Devil May Cry © Capcom
On the Mats
Jason M. Lee
Never had Vergil been ever so glad that he had listened to Sparda on practicing without any Devil Arms. Close-quarters combat sparring with Sláine was interesting, blankly staring at the ceiling of the dojo they were borrowing. Beowulf had granted knowledge and guided some of the moves, but trying to replicate them without the Arm had shown that he still needed training - activated seals dampened demonic power, putting them at human levels on par of professional martial artists. Sláine might not be as powerful as he or Dante were (although all three were still young), but the doctor absolutely outpaced him in moves. Vergil would try to punch, Sláine would redirect his momentum away. Vergil tried a kick, Sláine tossed him heads over heel halfway across the mats. A roundhouse kick would be blocked before being redirected, tossed and slammed face down.
"Continue?" the dark-hair half-devil asked, offering the chilled thermos.
Vergil blinked away the dripping sweat as he sipped gratefully. They had been sparring for hours, and he knew that it was far past midnight. Strange, to lose track of time but he had been rather focused.
/"Too many mind again, Master,"/ Yamato spoke from where she was leaning against the bench.
A rueful smile. Truth, as he had been thinking on how to defend Nero should he lose his demon powers, mentally running through near endless "what if" scenarios. Lady had brought in notes about spells, runes, items, and wards humans used to weaken devils, which had sent Vergil into a mad research spiral. Dante had also suggested on trying to fight like humans, no powers. Sláine had offered and after some pushing from Sparda, Vergil accepted.
Centering, Vergil re-positioned himself, as did Sláine.
Stillness.
A cricket chirped once.
Spin on ball, target with right heel, and reverse turn kick with his left foot that Sláine blocked but got hit in the face by the following round kick. It didn't send either of them upwards like it normally would if he had been using Beowulf, but it did what Vergil wanted, causing the older half-devil to stumble back a bit. Rubbing his smarting cheek, Sláine smiled and bowed slightly.
Vergil's smirk was as bright as the rising sun finally cresting through the window slats.
A/N: Part of Johnny Luuu's DMCtober 2020 prompts on Twitter (handle johnnyluuuarts) at the time, Day 15 "Rising Sun." Follows "Pluck the Vibrating Strings."
What I tried to describe towards the end is Rising Sun, one of Vergil's kicks in 3SE with Beowulf equipped. From what I was able to figure out, it looked like a combination of two kick moves from taekwando (which Dan Southworth, Vergil's voice actor and motion capture actor, apparently practices). Vergil starts with a reverse turning kick (or spinning hook kick), which is then followed by something resembling a round kick, or what resembles a roundhouse kick.
"Too many mind" is a line from the film The Last Samurai that starred Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe. It's where Algren (Cruise) was attempting to learn kenjutsu, and he gets his butt handed to him because he's thinking too much, so the advice is to "no mind," mushin 無心.