Just a thing that I wrote to get over my writing's block. As always, feedback appreciated.
RWBY (c) Rooster Teeth
Devil May Cry (c) Capcom
Spoiler warnings for both RWBY (at least post-Volume 3) and Devil May Cry 5.
Mission 0: One Hell of an Arm
The stench of death filled Yang's nose. The screams of the dying filled her ears. Fire and shadows clung at the peripherals of her vision as she stared ahead at the man steadily walking towards her. A masked man with a dark suit-jacket and a sword by his side, his being marked by patterns of glowing red. A man whose very sight had locked every one of her muscles in fear.
No no no…
In her panic, she almost failed to notice the weight that formed around each of her arms. She looked down and saw that her trademark gauntlets, the Ember Celica, had materialized around her wrists. The sight of the weapons triggered a flight-or-fight response inside her mind. Without a second's hesitation, she set her gauntlets and lashed out with her fists, each jab in the air launching a shotgun like blast towards the figure.
"Get...get away from me!" Yang screamed. She stopped once she had let off no less than five shots. Her heart seized when she saw that the figure still continued to advance, the blasts doing nothing to halt his advance.
Panicked, Yang yelled and let off another shot. Or tried to, until she noticed the weight of the Ember Celica was gone...along with all feeling in her right arm. Her heart seized when she saw that her right shoulder ended in only a bandaged stump.
The memories came flooding back to her...memories she wished she could just tear out of her head. Her arm had been lost, severed by the man in front of her. The man known as Adam Taurus, the leader of the White Fang. The man that now stood only inches away from her face.
He grinned, his hand reaching for his sword. Yang knew nothing else she could do but to close her eyes and wait for the inevitable.
One second passed in silence. Then another, and another. It was on the fifth second that Yang decided to open her eyes again...to see Adam Taurus lying on the ground before her in a bloody mess.
The glow marking his body ceased. His clothes and face were drenched with his blood, his auburn hair thrown in disarray. A large black hole could be seen in the center of his chest. He wasn't completely dead, clinging to life as he spasmed and gurgled, causing blood to leak out the sides of his lips.
"What...what the-"
It was then that Yang noticed the feeling had returned to her right arm. Only... it felt off. Like it was an arm that didn't fit right. She also felt something wet and pulsating in its grip.
Her eyes fell on her right arm and saw that the empty stump was no longer empty. An arm had grown out of it, but it wasn't one that could have belonged to any human, or even a Faunus for that matter. It was a monstrous thing with razor nails, scales with texture like wood and a network of veins that gave off an unnatural blue glow.
And in its palm was the still-beating heart of Adam Taurus.
Yang awoke in cold sweat. Her immediate instinct was to check for her right arm. In a rare instance, she was relieved to see the twisted jacket sleeve covering her arm stump. Her chest heaved as she let out a relaxed sigh.
"Well, that was a new one."
She got up from under the large tree that she had inadvertently dozed off under and stretched under the sunlight peeking through the branches. She looked to the crisp blue skies hanging over the little piece of Patch that her family called home.
She had lost track of how many days, weeks, or even possibly months that had passed since that day. The day where she had lost a piece of herself, in more ways than one. The fall of Beacon was something that the world refused to let go lightly, with news channels across all four kingdoms giving periodic updates on the situation, even if there were no real progress made in either restoring the academy and bringing the ones responsible to justice. The constant reminders of the worst day of her life was why she find herself more and more outside in the stretch of forest just around her family's home.
Yang sighed. There was something she missed more than her arm. She missed the drive of her old self, of the girl with seemingly infinite spirits that was ready to take on the world and whatever it threw at her. Now, that girl seemed like a stranger, someone who may never come back.
Her heart ached at the thought.
I...I wonder what the others are doing now.
A bark drew Yang's attention away from the melancholy of her thoughts. She turned in time to see a small bundle of black, gray and white fur bouncing her way. She recognized the welcoming sight of Zwei, the family dog and one of the few things in her life that could cheer her up in her current predicament. The canine radiated joy like the rays of the sun and it was hard not to be infected by his energetic demeanor, which was why Yang found her lips curling into a smile against all odds.
"Hello Zwei," Yang said.
The dog barked, muffled by the object clamped in his mouth.
"Oh hey. What'chu you got there boy?"
Zwei dropped the object in his mouth at Yang's feet. Once she clearly saw what it was, her lilac eyes went wide and her heart skipped a few beats.
It was a severed arm. The same arm from her dream.
"Holy-" Yang stumbled away from the limb, nearly tripping over the root of the tree as she stepped back. She eyed the limb with sheer disbelief. Every little detail was exactly like how she saw it in the dream, from the glowing veins to the wood-like textures and claws, its appearance only slightly different under a different light.
The ex-huntress-in-training stared at the limb for a good few seconds to make sure she wasn't seeing things, and then looked to Zwei. The dog was completely oblivious to the distress wrought upon his master by the thing he brought, his tail wagging happily.
"Zwei! What...how…where did you get this thing?"
"Bark!" Zwei responded. Yang didn't know what other answer she was expecting from a dog. She pinched her eyebrows.
"Zwei, you can't just be puttin' things like that inside your mouth! Who knows where it's been! For all we know, it could be infectious!"
Zwei tilted his head innocently at Yang.
Yang let out a sigh. She placed her hand on her hip and returned her attention back to the limb.
Her first thought was that it belonged to a Grimm, probably lopped off during a scuffle with a Huntsman or Huntress, but one thing prevented her from completely buying into that theory. The bodies of all Grimm had a tendency to evaporate into black dust when slain, with the same rule to any severed body part. It was the reason why very little is known of their actual physiology, and why taxidermies of the creatures were impossible to create besides complete fakes.
Then there was the glowing blue veins. No Grimm she could recall from her classes at Beacon had veins like that, since most of them were shadowy black with pale skulls.
But if the arm didn't belong to a Grimm, then what did it belong to?
Would dad know a thing about this? Maybe I can ask when he comes back from running those errands. Or maybe this is something more up Professor Port's alley…
Whatever the arm was, she couldn't just leave it out in the open. She looked around and found a branch she could use to safely poke the thing around. She broke the branch off and began prodding the thing. To her relief, it didn't twitch to life.
"Hey Zwei, next time you're thinking of bringing weird monster limbs back, ask first alright? We're gonna have to figure out what to even do with this thing now..."
Yang had expected a bark in response. Instead, she heard nothing.
"Zwei?"
She glanced away from the arm to see her dog pointing his head towards a group of trees in front of him. He was growling, his body was angled close to the ground in an aggressive stance.
"Zwei? What is it?"
A chill suddenly came over her. A tense dread that sent a shiver through her spine. The kind of dread that one can only experience whole trapped by a horde of ravenous Grimm with no weapons or allies.
Only the thing that walked out from behind the trees wasn't a Grimm.
It was a single man.
A stranger clad in a black trench coat with ragged ends, his face completely cloaked by the shadows of his black flat-brimmed hat. He was tall and gaunt, like a skeleton wrapped in all-black clothes. The darkness seemed to cling to him wherever he moved, despite the sunlight shining down upon him. He looked as if he had been carved out of the shadows themselves.
"Zwei...stay back," Yang whispered. She had no idea who the man was, but she couldn't ignore the feeling in her gut that screamed the man was trouble, if he was even a man.
The stranger turned towards Yang, instantly putting her on edge. She clenched her fist tight and brought her elbow forward in a defensive gesture, one that looked incomplete and frankly pathetic with only one arm, her wrist feeling naked without her Ember Celica which was left back at her house. Zwei let out a warning bark at the man, as if the man was a Grimm himself.
And for some reason, Yang wasn't entirely unsure if Zwei was wrong.
The man yawned, and for a moment, she could've sworn she saw a red light in his throat that outlined a series of sharp teeth. He lazily scratched the back of his neck then turned his face towards the arm glowing just behind Yang's feet.
"Y'know, I've been scanning this backwater island on this backwater world for awhile now, lookin' for that arm," The stranger spoke, his voice low and raspy and marked by a very distinct accent. He pointed a finger towards Yang. It was then she noticed that each of his fingers were covered by chrome rings that caught the sunlight. Rings shaped like gastly, toothy skulls, some lacking nostrils.
"My boss has a very keen interest in that arm, and the tremendous power swimming through its veins," The stranger showed his palm towards Yang. "I would appreciate it if you would hand it to me, blondie."
Zwei snarled. The stranger shot the dog a look.
"Who...who the heck are you?" Yang said, hesitant to give the stranger anything until she learned of his intentions.
The stranger tipped his hat, flattening his palm against his chest. "Me? I'm Nothing. A nobody really. Always has been, always will be."
He lifted his hat.
"The same can't be said for the master I now serve. He's a somebody. A very powerful somebody. A fella who always gets what he wants...a fella I wouldn't want to piss off," The stranger showed his palm again. "So again, I would appreciate it if you would hand over the arm blondie, preferably without resistance."
Yang glanced at him warily. Well, now I know he's a nutjob. Just great.
She shot a sideways glance at Zwei, then at the arm. She still had no inkling what the arm was, but for some reason, she felt compelled to protect it. Because whatever the stranger wanted with it, her instincts told her it wasn't going to be good.
The stranger let out an annoyed sigh. "Look blondie. You either hand me that arm or I take yours instead."
The stranger looked up, and Yang saw for the first time what was beneath his hat. A pair of glowing red eyes. The sight of the eyes caused her to freeze, as they were the exact shade of red as the glow that could be seen on the man who took her arm.
"Considerin' it looks like someone else already took your other arm, you wouldn't want that now, would you?"
A dark aura flared around the stranger, twisting the very air around him. Yang thought she was stuck in another nightmare, but for some reason she wasn't waking up. She glanced back to the arm once more.
She had nothing to do with it. Why did she care if anything happened to it?
If giving it to the stranger meant he would leave, then she would have kicked it to him then and there.
Only...Zwei charging the stranger prevented her from doing that.
"Zwei!" Yang shouted as her dog lunged at the man with a speed and ferocity that belied his diminutive form. He launched himself like a furry cannonball, teeth bared towards the stranger. The stranger casually backhanded Zwei, swatting him away like a fly and sending him ricocheting off the trees. A pained yelp left the dog's throat as it crashed back into the dirt.
The sight of Zwei being hurt triggered something within Yang. She could feel her Aura flare, going from a calm flow to a crashing wave in response to her rapidly rising emotions. Her hair began to glow a fiery yellow as if each strand had been lit aflame. Her lilac eyes turned a vicious red.
She clenched her teeth. Her hand balled into a fist without her knowing.
She looked to the stranger as he shook his head.
"Stupid mutt-"
The stranger was struck in the face by a mighty left hook from Yang before he could finish. A hook backed by the strength of both her Semblance and rage.
"How dare you hurt Zwei!" She roared.
Most people, and even Grimm, would have buckled under such a mighty and well-placed blow. But as Yang looked up at the stranger, she saw that he didn't even so much as flinch, staring past Yang's fist on his cheek with a look of indifference in his lazy red eyes.
"Was that supposed to hurt?"
Yang's eyes went wide. How-?
She couldn't finish the thought before the stranger's hand lashed outward like a striking viper to find her throat. He moved like a blur and slammed her against a tree, causing the air to vomit out of her lungs. He raised her, causing her back to tear through the bark, causing her to wince in pain. She let out a wheeze as the Aura around her neck began to fizzle and crack as it strained against the stranger's tremendous strength. A strength that couldn't have belonged to any person...or even Grimm for that matter.
"Now, had I been still a Grimm, I'd imagine you'd take my damn jaw off with that hook," The stranger said calmly. He squeezed, causing Yang to let out a choking gasp. "But I ain't anymore. A Huntress brat like you can't ever hope to hurt the likes of me."
Yang managed to open one of her eyes through the pain. She gritted her teeth and willed herself to look at the stranger as he was strangling the life out of her.
"What...what the hell are you?"
The stranger tipped his hat, yet the shadows still lingered on his features, making it impossible for Yang to see his face despite being so close beyond those unnatural eyes of his.
"I already told you. I'm Nothing."
The stranger raised his other arm. He twitched his fingers, causing them to elongate and sprout into claws. If it was apparent he wasn't human before, then the claws certainly did it now.
"Now...don't go complainin' that I didn't warn ya. You refused to give me that arm, so now I'm going to take yours. I said I'd do that, didn't I?"
He raised the claw high, hooking them like scythes.
In that moment, Yang saw something else besides the stranger; she saw Adam Taurus in his place. Her mind forced her to see the White Fang leader's smirking face overlayed over the stranger's form, his raised sword aligning with the stranger's claws.
No…
The stranger brought his claw down.
No no no…
Adam brought his sword down.
NO!
Yang screamed.
And a loud deafening crack shook the world around her. A shockwave tore through the forest, shaking the leaves lose from their branches and branches from their trees. The wind pushed Yang against the tree. She fell, feeling the weight of the stranger's grasp no longer holding her in place. She gasped for the air that her lungs begged her for, breathing heavily as she felt her Aura fluctuate wildly. She opened her eyes in a distorted haze, her head light as she tried to stand.
"What...what just happened?"
In her daze, Yang realized there was something off. She felt her fist was clenched, but it wasn't her left fist that was clenched. It was her right fist...the fist that she was supposed to have lost along with the arm it belonged to.
Her head turned slowly, until her right shoulder came into view, as well as the thing that was now attached to it. She saw the monstrous arm growing out of where her right arm stump used to be, her right sleeve shredded apart to make way for the inhuman limb.
"Holy crap!" Yang shouted. She fell on her rear, going slack-jawed at her new arm. It took her a moment to realize that the fingers were twitching because she was the one moving them. She could flex and feel through the arm, as if it was her own. She turned the limb around and saw the veins, which were no longer glowing blue but yellow. A fiery yellow like the color of her hair when her Semblance was activated, when she entered her berserk state.
But that wasn't the craziest thing, not by far. A second arm was growing out of it, one made of spectral golden energy, sheathed in ghostly, petal-shaped scales and ending in massive clawed fingers. It was balled into a fist, positioned as if it had just finished giving someone an uppercut.
Which explained why the stranger wasn't here anymore. Yang looked in front of her and saw a wide path carved through the trees and dirt, as if a Bullhead had crashed through it, stretching miles away in front of her. On the very far end of the path, she could see a tiny black shape that she could barely make out as the slack of the stranger, his back slumped against a huge boulder, its surface marred by a sizeable crater-shaped crack that approximated the dimensions of his body. Miraculously, it seemed his hat was still on his head.
"Whoa," Yang whispered. She knew she was strong, but the punch delivered by her new arm made all of the punches she had ever landed in her life seem pathetic comparison, and that was including the one she used to wreck Roman Torchwick's stolen mech.
The ghost arm vanished back into the veins of the scaly one. She clenched its fist, feeling a power course through it, one that was a stark contrast to her Aura. A more primal power that she could feel tug at her more bestial urges...the urge to win a fight...the urge to completely dominate the opponent. If Aura was meant to protect, then whatever power she felt within the arm served to destroy.
She didn't dwell on the arm for too long before Zwei's cry brought her attention back to her dog. She shot a glance towards Zwei's curled, whimpering form next to a tree. She wasted no more time in running towards him, quickly bending down next to him to see if he was okay.
"Zwei! You alright boy?" Yang ran her still human hand over his fur. His body was shivering. Seeing the friendly canine reduced to such a state tugged at her heart strings, which made her relieved when the dog still had enough strength to lick her hand.
This is insane. We have to get out here before he-
She quickly glanced over her shoulder, to see the stranger was gone.
Oh crap.
She scooped up Zwei's shaking form into her arms and made a beeline towards the direction of her family's home.
She didn't get far before a cacophony of inhuman shrieks swept over her.
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!"
She dropped Zwei as every ounce of strength she had left escaped her body. Her legs buckled under her weight and caused her to collapse forward onto all fours. Her eyelids become heavy as a wave of exhaustion hit her like a truck.
Why...why am I so tired?
The screams came again, louder and closer this time, sapping Yang of any remaining willpower.
"SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE~!"
She felt like passing out, as if she's lost a whole week of sleep. Her arms no longer had the strength to keep her up. She fell forward, her face tickled by the grass.
So...tired…
She remained conscious enough to hear the beating of wings overhead. A shadow fell over her, right as a pair of dark boots touched down on the ground just inches in front of her.
"Well well well…"
Yang, using what little strength she had left, forced her eyelids to open and to look up. She saw the stranger kneeling in front of her, his body giving way to horrific features, the most grotesque of which were the five deformed heads growing out of his chest. Each head was similar to the others, shaped like monstrous pale skulls with blackened chins, their gaping maws unhinged and packed with needle-like teeth. Their sockets were blank, and two out of the heads lacked the red slit-shaped nostrils of the others. They grew out of the stranger's torso like writhing, tumorous growths.
On the stranger's back had sprouted a pair of leathery, bony, bat-like wings, their membranes frayed and chewed around the edges as if they were in a permanent state of rotting. Their base grew out of the stranger's coat, as if the coat was part of his body.
"Not gonna lie, that was one hell of a hook," The stranger stroked his chin, popping it in place. "But I expect nothing less, considerin' that arm is powered by the bloodline of the great Dark Knight himself."
Yang's eyes fluttered as she fought to keep them open. She tried to move, but her muscles refused to respond, each feeling as if an iron weight had been tethered to their fibers. The stranger's power, if it could even be called a Semblance, was drawing her closer to darkness by the second.
"You probably have no clue who I'm talkin' about, do you girlie? No one in this world knows who the Legendary Dark Knight Sparda is. Shame really, since he could singlehandedly end the war between the Grimm if he didn't kick the bucket."
The skulls around the stranger's chest retracted back into him, his wings vanishing into his back. He reached into his coat and pulled out a cigarette, putting it in his unseen mouth. He breathed a ring of smoke into the sky, which took the form of a gaunt skull before disappearing.
"I can't believe it though. Of all the things that arm has decided to take as its host, it decided on you, a mere child."
The stranger blew a ring of smoke towards Yang, filling her nose with its rancid odor.
"You don't deserve the power of the Devil Bringer."
Yang's hand grabbed a handful of grass. The veins on her monster arm flashed as she tried to break free of whatever hex the stranger put her under. The power from the arm began to course through her veins, and that was when she noticed something peculiar; it was being amped up by her Aura, giving her the strength to steadily resist the stranger's power.
The stranger glanced down at what looked like a watch. He flattened his palm against his hat.
"Ah crap. I've been here too long. If I stay any longer, my demonic power is definitely bound to attract every Grimm from every corner of this forest. I can't have that now, since the boss told me to keep a low profile."
He flicked the cigarette away, then snapped his fingers, the sound echoing throughout the forest. The space behind him began to distort into a spiral, before shattering away like glass to reveal a circular, swirling abyss.
Yang's eyes went agape at the portal.
The stranger stood up in front of the portal, his coat and hat flapping from the otherworldly wind that came from within it.
"It's been a bash blondie, but this is where we part our ways," The stranger said. He raised his hand, lengthening his fingers into claws once more. "But I ain't leaving without that arm."
Yang's demon arm curled into a fist. She could feel the heat rise within her as her hair started glowing. Her eyes flashed red, this time bleeding light like the stranger's eyes. Her body became flushed with power, more power than she ever had.
A voice echoed in her mind, one that was not her own.
"Power...power..."
Her veins became hot, though not from her Semblance. She became possessed, as if by a demon.
"I need POWER!"
Her voice took on a demonic inflection that she never knew she was capable of.
"Go screw yourself!"
She rose and lashed out with her new arm, catching the stranger off-guard. His red eyes visibly enlarged as she materialized and launched a phantom limb towards him, its oversized knuckle crashing into his torso. The stranger let out a mutter of surprise as he was sent hurtling towards the portal.
"So long jerk!" Yang yelled, though a bit too soon. The stranger's hand snapped out and grabbed a hold of the spectral arm's wrist, yanking Yang off her feet and towards the portal with him.
"If I ain't taking that arm in Remnant, then I guess I'm takin' you with me!"
Yang tried to pull back but it was too late. The portal was like a vacuum, its pull impossible to fight against. The wind made it hard for her to breath, the golden hair flattening against her face making it difficult to see.
The thing she could see was a dark shape darting past the peripherals of her vision. It was Zwei, who bolted past Yang without her even realizing it. Like a furry comet, he collided into the stranger, sending all three of them tumbling into the portal.
August 3rd, 3:45 PM - 2 months after the Red Grave City incident
"You sure this is the place Nico?" A man with white hair said. He leaned back in the passenger's seat of a gaudy looking van that doubled as a miniature RV, its side emblazoned with an unlit neon sign that spelled out a single phrase:
DEVIL MAY CRY
The black-haired woman in the driver's seat wrinkled her nose at the man, raising an eyebrow behind her glasses. Her less-than-modest crop top and denim shorts revealed the tattoos etched across parts of her body.
"What? You don't trust my tips?" The woman, Nico, said in a very noticeable Southern drawl. "Look asshole, the guy that told us about this place was the same guy that led me to you."
The man, Nero, rolled his eyes. He sat up on his seat. "So he's the guy I have to thank for havin' to put up with all of your crap."
"You bet your ass he is," Nico replied. "And considerin' he was able to lead me to you, I bet his claims about this place bein' a secret hideout for some nasty demons to be right on the money."
Nero raised an eyebrow. He glanced towards the building just in front of them. "You seriously tellin' me this bar is a demon hideout?"
It didn't even look like a good bar, more like one of those back alley watering holes that only the most unsavory of individuals frequented. A place where the beer was sub-par, the mugs barely cleaned and the cockroaches were the most prevalent form of life. Only four of the letters of the bar's neon lights were lit, spelling out the name of the joint: GOAT'S HORN BAR.
The side of the bar looked worse, its brick walls smothered by graffiti, one of which depicted a lazily drawn pentagram with a stylized goat's head inside it.
"What? You don't believe demons like to get drunk once in a while? If I lived in Hell, I'd prolly would get wasted every waking moment I could get."
Nero shook his head. He grabbed his Red Queen, his trademark sword, from behind his seat and got out. He flapped his coat in the wind and checked that his custom magnum, the Blue Rose, was in working condition.
"Alright Nico. Let's see if your friend was right about this place."
He took a step, when Nico rolled down the window and called after him.
"Hold your horses! Aren't you forgettin' somethin'?"
Nero turned around right as Nico tossed him a mechanical arm, which he caught like a professional baseball player snatching a ball. Its sleek shape was defined in vibrant hues of silver and blue, with its segmented fingers encased in gold metal. He could feel the power within its strange alloy. An alloy born from the unholy union of human science and demonic flesh.
"You forgot your helpin' hand bozo," Nico smirked. "I didn't work day and night on that just to see it not bein' used for kickin' the teeth of demons in, ya hear me?"
Nero studied the hand, turning it around and up and over. "Nico, this just looks like the Overture."
Nico scoffed. "It's Overture Mark II wise-ass, or just Overture II for short. It may look like the original but I made some tweaks to its inner design. It now has some new tricks it can do."
Nero bounced the arm in his hand. Then he looked at his other arm, one that he had regained after awakening the demonic heritage within him. With a thought, the arm dematerialized in pieces of blue energy, becoming an empty stump. He placed the Overture II into it, which fit snuggly. Once connected, he flexed and clenched its fingers, its movements responding to his neural inputs without the slightest delay.
"Alright, I'll take it for a test run," Nero said. He didn't have to use Nico's Devil Breakers now that he had regained the arm he had lost, but he'd be lying if using them didn't make fighting demons even more fun than it already was.
"Have fun in there, but don't do anythin' that I wouldn't," Nico said. She slipped in a cigarette and blew a wreath of smoke that a stray wind kicked to Nero.
The devil hunter frowned and tried to brush the smell of smoke away, though it didn't bother him as much as it used to. Having worked together for months now, he was getting used to Nico's habits, though it still annoyed him.
"Yeah, I'll be out in five." Nero turned to the bar. With Red Queen on his back, Blue Rose by his side and Overture II attached to his arm, he walked into the bar, his blue coat flapping behind him.
Nico smirked as she watched Nero enter the bar with his intentional cool-guy swagger that really wasn't fooling anyone. "Show-off."
She leaned in her seat and took another puff of her cigarette, before putting it out on the dash tray besides her. With nothing to do until Nero finishes slaying whatever demon was inside, she turned on the radio to fill her time while the devil hunter went to business.
She flicked through several channels, ranging the gamut from news on the latest celebrity scandals to a plug for the Order's sermons, to music stations that played the same song over and over again. Nothing really piqued her interest, until she landed on a channel giving a very peculiar news report.
...sightings of a strange, wolf-like beast continue to be reported throughout Dumary Island. Locals continue to blame the creature for the disappearances of thirty people...
Nico recognized the name. She's heard of the island, as well as the multinational company that built a massive tower there to serve as its headquarters before the whole thing went bankrupt, almost overnight. Coincidentally, she also heard a rumor that Dante, the Legendary Devil Hunter, was doing business on that island around the time the company's CEO vanished.
Before she could ponder the thought, a massive form crashed through the wall of the bar. She jolted in her seat. She inched forward and stared out ahead at the monster that was standing before her.
"What the hell?"
The beast was around eight feet tall or so and had the body of a muscular man but had the head of a goat with massive, twisting horns, along with clawed hands and bent, hooved feet. Parts of its body was covered in course brown hair, while the parts that weren't were vile green in color. On its back could be seen a pair of folded, leathery wings.
Nico has heard of such a creature before based on the research notes she managed to gather from the Order, the fanatical religious order that her asshole of a father belonged to before he shuffled off his mortal coils. A member of the Goat Clan if she wasn't mistaken.
The beast lumbered around the empty lot in front of the bar in a daze. He shook dust from his head, before he saw Nico and began charging at her van.
"Aw shit," Nico cursed under her breath. She was about to kick the ignition on the van to avoid the rampaging goat-man, when the beast lurched forward and fell onto the pavement, which cracked under the creature's weight. In its back was the long, heated form of Red Queen.
Nico rolled down the window, in time to see Nero strolling casually out of the hole the Goatling made. He walked over and put Overture II on the handle of the Red Queen, sending waves of electricity down towards the Goatling pinned underneath it, causing the creature to howl in pain. It was one of the new features Nico designed into Overture II: the ability for Nero to charge weapons with its powerful shocks.
The devil hunter looked up from the demon and smiled at Nico, giving her a thumbs up with his other hand.
"Looks like Overture II passes quality control!"
"Yeah, of course it would dumbass," Nico smiled back. "All of my Devil Breakers are pieces of art!"
Nero chuckled. The Goat let out groans of pain and crawled an inch forward, its claws leaving marks along the ground. The motion didn't escape the devil hunter's notice. He revved the Red Queen's handle, causing it to roar like a motorcycle as its blade became heated, sending more pain the Goatling's way. The demon bellowed and shrieked as its back burned from the blade's Exceed system being unleashed upon it.
The creature then elbowed the blade away and knocked Nero back with a kick from one of its hooved feet. The devil hunter crashed into another section of the bar's wall, creating a crater where he landed. Nico winced for him.
The Goatling stood up, its breathing haggard. It eyed Nero, who got up as well, then raised a clawed hand in the air. The space within his palm flickered and distorted, before a ball of energy appeared, fanning out into the shape of a weapon.
A massive falchion, the sight of which caused Nico to sit forward on her seat.
It was one of the prettiest dang swords she had ever seen, and she had seen a lot. Its flat blade was divided into visible sections, covered in patterns that looked like glowing crimson circuitry. Its handle was unusually complex and had various cybernetic contraptions built into it, more so than even Nero's Red Queen. As a weapon maker herself, Nico could tell the craftsmanship put into the weapon. It nearly made her drool.
"Whoa…"
The Goatling swung the blade in the air, causing its sections to detach and unfold. The hilt began to click and fold, giving away to a trigger and stock. Nico found herself, against her better judgement, being amazed at the transformed weapon of Nero's enemy, which now took the form of a rifle.
The weapon-smith fought the urge to squeal.
The peculiarity of the weapon was not lost on Nero.
"Hey, did your sword just turn into a gun?" The devil hunter stroked his chin and grinned at the demon. "That's pretty neat. Mind tellin' me where can I get something like that?"
The Goatling snarled. He aimed his sword-rifle towards Nero, letting off several shots of infernal energy towards the devil hunter.
A smirk appeared on Nero's lips. He moved faster than the shots, sliding out of the way of each one and causing them to strike the side of the bar, making more holes in its already crumbling walls. He pulled out Blue Rose, his hand moving in a blur as fired a shot that tore through the air, striking the creature right on the shoulder, causing the beast's aim to go off.
The Goatling growled and took a step back. Nero saw his opening and rushed forward, instantly closing the distance between him and the demon. The demon's sword immediately clicked back into its falchion form. Its metal shimmered with demonic energy as the creature swung it downwards at Nero.
Nero's smile remained on his face. He grabbed the blade with his Overture II, keeping it place as he pressed Blue Rose into the Goatling's stomach, pumping it full of shots. Blood and guts flew as the bullets pushed against the demon with so much force that its hooves began to leave the ground. It howled in agony as it was pushed into the air by the barrage of demonically-empowered magnum shots.
Nero wrenched the halbert away and in one swift motion that was nearly too quick for human eyes to follow, a blue spectral arm appeared behind him, grabbing Red Queen off his back and sending its sharp end right into the Goatling's torso. It threw the sword, sending the demon flying along with it into the alleyway wall right behind him.
The demon went slack, its body pinned limp against the wall. A repose of silence settled into the empty lot around the bar, broken by the sounds of the bar crumbling into itself from the punishment it took. As the building fell, it kicked up dust from behind Nero, causing his coat and hair to flap.
The spectral arm vanished from Nero as he re-holstered Blue Rose. He held the demon's sword in his hand, eyeing its design. He held it to Nico, who he noticed couldn't take her eyes off it during the entire fight.
"Hey Nico, guess I should have never doubted your informant. Looks like we found one of those black market Devil Arms we've been hearing about."
Nico rolled down the window. "Yeah and it's a thing of beauty! So be careful not to leave any damn fingerprints on it!"
"Yeah yeah, whatever," Nero replied. He walked forward, sword in hand, and saw that the Goatling had awoken and still had some fight in it. It snarled, clawing wildly at Red Queen stuck in his torso in a vain attempt to push it out of itself.
"Here pal, let's trade," Nero said, moments before he stabbed the Devil Arm into the Goatling while yanking out his Red Queen at the same time. The demon screamed. Its glowing yellow eyes, lacking any discernible pupils, narrowed at the devil hunter.
"Fuck you, you human piece of shit!"
Nero grinned. He swung the Red Queen in the empty air, shaking all of the blood off it before sheathing it onto his back. "Oh, it speaks! And here I thought you were just another dumb demon who can't string two words together."
He grabbed the handle of the Devil Arm, then pushed it just an inch further. The demon growled, gnashing its sharp teeth in pain.
"Now listen here goat-head. I'm not gonna ask again. I want you to answer my question," Nero stared right into the Goatling's eyes as his fingers tightened around the Devil Arm's handle. "I want to know where you got this Devil Arm, since I don't think a low-ranking demon like you could ever get a weapon like this otherwise."
The Goatling looked at Nero, its brow furrowing. Nero matched the monster's grimace with one of his own.
"Me and my business partner have been trying to find out whose the one behind all of these Devil Arms flooding the black market. I have a feeling you know more than you're letting on pal."
The Goatling regarded Nero for a tense moment. Then, in spite of his mortal injuries, his mouth curled into a sinister, bloody smile.
"The demon...the demon responsible for this Devil Arm...is far beyond the likes of you, devil hunter."
Nero raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so it's another demon? Shoulda known."
"Don't take my words lightly, devil hunter," The Goatling spat. "This demon isn't like other demons. He doesn't come from around these parts."
"Of course he doesn't come from these parts. No demon does. This is the Human World pal, or did you forget?"
The Goatling hissed through his teeth. "That's...that's not what I mean human. This demon...he's not from the Demon World either!"
Nero raised his brow. The demon wasn't making any sense. "What? What do you mean this demon doesn't come from the Demon World? It's in the damn name."
The Goatling's chest began to heave and push rapidly as a series of labored chuckles left his throat.
"Your guess is as good as mine, human. Word is that this demon comes from another realm completely separate from both your world and mine."
It lifted the head away from the alleyway, its eyes widening at Nero. "it is said this demon...comes from a world with a broken moon."
Nero's grip lightened on the sword. He stood forward to meet the demon's gaze. "What the hell are you talking about?"
The Goatling returned Nero's gaze. "If you really want to find out human...the demon's name is the Weapon-Maker. But if I were you, I wouldn't go try looking for him...for you will regret it!"
Before Nero could say anymore, the Goatling let out a roar and pushed his torso through the blade towards Nero, claws bared at the devil hunter. It stopped as Nero flicked out Blue Rose and pressed it barrel against its skull before it get off a swipe on him.
He pulled the trigger. A loud bang echoed throughout the empty lot. Then silence. The demon gained a hole in his head, then he was no more.
Nero retrieved the falchion from the wall, the demon's body having evaporated into fiery particles. He looked at the Goatling's Devil Arm, balancing it in his arm. He could feel the unnatural power coursing through it, resonating with the demonic power flowing through his own veins. He looked back to the spot where the demon had died, to the cut made into the wall where his Red Queen had cleaved into the brickwork.
The Weapon-Maker huh? Weird name for a demon. Sounds like something out of a cheesy comic book.
Nero tore his eye away from the wall and twirled Blue Rose in true gunslinger fashion before placing it back into his holster.
First Sanctus, then Urizen, and now this Weapon-Maker guy. Looks like a devil hunter always has his work cut out for him.
The devil hunter turned to Nico, waltzing towards the van with the Devil Arm held over his shoulder. Once he neared, he saw Nico giving him a look.
"Really? The second I tell you not to get it dirty with your fingerprints, you decide to get nasty demon blood all over it?"
Nero shrugged. "But I didn't get my fingerprints on it, right?"
Nico rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Just get in."
Once Nero got in, he plopped the Devil Arm in the couch that sat within the van's back. It clattered against the seat.
"Hey hey hey! Careful! That there sword is a true work of art! Don't just be throwin' it around like any ol' piece of junk!"
Nero waved Nico off. "Relax. A Devil Arm doesn't break that easily. You should know that."
He placed Red Queen in the spot behind his seat meant for the blade, then plopped himself down on the passenger's seat. He winced, once the stench of cigarette smoke hit him face on. He looked and saw that Nico had a freshly lit cigarette in between her lips. It was a wonder she hasn't succumbed to lung cancer yet. Perhaps she had demon blood in her too.
Nico blew a puff before taking it out of her mouth. Nero coughed, then tried to wave the smell away to little effect.
"So...I didn't quite catch what the Goat-head told ya before it kicked the bucket. Anything interesting?"
Nero plopped his feet against the dashboard. He leaned back with his hands placed behind his head.
"It gave me a name," Nero turned to Nico. "The Weapon-Maker."
"The Weapon-Maker?" Nico raised an eyebrow. "Is that the name of some comic book superhero that I ain't aware of?"
"Heh, that's what I thought too," Nero replied. "But no, that's the name of the demon supposedly responsible for all the Devil Arms that's been flooding the black market as of late."
The devil hunter thumbed towards the Devil Arm behind them. "Including that beauty."
"Huh," Nico shot a glance at the weapon. "Anything else?"
"Goat-head apparently claims this demon is special. Says he didn't come from the Demon World but somewhere else, if you can believe it."
"Well that's a new one. Aren't all demons supposed to come from the Demon World? It's in the na-"
"In the name, I know," Nero leaned forward, staring into the empty lot in front of him and the ruined remains of the bar. "The demon claimed the Weapon-Maker is from a separate place. A place with a 'broken moon', wherever the hell that is."
He removed the Overture II, his flesh arm returning once it disconnected. He placed the Devil Breaker gently on the dashboard in front of him.
"A demon that sells Devil Arms and doesn't come from the Demon World," Nico puffed on her cigarette. "Well doesn't this Weapon-Maker guy sound like a curious fella."
"Yeah," Nero replied. "Hopefully we can find out more about this guy. Maybe Morrison will know somethi-"
Nero was interrupted as something crashed onto the front of the van, rolling off it and causing both Nero and Nico to jolt.
"What the hell was that?" Nico yelled, spitting out her cigarette.
Nero grabbed his Red Queen. He slowly propped the door open and stepped out, unsure of what he was going to find. He walked out towards the front of the van, his thoughts immediately turning to the possibility that the Goatling had a demon buddy hiding in the shadows, waiting to attack.
Instead, it wasn't a demon that he saw but something he actually hadn't expected. Namely, an unconscious girl what looked to be a sleeping dog curled up on her chest.
"What...the hell?" A slack-jawed Nero said.
Based on the softness of her features, the girl couldn't have been older than seventeen or eighteen. She had a glorious mane of blonde hair, dulled and marred by dirt and leaves as if she had come from the woods. Her jacket and tank top bore a plethora of cuts and bruises, her pale skin the same. She looked remarkably peaceful in her slumber, despite the banged up shape she was in. The dog also looked just as hurt, its soft body slowly heaving with its steady breaths. Around its neck was a collar with a bell attached to it, indicating it belonged to someone, presumably the girl.
Nero scratched his head.
Who the hell are these guys...Dorothy and Toto?
Something glowing beside the girl caught Nero's eye. It was obscured by the dog's sleeping form, so he had to walk to the other side to see what it was.
When he did, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him.
He couldn't believe his eyes. He was staring at the Devil Bringer...his old arm. Only, it wasn't his arm but the girl's, attached to the ripped end of her jacket sleeve. The scales and claws were as how he remembered it, though perhaps more slender to match the girl's physique. Then there was its veins, which glowed a faint, flickering yellow instead of blue like the Devil Bringer he was familiar with.
And yet, despite the alterations to its appearance, Nero could feel it was his old arm, the one he had lost to a father he never knew he had. He could feel the strange energies within pulling him towards it. He kneeled down to get a closer at the arm and felt the pull get stronger. Gently picking the hand up, he felt its energy pulsating lightly against his skin, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to tingle.
The demonic energy inside this arm...it's the Devil Bringer alright. But there's something else within it, and it ain't demonic energy.
Nero turned to look at the girl once more. "Just who are you, blondie?"
The sounds of Nico closing the car door and walking up towards reached his ears. Her shadow fell upon him.
"Hey wise-guy, didn't you hear me talkin'? What is-"
She paused as she saw the girl and the dog. She didn't say anything for a couple of seconds, presumably to let her mind register what she was seeing. Either that or to allow herself enough time to prepare a snarky comment at Nero's expense.
"First Lady and now her," Nico crossed her arms. "Are you like a magnet for unconscious women or somethin'?"
She scrunched her nose. "Well, at least she's clothed this time. And you get an adorable li'l puppy as a bonus."
"The dog isn't the only thing she's got," Nero whispered, glancing over his shoulder to Nico. "She's got my old arm too."
Nico's eyebrow raised above her glasses. "What? What the hell are you yammerin' about?"
Nero raised the girl's Devil Bringer to show Nico. The weaponsmith's mouth fell open. She blinked several times.
"...Oh."
"Yeah," Nero let out a humorless chuckle. "I know right?"
A pair of predatory red eyes surveyed the group from above. Eyes belonging to the stranger, who stood on a nearby rooftop. He eyed the curious man with the snow-white hair and the sword on his back, and the strange tattooed woman he was with. However, he didn't care about them. He only cared about the girl with the dog on her chest and the demonic glowing arm that had now become a part of her.
His attention shifted back to the man with the sword. He tipped his hat, upon recognizing who the man was.
Well call me a sack of Nevermore shit...didn't think the arm would cross the paths of its original owner so quickly.
The stranger licked his sharp teeth. The Devil Hunter Nero...said to be the one to have stopped the Savior in Fortuna. The one to have walked out of Redgrave when the legendary Dante didn't, back when the whole place was going to shit faster than a Boarbatusk on Dust.
He turned away from the group and walked into the shadows, sheathing his clawed hands inside the pockets of his torn coat.
"You got lucky this time, Huntress brat," The stranger murmured under his breath. "But you ain't on Remnant anymore...and let me tell ya, the monsters of this world make the worst of Grimm look like harmless li'l kittens in comparison."
The stranger jumped, a pair of wings sprouting from his back to take him into the night sky. As he flew, a thought wormed its way into the stranger's head.
The Weapon-Maker is definitely not goin' to like this.
-Mission Complete-
Author's Notes:
So, as explained at the top, I wrote this thing on a whim, based on an idea that has been lingering in my head for a while. Basically, its an entire fic revolving around the premise "What if Yang from RWBY, post-Volume 3, gained the Devil Bringer from Devil May Cry as her new arm?". The idea kinda grew from there into this weird isekai story about love, family and utterly ridiculous fights and weaponry. This is my first time putting it in words, mainly, as explained, to get over my writer's block. Suffice to say, it worked.
If people want more of this, I'll probably alternate updates between this and my other main ongoing fic, Spirited Gangstar.
As a side note, to anyone reading this, work has got me in chains again. I'll try to update whenever I can, but those moments will be few and far in between given work commitments until (*knocks on wood*) the end of June. I also got my own original novel finally going, so I'm also trying to allocate time between all of my writing projects.
Thank you for your understanding.
Best,
Beef