A wide set of steps led up to the shrine, its green roof gleaming beneath the afternoon sun, matching the low wall that closed it in. There was a house settled close by, the two-story building at odds with the traditional architecture of the shrine, clearly a far more recent addition to the plateau the structures shared. The peaceful atmosphere that usually lingered around the place was marred by a dark energy, its leeching power digging its claws into the holy ground in an almost tangible presence that snapped at any foolish enough to venture near. Any sensitive enough to notice its presence would feel its corrosive power lashing at them, urging them to run far from the infected shrine.
Dante simply raised an eyebrow. He glanced down at his hand, where in scrawling black ink were the words Higurashi Shrine, then back up at the looming presence that coated the area ahead of him. "Guess this is the place," he muttered, eying the long staircase before shrugging and leisurely making his way up the steps, whilst reviewing what he knew.
It wasn't a lot. He barely even remembered the guys that'd given him the case, but since he'd been drunk off his ass he figured he could forgive himself for that. And with his metabolism, it took a hell of a lot of alcohol to get himdrunk. The poor bartender's confusion as he just kept chugging the strongest stuff the guy had like it was soda still made him grin, though the man had gotten used to him when Dante had come back every other night for the past few weeks. He had a bit of a routine; lose himself in the drink in the evenings, fall unconscious and not wake up until at least the afternoon, then spend the rest of the time trying to figure out a way back to his own universe.
Yeah. Universe. He could deal with dimension hops – had gotten pretty used to it, actually – but the situation he was in now went far beyond that. Hell, he didn't even know how he'd gotten here, memories fuzzy around the time he'd 'left' like someone had done a half-assed job of wiping his mind. So basically he had no idea what sent him here, and any attempts to get back were shots in the dark; far more likely to get him killed than actually work. So if he'd been a bit down lately, fuck it, he had a right to be!
This new universe was like his old one in some ways, but clearly different in others. Physically it was pretty much the same – continents, cities, languages, food; stuff like that – as far as he could tell, since he was stuck in Japan without a passport and little motivation to go travelling anyway. The sky wasn't green or anything funky like that, but a few places – Fortuna, for example – didn't seem to exist at all. None of the numbers he'd called had found anyone he knew from his world, so he didn't know if there were some alternate versions of them or not. It was probably for the best anyway.
The biggest change had to be that there were no demons, or at least not the standard kind he was used to dealing with. The few he thought might've been demons had run as soon as he'd gotten within half a mile of them. Which was odd, since the usual kind liked nothing more than to charge right at him, determined to slash him into itty bitty pieces. He'd tried chasing them a couple of times, but Dante had never been that great a tracker, especially when the fuckers decided to hide their presence. It was irritating, but he'd left it alone, figuring that getting home was more important. Like that had worked out much better.
He hadn't taken any jobs since he'd gotten here. It was kinda hard to, what with there being no Dante in this universe, so there was no demon hunter reputation either. Money hadn't been too much of an issue though; no matter where he was there'd always be scum crawling the streets in search of victims, even if they were the human kind. Thugs were pathetically easy to deal with – the hard part was making sure he didn't kill them – and there seemed to be an unlimited supply too. Lucky him.
So as far as money went he was doing okay, even managing to scrounge up enough to rent a crummy apartment in what had to be the worst neighbourhood in Tokyo. It was, to be perfectly honest, a shithole, but he wasn't exactly swimming in riches so he made do. Not like he used the place for anything other than somewhere to crash, and when he was unconscious he couldn't exactly complain.
He'd been approaching unconsciousness when his current employers had approached him. Slumped over his – sixteenth, seventeenth? – glass of some fruity drink that burnt the back of his throat on the way down, he barely noticed the two men that sat down on either side of him. Now he realized that they'd felt a bit off, but since he hadn't sensed any sort of threat from them he'd went on happily ignoring them. Then the silver-haired one had started talking to him – about what, he had no idea, the pleasant haze remaining stubbornly and blurring the memory. The other one brought up the job at some point, and had scribbled something in black marker on the back of his hand so he wouldn't forget, or whatever. No names were mentioned, and he'd been too drunk to be suspicious of them, especially not when the redhead casually passed over a wad of cash with a promise of more after he finished the job. He'd been real happy then – he vaguely recalled shoving his tongue down the throat of both of them at some point – and hell, he was still pretty pleased now. It was enough to keep him afloat for a good long while. He could worry about how they knew his 'occupation' later.
Still, Dante was annoyed that he couldn't even remember what they looked like, other than hair colour. Even that detail was ambiguous at best, only sticking in his mind since they stood out from the dark colours most Japanese had. But at least it'd help him pick them out if he saw them again. Which he hopefully would, if they kept their end of the deal. He was looking forward to getting a better place with the money they'd owe him once he finished the job.
Anyway, what it basically boiled down to was that he had no idea what he was getting himself into. But, being Dante, that didn't deter him in the slightest.
The hybrid reached the top of the steps and looked around curiously. Ahead and to the left was the house where whoever owned the shrine must've lived, though the crumbled east wall and concave roof didn't bode well for any inhabitants. The paved ground between the house and the shrine was torn up in a few lines that crossed over each other in places, two metres or so thick, giving Dante an indicator of the size of whatever it was he'd been sent to kill.
The scent of blood hit his nose. It was human, and there was enough of it that at least a couple of people had to be dead. He sighed and set off towards the house, where the smell was concentrated. Peering in through the half-open sliding doors he immediately spotted two bodies, crushed beneath what had been the second floor, a reaching arm the only thing to have escaped the rubble. "Damn," he murmured, wishing he'd gotten to the shrine just a few hours earlier. He'd seen a lot of death, plenty far more gruesome than this, but it didn't mean he was completely emotionless.
A scream pierced the air, the silence shattered by the high-pitched sound of terror. He took off towards it, strides eating up the ground beneath as the sound of shattering trees and triumphant roars reached him. The forest backing the shrines was a few feet away when he spotted another corpse – this one an old man torn brutally in half, blood soaking in the pieces of paper littering the ground around him – but he didn't pause, focused on finding the demon that'd done this, and the hopefully alive human along with it.
There was another scream, and this time he could see where it originated from. A teenage girl cowered on the ground, legs curled to her chest and blood-stained hands raised in a weak attempt to defend herself. He nearly stumbled over her due to his burst of speed, kicking up earth as he skidded to a stop in front of her. "Hey, you okay kid?"
The scent of blood hit him for the second time that night, and he spotted the deep scarlet that stained her shirt, spreading from the deep gash gorged into her side, like something had taken a bite out of her. Her face was already deathly pale from blood loss, heartbeat sluggish, and her brown eyes didn't really focus on him when she blinked up blearily at him. She was in shock probably, minimising further any chance of survival, and Dante really didn't know enough about healing humans to be of any use. He shrugged off wounds like that as a scratch, sealed up within minutes, but the girl was a human and was only getting worse, if her laboured breathing and closing eyes were anything to go by.
Any plans to aid the teenager were stalled by a spike of power that erupted from behind him. It sent the hairs on the nape of his neck standing on end, his own demonic energy roiling in response. For a split second his form flickered, a flash of hornsclawsblackredredred, before he regained control. His blood thrummed through his veins in eager anticipation for the source of the waves of power, but the creature that emerged was a bit of a let-down, in Dante's opinion.
"Usually I wouldn't be complainin' about the view," he began with a smirk, eyes trailing down the naked torso of the female demon, before they drifted to the segmented body that gave a clear indication of the demon's nature. Chick from the waist up (if you ignored the extra arms), giant centipede all the way down. Not the freakiest he'd seen by a long shot. "But even a guy like me has standards. And honey, you just don't make the cut."
The demon scowled at him through a mouth overspilling with jagged teeth. "Impudent human, you should have run far from here when you had a chance." Huh, so she was one of the rare few that could talk. Even if it was kinda weird that she thought he was human, since demons intelligent enough to make conversation – or rather, insult and/or threaten him – could usually tell he wasn't your average Joe. "I'll tear you apart for your foolishness!"
The demon launched herself at him, and Dante dashed forward with a grin to meet her. Her segmented body tore up the ground beneath her, whilst his own steps were few but powerful as he sped across the grass. When they were within a few feet of each other she swung her plated body around at him, aiming to crush him beneath its force. He flipped casually over the swipe, and as he did so the guitar case on his back drifted over his skywards-turned body, straps slipping over his raised arms and leaving the case to follow in his momentum ahead of him. One hand reached up to flick the buckles and the case opened, revealing the gleaming sword within. He landed lightly on his feet, arm held out to catch Rebellion's handle as it dropped with an almost choreographed ease into his waiting palm. The guitar case thudded to the ground a moment later.
"Is that all you got, centipede-ass?" Dante cajoled with an arrogant tilt to his head, blade resting against his shoulder.
A scream of rage echoed across the small clearing when the demon saw that she'd missed her target, and there was another thrum of power from the creature. He watched curiously as her skin shredded, revealing a splotchy purple underskin, and her eyes turned an all-encompassing red. "I gotta say, purple really isn't your colour," he said, but he was more interested in the glowing pink thing her stomach had going on. He looked closer and saw that it was condensed into a ball about the size of a marble, drifting down her upper body into the segments that made up her lower half. Weird.
"I'll kill you!" she screamed, voice much more guttural than it had been.
"Come and get me, if you think you can handle it!"
The next charge was much faster than her last had been, and he was taken by surprise by the sudden increase in speed. It must've had something to do with the physical changes – that pink thing, maybe? Still, surprise didn't stop him from evading the demon's gaping maw, and she earnt a swipe from Rebellion for her trouble. The claymore tore away the arms on the creature's right side, cleaving into the armoured plating of her lower body as she flew by with a shriek of pain.
Dante made a disappointed sound, watching as several trees crumpled beneath the demon's weight when she landed on the other side of the clearing. He was already getting bored at the lack of challenge, and he could toy with an enemy for only so long. He may as well as left Rebellion in its case and torn the centipede-lady apart with his bare hands; it might've been a bit more fun then.
That's when something interesting happened. The demon pulsed with pink light, and before his eyes the long gash he'd made simply disappeared, like he'd never made the cut in the first place. The arms were back too, only this time the fingers had merged together in one long curved appendage, their sharp edges glinting as the demon swiped them experimentally. She turned a feral grin on him and thundered towards him.
He didn't bother moving to meet her this time, and matched the slash of her three limbs with a raised Rebellion. The startled creature shuddered to a stop in an explosion of air pressure, long body bunching up beneath it in twisted coils, whilst Dante remained smirkingly unmoved. Not so unstoppable force, meet immovable object. Now say hello to his pretty sword.
A flick of the claymore removed the arms once again, but this time he didn't leave it at that. He carved through her waist, sending a spray of blood into the air as she neatly separated, centipede half twitching whilst her torso thudded to the ground. Arcs of pink began to spark between the two parts, prompting Dante to stomp over to the glow still emanating from one of the coils. The pink object had obviously been what had healed the demon, and since he didn't want to be here all day he'd have to get it out. "I'll be taking that," he announced, shoving his hand through the armoured hide and into the demon's soft flesh. His searching fingers closed around the marble-sized object and he pulled it out, bringing an end to the attempts at revival, the demon dissolving into dust without her power source.
Opening his fist he examined it curiously, blinking when the poisonous purple that had begun to creep across its pale pink surface rapidly retreated. He held it up in front of his eye between two fingers, looking into its smoky depths in the hope that it'd given him some hint of what the hell it was. When it did nothing more than glow faintly before settling down sedately he tucked it away into one of the pockets on the inside of his coat, resolving to examine it more later. He had a bleeding-out human to deal with.
He trotted over to the teenage girl, grabbing the guitar case on the way, and frowned when he heard how slow her heartbeat had gotten. Still, she seemed to be conscious, if barely, which was a good thing he guessed. He slipped Rebellion back into the case – wouldn't want to panic any humans, after all – and shrugged it over his shoulder, before scooping the girl up into his arms. He was as gentle as he could be, but she still whimpered in pain and weakly grasped the collar of his coat. That was something, at least.
Luckily there was a hospital only a few miles away – Dante's definition of a 'few miles' wasn't quite the same as most people's – and he dropped the now unconscious kid off in the emergency room, leaving before anyone could get him to sign any of those annoying forms that took forever to fill out. Good deed done for the day he headed back to Higur-whatever Shrine, wanting to have a quick look around before the cops cordoned the place off. He wanted to know where the demon had come from, since though the shrine was slightly out of his area he would've sensed her moving towards the shrine in one of his 'patrols' – also known as boredom-induced-slightly-drunken-wanderings. Whatever, he still would've noticed a demon when he hadn't seen one in so long, no matter how weak it'd been. The marble glowing like a beacon – to his senses anyway – in his pocket would've caught his attention too. The only reason he hadn't sensed it at first was because he was more focused on the human girl, and yeah, he could be kinda one-minded at times. So sue him for not being omniscient.
The sun was still pretty high in the sky when he arrived, highlighting the destruction the centipede had reeked. It wasn't too bad really; the courtyard was a bit scarred up, and the house would need some serious repairs, but if the kid lived she could still live here. A little bit of tarp whilst the roof (and second floor) was being fixed and she'd be fine.
That is, if she wanted to live in a place where her family had been slaughtered and she'd almost joined them. Who knows, maybe she was made of sterner stuff than he'd thought.
So, now to find where the centipede demon had popped out from. Dante jogged over to the trees, finding where she'd torn through them in her chase after the teenager. It was close to where the corpse of the old man still lay, and he picked up one of the dry pieces of paper to have a look at the black ink painting it. It was…some sort of charm? Had the old man tried to hold off the demon with it? That was almost funny, in a horribly sad way. He moved to crumple the paper but paused, folding it and placing it in his pocket instead.
The demon had left a pretty clear trail and he followed it back towards the house, his footsteps eventually leading to the shrine sitting opposite and slightly along from the house. The wooden front wall had been torn off, part of the roof ripped away too, but for the most part remained intact. A lingering energy that felt like the pink marble hovered around the well within, and he moved closer to get a better look at it, wooden steps creaking beneath his boots. He was a couple of feet away when the marble shone so brightly and suddenly that he winced. The light was echoed by a corresponding glow from deep within the well, and despite his caution Dante moved closer, curiosity driving him and overriding the pricking of his danger sense. What was life without a little risk?
Yeah, not his brightest decision. The marble was apparently fed up with his slow pace, and he was yanked towards the well, into the well, like a pair of magnets irresistibly drawn to each other. And Dante, well, he just went with the flow.
When the world around him disappeared for the second time in as many months, Dante wondered if he'd passed the line between recklessness and insanity. He then promptly decided he didn't care.
Just a quick note: yes, this is technically a crossover (Devil May Cry x Inuyasha) but as it is based entirely in the Inuyasha universe, that's how I'm calling it.
Not too sure where I'm going with this. Mostly I'm just trying out writing a different sort of character's point of view than I'm used to, and practising writing fight scenes. I'm not an expert on either fandom, so let me know if I get something drastically wrong - I'll mention it if the change is intentional. Pairings are undecided, and I'll listen to any ideas if you guys have them.
Any advice or criticism is welcome, so please leave a review to let me know how I'm doing. Thanks for reading :)