Genuine Horror (part 1/2)
Here's something interesting. I was re-reading the Green Witch arc when on break and began to pay close attention when Sascha and Rudger appeared because, y'know, I don't only do shitty memes on this blog and I do not have any other hobby.
In case you don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge like I do about everything Kuro related, allow me to refresh your memory. O!Ciel and Sebastian have made the Panzer into an oven, and are now retreating to the train. The Reapers are discussing their identity:
The first thing one would notice is that Sebastian never spares the Reapers a second glance. While some speculate that Sebastian didn't notice them before o!Ciel, we know for a fact that that is not true. If that had been the case he would have shown some sort of shock or even some kind of reaction in his expressions. He knew full well that the Reapers were there, he just didn't pay attention to them because they were minding their own business.
The second thing one would notice is that Sebastian, instead of understanding that o!Ciel is seeing Reapers, asks his master what happened. This means that the Reapers should be invisible to our Ciel.
The third thing one would notice is that our Ciel only turns when his family name is spoken by the Reapers. He was perfectly able to hear or at least feel them say "Phantomhive", but it's unclear if he hears them and is trying to understand them, or if he can't hear them and trying to hear them. But just hearing "Phantomhive" is a rare feat on its own.
The fourth and damnest thing to notice would be the panel in which our Ciel realises the Reapers' presence. Look at the background. A white canvas with a spilt ink design. Anyone familiar with any manga (or even just with Kuroshitsuji) would be able to recognise that this type of background is unique to when a character feels mind-numbing horror.
Here are some more panels before I talk about everything at length:
Sebastian acts nonchalant in front of his master but it's made very clear to the audience that something has unnerved him. This makes it pretty clear that Sebastian heard the implication about our Ciel's lineage, and he doesn't know what to make of it.
May I remind you that this is the only time when o!Ciel was able to see Reapers when he shouldn't be able to? At every other time the Reapers were in his presence, it's always been clear that they were willingly showing themselves to him (and every other mortal). This is also the only time an obscured Reaper has said the name Phantomhive in o!Ciel's presence, most Reapers don't care about o!Ciel as a person so they don't bother with his name--one of the two only Reapers who are shown to be interested in him as a person is Sascha. The word "Phantomhive" somehow being some sort of trigger word would be the only explanation that could make sense, seeing as he wasn't able to use this ability before--even when he was fully aware of their existence.
"Phantomhive" being a trigger word would also make sense if we were to include some details from recent and old chapters. The first detail being this, which many people have already pointed out:
The same background again. He feels horror when the Phantomhive ring is placed upon his hand, but there is no logical explanation as to why he's feeling it. The worst (his brother's death and Sebastian's appearance) is already over, and he is shown to have come to terms with both events. Perhaps it's just all of these events really sinking into his psyche, but then this type of background wouldn't have been shown. (The spiralling background shown when r!Ciel is murdered would be more appropriate for that emotion and has already been used to convey it). No, o!Ciel, for whatever reason, felt genuine horror when this ring was placed upon his hand--the same horror he feels when he becomes aware of the Reapers' presence.
The second detail would be o!Ciel's little monologue in chapter two:
O!Ciel makes my job easier for me by just outright saying everything like the edgy little brat he is. Being a ring inherited by the head of the family and that head only being determined when the previous head is dead, this ring has witnessed quite a few deaths in its time--a count which will eventually include o!Ciel. While the fan base has accepted the "those screams" part of this speech is referring to real Ciel's final screams, that just doesn't make sense with what o!Ciel is trying to say here. He's trying to say that he can hear the screams of the dead souls, not just his brother's. He can literally hear the dead because he has inherited this ring, which already shows that the Phantomhive family ring--and, by proxy, the Phantomhive lineage--has a very intimate connection with death; a connection that is inherited much like the ring itself.
If we were to be really fancy and include clues in the anime, then we should look no further than the Frost Fair episode where it is outright said the Phantomhive ring contains a Hope Shard (a shard of the diamond known as the Hope diamond, a highly sought-after jewel that is said to lure its owners to a horrific death). It's just made so painfully clear that the Phantomhive ring is connected to death that I wish Yana would've spent less time on the ring and more time on the twins.
I wanna speak more about this monologue, speculate about how the Phantomhives could have gotten their hands on this ring, and try to list reasons why exactly he feels horror when sensing Reapers are close-by; but this is already getting long so I'll save that one for part 2. See y'all then.
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