CH2. Dante's First day

By slayer of evil17

(2oo millennia and 7 years later)

Dante awoke to the sound of his mother's voice calling from down the hall.

"Dante, Virgil, come on boys time to get up, it's your first day at school."

Dante, rolled out of his four poster bed and on his feet. He rubbed his eyes, and looked around his bedroom. The typical seven year-old's room, minus the giant sword hanging on the wall. It had been given to him just last year by his mother. She had said that his father wanted him to have it when he was old enough. Why she thought that seven was old enough to own a very large sword was beyond him, but he pushed the thought out of his head went to his dresser to pull out some clothes to wear to his first day at first grade.

He grabbed a pair of black jeans from one of the bottom drawers, and a red t-shirt from one the top drawers. He went under his bed and pulled out a pair of black boots that covered his shins, and slipped his feet into them. Finally he opened his door and crossed the hallway and stepped into the bathroom, kicking the door shut behind him just as his brother Virgil approached from behind. Dante laughed at the sounds of his brother cursing and pounding on the other side of the door, then turned to face the mirror. He ran his fingers through his long white hair and flattened out the bad case of bed head that he saw before him. After about five minutes, he nodded in approval of his hair and brushed his teeth.

At last, he was finished and opened the door to a very pissed off Virgil. Dante laughed at the zombie of a brother before him and stated in a smart ass tone, especially for a seven year old, "Jeez Virgil, can you do something with that face of yours, it's too early for Halloween." Virgil's eye's erupted in fury as he lunged for his brother. Dante ducked out of his brother's grab, and rolled between his legs, knocking Virgil into the tub with a mule kick. He stood to his feet and continued down the hallway where he was met by the loving eyes of his mother. She was placing a sandwich and an apple into a brown paper bag as she said good morning to her son and asked where Virgil was.

"Oh, he's in the tub right now. I'm sure he'll be down in a second or two," Dante laughed in response, feeling proud of his recent victory over his brother.

The two were always fighting about something. Last year at their sixth birthday party, they got into a fork fight over who wanted chocolate cake. This resulted in Dante being pinned to the wall through his stomach and Virgil stapled to the floor through his hands by two butter knives. Last week, Virgil literally threw Dante out of a fifteen foot oak tree because he didn't want to share it with anybody. It almost seemed as though the two were fighting for an honor they would never truly receive, or the affection of a father they no longer had.

Of course to Dante, Sparda was never gone. He believed with every bit of his soul that a piece of his father was in him. Though the demonic blood of Sparda ran through both Virgil and Dante's veins, it seemed that the true spirit of Sparda rested in Dante, where a yearn for darkness appeared to be Virgil's passion. Sparda's smart attitude most definatly ran in both of the boys, though Dante usually only used it on his brother. Virgil, on the other hand, combined his attitude with his already dark mentality.

Finally, Virgil made his appearance at the breakfast table. His hair not even touched, and his blue jeans and blue t-shirt dripping from his unexpected shower.

"Good morning Virgil. Uh, honey, why are your clothes all wet?" Their mother asked Virgil as he grabbed an apple from the wicker basket in the center of the table. After taking a huge bite out of the apple, he answered defiantly, "My clothes were dirty so I thought I'd save time by showering with them on." His mother rolled her eyes and brushed it off as she continued to make lunches for the boys. She had learned that there was simply no point in trying to change Virgil or Dante.

Dante snickered on the other side of the table as he took another bite of cereal. Virgil caught sight of this and in retaliation hurled the apple at Dante when he saw his mother turn around. Dante brought up his free and snatched the apple out of the air as he swallowed. He tossed the apple up and down in his hand a few times as he looked at Virgil and retorted, "Now Virgil, no throwing in the house." He smiled triumphantly then tossed the apple behind his back and into a trash can.

"Hey Mom," Dante asked as he finished his bowl, "when does the bus come?" His mother looked at the clock over the sink and gasped. She looked out the window to see a yellow school bus pulling up the house.

"NOW!" she shrieked as she grabbed the boy's lunches and handed tossed them to the boys. Dante and Virgil caught their respective lunches and picked up their backpacks and walked out the door, Dante getting pulled back for a kiss on the forehead from his mother. Dante smiled back at her as he ran to get on the bus, whipping off his forehead as he went.

In the far back of the bus, Virgil took a seat across from two small, seven year old girls. One had long, curly, red hair and was dressed in all black with pink trim. The other was dressed in all white, with blue trim and had short, brown hair down to her shoulders. Virgil threw his bag to the ground and propped his feet up on top of the seat in front of him, kicking a small boy in the head as he did so. The girl in white turned to the other girl and said with a big smile on her face, "Ebony, look at this boy sitting across from us." The other girl leaned forward and looked at Virgil. She stared at him and could feel a very distinct aura coming from him. It was somehow familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. After a few moments she shrugged her shoulders and turned back to the other girl.

"Ivory, come on, not another crush. Haven't you any respect for your age? Your seven, these humans don't do the dating thing the same way your kind does." As the young Ebony finished her sentence, her senses went flaring, she felt a very strong presence boarding the bus. She stood up in her seat and watched as a small boy, who strongly resembled Virgil, was being refused seat after seat and making his way toward the back. At last he reached the back, where only one seat, in front of Ebony's was empty.

"You mind if I sit here?" he asked monotonously. He had been viciously refused every other seat on the bus, and this was his last refuge. Ebony looked him up and down, she felt that same familiar presence, but it was stronger here. Whoever these two were, they weren't your average human. She shook her head in annoyance as not to give him the idea that she was impressed, or interested, and said in an irritated manner, "Oh alright, just don't get on my nerves." Dante didn't even smirk, he kept a straight face and took his seat. He stared out the window the rest of the trip and didn't speak a word.

The breaks of the school bus shrieked as it came to a stop. The doors opened and the children poured out in front of the school building. Dante was the very last to exit the bus, and as he did, he saw the girl he had sat in front of, Ebony, being confronted by a rather large boy. The boy appeared to be in the second grade, and was very large with brown hair that he combed down flat. He was wearing jeans with an all black shirt and his henchmen were dressed the same. Dante walked in slowly as to listen in on the conversation.

"Well, well, well, this girl seems to have an attitude," the boy said to two smaller boys, who laughed in agreement.

"That's right, and I would recommend not messing with it," Ebony spat back.

"Oooo, all hail queen of the losers. Ha, ha, ha."

"Are you talking about yourself again, jeeze I thought we had all grown out of that faze by now." Ebony said with a laugh as she turned to walk into the school building. Dante watched as the boy and his gang, left the scene dumbfounded by the turn of events. Dante chased after Ebony, who ironically turned to enter his classroom. He watched her take a seat in the back row, and throw her bag to the ground beside her. Dante walked back and took a seat across from hers in the back and threw down his bag as well.

"That was amazing," he said turning to face her. Ebony rolled her eyes in annoyance as she turned to speak to him.

"You again? Look everybody else here seems to stay away from me at all costs.

Why don't you take that hint?" Dante wouldn't give up, he wasn't like these other kids, and he knew that whatever this girl planned on dishing out, he could take.

"Well I'm not everybody else now am I?" he asked with a straight face, his eyes locked on hers.

Ebony could believe it, this kid was actually standing his ground in front of her.

"Look, what I did out there, really can't be taught, you just need a brain in order to do it, that's all." Dante saw his chance and took it by retorting, "Well, then why can u do it?" Ebony's eyes went wide. She was both irritated and impressed. This kid definatly was different, and most certainly was worth keeping an eye on.

"Nice one," she said with a genuine smile. "You know what, your not too bad, we just gotta work on your style a little bit and you've got it made."

All day long, the two talked and got acquainted. After the five hour school day was done, the two had become good friends. They walked out onto the play ground as they continued their current conversation of talents.

"Well lets see, besides this mouth of mine," Ebony began, "I would have to say my best talent would be my intelligence." Dante laughed at the comment and replied, "This is a secret, all right? My brother and I are kind of...special."

"Oh yeah, how?" Dante looked around the playground for an opportunity at show Ebony what he meant. Then he heard a voice call out to him, "Hey kid, kick that ball our way would ya?" Dante turned to see a red kick ball coming his way. He smiled and said, "watch this." Bringing back his foot till it was level with his waist, he then brought it back down and made contact with the little red ball, sending it airborne until it was totally out of sight.

"That's one way." He said as Ebony stared in disbelief. She had figured since she first saw him on the bus that he was different, but nothing like this.

With a short wave good bye, Dante set of to catch up with his own sibling. Unfortunately, he was stopped by the large boy and his gang.

"How's it goin' there freak?" he said, his tow cronies laughing on either side of him. Dante didn't move, he just sat there, staring into their eyes. "what's the matter, can't talk? Well then I guess we'll skip right past the 'what's in the back pack' question and go right to finding out the fun way. Ben, search him."

With that, a tall, thin red headed boy stepped forward. The towered over Dante by a few inches snatched the back pack from his hands. Dante never took his eyes of Ben's, he never flinched or even motioned for an attack. He just stay still, unafraid, and unprovoked. Meanwhile, Ben unzipped the back pack and poured the contents all over the blacktop, sending loose papers flying into the wind. Finally Ben threw the bag back at Dante, who snatched it out of the air with out ever taking his eyes off of them. The boy, who was now being called Butch, laughed at Dante as he said, "Well small fry, looks like you get away with just picking up all this garbage, but next time you better have cash, got it?" Dante didn't speak he continued to stand stalwart as the boys walked by and shoved him to the ground.

He got back up and dusted himself off. The sun was beginning to set and he knew he had to hurry home. He picked up his things from all over the ground and stuffed it all in his bag before taking off. As he ran home, he didn't notice the familiar eyes of Ebony watching him from behind a corner. She shook her head in disappointment, knowing that Dante could have easily schooled those punks, but she did see what no one else would have seen. That he didn't flinch, or run, or cry, but just stood there and took it all in stride.

"Dante, tomorrow your lesson begins, and I'll bring out whatever it is that's inside of you even if it takes me all year."