Dante… is a man with a weird life. Being one of the children of the demon that rebelled against the underworld, kicked the Prince of Darkness' ass and closed off the gate that connected to the human world, it would be bound for him to encounter tons and tons of demons compared to a normal person, all in a disproportionate effort to get revenge on Sparda, who's been confirmed dead. His poor mother died because of them and his brother got separated from him.
Fortunately, as much misfortune it had gave him, Sparda's blood compensated by making him strong, fast and tough enough to deal with any nasty supernatural critter in an over-the-top fashion, like allowing himself to be impaled, knowing he cannot easily die from that, or use a motorcycle to literally climb up a vertical tower and consequently using it like a pair of nunchucks.
Anyway, a lot of things happened after his childhood was ruined: turned up into mercenary, only for his brother trying to destroy his new life; a gigantic tower leading to hell, raised up by his brother; losing his brother to hell; kicking his father's enemy's ass, not before killing his mind-controlled brother; having to bodyguard a brat while dealing with debt and demon slaying, oh, and kicking another demon king wannabe's ass at that time; kicking even ANOTHER demon king's ass, Argowhatever; being hired up by the Fallen Angel himself to test another half-demon in a weird-ass apocalyptic reverse Tokyo; dealing with worlds merging, TWICE; encountering his brother's son (never thought Vergil had that type of motivation in him!) while dealing with a cult that worshipped his dad and was trying to usurp said dad's power in the form of an ugly ass statue; and more recently, being hired by his brother's human half to deal with his demon half, who was raising a demonic tree that fed on human blood in order to grow a fruit that gifted the one who ate it ultimate power and yadayada.
In the last one, Dante had his ass kicked; Nero (his brother Vergil's son if you didn't follow) had his arm ripped off by his deadbeat dad, though it replaced it with those cool robot arms that crazy driver/weaponsmith woman provided; stabbed himself to fuse with his father's sword to gain a badass power up; fought his brother, again, only to be interrupted by Nero, who gained a cool Devil Trigger, nice ghost wing arms and regrew his cut hand! Yuck.
Not to say he bitch slapped Dante so hard, he nearly died from that! Usually it wouldn't affect him so much but he was tired from trying to kill his brother (again!) and his healing factor didn't kick in immediately. At least, he had a front view of the stomping Nero did to Vergil, as well as being convinced alongside Vergil to not kill each other, ever. So he'll take that as a win-win.
Though there was still the matter of the demon tree, which was acting as a portal to the underworld so the Sons of Sparda went there, cut the roots and became trapped there. Not the first time for both of them so they'll be out of there just fine. Eventually.
Yep, never a dull moment.
Now that he thinks about it, much of his life was around his brother, even more than his father, which, okay, they're both connected but it was still weird that his dear edgelord brother would give him so many headaches compared to his father unfinished posthumous businesses.
And why the summary of his life? Oh, nothing, just his still sleepy mind acting up when he awoke in the middle of a snowy forest. He slowly got up. He stretched due to the tons of cramps in his body. Strangely, last he remembers, he was just fine, his inhuman resilience and healing preventing a lot of health problems from someone of his lifestyle and age, like diabetes, obesity or violent death.
Even more strange, why doesn't he remember how he ended up like that? His last memory was of him going after his brother using the Yamato's reality cutting properties in order to try to open a gate to the human world. The portal was ok, especially since Vergil entered it just fine. But the moment he put a foot in there, poof!
He ends up in the middle of somewhere with pains that he didn't know he had before, though they're rapidly healing up, so that last one wasn't a problem.
"Verg, are you there?" Dante asked though he didn't receive an answer. "Great. My deadass brother is not here while I am probably in the North Pole." He finally stood up, the last aches finally ceasing. "At least, it's much better than in Hell. I wouldn't recommend that place for any travel agency. Too much fire and brimstone. No wonder demons want to escape that place so badly." He chuckled, though he stopped after smelling the air. "Or maybe I'm still there."
With barely a thought, he activated his Devil Trigger, his demon form, and used its wings to fly at high speeds to the direction of the smell. For either he was still in the underworld or there was a forrestal fire nearby.
In the end, it ended up that it was just a wildfire. That just makes him relieved because it meant he was on Earth and not a demonic illusion or whatever weird dimension that existed in Hell. Burning landscapes on the underworld would most probably have literal seas of fire. Fire, not lava. Don't question demon logic. On the other, his devil senses detected a child in the midst.
Why the hell would be a child, alone among the snow, in the middle of a fire?!
Cursing, he deactivated his Trigger, the high altitude fall not even affecting him, and took out King Cerberus in its nunchaku form while overcharging it with demonic energy only to liberate it explosively when he slammed it to the ground.
Rapidly growing walls of demonic ice form a huge circle around the little girl, their hellishly absolute zero temperatures counteracting the strangely eldritch high temperatures of the nearby flames.
Not even a millisecond later, Dante switched the ice nunchucks for the fire staff, using it as an glorified pole to jump over his improvised firewall. All while doing pirouettes and other acrobatics, mind you. In the end, the staff ended up planting itself first in the very center of the circle, with Dante jumping off of it, with even more pirouettes, and landing in a perfect illustration of a gymnastics Olympic champion, coat fluttering with the wind and exaggerated swagger.
If this were a fiction work, there would be bound to be an unseen public clapping and whistling.
Anyways, the girl appeared to be okay, thanks to the walls of ice keeping the fires out and King Cerberus infernal fire counteracting the possible effects overcharged demonic ice would do. Dante doesn't need protection against extreme temperatures, not at all. Not anymore.
Not even a sneeze that could have probably destroyed the remains of his shop at the beginnings of his career, no sir. That was all those sand demons' fault.
Anyway, embarrassing teenage moments aside, he had to check in on the kid: she had white hair as well as blue eyes. Dante had to blink and stop to think for a moment before dismissing it. Those two traits were things that came from his father which were also passed down to Vergil as well as Nero and white hair while young isn't exactly common were he lived so you couldn't fault him to think that this girl was related to him until he sensed she had no trace of demonic energy or scent. So it can be chalked up to some weird coincidence.
Oh, and she was in a catatonic state. Probably due to whatever produced the fire. He snapped his fingers and waved his hand for nothing to occur. It was only when he shook her shoulder that brought a reaction from her.
"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, concerned.
The girl turned to him. For the first few seconds, she looked like she saw a ghost. The next ones, her eyes watered. Finally, she hugged his legs as if her life depended on it.
All in all typical behavior of a possibly traumatized child.
"Dad!"
… Okay, that one wasn't so common.
"D-dad! I'm glad t-that you're okay!" the girl sniffed "I-I thought something terrible happened but I don't know what! Please, don't leave me!"
Oh boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. Crap! What was he supposed to do?! Dante wasn't what you would call a people's person. Not only because of his cockiness, his sloppiness or his occasional moments of assholery (usually during depression). It's just… since young, a lot of people he held dear died because of his demon blood attracting vengeful demons to him and those around. So he put on a personal policy of not interacting with normal people longer than necessary. Most of his friends and acquaintances are mostly badasses that can hold their own against legions of Hell and other monstrosities with only very few being normal humans with no fighting capability like Morrison and Patty being close to him. Being confused as someone's father wasn't something he was used to, either.
Not to mention that this situation pushed one of Dante's trauma buttons.
House in flames due to demons. His mother desperately searching for his brother only for the former ending up dead and the latter, disappearing only to return as a power hungry sociopath. And him, hidden in the closet, absolutely terrified for his life and that of his family.
Dante blinked and shook his head. Uh, thought he had it past him. It seemed not… Though it gave him more of a reason to deal with this current problem.
"Hey." He tapped on her head. "I'm sorry kiddo, but I'm not your old man."
The girl stopped sobbing. She slowly turned up her head, allowing Dante to see her watery eyes and running nose. The girl blinked and rubbed her eyes, now observing Dante's face with more detail.
…
..
.
"GAH!" She shouted, quickly backpedaling a considering distance from Dante "Stranger Danger! Stranger Danger! Who the hell are you and why do you look like my deadbeat dad!" She pointed an accusing finger while sporting comically white eyes.
"Oi!" Dante took offense to that "I am not a deadbeat!" Then he put his hand on his chin. "Though I bet he's quite the handsome man if he looks like me."
"Handsome, my ass!" The girl retorted angrily "What I see right now is a hobo that looks like he needs a damn shower." Then she sniffed her hands and yucked. "Urgh, you seriously need a shower." She recoiled at the suspicious smell of blood.
Dante sniffed himself and reacted the same "Try finding a shower in literal Hell, all while having annoying infinite hordes of demons even interrupting your sleep hours." His stomach grumbled. "And decent food, for that matter. Cooked demon flesh tastes like shit."
The girl was about to answer only to become confused as to what that guy was talking about. That interruption in the comedy routine allowed her to take notice of the ice wall, which she swore wasn't there before.
"What happened here?" She asked softly though the veteran Devil Hunter heard her.
"Dunno kid, but whatever the Hell happened, you were in the middle of a freaking forest fire. Had to make these." He knocked on one of the ice crystals. "To prevent the fire from reaching you, just in case."
"Oh." The girl let out. "Wait, how did you do that?"
Dante let out a knowing smirk, took King Cerberus from the ground and turned it again into its icy nunchakus form. "Magic." He said in a mysterious tone before passing his other arm in front of the weapon and making it disappear into his hammerspace, enacting the classic magic trick that is so popular and never gets old.
He chuckled when she saw what seemed like stars in her eyes. "How about I help you find your dad, little girl?"
The girl humphed and took in a proud posture. "I am not a little girl: I am Kiana Kaslana of the proud House of Kaslana and my dad is one of the strongest Knights there are!"
"My apologies, Missy Kaslana." He made a mock bow at the same time Kiana pouted at being called 'Missy'. "Coincidentally, my father was also a Knight."
Kiana was stricken at that "What?! Does that mean he also fought monsters and protected people and all that?!"
"That and more." Dante's stomach roared again, with more intensity. "Though I think we should first eat something. Do you know where I can find some pizza?"
Kiana just shot a deadpan look at him. Yup, like everyone Dante meets.
AN: After contemplating it for a while, I decided to go full DMC/Platinum/Monty Oum over-the-top stylish action for any future action scene, especially with what will be the main fic, courtesy of playing several DMC/Bayonetta games recently as well as taking renewed interest in Monty's work (blessed be his soul). Dante may be one of the most powerful people on the planet, but that doesn't mean he will be the only one with the ridiculous physics-defying battles. Though Honkai was already full anime action, it will be amped up, especially with the multicrossover elements (I left a clue for one of the cross elements in the story's cover image).
I will now begin the "main" fic I was planning all along in the same setting as this one. This is still a self-contained prequel that I will continue updating with the other fic… if I remember to do that, especially with me wanting to complete DMC/Bayonetta and have passable dominion over their controls. I already have multiple S-ranks in Astral Chain and will continue to complete it 100%... Give me luck, it will suck.
