Chapter 136: Still Angry.
The girl’s soft, childish voice stirred something in Dante’s chest. A complicated emotion, one born from several others. After struggling to suppress it, he wore his easygoing smile once more, not wanting to make the girl worry.
"Good? Maybe excellent." He replied. "I have been a little busy lately, but you’ve got nothing to worry about."
"I see." She turned her gaze to the front once more, still smiling. "That’s good to hear."
"You thought I wouldn’t survive on my own, didn’t you?"
"You can’t blame me, can you?"
Glancing at each other, the two burst out laughing. Dante couldn’t remember when was the last time he had allowed himself to laugh like that, but unfortunately, it didn’t last long. The strange sensation in his chest shifted once more, slowly rousing from its slumber, quickly banishing the happiness that forced it awake.
As his laughter died, his gaze fell to his lap, and silence overtook him. He noticed that his hands were no longer those of the young boy, having turned to the scarred, metal-enhanced hands of the youth he had turned into. The rest of his body had changed as well, and so did his clothes.
The girl beside him remained the same, which brought his attention to how much taller he had grown since they last met. A short while later, the words flowed out of his mouth in a faint whisper, a hint of pain making it into his voice.
"It’s been four years, huh?"