"I've no answer for you, Mizu," he says, his admission coming just as quietly as her question. Some might think there is an obvious answer, but after having grappled with it plenty himself and given he's been both with and without choice, Vergil knows the answer is not as clean of a binary as the question poses the answer to be. No possible answer is truly robust enough to feel it provides full satisfaction to the question. At least not for Vergil. It may sit differently for Mizu given choice has always been present for her even if alternative ways forward have seemed impossible whether by circumstances or blindness she's caused herself in her pursuit for her revenge. "But if we were all defined by and destined to our cruelty alone, by choice or by nature..."
No amount of time as V or observations of Nero's strength would have dissuaded Vergil from his path if all he was in the end was his cruelty whether it was chosen, incidental, and instinctive.
"These very same hands that touch and hold you are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent lives, and among them my brother and my son. You know this. But I do not believe you think of me as a cruel man, nor do you think me a heartless devil." Vergil does not bother to point out the quite obvious fact that if she did feel that way about him, she would not have attempted to cross the moat to try and find him. She would not have allowed him to share her bed, or entrusted him with her secret. She would not promise him everything, nor accept his everything in return. She would never run her fingers through his hair, or seek closeness with him for warmth. She would not have traveled all the way to Epiphany to try and find him today, and hold his hand beneath the table. Vergil would not be seated here on her couch, her face in his hand, and so close they share breath with one another. "Whatever cruel things you have done, and whatever cruel things you may yet do, I cannot think of you as cruel. Regardless of how you might try to convince me otherwise whether by words or actions, there is still a heart that beats within your chest. One that hurts and wants, hates and loves."
Again, Vergil does not present this as an argument against how she sees herself. As much as he would like to argue that point, he knows that's not an argument he can make let alone win. But he can reconcile the cruel things Mizu has done in the past, and what cruelty she may yet enact in her quest for revenge with the person he knows Mizu to truly be. His feelings for her are not in spite of anything. They are for the whole of who she is, her everything that she has promised him, and that includes her capacity for cruelty as much her capacity for something softer and kinder. Vergil does not believe the month in Amrita was enough for her to see there was more to her than just her quest for revenge, that there were things she wanted if she gave herself the opportunity to want them. Not in the face of a lifetime of throwing everything that she is and will be into her revenge. But as far as he's concerned, it still proves there is more to her than the demon that others have proclaimed her to be, that she has wrapped herself in being. And all he can do is hope that she might yet see that someday whether it is with him or far beyond their time together in Folkmore.
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No amount of time as V or observations of Nero's strength would have dissuaded Vergil from his path if all he was in the end was his cruelty whether it was chosen, incidental, and instinctive.
"These very same hands that touch and hold you are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent lives, and among them my brother and my son. You know this. But I do not believe you think of me as a cruel man, nor do you think me a heartless devil." Vergil does not bother to point out the quite obvious fact that if she did feel that way about him, she would not have attempted to cross the moat to try and find him. She would not have allowed him to share her bed, or entrusted him with her secret. She would not promise him everything, nor accept his everything in return. She would never run her fingers through his hair, or seek closeness with him for warmth. She would not have traveled all the way to Epiphany to try and find him today, and hold his hand beneath the table. Vergil would not be seated here on her couch, her face in his hand, and so close they share breath with one another. "Whatever cruel things you have done, and whatever cruel things you may yet do, I cannot think of you as cruel. Regardless of how you might try to convince me otherwise whether by words or actions, there is still a heart that beats within your chest. One that hurts and wants, hates and loves."
Again, Vergil does not present this as an argument against how she sees herself. As much as he would like to argue that point, he knows that's not an argument he can make let alone win. But he can reconcile the cruel things Mizu has done in the past, and what cruelty she may yet enact in her quest for revenge with the person he knows Mizu to truly be. His feelings for her are not in spite of anything. They are for the whole of who she is, her everything that she has promised him, and that includes her capacity for cruelty as much her capacity for something softer and kinder. Vergil does not believe the month in Amrita was enough for her to see there was more to her than just her quest for revenge, that there were things she wanted if she gave herself the opportunity to want them. Not in the face of a lifetime of throwing everything that she is and will be into her revenge. But as far as he's concerned, it still proves there is more to her than the demon that others have proclaimed her to be, that she has wrapped herself in being. And all he can do is hope that she might yet see that someday whether it is with him or far beyond their time together in Folkmore.