Disclaimer: I do not own My Hero Academia or Devil May Cry.
A/N: AU. Possible instances of OOCness. Genderswapped Izuku. Switched parentage of Izuku. Swearing. Mentions of violence, blood and potential gore(More so with DMC due to the demons and stuff). Mature themes/Situations. Demonic abilities/powers, as well as potential fits of possessive/overprotective nature, etc.
This is a revised version of the chapter as I've gone back and done some edits, fixed things up a bit, etc.
Without further ado, enjoy!
Prologue: A Demon Named Sparda
Two millennia ago, there was a war.
Between the human world and the demon world; a place where nightmarish creatures and devils roamed free and unchained. The emperor of this world was a powerful being named Mundus. Under his rule, he ordered his legion of monsters to march on the human world, determined to expand his dark kingdom. Opening the gateway to the human world, the demon army attacked humanity with little standing in their way. But a powerful demon, the demon king's best general, woke up to justice and rebelled against his kind, sparing the human race from a gruesome fate. His name was Sparda.
Sparda alone defeated the forces of hell, before moving on to the Emperor of Darkness himself, sealing Mundus into a marble vault. Pushing the last of the demons back, Sparda used his blood, along with the blood of a human priestess, in conjunction with his sword and a mystical amulet to seal the gateway between worlds, the Temen-ni-gru tower. With the human realm saved and much of his demon power sealed away, Sparda's name became a legend, revered by mankind. And his name could only grow, becoming The Legendary Dark Knight Sparda as he lived among humanity, continuing to save the world from demons.
However, nothing lasts forever. As the centuries slipped on by, the memory of Sparda's deeds and the very existence of demons became little more than folktale to most. In its place, came the manifestation of supernatural abilities in humans. The phenomenon began in Qing Qing City, China, where a newborn baby with the ability of luminescence baffled the minds of doctors. Further cases of people with extraordinary powers, known today as quirks, began popping up across the world, growing in population over time and changing society to incorporate the rising of these meta-humans. With the rise of quirks and no more demons, Sparda would settle down with a human woman by the name of Eva, and have 2 children; twin sons named Dante and Vergil.
The family of Sparda was peaceful for a time...but after two thousand years of imprisonment, the seal on the underworld finally began to weaken, and Sparda had disappeared not long after his children were born. In an act of revenge, Mundus sent his minions after Sparda's family. Eva stood no chance against the demons and lost her life trying to protect both their sons...but was only able to find Dante, thus leaving him as the presumed only survivor that day as Vergil was never found.
Decades later...Dante was reunited with his twin brother, Vergil. The latter having survived the years with the aid of his father's memento, the devil sword Yamato, and yearned to obtain even greater strength by unlocking the very power of Sparda himself. In his attempts to gain his father's power, Vergil met Arkham, a man bent on obtaining the demonic power for himself who knew that unlocking Sparda's power also meant the seal on the underworld itself would weaken. To this end, Arkham and Vergil worked together to awaken the Temen-ni-gru and reopen the gateway to hell in order to retrieve the Legendary Dark Knight's sword. In the wake of the unholy tower's resurgence, a small demon invasion followed, capturing the attention of the world once again as heroes rose to battle the forces of hell.
Conflicted over his feelings for his long-lost brother, Dante set out to stop both Vergil and Arkham, armed with his memento from his father, Rebellion. Despite his efforts, Arkham betrayed Vergil and opened the gateway to the demon world, claiming Sparda's power for himself. It was during this time Dante met the demon hunter who he nicknamed 'Lady', discovering her lust for vengeance on her father, Arkham for having killed her mother, which served to strengthen Dante's resolve. The two established an unusual connection with one another via their unique familial ties, with Dante vowing to take care of the mad scholar. Upon meeting Arkham in the demon world, Dante temporarily teamed up with his brother to defeat the human and removed him from their father's power. However, the comradery would not last long as they were unable to overcome their own differences. The ensuing battle between brothers was fierce but in the end, Vergil met his match. Refusing Dante's help, Vergil allowed himself to fall alone down into the underworld much to his brother's hidden despair. As the portal to the demon world closed, Dante retrieved his father's sword and returned home, soon after opening up his very own shop, with Lady even giving the place a name that stuck on him;
Devil May Cry.
Using the store's front as a small-time hero agency/local handyman, he used his business as a means to hunt down demons and collect information on Mundus. Handling villains and occasional demons, his jobs eventually gained him traction as an up-and-coming pro-hero in the public eye despite him not properly having a quirk; rather it was his careful use of his demon heritage that the public saw. Sometime later, a mysterious and beautiful woman appeared at Dante's door. The woman introduced herself as Trish and bore a striking resemblance to Dante's deceased mother, Eva.
Trish led Dante to Mallet Island, the place where Mundus was sealed. She revealed that the demon responsible for his mother's death would soon return and wreak havoc on the human world once more. There Dante faced a gauntlet of some of Mundus' most lethal minions, all of whom fell to the Devil Hunter's inordinate and uninhibited strength. Among them was his brother Vergil, who had been warped into the demon known as Nelo Angelo, and Trish herself, who was created by Mundus in Eva's image to lure Dante out and kill him. Despite her betrayal, Dante spared the demon, only for Trish to suffer at the hands of her creator for failing her purpose. In the face of Mundus' cruelty, Dante's anger erupted like never before. Unleashing his true demonic power with the aid of the restored Devil Sword Sparda, the Son of Sparda defeated Mundus and sealed the demon king away as his father had done before. Escaping Mallet Island with the assistance of Trish, Dante returned to his shop and continued hunting demons and villains with Lady and Trish at his side.
As time passed, Devil May Cry became a popular Hero Agency with Dante cracking the top 10 pro heroes alongside names like All Might and Endeavor. Despite his fairly chill, if not lazy attitude, all seemed right in the world.
Until a certain incident took place…
Dante, Lady and Trish returned to the main office. A heavy silence blanketing the air around them made some of the staff feel more on edge than usual, especially whenever they glanced towards Lady only to receive the third degree from Dante himself. The hunter's eyes flashing an inhuman red before they scurried off to whatever area they deemed safest at the moment.
Trish felt a pang of pity for them. Few things could calm a devil on a rampage after all, and that hive of demons Dante took out barely scratched the surface. The blonde's eyes daring to slide on over the deep gash on Lady's arm and the soft droplets of fresh crimson echoing between them like the tolling of bells.
Barely even remembering how things turned out the way they did, only able to recall the exact moment when one of the bigger demons got far too close to Lady for her liking.
Or Dante's.
Part of her was doubtful she would ever forget seeing such a powerful show of rage from Dante though, still unable to fully stop her fingers from trembling.
~/~
It was a simple mission really, with a generous payout. "Too good to be true," Lady had mumbled on the way out.
The charge that went through the air as the demon was torn in half before hers and Lady's very own eyes. The darkened blood-splattered messily against the pavement.
And it didn't stop there.
~/~
"Take this!" Lady yelled seconds before discharging a barrage of missiles from her trusty Kalina Ann, smirking as the horde of Barbed Chaos fell to the ground in huge, meaty chunks. The Razor-sharp, glinting chutes of their spines still glinting underneath the mess of red.
"Hmhm," Lady blinked, hearing a loud bang fired off a few measly inches from her head. Turning just in time to catch the mess of demon guts falling to the ravaged pavement and a now smirking Trish. "Odd. I don't remember asking for the save…?"
"Your welcome." Trish replied, even giving a small, laid-back shrug. The demoness' back facing the other a moment later as her heels went flying, bullets filled the air, and the Devil Sword Sparda's dormant form, Force Edge, ripped through other several demons.
"Feeling altruistic today?" Lady called over the sudden appearance of a few dozen more hordes.
The demons kept coming and they'd both lost sight of Dante some time ago as the male of the trio went off to take care of 'The big guy' as he eloquently put it. Which meant Lady and Trish now had to deal with the grunt, literally.
Things were going smoothly, for the most part. Though Lady herself would be lying if she said she wasn't getting a bit tired.
"Few more comin' at you." Trish informed while Lady took the chance to reload.
"Yeah, I see 'em!" Lady hollered, reaching down and yanking a grenade from around her belt. She threw it at just the right angle, letting some of the resulting debris crash into another couple of the sharp-clawed bastards. 'Dammit Dante, move your ass!' She thought, thoroughly annoyed with how the devil hunter suddenly seemed so inclined to take his sweet ass time on things.
It was her mistake, thinking of something other than the fight happening at the present moment.
"Lady, look out!"
Trish's warning registered far too late as Lady felt the blood drain from her face hearing that horrific hiss that was now far too close for her liking. Her only thought being 'this was gonna hurt', seeing it swipe down with it's inhumane metallic blade-like hands. Her heart skipped a beat-
'Dante.'
Trish, Lady and even the surrounding demons all watched with varying degrees of awestruck horror and amazement as Dante's bare hands tore through the other being's flesh, hearing the loud crunch of cartilage and shattering of bones beneath the demon hunter's feet as he stalked his way over, sword at the ready towards the seemingly shell-shocked demons surrounding them. His voice, usually so playful if perhaps a bit condescending, was now drenched in something dark and truly horrific.
"Don't you dare touch her."
The rush of adrenaline and fear simultaneously faded, not completely, but enough to register the familiar dark red coat and broad back that now stood between Lady herself and the hordes of demons. Her cheeks flushed, his words sinking in slowly.
Dante gave way to his demon side in a wash of light and mind-numbing shockwave of pure power.
"She's mine. Understand?"
Okay, now Lady might've been somewhat offended. "Dante, I-"
'I can take care of myself.' She wanted to argue, protest, she didn't need him 'babying' her all of a sudden. Only she never got to finish as the demons so foolishly chose to disregard Dante's thinly-veiled threat. All of them lunging at once, flinging themselves towards the one the traitor's son rushed to protect. Lady had never seen so much blood.
She winced then, looking down and seeing a similar crimson substance coming from where the demon had just barely nicked her.
"Dante…"
Trish's voice brought Lady's attention back to the battle, more specifically the small trickle of worry ebbing its way into the blonde's casual tone. It didn't take a genius to figure out why when Lady's gaze met with a pair of glowing crimson eyes looking down on her. Her hand immediately moved to rest on one of the pistols she kept strapped to her backside only to let out a stubborn 'tch!' remembering it had no more ammo.
Her dual-colored eyes did another quick sweep of their surroundings pushing down the wave of nausea at seeing so many torn apart corpses littering the ground. The pavement torn up and broken down into little more than pebbles now by Dante's sheer strength. It was unsettling to see up close.
She took a step back just as Dante, still in his Devil Trigger form, stepped towards her. Something swelling in her chest, making her heart stutter while he looked at her. A stillness hanging in the air around them.
Then like the deafening of static on a radio, it was gone.
The red and black flesh sizzling, the spikes and razor-sharp teeth slowly receding. Slowly replaced by the trademark flapping red jacket, twin pair of guns and the glistening silver edge of Rebellion strapped to his back. The red glow slowly fading from his eyes.
They stood staring at one another, with Lady's hand still resting on the empty gun. Her knuckles clenched so tight around it, she had little doubt they were probably white by now.
Dante took another step forward and though she's a bit ashamed to admit it, Lady had to fight the urge to take another step back. Feeling the smallest bit of heat dusting her cheeks when Dante's more callused palm grabbed hold of her hand, bringing it towards him, bluish-silver eyes inspecting the wound. Lady squirmed, believing there was no need for worry.
"It's fine," she assures quickly trying to pull her arm back. "It's just a flesh wound."
She makes a move to pull her hand away again and this time Dante allows it, letting her turn and begin walking away. His hands slowly clenching into fists with each step she takes, gritting his teeth in a small show of frustration.
The crimson glow is back in his eyes all too quickly for anyone's liking. And with it Lady's sense of security begins to dwindle.
Her mind goes back to some of the more unpleasant moments in his life. Ones she thought were better off buried in the past.
There was a time when Trish thought the former demon king Mundus was the most fearsome of beings to exist both in the human and demon worlds. In that moment however, it very quickly changed to Dante. As proven before, the line of Sparda was as unrelenting as it was ruthless to its foes.
~/~
Trish let out a breath she wasn't even aware she was holding when each of the other two finally moved; Dante going to sulk on his chair and Lady going to sulk in her bedroom, probably. Trish wanted to roll her eyes at both of them. The two had been dancing around each other for months since she had returned as an official member. She'd even caught Dante's minor slip-up one late afternoon, his 'almost' confession that brought all the teasing and coy flirting going on between him and Lady to a grinding halt.
It was adorable, or rather it would be if they had gotten together by now. At the very least it would make Dante's increasingly frequent fits of over-protectiveness seem a little more bearable. As things stood, Lady was taking it as more of an insult than anything else, confessing in secrecy to Trish at one point she thought Dante probably didn't want the 'little human' getting hurt. But with this latest incident and the two of them dragging this on as long as they had, what was adorable was now just exhausting.
Trish was ending this, right here, right now.
"Dante," she called out, striding over to his desk. "You need to talk to her."
Dante, being the kind of grown man that he was, simply wheeled his chair in the other direction, leading Trish to tap a heeled shoe against the floor in impatience. Her arms folded over her chest and her pointed look unwavering from the back of his head.
"Dante."
She may look like his mother, but she wasn't. And so if Dante was set on being childish then she would take a different approach.
"Fine. I guess I may as well go help Lady pack. After all, I can read between the lines just fine." She said, flipping her long blonde hair over her shoulder and heading for the stairs. "I'll just tell her the truth, that a human has no place with us. Wouldn't want her ending up like Eva, after all, would we-"
"Wait just a goddamn minute!" The effect is immediate as whatever thinning patience Dante had snapped, his voice coming out like a dangerous snarl. "Are you saying I can't protect her!?"
Trish tilted her head, almost like she was considering the words. "Well, isn't that why you're upset and pouting like a child? Because you couldn't protect her? Because she was hurt?"
Dante fumbled for a response. His words getting stuck in his throat.
"I…"
~/~
Meanwhile, upstairs Lady was having a similar, albeit slightly different kind of revelation.
"Shit!" Lady cursed again and again, pacing the length of the room nearly pulling out her hair in frustration now that her arm was patched up because dammit all if shit wasn't fucked for her. All because of one stupid, drunken night of...something. Dante needed to learn to hold his liquor better, else she wouldn't be in this mess.
She knew she had been getting sluggish on missions lately, inexplicably waking up more groggy than the norm; more often than not having to rush to the bathroom first thing. It was a miracle neither of her demon companions suspected anything, but then Lady wouldn't be herself if she started showing signs of weakness, so she covered it up with the standard "ate something bad" or "probably drank a little more than I should've last night" if ever asked. Only now things were spiraling too far, too fast out of her hands. The small little pregnancy test she'd kept hidden away in her nightstand dresser was taunting her. The positive sign couldn't be ignored any longer.
She needed to tell Dante, but how?
"Hey, remember that night you got so drunk you proposed, well…" She shook her head, laughing at her own pitiful words. She flopped back down onto her bed, left feeling more confused and conflicted since the day she found out her father killed her mother.
She was pulled from her musings by a sudden knock at her door, it was much louder and heavier than Trish which could only mean-
"Lady, can I... Mind if I come in?"
Shit. Fucking shit. Fuck her to hell and back shit.
Lady was not going to be able to put this off. Suddenly, whatever self-imposed deadline she had shortened from maybe a week or so to fucking right now.
"Y-yeah. Just a second!" She stumbled off her bed, willing herself towards the door with legs that felt like jelly.
She could do this. She could do this! It was just Dante after all, right?
The same guy she shot in the face after catching her midair that one time. The same stupid Dante who she always caught looking at those dumb porno magazines…'come to think it those are gonna have to go if he finds out…'
Taking a moment to steel herself, she swung open the door, stiff as a board.
"Are you okay?" Dante asked slowly, giving her stiff posture a once-over. Lady forced a smile deflecting the question with one of her own.
"Come to apologize?"
His expression sobered real quick. Running his fingers through his hair, letting out a heavy sigh of frustration.
"Something like that." He admitted. "Can I...come in?"
"Can you?" Lady parroted, arching a brow. A comfortable, familiar silence stretched between them when the smallest semblance of a smirk adorned her face, stepping aside to allow him into her room. A soft chuckle spilling from his lips, accompanied by a small shake of the head following her muttered comment of "you better not trash the place."
"About the mission, I just-"
"I'm pregnant." Lady blurted out.
In reality, what better way was there with someone like Dante? Part of her doubted he even remembered them drinking together, much less going into one of the bedrooms.
The air felt charged with some unspoken, unfamiliar emotion. One that was always there between them but rarely spoken about most of the time, if only ever teasing on it. She shifted, fingers playing with the hem of her shirt contemplating the seconds before Dante snapped out of his stupor and told her to pack her things and leave.
He and Trish were a team, not her. At least people had come to view them as such, not that it was anyone's fault. Trish was a demon like him. She could keep up with him in a way Lady herself never could, much to her frustration...and dare she say...jealousy.
He wouldn't want her getting in the way of that with a child.
When he did finally speak, a voice rough like gravel regarded her with that same intensity as back in the Temen-ni-gru while taking a bullet to the chest like it was nothing. All she was thinking of back then had been revenge, and she wasn't nearly as scared then as she was right now. With the father of her unborn child seconds from giving her the boot.
"When did we-?"
"It was a few months ago, back when you uh," she paused, taking a quick moment to clear her throat not quite able to look him in the eyes just yet. "W-when you...challenged me to that drinking game. We had just taken out that demon's nest near Oakton and, well…" she trails off, not quite sure what kind of reaction she was even waiting for.
Though if the slow, subtle widening of Dante's eyes was any indication, then he remembered the night she was referring to. His lips parting, mouth opening to speak only to shut again immediately after.
"Right. Right I uh, proposed to you while drunk, didn't I?"
"No need to worry, I turned you down." Lady interjected quickly before blinking, doubling back over her own response. "I-I mean, you know...not for the sole reason you were drunk or anything! I just…"
'I never saw myself-saw us-as 'family' material.' She thought, remembering her own parental issues along with Dante's power-hungry brother. She'd never met his parents but she'd learned Eva died protecting Dante at the very least AND that she looked like Trish, which was...weird.
"I'm not exactly the 'fatherly' type, eh?" Dante mused aloud, rubbing his chin in thought and looking at Lady with those piercing eyes. "And after all that stuff with Arkham I would've thought-" He froze, looking up and seeing the pain etched in Lady's face at the reminder of her bastard of a father.
"Neither of us are exactly picture-perfect people, huh?" Lady commented, voice choked with emotion.
'Way to go Mary, you fucked yourself again.' She thought, feeling the burn of salty tears.
"You sure it's mine?"
"Wha... Excuse me?" In a split second, all that uncertainty and fear was replaced by a wave of sudden, irrational anger. Without thinking she grabbed the still loaded gun on her backside, aiming it straight at his face. "Say that again."
The slow-spreading smile on his face gave him away before the laugh. The news sinking in caused Lady to blink. The revelation left him a bit awestruck. He was going to be a dad!
...
'Oh fuck', he thought a moment later.
He was going to be a dad.
It was at that moment Lady accidentally-so she claims-pulled the trigger on him.
~/~
Newborn cries filled the small white, sterile hospital room as Dante was handed what in his opinion was the smallest looking bundle of pink blankets in the world. His expression very nearly shell-shocked, disbelieving that such an innocent, beautiful little girl could be his. He thought of his mother, of his brother whom he thought he lost for a time….and lastly, he thought of his wife; exhausted but smiling from the bed she was lying in.
"Congratulations," the nurse said with a soft smile, "You have a beautiful baby girl."
"It's a girl," Dante repeated, feeling an unusual sting in his eyes while Lady gave out a tired sounding laugh.
"Whoever said devils don't cry, hm?" She joked, and Dante found himself laughing at the irony of it.
"Have you thought of a name for her birth certificate?" The doctor inquired, making the couple look at one another.
"Izuki." Lady said, looking at her daughter being held in Dante's arms.
"Izuki Redgrave." Dante finished in a soft voice, so as not to cause the infant to fuss before gently handing her off to her mother.
"No middle name then?" the Doctor said, scribbling down the name on his clipboard.
Lady made a thoughtful noise, gaining a certain glint in her eyes. "Izuki Eva Midoriya Redgrave."
"Really?" Dante laughed, shaking his head a bit. "You're naming her after our cleaning lady?"
Lady only scoffed. "Anyone who can handle cleaning up after you deserves only the highest of honors. Especially given how many empty pizza boxes she and I have had to throw out."
Dante rolled his eyes, but said nothing more on the subject. "Eva, huh?" He muttered softly, focusing on the small bundle of life currently being cradled to his wife's chest, sleeping soundly already. Lady smiled, both her expression and tone being one of sincerity. "Yes. Because if it weren't for her...you and I would never have met and this precious miracle," both parents are looking down onto the little chubby face surrounded by blankets, "would never have been possible."
Dante's smile became a tad more genuine, tinged with the sadness that usually came when remembering his mother but this time it was smothered by the swell of sheer happiness at the birth of his child. Inwardly patting himself on the back recalling how he accidentally gave the reporters the wrong hospital address. Letting himself take in this small moment of peace with his wife and child.
He felt like he'd hit the jackpot.
So as mentioned at the beginning before the actual chapter real quick, I have gone back and revised certain bits of the previous chapters thus far and will be re-posting them. I wanted to do so sooner rather than later since I have not posted many to begin with yet and since, after re-reading certain parts I felt they could do with some polishing up.
If you enjoyed it thus far, please leave a review if you have not already done so. Any favorites, follows are also greatly appreciated!