Chapter Text
Nelo Angelo entered the room, carrying a box of "round breads with cheese topping" - his solemn way of naming his little brother’s absolute favorite food, which he had to sneak past hordes of demon sentries just to procure.
The room was unusually quiet, devoid of the thunderous snores and the familiar clatter of the rock record player. Nelo approached the large bed, draped in a magnificent pink sheet, which Dante had insisted on buying because he disliked the gloomy castle, only to approach a tiny figure nestled in the middle of the bed instead of his large brother, who should have been sprawled out as usual.
"Dante, wake..."
The sight before him left the Dark Knight speechless for five seconds. On the enormous pink bed, the tall, white-haired demon hunter was nowhere to be seen. Instead, right in the middle of the bed sat a tiny kitten, nestled comfortably in Dante's Perfect Amulet necklace. The huge silver chain coiled into a "fence", perfectly encircling the kitten, who is no bigger than his fist.
The kitten had pale cream fur, but its four paws, two ears, and entire face were stained a dark, sun-tanned brown, looking as if it had just crawled out of a chimney. It looked up at Nelo with its bright blue, round eyes, then opened its tiny mouth and yawned loudly, revealing several sharp little teeth.
"Meow..." ("Brother, where's my pizza?")
The atmosphere within Mallet had warped into something profoundly and absurdly peculiar.
Nelo Angelo, the Dark Knight under the Demon King Mundus, a warrior whose mere name sent shivers down the spines of lesser demons, was currently standing in a bedroom on the highest floor of the castle. In his massive, armored hand rested not his greatsword crackling with purple lightning, but a small wooden box exhaling the warm, rich aroma of melted cheese and roasted meat. After an agonizing battle to reclaim a fragment of his own lost memories and sanity, Nelo had quietly stowed Dante away in this hidden chamber. To Mundus, Dante was an unpardonable thorn in the side. Yet, under Nelo’s discreet, protective shadow, this secluded room had temporarily become a sanctuary, a fragile haven in the heart of hell.
Nelo Angelo stared blankly at his thieving younger brother, now transformed into an even more insignificant form than before. He bent down, extending his enormous, armored index finger, and lightly poked the amulet. The necklace emitted a familiar faint red light before fading away; it was indeed a memento from his deceased mother, and the demonic energy humming within it was affectionately wrapping around the tiny kitten like a warm blanket.
The Amulet could never lie.
The lingering curse from yesterday’s chaotic skirmish had finally taken effect. The younger Son of Sparda... had officially been turned into a brown-faced, hilariously smug Siamese kitten.
"Mew" ("What are you staring at, big guy?")
Seeing the giant armored finger outstretched before it, the mini-Dante showed not a single shred of fear. Instead, using its two short, chocolate-brown front paws, it happily wrapped around Nelo’s cold metal finger. It rubbed its arrogant, smudged face against the cold steel plate, purring loudly and vibrantly with immense satisfaction.
Nelo stood there like a statue. That haughty demeanor, that utter lack of self-preservation, and that unmistakably goofy face... A long, heavy sigh escaped through the slits of his helm. Exercising the absolute pinnacle of his fine motor control, Nelo used two giant armored fingers to delicately "chopstick-pick" his little brother up into the air, bringing him to eye level. He held his breath, terrified that a single slip of force would accidentally squish the little nuisance into a pancake.
"Is this... the absolute apex of your demonic power?" Nelo muttered, his voice dripping with utter helplessness.
Suspended in mid-air, kitten Dante immediately began flailing its four stubby brown legs, paddling uselessly against the atmosphere and protesting with indignant "Nyaw Nyaw" demanding to be put back down.
Nelo carefully lowered him back into the center of the silver Amulet on the pink bed. He unlatched the wooden box, picked out a tiny piece of melted cheese no larger than a pea, and placed it right in front of his brother's dark brown nose.
Kitten Dante twitched his nose, his blue eyes lighting up like high-beam headlights. Without a second thought, he pounced, grabbing the cheese with his tiny paws and happily chewing away, his little jaws working in overdrive as he devoured the treat.
Nelo pulled up a chair and sat down, crossing his heavy arms as he watched the tiny, sun-tanned kitten reign supreme over the giant pink bed.
In so long, grueling years of his time serving the Demon King, the stoic Black Angel felt a very different, very human kind of headache beginning to throb behind his helmet.
Breaking this curse, it seemed, was going to cost him a lot of cheese.