Heart's Burial

by Convulsion

Power. That's all that matters to him, and all that matters here, surrounded by the strongest of Earth and creatures from Hell. He should feel at home here, shouldn't he? Well, he doesn't.

7. And Embers Rise

And Embers Rise.

---

"So it's you again."

He detected a creature watching from afar not too long ago. He wondered what it was, though he didn't give it much thought or attention. To feed was his priority.

It was when this unknown creature began to approach him that a particular scent slid into his nostrils, mixing with the intense sulfur smell and the sewage's unholy nose-punishing stench.

Human.

"You don't sound very happy to see me."

And a familiar human, at that.

Vergil didn't respond, instead ripping off a chunk of flesh from the Behemoth's tongue, not with his hands, but with his teeth. The demon released a weak groan, and what remained of its body shook in pain. The half-demon chewed on the meat, greeted by a gelatinous texture.

"I guess you weren't satisfied with what I gave you."

He chewed and chewed until he swallowed.

Then, he glanced to the side.

The blood was trickling into his eyes as he did. He managed to recognize Aikuro through the visceral crimson in his view, standing some meters away.

"No. I wasn't."

His response was simple, rapid, and followed by another merciless, predatory bite to the Behemoth's tongue. The beast didn't even have the strength to flail it around, too broken, too devoured, and having the instinctual knowledge of what was happening to it, what would happen to it soon. It could only shake in indescribable misery as Vergil tore another piece of right off and chewed it.

"Still, a Behemoth, of all things?" Aikuro questioned, some disgust creeping into his voice. "Moreover, isn't that cannibalism?"

Vergil swallowed.

"Yes, it is. What's your point?" the half-demon asked.

It was Aikuro's turn to not respond, at least not with words. When Vergil glanced at him, he saw that his gaze showed some concern.

It mattered little to him, still. He continued to eat.

"…Do you do this regularly?"

He chewed a bit more and then swallowed.

"No."

But I intend to.

"I take it this is a rare occurrence. What made it happen?" Aikuro questioned, head tilted to the side.

"Power. That's what. I want power. I gain power if I eat them."

He followed with another bite.

"Oh, that's right. Demons can gain power when they consume their kin," Aikuro stated, nodding. His face darkened when he continued with the sentence, "But I'm sure the occult books say that human blood is a far more efficient fuel for them. It's their true source of strength."

"You are well informed," Vergil observed, utterly frigid. "Tell me, what are you trying to get at?"

"…Have you eaten humans, Vergil?"

The stoic stare of the half-demon found Aikuro again.

"No."

With that said, Vergil allowed his teeth to sink into the Behemoth.

"Ok. That's…" He heard him pause. "That's good to know."

And Vergil wondered how he would have reacted if he'd said yes.

It would've been a lie. It would've been nothing but him seeking to aggravate the human, seeking trouble, seeking fear. He still wondered, though. What would he have done? Perhaps, run away? Or pointlessly attempt to fight him? The expression on his face, at least, indicated he wouldn't have been unfazed.

It'd been his chance, Vergil thought amidst his chewing.

To cut the little ties between them, the weak ties between strangers connected by the fact that one appeared to help the other. It would've been the perfect moment for Aikuro to finally see him as an inhuman monster, or so Vergil believed; after all, if there was something humans loathed and feared, it was those who slaughtered them.

And yet, he didn't take it.

It wasn't because the man's continued, strange presence was something he valued one tiny bit, of course not. Vergil was merely confused about it and had a few questions regarding it.

"How did you manage to find me?" Vergil questioned, having swallowed.

The Behemoth released an animalistic, weak groan. The creature's agony as it struggled to remain alive was nigh palpable.

"You know, the members of the Behemoth species aren't what I'd call silent or subtle when they attack," Aikuro responded, simply. "I had just left my house to look for you when I heard it roar…"

The man's voice became grave as he continued the explanation, "…and the screams that followed."

Vergil remembered them, still fresh in his mind, still bloodcurdling.

"The only thing I needed to do after that was to go to where all noise was coming from, and then I found you fighting that," Aikuro finished. He stared at the mangled, broken beast. There was silence between them for a moment until Vergil grunted with acceptance. The answer satisfied him.

"You know, I haven't thanked you for dealing with that thing…" Aikuro said, snatching Vergil's attention as he picked up something from the pockets of his pants. "Here."

The half-demon would have recognized the ruby-colored gem held by the man anywhere.

Aikuro tossed the amulet at him.

Vergil caught it, a perplexed look on his face.

"I wouldn't be swimming with that on me. I wouldn't be fighting beasts from Hell with it on either," Aikuro said, nonchalant in his advice. "You ought to be more careful, Vergil."

Vergil stared at the amulet in his hand, dumbfounded, both because he'd dropped it again and because he somehow didn't realize he had in the first place. The knowledge compelled his frustration to blast through. He gritted his teeth.

He'd promised himself to never let it escape his watch again.

An empty promise. It was all he had now, and he still dared to lose it.

For Vergil, there was no greater failure than that.

"Hey, Vergil."

The voice snapped him out of his bleak mindscape. He gazed at Aikuro, perhaps more intensely than he'd intended, perhaps more fragile than he'd ever want to look.

"Everything all right?" the man ventured to ask.

Vergil blinked.

Vergil grumbled.

Vergil stood up and walked beside the Behemoth's huge head. He moved his leg up, above it.

(There wasn't much left to eat. Besides, he no longer felt hungry.)

Then, Vergil stomped on the Behemoth's head.

The things contained within it all burst out. It began with the blood, followed by the fragments of a dense cranium, and finalized by tidbits of the brain. The contents spilled all over the concrete floor, enhancing the broad blood stain that went so far as to mark a good chunk of the wall to the left and slide into the sewage channel to the right, mixing with the dirty waters.

Aikuro's lips parted.

The Behemoth faded to dust, finally dead, finally gone.

The parts of it that weren't connected to the broken, devoured mass it'd become did not fade.

"…Is that a no?" the man mustered.

Vergil didn't respond to that, not immediately.

He glared at Aikuro. The sheer aggression in his stare was meant to make the man forget the pitiful look he sent him before. It was meant to unsettle him, scare him.

"Why would you care, human?" Vergil questioned, stepping towards him. There was a dangerous edge to his voice. "I've been wondering that… You know…"

He expected Aikuro to step back, to step away from him.

The man did not.

Why?

Vergil stepped out of the broad blood stain, the mark of the slaughter he carried out. His crimson footsteps tainted more of the concrete floor as he closed the distance between Aikuro and himself until the bloodied half-demon stood in front of the man who had no stain to be seen on his body.

"…I've already told you, haven't I? I don't need a reason to—"

"What do you think I am, a fool? That worthless response isn't something I'm willing to believe," Vergil said, fierce eyes dead set on Aikuro's. "You have to have a reason for helping me, for tending to my wounds, you have to have a reason for following me all the way here, you have to have a reason for retrieving my amulet and giving it back to me, twice."

"Vergil—"

"And I mean an actual, logical reason. I want none of your nonsense about caring for the wellbeing of someone you don't even know."

He didn't understand this.

"So, say it."

There was nothing Vergil hated more.

Aikuro, to his credit, had the decency to look uneasy regarding his pressure. He wasn't scared, but uneasy, and yet it was better than seeing him unfazed. It did little to ease Vergil's mood, still.

"…Okay, let's try to calm down, all right?" the man said, holding both hands up beside his face. "No need to get so worked up."

Vergil's scowl only intensified.

Aikuro sighed, the prime sound of resignation. "You win, I do have another reason for helping you."

And Vergil relaxed, somewhat. The man was finally making sense.

"But I won't tell you," Aikuro said. Vergil's lip was about to curl into a snarl when the man added, "Not here, anyway. I'm done torturing my nose…"

He looked at Vergil.

The half-demon did not like how the man's gaze lingered on his stomach. It reminded him that it hurt a little, it reminded him this man had seen him at his worst and reminded him that he'd been hit there by the Behemoth.

The memories weren't what hurt. It was the weakness attached to them, ruthless and overtaking and killing him little by little the more he thought about it, lashing out at the walls of strength he'd built.

"…and you also need a shower," the man said.

---

"So, he killed the Behemoth, eh?"

There was a tidbit of surprise in his words, mixed with a small, harmless amount of annoyance. He groaned, "Welp, guess I gotta add that to the list of things I'll need to go for before Monday, along with that damn Cerberus pup…"

"Oh, cheer up. You're far stronger than the cub," a female voice not too far from him said. "And our reserve Behemoths are all in chains. It shouldn't be a problem for you to take one to the sewers."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" the young man breathed. "But it's so boring…"

"You do know laziness is not befitting a member of the Elite Four such as yourself, right, Sanageyama?" was the stern question made by the towering man standing ramrod-straight near the center of the dimly illuminated chamber. "As the leader of the Blade Angels, the capture, location, and relocation of demonic assets from Honnoji Academy are part of your duties."

"I know, I know, Gamagori…"

"And get your feet off the armrest!"

Uzu Sanageyama, who was lying on the couch with his head on an armrest and his feet crossed over the opposite one, did not obey the command. "Nah, don't think I will."

"You dare defy me?"

"What does it look like to you?" was the playful, cocky answer Uzu gave him as he put his arms behind his head, smirking. Just when Gamagori was about to move toward him, a single, firm order stopped him from doing so:

"Enough."

Satsuki Kiryuin spoke.

And when Satsuki Kiryuin spoke, people listened.

"If you are so bothered by the tasks that I entrusted you to shoulder, Sanageyama, you should aim to finish them as soon as possible," she said, sitting on a tall, luxurious chair at the center of the room.

"I'm not bothered…" the man said, in a tone that pointed towards the opposite. "But, I mean, during the weekend? It's Saturday."

"And? It's not like you had anything else to do today, monkey," Jakuzure chimed in.

"I did have something else to do, snake! I was gonna practice at the dojo!"

"Please, you do that every day! Is breaking blade after blade all your underdeveloped neurons allow you to think about?"

Just when it looked like Uzu was gonna dive fully into arguing with her…

"Vergil's power has suffered an unexpected alteration, Lady Satsuki."

The collective attention of the persons in the room went to Inumuta, who sat on a chair with his laptop over his legs.

"Explain."

"It…" There was a moment of consideration. The teenager's eyes became narrow, narrower than they already were. "It looks like the power of the Behemoth's merging with — No, it's being absorbed. It's like his system is digesting it."

The reactions were varied:

"Ew!" Nonon let out, nose scrunched up in disgust. "I know he's a demon and all, but I didn't think he'd be so gross!"

Uzu chuckled, more amused by the implications than anything. "Kinda thought he was classier than that… You know… With everything Inumuta told us about him last night."

"He's still a half-demon. It should come as no surprise that cannibalism is not beneath him," Gamagori pointed out, a severe look in his eyes. "He is no doubt attempting to recover his power."

"And he won't only recover it."

They glanced at Satsuki.

The woman took a sip from her cup of tea, solemn.

"Vergil will come back, stronger."

The statement was like an iceberg. It was brutally cold and unfathomably heavy. It brought about the image of the hideous, scaly creature that haunted their sight the night before, a danger lurking in the shadows of uneasy remembrances, waiting to come alive.

"We've already had a glimpse of what he could be, what he could do, should he realize his immense latent potential," Satsuki said, right as she chose to glance at Uzu. "Isn't that correct, Sanageyama?"

The young man met her gaze.

And for a moment, there was no cockiness, no amusement.

But then…

He let out a laid-back laugh and looked away from her.

"I guess so," Uzu said, at ease, or so it seemed.

Gamagori was not as relaxed as his fellow, not at all. "Are you certain Vergil is worth recruiting, Lady Satsuki?"

The woman glanced at him, mild amusement in her features. "You don't believe he is?"

The man folded his arms, a thoughtful expression on his stony face.

"His power could prove extremely helpful to our goals, especially if nurtured, but…" A brutal scowl bore down on his dark eyes. "His attitude leaves MUCH to be desired! He is arrogant, disrespectful, and destructive! Moreover, he has little to no regard for those other than himself… This could play against us if we intend to keep him around our students. Therefore…"

Gamagori set his hand on his chest. "I will fully support you if you truly believe him worthy of becoming a student of Honnoji Academy, and ensure he is molded into the perfect warrior to slay the darkness shrouding our world!"

"Ah?" Satsuki smiled. "I am wholly pleased to know it."

Her eyes sought the other members of her Elite Four.

"And what about you three?"

Jakuzure was the first to speak:

"If you think a freak such as Vergil deserves a place here, who am I to object? Honnoji Academy is your kingdom, after all, Lady Satsuki," she said, sending a mischievous grin at Uzu. "Besides, we've taken worse."

"Oh, shut up!" he said, not the least bit offended and grinning at her just as much. He glanced at Satsuki, nonchalantly. "I'm fine with it! He's already stronger than our Protos and Cavalieres, so more points for him. I've been gettin' sick of all those pushovers."

Inumuta was the last to voice his opinion, perhaps because he was busy clicking something or checking something on his laptop.

The collar of his suit, which reached his neck, unzipped:

"He provides me with interesting physiological and combat data. I'd like for him to stay." His fingers danced on the keyboard. "And I also trust your judgment, Lady Satsuki."

To say their approval did not matter would have been a lie.

But even if they didn't approve, Satsuki's next move would remain clear in her mind, there to be taken.

"You all agree with me, then."

---

The manhole cover was kicked from under, and it soared high to the blue skies, leaving the hole in the ground uncovered. Vergil — who'd leaped and performed the rising kick that got him out of the sewers — flipped mid-air and landed on the soil, crouching.

Aikuro followed though it took him a little longer to emerge. He used the steel ladders to do so, after all. "Hey, thanks for that!"

"Hmph."

As soon as Aikuro planted his feet outside, Vergil rose to his full height. He sent the man a pensive look, one that garnered the latter's curiosity. "What is it, Vergil?"

The aforementioned looked up.

Then, he looked down, indifferent. He did offer Aikuro cold advice, though, "You should move."

"Eh?" Aikuro tilted his head back, to gaze at the heavens too, to see what Vergil saw. "What are you— Yikes!"

The man moved to the side in what had to be the fastest flinch Vergil had ever seen in a human.

A rather broad but uneven portion of the manhole cover hit the ground where Aikuro once stood. It bounced twice and then collapsed.

"Oh, you broke it," Aikuro observed, voice dull again. "But where are the other parts?"

The sound of glass shattering and someone shouting somewhere in the area answered the question, "Ah! What the hell?!

…

"…You really should be more careful, you know."

Vergil, who had heard that same thing when he gave him back his amulet, growled, "I don't want to hear it."

"Okay, okay…" The man looked around a bit, rubbing his neck. He was familiar with this street and thus knew where to go as soon as he lay eyes upon it. "Let's get back to my house, okay? We…"

It was then that Aikuro noticed something.

Two teenagers — who he vaguely recognized but whose names couldn't quite pinpoint — sitting outside a crude shack for one reason or the other, gazing at Vergil with cow eyes.

Yes, Vergil, who had come out of the sewers looking like he had been swimming in a pool of nothing but blood.

"Good morning, boys!" Aikuro greeted them casually, relaxed as if to indicate to them they should be as well. The curiosity crept into Vergil, and he glanced over to them, too. "Is something the matter? Why are you two outside?"

"…Teacher, who's that?" one of them asked.

Vergil glanced at Aikuro. His usual frown became more pronounced.

"And why's he looking like that?" another one of his students followed up, voice cracking because of how unsettled he was by the sight.

"Ah, don't mind him! He's just, uh, a student at Honnoji Academy such as you," Aikuro said, waving his hand like it was all unimportant. It wasn't to Vergil, whose face twisted in clear wrath at the statement.

"…A-A student?" Aikuro first saw how the bridge of a student's nose wrinkled. What followed was fear, overwhelming and pure, cast into the guy's eyes and face as he sprang to his feet. "He smells like sulfur, Mr. Mikisugi!"

"Well, you know, it's only normal. The council sent him to deal with the Behemoth that showed up earlier, and he's just finished," Aikuro provided, and expected his students to calm down.

But Vergil wouldn't have it.

"I wasn't sent by the council."

There was nothing but hatred in the way he said the last word of his sentence, in how his voice went from normal, nasal, to distorted, fiendish, a sound no human could hope to produce. His murderous glare abandoned Aikuro and snapped toward the two teenagers, who flinched.

"And I'm certainly not part of Honnoji Academy!" Vergil snarled, prompting the two guys to spring to their feet, ready to run. "Do you wish to know who I am? Do you wish to know why I smell like I do?"

He glared at one of them dead in the eye.

Vergil's blue eyes transformed into green ones. His round pupils turned into black slits of doom, and an ancient kind of fear awakened within the teenagers, who witnessed, for a split second, the azure mirage of a massive savage beast roaring at them from behind Vergil, roaring with the terrible promise to hunt them, to tear them to pieces.

It was all that the guys needed to start running. "A-A demon! He's a DEMON!"

"Shit! Shit! SHIT!"

They ran away from the area.

Vergil scoffed when one of them tripped over a rather big rock resting on the soil, and in a clumsy rush got back to his feet. His eyes turned back to normal.

The heavy sigh coming from his left caught his attention.

"Vergil, did you really have to do that?" Aikuro questioned, hands on hips, trapped in dismay.

"Do what?" Vergil countered with a tone as filled with venom as his system. "I merely showed them the truth where you fed them lies. Why did you do that?"

"Because I knew they would react like that!" Aikuro exclaimed. "Vergil, think about it for a second; this place was attacked about an hour ago by a Behemoth. How many people do you see outside?"

Vergil looked around, focused.

It was then that it dawned on him, that beyond those two teenagers, a homeless man, and some dogs here and there, not a soul could be seen in these silent, silent streets.

"Not many, right?" Aikuro said. "That's because demons aren't supposed to show up during the day. These people are scared."

"As they should be."

"You're not helping things with that attitude…" the man pointed out, shaking his head.

"And you seem to be under the impression that I care about how you humans feel," Vergil retorted, arms crossed, and chin lifted. "I thought I made my thoughts regarding you all clear earlier. Do I need to remind you, or will you quit wasting my time with your pointless reproach?"

Aikuro's gaze lingered on him, taking in his words.

He then turned away. "Fine, fine, let's forget about this and get moving, okay?"

The man took some unsteady steps forward, only to realize that the half-demon wasn't following.

Aikuro glanced back at him.

And it was as if they were back to when they first met, with Vergil showing him nothing but a distrust-charged stare, and hostility in the way his body had tensed; he was so rigid.

"Vergil…?" Aikuro let out, some genuine concern slipping into the name. "What's wrong, aren't you coming?"

"No, I don't think I am." Vergil's narrow stare bore daggers into his soul. "I recall that coward fool calling you teacher."

"Eh? And what's the problem with that?" the man asked.

"There's only one school on this miserable island, and he called you teacher, which means you work there…" His voice was slowly building up a menacing growl. "…with Kiryuin."

It took Aikuro a moment to choose the words he'd answer him with next.

"...It sounds like she did something to you," the man stated. He remembered how badly Vergil reacted when he'd said he was part of Honnoji Academy.

"And I suppose you already knew that!"

"What? No, I didn't!"

But Vergil wasn't hearing him.

"What else did she tell you about me?!" the half-demon roared, losing the hold he had over his temper. He warped inches from Aikuro, absolutely enraged. "Did she send you to watch over me?! You're the one who poisoned me, are you not?! To keep me like this, to keep me under control!"

Aikuro stepped back and held his palms up, towards him. "Hey, calm down!"

The half-demon grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. Uh oh, not good. At least he didn't grab him by the neck.

"And all that… You tending to my wounds, feeding me, lending me clothes…" he growled. "…was it some sort of pitiful attempt to gain my trust?! Does she believe I will fall for it that easily?!"

"Vergil, no…" Aikuro tried in his most reassuring tone. "It's not— It isn't like that."

"What did she do to it?"

The half-demon's voice lowered, so much it was almost a whisper.

Aikuro hesitated, then asked, "To what?"

"What did she do to the Yamato?!" he thundered.

But even though Aikuro could see the veins in his trembling hands, and his bared bloodstained teeth, there was no wrath to be heard in him, no contempt.

There was only despair.

"…I don't know, Vergil. I truly don't know," Aikuro said, hoping it would get through. "I'm— I'm sorry, but you've got it all wrong."

And Aikuro was honest.

Really.

There was a moment of bleak consideration, where Vergil stood still, so still, he wasn't even breathing. His piercing gaze was on Aikuro, but at the same time, it wasn't. He was looking at something else, something beyond sight, far away, and completely unreachable.

So that's why…

Vergil's grip weakened.

Aikuro was released.

The man took some steps away from him, assessing the half-demon carefully. There was an odd emotion in his eyes as he stared at the ground, a sort of tired distress as if the very release of his anger and hatred, and despair all at once had exhausted him… As if these emotions weren't ever meant to come out.

Then…

"I can't believe you."

Vergil gazed at him, devoid of any aggression, back to his frigid disposition towards all that surrounded him. He wasn't tense, but he wasn't relaxed either. His expression was unreadable.

"It's the truth. I had no idea what she did to you until you…said it."

The mention of this made Vergil's face twist somewhat, but he repressed any further display of emotion.

"I didn't poison you either, we talked about that, I told you what happened…" Aikuro reminded. "And you didn't want to believe me back then either, I had to tell you the symptoms, I had to point out how you didn't remember what happened at all for you to accept my explanation."

"You still could have…"

"What?"

Aikuro became uncharacteristically serious.

"Carried the venom myself, gave you a shot so it could run free through your veins?" He walked to Vergil. "Was there an injection mark on you when you showered, Vergil?"

The half-demon didn't respond.

"Well, was there?" Aikuro stood in front of him, no longer the hunching, dull man he showed everyone else. He stood tall, taller than Vergil. "If there was, why don't you kill me? I am a threat to you, and I'm right here in front of you. There's nothing I can do to defend myself."

The man waited.

The half-demon contemplated him, reflecting on what he would do next.

"I could have made you swallow the venom when you were unconscious, too. That would be smart, wouldn't it? No evidence left of what I did. Do you think I did it?" Aikuro questioned, then prompted him to act. "If I am so low that I would hurt someone and then act like I remotely care about them, then kill me, Vergil. I'm scum, am I not?"

And he sounded so, so insulted, that the half-demon began to reevaluate his reasons for his reluctance to believe the man's story. He also tried to recall.

---

The Hellbat's cry echoed as he ripped the blaze-encased wings apart with his bare hands and tossed them at the Riot leaping to him.

His murderous glare was set upon the Chaos rolling towards him.

Fragments. Fragments. Fragments.

There was nothing reliable there. His mind only gave him fragments.

---

"I'm calling to you, like last time… I'm hurt, like last time…"

They were tearing him down. They were showering in the rain and his blood.

He held a desperate hand to the sky.

(Useless.)

"So, please…"

The dark heaven roared, and the world was lit around him.

"…COME BACK TO ME!"

And nothing came back.

---

"Well?"

The memory slipped past his fingers. Vergil's attention returned to Aikuro.

"Are you gonna do it, Vergil?" the man questioned.

The answer was hesitant.

The answer was pathetic.

"…No."

"Why not? I'm a mere human, and you think I'm a threat to you."

"Just shut up already, I will not kill you!" the half-demon exclaimed. At least not yet. "But I can't trust you either, not when you work with— for Kiryuin."

"Then what's gonna happen now?" Aikuro pressured.

Vergil considered.

He considered it because he was conflicted. He considered it because deep down he wanted to believe in the man's words, but his mind was too foggy, and his mistrust was perhaps as strong as he could be.

"You will tell me everything regarding your occupation. You will tell me why you've been helping me as you promised," Vergil finally said. "And I want no lies, understood?"

"Even if I tell you the truth, will you believe me?"

"I don't know…" He looked him in the eye. "At least not until I remember all that happened last night, but in the meantime…"

He looked away.

"…I wish to hear what you have to say."

---

"Where is he?"

Inumuta's fingers ran through the keyboard. He wasn't even seeing it as he wrote the complex commands.

The ten screens in the wide room showed the view given by different vigilance cameras, all of them in the deepest areas of the sewers from Honno City. The demons that lived there roamed around, sometimes fighting each other, sometimes forming small groups, hunting what little things they had access to down there.

The ones who were alone gazed upward, longing to walk back to the surface.

"It's not in level two, that's for sure," Inumuta said. He switched the transmissions on the screen.

The sewers displayed now were different from the previous one in that they were a tad bit darker. The sewage was replaced by crimson currents of blood, running down the channels like rivers. The demons there were also different, sometimes other species, sometimes stronger variations of the ones living in the sewers closer to the surface.

"Damn, nothing in level three?" Uzu said, standing beside him.

Inumuta switched the transmissions once more, and some screens no longer displayed anything.

There was a drastic difference between the sewers that were displayed now.

A fleshy mass was spread all over the walls and the concrete floor, pulsing from time to time, like a collective heartbeat. Many demons such as a Riot were trapped in this mass, being slowly and painfully consumed by it, becoming one with it.

The mass also crawled to the blood channels, infecting the crimson rivers. Uzu and Inumuta watched the exact moment pale, meaty tentacles emerged from the blood channel to ensnare demons, far too fast for them to react. The blood river then opened, a humongous, teeth-filled mouth, and the tentacles brought the demons to it.

The grotesque mouth then closed, chewing on the poor, helpless creatures messily.

"Huh, tough luck," Uzu said. "You think that could've happened to the pup?"

"Unlikely. The Cerberus tribe is renowned for its strength. Even a cub is leagues above lesser demons. This is nothing to them," Inumuta said matter-of-factly.

"Well, our cub's not in level four, then," Uzu said, looking at the screens. His target was nowhere to be seen, and the sensors read nothing related to it. He clicked his tongue. "That little shit is at the gate, isn't he?"

"Probably."

Inumuta switched transmissions.

The final level of the sewers was displayed, only on five of the twenty screens.

There was blood everywhere, along with ice, lots of ice.

Most of the demons that once lived in the final level of the sewers were reduced to bloody remains, many of them frozen corpses that looked like they'd been swallowed by a snowstorm. The few that were alive were either shivering in the corners or disasters on the floor, barely clinging to life in their dismembered, half-eaten states.

And the ice coated the walls. The channels were frozen.

"…Knew it," he groaned. "Guess the puppy got hungry while heading to the gate."

"You should take a squadron with you. It'll make things easier," Inumuta said.

"No. It's Saturday, and my boys need the rest," Uzu replied, shaking his head, and turning on his heel. He retired his hands from the pockets of his white, long coat. "I'll do this alone. How much time do I have?"

"You shouldn't worry about that. We know the gate hasn't been activated. The intense demonic energy produced by such an event would have rendered all my cameras and sensors useless. The seal won't let Cerberus interact with the gate, no matter how hard it tries to brute-force its way through it," Inumuta assured.

"You sound so sure about it," Uzu said and then shrugged his shoulders, eyes closed. "Well, if you say so…"

"Though we should still aim to capture it as soon as possible. Cerberus is a very valuable asset, and it's inadvisable to let such a strong and violent creature roam free," Inumuta stated.

"Heh, right…"

Uzu walked away, heading to the exit of Inumuta's Vigilance room. He held a hand up beside his face, a half-hearted farewell. "I'll go catch him, then. See ya later, bud."

He walked through the metal door, and it slid up closed once he stepped out of the room. He was getting tired of all the small colorful lights and buttons everywhere.

Uzu stood still, pensive.

"So he can't break through the seal, eh?" the young man questioned himself. He couldn't help but harbor the little lingering feeling that his comrade was underestimating the power of the demon. He thought back on Vergil.

(At first, he didn't think he would be a big deal, but the half-demon was able to defeat the Protos, and the Cavalieres sent after him. He also possessed the necessary strength and skill to overcome Lady Satsuki, their very leader. Uzu had gone to fight him, intending to have some light fun and nothing more, but then…)

Uzu closed his eyes.

He remembered the monster Vergil had become, remembered that tormenting voice of his, those wings of darkness.

He remembered how easily the beast slipped past his vision, too fast even for him.

If Vergil hadn't passed out when he did, Satsuki would not be breathing right now.

And there would have been nothing Uzu could have done to stop it.

He shook his head, shook the apprehension from his hide.

He opened his eyes, determined to carry out his mission.

---

The shower came and went. The cold water washed away the sewage and the blood from him, his encounter with the Behemoth marked only by the hideous bruise across his abdomen, that crossed paths with his stitched wound.

(It'd all disappear, regardless.)

The towel was hanging on a rusted handle, and so were his clothes. Aikuro had given him a black sleeveless shirt, along with blue pants. He didn't ask for them, but Vergil would be a damn fool to reject them, especially the blue pants.

He spared a brief, pondering look at the amulet resting on the toilet's tank.

(It'd never been a problem before. The amulet always stuck to him, no matter how intense his fights were. What changed?)

He exited the bathroom, fully dressed, his cleaned amulet on his neck, and with his previous set of clothes in hand. There was a basket just outside the backyard door where Aikuro had told him to throw the dirty clothes, so he headed there.

Having done that…

Vergil went to the living room. Aikuro was sitting on the rough couch held up by a pile of newspapers and books, feet on a makeshift table made with a wooden plank and bags with unknown contents in them to hold it up.

The man was holding a can. Vergil recognized it as beer, an alcoholic drink, and scoffed at the sight. Aikuro glanced at him. "What?"

"Is Kiryuin aware you intoxicate yourself, or do you keep it a secret so she doesn't fire you?" His lip curled. He wasn't fond of inebriated fools. "Your speech better not be slurred when you explain things to me."

"Hey now, I'm not that much of a lightweight!" Aikuro chuckled, though his smile appeared fake. He pointed to a corner of the kitchen. "There's more in the fridge if you want some."

He turned away from the man, arms folded. "I'll have to decline."

"Oh, well. Your loss."

Vergil sent a sideways look at him, skeptical.

Aikuro took one last sip and proceeded to set the beer can on the table. He let his back fall on the couch, and placed his arms stretched to the sides over the backrest, taking his feet off the table. His gaze went to Vergil, then to the empty spot on the sofa, and he finally set his gaze forward, not looking at anything in particular.

"Yes, I work for Kiryuin."

Vergil glanced at him, fully.

"Honnoji Academy needs teachers for the students to learn, after all. I offered my knowledge and experience to them." He set a foot over the other. "It gets a bit tiring, sometimes, telling them what this demon does and how… The ways demons operate… The species and the subspecies…"

Vergil considered the information and imagined what a classroom centered around the learning of demons would feel like. The last time he'd been to a classroom, he was small, frail, naive, and yet more focused than his classmates, more eager and driven to learn all he could than them. His little brother had only begun to grasp the concepts of addition and subtraction when Vergil was finished memorizing the seven times table. The teachers loved him.

What is wrong with being homeschooled?

Nothing, dear! The warm chuckles of his mother echoed in the caverns of his mind, dreamlike, forever distant. But don't you think they are a bit lonely here?

They have each other, do they not?

...The siblings didn't last more than a year in school.

"But when you take demons out of the equation, things are surprisingly normal, you know. I've seen students falling asleep during class, groups that won't shut up, students who answer and answer and seem to know everything there is to know…" Aikuro continued, and a smile settled on his face. "…oh, and just about nobody cares about History! It doesn't get more normal than that, does it?"

"That's not a question you should ask me."

He hadn't set foot in a classroom since childhood. How would he know what was normal and what wasn't? He heavily doubted things were the same in an elementary school and a high school.

Besides, these weren't things a demon would — should concern itself with.

"Oh… Right." Aikuro nodded and scratched the back of his head. "Well, anyway, that's pretty much all I do. I teach the students from Honnoji Academy, teach them a thing or two about demons for a living."

Vergil considered asking him why.

The payment couldn't be that good if he lived in this miserable little excuse for a home.

But Vergil didn't care about that.

And it wasn't his business to mind.

"Is that all Kiryuin orders you to do?"

"What else do you think I'd do? I'm a teacher, Vergil. I'm supposed to teach, nothing more."

"Yes, and students are supposed to study…" the half-demon retorted, with eyes narrowed. "…but I've seen what Kiryuin does with them."

Aikuro sent a curious if not a bit surprised look at him.

"You've met students wearing the Angelo Armors?"

So that's what these are all named.

Angel Armors.

Vergil smirked.

"I've done more than meet them. I bested them in battle."

"Wait, which rank are we talking about?" Aikuro asked. "Proto-Rank, Cavaliere-Rank, or Elite-Rank?"

The half-demon recalled easily. "I soundly defeated one who referred to himself as a Proto student, and another one who referred to himself as a Cavaliere student."

"Uh, and what about the Elites?"

The question made Vergil narrow his stare. "Elites?"

"There are four Elite-Rank students in Honnoji Academy, Vergil. They're Kiryuin's Elite Four, the strongest students in the city. Don't you know them?" Aikuro questioned, surprised.

But Vergil was already getting an idea of who they were.

He wasn't liking it.

"Those worthless sacks of excrement…" Vergil growled, remembering the loss, the humiliation, bringing his hate to life. His face twisted into a snarl. "I'll ensure their collective demise is the most gruesome thing imaginable."

"Whoa, that's…" Aikuro didn't know what to say at first, so he leaned away from Vergil, palms forward and facing him. "Okay, no need to get so aggressive… I guess you encountered them, and it didn't go well."

"The first one to die will be the overgrown one. He is taking up too much precious space in this world," Vergil declared. "I hope there's enough room for him in Hell."

"Are you talking about Gamagori?"

Vergil wasn't listening to Aikuro. He was too engrossed in his bright, crimson-red ideas for the future. "The next one will be the midget. Her voice was immensely grating on my ears. That's a sin her vocal cords will atone for when I tear them off with my fingers."

"That's Jakuzure, I suppose…"

"And then I'll kill the one who ripped my arm off."

Aikuro looked at each of Vergil's arms, both there. "Huh, am I to assume you can heal severed limbs…?"

"I can," Vergil affirmed, his attention finally returning to Aikuro. "It's rather easy, even."

"Then why didn't you heal your stomach yesterday?" the man questioned, baffled. "And why do I still see all those scratches on your arms? I don't think it's harder to heal these than to heal a limb!"

"It's Kiryuin's fault!" Vergil responded, irate. "Her sword did something to me. It made my wounds harder and harder to heal, made me waste more and more power in doing so, and at some point, I couldn't heal at all!"

He faced Aikuro fully, ensnared by the chains of anger as he lifted his black shirt until his abdomen was uncovered, revealing the stitched wound. "Do you think I am pleased to have this?! I should've never needed to have it stitched in the first place! It's an insult to what I am— what I'm supposed to be!"

Vergil let go of the shirt and turned away, a bitter scoff escaping him, "I don't know why I bother telling you this. You can't hope to understand it."

"No, I guess not…" Aikuro admitted, scratching the back of his head before leaning back on the couch and gazing at the ceiling. "…so that's why you were so hurt yesterday… I assumed the demons did all the damage, but it turns out you faced the Elite Four and Kiryuin."

He looked back to Vergil.

"It's impressive that you survived, you know."

Vergil kept silent at that because he recalled Satsuki's words following his refusal to become a member of Honnoji Academy, because he knew that if they wanted, the Elite Four could have killed him right then and there. His life was spared only because Satsuki believed he might prove useful to her later.

The half-demon found no merit in surviving.

"I do wonder if you fought them all at once," Aikuro stated with a strange kind of curiosity in his voice, as if he were gazing at a gun, wondering how quickly it could fire and reload. "Was that what happened?"

Vergil sent him a sideways stare. "And what if it did?"

"Then this might not be so bad for you after all!" Aikuro said. "It means you might have a chance at beating the Elite Four and Kiryuin if you fight them one by one."

"I've already overcome Kiryuin in a one-on-one battle," Vergil boasted, even though he shouldn't have seen the defeat of a mere human as an accomplishment. "Then she sicced her Elite Four on me, all three of… Wait."

"Three?" Aikuro echoed. "I thought all of them attacked you."

"There wasn't a fourth one!" Vergil said, glaring at Aikuro, then glaring at nothing. "Wait, no…"

He thought back to the overwhelming arrival of the Elite Four on the battlefield and remembered the four figures, four. The realization struck him. "There was a fourth one. I forgot about him… I don't recall him attacking me at all."

The glowing blue eyes through the dust curtain, someone Vergil hadn't seen during the combat, but that he knew was there, somewhere… Who was that? The discovery disturbed him. His beatdown could have been worse.

"So you weren't attacked by the four Elites, then," Aikuro said. "You were attacked by three of them, who I guess were Gamagori, Jakuzure, and Sanageyama."

Vergil did recall the names. His brows furrowed. "You are correct. What is the name of the fourth one?"

"He would be Inumuta."

"I see…" Vergil replied. He wouldn't forget the name.

"Okay, so you fought three of the Elite Four at once. That's nothing to scoff at!" Aikuro affirmed, smiling. His smile fell quickly, though. "Were they using their full power?"

"How would I know?" The question irked him.

"Well, all Angelo Armors above the Proto-Rank have a mechanism designed to restrain their full power. The Cavaliere-Rank students must absorb a strong demon to release it and the demon required depends on the type of armor. The Elite-Rank students don't need to, their armor is self-sufficient."

Vergil grunted in acknowledgment and listened intently, while also recalling what happened during his encounter with the Cavaliere student, how he broke Cerberus apart and the armor consumed him.

"These students can enter a transformed state when they remove the limiters imposed by the inner mechanism. The armor is destroyed during the transformation and returns when they turn back to normal. The damage suffered while transformed doesn't transfer to the user's normal state," Aikuro explained, leaning forward, placing his elbows on his knees, and bringing his hands together, gazing at Vergil, seriously. "Do you remember any of that happening?"

"It happened…" Vergil said, eyes on the floor. "…with the Cavaliere, but it was useless. I defeated him."

"And did it happen with the Elites?"

Vergil clenched his fists and bowed his head in the deepest kind of disgrace, now that he knew how the armors worked and remembered how his fight with the Elites went.

"No."

Aikuro sighed.

The man glanced at the beer can, for a moment.

"Very well. You lost to the Elite Four. You didn't make them use their full power. Is that correct?" the man asked.

And although Vergil didn't respond, the silence spoke grim volumes for him. Aikuro understood, and tried to think, to maintain some semblance of hope in the face of the circumstances, but he was still a bit disappointed, truth be told. "That's— That's not too bad, actually."

The half-demon growled, arms crossed, and eyes enraged. "I don't need your blasted pity."

"It's not pity, Vergil…" Aikuro said, to soothe his sour mood. "The Elite Four are the strongest in Honnoji Academy, leagues above those who are ranked beneath them. You lost to them, so what? It's nothing to be ashamed of."

"It's easy for you to say it! You are nothing but a weak, frail human! If I wanted to, I could tear you apart right here and now, effortlessly!" Vergil snapped. "I'm not a mere human, I'm a demon! And demons aren't supposed to yield to— to humans!"

"The Elite Four wield demonic power…" Aikuro pointed out. "Their ridiculous amount of power can't be entirely attributed to them. You shouldn't be so hard on yourself, Vergil."

"I'm not…!"

But the half-demon paused.

The half-demon reflected.

The half-demon looked past the deep humiliation, the pitiful loss that ate at his brain, blinding him every time his memory brought it back. He looked past the wrath consuming him, the desolation gripping his heart and threatening to crush it in the hold, the Yamato's stinging absence.

Aikuro was right.

The Elite Four, for all their power, were still utilizing demonic energy to fuel their equipment, to bring them to the level of demons. No human was meant to be as powerful as a demon, and knowing this, it was clear that they would need some sort of weapon to fight them on even terms. The humans weren't the ones with power— The demonic armors were!

Even Satsuki, whose strength and skill had amazed him during their battle, was still using a weapon to counteract his healing factor, Bakuzan, and she tasted bitter defeat at his hands. Without armor like the ones her pawns used, she couldn't hold a candle to him; as soon as he reached the peak of his concentration, her fate was sealed.

The realization managed to bring some peace of mind to him, surprisingly.

He looked at Aikuro, who watched him, expectant.

Vergil averted his gaze, preferring to stare at the kitchen. His voice was a tad bit hesitant when he deigned to speak again, "I suppose there might be some truth to what you say…"

The man stifled a chuckle.

Vergil glared at him immediately. "What?"

"It's nothing."

He said that.

Yet Vergil could still see his smile.

"Well, as I said, the Elite Four are the strongest around here. You've already encountered them, so I assume I don't have to tell you who they are and what they do here," Aikuro said. "Unless you don't know…"

The half-demon pondered this.

He didn't know who the Elite Four bunch were beyond the fact that they were that: the Elite Four. He knew their names, and he knew how they looked, or at least how their armor looked, but anything else was a mystery, as was what they did in Honnoji Academy — stealing precious swords at the command of their contemptible leader notwithstanding.

But it wasn't his concern.

"I don't care."

The only thing that concerned him regarding them was the way they would meet their end. Anything else would only amount to minor, unnecessary details and knowledge, or so he believed.

And besides…

"This conversation has steered in the wrong direction long enough. I was supposed to learn about you and your occupation," Vergil pointed out, eyes narrow. "You said that the only thing you are meant to do is teach, but hasn't Kiryuin bestowed Angelo Armors upon you too? I'm certain a teacher in the field of demons could have just as much if not more value using it than most students."

Aikuro nodded, glancing at his beer. He picked it up and took a tame sip. "You're right. An adult who knows his stuff would no doubt be able to bring out the best of the Angelo Armors…" His face became dull. "…guess she just doesn't trust her adult staff the same way she can trust her easily inspired, manipulable teenage students. I've never been given any kind of armor — or similar equipment — during my time here."

"Hmm…"

Vergil considered this and found himself gazing at the poor cracked walls around them, the precarious, small kitchen, and the makeshift living room. Aikuro lived in pitiful conditions, and Vergil wondered why he even worked here.

"It also looks like she hasn't given you proper dwellings either," the half-demon observed. Aikuro snorted.

"Nah, I chose to live here," the man said. "I could afford better living conditions, but I've gotten used to this, you know. It's not that bad! Hey, what's that look for?"

Vergil, who had sent a stare full of skepticism his way, scoffed, "Are you sure learning about demons and living near them hasn't driven you insane, human?"

"Why, are you a psychologist?" Aikuro asked, a grin on his face. "What's the cost of the consultation?"

Vergil grumbled. He wasn't amused. "It's cheap, much like your sense of humor."

The man, rather than acting insulted as Vergil wanted, laughed. "Ouch! Good one."

He took another sip of his beer and set it back on the table, empty.

The smile on his face faded. The man looked at the floor, clasping his two hands together, thoughtful.

"Can you tell me something, Vergil?"

The half-demon raised an eyebrow.

"Those students you encountered, the Proto and the Cavaliere…" Aikuro looked at him. "What happened to them?"

"I defeated them with tremendous ease. They stood no chance," Vergil responded, eager to make it clear that he was superior to them. "I already told you."

"Yes, I know. What I mean is, what happened to them after you beat them?"

And Vergil understood, then. "Oh, they died."

His answer was uncaring and cold. The matter wasn't particularly important to him.

"Did you kill them?"

Aikuro's voice was devoid of the ease that filled it during their whole talk in the house, much like it was when he'd dared Vergil to kill him.

"I did not slay them personally, but I am still responsible for their deaths."

Vergil was honest.

"Who attacked first?"

"What's the point of this interrogation?" Vergil questioned, patience running thin. "We are wasting time, and you still haven't told me the reason why you helped me, which, I remind you, is the main motive I have for returning here."

"It can wait. This is more important."

"I disagree."

"Vergil."

The half-demon stared the man, dead in the eye.

The man did the same, unflinching.

Vergil folded his arms, ever severe. "If I told you that Kiryuin sent them after me, would you forget about it? If I told you that they initiated the fight, would you shut up about it? Is there some sort of insecurity within your human soul that begs to be soothed by the confirmation that it wasn't I who sought conflict with your kin, but the opposite, Mikisugi?"

Aikuro was immediately startled when Vergil used his name to refer to him. It was the first time he did it, and it was charged with infinite disdain.

"Well, is that it?" Vergil smirked, absolutely cruel. "Do you want me to justify my deeds, soften them as self-defense? The fact that I caused their deaths will remain. It did not matter to me when they perished, and it does not matter to me right now. I couldn't care less for the lives of humans."

"Ah?" Aikuro let out, and an unexpectedly audacious grin spread over his face. "And what about the children?"

The comment caught him off-guard.

The comment struck deep.

"You remember them, don't you?" Aikuro followed up. "The ones who were attacked by the Behemoth."

"You were there?" Vergil questioned, baffled.

"I arrived right in time to see you telling one of them to run away, to see you protect them from the Behemoth's tongue as they fled… Not a bad chop, let me tell you. Yes, I was there." The man appeared to be relishing the advantage he had gained over him, the little inconsistency he had found in his callous statements. "What about them? If you didn't care about them, you would've let them die."

The half-demon was at a loss for words to explain himself. The gears of his mind spun and spun and spun to seek a swift, convincing answer with which to shut Aikuro up, but the seconds were passing, and he couldn't think of anything and—

"Do you want to know what I think?" Aikuro asked. "I think that for all your talk of not caring about us, there is a part of you that does care. If there isn't, then why did you protect those weak, frail children? You gained nothing from it, and considering you were sick, you risked your life doing it."

The half-demon felt frustrated when the man used the same words he used to question him earlier, right before he asked him if he truly needed a reason to help, right before Vergil called him foolish for it.

He couldn't let this go on.

"You are a fool. Those children were nothing but a thought in the back of my mind! I required nourishment to accelerate my recovery, and the Behemoth just so happened to be right there for the taking!" Vergil exclaimed.

"I don't believe you. If those children were truly just a thought in the back of your mind, then why did you tell the kid who was unhurt to flee, to take his friend with him?" Aikuro countered, unrelenting and merciless. "It doesn't make sense to me."

Vergil growled, turning away. "I'm not speaking of this with you."

"Why not?" Aikuro questioned.

"It's an irrelevant matter, all of it! The notions you have of me are preposterous at best, and I will hear none of it. It's not what I came here for, so forget it!" Vergil demanded, too ready to drop the topic, too eager to end this idiocy.

(The truth was something far more personal than merely compassion and care for useless children. The truth was something he couldn't let anyone know, a horrible ache and powerlessness that kept haunting him to this very day. He'd been a kid too, after all. He knew what it was to be weak.)

To his profound relief, Aikuro went silent.

The man glanced at him with what Vergil could only deem as a meticulous stare, and then…

"If that's what you want."

The compliance made Vergil relax somewhat. He kept his arms folded, though, always guarded.

They spent a few minutes like that, silent, with Vergil sometimes looking at Aikuro from the corner of his eye. Aikuro set the legs over the table the same way he had when Vergil came to the living room after his shower.

"Are you feeling well, Vergil?" the man asked.

"Yes," Vergil replied. To consume demon blood and flesh had done him good. The pain and weakness from earlier were nearly a memory, too dulled for him to care. It had already become clear to him that he would recover, perhaps faster and easier than he thought. If he kept eating demons, neither the poison nor whatever Satsuki had introduced in his body would stand a chance.

"Do you plan on taking on the Elite Four?"

The half-demon stiffened. His arms fell beside his hips, fists clenched. He glared at Aikuro with murderous eyes. "I will have my vengeance, not even their combined efforts will save them from it."

Aikuro sent a thoughtful look to him.

"It's too soon to be making such claims, don't you think?" Aikuro asked, a lopsided smile on his face. "You should tread carefully, Vergil. You should take some time to heal."

The man looked out a cracked window. "The city will be filled with demons when the night falls. You could…" He paused. "...eat them, I guess."

"Why do I have to wait?" Vergil questioned. "You mentioned demons hide in the sewers. I could hunt them there."

"Well, then you'd probably have to go to the other districts. I'm pretty sure the sewers below us are empty," Aikuro stated, but he shrugged his shoulders. "I could be wrong, though. A Behemoth came out of them, after all."

The man stood up from the couch, and walked past Vergil, to the stairs.

"Where do you think you are going? We aren't done here."

Aikuro halted his walk to stare back at Vergil. "I'm going to the bathroom. I've got needs; you know."

The half-demon blinked. "Oh."

Aikuro chuckled, shaking his head. He turned to the stairs.

"Really, Vergil, you should wait for nightfall if you want to hunt demons. It'll give you time to rest a bit more, and the best part is that you won't have to enter the smelly sewers again. It's their domain, and who knows what you might catch there."

"I'm immune to all illnesses and infections," Vergil affirmed, confident.

But Aikuro countered easily, "It sure didn't seem like that earlier."

The man then stepped up the stairs.

And Vergil was left alone and doubting himself.

---

"Permission Required."

"It's me, Inumuta. Open this crap so I can get this over with."

"Permission Acquired. Access Granted."

The twin steel doors slid open, and Uzu stepped out of the academy sewer's anteroom and into the white-lit elevator. The doors slid closed behind him, and the machine began its descent.

"You know, you really should have taken a squadron with you, Sanageyama. You could cover more territory that way."

The voice of Inumuta came from the intercom installed on the coat. Uzu brought a finger to his nose, disinterested. "I've already told you, the Blade Angels need to rest, it's Saturday."

"Are you worried they might die in Level Four?"

Uzu's eye twitched.

"Nah. If they die, they die and that's that, just means they weren't strong enough," Uzu replied easily. "No room for weaklings here and all that, but today's their free day, and I can do this alone."

"…I see."

The elevator lights switched colors, becoming red.

"Entering Level One."

"Hey, isn't Level One empty? You know, because of Vergil," Uzu asked.

"The portion of Level One that is under the slums is empty. The other areas still have demons crawling in them," Inumuta said. "We'll have to relocate some of the specimens from the other areas there, so they reproduce, and the population is restored."

"Yeah. We'll also need a Behemoth…" Uzu remembered, feeling an immense amount of laziness upon doing so.

"Entering Level Two."

Uzu could hear the roars of the beasts outside the doors. They had no doubt detected him, what with the immense demonic power he possessed.

"The sig..l is weakening, Sanageya.."

"I know, I know."

"The incre...ng density of the demonic energy down there is m...ing with the comm...cations. I won't be able to give … indications when you reach L..el Three. You'll be on your own."

"That's fine by me."

"WARNING!"

The voice from the elevator caught Uzu's attention.

The warning was deep and intimidating, designed to startle, to alarm, so even though he knew this was most probably going to be an easy task for him to complete, he felt a small hint of nervousness within, along with excitement.

The elevator would stop at Level Three, and he would have to break through the threats littering it to reach Level Four, and then Level Five, all to finally reach the gate chamber to see if Cerberus was there.

"Don't hurt C..rberus too badly, Sa…n…yama. The longer it takes…recover, the longer it takes for…usable."

Uzu cracked his knuckles.

"I promise nothing."

And then, the signal went off.

"ENTERING LEVEL THREE!"

The elevator's intense descent speed slowed, and slowed, and slowed down…

…until the elevator stopped moving.

The doors slid open.

"PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION!"

Uzu was greeted by the sight of various demons roaming around the walls, growling, and roaring. They all looked at the door. His scent would soon enter their noses, and their predatory instincts would no doubt kick in.

"Hey there!"

The three metal spikes on each of Uzu's shoulders went from gray to black, and stretched to his chest, piercing through the green shirt beneath his coat and going through his heart.

His white coat became as dark as night, then transformed into a miniature tornado of dark green that devoured him whole. The immense energy produced a shockwave that startled the demons closest to the elevator.

The tornado cleared quickly, revealing Uzu, covered in armor as black as the night, with star-like dots all over it. The viridian lines running through the white horns of his helmet shone, charged with power from Hell.

"Wanna play?"

---

Vergil expected Aikuro to return to the living room.

He didn't expect him to spare a short glance at him, then head to the house's exit door and begin unlocking it. Vergil snarled, "Human!"

"Hmm?" Aikuro looked at him over the shoulder.

"Who in the world permitted you to leave?" Vergil questioned.

"This is my house!" Aikuro laughed, facing him with hands in his pockets, leaning to the door. "So, you want me to stay, huh? I didn't think you'd begin enjoying my company so soon."

"What a ridiculous delusion. There's still something you haven't told me!" Vergil exclaimed, stepping towards him. "Why did you help me?"

Aikuro's grin vanished. The man's gaze lingered on the amulet hanging from Vergil's neck. "Hmm, let's leave that for another time."

"That's not your choice."

"I'm going to check on the kid you saved. It's important."

Vergil's eyes widened. He didn't expect that.

"The kid…?"

"The one whose leg was eaten," Aikuro clarified. "I left him in a Back-Alley Clinic not too far from here. Gotta see how he's doing."

Vergil blinked.

Vergil shook his head. "Do you think I am concerned about that worthless child? He is unimportant in comparison to this. We aren't done here."

Aikuro shrugged his shoulders. He didn't feel like contesting Vergil right now, to argue if he cared or didn't. He already tried. "Well, if he's none of your concern, he has to be someone's concern. I can be that someone."

"Is he not in a clinic?" Vergil asked, irritated. "There. He is somebody's concern. If they treat him well, he will survive. If they don't, then he will die. Why would you need to go there?"

"Because I want to, Vergil."

He let the statement fall with heaviness unmatched by anything he ever said. Vergil was taken aback.

"I'll come back. No need to be so sad!" Aikuro said, again with that easygoing, if somewhat dull tone of his, turning to the door. He opened it as soon as he unlocked it, and the light from the early afternoon licked at the living room, the warmth kissing Vergil's bare feet. "You can pick out something from the bookshelf while you wait for me. I'm not sure why, but I've got the feeling you're into reading."

"What?"

Another unexpected statement, another time Aikuro surprised him.

The man exited the house. Vergil snapped out of his confusion, "Human!"

But too late.

Aikuro closed the door and locked it from the outside.

And it wasn't like Vergil couldn't easily bypass it by teleporting out of the house. He could do that, and he could stop Aikuro in his tracks, force him to stay here, and spit everything Vergil wanted to know. It was this knowledge that made Vergil wonder why he didn't do all that, why did he allow the man to leave.

The answer came to Vergil in the shape of a child, a puddle of blood, and echoes of cries resounding in his mind's ear. He snarled, frustrated.

It wasn't okay.

He wasn't okay.

And neither was that blasted bookshelf, with close to no books on it, almost empty. What did the man even have it for if he wasn't going to set books on it? Fool, Aikuro was such a stupid fool. Vergil decided it from that very moment.

There was nothing but irritated resignation in the way Vergil marched to the stairs, stepped to the house's upper floor, and entered the room he woke up in. He intended to lie down for a bit — not because Aikuro told him to, of course — and try to remember what happened last night, again, but…

His eyes fell on the books spread everywhere, making a disaster that blighted his sight, something that he, now that he looked at it without skull-splitting headaches and intense weakness pestering him, couldn't withstand, not with the knowledge that there was a bookshelf standing tall downstairs.

The next half-hour or so was spent picking up books from the floor and the carton boxes, even those under the rough sofa he woke up in. He picked them up and set them all on the bookshelf downstairs. For someone who lived in a crude, two-floor shack, Aikuro sure had plenty of books.

(It was very probable they were all property of Honnoji Academy. It was a school, after all. The staff must have permitted one of their teachers to borrow them.)

He organized them, often giving a curious glance at the cover that would greet him each time he picked up a book. He realized most if not all of them weren't something that would be easily found in a normal library, related to the occult in some way — forbidden, haunted games, how to enrage an evil spirit, a guide to gaining extrasensory abilities, summoning rituals, alchemy…

…and of course, Hell, and demons.

The bestiary from earlier, a book describing the geography of Hell, a book that spoke of the vegetation from Hell, another one that explained the nature of portals between worlds, the concept of demonic energy, how to become a demon…

He was familiar with some of them. He even recognized Dante's Inferno among the books! It stood out to him because that one could be found rather easily in a human library. Vergil recalled his parents owned the three installments that made up The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The half-demon had been so eager to devour them back then…

The last words Aikuro said before leaving entered his mind while he organized the last batch of books he found, and looked at the bookshelf, no longer empty, fulfilling the purpose for which it was built.

He smiled, a sense of pride swelling in his chest.

His smile did not last, eyes on the bookshelf but not really on it.

"How would he know?"

His vocabulary, perhaps. Aikuro must have noticed it.

Yes. It had to be that. What else could it have been?

Vergil looked at the house's exit door and stared out the cracked window beside it. Kiryuin was still outside, still with his sword, with her victorious Elite Four. He couldn't let it be. He couldn't. He needed to hunt demons, needed to gain power, right now.

He stared at the bookshelf.

You were poisoned.

You should take some time to heal.

His will wavered.

His hand rose, hesitant, to the bookshelf, as if afraid it would burn him if he dared touch it. It was impossible, it was foolish. He would regret this, wouldn't he? There was no time for this. There was no time to wait for Aikuro to return. He needed to gain power, he needed to enter the sewers and look for—

His fingers grasped the pleasant texture of a random book's front and back cover.

(Just a little leisure reading couldn't hurt, right?)

Vergil picked up the book, eyes landing on the cover. The Earth was there, and there was a leafless, gray-colored tree coming from it, so tall it escaped the world and scratched outer space. The book was titled 'The Forbidden Fruit Born of Blood and Death'.

He frowned. "I already read this one…"

Vergil returned the book to where he picked it from. He picked the one closest to it, careful not to disorganize the books. He glanced at the cover; a shadowed, demonic figure with downward-facing horns was staring back at him, with piercing crimson eyes.

The book was titled 'The Greatest Rebellion'.

Vergil set it back on the bookshelf, without a word, without hesitation, without a thought.

Then, with a frown on his face and a knot in his chest, forced himself to pick it again.

(It had been ten years since he disappeared, ten years since they deemed him dead. The memories, the sorrow, the desperate longing for someone who never returned… He was supposed to be over these feelings. He was a child no more.)

He stared at the monster on the book's cover, determined.

Vergil went to the couch, made himself comfortable on it, crossed his legs, and opened the book.

The story went the same way it always went. He knew it like the palm of his hand. The name of the story tended to be changed with each different iteration created in different countries, and sometimes minor changes occurred to the tale, but the core story was always the same; an immensely powerful demon who rebelled against his kind alone, who opposed the Prince of Darkness and his legion, all for the sake of humanity, for the sake of the woman he loved, two thousand years before age.

(He always wondered who it was. It couldn't have been Mother, she was human. She couldn't be alive during that time.)

The book said the might of this demon knew no bounds, and with it, he sealed the underworld and its inhabitants away forever, so they could bring no more suffering and death to humanity. He utilized plenty of his powers in doing this, sealing them away too.

(Forever? This book was inaccurate. Demons kept showing up in the human world from time to time, through portals that opened randomly. It could happen everywhere.)

The book was a rather simplified, shortened version of the tale. It omitted many important parts, and the words used were not too varied, making it easy to read too, accessible for those who found reading difficult. The half-demon couldn't say he was fond of this, as it didn't take him long to finish reading.

And he ended up feeling a bit sleepy, for some reason.

Vergil released a yawn and stood up, book in hand. He headed to the bookshelf and set the book back where he picked it from. His eyes traveled the bookshelf, and he chose another book, this time from the upper part of the bookshelf.

It was titled 'The Ancient Darkness Claw' and there was an ethereal, quadrupedal creature with ruby-colored eyes and long teeth that sat on the book's cover. It resembled the extinct Smilodon, or perhaps he should say the Smilodon resembled it? Well, no matter. Vergil deemed it interesting.

It took him a while to read. The book spoke of the battles between human armies and a particular kind of demon, in a time before the underworld was sealed away by the Legendary Dark Knight.

(His heartbeat was slowing. Huh?)

Well, 'battles' was a rather strong word to describe the one-sided butchering that the book narrated, in favor of the shadowy demons that were sent by the Dark Emperor to annihilate entire cities and civilizations. The human knights and the weapons they built stood no chance against them and there was detail and care put into it, to successfully convey the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and tragedy that the situation would no doubt bring. Vergil almost felt bad for the human protagonist!

(His breathing was relaxing…)

When he was done reading it, Vergil decided he enjoyed it, it was most entertaining. He looked all over the book in search of the author, but there was no one to attribute the story's creation. For shame, he would have liked to know more about his work.

He closed the book.

His eyelids were beginning to feel heavy. It couldn't be boredom; he liked the book. Aikuro was such an idiot for not keeping it on the bookshelf where it'd be easy and quick to find…

...so, Vergil set it back on the bookshelf. He was smart, not like Aikuro. He valued well-written material, unlike Aikuro…

…Vergil returned to the couch. He didn't sit, he lay down on his back. He yawned again. How long had he been reading? The sun…

…he could see the afternoon sunlight outside the window. It entered the living room, coloring the floor vermilion…

…Vergil vaguely realized Aikuro hadn't returned…

"Hmm, what does it matter…?" he asked himself, drowsy.

He blinked.

He blinked again.

Vergil accommodated himself. He was careful and conscious enough in his growing sleepiness to keep his arms on the couch, hands over his abdomen, protecting it.

He blinked.

He blinked again.

And then his eyelids wouldn't open, far too heavy for him.

His consciousness was gradually forsaken, and every breath was a step closer to oblivion, where nothing mattered, where he could disappear and rest until his energy was restored. His sleep was unexpected, but not unwelcome.

---

Nothing.

Nothing.

And then, like ice melted by intense flames, his tranquility was destroyed. The eyes of Cerberus burst open, and his gaze snapped upward as he rose from his lying position and to his feet.

"I sense someone powerful approaching…"

He could feel it in his bones.

He could feel it in his nose.

The tremendous depth at which he was hardly mattered for his supernatural perception and senses. He inhaled hard as recognition slowly crept in with the grace of certain defeat, perhaps even death.

The demon released an enraged growl, "You lowlife…"

He knew who this was!

He knew why he was here!

And he…

…he…

He would DIE!

An intense explosion of ice froze the chamber, reaching the shield around the massive gates at the center of the room, impacting it, but doing nothing to it. It wasn't like it mattered to Cerberus, though. He had given up on destroying it not long ago.

"I was waiting for you to come!" he barked, eyes hateful and murderous. A smile settled on the creature's face as it circled the shield, eager for the arrival of whom he considered his greatest enemy, the person who earned his extreme, undying resentment.

---

The Empusa roared, right before getting the head crushed by the toughest shinai on the planet. The blood and brains exploded out onto the concrete floor.

Uzu tossed the convulsing insectoid body to the Hell Antenora approaching him from behind. The lifeless Empusa was sliced in two by the swing of the hunched-back creature's cleaver, and the Hell Antenora kept rushing to Uzu.

A Riot chose that very moment to leap at Uzu from the ceiling. The curved claws broke when the Elite brought his forearm beside his head, intercepting the slash.

"Laaameee…"

(Level Three was so easy to break through…)

With a rapid movement of his hips, Uzu drove his shinai through the Riot's chest and out the beast's back. The Riot vomited blood, and then Uzu slammed it to the wall, right as he stepped forward and delivered a rushing heel kick to the Hell Antenora.

The Hell Antenora was knocked back, but it soon stood back up, veins around the body glowing purple. Uzu shook the Riot off his shinai as the Hell Antenora charged at him.

The Hell Antenora slashed at him.

The Elite parried the cleaver with a firm movement of his head, his horn pushing the weapon away, destabilizing the demon.

The horns sparked once.

A viridian, disintegrating blast devoured the Hell Antenora in an instant. The demon never stood a chance.

---

"I am ready this time…!"

Cerberus glanced at the corpses surrounding him, the frozen corpses of various demons he found in the lower levels of Honno City's sewers, the strongest he could find and kill for his purposes.

"I will be waiting for you!" Cerberus exclaimed, eager for revenge, eyes on the gates protected by the magical shield. The incredible density of demonic power down here could play in his favor; the strength of demons was boosted when they were so close to home, in a place irradiated by so much energy…

Yes!

This time would be different.

This time, he would win! He would kill the one who captured him! He would make him regret it until the moment Cerberus ripped his crying and begging head off his body, with his jaws!

This time would be different!

---

Author's Note:

Welp, there it is, the seventh chapter! This one didn't want to be finished, guys. There was always a small detail I wasn't quite comfortable with, but I managed to complete it in the end. I hope you all liked it; I spent a while writing and re-writing it. If you didn't like it, though, that's fine; I think I've made this clear in the previous author's notes, but criticism will be just as welcomed as positive comments.

As always, I'll respond to the reviews from the previous chapter:

-Lightblade1121: It's Vergil's deepest fear, loss. The more it happens to him, the more he succumbs to his inner demons, or as you say, Urizen. Luckily, Aikuro was there to retrieve the amulet.

Ah, the feeding! It was a scene inspired by the Visions of V manga, as another reviewer pointed out. The fact that V was willing to consume demon meat got me thinking that he might have inherited it from Vergil, which is where the bloody scene from chapter six comes from.

It's something I'll elaborate more on in future chapters, but since Red Orbs are more of a gameplay mechanic than anything with narrative value in Devil May Cry, I chose not to include them. I don't recall them even appearing in Visions of V when demons are killed either, so that made them have even less of a presence in my mind when writing. The earliest, discarded drafts of chapter six did introduce the orbs, though! I'll make this question for all those who are reading this note; what do you think, should I have included the orbs? If so, why? I want to hear your thoughts!

And, dude, you're the first guy who reviewed chapter six! You also did it on the same day I posted it, so I'm pretty sure you are paying attention to this story, which makes me glad. Is there something else confusing you aside from the feeding scene?

Finally, you are right! Vergil is gonna need a weapon to make up for the Yamato's absence. I wonder what — or who — will it be.

-spookyfool: I mean, death can be indiscriminate. It might have favorites such as old or very ill people, but it can reach everyone. It's heartbreaking, but a lot of children die in the real world, so I thought it'd be unfair not to include something like that in a story where humans fight against horrible things from Hell, much less Devil May Cry, where apocalypses are at the order of the day — the Temen-ni-gru incident, Arius's near successful summoning of Argosax, Fortuna, the Qliphoth's rise — and people besides Dante and the main cast can't do much about it except cry and beg their deaths are as quick and painless as possible.

I suppose you say the chapter's pace was different from the previous ones because the fighting wasn't the focus of it, happening and ending in the last paragraphs. It's curious, the chapters with fewer action scenes are the ones I'm taking the most to write, but there has to be a respite from the combat. It's why the only fight scene written for chapter seven was so short.

Uh, Aikuro, who knows what he's up to...

Thanks for being understanding! I wouldn't want to keep y'all waiting for too long still. It happens like that, one month turns into two, two into four, four into eight, and then time is simply gone, and you haven't written in years. Let's hope it doesn't end up like that!

-not a guest: Damn, you really want the Elite Four to die! Why's that? I know they didn't die in canon, but with a storm such as Vergil approaching… I suppose anything could be possible.

-Null: The mystery will be solved soon. Vergil's recovery from his poisoning is progressing at an astounding rate. He will remember everything and perhaps have a realization or two about himself, and yeah, he's lucky to be a son of Sparda; what he went through would have killed anyone else.

I've been delving more into Vergil's human side during chapters six and seven. His hesitation to kill Aikuro, his empathy, and compassion towards the kids who were attacked, how much the amulet means to him, his fondness of books, the dream he had of his father, and the last thing he gifted him… I intend to keep showing more of this side of him, but be wary, where there is light there is darkness, and Vergil's far too close to the latter.

The fact that Vergil was so ready to kill the monstrous Arkham as soon as he was done using him for the completion of his ambitions can tell you a lot about the character's mindset concerning helping and being helped. It's easy to believe he would struggle to understand someone who helps others for the sake of it. In the end, he is calmed by Aikuro's confession, though he doesn't get all the answers he desires yet.

Mako's approaching! I already mentioned a certain Back-Alley Clinic in this chapter…

I'm glad you liked the pacing! It's among the most important things to me when writing a story. I admit I am not too confident with the pacing of this story, but I hope I'm developing things appropriately. If someone else has a comment regarding this, then, by all means, post it! I want everything to flow as smoothly as possible.

I admit I wasn't sure what genres would Heart's Burial deserve to be assigned. It's a story where there is a struggle with horrifying and supernatural things from Hell, but there are more genres it can easily fit into — Family and Friendship will be especially prevalent, for example. There's also the genre implied by the Character Tags.

We are nearing Ryuko's arrival with each chapter posted! Between her, the demons, and Vergil, things will be chaotic in Honno City.

I can safely say — after playing Devil May Cry 5 — that Nero's my favorite character in the franchise. I'm such a big fan of him, his gameplay, and his "FUCK YOU" moment that I decided to save him for way later; keep the best for last and all that.

And as always, I'm grateful to have people who are so fond of this story! Thanks for reading and reviewing!

-Guest: I did enjoy writing Aikuro's introduction. I tried to keep him in character while also showing certain, small aspects that are different from his canon self. He's not taking every opportunity to undress, for example.

There's more to Vergil than being a ruthless, power-hungry killing machine. It took him a lot to come to terms with this in canon. I hope these last two chapters have given a good insight into this!

And that's it! I hope you guys keep reviewing. It's fun for me to answer y'all, and I'm glad to see the audience feels comfortable and invested enough to comment on what I write.

We'll see each other in the next chapter! Farewell!