A/N - Sorry for the delays everyone, been very busy with work! This chapter turned out a lot darker and weirder than I planned it to haha... The next one will be a lot lighter though, I promise!
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The sight that met Vergil as he turned the corner was unnerving, to say the least. Yet strangely enough, what bothered him most was not the fact that he was staring at a mirror image of himself, nor was it the fact that Lady, notorious for her combat abilities, had allowed herself to be trapped in such a manner. No, what was starting to cause his blood to boil and his body begin to glow with a powerful energy, was the fact that the demon, the thing using his face, had its lips firmly pressed against those of the woman it had pinned against the wall.
Vergil was momentarily frozen to the spot, trying to rationalise his thoughts before he charged forward, unsheathing Yamato as he did so and aiming its tip directly at the demon's unprotected rib cage. Within seconds however, the monster had turned to face him, holding Lady in front of him like a shield. Its right hand was wrapped around her neck, while it supported the rest of her weight by snaking its left arm around her waist, lifting her off the ground. Lady hung in the air limply, seemingly unconscious. Fortunately, Vergil managed to stop himself in time, albeit with millimetres to spare.
"How rude," the demon said in Vergil's voice. It sounded strange to the real Vergil's ears and made him feel uncomfortable. "Don't you know it's impolite to interrupt someone's meal?"
"Unhand the woman immediately," Vergil said coldly, trying to calm himself. It would be easy to devil trigger where he stood and end this now, but doing so would likely put Lady at risk, and Dante would kill him if he let anything happen to her. That and any moment now people could start to leave the restaurant, and he needed to draw as little attention as possible.
"We both know that's not going to happen," his doppleganger replied, starting to back up slightly. The door to the restaurant was to the demon's right now, and Vergil quickly glanced towards it, praying that no-one else would come outside. He hated how powerless he currently felt against such a low level demon, just because he had to worry about other people. This was why he preferred to work alone.
"Only cowards hide behind others," Vergil said, still not lowering his weapon.
"Only fools would sacrifice the lives of many to save just one," the demon retorted. He shook Lady slightly, her body flopping around like a ragdoll. "I'm surprised. You don't seem like the sort to be concerned about others."
"You assume I care about the woman's welfare," Vergil said, pointing his sword at Lady's chest. If he thrust forward now, he would impale the demons heart, killing it - he hoped - instantly. "Unfortunately, I promised my brother I would bring her back in one piece, and he doesn't take kindly to his belongings being broken." He watched Lady closely, waiting.
"Well that's a shame, because this pretty little thing belongs to me now," the demon replied, turning Lady's face towards his.
"Why are you using my image?" Vergil asked angrily, stepping forward. He hoped to distract the demon before it could sully Lady once more. The question worked and the demon looked at Vergil again, laughing.
"I was wondering when you would ask that," the demon chuckled, looking down Yamato's blade towards its increasingly uncomfortable wielder. Vergil stared back at the demon, indicating for it continue. "It's simple really," it said matter-of-factly. "I merely take the form of my target's ideal man."
The answer took Vergil by surprise and he jolted slightly, Yamato's tip wavering in the air. "What?" he asked dumbly, annoyed at himself for sounding so foolish.
"That's right, bet you weren't expecting that answer, were you?" the demon asked, grinning.
"You're lying..."
"You can't prove that."
"Nor can you," Vergil said, steadying his weapon again. He need to stop letting himself get so distracted this evening; it was uncharacteristic of him.
"You're right," the demon said nonchalantly. "I probably am lying, but you'll never know. Either way, it was worth telling you just to see the expression on that overly serious face of yours."
Vergil was about to argue further when he saw what he was looking for; Lady's eyebrows had started to twitch. He gave an almost imperceptible nod to her as she cracked open her right eye, before moving suddenly, stepping back further before rushing forward, driving the tip of Yamato in front of him.
At the last second, Lady kicked her aggressor in the shins with her heels, wiggling free and ducking down as Vergil drove his weapon into the demon's chest. The demon gasped as Vergil followed the motion through with the full force of his weight, causing his victim to stagger backwards, desperately clutching the cold blade that cut through it as though it were nothing. Much to Vergil's irritation, he had missed the heart, a blunder which he blamed on the alcohol still in his system. The demon felt a second wave of pain as Vergil teleported behind it, shoving the sharp tip of his sword into its spine before twisting it sharply. "Scum," Vergil growled into the copy of his left ear as he yanked the sword free, flicking the blood from the blade. There was a small flurry of blurs, almost invisible to the human eye, before the quiet click of Yamato being returned to its sheath rang through the demon's skull. Milliseconds later, a series of blue slashes surrounded the demon, before it fell to the floor in a bloodied mess. Prepared for it this time, Vergil summoned a circle of swords in the air, which impaled the fleshy creature that suddenly burst forth from the now discarded skin.
He stood over the quivering demon in front of him, which looked like some sort of overfed leech with a bulbous head, the size of a small dog. A large pair of gnashing jaws clicked at Vergil as it tried desperately to pull itself free. Unsheathing Yamato one more, Vergil raised it above his head, pointing its tip downwards in preparation for the final blow.
"P-Please!" the demon begged in a screeching high pitched voice. "Please spare me! I was just messing with you I swear! I-I'll do anything! I'll even bend to your will and serve you if I must! Just-" The demon's pleas were interrupted by a large bang as a small missile flew towards its body, exploding on impact. Vergil flinched away in disgust as small chunks of demon splattered all over him, painting him head to toe in dark red. He returned his sword to its scabbard and looked up to see Lady slumped over the Kalina Ann, using it as support while she tried to catch her breath. It seemed she had managed to retrieve her weapon while Vergil was distracted.
"No-one violates me and gets to live," she panted angrily, before collapsing. Vergil shot forward and caught her before she managed to hit the ground. She was out for good this time. He carefully laid her down next to her weapon before standing up and attempting to assess the damage.
For one thing, his brand new outfit was ruined. Slightly more disconcertingly, he now had a slowly dissolving copy of his own corpse blocking the entrance to the restaurant. His own blue eyes stared up at him in wide-eyed horror, fear forever etched into them as they started to cloud over. It was enough to make even Vergil feel perturbed. He took a moment to walk over to the large fountain at the front of the restaurant and washed his hands in it before splashing his face in an attempt to rid himself of some of the gore. The water turned a cloudy pink colour, but he paid it no mind and sat on the fountain's edge with his head in his hands, trying to process what had happened; it wasn't every day you stabbed yourself in the back.
"Monsieur," a voice said to his right. Vergil didn't look up. "Monsieur, I have sent the restaurant into lockdown so that no-one may leave."
So that was why no-one had come outside. So much for miracles. "Thank you," Vergil said, straightening up and turning to face the man beside him. It was the original waiter from before.
"We were prepared for something like this happening," the waiter said, sitting down and taking a small silver lighter and a pack of cigarettes out of his waistcoat. He offered one to Vergil who shook his head. "As soon as your friend left the restaurant, I sent out an announcement advising people that they couldn't leave due to an 'incident'." The waiter placed a cigarette in his mouth and tucked the small packet back into his pocket. "Fortunately we're always booked far in advance, so all we had to do to stop others from turning up was make a few phone calls."
"You seem oddly prepared for a civilian restaurant…" Vergil said hesitantly, waving a small cloud of smoke away as the waiter lit his cigarette. The previously nervous sounding man had taken on an entirely different demeanour now.
"Unfortunately this is not the first time we have had to deal with something like this," the waiter sighed, blowing out more smoke. "I knew the risks when I agreed to set up my business in this cursed city."
"I see…" Vergil said, looking over at what was now becoming a mushy pile of skin and bones wearing his clothes. Still the eyes seemed to stare into his soul somehow; the head had fallen to the side as it melted and it was now looking directly at him once more.
"I must say this is a new one, even for me," the waiter said, nodding towards the remnants of the demon. "Seems like you had a hard time."
"It was nothing," Vergil said dismissively. "Just a mere lesser demon; I'm fine."
"You don't sound fine," the waiter responded, looking Vergil up and down. "You're allowed to talk about it if you like."
Vergil looked at the waiter and scoffed. "No thank you. I don't need counselling from some waiter. Go back inside; I'll get this cleaned up and let you know when it's safe to come out again."
"It's fine, I can help," the man next to him said calmly, taking another drag from his cigarette. "As I said, I've dealt with incidents like this before, often on a much larger scale too."
Vergl continued to look at the man in confusion, not sure what to say. Although he didn't want to admit it, he would appreciate some help with clearing up the mess, if only so he could get Lady back to the shop a bit quicker before Dante accused him of anything untoward. "Why would you choose to run a business here?" Vergil asked at last, curiosity getting the better of him.
"It's a long story, you probably wouldn't be interested."
"All right," Vergil agreed, standing up. "Let's start-"
"My wife," the waiter said, continuing anyway.
Vergil hovered awkwardly before sighing and sitting down again.
"My wife, she loved this city," the waiter said sadly, staring off into the distance. "Marie, her name was. We moved here from France… Hmm, it must have been some twenty years ago now. We could never have children you see, and she wanted to travel the world." Vergil nodded, tapping his foot impatiently. He didn't want to listen to this man's life story, but on the other hand he had been quite helpful this evening, so he decided to give him just a moment more. The waiter noticed Vergil's restlessness and stood up, apologising. "Let us start the clean-up. I can talk while we work," he said.
"Very well…" Vergil agreed. The two of them walked over to the bubbling mass on the ground and the waiter indicated for Vergil to follow him inside the restaurant briefly. Once inside, the man made his way to a small cupboard behind the staircase, from which he retrieved some shovels and some very thick looking bin-liners. The waiter put on a pair of gloves and offered Vergil some, which he gratefully accepted. The two of them returned outside and sized up the job ahead of them. The first thing Vergil did was lift the creature's - his - head and throw it into one of the bags. He hadn't actually expected any cleanup as a result of this; the demons they killed usually just dissolved into nothingness and got re-absorbed into the ground. Vergil wondered if he could bribe the man before him into doing it all himself while he and Lady made their escape.
"So, as I was saying," the waiter continued, shovelling some of the mess into the bag next to him. "We came to England a long time ago. We had planned to travel more of the world, but for some reason Marie fell in love with this country and we ended up staying here. We travelled around a lot of this country, but when we came to this city, Marie turned to me and said 'Marcel this is it. This is where I want us to spend the rest of our lives'."
"What did she like so much about it?" Vergil asked.
"Now that, I'll never understand. I always told her there was something strange about this place but she refused to listen. Even when strange things started to appear around the city, she still wouldn't leave, until it was too late. For years we lived here, years. Always somehow managing to avoid whatever catastrophes plagued the area." Marcel had stopped shovelling now and was leaning on his spade, glaring angrily at the ground. "And then that tree came. That damn tree."
Vergil also paused, a sudden feeling of dread pooling in his stomach. "Perhaps we should focus on the matter at hand-"
"I told her to leave," Marcel continued, ignoring him. "But she refused. 'Everyone is looking at it', she said. I told her I would be leaving whether she came with me or not and we parted on angry words, not speaking again because we were both too stubborn to make the first move. Imagine then my regret, my unending guilt when I watched that thing on the news as it suddenly lashed out, killing thousands where they stood. I thought to myself that perhaps she was fine, maybe she had listened to my warnings." Marcel looked up at Vergil with tears in his eyes. "But then the camera changed and I saw her - 500 feet in the air, impaled on one of that damn thing's roots."
"I…" Vergil looked back at the waiter he now knew to be called Marcel and swallowed. Dante and the others had never let him forget the destruction he had caused atop the Qliphoth, but it has always been in generalised terms and although he had regretted his actions, he had never really thought too deeply about them, instead choosing to believe that it hadn't really been him that had killed all of those people. This was the first time he had actually spoken to someone who had been directly affected, and it felt deeply unpleasant.
"Do you know how hard it is to lose someone you love?" Marcel asked desperately. "I won't lie, I almost took my own life." Marcel flicked away his cigarette and lit another one. "But then, I realised that Marie would never want that. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought this - If everyone who lost a loved one killed themselves, the world would be empty, you understand?"
"Why are you telling me all of this?" Vergil asked at last.
"Hey, you wanted to know why I decided to open a restaurant here. Context is important."
"I would have accepted a short answer, or none at all," Vergil said, hoping the sadness in his voice didn't sound too obvious. This whole evening had been nothing but a guilt trip for him and he was starting to get sick of it. He looked over at Lady who was still passed out and cleared his throat. "Listen, I need to get my colleague back home. I don't think my brother would appreciate me just leaving her lying on the ground like that."
"I understand, I do," Marcel said, nodding. "I'm happy to take care of the rest of this for you, but I haven't finished my story yet."
"I'm sure I can guess the rest. You moved back here in her memory and opened a restaurant because it was something she had always wanted to do, right?" Vergil guessed dismissively. He just wanted this conversation to be over.
"Impressive…" Marcel admitted. "You are correct. However, this restaurant also operates as a base for demon hunters like yourself," he added. "Much like tonight, I have assisted many a hunter in the last couple of years since the tree fell. I feel it is the least I can do until I gather the strength and knowledge to confront the one who destroyed the only thing in my life that ever made me happy. I may never find the one responsible, but the day I do… One of us isn't coming out of the encounter alive."
"I admire your dedication," Vergil said, nodding. "Your quest for power is something I can relate to." If only the man before him knew the truth.
"One can never have enough power," Marcel nodded, wiping his tears away. "It's just important that one remembers not to let it corrupt them." He looked at Vergil and held his hand out in front of him. Vergil stared back in confusion for a second before Marcel grabbed Vergil's hand and pulled it towards him in a firm handshake. "I told you all of this because I hope that we can meet again, Mr Redgrave," Marcel said, grinning. "Now take your lady friend and go. I've got this."
"Marcel, this has been a very strange conversation," Vergil admitted, removing the gloves he was wearing and dropping them on the floor. "You are right, this has not been an easy night for me, but I'll be fine. May we meet again." With that, Vergil gave a small bow and walked over to Lady. He kicked her lightly with his foot and when she didn't respond, he bent to pick her up and slung her over his right shoulder, before resting the Kalina Ann over his left. He looked behind him at Marcel once more, who gave a small wave before getting back to shovelling.
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It was only as Vergil was approaching the car that he realised he didn't actually have any way of getting it back home if Lady remained unconscious. He was also surprised to see that the vehicle appeared to have been broken into, with the rear windscreen lying in shards all over the parking lot. After a moment however, he figured out that it must have been Lady while attempting to retrieve her weapons, as he still had the keys to the vehicle in his jacket pocket.
Vergil leaned the Kalina Ann against the car and pulled Lady forwards, standing her up in front of him. He winced a little as he realised that she too was now covered in blood, and that she probably wouldn't be too happy about that when she woke up. He slapped her face lightly, then a little harder in an attempt to rouse her, but she seemed to be out cold. Sighing in frustration, he slung her over his shoulder again before slashing Yamato through the air, opening up a portal to the shop; they would just have to come back for the car later. He picked up Lady's weapon and stepped through, oblivious to the waiter's quiet sobs in the distance.
