[Part 11]

Damon’s P.O.V

“You might want to answer me first before my girlfriend here uses her lightning. Trust me; it is going to hurt more than a little shock.” I threatened, looking down at the scared little demon from the blade of my katana.

Thank goodness for the fact that Devil May Cry and my world shared the same currency, and I had been fortunate enough to have been carrying a large amount of cash along, since it had gotten my family a home, and myself a decent katana I could call my own. Of course, it could never rival the power of Vergil’s Yamato, but I couldn’t be demanding too much from the price I paid.

“W-w-who are y-you? Y-you are not V-Vergil!” The little demon, dressed under the guise of an innocent child, stuttered unable to understand that I wasn’t.

“You can consider me his half brother. Just give me an answer, and I will let you off.”I gave him a pleasant smile, knowing that he could see the threat in it.

Finding this demon had been relatively easy, considering I had a solid lead of him from his friend back in Dante’s town. It led us to the Order, where demons and devils seemed to fill the street. After Nero’s departure from the place, it seemed like no one had taken the liberty to address the problem of demons running on the streets. Serves them right, actually.

“I don’t know anything about Trickster! Serious!” The demon begged, contradicting whatever he had been singing about just a moment ago. Someone had boasted of being the touchstone to reality for Trickster when the latter had just arrived on this plane, and now he was singing another tune?

Trish clicked the safety off her gun, shoving her weapon in his face. Lightning began crawling and flashing down her arm, till her gun was crackling with lightning. Years of missing such practice, it had been Trish’s utmost joy when she realized that she had her power back.

“I might reconsider my next words, if I were you.” Trish said pleasantly, which made the demon tremble more.

Sometimes, reverse psychology was the most powerful factor anyone could ever think to use for threatening. The nicer Trish sounded, the more horrible your pain would get, the worse your nightmare gets.

“I-I really d-don’t know a-anything!” He cried, trying to scramble back, but not before Trish blocked his exit route. There was the deafening sound of a single gunshot in the silence of the streets that was now empty due to the general fear of the public of walking out in the open now. I understood their fear of the demons hiding in the corner of the streets, but they could only pin the blame on their leaders. I could help, but I chose not to. Nero was their hero here, much as he could be unwanted. That needed to be seen.

Back then, the Order needed a hero, but wanted none. Now, they needed and wanted one, and none would come. Not even Dante or Vergil, for any price.

Demon-child whimpered and keened in the fear of getting shot again, watching the blackened area on the floor where Trish had shot.

“Last chance. I’m not going to miss a second time.” Trish sounded outright murderous, and even I felt myself tremble inside.

That was the length of the demon’s endurance.

The child appearance broke into hysterical tears, and the words spilled forth from his lips, answer the question with no problem this time –saving us from a whole load of mess.

“Okay, okay, I give! T-T-Trickster didn’t come to me! I just happened to be there when the portal opened! H-He began asking questions, so I thought it w-w-would be nice if I helped out a fellow demon! I-I-I didn’t know he was the Trickster until he left! He only said he was sent here to kill the spawns of Sparda, nothing more.”

Trish and I exchanged looks, had an agreement through eye contact, and stared back down at the child-demon.

“It doesn’t satisfy us. And when something doesn’t satisfy us, we usually kill it.” I stated, letting go of my demonic power. Infusing power with my katana, effectively making it almost as powerful as Yamato, I let it glow, taking the attention from the child-demon.

“He could open portals! I watched him slice open a portal with his sword and walk through! He was looking for ways to get out of slavery! He wanted to be rid of the demon king and prince!” The demon-child yelled in desperation, spewing out a bunch of things he knew about Trickster –some of which we already knew.

Except for the part about Trickster trying to get out of slavery. That was new.

“Out of slavery, kid? You are kidding if you expect me to believe that a demon like him wants to be free from Lucifer or Mundus.” I scoffed –even though that fact itself was quite believable on its own.

“I swear! I’m not lying! That’s all I know! I don’t know anything else! I don’t want to die!” He wailed, and I began to remember the actual annoyance of a kid’s cry –from Marcy’s child days. Truth be told, this demon looked and acted more like a human child than an actual demon. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to achieve, but I took relief in the fact that I wasn’t going to get covered up in demons blood, or be confronted by demons spitting goo or saliva at me.

My relief was short lived.

There was a loud bang of a gunshot, and I took a shocked step forwards. Pain radiated from my abdomen from where the bullet entered my body, and the breath was pummeled out of me.

“Motherfu-“I began to curse, losing my breath to curse halfway as I doubled over, pressing a hand against my wound. Trish didn’t hesitate. She turned the target of her guns, and let the barrage of her bullets speak for her.

Half-bent, I saw the shadow dancing, dodging the bullets with a fluidity I recognized. I recognized that sword hanging on his back, that blue tail of his coat flying, the inner red material flashing between times. I took to notice that the little demon was gone, scampered like a scared bunny, but I guessed there was no point in chasing that thing. He was past his useful point anyway.

I staggered over to Trish, putting a bloody hand over her wrist to get her to stop.

“Get the bullet out, and then we talk to him. Someone needs to teach him a lesson, and I don’t think Dante’s got the time.” I whispered, stopping the bullet barrage. The figure, hidden in the shadow, stopped dodging, but stayed in a defensive stance for a moment.

“You know who that is?” Trish whispered back, still training her guns on him.

“The only guy who’s stupid enough to come back and act a hero here.” I replied, turning to let Trish help me dig out the bullet. It took a little more pain and a short while of healing before I could straighten back up, and by that time, the guy was almost to us already.

“Trish? You’re back? How can this be…?” He asked, unbelieving when he caught sight of our faces.

“Wait, so you’re that idiot who shot him?” Trish turned to Nero, hands on her hips.

“You were the ones threatening that innocent kid! I thought you were demons. You are. Vergil’s half of one, so I’m not entirely wrong.” Nero protested for his vindication, but Trish would hear none of it where I was concerned.

“He’s not Vergil, and you just shot my boyfriend. I have a good mind to shoot you in the forehead right now, kid.”

A flash of irritancy came to Nero’s face, and I bit back a smirk at the remembrance of calling him a kid. Dante and I used to love nothing more than to call him ‘kid’ when it came to Nero.

“My name is Nero, for the last time. Stop calling me a kid. I am only a few years younger than Dante. And what do you mean he’s not Vergil? You look left and right; he is Vergil. Right, Vergil?”

A few years younger didn’t quite cut the way he was trying to prove his point. At the moment, he sounded like an adolescent teenage kid, believing that he was a hero just because he was running around with guns and swords, trying to wipe out demons secretly.

“My name is Damon, Nero. It’s nice to see you again since that one year.”

He caught on quick, but his reaction dragged out long, as he stared and stared. His mouth hung open, blinking with shock as he looked me up and down.

“You’re kidding me. That Damon? That idiot who killed Leviathan and Mammon, and died in the Drama-mama way?”

“Drama-mama? Why don’t you try dying, then tell me how not a drama-mama you are, kid!” I scolded back, whacking him on his head with the hilt of my katana. Being half-demon gave me the pleasure of actually causing pain to a delinquent like Nero.

“Ow! I’m not a kid, you stupid Drama-mama!” He protested back in reply, trying to get his revenge, but not before I dodged.

He began chasing me, and since I was up to some running and challenge, we took off to the roofs, with him trying to catch me with his bullets while I deflected some and dodged the others. We were having some rare fun, before Trish appeared before me, catching me by my collar, and Nero in her other hand. Just like a mother; Trish sometimes was.

“I don’t have to ground you guys to your own homes, do I? I expect more maturity from you, Damon. Has regaining half-demon abilities made you your brother?” Trish lectures while we fake-hung our heads, keeping mock-solemn looks of apology.

“But-” Nero began to protest, but was cut short by a glare from my no-nonsense girlfriend.

“Make nice.” She ordered, and there was no disobeying here, so I reluctantly extended a hand to Nero, purposefully looking away to show my actual reluctance at making nice. Besides, no one should call me a drama-mama. Hey, my life is the most mundane of all businessmen, alright? The only thing that was relatively exciting was probably Trish. And probably having other halves in the Devil May Cry World. And probably being in the Devil May Cry World itself.

Nero’s handshake was more like a slap on my hand, but we took it for ‘making nice’. Trish let us off, and we kept our argument aside –like a pair of kids who weren’t done with their argument just yet.

“What are you doing here? I didn’t see you around Dante’s place these few days.” Trish began a fresh conversation, giving me a glare as if telling me to shut up about baiting Nero.

“I left half a month ago. The Order’s too stuck-up to call for help, but this is where I grew up. I’m just doing what I can to remove as many demons at a time while I can. I heard the kid crying, and thought he going to get it from demons. I wasn’t half-wrong.”

“The kid’s a demon too. We were looking for information.” Trish informed, vindicating ourselves.

“Information?”

“Trickster. Trickster chased Dante and Vergil into our world. Then he pulled us, and Damon’s family here.”

Nero took a short while for the information to sink in.

“Dante and Vergil are back? What do you exactly mean by his family?” It was clear that Nero wanted to ignore my presence, so I pretended to look away, watching as a demon sneak on the road behind a woman dressed in tattered rags.

“The Sparda twins are back. Trickster pulled Damon’s sister into the portal. Damon tried to stop her, ended up getting pulled in. It became a chain since I followed him, and Damon’s twin followed me.”

“Wait. Wait. Damon’s twin. He has a twin? Isn’t one of him not enough?”

I made the motion to punch him on the face, but Trish stopped me before I could do any damage.

“If you think Damon’s overboard for you, Nero, I suggest you’d better stay away from his twin. Daniel’s exactly Dante’s replica, except more mouthy and a lot more time and money to spend on his hands. That; and the fact that Daniel is single and uncontrolled by any woman in his life, save their sister.” Trish warned seriously, and much as everything was about the negative side of Daniel’s life, I guessed that was what anyone had to look out for around Daniel.

“You are kidding. Dante no. 2 with money, time and no women? Why hasn’t this world burnt down yet?”

Because Daniel had a target –Lady. Of course, I wouldn’t reveal it, but it tickled me quite some to see him going crazy over the fact that he hadn’t seen Lady. Dante hadn’t even been bothered to go looking for his own girlfriend who was strangely absent from the town, but Daniel had been waiting excitedly for the day she would finally step into his life. A little stupid of him –considering how much of a pair of lovers Dante and Lady made –but Daniel just didn’t know his limits sometimes.

“The point is not on Daniel, kid. The point is if you know anything about the Trickster.”

Nero shrugged. “The only thing I heard in the streets was that he stepped onto this plane the first time not long ago. The reigns to his slavery were changed from Mundus to Lucifer, wasn’t it? There was news sometime ago that he wanted to break free from slavery. But that’s all.”

How come no one told us about him breaking free from slavery? Eva and I were going to exchange words about this. Besides, the life of her husband was in my hands now. Even though Vergil was working with us to free his father –and Dante was just doing what he did best, and that was sleep –Eva needed me to actually find Sparda and free him, since she had promised not to involve her sons where it came to saving him.

Of course, there was Daniel and Marcy, but what could Daniel do here, save drooling after Lady’s wake? Marcy could help, but much as she would try, there were some things I would never let her do –and one of which was to go down to Hell looking for Sparda by herself. Besides, she was getting busy with Vergil herself. I wasn’t sure if she was aware of Vergil’s affection towards her, but one way or another, she seemed to bathe in his attention quite well, though her object of desire still remained upon his brother –who seems like a statue these days, with his never changing pose of sleeping upon his chair at his office.

“That is also what we learnt from the demon kid just now.  What we’re trying to find is a way to contact Trickster now, and confirm the rumors. If what he says is true, then we can help free him from Lucifer, and have him open a portal for us back home.”

Nero gave her puppy eyes. “You’re still going back to his world?”

He made ‘his world’ sound accusing, so I gave him a glare, receiving a challenging thrust of his chin back in reply. I made to draw my sword, and for the second time, was stopped by my girlfriend.

“He is my man, Nero. Where he goes; I go. Devil May Cry or not, Dante or not, I am Damon’s woman now. I belong at Damon’s side.”

Those few sentences were enough for me to temporarily forget the million digs that Nero had been making at me since we met. No matter what he said, I still had Trish by my side. This was how tightly we were bonded together.

“You’ve got her tightly wrapped around your pinkie, eh?” Nero finally included me in his conversation, giving me –surprisingly –an approving raise of my brow.

“Better than you must be doing with your Kylie girl.” I boasted with a smirk, knowing that there was one thing that I must have won him.

“Her name is Kyrie!” He protested, but the sound of a scream interrupted us.

Turning, we saw the rag-dressed woman scrambling away from the demon who had finally shown its true side –a grotesque looking slug demon with four furry cat paws and a spiky tail. I wasn’t even sure what category it was supposed to be under. Slug? Cat?

“You time to shine, Hero.” I muttered as Nero ran past me, making for the demon.

He jumped off the roof, but had enough time to withdraw his gun, and shoot behind him.

His aiming was impeccable.

He shot me in the forehead, having me rearing my head back with the impact.

Carried in the wind was his laughter.

Nero’s joy –not only at his success of shooting me.

Nero’s joy –at being the hero of his Order.