Part 7

I opened my eyes and blinked myself back to reality. Everything came crashing back to me so quickly that a gasp took my next breath, and my heartbeat picked up pace, thundering as if I’d just finished running a marathon.

A pair of hard piercing blue eyes stared back at me. No, they positively glared back at me.

A stiff expression hung on that face, and lips that were supposed to be perfect and simply just gorgeous ended up pulled in a hard line. The hard, define cheekbones stuck out at me, catching the sun ray that shone in from a window somewhere at the side, and I couldn’t not stop myself from admiring how the 5 o’clock shadow showed upon on slightly unshaven face.

“I want neither to understand nor an explanation of how and why you got here. Get out of my room.” He growled when it was obvious to him that I was fully awake, the hard hostile expression morphing into a scowl.

I am ashamed to say that I yelped at the tone of his voice. God, I must have appeared to be such a wimp to him. I had wanted to be the mysterious girl to him, since he’d made no effort to be nice to me. Yelping pretty much destroyed that effect, hadn’t it?

“I-I’m sorry.” I scrambled quickly to get out of the comfortable bed, looking around quickly to confirm the fact that I wasn’t in my room. I didn’t even remember falling asleep, much less coming over to Devil May Cry at all. I don’t remember walking up the stairs into his room. In fact, I don’t remember how I got in here.

“Don’t bother with apologies. Know that I don’t like your being here, and it would do yourself great service if you were to simply leave. I understand that Dante has given you leave to enter his life, but never assume that you can waltz in the same way into my life and my room.” Vergil bit out further, straightening as I stood at the opposite side of the bed from him.

I admit I could have come up with some badass phrase to throw back at him, but I wisely chose not to, considering the fact that he had Yamato at his side, and I had just woken up from a sleep I didn’t remember falling into, weaponless. So I swallowed my words, nodded embarrassedly at his threat, and tried to appear meek and afraid so that he wouldn’t think of harming me. While I could be sure that Dante wouldn’t do anything to harm a woman, I wasn’t so sure with Vergil. I never knew what he was thinking about, anyway.

“I… I understand. I-I’ll just go now.” I stuttered a little, but Vergil made no acknowledgement whatsoever as to hearing me.

“I don’t understand why you think to stick around in Devil May Cry, around Dante. But know this: if you ever try to harm Dante in any form and any way, I will not hesitate to rip your heart from your body and crush it within the palm of my hands.” He continued quietly as I stepped quickly over to the door. His unveiled threat shocked me so much that I stopped right before the door, hesitating with my hand outstretched for the doorknob.

I never really imagined Vergil being so fiercely protective of his brother –considering how he had tried to kill Dante three times in DMC3. But something must have obviously happened to him, and it was obvious that he viewed me as the threat.

“I’m not here to harm Dante.” I said, feeling the need to vindicate myself despite the fact that Vergil probably wouldn’t believe a single word of mine. “I don’t want to be here as much as you don’t want me here. I want to go home too. But I don’t know how. And if I don’t go home in time… I don’t know what’s going to happen to me too. So don’t you worry, I don’t have time to be plotting to harm Dante.”

I didn’t stay around to hear more insults coming from his stupid stoic face. I slammed the door behind me and ran down the stairs, taking it two at a time though I knew Vergil could easily catch up with me if he really wanted to. I guess he wasn’t interested to, because there were no footsteps behind me by the time I reached the ground floor and burst out into the front of the shop, where I found Dante already lounging on his usual seat, flipping through his Playboy magazine.

“I didn’t see you come in.” Dante looked up from the magazine at my arrival, the same blue eyes staring at me. But this pair of blue eyes had so much less hostility, so much more warmth and welcoming that I almost cried. Instead, I gave Dante the widest smile and tried my best not to turn on the taps in front of him. I didn’t want to freak him out anyway.

“I was in Vergil’s room.” I replied, before I realized the severity of the situation. I was in Vergil’s room. Vergil’s room. The number 1 ‘Do-not-Enter’ room in the whole of Limbo City, and I had gone in.

Dante stared at me, wondering if I was joking with him or not. “You are not serious.”

Damned! I had been so uptight and afraid of Vergil that I hadn’t paid more attention to my surroundings! What had I seen in there? I closed my eyes quickly and searched through my conflicting feelings to find the image of the room.

I remember two black walls and a black ceiling, and only one white-washed wall. There was a tall cupboard in a corner, and a stand where I assumed he left Yamato. There was also this floor-to-ceiling shelf, and if I remembered correctly, there were loads of books stuffed there. There was a desk at the corner too, clutter with mess.

All in all, a room belonging to a son of Sparda –albeit the neater son of Sparda as compared to Dante.

“Forget it. I just got growled at and threatened by the man himself.” I shivered at little at remembrance of how cold his tone of voice had been.

Dante gave me a ‘duh’ face, then buried his face back in his Playboy magazine. “It is my brother we are talking about.”

I agreed silently as I walked into the back of the shop, looking for anything to grab for breakfast. I still wasn’t sure how I’d ended up here, but I wanted to do the brainstorming after I was full. I most definitely wasn’t suicidal enough to walk into Vergil’s room and fall asleep on his bed –even if I was drunk as hell.

I found enough ingredient in Dante’s almost-empty refrigerator to make myself a cold ham sandwich and poured myself a measure of cold, sandy-tasting coffee. I made a face at the beverage, determined that it was probably left in the maker for at least two days, before I decided to heck it. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, so I shrugged to myself, prayed for an iron stomach, and poured myself a cup of the poisonous concoction and brought it back out front.

I planted my ass on the desk, slamming the coffee mug on the desk beside me with a little more force than I should, smiling to myself when Dante jolted in shock. He gave me a glare, but I purposefully ignored him as I munched happily on my breakfast.

Since Dante wasn’t thinking of entertaining me anytime soon, I let my mind drift back to my last thread of consciousness before I fell asleep, trying to find out how in hell I got into Vergil’s room.

What I remembered, however, was entirely something else.

“Oh my god.” I muttered to myself, but Dante picked it up quickly.

“What?”

“I…um… nothing.” I excused myself quickly, figuring that it probably wasn’t the best of ideas to tell Dante that my new Angel-given Mission had anything to do with him.

Him… or Vergil. All Azazel had said was the ‘son of Sparda’. There were two of them. Even if I wanted to do something about my mission, who the hell was Azazel talking about?

I wasn’t even going to dwell on the consequences I would suffer if I failed to do it on time. Speaking of time, I would assume that ‘half a revolution of Nature around the Star’ meant half a year. Which meant that six months from now, if I didn’t get somewhere, I was screwed for life, if I would have any after that six months.

I’d better start soon. That bastard Azazel had told me he would help me and that things would be alright. But the problem was: things weren’t alright. Things were going wrong, because I don’t know who the hell the ‘mission’ referred to. At least there were only two sons of Sparda. I would totally flip a metaphorical table if there were ten sons of Sparda or something.

But I probably wanted to start somewhere. And since Dante was the easier one to get closer to than his hostile twin brother, I guessed there would be no harm in starting with him. But almost immediately another problem began popping up.

What the hell was I supposed to do?

“You look like someone ran over your favorite puppy. I don’t recall killing any animals today.” Dante’s voice snapped me back to reality, and I blinked quickly, taming my face back into a neutral expression. I hadn’t been aware my desperation had leaked to my face.

“You kill animals?” I asked to bring the topic away quickly, giving Dante an offended expression. I knew he was a demon hunter, that it was in his profession and blood to kill, but I was so totally going to judge him if he really killed an innocent animal.

“When I was a kid, I accidentally let this cat free from its cage. It took off running, but when I turned the corner of the street, someone ran over it.” Dante frowned a little at the memory while I gasped. How could someone not have nightmares about that? And here Dante was, only frowning at the memory?!?

“That’s so cruel!” I exclaimed, but Dante sighed, finally closing the Playboy.

“I thought it was my fault. I really hated myself for it. I was convinced it was because it was karma. Karma because I was the son of the union of a devil and a human. I was convinced that everything around me was cursed to die wretchedly.” Dante confessed so sadly that my heart squeezed involuntarily, instantly forgetting the death of the poor cat.

“You poor thing! It wasn’t your fault. If anything, it’s the driver’s fault.” I declared, but Dante only smiled distantly.

“That’s exactly what Vergil said to me. We lost Sparda, but we still had Mother. Vergil told me to man up if I wanted to protect Mother. Damned anyone who took as us as demons. Damned anyone who discriminated Mother for sleeping around with a demon. We were Eva’s protectors, and we couldn’t be wimps if we wanted to protect Mother where Father failed. So I manned up.”

A long moment of awkward silence stretched between us. Actually, it was more awkward to me, considering Dante looked kind of melancholic, as if he was suddenly having a flashback moment. I wasn’t sure what triggered this moment, but I guessed I wanted to know more about their childhood that hadn’t been revealed much in all four instalment of games. I mean, all I knew about their childhood was that they were approximately four when Sparda was caught to the Hell, and eight when Eva died supposedly protecting Dante.

No one even knew where Vergil was at that point of time.

“It sounds like you had a rough childhood.” I commented finally, sounding unsure of myself. I was trying my best to sympathize with Dante, but the problem with the guy was that I never knew if he was out to get me in a joke, or being serious.

“It wasn’t that tough, really. I don’t remember much of the times before Sparda left. I remember not understanding when Mother told us he wasn’t coming back. Vergil cried and threw a tantrum, but I think it just didn’t register inside me. Sparda really left us in pieces after that day, but Mother was a strong woman. She believed in Father all the way. She never gave up hope that one day, she would see him again, and they would be together again.”

I tried my best not to cry at Eva’s undying love to Sparda. Oh, if I ever had the chance to meet her, I would tell her that she was my new favorite idol and that I would take after her example for as long as I lived. I wanted to love a man as loyally as she loved her man. I wanted to be as dedicated to my man as she was to hers, and I strove to make it happen. I promised to make my own love story a success, to show Eva that no matter what happened, there was still hope.

“Your mother was a wonderful woman.” I breathed, and for a moment, Dante looked back up at me, offering me a genuine smile of gratitude at my comment.

“’Wonderful’ wasn’t enough to keep her alive, babe. If losing Sparda tore me down, losing Eva made me lose myself. Vergil probably had it worse, but I got it bad too. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t breathe, and couldn’t think.” Dante continued sadly, and I tried not to burst into tears. Oh, how I wished I knew how sad his childhood was!

“I had only Vergil left, and he… left too.” Dante’s fists clenched, and I sensed a little anger brimming beneath the surface. Quickly, I placed a hand on his shoulder gently, as if trying to remind him that he wasn’t reliving his teenaged years again, living alone and in fear of the world.

“Relax, Dante. He’s back and he still loves you.” Much as I knew Vergil would rather be caught dead than saying the words, I knew it to be true. Why else would that bastard threaten to kill me so cruel if I even tried to harm Dante? And this was on the basis that Vergil actually assumed that I could harm Dante, much less that I wanted to.

Dante snorted.

“’Love’? I don’t need Vergil to love me now. I’ve got enough love for myself to cover his share. If you want, we can share some of the love on my bed upstairs.” Dante suggested, finally back in his usual demeanor as he looked up at me, shooting a sexy look that would have made me melt, if not for the fact that I was already immune to it. If I was still the all-unknowing fan-girl I had been when I first came here, my panties would already be off, and Dante would already be in the process of relieving me of my virginity.

But I had come to understand that Dante wasn’t seriously interested in me –considering the way he treated me like how he treat Lady and Trish, as just another woman in his life. So I gave him my disgusted face and threw the cup of thick, disgusting, probably-two-days-old coffee in his face, watching with satisfaction as he spluttered at my sudden reaction.

“You sick asshole. I was actually feeling pity for you.” I crossed my arms over my chest, annoyed at how Dante was quick to change himself back into his usual self after being so… vulnerable for a moment. For a moment there, I had seen the poor young boy who had to endure the pains of growing up without parents, without his closest twin brother, and as a pariah, a half-demon, half-human. Now, all I could see was a heavily-in-debt, narcissistic, lazy-assed, entirely-un-motivated and kind-of-hot demon hunter. Add on the fact that he was quite a lecher, and you have a perfect turn-off.

“What was that for? Whatever I told you was true! I wasn’t lying just to get you to bed.” Dante tried to vindicate himself, jumping to his feet. I opened my mouth to reply, but gasped instead when Dante suddenly disappeared. I heard a loud bang at the far wall and turned instinctively there, only to see Dante pinned to that wall, with translucent swords stuck into the wall around his figure, forcing him to stay there.

I recognized the summoned swords where I saw it. Dante cursed loudly, upset that he’d been taken by surprise by his brother, but I was more interested in the murderous look that Vergil gave to me as he walked from the base of the stairs towards the empty space that was now between Dante and me.

“You will tell her nothing more of our past, Dante.” Vergil declared in a final tone, displeasure coloring every single word of his sentence. Yamato was out of its sheath, but I was in no mood to admire it now, considering I was staring down the tip as he pointed it at me.

“There’s no need to have me pinned to the wall for that, Verge!” Dante protested, but his twin brother didn’t care, obviously treating me as if I was the world’s biggest demon (ironically) at the moment, waiting to kill Dante.

“I see you have not left. Do you not understand instructions?” Vergil addressed me with open hostility, and while I froze under the tip of Yamato pointing at me, I gathered my wits and courage quickly, clenching my fists to hide the fact that I was quivering all the way down to my fingers and toes.

“You only seemed to imply that you don’t want me here. You never stated explicitly for me to get out. Besides, this is not your place. You have no rights to chase me out.” I argued back, glad that my voice didn’t betray my fear.

“True.” His hostility dropped for a split second in which he thought of his rebuttal. “But it changes no fact that you are prodding into my family’s past, and that is a breach of my privacy.”

“Yes, your family. But not explicitly your past.” I argued back, though I knew it was way wiser not to. I have this OCD about getting my facts delivered right to people, and I tended to make simple conversations into complicated debates before the person talking to me gave up and walked away.

“Dante was reciting you parts of his childhood that involved me. I have every rights to stop the narration.” Vergil retorted quickly, not even wavering for a moment now.

“I very much believe he was about to narrate moments after your parent’s departure, and after your departure from his life. Thus, it is very much arguable that you would turn up in any sentence that he was about to speak. You have no rights to stop him.” I pointed out, and Vergil opened his mouth for another smart reply, but was interrupted quickly by a loud groan.

“Can’t you two just come to an agreement? I’m not about to stand around tapping in to some debate going on in my shop! You wanna have a debate, take it out somewhere else!” Dante yelled impatiently, and for a moment there, I saw extreme annoyance flicker past Vergil’s face before it faded away back into hostility.

“I have no wish to debate with her. She is not worth my time.” Vergil announced, then sheathed Yamato as if to prove his point. It would have worked, if only for the fact that he had spent time arguing with me. He turned his back on me, and I saw that the summoned swords pinning Dante to the wall had disappeared. I have to admit; it was a neat trick to have the swords appearing and disappearing as and when he liked it.

“Dante, this is once and only that I shall say this. Do not speak of our family’s past to a stranger. It is private and personal, and not something you should flaunt. We may not have had the best childhood, but it is enough. No complaints. And definitely, do not reveal your weakness to someone who could potentially harm you.” At the last sentence, Vergil turned around and glared at me for a long moment before he turned back to face Dante again.

“Potentially harm me? You mean Leah? Are you kidding me?” Dante’s voice suggested that the thought the idea ridiculous, and I wondered if I should be offended or honored that he trusted me enough to not think me dangerous.

“She has an angel for backing. The angel of Death.” Vergil stated simply, not bothering to stop before he simply walked out the front door.

Dante sighed, brushed imaginary dust of his still coffee-stained shirt, and lumbered back to the table with a shrug.

“I guess Vergil doesn’t like you.” He stated obviously, and I did my best to not give him a ‘duh’ reply.

“I observed that.” I replied intelligently, biting my tongue to prevent myself from saying something terribly insulting. I understood that Vergil was the more suspicious of the twins, but there had to be a line drawn somewhere, wasn’t there?

He was beginning to piss me off. It took a lot of piss me off, considering that I was a roll-with-the-punch type of person.

But I was starting to get pissed off by the way Vergil was treating me. I was reaching my limit.

And damned if he was the son of Sparda.

No one pisses Leah off and gets away with it. Not Dante.

Not Azazel.

And definitely not Vergil.