Marie silently sighed to herself as she stared off into the calm afternoon sky. It had been so long since she was last able to relax from her demanding life. When her husband had died a few years back of a sudden heart failure, she was left to care for her only child at the age of 27. Being a single mother had taken a toll on her life in terms of fatigue and loneliness. Despite having to support herself, she was grateful to still be blessed with her son Raphael. Though at times he would prove to be a handful and at times almost unbearable, she treasured him beyond life itself.
Earlier today, she had overheard her neighbors talk about a disaster that had just recently happened to a neighboring island. She, like everyone else in her small, confined town knew the rumors of demons that supposedly resided there. Her opinions towards the existence of demons were doubtful. She had never actually seen a demon before and she, like many others didn't want to believe that such an evil existed. Trying to rid herself on thoughts of the matter, she noticed her son was deeply listening to the rumors of the neighbors; awe and curiosity clearly showing in his blue eyes. Being the overprotective mother, she dragged Raphael away and told him to ignore the lies they told. But seeing that his mind was elsewhere in thought, she knew that her lecturing would be ignored. Once her "nagging" was over, it was then that Raphael innocently asked, "Mother, Mother!! Mr. and Mrs. Louvre said that if we go close enough to the shore we can the smoke from Mallet's explosion!! Can we go see?!" he asked with pleading eyes. Being a victim to her son's innocent puppy-eyed face stare more than enough times, she was immune to his charms and firmly stated, "No, you are not allowed to go anywhere near the shore, understand?". Despite the fact that she didn't want to believe there was a threat there, she couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to her dear Raphael, so in the end she banned him from even going near the shores; not taking any chances by punishing him to stay in his room the rest of the day.
After that incident, the rest of the day went by pretty quickly with nothing important happening. She ignored her son's silent protest of not letting him going exploring and demanded he go to bed if he continued to act in such a way. When he went to bed without any form of argument, she became mildly suspicious, but in the end decided to shrug it off and turn into bed earlier than usual. Her last thought before drifting off to sleep was 'I shouldn't have been too hard on him today. He was just curious; after all boys will be boys… I'll make it up to him tomorrow…'
If Marie had stayed awake a little longer, she would've discreetly heard the sounds of her son sneaking out of his window into the night. She didn't see him for almost three days, and by the time they had discovered what was left in him, she felt a sense of despair and loneliness that made her give up on the last bit of hope she had left within her.
"Damn I need a drink..." were the words murmured by a very tired demon hunter. It had been three days since the events on Mallet and Dante was still exhausted. After defeating Mundus and saving the world, you'd be tired too. Attempting to get his mind off of drinking, he stared around the messy unorganized "hellhole" as he often called it, that was his shop/home. His tired eyes lingered on the mountainous piles of clothing near the entrance to his shop. They were numerous amounts of moving boxes that only added to his shop's messy appearance. "How can she buy so many damn things in only a couple days?" he wondered aloud. By she, Dante was talking about his new "sidekick" Trish. He was reluctant to accept Trish as his partner at first. After all, he hardly knew her and she had plotted to betray him at first. But deep down a part of him was desperate for comfort and company that he was deprived of for years. Even deeper in him, he wanted her because of her resemblance to his mother. It was a desperate way for him to still have part of his family with him. He ignored the fact that this woman could never fill the empty hole in his heart; the realization that he was alone only made him want her even more.
His thoughts were interrupted when he saw said partner coming back from shopping. "About time you came back! Shit! How much more crap did you buy!? If I knew you were going to waste away all of my money I wouldn't have invited you to live with me!" Trish didn't even respond to his remark. He had been acting this way ever since they came back to his home in the city. It worried her at times because ever since they got off that island, he had almost instantly changed from the cocky smartass hero to a schizophrenic like personality. At times he would be normal, but then would act like he was acting now; cold, enraged and possessive. She then said, "Sorry, it's just that I never had anything before when I was serving Mundus, I just wanted…"she trailed off expecting to be yelled at again. Dante noticed the sadness in her voice and quickly said, "Nah its fine I guess I'm just little tired," he said forcing a smile. With a slight nod and smile she proceeded to go upstairs to the living area to unpack.
Unconsciously, he started fondling with a huge amulet he had on his desk. With nothing better to do, he was about to take a quick nap when the phone rang. Not in the mood to exterminate anything right now he really didn't want to answer the phone. 'Well, a simple mission might help me take my mind off things.' he thought. With that he answered the phone, "Devil Never Cry, what do you want?" "Devil Never Cry? Umm I'm looking for a Devil May Cry," replied a female voice from the other line. Almost instantly, his mood changed and his breathing became more ragged. 'No, I changed that name; it died with that bastard… Devil may cry was named after him …it doesn't matter he's dead…Trish…Devil Never Cry…all that's left now…' his grip on the amulet had tightened to the point where the edges had started to cut into his clenched fist. With a deep breath he finally answered the woman, "No the name was changed to Devil Never Cry, what do you want?" "Well my name's Marie and I need your help slaying a demon for me. It murdered my son and no one has any idea what did it. Some people told me that you were the one who took the Mallet Island case. Please, you have to slay it!" Marie shouted with desperation in her voice at the end of her story. "Whoa hang on, if you know about Mallet are you calling from France?! Do you really expect me to go all the way back there just to slay some rouge demon? Sorry lady, but I…" "Please! I'm begging you, it killed my son, my only family member left. I'll give you everything I have. Please I'm begging you!!" Marie was practically in tears. When she finally calmed down when she heard no response. Fearing he might have hung up she was about to break down when she heard a reluctant sigh and a "Tell you what, Marie, was it? I'll come and if this demon is worth going all the way back to France again, I'll hunt it no cost. This had better be worth my while…" he trailed off. Marie could not believe what he just said but as soon as she processed it she almost cried, thanking him continuously and saying it will be worth his time. After what seemed like an eternity for Dante, he got her address and additional information and told her he would leave for France tomorrow.
Hanging up he once again sighed and wondered why he was suddenly feeling so generous. Shrugging it off he went upstairs to tell Trish of their sudden mission tomorrow. It would be their first mission together and he was anxious to see how well they would do together. Upon telling Trish of their sudden mission, she was reluctant at first to go back to that place. But she agreed to it because she felt that she needed to prove herself to Dante that she could help him and because she really didn't want to get him upset. In the little amount of time that she knew him, she knew the consequences of getting him mad would result in physical and mental pain on her part. She knew where most of his cause of anger was coming from; the last time she mentioned it, he had almost broken her wrist and threatened to kill her. She never wanted to relieve that horrible incident again. With false enthusiasm in her voice, she stated, "Great, it'll be our very first mission then! I'll start packing and get ready for tomorrow." "Right, good night then," replied Dante with a slight smile. Heading towards his room, he couldn't help but think why he had agreed to a seemingly simple mission. Settling into his lonely cold bed, he fell asleep almost immediately, drifting off into a cold dreamless sleep.
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