Hello there! Welcome to my story. This is a translated version of a story I have been writing since 2014. I noticed a huge amount of non-spanish speaking people read my story, I decided to make it easier for them to understand it without the need of Google Translate. Do keep in mind that English is not my first language and I'm well aware there may be many misspells and mistakes, so please, be so kind as to point them out. I'm open to all criticism and advice, and if someone wants to help me out by being a beta reader, I'd accept that too! So, let's leave the rambling behind. This is the first chapter of Even a Devil May Love.
Disclaimer: none of this belongs to me, each character from the DMC or DXD universe belongs to their rightful owners, this is a non-profit story. Every brand or product mentioned in the story also belongs to the corresponding owner of said intellectual property.
Sweat drops ran through his skin. The temperature was higher than normal in the small town; the inclement heat harassed everyone with more fury than usual. Moreover, in his tiny, nameless office, it seemed to be even more vicious towards the teenager.
The young man opened his eyes. He was meandering through the thin limbo between sleep and consciousness, but it was clear that despite the nightmares that did not let him rest on the night before, he did not wanted to finish crossing that line and escaping Morpheus's grasp.
His day would be as boring as ever, with little to distract his mind and many debts waiting for him, yes, it was not worth waking up after all.
He shut his eyelids tighter to ignore the sunlight that entered through the gaps in the erotic magazine that lay in his face. His stomach roared, demanding food, but as with the trivialities that were presented to him by his day-to-day routine during the last month, he chose to ignore it out of lazyness or perhaps sheer boredom. His consciousness began to descend through a dense darkness, gradually falling asleep again. It was a matter of a couple more minutes for his consciousness to fade.
That is what would have happened if the intense knocks did not suddenly come at his door.
He growled with annoyance and tried to ignore the noise, thinking it would pass in a little while. The only thing this served for was to make the knocks more persistent.
"I haven't open yet, come back later," exclaimed the silver-haired without abandoning his ratter comfortable position.
The knock at his door did not stop but rather the onslaught continued to the point where he got so annoyed that he took the magazine off his face and lowered his feet from his desk to focus his view on the door.
"I said it's not open yet. If you came to collect something, I don't have any money either, so come later!"
Eventually the knocking stopped, which fostered a heavy sigh in the teenager. He was about to try regaining his sleep again, but before that happened, the door slammed open.
The young Devil Hunter did not flinch, though he did frown with some irritation. He crossed out his arms and reclined his chair back a little as he laid his eyes on the individual who had just entered his 'office.'
"Boy! It's three o'clock in the afternoon, are you still sleeping?" shouted a short, chubby middle-aged man.
The silver haired half-breed yawned and stretched out his arms.
"Was sleeping, gotta thank you for that. What do you want? Did you bring me a job or you just came to bother me?" was his boredom filled reply after he yawned.
"Hey! Is that how you treat your only friend, old Enzo?" he bellowed in a very remarkable Italian accent as he shook his hand up and down making a rather stereotypical gesture "After all I've done for you, you tell me I annoy you? That hurts, boy!"
"Uh huh..." he muttered with disinterest as he rummaged through a pizza box that already had several days on his desk.
The young man pulled out one of the last slices, a stale scent hit him as he took a whiff. It caused him to wrinkle his face with revulsion but after a few seconds, he still took a bite.
Enzo Ferino, his booking agent, stopped his melodramatic monologue and observed him with a mixed expression of disgust and perplexity.
"Are you really eating that?"
"What? It's not like I have anything else to eat," he replied, shrugging off.
The lad took a bottle that lay on the floor beside his chair and waved it to check if it still had beer left to help him pass the bitter taste of the decomposed pizza. Like the rest of the whiskey and beer bottles scattered in his small place, it was empty. He sighed with mild disappointment and threw it against the wall. The Ferino got startled when the bottle shattered and glass shards flew everywhere.
"What's wrong with you?!" yelled the man, crouching in his spot.
"What do you want, Enzo?" he asked again, this time the irritation was clearly marked in his voice.
The chubby Agent did not reply right away. Rather he produced a smile the teenager already knew very well, a pernicious smile that indicated that he had come across something very profitable. He straightened up his posture with that smile still drawn on his lips and rubbed his hands covered in black gloves full of golden rings.
The silver-haired arched an eyebrow and looked at him with suspicion.
"Is it a gig?"
"Oh, Tony, you can't even start to imagine. It's perfect for you, a really good gig."
Noticing his body language and all the time he was taking to specify the details of the job, Tony Redgrave dropped the slice of half-eaten pizza over the box and focused his attention on the man who doubled him in age and who was dressed in a fur coat, accompanied by a red scarf, a fedora hat and shades. In any context, Enzo was a suspicious man.
"If it's one of those stupid jobs you always bring me, forget it. I'm not going to be following unfaithful husbands around and after the L.A. fiasco I told you I wouldn't take any more escort jobs" he spoke preemptively in a very harsh tone.
"Stupid jobs? It's the best I can get you! It's not as if your reputation is very good after what happened at Bobby's Cellar, boy! Besides, you know that paranormal jobs are very hard to come by outside the Syndicate. I try to help you stay in shape so you don't get rusty and we both make a profit out of it, what's so wrong with that?"
"I never get rusty. And standing all night long in front of a hotel with a camera is not exactly 'staying in shape.' "
"Neither is sleeping all day and eating rotten junk food, kid."
The Redgrave shook his head while letting out a low voice growl; annoyed at the fact he couldn't disprove his point. He rested his hands on the back of his head and clicked his tongue as he looked away.
"So? What is it?"
"It's exactly what you need, Tony my boy! It's your type of work"
The man pulled out a folder from under his armpit and threw it at the Hunter's desk. The file fell just beside to a small, broken TV that lay on the black wooden table that was already peeling off by moisture, wear, and weather.
The response albeit a little cryptic, managed to catch the Redgrave's attention. He settled into his seat and opened the folder to read it's contents.
"Does it meet all three requirements?"
"Yes, yes. But more important than that, it's a good pay," replied the man quickly in an anxious voice tone.
The reply caused Tony to close the file and raise his slightly frowning face to look at the Ferino.
"What are the three rules?"
"..."
"..."
"Are you really going to make me repeat that every time I bring a job?"
"As you keep forgetting it, yeah, I will make you repeat it whenever necessary. Now... Say the three rules."
Enzo let out a long sigh of annoyance, took off his hat for a moment and passed a hand through his balding head.
"First rule...," he began, with great effort due to how stupid he thought it was to say the 'requirements' of the silver-haired for him to take a job. "The job must seem interesting to you. Rule number two, nothing that involves civilians, innocent people or unnecessary bloodshed..."
"Uh huh and the third one?"
The Italian-descendant scratched his head in frustration and put on his hat again before continuing.
"The gig must have a certain 'something' that catches your eye," he finished up with a great deal of irritation.
"Exactly, so... does this job meet the requirements? "
"Yes, it checks out."
"We'll see."
Tony reopened the folder and started going over it, this time paying more attention.
"A gun for hire with ethics...," the Agent mumbled softly with annoyance.
"Did you say something?"
"Ah! No! I was just thinking to myself how endearing your code for a paranormal investigator is!"
"Hmmm..."
The Ferino relaxed a little noting that weirdly for him, Redgrave stopped to read the file instead of looking at it without giving it much of a though. In the minutes it would take the teenager to read all the information regarding the job, Enzo used it to take a look at the pigsty where his disastrous business partner operated.
It was to no one's surprise that he was still as messy as when both started working together two years ago. The 'office' in itself was not that big of a deal, it was a small, 130 feet by 130 feet square abandoned place, located in the worst ghetto of Limbo City. The space seemed even more reduced by the boxes swarming a corner, boxes he already knew contained DVDs, cassettes and vinyl records from hits of the eighties and nineties, including the teen's favorite movies and songs. In addition to countless artifacts and electronic devices from that time period, that apart from being obsolete, he was almost certain the vast majority were broken already and the Redgrave only kept them because he thought they possessed some kind of hidden value and that 'in a couple of years' people would remember it's true value and they could cost a small fortune, or so the young Hunter believed. Apart from that, two baskets from which he could not distinguish which one was supposed to have the dirty laundry as both seemed awfully stained. A small worktable with a shotgun that was half-sawed off, perhaps by the teen's laziness or simple lack of interest in finishing the project. On the opposite wall however, there was a paraphernalia of variety of firearms hanging from the red brick wall. Even a couple of swords and a few skulls of creatures of the night kept as trophies from the young man's previous jobs. On top of that, there were also three, nine strings guitars and two guitar basses. That said, all of that didn't sounded so bad, of course to reach that conclusion you would have to ignore the immense number of empty pizza boxes stacked on top of each other until they formed a small hill of sorts and the tons of empty liquor bottles scattered everywhere. It wasn't hard to assume the place didn't smell like spring flowers. At the center of that whole mess? Tony's desk.
"Damn, boy. This place is disgusting... even more than usual," complained Enzo while covering his nose with the back of his hand. He stopped his whining when he detected movement coming from between the pizza boxes on the floor, he recoiled a couple of steps as he saw a gigantic rat peeking out it's snout like it was looking for a prey to devour "Is that a rat or a dog!?" He exclaimed, taking another couple of steps back with apprehension.
"Huh?" mumbled the silver-haired lad, raising his head for a moment, "Ah, yeah. I have an infestation," he replied while turning his attention back to the file. Without checking where the rodent really was, he opened a drawer from his desk and pulled out a highly modified silver Colt M1911 that he pointed in the general direction of the pizza boxes.
"ARE YOU INSANE?! You're going to attract the cops!" the Ferino bawled, startling and moving away from the line of fire.
"What? You're the one taking an issue by the rat. Besides, I don't have the money to hire an exterminator," shrugged the Redgrave.
"F-for now leave it be, I don't want you to be shooting that thing in here."
"Whatever," he retorted, putting away his 'Ivory' pistol back in the drawer, where it's twin rested.
"Maybe you can give it a name and make it your pet," the Italian-descendant said jokingly in an attempt to aliviate his own nerves after the Redgrave's solution to the pest problem.
"I already did. His name is Mickey."
"…Mouse?" he questioned with confusion on his face.
"No, Mickey Rourke."
"Ah...," he stopped for a couple of seconds to reflect on the exchange and scratched his chin before looking at the teenager again "You do know that you're absolutely batshit insane, right?"
"Hey, at least I'm always the funniest guy at parties. Tell me something, Enzo. What's with this job? The only thing I see in this file is pictures of hot girls, names, surnames... chest sizes...? What the...? What is this? You've never been so professional; you usually just give me a name and an address. Why all this protocol now? "
Ferino grinned again with that goofy but disturbing smile. If he did not had the shades on, the silver-haired could have distinguished the glint of greed in the Agent's eyes.
"You haven't been reading the file, have you? You've only been looking at the pictures of the girls."
"Uhm..." the Redgrave refused to answer as to not agree with the man and to also try to mask his own short attention span for the written information contained in the file. "No, I did read it. But anyways, give me a summary" he said, now looking at his Agent.
"Do you like sushi?"
"No." was the almost instant reply.
"Uh, well, I don't like Chinese either."
The Hunter raised an eyebrow and scratched the back of his head with confusion.
"I thought sushi was Japanese."
"It's the same thing. Slanted eyes, they all speak funny, they're all the same to me."
"Anyways, you're not telling me what this gig is about" he quickly opened the folder to read one of the sheets "What's with this...Ku-Kuoh Academy? What is it with all these girls that look like models?"
"They're your objective, kid. They are all devils, every single one of them that appears in those photos. That school is infested and it's your job to be the pest exterminator."
"Really? They look too human to be devils. I'd even go as far as to say I'd like to ask one of them out."
"Ask them out if you want to, grab a cup of coffee, get to third base, but the job is to kill them."
"Hmm...", he mumbled as he held up the picture of a girl who appeared to be around his same age, European features, fiery red hair and blue eyes like polished sapphires to accompany an enviable sculptural body. Each photo was attached with a clip to a data sheet containing information about the person; there he read her name "Rias Gremory? What a weird name. Well, it sounds simple enough. I've never seen devils that look like this, but that won't matter after I put a bullet through their skulls. How much is the pay and where are they at?"
"The pay is the best part, Tony," laughed the man with an almost childlike enthusiasm, "It's a hundred grand, half up front, can you believe it? We're in the big leagues now!"
The teen's blue eyes widened open as he heard the sentence.
"Fifty grand in advance? Now that I like. With that, I could pay off almost all of my debts and I would still have enough left to eat something decent, hell, I could even bet something on next week's game"
"Are you still betting? You're one of the most unluckiest people I've ever known. Remember when you bet five grand on the Diggers beating the Red Sox?"
"Ugh... Don't remind me, it still hurts. But I'm sure this season we'll have better luck, the next game against the Yankees will be a walk in the park."
"Oh, right. They're going to play in Diggers territory, aren't they? You gonna watch the game at the stadium?"
The hunter's excited expression changed momentarily, his face filled with gloominess and guilt but he managed to hide it before the Agent could notice.
"No... You know I left Redgrave City for a reason. I can't return."
"Hmm... True. Well, what do you say? When you gonna start?"
"Wait, wait. I haven't said I will do it yet. Where exactly are these devils? And why are they wearing these ridiculous uniforms?"
"Ah, right... yes, that's the thing, Tony. This job is a little different than usual."
"What do you mean? Different how?"
"The first thing you need to do is travel to where they are, and then you have to infiltrate and attack without raising too much attention."
"Without raising too much... What? Where do I have to go?" he inquired, giving the man a bemused look.
Enzo pointed at the file, which made the Redgrave lower his sights and switch pages until he returned to the first one.
"Kuoh Academy in Kuoh District, prefecture of... Wait, wait, wait! Japan? Are you serious?!"
"What is it? You're not afraid of planes, are you?"
"It's not the planes. It's…"
The silver haired teenager slammed the folder shut and slid it across his desk towards the man for him to take it back.
"I won't take the job."
"What! Why?" shouted the chubby 'entrepreneur'.
"I'm not gonna do it, Enzo. I won't go to Japan, and if by infiltrating you mean I have to enroll on that school, then you mistook me for some else, I'm no schoolboy."
Enzo Ferino opened his eyes so much that they almost came right out of their orbits. His heart started racing so much it appeared he was about to get a tachycardia attack.
"Kid, kid, what's going on? You were interested at first. What's the matter? It'll just be a short trip, just a couple of days. You'll be back before the game!"
"I won't" he replied in a harsh tone. His gaze got lost for an instant in which in his mind was projected the image of two children playing on the shores of a beach, a blonde woman and a silver-haired man watching them from afar. A memory so deeply buried it gave him a strong headache, as if he was remembering something that should remain suppressed or that he did not had to remember in the first place.
"Tony, Tony, you can't do this to me. You always complain I don't bring you interesting or good jobs, I finally brought you one that is all of that and it pays really well. Are you really going to reject it just like that? It's simple, you just have to go to a school for a couple of days and kill some demons that are probably eating the students, it's a simple task for you! Why you don't wanna take it?"
"I don't know man…it just…it gives me a bad feeling, that's all" said the teenager, making up an excuse, not wanting to have to explain the influx of emotions that brought him just mentioning the land of the rising sun. Reflecting on that caused him tremendous pain that he himself could not fully comprehend.
"Bad feeling? You? When have you ever gotten a bad feeling about anything?"
"Give the job to another hunter, or take it to the Syndicate if you want to, I don't care."
"I can't give it to anyone else! The client requested for you specifically and only you. I'm sure he was impressed with your previous jobs."
"Did he really asked for me?" questioned the lad, puzzled by such thing.
"Yes!"
"Well... give the job to someone else and tell the client that person is Tony, or tell him I'm busy with another job and it'll take me some time to finish."
"Tony, boy. I can't do that."
"Why?"
Pulling a robust yellow envelope was enough of an answer from the Agent. The Devil Hunter sighed with annoyance and shook his head.
"You took the job?"
"What else could I do? It's a hundred grand, how can I turn that down?"
"Damn it, Enzo. You greedy fatso."
"What else could I do? I took it because I thought you'd have no problem doing the job."
"Just return the money then."
"I can't. I don't even know where the client is. The guy came to me all of a sudden when I was having a drink at Bull's Eye's and told me he needed to solve a problem with devils and that only you were able to do it. He said something about a Dark Knight or something and a lot of nonsense I didn't understood, but what's really important here is the cash, kid. He told me that when the job was done, he would come to give us the other half of the payment."
The teen's expression changed suddenly when he heard the part about the Dark Knight. While a few moments ago he looked mildly annoyed, now he seemed bewildered and even a little intrigued. However, he still shook his head again.
"You're an idiot."
"Come on, boy. Do this for me, for your old friend, Enzo. It'll only be a few days; it's a quick buck for the both of us"
He looked at the man standing in front of him; he rubbed his neck as he cussed in a low voice tone with irritation. He looked at the man for a couple more of seconds and lowered his sight to focus on a portrait resting on his desk. It was a photo of a beautiful blonde woman dressed in a black dress with a red shawl over her shoulders. He looked at the picture as if he were seeking approval from the woman. His gaze softened considerably as he saw that person's green eyes. A few seconds passed in complete silence.
The silver haired cleared his throat and looked up at Ferino again.
"Why do I always have to get your ass out of trouble?"
Bright eyes replaced the look of anguish on the man when he saw that the boy relaxed his stance on the job, even if it was a little.
"Because you're a good kid, Tony! Are you gonna do it?"
"Do you have a coin?" the lad replied with a question, "Let's leave it to chance. If you're lucky, then I'll take the job, if you're not, forget about it."
Enzo nodded promptly. This was his chance, fortune did not always smile at him, but at least it did much more often than with the teenager who always lost every bet he made.
The chubby man pulled out a fifty-cent coin from his pocket.
"Heads or tails?"
"Heads" the silver haired replied, shrugging.
The Italian-descendant tossed the coin. He was going to wait for it to fall on his hand so he could see the verdict. Before his nervous system could even register the order, the Hunter got up from his seat and caught the penny. Enzo got startled has he suddenly saw him standing up with his fist held high. Despite all the time they've known each other, the man was till not used to the sight of the lad's abilities.
Tony took a seat again and looked at his Agent before opening his hand.
It fell in tails.
The young man grumbled and threw the coin back at him. A smile of victory was drawn on the man's face. Had it not been for his considerable body weight, he would have hopped in excitement.
"All right. I'll take the job. But only if it's just a couple of days! I want to be back here before the game."
"I'm glad you reconsidered it, kid!"
"I'll take it on one condition."
"Which one?"
"Another bet," the silver haired grinned.
"You want to lose again, boy?"
"I don't think I'm going to be losing this one."
"What's the bet?"
"That you're not able to stay out of trouble before I get back. If you do and I have to save your ass again, you'll give me a pizza."
"That's a really low stakes bet," thought the man to himself, to which he replied with an offended tone, "Do you think I'm an idiot?"
"Yes." Interrupted the teenager.
Enzo ignored him and continued talking, despite the twitching in his eye.
"I'm perfectly capable of keeping myself out of trouble, boy! And what do I get if I win?"
"I'll buy you two rounds at Bull's Eye's."
"I would never say no to a few free drinks, but that's a very silly bet, don't you think?"
The Redgrave shrugged and wrinkled his brow.
"I just want to see if you're capable of lasting two days without screwing up. It's a pain in the ass having to help you out all the time."
"You're a terrible friend to old man, Enzo, boy. If you weren't so talented, I'd have stopped being your agent by now."
"I doubt you can get another fool to help you fund your nights at the strip club," the teenager laughed before reclining back in his chair.
"Hey! I'm a very good Agent!"
"Uh huh, I won't keep you from believing your own delusions."
The Ferino shook his head and placed the envelope on his partner's desk, then pulled out a cigar.
"That's everything you need. There's your money, minus my ten percent and what you owed me, of course," he said in a few decibels lower than his usual lousy voice tone "keys for an apartment where you're gonna stay, the plane ticket, the flight itinerary, and the address of a place where you have to leave all the equipment you want to take. They will take care of shipping your weapons."
"Uh... What a considerate client."
"That's what I'm talking about! We're already in the big leagues, Tony" he shouted, extending his arms to each side "From now on everything's going to get better, you'll see. Who knows, maybe in a few more years you can set up a decent office and we could become a real agency. How about that?" he continued, walking backwards towards the exit.
"What's wrong with the office I already have?" the lad asked with a raised eyebrow and a genuine tone of confusion.
"Everything! It's a filthy dumpster that leaks when it rains, but you'll see! I have a feeling we're on the right track."
The chubby man lit his cigar and immediately left the place, knowing very well the teenager would get irritated at the cheap tobacco smoke.
"I'll go to Love Planet; I want my beautiful Tatiana to give me a lap dance, and you should get something to eat that is not rotten. Good things are on the way, boy, very good things! Don't forget your passport!" exclaimed Ferino before closing the door and leaving.
Tony sighed again. He took the envelope and gave it a quick look, he wasn't very interested in counting the money, he knew Enzo was an idiot but not enough to steal from him. He put it aside and opened the file again; it opened right at the picture of the red-haired girl. He looked at her for a couple of seconds before setting his sight on the picture of his mother, Eva, then he raised his eyes towards the pierced ceiling and let go off a deep sigh.
"Why Japan? Why now...?" Thought to himself as that scene returned to his mind.
The rest of his day went appallingly fast. He used a part of the money to pay off some of his debts. He was able to dine pizza that wasn't spoiled and drank a few bottles of Jack Daniel's. Apart of that he sent money for two orphans in Redgrave City, and spent what was left of the day in his office. In a normal case, he would have gone to his favorite bar, Bull's Eye, but for some reason he didn't felt in the mood to drink in public, rather he wanted to spend the rest of the day alone with himself, something he was more than accustomed to. According to his itinerary, the flight would be the next day; it was not going to be a direct flight as it would have two stopovers so it was going to be a long trip.
As the hardware he was going to use, he packed his trusty sword The Rebellion and his two twin handguns Ebony and Ivory. There was no need for any other weapon as he considered it a simple job. In the guitar case where he kept the tools of his trade, he also packed two alchemical artifacts, two star-shaped crystals. One was green, a vital star, while the other was orange and a little more mysterious. As luggage, he packed in a backpack a few changes of clothes, mostly t-shirts of different rock bands, In another case, he put his favorite guitar. That is all he needed for the trip.
The next morning he dressed up in a red leather trench coat, a simple white cotton shirt, tan jeans, fingerless gloves and a pair of combat boots.
Before leaving, he made a pause to watch again the photo of his mother. He didn't say anything, he didn't try to converse with Eva's portrait, he just looked at her, as if he was recording her appearance in his mind, as if he was afraid to forget how she looked like during that short trip. He grabbed the amulet that hanged from his neck, the last memento from his mother. He remained like that for a couple more of minutes, but he could not keep that up. He needed to leave his hardware at the drop-off point and get to his flight on time. He caressed his mother's image with his fingertips and laid down the portrait. "I won't be long, mom" he whispered softly as he picked up his packpack.
He took a box of leftover pizza from the previous day and left it on the floor with the lid open so Mickey would have something to eat in the time he would be away.
Tony Redgrave went out the doorway and closed the door behind him. He looked up at the sky of Limbo City and a very confident grin formed on his lips, born from the excitement of starting a new adventure.
"This party is about to start."