Mansion
Morning came, and Yamato woke to find Dante gone. Not in the room either. She changed and headed for breakfast.
Dante was at the parking area, meeting Lady.
Dante: "Why're you the chauffeur?"
Lady: "Marshal's orders, no choice."
Dante: "Find any suspicious types?"
Lady: "Problem is, everyone looks shady…"
Dante: "Come on, get it together."
Lady: "You sure about poker? Not on the ropes like last time, right?"
Dante: "Not there yet. Got the stuff I asked for?"
Lady: "Right here."
Lady opened the car trunk, revealing Dante's magic gear.
Dante: "You brought everything?"
Lady: "Didn't know what you'd need."
The poker game resumed.
Lady and Yamato watched from the bar counter. The game grew intense, with dropouts piling up. Twelve players were now down to seven.
It was the Doctor's betting round. He touched his earlobe, thinking.
Doctor: "…Raise."
Dante: "Fold."
The pot hit two million. Showdown. Players revealed their hands.
Owner: "Two fours of hearts, two eights of clubs—two pair. Your win."
Chips went to the Doctor. Dante and the Doctor led the pack, holding the most chips.
Owner: "Let's take a break."
Players chatted with their entourages and left. The Doctor slipped away. Dante joined Lady and Yamato.
Lady: "How's it going?"
Dante: "He's bluffing."
Yamato: "Bluffing?"
Dante: "When his hand's weak, he touches his ear."
Lady: "That's your opening."
Break over, the game resumed. More players dropped out, leaving Dante, the Doctor, and two others.
Yamato: "There… he's bluffing."
Doctor: "All in."
The Doctor, ear-tugging, bet everything. If Dante's read was right, it was a massive bluff.
Dante: "Call."
Dante went for it. The other two folded, making it a duel. Both had equal chips—winning would net Dante about 80 million.
Showdown. Dealer's cards: eight of clubs, king, ace, king of spades, king of hearts. Dante revealed his hand: three and four of clubs.
Owner: "Three, four, eight, king, ace of clubs—flush."
The Doctor, looking nervous, slowly flipped one card: jack of hearts. Then the second.
Doctor: "Whoops…"
He smirked at Dante, revealing a jack of spades.
Owner: "Three kings, two jacks—full house."
Doctor: "Thought I was bluffing, huh, Dante?"
Dante: "…"
A full house trumped a flush. A bluff within a bluff—the Doctor lured Dante into a trap. The afternoon session ended, and players dispersed.
Lady and Yamato were speechless.
Yamato returned to the room, deep in thought. Dante arrived later with Lady.
Dante: "I need the extra three million."
Yamato: "Impossible…"
Dante: "What?"
Yamato: "I can't approve more funds."
Yamato's role was to decide on additional funding. If she refused, Dante couldn't continue.
Dante: "You serious?"
Yamato: "Continuing will only let government money be misused!"
Dante: "Think. That guy's tied to abyssals and demons. If he gets the cash, who knows what'll happen."
Yamato: "I can't…"
Dante: "I lost, sure. But I'll win next. Trust me."
Yamato: "I can't…!"
Lady, who'd been silent, spoke up.
Lady: "Trust him. He's got no luck in gambling, but this is his job. He doesn't lose at this."
Yamato: "You…"
Yamato thought Lady and Dante were strangers, but Lady spoke like she knew him well, confusing her. She looked between them. Dante's eyes burned with resolve to win. Lady's showed unwavering trust in him.
The evening session began without Dante. The Doctor dominated, seeing the remaining players as no threat. Smirking, he figured he'd secure his research funds. Then someone sat across from him—Dante, with extra chips.
Dante: "Still time, right?"
Doctor: "…Yeah."
The Doctor thought he'd eliminated Dante, but here he was, unfazed. Annoying, but an opportunity to take everything.
With Lady and Yamato watching, the game resumed.
Dante steadily grew his three million, catching up to the Doctor. The last other player dropped out, leaving just them.
No time for small bets—the game's end was near.
Doctor: "Your goddess's kiss didn't work, did it?"
Dante: "Think so? As long as she believes in me, I'm not losing."
Dante pushed all his chips to the center. All in. The Doctor glanced at his chips, then his cards, and grinned.
Doctor: "All in."
Both went all in. The final showdown. Yamato clasped her hands, praying.
Dealer's cards: seven, ten, jack, king of hearts, eight of diamonds. The Doctor flipped his cards: eight and nine of hearts.
Owner: "Sequential hearts—straight flush."
Doctor: "You've lost your money and trust."
Certain of victory, he laughed mockingly. But Dante was laughing too.
Dante: "Not yet."
He revealed his cards: ace of hearts. Then…
Dante: "The goddess's kiss worked."
Queen of hearts.
Owner: "Top-tier hand, royal straight flush. You win."
Lady and Yamato cheered, high-fiving. Yamato's trust and extra funds paid off. Dante won.
Winnings were wired to the designated account, with the Doctor watching.
Dante: "You're coming with me. Got questions."
Doctor: "Think it's that easy?"
The Doctor snapped his fingers, summoning demons that attacked everyone in the mansion. Dante, Lady, and Yamato dodged, but the Doctor seized the moment, dosing Yamato with something. She collapsed, unconscious.
He fled with her. Dante and Lady tried to pursue, but demons blocked them. Dante fought barehanded, Lady used whatever was around to bash demons. They made it outside, but the Doctor and Yamato were gone.
Dante pulled out a small device showing a blinking dot, moving.
Lady: "I'll handle this."
She grabbed ammo from the car and returned to clear the mansion. Dante jumped in the car, following the signal.
Yamato woke tied to a chair in a rusty, metallic room reeking of iron. She didn't know where she was.
Doctor: "Awake?"
Yamato: "What's your goal?"
The Doctor crouched to her eye level.
Doctor: "Simple. Give me the account number and password."
Yamato: "You think I'll tell you?"
Doctor: "Talk while I'm asking nicely. I'd hate to mar that pretty face. Otherwise…"
He glanced back. Six demon marionettes entered, holding torture tools.
Doctor: "These guys aren't smart. They won't stop, even if you talk."
Yamato: "I won't talk, no matter what!"
Bound and facing demons, Yamato stood firm, rejecting him. The Doctor sighed, exasperated, and moved to leave.
Doctor: "You disappoint me. By the way, you haven't seen the battleship Musashi at headquarters lately, have you?"
Yamato: "How do you…?"
Doctor: "She's my lab rat right now."
Yamato: "No…!"
Musashi, Yamato's sister ship, second of the Yamato-class battleships, had been missing from headquarters for a long time.
Doctor: "Don't talk, and I'll break her too."
Yamato: "Stop! Don't touch Musashi!"
Doctor: "Then spit it out. No one's coming for you."
Yamato: "…The number is…"
Bang! Bang!
Gunshots echoed from afar.
Doctor: "Tch, still interfering…"
He left the room and didn't return.
Yamato: "Musashi…"
Tanker Ship
Dante followed the signal to an abandoned tanker at the port. Inside, demons roamed. Equipped with Beowulf, he cut through them, advancing.
The signal was close. He reached Yamato, tied up and surrounded by marionettes. Drawing his magic gun, Nightmare-β, he fired a mana bullet. It hit one marionette, ricocheted, and struck the others, destroying them.
Dante untied Yamato.
Dante: "You okay?"
Yamato: "How'd you find me?"
He tapped his head. Yamato tilted hers, confused, then noticed and removed her hair accessory.
Dante: "Tracker."
Yamato: "A tracker?"
Dante: "Better safe than sorry."
Yūbari had made it. The accessory's signal was picked up by Dante's device, pinpointing her location.
Dante: "Where's he?"
Yamato: "Don't know. He left…"
Dante: "Let's get Lady."
Yamato: "Yes."
Outside the tanker, more demons appeared.
Dante: "Looks like a familiar cat."
It was Shadow, a panther-like demon, a living shadow that took forms by wrapping spells around its ethereal body. Dante fired Ebony & Ivory, but Shadow dodged nimbly, shifting into a fang-like form to bite. Dante leaped away, slashing with Rebellion, but Shadow blocked with a barrier, firing magic arrows.
Shadow, highly intelligent, had fought humans since ancient times, learning their weapons and countering with barriers that turned attacks into magic arrows. It morphed into a blade, but a sudden cannon blast blew it back—Yamato's doing. Shadow, focused on Dante, forgot her. Its memory of ancient weapons didn't account for modern firearms.
Dante and Yamato's coordinated gunfire and cannon blasts wore Shadow down. Unable to maintain its form, it exposed its core—a heart-like weak point.
Dante: "Bad matchup!"
A charged shot and cannon blast destroyed the core, and Shadow vanished.
Mansion
Lady emerged, looking exhilarated from the fight.
Lady: "Gotta blast 'em to bits."
The mansion collapsed behind her.
Lady: "…Overdid it?"
She shouldered her heavy weapon, Kalina Ann, and walked on. A car approached.
Dante: "Done?"
Lady: "As you see. Glad you got your wife back."
Dante: "Divorced as of today."
The mission complete, their fake marriage ended. Lady hopped in, and the car headed to headquarters to report.
Yamato: "Are you two old friends?"
Dante & Lady: "…Who knows?"
Yamato: "Come on, tell me!"
Dante: "Don't speak Japanese."
Lady: "Me neither."
Yamato: "Spill it!"
Devil May Cry Naval Base, Office
Dante reported the mission's success to the Prime Minister and returned to the base at dawn. The shipgirls were curious about the poker results.
Atago: "So, how'd it go?"
Dante: "Piece of cake."
Shigure: "You completed the mission?"
Dante: "Thanks to you all."
KitaKami: "Well, let's see those skills."
KitaKami had a deck of cards ready, and poker began again.
Akagi: "Full house!"
Haguro: "Two pair…"
Satsuki: "Me too, two pair!"
Yūbari: "Three of a kind!"
Kongō: "Flush, desu ne!"
Hachi: "Hacchan's got one pair."
Dante: "…Bust."
Suzuya: "Totally lame!"
Kaga: "Did you really win?"
Dante: "That's weird…"
???
In a lab-like room near a secret abyssal anchorage in the Stevia Sea Anzu Islands, the Doctor stood.
Doctor: "Your sister's a real pain. Cost me my research funds."
In a capsule of culture fluid was Musashi, Yamato's sister ship. On the Doctor's desk were two warped stones, one glowing white, the other black.
The story's been all over the place, so it's time to get back on track. Can I do it…? Thanks for sticking with me. Until next time!