Chapter Thirty-Six: Elementary

Note: Now that all the election stuff is over, I have to say that I feel much less stressed out. Crazy how that works! Making sure that the chapters come out on time this week is going to be an interesting challenge! But I'm an adult. I'll figure it out!

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Sunday, August 25th, 1:30 am

When someone spent half of their life in the underworld, communication skills were something that eroded quickly, practically evaporating into thin air like the mist on the undrinkable waters that flowed through the region that the Qliphoth had sprouted from. Even in situations where the eldest Son of Sparda was aware of the possible advantages that came with forming an allegiance with someone else, he was still largely incapable of doing so. Alliances meant sharing one's plans, and by the time that Vergil did so, he could have just done it himself. Or so he figured, in most regards.

In this particular instance, he simply hadn't put much thought into doing so. Regrouping with Dante would be simple enough, and if he hadn't managed to kill him himself up until this point, then he was more or less invincible, especially against such weak opponents. After his departure, he noted that more fearsome forms of the insectoid demons had emerged from seemingly everywhere, intent on scoring the necessary amount of blood to satiate their queen's unquenchable thirst. Dante had shrugged off their onslaught easily enough, but Vergil would be lying if he said that he hadn't considered joining his twin to stave off the increasing numbers, if only for a moment. He had to see to a larger goal, and he was confident that Dante was more than capable of taking care of himself for a few minutes while he stepped away to take care of something. He wasn't a child, even if he acted like one at times.

Emerging from a well-placed portal, Vergil stepped out on top of the roof of a nearby office building, taking the opportunity to gaze out across the city. It seemed that the damage hadn't spread especially far, and he supposed that he should be more relieved about that than he actually was. In truth, it wasn't so much that he didn't care, it was that he was simply preoccupied. There were several things on his mind at the moment, and the source of this particular demonic attack was more interesting to him than the property damage that was taking place at the moment. While the deaths and injuries of some of the innocent bystanders were admittedly unfortunate, Vergil was simply so used to experiencing such a phenomenon that it didn't affect him in the way that it probably should anymore. In a strange way, this entire situation reminded him of something that he'd experienced a lifetime ago, an event that had helped land him in the position that he currently found himself in.

How drastically different things could have been if he hadn't passed through that town all those years ago…

A quick glance across the area confirmed his suspicions. It seemed that all of the demons were coming from one general direction, the majority of them apparently pouring out of a single building. It was an old, seemingly abandoned brick factory a block or so away. As soon as they left the building, they flooded down the adjacent road like an unholy tidal wave, destroying literally everything in their path. While Vergil wasn't a betting man, he was more than willing to assume that something suspicious was going on in that place, and that it was probably a decent decision to go and check it out. Finding this elusive individual who was responsible for the newly opened gates had become a personal vendetta in some respects. The Darkslayer did not enjoy being outmaneuvered by an unknown assailant. It made him feel foolish, something that he did not appreciate.

"Oh, so this is where you ran off to! And just when I was starting to worry."

Vergil glanced over his shoulder at his younger twin, not at all surprised that he had managed to track him down so quickly after exterminating the majority of the demons. His timely arrival had saved him some footwork at the very least since he was inclined to bring Dante along with him. Leaving him behind would simply lead to either having to explain what happened when something inevitable didn't go as planned, or more likely, would end in some sort of argument when Dante finally managed to track him down due to his lack of explanation.

"You showed up. It seems you still know how to surprise me." Vergil said just as unenthusiastically and sarcastically as his twin had a moment ago. He then gestured towards the building that he'd located, internally cursing himself for coming along. It seemed that every time he left the office, disaster struck." I don't think I need to explain where they're coming from, do I?"

Dante shrugged and allowed his eyes to travel to the place that his older twin had indicated, nodding to himself as he immediately came to the same conclusion. So Vergil had moved to higher ground to get a better view of an unfamiliar environment, then? The younger of the two was starting to see how Vergil had survived as long as he had in the underworld. It hadn't occurred to him to do something like that until he'd looked up and noticed that Vergil was conspicuously absent from their fight after he'd killed the hundredth worker ant like monstrosity. The Empusa were truly strange creatures, even by demonic standards. Strange and numerous.

"Gee, I don't know about that. See, my eyes aren't what they used to be." Dante said in a humorous tone, leaning over the ledge of the building and pretending to strain as he very clearly made eye contact with the building in question. He was clearly mocking his twin, but in possibly the most obvious way imaginable." You might have to point it out. Can't quite find it."

For a moment, Vergil stared at his younger sibling's back in quiet disbelief, simply at an impasse in regards to how to process the irrational amount of irritation he felt about everything that he'd just heard. The devil slayer in blue couldn't really pinpoint what it was about that statement that he found so damn annoying, but here he was, at a loss for words, and very much annoyed. What was it about Dante and his simply infuriating mannerisms that were so effective at getting under his skin? He was an adult. He was supposed to be better than this. No, he had to be better than this. Didn't he?

Without a moment's pause, Vergil gave into temptation and firmly planted his outstretched foot into Dante's back, sending him careening off of the top of the building. The devil hunter in red let out a surprised yelp before tumbling over the edge of the roof, bound for the pavement. Vergil let out an unusually content sigh, suddenly feeling far more vindicated than he had any right to. He told himself that it was revenge for that time that Dante had kicked him through his own portal during their return from the underworld, but honestly, he wasn't sure. In all honesty, there was a part of him that had simply wanted to do something like that for a very long time.

"He will land right side up. I'm sure of it. And if not… well, his bones heal quickly. We're only on the sixth story, after all." Vergil reasoned internally before stepping forward and allowing himself to plummet down towards the pavement. They'd both fallen from much greater heights than this before. But then again, they had been younger. And right-side up. Hopefully, their joints hadn't aged along with them, or the pavement was going to be harder than he remembered.

It seemed that he wasn't "better than that" after all.

(-~-)

Sunday, August 25th, 1:00 am

"Something tells me that this isn't exactly a good idea, Nero. We may come to regret this."

There was only a certain amount of time that a person could sit in a cold, essentially abandoned building and freeze to death in front of a perfectly good fireplace before they simply couldn't stand it anymore and gave into temptation, forcing themselves to do things that they might later come to regret later. Nero had reached that amount of time.

He glanced back at V for a second, shrugging for a moment before turning his attention back towards the chimney in question. Nero had been examining the smokestack for several minutes now, unsure of what he wanted to do about this situation. The house had become even colder in the last hour, or at least it seemed like it. More than likely it was still the same temperature that it had been a short while ago, but the sheer amount of time they'd spent sitting in a freezing room had led him to believe otherwise.

"I'll tell you what I do regret. Sitting on the floor for the last hour like that was magically going to make me warmer or something. If I don't do something, we're both going to freeze to death, V." Nero said as he attempted to see what was inside of the chimney. It was exceedingly dark inside of the room that they were in, and neither of them possessed any sort of light. From what he could tell, there was no soot build-up present on any of the bricks inside, and light was visible from the top. At the very least, there were no blockages. That was a good start.

The longer white-haired man was still laying on the couch under his blanket, only now he was reading. They were supposed to be talking, but he'd suddenly become quiet. Tired. More than likely the strain from the day's activities had finally caught up with him. Despite being tired, he'd come to realize that trying to fall asleep with Nero in the room was nearly impossible. It seemed that he still hadn't shaken his nasty habit of overthinking his surroundings, and that was a real issue in this instance." You can have the blanket. It's better than accidentally lighting yourself on fire. I insist."

Nero glanced back at him again before turning his attention back to the fireplace. He'd spent the last few minutes stuffing some of the collapsed cardboard boxes that V had gathered into it in an attempt to use them as kindling. V had managed to help him out, even though he hadn't meant to do so in the first place. Quite the opposite, actually. The summoner had expressed a reasonable amount of concern about the concept of lighting such an old fireplace without cleaning it first, worried that built-up soot and debris might spell his younger sibling's doom.

"Oh, come on! I retrofitted my own sword to shoot flames! Dontcha think I know how to handle a little fire? Just trust me, it's gonna be fine. Come look. I've gotta go get something out of the van." Nero stood and gestured towards something in the fireplace, waiting for V to join him before bolting off to grab whatever he was after. After a few moments, V declared defeat and decided to join Nero in his attempts to keep them from dying of hypothermia, apprehensive but aware of the fact that Nero was more than likely not going to give up. He did have more experience handling flammable substances than V did, but that didn't change the fact that this was a supremely dangerous thing to be doing, especially in the dark. He just couldn't shake the feeling they were going to burn the house down or something.

The youngest of the two hunters returned a moment later with a strange-looking device that V honestly didn't recognize at all. A part of him was somewhat sure that he'd seen the device before in the back area of the mobile workstation near Nico's work area, but he still wasn't entirely sure. But something told him that he had plenty of reason to be worried about it, regardless of whether or not he knew what it was.

"... Should I even ask what that does?" V said hesitantly, already more than sure that he would regret any answer his younger sibling gave him. While he thought the world of Nero and didn't think that he was unintelligent in the slightest, that didn't change the fact that he was positive that he hadn't thought whatever this was through. Nero liked to take risks that V generally didn't due to a number of factors. Due to his general condition and his cautious nature in most situations, V just didn't tend to try some of the things that Nero came up with. He was aware of the fact that he might seem boring, but it was better than being mortally wounded or deceased. There was still much that he wanted to do with his life, and he couldn't do it if he was six feet under.

"Here, I'll show you," Nero said, stepping forward and pressing the nozzle of the device into the fireplace. V watched as a distinct mixture of intrigue and anxiety gripped him, totally unsure as to what Nero hoped to achieve. If he was willing to guess, this device was used to pressure clean things. After all, it had a long nozzle on it. But he still wasn't sure. After all, what use would Nico have for such a device inside of the van?

A moment late, Nero pulled the trigger on the gun like device and aimed it towards the inside of the fireplace. In an instant, the dry cardboard caught fire and expanded towards the top of the fireplace. Nero nodded as he carefully scooted the grate back in front of the small flickering flame, content. Things had done according to plan, and he liked that. But one glance over at V immediately made him question what he'd just done.

For reasons that were totally foreign to Nero, Griffon had manifested during his little demonstration, and the bird seemed to share V's hesitation in regards to the way things were panning out. The young summoner seemed to be fixated on the flames as though he was waiting for something. Nero gave him a curious look as Griffon suddenly took flight with a loud yelp and V took a step back gesturing for him to do the same thing. Nero took a single step backward, completely and utterly confused as to what the problem here was. But before he could say anything, a sudden explosion of flames shot out at them, just missing them as Nero jumped backward to avoid damage, and Shadow manifested without warning only to snatch V over the back of the plastic-covered couch.

The violent flashbang like explosion subsided as quickly as it had appeared, leaving everything in its path untouched aside from a small segment of the plastic that covered a nearby chair. Griffon swooped down and snatched it off of the piece of furniture, opting to simply toss it into the fireplace since it was already burning. This fueled the raging inferno further, the height of the flames growing steadily and omitting a loud rumble before flaring outwards again and then subsiding. Much to the shock of everyone present, no one was harmed, at least not physically. Both Nero and V exchanged startled looks before exhaling and allowing themselves to relax, their alert postures dropping as they realized that the flames were contained.

"... I suppose I know what it does now," V said almost sarcastically, the mixture of mild annoyance and relieved horror in his demeanor present for everyone to see. He'd clearly been quite surprised by what had just happened, but that didn't mean that he was surprised by it. Nero couldn't quite place what it was about what had just happened that made him so uneasy, but he got a distinct feeling that V had known that that was going to happen.

"Yea, I guess I shouldn't have used a welding gun to light the fireplace. Wasn't one of my better ideas." Nero scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, unsure of what to even say about what had just transpired. He felt like a small child who had just been caught elbow-deep in a jar of peanut butter." But why did it do that… and why do I feel like you knew it would?"

V closed his eyes for a moment and sat back on the couch, allowing himself to take a few deep breaths before proceeding. It seemed that they were going to have that conversation after all. "... I used to travel for my old job. One night one of the establishments we were in nearly went up in flames when a faulty light made contact with a piece of ancient, dust-coated fabric. It was a stage curtain if I remember correctly." He paused for a moment to look at Nero, hoping that he understood what he was trying to suggest." Things that sit empty accumulate dust. Ash isn't the only culprit."

The short-haired devil hunter nodded, understanding what V was employing. He'd somehow managed to totally forget that dust could be just as flammable as any form of kindling. Had living with Nico made him reckless when it came to fire hazards? No, he couldn't blame her for this. It had been an accident, but it had been his accident nonetheless.

"You said it was a stage curtain. What, did you used to be in the circus or something?" Nero snickered lightly at the playful joke, totally unsure as to why he found that so funny. Perhaps it was because he couldn't shake the mental image of how funny that would be to see. Talk about nightmare fuel! After a moment, he stopped, noticing that V was simply looking at him, trying his best not to crack a smile. Nero's entire jaw practically hit the floor. He was in total disbelief." Are you fucking kidding me, V?!"

It was V's turn to be embarrassed slightly. He looked down at the floor for a moment, though whether it was to hide the flush in his cheeks, or to avoid eye contact was unknown. Regardless, he was extremely embarrassed. "I was a Thespian. I traveled with a theater troupe for about two years before I arrived here. We had our fair share of accidents during that time, and they almost always involved fire to some extent. But then again, theater props and costumes are quite flammable. Luckily I was far from those areas of the production. It was one of the advantages of being in an orchestra pit."

The short-haired demon slayer literally gave him a sideways look. Why was it that so much more about him made sense now?!" So you were literally in a circus? That was supposed to be a joke, V!"

V chuckled slightly at how obscenely shocked Nero seemed to be, enjoying every second of his bewilderment." It was a traveling theater, actually. But considering the fact that the end goal of both performative theatre and an acrobatic circus is to perform a show, I suppose you could stand by that argument. I'd probably feel equally at home in either environment, if I'm being honest."

Nero flopped down on the floor and absentmindedly chucked another piece of cardboard into the fireplace, earning a startled yelp from Griffon as the crazy bird cursed him for nearly hitting him. The avian devil then turned his attention to the conversation that they were currently embroiled in, shaking his head at what he'd just overheard. "I just knew that something wasn't right about you, V! I guess "Shakespeare'' is a better nickname than I'd thought! You're just somethin else, ya know that?"

V flopped back down on the couch, pulling the cover back over himself as Shadow settled down next to him. He reached over and scratched the top of her head, shaking his own at the situation he now found himself in. Dear or dear, how had things come to this?" Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow."

Both Nero and Griffon shook their heads, the latter of the two groaning. Nero never ran out of quotes, did he? It was actually quite impressive. Now his ability to memorize ream after ream of incredibly old text made a world of sense, and Nero both loved and hated that because he was still reeling from the context he'd been given.

"You know what, V? One of these days I'm gonna lock you in your own closet until you agree to stop reading that damn book." Griffon said before fluttering over towards his master and perching on the back of the couch." Might do you some good. It will help the rest of us at the very least."

Nero wasn't sure if he agreed with the bird's statement, but he was absolutely sure of one thing. There was no way in hell this night could get any weirder. Maybe it was best to just go to sleep and call it a night before things got anymore chaotic. Nico was going to lose her mind when she found out about this one.

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Wow, this was a fun chapter to write! I've been wanting to mention what my headcanon was for part of V's former life for like six conversations now! So glad I got to throw that one in there! Sorry for any mistakes. I had to edit this 5 minutes before I ran out of the door to go to work. See you all on Friday! All I have to do is make it through this week and I'll be alright!