Disclaimer: I do not own Devil May Cry. Capcom does.

… Like Hell I Know
By Shirogami

Everything is going as usual in Devil May Cry, without certain people hanging around its owner, this place can be considered the quietest place in town. Not only because it is located at the corner of the street's alley, but also its owner's personality influences most of the silence environment.

Now, Dante is resting on his couch like a dead man .
He may not like the boring days, especially when he loves swinging his Rebellion around and rips the demons apart, but he definitely likes this corresponding environment.

Days are never been this quiet.
Dante smirks when he thinks his… friends, in some state of his mind, are not bothering him. He always remember that all the jobs he had done so far actually earned him nothing but more debts, resulting from the cost he had destroyed always overcomes to what he should earned. And even if he eventually able to gain his payment, they all turned up into his middleman's pocket, with the reason that those money are used to clear his debt.

But, for the son of the legendary demon knight, peaceful days are never meant for him. On the second he thought he could get some sleep, the front door is opened and two figures enter his shop. Although the light from outside blinds Dante's sight, he still knows who is his peace disturber.

"Dante." The elder-aged man, with properly cut beard and mustache, takes off his hat and coat. "Time to work." He continues after he finds the devil hunter on the couch.
"What is it, Morrison? Another F.O.C. (Free Of Charge in short)?"
"Hey, hey, don't judge so quick, Dante. Besides, this work sure refunds more than other before this."
"I reject, so stop babbling around and let me sleep." Dante stands up and change his sleeping place to his manager chair.
"Please, Dante. Disappointing a lady is not what you always do, right?"

Just when he almost forgets, there is still another person following Morrison and Dante totally misses her until Morrison mentions. Dante takes a look at the lady, in her late-twenties, standing right in the middle of the office and nods at Dante when their eyes contact. Her dark-brown coloured, long and curly hair flows freely behind her shoulder. She wears normal sky blue long sleeve dress, not fancy but tidy. Dante also notice she does not wear any jewelries, except a ring on her left forth finger. Dante tries to ignore himself from looking at her shoes, because he might take the job after feeling sympathy on the dirt caused by long walk.

"Let me introduce, this is Mrs. Judy Forest; Mrs. Forest, this one here is the person and the only one who can help you, Dante." Morrison introduces them with some specifications only Dante can understand.
'The only one' he said. Dante's mind checks on Morrison's words and changes look with him.
"Please to meet you, Mr. Dante. I am sorry to disturb you but I really need your help to rescue my husband."
Dante's eyes narrow in half and he asks the wife to continue.

"It happened two days ago, our wedding anniversary to be exact. My husband, Thomas managed us a dinner at the nearby restaurant. Everything seemed normal to me until on our way home, some men appeared from nowhere before us. Thomas tried to protect me and told me to run. I refused and someone hit me from the back. I remained unconscious until someone awakened me and I found my husband was not there anymore, along with those people."
"Then you should call the police, it's their job." Dante changes his posture on his chair and prepares to rest, since he figures the result and does not want to spend another minute for nothing.

Judy takes out an envelope from her purse and puts it before Dante. Dante glances at it and wonders before the woman continues.
"I got this in this morning and this is the reason why I come for you."

Dante takes the envelope. Its weight acknowledges him that it is more than just a piece of paper. He opens it, takes out a piece of folded paper from it and shakes the envelope gently until a ring drops on his table. He studies the letter and finds out that it is a letter from Thomas to his wife and asks her to get help from Devil May Cry. Dante asks Judy for any reason she or her husband knows his real job, but Judy swings her head and she also wants to know the reason Thomas appointed Dante's shop name in the letter.

"A trap?"
Morrison studies the situation and concludes it. Actually, what surprises him most is the reason those kidnappers appoint Dante, a devil hunter to do a negotiation.
Dante looks at the letter and observes the ring carefully. Everyone is quiet until the demon hunter finally stands up to get his weapon hung at the wall behind him. Morrison is surprised by his act and wonders. Dante only prepares himself and leaves a message before he walks out from Devil May Cry.
"Get my payment ready when I come back, Morrison."

Later at midnight, while the city is getting quiet, there are still pubs and bars running their business, and among these night businesses, there is only one that the light is on and noisy, but its doorplate is showing 'closed'.

Dante stands before that bar and holding a briefcase in his hand, the guitar case on his back makes the night cats around him think that he is a stage performer like other bar or pub employs. Dante finally enters the building, which there are bunches of fierce-looking men are looking at him.
Such frightening scene might scares the people out of hell, but not to a certain demon hunter who had been slaying thousands of demons in his life. Dante goes to the center of the pub fearlessly and approaching to the certain table which one of the people on seat is Thomas, seeing that he looks fatigue and is being tied on his chair.

"So, you must be the infamous Mr. Dante. Welcome."
Dante puts the briefcase on the table and rests his guitar case standing besides him.
"Time to let my client go."
The leader looks at the briefcase and assigns one of his men to check, but what the checker see is a totally empty suitcase and all the surrounding become tense as the leader shouts for Dante's stupid trick.
Strangely, despite of what they expected, Dante sits steadily and smirks.
"I keep wondering why a human will call me for negotiation instead other people. But now I understand why…" Dante shots a glare at the leader before he finishes. "…demon."

The leader, on instance, immediately orders his men fire at will, results in all the bullets flies like stinging bees towards the devil hunter. Dante, without hesitate, kicks hardly on the table before him, causing the round table flips and blocks the sight of the gunner in front. He kicks the chair he sat towards his back, making a crash upon the men on his back; while he is in his bending position, he grabs the guitar case, stabs it hard on the floor, uses it as support and performs hand stand on top of it, which makes the missing bullets hits the other side of men and causing lots of serious injuries and even death.

When Dante lands swiftly on the floor, his eyes lay again on the people around him, only finds out that all of them are still standing even been shot severely, especially the leader before him, who were shot by the missing bullets in his forehead.
Dante grins evilly and unlocks his guitar case, revealing his favorite claymore to the scene, which is still having smokes where the bullets hit.

The leader cracks his head to left and right, then his irises moves in random direction before the demon within him bursts out and tears the human skin apart, its action causes its followers do the same as well, all of them roar at the only target before them – Dante.

"Oh, a welcome party? Good." Dante swings his Rebellion, while resting his Ivory in his left grip on his shoulder. "Too bad no chicks around."
The leader roars when it feels irrigated by the son of Sparda. The other demons around answer the leader's call by jumping towards the demon hunter. Dante, with his evil grin never leaves his face, points his gun and starts the battle shot.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After Dante stabs his Rebellion through the last demon's head, he looks around him for any survivors. After that he approaches to the sitting duck, who is being tied to the chair all the time he was fighting and surprisingly survived from the slaughter.
Dante unties Thomas and asks if he able to move. Suddenly, Thomas attacks his savior with his right knife hand strike along with his long and sharp nails. But, he stops when his head is pointed with Dante's Ebony. His animal irises meet with the demon hunter's cold sight and frightened by the click of the trigger.

"How do you know?"
"How many demons do you think I had killed? I can tell one just by a look."
"So, shoot me."
"No." Dante's answer surprises the demonized Thomas.
"My job is to bring you back to your wife. I won't get my payment if I go back empty-handed."

Thomas slowly returns to his human appearance and wonders the truth behind Dante's word. With his dark gun still pointing at Thomas, Dante slowly stands up and orders Thomas to walk with him back to Devil May Cry. They continue their talk along the way.

"Who sent you to kill me? And how long had you planned this?"
"Actually, the leader you killed is the one who'd given me orders. I just a low-class devil with no much power as you can see. He commanded me if all of them were died, then I have to kill you in surprise."
"The kidnapping, you planned to use your wife from the start?"
"No, Judy is out of this. She is…" Thomas pauses for a while before he continues. "… an accident."
"Accident?"

"I first met her by a winter two years ago, when I was ordered to come to this world and be an observer onto you. I disguised myself look like a beggar that time and she offered me food and clothes. I was still feeding on human but my intention stops whenever I saw her." Thomas smiles to himself as he is observing his palm.

"Without telling this unnecessary matter to the others and since there is no reply to stop my surveillance, my work keeps on and Judy keeps visiting me with her care. Eventually I… started to fall into her. I lied to her that I was not a beggar and make up with her, and marry her. We had our life happily even I forgot my main objective for being here." Thomas eyes tighten when he remembers the reason he is being pointed by Dante's Ebony now.

"Until they found you two days ago?" the devil hunter asks. Thomas nods and continues.
"They attacked me for my responsibility and trying to devour her in front of my eyes. I could not let that happen, I know I might not survive from them but not Judy, she is totally out of this and I love her. The leader noticed my thinking and uses Judy's safety to threaten me to work with them in this."

Now, Dante understands the reason why his client was left unharmed that night. He had witnessed many devils had eventually killed whoever human they said they love but cannot escaped from the basic instinct of their human eating habit. He even thought that Thomas might be lying and attacks him, but what can a fingers-piercing strike do to a half-breed of the demon knight, who even survived from a stab of his own claymore.

Finally, both of them reach Devil May Cry in the early morning. Dante holsters his gun back and tidies his coat properly, as he sees a figure is standing and waiting in front of his shop. The man before him notices his wife and for once after the night he was kidnapped, smiles to the human he loves, now and ever.

"Go to your wife and stay out from this city, my work may make you look dead on the spot back there, but it doesn't mean they won't find you." Dante taps Thomas' shoulder and pushes him forward.
"Why… Why are you doing all this?" Thomas wonders. Dante shrugs his shoulder and leaves.

Leaving the loving birds before his shop, Dante passes by Morrison and discusses with him about the payment, which ends up getting nothing but a paper sheet that states the sum of the debts he has cleared so far. Dante, who had figured the result from the start, walks silently into his shop, puts his weapon back to their place and rests on his manager chair. He looks at the only picture of his mother on the table, then changes his sight onto his father's sword, Forge Edge.

Why do I do that? Like hell I know.

The End

Author's word

Greetings and thank you all for reading this fiction.
I wrote this fiction while I was sitting in my office and waiting for my job sheet, so this fiction might contains some OOC and does not fit some cannons of its origins.
However, as a writer, I really wish this fiction will entertain you and hopefully can receive some reviews and comments. Finally, hope to see you soon in my other fiction, until then, take care.