note: everytime Sai speaks to Ikki, it is in Al Bhed... I'm not going to write that everytime, lol.
Chapter Two:
The Return
"42-42-56... ehh, what was that last number again..?" I said, turning away from the mirror I was writing on.
"The number was '3.14159-"
I interrupted Ikki in Al Bhed "Oh, stop being obnoxious for once, will you?!"
"564. The last number is 4." Vergil answered from the wall he was leaning on. He hadn't been very social since the whole "Demon God Awakening" thing... Not that he was normally the social type anyway.
"Right... 4..." I said. I exhaled on the mirror again and wrote the entire number.
"I hope they're alright..." I said.
My question was shortly answered... by Shinigami not picking up. Never was there a time when Shinigami couldn't answer a call to his mirror. He was stuck in Death City!
"Well, that can't mean anything good..." Vergil said.
"Uh... Maybe his mirror is broken...?" I said with a little chuckle.
"Not the time, Sai... The fact that Shinigami isn't there means that he's not in the Death Room." Vergil said.
"That's a no-brainer.. Sheesh, I was just trying to lighten up the mood... Not like we can do anything from all the way over here right now." I answered.
"We should go back." Vergil said.
"Go back where you said everyone hates you?" Ikki asked.
I pounded on Ikki again. "I told you before! Everyone does not hate me!"
Then I turned to Vergil "We haven't finished all of our missions yet... But I guess this is an exception to return there..."
"Ya think..?" Vergil asked as he started walking away from the mirror.
I sighed. "This cannot mean anything good... Looks like my idea of going back home and doing nothing for a while is out of the window."
"You're out of the window..." Ikki said.
"...THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE!" I yelled, beating on Ikki's belt buckle form with both of my hands.
"You don't even make an-" Ikki began.
"Don't start..." I interrupted.
"Ugh... I forgot how freakin' hot the sun is over here!" I yelled.
Once again, we were making our way through the deserts of Nevada to get to the DWMA. I was getting fried to a crisp. Though my clan of vampires couldn't be killed by sunlight... We were very easily sunburned, unlike our darker complexions portrayed.
"Temperature is 85 degrees farenheit. Humidity at 60%... It is a little hot, but you're just being a baby." Ikki said.
"Thank you SO much for your input, Ikki... I don't get it... How are you so obnoxious?! Am I really that bad of a person that you turned out like this?" I replied.
"Ask yourself that." Ikki retorted.
I looked up at Vergil ahead of me. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"
"Of course I do! We've gone through this desert hundreds of times!" Vergil shouted back at me.
"More like... maybe 20 times... and 20 times more than a year ago... So we're definitely lost..." I said.
- TWO HOURS LATER -
Vergil turned around at me. His eyes glowed red and he growled at me beofre screaming "I'M NOT LOST!" at the top of his lungs.
"Okay! Okay! You're not lost... You're just... eh..." I said.
Ikki helped me out "taking unnecessary detours is what you're trying to say"
"Yeah! Taking a lot of unnecessary detours!" I repeated with an uneasy.
"You have the vocabulary of a piece of celery." Ikki stated.
"I DO NOT!" I yelled at him.
"Well, if you don't stop asking me if we're lost, I'm gonna keep taking detours until you look like a lobster..." Vergil said.
"Okie dokie... Keep my mouth shut, I get it..." I answered.
Vergil sighed in relief and turned around. "Thank you."
"Just make sure you take us the right way this time..." I said as he was about to take his first step forward.
"Woah..." I uttered.
"What's that for?" Vergil said as we continued to walk towards the entrance to Shibusen.
"I guess I forgot how big it really is after not seeing it for so long..." I answered.
"Hmph... It's nothing special."
I grunted a little as I made a face and then punched Vergil on his left arm.
"Owch..." I said, rubbing my own arm a little. Vergil had barely reacted, other than being moved slightly to the right.
"Well that was dumb..." Ikki commented.
"What was that for?" Vergil asked.
"You're such a pessimist! Be happy for once!" I said.
Vergil stopped walking and looked at me. "What exactly is there to be happy about at this very moment? The Kishin has awakened. That's the entire reason why we're here in the first place."
I said nothing back to him. The smile that was on my face had melted away.
He turned around and started walking again. "And were you even looking at Death City while we were walking through it? It's in shambles..."
"I know..." I answered. We walked in silence the rest of the way. As we made our way to the Death Room, we stumbled into... a zombie?
"Vergil. Sai. You've returned. That is good news." the zombie said.
Both of us looked at him, completely dumbfounded... At least this was a good mood breaker.
"Sid?!" We both yelled.
"Ah, that's right. Last time you saw me, I was still human. I'm sorry for not informing you. I assure you, I am still very much the man I once was." Sid said.
"Y-You're a..." I started.
"Zombie..." Vergil finished.
"Yes." Sid answered nonchalantly.
"How did...?" I asked, still dumbfounded.
"It's a story for another time. You two should see Shinigami-sama before doing anything else. He will tell you what has happened." Sid said.
"Right. We were just on our way." I stated.
"Since you are here, I suspect that more than just Death City was affected by the awakening of the Kishin..." Sid said.
"Yes. We were in Germany when it happened. A storm brewed up and both of us could feel the madness wavelengths emitting from him from all the way over there. I can't imagine how strong they must have been here..." Vergil said.
Sid sighed. "We've got a tough road ahead of us... I won't hold you two up any longer. Shinigami-sama is waiting."
We nodded to him and then proceeded on our way to the Death Room. No classes were in session, as to be expected. It was weird walking through these hallways without being full of students. I knocked on the door to the Death Room before entering it.
The door opened and I heard Shinigami call "Come in! Come in!"
Vergil and I walked through the scythe adorned arches until we saw Shinigami standing next to his mirror on the platform. Both of us bowed as he saw us.
"Vergil! Sai! Good to see that you two have come back. Have you finished your missions?" Shinigami asked.
"We thought that the awakening of the Kishin was a good enough reason to come back without finishing." Vergil said.
"Hmm... I guess you could sort of say that somewhat..." Shinigami said.
Vergil and I got sweatdrops on the backs of our heads.
"He doesn't even want us here after the Kishin woke up... Man he must hate us..." I thought.
"I wasn't expecting you two to come, now I have to think of something for you two to do! Can't have you lounging around all day, can I?" Shinigami stated.
"Eh... I... guess not...?" I said quizzically.
"Shinigami-sama, I believe that the DWMA was created by you in order to prevent the Kishin from awakening. How did this happen?" Vergil asked. I knew that Shinigami's comical matter pissed him off to no tomorrow. He would've much rather preferred how Shinigami was in his old days. He thought that it was a little lowering of Shinigami to act in the matter that he did now. I on the other hand liked the comical side... The old Shinigami would've scared me just as much as he scared the little kids he tried to interact with.
Shinigami suddenly got serious "You haven't changed at all, have you Vergil? Wanting to get straight to the point so quickly... The Kishin, Asura, was awakened by a witch."
"What?! A witch?!" I said, utterly shocked.
"Yes. Her name is Medusa. . She had tried to make a Kishin herself using her son and his weapon, who I might add share on body since she replaced her son's blood with the melted down form of his weapon, the Demon Blade, Ragnarok. After that failed, she infiltrated Shibusen more than a month prior to awakening the Kishin. We had absolutely no suspicions of her since she was using Soul Protect to conceal herself. On the day of Shibusen's anniversary, one of her allies used an Independent type spell to isolate all of the meisters in Shibusen including myself. Only a few of our elite one star meisters along with Stein and Spirit were able to escape before the spell finished with Sid's help. They tried to stop Medusa from awakening Asura with her black blood, but they were unsuccessful. He was already aware that I was bound to Death City and escaped before I could do any real damage to him." Shinigami explained.
"Wow... That's... I don't even know what to say." I said after a long silence.
"What do you want us to do, Shinigami-sama?" Vergil asked.
"I have gathered half of the Death Scythes from the globe. Spirit is remaining here as my weapon. Marie is working as Stein's partner while Asuza searches for the Kishin." Shinigami answered.
Shinigami turned to me. "Sai, I want you to take care of as many missions as you can. You'll be paired up with some of the elite one star meisters to take care of some of the harder ranked missions. The Afreets will be acting up now that their God has awakened and no doubt something else big will brew up."
Then he turned to Vergil. "As a school, we have to keep the students here updated with what is happening and teach them about what they will be going up against. You have more knowledge of these things being a devil, Vergil. I want you to enroll as a teacher here and inform students about what Asura can do."
I clutched my arm and looked to my left a little nervously. I'd never really been separated from Vergil... Ever... Much less on missions. He was my safe place. I wanted to speak out, but Shinigami's orders were Shinigami's orders.
"You're separating us?" Vergil asked. His voice and expression had not changed from before.
"Yes. I think you've both had enough time together... Besides... I know Sai gets stage fright easily so she'd be no use helping you teach... and you need to work on your people skills!" Shinigami said, his serious tone fading away.
He put his hands on our shoulders. "You two will be fine without each other."
Vergil and I looked at each other. We could both see the nervousness in each others eyes.
"Now... Sai, go see Stein. I'm sure you're in need of a fresh supply of blood tablets. After that, you can go with Spirit and he'll introduce you to the meisters you'll be working with. Vergil, I want you to start teaching with Sid for now. I'll be needing him for some special missions coming up soon." Shinigami said.
"Yes, Shinigami-sama." We both said at the same time. We both bowed to him and began to walk out of the Death Room.
"One more thing!" Shinigami called after us. We both turned around.
"It's good to have you two back!" Shinigami said.
"It's good to be back!" I said with a smile. As usual, Vergil remained silent and stern.
I waved to Shinigami and then walked out of the Death Room with Vergil. We both stood still once we exited the room.
I turned to Vergil, putting on a fake smile. "Well, I'm going to go find Stein now for my tablets... Hope you don't get los- I mean 'take unnecessary detours' while you try and find Sid."
Vergil's expression didn't change. I would usually expect him to yell at me for saying he'd get lost, but nothing... At the back of my mind, the thought that Vergil never really cared about me was always in my mind. Maybe he just kept me around so that it was easier for him to keep an eye on me... A lot of Afreets and demons hated Sparda for betraying them, so if they ever found out about or connection, they could easily hurt or kill him through me. This thought had been lingering around my mind more often since Vergil had grown increasingly cold over the years.
My smile faded and I looked away a little. I sighed and turned around to go to Stein. As I took a step forward, Vergil grabbed my wrist and called my name. I turned around and looked at him.
"Be careful, alright...?" he said.
I saw... worry in his eyes. I smiled at him and pulled him into a hug.
"I will don't worry." I said, closing my eyes as I felt his arms tightly snug around me.
"You better not get me roughed up too much while you're on missions... I don't wanna end up collapsing on the floor and coughing up blood while I'm trying to teach, ya hear?" Vergil said.
I laughed and looked up at him. "I'll try not to."
Vergil smiled at me and then ruffled my hair.
"Hey!" I said, trying to fix it. Vergil laughed at me.
"Whoever's gonna be in your class is gonna be so happy... Hah! You teaching! You got stuck with the crappy job!" I said, pointing at him and laughing.
"Oh shut up! I hope Stein knocks you out and takes out your liver!" Vergil yelled.
"Well then you're liver would shut down or something like that too, ya idiot!" I yelled back.
Vergil grunted. I punched him in the arm and then began to walk away.
"See ya later! Vergy!" I said, waving back. After that, I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face... He definitely cared.