All right, time to get this started! I had hoped to start this chapter a bit sooner, but decided to put it off for a day or two to rethink some ideas I had in mind for the fic. However, now that my brainstorm is done, I can finally get this rolling.

And for this chapter, Takashi will be taking on Dante and I'm aware of how some of you were looking forward to the fight. And so here it is! The fight will start off a bit slow at first, but don't worry, it'll get better as it goes (of course, that could be said about any fight really)!

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 7

Dante went for a roundhouse kick, but Takashi ducked it in time. Unfortunately, he wasn't lucky enough to dodge the next attack, which came in the form of a backhand. A loud crack was heard as the blow connected with Takashi's face and he flew back from the force. Takashi hit the ground with a heavy thud.

The noise drew the attention of people nearby, but Dante didn't pay them any mind as they began to approach. Takashi slowly got back up, his head swirling from the hit. Dante waited until he got to his feet, thinking about the kid. "Huh, that sure was easy, but something tells me that things are going to start heating up about now."

As soon as Takashi got to his feet, Dante went up to him and threw a casual punch to see what would happen. Takashi regained his senses in time to catch the incoming fist and go for a punch of his own. Dante evaded it and delivered a swift kick, but Takashi blocked it with his own leg. "Damn, didn't see that coming," Takashi thought, "why the hell would he be trying to pummel me for his proof?"

Takashi moved closer to Dante after blocking the kick and tried to go for a grapple. He may not have been in many fist fights before, but he still got into enough of them to know how to handle himself. He hoped that his new abilities would help here as well. Takashi tried for an uppercut only for Dante to take a half step back to avoid it, but didn't get a chance to do anything else as he then got hit in the gut with a knee.

"I didn't even sense that move. Looks like the kid has some skill after all," Dante pondered.

He retaliated with a powerful headbutt given the little distance between them. Takashi staggered back from it and Dante, deciding to not do things so casually now, landed a quick three hit combo on him. The first punch connected with Takashi's stomach while the next one had struck him in the chest and the final one nailing him in the face.

Takashi felt the whole world swirling around him. "Damn this guy is strong. It feels like I just got hit by a truck," he thought, coughing up some blood.

"What the hell is he doing!" Saya shouted, her and Kohta wanting to stop the fight, but knew that they couldn't. The guys were just moving too fast for them to do anything.

Lady stood by and watched calmly, not bothered in the least by this. "It's like he told you a few minutes ago: he's going to give you some prove." She observed the fight carefully. This kid was a decent fighter, one would have to be to be able to at least fend of Dante for this long even if Dante was still pretty much screwing around. However, Lady felt that if Dante continues this, the kid may surprise them.

"B-but does he have to attack Komuro?" Kohta asked as he turned to Lady.

People began to show up at the scene. "What the fuck is going? What's the damn commotion?" one of them demanded.

Lady just ignored them though. "You'll see." This just confused Kohta since he wasn't good at figuring out cryptic messages.

He didn't push the issue though and neither did Saya and they all went back to watching the fight. They just hoped that whatever this was about, it'd end soon.

Dante grabbed Takashi and pulled him in close for a gut punch, but Takashi put his arms up to block it. For the most part, he had been on the defensive, having only tried to go on the offensive once, but that hadn't gone out well. But he couldn't be blocking forever and so he did the same thing that Dante had just done. As soon as the punch was blocked, Takashi quickly reached out and grabbed Dante by the scruff of his coat and punched him with his other hand.

Takashi could feel something crack beneath his fist as it made contact with Dante's face. Dante barely staggered from the hit though and so Takashi struck him again before pushing him away. Dante lost his balance a bit from the punch and shove, but regained it quickly and stood up perfectly still. He moved a hand up to his nose and found it slightly crooked. Without any hesitation, he almost lazily snapped his nose back into place, the nose cracking loudly enough for everyone to hear.

They all looked disgusted by the action, the only exception being Lady who merely sighed. Takashi stood there, a little amazed by how nonchalant Dante appeared to be. "Not a bad punch kid, but you don't have a chance at overpowering me. I once supported the dead weight of statue that was almost the size of Godzilla," Dante said.

Everyone looked wide eyed at him, wondering if the guy was crazy. "That bluff is too crazy to be even remotely true," Saya comment.

"If you only knew," Lady muttered.

Dante suddenly disappeared from sight to everyone's shock. Takashi would've looked around frantically for him if Dante didn't reappear next to that sword of his. "Oh shit." Takashi knew that he was screwed now.

Dante grabbed the sword and pulled it out of the ground with just one hand. The skull that the hilt was comprised of made Takashi gulp. "Now then, how about we kick things up a notch? Hope you're ready kid." That said, Dante rushed forward, Rebellion extended. And the target was Takashi's heart.

Inside the mansion, Saeko and Souichirou were in a huge training room. In his hand, Souichirou carried an impressive looking katana. "What do you think of this?" he asked as he handed the blade to Saeko. "I've heard tell that the daughter of Busujima-sensei rivals even Chiba Sanako herself. If that is the case... with an example to strive for, if you are not too shameful to follow the way of the sword, experience its purity firsthand!"

After he was through speaking, Saeko slowly pulled the katana out of its sheath. Her eyes showed some shock as she examined it. "This is... truly an unusual blade," she remarked, the katana now fully drawn.

"So you can see it," Souichirou said.

"The slightly curved surface of the hamon indicates that this is a Kissaki Moroha Kogarasu Zukuri." Saeko put the sword back into the sheath. "A true companion to the rifle... it looks like a Murata-to."

For what had to be the first time in a while, Souichirou smirked. "Hmm, impressive. You are correct. It is one of the blades that was made in the Tokyo armory by general Murata during the Meiji era. I do not believe the blade has a single blemish."

Saeko placed the sword on the floor before her. "It was an honor to have seen it. Thank you for showing me..."

"It is yours now."

"I know this is rude, but unless there's a reason, I can't accept this," Saeko replied.

"Busujima-sensei gave me his guidance. Accept it... with my gratitude." Souichirou seemed to be enjoying this a bit.

"If that's the case, then I must give it to my father," Saeko said calmly.

Souichirou slapped a hand onto his knee and let out a laugh. "Mmm, just like a member of the Busujima family. You nothing but what you think."

"I'm sorry," was Saeko's response.

"I can imagine that my worthless daughter was quite a burden on you." Souichirou sounded serious again like he was earlier.

"While it's true that I did end up helping her, it's largely because of her that we were able to avoid more danger. I thought that since she went out of her way to look out for us so much, I could feel a bit safer with her around. It's because... the daughter of the Takagi family loves her parents so much." Saeko couldn't help but smile a bit.

"A child resembles its parents." It seemed that Souichirou was smiling a bit too.

"If that's the case, then she's doing it for Komuro-kun rather than herself. He's like our..."

"I have known him since he was a young lad. He has grown into a fine young man! It is clear to me that you trust. But... he is full of doubt!"

"Doubt?... yes that is true."

"In trying times, people need a leader..." However, Souichiro didn't get to finish that sentence as one of his men came into the room.

"I'm sorry to bother you Don, but we another situation on our hands!" the man said, panting slightly as he had to run to get there.

Souichirou's expression grew serious once more and he stood up, Saeko following his lead. "What is it?"

"There's a fight going on out there!" the man practically exclaimed.

"Why hasn't it been stopped?" Souichirou demanded.

The man paused, obviously trying to think of how to answer. "It's just that... Don, we can't."

Souichirou's eyes narrowed. "Who is fighting?

"That silver haired kid from her group!" the man pointed to Saeko, "and some other guy with the same hair color."

Now Saeko was the one to narrow her eyes. "Komuro-kun?" Questions such as why he was fighting and who was his opponent amongst other thoughts crossed her mind.

"Lead me to them," Souichirou demanded.

The man nodded and Souichirou and Saeko followed him.

Back outside, Takashi was dodging as if his life depended on it because it did. Dante swung around Rebellion with one hand, doing so with such speed that Takashi was beginning to wonder if his clothes were still intact. He narrowly avoided the blade as Dante swung it sideways by ducking under it.

However, Dante quickly grabbed the sword now with both hands and brought down Rebellion in a vicious swing. Takashi jumped back, but the blade slightly cut him. He didn't pay any mind to the wound though as he tried to move in close, but Dante merely raised his sword to make Takashi back away from him.

"Damn it, if I get closer, he'll cut me into confetti. But I can't just keep dodging like this otherwise I'll end up being confetti anyway," Takashi thought.

"Gotta hand it to you kid, not many people can keep running away like that from me," Dante said.

He smirked as his comment seemed to strike a nerve. "That's right kid, show me what ya got," he thought. Takashi dodged another swing and ran right at him. Dante, to be nice, let him move in before trying to backhand him with a hand. Takashi put up his arm to block it, but Dante moved in with his other hand, Rebellion firmly grasped in it. Takashi stopped the coming blow the same way and Dante had to give him props for not hesitating to do so since Rebellion was so close to cutting him.

Takashi went for a headbutt as payback for earlier and felt a small smile appearing on his face as it successfully made contact. But like before, Dante didn't seem very hurt by it and kicked Takashi in the side in retaliation. Takashi groaned a bit as he felt his ribs crack from the force and would have dropped to one knee if Dante didn't follow the kick with an elbow to the head.

The attack practically knocked Takashi off his feet and sent him skidding across the ground. He was able to get back though by executing a roll before stopping, but as soon as he did, a shadow fell over him and he looked up to see Dante several feet above him. Dante still had the smirk from before on his face, confirming the slight suspicion Takashi had that he was just playing with him.

Dante executed his Helm Breaker move, one of his favorite moves since its really useful for slicing things clean in two. He came down blindingly fast, far too fast for anyone other than Takashi and Lady to see. Dante was certain that this might be the end for the kid since he didn't seem like he would be able to react in time. He began to wonder if maybe he should stop now before accidently killing him or something, but before he could continue this line of thinking, just as the blade was about to connect, Takashi sidestepped it and lashed out with a fierce uppercut.

Dante's eyes widened in surprise as he was hit square in the jaw. The punch stopped him cold and he clumsily landed on the floor where he was met with a rather unwelcoming recipient: Takashi's foot. He felt the air knocked out of him from the kick and now he was the one to fly back from the powerful strike.

Takashi didn't waste this moment and chased after Dante's skidding form. Just as Dante came to a stop and began to get back up, he was met with a nasty haymaker, but surprisingly he didn't go down from that hit. Takashi then began to furiously punch Dante in the face, not letting up for a second.

The people watching were slack jawed. From when they started watching the fight, they couldn't see anything, only making out a few slight blurs that the fighters were during that time, but now that both Takashi and Dante were more or less not moving, they could see them now. Well, that is except for Takashi's fists and Dante's face.

"W-whoa," Kohta muttered under his breath. He and the others knew that ever since they rescued Alice, Takashi had changed, physically at least, but none of them expected anything like this.

Saya was feeling the same way as Kohta, but she had taken to observing the fight now rather than just gawk at it, trying to figure some things.

Rei and Shizuka, who had come with the other people to see what was going on, were just speechless. "Takashi?" Rei asked aloud to herself. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She knew from the times before with Them that Takashi could look quite fierce, but the look on his face now made him from before look like a wimp. Right now, he had the look of a desperate man fighting for his very soul.

Lady raised an eyebrow at his assault on Dante and was genuinely impressed. Even though Dante was half assing this fight, it wasn't every day that she saw him on the receiving end of something like this. And that dodge-and-strike move of Takashi's that he did when Dante did his Helm Breaker had made her whistle. The kid was more skilled than she had thought and Dante was probably thinking the same thing right now.

And earlier she had a feeling that he would have turned out to be like Dante's brother Vergil, a cold and ruthless person who would be taking some pleasure in pounding in Dante's face now, but the desperate look he had on his face convinced her that the kid was merely fighting with everything he's got not because he's sadistic or anything, but because he thought that if he didn't Dante would kill him. "Now would probably be a good time to stop this then," she thought, but then decided not to, figuring it'd be best to let things end on their own.

Saeko and Souichirou have just arrived as well and remained quiet at the sight. Saeko appeared to be just as shocked as Rei while Souchirou merely observed quietly, his expression unreadable.

Takashi continued his pummeling of Dante's face. He upped the intensity of the assault and refused to stop until Dante goes down. He really didn't know why he was suddenly attacking with such ferocity. Maybe it was because of the guy's almost eerie resemblance to the man, the creature from the dream or maybe it was simply because he had apparently been trying to kill him. Regardless, Takashi didn't slow down, coming to a conclusion that those thoughts can wait for later. "Just go down already," he thought.

But Dante wouldn't. As the punching continued, Dante actually stood up, much to the surprise of everyone except Lady. Takashi would've sworn that he could see a grin on his face despite the whole thing. Even with every punch making a loud crunching noise as the fists struck Dante's face, the fact that he stood up had meant something.

Dante slowly raised his right hand, Rebellion firmly grasped in it and swung at Takashi. However, Takashi had some kind of feeling that he'd do something like that and so just as Dante swung, Takashi stopped pummeling, reached out with one hand to grab Dante's forearm and chopped him in the elbow with the other.

Rebellion fell from Dante's hand and before it could hit the ground, Takashi took hold of it and raised it high. Without thinking about what he was doing, he swung it down at Dante and watched it go through his left shoulder.

By the time the blade stopped moving, it had moved all the way down to his heart and Dante fell to one knee. Everyone gasped as blood poured out of the wound. Takashi backed away, horrified. Even if the guy had been trying to kill him, this didn't have to happen.

He looked out of the corner of his eyes and saw that his friends seemed to think the same thing. Then he looked over to Lady, figuring that she'd be in shock or something from seeing him kill her friend, but she was impassive and sighed, as if this has happened before. "Looks like I should've stopped this sooner after all," she said aloud.

Everyone gasped again and Takashi looked back at Dante and his mouth fell open as Dante stood back up, an amused expression on his face. "Damn, gotta hand it to you kid, that was a nice little fight you put up. The last time I had a decent warm up like this was about a year ago with Nero," Dante said.

Takashi would've probably asked who the hell was Nero if he wasn't in shock, but if he and everyone was feeling shocked now, they all pretty much had their minds completely blown by what happened next. Dante casually grabbed the hilt of Rebellion with his right hand and without even a grunt of pain, pulled the large blade right out, some blood spewing out in the process. To add to this insane little event, right after it was pulled out, everyone saw that there was no wound, even his clothes looked fine.

Dante twirled the sword around to flick some blood that got on it. He cracked his left shoulder a few times. "Damn, that was actually a pretty decent hit right there. Kinda reminds me of a wild party I was at when I was 16." He looked at Takashi and the smirk on his face grew a little larger. "Now then kid, time to return the favor."

Before anyone could even speak, Dante executed his Stinger. He slid across the ground at an incredible speed, sword extended forward. It was too fast for Takashi to dodge and before he knew it, the blade had skewered him right through the heart.

Dante stopped and lifted Rebellion high into the air, Takashi right on the point of it, pain etched on his face. He let out some groans that was followed with blood being coughed up. Everyone looked on in horror, Takashi's friends being the ones who were feeling it the most.

"Good thing we're in a pretty open area, otherwise Lady would be bitching at me to clean up all the blood I got on the walls or something," Dante remarked as he lowered Takashi to the ground and pulled the sword upwards, tearing right through Takashi's left shoulder. Takashi let loose a roar of pain and collapsed to the ground, but as he got back up, he brought his hand up to the spot where he was cut and his slowly widened as he realized something. There was no wound. He slowly stood up as if nothing much had happened, exposing this startling revelation everyone present.

Despite seeing him skewered like a pig and cut through the shoulder, despite all the blood he has on his clothes, there wasn't a single scratch on him.

Dante turned to Saya and chuckled. "So kid, tell me. This enough proof for you?"

And there it is! Sorry it took so long to get it done, some things came up, but I hope that this was to your liking.

Things are going to start heating up real too. I can guarantee that!

Hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review.