Hi. I've not done this for a while, so I hope this works out. I'm really inexperienced, so my writing style will probably change a bit as I find what is comfortable. Also, I'm still going through Danmachi. My primary source of information is the anime and wiki, so take that as you will.

I can't say anything about an update schedule besides it probably being really inconsistent. I do plan on finishing this story, and it might very well be a long one.

Please make reviews. Whether it be a possible idea or pointing out a grammar fuckup. That being said, spam comments or flames with no purpose will be ignored and possibly deleted.

I'm going to play with the Bloody Crow a bit. I've always felt as though the Crow had a lot of wasted potential. I get it, he was meant as the ultimate player-type Hunter NPC. And he was a blast to fight. But I feel like that fight could've been more. Maybe something similar to Lady Maria's fight. With blood and flame being flung everywhere.

I'm also going to change a bit on the Danmachi side of things.

And no one can stop me. Except my frequent writer's block.

Thoughts

"Speech"

[Spells]

{Skills}

The sound of heavy breathing and metal against feathers awoke Jack.

Jack Invana, Vileblood Chancellor, Cainhurstian Hunter Captain, and former crow. A powerful individual, second in strength only to her majesty Analise.

And here he was, getting robbed!

Some peasant, by the look of his robber's clothes at least, was attempting to take his precious Chikage from him...

How repulsive.

A gauntleted hand rose in less than a blink and picked the low-born cur up by the base of the head. So quick had Jack's movements been that not a sound escaped the peasant's mouth. It struggled vainly against his slowly tightening grip.

And then, with a satisfying crack, the would-be robber stopped moving.

Dropping the body, Jack smirked under his metal helm before looking around. His smirk turned to a frown.

This... This isn't Yharnam. Or Cainhurst. Where am I?

The architecture of the buildings around him was odd. It was a rather primitive style, one that was used back when Yharnam was a mere town and the holy bloodline of Cainhurst wasn't weakened to the point of not making a difference. To the point of needing the monarch to partake of pure Old Blood to revive the legacy.

Since that era, Yharnam and Castle Cainhurst had been renovated and remodeled extensively. They didn't even resemble their previous forms now.

So where was he exactly?

What even happened?

He had just beaten back his old teacher at Yharnam's Grand Cathedral. As a courtesy to her skill, and to repay his debt, he let her live to retreat. After thoroughly defeating her of course. But she had plenty of Blood Vials, so the old crow would live. He hoped at least.

And while he was taking a momentary rest within the Cathedral, someone else walked in. Some female hunter with brown hair. This one curiously stank heavily of the moon, but her weapon garnered the most attention.

A saber with a detachable dagger.

The Rakuyo.

A graceful weapon passed down through his family. Unlike most Cainhurstian weapons, it relied not on Blood, but entirely the skill of the wielder. A quality that endeared his younger sister.

The Lady Maria Invana. Or, at least her title had been. She was stripped of all rank within Cainhurst when she turned coat and fled.

And to bring even further shame to herself, she joined the hypocritical Healing Church!

But Maria had never really been a proper Cainhurstian. She shied from the powerful blood born within her and stubbornly clung to some nonsense code about blade fighting. Their grandfather encouraging her didn't help.

After she left, a few spies were sent to keep an eye on her. Eventually, she completely vanished, even from the Healing Church's eyes.

So why did this tramp have her weapon? For as much shame as Maria had wrought, Jack still respected her talent and skill with a sword. That was something that couldn't ever be denied. It was wrong for such a knightly weapon to be in the hands of some unworthy, gutter-trash hunter.

Their first bout changed that assessment.

Despite dressing like some rookie civilian that bought the Healing Church's propaganda, this hunter fought like a veteran predator, eventually being able to match him blow for blow instead of merely dodging.

Even after beginning to use his blood, she kept up. Even after lighting his blood aflame and fighting the hardest he could, she managed to fell him. For that, she certainly had his respect.

A little while after she left, as he laid there, bleeding on the floor, Jack noticed something enter the building. A large creature with long, spindly limbs and a bulbous head. He had seen it outside. It barely fit in the room.

It grabbed him and everything went black.

And then he woke up here, miraculously healed.

That gives a few possibilities...

Jack looked at the side of a nearby building. Several wooden boards hadn't been set properly, and jutted out.

Screw it

He ran, jumped, and grabbed a pole sticking out of the building's side. Keeping his momentum, Jack swung around the pole in a full circle before launching himself up to a ledge. Then he simply hauled himself up and onto the burgundy slate roof.

The full training as a Crow Hunter came in handy yet again.

This new vantage point offered him something. All around him, pretty much in a massive circle, stone buildings were crowded everywhere. The biggest landmark, one he was unsure of how he had missed until now, was an enormous tower. And the crowd of people at its foot.

Then he noticed someone walking down the street he was just in.

Keeping his footsteps light, and watching for any other signs of activity nearby, he drew a throwing knife and leapt.

Jack crashed into the stranger and clamped a hand over its mouth. This one had odd, pointed ears, and blue hair.

Reaching a discreet corner, Jack spoke, "Alright, cur, I have a few questions for you. Even your filthy, peasant mind should be able to comprehend my words. And if I hear any lies, I won't be happy. Do we have an understanding?"

The cur thrashed about for a bit before realizing it was stuck. Jack made a flicking motion with another knife, and the gutter trash's right and right ring fingers fell off, cleanly cut.

The muffled scream was both irritating and amusing.

"Do we have an understanding? Or do you want to lose more fingers?"

He smirked beneath his helm once more as the peasant desperately nodded.

"Now keep your voice down. Any more screaming and I might have to do something... unpleasant,"

Jack slowly removed his hand.

"Where are we?"

The tongue the peasant spoke was understandable, but sounded weird.

"D-D-D-Daedalus Street sir,"

Daedalus Street? Never heard of it.

"But what city are we in? Where is Yharnam?"

"We-We're in Orario, the city o' the Gods. I don't know what a Yharnam is sir. Please, let me go. I didn't wrong ya sir, right? If I did I didn't mean it sir, really!"

Orario? The City of the Gods? Never heard of it either. But it might be a starting point.

Jack paused for a moment, then quickly placed his hand against the side of the peasant's skull.

"Thank you,"

Arcane pulsed within Jack's hand for a moment, and the blue-haired odd creature fell unconscious. It wouldn't remember anything of the past few hours. Just before he walked off though, Jack took out a small silver bell emblazoned with the Cainhurst sigil.

Putting the severed fingers back on their stumps, he rang the bell, and the appendages reattached themselves.

Then he climbed back onto the roof and started for the large tower.

What in Annalise's name am I looking at?

Before him sprawled a massive, circular plaza. At the center stood the enormous tower he had seen before.

While the sheer size of the construction was odd, it was the people that caught his attention. There were humans everywhere, but there weren't only humans everywhere.

Huge, burly beings with long beards and huge weapons and a distinctively not-human scent. Tall, slim beings with pointed ears that had faces bearing a likeness to Cainhurstians with a distinctively not-human scent. Half-lings that also didn't carry a human scent.

And especially the half-animal creatures. They reminded him too much of beasts mid-transformation. He hated them already. But they didn't seem to be feral, so he'd let them live and gather more information for now.

Many were heading into the base of the tower for some reason. Jack was about to drop down when a curious scent hit his nose.

I'm not sure what that is... It almost reminds me of-

No. That would be impossible.

The scent seemed to be coming off of a boy. A boy with... snow white hair and red eyes.

It is just a coincidence. Nothing more.

The boy, armed with only a knife as far as Jack could see, also ran into the base of the tower.

Forget about it. I've got more important things to worry about.

With that thought, Jack dropped from the roof to the plaza. Many shops were lining the plaza's edge, and a few fountains were scattered about. Eight main pathways seemed to branch out from the plaza area. Thanks to the insight writhing in his head, he seemed to be able to interpret the writing on the signs.

Down one of the main pathways, a fairly large building stood with a sign that read 'Guild'.

That should be a good place to start.

Jack walked at a brisk pace, yet not fast enough to draw attention. If the idea forming was correct, he would need to play his cards carefully.

That Great One didn't bring me to another world, right? That would be preposterous!

Gracefully walking into the building, Jack ignored the many stares. While he would've loved to punish the filthy peasants for staring at him, a highborn nobleman, there were suddenly a few possible reasons not to.

Chief among them being that this was a place of business. More secondary was his garb. In comparison to the others around him, even he had to admit he looked off.

One of the desks bearing a 'Service' sign was open. A pink-haired lady sat behind it, hunched over a piece of parchment. As he approached, she lifted her head and slightly shivered.

"Um... Hello sir, how may I help you today?"

A simple question she posed. In a too bright and too cheery tone from a too forced smile.

"I've recently arrived here and know little about this city. I want a map," was his curt reply.

"Very well sir. We have several maps ranging from the entirety of Orario to certain districts. One map would be 300 Valis,"

"What is a Valis?"

Several more stares were drawn to him. Even the pink-haired lady with her forced politeness looked at him in confusion.

"I am from far away. Is Valis a sort of currency? Where can I obtain it?"

She reined back her look of confusion and managed to regain her forced smile.

"Yes sir. Valis is the coin used by Orario. One way many people earn money is by gathering the magic stones of monsters in the Dungeon underneath Babel and trading them in here for money,"

Jack took a moment to process that.

So, this city is called Orario. What is this 'Dungeon' she speaks of? What is a 'Babel'?

All those people earlier were crowding by that tower... Could 'Babel' be that tower?

"Babel is the tower, correct?"

She nodded,

"Yes sir. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"No,"

Jack stalked off before she could give a farewell.

"That guy was kinda... weird." Misha spoke once he left the building.

Eina nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I've never heard of someone who hasn't even heard of Valis. And he seemed to give off some sort of pressure. It was unnerving,"

"Kinda rude too. He didn't even say goodbye! Or hello,"

"He probably had something to do. Kind of like a certain someone I know who needs to get back to her paperwork and stop trying to gossip about odd adventurers!"

I need money first thing. I won't get anywhere without it.

Jack had climbed back onto the rooftops and was running towards the Babel Tower.

Whatever this 'Dungeon' is may confirm my theory. I wonder what I'll find inside. Beasts maybe? I hope so. I know that woman said 'monsters', but proper monsters don't really exist on Earth. It is all just beasts and aliens.

He hooked the edge of the roof with his hand and slid down the building's side onto the plaza. By now, the sun was starting to set. People were streaming out of the Dungeon. Many had bulging sacks filled with... something. He wasn't sure. Several people leaving had heavy injuries. A couple dead bodies were brought out by groups of people dressed similarly.

As Jack walked over to the tower base, a white-haired boy walked by him. That same child from earlier! Now that he was a lot closer, the scent was unmistakable.

Vileblood. Dormant Vileblood, but Vileblood nonetheless. And it was a very nostalgic strain as well.

His blood smells the same as... Adrian's blood. And he looks like a carbon copy of Adrian when Adrian was younger!

Before Jack had even considered stopping the boy, he had already left.

No, that would be impossible. Adrian vanished years ago. And this seems to be another world.

I can think about this later.

Shaking his head, Jack walked in and followed the signs to a large staircase circling downwards.