Chapter 1 : Germain!!
The hoarse cawing of crows cut through the early morning air, waking the black-haired young man from his sleep. He sat up groggily and yawned, blinking as he tried to make sense of his unfamiliar surroundings.
"Where am I? How did I end up here?" he wondered, rubbing his eyes as he looked around. The place was disheveled, with overgrown weeds and broken branches strewn across the ground.
He glanced up at the night sky, where a gray full moon hung low among the clouds.
"Ah... Was I dreaming? Maybe playing 'Bloodborne' all night messed with my head," he thought, chuckling to himself. "This is definitely Miyazaki's fault. I should really stop playing so late."
The young man was jolted from his thoughts by a sudden voice from the shadows of the dilapidated courtyard. It was a woman's voice, cold and detached.
"Germain, Chrollo wants to see you. Come with me."
"Huh? What?" he stammered, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of a petite young woman.
She stepped out from the shadows, revealing her messy pink hair tied in a single ponytail. Her expression was calm but stern, her eyes locking onto his with an indifferent gaze.
"Are you talking to me?" he asked, pointing at himself in confusion. "Germain (Gehrman)? That's the name of the first hunter with a scythe in Bloodborne, isn't it?"
The young woman sighed, clearly impatient. "I saw you nodding off earlier. Are you awake now? Do you see anyone else named 'Germain' around here?"
He shook his head, still a bit dazed. The young woman rolled her eyes, then spoke again, her voice edged with irritation.
"I had a feeling we wouldn't get along," she muttered, crossing her arms. "Looks like I was right."
She turned around and walked straight toward the long-abandoned bell tower, not even glancing back to see Germain's reaction.
As Germain watched the young woman get farther and farther away, he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, and his hair stood on end.
He pinched his arm hard with his thumb and index finger, feeling a sharp pain.
This isn't a dream, he thought. It isn't some lucid dream, nor a nightmare like in Bloodborne.
After the initial shock, Germain regained his composure. He was used to handling emergencies; it was part of his profession.
The top priority now was to adapt to the situation and avoid showing any sign of weakness.
This isn't a game. There's only one life. You have to make your choices carefully.
He slowly stood up from the stone bench where he had been sitting, then calmly walked after the young woman.
His skin was pale, he was in good shape, and he looked like he was still in his prime.
As he passed by a broken glass window, he caught a glimpse of his reflection.
He looked about twenty-five or twenty-six, with a handsome face and piercing black eyes that seemed as deep as the universe.
He wore a black triangular hat and a simple, worn black coat.
Not a bad look, he thought.
With this realization, fragments of incomplete memories flooded into his mind, slowly piecing together his past.
The good news was that he wasn't under a blood curse.
The bad news was that he had landed in the world of Hunter x Hunter.
A world where you could take your partner out for hot pot and karaoke, only to be murdered for no apparent reason.
In this place, the line between justice and evil is almost non-existent, making it impossible to view the world through a modern lens.
The original Germain was a man who did evil for his own gain.
He was born in Meteor City, where his parents died when he was young. To survive, he turned to theft and robbery.
People often joke, "Gotham City has simple folk customs, but all the talents are from Arkham." Similarly, Meteor City is known for its abundance of miscreants.
The harsh environment here breeds a culture where the weak are trampled on, and only the strong survive. It's like a breeding ground for the most ruthless villains.
Germain was one of them.
In his teenage years, to survive, he was forced to awaken his "Nen"—the ability to manipulate and use life energy, a power system in the Hunter x Hunter world.
Eventually, Germain's mastery of Nen evolved into a specialized Nen ability: "Conjuration-Type·Hunter Badge."
The hunter badge resembles a palm-sized, rusty piece of metal with a simple, yet deadly ability.
Germain used this conjured tool in his murderous ventures, able to capture and retain the "resentment" left behind by his victims.
When the accumulated "resentment" reaches a certain threshold, it can solidify into a "gift of resentment."
In theory, the stronger the "resentment," the more potent the resulting gift.
After awakening his Nen ability, Germain used the hunter badge to slit the throat of a merchant on Meteor City who had been price-gouging.
The resentment of a merchant who bled to death had transformed into a "meat saw"—a versatile and flexible weapon designed for killing.
With this meat saw, Germain climbed from the grimy streets of Meteor City and ventured into the outside world, becoming a professional assassin.
Soon after, he used the meat saw to chop up the crime boss who had always looked down on him and exploited him.
The crime boss's resentment took the form of a "short-barreled firecracker"—a shotgun-like blunderbuss.
A saw blade, a fire blunderbuss, and Germain's efficient approach to killing quickly made him a recognized name among professional assassins.
Not long ago, he killed a longtime business partner who was harboring evil intentions and planned to keep all the money for himself.
This business partner's resentment turned into a "lantern"—a purple light source that rarely goes out and has the ability to teleport to a specific location.
However, when Germain discovered the unique destination of the teleportation, he decided never to use the lantern again.
These three tools, born of resentment, were obtained by Germain thanks to the Hunter Badge.
Now, with a clearer sense of identity, Germain understood the first question: "Who am I?" But two more questions remained: "Where am I?" and "What do I want to do?"
The key figure in unraveling this mystery was the pink-haired young woman leading Germain to an old, crumbling clock tower.
Her name was Machi Komacine.
Machi's story begins in 1986 and 1987, back when Germain was still on Meteor City and had just discovered his nen ability.
Also in Meteor City, several people with a common will have come together to form an organization called the "Phantom Troupe" and to clean up the order in Meteor City.
The Phantom Troupe is a group of extremely united evil gangs.
Machi is one of the founding members of the Phantom Troupe.
The leader of the Phantom Troupe is the "Chrollo" she just mentioned.
They walked out of Meteor City earlier than Germain, and went on a killing spree in the outside world, robbing, stealing, killing, and committing all kinds of evil.
In 1994, when Germain was a somewhat famous professional killer in the world outside Meteor City, the Phantom Troupe had already committed even more horrific crimes.
It is said that in order to obtain "the scarlet eyes of the Kurta Clan", which is "one of the seven most gorgeous colors in the world", they did not hesitate to kill the Kurta Clan and then goug out pairs of eyes completely.
Such an organization formed by a group of extreme murderers and robbers ushered in its heyday in 1996.