Chapter 9:


Mia's eyes opened to see a cloudy night sky. The hard stone surface where she lay felt cold to her skin.

"So you awoke?" A voice came from behind. She turned and saw Vergil, sitting on a large piece of stone that was part of the winding stairway of the fallen tower. They were back on solid ground. Everywhere near them was covered in ruins. They were in a courtyard of some sort within the castle. Unkempt hedges that grew wildly within the courtyard were plastered with all sorts of debris. Besides the particular area they were at, the castle still stood as majestically as ever. It appeared that the tower was the only part that was destroyed.

With her hands, Mia slapped her cheeks lightly to help clear her mind. She couldn't remember what happened after Vergil let go of both of them, though she recalled undoubtedly that something was strange with him. "Are you ok?" she asked Vergil. "What happened to your arm?"

"Are you worried about me?" Vergil smirked. He didn't think she noticed.

"You…you wish" Mia stammered. She crossed her arms and turned away, pretending to be angry.

Vergil saw her peek back at him but quickly looked away as soon as she realised he was looking at her as well. He could see that she was genuinely concerned about him. That wasn't what he wanted. Years ago, he had decided not to have connections with anyone except Dante. Every person he knew who was in some way associated with demons ends up suffering misfortune. None had happy endings. "Rather that worrying about me, I think you should worry about that first," he pointed at the broken bottle of Holy Water he placed next to him. Mia couldn't believe her eyes when she saw it. She dashed forward and picked it up.

"No this can't be," Mia despaired, shaking her head in disbelief. The side of the bottle was fractured. There was only half a bottle of the precious liquid left. She imagined it must have broken when they hit the ground. She couldn't save Rei with only half the amount.

Vergil stared at Mia, who was angry and on the verge of tears. He could easily tell she was blaming at herself for not able to protect the bottle. She was mad that their effort was wasted because of her. She wasn't the type of girl who cries once every so often, like Rei. He couldn't blame her. Snatching the broken bottle from her grasp, he poured the remaining contents on her.

Being unguarded, Mia was instantly wet from head to shoulder. As Vergil expected, she was quite angry. "What are you doing?" she glared at him, fuming.

"Haven't you figured out by now? It was you who were cursed, not Rei," Vergil said coolly. His expression remained unchanged.

"Me?" Mia asked. She shoved the anger aside for the moment and tried to work out what he was saying. "Why would that be? Why didn't it just directly curse Rei?" she asked, feeling a bit stupid to be asking such a question when she knew he would give her a good answer.

Vergil almost chuckled. Keeping a straight face, he continued. "That rat demon was trying to fool us. He knew you would think Rei is the one who was cursed. It was natural and sensible to do as you have said - to curse the intended target. But think about it, Raton's ultimate aim wasn't to kill your sister; it was for vengeance. It wanted to make us suffer because we managed to kill it. It wanted us to waste the Holy Water on Rei and then find out we've got it all wrong."

"That's so ridiculous and stupid. It knew it wouldn't be able to live pass the day to see the revenge take place, yet it still…" Mia trailed off, though impressed by his logical reasoning. It gave her the creeps what hatred could do to people. "Are you saying Rei wasn't cursed to begin with?"

Vergil shook his head. "No, I believe she was when we found her. Curses cast by demons usually dispels automatically when it is defeated. It was the precise moment before its death that it can cast a dying curse. It is rare for any curse demons to get the timing right, you can say we were unlucky."

Mia pondered on the reasoning. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

Vergil picked up a stone from the debris scattered all around the ground. "I thought you would've worked that out," he said. "By the way, we have a guest." While he spoke, he threw the stone straight into the shadows. The stone hit something and produced a noise that sounded like it hit something soft like flesh, not like it hit a hard surface.

A figure immerged from behind ruins that were once the round outer wall of the fallen tower. The figure turned its back on them and began to run away. Due to the lack of light, the face of that figure could not be identified.

"Who's there?" Mia called and began running after the mysterious figure.

For a fraction of a second, Vergil thought that he saw a shocked expression on her face when she saw the eavesdropper. Not letting Mia out of his sight, he followed her closely. He had a fair idea who the mysterious figure might be. There couldn't be many people who were interested in them and knew they were there. For a start, it couldn't be Trish. The person running away didn't want to them to see his face. If Trish wanted them to follow her, she could use all sorts of methods. She didn't need to hide her identity.

The figure's movement was fast. Soon they were led into a thick hedge garden. The hedges were dense and together with the vast number of trees nearby, it seemed that little sunlight could penetrate through even in midday. It was a natural maze. Normally, Vergil would beat Mia when it came to running. The narrow pathway and low visibility made it impossible for him to overtake her. The figure they were chasing was not only fast; it was also cunning. It seemed to know the landscape well. It made left and right turns so quickly and frequently that if the pursuers did not concentrate all their attention, they could loose his trail easily.

After a quick left turn, Vergil saw an opened door ahead. The figure had entered the castle. Mia had already followed suit. They found themselves inside the bottommost floor of the castle. Though Vergil didn't have much time to examine closely, it looked like they were running through vacant rooms that were used as storage area back when the castle was still in use. Eventually, he saw a closed door ahead of them. Mia hastily opened it. Vergil noticed faint carvings around the edge of the door. The carving was made up of strange patterns. Vergil remembered seeing those patterns in one of the books he read about ancient seals and traps.

"Don't go in!" Vergil shouted the warning. At the same time, he reached out in attempt to pull her back. It was too late. His companion had entered the room in front of them and the door shut behind her with a bang. It was almost like the castle came alive and sucked her in like a vacuum. Without a choice, Vergil turned the knob and entered the same room, while seriously considering giving a lecture to that girl who leapt before she thought more than once.

The moment he was inside, he was just in time to see another door at the opposite end close. The outline of the door glowed brightly and dissolved without a trace. "Rune!" Mia cried, slamming her fist against where it was.

"Your cousin again?" Vergil asked, walking up to her. Running a hand through her long straight hair, Mia nodded in misery. Vergil sank in his own thoughts. His predictions were correct; the uncanny cousin of Rei and Mia was somehow involved. He shook away the thoughts. It wasn't the time. Their priority was to leave the suspicious room they were allured into. He looked back to where he entered. Somehow it didn't surprise him very much to see their entrance gone. With four solid walls around them, they were well and truly locked in.

Leaning against the stone wall, Mia sank to the floor, her long hair brushing against the rough surface as she did so. It was her fault again. She had got them trapped inside another odd part of the castle. She didn't understand - why couldn't she do anything right? Mia thought to herself miserably.

Vergil took a good look at the room they were inside. It was not spacious, but fairly empty. A black rectangular-shaped wooden cupboard covered all three sides of the room except one. It was an unusual piece of furniture. The cupboard consisted of hundreds and perhaps up to a thousand small drawers. Besides that, something was written on the floor in the center of the room. He glanced over to Mia, who leant against the only bare stone wall. She wasn't in good shape. The light in her eyes he saw earlier in the evening had vanished. She was always energetic and full of life – even when she was arguing with him. The Mia in front of him looked tired and depressed.

"Why do you think you cousin is here?" Vergil asked her. When he first encountered Rune, he heard a little about him from Rei. Though there were other things he also wanted to know about the man who caused them so much trouble a year ago.

Mia lifted her head up. "I'm not sure," she said, looking at Vergil with a weary expression. "I don't know if Rei had told you or not. My uncle was the only person from my mother's family who didn't hate Rei and I with a passion. He was a nice person, my uncle. But as we can see, nice people don't always have nice sons and daughters," she removed her gaze from him and stared into the empty space above her head. "I can only say he had been a strange person ever since he was a child. He was always doing this other people wouldn't. As with his power, I have no idea. I'm positive that he didn't have any powers to begin with. Only Rei and I did. He disappeared a few years ago and the last time we saw him, he could vanish and stand in midair and stuff like that," she shrugged.

From the way she spoke, it didn't sound like Mia hated her cousin to Vergil. Judging from the fact she had few relatives, she should have valued Rune.

Turning her head to give him a sideway look, Mia suddenly asked. "Why are you here?"

Silence penetrated the space between them. Everything in the room was quiet and still. Air seemed to have stopped its flow for them. It was as though time had stopped. Mia laughed at herself mentally. The day Vergil would tell her about what he was thinking was the day elephants would start flying. If I was Rei, he might've already told her, she thought, though didn't understand why the thought brought along sourness.

"Ten years ago," Vergil began, giving Mia a surprise. "Dante and I return home and found our mother murdered. She died in a horrible way. It was like she was ripped apart. We knew it was not something that could be done by humans." As he spoke, he went to the middle of the room and squatted down to examine the engraved text. "Of course, the police would never believe us if we said our mother was murdered by demons. For years I searched for the real murderer. I was never able to find any clues, until today, when that woman showed up."

Mia knew he was referring to Trish. She wondered why Vergil used 'I' when he was saying about the search for Eva's killer. Did that meant Dante didn't actually do any searching? If so, it puzzled her more - why didn't he?

"She is a demon dressed in the image of my mother. If someone was able to create a carbon copy of her, I figured that it meant that someone had met or at least seen her before. There was a possibility that I could find out the murderer from her."

After hearing his story, Mia felt guilty of acting the way she did. She didn't understand anything at all, yet she selfishly followed him and caused other people troubles as well. "I…" she didn't know how to begin. Then it occurred to her that she might be able to help him – even if only a little. "I don't know what Rei knows that you want to find out from her. But I can tell you what I know." That caught Vergil's attention. He removed his gaze from the engraved text and concentrated on listening to her.

Due to its location, the temperature in the room was quite low comparing to outside. The chilly air didn't bother Vergil as much as it did to Mia. She brought her knees to her chest then wrapped her arms them to keep herself warmer. "Ten years ago, Rei and I were eight years old. I usually came home with Rei but I got held back at school." Mia didn't look at Vergil as she spoke. "I thought she would be home when I get back, but it turned out that she came home later than me. When she did eventually return, she looked terrible. She looked traumatised, like she'd been through a couple of funerals. I asked her where she had gone. She told me she met Ms Eva on her way home. Then she mentioned something about not being able to help her and being helpless." She paused briefly to look at Vergil. His handsome face revealed nothing. "I didn't know what she was talking about. Then she started crying. I was shocked. Rei never cries. Rei always like to act tough as the elder twin. I have only seen her cry once and it was that time. I guess it was too much of a shock for me to see Rei cry. I didn't ask her about what happened ever again."

Having listened to her recount carefully, Vergil sank into deep thought. If what Mia said was true, Rei didn't sound like the killer. However it suggested to him that she probably met Eva on the day she died. Somehow, Vergil knew Rei held very important information that will give him the answer he was looking for.


Author's note: Quite a chatty chapter this is. I think it's time for some things to get explained. If you're familiar with the game, you'll noticed I changed Eva's death. Well, this is alternate universe after all.

I'd like to give a big thank to my friend who checked it for me. You know who you are Thanks to him you readers don't need to read a chapter full of grammar and spelling mistakes! Also thanks for those who continue to review my story for me. It means a lot to me.

Please review this chapter, even a short comment would be greatly appreciated.