"No one will ever believe you, master."
That phrase has weirdly haunted Vergil since the Qliphoth incident, even though it was well below the trauma he endured as Nelo Angelo and the day he was separated from his brother. Those will always haunt him.
It had stuck out in his mind not because of the events leading up to that phrase being said, but because of who said it.
It was one of the less prominent memories he could recall as V: he had just called Nico on the phone for some assistance and then proceeded to wait for her to show up...somehow. He never understood how she drove that van around a ruined city like Redgrave.
He sat down next to the phone booth, Shadow lounging near his thighs while Nightmare and Griffon (surprisingly) rested in their respective markings.
V honestly didn't expect anything to happen while he waited. No demons nearby to fight and a book that he had read through at least twenty times over meant that the only thing he could do was to try and take a nap in a futile attempt to replenish his dwindling strength.
Then out of the blue, Shadow decided to speak.
"No one will ever believe you, master."
That perked V right out of his weariness as he gawked at his familiar as it stared back at him.
Shadow only communicated with roars and growls when they fought demons, and purrs whenever V decided to pet them during the calmer moments of their mission.
But no actual human words ever left their maw.
V was so thrown for a loop by Shadow talking that he didn't hear the van pull up and only when his mind registered Nico's excessive honking did he finally get up from his spot.
"Took ya long enough, V-man," she grumbled as he and Shadow entered, taking a drag of her cigarette. He apologized as she shooed him off.
He sat on the sofa as Shadow settled at his feet, rubbing their head on his leg before laying down. An outsider would mistake it as a sign of affection from the animal, but V knew better: they were trying to distract him from what they did.
V looked up from his feet to see Nero, who seemed to be doing maintenance on his gun, looking at him from the table.
"You okay?" he asked. "You seemed kinda frozen out there."
The answer was no, but Nero didn't need to know that. And even if he wanted to tell him what was bothering him, he wouldn't believe him.
"No one will ever believe you, master."
V shook his head. "I'm fine. It's nothing to be concerned about." Nero didn't seem to buy it, but thankfully went back to his business anyway and all was relatively quiet in the van.
And yet despite that quiet, V could've sworn he heard Shadow chuckling...or was it purring?
No, wait, it was definitely laughter. They were definitely laughing at him.
The memory got buried under the events that followed, all of which involved fighting: against time, his brother, his son, waves upon waves of demons, his brother again, his son again, and his brother several times over.
Those fights, along with him learning to adjust to society and reconciling with Nero, almost made him forget about it completely.
Until one uneventful day, he heard Dante chuckling at his desk.
"Hey, Vergil. Come check this out," his brother called.
Nero often messaged Dante memes from the internet, which the younger brother would sometimes show him. Vergil didn't really get most of them though.
But the particular meme Nero had sent Dante caused that memory to resurface as he stared wide-eyed at the screen.
He could picture Shadow taking the place of the dog in the meme, staring smugly at him as they uttered that phrase knowing fully well that he wouldn't be able to explain this to anyone because―
"Uh...Verg?" His head snapped over Dante, who in turn, looked at him concernedly. "Something wrong?"
"No. It's nothing to be concerned about," Vergil said after a pause. Dante didn't seem to buy it but thankfully said nothing else and went back to scrolling through his phone. The elder brother had the distinct feeling that he was going to ask him about it later, though.
But he couldn't tell him about it. Not him, not Nero, not anyone else.
No one was ever going to believe him.