High School DxD: Scattered Cherry Blossoms

Several hours later, Dante woke up. As he surveyed his surroundings, He noticed James seated not far from his location.

"Looks like sleeping beauty is awake." James said with a teasing smile.

"Shut up." Dante said groggily.

"Looks like you got your ass kicked again." James also said with a smile.

"Seriously, shut up." Dante said with more force.

"Okay, okay." James said with a shrug of his shoulders. "I guess your attitude means that it's not my turn yet, huh?"

"You're damn right." Dante said with anger. "Vergil stole the only thing I had left from my mother, and I'm gonna get it back."

As his words fell, Dante punched one of the pillars erected on the top of the tower. After a moment, the spot where Dante's fist impacted the pillar exploded, leaving a large crater in its place.

Shrugging his shoulders once again, James informed Dante.

"I can feel Vergil's presence underneath the tower, so we should..."

Before James could finish, Dante rushed for the side of the tower and jumped. On his way down, Dante dispatched a multitude of flying undead with his unique aerial combat style. Eventually, his descent was cut short when a large serpentine undead creature swallowed him.

From the top of the Temen-ni-gru, James watched Dante's thrilling aerial battle. When Dante was swallowed, James sighed.

"*Sigh* Seriously? If you had only listened. Well, what would I expect from a meathead?"

With that, James created a teleportation circle, then teleported to the ground.

Meanwhile, Dante found himself inside the beast that swallowed him, surrounded by hordes of low-level undead. While fighting his way through the horde, Dante was thinking.

'James was standing right there? Why the hell did I jump? I could have asked him to teleport me to the ground then found an entrance and continued chasing Vergil.'

Understanding that it was too late to cry over spilled milk, Dante made his way through the serpent destroying the undead along the way. Eventually he entered a chamber with a suspended mass of flesh that resembled a liver. At that moment, Dante concluded that the fastest way out of the serpent was to kill it. And the most efficient way to do that would be to destroy its internal organs. With a new mission, Dante made his way through the serpent's body destroying undead and internal organs alike. After destroying what he identified as its heart, a feeling of weightlessness took over.

*Boom!*

Outside the tower, the sun had risen. And the young woman from before was searching for a new entrance. And just as she found one, a massive creature fell from the sky not too far from her current location. When it contacted the ground, the entire island shook briefly.

Inside the tower, Vergil stopped his steps and turned his head in the direction of the impact. At the same time, Arkham twitched an eyebrow, then continued with what he was working on.

Once the dust settled from the impact, the young woman was able to identify the fallen creature as a large serpent, slowly she approached the creature to assess its threat level. When she was close enough, she stopped and observed its state. After a moment, she noticed its eye twitch, which made her draw her pistol and a submachine gun from the holsters on her hip and lower back. Prepared to fire at a moment's notice, she watched as the eye was burst from the inside. And out came Dante, the devil she had run into twice, the night before. Coming face to face once again, Dante was the first to speak.

"Are you stalking me?" Dante said, covered in blood as he was, he still tried to put on what he thought was a charming smile. "If you're here to ask for a date, I decline. Girls who shoot me in the head are not really my type."

"Me?" The young woman asked, clearly not amused. "Date a devil, not in this life."

Hearing that, Dante drew one of his pistols and pointed it in the young woman's direction. Shifting it slightly to the side, Dante pulled the trigger. Behind the young woman, an undead's head exploded into chunks. Dante then drew his other pistol and the two stood back-to-back, firing on the horde of undead that had surrounded them.

"So, why is a lady like you all the way out here in a place like this?" Dante asked, deciding to make a bit of small talk.

"It's none of your business." the young woman replied.

"Well... What's your name?" Dante asked, trying his best to keep the conversation going.

"I don't have one." The young woman replied curtly.

"Then what should I call you?" Dante asked, yet again.

"Call me whatever you want!" The young woman shouted in annoyance.

"Whatever, Lady." Dante responded, also in annoyance before jumping away to the nearby entrance to the Temen-ni-gru. "I'll leave that to you; I got places to go. People to see, and all that shit."

Dante then left Lady, a name that would stick with her for the foreseeable future, behind to deal with the undead horde on her own. After a few minutes, just as she was getting overwhelmed by the numbers, Lady heard a calm voice.

"Scatter, [Senbonzakura]."

After that, a cloud of floating cherry blossom petals made its way through the horde. Wherever it passed, there was nothing but piles of mushy undead in its wake. Seeing that the undead had been taken care of, Lady also made her way into the Temen-ni-gru.

Meanwhile, Dante had made his way into what appears to be an auditorium. As he approached the stage, he was greeted by a beautiful woman who was naked from the waste up. Dante, prepared for another battle, drew Rebellion from his back. But instead of taking a battle stance, the half-naked woman strode toward Dante, swaying her hips in a seductive manner. When she drew near, she reached out with her left hand and began stroking Dante's cheek.

"My, oh my." the woman said in a seductive tone. "Sparda was quite the handsome devil. But you, his son, are quite the looker yourself."

Dante, however, did not respond. At the same time, electricity began dancing on the woman's lowered right hand. Before she could raise it to strike, Dante plunged Rebellion through her chest, nailing her to the floor.

"How?" the woman asked as blood seeped from her mouth and chest.

"It's really quite simple," Dante began to explain, "Everything in this tower wants me dead. I didn't think you'd be any different. And when you mentioned my father, any doubt that might have been there, would have vanished completely."

"Damn you!" the woman shrieked as she mustered the remainder of her strength to strike at Dante.

Before she could do so, however, she found one of Dante's pistols pointed at the spot between her eyebrows.

"Maybe next time, beautiful."

*Bang!*

After that, the half-naked woman lay lifelessly on the floor. Dante then raised a hand in her direction and a glowing sphere exited her body. When Dante took hold of it, it transformed into a literal electric guitar. With the guitar in his hands, Dante felt it necessary to test its quality which led to an impromptu heavy metal performance. One completely with electric laser light shows and pyrotechnics.

*Clap!* *Clap!* *Clap!*

Once the performance was over, the sound of a one-man applause came from the audience seating in the auditorium. Looking in the direction where the sound came from, Dante found James giving a standing ovation.

"Although heavy metal isn't really my cup of tea, the performance was pretty good. Eight out of ten, at least." James said, giving his evaluation. "The only thing I couldn't figure out is where the fireworks came from. I can understand the laser light show, but the fireworks have me completely stumped."

Ignoring James' nonsense, Dante instead asked a question.

"So, did you help the girl?" Dante asked nonchalantly.

"Oh, you noticed I was there, huh?" James asked in amusement.

"You think I would have left while there were so many of them if I didn't?" Dante asked in annoyance.

"You're quite the tsundere, aren't you, Dante?" James asked with a chuckle.

Dante just left, knowing that nothing good would come from engaging in a war of words with the younger boy.

Watching Dante walk away, James muttered to himself, "You're no fun." Then Flash Stepped away to continue shadowing Dante.

After another short while traversing the Temen-ni-gru, Dante came across another guardian. This one, a large bipedal canine with wings of light, a scorpion-like tail, and a scar over one of its eyes, flew into a rage upon catching sight of Dante.

"You, you have that traitor's scent." the guardian howled in fury. "You must be that traitorous Sparda's seed."

"Wow, with a nose like yours, it's no wonder you look like a dog." Dante said mockingly.

"How dare you!?" the guardian howled in anger once again. "I'll rip you to shreds!"

"Aw... Does the puppy want to play." Dante said, continuing his mockery. "Come on fido, let's play."

Enraged, the guardian charged at Dante. Narrowly avoiding the charge, Dante drew Rebellion and slashed. Shifting its body at the last possible moment, the guardian avoided a fatal wound and wisely decided to retreat.

"You may have bested me for now, but I shall return to destroy you." the guardian howled as it flew away on its wings of light. "I will hunt you to the ends of hell, if need be."

"Man, what's up with all the cliché villain lines I've heard since I got here." Dante said while scratching his head.

"It's because there are a bunch of cliché villains here." James said matter of factly as he appeared next to Dante. "I mean, everyone here wants to take over the world, works/worked for someone who wants to take over the world, or wants to gain all the power in the world. If not cliché villains, then what do you call them."

"I guess you're right." Dante said, nodding in agreement. "Well, I'll get going again."

Then Dante started moving again. James, of course, continued to shadow him.

Meanwhile, Vergil was confronting Arkham.

"Would you care to explain why you didn't kill the girl when you two met on the top of the tower?" Vergil asked with displeasure in his tone.

"I left her alive because I did not think it necessary to kill her." Arkham replied calmly.

Looking over Arkham skeptically, Vergil approached the middle-aged man.

"I don't know what you're planning." Vergil said with his hand on his sword's hilt.

*Shing!*

"But it ends here." He said as he swiftly drew the blade and ran it through Arkham's chest.

As Vergil withdrew the blade from Arkham's body, he turned away. Without the support of Vergil and his blade, Arkham collapsed. Vergil on the other hand never looked back and continued to the ritual room where he would have his final confrontation with Dante.

A while later, after Dante broke through the corridors and puzzles blocking his way, he came across Arkham. Noticing this was the same man who provoked him into coming here Dante figured that he and Vergil must have had a falling out. As Dante was checking Arkham's injuries, Lady also found her way into the chamber, only to find Dante standing over a dying man.

At the same time, thinking he had found Dante again, the guardian who had escaped from Dante earlier on ran into Vergil.

"Now that I've found you again, I will kill you and erase Sparda's bloodline from this world." the angry guardian growled.

In response, Vergil placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and said, "Is that so?"