Chapter 63 – Testing the Waters
AN: none.
Killua and I shared a look before he strode away angrily towards the exit where his family disappeared into. I spared my brother and Leorio a short glance, seeing them happily conversing before following Killua.
Anger and tension held his body taut and he spared me no glance as I fell into step with him. He paused just as we got out of the hall, searching.
''Second floor.'' I said and without a word, he made way towards the steps. ''Killua.'' I called as we climbed up the staircase. ''Where are you going?''
His response was to clench his teeth and jerking my touch away. I paused and watched him go for a moment, debating on letting him go or going away to do things my way.
If Chrollo Lucilfer was in the building then the first to attack will be the winner. Shizuku and the rest of the spiders were far away but their leader was here.
The opportunity was too ripe for me to just ignore.
Darkness swallowed the building the moment I closed my eyes, followed by the familiar roar of a pandemonium.
I nearly rolled my eyes at the sudden commotion because really, it wasn't like it didn't happen before. They're acting as if this is the first time.
I shook my petty thoughts away from my head and closed the distance between me and my friend.
''I'll look for the leader. Do you...do you want to come?'' My arms around his chest tightened slightly. I was ready to summon him a guard but with other assassins and the Chrollo Lucilfer running around the place, a part of me was scared to let him go alone.
And a part of me, a part I am ashamed to admit was scared to go alone as well.
Killua was slow to react but his hand hesitantly rose up as if to touch my arm around him. The air thickened around us and I let my body solidify enough to allow both of us to feel each other's presence, my weight lying on his back.
He sighed and I wondered if he was relieved to feel my presence or whether he was relieved after letting go of whatever family vendetta he half-baked in his head.
His eyes looked blindly in the dark but I can see him as clearly as if it was day. At the back of my mind, I kept my Gon and Leorio safe, circled round by my shadow summons while I searched for our prey.
I led Killua by the hand, smiling even though he cannot see. His feet was heavy as he followed me. ''Want to steal your dad's bounty?'' I tried to joke, seeing at he looked like he was struggling to trust me and our surroundings.
''No.''
I shrugged, uncaring. ''Well, we might just have to in this case. Shizuku is still far away.''
Killua made an audible gulp before speaking. ''You keep calling her that.'' I watched the sweat glisten on his face, both in wonder and worry. I wondered lightly what he could possibly be nervous about.
''What?''
''Shizuku.''
We both paused. Somewhere in the building, right at my new territory somebody else was using En and it took me only a moment to realise it was Killua's grandfather's immense Nen pushing and prodding at my aura.
''Do I?'' I replied distractedly. The hollow popping sound it continually made at my ears was irritating.
Killua made a low, non-committal sound.
''Are you okay? You don't look too good.'' At my question, he took his hand away from mine, scowling and gritting his teeth.
''This…'' he motioned at our surroundings. ''It feels weird. What's all this?'' He waved his hand around before he stiffened and pulled his limb to himself and rubbed it as if to brush something off him.
''It's my aura or what you'd also call as En.'' I replied. ''Remember Ren? En is when you extend your Ren so that your aura extends further than normal and it is also when you use Ten at the same time to contain and give shape to that aura. In my case… I sort of made my own shadow world?'' I tried to explain. ''Do you feel uncomfortable?'' .
His answer got stuck in his throat.
''Are you scared of—''
''No!'' He snarled, his face nearly hitting mine. For a moment, his eyes found mine before the darkness blinded him again.
I slowly raised my hand and with his silent permission, I smoothed the deep furrows weathering his forehead like I used to do with my brother when he was worrying too much.
With a rueful smile, ''You're going to really regret frowning too much one day, Killua.'' I chuckled at his glare. ''Relax.'' I smiled, massaging his forehead until he relaxed. ''In my own world, nothing will hurt you. Not here.''
My smile faded and I frowned as my hands felt a little bump on his forehead. Normally, I wouldn't probably notice it. But as I caressed the lump under his skin, I felt it, much to my, disgust and alarm, move.
''What is it?'' Killua took my hand and attempted to push it at away from his face. I jerked his hand away.
''Wait one sec.''
Irritated, he said, ''What are you doing—''
''Hush!'' I felt his forehead again, feeling an odd feeling coming from it. Closing my eyes, I realised that it felt different from the rest of Killua's aura. While his was electric and alive, this one felt like sly and dark. It was silent, hiding, trying to avoid notice, so similar to the make of my own aura when under Zetsu.
''Stop it! I don't like people touching me there.''
Which was exactly what you would want a puppet to say when someone else was getting close to its secret control centre.
Cold fear pricked at my skin when I realised what it was. From what I've seen and remember, Illumi can control people using his needles. I felt it during the Hunter's exam when he used it to torture me, sending me volts of electricity which for their family members probably felt like nothing.
Does Killua not know it? If he doesn't, what if I had one too and I just didn't know?
''Seriously what is—agh!''
Blood spurted from his forehead. His warm blood filled my hand until it was full and flowing down my arm. I kept my hand on him even as he tried to jump away. ''I'm sorry. It's ok. Trust me.'' I implored to him softly.
I felt the force of his hand but then much to my surprise, Killua didn't push me enough to injure, didn't strike me with those nails I knew he was capable of manipulating into sharpened daggers.
I glanced down at the bloodied needle as he calmed and for his benefit, I flew us to the nearest window. The shadows subsided and let enough light to filter in. Under the silver light, I let go of my dark shroud temporarily and Killua's body turned pliant under my hold.
His eyes fell on the bloodied needle in my hand and his breathing hitched, eyes growing with betrayal and horror. As if remembering to breath, he gasped and shakily picked the needle up from my hand. Just the look of it brought shivers up my spine and down to my arms.
''Aniki…''
His face broke and I pulled him to me, pressing us chest to chest and holding him close, hoping that whatever heavy burden was pulling my friend down, he would share with me.
But every comfort lasts only for so long. Explosions and gunshots shook us out of our embrace. I turned to the window in alarm and with horror found bursts of light and explosions from the distance. The sound of gunshots rattled our windows.
''Shit!''
I turned to Killua. ''We need to go! Follow me.'' I grabbed his hand and flew us through the dark corridor and halted at seeing a man slumped in one corner like a marionette doll whose strings have been cut.
Simply for Killua's benefit, I let one of the lights above us flicker on and for my shadows to subside. His eyes were slow to adjust in the dark but he stiffened as soon he saw the man in front of us. A simple pen was embedded atop his head, only a few spots of blood smeared his sleeves.
Killua pulled at his bow tie roughly before pocketing it. ''Single strike from behind.'' He said as unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt. ''His presence wasn't felt until the very last minute. Only a trace of it remains.'' He scowled at the corpse in front of us with Gyo around his eyes, almost coolly and irritatingly as if our prey's obvious power was nothing but irritating.
Which I agreed wholeheartedly, of course. I couldn't fault him with that. Sometimes I find it so unfair that this world was filled with such people. And speaking of…
Killua jumped and corralled me behind him just before two figures faded in from the dark.
''Ah. Killua-chan.'' The hunched old man greeted, his face unchanging from its stoic expression before his gaze flickered to my shadow form. Recognition sparked in his eyes. They only had a tint of blue in them, greyed either by age or by nature, I couldn't be sure. But the focus in them made me wary.
I glanced at Killua's father and found him smiling softly at his son who I also found gazing back to his father, wide-eyed and with a fanatic gleam in his blue eyes, so similar to Gon's when he gets closer to anything that concerned Ging.
Pursing my lips, I held in a sigh and turned to our visitors again, braving Killua's father's creepy cat-like eyes. Unlike the older man, Killua's father regarded me with nothing but fond curiosity. So fondly that I find myself retreating, mistrusting it.
And if my throat closed up a little, I thought of it as nothing but suspicion and nerves.
Ugh, dads. Who needs them right?
Sighing and stopping the crazy train of thought, I re-focused on the matter at hand.
''We need to go soon, Killua.'' I whispered to him as I hovered just over his shoulders. ''Do you want to come or do you want to stay?'' His family could keep him safe...I think.
There was a brief silence where I watched my own silhouette reflecting back at me from his sapphire eyes before he turned to his family. ''Grandad. Dad...I'm off.''
''Of course.'' His dad replied readily. ''Protect your friends, Killua.''
Heh? I tilted my head to the side because shouldn't he say…'take care, my son or something?'
Wasn't that something most dads would say?
Killua nodded, smiling sweetly before turning to me expectantly. The blood from his forehead was still fresh but he was already beaming at me, forgetting his dear aniki's needle. His dad's smile looked odd on him and although it wasn't really his fault that his face looked too feral for the kind of smile he was attempting, something about it made me uneasy.
And this time, it wasn't just because of my daddy issues.
Something told me that something as big as putting a needle inside Killua, the heir of the Zoldyck family, would not be something anyone could just get away with.
Unless dear aniki didn't have to…
I bowed shallowly to his father and grandfather before grabbing my friend and wrapping us in darkness again, gone within a blink.
Assassins...
The leader of the Phantom Troupe was in an abandoned penthouse suite, orchestrating a musical composed of the sound of violence and death. I dropped Killua quietly and observed the strange floating fish, made entirely of Nen, circling around another man, biting off bits of him as they pass. My stomach churned at the sound and sight of him – of his remains.
And he was still alive.
Five stories down, I have seen Kurapika running around in the dark, hands balled into fists.
Within what felt like a micro-second, I stiffened as I felt the leader see me. The noise of the living faded in my ears as I grabbed Killua away as the fish rushed to our direction. I wrapped us both in my shroud as the fish dashed madly after us into the darkness. Not long after, they were swallowed by my shadows and disappeared as if they were naught but illusions.
I materialised through the upper two floors above us and left a gasping Killua without a word, leaving him there with a guard before I came back down.
''Gin! –'' Killua reached out.
Chrollo was missing from my range for a moment before his presence registered again, running fast as light away from my direction, his presence disappearing and appearing at different places nearly at once. My shadows whispered that he had his book in his hand.
I flew after his fading trail, scaling through the corridors swiftly like a gust of wind, summoning shadow creatures out from the void. They crawled out, growling, hissing, snapping; hands reached out blindly until they gained footing in this new world.
Chrollo Lucilfer.
They bellowed in response to my silent command, like angry winds storming. Leathery winds flapped overhead, a maniacal laughter rang at the distance.
''Find the leader and do not let him leave the building. Protect Killua, if need be.'' I ordered and rose up the building's levels until I materialised up at the edge of the Cemetery Building's roof.
The night held its breath and fell dead still as my Nen poured out of my body to the outside world. Bright city lights exploded simultaneously as darkness crawled out of the crevices and into the open. The screams heightened as guns fired blindly and shouts of alarm rang out.
When I opened my eyes, a dark mass below me formed silhouettes, until the silhouette became creatures, beings so ugly and frightening and yet in their menace, looked beautiful to me. They were the forgotten myths and legends, reborn.
From my vantage point, I saw countless of broken corpses lying vulnerable around, some swimming in their own blood. One even looked like Leorio to me. I stared at the corpse, deep and hard and located Leorio inside the building just to make sure that he was safe.
I pointed at the direction where the rest of the Phantom troupe continued to wreak havoc.
It was time to test the waters.
''I think they're having too much fun. Stop them.'' I said and my dark army moved, spreading into the city like a dark stain.
His heels clacked loudly against the cement as he stepped closer. His hair blazed like fire and his skin was sickly pale as the moon; slumped on the floor next to him was a tied up and unconscious Shizuku.
The sky gaped above us, empty of stars and the moon obscured by shapeless clouds. Devoid of breeze, the night felt humid, the scent of gunpowder and blood was thick in the air.
''Hisoka.''
Bloodless lips curled into a pleased smile as he uttered my name. ''Gin.''
