A/N: I apologise if this story seems a little flat. Unfortunately, a writer's block struck when I was halfway through. I lost my previous idea of what I wanted from this story and I couldn't find any proper way to end it. I'll do better for the upcoming chapters.

[A Demonic Butler for a Demon]

Let us consider an alternate reality that Temen-Ni-Gru never happened.

Consider now that at nineteen years of age, Dante allowed his unnamed joint to fall apart into shambles on its own and he returned to being a lazy free-lance devil hunter for the rest of his long life. Now, consider that Vergil gave up his search for his father's power after finding it virtually impossible; and that he decided to make the most of what he already had instead.

At twenty-five years old, Vergil Sparda became a multi-millionaire businessman from running a large-scale international demon-hunting middle-man business. The old industry of demon hunting operated by scarce, rare and shady agents on the street had irritated the then-twenty-year-old Vergil Sparda. Thus, utilizing his abilities, wits and reputation as the best demon-hunter in the industry (since Dante scarcely did any jobs at all), Vergil began his business as a one-stop-shop for the poor victimized people looking for help with their demon-problems. When the problem of matching the appropriate job to the appropriate hunter came, Vergil designed a demon-ranking system to ensure that his contracted hunters would not be needlessly sent to their deaths meeting high-levelled demons beyond their own depths.

It did not stop there. Because the human demon-hunters all specialised in various skills that aided in their dealing of demons effectively in their own way, there had been no way to categorise them the same way demons had been sectioned. Still, there had been a need to ensure minimal loss of human resources when it came to matching hunter to demon, and thus Vergil decided that a business was not enough.

The Sparda Institution became the first-ever demon hunting training school that guaranteed some learning points and a certificate that recognised a demon-hunter's extent of hunting abilities. Because of the popularity of Vergil's business, the Sparda Institution eventually gained an equal amount of popularity, with enrolment papers bursting through mails every year.

Set in this context, let us now look at a day in Vergil Sparda's everyday life.

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6 am.

Footsteps made clearly through the mansion as a well-dressed man stepped up a flight of ornate-marble-tiled staircase with his brightly shined Oxford Brogues. The cold maple hardwood of the minimalist hand-grip that lined the stairs was blessed with the warm, body-temperature touch of this man as he lightly held them; more for habit rather than an actual need for balance.

The same evened footsteps continued to echo distantly as the man walked through a short white corridor of soft carpeting, reaching a set of double-doors. Turning the lock with his key, the man opened the doors softly to a dark room that was barely lit with the early blue glow of the dawn. There wasn't much light needed, though, to see the peek of white hair appearing from the hem of a thick black drape.

"Master Vergil." The butler spoke politely while stepping into the room, letting the light from the corridor shine onto the bed. Moving quickly to the window, the curtains were drawn wide open in a routine movement that managed to inspire a stir from the sleeping man.

"Sebastian?" Vergil mumbled sleepily, pulling the covers up and over his head and white hair.

"Master Vergil, it's time to wake up." Sebastian now turned the bedside lamp on, where his master's golden-chained amulet sat. Vergil Sparda was never far from this memento, and even his butler had briefly wondered if someone had stolen this artefact before, and if so, what had happened to the poor foolish culprit. Vergil Sparda was, after all, not an easily-forgiving man particularly when it came to his very personal belongings. Only few people possessed the honour that came with the ability to touch Vergil's two most prized possessions: the amulet and his sword Yamato, without suffering the consequences of that foolish action –and his butler Sebastian was one of them.

"Five more minutes." Sebastian heard a muffled mumble from beneath the covers and smiled distantly to himself.

"Five more minutes with Yamato, then." The butler replied without a single hint of tease, and the effect was almost instantaneous. As if electrified or shot with a bullet, Vergil shot upright on the bed, a head full of bad, unruly hair that had been tousled and pressed for too long sitting on the multi-millionaire. Blue eyes that had blinked desperately awake took precious seconds to register that the humble butler had not moved from his position from the side of his bed, smiling almost teasingly down at him.

"You..." Vergil didn't bother coming up with the appropriate continuation of the sentence as he deflated in relief that nothing had been done.

"Good morning, Master Vergil." Sebastian greeted humbly, black twinkling eyes that held many secrets pinned steadily on his master.

"It hasn't been a great morning at all thanks to you, Sebastian." Came the expectedly grumpy reply.

"I aim to please, Master Vergil. Now that you are nicely awake, please try not to go back down on the bed. There you go; one foot in front of the other, and before you know it; you're walking." The butler's light-hearted easy tone irritated his master, but perhaps what annoyed him more was the fact that this was already some sort of a twisted routine for the both of them.

When Vergil Sparda stepped out of the bathroom in a pair of fitting runner's pullover and pants, he blinked in soft surprise to find his butler already changed and waiting as well with his own set of workout outfit. It was a strange sight, for Vergil often found his butler in neatly-pressed suits and perfectly polished Oxford Brogues.

"I'd like to join you for a run today, Master Vergil." Sebastian announced when Vergil paused in surprise after his first step out the door.

"Very well." Vergil answered, seeing no other reason to deny his butler. His butler's accompaniment for the run was not going to make much of a difference to him at all.

Sebastian was politely silent as he followed his master to the main gate, not finding any problems at all in following Vergil's humanely impossible pace. The capable butler even made no sounds of footsteps or pants as he ran, and Vergil would have been completely unaware with the presence of Sebastian if not for his half-demonic sense. The half-demon made laps around the town of his residence, breaking into a healthy sweat as he rounded back to his mansion, though still barely panting at all.

Vergil blinked at the sight of a clean, white towel presented in front of him, looking up at his fine butler who held it in offering, not a single drop of sweat or sign of effort used seen. Sebastian looked as neat and undisturbed as he usually was, though Vergil silently reasoned to himself that he should not have expected otherwise.

"What is wrong with you today, Sebastian?" Vergil's straight question was a direct vocalisation of his inner thoughts while he pat himself dry.

"There is nothing-"

"Sebastian." Vergil interrupted with a strict gaze. "Really."

"Very well." The butler answered, knowing that his master for 5 years didn't like to bother himself with small conversations or curveballs before approaching the real topic at hand. "I've found your newest target."

"Really?" Vergil said again, this time with a curious inflection instead.

"He isn't really very striking on paper, but there is a strange likeness of his power source to yours. I have yet to meet him face-to-face, but I have heard talk on the street that he might be better at demon-hunting than you." Sebastian answered factually, walking back through the gates towards the mansion alongside his master.

"A better demon hunter?" Vergil repeated with distant amusement. "Your targets now are no longer demons?"

"He happens to be a half-demon. You have proven yourself to be beyond demons after your last target, Master Vergil. Perhaps it was time I thought a little more flexibly to change things up." The humble butler answered honestly.

"Anything is fine as long as you stick to the contract." Vergil allowed his butler to open the door for him. "I'll deal with him after a shower and breakfast. Just leave the address out for me to find him."

"Very well." Sebastian did not follow his master up the stairs, but instead made for the kitchen. Seeing that there was nobody in his immediate vicinity, the butler paused in the middle of the sitting room that was barely used, closing his eyes. A small black mist began to rise from his body and slowly crept to engulf him from head-to-toe. Just as quick as it started, this mist soon dissipated and the butler picked up his smile against Oxford Brogues once more began to click on the marbled floor.

The well-pressed butler coat settled perfectly on Sebastian's shoulders as he pushed lightly through the kitchen doors to inform the chef to prepare breakfast. The rest of the morning happened according to routine as breakfast was served minutes before the master of the house came back down the stairs, decked in a pair of comfortable white shirt and denim jeans.

"Dress-down Day?" The butler offered in short question.

"If I am facing another target today, I figure I don't want to ruin the clothes." Vergil reasoned as he took the seat offered for him. "What else can you tell me about him?"

"If I were to assess his fighting style, you would gain an unfair advantage."

"What of his background? Anything I can possibly know about this man except that he is a half-demon and hasn't really been working very hard as a demon hunter?" Vergil pushed as he began his meal.

"I didn't stay around much to collect information." Sebastian answered honestly. "But from what I heard from the streets, he had moved to that place and set up an unnamed joint which went bankrupt within 2 years, and that was near seven years ago. They expect him to be around his late twenties now, and some of them said he had a striking resemblance to you."

"Me?" Vergil repeated. "Did he?"

"I don't know." The butler shrugged. "I didn't manage to see his face."

"Okay.... What about parentage? Which one was a demon?"

"Father. His father must have been made by Sparda, because I smelt the scent of Sparda on him."

"So my target is the Halfling son of a demon descended from Sparda, said to look or resemble me." Vergil reconfirmed.

"Yes."

"His weapons?"

"A pair of handguns and a large double-handed sword that he apparently has enough strength to hold in one arm. Rumours say he has already learnt the ability to unlock his demon side to his will." The butler reported, then seemed to decide that enough information had already been given unwittingly. "As for his exact aptitude and capability, I will let you figure it out by yourself.

"Very well." Vergil supposed that there were little more that he could try to squeeze out of his butler if the man refused to speak. "Before this target, however, is there anything else waiting to be done?"

"The managing principal of the Sparda Institution would like to speak to you."

"Concern being?"

"An unidentified man tried to impersonate you and managed to make it all the way into your office. He was apparently on your computer when he was caught, but he escaped through the window. The principal is worried that your files may have been stolen, but he cannot turn your computer on without getting pass facial recognition."

"And somehow this impersonator managed to get through the facial recognition on my computer?" Vergil asked in soft disbelief.

While it was not unheard of, the fact that a theft of such high level had turned their sights on a successful billionaire –who also happened to be the industry's best demon hunter –was surprising. He had heard from his contacts on the underground that many people of unsavoury background had turned out to take him as their idol –considering how Vergil had managed to make a legit industry out of the dirty work of demon hunting that once used to be despised and scorned.

"This impersonator did very well on the appearance, but raised a little suspicion when he asked around for you. The staff at the Institution thought that you might have been a little too tired to be thinking straight, but the more they thought about things, the more they were unsettled, so they alerted the principal who went straight to your office."

"And how did the impersonator give himself away?"

"He ran off. Afterwards, the principal called me to check that I had been by your side the entire morning and confirmed that it was an impersonator."

"Very well." Vergil spooned the last of his breakfast down, wiped his lips delicately before standing up to show that he was done with his meal. "You check my computer. I will go to the target. To prepare myself for this battle, however, I will ask a favour from you."

"As long as it remains within the constraints of our contract, Master Vergil, I will be able to serve to the best of my abilities."

"There is little need for the best of your ability for this task." Vergil answered easily, a light bounce to his step. "The weapon I intend to use for this target is something I have come up with abundance."

"You speak as if you are already confident on winning this time around, Master Vergil. I pray you have not forgotten the conditions made within the contract we made when we helped each other out of Hell."

"Yes, yes." Vergil bristled a little at the reminder. "If I lose to a single target provided by you, I will allow you to take my soul and enjoy it however you can. I have no intention of losing my soul to you yet, Sebastian. You will be serving me until I grow old and feeble."

"Then the confidence of winning against the target this time around is born from...?" The pregnant pause was an obvious cue for Vergil to fill in the words left out by the polite butler, but there was no need for Vergil to tell his butler everything, was there?

"Get me ten million... no, make it twenty million in cash ready for transfer in an hour's time. At the same time, liquidate 2 of my cheapest assets and a form of transfer of possession of them." Vergil instructed his butler instead, who bowed instinctively at the order given.

"You plan to bribe your next target, Master Vergil?"

Vergil could not bother to hide his secret grin anymore as he walked out of the front doors of his large mansion, satisfied to see that his butler's foresight had included making the chauffeur wait for him at the door.

"I plan to do a little bit more than bribe today." Vergil announced, then closed the door of his limousine on his butler.

________________________________________________________________________________

"Dante." Vergil called his brother's name to get the man's attention. At the present moment, however, Dante's eyes seemed to be roaming everywhere in the interior of the limousine, jaw dropped in disbelief of the opulence that was around them. "Dante, look at me."

"If this is a kidnapping, this is the best kidnapping ever!" Dante declared, taking of the pose of utter relaxation as he sank into the velvety seat across Vergil in the spacious limousine. Stretching out, Vergil watched in silence as his twin brother grabbed the champagne bottle that had been sitting in the ice bucket, making another loud whistle of appreciation after taking a look at the name and date. No permission had been asked before Dante uncorked the champagne and put his lips to the rim, chugging down almost half the bottle before smacking his lips in true appreciation. "If you were planning to kidnap me, Vergil, please do it forever."

"Do as you like, but I have things to discuss. A deal to make with you, if I must put it blandly."

"A deal?" The idea of it seemed to settle well with his younger brother as lazily-dressed Dante Sparda sat up, clearly interested at making quick and easy money.

"Firstly, you must stop visiting the Sparda Institution pretending to be me. The industry has yet to be bothered about you, and I would prefer that they stay that way."

"Aww, I'm hurt, Verge. You want to keep your cute little brother away from the limelight?" Dante whined the same annoying way that the younger twin had always done as a child. Vergil was only reminded even more why he had chosen to leave his brother out of his success –mainly because of the reason that Dante had yet to mature enough to be part of his business.

"Rather, I want to keep you from embarrassing the name Sparda and –by extension –my name." Vergil answered ruthlessly, because no matter how many years had passed, the way he treated his little brother was always the same.

"Fine, I'll be the obedient baby brother and not go to the Sparda Institution anymore. What's the price for that?"

"Possession of some of my assets. You're free to do whatever you want with them once you get them. The selling value of the assets at the moment are at least five million each." Vergil answered evenly, not surprised at all the see the light shining in Dante's eyes. 'Million' was probably a denomination that Dante hadn't expected in the deal and it clearly settled very well with his younger brother.

Still, Vergil had grown up around Dante enough to know that his twin was also a greedy (but unfortunately street-smart) little bastard when it came to deals.

"What else do you want from me? You said that not going to the Sparda Institution is the 'first'." Dante pretended to think over the deal when Vergil knew that his offer had already hooked him in. There was honestly little that Dante could hide from his elder brother, but unfortunately the same also happened the other way around. "Is it going to be something to do with that butler that you have going around you?"

"You know about Sebastian?" It was Vergil's time to be surprised now as he blinked blankly at his brother. He hadn't been aware that Dante could be bothered to update himself about Vergil's life and had easily assumed that Dante knew nothing about the newest form of danger that Vergil had adopted in the past 5 years.

"How can I not know?" Dante shrugged, still looking like the laziest man on the Earth through his sitting pose on the seat across Vergil. "The news of you coming back from Hell made headlines for at least a week. Your butler was from Hell."

"I didn't know you cared enough to remember something like that."

"I don't." Dante yawned. "But it's just in case I needed to contact you for money, I didn't want him to stab me in the chest for no reason."

"I doubt that he will. In fact, he is the one who led me to you today."

"What does he want with me? Actually, what does he want from you as well?"

"I didn't know you cared about me, Dante." Vergil replied blankly.

"I don't care about you." Dante's reply was indignant. "I care about the money you have."

The brothers didn't need more words to hear the real truth hiding behind Dante's words.

"Sebastian and I have a contract. In exchange for serving me and helping me deal with problems –particularly those arising from Hell –I answer to his challenges. If I fail to defeat the targets he sets out for me, he is free to take my soul and enjoy it however he desires."

"So you decided to get a demon butler just like that?"

"Sebastian's a good worker." Vergil answered plainly. "And I have no intention of giving him my soul just yet. I still have many years left to live."

"Then you said he was the reason you are here today?" Dante didn't really seem to be bothered about his brother's intended lifespan at all.

"You are the target today."

"So you must defeat me?" Dante laughed. "Fat chance. Try again tomorrow. Maybe next month, or better yet –next year. I'm not in the mood."

"I thought you'd say that." Vergil answered, checking his phone to make sure that his butler had already sent him an email to update him on the status of the orders he had given before he left his mansion. "That's why I'm here for a deal."

"You're going to bribe me out of a fight?" Dante asked in disbelief, but Vergil's face didn't change.

"Are you not going to take a bribe, Dante?" Respectable a businessman as Vergil was supposed to be, he didn't bother hiding the truth from his twin brother because in terms of ethics, the younger twin brother was much less incomparable.

"How much are we looking at?"

"Ten million."

Street-smart Dante weighed his options in his brain. "Twenty-five million."

"Fifteen million." Hard-selling during negotiation was something that Vergil –and apparently Dante as well –was rather good at.

"Twenty-three million." Dante pushed.

Vergil hid his knowing smile as he crossed his arms in a show of firmness. "Twenty million. Final call."

"Deal." Dante's decision was instantaneous and they hands shook in agreement. "What do I have to do to declare defeat to satisfy your demon butler?"

"Easy." Vergil looked out the window to find that they had already reached the destination. "You meet him."

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"Do you accept my win this time, Sebastian?" Vergil asked calmly as he watched his butler, also his grim reaper, walk into the room.

"He looks completely like you, Master Vergil."

"I guess you wouldn't know." Vergil sighed, closing his hand over the hilt of his summoned sword and pulling it out. The body that had been tacked to a wooden board immediately dropped, but the half-demon only cursed loudly, rubbing his chest where he had previously been staked. "Meet my twin brother, Dante Sparda. You have unwittingly made him my target today, and it is only to your disadvantage."

"Sparda had twin sons?" Vergil rarely ever saw his butler surprised, but this was definitely a rare moment as he watched Sebastian reconcile the fact with himself.

"Yeah. I'm generally considered the little brother that has to be kept away from the world because I'm an embarrassment to Vergil." Dante added with a roll of his eyes. "Really, anything goes for me as long as I have money to pay the bills."

"But you are also a demon hunter, no?" Sebastian seemed to get past his shock rather quickly.

"Yeah, but Vergil's done so well in the industry's that I'm not really needed."

"You have had no desire to join your brother in his success whatsoever?" The butler seemed to be unable to believe Dante's lack of strive for success. Vergil did his best to maintain his expression and not betray a knowing smirk. He understood how hard it was for third parties outside of the family to understand Dante's mind-set, but was it really that hard for a demon to understand Dante's motivations in life?

"I just want to pay the bills and get food and sleep when I want it." Dante looked down briefly at his shirt that was stained with his blood. "You're paying for the replacement of this shirt as well, Verge."

"Of course." Vergil answered evenly. Dante was a complete miser that Vergil himself was ashamed to call himself in acquaintance to at the moment.

"Are we done with the 'Dante is defeated' thing? I have a good idea of how I'm going to spend my twenty million."

"Master Vergil..." Sebastian finally seemed to understand what had gone on while he had been missing from Vergil's side. "That twenty million in the morning, and those assets..."

"Just a small price to pay to watch your expression change." Vergil smiled to know that he had managed to make a demon whose capabilities far exceeded Vergil himself. "Have you now come to the realization that I am not just a mere half-demon?"

"You're just a half-demon with lots of money, Verge." Dante answered with another yawn. "Are we done yet?"

"No, I'm more than that, Dante." Vergil answered calmly. "I am a half-demon with a demonic butler at my fingertips. I am a man who controls a demon who can kill us both with a single thought."

"I concede defeat, Master Vergil." Sebastian bowed. "You are truly the only demon that is suitable for a demon butler like me."