Chapter 1: he Moon Over Meteor Street
Ah… ah… ah…
The restless, hoarse caws of crows roused the dark-haired young man from his slumber. He sat up sleepily, yawned, and gazed around with a dazed look.
When awareness finally returned, a look of surprise crossed his face.
Where… is this? Why am I here?
He lifted his head and looked up through the tangled branches. Above, a gray full moon hung suspended in the night sky.
Ah… I see.
Was it listening to Bloodborne soundtracks all night that made me dream like this?
Bloodborne really is harmful must be part of Hidetaka Miyazaki's conspiracy.
And not only that it's a lucid dream. I really shouldn't have stayed up all night.
Germain, Chrollo wants to see you. Come with me.
A cold female voice suddenly echoed from the shadows of the dilapidated courtyard.
Huh?!
The dark-haired youth jumped at the sudden sound and spotted a small female figure in the darkness.
When he realized what she had said, he pointed to himself blankly.
You… mean me? Germain?
Germain? Or perhaps another translation? Germain, wasn't that the name of the greatest hunter in history the one who wielded a scythe?
The girl sighed helplessly.
I just saw you dozing off… and you're still half-asleep? Is there anyone else here named 'Germain'?
The small woman stepped out of the shadows, revealing a messy pink ponytail and cold, indifferent eyes.
I had a feeling we wouldn't get along, she muttered. Didn't think it would come true this quickly.
Ignoring Germain's reaction, she turned and walked straight toward a long-abandoned clock tower.
Watching her leave, Germain suddenly felt a chill run down his spine; his hair stood on end.
He twisted his arm hard between his thumb and forefinger. The pain was real.
This didn't feel like a dream.
Yes he had crossed into another world, not a lucid dream, and certainly not one from Bloodborne.
After the first moment of shock, Germain quickly regained his composure.
He was used to handling emergencies; it was part of his professional discipline.
In short, his most urgent task now was to adapt to the situation and avoid revealing his true identity.
This wasn't a game there was only one life. He needed to think carefully about every move.
He slowly stood up from the stone bench where he had been sitting and calmly followed the young woman.
She was fair-skinned, quick-paced, and looked quite young.
Passing by a lit window, he caught sight of his reflection again.
He looked about twenty-five or twenty-six handsome, with pure dark eyes like agate, deep and vast as the universe.
He wore a black tricorn hat and a simple, weathered black coat.
Not a bad appearance at all.
As his mind cleared, fragments of memory surged in, piecing together Germain's past.
The good news: this wasn't some blood curse.
The bad news: this was the world of Hunter x Hunter.
A world where you could take your wife outside the city for a nice hotpot and song only to be murdered for no reason.
Here, the line between good and evil was thin, a world far different from that of modern Earth.
The original Germain was a self-serving man. Born on Meteor Street, he lost his parents young and survived by stealing and scavenging.
People often joked: Gotham City is famous for its simplicity, while Arkham is known for its talent.
Meteor City truly lived up to that saying a city overflowing with talent.
Its harsh environment bred a predatory mentality, home to countless ruthless criminals.
Germain was one of them.
As a teenager, struggling to survive, he was forced to awaken his Nen the life energy in the Hunter x Hunter universe that allows one to manipulate vital force, or chi.
Later, Germain's Nen evolved into his own ability: The Hunter's Emblem.
The Hunter's Emblem took the form of a small, broken, rusted sword no larger than his palm. Its function was simple:
Whenever Germain took part in someone's death, the emblem would absorb the lingering resentment of that life.
Once enough resentment accumulated, it condensed into a Gift of Resentment.
In theory, the greater the resentment, the more powerful the gift produced.
After awakening his Nen, Germain used the Hunter's Emblem to slit the throat of a peddler in Meteor City.
The merchant's dying resentment condensed into a butcher's saw a deadly, shape-shifting weapon.
With this saw, Germain clawed his way out of Meteor Street's bloody chaos and entered the outside world as a professional assassin.
He later used the saw to dismember the gang boss who had always exploited and despised him.
The boss's resentment condensed into a short-barreled musket a firearm that could also function like a shotgun.
With a butcher's saw and a musket, Germain's clean and efficient methods quickly earned him fame among professional killers.
Not long ago, he also killed his longtime associate a broker who planned to betray him and steal his earnings.
The broker's resentment condensed into a lantern, a nearly perpetual purple light with the power of teleportation to a fixed location.
However, when Germain saw the only available destination, he absolutely refused to use it.
These were the three instruments of resentment Germain had obtained through his Hunter's Emblem.
This gave him a clear understanding of who he was now
and how his Bloodborne-like perception of Nen might reflect this world's fusion.
Having answered Who am I?, the questions Where am I? and What should I do? began to fall into place.
The key figure was the pink-haired girl leading him toward the ruined clock tower.
Her name was Machi.
Machi's story began around 1986 1987.
At that time, Germain was still in Meteor City, newly awakened to Nen.
In the same city, a group of people sharing a common purpose had already banded together to form the Phantom Troupe, bringing a semblance of order to the area.
The Phantom Troupe was a tightly knit band of criminals.
Machi was one of its original members.
Their leader was the very Chrollo she had just mentioned.
They left Meteor Street before Germain and unleashed mass slaughter upon the outside world robbing, looting, and killing.
By 1994, while Germain had become a well-known professional assassin beyond Meteor City, the Phantom Troupe had committed even more horrifying crimes.
It was said that, in their pursuit of the Scarlet Eyes of the Kurta Tribe considered one of the Seven Beauties of the World they massacred the entire tribe and harvested their eyes.
This band of murderers and thieves reached their peak around 1996
(End of Chapter 1)