It was a hot Sunday afternoon in the city where Devil May Cry stands. The devil hunter agency was empty as usual, with Dante sitting on his desk reading a book. The fan on the ceiling was spinning on a moderate speed as usual, and Kelly Osborne's music was blaring out loud from the jukebox. It was a perfectly normal Sunday afternoon in Devil May Cry until someone kicked the door open.

"Bathroom's at the back" the devil hunter said without even glancing up to see who's coming.

"It's us, dumbass" a familiar voice said. He looked up, and it's all of his friends – Lady, Trish, Morrison and even Patty Lowell are all there.

"Oh hey guys, what are you doing here?"

He could tell from their expression that they seemed to be pissed with something. He got a hunch on why, but he's not in the mood to guess and he knows that all his guesses are always correct and he's currently busy with something else. None of them answered, so he continued reading his book. Lady finally stepped forward and banged on his desk.

"Hey! What's the deal, woman?"

"We're the one who's supposed to say that, Dante! What's the deal with suddenly missing for months after that last mission and you called Morrison all the way from Santo Cielo to get some papers to adopt a child? Are you out of your mind?"

"Dante, please tell me that this is one of your hard-to-get humors. You can't possibly be serious when you said that you're going to adopt a child… right?" Trish added.

But the devil hunter didn't even move from his desk. He just flicked through another page and his eyes didn't even shift to the two ladies – which now stared at each other and sighed –sign of hopelessness. Patty and Morrison finally came forward.

"Hey, old fart! Would you please listen to the ladies once in a while? We came all the way here not to be treated like statues!" Patty cried. But Dante just flicked another page and say "Popsicles are in the fridge, Patty" she groaned, but walked obediently towards the kitchen. Even though they haven't meet for a while and Patty is a high-school student already, he knew that she still buys the Popsicle trick. Finally, Morrison spoke up

"Hey Dante, I got the papers you asked here"

"Thanks, Morrison. Put them on the table, I'll fill it in later"

"Hey, I am not giving these papers just like that! They're really hard to get, you know"

"So how much should I pay?" he said, flicking another page of his book.

"That's exactly my point, Dante! You don't have a proper job, you don't have the funds to raise a child, and you... no social worker will dare to leave a child to be raised in a hellhole like this! And top of that, they won't even want a child to deal with an irresponsible man like you in the first place! Dante, if you want to raise a child, I suggest that you fix that attitude of yours, settle down, do your job properly and act more serious! You're not a good example for children, you know that?"

Morrison kept on talking and talking, but Dante didn't seem to really listen. Lady finally lost her patience and grabbed the book away from him. The devil hunter just stared at his now blank hands, sighed and raised his feet onto the desk. Meanwhile, the four who were lecturing him were gathered to see what was the book that he's so busy reading – even he will listen to their lectures when he read porn magazines. They couldn't believe their eyes.

"American Sign Language?"

"What the heck? Since when do you read stuffs like these?"

Their gaze moved towards the devil hunter who is now slouching back on his chair with his legs crossed on top of his table. Before any of them managed to speak, suddenly they heard a creaky sound from the door upstairs. They all glanced up, only to see a little white-haired girl sobbing in front of the door. She was wearing a simple white dress just above her knee.

"Hey, why were you crying? I thought you're having a nap"

The little girl didn't answer. Instead, she moved her hands in an odd and somehow controlled way. Everyone except Dante twitched their eyebrows – they knew it is sign language since Dante is reading the American Sign Language book, but what for?

But Dante just sighed and smiled "Come down then, you can sleep on daddy's lap until you feel better"

The others were surprised hearing Dante mentioning himself as daddy. Is he really serious about this? They watched the little girl walking down the stairs, went passed the crowd to Dante's desk, and jumped into his laps. He then lifted her up and settled her on his laps so she could get comfortable. It didn't take her long. Soon she stopped fidgeting and he started to stroke her hair gently.

"She just had a nightmare" Dante finally explained. Everyone gestured an 'oh' without making a voice, and expression of confusion were wiped out of their faces. They watched him calming his soon-to-be daughter, and he became somehow different. Even all those years they knew him, they never saw the son of Sparda making such a gentle, loving face. Suddenly, the little girl moved again. He looked at her and she moved her hands again. This time he just nodded and told her to sit up straight. She shifted her body again, this time facing the others.

"Let me introduce you to my friends – this is Morrison, Trish, Lady, and Patty. Everyone, this is Angel"

Before any of them managed to reply, she smiled and moved her hands again. They all twitched, but Dante quickly added "She said 'nice to meet you'"

Lady stepped forward closer to them and stroked her head "Nice to meet you too, Angel" she smiled, and Angel smiled back. The way she smiled reminded everyone of a certain demon hunter that claimed to be her daddy. But after looking at them for quite a long time, she suddenly became nervous and turned her eyes towards Dante.

'Daddy, are they going to take me away from you?'

This time, Dante also replied with sign language 'How did you know that?'

'Actually I heard it… they didn't like me staying with you, right? But I don't want to go…'

'Relax, baby girl. If someone's trying to take you away from me, even my own friends, I'll kill them for sure!' Dante put his pointy finger below his neck and moved it as if he was cutting his neck with his finger to indicate the word 'kill'. Angel and Dante laughed, but she was laughing in an almost voiceless way and sounds more like a squeak. She suddenly coughed hard, and Dante quickly wrapped her in a hug and stroked her back gently. He turned to the others who were just watching, and he knew that they're waiting for answers.

"Hey Patty, would you mind fetching some strawberry sundaes for me at the usual diner? Angel, go with Patty, would you?"

Patty felt awkward and reluctant to go with a girl she doesn't know about at all, but after Dante shoved 50 bucks to her hands and told her to keep the change if she wants to, she couldn't refuse. Dante then kissed Angel on her forehead and told her to go with Patty. She jumped down from her daddy's chair and Patty took her hand with a smile, then the two ran out of Devil May Cry.