Ciel's Little Rendezvous

Honestly, I think it's pretty good.

It took a lot of work! I had to watch Battle of Miglance dozens of times.

The more I look at it, the more I'm impressed. It's spot-on, I'd say.

You make it sound as if you saw the Battle of Miglance with your own eyes, haha. Oh, silly me. You meant it's exactly like in the movie!

Hahaha! Well, actually... Ah, no matter.

By the way, Ciel could offer you some hints too... Hey, you okay, Ciel?

Something's odd...

Whoa! What was that? An earthquake?

Ciel! What are you up to this time?!

Hold on, it wasn't us... But there was a lot of noise coming from the mansion.

Oh no! We better check it out.

Something might have happened to Mom and Dad! Let's make sure they're okay!

What's going on? Why are there two Ciels!

Nothing will surprise me any more in this house. Is this another of your bizarre staged events?

No... And that ground tremor earlier makes me think it was THAT thing acting up...

Can you do something for me, Aldo? Talk to the other Ciel and try to find out who he is and what he's doing here.

Why me, though?

Please!

Hmm... He looks just like Ciel. I couldn't tell them apart.

Ah, so you don't know who I am. Okay, I've got it. Are you a shape-shifter? What are you trying to achieve here, pretending to be Ciel?

Ah, perfect. We were a bit worried about you two. This imposter has somehow got into your house. Do you know anything about this?

Not sure what you're talking about... I'm Ciel's father. And who might you be?

We've heard nothing but good things about you. Please make yourself at home.

What?!

Hmm... What striking similarity to that famous actor. The one you like, darling.

Oh, that's true! The same handsome eyes!

Hahaha, look at you flirting with your son's friend. You cougar, you!

What a silly insinuation, dear! I already found the most wonderful man in the world and married him! Haha!

I've heard that before...

No, I'm not from the choir...

Sorry for bothering you. I'll come back later...

Argh! I tried my best but it was too awkward! It's as if he didn't know me at all.

Thanks, Aldo. I've got it figured out, I think. It seems that...

Hello, Shannon!

Oh, I get it! It's another one of your pranks!

Shannon?

......

Haha, you read me like a book! That's right, this one's an android! Fooled you for a moment, didn't it!

Ahahaha! This android's so convincing! But it's just a machine. Aren't you, Android Ciel? Say hello to the real Ciel.

I had no idea!

You dummy... No matter. Just play along, Aldo. Shannon's onto something.

Right?! Well, I'm going to show it to everyone else as well. Follow me, Android Ciel!

Now I'd like to hear what you make of all this, Shannon.

......

I'm so confused. Not only does the other Ciel not know who I am, neither do your parents.

So you remember that. My suspicions were correct. You see...

There's something in this house connecting it to the past!

Why haven't I thought of that! So the other Ciel didn't recognize me because he's from the past. Obviously, his parents also didn't know me at that time.

Hold on. You're saying we've traveled to the past?!

Won't know for sure until we've had a look around, but I don't think we have.

That costume has been made only recently. Which means that it's still present time for us outside the mansion.

So it's an extremely localized time slip? That sounds highly unlikely, if you ask me.

The earth tremor and the sound of the explosion that we heard earlier might have something to do with this. I'd like to investigate the basement for clues. The only entrance is through the garden.

It's not really used any more, so I never showed you.

Okay, Shannon. I'll trust your instincts on this. Let's go to the basement together. But I have plenty of questions that I'd really like to hear your answers to later.

All right, to the garden we go! Let's find the basement entrance.

Found it! We can go down to the basement from here.

Grooowrgh!

What's that doing here?! Did the time slip incident trigger security countermeasures?

Say what?

......

Oh, I must have bonked my head during that explosion earlier. Never mind what I said!

Watch out! It's going to attack!

Phew. Now we should be able to go down to the basement.

Whoa!

This tremor is even worse than before!

Is it...over?

We better hurry!

I can make it on my own from here. Can you please go back to the house and see if everyone's all right?

Sure. That earthquake got me worried too.

Let's leave this to Shannon and head back!

Sure thing!

......

The damage is much worse than I thought. How do I fix it...

The dimensional irregularity correction circuit is overloaded, creating a time layer distortion! Is it absorbing timequake energy from somewhere? This system is too old to handle power load this high! I'll reroute it to the reserve circuit and run the auto-maintenance program on the main one!

It seems to be back in working order. The distortion affecting the mansion should be gone now.

All right then...

...Come out, Renri. I know you're there.

Why didn't you go back to the house with the others?

You obviously wanted to be rid of me, which rang my alarm bells.

I should've been more subtle, but things were getting out of control and I panicked.

What happens to people who get caught up in the time distortion when it's neutralized?

Everyone will be fine. The self-repair module scans for any spacetime abnormalities. If no warnings pop up, it reconnects the past to the correct timeline.

...Who are you, really? And what is this place? Why do you have a time-altering machine in the basement of your house?

This is why I didn't want you to see this. I knew you'd call all this into question.

Unfortunately... Your questions will remain unanswered. I'm sorry, Renri.

Excuse me? Do you intend to make enemies of the COA by refusing cooperation?

......

I'll take that as an affirmative answer. Do you understand the trouble you're getting yourself into?

All I have to say to you, Renri, is... Forget everything you've seen here today.

That's not a request I could possibly agree to!

Ah, you misunderstood me. That wasn't a request. For your own good, don't pry into our family's secrets.

If you do, I'll have to stop you. By any means.

Starting recording... Report number zero five.

I have discovered an underground time-altering facility, built for purposes unknown. I cannot exclude the possibility that it could be used to facilitate crimes. COA should take possession of the facility on the grounds of...

...I haven't collected sufficient evidence for COA to take action.

Delete recording. Start recording. The day was uneventful. Nothing to report.

I don't have anything solid that would justify a search warrant. Without proof of illegal activity, COA is not authorized to take special measures. The best course of action is to continue monitoring the family and expose their secrets.