The more they walked, the more puppet demons are appearing, which is starting to be a drag, especially from the fact Anima seems to like them.
The hunters continued killing the puppets to clear their way. The soul made a sad sigh. She really likes those puppets, reminding her of the ball-jointed dolls she made back then when she's still a human.
"Anima, don't hesitate about their loss." Nero said. "They're heartless demons; they're going to eat you if we don't kill them."
"I know." Anima sighed again. "They just remind me of dolls I made back then. I even made one for my sister. However, Lucy said that they're not going to remember me because I died in the way the Death Gods didn't assigned me to die."
"Sounds complicated." Nero answered. Anima nodded in agreement.
"That's why he said I should not pay attention to that. It'll just give me bunch of headaches." Anima gave Nero a big grin. "So, you should not think about that if you don't want headache."
Nero smiled at the soul, not minding her statement. Just like what she said, don't even think about it if you don't want a pain in the head. Few steps of walking, his arm glowed at the sight of the door in front of them. Nero's eyes narrowed.
"If we want to get out, we have to fight every demon we can see here." He muttered. He proceeded to open the door and walked inside. Dante followed him. Lucy held Anima's hand, guiding the soul from walking.
"Lucy…" Anima started whispering in his ear. "I sense evil…"
It seems that the statement Anima matched Nero's Devil Bringer. Suddenly, a doll swung across the room that made them ducked. They heard someone chuckled.
"How nice to see the people who destroyed my dolls." The voice said. Nero gritted his teeth as Dante's eyes narrowed. Lucy covered up the trembling soul.
"Who are you?" Nero demanded. The man, wearing a purple, formal suite with a hat smirked.
"Does it matter? You're going to be in my doll collection anyway." The guy answered. Dante made a sheepish grin.
"Well, better chop you off before you do that, eh?" Dante replied back. With the man motioned his hands, the dolls started appearing.
"Focus on that guy, Dante, Nero. I'll protect Anima from here." Lucy said. Dante and Nero stared to each other, as if having a conversation in their heads if they could actually work together.
"Ah! We've got no time for this! Just work with me, Dante!" Nero yelled at him. Dante smiled.
"I'm looking forward for this day to come again." Dante held his Rebellion while Nero had his Red Queen and revved it.
"You really love that motor sword." Dante told Nero while preparing to launch against the puppet master. Nero groaned out of annoyance.
"Just shut up, old man! This is not a motor sword for goodness' sake!" Nero yelled back. Dante raised his hands, like giving up.
"Whoa, calm down, kid. I was just joking." Dante replied. The puppet master lunged forward and made a move to trap Dante. Just in time that Nero sliced in half the string.
"Keep your senses awake, old man." Nero said, mocking what Dante told him a long time ago. "There are still a lot of them."
"I like that, huh." Dante answered while grinning. The puppet master summoned two dolls that look identical to them. Nero shook his head slightly as his eyes widened.
"You've got to be kidding me…" He mumbled. However, Dante lunged, attacking his identical puppet. Nero brought his Devil Bringer and held his identical puppet; however, series of strings started snaking at his Devil Bringer towards him. Dante is also having that kind of problem; his Rebellion is stuck and it was covered with strings that seem to make its way towards him. Nero struggled before he used his Blue Rose to shoot the puppet. He had his Devil Bringer again and he fired the Blue Rose to Dante's puppet, freeing the old man from the series of strings.
"Thanks, kid."
"You're going to pay it."
"Sure. Want some pizza?"
"The hell with your pizza!"
They heard the puppet master growling. Nero's eyes narrowed.
"If that's what he's going to do when we're going to use melee weapons, we have to depend on our firearms." Nero muttered. Dante nodded. He placed his Rebellion on his back and took his Ebony and Ivory.
"Brought any spare bullets? Looks like we're going to need them." Dante said.
"Uh, guys, you better hurry up. The puppets are appearing at an abnormal rate." Lucy warned, using his Silver Slayers to protect Anima. Dante and Nero nodded at him and turned around to the puppet master. They started firing their guns to the demon. For a couple of minutes of battling the puppet, Nero got annoyed.
"I've got some proposal to make: Go to hell or die in the most horrible way possible." Nero told the puppet master in between shooting.
"Ha! You're the one who's going to die!" The puppet master answered. Nero gritted his teeth.
"Then die in the most horrible way possible it is." Dante whispered. He shoots the puppet master's two hands with his Ebony and Ivory that caught it off-guard, letting go of the puppets. Nero used his Devil Bringer and held the puppet master's head and spun it around and threw it towards the elder's direction where it was sliced in half. The puppets turned into ashes. Anima walked towards the spot where the master died and picked up another shiny stone. Dante and Nero looked at each other. Dante smiled.
"We'd make a good partner, you know." He said. Nero smirked.
"I know. Just don't keep feeding me pizza and I'm okay with you being my partner." He answered. Anima's eyes sparkled in amazement, taking a good look at the key. It was now complete.
"If there's a key, there must be a lock." She whispered. (I had used a Supernatural statement here and I'm not pretty sorry.)
"Keep it in your pocket, kid." Dante said. He walked towards Anima and carried her in piggyback ride as they walked out of the room. Nero couldn't help but find it adorable on what he's seeing. He ran beside Dante. Lucy smiled at the scene in front of him.
"That's nice of you. Is your fatherly side kicking in?" Nero teased. Dante made a sarcastic laugh.
"Not funny." He retorted back. Nero petted Anima's head.
"Dante's getting grumpy, don't you think?" Nero said. Anima nodded, playing along with Nero.
"I heard being grumpy is a sign of aging." Anima squeezed Dante's cheeks. "Uncle Dante's getting old now and he has no girlfriend. Poor thing."
"Uncle Dante?" Nero couldn't help but let out a small laugh. "See? Even Anima is agreeing."
"Hey, Anima, I'm not going to give you any more piggyback rides." Dante said as he putted Anima down. The girl let out a disappointed whine. Nero smiled. He placed his Red Queen in Anima's back and carried the soul in piggyback ride.
"If your Uncle Dante doesn't want to give you a piggyback ride," Nero smiled at Anima. "Big Brother Nero will give you one, okay?"
Anima gave a big smile on Nero and stuck her tongue out to Dante. The elder rolled his eyes. Nero was quite surprised that Anima's lightweight. Suddenly, he felt that someone sleeping in his shoulder.
"That's what happens when you give her a piggyback ride." Dante told him. However, Nero didn't mind at all.
"I don't really mind." Nero answered. "She's a nice girl, after all."
Dante eyed the two beside him. The two really look like brother and sister, if Anima has white hair. Dante turned around, keeping his eyes on the way, simply taking glances to the white-haired teen at some times. While walking, Anima woke up, jumping down to the ground.
"What's wrong, Anima?" Nero asked. The soul placed back the Red Queen to Nero's back and held the hands of the white-haired hunters.
"Can we walk like this?" She asked, holding the right hand of Dante and holding the left hand of Nero. The white haired hunters paused for a while.
"Uhmm… Sure, I guess I have no problems with this." Nero said. He looked at Dante whose face is turning quite pink.
"I think I'm fine with this." Dante answered. Anima started walking happily while holding the hunters' hands, trying to be Cupid for the two hunters.
OoOoOoOoO
Author's notes: Okay, this seems short. It is really short. Anyways, from the reviews I got from the last chapter, I would like to thank LadyGenderSwitch. (I love you!) I'm really, really, really happy about that praise and that helpful review for me.
I'm really sorry. It's my first time writing this kind of fan fiction, so, I'm in really need the help of those who knows more about this kind of stuff. I am really thankful for you and your review. I'll try my best to do better in the later chapters! ^O^ Oh, and can somebody please explain to me what's the 'Life' in the uploaded documents? (The one in the Doc Manager. When you upload a file, there's a column there named 'Life') I'm still figuring it out up until now.