FOREWORD

I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about the isekai series Arifureta. On the one hand, it not only has the usual tropes for an isekai, what with the harem and the OP, overly edgy protagonist, but it has a very disturbing relationship between the main character Hajime, and the loli vampire Aletia/Yue, to say nothing of the shoddy first season of the anime adaptation. On the other hand, it's got excellent worldbuilding (as long as you read the light novels), interesting characters, and a wonderful deconstruction of many isekai tropes.

I've been meaning to do a Potterverse crossover for a while. But while that's still very much on the cards, I realised I could do one of my habitual Halloween oneshot crossovers with Bloodborne. I mean, canon Hajime is already pretty OP. But becoming the Good Hunter? Ehit is FUCKED.

This also may be one of the few Bloodborne oneshots I have written that may yet get turned into a longer fic. I can make no guarantees, but the thought of a Good Hunter Hajime kicking arse on Tortus is an appealing one.

Anyway, time for the disclaimers. Firstly, there will be annotations, as well as references to dark themes, horror, violence, and the like.

Secondly, there will be spoilers.

Finally, this is a fan-written work. Bloodborne, Arifureta, and the characters and scenarios are property of their respective owners. Please, support the official release. Otherwise, you'll be chucked into the Orcus Labyrinth to fend for yourself…

GOOD HUNTER HAJIME

It was hard to tell what was the worst thing about Aletia's imprisonment. Being betrayed by her own flesh and blood was bad enough, as was being rendered impotent, naked and embedded up to her neck in a super-strong magical crystal. It was painful, humiliating, and certainly not an experience she would recommend to anyone. Well, anyone whom she gave a damn about. Which was admittedly a non-existent list now.

But honestly, one of the biggest problems with her imprisonment was the sheer, soul-numbing boredom she felt. She wasn't sure how long she had spent trapped her, only that it had to be decades, even centuries. She had no way of telling time in this chamber, apart from possibly counting her own heartbeat, and aside from a heartbeat being an unreliable method of measuring time, she got bored of doing so pretty damn quick.

So when she heard the sound of what could be battle outside the doors to her prison, she perked up. If nothing else, what was happening outside could alleviate her boredom. She knew better than to expect it to lead to her freedom. Nobody ever came down this far into the Orcus Labyrinth. It was probably monsters engaged in a territorial pissing match, or one had wandered too close to the guardians of her prison, or both.

Then again, those loud, sharp reports were unfamiliar to her. Like miniature explosions. Some sort of novel weapon? Or were those monsters using some strange magic?

Then, silence finally fell. Aletia wondered if that was the end of it, that the pair of Cyclops guarding her prison had been slain, or, more likely, slain any intruder, man or monster. But the door opened not long afterwards, letting a beam of light enter her prison for the first time in a long time.

And then, he entered.

It was a young man in frame, wearing a bloodstained leather coat, and wearing a leather tricorn hat. In one hand, he wielded a weapon unfamiliar to her, while in the other, he held a crystalline sword with a green blade that seemed to glow like the Moon, something she only held vague memories of now. A cloth mask concealed his mouth and nose, and she couldn't see his eyes yet.

And yet, now, she felt a presence, an overwhelmingly powerful one. The figure seemed human or at least humanoid, but there was something dangerous about him. Dangerous even to her.

"…Who are you?" she asked, her voice hoarse and raspy from centuries of disuse.

The figure seemed to be debating with himself whether to talk with her or not. He even turned slightly as if about to leave her to his fate, before he shook his head. "A good question. Sometimes, I'm not sure of the answer myself these days. If you want a name, I'm Hajime Nagumo…not that would mean anything to you. What about you?"

Aletia grimaced. "I…I hate my own name," she confessed. "You could think of one for me?"

Hajime peered at her. She realised his eyes were crimson, not unlike her own. He removed the hat, revealing a messy mane of silver hair, and the cloth mask. His face was handsome enough, but she could tell he had a hard life. You could see it in his face, in his eyes.

After a moment, he said, "Yue. Where I come from, that means 'moon'. Your hair reminded me of moonlight, or at least one kind." He looked down at the sword he held ruefully.

Yue…Yue…yes, better than Aletia Galdea Vesperita Avatarl, the girl betrayed by her uncle, by her people, and imprisoned down here. She actually liked the name. A bit plain, but beautiful all the same, especially with that sentiment behind it.

"Okay, so, Yue…honestly, I'm trying to think of a reason why I should free you. After all, you're in a block of what looks like magical stone, deep within this hellish labyrinth. You were put down here for a reason, and I don't want to be the one to unleash the apocalypse on the world by freeing you."

Yue opened her mouth to protest, to plead her case, only for Hajime to hold up his hand. "Let me finish, please. On the other hand…I know what it's like to be imprisoned against my will. I was pretty much a prisoner myself, as were a few other people I knew. And while some of them deserved it, others…well, they'd paid for their crimes long ago. And at the moment, I'm not sure I see a monster, just a girl. So, explain…truthfully."

So Yue did. She explained how she was an Atavistic Vampire, and born into royalty. How her retainers, her uncle, all betrayed her, supposedly out of how dangerous she was. She was strong, practically immortal, and could control mana without a circle. And then, she was locked away down here to rot.

After a while, Hajime nodded thoughtfully. "…So you were betrayed too. At least you're upfront about you being a vampire. I thought there was something inhuman and bloody in your smell, not unlike the Vilebloods of Cainhurst, but…well, sweeter-smelling, really. And yet…" His gaze seemed to peer into her very soul. Eventually, he nodded again. "I could potentially leave this hellhole myself, and with ease, but I don't want to arouse the suspicions of that damned demiurge who thinks himself the god here. At least not yet. So…if I free you, will you agree not to harm anyone save for our enemies?"

Yue blinked, before nodding vigorously. Even if she was inclined to hurt others, she'd do almost anything to be out of here! Though she had to wonder about what he meant about the Vilebloods of Cainhurst. She'd never heard of that country before…

She was freed after not inconsiderable effort. And Hajime, after some considerable internal debate, handed her a vial filled with blood. He said something about it being a last gift from Iosefka, whoever that was. The blood was sweet going down her throat, and filled her with a strange warmth. He even gave her clothes to wear, taken from…somewhere. Too large, but it was better than going around naked.

After she finished the vial, she asked, "Why do you have a vial of blood on your person? And what is with your smell? It's…strange."

"…It's a long story," Hajime said. "Like you, I was betrayed. But I don't come from Tortus. I come from a world called Earth…"

And so, she listened to his tale, of how he had been an ordinary (from his perspective) student at a school in Japan. Ordinary by most metrics, save for his 'otaku' tendencies. He tried explaining it, but she only grasped part of the explanation. Then, he and his class were summoned to Tortus (specifically the Kingdom of Heiligh) to fight against the monsters besetting this world.

Each member of the class had been given special classes that would help them in their fight, but Hajime drew the short straw in the eyes of many, granting him the title of Synergist. Despite Hajime's intelligence, he was bullied by many in his class. Even the so-called Hero, Kouki Amanogawa, thought that Hajime had done something to bring it on himself. His only real allies in that class were his teacher Aiko Hatayama, his friend Kaori Shirasaki, and, to a lesser degree, Shizuku Yaegashi. True, the captain of the royal guard, Meld, also tried to help.

But their sojourn into the Great Orcus Labyrinth ended in disaster, thanks partly due to the actions of one of his worst bullies, Daisuke Hiyama. In fact, Hajime suspected that Daisuke was responsible for the seemingly stray spell that caused him to fall deep into the Orcus Labyrinth in the first place. He'd awoken, and had been forced to find ways to eat monster meat and drink Ambrosia to survive.

Yue knew that the process of eating monster meat would normally be fatal for a human. The Ambrosia probably helped him survive the process, though it mutated him. But Hajime fell into a coma…and awoke in another world, in a city called Yharnam.

Hajime didn't speak much of what he went through there, but she could tell it was a longer story than he related. He somehow got conscripted into becoming a monster hunter in Yharnam. He was immortal too, linked to something called the Hunter's Dream. There resided Gehrman, a man claiming to be a teacher of Hunters, as well as his creation, the Doll, a living life-sized doll who helped Hajime get stronger by channelling the power he gained from slaying the dangers stalking the hellish streets of Yharnam.

And Yharnam was hellish, to say the least. Mad mobs of paranoid part-beast people stalked the streets. Beasts and monsters of all sorts roamed the city. And the Healing Church that all but ruled Yharnam was also responsible for the outbreak of the Bestial Scourge, thanks in part to the Healing Blood they peddled, blood linked to eldritch beings known as the Great Ones. The Healing Blood she had been given was one treated to ensure it had fewer side effects by someone called Iosefka, someone that, given the tone Hajime spoke of her with, she died.

Hajime took down the Healing Church. He ended up taking down many Great Ones too. He'd also explored the Hunters' Nightmare, a dreamworld turned prison due to the lingering curse of the Great One Kos, cursing the killers of her and her child, the first Hunters.

The time came for Gehrman to free him from the Hunter's Dream. But Hajime refused. The two clashed, and Hajime, eventually, prevailed. Gehrman's gaoler appeared, but Hajime defeated this Great One, the Moon Presence. But not before the Great One taunted him with some knowledge.

The Great Ones had come to the world where Yharnam and Cainhurst resided millennia ago…from Tortus. They were of the same ilk as Ehit, the so-called god of Tortus, and like Ehit, they loved to play games with mortals. Indeed, much about the Hunt was for their own amusement, save for a few Great Ones, like Oedon's child Mergo, or the trapped Ebrietas, or Kos and her child.

Hajime slaughtered the Moon Presence, and in his turn, became a nascent Great One. It took him some time to regain his sense of self, tended to by the Doll, who safeguarded him. The body she saw in front of her was his original body, mutated by both the monster flesh, and the powers of a Great One, but it was little more than an avatar of his true self.

He wanted to find out more about Ehit, about the truth of the so-called 'Mavericks', as he suspected they had been demonised by Ehit and his peons. And then, he was going to put an end to Ehit and his vile games, and save his classmates, or at least the ones he cared about, and bring them home. And to hell with anyone standing in his way.

Yue digested this information, even as she noted idly the warmth suffusing her body from the blood she had been given. And was it just her, or were the clothes she had borrowed from Hajime fitting better on her now? She looked down at herself, and blinked. Her body, stuck originally in the form of a pre-pubescent girl, was now in her late teens, possibly even her twenties. "What the…?" she murmured.

Hajime looked to her, only to do a double take, even blushing a little. "…Yue? You look like an adult now."

"So I do," she said, trying to remain calm despite her surprise. Her voice was still husky, but from a more natural property rather than from disuse. "Hmm…it seems that Healing Blood had an agreeable effect on me…assuming it doesn't age me much further."

"…Well, that's good," Hajime said. "In any case…if you're willing to ally with me, then I'll welcome the help. But just remember…I've been burned before."

"I understand." And Yue really did. She knew what the sting of betrayal felt like. She'd rather die than betray her benefactor. Not when he had given her very precious gifts indeed. A body befitting her…and more importantly, freedom, and a tentative alliance.

She didn't care if they would need to fight Ehit himself. She was willing and able. She would join him to the bitter end, contending against the gods themselves…

THE END

STORY ANNOTATIONS:

So, Hajime's the Good Hunter, Yue's been freed, and she's gained a proper adult body. Yes, I'm aware she eventually gains one after beating Ehit, but seriously, I'd rather she get one from the get-go, anyway. Much less squick that way.

Now, a guest reviewer by the name of ShizukuFan wanted me to clarify a few things. Firstly, Hajime is blasé about his past because honestly, going through Yharnam and becoming an infant Great One has changed him. Ironically, his apotheosis and his experiences saving the people of Yharnam returned some of the humanity lacking in his canon self. Though he intends to give Daisuke hell for what he did, but more through gaslighting and trolling…at least until Daisuke turns on anyone else.

Secondly, yes, the Doll will be part of the harem, and possibly Shizuku.

No numbered annotations this time.