pondered. Just a bit further and I’ll be amongst the stars…

With almost suddenly clarity, William realised that he was not having an out of body experience, but that he actually was floating, and towards the surface at that. Before he could open his eyes, he felt the muggy warm air of the surface blowing on his skin and he realised that he had been saved… Somehow. He looked around him and saw a flash of red fly past and crash into the strange seaweed creature. “What…” William tried to speak but couldn’t get the words out and instead started to cough up some of the water from his lungs.

“WILL!” Grell cried, turning to face him briefly with tears in his eyes. “Thank goodness you’re alive!”

“Gre—” William coughed before trying to speak again. “S-Sutcliff… How, what…”

The red reaper was unable to respond before the slimy creature lunged at him again and he managed to deflect it using the saw he had picked up. Holding the scythe defensively, Grell was just about able to prevent the snapping jaws of the kelpie from coming into contact with his face. “Will, you need to run!” Grell screamed. He wasn’t sure how much strength he had left in him after everything that had happened

“L-Like hell I’m leaving without you,” William growled, managing to get some air back. Still heavily injured, he propped himself up on some rocks, slipping a little in the process and looked around for the chainsaw he had been carrying. After a few moments, he found it caught in some seaweed near the edge of the river. Without stopping to consider his options, the dark haired reaper lunged for it and managed to grab it before the force of the current pulled him away a little. “Sutcliff!” he yelled, raising the weapon above his head.

Pushing the creature away slightly, Grell turned and was delighted to see his precious scythe still in one piece. With all his strength, he managed to shove the creature just hard enough to gain enough time for William to throw the chainsaw over to him. Throwing the saw to one side, Grell managed to catch his scythe before turning to the monster in front of him. A grin formed on the crimson reaper’s face as he brought his weapon to life. “Now things get serious!” he exclaimed, almost a bit too happily.

Clinging to what he could, William watched from a bit further down as Grell swung his scythe towards the slimy creature, cutting into its neck and causing a thick, foul smelling black substance to spray from its wound. He was about to celebrate on Grell’s behalf when he remembered that the creature was made mostly of seaweed. Pushing himself back into the water, William made his way towards Eric’s discarded scythe, preparing himself for what was about to happen. No sooner had Grell started to cut away at the monster, than it extended its tendrils and tangled itself up in Grell’s chainsaw, preventing the blade from turning and taking him by surprise. As the creature started to pull Grell towards it, William lunged at the seaweed with the saw, cutting Grell and his scythe free.

“Will! You-”

“RUN!” William yelled, grabbing Grell by the hair and dragging him through the water. After taking a moment to right themselves, the two of them desperately tried to run through the river as fast as they could until they reached the relative safety of the bank. As soon as they got on land, the two of them ran faster than they thought physically possible until they were as far away from the river as they could handle before they collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

***

After taking some time to compose himself, Alan finally felt as though he had some of his strength back and once again made his way over to the pool of water in the middle of the cave on his hands and knees. Although he didn’t know how deep down he was, he figured that if he held his breath and just swam as fast as possible, he’s have more of a chance of surviving than staying here.

As he was readying himself to jump into the water, a webbed hand suddenly appeared above the surface before clinging onto the edge of the pool. Taken aback and somewhat horrified, Alan pulled back a little and stared at the strange creature that started to emerge. This was not the horse that had brought him here, but was instead some sort of vile, reptilian humanoid that looked vaguely turtle like. A pool of water rested upon its head, almost mimicking the one it was emerging from.

“It can’t be…” Alan muttered to himself.

The creature pulled itself into the cave and sat, staring at Alan for a moment before grinning and revealing a set of very large, very sharp teeth in its beak-like mouth. “Greetings, tainted one,” it cackled.

“T-Tainted…?” Alan stammered, remembering the strange spider-like creatures saying something similar before they threw him into a river.

“But of course,” the creature replied. “Why do you think you are alive? We have a proposition for you.”

Alan sat staring for a moment, trying to compose his thoughts before speaking. “What proposition could a kappa possibly ask me?” he asked, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

“Oh,” the creature said, somewhat amused. “Someone knows their Japanese youkai…”

“Almost everyone has heard of the kappa,” Alan responded. He was trying desperately to remember what he had heard about this strange creature so he could think of a way to escape. It was something about the pool of water on their heads…

“That is good to hear,” it said, sitting crossed legged at the edge of the pool and eyeing Alan carefully. “Allow me to present my proposition. I wish nothing more than to devour your flesh, however some of the others feel that this would be… a waste.”

Alan flinched a little at the suggestion of being eaten. He said nothing and waited for the kappa to continue.

“As you are aware, you are going to die soon,” it said. “Not from being here, but from… that,” it said, referencing Alan’s illness.

Alan nodded, unsure of where this was going.

“I am not sure of how much you are aware, but those who live here and take your form… They are not here of choice,” it said solemnly.

“I know nothing of who or what you are,” Alan said. “I merely wish to return home.”

“But what if I were to inform you that there were no home to return to?” the kappa said. “Do you not find it somewhat odd that your superiors would send you on this mission and then not realise you were missing? That they would not come to search for you?”

“Of course that is strange,” Alan agreed. “But one suspects that they are merely unable to find us in this godforsaken place.”

The kappa sighed, almost sadly and gestured to Alan to come over to the pool of water. Reluctantly, Alan made his way over and looked into the pool. An image started to form on the water’s surface. In it, he saw some of his superiors together, laughing and drinking wine. “They are celebrating your disappearance,” the kappa said matter-of-factly. “When reapers get too curious; too ill, they dispose of them.”

“Y-You’re lying…” Alan said, trying to look away from the pool but finding himself unable to do so.

“Believe that if you will, but think about it,” the kappa said. “You are dying, you’re useless to them. The increase in souls, the fact that all of you just happened to crash at the same time… something isn’t right.”

“B-But we volunteered to go on this trip…” Alan said. “They couldn’t have planned it.”

“You just made it easier for them,” the kappa replied. “They would have found a way to get you to go no matter what.”

“But why—”

“The one way to cure your illness is rumoured to be souls is it not? Why risk one of your team members killing innocent humans for a cure that might not even exist? You all had the potential for corruption and that was something they couldn’t risk.”

“That’s ridiculous, there’s no way they’d do all this just for something that might happen,” Alan said, starting to feel a bit frustrated.

“But of course there is more to it than just that,” the kappa continued. “The red one’s adoration for a demon, for one… and all that involvement with the Queen’s Watchdog…”

“That’s still not enough. You’re lying to me,” Alan said, tearing his eyes away from the celebratory scene in the water in front of him.

“At least listen to my proposition,” the kappa said, folding its arms.

Alan turned to face the creature and reluctantly nodded; there was no way he was escaping this without hearing it.

“We propose… That we let you escape. However only the others escape – you must stay here and allow one of us to masquerade as you.”

“What! Don’t be ridiculous!” Alan yelled.

The kappa held up a scaly hand to silence him. “By staying here, you are cured,” the kappa continued. “Notice how your chest no longer pains you and how your wounds are healed. You can live forever as one of us and we will no longer play tricks on your mind. All we ask in return is that you give one of us the chance to re-enter the human world.”

“Why… Why would I allow one of you to do that?” Alan cried. “Besides, it’s not worth living if I can’t be with my friends; I’d rather die than stay here alone!”

The kappa sighed and shook his head. “I told them you would refuse… I wish I could tell you more about their reasoning and why they so desperately wish to enter the human world but I cannot. It is part of the rules that I can’t discuss what happened with the groups that enter, just in case they do manage to escape. Not that anyone ever has.”

“I don’t fully know what you are talking about…” Alan said. “But your ‘proposition’… I refuse it!”


TO BE CONTINUED~
**Now updated to fix grammar and remove unnecessary author comments!**

I am (slowly) going through all the parts gradually to tidy them up and improve on all the older parts. I hope you can all enjoy it! :)


Part 1: clawdiuzz.deviantart.com/art/T…
Part 19: clawdiuzz.deviantart.com/art/T…

Part 21: clawdiuzz.deviantart.com/art/T…




OLD AUTHOR COMMENTS:

Thanks to anyone still reading this! Sorry it's so short and kinda boring after a whole year... I just feel like I've lost all creativity since start work... It's soul crushing ;__;


I'll try to finish this eventually... I know I keep saying that but I really will! (If I can figure out where to go with it, I've kind of written myself into a corner haha)

Anyway thank you everyone who waited and cared enough to read <3




SO… GUESS WHAT’S BACK AGAIN? THAT’S RIGHT, THIS STORY! IT’S BEEN OVER A YEAR AND I DON’T KNOW IF PEOPLE ARE EVEN STILL INTERESTED, BUT I AM SO… YAY I GUESS. FOR THOSE WHO ARE STILL INTERESTED AND EVEN THOSE WHO AREN’T…. HERE IS THE TRIP PART 20!


THIS FEELS KIND OF SHORT AND WEIRDLY LAME TO ME BUT I HAVEN'T WRTTEN STUFF FOR AGES SO... I DUNNO. I REALLY WANT TO JUST FINISH THIS EVENTUALLY BECAUSE I KNOW HOW ANNOYING IT IS WHEN THINGS DON'T UPDATE FOREVER. I'LL FIGURE OUT HOW TO EVENTUALLY...
© 2016 - 2024 Clawdiuzz
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Winxhelina's avatar
I just got into it again when it ended. Well, you'll be lucky to know that this is the only Kuro fanfic I still read. It kind of felt strange to come back to these characters. I think you're writing is still good. It's just hard to get into things again after such a long time, but I'm impressed and glad you have not dropped this. I currently started a new fic too and I hope I can finish it. It see,ms like it might be a longer one.