This job was turning out to be way more hassle than it was worth. Dante was far from being new to the game – he's seen and survived his fair share of dreadful places that even the toughest demons shied away from, but Fortuna? This island was seriously giving him the creeps.

The city had more churches than residential buildings, the citizens were covered in strange looking cowls as if they were some sort of monks, their militant religion enforced a strict curfew over the residents, and that was just the beginning of the very long list why the hunter started to harbor a distant feeling of aversion towards the place. The fact that the local population seemed to worship none other than his old man did not even make it to the top ten, and that was saying something.

The lack of pizzerias though? Now that definitely made it to the podium. Not only did the damned city lack any kind of places that served the delicious goodness, people were not even familiar with the word. Who hasn't ever tried, or at least knew what pizza was? The blank stares he got at the diners upon placing his order haven't ceased to surprise Dante, simply because if you're human, pizza should be in your vocabulary. No excuses. Even Trish agreed with him on that one, and she was a demon for fuck's sake.

"There he comes," Lady announced with a loud clap of her hands, effectively snapping the man out of his rebuilding outrage. The three hunters were perched on top of a building in a more high-end part of the residential area, clearly not occupied by average Joes if the amount of guards was anything to go by. Fortuna was big on advertising the benefits of blind religion, but 'His Holiness' was apparently preaching water while drinking wine – not unlike every other religious leader Dante ever had the misfortune to come across.

"That's just a cat, Lady," placated Trish, identifying the supposed intruder with her superior vision easier than her friend.

"Damn. It's fucking freezing out here," the black haired woman sighed disappointedly as she rubbed her hands together, burrowing back into the thick fur coat she was forced to purchase right upon their arrival. Winter on the island seemed to be much harsher than in Capulet City, and after sitting out in the open for almost three hours in the middle of the nigh even Dante found his teeth to be chattering every once in a while. A quick glance to Trish prevented him from complaining though – the woman appeared to be completely unaffected by the biting cold, sitting stoically still in nothing more than her revealing black corset and leather pants. She even went as far as leaning back on her hands and raising her chin in a mocking imitation of sunbathing, making a point of not identifying with the pitifully human practice of being cold.

Bitch.

Normally, Dante would have no reservations about ditching a job halfway if it proved to be too time consuming or generally not worth the effort, but the girls were right, there was something seriously off about this particular mission.

For one, technically it was already finished. All three hunters have been paid in full (very generously too) just this morning by their client Agnus, all in the midst of stuttered words of indescribable and overwhelming gratitude. It was as fake as it gets, Dante could have told that even without knowing the details about the phone call that led Lady – and consequentially Dante and Trish – here.

Agnus was apparently a big shot among the Holy Knights (another title the half-devil had to snort at), a researcher of some sort. What he researched wasn't entirely clear to him, although Trish said something about weapons and alchemy, but that was an entirely different can of worms Dante had no intention of stepping into.

The black haired huntress was visibly disturbed after receiving Agnus' call, not displaying her usual giddiness upon the promise of a small fortune as a possible payment like she usually did. According to Lady, the researcher sounded utterly terrified during those short minutes they conversed (not unusual for a victim in their line of work), swearing up and down that the spawn of Satan himself was forcing its way into his home every night, threatening him with the most gruesome ways of slow and painful death, throwing his guards around as if they were ragdolls. Apparently nothing the terrified man did proved to be effective in keeping the demon out – it slayed its way through the enforced security with no trouble at all, only stopping when Agnus himself was the only human left alive in the room. The ultimate purpose of the intruder did not seem to be killing the scientist – whatever kind of creature it was, it seemed to be more interested in driving Agnus out of his mind with whispered promises of pain and suffering, hurting him just enough to drive its point home. It had yet to act up on these promises towards their client personally, but Lady insisted Agnus was already more than halfway out of his mind with the nightly terrors he had to endure for god only knows how long. There were also words thrown around about claws and glowing limbs, and the fact that the entirety of a militarily organization failed to capture the creature suggested that the stuttering man's problem was very much demonic in origin indeed. Their kind of job.

While the mission did not sound more than a one-man show to either of them, Agnus' pleas of bringing as much reinforcement as she could led Lady to invite the other hunters along, not even flinching when Dante immediately demanded a 'fair' third of the payment. He could tell the woman felt like something was wrong about the man on the other end of the line, so he took only two bullets to the head before finally agreeing to come – Lady's hunches proved to be right at an irritatingly high rate, and as much of an asshole as he was, he figured hitting on her corpse would be a gazillion times weirder than doing so on her living self.

Not that Dante had never hit on dead things before, but that was thought for another time.

"Well, there's always the chance that we did kill the thing in that castle," he supplied with a shrug, refusing to acknowledge the motion for what it really was: a shiver in disguise. His fingers were constantly dancing on the handles of his beloved twin pistols, hoping to keep the tremors of his digits hidden from the demoness. With all the shivering Lady was doing Dante wasn't concerned about her noticing the signs of him being cold, but the raven haired woman did manage to distract him from his silent hatred for Trish by letting out a sneeze that could have roused the dead.

"I can't believe I'm saying this—" Dante started off with an eye roll that was supposed to conceal his concern for his friend's welfare, but as expected, he was cut off when said friend shoved a gun right under his nose.

"Then don't fucking say it."

"Lady, this is no weather for humans. Not even the guards dare to stay outside for more than an hour. Fuck," he sent a narrowed look towards the blonde, already anticipating her reaction to his admission, "I am cold dammit."

Trish didn't even make an effort in hiding her smirk. Bitch.

"There was nothing intelligent enough in that castle that could have done this," Lady sniffed dramatically, but pulled her gun back under her coat with a groan. Apparently, Dante would only get that bullet once her hands lost their bluish hue, which, by the look of things, may not be today. "Besides, you saw Agnus too. Tell me I'm wrong."

Dante couldn't tell her she was wrong. Just like she predicted, the scientist was – for lack of a better term – off. Not just off, but off, and in so many ways Dante couldn't even begin to count. It wasn't just the stutter – although, dude, get a freaking speech therapist – but the general vibe he sent off. The moment the hunter laid eyes on him, he begrudgingly had to admit that Lady was correct in her assessment – the guy was way outside of what were considered to be the limits of mental health. He was stooping pretty heavily and kept glancing around constantly for signs of danger, as if the walls themselves were capable of growing claws and tearing into his skin. Clearly he was driven by paranoia – but then again, that wasn't completely unexpected after what he supposedly went through.

Oh no, the real surprises started coming in only after Agnus caught sight of Dante.

Whatever the researcher intended to say died on his lips when as he assessed the half-devil with apprehension written all over his face, and during the nervous stuttering that followed, his story seemed to have lost all its relation to what he said in his initial phone call. He obviously recognized Dante, although refused to admit it. The claims about claws and glowing limbs quickly became sword like tails and blade like arms, and Agnus even went as far as to send them off to the abandoned Fortuna Castle on the far north of the island, claiming the demon surely took up residence in there.

The hunters did not bother pointing out the holes in that story – this was a paying gig after all, who were they to say no to the customer's wishes? They proceeded to cleanse the castle of a slight infestation of low level demons that matched the strange man's description perfectly, but that left them with more questions than answers.

The demons were clearly artificial – they looked like the result of a fucked up crossbreeding between a fish and several swords. They did not have the intellect to speak, which was a rather gaping hole in story Agnus was trying to sell. And let's not forget about the fact that creating demons is certainly possible with the use of alchemy – the can of worms Agnus was apparently very much into, if the unwitting way of him calling the creatures 'Cutlasses' was any indicator.

Then there was the way the scientist was so eager to send the hunters off with the money before even waiting a night to make sure his attacker was indeed taken care of. Lady had to actually argue with him in order to let them check back the next morning, and while the demon had obviously paid Agnus another visit during the night, he made a tremendous effort to convince them otherwise. The leftover pieces of broken glass and the talks among the guards about their freshly fallen comrades did not go unnoticed by the mercenaries, but the alchemist was clearly in a haste to see them off.

Whatever was attacking the man after sunset, Agnus decided he did not want the hunters to meet it, not even if his decision cost him his sanity or his life... and that decision was evidently related to Dante's presence. Somehow.

"One m-more hour, t-than we're takin' turns," Lady announced, successfully painting a frown over both her partners' faces. If Lady said she would be fine only for another hour, than she must have been much closer to actual death by hypothermia than either of her friends would have liked. Dante and Trish shared a now openly concerned look, silently agreeing that one of them will drag Lady back to their motel way before that hour was up – even if she will probably try to kick and scream her way out of it.

That is, if she will still be conscious by then.

'Well, there's a disconcerting thought,' Dante amended silently, not keen on running a true risk of losing the woman to the poor weather conditions. As explosive (and sometimes downright hostile) as their relationship may seem to an outsider, friends were not exactly piling at the half-devil's door, and the idea of shortening that already curt list sent a sharp, unpleasant chill down his spine that had nothing to do with the temperature.

"That's it," he stood up in a sudden decision, trying to dismiss the hollow feeling. "We're taking turns now. Trish and I are first."

Lady had just enough time to pull the hammer back on her handgun when Dante made a quick dive and grabbed her by the wrist, effectively stopping her from aiming the barrel at him. The fact that she refused to remove her other arm from the coat to retaliate was a testament to how cold she must have been by now, but she refused to give in so easily. She looked Dante in the eye and let out a growl that didn't sound entirely human according to the male hunter.

"Take your hands of—"

"Let him have this one Lady. A few more minutes and you'll be out cold." The standing pair looked down at the demoness in momentary distraction, and Trish smirked up at them with unmasked glee in her eyes. "Bad choice of words?"

"Let. Me. Go." Lady demanded as she resumed glaring daggers at Dante, but after a few tense seconds it became obvious the man had no intentions of backing down. "I'll shoot you in the dick," she threatened in a dangerously low tone, and the half-devil's ice blue eyes widened involuntarily as he fought the urge to cover his groin with his hands. The woman may not be able to make good on her promise right now, but Dante had no doubts she would deliver later if he didn't comply. Oh man, the lengths he was willing to go for this harpy...

"Listen Lady, we have to—"

"Guys," Trish interrupted before he could start his reasoning, "it's already inside."

The hunter sighed in relief when Lady forcefully disentangled herself from his grasp and hurriedly joined the demoness, too grateful for little Dante's ensured safety to process the blonde's words.

"Dante, what the hell are you waiting for?"

The man blinked innocently at Lady's harsh tone, forcing his attention at the residence of their client. Agnus' apartment was at the top floor of a four level building, its darkened windows reflecting their surroundings and effectively shutting out any curious glances that may be targeting the insides. The hunters previously agreed that Dante will be the first to enter the scene after they spot the intruder, while Trish will help Lady with the hundred feet leap down to the balcony, seeing as there was nothing for her to grab onto that would break the fall.

Pausing only for a second to listen in, the half-breed got confirmation for Trish's words: something was breaking havoc inside the apartment indeed. Several deep voices were shouting, and just as Dante prepared to step over the railing, they heard the distinct sound of a gunshot.

"So much for gun prohibition," said Trish as she reached for Ombra, keeping Luce tucked away in her holster in order to hold onto Lady.

Despite feeling strongly disgruntled by the fact that their target was able to sneak into the building without his notice, Dante stepped over the brim casually, not fancying the idea of getting any more prompts from his human friend. After what they gathered from the guards a few hours prior, he was honestly expecting the demon to be taking a… more direct approach in its attack. The taunts it was entertaining Agnus with seemed to suggest it was a cocky bastard, so its lack of bursting in directly through a window surprised Dante a little bit.

Not as much as what happened next though: the moment the hunter's feet touched the wide railing of the balcony, something white and heavy crashed through the tinted windows in a blur, catching Dante directly in the gut and effectively throwing him off to the street below.

It took him a moment to realize that the now motionless body bleeding onto his chest was actually a Holy Knight – or at least what was left of him, anyway. The gaping wound below his ribs suggested he was missing at least a few of his more important internal organs, and his left arm had been unceremoniously yanked off straight from the shoulder.

It took Dante almost a full disorienting minute to realize that the stench emanating from the corpse didn't smell entirely human.

By the time he leapt back to the balcony with minimal effort, the girls were already inside what appeared to be the bedroom, standing over a quivering Agnus and five more dead guards laying in slowly gathering pools of blood. A quick look at Trish confirmed that she felt the dying demonic aura of the corpses too, it wasn't just his mind playing tricks on him.

"Where did it go?" Lady yanked up the scientist by the chin, all her previous problems about the temperature forgotten. "Where did it go?" she hissed at the man when she got no reply, her patience wearing thin with the lies and pretense Agnus kept throwing at them ever since they arrived.

"I d-d-dd-didn't see an-any—"

The cowering man was interrupted by a loud crash coming from the way of the adjoined room.

"Downstairs," Trish marched out of the room with the other two hunters hot on her heels, pointedly ignoring Agnus' protests and pleas of 'just leaving it be'. Whatever was going on in this godforsaken city, the scientist was clearly far from being an innocent victim in the act.

The trio followed the sounds of peeved neighbors outside the apartment all the way through the stairway, and ended up in the middle of the street where Trish paused to take a sniff from the air, hoping to catch the scent of their target. Dante didn't bother following suit – the demoness' sense of smell had always been superior to his own. If Trish didn't find a trail to follow, then no one would.

Luckily enough, she did, rather quickly at that. Just from the slight widening of her eyes Dante could tell the exact moment her senses picked up on the lingering scent, and the half-devil knew they were right on track – or at least he thought they would be in a few second as soon as she decided on a direction.

But then Trish's eyes widened further.

"What?" he a raised an eyebrow when the blonde woman directed her gaze at him, not liking the perplexed expression on her face one bit. It didn't fit her usually unbreakable confidence, and Dante guessed that whatever was the cause of that look, he wasn't going to like it.

"Nothing," she dismissed quickly before conveniently setting out in the direction of the closest dark alley, ignoring the mass of Knights pissing themselves over the body of their comrade who was thrown out of the building. Dante and Lady shared a suspicious look before they followed her. The short haired woman eventually gave a shrug under her white coat – they would probably figure out Trish's strange moment once they caught up with Agnus' attacker.

Much to Lady's chagrin, the demoness led them to the sewer system. The human's initial revulsion quickly turned into reluctant content when she realized the temperature was nowhere near as freezing as on the surface, but she kept the tail of her coat raised way above her knees, signaling that while she didn't make a fuss about coming down here, she didn't care about the waste they were stepping into. Or about the horrible smell that unavoidably came with the sewage.

Dante tried to update her about the less than human origins of the fallen guards back at Agnus' place, but Lady's only response was "No shit. One of them had wings," and that quickly shut that conversation down.

Speaking of smell, Trish gradually slowed down to a torturously boring pace, so in a rare spur of chivalrousness Dante decided to join in the sniffing contest, vaguely entertaining the idea of outdoing the blonde for once. Any hopes of that were crushed rather quickly.

The stench of the waste was overpowering, making Dante frown at the way Trish still seemed to be able to follow the trail, slowly as it may be. He made his way right next to the woman, leaning over her shoulder in a childish display of wanting to catch onto the same smell, but he got quickly shot down when a bony elbow connected sharply with his ribs.

"Fall back a bit, Dante."

Now, that was an unusual request.

"Why?"

The woman hesitated before giving an answer, watching from the corner of her eye as the half-devil made an effort to slow down and join Lady in the back even before she replied.

"Your scent is… interfering."

Well, that really wasn't something Dante wanted to hear. Interference meant that his own scent must have been very similar to what Trish was steadily following, and his thoughts immediately jumped to his twin…

Who had been conveniently dead for three years now, so no reason to continue that train of thought.

He hardly noticed how almost an hour went by before Trish finally pointed to an exit. By that time the demon's trail was lukewarm at best, but Dante's mind was still reeling with possibilities about their target's origin. As luck would have it, none of the scenarios his mind conjured up seemed to be terribly lovely.

"He left through there," Trish piqued before leading them out of the sewerage, and Dante was a little surprised that he could finally pick the trail apart from the surrounding odors now that it wasn't so oppressed. The scent wasn't entirely unpleasant, but it was so nondescript that he realized he had trouble holding onto it as the blonde led them to yet another shadowed alley. That only confirmed his assumption about it being eerily similar to his own: he was so accustomed to the fragrances of his own body that they barely even registered unless he was concentrating hard enough.

Dante was so focused on not losing the track that led to the demon that he almost bumped into Trish when she came to a halt, pointing to the dumpsters at the far back of the closed off alley. There was an incessant rattling sound coming from one of the containers, and the hunter almost snorted at the antics of the oblivious devil – keeping a low profile after openly attacking an 'upstanding' citizen obviously wasn't high on its prio list.

His amusement was rather short lived though, its intensity lessening rapidly as they closed in on the unknown creature. The outlines of the figure became clearer and clearer with every step the hunters took, and Dante almost took a double take when he identified the shape of two slender legs hanging over the edge of the dumpster.

Not only were they definitely human, they were also way too short to belong to an adult.

The two, adorably small feet (though Dante would forever deny the fact he even knows the word 'adorable') were covered in ratty sneakers so worn that the soles became completely loose, leaving ten pieces of dirty toes on full display for the onlookers. The thin legs were covered in an equally ratty pair of dark jeans, the material ending way above pale, bony ankles that were currently being swung wildly around in the air in an obvious attempt to navigate their owner out of the bin and back to solid land.

Trish's usually keen senses seemed to be in need of some heavy maintenance, since instead of leading them to the devil they were looking for, she ended up leading them to a street kid.

"It's him," the demoness hissed in a low voice, almost as if sensing the doubt of her abilities in her hunting partners.

Dante raised a skeptical eyebrow but took a few steps closer to the kid, wondering if Trish was at least right about him being a boy. He made sure to keep the fall of his feet light, not wanting to startle the child, and tried to feel for a demonic aura. He found none, at least not in close vicinity. The kid's scent was still unusually hard for him to tune into, but while it did feel familiar, it smelled human enough for the hunter.

Dante was forced to let go of this theory in less than ten seconds.

"Hah!" came the unexpectedly triumphant cry from among the bin bags, and soon the hunters were watching in silence as the kid emerged from the trashcan with a brown paper bag in his hands. The light gray hoodie he was wearing kept his face hidden from the mercenaries at this angle, but the faintly glowing hand that he reached into the paper bag with was definitely not a standard accessory for a human child. Neither were wickedly sharp looking talons, for that matter.

Damn Trish for always being right.

The small devil hummed in appreciation as he pulled a half-eaten burger out of the bag, and much to the hunters' shock he proceeded to tear into it with apparent gusto, completely oblivious to his audience. The onlookers watched the display of raw hunger in a slightly horrified awe for almost a full minute, too stunned to openly intrude on the strangely… personal act. It was Lady who finally decided to announce their presence by loudly clearing her throat, not wanting to witness any more of the depressing scene.

The boy's entire body froze the moment he heard the woman's voice, but after a few tense seconds he risked turning his head slowly towards the visitors. His sky blue eyes immediately zeroed in on Dante's icy ones, and the older male had to gulp at the sense of familiarity that hit him. Was there a chance he's came across the boy before?

The kid's mouth was still wide open from his previous attempt to take the next bite, and after half a minute of complete stillness he proceeded to raise the burger back to his mouth, never breaking eye contact with the hunter. He started to chew comically slowly, almost as if he was the one making an effort not to spook the trio. Dante tilted his head at the strange behavior and the kid immediately paused his chewing, but when the man took no further action, the child cautiously resumed the halted motion. His swallow was clearly audible in the alleyway before he took his next bite leisurely, the thin body still half-twisted towards the hunters and only moving the muscles that were absolutely necessary to process the food.

Dante wasn't sure how laughing at the absurdity of the happenings would turn out, so he wisely kept his amusement at the dramatically slothful movements to himself.

"What's your name, kid?" he asked instead, hoping the child carried enough wit to be able to speak, as Agnus' original story suggested. He saw no reason to be hostile unless the kid proved to be feral.

The short demon paused in his motions again, seeming a little awed at being talked to. He offered his surprised reply around a big chunk of bun, letting a piece of lettuce escape from between his teeth as he did so.

"Ne-lo."

The immediate furrowing of his brows suggested that wasn't exactly the way he intended his name to come out, so he tried again after a hasty swallow.

"Nero."

Dante smirked at the small creature. Not a bad name.

"And just what are you doing out here after curfew, Nero?" the question came in a sickeningly sweet voice from Lady, causing the boy to finally break eye contact as he trained his gaze on the slowly approaching woman.

"Having breakfast?" he asked in turn with an innocent tone that was way over the top for a devil, blatantly ignoring the accusation of breaking the Order's strict rules. Dante couldn't suppress a chuckle upon seeing Lady's face at that reaction.

"It's the middle of the night," she supplied helpfully, but her attitude lost some of the sugariness as she raised an elegantly plucked eyebrow at Nero.

"Oh," the kid finally turned towards the hunters fully as a genuine look of realization settled over his soft features. "Well, I guess I might have skipped a serving or two at the fancy manor that I obviously live at."

Bite, chew, swallow.

Dante couldn't help the laugh that escaped him. It was loud, too.

"Obviously," Lady simply offered with a smile, not appearing to be bothered by Nero's implication of her stupidity. She was just contemplating her next question that would help them determine whether the child's level of humanity extended beyond most of his physical appearance, but the boy beat her to it after he carefully picked at a piece of onion with one of his claws, throwing it away with a look of disgust.

"Did Agnus send you?"

Bite, chew, swallow.

"Yeah. He hired us to kill you," Dante replied quickly before Lady could take the chance from him, wanting to see Nero's reaction to the words. The statement was technically still true, given that it was the young boy that wreaked havoc at Agnus' place not an hour ago. Even despite the glowing hand and the path that led them to this alley, Dante would never suspect Nero as the culprit if it wasn't for the drying blood on the sleeve of his hoodie. It seemed so impossible for a child of that size – and one with little to no demonic aura – to finish those Knights off in mere moments as he did.

"Hm," Nero gave a curt nod as he finished his current bite, answering in the same casual manner as the hunter spoke in. "He does that a lot."

Dante's smile froze on his face when the kid bent down for a fallen piece of bacon and proceeded to pop it into his mouth, paying no attention to the filth it collected from the ground. Demon or no demon, the urge to drag the kid into the nearest place that would serve them a hot meal was impossible to ignore, and Dante ended up having to turn away for a moment to bite that stupidly human impulse back.

It was only then that he noticed Trish's overly carefully arranged neutral expression, and realized she was being uncharacteristically quiet.

"You're not with the Order though, are you?" the kid regained Dante's attention, sending a pointed look to Ebony on his side before giving Trish a quick onceover. "Sanctus would shit bricks if he saw that outfit."

Bite, chew, swallow.

"Hah, no," Dante chuckled. The kid was turning out to be pretty amusing. "We're far from being Knights, kid… 'specially not Holy ones."

Nero nodded seriously, as if indicating that he would keep their 'secret' safe.

"Would you pass Agnus a message?" he asked, looking the older male in the eyes again. Well, at least Nero knew who the boss was among the three hunters. Dante hated to admit, but sometimes it came to a close draw between him and Lady. Most of the time. Definitely always.

Dante nodded, deciding to humor the tiny creature.

"Tell him…" Nero started off, taking another bite from the now almost gone burger, "that I changed my mind about drowning him in a tub of freezing water."

The hunter's eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hairline at the boy's words, but he watched on in silence as the kid paused for a moment to give into a full body shudder. Whether it was from the actual temperature or from a particular memory he relieved at his own words, Dante honestly did not want to know.

"Tell him that I will push my hand through his ribs instead," bite, chew, "and squeeze his heart just a little bit. Not enough to kill him, "swallow, "just enough to make it hurt."

Bite, chew, swallow.

"Tell him we're going to stay like that for a few hours," Nero raised his gaze to the sky for a heartbeat, his innocent expression suggesting he was contemplating the meaning of existence itself. "Or, you know.. at least until I have to pee."

Okay, maybe not the meaning of existence itself then.

"Oh," he went on with a disturbingly even tone, "and don't forget to add that I will also rip his still beating heart out, crush it in front of his eyes, and feed it to him before his body even realizes it's gone. Could you tell him that?"

To the hunters' credit, if any of them felt compelled to run and leave the child with that disturbingly innocent expression behind, neither gave any indication of being the first to give into their instincts. Dante felt almost relieved when the kid's eyes narrowed into slits, and his voice took on a more threatening manner. Almost.

"But don't say it like this," Nero made a vague gesture with his glowing appendage, probably referring to the casual manner he just talked about maiming a human being before forcing him to… did that ending count as cannibalism? "Be scary. Point your gun at him and everything." Nero's features went skeptical when he didn't receive any immediate feedback from Dante. "You know how to be scary, right?"

For the life of him, Dante couldn't say if his own laugh was forced or genuine at that minute.

"How about a deal kid?"

Nero took a bite, and the man took the lack of immediate refusal as a sign of curiosity. He seriously hoped the girls didn't notice how the continuous eye contact the kid insisted on keeping was starting to unnerve him just the slightest bit.

"Tell us why you're so interested in scaring the guy out of his mind, and I'll be scarier than the devil himself when passing down your message."

Dante was aiming to hit a lighter note, and the smirk he was rewarded with suggested he apparently succeeded. Nero gave a careless shrug before tucking the remaining pieces of the burger into his mouth, and threw the ball of wrapping paper over his shoulder without bothering to look. It landed in the center of a smaller trashcan perfectly.

"I'm one for holding hardcore grudges."

Finally, finally breaking eye contact with the hunter – seriously, what was it with the staring? – Nero lowered himself into a slight squat, and before any of the mercenaries could react, he was already looking down at them from the roof of the building they were currently facing, a bow and a salute all he was willing to offer as a parting gift.

"Fuck!" Dante immediately moved in to give chase, but the only thing he could think about as he ascended was how – despite the added distance – the new angle gave him a better view on the kid's face, and on that suspicious white blur that slipped out of his hoodie before Nero turned to run.

'It better not be his goddamned hair...'

So, in this story I took the liberty and made Nero Dante's son. There will be lots of angst and hurt/comfort moments, so better be prepared. ;)

No pairing for anyone now, but taking suggestions for the future. Rating may also go up (probably due to cursing and some blood/gore here and there - sex might come up at some point too but this is generally not a lemony fic).

This chapter had not been beta read, so feel free to point out any spelling/grammar related mistakes you may find.

Reviews are also always welcome: please take a short minute to let me know if you liked what you read or not (or several minutes if you feel like giving a full critique). :) Thank you very much!

Cover art is done by me:

dorianne77 deviantart com