Chapter Thirty Two: Remembrance

Note: I just wanted to take a moment to say OMFG this fic now has a word count of 100K and over thirty chapters long, and people are still engaged and enjoying it! I never thought I'd see the day something like this would happen. Thank you all so much! I hope the pacing hasn't been too painful. You're all so wonderful, and I feel so lucky!

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The dreary weather didn't improve during their trip back to the Office, no one present taking the fact that Nico was in Fortuna into account. It wasn't the first time that any of them had walked long distances, not by a long-shot. But the healthy downpour they were not being subjected to makes things somewhat miserable, at least for Dante and Trish. In all honesty, Vergil didn't mind the rain. Although he was far from the sort of person who would go stand outside in the rain, the eldest Son of Sparda found it somewhat refreshing to be soaked in cool water.

During his extended stay in the underworld, he had been unable to enjoy such a phenomenon, partially because demons were hunting him with the intent of murdering him for the crime of being born Sparda's eldest son, and because the rain in the underworld was astoundingly acidic. Taking cover during any storms was an essential part of not being melted, and hell help you if you were crazy enough to drink it.

It was funny how he had learned to take such simple things for granted during his time in the underworld. Although it was understandable when compared to the things that he had to grapple with during his time there, he still couldn't help but consider things like that when his mind was allowed to wander. At this point in his life, the Darkslayer had spent as much time in the underworld as he had in the mortal realm, and none of that time with his family. That fact was not lost on him, the duality somewhat jarring when he contemplated it. He was sure that he could do better, but actually doing so was shockingly difficult, at least when it came to figuring out where to start.

Vergil was certain that he needed a hobby, or he was going to go gradually insane from culture shock. He was making a valiant effort towards re-assimilating himself into human society, but there was only so much he could accomplish on his own when he'd never really considered himself a part of that society in the first place. Magnolia's family was the closest to a launching point that he could reference, but they were far from a normal human family themselves. Although mortal, calling them an average family would be akin to calling his prior relationships with other people healthy and well adjusted, and Vergil didn't like to consider himself a liar. For now, he was content with the concept of trying to find something less toxic to occupy his time with until V was capable of traveling so that they could meet this order that Dante had mentioned before. And until such a time came to pass, he was going to keep the dagger with him. If any member of the cult were still alive, the last thing he was going to do was make things easier for them. If they wanted the knife, or either of his children, they were going to have to go through him.

Practically the instant that they arrived back at the office, Dante flopped down on the couch, eager to take a long overdue nap. Vergil wasn't entirely surprised, but wasn't exactly thrilled that his least favorite person was still hanging around. He'd come to terms with the fact that he was going to have to deal with her from here on out, but still had no idea how he was going to make himself do that. Hate wasn't exactly the proper word for how he felt towards her? Perhaps contempt. But he couldn't make himself associate his mother with hate, at least towards her, even if he did realize that Trish wasn't in fact his mother. That being said, he still felt the need to both be around her, and see her cease to exist.

What a headache this whole situation was for him.

Things would have been so much less painful and conflicting for him if he'd been done with his "relationship" with her back on Malet island. Up until recently when she'd ventured to the Qliphoth to do battle against him. And even then, he's tried to repurposed her rather than just kill her, be that a jab at his twin or an attempt to not have to kill her, even though he wasn't entirely sure. It was just something he'd decided to do at the time. Vergil cringed slightly at the thought of what he'd done. Sparing his opponent only to corrupt their physical form and force them to serve him as his unwilling servant. How very Mundus of him…

A part of him couldn't help but acknowledge that he'd done the very thing to her that he was angry at her for helping do to him, and even then, her master had done that, not her. No, Trish's only crime against him was serving the demon who had been responsible for basically every bad thing that he'd ever gone through, and looking too much like his deceased mother. Physically, she'd never done anything to him, but mentally, simply being around her took a certain mental toll on him. He pondered the concept of whether or not his younger twin had any idea what had transpired between them for a moment, somehow sure that it wouldn't change anything regardless. Dante took people as they were. It was simply how he wasn. How much trouble had that caused him over the years, especially after he'd died? It seemed that they had ended up in the same place, despite the fact that they fell on totally different ends of the same spectrum; two sides of the same coin. There was a certain ironic duality to their twinship that was both punishingly ironic, and painfully sad and, although Vergil was far from the hopeful sort, he couldn't help but imagine what it would be like for the both of them if that hadn't happened.

Were cursed bloodlines an actual thing? Because if so, their entire family seemed to have fallen victim to one. The devil slayer in blue didn't doubt for a second that Mundus would try and curse them all. He was astoundingly petty, almost to a comical degree. But nothing involving the former Prince of Darkness was exactly funny to him, aside from the idea of him actually being dead. He wasn't holding his breath in that regard, however. Mundus was… durable to say the least. But he hoped for the sake of Nero and V that he either was truly gone forever, or that he never found out about either of them. They didn't deserve to inherit that nightmare.

"Seriously, Vergil. Do you ever sleep? You've been awake for, what, like three days?" Dante said passively from the couch as he yawned, stretching as he settled into his couch. This was going to be a good nap. He could just tell. "Just… sit down and read a book or something. I don't know. Anything but pacing around, drivin' yourself crazy. You're pretty close already."

In all honesty, Vergil was tempted to laugh at that statement, even if only a little. How ironic that Dante thought that he was close to insanity. The eldest Son of Sparda was almost certain that he had reached that point a lifetime ago. At times, he was sure that the only thing holding him together was the refusal to die and give his enemies want they wanted, and various forms of pure spite. But at least now curiosity towards how his relationships with his two young sons would pan out was a factor, and a somewhat positive one at that. Vergil liked to think that things between them were improving since Nero hadn't tried to stab him that week, and V wasn't crawling out of his own skin in an attempt to get away from him. As far as he was concerned, that was progress. In what direction, he wasn't sure. But it was something, and he could work with that.

"Bold of you to assume I'm not already insane, Dante. And for your information, I'm not tired. Simply bored." Vergil huffed slightly, uncrossing his arms to gesture towards the rest of the room." You have nothing of interest to do in this office, and I'm tempted to go elsewhere if only to stave off my own mental decay."

Much to his surprise, Dante laughed at that statement. He failed to see what was so entertaining about that statement, but also realized that he wasn't eager to get into a fight over it at this point in town. He simply didn't care that much. His mind was elsewhere. Being laughed at was something he was used to. Most of Mundus's court had made doing so into a sort of sporting event, constantly looking down on him and taking any opportunity that they could to ridicule him and downplay any of his actions. He'd never actually cared about what they thought, more concerned with simply surviving his situation. But, at some point he'd come to the conclusion that he would get his revenge on them if he ever had the opportunity if only on principle. And he had done so in his role as the Usurper King, making quick work of the vast majority of them. The idea that the last thing many of them had even realized was that they were being slain by someone they thought so little of was almost enough to make him smile. Almost.

"I fail to see what you find so entertaining about this." Vergil said, venturing over to Dante's desk to see if he had anything new to read. He knew that he didn't, but searching fruitlessly was still something to do. And at this point, he didn't care to care.

The youngest Son of Sparda shook his head, his eyes now closed. He could just tell that Vergil was bored out of his mind, and that was the funniest thing he'd seen in a long time. Vergil was just so dramatic about it, and he always had been. Some things never changed it seemed, and something about that was reassuring to him. He never liked to believe that his brother had been completely consumed by his negative experiences in life, and seeing even the smallest bits and pieces of who he had once been poke through the surface put him in a good move. At times, he missed who his twin had once been so much that it physically hurt him, but the small things like this conversation bought him some measure of peace. He cherished that.

"It's funny because you used to have hobbies, but now you're just boring, Vergil." Dante said, trying not to burst into hysterical laughter." Like, you used to read books, and listen to music, bail on our plans to go do who knows what, and do stuff, but now you don't even think about the fact that you can just go somewhere else and do, well, literally anything else. When did that happen?"

Out of reflex, Vergil opened his mouth to retort and raised his hand to do… something, but then his brain ceased to function, and he lowered his arm again, taking in the truth behind his twin's words. Dante was… right? When and how had this happened? Had his actions leading up to this point truly robbed him of all of his individual pursuits and interests to the point where all he could do was sit in this office and be bored until something worth wild occurred and stole his boredom from him? No, that simply couldn't be. The child he'd once been would probably weep openly at how stationery and indevorless he'd become. There was simply no way that he was going to sit in this office and do nothing until death came for him, or he took his own life from a lack of mental stimulation. No, he was going to get a hobby, and there was nothing that his twin and his lackluster personal life could do to stop him. The town they lived in was large and populous. There had to be something entertaining to do in this hellhole. After all, there was no way he was going to figure out how the TV worked and pick a favorite show or something. Never.

"Foolishness, Dante. There has to be a museum or library around here somewhere, and when I find out where, I'm going to do… something." Vergil said, not entirely sure what he intended to convey in that statement. This was what he got for trying to explain himself to his younger twin brother. His goals were beyond his understanding.

Dante shrugged, gesturing towards the phone and then to the door. "Sure thing, brother. While you're at it, why don't you take Nero with you? Fortuna is a pretty boring place. Almost as boring as you are. Probably how you ended up there in the first place. Anyway, he's probably into that kinda stuff, too. Might actually make things fun if he tags along."

Vergil gave his brother a sideways look, unsure of what to say. The temptation to impale him was strong, but he enjoyed sitting on that couch, and didn't feel like cleaning it. It was difficult to remove blood stains from leather, and there was no way that Dante was going to do so himself. As from what he could tell, his twin couldn't exactly afford to replace it. Then again, he could afford to keep mocking him if he wanted to live, either. Cause and causality. Nothing more, nothing less. That being said, he was tempted to do just that. In spite of his brother's backhanded suggestion and the implications behind it, spending some meaningful time alone with Nero didn't seem like a bad idea. Perhaps calling him and inviting him out for the remainder of the day would help them get along better? Either way, he wasn't going to tell Dante what he planned to do. There was no way he could allow him to experience that level of satisfaction.

With a sideways glance and a few muttered curses in barely perceivable English, Vergil left the building, nearly breaking the door handle as he attempted to force the door to slam shut in spite of the fact that it possessed an anti-slam mechanism. It bent to his will, but the odds of it actually working correctly after that were few and far between. Was it time to purchase another door already?

Stifling a giggle, Trish ascended the stairs to join Dante. She'd been watching their exchange from the balcony above the main office, entirely sure that Vergil had no idea how badly he'd just been played. It seems that Dante's reverse psychology knew no bounds. While it was rare that he ever got to pull a stunt like that, Trish had seen him do so before on one occasion or another, and it was never any less funny. No one ever seemed to consider that Dante was capable of that level of sly bastardy, and it was highly entertaining to see someone as intelligent as Vergil fall for such a blatant case of backwards manipulation.

"Dante, you know he's going to kill you when he realizes that you did that, right?" Trish said with a small laugh as she headed down the stairs. She shook her head softly and plopped down on the arm of the couch, wondering how long it would take before she walked in on her longtime friend being impaled on the end of Yamato's blade.

The devil slayer in red smirked for a moment, sitting up and heading over towards the desk. Trish gave him a sideways look as he went. Wasn't he about to take a nap? "Wait a second, where are you going? I thought you were…"

A sudden wave of realization hit Trish as Dante kicked his feet up on the desk, grabbing a magazine. Dante truly was sneaker than she gave him credit for being, wasn't he?

"Oh, I'm not tired. Vergil just isn't in the habit of waking me up. That's more my kinda thing." He turned through the pages of the well used periodical, clearly disinterested." He really needs to get out more. And if he can't drive me nuts, what else is going to do around here? Learn how the TV works? That's not gonna happen."

He paused suddenly, bursting into hysterical laughter as he leaned forward, shaking his head and tossing the magazine to the side. Trish folded her arms and shook her head, somewhat amused by the very sight of Dante laughing so hard. It wasn't every day that something like that happened. "What's so funny, Dante?"

The legendary devil hunter leaned back in the chair, trying his hardest to stop laughing long enough to give her a suitable answer. How long had it been since he'd laughed like that? Too long, that was for sure. "Oh, it's just that… Vergil is so bad at using modern stuff. He has no idea how the TV works! Took him like ten minutes to figure out how to unplug it!" The laughter that he's been holding at bay broke through the cracks in his demeanor, flooding the room as he tried uselessly to stop cracking up again as he realized that Trish didn't get it." It's gonna be hilarious when he finally finds out about the internet! He probably has no idea how headphones even work! The most modern thing he's probably touched since he's been back is the jukebox!"

Moments later, the hilarity of that statement kicked in and Trish giggled to herself, gradually graduating into full laughter as she began to fully comprehend and picture how funny that was. What a tragedy! Yes, the internet had been invented long before Vergil had gone to the underworld, but that still didn't mean he knew what it was! His working age was so much older than his physical age. Holy hell!

As the two of them continued to laugh at how thoroughly insane and sadly unbelievable that was, the sound of the phone ringing filled the room and interrupted them. Trish shook her head, clearing her throat slightly and she choked back another laugh. Dante, however, was not so lucky. He had fallen into a full on laughing fit, and there was no hope of saving him. She took the phone off of the receiver, shushing him uselessly.

"Devil May Cry. How can we..." She trailed off slightly, the laughter stopping. She tapped Dante on the shoulder, a more serious look on her face. The youngest Son of Sparda took a few deep breaths and shook off the remainder of his laughter, studying the troubled look on Trish's face. "What is it?"

The blond demon hunter glanced over at him before thanking the person she was talking to and hanging up the phone. She then turned to Dante, sighing slightly. "It's Morrison. He had a customer with the password. Looks like you have business to attend to tomorrow."

An incredulous look crossed Dante's face as he took in the implications of what she'd just said to him. A customer with the password? How long had it been since he'd had one of those? V had been the last person in over a year who'd even come close to pulling that card. What could this be about, and why now? As he sighed and reached for the phone, Dante shook his head slightly and furrowed his brow. One thing was for certain. Morrison was going to have his work cut out for him explaining this one.

He needed a pizza. Maybe even a strawberry sundae. This had been one hell of a week.

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In the ten years that I've been writing Devil May Cry fan fiction, this is the first time I've ever used the "customer with the password" thing. I have no idea how I've managed to wait this long, but here we are! Let the BS begin! Can't wait to see you all on Friday!