Aqua arrived in another part of the downtrodden city. She had found herself in front of an unnamed building amongst the other destroyed ones.
"How is this the only place left standing?" she questioned.
Aqua then touched her stomach when she felt something and her face became melancholy.
(Terra...I have to find you.) She thought to herself.
She then walked to the entrance and though hesitant at first, she eventually decided to go inside unknowing of a mysterious figure watching her movements.
Once inside she looked around at how the interior was designed, resembling more of a living space rather than a building or shop. There was a pool ball table on the left end of the area with a couch and a love seat as well as a fridge; on the right hand side was guitars, speakers, a drumset, and a jukebox; and in the middle of the room was a desk that had a picture, a telephone, a gun, and a pizza box. She had also noticed a red coat on the coat rack next to what was most likely the bathroom.
She walked forward to the desk and looked at all the stuff on it, more specifically the picture. She picked it up and turned it around revealing the picture to be of a woman with flaxen hair, dark-colored eyes, and a fair complexion who wore a red scarf and dark clothing.
"Who is this? And who lives here?" Aqua questioned.
Suddenly the phone on the desk started ringing and she quickly put the picture exactly like it was back on the desk as she heard someone turning the shower faucet off then kick the door open revealing himself.
The person in question was a young man quite possibly 19 years old with silver hair and a fair complexion as well and blue eyes. He wore black fingerless gloves on his hands and had on brown pants and black boots. He had on no shirt but was wearing a red amulet around his neck.
He must not have noticed her while he was rubbing water out of his hair because he made his way to his desk then kicked the chair up making it land perfectly in place allowing him to sit down, cross his legs, and slam them on the desk kicking the phone up and landing in his hand.
"Sorry, not open for business yet." he said as he looked up and finally noticed Aqua; smirking to himself he then threw the phone back in its place.
"I haven't even picked a name for this joint and I'm already getting calls and customers." the man said as he picked up a pizza slice and ate it.
"And wouldn't you know it, it's a babe." he said while eyeing her, making Aqua a little weirded out.
"Are you talking about me?" she questioned.
"Who else would I be talking about? Just the type of woman I want." he said.
He took notice of her cute face, large chest, long legs, and he moved his head to get a look at her rear, but she quickly found out what he was trying to do and blushed then moved her hand to her side to cover it.
"My eyes are up here pervert." she said while using two fingers to point at her eyes with a red face.
"Hey, don't your panties in a twist, I'm just messing with ya." he said, causing her to grunt with a still red face.
"Anywho, as you can tell I'm not open so you'll have to find business elsewhere." the man said.
"I'm just looking for information. Have you seen a man named Terra?" she asked.
"Afraid not sweetcheeks." he said as he continued to eat his pizza.
She frowned at him for calling her that until her stomach started growling, which he noticed.
"Help yourself." was all he said while gesturing to the box of pizza.
She looked at the pizza box perplexed, then turned it around. She looked at the food for a good second and almost drooled in her mouth on account of how delicious it looked. She then picked up a piece and hesitantly brought it to her mouth and took a bite, and suddenly her eyes went wide.
Now on the outside she remained stoic and calm, but in her mind, she screamed, (IT'S SO GOOD! AHHHHHH!) (1)
Her mind seemed broken as her face was in shock of how good the food was.
"It's a...it's not...horrible." she said while still stunned.
"Good, then you can eat it on your way out." he said.
However she continued eating where she was despite his words.
"Or you can eat it here, that works too," he said while crossing his arms.
Meanwhile outside, Arkham appeared at the doors of his place then opened it to reveal himself, making Aqua turn around as she wiped her hands. His appearance alone made her cautious while the silver haired man just looked to the side nonchalantly.
"You a customer too?" he questioned.
"Well, if you want to use the bathroom, help yourself. The toilet's in the back." he then said.
Arkham walked over to the pool table and dragged two fingers across the edge while walking forward as Aqua backed up and got defensive.
"Is your Dante? Son of Sparda?" he asked, which made Aqua curious.
(Dante? Son of Sparda?) She questioned in her head.
"And are you Aqua? Apprentice to Eraqus?" he then asked while looking in her direction, making Aqua even more cautious.
(He knows me?) She thought.
"Where'd you hear that?" the man named Dante asked.
"From your brother and his friend." Arkham said, making Aqua curious.
"Wait a sec, is that friend named Terra?" Aqua asked.
"That is not for you to know, not yet at least." Arkham said, making her downcast but then register the words he just said.
(Wait a minute...)
He then eyed the mysterious amulet around Dante's neck, like a beast finding its prey.
"He sent this invitation for you. Please accept it." he said while grabbing the underside of the desk.
Suddenly in a move that surprised Aqua, he flipped the table as Dante just kicked off it and did a backflip landing back on while Aqua summoned her keyblade to attack Arkham. Dante grabbed his gun and aimed it at him, but he mysteriously left just as he came.
"Where did he…?" she questioned.
Dante then jumped off the flipped table saying, "invitation huh?" while grabbing the pizza box that fell from the ceiling, which made Aqua dumbfounded.
"How are you so calm about this?" she questioned.
"What do you mean?" Dante asked.
"He just flipped your table as an "invitation" and you're oddly calm. She said with air quotes.
He merely shrugged his shoulders and said, "eh, happens all the time." as he grabbed a pizza slice while she was even more dumbfounded and exclaimed, "What?!"
Just as he was about to take another bite, multiple demons with scythes struck at him from all sides making him drop it while Aqua looked on in horror.
"DANTE!" she shouted as she brandished her keyblade.
When she was about to go attack, he surprised her again by pushing away one of the demons destroying it, not only shocking her but the other assailants as well. He then spun it's head in his hand as he walked forward with multiple blades stuck in him while dragging another demon with him which made her EXTREMELY dumbfounded and also made her question her sanity.
(Who the heck is this guy?) She thought to herself while looking at the situation perplexed.
He then kicked the demon back into the others as he continued to make his way to the pizza box and grabbed his slice. After that he removed a blade from his chest and threw it at the ceiling fan above them causing it to fall and hit the other demons.
He raised his finger in the air and said, "this party's getting crazy! Let's rock!" as he pushed a button on the jukebox to start some music, until he continued pressing it when it wouldn't do anything making Aqua raise an eyebrow.
"Was that supposed to-"
Her dialogue was interrupted when she widened her eyes after she saw him smash the thing. Suddenly more enemies came and some of them weren't even demons but unversed. This was no trouble for the young man as he put the pizza slice in his mouth then faced off against the foes using the blades still embedded within him to kill a couple of them. After, he pulled out his gun which he used by twirling it to block a scythe attack then shot a demon in front of him. He jumped on top of an unversed and used them as a ride to start shooting all over the place while Aqua ducked to dodge the bullets.
One demon destroyed a pool table leg allowing Dante to vault off of it. Then he jumped back down on the table and launched it forward causing the pool balls to fly; he then used his gun to shoot the white ball into the other balls making them hit the other demons and unversed as his sword launched in the air. He caught the sword and sliced the table in half allowing him to use the both parts as projectiles when he kicked them forward destroying more unversed and demons while holding his blade over his shoulder.
"The end? Don't bet on it." he said with a smirk as he turned to face the others.
Aqua snapped out of her confusion then went back to back with him while brandishing out her keyblade.
"You want in on this action?" Dante said.
"The unversed are more than you can handle. Let me help." she said.
"Unversed huh? Well it looks like we're in this together, just don't get in my way." Dante said.
"If you call me baby, I'm gonna dropkick you into next week." Aqua threatened (2)
"Don't get sentimental on me." Dante as he threw his sword to pin a demon who tried to attack.
He then ran off to face the dark creatures as well as Aqua. After attacking a few she activated Spellweaver causing a burst of light to push out and destroy most of the enemies. She performed an upward strike with her keyblade then launched a couple of them up in the air allowing her to slice them down. She then shot an orb of light at a group of them which managed to hit them but also destroy some of Dante's stuff, making him agitated.
"Hey, stop messing up my crib!" He shouted while slicing a demon down.
"Sorry!" She shouted back.
Dante continued to fight off the demons with his Swordmaster command style which allowed him to twirl his sword when an enemy rushed towards him to attack, and allowed him to perform special attacks in the air. He then switched to Gunslinger and used his guns to shoot away at enemies on both sides while Aqua used her spells. Eventually more faster scythe demons and unversed showed up causing him to switch to Trickster giving him the ability to dodge their attacks and be faster in combat. He used this to the best of its capability until a bruiser unversed appeared.
While Aqua was fighting, she didn't have time to notice a bruiser attack Dante before it was too late.
"Dante are-"
However, the bruiser's attack was blocked by Dante who was using his Royal Guard command style to absorb and block it.
"Here, take this back!" He shouted as a burst of energy came from his hand and shot at the being destroying it.
As the enemies started to die down, Aqua decided to use her finishing move and did a ballerina spin on one leg as she was covered in rays of light and the tip of her keyblade glowed brightly allowing her to kill all the remaining unversed and demons when she did an outward spinning slash.
Once the dust had settled, Dante sat down on his flipped desk while holding his sword and Aqua sat down on the ground next to him with her legs tucked close as a ceiling fan fell and crashed.
"Friends of yours?" He asked.
"Hell no." She said.
"Who are they then?" He asked.
"Creatures of darkness." She answered.
"Okay." He said.
They sat in silence for a few seconds as they looked around thedestroyed room until Aqua broke the ice.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"Excuse me?" He questioned.
"The way you fight and how you managed to take all those blows is unnatural. Are you some kind of superhuman?" She said.
"Heh. Let's just say, I'm special. Thanks to dear old dad." He said.
She wanted to ask more including if the woman on his desk was related somehow but she decided to leave it at that.
They then noticed the pizza box was still intact and there was still some left, which caused Dante to get up and go grab it.
"Seriously?" Aqua said.
"Hey, five-second rule." Dante said.
"That's not a real thing." She said.
Just as he was about to grab it, a demon showed up and stomped on the pizza, smothering it's foot into it; however, before it was able to attack, Dante shot him in frustration.
He then grabbed his coat off the coat rack and slinged it over his shoulder as he prepared to leave.
"Wait! Let me come with you." Aqua said as she got up and walked towards him.
"Why?" He asked while turning around.
"Because there's someone I have to find." She said
"I already told you I'm not open for business. You want help find someone else." Dante said.
Aqua in desperation grabbed his arm after he turned back around.
"Please, I have to find him. There's something important I need to tell him." She said.
He looked over his shoulder at her and said, "This Terra guy, is he that important to you?"
This caused her to blush and look to the side to avoid him while keeping a sad expression. He then merely sighed in acquiescence.
"I must be crazy. Alright come on." He said, causing Aqua's face to brighten.
"After all; I can already tell, looks like this is gonna be one hell of a party!" Dante shouted as he kicked open the front door of his building.
Heart of a Devil: Dante's Awakening
Next chapter: Cerberus
An: Sorry this took so long guys, for some reason in my stupid head I didn't know how to write a fight scene to save my life. But other than that I think this came out good.
To any Pixar fans out there that was a reference to Soul
That was a small subtle reference to the justice league animated series
What I want to do with Aqua and Dante's relationship is have Aqua be a sort of mother figure for Dante, kind of like Nell Goldstein in the manga where she leaves a positive influence on him and like Lady, she helps him reconnect with people.
I'm also sure a lot of you can infer why Aqua wants to find Terra but for now it's a secret, but this secret kinda ties into what happened at the end of Chapter 4 in Shield Hero (sidenote: I will get back on that because now I have a deadline.)
Also I've figured it out, and what I want to do is have two missions in each chapter. Obviously these first three were introductions to each character meeting with their respective someone but now we get into the heat of the story. Btw, no secret missions (obviously).
Other than that, stay tuned for chapter 4 and I'll see you all in the next story. Peace!