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Part 1 of The man who left, my family.
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Published:
2025-09-29
Completed:
2025-10-08
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2,648
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4/4
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I think sometimes... he wants to die

Summary:

Dante is tired of this pain, he has been tired for so long.

~

In a world of pain, Dante only wanted peace. Loved ones are left to cope with the means that got him to it.

Notes:

I projected into Dante cause I love him so much I can barely explain.
Mind the tags, luv, really.
Probably a next chapter with someone (Nero) finding him like that. Dead or alive? I dunno.

Chapter 1: Dead man dying.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Some days? It hurt too much to get distracted or ignore it.

 

Days like this where he couldn't do the simplest thing without feeling the weight of the whole world on his shoulder.



Lady would call him Lazy, even though she never really meant it and she would never bother about money when he was like this



Trish would go with sometime like that too cause those two were the same side of the same coin when it came to a lot of things.



Patty would use loose and uncaring, she knew how wrong both were and always cleaned the shop while he was sinking.



Morrison, god blessed soul, wouldn't say anything or do anything. He knew it for what it actually was and totally aware that Dante didn't want a big deal out of it.



He wondered what Nero would say though.



Nero...



God, he felt even less want to get up and get going again just thinking about that punk nephew of his.



Nero, the only other person left but him who carried the blood of Sparda (what a cold way to say he was family...).



Nero, the one who he barely visited and wouldn't talk to because the boy deserved a better family.



Nero, the son of his brother, the brother he killed with his own blade... but quarter-devil didn't know that.



He didn't want to face the young man like this, ever. Nero knew the better side of him and didn't deserve the messy.



That was the better Dante after all! Cocky, fun, wacky and dope swordsman ship not- not this...



This thing that felt nothing but foreign, all-consuming sadness at mere thought of existing.



He thanked whatever force driving this fucked up world for not having to right there, He didn't think he could manage seeing Nero like this.



God bless all that distance between here and Fortuna. Fortuna was far and the further people were from him the better.



Vergil had been to Fortuna too, right? Probably looking for more things about Sparda... looking for more power.



When would that be, timeline vise?



A bit before the whole tower shit and his fa-



His fall.



Vergil fell.



And Dante didn't catch him.



Dante let his brother fall into hell.



And then killed him when his brother was at his worst.



He felt The Sickness again. Creative naming there, a golden star for himself.



He shifted slightly on his seat, it was normal after all... it had been like this for as long as he could remember.



His stomach was turning with every thought and he once again wished that a bullet could out him just like it would humans.



Vergil managed to die three times and that was unfair in a lot of ways but also that... Dante just wanted one.



Just the darkness, the end, knowing he couldn't hurt anyone ever and maybe...



Maybe he could see Vergil after death.



He would be with his brother again, if only a bullet or a stab would work...



His hand slowly went for one of the twin guns that was on the table and he opened his eyes to look at it. Smooth black sister of those duel guns.



The world went silent as a thought came into his mind...



Maybe if he used enough enchanted bullets it would work.



He could hear everything but nothing as he lifted the familiar gun and titled his head back a bit more to let the cold muzzle nestle under his chin.



How many times could he shoot before passing out? That he was gonna find out.



He didn't take a breathe, he didn't needed it.



BANG



It felt familiar, he kinda liked it. The blood splashed but his ears didn't care to listen and his eyes didn't care to stay looking.



BANG



Don't give it a chance to heal, pro tips. Dante knew that one bullet would be gone too fast.



BANG



Shame, he liked this shirt a lot... and his hair, Now they were both too soaked in red.



BANG



It hurt, painful, he felt like slipping away like wet soap.



BANG



Pain... hard to... thought.



BANG



V-verg...



BANG

 

J-ju-u-st

 

BANG



O-on-ne-e m-o-o-o-re.



BANG



The shop had never been this silent cause the permanent resident's heartbeat had never stopped filling it, not until now.

Notes:

Please tell me how you felt, I would love to hear it! The fact that Dante could shoot forever without running out of bullets though...

Chapter 2: Missed.

Summary:

Nero came to visit Dante to thank for the neon sign and ask some questions. He finds other things instead.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Nero didn't like this.



It was quiet.



Dante was never quiet for all he knew so why would his place of resistance be? It rubbed Nero the wrong way.



Nico kept honking in hopes of Dante coming out but there was nothing happening. Dante was half-demon, he must be hearing it, right?



After 5 more horrible honks too close to hus ears, Nero smashed his fist into the wheel and sighed.



"Stop the shit, Nico, he ain't answering." Nero grumbled and stood up, grabbing red queen on his way to outside the van, "Imma go in an' see what the bastard is up to."



"Maybe he's just out? Ya know, he does gigs on his own too!" Nico said, clearly trying to look nonchalant at the thought of meeting 'the literal legend' as she would put it.



"Morrison said he was at the shop. He's here, just ignoring us." He kicked the vehicle's door open and placed the sword on his back, "Chill, you'll get to meet him today one way or another..."



I'll make sure of it, Nero didn't voice it but he thought as he walked to the front door, rain dropping and making him wet. Too hard of a rain for a summer night.



The shop looked... something.



He had never been here before but it was something he couldn't see Dante living in really. It was a dump, Dante was too flashy for this. He would say this is the wrong place but the devil may cry logo was blinking above the door.



He knocked first. Nothing.



He knocked again. Still nothing.



He tried smashing his fists to the door, as if it would work more than those damn honks.

 



"Dante!" Nero shouted, voice angry and gruff. He was not gonna stand here and soak any longer. "DANTE!"



Yeah, no, he was getting in.



Nero raised his leg and kicked the wooden door light enough to open it and not to make it the new wallpaper... that was when he smelled it.



The awful smell of old rotting blood that made the whole place reek of iron, combined with rotten flesh. Awful shit.



"Oh fuck no..." Quarter-devil looked around the shop as he stepped in, looking for the source of this awful smell.



He found it.



He wished he hadn't.



He wanted to puke.



He puked.



There was no way this was real.



No fucking way in fucking hell.



He looked up again, trying to keep everything left inside.



Blood. A lot of blood splashed on the wall and drained there like a very ugly design in an unsettling horror movie and it was just so fucking disturbing.

 

Why?

 

Why...

 

Why why why why why why WHY.



He was trying but the more he looked the worse it would get.



Dante was there, on an old wooden chair behind a table with head  tilted back and the biggest most gruesome hole under his chin.



Anything left in Nero's stomach left that moment cause he could SEE the wall behind Dante through the giant hole, as if it was a window framed with flesh through Dante's head.



Nero couldn't determine which one was worse, the thing before his eyes or the taste that he felt in his mouth cause of it.

eeHe had never felt like dying the way he did now maybe the moment he thought he had lost Kyrie forever was close but this...

 

Was something else.



He vomited for god knew how long until there was nothing to get out but coughs.



He sat there, hands shaking as he failed to look away from his probable father having his blood on everything, his brain splashed and the worse injury of Nero's short life.



He couldn't move, he couldn't breathe, he could LOOK.AWAY.



Dante was dead.



Shot and brained out.



Nero felt like crying.



Had he really lost the man before he could even get to know him for real? Was the undefeated demon hunter dead? Was this god awful picture before him real?



He didn't want it to be.



But it was.



The blood and the hole and the everything was proving it to be.



Dante, the man Nero knew shared his blood, the swordsman he looked up too, the man he hoped to find a father in... was gone.



And the worst part?



The gun bloodied with the blame was still hanging in the man's hand. The hand that took Dante away from the world was the half-devil's own.



Nero didn't think he could live with that.

Notes:

Might actually add another chapter to show others reacting to this. I just know the girls and Morrison will be devastated.
(Chapter three is already done, make the comment hit 10 and I'll post it)

Chapter 3: Livings feel dead.

Summary:

Morrison, Trish and Lady received something that could easily br the worst news ever.

Notes:

The vibe kinda changes in this chapter and not everyone grieves the same.
Still unsure if that eould be enough to kill Dante but this thing is just OOC shit topping each other so it doesn't really matter.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

"M-morrison."



The voice coming through the line was shaking and the number of caller belonged to the newbie of his hunter network.



"Nero, how are you doing, boy? How was yhe talk with Dante?" Morrison knew it should've been less than ideal for the boy to sound like that, "guessing from your tone not good, I assume?"



"I-I didn't... talk with him, old man."



Nero sounded too troubled, it didn't suit the punk's voice and made the man worried.



"Ah, damn. I should've known he wouldn't answer you like that... sorry, lad, somedays he just feels too off for deep shit like that."



Morrison sighed, his fault for sending the boy over when Dante was going through one of them depressive weeks.



"Why are ya calling then? Want me to kick his sorry ass to talk, huh?" Morrison didn't want to do that really but the sooner he solved it woth the boy the better.



"No, Morrison... it's not that." Now that was bad.



"What is it, boy? Why are you calling then?" He felt slightly worried now, this wasn't sounding good.



"Cause D-dante i- he's- Dante is dead, Morrison."



Morrison pinched himself to wake himself up from this nightmare.




~





"Trish" the voice coming out of the cellphone was the familiar and gruff voice of their broker tinted with a unusual heaviness.



"Morrison, long time no call~ How are you doing without us?" The she-devil teased and let out a chuckle, her patner jumping in right after.



"Yeah, old man, hello!" Lady's tone was almost happy but then Morrison talked again.



"I missed you too, ladies, but this is not about that."



They had never heard the man this serious or sad, it was so off putting that smile left their faces immediately.



"What is it then, Morrison?"



"Dante's dead."



They both vaguely knew how dying felt... this felt worse than dying.




~




Morrison and ladies arrived at the same time to see Nico standing outside the door and looking at something far away with a dazed look of grief.



"Hey, girl-"



"They're inside." Her voice was too blank for the vibrant woman she was, her mind though? Too crowded.



Morrison almost ran in with gun in hand and Trish the same but with Sparda, lady tho... she walked in on slow motion, clinging to the hope that it was all a lie while adjusting the strap that kept her bazooka on her back.



All of them were ready to fight, as if they could fight something like this away.



This could be a misunderstanding, they all thought. Nero was still new to Dante after all, he wouldn't know if the man was dead or just on the way of an inhuman healing.



Morrison couldn't imagine the careless man he first met, the man who defeated gods and changed lives to be simply gone.



Trish still remembered the man who trusted her, knowing full well how risky it was helped her and gave her the chance to be more than a tool of a monster. A man that faced death and came back like him couldn't be dead.



Lady could hear the man who saved her from despair, gave her a new name and the courage to be more than just her revenge. He couldn't be dead.



Nero was wrong, the trio's inner voice told them.



Nero wasn't wrong, the trio's eyes told them.



Everything in front of them was so awful they could barely look away, A quarter-demon silently watched them from his sitting place on a corner with looks of a sick man.



Dante was dead.



Trish felt Sparda falling from her hands and her knees giving out.



The gruesome sight before her and the bloody unmoving pale body of her first, oldest friend was making her cry for the first time since first meeting him.



Dante was gone.



Morrison felt a part of himself dying there.



The gentleman slowly lifted his hat to place it on his chest, bowed his head and closed his eyes. If anyone saw the slight tremble of his lips they didn't care.



Dante was shot to death.



Lady felt anger in ways she had only felt for her mother.



Her best friend was gone and someone had killed him. The man who marked her fresh start and helped him to get the chance of a new day was dead.



Nero looked down again, he had screamed his lungs out for the past hours and broke neon sign of his branch in process. He felt drained.



"Who did this." Lady's voice was low as she approached the table with extra hard steps.



Nero didn't have it in him to answer, two more steps and she would get it anyway.



Two more steps ahead as she tried to not scream at the gore scene that was Dante's head, she rached the side of the table and saw Dante's hands hanging from the side of his chair.



And then the stained red weaponry that was shining in it.



No.



No no no no no no no no no no n-



NO.



"You... you bastard!" Her voice cracked as her tears fell down like a new river.



"YOU AWEFUL BASTARD!" She trembled as she raged to the corpse of the white haired, "HOW COULD YOU???? HOW COULD YOU!!!!"



Trish ran to her lover, jumping up of her kneeling position and tried to stop her from launching for Dante- Dante's body by hugging her from the front.



"Lady, stop it! Why are you doi-" and she saw it too, the gun hanging from Dante's hand cause the finger was still stuck on the trigger hole.



Demoness' grip on the other woman weakened but not letting go, tears pouring out of her eyes like a waterfall. Endlessly.



Nero looked down again, letting his own anger and tears take over as he sat on the corner crying.



"WHY DID YOU DO THIS YOU-" Lady's voice was shaking as she tried to get out of Trish's grip to Dante, "Why... you absolute... selfless... bastard..."



Morrison didn't look at them, he didn't open his eyes or cried a river. He kept the hat on his chest, the eyes away and the slow number of tears quiet... cause he knew the moment he saw the body that no one but Dante himself could've done it.



That day, some lost a savior, some a role model and some a foe. There will be people debating that they lost a friend.



But them? They lost something far more precious that day.



They lost their family, with the knowledge that his life had went bad enough that he himself chose to leave it.

Notes:

Yay, it's done! Tell me what you think pls.
Also, if it gets enough attention I might do a part with Patty or Vergil (just joking, I will do it anyway)

Chapter 4: Announcement

Chapter Text

Vergil reaction is now out there but as a separated work cause it has more focus on Vergil and a different theme. It's put in a series with this work and will be updated to tell the story that will happen at DMC5's place in this world cause Dante will not be coming back. Ever.

https://ao3-rd-3.onrender.com/works/72119251

(The patty episode will be out here though)

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