Disclaimer: I don't own Danmachi and Bloodborne

He was no fool.

He could see the uncertainty in their gazes, the way they keep fiddling with their weapons.

He could smell it, the fear emanating from all of them.

That hooded one, Ryuu, he could tell she was prepared for him to try to run, from the way she walked, always a respectable distance away from him, but close enough to leap into action should he make a break for it.

He could also see the concealed throwing knife in Gojouno's sleeve, the way she angled her hands for it to immediately slide down her grasp should things go... awry.

Even the way Alise spoke was too good to be true.

They treat me like some kind of idiot, a painful cough interrupted his thoughts, as if I have no idea what they're trying to do.

Trying to find an excuse to knock me out cold.

He won't let his guard down, not again.

He always kept apologising to Isofleka.

It really wasn't his fault the chapel was so much closer for the survivors to hide in.

He always tried bringing gifts, little trinkets to make the night easier for her.

She always kept refusing them.

Until one day, she took them.

She became a lot more... eccentric, always demanding for him to bring people into her clinic.

He eventually entered the clinic, and found out what truly happened.

He made sure to burn her body, and the child she held within her.

By the time they reached Rivira, Jack was barely breathing.

We took too long, I can feel my senses fading.

The toll of fighting and killing for days finally caught up to him.

Body is weakening... infection from back wound must have finally caught up.

Painful, but I've, his thoughts were interrupted by a cough of blood, been through worse.

I'll be fine.

"Alright Jack, shops are over there." Alise pointed towards a row of wooden houses in the distance, "I'll be having a little... talk with my friends, so I'll see you at the tavern later!"

Before he could say another world, She grabbed onto her teammates and bolted towards a large wooden house, presumably the tavern judging by the noises coming from it.

Alright, time to find some blood vials.

Walking towards one of the shops, he noticed that it is manned by an extremely tiny human, with boyish features that contradicted the tired look in his eyes.

Gherman also has the same look.

"Whaddayh want?" He grunted, his eyes not leaving the axe he was cleaning.

Well, he seems normal, he's probably just short.

"I need some blood vials." Jack stated, his eyes analysing the man's wares.

Couple of swords, an axe, a bag made of cloth, some bottles of-

"Blood vials huh? Well I can tell you no one has those here," He chuckled, "No one has received mermaid blood in a while, since some maniac ripped the entire lower levels to shreds."

"Well do you have any other types of blood that can heal wounds?" Jack said, feeling slightly disappointed.

"Y'know, if you wanted to heal your injuries, you could just use a regular health potion, don't need that fancy shmansy blood." The pallum replied, pointing at a small vial of red liquid of his table.

"I'll take it then." Jack said, "how much is it in blood echos?"

"Blood... echos?" The trader stared as if he was crazy, "no one uses blood here as currency, just use valis my friend." He pulled out a tiny coin with the letter 'V' imprinted on it.

I've never seen this coin in my life.

"I don't have this valis... anything else I could offer?" Jack said, subtly reaching for a throwing knife in his back pocket.

I might have to kill him for this drink.

"Hmmm..." The pallum frowned, deep in thought, he if he did notice the movement, he didn't show it. "Well, if you have some monster crystals, I would be willing to trade some for this potion."

So that's what the crystals were for.

"I do have one." Jack said, pulling out a blood red crystal from his hunters garb.

He remembers slaughtering some kind of worm-plant hybrid beast.

It put up a decent fight, but it was still no match for him.

Instead of having a regular white crystal like most monsters however, it's heart was blood red.

It reminded him a bit of Yharnam, and the non-stop slaughter going on in the streets.

He kept it, maybe it could be absorbed for power.

"I've never seen that kind of crystal before, where did you get it?" The pallum said, eyeing the crystal suspiciously.

"From a beast." The hunter shrugged, "it doesn't really matter, but do you accept this crystal or not?"

The pallum took one final look at the crystal and sighed, "Deal, but only this time."

Accepting the potion from him, he instantly pulled of the cork and downed the potion in one gulp. Letting the cool minty taste envelop his mouth.

It's not blood... but it not bad.

Instantly, he could feel his wounds healing, fixing themselves without any complications.

The pain from them subsided as well.

Miraculously, the infection he has disappeared as well, most likely healed by the liquid.

This will be a good replacement for blood vials. Although it doesn't really help with exhaustion.

"Hey, my crystal." The pallum said, snapping Jack out of his thoughts, his right hand reached towards him, prompting him to give the crystal.

"Thank you." The hunter finally said as he placed the crystal in the man's hand before walking towards the tavern.

Health is stable, now I just need to settle my hunger and exhaustion.

Now that his wounds are healed, he could feel the muscles that ached, originally concealed by the pain he felt.

Maybe now he could try to sneak away, escape before they noticed what happened.

Heh, as if they would let me leave anyway.

I think staying here is better.

Maybe I can finally get some answers on where the hell am I.

Of course they wouldn't let him out of their sights so easily.

They were hiding in one of Rviria's cramped alleyways, with enough space so they could hide inside it.

This place allowed a perfect view of the marketplace, inconspicuous enough for no one to notice them.

Unless they were high enough level, of course.

Gojouno took a seat on the floor while Ryuu leaned on the wall, they both turned to turned to face Alise.

"Alright Alise, spill it." Ryuu said, her eyes never leading the man in black leathers.

Clearing her throat, Alise started, "Alright, so what we know of this person, Jack, is that he's the cause of the rapid decline of monsters in the lower levels and the burning of the forests from floor 19-24."

"That settles it, he's insane," Ryuu interjected. "We can't just let such a powerful person go free, especially with the fact that he has such a violet personality, we should just eliminate him here and now."

"Hold on Lyon," Gojouno said, shooting a glare at her. "We don't know wether he's such a terrible person or not, and besides, him soloing the lower levels makes him at least level 5, or 6. It wouldn't be an easy fight to kill him."

"Well we can just slip him a sleep potion and finish him while he's asleep, it'll be quick and painless."

"No we can't," Alise finally joined in, a sense of finality in her tone. "We aren't murderers, killing someone will make us no better than Evilus."

"Well if we don't, then what are we supposed to do with him." Ryuu pointed towards Jack. "I don't think letting him go is a good idea, and we can't kill him, so what are the options?"

"We could hand him over to the guild." Gojouno answered, "although the familia he's from might not really appreciate him getting locked up."

"Actually," Alise interjected, "we don't even know what familia he's from."

"Wasn't that your job to ask?" Ryuu said dryly.

Oh right.

"Well um, I was stressed ok?!" A hint of a blush appeared of Alise's cheeks as she tried to find an excuse. "It's hard to remember when facing a scary looking probably evil person!"

"More like distracted by his handsome looks, first time I've seen you that flustered when dealing with someone." Gojouno teased.

"Urrggggh." She facepalmed, "you guys are the worst, none of us even saw his face! We can't tell how he looks like!"

"I saw you glance at his haunches, probably imagining some... indecent thoughts." She winked, giggling slightly.

Alise's face was starting to turn a deeper shade of red, desperately trying to find another excuse.

It's not my fault he just looks so... visually appealing!

"Anyway," Ryuu interrupted, "We are supposed to meet him later in the tavern, we can ask him there later."

"You mean now, he's approaching the tavern as we speak." Gojouno replied.

"Alright girls," Alise chimed in, turning serious once again, "it's time to get some answers.

As he entered the tavern, the first thing he noticed is there is a noticeable amount of things crawling through this place.

So many of those pathetic creatures, pointed ears, tails, everything.

Beasts.

Kill.

Without a second thought, he reached for his sword...

And a cough snapped him out of his thoughts.

He turned to the sound and saw a large burly man behind a counter.

He just shook his head, and pointed towards the door.

The message was clear.

Take your 'business' outside.

The hunter nodded, he just needed to control his emotions for now.

I'll handle the beasts later, he promised to himself.

"Hey Jack! Over here!"

He saw Alise and friends seated on a small round table, an empty seat left there as well.

Taking a seat, he quickly appraised them.

Gojouno still seemed a bit wary of him, still clutching on the weapon in her sleeve, as always.

Ryuu looked the same, constantly on edge, her mask and hood is still concealing her face, and expressions, the only thing he could see is her blonde her and blue eyes.

Finally, Alise looks a little different, her face was slightly redder than usual, and her movements a bit more hectic.

...weird, but nothing to worry about.

"Hey," Alise said again, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Could you remove your mask? It's kinda rude to wear this in a tavern."

"No." He said, "even she isn't removing it." He gestured towards Ryuu.

"Ryuu, remove your mask." She ordered instantly.

"But-"

"No buts, now."

"Fine." She sighed, removing the mask and pulling her hood back, revealing her-

Beast.

Pointed ears.

How was I so blind?! A beast right in front of me and I didn't-

"Hey, it's your turn now." Alise said, nudging Jack slightly.

Suppressing his beastly urge to grab Ryuu ears and rip them from her head before smashing it into a pulp, he removed his tri-coned hat and place it on the table before pulling down his mask...

"Wow... you looked a lot younger than expected."

Revealing his face, a surprisingly young man with enough scars that put the most veteran adventurers to shame.

"May I ask where do you get all those scars from?" Gojouno asked, a pointed look at a rather long one from his right eye all the way to his lower left jaw.

"Beasts." He said stiffly, stealing a glance at Ryuu's ears.

I'll end you once I get the chance.

"Alright we're getting off track here." Alise said, clearing her throat she continued, "So, Jack, whose familia are you from?"

"I actually have a question I would I like to answer myself, what's a familia?" He retorted.

She blinked, certainly not expecting the reply.

What?! How insane are you?! How do you not know what a familia is?!

"You... don't know what's a familia? Then how did you end up all the way down in the lower levels?!"

"An unlucky awakening."

"...can you elaborate?"

"No." And that was the end of it.

"Alright, I'm just gonna make the explanation simple." Alise sighed, preparing herself for a mini lecture.

"So you see, gods from heaven came down to our world and gave us powers which allowed us to get stronger than normal humans, this letting us fight more monsters in this place, the dungeon, and get even stronger, such groups formed by a bunch of people following one god is a familia, and a familia is basically like a family."

She pointed towards her 2 teammates and smiled, "we look out and care for one another, we fight together, we laugh together, we cry together, that's what a familia is, I wouldn't trade these 2 for anyone in the world!" Instantly she pulled them into a group hug.

"Alise... your being sentimental again..." Gojouno sighed, pushing herself away from the hug that Ryuu unfortunately got trapped in.

"You mentioned gods right? What are they like?" Jack said sharply, his mind going haywire.

If there are more old ones here, I swear I will every single one of th-

"Yeah." Alise shrugged, still trapping a struggling Ryuu in her iron grip. "Gods are around, most are nice, some are weird and a few are a bit evil."

"And what? Do they kill mortals? So they destroy cities? Create massive disasters?"

He shuddered at thought.

He barely remembers fighting... something.

The Ō̷̢̼̤̦̙̹̤͙͙̬̟̗͎͚͑̊͆͘r̷̡̳̖̹̻̱͍̘̤̄̄̿̋̏̍̂͐͗̿͗͌̈̀͌̑͆͛̐̑̑͊̾͗̕̚̚͘͜p̴̨̙͉̠̱͖͚̳̦̑̈́̇̎̓̏̈́̔̐́͝͝͝h̸̡̨̨̦͔̭̥͎͓͖͓͈̣̪͕̥̟̾ͅa̵̧̼̫͈̦̗͕̮̦̟͙̠̳̭͔͉̰̹̜͚̹̤̎̽̊͋̈́̀̊̑̾̈́̅̈́͂͐̋̑͋̌͌͐̈́̆̊̽͒̊̚͜͝ͅͅň̵̗̹̯̙͕̤̱̣̰̼̺̣͇̙̀̽̌ he fought came out of a dead great one.

It showed him things he shouldn't see.

It terrified him, more than any other beast.

"No they don't," Alise said, "they can't anyway, they made a deal that they can't use their powers if they wanna be in our world."

"So... they don't kill people?" He found that amazingly hard to belief.

"I mean, sometimes the evil gods order their familia to evil stuff, other than that they don't do much else."

Great, on top of beasts I have old ones to hunt.

How fun.

"So where are these evil gods? They must be killed before they do more damage." He asked.

"Well... barely anyone manages to find them, and by the time we discover their location they just disappear, like poof." She snapped her fingers to emphasize the point.

"Oh." A hint of disappointment in his tone.

I was a fool to think it would be that easy.

"Well don't worry so much!" She grinned, "my familia are doing all we can to stop them, we are the protectors of Orario after all!" Alise puffed out her chest in pride, somehow able to despite Ryuu desperately trying to escape her clutches.

Huh.

A group of people trying to destroy old ones.

Three barely competent so-called adventurers and worse trying to stop creators of the universe.

How idiotic, none could even scratch a single great creator.

Somehow, terrible idea formed in his head.

Something so stupid he could not even imagine that he thought of it.

He could join them, an experienced beast slayer would bolster their ranks heavily.

No, I can't, never again.

He would never be want to be under the clutches of a great one again.

He would never want to work with beasts, those stupid ears and tails would always harbor a great hatred in his heart. He would sooner tear his own heart out than work with them.

But it order to start the battle, he needs a stepping stone.

And they are it.

He hates it, he wouldn't want to do this at all.

But he must.

To save humanity, to let others live another day in peace, to look forward to the future.

And in order to do that, he must be the wall that holds the darkness back.

Because that's what hunters do.

"Hey Alise, you said your the Astraea familia captain right?" Jack said unexpectedly.

"...Yeah?"

"I would like to join your familia."

A/N: Alright done

2.5k words words boi, so much more good stuff to read now, have fun

as always tell me how shit i am at writing and stuff, and also tell me how the plot is going (like it or not? tell me anyway)

thanks for reviews and ill see you in another couple of days

Night

befire i forget, no the part about his looks is a joke, im most likely not gonna throw him in any romatic relationships at all, cause he honestly wouldnt care about em anyway.