I swear, I'm not crazy!

How better to start off an Author's Note about a Bloodborne story, eh? But seriously, I swear, combining Bloodborne with Sekirei works somehow!

Anyway, to get to the meat of it… I've got too many ideas for my own good sometimes, and this one has been pooling in my subconscious for a couple years at this point. Only now that I stumbled across Jackie Avocado's "With Nothing but Mercy," did I finally have the idea for this story. I've taken a similar basic concept to Avocado's story, but added enough of my own twist that I feel it's an entirely different story.

Please go read Avocado's story if you want well-written Bloodborne-related content. I found it quite enjoyable, even if it's incomplete… Though I suppose that must be obvious if I've started a whole new story as a result, huh?

Regardless, this is just a Prologue, but the first two chapters beyond it are also going up today at the same time. Call it a Christmas present!

Finally, I just want to be clear. Though I do have a rough story outline for this project and a vague ending in mind, I by no means can guarantee I'll actually manage to finish it, nor be consistent about uploads. I'd like to complete the project, in an ideal world, but who knows what the future holds?

Oh, and by the way, this story has been beta-d by my good buddy, who'd prefer to go by 'Mr. D,' for the purposes of this story!

Either way, I hope you enjoy my latest project…


Starlit Wings


"Gerhman awaits you…"

The Hunter barked a cold laugh in response.

So, the old man knows what's to come, does he…? Well, good for him. It won't change what has to happen. I've come too far, sacrificed too much, to stop now.

It took no time to find the man, dressed in weathered Victorian clothing and sitting in his wheelchair at the base of a tree. The Lumenflowers abounded nearby, a painful reminder of the lost. She would have enjoyed such a fantastic sight… To see so many of her favorite flowers in such a peaceful place, where Hunters could finally rest…? It was the kind of sight she would have given much and more to witness.

Why, Maria…? Why couldn't you understand…?

"Ahh… Truly, it makes an old man feel his age to see the growth of his juniors…" Gehrman said with a sigh, looking the younger man before him up and down.

The Hunter was an imposing figure in spite of his youthful appearance and average stature. Messy white hair spiked out from beneath his hood, trailing down just below the height of his chin. Hanging from his shoulders was a tattered cape of furs and crow feathers, held together by rope and chain above a worn robe-like top. The ensemble was the remains of the first of many keepsakes combined with something he'd claimed from the mad Hunters of Yahar'Gul and… re-appropriated.*

Hanging from a belt made of ropes were Maria's blade and trusted flintlock, a duo that had not left his person since the woman died at his hand. It was not the older set he'd later found down a well, thrown away much like he'd cast off his mentor's Blades of Mercy, but was instead the authentic article, pulled from her cold hands before she faded into dust like all who died in the grips of the Nightmares.

"Ah…" the old man before him sighed. "Fortunately, this is where we must part."

The Hunter merely blinked, his expression utterly empty of anything human.

"Your night has finally, finally, come to an end, Good Hunter…" Gerhman continued. "You've taken longer than most to come before me, but now I may set you free… Grant you Mercy…"

A brief twitch… That singular motion the only fleeting sign of emotion that appeared on the Hunter's stone-like visage. There was little he felt capable of expressing anymore, but one thing never failed to rear its monstrous head.

Bloodlust.

"Do not repeat Eileen's words at me, Gehrman," the young-looking man stated coldly. "I will not suffer the presence of a hypocrite."

Hah! Was it any wonder that he hated himself?

"Apologies," Gehrman said, tipping his hat politely. "I was not aware you were close to my old acquaintance…"

Oh, how he longed to separate the decrepit figure's head from his torso…! To see the short-lived surprise, the realization of what his ill-thought words cost him forever trapped within now-empty orbs as blood, sweet blood, flowed from the wound…

"Regardless… The time has come," Gehrman went on. "Will you accept this gift…?"

For a moment, the Hunter's mind whirled at the thought.

Freedom…

It was all he'd wanted for so long… How many days had he lamented his endless fate in this hell…? How long had he longed to return to a life he'd long since forgotten, but most surely had to be better than this…?

How long had he longed to be free of the hunger that sat deep within him…? To be free of his endless lust for blood, his endless lust for knowledge, and his endless lust for insight into the truth of this Nightmare…?

He'd made a promise, once, but it was so long ago that he no longer remembered why. He'd never written it in his notebook, trusting that it was too important to forget.

…What a fool he'd been.

There were many things he'd forgotten, too many to list, but he'd held onto the promise itself, even if the 'why' of it was lost to time. He'd sworn to never stop looking for exactly what the old man was offering: a way out. A way home to whatever had come before this endless night.

For a moment, the Hunter considered it…

…and then he drew his weapons.

It was too much.

He needed to know.

The answers lay just before him. All that he'd died for, killed for, sinned for… Every fiber of his being, long since becoming something beyond human but less than that which had ascended, needed to know.

What was it like to be a god? To be complete…? To be free of his beastly idiocy and gain something so much more in its stead…?

He knew how to do it; had already taken steps to do it… From the umbilical cords of still-born Great Ones to the echoes of genuine articles. Rom the failed experiment, Ebrietas' long abandoned mortal form, the shade of Kos along with the remnants of her Orphan, and Oeden's newborn Mergo… In spite of that which lay forgotten, he'd leveraged his unique perspective as a scientist in a different life, from a different world with different standards. He'd found the answers that none had even thought to look for, and now…

There was just one more step left to take…

What's a promise made by a naive fool when compared with godhood…?

"Dear, oh dear, what was it…?" Gehrman began, easing himself forward in his chair.

The Hunter's pupils shrank into pinpricks as his pulse pounded through his form. Bloodlust crashed in waves against his mind, his entire being all too aware of just how close he was to completion. His body, his mind, his soul… All of them longed for it on a level that superseded the instinctual, plying at the last dregs of his sanity with an avarice that bordered on the impossible.

Before he even realized it, he'd dashed forward in a burst of bone dust, a manic grin stretching his mouth far too wide on his youthful face. Silver flashed as the Rakuyo swung down, aiming to slice the man apart from shoulder to hip with—

CLANG!

Black steel grinded against his blade, the peculiar yet familiar look of siderite catching what little remained of his rational self by surprise. Eileen's blades had been made of the same mystic material, he knew. Part of a meteorite that had been found with Ludwig's own weapon in the Chalice Dungeons, far below Yharnam's streets.

"I see… You're naught but a beast, now. Drunk on blood and knowledge like all the rest…" Gehrman said, his tone forlorn as he held the Rakuyo off with his curved blade. His arms shook terribly from the strain, but his voice remained casual as he continued.

"It's always a shame to see, but I find myself particularly surprised with you, Good Hunter… You were so certain when you first arrived here… So much stronger in all the ways that mattered, for all that you were weak in others."

The Hunter growled, the sound carrying an unnatural resonance to it that sounded like a hundred voices all together as he reared back for another strike against the final obstacle in his path.

"Though I suppose you had a good reason, didn't you…?" the old man stated. "What was it again…? Ah! That's right…"

Silver flashed again, prepared to decapitate the man that just wouldn't, shut, up! How dare he?! How dare the old man stand in his—

"Miya was her name, I believe…"

The Hunter froze in place, the Rakuyo mere inches from Gehrman's throat as images flashed through his mind. Purple hair and a gentle face, forever kind-looking even when it had been coated in blood. Always, she would smile at him, no matter the circumstance, only to blush like the schoolgirl she'd never gotten to be when he returned the gesture.

His hands shook.

How? How had he forgotten…? He'd even… Oh god, he'd even moved on…

Worse than that, he'd gone a step further and become the very thing which both of the women he'd cared for hated above all else. The thing they both never let themselves stop seeing whenever they looked in the mirror, no matter what he'd told them.

He'd become a killer. A monster… Someone ready to slaughter any that stood before him in pursuit of godhood that none should have…

Worst of all was the fact that, even now, he still couldn't find a lick of regret in his heart… And that, more than anything else, broke him.

"Gerhman…" he whispered, thin tracks of silvery tears flowing down unnaturally pale cheeks.

His hands shook now, but it was not from rage nor grief… His body was rebelling, the half-god thing that he'd made himself into so desperate to complete its ascension that it refused his command to let go of his weapon.

"I'm glad you've made the right choice, Good Hunter…" the man breathed softly, taking the chance granted by his junior's stillness to rise to his full height. "It lightens my burden to see that some of you yet remains…"

He didn't turn to look as the old man stepped behind him, nor did he flinch when he heard the 'click' of his senior's blade connecting with its proper handle. All that mattered was remaining where he was.

"Now, you will die… forget the dream… and awake under a new sun…" Gehrman said softly.

Not even a minute ago, the thought would have horrified him. To lose all the knowledge, all the insight that he'd gained was anathema to the him of a minute ago… But now…?

It sounded like bliss.

"May you find your worth in the waking world, Good Hunter…"

With those words, the old man raised his scythe…

SCHWING…!

…And what was left of Asama Takehito was granted Mercy.


Detail Diatribe:

The gear that the Hunter is wearing here is a combination of the Yahargul Set and Eileen's Crowfeather Set, mixing the two into one cohesive collection, in case you were wondering what the equipment looks like by the standards of the game.


AN:

So, a few things here today.

For one, as is becoming rather standard with my projects, I just want to mention that I'll be interpreting power-scaling for the characters in this story by my own standards. I'll be doing my best to make them feel right for what kind of character they're supposed to be, while balancing it with what I need from them for the plot and what's necessary for the world to be cohesive.

Essentially, Miya's probably getting a bit of a nerf, while everyone else is probably getting a bit of a buff.

Next, a topic that is incredibly important for a Sekirei story… Pairings. So, you see, the thing with pairings is… they're a secret! I've got plans, oh boy do I have plans— 4 goes here, thank you—but I won't be disclosing them, sorry! You'll just have to wait and see where my blood-crazed mind goes!

Finally, as usual, I hope you all had as much fun as I did! I'll see you in the next chapter!