Mission 13 - The demon within

"I can't bring him back yet." Yuu stated while walking out of the Devil May Cry. Dante wasn't really satisfied with her answer, so he stood up from his chair, ran to her and stopped her.

"Hey, hey, hey, what do you mean by that?" the half-devil was holding her arm tightly and glaring at her. The girl sighed and transferred to the couch, and Dante, quite disoriented by the sudden lack of anyone in front of him, moved his sight back onto her. "He has already finished the job, hasn't he? You sent him into the past after all."

"There are other… problems. I have to stick to the.. plan, I'm sorry."

"Plan? What on earth are you talking about?" the demon hunter was really annoyed now. He had thought that if she's sending Nero back in time she can bring him back as soon as he leaves. Well, she probably can, so why doesn't she want to?

"There are just some things that must absolutely happen. And that requires for you to be alone for now. But don't worry, you'll see your boyfriend soon enough."

"Stop screwing around with me!" Dante finally burst. "We're helping you, out of good will, and that's how you…"

"Shut up Dante. Just shut up." The witch stood up. "Nobody's perfect, and my job isn't easy. Try to stop thinking only about yourself, boy." And after saying that she disappeared without a trace.

It has already been a few months since Dante last saw the witch or Nero. He somehow managed to persuade Lady that his friend had some really urgent business and that he took off without really telling where, but it was quite a pain. He was mad at himself for trusting Yuu, but he couldn't do anything now, so he somehow managed to pull himself together quite fast and kept saying that he is going to see Nero one hundred percent sure. The only question was: how long does he have to wait? Well, at least he didn't lock himself up in hell like certain someone…

I wonder how he's doing, this stupid brother of mine…

"I'm really sorry, it's urgent…!"

Fortunately, someone barging into the office managed to break him out of his thoughts. The half-devil rose from the couch, stretched and only after that he decided to take a look at his guest. It was a familiar boy with black hair, though it was longer than he remembered and tied in a ponytail.

"I'm so sorry for not knocking or anything, I just…"

"Wait, I remember you. You're that guy from the spider house, right?" Dante smiled and took a sip of what tomato juice was left in a bottle on the table.

"Yes, I'm so happy that I somehow managed to find you guys… Wait, where is your partner?" the boy asked, still standing in the middle of the room.

"He's taken some time off for now. Hmm, your name was… Vi… something. And what's happened again? More spiders? Or hells?"

"I'm Vice. And I guess that I just found out what do the demons want from me… I panicked a little and tried to find you, because I thought that you might know more, since you're devil hunters…"

"A little slower, will you? I'm not fully awoken yet."

Vice took a deep breath and came a little bit closer to the white-haired. "Is it ok for me to sit on the table?"

"Yeah, yeah."

And so he did that. "I've got something… inside me. I heard it few days ago, and it didn't sound human…" the boy started talking, Dante wasn't paying it much attention though. "I really need help. I can't stand it anymore. I want it out of me."

"What do you want out of what?" the devil hunter shook his head a bit and looked at his customer. He was really tired.

Vice sighed. "A demon. Out of me."

It took a while for Dante in that state to process what he has just heard. Is it possible to lock a demon inside a completely normal human? Maybe the boy just had some nightmares…

"Well, I'm not really sure if it's really inside me, but I feel a link… And it's pissing me off."

"So, you want to get exorcised or something?"

"To put it bluntly, yes…"

"I'm not a priest you know."

"But you're a demon hunter. I can pay you, Amy has just found a good work, and she approves of what I'm trying to do."

Dante stood up and sighed "I would accept, if I knew what to do. But unfortunately, aside from killing you, nothing comes to my mind." Then he walked to his desk and sat on the edge. Vice looked like he was thinking about something.

He then, suddenly, got up "And what if we summon it and then you would kill it?"

The half-devil smiled "That's not that bad of an idea. But do you know how to summon it?"

The boy's enthusiasm faded. "Well… no. But it can't be that hard… right?"

"Don't look at me, I never tried to summon anything."

"But my pursuers will know. We could somehow get it out of them!" The smile returned his face.

"Ok, but how will you catch them?"

"You will. After I lure them here." Vice seemed to have everything planned out already.

"Not so fast, I don't want to have a mess here again. Just stay in front of the building and yell."

The boy flinched. "But we're in the middle of the town, you know…"

Dante jumped off the desk and stretched once again. "Do whatever you like, but don't bring them inside, or my moves will be limited." He smiled "Sorry, nature calls, I'll be right back" and he retreated to the restroom.

Vice sighed. "I really need a plan…"

It was raining heavily that night. Dante was lying on his bed, actually covered in sheet, it was that cold. He couldn't fall asleep again, and he didn't have anything else to do, so he was looking outside the window, trying not to think too much about anything. The sound of rain was more annoying than relaxing, but there was nothing to do about that. He was lying in that position for nobody knows how long, until something started to thud in the window.

"What the hell…?" he slowly got up the bed and opened the window. And off the rail was hanging no one else, but his dear customer, proudly named Vice. Dante burst with laughter as the soaked boy tried to pull himself up to the window.

"Could you stop laughing and help me?"

The half-demon calmed himself down a little, but instead of helping the poor lad, he quickly put his coat on himself, took his guns and the sword and jumped out of the window. "So where are they?" He yelled to the hanging boy.

"I wanted to avoid yelling, you know…!" he started to slowly reach out to the pipe, slid down and faced the devil hunter, annoyed. "There is no 'them'. There is one. He's been following me since the evening. I'm not really sure if he's a demon, but…"

And as soon as he said that the person in question decided to come out from behind a building. He looked completely human, white haired and about 25 years old, but it wasn't hard for the half-demon to feel that he's not. The demon also probably realized that the guy in front of him is dangerous, because he quickly changed into a Frost and attacked Vice, probably thinking that he surprised them. But Dante was faster. He grabbed the boy, shot the demon once, threw the boy away and shot the demon from the other side. Frost somehow backed away soon enough as to not get the other one, and released the ice into the ground to attack soon after, to buy some time. But the devil hunter was already beside him, so he dispersed the water in his body and moved to Vice, who was just trying to stand up from the mud puddle. He was just about to thrust his arm into the boy's leg, when he got a gun series in the head. Before he could realize it, he was pinned down to the ground by the Rebellion, but he was still alive.

"It wasn't so bad as for a lowlife like you." Dante was smirking at his defeated opponent. But the demon wasn't struggling, nor answering. The rain turned into hail and a while after, Frost changed into steam again. The half-devil's shock lasted a second and then he slashed his opponent at half, when he tried to attack him from behind. Frost changed his mind soon enough to dodge it and jumped, creating ice spears that pierced the devil hunter's stomach.

"Ok, screw this, I'm killing this bastard!" Dante took out the spears with one move and threw them into their creator. Frost managed to dodge them, but as soon as he was back on the ground, he got three powerful slashes in the back and as the devil hunter was supposed to deal the final blow, a weird growl sounded through the air. Dante hesitated for a moment and Frost suddenly turned into human, barely standing and ice was covering his wounds.

"You didn't want to kill me, right?"

Dante smirked again. "Nope. But I'm quite sure that you're just trying to buy time to attack me again now."

"I'm done with that. It's not worth it, you're much stronger than me and it wasn't ordered by Mundus, so it's not like I have to do it, even if I die in the process."

"So, will you tell me how were you planning to summon something from that boy?"

Frost shrugged. "I wasn't planning anything. That weird, devilish girl wanted him, that's all."

"…red or blue haired?"

"Red."

So it came back to him. Of course the deal with the witches wasn't finished yet, but he didn't really expect for Vice to be a part of it. He looked at the boy, who was now resting against the building, trying to hide from hail under the roof. "What did you find out?" he asked the devil hunter.

"I'll tell you inside, let's go." He turned away from the demon and helped Vice to stand up.

Frost, realizing that he really isn't going to be killed, sighed in relief. The hail turned back to rain and the demon into steam once again. Dante was on guard for some time, but Frost was gone for good this time.

Zinkul: I really hope I'm not too annoying with how long it takes for me to update this thing... I just want to say that I definitely won't abandon this fic, I've come too far already :P So I hope you can bear with me a little bit longer :)