Chapter 6
Shirou sprang across the cobblestone ground, reinforcing himself to levels he had never done before. A roar and the giant thumps on the ground told him he was being chased, his body cracked under the exertion.
Pulling away from the beast he ducked under a semi broken fence and slid into the street below. Gasping for air, Shirou stumbled in the alley for a brief relieving break, before the beast jumped down to join him.
"Damn it, you just don't give up do you? Man, what were you eating to get that big… never mind I don't think I want to know." As if in response the beast gave out an echoing screech and swiped at Shirou with its vicious claws.
"Jeez, Onii-chan you really want to die don't you?"
Suddenly the beast stopped its strike midway as if something was holding it. Then in a flash of fine silver strings the beast was shredded.
Shirou could only stare in awe at the little girl who reminded him so very much of a winter fairy.
"You know it's rude to stare Onii-chan."
"Ah yes… thank you miss…" he trailed off, not knowing her name.
"Eeeh, Onii-chan doesn't know his cute little sister?" the girl sighed disappointment. Mumbling something in a language he wasn't familiar with, but he doubted that it mattered.
And what's all this about being his sister? He had come to accept that there was some really bizarre shit going on in the world and especially in this city.
But a little fairy like girl who not only dispatches a beast at least ten times her size, with what he was pretty sure was magecraft and then to declare him as her Onii-chan (using his home country's title for big brother despite the rest of the conversation being in English was plain weird) all in the span of a few seconds? That took the cake.
Shaking her head she began to sway towards him in an innocent manner, lightly humming a tune as she came closer. "Mou, what am I going to do with you Onii-chan? Well I guess I could just leave you here for now and come back later. Hmmm but that would you could die to something that's not me. And that's not allowed to happen." She sighs with cutely annoyed face.
"W-what?" Shirou stuttered.
"Eh? Oh right. Well sorry Onii-chan, guess you're just going to have to die now." She giggled coming to a stop right in front of him, leaning her head towards him she grinned.
"Bye bye." Then in a flash of silver, his head was falling to the ground.
Confusion followed by realisation as his head tumbled on the ground.
'Oh my head been cut off.' He was dead and despite not wanting to die, he could do nothing as his conscience slip away and his body followed his head.
The last thing he saw was the girl walking away before his eyes closed for the last time.
Light mist covered the cobblestone ground as he awoke. The hum of wind tingle his ears and to Shirou, he couldn't help but smell something more mystical about the area. A powerful and ancient scent that gave him a minor headache when he focused on it.
"H-how am I here?" he croaked, before steading himself as he rose.
Then through the mist he saw a house surrounded by graves, looking around he realised that the graves were everywhere. Suddenly, Shirou heard a myriad of groans and croaks that came from the ground in front of him.
Black and silver mist formed with decrepit little beings appearing before him, their faces were a bizarre amalgamation that reminded Shirou of a corpse that had been mutilated. However despite their uncanny look, they did not seem hostile and were touching his boots and gazing up at him almost in reverence.
"Ah a new hunter. Welcome, we did not expect you to arrive so soon." Shirou jolted and look up from the little creatures to where he had heard the soft voice originate from.
By the house stood a life size human doll, it was dressed in fine, detailed clothes that seemed to be made for a maid yet at the same time, a rich noble lady. Her face and details were flawless and she was a head higher than himself, all of which accentuated her ethereal grace and charm.
"It rarely occurs for two hunters to be dreaming at the same time. Yet… perhaps it is because he has been here so long that the dream no longer sees him as any different from itself." The doll softly spoke, yet whether she spoke to Shirou or to herself he could not tell.
"W-where I am? …who are you?" Shirou asked once he had enough control to ignore the headache and burn of his muscles.
"My apologies new hunter, this is the dream. It is where hunters like yourself go to once they have died. It is a safe-haven to which you can use to strengthen yourself to combat the beastly scourge.
"What…" he breathed. A dream? Combat the scourge? Hunter like himself? He hadn't been in Yharnam for very long, yet here was a talking, standing, living doll who had said, this was some form of afterlife yet he was meant to fight beasts back in Yharnam.
His father had told him that there were 5 true magics in the world and each of them was said to do the impossible in terms of human technology and understanding of the world. The third true magic, Heavens feel was the materialisation of the soul.
And this means whatever this dream was, must be some form of the third magic.
"N-no way…" he murmured, from what his father had told him the third magic was lost when the third magician disappeared almost a thousand years ago.
"How can this place even exist?" he asked the doll, this time though she pondered the thought before replying.
"The dream was created by Gherman the first hunter, through a contract with Flora, a great one." She explained plainly.
"Great one? Like those strange beings that the healing church worship?" Shirou said, astounded by what he had heard. With his time with the Gascoigne family, he had asked Henryk and Gascoigne what the great ones were exactly.
"Gods, lad. That's the easiest way to describe them, no one really knows what they are completely. However we know they used to be physical beings similar to molluscs before they ascended this plain of reality. Leaving there bodies behind in great tombs." Henryk reached and grabbed a vial of blood dangling it to Shirou as he continued.
"It's their blood that we use for healing. It was discovered in those very tombs by scholars before the church was ever created. That is why they are worshiped and researched for the goal of the church has always been the communion and ascension to the gods." He finished looking out as the dawn rose over Yharnam.
"Though I doubt we will ever reached that before the blood destroys us." Henryk sighed, pocketing the vial and turning to face the half-transformed beasts whom had just noticed their presence.
"Well no point in pondering the beings above us when we have some animals vying for our attention. Come on let's give 'em a greeting shall we? A proper hunter's greeting." He spoke as he tricked his vicious saw cleaver.
Shirou drew his attention back to the present, back to the doll who stood silently before him as if waiting instruction. Shirou clenched his fist in frustration at his situation, if only he hadn't been so slow in his search for the truth he might have figured something out before he died.
Shirou let out the breath he'd been holding. No point in wondering what ifs, he now has a second chance that he shouldn't waste. Looking up to see the doll looking curiously at him he asks "How do I get out of here."
"Go to the little ones by the graves, they will take you to the place you came from." She gestured to the gravestones behind him. The little ones were the creatures he had first seen in this dream and they were now calling out to him from one of the graves.
Shirou wondered if they were perhaps the creatures who had taken him to this place, well it didn't really matter as long as he got back. Reaching the gravestone he place his hand on the messengers, closed his eyes and thought about returning to Yharnam
As the reality faded he thought he saw in the corner of his eye movement, before he heard the doll say. "Welcome home, Good hunter."
And then total darkness.
The toll of a bell was heard he first of arrived.
"Great… I'm back now I can get to Gascoigne and figure out… wait this isn't Yharnam." The city looked over run and in ruins with a feel all too similar to the dream he looked up and saw something that confirmed that this city wasn't Yharnam.
"The sun has… cracks in it?"
Little did he know that he was in a nightmare created from the truth he so desperately desired.
