theUndertakerx: Totally thought about using the "Why do you refuse to gain power" bit, but as you said, it is overused. Would have been pretty funny though xD. Thankies for the review!
A Clockwork Orange: It's alright that you didn't review before. I'm just glad you did :3. I'm also glad that you think the story is awesome. Sorry that it wasn't updated quickly though. ;_;...Anyway! Thanks for the review :D!
godofmadness:thanks for reviewing all the chapters! That made me happy :3. Anyways, to answer the questions you had, you'll have to find out later what the Hell Pride was there for and no, they were not who you thought that were, as you found out a chapter later xD. But yeah, thanks again for the feedback :3.
ZeroGamer:I didn't like Nero at first either, but he grew on me...though that might be because of all the fics I read .. But yeah, I definitely don't want to make him too much like Dante because they are indeed different and I felt he needed more being the main focus of the chapter time xD. Thanks for the review!
.vendetta:I have to say, after reading your review, my day was brightened considerably, especially when you told me you literally come online to see if I've updated (which I apologize for the fact it has been so long ;_;). But to business! It is difficult sometimes to maintain the characters' behaviors and personalities consistent with the three main characters. But, it's good to hear I'm managing to do it well :D. Thanks for the criticism as well! Funny part about that is I actually thought to change it but then didn't...can't say why...but I think it may have been late when I was editing...ah well. As for adding other DMC characters, I have thought about it, but I'm not sure if I can find a place to slip any of them in at this point. So I will say this; if I find a place to squeeze other characters in and make it work, I most likely will :P. Thanks so much for the amazing review ^_^
So once again, I apologize for lateness. Hopefully over the break I won't have to do any essays or anything for my English class and will be able to update this then (or sooner ;D). Also, I want to see where anyone else stands on the whole bringing in other characters such as Lady, Kyrie, or any other DMC character. It has been brought up a few times I think and just out of curiosity I want to know what everyone else thinks. ^_^
But, without further ado, here is chapter 7 of Devils' High School!
A month had passed since Nero's encounter with Rina, Lily, and the kitten, and he occasionally encountered them sneaking around the utility closet the kitten had been hidden in. But the youngest half demon of Westbrook School did not have time to worry about them, nor did anyone else. Finals week had arrived, along with the blistering cold temperatures of winter. Everyone was far too busy studying to worry about anything else.
The final bell chimed throughout the school, signalling the end of the first day of finals. Dante and Vergil slipped out of the classroom with the rest of their class and moved in the direction of their dorm room. "Well, I think a C plus is pretty good considering my past performance in the class, don't ya think, Verg?"
Vergil rolled his eyes, his slight anxiety about the finals to come and his annoyance with his twin merging together. "You and I both know you could have at least scraped a B if you had tried harder. Settling for fair is unacceptable and nearly as bad as giving up, Dante."
"Maybe for you," retorted Dante, his carefree attitude still firmly intact. His mood only escalated due to the sight that met the twins at the end of the hallway. Two girls from their class were seemingly chatting in front of one of the old suits of armor. The twins knew they were waiting for the two of them from the furtive glances they kept sending the twins, plus the fact that the first two buttons of their white undershirts were unbuttoned showing more cleavage than appropriate and their skirts were hiked up higher than normal. Dante smirked at the girls as they approached, but Vergil scrunched his nose in disgust.
"Hello, ladies," Dante greeted the two. He planted his hand on the wall next to them and leaned into it, smirk still glued to his face. "What brings two beauties like you here?"
The two girls giggled, and simultaneously said, "Talking." The blond twirled her hair in a flirty manner.
Before Dante could continue his mission to lead the two girls off to an empty classroom somewhere, Vergil gripped his brother's upper arm and pulled him away from the girls with more force than was necessary. "Come, Dante. We have studying to do." Ignoring his brother's slight blush of embarrassment and cursing, the elder half devil turned to the girls. "Fix your uniforms or I'll have to report you." Satisfied with the girls' taken aback expressions and their clamber to fix their appearances, Vergil smirked ever so slightly and dragged his twin toward their room once more.
Once out of earshot, Dante released himself from his brother's grip. "What the hell, Vergil? It was innocent flirting!"
"Shut up. You and I both know there was nothing innocent going through your mind." Dante scoffed as they ascended the stairs, attempting to keep the act going, even if he knew it was pointless. After throwing the door open, Vergil continued. "Besides, those two were sluts for lack of a better term at the moment, and morons for trying something like that in front of a prefect."
Dante, still unfazed by his brother's scolding, just shrugged and tossed his belongings on his bed. "What can I say? I like sluts. They don't mind breaking rules and making out in closets." The pure disgust on the elder twin's face just caused Dante to smirk more. "Aw, c'mon Verg. You can't tell me you've never thought about having some fun with a chick, if you know what I mean."
Vergil composed his face into the usual cold, emotionless mask before replying with, "You disgust me sometimes, Dante."
Nero slipped into the room at that moment, cutting Dante's next remark off. His blue eyes darted between the twins, and deciding it wasn't worth it to ask what they had argued about this time, made his way to his bed and flopped down on top of it. Ever since the encounter with the mysterious kitten, he had been checking the closet every once in a while after Dante and Vergil had fallen asleep, just to make sure it was still there. The two girls had never done anything wrong to him, so he didn't want to see them get in trouble, especially since he could be dragged into the situation. He figured it wouldn't come to the latter, but he wanted to be safe.
After sending one last icy look to his younger twin, Vergil decided he should acknowledge Nero's existence before he thought he was being ignored. "Did you do well on your finals, Nero?"
The youngest devil nodded as he removed the sling from his Devil Bringer. With his human hand, he massaged his glowing blue wrist and responded, "Yeah. I got all A's on them and one B."
"Good. Much better than Dante." Nero chuckled softly to himself at Vergil's middle demon seemed not to have noticed his brother's insult to his intelligence and was staring idly at the ceiling above him. He was simply glad he would have a two week break from school after all this finals shit was over.
Just as Vergil and Nero settled in to study for their exams the next day and Dante had slipped into dream land, a blood curdling scream rang out from just below their room. The three half humans froze and exchanged desperate looks before hopping to their feet, charging to the door, and flying down the stairs. The trio sprinted toward the hair raising sound, but stopped cold at the sight before them. A red-headed girl was sprawled on the ground in the middle of a pool of dark red blood. The three teens gaped at the gory scene, mouths hanging open slightly. Vergil was the first to compose himself and inched closer to the corpse, stepping over the glasses that had flown from the girl's face when, as he hypothesized, was attacked. Now that he was closer, Vergil could see the gash that ran the length of her torso and looked as if a giant talon had ripped through the girl's flesh. Her green eyes stared unseeingly at the ceiling.
A small whimper to the part humans' left caused three pairs of blue eyes to snap to the girl standing there. The small brunette's face was whiter than a sheet of paper and tears were glistening on her cheeks and falling onto the jacket of her uniform. Her eyes were fixed on the other girl as if in a trance, and her whole frame was shaking from shock.
Nero swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and whispered, "Lily? What happened to..." He couldn't bring himself to say the other girl's name. His stomach had twisted into a complicated knot that had no chance of being untied, and his voice seemed to have escaped him.
When Lily just continued to stare at the body, obviously paralyzed by fear and panic, Nero took a step toward her. Apparently more aware of her surroundings than previously thought, Lily shrieked and backpedalled into the nearby wall. Her breathing was extremely labored and her eyes were the size of tennis balls as she gazed at Nero. She moved her lips as if to speak, but no words came out.
Not knowing what to do about the brunette, Nero turned back to the twins for answers. Vergil was still examining the body for clues about what happened. Dante hadn't moved from his spot, but his eyes were darting around the area as if searching for whoever or whatever did this to Rina. A grim expression had settled on his face and his hands repeatedly clenched into fists.
Finally Vergil turned back to his room mates, his face as emotionless as ever. "Dante, go get Headmistress Connoly. Say nothing to anyone else about this." When Dante nodded and had disappeared around the corner, Vergil spoke to the the youngest half devil. "Put your sling back on. You and I are going to make sure no one else comes down this way. We don't need a panic."
Nero nodded and sent a worried look toward Lily, who had slid down the wall and wrapped her arms tightly around her knees. "What about Lily?" he whispered.
"The headmistress will have to deal with her. I don't think there's much we would be able to do for her."
Nero nodded, not completely satisfied with that answer. He quickly ascended the stairs once more and picked the sling up from his bed where he had left it. As he slipped the fabric over his Devil Bringer, Nero couldn't shake the feeling that this was somehow this fault. Knowing this was ridiculous, he returned to Vergil seconds later to help guard the hallway.
Okay, so this chapter is a bit gorier and more violent than the others have been, so I have one more question. Since I'm terrible at deciding on ratings, I was wondering if I should bump this up a rating or not? It doesn't seem like it should right now, but there's most likely going to be more violence and gore later on xD. So if anyone of you readers out there is better witht he ratings thing, please let me know what you think! ^_^