Chapter Text
"Oh, for FUCK’s sake!" you slam a fist on your desk when you once again watch the Yamato pierce through Dante on your screen, bringing your health down to 0.
"This fuckass lil’ bitch…" you mutter, sitting back in your chair and letting out a sigh, accepting you once again couldn’t win the boss fight against Vergil.
You’ve been playing hours of Devil May Cry 5 the past few days and you finally got to fighting Vergil today, but it’s been humbling. You went from stupidly giggling during his cutscenes to pouting at the screen for not being able to beat the infuriatingly beautiful man. Maybe because you’re too stubborn and want to defeat him in one go, and not use a gold orb to revive yourself.
Weird white and yellow little shapes start forming in your sight as you rub your eyes, before slowly opening them and check the time.
3.36am.
You groan. Humans are so poorly designed, whyyy do we need sleep? You blink with one eye in sort of a twitch. One more attempt and then I’ll go to bed.
One more.
"Listen, I still love you but this is getting personal. I will beat your ass..." You tiredly, but determinedly mumble as if speaking to Vergil himself, before restarting the mission again.
After a few clicks the cutscene starts again, the bright light of your screen being the only source of light in your otherwise dark room. At this point you’ve seen this cutscene so many times that you can speak the dialogue with them word for word, so you skip it even though you kinda feel bad about it. With concentrated eyes burning into your screen, you start your last attempt for the night.
---
With a blank expression you stare at the screen asking you if you want to revive or give up. You smack your lips and press them into a thin line, honestly not even surprised.
Looks like you really are living up to the stereotype of women being bad at gaming.
After closing the game and turning off your pc, you check your phone for a minute and then slide it into your pocket as you stand up.
When turning towards your door, you suddenly feel a strange heat rise from your chest to your head. You furrow your brows in annoyance at it, but when you take a step the sound around you starts dulling out and make place for a flat beep.
Worry rises in you, and you want to hurry to the bathroom for some water, but your next step results in dropping down to the floor.
Your vision and mind go blank the moment your head hits the ground.
---
The stench of rot fills your nose. It’s the first thing you perceive besides that still ongoing ringing in your ears.
And some muffled voices.
You feel a hand on your jaw, and your head is tilted slightly as you finally blink your eyes open, looking up at a pair of blue eyes examining you with furrowed brows. They look… oddly familiar.
"Ah, alive! Would ya look at that!" you hear a woman’s voice from the side, somewhat muffled but you can make out the words as the beep in your ears ebbs away.
"Will you shut up?" the blue eyes above you are torn away from you as the man shoots a look in the direction the other voice came from.
You blink a few times at his short white hair, still not fully conscious.
You hear the woman respond with something, but the words don’t fully register.
"Hey, are you okay?" the man examining you asks, now he’s returned his attention to you.
With every second you become more aware of what your senses are taking in, and the view in front of you finally clicks.
Nero. You’re Nero. Why am I looking at Nero?
You suddenly shoot up in a seated position, causing a violent headache you try to ignore and Nero stumbling backwards and falling over. You study him sitting there.
He looks worried.
You’re just confused as fuck.
Your eyes shoot up to the woman standing a few meters over.
Nico.
She raises her hand to greet you, as if you guys are in the most normal situation ever.
Your gaze darts back to Nero. Your expression must betray your confusion, because he starts explaining what’s going on.
"I think you got caught in the little demon situation we had here…" You look around your surroundings, the rot still reeking around you. Buildings are damaged and there’s a weird blackish, purple goo scattered around with rubble on the street.
Ah. That’s what’s causing that stench...
"I think you hurt your head, you were unconscious for quite a bit-" Your eyes shoot back at Nero. "But other than that you seem fine." He sighs, sounding relieved. He looks at you with anticipation, and you realize you haven’t said a word so far.
At all.
"Ehh." You clear your throat, and then nod. "Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Thank you."
You still have no clue of why the fuck you’re here or what’s going on.
Maybe you’re hallucinating? Lucid dreaming?
"And she’s talkin’! Alright let’s get ’cha to the van, I’ll grab ya a beer." Nico says before she lights the cigarette she just put in her mouth.
Nero stands up and offers you a hand. He pulls you up after you take his offer to help.
"She doesn’t need alcohol, Nico. She probably has a concussion." He bites back at Nico and then follows her, you right behind him.
"Yeah, I’m gonna have to agree, alcohol doesn’t sound like it’ll help much with this headache." You chuckle lightly, studying the blade of Red Queen on his back, eyes narrowing.
You figure you should just… go with whatever happens. Pretend to have lost your memory from anything before this moment. It’s all way too confusing. It feels too real, nothing like a dream or anything of the sorts.
"Nah, then especially ya need a drink." Nico presses on and it pulls a light chuckle from you. You look down, and then realize you’re of course still in your pajamas.
Well… Interesting outfit. How the fuck am I gonna change into something more fitting?
You reach in your pocket and to your relief your phone is in there, where you put it back at your apartment.
Nico opens the van door once the three of you get there, and you follow them inside. It’s just like you know it to be. The leather seats, the red table. The mess.
"Cozy," you comment lightly as you take it all in.
"I’m Nero, by the way. And that’s Nico," Nero then introduces them and throws a thumb over his shoulder in Nico’s direction, who in her turn throws a beer can towards you, past Nero.
You catch it mid-air, raise a brow and then shake your head lightly with a smile tugging at your lips.
"Thanks…" You say and put it down on the little red table, and then you introduce yourself by giving them your name.
Nico sits down across from you, folding a leg up with her foot over her knee and sitting there like she owns the place.
Which, honestly, in a sense she does.
Nero leans against the van door, arms crossed. "How’d you end up in that mess? Most civilians were gone around this part way before we got there."
You lean back against the table. "I don’t really remember." You furrow your brows, having decided this will be the story you go with so letting it come out as believable as possible. "All I know is an irritating beep ringing in my ears, and you guys finding me."
It’s not even a full lie. Because from here, whatever this place or universe is, it is in fact the only thing you do remember. Only the other half of the truth is that there was nothing before that to remember.
With the little bit of what’s left of her cigarette between her fingers, Nico whistles through her teeth and smacks her lips. "Rough start to your day, huh?"
You scoff. "Yeah, something like that."
"Well, we did figure you somehow got caught up in it. Just turns out you can’t remember how..." Nero says. "But yeah, demon outbreak hit kinda fast this time. Big one, too. Took out half a block before we got there."
Your eyes narrow slightly as your brain starts to think. "Demon outbreak..?" You somewhat mutter, trying to maybe piece together if you’re somewhere in the timeline of the 5th game.
"Yeah." Nero nods toward Nico. "We’re demon hunters. We take care of... that kind of thing. Demons, possessions, cursed artifacts, all the weird shit nobody else wants to touch."
"And this," Nico adds with a grin, waving her cigarette vaguely at the van, “is Devil May Cry. Technically Dante’s gig, but we run it while he’s off doin’ whatever it is he does. Me? I’m the brains n’ the wheels. Nero’s the muscle."
Your eyes light up a bit at the mention of Dante. You clear your throat and nod slowly, keeping up the act of un-knowing.
"Right… Demon hunters. Devil May Cry." You sum up Nico’s explanation in words like you’re processing it for yourself. If you’re somewhere on the timeline of the 5th game...
No, that’s not possible... Then Redgrave would be ruined by the Qliphoth. But if I’m here at a point after DMC5, that means...
"Hey, Nero? What date is it?" you then ask. He doesn’t look surprised by your question, given he believes you’ve lost your complete memory apart from your name. Meanwhile Nico gets up and walks to the front to get behind the wheel.
"July 14th." Nero answers you.
Your heart skips a beat.
Vergil.