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He walked back into his home quietly, stalking the darkened halls, leaving a trail of rainwater as he went. The corridor where he remembered he had killed all those servants who blocked his path was already cleaned up, without a single blood splatter or smell left.
"So, coming back on your own now, huh?" Milluki sneered as he leaned against the wall. His wound was already patched up.
Killua stopped in his tracks and looked at him with an unreadable expression, "Where is mother?" he muttered darkly. The mere sight of his fat brother irritated him to no end nowadays and he always finds himself holding back from slicing his obesed form open. His hand itched to morph into claws. When Milluki did not answer in favor of heightening his guard around his younger brother, Killua repeated his question with an impatient voice, "Where is she?!"
"Is there something you want from mother, Kil?" his mother's voice sounded from behind him, and Killua turned and stalked towards her, hands inside the pockets of his wet pants.
"Give me jobs," he demanded, meeting her gaze with steady blue eyes. His mother smiled down at him, not daring to touch him. Good, she finally knew better.
"Am I hearing that right?" the amusement in his mother's voice was unmistakable, "My Kil is finally the one asking to take on jobs!" she clapped her fan close, and when she opened it again, she pulled out a touch screen phone behind it from seemingly out of nowhere. She scrolled through the list of jobs she had accepted, "The family has 20 pending hits, would you like mother to choose for you?" she offered in a kind voice, as if she's just offering him a different kind of cereal for breakfast.
Killua snatched the phone from her grasp, walking past her on his way back to his room without a second glance, "I'm taking all of them. I won't be back until I'm done,"
Kikyo smiled behind her fan, feeling a bit giddy that the chosen heir of the family was finally taking on his duties seriously. "How cute~,"
Accomplishing the whole hit list took him two months. Most of the jobs had been easy and simple but a few high-paying ones had included specifications on how they wanted the job to be carried out. One even indicated a poison Killua knew he had immunity to, but he was already far away from home and disliked asking his mother about that certain thing she once put in his sippy cup so he had to go to another continent to hunt for the yellow toad it came from. That took him three days. The longest he worked on a single target was five days. That target ran away to an uncharted deserted island and it was his first time to operate a hot-air balloon by himself. All in all, the hits were worth some 50 billion jenny to his family.
Taking the jobs had taken his mind off things he'd rather not think about. To him, killing was as comfortable as breathing. From the moment he knew his left from right, his hands were already soaked in blood and it had never bothered him. He was made to believe he didn't need anyone, especially friends. He was meant to be alone, without any desires. Anything he did would be for the sake of carrying on the family trade. There was no other way of life, for him or for anyone in his family. It's already too late to change. He's already paid for a reservation in hell, if those gods his targets call upon truly existed.
Two months had given him enough time to clear his mind and accept Ging's words. He's unforgivable, alright. Killua Zoldyck is an assassin, a natural-born killing machine. If he's already bound for hell anyway, one more nail on his coffin wouldn't make much difference. In order to live, he'd have to cast aside all emotional burdens. Ging's death should be of no consequence to him. He shouldn't care at all. People around him tend to die all the time. Ging is no different.
He ignored the gatekeeper's greeting as he opened the testing gate with both hands, opening it up to the seventh door. He had managed that feat for more than two years now but it never ceased to amaze the old gatekeeper. He tucked his skateboard under one arm and stepped through the gate.
"Ooh~ Gon-kun did that too, but I think bocchan does it with more style, right, Seaquant?" the old man said to his fellow gatekeeper as the gate closed behind him. Forcing himself to ignore that little fact, and denying the small corner of his mind that peaked with interest, Killua set out to walk back to his house on the mountain, his steps increasing in pace with every second. He's definitely not trying to avoid meeting a certain apprentice butler. He's just hurrying home, a completely new concept to him. Killua is hurrying home.
Killua stopped in his tracks when huge furry creature jumped into his path. Mike lowered his large head in front of him, revealing who was sitting on top of that furry head.
"Oh!" Gon grinned widely, eyes alight with childish glee. "It's Killua! Morning, Killua!"
Killua's eye twitched at being greeted so cheerfully by a person he did not wish to associate with nor ever see again. He better start taking those dragons to work. Sending a dark glare towards the positively sparkling servant, Killua sidestepped Mike and continued on his way. If Gon was any smarter despite how naive he appeared, he would sense that Killua does not ever want to be reminded again that he existed. Alas, that was not the case.
"Eh?" Gon quipped as he directed Mike to trail behind their young master at a leisurely pace. "Are you in a bad mood again? Wanna sit beside me? Wow, your hair is curly."
Killua kept jogging like he never heard him, ignoring the gigantic beast and annoyingly noisy servant hot on his heels, hoping that they'd lose interest in him. But Gon, bless his kind heart, had decided to graze his master's ears with small talk; some mixed up story of fishing, climbing, eating, with some electrocution and zoogeography thrown in there somewhere. Killua was surprised that Gon even knew those words.
"And that's how the third week went. Gotoh-san was quite shocked that the wound you gave me was almost completely healed by then. By the way, I needed 30 stitches for that, you know, and you just grazed me! You're really amazing, Killua! So, I was climbing this sycamore tree-,"
Killua tried to block out his voice but to no avail. He swerved to his left at one turn, straying off the beaten path. Unfortunately, the beast just kept at his heels and Gon continued talking because it wasn't any sweat off his back since he was just sitting comfortably atop Mike's head.
"A baby squirrel popped out! It was so cute! I couldn't find the parents though. I think they were already dead so I brought it home. Canary-san and the other girls liked it so much. Hishita-san even built a little house for it on the tree outside my room. He's surprisingly skilled at woodwork. Oh yeah, we don't have a name for it yet! Do you want to suggest a name? So far we have Penguin from Canary-san, Gobone from Tsubone-baa, guess where that came from, guess, guess! And then Gotoh-san-,"
By the time they had followed him around a lake twice, Killua's patience finally ran out. "Enough!" he snapped, scaring the animal into a halt and Gon into shutting his mouth. Finally! "Stop following me!" he ordered in a no-nonsense tone, "I don't need to be fucking escorted!" There, he said it loud and clear. Hopefully, they'd get it into their thick skulls.
Gon just blinked innocently at him, "But you're in a bad mood again," he pointed out in a sickeningly whiny voice, lips pursed like a stubborn kid, "I was thinking you might enjoy the company, ne, Mike?" the animal nodded its big head in agreement.
Killua scoffed dismissively, "I don't enjoy anybody's company. Go away before I break both your legs," he said, jumping out of sight and into the edge of the forest. Seeing as the butler and the guard dog were still left dumbfounded, Killua took his chance to run.
"Eh? Then what do you do for fun around here? How about friends?" Good thing he didn't have aneurism because he just felt like a vein had popped in his head. Gon was lagging a few paces behind him, and Killua knew that was by design and not lack of skill.
"I don't have friends," he whispered almost to himself, not fully conscious that he had deigned a response to the apprentice.
Gon's ears perked up as he kept pace with the white haired teen, "Hm? What did you say?" he skidded to a stop when Killua suddenly hopped into a tree branch and peered down at him. Gon met his steely gaze with a curious expression.
"I'm an assassin. I don't need friends. Stop bothering about such useless things." Killua stated in a cold voice, like what he used for blackmailing people into submission, "Actually, stop bothering me altogether,"
"But I just-,"
"Stay away from me if you don't want to die," Killua added a matter-of-factly.
"What?! If I don't die, I can stay with you?"
Killua had to stop himself from banging his head into the tree in frustration. It seems he had overestimated the apprentice butler's brain capacity. He had completely missed the point. Does this person even hear himself? How can he say such illogical and embarrassing things with such a straight face like he really meant it? This person does not even come close to triggering his lie sensors. Gon is really weird. Cheeks slightly warm, Killua retaliated, "People tend to die around me all the time! Why would you be any different?!"
Gon averted his eyes for a second, making a show like he had contemplated Killua's claim, "Hmm…you're right, I'm just the same," he answered nonchalantly, "But you're an assassin, so why would that upset you?"
"You…" the assassin recoiled. The servant was looking at him with an expression that was just daring him to oppose that previous statement, but Killua found himself without any words to say. So he turned away, and said in a low voice, "You just leave me alone, understand?"
"Alright," Gon surprisingly conceded. With another backward glance, Killua took off running.
"See you tomorrow, Killua!" Gon shouted after him in his cheerful voice. "Come find me anytime!"
Killua scoffed, rolling his eyes. As if I'd ever see you again, stupid…
There's something wrong. There's definitely something wrong with the world. Just what kind of crazy development did he miss that landed him in this very irritating situation?
Killua dropped on all fours, sweat dripping from his forehead. He was covered in mud and some leaves were stuck to his hair. Gon was rolling on the ground laughing and catching his breath every now and then a few feet away from him. The noon sun shone bright and hot high above them.
Killua panted. Just what the fuck is he doing outside with this moron?!
Soon, Gon's hunter skills comes into play. Operation Bait Killua into friendship starts! Killua will never know what hit him.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think! :)