Disclaimer: I don't own Danmachi or Bloodborne
"What is a hero to you?" The god asks casually, taking a small sip from his engraved ceramic as he loses himself in thought.
"Someone that could defeat this broken man, probably." The ginger snarks, taking a large glup from his mug of ale as he kicks back his chair and slams his feet on the table, ignoring the rolling eyes of his god as he swirls the drink in his hands.
He was glad he still had some part of his sense of taste, able to enjoy the burning sensation of the alcohol down his throat.
"Wouldn't that just be a murderer?" He muses, holding the teacup in his hands with the pinky sticking out, as if it was a high profile occasion when in reality, they were in some no name tavern in the middle of the Edas Village, waiting out for the heat in their identities to blow over.
"Like those level 1 losers you sent to prod the Astraea familia? You were lucky they didn't see your face, else it would've be posted all across Orario and you would be hunted down by now." The man grumbles, taking large glugs of the alcohol, eliciting a wrinkle of disgust from his companion, sighing in pleasure as the soothing aftertaste comes and goes.
"And it was good you didn't have to get yourself involved, lest they know of my true capabilities." The black haired man smirks, knocking his head back to finish the rest of his tea, and gesturing for the bar owner to get another refill.
"They're not hero's, just a bunch of girls playing as one, none of em know what sacrifice is." The rather inebriated man mutters, lolling his head back and cracking his neck. "Maybe if there was something big to happen to Orario, you could probably find the shining gems in that pile of trash they are now."
"They really have stagnated huh?" He replies as the teacup refills in his hands, the bartender neither knowing nor caring the language they were speaking. They were just simple travellers on their journey after all.
"If we could get some more helping hands, we can manufacture that event ourselves, I'd like to see what it truly means to be a hero."
"We? Who says I'm involved in this mess, you can die for all I care!"
"Ah, but you do care, so you're gonna come with me on this journey, it's in your blood to want a reason to lash out, I know you too well."
"...Tsk, fine... but you owe me another drink, Ererbus!"
"Heh, this meal is already on me."
"...And here is the house, it's really only enough space for a handful of us... but between us, our goddess, and Lyra, it's just enough space!" Alise waves her hand in air, gesticulating around the living room of the estate with a rather plain set of furnishing, complete with a couch and a dining table.
"..."
"You could at least have more reaction!"
"...Mmm..."
She just pouts at the deadpan expression on the hunter's face, before huffing and chucking a folded bath towel to him.
"Shower's in the corner, at least wash yourself clean first, you smell like a corpse!" She says, wrinkling her nose at the man.
Without a moment longer, he clutches the towel in his left hand and wordlessly ambles to the general direction she gestured at.
Sigh. Life really sucks as an arbiter of justice.
The redhead just groans, rifling a hand through her hair as she contemplates the future with this new addition, by Astraea she's barely even been captain for a year and now she needs to deal with this walking catastrophe!
Clink.
The sound of clinking glasses brings her out of her brooding, and she watches as Kaguya pours the trio a glass each of some specially imported Far Eastern spirit, barely comparable to Soma's quality of alcohol of course, but a pleasant drink all the same.
The swords-woman offers the glass to her, unspoken words of sympathy, anger and acceptance in that action.
The captain accepts the drink, and sighs into the clear liquid in front of her.
"For the safety of Orario." The elf goes first, innocently declaring her unequivocal vision of the world to the group.
"For our captain's stupid decisions." The kimono clad maiden goes next, the depths of resignation shown through her tight words and firmly closed eyes.
"For Astraea and everyone's sake... hope I made the right choice." She mutters the last few words, inaudible to her friends as she throws her head back and brings down the entire glass of liquor into her throat.
It tastes rather bitter.
"...Did you remove your clothing? Or your weapons for that matter?"
"No."
She throws another 2 towels at him.
"At least try yourself before you wet the entire floor! I don't wanna clean up after your mess!"
In the depths of the dungeon, a man grumbles, looking at the burnt ruins of his hideout.
"Boss, I couldn't find anything, it's all blacked bits." His renard companion reports, tail swishing as he exits the collapsed entrance, flecks of soot crumbling from the top of the wall when his fox ears brush against it.
"Found something." The man smirks, holding the charred part of a hand, somehow recovering the piece from the mess this place is.
"Lemme see." The renard places his hand on the torrefied skin, and pushes his magic into it.
He sees blood.
Fear.
Pain.
Fire.
Screams.
Death.
Pain.
Fear.
Fear.
Terror.
He lurches forward, and retches onto the ground.
"Tell ya, when I find out who messed with this operation, I'm gonna kill em!" The man growls, patting the Renard's back as he coughs out his insides.
"You sure you do not wish to lie on the bed? It'll be more comfortable."
"..."
"Alright then, you just need to show your back towards me for a moment..."
The brown haired goddess presses a finger on his back, causing him to stiffen at such... unprotected skin contact.
"Do you not trust me Jack? Alise has already explained the situation." She hums, dragging her bloodied finger along his skin in the familiar motions of engraving a falna.
"..." The hunter doesn't reply, quietly gripping the cape he removed to enable her access, his fingers squeezing the leather cloak like a vice .
"I can see how tightly you grip the sword underneath that cape, the feeling of being a fish out of water. I'm very glad you considered me trustworthy enough to show your back." Astraea says in that same motherly tone of affection she uses to treat all her children.
A few more minutes of the silence pass, the bond going closer to linking the hunter with his future patron.
"Hmmm... How odd." The woman mutters to herself a handful of times during the process, a frown here, a widening of eyes there as the affair continues, seemingly according to plan despite the rather uncharacteristic gasps emanating from her as she encounters minor hiccups here and there.
All the while, Jack barely felt any sort of surge in power as Kaguya described, or the pleasant warm feelings of the process as he falls into the embrace of his new god.
It was rather odd, he thought, to see a great old one masquerading herself as a human figure.
This mortal was rather odd, she thinks, to form a pact with someone despite saying he has never met a god in his life.
She was no fool, she could distinguish the torn strings of ethereal threads that were enveloped all over his body. The curious aspect, was unlike those cut away from the transfer of familas, with neatly cut lines, his looked severed out of his body by a foreign device, torn the connection between his old patron to shreds in a simple yet brutal fashion.
Almost like with a scythe.
It was no issue however, with a slight tweak to the regular falna pact, she managed to weave her own arcana into his system, interlacing the broken threads that smelled faintly of moonlight with her own bright, brilliant gold power.
"...We're done, child." She speaks warmly, placing a piece of paper on his pack and inking his current stats onto the pulp.
"Do you wish to see...?" But before she could finish, the hunter has already disappeared from her view, the sound of a closing door the only reply to her words.
She raises the paper to her nose, and frowns.
It smells of a bright radiance, yet masked by that overpowering aroma is the hint of unblemished, pale silver moonlight.
Odd. I can still smell the presence of his old god on it, seems like the connection was not cut cleanly.
She flips around the paper, and then raises her palm to her mouth, stifling the rather uncharacteristic giggles spilling from her lips as she reads the slip.
My goodness, no wonder she was so adamant on him getting him in.
She takes a deep breath to calm her emotions, and stores the paper into one of the cupboards.
I know she won't regret her decision, none of them will, he just needs some time to open up a little more.
She closes her eyes, and embraces the feeling of her lustrous arcana, and that hint of that luna night in the room.
Part 0 End.
That's the ending of the beginning, took only 2 years amirite.
Don't expect regular updates, I only do so when I'm free, and I'm never free. (maybe end of this year next one likely)
I'm gonna retcon some of my old writings, change canon a little to fit the plot I have in mind, since the first few chaps were made by a kid with only a concept in mind, and not an actual plot
read and review, throw suggestions, criticism praises whatever ill read it all, i require more practice anyways