Micheal's POV
The beeping of the computers rang into my mind. I scowled at the screens in irritation as I rubbed my eyes tiredly. My fingers found their way to the keyboard and mouse but stopped when they realised they have treaded on something slimy. I grimaced in disgust when that slimy thing was just my drool. I quickly summoned a cloth to wipe it off and clean my hands before incinerating it.
"Master Evans." A dusty box shaped robot had appeared by my side as he held on to a dustpan and broom.
Created from unwanted human junk, Dice was named for his box shaped figure. Despite his humble origins, he was more advanced than those developed on Earth.
Layered with magical spells, Dice was a robot which can defend and attack using magic. There were many different robots that I had created which have different purposes and mindsets such as Dice which was an all-purpose robot. When he was created, he was intent on calling me 'Master Evans' which I recently given up stopping him from calling me that.
"What is it, Dice?"
"A letter has arrived. It's for you, Sir."
He courteously handed a carefully stamped letter to me before he sucked in the dust that clung to him and moved off to the next room to tend to the injured. Dice had managed to confirm that they were getting close to recovery but was unsure when they will wake up.
Against my better judgement, I had sent Omen to the Black Butler World despite our current state. There was no known record of a Guardian ever going on a one-person mission because Guardians always go in pairs. And they stick together for the whole of their Guardian journey unless something unfortunate pops up and separates the pair. Therefore, the decision to send her there had left me unsettled.
She was more inexperienced than me and the number of missions she had accomplished with me was meagre. As a matter of fact, our chemistry together has never been good since our partnership began after the death of my first partner, Kagura Lee. After the attack by Astorath, our relationship became slightly better since my attitude towards her wasn't as cold as before.
It's not her fault that I was cold towards her... it was something... something else.
Anyway, Dark Shadow and his Army has threatened the Library for a long time. Longer than any Guardian could imagine. Maybe somewhere around the time when the Creator and the first generation of Guardians were around. Yet, we were at a standstill, neither side gaining an advantage over the other.
Until now.
We never expected the attack so soon. Neither did we expect Astorath's betrayal nor even know his reasons behind it.
We only knew that Dark Shadow was hell-bent on crushing the Library, taking Imagination and destroying everything that we know. Yes, he wanted total annihilation. An erase of anything existing.
For what purpose?
Even I am not sure. I felt like the Elders knew something about it. Even Ravenna Cross, our Creator would definitely know about his reason. Yet, she never told me about it...
We needed information on Dark Shadow and his ever growing Army. Their threat against the Library was growing and everyone knew that War... was coming. We just don't know when. Hence, the Elders of the Library sent Guardians after him, hoping to scour any tiny bit of information that could prove useful for us. Yet, any team of Guardians who has encountered Dark Shadow and his Army have either gone missing or died with a maniacal smile on their face.
Even Kagura and I were no better.
Yet, I was the only one who survived. She was the one who died.
I was the only one who brought back information on his retainers, people who were willing to support his ideals or had deals with him that promised their allegiance to him, at the expense of her life. I sighed regretfully at this glaring fact. Even now, I felt that this life of mine and the information on his retainers were not worth it to sacrifice her life.
I used a letter opener and tore opened the seal on the letter.
Dear Micheal,
I have read the request for assistance against Dark Shadow. I too have worries about his Army. Darkness has started to settle inside Wonderland and the Chains (monsters, in your terms) are starting to become more restless. There are more and more cases of Chains attacking the people.
And so we shall join forces with you. But under a few conditions condition.
1) You must earn the right to work with us.
2) Have Omen recover her memories.
I furrowed my eyebrows at this. It is actually a taboo to remember our past lives because those who recovered their memories had been known to go rogue and almost destroyed a World. Remembering past memories not only amplified the powers of a Guardian but also caused massive problems to the 'awakened' Guardian. Dark Shadow was one of them, and he is about to destroy everything.
Mike, you were once her friend in your previous lives. Don't deny the fact that you are an 'awakened' Guardian but did not go rogue.
My eyes darkened. So it seemed he had managed to get wind of me recovering my memories of my past human life. I have only told two people about this fact but Kagura telling him is a higher probability since she was a good friend of his.
So, you can prevent her from going rogue. In order to defeat Dark Shadow, your current abilities and Omen's are not enough. Only when the both of you gained powers that we can both acknowledge, can the both of you join us.
In order for the both of you to enter Wonderland to find us, you will need to pass the trial.
Find the 4 letters with symbols from the poker cards. Once you have located all the letters, you will be able to gain entrance into Wonderland. But beware, there will be a hidden trial in Wonderland for the both of you.
To help you guys a bit, I have managed to disclose one of the letters with this. And if you want any more information about Wonderland, I am very sure that the children's book, "Alice in Wonderland" would no doubt ring a bell.
I look forward to seeing you and your new partner, Omen.
Good luck and Godspeed!
Xerxes Break
Despite the simplicity of the trial, it wasn't as easy as it had looked like. Most likely those letters have something in them. Like a test.
And why would this guy want Omen to recover her memories? I wouldn't want her... to know about her past life. Or about me, the past me. If there was one thing I learnt from my interactions with Xerxes, it was the fact that this old man is a sly old fox. He never made things easy even though I am Kagura's partner.
As I tried to finger around the letter for another one but there wasn't another one. I felt a bad premonition about it.
"Dice, are there any other letters apart from this one?"
He popped his head in.
"No, Master Evans."
I frowned. "Where was the letter's previous stop?"
"If I am not wrong, it was in the world of the anime, Black Butler. Is something wrong, Sir?"
I internally grumbled. I should have known something like that would happen.
"No, I'm going out for a bit, Dice. Please help me get my cloak."
I typed in a few commands into my computer, setting the coordinates before activating the portal. I had my room was conveniently reconstructed a few rooms away from the portal room. Since the Library was close to shambles, I did a bit of restructuring with the rooms for ease of travel. Hence I was able to easily access into the portal room and activate the portal. Inside the portal room, there was a deep drop into the abyss if the portal was not activated.
There were 2 types of portal transport; one was the deep drop and the other was immediate materialisation.
The deep drop portal was easier than immediate materialisation to drop the Guardians to their wanted coordinates accurately.
Immediate materialisation, on the other hand, was created for the newbies or Guardians when they have a phobia of heights and problems of motion sickness.
Wordlessly, Dice passed me my Guardian cloak and watched me stood before the portal. However, he stopped me before I could jump into the portal. I glanced at him, puzzled until he passed me a mechanical egg.
"I remembered you mentioned that you wanted to pass this to Omen to get her own robot or familiar."
I blinked in surprised.
"Well then, good luck in retrieving the letter, Master Mike." Dice stood back, allowing me access to jump into the portal. I send him a look of gratefulness before taking a step forward.
It was a heart dropping plunge before I felt the coolness of the portal.
If you are asking me how it feels like, it would just be like falling into, and getting stuck in some cool fluid like water, except that it is breathable.
[Destination: Black Butler]
[Traveller: Micheal Jonathan Evans]
[Identity: Guardian from Forest Library]
[Magic Restriction/Requirement: Grim Reaper]
[Confirmed?]
[Yes] or [No]
Grim Reaper? Well, I can live with that since I'm just retrieving a letter and dropping off an egg. I paused my finger over the [Yes] bar and pondered for a moment. And maybe a bit of explanation to Omen about the current situation. I nodded my head, seemingly satisfied at the tasks that I had to do before pushing the bar.
There was a flash of bright light as a small round mirror materialised in front of my face. Being a Grim Reaper in Black Butler requires you to have the trademark fluorescent green eyes as well as the noticeable short-sightedness, hence the appearance of a pair of green spectacles sitting snugly on my nose. Fortunately, that didn't matter to me since I have forest green eyes. My auburn hair had been swept back. My clothes have been changed into a black suit with a white shirt while the Guardian cloak turned into a scarf of splashing red and green, like some painter's hurriedly made artwork.
There was a 10 second countdown which I took the time to check my gear. Once it reached [0], the light faded away, throwing me into the unexpected darkness.
Blinking a few times to adjust, I noticed I was in the garden of the Phantomhive household. The sounds of a fountain spitting water was heard in the distance. It was then that I heard the clash of metal against metal and realised that a fight had started.
I ambled towards the source, guessing who the fighters might be. However, the scene baffled me.
A red haired woman in red armour was facing Omen, Ciel and Sebastian with her back facing me.
Before she could answered who she was, I hit the pressure point of the neck of the woman. Pausing her sentence halfway, she dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes before white light enveloped her back to a letter. There was a stamp on the letter in the shape of a spade.
She's the letter. I deadpanned at that thought.
"Mike?"