Author's note: This chapter doesn't have a lot of action, but it does set up some of the future plot developments that are going to take place.

Chapter 4: A New Enemy

Being a hunter meant a lot of things. It meant being ready to put one's life on the line. And being ready to do that anytime, any place. It also meant being ready to be called into action. Being ready to fight. And it meant being ready to receive news. Bad news. Glynda Goodwitch was no exception to this preparedness. As a seasoned huntress, she had been in her share of fights… and received her share of bad news. One thing that didn't change though, we how awful it felt. No matter how many times she went through it, her heart still stopped for a moment every time she received a message saying someone she knew had been injured… or killed.

And so, when her Scroll received an alert saying that team CFVY had returned and were hurt, her ever-present poise was thrown aside as she rushed to the airfield. She sprinted past confused teacher and student alike, down the halls. Arriving, she found that the Bullhead had already landed, and her students were being wheeled away on stretchers by emergency medical personnel. Making her way over, she promptly asked the first question on her mind, the most important one.

"Are they going to be all right?"

The medical staff continued, not stopping or slowing down, but one of them answered her as he passed by.

"They're stable for now, but they've taken a lot of damage. We'll be treating them."

Glynda watched them wheel Team CFVY away. Her students were unconscious, and on respiratory support. Yatsuhashi, Fox, and Coco. But Velvet wasn't among them. Heart racing, she looked around, searching for the Faunus, and spotted her emerging from the Bullhead, stepping down the ramp. Feeling a tremendous sense of relief that she seemed unhurt, she approached her.

"Miss Scarlatina! What happened?"

How? How could things have turned out like this?

"Professor Goodwitch!" Velvet likewise was happy to see her familiar teacher. Although neither the team nor the instructor would admit it, CFVY were her favourites. While Glynda would never actually discriminate between students, she got along well with these four, and they felt the same about her. As such, seeing her after the nightmarish experience that the mission had been, felt comforting to the young girl. But she had asked a question. One that had to be answered.

"We encountered the one responsible for the deaths of those villagers."

"What was it?" asked the veteran huntress. "What kind of Grimm could have done this to you?"

Second years at Beacon were formidable warriors, and even among them, CFVY were exceptional. Nothing short of the most elite of Grimm could have done such damage to them.

Velvet's blood still ran cold when she thought about the being.

"He… was no Grimm," she said.

"What?!"

Velvet shook her head.

"There are no Grimm like that. We should have known right away. He didn't look anything like any of the entries in the school records. We should have run, but we didn't have the chance."

Glynda saw the horror on the young girl's face as she recalled whatever enemy it was she and her team had had to face. She needed to know more, but she was reluctant to press Velvet for more answers.

Fortunately, someone else was willing to speak.

"No, you didn't. In that situation, running would have been a mistake. All of you made the right choice. And you saved your team."

Walking towards them was the man in red, Dante.

"You," said Glynda, glaring at him with anger. "You were supposed to ensure that the mission went smoothly."

Her true message, unspoken, was evident.

You were supposed to protect them! You were supposed to make sure they didn't get hurt!

Although she didn't actually say those words, even Velvet could sense that she was misunderstanding the situation.

"Dante saved our lives," she said, loud and clear. "It wasn't his fault. He told us not to look for the enemy without him. We disobeyed his instruction and went into the forest. It was our mistake, Professor Goodwitch."

Glynda turned to stare at her in dismay. Disobeying a direct order from the highest ranking hunter on site, and the most experienced one, was not only against all regulations, it was downright foolish. Normally, she would have chastised a student for that, and given them enough detention that they'd never forget that. But, given the circumstances, it seemed they had already learned their lesson, the hard way.

Dante knew this too, as he decided to take this chance to get the conversation back on track.

"Everyone makes mistakes. Let's just be happy everyone got out of there alive and in one piece."

Glynda took a deep breath and decided to accept this way of looking at it. There was nothing else to be done.

But there were still questions that needed answering.

"What was it you encountered out there?" she asked Dante sharply.

The devil hunter pointedly looked at the other students gathered around them. A small crowd had formed when people had seen Team CFVY being wheeled away on stretchers.

"I understand," the huntress said. "We should debrief properly. The headmaster will want to hear about this too."

The walk to Ozpin's office was silent, tense. Dante sighed. When he had arrived in Remnant, and found that this world had its own enemies, enemies that were widely known, he had immediately fought against them. And then, he had been welcomed in one of the institutes that trained people to join that fight. This was good. For the first time in his life, he had been given the chance to live openly, in a world where those who fought monsters were not only known, but respected and accepted. It had been a chance to start anew, and change himself for the better, get his life on a better track. Life, however, never goes according to plan. Dante had come to Remnant… but the horrors he had fought had followed him to this world. Things had just gotten more complicated.

The metal sliding doors to the headmaster's office opened, allowing the three of them in.

Ozpin, who was always aware and notified of the status of all student and professional teams on missions, already knew that CFVY had returned, and that three of its members were in the medical wing, being treated for injuries. He looked at Velvet Scarlatina, the lone girl who had managed to emerge unhurt. And then, his gaze travelled to Dante.

"What happened out there?" he asked, without preamble.

Velvet looked at Dante. From the way things looked, he had experience with others like the archer that had attacked them. He would be able to explain better than she could.

Dante spoke slowly. This world already had problems to deal with. Telling them that more existed wasn't an enviable task.

"Team CFVY ran into the one that was terrorizing that village. He was responsible for the missing villagers, and I'm pretty sure he killed all of them."

The use of the pronoun "he" did not go unnoticed by Ozpin. Generally, Grimm were without gender. Also, their status as beings of unlife, mindless, lifeless creatures that only existed to seek out negativity and devour humans, meant that they were regarded as monsters. On the other hand, something about the way Dante had said that word showed that whatever he was talking about was an entity, a conscious one.

"And what was he?" asked Ozpin, narrowing his eyes.

"A demon," replied Dante.

Both Glynda and Ozpin stared at the man in red.

"A demon?" repeated Glynda. Was he… being metaphoric? No, that couldn't be. The matter-of-fact, completely natural way in which he said it showed that he wasn't exaggerating in the slightest. In fact, it was the opposite, as if this was an everyday fact of life, which he was very much used to. Also, given some of the secrets she was privy to, such as the existence of magic…

"A demon…" said Ozpin. Unlike Glynda, he had heard that name before, and not just in the context of stories. The twin gods that had existed long ago, had shaped Remnant. There had been other gods too, but they had not come to this world. And certain statements had been attributed to the twins. Statements about demons.

"So they exist," whispered the headmaster, almost to himself.

"They do," confirmed Dante.

"But why come to this world now, when they haven't done so for thousands of years?" asked Ozpin. It was true. Since the age of the twins, and even during it, no demons had come to Remnant. Why suddenly come now?

And the answer hit him right away.

They were visitors from another world.

Just like one other person. Who happened to be standing in that very room at the moment.

"You're giving me a look like you just figured something out, Ozzy," said Dante.

"You've dealt with them before," said Ozpin. "With demons."

It explained his power and skills. Why he was such a formidable warrior despite not being from Remnant.

"I've been fighting them my whole life," said Dante. "Back where I come from, my profession isn't too different from what you're all doing here. I hunt demons."

"I… cannot believe this. Demons actually exist then?" said Glynda. "But if that is true, we would need to prepare to fight them-"

"Don't be a fool," said Dante, with uncharacteristic harshness. "This is not a job for-" He stopped himself just short of what he was about to say.

Humans.

This is not a job for humans.

"It's not something you can handle," he amended himself, though the fact that he had just hidden something from them was noticed by Ozpin.

"We have been fighting the Grimm for centuries now," said Glynda. "We possess the collected knowledge of all the generations that have fought them! If demons exist, then we can fight them!"

Dante glared at her.

"And I'm telling you, it's not enough. None of you have ever met demons."

He looked at Velvet.

"She has. And she'll gladly tell you the same thing I'm telling you. Grimm are not the same as demons."

"How are they so different?" asked Ozpin.

Dante wondered where to even begin.

"Demon" was the name given to their kind, but that name encompassed so many different kinds of beings.

Dante had fought them all.

Demons that could create illusions. Demons that could control minds. Demons that could create lightning. Demons that could command fire. Demons with claws, fangs, swords, and every other kind of weapon.

Even a demon that had been capable of creating an entire universe, just to have a fitting battlefield to settle an age old grudge.

Demons could be little more than bloodthirsty, oversized insects. Or they could be the very embodiment of abstract concepts, possessing power not even comprehensible for humans. They varied widely.

There was no way to give them a general description that fit them all.

"They're alive," Dante said simply. That would begin to convey some of their horror. "Demons are alive. They can very well exist without human flesh, though choosing to feed on them has certain benefits. In other words, they don't hunt humans because they have to. They do it because they want to. Because they enjoy it. Above all, they're intelligent. Some of them are smarter than most humans. Many of them know things no humans do."

Dante still recalled that Mundus had been able to create Trish, create an actual, intelligent living being, just because he wanted to.

He looked Ozpin in the eye.

"The Grimm are a horde of mindless beasts that only know how to kill. No matter how creative they get, they're still limited. Demons? They've got no restrictions on them. They're smart, and they do whatever they want. You've been waging war on the Grimm, not against them. You want war? The demons will give you one. Does that answer your question?"

It did.

From what Ozpin had been able to conclude from the very sparse mentions of demons from the twins, he had assumed they were beings of incredible power.

But being confronted with the reality of that fact was vastly different from thinking of them as beings who were effectively myth, since they would never come to Remnant.

But if they were here, then no matter how difficult it might be, they would have to prepare to fight them.

"Dante… you say you are a demon hunter. It is obvious you have experience in this field that we do not. We are not, as you say, ready to handle the task. But given time, could you prepare us to handle it?"

Dante considered the question. If he were to be entirely honest, he had thought something like this might happen.

Back in his own world, there were humans who fought demons. But they were extremely rare.

In the first place, there was Vergil, Nero and himself. But they possessed demonic power themselves.

There had also been the Order of the Sword back in Fortuna. The knights of that Order had been capable of fighting lower level demons. Dante would place them on the same level as the average hunter from Remnant. But those knights had used dark rituals or technology to harness demonic power in one form or the other. Very few of them would have fought them entirely with human potential.

There were also the Umbra Witches, like Bayonetta, and the Lumen Sages, who called upon demonic and angelic power respectively, and were extremely strong.

That wasn't to say that weren't those who could do it.

On the few occasions Dante had been to Asia, he had met human martial artists who had learned to harness their body's bio-energy or natural ki, to boost themselves to superhuman levels of strength and athleticism. This they had used in conjunction with their fighting skills to devastating effect. Calling them Street Fighters was really lowballing them.

That Ryu fellow was a nice guy. Come to think of it, didn't he tell me he's ended up in other worlds before? I should have believed him.

There were also humans who had developed technology that granted them incredible power. Dante recalled vividly what Leon Kennedy had told him about the experimentation happening in Umbrella Corp.

And finally, there were a few batshit crazy humans who fought demons using nothing except their natural brawn, the skill they developed, and an arsenal of weapons.

Putting things in context, Lady was actually an absolute badass.

If he considered all of that…

It was possible for humans to fight demons. Extremely dangerous and difficult, but still possible.

He looked at Ozpin.

"All right, listen. I'll let you in on something. There probably aren't very many demons in this world."

This was true.

That one villager's account had given Dante an idea of what might have happened.

When Dante and Vergil had destroyed the Vergil, the released energy had caused a hole to open up in reality. That portal led back to Dante's home, but it also led to other worlds. So it had carried him to Remnant. It was entirely possible that similar holes had opened up elsewhere in the underworld, and some demons had used it, and ended up in Remnant.

But considering that those were the absolute last vestiges of the Qliphoth's power, not too many portals would have opened up.

This was confirmed by the fact that Remnant had had no news reports talking about absolute apocalypse.

Meaning, the presence of demons here would only be small and isolated cases, like the one Dante had just taken care of.

Of course, there was no reason to explain all of that to Ozpin. Dante knew the man was hiding things from him. And it wouldn't do to reveal his hand to someone like that.

So he decided to give a different explanation.

"Demons are from a place called the underworld. They can't just cross over whenever they feel like it. Lower level demons can crawl through from small openings that occasionally form. But I think Remnant's hunters can handle them. The threat is the higher level demons. And they can't get through at all, normally. The only way for them to get through is for someone to rip open a massive portal between worlds. And if that happened, you'd have a worldwide invasion on your hands. Since that isn't the case, there's only one possibility I can think of: the portal I came here through had a few openings, and some demons probably used them to cross over. They shouldn't be an issue though."

"And why is that?" asked Ozpin.

"Because I'm here," said Dante. "If any suspicious cases show up, I'm the one you should come to. Definitely don't send students on any of the stranger missions for now."

Ozpin carefully considered everything Dante had said.

While his explanation made sense, there were still many things he didn't know about Dante.

How exactly did he have the power to fight demons in the first place? If Aura-empowered students couldn't do it, then how could he?

There was no way for Ozpin to know, for now.

He'd have to find a way around that.

But there was another issue too.

Dante was a temporary solution. There needed to be a way to handle demons without him.

"Even so. Could you not train our students to be at least somewhat prepared, in case they run into demons unexpectedly?"
He deliberately worded the request that way, so that Dante's refusal would come across as a refusal to help, rather than a refusal meant to protect the students.

Well played, Ozpin. But two can play at that game.

Dante grinned.

"All right. That makes sense. Fine, I'll do it."

Ozpin was about to breathe a sigh of relief, when Dante decided to flip the script.

"However, I'm going to pick who I teach. Not everyone's cut out for the demon hunting life, ya know? I'm only going to train the ones I think are ready."

Anger flashed for a moment on Ozpin's face, but Dante saw it. The headmaster knew they were back at a deadlock.

The man in red truly was inscrutable. It was almost unthinkable that a single person could negotiate against the representative of an entire kingdom, as well as a school for hunters. Yet, Dante was doing it, and Ozpin could not afford to alienate him.

The legendary devil hunter's battle power alone meant that making an enemy of him was a bad idea. And then, there were all the secrets he was hiding.

"Very well," said the headmaster, nodding. "Do you have any idea who's going to be in your new class?"

Dante made a thinking gesture, then turned to Velvet, who took a moment to realize what he was implying.

"Eh?!"

"What do you say, kid? You want to find out how not to be in a situation like that again?"

Velvet was terrified. The thought of ever having to face a monster like Orion again was scary. But… she didn't ever want to feel helpless like that again. And the only way to conquer fear was to face it.

"I… I want to do it", she said.

Glynda chose this moment to intervene.

"Wait a minute, Miss Scarlatina. Are you sure about this?"

Did she really want to face the source of her trauma again, so soon after barely surviving it the first time?
"She seems like her mind's made up," said Dante.

Glynda whipped around to face him.

"You-!"

She couldn't justifiably be angry at him. After all, he had actually saved CFVY. He wasn't responsible for them being in that situation at all in the first place. Still, for some reason, she was reluctant to allow her students to face another demon, after what had happened the first time.

Yet, she couldn't refuse them an opportunity they willingly took. An opportunity all the other students were free to take, provided Dante chose them.

It would be unfair, it would be favouritism.

She saw only one way out of that situation.

"You will accept me into that class as well," she said to Dante.

"Eh? But I'm the one supposed to be teaching it."

"That's quite all right. I'll be joining in to learn. After all, those of us who are already qualified hunters also need to learn how to combat this threat, wouldn't you say?"

Glynda smiled tightly. She wasn't entirely sold on this idea, and she was definitely going to be around to make sure things didn't go bad.

Dante thought it over for a moment, then shrugged.

"Fair enough. I was probably going to ask at least one other faculty member anyway."

As a matter of fact, it was advantageous in some ways if it was her. While she could be strict about rules and sticking to established procedure, she wasn't hiding ulterior motives the same way Ozpin was. Yet, the headmaster trusted her. So having her present would mean he wouldn't attempt to place another staff member in class to attempt to get information out of him.

Having settled the matter, the devil hunter made his way out of the office. Dealing with all of these politics made him tired. Since it was already nearing evening, he was planning on getting a light nap before dinner.

On his way back to his personal quarters, however, he got a message on a device he had, which Ozpin didn't know about.

A second Scroll.

This one had been given to him by a certain expert thief, to be used only for communicating with him.

2030 hours, warehouse 10.

That was what the message said.

Well, it looked like that nap wasn't going to happen. Suddenly, he had plans for the evening.

Elsewhere:

Roman Torchwick tapped his cane impatiently on the ground as he waited.

It was several minutes more before he heard footsteps approaching, and looked up to see her approaching.

"Took you long enough," he said. "You do know what punctuality is, don't you?"

The woman waved away his question.

"I doubt I missed anything important", she said.

Roman clenched his teeth, but said nothing.

Given who the woman was working for, it was in his best interests to not antagonize her, no matter how much he disliked her.

"Are things going according to plan?"

"We hit a few bumps," Roman admitted reluctantly. "But yes, we are on schedule. Largely thanks to the new recruit."

"The new recruit, hmm? I'm curious to meet him."