Disclaimer: If for whatever reason you may think I do, I do not own Devil May Cry. Capcom does.
Joe: Did I say that this chapter would belong to Dante? I meant Nero. But Dante will feature in this in some shape or form anyway.
Yeah, and you might notice the change in writing styles throughout the chapters, and even between alternate scenes in the chapter. I'm trying to emulate what I imagine to be the writing style of the different characters. The previous chapter was a poor attempt at eloquence with a dark overtone, in Vergil's writing, by the way. The first chapter and the paragraphs in bold are my own natural style.
And thanks to anybody who was kind enough to feed my raging review addiction, you're all good people. Anyway, getting on with it...
The world exploded back into existence, accompanied by an agonisingly loud ringing noise emitted by an alarm clock.
Groaning, Nero slowly opened his eyes as his mind throbbed in protest to the intemperately loud alarm. He lazily reached out and pressed his hand forcefully down on the alarm clock, which ceased ringing immediately. The time read five o'clock in the morning.
With an agitated sigh, Nero collapsed into the pillow, his mind slowly registering that the alarm had rang for a reason. He had duties to fulfill, even at this godforsaken hour.
Despite this interruption of his sleep, Nero felt himself quickly dozing off once again; it seemed not minutes ago that he had laid himself down to rest after a twenty-hour shift. And now his alarm informed him that it was time to repeat that cycle. Rejecting this notion, Nero's mind slowly fell back into warm, inviting unconsciousness.
It was then that a searing pain burned his mutated, demonic arm; his devil bringer. Gasping sharply, Nero instantaneously bolted upright, gripping his devil bringer with his human hand. The pain subsided just as quickly as it had come.
Now wide awake, Nero remembered that it was time to get up. He glanced over at the other side of the bed. Kyrie was miraculously still asleep. She had evidently grown accustomed to his routine early morning alarms. Nero envied her.
Running a hand gently through her silky auberne hair, Nero sighed once more before planting a kiss on her cheek and exiting the bed.
Pulling open the wardrobe, Nero withdrew his uniform; a beautiful white suit with ornate gold embroideries adorning the shoulders, and genuine gold buttons lining the front. The uniform of the General of the Holy Knights of Fortuna.
As he slowly dressed himself, Nero reflected on the events that led to his earning of this elegant uniform.
Sanctus, the former Vicar of Sparda, betraying his flock by attempting a hostile takeover of mankind, seeking to convert the entire globe to his demonic cult. Not only were his intended flock required to worship the Savior, Sparda, but the 'angels' that he had twisted his own and his chosen subordinates likenesses into.
Indifferent to the odds, Nero had set to destroy Sanctus and his conspirators against mankind. Both he and the son of Sparda had together strove to deal with the corrupted clergyman and his precious 'Savior'.
The residents of Fortuna were endlessly grateful for their endeavours, and had every intention of providing due reward. Nero had been granted the coveted position of General of the Holy Knights, replacing his former 'brother' Credo, the man who died to redeem himself for his choices in life. Besides, the citizens of Fortuna needed a sign of hope to gather around, and their Savior-in-the-flesh Nero, as General of the Holy Knights, was exactly what fit the bill.
However, Dante, the son of Sparda was nowhere to be seen, having departed along with his partner Trish before anybody could stop them. Nobody on the island knew where they lived, or how the find out. The son of Sparda vanished from their lives like smoke in the breeze.
Speaking of Sparda...
Nero examined his devil bringer thoughtfully, his devil bringer that somehow affiliated him to that bloodline. Ever since he had obtained Yamato, Nero's entire anatomy had undergone drastic improvements in terms of performance. He could fight much better, could run at incredible speeds, could endure crippling amounts of damage without even gasping, and could think much clearer than he had ever done before. The resonance between the blade and his devil bringer was a mystery to Nero, even before considering the overall improvements it was having on his body. Dante had informed him that Yamato was a devil arm that had once been in the possession of his twin, Vergil. That was the only link Nero could draw between himself and the Sparda bloodline, but how it allegedly made him member of that bloodline was still a vague issue.
As Nero buttoned up his jacket, he cast a glance at Kyrie, who was slumbering peacefully.
It had seemed that not all recent changes were improvements. He didn't know why, but from time to time he suffered from bouts of fiery rage, his body shuddering as the blood pouring through his veins felt like lava...and then there was the voice. The ethereal, commanding voice that whispered dark words in Nero's mind whenever he underwent these fits of rage. Always demanding power, more power. It seemed strange that the same phenomenon that granted him great amounts of physical power ordered him to seek out yet more power. And the anger and frustration slowly tore away at him, unwilling as he was to give in, though this gave way to even more anger. Resisting it seemed futile, and also counterproductive in this way.
He had almost struck Kyrie on one occasion, the memory of this still caused a wave of self-loathing to course through Nero. He didn't understand these changes, how they had come to pass, or more importantly why they were coming to pass, but slowly but surely it was damaging his life; his relationship with Kyrie, and his very being as it was eaten away by what seemed to be another being within the same body.
Reaching to open a large cupboard under the wardrobe, Nero obtained his beloved Red Queen, and sheathed it at his waist, as opposed to at his back. In an adjacent cupboard he seized his double-barrelled revolver, christened Blue Rose, which he placed in his coat. He then set out for work.
The headquarters of the Holy Knights had not been rebuilt, for it would involve such an excessive amount of effort and time to rebuild, while the port town of Fortuna itself needed such attention. Instead, materials scrapped from the ruins of the former headquarters were used to build a much more humble building, adjacent to the Hotel Fortuna in the business district situation by the Opera House plaza.
...
Nero ceased typing for a moment, before stretching his stiff arms and neck, each making a rather satisfying crack in turn. Typing thus far had taken quite a long duration of time, and he considered taking a short coffee break as a small reward to himself.
Deciding that this was a great idea, he first glanced through his work to inspect quality before taking his break. He smiled brightly with himself in contentment. So far, so good.
He was confident in the chances of his proposal being the draft accepted by Capcom for the new instalment of Devil May Cry. Excited with the idea of an entire game to himself, Nero cheerfully left his seat to go and make a well-deserved pot of coffee.
Himself and Kyrie were staying with Lady for the duration of the group's little competition. This was because of the fact that there were not many domestic computers on the island of Fortuna. The Holy Knights had once boasted one of the most advanced research laboratories in the field of supernatural biology, and development of the associated standard of technology, but this had been destroyed by Dante along with most everything else as a result of his rampage through headquarters. Entirely well-meaning, but overly enthusiastic, the son of Sparda had demolished the computers with glee comparable to an obnoxious teenager stepping on a younger sibling's sandcastle.
So it was that computers had become a rare commodity in Fortuna, until the island one day regained it's economy and amassed funds to import such luxuries – not to mention toilet paper and sugar. They were suffering from a harrowing shortage of sugar. Their tea and coffee wasn't that nice anymore. Well, not bad, but it didn't taste nice...
Lady had graciously volunteered to accommodate the couple in her spacious apartment, which although was situated on the rough side of town, the gesture was too kind to pass down. Plus, to be frank Lady was rather intimidating and nobody wanted to make her feel unwanted or to displease her in any obscure shape or form. She was aware of this, but okay with it.
Both Lady and Kyrie were currently present, so Nero had the apartment to himself. In another man's mind (namely Dante's), this would have been the opportune moment to parade around energetically, completely naked save for a pair of sunglasses and a Blues Brothers-style hat, while singing loudly into a broom handle to the raucous sound of a booming stereo. Nero entertained no such thoughts. To him, his solitude meant peace and quiet while he performed a much more productive activity: drafting his storyline proposal, with absolutely no interruptions.
The implications of this, Nero mused as he filled the coffeemaker with hot water alongside a suitable amount of coffee beans, was that he ensured the best he could possibly offer, with nothing to distract him.
With this in mind, Nero could not think of anybody likely to compose a better draft than he. He had been duly informed that Dante had sabotaged Vergil's proposal during the night – twice - before e-mailing it to Capcom the second time, before his twin could stop him. Without the anticipated opposition Vergil would have been, Nero had no real obstacles as he established himself as the new face of Devil May Cry.
Returning to the office with a steaming mug of coffee, Nero happily sat himself in front of the PC. Pausing only to take a sip from his mug and to exude an appreciative sigh, Nero resumed typing.
...
Things had been busy at headquarters. There were, even at this late stage, still demons running around the island, preying on helpless civilians.
As General, Nero was expected to remain at headquarters and issue orders, but the troubled young man instead took to embarking on lone expeditions across the island, hunting whatever demons he encountered. He left administration to those willing to do so.
The Holy Knights had been reduced to a pitiful taskforce of twenty. After the fall of Sanctus and the false Savior, the cult had disassembled, the residents of Fortuna feeling that the entire cult had been merely part-in-parcel of Sanctus' lies. The Holy Knights had not been renamed, but still remained an iconic defensive force protecting the people of Fortuna. And even that was beginning to fall under question. People were beginning to wonder whether the Knights were a remaining force of Sanctus' making, whether those knights who remained secretly harboured ideas of another diabolical plot. As such membership fell to a complete halt.
However, the overwhelming majority of demons had been vanquished, and their hell-gates located and destroyed. There was no point of entree from which they could invade the island again, and the few remaining demons were being hunted down constantly.
Little by little, Nero slowly came to realise that the time was drawing near where the people of Fortuna would no longer need him. And at these thoughts he would wonder what he would do next.
With nothing to fight, he knew that his already unbearable fits would grow chaotic. He would be unable to restrain the intensity of the bottled-up fury that would inevitably explode one day, should there be true peace.
Nero knew that because of this he could not stay at Fortuna much longer. He would need to relocate, to somewhere more exciting. Perhaps join up with Dante. Perhaps establish a rival agency.
Besides, Nero needed answers. There had to be somebody out there who understood that which plagued him, and he needed to find them.
But these notions were not new to Nero. He had been considering leaving for quite some time now; the meager demon 'problem' that remained was nothing for the remaining nineteen knights to handle.
And it was that very day that his devil bringer began periodically hurting him, even though he was not currently suffering from a violent fit, that Nero decided to bring his plan into fruition. He would leave Fortuna, and embark on a quest; a quest to find a new place to belong, but primarily a quest to find answers.
He did not bear the thought of saying goodbye to Kyrie, so he decided to do without. His fears were twofold. In one case she could be heartbroken and worried and make the event unnecessarily difficult; emotionally blackmail him to stay or prevent him from leaving with other means. In the other case, which was the greater fear by far, the recent tension between them would result in her lack of care or worry, and her being generally unconcerned that he may never return and not even try to stop him. In that case it would essentially be their breaking up.
The knight could not bring her with him for several reasons. Kyrie, whether he liked to admit it or not, would be a burden at best on a possibly dangerous journey. Also, Nero constantly sensed his problem intensifying, and could not risk harming her. If he should ever return, then in that occasion he would ideally have resolved the problem entirely. Plus, if he did bring her along, his problem would only result in further dispute between the couple in the meantime.
Nero was entering the headquarters of the knights as he needed to pack up provisions for a long journey. This required stealing from the armoury and storeroom, and by duty his own men would be forced to attack him. Nero did not want unnecessary violence, especially if the enemy be human. Wearing his uniform and keeping in time with his usual schedule meant he avoided suspicion, until he had already left and it was too late.
The soon to be ex-General nodded curtly at the knight who was stationed at the entrance before heading down towards the storeroom. The knight was not suspicious of this as he watched his superior open the door and descend the spiral staircase. It was normal for the General of the Knights to perform routine inspections of his troops and premises. Credo in particular had been notorious for giving unannounced inspections of the former headquarters and knights' cleanliness and 'respectability'.
Down in the storeroom, any equipment used by the Holy Knights besides weaponry was held, not just food. This meant clothing and travel equipment also. Nero had ventured down here to obtain camping equipment; a tent, cooking utensils, barbecue equipment, a supply of rations until he could obtain more further on in the adventure, and different forms of protective clothing. This involved locating a set of his favourite coat; the violet overcoat with the knight's seal on the shoulder. He had not worn his old one in months, and could not locate it. Nero had worn his own clothing under the uniform, which meant that had been forced to walk to work wearing two pairs of trousers.
He cast his General's uniform to the ground, before placing the rucksack on his back with a heave.
Now, all that was left to do was to
...
Nero heard the front door opening with the usual creak. He frowned before checking his watch. Lady and Kyrie were not expected home for another three hours. Nero considered the situation. He knew of nobody else that lived here, or that was anticipated to drop by.
However, now that he thought of it, Lady had informed him that she had entrusted a spare set of keys with -
"Hey, kid? You here?" the voice called out loudly, unmistakeably Dante's.
Nero was unable to suppress a groan before banging his head into the keyboard, typing unintelligible gibberish into his draft. The half-devil nearby heard the youth's groan, and proceeded to make his way towards the study, but not without mentally punishing the knight for his innocent groan.
"Now, now, contain your sexual frustration, I'm here now," the son of Sparda jeered audibly, smirking to himself as he entered "But if I haven't told you a million times before, I'm not interested, kid."
It was the concept of exactly this that made Nero wary of Dante's presence as he worked. Hell, as he did pretty much anything. Not that he was afraid of the red-clad hunter, it was just that Dante's particular brand of humour required a certain amount of patience on Nero's part, patience that was not readily accessible at all times.
"Watcha writing? Not fanfiction again?" Dante queried imperiously, head cocked forward over Nero's shoulder to read the last line of input.
"Now, all that was left to do was to wgjr;uo!g"tu'''hthneelijl?-jqwo?" Dante read aloud, a puzzled expression marring his features "Now, what's that supposed to mean?"
"I, er, banged my head on the keyboard," Nero answered honestly, after taking a fortifying deep breath. "I mean, slammed my head on the keyboard!" Nero quickly corrected himself as he observed the mischievous smile that spread quickly across the half-devil's features upon discovering that the youth had 'banged a keyboard'. Dante truly was worryingly predictable.
"I see. This your draft for the sequel?" the son of Sparda asked interestedly.
"Uh-huh. You can read it after it wins," Nero replied with a smile, hurriedly quitting the document before Dante got any ideas. "So, what are you doing here?"
"Me? Oh – yeah," Dante responded vaguely, before answering "Wanna go out for a drink?"
"I'm a bit busy here," Nero said reasonably, inclining his head towards the computer monitor. Dante did not appear to be listening, but rather, pulled a chair from beside the nearby bookcase and parked himself beside Nero. "Can't you get somebody else to go?"
"Nope. Nobody wants to go with me," Dante replied brightly, his happiness seeming out of context with his words "Trish refuses to go anywhere in public with me anymore, Lady and Kyrie are gone, I don't want to be seen in a bar with Tubsy, and Verge's giving me the silent treatment."
"Vergil isn't talking to you?" Nero asked, an eyebrow raised. It did not seem to be a punishment that Vergil was likely to utilise.
"It's great, isn't it?" Dante retorted delightedly, bouncing on his seat "He normally uses blackmail when I do shit he doesn't like, and he had a plan thought out. But then I -" Dante screwed his face to a grotesque contortion and adopted an uncomfortably high voice "'Crossed the line, nuuuuhhh'."
Had this been out of context, Nero would never have guessed that Dante was impersonating Vergil. If anything, Vergil's voice was lower than Dante's, and Nero shrewdly guessed that the 'nuuuuhhh' was not a direct quote from the other son of Sparda. Dante proceeded in his own voice.
"-so, 'cause of all that, he's decided to pretend I don't exist. Says he has no brother." Dante concluded with a pleasant smile.
"Don't you think that you did go a bit far?" Nero inquired, his arms crossed "I think he might actually be hurt. He's actually renouncing the fact that you're related – let alone that you exist."
"Nah, don't mind him," Dante waved it off dismissively "He's just man-struating."
"Manstruating" Nero repeated, amused.
"Yup. The act of the penis inverting inwards to become a vagina," Dante informed Nero sagely. "It's very common among drama queens."
Nero shook his head, pressing his fingers to his eyes, trying in vain to repress images of this upsetting illness of questionable likelihood running through his mind.
"Look, Dante, I have things to do. I guess you'll just have to go alone."
"I'm not going alone!" Dante spat, scandalised "That's worse than going with Tubsy!"
"Well, do what you want, I'm staying here to finish my work." Nero informed him firmly.
And with that, Nero reopened his document and resumed writing once again, after deleting his previous gibberish. Dante promptly began to sulk in the chair beside Nero.
...
Now, all that was left to do was to make his way outside undetected. The guard at the entrance would be a problem, however. Nero aimed to sneak up on him, and deal a sharp blow to the back of the head, whi
"Come oooooonnn," Dante crooned softly.
"No." Nero replied firmly, "Now shut up, I'm working."
which should knock the knight out. Assuming that nobody sees this...
Nero frowned to himself. The new Holy Knight headquarters was located on the business district, there was bound to be people outside who would notice him, Nero, rendering his own man unconscious.
If there was some other way that Nero could make his way out without making a spectacle of this...
"There isn't, 'cause you suck," Dante pointed out with a snide grin. Nero ignored him.
Possibly some way that wouldn't involve violence...
"Bo-ring" Dante remarked with a convincing yawn.
Perhaps Nero should just make a dash for it. His plan had been to hijack an aeroplane from the relatively small and badly-guarded airstrip, not to swim off the island, after all.
"You can't just fly any random aeroplane, the fans'll get annoyed," Dante stated informatively.
"You flew an antique biplane in your first game," Nero replied irritably.
"Yeah, but I'm awesome," Dante responded, as though this were a painfully obvious fact of life.
Nero began gritting his teeth in aggravation.
"Just get out, Dante." he commanded in a carefully measured tone.
"No."
"Get out, Dante!" Nero ordered, raising his voice slightly.
"You can't tell me what to do!" Dante said indignantly, pointing a thumb at himself "I do what I feel like, kid." And with that, he reached over and mashed his hand into the keyboard.
"Stop that!" Nero demanded sternly.
"No." answered Dante, who was proceeding the type out his astonishing vocabulary of profanities and of the female anatomy.
"Get out!" Nero barked, seizing Dante with his devil bringer and flinging him out of the door with a mighty throw. He quickly raced up to slam the door and lock it, before letting out a sigh of relief and sitting himself back down. He deleted Dante's recent addition to his work before continuing.
...
The airstrip, though the only method of flying in or out of the island, was poorly guarded. If somebody who knew the layout as well as Nero did were to race in and seize a small plane, there was little anybody could do. Besides, Nero had gradually become much faster than any human, and his brainpower even more so.
Thump.
Nodding to himself, Nero made his way
Thump.
Up the spiral staircase and through the door, finding himself in the entrance hallway outside the front
THUMP.
Door, where the guard would be watching for anything unexpected.
SMASH.
The door was kicked forcefully from it's hinges, and was sent crashing to the floor. Dante strolled in quite leisurely, acting vaguely surprised to find Nero in the study. He calmly sat back down beside Nero.
"Door's broken," he informed an exasperated Nero in a matter-of-fact tone.
Nero found that his former tactic of ignoring the son of Sparda to be the most efficient, and he decided to make further use of this tactic.
Taking in a preparatory deep breath, Nero then bolted at full speed through the door and down the street. He only barely registered the guard's shocked exclamation, and had gone before he heard how the guard reacted.
Nero did hear the sounds of shocked people all around him, nobody expecting to see the General of the Holy Knights tearing down the street, much less at the inhuman pace at which he did so.
"Poke." Dante announced, prodding Nero firmly at the side of the head, slightly pushing his head to lean towards the left. Nero's head returned to it's former position and he, like before, pretended that nothing strange had happened.
After a short while, Nero saw the bridge tower of the airstrip approa
"Poke." Dante insisted, prodding Nero rather forcefully again.
approaching, and it seemed that nobody was fast enough to catch up to him, having not expected Nero to dart out of HQ. He wondered if the guard had even noticed that he was stealing from the inventory.
"Poke."
Having reached the airstrip, Nero looked around in hopes of finding a suitable, small plane that would be able to land on rough terrain.
"Poke."
He had to act quickly – several guards on the bridge tower had noticed him, and were coming out to inquire what his business was.
"Poke."
"Agh!" Nero shouted, his hand clasped to his face "Dante, that was my eye! You absolu-"
"Poke." Dante persisted, evidently enjoying himself.
Nero began growling audibly, so it came to no surprise to Dante that he raised his devil bringer in an attempt to attack Dante. Thinking quickly, Dante seized the area just below the devil bringer section of Nero's arm, and forcefully smacked Nero's devil bringer into his own face.
"Stop hitting yourself!" Dante howled with mirth, rapidly repeating the same action "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!"
It was at this moment that the front door was opened again, this time accompanied by bright chattering and the sounds of multiple footsteps.
Dante stopped instantaneously, aware that Lady had just returned home. In a matter of moments, she would find a door knocked from it's hinges, Dante trespassing, and not to mention smacking Nero around with his own devil bringer. To the best of his recollection, Lady knew how to add two and two.
Nero smirked triumphantly as he witnessed Dante's teeth chattering. As Dante loosened his grip, Nero wrenched himself from Dante's grip and landed a powerful blow on Dante's cheek, knocking him into the wall with a resounding thump, delving a sizable crater in Lady's wall. Following Dante, Nero was about to proceed to give Dante a few rapid punches to the gut, but the half-devil had reacted quickly, taking the only route out of this; he jumped out the window.
Nero cursed loudly as Dante escaped, but he never got round to attempting to catch the hunter with his devil bringer, as at that moment, time temporarily froze in timid compliance with the boundless rage of Lady, who had entered to find the door knocked from it's hinges, her wall smashed up, accompanied by – a visibly agitated – Nero.
"What the hell, Nero?!" Lady barked deafeningly, her anger seeming to radiate heat.
Joe: Done and dusted. Hope yis didn't find it too awful.
The next chapter will either be Kyrie's or Dante's. Who knows? And, yes, Dante will at some point get his comeuppance, and all will be well.
All the best to yis,
Slàn.