Devil May Cry
- Before the Nightmare -
It starts off in a bar where a journalist on the occult (?) named Jeffrey is contacted and meets up with Nico, where she points out an article he wrote in his magazine five years ago about the Fortuna incident. The translation of it being 5 years may not be entirely accurate, but if it is then that gives us an actual length of time between 4 and 5
Few more things I can gather. Gonna mark stuff I’m not sure on with an asterisk. Five years ago this Jeffrey guy went to Fortuna to get the dirt on the ‘white giant” incident but pretty much everyone refused to speak to him cause he’s an outsider and shit. The only one to actually speak to him was Nero but Jeffrey disregarded most of what he said’. Nico seems to be asking about him cause there was an image of his back’ in the magazine. Looks like this is how she eventually goes on to meet him.
Think I was wrong on Jeffrey disregarding what Nero told him. From further reading it seems like Jeffrey published what Nero said along with the image of Nero with his face censored and only called him ‘tN”. Nico is asking Jeffrey for “N’s name and Jeffrey is reluctant cause of confidentiality and whatnot but eventually gives her the name cause it’s been 5 years and his career is in the shitter anyway.
So after Nico leaves the bar it cuts to Nero in his garage tinkering with Red Queen which Is having troubles with its engine and he can’t seem to fix it. It makes note of how Nero’s tools are all disorganised and scattered about the place. One of the orphans him and Kyrie are looking after, Julio (?) comes in telling Nero that there’s some weird lady. Julio is known for his mischief so Nero isn’t really buying it and asks Julio if the strange person had three eyes, was missing a nose or had no mouth (you get the gist).Then I THINK Nico walks in and says she’s looking for Nero, but I can’t quite properly make out what’s going on in the scene because my translation skills are ghetto as ****.
Ok so Nico didn’t walk in in that scene. Nero asks Julio for details and he describes Nico somewhat. Nero figures that Julio really isn’t lying and asks if she had white hair, seemingly thinking it might be Gloria. Julio says no so he figures it aint her. I THINK Nero says that he’s still wondering just who that woman was (not sure on this part)
Ok in the next scene Nico appears at the entrance of the garage and matches Julio’s description. Julio says “that’s the woman!” and points at her. Nico says “don’t point at people, it’s rude, brat”. Nero tells Julio to go to Kyrie and Julio obliges cause Nero’s got that serious look on him. Nero says a line that I translated as “Is it something for me?” which I don’t quite get the context of, but afterwards it says that he’s holding his right arm out of sight and just says how it changed a few years ago.
Ah, so after going into some narration of how it gave him power to protect the one he loved, how he was at first disgusted by it yadda yadda, he goes on to say that cause the Devil Bringer pules as a reaction to demonic power he uses it to judge whether or not someone is a demon. In this case, Nico. Nero’s arm has no response to her. Nico blows cigarette smoke and asks “are you Nero?”. Nero frowns and tells her to put the cigarette out before asking anything. He says that he’s hated the smell/smoke of cigarettes since long ago, and besides that there’s
chemicals and oils in the garage and he wants to avoid a fire. Nico says some snarky line (can’t quite make it out) and it gets on Nero’s nerves. Nero repeats asking her to put the cigarette out (I think more aggressively this time, not sure) She drops it and stomps it out while saying some other snarky line.
Not too sure on what goes down in the next scene, but I think she asks him if he doesn’t smoke, starts walking into the garage and Nero gets up kinda defensively stop her and she throws her arms up in a surrender pose? As I said, not too sure on this part.
In whatever happened in that last sequence, Nico ends up seeing Nero’s Devil Bringer and Nero thinks this may be troublesome. However, Nico just sits on a wooden box in the corner and nonchalantly says “do not worry” (?). Seems she isn’t too fussed or interested by it.
She introduces herself as Nicoletta Goldstein and says she came with a request. Nero notes that she must be someone that’s seen demons before, a person who accepts that they exist.
She says that she is looking for material that The Order has studied, saying how she’d heard that the cult is already gone (forgot to mention in earlier posts, but The Order is pretty much all gone after the incident)
Nico makes note of how she sees no evil in Nero’s eyes (?)
Addendum, Nico is specifically asking about material that The Order studies on demons. Nero immediately asks where she heard that The Order had been studying demons, given that that information wasn’t really public.
Nico dodges answering by feigning forgetfulness, saying that she has many s ources such as “Baba, a rumour loving cigarette shop” and another example I can’t make out, something about a woman and a hobby.
The fact that Nico knows about the demon stuff reaffirms Nero’s perception that she isn’t your average person.
Once again can’t really make sense of the following part but I’ll try to sum up what I think I can make out.
I think Nero says internally that no good will come from digging up things about The Order, something about too much regret (?) and I think it number-drops Nero as being 24 years old, but once again I’m not sure on that.
So after the incident of DMC4, Nero disposed of the more visible things related to The Order, but their secret facilities and shit are still around. Seems he says that he made sure they couldn’t be accessed though. Also once again drops the “5 years” thing so I think it’s safe to say at this point that it’s been 5 years since DMC4. Although he declined Nico’s request, he thinks that there is the possibility of her trying to sneak into these facilities. He says that when the reported visited interviewing the town years ago (Jeffrey) he threatened to prevent him from doing that and wonders if he will have to do the same for Nico (unsure on this part) Then he is suddenly surprised by Nico saying “How is the man named Agnus now/doing?”
Nero remarks that it’s truly been a long time since he heard that name, and pretty much recaps who Agnus was, and how he was pretty much the root of The Order’s evil, due to his research allowing them to transform people until demons and unleash the Hell Gates in Fortuna, and that although it was the Pope’s plan, it was Agnus’ work that truly made it possible.
“He’s dead” Nero tells her, and recounts to himself how although he was in a situation where he couldn’t move (101) so he didn’t see it for himself, he heard the tact from the man who killed Agnus himself.
so’ Nico says, in a somewhat lonely (?) manner. “I was wondering about that. I’ve heard rumours” she says.
“you know that bastard?” Nero asks, curious. Nico reveals to him that he was her biological father.
Kinda sketchy on the next part, but the general gist I get is that Nero is thoroughly confused by her being Agnus’ daughter. After she repeats the fact, he points at her and says “Agnus’ daughter? you?” and Nico chides him for pointing at someone cause it’s rude with a snarky “or is that how people respect others in this city?” After this it seems she changes the subject by getting up and walking over to Red Queen, which she picks up and asks what it is. Nero tells her to put it down and hurriedly tries to get it out of her hands, She twists and escapes his grasp and i nquires about the engine mechanism, although it’s not working currently. As Nero once again reaches out to get it back she turns to him and asks him where the tools are.
Little rough on the specifics, but next Nero tells her that it’s not something she can fix and it’d be crazy to try, as it’s not something amateurs should fiddle with. Nico says some mechanic shit, picks up some tools and gets to work on Red Queen with amazing speed and finesse.
Nero is stunned watching her dismantle Red Queen on the spot. She says some more stuff about its mechanisms, says it seems he’s been
slacking on maintenance (unsure on this part) and then something about warranty. “She may really be the daughter of Agnus” Nero thinks to himself, that the two are certainly alike in this regard. He also brings up that Agnus was the only man with that skin colour (which Nico is noted earlier in the novel as having the same)
It also seems she stutters when she’s excited, just like Agnus.
Muttering this, Nero holds his chest where he was once stabbed by Agnus, and remarks that if he were a regular human he would surely be dead. Snapping back to reality, Nico says ‘Ok, it’s all good” and puts Red Queen back together again. Looks like she puts it in the classic rev pose and gives the grip a twist. Flames roll up the blade, the momentum sending the blade swinging and Nico rolling across the floor (101).
Rather than being angry, she gets up with a smile and dusts herself off. “It’s quite a rage, but she is a beauty” Nero says (in regards to Red Queen you degenerates) and remarks that he can “borrow this woman” (101)
For helping fix Red Queen, Nero agrees to show Nico the study materials from
The Order. Nero once again thinks of the man who killed Agnus, Dante
(transition to Dante’s portion here).
Well folks, seems like that’s Nero and Nico’s introduction portion of the novel wrapped up for now. I’m gonna take a short break to rest my creaking neck and then I’ll be right back at it with Dante’s part.
英文原文
w.red
dit.com/r/DevilMayCry/comments/auo1r6/summarytra
nslation_of_neros_section_in_before_the/?st=JSKVA2J6&sh=cc80fdd1
，到时候有中文版出来【不管是官译还是民间自译】，扫一遍足矣了~
感觉5代小说要给时间线服务，把之前的事件都串一遍，有些空白填一填这样的
