I love how we all got excited when that Trish/Cavaliere Angelo spoiler happened because we thought that it meant Dante would also save Lady, but instead of being disappointed when it turned out to be Nero doing the saving, we all just adopted Nero into the ship.
The dying shriek of a Baphomet class demon resounded before the fiend dispersed in a gush of frost along with the conclusive click of the Yamato being sheathed.
“It was Dante who gave her to me, you know.”
The scion of Sparda tilted his head toward where his son was, a mere distance away from him, hand still posed over his shoulder as he had just sheathed his own blade, but his gaze was focusing on the dark-forged katana that the elder held against the left side of his hip.
“So I have surmised,” he responded with a slight arc upon his slender brow, a hint of curiosity over the sudden rise of the certain subject.
“I used to wonder why he did that, cause he said it's something very important to him yet he still gave it to me after that.” Nero dipped his head and hid his face, a blatant gesture of diffidence.
Emotions erupted in his chest, for whilst he did entertain some thoughts to himself about how his father's keepsake and subsequent extension of himself had ended in Nero's possession and deduced several scenarios, never had he ever obtained a confirmation to any of them. Thus now, discovering the actual event, especially the disclosure of his brother's intimate involvement in the matter, tightened his chest with an odd ilk of warmth. It delighted him to know that Dante used to cling, possibly sought it far and wide, for any memento, anything left behind as his sole comfort and reminder of Vergil's existence. The very existence he thought to have personally ended by his own blade.
“Then I figured it out that he must have known since then,” Nero's continuation thankfully forestalling him from submerging further into an emotional reverie. “About... well, the relation between us.” The latter was delivered in such a bashful discomfort that it couldn't but amuse him, to see his oisillon's attempt to come in terms with their state of being family.
“The thing is,” the fledgling's voice was stronger now, likely in an attempt to salvage his dignity over his newfound parent. “I just wish he didn't keep that detail from me.”
Ah, therein lies his actual perplexity. He fully turned toward the discomfited youth upon the realization. He must have been assailed by no end of whys in an attempt to comprehend the true circumstances concerning his seemingly dysfunctional kinship. Did he consider Dante to be cruel, mayhaps, for keeping such an intimate minutiae of his origin and only revealed it later, at the eve of his duel with the genocidal usurper who happened to be his long-lost progenitor and also the very source of not only the recent mayhem, but also his loss of arm and subsequent near death experience? Or did he realize that Dante, ever the sentimental sap he is, likely did so out of pure attempt to protect him from the painful truth? As in the proverb, "Ignorance is bliss." I wouldn't put it past my brother to be motivated by the latter.
“Would it change anything, had he not?”
Nero fell into silence as he visibly pondered, weighed, the outcome of the scenario of the past had he been aware of his parentage. The way his abashed expression hardened into a grim acceptance conveyed his wordless answer: No. Vergil would still carry out what he believed needed to be done and Nero would strive to fight and put an end to his genocidal crusade.
“Then it is pointless to dwell upon it,” he concluded with finality, turning around as a gesture for them to move forward, figuratively and literally.
“Nero,” he called back upon his shoulder when his son failed to heed his bidding. “We are here now.” He repeated what he once had told Dante, this time referring to the three of them and how despite their respective upbringing and past circumstances, they had found each other in eventuality and continuity. That is what matters.
“Yeah.” His son bounded toward him with notable lighter steps and countenance, his response a reenactment of his brother's. “Guess you're right.”
Peas in a pod these two are, the progenitor noted internally in amusement as he strode forward with his offspring in tow.
