It didn't take them long to reach the Devil May Cry vehicle, although Chiara still couldn't understand her cousin's despair. Yes, a demon was heading towards his town, but if its targets were only powerful witches, it had no reason to lose its focus and blindly attack other people. She had tried to enlighten him on the way back, however, he seemed too worried to pay attention.

Nero practically threw himself on top of Nico to reach the phone on the panel, dialing the number to his house. The gunsmith smacked him on the head as she tried to get him away from her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Yo a commited man, Nero! Fuck off!"

"This is important, Nico, save it! And we're hitting the road!"

She raised an eyebrow. "Until you sit down like a normal person, we ain't." He grunted and sat up straight on the passenger's seat. Nico smile victoriously as he grunted. "Is she really coming with?" She used her thumb to point at Chiara, who was already taking a seat at the back of the RV. The boy blinked twice, confused for a moment, he had completely forgotten about the girl for a second.

"What do you think you're doing?!" He wondered whether he had sounded too patronizing.

"Have you forgotten that we still need to find my mother?" She sighed when she saw her cousin guiltily rub the back of his neck.

"Okay, now that's settled, hit the road."

"You ain't my boss..." She mumbled, but Nero didn't give it attention as he more focused on his girlfriend.

"C'mon, Kyrie, pick up the phone..." He had to call his place a total of three times, before the girl finally answered. The boy almost slipped from the seat from so much relief.

"Hello."

"Kyrie!" The redhead on the other end jumped with his scream.

"Hi, dear... Why are you so worked up?"

"Look, you need to leave the city right now, do you hear me?" Nico turned her head in his direction with a raised eyebrow, he just pointed at the road as a way to tell her to pay attention to it instead of him.

"What's going on?" Yeah, that was Kyrie, asking questions instead of doing what she was told. "If it's a demon, I think there's someone here who can help..."

"Lady and Trish are there?" Good, they had helped evacuate the city once, they could do it again.

"No, actually... It's your father." She whispered to the phone as she watched Vergil from over her shoulder. He was sitting on the living room couch while reading a book.

"What!? He's back!? Okay, that's good, he can get you to safety."

"Nero, whatever's happening, I'm not leaving the orphans to fend for themselves!" Oh, right, the orphans. She had a point.

"Pass him the phone."

There was an awkward moment between Kyrie building the courage to call Vergil and telling him that Nero was on the line.

"Yes?" However, what he didn't expectz was how he would freeze by hearing his father's voice on the other end.

"I... Uhm... Ehm..." How was he supposed to call him?! Vergil? Too formal. Dad? Hell, no, they had zero intimacy. Father? I don't know, did he really feel like this man was his father by any reason other than blood? Suddenly, he felt a smack on the back, it was Nico.

"You're killing me here! Just say something!"

"You know what, father?" It came out sarcastically, but sarcasm was his way of dealing with things, so great. "I need you to keep your eyes on Kyrie for me until I get there."

There was a moment of silence. First of all, since when did he need to do any favors for Nero? Okay, maybe he had left the boy and his mother all by themselves in his quest for power, and that left the opportunity for her to abandon him. But that was not his fault.

"That was totally your fault." There he was: V again. How lovely. "Just do something for your kid to begin to balance the scales." Vergil shook his head in a frustrated attempt to get him out of his head and focused on answering his son when he realized he had taken too long.

"I will watch your human lover." He heard the sigh of relief from Nero on the other end and that made him feel something on his heart. Was it warmth? "May I ask why you need me to do this?"

"A demon is on its way to attack Fortuna—"

"No, it is not." Chiara interrupted him with a raised voice. "The demon has a specific target and engaging it in the middle of the city will create consequences."

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you a devil hunter?" She shook her head in response to her cousin's inquiry. "Then what do you know, princess?!"

"Call me that again and I will eviscerate you." The murderous look on her eyes had no effect on him.

"Oh really? I'd like to see you try, princess."

The girl stood on her feet, one of her blades in hand. In one swift movement, its tip was against Nero's neck, who grabbed the blade with his right hand and was about to disarm her when Nico started yelling.

"Will the two of you stop?! I don' wanna see any fights between half demons, part demons, whatever yo asses are inside this vehicle!"

Nero had completely forgotten to turn off the phone, and Vergil had a very curious look on his face as he listened to the whole conversation.

"Who is this other part demon?" He asked, causing his son to widen his eyes, taken aback by the question.

"Uhm... Let's say it's someone that Dante will love to meet." His sarcasm caused Chiara to grimace as she sat back on her seat. "I'll meet you in a few hours. Call backup." And then he hung up the phone without another word. By 'call backup', he actually meant 'call your brother'. On the other end, his father was completely suspicious. Also, he had no idea why he had to call his twin to deal with just one demon.

"I take it that both Vergil and Dante are back from the demon world." She said as she seemed to look for something in the pocket inside her coat.

"It's your lucky day, you'll get to meet to whole family today." Knowing Vergil would protect Kyrie made him go back to his usual self.

"Chips?" His cousin suddenly offered, with a bag in her hands. He raised an eyebrow.

"Where did you get that?"

"I always pack food with me." She simply said. Truth be told, Chiara would always eat whenever she was anxious, even though she would never admit the habit, and the idea of finally meeting her father was making her feel on edge.

"Hey, hey, no chewin' in the vehicle! I don' wanna see crumbs anywhere!" Nico huffed.

The female half-demon's answer came as the loud sound of a crispy chip being torn to pieces by her teeth. The gunsmith sighed and mumbled something about making her clean up the whole RV by herself.

Suddenly it crossed Nero's mind the most prabable reason why his father was at his house: the book. The goddamn book he tried to read over and over again and never understood its appeal. He reached for it it in his pocket and froze when he realized it wasn't there.

"Fuck... Fuck, fuck, fuck!" He desperately started searching in every pocket.

"What now?" Nico mumbled, uninterested.

"The book! I think I lost it!" All of a sudden, the thick cover with a big 'V' on it appeared right in front of his face. It was Chiara handing it to him. His puzzled look was enough for her to decide to explain even before he asked.

"You dropped it back in the forest."

"Thanks..." Nero grabbed it and kept staring at the item. "Why didn't you warn me?"

"I tried. You didn't listen." She moved back to her seat.

"Hm..." Following the logic that his cousin was so much like cousin, perhaps she was also a fan of literature. Maybe she could explain that book to him, he definitely didn't want to embarrass himself in front of his father. "Do you... like reading?"

"I prefer novels over poetry."

"I was wondering if you could explain it to me?" Nero scratched the back of his head as he watched Chiara tilt her head to the side, apparently confused.

"It's a collection of poems, I would have to explain each one to you individually. Perhaps it would be best to accept that this is not your cup of tea." She became even more confused as her cousin became sad with her answer.

Deep down, he just wanted some sort of connection with Vergil. He had no idea what to talk about with the man, hell, he had barely talked to him before he went to the demon world after the Qliphoth. Lady and Trish gave him some input on the guy, but other than have made some serious mistakes, he had no idea who he was. Only that he really liked poetry, V made it very obvious.

"Don' worry, I'm pretty sure you'll find somethin' in common with yo daddy." Nico said, but it had that half consolation, half mockery tone.

"The hell are you talking about? I just hate feeling dumb, that's all."

"Uhum." She lit up a cigarette. For her surprise, however, instead of only Nero, both of them said:

"Put it out."

"Oh, c'mon! Gimme a break." The brunette adjusted her glasses. "Yo demonic lungs ain't gonna be affected by some smoke."

"Don't count on me when you need a lung transplant." Nero mumbled with his arms crossed.

"Why do yo think I care so much about savin' money? So I can buy a lung at the black market." Nico smirked when she saw her partner grimace with the corner of her eyes.

"That's gross!"

"Don' hate the player. Hate the game."

The rest of the trip went mostly silent as the young devil hunter took a nap as the brunette kept driving them to Fortuna. Meanwhile, Chiara started to get bored, and after inpecting every inch of the RV trying to find something to do that wasn't reading a week old newspaper, she just went back to eating. After six hours, Nico poked her partner to wake him up.

"Hey, yo turn to drive, lazy ass."

Nero lazily stretched his arms as he slowly opened his eyes. When he looked at the gunsmith to take her place in the driver's seat, he felt weird as he saw her expression: her eyes widened and mouth agape as he looked at the back of the RV. He decided to look at the same direction and tilted became confused as the trash bin, previously completely empty, was now full. It was all a pile of different snack packages: chips, candies, chocolate, pretty much everything.

"You ate all this by yourself?!" He was shocked, it would take a good number of kids from the orphanage to eat all that crap. Chiara just nodded, not giving them too much attention.

"Are yo sure yo mother didn' go missing 'cause she was tired of buyin' so much food?" Nico could've sworn she could feel her spine actually freezing as the girl stared at her with a murderous look. "Just kiddin'... Just kiddin'..."

The rest of the trip went silent as well, with Nero practically jumping out of the RV once they had finally arrived in Fortuna's main square. He looked around and thought it was weird how normal everything seemed: people were peacefully walking around, and every now and then someone would greet him. Not to brag, but he had become quite famous after the last incident.

The white-haired girl positioned herself behind her cousin, grabbing his head with both hands and moving it so his eyes would look at the right direction: where a suspicious shadow on the ground lurked before moving so fast he could only keep up thanks to his demonic heritage.

"Let's go!" He tried to run after the demon, however, the hold of Chiara's hand on his arm kept him in place. "What?!"

"I can sense where the Eighth is. It would be wiser to use him as bait to lure the demon out of the city." She arched an eyebrow as she saw Nero's incredulous expression.

"We're not using someone as bait!"

"The someone in question is a witch, he can handle himself."

"Tell that to those poor souls back at the forest." He pulled back his arm, breaking free from her hands and ran after the demon. Chiara stayed behind, watching him as she shook her head.

"Stupid."

The demon was fast, but the boy knew the way into the city and quickly caught up with it, stomping mercilessly on the shadow. The creature growled and tried to sneak away, thinking it was just an accident with some clueless human. However, when Nero jumped on it again, a blob of demonic mass emerged from the ground.

"What is the meaning of this?!"

"Look, fella, I look out for this town, okay? So if you could just go on your merry way from here, it'd be great!" The devil hunter smirked as he grabbed his sword from his back.

"This stench..." The blob finally gained some form, and it became a big lizard head, while the rest of the body was still hidden. "It is the stench of a traitor!"

"Okay, you're just being rude now. I didn't have time to shower."

"I will destroy every traitor in this town!" The demon roared as it turned back to a blob that increased in size as it slowly removed itself from the ground. Suddenly, it seemed to explode, with various parts becoming smaller versions of itself that started running around the city.

Chiara caught up to her cousin to find him with a grimace on his face as he didn't expect that to happen. He turned to her and sighed in defeat as he understood the look in her eyes.

"Just say it already."

"I told you so."