Chapter 1

Devil hunting was not the safest job in the world both physically nor financially speaking, but ever since the qliphoth incident, business was thriving more than ever in the areas around Red Grave city. For Nero, however, that also meant fixing his RV more frequently than usual.

"How in the fuck did you get to do this to the engine?! It's going to take forever to fix this!" Nico yelled from under the vehicle.

"Me? You're the one who's always driving, how's this my fault?!"

"Well, you're obviously driving this when not on the job, because I would never do such a horrendous thing to a machine."

"Have you seen yourself driving?!"

Kyrie would just listen to them from the garage door, laughing at how they just looked like the weirdest siblings.

"Do you still think you'll be able to leave today? I can get some food ready for you guys for the road."

The devil hunter was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed as he argued, but whenever he saw or listened to his lover's voice, his expression and eyes would get lit almost instantaneously. "That's for Nico to decide, honey."

Nico rolled her eyes from beneath the vehicle, both from the romance in the air and from the doubt in her capabilities. "Of course I can get this fixed today! This ass head is totally desperate claiming the target might move from its position!"

"That's the intel I got!"

"Just hold your tits, I'm almost done, the target isn't teleporting away from there..."

And just like Nico had promised, in half an hour the vehicle was ready to go and so they hit the road. She, as always, driving as the world was about to end and dodging any obstacle and other vehicles as if she were a character from Fast and Furious, but today that was not enough for Nero.

"Why are you being so slow?"

The driver moved her eyes from the road to the devil hunter for a second, wanting to hit him in the head.

"You crazy?! That's the fastest this piece of shit can move! Who's this target anyway?"

"The client said it's a red headed demon who comes to the town outskirts, causes a lot of trouble for a day and then disappears for months. So, if we don't get her today we're screwed and that shrew is paying a lot of money."

"Where exactly in the outskirts?"

Nero looked through the windshield and pointed at a big hill right in the horizon. "All the way up there."

"You sure?" A third voice came from behind them, a female one. They turned their heads and saw a red haired woman eating some of their food. "This is really good, by the way."

Nico didn't think twice about hitting the brakes, causing the vehicle to overturn a few times until they were out of the road. When it finally stopped, they were all sitting peacefully as if nothing had happened. The red head slowly placed the food back as they analyzed her: she had wavy and long hair, a pair of green eyes and freckles on her nose and cheeks, just like the client had described. She wore na outfit that looked like a sleeveless jumpsuit, the upper part being a dark pink, while the pants were black. The woman also wore boots and fingerless gloves that would go all the way to her elbows.

"Didn't your mother teach you it's rude to steal?" Nero provoked, to which the woman just shrugged.

"I wasn't raised by my mother."

"HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET IN HERE?" The devil hunter's partner yelled, she had checked the entire place before leaving Nero's house.

"First, lemme ask about your client. Tall, sexy woman, black hair tied in a bun, violet eyes, flirted with you throughout the entire conversation?"

Nero laughed a little as he nodded. "It was a really awkward conversation, but you still haven't explained: were you just hiding somewhere?"

"I teleported here." They both laughed.

"Yeah, right."

"Don't worry, I can show you."

She smiled and with a tiny gesture of her hands, they disappeared and reappeared somewhere else entirely. Nico and Nero felt their stomachs turn with the trip and took a while to realize they were at Dante's office, the gunsmith ran to the bathroom to puke as the devil hunter tried to keep a straight face on. He looked around and saw pretty much everyone, except for Dante and Vergil, of course.

"Am I allowed to know what kind of joke is this?" The target pointed at the two as she exchanged looks between Lady, Trish and Morrison.

"Wait, you guys know her?!" At the dark corner of the room he saw the silhouette of his client. "The hell is going on here?"

"She can open a portal to the underworld, kid." Morrison calmly explained as he put his cigar down. "So we can, you know, save your father and your uncle."

A thread of hope filled Nero's eyes as he looked at his apparently former target. "Can you really do that?"

The red head rolled her eyes and rested her hands on her hip. "Okay, lemme explain the whole situation to you: this was a huge scheme so you would get me to come here. See that bitch over there?" She pointed at the woman in the dark corner. "That's Tara. You know, the mother who didn't raise me but doesn't leave me alone. We're not even demons, we're sorceresses. And I already explained to her that no, I can't open a portal to the underworld."

"So this was all a big waste of my fucking time." He mumbled.

"Actually I still intend to pay you, sweetie." Tara said.

Lady sighed and walked to the red head, placing her hands on the side of her shoulders. "Look, it's been three months. He's never been gone for such a long time, what if they're trapped down there?"

It was the other woman's turn to sigh. "Look, I don't know what Tara told you. It's not that I don't want to, I'd never leave Dante down there and you know it. I just can't." She slowly grabbed Lady's hands and took them away from her. "I'm sorry." She turned and slowly left the office, leaving everyone behind.

Nero stood up and decided to be the only one to go after her. Luckily for him, instead of teleporting away the sorceress sat on the steps of the entrance.

"Look, you don't know who I am..." He started as he sat next to her, but got interrupted.

"You're Dante's nephew."

"Okay, so you know who I am, but I don't know who you are..."

"Name's Phoebe."

That did not ring any bells.

"I still don't know who you are."

"You were not supposed to, I'm just telling you my name."

Oh.

"Okay, Phoebe, anyway, thing is, the qliphoth situation had already increased the number of demons roaming around, but that only happened on a certain area, two weeks from now, there are huge numbers of demkns showing up from the opposite side of the state. Those people inside," He pointed at the doors of Devil May Cry. "are probably just worried this might mean something bad."

"Look, kid, I quit demon hunting a long time ago..." She sighed and looked him in the eyes in a way that he could swear she was reading his soul. "Do you have anyone in your life that you care deeply for and is human and completely defenseless?"

"What does that have anything to do with..."

"Then maybe you should quit too." Phoebe stood up and walked away, leaving a shocked and angry Nero behind.

"Maybe I'm not a pussy! And my ride is all the way back where we found you!"

She gestured, making the van on the street right across from Nero.

"Cool trick." He mumbled as he shrugged.

"Not a trick!" He heard the sorceress yell from a distance.

The devil hunter went back inside and interrupted whatever conversation was going on between Lady, Trish and Morrison. Tara was already gone, probably had teleported somewhere. Nico was lying on the couch, still nauseated.

"So, who's going to explain to me what the hell was that just now?"

"We did make Tara pretend to hire you to go after Phoebe." The blonde demoness started.

"Thing is, she already knew that we knew about the spell and she would prefer to meet Mundus himself than us." Lady kept going. "But I knew where she usually goes when she's in town, and that she would feel that she was being hunted and would show up just to tell us to fuck off."

"Well, it worked. She told us to fuck off and we still don't have any portal to the underworld." Nero crossed his arms and started to pace around the office. "Why do you think she can do this? She seemed pretty sure about not being able to."

"Phoebe doesn't trust in her own skills anymore ever since... A certain incident. That's when she quit demon hunting."

"But the girl used to be one of the best back in the day, along with Lady and Dante. Trish wasn't even around yet." Morrison said as he looked for a cigar in his pocket. "She just needs some convincing."

"And what caused you guys to become so desperate about Dante all of a sudden?"

"You know there's something weird going on…"

"And you guys think I can't take it on my own."

They all exchanged looks between each other, the trio in front of him trying to hide their true feelings about Nero skills. Not that he wasn't a great fighter, he was, but he still had a long road before he could compare himself to the legendary devil hunter.

"It's not that we don't believe in you…" Trish spoke with a calm voice. "But it's best and safest to have all hands on deck."

"Okay." He sighed. "I'm gonna pretend I believe. You know what? You guys work on trying to convince what-was-her-name-again to open that portal, while I go investigate that demon commotion up north. Nico, we're leaving."

For the first time in a long time, the other three people in the room were reminded of the gunsmith's presence, who wasn't exactly happy about being dragged around in her current state.

"Oh, no, you go! I'll stay here and rest…"

"Quit being lazy, we have a job!"

"Shove that job right up yo ass, I ain't involving myself into this and risk getting teleported again!"

Lady's eyes were lit up, she saw an opportunity for revenge for three months ago. She walked to the girl and kicked her out of the couch. "Remember when I was told to rest and you made me grab a shovel? Well…" She picked her up by the shoulders and dragged Nico all the way to the RV, throwing her inside. "Time to work."

"HEY!" She protested as Nero took the driver's seat.

"Thanks, Lady."

"I didn't do it for you."

And they took off.

"So… What do we do now?" Trish asked with her arms crossed.

"Phoebe didn't teleport, so she can't be far. Let's split up and try to find her, and whoever does, don't call the other, sit and try to talk to her."

Morrison scoffed as he placed his heat on the top of his head. "Yeah, like that is gonna be easy."