Chapter Thirty Five: Admissions
Note: Vergil's EX taunt is the only thing keeping me alive right now. I'm so sleepy lol please help me! This chapter is going up four hours earlier than normal because I need a NAP! Sorry for any errors. I'll double check everything as soon as I get a chance.
(-~-)
Sunday, August 25th, 1:00 amWith a thundering crash, the oversized demon toppled over like a broken tree, taking the lower portion of the old warehouse with it. It hissed it's final breath, melting into a gooey puddle of broken glass and blood, no longer a threat to anyone in the general area. Alas, there was no time to celebrate their hard earned victory, as their defeated foe was far from the only Empusa Queen walking the streets of Capulet City.
In principal, the request had been relatively straightforward. Meet with Morrison, find out what the customer wanted them to do, and then receive their well earned payment. The only issue was that the execution proved to be less straightforward. For reasons that were totally beyond them, the assailant that had brought to beir the disaster they currently found themselves in the middle of had been extraordinary difficult to track down, the two of them still not entirely sure where their opponent was, what they looked like, or why they were up to basically anything that they were embroiled in. All they knew was that nearly half of the city had ran for the hills the second several dozen large demons had started marching up the streets with a thirst for blood and a need to kill.
This was a fact that Vergil in particular found incredibly annoying, not at all pleased to be so out of the loop when it came to such critical information. This entire situation could be over and done with within an instant if the eldest Son of Sparda Simply knew where to point his beloved blade, and the fact that they didn't even know what kind of being they were up against didn't help in the slightest. With a discontent sigh, Vergil directed his ire towards the nearest unfortunate Demon. If only the useless things were capable of telling them who had been insane enough to unleash them and where the portal or gateway was located.
"Look, I'm telling ya we should just call them." Dante said as he kicked the demon he'd just impaled off of the other end of his blade, knocking it backwards towards his twin. The devil slayer in blue shot him an irritated look, cleaving the half dead demon in half before turning his attention back towards the queen he'd targeted. Dante shot the creature in the back, causing it to turn it's attention away from the hapless pedestrians and towards them in a move that probably negated the element of surprise that Vergil had hoped to start the fight with. Or it would have if he'd teleported towards it even a millisecond later as he collided with the snarling beast, cutting clear through it. He landed a moment later, sheathing his blade and turning his attention back towards his younger twin, showing no concern towards this opponent who was too slow to realize that it was already dead standing.
A spray of viscera and blood soaked the ground as the second demon in less than half a minute met its end, the ringing click that signaled Yamato's return to its rightful resting place finally causing the creature to topple over and just miss flattening a nearby car. As police sirens sounded in the distance and what few citizens that remained fled in terror, Vergil shook his head, absentmindedly delivering his younger brother his answer. "No. Absolutely not."
Just then, a small swarm of smaller assorted Empusa came crashing through and over a nearby shop, sending shards of broken glass flying every which way as they hurried after a small, startled dog. The canine bolted into a nearby park, sufficiently losing them in the process as they lost sight of it, the crafty pooch scampering underneath a nearby truck with reckless abandon. Dante put away his blade and drew King Cerberus before charging up a powerful strike and drawing a line in blood through the crowd of demons, the ice spikes it created shredding the minor demons with minimal effort. Vergil spared Dante a brief look of disbelief before silently joining him in his attack. Despite the fact that his mind was elsewhere, destroying the demons was a no brainer, and there were few, if any times that Vergil would pass up an opportunity to strike down his enemies.
"You're no fun, ya know that, right?" Dante said with a shrug as one of the unlucky demons caught a mouthful of buckshot at point blank range, rendering it lifeless quicker than it could probably register." They aren't kids, brother. I'm pretty sure they can handle themselves in a fight. Or are you just scared they're gonna upstage you?"
A flurry of swipes and slashes ended in a devastating charge as Vergil made mincemeat out of four of the smaller demons, his attention turning towards the flying Empusa that accompanied them. As the small ugly creature attempted to charge up an attack, Vergil teleported towards it, ending it's pitiful existence in a single swipe. It perished with a loud screech, dissolving as it was carried away in a gust of chilly night air, it's green essence wasted on it's enemies as they had yet to be injured and required no mending.
"I'm just going to pretend that I didn't hear you say that." Vergil said in a flat, humorless tone as he and Dante finished off the remaining demons with a combined assault, the two both executing a charged attack to strike down their weaker foes before giving one another a perplexed look. Neither of them had been aiming to shred the hapless creatures with a combined Drive strike, but they had done so nonetheless. It was strange how they occasionally managed to mirror one another so seamlessly without any conscious effort to do so on their part. While it wasn't entirely unwelcome, neither of them truly knew what to think of it, either. Perhaps it was simply a result of them being twins. But there was no way of knowing for sure. Regardless, they both found it slightly unsettling how they consistently managed to read one another so well.
"Look, all I'm sayin' is that this whole city is gonna be up in flames by this time tomorrow, so it might be a good idea." Dante shrugged as he put away his weapon and started towards the end of the street. An explosion could be heard from around the corner, and the youngest of the Dark Knight Sparda's twin sons was almost certain that he would find more opponents to do battle with at its source." I'm the last person looking to take a smaller cut on this gig, but two cities in one year is a bit much, dontcha think?"
If it was possible for a look to kill someone, Vergil's icy glare would have done so. He followed Dante along at a distance, not quite searching for the same thing that his younger doppelganger was headed towards. There had to be some sort of pattern to this attack. Unless there were multiple breaches, then they had to be able to figure out the basic vicinity of the portal that these demons were coming from.
At this point, spite alone was enough to drive Vergil into searching every crevice of this wretched city for their unknown advisory. He'd agreed to tag along with Dante in the hopes that he might get to blow off some steam and try not to think about V's condition for a short while, only to be met by an insurmountable task the likes of which he accustomed to but no less annoyed by. What was it with this region and the constant demonic attacks. Fortuna, Enamel, Capulet, Redgrave… the list just went on and on for no foreseeable reason, and there was no discernable logic to it. All of the gates were closed, and the conduit that the cult had once gathered around seemed to have either been damaged in some way or destroyed since it no longer functioned. And yet, for as long as Vergil could remember it, this entire area had been plagued by demonic attacks. It was unusual for one municipality to have such a high concentration of demonic activity for such a prolonged length of time.
He furrowed his brow slightly as he wondered whether or not their father had settled in this region for this precise reason. After all, it would make perfect sense. A quiet pang of something he refused to acknowledge gripped him for a moment as he wondered if he would ever have the chance to ask their father something like that for himself. What would the legendary Dark Knight think of the things that the two of them had done in his absence? Would he feel pride and vindication, or profound disappointment. It had been so long since Vergil had spoken to him that he honestly wasn't sure what to think about that situation. That being said, despite a lifetime of searching for him, Vergil had never been able to find a concrete answer to his questions, and that was something that occasionally deprived him of a well earned nights rest. There was only so much that someone could take in a lifetime when it came to losses, and although logic dictated that he simply let the matter go and move on, the Darkslayer was confident that that was something he was incapable of doing. He'd never truly tried to, and he felt no desire to attempt to do so. Maybe at some point he'd simply have to face what could be the truth, He just hoped it wouldn't be anytime soon, and knew that this wasn't the time to dwell on such things. After all, he had a plan.
(-~-)
Saturday, August 24th, 11:00 pmAs the sun had fallen below the bridge of the horizon, it had become increasingly clear that Nero didn't actually have any immediate plans to head back to Fortuna that night. A quick call to Kyrie had insured that she wouldn't spend the night up worrying about what they might have gotten up to, and the youngest Descendant of the Sparda was safe to continue sitting in a dusty, chilly, townhouse that had been practically abandoned for the better part of two decades.
Nero only knew the sparse information that V had shared with him over the last few days as he'd prepared to leave, but he couldn't help but wonder what V was going to do there all alone with nothing to do but read and shiver due to the lack of heat. While the house was entirely structurally sound, and had an incredibly interesting look to it, that didn't change the fact that the power and other utilities wouldn't be on until around noon, and that it was freezing inside of basically every room in the house. V didn't really own that many items, so things were going to stay relatively chilly for the reminder of the night at the very least, and there was a part of Nero that wondered if V was going to freeze to death in the meantime.
"So how cold does it have to get in here before you start burning books?" Nero said, entirely joking but genuinely curious as to how V would react to that question. Although he was basically sure that his older sibling would probably sooner die than disrespect a work of literature in such a profound way, there was always the chance that even V had limits to his insanity. The question was did those limits actually make sense.
The part devil in question glanced over at him from his position on the floor nearest to the fireplace. There was no kindling of any kind present aside from the boxes nearest to them, most of which probably did actually contain books if their weight and V's track record was anything to go by. While he didn't seem surprised or unamused by the question, V did seem somewhat horrified. It seemed that ever though they were in a cold house in the dark, V was still in relatively high spirits.
"... I would sooner burn my own shirt." V said in a tone of voice so matter of fact and blunt that Nero couldn't help but laugh a little. There was no doubt about it. V was deadly serious when it came to his books, but this was a whole new level of insanity.
"But V, if it's that could, wouldn't you be better off just keeping the shirt on and burning the books?" Nero gave him a curious look, clearing his throat slightly as he shifted in his spot on the floor slightly. He felt the draft blow in a little, and was certain that leaving a few of the windows open to allow air to come in over night was going to be the death of them. It was truly very chilly outside, all jokes aside.
Stretching slightly, V nodded diligently." Yes, it would be. I would be lying if I said it wasn't. But on this one specific occasion, I choose to be illogical. For what is the point of victory if a man loses his own soul?" He paused for a moment, seemingly thinking. After a moment of thoughtful silence, he glanced back over at Nero, opting to stand up and make his way over to one of the nearby boxes." A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent"
Nero nodded to himself, noticing that V had once again quoted that book that he carried around with him everywhere. It was strange, but this time, he actually understood the context of V's words, and he couldn't help but find that slightly fascinating. It was rare that he understood what his older brother was going on about, but despite the fact that he didn't share the same devotion to the literary arts that V did, he understood the sentiment that he was trying to convey, even if it was purposefully dramatic purely for the hell of it.
"So… what are you going to do with this place? I mean, you just moved in, but you don't really have anything to put in it." Nero gestured towards the vast nothingness around them, noting that there were only a few pieces of furniture scattered about the place. All of them were covered in a tarp or something akin to it, and they seemed to be protecting the tattered remains of whatever furniture remained in the house after it's former residents had vacated the area." What's the plan? I mean, whatever it is, it's gotta be better than whatever Dante has been up to all this time. I'm still shocked that he keeps the power on half of the time."
A soft smirk crossed V's face as he considered that for a moment. It was somewhat insane that their uncle had managed to keep the office open considering how chaotic his payment schedule was and how often he tended to get himself into either deeper debt or dicey situations. V had overheard Lady and Trish talking about how the devil hunter in red had been forced to replace the front door and jukebox on numerous occasions due to accidents, attacks, and simply bad judgement in the face of all perceivable common sense. He had to admit that not being able to keep the front door on your own office had to be the mark of an insane person, but it was too early for him to be able to say that. After all, he hadn't been in his new home a single day yet.
"Making sure I actually own furniture has never been one of my strong suits. I don't tend to stay in one place for very long, so I've never actually needed it." V opened the box nearest to him as he spoke, digging around in it's contents as he continued to speak to Nero." Thankfully, I do have something set aside for this kind of situation. Financially I mean. I really don't own much of anything. That must seem strange."
The younger of the two shrugged nebulously as V attempted to make himself comfortable on the plastic covered sofa after producing a familiar blanket from the box. Nero shook his head as he realized where V had gotten that from, not at all surprised that Kyrie was simply incapable of allowing V to leave without at least one parting gift. It was just who she was. When she cared about something or someone she needed to make sure that they knew that and that they were safe. Since she wasn't a fighter, she did little things like make someone a blanket to show her appreciation.
"It's not that weird, V. And why am I not surprised that she gave you that blanket." Nero said with a small laugh." That's basically been yours since you showed up. What did you used to do before we met you? I can't picture you with a normal job."
V nodded thoughtfully as he wrapped himself up in the blanked. Nero had no idea how right he was. The very first night that he'd spent in their home had been under this blanket. Kyrie had gifted it to him in an attempt to make him more comfortable. And when he'd chosen to leave, she'd asked him to keep it as something to remember her by. Despite the fact that he'd gently reminded her that he wasn't moving very far away, and that he'd see her again very soon, she had insisted that he take her up on the offer. And he was smart enough to recognize when he'd lost a battle, much like he'd realized that he had nowhere to run to escape this conversation with Nero that he now found himself in. Sometimes it was best to simply tackle a problem head on. Metaphorically at least. V was positive that he's never physically tackled anything in his entire life.
"I suppose I should tell you, then. But only on the condition that you won't laugh. It's a bit fantastical."
