Thank you all to those who read the first chapter! I wasn't expecting so many people to see it quite honestly XD Feel free to leave comments/questions down below if there's something that I should improve upon or clarification. Just be polite/constructive about it ^-^
I hope you all enjoy this second chapter!
The Devil May Cry office, home to an uncle that has platonic relationships with two women… which is surprising it's platonic. The office has gotten in better shape last I saw it. The only light that was on was the sign itself. Now the building's sign is slightly dimmer, but light shone from the inside the building. Either Trish found Dante's secret stash of cash, usually used for his unhealthy relationship with pizza, or they made enough to keep it lit inside. Once Nico parked the van, I hopped out of the passenger seat and slammed the door shut. She got out of the van as well, locking the door behind her with her van keys. The neon blue sign Devil May Cry dimmed as the car powered down. Since you are now apart of my crew, you need a sick sign to show off… Dante's words echoed in the back of my head, recalling the day he gave me the job at the Devil May Cry. Dante begged for the sign to be on, which Nico ignored me when I said no and decided to put it on. At least it wasn't on the garage by the orphanage that Kyrie and I work at. For the longest time I just had it leaning up on my work bench, taking in calls from Dante or Morrison if someone needs a pest control. We both walked into the main office doors, ringing a bell chime that's attached to the door.
Inside the building was a small receptionist desk with scattered papers all over the place. A large chandelier hung over our heads, faintly flickering. The floor was lightly coated in dirt and rubble, and mysterious stains on the red carpet were still there. There was a red velvety chair and couch along the back of the wall, though if I were to sit on it it'd make a puff of dust in the air. The trash can was still around, but not on the floor thankfully. I don't know how these people live with a scattered mess everywhere. Trish was at the desk, counting a handful of money she has in her hand.
"Devil May Cry, how can we help you?" She said in a false cheery voice, as if she was a operation caller, transferring calls to other people. Trish looked up from the stack and finally noticed the two of us. "Hey welcome back, you two" she changed her voice to be more genuine.
"Hey Trish!" Nico waved to her as we both headed over to the desk.
"Got the job done?" she asked, swinging her legs off of the desk and underneath it. Trish currently took care of the main office, taking care of the phone calls and maybe cleaning the place. Meanwhile Lady would be taking on jobs around Redgrave, keeping the shop afloat. Sometimes Trish will go out and do a mission if none of us were available or we need back up. If you were to ask who owned the place with Dante being gone, both would claim they were because they were doing the most work and got there first. Beats me to know who got there first, quite frankly.
"Yessiree!" Nico exclaimed, slapping a crumbled up slip with the mission details on it. Trish took the piece of paper and threw it into a pile, where the rest of the mission details were.
"It wasn't too bad" I smirked, feeling good about myself. Trish flashed a smile as if she cared, then went back to sorting money.
"I'll be getting back to you two with payroll once I sort out the bills," she says in a distracted voice. She gestured over to a back room that had stalls for doors in the back. "Morrison might got some missions for you two in the back."
"Thanks" I thanked her as I walked past the desk, into the backroom. The backroom was filled with weaponry on the walls, a bench on the wall, and a wooden chair where Morrison would usually sit. It was a cramped room that probably used to be a storage room or something. It doesn't help that the weapons along the wall made it feel even more cramped. Most of them were Dante's that he picked up over the years, others were Trish's and Lady's weapons that they either picked up or are in need of fine tuning. I will admit, they were nice to look at and occasionally I'd wander in here if I'm in need of some inspiration for any of my weapons. Morrison and Lady were there, talking about something until I entered the room. Lady turned to me and smiled.
"Hey Nero, Nico," she welcomed us in with a smile. I always found her nicer than Trish, at least in terms of welcoming us. Though Trish has her good moments.
"Hey" I greeted her, waving to the both of them. Morrison smiled, tipping his hat off to me. "Got any missions for me?"
"I think so" Morrison leaned forward into his chair as he spoke. Reaching down underneath his chair, he pulled out a brown folder and opened it up. Lady leaned up against the wall, crossing her arms in a relaxed position. Morrison flipped through countless papers that were compiled in the folder, pulling out a few into his right hand. Morrison closed the folder shut, keeping the few he held in his hand. Handing fliers over to me, I began scanning through them. Most were city offers, throwing it out there for devil hunters to clear away for construction. The city pays well for the job unlike their previous offers, though at times it's more so just to take out the tree roots than to take out demons. The last one was a note with directions that are off the coast of Red Grave, nearby Vestos to get rid of the Qliphoth root that grew on the road just recently. It's rare to see any grow anymore, with devil hunters taking care of them now. Occasionally, a new root will come up from the ground; however it is not as big compared to when Urizen was around making a mess of things.
"More city missions, huh?" I sighed, looking through the city ads again.
"Hey mayor's reaching out to me personally now to get you guys to work" Morrison shrugged, setting the folder down beside him. He leaned back into his chair, stretching out his arms as he folds them behind his head. "It's not everyday that the mayor reaches out to you for devil hunting after years of ignoring us."
"True…" I agreed. Since it's my last shift of the week, I should be going over to Fortuna to meet up with Kyrie. We both agreed that whenever I had a shift off during the week, I would head over to her. If I couldn't make it, we'd call to check up on how things are going. Neither of us have cell phones, just using the landlines which is much simpler. Plus I broke/lost seven already and I can't afford one/banned from getting more. I took the one on the edge of the city since it was on the way to Fortuna. I handed back the rest of the offers to Morrison, who chuckled to himself as he saw what I picked.
"You always pick the ones that isn't city ordered these days" Morrison chuckled, shoving them back into his folder.
"My shift is almost done and I'm heading home for a while to check up on things back in Fortuna" I shrugged, walking out of the room. "Makes sense to drive to somewhere that's on the way up, right?"
Morrison let out a laugh, shaking his head. Lady sighed, shaking her head as well.
"Next week, you are on city patrol Nero," she said. "Me and Trish can't always do city work—"
"As long as I'm getting paid big bucks, I'm okay with it!" Trish shouted from the other room, overhearing our conversation. Lady grumbled to herself, muttering something about why is she's always stuck with her. I withheld in my laughter, waving goodbye to the two while heading out of the small closeted area. Trish was still at the desk, counting money into piles as usual. It's weird to know how Trish, a demon according to her, can be so good with money. She was able to keep the place not about to crumble, unlike Dante where it was comically bad, and pay everyone. Trish got up from her relaxed position and asked "Hey Nero! Wanna get paid today?"
Right, it was pay day of course. I went over to her before I left and took the envelope that had my name written on it. The way she writes my name is weird, the "r" starts off as an "l" but quickly added the curve to make it an "r". So it would look like she write my name as "Nelo" instead of "Nero"… which I don't get. Maybe it was something from her previous job, if she had one before Dante. I thanked Trish for the payment that Dante never gets on time, and after Nico got her share, we both headed back to the van. Nico hopped into the front seat, shoving her envelope into the compartment that's in between us. I slipped mine into my case for Red Queen, so I don't forget to lock it up back in Fortuna.
"Ready to go?" she eagerly says, starting up the van.
Bracing for the batshit driving ahead, I replied with a weary smile "Yeah, let's go."
Instantly she revved up the engines, turning on the headlights. Before she put it into Drive, Nico slipped in a cassette tape into the dashboard. The old van took a while before it could spit out any sort of music. She slammed on the dash and immediately it began pumping out loud electronic/metal music, blasting out of the almost-dead speakers. I looked over to her and grinned.
"I knew it was your favorite," she waved it off, as she shifted gears and stepped on the gas pedal. "So I thought I'd give ya a lil boost to finish this mission out with a bang."
I playfully punched her in the arm, thanking her. "Thanks Nico. You're one of the best."
"One of?!" Nico snapped at me, looking fiercely at me. "I am the best you will ever meet!" She punched me hard on the shoulder, stinging it a bit. Nico rolled her eyes at me, shaking her head while muttering how I called her one of the best. Recovering from her aggressive response to me, I slunk into my car seat, zoning out to the music. The sun was beginning to set onto the horizon, changing the color of the sky from a light blue to a golden orange color.
—
Home sweet home, in a way I guess. Or at least for the demon side of me. Hell smelled like a trash heap that's been out for a month. Especially when demons came out to harass us. Nothing but the blood soaked ground that caked our shoes, weird white grass that acted like grass but not, and the huge tree that's still breaching up to the human world. It's been a while since I went to the Underworld last, never liked it since they don't serve pizza. Taking down the Qliphoth roots was easy enough: Take down the surrounding demons, I buzzsaw a nice dent into the root and then me and Vergil finish it off. It gets repetitive after a while… and annoying when that's the only thing in sight for what feels like hundreds of miles. Vergil remained a few steps ahead of me, leading the way towards the next pit stop. His navy blue tattered trench coat briskly flew behind him, like a cape. His sword, the Yamato, by his side at all times as if it was apart of him. It tickles the brain a bit of how it got to be so tattered. Maybe it was just old or something, or went through more than I thought he did. The last I saw of him, that wasn't as Nelo Angelo, was when we were nineteen and he left to take care of what he started. Which that didn't end well… leading to him working for Mundus, turning him into some ungodly creature. The only thing that was recognizable was the amulet that our mother gave to us as kids. I still wonder how or why he turned to Mundus for power, even though I thought he was going to stop being power hungry. And I was going to help him by going with him, but I guess I wasn't good enough to help him.
In the far distance, there was some sort of ruins structure with demons surrounding it. A large towering demon stalked the grounds, guarding it as if it was its territory. Smaller demons scattered around its feet, some being squished like bugs beneath its feet. Vergil came to a halt, allowing for me to catch up with him finally. He glared at the sight ahead, placing his hand on his sword.
"Looks like a biggie" I commented, looking at the same direction he was.
"Indeed," he replied. It was pretty far away still, with a few Qliphoth roots growing around the area. Most of the creatures didn't huddle around the roots rather the ruins, making it easier for us to take care of the roots before we take care of the big guy. We headed towards the first root, found the weak point, and chopped it down. As it shriveled away, we ran over to the next one, took it down, and repeated until all was cleared out. We remained focused the entire time, concentrating on our strength to defeat the tree. As we cut down the last root, I noticed Vergil taking his time taking down the tree. It was like he was hesitating to take it down, not wanting to get rid of it entirely. After we finished, I hooked the Devil Sword Dante (named after yours truly) onto my back and walked alongside Vergil. He kept a speedy pace, trying to keep me behind him as he leads on pretending to be older than me. Even though we're twins and he only came out a few minutes before me according to our mother. Picking up the pace, I eventually synced with his speed walking.
"Another one bites the dust" I sang a little jokingly, nudging Vergil. He looked at me with a confused scowl.
"I don't understand what you are referencing," he replied stiffly. I waved it off, not wanting to bother to explain the song. I kinda forgot that he missed out on a lot of human culture. And he was a huge nerd so he wouldn't listen to anything that isn't classical.
"Anyway," I say changing the subject. "How does it feel to take down the Qliphoth tree and not your brother this time?"
"I don't know," he replied, not taking his eyes off of the destination. "How does it feel to not fight me every waking moment?"
"I don't fight every waking moment of your existence!" I argued playfully. "I fight you when you're being a douchebag."
"So… every waking moment?" Vergil clarified, lowering his voice. He cocked his eyebrow.
"I'm not fighting you now, aren't I?" I tried to lighten his mood, but it only darkened his face. I rolled my eyes, same old Vergil. Even as kids he was always like this. The poor sap. As we reached closer to the ruins, the gigantic demon took notice of us, and stomped right over to us, crushing anything below its feet. It was a big ol' guy, with long legs, a face a mother could only love of a three huge eyed freak, a long tail that had spikes trailing all the way up its spine, and several eyes scattered around its body. Its main three purple eyes locked eyes on us and halted in its tracks when it got closer to us. The creature bared its yellow/blackened jagged teeth, frowning as it looked down upon us.
"WHO DARES TO TRESPASS ON MY TERRITORY!" The creature bellowed in a loud demanding voice. It looked like a half baked dragon that had some implants to make its legs look taller, but it was a botched up surgery. The legs of the creature were similar to trunks of a tree, having deep indentations forming its way up the beast before getting to the scaly torso. It lowered its head, which was about a Vergil tall and two Vergils on his side wide. "DO YOU WISH FOR DEATH, PATHETIC HUMANS?" The large head spoke, spitting with every word that comes from its mouth. The creature's nostrils flared in rage, trying to display its dominance by being bigger than us. Pitiful attempt, truly.
I waved away the horrific stench from me, and called out "Have you heard of hygiene? It might be something you wanna look into."
"YOU DARE MOCK ME, HUMAN?!" The creature shrieked, horribly offended by my innocent question. The demon took a few large sniffs of the air, and grinned widely as it spoke "AH, YOU ARE NOT JUST A HUMAN. SPARDA BLOOD IS WITHIN YOU, IS IT NOT?"
"Does it matter?" Vergil muttered. "And you reek of demon scum blood."
"You reek of something my cat threw up last week!" I added, making Vergil snicker. "Maybe you should try going vegan or something, cause that meat is no bueno for you. kid!" I taunted it even more, making it even more agitated.
"YOU WILL NOT SMEAR THE NAME OF MUGHUN, THE GREAT!" Mughun roared fiercely like its bellowing voice, instigating the fight. Quickly, Vergil teleported to the legs and began a string of hits onto the back legs. I hurried after him, following his pattern of hitting the back legs. Like a tree, we chipped away at the bark-like plating of the beast, weakening it at the joints. After the 'entieth time of hacking at the leg, it howled in pain and swiped at me and Vergil with its tail, knocking us both back. Once we gained consciousness again, I ran towards the fiend again and worked on the next leg. The demon lowered its long neck and blew an icy chill breeze at us. Before the ice breath could hit me, I snapped open my wings from my Devil Trigger form and flew over the white fog. As my body scaled over into my Devil Trigger form, I swooped down onto its back and stabbed my sword into it. I clung on with all of my strength, using my claw-like feet to dig into the creature. Once I got my grip on it, I began shooting at it with my powered up Ebony and Ivory guns, right into the exposed parts.
"Dante! Hit the eyes!" Vergil called up to me, taking care of weakening the legs more. I finger gunned him with a smirk and exchanged Ebony and Ivory for Coyote-A. Popping in the shotgun bullets, I blasted at the first purple eye. The eye instantly dissolved into a purple goo, then to dust. I kept going around on the body, still clinging on to the sword as it kept trying to bat us away. Until I realized, there was one thing I forgot that existed: the tail. In a blink of an eye, the tail knocked me off the damn creature, launching me onto the ground. I tried to brace the fall by trying to land on my side and shield myself, but I was seconds from hitting the ground when I realized. My leather-like red wings thankfully braced part of the fall for me, though it hurts like hell thanks to it.
"You fool" Vergil sneered as he scowled at me, then turned his attention back to the fiend and went full Devil Trigger. He shot up to the knees of the creature and summoned his holographic swords. As the all the swords surround him, he fires each one like a missile towards each eye of the creature. Not a single shot was wasted as it hit each small eye. Once I regained my strength, I brought out Balrog and began knocking the creature's legs off with several good combos.
"YOU HAVE NOT YET DEFEATED ME, FIENDS!" Mughun cried out as its spikes began to glow a light purple color.
"Vergil! Its charging up!" I shouted to Vergil, who was dodging the swiping motions of the beast while taking out the eyes.
"I know that!" he yelled back in a distorted voice. I whipped out Cavaliere and finished off the final leg. The beast collapsed to the ground, making the lights grow dim. I brought out King Cerebus and used the pole feature to volt myself upon the creature's back. A few flying enemies started to come out of Mughun's back and shoot lasers at us. Quickly I grabbed Dante and deflected the hits back to them. I switched back to King Cerebus to finish punching out the remaining eyes. Meanwhile, Vergil destroyed every spike off its back before teleporting to the neck of the beast and chopped off the head. It roared until it couldn't no more, ceasing to resist any longer. Vergil, like the over the top person he is, pauses before putting his sword away . I rolled my eyes, shaking my head, and hopped down to him.
"That wasn't too bad" I say to him, putting my sword away.
He smirked as he recomposed himself into a more relaxed manor. "I've dealt with demons that smelled better than him."
"I smell better than him even!" I joked, and we both broke into a laughter.
"Do you even have a cat, Dante?" Vergil asked.
"Hell no. Though sometimes strays wander in the office. Lady took care of them whenever they came for a quick snack," I replied, shrugging. "I just asked her to make sure they didn't make a mess."
"Good. They'd die with your standards of living."
"Hey!" I shouted as he quickly dashed off, slowing down to a stop for me to catch up finally. The remaining demons that were scattered before left or got caught in the crossfire and died. Which makes our job easier if they just decide 'well, I guess I'll die now'. But that's just wishful thinking… they want power/human blood cause it taste yummy and they want to rule the Underworld. If only they'd realize they won't get anywhere if they keep jumping into the fray and getting hit in the process. We turned our attention to the bigger structure that was looming over us. It was a stone tower that's split in half, with the upper half being embedded into the ground. There was several demons and a Qliphoth root growing at the top of it, so there's no excuse to not go there.
"Guess we're heading there next?" I asked Vergil, knowing the answer.
Without even looking at me, he briskly replied "Let's go," and headed off. He just ignored you, why not roughen him up, my inner voice sneered to me, irking me. I could sense its large grin, itching for a fight. Taking a deep breath in and out, like what Lady taught me, I ignored the thought. Vergil's always like this, I remind myself. There's never a day when he's not a spicy tuna roll. Though, sometimes I wish for that prickliness to go away and not act like I'm non-existent.