The Trip :Kuroshitsuji: Pt. 21

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Overhead, the sun continued to shine down fiercely upon Grell and William, who both lay on their backs in the woods, gasping for breath. Even though they should have been under the cover of trees, the forest seemed to have parted above them specifically to allow the burning rays to reach them. After a while, Grell turned to William and promptly burst out laughing.

“W-Will! What on earth do you look like right now!” Grell exclaimed, referring to the fact that William had his tie tied around his forehead and was somehow wearing Grell’s glasses despite replacing them with his own earlier. He suspected he may have lost his during the ordeal but his memory was too hazy to recall what happened directly.

“I hardly think such statements are appropriate in the current situation,” William grumbled, keeping his eyes closed. Although his tone was cold, William found himself unable to express the sheer relief and happiness that Grell was somehow okay and alive. “I would return these to you,” he said, pushing Grell’s glasses up the bridge of his nose, “but then I would be completely blind.”

“I don’t mind, they suit you~” Grell teased. Despite his cheery demeamor, he could feel himself starting to shake slightly as the adrenaline wore off, and he felt the urge to cry rising every second. Finally, William sat up and turned to look at Grell, now without glasses and with cuts over most of his body.

“Sutcliff…” William mumbled, trying to suppress the tears that threatened to flow.

“Will…” Grell said, lip trembling. With a sudden franticness that could only come from surviving certain death more than once, the two reapers hastily embraced for a few seconds before William pulled back and stood up, adjusting his glasses.

“Y-Yes, anyway…” the dark haired reaper stammered, looking away into the forest. The last thing he wanted was for Grell to see how embarrassed he looked. In any other situation he’d probably have punched the redhead by this point. “Do you still have your chainsaw?” he asked.

“I do,” Grell said, not bothering to hide the blush that had risen to his cheeks after finally being hugged by William. “Do you still have what I assume to be Eric’s saw?”

“Right here,” William replied, holding it up. Finally, he turned to face Grell again after composing himself and offered a hand to help him up. “Don’t get used to this physical contact, I’m only helping you out because we’re both heavily injured.”

“In denial as always, my dear Will,” Grell grinned, taking William’s hand and pulling himself to his feet.

“We need to find a way to get to Eric and Ronald,” William said, ignoring Grell’s previous statement and letting go of his hand immediately. “Eric is currently stuck on a ledge over the river with a heavily injured Ronald by his side. They desperately need some help, and preferably some rope or something.”

“And Alan?” Grell asked, concern in his voice. “Do we know where he is?”

William remained silent for a moment and seemed to be looking off into the distance. Eventually he just responded simply with “We have some ideas”.

***

Eric could feel himself growing somewhat dizzy from what he presumed was the heat and exhaustion. He also theorised that managing to summon his scythe and throwing it across the whole width of the river and then some probably hadn’t helped either. He wondered how long he should wait before he attempted to find his own way down; after all he currently had no idea if either Grell or William had made it and every second he waited here was more time for Alan to be injured.

As he was looking around for some sort of foot- and hand-holds, he suddenly felt Ronald twitching beside him. Hesitantly, he turned to look at the blond reaper, not sure of what to expect. To his surprise – or at least surprise compared to the horror that he was expecting – he saw Ronald looking at him through somewhat clouded eyes.

“E…ric…” he gurgled, blood pouring from his mouth with every syllable.

“Jesus man…” Eric muttered hastily moving to support his fallen comrade.

“It… Hu…”

“It’s okay, you don’t need to talk,” Eric said, helping Ronald into a sitting position. “Is this okay? Just give me a thumbs up or a thumbs down…”

The blond reaper looked dazed for a moment and then grinned up at him, revealing bloodied gums and heavily swollen lips. “I’m…ali-li-live!” he stuttered, causing himself to start coughing again.

“Ronald, don’t—”

“I’M ALIIIIVE!!” Ronald yelled, despite the pain that rippled through his body. As he started to regain his senses, he could feel his lifeless arm hanging at his side and suddenly got the urge to puke from the taste of all the blood. Yet still he continued to grin as tears formed in his eyes. “I…I did it!” he stammered before throwing up.

***

Down below, Ronald’s cry of victory reverberated from the cliffs and into the forest, where it reached William and Grell’s ears. Although they only caught a part of what was said, they both could not help smiling as they recognised the sound of Ronald’s voice.

“Thank the heavens,” William said, with an unmistakeable tone of hope in his voice. Perhaps things would work out after all – they just needed to find a way to get back together. “Sutcliff,” he said suddenly, addressing Grell more formally at last. “I just remembered something – do you have any of the rope left that was used to bind you?”

“I’m afraid I left it all behind when I fell into the river,” Grell answered sadly as he realised where this was going.

“Damn it…” William cursed. “Do you think we’d be able to make any from materials in the forest?”

“At such short notice I doubt it…” Grell answered, looking around. “Although…”

“Although?”

“Well, given that our clothes are already ruined, we could easily make some sort of rope from those—”

“Sutcliff, if you think I’m wandering around this hell hole naked with you, you can think again,” William said sternly.

“Will, just think about it! Not everything I say has to have perverted intentions! It could really help them out…”

William thought for a moment and then shook his head. “Impossible, we don’t have enough material to reach that far and then we’d be both clothesless and no better off. We’ll think of something else.”

Suddenly, a warm wind began to blow around them and the strange humming noise that they had come to associate with awful things started to sound. Just as William was about to complain, a whispery voice spoke to them. “You wish to help your friends, correct?” it asked, just barely audible.

“Who goes there?” William said, raising the saw in defence. Grell raised his chainsaw and stood back to back with William, preparing for the worst.

“We are everyone yet no-one…” the voice said. “But we’ll help you…for a price.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” William said, shutting down the mysterious voice immediately. “Anything involving sacrifices ends badly and I’m not dealing with this right now. Come on Grell, we’re leaving.”

“Wait…What?” the voice said, a little incredulous. “Won’t you at least hear us out?”

“No.” William said firmly. “I’ve dealt with shapeshifters, kelpies, demons and all sorts of evil beings. I do not have the tolerance for the ‘Spirit of the Forest’ or whatever you claim to be.”

“Wow William, that’s pretty…blunt,” Grell said, not really sure what to think. “Maybe they’re good?”

“I doubt it,” William said starting to continue forwards.

“Now, now, listen…” the voice whispered. “We can give you rope… All we need if the red one’s hair.”

“You’re right Will, pure evil,” Grell said, slinging his chainsaw over his shoulder. “Let’s get out of here.”

***

The kappa laughed at Alan who sat facing him with a determined expression on his face. “I knew you would refuse, I did tell them,” it cackled. “Oh well, no skin off my back… Guess we’ll just have to convince one of the others. Have fun dying a painful and slow death as you drown down here—”

“W-Wait!” Alan cried out, suddenly remembering something he had heard about kappa. “Maybe I have a proposition for you too…”

“Hmm? What could you possibly offer me?” it grinned, revealing its sharp teeth.

“A fight… I wish to fight you. If you win I’ll let one of you take my place,” Alan said nervously, standing up. He was pleased to see that he towered above the ugly creature despite his own small stature.

“A fight!” the kappa exclaimed, and started laughing, causing his fat belly to move up and down as he did so. “You of all people believe you could beat ME in a fight? Sure, I’ll take you on weakling,” the kappa said, standing up. “What kind of fighting method would you like to use? Other than running away crying of course.”

“Judo,” Alan said confidently.

“If you so wish,” the kappa nodded, preparing to move forwards.

“Wait!” Alan called out. “We need to do this properly,” he said. And with that, he bowed deeply to the kappa as one does before fighting. As Alan righted himself, the kappa watched in fascination before also bowing himself. As he did so however, the small pool of water on top of the creature’s head spilled over and became empty, freezing it in place.

“CURSES!” the kappa screamed. Alan could hear the murderous intent in its voice. “You little shit!” it exclaimed, suddenly breaking out in curses. Alan merely stood by and congratulated himself on reading so many folklore books when they had visited the Japan branch during the ‘Kira Case’ a few years ago.

“Take that, you little demon!” Alan yelled happily. “You can’t move now and there’s nothing you can do about it unless you agree to serve me for all eternity!”

The kappa started to laugh again, a low, guttural chuckle. “Only if you can refill my plate with water from the river I originate from, you weakling bastard,” it finally said. Alan could hear the grin forming on its lips. “Unfortunately you don’t know where that is. Here’s a hint – it’s not this one!”

Alan looked at the creature in silence for a moment before speaking. “Oh well, it matters not to me. The eternal servitude was only a bonus. I’m perfectly content to just leave you here and escape.”

“You’ll never make it. Do you have any idea how deep down you are here? The only reason you made it here was because of the kelpie. Otherwise you would have died long ago.”

“Well then I guess it’s just a risk I‘m going to have to take. It’s got to be better than just drowning here. Unless you know another way out?” Alan asked hopefully.

“Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you, reaper scum,” the kappa responded, still stuck in its bowing position. “I hope you die a miserable and painful death.”

“I already am…” Alan said forlornly while walking over to the pool in the middle of the cave. “Last chance to save yourself,” he said to the ugly creature.

“Fucking kill yourself,” it spat in return.

Alan was shocked at the foul language after it had been so polite previously. With nothing left to say, Alan took a deep breath and jumped into the cold murky water, unsure of where it would take him.

***

“Ronald, I appreciate that you’re happy to be alive but you need to rest…” Eric said concernedly. He was painfully aware of how much Ronald’s call had echoed around them and he was becoming increasingly worried that they would be attacked. The blond reaper just continued to smile and stare into the distance, looking at nothing I particular.

“I won…” he whispered happily. “I WON!!”

“Ronald! Please… we need to keep ourselves hidden until help gets here…”

Suddenly and quite creepily, Ronald turned his head to look Eric in the eyes and said, still grinning, “Help isn’t coming Eric. We need to help ourselves.” Ronald’s eyes stilll seemed clouded over somewhat and had an unearthly glowing quality to them. Eric found himself wondering, if only briefly, whether they had accidentally saved the clone instead of the real Ronald. His fears were soon put to rest however when Ronald puked again and appeared to pass out.

“R-Ronald…?”

“I’m fine…” the blond whispered. “Although maybe I should rest after all.”

“Perhaps you should…” Eric agreed. He wondered what Ronald had meant when he said that help wasn’t coming; could he sense something that Eric could not? Just as he was about to ask him, he suddenly heard a shout from above in a very familiar voice.

“Eric!”

“A-Alan?!” Eric cried, looking around for the source of the voice.

“I’m up here!” Alan cried from a few ledges above. “I…I got dragged to an underwater cave, or so I was told at least. I jumped into a pool of water in the middle and it took me to the middle of a cave just above here. I was going to start looking around for you when I was drawn here by the sound of Ronald’s voice! Is everyone okay??”

“Alan… I-I can’t believe it!” Eric yelled, starting to cry as he looked up at his friend. “What about you? Are you alright?!”

“Would you believe me if I said I was healed by a magical kelpie and then escaped by tricking a kappa?” Alan asked, laughing a little.

“In this place, I’ll believe anything,” Eric replied, standing up so he could look at Alan better. “Listen, Ronald is gravely injured, do you have any rope or anything?”

“That’s such a random question that I find it hard to believe that I actually have an answer – as a matter of fact I found some leftover rope in the cave I came from,” Alan said, indicating to some rope that he had slung across his shoulder. “I figured it might be useful for something…”

“Alan you are my hero right now…” Eric grinned. “Chuck one end of it down here and we can work on getting Ronald to safety.”

“Sure thing,” Alan said, throwing some rope down to the ledge where Eric and Ronald had been sheltering for the last few hours.
Eric turned to Ronald as he started to knot the rope. “Okay Ronald, this might hurt a little… a lot… But I need you to let me put some rope under your arms okay?”

The blond reaper suddenly turned to him and looked him dead in the eyes. “If you let Alan help us, we’ll die.”


TO BE CONTINUED~