Dusk and Dawn

The Day is Darkest before the Dawn

The war was over. The fighting wouldn't be over, but the war between heroes and villains this time was won by the heroes, or so it was to be believed. But at what cost? In the Devil May Cry Hero Agency all was silent except for the clacking of keyboards in the office portions of the building. Sidekicks that had been taken on were working their way through their assignments and the investigations that they were tasked with sorting through, but the head of the agency was nowhere to be seen within the building. The workforce that made up the Devil may Cry Agency couldn't rightly blame the Infernal hero for his absence as they were well aware of his relationship with one of the deceased among the many.

In the Saitama Prefecture, one Siegfried King looks into a crib at the small baby resting peacefully, blissfully unaware of what's going on around her. He really didn't want to poke fun at the name that was picked for her, but he couldn't find it within himself to ignore the irony. His eyes were already red from tears that continued to fall as the days wound on, but that unflappable confidence he had just wouldn't show itself right now. Besides, even if he did want to go back out into the world to at least clear his head, he couldn't. Akumu was barely a year old and it was out of the question to leave her alone. Maybe he should take her with him? But then he would be disturbing her rest and the last thing he wants is a cranky baby living up to her namesake.

Now that thought got a chuckle out of him. They had called her Akumu because Nemuri made the off handed comment that labour was a nightmare and once it was over she couldn't have been happier. With a sigh, he stood from his seat next to the crib, a simple rocking chair to help put the baby to sleep when it was her bedtime and made his way into the rest of his home, specifically heading for the kitchen. His sanctuary. He would always use cooking as his main form of stress relief, as he could channel his emotions into the dish and its preparation. But in this immense void that has somehow swallowed him whole? He didn't know what to cook. It took him nearly an hour of looking through his old recipe book for what he could cook, and found something that would help with the pain of loss. Or so he thought...

"I know..."

He smiled solemnly knowing the exact dish that he would prepare for dinner tonight. Besides, it was reaching the late afternoon and his last lifeline was bound to return sooner or later. As he prepped the kitchen for its rigorous usage the man cast his mind over the year that had been his life with Pro Heroes Mt. Lady and Midnight, his eyes catching the two wedding bands on his left ring finger. One a black Tungsten with a thin, almost barely noticeable Sapphire blue strip going around its circumference; the other was a simple gold with a similar strip around the circumference, this one being Purple.

He removed the rings for safe keeping and placed them carefully on the windowsill, trying to keep his emotions in check so he didn't break down before he even begun his cooking. He needed to keep his mind occupied so he could think on his grief later and process it better. So, with the ingredients ready to be used, he got to work.

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It was getting late, and she knew that she shouldn't be overworking herself. As much as she put on a brave face for the public since faith in the heroes was at an all time low, she was beginning to burn out. She would have to return home at some point, or at the very least the agency. She huffed a laugh at the name. 'Devil may Cry' was a stupid name in her opinion, but it was the name all three of them agreed to because it was catchy and it fit the bill for what the head of the agency wanted. So, with her patrol route coming to its end, Mt. Lady decided to double back on herself and make her way back to the agency that had started as a one man show before becoming a group effort.